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It's important to remember that Luis Gutiérrez isn't really a traitor — America was never his country and he is increasingly frank that he never thought of it as such. His "one loyalty," in his words, is to the "immigrant community." Now he is showing that he doesn't really about the Democratic Party either, especially all those gross white people who still attach themselves to the party of Jefferson and Jackson. Nothing must be permitted to stand in the way of erecting an overt Occupation Government. Democrats calling on Obama to delay taking executive action on immigration for political reasons must "step aside," Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL) and other immigration activists argued Wednesday. “I say to the Democrats, stand aside. Let the president make the decision. Let him announce it and stop this — stopping the progress of our community toward justice. Just step aside,” Gutiérrez said on a conference call with immigration reform activists and reporters organized by America’s Voice... Clarissa Martínez-De-Castro of the National Council of La Raza echoed Gutiérrez’s sentiment, saying news that some are pushing for Obama to delay taking executive action on immigration makes activists “deeply disappointed.” According to Martínez-De-Castro, if Democrats convince Obama to delay his executive actions, they will co-own “inaction and the devastation that continues to be reeked on our community” with Republicans. [Gutiérrez, Immigration Activists Tell Democrats Opposed to Obama's Executive Amnesty: 'Step Aside,' by Caroline May, Breitbart, September 3, 2014] Unfortunately for the Democrats, they still need at least some white votes if they want to win any elections. However, La Raza doesn't care about their party, just their racial community. And God knows they feel no particular attachment to the United States of America. White Democrats who welcomed the immigrant invasion on the grounds it would deliver a permanent progressive majority may have second thoughts once they realize Third World America will have no place for the Joe Bidens of the world. As for the has to admire their frankness. As Sam Francis predicted, ethnopolitics is upon us — and La Raza is leading the way. |
Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email A police inspector was part of a paedophile ring which regularly met online to discuss how they could abuse under-age children. Geraint Lloyd Evans - formerly of South Wales Police - admitted conspiring to incite engagement in unlawful sexual activity with a child under 13. And at Swansea Crown Court, the 47-year-old also admitted possessing more than 170 extreme pornography images, including bestiality. Police raided married Evans’ home last year and found computer equipment containing the indecent images and logs of child sex chat room discussions he had with other men. He will be sentenced later this year along with three others, Wales Online reports. Chartered surveyor Keith Bold, 47, from Neath, was today found guilty of encouraging Evans to sexually assault a child under 13 following a short trial. (Image: PA) The jury heard a transcript of chilling chat room discussions Evans, then a serving police inspector, had with Bold. One went: Evans: “Are you interested in meeting at my friend’s house in Caerphilly?” Bold: “Yes, I think it could be cool.” Evans: “I think we could have a great time.” Bold: “I wish we could have some young to play with.” Evans: “That could be an option.” Bold: “How?” Evans: “My mate has some pervy mates who could oblige but only once they know you’re genuine.” Mr Hipkin told the jury there was no doubt from the crown’s point of view that “young” referred to children under 13. He added that Evans did have a friend who lived near Caerphilly. Bold, who denied the offence, was already serving a 28-month sentence for possessing and distributing child sex images. Police found 6,788 static images at his home, including 272 images intended for sharing with other internet users via a website. Among the images intended for sharing were 60 images at level five and 69 at level four. On a scale of one to five, five is the most serious. Patrick Griffiths, for Bold, said his client’s defence was that his online discussions with the police inspector were pure fantasy. But the jury’s unanimous verdict meant they felt Bold intended Evans to carry out child abuse. Evans worked for many years in the force's central division - which included Barry and Bridgend - and had his bail conditions altered so he could report once a week rather than twice to Bridgend Police Station as it was “distressing” for him to report to his former police station. As well as the possession of extreme pornography, Evans admitted encouraging Bold to commit sex abuse on a child and conspiring with Leslie Ronald Asser, 54, from Ross-on-Wye, to encourage another man to commit sex abuse on a child. Asser has admitted the conspiracy charge with Evans plus a second charge of encouraging a man to commit child sex abuse. A fourth defendant, Wayne Barnes, 50, from Neath, has admitted encouraging a man to commit child sex abuse. Judge Paul Thomas said today the four would all be sentenced together later this year after background reports were drawn up. |
The wife of Ghana's former leader, Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings, will stand for the presidency herself today in an election that has seen her dubbed the African Hillary Clinton. Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, 67, whose husband was a poster boy for populist African leaders, is the first woman ever to run for Ghana's top office. Like Ms Clinton, Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings is a passionate advocate of women's rights - and has also had to contend with the fact that her charismatic, good-looking spouse has many female admirers. Today, though, it will be the former First Lady herself who takes centre stage, as Ghana's 15 million registered voters go to the polls. She is one of six challengers to President John Mahama, who is seeking a second term in office amid rising discontent with the performance of the economy. |
Photo by Albert L. Ortega—Getty Images The average age of a “gamer” is 37. This is both a blessing and a curse for the video game industry. The video game industry is maturing—fast. The average age of a “gamer,” that is, someone who plays video games on a regular basis, is now 37, according to the Entertainment Software Association, an industry trade group. That’s up from last year, when the average came in at around 35 years old. Surprised? Don’t be. After all, these “greying gamers” were the first generation to grow up with video games as children. As they’ve aged, many apparently kept on playing, delving even deeper into the gaming abyss through consoles, PCs, and now their mobile devices. If you care to see this older, dare I say, more “refined” sort of gamer, then make your way out west this week to this year’s E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles, the gaming industry’s biggest trade show. There you will see plenty of Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers (is that still a thing?) milling about, many sporting unkempt beards and ironic t-shirts like it’s 2007. Apparently, shaving and adhering to current fashion norms takes way too much time and effort, time away from Assassin’s Creed 32, or some other “new” iteration of a once popular gaming title. But this older generation of gamers is both a blessing and a curse for the industry. It is a blessing in that as they age, their pockets get deeper, so they potentially have more money to spend on their hobby (assuming they don’t get married and have kids, which, unsurprisingly, many don’t). But it is also a curse, because the industry seems stuck in a time warp. Simply put, content makers, many of whom are greying gamers themselves, have become lazy. They have failed to innovate on both the hardware and content side of the business, alienating potential young consumers while angering older gamers who crave something newer than just another Call of Duty. Each new game “unveiled” this week in Los Angeles will almost undoubtedly be a mashup of characters and scenes derived from popular movie franchises that debuted in the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as The Matrix, Starship Troopers, The Terminator, Sailor Moon, and The Hobbit, with a dash of The Fast and the Furious thrown in for good measure. It is getting old. The result of all this nostalgic and creative laziness is a shrinking market. Video game sales in the U.S. actually peaked in 2010, at $17 billion, and have fallen progressively ever since, hitting just $15.4 billion in 2014, according to NPD Group. This is expected to continue unless the industry finds a new life source, and fast. To be sure, this drop-off isn’t just because younger people don’t watch TV or because they are Snapchatting or whatever all day on their mobile phones. They aren’t interested because the content doesn’t speak to them. While mobile is the “fastest” growing segment of the industry, it is inherently backwards looking given the technological and ergonomic constraints of the market. Either the games have to be terribly simple (and forgettable), like Candy Crush, or they have to be stripped down (worse) versions of console games. But the industry feels compelled to “capture” this market nonetheless, diverting precious resources that would be better spent advancing the core gaming market. For example, on Sunday evening, Bethesda Game Studios, a major game developer, showed off its newest iteration of its popular “Fallout” series, Fallout 4, but also revealed a new Fallout mobile game, ostensibly to “capture” the yet unnamed generation of kids today. Todd Howard, director of Bethesda Gaming, said the mobile Fallout version was “inspired by games we love going back 30 years,” and that gamers will see inspirations from older retro games like X-com, SimCity, and FTL, which are, “games we really really like.” I think that says it all. As the show rolls on this week, it would be nice to see some real innovation in the core gaming product, as well as some fresh content aimed at a younger subset of the population. Virtual reality (VR) has been talked about for years, but we have yet to see it come to market. Oculus now says its consumer VR product will be out by the first quarter of next year, and Valve and HTC say their VR console will be ready for this year’s holiday season. If true, then the industry needs to start building content for this new and potentially “game changing” platform as quickly as possible. And no, that doesn’t mean shoehorning current games to just simply “work” on a VR platform. It means building new games from the ground up, specifically tailored for the virtual reality experience. If the content fails to wow consumers, then they won’t pay hundreds of dollars to acquire a VR system, which means VR will die a quick death, just as it did in the 1990s. So, given all that, what’s on tap for Monday at E3? Microsoft kicks things off at noon (Eastern Time), followed by EA and Ubisoft later in the day. Sony will have its flashy press conference this evening around 8:30pm ET while Nintendo will have theirs tomorrow at noon, which is actually official first day of the conference. Fortune will have people on the ground, so look out for news briefs throughout the day. |
An 84-year-old man is missing, feared to have gone overboard from the Sun Princess cruise ship that was due to dock in Sydney. The moment a pensioner plunged 25 metres overboard from a cruise liner into the Tasman was caught by a CCTV camera. The 84-year-old is thought to be dead, with searchers giving up on the hunt for him after he fell from the Sun Princess while it was sailing from New Zealand to Sydney around 10.40pm New Zealand time yesterday. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) ordered the search to end based on expert medical advice on the man's ability to survive being in the water so long. The man went overboard around 8.40pm (10.40 NZDT) yesterday when the Sun Princess cruise ship was about 175 nautical miles east of Sydney. OPEN WATER: A still from the Sun Princess bridge camera. He has not been named yet. The search for him included an aircraft and the Sun Princess which turned back to look for him. However there have been no sightings of the man during the search. The Sun Princess has turned around to search for the missing passenger. "CCTV footage from the Sun Princess showed the man entering the water from a height of approximately 25 metres," AMSA say. "Expert medical advice received by AMSA indicated the man was very unlikely to have survived when he entered the water given the height. The advice also indicated that the man would not have been able to survive in the water for an extended period of time given his age, clothing and weather conditions at the time of the incident." Sea conditions in the area were rough with 25-30 knots winds and swells up to three metres. The ship is due in Sydney later this afternoon. A passenger on board the boat, identified only as Barry, told Australian radio station 2UE that an announcement was made on the ship about 6.30am. "We got an announcement from the captain ... and we've headed back out to sea," he told 2UE. "It seems that we have lost a passenger overboard." He said the captain told passengers a rescue boat and plane were on the way to aid the search effort. "We are headed back out and he doesn't know when we are going to dock," Barry said. The Sun Princess had been due to reach Sydney at 7am on Tuesday to end a 13-day cruise. |
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Olympic Stadium in Kabul has not seen this big a crowd since the Taliban used the place for public executions, with attendance mandatory. No coercion was needed on Thursday to bring tens of thousands of delirious fans here to greet their national soccer team on its return from winning its first international championship. The underdog team stunned India, the defending South Asian champions, in a 2-0 victory in Katmandu, Nepal. In fact, the police were trying, in vain, to keep them all out, worried that members of the crowd would get out of control and hurt the team with their adulation — which very nearly happened in some cases. Few things could better symbolize the drastic social changes in Afghanistan since the Taliban era, when soccer was banned, even for small children. During the group’s five-year reign, and most of the 10 years of civil war that preceded it, Afghanistan did not even field a team in international competition. |
BY ANDY BAGGOT UWBadgers.com Insider MADISON, Wis. — On paper, the Wisconsin football team is preciously young. The 114-person roster shows 13 seniors — fourth-fewest among Power Five schools — and only eight in the offensive and defensive two-deep. Seventeen of those players have started eight career games or fewer heading into the season-opener Saturday vs. fifth-ranked LSU at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. The projected starting offensive backfield — senior quarterback Bart Houston , senior tailback Corey Clement and sophomore fullback Alec Ingold — have a combined two career starts. Clement has both. The projected starting offensive line for the Badgers has three players with six or fewer starts, including junior left tackle Ryan Ramczyk (zero) and sophomore right tackle Jacob Maxwell (three). The projected starting safeties — junior D'Cota Dixon and senior Leo Musso — have three starts between them. Musso, the free safety, has them all. The projected starting linebackers include juniors T.J. Watt (zero starts) and Jack Cichy (four) and sophomore Chris Orr (six). Three true freshmen are included in the defensive depth chart: free safety Patrick Johnson , nose tackle Garrett Rand and cornerback Caesar Williams . During his inaugural press conference of the season Monday, UW coach Paul Chryst was asked if all that youth suggests a major void of some kind. A half-smile creased his face. "I think we've got an interesting makeup," he said. "We're going to be counting on some young players and that's all right. "I like this team. I like the way they're been working; appreciate that. I think they're a group that wants to come out each day and get better. That makes it fun to be around them." The most experienced players on the UW roster are senior outside linebacker Vince Biegel (42 games, 28 starts), senior cornerback Sojourn Shelton (40 games, 37 starts) and junior defensive end Chikwe Obasih (27 games, 20 starts). The next tier has senior tailback Dare Ogunbowale (35 games, 10 starts), senior wide receiver Rob Wheelwright (33 games, 8 starts), senior wide receiver Reggie Love (32 games, 3 starts). Biegel was asked if he could sense that he's surrounded by youngsters. "I think we are young, but I think we've got guys who've played a lot of games," he said. "Look at our offensive line as a great example." Ramczyk, a transfer from UW-Stevens Point, is projected to make his Division I debut vs. the Tigers. But the rest of the unit — Maxwell, sophomore left guard Micah Kapoi , sophomore center Michael Deiter and sophomore right guard Beau Benzschawel — all worked together down the stretch last season when UW had its most consistent rushing attack. Biegel is enamored with the newly arrived freshmen. In addition to Johnson, Rand and Williams on defense, a trio of wide receivers — Quintez Cephus , Kendric Pryor , A.J. Taylor — raised eyebrows during preseason training camp. "Since I've been here this is one of the strongest freshmen classes I've seen," Biegel said. Shelton is in full agreement. "It's a case where, yeah, we might be young, but the guys here don't act young," he said. "And there are so positions you can look at." Shelton pointed to all the linebackers, a young group that includes sophomore T.J. Edwards . He led the Badgers in tackles last season, but is recovering from a stress fracture in his foot and won't play against LSU. "Their maturity was growing last year and this year those guys are ready to have a commanding role," Shelton said. The young receivers got Shelton's attention because he lined up across from them throughout camp. "Those guys made a lot of plays," he said. "All camp those guys have pushed themselves even though they're freshmen." Shelton believes the youth movement is a good thing for the Badgers. "I'm excited overall, not just for the back end or the defense, but the team in general," he said. "These guys don't play timid. They don't act a certain way. They're just excited we're a team and everyone is ready to get everything rolling. It's going to be a fun year." |
This article is over 1 year old The pub chain JD Wetherspoon have clarified that it has not banned staff from wearing Remembrance Day poppies, after a spoof Twitter account claimed it had. J D Wetherspoon (@jdwtweet) We do support the Poppy Appeal in all of our pubs. Please ignore spoof sites. - Wetherspoon Official pic.twitter.com/pvmApxvCIN The fake account generated a lot of angry replies after claiming “ever expanding multiculturalism” was the reason staff would not be wearing poppies this year. WETHERSP00N_UK (@Wetherspoon_UK) Due to the ever expanding multiculturalism of our clientele and employees this year our staff will not be wearing the poppy while working. gazolahammersfan (@Garythomaswick2) wetherspoons are a disgrace and will not get another penny of me.banning staff from wearing poppies due to multiculturalism. One user created a #BoycottWetherspoons hashtag to spread the news, but not everybody was impressed. Tom Kilbey (@tom29whu) The sheer inability to check even the simplest, most obvious of facts is one of the greatest dangers in modern society #BoycottWetherspoons Some customers reacted with initial dismay, only to realise they had been fooled. Rob Bain (@RobBain1) This is a sad day and last time I drink in one of your pubs. Rob Bain (@RobBain1) Must learn to read whole thread before getting hooked like that again..thank fuck it’s a wind up, would’ve missed a pint with a full English Other social media users posted about the impact the spoof was having on friends and family Cameron Bibby (@cambibs) God sake, come home for half an hour today to discover my mum is organising a Wetherspoons boycott because of a parody tweet about poppies 🙃 The rumour subsequently took off on Facebook, with one user posting: “Let’s get something cleared up here. I have just opened up my page and I find I am inundated by messages telling me to avoid Wetherspoons as they are not allowing staff to wear the poppy,” before going on to dismiss the story as a hoax and threaten to delete friends who continued to post it. 'Shark in minnow pond': Ramsgate locals split on new Wetherspoon pub Read more The Wetherspoons social media team stepped in to reply to lots of comments on Twitter, seemingly to the delight of the fake account, which posted a video of scrolling through all the replies. WETHERSP00N_UK (@Wetherspoon_UK) Did you get upto anything exciting at work today? 😂🎣#PoppyGate pic.twitter.com/5UgnbOD7wG Twitter’s terms and conditions on parody accounts state that their biography “should indicate that the user is not affiliated with the account subject by stating a word such as ‘parody’, ‘fake’, ‘fan’ or ‘commentary’.” Companies and brands can complain to Twitter about parodies, and Wetherspoons has previously had spoof accounts shut down, but Twitter warns that “an account that complies with our parody policy may not be found to be violating our trademark or impersonation policies”. |
In 2014, Uber signed an agreement with the New York attorney general's office that prohibited the company from jacking up prices during natural disasters like "civil disorder" and "convulsion of nature," but it left out New York City's hottest natural disaster: New Year's Eve. Today is the dawn of another new year, so naturally lots of people posted apocalyptic screenshots of their $200 and $300 Uber rides after getting dinged by surge pricing up to nearly 10 times the base fare. Every time this happens the outrage spreads everywhere, with people threatening to uninstall the Uber app, even though before they got charged they literally had to type the surge price into a box to acknowledge the fact they would be spending a lot more money than usual. There are lots of reasons to be skeptical of Uber's relentless march on governments and taxi regulations everywhere, but surge pricing isn't really one of them anymore. For one thing, as The Awl pointed out earlier this month, surge pricing is one of Uber's most transparent policies, and it's already regulated — that New York state agreement actually applies across the whole country. Getting drunk on a holiday and refusing to use public transportation or cheaper taxi services is not an emergency. Most people didn't have to pay surge pricing at all last night It also seems like Uber's surge wasn't really too bad this year, despite what you might think from reading mini horror stories in embedded tweets. An Uber spokesperson told The Verge that most trips surrounding New Year's Eve partying — around 60 percent — had no surge at all. And of the surge prices accepted by riders, about 84 percent were less than 3x the normal fare. Yes, 3x might still be outrageous for a lot of people, but then, even the regular Uber fare is more than a lot of people can afford. The moral of the story is that you shouldn't pay for rides you can't afford and then complain about it on Twitter. Sooner or later people will start questioning your judgement, not Uber's. |
Share Why is there a double standard in the treatment of Kratom by the media vs. the way they treat FDA-approved prescription and OTC drugs? There is an unearned assumption that FDA-approved products are safer, but the reality is that they're not. Far more deaths, liver failures, and other injuries are caused by OTC (Over the Counter) and prescription drugs each year than are caused by natural herbs. In actuality, the media has lost most of its budget for investigative reporting, so what they generally tend to do is copy off the FDA/DEA talking points, craft them into a news report, and call it good. As a result, they all tend to sound very similar. The question arises, "Where do the FDA and DEA get their facts?" That's a good question. The answer is, "It's hard to tell." I have read many of the research studies done on Kratom (aka, Mitragyna speciosa) and much of what these "watchdog" agencies claim doesn't jibe with what I've read in the published science. Sometimes, as in the issue of whether or not Kratom causes "respiratory depression", none of the published reports agree with what the FDA/DEA say. Other of the DEA's fanciful claims I have debunked: HERE and HERE. "Direct Kratom overdoses from the life-threatening respiratory depression that usually occurs with opioid overdoses have not been reported", says Oliver Grundmann, clinical associate professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Florida, who recently reviewed the research on Kratom for the International Journal of Legal Medicine." from VICE. Much negative press is painting Kratom, the humble leaf of a tree related to the coffee plant, as the next big threat to our young people. This appears, on closer inspection, to be the usual case of "the pot calling the kettle black". Any thinking person will realize that legally prescribed drugs are the HUGE problem the FDA and DEA are trying to contain by making opioid narcotics harder to get -- even for those with legitimate prescriptions and chronic pain. Kratom use is not a significant problem for Emergency Rooms and drug rehab centers. Poison control centers report nearly no Kratom-related calls (Meanwhile high-quality heroin floods the country from Afghanistan, Mexico, despite all the money we pay for drug interdiction. Puzzling indeed!) Kratom is helping the FDA and DEA get people off narcotics, both legal and illegal, but all the media wants to report is the danger Kratom poses to our innocent young people who are looking for a "legal high". Think about it: Chronic pain patients may have been taking oxycodone, hydrocodone, or morphine for 10 or 15 years. How are they supposed to live without pain relief? Pill mills for a time picked up the slack, but now they have been shut down. Kratom is merely picking up the slack and people who have been bedridden, out of work for months and years, due to the side-effects of the opioid medications, Lyrica, antidepressants, gabapentin and others, are now returning to work, taking care of their kids, and feeling much better. Shouldn't this be a cause for celebration? There has been only reluctant mention of this happy phenomenon by news reporters -- and usually with some hint of doubt in their voice. Meanwhile, a casual observer might wonder if the DEA is actually trying to promote the use of Kratom by young people? Maybe they want kids to get violently nauseated as a warning to stay away from all legal highs. I have even seen DEA agents mention that some Kratom users SNORT the powdered herb! Loose talk like this, on the part of the DEA, will no doubt cause a few naive young people to try this. I heard from someone I know who was raided by DEA that DEA agents were so unfamiliar with Kratom that they seriously thought people smoke it! Perhaps they are confusing Kratom with Spice, an herbal mixture laced with synthetic cannabinoids. And yet, the language and description of side-effects given by the DEA and FDA often sound attractive to the young people who are looking for an affordable legal way to get "high" -- as crazy as the notion of a "high" sounds to those of us who prefer Kratom because it doesn't get us high. (Many people who use Kratom daily, would never think of using marijuana for pain, etc., even though medical marijuana might be available to them). Most Kratom consumers just want pain relief, relief from anxiety, depression, and fatigue -- not the brain fog and confusion of drugs. This is a very puzzling situation. Can the DEA be so un-hip to think they aren't alerting kids to possible good times to be had with Kratom when they sternly report (with a straight face, even) of hallucinations being a major, apparently common side-effect of Kratom use? Kratom is nothing like what the kids really want, so the DEA's strategy may be a little like "Aversion Therapy" -- a way to trick them into consuming too much of a substance that is well-known NOT to cause fatal respiratory depression or otherwise serious side-effects -- but merely makes them violently nauseous, have a headache, and swear never to touch the stuff again. How else could the media -- who are just reading from the DEA/FDA's talking points -- get it so consistently, outrageously wrong (unless it's on-purpose)? Dropping hints that Kratom causes respiratory depression, heroin-like effects, cocaine-like effects, hallucinations, delusions, and the rest are very appealing to those who are looking for those sensations. Even talk about severe withdrawal symptoms leaves one segment of the audience thinking that Kratom is just like their opioids-of-choice, but cheap and legal. Except it isn't. Kratom really doesn't lend itself to getting "high", though some people will try, anyway. The consumers of Kratom that the FDA/DEA seem to be purposely ignoring are the medicinal users. I suppose acknowledging that people are using Kratom to get themselves free of addictive and toxic pain-relievers, antidepressants, muscle relaxers, and benzodiazepines, would give credence to the fact that there may be some actual medicinal uses for this unapproved New Dietary Ingredient (NDI). They aren't willing to concede that yet. They must be convinced with additional scientific research, proving the safety and efficacy of this plant. Now, every excuse in the book is being thrown at this humble herb to keep those who prefer it to chemical drugs from having it. Why? Looking at the death statistics for the past ten years, FDA-approved drugs are killing far more people than illicit drugs, so what's the advantage there? An article in the New York Times tells us that former heroin addicts are now becoming addicted to this new foreign substance, Kratom, intimating it must be bad for the rest of us. The argument that, because those with addictive tendencies are likely to abuse Kratom, too, says nothing about the millions of medicinal Kratom users who manage to use the plant without becoming addicted. Are we planning to ban opioid painkillers, too, because a small percentage of those to whom they are prescribed become addicted to them, as well? That is a ridiculous argument. Didn't our country try banning alcohol many years ago to protect the many from the abuses of the few? How did that work out? We are told that Kratom causes -- in those who use it in extreme quantities, or perhaps in combination with other drugs -- extreme behavioral changes. Isn't that the nature of addiction to anything? These same people were using pharmaceutical drugs previously; drugs which, if you read the side-effect list, also may cause addiction, "feeling high", delusions, hallucinations, and often death by respiratory depression. So, if these legal prescription drugs are FDA-approved and are being abused by a small percentage of the public -- even under a doctor's supervision -- why aren't the Media and our government watchdog agencies alarmed about them? In many cases, as we saw above with respiratory depression, the FDA/DEA are accusing Kratom of causing symptoms that either have never been found or are extremely rare. And yet, they make it sound like everyone will eventually have these symptoms -- quite unlike the side-effect warnings on prescription drugs, where risks are downplayed. Remember, it was the easily obtainable prescription drugs that were the seed of the addiction epidemic in the first place. Don't Blame Kratom! |
Anyone who has a basic understanding of elementary-level arithmetic and some common sense can easily explain why raising the minimum wage is bad for employment levels. In a nutshell, higher labor costs simply improve the payback profile of capital investments in technology thus accelerating job losses. We recently shared the following example regarding California's minimum wage hike from $10 per hour to $15. At $10 per hour and a 10-year payback, employers may be reluctant to invest in new technology. But, at $15 per hour and a 6-years payback, that investment become a no-brainer. Unfortunately, while these concepts are somewhat simplistic for most us, they have confounded left-leaning economists and politicians pretty much since the beginning of time. And while no amount of empirical evidence will change their minds, here is yet another study, this time from Grace Lordan of the London School of Economics and David Neumark of UC Irvine, offering up evidence that raising minimum wages only serves to increase unemployment and disproportionately crushes female and minority low-income workers. Entitled "People Versus Machines: The Impact of Minimum Wages on Automatable Jobs," the study found that each $1 increase in the minimum wage decreased the "share of lowskilled automatable jobs by 0.43 percentage point." Here's a summary of Lordan's findings: Overall, we find that increasing the minimum wage decreases significantly the share of automatable employment held by low-skilled workers. Our estimates suggest that an increase of the minimum wage by $1 (based on 2015 dollars) decreases the share of lowskilled automatable jobs by 0.43 percentage point (an elasticity of ?0.11). However, these average effects mask significant heterogeneity by industry and by demographic group. In particular, there are large effects on the shares of automatable employment in manufacturing, where we estimate that a $1 increase in the minimum wage decreases the share of automatable employment among low-skilled workers by 0.99 percentage point (elasticity of ?0.17). Within manufacturing, the share of older workers in automatable employment declines most sharply, and the share of workers in automatable employment also declines sharply for women and blacks. Meanwhile, the results are even worse for workers over 40, females and minorities... For example, a higher minimum wage significantly reduces the shares of both younger (? 25) and older (> 40) workers in jobs that are automatable, by a larger magnitude compared to those aged 26-39. For the younger and older groups, the estimates imply that a $1 increase in the minimum wage reduces the shares in automatable work by 0.94 and 0.72 percentage points respectively (the corresponding elasticities are ?0.20 and ?0.17. Looking by both age and industry, for older workers (? 40 years old) the negative effect mainly arises in the manufacturing and public administration sectors (a decrease of 1.68 and 3.50 percentage points for a $1 minimum wage increase respectively), while for younger workers (< 25 years old) the effects are large in many sectors but the estimate is close to zero for manufacturing. The middle age group, also, exhibits a decline in the share of workers in automatable jobs in manufacturing when the minimum wage increases – a 1.21 percentage point decline for a $1 increase. Thus, older workers appear more vulnerable to substitution away from automatable jobs when the minimum wage increases. On average, females are affected more adversely than males: in the aggregate estimates in column (1), the negative estimate is significant only for females, and is almost ten times larger, indicating that, for females, a minimum wage increase of $1 causes a decrease of 1.01 percentage points in the share of automatable jobs (the elasticity is ?0.14). Across industries, these negative effects for females are concentrated in manufacturing, services, and public administration; for example, a $1 minimum wage increase reduces the share of automatable jobs in public administration by 3.67 percentage points – an elasticity of ?0.41). For males, only the estimate for manufacturing is statistically significant; the estimated effect implies that a $1 increase in the minimum wage causes a decrease of 0.62 percentage point (an elasticity of ?0.13). Table 3 also points to similar overall effects by race, with a $1 increase in the minimum wage reducing the share in automatable jobs by 0.57 percentage point for whites and 0.72 percentage point for blacks. However, the effects are heterogeneous across industries. There are large estimated effects in manufacturing (1.19 percentage points) and public administration (1.53 percentage points) for whites, although only the first estimate is statistically significant. For blacks, there are large and statistically significant decreases in automatable shares in manufacturing and transport (declines of about 4.5 percentage point in both). But, as usual, we're sure this extra data will have no impact on Bernie's "Fight for $15." Amazing how some politicians will embrace math and science when arguing climate change but completely reject it when discussing minimum wage...wonder why? |
Accessibility is an important topic for anyone who builds things for the web, and one that is neglected far too often. We at trivago have also been guilty of this, but we are slowly making changes with the aim of improving the accessibility of our site. Identifying and implementing these changes has not been easy. We have faced a number of challenges along the way, and we continue to do so. But we are committed to improving our site so that anyone can access and use the service we provide, regardless of how they do so. Internal Challenges If you looked at our site a year ago, it was completely inaccessible to users who attempted to access our site with anything other than a mouse or touch screen. This had to change and a small number of our UI developers who care about accessibility decided to see if they could improve things. From the outset there were a number of issues. Some people in our department either lacked awareness of the topic or they didn’t see the need for changes to be made, as they didn’t want part of a sprint to be taken up on accessibility issues when something “more important” could be implemented instead. Management also showed some indifference towards any improvements as there was no tangible way to measure how many users were impacted. One of our company values is “power of proof”, and while it is fairly easy to measure the number of visitors to our site who use outdated browsers which enables us to make informed decisions on their support, it is virtually impossible to measure visitors who are using tools such as screen readers or who want to use the keyboard as a main method of navigation. Overall there was a mindset issue, where people displayed apathy towards making accessibility improvements. Bottom-up Approach This sounds like it was a showstopper, but it was not, it just made improving things more difficult, but not impossible. Due to the way trivago works internally, and especially within the software engineering department here in Düsseldorf, if developers believe in something strongly enough, they can still do it, pushing the topic from the bottom up. So this is what was done. Increasing Awareness As mentioned earlier, part of the problem was lack of accessibility awareness; what it means, how it can affect people, and what can be done to improve things. Increasing awareness was tackled in a number of ways. Internally, once a year, we have a two day hackathon which allows people to work on something they think will benefit trivago. One team decided to work on a bare bones implementation of the trivago website with improvements for screen readers. At the end of the hackathon teams presented their work, and the presentation of this short project was used to compare the different experiences between our live website and the cut down, more accessible version. Additionally, well-known accessibility consultant Karl Groves was invited to give a trivago Academy talk on accessibility. His talk entitled “I never knew a website could hurt somebody” helped increase awareness of why taking care of accessibility is important for users. Karl Groves giving his talk at trivago With this increased awareness, it was now time to act. Small Steps As they were performing other tasks, UI developers made small changes that constantly improved the site’s accessibility. Existing HTML semantics were improved, and colour contrast changed, where possible. The excellent pa11y tool was used to identify WCAG conformance level AA errors that existed and to keep an eye on any new ones that crept in. Overall, developers improved things by: replacing meaningless <div> s with more meaningful elements where appropriate s with more meaningful elements where appropriate ensuring that all buttons use <button> converting all links to use <a> adding labels to all form elements replacing custom elements with native elements where possible introducing WAI-ARIA attributes and roles where required Many of these things, one could argue, should have been done from the start, but remember that this is a large codebase that has had many developers working on it over time, some of whom were more experienced in other technological areas, so the HTML produced was less than optimal. Any frontend developer who works in a large company with an ever-changing codebase can probably empathise with this. Now that there were a number of developers who specialise in HTML and CSS , things could be improved. The number of WCAG errors was tracked via the pa11y dashboard which gave a visual representation of the work that was being done. This work and improvements were promoted throughout the company, and received general approval. At the start we had over 250 errors, and after all the above work had been carried out, this was reduced to about 70. pa11y dashboard Using the Keyboard Another topic that the UI Developers were keen on improving, was the ability to navigate the website using the keyboard. Our site has many interaction areas where using native elements alone wasn’t going to make them automatically usable via the keyboard. Due to the increased awareness mentioned earlier, and the actions that were now being taken – as developers were talking about the accessibility work they were doing in their daily stand-ups – accessibility was beginning to rise in prominence, and support was arriving from the Product and other teams. This meant that getting time to work on keyboard accessibility within sprints was easier, as people were beginning to see the benefit. After discussions between developers and Product Owners, it was decided to make the main functionality of the website usable via keyboard. Again this is a small step, as it doesn’t make the entire website accessible, but every improvement helps, and this was an excellent way to continue improving the site’s accessibility. The main functionality that was made keyboard accessible was roughly defined as allowing the keyboard user to: enter a search term enter start and end dates use the room configurator perform a search navigate the results list and perform a click-out to a required deal This keyboard functionality was to be bolted on to the existing functionality, and it took a lot of time, and a lot of learning: finding out how a calendar should work with the keyboard, what key combinations to react to etc. A number of other items also had to be blocked from the keyboard (e.g. the filters) as most of them were not keyboard accessible or only partially so, and it was decided to skip these things entirely for now to focus on what can be done. Focus states also had to be introduced as these didn’t exist on most of the site, and in order for the “focus states look ugly” argument to be quashed, a standard design for this was provided by a member of the design team and implemented. trivago calendar showing keyboard focus When this implementation was complete, as with all changes, it went through a thorough code review and QA cycle, and finally went live earlier this year , but was A/B tested of course as all our changes tend to be. It performed positively enough for it to be accepted, and the coverage was increased to 100%. Again this achievement was posted and promoted internally throughout the company so others could see the improvements that were being made and awareness of accessibility’s importance was increased. A Minor – but necessary – Setback A few weeks after the keyboard accessibility functionality went live, it had to be completely switched off again rather than accepted into the codebase. This was of course unfortunate, but it was a necessary evil at the time. One of the major parts of the website was being completely re-written using our Melody framework, and unfortunately keyboard accessibility wasn’t part of the rewrite at the time due to time constraints. This meant that when it was ready to be A/B tested, we needed to compare like for like, so all A/B tests on this area of the website were turned off, and this sadly included the keyboard accessibility. It wasn’t all bad though, as there was a firm commitment to add keyboard accessibility to the new version at a future date, so it was a necessary evil with a happy ending. A New Focus, with Results Within trivago there was also a shift in focus, so that everything that we created should concentrate more on the user, and create user value. Naturally this change was a major boost for accessibility, as every improvement in this area brings user value. This meant that a lot of the existing accessibility work that was already done was seen in a new light and the user value that it brought increased in appreciation: The keyboard accessibility functionality was re-implemented, and we are pleased to say that it has been live for a number of weeks now. The filters area was rewritten with a lot of care and attention, to ensure that keyboard accessibility was implemented as part of the rewrite. This too is currently live and being A/B tested. Our designers worked on implementing a new colour palette around the green used in the trivago website, as it wasn’t WCAG AA conformant. Thankfully this is no longer the case. pa11y and Tenon are becoming part of our continuous integration workflow, with errors and potential issues being flagged. We issued pull requests for pa11y to include functionality that we needed. QA are currently writing tests for keyboard accessibility so it becomes part of their automated testing process. Many departments have worked together to achieve these results and to push things forward, which is an achievement that we are proud of. Work to be Done We have come a long way. A year ago the site was completely inaccessible, but things have improved greatly, but of course we still have lots to do. Making things keyboard accessible IS time consuming and does require extra effort, but it brings enormous user value and is worth the time dedicated to its implementation. Not only is it the right thing to do as it allows more people to access our site, it also increases our potential audience and therefore revenue. Up to now we have focused on semantic HTML and keyboard accessibility, and we will continue to do so as there are still areas of the website that need improvement. We do need to spend some time improving the experience for users who use tools such as screen readers, and that will come in due course. There is still some developer apathy which we need to overcome, but internal promotion and code reviews play a huge part in improving things and educating each other. We also intend to run some internal training and workshops to share the knowledge. Third party markup causes a number of headaches, as often what they produce isn’t conformant and we have no control over it. We will continue to raise bug requests with them to try and improve this. We have come a long way. We have a long way to go. But things are improving for the better. Long may it continue. We will keep you updated with our progress. |
Many viruses and bacteria infect humans through mucosal surfaces, such as those in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract and reproductive tract. To help fight these pathogens, scientists are working on vaccines that can establish a front line of defense at mucosal surfaces. Vaccines can be delivered to the lungs via an aerosol spray, but the lungs often clear away the vaccine before it can provoke an immune response. To overcome that, MIT engineers have developed a new type of nanoparticle that protects the vaccine long enough to generate a strong immune response — not only in the lungs, but also in mucosal surfaces far from the vaccination site, such as the gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts. Such vaccines could help protect against influenza and other respiratory viruses, or prevent sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, herpes simplex virus and human papilloma virus, says Darrell Irvine, an MIT professor of materials science and engineering and biological engineering and the leader of the research team. He is also exploring use of the particles to deliver cancer vaccines. “This is a good example of a project where the same technology can be applied in cancer and in infectious disease. It’s a platform technology to deliver a vaccine of interest,” says Irvine, who is a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard University. Irvine and colleagues describe the nanoparticle vaccine in the Sept. 25 issue of Science Translational Medicine. Lead authors of the paper are recent PhD recipient Adrienne Li and former MIT postdoc James Moon. Sturdier vaccines Only a handful of mucosal vaccines have been approved for human use; the best-known example is the Sabin polio vaccine, which is given orally and absorbed in the digestive tract. There is also a flu vaccine delivered by nasal spray, and mucosal vaccines against cholera, rotavirus and typhoid fever. To create better ways of delivering such vaccines, Irvine and his colleagues built upon a nanoparticle they developed two years ago. The protein fragments that make up the vaccine are encased in a sphere made of several layers of lipids that are chemically “stapled” to one another, making the particles more durable inside the body. “It’s like going from a soap bubble to a rubber tire. You have something that’s chemically much more resistant to disassembly,” Irvine says. This allows the particles to resist disintegration once they reach the lungs. With this sturdier packaging, the protein vaccine remains in the lungs long enough for immune cells lining the surface of the lungs to grab them and deliver them to T cells. Activating T cells is a critical step for the immune system to form a memory of the vaccine particles so it will be primed to respond again during an infection. Stopping the spread of infection In studies of mice, the researchers found that HIV or cancer antigens encapsulated in nanoparticles were taken up by immune cells much more successfully than vaccine delivered to the lungs or under the skin without being trapped in nanoparticles. HIV does not infect mice, so to test the immune response generated by the vaccines, the researchers infected the mice with a version of the vaccinia virus that was engineered to produce the HIV protein delivered by the vaccine. Mice vaccinated with nanoparticles were able to quickly contain the virus and prevent it from escaping the lungs. Vaccinia virus usually spreads to the ovaries soon after infection, but the researchers found that the vaccinia virus in the ovaries of mice vaccinated with nanoparticles was undetectable, while substantial viral concentrations were found in mice that received other forms of the vaccine. Mice that received the nanoparticle vaccine lost a small amount of weight after infection but then fully recovered, whereas the viral challenge was 100 percent lethal to mice who received the non-nanoparticle vaccine. “Giving the vaccine at the mucosal surface in the nanocapsule form allowed us to completely block that systemic infection,” Irvine says. The researchers also found a strong memory T cell presence at distant mucosal surfaces, including in the digestive and reproductive tracts. “An important caveat is that although immunity at distant mucus membranes following vaccination at one mucosal surface has been seen in humans as well, it’s still being worked out whether the patterns seen in mice are fully reproduced in humans,” Irvine says. “It might be that it’s a different mucosal surface that gets stimulated from the lungs or from oral delivery in humans.” Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, an assistant professor of basic medical sciences at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, says the nanoparticles are “an exciting and effective strategy for inducing effector-memory T-cell responses to nonreplicating subunit vaccines through mucosal vaccination.” “More research will need to be conducted to determine the delivery approach to be used in humans, but this vaccination strategy is particularly important for diseases that may require significant T cell-mediated protection, such as HIV,” says Herbst-Kralovetz, who was not part of the research team. Tumor defense The particles also hold promise for delivering cancer vaccines, which stimulate the body’s own immune system to destroy tumors. To test this, the researchers first implanted the mice with melanoma tumors that were engineered to express ovalbumin, a protein found in egg whites. Three days later, they vaccinated the mice with ovalbumin. They found that mice given the nanoparticle form of the vaccine completely rejected the tumors, while mice given the uncoated vaccine did not. Further studies need to be done with more challenging tumor models, Irvine says. In the future, tests with vaccines targeted to proteins expressed by cancer cells would be necessary. The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute, the Ragon Institute, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. The nanoparticle technology has been patented and licensed to a company called Vedantra, which is now developing infectious-disease and cancer vaccines. |
世に出てすでに3年近くが経過しようとしているブラウザゲーム「艦隊これくしょん ～艦これ～」。 ここ最近は、ローソンやすき家とのコラボが行われたり、本家ブラウザ版ゲーム以外にもPS Vita版やアーケード版のゲームが発売あるいはロケーションテストが実施されたりと、その人気は未だ衰えを見せていないように思える。 しかしながらその一方で、Twitterや匿名掲示板などでは「艦これの人気はピークを過ぎた」という発言も見られ、首を傾げるような思いをした方は私以外にもいるのではないだろうか。 いわゆるアンチ層の発言ならばともかく、個人の区別が可能なTwitterなどで熱心なファンからもこのような声が聞かれることもあり、ファンの間でも何らかの認識の違いが生じているように思える。 では、その認識の違いはどこから出てくるのであろうか。 例えば、新規参入層と古参層との間の単なる感覚的なずれなのか、それとも何らかの指標として数字に表れてくるものなのか。 そう思って艦これの人気動向を分析していったところ、艦これの人気はある種の「二極化」が進んでいることが判明した。 本稿では「艦これ」の人気を表す指標として、 ・主として艦これの版権を持つ版元が関わる公式関連(ゲーム、書籍など) ・主にファンが中心として活動する二次創作関連(pixivやニコニコ動画など) の動向を分析する。 公式関連の動向 ◆ブラウザ版ゲーム本編の登録者数 公式関連の動向を分析するにあたり、まずはブラウザゲーム本編を取り上げる。 猫予報官氏(https://twitter.com/nekoyohou)による「艦これ」登録者数の推移を表すグラフが公開されなくなって久しいが、現在の登録者数は2016年1月時点で約370万人程度となっている。 要所ごとに数字を取りだして見ると、 ・2014年1月：150万人 ・2015年1月：250万人 (アニメ放映開始時点) ・2015年4月：300万人 (アニメ放映終了直後) ・2016年1月：370万人 となっており、2014年～15年の平均月間増加数は約8.3万人/月、アニメ放映期間中の3ヶ月は倍の約16.6万人/月、その後から現在に至るまでは約7.7万人/月と、増加量はやや落ち着いたとはいえ、今なお新規登録者数は増加していることが確認された。 このペースを維持した場合、登録者数は2016年5月にも400万人を突破するものと見込まれる。 ◆ゲーム本編のDAU、MAUの現状 次に、DAU(Daily Active User：日間の総ユーザーログイン数)とMAU(Monthly ～：月間の総ユーザーログイン数)の検証に移る。 DAU、MAUともに運営公式からの発表は昨年以降発表されていないが、有志の検証結果(http://togetter.com/li/933974)を元に算出すると、MAUがおよそ35万～40万人/月と推定できる。(つまり、毎月40万人程度のユーザーが少なくとも1日は艦これで遊んでいる) 最盛期のMAUが100万人、DAUが50万人程度だったことに鑑みれば大分落ち着きを見せたともいえるが、絶対数として未だ40万人規模の人数が少なくとも月に1度はゲームにログインしている以上、ゲーム本編の人気はなお高いと言えるのではないかと考える。 また、このMAU：40万人という数字は、2015年に検証されたMAU：40万～45万人と比較しても大差なく、現状は新規参入と引退者の割合は拮抗してある種の平衡状態を保っているものと推測される。 一方でDAUの算出は困難であるが、ゲーム内イベントの開催頻度に大きな変化もないため、最盛期のMAU/DAU比と同一の比率を維持していると考えるならば、おおよそ18万人程度と予想できる。 しかしこれは算出根拠としてはあまりにも推測根拠に乏しく、この予想DAUは信用ある数字とは到底言えないことを記しておく。 ◆PS Vita版の販売数 延期に延期を重ね、2016年2月についに発売となったVita版「艦これ改」は、累計販売数が20万本を突破した。 Vita発売ソフトの平均販売数が2万程度であることから、当初経済アナリストに予想されていた50万本には届かないものの「艦これ改」はVita発売ソフトの中でも屈指のヒット作となったと言える。 参考までにVita発売ソフトの販売数上位を上げると、 ○50万本台 ・マインクラフト(約59万本) ○30万本台 ・ゴッドイーター2(約35万本) ・ペルソナ4(約30万本) ○20万本台 ・DQビルダーズ アレフガルドを復活せよ(約28万本) ・フリーダムウォーズ(約28万本) ・SAW -ホロウ・フラグメント-(約24万本) ・FF X リメイク(約21万本) ・初音ミク-ProjectDIVA-f(約20万本) となっており、DQやFFなどの息の長い人気シリーズにも次ぐレベルのヒットであったと言える。 ◆公式書籍の販売数 2015年以降に発売した書籍について、POSの情報から推定累積販売数を掲載している情報サイト(http://book-rank.net/rank/rank.cgi?mode=find&word=%8A%CD%82%B1%82%EA&booktype=2)のデータを用いて検証する。 いくつかの書籍を取り上げてみると、 ○アンソロジー 横須賀鎮守府編 ・ 9巻：40,650 (初週販売数：24,400 2015/03/14発売) ・10巻：34,300 (同18,150 06/15) ・11巻：37,150 (18,050 09/14) ・12巻：20,700 (10,600 12/14) ・13巻：24,300 (10,050 2016/03/14) ○4コマ 吹雪、がんばります！ ・ 5巻：45,300 (29,000 2015/05/15) ・ 6巻：32,450 (22,800 10/15) ・ 7巻：24,300 (10,050 2016/03/14) ○艦々日和 ・ 3巻：11,350 ( 6,250 2015/03/20) ・ 4巻： 8,150 ( 4,150 09/26) ○水雷戦隊クロニクル ・ 2巻：18,450 (10,250 2015/07/09) となっており、初週販売数、累積販売数ともに下落傾向にあることが判明した。 (発行日が新しい書籍ほど累積販売数が少なくなるのは時間経過という観点から当然であるが、このような書籍は大体発売後2～3週が売り上げのピークとなる傾向にある) 2014年以前の情報をまとめているサイト(http://note.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/detail/n338043)も確認したが、この傾向は当時からすでに緩やかに始まっていたことが分かる。 一般に巻が進むほど購入者は少なくなること、また艦これは書籍の種類が豊富で人気が分散しやすいことを考慮すればある程度の販売数下落は容易に想定されうることではあるが、果たしてそれだけに帰結できるかと問われると、大いに疑問の余地はある。 参考までに他の人気作品の書籍データを掲載するが、 ○東方鈴奈庵 ・ 4巻：33,050 (13,150 2015/08/07) ○東方茨歌仙 ・ 5巻：29,500 (14,150 2014/12/27) ・ 6巻：26,350 (11,100 2016/01/27) ○Fate プリズマ☆イリヤドライ！！ ・ 6巻：28,850 (13,150 2015/08/07) ・ 7巻：22,220 (22,200 2016/3/25) ○アイドルマスター シンデレラガールズ劇場 ・ 1巻： 5,550 (5,550 2015/01/24) ・ 2巻：12,350 (6,250 2015/04/25) ・ 3巻： 8,450 (5,050 09/26) ○刀剣乱舞 アンソロジー ・初陣：53,700 (15,000 2015/06/01) となっており、現在の書籍販売数は東方シリーズやFateシリーズに近い数字となっていると言える。 ◆その他、特記事項 その他、特筆すべき事項としては ・「ローソン」とのコラボにおいて、首都圏を中心にコラボグッズが配布期間の終了を待たずして配布上限に達した店舗が多数見られたこと ・「すき家」とのコラボにおいて、コラボ初日に20人程度の行列が形成される店舗があり、一部店舗ではメニューの一部が売り切れになったこと ・3周年記念オーケストラコンサートの一般発売分が、初日に完売したこと などを挙げておく。 これらは定量的に扱うことは困難ではあるが、定性的に見てもなお客観的に検証可能であることから列挙した。 (その②に続く) http://anond.hatelabo.jp/20160404011536 ツイートシェア |
One cannot think of a more tone-deaf political response to the 2016 election than an effort to privatize Medicare. There aren’t that many lessons Republicans need to draw from 2016—they control everything!—but one is that so long as you pledge not to touch Medicare, even a goon like Donald Trump can win the presidency. Yet since the election there has been much chatter that conservatives in Congress, led by House Speaker Paul Ryan, might consider moving forward with his treasured voucherization of Medicare. I had thought that this might be a product of Democratic wish-casting, because there was no way that Ryan would be so stupid. Advertisement And yet he keeps … talking about it. In a postelection interview on Fox News, Ryan floated the idea that Medicare and Medicaid reform would be logrolled into the repeal and replacement of Obamacare. “When Obamacare became Obamacare, Obamacare rewrote Medicare, rewrote Medicaid, so if you’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well,” he said two days after the election. He added that Medicare was “going broke” because of Obamacare, which is the opposite of what is happening. “So you have to deal with those issues if you’re going to repeal and replace Obamacare.” The proper response from the less ideological people around Ryan would have been to gently talk him down from his stack of 1961 Ronald Reagan LPs. They would suggest that he perhaps rethink this plan in light of the Rust Belt coalition Trump had assembled to retake the White House for the GOP. Reporters are swarming the Capitol asking Republican members whether they will support the privatization of Medicare, and many of these Republican members seem less than ecstatic about that. Ryan’s enthusiasm, however, appears not to have dampened. In his Sunday interview with 60 Minutes, Ryan reiterated his interest in overhauling Medicare using the same old scare tactics about how the program is scheduled to go “bankrupt” in a hot minute and that he’s just looking out for the kids’ best interest. “[F]or those of us, you know, the X-generation on down, it won’t be there for us on its current path,” Ryan told Scott Pelley. “So we have to bring reform to this program for the younger generation, so that it’s there for us when we retire and so that we can keep cash flowing to current generations’ commitments. And the more we kick the can down the road, the more we delay, the worse it gets.” Ryan didn’t say overhauling Medicare is his top priority, “but it is an issue that we have to tackle.” He also said that he hadn’t discussed it with Trump yet. Advertisement Perhaps Trump will be the one who talks Ryan off the ledge—this is where we are, folks—because pushing to change Medicare from a single-payer system to a voucher system for private insurance would be among the stupider political campaigns of the 21st century. Democrats, in case Republicans hadn’t noticed, are dead right now, with no clear path forward—unless one is made for them. Republicans who completely misinterpret the world might read this as a “mandate” to effect ideologically conservative change, such as the privatization of Medicare. The election, however, was more a primal scream from folks aggrieved that it’s no longer politic to call their female co-workers “sweetheart” than it was a referendum on whether and how to shore up the Medicare hospital insurance trust fund. It’s not coincidental, either, that Trump was the only major Republican primary candidate to insist that he would not make any changes to Medicare, a position it’s unclear he’ll adhere to. A Republican effort to privatize Medicare is the most direct prescription for resuscitating the Democratic Party’s immediate political prospects. It would unite the party in opposition to something awful, which is about all an out-party can ask for. Republicans might be able to divvy up the Democratic Party if they look first to infrastructure or tax reform. But Democrats will have little difficulty uniting to protect Medicare, and they will stay on message about it. They killed the privatization of Social Security that way during the Bush administration, after all. Few now speak of privatizing Social Security. Think of the “gettable” Democrats whom Republicans will be able to work with in the next Congress, the 10 facing re-election next cycle in states that Trump won. They will be right there with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren resisting a plan like this. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, for example, basically has to dress like Colonel Sanders and beat up hippies with the butt of an AR-15 every hour for the next two years if he wants to win re-election. You could not give him a better gift than a Republican campaign against Medicare. Advertisement I doubt Republicans are under the impression that going after Medicare is swell politics. That means they must view the 2017 window as their best chance in the foreseeable future to achieve an ideological goal, consequences be damned. But as Republicans are showing right now in their plan to repeal Obamacare, unilateral efforts to push through an ideological goal, even if successful, may not have much of a lifespan. Even if the privatization of Medicare were to get through the House and the Senate and Ryan were able to trick President Trump into signing it by telling him it’s a bill to send the cast of Saturday Night Live to a re-education camp, its repeal would immediately jump to the top of Democrats’ list of priorities. It would sit there until the great gettin’ up morning when they had the numbers to eliminate it. |
102 points · 14 comments Turns out the gun control sit-in was a fundraising scheme, as they could have forced the vote beforehand, but CHOSE not to 464 points · 67 comments There have been 81 actual Mass-Shootings since 1982, not the "thousands" currently reported. 165 points · 11 comments Rangel: No Guns For Law-Abiding Constituents But I ‘Deserve–Need’ Police Protection 119 points · 33 comments Why Gun Control Can’t Be Solved in the USA 64 points · 2 comments To the owner of assaultweapon.info 477 points · 89 comments Rep. Mark Walker on Twitter: "Calling this a sit-in is a disgrace to Woolworth's. They sat-in for rights. Dems are "sitting-in" to strip them away 12 points · 3 comments I think I might have forgotten about this... 30 points · 42 comments Gersh Kuntzman takes another crack at it! 216 points · 31 comments Mass Shooting Myth — U.S. Homicide Rate Hits 51-year Low as Gun Ownership Increased 141% 9 points · 1 comment Study: Criminals Don’t Get Guns From Legal Sources [x-post /r/progun] |
Managing Editor Vural Nasuhbeyoğlu and Publisher Mehmet Akif Koşar of Evrensel Daily have been sued for “insulting the President” according to the Article 299 of Criminal Code of the Republic of Turkey (TCK). The trial will start on October 1, 2015. According to the Article 299, a person who insults the President shall be sentenced to 1 to 4 years in prison. Evrensel’s lead writer İhsan Çaralan and other columnists Mustafa Köz and Erol Aral also were opened investigation for their columns. In the first three weeks of September, at least 19 media employees were sued: Caricaturist Musa Kart (Cumhuriyet), journalists and columnists Ekrem Dumanlı (Zaman),Ertuğrul Özkök (Hürriyet), Yavuz Baydar (Bugün), Tayfun Talipoğlu(Yurt), Onur Erem (BirGün), Murat Çapan (Nokta), Hasan Cemal (T24),Aytekin Gezici (Twitter), Gökçe Fırat Çulhaoğlu (Türk Solu), Atilla Taş(Meydan), Gülizar Baki (Meydan), Levent Kenez (Meydan), Ahmet Altan Vural Nasuhbeyoğlu (Evrensel), Mehmet Akif Koşar (Evrensel),İhsan Çaralan (Evrensel), Erol Aral (Evrensel) and Mustafa Köz(Evrensel). Before September… Many columnists and editor-in-chiefs; Özgür Mumcu (Cumhuriyet), Barış Pehlivan(Odatv.com), Ender İmrek (Evrensel), Barış İnce (BirGün) were put on trial according to the Article 299 before September. Judicial oppression from many different politic people also affects the universities and activist people. (EÖ/BD) Click here to read the article in Turkish *evrensel's headline in English: "100% Censorship , 90% Fear!" This publication has been produced within the partnership with Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso for the European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF), co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of IPS Communication Foundation and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. |
Announcing our 11th Permaculture Design Certificate course! July 26 to August 11, 2013 Are you ready to learn permaculture? Do you need an affordable Permaculture Design Certificate course? Sign up before May 1st to enjoy a $200 discount on our paradigm-shifting, hands-on, summertime intensive course. Michael Burns, Rafter Sass Ferguson, Steve Gabriel, and Karryn Olson Ramanujan bring thousands of hours of experience teaching permaculture to people of all backgrounds and experiences. Over 84 hours of instruction, with a rigorous design practicum, equip you to design using the principles and methods of permaculture. Get hands-on experience with strategies like hot composting, mushroom inoculation, marking contours, and siting buildings and ponds on the landscape. Graduate with skills and a network of colleagues that support your work creating a regenerative life, land and home. If you want a more just and sustainable future, then come to the beautiful, abundant Finger Lakes region of New York this summer. If your budget is tight, register soon for the early bird discount.. |
The birth of the Indian conservative has been long overdue, and liberals - if they had been alert at all - ought to have seen it coming. Unfortunately, Indian liberals became too elite and did not venture into forgotten neighbourhoods, dark alleys and hidden corners. They ignored the slums and ghettos where conservatism prospered. While they talked about the poor in their bungalows in posh colonies, the so-called fringe elements worked with the poor, gave them hope and recognition. Truthfully, the poor needed company and the conservatives were there first. Since liberals were always well intentioned, it is still hard for them to digest this turn of events. In turn, liberals might cite India's progress in the last 68 years. Surely, things have improved. With liberalisation of Indian economy, the poor are not so poor, and middle class is not so middle class and so on. Everyone is looking up. What use is the talk of religion, regionalism, communalism, ancient past, Indian epics, Sanskrit for modern India? How will such regressive rhetoric take India forward? How can these people bring down everything India was built on for 68 years? It is even more astonishing to the liberals that their rebellion is being seen with so much disdain among their countrymen. Are the Indians dismissive of free speech? Are they endorsing intolerance? The answer is "no". They are simply dismissive of elitism and are intolerant of general incompetence. Liberals are at least partially responsible for such indifference themselves. They would never have lost so much face had they not become bed fellows of the government machinery. (In fact, several of our published writers are actually former civil servants.) The Indian liberal was perhaps lulled into inaction due to the lack of opposition. While the world embraced capitalism, Indian intellectuals continued to look the other way. Leading world writers wrote tomes about the romanticism and subsequent disillusionment with communism, but the Indian intellectual still endorsed its primitive form that had already failed on the world stage. In fact, not only did their ideology fail on social and economic fronts, there was little innovation in Indian art, philosophy, and literature indicating further the complacency in the liberal folds. Indian science too cannot boast of much success. Even today, our theatres are dominated by the likes of Brecht and books are written on the plight of poor. Even liberal "art" movies - a brand that long became formula - are either overtly communist or poverty porn. Where is the recognition of the angst of the new India? Where are the depictions of strife of our modern life? The bitter truth is even art needs money and contradictions to flourish. Liberal ideology of the years past has expired and along with that the reign of the liberal elite. Ironically, today even those people the liberals were discussing and portraying have rejected the liberal ideas. They don't want charity. The new world is full of aspiring millions who want change. They have wants, not just needs. They do not see themselves as helpless gentry that need to be saved by the only school teacher in town. They believe their children deserve better than someone's left overs. They have no patience for defeatist mind set of the India's liberals. Their aspirations go beyond the proverbial "Roti, Kapda aur Makaan". They want to know who they are, they want to discover India, and they want to feel good about themselves. Indians are tired of being told to become and look up to Macaulay's elites. On the other hand, our conservatives - long ignored - are feeding on this yearning. They had been pointing to an alternative account of India all along. Finally, the conservatives are vindicated. They see the Indian vote as affirmation of their ideology. They are rewriting history, reorganising institutes, and have discovered novel ways to demean liberals by new terms like "sickular" instead of secular (Does that mean if you are secular, you are sick?). They are here with a vengeance: they shall do to the liberals what was done to them. The liberals are the new marginalised group. Let the liberals beg for mercy; let them know what it feels like to be dismissed on a constant basis. But the conservatives too are mistaken. Indians did not vote them into power for personal vendetta. They voted them so they could change status quo and try out fresh ideas. Granted that India has two political sides: the conservatives and the liberals and they are locking horns on who is more Indian than the other? They are debating the idea of India, they are discussing the identity of an Indian. But is this all? Is the entire discussion to be based on clichés like liberals are secular and conservatives are religious fundamentalist; that liberals are anti-nationals and conservatives are nationalists? Will it answer the questions of a large majority of Indians who are neither communalists nor communists? One should not take lightly the intelligence of the Indian voters who are mostly rational thinkers and fair judges. They want nation's prosperity, not bickering. They are omnivores and to brand them as anything else is denying the nature of their DNA. People's personal choices do not trouble them. They are frustrated with India's lack of sanitation and infrastructure. They are proud of Indian culture and crafts and history and well versed with world's issues and philosophies. All in all, Indians want a country they can be proud of at home and on the world stage. And they want from thinkers and politicians plans and actions that shall get them there. Average Indian is increasingly getting worried that real development goals are being hijacked by the primitive partisan fight. His and her neighbourhood still smells of sewage and the road to work and school is riddled of potholes. He and she are concerned that India's daughters are still unsafe and children still uneducated and unhealthy. India's elites will have to reinvent themselves and refine their contest if they want to stay relevant to these people. Indian politicians and thinkers, more than anything, need to urgently work out a cohesive suite of ideas for these voters and readers before he or she loses patience with both sides. Therefore, the cock and bull fight between liberal and conservative elites needs to stop. There is a need to admit perhaps that conservatism - like liberalism - is here to stay. On the other hand, our country, having grown up on liberal ideology since birth, has a good appetite for beef and eggs that shall not vanish overnight. Both sides - liberals and conservatives - need to define in depth their ideologies and development plank to keep the argument alive and audience engaged. At the very least, our politicians and intellectuals should acknowledge the need to choose their pickets wisely and get to work immediately. |
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consumers have tightened their belts to the point where they could take on a lot more debt if they wanted it. A customer shops in a Sam's Club in Arkansas, June 3, 2010. REUTERS/Sarah Conard But they don’t. The average credit score rose to 704 in July, a level not seen since the first quarter of 1998, according to data that Equifax Inc (EFX.N), one of the largest U.S. credit bureaus, provided exclusively to Reuters. That means lenders consider consumers to be improved credit risks and would be happy to have more of them as customers. Yet many consumers still seem to find debt too risky, said Dann Adams, an Equifax executive. “Traditionally, what you see is after a recession is that consumers are the engine on the locomotive for economic growth,” Adams said. “Now it looks like they’re the caboose.” The data is based on Equifax’ 200 million-plus files of U.S. consumers using credit. The credit risk score forecasts the likelihood a consumer will fall 90 days or more behind on debt within two years, with 850 the highest score. The higher the score, the less likely a borrower will fall behind on debt. A decline in debt mirrored the rise in credit scores. July saw total consumer debt outstanding fall to $10.8 trillion from a peak of $11.5 trillion in October of 2008. Consumer debt includes mortgages and credit cards. See related graphic: link.reuters.com/muf94n The savings rate rose to 6.4 percent in June from 6.3 percent in May to reach the highest level since June of last year. “The big question is whether that money moves back into the economy,” Adams said. This protracted reluctance on the part of consumers to take out debt and spend it is unmatched in recent memory. Even after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center, spending rebounded within four months, he said. The United States will not see a similar upward trend until unemployment abates and home values stabilize, Adams said, adding he doubts the unemployment numbers will drop in the near-term. In the meantime, U.S. consumers are husbanding their resources instead of spending on items big or small. Demand for home loans rose the week of August 6, but only by less than 1 percent, even though 30-year loan rates fell to 4.57 percent, the lowest in 20 years of recording keeping by the Mortgage Bankers Association. See related graphic: link.reuters.com/fuv34n Even everyday indulgences are less in favor. Revolving balances on bank-issued credit cards have fallen to 2005 levels, to $716.9 billion in July from a peak of $835.7 billion in October 2008. “Credit card balances reflect whether consumers are going out to dinner and buying clothes and they are continuing to drop,” Adams said. “Consumers do not have confidence and prefer to build up their balance sheets instead of spend.” There likely is some pent-up demand in the U.S. economy, Adams said, pointing to a very slight uptick in automobile debt in some states such as California and Texas. But that consists mainly of necessary upgrades, not the discretionary spending that fuels a roaring economy. “You’ve got cars that have to be replaced,” Adams said. “It becomes a necessity.” Spending usually rises around the winter holiday season, a pattern that held in 2009, Adams said. But the latest data is anything but reassuring to retailers and others who depend directly on the U.S. consumer for profits. “It certainly points to an uncertain retail season,” he added. “What we’re seeing is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior.” |
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback comments during a news conference about the Legislature's override of his veto of a bill increasing income taxes to fix the state budget, Wednesday, June 7, 2017, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Brownback says the resulting tax increases will be bad for the long-term health of the state's economy. (AP Photo/John Hanna) TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The sudden end of Kansas’ aggressive income tax reductions serves as a cautionary tale for other GOP-dominated states about the pitfalls of moving too far too quickly, some Republicans said Wednesday. Legislators on Tuesday night overrode Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of a bill that largely rolls back the income tax cuts he championed in recent years. They concluded the cash-strapped state needed the extra revenue to fix the budget and raise additional funds for public schools. The conservative governor refused to take questions Wednesday from reporters after publicly decrying lawmakers’ votes the night before as harmful to the state’s economy. Persistent budget woes that followed Kansas’ first round of massive income tax cuts in 2012 eroded Brownback’s support among voters and prompted near-constant criticism on the left. Even conservatives who still espouse lower income taxes cite problems with Kansas’ program. “I know there will be people out there that want to use this as evidence that all tax cuts lead to the end of the world, when that’s obviously not the case,” said Joseph Henchman, a vice president at the Washington-based nonpartisan but conservative-leaning Tax Foundation. “Kansas did some unique things that, I think, caused the difficulties that they’ve had.” The bill enacted over Brownback’s veto will raise an estimated $1.2 billion over two years. The measure is designed to cover projected budget shortfalls totaling $889 million through June 2019 while providing new dollars for public schools to comply with a state Supreme Court ruling in March that education funding is inadequate. Income tax rates will rise, with a new top rate of 5.7 percent instead of the current 4.6 percent. The state is repealing a “march to zero” law mandating further cuts if revenues grow. Gone, too, will be an exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners. Brownback touted the provision — the only one of its kind in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation — as a small-business break. Even before acknowledging his defeat on taxes, Brownback on Wednesday held a public ceremony — flanked by some of his most ardent supporters — to sign the latest in a long string of anti-abortion laws. Many Kansas legislators expect Brownback to step down before his term ends in January 2019, possibly to accept a post in Donald Trump’s administration. If that happens, it would sharply contrast with Iowa. Before GOP Gov. Terry Branstad resigned last month to become U.S. ambassador to China, that state’s Republican Legislature approved a raft of conservative legislation, including anti-union and anti-abortion measures. “We’re going to have long-term negative consequences for the economy of this state, for the people of Kansas,” Brownback told reporters. “A lot of people made it about me, but it’s not about me.” Brownback’s legislative allies argued that the state should do more to control spending. They took solace Wednesday in their belief that higher taxes will also frustrate voters enough to fuel a new rightward push to reverse elections last year that left the Legislature with more Democrats and moderate Republicans. “I really believe they’ve just stepped into a black hole,” said Kansas state Sen. Rob Olson, a conservative Kansas City-area Republican. Brownback touted cuts in 2012 and 2013 as a model for other states, particularly the then-unique exemption for farmers and business owners. In Missouri, the Republican-led Legislature enacted income tax cuts in 2014 over a veto by then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat. But it will reduce tax rates more gradually, and only if revenues grow, in what sponsoring state Sen. Will Kraus called a “totally different” approach than Kansas’. “Most budget people would have been able to look at the numbers and say, ‘This isn’t going to work,’” Kraus, a Kansas City-area Republican, said of the Kansas experiment. Republican-led Oklahoma also cut income taxes in 2014 but this year canceled a further reduction to help close a budget shortfall. “In both of our states, we’ve been highly influenced by conservative policy think-tanks that encouraged us to keep cutting tax revenues in order to show a dynamic effect in the growth of our economy,” said state Rep. Leslie Osborn, the Republican chairwoman of the Oklahoma House Appropriations Committee. “There’s a certain core level of services that your citizens expect.” Income tax rates in Kansas won’t be as high as they were before the tax-cutting began, when the top rate was 6.45 percent. But there’s no question lawmakers left Brownback’s main political legacy in tatters. “Raising taxes should never be a cause for celebration, but eventually we came to the conclusion that it had to be done to correct the fiscal imbalance in state government,” said Kansas House Majority Leader Don Hineman, a moderate Republican from western Kansas. ___ Associated Press writers David Lieb, in Jefferson City, Missouri, and Sean Murphy, in Oklahoma City, also contributed. ___ Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna . |
Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen once bought a Gulfstream jet, then found out it didn’t fly. Boxer Mike Tyson spent $2 million on a solid gold bathtub for his first wife. Former NFL wide receiver Andre Rison went broke after a spending spree that included $1 million on bling. Professional athletes are notorious for blowing some, if not all, of their fortunes on outrageous purchases, from over-the-top mansions and luxury yachts to tricked-out sports cars and epic sneaker collections. Wearing a plain white t-shirt and ball cap over his trademark long mane after a workout at U of T’s Goldring Centre, the 26-year-old former Boston Celtic (who spent his teen years in Kamloops, B.C.) exudes a chill vibe. The Toronto-born NBA player leases a Toyota Tundra pickup truck and uses an iPhone 5 while in Canada, though he just signed a contract worth an estimated $50 million (U.S.) with the Miami Heat . But Kelly Olynyk is not at all interested in flashing his substantial wealth. Quite the contrary. We chatted with him about managing wealth and fiscal prudence in the era of multi-million-dollar pro sports contracts. But in a world where obscene wealth can tempt people to do some strange stuff, the seven-foot-tall player has some pretty simple tastes: he always opts for a nice sushi dinner over chillin’ in the clubs, capped off with a good night’s sleep in his California king-sized bed. Olynyk has an accounting degree, is two semesters shy of his MBA, and even did a two-week internship two years ago at his financial advisor’s firm in San Francisco. “I don’t wear designer clothes or shoes. I don’t drive a fancy car,” the frugal player says matter-of-factly. “I’ve never taken a vacation. I wouldn’t know what a vacation is.” How does your financial advisor help you? I went to school at Gonzaga (University in Spokane, Wash.) and I wanted to do accounting because I thought it would be a great background to have, whether you’re going to be an accountant or not, just to know how money works. And how you can help yourself or others make it work better. If you have four years of someone explaining it to you in college, you’re going to understand it more than 15 minutes in one ear and one out the other. He’s someone I work with to bounce ideas off, making sure I’m doing the right things to preserve (my money) and help out my circle, my family and friends, as much as I can. What was it like to do a business internship in the NBA off-season? I got a condensed version of what the industry is like, and how it operates, and the process you go through when you’re trying to make money and save money and multiply money. Budgets and habits, assets, depreciation, and to make whatever you have go as far as possible. It was awesome to get out there and find out how it works. Do people hit you up for money to invest in their businesses? Everyone’s got an idea or a plan for something that’s about to go big, and they want you to be a part of it. People come to you with these ideas and need money to fund them every other day, whether it’s apps or events or start-up companies they’re trying to get off the ground. Did you invest in one? I decipher which is the best way to go. You can’t do them all, obviously. One of my friends has a porous brick company that collects storm water run-off so that when it rains, there’s no overflow to the sewers and rivers and oceans. I thought it was a cool idea. But you’ve got to think about diversifying your portfolio. So you can’t be all in volatile investments, it’s got to be something sturdy depending on the market. Do you own a home? I have a townhouse in Boston. It was smarter for me to own because of how strong the Boston market is, but now that I’m not living there, I’m faced with whether I should sell it or rent it out. It’s a great place to live and raise a family. What do you spend your money on? I like to spend on good food. Being an athlete, where you’re using your body as your tool for success, you’ve got to be able to fuel yourself. I’m not going to cheat myself on food. It’s probably the single most important thing to making sure my body is in tip-top working condition. What don’t you spend your money on? I don’t wear designer clothes or shoes. I don’t drive a fancy car, I lease a Toyota Tundra, a 2016. Everybody’s different. When I first got in the NBA, my agent told me, there’s going to be stuff you don’t want to spend your money on and there’s going to be stuff you should spend a lot of money on because it’s important. He told me one to make sure you buy yourself a really good bed. You’ll appreciate it over time; it’s going to give you way more benefit. I got a California king, which is a longer version of the king. It was probably $5,000. It’s awesome. You spend just under half your life in bed, so make sure you get the best one if you have the means. Don’t you get a lot of freebies in professional sports? Definitely the richer or the more famous you are, the less you pay for things. It’s kind of a backward world in that sense. Do the newbies hit you up for financial advice? They ask what you do and how you do it. Kids just coming into the league, they want to know and they’re eager to learn, that’s when it’s going to make the most impact. Why don’t you treat yourself to a nice vacation at a posh resort? I’ve never really gone on vacation, and gone and done nothing on a tropical island. Usually in the summers I play with the national team. We usually go over to Europe. We travel, but to play basketball. I’ve seen a lot of the world through the game . . . One of these days I’ll take my family somewhere. They never go on vacation, either. Growing up we never took vacations. All our money went into sports camps or teams. Do your teammates razz you because you don’t partake in a flashy lifestyle? Yeah, sometimes they mock my wardrobe or my shoes, but it is what it is. |
Respawn Entertainment has confirmed that the PC edition of Titanfall will launch at the same time as the Xbox One and Xbox 360 versions, and that it won't require the Windows 8 operating system. Titanfall is set to debut next year and the game's publisher, EA, made a partnership with Microsoft to launch it on the Xbox One and Xbox 360, besides the PC. Fearing that the partnership with Microsoft might have an impact on the PC edition, fans began to worry about potential delays or mandatory requirements. That isn't the case, according to Respawn, which has confirmed to RPS that Titanfall will launch simultaneously for the PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One on March 11 in North America and March 14 in Europe. What's more, on the PC it won't have any mandatory requirements, such as the Windows 8 operating system. |
Code aware search Save time combing through usage results with a semantic search that ranks definitions first over usages or variables names. Sign up for Bitbucket Cloud to take it for a spin. Get started, it’s free : Bitbucket Cloud is public class FastHashMap { /* ... */ } or import foo.bar.FastHashMap public class SomeOtherClass { public void doSomething() { FastHashMap fastHashMap = new FastHashMap(); } } You’d prefer the class definition, right? Let’s take a deeper look at how we built our code aware search to provide the most relevant search results at a fast pace. How code search works in Bitbucket Cloud To compare this live, you can search for the common class “QueryBuilders” on the Elasticsearch repo. In GitHub, it shows up as the 6th result on the 18th page (at time of writing). In Bitbucket Cloud, the class definition shows up as the first result. Languages, f erators Code aware search outperforms traditional for statically typed languages like Java that tend to repeat type names when importing, declaring, and instantiating types. However Bitbucket Cloud’s code aware search is also highly effective for a range of other popular languages including JavaScript, Python, Ruby, and PHP, among others. Since code aware search is built for source code, we also index . and _ that are commonly used in identifiers. This means you can get more precise results for compound search terms such as class, function, and variable names like “foo_bar.baz”. you to restrict search results by using modifiers and operators. You can use modifiers to filter by a particular language or file extension (like “ext:css” or “lang:ruby”) or limit search to specific repos (repo:elasticsearch). Projects can use operators (like AND, OR, and NOT) to narrow down or broaden results in case you get too many. For a full list of the capabilities and search query considerations with code search in Bitbucket Cloud, check out our documentation. Try Bitbucket Cloud’s Code Aware Search Get started, it’s free Have more specific questions about this post? Reach out to us on Twitter to get the information you need. |
There's probably not a game I've been looking forward to this year the same way I've been looking forward to Alien: Isolation. There are lots of games that I'm interested in, plenty of games I've enjoyed, but Alien: Isolation is the rare time where I'm reminded I'm not totally cynical yet. I can still act like I'm 14. Even though I was tasked with reviewing Alien, I tried to simulate how I would have normally played it. That means spreading it out over several nights, likely more than a week. I don't tend to marathon games, albeit largely because I don't have chunks of time available to marathon anything. Even still, when you get your hands on a game like that, are you able to hold back, or do you just dive in and not stop? The last time I marathoned through a game was Dark Souls earlier this year, and that's because my wife was out of town. There were no rules, my playing habits were lawless, and I ate pizza on a livestream. But I also find experiences like that tiring. There aren't many games that can hold my attention that long, even if the time is available. Often, I'll find myself resenting the game, as mechanics wear thin when held to the scrutiny of repetition. It depends on the game, obviously. I have fond memories of summer vacations spent stay up until the crack of dawn with Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII. The presence of sun was actually my reminder that I should probably go to bed. Back then, I had spent weeks training myself to sleep until well past noon. I can't even do that with a serious hangover these days. You Should Read These One of the reasons I've dropped the term troll is because the term dehumanizes people. (It's the same reason I stopped saying "gamer" years ago, too, since it puts people into a boring, defined box.) Behind every mean Internet comment is a human being, and so is every person reading one. What makes Emmett Rensin's piece so compelling is that he used to be someone who spent his time trying to get a rise out of people, and makes the argument "trolling" has now changed--it's more sinister. I don't know if I buy that, but his confessions are interesting. "I am going to find it difficult to tell you precisely why I was so taken by this scene and why I threw myself so enthusiastically into its underworld. The simplest and likely sufficient answer is that I was 14 years old. It all felt vaguely dangerous, vaguely revolutionary, but with ill-defined goals. Its romance was the same one that makes Randians of so many high-school sophomores. It gave the sickly sense of power one gets from finding the next button to push, laughing in a rapidly reddening face. It's no different from the power trip a bully takes at school, except now I was the powerful one and not the victim. It was something between having power for the first time and the guilt of knowing it was ill-gotten. Power, because there is nothing quite so seductive to a teenage malcontent as a world that offers belonging coupled with authority; that is secret in the way that everybody knows you're into something slightly criminal. Guilt, because it was all schoolyard. Even when it was less dangerous, it was offensive, vaguely sexist and vaguely racist and vaguely homophobic in the daring-to-transgress kind of way. Even if I wasn't better than it then, I already had the sense that I might like to be." I just bought a new iPhone. It's pretty good, but it's not that different. The screen is bigger, and it's certainly faster. While I'd like to say the reason I picked one up was "hey, my contract's up," it's definitely more than that. There's an allure to having the newer, shinier thing that's all about the newer, shinier thing. Parkin extends this idea to the game of the moment, Destiny, explaining the allure of the elusive loot cave underscores the whole reason for playing a game like Destiny: the never-ending pursuit of the newer, shinier gear. "So you return to work in order to save up. The better your equipment, the greater your social status with other players. The greater your social status, the more they will want you on their team and the more they will envy your achievements, which are clearly displayed in the clothes that you wear (in the game’s later stages, the only way to advance your character is by equipping him or her with better items). In this way, from a certain angle at least, Destiny exposes the alluring futility of the consumerist systems on the other side of the screen. The game is designed to keep you dissatisfied with your lot so that you will continue playing and investing. Like World of Warcraft, when you peel back the metaphor, the game offers a bleak (if unintended) critique of consumerism: once you reach the endgame, you become a character that has everything in world. Everything, that is, except for a purpose." If You Click It, It Will Play These Crowdfunding Projects Look Pretty Cool Writing From Giant Bomb's Community, Courtesy of ZombiePie Raven 10 talks about the beautiful world from The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. Sparklykiss has started a podcast with members of the moderation team. MooseyMcMan tackles the prickly issue with Destiny's reliance on grinding. Mento has started an incredibly ambitious project to fill out every SNES game page. Tweets That Make You Go "Hmmmmmm" The International FPS Consortium today decides whether or not bullets can pass through grates. Red letter day, folks. — Brendon Chung (@BlendoGames) September 29, 2014 sorta neat that art and interactive theatre call people participants, but games call people players or users. in theatre, actors are players — Zach Gage (@helvetica) September 30, 2014 kinda feels like thats not giving agency enough credit in art/theatre, and maybe too much credit in games. — Zach Gage (@helvetica) September 30, 2014 Is it just me or are the attacks on game makers and writers actually helping to solidify the bonds and friendships they were upset about — MissingNo. S. Burns (@mrwasteland) October 2, 2014 Oh, And This Other Stuff |
Another week, another long list of faux pas executed by US president Donald Trump. This time, most were made on the European leg of his recent trip, in which he visited the Pope in Rome, European leaders in Brussels and took part in the G7 conference in Sicily. Before arriving in Europe, Donald Trump visited the Middle East and had – on the whole – a fairly successful few days. His speech in Saudi Arabia restrained his previous anti-Islam rhetoric and said he wanted a partnership between the US and the Muslim world built on “tolerance and respect for each other”. However, once Trump reached Europe, things began to spiral downhill. A series of mishaps were well documented by the commentators, the international press and Twitter… Trump appears to shove Montenegrin Prime Minister In a bizarre move showing the more childish side of Trump, a video emerged of him appearing to shove aside the Montenegrin prime minister Milo Đukanović in order to get to the front of a photo. Did Trump just shove another NATO leader to be in the front of the group? pic.twitter.com/bL1r2auELd — Steve Kopack (@SteveKopack) May 25, 2017 Handshake battle with French president Emmanuel Macron In a subtle challenge to Trump’s position, newly-elected French president Emmanuel Macron engaged Trump in a well-documented ‘handshake battle’. Ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, the two men locked hands for so long and so fiercely that their knuckles began to turn white, with the French leader maintaining the shake for just a little while longer. Macron say Trump handshake was no accident: “One must show you won’t make small concessions, even symbolic ones.” https://t.co/BylqlhrTRD pic.twitter.com/aMjQqCbmai — Jim Roberts (@nycjim) May 28, 2017 Following this, the two men engaged in a second round a few days later, with Trump appearing to attempt to pull Macron’s arm out of his socket. Macron v Trump handshake round two pic.twitter.com/3JESsE1ixm — Matthew Champion (@matthewchampion) May 25, 2017 Afterwards, Macron told a Sunday newspaper in France that “my handshake with him, it wasn’t innocent.” Macron added: “One must show that you won’t make small concessions, even symbolic ones, but also not over-publicise things, either.” EU criticism According to Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir, Trump’s main problem with the EU comes from his business experience. According to a source, he told Belgian prime minister Charles Michel that in Scotland in had opened a club, but in Ireland it took him two-and-a-half years to get a licence and that “did not give him a very good image of the EU.” All-in-all, his European leg of the trip was widely seen to be a disaster. So much so, in fact, that German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared an inevitable change in US-European relations going forward. She said that Europe “really must take our fate into our own hands”, adding that the time when her continent could rely on others was “over to a certain extent. This is what I have experienced in the last few days.” |
RetroDBZ/NLZ Podcast: Taking Note of The Golden Frieza Promo Hey BroZ! On this exciting episode of the RetroDBZ/Next Level Z Podcast, we are joined by Matt and Thomas from Next Level Z to talk about what we feel will be the availability of the San Diego Comic Con exclusive Golden Frieza promo and it’s many uses. Also, Panini America developer and RetroDBZ founder Garrett drops by to discuss note taking during matches, we talk about our experiences with the sealed format and are finally able to take in the Dragon Ball Z TCG Movie Collection as a whole! Follow us on our Facebook page for more up to date announcements by clicking here. Join our Facebook discussion page to talk about the game by clicking here. (It’s a private group, but we accept all members). Follow us on Twitter @RetroDBZccg Follow me on Twitter @ArguablyTrue! Follow me on Instagram @ArguablyTrue! Share this: Facebook Twitter Google Reddit Tumblr |
00:32 Landslide Destroys Home in California A landslide in San Rafael, California destroyed a home. At a Glance Oroville Dam's spillway had to be shut down after water created a massive hole in the side of the spillway. Two deaths have been reported, including a crew member working to clear a mudslide in California. A family was rescued from a flash flood in Idaho. On Friday, California Gov. Jerry Brown asked President Trump to declare a major disaster for California. Flooding from heavy rain and rapid snowmelt this week has led to mudslides, water rescues and has contributed to at least three deaths in the western United States. An 81-year-old man was rescued Friday by a CalGuard’s Company C/2-135 MEDEVAC helicopter unit. The unit helped Rodger McMurtry of Taylorsville, California, after he was swept from his car into the rushing waters of Indian Creek , about 100 miles north of Truckee, California, reports KFBK. "I applaud the crew’s quick and decisive actions which resulted in the saving of a life," said Major General David Baldwin, the Adjutant General for the Cal Guard. "Our partnership with city and county agencies will always ensure our communities are safe." Emergency workers rescued an Idaho family trapped by a flash flood Friday as they tried to move their livestock to safety. Steve Domby, the emergency services coordinator for Washington County in southwestern Idaho, told the Associated Press several adults and two young children were trapped on top of a car outside a home in Weiser when floodwaters and large floating chunks of ice overtook the property in a flash flood. Meanwhile, parts of Nevada and California continue to battle heavy rain and rapid snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada, which has led to at least two deaths attributed to widespread flooding that triggered numerous mudslides and road washouts. In Sacramento County, a freight train reportedly derailed Friday afternoon after flooding collapsed part of a rail bridge, according to a report from the National Weather Service. It was not immediately known if there were any injuries, but more than a dozen rail cars carrying food products derailed. (MORE: La Niña Is Gone, but El Niño Could Return ) In Oroville, California, water continued to open up a massive hole in the spillway of the nation's tallest dam and for the first time in its 48-year history, the Oroville Reservoir is completely full and flowing over its emergency spillway. In the past 48 hours, the California Department of Water Resources significantly increased releases from Lake Oroville even though the spillway is expected to further erode. The breach in the spillway poses no threat to the public but is expected to grow before engineers can make the necessary repairs, according to the Sacramento Bee. (MORE: Water Flows Over Oroville Dam's Emergency Spillway For First Time In Its 48-Year History ) In northern California, a road crew worker was killed Thursday while working to clear debris from a slide on Highway 17, according to the AP. A dump truck ran over the 54-year-old man and his co-worker, 33-year-old Stephen Whitmier, who was injured. The identity of the man has not been released. California Highway Patrol officer Trista Drake says the men were behind the truck when it began backing up. Whitmier was conscious and talking to paramedics while trapped under the wheel of the truck. A man in his 20s was killed when his car plunged into a flooded creek near Bakersfield in central California. When authorities arrived, they were able to rescue a female passenger who was clinging to tree branches; however, the man was trapped in the car when it submerged upside down, the AP reported. Idaho Parts of the state dealt with flooding after a rapid increase in temperatures began melting historic levels of accumulated snow left behind after an unusual series of winter snowstorms, according to the AP. Waters began to recede Saturday after an ice jam that was blocking the Weiser River near the Idaho-Oregon border began to break up, reports the Associated Press. "Once this ice gets through, that should put an end to the threat," said Steve Penner, spokesman for Washington County's disaster services department. Two people remained trapped inside their homes Friday afternoon in Weiser, where flash flooding led to multiple water rescues. A 68-year-old man who initially refused to be rescued was later rescued from his flooded home was subsequently rescued after an Idaho National Guard Blackhawk helicopter was sent to assess damage and fly over the house of the man. The man was taken to the Weiser hospital. Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown flew over the area Friday afternoon. "We saw a lot of devastation," Otter said after the tour, speaking to reporters in Payette. The St. Joe River in northern Idaho was also blocked by an ice jam on Friday, forcing the water to nearly 3½ feet above flood levels and swamping roads in the small village of Calder. The National Weather Service warned residents in the towns of St. Joe and St. Maries to expect flooding downstream once the ice jam breaks. Josh Roth, 35, of Alpine, Wyoming, was killed died when he was caught in an avalanche while snowmobiling in eastern Idaho on Thursday, Sgt. Bryan Lovell with the Bonneville County Sheriff's office told the AP. A friend snowmobiling with Roth survived. In Twin Falls County, a car was swept away by violent floodwaters in Twin Falls County after the driver went past a police barricade. Dozens of roads have been swept away by the rushing water in the area, but no deaths or serious injuries have been reported. Nevada Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval declared a state of emergency Friday for Elko County in response to flooding in the area. “We have recently witnessed the devastation of flooding and experienced the benefit of preparation and early response. The State will continue to assist and make all resources available to communities experiencing flooding throughout the weekend,” said Sandoval. “The Division of Emergency Management will coordinate requests from our local partners and dispatch resources to all affected communities.” Meanwhile, the Nevada Department of Transportation said a mudslide has halted all westbound trucks on I-80 Friday at the state line west of Reno. Passenger vehicles were being allowed to pass, reports the Associated Press. A second mudslide closed the Kingsbury Grade from the Carson Valley to Tahoe Friday morning, and the Mount Rose Highway from Reno to Tahoe closed as well. The Twentyone Mile Dam failed in Elko County, Nevada, on Wednesday, releasing fast-moving water that forced trains to reroute and shut down a 65-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 93 from Wells north to the Idaho line. The roadway was washed out and shut down a day after the dam broke near Montello. Elko County Sheriff Jim Pitts said county commissioners approved a state of emergency Thursday as deputies searched for anyone who might be stranded by the floodwaters. No injuries were reported, but authorities said there appeared to be extensive damage to several ranches and farms. Nevada Department of Transportation spokeswoman Meg Ragonese said there was no way of knowing how long State Route 223 would be shut down. "An entire section of the road washed out," she told the AP. Central California In light of recent flooding and multiple mudslides, Gov. Jerry Brown asked President Trump to declare a major disaster for California Friday, reports the Associated Press. Brown told the president that the storm system was so severe and widespread that state and local governments need federal assistance to continue dealing with the problems associated with the deluge. Meanwhile, a section of I-80 was closed Friday after a mudslide covered the highway in both directions the Donner exchange. Flooding along Sonoma County's Russian River prompted residents to stack sandbags and retreat to the second floor of buildings Thursday. Not an uncommon occurrence, Lynn Crescione, owner of Creekside Inn & Resort in Guerneville, told the AP many in the community had long since raised their buildings on stilts for days like Thursday. "We've been here 35 years, and we've risen most of our buildings over time. When it rains we just go upstairs," Crescione said. In Marin County, Maggie Bridges grabbed her 4-year-old son and climbed barefoot out of the bathroom window to escape their Fairfax home as a rain-soaked hillside gave way on Wednesday. "The mudslide came down and broke our front door in half," Bridges husband, Zach Laurie, told KPIX . A Los Gatos woman turned to Facebook Live to seek help after a mudslide took out three homes on her family's property, Fox2 reported. Jennifer Ray said no one was injured but the homes are now uninhabitable. “All of this water and mud came down and trees and it was just this force of nothing that I’ve never seen before,” Ray told the news station. A driver drove his van into a 100-foot gap in Skyland Road near the Santa Cruz mountain summit Tuesday night after heavy rains washed out the road. The driver told KSBW that the road was fine when he left his home to buy candles. By the time he returned home, the road was gone. A mudslide Tuesday morning destroyed the family home of John Futscher, 51, in San Rafael. Futscher told the San Francisco Chronicle that his father built the home in 1959, and he watched as the mud slowly tore the house in two . “The windows were shaking, and they popped out,” Futscher said. “Then, there was finally another big slide where it just came down and pushed the house forward and sheared the house.” Neighbor Nick Curcio told the newspaper "the whole hillside was just coming down into this guy’s house. And it kept going and going.” After Friday, the West will dry out for several days before another potentially wet pattern arrives mid-to-late February. |
Based on evidence seized from her home, federal prosecutors detailed Winner’s alleged plans to burn down the White House and travel to Afghanistan, pledging her allegiance to the Taliban. They said in recorded jailhouse calls, she told her mother how to play her side of the story in the media— as someone who was scared she’d disappear from an interrogation room in her Augusta home after Saturday’s raid. Prosecutors said a phone call to her sister expressed her confidence in how to play the court during her bond hearing. “I’m pretty, white and cute,” she allegedly told her sister. Prosecutors said Winner told her sister she would braid her hair and cry in court. The government said it will likely add to the indictment and more charges are expected to come. |
Author: Rui Lopes Watching the evolution of open source tools for video editing and manipulation over the last 10 years has been less than a thrilling experience. But are things about to change for the better in the near future? Can even the people most disenchanted with the current state of affairs feel tempted to regain a spark of hope? The problem The everyday user of GNU/Linux (or any of the other Unix-derived operating systems out there) can presently watch, listen to, and even produce rudimentary media content quite comfortably, but open source has not kept up with proprietary software vendors when it comes to the development of professional and semi-professional video editing tools. I've always maintained that one of the great strengths of Linux is the ability to create distributions that are tailored for specific areas of professional activity. But, while there are some good distros around that appeal specifically to the video and audio crowd (like dyne:bolic and Ubuntu Studio), their number is small, and some of them have stagnated or even completely disappeared over the years. One of the roots of this problem is that there is currently no professional level non-linear video editor for Linux. Adding to this, almost all of the video editors currently available have development rates that are alarmingly slow. Let's take a look at the best choices we have right now: The editors, and what to expect of them There are video editors that I could never compile, or whose latest release is more than five years old. Among them are: Vivia, ZS4, and Scilab Aurora. I won't look into them. Avidemux can perform basic editing operations, but that's not its main function. Let's start with the most basic video editors. First on the list is Kino. Kino is a very simple tool, but is the most stable and robust of all the Linux-based video editors I have tested. It has never crashed on me. For the casual user, Kino may be the only place they need to look to satisfy their editing needs. It allows capture from a camcorder, basic editing, adding transitions and effects, and exporting to other formats. Unfortunately, it's too limited for experienced video editors. It lacks essential features such as multiple video and audio tracks, advanced titling, and compositing. These will probably not be added in the future, as Kino seems to have a clear idea of where it belongs, and is sticking to its niche. I currently use Kino to capture raw footage, and often for exporting video to various formats -- after I edit my video with another program. Moving beyond Kino, we have editors that support multiple video and audio itracks, and seem to have some hope of gaining additional utility (although not much). First is Kdenlive, which seems to be a promising project. Or rather, it seemed. The truth is, it's being developed too slowly, and it's still in a stage where it crashes too frequently on too many systems. Then we have Pitivi, which is still too young to be correctly assessed, but which will certainly occupy the same niche as Kino and Kdenlive, making it almost non-relevant for video professionals. I've used Open Movie Editor enough times to be able to say it's a solid application with a nice set of features. These two positive points are enough to make me keep an eye on its development. Then we have LiVES, which shares these positive traits as well, and seems to be updated very regularly as of late, even trying to make the life of developers easier with a plugin builder bundled. Both of them seem to be good bets for the more advanced hobbyist at the present, and perhaps for the video professional in the future (if they can add compositing and a broader range of plugins and effects to their feature list). MainActor is the only commercial application on this list. It is no longer available. It was no Avid Xpress or Final Cut, but its mere existence was encouraging. There is currently a petition aimed at the company that developed MainActor asking them to release the code (or parts of it) to the public. Jahshaka is one of the most hyped pieces of open source software I've encountered. The vision of the developers was (and is) an application designed from scratch to be an editing and compositing powerhouse. The hype promoted on their website was so effective that for many years I (and many others) eagerly awaited a stable release with all the industry-standard features that I'd been promised. At some point, Jahshaka even had corporate sponsors, including Nvidia. But that turned into a mess which would take too much space to present here. The good news is that, on January of this year, according to the developers, Jahshaka was "liberated from its evil benefactors," which means that they can now resume their original path. And I have to admit: I know I shouldn't, but I still have great expectations for Jahshaka. I use Cinelerra as my main application for video editing and compositing. It is professional and capable in some areas, and barely at alpha stage in others. First released by an anonymous entity/person called Heroine Virtual, for years it remained a paradox: it was the most powerful FOSS video editor and compositor available, but was also notoriously unstable, had a hideous interface, and its development pace was glacial. A community version of Cinelerra appeared later, which was basically a patched and bug-fixed version of the original Cinelerra, done by other developers (with the consent of Heroine Virtual). I'm using the latest community version of Cinelerra, and I can say it's now stable enough for almost all production purposes. Cinelerra's learning curve may be a little steep for beginners, but it's worth it (and the community provides good documentation). It has some features that you can only otherwise find in commercial applications, including video and audio multitracking, some decent bundled effects (among them LADSPA audio plugins), a good compositor, three-point editing, and motion tracking. Cinelerra also supports renderfarming natively, which puts it on a class of its own. With Cinelerra it's dead easy to set up a render farm with five or six nodes, and watch your render times take a significant decrease. Complaints include: lack of more pleasant themes, lack of advanced titling, lack of more video effects (and poor documentation for the ones included by default), and better capture and render functionality. Finally, we come to Blender. Outside of pure video editing applications, I would like to point it out as an example to follow. It is feature-rich, powerful, has lots of manpower working on it, and tutorials and videos about it abound on the Internet. And, surprisingly, it allows quite reliable video editing and compositing. However, as good an all-rounder Blender may be, we still need -- and I cannot stress this enough -- good standalone non-linear video editors. A look ahead To say this to a video professional would have seemed like a bad joke ten years ago, but Linux has turned into a good platform for multimedia creation and manipulation. What's lacking is the tools. We need more powerful, more feature-rich tools. Even Hollywood seems to be using Linux these days (and not just for rendering tasks), but the studios use their own in-house applications. I'm not the only video professional using FOSS who is disgruntled with the state of things. Let's face it: most video professionals who use Linux in conjunction with FOSS tools as their main platform for video editing do it because of: Cost Ability to customize raw performance Affection/Ethics Note that neither richness of features nor the presence of industry standard features are on that list. There are also two important external factors that I want to point out and that should invite reflection: the apathy of video software companies towards FOSS the lack of developers for FOSS video editing and similar applications I want to finish by mentioning compositing and special effects again. These are areas that have been sorely overlooked. I'm not asking for Adobe After Effects for Linux, rather something on a smaller and more practical scale with FXhome being the perfect example of the type of applications we need to fill the gap. Regarding compositing, Cinelerra is the only FOSS application that currently allows me to produce decent results (excluding Blender). My main hopes for the near future are on Jahshaka and Cinelerra, thanks to the recent news I already mentioned. The key, I think, is speed of development, and decent scheduling of major releases. Do not be mistaken -- it will take years to develop high-end open source video software, and the video professional cannot wait years. However, this area finally seems to be heading in a better direction than it was even a few years ago, and that may allow for a bit of optimism on our part. |
WASHINGTON -- The Democratic attempt to take on the major oil companies is being challenged from within, with representatives of producing states rushing to the defense of the dirty-energy industry, complicating the plan to present a stark contrast between the two parties. Democratic Sens. Mark Begich and Mary Landrieu, who represent Alaska and Louisiana, respectively, each took to the Senate floor Wednesday to decry their party's attempt to strip tax breaks from the top oil companies. Landrieu bemoaned the "inherent unfairness" of closing the tax loophole, insisting that doing so "will not reduce gasoline prices by one penny.” Begich chided the party for putting message over substance. "It is a gimmick, a gimmick to get the next week of activity, and get some press out there,” he said. “Picking on one industry because it sounds good, rates good in the polls, gets you a couple of headlines is not what the American people want us to do here. If anything, they're getting fed up with that. … Let’s stop the headline-grabbing and get serious about the energy security." The infighting couldn't come at a worse time for Democratic leaders. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), is reportedly "leaning towards" voting to strip the tax breaks, citing "record profits" that come from the companies' "tax advantage," according to a tweet from CNN's Ted Barrett. Democrats held a press briefing at a gas station Wednesday and felt like they were given a boost of momentum when a ConocoPhillips executive called ending the tax breaks "un-American." "For ConocoPhillips to question the patriotism of those public officials who believe they do not deserve billions of dollars in wasteful subsidies is simply beyond the pale and I expect an apology from the CEO tomorrow at tomorrow's hearing," Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) said at the gas station. Nevertheless, said Begich, Congress shouldn't end “incentives for increased domestic energy consumption, some of which have been on the books for decades." “The fact is, developing Alaska’s oil and gas resources buys our country decades of energy security by offsetting foreign imports from unfriendly countries," Begich said. "Consider a few examples, which I have here on the board next to me: developing offshore resources in the Chukchi – up in this area -- and the Beaufort Sea will produce 1.8 million barrels of oil a day. This is easily enough to offset oil imports from Saudi Arabia.” Oil, however, is sold on on international market, so the notion that Saudi Arabian tankers would be diverted from American shores is a stretch. "This will not reduce gasoline prices. So why are we doing it? Will it create jobs? No. It will actually hurt job production in the United States," Landrieu said. "Why don't you help us produce more, because we can do it, but we get shut down by bureaucracy, moratoriums, permatorium, rules, regulations, EPA, refuges. We can't even get free to produce the energy that we can produce for this country.” Landrieu, who was elected in 1996, has taken nearly $3 million in oil and gas industry money during her career; Begich, who was elected in 2008, has taken in nearly $140,000. |
MGTOW YouTube producer Turd Flinging Monkey (TFM) recently talked about his theory of how historical patriarchies (real ones, not the faux versions feminists are forever whining about) interact with gynocentrism to produce cycles of societal growth and collapse. The theory, referred to as the traditionalism cycle, has appeared in major civilizations. The traditionalism cycle goes something like this: Patriarchal traditionalism → Gynocentric traditionalism → Progressive gynocentrism → Societal collapse → Return to step 1 above. Here’s the video that describes this in more detail. The “traditionalism theory” is both descriptive of observed historical patterns and makes falsifiable predictions about how wealthy societies will break down over time if they fail to control gynocentric resource demands. The theory is a reasonable one; societies start with patriarchs (father-elders) as the controlling class, then move through traditional and progressive forms of gynocentrism before collapsing under their own weight – the inability of resource production to keep up with the unchecked demands of an increasingly indolent yet powerful populace. The theory says that gynocentrism escalates with the advent of abundance if abundance exists in a given culture. What we appreciate about TFM’s exposition of his theory is that he did some detailed historical research to back it up – something sorely lacking in the discussion of the roots of gynocentrism. Instead of real research we often see pull-it-out-of-your-ass histories or dismissive appeals to biology – “it’s all in the genes.” The irony that “Turd Flinging Monkey” did NOT pull it out of his ass is not lost on us. The pull-it-out-of-your-ass kind of history is based on half-guesses, ideology and assumptions with little to no evidence – except perhaps references to items like Lysistrata, a play; Helen of Troy, a myth; The “Rule of Thumb” law authorizing standards of domestic violence (which even feminists admit is a complete fabrication), religious tales, fairy tales, and other fantasy sources – i.e. to assume myths and fables mirror real life has marginal utility at best and is often times just crap: have you ever seen a centaur? Surely the classical depictions of centaurs must have mirrored real creatures and behaviors or they wouldn’t have mentioned it?! Any thinking person will recognize the problem; relying on ancient mythologies is akin to having future zoologists base the history of equine evolution on episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Mythology’s chief value is in metaphor: when the goddess Ishtar’s love interest Gilgamesh spurns her, she threatens to unleash zombies unless her father punishes Gilgamesh for his impudence. The metaphors seem to boil out of this, the oldest of human stories: Women exercise covert, rather than overt, power. Spurned women will unleash their fury on the men who spurned them, as well as others. Fathers will side with angry, abusive daughters over innocent men. Women in power will give power to the dangerous and unproductive. Zombies are real! Some of those metaphors are useful; some not so much. The same goes for reductive biological explanations. Aside from the laziness of such approaches, the error in over-emphasizing biology is that biology is a product of environmental pressures that can, and do, change over time. Where you see biology you will always see a facilitating environment shaping it. Changes in environmental conditions (like over-population and resource depletion) could eliminate the biological “need” for gynocentrism entirely – wombs lose value when reducing the population is the only viable survival option for a species. Fortunately, TFM breaks with the catalogue of errors and is trying to keep his analysis fact-based and real. With that said there are some major, unspoken nuances that should be added to the conversation. The first is that there are degrees of gynocentric culture in both its traditional and progressive forms. Gynocentric societies are not cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all. Like hurricane categories with wind strengths of one to five, gynocentric culture can be imagined in a similar way – as differing in reach and packing winds anywhere from dangerous to destructive to catastrophic. Like hurricanes, which become more intense depending on a confluence of atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind direction, likewise the intensity of a given gynocentric culture rests on multiple factors. TFM has named one of them in his video: abundance. Abundance is a good start, one that, in isolation from other factors, can definitely lead to a (lets call it) ‘category one’ gynocentric culture. But as we add more contributing factors the gynocentrism gets more pervasive and more destructive – factors like male to female population ratio, aristocratic conventions influencing the masses, communication technologies, reproductive technologies, military campaigns, foreign threats, the strength and structure of cultural narratives perpetuating the sentiment, and so on. As these and many other factors converge the strength of gynocentric culture grows potentially up to a ‘category five’ such as was born in the Middle Ages with the mother of all gynocentric cultures that has spanned over 800 yrs and been exported from Europe to the rest of the world. Ours. We don’t intend to give an exhaustive reply here but will end with a general comment about our present culture. At this point the gynocentric culture birthed in medieval Europe is unprecedented in the long path of history – it was only there, and then, that the combination of romantic chivalry and courtly love was born, along with a bunch of other contributing factors that made this gynocentric revolution the mother of them all. But there’s no doubt there have occurred smaller, less intense manifestations of gynocentric culture throughout history along the lines TFM suggests. Recognizing gynocentrism and how it hurts men, families and society is critical to the process of limiting and perhaps undoing the toll that it takes on everyone. A version of this essay first appeared on gynocentrism.com. |
Rhino poaching continues to escalate at unprecedented levels - with 668 rhino being killed in South Africa in 2012, representing an increase of 49% on the previous year. In the first three months of 2013, South Africa lost 203 rhinos to poaching – more than two rhinos per day. Conservationists and their agencies are now being challenged to find new ways of dealing with the scourge.WWF South Africa recently announced a number of strategic initiatives to combat rhino poaching, including a focus on addressing the increased demand for horn in South-East Asia and in particular, Viet Nam. Deploying the global phenomena of mobile gaming, the organisation aims to shift perceptions about the use of rhino horn via an interactive and engaging mobile game, “WWF Rhino Raid” ( download links can be found below ).WWF-SA, in partnership with Flint Sky Interactive, has launched “WWF Rhino Raid”, developed entirely in Cape Town. “We are proud to be developing a unique homegrown solution to address a very serious South African problem,” says Flint Sky director, Athol Moult.Dr Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF-SA, believes the game represents a novel approach to the challenge of effective communication around rhino issues: “The objective is not just to have fun playing the game, but to begin a process of debunking the myths around the use of rhino horn.”“It is becoming increasingly recognised that games can positively influence behaviour change; accordingly, the game will be localised into Asian languages in target countries”, comments Dr Andrew Baxter, Head of Business Development at WWF. Rhino Raid is set to be both an entertaining game and a source of informative facts. A daring rhino character called Rad takes up the fight against poachers in gameplay that takes Rad on an epic journey, as he chases down the poachers in an attempt to save his species. ” |
Jean-Marc Barr as Leopold Kessler in Lars von Trier's Europa Europa is a tale of a young American named Leo who undertakes a journey to US-occupied Germany immediately after the end of World War II. Leo, driven by his youthful naivety, hopes to resuscitate the moribund spirits of the war-torn people of Germany by showering them with some “kindness”, which according to him is "long due". While Leo looks keen in playing an active part in the reconstruction of the nation decimated by the callousness of human ambition, everything about the timing of his infantile decision seems quite ominous. Leo is received by his finicky uncle, a railroad employee, who helps him get the job of a railway conductor. Europa: Katharina Meets Leopold Leopold and Katharina Share an Intimate Moment On his very first night on the train, Leo meets the irresistible Katharina Hartmann—the daughter of the Zentropa railroad owner, Max Hartmann. Zentropa railroad, once a powerful tool in the Fuhrer’s arsenal, now remains the greatest hope of the US-aided revival of Germany. The once pro-Nazi Hartmann family is now looked upon by the Americans as a great ally in the reconstruction of the German railroad. The war may have been ended but its aftereffects are all-pervasive. The Hartmann family, like any other German family, wants to bury the hatchet, but their pro-Nazi roots continue to haunt them. Leo, bewitched by his infatuation for Katharina, is dragged into the middle of the ongoing tussle between the American forces and pro-Nazi militia known as “Werewolves” as he is forced to choose a side. Leo’s choice would not only decide his fate but also the fate of the ones he love. A Still from Lars von Trier's Europa A Breathtaking View of a Train Passing Through a Tunnel Most of the movie is shot in black and white with the exception of few scenes which are either in color or in a blend of color and black and white. Europa, with its bizarre, convoluted, agonizing plot and unconventional cinematographic effects like multiple exposure, optical illusions and misdirection, serves to be a completely unique experience that transcends genres and blurs the lines that separate the “real” from the “surreal”. In Europa, Lars von Trier touches upon a wide array of motifs that are not limited to a genre in particular, but encompass the vast expanse of territory that comprises a multitude of genres including film-noir, magic-realism, drama, suspense, and war. In the peculiar manner Lars von Trier etches out Europa’s narrative, one can easily perceive it to be taking place in the subconscious of the protagonist. Europa begins with a voiceover that hypnotically seems to control the actions of the protagonist. At different points in the movie, Leo is mysteriously guided by the eerie voice of the narrator which ironically seems to have a calming influence on his increasingly perturbed senses. An Optically Modified Sequence from Europa Europa is rife with symbolism and allegory that’s often difficult to comprehend, especially during the first viewing. The tedium of the moving train can be looked upon as the pain and suffering experienced by the German citizens under the Nazi regime. The opportunism shown by the people in exploiting Leo’s largess alludes to the expedient ways of the US-led Allied Powers in tackling the Nazi upsurge. The Allied Powers tolerated the Nazis in the early going hoping that the latter would wipe off communism—a tactical blunder that allowed Hitler and his allies to immensely grow in power ultimately contributing to the Second World War. Lars von Tier (center) Makes a Brief Appearance in Europa Barbara Sukowa as Katharina Hartmann in Europa Lars von Trier’s Europa has a great assemblage of international actors that includes the likes of Jean-Marc Barr, Barbara Sukowa, Udo Kier, and Eddie Constantine, while veteran Swedish actor Max von Sydow is movie's narrator. Lars von Trier himself makes a brief appearance as the Jew who vouches for Max Hartmann. Almost everyone in the cast manages to leave a lasting impression on the movie. Jean-Marc Barr perfectly fits into the shoes of the naive American youth, Leopold Kessler while Barbara Sukowa as the glacial Katharina Hartmann truly personifies a femme fatale. Undoubtedly, the USP of the movie is Max von Sydow’s voiceover that gives the movie its much desired eerie tone. von Sydow’s hypnotic voice seems to have a similar effect on the protagonist as well as the viewer. As the voice commands Leo to go deeper and deeper into the abyss, we also experience the same magnetic pull that makes us sink deeper and deeper into the movie's narrative as the escape seems impossible. |
Hello from Israel! I am having the greatest time exploring the country with Lee, Emily, Ben and Jessa and the wonderful people who run Vibe Israel, the non-profit organization that invited us over. I’ve been sharing photos on Instagram if you’re interested! Since I’m away from my kitchen and the holidays are fast approaching, I thought I’d share a super simple tutorial on how to make your own powdered sugar out of less refined sugars. It’s a great option for vegans or anyone who needs powdered sugar in a pinch! It’s ridiculously easy to make powdered sugar at home in your blender or food processor. Powdered sugar (which you may know as confectioner’s sugar or icing sugar) has a bad reputation because it’s usually made out of super refined sugar and mixed with corn starch to prevent caking. You can skip the corn starch when you make it at home. You can use any granulated sugar you have in your cabinets, like the coconut sugar I bought recently at Trader Joe’s. Coconut sugar has a lower glycemic index than other sugars and actually contains trace minerals like iron and zinc, so it’s a slightly less unhealthy sugar than regular table sugar. I don’t usually advocate for sugar consumption buuuut I firmly believe that life’s too short to go without the occasional glazed treat. My favorites include this maple tea cake and these vegan pumpkin scones. Oh so good! |
Nuns participate in silent march in Agartala on Friday to protest against the rape of an elderly nun at a convent in Ranaghat in West Bengal. Nuns participate in silent march in Agartala on Friday to protest against the rape of an elderly nun at a convent in Ranaghat in West Bengal. Nuns participate in silent march in Agartala on Friday to protest against the rape of an elderly nun at a convent in Ranaghat in West Bengal. The 72-year-old nun who was gangraped in West Bengal's Nadia district left the state by an early morning flight on Friday after she was released from hospital in the wee hours, even as no arrests were made six days after the incident. Sources said that the Sister Superior of the Convent of Jesus and Mary High School at Gangnapur in Ranaghat took an Indigo flight for Delhi from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport in Kolkata. The flight left around 6 am. The missionary teacher was discharged from the Ranaghat sub-divisional hospital, where she was admitted last Saturday. Hospital sources said that she was discharged at 2:20 am on Friday and doctor Tapas Mullick accompanied the septuagenarian nun and the convent authorities to the airport. The odd-hour timing was intentional to avoid unwarranted media glare. She was also given medicine for 10 days and advised to consult a gynaecologist and a psychiatrist after that. It was learnt that Ranaghat sub-divisional officer (SDO) Rajarshi Mitra and the sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) were present when the nun was discharged from the hospital. No arrest has been made even six days after the incident though 15 persons have been detained in connection with it, police said. The West Bengal government had on March 18 decided to hand over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as the demand for justice grew louder with the culprits at large. But the investigation agency is yet to formally take charge of the case. Earlier, the hospital authorities had issued a discharge certificate on Thursday saying that the patient was fit enough to be released. However, the convent authorities were yet to take the final call on the issue. Later, the school officials submitted a written application to the hospital saying they want to take the nun away. The Christian convent teacher was allegedly gang-raped by a group of about 12 armed goons after she tried to prevent a robbery attempt by them. - With PTI inputs |
Tickets Sell Out To Japan's New Luxury Train, Despite Costing Thousands Enlarge this image toggle caption East Japan Railway Co. East Japan Railway Co. In Japan, it costs nearly $3,000 for one person to ride on a new luxury train that launched this week, and the highest price is nearly $10,000, for what resembles a cruise ship experience traveling through Japan's scenic eastern countryside. If you want to ride, plan ahead: the train is sold out through March of 2018. Officially launched Monday, the Train Suite Shiki-Shima from the East Japan Railway Co. can carry a maximum of 34 passengers. There are 17 suites on the train; some have lofts and a traditional wooden bath. Luxury touches range from a piano bar to specially designed staff uniforms. For paying a steep price, travelers will get premium services that include the offer of a limousine ride and complimentary luggage service between their homes and their room on the train. Before the trip, the train's staff meets with passengers to ensure the trip is customized to their needs. Enlarge this image toggle caption East Japan Railway Co. East Japan Railway Co. The train departs from an exclusive Platform 13 1/2 in Tokyo's at Ueno Station, which also includes a private lounge. "We hope we can contribute to establishing a railway of a new era," JR East sales director Atsushi Takahashi, tells The Japan Times. At either end of the 10-car train, passengers can take in panoramic views of the countryside in glass-enclosed observation cars. The eight cars between include six private suite cars, a lounge car and a dining car. Enlarge this image toggle caption East Japan Railway Co. East Japan Railway Co. As the train moves around Japan, the menu in its dining car will shift to reflect the ingredients and cooking style of the regions it's passing through. To accomplish that, noted chefs who work in towns and resorts along the train's route will either serve their food aboard the train or host passengers for meals at their restaurants. On this train, passengers don't book a ticket; they fill out an application — and, because of intense interest, they're also chosen by lottery, Japan East says. The company tells NHK News that "only one out of 76 applicants was able to get tickets for the first trip" this week. Itineraries range from two-day to four-day trips; most of them are timed to highlight seasonal shifts in the landscape, and many also coincide with traditional festivals or new year's celebrations. YouTube Rather than the standard rectangular window frames, the Shiki-Shima's windows evoke a "quiet forest," the train company says. The train also has its own theme song, "Train Suite," by composer Naoki Sato. |
His version of Virgil’s “Aeneid,” for example, has a natural, unforced syntax and language that are at once heightened and colloquial as he describes the Trojan horse being pulled into the city: We breach our own ramparts, fling our defenses open, all pitch into the work. Smooth running rollers we wheel beneath its hoofs, and heavy hempen ropes we bind around its neck, and teeming with men-at-arms the huge deadly engine climbs our city walls. Robert Fagles was born in Philadelphia on Sept. 11, 1933. His father, a lawyer, died when Mr. Fagles was 14, an event that he later said made him particularly susceptible to the persistent father-son theme in classical literature. He was reared by his mother, who was trained as an architect but who never became a practicing one. Photo His high school, Lower Merion, in Ardmore, Pa., offered Latin, but Mr. Fagles took German, because the German teacher was popular. He did not become interested in the classics until his freshman year, in 1952, at Amherst College, where he began as a pre-med student and later switched to English. He studied Latin and Greek on the side at Amherst — “smuggling it in,” he later said — and did the same at the Yale Graduate School, where he got his Ph.D. in English in 1959. One of his classics teachers at Yale was Bernard Knox, who became a lifelong friend and who wrote introductions to Mr. Fagles’s “Iliad,” “Odyssey” and “Aeneid.” After teaching at Yale for a year, Mr. Fagles joined the faculty at Princeton as an English teacher in 1960 and remained at Princeton until he retired, in 2002. He was an immensely popular teacher and also the creator and longtime head of the university’s department of comparative literature. In June the university awarded him an honorary doctorate. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. In addition to his wife, Mr. Fagles is survived by two daughters, Katya, of Randolph, N.J., and Nina, of Hampden, Me., and three grandchildren. Mr. Fagles said he had never planned to tackle the big three of classical literature. He began by setting himself some smallish tasks of translation, just as an exercise. His first published translation, of the Greek poet Bacchylides, came out in 1961, and it was followed by versions of “The Oresteia,” by Aeschylus, and of Sophocles’ three Theban plays (“Antigone,” “Oedipus the King” and “Oedipus at Colonus”) before he felt ready to take on the epics. To get through them, he remarked later, required a “lot of nerve and a lot of luck.” He also said he couldn’t decide which of the epics was his favorite. Some days were Iliadic, he said — you felt you were in a war — and some were more like the Odyssey, when all you wanted to do was go home. But “The Aeneid,” he said, had proved to be unexpectedly timely and relevant, describing it as “a tale of exhortation.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It says that if you depart from the civilized, then you become a murderer,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2006. “The price of empire is very steep, but Virgil shows how it is to be earned, if it’s to be earned at all. The poem can be read as an exhortation for us to behave ourselves, which is a horse of relevance that ought to be ridden.” |
Consumers wanting to safely connect to their internet banking service should use Linux or the Apple iPhone, according to a detective inspector from the NSW Police, who was giving evidence on behalf of the NSW Government at the public hearing into Cybercrime today in Sydney. Detective Inspector Bruce van der Graaf from the Computer Crime Investigation Unit told the hearing that he uses two rules to protect himself from cybercriminals when banking online. The first rule, he said, was to never click on hyperlinks to the banking site and the second was to avoid Microsoft Windows. "If you are using the internet for a commercial transaction, use a Linux boot up disk - such as Ubuntu or some of the other flavours. Puppylinux is a nice small distribution that boots up fairly quickly. "It gives you an operating system which is perfectly clean and operates only in the memory of the computer and is a perfectly safe way of doing internet banking," van der Graaf said. The collection of MPs listening to van der Graaf were very enthusiastic about his suggestion but didn't understand what he meant and asked for clarification. "You may need to explain further for us," said one MP, while another responded, "yes, we need to understand that". In response, van der Graaf explained what 'booting a computer' means and explained that his recommended method guaranteed a "100 percent clean installation". He further explained that the clean boot would bypass any infections on the system. "if you have an infected hard disk ... that wont be an issue," he said. Van der Graaf also mentioned the iPhone, which he called "quite safe" for internet banking. "Another option is the Apple iPhone. It is only capable of running one process at a time so there is really no danger from infection," he said. Van der Graaf said he mentioned the two alternatives to Windows because he was concerned about any future law that could require internet service providers or banks to check their users had protection before allowing them to connect. "If you had a rule where ISPs would have to check for firewalls or that sort of thing, people using this safer system would not be able to do their internet banking. People using an iPhone, which is quite safe, would then not be able to do their internet banking," he added. The hearing continues tomorrow when vendors including Microsoft and McAfee will make their presentations. |
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure will not face disciplinary action over an incident with Norwich City's Ricky van Wolfswinkel in Saturday's 0-0 draw. Toure, 30, faced a three-match ban after appearing to kick the striker. But a Football Association panel of three ex-referees ruled that he should not be charged with violent conduct. Analysis "The FA will be criticised for this decision but all they have done is listen to the recommendations of the three former elite referees who reviewed the footage. "The same panel of referees are used for each incident that is reviewed and all three must answer 'yes' for the player to be charged. "The system is designed to promote consistency but some may argue that on this occasion it has fallen short." "Good to see Toure not getting suspended. Players like him belong on the pitch!" Van Wolfswinkel, 25, tweeted. "Things happen on the pitch. But we all enjoy watching him play. So get on with it and enjoy the football. That's what it's all about." Referee Jon Moss did not see the incident during the Premier League match at Carrow Road, but the FA can take retrospective action on the basis of video evidence. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho earlier said Ivory Coast international Toure should be banned. Mourinho, whose side are two points above City at the top of the Premier League, said: "If he is not suspended the message is clear: you can do what you want. "If the FA defends football he has to be suspended." The FA's decision comes on the same day Cardiff striker Craig Bellamy was charged with violent conduct for a collision with Swansea's Jonathan de Guzman in Saturday's south Wales derby. Manchester City, who are without injured midfielder Fernandinho, face Sunderland at Etihad Stadium on Wednesday. |
NASA Shuttle Simulator Coming to A&M 0 SHARES Share Tweet Texas A&M University and NASA signed an agreement Monday that brings the space shuttle simulator from Johnson Space Center in Houston to College Station. The simulator provided a full-motion simulation of shuttle launches and landings for every crew that flew on the shuttle. It began operations at Johnson Space Center in 1977 and was used in training for all 135 space shuttle missions. A&M President Bowen Loftin says the university’s aerospace engineering department worked with NASA to bring the simulator to the flagship campus. Dr. Loftin says this is the only major piece of the shuttle program that will remain in Texas, and it will remain operational. Dr. Loftin says over the next year the simulator will be shipped and reassembled in the old T-I building. Shuttle astronaut Mike Fossum, Aggie Class of 1980, says not only the simulator provide an important part of NASA history, he loves that it will continue to be used in an academic setting. MikeFossum121911.mp3Comments from shuttle astronaut Mike Fossum, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver. BowenLoftin121911.mp3Comments from A&M President Bowen Loftin, visiting with WTAW’s Bill Oliver. |
Watch the clip above, and catch the entire exclusive People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN) special, EW Reunites: The L Word, here or download the free app on your favorite device. The L Word never shied away from nudity or sex. The series, about a group of lesbians living and loving in Los Angeles, was bold and frank in its portrayal of love scenes. As it turns out, the cast and crew took these very seriously. When EW reunited the cast, they talked love scenes with other women and doing sex scene research. Mia Kirshner: These girls said that my breasts were the ninth character. Jennifer Beals: Well, the ninth and the 10th. Sarah Shahi: I will say this, in all seriousness: Doing love scenes with guys and girls, I much prefer doing them with girls because I feel like, as women, we naturally protected each other. Beals: Do you guys remember that Rose [Troche, a co-executive producer on the show] made us a video? Kirshner: Of lesbians having sex. Beals: We had to watch a sex video because we had to do all these sex scenes. So we could watch the video and see what worked and didn’t work and analyze why it didn’t work. It didn’t work if people weren’t fully committed to it. Shahi: I could have used that viewing. My first day I got introduced to Kate [Moennig, who played Shane], and it’s like: “Kate, this is Sarah. Sarah, this is Kate. And so in this scene, Kate is going to be going down on you.” And it’s just like, Whoa! |
The South Carolina representative's unmitigated, inflammatory attack on the private-equity industry breaks ranks with Obama. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Here's a good example of the sort of political attack that Cory Booker referred to as "nauseating" during a much-ballyhooed Meet the Press appearance on Sunday: This is not [an] attack on free enterprise ... I don't take contributions from payday lenders, if I know it. I refuse to do that. That's free enterprise, but there's something about that enterprise that I have a problem with. And there's something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up Swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the Grand Caymans. I have a real, serious problem with that. That's South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House (the comment comes around 2:45 of the video above). Clyburn's outburst is notable for two reasons. First, it's an extremely inflammatory attack, the sort of nasty discourse that tends to distract from real issues. And second, Clyburn is rejecting the argument advanced by Obama (and Booker). They argue that private equity itself is not on trial, and that the question is whether Romney's record in the sector makes him qualified to be president. Clyburn, on the other hand, is clearly attacking private equity per se. We all know how this will end: Romney's campaign will condemn it, Obama's team will follow suit, and Clyburn will probably offer a minimally sincere apology. (The South Carolinian is no stranger to controversial remarks.) Though this resembles the standard one-day kerfuffles that have characterized the campaign, there's an interesting background to it: the generational divide between black politicians in the Democratic Party. On one side are older, hardball-playing populists like Clyburn (b. 1940) and Ron Rice (b. 1945), the man who lost to Booker in the 2006 Newark mayoral race and crowed with "I told you sos" Monday, accusing the man who beat him of being beholden to corporate interests. On the other are younger politicians like Booker (b. 1969), who don't fall into the same populist mold and are often accused of being smug by their elders. Obama (b. 1961) himself has encountered this divide, most notably in his losing House campaign against elder statesman Bobby Rush (b. 1946) in 2000. Residual tension emerged again in 2008, when Jesse Jackson memorably expressed a desire to castrate the candidate for "talking down to black people." Now, as he often does, Obama is seeking to split the difference, pledging to keep hammering Romney on his business career while saying he's not attacking the private equity industry. That may or may not work for him, but the generational divide will only widen over time. |
The Supreme Court of Canada has announced it will hear a B.C. appeal of the federal government's mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offences. The case centres on Joseph Ryan Lloyd, an addict from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside who was convicted of drug trafficking after police caught him with less than 10 grams combined of heroin, crack cocaine and crystal methamphetamine. Under new federal legislation brought in in 2012, that conviction carries an automatic one-year sentence, but the provincial court judge in the case balked at the lack of discretion that left him and declined to impose the sentence. "It is a sentence which Canadians would find abhorrent or intolerable," Judge Joseph Galati said in his written ruling last year. "Accordingly, I find that the mandatory minimum sentence of imprisonment for one year … constitutes cruel and unusual punishment." The B.C. Court of Appeal sided with the Crown, against Galati's ruling, but the case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. "We are thrilled with the Supreme Court's decision to hear Mr. Lloyd's appeal," said Adrienne Smith of Pivot Legal Society, which has been an intervenor in the case at earlier stages, in a press release. "Mandatory minimum sentences unfairly target vulnerable Canadians and fail to consider the conditions of individual's lives and their communities." |
I have been in IT for 14 years now, dating back to 1998 when the internet we know today was still in its infancy. I remember when Google was barely heard of and 56k dial-up was fast. Back then the internet was still the computer geek's domain and though I don't consider myself in that category, there has to be a part of that in me to have stayed in computers for a living.Fast forward to today when my blue ray player can access youtube and my eighty something year old grandmother uses facebook (sort of). There isn't much I don't consult the internet on first, from looking up a phone number to call for pizza to in depth research prior to buying just about anything that costs more than $10.With all the world wide web has to offer I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to find the wealth of available woodworking knowledge, but I was, and still am. My misconception about woodworkers was that most were middle aged guys who shunned technology, save for power tools. But really, how advanced is a cordless drill anyway? |
TOKYO (Reuters Life!) - Forced to quit after barely a week as Japan’s reconstruction minister for remarks deemed offensive to victims of the March earthquake and tsunami, Ryu Matsumoto had an unusual explanation for his behavior — his blood type. Japan's newly appointed reconstruction minister Ryu Matsumoto speaks at a news conference after resigning his post, in Tokyo July 5, 2011. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao “My blood’s type B, which means I can be irritable and impetuous, and my intentions don’t always come across,” he said on Tuesday after his resignation. “My wife called me earlier to point that out. I think I need to reflect about that.” Matsumoto was tapping into a widespread belief in Japan that blood types correspond to various character traits. Japan’s fascination with blood types began in the early 20th century and is similar to the belief in astrology and horoscopes. Many Japanese believe their blood type can foretell success in romance and the suitability for jobs. It’s not uncommon for the subject to come up in conversation, sometimes as explanation for an action, and a directory of members of parliament lists the blood types of many, along with their home towns and hobbies. Many Japanese, however, said it was not an acceptable reason for Matsumoto’s behavior on a trip to the devastated northern region, during which he told a prefecture governor the government would not help communities that failed to come up with ideas to help themselves. Speaking before TV cameras, Matsumoto reprimanded the governor for keeping him waiting and then ordered journalists not to report the exchange or else their media outlets would suffer. People with type B blood are believed to be stubborn, impulsive and cold, although they are also seen as practical, and Matsumoto’s explanation was greeted with derision. “He should apologize to all other Type Bs,” said one user of a Web chat forum. Matsumoto’s resignation delivered a fresh blow to unpopular Prime Minister Naoto Kan, who is a blood type O — believed to be sociable and energetic but flighty, able to easily start projects but then give them up just as fast. |
Hey what's up guys I wanted to do a little guide on this build I've been working on.The main skill is an AOE kinetic blast + GMP which will trigger cast on critical strike and basically kill whatever is in front of you with ice spear & fireball. Single target is barrage with which will trigger cast on critical strike and flame surge with glacial cascade to burst them down. In terms of auras clarity is a must with eldritch battery(RIP) to sustain mana costs. Also running grace for survivability and herald of thunder. (Will most likely run Herald of thunder + curse on hit later) Pros & Cons Pros: Really good clearing speed on maps Its good with groups or solo Its insanely fun to play Cons: Single target is not the best but its ok Some boss kills can be tricky solo Gear So as you can see this build doesnt take all that much investment in terms of gear i spent a couple of ex on this set up. So as you can see this build doesnt take all that much investment in terms of gear i spent a couple of ex on this set up. Aura's Clarity - Must have Grace - Optional Herald of thunder - Optional Skill Tree My first skill tree had some mistakes so I have tried to make it better.(Thanks to Chiliconkarma on reddit) http://tinyurl.com/o2j69hy Bandits Normal - Help Oak for 40+ life Cruel - Take Passive Merciless - Help Alira for +1 power charge Leveling You can really level however you want I leveled as a bow character until level 57 using tornado shot then switched over to kill screen. I recommend at least having this much of the tree before switching over. http://tinyurl.com/ntd5exq Video So I was able to make a very short demo of the build in action(Sorry for the bad quality but my pc cant handle it) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTfsUGfdf64 Hey what's up guys I wanted to do a little guide on this build I've been working on.The main skill is an AOE kinetic blast + GMP which will trigger cast on critical strike and basically kill whatever is in front of you with ice spear & fireball. Single target is barrage with which will trigger cast on critical strike and flame surge with glacial cascade to burst them down. In terms of aurasis a must with eldritch battery(RIP) to sustain mana costs. Also running grace for survivability and herald of thunder.(Will most likely run Herald of thunder + curse on hit later) Last edited by Zukage on May 12, 2015, 1:35:07 PM |
History of the death penalty in the UK Capital punishment in the United Kingdom was used from ancient times until the second half of the 20th century. The last executions in the United Kingdom were by hanging, and took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder (in 1965 in Great Britain and in 1973 in Northern Ireland). Although unused, the death penalty remained a legally defined punishment for certain offences such as treason until it was completely abolished in 1998. In 2004 the 13th Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights became binding on the United Kingdom, prohibiting the restoration of the death penalty for as long as the UK is a party to the Convention.[1] Background [ edit ] Sir Samuel Romilly, speaking to the House of Commons on capital punishment in 1810, declared that "[there is] no country on the face of the earth in which there [have] been so many different offences according to law to be punished with death as in England".[2] Known as the "Bloody Code", at its height the criminal law included some 220 crimes punishable by death, including "being in the company of Gypsies for one month", "strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7–14 years of age" and "blacking the face or using a disguise whilst committing a crime". Many of these offences had been introduced to protect the property of the wealthy classes that emerged during the first half of the 18th century, a notable example being the Black Act of 1723, which created 50 capital offences for various acts of theft and poaching.[citation needed] Crimes eligible for the death penalty included shoplifting and stealing sheep, cattle, and horses, and before abolition of the death penalty for theft in 1832, "English law was notorious for prescribing the death penalty for a vast range of offences as slight as the theft of goods valued at twelve pence."[3] Whilst executions for murder, burglary and robbery were common, the death sentences for minor offenders were often not carried out. A sentence of death could be commuted or respited (permanently postponed) for reasons such as benefit of clergy, official pardons, pregnancy of the offender or performance of military or naval duty.[4] Between 1770 and 1830, an estimated 35,000 death sentences were handed down in England and Wales, of which 7,000 executions were carried out.[5] Reform [ edit ] In 1808 Romilly had the death penalty removed for pickpockets and lesser offenders, starting a process of reform that continued over the next 50 years. The death penalty was mandatory (although it was frequently commuted by the government) until the Judgement of Death Act 1823 gave judges the power to commute the death penalty except for treason and murder. The Punishment of Death, etc. Act 1832 reduced the number of capital crimes by two-thirds. In 1832, the death penalty was abolished for theft, counterfeiting, and forgery except for the forgery of wills and certain powers of attorney.[3][6] Gibbeting was abolished in 1832 and hanging in chains was abolished in 1834. In 1837, the death penalty for forging wills and powers of attorney was abolished. The death penalty for rape was abolished in 1841.[7] In 1861, several acts of Parliament (24 & 25 Vict; c. 94 to c. 100) further reduced the number of civilian capital crimes to five: murder, treason, espionage, arson in royal dockyards, and piracy with violence; there were other offences under military law. The death penalty remained mandatory for treason and murder unless commuted by the monarch. The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1864–66[8] concluded (with dissenting Commissioners) that there was not a case for abolition but recommended an end to public executions. This proposal was included in the Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868. From that date executions in Great Britain were carried out only in prisons. The punishment of beheading and quartering those executed for treason was abolished in 1870.[9] The last application of that punishment had been in 1820 and the last sentence to the punishment had been in 1839.[10][11] In 1908, the Children Act 1908 banned the execution of juveniles under the age of 16. In 1922 a new offence of Infanticide was introduced to replace the charge of murder for mothers killing their children in the first year of life. In 1930 a parliamentary Select Committee recommended that capital punishment be suspended for a trial period of five years, but no action was taken. From 1931 pregnant women could no longer be hanged (following the birth of their child) although in practice since the 18th century their sentences had always been commuted. In 1933 the minimum age for capital punishment was raised to 18 under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. The last known execution by the civilian courts of a person under 18 was that of Charles Dobel, 17, hanged at Maidstone together with his accomplice William Gower, 18, in January 1889. Harold Wilkins, at 16 years old, was the last juvenile sentenced to the death penalty in the United Kingdom, in 1932 for a sexually related murder, but he was reprieved due to age.[12] In 1938 the issue of the abolition of capital punishment was brought before parliament. A clause within the Criminal Justice Bill called for an experimental five-year suspension of the death penalty. When war broke out in 1939 the bill was postponed. It was revived after the war and to everyone's surprise was adopted by a majority in the House of Commons (245 to 222). In the House of Lords the abolition clause was defeated but the remainder of the bill was passed. Popular support for abolition was absent and the government decided that it would be inappropriate for it to assert its supremacy by invoking the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 over such an unpopular issue. Instead, then Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede, set up a new Royal Commission (the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment, 1949–1953) with instructions to determine "whether the liability to suffer capital punishment should be limited or modified". The Commission's report discussed a number of alternatives to execution by hanging (including the electric chair, gas inhalation, lethal injection, shooting, and the guillotine), but rejected them. It had more difficulty with the principle of capital punishment. Popular opinion believed that the death penalty acted as a deterrent to criminals, but the statistics within the report were inconclusive. Whilst the report recommended abolition from an ethical standpoint, it made no mention of possible miscarriages of justice. The public had by then expressed great dissatisfaction with the verdict in the case of Timothy Evans, who was tried and hanged in 1950 for murdering his infant daughter. It later transpired in 1953 that John Christie had strangled at least six women in the same house; he also confessed to killing Timothy's wife. If the jury in Evans's trial had known this, Evans might have been acquitted. There were other cases in the same period where doubts arose over convictions and subsequent hangings, such as the notorious case of Derek Bentley. The commission concluded that unless there was overwhelming public support in favour of abolition, the death penalty should be retained. Between 1900 and 1949, 621 men and 11 women were executed in England and Wales. Ten German agents were executed during the First World War under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914,[13] and 16 spies were executed during the Second World War under the Treachery Act 1940.[14] By 1957 a number of controversial cases highlighted the issue of capital punishment again. Campaigners for abolition were partially rewarded with the Homicide Act 1957. The Act brought in a distinction between capital and non-capital murder. Only six categories of murder were now punishable by execution: in the course or furtherance of theft by shooting or causing an explosion while resisting arrest or during an escape of a police officer of a prison officer by a prisoner the second of two murders committed on different occasions (if both done in Great Britain). The police and the government were of the opinion that the death penalty deterred offenders from carrying firearms and it was for this reason that such offences remained punishable by death. Abolition [ edit ] [15] The only known photograph of the death sentence being pronounced in England and Wales, for the poisoner Frederick Seddon in 1912 In 1965 the Labour MP Sydney Silverman, who had committed himself to the cause of abolition for longer than 20 years, introduced a Private Member's Bill to suspend the death penalty for murder. It was passed on a free vote in the House of Commons by 200 votes to 98. The bill was subsequently passed by the House of Lords by 204 votes to 104.[16][17] Silverman was opposed in the General Election 1966 in the Nelson and Colne constituency by Patrick Downey, the uncle of Lesley Anne Downey, a victim in the Moors murders case, who stood on an explicitly pro-hanging platform. Downey polled over 5,000 votes, 13.7%, then the largest vote for a genuinely independent candidate since 1945.[18] The Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 suspended the death penalty in Great Britain (but not in Northern Ireland) for murder for a period of five years, and substituted a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment; it further provided that if, before the expiry of the five-year suspension, each House of Parliament passed a resolution to make the effect of the Act permanent, then it would become permanent. In 1969 the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, proposed a motion to make the Act permanent, which was carried in the Commons on 16 December 1969,[19] and a similar motion was carried in the Lords on 18 December.[20] The death penalty for murder was abolished in Northern Ireland on 25 July 1973 under the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973. Following the abolition of the death penalty for murder, the House of Commons held a vote during each subsequent parliament until 1997 to restore the death penalty. This motion was always defeated, but the death penalty remained for other crimes until the dates mentioned below: However, no executions were carried out in the United Kingdom for any of these offences after the abolition of the death penalty for murder. Nevertheless, there remained a working gallows at HMP Wandsworth, London, until 1994, which was tested every six months until 1992. This gallows is now housed in the National Justice Museum in Nottingham.[23] Last executions [ edit ] England and in the United Kingdom: on 13 August 1964, Peter Anthony Allen, at Walton Prison in Liverpool, and Gwynne Owen Evans, at Strangeways Prison in Manchester, were executed for the murder of John Alan West on 7 April that year.[24] Scotland: Henry John Burnett, 21, on 15 August 1963 in Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen, for the murder of seaman Thomas Guyan. Northern Ireland: Robert McGladdery, 26, on 20 December 1961 in Crumlin Road Gaol, Belfast, for the murder of Pearl Gamble. Wales: Vivian Teed, 24, in Swansea on 6 May 1958, for the murder of William Williams, sub-postmaster of Fforestfach Post Office.[25] Last death sentences [ edit ] Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom: Liam Holden in 1973 in Northern Ireland, for the capital murder of a British soldier during the Troubles. Holden was removed from the death cell in May 1973.[26] In 2012 his conviction was quashed on appeal on the grounds that his confession was obtained by torture.[27] England: David Chapman, who was sentenced to hang in November 1965 for the murder of a swimming pool nightwatchman in Scarborough. He was released from prison in 1979 and later died in a car accident. Scotland: Patrick McCarron in 1964 for shooting his wife. He committed suicide in prison in 1970. Wales: Edgar Black, who was reprieved on 6 November 1963. He had shot his wife's lover in Cardiff. Final abolition [ edit ] The Criminal Damage Act 1971 abolished the offence of arson in royal dockyards. The Naval Discipline Act 1957 reduced the scope of capital espionage from "all spies for the enemy" to spies on naval ships or bases.[28] Later, the Armed Forces Act 1981 abolished the death penalty for espionage.[29] (The Official Secrets Act 1911 had created another offence of espionage which carried a maximum sentence of fourteen years.) Beheading was abolished as a method of execution for treason in 1973.[30] Hanging, however, remained available until 1998 when, under a House of Lords amendment to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, proposed by Lord Archer of Sandwell, the death penalty was abolished for treason and piracy with violence, replacing it with a discretionary maximum sentence of life imprisonment. These were the last civilian offences punishable by death. On 20 May 1998 the House of Commons voted to ratify the 6th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting capital punishment except "in time of war or imminent threat of war". The last remaining provisions for the death penalty under military jurisdiction (including in wartime) were removed when section 21(5) of the Human Rights Act 1998 came into force on 9 November 1998. On 10 October 2003, effective from 1 February 2004,[31] the UK acceded to the 13th Protocol, which prohibits the death penalty in all circumstances.[32] As a legacy from colonial times, several states in the West Indies still had the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the court of final appeal; although the death penalty has been retained in these states, the Privy Council would sometimes delay or deny executions. Some of these states severed links with the British court system in 2001 by transferring the responsibilities of the Privy Council to the Caribbean Court of Justice, to speed up executions.[33] Crown dependencies [ edit ] Although not part of the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey are British Crown dependencies. In the Channel Islands, the last death sentence was passed in 1984; the last execution in the Channel Islands was in Jersey on 9 October 1959, when Francis Joseph Huchet was hanged for murder.[34] The Human Rights (Amendment) (Jersey) Order 2006[35] amends the Human Rights (Jersey) Law 2000[36] to give effect to the 13th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights providing for the total abolition of the death penalty. Both of these laws came into effect on 10 December 2006. Capital punishment was abolished in Guernsey in 2003, and the 13th Protocol was extended to Guernsey in April 2004. Sark (which is part of Guernsey but has its own laws) formally retained it until January 2004, when the Chief Pleas in a 14–9 vote removed it from the statutes.[37][38] The last execution on the Isle of Man took place in 1872, when John Kewish was hanged for patricide. Capital punishment was not formally abolished by Tynwald (the island's parliament) until 1993.[39] Five persons were sentenced to death (for murder) on the Isle of Man between 1973 and 1992, although all sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The last person to be sentenced to death in the UK or its dependencies was Anthony Teare, who was convicted at the Manx Court of General Gaol Delivery in Douglas for contract murder in 1992; he was subsequently retried and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1994.[40] In 2004 the 13th Protocol was adopted,[41] with an effective date of 1 November 2006.[42] Overseas territories [ edit ] Like the Crown dependencies, the British overseas territories are constitutionally not part of the United Kingdom. However, the British government's ultimate responsibility for good governance of the territories has led it over recent years to pursue a policy of revoking all statutory provision for the death penalty in those territories where it had up until recently been legal. The last executions in an overseas territory, and indeed the last on British soil, took place in Bermuda in 1977, when two men, Larry Tacklyn and Erskine Burrows, were hanged for the 1973 murder of the territory's then Governor Sir Richard Sharples.[43] In 1991, the British government extended an Order in Council to its Caribbean territories the effect of which was to abolish capital punishment for murder: Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.[44] The British government was unable to extend the abolition via Order in Council to Bermuda, the UK's most autonomous overseas territory with powers of almost total self-governance—but warned that if voluntary abolition was not forthcoming it would be forced to consider the unprecedented step of "whether to impose abolition by means of an Act of Parliament".[45] As a result, the Bermudian government introduced its own domestic legislation in 1999 to rectify the problem.[46] Further measures were subsequently adopted to revoke technicalities in British overseas territories' domestic legislation as regards use of the death penalty for crimes of treason and piracy. In October 2002 the British government abolished the death penalty for treason and piracy in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Since then, the death penalty has been outlawed under all circumstances in all the UK's overseas territories.[47] Policy regarding foreign capital punishment [ edit ] Under section 94 of the Extradition Act 2003, it is unlawful for an extradition of an individual to take place if the individual is accused of a capital crime, unless the Home Secretary has received assurances that the death penalty would not be applied in that case.[48][49] Regardless of this, in July 2018, the Government said it will not object to the United States seeking the death penalty for two suspected British members of ISIS captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces.[50][51] Although not strictly an extradition case, in response to an urgent question in Parliament on the matter, the Government stated that they still held the policy "to oppose the death penalty in all circumstances as a matter of principle".[52] Public support for reintroduction of capital punishment [ edit ] Since the death penalty's suspension in 1965, there have been continued public and media calls for its reintroduction, particularly prompted by high-profile murder cases. At the same time, there have been a number of miscarriages of justice since 1965 where someone convicted of murder has later had their conviction quashed on appeal and been released from prison, strengthening the argument of those who oppose the death penalty's reintroduction. These include the Birmingham Six (cleared in 1991 of planting an IRA bomb which killed 21 people in 1974), the Guildford Four (cleared in 1989 of murdering five people in another 1974 IRA bombing), Stephen Downing (a Derbyshire man who was freed in 2001 after serving 27 years for the murder of a woman in a churchyard) and Barry George (who was freed in 2007 when his conviction for the 1999 murder of TV presenter Jill Dando was quashed on appeal).[53] Perhaps the first high-profile murder case which sparked widespread calls for a return of the death penalty was the Moors murders trial in 1966, the year after the death penalty's suspension, in which Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders of two children and a teenager in the Manchester area (they later confessed to a further two murders).[54] Later in 1966, the murder of three policemen in West London also attracted widespread public support for the death penalty's return.[55] Other subsequent high-profile cases to have sparked widespread media and public calls for the death penalty's return include "Yorkshire Ripper" Peter Sutcliffe, convicted in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attacking seven others in the north of England;[56] Roy Whiting, who murdered a seven-year-old girl in West Sussex in 2000;[57] and Ian Huntley, a Cambridgeshire school caretaker who killed two 10-year-old girls in 2002.[58] A November 2009 television survey showed that 70% favoured reinstating the death penalty for at least one of the following crimes: armed robbery, rape, crimes related to paedophilia, terrorism, adult murder, child murder, child rape, treason, child abuse or kidnapping. However, respondents only favoured capital punishment for adult murder, the polling question asked by other organisations such as Gallup, by small majorities or pluralities: overall, 51% favoured the death penalty for adult murder, while 56% in Wales did, 55% in Scotland, and only 49% in England.[59] In August 2011, the Internet blogger Paul Staines—who writes a political blog as Guido Fawkes and heads the Restore Justice Campaign—launched an e-petition on the Downing Street website calling for the restoration of the death penalty for those convicted of the murder of children and police officers.[60] The petition was one of several in support or opposition of capital punishment to be published by the government with the launch of its e-petitions website. Petitions attracting 100,000 signatures would prompt a parliamentary debate on a particular topic, but not necessarily lead to any Parliamentary Bills being put forward.[61] When the petition closed on 4 February 2012 it had received 26,351 signatures in support of restoring capital punishment,[62] but a counter-petition calling to retain the ban on capital punishment received 33,455 signatures during the same time period.[63] Also in August 2011, a representative survey conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion showed that 65% of Britons support reinstating the death penalty for murder in Great Britain, while 28% oppose this course of action. Men and respondents aged over 35 are more likely to endorse the change.[64] In March 2015 a survey by the NatCen British Social Attitudes Report showed that public support for the death penalty had dropped to 48%.[65] Parliamentary debates on reintroduction [ edit ] After Royal Assent for the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, supporters in Parliament have made several attempts to reintroduce capital punishment. On 23 November 1966, Duncan Sandys was refused leave to bring in a Bill to restore capital punishment for the murder of police or prison officers, by a vote of 170 to 292.[66] Motions to make the five-year suspension of capital punishment under the 1965 Act permanent were opposed, but agreed by 343 to 185 in the House of Commons;[67] in the House of Lords, an amendment to continue with a temporary suspension of capital punishment until 31 July 1973 was rejected by 174 to 220.[68] In April 1973, the House of Commons voted against reintroduction.[69] The deaths of civilians in several IRA bombings in 1974 prompted a renewed debate. On 11 December 1974 Brian Walden moved a motion declaring that "the death penalty would neither deter terrorists nor increase the safety of the public"; Jill Knight moved an amendment calling instead for introduction of legislation providing for death to be the penalty for acts of terrorism causing death. Her amendment was rejected by 217 to 369.[70] A year later, Ivan Lawrence's motion "That this House demands capital punishment for terrorist offences causing death" was rejected by 232 to 361.[71] After the Conservatives' victory in the 1979 general election, Eldon Griffiths (Parliamentary adviser to the Police Federation of England and Wales) moved a motion "that the sentence of capital punishment should again be available to the courts" on 19 July 1979.[72] While the motion was not expected to pass, the margin of its defeat (243 to 362) was much wider than expected.[73] Later in the same Parliament, the Criminal Justice Bill provided an opportunity on 11 May 1982 for several new clauses to be proposed which would have reinstated capital punishment. The first, which simply declared that "A person convicted of murder shall be liable to capital punishment", was tabled by Edward Gardner, and rejected by 195 to 357.[74] It was followed by an alternative under which capital punishment would be available "as the penalty for an act of terrorism involving the loss of human life"; this new clause was rejected by 176 to 332.[75] A further new clause proposing capital punishment "as the penalty for murder by means of firearms or explosives" was rejected by 176 to 343.[76] Then a new clause allowing for capital punishment "as the penalty for murder of a police or prison officer" was rejected by 208 to 332.[77] Finally a new clause allowing capital punishment "as the penalty for murder in the course of robbery and burglary which involves the use of offensive weapons" was rejected by 151 to 331.[78] The new Parliament in 1983 again prompted supporters of capital punishment to put their case. Sir Edward Gardner's motion "That this House favours the restoration of the death penalty for murder" was debated on 13 July 1983, with several amendments moved to restrict capital punishment to certain categories of murder. The amendments were voted on first: capital punishment for murder "resulting from acts of terrorism" was rejected by 245 to 361, for murder "of a police officer during the course of his duties" by 263 to 344, for murder "of a prison officer during the course of his duties" by 252 to 348, for murder "by shooting or causing an explosion" by 204 to 374, and for murder "in the course or furtherance of theft" by 194 to 369. The main motion was then defeated by 223 to 368.[79] Towards the end of the Parliament, a new clause proposed to the Criminal Justice Bill proposed to return the death penalty for "A person convicted by the unanimous verdict of a jury of the premeditated killing of another person or of knowingly and intentionally killing another person in a manner, or for a reason, or in circumstances which a reasonable person would consider to be evil" was rejected by 230 to 342 on 1 April 1987.[80] The Criminal Justice Bill in 1988 provided a further opportunity for a debate; the new clause proposed by Roger Gale allowed for the jury in a murder case to "have the power, upon reaching a verdict of guilt of murder, to recommend ... death in the manner authorised by law". It was rejected by 218 to 341.[81] The aforementioned bills were rejected despite support from then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[82] On 17 December 1990 a new Criminal Justice Bill again saw amendments designed to reintroduce capital punishment. The first covered anyone over 18 "convicted of the murder of a police officer acting in the execution of his duty" and was rejected by 215 to 350;[83] a general reintroduction of death as the penalty for murder (with special provision for the Court of Appeal to decide whether to substitute a life sentence) was then rejected by 182 to 367.[84] Capital punishment for "murder committed by means of firearms, explosives or an offensive weapon, or for the murder of a police or prison officer" was rejected by 186 to 349.[85] The most recent Parliamentary debate on a question proposing reintroduction of capital punishment came on 21 February 1994 when new clauses to the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill were moved. The first, providing for death as the sentence for "the murder of a police officer acting in the execution of his duty", was rejected by 186 to 383;[86] A new clause providing for general reintroduction with power for the Court of Appeal to substitute life imprisonment was rejected by 159 to 403.[87] This would have been aimed at terrorists in the Northern Ireland conflict.[88] In June 2013 a new bill for capital punishment in England and Wales was introduced. This Bill has been withdrawn and will not progress any further.[89] Parties' stance on the issue [ edit ] The following parties support the reintroduction of capital punishment: Notable executions [ edit ] Note: This list does not include the beheadings of nobility. Before 1707 [ edit ] Kingdom of Great Britain, 1707–1801 [ edit ] United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1801–1922 [ edit ] United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1922–1964 [ edit ] See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] Notes [ edit ] Bibliography [ edit ] Hoffman, David; Rowe, John (2010), Human Rights in the UK: An Introduction to the Human Rights Act of 1998 (3 ed.), Pearson Longman, ISBN 978-1-4058-7403-8 Brian P. Block; John Hostettler (1997), Hanging in the balance: a history of the abolition of capital punishment in Britain , Waterside Press, ISBN 1-872870-47-3 Harry Potter (1993), Hanging in Judgment: Religion and the Death Penalty in England from the Bloody Code to Abolition, London, SCM Press ISBN 0-334-02533-8 Further reading [ edit ] Hansard notes (Parliament of the United Kingdom): Journal articles: |
Cary Berglund reports on a ballot measure that would have voters decide whether porn actors should wear condoms while filming in the city of Los Angeles. (Published Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011) A proposal that would require adult film actors to use condoms has qualified for the June ballot after proponents gathered enough signatures to put the issue before Los Angeles voters. Proponents gathered more than 70,000 signatures, exceeding the 41,000 required to place the issue on the ballot, according to AIDS Heathcare Foundation spokesman Ged Kenslea. The signatures were certified last week by the LA City Clerk. The Adult Film Workplace Condom Initiative would condition adult film permits on the production company's agreement to use condoms on the film set. Under the proposal, fees may be charged to "provide for inspectors to ensure compliance with conditions on film permits." "We have other conditions on film permits," said Michael Weinstein, of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a backer of the proposal. "If you're going to blow things up, you have to have the fire department involved." Plastic Surgery: Celebrities Then and Now The ballot measure is the subject of a legal challenge by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. His office filed a lawsuit earlier this month, calling the measure a "needless and wasteful expenditure of public resources made in connection with a measure which the voters have no power to adopt." State laws already mandate use of condoms when workers are exposed to blood-borne pathogens, the lawsuit states. But in a letter sent to the LA City Council after Trutanich issued his opinion on the matter earlier this year, Cal/OSHA officials said local authorities can require condom use on adult film sets. "State law does not preempt such action by the City because the City does not seek to enact an occupational health and safety standard but rather a public health standard applicable to any film activity (regardless of employment relationship) within the City boundaries," officials said in the letter. Most-Clicked Stories of 2011 The ballot proposal has come under fire from the Free Speech Coalition, a Canoga Park-based industry trade group. The group issued a statement in support of the lawsuit, calling the measure "political grandstanding" and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Follow NBCLA for the latest LA news, events and entertainment: Twitter: @NBCLA // Facebook: NBCLA |
In 1938, the Finnish government presented a gift to impoverished expectant mothers: a box. This gift would transform parenting in the Scandinavian nation. Measuring roughly 27.5 inches long, 17 inches wide, and 10.5 inches tall, each box contained a sturdy mattress and essentials for the first few months of infancy: blankets, clothing, pacifiers, and bibs. Today, the boxes are showing up all over the world, representing much more than a collection of baby items. 1. Boxes provide a safe sleep space Baby boxes are more than cutesy cardboard containers: They contribute to safe sleep. The Finnish government extended the baby box program to all mothers in 1949. Prior to the box program, 65 out of 1,000 babies died within the first year of birth. Today, Finland’s infant mortality rate is 2.52 deaths per 1,000 births. Of course, improved medical care accounted for much of that change. But studies suggest that the box has also played a critical role as it provides a safe sleep space for infants, a fact not lost on American doctors. U.S. pediatricians and advocacy groups are pushing hospitals to give away the cardboard cribs to help reduce America’s infant death rate: 5.87 deaths per 1,000 births—the highest of any wealthy nation. According to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the safest sleep environment for babies is sleeping alone on a firm surface without blankets, pillows, or loose bedding. The baby box provides that, and officials in Texas recently decided to pursue using baby boxes to help curb an increase in cases of sudden infant death syndrome. According to data from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, in 2015, 159 infants died in circumstances involving sharing a bed with a parent or sibling. University Hospital in San Antonio introduced the boxes in 2015 to address that problem. Initially, the hospital provided boxes to 100 new mothers. The boxes proved popular, and the hospital ordered 500 more to fulfill the demand of parents-to-be. Meanwhile, in Seattle, the King County Public Health Department has begun distributing baby boxes to needy families who don’t have a safe place for an infant to sleep. And several South Asian nonprofits have introduced a version of the box called the “Barakat Bundle.” This version contains additional items—including antiseptics, sterile razor blades, and other equipment to ensure a hygienic delivery—to address the fact that many women have limited access to maternity care. More than a third of the 5 million infant deaths worldwide occur in the region. 2. Boxes are eco-friendly Once an infant outgrows the box (usually at 8 or 9 months), the box and its nontoxic foam mattress can be recycled or reused, instead of ending up in a landfill. “The philosophy behind the boxes is saving lives, but it’s also about what kind of world we are leaving them,” says Jennifer Clary, co-founder of The Baby Box Co., believed to be the only baby box manufacturer in the United States. Clary says that environmentalism factors heavily into her company’s decisions, down to the ink and glue used in producing the boxes. She says both are certified nontoxic and environmentally safe. Babies are born “prepolluted” —exposed to some 200 chemicals in the womb. Concerns about pollution are not just for the environment, but for the babies themselves. A report by the President’s Cancer Panel stated that babies are born “prepolluted”—exposed to some 200 chemicals in the womb. Doctors suggest this increases the risk of developing diseases such as cancer later in life. 3. Boxes demonstrate support Baby boxes send a powerful message to mothers, says Danielle Selassie, executive director of Babies Need Boxes, a Minnesota nonprofit. “It says that all babies start at the same spot and that the community cares about you,” she says. Selassie, who had her first child at 19, said she suffered firsthand the stigma that comes with being an unwed pregnant teen. The experience inspired her to establish her organization in 2015 after reading a BBC article about Finland’s program. For Selassie, now 37, the boxes are as much about intangible benefits as about the items inside. Teen moms often see the boxes as a desperately needed symbol of support. Whatever the circumstances of a woman’s pregnancy, Selassie said, she gets her box without judgment or contempt, a welcome contrast from what many experience while pregnant. Her organization gave away 54 boxes in 2015. Some recipients had no one to help them during their transition to motherhood, says Selassie. Baby boxes send a powerful message to mothers. “The mothers are so grateful to have such a show of community support for their children,” she says. The nonprofit recently distributed boxes at a Minneapolis homeless shelter to pregnant teens, many of whom cried when they lifted the lid to discover the supplies. Babies Need Boxes also connects teen mothers with service providers such as housing and employment agencies. The organization plans to hand out 500 more boxes this year. Photo by Kela / Annika Söderblom 4. Boxes provide supplies to those in need Baby boxes have long provided a head start in child-rearing for Finnish mothers: Supporting needy families was one of the original reasons behind Finland’s maternity box program. It was a way to ensure Finnish babies an “equal start in life,” regardless of background, a goal established by the Finnish government in light of the high infant death rate among poor families. At first, those receiving boxes were required to verify their need. In 1949, legislation stemming from public-health concerns made them available to all pregnant mothers. The boxes have become so ingrained in Finnish culture that 95 percent of parents accept the box even though they can decline it for a cash payment of 140 euros. “The boxes really take a lot of stress off of mothers,” says Joy Johnson of Simpson Housing Services, a Minneapolis nonprofit that distributes baby boxes to homeless women. Johnson says the supplies alleviate the financial pressure many new mothers face when trying to provide items for a newborn. Baby boxes have long provided a head start in child-rearing. The poorest are the ones who benefit the most, according to Johnson. “Poor mothers have a hard time finding a safe place for their babies to sleep at times,” says Johnson. Without baby boxes, Johnson says, many of Simpson Housing’s clientele would make makeshift cribs out of air mattresses or a pile of blankets on the floor. “Rich or poor, they make the process of having a baby enjoyable,” she adds. 5. Boxes are democratic True to the egalitarian principles associated with their Scandinavian heritage, baby boxes distributed in Finland cut across socio-economic lines. Affluent and impoverished families alike receive the same box. To many Finns, this government gift accentuates the collective value placed on family and equality. The country has no private schools, was the first in the world to give women the right to vote, and has the lowest economic inequality of any European Union member. Clary, of The Baby Box Co., estimates that 75 percent of her company’s business comes from hospitals, local governments, or nonprofits that give away the boxes, regardless of income. “A baby box is for any parent, rich or poor,” she says. They also send a symbolic message: In the eyes of a community, all babies matter. |
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