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RUNAWAYS icon Cherie Currie says she will this month release an all-star album – shelved for the last five years – featuring Slash, Duff McKagan, Billy Corgan, Juliette Lewis, Brody Dalle and more. Currie, 56, revealed details of the Blackhearts Records release on the latest episode of the White Line Fever podcast, saying: “Matt Sorum was playing with me – of course you know him from Guns N’Roses and Velvet Revolver and he was just amazing. “He and I made a record together with a bunch of cool stars. In fact, (Australian indie-pop duo) the Veronicas, as well, they sang on a few songs. What great gals they are. “Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins wrote a duet and of course Slash and Duff were on it as well as Juliette Lewis. That album’s coming out of September. “All these wonderful artists – Brody Dalle as well – really wanted to participate in this record. Little did I know how much the Runaways had influenced so many people. It made me feel so good. “But that record was shelved for five years. “They (Blackheart Records) wanted to put it out now. I negotiated with them instead of through my lawyer who I had to let go – two lawyers actually. “It will be coming out in September. I never though it would see the light of day.” Subscribe to White LIne Fever here Advertisements |
Every year there are a few obvious trends at CES, and this year wearables are everywhere. We've seen fitness tracker announcements from Sony, Intel, Garmin, and one rather surprising candidate: Razer. Best known for its stylish peripherals and gaming laptops, the company is jumping into the fray with a smartwatch and tracking band mash-up called the Razer Nabu. It's a stylish band that melds smartphone notifications with a suite of fitness-tracking features, but unlike its competitors — who focus primarily on all-in-one turnkey solutions — Razer is hoping third-party developers will take the reins and turn the Nabu into a full-fledged platform. "We've been working on the Nabu band for about three and half years," says Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan. "So we've looked at everything from smartwatches to fitness bands along the way, and we were pretty unhappy with the state of things." Smartwatches often suffer from mediocre battery life, he says, while fitness bands have a hard time retaining users after the honeymoon period ends. Razer's approach was to think of the device in broader terms: less of a single-use device, and more of a lifestyle-focused accessory. Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan. On the outside, the Nabu's biggest differentiating feature is the inclusion of two OLED screens (despite the dual displays, Razer says the device will achieve between seven and ten days of battery life). The smaller screen on the outside of your arm lights up with icons for emails or calls, for example, letting you know when you have a notification. The larger "private" screen is on the inside of your arm, and displays the name of the caller or specific details on the notification. It's a thoughtful approach: people you're talking to at the dinner table may know you're getting a phone call, but only you will know whom it's from. The device will work with both iOS and Android phones over Bluetooth Low Energy, and Tan says any notification that a phone displays can be surfaced on the Nabu. It also contains an accelerometer and altimeter for counting steps walked, stairs climbed, and for tracking your sleep. That feature lineup is pretty much table stakes in the fitness tracking market at this point, but it's the uses that haven't even been dreamt up yet that Razer is betting will really set the Nabu apart. "We're opening up all this information." "We're opening up all this information, all this data — subject of course to the user's permission — to developers out there. So first-party and third-party developers can now use all this data that they didn't have access to before." Whether it's the steps you've taken or the locations you've visited, all of the data collected by the Nabu is synced back to a user's smartphone via a Razer utility app, at which point developers can work with it all. While many similar products have APIs, access is usually limited to reading or modifying data from a user's account rather than keying off the device itself. It opens up a realm of possibilities, particularly considering that one Nabu band will be able to talk to another. Using a set of predefined gestures — such as a handshake — users could share information or add each other over a social network. While the company will be releasing its own apps for sleep and fitness, it's otherwise an accessory-style approach, with Razer providing the device that collects the information, but letting developers out there find clever and exciting uses for it. Of course, that only matters if the device itself is fantastic, and it was hard to get a sense of the final product from the early prototype we saw. The design was minimalist and unobtrusive, the twin screens fading into the black band when not in use, but in terms of functionality things were rather spotty. It was running with an alpha version of the smartphone app, we were told, and the Nabu wouldn't reliably connect. The OLED displays also weren't as effective as we'd hoped; while the icon notifications were nice and clear, the text on the private screen was tiny and required some squinting to make out the messages. Selling direct to developers first Razer will have time to iron out those kinks, however. It plans on selling the device in the months ahead for $49 — but only to developers. That will give the company time to drum up support and make sure there are apps that take advantage of the Nabu when the consumer version launches later this year at a slightly higher (and unannounced) price. Either way, Razer is heading into a hotly contested market segment with some established competitors, but the company is hoping it can leverage its own pair of secret weapons against the Nikes of the world: gamers and game developers. He describes a scenario where a gamer could be driving home, and an online game — aware of his location through the Nabu — could send him a message asking him to join in when he arrives home. "Or for that matter, if they can see he's meeting his guild mates in real life, and send him cool stuff along the way. That's the stuff we're really, really excited about." |
Less than a week after Jaxx was advised that Apple would not allow Dash to be integrated into its iOS app, the digital currency wallet is testing the waters again with the integration of Ethereum Classic (ETC). Currently the 6th most valuable blockchain token by market cap, Ethereum Classic is valued at $124 million. “Millions of people across the world are beginning to take advantage of blockchain, a revolutionary technology with transformative power,” said Anthony Di Iorio, CEO of Jaxx. “The hard-forked version of Ethereum has already been approved by Apple and we hope that Apple will allow the addition of Ethereum Classic, especially given its wide array of developer support and steadily growing popularity.” Like Dash, Ethereum Classic is now integrated into the other apps in Jaxx’s wallet suite including on Android, Mac OS, Windows and Linux, as well as in its Chrome and Firefox extensions. However, unlike Dash, there is still hope that Apple will approve its iOS integration for ETC shortly. “Adding Ethereum Classic makes a lot of sense for Jaxx, a pro-technology, pro-blockchain wallet. After the successful integration of Dash last month and now ETC, Jaxx currently has five tokens fully supported. We’re proud to be among the first to embrace the future, multi-coin world.” Dash Integration Rejected by Apple Store; Six Other Tokens Accepted In an interview with Bitcoin Magazine, Di Iorio spoke about the news regarding Apple's directive to remove Dash from its iOS app. According to Coin Market Cap, Dash is the world’s eighth most popular digital currency by market cap. However, despite this, Apple has stated that they are only accepting six coins/tokens: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin, DAO tokens and Ripple. “When trying to ask for more information about the rationale behind the decision, they will not provide information on that,” Di Iorio said. “They would not say anything about why or why not and they are tight-lipped on that.” After speaking with Apple developer support who confirmed Dash is not on their accepted list of digital currencies, Di Iorio added that Apple has given them until September 16 to remove Dash from the iOS version of the Jaxx wallet. It won’t affect any of their other platforms such as Android, tablet or mobile. “It’s not a big deal to us, but it’s unfortunate to iOS users because as the technology advances very quickly, it’s very difficult for developers to know if things will be accepted or not and why,” said Di Iorio. “We don’t really know what the playing field is when we’re trying to apply to the iOS store and there doesn’t seem to be much rationale behind which coins to accept.” Di Iorio said that he didn’t understand the basis behind Apple's decision to accept DAO tokens, but not Dash. “They didn’t even know anything about DAO until we put our app up because we were the first DAO wallet,” he stated. “I don’t know what their rationale behind it is and I don’t want to speculate, but I don’t know why it makes any difference to them what users are storing in their wallets.” He went on to say that while it was an unfortunate turn of events, he hoped that Apple would provide a clearer statement as to why some coins are accepted and why some aren’t. Before the issue with Apple, Di Iorio said it was an easy decision to support Dash. “The Dash community was very responsive and positive and very easy to work with. It’s a good community and it was a very good fit for us.” Interestingly enough, Apple had initially approved and accepted Dash into its store. The timeline illustrates that Jaxx had prepared their first application to add Dash to Apple on August 12. After several updates, it wasn’t until August 22 that it was ready for sale. However, Di Iorio says that Apple ended up calling him a few days later to inform him that the addition of Dash had been a mistake and that it could have to be removed. This isn’t the first time, though, that Apple has taken a stance against digital currencies. In 2014, it took action against bitcoin, but after a backlash from the digital currency community, Apple later reversed its position and reinstated the bitcoin wallet in the Apple store. Bringing the Community Together According to Di Iorio, the main thing is to bring the blockchain community together and to provide an interface for that community. “We do that by being agnostic; we do that by thinking everyone should be working together,” he said. “It’s not about Ethereum versus Bitcoin, or Dash versus Bitcoin. “It’s about the technology and that’s what we try to promote. We’re here to bring the tools and bring the blockchain to the masses, and that’s what we’re trying to do with our product to make it easy for users to use, no matter what blockchain they want to use.” |
A New Vision Problem - Cincinnati’s 40 year-old U.S. Bank Arena no longer attracts top-ranked acts and events because of its size and interior space configuration. We lose major events like concerts, regional NCAA March Madness games, Republican National Convention and other large conventions to Columbus, Louisville and Cleveland. The results: • Lost tax revenue: sales taxes, transient occupancy taxes, earnings taxes, admissions taxes, and parking fees. • Less vibrancy at The Banks because of fewer patrons for restaurants, bars, and retail establishments. Return on Investment - A modern center can host entertainment and sporting events as well as conventions and meetings to drive economic impact and quality of life for our fellow residents. With a new arena, we could host the likes of U2, Taylor Swift, and Kendrick Lamar concerts, NCAA men’s basketball tournament games and national conventions bringing thousands of visitors to Hamilton County and The Banks. • A new arena will help sustain businesses at The Banks, especially during Reds and Bengals off-season. • This venue will round-out The Banks to encompass all aspects of entertainment for people to enjoy. The Project - A facility that can compete against facilities in Columbus, Cleveland, Louisville, Indianapolis or Kansas City will require demolition of U.S. Bank Arena and construction of a new facility by a public entity. The project cost is estimated to be approximately $350 million. • New club seating deck, suites and upper seating bowl; gathering spaces on club and upper deck levels; rooftop terrace on the south side of the building overlooking the river • Retractable floor space in lower bowl to create large, contiguous floor of approximately 50,000 square feet; space currently unavailable for Cincinnati’s efforts to recruit top national conventions and meetings. Potential Funding Sources: Extension, Investment, Return - With ownership of the property in the hands of a public entity, public dollars could be used to finance the project. That public entity would also receive the net income from operations of the new U.S. Bank Arena to repay any public debt and fund other priority public initiatives. One approach would be to fund the project over a seven year period by extending the ¼¢ sales tax that was used for Union Terminal and by dedicating a combination of other revenue streams including building revenues, parking revenue and admissions tax, etc. Approximately 45% of the sales tax is paid by people who live outside of Hamilton County, and the annual impact of a ¼¢ sales tax to the average Hamilton County resident is approximately $23.00. The Kansas City Experience Kansas City and Cincinnati are Midwest river cities bordering another state with populations just over 2 million, median annual household incomes of approximately $60,000, and similar demographic compositions. • 10-year old Sprint Center public-private partnership which included private funding and a voter-approved increase in hotel and car-rental taxes earmarked for the arena. • Replaced the Kemper Arena, which first opened in 1974, just one year before U.S. Bank Arena opened its doors. • Sprint Center draws over 125 events per year without an anchor team - NCAA basketball tournaments, U.S. Figure Skating Championships, etc. • Sprint Center generated approximately $11 million in Net Operating Income last year. Return on Investment – A Smart Investment It is important for Cincinnati to have a modern center to host entertainment and sporting events as well as conventions and meetings to drive economic impact and quality of life for our fellow residents. With a new arena, we could host the likes of U2, Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift concerts, NCAA men’s basketball tournament games and national conventions. This new facility will help the sustainability of businesses at The Banks, especially during the winter months when the Reds and Bengals are in the off season. Conventions also have a powerful economic impact on the region. The NAACP Convention in 2016 brought over $4 million to the region, while the American Legion Convention the same year brought over $10 million. A high-quality venue will be a powerful attractor for large conventions to return to Cincinnati and come to Cincinnati for the first time. With a projected annual economic impact of $39 million and over $14 million annually in public revenues, the public’s investment is more than justified. Not only does this project enhance our quality of life, but it also returns the initial investment and provides additional funds to the taxpayers of Hamilton County for further investment in their community. |
Here we have an excellent submission that was recently sent in, ‘Shit and Piss’ by Tyler Landry. There is a lot to be said for unfettered imagination. Not much is said, actually, and a lot more could be said. In underground comix we tend to celebrate the ‘relatable misanthrope’ quite a bit. From the 60s till now we’ve been lauding the pantheon of Crumbs/Clowes/Matts/Van Scivers as voices of a generation or a kinda “thats exactly what I’ve been thinking!!” vibe kinda creator guy. Years upon years of dudes drawing themselves with their shoulders slumped, against a droll cityscape for a backdrop, on a solitary wander as we read panel after panel of thought bubble listing off by rote how much they hate everything and themselves. Now, I’m using some broad strokes here of course! All those guys are geniuses and I will happily buy every product but we still need to sit back and acknowledge that to illustrate or to give voice to shit everyone is thinking aint exactly all that; we’re all thinking that same shit! We celebrate the artist who can in the most literal way give voice to our most common traits, to the artist who can reach many voices through singular voice, but theres also another kinda artist who takes that aforementioned misanthropy, or angst, and instead of drawing themselves hunch backed and grumbling on a city street takes that pure feeling and puts it through a little filter called IMAGINATION. Being a comix fan for a good 25 years and pretty much devoting those years to the small press and underground, I notice its the Bagges’ who speak to a generation and inspire a swath of imitators for endless years to come but the Woodrings’ don’t so much. Theres always a big pile of auto bio comics to choose from and tons more about “relationships” but we don’t get much in the way of a silent dog man in a hallucinatory landscape. Thats cuz that shit aint so easily imitated without clearly cheating and ripping off. So the imitators are less, or less brave, but we still get a trickle of a few every generation who realize that the secret is just to access ones imagination and let it flow; thats how one best follows in the line of ones heroes. And methinks we don’t celebrate pure and unfettered imagination so much because even at its first degree of separation from reality; as Landry’s misanthropy is represented in eloquent and skilled representory (as in not full on fucking definition of ABSTRACT) art that instead of showcasing young twenty somethings sitting at a diner talking about girls and combat boots it depicts a shit and piss processing plant and the creatures cursed to live in it, it is quite hard for any of the muggles of the mainstream to understand. Most folks need cartoons about teens in skinny jeans and california rolled jeans, or at best anthropomorphic monkeys and ponies in skinny jeans and california rolled jeans, to understand anything and anything even slightly beyond that level of reliability. Any actual use of imagination, is, to that reader, nothing but garble. In cinema everyone flocks to see Iron Man but even though Hellboy does alright its still not setting the standard, even though that fucker is an action movie with angst about girls its still ABSTRACT by comparison. It takes only one more degree of separation to get to David Lynch and then beyond that we’re straying into “my kid could do that” territory. The mainstream hates the abstract and it hates imagination, it just don’t get it. This is hurt these days even moreso by the fact that we now have smartphones to do our imagining for us, just look at any snapchat filter and you see the death of imagination; your god damn phone puts on your costume for you. So, by definition, I look at Landry’s ‘Shit and Piss’ as beautiful abstraction of some very basic and understandable emotions and I look at the book as beautiful therapy because, man, we all got the bad feels and what better way to get them out than to come up with a ghastly world that is a giant and ancient shit and piss processing plant full of maligned and cursed creatures destined to fail and yet continue on within its hallows. Seems way healthier than drawing oneself walking down a Chicago street with ones backpack over ones shoulder with thought bubble after thought bubble of going into in depthy detail of why one hates parties and can’t get along with anybody. I imagine Landry is quite a well adjusted and happy gentleman thanks to these comics, the therapy of churning out all those bad feels and making the meat man suffer instead of the self. And I should get to the about the comics! As before mentioned, ‘Shit and Piss’ is about a shit and piss processing plant that is as old as time. No one knows who built it, how long its been there, but its got a caretaker and it is our narrator. And it shows us through through its caves and caravans and of all the horrors within it. This is classic, old school, METAL. This is low deep voices grunting about death and blades and blood. I sat reading this comic, called ‘Shit and Piss’ in a beautiful outdoor park a few blocks from my place. Sipping on a latte in the bright sun, the leaves rustling around me and the birds at play, with a big grin on my face following along at this parable of the HORRORS of us, the human race. This comic belongs in an early 90s issue of Heavy Metal, its got it all there. It starts out as interesting and disgusting parables shown by an indifferent and cold narrator who is a hands on/hands off bastard of a god and then you realize the stories start to intertwine and then, just as I needed it, just as I was starting to realize it and want it, I got a SPACESHIP, and I was like, “yep, he managed to fit in a fucking spaceship, I knew it,” and then we get a wonderfully satisfying ending of an origin story. This comic book perfectly fits that space in between a Fantagraphics book and a Dark Horse book. I didn’t realize that space was so broad but Retrofit/Big Planet, as well as Koyama, are really filling those spaces well. |
Man's best friend? This weekend, my cat Finch came with me camping in Big Sur and even joined me on a hike. Here's how. I love my cat. I rescued her from a rock quarry in Arkansas when she was just four weeks old while I was working with my dad one summer. We've been inseparable ever since. She drove with my brother and me back to Savannah, Georgia — riding in the back seat of my '68 Pontiac Firebird, enduring breakdowns and all. I was there for her when she got knocked up and had kittens (my brother now has Finch's son, Maximus, as his sidekick). Finch and I drove from Georgia to Los Angeles together to begin life after college. If there's a production shooting in our loft, she's always on set. When I'm editing photos at my desk, chances are that she's inconveniently laying on my Wacom. She's on the floor sleeping behind me as I write this now. The only times that we are ever really apart is when I go on adventures. Finch makes a cameo appearance in this Honda ad. This past weekend was my birthday. I turned 26. Last weekend, I took a bunch of n00b friends on their first ever camping trip. Next weekend, I'm taking a co-worker on his first backpacking trip. I'm great at planning adventures for my friends. I'm not always so great at making plans for myself — so as I rode my motorcycle home from work on Friday night, I realized that I had no plans for my birthday weekend. Advertisement I woke up on Saturday morning with the idea of renting a car to go camping at Big Sur. By 11am, I was driving back downtown from Hertz in a brand new Chevy Sonic. I planned to leave LA within an hour and a couple of "Hey, wanna split town for a last-minute adventure?" texts expectedly left me with no companions for the weekend. As I rushed into my apartment to start packing, Finch met me at the stairs with a stare that asked, "Where are you going?" In that very moment, I had an idea. So I looked down at her and exclaimed, "Finch, I'm taking you camping!" I quickly gathered and loaded all of my camping gear into the car, then went back upstairs for Finch. She must've known what was in store, because she went right into her carrier after not having seen it for years. Away we went! Advertisement Fur. Everywhere. Within about 30 seconds of driving, I was hearing, "Meowww… MEEOWWW!" from the back seat. Finch was not happy. I quickly considered turning around and taking her back home for fear that her apprehension would ruin my weekend getaway. Little did I know, that her company would make my weekend getaway. Within about 30 minutes, she had relaxed, hopped up into the copilot seat, and remembered how much she loved road trips. Advertisement Traffic in LA is a lot worse when you're not riding a motorcycle, so after about two hours we were finally west of Thousand Oaks. I spotted a PetSmart just off of the 101 so we made a quick pit stop for supplies. I got her a kitty harness with a springy leash combo, an "adventure-sized" litter box, and some litter (I already packed food and water in Tupperware containers from home.) Another quick stop for people food and we were once again on our way. This Come With Me Kitty harness and leash combo is a lot cheaper on Amazon than it was at PetCo. Advertisement The next five hours were full of grassy rolling hills and Pacific coastal scenery. Finally, we turned off the highway and proceeded up the sketchiest, most rutted-out road I had ever driven on. After bottoming out on a stone gully with one wheel off the ground (that's why you get rental car insurance) I rolled back and settled onto a small flat patch. Not quite the same spot that Wes sent me to, but paradise nonetheless. I staked Finch's leash to the ground and set up our tent as the sun's golden rays were setting over the Pacific. Advertisement Let's see how many cat puns we can come up with in the comments. Finch was a little freaked out at first, but she quickly realized that there was tons of grass to eat (she's a weird vegetarian cat — I've tried feeding her meat; she won't touch it, but she'll kill an entire bowl of spinach.) I set up a "kitty corner" in the tent next to where my feet would go, complete with her new litter box, food, and water. We hung out in the tent and I watched her eyes dart around chasing mosquitoes, and watched her ears twitch to hone in on the dozens of sounds around us until it got dark. We both passed out around nine. Advertisement If I didn't move around in my sleep so much, she would've stayed here all night. The next morning I awoke to her curled up on my feet and as I assimilated to my first day of being 26, she patiently watched out the window. After a quick birthday breakfast of steak and eggs, we broke camp, drove back down the mountain, and continued north on PCH. Hardly a bad way to start out another year. Advertisement She's actually just attacking the grass. Our next agenda for the day was to find a cool place to hike, so we pulled off at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and began the second part of our adventure. Up to this point, Finch hadn't quite gotten the hang of "walking" like a dog would, so I strapped on my Boreas Muir Woods daypack, which has a nice sturdy frame. I figured it'd make a great platform for her to lay on. I grabbed a couple of snacks, harnessed Finch up, lifted her onto my pack, and we hit the trails! Advertisement Where are you taking me?! People on the trail loved our beard + fur combo and they were thoroughly impressed with Finch's "tail etiquette." A couple of middle-aged men had similar cat-edotes from their youth, confirming popular belief that dads are the original hipsters. Advertisement Where does Finch end and my beard begin? It didn't take long for us to get into the groove of hiking together. We'd hike for awhile, listening and watching for activity in the surrounding woods. Then I'd let her down to "stalk." Pick her up, hike some more, then let her curiosity run wild as she sleuthed along the forest floor. By the second time she wanted down, it clicked! Cats are so naturally curious and investigative, it only made sense that she was enjoying every second of this. She didn't even mind walking through mud! Advertisement I spy... After exploring the trails for a couple of hours, we headed back to the car and drove south to Los Angeles. The long drive home gave me the chance reflect on the weekend and my experience with Finch. I've never been a fan of car camping, but this trip reminded me to be open to new experiences. You never know how they could shape your perspective on the world. Advertisement Natural predator. More cat camping pictures for your viewing pleasure: Advertisement [Let's see your best cat-tions!] Advertisement About the Author: Chris Brinlee Jr. is an adventurer and storyteller who is currently traveling around the world. Follow his journey on Instagram: @chrisbrinleejr. Photos: Chris Brinlee Jr IndefinitelyWild is a new publication about adventure travel in the outdoors, the vehicles and gear that get us there and the people we meet along the way. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. |
This show will feature opinions about sex work and animal rights by sex workers themselves. Please join us for a conversation with Furry Girl, the creator of the vegan pornography site, Veg Porn. We’ll tackle sex work, indie porn, veganism and animal rights, and learn why this ambitious woman is so passionate about plants and pornography. According to the site, “VegPorn.com is the first and only page of its kind any where on or off the web: the only adult site made by and for plant-eaters! This is a very unique site with a theme that isn’t based on size, age, weight, color, etc. It is a labor of lust run by one person and our models, and updated every-other week.” We’ll also be joined by Mirha-Soleil Ross, a sex worker/trans/AR activist who will share her thoughts on pornography. Mirha-Soleil is also the co-producer and co-star of G-Sprout!, “A cyberspace encounter turns into a trans-polysexual-vegan-docu-porno featuring urban veggie lovers speaking out on dating, intimacy, and sex in a meat-centered culture.” Listen right now: https://animalvoicesradio.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/20040629_furry_girl.mp3 or download an mp3 of the show. |
The most moving reading I’ve done in the past six months has come from the anguished tweets on #YesAllWomen that followed the Elliot Rodger shootings in Santa Barbara, Calif. Even more depressing than his horrific actions is the feeling that the national debates about cultural misogyny, mental-health care and gun control that followed have already lost momentum — shoved back into their dusty corner, awaiting the next bloody tragedy. Public outrage has a short half-life. Fist-shaking and finger-pointing quickly degenerates into helpless shrugging. But we can’t let go of this question: Why in America do our mentally disturbed take out their anger so violently? In a Sept. 19, 2013, op-ed article in the New York Times, Stanford University psychological anthropology professor T.M. Luhrmann explained how when schizophrenics in the Indian city of Chennai (formerly Madras) hear voices, they are told to do domestic chores like cook, clean or bathe. But schizophrenics in San Mateo, Calif., hear voices that tell them to take very violent actions like cutting off a head and drinking the blood. In India they clean; in America they kill. America also has the highest gun-ownership rate in the world. And our number of multiple killings is nearly as high as that for the rest of the world combined. Even more disturbing is why so much violence in America is directed at women. The answer to this question, at least in part, is that it’s a result of a lifetime of cultural influences. And while there are surely plenty of cultural influences to blame, one of the sources of this negative influence is amateur and professional sports. Surprised to hear me say that? I’ve spent much of my life in sports and promoting sports as a positive influence on our youth and our culture. The benefits are obvious: building healthy bodies, practicing sportsmanship (should we call that sportspersonship?), learning teamwork, creating a supportive community and much more. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now In fact, the image of girls and women in sports is much more culturally positive than that of mainstream society. In the sports world, women are praised for their athletic ability — not their physical appearance. We cheer the sweaty woman running down the field for her effort. Mainstream America tells her heels are required because she’s too short, makeup is required because her face isn’t attractive enough, cleavage is required to give men a reason to pay attention, hair coloring is required because aging is forbidden and blondes are sexier, Photoshopping is required because no woman (not even a model) can match the fantasy woman our culture promotes on the covers of almost every women’s magazine. (It’s not a coincidence that Rodger gave his object of hatred a hair color — “blonde slut.”) But in sports, women stand tall and proud in athletic shoes and uniforms because we’re more interested in what they do than how they look. But — there’s a big but. Despite all the good in sports, there are many aspects of it that encourage our culture to look at women as less valuable than men. The easiest way to determine women’s value to their culture is to look at how much we pay them in relation to men. Some studies suggest that in general women make less doing the same jobs as men (the Census Bureau concludes that women earn 77¢ for every dollar men earn). This national trend extends to professional sports. According to Forbes, the maximum salary for a player in the WNBA is $107,000, compared with the $30.5 million Kobe Bryant will make. Inbee Park, who won the 2013 U.S. Open in golf, received $585,000 for her victory. Justin Rose, the men’s winner, received $1.4 million. This disparity is seen less in tennis because Wimbledon, the French Open and the U.S. Open all pay male and female winners equally (which is why 7 of the 10 top-paid female athletes in the world are tennis players). This discrepancy extends to coaching as well. For Division I college sports, men get paid significantly more. Male basketball head coaches averaged $71,511, while female coaches averaged $39,177. Even in gymnastics, which is predominantly female, male coaches are paid more. This doesn’t even address the fact that there are more opportunities for males than females to play sports, both as amateurs and as professionals. Many will argue that the pay difference is the result of free-market supply and demand. More people want to see men play professional basketball than want to see women play, so the players are paid accordingly. You can’t argue with economics. There is truth to this. You can’t force people to attend a sporting event if they don’t want to. However, this is something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. We can change things. First, we need to address why they don’t want to watch. This goes back to cultural biases. If we don’t value girls in sports in middle school and high school, then we don’t grow up to value them as professional athletes. And by value, I mean make athletic opportunities available, pay coaches equally and promote female sports with the same vigor with which we do male sports. At the same time, the disrespectful and disparaging language used in sports furthers the gender gap. Male coaches often address their male athletes as ladies whenever they want to humiliate them. “Come on, ladies,” they’ll say, “lift your skirts.” Or, “You’re playing like a girl!” This is treated as a joke or good-humored tradition, but its long-term social effect is not funny. Even in movies and TV shows, we see tough women turning to men and saying, “Quit acting like a girl.” Cue audience chuckle at the reversal. But all that does is prove we’ve brainwashed women to be derogatory toward themselves. We also need to address the culture of violence surrounding our athletes. When we see them resolving problems through violence, it can send a message to others to emulate them. Baltimore Ravens tackle Jah Reid was arrested for allegedly head butting, kicking and punching a man in a strip club (what attending strip clubs says about our culture of devaluing women is another matter). Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov was arrested on charges of kidnapping and assault of his girlfriend. Houston Rockets forward Terrence Jones was arrested for stomping on the leg of a homeless man. Former New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez was charged with murdering a friend. This year alone football players Chris Rainey, Robert Sands and Daryl Washington were arrested for domestic battery or assault. We can’t as a culture glorify violence and then be surprised when our members resort to it as our “heroes” do. Which brings us back to #YesAllWomen. Despite more than a million responses, it probably won’t change anything. It should be a national wake-up call that such a forum even needs to exist. And we should celebrate the opportunity for women to express their frustration. But we need to remember that while misogyny may be perpetuated mostly by men, it is enabled by both men and women in society who embrace gender inequality — or simply let it go unnoticed. It’s reminiscent of the 1947 film Gentlemen’s Agreement, in which Gregory Peck plays a journalist who pretends to be Jewish in order to write about anti-Semitism. His Waspish fiancée realizes that there’s a “gentlemen’s agreement” to ignore distasteful anti-Semitic comments (and by implication racist, homophobic and misogynist comments) as if they never happened. She also realizes that ignoring them is part of the problem because the silence encourages them and thereby taints our whole society. We can change things. Small things. One at a time. We start by not remaining silent in the presence of misogyny, not tolerating violence as a form of communication, and demanding gender equality in education, sports and jobs. Right now, tennis is showing us the way. All athletes need to help finish the job. Abdul-Jabbar is a six-time NBA champion and league Most Valuable Player. Follow him on Twitter (@KAJ33) and Facebook (facebook.com/KAJ). Abdul-Jabbar also writes a weekly column for the L.A. Register. Contact us at editors@time.com. |
Brexit could lead to less protection for Falklands and Gibraltar, MPs told BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Argentinian aggression towards the Falkland Islands may be fuelled by a British exit from the European Union, it has been claimed. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/brexit-could-lead-to-less-protection-for-falklands-and-gibraltar-mps-told-34659455.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/article34659454.ece/82718/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-db96ac54-bd67-4469-bfe2-e617fceefa6b_I1.jpg Email Argentinian aggression towards the Falkland Islands may be fuelled by a British exit from the European Union, it has been claimed. Spain would "take advantage" of the UK quitting the bloc to "further undermine, isolate and exclude" Gibraltar, MPs have also been told. The British Overseas Territories warned the Foreign Affairs committee they feared losing vital protections if voters backed Brexit in the June 23 referendum. Sukey Cameron, the Falkland Islands government representative in the United Kingdom, said quitting would have "wide-ranging and deep implications". "Were the UK no longer a member of the EU that support would be much less certain from a large number of those EU member states, and might encourage Argentina to be much more aggressive in its approach," she said. A statement from the government of Gibraltar said: "In Gibraltar's case, experience has shown that Spain would take advantage of any such renegotiation in order to further undermine, isolate and exclude Gibraltar from the European mainstream." The warnings were contained in a report by the committee, made up of an equal number of Leave and Remain supporting MPs, on the implications of the referendum. It "cannot be assumed that the UK would retain full or partial access to the single market" if Britain left or that it would want to "given the restrictions and costs that such an arrangement could potentially incur", MPs said. Following the Norwegian and Swiss trading models would "not be appropriate or advantageous" for the UK, the report said. It added: "The Government should recognise the probability of no mutual interest deal being concluded within the two-year notice period." The UK would move to standard world trading requirements and "would then need to decide which of the 6,987 directly-applicable EU Regulations would need to be replaced by UK law". MPs also warned that remaining in the bloc would also pose significant challenges and played down some claims that Britain would lose influence in the world. Pressing problems, such as the "apparent decline" of UK influence in driving EU foreign policy, slow and cumbersome processes, and the bloc's failure to grapple with extreme instability on its borders could turn into "major long-term risks for the UK inside the EU" if they are not dealt with, it found. MPs also said it was important to "avoid over-stating" the extent of the UK's potential marginalisation in the transatlantic alliance. Fresh on the back of the visit by US President Barack Obama to London, the committee insisted that, as Britain meets the Nato and UN foreign aid spending targets, the UK is "likely to remain an important player in world affairs and a key strategic partner for the US". Counter-terrorism co-operation would "undoubtedly continue even after leaving the EU" and the "five eyes" intelligence-sharing network with the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand is unlikely to be affected. MPs also warned that potential expansion of the EU to a bloc with 33 or more states that have large economic and political disparities "may exacerbate existing fissures within the EU". "Without appropriate arrangements for controlling migration from new states, moreover - especially from Turkey, should it eventually join the EU - enlargement could put great strain on the resources of the existing member states," the reports states. Committee chairman Crispin Blunt said: "The referendum offers the British people a once-in-a-generation opportunity to chart a course for the UK's role in the world. Voters should consider not only the short-term consequences of staying or leaving but the long-term opportunities and challenges." |
One day in 1933, as he was cleaning his office, an idea came to Charlie Gaines: He would publish a magazine that would put together all the comic strips that had been published earlier in the dailies. A year later Gaines – a Jew who was born Maxwell Ginsburg – published the first-ever comic book, called “Famous Funnies.” Success was instant. Within a few years Gaines’ initiative spawned a flourishing industry, and by the mid-1930s there were increasingly growing numbers of comic book publishers. The undisputed kings of the genre were a few superheroes who fought to rid the world of evil. Behind them stood mainly Jewish immigrants – not only the publishers but also the creative artists, the writers and illustrators who were in charge of the creative aspects of this industry. They were responsible for the fact that Jewish content seeped – consciously or otherwise – into the characters, plots and illustrated worlds on display. In fact, nearly all the great superheroes were created by Jews: Jerry Siegel and Joe (Joseph) Shuster created Superman, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby (Jacob Kurtzberg) created Captain America, Bob Kane (Robert Kahn) and Bill Finger invented Batman, while Kirby, together with Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber) produced a particularly impressive line of heroes such as Spider-Man, The Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Ironman, the X-men, Thor and the Avengers. The first Batman cover from 1940 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane (Robert Kahn) Courtesy What was it that led Jews to take such a prominent role in the movie and comics industries? “I don’t think that the central role played by Jews in film and comics from the outset was due to special abilities or talents in these areas,” says Dr. Ben Baruch Blich, a senior lecturer in the department of history and theory at the Bezalel Academy of Arts. “What caused it was the open and latent anti-Semitism that prevailed in the United States at the time. Since daily newspapers [in the U.S.] refused to accept illustrations or comic books made by Jews, they had no other choice. For example, Siegel and Shuster, who were only youths then, could not find jobs at mainstream comic book networks, so they joined Gaines. The same was true for cinema. This was a restriction that forced Jews to develop a new approach.” The comic book writer Arie Kaplan, who wrote the book “From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and comic books,” explains that in contrast to the advertising industry, the comic book industry was free of anti-Semitism since many of the publishers were Jews, and no expensive academic degrees were required. Danny Fingeroth, an American writer of comics and a former editor at Marvel Comics, who wrote the book “Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics and the creation of the Superhero,” further explains the central role Jews played in the early decades of the film and comic book industries: “Many factors went into Jews being prominent in storytelling media. It has to do with, it seems to me, Jews’ connection to a tradition of storytelling, as well as Talmudic analysis, plus the status of the children of Jewish immigrants – like all immigrants – having an outsider status in America. This led some of them to analyze what history and myths fueled the American imagination, and how to reflect that self-image back at Americans in stories that had universal appeal. “What comics and film have in common is they were considered schlock, not-respectable media that were looked down upon, and hence there was an opportunity for Jews to get into these fields – in the creative and business ends – which were open to them, whereas other fields, like most mainstream publishing and advertising, were not.” Superman in a basket Spiderman circa 1962, by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (Stanley Martin Lieber) Courtesy Shuster and Siegel’s Superman was launched in 1938, published by Gaines. Over the last decade comic book aficionados have argued and debated whether Superman himself was also Jewish, and whether he and subsequent superheroes were created in order to fulfill a hidden Jewish desire to deliver a decisive victory over Nazi Germany. Surprisingly, upon reading the veteran superhero’s life story one encounters several elements that derive from traditional Jewish culture. The first of these is the name Kal-El he receives from his parents. Kaplan says that there is a lively ongoing debate around the question of whether Siegel and Shuster planted these Jewish signs in Superman deliberately or not. He notes the name Kal-El as an example, which sounds like a Hebrew name that could mean “all of God” or “God’s voice.” He adds that Siegel and Shuster received a Jewish education. Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, author of “Up Up and Oy Vey,” which also deals with Jews and comic books in America, concurs in the belief that the Jewish elements in Superman’s story derive from the Jewish identity of his creators. “These are all creators who themselves had bar mitzvahs, spent time at the synagogue. I think about how natural it is that Superman has this parallel with Moses. The creators probably had a Passover Seder, and we write about what we know about. It makes sense that Superman would be so close to Moses. Moses had this double life – he was raised in a foreign culture, a foreign land, and as a child was put in a basket and sent away. He also had a double identity. And Moses was the voice of God, like ‘Kal-El’; it’s the Moses story,” explains Weinstein in a telephone interview. Blich mentions a possible source of inspiration – the 16th century Jewish legend of the Golem of Prague. The Golem, who was a superhero before the term was coined, was created, according to the legend, by the Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Yehuda Levai (Loew). He sent the Golem out to terrorize those who spread blood libels against Jews. “Will Eisner [one of America’s greatest comic book cartoonists, who was also Jewish] wrote that the Golem was perceived in the 1930s as a mythological character, an early superhero,” says Blich. “The comic book creators were obviously secular, but the story of the Golem was imprinted in ‘Jewish genes’ searching for salvation. There are numerous conceptions of Superman as a mythological hero, a modern embodiment of ancient mythology, a hero with supernatural powers who can save civilization from the forces of nature or the evils of human society.” Early superhero: the 16th century Jewish Golem of Prague. Courtesy The amusing debate around Superman’s Jewishness was never settled, since many others saw in his character elements taken from Christianity and a likeness to Jesus. It’s interesting to note, however, that someone who skipped over all the lengthy arguments around this issue was none other than the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who declared in 1940 that Superman was Jewish. This happened after one of the comic books that came out that year included a story in which the superhero destroys the military defense line put up by Germany on its border with France, whereupon he captures the surprised Fuhrer. “Superman is Jewish” declared Goebbels after the comic book came his way. He then instructed that Shuster and Siegel’s popular comic book be removed from all bookshelves. Captain America – created by Jews as well – also set out to fight Nazis. He did so in the very first issue that was published in March 1941, completing what Superman didn’t finish the year before. The front page of the first issue of Captain America, published six months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, shows him punching Hitler in the face and knocking him down. The first MAD magazine, 1952. Courtesy Is it by chance that Jews were the ones who created these superheroes? Is there something Jewish about the whole concept? Fingeroth: “I think the idea of a being who wields great power wisely and justly would be very appealing to people whose history involves frequently being the victim of power wielded brutally and unjustly. In retrospect, we can see coded, disguised content that could be interpreted as Jewish in the stories of the superheroes. For instance, Superman, Batman and Spider-Man’s origins are about sudden, traumatic, violent loss – which could be seen to echo the loss of stability that eastern European Jews had regularly experienced. “The superhero stories were about power wielded wisely and about dealing with traumatic loss. These are major themes, as is the secret (or dual) identity – also of interest to all immigrants, but especially attractive to Jews who, in that era, felt that they could succeed in America only if they disguised their identities as Jews. One might speak Yiddish at home, but that was the language of your embarrassing immigrant parents and grandparents. You speak English in public so you can fit in with your friends at school. But which is the real you? So just as Superman would disguise himself as Clark Kent in order to fit in with non-super people, so would Jews change their names or ‘fix’ their noses to assimilate.” Jews break out of the confines of comic books After World War II, when the comic book industry started dealing with new content, appealing to a new readership, Jews still retained key roles. Mad Magazine, founded in 1952 but to this day the most famous and influential comic magazine, was created by two Jews, publisher William Gaines (the son of Charlie Gaines) and editor Harvey Kurtzman. Comic book writer Arie Kaplan says that while researching his book on Jews and comic books he discovered that Mad Magazine had been using Yiddish phrases for years. In fact, the very first story in its first issue, written by Kurtzman and illustrated by Will Elder – both of whom are Jewish – was about two Jewish thieves. The story is called “Ganefs” (thieves in Yiddish). “Most of the people in the audience, most of the readers who were kids probably thought it’s a silly nonsense word, they probably thought there was no significance to it. And again you get the question: Are they writing code for the Jewish readers? In that case they actually might have been, because it’s not a science fiction story. ‘Ganefs’ is a humorous story about two bank robbers, about two criminals,” says Kaplan. Eisner is considered to this day one of the most respected artists in the medium and one of the greatest contributors to its advancement. The American comics industry has an Eisner Award, similar to the Oscar award in the film industry. Eisner is considered by many people to be the “father of the illustrated novel” due to the novels he published from the late 1970s, in a genre he made popular. In contrast to the superhero comic book, Eisner’s illustrated novels, like that first story in Mad Magazine, no longer hide their Jewish aspects. Writers no longer feel it necessary to demonstrate their patriotism in a manner that squelches and conceals their Jewish identity. In all the stories that make up Eisner’s first illustrated novel “A Contract with God” (1978), there are Jewish protagonists. This is true for his other works as well. In his last book, called “The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” Eisner used a comic book style to investigate the twisted history of that infamous anti-Semitic tract. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images Over time other Jewish characters started emerging from the closet in the mainstream comic book industry. Benjamin “Ben” Grimm, known as “The Thing,” was one of the Fantastic Four, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961. These two Jewish artists decided up front that this protagonist would be Jewish, giving him a name that revealed him as such. The unwritten law that forbade mentioning the religion of comic book characters (as in other entertainment media) prevented them from expressly mentioning this fact. Only after four decades was the Jewish identity of The Thing exposed unambiguously. Other prominent Jewish characters in American comics were Kitty Pryde, a Jewish mutant with supernatural powers, who appeared in 1980 in the X-Men series. A year later it turned out that Magento, a mutant with supernatural powers and who is the main enemy of the X-Men, is a Jewish Holocaust survivor. Batwoman Kathy Kane has also joined the list of Jewish superheroes over the last decade. Besides being a lesbian she takes care to celebrate Jewish holidays. Later Jewish artists include Daniel Clowes who wrote “Ghost World,” an illustrated novel that was turned into a well-received movie in 2001, as well as Harvey Pekar, a filing clerk at a hospital who transformed his daily routine into an acclaimed autobiographic comic book called “American Splendor” (also turned into a successful movie). He continued writing original comic books until his death in 2010. Michael Chabon is a novelist, not a comic book writer, but he too takes a place of honor on this list due to his novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay,” which tells the story of two Jewish youngsters who arrive in the United States penniless from Europe and manage to become leading artists in the American comic book industry. The novel revealed to millions of readers the Jewish element that was common to many artists in this industry during its early stages. Art Spiegelman wrote the illustrated novel “Maus” 30 years ago. Many people see it as one of the crowning achievements in the world of comics. “Maus” proved that a comic book-style story can weave a personal story into difficult and sensitive historical topics such as the Holocaust, and do so in a manner that is not only unique, effective, impressive and excellent, but also amazingly communicative. In 1992, “Maus” became the first comic strip to win the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. In light of the central role played by Jews at the outset of the American comic book industry, it was symbolic that a work by a Jewish writer that deals with Jewish identity and the heavy price those holding this identity paid in the 1930s and 1940s in Europe – the years in which the American comic book industry was taking its first steps – was the work that managed to break through the medium’s confines, garnering sweeping admiration outside the industry. |
JERUSALEM (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian teenager died Thursday after she was unable to pass through an Israeli checkpoint on the way to the hospital during a medical emergency, the girl's family said. Nour Mohammad Afaneh, 14, died in an ambulance while in critical condition on her way to a Bethlehem hospital, Afaneh's father told Ma'an. He said that Anafeh had been suffering from severe pneumonia and was physically disabled. On the way to Beit Jala Governmental Hospital, the ambulance arrived at the Container Road checkpoint north of Bethlehem and found it closed, he said. After attempting three other routes to the hospital in heavy traffic, the ambulance attempted to bring Anafeh to Ramallah Governmental Hospital, but she died before arriving, her father said. Her funeral will be held Thursday. Popular Committe Spokesman Hani Halbiya told Ma'an that Israeli forces have kept the Container Road checkpoint closed for the past three days. Extreme traffic is commonplace in the Wadi Nar area between Bethlehem and Ramallah, and closures of the Container Road checkpoint slow movement even more. |
Most people turn to Netflix to binge watch full seasons of a single TV show, but there could be a much cheaper way: YouTube. You might be surprised to learn that you can watch full episodes of popular TV shows on YouTube for free, thanks to a large number of rogue accounts that are hosting illegal live streams of shows. Do you love King of the Hill? Easy. Just choose which episode you like best. The Simpsons? Plenty to pick from there, too. Or, maybe you're looking for some football? You can watch a livestream replay of the latest game easily, as if the NFL's draconian intellectual property rules mean absolutely nothing. Perhaps the most shocking thing about these free (and very illegal) TV live streams might even make their way into your suggested video queue, if you watch enough "random shit" and Bobby Hill quote compilations on the site, as Mashable business editor Jason Abbruzzese recently experienced. SEE ALSO: 5 simple steps for how to make money on YouTube He first noticed the surprisingly high number of illegal TV streaming accounts on his YouTube homepage, which has tailored recommended videos based on his viewing habits. Personalized recommendations aren't exactly new — but the number of illegal live streams broadcasting copyrighted material on a loop was a shocker. Jason's YouTube landing page. Image: screenshot/Youtube/jason abbruzzese When we looked deeper into the livestreams, the number we found was mindblowing. Many of these accounts appear to exist solely to give watchers an endless loop of their favorite shows and only have a few other posts related to the live streamed content. What's really strange is that there appears to be no obvious incentive for doing this, either. We can basically rule out doing it for ad money because you have to apply to be part of the YouTube Partner Program to earn any ad revenue. Your channel also needs 10,000 views to be eligible to apply, and YouTube has to approve of every account that makes it through, so none of these accounts have a chance to pass. The audiences watching these channels are actually pretty small compared to other popular channels, too. The largest number of viewers we witnessed was just over a thousand, while many streams had only a few dozen people tuned in at any given time. Clearly, this isn't the type of content that fosters the types of large communities found elsewhere on the site. We reached out to a few of these account holders directly on the platform, but haven't heard back from anyone as of press time. The phenomenon seems to be rather ephemeral. Most of the accounts we viewed early in the day were shut down within just a few hours. Some of them survived for up to 20 hours after they were posted — but they were few and far between. This was a South Park 24/7 live stream account. Image: screenshot/youtube YouTube does its best to make it easy for people to report illegal copyright streams, which could be why the accounts are so often wiped from the site. First, copyright holders can formally notify YouTube that they believe their materials are being improperly hosted. YouTube then reviews the offending content, and pulls it down if it's found to be infringing the copyright. Users who have multiple complaints against them can be banned from the platform entirely. Second, there's the nearly decade-old tool called Content ID, which allows the rights holders to manage their content more directly. Copyright holders provide reference files of their content to YouTube, which feed them into the system. The tool can be used for tracking, monetization, or outright blocking content that match the copyrighted materials. There are over 8,000 partners who use this tool, a vast majority who choose to allow materials to stay up. Video uploaders aren't exactly hung totally out to dry here, either. If a video creator receives a takedown request, they can file a counter notification. Likewise with Content ID claims — YouTube creators can dispute those, too. Image: screenshot/youtube We reached out to YouTube to ask about its stance on the livestreams, since the videos are so clearly outside the realm of copyright laws. "YouTube respects the rights of copyright holders and we’ve invested heavily in copyright and content management tools to give rights holders control of their content on YouTube," a YouTube spokesperson told Mashable in an email. "When copyright holders work with us to provide reference files for their content, we ensure all live broadcasts are scanned for third party content, and we either pause or terminate streams when we find matches to third party content." We also reached out to 20th Century Fox (the copyright holder for King of the Hill, which we found to be a commonly streamed show), but its reps had no comment on the matter. It looks like those live streams that caught our eye are just another quirk of the live streaming video platform, which has morphed from an internet oddity for cat videos to a major streaming and music giant over the years. You might not always be able to watch your favorite shows on YouTube — especially if the copyright holder is persistent — but if you find a stream at the right moment, you might find some free binging where you least expect it. Just remember that there's a good chance the person posting the copyrighted material is breaking the law. |
The Raiders were down 10-0 heading into the second quarter and were finally moving the ball for the first time in the game. Pryor then threw a pass to Rod Streater in the endzone and the Chargers were called for pass interference. It should have resulted in a first and goal at the one yard line but Takeo Spikes and Mike Goodson began scuffling before the play was over. At that moment, Terrelle Pryor showed a great deal of leadership. It was the kind of leadership that didn't go unnoticed by Dennis Allen. "I thought he did a nice job trying to get Goody out of there," said Allen. "He understood what the situation was and we can't hurt our team there." After that, I told Pryor that his head coach was impressed by what he did in that situation. It was clear he had some heated words for Goodson after pulling him out of the scrum. I asked Pryor what he told Mike Goodson at that moment. Pryor had been literally hanging his head throughout the interview and upon me asking him what he told Goodson, he lifted his head for the first time and spoke with passion about the situation. "Let's get this right, I LOVE Mike Goodson," Pryor emphasized. "That's my guy. That's one of my very good friends, and I know I slammed him but you can't do that. We're about to score. How hard it is, me just being in the stance watching Carson, it's very hard to get down there and score in the NFL and when we're down there, what if we get a 15 yard penalty? We're screwed. And I just said ‘Mike, you can't do that' and he said ‘What do you expect me to do, he hit me?' and was like ‘you gotta be the bigger man. How many times have we been... last year we had over 160 penalties, I don't know how many yards, maybe 1000 football fields. We have to be the bigger guy when scuffles happen like that and I told him, you can't do that. I got caught up and I gotta apologize for throwing him like that. It's just me being a leader and just trying to get him off. I don't think I handled it the right way but I'm a feisty guy." In the end, Goodson and Spikes were both ejected and the offsetting penalties negated the potential first and goal off the pass interference. Pryor would make good on it though as he threw a touchdown pass two plays later. Follow @LeviDamien |
nginx: How To Block Visitors By Country With The GeoIP Module (Debian/Ubuntu) Version 1.0 Author: Falko Timme Follow me on Twitter This tutorial explains how to use the GeoIP module with nginx to block visitors by country. This is made possible by the GeoIP database which maps users' IP addresses to countries. nginx must be compiled with the HttpGeoipModule to use the GeoIP database. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you! 1 Preliminary Note As mentioned in the introduction, nginx must be compiled with the HttpGeoipModule. To check if your nginx was compiled with that module, run: nginx -V If you see --with-http_geoip_module in the output, you are ready to use the GeoIP database with nginx: [email protected]:~# nginx -V nginx version: nginx/1.2.1 TLS SNI support enabled configure arguments: --prefix=/etc/nginx --conf-path=/etc/nginx/nginx.conf --error-log-path=/var/log/nginx/error.log --http-client-body-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/body --http-fastcgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/fastcgi --http-log-path=/var/log/nginx/access.log --http-proxy-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/proxy --http-scgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/scgi --http-uwsgi-temp-path=/var/lib/nginx/uwsgi --lock-path=/var/lock/nginx.lock --pid-path=/var/run/nginx.pid --with-pcre-jit --with-debug --with-http_addition_module --with-http_dav_module --with-http_geoip_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_image_filter_module --with-http_realip_module --with-http_stub_status_module --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_sub_module --with-http_xslt_module --with-ipv6 --with-sha1=/usr/include/openssl --with-md5=/usr/include/openssl --with-mail --with-mail_ssl_module --add-module=/build/buildd-nginx_1.2.1-2.1-amd64-fMGfEu/nginx-1.2.1/debian/modules/nginx-auth-pam --add-module=/build/buildd-nginx_1.2.1-2.1-amd64-fMGfEu/nginx-1.2.1/debian/modules/nginx-echo --add-module=/build/buildd-nginx_1.2.1-2.1-amd64-fMGfEu/nginx-1.2.1/debian/modules/nginx-upstream-fair --add-module=/build/buildd-nginx_1.2.1-2.1-amd64-fMGfEu/nginx-1.2.1/debian/modules/nginx-dav-ext-module [email protected]:~# 2 Installing The GeoIP Database On Debian/Ubuntu, the GeoIP database can be installed as follows: apt-get install geoip-database libgeoip1 This places the GeoIP database in /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat. It is possible that it is a bit outdated. Therefore we can optionally download a fresh copy from the GeoIP web site: mv /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat_bak cd /usr/share/GeoIP/ wget http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLiteCountry/GeoIP.dat.gz gunzip GeoIP.dat.gz 3 Configuring nginx Open /etc/nginx/nginx.conf... vi /etc/nginx/nginx.conf ... and place this in the http {} block, before any include lines: [...] geoip_country /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat; map $geoip_country_code $allowed_country { default yes; FK no; FM no; EH no; } [...] This allows all countries, except the three countries set to no (you can find a list of country codes here). To do it the other way round, i.e. block all countries and allow only a few, you'd do it this way: [...] geoip_country /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoIP.dat; map $geoip_country_code $allowed_country { default no; FK yes; FM yes; EH yes; } [...] Now, this actually doesn't block any country, it just sets the $allowed_country variable. To actually block countries, you must open your vhost configuration and place the following code in the server {} container (this can go inside and also outside any location {} block): [...] if ($allowed_country = no) { return 444; } [...] This returns the 444 error code to any visitor from a blocked country. What this does is it closes the connection without sending any headers. You can also use another error code like 403 ("Forbidden") if you like. Reload nginx afterwards: /etc/init.d/nginx reload About The Author Falko Timme is the owner of Timme Hosting (ultra-fast nginx web hosting). He is the lead maintainer of HowtoForge (since 2005) and one of the core developers of ISPConfig (since 2000). He has also contributed to the O'Reilly book "Linux System Administration". |
Conservative polemicist Monica Crowley has been tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as his deputy national security adviser, succeeding Ben Rhodes, who was instrumental in crafting President Barack Obama's failed foreign policy. "I am deeply honored, humbled and grateful to be asked by the President-elect to join the extraordinary national security team he is assembling," Crowley said in a statement. "With vision, courage and moral clarity, he is committed fully to re-establishing America's singular place in the world. He is also committed to selecting the best people for the jobs of keeping the American people safe and the country secure. It will be a great privilege to serve with them." Here are seven things you need to know about Crowley. 1. Crowley worked for Richard Nixon. Crowley's interest in foreign policy was piqued through a political science professor she had at Colgate University, who lent her Richard Nixon's book 1999: Victory Without War, leading Crowley to write a letter to Nixon about his foreign policy. Nixon invited her to discuss foreign policy, and eventually Crowley worked for him in 1990 and became a close advisor to the former president. 2. Crowley has since been a commentator. Crowley has been an analyst on Fox News for years and used to co-host MSNBC's Coast To Coast. Crowley has also been a radio host and online opinion editor for the Washington Times. Her contract with Fox News has now ended with her pending role as Trump's deputy national security adviser. Crowley is also on the Council of Foreign Relations. 3. Crowley has been fiercely critical of the Iran deal. "Of the countless dangerous and destructive things this president has done, this deal is the worst of all," Crowley wrote for the Washington Times in 2015. "Mr. Obama’s primary job is to protect and defend the American people from all enemies foreign and domestic, and yet he has now given a green light to Iran’s march toward nuclear weapons. That’s why it’s now up to us to fight this potential death sentence for the West and Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East." Given that there are already signs of Trump waffling on destroying the Iran deal, Crowley's voice should help ensure the deal's demise. 4. Crowley has also been critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Crowley wrote in 2015 that Putin is intent on protecting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad because of oil and disputed the notion that Putin was fighting ISIS: Under the pretext of defeating ISIS, Mr. Putin has sent Russian special forces into Syria and Iraq and is preparing to introduce up to 150,000 ground troops. The elite troops are not there to simply provide security but to call in airstrikes and carry out covert missions against the western-backed, anti-Assad rebels, so that eventually Mr. Putin can argue accurately that the choice in Syria is between Mr. Assad and ISIS. Pick one. The Russian campaign against ISIS also puts the lie to Mr. Obama’s fairytale claim that he’s fighting the terrorists aggressively; Moscow is accomplishing in a few weeks what Mr. Obama hasn’t been willing to accomplish in over a year. Further, Russia’s air defense missiles are in Syria for a purpose other than the mere protection of the Assad regime. When Washington was given less than an hour’s warning that the Kremlin was imposing, in effect, a no-fly zone in Syria and Mr. Obama had no response, Mr. Putin pressed on, ordering Russian warships in the Caspian Sea to fire long-range cruise missiles. These are warning shots to his deeper target, Riyadh. Russia is surrounding Saudi Arabia with weapons, combat troops and alliances, including with Egypt and Israel, designed to make Riyadh an offer it can’t refuse: cut production so prices rise or else. Leftist news sites have pounced on this tweet from Crowley: I guess Putin is going to have to do it. RT "State Dept Won’t Release Clinton Fdn Emails for 27 Months https://t.co/mnECDBYdX0 — Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) June 30, 2016 This doesn't necessarily mean that Crowley has had a change of heart on Putin: Meanwhile, Putin is having a ball-> RT "Russia taunts US with biggest military offensive since the Cold War" https://t.co/SVlmait5Fr — Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) October 20, 2016 Overall, Crowley seems to understand Putin's thuggish, KGB mindset. In light of Trump selecting a pro-Putin secretary of state, Crowley's voice should provide a buffer against the Putin propagandists Trump administration. 5. Crowley has suggested that Huma Abedin has ties to Saudi Arabia. Crowley told Fox News's Sean Hannity in August that the longtime Hillary Clinton confidant's parents have been "essentially tools of the Saudi regime." There is certainly evidence to suggest this, as the Daily Wire has explained here. 6. Crowley is against Obama's refugee program. Also in 2015, Crowley wrote in the Washington Times that most of the refugees aren't actually fleeing the turmoil in Syria but taking advantage of open borders to spread Islamic jihad. "Only about 10 percent of the new arrivals are from Syria; the other 90 percent are from elsewhere in the Middle East, North Africa and countries like Pakistan and Indonesia who are using the European Union’s open doors-open borders policy to reach the West for social welfare and the longer-term goal of spreading Islam," Crowley wrote. Crowley also warned that Europe is almost at "the point of no return," and the U.S. could soon reach that point if they bring in vast amounts of refugees. 7. Crowley wrote a tweet about the Berlin Wall in 2015 that raised eyebrows. At the Berlin Wall last week. Walls work. pic.twitter.com/2N3B4IUhbj — Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) October 5, 2015 She later clarified the tweet: For those of you who have missed the point, this is what remains of the Berlin Wall. pic.twitter.com/XwGZLfSQeT — Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) October 5, 2015 (H/T: Daily Beast) |
arrested last year on charges of spying. + Indian R&AW agent #Kalbushan awarded death sentence through FGCM by Pakistan Army for espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/ltRPbfO30V — Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor (@OfficialDGISPR) April 10, 2017 denied the allegation + consistently sought consular access to Jadhav + NEW DELHI: Pakistan on Monday sentenced to death Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav who was"The spy was tried through Field General Court Martial under the Pakistan Army Act (PAA) and awarded the death sentence," said Pakistan's Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in a statement.Jadhav was arrested on March 3, 2016India has consistently acknowledged Jadhav is a retired Indian Navy officer, butthat he was in any way connected to the government.New Delhi has also, issuing as many as six note verbales to the Pakistan foreign ministry, top government sources told TOI in October."India has relentlessly sought access to Jadhav. And we don't believe that he is a spy because had he been one, he wouldn't have been carrying an Indian passport," a source said. Jadhav's Indian passport was in the name of Hussein Mubarak Patel. |
On February 28, 2017, I saw a 15-minute sneak peak of the Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. From the announcement of the project to today, this has always been a bad idea. On February 28, I saw a 15-minute sneak peek of the Hollywood adaptation of Ghost in the Shell. From the announcement of the project, this has always been a bad idea. But the announcement of the cast and story has made things much worse. Most noticeably, Hollywood adaptations of Japanese anime have yet to be successful. Either their stories veer too far from the source material, the director isn’t a good fit or the casting makes no sense. You would think Hollywood would learn, yet here we are, on the precipice of another anime-adapted flop. Here are the takeaways from what I have seen of Paramount’s Ghost in the Shell so far. STORY The plot of this movie is nothing like anything in the original Ghost in The Shell films or shows. Don’t let a few of the philosophical conversations in the trailers fool you. It’s a hodge-podge of familiar elements from different parts of the series, but the philosophy and exploration of existentialism seem to be missing. Even the trailers denote this adaptation is nothing more than a revenge story. Nothing about the original Ghost in the Shell has been about revenge. Revenge is never a prime theme here. What happens is, in her new Shell, Mira the white feminist Cyborg is forced to work for Section 9 by some omniscient character. According to the story, Mira is the newest and most perfect weapon. I guess this is what drives the revenge plot. She’s created against her will and made to do Section 9’s bidding. “They did not save your life: they stole it,” this quote is from the trailer said by Kuze (Micheal Pitt). That pretty much a tells you the whole plot. This is just lazy writing. Screenwriter Jamie Moss never planned on making anything smart, or close to the source material. I knew this. Yet, here I am, shocked at the nerve of it all. Why call this Ghost in the Shell if the only thing about the story you keep is the cyberpunk look and body swapping? WHITEWASHING Well, yes it is whitewashed because Scarlett Johansson does not belong in the role of the Major, but man it gets worse. From the sneak peek footage I saw, it looks the Major is originally Japanese. Let me explain. It appears that the character is in a nearly fatal accident. This accident causes her body to be rendered useless, but her brain is the only thing that can be salvaged. So this Japanese woman whose brain is recovered is transferred into a body, or Shell, that just happens to be Scarlett Johannson’s new body. Now her name is “Mira.” This is horrifying. The “yellow face” comments hold merit because there is a scene that shows Mira awakening in her new body. That particular shot is suspect as Johannson looks… well… Asian. Even the cut of her eyebrows makes me side eye. However, nothing about the Major has ever screamed WHITE WOMAN. That is in the imagination of people who default to whiteness. So, not only has the role been whitewashed but they start with a Japanese woman and put her brain in a white body. So what does this say? It says that an Asian actress was an afterthought and that Asian visibility wasn’t valuable enough to carry this through to the end. This is made worse by Daisuke Aramaki (Takeshi Kitano) continuing to speak Japanese to her character at the beginning. Wait, what? I understand many non-Japanese folks can speak Japanese, but since her brain is that of a Japanese woman, she still retains her mother tongue. It’s just on the outside she looks white and is named Mira. VISUALS That said, the visuals are stunning. I watched the sneak peak in IMAX 3D and was floored by the immersive world created by director Rupert Sanders. The look of the Ghost in the Shell anime is inspired by Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and the live action adaptation certain captures the look and feel of that film, with the grittiness of a PG-13 version of Robocop. In this case, it has potential to win awards for makeup, costume, and visuals. But seriously, who gives a shit about all that if your intentions are racist, to begin with? Although the visuals are fantastic, from what I know, the plot seems to lack vision. Also, the casting of Johansson is abhorrent, and putting the brain of a woman of color into the Shell of a white woman is unconscionable. I don’t see this ending well or this film being very successful in the U.S. and if you’re tired of whitewashing, then you will make sure it isn’t. |
Yesterday New York joined the Four Loko Four, the states (Michigan, Oklahoma, Washington, and Utah) that have banned caffeinated malt beverages. Sort of. Under pressure from Gov. David Paterson and the New York State Liquor Authority, Four Loko's Chicago-based manufacturer, Phusion Products, has "agreed" to stop shipping the drink to New York. Meanwhile, the New York State Beer Wholesalers Association is urging its members to stop distributing Four Loko and similar products. "We have an obligation to keep products that are potentially hazardous off the shelves," said Dennis Rosen, the liquor authority's chairman, "and there is simply not enough research to show that these products are safe." Every alcoholic beverage is "potentially hazardous," and none will ever be proven "safe," if by that Rosen means risk-free. But there's no question that a can of Four Loko, which has less alcohol than a bottle of wine and about as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, can be consumed without serious adverse effects. If every alcoholic beverage had to pass the reckless college student test, they all would be banned. Baltimore Sun writer Erik Maza notes that Four Loko, like LSD, has the power to cause insanity in people who have never consumed it. People like Mike Hellgren of the Baltimore CBS affiliate WJZ, who reports that "a Maryland woman is dead after the drink made her lose her mind." According to "friends and family," that happened right before the woman, 21-year-old Courtney Spurry, slammed her Ford pickup truck into a telephone pole. A friend who was drinking with her before the crash reports: She changed that night. She was not the same person. She could not remember people's names. She passed out within 30 minutes of having the alcoholic beverage. That suspiciously clinical account evidently was enough to justify WJZ's headline: "Alcoholic Energy Drink Made Md. Woman 'Lose Mind'" (even though neither the friend nor anyone else quoted in the story actually used those words). Note that after one 23.5-ounce can of Four Loko (which is about as strong as wine), a 100-pound woman such as Spurry would have had a blood alcohol content of around 0.2 percent, which is good and drunk but a state of consciousness that drinkers across America commonly experience without losing their minds (even if they add a cup of coffee to the mix). The other story cited by Maza comes from the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, which claims a 43-year-old man "spiraled into a hallucinogenic frenzy" after drinking one and a half cans of Four Loko: "It was like he was stuck inside a horror movie and he couldn't get out and I couldn't get him out," said Mary Alice Brancato, recounting a scary incident involving her husband last summer.... Brancato says after drinking just one and a half cans of the caffeinated alcohol drink, the suburban dad began having nightmarish delusions. "In his mind, he had harmed all of our kids and he had to kill me and kill himself so that we could go to heaven to take care of them." Nothing could have been further from the truth. "Next think I know, he was having convulsions making gurgling sounds as if someone were choking him and then he stopped breathing." According to this account, the guy consumed the equivalent of seven five-ounce glasses of wine, plus a cup and a half of coffee. Assuming he weighs 170 pounds and he drank it all at once, his BAC would have been around 0.15 percent. It seems fair to say that his reaction was highly idiosyncratic. The weird thing is that such accounts, which make Four Loko more attractice to precisely the demographic that regulators supposedly are trying to protect, try to make alcohol seem scarier by likening it to LSD and psilocybin. Yet by most measures, those drugs are substantially safer than alcohol. |
JazzCorner News: Submit News Share | Drum Legend Terry Bozzio's "Composer Series" The Music & Art of Terry Bozzio Now Available in North America & Europe (Published: December 12, 2016) Los Angeles - Legendary & award winning melodic drummer Terry Bozzio released worldwide what he calls a "Life's Work" project of Art & Music on the Japanese label Ward Records in September 2015. The set is now available in the US, Canada and Europe! Bozzio embarked on a world tour to promote it starting in Japan and Europe in the fall of 2015 & continuing throughout the US & other territories in 2016. Terry has worked with Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Korn, UK, Missing Persons, Mick Jagger, Robbie Robertson, Alan Holdsworth, Tony Levin, Steve Vai, Quincy Jones, Ken Scott, Metropole Orkest, SMAP, Loudness' Munetaka Higuchi & "X" Japan's Hide - as well as Film score composers Basil Poledouris, Mark Isham & Patrick O'Hearn - see more at www.terrybozzio.com - Grammy winner, RockWalk Honoree, Modern Drummer magazine's Hall of Fame Award, Rolling Stone's Top 5 Drummers of All Time! Bozzio said, "I've been composing, (not just song writing, like for Missing Persons & Jeff Beck) since the '70s. I compose in all styles (as one might classify them), from classical to ambient, electronic, film-like to fusion/rock or jazz. I have my own character or personality, it's unique. I work with many different processes from writing notes on paper, to recording live, to several different computer software applications that are suited to the particular result I am trying to achieve. Both Zappa & famed musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky encouraged me to compose & I have had my Chamberworks performed at the Vienna Jazz Festival & in Holland w/Metropol Orkest." He continued, "I first got interested in Art & Sketching at the encouragement of renowned artist Don Van Vliet (aka: Captain Beefheart) who I played with on my first Zappa/Mothers of Invention tour in 1975. Don was always carrying markers & paper & it looked like fun, so I bought some myself & started. He was very encouraging. Last year, I released my first project called Rhythm & Sketch in collaboration with the art group Scene Four. It's been successful & inspired me to do more." (available at www.terrybozzioart.com) Bozzio fulfilled major two and a half month US solo tours in 2014 and 2016 in which he displayed his artwork as the stage set while performing melodic, tuned melodies on his strikingly large drum set, to sold out crowds. "I thought it would be great to share this music which I've been working on & keeping to myself for so long. I hope to show a different side of my expression from what people are used to seeing from my solo drumming. And, I wanted to have an abstract painting to represent & be paired with each title to create this hybrid project of music & art," Bozzio explained. It is over 70 individual pieces or movements of compositions with a painting in a booklet for each title, along with detailed liner notes for each piece, explaining his concepts, feelings, processes and approach for each. It will be available in a large vinyl-sized box set which includes the book of Artworks, 3 audio CDs & a solo drum performance DVD shot in Japan in 2015. (w/bonus footage, interviews, audio tracks and more). The material will also be made available in a smaller CD size package for record stores, as well as in many or individual downloadable formats online. For more information: www.wardrecords.com Watch the promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/w... To purchase Terry Bozzio's "Composer Series" The Music & Art of Terry Bozzio: https://www.amazon.com/Co... Terry Bozzio's official website: www.terrybozzio.com Terry Bozzio biography: http://terrybozzio.com/bi... Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158, glassonyonpr@gmail.com More Information: http://www.terrybozzio.com Submitted By: 1 sample@email.tst Email Address: |
A Syrian asylum seeker has admitted setting alight his accommodation and spraying swastikas on the wall to make it appear to be a politically-motivated attack. The 26-year-old said he had started the fire in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate as a protest against the cramped living conditions in the building in Bingen and to highlight poor prospects if he is allowed to remain in Germany. Four residents and two firefighters suffered smoke inhalation during the blaze last Thursday. Also living in the building alongside refugees and asylum seekers are German residents and seasonal workers. Police launched an investigation, suspecting a far-right motive, but were told by other refuge residents that the Syrian man was the culprit. The man, in Germany for six months, has been taken into custody to await trial. Meanwhile a 33-year-old Moroccan man has gone on trial in connection with the massive physical and sexual attacks in Germany on New Year’s Eve. An 18-year-old woman told a Düsseldorf court of her panic when she was surrounded by up to 20 men in Düsseldorf late on December 31st. She said the defendant then lifted her skirt, touched her breasts and genitals. She later identified the man while watching a television report about pickpockets in Düsseldorf. The court heard that the Moroccan man accused of attacking the woman had entered Germany in April 2014 and faces separate charges of assault and damage to property, and has four previous theft convictions. His request for political asylum was rejected but he has remained in Germany. |
The Misadventures of Grumpy Cat Credit: Dynamite Just look at that sour puss. According to Mashable, the internet-famous feline Grumpy Cat is set to receive her own comic series from Dynamite. Co-starring her brother Pokey, The Misadventures of Grumpy Cat will be a three issue mini-series debuting this fall. Grumpy will also receive daily digital comic strips that will appear online this summer. "One of the most important responsibilities for today's comic publishers is creating content that will attract fresh new audiences to experience the wonders of the medium, and Grumpy Cat is the perfect combination of unbearable cuteness, instant fan appeal, and established multimedia presence to make just such a thing happen," said Keith Davidsen, marketing manager of Dynamite Entertainment. No creative team or specific release date has been announced. |
Throughout the election cycle astute campaign watchers have fixated on a unique polling phenomenon known as social desirability bias. The premise is that there are answers to questions that are more socially desirable than others (e.g., I am not a racist vs. I am a racist, I recycle vs. I do not recycle, and I do not support Donald Trump vs. I support Donald Trump). The concern is that people will tell pollster the socially desirable answer (e.g., I am not a racist or I recycle or I do not support Donald Trump), but then do the socially undesirable action (e.g., be a racist or not recycle or vote for Donald Trump). Could social undesirability be a factor in Hillary Clinton’s large lead over Donald Trump in the polls? No ― it probably does not exist and it is not anywhere close to explaining the massive 8.6 percentage point lead Clinton currently enjoys in the Huffington Post’s Pollster trend. Live telephone polls and online polls told a slightly different story in the Republican primary; presumably people would be more honest with a computer than a person. And, Trump did poll much better online versus in live telephone conversations in the primaries. But, he actually under-performed his polling when people voted! What that means is that online polling actually over-estimated his support. Online polling was not correcting a problem of people who would vote for him being too shy to say so; online polling had too many people saying they would vote for Trump, versus how many people actually voted for him. Pollster Figure 1: Huffington Post’s Pollster Republican Primary trends. (Left) live telephone polls only and (right) online polls only. In the primaries, Trump may have been over-represented by the online sample, making the story more about sample selection and less about social desirability bias. Polling comes in many variations, but the for this article we will focus on two key attributes: the sample (i.e., the population of people polled) and the mode (i.e., the technology used to poll them). Traditional polling focuses on finding random and representative samples of the target population. And, they do so using live telephone polling. A lot of newer polling uses either random or quota samples from opt-in online panels. Note that the sample is heavily tied to the mode: the mode of using a live telephone generally uses a more random and representative sample than mode of using the internet. So, when live telephone polls differ from online polls the difference could be driven by either the sample or the mode. In the general election, this is a non-story: Clinton is up by 7.3 percentage points in live telephone polls and 7.9 percentage points in online polls. They are virtually the same. A lack of any difference is strong suggestion that social desirability bias is not a meaningful factor in any possible polling bias for the 2016 presidential election. |
Cop uniforms and Agent Cooper are involved! St. Vincent (the adorable and uber talented Annie Clark) and Thunderant (the comedy duo of Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein) have history. In early 2010, the Portlandia leads were in St. Vincent’s video for Actor‘s “Laughing With A Mouth Of Blood”. The end result (available for viewing below) was a hilarious and awkward rock concert in a feminist bookstore. Now, nearly two years later, the three are hooking up once more in the name of comedy when Clark appears on an upcoming episode of Portlandia. In an interview with Exclaim!, Clark explained that she “heard from them in the past month or so, when I was out in L.A., and they said ‘Why don’t you come up to Portland and be on the show?'” Being friends with the pair, Clark immediatley agreed to a cameo, revealing she “played a waitress, and then I played a cop-uniform model. I got to be in a scene with Kyle MacLachlan… It was so cool, and he was such a gentleman.” God, Agent Cooper has all the luck. No word yet on when the Clark-featuring episode will premiere, but Portlandia‘s second season is scheduled to air beginning in January 2012. In addition to her acting turn, head over to Pitchfork to listen to Clark’s orchestral composition “Proven Badlands”. The piece was put together for six-piece orchestral ensemble yMusic’s debut full-length, Beautiful Mechanical. The album, in stores on September 27th, also features compositions from Gabriel Kahane and My Brightest Diamond’s Share Shara Worden. St. Vincent’s latest album, Strange Mercy, is out now. |
The main way for people to begin downloading content from BitTorrent is to visit one of the Internet's many hundreds of torrent sites. There they can download either .torrent files or, in the case of The Pirate Bay, magnet links. This week it became possible to go on a YouTube-like "related video" journey through BitTorrent's Distributed Hash Table to find similar content to that being already downloaded, all without visiting a torrent site. Visiting a torrent site to access content is a fairly simple affair. Select the URL, go to the site and type whatever you’re looking for into the search box. Torrents appear. Click. Download. Easy enough. However, if a BitTorrent user doesn’t really know what he or she is looking for and needs some ideas, a torrent site’s category view comes in useful to allow browsing of specific content such as videos, music or games. But what if there was another mechanism through which to find new content, one that doesn’t involve visiting a torrent site? One that would find content to download based on the activities of other BitTorrent users that have downloaded, to some extent, the same or similar content as you? Now all of that is possible with “Swarm Discoveries”, a new and intriguing feature added to the open source Vuze client this week. The feature uses the Vuze Distributed Hash Table (DHT) to anonymously relate one piece of downloaded content with another. Vuze’s DHT The problem “For a long time users have been asking for a means to find more content that they might like, stuff similar to the kind of things they already download,” Paul Gardner from Vuze tells TorrentFreak. “Existing sites tend not to offer anything beyond simple categorization (e.g. by format or genre), and only cover their own domain of content – users are looking for something that works ‘horizontally’, across sites, while at the same time zooming in on things that may be of interest.” Striving towards solving this problem the Vuze team came up with Swarm Discoveries, a behavior-based torrent content discovery system. So what makes it tick? “Given the lack of any standardized metadata for torrents, and the huge diversity of naming conventions, languages etc., any approach based on matching between static torrent data is difficult. So what we decided to concentrate on was the behavioral aspects of torrent selection,” Gardner reveals. “Users are already way smarter than us at finding content they like, so why not use their expertise to raise everybody’s game?” And this is where it gets both slightly more complex and much more interesting. How relationships are formed “Swarm Discoveries is based on the fact that if Alice downloads torrents A, B and C then, in some (unspecified) way there is a link between A, B and C. At the most abstract the link is that Alice likes A, B and C,” Gardner explains. “Now if Bob downloads B, C and D this re-enforces the fact that B and C are somehow related, but between them we know nothing regarding A and D.” Of course, when looking at the habits of just Alice and Bob the dataset is very small. However, millions of people are using the Distributed Hash Table which results in a much larger sample and the creation of ever more interesting links between content. As a side note, Vuze (or Azureus as it was then) debuted the first ever BitTorrent DHT. Taking Swarm Discoveries for a spin TorrentFreak gave the feature a test drive, and this is what happened when we tested it on a Fuduntu Linux distro we planned to test in a VirtualBox virtual machine. 1. First we loaded up the Fuduntu torrent using Vuze’s inbuilt torrent search feature. Once underway a right-click revealed the Swarm Discovery option. 2. Once selected this short list of related content appeared. Item 1 is for a Knoppix torrent. Knoppix is another Linux distro so the connection to our Fuduntu download is obvious. Item 2 turns out to be Hiren’s Boot CD, a collection of fairly geeky system management tools which is (coincidentally or not) based on Knoppix. 3. At this point the discovery can continue simply by right clicking on any result and selecting “Discover Related”. If you want to do some research on the torrents already found, the same menu gives access to some research tools. 4. Digging down another level produced further related results. Of course, the system doesn’t work only for Linux distros. In our tests popular video and music content hashes produced the richest and most complex results. I don’t want to do anything, just make it work! For those of you too busy (or lazy) to right-click on downloads to find explicit results you can sit back and let Vuze do the work for you. Over time Vuze builds up results in the main Swarm Discoveries tab (you’ll find it under ‘Plugins & Extras’) and ranks them – the more ways a torrent is related to your downloads the higher the rank it will be assigned (up to a max of 100). If you’re bored with the current results then right-click on sidebar entry and select ‘delete all results’, Vuze will start generating a new set to inspire you. Decentralized and anonymous Although the Swarm Discoveries system might at first appear to be a privacy nightmare, concerned users can rest easy. There are no external databases and relationship data is anonymous. (Not to be confused with anonymous downloads of course, that would require a VPN or similar) “Swarm Discoveries is entirely implemented using the Distributed Hash Table (DHT) and results are automatically generated by Vuze clients – there are no centralized components,” Gardner explains. “In the same way that the DHT is used to relate content to peers during decentralized tracking it is also used to related one piece of content to another – this relationship is stored anonymously, so when a Vuze client reads a relationship the originator of the relationship is unknown.” While Swarm Discoveries often produced fairly predictable results, such as supplying torrents to similar genres of music and movies, it also throws in the occasional curve ball – perfect for those who browse YouTube for pop videos and end up two hours later viewing the mating rituals of a rare breed of mountain goat. Download the latest version of Vuze with Swarm Discoveries here. |
From the highest pillars of Caldeum to the harsh snows of Arreat, champions from the far corners of Sanctuary have come together this year to defend their homelands against the forces of the Burning Hells. Like these stalwart heroes, artists from around the world heard the call and readied their artistic weapons of choice to join with us and celebrate the day that the Lord of Terror returned to Sanctuary! Make sure to check out the artists on their respective sites listed above for even more revelry and eye-catching goodness! Are you interested in joining in and creating something special for Diablo III's one-year anniversary? Email your finished piece to us at BlizzardContest@Blizzard.com for a chance to be featured and shared with the rest of the Diablo III community! |
"People can be obese but metabolically healthy and fit, with no greater risk of developing or dying from cardiovascular disease or cancer than normal weight people, according to the largest study ever to have investigated this seeming paradox" http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/09/120904193052.htm And there you go, any argument you have ever had in support of fat-shaming just flew out the window. TA TA (via kingjoffreylannister) Of course fat people have been saying the same thing for decades. But of course anything a fat person says about themselves or their own health is laughed off as “wishful thinking”. Our own experiences are constantly being denied as “head in the sand” “it will catch up to you eventually” mentality. Despite those of us that exercise regularly and eat healthy, we’re told that none of it matters because we’re still fat -and therefore couldn’t POSSIBLY be healthy. The sad thing about it though, is that people should not have to be healthy in order to deserve to be treated with human decency and respect and not have to live their lives stigmatized, bullied, marginalized, and shamed. People are deserving of equality and respect reguadless of if they are healthy or not. (via fatoutloud) Delightfully, (according to the alumni magazine) my alma mater is apparently performing an extensive study of ‘metabolically healthy obesity’ in order to differentiate types and causes of obesity—in large part so that healthy-but-obese people are no longer harmed by mindless, uninformed weight loss campaigns but also to understand how/why various bodies process nutrition and produce energy differently. According to the numbers quoted in the latest report, at least 30% of obese people (even ‘morbidly obese’ people) are metabolically healthy and would be harmed by restricted eating and not in any way benefited by weight loss. The school is studying the biochemical relationship that different metabolic types have with different food types over a long-term program. Their hope is that they’ll be able to better identify how each body processes food and that instead of focusing on weight and weight loss ultimately nutritionists and dieticians will be able to provide information on how to feed each body type in order to create a healthy and beneficial state for each person—not so that people will lose weight as a rule. They also hope to sever the relationship, in the public consciousness, between weight and health because it is endangering lives. (via moniquill) Reblogging it again for Moniquill’s delightful addition. (via thisisthinprivilege) because it is endangering lives. (via notemily (via notemily) |
Update: 11:57 a.m.- The joint resolution failed in the U.S. Senate with 46 votes in support of it and 53 votes against it. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., also voted against the resolution. U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., is in opposition to a GOP resolution coming before the Senate today disapproving of environmental rules regarding clean air standards. Senate Joint Resolution 37 would reverse the Environmental Protection Agency's rule limiting the amount of pollutants, particularly mercury, that are allowed to be released into the air by coal-fired power plants and manufacturing facilities in the U.S. “I have consistently supported the EPA’s efforts to limit the emission of harmful and toxic pollutants, like mercury,” Brown said in a statement. “The people of Massachusetts expect and deserve to breathe clean air and have vital health protections in place.” Brown's Democratic rival in the Massachusetts Senate race, Elizabeth Warren, also opposes the resolution according to Alethea Harney, her press secretary. “Elizabeth supports the EPA’s efforts to promote public health by limiting toxic emissions," Harney said. "Not only will the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards improve the well-being of Massachusetts families, the regulations will generate significant cost savings and will help create jobs for American workers." Introduced by U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, a Republican from Warren's home state of Oklahoma, the resolution carries strong support from a consortium of manufacturers who say it is too expensive to adhere to the EPA's Mercury and Air Toxic Standards rule, also known as MATS, or Utility MACT, and the group warns of increased costs which will be passed on to consumers. "Under several rules directly impacting power plants, electricity costs will increase by more than 10 percent in some of the largest manufacturing regions of our nation, resulting in a loss of 1.65 million jobs by 2020, according to National Economic Research Associates," wrote Aric Newhouse, senior vice president for policy and government relations at the National Association of Manufacturers, in a letter to senators. "In addition, there will likely be serious grid reliability issues as coal-fired power plants are taken off-line. So far, 169 coal-fired electricity-generating units in 21 states are expected to be taken off-line by 2015 due to Utility MACT and other rules." During the debate on the resolution in the Senate, Republican and Democrats sparred while senators from states where coal is an important part of the economic landscape broke ranks with a different kind of plea. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, said that although he is currently frustrated with the management of the coal companies which dominate the employment landscape in the Mountain State, he believes clean coal is an option for the future and he urged his colleagues to consider that when voting on the resolution. Fellow West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said he is in favor of the resolution especially considering the impact it could have on the jobs of thousands of his state's residents. Manchin said a one size fits all approach to energy for a country with diverse geographic concerns doesn't work. Brown and Warren's opposition to the resolution was echoed by the White House as the Obama administration released a statement this week saying the commander in chief would veto the legislation if it passed in the Senate. "The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will ensure that the nation's power plants install modern, widely available technologies to limit harmful pollution – leveling the playing field for power plants that already have such controls in place," the Obama administration wrote in its statement. "The standards are achievable; pollution control equipment that can help meet them already is installed at more than half of the nation's coal-fired power plants. Numerous studies, including analysis by the Department of Energy, have projected that the standards can be met without adversely affecting the adequacy of electric generation resources in any region of the country." Brown's decision to break ranks with other Republicans earned him the praise of ConservAmerica, a GOP environmental group. “We commend Senator Brown on his vote to protect the people of Massachusetts from what Ronald Reagan called ‘the destructive trespass of pollution,’" said Rob Sisson, president of ConservAmerica. "Senator Brown’s brand of thoughtful conservatism is a standard others in Washington, D.C., should emulate." The debate over the EPA's MATS rule comes as the public hearing portion of the agency's new carbon pollution proposal limit for new power plants comes to an end on June 25. More than 1 million Americans, including approximately 31,000 Massachusetts residents, previously signed on in support of the EPA's carbon limit proposal while it is largely opposed by several industry groups, coal-producing states and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. |
What do Bills games and MJs funeral have in common? by Tim Redinger Michael Vick may be coming to a plasma screen near you sooner than you might think. The NFL’s wonder-kid turned pooch-pariah has apparently drawn the attention of Michael Huyghue, the commissioner of the new four-team United Football League set to open in October. According to the AP, Huyghue has called Vick “a phenomenal talent,” which, in the UFL’s premiere, is essential to “show outstanding players who find themselves in this quagmire the NFL creates.” Frankly, I’m stunned to think that Vick is ready to make the transition from time behind iron to the gridiron. Where is Vince McMahon when you need him? I would love to watch this garbage in the XFL. Remember Rod Smart a.k.a He Hate Me? Vick’s new jersey could read: He’s Hated. |
This post has now moved to http://www.codebuddy.co.uk/4-things-to-consider-when-fixing-a-bug/ So, you’ve just spent a few hours, days, or maybe weeks(!) tracking that down that bug. You’ve finally found it – what do you do? The fix is trivial, its a one line change, you can fix it right now, have it committed to source control, picked up in the next software release and move on to reading slashdot. But before you go ahead and change that line of code, there are a few questions you should be asking yourself: #1 How hard was it to track this bug down? If you’ve been crawling over broken for a couple of days the chances are you’ve been adding some extra diagnostics to the system – these should be committed as part of the bug fix. Do not underestimate the importance of an easily diagnosable system, it will save you lots of time in the long run, not just for bug fixing, but during general development as well. #2 Can I prevent the bug from being reintroduced in the future? Now you can reproduce the bug (you have reproduced it before your claiming its fixed right?) – you need to write some form of test, why? The tests will first expose the bug, then prove the fix. The test will act as an insurance policy on your fix, as long as no one removes the test, the bug will stay fixed. Ideally you’ll expose this via a unit test. This is the quickest form of feedback a developer can be given about the state of the system and will allow you to develop the fix with a very short feedback loop. If this is not possible, then a regression test is your next best bet. #3 Have I had it code reviewed? A code review need only take a few minutes of another developers time, and will double the number of people that inspect the code before you commit, not a bad return really. If the code review takes longer, then the changes must be significant, or the problem domain suitable complex that running the change by another devloper really is a no brainer. #4 Do I have a bug number to commit the change against? Be sure to reference the bug number when you commit your fix. You don’t need to detail the symptoms of the bug in the commit, that is what a bug tracking system is for. Not only will this prove useful to other devlopers when they see your changes go in, it will also allow those that raised the bug see that work is happening on it. Conclusion These are the questions I go through in my mind before committing a fix – let me know yours! Advertisements Like this: Like Loading... This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 5:59 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. |
Oral, intraperitoneal, or intravenous have been the common routes of administration used to study the behavioral and neurochemical pharmacology of caffeine, one of the most widely used psychoactive substances worldwide. We have reported that caffeine is an active adulterant frequently found in coca-paste (CP)-seized samples, a highly addictive form of smokable cocaine. The role of caffeine in the psychostimulant and neurochemical effects induced by CP remains under study. No preclinical animal studies have been performed so far to characterize the effects of caffeine when it is administered through the pulmonary inhalation route. Caffeine (10, 25, and 50 mg) was volatilized and rats were exposed to one inhalation session of its vapor. The stimulant effect was automatically recorded and plasmatic levels of caffeine were measured. Caffeine capability (50 mg) to increase extracellular dopamine (DA) levels in nucleus accumbens shell was also studied by in vivo microdialysis in non-anesthetized animals. A dose-dependent stimulant effect induced by volatilized caffeine was observed and this effect was directly related with caffeine plasmatic levels. A significant increase in the extracellular DA was achieved after 50 mg of volatilized caffeine exposure. This is the first report showing pharmacological acute effects of caffeine through the pulmonary inhalation route of administration and suggests that this could be a condition under which caffeine can elevate its weak reinforcing effect and even enhance the psychostimulant effect and abuse liability of smokable adulterated psychostimulant drugs. |
Study Populations Table 1. Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of the Patients with Prostate Cancer. Seven case series of men with metastatic prostate cancer across multiple institutions in the United States and United Kingdom, including a total of 692 patients, were analyzed. All the patients had a diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer and were not selected on the basis of family history, age, or any knowledge of genetic background. The demographic characteristics of the men in each series are summarized in Table 1. Detailed information on the specific germline mutations and on clinical features of mutation carriers in each series is provided in Tables S1, S2, and S3 in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org. Case Series 1, the Stand Up to Cancer–Prostate Cancer Foundation (SU2C-PCF) International Prostate Cancer Dream Team discovery series, was made up of 150 patients for whom data were previously reported in the SU2C-PCF study of molecular stratification of metastatic prostate cancer.18 Case Series 2, the SU2C-PCF validation series, was made up of 84 patients who were newly enrolled in the SU2C-PCF study and for whom data had not been reported previously. Case Series 3, Royal Marsden Prostate Cancer Genomics series, included 131 patients who were considered for enrollment in clinical trials at the Royal Marsden Hospital from January 2013 through July 2015. Case Series 4 consisted of 91 consecutive patients included in the University of Washington rapid autopsy program from 1997 through 2013. Case Series 5 included 69 consecutive patients who were enrolled in the Weill Cornell Medical College precision medicine program. Case Series 6 was made up of 43 consecutive patients from the University of Michigan rapid autopsy program. Case Series 7, from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, included 124 consecutive patients who were enrolled through the Memorial Sloan Kettering Integrated Mutation Profiling of Actionable Cancer Targets (MSK-IMPACT) study. The protocols for these case series were approved by the local institutional review boards, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients at the local sites before enrollment. Correlative clinical data were collected at each site with the use of electronic patient records and were entered into deidentified databases. The study was designed by the Stand Up To Cancer–Prostate Cancer Foundation International Prostate Cancer Dream Team investigators. The study sponsors had no role in the design of the study, the collection or analysis of the data, or the preparation of the manuscript. The manuscript was written by four of the authors. All authors reviewed the manuscript, agreed to submit the manuscript for publication, and vouch for the accuracy and completeness of the data and for the fidelity of the study to the protocol. Sequencing and Bioinformatics Analysis For the analysis involving Case Series 1, 2, and 6, whole-exome sequencing of germline and tumor DNA was performed as described previously.18 Germline DNA from buccal swabs, buffy coats, or whole blood was isolated with the use of the QIAGEN DNeasy Blood and Tissue Kit. Whole-exome sequencing was performed on the Illumina HiSeq 2500 in paired-end mode. For the analysis of Case Series 3, germline DNA was extracted from saliva or buccal swab samples with the use of the Oragene kit (DNA Genotek). Libraries for targeted sequencing were constructed with a customized GeneRead DNaseq Panel (Qiagen) covering 53 genes and run on the Illumina MiSeq sequencer, as described previously.16 For the analyses of Case Series 4 and 5, germline DNA was extracted from peripheral blood or nontumor tissue and from matched tumor DNA, as described previously.19 Targeted deep sequencing was performed with the BROCA panel of 53 DNA-repair pathway genes. The bioinformatics pipeline has been described previously.20,21 For tumors from Case Series 5, analyses were performed by means of exome sequencing, as described previously.22 For Case Series 7, tumor and germline genomic sequencing was performed as described previously, with the use of the MSK-IMPACT hybrid capture-based next-generation sequencing assay.23,24 The mean sequencing depth of coverage was more than 100× for all case series, with the exception of sequencing of BAP1, BARD1, BRIP1, and FAM175A, which were not included on the Royal Marsden Hospital panel, and GEN1, which was not included on the Royal Marsden Hospital or Memorial Sloan Kettering panel. Data from the Royal Marsden Hospital and Memorial Sloan Kettering cases were censored for analyses of these genes. In addition, data were censored for CHEK2 in 158 cases for which exon sequencing coverage was incomplete. The depth of coverage for each gene according to site is provided in Table S4 in the Supplementary Appendix. To compare our results with data from a large series of patients with localized prostate cancer, we analyzed public data from the Cancer Genome Atlas prostate cancer study.25 Paired-end reads (100 bp) were aligned to the hg19 reference human genome with the use of the Burrows–Wheeler Aligner. Annotations were defined with ANNOVAR (http://annovar.openbioinformatics.org/en/latest). Population allele frequencies were extracted from the Exome Aggregation Consortium ExAC Browser (http://exac.broadinstitute.org/), 1000 Genomes (www.1000genomes.org), and the single-nucleotide polymorphism database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (dbSNP), version 138 (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/SNP). Interpretation of Variants Table 2. Table 2. Germline Mutations in Metastatic Cases as Compared with the General Population and Primary Cases. Our analysis focused on variants identified among 20 genes associated with autosomal dominant cancer-predisposition syndromes that involve maintenance of DNA integrity (Table 2). The pathogenicity of germline variants was determined according to established American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics and Association for Molecular Pathology consensus criteria and International Agency for Research on Cancer guidelines.24,26 At least two independent expert reviewers evaluated all variants against published literature and public databases, including ClinVar and variant-specific databases, in addition to population frequency databases, including 1000 Genomes and the Exome Aggregation Consortium. Expected high-penetrance or moderate-penetrance variants classified as mutations that are pathogenic or likely to be pathogenic are reported here. Low-penetrance variants, such as CHEK2 p.I157T, were excluded. Statistical Analysis Associations between DNA-repair gene mutation status and age, race, or Gleason score strata were evaluated with the use of two-sided Fisher’s exact tests. The frequencies of DNA-repair gene mutations among the 692 patients with metastatic prostate cancer were evaluated relative to the expected frequencies from the Exome Aggregation Consortium (53,105 persons) or the Cancer Genome Atlas cohort (499 persons) with the use of two-sided exact binomial tests. We also performed analyses in which the 150 men from the previously reported Case Series 1 were excluded18 (Table S5 in the Supplementary Appendix). No adjustments were made for multiple comparisons; P values of less than 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. |
He was conquered, he saw, he came back. And all hailed Tim Hudak upon his return to the legislature. Premier Kathleen Wynne and Tim Hudak chatted amiably Thursday as Hudak returned to the legislature. ( Robert Benzie / Toronto Star ) The former Progressive Conservative leader on Thursday made his first appearance in the legislature since his party was defeated in the June 12 election. “It’s great to be back,” a visibly relaxed Hudak told reporters after attending the daily question period in the legislative assembly. His arrival, the morning after he was quietly sworn in as the MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook, had the chamber abuzz. Article Continued Below Premier Kathleen Wynne, who is still suing Hudak for libel stemming from comments he made about the Liberals’ gas-plants scandal, bounded across the floor to greet him. Wynne and her former rival chatted amiably for a few moments before she returned to her seat on the other side of the house. Deputy Premier Deb Matthews and Government House Leader Yasir Naqvi were among the many Liberals who warmly welcomed him back. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath had blamed Hudak’s controversial promise to cut 100,000 public-service positions for sparking a wave of strategic voting that helped the Liberals and hurt her party. But on Thursday, Horwath was magnanimous. “There’s really nothing to do about it at this point. The people have spoken, we have a new legislature,” she said. “He’s back to take his seat, which as an elected member he should be doing. I welcomed him back.” Article Continued Below Hudak, who has since been succeeded by interim Tory Leader Jim Wilson, emphasized he has few regrets. “I’m proud of the campaign that we put forward, proud of our team — ultimately voters chose other options, I respect their decision,” he said. Always affable, Hudak spent most of the one-hour question period moving from row-to-row in the legislature saying hello to MPPs from all three parties and welcoming the new Liberal and NDP members to the house. “Sometimes folks see what happens on camera, they don’t see what happens behind the scenes. We’re all members that are here to make the province a better place,” said the 19-year MPP. “It was nice to be in the legislature and welcome members who are newly elected and catch up with colleagues as well.” The Tories are expected to decide next month when to elect a new leader. It’s widely believed a leadership convention may not be held until May. So far the only declared candidate is MPP Christine Elliott (Whitby-Oshawa). MPPs Vic Fedeli (Nipissing), Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton), Monte McNaughton (Lambton-Kent-Middlesex), MP Patrick Brown (Barrie) and CivicAction chair Rod Phillips are all considered possible candidates. Read more about: |
3D printers continue to come down in price and get used for novel new projects. We’ve seen a 3D printer used to create the parts needed for fish breeding, the idea that drugs can be printed, and even a racing car printed at the nanoscale using a laser. But it’s not just cutting edge or clever ideas where 3D printing can flourish. They can also be used for simpler tasks such as icing a cake. And today I stumbled upon another food-related 3d printing service, but this one might make you feel a bit weird eating the final product. It’s called the “Eat Your Face Machine” (EYFM) and it’s a 3D printer developed by David Carr and the MIT Media Lab. The EYFM accepts a scan of your face and then recreates it using a block of chocolate. The end result being your face, in chocolate, ready to eat. Carr believes it is something that could rival giving someone a chocolate bunny at Easter if it wasn’t for people’s reactions to biting down on an actual face. Even so, it’s not the face recreation that’s the cool part of this tech–it’s the fact we can print things in chocolate. It has been over a year since this chocolate printing device was first unveiled, but you have to wonder why it is being limited to 3D printing faces. It shouldn’t be hard to develop the printer and software further and have it creating all sorts of 3D objects in delicious edible form. If Carr, or anyone else willing to work with the existing printer, can perfect that, they’ll have a product chocolate stores everywhere will be eager to get their hands on. via Reuters |
Court OKs Sea-Tac crotch search Passenger arrested with 700 Oxycodone pills in undies An officer's groin search of a Sea-Tac passenger carrying 700 pills in his underwear was legal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday. The case involved Keith Russell, who had consented to a pat-down at Sea-Tac Airport in 2010. An officer found 700 Oxycodone pills in his underwear and arrested him. Russell then filed a motion to suppress the full-body, warrantless search, saying its scope was unreasonable. The lower court dismissed the motion. On Thursday, the 9th Circuit affirmed that ruling, after dissecting how consensual the airport search was, and how reasonable it was for the officer to search Russell's crotch. On Aug. 12, 2010, Port of Seattle police officer Matt Bruch had gotten a call from an Alaska Airlines ticket agent, who said a passenger named Keith Russell was acting suspiciously. The agent said Russell had paid cash for a last-minute, one-way ticket to Anchorage with no checked luggage. Bruch learned that Russell had drug and gun-related convictions. He thought he might be a drug courier. He found Russell at the airport and said he was a police officer. He also told Russell he was "free to go" and not under arrest, before asking if he could search Russell's bag and body. Russell consented. He spread his arms and legs to facilitate the pat-down, the court said. Bruch later testified that he used "standard operating procedure" to frisk Russell, by starting at the ankles and working his way up. He said he squeezed Russell's shin, knee and thigh. 'Something hard and unnatural' "When Bruch reached into Russell's groin area he 'lifted up to feel,' " wrote 9th Circuit Judge Margaret McKeown in the opinion. It is unclear what exactly was lifted up, and who did the lifting. "After feeling something hard and unnatural, Bruch arrested Russell," McKeown wrote. The officer never reached inside the suspect's pants. The court noted that Russell was not in custody when the search began, nor did officers have their guns drawn. Because he was not under arrest, a Miranda warning was not required. It said Russell could have refused the pat-down and that an officer wasn't required to inform him of that possibility. "(C)onsent to a search is not necessarily involuntary, simply because officers failed to provide notice of the right to refuse," the court wrote. The justices also studied this question: Was it reasonable for the officer to think a consensual search included a suspect's groin? The court found that factual context was key to the question. It noted that Bruch, the officer, had specifically told Russell he was looking for drugs, and that many suspects hide drugs in hard-to-find body areas, including the crotch. The court also found that Russell was "more than cooperative" during the search, in which he had lifted his arms and spread his legs. "He never objected, expressed any concern, nor did he revoke consent or call a halt to the search, nor did he complain to the officer after the fact," the justices wrote. To make his case, Russell had relied on another court's 1989 ruling that said consent to search didn't mean consent to groin frisking. That decision involved officers who had randomly stopped suspects and had immediately searched their groins. But the Sea-Tac case was different, the 9th Circuit said. It said Bruch, the arresting officer, had reason to stop Russell and that he had begun at the ankles. "This distinction is crucial - the extra time gave Russell an opportunity to withdraw or limit his consent," the court wrote. "Bruch also testified that it would be "intrusive and embarrassing" and "(not) good," to simply walk up and grab the genital area without cause." Russell pleaded guilty to one count of possessing Oxycodone with intent to distribute last January. He was sentenced to more than six years in prison. Visit seattlepi.com's home page for more Seattle news. Contact Vanessa Ho at 206-448-8003 or vanessaho@seattlepi.com, and follow her on Twitter as @vanessaho. |
Allan Judd, who pilots the Metlife blimp Snoopy Two, hovered over the Congressional Country Club in Maryland Thursday to capture footage of the first round of the Quicken Loans National. Judd is a rare breed. There are more astronauts than blimp pilots today. (Katherine Frey and Casey Capachi/The Washington Post) Allan Judd, who pilots the Metlife blimp Snoopy Two, hovered over the Congressional Country Club in Maryland Thursday to capture footage of the first round of the Quicken Loans National. Judd is a rare breed. There are more astronauts than blimp pilots today. (Katherine Frey and Casey Capachi/The Washington Post) A birthday he was inevitably going to miss was fast approaching, so when Allan Judd stopped by a pilot’s shop for tarts, he looked for something to send his young son. The pilot of a MetLife Snoopy blimp, Judd asked the clerk if she had any stuffed Snoopys. She looked at him for several seconds before silently walking away. She returned with a Snoopy dressed in a leather pilot’s outfit and goggles and holding a Tommy Bahama bag. She told Judd she had hidden the Snoopy in the store for eight years, but it would be happier with him. It’s still with him, hanging above the dashboard facing out so it always sees something different. Six years later, Judd says he still sends photos of Snoopy, with different backdrops, to the store clerk. It’s a reminder to both of the adventures he and Snoopy are having. Blimp pilots have the best seats to some of the grandest sporting events. Judd has flown over two Super Bowls. Fellow pilot Charlie Smith watched Tiger Woods win the 2008 U.S. Open from 2,000 feet above Torrey Pines. Their flights in Snoopy Two over the Quicken Loans National at Congressional this weekend will provide television audiences with aerial views of the action. The tradeoff is what they don’t see very often — family, friends, a bathroom. Blimp pilots live in the confines of the 8-foot-by-5-foot carriage attached to the belly of their inflated submarine balloon. As the blimp flies from one sporting event to the other, so do the pilots, spending nearly every day in the air. They pack their meals, and they also bring empty bottles to use when they need to relieve themselves. 1 of 13 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × A bird’s-eye view of Quicken Loans National View Photos MetLife blimps Snoopy 1 and Snoopy 2 take viewers high over Congressional Country Club. Caption MetLife blimps Snoopy One and Snoopy Two take viewers high over Congressional Country Club. MetLife blimps Snoopy One and Snoopy Two prepare to take off from Frederick Municipal Airport. One flew around the Frederick area; the other was overhead for the first round of the Quicken Loans National at Congressional Country Club, Katherine Frey/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. There are more astronauts than blimp pilots, and Judd, 62, considers it a privilege. “I feel very special to have been able to see some of these really cool events because they’re timeless,” Judd said. “Those moments in time will never happen again. I was part of it.” Judd’s done every job from disc jockey to taxi cab driver, but he spent most of his years before blimps on airplanes and ships. When a blimp in Judd’s area had half-price tickets for rides, Judd’s then-wife bought him one as a surprise birthday present. As soon as he stepped on board, he felt it move beneath his feet like a ship while suspended in air — the perfect combination of his two loves. The pilots prefer the term airship to blimp because of the nautical nature of its movements. The seat has wheels on each side that Judd constantly pushes forward and backward to control the nose. Judd’s feet do the steering: one pedal to move left, one to move right. The manual operation combined with wind and varying temperature causes Snoopy Two to sway, similar to a boat over waves. This trip over Congressional is tricky because it requires flying into the restricted air space around Washington. Deploying from Frederick Municipal Airport, Snoopy Two reaches the edge of the restricted area but then is told to ground because of an issue with the paperwork. It’s ultimately a misunderstanding, and Snoopy Two’s voyage to Congressional is approved. En route to the course, Judd whistles and waves to a group doing yoga outside. Snoopy Two approaches Congressional at about 40 mph and relatively low. The sprawling clubhouse is easy to spot from the sky, a mansion in the middle of greenery. Woods’s pairing on the 18th hole is surrounded by colorful specks of onlookers. Golf can be a challenging sport for a blimp pilot. He has to keep an eye on the golfer’s movements, position the blimp so the camera can have the best angle to follow the ball and do all of that with wind and air pressure making Snoopy sway. 1 of 73 Full Screen Autoplay Close June 27, 2014 June 27, 2014 June 26, 2014 Thursday Skip Ad × Quicken Loans National Golf Tournament View Photos Tiger Woods in the first round at Congressional Country Club. Caption Justin Rose beats Shawn Stefani in a playoff to capture the Quicken Loans National title at Congressional. Justin Rose runs out of the woods to watch his ball head toward the water on the 72nd hole of regulation. His bogey on the finishing hole left the Englishman in a playoff with Shawn Stefani, but Rose survived to capture the title. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. “It’s a vital part of how we cover golf,” said Lance Barrow, CBS’s coordinating producer for the NFL and golf. “Not everything is a flat surface like in other sports. Sometimes the ball gets hit down a hill or something and the camera can’t see it, and we need the blimp camera.” Snoopy Two is rarely grounded, still floating up and down even when it’s docked by the nose to a mooring mast. Snoopy Two never deflates, and it’s never alone. The crew takes shifts guarding the Snoopy blimps 24/7 to make sure they aren’t damaged. Though Snoopy Two has a constant companion, blimp pilots rarely do. Smith has tried to have girlfriends, but long-distance relationships take on a new meaning when he’s flying across the country all year and only has four weeks of vacation. “Some of the downtime can get lonely,” Smith said. Judd is a rarity in the profession — he’s in a relationship and he has kids. He frequently texts, video chats and makes phone calls from the air. Judd’s girlfriend is the rare significant other who understands his lifestyle. A commercial hot air balloon pilot, she has a similar schedule, and the two see each other when they cross paths on the West Coast. Judd says his days “begin in peace and end in peace, and everything in the middle is peace.” “Magnificent River” by Patrick O’Hearn plays in Judd’s ear. He doesn’t stream video or television when he’s flying because the sights outside his window are better. He sometimes puts his phone on airplane mode so the buzzing doesn’t disrupt his zen. Judd might be up in the air for as long as 13 hours. He brings a three-course meal in a cooler — usually nuts to start, steak with garlic mashed potatoes as the main course and grapes as dessert. He uses his binder as a table, draping cloth over it when he eats. Judd’s home is in Lexington, Va., but he’s rarely there. He uses his vacation time to visit his family, spread from Texas to Florida to Australia. When he misses the familiar rocking motion of Snoopy Two, he goes canoeing. After 25 years in the blimp, he sways when he walks on the ground. “If I’m on the ground too long, I need to go back up there,” Judd said. “I just love it up there.” |
A popular wallet system for storing the Ethereum Classic (ETC) cryptocurrency has been hacked, and users are urged to refrain from using the service for now. At about 11pm BST on Thursday 29 June, Classic Ether Wallet was hijacked by a hacker who used social engineering to trick the wallet service's web host into giving them access. The hacker called German web host 1and1's customer support, pretending to be the owner of the domain. The hacker convinced 1and1 to give them gain access to the site's domain registration, then changed the domain's settings to point the domain at their own hostile server. This means that if the wallet is used to make any transactions, instead of sending the cryptocurrency to the recipient, the hacker can steal the coins instead - an attack known as a phishing scam. The hack was discovered by Ethereum Classic's core developers at 3am BST on Friday 30 June. The team immediately started warning users over Twitter to stop using the service, and eventually managed to get distributed denial of service (DDoS) prevention technology providers Cloudflare to place a phishing warning that will appear to anyone that tries to access the Classic Ether Wallet website. Users are advised that all the cryptocurrency they have stored in their wallets is safe, as long as they do not visit the website and paste in their private key, or use it to make transactions. All addresses and keys that were created before Thursday 29 June are also safe, it is just unsafe to use the website at present. Ethereum Classic has confirmed that the back-up site located on GitHub is working and is safe to use. Users are advised to make transactions using another service called My Ether Wallet, and connect it to the ETC node. "The best advice is to sit tight. As long as users do not use the website right now, their wallet is okay and secure. There was nothing wrong with the code of Classic Ether Wallet. It was a social engineering attack. Many bitcoin have been stolen the same way," the cryptocurrency's founders told IBTimes UK. "We're [currently] waiting for 1and1 domain registrar's customer service to allow the rightful owner of the URL to take back control." IBTimes UK has contacted 1and1 to ask how the social engineering attack occurred and find out how long it will take to restore access to the rightful domain owner. |
Armageddon Queen Games, 3-4 players, 90 mins, 12+ One of the most heavily publicized games of the show, Armageddon also had some of the best artwork, which is what drew us in. From the cover, you’d think this was an heir to the Fallout series, but while the rags’n’goggles aesthetic is there in full force, Armageddon is actually more of a settlement builder than an epic quest. Queen Games tends to publish games that feel quite abstracted from their theme, and Armageddon is no different. The artwork might be evocative, but there’s not much about the meeple auction system or the often inscrutable chains of symbols that appear on its beautifully illustrated cards to link the theme to the action. However, there’s a decent amount of crunch if you have enough imagination to look at a blue or yellow, vaguely man-shaped wooden token and see either a military survivor or an engineer. But compare it with, say, Dead of Winter, and Armageddon starkly highlights the spiritual differences between American games and Euros. Cottage Garden Edition Spielwiese, 1-4 players, 45-60 mins, 8+ This is Uwe Rosenberg's other release of the show, and it couldn't be more different from his maximal pillage-simulator A Feast For Odin. For a start, Cottage Garden features sleepy cats as playing tokens. It's a lovely, short, gentle proposition, in which players try to build up pretty beds of flowers in a manner not dissimilar to Tetris. The game is a rework of Rosenberg’s even gentler 2014 hit Patchwork, expanded to allow more or fewer players, bringing with it a mite more complexity and some absolutely gorgeous watercolor artwork from Andrea Boekhoff. It might be on the simple side, and the show printing came with an A4 sticker sheet to fix bugs with board components and the rulebook, but the whole package is so irrepressibly charming that it doesn't matter. This is something you could use to get your mom into boardgames, but we're looking forward to playing it with anyone and everyone. Railroad Revolution What’s Your Game?, 2-4 players, 45-90 mins, 12+ The golden age of steam is another rich furrow ploughed by game designers—and, if the ranks of tables demoing Railroad Revolution are any guide, by gamers, too. Railroad Revolution is a straight-up tale of competing train companies in 19th century America, building track and placing workers along the way (and for some reason encompassing shares in the telegraph company). There’s definitely a solid game involving careful management of your worker pool hidden among some dreadfully uninspiring graphic design (a criticism that can be levied against too many games at Essen this year). To look at the dreary board with its unintuitive symbols and shapeless wooden tokens, you wouldn’t think it, but it’s possible that gamers on the continent simply aren’t so shallow... Blood Bowl Games Workshop, 1-4 players The Games Workshop fantasy football simulator is back, baby, and it's good again. There's a whole new box arriving soon, 14 years after the last boxed version, with tweaked mechanics and all-new miniatures and art. Once again, you're getting a team of slow, armored orcs and a team of slightly nimbler, still-quite-armored humans with which to play the best ever version of hyper-violent fantasy gridiron. Except, since Games Workshop wiped out the Warhammer world and started from scratch, it's now set in a fantasy parody world in which racial differences are settled not by war but by murderous sports fans. The classic formula is still very much in evidence, but the somewhat frustrating rule which ended your turn early if one of your players fumbled or missed a tackle has been removed. The rest of the package has been designed with traditional GW aplomb for its fifth edition; at least one expansion is coming, adding new teams and tournament rules, while rules will be made available for all your old teams. Dark Souls Steamforged games, 1-4 players The biggest ever board game Kickstarter, Dark Souls brought in $4.5 million and gave its creators a headache just thinking up additional stretch goals. We played a short prototype with one of the designers, Alex, and had our ass handed back to us. We stayed alive just long enough to discover how smart the mechanics were before we were eviscerated by the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, who was controlled by nothing more than a malevolent deck of behavior cards, some smart design, and fiendish luck. Steamforged Games has nailed the atmosphere and has definitely got the difficulty sorted, while the prototype miniatures were gorgeous. The game is due out in April, and while there's obviously a lot we haven't seen, backers can rest assured that it's in good hands so far. |
A star-forming galaxy similar to those observed from the Galaxies-Intergalactic Medium Interaction Calculation simulation. Cold gas (red) flowing onto a spiral galaxy feeds star formation. This intense star formation drives turbulent outflows (blue). The discovery of what scientists call "living fossil" galaxies afflicted with cosmic turbulence is shedding light on how stars are born. In the study, astronomers investigated a set of rare, relatively modern galaxies that have the same type of unusual turbulence found in more ancient galaxies. [Photo of star-forming galaxy.] ?They?reliving fossils of space ? galaxies we just didn?t expect to find in today?sworld,? said study co-author Andrew Green, an astronomer with SwinburneUniversity in Australia, in a statement. The findings could shed new light on the persisting mystery of starformation, astronomers said. "Themost exciting thing about these findings to me is how they might tell ussomething about howstars form," Green told SPACE.com. "Despite the fact that we livein a galaxy, the Milky Way, and we live next to astar, our sun, we still have a very poor idea of how galaxies form and evolveand how stars form from primordial gas. Now we think we might have found a linkbetween star formation and this galactic turbulence." In the early universe, two-thirds of all galaxies were massive,rotating disks. Mysteriously, wind speeds within these ancient galaxies werefive times more variable than in today's disk galaxies. Scientists had bandied about several causes for such turbulence.Perhaps extra gas or dwarf galaxies that were more common in the early universestirred up the massive disks as they fell into them, drawn by their gravity. To settle the question, Green and his colleagues investigated 65modern-day star-forminggalaxies within roughly 1 billion light-years of Earth. One light-year isthe distance light travels in a single year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillionkm). They found 11 modern galaxies with wind speeds as variable asthose seen in older, massive galaxies. Matter falling into the galaxies could not account for suchturbulence as it might with ancient disks ? all that extra gas and those dwarfgalaxies had largely been absorbed by other galaxies in the interveningtime, the researchers said. Instead, Green, his supervisor and co-author Karl Glazebrook, and theircolleagues found the level of this variability in wind speed was linked to star-formingrates. This suggests the energy released by newly formed stars drives galacticturbulence both then and now. "It's entirely possible that all spiral galaxies, includingthe MilkyWay, went through a stage in the past when they had high star formationrates and associated high turbulence," Green said. The scientists detailed their research in the Oct. 7 issue of thejournal Nature. |
If you're planning on getting an Xbox One, but want to start your Call of Duty multiplayer experience when the game launches on Xbox 360, Activision has a plan to make that possible. There are two different ways to access the $10 upgrade program, but both require that you shrug off the physical coil. In order to take advantage of this offer, you can purchase a $69.99 dual-license digital version at retailers. This will include licenses for both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One versions, and they'll be connected by your gamertag. Alternatively, you can purchase the digital Xbox 360 version alone and upgrade for $10 through March 31, 2014. Both options allow you to carry your unlocks, stats, and profile from one version and back again. The Call of Duty: Ghosts season pass will also carry over across versions. There is no cost for the upgrade, but a purchase must be made by March 31, 2014. The season pass will include four map packs, the Team Leader customization pack. The price for this is $49.99. Activision and Sony previously announced a similar deal for the PlayStation platforms. [Source: Xbox Wire] Our Take Eight years seems like a long time ago, but I remember being faced with the proposition of buying titles on multiple platforms. I bit on Burnout: Revenge (and regret nothing), but it's nice to know that during this console transition, the choices are going to be much easier. $10 for next-generation versions that also allow you to port your stats and profiles? That's a steal. We've come a long way in eight years, and this kind of offer is just one of the perqs. |
First Take is EPSN’s flagship daily program, even more so than Sports Center. It was a show built around the friendship and rivalry of Skip Bayless and Stephen A Smith. It achieved success by having scotching hot takes, and the sometimes contentious chemistry between Skip and Stephen A. That version of the show, though wildly popular by the standards of morning basic cable sports television, is a show I have never watched a single episode of, in its entirety. I watched many clips of that version of the show, and heard many sound bites from it, on radio and podcasts. But I never, ever watched it. Why? Well, the purpose of this essay isn’t really what First Take was, it’s what it is now, but I’ll just say that I wasn’t a fan of Skip Bayless, or his influence on sports commentary, and I’ll leave it at that. When I heard Skip was leaving, I thought of one man that would be absolutely perfect for the show. As fate would have it, that one man ended up getting the job, Max Kellerman. I was quite happy for Max, as I’ve been a fan of his going back to his ATH days, but I became a huge fan from listening to his NYC radio show on podcast ( a market I didn’t live in, and who’s sports teams I don’t care about at all, I listened 100% because of Max’s talent). Yet, I still did not watch First Take. It was opposite one of my all time favorite sports media show, of any genre, The Dan Lebatard Show. If I was up at that time of day ( which in truth, I’m not often, as I’m typically a night owl) I was watching TDLS. However, my hours have been changing, and starting on Tuesday of this week, for the first time ever, I’ve been watching First Take. Watching it with completely fresh eyes, as I’ve never seen a complete episode, only clips, and had no idea who Molly Qerim even was ( she’s the third chair, the “host/referee”), as I was wholly unfamiliar with her previous work. What follows is how I perceive the current show with these fresh eyes, what I like about it, what I don’t particularly like about it, and what changes I think would make this show (which I now enjoy) even better. First Take is ESPN’s premier sports talk as competitive debate show. ESPN has many shows of this genre. Pardon the Interruption was the first it’s kind, and plays more like two old friends arguing about sports ( which it is) than a truly competitive debate. Around the Horn takes the competition to it’s most literal extreme, awarding points to the 4 contestants, and awarding a “winner “ each episode. Highly Questionable is in many ways is a satire of this form, making fun of genre while still fitting into the form of it. Yet, First Take is different from all others, both in tone and scope. Stephen A and Max are rhetorical boxers, going round after round with each other, over the course of two hours. They stunt on each other, they playfully mock each other, and they try to rip down each others points while lifting up their own. There is a highly competitive element to the show, even though the “winners” of these debates are solely in the minds of the viewer. We are the boxing judges, scoring every round. What’s remarkable about this show, to my mind, is not the competition between Max and Stephen A, but the length of the show itself, and by extension the length each take can be. That First Take is two hours long is rather extraordinary and a feature of the show I’d never considered before watching it in full. All the other shows ESPN has of this genre are half hour shows. Because of time constants, the competitor-commentators have to get their takes in as fast as they can, or get left behind. So, while a show like ATH might touch on some really weighty topics, the structure of the show itself prevents any topic, even important ones, from getting more than soundbites from the participants. First Take does not have this problem, and I think that’s potentially First Take’s biggest virtue. Max and Stephen A can seemingly use as much time as they want, to present ideas as complex and deep as they want. Much of the time the topics are not particularly “deep”, but even with light weight topics, it’s fascinating watching the way Stephen A will bombastically bluster with the tone of a highly effective preacher, or the way Max will use rhetorical trickery to bend an argument to his will, even if the logic behind it is not always solid (though it often is). Both Stephen A and Max are incredibly enjoyable to watch in their own ways, and both quite often they make legitimately thoughtful points. For example, this Friday Stephen A made a compelling case that the NFL, because it partners with beer and alcohol companies, has a greater social responsibility when dealing with alcohol related issues from it’s players. It was a great point by Stepehn A, and one I’d never considered before. That, I think, is the strength of the show. If you have two deep thinkers, who are both also entertaining communicators, First Take has a near unique opportunity to deep dive into issues, to a degree unlike anything on television, at least not on sports television. My favorite form of sports media is the Podcast, for that very reason. Because in podcasts, sports commentators move past the short soundbites, and really get to explore issues, for as long as they want, and as long as it takes to express their point. However, I do not like everything about the show. The first thing that stood out to me was the show is at it’s weakest when guests came on.. Maybe it was just the guests they picked, during my short sample size, but I don’t think someone like Tedy Bruschi is capable of communicating beyond soundbites, so the format of the show is not really suited for him. Honestly, I would much rather have a smart civilian analyst, than almost any former athlete other than the truly remarkable ones, like Dominique Foxworth. Howard Cosell called it the “Jocktocracy”, that former athletes got their spots in the media based solely on being ex-jocks, and not on the value of what they had to say. I think this is largely true, and most of the former jocks on ESPN I could really do without, unless they are legitimately smart and/or funny. Worse, however, than the ex-jock guests was Will Cain. In Will, I can see First Take’s past. There were rumors that when Skip left First Take, it would be Will that would replace him. Had he, I would never have watched a single episode. Beyond his politics ( which I find abhorrent), I find his method of communication to be odious. At one point on Thursday’s show, he said he hoped to cause Stephen A a heart attack, and called him clinically mentally ill. On Friday, he started off the episode insulting Stephen A’s clothing. I know he’s trying to be funny, but he wasn’t. He wasn’t clever, it just came across as cruel . Max and Stephen A snap on each other, and it’s enjoyable. But Will Cain comes across as an unlikable asshole when he openly disrespects Stephen A. I promise if he is ever a guest on the show again, I’ll be flipping over to Lebatard. I have zero use for him, and life is too short to waste on him. However, worse than these guests (who ultimately are not a core of the show), is the problem of the 3rd chair, the host’s chair. Now, I want to be careful here, because I do not want to come across as insulting to Molly. I think she’s effective at hosting. I think she’s great at transitions, for example, and at steering the show forward.. When the topic is football, she seems quite engaged and knowledgeable. However, for large portions of the show, she is just window dressing. She will throw out a topic and then disengage, watching as Stephen A and Max go back and forth. Then, when they are done talking, her transition comment will seldom pertain to anything either of them actually said. Perhaps this is a structural issue, and she is not meant to speak, interrupt or challenge Stephen A and Max by design of the producers. However, if this is a design, I think it’s a terrible one. It comes across as a pretty woman sitting there in silence, as the men folk talk about sports. Perhaps the producers know something that I do not. On Wednesday, the topic was Lavar Ball, and what his public role is and should be, as father of Lonzo Ball. After an interesting back and forth between Stephen A and Max, as a way of transitioning out of the topic, Molly said something to the effect of “The bottom line is, Lonzo would be getting just as much attention from his talent, without his father saying anything”. Which, is a nonsensical statement. The whole reason this was a topic on the show, was Lavar’s insistence on talking up and hyping his son, at every opportunity. Lonzo, while great, would never be a 10 minute topic on First Take, without his father’s advocacy. Both Max and Stephen A instantly recognized this, and Stephen A absolutely crushed Molly, who seemingly had no ability to fight back, or defend what was ultimately a thoughtless throw-away line. Perhaps this is why Molly doesn’t talk more, doesn’t challenge Stephen A and Max about their points. Perhaps she is simply either not inclined or not able to think on her feet quickly enough to analyze and critique their arguments in an effective way. Two other things that bothered me, in regard to the 3rd chair. One was the final take on Wednesday. Wednesday was international women’s day, and a wonderful opportunity for Molly to use her platform, as an exit ramp off of sports and into a weightier issue of women’s rights and empowerment. Yet, the time was used for Max to hype Tim Tebow’s Spring Training at-bats ( which was entertaining, but ultimately trivial). I feel like this was a missed opportunity. A producer should have seen this and adjusted the final take, and if a producer missed it, Molly should have insisted on it. I don’t know the behind the scenes politics of the show, and if that’s even possible, but it seemed glaring to me, to ignore the day. The second thing that bothered me, was the whole discussion about Joe Mixon. When this topic was discussed, Will Cain happened to be sitting in, and they took what seemed like 10 minutes the subject. Each of the men spoke about Mixon at length. However, on the topic of Joe Mixon, wouldn’t it be valuable to hear a woman’s voice? Molly didn’t say a word, until a transitional blurb at the very end. I am much more interested in what a woman has to say on the topic of Mixon, than I am Will freaking Cain. And yet, she was mostly silent. So again this comes down to the question, is this a structural issue with First Take, is the production simply sexist? Or, do the producers not think Molly can handle weightier topics? Is she uninterested in tackling them, or unable to in a meaningful way? I suspect that this is not the right place at ESPN for Molly. I think she would shine on a Football show, which seems to be he wheel house, and it is this topic that she is she is most engaged with and challenging of Max and Stephen A. I think she’s great at transitions and keeping the show moving, and should absolutely be a host somewhere at the network. The problem is, I believe that the First Take 3rd chair should NOT just be a host role. It should be a woman who can think and comment dynamically. Who can absorb what Max and Stephen A are saying ( which are often complex and deep), and challenge the logic of what they say. The 3rd chair is in part a referee, so you need someone intelligent with a strong personality to be able to go toe to toe with Stephen A and Max (who can be larger than life if I’m being kind and overbearing if I’m a little less kind). ESPN is full of talented women, who I think would shine as the 3rd chair. Mina Kimes was a serious business reporter before joining ESPN and has shown, in various venues, her ability to synthesize different topics and use sports as an off ramp for broader social issues. Sarah Spain is is both smart and legitimately funny, and would bring much needed levity to a show that largely takes itself too seriously. Whom I would argue for, however, is someone who is not (I don’t believe) currently an employee of ESPN, though she appears weekly on the ESPN True Hoop Podcast, and that’s Kaileigh Brandt. In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a neutral party here. I am a huge True Hoop Podcast fan, and I interact with Kaileigh often on Twitter. But the reason I interact with her so much, the reason I’m a fan of hers and the reason I’m advocating for her now, is because if she were hired at ESPN I believe she would instantly become the smartest on air talent at the network. Smarter than men who’s intellect I admire, like Max, Bomani Jones and Pablo Torre. Just following her twitter, you can see that she’s a math genius, but she not a limited specialist, she’s a true polymath. Take for example, these to clips of the True Hoop pod, taken over the past couple weeks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSps7S3NIv4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZbIU26ilu0 That shows a depth of thought, an ability to take wide ranging issues and synthesize them brilliantly, in a way that is completely absent in most of life, let alone at ESPN. These monologues are off the top of her head, not read from a prompter and without benefit of production. They are pure, natural talent. The reaction by the TrueHoop fanbase on these monologues has been tremendous. Shouldn’t First Take want that kind of talent, the talent that can generate viral acclaim? In the old days of First Take, clips from the show would typically only happen when something particularly outrageous was said by Stephen A or Skip. That no longer needs to be the case. Some particularly thoughtful monologue by Max and/or Stephen A can be what goes viral, like it does for someone like John Oliver. Isn’t that of primary importance, in this new media age? How many people these days actually watch the full two hours verses how many watch clips of the show online? So I ask you this, can Molly create a monologue that can create viral buzz, beyond her making some sort of catastrophic blunder? If not, why have her on the show? Anyone on the show should be capable of creating that kind of content, the kind that resonates on social media. Stephen A can, Max can, but Molly? I have my doubts. I do not have any doubts that Kaileigh can, as I’ve already seen it, on a mircoscale, at TrueHoop. Coupled with the fact that she already has worked with and has chemistry with Max, and it seems like a perfect fit to me. However, even if you don’t replace Molly with Kaileigh, or any of a number of talented ESPN women, something has to be done with that 3rd chair role. This is 2017 and having a woman sitting quietly while the men folk talk, is a really, really bad look. That role seems something more befitting of Fox, than of ESPN, which as been so forward thinking the past 5 years . If Molly stays in this role, she needs to step up and have her role be expanded. Anything less, and she’s just window dressing, and that’s disrespectful to her, to the talented women who work at ESPN, and the women watching at home. If she is unable to step up, she should be moved to a show she is better suited for, and another woman should be given the chance to turn what is currently an empty role into a meaningful one. Overall, I have enjoyed First Take. It’s really great to see Max thrive again, in a role that he truly shines in. I find Stephen A incredibly entertaining, and find myself smiling at almost all of his arguments, even when I disagree with him completely. Yet, I think the show holds so much more potential, could be so much more than it is now. Currently it’s reputation among sports fans is as a hot take volcano, spewing lava this way and that. With the format it has, and the talent available to it, it could be so much more, if the producers have vision and aren’t beholden the Skip-era model of the show. I am cautiously optimistic about the future of First Take, and look forward to seeing how the Max era progresses. |
Watts' New Paper: Analysis and Critique by dana1981 and Kevin C , Skeptical Science, August 2, 2012 "An area and distance weighted analysis of the impacts of station exposure on the U.S. Historical Climatology Network temperatures and temperature trends" by A. Watts, E. Jones, S. McIntyre and E. R. Christy this conclusion is not supported by the analysis in the paper itself. Here we offer preliminary constructive criticism, noting some issues we have identified with the paper in its current form, which we suggest the authors address prior to submittal to a journal. As it currently stands, the issues we discuss below appear to entirely compromise the conclusions of the paper. In an unpublished paper , Watts et al. raise new questions about the adjustments applied to the U.S. Historical Climatology Network (USHCN) station data (which also form part of the GHCN global dataset). Ultimately the paper concludes "that reported 1979-2008 U.S. temperature trends are spuriously doubled." However,. Here we offer preliminary constructive criticism, noting some issues we have identified with the paper in its current form, which we suggest the authors address prior to submittal to a journal. As it currently stands, the issues we discuss below appear to entirely compromise the conclusions of the paper. The Underlying Problem In reaching the conclusion that the adjustments applied to the USHCN data spuriously double the actual trend, the authors rely on the difference between the NCDC homogenised data (adjusted to remove non-climate influences, discussed in detail below) and the raw data as calculated by Watts et al. The conclusion therefore relies on an assumption that the NCDC adjustments are not physically warranted. They do not demonstrate this in the paper. They also do not demonstrate that their own ‘raw’ trends are homogeneous. Ultimately Watts et al. fail to account for changing time of observations, that instruments change, or that weather stations are sometimes relocated, causing them to wrongly conclude that uncorrected data is much better than data that takes all this into account. Changing Time of Observations The purpose of the paper is to determine whether artificial heat sources have biased the USHCN data. However, accounting for urban heat sources is not the only adjustment which must be made to the raw temperature data. Accounting for the time of observations (TOB), for example, is a major adjustment which must be made to the raw data (i.e., see Schaal et al. 1977 and Karl et al. 1986 ). For example, if observations are taken and maximum-minimum thermometers reset in the early morning, near the time of minimum temperature, a particularly cold night may be double-counted, once for the preceding day and once for the current day. Conversely, with afternoon observations, particularly hot days will be counted twice for the same reason. Hence, maximum and minimum temperatures measured for a day ending in the afternoon tend to be warmer on average than those measured for a day ending in the early morning, with the size of the difference varying from place to place. Unlike most countries, the United States does not have a standard observation time for most of its observing network. There has been a systematic tendency over time for American stations to shift from evening to morning observations, resulting in an artificial cooling of temperature data at the stations affected, as noted by Karl et al. (1986 ). In a lecture, Karl noted "There is practically no time of observation bias in urban-based stations which have taken their measurements punctually always at the same time, while in the rural stations the times of observation have changed. The change has usually happened from the afternoon to the morning. This causes a cooling bias in the data of the rural stations. Therefore one must correct for the time of observation bias before one tries to determine the effect of the urban heat island" Note in Watts Figure 16 , by far the largest adjustments (in the warming direction) are for rural stations, which is to be expected if TOB is introducing a cool bias at those stations, as Karl discusses. Instruments Change, Stations Move As Zeke Hausfather has also discussed, the biggest network wide inhomogeneity in the US record is due to the systematic shift from manually-read, liquid-in-glass thermometers placed in a louvred screen (referred to in the U.S. as a Cotton Region Shelter and elsewhere as a Stevenson screen) to automated probes (MMTS) in cylindrical plastic shelters across large parts of the network in the mid- to late-1980s. This widespread equipment change caused an artificial cooling in the record due to differences in the behaviour of the sensors and the sheltering of the instruments. This is discussed in a number of papers, for example Menne et al. 2009 and 2010 , and like TOB does not appear to be accounted for by Watts et al. Additionally, the Watts paper does not show how or whether the raw data were adjusted to account for issues such as sites closing or moving from one location to another. The movement of a site to a location with a slightly different mean climatology will also result in spurious changes to the data. The Watts paper provides no details as to how or whether this was accounted for, or how the raw data were anomalised. Quite simply, the data are homogenised for a reason. Watts et al. are making the case that the raw data are a ‘ground truth’ against which the homogenisations should be judged. Not only is this unsupported in the literature, the results in this paper do nothing to demonstrate that. It is simply incorrect to assume that all the trends in raw data are correct, or that differences between raw and adjusted data are solely due to urban heat influences. The Amplification Factor The conclusion regarding the lower surface temperature warming trend is also at odds with the satellite temperature data. Over the continental USA (CONUS), satellites show a 0.24 °C per decade warming trend over the timeframe in question. According to Klotzbach et al. (2010) , which the Watts paper references, there should be an amplification factor of ~1.1 between surface and lower troposphere temperatures over land (greater atmospheric warming having to do with water vapor amplification). Thus if the satellite measurements were correct, we would expect to see a surface temperature trend of close to 0.22 °C per decade for the CONUS; instead, the Watts paper claims the trend is much lower at 0.155 °C per decade. global amplification factors, but not for land-only). This suggests that either the satellites are biased high, which is rather implausible (i.e., see Mears et al. 2011 , which suggests they are biased low), or the Watts results are biased low. The Watts paper tries to explain the discrepancy by claiming that the amplification factor over land ranges from 1.1 to 1.4 in various climate models, but does not provide a source to support this claim, which does not appear to be correct (this may be a reasonable range foramplification factors, but not for land-only). discussion between Gavin Schmidt and Steve McIntyre on this subject led to the conclusion that the land-only amplification factor falls in the range of 0.78 to 1.23 (average over all global land areas), with a model mean close to 1 (using a script developed by McIntyre on 24 different models). Note that McIntyre is a co-author of Watts et al., but has only helped with the statistical analysis and did not comment on the whole paper before Watts made it public. We suggest that he share his land-only amplification factor discussion with his co-authors. Another important consideration is that the amplification factor also varies by latitude. For example Vinnikov et al. (2005) found that at the CONUS latitude (approximately 40°, on average), models predict an amplification factor of approximately 1 (see their Figure 9). Note that this is the amplification factor over both land and ocean at this latitude. Since the amplification factor over land is less than that over the oceans, this suggests that the amplification factor over the CONUS land may even be less than 1. Combining the latitude and land-only status of the CONUS, the amplification factor may very well be less than 1, but a range of values significantly lower than the 1.1 to 1.4 range used in the Watts paper would be reasonable. Note also that as discussed above, the satellite data (like all data) are imperfect and are not a 'gold standard'. They are a useful tool for comparison in this study, but the satellite trends should not be assumed to be perfect measurements. More Apples and Oranges Watts et al. compare the best sited Class 1 and 2 stations (using their categorisation) to the totalhomogenised network. Strictly speaking, this is comparing apples and oranges; Watts' data are an inhomogeneous sub-sample of the network compared to a homogeneous total network. In practice, this methodological error doesn’t make much difference, since the homogenisation applied by NCDC produces uniform trends in all of the various classes. However the use of a smaller network has disadvantages. When taking a gridded average of a sparse network, the impact of inhomogeneities is likely amplified and the overall uncertainty of variability and change in the timeseries increases. The Class 1 & 2 sites used by Watts in this context represent just 20% of all the total CONUS network. The comparison of the raw Class 1 & 2 sites with the same network of homogenised data in Watts' own Figure 18 indicates likely inhomogeneities in that raw data. Watts et al. argue that the raw and adjusted Class 1 & 2 trends in Figures 18a and 18b are so different because "well sited stations are adjusted upward to match the already-adjusted poor stations," but this is simply not how the homogenization process is done. In reality the difference is likely due to the biases we have discussed above, indicating that the Watts raw data is inhomogeneous and influenced by these non-climate effects. Determining whether or not the Class 1 & 2 raw data is homogeneous is therefore a key requirement of a revised manuscript. And since the Class 1 & 2 sites have been selected for good exposure, Watts et al. would need to show the cause of any statistical discontinuities that they find. This work has already been done by NCDC in the Menne at al. papers, which show influences from the range of factors discussed above, and not just urban influence. The Watts final conclusion that adjusted temperature trends are 'spuriously doubled' (0.155 °C vs. 0.309 °C per decade raw vs. adjusted data) relies on a simple assumption — that the raw data must be correct and the homogenised data incorrect. There is no a priori basis for this assumption and it is unsupported by the literature. Adjustments Make Little Difference Globally While Watts et al. identify possible issues concerning the adjustments applied to station temperature records, it wisely makes no attempt to assess the global impact of the adjustments, which are beyond the scope of the work. Nonetheless, this is a significant question from a public interest perspective. In order to answer this question, we willl try and estimate the maximum possible impact of station adjustments on the instrumental temperature record. To minimise the warming signal, we will use the simplest method for calculating a global temperature average -- the CRU method, which is known to yield poor coverage at high latitudes and hence underestimate recent warming . Further, we'll assume that entirety of the data adjustments are wrong (ignoring proven bias corrections such as TOB). If we calculate land temperature averages from both the raw and adjusted data, we can see how much difference the adjustments make. The result is shown in the figure below (red and green lines). Just to be absolutely sure, we can do a further calculation using just rural unadjusted data (using the GHCN station classifications) -- the blue line. While the adjustments do make a difference, the difference is small compared to the overall warming signal since 1979. Using a more sophisticated temperature calculation reduces this difference. Furthermore, we are only looking at land temperatures -- 30% of the planet. Including the remaining 70% of the planet (the oceans which, if not precisely rural, are certainly not urban!) dramatically reduces the remaining impact of the GHCN adjustments. Indeed, comparison of warming trends over the oceans and over large inland lakes (including the North American Great Lakes) shows a high degree of consistency with terrestrial trends. Warming over the oceans and lakes is presumably not due to urbanisation. The entire CRU-type calculation requires 65 lines of python code (by comparison, a modern airliner requires upwards of a million lines of code to fly). The code is available below. Show code Many others have done this comparison, including Caerbannog and Zeke Hausfather Fawcett et al (2012) provide a comprehensive assessment of the sensitivity of Australian temperature trends to network and homogenisation choices, including comparison with an unhomogenised gridded analysis of Australian temperatures. Furthermore, the BEST project has obtained a similar result with a different, independent implementation of the station homogenization algorithm. It would be surprising is an independent approach were to yield a similar but incorrect result by chance. Do the overall adjustments make a difference? Yes. Are they justified? Yes, according to the body of scientific literature. Watts raises a scientific issue, but one which only affects part of the adjustment. Does it matter? Not very much. Even if the entirety of the adjustments were wrong, we still see unprecedented warming over the past 40 years. And there is certainly not a factor of two difference between global warming trends in the raw and adjusted data. Constructive Criticisms here, cool bias in the adjusted data, and that the adjusted data are consistent with reanalysis data (detailed in the third linked paper). Watts et al. do not address these papers. Ironically, Watts responded to that interview by saying that Thorne needs to get out into the real world, but it is Watts et al. who have not accounted for real world effects like TOB, station movement, instrument changes, etc. It's worth noting that Peter Thorne of NCDC was interviewed by Andrew Revkin , and discussed three papers which NCDC has recently published (see here here ). In the first of those linked papers, they actually concluded that there likely remains a residualbias in the adjusted data, and that the adjusted data are consistent with reanalysis data (detailed in the third linked paper). Watts et al. do not address these papers. Ironically, Watts responded to that interview by saying that Thorne needs to get out into the real world, but it is Watts et al. who have not accounted for real world effects like TOB, station movement, instrument changes, etc. In its current form, the Watts paper contains little in the way of useful analysis. There are too many potential sources of bias which are not accounted for, too many apples to oranges comparisons, and they cannot draw any conclusions about urban heat influences until their data are homogenized and other non-climate influences are removed. The primary conclusion of the paper, aside from not being supported by the analysis, is simply implausible. The CONUS surface warming trend proposed by the Watts paper appears to be inconsistent with the satellite observations, and overall global trends in raw data do not differ dramatically from those in the adjusted data. Comparing raw to adjusted data globally shows a rather small difference in long-term trends; far smaller than a factor of two. The flaws we have identified entirely compromise the conclusions of the paper. Ultimately Watts et al. assume that all adjustments are 'spurious' unless due to urban heat influences, when in fact most of their identified discrepancy likely boils down to important adjustments for instrumental changes, TOB, and other influences they have not accounted for in their analysis. Watts et al. attempt to justify their assumption by asserting "well sited stations are adjusted upward to match the already-adjusted poor stations," but this is simply not how the homogenization process is done. |
I have been seeing way too many people confused about this online, so I have decided to publish this content here in advance from our upcoming book (details to be released soon). Stay safe! Hash Oil is the essence of cannabis that has been extracted so there’s nothing left but the raw cannabinoids. It is thick and oily in texture, but is not real oil, even though it’s called hash oil. This is intended for vaporizing (“dabs” or “e-dabs“). Edible oil is made from actual oil (butter, coconut oil, olive oil, or other edible oil) which has had the cannabinoids infused into it by heat. This is intended for oral consumption, baking into edibles, or used in Canna Caps. You do not and must never smoke or vaporize this kind of oil, because that could cause you to develop Exogenous Lipoid Pneumonia (ELP). According to RightDiagnosis.com, symptoms of this condition include progressive shortness of breath, lung hemorrhage, fatigue, fever, night sweats, and dry cough. Left untreated, any pneumonia can be life-threatening. At the very least, this condition can cause serious lung damage. |
Ultimate! Science! Ultimate Science! Today I’m stoked to discuss a recent article from the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research. The paper Physical Demands in Competitive Ultimate Frisbee by Peter Krustrup and Magni Mohr tracks players during a game with heart rate monitors and GPS data. Though the sample size is small, the article provides some quantitative data to go with what would otherwise be some obvious qualitative observations. Ultimate is a sport that requires bursts of high intensity activity interspersed with periods of recovery. The results of this research show how important it is to train for speed endurance. The research provides further support to the idea of interval training and other methods of repeated high intensity intervals for cardiovascular conditioning. Summary The research study had two main points. One purpose was to study the in game physical demands of ultimate. The second purpose was to measure possible correlation between certain fitness tests and on field performance. Activity Patterns: Researchers used GPS and heart rate data from 13 players to monitor speed, distance traveled, and heart rate during a 54 minute match. Fitness Test Correlations: The fitness tests used to test correlation are moderately related to the beep test, which some of you may be familiar with. Athletes were evaluated on two different, but similar fitness tests, the Yo-Yo IR1 and Yo-Yo IR2. “IR” means “Intermittent recovery”. The Yo-Yo IR1 has more of an aerobic component. The Yo-Yo IR2 stresses the anaerobic component more. Both tests are similar in that they involve repeated sprints with intermittent recovery periods. Interesting Findings, Part 1 During the 54 minute match, players were only active for 26.4 minutes. That’s less than half the time! The remaining 27.6 minutes involved no activity. Despite the above, players spent more than 40% of the match with HR in the range of 90% max HR. That’s a high intensity zone indicating a very large cardiovascular demand. Okay. But what does this actually mean? Interval Training in Action The average number of sprints during the game was 17.5 +- 5.7. The average time between these high intensity efforts was 226s +- 113s. This means sprinting 1.5-2.5 seconds with 1.5 – 5.6 minutes between sprints. Not all of that time was recovery time. Some was high intensity running. Still, what this shows is that a small fraction of high intensity work leads to having a large percentage of time spend in a high heart rate zone (an average of 40% of match time at or above 90% max heart rate). Practical Application This principle,that small periods of high intensity work leads to high stress on the cardiovascular system, is how interval training works. Interval training can be done in a variety of ways. Some which can induce acid buildup in the muscles to help train the body to metabolize waste products better (and help you develop sprint endurance). And some methods of interval training can be done specifically to keep the heart rate high while keeping acid levels low, thus targeting the aerobic system more than the anaerobic metabolic pathway. This second method, which I prefer, allows for more frequent training sessions and faster adaptation of the cardiovascular system. You can read more about this in my previous post on The Science of Interval Training. If you are interested in a conditioning program that uses interval training, you can download my Six Week Program for free here. It is meant for those of you just starting to get more serious about training specifically for ultimate. Anyone can use it and it doesn’t require a gym. Of course, you will get much better results if you pair it with strength training. Interesting Findings, Part 2 The last 9 minutes of each half showed a large reduction in high intensity running (43-47% decrease) and sprinting (50-61% decrease). The Big Opportunity The most interesting finding in terms of potential for enhancing on field performance is the decrease in high intensity running and sprinting in the last third of each half. This indicates that if you can increase your strength and speed endurance relative to others, you will have a clear advantage over your competition. There likely is a greater opportunity here rather than obsessing with improving vertical jumping ability, which, while important, will not give you as much of a consistent advantage as working on sprint endurance. At the end of the discussion section of the paper the researchers note, “Moreover, invasive measurements should be obtained to investigate the anaerobic contribution and potential mechanisms provoking the fatigue described in this study.” “Invasive measurements” means taking a muscle tissue sample in order to look at acid buildup in the muscle. Studies on anaerobic fatigue are more difficult than studies on cardiovascular load. To truly study anaerobic indicators you need tissue samples shortly after exercise so you can see chemical components. This article is not specifically studying muscle fatigue indicators. Still, we know that the anaerobic metabolic pathway produces an acidic environment in the muscle, which inhibits muscle contraction. As you can imagine, this makes sprinting much more difficult. Practical Application: Strength Training IS Endurance Training Muscle fatigue resulting from anaerobic stress is why strength endurance training is so crucial for ultimate players and why it is such a large part of my programming. Strength endurance training vastly (rep range of 8-10RM) improves the ability of the body to metabolize and deal with acid buildup in the muscle tissue. Strength endurance training greatly improves repeat sprint performance. One of the lessons I have tried to impart to the ultimate community is that strength training is endurance training. Studies like this show how much of a role speed endurance, which is related to strength endurance, can play in on field performance even in a relatively short amount of time with halves of 27 minutes. To be clear, this particular research article made no mention whatsoever about strength endurance. This section is my suggestion based on my general knowledge, my own experience and the experiences of my athletes. Cardiovascular Endurance I’m not sure how robust the fitness test correlations really are with only 13 subjects. But they found a correlation between performance on the Yo-Yo IR1 test and total distance of high intensity running and sprinting. There was also a correlation between the Yo-Yo IR2 test and amount of sprinting in the last 9 minutes of each half. Neither of these results are surprising. Some players conclude that because ultimate is so cardiovascularly demanding, they should spend a lot of time running or doing steady state endurance. However, this is simply not the most efficient way to enhance cardiovascular endurance and does not at all reflect what happens on the ultimate field. Interesting Findings, Part 3 Performance on the Yo-Yo IR2 test (the one with a more anaerobic component) vaguely correlated with an athlete’s ability to perform more sprinting in the last third of each half. Performance on the Y-Yo IR1 test (the one with a more aerobic component) correlated with overall sprint distance What, If Anything, Does This Mean? This is where small sample size makes these findings dubious at best. It seems like common sense that better fitness would correlate with more running, and that’s what the Yo-Yo IR1 shows. It also is common sense that better sprint endurance would correlate with the ability to sustain sprints into the latter portions of each half. It is surprising to me that the Yo-Yo IR2 with the more anaerobic component does not correlate that well with late game sprint output. The problem may simply be the lack of data points. Thirteen data points in one game is not great for drawing a solid conclusion about correlation between a fitness test and what happens on the field. Or perhaps the Yo-Yo tests do not really mimic what happens on the field. Most sprint endurance tests involve short periods of active recovery. The Yo-Yo tests were developed specifically with soccer in mind. In ultimate, I would argue that the rest periods are longer and the sprints are shorter and more intense. I still think sprint endurance tests are a valuable test for an individual who is trying to measure the effects of their own training with the goal of improving ultimate performance. As I’ve written before, research in exercise science is difficult because there are so many variables. This is why training will always be part art, part science. It’s not wise to base your training plan around the results of any one study. Still, I hope this research article leads to more research on the demands of ultimate and a better understanding of how to prepare ourselves for the demands on the field. —- Thanks to Sludge Output for the heads up about the latest in ultimate research! As you can imagine, published research about ultimate is rare. Know of others? Link to them in the comments. Thanks to Alex Davis for his thoughts on statistical validity of the Yo-Yo tests. |
This morning at Mobile World Congress, CEO of Nokia Stephen Elop commented on their recent success of announcing four new Windows Phone within one year of their famous partnership with Microsoft. He noted that they were now in 31 different markets and on 50 unique operators with increasing demand in sales everyday. In just under a year, they've won awards for the Lumia 900, including a "Best of Show" which was a first for them and garnered high praise for the Lumia 800. So when it came to the Lumia 710, specifically on T-Mobile which Elop pointed out was their return-device to the U.S. market, he reported with great enthusiasm that sales are "exceeding expectations" and that they are "very pleased" with its performance in the market so far. While no specific numbers were given, it appears at least that Nokia has a small hit on their hands with the Lumia 710--a device we gave high praise for--and the increasing visibility of the device e.g. LIVE! with Kelly is certainly helping too. Quickly checking T-Mobile's page for device information, we can in fact see this being reflected. As of today, the Lumia 710 is T-Mobile's third best selling device--a level we have never seen reached for any Windows Phone in the US. Likewise, the device is in the same spot for user satisfaction with a 4.7 stars (out of 5) from 115 reviews (interestingly, the HTC Radar is number two). The conclusion seems to be that Nokia is doing quite well with the 710 which we think is a great sign for the impending Lumia 900 on AT&T and their accompanying media campaign. This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for more details. |
Down in his basement laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Donald Sadoway and his students are hunting for the perfect battery. Not for cellphones or laptop computers, but to power a future generation of automobiles or perhaps the electric grid. To achieve that goal, we will need batteries many times cheaper, safer, more powerful, and more durable than today’s best, professor Sadoway says. They must store enough juice to send a car 250 miles on a charge – and cheap enough to store solar or wind power for use at night and in calm periods, he says. Risky, over-the-horizon research is vital because, although most Americans and politicians don’t know it yet, the United States is in a global race to build a new generation of batteries based on lithium-ion technology, Sadoway and others say. With double the “energy density” of today’s standard nickel-metal-hydride batteries, lithium-ion cells have emerged as a viable first-generation battery chemistry to power plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs), major announcements this month reveal. Such a battery is critical to President Obama’s energy plan, which includes deploying PHEVs that go 40 miles on a charge in order to replace much of the nation’s oil imports with US-generated electricity. As electricity replaces gasoline, the race to develop ever more powerful batteries will determine which nations emerge as winners in transportation, renewable energy, and economic clout, many say. “We’re entering an exciting new phase for the automotive industry where we increase the electrification of vehicles, reducing consumption of gasoline through advanced batteries,” David Vieau, president A123Systems in Watertown, Mass., said in a statement this month announcing its plan to build the nation’s first lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant. Yet the US is entering the race late. It must move fast to catch Japan, Korea, and China. Each is pouring billions into lithium research and each already has manufacturing plants. Still, there are signs the tide may be turning. A123Systems has applied for $1.8 billion in funding from the US Department of Energy to build a lithium battery factory in Detroit big enough to supply a half dozen auto companies and employ 14,000 workers. Last week, the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture, a consortium of more than a dozen US battery developers, announced it was seeking up to $2 billion to fund a major lithium battery manufacturing facility. “We cannot allow ourselves to become dependent on foreign sources of lithium-ion battery cells as we have become dependent on petroleum from the Middle East,” says James Greenberger, the National Alliance’s director.Now add the Obama administration’s plan to spend $25 billion for new energy programs. All of which is good news to battery researchers like Sadoway, who have long toiled with slender funding as research dollars sluiced to fuel cells, nuclear power, and others with more buzz and backers. “I applaud the new money going into battery research,” Sadoway says. “We’ve been underspending on something that’s vital to our national security and economic well-being.” In the near term, however, the US is playing catch-up. For more than a year, General Motors has said it hopes to launch the world’s first mass-produced PHEV, the Chevrolet Volt, in 2010. But until recently, GM executives had been damping expectations, saying a battery with the right performance and cost still didn’t exist. That changed last week when GM named LG Chem, a Korean company, as the lithium-ion battery cell supplier for the Volt. It is also working with A123Systems, officials say. Not to be outdone, Toyota announced it would sell some PHEVs with lithium batteries late this year. “When we introduced this [Chevrolet Volt] concept not long ago, it seemed to resonate,” says Robert A. Kruse, GM’s executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles, and batteries. “We said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to figure out how to do this. The battery didn’t exist. We went through a very elaborate search of cell chemistry and construction.” (For the full interview with Mr. Kruse, click here.) Finding the right battery recipe The beauty of lithium-ion is there’s not one single chemical, but many variants involved. As a result, the race isn’t over making a Chevy Volt battery designed to run 40 miles on a single charge that could cost as much as $10,000. Instead engineers hope to create a cell that could last perhaps 80 miles per charge and cost half as much, battery experts say. “There aren’t any showstoppers,” Sadoway says. “We’re not asking for light to travel 10 times faster than it can go. We’re not asking for science fiction. Most remaining problems involve engineering. So I’m optimistic that these problems that remain can be solved.” Still, he worries the US and the rest of the world could become “hooked on lithium” just like oil, since places including China and South America have the richest lithium deposits. So down in his lab, Sadoway’s students are exploring “earth abundant” compounds other than lithium. The LG Chem lithium-ion cell is reportedly based on manganese. But other flavors of lithium-ion are emerging, too. A123Systems’ lithium cell, for instance, is an iron-phosphate variety that’s said to be very safe and stable, a key attribute. “By tinkering with the materials involved, one can address the various challenges. And that’s what we’re seeing now,” says Jim Miller, a senior electrochemical engineer involved in battery research at Argonne National Laboratory, which is providing research support to the National Alliance. Safety and cost remain top concerns, however. Lithium-ion batteries using cobalt chemistry, popularly used in laptop computers and cellphones, have in the past shown a propensity to overheat, resulting in a few laptops going up in flames. That must not happen in a car, all agree. So while the search goes on for a powerful but stable and reliable battery chemistry, automakers are developing sophisticated battery management systems to monitor lithium cells for signs of impending failure. GM announced last week it will make its own computer-monitored pack to hold the LG Chem cells. “There’s many layers of safety built into the Volt, that includes all the way down to the cell level,” Kruse says. Cost is critical Kruse won’t say whether the $10,000 price tag for the batteries floating around the media is correct. If so, the 16 kilowatt-hours (kWh) worth of energy in the GM battery pack would put the price at $625 per kwh of capacity. But the cost of the Chevy Volt battery should drop sharply once production ramps up, several experts say. “Right now the price [for lithium PHEV batteries] is beyond what is required for a sustainable business,” says Ann Marie Sastry, a University of Michigan battery materials expert. “But automotive companies are going to take the risks and assume that [government] policies will help out.” General Motors has talked about a $40,000 price tag for the Volt. That may be too costly for most Americans. The Obama administration has talked about a $7,500 tax break for PHEV buyers. Still others say that the cost of new battery power for PHEVs may drop faster and already be lower than what has been widely reported at perhaps $500 per kilowatt-hour or even less, says Suba Arunkumar, analyst for market researcher Frost & Sullivan. “I do expect the price will come down to perhaps as low as $200 per kilowatt-hour when mass production begins in 2010 and 2011,” she says. With steady progress on all four fronts of lithium-ion cells – cost, safety, durability, and performance – Matthew Keyser, a battery researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., says attention is flowing to riskier, longer-term battery research of the sort “more likely to one-day produce a kind of Holy Grail battery.” All batteries degrade with time. Right now, the Volt’s new battery is expected to last five to eight years. But with a typical car’s lifetime now about 17 years, automakers want a “life of the car” battery. With proper research funding, that goal is achievable, Mr. Keyser and Sadoway agree. The next generation of battery materials – perhaps vanadium oxide or nickelates – will lower costs by increasing capacity, they say. “What we’ve done is to create a situation with a lot of people who smell big money and they’re working very hard,” says John Goodenough, the University of Texas at Austin professor who invented the lithium-ion battery. “I’m optimistic that in a few years, they’re going to lick the problem.” [Editors note: The original version of this article misstated which regions of the world hold large deposits of lithium. China and South America sit on two of the largest caches.] |
BISMARCK-North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple issued an emergency declaration for southwest and south-central North Dakota in response to protests against the Dakota Access pipeline near Cannon Ball. The declaration starts a process by which state agencies can get additional funding, said Greg Wilz, director of the Homeland Security Division of the state Department of Emergency Services. Dalrymple said in the declaration that the state is committed to protecting the right to lawful protests, but recent events have created a "significant public safety concern." The protests have grown substantially over the past week as about 1,500 people have gathered to demonstrate against the pipeline being drilled under the Missouri River. Large campsites have been established for the protesters. Twenty-eight people have been arrested during the demonstrations. The Morton County Sheriff's Department has been the central law enforcement agency involved in monitoring the protests, but several state agencies have gotten involved. North Dakota Highway Patrol has sent officers to the protest site, Wilz said. The health department has provided portable water trailers and a medical trailer at the protest camp. The transportation department has assisted with the road detour on Highway 1806 and put up barriers and signage. Wilz said he will be looking at funding requests from the agencies, make an estimate and ask the emergency commission for an appropriation. The commission can authorize emergency services to get a loan from the Bank of North Dakota. Wilz estimated the additional resources could cost from $750,000 to $1 million, if the protests continue for the next few weeks. The declaration also means an emergency operations center will be set up in the emergency services building, so that the agencies can coordinate their resources, Wilz said. The money does not funnel directly into the local agencies, such as the Morton County Sheriff's Department. Rather, it reimburses the state agencies that provide personnel and material resources to local authorities. Morton County declared its own state of emergency on Monday, for the purpose of tapping into its emergency fund and creating public awareness, said Cody Schulz, chairman of the county commission. Schulz said the biggest expense for the county has been law enforcement, including overtime for the sheriff's deputies and assistance from other agencies, including the Mandan Police and the Cass and Mercer County Sheriffs. The governor's emergency order does not include activation of the National Guard. |
DC Metro Suspends All Political Issue Ads, Rather than Run Pam Geller's Mohammad Ad They have to be viewpoint-neutral in decision-making. They can't just not run her ad because they don't like it. So, they've decided to "neutrally" ban all issue ads. Question: How on earth is this "neutral"? Philadelphia did the exact same thing. The decision to accept issue ads at all isa neutral one when they accept issue ads This doesn't even have the superficial look of a "viewpoint-neutral" decision. They have decided against issue ads, all of them, She should re-sue, and force them to accept issue ads again, including hers -- or else at least they should be forced to demonstrate that they were already planning on rejecting all issue adsof Geller's offer. If this decision was made due to Geller's proposed ad-buy, then the decision is not viewpoint-neutral. As Allah points out, at least the DC Metro is admitting why they're not running the ad. Metro official says agency fears a cartoon ad of the Prophet Muhammad would make buses and subway stations "terrorists targets." — Paul Duggan (@dugganwapo) May 28, 2015 I just love how immigration-without-assimilation is transforming America. It's becoming such a better place, don't you think? |
Bitcoin Give Me Leverage or Give Me Zero Fees for Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Trading There is a trend emerging in the bitcoin trading landscape. The trend is towards higher and higher leveraged products. If you do not have leverage or zero trade fees at your exchange, then you can expect to see tumbleweed go by every day. Give the users leverage or zero fees, otherwise expect exchange death. Disclaimer: Bitcoinist does not endorse nor back any of the services in the article. Use them and the information at your own risk. Also Read: Talking with CRIX founder Dmitry Koval Stigma – Socialised Losses and high leverage There is a chance of Socialized losses when trading at some futures platforms with high leverage. When there are a lot of liquidated positions, the system can be at a loss. To prevent the system from losing money everybody that made a profit after the futures have settled pays a part of their profit into the pot to pay for the liquidations. In the past, there were significant socialized losses at okcoin and bitvc. In more recent times since adjusting some of the parameters around liquidations and increasing the insurance fund size socialized losses occur a lot less. Socialized losses were something that a lot of exchanges did not want to be associated with. High leverage futures were thought to be unsafe and not a real derivative. These two factors made some platforms hesitate to make the move to high leverage products. Crypto Facilities At the start of 2015 Crypto Facilities offered 3:1 which they later rasied to 5:1. Now have a turbo product with 50:1 leverage. That is quite an increase in leverage wouldn’t you say? At Inside Bitcoins Berlin,Dr. Timo Schlaefer the CEO characterised anything over 3:1 to be “unsafe” and a “gambling product. Oh, how the times change. Compared to a lot of other platforms that offer 20-100:1 leverage. One thing that is different about the products at Crypto Facilities is that there are not any socialised losses. The futures are settled without a possible clawback if there are too many people on the losing side. Even at 100x leverage CF does not have socialised losses. They are also regulated by the FRN. Recently they have made a partnership with CME to create a bitcoin reference rate and real-time index. Bitmex Bitmex started out as a futures platform designed for institutional traders. It was confusing and overly complicated for a lot of traders and struggled to get volume. Little by little the UI improved, products were taken away and new ones were added. With the new products and higher leverage came new traders. The latest product is a 100:1 perpetual swap that allows people to trade bitcoin at 100:1 without having to deal with futures settlement. The only one of its kind on the market. Bitmex has also added a perpetual swap at 33.1:1 and has the “regular” futures for bitcoin, litecoin, factom and the A50. Unlike an altcoin exchange, everything at bitmex is based on bitcoin all futures and swaps are denominated in bitcoin. This allows you to get exposure to different markets using bitcoin. liquidations incoming Zero Fees Known for ghash it’s mining pool CEX has been a quiet place in regards to trading as of late. It turns out they have been doing a significant amount of business with people buying bitcoin via credit card and have reportedly had40 Million in deposits and are adding margin trading. They have lowered the fees on all trading pairs and are offering no fees for trading on the pairs ETH/BTC and LTC/BTC. Without fees day trading and trading with a trade bot more viable since you are only paying the spread. Even without fees any exchange will have a tough time getting anywhere near the volume at okcoin.cn. There are no trade fees and the volume is off the chart. Not only is okcoin.cn without fees but they also offer 3:1 leveage. Is the volume at zero fee exchanges real or simple wash trades to pump up the volume? You will have to decide for yourself. Do you trade bitcoin with leverage? What is your favourite platform? image credit: tradingview.com ,World History Archive/Newscom, wetalktrade.com |
A friend at work helped me out doing some colour changes to my wine labels. As a thank you he got a bottle of elderflower wine… the poor bastard. He must be a sucker for punishment as he commissioned, as in bullied me into making him some wine for his upcoming wedding. They are making some elderflower champagne for the ceremony and I am making some for the reception or vice versa – I pretty much blacked out with fear as I worked out what I had agreed to. All I can think of is guests being blinded by it or poisoned, or blinded and poisoned. A mad dash got me the last of the seasons strawberries as ideally I want to get it started this year so it can have 10 months ready for the ceremony. CLICK HERE FOR THE BASIC STRAWBERRY WINE RECIPE AND METHOD Strawberry wine – 4.5 Litres Champagne Yeast EC1118 or CY17 2kg firm strawberries 1kg-ish of sugar to 1.08SG About 4 litres water 1 tsp citric acid or juice of 1 lemon half cup of tea 1 tsp pectolaise 1 tsp yeast nutrient Yeast Ready in six months, better after nine! Strawberry wine has a unique maceration treating the fruit with care so not to extract too much bitterness. First strip the greenery off the strawberries cut any bruising away. Mash the fruit then pour over 1 litre of boiling water and leave it for 24 hours – 36 or 48 if it has not puréed into a smooth goo. As it sits boil the remaining 3 litres of water and let it sit covered to cool. So far so violent! The gentle care come when extracting the juice. Pour the pulp into a funnel lined with clean sterilised muslin/cheese cloth and let the liquid drip through. As space starts to appear pour in some of the cooled water and let that drip through so it can extract more of the flavour. You can stir the goo but do not squeeze the bag as this forces out bitter tastes you do not want. It will probably take at least an hour for all the water to pass through. As I am eventually making champagne I need to keep the sugar to a maximum of SG1.08 when I make this. Champagne is made using a secondary fermentation after the wine has matured a little. As there is a lot of alcohol made there is an upper limit the new yeast can tolerate when it gets added just before bottling. If you are making a still wine you can go to SG1.09 or higher of you want something strong. I had to add about 800g of sugar. Another wait is needed if you add pectolaise to break down the pectin. this is not essential but is desirable. So another 24 hours passed with the wine covered and safe from bacteria. A half cup of strong tea is added after pectolaise as the enzyme likes to gobble tannin as well as pectin. Tannin adds body to the wine as strawberries lack this essential element unlike grapes. Yeast and nutrient are added and then after three hours there were signs of fermentation which picked up in power until 24 hours later there was a loud and vigorous bubbling happening. After 5 days I racked into secondary with an air lock and all looks good. It will sit in the wide necked demijohn for 5 or 6 weeks protected with its blanket of carbon dioxide preventing any oxidation and then at this point I will rack into a narrow neck demi as the smaller surface area is exposed to oxygen and possible oxidation. The current wide neck demi allows easy cleaning afterwards as there will be a lot of lees settling. Chaptilizing is adding yeast and sugar as a secondary fermentation and I plan to do this around month 4 or 5 as it gives enough time for the wine to clear initially. Strawberry wine is quick in many aspects. The over all time from pitch to pop is just 9 months although it ca mature for up to a year and a half. With in this fermentation always seem explosive and I have had some foam out the air lock. Yeast settles quickly too with a very clear wine after 2 or 3 months – further time may be needed to off gas the dissolved CO2 though. CLICK HERE FOR STRAWBERRY CHAMPAGNE GUIDE One thing I may try next April is also adding banana as this can create further depth in a white fruit wine – reds similarly use raisins that would overpower the strawberries creating a muddled taste. As I have no leeway with this batch I am sticking to tried and tested methods. I can experiment when my only client is myself. Advertisements |
For the sake of the HSBC social media employee whose deleted tweet alerted the world to Apple Pay’s imminent arrival in the UK, I’ll feign surprise. Apple Pay has officially launched in the UK today! American readers who have had access to the iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad payment for the past ten months may be wondering what the fuss is about, but the actual launch details are pretty impressive, and assuming everything goes smoothly, it will have been worth the wait. For a start, there are seven banks listed as launch participants: American Express, MBNA, Nationwide, NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Santander and Ulster Bank. Weirdly, HSBC are listed in the “Coming Soon” section on Apple’s website, so their excitement and subsequent denial may have been misplaced. Indeed, their social media account is now informing people it will be launching “later in July”. They’re joined in the upcoming list of banks by Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank and TSB. So, your bank is supported, and you want to get out there and take Apple Pay for a spin with some good old-fashioned capitalism. Where can you go to do it? The Apple site has some suggestions, highlighting a number of well-known high-street names such as Boots, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Costa, McDonalds and Waitrose. Companies such as Costcutter, EAT, JD Sports and Wilko are listed as “coming soon”. Unsurprisingly, Apple is also listed as accepting its own payment system, but you won’t be able to visit the Apple Store to use Apple Pay to buy an Apple Watch: it’s limited to small transactions. As AppleInsider points out, “purchases above £20 will need software upgrades”, adding that the limit is planned to rise to £30 in September. Maybe you can just get a phone cover, then. Update: A couple of stores - Pret and Bill's - have proven that it is possible to accept transactions of over £20. According to the Apple website, "To accept Apple Pay for transactions over £20, your payment terminal must be capable and configured properly, and your payment provider needs to support the latest network contactless specifications." Pret is particuarly pleased to have avoided the £20 cap, sharing this tweet encouraging the world to forget the cap and go sandwich crazy. Images: Jason Howie and Shinya Suzuki used under Creative Commons |
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