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BRIDGEPORT TWP, Mich. (March 18, 2014)– A man in Saginaw County is facing a felony charge after being arrested at a township board meeting March 4, for going over his allotted speaking time. Mark Adams was charged Friday, March 14 with a felony resisting and obstructing police and a disturbing the peace misdemeanor. The incident was caught on camera and has been viewed thousands of times. FOX 17 spoke exclusively with the man arrested, traveling across the state to get answers. Adams was pulled from the podium by several officers and arrested after exceeding the public comment time limit of three minutes, addressing several issues he has with his local government. Township supervisor Augie Tausend asked Adams to summarize his comments after four minutes and to sit down several times. Tausend says it’s not the first time they’ve had issues with Adams, saying they’ve asked him to sit down at meetings before, but this time was different. Adams says the arrest was pre-planned. Tausend denies that, saying two new officers were at the meeting being sworn in and the others were there to watch. Though public comment guidelines are clearly laid out and posted on the building where the meeting was held, Adams says his rights were violated. “Freedom of speech doesn’t have a time limitation, there’s no time limitation when you talk about our constitutional freedoms,” he said. Watch Full Arrest Video Here: |
The discovery of two parcel bombs has led security authorities around the world to ring the alarm. Germany, France and Great Britain have stopped all cargo flights in and out of Yemen. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière cancelled a trip to the Middle East and is exerting pressure on customs and the police. Weak points in the control of cargo are to be analyzed and eliminated. In addition, a working group has been created with experts from Germany's Foreign, Transportation and Interior ministries as well as security agencies in order to deal with the developments. On Monday, German security authorities have also banned any flights originating in Yemen from German airspace because of security concerns. A high-ranking security official said during a briefing with journalists that there was no immediate end in sight for the security measure. He said there are no direct connections being offered between German airports and Yemen. The only possibility for traveling there is via connecting flight with Yemenia airlines in Italy. The flight, which stops in Rome before traveling on to Frankfurt on Tuesdays, has been stripped of its right to land here by German officials. Still, investigators aren't making a whole lot of progress in the search for the mastermind behind the thwarted attacks. One suspected woman was released in Yemen after a brief arrest. The medical student had been accused of leaving a package with explosive materials at a branch of an air cargo company in the capital city of San'a. Who is behind the attacks, and what consequences will the just-prevented catastrophe have for the war on terror? SPIEGEL ONLINE provides an overview of what is currently known: |
We all know what an egg looks like, right? Well, we might know less than we think—bird eggs can be spheres, teardrops, oblong, and anything in between. An interdisciplinary group of scientists may have made progress in cracking the mystery behind how these different shapes emerged. A new study in Science shows that differences in flight ability might actually start as early as the egg: birds that take to the skies have more elliptical, asymmetrical eggs, while land-bound birds (like ostriches) have more spherical eggs. “My colleagues and I were really struck by the diversity in egg shape,” says Mary Stoddard, first author of the paper and an assistant professor at Princeton. “Bird eggs all serve a similar function: to nourish and protect the growing chick. But despite their shared function, they evolved different shapes.” Not all eggs are like the ones at the grocery store; the vast landscape of bird eggs actually spans a much wider range of shapes. The brown hawk-owl’s egg, for example, is practically a perfect sphere, while the sandpiper has a teardrop-shaped egg. The researchers’ first step was to characterize this diversity with two measurements. First, ellipticity: start with a sphere, and as you stretch it out, it becomes more elliptical. Second, asymmetry: sometimes, one end of an egg is pointier than the other. Each of these measurements is a continuum—values can fall anywhere in the middle—and by combining them, you can describe nearly any egg. Asymmetrical and elliptical? Like a teardrop. Symmetrical and spherical? That's a sphere, duh. The researchers plotted 50,000 different egg shapes from 1,400 species along these two axes and were surprised to incredible variety—more than in other egg-laying vertebrates. They found that most eggs fell somewhere in the middle, like a chicken egg: a little more elliptical than a sphere, and somewhat asymmetrical. But how do these shapes arise? Previous research has shown that shape is determined by the egg’s flexible membrane, a protective layer below the hard shell. This study goes one step further to propose how the membrane’s shape is determined in the first place. It suggests that properties of the membrane in different parts of the egg—thickness and elasticity, for example—determine how the shape of the membrane changes in response to the changes in pressure. The researchers created a computational model to show how tweaking membrane properties in certain parts of the egg can affect the overall shape. |
Congress returned from its annual summer recess on Tuesday, facing a familiar threat: the possibility of a government shutdown at the end of the month. For federal employees and their labor groups, avoiding the forced furloughs and delayed paychecks that can accompany an appropriations lapse is priority No. 1. However, several other measures primed for consideration as Congress gets back to work have captured the attention of the largest federal employee unions as looming areas of concern. J. David Cox, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, told Government Executive aside from the need to fund agencies, he wished Congress would stay on recess. “I’d like for them to stay out of town for the rest of the year,” Cox said. “That would make my life more complete.” For federal agencies and their workforces, the most imminent concern is twofold: First, ensuring agencies do not have to close their doors for any amount of time, and second, that they receive the adequate funding necessary to fulfill their missions. Congress must resolve the current budget stalemate before Oct. 1, when current appropriations are set to expire. Any such deal must offset spending increases or comply with the budget caps established by the 2011 Budget Control Act, which will once again take full effect in fiscal 2016 after two years of boosted funding levels. “Congress has got to end this sequestration madness,” Cox said. Congressional Republicans have insisted fiscal 2016 non-Defense discretionary spending must comply with sequestration caps, while President Obama has vowed to veto any bill that does not boost funding levels. Cox said if congressional negotiations fail and there is a shutdown, it would be “disastrous” for the country, noting it would hurt national Defense, airport screening and, “I guess the inmates will run the federal penitentiaries.” Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said avoiding a shutdown -- which has grown more likely with conservatives vowing a fight over funding for Planned Parenthood -- was his top concern, but the first step of the funding battle. “We are fighting very hard to get appropriate resources” for agencies, he said. “We are clearly very interested in making certain sequestration doesn’t return in fiscal year 2016.” Already, he and Cox said, the shutdown talk has hurt the federal workforce. It creates uncertainty, damaging morale and retention efforts. The ongoing threats contribute to fewer young people wanting to join the federal ranks, Cox said. He added that agencies have already started contingency planning for an appropriations lapse. If the deadline draws nearer with no resolution in sight, agencies will have to -- as they did in 2013 -- release details on which employees would be furloughed and which would be forced to work without immediate pay as their job functions are critical to protecting life or property. Even the most likely non-shutdown scenario would involve a continuing resolution, which hampers agencies’ abilities to conduct long-term planning and puts some projects on hold. In a Tuesday New York Times op-ed, NASA officials said the agency would have to shut down or postpone its Mars rover and New Horizons missions if a CR is enacted. Meanwhile, Reardon said NTEU is monitoring other fiscal 2016 deadlines that could include offsets affecting federal employees’ pay and benefits. The annual extension of a wide array of tax cuts -- including the mass transit benefit for feds and other American workers -- will require an offset, which Reardon said could target federal employees. Congress will also in the coming months have to find a way to boost the highway trust fund. Before lawmakers agreed to a short-term extension earlier this year, suggested pay-fors included privatizing the current Internal Revenue Service function of tax collection and weakening returns on the Thrift Saving Plan’s G Fund. Of course, as have similar efforts in recent years, any spending deal to offset sequestration could include cuts to federal retirees’ benefits. Federal employees “are promised a very modest retirement package,” Reardon said. “They work extremely hard to earn that benefit. We have an obligation to ensure that they get it.” NTEU is also preparing to fight any effort to strip IRS employees of collective bargaining rights. A Republican report released in August and led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, suggested the IRS workforce should not be able to unionize. Hatch cited his perception that union activity exerted a political bias on IRS employees while carrying out their jobs, an assertion Reardon vehemently denied. “IRS employees are dedicated and committed public servants,” Reardon said, adding there has never been any finding of political motivation “on the part of front-line employees.” The de-unionization proposal was not included in a bipartisan report also released last month. AFGE’s Cox vowed to support NTEU’s fight against “union busting,” noting, “NTEU’s fight is AFGE’s fight.” For now, his top non-shutdown concern involves a measure to ease the firing of employees at the Veterans Affairs Department. AFGE represents a large swath of the department’s workforce. “It’s going to be top of our burner,” Cox said. Florida Republicans Rep. Jeff Miller and Sen. Marco Rubio “have some passionate desire to strip every VA employee of every right,” he added. The House passed Miller’s bill just before the August recess, though Obama has threatened to veto it. Cox said AFGE is working with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., on an alternative proposal to boost accountability measures at VA while retaining due process. Cox said no matter what Congress throws at the federal workforce, his union will not sit idly by. “We’ll be fighting back,” he said. (Image via gary718 / Shutterstock.com) |
Kim Dotcom has become somewhat of a cult figure in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. He is a big fan of Bitcoin and aims to integrate it into his future services. However, it seems Dotcom also keeps tabs on Bitcoin Cash. His recent Twitter poll has gotten a lot of attention already. So far, belief in Bitcoin as the superior currency is still very strong Then again, scalability will remain a problem for quite some time to come. It is evident Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are two very different currencies. One effectively has a lot of value and the other is still struggling to make its mark. More specifically, the past week or so has been kind to BCH as a whole. That doesn’t make the currency a contender for the world’s leading cryptocurrency by any means, though. At the same time, one has to acknowledge Bitcoin itself is not without flaws by any means. Especially when it comes to scaling, there is still a lot of work to be done. Kim Dotcom Wants a Scalable Version of Bitcoin Kim Dotcom has been keeping tabs on both currencies for some time now. We all know Bitcache will use BTC as a payment option. However, there is a chance he may integrate Bitcoin Cash as well. It all depends on which currency will have the largest volume of internet payments. Right now, Bitcoin has a clear lead over BCH. However, that threshold may look very different in a few years from now. A lot will depend on how fast Bitcoin can effective scale. So far, it seems rather problematic, to say the least. Let us see… 3 TPS on BTC Vs scaling soon to 50,000 TPS on BCH Which # is larger….. — Dr Craig S Wright (@ProfFaustus) November 9, 2017 To put this into perspective, SegWit is live on the Bitcoin network. So far, not much has happened to it, though. A lot of service providers have yet to integrate this new solution moving forward. Kim Dotcom will keep a close eye on how this situation evolves. It is in his best interest to accept currencies which scale better. Right now, Bitcoin is more popular, but it is not the best by any means. Bitcoin Cash can natively process far more transactions right now. It will be interesting to see how this situation changes in the coming years. It seems Dotcom may integrate Bitcoin Cash into his future services if need be. Whether or not this will be the case by 2021, remains to be seen. There is still a lot of work to be done for both BTC and BCH. An interesting future lies ahead, that much is certain. It would be better if we saw more collaboration rather than Bitcoin hard forks. |
Researchers have uncovered a powerful and previously unknown weapon that China's government is brazenly using to knock sites out of commission. Dubbed the Great Cannon, the tool has been used to bombard two anti-censorship GitHub pages with junk traffic, but it just as easily could be used to wage stealthy attacks that silently install malware on the computers of unwitting end users. As Ars explained previously, the attacks on the pages of anti-censorship service GreatFire.org and a mirror site of the New York Times Chinese edition had some novel characteristics. The junk traffic came from computers of everyday people who browsed to websites that use analytics software from Chinese search engine Baidu to track visitor statistics. About one or two percent of the visits from people outside China had malicious code inserted into their traffic that caused their computers to repeatedly load the two targeted GitHub pages. The malicious JavaScript was the product of the Great Cannon, which China uses to alter traffic passing over its backbone and takes no steps to conceal. "The operational deployment of the Great Cannon represents a significant escalation in state-level information control: the normalization of widespread use of an attack tool to enforce censorship by weaponizing users," the researchers from the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Toronto, and Princeton wrote in a report published Friday. "Specifically, the Cannon manipulates the traffic of 'bystander' systems outside China, silently programming their browsers to create a massive DDoS attack." Not only China Lest readers think that the Great Cannon is a tool unique to China's repressive government, the researchers say it in many ways resembles the secret Internet backbone nodes known as Quantum that the National Security Agency and its British counterpart use to conduct targeted surveillance. While there is no evidence that US and British actors have used Quantum indiscriminately against such a large audience to perform a denial-of-service attack, the program makes it clear that the Great Cannon isn't the only state-operated mechanism that can and does manipulate Internet traffic. Friday's report supported a finding Ars reported last week that the source of the man-in-the-middle attacks hammering GitHub was located on the backbone of China Unicom, a major service provider in China known to host parts of that country's Great Firewall. The new research shows that the Great Cannon is distinct from the Great Firewall. In short, the Great Cannon is an "in-path" device built into the Chinese backbone for the purposes of performing man-in-the-middle attacks, while the Great Firewall is an "on-path" system that sits off to the side for the purposes of eavesdropping on traffic passing between China and the rest of the world. The researchers said the Great Cannon could largely be neutralized if websites sent all of their pages over encrypted HTTPS connections. The reason: communications that are end-to-end encrypted can't be modified by people sitting in between the sender and receiver. This is true in theory but not necessarily so in practice. Websites that offer HTTPS protections frequently mix unencrypted traffic from third-party sites into their encrypted traffic. The Great Cannon—and presumably Quantum nodes as well—could potentially seize on this by manipulating the traffic of one of the third parties. |
(AP) An extension of Secret Service protection for former vice president Dick Cheney – authorized by President Obama – officially went into effect this week, CBSNews.com has confirmed. The New York Daily News first reported the story. It is standard for taxpayers to pay for six months of Secret Service protection for former vice presidents. Cheney requested an extension of that protection, however, and the president granted his request. The former vice president will now have at least another six months of protection. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano signed an order to extend Cheney's detail on July 17th, according to the Secret Service. The Daily News says friends of the former vice president "have said he has become more concerned about his privacy and personal safety in recent years." Cheney is expected to request another extension when this one runs out. He has been in the news recently for his possible role in a decision to conceal a secret CIA antiterrorism program from Congress. |
Authors note: Hello dear lovely readers. I know I promised a similar questy sort of fic to follow on from Zuko's adventure with Miss smarty pants bossy boots. But this idea crept into my brain and would not be silenced. It's at the Western Air Temple in the very early days. Katara still doesn't trust Zuko and has acquired a new hobby. You thought Jet was the only one fond of stalking Zuko? au contraire mes amis! What follows will be her 'Stalking Zuko Journal.' Because I wanted to experiment with writing entirely from the first person, which is not my forte. I'll include cannon events and missing moments. We begin a few days after Zuko has arrived and it has become clear to Katara that he's here to stay. Without further ado, lets start stalking Zuko. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 A subject called Zuko. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0o Subject has been 'accepted' into the group and awkwardness abounds. I do not trust Subject. Subject, no doubt, is here for nefarious purposes and will betray us at the first opportunity. I have come to expect this behavior from Subject and I will not be surprised by it next time! Because I am going to follow him and watch all his movements so he has no time to do sneaky things. Furthermore Subject is a smelly firenation jerkbender. I have decided to record everything I learn about subject. To know your enemy is to have a great advantage on the battle field. This way when it is time for his inevitable betrayal, I will be able to strike back! I have decided not to name Subject for confidentiality's sake as well as because calling things by their name eventually endears them to you. Subject will not endear himself to me again! Things I know about Subject: Subject's mother is missing, possibly dead. Or possibly she just got sick of Subject's moping and buggered off. Wow, that was bitchy. Whatever, Subject deserves it after what he did. Subject puts fireflakes on everything. Subject always wakes with the sun, which is ridiculously early. Have gotten up twice to witness this and that is enough for me. Subject's closest ally is Toph, who has, horror upon horrors, taken a liking to him. Subject, purely from a scientific point of view, is quite muscular and not displeasing to look at without his shirt. This, in no way, impacts upon my feelings towards Subject. Subject trains with Aang most of the day, until Aang gets bored and wanders off. Subject is getting frustrated with Aang's lack of progress with firebending and his tendency to be easily distracted. Subject's own firebending is a bit off at the moment. I know, because I have seen him at his best and this is not it. Have many sarcastic comments in my head and a few out loud about this fact. Subject never smiles. 0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0 Very unusual morning! After breakfast everyone else vanished at the smallest sign of housework, leaving me to do all the dishes again. I find this very frustrating and had half a mind to bend some water at them. I thought I was alone, but Subject snuck up on me. Subject wanted to help me do the dishes. At first I refused, quite angrily. But Subject kept tidying. I got a bit cross with Subject and Subject got a bit cross back and declared that he 'just wanted to be nice.' Oh really Subject? Nice would have been not turning on me in Ba Sing Se. I said this to Subject and was met with the requisite amount of general apologies I have come to expect from Subject whenever we address this topic. He feels badly about what happened. As it should be. I decided to allow Subject to help only because it really is nice to get some help around here and not at all because I am warming to him. Subject is trying to be helpful to get back into my good graces, but that will take many more dish washes. No! It wont, because I will never allow subject back into my good graces. I said as much to Subject. Subject started talking (rambling, blathering or even blithering are actually better words to describe what he was doing) about how he would not like us to be hostile towards each other, even if we are not friendly. It was a most unusual conversation. Subject got a bit lost and started to mix his metaphors badly. And one point Subject said something most ridiculous that I misinterpreted and there was much awkwardness all round. Subject left the room for a few moments in a fit of embarrassment and had to collect himself. When he returned he offered that we call a truce between us because he doesn't want to fight with me. He will promise not to hurt Aang or any of us and be helpful with any chores that need doing if I try not to hate him so much. I have elected to think on Subject's Proposal. There are many benefits to not being hostile. Subject, being relatively new to our group, is the only one who does not take me, my cooking and the fact that I do all the chores, for granted. Subject has expressed a wish to be helpful and I can think of many tasks for which his assistance would be useful. It is also very tiring being constantly mad at someone like Subject, who is more mad at himself for his past misdeeds that I could ever be. Things I learned about Subject: Subject is practically incoherent when nervous. Subject's hands are HUGE. Subject's firebending can be helpful in heating the water for washing dishes and drying said dishes. Subject accidentally makes rude double entendres and then blushes furiously. Subject can be extremely awkward and dorky. I will endeavor not to find Subjects' hapless attempts at friendship adorable. Because they are not at all adorable. They are annoying. And I am annoyed by them! But it was kind of cute when he fluffed off all embarrassed. |
Bell could receive a transition tag from the Steelers during the offseason, Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports. Bell became ineligible for 2018 when he failed to report to the Steelers on Tuesday. He will now turn his focus to the upcoming offseason, at which point a third franchise tag would be prohibitively expensive for the Steelers, thus giving Bell all the leverage. The Steelers still have the option to use a transition tag for approximately $14.5 million, which would give them the right to match any offer sheet Bell signs with another team. The problem with that option is a lack of draft-pick compensation, whereas Pittsburgh likely would receive a mid-round pick if it simply allowed Bell to become an unrestricted free agent. The final option makes the most sense and would enable Bell to choose his next home without the Steelers having any involvement. He'll turn 27 years old in February and may find that some teams are worried about his year-long absence from football, even though the running back met his stated goal of avoiding wear and tear during a contract year. |
A trio of skydivers who staged a controversial jump from the Freedom Tower, 1 World Trade Center, on Sept. 30, 2013 posted footage from their jump. They have since been arrested. (YouTube/NYC B.A.S.E. Jump) Word of warning: If heights make you twitchy, you probably should move on to the next post. Four men were arrested Monday and accused of skydiving (or base jumping, if you prefer) off of 1 World Trade Center in September, an act condemned by the New York police commissioner and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The act didn’t go unnoticed last fall. Police in New York said at the time that they were investigating the incident after surveillance cameras caught two men landing near the Goldman Sachs building in lower Manhattan. The video, posted to YouTube on Monday and flagged by the New York Daily News, appears to be taken from the helmet camera of one of the three men who jumped (the fourth stayed on the ground). Watch it if you want to experience what it’s like to stand atop 1 World Trade Center before leaping off and parachuting down onto the streets of lower Manhattan, if that sounds like your cup of tea, if watching that kind of video won’t immediately leave you stricken with vertigo. (The actual jumping begins at about 2:30 on the video.) This is the second time this month that someone has been charged after sneaking into the site. One of the men arrested Monday said he and the others got in through a gap in the fence, according to the Associated Press. That’s also how a 16-year-old from Weehawken, N.J., got in there this month, authorities said. The teenager climbed through a hole in the fence and made his way to the top of 1 World Trade Center, authorities said, where he hung out and shared photos on Twitter. |
Monty “mordred” Taylor just announced that he’s leaving HP and going to work at IBM. Usually something like this wouldn’t deserve more fanfare than the twittersphere explosion already in act. In this case, I think the announcement is more important than just an OpenStack board member and technical leader changing employer. Monty says on his blog that he is leaving HP because he wants to build public clouds, implying that he can’t do that at HP. At IBM instead he’ll be focusing on a strong OpenStack-based public cloud, to compete head-to-head with Amazon (and surpass it). His words confirm the impression I had when analyzing the competitive landscape of public clouds for DreamHost. HP clearly is targeting the enterprise market, with their public cloud used mainly as a supporting mechanism for the private clouds. I think OpenStack will benefit from more focus on public clouds: I have the feeling those are taken for granted, since there are working groups for pretty much anything but for public clouds. And all operators running large clusters have nightmare stories instead. Hopefully lots of positive changes aimed at public cloud users will keep going upstream (and we can avoid creating yet another working group in openstack-land). Like this: Like Loading... |
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Donald and Melania Trump visited Houston to meet volunteers delivering supplies to residents Donald Trump has agreed to a Democratic plan to lift the debt limit for three months, fund the government and rush aid to Hurricane Harvey victims. The US president went against Republican leaders who wanted to extend a debt-limit increase for longer, until after the 2018 mid-term elections. Democrats announced the deal just before the House of Representatives passed $8bn (£6bn) for Harvey victims. Congress will need to approve the deal before it is finalised. Mr Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One he had a "very good meeting" with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "We essentially came to a deal and I think the deal will be very good," he said while travelling to North Dakota for an event on tax reform on Wednesday. "We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred, very important." The proposal attaches the disaster aid to a government funding bill that would raise the US debt limit and keep the government running through 15 December, setting up a fiscal showdown at the end of the year that Republicans had hoped to avoid. "Both sides have every intention of avoiding default in December and look forward to working together on the many issues before us," Mrs Pelosi and Mr Schumer said in a joint statement. Leaders from both parties met Mr Trump at the White House on Wednesday morning. Following the meeting, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan called the Democratic proposal "unworkable" and "ridiculous", putting the president at odds with his own party. 'Seething Republicans' - US media reaction "Meet the swamp: Trump sides with Democrats during leadership confab", comments Breitbart on the front page of its website, adding that by doing so he "jacks up debt, punts the agenda, snubs GOP". "This isn't Trump caving in to the Democrats. No no no. This is Trump sticking it to the Establishment, you guys. That's all," comments Joe Cunningham of RedState. "President Trump waged a hostile takeover of the Republican Party's presidential nomination last year. Now he's holding the entire party hostage," says an editorial in The Washington Post. "The bargain has left several Republican lawmakers seething that Trump, the self-proclaimed deal-maker, had given such leverage to their political rivals," The Los Angeles Times reports. It says that the president has grown increasingly frustrated over dissent in his party which he believes has stifled his agenda. "[If Mr Trump's] deal did not yet represent the breaking point between the president and his core, hard-right base of support, it certainly put him closer than he has ever been to tipping his fragile political coalition into open revolt," New York Times columnists Jeremy W Peters and Maggie Habierman write. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin had also reportedly urged Mr Trump to pursue a longer-term debt-limit deal but has insisted that raising the borrowing limit was imperative in order to quickly send aid to Texas. The deal includes Democratic support in the Senate for the first instalment of disaster relief aid for Hurricane Harvey victims in Houston, where flooding has devastated the Texan city. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has warned the cost of reconstruction after Hurricane Harvey could be as high as $180bn. The House overwhelmingly passed a bill to provide $7.9bn for victims of the floods before the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) runs out of funds later this week. The House approved the funding 419 to three, with three Republicans voting "no". Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption Thousands have already registered for government assistance in the wake of Hurricane Harvey Democrats on the House floor pointed out that Republicans refused to pass a $50.5bn disaster relief package in the aftermath of the 2012 Superstorm Sandy, which ravaged north-east states, because it was not offset by budget savings elsewhere. The north-east states that were hit hardest by Sandy are predominantly Democratic while Texas and much of the southern US leans Republican. The relief package comes as a more powerful storm, Hurricane Irma, barrels toward Puerto Rico and Florida and threatens more damage. Mr Trump's deal with the Democrats means that the Republican-controlled Congress will have to address partisan issues such as healthcare and immigration later in the year while negotiating with Democrats over a debt vote. "Given Republican difficulty in finding the votes for their plan, we believe this proposal offers a bipartisan path forward to ensure prompt delivery of Harvey aid as well as avoiding a default, while both sides work together to address government funding, DREAMERS, and healthcare," Mr Schumer and Mrs Pelosi said. |
Atletico Madrid Increase will see a fairer split in La Liga Atletico Madrid will be among the main beneficiaries of La Liga's new television deal, with the previous total of 45 million euros said to be rising to 100m per year. Los Rojiblancos, champions two years ago and still in the race for the title this season, have benefited most from new rules of money distribution, designed to make things more even. That total will raise Atleti's status above the likes of German champions Bayern Munich, who receive 50m, and Italian giants Juventus, who get 94m. Only clubs in the Premier League, the richest competition in the world, will earn more than Atleti, with Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea earning over 165m euros. The new rule, which takes power from both Barcelona and Real Madrid, who receive 140m each, will also see the likes of Eibar receive 43m instead of 18m, while Sevilla will receive 60m. |
St. John’s College in Santa Fe recently promoted a new “study group” for “those who most often exhibit racist and sexist behavior—white males.” According to correspondences obtained by Campus Reform, the study group was advertised in a campus-wide email forwarded to all students and faculty, explicitly encouraging white people to attend four sessions on privilege so they can “begin to be self-critical.” “How do we deal with the depravity of whiteness and the brutality of masculinity?” [RELATED: Portland State course aims to ‘make whiteness strange’] “This is a group where those who most often exhibit racist and sexist behavior–white males–can begin to be self-critical of the very dangerous, brutal, and depraved hierarchical pathologies of superiority, supremacy, and inferiority handed down to us by white Euro-American institutions,” an email advertising the study group elaborates. Participants will apparently deal with two main problems, those being “the depravity of whiteness and the brutality of masculinity.” “The main topic for discussion will be an ongoing one: How do we deal with the depravity of whiteness and the brutality of masculinity? How can we get to the root of this problem?” the announcement confirms. The email goes on to explain that members of the study group will “read about and discuss the privilege of white people (especially white males), patriarchy, sexism, and racism in the neoliberal capitalist empire of the United States of America,” warning prospective attendees that “the discussions will be graphic and contain graphic material.” According to SJC’s website, “members of the community, both students and faculty, often come together to form extracurricular study groups on various topics of interest.” In this case, the email announcing the study group’s formation was forwarded to both the student and faculty listservs for SJC’s Santa Fe campus by Maggie Reitz-Wells using her SJC email address. Campus Reform was unable to determine whether the original sender was a student or an employee, and has therefore redacted the individual’s name and email address. [RELATED: Textbook claims American exceptionalism has ‘racist overtones’] The individual who provided the email to Campus Reform indicated that Reitz-Wells is an employee in the Office of Student Life, an assertion corroborated by a LinkedIn profile referring to her as the Student Life Office Manager, but no listing for her could be found on the school’s website. Campus Reform reached out to Reitz-Wells for comment, and received a reply of sorts from Assistant Dean Jan Arsenault, who demanded to know “who are you and how did you obtain a copy of an email sent in-house?” When Campus Reform responded to her queries, Arsenault sent a perfunctory reply stating that she is “not interested” in providing any comment. Campus Reform has contacted the SJC personnel office to inquire further into Reitz-Wells’ role at the college, but has not yet received a response. Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowski |
Philippines stocks lower at close of trade; PSEi Composite down 0.38% Investing.com – Philippines stocks were lower after the close on Tuesday, as losses in the , and sectors led shares lower. At the close in Philippines, the fell 0.38%. The best performers of the session on the were BDO Unibank Inc (PS: ), which rose 2.59% or 2.90 points to trade at 114.90 at the close. Meanwhile, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co (PS: ) added 2.29% or 1.95 points to end at 87.10 and Semirara Mining Corp (PS: ) was up 1.20% or 1.5000 points to 126.0000 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were SM Prime Holdings Inc (PS: ), which fell 2.79% or 0.800 points to trade at 27.900 at the close. Jollibee Foods Corp (PS: ) declined 1.91% or 4.800 points to end at 246.000 and Emperador Inc (PS: ) was down 1.87% or 0.140 points to 7.350. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Philippines Stock Exchange by 95 to 81 and 50 ended unchanged. Gold for December delivery was up 0.44% or 5.55 to $1269.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.73% or 0.37 to hit $50.89 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.60% or 0.31 to trade at $51.77 a barrel. CNY/PHP was up 0.08% to 7.1201, while USD/PHP rose 0.15% to 48.255. The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 98.70. |
Hal Koerner and Mike Wolfe are both experienced ultra-distance runners with plenty of 100-mile races under their belts. But neither of them had done anything like their expedition to set a new record time on California’s 220-mile John Muir Trail. For nearly four days, the two took on the elements, nearby forest fires and 84,000 feet in elevation changes in an epic adventure that pushed them to their limits. Their adventure is chronicled in a new film that’s part of the North Face’s Never Stop Exploring Series. Filmmaker JB Benna joined the pair and the resulting movie will make its debut in Chicago at the ShowPlace ICON Theatre, 150 W. Roosevelt Road, on Sept. 25 at 7:30 pm. Koerner, Wolfe and Benna will be there for a free post-show reception at Fleet Feet Sports in the Roosevelt Collection, which will also include beer from Goose Island and food from Kitchflix. Movie tickets are available for $10 in advance at www.thenorthface.com/speakerseries and a limited number of free general-admission tickets, which do not guarantee seating, are available online on a first-come, first-served basis. The event, part of The North Face Never Stop Exploring Speaker Series, supports the nonprofit Leave No Trace, which educates outdoor communities about enjoying nature respectfully and responsibly. Wolfe and Koerner navigating the John Muir Trail during their record-setting run. Mike Wolfe Mike Wolfe talked with RootsRated to discuss the film and the epic run. What inspired this epic run? Honestly, it was Hal’s idea. But both of us had wanted to do some FKT (fastest known time) event like this. Hal had been thinking of the John Muir Trail for years, and he asked me to do it with him. Had you run with Hal before in something like this? We just knew each other from racing and we had been teammates for about two years at that point. But we had never run like that before, we’d just raced each other. You’ve done lots of 100-mile races and ultra-endurance events. How was this expedition different from other races that you’ve done? The longest I had run and raced up until that point was 100 miles. So trying to wrap your head around going twice as far takes a different kind of effort. There are just so many other variables when you’re on your feet for that long. How much or how little do you sleep? It’s very remote, so how do you figure out crew and how are you going to get food? And neither of us had ever set foot in any section of the trail, so it was new to us. You’re up there, literally at 10,000 to 14,000 feet for like 100 miles of the route. You’re more or less at 10,000 feet or above almost the whole time. Then you’ve got elevation. We did it in August so you’ve got heat. The sun was a factor. Basically it comes down to being exposed (to the elements) for three to four days, as opposed to a 100-mile race where you’re on your feet for 24 hours tops. So it’s very different. Were above the tree line for most of the route? Oh yeah. Just being out there in the sun all day long actually took quite a toll on us— more so than I thought it would. You’re among the trees at some points, but a lot of it you’re just on exposed rock high above tree line. The John Muir Trail. Matt Lavin Was that the toughest part for you? Man, there are so many difficult parts. The sleep deprivation began to wear on us a lot. The other thing is—and I don’t want spoil the story for the movie—but we kind of had a snafu at mile 130 with one of our crew and we ended up missing them. So we had to go like 80 miles without crew support, no sleep and we ran out of food. That was the biggest setback for us, which put us in a hole and made the last part of the route really hard. Was the film crew following you around most of the time? No, they only met us at these key locations, where we would stop and eat and resupply our packs with food. At a couple of the places when we met the crew they’d also have sleeping bags with us so we could stop and rest. We didn’t carry sleeping bags or anything with us. Looking back, how do you view the achievement now? Both Hal and I have raced a lot over the years and done a lot of challenging 100-mile races. You think you’ve maybe pushed yourself as hard as you possibly can or you’ve realized what your limits are. You’ve learned a lot about yourself that way. But I would say, in retrospect, in even in the hardest 100-mile race, I’ve never pushed myself as hard as I’ve had to on the John Muir Trail to finish. It was a whole new revelation or mind-blowing experience in how deep you have to go to pull something like that off. It was certainly one of the best adventures I’ve ever had. |
Barrages that successfully hit enemy champions grant an extra barrage, up to a maximum. Gains more barrages as he ranks up Rite of the Arcane. When the enemy team is fleet of foot, Cassiopeia is the serpent to call. With Cass, we're introducing an entirely new type of debilitation—"Grounded"—that negates an enemy's ability to flash, dash, or even take a friendly Thresh lantern to safety for the duration of the debuff. Vel'Koz is the monster of choice when you need long-range poke damage or... a true-damage laser beam ! Melt their frontline, then obliterate their backline. Zyra is the control mage with the greenest thumb in League, and her new passive lets her spread even more flora across the Rift. Give Zyra a little time to tend to her thorny forest, and she'll have abundant opportunities to counter-engage on attackers. Vladimir's still the sustain-focused blood mage, but we're dialing up his ability to tap into health to wreak havoc. Brand's mid-season changes are about lighting the whole world on fire. He'll have a harder time nuking lone targets, but when enemies huddle together for safety, it's time for the Burning Vengeance to blow them up. Malzahar is still a low-mobility lockdown mage, but now he's got more friends from the void to protect him. The Prophet's also amping up his ability to get close during teamfights thanks to his new passive, Void Shift. Mages are one of League’s most established classes but, over the years, their strategic identities have become muddied and their gameplay hasn’t kept up with evolving standards. Much like our work on the juggernauts and marksmen, we saw the opportunity to update a ‘roster’ of champions to ensure the class as a whole is relevant and satisfying to play. Ultimately our goal is to bring distinction, cohesion and, yes, game health to the mages, giving them a unique reason to be picked. Active - Stasis: Put yourself in Stasis for a few seconds, rendering yourself untargetable and invulnerable for the duration, but also unable to move, attack, cast spells, or use items during this time. Passive: A portion of your damage taken is gained as mana. Spending mana restores a portion spent as health, up to a cap. Passive: Gain a portion of damage dealt to champions as blood charges. Healing or shielding another ally consumes blood charges to heal them for the amount stored. Passive: Grants a large portion of health regeneration if your health % lower than your mana %. Grants a large portion of mana regeneration if your mana % is lower than your health %. Passive: A portion of your damage taken is gained as mana. Spending mana restores a portion spent as health, up to a cap. Passive - Omnivore: Instantly heal for portion of all damage dealt, including physical, magical and true damage. This effect is reduced for area-effect spells. Passive: Grants a large portion of health regeneration if your health % lower than your mana %. Grants a large portion of mana regeneration if your mana % is lower than your health %. Passive: A portion of your damage taken is gained as mana. Spending mana restores a portion spent as health, up to a cap. Passive - Mana Charge: Grants additional maximum mana (up to a cap) for each spell cast and mana expenditure. Gains mana every 8 seconds. When casting spells is all you want to do. Hand-in-hand with the mage update, their sorcerous apparatus are undergoing a bewitching transformation. Before, mages would turn to items just for the stats they need, with minor changes in their build path as a game unfolds. Now mage items are focused on their tactical impact, with each enabling or augmenting how a mage contributes to a fight. Choose how your power manifests and watch what your opponents do in kind. Elemental Dragons We saw that early to mid objectives (aside from turrets) were struggling to stay relevant in many games, and so began investigating ways to augment those decisions during mid-season. When we came to Dragon, we realized that most individual buffs would simply shift its balance back and forth between “nice to have” and “mandatory,” so we instead set out to create a unique ecosystem of adaptation that augments a variety of team compositions and strategies. The elemental dragons are taking flight! For the first 35 minutes of the game, one of four elemental dragons will spawn. The moment you take that one down, the minimap will indicate the elemental type of the next. Both sides will always know which dragon spawns next, and multiple elemental buffs will stack on each other, making you even stronger in that aspect. In this way, you may want to think twice about giving up those two Earth Dragons—that might just cost you all of your base turrets! |
KAKDWIP, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When the handsome young man came courting her, Sunetra could not believe her luck. Born into a desperately poor family in India’s southern Sundarbans region – one of the parts of the world hardest hit by climate change – the lanky 18-year-old had few prospects. A flood the previous year had destroyed her home and left her family struggling financially. A new start was what she needed, and her out-of-town suitor’s offer of marriage seemed ideal. He was content to wed without her family providing a dowry, and the pair quickly eloped. But soon after their marriage, on a visit to Hyderabad, her new husband locked her in an apartment, in preparation for handing her to sex traffickers from Dubai. It quickly became apparent that the marriage had been a ruse. “I had lost my face having ran away from my family, trusting this man,” she said, weeping at the betrayal of her “husband,” who she had believed was an insurance agent in Baruipur, a town about 30 km from Kolkata. Sunetra is just one of more than 5,000 people who went missing in 2012 from the state of West Bengal, where the Sundarbans sits on a low, shifting delta where South Asia’s great rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, crime records show. The forested islands of the Sundarbans are increasingly considered a trafficking hotspot as climate change impacts – such as worsening cyclones, sea level rise and loss of land to erosion and saltwater – mean worsening poverty and living conditions, and more desperation. National Crime Records Bureau data for West Bengal show a 600 percent spike in reports of “missing persons” between 2002 and 2013. In 2002, 831 people disappeared; by 2013 it was 4,573. Over a decade, 30,690 adult and children were reported missing, a figure local non-governmental organisations working with trafficking victims consider an underestimate. “Many parents, particularly those of young women, just don’t report it to the police. They are too stigmatised or consider it a fait accompli,” said Subhankar Goldar, who runs Haldarchawk Chetna Welfare Society, a non-governmental organisation based in Kakdwip that says it has rescued more than 100 trafficked children since 2007 with the help of police. HOW THE SCHEME WORKS In the scheme’s normal form, visiting young men “trap these young women with promises of marriage and make it a formal affair with the family. Once married, they move to Calcutta or any other city where the man claims to have work,” Goldar said. After a girl is handed to forced into prostitution, the “husband” may come back to target a different area in the Sundarbans or even return to the village and blame the girl for running away, stigmatising and shaming the family so family members do not approach police, Goldar said. Sometimes, the “husbands” also display naked photos of the women on their mobile phones to substantiate their claims of the women’s low morals, he said. Sunetra admits her parents were suspicious of her fiancé, as “this man did not ask for a dowry.” But a friend of hers had married a similar out-of-town suitor a few years ago and “I envied her,” she admitted. “I thought something like this could never happen to me. So when it appeared that I could also go to the city and live happily, I did not hesitate,” she said. Her fiancé, she said, had always treated her well, even taking her to Baruipur to show her his rented apartment, and the neighbourhood. But the growing pressures on her family also played a role in her eagerness to accept the proposal, she admitted. “Poverty and the constant battering of nature become too much to bear,” she said. Bankim Hazra, chairman of Sundarban Development Board and a member of the state legislative assembly, says the lure of city life plays a role in young people falling into the hands of traffickers. “They are very easily misled by traffickers and agents lurking around, who promise a fantastic life in the cities, the kind that the mainstream media project,” he said. But Goldar says traffickers are also getting cleverer in finding ways to exploit the increasing vulnerability of normally quite cautious people. “Previously, they were just traffickers and women avoided them,” he said. “Now traffickers are employing young, good-looking men from the region itself who have better credibility to formally marry a girl,” he said. Boys as well as girls increasingly fall victim to traffickers, said Hazra, the Sundarbans legislator. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau shows that in 2002, 63 men and boys disappeared in West Bengal; in 2011, the number rose to 1,705, though it has since fallen to 741 in 2013, the last year for which records are available. Most of the young boys, Hazra said, end up working in hazardous industries or in the sex trade. Only a negligible fraction of girls or boys trafficked are ever rescued, Goldar said. “No one hears about them after a few years. No one cares really,” he said. SUNETRA’S RESCUE Sunetra, however, was lucky. While locked up in Hyderabad, she managed to make contact with Chhidam, a 13-year-old boy who was also scheduled to be sent to Dubai as an unpaid labourer, after having been lured to the city with the promise of work. Chhidam got in touch with Goldar’s organisation, seeking help. “When this boy called us, he just quickly said we must rescue them. But the families hadn’t lodged a police complaint and we could not move on our own,” Goldar said. “Thankfully, we could locate this woman’s family through a contact. (They) needed a lot of counselling before they filed a missing report with the police, because they were convinced that their daughter was happily married to this young, good-looking, rich guy,” he said. Eventually a joint team of local police and members of the Kadkwip child welfare group traveled to Hyderabad and rescued both young people. Local police were helpful, and managed to distract the trafficking agent while a team crept into the well-guarded building. “We did not quite raid the place, but helped the girl escape and get to the police,” Goldar said. Such rescues, however, can be expensive in terms of the resources needed for travel, translators and coordination with local police, Goldar said. Other young people, and their families, have not been as fortunate. “I will wait,” murmurs Maya, the mother of Parul, an 18-year-old girl from Kusumtala village in Mousuni, who got married and moved away in 2008. She was in contact briefly, but since then there’s been a deafening silence, her parents say. |
With the wide variety of games out there, it’s a challenge to put together an accessible game library. Here we are to help with that, and we’re even going to be mindful of the pennies to make it even easier. Changelog 1/12/2017 – Added Blank, Wibbell++, Kingdomino, Santorini 3/12/2018 – Added Hanamikoji, Coloretto, Exploding Kittens, High Society, The Fox in the Forest, Tides of Madness, Shadows in Kyoto, Welcome To Introduction It’s all well and good we here at Meeple Like Us telling you about the games we’re examining and how accessible they are. That’s valuable work but it doesn’t answer a question I am occasionally asked – ‘where would I start building an accessible game library?’. What should you do if you’re running a care home, or a library, or a games club for people with particular accessibility requirements? What about if just want to make sure that your own collection can support player impairments across the board? What games should you prioritise to get the most out of a fixed budget while making sure that you have a library of games that a wide spectrum of people can play, and importantly play together? I make no claims that this is an exhaustive list – it’s sampled from the games that we have covered here on Meeple Like Us. it’s going to omit a whole slew of games that we just haven’t covered yet. I’ll return to this topic again in the future, probably on an annual basis. Here, I’ve been influenced by my own personal feelings on games but I haven’t let that be the key determinant. For the most part, if a game is reasonably well liked (defined by being in the BGG top 1000 or on one or more ‘best of’ lists) it’ll be included here. For choosing games, a hard limit of £30 for a game is placed on its inclusion that excludes some games that are likely to be completely accessible but too much to be a safe purchase. If a game costs more than £25 though, it has to have special elements that justify it. Many of the games cost less – the average price of a game on this list is a touch over £18. If you put aside £20 a month you could buy each one of these games monthly over the course of a couple of years. There are often sales and special offers that will drive the price down, and we’d recommend keeping an eye on price fluctuations to take advantage of the best deals when they are available. Note too that prices can spike up as a result of temporary (or permanent) unavailability – we don’t recommend an order in which games should be purchased for this reason. Buy as low as you can, when you can. We’ll put affiliate links to the Amazon page for each of these. Prices were correct at the time of writing, but are at best approximations in any case. As a further note, if you run a public organisation you can often contact the publisher for free or discounted library copies. And as a final note, there are often board game specific sites that collect the best deals available and show you where to find them for a specific game. In the US, you can check out boardgameprices.com and in the UK boardgameprices.co.uk is also worth bookmarking. For inclusion on this list of candidates for an accessible game library, a game can have a grade no lower than a C for any relevant section of the accessibility teardown. If there is a C, the game has been included because there are valid compensatory strategies that would make the game playable, albeit with support. Some of these games are drawn from teardowns we haven’t yet published, but I’ll link in the appropriate documents as time goes by. If there’s no link for review or teardown then we’ve done the work but not yet posted it. Keep an eye on the site, or consider subscribing if you want to know right away when we publish new posts. If you want to subscribe, you can find the box to do it on the right sidebar. The Recommendations Games you really must have for your accessible game library First of all, let’s discuss the must haves. These should work for anyone regardless of their accessibility requirements. Game Price Comments Skull [ review | teardown ] £15 If you are on a very tight budget, you can make your own version of Skull using nothing more than a pack of cards. Take three cards of a black suit, mix in a card of a red suit, and you have a fully playable version of Skull. I’ll assume here you want this beautiful version though. Love Letter [ review | teardown ] £12 Appropriately for the name, Love Letter is widely adored by many. It’s small with a very likeable and distinctive theme, and came out of our accessibility teardown largely unscathed. Lanterns [ review | teardown ] £28 Lanterns is a little pricier than most of the games on this list, but not so pricey that you shouldn’t consider it. It’s is a lovely tile-laying game of ornamental lights that earned high grades across the board in our teardown. Blank [ review | teardown ] £12 Blank is a game that is as accessible as you want it to be – literally. It’s an odd game that lets you build your own rules as you go along, and that puts the power entirely in your hands – and in your cards. Wibbell++ [ review | teardown ] £11 I can’t guarantee that any individual game in the Wibbell++ set will be accessible for complex groups, but I will say I all but guarantee you’ll find an accessible game for any group in this deck. Shadows in Kyoto [ review | teardown ] £23 This is a stratego style game set in the same universe as the gorgeous Hanamikoji. While it looks on the surface like it must be complicated it turns out there’s a very accessible game in here once you get past first impressions. Coloretto [ review | teardown ] £9 It might be a very simple game of pushing your luck and hoping for the best, but Coloretto absolutely shines as an accessible game that will work for almost everyone. Games you really should have for your accessible game library Next we introduce the should haves, which may require some players to be supported in some way during play or might perhaps need sensitive handling for one or more groups. All of them though are likely to be workable for every group provided you don’t mind fudging things a little. Check out the associated teardowns for details. Game Price Comments Forbidden Island [ review | teardown ] £18 You perhaps may wish to be a little wary of Forbidden Island when first setting up your library since it sets up a scenario in which players are expected to fail. It’s definitely something to consider though when your group is more comfortable with modern board gaming conventions. If you fancy something a touch meatier (if a little bit more troublesome from a physical accessibility perspective) you could reasonably go for Forbidden Desert instead. Jaipur [ review | teardown ] £16 Jaipur only supports two players but it’ll keep you engaged for the long term. I might even recommend buying two or more copies so you can have games going in parallel. Jaipur really is that good. Lost Cities: The Card Game [ review | teardown ] £16 We have only done a teardown for the Lost Cities board-game, but the card-game would be a more appropriate choice for a budget conscious purchase. You can play the card-game using the components in the board-game box too if you wanted to spend a little more. Sushi Go! [ review | teardown ] £12 Sushi Go takes the core concept of card drafting and integrates it into an intensely charming aesthetic. You could also reasonably consider picking Sushi Go Party for this – it’s a little more expensive but it gives you a lot more variety. I haven’t actually seen it to confirm for sure, but I’m told it is broadly equivalent in terms of its accessibility. Splendor [ review | teardown ] £25 Splendor is a little bit pricier than some of the games on the list, but it’s going to be a perennial favourite. The rules are simple, the components heavy and pleasingly tactile, and the game itself deep enough to drown in. CV [ review | teardown ] £25 CV is a dice-based game that lets players buy pieces of a fictional life in order to explore the path not taken. It consists of yahtzee style mechanics used in an interesting way – it’s as much a game about storyteling as it is about the acquisition of points. King of Tokyo [ review | teardown ] £25 King of Tokyo is Yahtzee, but with massive monsters fighting over control of the city of Tokyo. You all beat up the King, and then you find suddenly tha’t you’re the king and everyone is beating you up. It’s fast, funny, and broadly accessible. Coup [ review | teardown ] £13 It’s probably best not to play Coup with people that don’t handle player elimination well, and there are some concerns regarding those with fluid intelligence impairments. Overall though, we think this one is a solid pick for your game library. Kingdomino [ review | teardown ] £16 Much more fun than it has any right to be, this Spiel des Jahres winner is both cheap and surprisingly accessible. Welcome To [ review | teardown ] £22 There’s a lot of value in this diminutive little box, and you would undoubtedly get a lot of fun out of the curiously zen-like puzzle it presents to players. It’s not out favourite game in this style but it’s certainly the one that is likely playable by the widest range of people. Your Baseline Accessible Game Library If you grabbed each of the games on these two lists, you’d have a good library of games with an outlay of under £298. These would incorporate a good mix of mechanics and themes and would support a varied range of player numbers. It’s useful in scenarios like this to be able to scale up (Skull goes up to six, Sushi Go to five) as well as down to smaller pairings (Shadows in Kyoto works only with two). Running multiple games in parallel for larger groups is usually a better solution than finding a game that works well for bigger player counts because those games rarely excel at lower counts. Flexibility is important if you’re making a general purpose games library available. We’re not done yet though! The money we’ve spent here represents a good investment in a range of games that would give you many hours of enjoyment. There are though many other games that you could also think if picking up if you were able to be more flexible about the accessibility categories you support. This would be the case if your specific needs don’t include people of impacted categories, or if you’re willing to have games on your shelves that some subsets of people might not be able to play. For the latter scenario, it is the collection as a whole that should incorporate games that are accessible for everyone, even if any individual game may not be accessible to all players. If you have a bit of flexibility in your accessible game library… If you have a little bit of flexibility, in that you don’t necessarily need to support all impairments in the same game at the same time, then you have some other possibilities. If Visual Impairment is not an issue for your accessible game library Visual Impairment often goes hand in hand with physical issues, but there are a few games where the limiting factor is eyesight only. Game Price Comments Karuba [ review | teardown ] £27 Karuba is little pricier than some of the games we’ve included here but it’s a really fun game that takes the basic formula of Bingo and turns it into an archaeological race against time. The interesting thing about Karuba is that it’s also infinitely scalable – if you buy multiple copies, everyone can play it together without it impacting even a little bit on play-time. Tsuro [ review | teardown ] £20 Tsuro is a calming, meditative game of placing tiles and following the paths you lay before you. It’s intensely relaxing but the nature of the path-laying makes it intensely difficult for anyone with visual impairments. Port Royal [ review | teardown ] £10 Port Royal is a push-your-luck game of piracy and plunder – and at a price-tag like this, it’s an obvious inclusion for our list. If emotional factors are not an issue for your accessible game library Some games are generally very accessible for most people but tend to have features in their game design that might generate stress, or upset. The games on this part of the list would be accessible if you didn’t need to take that into accont. Game Price Comments Billionaire Banshee [ review | teardown ] £20 Billionaire Banshee is a cheerful, engaging game about exploring the attitudes your friends have towards dating in unusual circumstances. Can be a little adult in tone, but the cards come with symbols that permit you to remove the more risque content if needed. Cards Against Humanity (NSFW) [ review | teardown ] £25 Be warned – Cards Against Humanity is not at all for the easily offended. Or the moderately easily offended. Or anyone that can be offended at all. However, if you have a group of people willing to make filthy, horrible jokes at the flip of a card you’ll find this is usually a crowd-pleaser. If cognitive factors are not an issue for your accessible game library Cognitive factors eliminate many games from inclusion because board-games in particular tend to thrive in tactical and strategic problem spaces. Those spaces also tend to stress cognitive factors such as fluid and crystallised intelligence. If that isn’t going to be a problem, a number of games become good candidates for inclusion in this list. If physical factors are not an issue for your accessible game library Unfortunately, physical factors tend to converge with visual factors – precision of movement such as you’ll find in a dexterity game is an issue of visual parsing as much as it is of movement. However, if you don’t need to address physical factors, you might also consider the following games. Game Price Comments Patchwork [ review | teardown ] £15 Patchwork is only a two player game but people will find reasons to play it again and again. Players with visual impairments may need some support, but there are workarounds that keep the game playable. Santorini [ review | teardown ] £24 I couldn’t recommend the luxury version of this, and it might be difficult to get in any other form in the UK. In the USA though the much more affordable Spin Master version is a strong candidate for inclusion in any game library since it very effectively allows you to scale the complexity to your own gaming groups. If Communicative Factors are not an issue for your accessible game library Some games stress communication between players, either as a result of collaborative strategy; negotiation; or bluffing and misdirection. This tends to disproportionately disadvantage players with hearing and articulation impairments. If that doesn’t need to be taken into account, you might want to consider the games on the following list. Game Price Comments One Night Ultimate Werewolf [ review | teardown ] £22 You’ll need to be prepared to make some compensations here during the night phase to make sure nobody is advantaged or disadvantaged by environmental clues or swapping of cards. It’s very doable though, and it’s a game that works well for a range of player counts. For More Sophisticated Use Cases You might want to check out our accessibility masterlist if you have more complex intersections of requirements. We update this on a weekly basis, so keep us in mind if you want to see when new games get added. You can also check out our recommender. As ever, you can get in touch with me at dice@imaginary-realities.com if you want to chat games accessibility and your own specific requirements. I can’t guarantee an especially speedy response, but I’m happy to help whenever I can. |
NU’EST W has made personal history, and then some, with their newest release! According to Hanteo Chart, NU’EST W sold 209,620 copies of “W, HERE” during its first week since being released on October 10. This officially makes them the fourth artist to sell over 200,000 albums within the first week, after EXO, BTS, and Wanna One. The album “W, HERE” itself is in 11th place for first-week sales. To put things into perspective, NU’EST previously only sold 600 copies of their fifth mini album “Canvas” during its first week of release, which means their current album sales are 300 times greater based on first-week sales alone. This also brings the members one step closer to their dream of taking home a music show win for the first time as physical sales also play a part in the overall scores. Congratulations to NU’EST W on an amazing feat! Source (1) |
A major new study by the CSIRO and the main networks lobby says a decarbonised energy grid by 2050, with half of generation produced and stored locally, will save billions in upfront capital costs and consumer bills, and deliver a secure electricity system. (See also out story CSIRO, networks put lie to conservative campaign against wind and solar). In a direct rebuff to the renewable energy scare campaign and myth-making being played out in the political arena, the premier scientific body and Energy Networks Australia say that wind and solar will provide nearly all our electricity needs by 2050, and the system will be cheaper for all customers. The Electricity Network Transformation Roadmap released on Tuesday builds on the Future Grid scenarios put together by CSIRO and the ENA and others in the past two years, which mostly highlighted the massive change in our electricity system, driven by the falling costs of renewable energy and storage and a major shift to distributed generation. This latest study, however, looks at the possible strategies that could meet those scenarios, working on the assumption that business as usual is untenable and unsustainable, and would be economically destructive, both in terms of electricity costs and other impacts. Its outcomes that might seem extraordinary to those wedded to the idea of centralised, fossil fuel-based systems, and who argue that only coal and gas can provide cheap, reliable power. The network owners and scientists say the best way to reliable and affordable energy is through renewables and local generation – it suggests that nearly half of all generation will be local, on site in homes, business and communities. Wind and solar will provide nearly all generation by 2050, with a significant amount – between one-third and one-half – coming from the nation’s rooftops. Battery storage in homes and business, and located on the grid, or at renewable energy installations, will balance the output and provide most network stability services. On top of this, this scenario will save $100 billion in upfront capital costs over business as usual, and also deliver significant bill savings – of $400 or more a year for “active homes”, those with solar and storage and smart controls, and more than $600 for “passive homes”, those with no interest or no possibility to pursue such technologies. The idea that a grid could be powered more than 90 per cent renewables, and nearly all of that by wind and solar, took even the study’s authors by surprise. CSIRO Energy’s chief economist Paul Graham said that the team decided to look at the zero carbon by 2050 scenario suggested by the Climate Change Authority as necessary for Australia – and other countries – to meet the Paris climate goals. “We started to look around and see how that viable would be,” Graham told RenewEconomy in an interview. “Frankly, it took a while to convince ourselves. But when we started looking at the falling cost of batteries, and the profiles of variable renewable sources, we could see that it could be done.” Here are some of the headline numbers discussed in the report. By 2050, more than 10 million customers will own distributed resources like solar, storage, home energy management systems and electric vehicles, which they can use to sell grid support services worth $2.5 billion per year. Rooftop solar PV will grow six-fold within a decade, and 16-fold by 2050, which is the equivalent of 80GW. Up to half of all electricity generation will be sourced “locally”, mostly on rooftops. Battery storage uptake will be significant, accounting for nearly 100GWh at the local level alone. This will be critical in the shaping of the new grid. This battery storage will play an important role in balancing the grid and providing the network services needed, along with centralised storage, which could be from batteries, pumped hydro, solar thermal, or other. “We think that battery storage is going to be built anyway, by the customer end,” Graham says. And that means that the grid will have to become very interactive, and smart, and need to manage this extraordinary transition. Hence the need for urgency. It is critical for the networks. It seems that the networks can live with the idea of load defection (where consumers provide much of their own electricity needs), but the threat of grid defection is still very much alive, and a major concern. The CSIRO and the ENA want policy makers to act in great haste before it is too late. One of the essentials is to get bipartisan support on climate policies, such as carbon pricing (good luck with that), and the other is to get cost reflective tariffs in place as soon as possible. By these, the ENA is suggesting demand tariffs, which forces people to think carefully and consider other options at times of peak demand. It also wants a proper roll-out of smart meters, and not the ad hoc distribution that is taking place now. ENA’s John Bradley hopes to lure those tempted by grid defection with special “stand alone power system tariffs”, that would offer a discount on grid charges, the opportunity to earn money for grid and peak demand services, and an agreement to “stand alone” at times of peak demand. We’ve mentioned this before. One gets the feeling that there is an element of “fingers crossed” about this plan. But apart from taking a massive hit on the value of their networks, which they are clearly not prepared to do, they have no other choice. But they warn that the impact of uncontrolled installations, and unfocused and constantly changing climate and clean energy policies will be disastrous and costly. The threat is very much alive that 10 per cent or more of consumers could leave the grid – hence the need to act soon, to offer incentives to stay. Graham underlines the urgency. “There is a question about whether the roadmap is fast enough. On pricing reform, we were probably half way though modelling when we realised that battery prices were moving so quickly that we need to bring those reforms about five years earlier.” Bradley speaks of $2.5 billion of payments going to consumers a year in response to “network services” – helping meet critical peak demand, responding to average peaks through demand response and demand management programs, providing security of supply with services such as frequency control. The ENA is also taking a close look at the New York Reform the Energy Vision program, which is now emerging as a blueprint on how grids can redefine themselves, encourage consumers to take part by generating and storing their electricity, create microgrids, improve reliability, slash emissions and lower costs. What’s not to like? To do this, the ENA wants to see more trials of the type that SAPN are doing in South Australian on using customer-based storage as an offset against grid upgrades, and of the virtual power plants and peer-to-peer trading being trialled in South Australia, Western Australia and elsewhere. “We should allow a few of those different frameworks to emerge,” Bradley says. But there is bound to be tension between the networks and the retailers, who want to keep them out of the household market and also protect their ageing centralised generation assets. Bradley says that if the grid retention strategy works, and rapid policy changes allows networks to evolve, then the savings are tremendous – in what the country can achieve in emissions reductions (zero in the grid by 2050), in terms of renewable penetration (more than 90 per cent by 2050, mostly wind and solar), in reliability, and in cost savings. He sees $100 billion in overall network expenditure savings by 2050, $16 billion of avoided network infrastructure through household solar and batteries alone, and network costs falling by one-third. This should, and must, given the technology alternatives and the social benefits of a properly priced and structured grid, translate into energy savings for consumers. An active family with solar and storage will make $414 in annual savings in average household electricity bills (compared with the roadmap’s counterfactual, business as usual, pathway), while a medium family who cannot take up distributed energy resources is over $600 p.a. better off through removal of cross subsidies. This is how they see it playing out for consumers on business as usual (counterfactual), and the Roadmap. |
Goal.com’s Rami Ayari believes that the 2011 African Championship of Nations title win is but one recent example of the positive effects that the Tunisian revolution is having on the north African country's football. As the curtain fell on the 2011 African Championship of Nations on Friday, there stood the ecstatic Tunisian victors raising a trophy that no one thought would mean so much when qualification was difficultly secured in Morocco last year. With smiles from ear to ear, the Carthage Eagles players had just capped their outstanding displays in Sudan with their best performance yet, a 3-0 thumping of the same Angolan team that held them to a 1-1 tie in their group opener, the only match the north Africans didn’t win during their title run. For a side that finished with the best attack (11 goals scored), the best defense (3 goals conceded), the best player (Zouhaier Dhaouadi received the MVP award), and two out of the four joint top scorers (the aforementioned Dhaouadi and Salama Kasdaoui), it’s hard to imagine that the Tunisians had left their country in full blown revolt just a month earlier for a rushed week-long training camp in Morocco that Club Africain players didn’t even participate in due to CAF Champions League obligations in Rwanda. The FTF had even considered withdrawing their side from the tournament altogether but, thankfully, resisted the urge. Considering how often they’ve erred during their time at the helm, this was by far the best decision that Ali Hafsi and the rest of the Federal Bureau ever took and likely ever will take. For despite this recent encouraging CHAN 2011 success, the vast majority of Tunisian fans are blissfully anticipating their resignation in the coming days or months. While the bravery of their countrymen that led, and are still leading, the Tunisian revolution to fruition gave the players a rekindled sense of national pride that they hadn’t felt in all their years living under the repressive totalitarian regime of Zine Abidine Ben Ali and recreated the long lost bond between the Carthage Eagles and their fans back home, the animosity towards the FTF is just as intense and even more vocal than it was before the disgraced dictator fled on January 14th. The FA members now return to an emboldened populace who are demanding that the they all step down and save their legacy by laying the groundwork for the first truly democratic FTF elections in light of the recent confirmations from a variety of prominent sport figures (Tarak Dhiab and Othmane Jenayeh to name a few) of what everyone knew already: Despite FIFA’s insistence on free and fair elections, the Tunisian government had essentially been fixing the results of FTF elections since… well, forever. The same goes for club team presidents who had to have the blessings of the state mafia and their local governors to attain and retain their posts. While it is unclear how this democratic transition will play out, one can rest assured that the future of Tunisian football is brighter than ever. Club Africain just voted in the first democratically elected club president of the new era and Club Atletique Bizertin will be next after their chairman, Said Lassoued, honorably stepped down to make way for someone who would be voted in by the clubs members instead of being appointed like he was. With time, the rest of the nation’s clubs will undoubtedly follow suit for the new political reality in the small but grand north African nation dictates this paradigm shift. In theory, democracy should mean that these highly coveted posts will no longer go to the most well connected businessmen but the most competent sports administrators who can prove that they deserve the trust of their respective fanbases. And while democracy is not without its pitfalls, it would be extremely difficult to argue that things will be worse than they were before the Tunisian revolution when anyone who had a viewpoint other than those running the show, whether it be in a political or football arena, would either never even have his opinion heard or have it discredited and censored in a disgusting manner that became an all too casual occurrence in our country. Two years ago, while the fruits of repression had birthed perhaps the most incompetent FTF in Tunisia’s history, the Carthage Eagles didn’t even qualify for the first edition of the CHAN. The Federal Bureau treated this new competition reserved for domestic league players as an afterthought and the lack of importance attributed to this so called secondary obligation trickled down to the on field representatives who played with little conviction or imagination in home and away fixtures against neighbors Libya. Today, the Tunisians stand as deserving champions of the second edition and can usher in an era of achievement with a trophy at their side, a talented young coach in Sami Trabelsi in their midst, dedicated players on the pitch who have rediscovered the meaning of their national anthem, and soon a democratically elected FTF that will finally take it upon itself to seriously tackle the problems that have been plaguing the country’s favorite sport instead of being used as a political tool by illegitimate rulers. If the Tunisian national team and club sides could reach the heights they did while living in a repressive society, then imagine what’s going to happen when these Carthage Eagles are set free! |
Military convoys carrying nuclear weapons through Britain’s cities and towns have experienced 180 mishaps and incidents, including collisions, breakdowns and brake failures during the last 16 years, according to a report produced by a disarmament campaign. The incidents catalogued in the report – based on official logs released under the Freedom of Information Act – include fuel leaks, overheated engines, clutch problems, and other mechanical faults in the convoys. At other times, according to the report, the convoys went the wrong way, were diverted, and lost communications with commanders. The rate at which the incidents have occurred has risen in recent years, with 43 in the last three years. In its report published on Wednesday, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) warns that a serious accident involving the convoys could spread radioactivity over cities, contaminating communities and increasing cancer risks. The convoys pass through cities and towns between Scotland and southern England. However, an opinion poll commissioned by Ican shows that nearly two-thirds of British adults did not know that the military transports nuclear warheads on British roads, prompting the campaigners to argue that members of the public have not given their consent to the dangers they pose. Materials for nuclear weapons are driven through or flown over 122 local councils in the UK, including densely-populated areas such as Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Manchester and Newcastle, according to Ministry of Defence data. A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “The transport of defence nuclear material is carried out to the highest standard in accordance with stringent safety regulations, and all operational and engineering incidents are reported, however minor.” “In over 50 years of transporting defence nuclear material in the UK, there has never been an incident that has posed any radiation hazard to the public or to the environment.” Nuclear weapons: an accident waiting to happen Read more The Ican report describes how nuclear warheads are carried in dark green, 44-tonne trucks between a bomb factory at Burghfield near Reading in Berkshire and a naval depot at Coulport on Loch Long near Glasgow, where they are loaded onto submarines. The 900-mile round trips, usually spread over one or two days, are completed between two and six times a year, with the most recent one reported to have been completed this week. According to Ican, the convoys – comprising up to 20 vehicles including police cars and a fire engine – use a variety of routes. One from Burghfield, where the warheads are assembled and maintained, goes along the M40, round Birmingham and past Preston on the M6, and then the M74 to Glasgow. Another takes the convoy round London on the M25 and then north on the M1 via Leeds and Newcastle and then the A1 or A68 to Edinburgh and the M9 to Stirling. In January last year, the convoy travelled through the centre of Glasgow during a fierce storm, according to the report. The short descriptions of the incidents released by the MoD in response to freedom of information requests do not disclose where most of them happened. Two occurred in May 2013. After a rest break at a military base, one of the vehicles in the convoy came into undefined contact with a parked civilian vehicle, and on another occasion, two convoy vehicles were involved in what the MoD said was a “minor road traffic collision” that left “marks to bumper on one vehicle”. There was another collision with a parked car at an MoD base in January 2014. The campaigners said that one of the most dangerous mechanical failures happened in July 2011 when one of the vehicles broke down on the M6 in Cheshire. The vehicle suffered “a sudden and dramatic loss of power and was forced to pull onto the hard shoulder of the motorway” along with the rest of the convoy, according to the MoD’s report of the incident. It closed two lanes of the motorway and resulted in 10-mile tailbacks. The incident was caused by a manufacturing fault, which had to be rectified across the whole fleet, according to the report. Other incidents include delays caused by poor weather such as snow, computer software glitches and traffic jams. MoD catalogues its nuclear blunders Read more The convoys are necessary because Britain’s nuclear weapons need to be returned to Burghfield periodically so they can be refurbished or dismantled. Listed among the incidents are delays caused by protests by anti-nuclear campaigners, one of whom glued themselves to the roof of one of the vehicles. The convoys are often tracked on social media. Matt Hawkins, spokesman for Ican, said the report “painted a grim picture of the great risks posed by nuclear convoys”, adding that nuclear weapons “only add danger to our lives, exposing us all to the risk of radiation leaks or an attack by terrorists on one of these convoys”. In 2003, following pressure from the Guardian, the MoD was forced to publish a list of accidents involving nuclear weapons between 1960 and 1991 after decades of secrecy. It showed that the weapons had been dropped, struck by other weapons and carried on a truck that slid down a hill and toppled over. |
Introduction to the nasty bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae A pharmacist friend of ours then found fascinating new research by Dr. David Hahn in medical journals about the relationship between the bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae and asthma. These studies indicate this research may help cure asthma in 50% or more of adults and children diagnosed with asthma. Many have already cured asthma using this research but more studies are needed. Disclaimer I am not a doctor and offer no medical advice here. Click here to view full disclaimer. Since 2002 I’ve paid for this site with my own funds. I sell nothing and accept no advertising on this website. This website was created to share the steps I took to become completely cured of my severe asthma and to help others. Now that my asthma is cured, I’ve hiked hundreds of miles of rugged terrain on the Appalachian trail (AT) May 2002 ,May 2005, and May 2012. And I also kayak, hike and camp in remote areas of the Florida Everglades. Most importantly…. these hikes and trips are done with no inhalers, no medicines and best of all, no asthma. I’m hoping my AsthmaStory will Inspire Others to reclaim their lives While viewing the asthma cure research, studies and links you’ll see that there are dozens of researchers around the globe studying the important link between Chlamydia pneumoniae, mycoplasma and asthma. While it doesn’t work for everyone, in many cases a complete asthma cure is possible in adults and children. This website is hosted out of gratitude to support the research of Dr. David Hahn (and others) in understanding more about these life robbing bacteria. A major study that was published in July of 2017 proves the effectiveness of azithromycin to treat asthma. More studies are on the way and it’s just a matter of time before this is included within mainstream medical guidelines. Unfortunately some people can’t wait that long. Jim Quinlan Clearwater, Florida |
Signup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world A Swedish handball captain has been blocked from wearing a rainbow armband. The European Handball Federation introduced a rule which means Swedish captain Tobias Karlsson can’t fulfil his promise to wear the armband in Poland as a silent protest against the country’s lack of same-sex marriage laws. He said he intended to wear it “as a quiet manifestation for acceptance and that every person is of equal worth”. The new rule means captains can only wear an armband consisting of the country’s colours. “I think it is a real shame,” Karlsson told Aftonbladet. He went on: “It is sad that the EHF chooses that path and does not allow us to express our feelings about humanity and how I think people should be treated. “I have to say I am surprised. We were told only a few days ago that it was OK to wear the armband. Norway’s and Iceland’s captains have been in touch about also wearing one so we sent a few to them.” He added: “I am not quite sure what we will use now. The two other armbands we have are red-and-white and black.” The governing body’s vice president Arne Elovsson, said he was not part of the decision to implement the rule. He said after: “My interpretation is that this question has never been raised before. Now that it was raised one had to make a decision and go back to the rules and try to interpret them from a global perspective. That is the explanation. There is logic in this and they were unanimous in their decision.” The Swedish team will play its first game, against Slovenia, on Saturday. |
OTTAWA - Conservative MPs are refusing to apologize for pillorying a Liberal candidate, even though the news story on which their criticism was based has been retracted. Sun Media retracted Tuesday a story published last week that attributed quotes about the Harper government's income splitting plan to Banff-Airdrie Liberal candidate Marlo Raynolds. The quotes came from a secretly recorded conversation during a Nov. 13 public meeting in Canmore, Alta., involving Raynolds, local resident Tam McTavish, one other man and a young woman identified as Alexandra Constantinidis, a former parliamentary assistant to Conservative MP Rob Anders. The story by Sun News Network personality Brian Lilley alleged that Raynolds had said couples with children would spend money saved from the Tories' income splitting plan on television sets and cars, not on caring for their kids. "Mr. Raynolds advises that he did not make those comments and that in fact they were made by Tam McTavish, which Mr. McTavish confirms. Sun Media regrets the error," read a tiny correction box published Tuesday in the Ottawa Sun. Four Conservative MPs, including Employment Minister Jason Kenney and Banff-Airdrie MP Blake Richards, last week used the story to accuse Raynolds and the Liberals of not trusting parents to spend tax savings on their children. They denounced Raynolds in the House of Commons and Richards further used the story to solicit donations in a fundraising email that accused Raynolds of showing frightening arrogance. They showed no inclination Tuesday to retract their denunciations or apologize to Raynolds, despite demands to do so from Liberal MPs. "Marlo Raynolds is an honourable man with an exemplary reputation and is owed an apology by all of these MPs," Liberal Wayne Easter told the Commons. "Sun News has published a full retraction today. Do these members have the decency to do the same? Will they apologize for misleading the House?" No mention of the matter was made by Tory MPs in the Commons. And neither Kenney nor Richards responded to a request for comment on Sun Media's retraction. Richards' Facebook page made no mention of the retraction but an earlier posting, blasting Raynolds and showing a video clip of Richards' statement on the matter in the Commons last week, remained. Conservative party spokesman Cory Hann gave precisely the same answer Tuesday as he did on Monday, when Sun Media was still standing behind its story. "The person who recorded the conversation maintains the comments in question are from the Liberal candidate. The audio tape is available online for anyone to hear," Hann told said when asked if an apology would be forthcoming. It is clear from the audio that at least two men and one woman were involved in the conversation. However, the quality of the audio recording varies and, at the moment the words in questions were spoken, there is so much background noise that it's difficult to make out the words, much less who is speaking. In emails to Raynolds, Lilley confirmed the person who recorded the conversation was a Conservative supporter and a woman. He attributed the poor audio quality to the woman "zipping up her coat when she thought you were getting nervous that she might be recording you." Photographs taken at the Canmore meeting of the only woman involved in the conversation match the Facebook profile photo of Alexandra Constantinidis. Her Facebook page, which disappeared Tuesday, also included photos of her posing with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who personally awarded her father a Queen's diamond jubilee medal in 2012. Under two different names, Constantinidis signed in at the Canmore event and at an earlier Raynolds event in Airdrie. She provided a phone number on one sign-in sheet. When The Canadian Press called that number Monday, a woman who said she was Alexandra hung up when told she was speaking to a reporter. Constantinidis is the same person who was identified last fall as having secretly recorded comments by another prominent Liberal, retired general and would-be candidate Andrew Leslie. That audio also made its way to Sun Media and was used as fodder for Conservative denunciations and fundraising pitches. Asked if Constantinidis is working for Sun Media, Lilley said in an email Tuesday: "As for the woman you mention, I do not know her, have not met her and have no relationship with her. Nor to my knowledge does Sun Media." Also on HuffPost |
Disclaimer: I am not advocating any specific tools or methodologies, but sharing a workflow I find to be efficient and pleasant. I am a huge fan of working with CLI applications. I use Vim for editing code, composing emails, and various kinds of writing. When I have to manipulate huge amounts of email, I use Mutt: it’s intuitive tagging and regular expression engine are extremely useful for the task. I employ ack , awk , grep , and sed - Linux utilities which allow for precise and fast text manipulation. However, I would not use CLI browsers like elinks or w3m , and the idea of reading every email in Mutt gives me the creeps. I love the visualization web browser offers, something text-based prompt is not able to provide. And it doesn’t have to. There are two components to most of the tasks performed on a computer: analyzing output and entering input. Certain tasks employ one component more than the other. In most modern applications it’s rare to have both solid control from the user perspective and a pleasant informative UI. With increased visual component, it’s more time consuming to make the application do what you need, especially if your needs are esoteric. With more editing power, visual display becomes less complex in order to make editing tasks easier. Where visual tools fall short What is the alternative? Using multiple programs with different levels of control to accomplish one task: to edit text. Each of the programs excels in it’s own field: word processing software allows for beautiful fonts and document presentation, IDE lets you access aggregated meta information about your application. But most of the IDEs and word processors lack the powerful tools needed to manipulate the foundation of what user is working with - plain text. Ode to plain text I spend a lot of time writing and editing plain text. Be it source code, emails, documentation, or even blog posts. These tasks take up significant amount of my day, and it is only logical to substitute some of the visual presentation capabilities for effectiveness. It is hard to mentally process data which is not explicitly and unambiguously visible: different levels of headings, hidden meta information. Unlike more obscuring formats, plain text is all there is - it has nothing to hide. If you don’t see it - it’s not there. If you do see it - you know exactly what it is. One of my favorite tips from “Pragmatic Programmer” goes: Use a single editor well So I learned one editor well, and now I use it for all my writing and editing needs. I don’t have to jump between IDE, browser, and office software. Most of the text I edit is manipulated with one editor. There is only one set of key bindings to know, one skill to master and hone. Fast, without any additional thought, using single text editor and all of it’s powerful features is imprinted in muscle memory. One less task to worry about. I write my documents in Markdown format, and later convert them to the desired output using pandoc : be it an HTML page, PDF, or a Microsoft Word document. I use Vim, so I can rearrange paragraphs or manipulate lines within a couple of keystrokes. Since I spend so much time editing text, I also touch type, which makes me even more effective at the given task. Harness the power of the command line When it comes to bulk manipulating files or working with version control - there is no better candidate then command line applications. There’s no need to go through a number of obscure menus, ticking and unticking checkboxes, and hoping that your desired result can be achieved with a program’s GUI. Let’s look at a few scenarios some users face in their daily workflow. Creating a backup With GUI, you’d have to take multiple steps: Right click file . Left click on “Copy”. Right click on some empty space. Left click on “Paste”. Right click on a newly created copy. Left click on “Rename”. Switch to a keyboard. Type file.bak . The above steps can be sped up using shortcuts like C-c or C-v , but not by much. Here’s an alternative in bash: cp file{,.bak} While first variant would do great for a novice or a casual user - the second method would be much more preferred by an experienced user whose concern is speed. Recursively bulk replacing text in a directory Let’s assume we want to do a bulk replace text in a directory and all it’s subdirectories. We have our trusted IDE, let’s assume this IDE is already configured to work with a desired directory. Open your IDE. Select “Edit” menu. Select “Find and Replace” submenu. Click on a “Find” input field. Switch to a keyboard. Type function_to_replace . Switch to a mouse. Click on “Replace” input field. Switch to a keyboard. Type new_function_name . Switch to a mouse. Enable “Search in subdirectories” checkbox. Click “OK”. Again, this can be shortened a bit with some keyboard shortcuts, but not by much. You still have to switch between keyboard and a mouse a total of 4 times, and you still have to click through all the menus. This does get time consuming if you do this often. Now let’s try to perform the same task in command line: find . -type f | xargs sed -i 's/function_to_replace/new_function_name/g' Much faster, if you’re able to memorize the structure. And remembering what the commands do is much easier than it looks. Especially with the help of man or, even better, bro (see http://bropages.org for latter). The above example demonstrates one of the biggest advantages of command line interfaces: an ability to redirect an output of one program into another, chaining the tools together. In this example, we first get a list of all files use find tool, and then run sed tool on each of those files in order to replace the text. An output from any CLI tool can be fed into any other CLI tool. This allows for countless possibilities and high adaptability to unscripted scenarios. Is it worth learning CLI tools over their GUI counterparts? This depends on what your intentions are. If you’re a power user who writes and edits a lot of text or manipulates bulk amounts of text on a daily basis - than it’s definitely worth it. Time spent learning these tools will pay off. But if you’re a casual user whose needs end with writing an occasional email or two - then you probably don’t need to worry about this. Hell, if you’ve read this far - this means you’re the former case. I can practically guarantee that you will benefit from employing command line tools and modal editors over their GUI counterparts. I’ve put together a table for comparison between two. Indeed, there are different times when either GUI or CLI tools excel: Factor CLI GUI Ability to combine/chain tools Yes No Easy to learn No Yes Efficient for a novice user No Yes Efficient for an experienced user Yes No Good for occasional use No Yes Good for repetitive tasks Yes No Presents visual information well No Yes As you can see - both CLI and GUI programs have their pluses and minuses. CLI tools seem to appeal to experienced users, while GUI tools are great for novice users and do excel in representing visual information. No matter what kind of interface you prefer, it’s crucially important to use the right tool for the job. |
The Fix's Aaron Blake breaks down why Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton chose Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) to be her running mate. (Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post) Hillary Clinton isn't someone who takes many risks. She's a meticulous thinker who almost never leaps before looking. That caution has not always worked in her favor, politically speaking, but it is, without question, her defining trait. Clinton's selection of Tim Kaine, the Virginia senator, to be her vice-presidential running mate reflects that caution -- coupled with a confidence that this general election race is hers to lose. From the start of the vice-presidential selection process, Kaine has always been at or near the top of any list of potential contenders. The reason is simple: He checks lots and lots of the traditional boxes one looks for in a vice president. Kaine comes from a swing state. He has executive and legislative experience. (Before going to the Senate, Kaine was governor of Virginia from 2005 to 2009 and mayor of Richmond prior to that.) He has a strong Catholic religious background. (He was a missionary out of college.) He speaks fluent Spanish. He had been vetted favorably by then-Sen. Obama during the 2008 presidential campaign. And, most importantly, Kaine is a steady presence. He has been in the national spotlight -- both during the 2008 vetting and during his stint as Democratic National Committee chairman from 2009 to 2011. He knows how to handle the media, the scrutiny and the attacks that come with a high-profile perch. He's even-keeled amid chaos. The flip side of all of that is that Kaine is occasionally -- okay, often -- described as "boring." "I am boring," he joked in an interview with "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd last month. But the fact that Kaine is more workhorse than showhorse is what commended him to Clinton. Far from being a negative, Kaine's steadiness -- call it boringness if you want -- was a huge positive. Remember that running mates tend to either reinforce or undermine the broader narrative the presidential candidate is trying to sell. When Bill Clinton picked Al Gore in 1992, it was a doubling down on the fresh-faced sons of the New South. (That was good.) When John McCain named Sarah Palin in 2008, it undermined his key message against Barack Obama of experience vs naivete. (That was bad.) In naming Kaine, Clinton is making it clear that she favors policy chops over pizzazz, governing over glitz. She hopes that drives a very stark contrast with the showmanship and celebrity of Donald Trump. Trump is talk, Clinton is action. Clinton/Kaine isn't the world's most exciting ticket. That's on purpose. Clinton clearly believes that the electoral map and the demographic realities of the country favor her. And that as long as she does nothing to roil the waters, she is likely to win in November. If Clinton felt as though she needed to either court the liberal left or more broadly shake up the race, she would have chosen someone like Sen. Cory Booker, an African American, or Elizabeth Warren, a liberal icon. But Clinton didn't, and, in truth, I'm not sure how close she ever came to picking anyone other than Kaine. The Kaine pick is Clinton sending a very clear message: This is my race to win, and I'm not going to take any unnecessary risks along the way that could potentially screw that up. |
I find this extremely hard to believe, but according to new research published in Nature Neuroscience, scientists have invented a method to induce memories in brains for the first time in history. Total Recall—here we come. The study—published by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine's Professor of Neurosciences and Physiology/Biophysics Ben Strowbridge, PhD, and MD/PhD student Robert A. Hyde—shows a method to store different types of short-term memories, which they have successfully tested in brain tissue stored in vitro. Advertisement Titled "Mnemonic Representations of Transient Stimuli and Temporal Sequences in Rodent Hippocampus In Vitro", their paper describes how they used a piece of mouse brain tissue to form the necessary circuits to record a short-term declarative memory. This type of memory can be something like names, places and events. These neural circuits—located in the hippocampus—retained the memory from different stimuli for ten seconds. The researchers were able to observe the recording of these artificial memories by tracing the activity of the brain cells. According to Hyde, "the type of activity we triggered in isolated brain sections was similar to what other researchers have demonstrated in monkeys taught to perform short-term memory tasks. Both types of memory-related activity changes typically lasted for 5-10 seconds." Uncanny. The rat brain in vitro was even able to remember different sequences of events. Advertisement The objective of the study is to better understand how short-term memories form in our brains. According to Doctor Strowbridge, "this is the first time anyone has found a way to store information over seconds about both temporal sequences and stimulus patterns directly in brain tissue. This paves the way for future research to identify the specific brain circuits that allow us to form short-term memories." Their research would also help in the fight against diseases like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. [Nature via Science Daily via Geekosystem] |
In real-life Game of Thrones, it’s been a busy few days for the Kingdom of the States United. In the far reaches of Indiana, the forces of the Lannister-like Evil Overlord from the Gilded Hall (who has his own Lannister-esque interest in his female offspring) vanquished the combined armies of the Lord of Ohio and the Dark Priest from Texas. It wasn’t until the Evil Overlord took the Priest’s head, though, that the Lord of Ohio surrendered, dashing the last hopes of those that resisted the reach of the Gilded Hall. Now, one by one, the vanquished are falling in line to pledge their loyalty to the orange victor… Which is to say, after months of show, the slow, inevitable primary triumph of Donald Trump has come to a surprisingly rapid conclusion. Ted Cruz admitted defeat Tuesday night, abandoning his dreams of a contested convention and saving whatever sliver of dignity he’d managed to retain throughout a campaign that seemed to pride itself on testing the bounds of believability. Perhaps more surprisingly, the ever optimistic-bordering-on-delusional John Kasich is also throwing in the towel. I say “surprising” because Cruz’s exit really hasn’t changed Kasich’s chances very much — approximately zero doesn’t get much worse, does it? But, it seems, reality has set in. Even for Kasich. Donald Trump was already the presumptive Republican nominee, and with no one to contest these last races, he’s the new face of the Republican Party. And once the peels of schadenfreude-fueled laughter (“It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving party!”) has given way to terror (“But… what if he actually wins this thing? We are so screwed!”), and that in turn to more considered reflection, the implications from a secular voter’s perspective are interesting. First, the rise of Trump demonstrates that the Religious Right isn’t as invincible as it likes to flatter itself. While Trump enjoyed the support of plenty of conservative Christian icons, the lion’s share of the Religious Right’s advocacy went to Cruz. Cruz was the one to take America back from the brink, the one who God himself had called to the job, and so on. No one elicited the religious support and self-imposed bouts of starvation quite like the man who was going to show us the face of God. And he lost. Not to another candidate hand-picked by the fickle Lord. On the contrary, the slick, smarmy faux preacher with a thing for spanking was himself thrashed by a crude, thrice-married casino owner who offered only the most superficial nods toward religion. And not in a general election, but rather within the Republican Party itself. For a voting bloc that sets the party’s agenda on social issues that largely drives the national conversation on women’s rights, LGBT rights, and even medicine, Donald Trump’s ascendency should be a tremendous embarrassment. It should also be a wake up call to the Republican Party that that old fallback of prioritizing the demands of religious fanatics to win elections has an expiration date after all. That’s not to say we should underestimate the power of the Religious Right. Ted Cruz went far with their support — and even then Trump was able to siphon some of it off, away from Cruz, to bolster his own lead. Furthermore, Trump’s success doesn’t mean that the Religious Right is defanged — just that, at least on a temporary basis, Republican voters were swayed by more pressing concerns than what was happening in other people’s pants. Still, it does demonstrate an encouraging lack of influence from the more theocratic-minded members of the party. That’s also not to say that that same wing of the party won’t have power in a Trump administration. Sure, Trump himself doesn’t seem to care about these social issues except when it’s politically advantageous to do so; but that willingness to pander will almost certainly translate into a willingness to give in to the Religious Right’s demands to keep the party’s more fanatical members complacent. As President (ugh, that’s a scary thought), he’s going to need the Cruzes of the party to support his agenda, which means the religious wing can easily exact their concessions. With the rights of millions of Americans in the balance (to say nothing of the impact of that influence on SCOTUS appointees, etc.), this is far from nothing. So the Religious Right will certainly be able to continue influencing American politics for the worse… but its image as Kingmaker has been severely tarnished. The Orange Menace won the crown despite strong opposition from many quarters of the conservative religious community, and despite running against someone who used his extreme faith as a key selling point. Further, while it’s gratifying to see that the two candidates overtly in favor of implementing the Religious Right’s theocratic vision are out, Trump, even if left to his own devices, is by no means a friend of religious freedom. His comments on Islam make that obvious. (And from a Humanist perspective, his comments on immigrants, abortion, etc., are mortifying). The long and the short of it, then, is pretty much what we’ve known for a long time — the Conservative party has offered no candidate to promote the ideals of Secular Humanism. So while there’s been much activity in the race, and some possibly promising asides, Trump’s triumph has not really changed much: we’re still completely screwed if a Republican gets the White House. (Screenshot via YouTube) |
DALLAS -- The coach of a Texas high school basketball team that beat another team 100-0 was fired Sunday, the same day he sent an e-mail to a newspaper saying he will not apologize "for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity." On its Web site last week, the Covenant School of Dallas, a private Christian school, posted a statement regretting the outcome of its Jan. 13 shutout win over Dallas Academy. "It is shameful and an embarrassment that this happened. This clearly does not reflect a Christlike and honorable approach to competition," said the statement, signed by Kyle Queal, head of school, and board chair Todd Doshier. Covenant coach Micah Grimes, who has been criticized for letting the game get so far out of hand, made it clear in the e-mail Sunday to The Dallas Morning News that he does not agree with his school's assessment. "In response to the statement posted on The Covenant School Web site, I do not agree with the apology or the notion that the Covenant School girls basketball team should feel embarrassed or ashamed," Grimes wrote in the e-mail, according to the newspaper. "We played the game as it was meant to be played. My values and my beliefs would not allow me to run up the score on any opponent, and it will not allow me to apologize for a wide-margin victory when my girls played with honor and integrity." Queal would not say if Grimes was fired because of the coach's statement, but told the newspaper that Grimes "now only represents himself." A phone number for Grimes could not be located by The Associated Press. The Dallas Morning News said Grimes did not respond to its repeated e-mail requests for a telephone interview. Queal did not immediately return a phone message left at his home Sunday afternoon by the AP. There was no answer at a number listed for Doshier. A parent who attended the game said Covenant continued to make 3-pointers -- even in the fourth quarter. She praised the Covenant players but said spectators and an assistant coach were cheering wildly as their team edged closer to 100 points. |
Man, it hasn't been a kind summer for Fab Melo. Grizzlies waive C Fab Melo 2 weeks after trade - Yahoo! Sports The Memphis Grizzlies have waived Fab Melo two weeks after sending forward Donte Greene to the Boston Celtics to acquire the Brazilian center. Grizzlies release Fab Melo | The Point Forward - SI.com With a stacked big man rotation that includes Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, Kosta Koufos and Ed Davis, Memphis was in a position to handle Melo like the project that he is or simply cut-and-run from a player who has had his commitment and maturity questioned. The Grizzlies have taken the latter route, perhaps hoping that a rebuilding team will claim Melo off of waivers, thus saving Memphis the cost of his $1.3 million contract for the 2013-14 season. Whether or not such a claim is made, the Grizzlies currently sit below the NBA’s $71.7 million luxury tax line. The Celtics did send an undisclosed amount of cash to Memphis as part of the trade, and I'd bet that the amount was pretty close to the amount the team was on the hook for. We'll see if any team wants to take a flyer on Melo either by picking up his waivers or more likely by bringing him to camp on an non-guaranteed contract. |
A helicopter in the ocean. A plane on Sunrise Highway. It was a wild few hours Wednesday on Long Island. No one was hurt in either emergency landing, but news that Shane McMahon, the son of World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon, was on the helicopter that landed off Gilgo Beach around 10:25 a.m. made headlines across the country. The NYPD shared this footage from a helicopter that responded to aid in the rescue of McMahon and a pilot: Read more: Shane McMahon On Helicopter That Makes Emergency Landing Off Gilgo Beach Less than three hours later, a small plane made an emergency landing on Sunrise Highway near Exit 57– Horseblock Road in Suffolk County. The male pilot, who was alone on the plane, was not injured. Thomas Lupski, a real estate agent, was in a car on Sunrise Highway as the plane landed in front of him. He shared this incredible video on YouTube (note it does contain some profanity): |
Whilst Samuel L Jackson has been forced to mouth off a lot recently, largely defending how his latest film Django Unchained deals with issues of slavery, he’s also been on the offensive, and recently came out in a scathing attack on Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, after admitting that he had “no idea” what the famous director was trying to achieve with his ending. Jackson was talking to The Los Angeles Times after watching Spielberg’s biopic on the US President, and fumed (whilst also giving away spoilers) “I don't understand why it didn't just end when Lincoln is walking down the hall and the butler gives him his hat. Why did I need to see him dying on the bed? I have no idea what Spielberg was trying to do." Jackson wasn’t done there either, continuing. "I didn't need the assassination at all. Unless he's going to show Lincoln getting his brains blown out. And even then, why am I watching it? The movie had a better ending 10 minutes before." Jackson’s comments came as part of a larger piece by the newspaper discussing whether Hollywood were starting to lose the plot when comes to finding an ending for a film, accusing many of dragging out their endings and struggling to find an exit point. Already out in the USA, the rest of the world will get to see whether Django Unchained suffers from the same trappings from January 17, 2013. |
YouTube TV is reaching new markets soon as the official YouTube Blog today announced that it would be opening up the streaming TV service up to new customers. Prior to this announcement YouTube TV was only available in a small handful of markets. As part of the initial launch YouTube TV was only available in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, LA, and New York City. Five markets might seem like a relatively small spread, and it is, but all of the cities chosen are also all huge metropolitan areas with a massive number citizens. Over the course of the next couple of weeks YouTube is going to be rolling out YouTube TV service to a total of ten additional markets over the initial five, and this includes Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington D.C., Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, and Charlotte. YouTube does not mention which cities are going to come online first, nor does it mention if all the new markets will become available at the same time, but there is a chance it could go either way and it's probably more likely that YouTube will decide to roll it out to the additional ten markets in waves over that time period. Beyond the new cities listed above there is no word on what markets will get access to YouTube TV next or how long it will be before the expansion continues, but if the rollout is anything like Sony's PlayStation Vue service it might take a while to reach most of the U.S.. That said YouTube TV isn't the only option for consumers looking to cut the cord and give up traditional TV from their cable companies, but it is a nice option as it's tied to your Google account so it helps to keep everything a little more streamlined if you use mostly Google products and services. The new market availability is coming not too long after YouTube recently announced that it would be adding onto the library of available channels that is now accessible, where it brought seven new channels to the service back in the middle of May that included the likes of AMC, BBC America, IFC and others. |
The San Jose Earthquakes’ formal complaint over Toluca filming their training session is headed to the CONCACAF Disciplinary Committee, MLSsoccer.com has learned. Where it goes from there is still unclear. A CONCACAF spokesman confirmed on Friday that the confederation has received the Earthquakes’ formal written complaint – which it requested from the club – and will forward it, along with a full report made by CONCACAF officials on the ground in Mexico, to the confederation’s Disciplinary Committee. Both the Earthquakes and CONCACAF confirmed the incident in question centers around a Toluca staffer filming the Quakes’ training session at Estadio Nemesio Díez on Tuesday beyond the permitted 15-minute window for media access. San Jose and Toluca drew 1-1 on Wednesday in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal, with the Liga MX club advancing on penalties. The CONCACAF spokesman wasn’t sure what the timeline was as far as when the Disciplinary Committee would meet to discuss the matter, nor what kind of decision it could make in this particular instance. |
CALGARY – A $120-billion opportunity exists for companies that can help reduce Canada’s emissions, according to a new report, as the federal government plans its tax on carbon and as companies like TransAlta Corp. shift toward renewables more quickly than expected. Boston-based Lux Research published a report Thursday that estimated Canada’s carbon tax plans could generate $120 billion in tax revenues by 2030 and that money “can be funnelled toward domestic technology innovators.” “While it remains to be seen how Canada’s provinces will spend the billions in tax revenues, proper allocation of funding can eventually position Canada as a global hotspot for innovations,” Lux Research senior analyst Yuan-Sheng Yu said in a release. Yu’s report predicts that Canada would become “a destination for global technology developers” and that clean-tech providers targeting the transportation and waste-management sectors are the best positioned to profit from the transition. Yu said there were also opportunities for power companies to generate earnings from the country’s transition to lower its emissions. It is released at a time when Ottawa is planning to directly invest $1.8 billion from its federal budget in clean-technology companies and as companies in multiple sectors have begun planning ahead for a Canada-wide $50-per-tonne carbon tax in 2022. “Carbon is now an input, so like any other thing, as the cost of an input goes up, you want to minimize it,” TransAlta Corp. president and CEO Dawn Farrell said Thursday, adding that a $50 per tonne carbon price makes converting her company’s coal-fired power plants to natural gas more economic. TransAlta, a major Alberta power company, announced Wednesday it would accelerate its planned retirement of coal-fired generating stations from 2029 to 2023, mothballing some power plants and converting others to burn natural gas. Farrell also said she would have discussions with other power producers with which TransAlta co-owns coal power plants to discuss accelerating the phase-out of those plants. The decision, Farrell said at her company’s annual meeting Thursday, would “support our transition to become Canada’s leading clean-power company.” “We can see that those who invest in renewables and then also have competitive capacity to back them up will be among the most competitive electricity generators,” Farrell said. The Lux report predicted that “Canada’s electricity sector will shift from (being the country’s) third-largest emitter to the second-lowest in less than 20 years.” A number of TransAlta retail shareholders expressed their frustration with TransAlta’s decisions on shifting away from coal and toward renewables Thursday, saying the strategy would result in higher cost electricity for residential buyers. One shareholder suggested TransAlta spend more of its capital outside of Alberta to avoid “bad governance” from Alberta’s NDP government. “There are a lot of coal plants in the U.S. that are shutting down and converting to gas ahead of us,” Farrell said, adding the availability of cheap natural gas due to a lack of LNG export facilities should secure a long-term supply of low-cost gas. Financial Post gmorgan@nationlapost.com Twitter.com/geoffreymorgan |
Marketing and Public Relations are both instrumental to the success and healthy sustenance of a company. Conventionally, Marketing refers to the process through which a company communicates the value of the product to its customers in order to eventually spike the sales and satisfy its patrons. It focusses on not just earning moolah but also serving and satisfying the customers efficiently. On the other hand, Public Relations is directed at communicating regularly with the media and disseminating honest information about the company to its target audience in order to carve a positive image of the company in the market. The concept of Public Relations in Marketing enhances the marketing of products and services of the company, giving firms an edge over competitors. Advantages of Public Relations in Marketing Public Relations (PR) supports Marketing in such a way that the goals of both the disciplines are fulfilled. While the objective of marketing is to boost the sales of goods and services, Public Relations focusses on building an unrivalled reputation of the company. Most importantly, PR indirectly aids in augmenting the sales of products and services provided by the company by communicating with the public and media on a regular basis and by maintaining its goodwill in the market. It strives to attain top-of-the-mind brand recall and helps in positioning and repositioning the brand image among its target audience. This way it indirectly raises the sales to a great extent, resulting in consumers’ growing awareness about the brand, which hence makes the work of marketing much easier. The concept of Public Relations in Marketing helps firms attain remarkable achievements and fortify their brand presence in the market. This does not prove that Marketing and Public Relations complement each other. There has always been some sort of competition between the two in terms of, which of them contributes more to an organisation’s development. Although both these functions share a lot of commonalities, they function at different levels and in distinct ways. Public Relations services include escalating the media visibility and strengthening the brand presence, building and retaining healthy relations with the media, carefully-crafting the brand image by using cutting-edge tools like engaging content, public and media events and so on. These unmatched services provided by PR firm helps organisations create a unique identity for themselves in the market and also become capable to confront the fierce competition. Besides this, PR assists companies in communicating efficiently with the target audience and disseminating positive news about the company to upgrade its brand image. The strategic amalgamation of business activities to bring the organisation’s products to the buyers in a way that is mutually advantageous for both buyer and seller is what comprises Marketing. It aims at meeting the needs of an organisation’s customers and getting economic returns on it. It is sales-oriented and profit-driven and ensures the smooth transfer of products from the producer to the end consumer. Marketing and Public Relations So while Marketing focusses on sales and increasing revenue, Public Relations is directed towards generating positive perceptions and pre-dispositions and strengthening the relationship of the company with its stakeholders. They compete for company’s resources as much as they do for gaining public attention. In order to lessen the expenses, some companies limit themselves to adopting only one discipline, either PR or Marketing. But some opt for both, given the different benefits that an organisation can achieve from each of them. Based on the objective and the thought-process of organisations, the usage of these disciplines varies from company to company. Due to the escalating growth of both the sectors, Public Relations has evolved to become Marketing Public Relations (MPR) that is the perfect blend of Marketing and PR and comprises the best of both disciplines. It is a completely company-driven concept as it focusses on maintaining healthy relations between the company and its target audience. The MPR, on the contrary, follows a marketing discipline and is based on the concept of ‘Consumer Orientation’. Owing to rapid globalisation, PR has upgraded itself by dealing directly with consumers and their wants, which is usually an aspect of Marketing. |
Days after the Justice BL Garg committee submitted report on the Khirki Extension midnight raid case involving former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister has targeted political parties and corporate houses for allowing prostitution and drug racket to flourish in the pockets like Khirki Extension. "For the likes of the arms dealer Abhishek Verma pockets like Khirki extension are breeding ground. Women and money have been at the helm of the affairs in deals involving these people. If the police starts acting on the complaints of the local residence, how will people like Verma flourish," questioned Bharti adding he is being targeted because he tried to expose the nexus. Calling himself a soft target of the police and the media he said his intention was to rid the country of drug and women trafficking. "Had the police acted in a fair manner and taken the desired action, I can assure you that Khirki Extension raid could have rid the country of from trafficking," adds Bharti. Bharti said a section of media is managed by the two major political parties — the BJP and the Congress. "The opposition does not have the guts to take up these issues. Because they all work hand in gloves with each other," he said. Blaming the media for misrepresenting facts, he said media houses have become a tool in the hands of the two big political parties. The AAP leader also questions the credibility of BL Garg committee report inquiring into the midnight raid case carried out by Bharti. "Initially we were told that a committee headed by Justice Mudgal will be investigating the case. But suddenly the Lt Governor handed over the inquiry to a junior judge retired as additional district judge," he said. Bharti said somebody more senior in rank like Justice Mudgal should have investigated the matter. While the Delhi Government's home department has recommended to the Lt Governor to register an FIR based the report submitted by Justice Garg, Bharti termed Garg's investigation a farce. "They cannot touch me at all," says the confident AAP leader. "In the name of inquiry, I was only asked to submit a written statement. I had suggested the committee to meet the aggrieved residents of the area to get the truth out. Some people of the area also went to see him. But the committee did not record their statement," he adds. Bharti who unlike many others in the party said he was not eyeing a bigger role in the party, wants to be involved in Delhi itself. "I have been asked to mobilise the bar associations across the country, but I am not looking at a national role. I want to continue being a part of Malviya Nagar assembly," he said. |
Here, in this dim, peaceful room where the arched windows are still covered in thick plastic even though it’s mid-June; here, where the dark red carpet lies worn and the pews bear the chips and scratches and dullness of many years; where the words above the altar read: “Welcome home.” Each person in the crowd of perhaps a thousand had been searched by police before they were allowed through the doors of Riverdale’s Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto . Dozens of officers were stationed in the basement; Hawkes, who had been rushed and shoved while delivering his sermon that morning, was in a bulletproof vest. The police insisted on it; there had been death threats, serious ones. On Jan. 14, 2001, the church’s senior pastor Rev. Brent Hawkes married Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell, and Anne and Elaine Vautour, at the front of this room, packed with cheering, crying friends and supporters while outside, protesters yelled and shook signs. “I was surprised by how emotional I felt (when I found out),” he says. All those awards over the years were great, but: “This was my community. This was my own community honouring the work we’ve done.” Seated on a chair covered in red material in the church, talking, telling stories in a rapid-fire style, Hawkes’ twinkly eyes get, perhaps, a little misty when he mentions it. But the honour bestowed on him is something different, perhaps even more special. Hawkes, 64, will serve as the grand marshal of the WorldPride Parade on June 29, leading what’s expected to be one of the largest processions in Toronto’s history. In the 13 years since, Hawkes has received a slew of awards and honorary doctorates for his fight for LGBTQ rights. In 2007, he was named to the Order of Canada. He officiated over the state funeral of NDP leader Jack Layton . There’s a prayer Hawkes came across not long ago, one that really resonated with him. It goes: “Thank you God for helping me to hang in long enough that I can look back and understand why.” Born and raised in a strict Baptist family in Bath, New Brunswick, he came to Toronto in 1977. He soon became a pastor at what was then a floundering, four-year-old, gay-friendly church that met in offices, backyards, church basements and rooms over bars. It was tense, in those days. There was the rising violence between police and activists; there was the impending devastation of AIDS. Hawkes came out to his family, figuring they’d see him on the news, as he took what’s become his usual place on the front lines. It was tough, in those days. People were fired from jobs, threatened, assaulted, murdered, evicted, shunned, for their sexuality. It was tougher still to belong to opposing sides of the struggle underway, at times ostracized by both. “It was pretty challenging,” says Hawkes. “If you were gay in the Christian community, you’re not welcome, and if you’re Christian in the gay community, at some points, you weren’t welcomed either.” He had to push the MCC’s board to participate in Pride back then. It was felt it was too left-wing, too radical. There will always be radicals, on all sides, he told them, explaining that they needed to make sure there was a middle ground. MCC touted (fielded) the first float in Toronto Pride history, a little wagon done up like Noah’s Ark. It broke partway through, so they carried it. Over the years, Hawkes has been beaten by police, he’s chained himself to the legislature, he’s gone without eating for 25 days in protest of the 1981 bath house raids. “It takes people to persist, to take risks, and to make sacrifices in order to move things forward for the people who come after us,” says Hawkes, who took cues from the U.S. civil rights movement that he’d become acquainted with during his time at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. “That’s the way it happens — you have to fight against the resistance; you can’t back off, you can’t give in.” When the MCC bought a building on Gerrard St. E. in 1985, it was the first gay and lesbian organization in Canada to have its own property. The church moved to its current location on Simpson Ave. in 1991. City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam went to the MCC as a 16-year-old LGBTQ youth. Despite being Buddhist, that’s where she found safety. There has often been conflict with religion and spirituality for LGBTQ people, she says. Hawkes bridged that divide. “Even though I’m not Christian, I found sanctuary in a Christian church,” says Wong-Tam. “(Hawkes) was a visionary and he was able to do that, send a message really loudly and clearly, demonstrate to his community, which is the LGBTQ community, that they can come here and belong and feel safe, regardless of whatever God you choose to worship, there’s a space for you there. That’s the beauty of Brent Hawkes.” Wong-Tam was shocked to learn Hawkes had never been grand marshal of a Pride Parade. (He says he’s been nominated previously, but disagreed with the selection process — since revamped — and so didn’t want the post). “I thought, you know what, it cannot be, it cannot be that the federal government acknowledged our hero and the community has not done so,” says Wong-Tam. “For the LGBTQ community, being named the grand marshal is probably the highest honour that we can bestow.” So she nominated him. When the MCC decided to make same-sex marriage a cause, it found a little-known clause that allowed for marriage by the publishing of banns — a formal announcement of intent to marry. So, while the city continued to apologetically deny the more standard marriage licences to same-sex couples and cases wound through the courts, Hawkes took to the altar in December 2000 and announced the coming marriages of two couples who were part of the congregation. Joe Varnell says the six weeks between the reading of the banns and the marriage were “a very surreal and intense period.” “Nobody knew when we were all starting just how intense it was going to be,” says Varnell. “We had all anticipated a lot of the legal journey, but not necessarily the intense attention and reactions that we were going to get.” Hawkes, says Varnell, took care of them, ensured the focus remained on their relationships, their marriages. Hawkes put himself in the line of fire to spare them. “Brent has been at the forefront of a lot of the struggles and I think it’s basically baked into Brent’s DNA,” says Varnell. “In some cases, Brent has acted like that lightening rod, when he knows the negative reactions are coming, he’ll put himself in a space where he can handle and field a lot of those issues.” Ten years later, Hawkes officiated at Jack Layton’s funeral, his words comforting a grieving country from coast to coast. Afterward, he was described as one of Canada’s best known, and most respected, clergymen. “I thought, ‘How in hell did that happen?’ ” says Hawkes, laughing. But while many churches are failing, MCC has a regular congregation of well over a thousand. It’s outgrown its space on Simpson Ave. Hawkes is regularly called on to give advice to other church leaders; 30-some years after getting a beating at the hands of Toronto police, he performed the marriage for current Chief Bill Blair’s son. And now, this. In his signature black-with-white collar, a rainbow-coloured cross hanging on his chest, Hawkes will stride out from the corner of Church and Bloor Sts., a religious leader leading the celebration of diversity that Pride has become. He will not wear the bulletproof vest that now hangs in his closet under a skiff of dust. “Look at how far we’ve come,” he says. |
Study: 1,300 children die by gun every year in the U.S. On Thursday, April 20, 2017 Family and friends turned out for a vigil for Juan Borja, an eighth-grade student at Freeport Intermediate School who was shot and killed Wednesday at a Freeport park. Police have arrested a 14-year-old in connection with the fatal shooting. less On Thursday, April 20, 2017 Family and friends turned out for a vigil for Juan Borja, an eighth-grade student at Freeport Intermediate School who was shot and killed Wednesday at a Freeport park. Police have ... more Photo: Mark Mulligan | Houston Chronicle Photo: Mark Mulligan | Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Study: 1,300 children die by gun every year in the U.S. 1 / 5 Back to Gallery An average of 19 children suffer gunshot wounds every day in the United States, according to a new public health study that culled several national databases to tally cases from 2002 to 2014. Nearly 1,300 die each year. The unusually detailed look offers some good news about firearms injuries — such as a steady decline in accidental shooting deaths — but also finds that the U.S. accounts for more than nine of every 10 firearm deaths among children under 14 in high-income countries worldwide. Firearms are the No. 2 cause of injury-related death among American children, second only to car crashes. “It’s a very comprehensive report,” said Dr. David Wesson, Texas Children’s Hospital’s associate surgeon-in-chief for academic affairs. “It’s got information about pretty much all types of firearms-related injuries; it also has information about nonfatal firearms injuries.” For Wesson, who was not involved in the study that was published in the June edition of the medical journal Pediatrics, the data offers insights that can help prevent such injuries, which are often so severe in children’s small bodies that trauma surgeons like him can’t save the victims. “If you have a gunshot wound to the head ... there’s really not much we can do,” he said. “So injury prevention is something I think about a lot.” On average, 1,297 children died from a firearm-related injury each year from 2012 to 2014, the study reports. A little more 50 percent were homicides, about 40 percent were suicides and 6 percent were unintentional. Nearly 6,000 children per year were wounded but survived. Intentional deaths down The authors — four researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control or Prevention and one University of Texas at Austin sociologist — report some good news: Intentional shooting deaths have become steadily less common since a peak in 2007, when 1.4 children out of every 100,000 died in shooting homicides each year. That rate declined by 36 percent to 0.9 children per 100,000 in 2014. Eleven states in the South and Midwest had significantly higher rates of child shooting homicides. The two highest were Louisiana and Illinois. Chicago especially has suffered from frequent shootings in recent years. Children younger than 13 who died by firearm homicide often were killed during conflict between family members or a relative’s romantic partner, according to the authors. “This highlights how children can be caught in the crossfire in cases of domestic violence and points to the importance of addressing the intersection of these forms of violence,” said Katherine Fowler, a lead researcher for the study. Growing suicide rates Data drawn from three national reporting systems revealed that, while children generally have lower suicide rates than other age groups, “Some of the steepest increases from 1999 to 2014 have been found among children 10 to 14 years of age,” according to the study. Since 2007 alone, firearm suicides among children ages 10 to 17 have increased by 60 percent, Fowler added in an email. Suicide rates were highest in a few large, rural states: Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Detailed analysis found that the most common circumstances for a child or teen’s suicide included a crisis, a relationship problem or an issue with a romantic partner. The study also found that more than a quarter of children who took their own lives had told someone about their intent before doing it, suggesting more lives might be saved by interventions. The researchers found an average of 82 unintentional shooting deaths per year from 2012 to 2014 — though the real number may be much higher, according to research by the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. The majority of those accidents happened while children were playing with guns or showing them to other kids, the study said. “Previous research shows that children are curious about firearms and will touch a firearm even when instructed not to do so, which points to the importance of adult supervision and the need to store firearms safely and out of the reach of children,” the authors wrote. Keeping children safe For parents who want a gun handy for self-protection, safety instructors suggest keeping one gun nearby in a fingerprint-activated safe and locking the rest in a complex gun safe. A simple gun lock — a cable that runs through the chamber and magazine — costs less than $20. A trigger lock is about $10. Wesson said the study also provides new levels of detail about nonfatal shootings, which get much less attention. Researchers found an average of 5,790 U.S. children survived gunshot wounds each year, based on data from emergency-department reporting databases and elsewhere. Out of every 100 injuries, about 70 were assaults, 20 were accidents and three were intentionally self-inflicted. Houston’s new police chief, Art Acevedo, has instructed his department’s detectives to investigate such nonfatal shootings as if they were homicides, in an effort to catch violent offenders before they kill someone. |
Image copyright AFP Image caption The treaty was signed after seven years Croatia has signed a treaty to make it the 28th member of the European Union from mid-2013, becoming the EU's second ex-Yugoslav member after Slovenia. EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy welcomed the "historic" treaty signed at the EU summit in Brussels after seven years of tortuous negotiations. Territorial disputes with Slovenia and demands for the arrest of war crimes suspects had dogged the bid. Serbia, meanwhile, is unlikely to get official candidate status until March. According to a draft statement prepared for the summit, EU leaders will praise Serbia for democratic reforms but call for more evidence of progress in relations with Kosovo before making a final decision, EU diplomats said. Today Croatia is entering Europe, but more importantly Europe is entering Croatia Ivo Josipovic, Croatian president Officials, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press news agency Montenegro was likely to receive the green light to open accession negotiations next June. Mr Van Rompuy said Croatia would be an "active observer" in all EU forums until it became a full member. Croatian President Ivo Josipovic told the leaders of the 27 existing EU states: "Today Croatia is entering Europe, but more importantly Europe is entering Croatia." Yugoslavia's split into independent states in the early 1990s sparked bloody conflicts, the last of which enveloped the Serbian region of Kosovo. Belgrade has refused to recognise Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence. |
GETTY David Cameron wrote a Tory manifesto which promised an Australian-style points system The Prime Minister was behind a Tory pledge to introduce a strict immigration system in the UK ten years ago, it has emerged. The explosive revelations threaten to make a mockery of his claims that such a points-based system – proposed by leading Brexit campaigners – would "trash the economy". The Conservative Party's 2005 election manifesto pledged to introduce a "points-based system similar to the one used in Australia" – which only grants economic migrants a visa if they pass a points test based on their qualifications and work experience – to "give priority to people with the skills Britain needs". GETTY David Cameron pictured in 2005 – when he backed an Australian-style system In a chilling echo of the Government's lacklustre response current migration crisis, it reads: "Our out-of-control immigration system encourages people smugglers and penalises genuine refugees. Remain campaigner Cameron was responsible for producing the policy document – but now says the system is "unworkable". His Europhile ally George Osborne, the Chancellor, also attacked the policy as "fantasy politics". But a briefing sent to Tory candidates in 2005 said the party would "consult businesses every year to ensure that the right balance – involving the right number and type of immigrants – is struck by the points system". Cameron's shocking U-turn was flagged up by the Conservative Party's official historian, Lord Lexden, in a withering letter to the Daily Telegraph. Challenging the Prime Minister, the top academic asked: "Why is that policy now wrong?" Brexit heavyweights including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have pledged to allow entry to the UK based on skills only if Britons vote to quit the Brussels club on June 23rd. GETTY Leave campaigners including Boris Johnson have pledged to introduce an Australian-style system GETTY Michael Gove also backs the pledge An official Vote Leave statement from the former London Mayor and Justice Secretary as well as Employment Minister Priti Patel and senior Labour MP Gisela Stuart said: "To gain the right to work, economic migrants will have to be suitable for the job in question. "For relevant jobs, we will be able to ensure that all those who come have the ability to speak good English.” The campaigners – who are surging in the polls – say their plans would slash the UK's current net migration count of 330,000 people a year. The pros and cons of Brexit Fri, February 26, 2016 The pros and cons of Brexit. Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 12 Pros and cons of Brexit |
Google/Orkut Orkut in happier times. Before the many-headed hydra that is Google+, before Google Wave, before even Google Buzz, there was Orkut, a surprise hit of a social network created by a Google engineer in his spare time. Today Google announced that it is shutting it down. That is no surprise. Indeed, it is more surprising for many that Orkut was still around. What spurred this decision? Was it the onslaught of Facebook, now a 1.27-billion-user behemoth straddling the world? Was it Twitter, the slow-burning but still influential social network? Was it WhatsApp, the sleeper hit that’s all the rage in the developing world? Nope, nope, and nope. “Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off,” according to Google, and “because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut’s growth, we’ve decided to bid Orkut farewell.” That and perhaps the fact that the last few places where Orkut was popular—India and Brazil—are now the second- and third-largest contributors of Facebook users respectively, with the the US in first place. Indeed, in India, those few souls remaining on Orkut are known as “orkutiyas,” a mash-up of the name of the social network and a common Hindi swear word. Google will keep a public archive of some parts of Orkut. Fortunately, though, it makes it easy to erase memories of your embarrassing past. Ex-users who don’t want their posts or names to be included in the archive can permanently delete their information by following these instructions. |
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Four months of Russian air strikes in Syria are taking their toll on rebel forces, strengthening the hand of a defiant President Bashar al-Assad as the United Nations struggles to get peace talks off the ground. A frame grab taken from footage released by Russia's Defence Ministry December 25, 2015, shows air strikes carried out by Russia's air force hitting militants' vehicles, which, according to the ministry, carried oil, at an unknown location in Syria. REUTERS/Russian Defence Ministry/Handout via Reuters/Files Insurgents in the west are being hit harder, while in eastern and central parts of the country, Islamic State is also under military pressure and is cutting fighters’ pay as its oil-smuggling operations are hit by plunging prices. Rebel groups are reporting intensified air strikes and ground assaults in areas of western Syria that are of greatest importance to Assad. The government last week made one of its most significant gains since the start of the Russian intervention, capturing the town of Salma in Latakia province. While recent gains do not appear to mark a tipping point in the conflict, with rebels fighting back and regaining positions in some places, insurgents describe high levels of attrition on the front lines of western Syria. Officials close to Damascus say sealing the northwestern border with Turkey is the priority. A Syrian military source said rebel supply lines from Turkey, which backs the insurgents, were under pressure from Russian and Syrian air strikes. The course of battle underlines the uphill struggle facing U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura as he seeks to launch peace talks. Even with U.S. and Russian endorsement, a new peace process seems detached from the realities of a five-year-old war that may not yet be ready for peacemaking. “Most opposition-held areas turned to defence because of the huge mobilisation by Russians troops and the use of a large number of planes with unlimited munitions,” said Jamil al-Saleh, commander of a rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) group. While playing down the importance of government gains, Saleh said military aid from the rebels’ foreign backers - including Saudi Arabia and Turkey - was not enough to confront offensives that are also backed on the ground by Iran. “These are among the difficulties facing the FSA on the ground especially since the aerial bombing is affecting some headquarters, equipment, cars and personnel and the aid given is little compared to the ferocious attack,” he told Reuters. Saudi Arabia’s support for the opposition has yet to be translated into the kind of heavier weapons the rebels are seeking, notably anti-aircraft missiles. The military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rebels were suffering from the destruction of their weapons depots, made possible by good intelligence. Their appeals for more support showed they had “lost a lot of field capacities”, the source said. MOMENTUM Noah Bonsey, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said levels of attrition remained high on both sides. “But it seems to be the rebel side that is more concerned about the trajectory at this moment, while the regime camp enjoys momentum,” he said. “The regime itself never showed much openness for compromise even in its most vulnerable moments, so we can expect its current sense of momentum to further reinforce maximalism as Damascus pushes for a decisive military upper hand.” Damascus and its allies are also doing better in their war with Islamic State, which is also being fought separately by a U.S.-led coalition from the sky and on the ground by Kurdish forces. The government has advanced to within a few kilometres (miles) of the IS-held town of al-Bab in Aleppo province. Slumping oil prices have added to the pressures facing the jihadists whose flow of foreign recruits has been choked by tighter controls at the Turkish-Syrian frontier, once a major transit route. Islamic State has also faced setbacks in Iraq, losing control of the city of Ramadi in recent weeks. Of the 3,000 people killed by Russian air strikes in Syria since they began in September, nearly 900 were members of Islamic State, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that monitors the war. But the group still controls swathes of eastern and central Syria where it is battling to safeguard its “caliphate” rather than reform Syria, which is the aim of the rebels in the west. The Observatory says IS has recently cut the pay of its Syrian fighters. As in the past, IS has responded to the pressure by opening new fronts. Its fighters reportedly killed scores of government loyalists in an attack on state-held areas of Deir al-Zor city this week, one of Assad’s few remaining outposts in the east. The groups fighting Assad in the west include FSA factions, Islamists with a Syrian nationalist agenda, and jihadists including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front that have been declared terrorists by the United States. The main non-jihadist groups are part of a newly formed opposition council backed by Saudi Arabia that is tasked with overseeing the hoped-for negotiations. The rebels say they will not negotiate until the other side shows good will by halting the bombardment of civilian areas, lifting blockades of population centres, and freeing detainees. The government meanwhile says it is ready to attend Jan. 25 talks in Geneva, though it wants to know which groups will be deemed terrorists as part of the process, another stumbling block given its view that all rebels fall into that category. “BACK AND FORTH” Rebels interviewed by Reuters acknowledged recent government advances, but insist its manpower problems and dependence on foreign militias including Iranians still give the insurgents an important advantage and the capacity to fight back. The insurgency suffered a major blow on Dec. 25 when Zahran Alloush, one of the most prominent rebel leaders, was killed in an air strike near Damascus. The spokesman for one of the rebel groups fighting in northwestern Syria, the First Coastal Division, said the government side had captured Salma using overwhelming force. “Weapons do not concern it, and ammunition does not concern it, or the death of its troops, or anything else. The only thing that concerns it is that they progress using all weapons, all planes,” spokesman Fadi Ahmad told Reuters. A commander in the Ahrar al-Sham rebel group said the government and its allies were trying to advance towards the Turkish border. “They are trying to isolate the Syrians inside from the Turkish border. They are not as concerned about areas deeper in Syria, Hama and so on,” he told Reuters. The government and its allies have also turned their focus to the south for the first time since Russia began its air strikes on Sept. 30, launching an attack on the town of Sheikh Maskin near the border with Jordan in late December. Rebels fighting under the umbrella of the Southern Front alliance - a major component of the newly formed opposition council - say the government attack that got underway in late December has been accompanied by Russian air strikes. Slideshow (2 Images) Abu Ghiath al-Shami, the spokesman for one of the Southern Front insurgent groups, said that despite the onslaught the fighting was still “back and forth”. “I promise you in the coming period you will see something different that will surprise everyone in terms of military action,” he said. A Western diplomat said the government appeared intent on weakening the Southern Front before any negotiations. “I am surprised by the number of strikes and the number of forces from the regime side, including Hezbollah, and the Russian aerial bombing on behalf of the regime and the fact the town has still not fallen,” the diplomat said. |
Oldham Athletic (2004) AFC Limited can confirm that first team manager, John Sheridan, has left the club by mutual consent. The Board of Directors would like to place on record their thanks to John for his contribution to the development of the club, not only during this tenure, but as both a player and manager previously. His impact over the past two seasons in particular, when he has saved the club from near certain relegation on both occasions, will mean he is always guaranteed a warm welcome here by both the club and fans alike. This season, however, has not seen the progression we hoped with what was felt to be the nucleus of a good squad, and results, performances and league position have been hugely disappointing. Therefore following discussions with John, this decision has been made in the best interests of the club. We wish John well for the future. |
California cyclist Denise Mueller set a women’s world speed record of 147mph Saturday, drafting an SUV on a wildly unique, fixed-gear bicycle on the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah in the United States. The 147mph marked a new Woman's Paced Bicycle Land Speed Record, a style of extreme speed that dates back to 1899 when Charles "Mile-a-Minute" Murphy drafted a train on a bike, with sheets of plywood laid down between the rails the tracks for a riding surface. Murphy completed a mile in 57.8 seconds, according to newspapers at the time. For Mueller's record — which she is trying to improve today and tomorrow — the 43-year-old mother of three drafted pro auto racer Shea Holbrook, who piloted a Range Rover with a specialized rear fairing. She is being coached by John Howard, a three-time Olympian who set a land speed record of 152.2mph in 1985, also while drafting a dragster on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Chris Garcia of SD Wheel Works built the bike with help from DaVinci Bikes and KHS Bicycles. The construction centers around power production and stability at a speed well above anything normal bicycles can achieve. Not one but two 60t chainrings are used for double-reduction gearing; one full revolution of the pedals equals 125 feet. Denise Mueller's world-record-setting bike The bike is a fixed gear; there is no coasting or shifting for Mueller, who must be towed up to speed with the gigantic gear. "We are trying to get up to speed as fast as possible in the first mile before I drop the tow," Mueller told BikeRadar. "Then we have until mile three to get up to ultimate speed. Between mile markers three and four is where I am being timed." When Mueller is going 140mph, her cadence is 100rpm. The custom 17-inch dragster wheels have shaved tires and sit splayed far apart on the ultra-long frame. A steering stabilizer is used on the massive suspension fork, and a BodyFloat isolation seatpost takes the edge off at the rear. BodyFloat co-inventor Charlie Heggem said his seatpost is unique in that is undamped. While most suspension seatposts have an elastomer or some other form of damping, BodyFloat uses the rider as the damper, and offers vertical travel of up to 1.5in. "This terrain out here is anything but flat, and at 150mph it is extreme high frequency," Heggem said of the Salt Flats. "The BodyFloat springs are able to return energy as quickly as it comes up. An elastomer-based system would become an amplifier as it can’t keep up." Mueller has a BodyFloat suspension post to help stabilize her at speed Howard said he expects Mueller to beat her 152mph mark today or tomorrow, and perhaps even eclipse his old record of 152.2mph. The men's record of 167mph isn't attainable, given the location, Howard said. "We don’t have enough track to beat the men’s world record,” Howard said. “We’ve got four miles and we’d need six.” Mueller said getting up to top speed isn't a linear progression. "I call it the dance," Mueller said. "It is not a steady increase. It is a surge and then relax, surge and then relax. Shea also has to do that with the pace vehicle." The bike has a front bumper built into the frame, which can push up against a complementary piece on the vehicle. Mueller has two strange brakes on her bike — a hydraulic caliper on one of the two 60t chainrings (which slows the rear wheel because it is a fixed gear) and a caliper on the rear rim. Mueller drafted this dragster driven by pro car racer Shea Holbrook Mueller says she tries not to use the brakes when feathering her speed behind Holbrook. The two women have microphone communication, and the vehicle's rear camera is permanently on, with Howard sitting in the passenger seat. Regardless of whether she tops her record, there remains the business of slowing down on a fixed gear at 140+mph. Holbrook will stay in front of Mueller until they drop below 100mph, then will accelerate away to let wind resistance slow Mueller down. BikeRadar will update this story if and when Mueller improves her record. |
CLOSE As the investigation into the shooting death of a 13-month-old Brunswick, Ga., toddler continues, some people have questions about the child's mother. Sherry West's daughter says some of her mother's actions are concerning. VPC Sherry West breaks down in tears as she describes the incident the day before where her 13-month-old son was fatally shot and she was wounded Friday. (Photo: AP Photo/Bobby Haven, The Brunswick News) Story Highlights Police have new information that led them to a pond where they found a handgun Ashley says her mother asked about a life insurance policy Mother identified 17-year-old as killer The daughter of a Georgia woman whose 13-month-old son was shot in his stroller Thursday says she is upset about her mother's behavior after the tragedy. Ashley Glassey says her mother, Sherry West, called the night of the shooting and asked how soon she might expect a check from a life insurance policy. Glassey also said her mother changed her story: "She told me that the baby was shot first, and then she told me that she was shot first." West was shot in the thigh . De'Marquise Elkins, 17, and Dominique Lang, 15, are accused in the death of toddler Antonio Santiago. Elkins' mother, Karimah Elkins, 36, and aunt, Katrina Elkins, 33, are charged with making false statements to police. "I identified the shooter, and it's definitely him (Elkins)," West says. "They shot my baby in the head, and I had to watch him die." West says she wants the prosecutor to seek the death penalty. A Glynn County sheriff's deputy directs De'Marquise Elkins, 17, out of the courtroom in the Glynn County Courthouse in Brunswick, Ga., March 25. (Photo: Bobby Haven, AP) Katrina Elkins has said her nephew didn't kill the child, that he was at her house having breakfast at the time of the shooting. Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering said the women gave investigators new information that led them to a pond where they found a handgun. It's being tested to determine whether it was used in the slaying. Contributing: Associated Press Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/10L0GtM |
Toei Animation began streaming a new promotional video for the television anime adaptation of Daisuke Ashihara's World Trigger manga on Friday. Narrator: The super-popular science-fiction manga in Weekly Shonen Jump is finally adapted to anime! Osamu: Trigger, on! Words on screen: Trigger, on!, other-world, asteroid, Trion powers, Ray Blast, Irregular Gate, Border Yūma: I'm Yūma Kuga. Text: Yūma Kuga Osamu: My name's Osamu Mikumo. Text: Osamu Mikumo Yūichi: The elite with true talent, Yūichi Jin has arrived! Text: Yūichi Jin Chika: I'm Chika. Chika Amatori. Text: Chika Amatori Words on screen: Jun Arashiyama, Yōsuke Yoneya, Tōru Narasaka, Shūji Miwa, Shōhei Kodera Words on screen: Kyōko Sawamura, Masafumi Shinoda, Motokichi Kinuta, Takumi Rindō Yūma: Trigger, on! Boost double! Ready, set...! Yūma: I came from the world beyond the gate. I'm what you guys would call a “Neighbor.” Narrator: World Trigger . Beginning broadcasts on TV Asahi and related channels on Sunday, October 5 at 6:30 a.m. Mitsuru Hongo (Outlaw Star, Immortal Grand Prix second series) is directing the anime at Toei Animation with series composition by Hiroyuki Yoshino (Macross Frontier, Dance in the Vampire Bund). Toshihisa Kaiya (Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike, Tansuwarashi) is designing the characters and will also serve as animation director, while Kenji Kawai (Ranma 1/2, Fate/stay night) will compose the music for the soundtrack. The series will star: Tomo Muranaka as Yūma Kuga Yuuki Kaji as Osamu Mikumo Yūichi Nakamura as Yūichi Jin Nao Tamura as Chika Amatori Hideyuki Tanaka as Replica Rie Kugimiya as Kirie Konami Jun Fukuyama as Kyōsuke Karasuma Tomoaki Maeno as Reiji Kizaki Keiji Fujiwara as Takumi Rindō Takeshi Kusao as Masafumi Shinoda Masakazu Morita as Shūji Miwa Kana Hanazawa as Ai Kitora Nobuhiko Okamoto as as Jun Arashiyama The World Trigger television anime from Toei Animation will premiere on Sundays at 6:30 a.m. on the TV Asahi station and its affiliates starting on October 5. World Trigger debuted in last year's 11th issue of Japan's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. Viz Media added the series to its digital anthology version of Weekly Shonen Jump, and it will publish the first print volume on October 7. Shueisha will publish the eighth compiled volume in Japan on October 3. Viz Media describes the series as follows: Weekly Shonen Jump's newest series is out of this world! A gate to another dimension has burst open, and from it emerge gigantic invincible creatures that threaten all of humanity. Earth's only defense is a mysterious group of warriors who have co-opted the alien technology in order to fight back! Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine's Jump Special Anime Festa will screen a World Trigger anime at its tour this November. Thanks to Dennis R. for the embedded video. |
Indian State Forging Fear-Psychosis over SYL Issue; Para-Military Deployments Reported From Various Parts of Punjab November 14, 2016 | By Sikh Siyasat Bureau Chandigarh: The Indian State is apparently attempting to create fear-psychosis in Punjab after the Supreme Court of India (SCI)’s Nov. 10 (2016) verdict against Punjab in a Presidential reference related to construction of controversial Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal. There are reports of para-military deployment in various parts of Punjab. Four companies of Para Military Forces were deployed on Sunday (Nov. 13) in Punjab’s Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Mohali districts. The para-military forces also marked their presence in Ludhiana on Monday. As per Punjabi Tribune, a Punjabi vernacular published from Chandigarh, the Rapid Action Force held flag marches in Patiala, Samana, Patran and Rajpura. Reacting the deployment of para-military forces in Punjab, Sikh youth leader Bhai Mandhir Singh said that the deployment was aimed at creating fear-psychosis in the Punjabi society. “The Indian state is attempting to threaten certain section of the society with such moves and at the same time this move is also aimed at agitating those who have the capacity and willingness to struggle for safeguarding the existential concerns of the people of Punjab” said Bhai Mandhir Singh. He further said that the political class of Punjab is likely to once again run away from its responsibilities at this crucial juncture. The opposition is already demanding President’s rule in Punjab, the ruling combile too heading towards paving way for imposition of Centre’s control over Punjab. By doing so the political class would expose the people of Punjab in front of Indian state’s repression machinery as they have done same thing in the past also. He said that the whole process in aimed at preventing the people of Punjab from taking a strong decision under normal conditions to safeguard their existential concerns. MUST WATCH – RELATED VIDEO: * * * Tweet Related Topics: Bhai Mandhir Singh, Haryana, Indian Politics, Indian State, Punjab Politics, Punjab River Water Issue, Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004, Punjab Water Crisis, Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal, SCI, SYL |
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