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5pb. shared new details and video of Anonymous;Code, its new sci-fi adventure visual novel from Chiyomaru Studio, during 5pb. Festival 2016. Get the information below. Save & Load In RPGs and adventure games, there are usually save points that you can load after you’ve failed, but what if it was possible in real life? The protagonist Pollon possesses an ability called “Save & Load.” If you Save beforehand, you can Load back to the point prior to making a mistake hacking, pissing someone off, dying, and so on. This ability is described as different from time travel or time leaping. What’s different exactly, is that “Save & Load” is rewinding on a universal scale, so time paradoxes don’t occur. This is time travel on the same “time loop,” which makes a big difference on the story. Hacking Trigger The science adventure series always has some sort of “trigger” and since the main character Pollon is a hacker, his is the “Hacking Trigger” (temporary title). Hacking Trigger allows the player to become a god in a sense, deciding what the main character will do, arbitrarily posing the Load and Save options to the main character. Even if the player uses the Hacking Trigger and poses the Load option to Pollon, it doesn’t mean he will do it, it’s up to Pollon’s judgment. If the player maliciously poses the Load option, it could lead to a bad ending, messing up the timing, or even result in a Game Over brought on by the death of the main characters. Additionally there is an “Auto Save” feature in both the game and in Pollon’s world. The system screen for the actual game and in-game are the same, and that is a key feature of the title. There is also the “Load Count” feature that counts how many times Pollon Loads, as well as how many times the player loads, which may affect the story in some way. Character Animation The character animations use an “e-mote” system, 2D illustrations that move according to the selected e-mote. Final Notes 5pb. is currently working on things involving the system and user interface, making it more intuitive and easier to understand, as well adjusting the degree of difficulty and story speed. The game may end up being more difficult than previous adventure games. |
Less than a week after maverick promoter AJ Maddah told Fairfax Media his Harvest music festival was in jeopardy, he has exclusively confirmed its cancellation. Now rumours have emerged that Maddah may have acquired a share of Australia's longest-running touring music festival, the Big Day Out. Cancelled: Harvest Music Festival had in previous years been held at Parramatta, and was scheduled to be moved to the Domain. Credit:Edwina Pickles If true it would be a major coup for the promoter who already runs Australia's biggest-selling festival, Soundwave, and was named the most powerful person in the local music scene in August by the Australian Music Industry Directory. The BDO's former co-promoter Vivian Lees appeared on Triple J's Hack program on Monday afternoon and announced his former BDO partner Ken West had sold his share to Maddah. |
Is Zack Snyder really going to be directing the Justice League movie? And who would know any better than one person who might know what’s going on? Click the jump to find out who it is. There have been rumors that Man Of Steel‘s, director, Zack Snyder and Ruben Fleischer (‘Zombieland’) were front runners to direct Warner Bros. planned Justice League movie. Ruben Fleischer was asked about these rumors and he revealed he’s no longer in the running. And why? Because he says Snyder already has the job. See the quote below: Well that’s something that Zack Snyder is going to wind up doing. It’s not a surprise to Fleischer throw Snyder’s name out there. Since the release of the recent Man Of Steel trailer featuring General Zod (Michael Shannon), Lois Lane (Amy Adams), and others in a semi-action packed trailer that was hell of exciting. It’s a no brainer to say that Warner Bros. has their eyes on Snyder for the long haul. Everyone has eyes on him right now. If Man Of Steel is as successful in the box office, Warner Bros will throw Snyder in the ring for it. Even though, getting a director for the movie is super important. What’s more important is getting a writer. More than once this issue has been stressed on this site, and it’s one of the few things that will either make Justice League or break it. According to some sources before, it is still rumored that Will Beall (writer of Gangster Squad) is still the writer of Justice League. However, David S. Goyer (screen writer of The Dark Knight Trilogy and Man Of Steel) might be rewriting the script or at least will be doing damage control on the script to make that turd pile, gold. It’s best to say that Goyer has improved as a writer with his new TV series, Da Vinci’s Demons on Starz. Since his major writing influence has been from the Nolan brothers (Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan) whom have grounded his writing in The Dark Knight Trilogy. It seems that his new TV series shows how much he has come a long way from his previous work on Ghost Rider. Goyer is a better candidate than Will Beall at this point because he knows his comic books and his writing has improved over the last decade. Since Goyer and Zack Snyder know each other quite well by now with Man Of Steel, it’s best to assume that Goyer would be a better pick than Beall at this point if Man Of Steel does well as a story on screen this summer. Everyone’s waiting and watching, don’t count your chickens yet until this summer after Man Of Steel. Comment down below, DKN Facebook, or DKNewsCom. Source- Screen Rant |
ANTHONY DOUGLAS ELONIS may have won his Supreme Court case on June 1st, but no one would mistake him for Pennsylvania’s most charming resident. When Mr Elonis’s wife left him in 2010, he turned to Facebook to lambast her under the nom de plume “Tone Dougie”. “There’s one way to love ya, but a thousand ways to kill ya,” he wrote. “And I’m not going to rest until your body is a mess, Soaked in blood and dying from all the little cuts. Hurry up and die bitch”. These online scribblings, among others, earned him an indictment under a federal law that prohibits “any communication containing any threat…to injure the person of another”. Mr Elonis insisted that his posts were “therapeutic”, not threatening, and that he was just emulating the graphic lyrics of Eminem, a rapper. The jury disagreed and sentenced him to 44 months in prison. Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. On appeal, Mr Elonis claimed the jury had been given bad instructions. As a result of being asked to consider whether “a reasonable person” would view his statements as threats, the jury had wrenched his words from the context of his innocent intentions. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected this contention and upheld Mr Elonis’s conviction. In Elonis v United States, the Supreme Court reversed the appeals court. It was not enough, the justices said, for a jury to decide that reasonable listeners would interpret Mr Elonis’s nasty words as threats. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 8-1 ruling that “wrongdoing must be conscious to be criminal”. “What Elonis thinks”, he added, “does matter.” Here things get tricky. If a speaker purposely threatens someone, or knows that his statement “will be viewed as a threat”, the court held, he could face conviction. But how low should the bar go? The state must now do more than prove that he should have known his post would scare somebody—ie, that he was negligent. But the court took no position on whether “recklessness”—knowing the words might frighten, and not caring—is enough to convict. Justice Samuel Alito agreed to overturn the conviction, but criticised the chief justice for failing to answer this key question. Avoiding the issue, he wrote, “is certain to cause confusion” among lawyers and judges, who “are left to guess” what level of intent is necessary to nab someone under the law. The lone dissenter, Justice Clarence Thomas, would have upheld Mr Elonis’s conviction. “Our job is to decide questions,” he wrote, “not create them.” As long as they have no intention of hurting anybody, people should now feel safe posting even the vilest content on social media. Elonis won’t clean up the internet, but it seems it will keep the feds off your Facebook page. |
US border official says case of Mohsen Dehnavi, who was to work at Boston children’s hospital, is unrelated to Trump’s travel ban An Iranian cancer researcher who travelled to the US with his family on a valid visa has been sent back to his home country two weeks after Donald Trump’s revised travel ban came into force. Mohsen Dehnavi on Monday was denied entry to the US, along with his wife and three children, and detained at Boston’s Logan international airport after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers deemed him “inadmissible” to the US. He was put on a return flight shortly after 9pm on Tuesday. The researcher, 32, was traveling to the US to work as a visiting scholar at Boston children’s hospital, which is academically affiliated with Harvard Medical School. His denial of entry to the US comes two weeks after Trump’s modified executive order for a travel ban came into force and banned entry to the US for people from six Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Banned Grandmas of Instagram take on Trump over travel ban Read more Travellers with a “bona fide relationship” with a person or entity in the US are exempt from the ban, but conflicting interpretations of the order have led to what activists say are arbitrary decisions made at airports or US embassies issuing visas. Stephanie Malin, a CBP spokeswoman, denied Dehnavi’s case was related to Trump’s executive order. “This individual was deemed inadmissible to the US based on information discovered during the CBP inspection,” Malin said in a statement, adding that applicants were checked against “all grounds of inadmissibility including health-related grounds, criminality, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds”. An official from Iran’s prestigious Sharif University said students were preparing to give Dehnavi a hero’s welcome upon his arrival in Tehran on Wednesday night. “He had to return to Iran after the aggressive behaviour by the US government. Students and professors from Sharif University will greet him at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini airport upon his arrival,” Amir Basiri of Sharif’s academic elite committee told Tasnim news, describing him as exceptionally talented. “He came first in Sharif University’s PhD entry exam,” he said. Dehnavi is yet to comment on the episode but his brother was quoted by Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency as saying that authorities had issues with his academic paperwork. “His research is about treatment of cancer for children and he had traveled to the US to continue his education at Harvard University and participate in a postdoc programme,” the unnamed brother said in comments carried by Mehr. In an emailed statement, made before the family was put on a flight back to Iran, Boston children’s hospital said Dehnavi was traveling on a non-immigrant visa issued to highly skilled research scholars, professors and exchange visitors. “Dr Dehnavi is a visiting research scholar on a J-1 visa coming to Boston Children’s with his wife and three children,” read the statement. “He and his family are being detained at Logan [and] are supposed to be sent back to Iran later today.” Dehnavi’s predicament came into light after Mohammad Rashidian, a friend who was due to pick them up from the airport, said on Facebook that officers had told him “that they will not let them in and they need to go back to home”. Trita Parsi, the president of the National Iranian American Council, the largest Iranian American grassroots organisation, posted a picture of Dehnavi’s visa on Twitter. Trita Parsi (@tparsi) What #MuslimBan is doing RIGHT NOW. Harvard researcher at Children's hospital (+3 kids) WITH VALID VISA about to be deported @BostonLogan pic.twitter.com/r1oN9Ac7Ca He told the Guardian on Tuesday: “Despite the court rulings, clearly the spirit of the Muslim ban has survived. “Much indicates now that unless Congress takes action, the ban will remain in place and continue to discriminate and tear families apart while doing nothing to make America safer.” Iranians have expressed with fury over the revised travel restrictions, with a score of Iranian Americans saying on Twitter that the measures would mostly affect their grandparents, posting images of their grandmothers and grandfathers using #GrandparentsNotTerrorists. The Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, also condemned the ban as a “shameful” act targeting Iranian grandmothers. |
This article first appeared as a Vic Skeptics discussion pamphlet. It was written several years ago by our good friend Peter Barrett of Canberra Skeptics, but it’s up to date: from time to time these machines still get promoted in niche magazines and websites. The full range of our discussion pamphlets can be downloaded here: http://www.skeptics.com.au/resources/educational/ or by clicking on the “Useful Info” link at the top of this page. Imagine you have an ordinary one litre jug. Two things which I’m sure you’d agree with are that you couldn’t pour more than a litre of water into it or empty more than one litre out of it. Now imagine you had two such jugs, one full to the brim with water and the other empty. Pour the water from one jug to the other and back again. Repeat this process as often as you like. Is there any way you could imagine that you’d end up with more than one litre of water split between the two jugs? The logical answer is “No.” In fact, due to spillage and evaporation, it’s more likely that you’d end up with less than one litre of water. This is a fairly accurate representation of one of the most basic principles of physics, known as Conservation of Energy. This principle states that energy can change form, but can’t be destroyed or created. A good example of this is the production of household electricity in Australia. Most electricity in Australia is generated by burning coal. The coal has chemical energy. When it’s burned, it releases heat energy. This energy heats water to steam, which turns a turbine (kinetic energy). The turbine drives a generator, producing electrical energy. We then use this electrical energy for heating, cooling, running the TV, and so on. These processes aren’t perfectly efficient. At every stage, some energy is lost as waste heat, which disperses in the atmosphere, and in time radiates into space, where we can no longer use it. But there are people who believe that they’ve found some way around the energy conservation principle. They believe they’ve developed machines which, in effect, allow you to pour more than one litre of water out of a one litre jug. These machines are generally known as “Free Energy Machines,” “Perpetual Motion Engines,” or “Over-Unity Machines,” though some of their inventors may not be happy with those terms. Unfortunately, all the evidence available suggests that these people are either genuinely mistaken, or are being deliberately misleading. Conservation of energy is one of the best tested concepts in science, and anyone who could demonstrate a way around it would be as famous a scientist as Sir Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein. A simple way to test these machines is feedback. If the machine generates more energy than it uses, it should be able to power itself, with energy left to spare. If it can’t do that, it’s reasonable to assume the machine doesn’t operate as its inventors claim. Unfortunately, it’s very rarely that independent testers are allowed access to these machines to examine them in detail. (click to enlarge and animate) People who are mistaken are usually no great threat to society, although it may be difficult to convince them of the error they’ve made. But people who are misleading are far more dangerous. There are cases around the world where people have collected money from investors for further research or for licence fees for machines which either aren’t demonstrated, don’t work as claimed, or just plain don’t work. And while the inventors have pocketed a lot of money from their claims, the investors rarely see their investment money again. Inventors may attempt to bolster their claims by saying that their device has been granted a patent. But patents aren’t proof an invention works; instead, they prevent other people from profiting from the inventor’s work. Some have also claimed that there are conspiracies to suppress the development of free energy machines. But usually no evidence is provided to back up these claims. In any case, if a genuine free energy machine could be built, it would be far more profitable for a company to manufacture it and sell it than to smother the idea. So next time you’re invited to contribute towards the work of someone developing what appears to be a free energy machine, please check carefully. You may be contributing to one of the greatest breakthroughs in science, or you may simply be contributing to a charlatan’s wallet. Further reading: http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/museum/people/people.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perpetual_motion_machines |
MANHATTAN (CN) – Federal agencies must reveal a memorandum that outlines the legal basis for assassinating Anwar al-Awlaki while the U.S. citizen was living Yemen, the 2nd Circuit unanimously ruled Monday. An American Civil Liberties Union official called the decision a “resounding rejection of the government’s effort to use secrecy and selective disclosure to manipulate public opinion about the targeted killing program.” “The government can’t pretend that everything about the targeted killing program is a classified secret while senior officials selectively disclose information to paint the program in the most favorable light,” Jameel Jaffer, who heads the ACLU Center for Democracy, said in an email. “The public has a right to know why the administration believes it can carry out targeted killings of American citizens who are located far away from any conventional battlefield.” For more than two years, the ACLU has supported efforts by New York Times reporters Scott Shane and Charlie Savage to have the U.S. Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), the Department of Defense and the CIA reveal when the government believed a citizen deemed to be a terrorist could be killed abroad without legal review back home. Each time, the agencies rejected their requests under exceptions barring disclosure of classified information and internal deliberations between government agencies. The policies surrounding the controversial program have remained been shrouded in secrecy since the controversial drone strike on al-Awlaki nearly three years ago. The New Mexico-born radical cleric was living in Yemen when the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command bombed him and another U.S. citizen, al-Qaida propagandist Samir Khan, on Sept. 30, 2011. A separate strike killed al-Awlaki’s U.S. citizen son, 16-year-old Abdulrahman, weeks later. In throwing out the reporters’ lawsuit last year, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon had said legal precedent tied her hands. “The Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this pronouncement is not lost on me; but after careful and extensive consideration, I find myself stuck in a paradoxical situation in which I cannot solve a problem because of contradictory constraints and rules, a veritable Catch-22,” McMahon wrote. “I can find no way around the thicket of laws and precedents that effectively allow the executive branch of our government to proclaim as perfectly valid certain actions that seem on their face incompatible with our Constitution and laws, while keeping the reasons for their conclusions a secret.” That decision faced reversal Monday because a three-judge panel said the DOD’s subsequent leak of a “white paper” outlining the targeted killing program undermined the government’s basis for keeping the so-called “OLC memo” classified. “We recognize that in some circumstances the very fact that legal analysis was given concerning a planned operation would risk disclosure of the likelihood of that operation, but that is not the situation here where drone strikes and targeted killings have been publicly acknowledged at the highest levels of the government,” Judge Jon Newman wrote for the panel. The 52-page opinion cites statements about the program by President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, ex-Pentagon legal chief Jeh Johnson and others. “We also recognize that in some circumstances legal analysis could be so intertwined with facts entitled to protection that disclosure of the analysis would disclose such facts,” Newman wrote. “Aware of that possibility, we have redacted, as explained above, the entire section of the OLC-DOD Memorandum that includes any mention of intelligence gathering activities.” The word “[redacted]” appears in brackets more than 40 times throughout the opinion to indicate lines that have been removed. It is unclear how long the opinion would have run in full if the excised lines had been blacked out instead. Indeed, one of the six conclusions by the panel has been redacted in its entirety. “With the redactions and public disclosures discussed above, it is no longer either ‘logical’ or ‘plausible’ to maintain that disclosure of the legal analysis in the OLC-DOD Memorandum risks disclosing any aspect of ‘military plans, intelligence activities, sources and methods, and foreign relations,'” the opinion states. “The release of the DOJ White Paper, discussing why the targeted killing of al-Awlaki would not violate several statutes, makes this clear.” Later, Newman writes: “Whatever protection the legal analysis might once have had has been lost by virtue of public statements of public officials at the highest levels and official disclosure of the DOJ White Paper.” The agencies also must provide information about why they refused to confirm or deny the existence of other documents. “Glomar responses,” as they are known, take their name from the Hughes Glomar Explorer, a ship used in a classified CIA project to raise a sunken Soviet submarine from the Pacific Ocean. On remand, Judge McMahon will review certain classified lists to determine whether further disclosure is necessary. The Department of Justice declined to comment. Like this: Like Loading... |
Town councils in Cork have joined Kerry County Council in calling for a public review of water fluoridation in Ireland, following the publication of a new report. In a 360-page report, Bandon-based environmental auditor Declan Waugh found that babies fed with formula mixed with fluoridated water were at particular risk. “No child under the age of three should be exposed to fluoride,” he said. “They don’t even have teeth. The Risk Assessment of Water Fluoridation report says fluoride is a known risk factor in a series of health problems particularly prevalent in Ireland, including neurological and cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis and skeletal muscular disorders. Ireland is the only EU member state with a legislative policy to add fluoride to the water supply. “The incidence of these diseases in Ireland is far above the global average,” Mr Waugh added. “Ireland has twice the global average of osteoporosis, one of the highest levels in the world of childhood epilepsy and certain type of cancers associated with the digestive tract, including cancer of the liver, kidney, stomach and intestinal cancer.” Bandon and Kinsale town councils have agreed to ask the Minister for Health to review water fluoridation immediately. Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan said last November that he “trusted the processes in place”. |
This year I attended my very first Commonwealth Pen Show. It is actually my second ever pen show (the first one being the DC Supershow) and since I live very close to Boston, it was very easy to go down to Somerville and attend this show. Just a small taste of what was available at the show This was the 4th annual Commonwealth Pen Show, and this year they acquired a larger venue to accommodate more vendors and larger tables. The room still wasn’t necessarily large, but certainly had enough pens to entertain for many hours. A few pen repairers and Nibmeisters attended, including J.J. Lax and Richard Binder, and the incredible calligrapher Nikola Pang a.k.a. Entropy Ink was there. Nik a.k.a Entropy Ink being amazing at calligraphy (as always) When I first arrived, I was greeted by a nice guy who handed me a small bottle of Noodler’s Washable Blue, and I paid him my admission fee. For the first few hours I did nothing much besides walking around slowly and taking in the sights and selections at each table. I had only brought with me about $100, so I didn’t think I would end up leaving with too much. A few days before, I had made plans with a fellow pen friend on Reddit to sell my Sheaffer Targa that I had acquired in D.C. to him (the broad nib – though beautifully wet and smooth – was just too thick of a line for me to hold on to), and soon after I arrived he approached me. He told me his name and we shared a few minutes oohing and aahing at each other’s pens. He showed me a beautiful Parker 51 Vac that he had but was too fine of a nib for him. We ended up with a deal, and I walked away with some extra cash and a 51 Vacumatic. An eye-catching collection of Parker Vacumatics I spotted at the show After walking around more, drooling at all of the awesome pens that I couldn’t afford, one finally caught my eye: a beautiful blue swirled Eagle pen with a 14k nib and functioning lever filler. I bought that pen within 2 minutes of first seeing it and I really could not have been happier with my purchase. Sadly, today the nib broke after I foolishly dropped it on my desk, and I don’t have the means to find a new nib or repair the old one, so it is on sale at https://reddit.com/r/Pen_Swap (if you are interested :P). The Eagle flex pen – my first purchase at the Commonwealth Pen Show After buying that blue pen, the pull inside of me to seek out pens to buy was renewed and I made my way over to a table I had hung around for much of my time at the show. I picked up the pen I had dip tested at least 3 times and dip tested it once more just to make sure I loved it, and I bought it. The pen was a stunning grey Waterman with a semi-flex nib and working lever filler. Nathan Tardif getting along with show attendees After that third purchase, and the cost of repairing the 51 Vac, my budget was basically gone. I spent the last of my money on a sandwich from a table outside of the show and a small $2 Clairefontaine notebook that is now being used as an ink journal (check my Instagram for pictures coming soon!) Some of the wide variety of paper available And this concludes my Commonwealth Pen Show experience. It was a fantastic show. I made a new pen friend, walked away with 2 more pens than I walked in with (because I sold the Sheaffer Targa) and I had a huge smile across my face. I will absolutely be attending the show next year! Note: Pictures of my complete haul are available on my Instagram account: @8ballpens Advertisements |
Calgarians will have no shortage of options to celebrate Canada's 150th anniversary this Canada Day. Multiple venues will host a variety of music, entertainment, cultural exhibitions and food, all topped off with 30 minutes of fireworks and a light show. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he is counting down the days to the celebration. "I am thrilled to share with you some of the programming that we'll be doing together on Canada Day this year, on the 150th anniversary of confederation, on our sesquicentennial," Nenshi said at a news conference this week. Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi says he can't wait for the city's Canada 150th anniversary this Canada Day. (Monty Kruger/CBC) "It's an important opportunity for all of us to strengthen our sense of what it means to be Canadian. I am actually unbelievably excited to tell you a little bit about what is going on, I just want to stamp my feet with how great this program is going to be this year." CBC will be kicking off the celebration with a special remote broadcast during The Homestretch hosted by Katherine Duncan and Rob Brown on June 30 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Olympic Plaza. On Canada Day, here's what's going on around the city: Fort Calgary About 4,000 participants will form a Canadian flag using red and white t-shirts, after a pancake breakfast. The fort is open after Canada Day festivities until 4 p.m. with Indigenous celebrations and local musicians. 9 a.m. to noon Confederation Park 50th anniversary A free pancake breakfast and birthday cake will welcome visitors, along with live entertainment. There's also free horse wagon rides, a self-guided interpretive trail and the opening of a 1967 time capsule. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Chinatown In addition to being a great place to watch the fireworks, Chinatown is also centrally located between three other Canada 150 venues. There will be Asian cultural dances, musical drum performances, martial arts demonstrations, calligraphy, kite building and flying, lantern crafts and a multicultural parade. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. East Village National Music Centre's Studio Bell is hosting a street festival along with free Canadian musical performances and there are no entrance fees. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Prince's Island Park, east A showcase will include interactive educational displays of Canada's military history where people can touch and explore military equipment. Participants can chat with Canadian Armed Forces members and it's kid friendly with face tattoos, games and entertainment. Also on the east side of the park there will be circus performances and circus instruction for kids eight to 16 years of age. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Peace Bridge There will be a Sikh turban education and tying event at the Peace Bridge from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Canada Day. (Richard White) The World Sikh Organization wants to demystify the turban through education and turban-tying event. They'll be handing out red and white turbans and demonstrating how to wear them. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Olympic Plaza It's a day of art appreciation and a whole lot more. There's a citizenship reaffirmation ceremony and they're expecting thousands to take part. The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Calgary Opera will perform on one of two stages while 1,500 guitarists will do a rendition of Four Strong Wings led by Ian Tyson. Stilt walkers and magicians will be roving the plaza and there'll be plenty of children's craft activities. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Prince's Island Park, west The city and Bow Valley College's Iniikokaan Aboriginal Centre have a full day of events planned. There's a traditional powwow with drumming and grand entry followed by storytelling, traditional food, children's crafts and activities and artisan booths. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eau Claire A huge multicultural celebration with dance and musical performances takes over the Festival Market in the north plaza of Eau Claire Market. There will be youth singers, an ethno-cultural artisan market, lots of food vendors showcasing many ethnic cuisines and of course, children's activities and arts and crafts. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Riverfront Avenue, Harry Hays Building, north lawn Two stages will headline Canadian performers such as Tegan and Sara, Crystal Plamondon, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald and Juno award-winning artist Armond Duck Chief. There will be multicultural music and dance all day long and food vendors will fill stomachs with a variety of ethnic cuisines. A full 30 minutes of fireworks and a light show set to Canadian music will bring the day to a close. 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. |
France's antitrust authority has persuaded Nespresso to change its anti-competitive practices in the coffee-pod market and open its espresso machine to third parties, reports the Wall Street Journal. The deal comes after Nespresso's long, losing battle to shut out competitors with patents and customer warnings. In France, Nespresso controls 78 percent of the coffee pod market, according to the Journal. Two competitors complained to the French Autoritée de la Concurrence two years ago, and Nespresso lost a patent covering its machines last year. As part of the new agreement, Nespresso will remove language on its pods and machines that suggest only Nespresso products can be used together. Nespresso will also provide support to users of its machines who use third-party pods and will "abstain from negative comments about other capsules." The battle mirrors a similar one happening in the US, where one of the dominant coffee pod brands, Keurig (owned by Green Mountain) revealed it will lock down its machines against unauthorized third-party pods starting in 2015 with a verification scheme that may look like one used for toner cartridges. Two of Keurig's competitors have sued the company. |
Here’s the formula: Take the Honda’s legendary 1832cc flat six and build it into the ultimate cruiser—powerful, awe-inspiring and like no other. Now add in great handling and iconic style, and you’ll see why it’s the cruiser that only Honda could build. Earth Stopping Power! Honda’s Valkyrie. Pure hot-rod. Bolder and more outrageous than anything else on the road. Watch it in Action Six-Cylinder 1832cc Engine The Gold Wing’s opposed six is a motorcycling icon. Take that powerhouse and plug it into a cruiser chassis and you have a machine like no other. Learn More Laid-Back Seating Cruisers are as American as apple pie, and for good reason: they’re fun and comfortable. When you’re talking about a Honda Valkyrie, everything is even more fun and more comfortable. Learn More |
WWE.com Phil Brooks is not in his mid-thirties, hes cruising rapidly into his late-thirties. He doesnt have a documentable athletic background. Do I know that he has been in the gym with the best Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioners in the world for several years? Sure I do, but hes never been in a competition. I dont know of any sports he played in high school. He went straight from high school into the wrestling world so theres no college background there. Brock Lesnar was an NCAA Division I champion, who was a champion in junior college, he was a bad !*$% wrestling in high school and he was wrestling since he was five years old. He was a competitive athlete so thats a different jump to make. Phillip Brooks does not have that background. It makes it all the more improbable, which is exactly why hes so driven to do it. Because he looks in the mirror and he sees not only a rebel and an uncompromising spokesman for the beliefs that are near and dear to him, but he sees someone that will defy conventional wisdom and pull off miracles if thats what it takes because he has one shot in life and he wants to do something quite special with it. CM Punk was a Paul Heyman Guy (TM) during his WWE tenure. While not as linked to the Advocate as, say, Heyman and former UFC/WWE champion Brock Lesnar, he was probably Heyman's second most notable WWE "client." And there's no question that they had a close personal relationship. So it's rather interesting that Heyman has said what so many of us are thinking in regards to Punk's UFC attempt: that, given his age, there's a sizable hill ahead of him, and if we're being honest, the deck is more than a little stacked against him. Speaking on the SI Media podcast, Heyman had this to say:In short, for those thinking CM Punk will find similar success, the two athletes have very different starting points - and likely extremely different learning curves. That said, Heyman also highlighted that the very improbable if not impossible nature of succeeding in his new career is what makes Punk stand out.Time will tell and history will be the ultimate judge of CM Punk/Phil Brooks' MMA attempt, but to date Heyman seems to have the most realistic grasp of the situation: appreciate the Punk has a hard road ahead of him and may not succeed, but admire him for trying. |
The killing of the U.S.-born al- Qaeda cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki on Friday along with another U.S. citizen and two other al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen is likely to fuel the international controversy over the legality and wisdom of the Obama administration’s dramatically increased use of drone attacks. For several years, U.S. allies have made no public comment even as U.S. drone strikes have killed twice as many suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban members than were ever imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay. But that acquiescence may change, as human rights groups and the media focus more attention on the legality and collateral damage of drone attacks. The U.S. drone program has been highly effective in killing senior al-Qaeda leaders, but the administration needs to work harder to explain and defend its use of drones as lawful and appropriate — to allies and critics — if it wants to avoid losing international support and potentially exposing administration officials to legal liability. The U.S. position, under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, has been that drone strikes against al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are lawful under U.S. and international law. They are permitted by the September 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force Act, which empowered the president to “all necessary and appropriate force” against nations, organizations or persons who planned, committed or aided the Sept. 11 attacks. The United States also believes that drone strikes are permitted under international law and the United Nations Charter as actions in self-defense, either with the consent of the country where the strike takes place or because that country is unwilling or unable to act against an imminent threat to the United States. U.S. officials have been understandably reluctant to confirm whether consent has been given by particular countries. Obama administration officials have explained in the past that strikes against particular militant leaders are permissible, either because the individuals are part of the overall U.S. conflict with al-Qaeda or because they pose imminent threats to the United States. President Obama emphasized Awlaki’s operational role on Friday, stating that he was the “leader of external operations for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.” The killing of Awlaki raises additional legal concerns because U.S. citizens have certain constitutional rights wherever they are in the world. Some human rights groups have asserted that due process requires prior judicial review before killing an American, but it is unlikely that the Constitution requires judicial involvement in the case of a U.S. citizen engaged in terrorist activity outside this country. Administration lawyers undoubtedly reviewed the targeting of Awlaki even more carefully than of a non-American, and the Justice Department reportedly prepared an opinion concluding that his killing would comply with domestic and international law. This is likely to be considered sufficient due process under U.S. constitutional standards. But the U.S. legal position may not satisfy the rest of the world. No other government has said publicly that it agrees with the U.S. policy or legal rationale for drones. European allies, who vigorously criticized the Bush administration for asserting the unilateral right to use force against terrorists in countries outside Afghanistan, have neither supported nor criticized reported U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Instead, they have largely looked the other way, as they did with the killing of Osama bin Laden. Human rights advocates, on the other hand, while quiet for several years (perhaps to avoid criticizing the new administration), have grown increasingly uncomfortable with drone attacks. Last year, the U.N. rapporteur for summary executions and extrajudicial killings said that drone strikes may violate international humanitarian and human rights law and could constitute war crimes. U.S. human rights groups, which stirred up international opposition to Bush administration counterterrorism policies, have been quick to condemn the Awlaki killing. Even if Obama administration officials are satisfied that drone strikes comply with domestic and international law, they would still be wise to try to build a broader international consensus. The administration should provide more information about the strict limits it applies to targeting and about who has been targeted. One of the mistakes the Bush administration made in its first term was adopting novel counterterrorism policies without attempting to explain and secure international support for them. White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan rightly acknowledged in a recent speech that “the effectiveness of our counterterrorism activities depends on the assistance and cooperation of our allies.” If the Obama administration wants to avoid losing the tacit support (and potentially the operational and intelligence assistance) of its allies for drone strikes and its other counterterrorism policies, it should try to ensure that they understand and agree with the U.S. policy and legal justification. Otherwise, the administration risks having its largely successful drone program become as internationally maligned as Guantanamo. The writer is a partner at Arnold & Porter LLP and an adjunct senior fellow in international and national security law at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served as legal adviser for the State Department from 2005 to 2009 and as legal adviser to the National Security Council from 2001 to 2005. |
Tim Bradbury/Getty Images Boston Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas said his hip is doing "great" and he expects to be ready for training camp in September. "The hip is great," Thomas told the Boston Herald's Stephen Hewitt on Saturday. "It's going well. Rehabbing it, but it's going well. It's a real slow rehab process, but it's getting better, and that's what it's all about." Thomas, 28, is rehabbing from a torn labrum and femoroacetabular impingement in his right hip. He first suffered the injury during the regular season and then aggravated it in Game 2 of the Celtics' Eastern Conference Finals matchup with the Cleveland Cavaliers. While surgery was an option, Thomas and the team decided rest was the best approach. He said the hip "reacted well," and he's begun a training regimen that should get him back in shape for camp. "That's the plan, yeah," Thomas said. "I should be ready by camp, but I'm getting back in the gym, shooting and being able to work out in the weight room and get my cardio back, because I've been down for two-and-a-half months since the season ended. It's getting there, though. This week has been great progress for me." Thomas averaged 28.9 points and 5.9 assists per game last season, earning his second straight All-Star berth and making the All-NBA second team. Boston earned the East's No. 1 seed but lost in five games to Cleveland in the conference finals. The Celtics should be even more formidable this season after they signed Gordon Hayward in free agency and selected Jayson Tatum with the third overall pick in the June draft. Add in the Cavs' internal discord, and LeBron James' near-decadelong stranglehold on the East appears to be weakening. Of course, for Boston to assume the throne, Thomas will likely need to be fully healthy. He is the engine that ignites the offense, and he could be even more important in 2017-18 since the Celtics lost depth to facilitate the Hayward signing. |
You are here: Home 视频播放位置 下载安装Flash播放器 Multiple floating objects were spotted by patrol aircraft in an area where Australian ship Ocean Shield detected suspicious signals, officials at Chinese patrol ship Haixun 01 said Wednesday. Haixun 01 is heading to a search zone of about 75,000 square kilometers where the objects were spotted, at about 20 degrees south latitude and 98 degrees east longitude, to assist in the search for the missing Malaysian jet MH370. Chinese officials aboard Haixun 01 told Xinhua they were informed of the latest sighting of floating objects by Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Center (JACC) late Tuesday night. Chinese rescue ship Nanhaijiu 115 and Chinese naval vessel 998 are already working in the search area, they added. The current focus area of Chinese and Austrlian search efforts was determined by caculating ocean current flows using the locations where suspicious signals were detected by Haixun 01 and Ocean Shield as base points, they said. |
Five division champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has a lot of respect for UFC superstar Conor McGregor - but he hopes the MMA fighter will avoid the possibility of boxing again. Last Saturday night, McGregor made his professional boxing debut by stepping in the ring with Mayweather at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. McGregor started well in the fight and many felt he likely won the first three rounds, but the 40 year old Mayweather - who was coming off a two year retirement - began to up his activity in round four and eventually McGregor's gas tank emptied and he was stopped. After the fight, McGregor stated that he absolutely wants to fight again in a boxing ring - something that UFC President Dana White is firmly against. Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, like many others, was very surprised that McGregor was able to last ten rounds against Mayweather. Ellerbe feels that McGregor could actually have a future in the sport. But Mayweather disagrees. He wants McGregor to stay away for his own good. He believes McGregor - if matched against a younger fighter who is not coming off a two year retirement - will get seriously hurt and stopped much sooner. "Conor McGregor is a hell of a fighter and I want to see him continue to stay in the UFC and do what he do best. Because you must realize, that I'm 40 years old and I've been off almost 800 days. And he's active. He's actively fighting, actively training.. in a boxing gym and in the UFC gym," Mayweather told Bernardo Osuna. "He's active, he's training, he's competing. These other fighters, these young lions, they are throwing a lot more combinations than I'm throwing. I was just in the pocket, shooting one shot here and there, and breaking him down slowly. Whereas you got these young active guys who are throwing a lot of combinations and would get him out of there a lot earlier." |
Unless you've been taking a media fast for the last two weeks, you have been awash with stories about college. College basketball is on screens everywhere and the media world is blowing up with debates, cross-promotions, vines and interactive websites related to the NCAA basketball tournaments. From the presidential office, from where ESPN broadcasts Obama's "Barak-etology" picks, to the office pool, American culture is in the throws of March Madness. This deluge of sports chatter is not incidental. It is driven by a billion dollars in advertising revenue flowing to and from media companies and corporate interests looking to profit from the exploits of students. Churning beneath it all -- even under the debate about whether to compensate "student-athletes" or treat them as a different category -- is a struggle to define the meaning and function of college in our society. Commercial culture tends to push the idea that college is an endless pleasure dome awash in Bud Light, an intense time between childhood and "the rest of your life" -- a kind of temporary March Madness before reality finally kicks in. Go ahead and consume, the commercials (and Dick Vitale) tell us, "it's the time of your life, baby!" Just as engagement with college basketball has different rules during March Madness (as employers know all too well), college life is considered a time of life "bracketed off" and treated differently from the rest of life. Bracketology is a frame, a clustered conceptual metaphor that, as George Lakoff argues, shapes how we think. It fosters a "kids-will-be-kids" view of college life that brackets-off college from the "real world." While it might seem harmless, bracketology has the unfortunate effect of diminishing the importance of higher education in society. Bracketology has many uses. It can be used to diminish the importance of student political action. Columnist A. Barton Hinkle employed it last week when he chided liberal UC Irvine students in the Richmond Times-Dispatch for acting like "trigger-happy" censors when they spoke out against racist and sexist speech that made them feel unsafe. Confusing feelings and rights, they ended up "producing demands for conformity." According to logic of bracketology, however, they should be forgiven: "One of the truly delightful things about college is that it allows earnest young people to try out all sorts of ridiculous ideas without causing much lasting harm. After graduation, most will grow up and learn how to laugh at their prior selves. (The rest will become professors.)" Though the dig against ivory-tower professors cheapens the point about freedom of speech in relation to "safe spaces," it is crucial because one of the functions of bracketology is to cordon-off the importance of what happens at college from everyday social life. Bracketology can also be used to defend student behavior. It was used this way by defense attorney Stephen Jones after SAE brothers down in Oklahoma were caught on camera singing racist songs. "Every 19-year-old male is entitled to five minutes of foolishness," Jones argued. Similarly, bracketology was just used to defend students at Penn State's Kappa Delta Rho who posted dozens of pictures documenting their sexploitive criminality on a Facebook page. "Here's a quick reality check," claimed one defensive student, "everyone -- every Greek organization in the nation does the same old stuff. ... Yeah, it's raunchy stuff, as you would expect from a bunch of college-aged guys." Following the bracket-logic, anything that happens at college should stay at college and be explained away as normal college madness. There are a number of reasons to resist the dominance of bracketology. Beyond being strangely dissociative, it ends up detracting from the seriousness of college experience and diminishing the importance of higher education in society and life. Instead of bracketing-off discussions about what should go on at college from the "real world," we should emphasize that the conversations about good or bad student behavior play a crucial role in our ongoing ethical education. They train us to be more responsive citizens who share the common goal of a better society. Instead of bracketing off college experience as foolishness, we should take what happens at college more seriously: we should condemn those who act stupidly, and we should aspire to the better world that students imagine as part of a higher education aimed at the public good. That self-serving students would employ bracketology is no surprise, as this ready-made frame is the dominant one through which American culture views college life. It is unconsciously used by journalists, pundits and politicians in sports broadcasts, beer commercials, TV shows and films. Bracketology is durable because of its feedback effect: art imitates life which then returns the favor. Yet, what other interests in our culture are served by unthinking bracketology? Who else benefits by bracketing-off what goes on at college from the "real world"? |
Tim Wagner, AWS Lambda General Manager Bryan Moffatt, AWS Lambda Software Developer AWS Lambda’s Java support also makes it easy to write Lambda functions in other jvm-based languages. Previously we looked at doing this for Scala; today’ll we’ll see how it can be done with Clojure. Getting Started with Clojure We’ll build our Clojure project with Leiningen, but you can use Boot, Maven, or another build tool as well. To follow along below, make sure you’ve first installed leiningen, that lein is on your path (for example): PATH=%PATH%;C:\Users\timwagne\.lein\bin and that you have a Java 8 SDK installed. Next, open a command line prompt where you want to do your development (for example, “C:\tmp\clojure-demo”) and create the following directory structure: C:\tmp\clojure-demo src java At the same level as src, create a file named ‘project.clj’ with the following content: (defproject lambda-clj-examples "0.1.0" :dependencies [[org.clojure/clojure "1.7.0"] [org.clojure/data.json "0.2.6"] [com.amazonaws/aws-lambda-java-core "1.0.0"]] :java-source-paths ["src/java"] :aot :all) Ok, time to write some code… Clojure Meets Lambda: Hello World! Let’s start with the classic: Create a file in your src directory named ‘hello.clj’ with the following content: (ns hello (:gen-class :methods [^:static [handler [String] String]])) (defn -handler [s] (str "Hello " s "!")) Now at the root of your tree, execute lein uberjar When this completes, it should have created a subdirectory called ‘target’ containing the file ‘lambda-clj-examples-0.1.0-standalone.jar’, which is ready to be uploaded to AWS Lambda. You can use a command line or the Lambda console to do the upload/creation. If you’re using the cli, the command will look like the following, but you’ll need to use a valid role argument (this also assumes you’re currently in the clojure-demo directory). If you use the console, the handler is the same as the one in the command below (“hello::handler”). $ aws lambda create-function \ --function-name clj-hello \ --handler hello::handler \ --runtime java8 \ --memory 512 \ --timeout 10 \ --role arn:aws:iam::awsaccountid:role/lambda_exec_role \ --zip-file fileb://./target/lambda-clj-examples-0.1.0-standalone.jar You can invoke and test from the command line or the console; the console view looks like this if I test it with a sample input of “Tim” (including the quotes): Fun with Java With HelloWorld under our belt, let’s tackle Java integration, as a first step on the road toward processing some Amazon S3 events. First, let’s extend our code slightly as follows: (ns hello (:gen-class :methods [^:static [handler [String] String]])) (defn -handler [s] (str "Hello " s "!")) ; Add POJO handling (defn -handlepojo [this event] (str "Hello " (.getFirstName event) " " (.getLastName event))) (gen-class :name PojoHandler :methods [[handlepojo [example.MyEvent] String]]) Next, create a subdirectory called “example” in src/java, and in it create a file called “MyEvent.java” with the following content: package example; public class MyEvent { private String firstName; private String lastName; public void setFirstName(String firstName) { this.firstName = firstName; } public String getFirstName() { return firstName; } public void setLastName(String lastName) { this.lastName = lastName; } public String getLastName() { return lastName; } } Again in ‘C:\tmp\clojure-demo’, execute lein uberjar and create a new Lambda function from the command line or console; the cli command looks like $ aws lambda create-function \ --function-name clj-hellopojo \ --handler PojoHandler::handlepojo \ --runtime java8 \ --memory 512 \ --timeout 10 \ --role arn:aws:iam::awsaccountid:role/lambda_exec_role \ --zip-file fileb://./target/lambda-clj-examples-0.1.0-standalone.jar if you test this this function with Lambda test input like { firstName: "Tim", lastName: "Wagner" } you should get a response like “Hello Tim Wagner”. Now that we have Java integration working, let’s tackle a more real-world example. Processing an Amazon S3 Event in Clojure Now we’ll process a more interesting type – a bucket notification sent by Amazon S3 when an object is added. We’ll also see how to make a POJO (in this case the S3 event class) fit more gracefully into Clojure. The S3 event itself is fairly complex; here’s the sample event from the Lambda console: { "Records": [ { "eventVersion": "2.0", "eventSource": "aws:s3", "awsRegion": "us-east-1", "eventTime": "1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z", "eventName": "ObjectCreated:Put", "userIdentity": { "principalId": "EXAMPLE" }, "requestParameters": { "sourceIPAddress": "127.0.0.1" }, "responseElements": { "x-amz-request-id": "C3D13FE58DE4C810", "x-amz-id-2": "FMyUVURIY8/IgAtTv8xRjskZQpcIZ9KG4V5Wp6S7S/JRWeUWerMUE5JgHvANOjpD" }, "s3": { "s3SchemaVersion": "1.0", "configurationId": "testConfigRule", "bucket": { "name": "sourcebucket", "ownerIdentity": { "principalId": "EXAMPLE" }, "arn": "arn:aws:s3:::mybucket" }, "object": { "key": "HappyFace.jpg", "size": 1024, "eTag": "d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e" } } } ] } We could tackle this just like we handled the name POJO in the previous section. To do that, add [com.amazonaws/aws-lambda-java-events "1.0.0"] to the list of dependencies in your lein configuration and proceed as we did above for the name POJO. Alternatively, we can treat this complex type in a more idiomatic way within Clojure. We’ll need to integrate with Lambda’s Java environment using a raw stream handler and then craft a “native” type by parsing the content. To see this in action, let’s create a new file in src called “stream_handler.clj” that contains the following: (ns stream-handler (:gen-class :implements [com.amazonaws.services.lambda.runtime.RequestStreamHandler]) (:require [clojure.data.json :as json] [clojure.string :as s] [clojure.java.io :as io] [clojure.pprint :refer [pprint]])) (defn handle-event [event] (pprint event) {:who-done-it (get-in event [:records 0 :request-parameters :source-ip-address]) :bucket-owner (get-in event [:records 0 :s3 :bucket :owner-identity :principal-id])}) (defn key->keyword [key-string] (-> key-string (s/replace #"([a-z])([A-Z])" "$1-$2") (s/replace #"([A-Z]+)([A-Z])" "$1-$2") (s/lower-case) (keyword))) (defn -handleRequest [this is os context] (let [w (io/writer os)] (-> (json/read (io/reader is) :key-fn key->keyword) (handle-event) (json/write w)) (.flush w))) Again, build with lein uberjar and then upload with a command (or console actions) like $ aws lambda create-function \ --function-name clj-s3 \ --handler stream_handler \ --runtime java8 \ --memory 512 \ --timeout 10 \ --role arn:aws:iam::awsaccountid:role/lambda_exec_role \ --zip-file fileb://./target/lambda-clj-examples-0.1.0-standalone.jar To test this in the Lambda console, configure the sample event template to be “S3 Put” (which is shown above) and invoke it. You should get { "who-done-it": "127.0.0.1", "bucket-owner": "EXAMPLE" } as a result. You can see the “Clojure-ified” form of the S3 event in the logs; here’s what it looks like if you’re testing in the Lambda console: START RequestId: 69dee059-27eb-11e5-89ff-5113959a98f1 {:records [{:event-name "ObjectCreated:Put", :event-version "2.0", :event-source "aws:s3", :response-elements {:x-amz-request-id "C3D13FE58DE4C810", :x-amz-id-2 "FMyUVURIY8/IgAtTv8xRjskZQpcIZ9KG4V5Wp6S7S/JRWeUWerMUE5JgHvANOjpD"}, :aws-region "us-east-1", :event-time "1970-01-01T00:00:00.000Z", :user-identity {:principal-id "EXAMPLE"}, :s3 {:s3schema-version "1.0", :configuration-id "testConfigRule", :bucket {:name "sourcebucket", :owner-identity {:principal-id "EXAMPLE"}, :arn "arn:aws:s3:::mybucket"}, :object {:key "HappyFace.jpg", :size 1024, :e-tag "d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e"}}, :request-parameters {:source-ip-address "127.0.0.1"}}]} END RequestId: 69dee059-27eb-11e5-89ff-5113959a98f1 We hope this article helps developers who love Clojure get started using it in Lambda. Happy Lambda (and Clojure) coding! -Tim and Bryan Follow Tim’s Lambda adventures on Twitter |
Microsoft's Garage division is dedicated to having team members think outside the normal development box and create new and innovative software and other projects. Usually these kinds of projects are released as part of a Microsoft commercial release or stay inside the company. However, this week the Garage team has done something a little different. It has released a new and free stand alone software application for PCs that should be very helpful for folks who use more than one PC in their office space. It's called Mouse Without Borders. The 1.1 MB file allows the user to have up to four PCs linked together. The user can then simply use a single mouse to copy, paste, drag and drop files across all the PCs linked by the Mouse Without Borders application as if all of the PC files were located on just one desktop. As Microsoft's Steve Clayton explains, "I have two PC’s on my desk at work connected to 3 LCD screens and using Mouse Without Borders I can move my mouse between the 3 screens, even though one of them is attached to a different PC from the other two. What’s more, I can move files between the 2 computers simply by dragging them from one desktop to another." In addition to the file movement features, Mouse Without Borders also allows the user to log onto all the PCs linked together by the program via just one PC. Finally, as Clayton states, "as a whimsical bonus is it allows you to customize your desktop with the daily image from Bing or a local collection of pictures." You can check out a video showing Mouse Without Borders in action below. |
The gaming world has much to say on the idea of reboots and relaunches. They’re the best way to keep a series relevant. Or they’re the death of all things new and creative. Opinions abound, but when a fresh start to an old series is as engaging and exciting as Tomb Raider, it’s best to just sit back and enjoy a brilliant new release on its own merits. Tomb Raider begins with a focus on narrative and atmosphere, and in a rare feat, maintains that focus for the many subsequent hours. Lara Croft is a young but uncertain adventurer out with a documentary crew searching for a lost island off the coast of Japan. When her ship mysteriously tears itself apart in a storm, she and a small band of survivors are cast away on a dangerous island filled with ritualistic cultists and inexplicable weather events. Whether it’s the opening cave sequence, outrunning a crashing airplane, or tumbling down a whitewater river, the cinematic flair excels at engaging players without taking control away. The story takes a few predictable turns, but it’s easy to forgive as the tale weaves through exotic locales, fun character interactions, and amazing set-piece moments. Lara is a great lead. Emotional, nuanced voice acting and stellar animation for the character help make her believable, even if that focus on authenticity is at odds with Lara’s seemingly inhuman ability to suffer wounds, falls, stabs, and burns and still marshal on. Even so, few games have managed such a likeable and relatable protagonist, scaling up from vulnerable ingénue to hardened survivalist. Tomb Raider strikes a near-perfect balance between traversal, exploration, and combat, and it does so by letting players set that balance themselves. While the critical path is mostly linear, stages are large and have plenty of options for shaping gameplay. Like stealth? The game does an admirable job supporting quiet melee kills, enemy distraction, and distant bow shots that send opponents silently tumbling from cliffsides. Want more action? The gunplay is precise, headshots are appropriately rewarded, and mobility is encouraged as you dodge and leap between cover points. Looking for puzzles? Most of Tomb Raider’s best puzzles are set aside in optional tombs, available whenever you want a break from the fighting. Tomb Raider distinguishes itself from similar third-person action games in two ways. First, a deep system of gear and character upgrades encourages players to go after high XP kills, hunt down salvage, and choose early upgrades wisely. Second, the game allows players to take breaks from the forward momentum of the story and fast travel back into previous locations. Almost all areas include several gear-gated nooks, secrets you might have missed, or hidden treasures and journals that offer insight into the island. In big and little ways, Tomb Raider embraces the joy of discovery, and the player can’t help but be pulled along for the ride. A big part of me wishes that the game started and stopped with the single-player offering, but that’s not the case. The multi-player isn’t awful, but it feels like a whole different game in everything from the muddy textures of environments to the sloppy feel of the action. Asymmetric matches demand separate objectives for the competing survivors and their island cultist opponents, which are implemented and balanced well. However, the combat feels loose and frantic, and character animation is choppy. Explosions are hard or impossible to detect, and often result in cheap deaths. The interesting idea of platforming during a multiplayer session is hamstrung because it just exposes you to attack. I enjoyed upgrading weapons and unlocking characters, but these systems don’t deviate much from expected standards. Other dedicated multiplayer experiences are more worth your time. The lackluster multiplayer is absolutely no reason to avoid what is otherwise one of the best action adventures I’ve ever played. Crystal Dynamics has nailed a pitch-perfect new vision for one of gaming’s most recognizable characters, and revitalizes her for what I hope will be many more installments. Whether or not you’ve embraced the previous games that went by this moniker, this is the time to take another look at Lara Croft. |
By the power vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. Policy. It shall be the policy of my Administration to regulate the United States financial system in a manner consistent with the following principles of regulation, which shall be known as the Core Principles: (a) empower Americans to make independent financial decisions and informed choices in the marketplace, save for retirement, and build individual wealth; (b) prevent taxpayer-funded bailouts; (c) foster economic growth and vibrant financial markets through more rigorous regulatory impact analysis that addresses systemic risk and market failures, such as moral hazard and information asymmetry; (d) enable American companies to be competitive with foreign firms in domestic and foreign markets; (e) advance American interests in international financial regulatory negotiations and meetings; (f) make regulation efficient, effective, and appropriately tailored; and (g) restore public accountability within Federal financial regulatory agencies and rationalize the Federal financial regulatory framework. Sec. 2. Directive to the Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary of the Treasury shall consult with the heads of the member agencies of the Financial Stability Oversight Council and shall report to the President within 120 days of the date of this order (and periodically thereafter) on the extent to which existing laws, treaties, regulations, guidance, reporting and recordkeeping requirements, and other Government policies promote the Core Principles and what actions have been taken, and are currently being taken, to promote and support the Core Principles. That report, and all subsequent reports, shall identify any laws, treaties, regulations, guidance, reporting and recordkeeping requirements, and other Government policies that inhibit Federal regulation of the United States financial system in a manner consistent with the Core Principles. Sec. 3. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. DONALD J. TRUMP THE WHITE HOUSE, February 3, 2017. |
The middle class in America is being systematically destroyed. Once upon a time the United States had the largest and most vibrant middle class in the history of the world. The rest of the globe looked at us in envy and wondered what we were doing right. But now everything seems to be going wrong for the middle class. Millions of our jobs have been shipped out of the country and competition for the remaining jobs is keeping wages at depressed levels. Meanwhile, the cost of living just keeps going up and up and middle class budgets are being stretched and strained like never before. Millions more Americans fall out of the middle class and into poverty every single year, and government dependence is at an all-time high. Finding a solution to the decline of the middle class is absolutely central to fixing the economic problems in this country. Without a large, thriving middle class this would not be America. The truth is that people from all over the world want to come here because they want to work hard, buy a house, raise a family and provide a better future for their children. This has traditionally been "the land of opportunity", but now the middle class is rapidly declining and none of our politicians seem to have any solutions. With each passing day, the American Dream is slipping through the fingers of millions of hard working American families. We owe it to them to get this thing fixed. The following are 84 statistics that prove that the decline of the middle class is real and that it is getting worse.... 1. According to the Pew Research Center, 61 percent of all Americans were "middle income" back in 1971. Today, only 51 percent of all Americans are. 2. The Pew Research Center has also found that 85 percent of middle class Americans say that it is harder to maintain a middle class standard of living today compared with 10 years ago. 3. 62 percent of middle class Americans say that they have had to reduce household spending over the past year. 4. The average net worth of a middle class family in America was $129,582 in 2001. By 2010 that figure had dropped to $93,150. 5. According to the Federal Reserve, the median net worth of all families in the United States declined "from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010". 6. Back in 1970, middle income Americans brought home 62 percent of all income in the United States. In 2010, middle income Americans only brought home 45 percent of all income. 7. After you adjust for inflation, median family income in the United States has fallen by about 6 percent since the year 2000. 8. Real median household income has decreased by more than 4000 dollars since Barack Obama entered the White House. 9. Amazingly, more than half of all Americans are now at least partially financially dependent on the government. 10. In 1970, 65 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods". By 2007, only 44 percent of all Americans lived in "middle class neighborhoods". 11. If you can believe it, one recent survey found that 28 percent of all Americans do not have a single penny saved for emergencies. 12. The United States was once ranked #1 in the world in GDP per capita. Today we have slipped to #12. 13. The total value of household real estate in the U.S. has declined from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today. Most of that wealth has been lost by the middle class. 14. Back in 2007, 19.2 percent of all American families had a net worth of zero or less. By 2010, that figure had risen to 32.5 percent. 15. Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation. 16. In 1984, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older was 10 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger. Today, the median net worth of households led by someone 65 or older is 47 times larger than the median net worth of households led by someone 35 or younger. 17. Corporate profits as a percentage of GDP are at an all-time high. Meanwhile, wages as a percentage of GDP are near an all-time low. 18. There are now 20.2 million Americans that spend more than half of their incomes on housing. That represents a 46 percent increase from 2001. 19. The average American household spent approximately $4,155 on gasoline during 2011, and electricity bills in the U.S. have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row. 20. Over the past decade, health insurance premiums have risen three times faster than wages have in the United States. 21. Health insurance costs have risen by 23 percent since Barack Obama became president. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, health care costs accounted for just 9.5% of all personal consumption back in 1980. Today they account for approximately 16.3%. 22. Back in 1983, the bottom 95 percent of all income earners had 62 cents of debt for every dollar that they earned. By 2007, that figure had soared to $1.48. 23. Total home mortgage debt in the United States is now about 5 times larger than it was just 20 years ago. 24. Total consumer debt in the United States has risen by 1700 percent since 1971. 25. Recently it was announced that total student loan debt in the United States has passed the one trillion dollar mark. 26. One study found that approximately 41 percent of all working age Americans either have medical bill problems or are currently paying off medical debt. 27. According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States. Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance. 28. According to a report released in 2010, Americans spend approximately twice as much as residents of other developed countries do on health care. 29. According to one recent survey, approximately 10 percent of all employers in the United States plan to drop health coverage when key provisions of the new health care law kick in less than two years from now. 30. According to one recent survey, approximately one-third of all Americans are not paying their bills on time at this point. 31. The wealthiest 20 percent of all Americans now control 84 percent of all the wealth in America. 32. Right now, over 50 percent of all stocks and bonds are owned by just 1 percent of the U.S. population. 33. Back in the 1970s, the top 1 percent of all income earners brought in about 8 percent of all income. Today, they bring in about 21 percent of all income. 34. 40 years ago, the top 1/10,000th of all U.S. households brought in about 1 percent of all income. Today, they bring in about 5 percent of all income. 35. Today, the wealthiest 1 percent of all Americans own more wealth than the bottom 95 percent combined. 36. The wealthiest 400 families in the United States have about as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of all Americans do combined. 37. The six heirs of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton have a net worth that is roughly equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined. 38. At this point, the poorest 50 percent of all Americans collectively own just 2.5% of all the wealth in the United States. 39. The following is how income gains in the United States were distributed during 2010.... -37 percent of all income gains went to the top 0.01 percent of all income earners -56 percent of all income gains went to the rest of the top 1 percent -7 percent of all income gains went to the bottom 99 percent 40. The U.S. economy lost more than 220,000 small businesses during the recent recession. 41. The percentage of Americans that are self-employed fell by more than 20 percent between 1991 and 2010. 42. Overall, the number of "new entrepreneurs and business owners" dropped by a staggering 53 percent between 1977 and 2010. 43. In 2010, the number of jobs created at new businesses in the United States was less than half of what it was back in the year 2000. 44. The average pay for self-employed Americans fell by $3,721 between 2006 and 2010. 45. In the United States today, there are 240 million working age people. Only about 140 million of them are working. 46. Since the year 2000, the United States has lost 10% of its middle class jobs. In the year 2000 there were about 72 million middle class jobs in the United States but today there are only about 65 million middle class jobs. 47. Back in 1950, more than 80 percent of all men in the United States had jobs. Today, less than 65 percent of all men in the United States have jobs. 48. Right now, approximately 25 million American adults are living with their parents. 49. According to one study, between 1969 and 2009 the median wages earned by American men between the ages of 30 and 50 dropped by 27 percent after you account for inflation. 50. According to U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, America has lost an average of 15 manufacturing facilities a day over the last 10 years. During 2010 it got even worse. That year, an average of 23 manufacturing facilities a day shut down in the United States. 51. At this point, one out of every four American workers has a job that pays $10 an hour or less. 52. Today, about one out of every four workers in the United States brings home wages that are at or below the poverty level. 53. If you can believe it, the United States actually has a higher percentage of workers doing low wage work than any other major industrialized nation does. 54. Back in 1980, less than 30% of all jobs in the United States were low income jobs. Today, more than 40% of all jobs in the United States are low income jobs. 55. At this point, only 24.6 percent of all jobs in the United States are considered to be good jobs. 56. Right now, approximately 48 percent of all Americans are either considered to be "low income" or are living in poverty. 57. Approximately 57 percent of all children in the United States are living in homes that are either considered to be either "low income" or impoverished. 58. In the United States today, somewhere around 100 million Americans are considered to be either "poor" or "near poor". 59. In 2010, 2.6 million more Americans descended into poverty. That was the largest increase that we have seen since the U.S. government began keeping statistics on this back in 1959. 60. It is being projected that when the final numbers come out later this year that the U.S. poverty rate will be the highest that it has been in almost 50 years. 61. It is also being projected that about half of all American adults will spend at least some time living below the poverty line before they turn 65. 62. Today, one out of every six elderly Americans lives below the federal poverty line. 63. It was recently reported that 1.5 million American families live on less than two dollars a day (before counting government benefits). 64. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of "very poor" rose in 300 out of the 360 largest metropolitan areas during 2010. 65. According to one recent poll, 18.2 percent of all Americans have not been able to buy enough food to eat at some point during this past year. 66. Households that are led by a single mother have a 31.6% poverty rate. 67. In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps. 68. At this point, approximately 22 percent of all American children are living in poverty. 69. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 36.4 percent of all children that live in Philadelphia are living in poverty, 40.1 percent of all children that live in Atlanta are living in poverty, 52.6 percent of all children that live in Cleveland are living in poverty and 53.6 percent of all children that live in Detroit are living in poverty. 70. Since 2007, the number of children living in poverty in the state of California has increased by 30 percent. 71. Child homelessness in the United States has risen by 33 percent since 2007. 72. There are 314 counties in the United States where at least 30% of the children are facing food insecurity. 73. Approximately one-fourth of all American children are enrolled in the food stamp program. 74. It is projected that half of all American children will be on food stamps at least once before they turn 18 years of age. 75. Since Barack Obama became president, the number of Americans living in poverty has risen by 6 million and the number of Americans on food stamps has risen by 14 million. 76. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 49 percent of all Americans live in a home where at least one person receives benefits from the federal government. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent. 77. Federal housing assistance outlays increased by a whopping 42 percent between 2006 and 2010. 78. Approximately 50 million Americans do not have any health insurance at all right now. 79. Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, approximately one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid. 80. It is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls. 81. Overall, the amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has risen by 32 percent since Barack Obama entered the White House. 82. According to a recent report produced by Pew Charitable Trusts, approximately one out of every three Americans that grew up in a middle class household has slipped down the income ladder. 83. If you can believe it, more than 100 million Americans are enrolled in at least one welfare program run by the federal government at this point. 84. In the United States today, 77 percent of all Americans are living to paycheck to paycheck at least some of the time. In compiling the information above, I relied heavily on research that I had previously done for The Economic Collapse Blog and The American Dream Blog. So what do all of you think about the decline of the middle class? Feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below.... |
The ocean became a crime scene this week after environmental activists ensnared dead and bleached coral in yellow police tape. Divers affiliated with the climate advocacy organization 350.org cordoned off colonies of sickly coral near Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Somoa and the Bay of Bengal’s Andaman Islands. Huge swaths of coral in those areas are struggling to survive as ocean temperatures rise, in part because of global warming. SEE ALSO: Watch how coral bleaching happens in warming waters The culprit for the crime, activists claimed, is U.S. oil and gas producer Exxon Mobil. The Texas-based energy giant is facing criticism for funding climate denying think tanks in recent decades — a move critics say created public confusion about the realities of climate change and thwarted global efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Image: bioquest studios Image: bioquest studios Donning dive suits and snorkel masks, underwater activists this week held signs emblazoned with #ExxonKnew, referring to investigative reporting that revealed Exxon executives knew about the existential threat of climate change half a century ago, but buried that knowledge to protect the company’s bottom line. “We’re not going to let them get away with murder,” Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org and a prominent climate activist, said Wednesday in an op-ed in the Guardian about the coral crime scene. “We need to remember that there’s nothing natural about this horror. It was caused, as so many crimes are, by greed,” McKibben wrote. In an interview with Mashable this week, McKibben said the ongoing coral bleaching event in the Pacific Ocean is “one of the things that’s been more powerful and affecting for me so far this year.” “‘Sobering’ is too sober a word,” he said by phone. Lauren Kerr, a spokeswoman for Exxon, said allegations that the oil giant was to blame for killing coral reefs, and claims that the company deliberately misled the public on climate change, were “ridiculous.” “To suggest that Exxon Mobil had reached definitive conclusions, decades before the world’s experts and while climate science was in an early stage of development, is not credible,” Kerr told Mashable in an email. Suzanne McCarron, Exxon’s vice president of public and government affairs, described the #ExxonKnew campaign as an “inaccurate” portrayal of the company’s nearly 40-year history of climate research. “It’s ironic that there is a movement under way to demonize our corporation as somehow denying the existence of climate change when we have acknowledged those risks for years,” McCarron wrote Wednesday in an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle. Coral reefs at risk The demonstrations highlight the growing threat to the world’s reefs, which are suffering the longest-ever global coral bleaching event on record. Coral bleaching happens when coral expel the symbiotic algae that live in their tissue and give them color and nutrients. Increased water temperatures, pollution and other stressors can cause this action, which turns coral white or pale and makes them more vulnerable to disease or death. Bleached corals can recover if ocean waters cool or pollution subsides, but they can die if the stressors last too long. When that happens, it’s not just the coral that suffer: Reefs provide food and shelter for up much as one-fourth of all ocean species. More than half the reefs worldwide have already been hit twice by the ongoing coral bleaching event, according to satellite observations by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). At Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, up to 50 percent of previously healthy sections in the north have bleached and died, scientists in Australia said in May. Even higher mortality was observed around small islands in the central Pacific. NOAA scientists warned in June that the Florida Keys, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Hawaii and the Northern Mariana Islands all stand a significant chance of enduring damaging levels of coral bleaching through the end of 2016. Coral bleaching near the Maldives, May 10, 2015. Image: UIG via Getty Images “After more than two years of coral bleaching, the ongoing global coral bleaching event is still in full swing,” Mark Eakin, who coordinates NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch program, said in a statement released by 350.org. The most severe spot for coral bleaching is near the equator in the central Pacific, in the heart of the El Niño zone, where warmer-than-average ocean waters tend to develop and persist. An intense El Niño event only recently subsided, and likely helped set off the bleaching event in many areas. Prior to this event, the only two previous observed global coral bleaching episodes were tied to an El Niño. But Eakin said this ongoing bleaching event — the worst yet — is largely due to human-caused global warming, which has raised ocean temperatures enough so that even a weak El Niño can set off serious bleaching. Image: Bioquest studios As countries burn oil, coal and natural gas for energy, and as industrial farmers and loggers eliminate forests, heat-trapping emissions of greenhouse gases have soared in recent decades. The oceans have absorbed the vast majority of that heat — about 93 percent — putting unprecedented stress on coral and other species that cannot withstand warmer waters. “The problem of widespread coral bleaching is a new one, brought about by global warming in the 1980s and continuing to grow stronger and return more frequently,” Eakin said in the statement. “Unless we can get atmospheric [carbon dioxide] levels back down to those that are healthy for coral reefs, we are going to lose one of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth,” he said. Mashable science editor Andrew Freedman contributed reporting to this story. |
Almost a year to the day that David Kato, the Ugandan human rights activist, was murdered in his home because of his sexuality, I am flying from Toronto to London to accept the inaugural the David Kato Voice and Vision Award, which recognises individuals who uphold the human rights and dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people around the world. I should have been flying from Jamaica my country of birth and, until very recently, my home. After the ceremony I should be returning there to celebrate with fellow activists. But this time there's no going home. In August last year I married Tom, a former police officer and a pastor in the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto. Media reports of my marriage, in Jamaica, have led to an increase in the threats against my life and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has written to the Jamaican government for the second time in a year inquiring what measures it will take to guarantee my safety. So far, the government has failed to respond. Threats are nothing new for me. It's only the intensity that's changed. I'm a lawyer and activist in Jamaica, which has the distinction of being regarded as one of the most violently homophobic countries in the world. In a recent survey 82% of Jamaican people said they were prejudiced against gay people. Vigilante attacks against gay men are common – at least 35 people have been murdered because of their sexuality since 1997. Last year, two men were hacked to death because they were gay. The latest victim was a 16-year-old youth chopped to death in his home by early morning invaders because of his "questionable relations" with another man. Former prime minister Bruce Golding set a tone of impunity for those prepared to use violence against gay people in Jamaica: during a BBC Hardtalk interview in 2008 he said that he would not allow gay people to be a part of his cabinet. According to the law, consensual sex between two men in Jamaica will get you 10 years of imprisonment and hard labour. Any "act of gross indecency" – kissing for instance – will get you two years. The law is rarely enforced. More often, police use it for extortion. But the fact such a law exists inflames the vigilante groups. Even the police officer who recorded my first death-threat report ranted at me that he "hates gays, who deserve to die". In the past year, I have received three death threats for speaking out against the country's ferocious homophobia. The threats to my life are a personal tragedy, but sadly not an uncommon one. Discrimination, stigma and abuse are the daily reality for millions of gay people. And now the battle has become entangled with the politics of aid. Recently the Commonwealth faced up to its human rights record – particularly the criminalisation of homosexuality. David Cameron made it clear that states refusing to decriminalise homosexuality risk losing British aid. Ironically, however, he failed to acknowledge or apologise for Britain's role in imposing the anti-sodomy law on its former colonies, while his emphasis on homosexuality is inadvertently discriminatory as it ignores other egregious human rights violations being perpetuated in these countries. His intentions might have been well meaning but they are also counterproductive: trying to force people to change their attitudes and cultural beliefs can play into the hands of repressive regimes – by portraying sexual rights as an imposition of "western colonialism". It allows them to mask broader issues of human rights, governance and corruption. Some countries use the issues of homosexuality to hide their own failures and show how donor communities are promulgating "gay lifestyles". Instead, aid should be linked to good governance. Countries need to meet their wider human rights obligation by observing the indivisibility of rights. As Hillary Clinton said at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva: "Some have suggested that gay rights and human rights are separate and distinct, but in fact they are one and the same." (The US, however, has not done enough to curtail its own export of homophobia to countries such as mine by American evangelical Christian groups.) For two years, I have collected the reports of victims as a legal adviser for international advocacy organisation Aids-Free World. Now I'm taking them to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, since the Jamaican Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms protects the laws against "sexual offences" from constitutional review. The culmination of the work the charity and our Jamaican partners have been doing over the past two years is an unprecedented legal challenge to the Jamaican anti-sodomy law. If successful, it could be the beginning of the end of the criminalisation of homosexuals in Jamaica, and undoubtedly have a knock-on effect throughout the Caribbean. However, the Jamaican government could make the commission petition redundant by simply repealing the anti-sodomy law. The new Jamaican prime minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, has indicated that she would have no objections to selecting a gay person for her cabinet. She also promised to call for a parliamentary conscience vote on the law. Let's hope she does so soon. The reports of violence against Jamaican LGBTI remind me what we're fighting for. When I receive the David Kato award I will represent the millions of individuals worldwide whose lives are a daily struggle against hostility and persecution simply because of their sexuality. |
After a leaked National Security Agency document alleged Russian operatives attempted to hack into a Florida voter polling software company used by Humboldt County in the 2016 presidential election, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla sent a letter to the federal agency Thursday questioning why the state was not notified earlier. “As the chief elections officer in the most populous state in the nation, I am seriously concerned about the NSA’s failure to provide timely and critical information to America’s elections officials,” Padilla wrote to NSA Director Admiral Michael Rogers. “… We must be prepared and remain vigilant. Proper preparation requires clear and consistent collaboration among federal, state, and local officials. The NSA cannot afford to sit on critical information that could be used to defend against cyber-attacks.” The five-page classified National Security Agency memo from May that was leaked to the news website The Intercept stated Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, hacked into the Florida-based voting software company, VR Systems, in August 2016. VR Systems provided voter polling software to Hart InterCivic, which the Humboldt County Elections Office contracted with to provide voter e-polling software. County officials said that there is no evidence that the hacking attempts were successful or that Humboldt County was a target, and that the e-polling software is not involved in vote counting. Humboldt County is the only county in the state that contracted through VR Systems, according to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The Office of Emergency Services and Secretary of State’s Office offered aid to the county last week to bolster its cyber-security systems, but County Clerk, Recorder and Registrar of Voters Kelly Sanders and Information Technology Division Director Jim Storm said they are confident in the protections already in place. “Yes, [the Secretary of State] did some preliminary checks looking at known email addresses,” Storm said to the Times-Standard last week. “There was no evidence that we were hacked or anything like that.” Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504. |
TILLAMOOK, Ore. (AP) Police revoked the concealed-weapons permit of a 61-year-old Tillamook man after he wriggled in his theater seat during a showing of "The Hobbit" and shook loose a loaded handgun. A 7th-grade student found the weapon on Wednesday with a round in the chamber and the safety off. Gary Quackenbush says he's embarrassed that the gun fell out of his holster. Quackenbush says he always keeps the gun loaded with a round in the chamber because he never knows when he may have to use it. "In a time of crisis like somebody barging into a mall or a theater, you don't have time to do a two-handed cocking of the weapon," Quackenbush said. "It is my mindset everywhere I go." Quackenbush said he lives in a rural area where bears and cougars abound. He said he's had to fire his weapon to scare off animals, but in more than 40 years of gun ownership, hasn't had to fire it another person. The student notified adults and local police cleared the theater on Wednesday. Quackenbush said mass shootings in recent months, including a Colorado movie theater, could have been averted or the casualties lessened if someone had had a loaded weapon. "If somebody had been prepared, they could have stopped those perpetrators long before they were able to commit those horrific acts," Quackenbush said. Tillamook County Sheriff Andy Long said the case was handled by city police and information was forwarded to the county district attorney, who is considering whether to press charges. Quackenbush can reapply for a concealed-weapons permit as long as criminal charges aren't pending, Long said. "He shouldn't apply for it soon," Long said. Quackenbush said no one answered the phone when he called the theater late Tuesday after he realized the gun had fallen out of his holster. He said he spent a sleepless night pacing and drove to the theater early Wednesday, but police were already on scene. "I'm totally appalled at the incident and embarrassed and regret that I gave people distress," Quackenbush said. Of the movie "The Hobbit," his review in a letter to news media organizations explaining the incident was brief: "Overly long," he said, "and fairly boring." You can reach reporter Nigel Duara on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/UKvVDo Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. |
Surveillance video captured what happened before Terrill Thomas was denied water for seven days — but jail staff didn't turn it over to police before it was overwritten. WISN 12 / Via youtube.com Jail staff pointed fingers about what happened before inmate Terrill Thomas died of dehydration during an inquest on Thursday, a blame game that may have been avoided had surveillance video been saved. But in the weeks following Terrill's death, it wasn't downloaded and turned over to police. And though a supervisor in the jail watched it, he didn't immediately tell police either — a move that amounted to deception and was "unconscionable," the Milwaukee Police Department's Lt. Eric Donaldson told a jury. Testimony began on Monday regarding Thomas' death, what lead up to it, and how the investigation was handled. The 38-year-old man, who had a history of medical and psychological issues, died in April 2016 after being denied water at Milwaukee County Jail — a facility under Sheriff David Clarke, a fervent supporter of President Trump and increasingly vocal figure in national politics. Milwaukee County Jail Terrill Thomas Thomas had been placed in a solitary cell, where he was locked up 24 hours a day, after acting "irate," one jail lieutenant testified. His water was turned off, and seven days later, he was found dead. Initially, jail officials believed there was nothing suspicious about Thomas' death, according to their testimony. But other inmates had seen his pleas for water over days, then in his final hours, his body lying naked and unmoving. It wasn't until the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel began asking questions that jail staff downloaded the surveillance video, the newspaper reported. But by that time, footage showing what happened on the day Thomas' water was turned off had been overwritten. Video showing only Thomas' final three days remained. “It’s unconscionable,” Donaldson said, according to the Journal Sentinel's report. “It’s like you’re hiding something.” The inquest is expected to last into next week, then the jury will recommend to prosecutors whether anyone should face criminal charges. In a separate lawsuit, Thomas' family has sued Clarke and other leaders over a pattern of poor treatment of inmates that in this case they say amounted to torture and death. Already, jurors have toured the jail where Thomas died and watched what remains of the surveillance video. In the video, another inmate can be seen checking on Thomas, then bringing over a corrections officer. Thomas was not given any water at that time. In a recorded jailhouse phone conversation, the inmate tells his mother about his concerns over Thomas' treatment. "Seven days he didn't drink any water," he said. "They refused to turn on his water." Jail Lt. Kashka Meadors on Thursday testified that she gave the order to turn off Thomas' water temporarily because he was acting irate and had previously caused flooding in the jail mental health unit. "I said, for right now, get rid of his mattress, turn off his toilet water cause we don't want him to flood, and we'll put him in a cell," she said. |
Alabama Getaway-> Greatest Story Ever Told, Bird Song, Minglewood Blues, Peggy-O, Cassidy, Loser, It's All Over Now, Dupree's Diamond Blues, Let It Grow Help On The Way-> Slipknot!-> Franklin's Tower-> Lost Sailor-> Saint Of Circumstance-> Terrapin Station-> Drums-> The Other One-> Wharf Rat-> Not Fade Away, E: It's All Over Now Baby Blue SBD>PCM>DAT>CDR; with aud patches; See info file for details; via Rick Martin, Willy, and Paul B; Seeded to etree by Ernie Dodd plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews Reviewer: Pacoperu - favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 12, 2018 Subject: Fun stuff Yes there are huge lyrical flubs -- Jerry is lost in Help and Weir doesn't know what he is singing. The difference being (and it was that way for years) -- when Jerry flubs lyrics, he usually hunches over and wails the rest of the tune. I always looked for the Jerry hunch, when the Fatman had poor posture, it was about to get fun...! When Weir flubs lyrics he hits himself in the head and makes it a joke. Give me Jerry's lyrical miscues over Weirs everytime. I remember Dark Star Miami 89...after the first verse Jerry hunched over....and blast off. Bumper sticker-- the Fatman Hunched -- - December 12, 2018Fun stuff Reviewer: njpg - - February 5, 2018 Subject: - A very bad soundboard with the vocals mixed way too loud. Will listen to an AUD to see if the instrumental quality is any good. - February 5, 2018 Reviewer: kbmill - - May 3, 2016 Subject: bread crumb In what world do Bird Song and Minglewood run the same length? - May 3, 2016bread crumb Reviewer: The Dirty Mac - favorite favorite favorite - April 13, 2013 Subject: 4-12-13- Thirty Years Later, Alligator! as we rise and fall (Been listening to the Archives for years now, reading the reviews, jamming the tunes. this broome county is my first post as a reviewer- i take my hat off and join the circle. my name is The Dirty Mac and i'd like to say "hello." i am humbled to puff the pipe with such distinguished luminaries of the Dead.) Ok-so-so 1st set until really Let it Grow, then the strange gets on and don't let up. prior to Let it Grow an ok Birdsong, ok Loser, boring All Over Now and a Duprees is always nice to hear, no matter what. but at Let is Grow, Phil and Jerry really get tuned in, 1974 style, and we start going somewhere. what shall we say, shall we call it by a name? I think backstage they got rushed (or maybe bumped?) back out- the start of Help on the Way is hurried, choppy, almost awkward. soon enough they shake it off and get down to biznatch, as it were in 1983, fuzzy sideburns and all, somewhere in the twilight of Help, just before they Slip into something more comfortable. imagine a solid layer of smoke fogging through the stage lights right around now, folks settling in, resigning themselves to the roses, to the beacon light of Franklin's Tower. y'all know what i'm talking about. crisp. clear. a waterfall in hawaii. but somehow a faint whif of a polka shuffle- brent?!? the boys all have fun with it tell you where the four winds dwell Bottom line: it's not the stoniest or the most rocking H>S>F but you can't argue with it. it's got strong energy, solid intention. read "Calvin Gets Hooked" (2/12/2006) for a better review on this one- I wasn't here, he/she was and it sounds like it was fun. good bobby call to step it down- he took one for the team- i agree with reviewer L.Rosely (4/30/2009)- he sounds a bit slurred, but hell, can't Bobby have a few brewski's?- he's trying hard to heard them into the groove. Saint starts kinda loose, mumbly, but that's all preamble, it's all right- bobby don't care, he's got short shorts and he can hear the sirens call, cause you know that he knows that he's gonna go for you fo show. They find it here, on the late backpages of a saint of circumstance. they are now ready to call for Terrapin, to open the book... down in carlyle he loved a lady/ many years ago jerry's guitar is just beautiful in parts of this- running up and down waves, bobby keeping the beacon light burning on shore, calling jerry in; he comes in, billy goes out, phil crashes against the ghosts of the Wall of Sound, but nonetheless, crickets and cicadas sing a rare and different tune out of Space with a max headroom/beverly hills cop keyboard Other One (can somebody reign brent in tonight?). jerry slices through that b/s right quick so things can get real with cowboy neal. mmmm-k? otherwise standard exploration through the jams- i would not say new ground was broken, but a well worn trail was again happily strolled. Some real nice little noodling around before Wharf Rat and a solid Rat to follow. maybe they were feeling guilty from setbreak? i have heard much more sincere versions, whatever- it's always a prayer to sing along with "I'll Get Up and Fly Away," every time. Overall with the caveat of not being at this show, my straight rating after a deep headphone listen with a few glasses of wine, I have to say THREE STARS. It's definitely NOT a waste of a Friday evening, but you could also live your life complete without listening to this show. - April 13, 20134-12-13- Thirty Years Later, Alligator! Reviewer: doug_the_dude - favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 6, 2013 Subject: Set 1 - I like Charlie Miller's source for set 2 of this show, but here's a good place to take in set 1 - it's patchy, but the patches on the dropouts are painstakingly done - obviously a labor of love. Alabama > GSET can be skipped - Jerry sounds absolutely out of it trying to remember the words to the former, and the latter still seems to have some mixing problems (Bobby's vocals way too high). By the time Bird Song settles in, they're on a roll and the rest of the set is pretty well done. Let it Grow is as you expect. This overall show is a fine way to begin any run through '83, one of the Dead's most unheralded years IMHO. - February 6, 2013Set 1 - Reviewer: uncjon - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 4, 2012 Subject: Our LOVE Will Not Fade Away It was a cold spring Tuesday in upstate New York. The circumstance that led to 5 college friends from Clark to end up in Binghampton was serindipitous. No tickets just a desire for adventure and an authentic experince. I was rewarded with one of the special moments in the almost 200 shows I have been Grateful to have attended. The Not Fade Away chant and reprise was the first and went on to define an era. I've been to a lot of special shows and places over the years. The Greek,Frost,Red Rocks,Alpine Valley....New Years,Mardi Gras,Dylan Dead. Of all those this night syicks out. It was MAGIC. Peace Love Health & Happiness. - May 4, 2012Our LOVE Will Not Fade Away Reviewer: swampRatchild - favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 12, 2012 Subject: let it grow pretty hot show! - February 12, 2012let it grow Reviewer: Warfrat63 - - February 4, 2012 Subject: B-Town! My second show to grow. It is great being able to play this show almost 29 years later. Was on floor about 10 rows from stage more towards Brent. The entire show was excellent. We clapped and chanted Not Fade for at least 20 minutes at the end of the show. Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah! Smiles............ One of my top 10 shows for sure. Thanks goes out to the Archive and source for sharing this. - February 4, 2012B-Town! My second show to grow. Reviewer: L. Rosley - favorite favorite favorite - April 30, 2009 Subject: What's with Bob Bob sounds drunk on Lost Sailor>Saint. Not just forgetting lyrics, but slurring words. I just heard a show from 1995 (not a good year by any measure) where both Bob and Jerry vocals sounded better than they do here. - April 30, 2009What's with Bob Reviewer: Cnick - favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 29, 2008 Subject: G1 Good show great source... check out the Loser. Reminiscent of '84. Thanks SKB. - January 29, 2008G1 Reviewer: iluvthedead - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 29, 2008 Subject: 1st row center 3rd show of many Man....what can I say..the jam was awesome great setlist..really loud as I remember. Help-slip-frank and the Not fade Away was magic the band left the stage for literally 10 min and the crowd chanted NFA for the whole time......to the point where the band came out for the encore and continued an extended NFA into encore of "Baby blue" True magic that night. - January 29, 20081st row center 3rd show of many Reviewer: northstar dead - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 14, 2007 Subject: Brent Time Some really nice playing by the boys. Check out the sweet Bird Song with Jerry hitting all the high notes - September 14, 2007Brent Time Reviewer: dreamingtree - favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 17, 2007 Subject: brent is solid This is another shbow wher evrything seems to mesh. The review below me where he says brent sounds like he is playing a kids keyboard is way offff! listen to it and you will see why he was one of the band! he must have hated when Hornsby played with them. This show is awesome. Have a listen to wharf rat. - June 17, 2007brent is solid Reviewer: keysareme - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 6, 2006 Subject: Brent on H>S>F The Charlie Miller set two source is magnificent. I love Brents work here, makes use of all his wonderful resources, some would call them toys, others would call them keyboards, I myself, think of them as both. I love this, EXTREMELELY solid performance here. You will not be upset. -Garret - July 6, 2006Brent on H>S>F Reviewer: smgarcia - favorite favorite - June 26, 2006 Subject: Hate that Organ Listen to the beginning of Help On The Way. How can anybody like that toy piano sound? It's awful! It sounds like cheap, low-bit 50 key piano you would buy at a Toy's-R-US. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Brent's piano was not a welcome addition to the band. The piano is even worse in SlipknoT. Ugh. The rest of the show is pretty good, it's a good show when you don't hear brent's piano (although I do like it when he sings, strangely enough.) - June 26, 2006Hate that Organ Reviewer: mutron freak - favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 16, 2006 Subject: slip this slipknot is very exploratory listen to it & love the 80s - February 16, 2006slip Reviewer: clavin - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 12, 2006 Subject: clavin gets hooked my buddy and i were in eleventh grade in syracuse and we took a roadie to cortland to meet a friend in coll. there. while waiting for him on his front porch we had nothing better to do than empty some beers and wrap up a couple.thats when we learned from the owner of the house the college kids lived next door.sorry bout that.a beginning to a life altering day.im only 16 at the time and all about mind expansion,and when i looked around our section of people during franklins power,it was a sea of swirlers swimming as one.never saw nothin like that at any stones or who show.one organism with one goal,gettin their groove on.nite after nite. - February 12, 2006clavin gets hooked Reviewer: early 80's meltdown - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 2, 2006 Subject: Help On The Way featuring Brent's Amazing Technicolor. early 80's meltdown -- February 2, 2006Help On The Way Reviewer: Dish from Larry - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 12, 2006 Subject: Great shows This show, and the next night in Burlington, are perhaps the best back-to-back ever. The energy was amazing, the band was really on, and both were 'dripping with factor'. I will agree that there was some missed vocals, but who goes to hear Jerry sing? A 'Show' is on when Jerry and Phil are in sync, and they are dead on here. I was maybe 20 feet from Garcia, and he was visably annoyed with himself for blowing the first line of Help (He sang ÃÂHelp on the wayÃÂ instead of ÃÂParadise WaitsÃÂ), so, to make up for it, his first note of Slipnot! was so thunderously loud, I thought the roof of the Arena had been blown off. The place shook like an earthquake. Later, Lesh drops bombs during Terrapin that knocked the wind from my lungs. Amazing - January 12, 2006Great shows Reviewer: toughmama - favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 6, 2005 Subject: What are you people thinking!!! Don't get me wrong. I love this show, and any show for that matter. But "the best Help>slip>frank of the year" Come on. Jerry starts of mumbling the wrong verse. Both Jerry and Bob are off all night "vocally" Instrumental-wise there on. You can tell Bob gets fed-up with Jerrys mumbling, then gets pissed at himself for fumbling during saint. Love bobs added line in saint of cirr. the "Just exactly what the fu** you going do now" Everything aside It's an awesome show no matter what happens. I'm just suprised nobody else mentioned Jerry's mumbling the 1st verse of help. Should be "Paradise waits...." not "help on the way" 4****'s - December 6, 2005What are you people thinking!!! Reviewer: utopian - favorite favorite favorite - July 8, 2005 Subject: sounds a bit muffled check out some of the audences from 83 for the good sound quality like: 6-28-83 8-27-83 9-2-83 - July 8, 2005sounds a bit muffled Reviewer: MindBender65 - favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 29, 2005 Subject: Go for it I love that carnival like sound from Brent on Duprees. - April 29, 2005Go for it Reviewer: Shiva Ho - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 7, 2005 Subject: Spring 83 Tour! Ah yes this show was one of the Hottest of this awesome Spring Tour. Best Help>Slip>Franklins of the tour! It was also the last time they played in this rinky dink hockey rink & my last east coast tour before moving to the west coast in june. - April 7, 2005Spring 83 Tour! Reviewer: shallwego - favorite favorite favorite favorite - April 4, 2005 Subject: Phatty Phillll! - April 4, 2005Phatty Reviewer: skb archives - favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 23, 2005 Subject: Source This is not a PCM recording. There are analog gens in there...cm - January 23, 2005Source Reviewer: JRimLik - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - September 17, 2004 Subject: Get It Agree with last reviewer. '83 was a great year in my opinion, a turning point. Lots of very hot versions of "standard" songs. This show has a good list for '83 as well as well played versions. My first of about 90 was 6/21/83 so I missed this one, but it was an early tape. Hot show and this is a nice board. Great to hear after the muddy board I got about 6 years ago. Highly recommended. (Also of note for '83, couple new toys in the mix. That was the first year Phil played the 6-string Modulus bass, and the fist year Mickey toured with the bialiphone, which I thought was unreal. That was large curved xylophone deal. He tore it up on that thing during the '85 east coast/midwest tours.) - September 17, 2004Get It Reviewer: tom knoebel - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 27, 2004 Subject: Fine Wine The quality of this is Crisp like the Night I was there!!!! All of 83's shows upstate and in the north east were smokin'. This year was a peak for the band and the fans. Brent really gelled and finally the tension was all gone for all band members to find there space. Old pig pen tunes were comming out of the closet.The Haight was shining through. This binghamton show cranked up everyone there. It was like a private dance party at the Avalon Ballroom all over. This was also the tour of Jerry in RED TEE'S. I was at Oswego State at the time and clear 4 way was in circulation. there was a group of about 300 heads from SUNY Oswego. The fall tour highlights were MSG,Lake Acid,Hartford, and the much neglected Worchester,Mass. Scoop up all the venues if you can.Summer in Sarratoga Springs!!! - August 27, 2004Fine Wine The quality of this is Crisp like the Night I was there!!!! Reviewer: sheikyerbouti - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - August 22, 2004 Subject: This is an electric show Everything on this sizzles and have prob listend this abt 600x - had a crytal clear nak audience 1st gen the day after and was blown away at how hot this was 20 years ago and feel the same way today... cousin did byrne 2 nights and this - everything on this sizzles... tight 1st set and hypnotic and trippy second set with smokin other one not wharf rat not fade it does not let up... There are some incredible trading on and off in this show between the boys listen to the beginning of let it grow all over now, lost sailor terrapin - the space> other one is outrageous, garcia's guitar sings he does not just lead the jam 6 songs before drums and music is played with such complete confidence - if wharf rat is a good litmus test if he reaches for that high note on evvverrrone saaays - he reaches it here and smacks the whole arena around with it..... Brent is really notable in this show all the way around. The irony of this is Binghampton is one of the most god-awful places they ever played but man did they love this town and played 3 smoking shows between 1970 and this their last. These upstate NY hockey arenas, Lake Placid, Glenns Falls, Utica, Syracuse, Ithaca, Rochester etc did something special for them not sure if it was the college kids or the appreciative crowd but you can do a whole retrospective just on these shows an anchor in this unbelievable journey. - August 22, 2004This is an electric show Reviewer: calvirgil - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 23, 2004 Subject: from meat-packing to magic I was living in Scranton, PA at the time, working at a slaughterhouse of all places. John Ruby and I hung out alot, both of us having been into the Dead a few years. He cut frozen cube-shaped pieces of bad beef for Campbell's all day long on a band saw while I packed 50% soy 50% bad beef patties in boxes destined for nursing homes and the like. The Dead were coming to Broome County Arena! Just a 45-minute drive from Scranton--John couldn't make it, I didn't want to go alone. After work on 4/12/83, I got the urge to just wing it, without a ticket, and drive up I-81. I got to Broome County Arena about 30 minutes before show time, and as soon as I got to the main entrance, some guy in the crowd yelled 'Ticket!', and I was in. This show was unbelievable. First of all, the stage was only about 2 feet high, basically at ground level, and you could walk right up and almost touch the band members. Needless to say, I wormed my way up to the front and stayed there the whole show. I didn't even pee. Garcia's voice was great, as was his playing, and the whole band was tighter than I ever saw them. The crowd went wild when they pulled out such gems as 'Wharf Rat', 'Let it Grow', the Blues for Allah classics 'Slipknot' and 'Help on the Way', and then 'Lost Sailor' and 'Terrapin'. Unbelievable sets, and I remember Garcia's hair hanging down, head bowed as he was jamming, a mere 10 feet from me. I wasn't even tripping, but I was tripping natural-like. I will never forget that show. It still exists in timeless time-space, really a magical show. The sound quality of this download isn't absolutely perfect, but it definitely captures the essence of this show. Sounds great outa my polk audios! - July 23, 2004from meat-packing to magic |
Did You Know?: 'Washington Crossing the Delaware' painting February 13, 2014 An authorized copy of "Washington Crossing the Delaware" hangs in Purdue's Class of 1950 Lecture Hall. Its installation will be celebrated during a Presidents Day event on Feb. 17. (Photo courtesy of the Washington Crossing Foundation) Download Photo "Washington Crossing the Delaware," the famous painting at the center of a Presidents Day celebration Monday (Feb. 17) on Purdue's West Lafayette campus, has a history nearly as fascinating as the event it depicts. The oil-on-canvas painting illustrates George Washington, then a general in the American Revolutionary War, crossing the Delaware River with his troops on the night of Dec. 25-26, 1776. The crossing immediately precipitated Washington's surprise attack on the Hessian forces in the Battle of Trenton in New Jersey. An authorized copy of the painting arrived at Purdue in January. A Presidents Day event, scheduled for 5 p.m. in the Class of 1950 Lecture Hall, will celebrate its installation there. Although the painting depicts a scene from the American Revolutionary War, the original was actually painted in 1851 in Germany -- 75 years after the Battle of Trenton, says David Parrish, professor of art history. German-born artist Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, who was born 40 years after the battle, painted "Washington Crossing the Delaware" in Düsseldorf. Leutze grew up in America but returned to Germany as an adult. He hoped the painting, and therefore the American Revolution, would inspire liberal reformers during the European Revolutions of 1848. Due to the time that had elapsed after the titular event, the painting contains a few historical inaccuracies, Parrish says. For instance, the flag depicted was not created until about a year after the battle, and the soldiers used a different type of boat to cross the river. Additionally, Washington appears to be much older than he was during the battle -- the general was 44 at the time -- and he wouldn't have been standing lest the boat capsize. However, some of the painting's details, such as the soldiers' uniforms, are historically accurate. And the composition of the painting as well as some of its details, including the fact that the rowers shown represent a cross-section of the American colonies, invoke a deep sense of national pride, Parrish says. "It's fascinating to place this painting in the artist's personal context and in the time in which he was living," Parrish says. "He certainly wasn't working in a vacuum. In fact, he was hoping to hold the American Revolution up as a shining example of a battle for freedom. When you see the original, which is so large that the figures are almost life-size, you get a real sense of the courage and determination it inspires." Leutze finished the first version of the painting in 1850, but a fire in his studio damaged it shortly thereafter. After the painting was restored, the Kunsthalle Bremen art museum in Bremen, Germany, acquired the painting. However, in 1942, during World War II, a British bombing raid destroyed it. Leutze created a full-size replica of the painting shortly after completing the original. It was placed on exhibition in New York in October 1851. After changing ownership several times, the painting in 1897 was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it still hangs today. The painting's popularity led to several more historical commissions for Leutze, who was primarily known for portraiture, Parrish says. Several authorized copies of "Washington Crossing the Delaware" exist, including one that hangs in the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., and the one at Purdue. Ann Hawkes Hutton, the author and civic activist who founded the Washington Crossing Foundation, commissioned the copy that hangs at Purdue in 1969. Hutton commissioned the painting in honor of her husband, Leon John Hutton, who was a 1929 graduate of Purdue's College of Science. The Washington Crossing Foundation owns the painting and has lent it to the University. During the Presidents Day event, Parrish and Franklin Lambert, professor of history, will discuss George Washington's contributions to the nation's founding, the historical context of the event depicted in the painting and a historical perspective on the painting as a work of art and a portrait of military history. President Mitch Daniels also will deliver remarks at the event. Amanda Hamon, 49-61325, ahamon@purdue.edu |
Radical left-wing groups claim that black people live in fear of white racists. Yet, actual white on black murders are an extreme rarity. We found 365 black on white murders occurring in 2014 thus far. topconservativenews.com/2014/12/challenge-name-a-white-on-bl . The SPLC is a major group that hypes white on black crime. However the SPLC didn’t report a single white on black murder for all of 2014.So far we have only found two blacks murdered by a single white suspect that occurred in all of 2014.The rhetoric of the MSNBC, NAACP, SPLC, and other far-left mouthpieces has no basis in reality.Some victims may have been killed by someone they knew, but the media never reported the full details.There were numerous suspicious deaths of white females who died of drug overdoses while they were with black males. topconservativenews.com/2014/09/gangbanger-says-girlfriend-d . We only listed cases that were classified as murder by the authorities. We did not list cases in which a black male played an obvious role in the death, but the death was classified as accidental. There was one case of a white female being killed by a black female “ex-wife.” There are also numerous cases of a white female being shot by a play male while in the company of a black boyfriend. we did not count these as “femicide.” However, it seems that white females involved with black males are at a dramatically increased risk of being murdered by a black male in general.Femicide related refers to victims killed by the black boyfriend of relative or close friends. Many of these victims are young children of white females dating black males. Some are female friends who were attacked alongside a white female by a black boyfriend.We only listed cases of vehicular homicide in which the perp was committing serious crimes when they killed a victim. In several cases, the perp was fleeing from police. In two other cases, their is strong indication the perp did it on purpose.Reality VS. SPLCPresently the SPLC website is hyping a black suicide from earlier in 2014, that it claims could have been a white on black murder that was deemed a suicide by mistake. MSNBC and the SPLC made a documentary that aired in 2011. It featured a white ex-con being given $35,000 worth of tattoo laser removal sessions in exchange for making vague non-specific claims about white on black mob violence. The MSNBC/SPLC documentary then shows actors portraying a fictional white on black mob attack. Meanwhile we have posted dozens of videos of actual black on white mob attacks occurring in the past year alone.This is the reality. topconservativenews.com/2014/08/should-race-in-how-the-media Despite the media censorship of black crime, black on white murder is common that we were able to create a list of 250 victims. The SPLC has 77 employees and a budget of $25 million a year and they could barely find any white on black violence to publish in the last year. The SPLC has been reduced to reporting phantom white on black violence. A video of actors conducting a fictional attacked that was not even based on an actual event. A suicide that they claim was mishandled by police, in which there are no suspects. The SPLC cites, as the key piece of the evidence that the suicide was a murder, an allegedly stolen pair of NIKE Air Jordans. Which group of people are always in the news for stealing NIKE Air Jordans?==========================================================================This is the list so far for all confirmed black on white murders. This is just a sample. This list does not include the thousands of white victims who were seriously injured in black on white violence, only fatalities.And Now, On With The List:12/30/14 – www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2895200/Cops-pay-man-s-tab- , 29, was stabbed to death by his black roommate in Pheonix, AZ.12/28/14 – www.kctv5.com/story/27716786/man-fatally-shot-inside-power-a , 28, was shot and killed by a black male in a parking garage in Kansas City, MO.12/28/14 – kstp.com/news/stories/s3661576.shtml?cat=1 , 38, was stabbed to death by a black male in St. Paul, MN. The suspect is her black ex-boyfriend.12/25/14 – www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/01/03/body-found , 20, was drowned to death in Columbus, Ohio. Her black boyfriend has been charged.12/24/14 – www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/2-suspects-in-custody-in-fatal-a , 19, was shot and killed by two black males that shot up her apartment complex in Winchester, KY. Two other people were seriously injured with gunshot wounds.12/24/14 – www.actionnewsjax.com/news/news/local/blackshear-police-man- , 26, was shot and killed in Blackshear, GA. The perp is the victim’s black ex-boyfriend.12/24/14 – www.14news.com/story/24315632/evansville-man-stabbed-to-deat , 33, was stabbed to death by a black male in Evansville, IN. The suspect is also accusing of stabbing a gas station clerk and a taxi cab driver.12/20/14 – A mother and her two children were killed in Garland, ME. The suspect is the mother’s black boyfriend.12/21/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/beautiful-16-yr-old-girl-sla , 16, was killed execution style by a black gunman in Detroit, MI.12/21/14 - www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Family-and-friends-remember-Thom ;amp;amp;amp;c=y was killed in Thomson, GA. Her black husband was charged.12/20/14 – www.katv.com/story/27677530/camden-store-manager-killed-susp , 63, was shot and killed by a black male in front of a store he owned in Camden, AR.12/19/14 – The bodies of two white females were found strangled to death in Atlanta, GA. A black male has been charged. One of the victims went missing in August, the second had been missing for a week.12/19/14 – A mother and daughter were killed by a black male who invaded their home in Westfield, IN.12/18/14 – www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2890592/Couple-charged-murd , 50, was shot and killed by a black male and his body set on fire inside his car in Millington, TN. The suspect’s white girlfriend was also arrested as an accomplice.12/15/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/16-yr-old-arrested-for-butch , 32, was beaten to death inside her Lancaster, PA home. A 16 year old black male has been charged.12/15/14 – www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article4482199.html , 32, was shot numerous times and killed by a black male while working as a store clerk in Fort Worth, TX.12/9/14 – www.kptv.com/story/27587320/man-accused-of-hitting-killing-w , 57, was killed when a black male ran her over with his car while on drugs. Vancouver, WA. The suspect is a career criminal.12/7/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/12/transient-female-wanted-in-el , 71, died of injuries sustained while being held captive by a black female, who was using his debit card. Oklahoma City, OK. The suspect has been charged with numerous crime.12/7/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/12/good-samaritan-killed-by-78-y , 42, was shot and killed by a black male. Sperry, OK. A suspect has been charged with murder.12/6/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/georgia-woman-shot-in-the-st , 44, was murdered walking to her car in Decatur, GA by a black male. A career criminal has been arrested.12/6/14 – www.gwinnettdailypost.com/news/2014/dec/13/arrest-made-in-co , 45, was murdered in his home by a black male in Auburn, GA.12/6/14 – A mother and daughter were found beaten to death in their Charlottesville, VA home. A black male, who is a career criminal, has been charged.12/6/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/19-yr-old-al-man-killed-in-r , was shot while sitting in his car with his mother. Bessemer, AL. A black male has been charged with his murder and the attempted murder of his mother.12/3/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/beautiful-17-yr-old-lansing- was shot and killed while sitting in a vehicle in Gary, IN. A black male has been charged with the murder.12/2/14 – www.mynews3.com/content/news/story/Fatal-Stabbing-Las-Vegas- , 46, was a homeless in Las Vegas, NV that was stabbed to death by a black male perp.12/2/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/blacks-males-kill-white-63-y , 63, was shot execution style by three black males in a bar. St. Louis, MO. They also wounded three other white victims. Suspects have been charged.12/2/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/white-pizza-delivery-driver- , was shot and killed, by a black male, while delivery pizzas in Lorain, Ohio.12/2/14 - topconservativenews.com/2014/12/splc-writer-slaughtered-in-r , was shot and killed while hiking at a park in Oakland, CA. Police are seeking two black males. Ruenzel is a professional “Anti-Racist” author who wrote article for the SPLC.11/30/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/11/black-teens-beat-white-motor , was killed in by a group of black males wielding hammers and yelling “kill the white people.” St. Louis, MO. The same perps also attacked others.11/29/14 – A black man killed two white people while driving drunk in St. Petersburg, FL.11/28/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/interracial-couple-charged-w , 31, was tied up and beaten to death in her apartment in Fort Worth, Texas. A black male/white female interracial couple, who were fired from a store she managed, have been charged with the murder.11/26/14 – Two women were shot and killed in Tulsa, OK. Family members say that a black husband of one of the victim’s is responsible. www.tulsaworld.com/news/crimewatch/homicide-victim-s-father- , 26 * www.tulsaworld.com/news/crimewatch/homicide-victim-s-father- , 37 +11/26/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/hush-crimes-new-random-black was shot and killed on the street in Chambersburg, PA. A black father and son have been arrested for the murder.11/26/14 – www.news-journal.com/news/police/one-dead-after-morning-stab , 82, was critically stabbed by a black male on a stabbing spree at a hospital in Longview, TX. She died a week later. Three other people were also stabbed.11/25/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/media-blackout-12-yr-old-sav , was shot and killed as he was leaving a birthday party in a black neighborhood in Savannah, GA. Witnesses refused to co-operate with police after the shooting.11/25/14 – www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Police-Pursuit-Ends-in-Dallas-Mult was killed when a black male hiy him with his car in Dallas, TX. Two other people were injured. The perp was fleeing from police.11/25/14 – www.pnj.com/story/news/crime/2014/11/26/person-interest-arre , 22, was shot a killed when a black male invaded his home in in Escambia County, FL.11/23/14 – thetandd.com/news/murder-suspect-appears-in-court/article_de , 75, was beaten to death by a black male who invaded his home in Orangeburg County, SC.11/22/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/white-female-killed-executio was shot and killed execution style on the sidewalk in Tulsa, OK. A black male has been arrested for the murder.11/22/14 – www.news-record.com/news/man-arrested-in-greensboro-in-conne , 34, was killed by a black male in Greensboro, NC. Her black boyfriend has been charged.11/21/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/11/stabbing-victim-dies-in-nc.ht was stabbed to death in Greenville, NC. Her black fiance was charged with murder. He also injured multiple people fleeing the scene.11/18/14 – www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_27194946/pittsfield-man-plead , 29, was shot and killed by a black man in Pittsfield, MA.11/17/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/11/officer-down-in-akron-ohio.ht was killed when a black male went on a shooting spree inside an Akron, Ohio pub. HE was on duty as an Akron police officer. A second cop and three other people were also injured. The suspect has been charged.11/13/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/11/man-beaten-to-death-on-40th-b was beaten to death by a group of black males in Maplewood, MN. His daughter was also attacked.11/12/14 – www.wjla.com/articles/2014/11/in-brendan-wilson-murder-inves , 16, was murdered by a group of black teenagers near his High School in Woodbridge, VA.11/12/14 – www.wesh.com/news/police-arrest-teen-accused-of-killing-17ye , 17, was stabbed to death by a black male in Palm Beach County, FL. Her boyfriend’s brother was charged.11/11/14 – www.al.com/news/mobile/index.ssf/2014/11/man_wanted_in_conne , 41, was shot and killed by two black males as he was walking out of a convenience store in Prichard, AL.11/10/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/11/suspect-hog-tied-murdered-eld , 75, was killed by a black male who broke into her house. Douglasville, GA.11/10/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/11/arrests-made-in-brenden-wilso was shot to death by three black males in Prince William County, VA.11/9/14 – www.dailyfreeman.com/general-news/20141110/port-jervis-man-2 , 77, was beaten to death inside a shoe store he owned in Port Jervis, NY. A black male has been charged.11/8/14 – www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2014/1 , 24, was shot and killed in Des Moines, IA. The suspect is a 17 year old black male.11/7/14 – newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/12/04/woman-charged-in-stamford-cr , 70, was killed when a black female ran a red light and slammed into her car in Stamford, CT. The perp fled on foot and was charged two weeks later.11/7/14 – www.khq.com/story/27409380/wife-of-clarkston-rape-and-murder , 69, was raped and murdered by a black male in Clarkston, WA. The suspect was already a convicted sex offender.11/6/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/black-on-white-femicide-murd , 22, was murdered in Fuquay-Varina, VA. Her black boyfriend has been charged.11/5/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/11/suspect-to-stand-trial-in-dri was shot and killed in Omaha, NE. The suspect his a black male lifelong friend.11/4/14 – blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/2014/11/lahoma_ballester_warr , 55, was shot to death in Tustin, CA. The suspect is her daughter’s black ex-boyfriend.10/31/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/11/black-male-beats-white-const was beaten to death by a black male while working security in Canutillo, TX. White is a constable.10/31/14 – www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-police , 34, was shot and killed by a black male in St. Louis, MO. The perp also shot his two dogs.10/29/14 – www.independent.com/news/2014/oct/31/murder-suspect-appears- , 39, was stabbed to death in Santa Barbara, CA. He black boyfriend was charged.10/25/14 – www.tulsaworld.com/news/courts/tulsa-man-in-alleged-murder-s , 32, was shot and killed in Tulsa, OK. Her black ex-boyfriend confessed to police.10/24/14 – www.foxcarolina.com/story/27019441/dispatch-coroner-called-t , 25, was shot and killed in front of his house in Wellford, SC. A black male has been charged.10/24/14 – www.wnem.com/story/27021034/foul-play-suspected-in-womans-de was shot in Grand Blanc Township, MI. Her black husband has been charged.10/21/14 – www.wsmv.com/story/26837762/clerk-shot-during-robbery-at-pap , 22, was shot and killed while working at a pizza shop in Columbia, TN. A 17 year old black male has been charged.10/21/14 – www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2015/01/nopd_person_of_interest , 31, was shot dead in a parking lot in New Orleans. Police are searching for a black female.10/20/14 – www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2014/nov/04/walker-c , 39, was killed by two black males who invaded his home in Cherokee County, AL.10/20/14 – www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Deputies-investigating-homicide- , 33, was attacked with a hatchet and drowned by a black male who invaded her Augusta, GA trailer home.10/19/14 – A black serial killer in Gary, IN is charged with killing at least seven people. At least two of the victims were white females.10/19/14 – www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Bryan-Murder-Suspect-Arrested-17 , 19, was murdered by a black male in College Station, TX.10/17/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/10/gangbanger-charged-with-murd was beaten to death in Sebring, FL. Her mother’s black boyfriend was charged.10/15/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/10/74-year-old-arrested-for-rac , 58, was stabbed to death in her apartment in Des Moines, IA. A black male has been charged.10/13/14 – woodtv.com/2014/10/14/woman-63-found-dead-inside-muskegon-he , 62, was killed by a black male who invaded her home in Muskegon Heights, MI. The suspect is also accused on killing an elderly black woman the same week and killing two younger white females in 1989.10/13/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/10/three-arrests-after-racial-h , 50, was beaten to death in Lexington, KY. Three black males have been charged.10/12/14 – www.newsnet5.com/news/local-news/cleveland-metro/toddlers-mo , 2, was tortured and beaten to death in Cleveland, OH. The victim’s mother’s black boyfriend has been charged.10/10/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/10/black-on-white-hate-crime-ki , was shot and killed by two black males in Charleston, SC.10/9/14 – www.koamtv.com/story/26746635/2nd-arrest-made-in-pittsburg-h , 20, was shot and killed by two black males who invaded his home in Pittsburg, KS.10/9/14 – www.wgal.com/news/breaking-police-on-scene-of-double-shootin , 54, was shot in the back and killed inside a bar in Lancaster, PA. The suspect is a black male who also shot and injured two other people.10/9/14 – www.wave3.com/story/26745105/man-arrested-for-killing-girlfr , 38, was killed and her body burned in Louisville, KY. Her black boyfriend has been charged.10/8/14 – www.cincinnati.com/story/news/crime/2014/10/08/man-accused-o was beaten to death in North College Hill, OH. Her black husband has been charged.10/6/14 – www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/jersey-city-man-stabs-fiancee , 53, was stabbed to death in Jersey City, NJ. Her black boyfriend was charged.10/5/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/10/another-gangbanger-slaughter , 25, was killed when a black male slammed into her car in Redford Township, MI. The perp is a career criminal who was fleeing from police.10/4/14 – homicide.latimes.com/post/anthony-lee-wilson/ , 2, was tortured and beaten to death by a black male and female in Palmdale, CA. The black female appears to have held custody of the child.10/4/14 - topconservativenews.com/2014/10/racial-hate-crime-in-greensb , was stabbed to death by a black male in Greensboro, NC.10/2/14 – wtvr.com/2014/10/03/thomas-feaster-arrest/ , 39, was shot and killed in Louisa, VA. The suspect is her black boyfriend.10/3/14 – www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Man-Kills-Popular-Member- , 54, was murdered by a black homeless man that he had been offering charity too. Philadelphia, PA.9/30/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/10/career-criminal-slaughters-m , was shot and killed while working on an ATM in Cincinnati, Ohio. A black male has been charged.9/30/14 – www.wdio.com/article/stories/S3576396.shtml?cat=10335 . 20, was shot and killed by a black male during a home invasion in Superior, WI. Four other people have been charged with being accomplices, two black and two white.9/28/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/10/traveled-the-entire-world-on was travelling the nation by bike when two black males shot and killed him in Fayetteville, NC.9/25/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/09/victim-of-oklahoma-jihadist- was beheaded by a black Muslim co-worker. The perp also seriously maimed a second white female.9/24/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/09/black-male-arrested-for-murde , was shot and killed in Niagra Falls, NY. A black male has been arrested.9/22/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/09/two-blacks-accused-of-killing killed by a black couple in Suffolk, VA.9/22/14 – www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/09/murder_case_against_tee , 35, was shot and killed while delivering pizzas in New Orleans, LA. The suspects are two 16 year old black males that were already wearing court mandated ankle bracelets.9/22/14 – nypost.com/2014/09/22/mom-struck-by-cyclist-in-central-park- , 59, was killed by a black male driving recklessly on a bicycle in New York City, NY.9/21/14 – www.wsmv.com/story/26758143/police-identify-second-suspect-i , 27, was killed by two black males who invaded his apartment in Nashville, TN.9/21/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/09/black-thugs-allegedly-kill-in , 61, was shot in the face while working at his store near Indianapolis, IN. Three black males have been charged.9/19/14 – www.wect.com/story/26669889/lumberton-police-officers-search , 53, was shot and killed by a black male while he worked at a county fair in Lumberton, NC.9/19/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/10/72-year-old-white-woman-stabb , was raped and stabbed to death in a parking lot in Berkeley, CA. An 18 year old black male was charged.9/16/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/11/thug-and-prostitute-kill-texa was stabbed to death in his Round Rock, TX home. A black male has been arrested for the crime. A white girlfriend of the perp has also been arrested.9/15/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/09/black-male-arrested-for-murde , Sr., 71, was murdered while working at a store in Omaha, NE. A black male has been charged.9/15/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/11/suspect-arrested-for-racial- , 25, was stabbed to death in his apartment in Minot, ND. A black male was arrested.9/14/14 – www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2758595/After-12-hour-stand , 33, was shot and killed in Smyrna, GA. The perp is her black boyfriend.9/13/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/09/jesse-matthew-linked-to-kill , 18, was abducted and killed in Charlottesville, VA. A black male has been charged. The suspect is also charged with killing another young white people in 2009.9/12/14 – A teenager was killed at his Mayfield, Ky home by his mother’s black ex-boyfriend. The perp then abducted the mother and killed her along I-75 in Ohio. The perp then tried to commit suicide, but survived and was charged with the murders.9/12/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/09/black-male-stabs-white-man-to was stabbed to death by a black male friend in Hazelton, PA. Perp has been charged.9/12/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/09/craigslist-murder-in-atlanta , 28, was lured to his death using craigslist in Roswell, GA. A black male has been charged.9/12/14 – www.click2houston.com/news/man-arrested-in-shooting-death-of , 49, was shot to death by a black male in Harris County, TX. The victim was trying to stop a robbery.9/11/14 – www.wyff4.com/news/chief-argument-leads-to-deadly-stabbing-a , 20, was stabbed to death by a black male in Clemson, SC.9/10/14 – www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/26502027/multiple-dui-offender- was riding his motorcycle in Memphis, TN when a black killed him. The perp is a habitual drunk driver who had been banned from driving a car.9/9/14 – www.wowktv.com/story/26501652/one-person-arrested-in-connect , 20, was shot and killed by a black male in a park in St. Albans, WV.9/8/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/09/member-of-halliburton-family , 59, was killed in her bathtub inside her home in Davie, FL. A black male was charged.9/4/14 – www.arkansasmatters.com/story/d/story/woman-dies-after-hit-r , 22, was killed in Little Rock Arkansas, when her car was hit by a black male fleeing from police.9/4/14 – www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2014/09/family_turns_to , 40, a white homeless man, was beaten to death by eight to ten black males in Huntsville, AL.9/4/14 – A mother and son are stabbed to death in Bartlesville, OK. The black husband of the female victim has been charged.9/3/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/09/black-thug-kills-white-cop.ht , a white police officer was murdered by a black male in Rochester, NY. The suspect is a career criminal.9/2/14 – www.kltv.com/story/26465204/warrant-issued-in-brutal-attack- , 75, was beaten to death by a black male who invaded his home in Mount Vernon, TX.9/2/14 – A black male kills five white people in a spree shooting in Kansas City, MO. The same suspect is accused of murdering two white teenagers in 1998.8/31/14 – www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2014/12/men_charged_in_ , 71, was stabbed to death inside her home in Birmingham, AL. The suspects are a black male and a white male.8/30/14 – www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/Man-admits-to-speeding--27 , 27, was killed by a black male who was drunk and driving almost double the speed limit. An Asian female was also killed.8/30/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/09/alabama-woman-killed-in-exec , 27, was shot execution style in Waugh, Alabama. Three black males have been arrested.8/28/14 – www.wpr.org/2-more-gun-homicides-bring-years-total-81 , 20, was shot and killed by two black males as he was walking in Milwaukee, WI.8/28/14 – www.19actionnews.com/story/26446450/murder-suspect-refuses-t , 40, was stabbed to death in Cuyahoga Falls, OH. He black ex-boyfriend was charged.8/28/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/09/17-year-old-kidnap-victim-ka , 17, was abducted by a black male and later found dead in Pocahontas, MS. A suspect has been charged.8/24/14 – www.pressrepublican.com/news/article_5d1685e2-2c58-11e4-9f4a , 49, was stabbed to death by a black neighbor near his Plattsburgh, NY home.8/24/14 – www.jsonline.com/news/crime/death-sunday-of-man-in-town-of-f , 43, was killed in his home by a black female perpetrator in Fox Lake, WI.8/23/14 – www.wfmynews2.com/story/news/crime/2014/10/29/two-charged-in , 71, was killed during a home invasion in Seagrove, NC. Two black males and white female have been charged.8/22/14 – www.wsfa.com/story/26356052/inmate-linked-to-august-lee-co-m , 75, was killed by a black male who invaded his home in Lee County, AL.8/22/14 – www.katv.com/story/26350676/bryant-hit-and-run-victim-identi , 20, was killed in a parking lot in Saline County, AR. A black male hit her with his car and drug her.8/22/14 – minnesota.cbslocal.com/2014/09/12/man-arrested-in-wright-cou , 25, was leaving a bar when he was abducted and killed in Buffalo, MN. A black male and his white girlfriend have been charged.8/18/14 – www.turnto10.com/story/26316731/police-have-person-of-intere , 22, was killed by a black male who invaded his North Providence, RI home.8/18/14 – www.news9.com/story/26315783/police-identify-suspect-victim- , 20, was shot and killed by a black male in Oklahoma City, OK. Her black boyfriend was charged. A family member of the victim was also shot and injured.8/16/14 – www.courierpress.com/news/local-news/crime/evshooting_055675 , 24, was shot and killed by a black male in Evansville, IN.8/15/14 – www.wjbf.com/story/26293460/murder-suspect-has-been-arrested , 55, was murdered inside a Columbia County, GA church by a black male. The victim’s wife was also shot and injured.8/12/14 – nypost.com/2014/09/19/american-suspect-confesses-in-bali-kil was murdered by her black daughter and her daughter’s black boyfriend. They live in Chicago, IL, but the murdered happened on vacation in Indonesia.8/10/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/08/grand-rapids-man-dies-after- , 24 was beaten to death in a random attack by black males in Grand Rapids, MI. Four black males have been charged.8/10/14 – chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/08/11/police-man-mowing-lawn-fatal , 68, was mowing a lawn in Manhattan Township, IL when a black male hit him with his car. The perp was drunk and driving recklessly.8/8/14 – www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2014/08/three_men_arraign , 79, was shot and killed by three black males while he was walking down the street in Flint, MI.8/7/14 – www.local10.com/news/oakland-park-man-arrested-in-death-of-t , 4, was killed when a black man ran him over with a truck multiple times.8/7/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/08/white-georgia-dad-shot-by-bla 37, was shot and killed when two black males invaded his Duluth, GA home. The perps also shot his wife and eight year old daughter, but they survived.8/5/14 – www.wfla.com/story/26258371/clearwater-police-call-news-conf , 41, was killed while hiking in Clearwater, FL. The suspect is a n 18 year old black male.8/4/14 – www.mypalmbeachpost.com/news/news/crime-law/magnonia-park-mu , 19, was shot and killed by a black males in Magnolia Park, FL. Her black boyfriend and another black male was also killed.8/4/14 – www.legacy.com/obituaries/dailylocal/obituary.aspx?n=thomas- ;amp;amp;amp;pid=171988876&fhid=9932, 38, was shot and killed by three black males who invaded his home in Hartford County, MD.8/4/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/08/12-year-old-arrested-for-kil was stabbed to death on a playground in Kent County, MI. The perp is a 12 year old black male.8/4/14 – A black male shot and killed a man and his girlfriend in front of his home in Kensington, PA. The suspect is an 18 year old black male.8/2/14 – chroniclenewspaper.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20140805 , 81, was killed by a black male and female who invaded her home in Goshen, NY.7/29/14 – www.fox8live.com/story/26695826/womans-body-found-under-gent , 23, was shot and killed by a black male in Gentilly, LA.7/28/14 – www.ksla.com/story/26229086/spd-arrests-third-suspect-in-hig , 48, was shot and killed by a group of black males and a black female who invaded his home in Shreveport, LA.7/28/14 – www.myfoxdfw.com/story/26146141/college-student-robbed-fatal , 22, was shot and killed by a carload of black males in Pleasant Grove, TX.7/28/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/09/arrests-made-in-racial-hate- , 23, a French artist staying in Detroit is murdered by a groups of black males. Four suspects have been charged.7/28/14 – http://the-review.com/obituaries/2014/08/02/zachary-zach-kenneth-frischkorn, 27, was shot and killed by a black male in Youngstown, OH.7/27/14 – www.post-gazette.com/local/east/2014/09/12/Turtle-Creek-man- , 58, was beaten to death by a black neighbor in Turtle Creek, PA.7/26/14 – www.news-herald.com/general-news/20140829/painesville-townsh , 23, was killed by two black males who invaded his trailer home in Knoxville, TN.7/24/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/black-on-white-femicide-murd was murdered in Indianapolis, IN. Her black boyfriend was convicted of the murder.7/24/14 – www.stuttgartdailyleader.com/article/20140804/NEWS/140809854 , was murdered while walking his dog in Stuttgart, AR. A 17 year old black male was charged.7/21/14 – www.richmond.com/news/local/crime/man-dies-after-being-shot- , 22, was shot and killed in a McDonalds parking lot by two black males in Henrico, VA.7/21/14 – www.ktva.com/troopers-1-dead-1-injured-at-wasilla-home-249/ , 66, was murdered by her black foster son in Wassila, AK.7/20/14 – www.arkansasmatters.com/story/d/story/north-little-rock-shoo , 29, was shot and killed in North Little Rock, AR. The suspect is a 17 year old black male.7/18/14 – www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2698753/Kansas-girl-5-kidna , 5, was shot and killed by a black male in Leavenworth, KS. Her mother’s black boyfriend was charged.7/17/14 – www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Man-arreste , 45. was shot and killed by a black male in Stafford, Texas.7/17/14 – www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/gibsonton-man-found , 48, was shot and killed by a black male at his home in Gibsonton, FL.7/17/14 – www.mynews3.com/content/news/story/metro-homicide-mcadow-mcf , 23, was shot and killed in Modesto, CA. He black ex-boyfriend was charged.7/14/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/07/black-male-with-troubled-past , 45, was stabbed to death in Fresno, CA. He black boyfriend was shot and killed when police tried to arrest him.7/14/14 – A black male beat three members of the same family to death with a baseball bat in Tavares, FL. The perp was the boyfriend of one of the victims.7/12/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/09/should-police-be-held-accoun , 22, was shot and killed by black males in Charleston, WV.7/12/14 – A black male went on a shooting spree at a Pasadena apartment complex. He killed three, and wounded two.7/9/14 – dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/08/02/dallas-police-look-for-capital-m , 25, was shot and killed by a black male in Dallas, TX. Her black boyfriend was also wounded by the same perp.7/9/14 – www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat/news/2014/07/09/arrest-made-in , 46, was killed while delivery pizzas in San Antonio, TX. A black male ran him over with his own car.7/6/14 – allenbwest.com/2014/12/black-liberal-lives-matter-despise-hy , 47, was shot and killed execution style while on duty as a police officer in Gary, IN. A black male has been charged.7/5/14 – allenbwest.com/2014/12/black-liberal-lives-matter-despise-hy , was shot and killed while on duty as a police officer in Indianapolis, IN. black male has been charged.7/4/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/07/white-woman-shot-dead-by-tray , was shot and killed while walking down the street in Muskogee, Oklahoma. A black male has been charged.7/2/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/07/ethiopian-teen-immigrant-murd , 97, was beaten to death when a black male invaded his home. His wife was also severely beaten. The suspect is an Ethiopian immigrant.7/2/14 – foxct.com/2014/12/22/arrest-made-in-july-murder-in-east-hart , 44, was shot and killed in a parking lot in East Hartford, CT. A black 18 year old was charged.7/2/14 – www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat/news/2014/07/08/cibolo-man-cha , 56, white male was beaten to death by a black male at a San Antonio, TX Amtrak station. The suspect told police he just felt like killing someone.6/30/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/07/black-thugs-execute-bar-owner , 61, was murdered by multiple black males while he worked at a bar in Cleveland Heights, OH. Two black males have been charged.6/28/14 – www.nbc12.com/story/25896145/heavy-police-presence-at-hopewe , 28, was stabbed to death in Hopewell, VA. The suspect is her black boyfriend.6/26/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/08/nc-rocked-by-racial-hate-cri , 31, was stabbed to death in her apartment in Newton, NC . A black neighbor was charged with the crime. The suspect was charged with beating and raping a woman once before, but never prosecuted.6/26/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/07/suspect-charged-in-racial-ha , 26, was shot and killed while riding his motorcycle by a black male in Muskegon Heights, MI.6/26/14 – www.wbir.com/story/news/local/north-knoxville/2014/06/26/nor , 21, was shot and killed by five black males who invaded his home in Knoxville, TN. A female victim was also shot and injured and a dog was shot and killed.6/25/14 – www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2716315/Four-suspects-arres , 19, was shot and killed in Newark, NJ. Four black males were charged. Some are the same suspects in the murder of a black female. One is a suspect in the murder of two black homosexuals in Seattle, WA.6/24/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/mongtomery-al-black-male-arre , 27, was shot and killed on the street by a black male in Montgomery, AL.6/23/14 – allenbwest.com/2014/12/black-liberal-lives-matter-despise-hy , Jr, 51, was shot and killed by a group of black males while on duty as a Deputy Sheriff in Abbeville, Louisiana. Four black males have been charged.6/23/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/07/teenage-girl-slaughtered-in- 16, was stabbed to death by a black neighbor in Austintown, TX.6/22/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/07/taxi-driver-executed-cops-see , 40, was shot execution style by two black males while driving a taxi cab in Knoxville, TN.6/21/14 – www.nydailynews.com/news/national/marine-killed-wife-injured , 26 was leaving a restaurant with his wife in Lexington, KY. A black male shot him in the back and killed him.6/19/14 – www.dailytribune.com/general-news/20140625/man-dies-after-be , 34, was beaten to death by a black cellmate while being held the Macomb County Jail in Mount Clemens, MI.6/17/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/white-man-killed-during-michi , Jr., 27, was shot and killed by two black males who invaded his home in Battle Creek, MI.6/15/14 - dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/white-man-killed-by-black-mal , 25, was beaten to death by a black male in a bar in San Diego, CA.6/15/14 – www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/Brother-of-murder-victim-sp was murdered at a hotel in Reno, NV. Her black boyfriend was charged.6/14/14 – www.okcfox.com/story/25769969/village-police-search-for-assa , 24, was raped and beaten to death by a black male in Village, Oklahoma. The suspect is the black boyfriend of a white female friend of Rachel’s. The white girlfriend was also severely beaten.6/13/14 – losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/06/22/family-of-man-fatally-bea , 65, was attacked by two black females on a train platform in Los Angeles, CA. He died of his wounds.6/13/14 – www.fdlreporter.com/story/news/2014/08/07/la-crosse-taxi-tru , 79, was stabbed to death by a black male while he was driving a taxi cab in Platteville, WI.6/12/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/07/trayvon-arrested-in-death-of- , 21, was murdered in Suffolk County, NY. A black male has been charged.6/11/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/black-on-white-femicide-murd was murdered in her home in Salisbury, NC. Her black ex-husband was charged with the murder.6/11/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/black-male-stuffs-murder-vict , 39, was killed by a black male in Pensacola, Florida.6/7/14 – www.news4jax.com/news/man-23-accused-of-killing-cab-driver/2 , 43, was shot execution style by a black male while he worked as a taxi cab driver in Jacksonville, FL.6/5/14 – www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2657214/Woman-wanted-beatin , 38, was stabbed to death in San Carlos, CA. The suspect is the woman’s lesbian “ex-wife.”6/5/14 – www.kristv.com/news/mother-murdered-with-child-in-arms/ , 22, was shot and killed in Corpus Christi, TX. The perp is her black boyfriend. He is also shot and injured a four year old.6/5/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/black-bandit-merrily-skips-aw , 45, was shot execution style while working at a gas station in Indianapolis, IN. A black perp was captured on video.6/4/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/black-male-arrested-after-bit , 24, was beaten to death in her St. Louis, MO home. Her black boyfriend was charged.6/3/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/11/15-year-old-arrested-for-kil , 19 was stabbed to death in her home in Park Ridge, FL. A 15 year old black male has been charged.6/1/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/black-neighbor-shoots-young-m , 25, was shot execution style by a black neighbor in St. Petersburg, FL.6/1/14 – www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/06/williamsport_mur , 30, was shot and killed by a black male as he left a bar in Lumberton, NC.5/31/14 – fox13now.com/2014/06/03/suspect-in-kearns-homicide-arrested/ , 49, was shot and killed by a black male in West Jordan, UT.5/30/14 – fox6now.com/2014/06/11/latest-arrest-made-in-watertown-homic , 28, was killed in Waterloo, WI. Her black boyfriend has been charged.5/30/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/05/young-insurance-exec-shot-dea , 33, was shot and killed inside his car by a black passenger in Oak Lawn, Texas.5/28/14 – www.ktbs.com/story/25860226/two-charged-with-capital-murder- , 54, was killed by a black couple in Smith County, TX.5/27/14 – www.wifr.com/home/headlines/261181981.html , 21, was shot and killed by a black male in Rockford, IL.5/25/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/05/man-shot-dead-at-cape-coral-p , 27, was shot and killed by a black neighbor in Cape Coral, FL.5/23/14 – www.wyff4.com/news/woman-found-dead-homicide-investigation/2 , 26, was killed in Greenville, SC. Her black boyfriend was charged.5/22/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/05/black-teen-executes-scranton- was shot execution style why driving a taxi cab in Scranton, NJ. The suspect is a 16 year old black male.5/20/14 – www.rrstar.com/article/20140521/News/140529864 , 57 was killed when a drunk black man hit his car. The suspect is a habitual drunk who was banned from driving cars.5/20/14 – www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/news/article.html/con , 70, was killed while working as a crossing guard in Clearwater, FL. A black male career criminal was driving recklessly in a school school, hit Carey, and then abandoned his own injured children at the scene of the crime.5/19/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/05/confirmed-channel-6-orlando- , 20, was shot and killed, by a group of young black males, while walking down the street in downtown Orlando, FL.5/18/14 – www.omaha.com/news/crime/omaha-police-abusive-boyfriend-char , 38, was murdered in Omaha, NE. Her black boyfriend was charged.5/18/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/08/black-male-arrested-in-beatin , 17 was beaten to death in Richmond, IN. Two black males have been charged.5/16/14 – Two white females were shot to death inside a home they shared in Bossier, LA. A black male, who was friends with the victims, has been arrested.5/15/14 – homicide.latimes.com/post/deborah-ann-treptor/ , 35, was stabbed to death in Watts, CA. He black boyfriend was charged.5/15/14 – A black male stabbed two female employees to death inside a bank in Cairo, IL. A third victim was seriously injured.5/11/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/05/3-blacks-arrested-in-shooting , 87, was shot and killed in a parking lot by in Meridian, MS. The suspect is a 16 year old black male.5/10/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/05/femicide-race/ , 17, was shot and killed in Shelby, NC. Her black boyfriend has been charged.5/9/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/body-dumped-in-creek-lead-pol , 29, was beaten to death in his apartment and his body was dumped in a creek in San Antonio, Texas. Two black males have been charged.5/9/14 – allenbwest.com/2014/12/black-liberal-lives-matter-despise-hy was shot and killed by a black male while on duty as a police officer in Killeen, TX. A second police officer was wounded. The perp has been charged.5/7/14 – www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2015/01/14/psych-evaluat , 26, was stabbed to death by a black male in Staunton, VA.5/6/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/05/black-suspect-named-in-disapp , 77, was killed in her home in Hollywood, SC and her body was dumped at another location. The suspect is a black male career criminal, who is also suspected of killing an elderly black female the same month.5/5/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/another-georgia-woman-killed was beaten to death on her rural property in Ochlocknee, GA. A black male, who was on parole, has been charged with the murder.5/5/14 – www.wafb.com/story/25453437/arrest-made-in-murder-of-man-fou , 26, was shot execution style while camping in Plaquemine, LA. a black male, that the victim was friends with, was charged.5/2/14 – A black male stabbed a mother and daughter to death who lived next door in Madison, WI.4/29/14 – www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/04/3_men_in_custody_after_ , 55, was shot execution style by three black males while he was driving a taxi can in Gretna, LA.4/27/14 – www.wmbfnews.com/story/25352131/food-store-manager-shot-and- , 49 was shot and killed by a black male while working in a grocery store he managed in Loris, SC.4/23/14 – fox59.com/2014/05/02/arrest-made-after-man-found-dead-bound- , 55, was tied up and shot execution style by a black male in Indianapolis, IN.4/23/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/05/black-males-arrested-in-bruta , 66, was murdered by two black males who invaded his home in Hueytown, AL.4/23/14 – www.rochesterhomepage.net/story/d/story/two-arrested-in-gene , 49, was shot and killed by two black males in Rochester, NY. A second victim was shot and injured.4/22/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/black-friend-accused-of-murde , 23, was beaten to death by two black males, wielding a pipe and a baseball bat, in Seale, AL. One of the perps was a friend of the victim.4/22/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/05/black-male-arrested-in-white- , 32, was killed and her remains chopped up and scattered in Riverside, MN. A black male has been charged.4/19/14 – www.trussvilletribune.com/2014/05/02/second-man-charged-in-d , 22, was killed and her body torched in a field in Fairfield, AL. The suspects are two black males.4/18/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/white-man-65-killed-by-stray- , 65, was shot and killed by a black neighbor in Fresno, CA.4/17/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/argument-over-cell-phone-lead , 36, was stabbed in the neck in a McDonalds in Las Vegas, NV. A black male has been charged.4/17/14 – www.10tv.com/content/stories/2014/05/16/columbus-police-arre , 89, was killed by a black male who invader her home in Columbus, Ohio.4/16/14 – www.fox28.com/story/27516466/2014/12/01/munn-asks-to-withdra , 18, was shot and killed while riding his bike in South Bend, IN. The suspect is a 16 year old black male.4/15/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/black-on-white-femicide-murd of Hillsboro, Texas was beaten to death. Her black boyfriend was charged with the murder. The mother of her boyfriend was charged as an accomplice.4/15/14 - www.hathawayfunerals.com/obits/obituaries.php/obitID/757642 , 29, was murdered by a black male who invaded his home in New Bedford, MA.4/14/14 – www.ketv.com/news/arrest-made-in-fatal-shooting-at-gallagher , 18, was shot and killed by a black male at a park in Omaha, NE. A second white male was shot and injured.4/12/14 – www.myfoxdfw.com/story/25268832/investigators-believe-woman- , 54, was shot by black gunman while working at an auction hall in Fort Worth, TX.4/10/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/04/8th-gangbanger-arrested-for- , 2, was shot and killed by a black teenagers while he was playing in his front yard in South Bend, IN.4/9/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/05/femicide-race/,31 , was shot and killed in Freeport, IL. Her black boyfriend was charged.4/8/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/black-home-invader-kills-80-y , 80, was killed by a black male who invaded her apartment in Mount Vernon, Ohio.4/8/14 – fox6now.com/2014/04/30/felony-murder-three-accused-in-shooti , 48. was shot and killed by three black males as he walked down the street in Milwaukee, WI.4/8/14 – articles.mcall.com/2014-04-10/news/mc-allentown-craigslist-b was murdered by a black male in Allentown, PA. The perp used craigslist to lure his victim.4/7/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/black-17-yr-old-charged-in-st , 59, was beaten to death while working at a home in Beaumont, Texas. A 17 year old black male has been charged.4/5/14 – www.wrdw.com/home/headlines/Man-shot-in-Bi-Lo-parking-lot-25 , 35, was shot and killed by two black males in a parking lot in Augusta, GA.4/4/14 – albany.twcnews.com/content/news/779537/suspect-in-homicide-o , 19, was killed when a black male set fire to her apartment. Her black boyfriend was charged. She was nine months pregnant.4/3/14 – www.modbee.com/incoming/article3162827.html , 51, was shot and killed by a black male while walking down the street in Modesto, CA.4/2/14 – police.glynncounty-ga.org/forum/uploads/mtindale/files/2014- , 33, was killed by a black male in Brunswick, GA. Her black boyfriend was charged.4/1/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/man-shot-dead-in-home-invasio , 27, was shot and killed by three black males who invade his home in Oxford, NC.4/1/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/04/16-year-old-arrested-for-rac , 25 was shot and killed while taking a morning walk in Indianapolis. A 16 year old black male has been charged.4/1/14 – www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2014/04/three_suspects_a , 50, was killed by three black males while he was delivering Chinese food in Staten Island, NY3/31/14 – Two black males killed three white people at an apartment complex in Indianapolis, IN.3/28/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/black-robbers-gun-down-party- , 51, was shot and killed, by two black males, while working at a store in Sterling Heights, MI.3/28/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/white-baby-beaten-to-death-by , 1, was beaten to death in Olyphant, PA. His mother’s black boyfriend was charged.3/27/14 – www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/murder-rape-victims-f , 22, was raped and murdered by a black neighbor in Indianapolis, IN.3/27/14 – www.kiiitv.com/story/25880275/teen-charged-with-murdering-hi , 50, was beaten and stabbed to death by her black son in Corpus Christi, TX.3/26/14 – www.examiner.com/article/2-wanted-deadly-armed-robbery-older , 34, was shot to death by two black males who invaded his apartment in Atlanta, GA.3/24/14 – myfox8.com/2014/03/24/post-office-employee-attacked-by-man-w , 36, was murdered by a black male who was on a killing spree in Browns Summit, NC. The same perp murdered another black female and injured a third female victim.3/20/14 - www.wbur.org/2014/03/21/tyler-zanco-shooting-death-waltham , 17, was shot and killed by a black male in Waltham, MA.3/16/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/72-year-old-white-man-murdere , 72, was murdered by a black male who invaded his home in Salisbury, MD.3/15/14 – sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/06/27/police-arrest-teen-suspec , 19, was shot and killed in Sacramento, CA. Her black boyfriend’s brother was charged.3/15/14 – www.jrn.com/newschannel5/news/2-Indicted-In-Fatal-Ellington- , 21, was killed when two black males fired at his car as he was driving Nashville, TN.3/15/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/07/black-male-gets-ten-years-in- , 65, was beaten to death by a black neighbor in Spokane, WA.3/14/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/black-teens-beat-rob-81-year- , 81, was killed by two black males who invaded her home in Memphis, TN.3/13/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/03/jimmy-greek-restaurant-reopen , 62, was stabbed to death in his restaurant in West Boca, FL. a black male, who is a former employee, has been charged.3/13/14 – A black male used his car as weapon to kill four victims at a radio station event in Austin, TX. He also injured about twenty-one others. The victims are a white male, a white female, an Asian female, and a black male.3/12/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/son-of-white-murder-victim-co , 63, was beaten to death with a pipe by a black man in Louisville, KY.3/11/14 – www.ajc.com/news/news/bond-denied-for-suspect-in-deadly-mcdo , 74, was murdered by a black male who attacked him in the bathroom of a McDonalds in Gwinnett County, GA.3/11/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/05/femicide-race/ , 15, was found dead in a river with a cider block tied to her feet. Her black boyfriend has been charged.3/11/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/03/two-females-arrested-for-shoo , 66, was shot and killed while leaving a Walmart in Coden, AL. Two black females have been charged.3/10/14 – www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/26386988/murder-suspect-argues-w , 32, was killed when a black male smashed her head with a concrete block in Valrico, FL. Her black boyfriend was charged.3/8/14 – www.your4state.com/story/d/story/suspect-in-berkeley-county- , 72, was killed by a black male in an apparent home invasion in Berkeley County, WV.3/8/14 – cjonline.com/news/2014-11-14/topeka-man-pleads-not-guilty-mu , 39, was shot and beaten to death by two black males who invaded his Lawrence, OK home.3/7/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/12/hush-crimes-new-random-black was a construction worker visiting Lawton, OK when he was shot and killed at a motel. A black male has been charged.3/7/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/04/black-male-arrested-for-omaha , 21, was shot and killed by an uninvited black male at a party in Omaha, NE.3/5/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/03/florida-another-trayvon-anoth , 18, was killed in Indiantown, FL. A black male has been charged.3/5/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/03/former-student-charged-in-tea , 39, was strangled and her body burned in a motel room in Greenville, SC. A black male, who was once in her Middle School class, was charged.3/1/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/black-male-charged-in-shootin , 66, was shot to death in a parking lot in Chicago, IL. A black male has been charged.3/1/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/03/black-male-charged-in-homeles , 71, was stabbed to death by a black male in a park in New Haven, FL.3/1/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/03/student-killed-in-random-driv , 20, was shot by a black male in downtown St. Louis, MO.2/28/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/05/death-penalty-sought-in-feed- , 63, was shot and killed by two black males while he was working at a sore in LaPlace, LA.2/25/14 – blog.al.com/live/2014/05/80-year-old_daphne_home_invasi.html , 80, was beaten by two black males who invaded his home in Daphne, AL. The victim would die of his injuries two months later.2/24/14 – www.nbc15.com/news/headlines/Death-investigation-underway-in , 43, was beat to death in Madison, WI. Her black boyfriend was charged.2/23/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/03/good-respectful-student-blows , 54, was shot and killed while walking down the street in Seattle, WA. The suspect is a 17 year old black male.2/22/14 – www.wsmv.com/story/24858653/second-sylvan-street-shooting-su , 26, was shot and killed in Nashville, TN by two black males.2/20/14 – www.khou.com/story/local/2014/12/28/12387476/ , 52, was shot and killed by two black males while he was driving a taxi cab in Houston, TX.2/16/14 – www.wgal.com/news/susquehanna-valley/york-adams/susquehanna- , 23, was killed in York, PA. He black boyfriend has been charged.2/15/14 – Three white females were killed in a spree shooting by a black male in Cabarrus County, NC. One of the victims was dating the perp.2/14/14 – www.nbc24.com/news/story.aspx?id=1029677#.VKB6wl4AE7 was strangled to death in Toledo, OH. Her black ex-husband has been charged.2/13/14 – A black male killed two people execution style and set their Corinth, MS home on fire.2/10/14 – A group of at least four blacks invade the Detroit, MI home of a white family and stabbed three people to death2/10/14 – www.wbir.com/story/news/local/hamblen-jefferson-cocke-greene , 69, was murder by a black male in Greene County, TN. The per has a white girlfriend who was also charged.2/9/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/02/black-male-on-parole-murders- , 44, was sitting in his vehicle when a black male walked up to the car and shot him execution style in West Garfield Park, IL. The suspect is a career criminal who was on parole.2/8/14 – Two women, sisters of Iowa State Rep. Mary Wolfe, were killed execution style in their home in Pittsburgh, PA. A black neighbor was charged.2/7/14 – www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Police-report-Vidor- , 16, was killed in Orange County, TX when a black male rammed her car with a minivan on purpose. Her mother was also injured.2/4/14 – www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/burned-body-foun , 35, beaten to death and her body burned in Baltimore, MD. A black male she was staying with, was charged.2/3/14 – www.dothanfirst.com/story/d/story/two-charged-in-dale-county , 17, was shot and killed by two black males in Ozark, AL.2/3/14 – www.legacy.com/obituaries/theadvertiser/obituary.aspx?n=mich ;amp;amp;amp;pid=169526035, 49, was shot and killed while working at a Flea Market in Lafayette Parish, LA. A 15 year old black male has been charged.2/3/14 – www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Brenham-Man-Pleads-Guilty-To-Mur , 37, was shot and killed in Brenham, TX. Her black boyfriend was convicted.2/2/14 – www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-teen- , 51, was stabbed to death by two black teenagers who invaded her home in Baltimore, MD.2/1/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/02/racial-hate-crime-murder-in- , 55, was walking in Baton Rouge, LA, when two black males beat him to death.2/1/14 – thecabin.net/news/local/conway/2014-06-24/forensic-psycholog was shot and killed by a black male while she was waiting in line at a Walmart in Conway, AR.1/31/14 – articles.mcall.com/2014-02-07/news/mc-jim-thorpe-homicide-al , , was strangled to death by her black boyfriend in Allentown, PA.1/31/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/11/media-refuses-to-report-on-w , 45, a reserve police officer was abducted and murdered in Nelson County, VA. Several black males have been charged.1/28/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/03/white-man-killed-giving-refug . 69, was shot and killed by a black male who came to his door asking for help in Minneapolis, MN.1/27/14 – www.wkrg.com/story/24720225/funeral-services-held-for-carrol , 86, was beaten and stabbed to death by three black males who invaded his home in Chickasaw, AL.1/26/14 – www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/suburban-palm-beach-gardens- , 24, was shot and killed by a black male he had been friends with in West Palm Beach, FL.1/26/14 – www.foxcarolina.com/story/24653044/deputies-2-arrested-after , 38, was shot and killed by a black male, who had been a childhood friend, in Dacusvill, SC. The victim’s white wife was arrested as an accomplice.1/25/14 – A black male shot two people during a spree shooting at a skateboard store in Columbia, MD. The victim’s were his ex-girlfriend and his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend.1/25/14 - dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/01/vigil-held-for-white-teen-sta , 19, was stabbed to death by a black male in Bristol, CT.1/25/14 – www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/19/woman-pleads-g ;amp;amp;amp;utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomNation-TopStories+%28USATODAY+-+Nation+Top+Stories%29, 80, was murdered in Rockland County, NY. The suspects are her black daughter in law and the sister of her daughter in law.1/25/14 – www.torontosun.com/2014/01/30/canadian-tourist-may-have-been , 58, was shot and killed by a black male in Hollywood, FL.1/23/14 – www.wral.com/man-charged-with-murder-in-wilson-woman-s-death , 22, was killed by a black male in Wilson, NC. Her black boyfriend was charged.1/21/14 – homicides.suntimes.com/victims/alex-anderson/ , 19, was shot and killed by a black male in Chicago.1/19/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/01/black-thug-guns-down-young-wh , 25, was shot and killed by two black men as she walked down the street in Philadelphia, PA.1/18/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-orleans-entertainer-shot- , 21, was shot and killed by a black male in Harvey, LA.1/18/14 – www.wtoc.com/story/26275822/neighbors-react-after-suspected- , 33, was raped and murder by a black male in Pent Wetworth, GA. The suspect is a suspected serial rapist.1/16/14 – www.wfaa.com/story/local/2014/12/29/14154196/ , 35, was killed by a black male in McKinney, TX. Her black boyfriend was charged.1/16/14 – www.wusa9.com/story/news/2014/11/24/liam-adepo-guilty-plea-c , 22, was killed when a black drunk driver slammed into him in College Park, MD.1/14/14 – www.kfvs12.com/story/24475637/man-wanted-in-murder-of-cape-g , 40, was shot and killed by a black male in Makanda, IL.1/14/14 – www.wset.com/story/24455983/update-new-details-released-in-a , 30, was killed in Amherst County, VA. He black boyfriend was charged.1/14/14 – www.legacy.com/obituaries/sunherald/obituary.aspx?pid=169137 , 26, was killed by a black male in Gautier, MS.1/14/14 – A newlywed couple was ambushed and murdered in their own home in Denver, CO. A 17 year old black male has been convicted of the murders.1/13/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/09/black-thug-convicted-of-killi , 81 was murdered by a black male in her Oakland County, MI condo.1/11/14 – topconservativenews.com/2014/06/no-murder-charges-for-fatal- , 49, was beaten to death in Laundromat in Berks County, PA. Four black teenagers, two male and two female, were charged.1/10/14 – www.wbtv.com/story/24418910/police-one-shot-gunmen-still-on- , 25, was shot and killed by two black males in Rock Hill, SC.1/9/14 – sacramento.cbslocal.com/2014/01/10/employee-killed-in-oreill , 22, was killed by a black male while working at an auto parts store in Sacramento County, CA.1/9/14 – www.kirotv.com/news/news/police-say-mother-four-was-murdered , 28, was killed in Kirkland, WA. Her black boyfriend was charged.1/5/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/01/indianapolis-gunmen-ambush-co , 19, was shot and killed by two black males at a gas station in Lawrence, IN.1/5/14 – www.pressofatlanticcity.com/communities/atlantic-city_pleasa , 30, was stabbed to death by a black male in Egg Harbor Township, NJ.1/5/14 – www.nbcmiami.com/news/Man-Beat-Another-Man-to-Death-During-F , 31, was beaten to death with a baseball bat by a black male in Jacksonville, FL.1/2/14 – nypost.com/2014/07/12/accused-slumlord-killer-gives-cops-det , 37, was killed by three black males in Brooklyn, NY.1/1/14 – www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2014/01/murdered_father_of_thre was shot and killed by a black male in Marrero, LA.1/1/14 – www.wect.com/story/24343550/third-person-charged-with-murder , 31, was beaten to death by black males in Columbus, County, NC. Another white male victim was badly injured in the attack.1/1/14 – Three members of the same family were murdered by two black males inside their Barbarton, Ohio home. A fourth female victim was shot. Two brothers have been charged.Bonus:9/11/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/09/black-mob-kills-60-year-old-m , 60, was beaten to death by African immigrants in Toronto. Perps have been charged.5/24/14 – dailykenn.blogspot.com/2014/06/canadian-cops-seek-trayvon-in , 20, was shot and killed by a black male in Toronto.5/14/14 – chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/05/16/chicago-missionary-murdered- , 77, a missionary from Chicago was murdered in Haiti. |
Tim Hortons, a popular coffee and doughnut chain that dwarfs other fast-food chains in Canada, is coming to Minnesota in a bigger way. Its parent company, Restaurant Brands International, signed a deal with a Bloomington firm, called Restaurant Development Partners, to begin franchises in Minnesota. Restaurant Development Partners last week started seeking people to become Tim Hortons franchisees in the state. The company already has two outlets near Tower, Minn., one at the Fortune Bay resort and casino, and one at the Star Casino near Mahnomen, Minn. In the 1990s, when Tim Hortons was owned by Wendy’s International, the chain briefly had a location in Hopkins. Tim Hortons has more than 3,600 outlets in Canada, where it accounts for about 25 percent of all fast-food purchases, and about 800 in the U.S., chiefly in Michigan and Ohio. The firm recently made a similar agreement with an Indiana company to seek franchisees in that state. The company is entering Minnesota just as Dunkin’ Donuts ramps up its efforts to find franchisees and open stores in the state. Dunkin’ Donuts has struck deals with local operators in the Twin Cities, St. Cloud, Duluth and Mankato. Tim Hortons was started in the 1960s by its namesake, Tim Horton, who spent more than two decades in the National Hockey League, mainly with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The restaurant stands out from U.S. coffee and doughnut shops with an all-day menu. |
Tal Schneider is an Israeli journalist and blogger. At her blog, she recently published this excellent piece by Afif Abu-Much, who lives in the community of Baqa Baqa al-Gharbiyye in Israel. Afif’s village is one of those that would be handed over to the Palestinian Authority in the sorts of land swaps that Avigdor Lieberman champions and all too many other Israelis support. The legitimacy and morality of such an action is often debated, but actually hearing from an Israeli citizen who would be directly affected by such a move is sadly rare. I am very grateful that Tal has permitted me to reprint this piece here, in full, as she and Sol Salbe translated it from Hebrew. It has been reported this week that Israel has proposed to the US administration to consider the transfer of certain Israeli areas located within the Triangle, to Palestinian sovereignty. Some 300 thousand Israeli Arab citizens live there. The idea is to compensate the Palestinian Authority (PA) for the annexation of the settlement blocs in the framework of the land exchange between the parties. Were the plan to come into fruition, the Arab proportion of the Israeli population would drop to 12 per cent, which may please some of the parties participating in the negotiations between Israel and the PA. At this stage it seems as if the Americans have not responded and it is far from certain whether the Palestinians would agree to taking populated areas containing infrastructure dating back to the ‘fifties in return for the settlements . Nevertheless there is no doubt that the proposal shows the kind of thinking which is prevalent in the upper echelons of government in regard to both the Israeli Arab population on one hand and the settlers and settlements on the other. ֿI am an Arab citizen who lives in the community of Baqa Baqa al-Gharbiyye in the Triangle [near the Green Line], a region that Israel has proposed hand over. Every month about half my wages are taken by state in taxes so that the Prime Minister would have the ability to buy ice cream for 10,000 shekels per annum, scented candles for 6000 and allow himself to squander water to the tune of 80,000 shekels (not to mention the half million spent on that bed for Thatcher’s funeral etc.) The taxes that I’m compelled to pay by law, financed the construction of the settlements. Over the same period, my community and other Arab communities rarely saw anything in return for those taxes. All Israeli governments over the years have been meticulous in channelling the money to the settlements and not to those places which were in need of it. Now, as a New Year “present” , they are going to move me and my family, deprive me of my citizenship (do they have the legal right to do it?) and all that in order to keep the settlement blocs as part of Israel. Why we should be used as a bartering object for the purpose of keeping the settlements? In what way are people who live there superior to Arab citizens? On the contrary, nothing does more harm to Israel’s image than the settlements. It not for nothing that Israeli law has not been applied there and the place is under military rule. Have you ever heard an American or European leader attack or condemn Israel because of the Arab communities in the Triangle, the Galilee, or the Negev? The status of the settlements is a controversial matter in international law. Most countries are opposed to the policy that led to the establishment of the settlements and their continuing expansion. Israel has been criticized, condemned and has been on the receiving end of countless reprimands by US, European officials as well as the UN Security Council. Those criticisms stemmed from the fact that the existence of the settlements is a violation of international law. Israel has also been described as an Apartheid state because of the settlements, and because of the suffering caused to the Palestinian population in the Territories. It is simply wrong to place Arab towns and villages and the settlement blocs on the same level. Those who lives across the Green Line and beyond the State’s “borders” are the settlers and not the and Arab citizens. Those who inflict damage on, and undermine the peace negotiations, are the settlers and not the Arab community. Accordingly, this proposal – the transfer of Arab citizens to the Palestinian Authority as if we were dealing with a herd of sheep and not citizens of the state – is unacceptable. It also contains a not inconsiderable number of backward ideas. What is happening here is trafficking in humans beings — citizens who happen to belong to a minority. Finally, just imagine what would happen if one day the President of United States, Barack Obama, were to propose to transfer sovereignty of certain parts of the US populated by the Jewish minority to another country ( say Cuba) as compensation for other regions and thereby reduce the number of Jewish citizens in the US. How would that be viewed? How would it have been taken in this country? What would be the reactions within the government? How would Prime Minister respond? Here is your answer: Straightaway everyone would rise and scream and yell and shout and call Obama an antisemite, a racist, A President of an Apartheid country, a person devoid of human feelings and so on. What is the difference between that and the Israeli offer to transfer me and my family as compensation for the annexation of settlement blocs in Judea and Samaria? Advertisements |
Because Darwin and Lincoln are forever paired, thanks to their shared birthdate 200 years ago and the profound and lasting (but separate) influence of their ideas and actions, as Adam Gopnik explains, a question arises: What did they think of each other? In today's hyper-mediated, celebrity-saturated global village the world's leading biologist and the leader of the free world might be expected to meet at, say, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (though we're not aware that Lincoln or Darwin skied), at a climate-policy summit or over pints at Bono's. But Darwin and Lincoln did not cross paths. And though a perusal of reliable sources suggests that the two did not mention each other by name in writing, there's evidence they were at least aware of one another's efforts. Darwin, a staunch abolitionist, as our Times of London, whose correspondent in the States was not sufficiently against slavery, Darwin wrote, and covered the war "detestably." Asa Gray between 1862 and 1865 referring to the Civil War, slavery or the "president." Darwin was not forthcoming about Lincoln and appeared to grow more pessimistic about the war as the years went on. On June 5, 1861, Darwin wrote to Gray: I never knew the newspapers so profoundly interesting. N. America does not do England justice: I have not seen or heard of a soul who is not with the North. Some few, & I am one, even wish to God, though at the loss of millions of lives, that the North would proclaim a crusade against Slavery. In the long run, a million horrid deaths would be amply repaid in the cause of humanity. What wonderful times we live in.... Great God how I shd like to see that greatest curse on Earth Slavery abolished. Lincoln issued the final Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Eighteen days later, Darwin wrote to Gray, an abolitionist evidently more optimistic about the course of the war than Darwin: Well, your President has issued his fiat against Slavery— God grant it may have some effect.— ... I sometimes cannot help taking most gloomy view about your future. I look to your money depreciating so much that there will be mutiny with your soldiers & quarrels between the different states which are to pay In short anarchy & then the South & Slavery will be triumphant. But I hope my dismal prophecies will be as utterly wrong as most of my other prophecies have been. But everyone's prophecies have been wrong; those of your Government as wrong as any.— It is a cruel evil to the whole world; I hope that you may prove right & good come out of it. It cannot be said that Lincoln, for his part, gave Darwin that much thought. The one passage we turned up about Lincoln and evolution focuses on his interest in a book that preceded Darwin's On the Origin of Species by some 15 years. That was Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, first published anonymously in 1844 by the Scottish journalist Robert Chambers. It presented a cosmic theory of evolution that lacked Darwin's key insight (the mechanism of natural selection), posited a biased view of human progress, was roundly criticized by scientists as mistaken about geology and other subjects, and in subsequent editions took pains to say it was perfectly compatible with Christian theology. Still, it did advance the idea to a wide audience that species we see today were not fixed but had descended from other forms, and the controversy it stirred gave Darwin pause. The following passage comes from the groundbreaking 1889 biography Springfield, Illinois. Herndon writes: For many years I subscribed for and kept on our office table the Westminster and Edinburgh Review and a number of other English periodicals. Besides them I purchased the works of Spencer, Darwin, and the utterances of other English scientists, all of which I devoured with great relish. I endeavored, but had little success in inducing Lincoln to read them. Occasionally he would snatch one up and peruse it for a little while, but he soon threw it down with the suggestion that it was entirely too heavy for an ordinary mind to digest. A gentleman in Springfield gave him a book called, I believe,"Vestiges of Creation," which interested him so much that he read it through. The volume was published in Edinburgh, and undertook to demonstrate the doctrine of development or evolution. The treatise interested him greatly, and he was deeply impressed with the notion of the so-called "universal law" evolution; he did not extend greatly his researches, but by continued thinking in a single channel seemed to grow into a warm advocate of the new doctrine. Beyond what I have stated he made no further investigation into the realm of philosophy. "There are no accidents," he said one day, "in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite. That's the extent of what's known about Lincoln's thoughts on evolution, says Michael Lind, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and author of the 2004 book What Lincoln Believed. "Herndon's testimony suggests that Lincoln was not only familiar with the idea of evolution," Lind says in an email, "but convinced by it." |
I'm having trouble figuring out if the rapper 50 Cent is guilty of insider trading for his big stock tip over the weekend. Mr. Cent (or rather, Mr. Jackson) used his rather large Twitter following (about 3.8 million) to boost the share price of penny stock in a company he holds shares called H&H Imports. He tweeted to his followers on Saturday that "You can double your money right now. Just get what you can afford," and "They are no joke get it now." He did not, however, disclose that he holds a significant amount of stock in the company.Last October, the company gave the rapper 30 million shares in return for endorsing the company's subsidiary's headphones, the New York Post reports. His followers took his advice seriously and bought enough of H&H stock that the share price increased 240 percent in a day, going from 10 cents at open on Monday and hit a high of 39 cents. The increase in share price netted 50 Cent a cool $8.7 million, on paper at least. Like I said, I can' t make out if he broke any SEC laws with this pump and dump scam. At the very least it's unethical, as an auditor of the company concluded the company might not be solvent for much longer last March, based on $3.3 million in debt and less than $300,000 in revenues last quarter. A post on Gearlog points out that even if he didn't break any SEC regulations, he at least didn't follow the FTC rule of adding "ad" or "spon" to a tweet when a celebrity receives compensation for endorsing a product. It appears 50 Cent is aware he did something wrong. The prolific tweeter has removed the posts where he encouraged followers to buy H&H stock. The new HowStuffWorks.com iPhone app is pretty much the greatest thing ever. Click here to learn about and download it! You should check out SYSK on Twitter and Facebook. We won't give you bad financial advice. |
Apple just debuted its Oscars ad and unsurprisingly, it's centered around making movies. The commercial features several groups of high school students as they shoot different projects using the iPad as their camera, overlaid by an inspirational voiceover from Martin Scorsese, who extolls the virtues of hard work and experimentation as the keys to creative success. And while the piece has the kind of delicate score and evocative images that one would expect from an Apple ad, the spot was actually shot on the iPad Air 2 itself. Real student filmmakers For the commercial, Apple partnered with the LA County High School for the Arts, a performing and visual arts school located in Los Angeles. Student filmmakers were provided with iPads and shot their projects over a weekend, during which their efforts were documented — also using an iPad Air 2. That behind-the-scenes footage is what makes up the ad. It's a similar strategy to what Apple pursued with its Grammys ad earlier this month. In that case, director So Me created a short film focused around a collaboration between Swedish recording artist Elliphant, DJ The Gaslamp Killer, and English producer Riton. The apps used by the artists were then highlighted on Apple's own website; the work of the student filmmakers is getting the same treatment. Apple has a long history of using the Oscars to highlight its products. The first iPhone ad, simply titled "Hello," aired in 2007 months before the original device actually went on sale, and the first iPad ad debuted during the Academy Awards three years later. |
The Indian government has slashed its expenses towards lobbying in the U.S. with a total payment of $120,000 to its registered lobbyist firm in the second quarter of 2017 -- the first cut in nearly seven years. The disclosure has been made by BGR Government Affairs, which lobbied on behalf of Republic of India on issues relating to "bilateral US-India relations". According to the latest quarterly disclosure report filed with the U.S. Senate, BGR has disclosed total income of $120,000 from Republic of India towards "all lobbying related income from the client (including all payments to the registrant by any other entity for lobbying activities on behalf of the client)." All lobbyist firms need to get registered in the U.S. for undertaking any lobbying activities and file quarterly disclosures including about the payments received, specific issues for lobbying and the agencies approached by it. During the second quarter of 2017 ended June 30, BGR lobbied on behalf of the Indian government at the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, the Department Commerce, the Department of State and the US Trade Representative. Prior to the latest quarter, BGR's quarterly lobbying income from the Indian government stood unchanged at $180,000 since the fourth quarter of 2010. Before that, the Indian government had paid BGR $60,000 in the third quarter of 2010 and less than $5,000 in the second quarter of that year, according to the disclosure reports filed over the years. The latest disclosure report did not cite any reason for the decline in the quarterly payment to $120,000. The highest quarterly amount so far has been recorded in fourth quarter of 2009 when BGR was paid $200,000, as per an analysis of all disclosure reports filed by it. |
Image caption There are over a thousand varieties of strawberries at the Pavlovsk station New private homes could replace Europe's largest collection of fruits and berries, if a Russian court rules the land could be sold to property developers. The Pavlovsk experimental station near the Russian city of St Petersburg is the biggest European field seed bank and one of the largest in the world. Thousands of varieties of plants and crops there are found nowhere else. The court hearing is scheduled for 11 August. Recently, the Global Crop Diversity Trust appealed to the Russian authorities to save the collection, which many scientists call an irreplaceable biological heritage. The Kremlin has not responded to the pleas, but the international community thinks it may yet do so at the hearing next week. The court will then announce the decision regarding the earlier ruling of handing the station to the Russian Housing Development Foundation - a state body that decides whether public land can be used to build private homes. A unique collection The Pavlovsk experimental station is one of several such stations in Russia. It is affiliated to the Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry. Agricultural scientist Nikolai Vavilov built the seed bank - thought to be one of the oldest in the world - in 1926, to preserve biodiversity and enable the breeding of new crop varieties. It's an entire garden, not just seeds, you can't relocate a garden Sergey Alexanyan, Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry "The collection is a source of genes to develop many new varieties of fruits and berries, and it is also a huge cultural heritage," Sergey Alexanian, head of the Department of International Relations at the Vavilov Institute, told BBC News. He said the Pavlovsk collection holds about 320,000 samples of fruits and berries - 100 varieties each of gooseberries, raspberries and cherries, and more than 1,000 varieties of strawberries. About 90% of the varieties of crops there are unique, he added. In December 2009, Russia's ministry of economic development handed two of the station's land sites to the Russian Housing Development Foundation. The institute's scientists went through the courts to appeal against that decision, but they lost their case and the land, which constitutes about a fifth of the station, will soon be put on sale. It is likely to be bought by a property developer. The court is yet to decide the fate of the second, much bigger, site. Image caption Soon, the crops here might have to give way to new homes Cary Fowler, the director of the trust, said the unique seed bank was also important in making sure people had enough to eat - both now and in the future. "No country is self-reliant, in terms of having the diversity it needs now and certainly will need in the future, for breeding a variety of crops," he told BBC News. "Breeding is an ongoing activity because pests and diseases are always evolving and the climate is changing. We're always trying to make more productive, drought-tolerant and heat-resistant crops. It's a struggle between 1,000 strawberry varieties versus the plans of developers Cary Fowler, Global Crop Diversity Trust "This is the raw material for doing all of that - particularly with the changing climate. The biological resources conserved in one country could be very valuable to another country, another continent. "We're all interdependent and that's why this unfolding tragedy at Pavlovsk is a concern to people outside Russia as well." But the Housing Development Foundation told the BBC Saint Petersburg needed the land more than berries and apple trees. "These sites are located in the area meant for new, individual, one-family homes," the foundation's press officer told the BBC in an email. "Using the land for agricultural purposes will impede the future realisation of the city's plans to further develop [the city of] Saint Petersburg." 'Impossible to relocate' One solution would be to relocate the valuable collection elsewhere, but Dr Fowler said this was impossible. The Pavlovsk collection is unlike other seed banks around the world, where seeds are preserved by being dried and frozen, he explained. The crops in the Russian experimental station are almost exclusively crops that have to be conserved them in the field, as living specimens. "It's an entire garden, not just seeds; you can't relocate a garden," said Mr Alexanyan. "And no one would take it anyway, as it is not a commercial venture - you can't sell this fruit and make money out of it." He added that one way to save the collection would be for the institute to simply buy the sites, but said this was unrealistic. "It's a huge amount of money," he said. "Right now, it's not the best time for the Russian science, financially speaking, so buying it would be ideal - but it's impossible." Image caption Many unique varieties of berries might be lost, scientists say Dr Fowler said that the risk of losing the collection was all too real. "It's a struggle between 1,000 strawberry varieties versus the plans of developers, and I don't underestimate the threats," said Dr Fowler. "If they move forward and bring bulldozers into this research station, the reality is that we're going to lose most of it. "There are so many technical hurdles to overcome to rescue that collection quickly that I'm afraid we're going to be standing at the gate, watching extinction take place before our very eyes." |
Diane Kruger has been madly in love with Joshua Jackson for the past seven years — a source recently told Us Weekly the Fringe actor is planning to propose — but in the August 2013 issue of Marie Claire UK, Kruger reveals her past relationships weren't nearly as solid. To make sense of her life, The Host star decided to see a therapist six years ago. "For a long time I felt that I was so accomplished. 'Oh I speak three languages, I travel the world, I've seen so many things.' But when I turned 30 I realized I was an idiot," she explains. "I didn't know sh-t about anything." PHOTOS: Diane Kruger's best red carpet looks ever The L.A.-based star explains that "therapy's not about getting help; it's facilitating yourself to deal better with life in general." Though it can be a taboo topic in her home country, Kruger has no qualms about discussing her treatment. "My friends ask, 'What's wrong with you?' But here everyone talks about [therapy], and I really like that about America." PHOTOS: Stars who haven't wed -- yet! Kruger, who was born and raised in Germany, credits regular therapy sessions with improving her romantic relationships. "Oh, I'm sure I punished many boys for my lack of a father figure. And I'm sure I dated many men who were much older than the men I should have been dating," says the star, who was wed to French actor and filmmaker Guillaume Canet from 2001 to 2006. "But at the end of the day, I'm not bitter. I love men. I want a family myself. I'm not angry with him anymore." PHOTOS: Dawson's Creek cast, then and now Life with Jackson is better than ever, though Kruger readily admits that it's not a fairy tale. "All relationships are hard," she reasons. "It doesn't matter what job you have, or how famous or miserable or poor you are. It's about commitment." "The hard part is the timing. When you meet someone, are you ready to make them your number one priority? There's never going to be a role more interesting than my own life," Kruger, 36, tells Marie Claire UK. "I'm grateful that I met a person who feels the same not just about me, but also about our relationship. But therapy helps, too." Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! |
Ownership structure and stock returns during financial crises Cristina Cella, Andrew Ellul, Mariassunta Giannetti As stock markets plummeted, short-sellers and hedge funds have been the subject of public anger. But does it matter who owns stock? This column compares stock performance after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. It finds that companies whose shares are held to a larger extent by short-term investors do indeed experience more severe price drops and larger price reversals. Ownership structure and the length of institutional investor trading horizons – specifically whether they are short-term or long-term – may affect stock prices response to market-wide shocks.1 When stock prices fall dramatically, investors with short trading horizons are inclined or forced to sell to a larger extent than investors with longer trading horizons (De Long et al. 1990). In contrast, investors with longer trading horizons have the possibility of holding onto their shares and “waiting out the storm” for stock prices to slowly recover to their fundamental values. Thus, during episodes of market turmoil, the selling pressure experienced by different stocks may vary depending on the length of their shareholders’ investment horizons. During these episodes, it may also be hard to find potential buyers. As Shleifer and Vishny (1992) show, if buyers in the same industry are distressed, the seller will obtain fire sale prices. Although stocks are fungible, fire sales have been shown to happen also in stock markets (Coval and Stafford 2007) because other investors may not have sufficient buying capital when selling pressure is highest and capital is slow moving (Duffie 2010) or because the stocks sold may have different characteristics from their preferred set. The frictions preventing buying capital to move quickly to temporary undervalued stocks are most significant during episodes of severe market declines, precisely because financial intermediaries and other market participants have problems in raising capital (Duffie 2010). Thus, when panic selling occurs, there may be both supply and demand effects driving prices below their fundamental values. Crucially, these same forces should draw a wedge between the price reaction of shares held by short-term and long-term institutional investors. Put differently, investors with short trading horizons may amplify the effects of market-wide shocks on the prices of stocks held mostly by short-term investors. In a recent paper (Cella et al. 2010) we explore this argument. Our empirical strategy is the following. First, we ask whether stocks held by short-term investors experience larger drops (negative abnormal returns) subsequently to market-wide shocks. Second, we identify whether the selling pressure of short-horizon investors indeed drives prices below their fundamental values, by evaluating whether the stocks held by short-term investors experience larger price reversals. We investigate the maintained hypothesis by exploring the negative shock caused by Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in September 2008 on all market participants. Following this event, there were massive and widespread price drops with the S&P500 losing close to 30% from the day of Lehman’s bankruptcy up to the end of December. This prompted withdrawals from hedge funds and mutual funds, which consequently started to sell billions of dollars of securities to meet redemptions. In the business press, these large sales have often been indicated as the determinants of an “overhang for the market” (Wall Street Journal 2008). Just a few months after the market low, firms such as Bank of America or Dow Chemicals, were up by over 100% (Financial Times 2010). The long or short of it We exploit differences in ownership across firms to evaluate to what extent the length of their shareholders’ horizon affects the reaction of transaction prices and the subsequent reversals. Our main finding can be vividly summarised in Figure 1. Comparing the evolution of the cumulative abnormal returns of stocks held by short- and long-term investors around the Lehman shock, it emerges clearly that the stocks held to a larger extent by short-term investors experience more severe price drops (larger negative abnormal returns) and larger price reversals. Figure 1. Mean cumulative abnormal returns of stocks held by long-term and short-term investors Figure 1 compares the mean cumulative abnormal returns calculated by using the market model of (i) stocks mostly held by institutional investors with a long trading horizon, and (ii) stocks mostly held by institutional investors with short trading horizons. We divide the entire sample in terciles using firms’ investor turnover measured by the average investor turnover over the period 1990-2006. A firm is classified as a firm held by long-term institutional investors if it belongs to the first tercile. A firm is classified as a firm held by short-term institutional investors if it belongs to the third tercile. Week 0 is the week when Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy occurred (week beginning on Monday 15 September 2008). The mean cumulative abnormal returns up to the first five (ten) weeks following Lehman’s bankruptcy are almost -9% (-10%) for stocks held by short-term investors compared to approximately 4% (3%) for stocks held by long-term investors. These severe price drops are then completely reversed by week +25. Both price declines and price reversals are smaller for stocks held to a larger extent by long-term investors. These results are fully consistent with our maintained hypothesis that the trading horizon of the institutions holding the stocks acts as an amplifying mechanism. Moreover, we find that this result does not depend on the firms’ different exposure to market factors, to their exposure to innovations in market-wide implied volatility, on firm characteristics, including past returns, size, market-to-book, return volatility, industry, liquidity (and possible changes in liquidity during the crisis period itself), on the momentum effect, or on characteristics of the investors’ trading strategies other than their horizon. Our results are unaffected once we consider the stocks’ exposure to aggregate liquidity risk and to innovations in market-wide implied volatility as measured by changes in the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX). Innovations in time-varying market volatility, often considered to reflect the probability of a market-wide meltdown, may either change the risk-return trade-off, or the expectations of future returns (Campbell 1996 and Chen 2002). Thus it can be argued that the price dynamics we uncover may just be reflecting differences in the stocks’ exposure to the probability of a meltdown. However, since our results are robust to controlling for the stocks’ exposure to innovations in the VIX index, we conclude that this alternative channel cannot explain our findings. Testing causality Another concern is that active investors trade to generate profits based on valuation beliefs. These may generate two types of problems for our interpretation of the empirical evidence. First, active trading strategies, instead of investors’ short trading horizons, may generate selling pressures. Put differently, our proxy for investor horizon may be correlated with omitted factors characterising a firm’s shareholders. Second, investors may sell because of rational beliefs on the future performance of the stocks they hold. This could lead to reverse causality. To test the causal mechanism, we control for differences in shareholders’ trading strategies, such as how actively a firm’s investors manage their portfolios on average. Most importantly, we recognise that investors trade not only because of valuation beliefs but also because of unanticipated changes of the assets under management. The latter trades do not contain much information and allow a cleaner identification of the effects of investor horizons on the amplification of shocks. We measure the extent to which the market decline may have shortened the investors’ horizon by using the correlation between the investor’s previous performance and its trading behaviour before our sample period. We surmise that institutional investors with a higher correlation between assets under management and previous performance expect to experience larger outflows during market declines. The expected outflows would significantly shorten these investors’ trading horizons. Using this correlation measure as an instrument for investor turnover, we exploit only the variation in investor turnover that is less likely to be driven by inside information and other features of the active trading strategy. Thus, using different methodologies, we continue to find that stocks held to a larger extent by short-term investors experience, first, a significantly larger price drop, and, then, a larger price reversal relative to stocks held by long-term investors. Uncovering the mechanism We also investigate whether the mechanism behind our interpretation of the results is supported. If our maintained hypothesis is valid, then we should find that short-term investors sell significantly more than long-term investors during our event period. We find clear evidence of such trading behaviour. For example, in the last quarter of 2008, and when the largest price declines were experienced, short-term investors sell almost 21% of their portfolio holdings compared to 7% of the holdings sold by long-term investors. Importantly, short-term investors exhibit a higher propensity to sell all the stocks they hold (even the ones mostly held by long-term investors), suggesting that their behaviour is not driven by the different characteristics of the stocks in their portfolios. Finally, we find that investors’ short trading horizons amplify market-wide negative shocks not only after Lehman’s bankruptcy but also during other periods when US markets experience severe declines, indicating that our results are not a one-off. References Cella, Cristina, Andrew Ellul, Mariassunta Giannetti (2010), “Investors’ Horizons and the Amplification of Market Shocks”, ECGI - Finance Working Paper 298/2010. Coval, J and E Stafford (2007), “Asset fire sales (and purchases) in equity markets”, Journal of Financial Economics, 86:479-512. De Long, JB, A Shleifer, LH Summers, RJ Waldmann (1990), “Noise Trader Risk in Financial Markets”, Journal of Political Economy, 98:703-738. Duffie, D (2010), “Presidential Address: Asset Price Dynamics with Slow Moving Capital”, Journal of Finance, 65:1237-1268. Shleifer, A, and RW Vishny (1992), “Liquidation values and debt capacity: A market equilibrium approach”, Journal of Finance, 47:1343-1366. 1 Investors’ trading horizons may depend on preferences, specialisation, or external constraints, such as margin constraints and the responsiveness of funds under management to previous returns. |
A little girl who was critically injured in a shooting in Birmingham's Kingston community last weekend has died.Birmingham police say the 4-year-old victim passed away and a new charge is expected to be filed against the suspected gunman, 26-year-old Antonio Fowler. The child has been identified as Taleayah Stafford.Fowler was arrested on attempted murder and assault charges. He's being held in the Jefferson County Jail on bonds totaling $450,000. A little girl who was critically injured in a shooting in Birmingham's Kingston community last weekend has died. Birmingham police say the 4-year-old victim passed away and a new charge is expected to be filed against the suspected gunman, 26-year-old Antonio Fowler. The child has been identified as Taleayah Stafford. Advertisement Fowler was arrested on attempted murder and assault charges. He's being held in the Jefferson County Jail on bonds totaling $450,000. AlertMe |
Jim Buss claims his team isn’t interested in making any major moves. Yet there is word spreading that the Lakers are looking to unload Pau Gasol in hopes of moving into the top 5 of the draft in order to get their hands on Kentucky’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. There’s also an L.A. Times report claiming the Atlanta Hawks were pursuing a trade of Josh Smith for Gasol shortly after the Lakers’ season ended in Oklahoma City. So, which is it, trust fund Buss? Are you standing pat with the same squad that is no closer to contending than Kim Kardashian is to becoming the mayor of Glendale or are you going to do something “major” and get us another parade? If the Lakers covet the potential of Kidd-Gilchrist over the know commodity that is Smith, a hoops theory I’m fully on board with, then they should move expeditiously. The draft is less than a day away. Let’s not forget last year they had their eyes set on Derrick Williamsyet were unable to pull off a trade with the T-Wolves. However if there aren’t any takers interested in giving up a top 5 pick then settling for Smith isn’t such a bad thing…I guess. Now it’s not exactly a move that will take this team over the top but it adds an element that has been missing from L.A. for some time. Smith is a freakish athlete the likes of which the Lake Show hasn’t seen since Trevor Ariza and even he isn’t quite in Smith’s class. Of course Smith also has worse shot selection than a sniper with Parkinson’s and his value has been inflated no thanks to the Hawks and their undefined style of play. It’s not at all uncommon for Atlanta Hawks faithful to moan anytime Smith gets a touch 25 feet away from the hoop. Beyond Smith’s over-hyped production he’s entering the final year of a deal that will pay him $13-million during the next season. That leaves the Lakers stuck with an expiring deal on a player that will surely demand a raise. Kidd-Gilchrist on the other hand is a phenomenal talent with nothing but massive upside and a rookie deal that won’t make the Buss family cringe at the thought of paying luxury taxes, at least not until he’s due a nice NBA payday. Kidd-Gilchrist is an athletic wing with a frame that will definitely benefit from an NBA conditioning program. In many ways he’s similar to Smith as his offensive game is somewhat limited yet his defensive prowess and physical style of play may remind some of Metta World Peace. But let me not get too excited about something that may never happen. The Hawks have supposedly been hot on the trail of Gasol for sometime with the Lakers looking unlikely to budge. Unless L.A. can get into the Lamar Odom-Mo Williams sweepstakes then making a serious push to pursue Kidd-Gilchrist must be mandatory. A rookie like Kidd-Gilchrist can contribute immediately but he won’t be the difference maker the Lakers need, not in the short-term at least. His game is still raw after one very successful season of collegiate hoops. Still he did improve each week during his lone year in Lexington helping the Wildcats on their way to the NCAA title. So, what’s it going to be Buss? Are you going to tell Mitch Kupchak to stick to the no major moves plan of attack or will you actually show up to the office and put in a honest day’s work? The Lakers loving world wants to know. Barbeque or mildew? |
The US Embassy in Costa Rica has threatened to have the country's domain registry shut down unless it suspends ThePirateBay.cr. The registry says it won't comply without a court order and has written to the ICANN organization to complain about harassment and personal insults. Domains have become an integral part of the piracy wars and no one knows this better than The Pirate Bay. The site has burned through numerous domains over the years, with copyright holders and authorities successfully pressurizing registries to destabilize the site. The latest news on this front comes from the Central American country of Costa Rica, where the local domain registry is having problems with the United States government. The drama is detailed in a letter to ICANN penned by Dr. Pedro León Azofeifa, President of the Costa Rican Academy of Science, which operates NIC Costa Rica, the registry in charge of local .CR domain names. Azofeifa’s letter is addressed to ICANN board member Thomas Schneider and pulls no punches. It claims that for the past two years the United States Embassy in Costa Rica has been pressuring NIC Costa Rica to take action against a particular domain. “Since 2015, the United Estates Embassy in Costa Rica, who represents the interests of the United States Department of Commerce, has frequently contacted our organization regarding the domain name thepiratebay.cr,” the letter to ICANN reads. “These interactions with the United States Embassy have escalated with time and include great pressure since 2016 that is exemplified by several phone calls, emails, and meetings urging our ccTLD to take down the domain, even though this would go against our domain name policies.” The letter states that following pressure from the US, the Costa Rican Ministry of Commerce carried out an investigation which concluded that not taking down the domain was in line with best practices that only require suspensions following a local court order. That didn’t satisfy the United States though, far from it. “The representative of the United States Embassy, Mr. Kevin Ludeke, Economic Specialist, who claims to represent the interests of the US Department of Commerce, has mentioned threats to close our registry, with repeated harassment regarding our practices and operation policies,” the letter to ICANN reads. Ludeke is indeed listed on the US Embassy site for Costa Rica. He’s also referenced in a 2008 diplomatic cable leaked previously by Wikileaks. Contacted via email, Ludeke did not immediately respond to TorrentFreak’s request for comment. Extract from the letter to ICANN Surprisingly, Azofeifa says the US representative then got personal, making negative comments towards his Executive Director, “based on no clear evidence or statistical data to support his claims, as a way to pressure our organization to take down the domain name without following our current policies.” Citing the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society of 2005, Azofeifa asserts that “policy authority for Internet-related public policy issues is the sovereign right of the States,” which in Costa Rica’s case means that there must be “a final judgment from the Courts of Justice of the Republic of Costa Rica” before the registry will suspend a domain. But it seems legal action was not the preferred route of the US Embassy. Demanding that NIC Costa Rica take unilateral action, Mr. Ludeke continued with “pressure and harassment to take down the domain name without its proper process and local court order.” Azofeifa’s letter to ICANN, which is cc’d to Stafford Fitzgerald Haney, United States Ambassador to Costa Rica and various people in the Costa Rican Ministry of Commerce, concludes with a request for suggestions on how to deal with the matter. While the response should prove very interesting, none of the parties involved appear to have noticed that ThePirateBay.cr isn’t officially connected to The Pirate Bay The domain and associated site appeared in the wake of the December 2014 shut down of The Pirate Bay, claiming to be the real deal and even going as far as making fake accounts in the names of famous ‘pirate’ groups including ettv and YIFY. Today it acts as an unofficial and unaffiliated reverse proxy to The Pirate Bay while presenting the site’s content as its own. It’s also affiliated with a fake KickassTorrents site, Kickass.cd, which to this day claims that it’s a reincarnation of the defunct torrent giant. But perhaps the most glaring issue in this worrying case is the apparent willingness of the United States to call out Costa Rica for not doing anything about a .CR domain run by third parties, when the real Pirate Bay’s .org domain is under United States’ jurisdiction. Registered by the Public Interest Registry in Reston, Virginia, ThePirateBay.org is the famous site’s main domain. TorrentFreak asked PIR if anyone from the US government had ever requested action against the domain but at the time of publication, we had received no response. |
Johnny FD in Thailand. Johnny FD / Facebook In 2008, Johnny FD was 27 years old and living in California, earning about $50,000 a year working in business-to-business sales. "The highlight of my day was driving to and from work, just because those were the moments I had an excuse to listen to music and not think about how little my life was going anywhere," he remembers. "It wasn't even that I was unhappy. I was just so unmotivated." When the company he worked for was sold later that year, he was offered a choice: stick with his position, or take a stipend and be laid off. He chose to go. After spending a few months blowing through his savings with friends in Los Angeles ("I'm lucky I got out without too much debt — my friends all have $20,000 of credit-card bills they're still trying to pay off"), he turned his sights on somewhere a little farther from home: Thailand. "When people travel, and they go to another country, it's always mixed," he says. "They say it was fun or good, but Thailand was that place that no matter who came back, they said it was the most incredible trip of their life. Everyone talked about it like this paradise." In his first seven days, he took seven different tours. The last one was scuba diving, and he was so thrilled with the experience that he spent the next few years going from zero dives to nearly 1,000, traveling the world teaching diving and searching for the perfect place. Until he decided that wasn't enough. "I realized I no longer wanted to be the dive guy working at the resort," he says. "I wanted to be the guest. I told myself I didn't want to dive again until I could afford to be a guest." To get some cash and free gym time, he tried something new: Muay Thai, a fighting style practiced in Southeast Asia. "I was turning 30 and thought if I don't try it now, I never will," FD (the surname he uses professionally) remembers. FD during a day of scuba diving with his girlfriend, Larissa, in Koh Lanta, Thailand. Johnny FD / Facebook Two years of fighting led to a revelation. "It was after my sixth pro fight," he says. "I was beat up. I had broken a foot. I had a swollen eye. My body was destroyed. I was turning 32 and realized my body wasn't going to be able to do this much longer." He had been keeping a blog about his experience with Muay Thai, and he'd heard that people could make money turning their blogs into ebooks, so he decided to give it a shot. He repackaged his blog into "12 Weeks in Thailand: The Good Life on the Cheap," which made $600 in its first month on sale. "After I wrote that book, I wanted to find out how to sell more," he says. "I started meeting all these people doing internet marketing that happened to be traveling or living in Chiang Mai. I had no idea there was this underground community of digital nomads. It was kind of just emerging, and I would meet whoever I could and ask if I could take them to dinner or coffee and pick their brain." FD stumbled across dropshipping, a business where you serve as a go-between for customers who want to order products online, like a smaller-scale Overstock or Wayfair. After taking a course to learn the basics, he set up a dropshipping business from Chiang Mai that became a main source of income. He explains that he runs his businesses in two modes: growth, where he puts in 40-50 hours a week to finish new projects and pursue new opportunities, and maintenance, where he spends 4-10 hours a week simply maintaining the framework he's already established. For the last six months, he's been in maintenance mode. A day at the office for Johnny FD. Johnny FD / Facebook Today, FD makes about $40,000 in revenue per month between various online pursuits, including his books (he wrote a second, "Life Changes Quick: 7 Steps to Getting Everything You've Ever Wanted," in 2014), his dropshipping business, online courses he offers on Udemy, and miscellaneous sources such as affiliate income from his blog, JohnnyFD.com. While his income varies, he generally brings home about $10,000 a month, and details his exact earnings through monthly income reports published on his site. "If I was making this much in California, I would feel like I had to watch my budget, but here my expenses are less than $1,500 a month, which means I have $9,000 or $8,000 to save, or if I want something or to go somewhere, I really don't think about it," he explains. He says that there are two ways for people to create a similar lifestyle: "You can do what I did and quit and go live off savings until you figure it out, or, if you want to preplan, follow someone else's success." |
Best Western Hotels & Resorts is the latest in a slew of hospitality brands to enter the realm of virtual reality in an effort to step up their marketing efforts. By summer, all 2,200 Best Western-branded hotels in North America will have a “Best Western Virtual Reality Experience” whereby travelers can see each property’s rooms, lobbies, and amenities virtually online before they even arrive at the hotel. Phoenix-based Best Western has been working with Google Street View to develop this product for the past three years, gathering some 1.7 million photos of its North American properties. With Google Street View, Best Western has taken those photos and added customized narration and music to them to create 360-degree videos that transform into VR when viewed with a headset device like Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, and the like. The videos will be made available on platforms that include Google Maps, Google Search, YouTube, and Facebook. The Best Western Virtual Reality Experience is just one piece of the 70-year-old company’s overall, $2-billion-plus effort to reach new audiences and present a new, refreshed image for its hotels, what Dorothy Dowling, Best Western CMO summarized as “re-architecting.” It’ll also be promoted heavily this summer when the brand debuts a new advertising campaign. “To me as a consumer, I think it’s quite an amazing experience,” Dowling said. “For me, the first time I was doing it, I was looking at the nap of the carpet and it was a really shocking realization to me that I was looking at the nap of the carpet like I was in the room. That I could actually see that degree of texture and get that sense of size and scale. I think, for consumers, that’s really going to redefine the game.” Dowling says that this kind of technology will significantly impact the hotel booking process for consumers by providing the kind of “deep information” that household decision-makers, especially women, will appreciate. “To go that next step before they go, and actually map out a lot of those things in their mind before they arrive, I think is going to be transformative for the business,” she said. Best Western, in a press release, claims to be “the first major company of its size and scale to launch this cutting-edge technology setting a new industry standard for how virtual reality can be used to enhance the customer experience.” That’s a bit debatable, but the truth is, it isn’t the first travel or hospitality company to play with 360-degree videos or VR. A History of Hospitality in VR and Augmented Reality Here’s a quick rundown of some of the notable VR and 360-degree video plays that other hospitality companies have made in recent years: May 2015: Starwood was already testing out whether or not guests would respond to VR in its concept lab. September 2015: Marriott piloted a program, called VRoom Service, at two of its locations in New York and London, where by guests could “travel” the world via VR by borrowing a Samsung Gear VR headset for 24 hours. October 2015: Shangri-La Hotels announced it will be the first international hospitality brand to debut Samsung Gear VR headsets for its 17 global sales offices and 94 individual hotel sales teams. Whereas Best Western is using VR to sell its hotels direct to consumers, Shangri-La is using VR to sell its hotels to wholesalers, travel agents, meeting planners, and other customers. April 2016: Similar to Shangri-La’s strategy, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group debuted BluPrint, a VR-enhanced app that helps investors and developers have a better understanding of the design process involved in the group’s Radisson Blu hotel brand. April 2016: Hilton launches a new 360-degree video ad to push more direct bookings. April 2016: For its Sonoma Select pilot program, Airbnb partnered with Matterport to produce enhanced 360-degree video listings for hosts participating in the pilot program. With this program, guests can experience more of a hotel-like package when they stay with highly rated, selected hosts in Sonoma, California. May 2016: Holiday Inn Express released a comedic VR video starring actor Rob Riggle, the brand’s creative director, to promote the hotel company’s “power shower” experience. May 2016: Vacation rental management company Vacasa also partnered with Matterport to have unique 360-degree, interactive video experiences on all of its vacation rental listings. Why Are So Many Hotels Turning to VR? It’s not just tourism and hospitality companies who are jumping on the VR bandwagon in order to be a part of an industry that some analysts estimate will be worth $120 billion by 2020. Last week, Google debuted Daydream, a new smartphone-based VR platform, while Facebook launched, on May 17, its first VR/360-degree short film. From what we’ve seen of hospitality companies in the 360-degree video/VR space, it’s clear there are two distinct marketing approaches emerging: To inform and sell: This is the strategy being adopted by brands like Best Western, Shangri-La, Carlson Rezidor, and Vacasa. For these brands, VR and/or 360-degree videos are being used as tools to inform their customers about their products. To entertain and market: Brands like Marriott, Starwood, and Holiday Inn Express have taken a different route, seeing how VR can be used to entertain guests, and transport them, virtually, to another space all together. But is VR much more than just a marketing gimmick? Can it actually translate to more bookings, more brand awareness, more consumer loyalty, or more customer engagement? When asked if Best Western and other companies’ forays into VR was more gimmick than practical tool, Dowling said, “I think you have to experience some of these things to really understand they are not a gimmick … people experiencing VR will change their views.” For one thing, the technology is still limited in its scope and it’s not entirely accessible to the masses — yet. However, some estimate that a total of 16 billion VR headsets will be sold by the end of this year and that by 2020, 30 million headsets will have been sold worldwide. Then there’s also the fact that some people have reported experiencing motion sickness when they use it. Not only that, but VR isn’t like any other storytelling or marketing platform out there. It’s not enough to simply film something and run with it; brands also have to consider all the different dimensions and ways that the user can conceivably experience the technology. |
You don’t want to learn their names. You don’t want to hear from them — or perhaps even hear about them. And, above all else, you don’t want to see any sign of these gents. Like, ever. Because if you do? Things for your favourite team have gone awry — seriously awry. Specifically, in net. “It’s a last-resort safety valve,” says Brad Treliving, general manager of the Calgary Flames. “If it all goes to hell in a handbasket, you’ve got somebody.” Somebody, in this case, is an emergency goalie, that lonely chap who spends evenings sequestered in the Saddledome press box. Unless the starter gets hurt, and he winds up on the bench. Unless the starter and the backup get hurt, and he winds up in net. “We’re probably not jumping up and down with joy if they’re going in,” says Treliving. “Listen, it’s never going to be perfect. It’s a last-case scenario. The criteria — you want to make sure they’re capable.” In exchange for back-pats and parking passes — “No retirement plan, no 401(k),” cackles Treliving — the three just-in-cases share the duties. * Todd Ford, who was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2002. The city firefighter — and coveted goalie coach — handles most of the shifts. * Dan Dunn, who works for Timberwolf Environmental Services. Picked in 2007 by the Washington Capitals, he stays busy playing in the Rocky Mountain Petroleum and Heritage hockey leagues, plus tending the nets of the Innisfail (Senior AAA) Eagles. * Curtis Honey, who’s a first-year player for the University of Calgary Dinos. “It’s self-explanatory, getting a call like that,” says Honey, 21. “More exciting than anything … to show up to the rink, enjoy it, see what happens, cheer the Flames on. It’s not like there’s pressure or I’m dialing in a massive (game-day) routine. I’m just going to the rink with the chance that I might play.” Adds Ford: “It’s a way to help out and a very cool experience at the same time. Kind of an honour, right?” Their vantage point, high above the ice, may seem removed from the action, but they know they could be pressed into service. But as Dunn says: “The stars would really have to align.” They nearly did Dec. 10. Jonas Hiller was sick. Karri Ramo was sicker. The former started. The latter spent the night in the video room, half-dressed, nibbling crackers and sipping soup — with Dunn, summoned from the press box, at his side. A No. 40 sweater, with his name on it, was hanging nearby. Tantalizingly close. “I never got to put it on,” says Dunn, grinning. “But it’s pretty cool to see that. Some weird emotions come up. It’s in their best interests, obviously, to do everything they can to play those guys. They’re getting paid millions of dollars.” A year ago, Florida Panthers starter Roberto Luongo got hurt. Then Al Montoya got hurt. Then goalie coach Robb Tallas slapped on some gear. However, Luongo rushed back to the rink, shucked his suit, put on his sweaty pads, and re-entered the contest. Hardly ideal. Now NHL clubs have handy a spare puck-blocker, who is eligible to suit up for either side. “The show must go on, right?” says Dunn, 27. “Someone in my position? You don’t really care which team it’s for. It’s just pretty cool.” The Flames initiated their own policy last season after Ramo — kneed in the noggin by teammate Raphael Diaz — was lost for the night. That put Hiller on the ice, with no backup — and Brent Krahn, frantically hailed, sitting in the dressing room. “Our little rigmarole,” says Treliving. “Any time you have injury or illness to your goaltender, it brings it to the forefront why you do it.” Which is to have an experienced hand, and his equipment, on the premises. It begs the question: how would they fare if deployed? “I think I’d be OK,” replies Ford. “I’d be nervous, for sure, as anybody would if they haven’t been playing a tonne at that level. It would be quite the experience for whoever got to go in.” Says Honey: “Very good question. It could go either way. Maybe I get in there and pucks just hit me. I could hold my own OK. I don’t think it would be a blowout, but I don’t think I’d be putting up a Ramo-like performance.” For Ford and Dunn, moonlighting serves as a sweet career-capper. Drafted in the sixth round in 2007, Dunn never signed with the Caps. After four years at St. Cloud State University, the Oshawa native joined the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees, one of his three Central Hockey League pitstops in 2011-12. “For a goalie, it’s tough — you’re a suitcase,” says Dunn. “If you’re not on an NHL contract … you’re just a space-filler. It’s a meat market. My fear — that you’d still be doing it into your 30s. You’d never have a home. Just load everything into my 2006 Altima and away you go, right?” Dunn realized it was time for the next phase. “It’s hard to let go, just because it’s all you know,” he says. “I was very fortunate, within three to six months, to be able to start to reinvent myself.” Ford, too, discovered his own path. Now he’s a full-fledged firefighter. “Next to hockey, it’s the greatest job,” Ford says. “Put them side by side, it’s just like hanging out in the dressing room for the whole day with the guys … that kind of teammate-family atmosphere.” Dunn, too, compares his current gig to the former one. “Sales is a lot like athletics — you wake up every morning and it’s a fresh start,” says Dunn. “You’re going to win or lose today.” Both, though, relish their association with the Flames. “You’re still in the game, right?” says Ford. “You still feel like you’re part of hockey, without having it be your job. It’s Canada, right? We all grew up playing hockey. “This is one way for me to be a part of hockey and still have it in my life.” scruickshank@postmedia.com Twitter.com/CruickshankCH |
It’s being called the Republican “Trumpmare” and it looks like this: Not only will a Donald Trump nomination cost the GOP the White House, but the Senate as well – and possibly even the House, though that’s a long shot. The fear is that in a general election, many Republicans won’t show up for the Donald, and/or that Democrats will come out in force against him. If that happens, the thinking goes, say goodbye to the five incumbent GOP senators in states such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that went for President Obama in 2012. Probably also forget the Republicans vying for open seats in Nevada and Florida that also went for Mr. Obama last time. Democrats need only four GOP seats to retake the Senate – five if they lose the White House. They would need 30 seats to win back the House. With gerrymandered safe districts, that’s a very steep hill to climb, but Mr. Trump at the top of the ticket could endanger GOP seats in suburban swing areas such as this one, north of Philadelphia. Heather, a moderate Republican voter in Pennsylvania, personifies the possible peril. One day her son was exclaiming in another room, “I am Donald Trump! I am Donald Trump! I am so mean!” She went into the room and found him holding his Darth Vader action figure, bouncing it around. “I don’t know what to do with that,” she tells a reporter, asking that her real name not be used because she is known in Republican circles. Heather says that she and her moderate Republican friends are distressed about how to vote if Trump wins the nomination. “We’re all talking about it,” she says. She insists, though, that they won’t vote for a Democrat – certainly not Hillary Clinton, she says, citing the trust factor. 'We've never seen anything like this' Trump says there’s nothing to worry about – that he’s actually widening the tent, converting Democrats to his brand of Republicanism and bringing in new voters. In Pennsylvania, more than 60,000 Democrats have re-registered as Republicans. “The truth is, no one knows” whether a Trump nomination will have a negative down-ballot effect on other races, says Jennifer Duffy, who tracks Senate races at the independent Cook Political Report. That’s because this race is unlike any other, she says. “What we lack here is data, because we’ve never seen anything like this.” The closest analogy is 1980, when a landslide victory by Republican Ronald Reagan crushed Senate Democrats and flipped control to the GOP. The reverse could happen this time. In a match-up with Mrs. Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, Trump loses badly – by 11 points, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls. He loses by a wider margin – 17 points – to her challenger, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. But Ms. Duffy says that 1980 is not really comparable. At that time, Senate Democrats didn’t see the threatening wave coming. Now, Republicans do, and they and their outside donors are busy erecting a cash and advertising “firewall” to protect their congressional candidates from the flames of Trump, according to The Washington Post. Also, unlike Reagan, Trump is not ideologically consistent, making voter behavior harder to predict. One “thread of evidence” that should encourage Republicans, says Duffy, is that Senate Republican incumbents have done well in primaries so far. There’s not an anti-incumbent mood in the Senate, even with Trump on the ballot. But the real test will be in a general election, when Democrats and Republicans go head-to-head. Another encouraging sign for Republicans is new voters or crossover voters attracted to the billionaire. “Trump could actually be helpful” in blue-collar states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, where white, working-class males like his message, Duffy adds. Democrats for Trump Take Bill Dostal, a retired truck driver who is just emerging from the WaWa market here in Doylestown. He’s a registered Democrat who voted for President Obama in 2012. But he’s seriously considering Trump this time. Mr. Dostal “can’t stand Hillary,” and though he finds Republican John Kasich “more level-headed” than Trump, he likes the billionaire’s plain talk. “Trump is saying what most people feel,” says Dostal, carrying a gallon of milk in his hand as he stops to talk before getting into his pick-up truck. “We’re just tired of everything.” Simon Williams, also retired and a registered Democrat, feels similarly. If Ohio Governor Kasich were ahead, he’d get his vote, but Trump “is telling it like it is.” Mr. Williams likes the real estate mogul’s business record, his toughness. Standing outside the Quaker Steak & Lube restaurant in Mechanicsburg, Williams says he’s fed up with both parties. “Forget about Democrats and Republicans. Get someone in the White House who’s going to work for the people.” But analysts point out that Trump is making too much of his ability to attract new voters and crossover voters to the party. Record GOP turnout in the primaries also has to do with the number of competitors and the stiffness of the competition, reports Monitor political writer Linda Feldmann. Strong Republican turnout now doesn’t necessarily translate to the general election. In Pennsylvania, Preston Maddock describes the GOP talking point that 63,000 Democrats have switched their registration to Republican as “a red herring.” Mr. Maddock, the communications director for the state’s Democratic party, points out that 29,000 voters have done the opposite, that Democrats have registered more new voters than Republicans have, and that more voters have moved from independent to Democrat than from independent to Republican. The net effect is a GOP boost of only 15,000 voters. In a state where Democrats enjoy a 1 million voter registration advantage, “that’s a meaningless difference,” he says. Meanwhile, a recent Franklin & Marshall College Poll has Mrs. Clinton beating Trump in a hypothetical match-up by 46 to 33 in Pennsylvania. This is not lost on Don Petrille, who last week gathered with a few of his fellow Republicans at the Bucks County GOP headquarters here to meet briefly with Sen. Pat Toomey. The Republican senator is running for reelection this year, and is considered vulnerable in a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican president since 1988. The senator admits he's in "a tough race." Mr. Petrille is very concerned about the “Trump effect” on down-ballot races, not to mention on the presidential race. Republicans in swing Bucks County have worked hard to get Republicans elected at the state, county, and judgeship levels. Then there’s the open seat in Petrille’s district created by the retirement of Republican Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick – rated a “toss-up” by the Cook Political Report. Get the Monitor Stories you care about delivered to your inbox. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy “All of these gains could be for nothing if there’s a backlash against the Republican Party because of Donald Trump,” says Petrille. “I think Trump could be a 40-state disaster.” Petrille is backing Republican Ted Cruz instead. The conservative Texas senator doesn’t fit the county’s moderate stance, but Petrille is hopeful. “I think the more people see of Cruz, the more they’ll like him.” |
Negotiations to form the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade zone are in the "end-game", US Trade Representative Mike Froman says © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP Justin Sullivan Manila (AFP) - Negotiations to form the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade zone are in the "end-game", US Trade Representative Mike Froman said Sunday. "Our negotiators are working even as we speak, working through issues. We hope to conclude it soon. We are very much in the end-game," he told reporters. Asked about a timetable, Froman said: "We agreed to conclude (the TPP talks) the moment that we have an agreement on an ambitious, comprehensive and high-standard agreement." "The focus will now shift to the US House of Representatives when they come back from recess and we look forward to working with them to get it passed as soon as possible," he said at a meeting of trade ministers of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in the Philippine resort island of Boracay. He conceded that alleged "currency manipulation" by trade partners was one the divisive issues expected to be discussed in the House. The United States was seeking to address this issue through the G7, the G20 and the International Monetary Fund. The US Senate overcame bitter divisions last Friday to pass legislation that gives President Barack Obama authority to swiftly forge international trade pacts, speeding the completion of the TPP which will cover the US and 11 other Asia-Pacific countries. However the measure faces opposition in the House of Representatives from Obama's own Democratic party. The TPP will include some APEC economies like Japan, Canada, Australia and Mexico but exclude others like China. Froman said the TPP was not "contradictory" to other efforts to create a wider free-trade area in the Asia-Pacific, which is APEC's stated goal. "We see TPP as one of the building blocks along with several others that can contribute to a free-trade area in the Asia-Pacific," Froman said. Some Chinese analysts and state media have framed the TPP as an attempt to check Beijing's growing economic clout but Washington has denied this. APEC trade officials said Sunday they were adopting an agenda to ensure that small and medium-sized businesses benefit from the integration of their economies. "We recognise that micro, small and medium enterprises are an important force in economic activity, growth, job creation, community resilience and innovation," said Philippine Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo at the close of the two-day meeting. Domingo, who chaired the meeting, said the grouping would ensure that global markets would be more accessible to small businesses. This would be done through streamlining business regulations, cutting trade barriers and red tape and helping these enterprises get more involved in "e-commerce" to ease transactions. |
Homeland Secure IT Alert for Wednesday, March 16, 2011 Adobe has warned of a new zero day vulnerability the other day that is being used to exploit users of Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat across all platforms, including Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X and Linux. It also covers Flash player for Chrome and Android users, as well as the Authplay.dll component from Adobe Reader and Acrobat X for Windows and Macintosh. This is a critical vulnerability and at this moment in time, there is no fix for it. Attackers are exploiting it by attaching malicious Excel (.xls) documents to emails. The Excel document will contain a specially crafted Flash (.swf) file, and if you open the malicious Excel attachment, the embedded .swf file executes and leverages the vulnerability to install persistent malware on your system, such as a bot client giving the attacker a stepping stone to install even more malware. Since no patch exists, yet, it is advised that you use extreme caution when opening Excel documents attached in email unless you are expecting them. If you feel you have done so in the last few days, please run a virus scan, or consult with your computer service or repair technicians. Those in Greenville / Upstate SC can call Homeland Secure IT at 864.990.4748 or email info@homelandsecureit.com for assistance. |
State Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, accompanied by members of the California Nurses Association, discusses his single-payer health care bill at a Capitol news conference, Wednesday, May 31, 2017, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A longshot California proposal to replace insurance companies with government-funded health care for all of the state’s residents could be paid for with a sales tax hike and a new tax on business revenue, according to a report released Wednesday. The report said those taxes would generate $106 billion annually. It was made public by the influential California Nurses Association as the state Senate faces a Friday deadline to vote on the bill, which outlines how a single-payer health care system would function but does not say how it would be funded. In a study commissioned by the nursing union, researchers at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst suggested a 2.3 percent sales tax and a 2.3 percent gross receipts tax, which would apply to all corporate revenue. Poor residents would get a tax credit to offset the higher sales tax. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Gov. Jerry Brown, both Democrats, have expressed skepticism about the proposal. If it were to clear the Legislature and be signed into law by Brown, it would need cooperation from President Donald Trump’s administration to waive rules about federal Medicare and Medicaid dollars. Charles Bacchi, the president and CEO of the California Association of Health Plans representing 48 health plans, said its 28 million health care insurance participants would have their coverage disrupted and slammed projected cost savings outlined in the study as “overly optimistic.” The study’s findings “rest on the shaky assumption that California will continue to receive the same level of waivers from the federal government,” he said. But California’s single-payer proposal has energized liberals at a time when Trump and Republicans in Congress are looking to roll back parts of former President Barack Obama’s health care law. Union leaders have said they were waiting on the report to suggest a funding source for the single-payer bill they are aggressively promoting. Because California’s proposed health care plan would eliminate out-of-pocket health care costs for consumers, like copays and deductibles, the study said overall health care spending would decrease for the middle class while rising for people with higher incomes. “This bill will be the model for the nation,” said RoseAnn DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association, which represents about 100,000 nurses. She called the measure a “moral imperative.” The report found that providing health coverage for all of California’s 39 million residents would cost about $406 billion a year, in line with a forecast by the Senate Appropriations Committee. But the study said improving efficiency and negotiating lower prices for pharmaceutical drugs could reduce the overall cost $75 billion. Existing state and federal health care funding could provide $225 billion, according to the study. That would leave $106 billion in required funding that California would have to raise with the new taxes. Charles Benton, vice president of the California Association of Health Underwriters, said it is unrealistic to promise that consumers would have no out-of-pocket costs and said he feared the proposal would encourage fraudulent billing that would drive up health care expenses. The study seems “to have massaged the numbers in a way that it would sound appealing and seem to be the silver bullet solution,” said Benton, whose group represents insurers who would lose their companies and jobs under the plan. Two-thirds of the Assembly and Senate would have to approve the tax increases required to fund universal health care, though a vote on the taxes would come later, after the initial simple-majority bill is considered this week. “We are on a collision course for health care costs,” said Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, in promoting his bill. “Having one public-run system will reduce inefficiencies and missed prevention opportunities the way we do with Medicare now. Californians will get more and will definitely pay less.” Employers, business groups and health plans have warned that the tax increases would crush businesses and make it harder for them to expand their workforces in California. Sen. Patricia Bates, the Republican leader, called the proposal “a false promise that will raise taxes, kill jobs and deliver mediocre care at higher cost.” The study’s authors argued that businesses would actually save money under the plan because they would no longer have to cover health insurance for employees. ___ Associated Press writer Don Thompson in Sacramento contributed to this report. |
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