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Meet Anthony Brasfield, charmer and now an alleged felon for his amorous efforts: Anthony Brasfield saw romance when he released a dozen heart-shaped balloons into the sky over Dania Beach with his sweetie. A Florida Highway Patrol trooper saw a felony. Brasfield, 40, and his girlfriend, Shaquina Baxter, were in the parking lot of the Motel 6 on Dania Beach Boulevard when he released the shiny red and silver mylar balloons and watched them float away Sunday morning. Also watching the romantic gesture: an FHP trooper, who instead noted probable cause for an environmental crime. Brasfield was charged with polluting to harm humans, animals, plants, etc. under the Florida Air and Water Pollution Control Act. Here’s hoping Brasfield escapes the possible 5-year imprisonment punishment (or any at all) for this rarely used statute. Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds, who flagged this story, wrote a paper on overcriminalization recently, and its threat to due process: Though extensive due process protections apply to the investigation of crimes, and to criminal trials, perhaps the most important part of the criminal process – the decision whether to charge a defendant, and with what – is almost entirely discretionary. Given the plethora of criminal laws and regulations in today’s society, this due process gap allows prosecutors to charge almost anyone they take a deep interest in. This Essay discusses the problem in the context of recent prosecutorial controversies involving the cases of Aaron Swartz and David Gregory, and offers some suggested remedies, along with a call for further discussion. In other news, Daniel Brewington of Indiana is serving a two-year sentence for writing acidic online commentaries about a local judge: Daniel Brewington was not happy with the way that Dearborn County, Indiana, Judge James D. Humphrey handled his divorce case, during which he lost custody of his children, and he explained why at length in various strongly worded online commentaries. Largely as a result of those posts, Brewington is serving a two-year sentence at the Putnamville Correctional Facility for intimidation, attempted obstruction of justice, and perjury. The punishment Brewington received for condemning Humphrey’s actions has attracted criticism from a wide range of First Amendment advocates, including UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, conservative lawyer James Bopp, a former executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, the Indiana Association of Scholars, The Indianapolis Star, and the James Madison Center for Free Speech. In an amicus brief filed the week before last, they urge the Indiana Supreme Court to overturn Brewington’s conviction for intimidating Humphrey, arguing that the provision under which he was convicted, as interpreted by a state appeals court, threatens constitutionally protected speech about the official acts of public officials. The intimidation charge related to Brewington’s comments about Humphrey, which was treated as a felony because it involved a judicial officer, was based on the allegation that he “communicated to another person a threat with the intent that the other person be placed in fear of retaliation for a prior lawful act.” The threat in this case was that Brewington would “expose the person threatened to hatred, contempt, disgrace, or ridicule.” Upholding Brewington’s conviction on this count, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled last month that “the truthfulness of the threatened disclosure is not necessarily relevant to prosecution because the harm, placing a victim in fear, occurs whether the publicized conduct is true or false.” It added that some of Brewington’s statements about Humphrey were demonstrably false. “Over the course of at least a year,” the court said, “Brewington repeatedly called Judge Humphrey a ‘child abuser.’…Brewington also called Judge Humphrey ‘corrupt’…and accused him of engaging in ‘unethical/illegal behavior.'” For possible solutions to overcriminalization, check out this round-up of links at Volokh Conspiracy, and this from Radley Balko: “The Power of the Prosecutor” |
According to CNN, the Secret Service is investigating an incident where someone appears to have thrown something at President Trump’s motorcade in West Palm Beach today. The incident happened near Mar-a-Lago as the motorcade traveled from the airport. It was not clear if any of the vehicles were struck. No one was hurt. A large number of police officers and Secret Service agents gathered at an intersection along Southern Boulevard. A group of protesters had been at the corner when the motorcade passed. CNN photojournalist Khalil Abdullah at the scene has video of a rock about the size of a baseball and a second item they were examining on the ground. Agents went into nearby stores and a gas station seeking video. A crime scene unit from the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department collected the two items and carried them away in brown bags. |
Nintendo just showed a first glimpse of Zelda for Wii U. It will feature a large overworld map that is very vast. They showed off a demo that we will update this post with shortly; however, the game is set to release in 2015! Excerpt from the press release, reveal trailer, and screenshots after the break... The next installment in The Legend of Zelda franchise: The newest game in the franchise, scheduled for 2015, introduces the first truly open world in a game from the series. Players can roam Hyrule Field or set off on a trek to distant mountains if they prefer. Players can get to any area they can see from virtually any direction. That's one of the ways the game breaks with franchise norms and introduces new ways to play. |
Information Powers and Abilities Weaknesses Misconceptions DO NOT Alien X is Ben Tennyson most powerful Alien ever since it is a being of Near-Infinite Power capable of altering Reality on a Universe to Multiverse power! it is also part of the race known as Celestialsapiens which were said to warp reality changing the reality (design) of the show. He is by far one of the most strongest known Cartoon Network characters to be created and is probably the most strongest within his series as well.Alien X is a Near-Omnipotent reality warper on a Universe to Multiverse scale! if you are new on the concept of Reality Warpers then see our page on Reality Warping!Surviving a universe annihilating bomb which annihilated not just the time,space, and reality but its timelines itself without even a scratch! or any sign of physical damage.This is a Multiverse durability feat! why? because this is the VERY big bang itself that created the Ben 10verse itself not the misinformed information of it only creating a single universe.Alien X has notable powers and abilities Near-Invulnerability,Flight,Faster than Light Speed,Infinite Stamina,Time Manipulation,Space Manipulation,Infinite Strength (Big Bang feat),Creation and many much more with his reality warping powers such as the able to create and destroy entire universes and even the power to destroy a multiverse with 6 thoughts!Alien X once in the control of Ben can easily utilize his own combat experience making him a very basic but also taught fighter as proven with his fight with Galactic Gladiator.Alien X major weakness was his 2 sub-conscious minds not agreeing with each other making him a carrot type character until Ben appeared getting rid of such a weakness but this isn't the only one time.Alien X race CAN'T go near the Planet Anur Vladias or the planet will absorb their Energy to death.Alien X is vulnerable to having his powers absorbed as both Paradox and Azmuth have implied and stated that beings like Darkstar and Kevin's Race the Osmosians can absorb the Nigh-Infinite Power but LIKELY they will have the weaknesses if they are an adult but will not have the same weaknesses as Professor Paradox said that to rid the 2 heads they need to absorb the powers of Baby Celestialsapiens.Alien X like his race can be hurt by one another if put in conflict only.Alien X is NOT a Omnipotent entity (aka a being who wields infinite power) as proven multiple times within the series neither is his race even one of the claimed Authors CONTRADICTED themselves in a Q and A!Alien X has MULTIPLE and STATED weaknesses and vulnerabilities as proven here andlisten to the Ben 10 Wikia profile where they list Alien X as Omnipotent even when they were debunked by me and when i showed them MULTIPLE times he isnt but they believe in character statements from the series and their opinion.Atomic-x is a form of Alien X and Atomic fused together as Atomic-X power set is Nucleokinesis,Radiokinesis,Atomic Blasts,Nuclear Explosions,Heat Generation,Light Energy,Fusion Energy Manipulation,Energy Shields,Flight,Enhanced Strength,Enhanced Durability,Enhanced Agility, and Enhanced Speed the only reason he was affected by time was because Atomic-X is a 50/50 of Alien X and Atomix combined. |
Please enable Javascript to watch this video An elderly Midland woman was injured Thursday night (Nov. 21) after fighting off a pair of home invaders, according to the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office. Two men wearing ski masks, black gloves and camouflage clothing entered the woman's home on Drake Loop near Highway 253 looking for prescription medication, according Sgt. Steve Cox. Authorities said the door to home was not locked. The 70-year-old woman fought the men, at one point throwing a chair at one of the invaders, Cox said. One of the suspects struggled with the woman down the hallway while the other one went straight to the medicine cabinet, according to Cox. "We believe the people had inside knowledge of the home," he said. The sheriff's office said one of the men grabbed the woman and tore the collar of her shirt. She ran to the bedroom and grabbed a pistol, according to authorities. The suspect threw the woman to the bed and got on top of her. The woman pointed her pistol at the man and both men took off with her medications, according to the sheriff's office. The woman ran to a neighbor's house for help and called 911. "These two men rushed me," said the victim. "One went towards my kitchen and the other one was after me. He hit me in the face. I'm bleeding on my left arm because I was fighting with him to try and get away from him to get to the bedroom to get the gun." As the call continued, the victim described a frightening scene with the man who police say attacked her. "I had just grabbed the gun and he said I got you right where I want you. I pointed the gun at him and I said I'll blow your head off." Emergency crews responded to the scene and treated the woman for non-life-threatening injuries, including a gash on her arm, authorities said. The suspects are described as white men about six feet tall with a slender build. Cox said the suspects may be driving a rust colored, smaller model truck with damage to the back fender and no license plate. K-9 units immediately began trying to track the two suspects, authorities said. No arrests have been made. The suspects are facing aggravated burglary charged, according to Cox. Anyone with information on this case is asked to call the Sebastian County Sheriff’s Office at 479-783-1051. |
Looks like the economy isn’t “dying at one percent GDP” after all. In the third presidential debate, Donald Trump deployed one of his typical talking-to-himself shorthand references in denouncing the slow growth levels of the U.S. economy during the Obama administration: “We are going to start the engine rolling again because right now our country is dying. At one percent GDP.” Trump is not the sort of politician who is going to change his tune because of inconvenient facts emerging. But his litany of bad vibes about the U.S. economy may skip a small beat thanks to today’s big economic news: Gross domestic product, a broad measure of goods and services produced across the economy, expanded at an inflation- and seasonally adjusted 2.9% annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said Friday. That was stronger growth than the second quarter’s pace of 1.4%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal expected growth at a 2.5% pace for the July-to-September period. Last quarter’s growth rate was the fastest recorded in two years. The Wall Street Journal’s headline for this story was even more emphatic: “U.S. Economy Roars Back, Grew 2.9% in Third Quarter.” There will be one more official jobs report before Election Day — on Friday, November 4. But unless the numbers are insanely bad or good, they probably won’t make any difference at all to voting decisions — certainly not to the millions of voters who will have already cast early ballots by then. Trump might be well advised to make his closing rants and raves about something else. |
Twitter has allegedly blocked a popular journalist’s posts in Turkey at the request of the country’s government. Mahir Zeynalov, who writes for the Huffington Post and Al Arabiya, announced Twitter’s decision earlier today, claiming, “Twitter told me that it will block my account at the request of Turkey for ‘instigating terrorism,’ putting an end to my ~7-year reporting.” https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov/status/780420919470751744 “This is a farewell message to my followers in Turkey,” he continued. “Love it or loathe it, I always believed in what I wrote and will continue to do so.” https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov/status/780421454437478400 Zeynalov added that another one of his accounts, which only posted in Turkish, was also blocked in Turkey last month by Twitter. https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov/status/780421795207901184 https://twitter.com/MahirZeynalov/status/780422108568547329 Zeynalov frequently writes critical columns about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Recent headlines of his have included “Trump, Erdogan, and Post-Truth Politics”, “The Survival of Erdogan Inc.”, and “Meet Turkish Journalist Who Lost Custody Of Kids Over Critical Reporting”. Previous columns written for the Huffington Post by Zeynalov also include “US Attorney Becomes Rock Star In Turkey For Arresting Erdogan’s Partner”, “Turkey’s Media Faces Imminent Crackdown”, “Another Victim of Erdogan’s Wrath”, “Change Turkey’s Electoral System”, “For US, Turkish Leaders Are Not Reliable Friends”, and “For Turkish Media, It Is All About Carrots and Sticks”. The majority of Zeynalov’s articles for Al Arabiya have also been critical of Erdogan, and include headlines critical of Turkey’s treatment of women, other countries, and the media. After hearing the news of Twitter’s decision to block Zeynalov’s posts in Turkey, Canadian journalist Paul Wells announced his departure from the platform. “I just deactivated my Twitter account, after that company decided to block tweets by the Azerbaijani-Turkish journalist Mahir Zeynalov in Turkey,” announced Wells on his Facebook page. Twitter has come under increasing criticism this year for refusing to address the torrents of racist, harassing, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic, anti-Semitic abuse perpetrated by countless anonymous account-holders against countless others. Twitter has protested, with at least some justification, that it must be sensitive to free-speech concerns. But then along comes a guy who does nothing but document the waves of assaults by the Turkish government against its own citizenry — thousands of arrests, mass firings, lifelong bans against further employment, all without anything resembling Western standards of fair trial. And Twitter blocks him in Turkey at the first request from the Erdogan regime. I can’t endorse this double standard. I was spending too much time on Twitter anyway. Facebook will be a poor substitute, as I aim to try to keep this mostly a personal account to stay in touch with actual friends. But there it is. Charlie Nash is a reporter for Breitbart Tech. You can follow him on Twitter @MrNashington or like his page at Facebook. |
Maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Jon Stewart has put forth such a thoughtful, pertinent first effort with his directorial debut Rosewater. After all, he become world famous for his comedic Daily Show diatribes against the stagnant US political system, corrupt world leaders and human rights atrocities. However, in his new film, Stewart uses the starting point of journalist Maziar Bahari’s 118 day imprisonment in Iran to craft a film condemning of any leadership that values dogmatic hyperbole, and the ignorance of its own people. Rosewater is heartfelt, inspirational, and startlingly funny. Even through its jarring tonal shifts, it serves as an effective message movie from the first time writer/director. Rosewater‘s chronology begins 11 days before Maziar’s imprisonment, as the Iranian-Canadian “NewsWeek” reporter travels to Iran to report on the historic 2009 presidential election. When arriving at the airport, Bahari (played impeccably by Mexican actor Gael García Bernal) meets Davood (Dimitri Leonidas), a driver who helps him get access to parts of Tehran where the different political factions reside. They interview a young supporter (Amir El-Masry) for Ahmadinejad (the famously inept incumbent president) who ardently denies Western media’s reports of possible vote rigging in the upcoming election. “Ahmadinejad is what must be,” he states firmly, with no trace of irony. Davood brings Bahari to see another side, a group of young Mousavi supporters (or “not Ahmadinejad” supporters). These dissenters have formed their own system of education known as “Dish University,” a set of illegally obtained satellite dishes streaming in news from around the globe. However, when shown the collection of satellites, Bahari puts away his camera. “There are certain situations, if you film them, it won’t do your friends or the movement any good,” he says, fearing that any broadcast of this set up would only antagonize an already easily agitated government. Dynamics shift in the following days as Ahmadinejad unexpectedly (depending on whom you ask) takes the election in a landslide, and the sizeable anti-Ahmadinejad contingent take to the streets in protest. For Bahari’s mother (Shohreh Aghdashloo), who has already seen her husband and first-born daughter taken captive by the two previous Iranian regimes, the news of corruption in the voting comes as no surprise. As Bahari continues to cover the conflict, he’s witness to the brutalities suffered by those working against the establishment. After some hesitation, Bahari turns his lens towards the fighting despite the knowledge that it will likely ruffles the feathers of an irritable regime. Bahari informs his concerned, pregnant wife that he needs to remain in Iran longer to bear witness to these historic events, but no one knew just how long he would ultimately stay in the country. Shortly after filming a particularly frightening clash between soldiers and protestors, a group of government officials, led by the man who Maziar labels “Rosewater” (Kim Bodnia), arrive at the Bahari household to investigate him. Without further explanation, the men escort Maziar into the back of their car and off to the unnerving Evin Prison. It’s here in the prison’s solitary confinement and interrogation rooms where most of Rosewater takes place. Subjected arbitrarily to absurd lines of questions, harsh beatings and other methods of torture, Maziar’s attitude shifts between amused, confused, hopeless, hopeful, and even suicidal. This section of Jon Stewart’s film is where he shows some of his inexperience as a filmmaker, as the progression of scenes is a bit uneven, yet the experience is akin to the randomness Bahari faced in detainment. Like Bahari, it’s hard for us as the audience to know what will happen next, whether it’s Rosewater accusing Bahari of being a spy for NewsWeek, the media of the CIA, or a line of questions about Bahari’s three visits to the state of New Jersey. The absurdity of Rosewater’s accusations creates much of the movie’s dark laughs. The weight with which Bahari’s interrogator lobs questions such as, “How many Jews for NewsWeek?” would be silly if he didn’t feel uncomfortably true. Hearing doctrine shot down with terse phrasing has long been a strength of Jon Stewart’s, and while this situation is far from a laughing matter, the inclusion of these moments never feel misplaced or excessive (and reportedly, many moments are lifted directly from Bahari’s book And Then They Came For Me). One of Stewart’s greatest feats with Rosewater is in not simplifying its character into one-dimensional representatives of good or evil. Bahari has many moments of weakness, even agreeing to confess (under duress) to working with spies to bolster the revolution. More notably is the portrayal of the interrogator Rosewater as a simple cog in a bureaucratic process, a lackey for someone with a bigger office and grander title. Even Rosewater’s boss, who oversees all the beatings and torture tactics employed in Evin Prison, has his paranoia colored by the United States’ involvement in the 1953 Iranian coup and Iran-Contra. Rosewater is a movie that allows Jon Stewart the platform to bring his Daily Show sensibilities to a medium with a wider reach, and longer shelf life. His film is entertainment in a surprisingly literal way, considering the subject matter, but it’s simultaneously a film firmly devoted to illustrating an idea: corruption fails under the existence of transparency. While the movie falters at times, notably with its heavy incorporation of graphic overlays to illustrate media coverage and social media use, it’s captivating and ultimately optimistic, and definitely worth checking out. |
Objective of NERV: Human Instrumentality Project Status: Rei Ayanami Continue fusing clones to improve pilot skill level of active unit. Asuka Langley Soryu Continue fusing clones to improve pilot skill level of active unit. Alternative Skill-Up method using fully evolved clone in development; recommending preserving two clones in stasis in case of successful development. Shinji Ikari Max Mari Illustrious Makinami Max Kaworu Nagisa Max Misato Katsuragi 6 remaining clones are to remain in stasis for future applications. Shinji Ikari Kaworu Nagisa Unit MIA All available resources are currently allocated to the acquisition of Unit-13. Last known credible location of Unit-13 is said to be held within a relic of the First Ancestral Race, commonly referred to as the "EVA REM". Lifetime EVA REM Pulls (from EVA Collab 1.11, 2.22 and 3.33): 170+ 200+ 237 254 263 Final Status of 2.22: Unit-13 evaded capture after 254 attempts. FISSION MAILED! |
Wong releases costings of Opposition policies Updated Sorry, this video has expired Video: Penny Wong discusses Coalition budget costings on ABC's Insiders (Insiders) Finance Minister Penny Wong has released a costings document that finds the Opposition's policies would put the budget $9 billion in deficit next financial year. The document uses Treasury and Immigration Department figures which the Coalition has disputed, but it does not include the savings the Opposition has promised to find. Senator Wong has told ABC's Insiders program the Coalition must outline how it will find the money. "We've taken a very conservative position - we have been quite generous to the Coalition," she said. "If Andrew Robb, Joe Hockey, Tony Abbott say this is wrong, tell us where it's wrong, tell Australians where it's wrong, tell us what they're not funding, tell us which savings they are going to make." The Opposition has said it will release its policies closer to the next federal election, as is tradition. But Ms Wong says Opposition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey has claimed to know where savings can be found, and the public is entitled to know what cuts the Opposition is going to make to fund its promises. "I don't think the Coalition can run around credibly claiming to be a party that is economically responsible when they continue to say 'we're going to spend this, we're going to fund this' when they're opposing revenue sources that fund it," she said. "We've had to do this because Tony Abbott simply refuses to tell Australians what he would actually do to the federal budget." The Federal Government says there is a $70 billion black hole in the Coalition's plans for office, but the Opposition has rejected this idea. "This is a Finance Minister who has overseen in the last 12 months a deterioration in the Federal Budget from a $12 billion deficit to a $37 billion deficit," Mr Hockey told Channel Ten's The Bolt Report. "Quite frankly, we're not going to take any lectures on numbers or on fiscal prudence from Penny Wong." Coalition finance spokesman Andrew Robb says the Government's newly-released costings are fictional. "This is really a clumsy attempt by the Government to deflect attention from what now is nearly $100 billion in unfunded or hidden commitments that they have made," he said. Earlier this month, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott promised to set up an audit commission to look at all government spending and report within four months of winning the next election. He said he would significantly restrain spending and streamline the operations of government departments, but did not say how much savings he expected to find. Topics: federal-government, budget, australia First posted |
Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, currently out of jail on parole for a fortnight, has sought an extension of parole on medical grounds, official sources said on Sunday. Dutt, 53, was granted parole from the Yerawada Central Jail Oct 1 to get medical treatment for certain unspecified illnesses. His parole period ends Monday and he has sought another fortnight's extension. The application is under consideration and a decision is likely to be taken shortly, the sources said. A parole is a conditional release of a prisoner for a limited period for a specific purpose and is strictly governed under Indian jail laws. "It does not imply commutation of the sentence or amnesty and is purely decided as per individual cases at the discretion of the concerned authorities," criminal lawyer J.P. Mishra told IANS. Dutt is serving a 42-month sentence for his role in the March 1993 Mumbai serial bombings of March 1993. He was convicted by a Special TADA Court for illegal possession of a pistol and an AK-47 rifle. In March, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction under the Arms Act and reduced his sentence from six years, awarded by a lower court, to five years. He has already served one-and-a-half years behind bars during trial. He returned to Mumbai's Arthur Road Central Jail May 16 to serve the remaining 42 months in prison. Later, on security grounds, he was shifted to Yerawada Central Jail here. |
Since scientists had already found over 90 percent of near-Earth asteroids bigger than 3,000 feet, the team is now focusing on finding ones 450 feet and above. Besides keeping an eye on NEOs, though, the office will also issue warnings in case of potential impacts and help government agencies coordinate with each other. It will be part of the council that's expected to conjure up countermeasures necessary to save our planet in the face of an actual threat, as well. While the space agency didn't say there's an imminent threat, it's already working on formulating possible countermeasures. The Asteroid Redirect Mission that's slated to launch in 2020 will determine if "using the mass of another object to pull an asteroid slightly from its original orbital path" can be used for planetary defense. There's also a joint NASA-ESA project called Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA). That one will show if crashing another object onto an approaching asteroid can change its course and save us all. |
'Distracted Walking' Law Bans Texting While Crossing Streets In Honolulu If you're walking across a street in Honolulu, you'll want to put your phone away. A new law went into effect today making it illegal for a pedestrian to be looking at a screen while crossing the street. AILSA CHANG, HOST: A new law went into effect today in Honolulu. It bans something many of us are guilty of - texting while walking or looking at any screen really, specifically while crossing the street. ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: It's meant to keep pedestrians' eyes up and on the road while navigating crosswalks and city traffic. CHANG: It's thought to be the first law of its kind in any major city, and it's thanks to people in the very age group that gets a bad rap for always staring down at their screens - teenagers. SIEGEL: Teenagers in the Youth for Safety club at Waipahu High School outside of Honolulu. Kel Hirohata is their adviser. KEL HIROHATA: The club is just always kind of looking out. How can, you know, we impact our community? SIEGEL: Hirohata says his students spent a week or two just watching their peers cross the streets outside the school as they left at the end of the day. HIROHATA: We noticed that a lot of students were just looking at their cell phone crossing the street just kind of, like, following along the other students. You know, they weren't looking at all. CHANG: It seemed obviously dangerous, so they got a local councilmember involved, and eventually they helped write a bill. They testified at city council meetings. And ultimately their bill was signed into law. SIEGEL: Fines start at $15 and go as high as $99 for a third-time offense in the same year. But Hirohata says he hopes the law just makes looking up second nature the way laws of the 1980s influenced seatbelt use. HIROHATA: You know, fast forward 25 years, 30 years later, and basically all of my students - when I ask, hey, what do you guys do when you get into the car; you know, what's one of the first things they do - is put on our seatbelt. CHANG: Hirohata happens to also teach drivers ed, and vigilant walking is something he's been preaching long before this legislation. HIROHATA: As you cross the street, you need to make eye contact with the driver, you know - that, hey, I'm crossing the street. I mean, I think this law helps with that - that, hey, get your eyes up, and look around. Be aware of your surroundings. SIEGEL: And one other important note - pedestrians of any age can be fined. So parents, if you are traveling to Honolulu, keep your little one's eyes off the tablets and up on the road. (SOUNDBITE OF MELODIESINFONIE'S "LATENIGHTWALKING") Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. |
Advertisement When traveling for either a short or extended period, it can often be difficult to meet like-minded, interesting people to spend your days and evenings with. Sure, you can bump into some “single-serving friends” on the plane, in a hostel, or at a bar, but finding people who share your own interests can be a real challenge while on the road. Here are 10 ways to use the Web to find new friends while you’re away from home. You can search Meetup.com for different meetups in various cities around the world related to pretty much any interest you can imagine, from entrepreneurship or knitting, to Python or philosophy. Join a meetup group and stay updated via the meetup mobile app and/or email about upcoming get-togethers. If you’re in a city for a while (at least a few months) and the meetup you’re looking for doesn’t exist, simply start your own meetup group Turn Your Internet Relationships Into Real World Friendships With A Meetup Turn Your Internet Relationships Into Real World Friendships With A Meetup There is one thing you must know when organizing a virtual meetup with an online compadre: don't be creepy. The prime consideration you must have is that your friend -- regardless of how close you... Read More — it’s easy! These are “nights” that are organised each week, or each month, in 700 cities around the world. At each event, there will be a selection of speakers who’ll give a short presentation (20 slides, each of which is displayed for 20 seconds) on an interesting project they’re working on, or a fascinating story they have to tell. Before, during and after the event, you’ll have plenty of time to meet interesting people doing amazing things. Oh, and if you want to give a talk yourself, just shoot a message to the event organiser a week or so before you attend. You can find your nearest PechaKucha night on a map. 3. Facebook Groups For many cities and larger towns, you’ll often be able to find a Facebook group where people are sharing knowledge and asking questions about the local area. Usually in these groups, you’ll easily be able to find people who’re happy to meet for a coffee or beer. If you don’t know the name of a relevant Facebook group, try searching for the name of the town or city by hitting “See all” in the search bar, then select “Groups”. This can also work for Google+ Communities too. 4. Online Forums Simply search Google for “Forums: [Town/City]”, and find a number of online communities with members who’ll be glad to meet up. As more and more people take up long-term or even indefinite travel (while earning their salary on the road), you can also join communities such as the Dynamite Circle or The Anywhereists are packed with like-minded folk who’re living that same kind of nomadic digital lifestyle The Intrepids: 5 Inspirations From 5 Digital Nomads Who Work & Travel The Intrepids: 5 Inspirations From 5 Digital Nomads Who Work & Travel Thanks to the Web, we can take inspiration from the many who actually have escaped from the cubicle and have stepped out further with globetrotting. They are the intrepid breed called "the digital nomads". Read More . So long as you stick to the “top digital nomad locations“, there will always be people to grab lunch with! If you have an iPhone, search Instagram (or use Websta.me if you’re using a browser) for hashtags related to where you are in the world, such as #ChiangMai, #NewYork, #NottingHillCarnival etc. Find some users who seem to share your interests, by basing your judgement on their bio, and photos they’ve taken.Leave a comment on a photo asking if they’d be interested in meeting up. Exchange email addresses, and take the discussion further from there. Every day a huge number of couchsurfing events and parties happen around the globe. Find the one nearest to you and just turn up to meet passionate, interesting, funny guys and gals who’re in your neck of the woods. You can even use Couchsurfing to meet new people in your hometown 3 Ways To Take Advantage Of The Travel Network CouchSurfing 3 Ways To Take Advantage Of The Travel Network CouchSurfing CouchSurfing is an online network that connects travelers and locals. Originally based on the idea that travelers need a place to sleep and many people have a spare couch, CouchSurfing has long grown beyond just... Read More too! Instead of choosing to stay in a hotel or your own apartment while traveling, consider using AirBnB to find a host who you can get to know, eat dinner with, go for drinks together and make real friendships. I’ve done this a few times myself, and have met some amazing people in the process. Before you book a room with your hosts, exchange a few messages and see what they’re interested in, whether they’re up for mingling etc. If they are, dive in, make the most of your AirBnB experience A Traveler's Tales: How To Save Money On Your Next Trip With Airbnb A Traveler's Tales: How To Save Money On Your Next Trip With Airbnb We are always eager to cut costs while traveling. Hotels are expensive. Ludicrously so. But are there any alternatives? Until recently, the answer to that question was a loud ‘no' till AirBnB came along. Read More and find yourself a home away from home. There are many specialised social sites that have sprung up around this very idea. BeWelcome is a non-profit that is another example of a traveler’s network — but with a unique approach. An open source network, joining the hospitality exchange site is free and a perfect opportunity to meet like-minded travelers. The working is simple — Members search for other members at their travel destination and contact them via the site. Locals on BeWelcome offer hospitality to travelers and/or can show them around. I haven’t tried out the site, but their footprint of nearly 60,000 members can be seen on this map. Eventbrite as the name says, is similar to Meetup, but more focused on events (some of which you may have to buy tickets for). You can use the search to find out what’s going on in different parts of the world. You can search for events “this weekend”, “this month”, “next weekend” etc, which makes it super easy to find relevant results if you’re only in town for a few days. If you need a ticket to turn up to an event, usually you can simply register on Eventbrite, refresh the Android or iOS app, and the ticket will be saved to your phone. Similar to Instagram, search Twitter for hashtags and mentions of where you are. The majority who’re tagging tweets from a certain place will be there themselves. If they look like the kind of people you could get on with, send them a tweet or direct message asking if they’d be up for getting together at some point. There is more than one way to find interesting people with Twitter 6 Interesting Ways to Find New People on Twitter 6 Interesting Ways to Find New People on Twitter Twitter, by its very nature, provides an endless supply of interesting and engaging Twitter accounts just waiting to be discovered. Here's how to find them. Read More , and one of it may give you the happy results you are looking for. Of course, it goes without saying that you should always meet in a location where you’ll feel safe! Meeting new people and turning them into lifelong friends could be the best part of any trip. It’s your turn to tell us about your travel experiences and the deliberate ways you have used to meet new people. Let us know which other online tools and resources you have used to meet people while traveling. Image Credits: Friendship Via Shutterstock |
Game Info Platform Win Publisher Triumph Studios Developer Triumph Studios Release Date Mar 31, 2014 Age of Wonders 3 is a rush of absolute mastery over an entire world. You're given charge of everything in this fantasy world, from political, economic and social oversight to down-in-the-mud military judgements. But it's up to you to bring all of these elements together and create a functioning kingdom. The result is a complex, engrossing game that is unforgiving in its exploration of the purity of power. The pieces may be familiar — you create cities that provide military units that are used to conquer more cities — but the challenge is deep and endless in its variety. Each individual type of power fantasy at play in Age of Wonders 3 adds to the game's essential feeling of control and agency. You're invited to build a society, creating a culture and infrastructure ideally suited to fit your needs. You have access to magical power that paints the game's world in splashing multiplicities — terraformed farmland, fire-breathing griffins and a huge variety of other spells. And finally, you also create a singular main character, a ruler who grows in power as you capture trinkets and territory. I played as various rulers in campaign mode (pre-selected) and in random maps (personal choices), each growing into discernible individuals as they attained new skills. One character gained the ability to walk through walls; another called on dark necromantic powers. It's not just character skills; Age of Wonders 3 is bursting with leaders, generals, unit types, loot, resources and ancillaries of every stripe. Monsters range from the familiar (poisonous spiders) to the odd (rampaging penguins), and each playable race offers its own comparable but tactically different units. It is a familiar world of fantasy standards, rendered competently through art, animation and sound effects. Twin campaigns from the viewpoint of different alliances walked me through the various races, and invited me to try as many strategies and units as possible. It is arresting stuff, even if the story feels like a slightly overcooked slab of standard fantasy loin, sizzling with intrigue and treachery. But as a tutorial to the random maps where the game really comes to life, it's faultless, presenting a series of strategic problems that I was rarely able to resolve on my first attempt. Age of Wonders 3 dangles seemingly easy solutions in front of the unwary, and I soon learned to be careful in how I resolved military, supply or diplomatic problems. The story feels slightly overcooked The overmap of the world is where the story is writ large in Age of Wonders 3, but it's in the turn-based battle scenes where power is won or lost. This is where the game moves from the grand strategic concerns of city placement and economic balancing to tactical problem like 'oh hell, my dragon is surrounded by three electricity-spitting incubi.' clashes are tense and exhausting, but also engrossing Battles are served up in a variety of environments with all the pomp of a Napoleonic symphony. At the start of each fight, the camera sweeps across the amassed lines of troops — the fidgeting elven archers, the stomping dragons, the impatient orcs. No two battles are the same, and you need to carefully study the positions and powers of each unit to succeed. These clashes are the most tense and exhausting part of Age of Wonders 3, but also the most engrossing. The game's terrain is marked out by hexes, and the core challenge is learning how to marry those hexes with each character's abilities. Every unit has strengths and weaknesses that shift depending on position, the make-up of the enemy troops and the supporting units. It's easy to make a mistake with the game's many stats and abilities, which leads to misplays, which leads very quickly to defeat. Because of the complexity of its systems, Age of Wonders 3 makes for a stern teacher. If you err, you pay. Many times I accidentally sent a ranged unit into a melee situation, or failed to understand the value of attacking a unit from behind, or left a city undefended for one solitary turn, all with disastrous, game-ending consequences. I was astounded at how quickly and unceremoniously some of my games came to an end. It felt unfair at times, but only because I've become accustomed to more forgiving systems in other games. Exercising power in Age of Wonders 3 is all about controlling details to the smallest and most precise, and I was immensely satisfied whenever I was able to put it all together and defeat an enemy force. In fact, Age of Wonders 3 shines the brightest in its toughest moments — in the moments where dozens of my units are scattered across a hillside, contending with an enemy with no hesitation to flank or exploit my weaknesses. The turn-based battles go beyond the basics of placing archers behind infantry and flanking with cavalry. It is a strategic dream-weaver in which I constantly sought new shapes. When I felt frustration, it was born of my own limitations. The game is balanced, coherent, plainly spoken. Magic adds even more complications to the battle system. You're allowed to use one spell per turn until your points run out, but that's often enough to shift momentum. Any plan based on, say, the astounding brutality of a central tank-type unit, is bound to come to grief as lightning bolts rain from the sky or razorsharp tree roots surge through the ground, eating up precious health. I initially tried brute forcing my way through Age of Wonders 3 by stacking units and bringing overwhelming force, but the enemy understood this tactic and would not be bullied. This is truly a grand strategy game; brains are a non-optional component to victory. If easy routes to victory exist, they have eluded me even after dozens of hours. |
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece’s coalition government on Wednesday passed an austerity 2012 budget aimed at shrinking its debt mountain with tax hikes and spending cuts, hours after protesters clashed with police outside parliament. Three major parties backing technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos solidly voted for the budget plan, a package of deeply unpopular measures needed to cut the deficit and show foreign lenders the country is sorting out its finances. “Successful implementation of this budget will restore the country’s international credibility and create the conditions to rescue the economy,” Papademos told lawmakers. “We can’t afford to keep whining...the targets are ambitious but feasible.” But one of the leaders, conservative party leader Antonis Samaras, made clear his support was solely aimed at rescuing Greece from immediate default and vowed to soften tax steps and boost growth measures if he wins power in elections expected in February. “Our disagreements remain... we are approving the budget because it is an absolute priority to safeguard the viability of Greek debt,” said Samaras, whose New Democracy party is the front-runner to win the next election but fall short of an absolute majority. Samaras, who has long opposed the EU/IMF austerity policies imposed by his Socialist rival, former prime minister George Papandreou, under a 110-billion euro bailout agreed in 2010, made clear he will insist on snap elections in February, after Athens clinches a bond swap deal to cut the country’s debt. As lawmakers debated the budget, hundreds of masked youths hurled petrol bombs and clashed with Greek police outside parliament when protesters marched to mark the police shooting of a student in 2008, which led to the worst riots in decades and helped topple the then conservative government. |
Remember that nutso Exosuit—basically a wearable submarine—we showed you back in February? The Exosuit is about to embark on its first real mission: the hunt for one of the world's oldest computers in the Aegean Sea. It's a quest that has paralyzed and, in one case, even killed divers in the past, but the Exosuit will let humans safely dive deeper and longer than ever before. Advertisement The Exosuit was originally for the more humble purpose of diving in the murky depths of New York's wastewater treatment plans. But now it's part of an audacious plan to excavate a Roman shipwreck that once yielded the Antikythera mechanism, the world's oldest computer. When an Exosuitted diver descends 400 feet underwater in September, New Scientist reports, archaeologists are hoping to find a second such computer. Now if you're me, you're probably thinking the suit looks rather ungainly, especially if you're handling delicate, millenia-old artifacts. Pedals inside the suit control thrusters that move the diver through water, but the articulated joints do let each arm and leg move separately. Instead of hands, divers handle objects through chopstick-like claws, as described by New Scientist. Archaeologists will use the Exosuit's manipulators – a claw-like pincer where each of the suit's hands would be – to sift through silt, marine life and centuries of debris. "It's like chopsticks," [a diving specialist] said during trials at WHOI this month. "The first time you use them, you get covered in food. Then you start to get proficient. One drill we've been doing is to use one set of manipulators to open a folding knife attached to the other, then lock it and close it. I managed it twice yesterday." Advertisement Given all the technology behind the Exosuit, it's rather extraordinary to think that the Antikythera mechanism was discovered with primitive diving equipment in 1900. Because of the pressures at depths of 400 feet, divers could only spend five minutes on the seabed. Several were paralyzed and one died. Over a hundred years later, we may finally be able to thoroughly explore this shipwreck—safely this time, we hope. [New Scientist] |
Smash 4 Doesn't NEED a Unified Ruleset, Calm Down. Smash 4 is 7 months old (minus 2 days). I repeat, the game is 7 months old. S E V E N M O N T H S O L D!! In this time we have seen ridiculously huge numbers in attendance and interest in Smash4. Granted, some of this is clearly factors outside of Smash4 itself such as the growing eSports scene as well as the success of the game's predecessors....but still. Apex2015 had ~1000 entrants for Smash4 which is about 2x the size of ANY Brawl tournament and about 2x the size of any non-EVO tournament before Apex2015 (I think?). The point is that Smash4 has a HUGE attendance pool regardless of all the strife that is going around at the moment with customs vs no customs, 2 stock vs 3 stock, stage differences, etc. Florida had a 120 man tournament for an EVO flight even though a majority of the players dislike customs (And even MORE after the tournament ended). However...if we had another huge customs tournament with big rewards you are DAMN sure at least that many people would enter. Huge tournaments are happening everywhere all the time regardless of ruleset and WILL happen regardless of ruleset. There are only a small percentage of people who will boycott tournaments based on rulesets alone and those people typically do not matter (Or unfortunately main Mii Brawler and that's it). But now, for the main point, time to head down memory lane. Back in ~2011 there was a HUGE debate in Brawl over rulesets that ultimately "ended" with a "Smash Back Room Unified Ruleset" which was made by several top players and main TOs. The MLGs had a vastly different ruleset than the majority of the other nationals at the time and people wanted a ruleset that would unite people and "Bring Brawl together and let it shine. What it ACTUALLY did was sever the community even more because once the ruleset came out there were 2 separate camps. "This is what we have wanted" vs "Oh my god why would this be standard fuck this." It was supposed to bring the community under one roof but instead pushed the divide even further and essentially became ineffective within 3 months. THREE MONTHS even though EVERYONE was saying we need a unified ruleset. Granted, part of this was because of Metaknight controversy, but that was one of the reasons people WNATED a unified ruleset in the first place, but Brawl is a different game with different parameters. However, the point still stands that NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO there will always be 2 sides (or in this case potentially 4 sides) to every argument. It doesn't matter if there is a "standard" because as of now we don't have like..Nintendo pushing a ruleset at us and saying "If you don't use this ruleset we don't sponsor you" so it is literally up to every TO to run whatever ruleset he wants, 2 stock, 3 stock, customs, no customs, FLSS, usual stage striking...you get the point. For reference, Melee really got a unified ruleset probably in the 2011/2012 area...11 years after the game was made. Corneria and Super Mario Bros 2, the stage with the birdo and 2 walkoffs were legal for like 6 years in that game. Please do not expect a ruleset to quell the whining that everyone is doing. It won't. It'll just change it to "Why are we using THIS ruleset, what makes it so much better? Why dont' we have X and Y" blah blah you get the point. The problem with a big community is...well there are more opinions that are thrown around. You will NEVER be able to satisfy thousands of people with one ruleset, that shit is NOT possible. My favorite time in Brawl in terms of rulesets was when there were nationals once every 3 months in completely different regions with different rulesets and we would have to adjust for each national in between the time of the other one. Genesis 2, Pound V, Apex, and SKTAR all used relatively different rulesets and we had to cycle through them to practice them. It made SENSE to do it because "This is what everyone is preparing for" and even the players that weren't going to those nationals were on board because as a community you should want your region to be as most prepared for an upcoming tournament as possible. I am not a fan of customs (As you may have read) but I am totally gonna play in every customs tournament until EVO because I need to be prepared. I am also going to be playing in every NON customs tournament until CEO because I need to be prepared. Regardless of the ruleset you should be on board for preparing for whatever your goal is (assuming the goal is larger than the local tournament). TL;DR Having a unified ruleset won't change anything, people will just bitch about that ruleset and literally the same thing will happen. Nationals are ALWAYS what will drive rulesets and unless you are gonna host a national good luck having a say in the matter~ Reply · Report Post |
Let’s get one thing straight: Matt Damon is never going to run for office. The 46-year-old Oscar winner might be politically minded and involved in clean water initiatives through his non-profit Water.org, which he started with co-founder and CEO Gary White, but he’s steering clear of politics. “I’m not going near it,” he tells the Sun down the line from Los Angeles. “I’ll stay in my lane.” But that doesn’t mean he’s going to stand idly by on the sidelines, especially when it comes to his work helping end the global water crisis. To that end, Water.org has teamed up with Stella Artois on a multi-year partnership aiming to provide 3.5 million people with sustainable access to clean water by 2020. Stella and Water.org are working together on its “Buy a Lady a Drink” campaign, which invites Canadians to purchase a branded chalice at LCBO stores in Ontario and online nationally at BuyALadyADrink.ca. Proceeds from the sale will help provide clean water to people in developing countries. This year’s chalices feature designs by three influential artists – Lisa Mam from Cambodia, Fernando Chamerelli from Brazil and Eria Nsubuga from Uganda – in countries where Water.org provides support. “What it’s really about is trying to spread the word so that people understand that if they buy one of these chalices for $16 bucks at an LCBO or online, you’re making a difference in somebody’s life; someone you’ll never meet, someone on the other side of the world. But you’re bringing somebody clean water,” Damon says. So far, the partnership has helped provide over 800,000 people in the developing world with access to five years of clean water. “It’s something that has worked well in the States and we’re hoping it will work well in Canada as well,” Damon says. During a wide-ranging conversation, Damon reflected on his activism, battling monsters in this week’s The Great Wall and whether we’ll see another Bourne flick. You founded Water.org in 2009. How did you become so passionate about clean water issues? A little over 10 years ago, I went on a trip that Bono’s organization DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa) had set up. They would do these trips where you would pay for it, but they would organize it and essentially it was like an extreme poverty mini course. You’d spend 10 days and go to different countries and visit clinics. Each day had a different learning focus; one day would be urban aid, one day would be water, another would be finance. You’d learn about the issues first hand, and talk to people who were working in the field and see the effects of these programs. It was a way to get educated about what the issues surrounding extreme poverty are because it’s harder to relate to for those of us that live in the West and don’t encounter them every day. So, it was on that trip that I was exposed to the water and sanitation issue and just the enormity of it was so shocking to me. Again as a westerner, the concept of lacking access to clean water was so foreign to me and to everybody that I know. Also, the fact that nobody was talking about it in the West was what first piqued my interest. You’ve been in the public eye for 20 years. How do you come to be someone who speaks out on social issues? I think a lot of it has to do with the way that we talked about these issues in my house when I was a kid. When I got a little older, my mom started to take me places… she took me to some rural areas in Mexico that were pretty poor. She took me to Guatemala. So before I got to college I’d seen what the Third World looked like and what the reality was for people living there. I had a glimpse of it and I understood that it was there. As I got older and I established my career and realized that I had some time to give and I had a larger sphere of influence than I ever anticipated, I realized this was a right way to spend my time. Tell us about the partnership with Stella Stella did this campaign with us where we tried to raise awareness about this clean water issue and they had these chalices made by artists in the country in which Water.org was working and they’re these beautiful chalices and each one tells a story… in the States lots of people bought them, we raised a bunch of money and we looked at each other and said, ‘Let’s do this again.’ After doing this for two years we’ve reached over 800,000 people with clean water. In this day and age, consumers are so much smarter and this younger generation is so much more attentive to these issues than my generation – Generation X – was. These kinds of issues and campaigns matter to them and they will get activated around things like this. Do you have any political aspirations? No, no, not at all [laughs]. Have you seen the state of politics in my country? I like making movies. Turning attention to your films, you’ve got a big action movie, The Great Wall, out this week. What can fans expect? This is a big, fun popcorn movie. It’s about monsters attacking the Great Wall and humans fight the monsters. For me, it was the chance to do a movie that I would have wanted to go see when I was 12. It was just a chance to dress up and have a bow and arrow and have fun. But it also gave me an opportunity to work with my favourite Chinese director, Zhang Yimou. If you remember the Beijing Olympics, Zhang Yimou directed those, so he’s really incredible at visually choreographing things on a massive scale. It’s very epic and huge. Definitely bring your popcorn. Manchester by the Sea is up for six Oscars at this month’s Academy Awards. You were originally supposed to star. Any regrets that you gave up the part to Casey Affleck? I regretted it the moment that I gave it away. I regretted that I wouldn’t be able to play (Lee Chandler), but I went into that whole experience with my eyes open. I wanted to see that film get made and get made really well. I said that from the outset. We were making it and we ran out of time before The Martian. I said, ‘I’ll do it in two years,’ and then (director) Kenny (Lonergan) said, ‘But I’m ready now.’ We had always talked about Casey and the only person I could ever give this up to was Casey. I grew up with him and he’s one of the best actors that I’ve ever seen in my life and I love him. Casey and I had done one of Kenny’s plays in London about 15 years ago – that’s how Casey and I knew Kenny. So it felt right; it felt like a circling of that whole thing. The three of us will always be attached to this project; I’m still a producer on it. But it just felt absolutely right. Having been in this business for a long time, I really have come to the conclusion that the right actor always gets the part. What’s meant to be is meant to be and I can’t look at this movie – I’ve read 20 drafts of it and I’ve seen 10 cuts of it – and I can’t imagine anyone else playing that role. Casey’s just magnificent. You’re going to be playing Linus Caldwell in Ocean’s Eight – what can you tell us about that? I don’t think I can tell you much. I’m going to go shoot my bit in a couple of weeks, so I haven’t been on set yet and I think that’s the way they want it. I think they want it to be a secret. I’m excited to see what the women do with it. It’s a fun idea and we certainly had a great run with it. Now it’s time for the ladies to take over. Will we see another Jason Bourne movie? If we can figure out a good story; it’s always about that. This last one didn’t do as well as the one we did 10 years ago, so maybe people are done with the character. It would have to be a pretty incredible story to get us all back on the horse. Having said that, we all love working together and those movies are a lot of fun to make so we sure would be happy to do it. Twitter: @markhdaniell MDaniell@postmedia.com |
Two detainees charged with taking over a division of the Cook County Jail for about three hours last month have been ordered held on a $1 million bond each. Division 10 detainees Cordarryl Stevenson and Martin Alvarado took control of the housing unit about 4:30 p.m. on July 28, covering the floor with soapy water and obscuring the fixed cameras in the unit before tearing them down completely, according to the Cook County sheriff’s office. About three hours later, the jail’s Emergency Response Team entered the unit and took custody of Stevenson and Alvarado. An injured detainee who had been taken hostage was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, and a weapon was recovered, according to the sheriff’s office. The other 15 detainees and staff members were not hurt. Stevenson, 27, was charged with possession of contraband in a penal institution, forcible detention, aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery, criminal damage to county property and mob action, all felonies, according to the sheriff’s office. He has been in custody at the jail since September 2014 on charges of armed robbery and aggravated vehicular hijacking in Skokie, and has previously been convicted of residential burglary and robbery. Alvarado, 24, was charged with aggravated unlawful restraint, aggravated battery, forcible detention, mob action and possession of contraband in a penal institution. He has been in the jail since April 2015 on a charge of first-degree murder for beating his girlfriend’s 1-year-old son to death at their Cicero home. On Monday, Judge Donald Panarese Jr. ordered each man held on a $1 million bond, court records show. They are both scheduled to appear back in court Aug. 29. Copyright SunTimes / NBC Chicago |
OFFICIALS have held secret talks about dumping the Royal Family as the head of the Commonwealth. Secret US cables uncovered by website WikiLeaks reveal Prince Charles will not automatically assume the title when the Queen dies. The top bureaucrat who runs the Commonwealth has told US officials in London that Prince Charles is no cert- ainty because he does not "command the same respect as the Queen". Commonwealth secretariat director of political affairs Amitav Banerji secretly told the US that "succession" would have to be addressed by leaders of the Commonwealth nations, including Australia. "Banerji acknowledged that succession of the Head of the Commonwealth would have to be dealt with when Queen Elizabeth passes, as there is no rule stipulating that the British monarch is the head and no procedure for selecting a new head," the cable says. Commonwealth officials believed Prince Charles was not particularly interested and said the Commonwealth was trying quietly to get him to become more involved in Commonwealth affairs. Mr Banerji said that complicating any move against the Royals was their ownership of the headquarters in London. "Banerji noted Marlborough House, the Commonwealth Secretariat's current location, was a royal property, owned and funded by the British Royal Family, and mused that may be a factor in the discussions," the cable says. Removing the head of the Royal Family as leader of the "Commonwealth of Nations" would be a major blow to the British monarchy with several nations - including Australia - likely to revisit the republican debate when the Queen dies. Already 16 of the 54 Commonwealth nations have dumped the monarch as the head of state and removed "British" from its official title. Another leaked cable revealed Britain's ambassador to the Vatican feared the Pope's invitation for disgruntled Anglicans to switch to Catholicism might spark anti-Catholic violence in the United Kingdom. Ambassador Francis Campbell told US diplomats that "Anglican-Vatican relations were facing their worst crisis in 150 years as a result of the Pope's decision", according to the cable dated November 30, 2009. The cable, sent to Washington, added: "The crisis is also worrisome for England's small, mostly Irish-origin, Catholic minority," Mr Campbell said. "There is still latent anti-Catholicism in some parts of England and it may not take much to set it off. The outcome could be discrimination or in isolated cases, even violence, against this minority." Mr Campbell was speaking to US deputy chief of mission to the Holy See, Julieta Noyes, after a recent visit to Rome by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican church. The previous month, Pope Benedict XVI had made it easier for Anglicans disaffected by moves to ordinate women and homosexual clergy to join the Roman Catholic church. |
Thompson suit jacket in chino is rated 4.2 out of 5 by 20 . Rated 5 out of 5 by GrammaB from Great Summer Look Though this is presented as a suit coat, because it is cotton, I purchased it for my husband to wear as a sports coat. He loves the fit and the look is pure class! Rated 5 out of 5 by Pookie from Quality Spring/Summer suit Just tried it on, well taliored for off the rack. Might put some cuffs on it. Was little concerned it might be too powder blue, but the color is spot on. Going to enjoy this suit all summer long. Rated 5 out of 5 by Jordyn from Great vacation apparel I purchased this full suit for formal nights on an upcoming cruise to the Caribbean. Although I have not yet worn it on this vacation, I am confident it will be a hit. This jacket fit right out of the box. It is lightweight, and the color is as pictured in the photos online. The construction is as expected for a less expensive suit--not fully lined, and perhaps not the best choice for daily wear. But I bought it as a summer piece to be worn a few times per year. In that area, this suit shines. I am very satisfied with my purchase, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a stylish, well-fitted jacket. Rated 5 out of 5 by Timmy from Colorful, Comfortable and Classic Factory Thompson slim suit fit like a glove,. I ordered the matching pants and the waist and length were the best I have had on a suit - ever. No tailoring. Exactly as described. I am very particular and totally pleased. Wouldn't bother to write this if I did not feel so strongly.. |
I love that turning-point moment in a project where everything suddenly clicks into place. That goes double when several hours of my time have seemed all for naught. After a successful day of photography yesterday, I decided to embark on a small weekend project: creating an Android-based remote shutter controller for my DSLR. Nikon sells dedicated units for anywhere between $20 and $260, but I’d seen microcontroller-based homebrew designs in the past and wanted to try my hand. For those unfamiliar with photography, a remote shutter release may not immediately seem useful outside of taking group photos – and that’s why built-in timers exist. However, there are several situations where a timer falls short of what’s required for a quality result. When taking longer-exposure pictures, it’s absolutely critical that the camera be as still as possible to prevent motion blurring. Even with a tripod, you’ll often find that the minute camera movement introduced by pressing the shutter button is more than enough to spoil a shot (I found this out the hard way while capturing fireworks at Lake Tahoe in 2009. Some of the shots were great, but a good deal had just enough motion blur to distract the eye). HDR (High Dynamic Range) photographs have become massively popular with the advent of sophisticated post-processing tools (Photoshop, most notably). One main method of shooting HDR photographs is to shoot three (or more) pictures of the same subject over a range of exposures. This allows the camera to capture information about dark and light areas individually, rather than prioritizing for one and sacrificing data for the other. Those photographs are stitched together in software later to form an image with exquisite detail. When shooting the multiple exposures, it’s important that the camera remain motionless between shots. However, photographers will notice that changing exposure settings and pressing the shutter release button will move the camera slightly, even with a sturdy tripod. In my short time as an amateur photographer, I’ve run into situations where having a remote shutter would have helped tremendously. With an open weekend and a brand new Ikea desk, I had a perfect storm of DIY brewing. Concept After queueing up an utterly ridiculous number of songs on Grooveshark and brewing some tea, I started researching some other DIY remote projects. I was delighted to see that a handful of other folks had created remotes for their DSLR cameras; there is also a wealth of resources for building an iPhone- or Android-based universal remote control. As it turns out, Phillips developed a communication protocol for infrared (IR) communications in the 80s called RC-5 that has become a de-facto industry standard. Like AM radio, it “modulates” the control signal to a much higher carrier frequency (because higher frequencies can travel further through air without attenuating) and is “de-modulated” at the receiver. Nikon IR remotes use this same method of IR modulation at a carrier frequency of 38kHz. Several hobbyists reverse-engineered the Nikon ML-L3 remote and recorded the control signal generated to trigger the shutter. Several sources I found disagreed on the exact timings, but this is the version I used (credit goes to SB-Projects): The black bars in this diagram represent the times where the IR LED must be “on”. Since we’re modulating this signal at 38kHz, the LED is actually blinking 38 thousand times per second when “on.” No big deal, right? I mean semiconductors can switch billions of times per second these days. Ordinarily, that would be spot-on, but I wanted to create an Android-based application for my phone. My HTC Incredible (and the overwhelming majority of smartphones) are very limited when interfacing to external hardware. Besides the USB port, I really only have the audio/headphone jack to work with. That would be perfect, except for one small detail. Human hearing is “limited” to a range of about 20Hz to 20kHz (which is really a huge range), which means audio hardware rarely needs to function above a 20kHz ceiling (let’s call it 22kHz just for fun). Due to some complicated properties of signal processing (the Nyquist-Shannon Theorem for the bold), in order to prevent distortion of a 22kHz signal, a recorder must “sample” the signal at 2*22kHz, or 44kHz. No doubt, audiophiles reading this know that 44.1kHz is a common audio recording sample rate. So what? 44.1kHz is above your modulation frequency of 38kHz, isn’t it? There’s one other part of the equation we haven’t looked at yet: filtering. There’s a condition on our Theorem that your original signal audio signal can’t have any frequencies above 22kHz (for a 44kHz sampling rate). If it does, these will become distorted. To guarantee this condition without any extra software, most sound cards will filter any input/output signals with a cutoff frequency of about 22kHz (so a frequency of 10kHz will pass, but a frequency of 30 kHz will not). So our 38kHz modulated signal is hosed. Luckily, in the early 2000s, a man named Paul Griffin (of Griffin Technologies) developed a method of using a stereo audio signal to generate a 38kHz modulated IR signal! Here’s the patent for the interested. Here’s a very simplified explanation of how it works: each stereo channel switches an IR LED off and on at a frequency of about 19kHz (which is below a typical sound card filter cutoff frequency). When one channel is switching off, the second channel will be switching back on. If this is timed just right, the switching frequency will effectively double to ~38kHz. Hardware Since an LED is still a diode, it will only turn on once a positive voltage has appeared across its terminals. In real LEDs, there is a turn-on voltage that must be exceeded before the light will be visibly bright (of course, with IR LEDs, you won’t be able to see the light). Thus, we can start to create a circuit with two LEDs that will work with a standard audio jack. The original circuit schematic was included in Griffin’s patent (you read it, right?), but Former Bender at the Hackint0sh forums created a really nice diagram (and a great post) about adding IR output to iPhones. Here is his version (part of the iCouchPotatoe project) of the transmitter circuit with the 1/8″ audio jack included: Boom. A few dollars of hardware at RadioShack gets you a fully-functional audio jack-based IR transmitter, although you won’t win any aesthetics contests with it. Software I’ve been dabbling in Java/Android off-and-on for a few months now (more off than on, truthfully), so I know just enough about creating apps to be dangerous. For an absolutely basic remote app, all I really need is a button that, when pressed, will play an audio file that contains the shutter release control sequence. The Android platform includes the MediaPlayer class that will open a file and play it without requiring any sort of user interface. You can start() , stop() , or pause() the code, but all this application requires is a start command. The [extremely ugly] user interface is a button that activates the audio file. In order to play the media on a click, you have to register a listener that will execute a callback function when the click event happens. Android uses the OnClickListener class. Simple. Feel free to browse the source here. Here’s a screenshot of the UI: Gorgeous! Control Waveforms Alright, the hardware is complete (though untested) and I can successfully play audio at the click of a button. Now to generate the modulated waveform from earlier in the post. One of the methods for obtaining the audio files to control IR devices is to create a circuit that will perform the opposite function as our transmitter: read the IR signals from a real remote and convert those into audio files with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The iCouchPotatoe project also includes schematics for a detector, but I wanted a quicker and (hopefully) easier approach. Luckily, another individual wanted to programmatically generate these waveforms. There is an implementation of the RC-5 protocol by Phillips called Pronto that is used on their higher-end devices. It is a slightly more sophisticated version of IR signaling that transmits a preamble of meta-data that tells the device what kind of data it will be receiving (how many bytes, what modulation frequency, etc). Andrey Mikhalchuk at rtfms.com wrote a program in Python that accepts strings of Pronto Hex Codes and converts them into the appropriate .wav file (with the help of some scientific computing python packages). Andrey’s source code is available on his post about IR transmission. After doing some reading about Pronto codes, I was able to translate the waveform shown above into a hex code string. Here it is, just for fun: 0000 006d 0008 0000 0000 00FF 004C 042D 0013 0039 0013 0086 0013 0966 004C 042D 0013 0039 0013 0086 0013 0966 0000 0000 So, what does it sound like? Follow this link and click “View Raw” in the gray box to download. Don’t listen to this with the volume too loud. 38kHz square waves aren’t really that pleasing. Initial Test With all of the pieces in place, I mounted my tripod in the living room of my apartment, plugged in my IR transmitter, and set the camera to remote mode. Moving in front of the camera, I opened my IR Emulator app, aimed the transmitter, pressed the button and… …. nothing. Damn. I double-checked my setup and tried it again several times. No luck. Having tested continuity on the transmitter assembly after soldering, I suspected the waveform to be part of the problem. Luckily, my music side project had influenced me to install Ableton Live a few months ago, so I had a tool for inspecting the waveforms. Since I knew exactly what pattern was required, I had some diagnostic tools in my toolbelt. Here is a view of the beginning of the first 2ms pulse, zoomed in: The timebase is cropped from this image, but counting the pulses yielded about 20-25 pulses per millisecond, which is about what we expected (19kHz cycles times times per millisecond). The two lines in this image are the two stereo audio channels. As I described (simplistically) above, those two channels will take turns switching so that the final signal is double the frequency of the individual channels. Can you see anything wrong with this picture? For some reason, the two channels are switching at the same time, instead of switching in an alternating fashion. Thus, the IR LEDs are transmitting at half the designed modulation frequency. When my Nikon camera is decoding the transmission, the effective 19kHz signal is being ignored. Game Over. Using my Live-fu, I developed a strategy to fix my phase error without re-generating another (potentially incorrect) waveform. By duplicating this waveform, adding it to another track, and manually shifting it ahead in time by half a cycle, I effectively created the alternating signals. To export the new pair of tracks as individual stereo channels, I panned the first track 100% right and the second track 100% left. Here’s the same part of the control waveform after my modification: Notice that the channels have been offset by about half of a 19kHz cycle (~26 microseconds). Deep breath. Second Test I updated the waveform in my application, built it, and redownloaded to my phone. Posing for the camera, I clicked the shutter button, and… …nothing. Damn. Oh wait! I forgot to put it into remote mode. Ready, aim,… Note the Chicago parking ticket on my coffee table. Whoops. A successful mini-project. Thanks to all of the hackers who paved the way by reverse-engineering the Nikon communication protocol, generated the hardware schematics, documented the Android platform, and wrote software to generate waveforms. Without that foundation, this would have taken much longer. Cheers, Ryan Sources: Wikipedia’s RC-5 Entry Barry Gordon’s Discussion of IR signaling and Pronto codes Paul Griffin’s Patent Work Andrey Mikhalchuk’s Work at RTFMS.comStan Bergman’s ML-L3 reverse-engineering Android Developers Network |
When the oil and gas industry came to the small town of Dryden, NY (population: 14,500) with plans to start fracking, things didn’t turn out quite how they expected. Scroll down to find out how a group of neighbors turned the tables on a powerful industry—and changed the fracking game forever. (15 photos + comments) Downtown Dryden, NY. Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice 1The small town of Dryden is located in upstate New York, nestled among farms and rolling hills. Parades down Main Street, picnics at nearby Dryden Lake, and the famed annual Dryden Dairy Day—celebrating community and local farmers—are all hallmarks of the close-knit town. Marie McRae on her farm in Dryden, NY. Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice 2Marie McRae has farmed in Dryden for nearly 30 years. She loves her peaceful plot of land. “I tell people that at night, it’s so quiet you can almost hear the Milky Way.” In 2007, she was approached by a representative of the oil and gas industry, known as a landman, who wanted to lease her land to drill for gas. She told him no. Over the next year, the landman hounded McRae, approaching her six more times. He told her even if she didn't lease her land, they would still drill. Signing the lease was the only way she could protect her farm, he said. So Marie signed the lease. She had no idea what would come next. Her lessons and her journey were just beginning. Deborah and Joanne Cipolla-Dennis at their home in Dryden, NY. Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice 3Deborah and Joanne Cipolla-Dennis are a happily married couple living in Dryden. They had recently moved to town after searching far and wide for a tolerant, rural community where they could build their dream home. Soon after they had begun construction on their energy efficient home made with all green materials, they too were approached by the oil and gas industry. The couple refused to sign the lease. Not long after they turned down the industry, they met Marie. Marie shared her story and suggested that they join with her and other neighbors to learn more about the oil and gas industry’s plans for their town. Air pollution, traffic problems, water contamination and earthquakes have occurred in communities near fracking sites. Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice 4Marie, Joanne and Deborah learned that Dryden was just one of many places being targeted as part of a nationwide oil and gas rush sped along by what was then a little-known technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The process involves mixing water and chemicals together and shooting them deep underground to release gas and oil from the bedrock. The process has been linked to air and water contamination, industrial explosions, even earthquakes. "The more I learned, the more I couldn't believe what I had done by signing the lease. I had to find a way to stop them from coming and ruining our town," McRae said. Joanne Cipolla-Dennis at a Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition (DRAC) meeting. Chris Jordan-Bloch / Earthjustice 5"The industry kept saying: 'We have the power; you have none. We are coming. Get out of the way or leave,'" said Joanne Cipolla-Dennis. "At the meetings we were trying to figure out if there was anything we could do. We were like deer in headlights." But word was spreading about a way that towns could fight back. Two lawyers from a nearby town had done some research into New York state law—and what they found was promising. "There was a way to help our town, but we had to act quickly." |
Vice President Pence and Republican leadership had a lot to say about why someone under FBI investigation should not be president. They don't want to be held to those words now. Donald Trump and the GOP repeatedly declared that Hillary Clinton should not be president because of an FBI investigation into her email practices. Now that James Comey has revealed an investigation exists into the possibility of collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government, we should hold the Trump administration and the GOP to their words that an FBI investigation into a president is a disqualifying event. In the final run up to Election Day, Mike Pence, then vice presidential candidate and governor and now Vice President, appeared on Fox News and brought up the FBI investigation of Clinton, asserting “no one is above the law,” and praising the FBI: “Hillary Clinton and her foundation are under a current investigation by the FBI…I mean, Chris, the American people know no one is above the law. We commend the FBI for following the facts and reopening the investigation.” A mere week before Election Day, Priebus and the Republican National Committee took the extraordinary step of releasing a statement asserting the Democratic candidate for president, Hillary Clinton, should be disqualified from running due to the FBI investigation: “The FBI’s decision to reopen their criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s secret email server just eleven days before the election shows how serious this discovery must be. This stunning development raises serious questions about what records may not have been turned over and why, and whether they show intent to violate the law. What’s indisputable is that Hillary Clinton jeopardized classified information on thousands of occasions in her reckless attempt to hide pay-to-play corruption at her State Department. This alone should be disqualifying for anyone seeking the presidency, a job that is supposed to begin each morning with a top secret intelligence briefing.” The use by the Trump campaign and the GOP of the FBI investigation as a weapon to undermine Clinton began early. In October 2015, Dan Scavino, Jr., the Trump campaign’s director of social media and the now assistant to the president, had said “nobody” else other than Clinton would dare to run with a “scandal” like being investigated by the FBI: Running for #POTUS with an FBI investigation. Who else could run for #POTUS w/ such a scandal? Nobody. https://t.co/p1Vh9cQezs — Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) October 14, 2015 In February 2016, Sean Spicer, the then communications director for the GOP and the now White House press secretary, said this: @AriMelber not if @HillaryClinton becomes nominee – probably tough to get excited aboutt someone under FBI investigation — Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) February 20, 2016 In June 2016, Kellyanne Conway, the then Trump campaign advisor and now special counsel to the president, used the FBI investigation to mock Clinton’s historic nomination as the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party: #Hillary made history today:we've not nominated someone under FBI investigation whom a majority of Americans says not trustworthy not honest — Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) June 7, 2016 As a candidate, Trump himself angrily asserted that a president under criminal investigation by the FBI to “govern or lead” and that it would be “impossible” for government to function if a president was under such investigation. Through January 2017, Trump said Clinton should not have even been able to run because of the FBI investigation: What are Hillary Clinton's people complaining about with respect to the F.B.I. Based on the information they had she should never….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2017 have been allowed to run – guilty as hell. They were VERY nice to her. She lost because she campaigned in the wrong states – no enthusiasm! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2017 A week before the election, Trump surrogate Senator Marco Rubio spoke before an audience in Florida and engaged in this exchange: Rubio: “Can this country afford to have a president under investigation by the FBI?” Audience: “No!” Rubio: “Think of the trauma that this would do to this country.” Trump and Republican leaders have called an FBI criminal investigation into a president “disqualifying” as to the responsibilities of the position and a “trauma” to this country. They have asserted, correctly, that no one is above the law in the United States. We must work together to hold them to those words with respect to Donald Trump and any and all of his associates who might be implicated in the FBI investigation revealed by FBI Director Comey. |
Finland’s Solothus made a powerful full-length debut with their 2013 album Summoned From the Void reviewed here) — so powerful that one might not have expected them to climb much higher with their next album. But they have. The new work is named No King Reigns Eternal, and you can listen to it here in its entirety. The new album blends many of the same ingredients that were present in Summoned From the Void, yet the songwriting is even stronger, the wrenching melodies even more memorable, the guitar performances even more exceptional and varied, and the overall emotional impact of the album even more potent. No King Reigns Eternal is an artful combination of staggering heaviness, neck-snapping aggression, and cold, alabaster beauty. It generates an atmosphere of emotional collapse and physical decay, but it gets the blood pumping, too. The iron backbone of the album is of course doom, anchored by huge, groaning riffs and bleak, bereft melodies that flow like a slow river of tears into a lake of death. Kari Kankaanpää’s cavernous, guttural growls are staggering, and a fine match for the music’s massive, crawling weight. But Solothus continue to display a fine sense of dynamics, breaking the generally mid-paced rumbles in different ways — sometimes dropping the pace even further, into the dying crawl of funeral doom, and sometimes ramping up the tempo and the riffs into head-hammering chugs or rapid-fire jabs that sound like a death metal freight train rushing right at you. And the capable drumwork on this album feeds life into even the slowest and most dismal passages, just as Kankaanpää picks his moments to unleash throaty, enraged yells and impassioned, anguished howls. The album also showcases one memorable guitar performance after another, thanks to the duo of Veli-Matti Karjalainen and Sami Iivonen. As much as the riffs moan and groan like wounded behemoths, the guitar solos and harmonies are often high, serpentine, and sensuous. They are, of course, sodden with sorrow, but also soulful and spellbinding. The standout guitar solo in “Malignant Caress” soars like a hawk seeking the sun in a grey winter sky, and there are some thick, melodic riffs in the album that could almost be at home in an album of desert stoner rock — though here they’re surrounded by cold, mountainous crags. As they did on Summoned From the Void, Solothus end the album with an especially long song — here, “The Winds of Desolation”, which breaks the ten-minute mark. The song’s wraith-like lead guitar gets the hooks in immediately, and then the enormous riffs and drum blows hammer them in. As the music collapses into a ponderous drag, you get one sinuous solo, and then a longer and even more scintillating one after the band roll out a massively headbangable rocking jam that carries the album to a close. In a nutshell, this is a fantastic album that turns out to have more facets than you might expect — it’s solid as granite from beginning to end and likely to stand the test of time. No King Reigns Eternal will be released by Doomentia Records and it’s available of pre-order HERE. Doomentia will provide a digital version via Bandcamp as well. The great cover art is by Juanjo Castellano (and Mark Riddick crafted the second illustration in this post, for a Solothus t-shirt). https://solothus.bandcamp.com https://www.facebook.com/Solothus/ http://www.solothus.com http://www.doomentia.com https://doomentiarecords.bandcamp.com |
Man sought in flammable liquid attack S.F. CRIME Dexter Oliver is wanted by SFPD on suspicion of attempted murder and arson. Dexter Oliver is wanted by SFPD on suspicion of attempted murder and arson. Photo: Courtesy SFPD Photo: Courtesy SFPD Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Man sought in flammable liquid attack 1 / 5 Back to Gallery A woman in San Francisco's Bayview district was hospitalized with life-threatening burns Sunday after police say a man she had been dating threw flammable liquid on her. Officers responded to reports of a woman screaming near the intersection of Hollister Avenue and Jennings Street around 12:17 p.m. Sunday and found a woman in her early 20s who had been severely burned. The woman, whose identity was withheld by police, was rushed to the burn unit of St. Francis Memorial Hospital for treatment. Police identified her attacker as Dexter Oliver, 22. Oliver and the woman had been dating, police say. Although police did not offer a motive for the attack, they accused Oliver of throwing some kind of ignitable liquid onto her. Oliver remains at large. Police described him as black, approximately 5 feet, 10 inches in height, weighing 155 pounds, and said he was last seen wearing a red-and-white hoodie jacket, gray-and-red Nike shoes and pajama pants decorated with multicolored shamrocks. Oliver also reportedly has a haircut with a fish design on one side of his head and a lightning bolt on the other. Oliver is wanted on suspicion of attempted murder and arson, according to a San Francisco Police Department news release. Anyone who comes in contact with Oliver is asked to call the police. |
BALTIMORE (WJZ)— Police have issued an arrest warrant for a man wanted in the assault of two elderly people back on May 4th in Baltimore. Police say 20-year-old Darrell Johns robbed an elderly couple at gunpoint inside their home located in the 100 block of Rochester Place. John and Rosalie Sellman recounted the terrifying experience to WJZ saying they were attacked after arriving home from an evening out. RELATED: Elderly Couple Followed Into Baltimore Home, Robbed At Gunpoint “The next thing I know I hear the door slam and this guy is standing just about on top and has a gun to my head,” said John. “The gunman kept yelling, “I’m going to kill your wife,” John says. Johns wife, Rosalie says, “I just gave him the money and he said, ‘this isn’t enough’ and I said, ‘that all there is.’” The suspect later fled the scene on a bicycle. Neither of the victims were injured in the incident. Anyone with information on Johns’ whereabouts is asked to call police at (410) 396-2422. |
(CNN) A pair of top House Democrats are digging into whether former national security adviser Michael Flynn may have misled officials on his security clearance form about two Middle East trips -- including one reportedly about building $100 billion worth of nuclear energy plants with help from Russia's nuclear power agency. The top Democrats on the House oversight committee and the House foreign affairs committee sent a request to Flynn's lawyers -- as well as two consultants -- seeking additional documents about a summer 2015 trip he took to the Middle East to float a nuclear energy deal involving Russia. The letter cites a recent Newsweek article detailing Flynn's previously undisclosed trip and a plan that involved Saudi Arabia selling energy from the nuclear projects to US allies in the Middle East and a promise from those Gulf countries to purchase $100 billion in arms from Russia that otherwise would have been sold to Iran. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the foreign affairs committee, also asked for more details about an October 2015 trip Flynn took to the Middle East, citing details from Flynn's security clearance, including what Flynn told investigators. The hotel Flynn says he stayed at does not exist, and there is no record of a travel companion he took with him, Cummings and Engel wrote. The request comes just two months after the House oversight committee revealed that Flynn never documented payments he received from RT-TV, generally considered to be an arm of the Russian government, on his 2016 application for a renewed security clearance. Then-House oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz noted at the time that Flynn may have broken the law, but also said that was not a determination for congressional investigators to make. House investigators note that they do not know precisely when Flynn traveled to the Middle East for the nuclear deal, but they cite a discrepancy between the June 10, 2015 testimony he gave to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and his official August 2015 start date he lists with Hewlitt's consulting company. Investigators note Flynn testified on June 10 that he had taken a recent trip to the Middle East and discussed nuclear power issues, and one week after he testified, Saudi Arabia and Rosatom (Russia's nuclear energy agency) signed a deal. At the time of his House testimony, Flynn said he was testifying on behalf of his Flynn Intel Group and had not received any money from a foreign government related to the subject of the hearing. Cummings and Engel said Monday that the broader pattern has led them to pry deeper into the information Flynn has left off of his 2016 security clearance application. "Most troubling of all, we have no record of Gen. Flynn identifying on his security clearance renewal application -- or during his interview with security clearance -- even a single foreign government official he had contact with in the seven years prior to submitting his security clearance application," Cummings and Engel write in their June 19 letter. The investigators also sent the request for information to Rear Adm. Michael Hewitt and Alex Copson, a pair of energy and security consultants who reportedly worked with him on the Saudi-Russia nuclear proposal. A lawyer for Flynn, Rob Kelner, declined comment in an email Monday. CNN was unable to immediately reach Hewitt or Copson Monday afternoon, despite trying multiple listed phone numbers. House Republicans had not signed onto the request as of Monday afternoon. Spokespeople for House oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy and House foreign affairs Chairman Ed Royce were not immediately available for comment Monday afternoon. |
A glimpse into turbulent space H.E.S.S. II, the world’s largest Cherenkov telescope, is officially inaugurated. The gamma-ray eye in Namibia’s Khomas highlands has acquired significantly greater acuity: The new H.E.S.S. II Telescope, officially dedicated last Friday, contains a 28-metre mirror and augments the H.E.S.S Observatory with its four 12-metre telescopes. The festivities began with a scientific symposium on Thursday and ended on Sunday with an open house. A new gamma eye for the H.E.S.S. family. The telescope has an antenna diameter of 28 metres and saw its first light on 26 July. Posing in front of the mirror, left to right: Eberhard Bodenschatz (Deputy Chairperson of the CPT Section, Max Planck Society), Werner Hofmann (spokesperson of the H.E.S.S. Collaboration, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics), Lazarus Hangula (Vice Chancellor of the University of Namibia), Abraham Iyambo (Minister of Education, Republic of Namibia), Jean-Louis Zoël (Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia, Republic of France), André Scholz (representative of the Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia, Federal Republic of Germany) und Gérard Fontaine (Chair of the H.E.S.S. Collaboration Board). © C. Föhr, H.E.S.S. Collaboration A new gamma eye for the H.E.S.S. family. The telescope has an antenna diameter of 28 metres and saw its first light on 26 July. Posing in front of the mirror, left to right: Eberhard Bodenschatz (Deputy Chairperson of the CPT Section, Max Planck Society), Werner Hofmann (spokesperson of the H.E.S.S. Collaboration, Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics), Lazarus Hangula (Vice Chancellor of the University of Namibia), Abraham Iyambo (Minister of Education, Republic of Namibia), Jean-Louis Zoël (Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia, Republic of France), André Scholz (representative of the Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia, Federal Republic of Germany) und Gérard Fontaine (Chair of the H.E.S.S. Collaboration Board). © C. Föhr, H.E.S.S. Collaboration In his ceremonial address for the dedication, Namibia's Minister of Education Abraham Iyambo acknowledged the prior groundbreaking discoveries of H.E.S.S. (High Energy Stereoscopic System) and the facility’s international acclaim. Namibia has become an important location on the research map as a result. With a view to junior scientists, the Minister hoped that many school children would be able to visit the observatory. Daniel Weselka from the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research recalled the discovery of cosmic radiation by the telescope's namesake, Victor Hess, one hundred years ago. Eberhard Bodenschatz conveyed greetings on behalf of the Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society, which financed approximately half of H.E.S.S. II. All of the speakers praised the international cooperation and the scientific, industrial and institutional contributions, without which such a project would not have been feasible. Pressing the “red button”, Abraham Iyambo set the new gamma leader in motion at last. The guests were impressed by the synchronised motion of all five mirrors and with how quickly the 580 tonne H.E.S.S. II Telescope could be pointed at the desired location in the heavens. The automated mounting and dismounting of the three-tonne camera was demonstrated during a tour of the grounds. Getting things going with the press of a button: Abraham Iyambo, Minister of Education for the Republic of Namibia, sets the H.E.S.S II Telescope in motion – to the great pleasure of Werner Hofmann, spokesperson of the H.E.S.S Collaboration. © C. Föhr, H.E.S.S. Collaboration Getting things going with the press of a button: Abraham Iyambo, Minister of Education for the Republic of Namibia, sets the H.E.S.S II Telescope in motion – to the great pleasure of Werner Hofmann, spokesperson of the H.E.S.S Collaboration. © C. Föhr, H.E.S.S. Collaboration The largest Cherenkov telescope constructed to date will observe the most energetic and extreme phenomena of the universe. The instrument promises researchers a deeper understanding of familiar high-energy cosmic radiation sources, such as super-massive black holes, pulsars and supernovae. The 28-metre mirror of the new telescope is equivalent to the surface area of two tennis courts. The instrument had already seen the “first light” on 26 July and recorded images of atmospheric particle showers that were created by gamma rays or cosmic radiation. In particular, H.E.S.S. II will investigate energies around the band of a few tens of gigaelectron volts in the sky – a poorly researched transition band situated between space-borne instruments and contemporary ground-based telescopes that offers enormous potential for discoveries. The construction of the telescope was expedited and financed mainly by German and French institutions. Significant contributions came from Austria, Poland, South Africa and Sweden. The Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg participated significantly in the development and design of all of the components except for the camera and its electronics, and coordinated the set-up work. The Max Planck Society, with its share of the financing of almost 50 percent, was by far the largest financial contributor to H.E.S.S. II. HOR / BF |
The NHS Grampian departments with the longest average patient waiting times have been revealed. Among the hardest hit in the six weeks between March 26 up to May 7 was the outpatient wait for routine paediatric rheumatology patients at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital (RACH), with 75% of patients waiting an average of 55 weeks to be seen at clinic following a GP referral. The figure puts the health board 43 weeks over the Scottish Governement’s waiting time target of 12 weeks. The figures, seen by the Evening Express, have led to calls from opposition politicians for the Government to step in and help the health board. The majority of those awaiting a routine paediatric plastic surgery appointment face a 47-week wait, with urgent paediatric orthoptics patients hit with a 31-week wait. Elsewhere in the North-east health board, three quarters of routine Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) patients at Dr Gray’s hospital in Elgin had an average wait of 48 weeks for an appointment, with Woodend General Hospital reporting waits of more than 40 weeks for routine patients in several areas of orthopaedics. Those referred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI) for a cataract appointment had an average of 37 weeks to wait, with the majority of patients facing a 48-week wait for a physiotherapy appointment. The information also shows the departments where targets are being met at the health board. This includes, referrals to parts of cardiology, oncology, general medicine, general surgery, stroke, and ultrasound, the majority of which sit several weeks below the government’s 12-week target between referral and appointment. In terms of inpatients – those admitted for a procedure or operation – routine neurology patients at the city’s children’s hospital faced the longest wait, with three quarters waiting an average of 32 weeks. Routine orthopaedic and ophthalmology patients to ARI and ophthalmology patients to Dr Gray’s had an average of 38 weeks between agreeing a procedure and the date of it taking place. Urgent procedures over the six-week period were all carried out within the target waiting time, including an average wait of nine weeks for ENT, and eight weeks for gynaecology at ARI. It follows the news NHS Grampian is to implement a new classification system for elective surgery patients in an effort to improve waiting times. The new process will mean adult elective surgery patients will be seen according to clinical need, with certain patients deemed as “able to wait longer” than others. The health board has said it cannot guarantee patients will be given surgery within 12 weeks of diagnosis – unless it is an urgent case. They hope this “pragmatic” approach will be short term. A spokeswoman for the health board said: “NHS Grampian is currently unable to see all elective surgical patients within the 12 weeks timescale set out by the Scottish Government. “In light of this situation our first priority is to ensure the most urgent patients get treated promptly. “Therefore we are in the process of implementing an elective classification system to ensure those patients waiting longer are those clinically most able to do so. “The classification is clinically led and covers all adult surgical services. “We realise this will be disappointing news for those patients classed as able to wait longer. We remain committed to all Scottish Government waiting times standards. “This is a pragmatic interim solution to maintain safety while current waits are longer than we would like.” In a move introduced by Nicola Sturgeon in 2011, health boards are legally compelled to comply with the 12-week treatment time guarantee, but face no sanctions for falling short. Politicians have backed the classification move but called for the Scottish Government to step in and help the health board. Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald, pictured, said: “I think at a clinical level NHS Grampian is completely right to make this move. But from a wider perspective they are only being forced to do this because they don’t have the resources to deliver all the operations they need to. “The Scottish Government needs to step up to the plate and provide NHS Grampian with what it needs to be able to recruit the staff it needs.” Alexander Burnett, Scottish Conservative MSP for Aberdeenshire West, said: “On the day that the SNP marks ten years in power in Scotland, this is a shocking indictment of its failure to address problems in our health service. I know from the numerous examples in my own constituency that very often the wait for an operation is significantly longer than 12 weeks. “Management at NHS Grampian have taken a step which they clearly think is in the best interests of patient care, but this again raises serious questions about the resources the health board has at its disposal.” Health Secretary Shona Robison, pictured below, said staff at NHS Grampian had increased since her party came to power. She said: “We have been clear with all health boards that patients who are waiting for treatment such as elective surgery are seen as quickly as possible. It is important that patients with the highest clinical priority, such as cancer patients, are seen quickly. “Under this Government, the number of staff in NHS Grampian have increased by 8.2%, to more than 12,100 Whole Time Equivalent. We expect NHS boards to have the correct staff and facilities in place to ensure high quality patient care and we work closely with boards to support their efforts in staff recruitment. NHS Grampian is working to address the issues.” |
Android Oreo is filled with all sorts of tweaks and changes compared to Nougat, but one of the biggest user-facing features is picture-in-picture . Picture-in-picture allows you to keep watching a video while doing other things on your phone, and we've seen it supported by the likes of YouTube, Duo , and even Maps. Following the release of the Android 8.1 Oreo beta , it's now been discovered that Netflix is the latest app to support this. If you're running 8.1 Oreo on your Nexus or Pixel device and want to use Netflix with picture-in-picture, it works just like we've seen in other apps that also support it. Just start playing a video within the Netflix app, press the home button, and the video will then shrink down so you can continue watching it while doing other tasks on your device. Netflix confirmed to Android Police that this is an official feature with its application, but the odd part here is that picture-in-picture is only working with 8.1 and not 8.0. It's unclear when Netflix will move this feature over to 8.0, but seeing as how it's already working with 8.1, we're inclined to believe that it'll be pushed out sooner rather than later. |
REX/United Artists Ryan Murphy and Sarah Paulson are together again, with Netflix ordering a series that will explore the origins of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” character Nurse Ratched, Variety has confirmed. Netflix has given the series a two-season, 18 episode commitment. It begins in 1947 and will track Ratched as she morphs from an average nurse into the monstrous authority figure she became in the novel and subsequent film. Paulson will star as the infamous nurse, with Murphy attached as executive producer. Along with Murphy, Michael Douglas, who produced the film, will also serve as an executive producer. Aleen Keshishian, Margaret Riley and Jacob Epstein of Lighthouse Management & Media will also executive produce. Evan Romansky, who created and wrote the project, will co-executive produce. Paulson will produce along with Paul Zaentz from the Saul Zaentz Company. The Saul Zaentz Company controls the rights to the film. Fox 21 Television will produce. Murphy is currently under an overall deal at 20th Century Fox TV. This is the latest in a long line of collaborations between Paulson and Murphy. Paulson has appeared in every season of Murphy’s FX anthology series “American Horror Story” and “American Crime Story: People v. OJ Simpson.” Paulson has been nominated for five Emmys for her work with Murphy, winning one last year for “Crime Story.” Murphy, Paulson, and Romansky are repped by CAA. Romansky is also repped by Lighthouse. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” was originally a novel written by Ken Kesey that was published in 1962. It was subsequently adapted into the 1975 film of the same name, which was produced by Douglas and Saul Zaentz. Louise Fletcher played Ratched. Jack Nicholson played the lead role of Randle McMurphy, co-starring with Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, and Scatman Crothers among others. Milos Forman directed. The film received widespread acclaim, winning five Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Fletcher, Best Actor for Nicholson, as well as Best Picture. Deadline first reported this news. |
READING Renegades produced a tremendous display but were ultimately beaten 17-12 by Kings Cross Steelers in their maiden fixture. Berkshire’s first gay-inclusive team were narrowly defeated in an entertaining encounter at Reading University. Renegades – who were founded last spring – are RFU affiliated and soon to be IGR (International Gay Rugby association) affiliated. This allows not only LGBT men to play rugby in an inclusive environment, but men of any orientation, religion or ethnicity. After the match both teams celebrated the match together at the Blagrave Arms, proud sponsor of the Renegades. The Renegades' next fixture is against Brighton & Hove Sea Serpents on January, 21. If you would like to join The Reading Renegades; training resumes from January on Mondays (7pm) and Thursdays (8pm) at Rivers Ibis Club. For more details, follow the Reading Renegades RFU Facebook page. |
It wasn’t a billion. It was $1.8-billion -- $1.825-billion to be more precise. Angela Rankin knows exactly how much Target paid Zellers for the leases to 220 stores across Canada. “I don’t know what they’re thinking. I don’t know where their mind is. It’s greediness.” “It’s selfishness. It’s sad,” says Rankin, 50, a mother of one who helps support cousins in Jamaica. Rankin was let go on July 28 from the Zellers at Dufferin and Dupont in Toronto after 13 years working the cash, the sales floor and as a pharmacy technician, with nothing more than the legally mandated severance pay her employers were required to give. On the day she spoke to the Star, Rankin was hauling home a fat, round container, almost as tall as she is, for which she paid $70, to send her family in Jamaica dried cod, rice, cooking oil and toothpaste. The chain will open its first stores in Canada in 2013. Target posted earnings Wednesday of $704 million (U.S.), or $1.06 per share, in the period ended July 30. Overall revenue rose 3.5 per cent to $16.45 million in the quarter. Revenue at stores opened at least a year rose 3.1 per cent. “Target needs to do the right thing – keep the workers and respect their wages and benefits,” says Kevin Shimmin, national representative of the UFCW Canada, Rankin will speak at a demonstration led by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union on Wednesday, Aug. 22, at 11 a.m., in front of Target’s Canadian headquarters in Mississauga. Rankin worked 28 hours a week at Zellers and when she left she was earning $11.97 an hour. She kept a second job to make ends meet. She worked in security for eight years. She works part-time for the UFCW. Some of what Rankin is sending was purchased at Zellers: A Sunbeam MixMaster, bearing a red wrap with Zellers stamped on it, sits on the floor of her tiny apartment, waiting to be packed. Now, at 50, she’s wondering what’s next. Should she apply for another retail job? Should she go back to school? She knows she loves helping people any way she can. “It doesn’t have to be this way,” says Kendra Coulter, a professor at the Centre for Labour Studies at Brock University. “This is a decision that has been made at the corporate level by Target and Zellers and HBC.” She blames Stephen Harper’s Conservative government for failing to protect workers. “If a very profitable foreign company is going to come into our country to rebrand stores, our citizens deserve respect and some criteria have to be met. They’re not building infrastructure from scratch, they’re not creating an enterprise that didn’t exist, they are rebranding stores,” said Coulter. Walmart did it differently in 1994. When the Arkansas-based chain bought the ailing Woolco stores, it took on all 16,000 employees in 122 locations. “Even though Woolco had seen better days and was struggling, there was still an enormous amount of talent in that company,” said Andrew Pelletier, vice-president of corporate affairs and sustainability at Walmart Canada. Mario Pilozzi, a senior vice-president at Woolco at the time of the takeover, went on to become CEO of Walmart Canada. Woolco sales associates were given extensive retraining. They were given a five per cent raise. “I think that is one of the reasons Walmart has succeeded in Canada, is because we started with a fantastic team that we re-motivated,” said Pelletier. Walmart now has more than 300 locations in Canada. Interestingly, Walmart did not apply the same approach this time around when it picked up 39 former Zellers stores from Target. “We didn't automatically hire all of the Zellers employees as we needed to determine the staffing needs for each of these additional stores first, which vary in size and layout. We also needed to determine what merchandise would be carried in each store (food, etc) which varies by store and which affects staffing requirements. However, we have been reaching out to the Zellers employees all year and have already hired hundreds of the Zellers employees to work in these stores, including pharmacy associates. Since our hiring for these stores is still underway, we expect the number of Zellers hires will continue to grow,” said Pelletier. Of the 220 Zellers leaseholds originally purchased in 2011, Target kept 189. It transferred 45 of the 189 to other retailers, including 39 to Walmart. In July, HBC announced that it would be closing its remaining 85 stores. There were 273 Zellers locations in Canada before the deals were made, each location employing between 100 and 150 people. About 15 Zellers stores were unionized. That means at least 27,300 people across Canada lost their jobs as a result of the transactions. “The simple fact is that Target did not buy the Zellers business and as such there was no transfer of merchandise, systems or employees,” Target Canada spokesperson Lisa Gibson said. “Target wants to deliver the best guest service possible. To accomplish that goal, we need the flexibility to interview all interested candidates so we can select the best, guest-service focused team members. “Target has already hired a number of former Zellers/HBC employees and is guaranteeing an interview to all Zellers employees who apply for a position for the 2013 store opening cycle.” Elizabeth Foley, 47, worked at Zellers for 14 years, down to the last days. “They sold everything that wasn’t nailed down and I helped them,” says Foley, a single mother of two teenagers. This week, Foley received notice that the owners of the house she rents in Windsor want her to leave so they can occupy it themselves. Her hope is that she will qualify for job retraining under an employment insurance program so she can work in a payroll department somewhere. Representatives for HBC declined to discuss how the Zellers employees were dealt with. “Zellers Associates are receiving a greater amount of notice (or pay in lieu) than the provincial employment standards legislation. Zellers is also providing the affected Associates with career training and transition support services to assist them in finding employment opportunities. Zellers is committed to treating our Associates fairly throughout this transition,” HBC spokesperson Tiffany Bourré wrote in response to questions from the Star. Foley says the only career training and transition support she got from HBC was access to a website focused on how to write a resumé. “That was their retraining program,” she said. Foley and Rankin said Zellers employees with 20 years of service and more received an extra 20 per cent in severance and those with 25 years or more received an extra 25 per cent. Mike Moffat, an assistant professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business, says HBC could have negotiated a better deal for Zellers employees. “Target’s argument is logically sound. It is, from a legal point of view, absolutely correct. Do they have some additional ethical obligations? I think that there was an opportunity here for Target to go above and beyond their legal responsibility.” Moffat says corporations act in this fashion because they can. “At the end of the day most of us do our shopping based on price and convenience. We don’t take the time to think: How does this particular retailer treat employees compared to another retailer? Corporations know that, which gives then a great deal of flexibility to make these moves.” fkopun@thestar.ca |
Hernandez came over after two seasons in the Dominican Summer League and garnered attention with a fastball touching into the upper 90’s with late life. Signed by Boston back in 2013, the 20-year old lefty made his U.S. debut last season in the New-York Penn League with the Lowell Spinners. His fastball chewed-up NYPL hitters to the tune of a 10.8 K/9 rate. Unfortunately the young pitcher didn’t flash enough control, as he also threw-up a 6.7 BB/9 rate, which was woefully tops in the NYPL. Scouts saw more good than bad from the 6’2″ 185 lb. Hernandez, as he slid into the Red Sox Top 30 according to Baseball America. With his fastball and secondaries, that need much improvement, Hernandez’ ceiling could be from the bullpen as a set-up type. |
THEY say you know a wicketkeeper has had a good game when you don’t even notice they’re out there. For the most part of the recently completed third Test between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval, that was the case for the home side’s Peter Nevill. He was busy with the bat and smooth with the gloves, underlying just why he was the right man to replace Brad Haddin behind the stumps. And in a first for Test cricket — the inaugural day-night game with a pink ball — Nevill was responsible for adding yet another record to an already historic occasion. Scoring an accomplished 66 from number seven in Australia’s first innings, the 30-year-old probably didn’t think he would end up being the match’s top scorer, particularly at a ground used to seeing massive individual and team totals. But top score he did, and as a result, he now has a place in cricket history. Nevill’s 66 was the lowest ever top score in a Test match at the Adelaide Oval. The previous record was held by Doug Ring, who top scored with 67 against the West Indies in 1951. Batting records have been broken at will in this series. David Warner grabbed a slew of them in Perth while Ross Taylor racked up the highest score ever by a visiting batsman on Australian shores, so it’s a bizarre binary to have someone who’s batting feats are being recognised because they’re so, well, unspectacular. Nevill’s half century was 13 runs better than the next best score in the match — captain Steve Smith’s 53, also scored in Australia’s first innings. He combined with tail-enders Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc to put on 108 for the last two wickets, an effort that rescued Australia from dire straits to a position of superiority in the match. Those extra runs proved crucial as the Aussies finished the innings with a 22-run lead. They later chased down a fourth innings target of 187 with three wickets in hand after restricting the Kiwis to 208 in their second dig, giving them a 2-0 series win. Nevill averages 27.3 after seven Tests and has 28 catches and a stumping to his name — the latter another first achieved in Adelaide when he stumped Mitchell Santner off Nathan Lyon’s bowling. One more rare occurrence to come out of Adelaide was the fact no team passed 250 in the match — the first time this has happened in a Test match in the city for 131 years. A ground accustomed to hosting mammoth scores in the first innings before the pitch starts to deteriorate on days four and five, this time the Adelaide wicket had a lot more grass on it — a move designed to protect the state of the new pink ball. This extra grass and the added swing and seam the pink ball produced, particularly during the night sessions, made life difficult for batsmen who, for the most part, failed to overcome the challenging conditions. |
There are many areas to apply the compound angle formulas, and trigonometric proof using compound angle formula is one of them. $$ \begin{aligned} \require{color} \sin (x + y) &= \sin x \cos y + \sin y \cos x &\color{green} (1) \\ \sin (x – y) &= \sin x \cos y – \sin y \cos x &\color{green} (2) \\ \end{aligned} \\ $$ We can abstract two similar formulas using these identities for Trigonometric Proof using Compound Angle Formula. \( \begin{aligned} \text{Let } A &= x + y \text{ and } B = x – y \\ A + B &= 2x \\ x &= \frac{A + B}{2} \\ A – B &= 2y \\ y &= \frac{A – B}{2} \\ \sin (x + y) + \sin (x – y) &= 2\sin x \cos y &\color{green} (1) + (2) \\ \sin A + \sin B &= 2 \sin \frac{A + B}{2} \cos \frac{A – B}{2} &\color{green} (3) \\ \sin (x + y) – \sin (x – y) &= 2\sin y \cos x &\color{green} (1) – (2) \\ \sin A – \sin B &= 2 \sin \frac{A – B}{2} \cos \frac{A + B}{2} &\color{green} (4) \\ \end{aligned} \\ \) The following Example Question covers one of popular ways to prove trigonometric identities. Let’s have a look at it now! Worked Example Prove \(\sin 2A + \sin 2B + \sin 2C = 4 \sin A \sin B \sin C\), if \(A + B + C = \pi\). |
Networks love to play games with various ways to slice and re-slice ratings, but the one FS1 pulled for a promo they ran during the seventh inning of Wednesday’s Dodgers-Cubs clash goes well beyond the usual. FS1 ran a promo saying “Thank You For Making FS1 America’s #1 Sports Network”: The details on just how they’re getting to that conclusion come 11 seconds in. As seen in the screencap at top, this is based on Nielsen all-day live plus SD (same day) viewing for Oct. 10 to Oct. 16. Hmm…that just happens to be a week when FS1 had four National League Division Series games (Games 3 and 4 of Giants-Cubs and Games 4 and 5 of Dodgers-Nationals) and two National League Championship Series games (Games 1 and 2). Six highly-viewed postseason baseball games is not exactly an average week, especially when you consider that ESPN doesn’t have many of their usual midweek evening games during that span (it’s after the baseball season and before the basketball season). But sure, FS1 was the most-watched sports network for that single week based on all-day averages. That doesn’t mean they’ve passed or come even close to ESPN’s overall numbers, though, and it’s notable that even Fox has largely changed their conversation from “ESPN alternative” to “FOX isn’t looking to compare FS1 to ESPN.” Sure, this is a nice data point for Fox, and if they want to try and tweak the Worldwide Leader over beating them in a single week, more power to them. It’s not a bad promo, either; it showcases some of their other programming, and might get people tuning in for the baseball game to check out the channel at other points. The truth is, though, ESPN could probably run a similar promo 49 or 50 weeks out of the year. FS1 is only “America’s #1 Sports Network” under a very particular set of ratings criteria for a very specific point in time. [Joe Lucia on Clippit] |
Frequently Asked Questions on Voting by Mail Washington State votes by mail. Vote by mail is convenient and gives you extra time to learn about the ballot measures and candidates before casting your vote. All counties conduct elections vote-by-mail. All vote-by-mail ballots (also known as absentee) are kept in secure storage while not being processed. Processing includes the verification of signatures and postmarks, removing the inner envelope from the outer envelope and removing the ballot from the inner envelope. Ballots are typically secured with numbered seals and a log is kept of the seal numbers to detect any inappropriate access. When are ballots mailed? Your ballot is mailed to you at least 18 days before each election. Your ballot packet will include a ballot, a secrecy envelope, and a return envelope. Follow the instructions that accompany your ballot. If you are a registered voter and do not receive your ballot, contact your county elections department. How can I learn more about the measures and/or candidates that appear on my ballot? Washington has many ways to help voters become informed about ballot measures and candidates: The state General Election Voters’ Pamphlet is mailed to every household in Washington. If you need the General Election Voters’ Pamphlet in accessible formats or alternate languages, call (800) 448-4881 or email [email protected] . or email . For personalized ballot measure and candidate information online, go to MyVote. Accessible versions, including a text only format, are available at vote.wa.gov. Call (800) 448-4881 or email [email protected] if you are unable to easily locate the accessible version. Other sources of information about candidates and issues include local newspapers, television, libraries, political parties, and campaigns. When is the latest I can turn in my completed ballot? Your ballot must be postmarked no later than Election Day or returned to a ballot drop box by 8 p.m. on Election Day. If you fail to sign the ballot declaration, or the signature on the ballot declaration does not match the signature in your voter registration record, your county elections department will contact you. If you are unable to sign the declaration, make a mark in front of two witnesses and have them sign in the designated spaces. You can check the status of your ballot by logging into MyVote and clicking on "Ballot Status". Can I vote in-person? Each county opens a voting center prior to each primary, special election, and general election. Each voting center is open during business hours during the voting period, which begins eighteen days before, and ends at 8:00 p.m. on the day of, the primary, special election, or general election. You can locate your nearest voting center by logging into MyVote.wa.gov or contacting your county's elections department. If I’m on vacation or have moved, will my ballot be forwarded? Some counties may allow ballots to be forwarded. However, the best thing to do is contact your county elections department and ask for a temporary change in your mailing address. You should also contact the county elections department when you return to the address where you are registered to vote, or if you have permanently moved. What is a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot? Military personnel and U.S. citizens overseas may use a Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot available through Voting Assistance Offices at military installations or at U.S. Embassies and Consulates. Washington State law allows all eligible election contests to be voted on this ballot. How do I obtain a replacement ballot? You can obtain a replacement ballot delivered online by logging into MyVote.wa.gov. Alternatively, a replacement ballot may be obtained by contacting your local county elections department when you have destroyed, spoiled, lost, or not received the original ballot. What is a provisional ballot, and why would I need one? A provisional ballot is a ballot issued to a person seeking to vote who might otherwise be denied the opportunity to vote a regular ballot. Provisional ballots are researched to confirm the voter’s registration before the ballot is counted. How do I correct my ballot? Follow the instructions on your ballot for how to correct a mistake. What happens if I vote for more than one candidate? When more votes for an office or issue are selected than are permitted by law, the votes will be considered an over vote and no votes will be recorded for that office or issue. In this case, the remainder of your ballot that is valid will be counted. You may only vote for one candidate in most instances. In rare instances, when you may vote for more than one candidate, it will be clearly indicated on the ballot. Will my ballot count if I choose not to vote on certain issues or candidates? Yes, it will. You can choose to skip any measures or offices you don't wish to vote in. All the votes you cast will be counted. Will my vote count if I forgot to seal my ballot in the security envelope? Yes, it will. Your elections department will securely process your ballot if your security envelope is unsealed. How does the elections department process my vote by mail (absentee) ballot securely? It is essential to the integrity of an election that ballot processing be accurate and transparent, while maintaining your right to a secret ballot. After you return your voted ballot, your county elections department follows this ballot counting process: Your signature on the outer return envelope is checked against the signature on file in your voter registration record to make sure they match. You are credited for voting in that election. This ensures that only one ballot from each voter is counted. The outer return envelope, which identifies you, is then separated from the inner security envelope, which contains your voted ballot. Your ballot cannot be traced back to you, ensuring the secrecy of your vote. All ballots are inspected to make sure the tabulating machine will be able to read all votes. Tabulation equipment is tested before every election to make sure it is working accurately. The above steps continue with all ballots until the election is certified. Elections are certified 10 days after Special Elections, 14 days after Primaries and 21 days after General Elections. Preliminary election results are released on election night after 8 p.m. and are updated as additional ballots are counted. |
#124 The Hemp The first hemp blend denim we ever ran, and in our opinion still a perfect example of the type. Pure indigo, heavy, slubby, with that special hemp feel. Note: As this fabric is a blend, we recommend sizing up one as you won't find it to stretch as a typical denim would. Gustin jeans made from sanforized raw selvedge denim from one of the finest mills in Japan. This fabric is 42% Hemp, which is very unique and rare blend. Hemp is known for it's durability and pure hemp is often compared to the texture of linen. You can see the hemp weft show through to the surface of the fabric in the form of scattered neps, irregularly dispersed throughout the surface. The fabric has a deep, dark indigo color and is very solid at 14.0 ounces. The hemp gives this selvedge a very unique feel. It drapes nicely and has a has a slightly crisp feel to it. You know you're not wearing the average denim the second you put it on. Finishing off the fabric is a wide, bright white ID. This is one we'll make sure to have on hand for the archives. Choose either our classic Straight fit or our Slim fit. More details available on our fit guide. |
Previously on The Newsroom: We Just Decided To Will is worried about the show ratings after his incident at Northwestern. Maggie ruins a huge potential interview hours before the news goes live. Mackenzie employs a new strategy that the newsroom is to abide by. Will tries to “carry” a makeshift interview and then attempts to revise a Republican’s quote to keep his ratings up in that demographic. Mackenzie urges Will to follow suit with her plans and to become the “leader” she knows he can be. “Will’s not an ass” A noble rally cry from a woman that isn’t afraid of the truth. Thanks to newly recruited Sloan (Olivia Munn) Mackenzie is aware that people think Will’s infidelity was the demise of their relationship when it was the other way around. After a good old fashioned blow-up in front of all the newsroom employees and an inadvertently public email, I think it’s safe to assume that the road to rekindling isn’t going to end here. This is only the beginning of “Willkenzie”! (Patent Pending) Ratings Whore: I guess, in a distant Utopian galaxy it would be commonplace to think that accurately processing and delivering the news would drive ratings. But this is America, dammit! Land of bias and perspective. I understand Charlie sticking up for Will and his ability to remain the “good guy” when it comes to network politics but I don’t understand Will’s approach. Going out of the way to try and translate another, all too common, Sarah Palin gaffe and make yourself sound foolish in the long run. And for what? To make sure that you don’t upset the Republican apple cart for one day? If anything, Will should have left it out of the broadcast in general. You can’t follow up that train wreck of an interview with another catastrophe. From this point forward listen to Mackenzie when she repeatedly screams “Dump it!”. Maggie, the Cowardly Co-Ed (cont.): Really, Maggie?! Who stays under the bed?! You have to get up during the sexing and slap someone on the a$$! At least? But anyway, at this point I’m not afraid to admit that Maggie is my favorite member of ACN. She is smart, witty, and opinionated but she has been thrown into a completely pressurized situation and is obviously overwhelmed. I’m usually indifferent when it comes to the “underdog” story but I’m all out rooting for Maggie in this one. As long as she gets free of Don before Jim grows weary from his failed efforts. Quotes “Be the leader, Will. Be the moral leader of this show. Be the integrity.” -Mackenzie “Fox hired someone with three “Mohammeds” in his name?!” -Will Next time on The Newsroom: The 112th Congress Will is a (not so) recovering TV and movie addict and TVDM only helps in feeding his vices. TVDM is the best outlet for him to spread his disease -without the use of airborne pathogens... Advertisements |
Disabled Often Carry Out Afghan Suicide Missions Enlarge this image toggle caption Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images Massoud Hossaini/AFP/Getty Images Web Resources United Nations Report on Suicide Attacks in Afghanistan There have been at least 110 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, more than in any other country except Iraq. Most of the Afghan bombings are linked to the Taliban, but the identity of the recruits is often a mystery. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his security officials claim the attackers are foreigners, often from Pakistan. But a recent United Nations report says that bombers who were caught before they could carry out their attacks were overwhelmingly Afghan. Whatever their nationality, many of the bombers have one major thing in common. A senior Afghan doctor who examines their remains finds that most of them were disabled or sick. In his classroom at Kabul Medical University, Dr. Yusef Yadgari keeps the eyeball of a suicide bomber in a glass jar. Attached to the eye is a tumor that, Yadgari says, left the attacker partially blind. It is one of many ailments the Afghan pathologist says he has found while autopsying the remains of bombers who carried out attacks in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the past three years. Some were missing limbs before the blasts. Others suffered from cancer. One had leprosy. 80 Percent Have Physical, Mental Disabilities Based on such autopsies, Yadgari estimates that at least three of every five bombers suffer from a physical ailment or disability. Adding those who suffer from mental illnesses, the number of sick and disabled bombers climbs to more than 80 percent, he says. "They are probably resentful because in Afghan society they are outcasts," Yadgari says. "They hold a grudge because many of them can't get a job. So, to make money for their families, they agree to become suicide bombers." Yadgari says guessing the bombers' motivation is easy, but identifying who they are is a lot tougher. Police say the bombers never carry identification, and their remains are rarely claimed. Christine Fair, who co-authored a United Nations report released in September on Afghanistan's suicide attacks, says there are other factors that make it difficult to figure out who the bombers are. She says Afghan investigations into suicide bombings leave a lot to be desired. Afghan Gen. Nik Mohammed Nikzad, who heads crime scene investigations here, agrees. He complains that by the time his team is permitted to enter the scene, evidence has often been compromised or removed — sometimes by Western soldiers. Afghan Bombers Not Celebrated Fair says another obstacle is that Afghan suicide bombers are not celebrated like their counterparts in other Arab nations. Afghan bombers are not featured on posters or in videos as martyrs, and their remains are not carried through town in raucous funeral parades. "Many parents don't even seem to know that their child or their relative blew themselves up in this act," Fair says. She says there is another difference between bombers in Afghanistan and other countries. A bomber in Afghanistan kills an average of three victims, compared with an average of 12 elsewhere. Also, United Nations interviews with would-be bombers in Afghanistan have found that most are young and poorly educated. "So, the good news is that they are not as lethal as they are in other theaters. The bad news is it's not really clear what it would take to get the campaign of suicide attacks to abate," Fair says. University student Qais Barakzai believes there is nothing that could have stopped his friend from blowing himself up two years ago in Kabul. Barakzai says Qari Sami was a brooding loner who was upset about the Taliban's ouster. Barakzai says his friend grew a Taliban-style beard and wore traditional baggy tunics and trousers, shunning the Western jeans and shirts preferred by other university students. "He was depressed. He would fight with people. He was emotional, especially when it came to religious issues," Barakzai recalls. He says his friend took antidepressants daily, but they failed to lift his mood. Sami talked of joining the Taliban in waging holy war, or jihad, after graduation, but never said he had been recruited as a suicide bomber, Barakzai says. In May 2005, the young man walked into the Park Internet café and blew himself up. He killed a U.N. worker from Myanmar and an Afghan customer and wounded five others. |
The Women’s March was a historic push-back to the presidency of Donald Trump, a man elected despite openly admitting sexual assault. However, every counter has a counter-counter, and there’s been a lot of that since the inauguration. There have been claims that those who marched are just college students reliant on their daddies (usually with unnaturally colored hair because that seems to obsess anti-feminists, for whatever reason) or otherwise privileged women who see protesting the new administration as a luxury or conceit. The message is clearly that women demonstrating against a plainly hostile new government is something of a fad, and the evidence of that is that women in other countries have “real” problems. Today I’m going to tell you a secret: Men in other countries point to America to tell their women feminism is bad because look at what it has done to women here. Yes, even in Muslim countries. I first got wind of this from a friend of mine who is a prominent YouTube personality and who asked me to leave her name out of this to avoid the inevitable backlash from dude-holes. She was fending off “rando #252,053” on Twitter explaining that American women have no call to whine because of Islamic countries, when a Saudi Arabian fan of hers jumped in to let her know that men in her country say the exact same thing. They tell women there that in America cops will beat up women and parents will set them loose in a world without health care or good-paying jobs. Continue Reading Another friend, an Indian author, also pointed out this truth to me. He told me… I can vouch that this is at least true for India. The U.S. is often held up as an example of "disrespecting women". Every patriarchy conveniently redefines disrespect to suit their own brand of superiority. Here is the uncomfortable truth: Women are oppressed everywhere. No country has achieved gender equality. Not a single one. If you are alive and a woman today, you are oppressed. Period. I’ve seen some American women weirdly push back against the recent wave of activism, and you know what it resembles? One sibling insisting to the other that they didn’t have an abusive parent. No one likes to be the victim, and though there’s no shame in living within a system we have little control over, there is an implied shame for not doing something about it. Watching women fight back makes those sitting on the couch feel inferior, and the go-to emotional response is to deny anything meaningful about the fight in the first place. If American women aren’t actually oppressed, then it’s safe to write off protests (and the inferior feeling they cause) as trivial or vainglorious. Women in African and Middle Eastern countries typically end up being the props in these responses. One acquaintance of mine started sharing pictures of Muslim women who had been harmed in foreign acid attacks as “proof” that women in America don’t have it so bad here. Except, of course, we have acid attacks in America as well. Such attacks are on the rise in Western countries, and the number of incidents in England has nearly doubled. Caustic substances are cheap and easy to obtain, and a desire to maim or scar is a derangement shared by people all over the world. Yes, you’re less likely to catch a face full of acid here, but it’s still a thing. And it’s not like Texas can say with a straight face we don’t have a human trafficking problem here, especially when it comes to women. At any given moment, a full quarter of all human trafficking victims in the country are right here in the Lone Star State. And contrary to popular belief, these are not all imported from other nations. Young American girls by the thousands are sold or coerced into sexual slavery. Did you know that America also has a vast and rich history of female circumcision? Sarah Rodriguez wrote a really fantastic book on the subject exploring 150 years of the medical procedure and how it was used to treat what was considered sexual deviance. Her research turned up references to using it to treat masturbation in girls in medical literature as recently as the 1960s. The Women’s March, while not as intersectional as it should have been, was not some gaggle of slacker chicks whose primary complaint is not being able to walk around topless. Women continue to face an uneven playing field in America. Take an occupation like nursing, for instance. Women make up 92 percent of RNs, and yet, somehow, the male RNs still make an average of $5,000 more a year. This is a problem, and at this stage in human history, it is a really stupid problem to still have, let alone debate the existence of. As a friend of mine said after watching Donald Trump sign an executive order, you’re never going to look up and see a female president surrounded by a room full of women as she signs a law restricting men’s reproductive health care. Yet with male leaders, that’s just Monday. No one even thinks it’s noteworthy since it happens so frequently. Which I suspect is the main problem so many Americans dig in their heels over and claim women aren’t oppressed here. Remember that abuse analogy I dropped earlier? Abuse never looks like abuse if that’s all you know. You have to actively choose to see the world a different way than your default setting. It’s easy to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when you’re young and it looks like the world is your oyster, and to pretend your home is a just place where just things happen more than they don’t. Certainly no one wants to consider the idea the system in place above her actively tries to hurt her over something like her gender. It does, though, and there aren’t enough memes or appropriated pictures of foreign women in the world to make it not so. Any cursory look at statistics clearly shows there are quite enough reasons for American women to take to the streets and demand their country stop screwing them over. |
The little snots had it coming. No, not your children. The gunk that comes out of 'em when they're sick. A Long Island, New York, man has developed a germ-killing sleeve for kids with colds. Stan Bratskeir told The Huffington Post he was watching his sniffling grandson sneeze into the crook of his elbow when inspiration struck to combine "sneeze" and "sleeve" into the name of a product. "I said 'Chase, you know what you need? You need a Sneeve,'" Bratskeir recalled. The Sneeve The Sneeve is made of a flexible synthetic fabric treated with an antimicrobial mix of citric acid and silver. Bratskeir, a former marketing executive, says the effectiveness of the one-day disposables is nothing to sneeze at, and claims they kill 99.9 percent of viruses and bacteria. Right now they come in only blue, but the inventor hopes to expand into color schemes such as tie-dye and camouflage. "There should be, we hope, a cool factor here," he said. Bratskeir, 71, said his invention will be available in a national drugstore chain early next year. For now, it can be ordered online. You'll have to cough up $6.99 for seven Sneeves. The Sneeve While the CDC recommends that people sneeze or cough into their elbow or upper sleeve if they don't have a tissue, members of the Sneeve's target demographic -- kids between the ages of 3 and 8 -- don't always remember to do that. While Bratskeir didn't mean for the Sneeve to help solve that problem, his product has it covered. "It wasn't an intended use," he said, "but one of the outcomes is that the Sneeve is a reminder for kids to use the crook of their arm." Disclosure: Bratskeir's daughter is an editor with the Lifestyle section of The Huffington Post. |
Russia will soon pay price for airstrikes in Syria, Pentagon chief warns US Defense Minister Ashton Carter speaks at a press conference during a defense minister meeting at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on October 8, 2015 HomeUSMilitary Thu Oct 8, 2015 10:32PM. (AFP photo)Carter made the remarks during a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday, a day after Russia fired 26 long-range cruise missiles from its warships in the Caspian Sea against Daesh (ISIL) positions in Syria.On September 30, Russia launched an air campaign against foreign-sponsored terrorists wreaking havoc in Syria.Carter said the Russian military campaign against ISIL "will have consequences for Russia itself, which is rightly fearful of attacks.”Carter accused Moscow of being reckless in its military commitment, risking clashes with US aircraft in Syria."They have shot cruise missiles from a ship in the Caspian Sea without warning; they have come within just a few miles (kilometers) of one of our unmanned aerial vehicles," he said.Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov called Ashton’s perdition "cynical".Earlier, three unnamed US military officials claimed that some cruise missiles fired from Russian ships at targets in Syria landed in Iran on Wednesday.In response, the Russian Defense Ministry statement said that the new Kalibr-NK cruise missiles all struck within nine feet of their intended targets in Syria.The missiles landed in Raqqa, Idlib and Aleppo provinces and they destroyed ISIL positions, including training camps and ammunition depots."No matter how unpleasant and unexpected it is for our colleagues in the Pentagon and Langley, our strike yesterday with precision-guided weapons at ISIS (Daesh/ISIL) infrastructure in Syria hit its targets," the Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said. |
In part he did this by returning again and again, as the exhibition stresses, to certain sites and motifs, completing pictures not on the spot, but often in his studio, based on what he remembered. Photo All this is hardly news, and to make the case, pictures in the show are hung, albeit a bit confusingly, by subject as opposed to chronologically, with occasional pedestrian ones from haunts like Vétheuil and Antibes. Monet became a very rich man churning out 2,000 works, and one need only hop the Métro to the Musée Marmottan Monet to see, among some great paintings, plenty of absolute stinkers. That said, it would be churlish to belabor the exhibition’s failings. Intelligence and sobriety befit an artist too glibly thought of as easy. In the flesh, his best works, it turns out, thwart the problem of their own endless reproduction by being, well, irreproducible. You just can’t grasp the bejeweled, darkling purple and pink light emanating from the moody reveries of Venice he painted well on in his career except by standing before them. They’re views steeped in Whistler, Turner and a kind of exquisite sadness. Only planted in front of “Bathers at La Grenouillère” can you properly get the squinting effect of slanting sun splashing off rippled water, ripe with summer dreams and visual puns, that blurs the silhouettes of figures in the middle distance. Advertisement Continue reading the main story His path was never straight from material realism toward greater abstraction. Conditions dictated style. Steam rising through the gloom at the Gare St-Lazare called for gossamer curlicues of pink and white on smeared patches of gray-blue pigment one day. The next, a sharp spring sun across the Quai du Louvre demanded more crystalline clarity. And before the awesome rock portal at Étretat, Monet elected dots and dashes to connote raw nature and a swift wind. The style, precisely what shocked and appalled old-school Parisians, masqueraded as an instant take on the subject. Former fishing villages on the Norman coast like Étretat were already turning into resorts catering to vacationing urbanites who wanted to experience such places as if unspoiled by people like themselves. Indulging such self-delusions, the painter created not just spontaneous records of unblemished countryside, but also heightened versions of vistas and monuments unspoiled and so beckoning that, faced with the real thing, a natural instinct was to reconcile truth to fiction, rather than the other way around. I mean that Monet’s visions of places can come to inhabit and even supplant our direct memories of them. At Rouen, he doesn’t just capture the cathedral in shifting conditions. He seizes on the way that memory, associated with a place or image, experienced at a certain time and in a certain mood, triggers bundles of emotions and lodges itself in the mind as a kernel of pleasure and pain. Classic Impressionism, as a mere meteorological affair, misses the point. Abstraction does, too. Monet was really painting mental states, states of reflection. His late, sublime “Water Lilies” is literally that: reflections of light, clouds and foliage against the surface of his pond at Giverny, Monet’s erotic, mysterious, multicolored abyss of shimmering, indefinite space, which kind of describes memory itself. Photo What makes these pictures look so modern has partly to do, as every art museum docent points out, with their lack of foreground and background and the obvious debt to Japan. But mostly it’s to do with the aspiration to render the intangible — to make millions of material facts immaterial and unshackle them from time. Giverny was both his Eden and object lesson. There, Monet could see the daily transience of things saved from oblivion only by memory and by art. There’s a photograph he took of himself around 1905, when he was in his mid-60s. In it, he’s standing on the edge of his lily pond, his head casting a shadow on the sunlit water. Lilies float above. The effect is a little disorienting. A temptation is to imagine we’re looking up at Monet, so that the lilies become clouds and the pond, sky. It’s akin to the “Water Lilies,” where the horizon line dissolves and where it’s hard to tell whether the view depicted is across the water, from above it or even from underneath. But in this case he’s in the picture. By the way, it’s an interesting question, Monet and the camera. He loved new things. He followed balloonists and boat racers the way sports fans now track baseball and football scores. He became an automobile enthusiast, buying one of the first Panhard-Levassor motor cars, with leather upholstery. The occasional photo aside, why not the camera? What did it lack, besides color? Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. Perhaps photographs seemed to him too literal, too far from the interior states that were his real project. We can make out his beard and profile under the familiar wide-brimmed hat in his photograph. It conjures up other images we have of him as stout, natty, in tweed suit, cambric shirt and ankle boots, a human brandy snifter. His photograph, although a jeu d’esprit, exudes a whiff of melancholy because like all photographs it’s a reminder, with that shadow, of something gone except in the picture and our recollections of it. Monet managed in the photograph what he exalted in paint: the effervescent pleasure of seeing and the inevitable disappearance of that pleasure. Advertisement Continue reading the main story No wonder Proust revered him. Proust also wrote that his pictures “make us adore a field, a sky, a beach, a river as though these were shrines which we long to visit, shrines we lose faith in when we see.” Reality, with its mess and noise, fails to live up to what Monet painted. But Proust also meant that Monet didn’t just idealize places; he wasn’t just a French weatherman with paints. He showed us Argenteuil and Belle-Île, the Houses of Parliament in London and the banks of the Seine, vibrating with electric color, “parts of the world,” as Proust said, “that are themselves and nothing but themselves,” places that already existed in our imagination, as if waiting to be discovered and that now bid for our affection. “On the threshold of love we are bashful,” Proust noted. “There has to be someone who will say to us, ‘Here is what you may love: love it.’ ” Monet does exactly that. And how can we not? |
The Toronto Maple Leafs will be without a trio of forwards for at least the next four games. Tyler Bozak, Joffrey Lupul, and Shawn Matthias will not travel with the club on a four-game western road trip, head coach Mike Babcock announced Monday. Matthias has whiplash, Lupul mid-body injury, Bozak not feeling well... none going on trip to Calgary today — Mark Masters (@markhmasters) February 8, 2016 It should be noted that Bozak was the recipient of a Mika Zibanejad elbow in Ottawa on Saturday, but no official diagnosis has been announced. Mark Arcobello, Rich Clune, and Josh Leivo were called up from the AHL to take their spots, meaning Toronto's lineup could look like this in the immediate future: The Maple Leafs will play in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Chicago before returning home for a date with the New York Rangers on Feb. 18. |
By Subir Jhanb, Google Cloud Messaging team Developers from all segments are increasingly relying on Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) to handle their messaging needs and make sure that their apps stay battery-friendly. GCM has been experiencing incredible momentum, with more than 100,000 apps registered, 700,000 QPS, and 300% QPS growth over the past year. At Google I/O we announced the general availability of several GCM capabilities, including the GCM Cloud Connection Server, User Notifications, and a new API called Delivery Receipt. This post highlights the new features and how you can use them in your apps. You can watch these and other GCM announcements at our I/O presentation. Two-way XMPP messaging with Cloud Connection Server XMPP-based Cloud Connection Server (CCS) provides a persistent, asynchronous, bidirectional connection to Google servers. You can use the connection to send and receive messages between your server and your users' GCM-connected devices. Apps can now send upstream messages using CCS, without needing to manage network connections. This helps keep battery and data usage to a minimum. You can establish up to 100 XMPP connections and have up to 100 outstanding messages per connection. CCS is available for both Android and Chrome. User notifications managed across multiple devices Nowadays users have multiple devices and hence receive notifications multiple times. This can reduce notifications from being a useful feature to being an annoyance. Thankfully, the GCM User Notifications API provides a convenient way to reach all devices for a user and help you synchronise notifications including dismissals - when the user dismisses a notification on one device, the notification disappears automatically from all the other devices. User Notifications is available on both HTTP and XMPP. Insight into message status through delivery receipts When sending messages to a device, a common request from developers is to get more insight on the state of the message and to know if it was delivered. This is now available using CCS with the new Delivery Receipt API. A receipt is sent as soon as the message is sent to the endpoint, and you can also use upstream for app level delivery receipt. How to get started If you’re already using GCM, you can take advantage of these new features right away. If you haven't used GCM yet, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to set up — get started today! And remember, GCM is completely free no matter how big your messaging needs are. To learn more about GCM and its new features — CCS, user notifications, and Delivery Receipt — take a look at the I/O Bytes video below and read our developer documentation. |
Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Nothing gets the pulse racing like a stoppage time winner. Especially when that winner caps a nine-goal thriller, that your team had won, lost, won again and then looked to have thrown away. They'll remember Liverpool FC's trip to Carrow Road for years to come. Not for the quality of football, necessarily, but certainly for the drama. Adam Lallana called his goal, the last act of an epic 5-4 win for the Reds, "a moment I will never forget." Klopp's post-match interviews were conducted minus his glasses, broken by a stray arm from Christian Benteke amid the piley-on. In the away end, the scenes will live in the memory. "Limbs everywhere," as the saying goes. Social media, predictably, has been buzzing off the scenes on the pitch though, and in particular Klopp's "come here, you beauty" celebration with his players. And it didn't take long for @LFCMostar to put together this video - and for Twitter to love it. Only one soundtrack of course. |
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