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HOA Problems Dog ownership is hard in a Home Owners Association. Everyone’s like, “Please stop letting your dog take dumps on my kids things” and “Please stop urinating on my car at night.” Facists. Do you live in an HOA? Does the HOA bog down your neighborhood with pointless rules? OR do you know of a neighborhood with some? What’s the most pointless HOA rule you’ve ever heard? Let’s share in the comments! Now here’s the deal: I’ve lowered the bar for two comics per week. I’ve counted the beans and I know now that I can produce 2 comics each week for just $30 each month. That’s only about $11 more each month to raise! So if you’re into seeing more comics each week from yours truly, then consider pledging $1 or more each month to my Patreon! Click here to pledge. |
In April, Ghanaian artist Bright Tetteh Ackwerh published a cartoon on his Facebook page titled, “We Dey Beg,” or “We are begging,” in honor of a recent campaign against illegal gold mining supported by Chinese companies, which has polluted local rivers. In the image, China’s president Xi Jinping is pouring a sludge of brown water from a Ming dynasty vase into bowls held by Ghana’s president and the minister of natural resources. Next to Xi, China’s ambassador to Ghana happily clutches a gold bar. The Chinese embassy was reportedly infuriated by the cartoon and issued a complaint to the Ghanaian government on media coverage of the arrests of several Chinese miners involved in illegal mining, which is known locally as “galamsey”. While Ghanaian miners were also arrested, much of the public’s focus has been on the Chinese. Ghana is the second largest gold producer in Africa after South Africa. Facebook/Bright Tetteh Ackwerh A cartoon by Bright Tetteh Ackwerh. In the letter, the Chinese embassy said it was concerned about “a number of distorted or biased reports and stories on Chinese people, especially some reports and cartoons that are defaming Chinese leaders and senior officials,” according to Citi FM, a local station that saw a copy of the note. “We hope that the Ghanaian government will pay due attention to this situation, take the necessary action to stop such things from happening again and guide the media to give an objective coverage on the illegal mining issue so as to create a good environment for further development of our bilateral exchanges and cooperation.” Days later, Ackwerh published another cartoon, “Them Threaten,” mocking the embassy’s letter. In the image, Ghanaian president Nana Akufo-Addo hides a placard with the words “Stop Galamsey Now” behind his back. Bright Tetteh Ackwerh “Them threaten.” But within a few months, the row seemed to have blown over. In July, Ackwerh was featured in an exhibition in Accra and invited the Chinese ambassador Sun Baohong. She attended and posed for photos in front of Ackwerh’s cartoons. Ackwerh, who cites Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei as one of his inspirations, wasn’t done. In August, he published another cartoon titled “Occupation,” where the presidents of Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal are arguing over a plate of jollof rice. It’s reference to the so-called jollof wars, a mostly fun debate between West African countries over who makes the best version of the dish. In the background, China’s Xi is sneaking away with the continent of Africa. Ackwerh says of the jollof wars, “It was embarrassingly becoming a distraction at a time when Africa was being taken over by China. The ingredients used for making jollof such as the rice are imported, most often from China.” “I hope my example has given other artists the courage to also contribute to this and things like this. There are things we have the power to do that even governments can’t,” he said. |
Introduction In Part 1 we talked about the challenges we could face in doing iterative asynchronous work, and we devised two patterns that we could use to overcome these challenges. Now we turn our attention to the challenges that we would encounter in trying to achieve recursion of asynchronous operations and how we could overcome them. As in the last time, we start our discussion with an example problem to work on, then we investigate the possible solutions. Problem 2 You and your team are creating a module system for your little organization (something that’s very similar to npm, but private to your organization). The system should be able to load a module on demand from a shared organization server. Each module can have at most one other module as a dependency, and when a module is fetched, its dependency and its dependency’s dependency (and so on…) should be fetched as well to ensure that the module will work correctly. Your task now is to write a script that runs before downloading the module that queries the metadata of the module on the server to determine the list of all modules and dependencies that you’ll need to download. All modules metadata reside on the route “/meta/{module_name}”, and it should be retrieved using a GET request. Each request returns a JSON response with at most two fields: “hasDependency” that is true if the module has a dependency, false otherwise; and “dependency” which contains the name of the dependency module if exists. In this gist you’ll find a sample node http server that you can run locally to mimic the behaviour of the shared organization server described in the problem. Just open the terminal in the containing folder and run it with node server . The server should then be accessible at http://localhost:8080. Reasoning about a Solution The first step we could take to tackle this problem is to create a function that can load the metadata a single module from the server. This function (let’s call it loadMetaOf ) is very simple; it takes two arguments: the name of the module we want to load its metadata, and an array that represents the list of all modules that will need to be loaded. This function initiates a GET request to the server to retrieve the module’s metadata and appends its name to the list when the response comes. From the problem’s description, it’s obvious that we’re gonna need to call this function many times to retrieve all the dependencies, but unfortunately we don’t know how many times! This is because that we wouldn’t know that we’ll need to call the function with another module unless we get the response from the previous call and it indicated that there’s a dependency that needs to be loaded. So we won’t be able to use simple iterations like those we worked with in part 1. A straightforward solution ,to our ignorance of how many times we’re gonna need to call the function, is recursion. We can make our function recursive, so that it would call itself again if the response indicated a dependency, or return if no dependency is indicated. A Correct, yet Imaginary, Synchronous Solution Continuing with the tradition we started in part 1, we begin first with a synchronous approach to the solution we just devised. But unfortunately, node doesn’t have a synchronous version for its http module (unlike the filesystem fs module we used in part 1). So let’s for now imagine that next to node’s asynchronous http.get method, there’s a synchronous version called http.getSync that takes the request url and returns the response body as a string. A correct, yet imaginary, implementation of our solution above would go like this: var http = require ( 'http' ); function loadMetaOf ( name , list ) { var response = http . getSync ( 'http://localhost:8080/meta/' + name ); var jsonResponse = JSON . parse ( response ); // we parse the response string to JSON list . push ( name ); // append the module name to the list logged to the user later if ( jsonResponse . hasDependency ) { loadMetaOf ( jsonResponse . dependency , list ) return ; // this is useless, but we need here for our discussion } else { return ; // this is also useless } } var list = []; loadMetaOf ( 'moduleA' , list ); // log the details to the user console . log ( 'fetched all metadata for moduleA' ); console . log ( 'all of the following modules need to be loaded' ); console . log ( list ); Can we now use the real http.get asynchronous method instead of the imaginary synchronous version and get a correct asynchronous solution?! A Wrong Asynchronous Solution var http = require ( 'http' ); function loadMetaOf ( name , list ) { http . get ( 'http://localhost:8080/meta/' + name , function ( response ) { var responseBody = "" ; // will hold the response body as it comes // join the data chuncks as they come response . on ( 'data' , function ( chunck ) { responseBody += chunck }); response . on ( 'end' , function () { var jsonResponse = JSON . parse ( responseBody ); list . push ( name ); if ( jsonResponse . hasDependency ) { loadMetaOf ( jsonResponse . dependency , list ); return ; // this is useless, but we need here for our discussion } else { return ; // this is also usless } }); }); } var list = []; loadMetaOf ( 'moduleA' , list ); // log the details to the user console . log ( 'fetched all metadata for moduleA' ); console . log ( 'all of the following modules need to be loaded' ); console . log ( list ); Whenever you run this script you’re gonna get an empty list of modules instead of a populated list of three modules. So what’s the problem?! The problem is that the usual idea we have about recursion doesn’t work with asynchronous calls. The usual idea we have about recursion is that execution will not go past the call loadMetaOf('moduleA', list) untill all the recursive calls within are unwound and returned, which means that all operations on list are done and it’s safe to use its value when the execution goes past the call to loadMetaOf , but this is not the case when the function involves an asynchronous call. What happens here is that loadMetaOf doesn’t do any of the work itself, it just initiates an asynchronous http.get to retrieve the resource over the network and then returns immediately. The actual work will be started by the callback of the http.get , which won’t be invoked until the connection to the server is made. Moreover, the actual processing of the metadata won’t start until the response is fully received from the server. By the time all this waiting to happen, the execution would have already gone past the loadMetaOf('moduleA', list) line and printed the list with its empty initial value before any work could be done on it. A Correct Asynchronous Approach Now let’s imagine that you’re gonna simulate this problem on a human scale. Instead of downloading a module from a remote server, you’re building a Lego structure where the parts you need are stored in several storage facilities. Each new part you acquire has an associated note about whether another part in needed and from which storage facility you can get it. You’re the one responsible of building the structure once you have all the parts. You delegate one of your teammates to go search for the parts, you give him the first part and the associated note along with a bucket to put the parts in. Because there probably gonna be so many parts, you want have the time to review the bucket’s content when your teammate returns it, so you’re gonna blindly take it but you make him promise that he won’t return the bucket unless all the parts are there, and you know that your teammate is trustworthy and that he’s gonna keep his promise. You set your teammate off on his journey and you go back to whatever work you have until he comes back. Your teammate wants to keep his promise to you, so he’s worried about what could go wrong that would prevent him from keeping it. He thinks that the only possible thing that would screw things up is that after he collects a part he goes back to rest for a while and in that moment you could see the bucket and take it as you think that he collected all the parts. To avoid this, he makes a promise to himself that he won’t even take a single step back along the road until he had gone all the way through and collected all the parts. We can see that the promises your teammate made to you and to himself; they both constitute one big promise that once on the road, he won’t go a single step back until all the work is done. Pretty harsh terms, but such the burden an honorable and trustworthy man takes upon himself! In the end, because your teammate kept all his promises, you’re now able to build the Lego structure successfully. I guess the analogy is clear now; you resemble the javasctipt global scope and your teammate is the loadMetaOf function and its asynchronous work. Now we need to give the loadMetaOf function the ability to make promises to itself and to the global scope. Fortunately, instead of needing to solve the philosophical problem of machine’s morality, there’s a tool we can use for that! Promises and Deferreds Promises are a new feature introduced to javascript in ES6, they represent a way to write asynchronous code in a more synchronous way and it’s available in Node.js since v4.0, if you haven’t installed v4.0 yet (you should btw) you can use third-party implementation like q. A Promise is essentially a representation of a value that is not available yet but will be resolved in the future. A promise is created using a function that takes two arguments: a resolve handler, and a reject handler. In this function you write your asynchronous call, and when the value you get from that call is available, you resolve the promise with that value using the resolve handler. And if any error occurs in the process, you reject the promise with that error using the reject handler. var promise = new Promise ( function ( resolve , reject ) { try { someAsyncCall ( function ( result ) { // the result in now available in the callback resolve ( result ); }); } catch ( error ) { reject ( error ); } }); Now you have a promise of a value, with that you have the ability to wait for that value to be resolved and then do some processing on it. This behaviour (called the thenable behaviour) is accomplished using the Promise.then method that takes two functions: the first which is called if the promise is resolved and it gets passed the resolved value, the other gets called if the promise is rejected and gets passed the rejected value (which is usually an error). promise . then ( function ( value ) { console . log ( "This is the result of someAsyncCall: " , value ); }, function ( error ) { throw error ; // rethrow the error }); We see that the promise allowed us to simplify our asynchronous code by limiting the callback to only the report of the value, and all the processing logic of that value is separated to another block (the then block) outside the callback in a way that appears to be synchronous. How cool is that! I’m sufficing with this short introduction to promises as it’s all what we need here. If you feel that you need more, you can always check html5rocks tutorial on promises. Now we need to talk about what Deferreds are. A Deferred is an extended type of promise, created using Promise.defer() method that returns a new promise along with methods ( .resolve and .reject ) to change its state (to resolved or to rejected) when needed. As we think of a regular promise as a promise for a value, we can think of a deferred as a promise for work not yet finished. When the work is done, we call the deferred.resolve method to change the underlying promise’s state to resolved; and if there’s an error we call the deferred.reject method to change its state to rejected. We can use the underlying promise (accessed via deffered.promise ) and utilize the thenable behaviour to do other work when the promised work is done. Here’s a pseudo-example of how deferreds can be used: /* * this is a function that asynchronously bulk inserts several records into a db * @param records [Array]: the records to be bulk inserted * @returns [Promise]: a promise of the work (a.k.a. the bulk insertion) to be done */ function bulkInsert ( records ) { // make your promise before the work starts: create the deferred var deferred = Promise . defer (); executeAsyncBulkInsert ( records , function ( error ) { if ( error ) // report that you couldn't keep your promise because of an error deferred . reject ( error ); else // report that you kept and fullfilled your promise deferred . resolve (); }); // give your promise return deferred . promise ; } bulkInsert () . then ( refrechView ); I guess it’s obvious by now, from the definition of deferreds and from the way I wrote the comments in the above snippet, that deferreds will be our tool to implement the asynchronous analogy we discussed earlier. A correct Asynchronous Solution As our analogy started, our solution begins with the function loadMetaOf making a promise to the global scope. This could be done, as we saw in the above pseudo-example, by creating a deferred at the beginning of the function and returning its promise in the end. We can then take that promise in the global scope and use its then to print the logs. So our solution would start off like this: var http = require ( 'http' ); function loadMetaOf ( name , list ) { var deferred = Promise . defer (); // here will go the function's logic return deferred . promise ; } var list = []; loadMetaOf ( 'moduleA' , list ) . then ( function () { // log the details to the user console . log ( 'fetched all metadata for moduleA' ); console . log ( 'all of the following modules need to be loaded' ); console . log ( list ); }); Now we can be sure that the logs will not be printed until that promise is fulfilled. But when will that promise be fulfilled?! In the analogy, the promise is fulfilled when the all the parts are in the bucket. So here, the promise should be fulfilled when all the module names are in the list. Refer back for a moment to the imaginary synchronous solution we made earlier; in that solution we printed the logs immediately after the global call to loadMetaOf has returned. And we know that the global call won’t return unless either there’s no dependency to get, or after the recursive call inside it has returned. In the first case we have put the module name in the list and there’s no other modules to put. And in the second case, after the recursive call inside the global call has returned, we know that the recursion had gone all the way through and went back successfully; and that means that all the modules were put in the list. It seems now like a good idea to resolve our promise in these two cases: if there’s no dependency, and when the work in the recursive call is done. Notice that the recursive call also returns a promise that will be fulfilled when its work is done, and in its then function we should resolve our promise. var http = require ( 'http' ); function loadMetaOf ( name , list ) { var deferred = Promise . defer (); // here will go some of the function's logic if ( jsonResponse . hasDependency ) { loadMetaOf ( jsonResponse . dependency , list ) . then ( function () { deferred . resolve (); }); } else { deferred . resolve (); } // here will go any remainings of the function's code return deferred . promise ; } var list = []; loadMetaOf ( 'moduleA' , list ) . then ( function () { // log the details to the user console . log ( 'fetched all metadata for moduleA' ); console . log ( 'all of the following modules need to be loaded' ); console . log ( list ); }); Remember in the analogy when we said that the two promises made by your teammate are actually one big promise of not to go back a single step unless all the work is done? Using this idea we can see that the way we handle our promise to the global scope implies as well the idea of the function’s promise to itself along the way. The following animation illustrates that point. We just need now to fill in the code for the http GET request and we’ll have our working asynchronous solution! var http = require ( 'http' ); function loadMetaOf ( name , list ) { var deferred = Promise . defer (); http . get ( 'http://localhost:8080/meta/' + name , function ( response ) { var responseBody = "" ; // will hold the response body as it comes // join the data chuncks as they come response . on ( 'data' , function ( chunck ) { responseBody += chunck }); response . on ( 'end' , function () { var jsonResponse = JSON . parse ( responseBody ); list . push ( name ); if ( jsonResponse . hasDependency ) { loadMetaOf ( jsonResponse . dependency , list ) . then ( function () { deferred . resolve (); }); } else { deferred . resolve (); } }); }); return deferred . promise ; } var list = []; loadMetaOf ( 'moduleA' , list ) . then ( function () { // log the details to the user console . log ( 'fetched all metadata for moduleA' ); console . log ( 'all of the following modules need to be loaded' ); console . log ( list ); }); Now compare this solution to the wrong asynchronous solution we worked on earlier. Remember the useless return statements there? You can see that every deferred.resolve() statement in the correct solution comes in the place of every return solution in the wrong solution (and also in the synchronous solution). Using this observation, we can infer a pattern that we could apply not just to this problem, but to any problem that involves recursion of asynchronous work. The “Promise not to backdown” Pattern To write a correct recursive function that involves asynchronous work, follow these steps: Create a deferred at the beginning of the function and return its promise in the end. Between the creation and the returning of the deferred promise, write your asynchronous code. In the callback of your asynchronous work: Any code that comes after a recursive call of the function must be put inside its then function. function. In the place you would write a return statement if this was synchronous, put a call to deferred.resolve and pass it the returned value. statement if this was synchronous, put a call to and pass it the returned value. In the place you would throw an error if this was synchronous, put a call to deferred.reject and pass it that error. Any code that comes after the initial call to the function must be put in its then function. And following the steps of professor Kenneth A. Reek in his paper Design patterns for semaphores where he gave his patterns catchy names, I’ll call the pattern we inferred here the “Promise not to backdown” pattern. Summary In this part we explored the challenge of writing recursive functions that involve asynchronous work, and we devised the “Promise not to backdown” pattern which uses promises and deferreds to overcome this challenge. This concludes our two-part discussion on iterative and recursive asynchronous patterns. Thanks for reading. |
"I think,” the Chelsea manager José Mourinho says, “I have a problem, which is I’m getting better at everything related to my job since I started. There has been evolution in many different areas – the way I read the game; the way I prepare the game; the way I train; the methodology… I feel better and better. But there is one point where I cannot change: when I face the media, I am never a hypocrite.” Statistically speaking, Mourinho is the most successful club manager in world football. He has won the league titles in each of the four countries where he has managed – his native Portugal, Italy, Spain and England. He has won the Champions League twice. But that, of course, is only the half of it. Mourinho is – arguably – also the most divisive manager in football. There is no manager more likely to ignite the ire of rival fans . The jousting with referees and the FA, the press-conference wind-ups, the touchline sulks – never mind the football, watching Mourinho is almost a spectator sport in itself. In a cavernous studio in south London, Mourinho has spent the past two hours being photographed in a variety of sport-casual clothing, and climbing in and out of a Jaguar sports car. He is a stylish, but determinedly conservative, dresser, who says he takes little interest in clothes, and whose priority is comfort rather than fashion. His own wardrobe is invariably a hushed medley of blacks, greys and dark blues. He is not a citrus-coloured sweater kind of guy. He has discharged these photo-shoot duties uncomplainingly, in a businesslike fashion, neither smiling nor scowling, rather wearing an expression of inscrutability so familiar that it almost merits its own adjective, Mourinho-esque. Not even being “photo-bombed” by Didier Drogba, who has wandered in from an adjacent studio, where he is fulfilling his own promotional obligations, can throw Mourinho off his stride. • José Mourinho's 10 best put-downs When, at the end of the session, everyone gathers round a laptop to examine the photographs, all eyes look expectantly to Mourinho for his verdict. “Not bad,” he says. Not bad? Does this mean “excellent”, “terrible”? Or simply, as he says, “not bad”. It is impossible to tell. Now he is seated on a sofa in the studio canteen, his two agents – English and Portuguese – within hailing distance. An assortment of cakes and sandwiches and a bottle of water have been placed on the table in front of him. They will remain untouched. Mourinho's Telegraph shoot is rudely interrupted by Didier Drobga Mourinho has spent the morning at Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham, Surrey. The ritual is always the same. He arrives each day around 7.30am, goes into his office and locks the door, and remains there for the next two hours. “I need my time to be lonely,” he says. “You know, in football, I’m not so old. At 52 maybe I have 20 years in front of me to coach. But I feel myself as… you might say an ‘old fox’. Nothing scares me, nothing worries me too much; it looks like nothing new can happen for me. I am very, very stable in the control of these emotions but I need my time to think. Not wake up in the middle of the night worrying about somebody’s injury, or the tactic for this match. I need to reflect, I need to try to anticipate problems. I need my time.” Mourinho’s father – also José – was a goalkeeper, who made one appearance for Portugal before becoming a coach. The young José would accompany him to games, sometimes running the line, passing on instructions from his father to the players. He became a player himself but after a short and undistinguished career as a defender in the second tier of the Portuguese league decided to move into coaching, enrolling at the Technical University of Lisbon to study sports science, and then becoming a teacher. His first job was teaching children with Down’s syndrome and severe mental disabilities – “a big challenge”, he admits. “I wasn’t technically ready to help these kids. And I had success only because of one thing, the emotional relation that was established with them. I did little miracles only because of the relationship. Affection, touch, empathy – only because of that. There was one kid that refused all his life to walk up stairs. Another one that couldn’t coordinate the simplest movement – all these different problems, and we had success in many, many of these cases only based on that empathy. “After that I was coaching kids of 16. Now I coach the best players in the world, and the most important thing is not that you are prepared from the technical point of view; the most important thing is the relationship you establish with the person. Of course you need the knowledge, the capacity to analyse things. But the centre of everything is the relationship, and empathy, not only with the individual but in the team. And to have that empathy in the team we all must give up something. It’s not about establishing the perfect relation between me and you; it’s about establishing the perfect relation to the group, because the group wins things; it’s not the individual who wins things.” The team. It is the word that Mourinho returns to constantly in conversation. How do you harness individual talent to the collective purpose; how do you motivate players who even before their 21st birthdays are often on salaries beyond the supporters’ wildest dreams. “It’s true!” Mourinho’s voice rises. “Once players came to football expecting to be wealthy when they retired. Now they expect to be wealthy before they’ve played their first game!” Mourinho (far right) lining up for Setubal team UCFI against Benfica in 1987 In football, as all else, the cult of celebrity – of the individual – runs rampant, nowhere more in evidence than in the Fifa Ballon d’Or, the annual award for the international footballer of the year, where the world’s greatest players are lionised with a razzmatazz worthy of the Academy Awards. As Mourinho acknowledges, there is not much that he and the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, agree on. (Mourinho refers to him simply as “Wenger”, almost choking on the word.) “But I think Wenger said something that is interesting; he is against the Ballon d’Or, and I think he’s right, because in this moment football is losing a little bit the concept of the team to focus more on the individual. We are always looking at the individual performance, the individual stat, the player that runs more. Because you run 11km in a game and I run nine you did a better job than I did? Maybe not! Maybe my 9km were more important than your 11.” He laughs. • Mourinho's all-time XI: in pictures “For me, football is collective. The individual is welcome if you want to make our group better. But you have to work for us, not we have to work for you. When the top player arrives, the team is already there. It’s not him who comes to discover the team, like Columbus discovering America. No, no, you are coming now to help us be better. And as a manager you have to give this message every day – not with lectures or words. It’s about what the players observe in relation to the behaviour and to the feedback – the way you react to this player and that player; the empathy with this one and that one. “The only thing you cannot give to a player is the talent. But can you work the talent properly so that he understands the team’s needs? Is he an intelligent, open guy waiting for you to help him be better? Is he the kind of maverick guy, the selfish guy, where it is much more difficult to persuade him the team is more important than he is. I’ve had all of these in every club I’ve ever worked at. There is no perfect group anywhere but if you ask me what’s the most important thing in a player, it’s the talent.” Bobby Robson and Mourinho preparing for Barcelona's European Cup Winners Cup Final in 1997 It is a cause of constant frustration and bemusement to fans, I say, when young footballers are given the opportunity that every fan dreams of – only to squander it. “I know.” Mourinho nods. “But, remember, they’re the final product of something. I had one player, for example – I won’t name him – and I gave him the chance to play in the first team. A couple of weeks after he’d played his father left his job, his mother left her job; they were living with him, living his life, making decisions for him. It’s very difficult.” And what happened to the player? His shrug suggests a career that quickly went into decline. “That’s one example out of 1,000. They need to be lucky with the parents; they need to be lucky with the agents. They need education. I had a player once that came to me with a new car, and I told him, ‘Another one? Why? Do you have a house?’ No. ‘Do you have lots of money in the bank?’ No. He said, ‘This car, I didn’t buy it; my father got it for free in leasing and I signed the document.’ I said, ‘Do you know what leasing is?’ He said, ‘It’s free!’ No! Sit here and I explain to you what is leasing. He didn’t know, because nobody had explained. • Watch: Jose Mourinho on his career highlights “When I got real money in my hands – real big money – it was my second contract with Porto in 2003, I was thirtysomething. I was married. I was ready for it. These guys, they’re 16, 17, 19, 20. They don’t know how to react, what to do. “In Chelsea we have a fantastic department which we call Players Support and Welfare where they help the players with everything. They have people in the bank to explain money. You want to buy a house? Let’s make sure you’re with the right person making the right deal. Young players coming to the first team – don’t buy a car, we’re sponsored by Audi and they provide the cars for the players. The players need this. This is a complicated world.” And you find yourself in the role of father figure? “It’s my duty!” "Nothing scares me, nothing worries me too much." Mourinho and his wife, Matilde, were teenage sweethearts, growing up a street away from each other in the coastal town of Setúbal. They have been married for 26 years, and have two teenage children, also named Matilde and José. • The top 10 most overrated managers in football Mourinho’s first managerial job came in 2000 when he was appointed as the manager of the Portuguese side Benfica, having worked as a translator and then as a coach under Bobby Robson at Sporting Lisbon, Porto and Barcelona. He lasted only three months at Benfica before resigning after a contretemps with the club president. He moved on to União de Leiria and then Porto, where he won the Portuguese Primeira Liga twice, the Uefa Cup and, in 2004, the Champions League. That led to his first stint at Chelsea, where he won the Premier League in two consecutive seasons (2004-05, 2005-06), the FA Cup and the League Cup, again twice. As the manager of Inter Milan he won the Serie A twice, and the Champions League for a second time. In 2010 he moved on to Real Madrid, where he won the Copa Del Rey and La Liga in consecutive seasons. In June 2013 he returned to Chelsea. Mourinho celebrates winning the 2004 Champions League with Porto His closest friend, he says, is Rui Faria, who became his assistant on his first day as the manager at Benfica, and who has followed him to every club he has managed since. “Rui used to say, ‘A winning football manager is the best life in the world.’” Mourinho laughs. “It’s a fact, and we try. But in this country we have so many matches that you cannot allow yourself to be affected. I lose 5-3, the next day I have a training session, and in two or three days have another match. I win 3-0 or 4-0, the next day I have a training session and in two or three days I have another match. I must try to hide my emotions. I have to live with both the victory and the defeat. “The manager is not the most important person in the club – of course not. I keep saying, the most important person in the club is first the supporters, secondly the owner, third the players, and then I come. But it is the manager that everyone looks at. The players are watching you, analysing you; they want to see your reaction, they want to see your stability. The people that work in the club are also watching you, and they follow in a negative or positive way. Even the supporters are watching you. They want to feel that after that big defeat you are ready for the next day; that after the big victory you are not in the moon but have your feet in the earth. And I think I am good in controlling these situations, and good in trying to keep people balanced for the negative and for the positive. At home I am not good, because they know me too well. I can’t hide. They get me.” "In London I can lead an almost normal life" Mourinho is a courteous and cultured man. He is a great admirer of the writing of Fernando Pessoa, Portugal’s most beloved poet. (There is a line from Pessoa’s Book of Disquiet that might have been written for him: “I’ve always rejected being understood. To be understood is to prostitute oneself. I prefer to be taken seriously for what I’m not, remaining humanly unknown, with naturalness and all due respect.”) In conversation he is thoughtful, accommodating and expansive – very different from the terse, crafted soundbites of the post-match press conference. He is a man of some propriety. At one point in our conversation he lets slip a colloquialism – a relatively inoffensive one – which he quickly asks me not to repeat. When I ask what is the most interesting thing he has encountered outside football in recent times he talks about visiting the Ivory Coast in his role as World Food Programme Ambassador Against Hunger. “This has been a fantastic experience for me, that I shared with my wife and kids,” he says. “We know about poverty, but to be directly in contact with that reality was fantastic – negative, positive, difficult to deal with, but at the same time [there is a feeling of] tremendous pride to be connected with it, to promote their works.” He and his wife also support a Catholic food programme in Setúbal. “But we have a principle that we do it not for people to know, or to promote our profile. We do it because we can, and we want our son and daughter to understand how privileged we are, and to understand that other people need support.” Mourinho lifts the Champions League trophy after Inter defeated Bayern Munich in 2010 He is a religious man, in the sense, he says, “that I believe totally, clearly. Every day I pray; every day I speak with Him. I don’t go to the church every day, not even every week. I go when I feel I need to. And when I’m in Portugal, I always go.” What does he pray for? “For my family! For my kids, for my wife, for my parents, for happiness and a good family life. But I can say the reality is I never go to the church to speak with Him about football. Never!” • José Mourinho's 10 best put-downs Would he describe himself as a good person? “I think so. I try to be. And I think I am. I don’t have problems with family or friends. I am a good family person; I am a good friend. I try to support people that I don’t even know. Do I make mistakes? Yes. My professional area is not only very competitive – it is competitive and emotional and [you must] push people for a certain kind of behaviour – absolutely, yes. But the professional life is only part of a person; a person is much more than that.” He does his best, he says, to separate his professional and family life. He never discusses football with his wife. “It’s not her world. Be in a club that I like. Be in a place that I enjoy. Work with people that I like. That is basically the advice [she gives] because when that happens life at home for everyone will be better. But it is difficult. Even if I can separate things, sometimes they can’t. If I lose an important match, I try to go home with a nice face, tomorrow is another day, and it’s just a game of football and so on and so on. But I arrive at home, and they have the bad face!” He laughs. “They are sad for me!” "I must try to hide my emotions. I have to live with both the victory and the defeat." Footballers – and football managers – tend to be creatures of habit. They gravitate to large homes with long gravel drives and a semi-rural aspect. You could throw a net over the prosperous Cheshire suburb of Alderley Edge and catch half the Manchester United squad, and their manager. The area around the leafy Surrey town of Cobham, where Chelsea have their training ground, is thickly populated with the team’s players. It says something interesting about Mourinho that he should instead choose to live in Belgravia. His family prefers it, he says, “and me too”. Unlike Madrid or Milan, in London, he says, he can lead “an almost normal life”. He can walk on the street and “within five minutes” find a Chelsea supporter, a Tottenham supporter, an Arsenal supporter, “even the Liverpool supporter or the United supporter. And I like that. In other places I’ve worked you’re always walking in the middle of your club’s fans. Milan, 50 per cent Inter, 50 per cent AC. Madrid, maybe 70 per cent. Real, 30 per cent Atlético. In Porto, 100 per cent. If someone comes up to me, I like to listen. Although if someone wants to give me a lesson in football, of course not! • Mourinho's all-time XI: in pictures “But I think people in London understand what it is to disturb and not to disturb. They have a notion that people need space, that people deserve respect. If I am disturbed it is always by non-English people. The English people in the restaurant, of course they want an autograph or a selfie, but they wait until I finish my meal. Go to a shop, they wait – they don’t come when I’m choosing my socks. And walking in the street I have the same feeling. It is impossible in London that somebody would disturb because of a negative result when you are walking in the street with your family. Impossible! In Madrid, Milan – always.” Every football fan, he says with a weary shake of the head, is a manager; but the blunt fact is that people take football far too seriously. “I am passionate about football, of course. But for us professionals, if it means everything, we are in trouble; and for supporters the same. In Portugal they say that you can change everything except your mum and your football club. I understand because of football’s power, socially, politically and culturally. But how can a football player be in the top 100 of the most influential people in the world in Forbes magazine?” Actually, two footballers. Last year Cristiano Ronaldo was at number 30 in the Forbes list, Lionel Messi at number 45. “It’s absurd! We don’t save lives! I know that people can jump from a fifth floor because his team lost a game, but that person has problems. How can you compare a football player, a football manager with a scientist, a doctor? You cannot compare.” Mourinho photographed in London with his daughter Matilde Mourinho says he has no close friends in English football. “Some, we like each other and have some communication, but I cannot say so close.” But there is one man for whom his admiration is boundless: Sir Alex Ferguson. The two men first met as managers in 2004, when Porto knocked Manchester United out of the Champions League. “That was when I felt the two faces of such a big man,” Mourinho says. “The first face was the competitor, the man that tried everything to win. And after that I found the man with principles, with the respect for the opponent, with the fair play – I found these two faces in that period, and that was very important for me. “In my culture, the Portuguese and the Latin culture, we don’t have that culture of the second face; we are in football to win and when we don’t there is not a second face most of the time. But when we beat United in the Champions League I got that beautiful face of a manager which I try to have myself. I try.” It is true to say, perhaps, that his struggle is not always understood. The adjective that is most often ascribed to Mourinho is “Machiavellian”. “I don’t see myself that way.” Has he read Machiavelli? “Yes, I know Machiavelli, of course. I agree that sometimes I can have something of Machiavelli in some of my comments, but no more than that. Not at all.” Barking orders in a Chelsea victory over Liverpool, December 2014 Every football manager is at heart a complainer –diabolical decision; it was clearly a penalty, or clearly wasn’t; we were unlucky – but Mourinho has raised complaining to a fine art. It is not simply that referees are against him, the whole world is against him – a default position that seems calculated to instil a fighting “underdog” mentality in his team, but also a way of getting his excuses in early. In press conferences, an area where he reigns supreme, his most anodyne comments can give the impression of a man somehow undermining someone – his opponent, the footballing authorities, the reporter. Even his compliments stubbornly defy being taken at face value. “It’s the Ferguson thing,” one seasoned football writer told me. “When José starts being nice about people it’s because he doesn’t see them as a threat.” Mourinho looks deeply offended when I suggest this. “No! I like to praise people when people deserve – other managers, players. I love to say ‘fantastic referee’, especially after a defeat.” It strikes me, I say, that he is greatly misunderstood; that he is actually one of the great deadpan comedians. Mourinho looks at me, and says nothing. Then, ever so slowly, his face creases into an enormous smile. Mourinho's favourites CAR: Jaguar F-Type I've driven many cars of similar high performance and beautiful style, but nothing is like a Jaguar. The noise of the F-Type and the speed... there is nothing like it. WATCH: Hublot King Power 'Special One' I made it, I designed it and the company did it for me according to my needs. It's the colour I want, the material I want and the right size and weight. I designed it with the company. It's my watch. PHONE: BlackBerry I like it. It is that simple. It does everything I need. HOLIDAY DESTINATION: Portugal It is always nice to return home. Home is home, and I don't get there enough with the busy football season. RESTAURANT: My home As a family we always eat together and although we like many restaurants in London, we have the most fun when we eat at home together José Mourinho drives a Jaguar F-Type Coupé (jaguar.co.uk/f-type) • Mourinho interview: Five things we learned Did you know Telegraph Sport has a Chelsea Facebook page? |
Share Tweet Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: Good to see at least ONE university is still run by mature adults. According to this, Ohio State University’s Bricker Hall (the administration building on campus) was taken over by a bunch of whiny toddlers posing as college students. They were protesting the usual – safe spaces, the administration doesn’t UNDERSTAAAAAAAND them, come change my diaper the way I want it done. Oh, and they had a bunch of unreasonable social justice demands (one was about boycotting a company that did work in Israel? I don’t even know…) that the university officials had listened to – and then they promptly told these brats “Absolutely not!” That’s more or less what this was about – the university listened to their demands and they said no. So, like a two-year-old that wants a cookie before dinnertime, but mommy tells him that he can’t have one, they just stomped their feet and whined and cried. And like a mommy with an unruly two-year-old, the university president and other officials told these glorified babies that if they didn’t clear out of the administration building, there would be Actual Consequences. Like, the police would escort them out by force AND the students would be expelled from school. [iframe id=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/__iQGa0OkIs”] Miracle of miracles, that seemed to work. By 12:30 am, the last group of student protesters left the building (guess whatever they were protesting wasn’t worth getting expelled and arrested. Must not have actually been that important). Not sure if they stayed gone or if there were back at Bricker Hall bright and early to resume their protesting. But one thing’s for sure: OSU deserves props for dealing with these losers. This has been a looooooong time coming. |
ADVERTISEMENT In 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union got in a high-stakes nuclear confrontation because the Soviets had secretly installed ballistic missiles in Cuba. In 2017, the United States and North Korea got in a high-stakes nuclear confrontation because President Trump is the most incompetent, ignorant, reckless bully ever to occupy that office. He should do the world a favor and plug his big fat mouth. The escalation has continually ratcheted up basically from the moment Trump was inaugurated as president, at almost every point driven by Trump's belligerence and inability to shut up for five seconds. Just before he was inaugurated, North Korea prepared some nuclear and missile programs. Days after Trump became president, Secretary of Defense James Mattis visited South Korea and Japan where the latter U.S. forces successfully shot down a test ballistic missile. The North Koreans responded by testing a new ballistic missile. China responded by banning coal exports to North Korea for the rest of 2017. North Korea upped the ante by conducting four more missile tests into the Sea of Japan. The U.S. responded by completing delivery of a missile defense system to South Korea — which deeply annoyed the Chinese — and by helping conduct exercises with South Korean missile defense destroyers. This cycle of testing, intimidation, and chest-thumping continued until sharp new sanctions were levied by the U.N. Security Council. North Korea promised "thousands-fold" retaliation. Trump responded like this: President Trump: If North Korea makes any more threats to the U.S., "they will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen" pic.twitter.com/8dQed79L1W — NBC News (@NBCNews) August 8, 2017 This was, unbelievably, totally improvised. At the time Trump was reportedly looking at a fact sheet about the opioid crisis. Naturally, North Korea responded by threatening to hit Guam with a missile strike. Of course the North Koreans are also responsible for this situation. The country is, after all, a totalitarian dictatorship seeking nuclear warhead-tipped missiles. But it is not remotely a coincidence that this crisis started gaining momentum from the second Trump took power. North Korea is probably nearly powerless to seriously harm the United States (though we should note 162,000 Americans live on Guam). But they do have gigantic artillery batteries which could hit the South Korean capital Seoul — population 25 million, only a few miles from the border with North Korea — and wreak certain devastation. Those conventional weapons alone, plus the live possibility that they might slip a nuclear warhead through defense systems and hit South Korea or Guam (or San Francisco), make for a credible deterrent. The United States would no doubt win any war with North Korea. But the cost in lives would be absolutely grotesque — and the ensuing occupation would at a minimum cost hundreds of billions of dollars. A wise president today would easily grasp that the way to respond to an erratic, isolated, poor nuclear state was with calm and reason. He would make clear to the North Koreans that the door to diplomatic engagement and de-escalation is always open, and above all avoid needless provocation. The status quo can be preserved. President Obama instinctively grasped this, and as a result relations with North Korea remained if not exactly stable, then at least not rapidly accelerating to a crisis point, throughout his presidency. There were many confrontations and disputes from 2008 to 2016, but the worst was avoided. President Trump — because he is obviously suffering from serious age-induced mental decline if not early dementia, because he has always been a bully and a coward, and because conservative Republicans are in general belligerent warmongers — does not grasp this. America's president is, in essence, a jumped-up playground toddler pushing around someone much smaller and weaker than himself. So Mr. President, I beg you on behalf of an increasingly frightened American citizenry: Seize whatever 1,500-thread-count tea towels, gold-leaf curtains, KFC buckets, or other such implements are lying around, and stuff them into your mouth. |
Judging by media coverage, 2014, has been a bad year for the aviation industry. But as the world anxiously awaits updates from the year’s fourth major air tragedy, an examination of the data shows air travel has never been safer. It has undoubtedly been a horrendous year for Malaysia-based carriers, concluding with the missing AsiaAirlines flight QZ8501, with 162 passengers and crew. In March, Malaysia Airlines’ flight MH370 went missing over the South China Sea, with 239 on board—it has not yet been found. In July, the airlines suffered a second blow MH17 was shot down over Eastern Ukraine, killing 298. Also that month, an Air Algerie crash in Mali killed 116. But here’s a statistic on how safe it is to fly: as of September 2014, the average rate of crashes was 2.1 per one million flights. “It will probably come as a surprise to most people, but really it was a very safe year,” Paul Hayes, of the aviation consulting firm Ascend told the Wall Street Journal. Since the first commercial jet airliner took off in 1949, the rate of crashes has been declining, despite an increase in air travel, according to data from the Geneva-based Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives (BAAA-ACRO). The organization defines an accident as a crash if the aircraft was beyond repair. And 2014, has had the lowest number of crashes—111 to date—in the jet age. On the other hand, 2014 has also witnessed a spike in casualties, with 1320 deaths—if all the souls on QZ8501 have indeed perished. According to BAAA-ACRO, 2013 had the lowest number of deaths in crashes in modern aviation, with 459 casualties. But with more people flying than ever before, flight safety odds are still very much in favor of the modern airplane passenger. |
Dump that dirty old trash can into an even larger one, because it’s time to upgrade! Artists are not content to sit on their hands while the world turns into garbage. Their response? Turn the garbage cans into art. (Images via thenewecologist, happytiler, egotvonline, foodbeast) Garbage can modification covers a huge range; from dumpster vehicles to art gallery domes with ecological motives. The real lesson is that nothing in this world has to be boring, not even one of the most mundane objects in our everyday lives. (Images via crookedbrains, kickapoofart, squash, seattlepi) Give an artist the right supplies and they’ll turn the most boring trash receptacle into a creative experience. It’s easy to tell which garbage cans would win my trash. (Images via marshalladams) Smashcans are the wave of the future! They are normal disposal units that have been transformed into a dysfunctional new member of the family by the Baltimore, Maryland based artist Marshall Adams. (Images via tumblrbot, 4nitsirk, offbeathome) Home bins can be turned into something festive. Become the most popular home on your block for the garbage collectors by adding a touch of style. (Images via nerdnirvana, urbanprankster, oddee, neatorama, randommization) Trash cans are people too! Well, some of them are, at least. Be sure to feed them. The simple addition of giant eyes to a garbage can is enough to turn them into a fun bit of street art. (Images via jalopyjournal, americantrails, presurfer, bcx) A little paint and creativity can go a long way into turning the streets into a more vibrant and exciting place! Go out and make some change. (Images via walyou, walyou, geyserofawesome, sharegoodstuffs, crookedbrains) A little style in design could go a long way in making more interesting garbage cans. Be sure to support the movement by refusing to purchase a plastic molded can! |
German academics said they had cracked two encryption systems used to protect satellite phone signals and that anyone with cheap computer equipment and radio could eavesdrop on calls over an entire continent. Hundreds of thousands of satellite phone users are thought to be affected. “We were able to completely reverse engineer the encryption algorithms employed,” said Benedikt Driessen and Ralf Hund of Ruhr University Bochum as they announced their report, "Don't Trust Satellite Phones". The encryption algorithms are known as GMR-1 and GMR-2, and are standards used across satellite phone operators, including Thuraya, a leading providers. Their technology is widely used in the Middle East and Africa, including in some military applications. Mr Driessen told The Telegraph that the equipment and software needed to intercept and decrypt satellite phone calls from hundreds of thousands of users would cost as little as $2,000. His demonstration system takes up to half an hour to decipher a call, but a more powerful computer would allow eavesdropping in real time, he said. By publishing details of how to break the encryption, the researchers hope to prompt ETSI, the organization that sets the standards, to create stronger algorithms. A major problem with GMR-1 and GMR-2, Mr Driessen said, was that their details were kept secret so security experts cannot test them. “This is actually already happening for mobile phones after their encryption was shown to be weak,” said Mr Driessen. “They are now disclosing the encryption algorithms rather than keeping them secret, so they can be tested. This did not happen with satellite phones.” As a result, sensitive organisations deploy extra layers of cipher software in their satellite phones. Experts have long suspected that government eavesdropping agencies and other clandestine attackers are able to monitor satellite phone networks on a large scale, so using additional encryption software is quite common, but not standard. "Many government agencies, including the military, make many of their communications through their own technology," said Bjoern Rupp, chief executive of GSMK Crytophone, an encryption software firm. "However, they often still rely on satellite phones to communicate with locals, back to HQ or people at home. "With this announcement, it has been shown that the satellite handsets’ built-in encryption on these calls is no longer secure, which could pose a considerable threat to the armed forces and civilians alike." The Telegraph understands that the problem does not effect Inmarsat satphones as they do not use the ETSI GMR-1 and GMR-2 encryption. Thuraya could not be immediately reached for comment. |
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - A high-ranking former CIA officer, already imprisoned as a Russian spy, was sentenced to an additional eight years behind bars on Tuesday for sending notes to his Russian handlers from prison. Harold “Jim” Nicholson, 59, pleaded guilty on November 8 to conspiracy to act as an agent for a foreign government and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. “Today, former CIA official Harold Nicholson is being held accountable for once again violating his oath to protect America’s national security,” David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a written statement. In 1997, a federal judge in Virginia sentenced Nicholson to 23 1/2 years in prison for conspiracy to commit espionage. Prosecutors said in court documents that Nicholson, who is serving his time in Sheridan, Oregon, used his 26-year-old son, Nathaniel, to carry messages to Russian intelligence contacts between 2006 and 2008. Nathaniel Nicholson received cash payments of about $47,000 from the Russian agents as payment for his father’s past spying activities, prosecutors said in the documents. “On a personal level, it shows the damage a father can do as he manipulates a son into a world of dishonor,” Arthur Balizan, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Oregon said in a written statement. Nathaniel Nicholson was sentenced to five years probation after pleading guilty in August 2009 to his role in the case. As part of the guilty plea agreement, the elder Nicholson also forfeited to the government any profits from his story that might be generated from a movie, television show, book or other money-making enterprise. |
The aftershocks of last week’s Ashley Madison info breach by a hacking group known as the Impact Team continued over the weekend, with the filing of a $578 million class-action lawsuit by Canadian law firms Strosberg LLP and Charney, Lawyers and Sutts, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of “all Canadians” affected by the data dump, lawyer Ted Charney told The Associated Press. “The sensitivity of the information is so extreme and the repercussions of this breach are so extreme, it puts the damages faced by members in a completely different category of class-action suits.” Hackers first announced they had stolen the data in July and demanded that Ashley Madison shut down voluntarily in order to prevent its release to the public, which is exactly what happened last week when they released data online that is related to approximately 39 million members of Ashley Madison. In addition, extortionists have already begun targeting Ashley Madison users in an effort to capitalize on the recent hack, Krebs on Security reported. Although extortion is always a potential problem for anyone who is cheating on his or her spouse, the list of millions of cheaters that was released online makes it easier than ever for random blackmailers to target big names. “According to security firms and to a review of several emails shared with this author, extortionists already see easy pickings in the leaked Ashley Madison database.” Tom Kellerman, chief cybersecurity officer at Trend Micro, predicts there will be a rise in the number of “virtual shakedowns,” including phishing campaigns, ransomware, and Bitcoin payment demands. Kellerman also predicts that attacks against members of the military who used Ashley Madison could target the spouses of people whose information is included in the database. In fact, the leaked data is potentially devastating for an untold number of U.S. military personnel and could even lead to stolen U.S. secrets, some experts fear. According to The Hill, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Thursday that the Department of Defense is investigating the Ashley Madison leak, following evidence that more than 15,000 of the leaked email addresses were hosted on government and military servers. According to the article, adultery is taken seriously in the military and is a prosecutable offense, with potential punishments including forfeiture of pay, dishonorable discharge, and confinement of up to one year’s time. As we enter the first new week post-hack, the fallout from the growing list of Ashley Madison scandals – and from the website’s existence in the first place – is most likely here to stay, at least for now. [Photo by Carl Court/Staff/Getty Images] |
Recently, I had the opportunity to speak with Haffe Acosta , who works on films as a DP and an AC from low-budget indies to mainstream big budget projects, about the things a director and DP should do to make for a great working relationship and a great picture. He suggested 3 things a director can do for the DP and vice-versa. "The relationship between the DP and the Director is like a marriage; there must be ultimate trust in this partnership." ~~Haffe Acosta. 3 THINGS THE DIRECTOR SHOULD DO TO MAKE THE DP's LIFE EASIER HAVE A LOOK BOOK OR SKETCH JOURNAL FILLED WITH NOTES, ARTWORK, PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEO CLIPS. A picture is worth a thousand words is never more true than when a director is trying to explain to the DP what shot they want. The DP's life is made much easier when the director can point to pictures and other movies for what look they are going for. BE REALISTIC (BUDGETWISE AND TIMEWISE). A good DP loves a challenge but some directors stretch the limits on what's possible with the amount of money or time available. They forget that camera set-ups take up time and that some things are not doable without the proper equipment (like certain cameras, lenses, lights and dollying equipment). A DP will try to come up with cost-effective or creative solutions to get the shot the director wants but the director must remember that the most important thing is to serve the story in the best way possible. So director's be realistic and before making demands for an impossible shot ask yourself if it's really necessary for the entire picture. GIVE THE DP TIME AND ATTENTION. The director's main job is to work with the actors and envision the final picture which is why he must meet with the DP in as many pre-production meetings as they can possibly schedule. It's during preproduction that the DP gets to know the director's vision and most importantly, the story. During this time they can test things out . The director can decide on the look of the film and the DP can recommend the format, aspect ratio, lenses, digital or film. If the DP's schedule permits, the director should invite the DP to see rehearsals to get an idea on blocking. 3 THINGS THE DP SHOULD DO TO MAKE THE DIRECTOR's LIFE EASIER DON'T LOOK DOWN ON THE DIRECTOR OR TRY TO STEP ON THE DIRECTOR'S TOES. It's not unusual for a DP to work with an inexperienced or first-time director. Or that the DP is a director in their own right. As a result, the experienced DP might end up unintentionally undermining the director's authority on the set and even looking down on the director's choices. That's asking for a disaster. A DP is a professional, first and foremost, and if a DP is not willing to accept his or her role and let the director lead then the DP shouldn't take the job. Plain and simple. PLAN THINGS OUT, EXPLAIN THE PROCESS, LENSES AND SHOTS AND DESCRIBE WHAT IS DOABLE WITHIN THE TIME AND BUDGET. Because the dir is extremely occupied w/the actors and their lines, blocking, make-up, marks, etc., the director will rely on the DP's preparation and experience to help mold the look of the film. Besides the technical aspects of lighting and shooting the film, a good DP will empower the director with the ability to make good decisions. That means that the DP will provide the director with the knowledge, experience and advice to help the director decide on what will make the story work most of all. MEET WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS OR CREW MEMBERS - ESPECIALLY THE SET DESIGNER, WARDROBE, PROPS AND EDITOR. Aside from sitting in on rehearsals, a good DP will also want meet and speak with the production designers to get an idea of how he/she would design the set and how it relates with the overall look of the film. This includes wardrobe and art department. These departments are particularly important because they can enhance (or hurt) what the DP lights and shoots. Also, as a DP, I like to know who the editor is to see how they work and what I can do to make their job easier (besides discussing the technical stuff too). This will help the DP prepare and think about how all of the aspects of the film (the mise en scene) will come together when he or she lights and shoots it. Haffe Acosta is a New York-based cinematographer-AC and loves working on film and digital productions. He is knowledgeable on all types of cameras and loves shooting with the Arri Alexa, Red Epic and Arri 416. Besides shooting indie projects and music vidoes, he has worked on commercials for Maybelline and Budweiser. Most recently Haffi worked as a 2nd AC with veteran Spanish DP Most recently Haffi worked as a 2nd AC with veteran Spanish DP Kiko de la Rica (Sexo y Lucia) in the feature " La Vida Inesperada ." Haffe is, currently, in pre-production to shoot a short dramatic film on 16mm this fall. He can be reached for projects at: haffeacosta@gmail.com |
UPDATE: We have funded my EP in just one week, THANK YOU for Executive Producing it with me! Can we get to 30k? We have done a budget and to do this puppy properly we really need 60k. It's a lot I know. This includes 7 tracks produced, mixed and mastered. 2 music videos (we have a really epic director on board for the debut clip, like… childhood dreams come true, I will reveal more in the backers updates), publicity, artwork, photography, CD production and everything else! I am truly humbled that you are even here considering pre-ordering my EP, anything you contribute I am so epically grateful. When Bianca and I went to Adore's concert in Sydney in March, I watched her onstage rocking out with her band and I was so proud and so inspired. I realised that I needed to step my pussy up and follow my dreams. I was waiting for all the bits of the puzzle to come together, but sometimes you just have bite the bullet and do it. So here is my Kickstarter! I really also love Kickstarter cause we get to go on this journey together! You all tell me on Twitter, Instagram and Periscope that you want Courtney music so this summer, with your help, I will be releasing my debut EP, Kaleidoscope. I want to create an EP that will take drag, gender diversity, sexuality and glamour to the mainstream. I love the way drag breaks down walls and gets people thinking and smiling. The music is commercial pop and has been produced by some really talented people, Sam Sparro (Black & Gold), Jake Shears (Scissor Sisters), The Prodigal and Chris Arnott. I know with your help we can take this music to beyond! I love you, and thank you for being a part of this journey with me Courtney Act & Shane Jenek |
History Edit At the 1998 Paris Motor Show, the two-seat, 2.5 m (98 in)-long Smart City Coupe (later named Smart Fortwo) was launched. This was the beginning of a new car brand and one of the more radical vehicle concepts to hit the European market since the bubble cars of the 1950s. It was also the beginning of a difficult period for Smart. The City Coupe had stability problems that were discovered only immediately prior to launch. These forced a package of alterations to be made that were both expensive and compromised the car’s handling, ride and gear shift. Public concerns over the car's stability, combined with Smart’s elitist marketing and the sheer radicality of the car’s design, proved damaging to initial sales. Production projections were slashed from 200,000 per year to 80,000, close to disastrous for a new brand with just one product. Inside the company, the evangelical buzz surrounding the launch of the radical City Coupe quickly evaporated. With new management, new marketing initiatives and continuing revisions to the car’s engineering to answer public concerns, future vehicle plans, including development of a four-seat model, had not been far advanced. Design and development Edit Roadster rear Under design director Jens Manske in autumn 1998, Smart's 14 person design and engineering team began to sketch possible future Smart cars. They soon realised that the powertrain of the City Coupe was ideal for a small sports car, with a compact turbo engine driving the rear wheels via a sequential 6 speed gearbox. Following Smart’s ‘reduce to the max’ philosophy and general innovative approach, a concept for a super compact, practical and pure sports car was generated. Two quarter-scale exterior and two quarter-scale interior models were made in February 1999 with Volker Leutz’s exterior and Christoph Machinek’s interior proposals selected for development into full-size development models. The design of the car had progressed considerably by the time Michael Mauer officially arrived from Mercedes-Benz's Japan design center to take over Menske's position in May 1999. Mauer worked closely with the design team to quickly develop the roadster, with the intention now of producing a show car for the upcoming 1999 IAA motor show in Frankfurt. By June the full size models of the roadster were handed over to Stola in Italy for production of the show car model, which was produced in about three months for the car’s debut at the Frankfurt show. The Roadster concept was well received at Frankfurt and helped to convince management that the car should be developed for production. At the same time a decision was made to develop Mauer’s idea for a coupe version as a concept car for Paris motor show a year later. As development of the coupe concept began, so the roadster show car was developed over the following year with both exterior and interior designs completed by November 2000. However, colour and trim design continued until a year later. By early 2000 the Smart City Coupe had finally started to gain sales momentum, with its cabrio version making a significant addition to total Smart sales. In March Mauer left Smart for Saab, succeeded by Hartmut Sinkwitz in May. As the third design director of Smart during the Roadster's development, Sinkwitz had to bring the concept to production in a very short time. This task may have been made somewhat easier by the Roadster having been designed from the start to use existing powertrain and other City Coupe components. Given some of the advanced design features, it is a credit to the design team that so much of the concept car made it to production. Concept car Edit The ‘Roadster Coupe’ as shown at the 2000 Paris Motor Show was already on its way to production form. It shared the design of the Roadster from the doors forward, but had a glass targa roof and rear structure resembling a small shooting-brake in the same way as the BMW Z3 coupe and the Saab 9X concept car developed under Mauer at Saab a few years later. Production versions of both Roadster and Roadster Coupe debuted together at the 2002 Paris Motor Show and were available to buy within a few months. Both cars were unique in the market, being significantly smaller than the Toyota MR2, MG TF, Fiat Barchetta and Mazda MX-5, but offering similar performance and practicality to the base versions of these cars while being significantly more fuel efficient. Production Edit Interior Smart Roadster. A Smart Roadster Coupé convertible. The Smart Roadster and Roadster Coupé were introduced in 2003, based on a stretched platform of the Fortwo with a full length of 3427 mm. The two variants are meant to be reminiscent of the British roadster of yore, such as the Triumph Spitfire or the MG B. Both the Roadster and Roadster Coupé are available with a removable Targa roof or an electrical softtop. The Roadster is powered by 45 or 60 kW (61 or 82 PS) versions of the turbocharged 698cc 3-cylinder Suprex engine in the rear, which is engineered by Mercedes-Benz. The Roadster Coupé has only the more powerful 60 kW (82 PS; 80 hp) engine. A steering wheel with Formula 1-style gearpaddles, to control the semi-automatic sequential transmission, is optional. Weighing as little as 790 kg (1,742 lb), the Roadster is intended to provide the emotion of driving a sports car at an affordable cost. Both the Roadster and Roadster Coupé are available in Brabus-tuned versions with power increased to 74 kW (101 PS; 99 hp). The Brabus versions have a different twin sports exhaust, lower suspension, polished six-spoke aluminum alloy Monoblock VI 17" wheels (205/40 ZR17 at the front and 225/35 ZR17 at the rear), front spoiler, side skirts and radiator grille. Exclusive Brabus (Xclusive) interior includes leather trimmed dashboard, alloy-effect accent parts, instrument graphics, leather/aluminium gearknob with Brabus labelled starter button, aluminium handbrake handle (which fouls the central armrest), aluminium pedals and Brabus labeled floor mats. The Brabus version also features stronger clamping of the clutch plates and a faster gearchange. The Monoblock wheels are known to be very soft and as a result are very easy to buckle. The lacquer on these wheels is also very poor, and corrosion can occur very early in the life of the wheel. Despite a projected break even of only 8-10,000 units per year, first year sales almost doubled this estimate. However, some Smart Roadsters leaked and production ceased due to the warranty work and other costs reaching an average of €3000 per vehicle. While a critical success, the Smart Roadster was, due to these costs, an economic failure for the company. Influential British motoring television show and magazine Top Gear praised the Roadster, awarding it Fun Car Of The Year for 2005. 43,091 Roadsters were built and put on the shop fronts, with chassis numbers ranging from 00,001 to around 43,400. Brabus V6 Bi-Turbo prototypes Edit Smart Roadster Coupe Brabus. Brabus Coupe, rear In 2003, German tuninghouse Brabus created a prototype version of the Roadster Coupé with two merged 3-cylinder engines to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Solituderennen. This V6 bi-turbo powerplant had a maximum power of 160 kW (218 PS; 215 hp) for a weight of only 840 kg (1,852 lb), giving it the same power-to-weight ratio as a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S. Smart claimed the car could accelerate to 100 km/h (62 mph) in under five seconds. Since the twin-turbo V6 engine occupies almost twice as much space as their 3-cylinder engines, the fuel tank had to be relocated to the nose of the car, where a luggage compartment used to be. It comes in the form of a Formula 1-type foamrubber fuel bladder. The bigger engine also forced a change from separate coil springs and dampers to concentric units to support the de Dion rear suspension. Ten cars were built and presented at the Castle Solitude. They are not available for sale and are not even allowed to be driven on public roads in Germany. Some of Mercedes' race drivers, like Markus Winkelhock, drove guests around the event's race track. Special editions Edit Smart Roadster Collector's Edition. Smart Roadster Collector's Edition. In March 2006 Smart unveiled the final variant of the Roadster at the Geneva Motor Show: a limited collector's edition. It was based on the top model Brabus Xclusive with 101 PS (74 kW; 100 hp) and came with a satin brown-metallic paint job. The interior had brown leather and higher quality materials were used extensively. It had the new Runline aluminium wheels and Brabus exhaust, front spoiler and side fenders. Of 50 planned cars only 30 were made.[citation needed] A limited edition Roadster Coupe Racing edition (RCR) was released in 2005 in the UK. Only 50 in the world were made and featured all the Brabus trimmings plus special black Alcantara and leather seats with red diamond pattern stitching. The seats were not heated as they are in the main Brabus model. The black Alcantara and red stitching also featured on the dash and door panels. Interior door handles and clock surrounds were finished in red to match the exterior paintwork. Each comes with a numbered plaque on the glovebox - stating the build number - RCR UK #/50. These cars were finished in Ferrari Red with matching light surrounds and bumper sections, the tridion safety cell being all silver. They were made to look like the V6 bi turbo and came with a free optional SB2 power upgrade kit for the engine, which raised the standard 80 bhp (60 kW) to 90 bhp (67 kW). The reason they were not fitted with the 101 PS (74 kW; 100 hp) engine is that the cars came off the production line in 2004 as normal 80 PS (59 kW; 79 hp) engined roadsters before being given the Brabus makeover. The SB2 upgrade was optional to allow customers the option for lower insurance and road tax/CO2 emissions. So some RCRs did not have the SB2 upgrade carried out when new. There were 50 right-hand drive cars (RCR 90) built especially for the UK with the SB2 kit and 90 hp (67 kW). Additionally BRABUS built 7 left-handed cars (RCR 90) for the rest of Europe and only 12 cars of the RCR 101 were altogether built left-handed by BRABUS with the real BRABUS 101 HP engine. One prototype and 11 numbered cars. An additional, UK and Sweden-only 'Finale Edition' was unveiled in April 2006. This model came in a variety of colour combinations, including an exclusive speed silver and black tridion with 17-inch Runline alloys and 'flow silver' interior components. It also featured leather door and cockpit trim and a central arm rest. Project Kimber Edit Main article: Project Kimber In 2006, David James initiated Project Kimber, an attempt to restart production of the Smart Roadster in the United Kingdom. Initially intended to be rebadged as an MG model,[1] after an unsuccessful bid for the MG marque, the revised Roadster was later referred to as the AC Ace.[2] However, as of 2013, the project appears to be dormant.[citation needed] Knight and Day Edit In the 2010 movie Knight and Day, the Smart Roadster appears in the final chase scene. These vehicles were retrofitted with an engine from a Suzuki GSX-R motorcycle to improve power and throttle response, which was accomplished with a kit made by British company "Smartuki". Three of the cars were bike powered, and three more had conventionally tuned 698 cc 3 cylinder engines featuring ECU remap, cold air intake/filter, performance exhaust, stiffer engine mounts, improved brakes, and lowered suspension by a Smart specialist in Hampshire England. |
Irony, thy name is Big Organic I love when science deniers prove me right. And today is no different. For those of you who don’t know what’s happening, anti-gmoers have decided they would use legislation to harass scientists rather than provide supporting evidence for their assertions against GMOs. In what is fast becoming a grand display of hypocritical irony, anti-gmoers have once again proven their position is not one based in science, but one based in fear, conspiracy theories and opinion. The organisation “US Right to Know of Oakland, California“, is using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to suppress and harass scientists they feel have “ties” to the agricultural biotechnology industry in an attempt to prove that scientists are being paid off. Because you know, it’s easier to try to confirm your preconceived opinions than to provide scientific evidence for them. I guess one could say they are attempting to provide supporting evidence – for their conspiracy theories. And we all know science denial is based on fear and conspiracy theories. One such scientist, Kevin Folta, a long-term science communicator has been at the forefront of the attack. Anti-gmo conspiracy theorists feel they have uncovered a goldmine of information, when they used FOIA to discover the not-so-secret fact that Monsanto donated $25,000 for science outreach. The initial story from US Right to Know was that Folta was a paid shill for Monsanto therefore discrediting Folta’s work. Even though Monsanto donated the money, it is used purely to educate scientists and teachers about how to become better science communicators, Folta doesn’t get to keep it. He uses it to organise seminars designed to educate scientists and teachers on how to become better science educators and teachers. Scandalous! Yes, shocked readers, a biotech company gave a science educator money to educate science educators about how to educate people in science – particularly in the field of biotechnology. Next you’ll be shocked that Ford gives money to educators to educate about cars. So far there have been no takers on SciBabe’s Facebook page Quite right, the only thing that can unscience science, is going to be better science and since anti-gmo science deniers hate science – I don’t think we need to be concerned with anti-gmoers undoing biotechnology using science any time soon. We do however, need to be concerned with science deniers abusing legislation for their own gain. When you don’t have science to back you up, create a smear campaign against your target. Much to Folta’s credit, the man does love transparency. He’s taken on this attack with open arms and said “come at me, bitches” (well, maybe not those exact words) because transparency is the key. Where he gets his money from and for what is already in the public domain. He has nothing to hide. If US Right to Know want to play the Shill Gambit card. Let’s play the Shill Gambit card. Let’s use their own conspiracy against them. Oh, dear. $114,500 dollars from the Organic Consumers Association. A shill for OCA (a group dedicated to demonising biotechnology, they’re also anti-medicine. Check out their Facebook page) attempting to silence pro-gmo scientists. The irony, it burns. Did I mention that Gary Ruskin is the former campaign manager for the Yes on Prop 37 (mandatory GMO labeling ballot measure in California)? Did I also mention that OCA doesn’t show their donors (how very transparent of them), but examining public records has found major funding from Eden Organic, Whole Foods, Nutiva, and Dr. Bronner’s. All of which are major organic businesses with a financial interest in demonising biotechnology. For his role in spreading the message of Evil GMO’s, Ronald Cummins the CEO of OCA got paid $99,590 in 2013. $40,00 for speaking engagements against GMO’s from those who have a vested interest in eliminating GMO’s in favour of organic? Say it isn’t so! She’s not even a damn biotech scientist, her degree is in Physics with a Master’s in Philosophy. Here’s a tip, if you’re going to lead a smear campaign to promote your conspiracy theories – you should probably make sure you aren’t doing the same thing you’re demonising scientists for. If you want to cry ” Shill” at a scientist who took a donation from a biotech company to educate about biotech – don’t take money from organic businesses (whose aim it is to end GMO’s and biotechnological research), to fund your campaign to end GMO’s. If you like some of the things I say – feel free to add me to your RSS feed, comment or email me: rayne@insufferableintolerance.com. I now have a Facebook page! Feel free to like my page by clicking here |
Rear Window has been one of my all-time favorite movies from the very first time I saw it. To me, it’s Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece: memorable, endlessly watchable, and nerve-wracking. For one thing, I wanted to live on that gigantic set: it was spectacular. Didn’t hurt that the film starred not only Jimmy Stewart, who oozed sincerity from every pore, but also Grace Kelly, who vied for my teenage heart with Maureen O’Hara (Maureen usually won that one, though: I had a weakness for redheads back then). The movie’s premise is simple enough: Jeff (Stewart), a photographer with a broken leg who’s recuperating in his New York City apartment, spends his time spying on his neighbors from his window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder. Thus, we’ve got a murder mystery with Hitchcock, Stewart and Kelly, three ingredients which by themselves would guarantee it’d be phenomenal. But what made it all work, what really put it over the top, was the object of Jeff’s obsession, Lars Thorwald. Raymond Burr’s Thorwald isn’t some scenery-chewing villain like Terence Stamp’s General Zod, nor a creepy-yet-brainy maniac like Anthony Hopkins’s Hannibal Lecter. He’s not intimidating, or brilliant, or all that evil. He’s sort of, well …rather pitiable, really. Thorwald is a thoroughly beaten man from the moment we set eyes on him: beaten down by life, by his job, by his marriage. Despite his size, we get the impression that he has little strength remaining. Even his crumpled hat and wrinkled suit seem to say “What’s the use? This is all I’ve got left…”. And that’s the subtle magnificence of Burr’s performance: with a bare minimum of screen time, he somehow has us feeling sorry for a dude who murders his invalid wife, cuts her up, and disposes of her body all over the city. Even more amazing, it isn’t until the very end of the movie that we truly get to see and hear Burr, close up. Jeff is trying to keep on eye on Thorwald when he grabs the phone and starts speaking, thinking it’s his buddy, NYPD detective Doyle. Instead, it’s Thorwald. Silence greets Jeff on the other end of the line, as he (and we) realize his error: Namely, that right now Jeff is alone in his apartment, utterly defenseless in his wheelchair with no means of escape, and Thorwald is coming to get him. In a matter of moments, we see the outer hall light extinguished and then hear the heavy, lumbering footsteps of Thorwald slowly walking down the hall to Jeff’s apartment. It’s every bad dream that I ever had as a kid, times ten. But when Burr enters the darkened apartment, instead of merely panic we sense something …more. We can feel Thorwald’s bewilderment mixed liberally with a lifetime of hopelessness and disappointment: “What do you want from me? … What is it you want? A lot of money? I don’t have any money…” Those lines, spoken in Burr’s weary, raspy baritone, are among the best in the film. Thorwald didn’t plan this, any of this, and his confusion is palpable. Even then, just before he starts his halting attack on Jeff, even while you’re terrified of him, a part of you still feels bad for this guy who’s about to try to kill Hollywood’s most likable hero. Not many actors could’ve pulled that off. Ever since Rear Window was re-released back in 1983, I’ve seen it too many times to count. Please, if you don’t own a copy (and honestly: if you don’t, what the heck is wrong with you?), grab one and enjoy this classic again. You might wanna close the blinds, though. Just sayin’… — — **Our sincere thanks to Kristina at Speakeasy , Ruth at Silver Screenings , and Karen at Shadows & Satin for creating and organizing this “Great Villain Blogathon”!! |
Event Overview Together we Ride Join us on Sunday, June 1, 2014 for The Becel Heart&Stroke Ride for Heart. It's an experience of a lifetime. And your chance to make health last. Imagine you're riding down the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway in Toronto. There’s not a vehicle in sight, all you can see are 14,000 other Riders around you. You’re pedaling away, faster and faster as you think about how great it felt to beat your fundraising goal. How great it is to help Canadians live longer, fuller lives. As you finish your epic route, you feel completely alive! Last year’s Ride sold out. Register now! You can fundraise and ride on your own or as a team. Why You Should Ride The average Canadian will spend their last 10 years in sickness due to heart disease, stroke and other chronic conditions. Together, we can continue to give Canadians the tools to make health last. Together we Ride. Why You Have to Fundraise to Ride Riders (aged 19+) need to raise at least $100 in addition to their registration fee. And here’s why. Cycling will help make your health last. But what about everyone else? With so many people riding in the Ride for Heart, it’s the perfect opportunity to raise vital funds that will provide the tools help make health last for all Canadians. We just couldn’t have it any other way. Your Fundraising Will be Rewarded The more you raise, the greater the rewards! See them here. Will You be a VIP? You can become a VIP—a Very Important Philanthropist—in one of two ways. Either way, you’ll do more to help Canadians live longer, fuller lives and be rewarded handsomely. Find out more. Where You’ll Ride 25km 50km 75km Starting at Exhibition Place in Toronto, you’ll ride through an incredible route at a distance that suits you: Register Today. Together we Ride. |
Diplomat found dead after throat was slashed with steak knife in New York apartment just hours before Obama's UN speech TWO knives - one a 12-inch steak knife - used in grisly murder Mercado's stomach had also been stabbed He had last been seen alive day before No motive yet Grisly death: Nicaraguan consul César Mercado, shown here in an undated photo, has been found dead in his New York apartment A top Nicaraguan diplomat was found dead with his throat slashed and his stomach stabbed. The bloody body of César Mercado, 34, was discovered yesterday inside his New York apartment by his horrified driver. The driver had turned up there at 10.35am to pick Mercado up for the United Nations General Assembly's annual meeting, where U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech. He was last seen alive the day before. Police said the driver had found the Bronx apartment's door ajar. When he peeked through, he saw Mercado's body lying just inside the blood-spattered apartment. It was initially thought one knife was used in the attack and was found near the body. But investigators later determined there were two knives involved, a 12-inch steak knife found at the side of a blood-filled bathroom sink and a smaller paring knife found in the sink. Mercado was fully clothed, and the apartment did not appear to have been ransacked, police said. A police spokesman could not say whether he had defensive wounds on his body. Neighbour Michele Figueroa, 19, said he heard a commotion in the apartment around 3am. 'I heard somebody banging on the wall. But I didn't pay attention,' he told the New York Daily News. He said the diplomat was the type of friendly man who held doors open for others in the building, but claimed they were not well-acquainted. Investigation: Emergency services outside the Bronx apartment where Mercado's body was found by his horrified driver Mystery: Investigators examine the outside of the Bronx apartment Now authorities are investigating a possible motive - but no suspects have been identified yet. An assistant to Nicaragua's ambassador to the United Nations says the mission couldn't immediately release any information. Mercado came to the U.S. in 2001 to work as an assistant in the office of Nicaragua's ambassador to the United Nations, a friend said. He was single and his family was in Nicaragua. He eventually became consul general, working with passports and immigration visas. Murder? More investigators in protective suits examine the exterior of the Bronx apartment building where Mercado died The assistant to the ambassador said the mission couldn't immediately release any information. Mercado's friend Amparo Amador said he was like a son to her. Recently, she'd urged him to go to the doctor because he looked thin, and he had been diagnosed with diabetes. The two went to the wedding of another friend in Brooklyn just six days ago, where he danced and had fun. 'He had no enemies. He was loved by everyone who knew him,' she said in Spanish. 'When I first heard of his death, I thought he must've died from natural causes because there would be no way he could be killed.' Tragedy: The seats of the Nicaraguan delegation to the United Nations General Assembly sit empty in the General Assembly hall today after news broke that Nicaraguan diplomat César Mercado was found murdered in New York She said he lived the life of a young, single guy, but he wasn't wild. 'He was the perfect guy. The best person, just wonderful,' she said. 'I feel as if one of my children has died.' However it was unclear what his title was when he died. The heads of more than 192 nations are in New York for the annual gathering at the United Nations Headquarters in Manhattan. Among them is Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega. He has vocally criticised the U.S. and defended North Korea and Iran. He was expected to speak during the gathering. |
Update September 22 KST: Bada and Super Junior’s Ryeowook released an image for their upcoming single “Cosmic,” which is set to release with a music video on September 22! As Ryeowook’s military date has been decided, many are curious as to see how the duet track will sound. Next month’s collaboration has been revealed to be EXO’s Chanyeol with American hip-hop group Far East Movement. Original: This week’s “SM Station” track will be a collaboration between Super Junior’s Ryeowook and Bada! Diva singer Bada and Super Junior vocalist Ryeowook partnered for the digital single “Cosmic,” which will be released on September 23 at midnight KST through MelOn, Genie, Naver Music, and other digital music sites. The music video will also be released through SM Entertainment’s YouTube channel as well as Naver TV Cast. “Cosmic” is a pop-style track with a refreshing electronic guitar sound, while the lyrics are about a love that can cross the universe. Bada was formerly part of SM’s girl group S.E.S before beginning her solo career as a singer and musical actress. She is frequently referred to as a “diva” in Korean due to her unique tone and powerful vocals. Ryeowook has lent his voice not only to Super Junior, but also to drama OSTs, plays, and musicals, and he released his solo album earlier this year. “SM Station” is the agency’s 2016 digital single project in which a new track is released every Friday. The tracks can feature in-agency artists as well as other singers and producers and frequently feature collaborations between artists who might otherwise not get the opportunity. Source (1) |
math.h Arduino trig and exponential functions use the avr-libc library. The library includes a great number of useful mathematical functions for manipulating floating point numbers. The Atmega8 chip, which is now dated, but still supported, does not have enough memory to be able to use the math.h library so you will probably need to update to an Atmega168 if you wish to use any of these functions. The full docs for math.h may be found here List of more common functions with descriptions This is just a partial list - check the docs for more obscure functions double cos (double __x) // returns cosine of x double fabs (double __x) // absolute value of a float double fmod (double __x, double __y) // floating point modulo double modf (double __value, double *__iptr) // breaks the argument value into // integral and fractional parts double sin (double __x) // returns sine of x double sqrt (double __x) // returns square root of x double tan (double __x) // returns tangent of x double exp (double __x) // function returns the exponential value of x. double atan (double __x) // arc tangent of x double atan2 (double __y, double __x) // arc tangent of y/x double log (double __x) // natural logarithm of x double log10 (double __x) // logarithm of x to base 10. double pow (double __x, double __y) // x to power of y double square (double __x) // square of x See also |
Five men were found in a shallow grave days after being rounded up and led away in the northern Shan State Five villagers have been killed by soldiers during an interrogation in Myanmar, a senior general said, in a rare admission by the country’s powerful military which promised to prosecute the perpetrators. Witnesses have told Reuters that soldiers rounded up dozens of men in a remote part of the northern Shan state – an area riven by a long-running ethnic insurgency – on 25 June and led five men away. The bodies of the five were found in a shallow grave a few days later. Myanmar human rights group 'forced' to cancel launch of report on army torture Read more Lieutenant General Mya Tun Oo, one of Myanmar’s highest-ranking officers and the chief of military intelligence, told a news conference in Yangon that a court martial was under way and that the verdict would be made public. The military also pledged help for families of the victims who were from the village of Mong Yaw. “The court martial found that they violated the rules, failing to follow certain procedures, that led to the death of the victims during the interrogation,” said Mya Tun Oo. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chief of military intelligence Lieutenant General Mya Tun Oo attends a press conference in Yangon. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters He did not say how many soldiers were being tried or what charges they faced. Such a public admission of wrongdoing by soldiers from a top general in the presence of the international media is unprecedented. The armed forces have occasionally acknowledged troops have been at fault in previous incidents, but have usually done so in vaguely worded official statements. The military’s response this time suggests a heightened sensitivity about the army’s image as it tries to present itself as a responsible partner in Myanmar’s democratic transition and seeks closer ties with its Western counterparts. The military is forging a delicate partnership with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who swept to power after a historic election in November. The armed forces, which ruled the former Burma for nearly half a century, still control three security ministries and a quarter of the seats in parliament. “Every soldier has to follow rules and regulations while investigating prisoners or detainees regardless of whether they are related to insurgents or regular citizens,” said Mya Tun Oo, adding that the military would take action against the perpetrators according to the law. “The military will take the best care and support of the victims’ families,” said Mya Tun Oo, without giving the details. Myanmar’s armed forces have often been accused by human rights groups and Western governments of abuses during decades of conflict with ethnic armed groups in the country’s lawless border zones. Campaigners including Amnesty International say it is extremely rare for troops to be held accountable for alleged abuses, or for such allegations to be investigated transparently. “After the incident in Mong Yaw we ordered an investigation commission with three members, led by the vice-commander of the northeast command, very quickly,” said Mya Tun Oo. “They visited the area, met with the families of the victims and supported them according to their needs.” Villagers said the military visited Mong Yaw and gave each family 300,000 kyat ($250) “as a gesture of sympathy”. The deaths of two other men in a separate incident in the same area were also being investigated. “They were shot dead when riding a motorbike near the military convoy, but we don’t know who shot them. We don’t know who they are,” said Mya Tun Oo. Villagers have said the two men were brothers and that their bodies were found in a ditch close to where the other five victims were buried. Mong Yaw lies in a remote corner of northern Shan State, where thousands of people have been displaced by decades of fighting between the military and ethnic insurgents. Last year the military lost hundreds of men in a bid to re-take a rebel-held region bordering China. Local human rights activists helped exhume all seven bodies in Mong Yaw and record their injuries. Campaigners expressed surprise that the military was taking the allegations seriously, saying they had spent decades documenting similar incidents. Despite the latest admission, fear and mistrust of the military that has festered for years in places such as Mong Yaw is unlikely to disappear quickly. On 11 July, Major General Kyaw Kyaw Soe had invited the bereaved families to an army facility near the northern city of Lashio. Reuters reporters trying to attend were ordered by soldiers to leave. “He said he would find justice for us,” said Aye Lu, an 18-year-old woman whose husband was among the five killed, after the meeting. “I don’t believe him.” |
Submitted by Dark Bid Free Trade Is Plutocratic Propaganda With the looming Trans-Pacific Partnership dominating the headlines, now is a good time to revisit an old scam called "free trade." In 2003, Kevin Flanagan was an information technology employee at Bank of America. They told him he was being replaced with foreign labor, and he was ordered to train his replacement. After he completed his assignment, he was laid off. Then he went to the parking lot and shot himself. That's "free trade." Like The Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984, sometimes, the most effective way to lie is to use the most innocent words. No word is more susceptible to propaganda-leveraging than "freedom." Attach that word to any concept, and all of a sudden, it's unassailable. That's exactly what happened with "free trade." Proponents of free trade will often use the simplest analogies to convey their point, as if you were retarded. The reason they have to resort to such caveman illustrations is because free trade does not exist in the real world. There is no such thing as equality of bargaining power. If someone has ten million dollars and you have zero dollars, anything above zero is an "improvement" in your situation. The free trade economists will say this person with zero dollars is "free" to work for $1 per hour, and they will do so because it improves their situation. This is what "freedom" means to free trade economists. If you doubt the free trade economists, they will call you a "protectionist," as if protecting your country's economy were some kind of grievous transgression. In fact, nothing is more American than shunning free trade nonsense. Ian Fletcher calls free trade the myth of "cowboy capitalism." According to Fletcher, all four presidents on Mt. Rushmore were protectionists. The entire American Revolution was fought because the colonists were tired of being economically exploited by the British. Alexander Hamilton realized that British dominance in manufacturing and American reliance on agriculture were dooming us to a banana republic future. The solution? Tariffs. By taxing British goods, the United States boosted its manufacturing industry. By 1820, tariffs were at 40%. Abraham Lincoln said, "Give us a protective tariff, and we will have the greatest nation on earth." One of the fascinating parts of this history is that the South was opposed to protectionism. They wanted free trade. Why? Because free trade was necessary for the international slave trade from Africa to the United States. Fast forward to 1994. That's when the North American Free Trade Agreement was enacted. The result was nothing less than the wholesale destruction of the American manufacturing industry. And where did these displaced workers go? In the 1990s, 98% of all net new jobs created were in the service industry, which has lower wages. This is what free trade looks like. I love the smell of freedom in the morning. One doesn't have to look hard to find free trade evangelists in the corporate world. Apple, the world's largest company, is also the largest example of how free trade is a game of heads I win, tails you lose. Only 5.6% of Apple workers are in the United States. There are 43,000 Apple employees in the country and 20,000 employees overseas. However, Apple is nothing without its global suppliers, where 700,000 workers make the next round of flashy gizmos that nobody needs anyway. These suppliers should be included in the worker count because they are directly involved in the manufacturing process. In February 2011, President Obama asked Steve Jobs, "Why can't that work come home?" Despite having the last name of "Jobs," Steve Jobs made it clear that he didn't care about jobs. He only cared about money. He said, "Those jobs aren't coming back." In 1983, Jobs used patriotism when it was convenient for him. He called the Macintosh, "a machine that is made in America." Later, he said, "I'm as proud of the factory as I am of the computer." But by 2004, patriotism gave way to profits, and Apple became an American company in name only. It relied on foreign manufacturing. Betsey Stevenson, former chief economist at the Labor Department, said, "Companies once felt an obligation to support American workers, even when it wasn't the best financial choice. That's disappeared. Profits and efficiency have trumped generosity." Of course, Apple falls back on the timeless corporate lie that American workers are not skilled enough. One anonymous Apple executive said, "We shouldn't be criticized for using Chinese workers. The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need." They were skilled enough before NAFTA, but after NAFTA, all of a sudden, they all forgot how to do their jobs. It's funny how that amnesia works. Now, for every two American college graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, only one of them is hired into a job in their field. Sounds like a real skills shortage. Alan Blinder, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton and a former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, said, "Contrary to conventional wisdom, the more offshorable occupations are not low-end jobs, whether measured by wages or by education. The correlation between skill and offshorability is almost zero." The anonymous Apple executive made it clear that Apple was really a country to itself and did not care about jobs or social effects, "We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries. We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems." Manufacturing analysts estimate that if Apple paid Americans to build iPhones, it would cost an extra $65 per iPhone. With hundreds of dollars of profits per phone, Apple would still be profitable. While Obama asked Steve Jobs about bringing jobs back to America, the Apple executives had their own suggestions. They wanted more visas so they could bring in more foreign workers. They wanted a tax holiday so they could bring back some of their overseas profits at no cost. They wanted government funding to train American workers. Notice a pattern here? They want to exploit government assistance so they can maximize their profits, which would boost their stock options. On and on it goes. You may be familiar with the term "corporate raider" from the 1980s, but what is happening now is on a scale much larger than that. It is "country raiding." Entire countries are being exploited and saddled with the burden of supporting multi-national behemoths who tell you that your very demise is actually your greatest freedom. Some Americans are catching on to this scam and are actually leaving the country in pursuit of opportunity. Imagine that: leaving America for economic reasons. Ellis Island has been flipped on its head. "Give me your tired and your poor" has been replaced with "Let's GTFO!" As Zero Hedge reported, in the first quarter of 2015, a record number of Americans renounced their citizenship. One expatriate, Emily Matchar, described her experience, "After applying for 279 jobs over two years, my husband finally got the offer he'd been hoping for: a well-paid position teaching philosophy at a respected university. We should have been thrilled. There was just one little thing. The job was in Hong Kong. My husband said, "I feel like we're being deported from our own country." Meanwhile, in China, Apple continues to thrive on its masses of slave labor. Like the antebellum South, Apple supports free trade because it makes their slave labor possible. Foxconn, Apple's major supplier, is located in Shenzhen. Do you know how they keep their unemployment rate down? If you are a migrant worker who has been unemployed for more than 3 months, it is illegal to rent housing. So you can either be homeless or leave. I'm sure the people at the Bureau of Labor Statistics would love a policy like this in the United States. Then they wouldn't have to bend over backwards to goal-seek all their employment data to conform to the official "recovery" story line. If you're not unemployed in Shenzhen, you're probably getting beaten by Foxconn security or jumping off buildings to escape your miserable existence. So you can imagine my level of trust when President Obama says this time will be different. He called the Trans-Pacific Partnership "the most progressive trade deal in history." And yet he doesn't want to tell us anything about it. With NAFTA, 5 million American manufacturing jobs were lost, and 57,000 factories shut down. What will the Trans-Pacific Partnership do? It's like a sequel to a movie that was terrible in the first place. Obama visited Nike's headquarters as part of his political rally. One of the high-quality jobs at Nike is held by a 32-year-old mother in Indonesia who processes 100 shoes per hour for 83 cents. I'm sure she is a free trade supporter. After awhile, you start to realize that the people who love free trade so much are economic hacks and the uber-rich. They use sterilized language and hollow arguments to convince you of the positive ideals of free trade. In all honesty, it's a great theory. It really is. But then the moment you start believing it, they start working in all sorts of exceptions - usually for themselves. Before you know it, you're an unemployed American or a Chinese slave at Foxconn. And the uber-rich are in the Bahamas laughing about it, thanking the economists for playing along with the story. One thing is for sure: The Founding Fathers would have never put up with this bullshit. Neither should you |
So yesterday was quiet, right? What came of it? With major sites blacking out, and others giving peculiar nods toward blacking out, there was a great deal of discussion, worldwide. In terms of raising awareness to the frightening dangers of SOPA and PIPA, it was an enormous success, a number of sponsors of the bill rapidly backing out. And this was the internet defending itself, without the help of the wider media. With these bills sponsored and desired by the owners of the television media who own the news outlets, this was always going to be a tough fight. But fight people did, and there have been tangible results. Here’s a few things that changed since the day before yesterday. In terms of direct action, it was phenomenal. In the US, the Congress’s switchboards crashed under the weight of calls from people responding to the call to action. And those calls made a difference. A number of the PIPA bill’s sponsors have withdrawn their support in the face of the reaction. A serious of excellently named US politicians who had formerly put their weight behind the bills have since scarpered. Kotaku and Gizmodo provided excellent coverage of it yesterday. Senator Roy Blunt explained on his Facebook (what is the world coming to?) that he now believes the PIPA bill is “deeply flawed”, adding some fluff about the importance of free speech. Senator Orrin Hatch chose the Senate process of Twitter to reveal his change of mind. He said, “After listening to the concerns on both sides of the debate over the PROTECT IP Act, it is simply not ready for prime time. That’s why I will not only vote against moving the bill forward next week but also remove my cosponsorship of the bill.” Democracy, folks. Another Facebook abdication comes from the even better named Senator John Boozman, who gives a lengthy statement explaining that the feedback from his Arkansans voters “has been overwhelmingly in opposition to the Senate bill”. And as a result of that, he’s withdrawing his support, and has pledged to vote against. And Senator Marco Rubio, despite buying the line about the “theft of American jobs”, explained that Florida residents had been bombarding him about his co-sponsorship, takes a dig at China, withdraws his support and encourages the bill’s main sponsor, Senator Reid, to abandon the plan. He concludes by supporting “free and open access to the internet”. You see? It works. If you’re in America, continue petitioning your local Senators and Congresspersons, because they may well listen. If you’re not American, nag your American friends until they do. As support for PIPA falls away, it’ll be harder to get through the Senate, and with former sponsors now pledging to vote against, we could see a backlash when it’s brought to the floor next week. Wikipedia most famously went dark. Sort of. Apparently not quite understanding their own campaign they left the site pretty much accessible to anyone “for emergencies” (“Quick – I don’t know the capital of Bulgaria!”), if they had a smartphone or knew how to disable Javascript. But it still raised incredible awareness, with 162 million people visiting their blackout message. Incredible. (We’ve no idea how many saw ours, currently, as I think we broke the Google Analytics code. But I imagine it was similar.) Reddit properly blacked out, replacing their site with a screen packed with information. And 75,000 other sites joined in too, from games developers to bloggers to torrent pages, all dedicating their sites for one day to be exclusively about informing people as to the dangers of SOPA/PIPA, and how to do something about it. We salute everyone who took part, sacrificing a day’s ad revenue and readership in favour of protecting their own future and the future freedom of the internet. Good news is TIGA, the UK equivalent of bill sponsors, the ESA, have come out against the bills. In an unambiguous statement, CEO Dr. Richard Wilson (whom we have been nagging for over a week now) explained that the legislation would lead to “damaging legal action” for online games businesses, and “inhibit innovation”, calling the bills, “a sledgehammer cracking a nut”. Another surprisingly declaration was Microsoft, who impressively have come out against SOPA. Which adds another tick to our list of ESA members who really ought to be leaving the disgraced ESA. And for those wanting to know more about why all this matters, the always excellent New Left Media have created a short film: Meanwhile, I had a bit of a rant about it all over here, if you’re interested. And I strongly recommend reading this incredible article that explains why the numbers given by the SOPA/PIPA sponsors are entirely bogus. Oh, and here’s how SOPA author Lumar Smith can’t quite follow copyright law himself. |
Why is Abbott considering a GST hike? Posted Tony Abbott's recent consideration of GST hikes is more about covering his costly policy priorities than plugging a revenue hole in the budget over the next decade, writes Stephen Koukoulas. It is not altogether clear why Prime Minister Tony Abbott is giving consideration to hiking the rate of the goods and services tax. This is especially the case when the budget his Government brought down in May confirmed that government revenue would be rising to a healthy 24.9 per cent of GDP in 2017-18, to be well above the historical average and some 2 to 3 per cent of GDP higher than the revenue take under the previous Labor government. Increasing the rate of the GST is, at face value, a simple and very effective way to boost government revenue. Based on 2014-15 data, each 1 per cent extra on the GST would raise about $5.4 billion (increasing to $6.4 billion in 2017-18), meaning a hike in the GST rate from the current 10 per cent to, say, 15 per cent would add more than $25 billion per year to government revenue, escalating to more than $30 billion per annum within three years - if nothing else changed. Hiking tax rates, including for the GST, raises the question, "What is the money being used for?" One very popular misconception in todays politics is that the Abbott Government is about shrinking the size of government. Overlooked in the discussion of fiscal policy under Mr Abbott are the big spending government programs, including the paid parental leave scheme, roads and other infrastructure expenditure, defence and the staggering $8.8 billion cash grant to the Reserve Bank of Australia. The revenue base and the desire to hike the GST would not enter into the current political debate if these spending measures either didn't exist or were smaller in scale. The facts show that Treasurer Hockey's budget in May delivered government payments, as a share of GDP, at 25.3 per cent in 2014-15 and it will remain at or above 24.7 per cent throughout the forward estimates. By way of contrast, the last three Labor budgets had government payments to GDP averaging 24.6 per cent. If Mr Abbott and Treasurer Hockey were in fact fiscally tight and their budget cut government payments to, say, 24.1 per cent of GDP, the level delivered in the last full year of the Labor government in 2012-13, the current tax take without hiking the GST would see the budget deficit of 0.1 per cent of GDP in 2015-16 and a surplus in 2016-17 and beyond, even with the expensive spending plans of Mr Abbott. While there is no doubt the revenue base is problematic in the current global climate of low inflation, Mr Abbott's consideration of GST hikes is more about covering the high spending associated with his policy priorities than plugging a revenue hole in the budget over the next decade. The beauty of the GST is that it is a transparent tax that is well understood and widely accepted by both business and consumers. The downside of the GST is that it is regressive, meaning that those on lower incomes are hit with a larger proportionate share of tax on a given basket of goods and services than is a rich person buying the same basket of items. This is where much more detail of Mr Abbott's notion of hiking the GST would need to be considered. What other changes will accompany the tax increase? Where would the money go? To have any appeal electorally, pensions and other social security payments would need to rise, making no welfare recipient worse off when confronted with grocery and utility bills boosted by the higher rate for the GST. There may be a case for adjusting income taxes lower as the GST increase took effect. But the problem with giving too much of the money back to pensioners and income earners is that overall impact on the budget bottom line and moving to and locking on budget surpluses is undermined if the money is merely recycled through the economy. Any review of Australia's tax system must include the GST - its level and coverage. This in turn needs to feed into the shape of the budget and issues of fairness and equity. At a time when the Coalition Government is increasing spending at a hefty pace and cannot get the budget to surplus, reverting to tax hikes has an unpleasant whiff of big government about it. Before any increase in the GST is contemplated, a lot more information needs to emerge on why the extra revenue is needed and perhaps a tighter reign on government spending would deliver a budget surplus without the tax take jumping to new highs. Stephen Koukoulas is a Research Fellow at Per Capita, a progressive think tank. View his full profile here. Topics: government-and-politics, business-economics-and-finance |
Late last month UK-based Frontier Developments confirmed that it would soon be revealing the specifications needed to run the latest version of its ever-popular space simulation videogame, Elite Dangerous: Horizons, with a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD). While the specs for running the standard version of the title had already been revealed, requirements for VR are understandably higher to ensure a smooth experience in-HMD. Today, the company has indeed revealed those specs, which can now be seen below. To run Elite Dangerous: Horizons in VR players will need: OS: Windows 7/8/10 64 bit Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K Quad Core CPU or better / AMD FX 4350 Quad Core CPU or better Memory: 16 GB RAM Graphics: Nvidia GTX 980 with 4GB or better Network: Broadband Internet Connection Hard Drive: 8 GB available space For comparison’s sake, here are the minimum PC specs for running the title on a standard display: OS: Windows 7/8/10 64 bit Processor: Quad Core CPU (4 x 2Ghz) Memory: 6GB Graphics: Nvidia GTX 470 / AMD 7240 (DirectX11 functionality required) Network Broadband Internet Connection Hard Drive: 8 GB available space Elite Dangerous: Horizons kicks off a second season of content for the title, which first launched in December 2014. It’s set to include brand new features such as planetary landings in which players can for the first time set down on the surfaces of some of the videogame’s many planets. This also brings with it the first ground-based vehicles to explore these environments with. The experience is currently undergoing Beta testing. Frontier Developments will soon be adding support for the HTC Vive HMD to Elite Dangerous: Horzions via a free update. The integration comes a few months after the developer made the decision not to update its Oculus Rift support to the latest versions of Oculus VR’s software development kit (SDK), which currently sits at version 0.8. However, Frontier Developments has recently stated that it is ‘continuing to work with Oculus’ on the support, and it’s hoped that the Oculus Rift might be reintroduced with version 1.0 of the SDK, due to release this month. VRFocus will have you covered for any further updates to Elite Dangerous: Horizons in the future. |
Dubai: An overwhelming majority of Dubai residents said they feel safe and protected and happy and satisfied with family life while living in the emirate, a new government survey has revealed. Some 96 per cent of Dubai residents said they feel safe and protected from crime in Dubai in general, according to the third Dubai Social Study released by the Community Development Authority (CDA) on Monday. The figure increased from 92.80 per cent in the first study in 2011. The extent of happiness felt by residents — covering the year before the study was conducted — was pegged at 8.08 on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being ‘extremely happy’. This perception of happiness also increased compared with the 7.9 rating in 2011. Westerners report being the happiest, followed by Emiratis, then Arabs, while Asians and Africans took the last spot. “The indicators are showing improvement. Something must have happened for these numbers to go up,” Khalid Al Kamda, CDA Director-General, told Gulf News. “They come from [an action] that had impacted positively on the service [they received] and how people feel,” he added. The Dubai Statistics Centre conducted the study during the last quarter of 2013 in partnership with CDA. They surveyed 3,796 families composed of 1,328 Emirati households, 1,504 non-Emirati households, 464 collective families and 500 individuals from labour accommodations. “The sampling included all residential areas of Dubai that we classified into clusters. Out of the clusters, we took random samples representative of the population to ensure that all areas are covered. For the labour accommodations, all those registered with the centre were represented,” Dr Tarek Hashim Ebrahim, Director of Research and Policy Development at CDA, told Gulf News. The survey, however, did not include domestic workers. It also didn’t include visitors. The results don’t come as a surprise to Dr Rima Sabban, a sociologist and an associate professor at Zayed University. “The city’s engineering [and urban planning] has allowed different communities in different places. Bachelors are not mixed with families so the state tries to deal with it relatively,” Dr Sabban told Gulf News. “There is a high presence of security systems in Dubai but it has managed to keep them to a certain level of invisibility. The only thing you see constantly are security cameras. They also reinvented the concept of police, that they are there to look after the community more than policing them.” Westerners are also the most satisfied group of people when it comes to family life at 99.7 per cent. Arabs come next at 99 per cent, followed by Emiratis at 97.3 per cent. Asians and Africans expressed a 97 per cent rate of satisfaction with family life. When quizzed by the media on whether salary packages were a consideration why the figures showed up as they did, Al Kamda denied that there is a connection. “The target audience for this survey has nothing to do with salary bracket. We have chosen the sample from each and every individual living in this emirate. But is it [perception of happiness] different for the rich people and poor people? No. It’s about how they perceive happiness, how happy they are within their own environment, whether they are a labourer or an executive,” Al Kamda clarified. The feeling of safety from unfair work practices is lowest in respondents from labour accommodations at 56.9 per cent and highest among Emirati families. Al Kamda attributed this to the perception of instability in the construction industry coming from the experience during the global recession in 2008. Some 92.5 per cent of non-Emiratis said that their rights as human beings are preserved. Some 77 per cent of the respondents said they feel able to fight for their rights through legal channels. The perception is lowest among labourers, however, at 66.4 per cent. Almost all respondents said they enjoy freedom of religion in addition to the feeling of being treated equally first by policemen, then by judicial entities, health facilities, and other government entities. Al Kamda said the survey results will be shared with relevant government authorities to improve the delivery of needed social services. |
The author with her stolen trike. This is a city where bikes get stolen. This isn’t exactly news. Speak with almost any cyclist living in Montreal, and they probably have had to replace their bike due to theft at some point. I’m a new cyclist. I only started biking last year. I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS), which affects my balance. I can’t ride a normal bike. Last summer, I bought a tricycle to get around town. It completely changed the way I interact with the city. With MS it is important to stay active and tricycling around town helped me do that. Two weeks ago my tricycle got stolen. Though I was completely crushed, the events that took place after renewed my faith in humanity and gave me an incredibly deep appreciation for the people who live in this city. After I realized my tricycle was missing, I put up a quick Facebook post with a picture of me with the trike. “HELP Montreal,” it said. “My tricycle just got stolen, either last night or today. I can’t ride a normal bike because I have Multiple Sclerosis and my balance is messed up. Please help me find it…” I was hoping that my friends would keep an eye out for me, I could never have dreamed how far this post would go. To take my mind off the theft, I went to hang out at Champ des Possibles. When I got home, there were over 600 shares from friends and strangers. On top of that, a man named Liam, whom I have never met before, nor have any friends in common with had was so touched by my story that he created a GoFundMe campaign asking for people to chip in to replace the trike if it wasn’t found. Though I didn’t end up using any of the funds, the gesture was overwhelmingly kind and thoughtful. The next day, the number of shares went up to over 1,100, mostly from people I don’t directly know. People from Verdun to Hochelaga sent me snapshots of red tricycles. I received endless notifications of people sharing my post denouncing the thieves, expressing their outrage and sadness over the theft. One of the people who got in touch was Ramona. She wrote to me saying that she had an extra tricycle that was used for an art project years ago, and that she was in the process of seeing if it could be passed it on to me. That evening, just one day after my call for help, Ramona got back to me saying the tricycle was mine. Meeting Ramona, a fellow social artist, and hearing about the backstory of the tricycle was very uplifting. The trike was used for 3 Mile Meal a project that brought residents in Mile End, Outremont and Park Extension together through food, to try and create a better sense of understanding between them. I felt privileged to have not only received this gift, but a gift that had a meaningful story behind it. It continues to amaze me how many people cared, and how much they were willing to help. One of these people is Dominique from Vélo Volé, a Facebook group that tries to reunite people with their missing bikes. He wrote a Facebook speech addressed to the thief pleading with them to return my trike. In it, he talks about the effect bike theft has on people and how, in my case, it helps me to make the best of my experience with MS, which is degenerative and sometimes keeps me in bed for days at a time. Once he found out about the tricycle that was gifted to me, Dominique got in touch. He told me he wanted to gift me a very strong lock so that my replacement tricycle would be less likely to get stolen. When we met, he gave me a lesson in theft prevention and a solid lock and chain for my new wheels. The last few days have been so unbelievably touching. I am still in awe of the community support, generosity and kindness I have received. To this day I am receiving messages, links to Kijiji ads and texts from people trying to find my lost tricycle. I wanted to write this to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who helped me get riding again so quickly. I don’t know what exactly about my story connected with so many people, but I truly appreciate every single gesture. The way this has unfolded over last few days reminds me why I fell in love with this city in the first place and the amazing people who live in it. Thank you Montreal. ■ |
By Saskatchewan Rush, The Saskatchewan Rush will be hosting a Champions Cup Rally Party at Bessborough Gardens on Tuesday, June 7, 2016 to celebrate their 2016 Championship and honour the fans in this historic first season. Mark Matthews, Robert Church and Nik Bilic will be in attendance along with the Champions Cup so fans can have a chance to take keepsake photos. Following the event, the trophy will be at the Rush office for fans to come by and get photos with for a few days before it heads out of town for a players tour with members of the Saskatchewan Rush. Mayor Don Atchison will be on hand to bring greetings from the City of Saskatoon. Lee Genier will bring greetings from the Saskatchewan Rush. John Fraser will host the rally as the MC and DJ Anchor will be playing music and keeping the crowd pumped up. WHEN: Tuesday, June 7 WHAT: Saskatchewan Rush Champions Cup Rally TIME: 11:30am-1:00pm WHERE: Delta Bessborough Gardens, followed by Saskatchewan Rush Office (Scotia Centre, 123 2nd Ave S) |
Of course he’s thanking her. He has to. It’s the only way to be a man. Drake says he feels great about Madonna’s surprise kiss. Of course he says that. He has to. “Don’t misinterpret my shock!” begs Drake on Instagram. “I got to make out with the queen Madonna and I feel [100] about that forever. Thank you @madonna.” There’s no way for us to know if Drake was into it or not—maybe he loved it. What I do know is that it doesn’t matter what he felt, because his only option was to “man up” and convince us that he liked it. No one should be pressured, coerced, or forced to engage in any kind of sexual activity without their consent. But when it’s a guy who receives the sexual attention, we often fail to see the problem. Our cultural myths around gender and sexuality paint a warped picture of sex, where men are assumed to “feel 100” about sex basically all the time. We’re told that men want and need sex constantly and are like animals who cannot control themselves around women. It’s cool for a guy to have many sexual partners and it’s up to guys to pursue sex, too. It’s normal for men to keep count and brag to each other about their sexual conquests. Masculinity is closely tied to sexual conquest and behavior, and being a “real man” means joining other men in objectifying and degrading women. They can’t help it! You know how guys are! They only want one thing. Boys will be boys! Generally, when we look at this problematic view, we focus on the harms to women. When sex is wrongly framed as being about male conquest and pleasure instead of mutual consent and enjoyment, sex is seen as something men should get from women by (at best) persuasion and (at worst) actual force. Surely this view of sex contributes to our epidemic rates of sexual assault. But the idea of the hypersexual man has very negative implications for men, too. Not only does it dehumanize men by painting them as sexual animals incapable of rational thought or sensitivity to others, but it promotes the idea that men automatically consent to any and all sexual activity. Men are always looking for and wanting sex, right? So how is it even possible for nonconsensual sex to happen? This view has real impact. Male survivors of sexual assault are widely disbelieved and discredited, and few services exist for them. The FBI only added male victims to their definition of rape in 2012. Rape is extremely underreported for men; there is a widespread belief that men cannot be raped because they are always willing. In fact, it follows that there’s only one way that a woman’s sexual attention could be non-consensual: She’s ugly. That’s the only reason our society will allow for a man to be disinterested in sex. The Drake and Madonna situation is a perfect example. If it was truly was spontaneous, then Madonna forced Drake to make out with her and then walked off feeling proud and letting us know she’s Madonna. Drake was visibly uncomfortable and asked “What the f*ck just happened?” Drake was essentially caught not being into sexual attention. So we all needed to cover for him. The internet rushed to help Drake by offering him an easy way out of his displeasure with the sexual encounter: Twitter let us know that Madonna is old and ugly! Now we can rest assured that Drake is still the real man we need him to be. It wasn’t because it’s not OK for anyone to force a kiss in that way, it was because UGLY CHICKS LOLZ! Drake let us know that it wasn’t Madonna he wasn’t into – of course he’d be into this conventionally attractive and famous white woman. It was her lipstick that he didn’t like, you guys! It’s all a big misunderstanding. DUH he enjoyed someone twice his age sticking her tongue down his throat in front of a crowd of people! He just looked upset because of the lipstick. No harm done! Instead of being about how what Madonna did isn’t cool because it wasn’t consensual, it became about how it wasn’t cool because she was not sexually desirable. But anyone can be a perpetrator of sexual violence. It doesn’t matter if you’re very attractive to the victim or not at all attractive to the victim. Reality check: If someone actually exclaims “Holy sh*t! What the f*ck just happened?” in alarm after you do something sexual to them, that was probably not consensual, and they did not like it. But because he’s a young black man and she’s a well-established, famous white woman, it sickens (but doesn’t surprise) me that Drake is now literally thanking Madonna for kissing him. Of course he’s thanking her. He has to. It’s the only way to be a man. Dana Fleitman is the Senior Manager of Prevention and Training Programs at JWI, the leading Jewish organization working to end violence against all women and girls. She is also a stand up comedian. Not usually at the same time. She is based in Washington, D.C. Related Links: |
Former Pistons guard Richard Hamilton and his son Parker listen as Chauncey Billups' jersey is retired Feb. 10, 2016 at the Palace. (Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, DFP) The Free Press reported in February that Rip Hamilton's No. 32 would be the next one to be raised to the rafters at the Palace of Auburn Hills. The Detroit Pistons made that official today. The organization will retire Hamilton's jersey during a halftime ceremony Feb. 26, when the Pistons host the Boston Celtics. And thus, all has been forgiven since the acrimonious 2011 divorce between Hamilton and the Pistons, when the franchise waived an integral part of its 2004 NBA champion team. “Detroit is where I celebrated the greatest achievements in my pro basketball career, and to be recognized by the organization in this way, I’m honored,” Hamilton said in a release. “I look forward to sharing this experience with all the fans who supported me throughout my years as a Piston and look forward to celebrating in the Palace one final time. Yes, sir.” Former teammate Chauncey Billups has been vocal in his support of Hamilton. “Rip has to be next,” Billups said during a news conference before his jersey retirement in February. “I would love for him to be next week, next month. Rip Hamilton holds so many records here. He had a long run here. He did a lot of great things in the community here. I’m looking forward to that day.” Palace vice chairman Arn Tellem told the Free Press that the announcement had been in the works since the decision was made to retire the jerseys of Billups and Ben Wallace last season. A date was finalized in the last week, and there is the hope that all of Hamilton's former teammates will be able to attend. "(Pistons owner Tom Gores) endorsed the idea and supported it," Tellem said. "He wanted to do it - as did all of us. He was an important part of that team and had really an incredible career here with the Pistons." Hamilton, 38, is all over the all-time Pistons record book. He ranks 10th in games (631), seventh in minutes (21,679), sixth in field goals (4,352), seventh in three-pointers (413), sixth in free throws (2,465), seventh in assists (2,419) and fifth in free throw percentage (84.9). “Our franchise has a great legacy, and it’s important to recognize the players who made our organization successful both on and off the court,” Gores said in the release. “Rip’s numbers speak for themselves. He was a top performer year in and year out, from the regular season through the playoffs and especially during the championship run of 2004. He was relentless on the court and equally passionate about his teammates and the community. We are excited to honor his success.” But Hamilton left the organization on bad terms. He clashed with former Pistons coach John Kuester. Things soured to the point where both sides were ready for the association to end before the 2011-12 season. A buyout agreement was reached with longtime Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars, and Hamilton signed with the Bulls and spent the final two seasons of his 14-year NBA career in Chicago. The announcement begs the question: Will the Pistons also honor Rasheed Wallace and Tayshaun Prince, other starters on the 2004 title team? "No decision has been made yet," Tellem said. "Nothing is planned at this point." Detroit is where I celebrated the greatest achievements during my pro basketball career and to… https://t.co/YBI5sOBQIV — Rip Hamilton (@ripcityhamilton) December 23, 2016 Contact Vince Ellis at vellis@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @vincent_ellis56. |
Five historic sites - four of them temples and shrines - across Japan were found to have been defaced with a mysterious oily liquid since last Saturday. No arrests have been made, and police are investigating whether the cases - classified as vandalism - in Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara and Okinawa are related. The latest site vandalised was the Buddhist Zojoji Temple near Tokyo Tower. At least a dozen stains were found there yesterday, including on a large bell, the wooden main gate and a stone figure. This came one day after the torii gate that marks the entrance to the Meiji Shrine - a Shinto place of worship - was also found splattered. On Sunday, a sticky oil-like substance was found on the gates of Shurijo Castle on the southern island of Okinawa. Similar stains were found last Saturday at the Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto, a Unesco World Heritage Site, at an offertory box at the main shrine and two other buildings. In nearby Nara, Kinpusenji Temple, another Unesco World Heritage Site dating back to the seventh century, was found to have been vandalised as well. A temple official was quoted as saying: "This is a precious building that has been inherited from older generations. It is sad to see it damaged." The latest series of vandalism cases is similar to another cluster in 2015, when at least 24 temples and shrines across six prefectures were affected. Police then issued a warrant for a New York-based Japanese man, who claimed to be the founder of a religious body, for allegedly defacing the Katori Shrine in Chiba. However, he could not be arrested as he had left Japan by then. |
With all the talk about Amazon’s Kindle, there’s a bigger revolution taking place and those who studied classic literature will be horrified. In Japan, half of the top ten selling works of fiction in the first six months of 2007 were composed on mobile phones. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, mobile phone novels (keitai shousetsu) have become a publishing phenomenon in Japan, “turning middle-of-the-road publishing houses into major concerns and making their authors a small fortune in the process.” One book, Koizora (Love Sky) about high-school girl who is bullied, gang-raped, becomes pregnant has sold more than 1.2 million copies since being released. The mobile internet has a role in this growing phenomen in Japan, with another book Moshimo Kimiga (420,000 copies) starting with installments uploaded to an internet site and sent our to “thousands of young subscribers.” Notably, at least when considering the Kindle, is that the Japanese market happily pays for mobile books as well; we’ve quoted hard copy figures here but there are many more Japanese viewers paying to read this content online via their mobile phones. I can’t see anyone in Western nations waking up tomorrow and seeing mobile phone composed novels on the top seller lists, but usually Japan is years ahead on many tech fronts; mobile phone data services were available and popular in Japan years ago as the rest of us are only now catching up. Perhaps the NY Times best seller list in 2012 might consist of keitai shousetsu, stranger things have happened. (image: Wikimedia Commons) |
Within the next 40 years, most Americans believe, the United States will get the bulk of its energy from sources other than oil. Computers will converse like people. Cancer will be cured, and artificial limbs will outperform natural ones. Astronauts will land on Mars, and ordinary people will travel in space. From This Story [×] CLOSE In an unscientific series of interviews, we asked visitors to the Smithsonian if they were optimistic about the next 40 years Video: How Optimistic Are You About the Future? But that optimistic outlook on scientific achievement—documented in a nationwide opinion poll conducted by the Pew Research Center and Smithsonian—does not extend to the environment. A small majority of those polled said most of the United States would face severe water shortages by 2050. Six in ten said the oceans would be less healthy than they are now, and seven in ten foresaw a major energy crisis. Overall, fewer than half expected the quality of Earth’s environment to improve. “If the U.S. has a national religion, the closest thing to it is faith in technology,” said Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center. But “technology is not seen as a panacea for fixing the environment.” The poll, occasioned by the magazine’s 40th anniversary and designed to assess attitudes about the next 40 years, also documented a drop in expectations. Americans remain generally positive, with 64 percent of those surveyed saying they were somewhat or very optimistic about what the next 40 years holds for them and their families; 61 percent said the same about the nation’s future. But in a Pew poll taken in May 1999, the questions garnered response rates of 81 percent and 70 percent, respectively. Of course, the 1999 poll was taken at the height of the high-tech boom and on the eve of a new millennium. Since then, terrorists attacked the United States, the nation has engaged in two wars, the cost of living has outpaced wages and a recession has damaged the economy, among other things. In the new survey, 58 percent of respondents said a world war would occur in the next four decades, 53 percent said terrorists would attack the United States with nuclear weapons, and the same majority said the nation would be less important in the world than it is now. The Smithsonian/Pew poll was conducted April 21-26—just after the BP oil spill began in the Gulf of Mexico, but well before its magnitude became apparent. The survey included 1,546 adults in the United States reached by residential telephone or cellphone. The margin of error for the total sample is no more than plus or minus 4.5 points. The documented belief in technological advancement extended from the laboratory (half said an extinct species would be resuscitated through cloning) to outer space (half said evidence of life would be found elsewhere in the universe) to the marketplace (a small majority said gasoline-powered cars would go out of production). In an exception to the pessimism about the environment, the poll found a ten-point drop in the percentage of respondents who say the earth will get warmer: from 76 percent in 1999 to 66 percent in 2010. That trend “is very consistent with data we've gathered on the issue of global warming more generally,” Keeter said. “There are many possible explanations, but one thing is quite clear: there is a strong partisan and ideological pattern to the decline in belief in global warming.” The vast majority of the change since 1999, he said, has occurred among Republicans and independents who lean Republican. Because the U.S. population is expected to increase by more than 100 million by 2050, the poll asked about such growth. More than twice as many respondents (42 percent) said it would be more harmful than beneficial (16 percent). And there was ambivalence about immigration. Roughly a third of respondents said legal immigration had to be decreased to keep the economy strong, but a slightly higher proportion said legal immigration had to be kept at current levels; a quarter said it should be increased. A clear majority expected race relations to improve (68 percent). Even more expected a Hispanic candidate to be elected president of the United States (69 percent). And 89 percent—the largest majority in the entire poll—said a woman would be elected president. There was broad agreement that the cultural landscape, however else it changes over the next 40 years, will have less paper. More than six in ten respondents said they believed that paper currency and printed newspapers would disappear and personal letters sent by mail would be exceedingly rare. And a hopeful outlook on the U.S. economy—56 percent said it would be stronger in 2050 than it is now—came with a caveat: 86 percent said Americans would have to work into their 70s before retiring. Those longer careers, in the respondents’ view, would not be accompanied by longer lives. Those who thought more people would live to be 100 (42 percent) were outnumbered by those who did not (50 percent). |
A large portion of the world’s population lives in conditions that are hard to fathom for people in developed countries. Many of those living in extreme poverty would gladly move to the United States, the European Union, or Australia if given a chance. In light of this, how should rich countries design and enforce their immigration policies? The figures for world poverty are staggering. According to the latest estimates from the World Bank, some 2.1 billion people live on less than $3.10 a day, adjusting for purchasing power. This means that, in their respective countries, they have only what $3.10 would buy them in the US. Imagine living on what 2.1 billion people live on –$3.10 per day.It is hard to imagine living, even in the least expensive locales in the US, on $3.10 a day. What could you eat? Beans and rice bought wholesale maybe. You might get to buy some clothing once a year. You certainly wouldn’t be able to afford rent – you’d have to squat somewhere. Compare that with the US poverty line of $24,000 a year for a family of four. That ends up being more than $16 per day per person. Poverty lines in the EU set a relatively high bar too; in Germany, the figure comes out to about €22,500 a year (c$25,000) for a family of four. Life is much, much better in the US or Germany than in many parts of the world, even for these countries’ poorest inhabitants. And it’s not just a matter of income – developed countries offer a much better life in terms of free schooling, infrastructure and the like, compared with Ethiopia or Bangladesh. Now imagine you are one of those 2.1 billion people. Let’s say you live in Ethiopia, on less than $3.10 a day. Would you want to move to the US or the EU if given a chance? Of course, it would be irrational not to. You’d achieve a much better standard of living, even if you worked at a minimum-wage job. Your children would gain access to vastly better schooling and would not have to work to support the family. You would not have to worry constantly about having enough food to eat. But migrating to the rich world is not so simple for you. For instance, in order to move to the US permanently through legal means, you need to get a work visa or a permanent residence visa. And, for that, you need to have family in the US (though, depending on the relation, this option can take more than a decade), or be working in a high-skill occupation with an offer of employment, or just luck out via the Diversity Visa Lottery system. There are other ways, but they require applicants to have been in extremely specific circumstances – for instance, there is a permanent visa for translators who worked for the US army during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suffice to say, none of these options are widely available to people living in poverty across the developing world. Still, you could try to move to the US without a work or permanent residence visa – that would mean staying in the US illegally once you enter. But this is extremely hard to do if you’re from a place such as Ethiopia. In order to board a plane to the US, you’d need a US tourist visa, at the least. And, to get such a visa, you’d need to prove that you don’t intend to abandon your residence in Ethiopia. How would you prove this? You’d need to show that you have financial and social ties to the country strong enough to make it irrational for you to abandon your residence there. But if you’re living on less than $3.10 a day, you are bound to have a hard time proving this. For the poorest people, it’s extremely hard to get tourist visas to the US – even putting aside the high application fees. The EU nations, Australia, and other rich countries similarly require tourist visas for individuals from the developing world. Blocked by Invisible Walls The reason why many of the world’s poor do not migrate to a developed country, then, is that they’re stopped by a system of visa policies and airport and seaport security measures – invisible walls, so to speak. Few people seem to be aware of or bothered by this. There are, of course, scholars and activists who believe in fully open borders. The philosopher Michael Huemer at the University of Colorado Boulder has been an influential proponent of the view. Libertarian-minded economists such as Bryan Caplan at George Mason University in Virginia also advocate for open-border policies. But such voices are in the minority. The status quo is morally incoherent.The notion of building and maintaining physical border fences is a divisive one. A recent Pew poll found that the majority (62 percent) of Americans oppose the construction of a wall across the southern border. And the construction of border fences in the EU following the recent migrant crisis sparked controversy too. But if the system of visa policies and airport security is justified, why are border fences not justified? Mere geographic proximity is not morally relevant. The fact that an individual likely to immigrate via the southern border is geographically closer to the US than the Ethiopian should not have moral significance. Thus, if the reason for not having a southern border fence is that the US should allow poor people to have a chance at a better life, then there’s no moral reason why this opportunity should be given only to the poor who happen to live nearby. It’s unfair to the Ethiopian, or Bangladeshi, that a porous land border allows Meso or Latin Americans without the required documentation to enter and stay in the US. The Ethiopian or the Bangladeshi, by contrast, faces the more imposing and stringent hurdle of air travel and airport security. Coercion requires justification. Airport security and visa policies effectively coerce the Ethiopian to stay out of the rich world’s territories. But if other individuals who do not have the documents required by law can enter these countries via lax land-border security, the justification becomes weak. The Ethiopian might ask: ‘Why are you stopping me if you’re not stopping them?’ There is no morally justifiable answer. If, as most Americans believe, a border fence is not justified, then neither is the current system of visa policies that stops many of the world’s poorest people from moving to richer countries. With respect to border policy, the status quo is morally incoherent. Either the rich countries of the world should embrace fully open borders (perhaps with exceptions for certain kinds of criminals), or they should enforce land borders just like the air and sea routes. This first appeared at Intellectual Takeout. |
THE AFGHAN CONFLICT. A MAP OF POSSIBLE SCENARIOS Afghanistan - A country of conflict Since the terroristic attack on the World Trade Center on september 11th, 2001 and the following invasion by the Allied forces in Afghanistan in order to fight the Taliban regime and Al-Quaida, the Western countries are involved in an ongoing conflict which seems never to stop. The situation in 2010 After nine years of war the situation still remains unstable. The set up afghan government turns out to be corrupt and more and more people are dying on both sides. Which again provides radical Islamist groups an even better and stronger breeding ground for their resistance. The two paths: Stay or Leave? What shall we do? Pull out the troops, because this war can't be won, but risk lots of blood in another civil war, and maybe a much worse and more dangerous scenario? Or shall we stay and take the risk of being trapped in a never-ending conflict, which will cost a huge amount of money, blood and tears. A Map of Scenarios When we started researching this topic we very quickly saw, that the debate whether to pull out the troops, staying or even enforcing is not too much about arguments, it’s a battle of possible scenarios. Every side seems to have their own positive and negative visions of how things will happen in the future if certain steps are done. The resulting map The Afghan Conflict - A Map of Possible Scenarios is the attempt of a summary of the most popular possible scenarios around the afghan conflict, according to a pullout or stay of the Allied troops. And is based on interviews with journalists, politicians and political foundations. Please notice that our goal was never to display the full consequences in every detail because in such a complex process and especially when you try to make future predictions this is never possible. But we do give an overview about the main problematics and its complexity. Click to view large Press Play and zoom until infinity The Concept The Afghan Conflict - A Map of Possible Scenarios starts with the current timeline, a single line on the map. Which then splits into more and more possible future scenarios currently discussed. The scenarios split and join, or lead to other ones according to events that may take place or decisions made. The design is pure and minimalistic, using only lines and typographic elements, which does not resemble the ugliness of a war, but helps understanding a complex structure of problems without being visually manipulated by polemic images. Detail of some »leaving« scenarios. Split and join of future paths. You can buy the map The final print is now 164cm x 90cm big, with a bit more white space on top and bottom. Please don't hesitate to contact us to get your own. It's 35.00€ plus shipping. order [at] theafghanconflict.de 164cm x 70cm Print |
RUSH: Well, I have to tell you, my email is overflowing with people calling Trump’s speech a home run. People are saying, “Finally! It’s about time somebody started telling the truth about Hillary Clinton, and it’s not you. Finally somebody that’s an official Republican starts telling us what we already know!” People are jazzed by this, according to my email and other feedback that I’m getting. We’ve got all the audio sound bites coming. Of course, I, as a powerful, influential member of the media, had a transcript of the speech before it was given. It happens it was a speech given on the prompter today down at SoHo, one of Trump’s hotels that he owns. So Trump basically said things about Hillary Clinton that you just don’t hear Republicans saying. You’ve heard them before. You’ve heard them on this program, of course. You’ve probably heard similar things that Trump said in other areas. But you just do not hear Mitt Romney say this, for example. You wouldn’t hear the Bush family talk this way about Hillary. You wouldn’t. You just wouldn’t hear it. You wouldn’t hear fellow establishment types talk about this, ’cause it’s too close to home for all of them. But Trump can say this stuff as an outsider. He can say this stuff as a nonmember of the elite or the establishment, and it’s gonna be interesting to see, because while everything Trump said about Hillary has been said before by people — and, of course, we have the Peter Schweizer book, Clinton Cash, which Trump quoted from extensively. You don’t see things like that happen, either. It’ll be interesting to see how the Clinton camp and the Democrats and the media react to this, because these are the kinds of things the Democrats have grown accustomed to not having to deal with, within campaigns. They know this kind of stuff’s gonna be said about Mrs. Clinton, and it’s gonna be said by surrogates. It’s gonna be said by opposition media such as this program. But they think they’ve successfully marginalized all the critics, and the evidence is that they’re still in power, and when they run for office, they win elections. So they don’t really worry about this kind of criticism no matter how correct it is and no matter how specific it is, because they think that they have created and deployed systems to overcome all of this, all of these details about their operations being made public. But Trump came out and literally fired both barrels. And, I tell you, folks, I think — and he was not yelling and screaming. It was a prompter speech, so it was quote/unquote “presidential.” And I’ll also be interested to see if that aspect of this.. Because compared to a normal Trump speech at a Trump rally it was low-key. Some will say, “No, no, no, Rush. It was studious. It was serious. It was contemplative. It was thought out, and it was delivered carefully.” Trump veered away from the prompter a couple times, and there were a couple times… Folks, this is interesting now, and it matters. There were a couple times he misread the prompter, and I watched and said, “Okay, how’s he gonna recover here? He misread the prompter,” and he recovered just fine. I don’t think… You wouldn’t have known he misread the prompter if you didn’t have the transcript in front of you. He’d leave out a preposition or he’d leave out an adjective in the sentence that would change the entire meaning of the sentence. He caught it. He didn’t panic. He didn’t turn away from the prompter. Most people that do not have prompter experience, whenever they either screw up themselves or the prompter has something wrong with, they freeze. They become to dependent on it. Even first-time prompter users — people that are accustomed to going out, not needing a single note like Trump. I do not need a single note. He goes out and says whatever he wants to say for an hour and a half. But you put a prompter in there and it’s gonna be naturally constricting to people who don’t use it. And the reason why is they all say, “We’re writing this. You’ve gotta do this! You’ve gotta do the specifics. Don’t go off on too many tangents with it. You try to stay glued to this.” And some people, they will go off on a tangent and maybe the prompter operator will not know to pause it there and wait for the guy to get back to that point. Maybe they’ll just keep rolling the prompter, and by the time the guy looks at it, it’s total discombobulated. That didn’t happen. The teleprompter… You know, using a prompter and making it look like you’re not using one is a skill. It’s a talent that has to be developed, and I thought Trump did okay with it. Like I say, he goofed a couple of times just reading what was on the prompter. The prompter was correct, I think, but it turned out not to be a factor. But he just came out… You’ll hear it coming up in a second. He came out and he said of Hillary Clinton, “She is the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency.” The most corrupt person to ever seek the presidency. He said things like, “For the amount of money Hillary Clinton would spend on refugees, we could rebuild every inner city in America.” He made it clear to anybody watching that Mrs. Clinton’s policies, which are an echo of Barack Obama’s policies, are gonna continue to wreak havoc and damage on America’s minorities. These things are just not said. You gotta… I mean, you and I say them, everybody else says them, but in official campaigns where the Clintons are involved, nobody goes this far with them. And you know it as well as I do. We’ve always wondered why for 27 years. “What are people afraid of? Why do they always pull back?” Well, Trump didn’t pull back much today. He pointed out all of the money that she gets from these Islamic states that execute gays and LGBT people. And he used one of my favorite talking points about all the money she made in two years delivering speeches to the banks. I think that’s powerful, because I think so many Democrat voters think that the banks and Wall Street and CEOs are wedded to the GOP. “The GOP is the party of the rich! Bankers are obviously rich. Wall Streeters are obviously rich,” and Trump made it clear as a bell today that it’s the Democrat Party in bed with the banks. So you wonder if time low-information people see this. By the time Millennials — who are thinking they’re gonna vote for Hillary just ’cause it’s a cool thing to do. By the time they see this, is it gonna open anybody’s eyes? We don’t know. Time will tell. Trump made it clear throughout this speech that he’s with the American people. Everything he does… In fact, that was a very strong beginning to his speech, why he even wants to be president. He said, “People have asked me why I’m running. Well, I’ve built an amazing business I love. I get to work side by side with my children every day. “We come to work together, we turn visions into reality, we think big, we make it happen. I love what I do. I’m grateful beyond words to the nation that’s allowed me to do it. So when people ask me why I’m running, I answer, ‘I’m running to give back to this country which has been so good to me.'” You know, some of you may be saying, “Oh, no! Don’t!” Folks, that’s not bad. This is how the people Trump needs to reach talk. It is how they think. You and I all know the only people who need to be “giving back” are thieves, criminals and corrupt individuals that are taking things that are not theirs. The successful don’t need to be giving anything. But to the people Trump needs to reach, that’s a big deal. Giving something back is a huge deal. You’ll notice every successful athlete uses that at some point in his career during an interview. “I’m gonna give something back. Gotta give something back to the community.” “Yaaaay! Right on!” People just fall for it. It’s a necessary inclusion. Trump put it in there. By the way, this comes one day after a Hillary Clinton speech where she created the biggest illusion in the world, and that is that we have a roaring economy out there. That everything is phenomenal, but it could be better, and she’s gonna do it. And Trump came out and blew that sky-high. (summarized) “When I see crumbling roads and bridges or the dilapidated airports or the factories moving overseas to Mexico or to other countries, I know these problems can all be fixed, but not by Hillary Clinton. Only by me.” And he made it clear countless times throughout the speech that his desire is to be with you. His desire is to be with the American people, not “with her.” He’s not with the Democrat Party. He’s not with the insiders. He’s not with the elites. He’s winning. He went back to that, zeroed back to that or circled back to it countless times. He spoke positive… You know, this is another thing. I made the point yesterday that I’ve never seen pessimism so successfully sold as the Democrats and the progressives and the left of today are doing it. Barack Obama and the Democrat Party convince people that America’s best days are over. They’ve convinced people that America’s best days are in the past and we’re a nation in decline, that we deserve to be in decline in some ways, and it’s up to the right people now to manage that decline. And so we have a president and a Democrat Party which seems obsessed with telling people that it’s as good as it’s gonna get. “And in order protect yours from ‘as good as it’s gonna get,’ you need to vote for us. You need to let us run your affairs, and you need to let us handle the tough things in life while you go out and cruise and do whatever you do.” That’s Hillary’s message. “Yes, she tried to make it better. Only government can. You can’t. You’re not capable. This country’s greatness does not rest on your shoulders. This country’s greatness relies on government programs administered by experts in Washington, DC.” Trump said the exact opposite today. “Everywhere I look,” he said, “I see the possibilities of what our country could be, but we can’t solve any of these problems by relying on the politicians who created them. We will never be able to fix a rigged system by counting on the same people who rigged it in the first place.” And then he got into a little Angelo Codevilla! “The insiders who wrote the rules of the game to keep themselves in power and the money. That’s who’s rigged the system is and that’s why they continue to rig it.” He made a pitch for Bernie Sanders voters. And did you see polling data over here? This is a Bloomberg Politics poll. Nearly half of Bernie Sanders supporters will not support Hillary no matter what. Nearly half of Bernie’s voters… Now, that’s today. This could all change, you know, when we get to November, and it’s crunch time. But as they’re stating their opinions today, 40%, even more, of Bernie Sanders supporters would not support Clinton. It means they’re gettable. Trump made a pitch for them today. He described how everything is rigged, “Rigged by big donors who want to keep wages down, rigged by Big Business who want to leave the country and manufacture their products overseas and sell them back to the US with no consequences for them. It’s rigged by bureaucrats trapping kids in failing schools. It’s rigged against you, the American people. “Hillary Clinton — who, as most people know, is a world class liar. Just look at her pathetic email and server statements or her phony landing in Bosnia?” When’s the last time anybody brings that up? But he brought it out! This is the old sniper fire thing. She said they corkscrew landed in Bosnia. She got out and had to dodge sniper fire. It’s a totally made-up thing. Totally manufactured. Trump calls her out on it, and it’s a pretty powerful close. Look, we’ll have audio sound bites of this coming up. Judge for yourself if you didn’t hear it, but among the people who did who have taken the time to send me emails, the vast margin of it’s overwhelmingly supportive. Trump has also launched a new website, LyingCrookedHillary.com. So he’s off and running. I’ll tell you something, there’s a little… The Democrats are being awfully contradictory. You know, Trump doesn’t have a whole lot of money in the war chest right now. Not sure exactly how much, but it’s nowhere near what Hillary has. And it’s interesting to listen to some of these leftists. You have people out there the constantly… The leftists — like with Citizens United, the Supreme Court case — are constantly whining and moaning about all the money in politics. They want campaign finance reform, right? They want to get all the money out of politics. They want government money governing campaigns. They want all the money out, they say. But then you look at their coffers, and it’s overflowing with hundreds of millions of dollars. Here’s Trump. He doesn’t even have $10 million in the bank, and he’s out there running his campaign. He’s not even doing official, formal fundraising, and you listen to these Democrats, and they’re complaining about it. It is not complaining. They’re criticizing that, “Well, Trump’s not a serious candidate. He’s not serious about raising money, doesn’t have a serious campaign staff. He’s an amateur, doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Wait a minute. I thought you guys all said there’s too much money in politics. I thought you guys all said that there’s way too much and it’s gotten out of hand and we’ve gotta dial it back. Well, here’s the direct result of that being put into play. Donald Trump doesn’t have nearly the amount of money Hillary does. Why aren’t you giving him credit for this? Why don’t you talking about Trump doing what you always advocate? And it’s another example of the hypocrisy they get away with. They run around and they whine and moan about all the money in politics, and then they Hoover and shovel as much of it as they can. So there are a lot of opportunities here. And Mrs. Clinton is gonna be… She’s in a tight spot here. She’ll go out and she will do with this however she does. But a lot of what he said today — the vast majority, maybe all — of it is dead certain true. That’s what makes it so powerful, in a sense. Not the way he said it; it’s just that it’s out there. It’s no longer just in Peter Schweizer’s book. It’s no longer just Peter Schweizer on radio and TV being interviewed as a guest promulgating the information. It’s now all out there. It’s officially part of the presidential campaign, and it’s not ever gotten to this point with the Clintons being so fully exposed in this venue. We’ll see if it matters. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I want to start here… I’m gonna play a sound bite with me in it from Greta Van Susteren last night, ’cause Trump mentioned this. And I think this is a great example of the kind of stuff… It’s been reported. It’s been reported in the Drive-Bys. But they report it and they let it go. There has been no reaction to it whatsoever. It’s out there; it was out there one time. I don’t know who else is making a big deal of it, but the fact that Trump did… See, by having it not made a big deal of, the low-information crowd — the Yahoo News consumers and whoever gets their news in the Fakebook news digest (whatever that thing’s called, the feed) — they’re not hear anything about it. But they will now. And, remember, it’s crucial. Here’s Hillary Clinton getting away with tying the Republicans to rich people. She’s tying the Republican Party to Wall Street, the Republican Party to the big banks. She’s tying the Republican Party to the financial crisis in 2008. It’s all their fault. She’s tying herself as with the low-income crowd — and the average, ordinary middle class American — as their champion, as their defender. They don’t know that it’s not the Republicans in bed with banks. They don’t know that it’s the banks that are practically paying for and underwriting the Democrat Party and Hillary Clinton today. And because Trump is mentioning this, it’s gonna get out there now. So here’s Greta last night on her program playing my comments about Hillary taking money from all these big banks and how much she has earned in just two years. RUSH ARCHIVE: Hillary Clinton trashes the banks every time she opens her mouth, and yet she made $21 million in two years making speeches to those very banks that she trashes every day. Now, you tell me there isn’t some kind of a game being played here? What do you think would happen if we could successfully inform all of these Democrat voters that she and her husband and the entire Democrat Party are in bed with these bankers and — contrary to the Democrats ravishing these bankers and keeping them honest and all that — that they’re in bed with them? RUSH: That’s a great question, and it was up to me to ask it. Trump has put it out there now in his speech today. We’ll see. We’ll track it. Here’s Greta’s next sound bite… VAN SUSTEREN: And it’s not Rush Limbaugh who doesn’t believe her. A brand-new Quinnipiac University poll of the three major swing states — Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania — asked, “Do you believe Secretary Hillary Clinton will try to rein in the power of Wall Street?” And a majority each state said, she won’t even try. RUSH: Great news. I had not seen that aspect of that poll, so it’s a positive that more and more people are catching on to this. Now, it doesn’t say these people are gonna vote. It doesn’t give us much of an indication how the election is gonna go. But these are step-by-step things. And in dealing with the Clintons, remember, they’ve gotten away with so much, it’s never come back and haunted them. It’s gonna be a long slog here. It’s gonna require Trump consistency. He can’t say this stuff just one time. And Hillary’s gonna have her surrogates out there replying to it and so forth. It’s gonna be heated. It’ll get intense, like Game of Thrones out there — without the spears, without the arrows. It may even come to that. When we come back, Trump sound bites from the speech. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We’re just gonna start randomly here in order. And, you know, Trump said a lot of things. Have you heard “the politics of personal destruction”? You’ve heard that statement, “the politics of personal destruction.” Well, Trump turned that around, and “the politics of personal profit” is how he described Mrs. Clinton. Look at these phrases. The shorter, the briefer… You know, brevity is the soul of wit. These are the kinds of things that permeate. These are the kind of things that connect with people. Not these long, detailed intellectual exercises in explaining Whitewater and how the Clintons did this and did that. He just goes to the nature of the behavior in as few words as possible. “Politics of personal profit.” Since so many people think the game’s rigged already, so many people think… By the way, it is. I’ll give you an example, a great example I heard a couple days ago. “Poor old Denny Hastert. “Denny Hastert was a coach and a teacher at a high school. Then he goes and gets elected to the House of Representatives. He retires after being speaker for a while. I don’t know how many years he was in the House, but whatever number, he made 150 to $160,000 a year. And yet he was sued. He settled the lawsuit for something like $6 million.” Now, how does somebody making no more than $150,000, $160,000 a year have enough money to settle a $6 million lawsuit? Harry Reid’s another example. He goes to Washington a pauper and is now a major landowner and baron in in Nevada. Everybody instinctively knows this. They just think there’s nothing anybody can do about it. But here now is part of a presidential campaign, a person who is as guilty of this kind of corruption as anybody ever has been, being called on on it. Here we go. This is Trump, Hillary’s a first-class liar. TRUMP: She’s a world class liar. Just look at her pathetic email server statements, or her phony landing — or her phony landing in Bosnia, where she said she was under attack, and the attack turned out to be young girls handing her flowers. A total and self-serving lie. Brian Williams’ career was destroyed for saying less. Yesterday she even tried to attack me and my many businesses. But here is the bottom line: I started off in Brooklyn, New York, with a small loan and built a business that today is worth well over $10 billion. AUDIENCE: (applause TRUMP: I’ve always had a talent for building businesses — and, importantly, for creating jobs. That’s a talent our country desperately needs. RUSH: Let’s contrast that with Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton admitted, claimed, that when she and her husband left the White House, they were broke. Now they have a net worth approaching $300 million. How does that happen? Hillary Clinton has never created a single job other than government jobs or the staffers that work for her. She doesn’t know the first thing about a private sector business other than being in the Rose Law Firm. Okay, so I don’t care if Trump has $100 billion. He’s earned it. He’s had a job. There are ways you can track what he has earned. The Clintons don’t want to admit how they’ve earned their money. They love to brag about their wealth, but how did they get it? Making speeches, $750,000 for one speech from a firm that now has close ties with Mrs. Clinton as a secretary of state and potentially as president? It’s $750,000 for one speech. I was watching some… It was Brad Sherman, Democrat from California. He was being asked about this. He was being asked about the Clinton speech income on CNN. “How in the world can somebody get that rich? How do you make $21 million in two years making speeches? Who else can do that?” The Clintons ought to be a prime target. If you have questions about how people earn their wealth, for crying out loud, the Clintons have a way of doing it that virtually nobody else could parlay. So Brad… His name is Sherman, Brad… I forget what. He said, “Well, well, that’s nothing! “You know, Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan made $2 million for one speech, I think. Yeah, two million.” Reagan did one post-presidential speech, $2 million bucks he got for it. They’re trying to say that that’s far worse than the Clintons making $350 million in speeches since 2001, with $21 million of it in two years. I mean, it just… They got no leg to stand on. No Democrat has a leg. You can criticize Trump and his wealth all day long, but you can’t say he hasn’t worked. You can say that about the Clintons. Here’s the next bite quickly. We gotta get these in. TRUMP: Hillary Clinton has perfected the politics of personal profit and theft. She ran the State Department like her own personal hedge fund, doing favors for oppressive regimes and many others in exchange for cash. Then when she left, she made $21.6 million giving speeches to Wall Street banks and other special interests in less than two years — secret speeches that she does not want to reveal to the public. Together, she and Bill made $153 million giving speeches to lobbyists, CEOs, and foreign governments in the years since 2001. They totally own her, and that will never change if she ever became president. RUSH: Exactly right. They own her. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Back to the audio sound bites of Donald Trump’s speech today, and we are gonna get to your reaction to it ’cause I know you’re eager to weigh in here as soon as we get a little bit more of it aired, because some people didn’t hear it and didn’t see it be. And before we get to your reaction I want the audience here as informed as they can be on what was actually said. Here is Trump quoting from Peter Schweizer’s book. This is what so upset David “Rodham” Gergen. He went out there and said (paraphrased), “You can’t do this! You can’t start slandering Hillary Clinton like this. This book’s been totally, fully discredited.” It hasn’t been. The New York Times, the Washington Post have both quoted from it. The book has not been discredited, nor has the movie that has been made. The movie… They actually did something clever. They made a docudrama movie type of the contents of the book. And they rented a theater in Cannes in France on the first night of the Cannes Film Festival, and they ran it in that theater. It had nothing to do with the Cannes Film Festival, but the way they ended up having it written about, it made it look like — if you didn’t know — that the Clinton Cash movie was part of the Cannes Film Festival. It was not. It was at a theater theoretically across the street, but it does have a wide national release, I think, on the first day of the Democrat convention. So here’s Trump referencing it. We’re at number six here, audio sound bite number six. TRUMP: Hillary used the State Department to enrich their family at America’s expense. RUSH: Let’s go back and play this from the beginning where people can hear what he actually said at the beginning because that’s where he mentions the book. Three, two, one… TRUMP: The book Clinton Cash, by Peter Schweizer, documents how Bill and Hillary used the State Department to enrich their family at America’s expense. She gets rich making you poor. Here is a quote from the book: “At the center of US policy toward China was Hillary Clinton. At this critical time for US-China relations, Bill Clinton gave a number of speeches that were underwritten by the Chinese government and its supporters. These funds were paid to the Clintons’ bank account directly while Hillary was negotiating with China on behalf of the United States.” Tell me, folks, does that work? She sold out our workers and our country for Beijing. RUSH: Here’s the next bite in which Trump sort of mocks one of Hillary’s latest campaign slogans in which he points out, “You know, with her it’s all about her.” A Hillary campaign slogan is what you need to be saying about her. This is how Trump exposes it and responds to it. TRUMP: Hillary Clinton wants to be president, but she doesn’t have the temperament or — as Bernie Sanders said very strongly — the judgment to be president. She does not have the judgment. She believes — AUDIENCE: (applause) TRUMP: She believes she’s entitled to the office. Her campaign slogan is, “I’m with her.” You know what my response is to that? “I’m with you, the American people.” AUDIENCE: (cheers and applause) RUSH: Let me tell you something: That one is being quoted and repeated all over the internet today. Many of the emails that I have received cite that as a great sound bite. And, of course, he’s right. Hillary Clinton is so self-absorbed, all of these people are. It’s all about them. Obama is the same way. And that’s the way news coverage of these people is, as I have so delicately and elegantly advised and explained. So let’s take the Trans-Pacific Partnership, just to pick a story. They don’t tell us what it is. Talk about the Drive-Bys. They don’t tell us what it is. They don’t analyze it as good or bad for America. They don’t analyze it good or bad for the American people. They don’t tell us whether it’s gonna help or hurt job cration. No, no. They cover it as: “Will Obama get it? Will Obama get what he wants, or will he not get what he wants? Will Bill and Hillary Clinton enable Obama to get what he wants?” That’s the total spectrum of the coverage. It’s all about them. They’re the MacGuffin. They never tell us the details of whatever the proposal. Same way with Obamacare. They didn’t take the time to tell us what was actually in it. Didn’t matter! “It’s Obama’s, and he wants it, and therefore our job is to help him get it.” And so the coverage every day: “Were the Republicans being mean to Obama? Were the Republicans doing everything they could to stop Obama?” Just because he wanted it, it was automatic it should happen. That’s what Trump means. She is so self-focused. Just because she wants it, just because she’s entitled to it, it should happen. And his illustration is she has this campaign slogan. You’re supposed to run around and say, “I’m with her!” And Trump says, “No, no, no. My response, my slogan is, ‘I’m with you, the American people.'” We have just a couple of more from the speech. We could do the whole thing but ran about 45 minutes. We just pick some highlights here. Here’s the next… TRUMP: The Hillary Clinton foreign policy has cost America thousands of lives and trillions and trillions of dollars, and unleashed ISIS across the world. No secretary of state has been more wrong more often and in more places that Hillary Clinton. Her decision spread death, destruction, and terrorism everywhere she touched. Among the victims of our late ambassador Chris Stevens… I mean, she… What she did with him was absolutely horrible. She was left helpless to die as Hillary Clinton soundly slept in her bed. That’s right. When the phone rang — as per the commercial — at three o’clock in the morning, Hillary Clinton was sleeping. She started the war that put them in Libya, denied him the security he asked for; then left him there to die. To cover her tracks, Hillary lied about the video being the cause of death. RUSH: Okay. So you and I all know this, and we’ve said it ourselves countless times. But when have you heard such a pointed allegation/criticism of her at this high a level? Did you hear Mitch McConnell ever say it? Have you heard Paul Ryan? I’m not trying to call anybody out. I’m just trying to pick high-ranking Republicans. Have you ever heard anybody try to discredit Mrs. Clinton on this, or even go after Obama on this? Yeah, a lot of people did, but not at this level. And on this level is important, because at this level is how everybody hears about it, not just in bifurcated media. Here’s the next it bite. We’ll take a break after this one and get back to your calls. TRUMP: Hillary Clinton may be the most corrupt person ever to seek the presidency. To cover up her corrupt dealings, Hillary illegally stashed her State Department emails on a private server. Her server was easily hacked by foreign governments. Then there were the 33,000 emails she deleted. While we may not know what’s in those deleted emails, our enemies probably know every single one of them. So they probably now have a blackmail file over someone who wants to be the president of the United States. This fact alone disqualifies her from the presidency. RUSH: Well, there’s a little tit-for-tat there because yesterday Mrs. Clinton’s whole point was that Trump is temperamentally unfit. He is saying she’s legally and morally unfit, that she’s “the most corrupt person to ever seek the presidency,” and focusing on these emails. He mentioned it in another bite today that it’s clear something happened, but it looks like nothing’s gonna happen to her. The implication was that because everything’s rigged. Everything’s rigged for the big power players, that nothing happens to them in ways it would happen to average, ordinary people. They escape this stuff, and they’re allowed to get away with it. And here she is being called on it. So that’s a series of excerpts. The Trump close to his speech… I’ve mentioned to you that all during last fall, during the campaign — when everybody was discombobulated, trying to figure out why in the world Trump was doing so well. They thought Trump was out saying things that would disqualify him. “He’s eventually gonna step in it. He’s eventually gonna put his foot in it — his mouth is too big — and not be able to recover.” Everybody’s waiting for that implosion; it never happened. I reminded everybody. I said, “You don’t know how to watch this. You don’t know what you’re watching. You’re not watching a candidate with supporters out there. You’re watching something much, much different. You’re watching somebody appear who has a deep bond with his audience. “Whether you want to call them supporters or voters or followers, he’s got deep bond. And if you listen carefully, you’ll find out why.” It may take five seconds, may take 30 seconds, but in every Trump public appearance, he let it be known how honored he was they were there, how honored he was they supported him, and how grateful. Sometimes he did it in five seconds. As I say, sometimes he spent 30 seconds. But he did it at every appearance. Mrs. Clinton doesn’t have the ability to do it because she doesn’t feel it. Mrs. Clinton is not humbled by support. She has more of the royal queen mentality where you’d better support her. That’s your role. She’s entitled to your support, and it’s matter of fact. There’s nothing special about it. It’s just you better do it. BREAK TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here’s another question that I have: If Hillary Clinton has the answers for the economy, why doesn’t she tell Obama what to do now? Why do we have to wait until she maybe gets elected and then gets inaugurated and then starts putting her ideas into practice? If she’s got the answers, why wait? Why doesn’t she make it a point to meet with Obama, who’s in the Oval Office and say, “Barack, this is what we need to do to fix the economy,” to which he’s gonna say (impression), “Uh, there nothing wrong. “I understand what you’re doing, Hillary, but it — it — it… We’re — we’re humming out there! I don’t know what, uh… It’s just not who we are. I don’t get it.” I’m no, being facetious. She doesn’t have the answers to what to do. The answers that she wants to implement are gonna doom us. It would be one of the final nails in the coffin that buries the United States of America as founded, and would carry on this transformation these people are trying to implement. You see what the NPR…? That would be National Public Radio. You see what their headline of the Trump’s speech is? No, I’m sure you didn’t, because you didn’t go there. But I did during the break. The headline at NPR — they just posted it — “Trump Just Gave the Speech Republicans Have Been Waiting 20 Years to Hear. — It’s the speech Republicans have been itching to hear, in a crystallized way, since the 1990s. Trump gave them exactly what they wanted and likely quelled some fears about his candidacy. They might not be totally behind him, but Republicans are virulently opposed to her.” It’s a pretty good observation on Republicans have been wanting to hear something like this for years. |
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Apple shares fell as much as 5.4 per cent this morning after a report on CNN's "citizen journalist" web site said Steve Jobs had suffered a major heart attack. According to Bloomberg, the computer maker/cult denied the report, and shares promptly rebounded. At last check, they sat at $104.51, up 4.4 per cent in trading on the NASDAQ exchange. Sometime this morning, an anonymous poster unloaded the following paragraph on iReport, a CNN-owned site dedicated to citizen journalism unfounded rumor: Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven't seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it. At about 10am Eastern time, Silicon Alley Insider posted a denial from Apple. "It is not true," said Katie Cotton, Apple vp of worldwide communications. According to Silicon Alley, the iReport post remained online for another twenty minutes before being removed. At one point this morning, Apple's share price hit a 17-month low of $94.65. Over the past year, the company's stock has dropped 49 per cent, due at least in part to questions over the health of its cult leader. Four years ago, Jobs had surgery to treat pancreatic cancer, and when he turned up at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in July to unveil the 3Jesus Phone, he was noticeable thinner than usual. Twelve days after his WWDC appearance, The New York Times reported that Jobs had "assured several people" that he was cancer free. A month after that, Bloomberg published a 17-page Jobs obituary. But it would appear he is very much alive. Unfortunately, so is online citizen journalism. Silicon Alley Insider Henry Blodget predicts that iReport post will lead to an SEC investigation. And he knows a thing or two about the SEC investigating alleged Wall Street fraud. In 2003, the SEC banned him from the financial industry for life. ® |
Sarah Tews/CNET The City of San Francisco won't be buying Apple computers anymore because the company pulled its products from a green-electronics certification registry, the Wall Street Journal reported today. City officials told the Journal that employees of the city's 50 agencies won't be able to use city funds to buy Apple laptops or desktops because Apple removed those products from a voluntary registry of green electronics called EPEAT. San Francisco's chief information officer, Jon Walton, told CNET that the change is due to an established policy requires the city purchase only EPEAT-certified desktops, laptops, and monitors. While there is a wavier process for special equipment -- like a police computer that requires a particular technology -- it is lengthy and many departments don't take on the wait, he said. The EPEAT registry was created by government agencies, activist groups, and manufacturers, including Apple, and requires electronics be easy to recycle and have higher energy efficiency. Officials hope Apple will reconsider taking its products off the list, but EPEAT CEO Robert Frisbee told the Journal that Apple's latest laptop, the MacBook Pro with its high-resolution Retina screen, would not have been eligible for certification because the computer's battery is glued into its case, which makes recycling the toxic parts difficult. According to stats from the Journal, this won't be much of a blow to Apple. Only about 500 to 700, or 1 percent to 2 percent total, of San Francisco computers are Macs. Walton couldn't confirm the numbers, but said the city is hopeful Apple will reconsider the certification or present the city with their own standards to keep San Francisco environmentally friendly. "I'm hopeful since we haven't had a dialogue with Apple on this, and we're not really clear why they chose to do this, that they may have other standards," he said, adding that the city's environmental department has reached out to Apple, but he's not sure if they have connected on the issue. We've contacted Apple for more details and we will update as we get more information. Update, 6:03 p.m. PT: Updated with comments from Jon Walton. |
DIGITALLY ALTERED IMAGE: Speed blurred Metro Train The practice, heavily criticised by the Public Transport Ombudsman and the Public Transport Users Association, has been employed by Metro since March 2012 as a means of sticking to the timetable. Station skipping has helped steer the rail operator through its best ever period of running its trains on time. Since it started running trains express through stations, Metro has never missed targets set for it under contracts signed with a former Labor state government in 2009. These contracts expire in two years. The practice has infuriated passengers, and created doubt over former Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder's claims to have greatly improved punctuality on Melbourne's rail network Labor in opposition promised to stamp out the practice and look at introducing penalties for operators if trains skip stations without notifying commuters. A spokesman for Ms Allan said on Tuesday that the government was awaiting "detailed advice from Public Transport Victoria as to the most effective way to reduce station skipping". "Ultimately, we want trains stopping where they should stop, so the public can plan their journey with confidence," he said. Metro Trains chief executive officer Andrew Lezala has called for greater fines for vandalism on public transport after the train operator was criticised over station skipping. Mr Lezala told radio station 3AW that the operator used the tactic to avoid major disruptions across the network. Metro used the tactic when it was struck by storms, trespassing, vandalism, copper theft, police intervention, suicides and "asset failures" he said. "We have an issue on the network with trespass and vandalism," Mr Lezala said. "I am going to be calling for stiffer penalties for people who abuse the network, just as would happen at Tullamarine airport. We need to get tough on people who are messing with our network," he said. Train vandalism penalties were in the "hundreds of dollars" he said. "If you go on the MCG during a game its $6800, isn't it?" Mr Lezala said. Metro Trains ran 2400 services a day and less than 15 services a day skipped stations, he said. Mr Lezala said this represented less than 0.3 per cent of services. He denied Metro Trains skipped stations to avoid state government penalties for failing to deliver services, saying Metro's figures showed it was within its target which required it to deliver 98 per cent of its services. "We could cancel that 0.3 per cent of services and not be affected financially but that would not be a good outcome for our customers. It is never good to alter a service pattern but it is far better than cancelling the service altogether. This is not about money," he said. Mr Lezala said services travelling against the peak were sacrificed to allow trains carrying more passengers to run on time. He gave an example of morning peak trains coming from the Dandenong rail corridor, which held 10,000 passengers citybound and 200 to 300 outbound. "I apologise to those customers because I know it is terribly frustrating and irritating, but we have to look after the masses in the peak direction and that's why we do it," Mr Lezala . Mr Lezala said Metro Trains was working with the Public Transport Victoria to have "alternative strategies" including changing infrastructure and having more trains and drivers on stand by. Ms Allan's spokesman added the Napthine government had "built their punctuality figures off the back of station skipping and timetable manipulation". But Opposition public transport spokesman David Hodgett told Fairfax Radio on Tuesday that Labor was acting like it was still in opposition. "Rather than whingeing and complaining and pointing the finger," Mr Hodgett said, Labor needed to say what they would do about station skipping. "They are now the government," Mr Hodgett said, calling on Daniel Andrews to "take action rather than whingeing about it". Metro uses station skipping to "recover" the timetable from a major disruption, or to avoid a knock-on effect that will lead to bigger delays. The operator said that it tried to minimise the affect on passengers, and a spokeswoman said Metro resorted to the practice "as infrequently as possible". "We understand this approach inconveniences some of our customers, but our aim is to ensure the majority get to their destination on time, while delaying the smallest number of customers possible," spokeswoman Larisa Tait said. Rail Tram and Bus Union state secretary Luba Grigorovitch said that, when Metro instructed train drivers to skip stations, they put both drivers and station staff are risk of abuse from angry passengers. "Station staff and [ticket inspectors] already work in what can be a very hostile environment and these type of measures only adds pressure," she said. Ms Grigorovitch said it was "inexcusable" for Metro to "fudge the figures" by diverting trains to meet their punctuality targets. "When passengers board a train direct to the City Loop, that train should go through the City Loop, not leave passengers stranded at Flinders Street." With Deborah Gough |
The R2D2, developed by Dutch medical robotics firm Preceyes BV, is designed to perform keyhole surgery, entering and exiting the eyeball through a single, sub-millimeter hole. What's more, it's built to be exceedingly steady, especially given the tight tolerances within which it works. It employs a series of seven, independently computer controlled motors to navigate within the eye and can move as little as 1/1000th of a millimeter at a time. This is done to eliminate any semblance of tremors in the surgeon's hands -- including even the most minute tics like those generated by the doctor's own heartbeat. "Current technology with laser scanners and microscopes allows us to monitor retinal diseases at the microscopic level, but the things we see are beyond the physiological limit of what the human hand can operate on," Dr. MacLauren told the BBC. "With a robotic system, we open up a whole new chapter of eye operations that currently cannot be performed." In this case, the surgical team was tasked with exorcising a tiny growth of membrane that had contracted around the patient's retina and distorted his vision to resemble the hall-of-mirrors scene from Enter the Dragon. The existing method calls for doctors to time their movements between heartbeats but with the help of the joystick-controlled R2D2, that procedure can be completed in a fraction of the time. For the record, this is not how it's supposed to go. The R2D2 is still undergoing clinical trials. In fact, this was the first of 12 such tests, each being more complex than the last. However, should the device gain government approval, it could become, as MacLauren states, "a vision of eye surgery in the future." |
“Helping Those Who Struggle with Same-Gender Attraction,” Ensign, Oct. 2007, 42–45 A pleasant young man in his early 20s sat across from me. He had an engaging smile, although he didn’t smile often during our talk. What drew me in was the pain in his eyes. “I don’t know if I should remain a member of the Church,” he said. “I don’t think I’m worthy.” “Why wouldn’t you be worthy?” I asked. “I’m gay.” I suppose he thought I would be startled. I wasn’t. “And … ?” I inquired. A flicker of relief crossed his face as he sensed my continued interest. “I’m not attracted to women. I’m attracted to men. I’ve tried to ignore these feelings or change them, but …” He sighed. “Why am I this way? The feelings are very real.” I paused, then said, “I need a little more information before advising you. You see, same-gender attraction is not a sin, but acting on those feelings is—just as it would be with heterosexual feelings. Do you violate the law of chastity?” He shook his head. “No, I don’t.” This time I was relieved. “Thank you for wanting to deal with this,” I said. “It takes courage to talk about it, and I honor you for keeping yourself clean. “As for why you feel as you do, I can’t answer that question. A number of factors may be involved, and they can be as different as people are different. Some things, including the cause of your feelings, we may never know in this life. But knowing why you feel as you do isn’t as important as knowing you have not transgressed. If your life is in harmony with the commandments, then you are worthy to serve in the Church, enjoy full fellowship with the members, attend the temple, and receive all the blessings of the Savior’s Atonement.” He sat up a little straighter. I continued, “You serve yourself poorly when you identify yourself primarily by your sexual feelings. That isn’t your only characteristic, so don’t give it disproportionate attention. You are first and foremost a son of God, and He loves you. “What’s more, I love you. My Brethren among the General Authorities love you. I’m reminded of a comment President Boyd K. Packer made in speaking to those with same-gender attraction. ‘We do not reject you,’ he said. ‘… We cannot reject you, for you are the sons and daughters of God. We will not reject you, because we love you.’”1 We talked for another 30 minutes or so. Knowing I could not be a personal counselor to him, I directed him to his local priesthood leaders. Then we parted. I thought I detected a look of hope in his eyes that had not been there before. Although he yet faced challenges to work through—or simply endure—I had a feeling he would handle them well. God Loveth His Children When an angel asked Nephi a question about God, Nephi answered, “I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things” (1 Nephi 11:17). I too affirm that God loves all His children and acknowledge that many questions, including some related to same-gender attraction, must await a future answer, perhaps in the next life. Unfortunately, some people believe they have all the answers now and declare their opinions far and wide. Fortunately, such people do not speak for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Although I believe members are eager to extend compassion to those different from themselves, it is human nature that when confronted with a situation we don’t understand, we tend to withdraw. This is particularly true of same-gender attraction. We have so little reliable information about it that those wanting to help are left feeling a bit unsteady. Admitting my own inadequacy in this regard but wanting to assist, let me offer some suggestions to help those who have loved ones or friends who are attracted to the same gender. Our Father’s Plan of Happiness First, let’s be absolutely clear on what God wants for each of us. He wants us to have all of the blessings of eternal life. He wants us to become like Him. To help us do that, He has given us a plan. This plan is based on eternal truths and is not altered according to the social trends of the day. At the heart of this plan is the begetting of children, one of the crucial reasons Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden (see 2 Nephi 2:19–25; Moses 5:10–12). They were commanded to “be fruitful, and multiply” (Moses 2:28), and they chose to keep that commandment. We are to follow them in marrying and providing physical bodies for Heavenly Father’s spirit children. Obviously, a same-gender relationship is inconsistent with this plan. For various reasons, marriage and children are not immediately available to all. Perhaps no offer of marriage is forthcoming. Perhaps even after marriage there is an inability to have children. Or perhaps there is no present attraction to the opposite gender. Whatever the reason, God’s richest blessings will eventually be available to all of His children if they are clean and faithful. Through the exercise of faith, individual effort, and reliance upon the power of the Atonement, some may overcome same-gender attraction in mortality and marry. Others, however, may never be free of same-gender attraction in this life. As fellow Church members, families, and friends, we need to recognize that those attracted to the same gender face some unique restrictions regarding expression of their feelings. While same-gender attraction is real, there must be no physical expression of this attraction. The desire for physical gratification does not authorize immorality by anyone. Such feelings can be powerful, but they are never so strong as to deprive anyone of the freedom to choose worthy conduct. In saying this, let me make it clear that attractions alone, troublesome as they may be, do not make one unworthy. The First Presidency has stated, “There is a distinction between immoral thoughts and feelings and participating in either immoral heterosexual or any homosexual behavior.”2 If you do not act on temptations, you have not transgressed. The failure to see that distinction sometimes leads to despair. I ache for those who do not understand that every blessing offered by God is available to anyone who obeys the laws upon which those blessings are predicated (see D&C 130:20–21). No one who lives the gospel should despair. Hope and peace come from the Comforter, and the answer to despair is to invite the Holy Ghost into our lives. Ways to Help Let’s assume you are the family member or friend of someone with same-gender attraction who comes to you for help. What do you say? What do you do? I’d begin by recognizing the courage that brought your son, daughter, sibling, or friend to you. I’d recognize the trust that person has extended. Discussing the issue with someone of trust is a healthy first step to dealing with confusing feelings, and it is imperative that these first steps be met with compassion. Next, if you are a parent of one with same-gender attraction, don’t assume you are the reason for those feelings. No one, including the one struggling, should try to shoulder blame. Nor should anyone place blame on another—including God. Walk by faith, and help your loved one deal the best he or she can with this challenge. In doing so, recognize that marriage is not an all-purpose solution. Same-gender attractions run deep, and trying to force a heterosexual relationship is not likely to change them. We are all thrilled when some who struggle with these feelings are able to marry, raise children, and achieve family happiness. But other attempts have resulted in broken hearts and broken homes. Above all, keep your lines of communication open. Open communication between parents and children is a clear expression of love, and pure love, generously expressed, can transform family ties. But love for a family member does not extend to condoning unrighteous behavior. Your children are welcome to stay in your home, of course, but you have every right to exclude from your dwelling any behavior that offends the Spirit of the Lord. The Garden Principle Next, consider a principle learned in gardening. Someone said that if we plant a garden with good seed, there will not be so much need of the hoe. Likewise, if we fill our lives with spiritual nourishment, we can more easily gain control over inclinations. This means creating a positive environment in our homes in which the Spirit is abundantly evident. A positive environment includes consistent private and public worship, prayer, fasting, scripture reading, service, and exposure to uplifting conversation, music, literature, and other media. This same environment extends to experiences at church. Some with same-gender attractions have unresolved fears and are offended at church when no offense is intended. On the other hand, some members exclude from their circle of fellowship those who are different. When our actions or words discourage someone from taking full advantage of Church membership, we fail them—and the Lord. The Church is made stronger as we include every member and strengthen one another in service and love (see D&C 84:110). You may feel prompted to encourage the one you are trying to help to visit with a priesthood leader who holds the keys of inspired counsel. Please do so, knowing that the First Presidency has asked Church leaders to discuss these matters confidentially and in a spirit of Christlike love.3 In the Lord’s Hands Not long ago I received a letter from a man in his early 30s who struggles with same-gender attraction. His struggle has not been easy, and he has not yet married. But, he wrote, “the Lord has helped me face my current circumstances, and I am content to do my best and leave my life in His hands.” I weep with admiration and respect at the faith and courage of such a man who is living with a challenge I have never faced. I love him and the thousands like him, male or female, who “fight the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12). I commend his attitude to all who struggle with—or who are helping others who struggle with—same-gender attraction. |
Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch loves to play his rap songs in the team’s locker room before practice each day. Now he’s actually going to be in a rap-music video. Last week on ESPN’s "His & Hers" show, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges said Lynch will appear in his new single. And the title? Beast Mode, of course. “It was inspired by Marshawn Lynch," Ludacris told hosts Michael Smith and Jemele Hill. “The same way he's plowing down people on the field, I’m plowing down people in the music industry and all these rappers. It's a song that has no hook. It's three minutes of just metaphors and just going in.” Ludacris’ album, Ludaversal, debuts Tuesday. The Beast Mode music video has yet to be released. “I met [Lynch] and literally within like two minutes I felt like we were family,” Ludacris said. “I don’t know what it is. He's real cool, real laid-back guy. He was a fan. He was talking about how much his mom was a fan, so I told him I’m a fan of his. We inspire each other.” |
There's been a lot of negative reaction to the most recent trailer for the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot. People reacted strongly to the beating that Lara took in the trailer, most particularly a scene where she's pretty clearly threatened with rape. Their ire was fueled when Ron Rosenberg, the game's executive producer, made some pretty dumb comments about players not identifying with Lara, instead wanting to "protect her." Rosenberg came off sounding like a condescending chauvinist who doesn't understand the first thing about the player's relationship with Lara, but his ill-chosen words didn't diminish my enthusiasm for the game. I love this trailer. I find it inspirational. I wish to hell I'd had a heroine like this to look up to when I was a young girl. I understand why people are troubled by the trailer - watching a young girl in pain is difficult. It should be difficult. You're not supposed to see a girl get impaled and think "Hell, yeah, that's cool!" - though there are certainly people out there doing just that. If you feel uncomfortable watching scenes of Lara in peril, that doesn't mean the trailer is foul, it means that you're a decent human being who doesn't like to watch suffering. But I'd ask you to take a step back from your unease for a moment and look at Lara's actions from a slightly different perspective, so that you can see what I see. I see a young girl faced with dramatic adversity, an adversity so extreme she couldn't possibly imagine it, let alone expect to find herself faced with it. I see a girl who's alone, hurt, and terrified. I see a girl who's ill-equipped to face the challenges before her. But most importantly, I see a girl who keeps getting up. Not because she's some kind of warrior badass, armed to the teeth with martial arts skill, years of combat training, and a gun the size of a Buick, but because there's work to be done. If Lara is ever going to get home, if she's ever going to be safe again, she has to get up. And so she does. It's an incredibly simple, but important message that I fear is being lost in the many different arguments about the trailer. The message that girls so often grow up with is that they're weak, both physically and emotionally. If there's a crisis, do the right thing and let the men handle it, sweetie. You're not up to the task. And while it's certainly true that men are typically physically stronger than women, that doesn't mean that it's right to teach girls helplessness. Do a quick comparison of the Boy and Girl versions of the How to Survive Anything books, and you'll see a pretty clear line being drawn. Boys are taught to survive a lightning strike, quicksand, and snakebite, while girls are taught to survive shyness, embarrassment, and truth or dare. The books aren't meant to be taken seriously, but the message comes through loud and clear, just the same: When it comes to the dangerous stuff, let the boys handle it. This dynamic is constantly reinforced by the female characters we see in all forms of media. The hysterical woman screaming in the corner while the men solve the problem. The whimpering coward so paralyzed by fear that she's at best useless, at worst actually putting herself or others in peril. The woman who tries to help, but is so weak that her aggressor literally laughs off her assault. When we do see a physically capable female, she's frequently portrayed of being nearly devoid of emotion, as though a woman's condition was binary - either she feels things, or she can defend herself, but certainly not both. In the Tomb Raider trailer, Lara isn't defending herself because she's not afraid, but in spite of her fear. Not only is that the definition of bravery, it's also a life skill that everyone would be wise to learn. Bad things happen in the real world. Not as bad as what happens to Lara, certainly - I doubt I'll be falling out of a plane any time soon - but you don't need to be lost in the jungle in order to be in very real danger. Which brings me to the most controversial part of the trailer - the threat of rape. Crystal Dynamics has recently come out and declared that there is no rape attempt in the trailer, and that "Sexual assault of any kind is categorically not a theme that we cover in this game." Technically, that's accurate - there is no actual attempted rape in the trailer, but the implied threat is still pretty clear. I understand the concern that Tomb Raider will use Lara's escape from a rapist's clutches in an exploitative way, and I'm not excited about playing through some kind of quick time event to emulate the event. But to see Lara fighting back is inspirational, and more importantly, it's relatable. We probably won't end up on an island being harassed by tribesmen and bandits, but we will, at some point, face a situation that is unfamiliar and terrifying and be forced to realize that no-one is coming to rescue us. We'll get knocked down, and have to find the strength within ourselves to get back up - even if only in the metaphorical sense. I get why people are upset, I really do. But I would rather not focus on what's knocking Lara down, and instead applaud the way she keeps getting back up. |
Donald Trump did a lot of damage to the organs of democracy as a presidential candidate, and the pace and severity of that vandalism has only increased since he won. After he became president-elect, his international business empire was transformed from an under-discussed source of potential graft to an enormous, real-and-ongoing one that could shape both foreign and domestic policy in ways that run contrary to American interests. On Sunday evening, perhaps to clutter front pages and news programs with something other than his administration’s pre-inaugural corruption, he peddled the outrageous lie that he is the rightful winner of the national popular vote (which he will lose by well over two million ballots) but has been denied by ubiquitous fraud. In between, he announced that an erratic conspiracy theorist will be his most powerful national security aide, and that another somewhat less erratic conspiracy theorist will be the first erratic conspiracy theorist’s deputy. Trump’s administration-in-waiting spent much of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend undertaking a kind of ritual humiliation of Mitt Romney, who emerged at least for a time as a top contender to run the State Department. These surrogates spread word that Romney—once a fierce Trump critic—may be required to publicly apologize for his earlier disloyalty, then used TV appearances and social media to claim that nominating Romney would be an act of betrayal. |
by Richard Seymour I. On both sides of the Atlantic, there is one group of people who terrify and enrage the punditocracy. The legend that is the ‘white working class’, a trope long in gestation throughout the noughties, has finally struck back with a vengeance. Conservatives in government, Brexit, and now President Trump. The ‘white working class’ used to provoke mainly a form of sentimental nostalgia and patronising endearment. It was a tea towel memory, a commodity, not something that had real influence. But the terror arising from this wave of global reaction is producing an interesting anti-democratic backlash amongst liberal-minded opinion-formers. The lefty vicar, Giles Fraser, has argued that Trump’s win is a good case for a hereditary monarch. A royal head of state, he argued, would provide a structure of meaning that guaranteed national cohesion and attenuated the bitterness of democratic contestation. But this backlash against the ignorant voter has been developing for some while among sections of the intelligentsia. Anyone who spent time listening to liberal opinion after the Brexit vote would have heard more than a whiff of this. George Monbiot was not alone in wondering aloud whether democracy actually works. Where democracy produces results that conflict with liberal statecraft, democracy must be at fault. We are a parliamentary sovereignty, not a mobocracy, it was said after Brexit – and already something like this can be heard, sotto voce, in reaction to Trump’s victory. Of course, this is pushing against an open door. By de facto rather than de jure means, electoral systems are increasingly excluding the working class – and nowhere is this more advanced than in the United States, where Obama’s moderate 2008 offer of healthcare reform, union rights and withdrawal from Iraq was enough to drive up turnout to a ‘record high’ of just over sixty percent of eligible voters. As Francis Fox Piven and Richard Cloward wrote long ago, poor people largely don’t vote because they are largely not represented. In this election, almost half of the eligible electorate didn’t vote, and probably most of the working class. There is thus no need for smart liberals to take the vote away from dumb workers. It is being done already, and Trump’s victory is a significant by-product of that. To be fair, not every commentator who thinks like this blames the ‘white working class’ for the democratic nadir. But the trope was ubiquitous enough in this election, and toxic enough in the hands of Bourbon elitists, to merit thinking through. II. What is the ‘white working class’? Quite apart from the fact that the working class is not ‘white,’ that it includes large numbers of non-white workers who have been at the forefront of recent examples of militancy (Chicago Teachers’ Union strikes, undocumented workers strike, Black Lives Matter protests, and the fight for $15 per hour) which place them far outside the Clintonite centre, the discussion is dogged by imprecision. In the US, the ‘white working class’ is simply anyone who codes as white and doesn’t have a college degree. That is, patronisingly and inaccurately, to conflate the working class with the uneducated. It takes no account of the great expansion of the higher education system over the last few decades, specifically intended to draw in a mass of workers to skill them up for a new economy. On the other hand, over a quarter of business owners have no college degree, and similar proportions apply to CEOs. There is a glut of middle managers and supervisors without a college education, but who are quite apart from the mass of workers in their employment position and rewards. Education is a poor proxy for social class, and the two have very different explanatory functions. In the United Kingdom, social class is usually interpreted in relation to an outdated schema of ‘social grading’ introduced for market research purposes by the National Readership Survey. In essence, it reproduces the old hand-brain dichotomy, with the working class usually related to manual labour, and those in clerical, technical or administrative occupations lumped in with the middle class. Once again, class is conflated with knowledge. This is a legacy of the days when to even use a typewriter was to have a special privilege in the workplace, whereas even the lowly call centre operator today has to be able to perform comparatively complex IT functions. It persists because it serves a useful ideological function, of allowing us to think that the new ‘knowledge’ economy is doing away with class division. It is because of this obfuscatory language that it is possible to blame the ‘white working class’ for UKIP, Brexit, Trump and other species of reaction. There are two key reasons for this. One of the effects of a higher education is to dissolve traditionalist, authoritarian and deferential social values. This is in part because unlike the schools, the higher education system has, to some extent, to foster independence of thought. Second, to identify class distinctions with the distinction between old and new economies, between those workers based in factories and mines, and those working in information and communications, is to identify the working class with sectors of the workforce who are in a trajectory of decline, stuck in regions of decline isolated from the new patterns of growth, and thus most susceptible to forms of resentful nationalism. A class relationship, at any rate, cannot be reduced to its possible outcomes. It might produce an unequal distribution of rewards, for example, or afford differential access to education, but these are its measurable effects, imperfect proxies. Class is a relationship based on different positions in relations of production, supported by relations of authority (or, in another idiom, political and ideological control). From this perspective, what distinguishes the middle class from workers is not how much they know, but how much authority they have in the production process. The emergence of a ‘new middle class’ in the post-war period, was concurrent with the expansion of public sector bureaucracies, and with capital’s development of new disciplinary apparatuses – middle managers, technicians, and supervisors – to better control the labour process and counteract working class militancy. This distinction is not always as hard in reality as in theory – in practice, there tend to be elements of the middle class that are downwardly mobile, undergoing ‘proletarianisation’, and elements of the working class being drawn into the middle class. This gives rise to ambiguous phenomena which Erik Olin Wright dubbed ‘contradictory class locations’ – that is, positions in production relations that contain elements of different social classes in motion. So with that in mind, it is worth clarifying a few things about Trump’s support. As Charlie Post argued in the run up to the election, even focusing on ‘non-college whites’ doesn’t get very far, since they are under-represented in Trump’s base – representing 55 per cent of his support and 70 per cent of the population as a whole. Meanwhile, the college educated new middle class represented 30 per cent of the population, and 40 per cent of Trump’s supporters.‘Most Trump supporters,’ he wrote,‘are part of the traditional middle class (self-employed) and those sectors of the new middle class (supervisors) who do not require college degrees.’ Even so, there is some evidence from exit polls of Trump reaching a minority of white workers, including some unionised cohorts. Michael McQuarrie’s post-election breakdown of some county-level data indicates that Trump was able to flip a number of formerly Obama-voting counties with large white working class communities. He didn’t have to get the majority of white workers on board. He simply had to change voting patterns in the rustbelt states where it counted, which he did. Real Clear Politics has produced a ‘correlation machine,’ using county-level data from the Census and election results, to link changes in the Republican vote to various characteristics. While it makes the serious error of conflating ‘working class whites’ with ‘non-college whites’, it also offers a number of other correlation points. In a number of key states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, there is a small correlation between improvements in the Republican vote share and incomes below $50,000, but a much larger correlation with race, education, owner-occupied housing, and previous support for ‘alternative’ right-wing candidates like Ross Perot. The collapse in the Democratic vote explains some of the shift among voters on lower incomes, which can be treated as a closer – though still very imperfect – proxy for class than education. However, while in Wisconsin, Trump did not increase the total Republican vote, in Pennsylvania he did. There are some localised reasons for this. Democrats have aligned themselves cautiously with de-carbonisation policies, without any broader commitment to alternative industrial development or employment strategies, thus ensuring that mining-based communities in West Virginia turned against them. NAFTA, meanwhile – a policy implemented and stridently defended by Bill Clinton – resulted in job losses in some of the rustbelt states, thus eroding Democratic Party standing there. This is not to deny that racism was an important factor in ‘flipping’ many of these votes. But it suggests that we have to part with one of the false dichotomies of the post-election debate. The argument about whether Trump voters were driven by economic distress, racism or something else, is missing the point. There is no need to choose: racist nationalism is the mythical mode throughn which Trump tried to address the very real economic distress of a minority of American workers. And he did that just enough, in just the right places, to win. III. So why should class be colour-coded? There are white workers, but why should we believe in any such cohesive entity as the ‘white working class’? If we were to believe the emergent orthodoxy that white workers are the pillar and stay of Trumpism, ‘whiteness’ functions alongside religion and nationality as a sort of security blanket for the perpetually anxious and paranoid. It is a guaranteed and stable referent in an unstable and frightening world (for the uneducated and broke, that is). This argument can even take a progressive hue. Damon Young’s bitter disappointment with Trump’s victory leads him to argue, in The Nation, that ‘the preservation of white supremacy’ was the ‘paramount interest’ of ‘particularly working-class white people’. They didn’t vote against their own interests so much as choose between a variety of contending interests, and settled on protecting the ‘privileges – real or fabricated, concrete or spiritual’ that white supremacy offered, even at the expense of ‘their own livelihoods’. Young’s claim at least has the virtue of acknowledging that interests are interesting things, that people can have more than one over-riding interest, and that there is always something that might matter more to us than our own perceived well-being. This is a small step forward from simply assuming that the ‘white working class’ cannot be trusted to vote with their own interests. Interests can only be calculated in relation to a given horizon of possible action, and in a given political and representational framework. The interest that anyone has in a given order is always relative to the possible alternatives, which depends on how reality is culturally and politically represented, how it is dreamed and daydreamed about. There is, in other words, no straightforward way to counterpose interest to value, and the attempt to maintain such a binary results both in damaging over-simplification of explanatory schema, and in the pathologising of phenomena that somehow fail to measure up to supposed ‘rational choice’ standards. In the run up to the 2015 general election, then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage famously staked his bid on the claim that he would rather lose something financially if it meant having more control over immigration – it would be better to be a little poorer than have Romanians for neighbours. After the Brexit vote in the UK, amid general signs of looming economic decline, it was not unknown for those activists who had supported it to say that they were prepared to bear a sacrifice for the greater good of getting their government back under control. And indeed, as far as they were concerned, they acted altruistically, for the good of the (white, British) social whole. The long dominant and completely unjustified assumption that people only really care about how well off they and their families are left by Budget decisions, would certainly struggle to explain this. Intellectuals should know this. After all, they are exposed to the pomo-inflected liberalism of Universities, and are aware of the provisional, negotiated and discursive nature of ‘interests’. But that insight is usually lost as soon as they start to run anything. Then, the seductive idea of a universal discourse, one that speaks neutrally and authoritatively on behalf of all ‘interests’ – technocracy, ‘the economy’ – almost invariably takes hold. This is a deeply embedded cultural fantasy working in the unconscious of The West Wing, House of Cards, and similar fodder, and one that sustains the dogged loyalty of educated liberals to political strategies and agencies that repeatedly fail to deliver the goods on their own terms. That is to say, no one acts with a straightforward orientation toward their ‘best interests’ on the basis of ‘the facts’, and the idea that anyone does or could is one of the fantasies enabling knowledgeable, rational people to override their own declared interests. If some people experience their class interests in a ‘colour-coded’ way, in light of white-supremacy, then it isn’t good enough to scoff at their lack of enlightened self-interest. It is crucial to ask what political frameworks, representational and cultural systems, social structures and employment patterns would lend themselves to that, and how they might be overturned. IV. However, on this ground, Young is hugely over-simplifying. And, indeed, the language of ‘whiteness’ does tend to simplify, homogenise and absolutise race in a problematic way. Young allows that there is a distinction between ‘allies and racial antagonists,’ but that doesn’t do anywhere near enough to complicate the picture. If whiteness is a property of violent and exploitative social relationships, precisely where and how one is situated in the ensemble of relations makes a great difference to the meaning and value of whiteness. There is a world of difference between the ‘whiteness’ of Virginia miners, and that of Fifth Avenue billionaires. Or, between the specific and direct investment in whiteness that, say, workers striking in defence of ‘colour bar’ practices might have, and the more general and diffuse investments which workers voting to ‘Make America Great Again’ might have. One of the functions of the ideology of ‘whiteness’ is, of course, to override or efface those differences – but then, in that case, to participate in effacing those differences is to reproduce the ideology of ‘whiteness’. Further, the way in which one’s class experience is organised politically and economically makes a great difference to whatever value one puts on whiteness. Certainly, anyone who voted for Trump is hardly innocent of racism. Even if oppressing black people and immigrants wasn’t a priority for some of them, they knew who he would victimise. One of the complexities of this situation, however, is that a small number of African American voters, and a much larger number of Hispanic voters, backed Trump. This raises questions about the operation of white-supremacy beyond ‘whiteness’. To what extent were these voters aware of the danger to them from a more egregiously racist presidency, but willing to tolerate it for the greater perceived gain of voting against the establishment, or voting for supposed economic populism? To what extent did Hispanic voters, in voting for an anti-Mexican, anti-Muslim presidency, implicitly consolidate their identification with the United States and thus their place in it? Or, from another perspective, did some voters place a traditional middle class affiliation ahead of any supposed racial affiliation? For example, did middle class African Americans who might have traditionally voted Republican on the grounds of support for ‘free markets’ and ‘law and order’ simply continue to place those values ahead of the risks incurred by poorer black voters? Just as problematic are the white voters who had supported Obama in two previous elections, whatever their hang-ups about the emerging multicultural realities of politics, and then switched to Trump. They have shown themselves to be capable of acting on their whiteness in different ways. That is to say, have been willing to vote for a black president who would not fundamentally challenge the structures of white-supremacy, in return for some promised pro-worker policies. In addition to needing a more complex model of how ‘whiteness’ works on people, we also need more information. We just don’t know to what extent, for this particular subset of white voters who were ‘flipped’, the conservation of whiteness was prioritised as a strategic prize (consciously, or unconsciously) in 2016. And we don’t know if so, what that prize actually amounted to in each case. We don’t know to what extent it was merely the taken-for-granted context of their political action (and if so, what effects this contextualisation had). Or to what extent it acted as a factor in the congealing and mediating of all of their other issues (and if so, how important an adhesive it was). We don’t know to what precise extent and in what specific ways their working practice and daily social existence is structured by race. We don’t know in what modalities whiteness matters most for these various groups of workers. It may be their investment in the violent policing and incarceration of black communities, their perceived competition with migrant workers or Chinese workers, their identification with an empire-state in its struggles with jihadis and other evil-doers, or something else. We don’t know what, if anything, is specific to the working class about these modalities. And these are all things we need to know to make anything more than the general point that ‘whiteness’ of various configurations played a part in the election. This is to say that the entire discourse pinning the blame for Trump on the ‘white working class’ is suspiciously opaque and impressionistic on matters where precision is vital, and that (partly as a consequence) the argument is incoherent and verging on meaningless. It is nebulous in its definition of class, barely even inaccurate in its apprehension of actual voting patterns, and overly glib and summary in its analysis of whiteness and its functions. The ‘white working class’ which it invokes is a reification, a sock puppet, and a scapegoat. And it is scapegoating in a way that is logically incoherent. The ‘white working class’ has, like the rest of the US working class, borne a terrible burden in declining workplace conditions, stagnant real wages, the evisceration of industries and unions and in some quarters declining life expectancy. Yet we are also to believe that it, almost single-handedly, chose the most important and powerful global leader. Even if it were the case that they were disproportionately present in Trump’s base, which is far from obvious from exit poll data, one would have to account for the constraining structures of capitalist democracy. The US electoral system is more directly organised by capitalist class power than other democracies, and fund-raising requirements are only one part of this problem. The dominance of the system by two parties of business, with barely any democratic or even strictly ‘party-like’ structures, organised by business-aligned elites, makes it very difficult to mobilise alternatives. This is one of the reasons why there has never been a successful labour-based party in the US. The strategy of takeover by the ‘grassroots’ succeeded only in the Republican Party, where the candidate preferred by the base was a self-funding billionaire. Workers, white or not, are left with choices emerging out of a balance of forces favouring capital. The majority, it seems, simply don’t vote. The trope most likely survives and is perpetuated because, in so many ways, it is a useful cover story. It appears to explain, without actually leaving anyone informed. It appears to critique racism, without actually disclosing anything about it. Worse, it is often used to justify recourse to racist policies in a mournful way, as if it is a necessary evil to prevent far worse expostulations on the part of this mythical group, many of whose notional members are among the first to engage in protest and civil disobedience to obstruct Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’. It even appears to say something about class, although most of its advocates would find reference to the ‘capitalist class’ vulgar: why does no one ever inquire into the racial politics of the white bourgeoisie? Given the salient role of capitalists and administrators of capitalist states in devising racial oppression, be it Jim Crow and equivalent ‘colour bar’ systems, various forms of ‘race management’ in the workplace, or the modern system of mass incarceration, this is an odd oversight. It displaces attention from the sheer, structured weight of white-supremacy as an enduring system rather than just a value on the part of neo-Nazis, militias and Klan members. It is the sort of construction of psephologists and newspaper leader writers that appears profound, and profoundly explanatory. It is at best a far-from-ideal shorthand; at worst, as in these cases, a conservative stopgap for analysis, and one which supports the wider authoritarian and anti-democratic lurch from which Trumpism benefits. If you like this article, please subscribe or donate |
A self-described progressive socialist in Michigan attacked a group of conservative students outside of a Hillary Clinton speaking engagement by attempting to lick them while yelling that he has Ebola. Clinton spoke Thursday afternoon at a rally for U.S. Rep. Gary Peters and former U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate and governor, respectively, at Oakland University. "Without a public health system, we are going to have the spread of Ebola. Libertarians don’t want a public health system so you’re a fascist." A group of around 25 conservative students protested the event with campus police and the Secret Service quarantining the students to an area far away from the line of people to get into the event hall. Larry Mitchell, a 63-year-old member of the St. Clair Shores Democratic Club, walked across the street to the group of students. “I just came from Texas, I have Ebola, and now I’m going to give it to you,” Mitchell can be heard saying at the 2:36 mark in an exclusive video obtained by Campus Reform. WATCH: Mitchell confronts the conservative students. According to witnesses, Mitchell licked his hand and tried to wipe his saliva off on the students. Mitchell called the students “fascists” and blamed their political beliefs for the spread of Ebola. “Without a public health system, we are going to have the spread of Ebola,” Mitchell told them. “Libertarians don’t want a public health system so you’re a fascist.” Mitchell admitted to confronting the protesters, but told Campus Reform that he does not in fact have Ebola. “Libertarians are a bunch of Republicans who just want to smoke pot and get laid,” Mitchell said in an interview. “They don’t even count for much as far as I’m concerned with because they’re not Americans. They don’t believe in America. They believe in themselves.” Mitchell admitted to going over to the group of students “because they’re idiots,” but told Campus Reform that he does not in fact have Ebola. “But they’re easily scared and intimidated and when you have bullies like that, you bully them back, and that’s when they go away, and that’s what they did, they went away,” he said. In the video, it’s Mitchell who is seen walking away from the group of students back to the line of people waiting to get into the rally. Mitchell told Campus Reform that he was at the rally to support Peters and Schauer, but “isn’t a big fan of Hillary,” whom he deemed a “corporatist.” David Rowe, a senior political science student at Oakland who was menaced by Mitchell, told Campus Reform that he filed charges with Oakland’s campus police. He alleges that Mitchell lunged at him and grabbed his throat as well as licked his hand. “This is the first time I’ve ever gotten attacked at a protest,” Rowe, who organized Thursday’s protest, told Campus Reform in an interview. “I’ve been yelled at before. I’ve been doing protests for quite some time. I’ve always gone to different protests and organized different things, but I’ve never gotten attacked like that.” Oakland campus police confirmed to Campus Reform that the incident was reported but refused to make the report available. Oakland’s Chief of Police Gordon said the investigation was ongoing and said it would be “inappropriate” to comment to Campus Reform. Andrew Baker, a senior economics and finance major, said he was disappointed in where campus police and the Secret Service made the conservative students set up. “There was a line of probably 100 or so students waiting to get in to go see Hillary,” Baker said in an interview with Campus Reform. “We were not allowed anywhere near those students at all.” Baker said the campus police kept the students “far enough away that it would be really hard to read anything we put up.” “There was much more of a lack of control on the side of the Hillary supporters than there was on our side,” Baker said. “I mean, we were very respectful and everything we did was in line generally with what they asked us to do. I thought it was very unfair about how the Hillary supporters acted towards us—much more derogatory, much more hostile towards us than we were towards them.” Thursday’s protest included students involved in College Republicans, Students for Life, and Young Americans for Liberty. However, the protest was not strictly sponsored by either group. Oakland University declined Campus Reform’s request for comment. Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @K_Schallhorn |
Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. Flying in the face of what most economists believe, GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson announced that raising the minimum wage would cost America jobs. “Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases,” the retired neurosurgeon said during the fourth televised GOP debate. “If you lower those wages, that comes down,” Only one problem: this claim is seriously contested. More than 600 economists signed a letter to President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders last year urging the government to raise the federal minimum wage. “The weight of evidence now [shows] that increases in the minimum wage have had little or no negative effect on the employment of minimum-wage workers, even during times of weakness in the labor market,” the economists wrote. There are some forecasts that support Carson’s view: the Congressional Budget Office last year said that raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would cost the US economy 500,000 jobs. But many economists disagree with these estimates and so does the US Department of Labor. State-by-state hiring data released last year by the Department of Labor showed that the 13 states that raised their minimum wages at the start of the year gained jobs faster than their peers. The federal minimum wage was last raised in 2009. |
I don’t know about you guys but I can’t wait for the Winter Olympics to begin. While the boyfriend will be all consumed with the hockey, I’ll be focused on the figure skating. I took figure skating lessons as a kid, thinking I could grow up to be Katarina Witt or Dorothy Hamill (ps I didn’t) and I can’t wait to see the latest crop of figure skating superstars hit the ice in Sochi. I recently had the opportunity to speak with Olympic hopeful Gracie Gold who is part of the P&G Family’s Thank You Mom program and representing COVERGIRL in Sochi. Her next step towards Olympic Gold starts today with the kickoff of the US Figure Skating Championships. We had a chance to dish on her plans for Sochi, how she keeps her face so flawless on the ice and, of course, my favorite topic, nails! You recently started working with legendary coach Frank Carroll. How has working with him changed your preparation for the Olympics? The mental training has been the biggest difference, working with Frank. He’s a genius, he’s had so many wonderful skaters, so many Olympic medalists and national world medalists. He knows exactly what it will be like. Outside of winning an Olympic medal, what is one thing you want to do in Sochi? I would love to go watch the Women’s Ski Jumping event. I’m pretty good friends with fellow Nike athlete Sarah Hendrickson. Women’s Ski Jumping, it’s the first time it’s in the Olympics. She’s the reigning world champion and even though she’s been injured recently I really want her to be there and to watch this groundbreaking event. Do you have a good luck charm you pack for competitions? I always bring my lucky blankie. I’ve had it since I was a little baby. It’s my little thing Partnering with COVERGIRL must be exciting. What’s been the best part of working with the brand so far? One of the best things is not only being able to say I’m part of the P&G Family and COVERGIRL, that’s every kid’s dream, but the photo shoot we did was the most fun. It was makeup, hair, lighting and it was everything you could ever want. I’ve seen you compete and your makeup is always on point. Who taught you about makeup? My mother. I would watch her put it on in the morning. When I first started competing I was only 8 to 9 years old so she always did my makeup for me. About two years ago, [Ice Dancer] Meryl Davis, showed me everything she did and what she used in preparation for a post-competition exhibition skate. I learned so much from her. She’s not just a great skater, but her makeup is flawless as well. It’s difficult enough keeping a smoky eye or red lip in place in the everyday world, what are your tricks to keeping your makeup from running down your face? I always start with a liquid foundation and top it with a pressed powder foundation. It helps it stay a little more sweat-proof. Water resistant eyeliner and mascara are a must have. Even though the ice is frozen water, it’s still pretty moist in there and you start to get a little oily. When it comes to lipstick, I always use a lip brush for a sharp line and use concealer to define the lip line and keep it from bleeding on the skin. You tend to rock a bold red lip. Do you have a favorite shade? COVERGIRL Hot Passion is what I’ve been wearing but their whole LipPerfection line is perfect. Let’s talk nails. During the Summer Olympics we saw the swimmers and runners sporting all sorts of crazy nail art but skaters tend to stick to neutrals and reds. Is nail art forbidden in figure skating and what do you wear on your nails? I think for skating, because your costumes are two different colors, a French or classic red. My dresses this year are black & white, pink and red so I think I will be able to sport some red and white nails. Though for the Olympics I’m going to toss in some blues. Actually, right now I have crazy patriotic nails. Red, white and blue. I mean, I have a flag on my nails. What’s your go-to everyday look? If I’m going out with friends, I play with color but for everyday training I try to keep it minimalist because it’s a lot to do every day. I never leave the house without a little bit of concealer, mascara and lipstick. Going between such extreme temperature changes must be challenging for your skin. What type of skin care do you use? It’s hard. I definitely find that I’m at war with my skin a lot. In the morning, I use an Olay Oil-Free wash and moisturizer. It’s a really nice start to the day. At night because I’m still in my teenage years and we still have some of those acne issues, I actually have a sulfur-based face wash. That’s new for me because I had always used harsher chemicals. The sulfur helps clear out the makeup yet it’s very sensitive. I’m envious of the fab braids you wear as I have no braiding skills whatsoever. Do you do that yourself and how do you keep every hair in place while spinning on the ice? When it comes to braiding, I’m equally inadequate. My mother and my sister are the braiders of the family. My mom is amazing with French braids, Dutch braids, French twists, buns, etc. You name it and she can do it. We love watching the hair tutorials on YouTube. When it comes to product. A mousse and a blow dry, if you want to keep it slick, helps keep some of those flyaways. Pantene Heat Thermal protection spray is really good when you’re blow drying and curling your hair all day. That really helps in the dry winter months. Reader question from Lorraine V. – How do you keep your legs warm enough on the ice to remain flexible? I am a big spokesperson for legwarmers. I’m probably the only freestyler that trains in legwarmers but they really help. I’m cold all the time and constantly live in Nike Sweatpants. But when I’m on the ice training I wear simple Nike Yoga Pants and tights but legwarmers save the day. Will you be tuning in to the Figure Skating Championships this weekend on NBC? What is your favorite Winter Olympic sport to watch? Do you have plans to create some patriotic nail art to support Team USA? Stay tuned as I bring you the break down of Gracie’s COVERGIRL nail art so you can get the look at home! |
The video will start in 8 Cancel Get the biggest politics 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 Chaos has erupted in the streets of Washington as more than 200 anti-Trump supporters have been arrested following a violent clash with police against the Republican's inaugaration. Protesters have set the American flag on fire in the middle of the street while armed with crowbars and batons. Riot police deployed tear gas and stun grenades in a bid to disperse the crowds in a protest that is being described as the most violent and angry yet. A DC Police Department spokesman said 217 protesters had been arrested so far, all charged with rioting and due in court tomorrow. (Image: REUTERS) Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now Arrests have also been made for "acts of vandalism and destruction of property". A group of masked activists have been filmed smashing windows of shops as they run through the streets of the city with flags bearing the anarchist symbol. One man dressed in black smashed the window of a McDonald's with a hammer, while others tipped over bins. Confrontations began an hour before Trump took the oath of office and escalated several hours later as the crowds swelled to more than 1,000, some wearing gas masks and with arms chained together. (Image: Getty) (Image: Daily Mirror) (Image: REUTERS) (Image: Splash News) The city has been compared to a "war zone" as protesters reportedly set alight bus stations while shouting "this is what a police state looks like". A couple of police officers have been injured and taken to hospital. Pictures of egged buildings and shattered ATMs are being posted on Twitter amid reports of looting. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now Demonstrators chanting "f*** Trump" blocked an entrance to the inauguration by linking arms to prevent people gaining access. Cops gave chase to the group of rioters who claim they are denouncing capitalism. Just blocks away from Trump’s inaugural parade route another chaotic confrontation saw pepper spray and stun grenades launched by cops. (Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror) (Image: Splash News) (Image: Rex Features) (Image: Getty) A Washington Post reporter was violently thrown to the ground by police. While, Olympic diver Luis Villlarroel was pictured with cuts to his hand after protesters smashed his limo as he tried to escape the carnage. A limousine was set on fire on 13th and K street near Trump's parade route. As the new president made his way down Constitution Avenue with a military escort, the limo was set ablaze only streets away, outside the Washington Post building. (Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror) Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now (Image: Getty) Flash grenades went off prompting a mini stampede on K Street as more police arrived in a effort to calm the situation. Young Trump supporters began flowing into the edges of the scene. Both sides engaged in taunts. At one point chants of "Not my president" competed with "Trump, Trump, Trump." Footage of a Trump supporter being punched in the face also emerged earlier today. "The message I want to send is that Trump does not represent this country. "He represents the corporate interests," said Jessica Reznicek, a 35-year-old Catholic aid worker from Iowa. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now (Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror) (Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror) (Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror) Observers said the disorder appeared to be organised, with the black-clad group splitting from a larger protest before launching the wave of vandalism. Trump supporter Bernadette Repisky from Pennsylvania said she felt "sorry" for the demonstrators. "They're so ignorant," she said. "They can't distinguish between fake news and real news. "Why can't the police disband them? They're so hateful. "Donald Trump saved our country." The fighting and violence came as Donald Trump ushered in a new era of politics when he was sworn in as the 45th president of the US today. His deeply divisive campaign fuelled the demonstrations, with groups angered by his stance on immigrants and women.. (Image: REUTERS) (Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror) Not far from the White House, protesters also scuffled with police, at one point throwing aluminum chairs at an outdoor cafe. A motorcyclist in town to celebrate Trump's inauguration was struck in the face when he tried to intervene. "i know, law and order and all that. We need more order. This ain't right," Bob Hrifko, with a bleeding cut under his eye, told Reuters. Hrifko said he was part of the "Bikers for Trump" group that was holding an inauguration rally. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now (Image: Adam Gerrard/Daily Mirror) (Image: REUTERS) (Image: REUTERS) Earlier, liberal activists with a separate group called Disrupt J20 intermittently blocked multiple security checkpoints leading to the largest public viewing area for the ceremony. Several were led away by police. Disrupt J20 protest organizer Alli McCracken, 28, of Washington, said the group was voicing its displeasure over Trump's controversial comments about women, illegal immigrants and Muslims. (Image: REUTERS) (Image: REUTERS) (Image: Barcroft Media) "We have a lot of people of diverse backgrounds who are against U.S. imperialism and we feel Trump will continue that legacy," McCracken said on a gray morning with light rain. At one checkpoint, protesters wore orange jumpsuits with black hoods over their faces to represent prisoners in US detention at Guantanamo Bay. Black Lives Matter and feminist groups also joined protests. Trump supporters flooded into the capital, many sporting shirts and hats bearing his "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan. Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now A second anti-Trump protest is currently being held in Oakland. A major demonstration is expected on Saturday when tens of thousands are expected to participate in the Women's March on Washington. Additional demonstrations are scheduled to take place around the country. There also was a protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, where demonstrators were arrested for blocking traffic. |
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