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Share Tweet Pin 3 shares Okay, lets be real here for a second; Adele could sing about dirty diapers and I would still cry. As if her soulful music didn’t make her awesome enough, she is also always rocking a PERFECTLY EXECUTED winged liner. Her makeup artist needs to make a YouTube channel. Like yesterday. But until then you’re just going to have to settle for me and my Adele inspired winged liner tutorial. Adele’s winged liner is always a little different because the wing is angled more upwards than traditional winged liner, so when your eye is open, you can juuuust barely see that the end of the liner is upturned. I find that gel liner is easier to work with for this, but some people prefer liquid liner pens, and that’s cool too. First, draw a line beginning at your lower lash line towards the tail of your brow. It’s okay if it’s a little messy. We can fix that up at the end. Working from the outside in, tilt your head back so that your eye is nearly closed and you’re looking down at yourself into the mirror. Draw a straight line from the outer corner to about 2/3 of the way in. Hold your brush parallel to your body to create a smooth line. Fill in the blank spots Line your inner corner. If you need to clean up the edges, you can go over the bottom with concealer on a brush. If your lines are bumpy- go over them with some matte black eyeshadow on and angled brush to smooth them out! Add mascara. For the full effect, add some sexy false lashes. Voila! Still having trouble? Troubleshoot your winged liner technique with this tutorial! |
President Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE on Friday said he would defer to Defense Secretary James Mattis's opposition to torture despite the president's own support for tactics like waterboarding. At a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May, Trump said Mattis would get the last word on the issue. "He will override," he said. "I'm going to rely on him. ... I am going with our leaders. We are going to win with or without [torture]." May told reporters during her visit to Washington that she condemns torture and would make that clear to Trump. Trump on the campaign trail said he would bring back waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques for suspected terrorists. ADVERTISEMENT But Friday's comments suggest that despite his own opinions, he will follow Mattis's lead. After Trump first met with Mattis in December for the prospective Cabinet position, he said the retired general had told him torture methods were ineffective. On Thursday, the Pentagon reiterated that Mattis had not changed his mind on opposing the torture techniques used on terrorist suspects during the George W. Bush administration. "Secretary Mattis said in his confirmation process that he will abide by and is committed to upholding international law, the Law of Armed Conflict, Geneva Conventions and U.S. law, and that has not changed," Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis told reporters Thursday. However, Trump has made clear that while Mattis will have the final say on the issue, he still believes that torture works. And he said in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity this week that he doesn't consider waterboarding to be torture. On Friday, Trump said Mattis was the expert but added, "I do disagree." The issue of torture was rekindled earlier this week after what are reportedly draft executive orders were leaked, including one that would revive the use of CIA black site prisons in foreign countries to interrogate suspected terrorists and ordered a review of interrogation techniques in the Army Field Manual. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the document did not come from the White House. GOP leaders at a Republican congressional retreat on Thursday indicated they opposed allowing the use of torture. The Detainee Treatment Act, passed by Congress in the wake of Abu Ghraib scandal, bars any individual in the custody of the U.S. government from being subjected to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. It also states that no person in custody of the Department of Defense should be subject to any interrogation technique not authorized by the Army Field Manual, which prohibits torture. |
The Vanderbilt Student Government (VSG) Senate will discuss a bill opposing Vanderbilt Football’s potential move to an off-campus football stadium at their meeting on Wednesday. Vice Chancellor and athletic director David Williams will attend the meeting at 8 PM to give an update on the proposal and answer questions from the Senate and the student body. Students who wish to hear more and address Williams should arrive at 7:45. The meeting will take place in the Board of Trust room in the Student Life Center. According to VSG Senate speaker Molly Gupta, Williams has asked VSG to produce a statement reflective of their stance on the stadium issue in order to guide the university’s decision-making process in advance of their presentation to the Metro Council. While the bill will be made public with its exact wording on Monday night, Gupta said the sentiments will reflect VSG’s stance on the issue. “We support the construction of a soccer stadium and hope that Nashville gets awarded a franchise expansion, but we do not want a majority or all of our football games moved in the future as a result,” Gupta told The Hustler. According to VSG president Jami Cox, if the bill is passed, it will serve as a statement from the student body on the issue and will be presented to the administration. Gupta said that the general public and graduate students will be allowed to attend so long as they maintain decorum, but priority in addressing Williams will go to the undergraduate students in attendance. After the Senate and students in attendance ask their questions, the bill will be formally presented and debated. UPDATE (11:00 AM Tuesday): VSG has officially released the initial resolution they will introduce at Wednesday’s Senate meeting. The resolution expresses support for an MLS franchise and new stadium in Nashville, but cautions against Vanderbilt’s involvement if it means playing football games off-campus. “…playing home games on Vanderbilt campus is essential to preserving the atmosphere of college football, which is a critical component of the fan experience, and the relocation of a majority or all of home football games to an off-campus stadium would damage this atmosphere,” the resolution reads in part. The resolution may change before it is voted on if amendments are introduced during the meeting. Read the full resolution here: |
BELLEVUE, Wash. — I took a short trip to Valve’s headquarters this week to view the company’s latest prototypes for Steam Machines, the Valve-powered Steam OS gaming computers with a special controller for big-screen TV play. At its high-rise building in downtown Bellevue, company engineers showed me demos of near-final controllers and a variety of machines that are expected to ship in November. As envisioned, the Steam Machines are living room gaming computers aimed at preserving the openness and innovation of the PC, and they represent a potential threat to Microsoft’s decades-long grip on the $25 billion Windows PC gaming market as well as the equally large console game market. This ambitious plan makes Valve one of the most interesting companies in the gaming industry, as it takes on roles as both a game maker and a technology provider. But Valve itself has stayed small at 380 employees. Much like its strategy with SteamVR virtual reality system, Valve is licensing its Steam Machine technology to hardware makers who will launched their own machines. Valve itself will make just two of the system’s devices, the System Link streaming device and Steam Controllers. Image Credit: Dean Takahashi In a bid to give its customers a chance to play their Steam games on a TV — which have bigger screens than most PCs do — Valve came up with its plan to enable Steam games to run in the living room. It invented software such as its Steam Big Picture user interface for TVs, and it created the Linux-based Steam OS to run the games instead of Microsoft’s Windows. Even so, many Steam Machines are expected to be PCs that have the capability to dual boot to either Windows or the Steam OS. Overall, Steam Machines seem like an outlandish plan. And some of Valve’s high-profile Steam Machine and SteamVR experts have moved over to work at their rival, Facebook’s Oculus VR division. But being outlandish is nothing new for Valve. Founded by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, the company started out in 1996 as a game developer, and its first game, Half-Life, was a huge hit when it debuted in 1998. It produced hit after hit, and along the way, it created the Steam digital distribution service on the PC. Now Steam has turned Valve into a digital distribution giant — it’s the top store for downloading games, by far. Rather than make its own console, Valve created a basic architecture for Steam Machines: the Linux-based Steam OS. It also crafted its own Steam Controller for controlling PC games in the living room, and it uses either a Steam-based computer or System Link streaming engine to display games on a big-screen TV in the living room. A lot of people may have written off the whole effort, since it was announced so long ago. But Valve is moving forward with production of Steam Controllers momentarily. At Valve’s headquarters, Erik Johnson and Scott Dalton of Valve showed me the latest Steam Machines and the redesigned Steam Controller. “Preorders are going to begin really soon, and about a dozen machines will be ready for November launch,” said Valve marketing head Doug Lombardi in an interview with GamesBeat. Redesigning after the delay Image Credit: Dean Takahashi Valve has been working on pieces of the Steam Machine for a long time. It built the Steam digital distribution service, debuting the service on the Windows PC in 2003. It extended that to the Mac in 2010, mobile devices in 2012, and Linux in 2013. In 2012, it also created the Steam Big Picture mode, which allows you to view the Steam use interface from 10 feet away, so it can be displayed on high-definition TVs. Valve was also working on a virtual reality system, SteamVR, in parallel. When Microsoft started talking about Windows 8, it hinted that it would go the route of Apple, allowing only one store for digital distribution. It didn’t actually do that, but it spooked Valve’s boss, Newell. It started working on an alternative system based on Linux. But it also had to figure out a way for PC gamers, who were used to a mouse and keyboard, to play their games on the TV with a console-like controller. Some games, such as real-time strategy games, just aren’t built for controllers. With the trackpads, Valve offered a solution with the Steam Controller. In January 2014, Newell unveiled the Steam Machines project at the International CES in Las Vegas. At the time, 13 hardware partners said they would ship Steam Machines. But in May 2014, Valve announced it was delaying the release until 2015 because of feedback the company received about the wireless controller. Johnson told me that the company went back to redesign the controller. It added the left-side analog stick, which console gamers are used to, in addition to the dual trackpads. The controller has HD haptic feedback, dual-stage triggers, back grip buttons, and fully customizable control schemes. “The controller was a lot of the reason for the delay. We often take the position of taking more time. Given we already knew of problems that customers would run into, and given that we don’t have some goofy external pressure around shipping, let’s just fix problems we know customers are going to run into,” Johnson said. “There isn’t a super interesting story other than it is just work.” Valve fixed the controller, adjusting the position of the buttons, adding the analog stick for more precise and familiar control, and slicing off the bottom of the controller to enable a better fit for people with smaller hands. The controller connects wirelessly using Valve’s own custom wireless technology, which is designed for high-speed connectivity with low latency. Hands-on demo Image Credit: Dean Takahashi At Valve’s HQ, I walked into a room with three huge TVs, all connected side-by-side. A different kind of Steam Machine was running with each one. In the middle was Dell’s Alienware machine. This box sells currently for $480 with Windows. But that kind of machine represents the low end of the market, and plenty of others will fill out the rest of the hardware options. Dell hasn’t made any announcement, but I would guess that it’s going to refresh the system with new components for the November release. The team showed me The Talos Principle, a third-person puzzle game designed for the Windows PC, running on a Steam Machine with the Steam Controller. Dalton then showed the system playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive at 120 frames per second at a resolution of 1080p. “This is a heavily user-generated content game with mods that you can get only on the PC,” Johnson said, regarding Counter Strike: Global Offensive. “This is one of those games that makes the PC a great system.” The Falcon Northwest Tiki machine ranges from $1,200 to $4,900. Johnson showed me a demo of the new Unreal Tournament from Epic Games running on a 4K television. Kelt Reeves, the head of Falcon Northwest, told me that he expects to be able to quickly convert a shipping Windows computer into a Steam Machine upon receiving a short amount of notice from Valve about the release date. He thinks such a Tiki system will be able to dual-boot Steam OS or Windows. The third TV in the room was intriguing, as it showed off the Steam Link. You can run the Steam games on a television by connecting the Steam Machine directly to a TV. Or you can also play the games by connecting your existing computer to a Valve Steam Link box, which connects your TV and your home network, allowing you to stream Steam games from the PC, even if the PC is in another room such as your office. The controller will work with a Windows machine, too. “They’re just PCs, and the PC makers are going to do what they do,” Johnson said. “They’re going to attack challenges like form factors, commodity pricing on hardware, and reach out to different segments of the audience, from mainstream to super high end. They will do what they are good at, building the right box for everybody.” Image Credit: Dean Takahashi Dalton described the latest design for the controller and put one in my hands. I felt the little notches in the track pad. Counter Strike: Global Offensive ran at full resolution on a 1080p screen at 60 frames per second. Then they showed me Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, an action game, running on a 4K TV on a Falcon Northwest Tiki machine with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 system. Finally, they demonstrated the Tiki running a 4K version of the upcoming Unreal Tournament arena shooter coming from Epic Games. The images on the TV will look great if you have a powerful computer that you’re streaming the images form. The controller felt good in my hands. It fit snugly. The concentric circles on the trackpad helped me be more precise in moving my view and my weapon. You can swipe across the trackpad and feel the trackball rolling in a measured way under your thumb. Johnson said mouse-centric games such as Civilization V, Kingdom Rush, and Pillars of Eternity work well with the Steam Controller. “The controller works surprisingly well with mouse-based games,” Johnson said. “With DOTA 2, it’s a challenge. It will take some work on the game side.” I suspect that you won’t be able to get as many kills with the Steam Controller as you can with a mouse and keyboard on a shoot game on the PC in the den. But Johnson said it’s a fair test to compare how many kills you would get compared to an experience with a controller like the one for the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4. “With a first-person shooter, our approach works really great,” Johnson said. The Steam Link lets you stream content inside your home from a PC in the office to the living room. You can attach the $50 System Link across a wired home network and play from the Steam library. More than 1,000 Steam games are currently playable, including a 1999 version of System Shock 2 that wasn’t designed to be played with a controller. “We had to do a bunch of low-level code writing on this to get the streaming to work,” Johnson said. “We have done a lot of work with the link and the controller to make sure that as much of our customers’ content can be played in the living room.” Shipping details Image Credit: Dean Takahashi Valve expects the machines to launch this fall, and November looks like the month it will happen. Partners will determine the final ship dates, but Valve will manufacture the Steam Link and the Steam Controller itself. Dalton said that the controller is almost done and that the initial units are going to be coming off a high-tech robotic manufacturing line in Chicago as soon as next week. If the units that come off the line look good, then the Steam Controller will be on its way to final production. “We want to make our customers trust us and feel good about it,” Johnson said. The controller is $50, as is Steam Link. The Steam Machines may very well debut at the same time that HTC launches its SteamVR-based virtual reality goggles and accompany sensor hardware, which will work with a PC. The hardware makers will supply the necessary variety for the market. Roughly a dozen Steam Machines are expected to be ready. “The range is going to be as big as the gaming PC range is today,” Johnson said. Conclusion Image Credit: Valve Valve disappointed a lot of gamers last year when it made them wait. It is now in the process of winning back their trust. A lot of them have probably already moved on to new Windows machines or game consoles. By the time the Steam Machines ship in the fall, they’ll have competition from Windows 10 machines as well as new consoles such as the Nvidia Android-based Shield set-top box. It’s going to be a crowded market. Valve’s advantage is that Steam has hundreds of millions of users who have invested a lot of money in their Steam libraries. By giving them the capability to play those games and new ones in the living room, Valve may find a waiting audience. About 5,000 games are available on Steam, and more than 1,000 can run on the Steam Machines. The more of those Valve moves over, the larger its opportunity will be. Valve has a reputation of thinking of gamers first. It occasionally screws up, as it did when it had to retract its position on paid mods for PC games for the Steam digital store. But it has also earned a lot of trust over the years. If rivals like Microsoft do anything that appears to be anti-consumer, they could give Valve a golden chance to shift players to Steam Machines. “We’re pretty allergic to making up rules for what customers can and can’t do with their PCs,” Johnson said. |
The early thinking: Stay out of the GOP’s way. Dem plan: Watch the GOP implode Democratic operatives were just as surprised as everyone else by Eric Cantor’s defeat — but now they’re trying to figure out how to make the most of it. The early thinking: Stay out of the GOP’s way. Story Continued Below Virginia’s 7th Congressional District probably isn’t going their way, regardless of the Republican candidate switch. But operatives planning for the midterms believe they can turn Tuesday’s surprising tea party resurgence into something much bigger. ( Also on POLITICO: The downside of ambition) They see the attention to the defeat as another cut at the House Republicans as extremists, a new way to highlight congressional dysfunction, a chance to pump more GOP distrust into the Latino voters Democrats are hoping to turn out in force in November, an argument that Republicans are in much worse shape than they’ve purported to be. Of course, Democrats have seemed to seize the momentum many times before, only to lose it — though never worse than when the buoyancy of winning on the shutdown immediately disappeared into the Obamacare website launch. But on this one, they feel like Republicans are doing the work for them. ( Also on POLITICO: Obama weighs in on Cantor loss) There wasn’t a Cantor-based strategy session Wednesday with White House political director David Simas, and there isn’t one planned. Staffers at the various Democratic campaign committees spent the day reveling in the results and chattering about it among themselves, but not in any formal way. Party operatives think they can count on at least two weeks of Republicans languishing, until June 24. That’s when Chris McDaniel will be looking to bring down Sen. Thad Cochran in the Mississippi GOP run-off, while in the Colorado gubernatorial primary, voters will pick between two former House Republicans: Tom Tancredo, the anti-immigration reform leader who’s ahead in the polls and Bob Beauprez, whom Cantor endorsed. And all the while, House Republicans will be twisting through their own internal fight ahead of the June 19 majority leader election. ( Also on POLITICO: Right clamors for leadership seat) “At a certain point, Republicans will need a hand” making problems for themselves, said one Democratic strategist working on the midterms. “That moment is not now.” Neither Obama nor any House or Senate candidate is likely to say either Cantor’s name or Brat’s much between now and November — the president on Wednesday referred only to “an interesting election” at a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fundraiser Wednesday night, launching into a defense of what he insisted were the still-alive chances of immigration reform. “At a certain point issues are important enough to fight for. My argument about yesterday’s election is not that there was too little politics — there was too little conviction about what was right,” Obama said. ( Also on POLITICO: The GOP's habit of eating its own) After all, strategists don’t expect most voters knew there was a primary in Virginia this week — or will care what the results were by next month, let alone by the fall. But they do think the conversation Cantor’s loss sparked in the coverage has helped feed a larger sense of Republican extremism and obstructionism. “Dave Brat is not a brand. The Republican lurch to the right is a brand,” said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (D-N.Y.). “The Brat win is Exhibit A in our argument, but there are lots of exhibits to our argument. It accelerates the GOP’s move to the right.” “Cantor lost because he wasn’t extreme enough, and that’s the direction of the Republican Party,” said Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager in 2012. “These larger narratives of the party getting pulled to the right is something the Republicans need to be worried about.” Until about 7:40 p.m. on Tuesday, the conventional wisdom had been that the Republican establishment had gotten the tea party under control, and the focus was on Obama’s problems. The election had been cast as a referendum on the president. Now, Democrats say they think they’ve got fodder to make the argument that November will be a referendum on Washington: The president is still a big part of that — but Cantor’s loss should be a reminder that Republicans are, too. |
A TIMES INVESTIGATION Japanese gang figures got new livers at UCLA Recipients included one of Japan's top crime bosses. Some fear a chilling effect on organ donations. The surgeon in each case was Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil, executive chairman of UCLA's surgery department, according to another person familiar with the matter who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Busuttil is a world-renowned liver surgeon who co-edited a leading text on liver transplantation and is one of the highest-paid employees in the University of California system. The four surgeries were done between 2000 and 2004 at a time of pronounced organ scarcity. In each of those years, more than 100 patients died awaiting liver transplants in the Greater Los Angeles region. In addition, the surgeon performed liver transplants at UCLA on three other men who are now barred from entering the United States because of their criminal records or suspected affiliation with Japanese organized crime groups, said a knowledgeable law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. UCLA Medical Center and its most accomplished liver surgeon provided a life-saving transplant to one of Japan's most powerful gang bosses, law enforcement sources told The Times. There is no evidence that UCLA or Busuttil knew at the time of the transplants that any of the patients had ties to Japanese gangs, commonly called yakuza. Both said in statements that they do not make moral judgments about patients and treat them based on their medical need. U.S. transplant rules do not prohibit hospitals from performing transplants on either foreign patients or those with criminal histories. The most prominent transplant recipient, Tadamasa Goto, had been barred from entering the U.S. because of his criminal history, several current and former law enforcement officials said. Goto leads a gang called the Goto-gumi, which experts describe as vindictive and at times brutal. The FBI helped Goto obtain a visa to enter the United States in 2001 in exchange for leads on potentially illegal activity in this country by Japanese criminal gangs, said Jim Stern, retired chief of the FBI's Asian criminal enterprise unit in Washington. Goto got his liver, Stern said, but provided the bureau with little useful information on Japanese gangs. "I don't think Goto gave the bureau anything of significance," Stern said. Goto "came to the States and got a liver and was laughing back to where he came from. . . . It defies logic." Although Stern was not involved with the deal, he said he learned the details when he became unit chief in 2004 and continues to be troubled by what happened. After the transplant, Goto was again barred from reentering the U.S., said the first law enforcement official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and therefore requested anonymity. But Goto continued to receive medical care from Busuttil in Japan. The doctor traveled there and examined Goto on more than one occasion, said Goto's Tokyo-based lawyer, Yoshiyuki Maki -- and evaluated Goto while he was in custody in 2006. Busuttil's medical opinion was cited in a successful court petition to have Goto released for medical care at a Tokyo hospital, Maki said. The Times is not naming the other three transplant recipients in this article because neither they nor their lawyers could be reached. Several transplant experts and bioethicists contacted by The Times said they were troubled by the transplants, especially because organs are in such short supply in this country. In the year of Goto's surgery, 186 people in the Los Angeles region died waiting for a liver, U.S. transplant statistics show. |
Bahai News (Persian, facebook), January 8, 2016. Mrs. Tahereh Reza’i ( طاهره رضایی ), a Bahai from Isfahan, has been transferred from Yazd prison to Dowlat Abad prison in Yazd. She is one of 20 Bahais who were arrested in central Iran August 2012: 10 in Yazd and Isfahan and 10 others in towns and cities such as Shahin Shahr, Vila Shahr, Arak and Kerman. They received prison sentences ranging from one year to four years. Mrs. Reza’i began her sentence, of one year in prison plus a one-year suspended sentence, on October 19, 2015, when she was arrested in front of her home in Isfahan and taken to prison in Yazd. It would appear that the authorities in Isfahan arrested her at the request of the Provincial authorities in Yazd. Short link: http://wp.me/pNMoJ-2×1 Older items can be found in the archive, here. Even older news is here. |
Joel Salatin originally published this article in the spring 2015 Polyface Farms newsletter. We run the piece here with Joel’s permission. — Ed. While I was in Australia in February, imported Chinese raspberries carrying Hepatitis A (from human sewage) hospitalized a dozen people and heightened interest in my seminars to a fever pitch. The news media and individuals fell over themselves trying to learn about local food systems and integrity food. Here at Polyface Farms, our business always thrives when recalls and food illness outbreaks hit the news. Why? Breaches in food safety continue to be our best advertisement. While these acute issues make headlines and instill panic, the most egregious food safety issues remain imbedded as a part of our cultural orthodoxy. If it kills you or sickens you fast, the issue dominates discussions. But if it kills you or sickens you slow, it’s buried as a non-news item. Such is the current state of the industrial food system. Isn’t it amazing what gets people excited and creates societal movement? To be sure, nobody wants people killed with tainted food. But isn’t it amazing that a couple of deaths and hospitalizations from an E. coli or salmonella outbreak creates hysteria while rocketing autism and childhood leukemia receive scant attention. The U.S. leads the world in the five chronic causes of death. While our hospitals fill with leaky gut syndrome and bowel problems and our wealth goes from farms to pharmaceutical companies, collectively we just assume these societal changes follow capitalism’s success. If we really loved our children and really loved our neighbors, we’d be staying up at night trying to solve this terrifying trajectory. Fertility is dropping like a rock. I’m reminded of iconic news commentator Paul Harvey’s little ditty: “We worry about the wrong things, you know.” I’ve never shied away from difficult issues, so I’ll wade in just to make the point: is terrorism really a bigger threat than skyrocketing health issues? To take it one step further, would it be better to allocate all the investment fighting radical Islam in the Middle East to eliminating soil erosion, water depletion, and nutrient deficiency here? We love to be victims. “Not my fault” absolves us of responsibility. Part of that is refusing to deal with big problems while we fritter away our time and energy on little problems. When Bill and Lucille Salatin purchased what is now Polyface farm in 1961, it was a place of gullies and rock. It didn’t even have enough soil to hold up electric fence stakes. Large areas 100 feet in diameter were solid shale rock. I remember those areas, like big oozing inhospitable wounds. What were our predecessors in this place thinking during those couple of centuries, eroding the land, destroying the soil? They were in their church pews, diligently putting money in the offering plate for foreign missions and church building projects; meanwhile they were destroying their habitation. How can this be? What is it about the human condition that keeps us from being able to face the important things? One of the most iconic history books of all time was the 1788 Edward Gibbon’s work: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The book set forth five basic reasons why great civilizations wither and die: The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis for human society. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace. The mad craze for pleasure–sports becoming every year more exciting, more brutal, more immoral. The building of great armaments when the real enemy is within–the decay of individual responsibility. The decay of religion–with faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, losing power to guide people. Can you see America in this list? Perhaps the greatest lie of our day is that America has some sort of special divine dispensation that entitles it to beat the historical odds. That somehow we’re so special we can go the way of Rome but escape Rome’s fate. The Huns simply finished off what had already become rotten on the inside. The bank bailout destroyed perhaps 1,200 community banks, including the one where I’ve banked for 50 years. Destroying community banks is not healthy. This is simply an extension of disrespecting small farms, disrespecting earthworms, and disrespecting the pigness of pigs. Dear people, when a farmers’ market vendor can’t slice watermelons for tasting samples because that’s food manufacturing; when a homeowner’s association sues a member for planting a tomato vine because that’s farming; when a municipality criminalizes house chickens because they can’t be pets: this bespeaks a culture completely out of touch with our ecological umbilical. And I don’t know about you, but I find this much more disconcerting than whether Russia controls the Ukraine. If we can’t encourage neighbor-to-neighbor food commerce, soil building farms, and integrated rather than segregated food systems, we obviously have no business telling other people how they should live. Wouldn’t it be cool if the U.S. became the place that showed the world how to build soil with farming, how to hydrate the landscape with permaculture practices, and how to create food participants out of supermarket zombies? Now that would be leading by example. None of these is incredibly difficult; what’s difficult is to get serious about the big things. What? Soil building more important than war? Salatin, are you nuts? What? Nutrient density more important than Wall Street? Are you nuts? Yes, I am nuts according to modern sofa-think TV la-la land. But consider that proper governance follows proper living. Proper economy follows proper ecology. Proper security follows proper stewardship. It’s far more convenient, far easier to scream: “Bomb those barbarians!” than it is to look in the mirror and say: “Eat integrity food.” Integrity food builds soil, hydrates the landscape, insures nutrient density, produces abundantly, stimulates diversity, and embraces transparency. I don’t know about you, but that gives me enough to work on for a lifetime. In truth, it gives our society enough to work on for a lifetime. I submit that if we devoted the effort to these things that we devote to bristling armaments, boondoggle agencies, and bumbling regulations, we’d be a far safer place. Here’s a parting thought. Which would you rather be known for? The country that beat bad guys over there, or the country that created Eden? Can we do both? Maybe. But since we aren’t doing either one right now, why don’t we pick one and concentrate on it? Hmm? And lest the obvious isn’t obvious, let me say that those of you who come alongside Polyface are absolutely building an Eden. Bless you. — Joel Salatin, Transition Voice |
Germany's influence in Europe is not purely geopolitical. A large part of it is based on trade. The past two decades in particular have seen Germany assemble a powerful international goods factory. It takes unfinished products from its neighbors (eight of whom send Germany more than 20 percent of their exports) and transforms them into sophisticated mechanical goods before shipping them onward. In 2014, Germany was the number one export destination for 14 of its 27 EU peers, and the top source of imports for 15 of them. Access to this machine has especially benefited former communist states in Central and Eastern Europe, which have capitalized on high levels of investment from Germany (as well as the Netherlands and Austria) and capital inflows to achieve impressive GDP growth. European Union or no, the players in this network will all be highly motivated to keep it running. Eastern and Western Interests Diverge Still, there are two catches. The first is immigration. The subject has hung over these relationships since at least the 2004 enlargement, when Germany was one of several countries to impose restrictions on the freedom of movement for new eastern members. The influx of refugees into Europe has recently rekindled this friction, with the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland) bonding over a mutual aversion to Germany's attempts to dole out quotas of newly arrived migrants. The relationship emerging to Germany's east and southeast is one in which the free movement of goods and capital is encouraged, but the free movement of people is restricted. The second catch is Russia. Over the next decade, Russia will experience some significant changes in both its external relationships and its internal systems. The first half of this forecast has already come to pass, and Russia has grown increasingly belligerent in its periphery. Stratfor believes this will become more pronounced until the system designed by Russian President Vladimir Putin either adapts or collapses. This will clearly have a considerable effect on Russia's European neighbors, albeit to varying degrees. And so, geography will come into play once more. We have already seen the Russian military used to powerful effect in Ukraine, but its ability to push farther into Romania is somewhat tempered by the Carpathian Mountains, a natural barrier that snakes north and west, also providing protection to Hungary and Slovakia. Poland, by contrast, stands starkly exposed to Belarus, a close Russian ally, with no mountain range to shield it. Farther north, the similarly unprotected Baltic states lack Poland's bulk and thus have even less protection; a larger country like Poland could at least buy time to organize a defense. This geographic divergence will divide Central and Eastern Europe into two groups, one focused on trade and the other on security. The Central Europeans (the Czechs, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians and Slovaks) will be wary of antagonizing Russia. The Carpathians, though a barrier, are not insuperable. And yet these countries, sheltered by the mountains, will also be free to focus much of their energy toward pursuing continued prosperity through trade with the core. A shared interest in maintaining trade with Germany is not the foundation for a defined bloc, but more the makings of a loose grouping that becomes weaker with both distance from Germany and time, as Germany's strength begins to wane. Poland and the Baltics, by contrast, will not have the luxury of focusing primarily on their own enrichment. With Russia's presence looming, these countries will be bound closely together, focusing their energies on defense pacts and alliances — and especially on cultivating strong relationships with the United States. Trade will continue, of course, but the identity of this bloc will center on resisting the Russian threat. If and when internal challenges force Russia to turn its attention inward, Poland will have an opportunity, the likes of which it has not seen for several hundred years, to spread its influence east and south into the former territories of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Belarus and Ukraine. |
http://www.rockislandauction.com/viewitem/aid/1027/lid/4750 Okay, so the name may not be considered very PC today - you could also call this a cross-dominant stock. The concept was to allow a shooter to mount the gun in one shoulder but sight with their opposite eye. This was useful for cross-dominant shooters (ie, right handed but left eyed) or shooters who had suffered a crippling injury to one hand or one eye. The craftsmanship involved in properly making such a gun is quite impressive. The frame and tang are made with a slight curve to them, and then the stock must be made paying careful attention to the direction of the wood grain, so that it can withstand the bending moment created when firing. A fantastic piece of work, and something generally restricted to the rather wealthy. |
Paul says he 'wanted to get advice' from Bush on growing the party in Texas. | AP Photos Paul, Bush talk Hispanic outreach DALLAS — Sen. Rand Paul on Friday met with George P. Bush, a rising star in Texas GOP politics, to discuss how to broaden the Republican Party’s appeal in diverse communities. “Really I wanted to get advice from him, as much as anything, about how the party grows in Texas and states with large Hispanic populations,” Paul (R-Ky.) told POLITICO backstage after stumping for a state senate candidate here. Story Continued Below Bush recommended “showing up” in those communities, Paul said. The senator, who has said he is seriously considering a 2016 presidential bid, often talks about the importance of growing the Republican Party, and has made it a point to reach out to minority communities. Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, is running for land commissioner here, and as a Hispanic Republican — his mother is from Mexico — has been a vocal advocate for expanding the GOP tent. ( PHOTOS: Rand Paul’s career) “He’s very personable and I love to see the young faces, the new faces, maybe in the party,” Paul said of Bush. “I also think he brings a lot to the party as far as being a fluent Spanish speaker.” Bush tweeted a picture of the pair, adding, “Great to visit w/ @senrandpaul regarding the bright future for the GOP.” Paul’s comments came after a speech at the Frontiers of Flight museum, where he threw himself into a hotly contested GOP state senate primary by campaigning for a tea party-backed candidate, Don Huffines, a real estate developer who has known the Paul family for decades. “The Huffines family has always stood with the Paul family,” he said before delving into one of his standard speeches in which he skewered wasteful spending. “The Paul family stands with the Huffines family.” ( Also on POLITICO: Chris Christie struggles to deal with turmoil) Paul spoke to a flag-waving, enthusiastic audience, several of whom sported cowboy hats, before they tucked into a barbecue dinner. Huffines, a libertarian-leaning candidate, is challenging moderate incumbent state senator John Carona. The race is seen in Texas as a test for the tea party, and is relatively high-profile for a state senate contest. Paul has endorsed in U.S. Senate contests, but hasn’t gotten involved in many local races outside of Kentucky. After his speech, Huffines said in an interview that he was a big supporter of the senator’s father — former presidential hopeful and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a libertarian firebrand — and is proud to support his son. The elder Paul was invoked several times throughout the evening as a son of the Lone Star State and champion of liberty. A speaker introducing Paul noted, “There’s some love for the Constitution in that family.” Follow @politico |
BEIRUT – A Syrian minister has indicated that the Bashar al-Assad regime is willing to accept Kurdish autonomy in the north of the war-torn country, where Kurdish forces have been engaged in fierce fighting with ISIS. “The Syrian leadership is ready to negotiate over the project for self-management,” National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haydar told Kurdish Rudaw news agency Sunday. The minister’s comments come after he met with Kurdish authorities last month in the northern Syrian border town of Qamishli to discuss a range of issues. In January 2014, Kurdish authorities declared the formation of three self-ruled cantons (Cizire, Afrin and Kobane) under the Democratic Self-Rule Administration of Rojava, which has been dominated by the Democratic Union party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia forces. The political reorganization was not recognised by the Syrian regime; however it has become a de-facto reality, especially since pro-government forces withdrew from most Kurdish-populated regions in 2012, with the exception of Qamishli and the provincial capital Hasakeh 75 kilometers to the south. Haydar expressed support for overt signs of local Kurdish authority in northern Syria, saying that he was “pleased at the site of Kurdish checkpoints on roads [since] they protect citizens.” “There is no problem with [raising] Kurdish flags as long as they come within the framework of a united Syria,” he added. However, the minister made sure to stress the “unity” of Syria and its “sovereignty” over the Kurdish-populated territory during his interview. “My trip to Qamishli was a trip to a Syrian city on Syrian territory,” he said, adding that his visit aimed to “repair bridges between the Syrian leadership and the people of this area.” Despite his conciliatory words, Haydar hinted that Damascus opposed the current administrative setup in Kurdish areas, saying that plans for autonomous rule “could be revised and altered since all the projects are designed to find a solution within the sovereign state of Syria.” The Syrian minister also claimed that the Assad regime had been arming YPG units in their fight against ISIS, despite repeated statements by Kurdish figures that they have not received support from Damascus. “We have been providing all possible military assistance for the Kurdish forces in order to empower them against terror,” Haydar said. A leading Kurdish defense official immediately slammed Haydar’s allegation, calling his statements “heresy.” “Such statements undermine the victories of our people and obscure the regime’s secret stance opposing the Kurdish people and their autonomous democratic self-rule,” Nasser Hajj Mansour—a Kurdish defense official in the Cizire canton—told the pro-opposition Syrian Solution news agency. “They want to make themselves partners in [Kurdish] victories and everyone was a witness to their attempts trying to attribute the [Kurdish] victories in Tal Hamis and Tell Brak to their army and Shabiha,” he added in reference to late-February Kurdish advances against ISIS in the Hasakeh province. |
Supermarket packaging will carry new logos advising which items can be kept in the fridge, ensuring they last longer and reduce food waste Bags of supermarket apples will carry a new logo advising consumers to keep them in the fridge to make them last longer as part of a shake-up of food labelling aimed aimed at cutting about 350,000 tonnes of domestic food waste – worth £1bn – by 2025. The confusing and sometimes misleading “display by”, “best by” and “use by” dates on packaging is being simplified to encourage shoppers to get the most out of their larder, fridge and freezer. New guidance for retailers from the government’s food advisory body Wrap – produced in association with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and the environment department – aims to help tackle the 2m tonnes of food wasted each year in UK homes because it is not used in time. A third of this food waste happens because shoppers wrongly interpret existing labels. “We know that confusing labels can contribute to food waste by suggesting that edible items need to be thrown away sooner than is necessary,” said environment minister Thérèse Coffey. “This new guidance will make packaging much clearer for consumers, saving money and reducing waste. I encourage all food businesses, large and small, to use this guidance to help them put the right date mark on food and help guide people on the refrigeration and freezing of products which are crucial to reducing the amount of edible food thrown away.” Wrap is now working with the UK’s largest food companies and manufacturers to help implement changes across hundreds of thousands of own-brand and branded products. Among the key changes, more fresh produce will carry advice – in the form of a new “little blue fridge” icon appearing in the new year – to be stored in the fridge to keep it fresher for longer. A bag of apples could last two weeks longer if stored in a fridge. A third of UK fridges are inefficient because they are too warm – one-third of those at more than 9C and two-thirds above 5C. Wrap is also calling for the familiar freezing snowflake logo to be reinstated on packaging and for advice to “freeze on day of purchase” to be replaced by “freeze before the date shown”, particularly on fresh meat. Simplification of date labelling is underway, Wrap said, following its 2015 retailer survey which revealed confusion in food labelling and storage advice. In 2009 40% of packs had two separate date labels (“display until” with either “use by” or “best before”) which fell to less than 3% in 2015. “Use by” dates are important as they protect consumers from potentially dangerous bacteria that could be within food after that date, while “best before” is more of a quality guide. Retailers are under pressure increase the amount of surplus food they give away to food distribution charities such as FareShare, and Wrap wants clearer labelling to facilitate this. It believes there is potential to increase redistribution four-fold by 2025 – creating at least 360m more meals. |
Update February 6, 2017: The WoW Token feature is now live on Battle.net in the US, meaning WoW gold can now be exchanged for Battle,net balance, which can be spent on games, subscriptions, and in-game items. A token can be redeemed for $15 of Battle.net balance now, and can be used on WoW pets, Blizzard games and other services. For everything else happening in WoW patch 7.1.5, have a look at our dedicated post. Just pop along to the Auction House and buy a WoW token, then swap it for $15 of cold, hard Blizzard cash. Alternatively, you can buy a WoW token with real money from the Blizzard shop and sell it on in the Auction House for WoW gold. Here’s a list of what you can buy with the Battle.net funds: Digital versions of Blizzard games including Digital Deluxe editions – these versions of games have additional goodies like WoW pets. Character services like realm and faction transfer. World of Warcraft mounts, pets, cosmetic helms from the in-game shop. Hearthstone card packs and adventures. Heroes of the Storm Heroes, skins, and mounts. Cheers, WoWHead. Original Story November 24, 2016: Much like real gold, World of Warcraft’s long-time currency is worth something. Significantly less, perhaps, but it takes time and effort to gain it and it can already be traded for game-time at a rate of thousands to the dollar. That real-world value is about to get a whole lot more tangible as the WoW subscription token will be converted to a Battle.net balance one in an upcoming patch. It means if you’ve a few dozen thousand gold lying around, you can turn it into dollars and cents that are applicable for any Bnet account service – that includes games like Overwatch or microtransactions like loot boxes, Hearthstone card packs and more. This much was announced at BlizzCon as a future plan, but strings in the latest datamining of patch 7.1.5 indicate it will be coming to the live game very soon. Here’s the list of them from MMO-Champion, first their name in the code followed by how they’re programmed to display in-game. Italics are our comments. TOKEN_COMPLETE_BALANCE_DESCRIPTION – %s will be added to your Battle.net Balance. You will receive a confirmation email shortly. %s is a common internal formatting for values that will depend on various maths. TOKEN_CONFIRM_BALANCE_DESCRIPTION – %s will be added to your Battle.net Balance. Likely only one of these will be used and the other is older formatting. TOKEN_CONSUMABLE_DESCRIPTION_30_DAYS_BALANCE – Use: Adds 30 days of game time to your World of Warcraft account or %s to your Battle.net Balance. TOKEN_REDEEM_BALANCE_BUTTON_LABEL – %s Battle.net Balance These are likely store listings for the new items when browsing the in-game shop. TOKEN_REDEEM_BALANCE_DESCRIPTION – Add %s to your Battle.net Balance? TOKEN_REDEEM_BALANCE_ERROR_CAP_FORMAT – |cffff2020You can’t choose this option because your Battle.net Balance (%s) is near or at the maximum.|r TOKEN_REDEEM_BALANCE_FORMAT – Current Balance: |cffffffff%s|r|nNew Balance: |cffffffff%s|r These look like on-use error and confirmation messages, as well as tooltips. Again, the garbage text is processing placeholders. TOKEN_REDEEM_BALANCE_TITLE – Battle.net Balance TUTORIAL_TOKEN_GAME_TIME_STEP_2 – 2. Redeem it for 30 days of game time. Game time. TUTORIAL_TOKEN_GAME_TIME_STEP_2_BALANCE – 2. Redeem it for 30 days of game time (or %s of Battle.net Balance). These are the two forms of the end of the ‘tutorial’ on how to use gold to add WoW game time or, now, Bnet balance. It’s an interesting, if inevitable, move. This essentially means anyone who plays a decent amount of WoW will be able to get any Blizzard products they’re after in the future for free, assuming the exchange rate remains reasonable. Currently, that’s $20, €20, £15, 75 CNY, 500 TWD or 22,000 KRW depending on region. However, it’s also going to highlight and accentuate some problems in the system. If you take a look at token price tracking site WoWToken.info you’ll see that the price of tokens in gold varies massively between region. While the more extreme cases with Korea and China can be partly explained by the different way in which game time functions there, the US and EU servers are practically identical. While exchange rates mean it won’t ever line up perfectly, it being twice the cost over here for the same item is a steep price. It’s already frustrating for those who don’t spend much time in-game making gold that they’ve got a stockpile effectively half the size. It also means any money-making exploits, like those we detailed as part of covering the artifact power problem earlier this month, are far more serious. If being able to make six million gold in a couple of days via an infinite resources exploit now translates to thousands of Hearthstone cards, or every new skin in an Overwatch update, that’s a rather more serious problem for Blizzard. It’s not as problematic as something similar might be on Steam, as getting money out of Battle.net balance into the real world is impossible beyond selling the account (which is against TOS). The news that this is happening has already spiked the price in several regions, as you’ll see on the graphs at that site. Seeing what sort of economy takes root once it’s implemented will be fascinating, and hopefully not too damaging. |
Then they came for George Takei. The flamboyant actor, famous for playing Mr Sulu on Star Trek, has been accused of sexual assault by a male model. Scott Brunton says Takei assaulted him while he was passed out in Takei’s condo, in 1981. Takei denies the claims. He has tweeted – as is required when defending yourself against accusations of serious criminality these days – that the events described ‘never took place’. Takei is the galactic king of virtue-signalling. He is never shy about tweeting his right-on credentials. He once claimed that anyone who protested their innocence in relation to sexual-assault allegations was effectively ‘gas-lighting victims’ – that is, lying over and over again in order to make complainants doubt their sanity. So understandably, many now argue that Takei is reaping what he has sown. Having thrown his weight behind the #MeToo campaign, having been at the forefront of many online denunciations of Trump, Weinstein and others, he now cannot complain that the same is happening to him. Others are pointing to apparent evidence that Takei is, or was, a groper. In an appearance on the Howard Stern show NSFW, he joked about groping young men and was ‘hesitant’ when he was asked whether he had ever sexually assaulted someone. Takei’s detractors have now leapt on this interview as evidence of his guilt in relation to Brunton. Takei himself has been reduced to hysteria: he has blamed his current troubles on Russian bots, which have allegedly promoted the accusations against him as payback for his support for gay-rights issues. Yet while Takei might be an irritating presence in the Twittersphere, the current online persecution of him is nothing to celebrate. Yes, there is something satisfying in seeing those who rush to believe all accusations of sexual assault now finding their own accusers being widely believed. It is dawning on them, perhaps, that the #MeToo moral panic doesn’t care about how many Twitter followers you have or how popular you are among the PC social-media set – it can still come to get you. However, just because Takei contributed to a climate in which guilt is very often instantly presumed, that doesn’t mean we should cheer the presumption of his guilt. #MeToo is undermining due process, and that should worry us all. People are having their lives and careers turned upside down on the basis of allegation alone. Some are welcoming this. They seem to view the casual sacrifice of a few people as a price worth paying for society to ‘move on’. No longer do we believe, as did the 18th-century jurist William Blackstone, that it is better to let a hundred guilty men go free than to condemn one innocent man. Today, we condemn as many people as we can and worry about innocence later. This is what is scary about #MeToo: it is inverting how we think about justice. The idea seems to be that a few innocent, or merely suspected, people can be sacrificed to the greater good of changing social attitudes. It is hard to see where this hysteria will end. It is truly chilling that even the suicide of Carl Sargeant, the Labour politician who took his life after allegations were made against him, has had no impact on the zeal of the #MeToo crusaders. Of course we do not know the full details of Sargeant’s death; but one would think that some caution in relation to condemning men would now be exercised. But no. The death of a man has been largely ignored. And when even a death makes no impact on the trajectory of a panic, it is scary to think about how things might end. |
NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke. Credit: Lisa Berg/NBC While the ratings for the 2016 Summer Olympics didn't quite measure up to NBC's early projections, the Peacock still managed to strut away from Rio with a tidy profit of over a quarter-billion dollars. Speaking Wednesday at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference, NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke characterized the Olympics as a "tremendous success," adding that the company "made over $250 million in Rio," thanks to a 20% increase in ad sales volume compared to what it took in during the London Games. The Rio cash surplus more than doubled the $120 million NBC pocketed four years ago in London. Mr. Burke noted that the profit marked a stark contrast versus the NBC-produced Olympics of yesteryear, when the network would lose as much as $200 million on the 17-day event. The NBC chief acknowledged that the network had to make advertisers whole over the course of the Rio Games -- when streaming and cable were blended with NBC's linear primetime deliveries, the Olympics averaged 26 million viewers and a 14.9 household rating, down 15% compared to London and 17% shy of its guaranteed 18.0 rating -- before adding that clients he's spoken to say they "can't wait to come back in Korea and Japan for the next two Olympics." "If you're an advertiser who has a big brand or who wants to change consumer perception, those 17 days of the Olympics are almost invaluable," Mr. Burke said. "You almost can't put a price tag on them." (Of course, NBC's ad sales team did put a price on its Olympics inventory; according to buyers, the going rate for a 30-second unit in primetime averaged out at around $1 million a pop, although some clients paid more or less depending on their overall commitment.) Mr. Burke and his colleagues at NBC parent company Comcast are likely to provide further information about NBC's profitable Olympics run on Tuesday, Oct. 25, when the cable operator reports its third quarter earnings. NBC in May 2014 paid $7.65 billion to secure the U.S. media rights to the Olympics through 2032. Circling back to the make-goods issue, Mr. Burke reiterated that all advertisers cashed in on ADUs -- audience deficiency units -- within the Games themselves. NBC had sufficient excess inventory to do away with outstanding liabilities hanging over from the 2015-16 broadcast season, he added. Mr. Burke said that demand for time in programs such as "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," "Sunday Night Football" and NBC's new five-game "Thursday Night Football" package helped the network secure 13% increases in the cost per thousand impressions during this summer's 2016-17 upfront bazaar. He also noted that the robust TV market has in part been galvanized by advertisers who have stopped budgeting digital at the expense of TV. "I think 12 months or 24 months ago, people were saying, 'Let's mandate that we take a percentage of our advertising budget and spend it on digital,'" he said. "I think the pendulum swing back a little bit this year. … People are now getting more thoughtful as to what they spend to reach a mass audience, and what they spend to reach a targeted audience." NBC's fall season unofficially began last Thursday night with its eleventh annual presentation of the NFL Kickoff game. The 35-week campaign starts in earnest on Monday, Sept. 19, when the network begins the eleventh cycle of "The Voice" followed by back-to-back preview episodes of the new Ted Danson-Kristen Bell comedy "The Good Place." (The show moves into its regular Thursday 8:30 p.m. time slot on Sept. 22, where it will lead out of the sophomore comedy "Superstore.") Having reserved the majority of its new content for midseason, NBC this fall will premiere just three freshman series. In addition to the aforementioned "The Good Place," the network will take the wraps off the sweeping family drama "This Is Us" on Tuesday, Sept. 20, where it will hold down the 10 p.m. slot for three weeks before moving back an hour to make way for "Chicago Fire." The last of NBC's new fall series arrives Oct. 3, when the time-travel strip "Timeless" moves into the plum Monday 10 p.m. slot, leading out of "The Voice." |
By Nick Barnowski – TRAVERSE CITY – Aside from the news about forward Darren Helm’s recovery, the defensemen within the Detroit Red Wings’ system shared some of the spotlight on the first day of the organization’s annual summer development camp. Ryan Sproul, Xavier Ouellet, Nick Jensen, and Alexei Marchenko, among others, impressed after taking to the ice for the first time at Centre Ice Arena in Traverse City. The young defense group has Jiri Fischer, the team’s director of player development, encouraged for the future. “Time will tell, but it’s pretty exciting,” Fischer said. “I’m really excited that they all want to learn.” Leading the way is Sproul, who was named the top defenseman in the CHL this past season. The 6-4, 200 pound blueliner is expected to make the jump to the pros by joining the Grand Rapids Griffins this upcoming year. “I have no big expectations,” Sproul, who played two games with the Griffins after his OHL season with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds ended, said. “I just want to come in and do my thing and help out as much as I can. Being a pro I know is not going to be easy but I’m definitely looking forward to it.” Sproul had 66 points in 50 games with the Greyhounds, and while the junior accolades have started to pile up, he realizes that it won’t be as easy as walking onto the team. “You’re still fighting for a spot,” he said. “Coming in with 10 guys all battling for a couple spots, it’s my goal over the summer to keep those guys out.” Joining him in that battle will be Ouellet, who will also be turning pro after three seasons in the QMJHL. “I know there’s going to be a big step for sure, and I”ll do my best to get ready for that step,” Ouellet said. The 6-foot, 187 pound defenseman noted that he will draw upon his two-week experience as a Griffin last season when making the transition to the pros. While he did not see action in a game, he was able to practice with the team, which was helpful. “I practiced with the team for a couple weeks and it was a really good learning process for me,” Ouellet, who played in six games for Team Canada at the 2013 World Junior Hockey Championship, said. Ouellet praised the staff the Red Wings have brought in for the six-day camp, which includes Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios and Fischer, who was a former Detroit defenseman. “The staff is really good,” he said. “You have good coaches and really good strength coaches. It’s just a learning experience and it’s nice every year.” Jensen, who fought with this year’s second-round draft pick Tyler Bertuzzi at practice today, drew praise from Chelios. “Jensen’s a really good skater, a skilled player,” said Chelios, who works actively with both the Red Wings and Griffins during the season. Like with Sproul and Ouellet, Jensen will also be turning pro, and at the age of 22, will carry three years of NCAA hockey experience with St. Cloud State with him to the pros. He was named WCHA defenseman of the year and a first-team All American while putting up 31 points en route to St. Cloud State’s first ever Frozen Four appearance. His style of play fits the way the Red Wings like to play the game. When discussing Marchenko, Fischer commented on the differences the CSKA Moscow (KHL) defenseman will have to adjust to when making the jump to North America. “Playing on big ice will be different from playing on small ice,” Fischer said. “For defensemen, coming to small ice and all of the sudden being forechecked a lot harder, having a lot less time on the breakouts because there is always somebody coming, it’s a little more hectic under pressure than it is in Europe.” Chelios spoke highly of Marchenko. “Just watching him last year, he plays like a man,” he said. “He really engages and asks a lot of questions which is a good thing.” The club also has blueliners James de Haas, Richard Nedmolel, Marc McNulty, and Mitchell Wheaton in the system. Despite the number of talented defensemen, Fischer said that each player will get their shot to make an impression. “Time will tell, everybody’s got their fair shot at making the team in training camp, so let the best guy win,” he said. Ouellet knows that it won’t be easy but in the end, the chase for roster spots will end up making everyone better. “It’s a big challenge for me, like everyone, and we’re all fighting for a spot,” Ouellet said. “There’s a lot of competition and this is a good thing for all of us. It pushes us to the limit, everyone of us, and it’s going to get the best of all of us.” |
When Brock Lesnar re-signed with WWE earlier this year and ultimately put his career with the UFC behind him, many wondered if the former champion was using the two promotions as leverage against each other to get the best possible contract. In the end, Lesnar opted for a future in professional wrestling, but he said in a new interview on Monday night that his possible return to the UFC was anything but a hoax. He wanted to make another run at being a mixed martial artist for one reason — because he never truly felt satisfied by the way he left the last time. Article continues below ... "It wasn’t a bluff," Lesnar said on the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin podcast. "I felt robbed by diverticulitis. I felt robbed by being sick. I was feeling good and it took me a couple years to start feeling good. I’m at home, I’m working out, my life is great, everything’s in tune, my contract’s coming to an end with WWE, hey it’s been a great time but something’s missing. "I was up front and totally honest with the company and told them I’m really thinking of pursuing getting back in the Octagon." Lesnar missed significant time after winning the UFC heavyweight title due to the debilitating disease that saw the powerful fighter drop a ton of weight while barely clinging to life at one point. Lesnar admits that when he first got sick he should have done something about it right away, but his own stubbornness kept him from pursuing medical treatment. When he nearly fell from his tree stand while on a hunt in Canada and later found himself on the operating table with a fever at nearly 105 degrees, Lesnar found out just how serious things had become. Doctors were able to patch Lesnar up and stave off the disease for a time, but he had a second bout with diverticulitis and his career in the Octagon was never the same again. Deep down inside Lesnar knows that the only fights he had in the UFC where he was truly healthy were his first three bouts — against Frank Mir, Heath Herring and Randy Couture. After that, everything was downhill for the biggest draw in UFC history. "You saw me (at 100 percent) in the fight against Randy (Couture) but it got worse," Lesnar said. "When I’d get halfway through a training camp and I knew something was wrong. There’s something physically wrong with me so I need to figure it out." At the close of 2014 and the beginning of this year as his WWE contract neared its end, Lesnar formed a training camp and started working out to see if a return to the UFC was possible. The biggest factor for Lesnar wasn’t finding out if his body could endure the damage of MMA, but if his mind was truly ready to get inside the Octagon again. "I started training camp. I wanted to test myself and see where I was — not more physical, but mentally," Lesnar said. "I wanted to see the mental challenges that it was going to take. If your head’s not in the game, the last place you want to get into is in the Octagon." In the end, Lesnar decided for his future and the future of his family that going back to the WWE for a long term deal was best for business. Still to this day, however, Lesnar says that if he was never cut down by diverticulitis that he’d probably still be in the UFC fighting in the heavyweight division. "It was really unfair for me," Lesnar said. "To this day, I don’t know if I’d be a pro wrestler if I hadn’t gotten sick. I may not be here. I’d still be banging heads." |
Ryan White, CTV Calgary The first man to cross the finish line of the Scotiabank Calgary Marathon on Sunday morning will not see his name in the record books after race officials determined his route did not follow the course. Following a race review, two male competitors, including the man originally believed to be the race winner, were disqualified for not completing approximately one kilometre of the approximately 42 kilometre course. Red flags were initially raised when the first man to cross the finish line was not accompanied by the motorcycle that leads the top competitors towards the Calgary Stampede Grandstand building. Jonathan Kipchirchir Chesoo of Eldoret, Kenya is the official winner of the 2015 Scotiabank Calgary Marathon, finishing the race in 2:17:12 Lioudmila Kortchaguina of Markham, Ontario (2:48:23) was the first female competitor to cross the finish line and the winner in the women's division. “I feel amazing,” said 43-year-old Kortchaguina. “It was not an easy race for me because it’s not a flat race, lots of ups and downs and lots of turns, but it’s the same course for everybody so I can’t complain.” Kortchaguina says she was happy with her time despite the fact it's nearly 19 minutes slower than her personal best for the marathon distance. Top Calgarians: |
In the 16th century, the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo began assigning sections of his famous ceilings to his students to paint, prenumbering each one to help curb mistakes. (Yes, this was the world's first paint-by-numbers.) Fast-forward to 1949: package designer Dan Robbins applies Michelangelo's color-coded art process on a much smaller scale. Robbins' boss, Max Klein, owner of the Palmer Paint Co., was hesitant at first but eventually decided to give the idea a try. Robbins and Klein found very little success early on. "In the beginning we couldn't give our sets away," Robbins said. "It took almost two years to get our paint-by-number business off the ground. When we finally did, it took off like a rocket." In 1952, Macy's agreed to stock paint-by-numbers kits, and just a few months later, an amateur painter won third place at a San Francisco art competition with one. The press coverage noted that most people couldn't tell the difference between the kit versions and the original paintings. Eventually, Craft Master kits were such a hit that paint-by-number works by J. Edgar Hoover and Nelson Rockefeller were hung in the West Wing of the White House. See the 15 smartest toys from the 2011 Toy Fair. Next Mr. Potato Head |
Discover the one thing you need to know about men and women At some point while you're reading this book, a light will switch on and you'll instantly understand. Things that have been a mystery to you for years will suddenly make sense because you'll see the inner logic of it all. The world will be a new place for you. Most of the things you think you know about men and women are wrong, according to the author of this book. Krehbiel disassembles modern myths about how and why men and women relate to one another the way they do, then he offers a very politically incorrect agenda for how things ought to be. "This book is a stiff slap of Skin Bracer on each cheek after a close shave," says one commenter. "Laugh-out-loud funny," says another. "This book challenges current assumptions that are guided by feminism and victimhood and asserts without apology that 'men and women are different'; that gender roles are not the result of a worldwide conspiracy to disempower women." These 50 politically incorrect thoughts call young men to abandon the modern approach and look at love, marriage and sex from a different point of view. It's a radical call for men to embrace the fact that, whether they like it or not, it really is "women and children first," and in order for society to survive, we have to get back to that attitude. Please note: this is not a scholarly work. If you're looking for studies and footnotes, look elsewhere. |
The Compaq Portable is an early portable computer which was one of the first 100% IBM PC compatible systems. It was Compaq Computer Corporation's first product, to be followed by others in the Compaq portable series and later Compaq Deskpro series. Production [ edit ] The Compaq Portable was announced in November 1982 and first shipped in March 1983,[1] priced at US $2,995 (equivalent to $7,500 in 2018) with a single half-height 5¼" 360 kB diskette drive or $3,590 for dual, full-height diskette drives. The 28 lb (13 kg)[2] Compaq Portable folded up into a luggable case the size of a portable sewing machine. The computer was an early all-in-one, becoming available two years after the CP/M-based Osborne 1 and Kaypro II, in the same year as the MS-DOS-based (but not entirely IBM PC compatible) Dynalogic Hyperion, and a year before the Commodore SX-64. Its design was influenced by that of the Xerox NoteTaker, a prototype computer developed at Xerox PARC in 1976. IBM responded to the Compaq Portable with the IBM Portable, developed because its sales force needed a comparable computer to sell against Compaq.[3] Sales [ edit ] Compaq sold 53,000 units in the first year with a total of $111 million in revenue, an American Business record. In the second year revenue hit $329 million setting an industry record. Third year revenue was at $503.9 million, another US business record.[1] Design [ edit ] Hardware [ edit ] The Compaq Portable has basically the same hardware as an IBM PC, transplanted into a luggable case (specifically designed to fit as carry-on luggage on an airplane), with Compaq's BIOS instead of IBM's.[1] All Portables shipped with 128k of RAM and 1-2 double-sided double-density 360 KB disk drives. The machine uses a unique hybrid of the IBM MDA and CGA which supports the latter's graphics modes, but contains both cards' text fonts in ROM.[2] When using the internal monochrome monitor the 9x14 font is used, and the 8x8 one when an external monitor is used (the user switches between internal and external monitors by pressing Ctrl + Alt + > ). The user can use both IBM video standards, for graphics capabilities and high-resolution text. With a larger external monitor, the graphics hardware is also used in the original Compaq Deskpro desktop computer. Despite its success, the Compaq Portable had a few flaws in its hardware. The foam pads the keyboards used to make contact with a circuit board when pressed would eventually disintegrate over time, due to both the wear of normal use and natural wear. This would render the keyboard useless and would require a full replacement of any foam pad that was affected. The CRT display also suffered from a low refresh rate and heavy ghosting. Various views Front of the suitcase, with connectors for parallel and CGA port Rear of the suitcase, with AC power input Bottom of the suitcase with removable keyboard; stand is deployed Keyboard removed, computer ready for use Software [ edit ] Running WordPerfect 5.0. Compaq's efforts were possible because IBM had used mostly off-the-shelf parts for the PC and published full technical documentation for it, and because Microsoft had kept the right to license MS-DOS to other computer manufacturers. The only difficulty was the BIOS, because it contained IBM's copyrighted code. Compaq solved this problem by producing a clean room workalike that performed all documented functions of the IBM PC BIOS, but was completely written from scratch. Although numerous other companies soon also began selling PC compatibles, few matched Compaq's remarkable achievement of essentially-complete software compatibility with the IBM PC (typically reaching "95% compatibility" at best) until Phoenix Technologies and others began selling similarly reverse-engineered BIOSs on the open market.[4] The first Portables used Compaq DOS 1.13, essentially identical to PC DOS 1.10 except for having a standalone BASIC that did not require the IBM PC's ROM Cassette BASIC, but this was superseded in a few months by DOS 2.00 which added hard disk support and other advanced features. Aside from using DOS 1.x, the initial Portables are similar to the 16k-64k models of the IBM PC in that the BIOS was limited to 544k of RAM and did not support expansion ROMs, thus making them unable to use EGA/VGA cards, hard disks, or similar hardware. After DOS 2.x and the IBM XT came out, Compaq upgraded the BIOS. Although the Portable was not offered with a factory hard disk, users commonly installed them. Starting in 1984, Compaq began offering a hard disk-equipped version, the Portable Plus. In 1985, Compaq introduced the Portable 286, but it was replaced by the more compact Portable II in a redesigned case within a few months. Reception [ edit ] BYTE wrote, after testing a prototype, that the Compaq Portable "looks like a sure winner" because of its portability, cost, and high degree of compatibility with the IBM PC. Its reviewer tested IBM PC DOS, CP/M-86, WordStar, Supercalc, and several other software packages, and found that all worked except one game.[2] PC Magazine also rated the Compaq Portable very highly for compatibility, reporting that all tested applications ran. It praised the "rugged" hardware design and sharp display, and concluded that it was "certainly worth consideration by anyone seeking to run IBM PC software without an IBM PC".[5] Successors [ edit ] This machine was the first of a series of Compaq Portable machines. |
Bob Davis, one half of Minnesota radio duo Davis & Emmer In The Morning, finally said what many gun nuts have probably been thinking for months when he told his audience that “I have something I want to say to the victims of Newtown, or any other shooting,” namely that the gun reforms they’ve been lobbying for “force me to lose my liberty, which is a greater tragedy than your loss.” He went on to say that he was “sick and tired of seeing these victims trotted out,” and that “I would stand in front of them and tell them, ‘go to hell.'” “Just because a bad thing happened to you doesn’t mean that you get to put a king in charge of my life,” Davis said. “I’m sorry that you suffered a tragedy, but you know what? Deal with it, and don’t force me to lose my liberty, which is a greater tragedy than your loss.” Tom Emmer, Davis’ broadcast partner and a former Republican state representative, was slightly more restrained, opining, of the Newtown families, that “they’re being used,” and that “It’s probably one of the worst, ah, political stunts you could do is to use the victims of the tragedy.” Except, apparently, as punching bags: The notion that the families of the children and educators killed at Sandy Hook Elementary school are being “used” or “exploited” is a popular one with gun nuts like Davis, who insist that laws we’ve had for decades are suddenly unconstitutional, and who ignore the ruling of the most conservative justice on the Supreme Court. That notion is belied by the consistent, substantive work many of those families have done in order to enact reforms that might make a difference to the next twenty kids who face this kind of horror. It’s also offensive, and cowardly. Davis can bellow all he wants from behind his mic, but you can bet he’d shrivel up like a salted slug if he had to stand in front of Nicole Hockley, or Neil Heslin, or David Wheeler. Davis wouldn’t wilt under the glare of their moral authority, though, or out of any sense of shame. He would dissolve from his inability to engage any of the simple, substantive questions these parents have asked, and continue to ask. Why would you not perform a criminal and mental health background check on every gun sale? Why does any civilian need more than 10 rounds in a magazine? Why is Davis’ right to completely unrestricted access to firearms more important than Benjamin Wheeler‘s right to live? On Monday morning, Davis did not apologize, but he did grudgingly acknowledge the Newtown families’ right to exercise their First Amendment rights on this earthly plane. Instead of dismissing them, Davis ought to try listening to these families. He never says so, but I’d be willing to bet that Davis would give a Hell-pass to pro-gun Newtown parent Mark Mattioli, and that’s how it should be. Whether you agree with them or not, all of these parents have earned a right to be heard, and the very least you can do is shut up and listen. If that’s not enough for Bob Davis, then the next-to-least thing he can do is to engage them respectfully, on the substance, instead of dismissing them. (h/t Rebecca Schoenkopf) Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com |
Oxford academics in revolt over plans to call new business college 'The Thatcher Building' Dispute: Former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is at the centre of a row about naming a building after her at Oxford University Baroness Thatcher is at the centre of a new row at Oxford University after plans to name a building after Britain's first female Prime Minister were revealed. Some academics are hoping to snub one of the university's most illustrious alumnae again - more than 25 years after protests there led to her being denied an honorary degree. Thatcher became the first Oxford educated Prime Minister since the Second World War to be refused an honorary degree from the University in 1985 following student protests amidst cuts to education. And now 17 years on a new revolt could halt plans to name a new facility after her. Oxford donor and Syrian born billionaire Wafic Saïd is said to have donated £15 million towards a new facility at Oxford's Saïd Business School, due to open in the autumn, and has indicated that he wants to name it after the women he describes as 'lioness'. But the news is not being welcomed by everyone. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Bernard Sufrin, a fellow at Worcester College, said signatories would be 'lining up' to force a vote against the 'inconceivable' plans. He said ' I hope that those responsible for naming the building will take advice from those – now retired – leading members of the University who oversaw the embarrassing fiasco of an honorary degree for Mrs Thatcher being proposed only to be rejected by a large majority of the Congregation. 'It is inconceivable that Congregation would accede to such a naming.' Revolt: Plans are in place for a new building at the business college at Oxford University, with some suggesting it be named it after Margaret Thatcher Mr Siad has long been and admirer of The Iron Lady and is given the naming opportunity because he has provided at least 51 per cent of capital funding to the building. In 1996 he donated £23 million to establish the Saïd Business School at the university and he has since made an additional £15 million donation to help pay for the new building. In order for the naming to get the go ahead it must first go before a series of administrative committees and subcommittees made up of academics and officials. However, opponents of the plans hope to end the process sooner by taking the matter to Congregation, the university's ultimate authority. Donor: Billionaire businessman Wafic Said hopes to name a building at Oxford University after Margaret Thatcher, having donated so much cash into the business school Just 20 signatures from objectors on the body could trigger a Congregation ballot, in which 3,000 academics would be eligible to vote. An Oxford spokeswoman told The Spectator 'Lead donors are usually able to name buildings and Mr Saïd has a clear right in this respect. For the time being, no final decision has been taken as to whether the building should be named.' I n a statement, the Saïd Foundation is reported to add 'For now, Mr Saïd has nothing to add on the matter of the naming of the extension beyond the Spectator article and the statements of Oxford University.' Despite opposition to the plans there has been some support. Dr Alice Prochaska, the principal of Somerville College, where Baroness Thatcher studied chemistry, told the Telegraph she was a respected and cherished alumna. She said: 'Certainly people here would be very pleased to see a new building named after her. 'I have no doubt at all that she herself found the vote opposing her honorary degree extremely hurtful, and it is a pity that the award was proposed at a time when there were serious cuts to the education budget. 'But the years have passed and Margaret Thatcher's stature as a world stateswoman is unquestioned, and we are terribly proud that we educated this country's first woman prime minister and such a commanding figure.' The former Prime Minister has already been recognised at the illustrious university with the Margaret Thatcher Centre at Somerville, where she studied from 1943 until 1947. |
Two teams of researchers have found different ways to perform the same biological identity swap: turning skin cells into neurons. Both approaches, which involve merely adding a few chemicals to cells, could lead to new ways to treat a person’s disease using cells from their own body. Most of the ways scientists turn one type of cell into another, or into more basic stem cells, depend on adding genes to the original cells. But this gene insertion approach has drawbacks. Its intricate steps are time-consuming, and there’s always a chance the added gene could land somewhere on a chromosome that activates a cancer-causing gene. The new approaches—both published online today in Cell Stem Cell—take a less invasive route. The key, explains Gang Pei, a biochemist at the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences in China, and a co-author on one of the studies, are so-called small molecule chemicals that can slip into a cell, enter the DNA-containing nucleus, and alter the activity of a gene. Pei and his team probed thousands of chemicals to identify those that could convert one cell type into another and found a specific recipe of molecules that essentially switched off skin cell genes in human cells and turned on neuron genes. When the group added seven small molecules denoted as VCRFSGY (valproic acid, CHIR99021, Repsox, Forskolin, SP600125, GO6983, and Y-27632), to a petri dish of human skin cells, the cells transformed into mature, functional neurons over the course of a few weeks. VCRFSGY works in stages. The initial four chemicals, VCRF, start by changing physical traits, acting on a gene called Tuj1, which is specifically active in neurons. But VCRF alone leaves the cell in an unhappy medium: not a true skin cell and not yet a neuron either. The rest of the chemicals—SGY—round out the conversion by amplifying the neuronal development initiated by VCRF. Not only did the resulting cells look like neurons, they acted like them, too: They were able to fire action potentials, a key component that underlies the basics of neuron communication, the team reports. In the second study, another group of researchers based in China accomplished the same task in mouse cells, using a different chemical cocktail. The fact that two different chemical combinations are able to transform skin cells into neurons suggests that this technique can compete with gene insertions for cellular reprogramming, says HongKui Deng, co-author on the mouse cell study and cell biologist at Peking University in Beijing. Molecular and cell biologists say the technique could become an important player in personalized medicine, specifically in using a patient’s own cells to develop therapies for their disease or even to provide a source of transplantable cells for treatment. Indeed, Pei’s team showed that skin cells from an Alzheimer’s patient could be coaxed into neurons that expressed several telltale markers of Alzheimer’s disease. These results lay the groundwork for future Alzheimer’s research, giving scientists a safe and accurate platform to test the effects of possible new drugs, Pei says. These cell-transforming collections of small molecules could really help transform medicine as well, says Jenny Hsieh, a molecular biologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who was not involved with either study. “We’re just scratching the surface here.” |
Author Clive Hamilton: ''The reason they've decided not to publish this book is the very reason the book needs to be published.'' Credit:Rohan Thomson He said the "most serious of these threats was the very high chance of a vexatious defamation action against Allen & Unwin, and possibly against you personally as well". Allen & Unwin was "an obvious target" for "Beijing's agents of influence", Mr Gorman wrote. While Australian publishers routinely deal with legal threats or court action from individuals named in books, it is exceptionally rare that a perceived threat from a foreign power prevents or delays publication. It raises serious questions about academic freedom and free speech in Australia. The cover of the ditched book. "I'm not aware of any other instance in Australian history where a foreign power has stopped publication of a book that criticises it," Dr Hamilton said. "The reason they've decided not to publish this book is the very reason the book needs to be published." Dr Hamilton has published eight previous books with Allen & Unwin. Credit:Rohan Thomson He was concerned that a perceived and vexatious threat, rather than an actual or justified legal action, had prompted the decision to ditch the book. Allen & Unwin said on Sunday: "Allen & Unwin has published a number of books with Clive Hamilton, and has enormous respect for him and his work. After extensive legal advice we decided to delay publication of Clive's book Silent Invasion until certain matters currently before the courts have been decided. Clive was unwilling to delay publication and requested the return of his rights, as he is entitled to do. We continue to wish him the best of luck with the book." Chinese President Xi Jinping. Credit:AP China's Australian embassy did not respond to efforts to seek comment. The book by Dr Hamilton, who has published eight previous books with Allen & Unwin and has received an Order of Australia for his contribution to public debate, examines evidence that suggests various Chinese Communist Party agencies are seeking to extend Beijing's influence in Australia for strategic and political gains. Former foreign minister Bob Carr has criticised reports of Beijing's influence as overblown. Credit:AAP While such activity is carried out by other states, elements of Beijing's influence campaign are clandestine or highly opaque. According to media investigations and warnings from spy agency ASIO, these efforts are targeted at Australian politicians and academics. In response, the Turnbull government has plans to legislate to counter Beijing-linked influence operations by introducing new offences prohibiting foreign interference. Political donor Chau Chak Wing is suing Fairfax Media. Credit:Sahlan Hayes Mr Gorman said in his email to Dr Hamilton that the publisher's position "would be stronger once proposed legislation targeting foreign influence in Australia passes through Parliament". However, "it sounds as though this is now unlikely to happen until next year", he wrote. Mr Gorman also wrote that the publisher believed the Chinese government is co-ordinating attacks on Australian media reports it believes critique or undermine its authoritarian regime. "It seems that Beijing is currently focusing on larger targets. If pursued with malice, this kind of vexatious legal action from a 'whale' or a small Beijing agent mentioned in the book could result in the book being withdrawn from sale, and both you and Allen & Unwin being tied up in expensive legal action for months on end or longer," Mr Gorman warned Dr Hamilton. A former senior national security official told Fairfax Media that the Chinese government sought to use Western legal systems to advance or protect its interests. Australia's defamation laws are notoriously weighted towards litigants, unlike the legal system in the US or Britain, which have greater free speech or public interest protections. "The Chinese government seeks to use the West's legal systems against the West," the former official said. Dr Hamilton said he rewrote the book to minimise legal risks, "but I can't stop an authoritarian foreign power exploiting our defamation laws to suppress criticism of it". Some China watchers, along with Chinese-born businessmen named in media reports and ASIO briefings, including millionaire Sydney property developer and political donor Huang Xiangmo, have dismissed allegations of undue influence as unfounded and unjust. Chau Chak Wing, a big Chinese-Australian political donor, is suing Fairfax Media over two stories that included allegations that ASIO had warned political parties against dealing with him. The Herald Sun recently printed a correction in connection to a report suggesting Huang Xiangmo was an agent of influence. The correction was issued after Mr Huang launched defamation action. The newspaper report was based on a leaked federal parliamentary library paper that examines Mr Huang's political donations and describes how he heads a Sydney-based lobbying organisation aligned with the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work Department. President Xi Jinping has described the United Front Work Department as Beijing's "magic weapon" to entrench and extend the Chinese Communist Party's influence in China and abroad. Dr Hamilton's book details its activities in Australia. Mr Huang, who has repeatedly dismissed claims of impropriety, has also helped set up and provide seed funding to a China research institute at the University of Technology Sydney, the Australian China Research Institute, which is directed by former foreign minister Bob Carr and economist James Laurenceson. The institute is also examined in Dr Hamilton's book. Mr Carr and Mr Laurenceson have both critiqued reports of Beijing's influence as overblown, while Mr Laurenceson recently tweeted the Herald Sun correction, describing it as a court "ruling", and appearing to endorse its coverage in the Chinese government-controlled press. A report by the Communist Party-controlled Global Times described the correction as a victory for overseas Chinese and attacked the Western media for failing to report on it. Mr Laurenceson and Mr Carr have also been dismissive of concerns around political donations linked to Chinese government-aligned businessmen such as Mr Huang. Concerns about donations have been raised repeatedly by ASIO, and acknowledged by senior Labor and Coalition figures and former chief diplomat Peter Varghese. Dr Hamilton's book includes a detailed examination of Mr Carr's advocacy for Australia to increase efforts to build relations with Beijing. It also examines concerns that some Australian universities have failed to appreciate the risks of co-operating with researchers from the Beijing-controlled military and industrial research complex. In August, Cambridge University Press was subject to intense criticism after it decided to censor the website of its China Quarterly journal to comply with Chinese demands. The articles to be censored detailed the Tiananmen Square massacre as well as President Xi Jinping's leadership, but the British publisher backflipped after an international outcry. "Cambridge University Press censored their publications for sale in China. It wouldn't dare censor criticism of the Chinese Communist Party in publications for sale in Britain. But that is precisely what has now happened in Australia," Dr Hamilton said. |
Vladimir Putin knows better than to expect too much of Donald Trump, who shocked the world by winning the U.S. presidential election last night. He’s been disappointed by new U.S. Presidents before. Two of them have taken office during Vladimir Putin’s years in power, both with grand plans to mend ties with Russia—and both plans collapsed amid what Russians tend to see as the intrinsic rivalry between the two powers. So the Russian President was careful not to get his country’s hopes up for a quick rapprochement with the U.S. on Wednesday. “We realize and understand that this will not be an easy road given the level to which our relations have degraded,” Putin said in congratulating Trump on his electoral victory. A moment later, he added, “We know this will not be easy.” After a campaign that saw Trump repeatedly praise Putin’s leadership and promise to mend relations, the U.S. President-elect would likely need to grant Russia a string of concessions in order to fulfill that promise. To start with, he would need to lift the sanctions the U.S. imposed in response to Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine in 2014. He may also need to pull back the troops that NATO deployed near Russia’s border in response to that conflict, and perhaps most important of all, he would need to scrap or at least scale back the missile defense shield that the U.S. had intended to build over Europe, a project that Russia has seen as a direct threat to its security. Read More: Hacked Kremlin Emails Could Signal a Turn in the U.S.-Russia Cyberwar The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now All of these concessions would likely infuriate U.S. allies and erode U.S. influence, particularly in Eastern Europe, where the newer members of the NATO alliance have felt the most vulnerable to Russian attacks. But Trump and his advisers have seemed perfectly comfortable with that trade-off during the campaign. In interviews and speeches, he has suggested that NATO is obsolete, and that its members should start paying for their own defense instead of relying on the U.S. security umbrella. “Up until now these eastern European states felt America’s protection,” Alexander Rahr, a Russian expert on foreign affairs, wrote in an analysis of the election results. But under a Trump presidency, he added, “the Poles and the Baltic states will have to put their tails between their legs and adjust to the new situation.” Rahr was not the only one in Moscow to let his imagination run wild on Wednesday. The Russian senator Olga Kovitidi said that, under Trump, the U.S. would be certain to recognize the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region—a move that led to U.S.-led sanctions against Russia—as legitimate. Sergei Glazev, a senior Kremlin adviser, said that Trump, “as a pragmatic person,” would be sure to lift those sanctions. Read More: Economists Warn of Global Recession Following Trump Victory But with all these changes in the air, why was Putin so careful to stress how hard the road to rapprochement would be? It’s possible that he was simply playing hard to get as he prepares to negotiate with Trump over exactly how much the U.S. will yield to Russia’s wishes. Or it could just be the caution that comes with experience. Back in 2001, the second year of Putin’s presidency, George W. Bush entered the White House with a pledge to improve ties with Russia, famously telling reporters that he had looked into Putin’s eyes and gotten “a sense of his soul.” But within a few years, the relationship was back on the rocks, largely because of the Bush Administration’s support for pro-democracy movements in the former Soviet world and the westward political drift of the countries in Russia’s neighborhood. “It all confirmed Putin’s eternal suspicions of the Americans as inveterate hypocrites,” Mikhail Zygar, a Russian journalist, wrote of that period in his recent book, All the Kremlin’s Men. The next U.S. President solidified that suspicion. Much like Bush, President Barack Obama placed the improvement of ties with Russia at the center of his foreign policy agenda during his first months in office. But Putin realized that Obama’s so-called “reset” policy toward Russia would not resolve the key points of contention between the two countries: NATO’s eastward expansion continued under Obama, as did the U.S. plan to build a missile shield over Europe. The American habit of talking down to Russia over human rights also persisted, confirming Putin’s impression that “America does not need allies, it needs vassals,” as he put it in 2011. Read More: Trump’s Victory Injects Uncertainty into a Chaotic Middle East With that experience in mind, Russia’s foreign policy establishment tends to be guarded in its expectations for incoming U.S. Presidents. “On the whole, we work on the assumption that our countries are systematically opposed to each other, and that will hold regardless of who’s the head of state,” Fyodor Lukyanov, a leading Russian expert on foreign affairs, told me during the campaign. But he acknowledged that Trump is different. No U.S. President in recent history has expressed such a clear desire to turn inward and roll back American military and political commitments around the world. “Trump is the American hangover after a quarter-century binge on power,” says Lukyanov. And as American power recedes, Russia has shown its willingness to advance and fill the vacuums, particularly in Syria, whose civil war has at times looked like a proxy conflict between the U.S. and Russia over the past year. Untangling that mess will represent an enormous challenge for the Trump Administration, and he does not seem likely to bother too much with problems of foreign affairs over the next few months, says Alexander Konovalov, an expert on U.S.-Russian relations in Moscow. “The problem surrounding Ukraine and Syria will remain,” he says. “No one has yet suggested any serious path out of either crisis.” And as Putin was careful to stress on Wednesday, that path will be difficult. “It is not Russia’s fault that our relations with the United States have reached this point,” he said. So in his thinking, it is not Russia that needs to start granting favors in order to fix those relations. It will be Trump’s job to make an offer, and Russia’s prerogative to ask for more. Contact us at editors@time.com. |
One of the exciting new features introduced in OpenCV 3 is called Seamless Cloning. With this new feature you can copy an object from one image, and paste it into another image making a composition that looks seamless and natural. The above image was created using a scene of a sky and that of an airplane. If I had simply overlaid the airplane image on top of the sky image, the result would look ridiculous (See Figure 2). Now of course nobody in their right mind would do a composition like that. You would obviously mask the image out carefully, and perhaps after spending half a day in Photoshop get an image that looks like Figure 3. If you are an artist you would spend another half day and carefully adjust the lighting on the airplane to the lighting of the sky image and create a beautiful composition. There are two problems however. First, you don’t have half a day to spend. Second, you are probably not an artist! Wouldn’t it be cool if you could make a very rough mask around the airplane, and yet create a beautiful composition that looks like Figure 1 ? What if you did it in just 10 lines of code ? Now that won’t just be cool, it would be seriously badass! Before I show you the code, let me spend an hour explaining the exciting theory behind seamless cloning. Oh wait, I got a better idea. Let’s dive into the code first. Seamless Cloning Example A quick look at the usage first Python output = cv2.seamlessClone(src, dst, mask, center, flags) C++ seamlessClone(Mat src, Mat dst, Mat mask, Point center, Mat output, int flags) src Source image that will be cloned into the destination image. In our example it is the airplane. dst Destination image into which the source image will be cloned. In our example it is the sky image. mask A rough mask around the object you want to clone. This should be the size of the source image. Set it to an all white image if you are lazy! center Location of the center of the source image in the destination image. flags The two flags that currently work are NORMAL_CLONE and MIXED_CLONE. I have included an example to show the difference. output Output / result image. Now let’s look at the code that I used to generate the images above. Python Example # Standard imports import cv2 import numpy as np # Read images src = cv2.imread("images/airplane.jpg") dst = cv2.imread("images/sky.jpg") # Create a rough mask around the airplane. src_mask = np.zeros(src.shape, src.dtype) poly = np.array([ [4,80], [30,54], [151,63], [254,37], [298,90], [272,134], [43,122] ], np.int32) cv2.fillPoly(src_mask, [poly], (255, 255, 255)) # This is where the CENTER of the airplane will be placed center = (800,100) # Clone seamlessly. output = cv2.seamlessClone(src, dst, src_mask, center, cv2.NORMAL_CLONE) # Save result cv2.imwrite("images/opencv-seamless-cloning-example.jpg", output); C++ Example using namespace cv; // Read images : src image will be cloned into dst Mat src = imread("images/airplane.jpg"); Mat dst = imread("images/sky.jpg"); // Create a rough mask around the airplane. Mat src_mask = Mat::zeros(src.rows, src.cols, src.depth()); // Define the mask as a closed polygon Point poly[1][7]; poly[0][0] = Point(4, 80); poly[0][1] = Point(30, 54); poly[0][2] = Point(151,63); poly[0][3] = Point(254,37); poly[0][4] = Point(298,90); poly[0][5] = Point(272,134); poly[0][6] = Point(43,122); const Point* polygons[1] = { poly[0] }; int num_points[] = { 7 }; // Create mask by filling the polygon fillPoly(src_mask, polygons, num_points, 1, Scalar(255,255,255)); // The location of the center of the src in the dst Point center(800,100); // Seamlessly clone src into dst and put the results in output Mat output; seamlessClone(src, dst, src_mask, center, output, NORMAL_CLONE); // Save result imwrite("images/opencv-seamless-cloning-example.jpg", output); In the above example, the cloning type ( flags ) I used was NORMAL_CLONE. There is another type, MIXED_CLONE, that is subtly different from NORMAL_CLONE. Let’s see how the two types differ in detail. Normal Cloning ( NORMAL_CLONE ) versus Mixed Cloning ( MIXED_CLONE ) I have a 5 year old son who gives me “I Love You” tickets if I treat him well. There was a time when kids yearned for their parent’s approval, but these days parents have to do their best to earn “I Love You” tickets. Anyway, back to cloning. I am going to use one of these “I Love You Tickets” in the service of Computer Vision (See Figure 4 ). Let’s try to clone this image onto a wooden texture shown in Figure 5. We will be lazy and use a source mask that is all white, and clone the source image right in the center of the wooden texture image. Python Example import cv2 import numpy as np # Read images : src image will be cloned into dst im = cv2.imread("images/wood-texture.jpg") obj= cv2.imread("images/iloveyouticket.jpg") # Create an all white mask mask = 255 * np.ones(obj.shape, obj.dtype) # The location of the center of the src in the dst width, height, channels = im.shape center = (height/2, width/2) # Seamlessly clone src into dst and put the results in output normal_clone = cv2.seamlessClone(obj, im, mask, center, cv2.NORMAL_CLONE) mixed_clone = cv2.seamlessClone(obj, im, mask, center, cv2.MIXED_CLONE) # Write results cv2.imwrite("images/opencv-normal-clone-example.jpg", normal_clone) cv2.imwrite("images/opencv-mixed-clone-example.jpg", mixed_clone) C++ Example using namespace cv; Mat src = imread("images/iloveyouticket.jpg"); Mat dst = imread("images/wood-texture.jpg"); // Create an all white mask Mat src_mask = 255 * Mat::ones(src.rows, src.cols, src.depth()); // The location of the center of the src in the dst Point center(dst.cols/2,dst.rows/2); // Seamlessly clone src into dst and put the results in output Mat normal_clone; Mat mixed_clone; seamlessClone(src, dst, src_mask, center, normal_clone, NORMAL_CLONE); seamlessClone(src, dst, src_mask, center, mixed_clone, MIXED_CLONE); // Save results imwrite("images/opencv-normal-clone-example.jpg", normal_clone); imwrite("images/opencv-mixed-clone-example.jpg", mixed_clone); Normal Cloning Result If we use Normal Cloning by using the NORMAL_CLONE flag, we will get the result shown in Figure 6. Now we did not use a good mask and you can see excessive smoothing between the words “I” and “Love”, and between “you” and “Paa”. Sure we were lazy. We could have created a rough mask and improved the result. But if you are lazy and smart, you would use Mixed Cloning. Mixed Cloning Result In Normal Cloning the texture ( gradient ) of the source image is preserved in the cloned region. In Mixed Cloning, the texture ( gradient ) of the cloned region is determined by a combination of the source and the destination images. Mixed Cloning does not produce smooth regions because it picks the dominant texture ( gradient ) between the source and destination images. The result of mixed cloning is shown in Figure 7. Notice the texture is no longer smooth between “I” and “Love”, and “you” and “Paa”. Lazy people cheer! Seamless Cloning Video Result I took the images of the airplane and the sky, and changed the position of the airplane to create this animation. MIXED_CLONE gave better results, and you hardly notice any artifacts. Cloning a 300×194 image (airplane) onto a 1000×560 image ( sky) takes approximately 0.4 seconds. Download Seamless Cloning Code & Example Images Scroll down to the download section ( bottom of this post ) to get instant access to C++ and Python code and images in this post. Poisson Image Editing Seamless cloning in OpenCV is an implementation of an influential SIGGRAPH 2003 paper titled “Poisson Image Editing”, by Patrick Perez, Michel Gangnet, and Andrew Blake. Now we know that if we blend the intensities ( RGB values ) of the source image ( the airplane ) with the destination image ( sky ) using a carefully created mask we will obtain a result like Figure 3. The central insight in the paper is that working with image gradients instead of image intensities can produce much more realistic results. After seamless cloning the intensity of the result image in the masked region is NOT the same as the intensity of the source region in the masked region. Instead, the gradient of the result image in the masked region is about the same as the gradient of the source region in the masked region. Additionally, the intensity of the result image at the boundary of the masked region is the same as the intensity of the destination image (sky). The authors show that this is done by solving a Poisson equation, and hence the title of the paper — Poisson Image Editing. The theoretical and implementation details of the paper are actually very cool, but beyond the scope of this post. However, if you read the paper and have questions, feel free to ask them in the comments section. Subscribe If you liked this article, please subscribe to our newsletter and receive a free Computer Vision Resource guide. In our newsletter we share OpenCV tutorials and examples written in C++/Python, and Computer Vision and Machine Learning algorithms and news. Subscribe Now Image Credits |
Free and Open Source Games Linux.conf.au 2009 Gaming Miniconf Playing games SparkyLinux "Game Over", live.linux-gamers.net and the Fedora Games Spin are "boot 'n play" DVDs providing Linux and a collection of ready-to-play games. The Linux Game Database list FOSS games and games that run on FOSS platforms. There are also lists of FOSS games at the Open Directory Project, Wikipedia and Reddit. Many proprietary games have native Linux ports: First Person Shooter games from id software, Unreal Tournament, many Quake variants, Neverwinter Nights, large catalogues at Tux Games, Linux Game Publishing, Desura, indievania, the Humble Bundle Store, Steam and various ports by Ryan C. Gordon. Indy games also include Linux ports when participating in the regular pay-what-you-want Humble Bundle promotions. The Unity game development toolkit has supported native Linux as a target since version 4, and consequently many of the games developed with Unity are or will be available on Linux. Information on finding, installing and playing games under Linux is available in the Linux Gamers' FAQ including another list of Linux games. PlayDeb.Net makes installing games easy on Ubuntu Linux. Linux Game Cast is a YouTube channel about gaming on Linux. You can also run proprietary games on open source platforms using Wine, Crossover Games, Cedega, ScummVM, DOSBox and many other emulators and game engine recreations. There are also many Open Source games for Windows. Developing games Free and Open Source software has a multitude of applications in game development. SourceForge has a list of games hosted there. Developing games using open source tools Open game console hardware Developing FOSS games for proprietary consoles devkitPro supports development on GameBoy Advance, GP32, Playstation Portable and GameCube. "Introduction to Computer Games" (PDF), a presentation. Please contact me if you would like me to present this talk and demonstration again. Comments and suggestions welcome at games@sericyb.com.au. |
Pretend you're standing in line in a bakery, and you're 19th in line, and you really want a milk chocolate hazelnut cookie. Ahead of you are 18 customers each forming their own opinions about which baked goods to buy, and behind you are 13 customers who got there after you. If there is only 1 milk chocolate hazelnut cookie left, the worst thing you could do in that situation would be to loudly mention to fellow customers that you think the milk chocolate hazelnut cookie is one of the best items being sold, and you're 100% guaranteed to buy it if it's available when it's your turn to pick. That's because one of two things can happen - either a customer in front of you who is unsure about what to get might decide to choose that cookie based on your public endorsement, or a customer behind you who desperately wants that cookie and now knows you intend to buy it could decide to give money to someone ahead of you to buy it for themselves. If you really want that milk chocolate hazelnut cookie, the smarter strategy could be to lie and loudly mention how you and your friends all think those cookies are terrible and wouldn't buy that cookie unless it were free. That increases the chances that nobody buys the cookie before it's your turn. That bakery analogy explains why this is potentially a big story. In the NFL draft, there's only one Jadaveon Clowney, only one Jake Matthews, and only one Sammy Watkins - just like that final milk chocolate hazelnut cookie. Because of that, teams generally keep their draft day intentions close to the vest because revealing their intentions could hurt them in two ways. First, if another team is undecided about a prospect like Cyrus Kouandjio, a team leaking its intention to draft him could make teams picking earlier become more inclined to rate the prospect highly and take him. Second, if another team picking later in the draft is deadset on drafting that prospect, a team leaking its intention to draft that prospect could spur the other team to trade up and take the prospect. However, for the same reasons, teams spread misinformation ("smokescreens") to make it difficult for their competitors to guess their draft day intentions. Keeping all that in mind, Andrew Abramson of the Palm Beach Post is reporting highly specific draft strategy leaks from "a knowledgeable source" within the Dolphins organization. Some highlights: Miami Herald on the Dolphins' interest in Lewan last week, so this is a second report saying that despite "character issues," the Dolphins are willing to draft Lewan at #19. The Dolphins are set on drafting a right tackle in round 1. They rate Greg Robinson, Jake Matthews, and Taylor Lewan highly. Barry Jackson of the reported on the Dolphins' interest in Lewan last week, so this is a second report saying that despite "character issues," the Dolphins are willing to draft Lewan at #19. After those 3, the Dolphins' rankings of OTs gets interesting. Cyrus Kouandjio apparently has a first round grade from the Dolphins and is rated ahead of Zach Martin, whom the Dolphins see as a guard, and Morgan Moses, who played under new Dolphins offensive coordinator Bill Lazor when Lazor coached the University of Virginia football team a couple of years ago. If true, this means the Dolphins are not one of the teams whose physicians reportedly failed Kouandijo after his physical at the NFL combine . For what it's worth, renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews recently wrote a letter insisting Kouandijo's knees were fine. The Dolphins reportedly have concerns about Moses' "work ethic," which Lazor would know a lot about after being Moses' head coach. Miami Herald that the Dolphins have been pondering playing "musical chairs" at the linebacker spot with players switching positions (click The Dolphins have no intention of drafting a starting linebacker, and they instead intend to move Koa Misi to middle linebacker, Dannell Ellerbe to weakside linebacker, and Phillip Wheeler to strongside linebacker. It's been reported before by thethat the Dolphins have been pondering playing "musical chairs" at the linebacker spot with players switching positions (click here for an explanation for the different linebacker spots), so this counts as a second report backing that up. However, despite trying to sign D'Qwell Jackson in free agency, the Dolphins are allegedly not interested in drafting a starting linebacker in the draft and would rather see if position switches improve production. Miami Herald has The Dolphins plan on drafting an offensive guard in round 2, unless a wide receiver like Kelvin Benjamin or Brandin Cooks fell to round 2. Otherwise, they want to address wide receiver and running back in the mid-to-later rounds. Armando Salguero of thehas reported before that the Dolphins see running back as a mid-to-later round need, but this is the first report of the Dolphins wanting to address WR in rounds 2 or 3 of the draft. Here's an exact quote that will make ct1361 dance on his desk at home: "If Miami gets a receiver as high as the second round, it could mean the end for receiver Brian Hartline after the 2014 season, the source said." Hartline's salary in 2014 is guaranteed, but he becomes a viable cap casualty after the 2014 season. Brandon Gibson is reportedly safe as the Dolphins' WR3, likely because his current contract is so reasonable (paying him 1/2 as much as Hartline and 1/4 as much as Mike Wallace per year). However, if the Dolphins draft a later round WR, the rookie would compete with Rishard Matthews because the Dolphins have had discussions about replacing Matthews and receiver Armon Binns The Dolphins intend to go offense-heavy early in the draft, but they're looking at cornerback and safety as later round needs. They apparently also like Alabama defensive end Ed Stinson who is projected as a mid-round draft pick. I'm a little skeptical about some of those points. Cyrus Kouandijo, even without the medical red flags, is somewhat shaky value at #19. It's also curious that our front office would try to recruit D'Qwell Jackson as a free agent middle linebacker but then rule out drafting a linebacker. The only reasoning to explain that would be if they felt the veteran Jackson could win the starting job immediately, but they had doubts that CJ Mosely or any other middle linebacker could win a training camp competition as a rookie. Otherwise, the rest of the alleged leaks are plausible...though I wonder if the comments about Moses could be a smokescreen designed to hurt his stock, and I wonder why the source would so willingly give up all these specifics weeks before the draft... The Dolphins would consider a receiver as high as the second round if FSU’s Kelvin Benjamin or Oregon State’s Brandin Cooks is available, two players Miami likes. Both players are projected to go higher than No. 50 overall when Miami makes its second round draft choice. If Miami gets a receiver as high as the second round, it could mean the end for receiver Brian Hartline after the 2014 season, the source said. If the Dolphins take a receiver in a later round he will be expected to compete with Rishard Matthews. Brandon Gibson is solidified as the No. 3 receiver but the Dolphins have had discussions about replacing Matthews and receiver Armon Binns, the source said. - See more at: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/2014/04/18/source-dolphins-like-kouandjio-in-first-round-plan-to-move-misi-to-inside-linebacker/#sthash.tEbR3VB0.dpuf - See more at: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/2014/04/18/source-dolphins-like-kouandjio-in-first-round-plan-to-move-misi-to-inside-linebacker/#sthash.tEbR3VB0.dpuf The Dolphins would consider a receiver as high as the second round if FSU’s Kelvin Benjamin or Oregon State’s Brandin Cooks is available, two players Miami likes. Both players are projected to go higher than No. 50 overall when Miami makes its second round draft choice. If Miami gets a receiver as high as the second round, it could mean the end for receiver Brian Hartline after the 2014 season, the source said. If the Dolphins take a receiver in a later round he will be expected to compete with Rishard Matthews. Brandon Gibson is solidified as the No. 3 receiver but the Dolphins have had discussions about replacing Matthews and receiver Armon Binns, the source said. - See more at: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/2014/04/18/source-dolphins-like-kouandjio-in-first-round-plan-to-move-misi-to-inside-linebacker/#sthash.tEbR3VB0.dpuf - See more at: http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/thedailydolphin/2014/04/18/source-dolphins-like-kouandjio-in-first-round-plan-to-move-misi-to-inside-linebacker/#sthash.tEbR3VB0.dpuf |
Portrait of an ENTP - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving (Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Thinking) The Visionary As an ENTP, your primary mode of living is focused externally, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. Your secondary mode is internal, where you deal with things rationally and logically. With Extraverted Intuition dominating their personality, the ENTP's primary interest in life is understanding the world that they live in. They are constantly absorbing ideas and images about the situations they are presented in their lives. Using their intuition to process this information, they are usually extremely quick and accurate in their ability to size up a situation. With the exception of their ENFP cousin, the ENTP has a deeper understanding of their environment than any of the other types. This ability to intuitively understand people and situations puts the ENTP at a distinct advantage in their lives. They generally understand things quickly and with great depth. Accordingly, they are quite flexible and adapt well to a wide range of tasks. They are good at most anything that interests them. As they grow and further develop their intuitive abilities and insights, they become very aware of possibilities, and this makes them quite resourceful when solving problems. ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions. ENTPs are less interested in developing plans of actions or making decisions than they are in generating possibilities and ideas. Following through on the implementation of an idea is usually a chore to the ENTP. For some ENTPs, this results in the habit of never finishing what they start. The ENTP who has not developed their Thinking process will have problems with jumping enthusiastically from idea to idea, without following through on their plans. The ENTP needs to take care to think through their ideas fully in order to take advantage of them. The ENTP's auxiliary process of Introverted Thinking drives their decision making process. Although the ENTP is more interested in absorbing information than in making decisions, they are quite rational and logical in reaching conclusions. When they apply Thinking to their Intuitive perceptions, the outcome can be very powerful indeed. A well-developed ENTP is extremely visionary, inventive, and enterprising. ENTPs are fluent conversationalists, mentally quick, and enjoy verbal sparring with others. They love to debate issues, and may even switch sides sometimes just for the love of the debate. When they express their underlying principles, however, they may feel awkward and speak abruptly and intensely. The ENTP personality type is sometimes referred to the "Lawyer" type. The ENTP "lawyer" quickly and accurately understands a situation, and objectively and logically acts upon the situation. Their Thinking side makes their actions and decisions based on an objective list of rules or laws. If the ENTP was defending someone who had actually committed a crime, they are likely to take advantage of quirks in the law that will get their client off the hook. If they were to actually win the case, they would see their actions as completely fair and proper to the situation, because their actions were lawful. The guilt or innocence of their client would not be as relevant. If this type of reasoning goes uncompletely unchecked by the ENTP, it could result in a character that is perceived by others as unethical or even dishonest. The ENTP, who does not naturally consider the more personal or human element in decision making, should take care to notice the subjective, personal side of situations. This is a potential problem are for ENTPs. Although their logical abilities lend strength and purpose to the ENTP, they may also isolate them from their feelings and from other people. The least developed area for the ENTP is the Sensing-Feeling arena. If the Sensing areas are neglected, the ENTP may tend to not take care of details in their life. If the Feeling part of themself is neglected, the ENTP may not value other people's input enough, or may become overly harsh and aggressive. Under stress, the ENTP may lose their ability to generate possibilities, and become obsessed with minor details. These details may seem to be extremely important to the ENTP, but in reality are usually not important to the big picture. In general, ENTPs are upbeat visionaries. They highly value knowledge, and spend much of their lives seeking a higher understanding. They live in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, they're good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, ENTPs have a broad range of possibilities in their lives. Jungian functional preference ordering: Dominant: Extraverted Intuition Auxiliary: Introverted Thinking Tertiary: Extraverted Feeling Inferior: Introverted Sensing More ENTP Resources: Contact us Copyright 1998-2015 BSM Consulting, Inc. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy MBTI® and MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR® are registered trademarks and MYERS-BRIGGS is a trademark of Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc., the publisher of the MBTI instrument. BSM Consulting is not affiliated with and is not a licensee of Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. |
http://www.psychofactz.com/post/47943122689/more-facts-on-psychofacts I don’t even know what to say. Mod response: Oh, god, this again. There was actually a study that concluded this a while back. The truly hilarious thing was that one of the ways they checked to see if fatties had fat friends was through social media. They looked at Facebook, basically. So it was “contagious” via the internet. This, of course, is a bit like saying, I dunno, if you’re queer you’re more likely to have queer friends, so being queer must be contagious. (Note: I am queer.) It couldn’t possibly be that a fat person might gravitate towards other fat people because they have shit in common, or don’t want to deal with judgmental fuckery, or have a common background that may or may not have contributed to all of them being fat. No, it must be contagious. This is one of the things that we’re talking about when we talk about correlation not being equal to causation. Yes, being fat and having fat friends are (according to one study) correlated – that is, they are found together – but that does not mean that one necessarily caused the other. It certainly doesn’t mean that the preconceived causal relationship the researcher had in mind when he started is an actual cause. This shit is incredibly common in research on fat. Researchers, journalists, and the general public learn that there is a correlation between fat and $BADTHING, and assume that fat causes $BADTHING, even though this is a classic logical fallacy and incredibly bad science. Fuck this. -MG |
In the face of an avalanche of bad publicity, domain registrar GoDaddy is being accused by a competitor of dragging its feet on allowing customers to leave its service. In a post on its blog, fellow domain registrar Namecheap reports that customers trying to transfer their domains away from GoDaddy are being delayed. The post accuses GoDaddy of "returning incomplete WHOIS information" as a part of the transfer process, a practice which is against the rules of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the process manager for the domain-name system. "We suspect that this competitor is thwarting efforts to transfer domains away from them," writes Namecheap Community Manager Tamar Weinberg in the blog post. "We at Namecheap believe that this action speaks volumes about the impact that informed customers are having on GoDaddy's business." Ross Rader, general manager of Hover, another domain-registration company, said he couldn't confirm Namecheap's accusations. "I have no information other than what each has published and transfers are flowing freely over here," he tweeted. GoDaddy has been a magnet for controversy. Most recently, it received withering criticism for supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act, then backtracked and pulled its support. The company's sexually suggestive commercials haven't helped, nor has the widely reported recreational elephant hunting of its CEO. The company has also been accused before of delaying Whois updates in violation of ICANN policies. As a result, there's been a campaign online to encourage users to take their business elsewhere. Macworld even posted a guide to transferring your domain-name service earlier this month. An email to GoDaddy requesting a comment on Namecheap's accusation hadn't been replied to at the time this story was posted. Hat tip: Ryan Block and Glenn Fleishman. This story, "Competitor: GoDaddy is thwarting domain transfers" was originally published by MacCentral . |
Screwball BERLIN — Bordellos with flat rates, all-you-can-screw package deals, everyone-at-once gangbangs, and airport quickies. This is just a tiny sampling of the erotic specialties on offer these days in Germany, where prostitution has boomed so dramatically since its legalization in 2002 that opponents — ranging from radical feminists to Christian conservatives — carp that it’s now the "bordello of Europe." The transformation of Germany’s sex industry has occurred almost overnight. In the last two decades, the number of (overwhelmingly female) sex workers has more than doubled to 400,000, according to some estimates. And you don’t have to go to Hamburg’s notorious Reeperbahn street to find them. Berlin alone has some 500 brothels; Osnabrück, a small university city, has 70; and another 3,000 or so exist across the rest of the country. Their neon-red lights and windowless facades dot even picturesque little towns known primarily for their cuckoo clocks and gingerbread. The Pascha brothel in Cologne, for example, services an estimated 800 men every day. The 12-story building, open 24 hours a day, is the biggest whorehouse in Germany, with 126 rooms as well as a restaurant, beauty salon, boutique, laundromat, tanning studio, and several bistros. About 150 women work there, supported by 90 other staff members. An entire floor is dedicated to transsexual services. Every day, more than a million men in Germany visit sex workers — most of whom hail from poorer neighboring countries like Romania and Ukraine. The country has become a prime destination for male sex tourists looking for cheap, legal, and relatively hygienic pleasures of the flesh. Busloads of pleasure seekers from nearby countries — even, now, from the Netherlands, a country once known for its lax attitude toward prostitution — simply cross the border into Germany instead of traveling to faraway sex-tourism destinations like Thailand. All told, the German sex industry rakes in some $16 billion per year. The battle lines on commercial sex services confound the usual political fronts, pitting feminist against feminist, and putting human rights activists and church officials on one side of the barricades and social workers on the other. The incoming German government — a centrist coalition led by Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats — dared to broach the subject during coalition negotiations, only to drop it again pretty quickly in light of the ensuing brouhaha: There simply isn’t a consensus within either party about what to do about it. Prostitution, it turns out, is a tricky problem to get right, and a decade after instituting one of Europe’s most liberal laws governing the industry, Germany is no closer to being there. At the center of the storm are the "progressive" prostitution laws that Germany’s Social Democrat-Green administration passed in 2002. The idea was to bring sex workers in from the murky underworld of red light milieus and give them rights and social benefits that would improve their working conditions. In theory, this should have pried them loose from pimps and mafia structures, even if it legalized the "promotional" activities of middlemen in the process. Under current law, sex workers can sue for wages, pay into social security, and demand that employers help pay for health insurance. The sex industry, never strictly illegal, had long paid taxes, but prostitution was not considered legitimate work. The goal was to make prostitution a job like any other. This way, the liberal politicos thought, women could be rescued from evils like human trafficking. The legislation was meant to set in motion full-scale legalization and aboveboard regulation of the industry, making sex workers as legit as bakers or physical therapists. But conservative opposition stalled the process, stranding it in the gray zone where it has remained since. A decade down the road, almost nobody is happy with the result. Although the numbers are all estimates — reflecting a very un-Germanic shortage of research — there is little evidence that the plight of sex workers has improved, though it’s clear that the sex industry itself is flourishing. Prostitutes do have more rights, but they rarely avail themselves of them. Most sex workers still don’t register as such, and few speak out against their handlers. Only very rarely, say police officials, do sex workers file criminal complaints against pimps. German statistics for human trafficking are also woefully incomplete: The German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation logged 987 victims in 2001 and 482 in 2011. How many of them had backgrounds in red light milieus is anyone’s guess, and the figures are surely just the tip of the iceberg in terms of trafficking, especially via Eastern Europe. With evidence piling up that the decade-old prostitution law has failed — or at best, been a wash — a growing chorus of Germans is trying to ban the practice outright. Alice Schwarzer, a best-selling author and Germany’s feminist in chief, has been at the forefront of this movement. In her view, prostitution is a straightforward human rights violation and should be outlawed as it has been in Sweden and, more recently, in France. The 2002 laws protect pimps, Schwarzer says, not prostitutes, whose plight has only gotten worse — a point echoed by many law enforcement officials. According to Schwarzer, sex work is on a par with slavery, and its clientele and handlers should be treated like the criminals that they are. "Ninety percent of prostitutes are forced into the sex industry through poverty and trafficking," she argues in her new book, Prostitution: ein deutscher Skandal, the publication of which kicked off a nationwide campaign against prostitution this year. At her urging, over 100 big-name actors, artists, politicians, and church figures signed a petition calling for a ban on prostitution. The Brussels-based European Women’s Lobby is also on board, as is the women’s liberationists’ onetime nemesis, the Catholic Church. Abolitionists have relied heavily on the firsthand testimonials of former prostitutes. Their graphic stories of abuse, exploitation, and shattered lives are gut-wrenching. Some women tell of regularly being forced to have sex with as many as 60 men per day at the Pussy Club near Stuttgart. Others tell of group sex situations in which several men would have anal, oral, and vaginal sex with them at the same time. These women’s passports are confiscated, their movements controlled, and their living conditions squalid. The lion’s share of their earnings, meanwhile, is pocketed by the middlemen. There’s no doubt that these stories are true. The question is whether they are representative of the average sex worker. Schwarzer says they are; her critics say they aren’t. There is a formidable array of well-informed German and international observers who think that Schwarzer is well off the mark. They may not share her media canny, but when the two camps do battle on talk shows, the sparks often fly. One particularly raucous public discussion this past November in Berlin degenerated into tumult. Pro-prostitution groups like Sexworker, Hydra, and Doña Carmen, which include many sex workers and former professionals, had members scattered through the audience who booed and jeered Schwarzer, hoisting symbolic red umbrellas and banners reading: "Our Profession Belongs to Us!" As is often the case, Schwarzer was flanked on stage by a big-city police chief and former sex workers. When the latter spoke, the activists in the crowd shook signs reading: "You Don’t Speak for Us!" At the end of it all, one activist, naked from the waist down, stormed on stage. The sex worker groups are a welcome addition to a debate that until now has largely been conducted over the heads of those involved. These groups, together with other defenders of the 2002 reforms, argue that Schwarzer’s numbers are bogus, that most sex workers in Germany choose their profession voluntarily, and that what is needed is more openness, not less. Unsurprisingly, many sex workers object to the notion that they are helpless victims: "We don’t need to be saved" is one of their slogans. The contention that most sex workers are trafficked and then held against their will is a red herring, argues Juanita Rosina Henning of Doña Carmen, a group that provides sex workers with rights-based counsel. "I’ve conducted studies myself in which I’ve gone into brothels and interviewed the women," she told the left-wing daily Die Tageszeitung. "Over 90 percent told me they knew they were coming to Germany to work as prostitutes." "It’s telling that these groups accuse the likes of Alice Schwarzer of denying them the ability to exercise their own free will," says Mariam Lau, a columnist of the weekly Die Zeit, who advocates reform of the present law. "It’s like the way the left used to talk about the working class — that it has to speak for them because they hadn’t developed the right consciousness yet. These women have their own minds and volition." The sex worker groups, among many others, argue that outlawing prostitution has never worked and that doing so will only turn sex workers into criminals and force the industry back underground. The vast majority of male clients, they claim, are composed of decent-enough men who require sex or tenderness for a range of reasons. The clichéd picture of the abused woman at the hands of violent johns and predatory pimps simply isn’t accurate, they say. Schwarzer has never set foot in a brothel, they like to point out. What does she know? Groups like the Berlin-based Hydra and others have launched their own "legalize it" petition to counter Schwarzer’s "ban it" initiative. Most politicos, experts, and lobbying groups support amending the current legislation, though few agree on exactly how that should happen. One proposal is to make sex with a trafficked person punishable by law, thus putting the onus of responsibility on the customer, as France has just done. But how can a client ever know for sure whether a person he meets for a couple of hours has been kidnapped? Another change that’s more likely would be to allow police to enter brothels without a warrant or filed complaint. (The 2002 legislation prohibits this.) Prostitutes might also be required to register as sex workers, rather than simply having the option of doing so. Groups representing sex workers — and many others in the field, including public health advocates — say these measures are unnecessary and counterproductive. The 2002 law was a step in the right direction, they say, but only a first step. At the time, it was supposed to be followed by an across-the-board legalization of every aspect of the sex business. "But this never happened. They stopped short of a full decriminalization of prostitution because of conservative opposition," says Berlin-based sociologist Christiane Howe, who wrote a book on the subject. What sex workers need, says Howe, are broader labor laws that avail them of all the rights enjoyed by workers in other fields, not just some of them. "The standards for the sex industry have to be on a par with those for hotels, restaurants, etc. These actions together are the only way to stop trafficking and rape and other abuses in a sustained manner," says Howe. She says foreign women who speak out should be offered asylum in Germany, rather than being sent back to their home countries. In all likelihood, the incoming government will make small adjustments to the law, but not in the direction Howe and other experts suggest. One proposal is to raise the minimum age for sex workers to 21 from 18. Another is to ban flat-rate sex. Tinkering with the current legal status probably won’t change much for those who experience abuse as sex workers. The real solution, full legalization, isn’t at the moment on the table in Germany — or anywhere else in Europe for that matter. The one country in the world with a fully legal, highly regulated sex industry is New Zealand. And how has that worked out? Just ask the Kiwis. Ten years down the road from their landmark Prostitution Reform Act, they say it’s a no-brainer. |
Portuguese newspaper Record have some huge claims in their Friday edition on Renato Sanches to Manchester United. It's stated that Benfica president Luís Filipe Vieira has always been determined to make sure he gets €80m for Sanches, his termination clause, and Record believe he's done so... in a way. Record say Manchester United have put €40m on the table, and would pay the other €40m in bonuses. Talks between the two clubs have been successful, say Record, and a transfer should be completed before Euro 2016. The newspaper touch on the Manchester meeting between Luís Filipe Vieira, Jorge Mendes, and Ed Woodward, as reported initially by O Jogo, and reckon everything was sorted out. Louis van Gaal is brought into the equation and his willingness to pay large sums for young players, and then put big faith in them. Record say that should Jose Mourinho take over at Old Trafford, that will suit the transfer too, because they believe the Portuguese manager believes the Premier League is suited to giving young players a chance... something many would scoff at. We'd probably side more with O Jogo's claims on this: That a meeting did take place and when agreement is reached it's likely to be for something around €60m. |
Get the biggest Weekday Leicester City FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Leicester City are reportedly close to signing the French striker Gregoire Defrel in a deal worth more than £15million. The 26-year-old plays in Serie A with Sassuolo and has attracted plenty of interest after scoring 16 times and contributing five assists in 38 competitive games.# The former Cesena player can operate as a centre-forward, in a supporting role or as a right-sided winger. Several media organisations in Italy are reporting that a deal could be done with Leicester City as early as next week for 18 million euros, around £15.5mi. They report that City were interested in the striker during the January transfer window and talks reached an advanced level, but no deal could be done. Manager Craig Shakespeare is known to want to sign a striker during this transfer window to give goal-scoring support to Jamie Vardy. It is understood that City's top target is the 20-year-old Manchester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho, who is expected to leave the Eithad Stadium this summer. Unless hopes of that deal are fading, it would seem unlikely that the signing of Defrel is as advanced as is being claimed in Italy. It is extremely doubtful that City would want to do deals for both players in this transfer windows. |
North Rhine-Westphalia Finance Minister Norbert Walter-Borjans (center) shakes hands with Alternate Justice Minister for Corruption Nikos Papangelopoulos (left) and Alternate Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis, after signing a joint declaration of intent, in Athens, on Saturday. With his government flagging in opinion polls and protests against planned pension reforms growing, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is seeking to dispel any negative sentiment by strengthening ties with German authorities to tackle tax evasion on Greece. Tsipras met on Saturday with the finance minister of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Norbert Walter-Borjans, to rubber stamp this cooperation. The two relevant revenue authorities signed a joint declaration of intent to exchange information and know-how aimed at improving tax collection in Greece. “For us in North Rhine-Westphalia, it‘s particularly important to give a clear signal of closer collaboration,” said Walter-Borjans. The agreement allows for 50 Greek tax officials to travel to North Rhine-Westphalia, which accounts for close to one-fifth of Germany’s economic output, to receive training and for administrators from the German state to oversee the implementation of agreed actions in Greece. “We now have new weapons to fight tax evasion,” said Alternate Justice Minister Nikos Papangelopoulos, who attended a joint press conference with the German official and Alternate Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis, a former tax official who is in charge of tax collection. “We accept the help being offered; we have nothing to hide,” said Alexiadis. North Rhine-Westphalia also supplied Greek authorities recently with 10,000 data sets on bank accounts held by Greeks in Switzerland, mostly at UBS. It is estimated the deposits total some 4 billion euros. Greek authorities have begun sending out notices to people on the list so they can explain where the money came from and if tax has been paid. “This is not the first time that Greece has information and lists but it is the first time that Greece is using them,” said Tsipras, referring also to the Lagarde list of depositors in Switzerland, which previous governments had been criticized for failing to investigate properly. “It would be good to make use of such lists and not just cut spending,” said Walter-Borjans, referring to the potential tax revenues that Greece could obtain by tracking down evaders. |
The cost of playing and poor facilities are the main factors behind the sharp decline in people playing amateur football, say grassroots campaigners. The Football Association is to lose £1.6m of public funding for the amateur game from Sport England after failing to reverse a drop in participants. Sport England is calling for a change in the FA's grassroots strategy. Youth coach Kenny Saunders said: "More and more kids will walk away from grassroots football." Analysis "There is such diversity in the sports available to kids that there has been a slight decline in football participation over the past 10-15 years. But there are still millions playing football. "The headlines will be 'they are taking £1.6m out of the grassroots game', but they are also giving it back. "There are aspects we can improve on and we have to prioritise quality over quantity. "Like the creation of a football hub, where people can go to get advice and learn specialist coaching skills. That may be the way forward as we look to make the system more efficient and beneficial to everybody. "Also, in the grand scheme of things, £1.6m is not a great deal of money. "The average 3G pitch costs £550,000 - and in terms of infrastructure we are still 1,000 3G pitches behind Germany." Saunders, who runs boys' club Woolton FC in Liverpool, has set up a Save Grassroots Football campaign aiming to convince the Premier League to contribute 7.5% of its television revenue towards grassroots facilities. He is behind an e-petition, backed by Bolton North East MP David Crausby, which needs 100,000 signatures to be debated in Parliament. "Over the weekend, I was watching games on other pitches and three teams - under-12s, 13s, 14s - only had nine players on the pitch; not even the full quota and no substitutes," he said. "This is in Liverpool, which is a hotbed with two Premier League clubs. "Even before the end of this season in junior grassroots football, hundreds and hundreds of kids and teams will end up walking away, because councils are increasing pitch fees. This is because from central government to councils, budgets are being cut." Ted Gore, registration secretary of the Hackney & Leyton Football League - which plays its games on the iconic Hackney Marshes, also believes cost is a big issue. "We have already lost six or seven teams this season," he said. "The teams can't get the money in from their players to pay for the pitches. "And some of the teams are getting fed up with the quality of the pitches. We have had a concert on them with lorries driving over them. They are not in a good state." The league has five divisions and traditionally boasts 55 teams, but Gore said only two teams have already registered for next season. The cost of hiring a pitch on Hackney Marshes is £50, with a further £35 required to pay the referee. Teams also have to pay a one-fee of £55 to be affiliated to the FA and another £70 for insurance. Gordon Chant posted his frustration at trying to run an adult's Sunday League team on BBC Radio 5 live's Facebook page. He wrote: "One, it is expensive. It costs £45 for a pitch, £27 for a referee and £50 for hire of a six-a-side pitch for training. Plus footballs, kit, first aid etc. Secondly, it is a problem getting players. The lack of commitment from younger players is frustrating. Too many won't play if it's too cold, wet, or they are hungover, but that's more of a social problem." In total, there are 1.84 million people playing football regularly according to Sport England figures - a fall of 100,000 since April last year. FA general secretary Alex Horne admitted increased costs and poor pitches are behind the decline in participants, and suggested bad weather was also a factor. He said: "A combination of severe weather, increased pitch hire costs and reduced maintenance spend has made this a very difficult time for clubs seeking to complete their fixtures, and for individual players to value and enjoy regular football. "This challenge - to ensure a much better provision of quality affordable grassroots facilities - is one we are determined to address." Who's taking part in what? Apr2012-Apr2013 Oct2012-Oct2013 Change Source: Sport England's Active People Survey Swimming 2.88m 2.93m Increase Athletics 1.95m 2.02m Increase Cycling 1.86m 2m Increase Football 1.94m 1.84m Decrease Golf 771,000 751,000 Decrease Tennis 423,400 400,600 Decrease Squash 257,100 240,700 Decrease Rugbyunion 166,000 159,600 Decrease Boxing 149,7000 154,800 Increase Cricket 189,000 148,300 Decrease Pete Ackerley, the FA's senior national game development manager, previously told BBC Radio 5 live's Victoria Derbyshire programme that amateur pitches are in an "abhorrent state" and called for more artificial pitches. The Local Government Association, which represents local authorities, countered: "The football industry is booming and, by contrast, local government is trying to protect vital services like caring for the elderly, fixing the roads and waste collection following a 40% cut in government funding over this Parliament. "If the FA suggests that Astroturf pitches should be available for local use then councils would gratefully accept assistance from the huge profits made from football each year." The FA did launch a three-year plan in February 2013 to improve facilities. The strategy aims to improve 3,000 natural pitches across England, build 100 artificial pitches and develop 150 all-weather surfaces. Changing rooms and toilets on a range of selected sites are also to be refurbished. The plan is part of the £30m grassroots funding the FA is providing over the next three years. And a caller to 5 live's Your Call suggested there are already programmes in place to increase the number of young players. Mike Nolan, a coach in Bedford, said: "When you get kids out there, they are motivated. There are a lot of initiatives that will have a long-term benefit but they haven't been in place long enough to increase participation. "Football is not just about the more able players. Now there are things like the FA Tesco skills programme, the Football Mesh Up and Just Play programmes that are bringing people in. "These schemes are increasing the player base, but it will take longer to kick in than one year." Sport England will reinvest the £1.6m it is withholding from the FA in a grassroots 'City of Football' aimed at increasing participation. A special edition of BBC Late Kick Off on Monday, 31 March will focus on grassroots football. The programme airs on BBC One every Monday at 23:20BST until 5 May. Watch previous broadcasts on the BBC iPlayer. |
I recently tried the “Silver Tone Double Edge Blade Razor Shaver w/Nonslip Metal Handle“ found on Amazon. It’s a three-piece “Ri,mei” razor (yes, that’s what it says on the blister pack) made in China. While it is no Merkur or Edwin Jagger in quality it is (surprisingly) acceptable for under $7. It’s light but all-metal and the blade exposure appears even on both sides. It’s quite gentle and I got a decent shave out of it. In fact, I may make it my next travel DE: if it gets broken or lost it will be no big loss. I hesitate to recommend it to a beginner because of it’s light weight but hey, if you’re willing to part with under a sawbuck, it might be worth a try. Lord L6 Then there’s the Lord L6 . I’ve talked about the Lord before. Also known as the Lord LP1822, this razor is made in the middle-east. The L6 is not known for its high quality but it has improved somewhat in the last year or two. The L6 is a relatively gentle razor that will give an acceptable shave. It’s about US $12. Phatty Phatty Compare those inexpensive razors to the “Phatty” DE razor I found earlier this year on the ‘Bay. This TTO razor goes for $5 and I can only describe it as awful: a plastic handle painted with a chrome color and a flimsy head made out of very light, stamped metal. The TTO mechanism barely works and the blade exposure is not close to even. The shave was very harsh…in fact I didn’t even finish the shave with it. Need more convincing? Take a look at this video made by Redditor “betelgeux”: What inexpensive razors have you found that do an adequate job? What cheap razors should others shy away from? |
On July 7th, the domains AndroidSecured.com and AndroidSecured.net were registered to BlackBerry Limited, the firm formerly known as Research In Motion (RIM) that presides over the one-time dominant smartphone platform. Below is a screenshot of one of the registration records with the area of interest highlighted. It's no secret that BlackBerry has seen better days. One of their more-publicized efforts to revitalize interest in the OS has been the addition of compatibility with Android apps and, more recently, loading the Amazon Appstore on the newest OS versions. The general direction of BlackBerry has been fairly unclear for a while now, as they have worked on supporting existing devices and have steadfastly released new ones on a regular basis in spite of meager sales. So what are they doing with AndroidSecured.com? We have heard a rumor about BlackBerry releasing an Android-powered phone called the Venice with a sliding keyboard, though concrete details have yet to surface. The key selling point of BlackBerry, particularly in the enterprise space, has long been security. Dabbling in Android development and staking their reputation on device security makes the domain purchase look like more than nonsense, at the least. Before assuming this seals the deal that a BlackBerry phone with Android is on the way, it may not be such a drastic move. After all, the company has been developing several apps geared towards managing the security policies of enterprise users for Android. In the vein of Microsoft, BlackBerry may just be preparing to promote their software prowess outside of their own platform. On the other hand, they could be planning to make a fork of Android with extra security features. That would be quite the twist, considering the way BlackBerry's CEO talked so dismissively of Android's ability to protect its business users. Or, as is often the case with domain purchases, this is based on some longshot or obscure idea and we won't ever realize what the purpose behind it was. They also bought BlackBerry.sucks—yes, that is a top-level domain—in the past month. Maybe they are just buying up domains to keep others off of them. |
WASHINGTON ― A draft version of a House Republican bill to repeal and “replace” the Affordable Care Act shows how the move would weaken or eliminate coverage for an untold number of people on Medicaid and private health insurance. House Republicans, led by Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), appear to be putting the finishing touches on the legislative vehicle with which they intend to eliminate former President Barack Obama’s signature health care law and put in place a new system ― one that would provide significantly less funding for people seeking health benefits and for states providing Medicaid coverage. Ryan has said that he hopes the House can begin advancing legislation when it comes back from recess next week. The draft bill, first reported by Politico’s Paul Demko, carries a Feb. 10 timestamp, and Republicans may have revised their proposal since then. The text does not indicate which lawmakers or committees are responsible for it, and there is a blank space where normally the legislation would include the bill’s title. But the draft is consistent with the principles Ryan laid out in his “A Better Way” agenda over the summer, and the basic shape of legislation closely resembles a bill that Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price introduced when he served in the House. Like those proposals, the draft legislation would generally reduce financial assistance for lower- and middle-income people buying private health insurance. It would also weaken standards for what those plans cover, roll back funding for the Medicaid expansion and create a new tax on employer-provided health insurance. Taxes on wealthy people would fall, and the law’s controversial individual mandate ― a penalty for people who don’t get coverage ― would go away immediately, although most parts of the law with direct bearing on insurance coverage would not take effect until 2020. Without a formal analysis from the Congressional Budget Office ― and without careful study by outside experts, most of whom hadn’t seen the legislation until Friday ― it’s difficult to say exactly how the law might affect premiums, generosity of coverage, the federal budget or the overall number of people with insurance. Some people would clearly feel better off. Young people, for instance, could buy cheaper insurance ― particularly if they were willing to get less comprehensive coverage than the law currently requires. But the number of uninsured Americans, currently at a historic low thanks to the 2010 law, would almost certainly rise if something like this proposal became law. Combined with changes to insurance benefits, the net result of the bill’s changes would likely be dramatically greater exposure to punishing medical bills and reduced access to care ― particularly for people who have serious health problems or who aren’t entirely able to pay for comprehensive coverage on their own. This may not be what most people thought when they heard President Donald Trump’s promise that “everybody’s going to be taken care of much better than they’re taken care of now.” Of course, with Republicans still deeply divided on how to proceed, this proposal would be just an opening bid. Some conservatives in the House and Senate don’t even want to replace the Affordable Care Act, while another, larger faction objects to providing financial assistance at all and has sneered at proposals that include tax credits, calling them “Obamacare-lite.” The Senate, for its part, has made no apparent progress on health care legislation and isn’t expected to simply accept what the House proposes. The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion poses more of a problem for the repeal effort in the Senate, as well. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), for example, has already said she can’t support a bill that would cut funding for her state’s Medicaid expansion, while conservatives like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) say they won’t support a bill that doesn’t end the expansion. All of this is taking place in a political environment increasingly hostile for Republicans. Angry constituents are flooding lawmakers’ town halls demanding more details about the “replacement” plan, while polling shows a marked upswing in public approval for the Affordable Care Act and a notable decline in support for repeal. Here are some of the biggest changes that would take place if something like the House GOP draft bill were to become law: Help paying for health insurance Financial assistance for people buying coverage would change dramatically. Instead of tax credits that vary based on income, people would be eligible for tax credits that vary based on age, with older customers getting bigger credits. This would work out as a nice tax break for people whose incomes, today, qualify them for only a little assistance or none at all. But it means that working- and middle-class people would tend to lose assistance that currently makes it possible for them to buy coverage in the first place. Critically, the GOP proposal would also eliminate extra subsidies, available under the Affordable Care Act, that reduce out-of-pocket expenses for people whose incomes are below 250 percent of the poverty line, or about $60,000 for a family of four. Younger versus older people The Affordable Care Act doesn’t allow health insurance companies to charge older people more than three times the price for a younger adult. The House GOP plan would increase that limit to five times, although states would have flexibility to set their own rules. This might mean lower premiums for some younger consumers, but older people could pay considerably more. Health insurance benefits Under the Affordable Care Act, all private plans must cover a variety of benefits, including hospitalizations, prescription drugs, contraception, mental health and maternity. Under the House GOP bill, states would be permitted to establish whatever “essential benefits” they wanted, and leave out the rest. The bill also includes a clause that would allow insurers to continue offering “grandfathered” plans, which are exempt from the Affordable Care Act’s standards for benefits and pricing because insurers were selling them before the law took effect. It’s not clear whether these plans would be available to people not already enrolled in them. If they are, that could undermine other regulations on insurance. Pre-existing conditions and the individual mandate Insurers today cannot deny coverage or charge higher premiums because of health status, as long as people sign up during annual open enrollment or qualify for an exemption for a reason like a move or a new job. But under this proposal, insurers could increase premiums by 30 percent, for up to a year, on people who do not maintain “continuous coverage,” meaning that they let their coverage lapse for more than two months. This would have the biggest effect on lower-income people and people juggling jobs ― particularly because, under the GOP proposal, they would be getting less financial aid from the government. The proposal would also eliminate the individual mandate. The mandate exists to make sure healthy people buy coverage, rather than waiting until they get sick. The continuous coverage provision is supposed to serve the same function, but many experts believe it is not as effective. Medicaid funding House Republicans propose repealing the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion by eliminating the additional federal funding for it. The federal government and states jointly finance Medicaid, and states historically paid 25 percent to 50 percent of the costs, but the Affordable Care Act provided at least 90 percent of the funding for the expansion population. This draft bill would reduce it to the share paid for other Medicaid beneficiaries. The bill also calls for a far more radical change to Medicaid. Since its inception in 1965, Medicaid has been a federal entitlement like Medicare and Social Security, so the government has been obligated to cover the costs of any eligible person without limit. House Republicans want to eliminate this entitlement status and instead send states a flat sum ― known as a per-capita cap ― per enrollee. This would leave states on the hook for any costs above that amount, which would be smaller than federal funding today. That would likely lead states to remove people from the rolls, trim benefits and/or cut payment rates to medical providers, reducing coverage and access to care. High-risk pools In an attempt to make up for scrapping the Affordable Care Act’s guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, the House Republican bill would set aside $100 billion over a decade to finance state programs that would cover people with the highest medical costs. This could take the form of high-risk pools, which is a reform Republicans have long favored. Prior to the ACA making them obsolete, these high-risk pools existed in a majority of states, dating back to the 1970s. Inadequate funding, high premiums and lengthy waiting lists meant only a tiny percentage of people otherwise uninsurable had access to this coverage. The proposed $100 billion investment would be substantially more than what previous proposals, such as Price’s, allocated. But even so, the investment would probably fall far short of providing coverage for all the people who need it. Both liberal and conservative health experts have speculated that high-risk pools really need more like $150 billion to $250 billion over that time period. Paying for the plan The proposal would wipe out much of the Affordable Care Act’s funding, including new payroll taxes that fall exclusively on the very wealthiest Americans. To make up for some of that loss, the bill would start subjecting a portion of the most generous health plans to taxes. Today the premiums for employer-sponsored insurance do not count toward taxes, so this would effectively be a new tax on the most expensive insurance policies, which many middle-class people hold. Economists across the political spectrum have long called for such a change, and the Affordable Care Act actually has a version of this proposal, known as the “Cadillac tax.” But the idea of taxing health benefits is highly unpopular, which is one reason Congress voted two years ago to postpone introduction of the Cadillac tax. * * * One question looming over all of this is how these features could become law. In order to advance legislation in the Senate, where it would normally take 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster, Republicans hope to use the budget reconciliation process, in which a simple majority can pass a bill. But reconciliation rules prohibit consideration of changes that don’t directly affect the federal budget, and some of the changes in the draft bill ― like those affecting insurance regulations ― might not pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, an adviser to the Senate who interprets those rules. |
The Projection Project is a new site that just went live a couple of days ago, and has become one of my favorite hockey-related websites in that short span of time. It's got a handy number of tools on it that let you either project or compare prospects, and with that in mind, I took a look at some prospects the Florida Panthers have in their system. Please keep in mind these are projections, and not clear cut analyses of these young and still developing players. I also excluded players who are already in the NHL. Centers Rocco Grimaldi Kyle Rau Corban Knight Thoughts: The model seems to be really high on Corban Knight, as he has put up solid numbers in the AHL the past two seasons. I personally would take Grimaldi or Rau over Knight, but Knight might be the more NHL-ready player headed into next season. Also, the reason why Rau has so many comparables is because he had zero if I matched his stats by year, so I had to look at his cumulatively. I ran into this issue for a number of players, so if they have an abnormally large amount of comparables, just know that the number is correct, and not a glitch. Wingers Joe Wegwerth Quinton Howden Juho Lammikko Jayce Hawryluk Garrett Wilson Christopher Clapperton Miguel Fidler Thoughts: The model is really not a fan of Juho Lammikko, who I would probably put ahead of Wegwerth and Fidler. It is a big fan of Wilson and Clapperton, however, which is interesting because both of those players haven't exactly wowed with their numbers. In the case of Wilson, it does project him as bottom line player, which makes sense, but in the case of Clapperton, his projections are a little all over the place. If he does have the potential to be on a first or second line, then maybe some more attention should be paid to the diminutive forward from the Q? Hawryluk isn't a bad pick up either, though Howden is starting to look like a bust. If I had to choose between him or Wilson in a call up next season, I'm giving Wilson a look before I give Howden one. Defensemen Michael Matheson Ian McCoshen Mackenzie Weegar Michael Downing Joshua Brown Jonathan Racine Thoughts: Not much surprise here. Matheson is the team's top prospect, followed by McCoshen, Downing, and Weegar. McCoshen hasn't seemed to improve at Boston College, which is probably why the model doesn't have his chances up as high as Matheson's, but he's still a good prospect. Weegar put up some great junior numbers, which explains why the model likes him, but he had a disappointing first professional season and if he doesn't rebound next year his NHL window really starts to close. Downing is really starting to emerge as a solid prospect, and he could end up being a steal in the fourth round. I figured Racine's chances would be higher, but he hasn't put up big numbers in the leagues he's played in, even if his defense has been solid. Brown looks to be a gamble, but he does have that size going for him. Summary So, overall, the Projection Project model has Corban Knight as the most likely player in the system to make it to the NHL, even though he may not have the highest ceiling. After him comes Rocco Grimaldi, Garrett Wilson, and Mike Matheson. In a way, this comes down to which prospect is the most NHL-ready, as NHL-ready prospects have really high chances of making the jump, and soon. So I can accept the assessment of Knight being the team's most ready prospect, though I personally think Grimaldi is a guy who should be able to play in the NHL next season, and be better at it than Knight. How about you? Who do you think is the team's most ready prospect? Let us know in the poll, or in the comments below! |
"Snakes. Why'd it have to be snakes?" — Indiana Jones in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" Humans often fear what they don't understand. And to most, snakes are a mystery. Snakes rely on crypsis — an animal's ability to avoid detection — so even when traversing through their world, we rarely see them. This void of direct knowledge is filled by myth and media, which portray snakes as cold-blooded killers and focus on how deadly and dangerous they are. It’s no surprise then that snakes provoke one of the most common phobias, even in the United States where we lack truly deadly serpents. Advertisement: Though threatened by many of the same issues that affect other wildlife, including habitat loss, climate change and disease, negative attitudes may be the biggest barrier to snake conservation because it often impedes efforts to address other threats. For example, public outcry based on fear and misinformation recently halted a scientifically sound conservation plan for timber rattlesnakes. A similar project at the same location that involved releasing eagles was embraced by the community. Rattlesnakes are no less iconic or important to the ecosystem than eagles. In fact, they may help reduce the incidence of Lyme disease, which affects tens of thousands of people in the United States each year, by reducing the number of rodents that harbor this disease. But facts often play second fiddle to emotions where snakes are concerned. Snakes are important components of biodiversity, serving as both predators and prey in nearly every ecosystem on earth. Some of the most feared and hated snakes (vipers, a group that includes rattlesnakes) may be the most effective predators on fluctuating prey populations. Unlike most predators, vipers are not territorial; they often share dens to escape freezing winter temperatures and select hunting sites where others have been successful. Vipers live in greater densities than mammal and bird predators, as much as 100-1,000 times denser than their mammalian competitors. Infrequent reproductive events (most give birth only once every two to three years) and their ability to fast make them resilient to prey population crashes. So they can have a greater impact on their prey, including those that can spread disease to humans, than their mammalian or avian counterparts. But snakes are worth saving not because of what they can do for us, but because of who they are. Snakes, specifically rattlesnakes, share many behaviors with us, behaviors that we value. They have friends. They take care of their kids and even their friends’ kids too. Advertisement: Within a community of Arizona black rattlesnakes, individuals do not associate randomly; they have friends (pairs of rattlesnakes observed together more often expected by chance) and individuals they appear to avoid. Mother rattlesnakes keep newborns from straying too far from the nest during the first few days of their lives, only gradually letting them explore farther as they approach time to leave the nest at 10-14 days old. Mothers also defend their young from threats such as squirrels, who harass and may even kill newborns. But mothers aren’t the only ones caring for newborn rattlesnakes; pregnant females sharing the communal nest and even visiting males and juveniles assist with parental duties. Yet these gentle, caring parents are subjected to some of the most horrible treatment of any species. Each year, tens of thousands of rattlesnakes are taken from the wild to be displayed and slaughtered for entertainment and profit at rattlesnake roundups, which occur throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Alabama. Promoted as folksy, family-friendly fun, these events foster disrespect for native wildlife and the natural world, and are a gross example of wildlife management based on fear, rather than science. Advertisement: Professional hunters, not bound by "bag" or "take" limits, remove snakes from their native habitats and are awarded with cash prizes for bringing in the most and biggest snakes. Most snakes are caught by pouring gasoline into their winter dens, which pollutes surrounding land and water and may impact up to 350 other wildlife species. Rattlesnake roundups depend on the public’s misconception of snakes as dangerous pests that we cannot safely tolerate near our homes. No aspect of these events is sustainable, educational or necessary. If promoters and attendees of rattlesnake roundups knew what snakes are really like, would these events continue—who wants to kill a mom or someone’s friend? Advertisement: World Snake Day, on July 16, is an opportunity to celebrate snakes and raise awareness about their conservation. Find out more about rattlesnake roundupsand how we can stop the slaughter. Learn how to live with snakes. Get to know what snakes are really like so you can counter myths and misinformation with science-based stories about snakes every day. Want to help us change how people view and treat snakes? Join the World Snake Day event on Facebook, where you’ll find tools to raise awareness about snakes, their conservation, and how to coexist with them. Sign a petition to stop the cruel slaughter of snakes at rattlesnake roundups. |
The Redskins have been hurting at the Wide Receiver position for a long time. They've have a mix of draft picks that do not develop into anything, and high priced free agent signings that do not live up to their promise. Prior to the 2014 draft, the Redskins had not drafted a WR in two years. In 2012 they signed two high priced free agents with mixed results. Pierre Garcon was good when he was on the field during his first year with the team, and went on to become one of the only reliable receiving threats last season. Josh Morgan was a good blocker and average WR his first season in Washington, then turned into a waste of a roster spot last season. This offseason, the Redskins once again double-dipped into free agency to shore up the team's skill positions. Former Arizona WR Andre Roberts was a priority signing when free agency started for the team, and also one of my personal targets for the team. This still left the possibility open for the Redskins to draft a receiver early in a deep class. Then DeSean Jackson was cut, and everything changed. He was immediately wined and dined by Bruce Allen and Co. and became the team's biggest FA acquisition for 2014. This gave the Redskins a top 3 of Pierre Garcon, DeSean Jackson, and Andre Roberts which is pretty damn good. The team went into the draft without a clear need at the position, but still drafted Ryan Grant in the 5th round. They also have an underdeveloped Aldrick Robinson, an injured Leonard Hankerson, and a Redskins legend trying to hang on in Santana Moss, along with several others fighting for a spot at the bottom of the depth chart. So where does that group rank among the rest of the league's WR corps? Last month Bucky Brooks ranked the Redskins Wide Receivers as the best in the NFL. Danny Kelly has the Redskins group in the second tier of receivers. The Elite group includes 3 teams, The Denver Broncos, the Indianapolis Colts, and the Green Bay Packers. The Redskins fall into the 'Damn Good' group, joined by the San Francisco 49ers, the New Orleans Saints, and the Cincinnati Bengals. Where does the current Redskins WR corps rank compared to other rosters in the NFL? Is this group elite, or just damn good? Does Jordan Reed's versatility push them into the Elite ranks? THE DAMN GOOD The Damn Good can be characterized as not only talented at the top, but deep at the position. |
GROSSE POINTE, Mich. - The reward for information in the Grosse Pointe teen's death is up to $10,000. A local real estate developer previously offered a $5,000 reward for information that leads to the conviction of the gunman who fired on a car load of teenagers, killing 16-year-old University Liggett honor student Paige Stalker on Dec. 22. Now the reward has doubled. Related: Grandparents of slain Grosse Pointe teen say she had promising future "It's terrible," said Thomas Guastello. "The first school I ever went to as a small child was University Liggett when it was on Burns Avenue. My children went there when we lived in Grosse Pointe. You think of it as a safe little bubble, but you get three blocks out of your neighborhood and you're being shot at." A lone gunman fired more than 30 rounds into the car injuring the other teens. Detroit police said the kids had pulled over just blocks away from the Grosse Pointe Park border near Philip and Charlevoix to smoke pot. Local 4 has now learned that spot was frequented by suburban teens because of a drug dealer selling marijuana out of that area. Was the gunman looking for the dealer and targeted the kids because they were there? Maybe. Was it a botched robbery? Maybe. Or was it something else? The area where the shooting happened is a short distance from where Grosse Pointe Park and Detroit are battling over farmers market sheds. Grosse Pointe Park has erected the sheds on Kercheval and they serve as a barrier between the cities. Detroit has been telling the city to take them down. Crime stats show the area has massive problems. Many have suggested the teens never should have been there, which is true. But it does not excuse a man pulling out an automatic weapon and trying to execute them. "There's been a lot of violence here, it should be corrected and I think the police department has to do more than secure the core city," Guastello said. Copyright 2014 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
SHANGHAI – MMAjunkie was on scene and reporting live from today’s early and official UFC Fight Night 122 fighter weigh-ins, where 23 of 24 fighters made weight. The early weigh-ins, which precede the ceremonial affair, took place at the UFC host hotel in Shanghai. The UFC Fight Night 122 ceremonial weigh-ins take place later, at 5:30 a.m. ET, at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, the same venue that hosts Saturday’s UFC Fight Pass event. Among those weighing in were middleweight headliners Michael Bisping (30-8 MMA, 20-8 UFC) and Kelvin Gastelum (13-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC). Bisping made weight early in the ceremony, registering 186 pounds on his first attempt, while Gastelum was the last fighter to the scale, needing two attempts and a towel to also hit 186 pounds. Featherweight Rolando Dy missed weight, registering 148 pounds for his bout with Wuliji Buren. UFC officials are currently still finalizing the penalty for the miss. The full UFC Fight Night 122 weigh-in results include: MAIN CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 7 a.m. ET) Michael Bisping (186) vs. Kelvin Gastelum (186) Li Jingliang (171) vs. Zak Ottow (171) Alex Caceres (146) vs. Wang Guan (146) Alex Garcia (171) vs. Muslim Salikhov (170) PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass, 3:45 a.m. ET) Zabit Magomedsharipov (146) vs. Sheymon Moraes (145) Bobby Nash (170.5) vs. Kenan Song (170) Kailin Curran (116) vs. Yan Xiaonan (116) Bharat Kandare (145) vs. Song Yadong (146) Shamil Abdurakhimov (261) vs. Chase Sherman (252) Gina Mazany (135) vs. Wu Yanan (135) Wuliji Buren (146) vs. Rolando Dy (148)* Cyril Asker (244) vs. Hu Yaozong (232) * Dy fined 20 percent, but bout will go on as scheduled For more on UFC Fight Night 122, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site. |
To the roar of asphalt trucks and paving machines, Bexar County workers put finishing touches Friday on a suburban stretch of Babcock Road that has been closed for construction since late 2013. The nearly $10 million Bexar County Public Works project improved 1.4 miles of roadway and reduced flash-flood dangers at five low water crossings between Camp Bullis Road and Kyle Seale Parkway. The fast-growing, unincorporated area in Northwest Bexar County is now assured unflooded access on Babcock Road during major rain events, officials said. For those who rely on Babcock, the past 2.5 years have been trying, officials acknowledged. Delayed by efforts to preserve habitat for the golden cheeked warbler, the project disrupted traffic for many suburbanites. It also impacted access to Lutheran High School, forcing some motorists to take long detours to reach campus. “There has been some frustration, but the county did the right thing,” said LHS Head of School Patrick Maynard. “It’s going to be super-safe and that’s fantastic,” he said. “When you look at demographic growth charts, this is going to be one of top areas in San Antonio. You’re going to see this continually change and develop, and that’s what the county is planning for,” Maynard said. The work is an example of planners getting ahead of potential problems, said Precinct 3 Commissioner Kevin Wolff, but it’s been trying nonetheless. “It’s been ‘Please, please finish it,’” Wolff said of community feedback. Pointing to new housing developments on nearby, oak-studded hills, Wolff said “all of this land has been plotted for development.” “One of the things we always lament, especially in street infrastructure, is why didn’t we build this bigger, why didn’t we plan ahead of time? That’s what this is — planning ahead of time,” Wolff said. Completion of the Babcock Road Phase V project comes as county officials reassess long-term construction needs for flood control installations. The county is in the final year of a 10-year, $500 million initiative that made dozens of major improvements around the county. Commissioners Court has begun considering how to address several billion dollars more in unmet flood control infrastructure needs in Bexar County. “We know that going into the next legislative session (2017), there’s a strong push to rein in tax rates and debt that local governmental entities can issue,” Wolff said. “We’re in a wait-and-see position. We know there are still flood control projects that need to be done throughout our county,” Wolff said. |
Following a mutual decision to part ways, Team Dignitas sends its best wishes to Rene 'cajunb' Borg, Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke, Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen, Ruben 'rubino' Villarroel, Emil 'Magisk' Reif and Casper 'Ruggah' Due as they enter into the next chapter of their professional eSports careers. Team Dignitas and the Philadelphia 76ers are committed to building our next elite, international Counter Strike: Global Offensive team based in North America with the goal of dominating the global competitive gaming landscape. Team Dignitas aspires to lead the eSports industry in player recruitment and development; we are confident our fans will continue to be excited by our future player and personnel announcements. Stay tuned to team-dignitas.net and our social media network for more updates on our roster developments. Facebook: facebook.com/TeamDignitas Twitter: @TeamDignitas Youtube: youtube.com/TeamDignitas |
The Clouded Leopard cubs at Toronto Zoo are growing! ZooBorns introduced readers to the pair when they were almost one-month-old: “Clouded Leopard Cubs a First for Toronto Zoo”. The two-month old cubs were born May 13 to mom, Pavarti, and dad, Mingma. Toronto Zoo staff recently reported that the siblings are progressing and growing stronger. The cubs are now very close in size and currently weigh about 1.78 kgs (3.9 lbs) and 1.81 kgs (4 lbs), respectively. Photo Credits: Toronto Zoo Pavarti is a first time mom. Immediately after the cubs’ birth, she showed signs of having all the necessary maternal instincts. However, as the first day progressed, staff observed that she started spending less time with her cubs and was not seen nursing or mothering them. Toronto Zoo’s Wildlife Care staff continued to monitor the new family by camera, and a veterinarian checked the cubs the day after they were born. The veterinarian provided the cubs with supplemental fluids to help them through the critical first 24 hours. Wildlife Care staff and the vet continued to monitor the cubs, hoping for a change in the new mom’s behavior toward her cubs. Finally, a decision was made to move the cubs to the intensive care unit (ICU) in the new state-of-art Wildlife Health Centre to provide them with the neonatal care they required and give them the best chance at survival. Both cubs are currently fed a diet that includes formula (consisting of Esbilac and chicken baby food) and feline meat offered to them separately. As they continue to grow in size, they are beginning to transition from being fed from a bottle to eating out of a dish. Right now the cubs are fed four times a day by Wildlife Health and Wildlife Care staff and have been living in the new Wildlife Health Centre’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This is an exciting time for Wildlife Health Care staff and Wildlife Care staff as they begin to see the Clouded Leopard cub’s different personalities. One cub is slightly darker in color, and is more energetic and ‘sassy’, always taking the bottle very quickly when offered. The second cub is slightly lighter in color, and although also energetic, is not as bold as its sibling. Both cubs are said to vocalize in a bird-like ‘chirping’ sound and love to leap, run, explore and climb anything and everything they can find. Wrestling with each other is another favorite thing for these siblings to do. Both Clouded Leopard cubs have very long tails, and their teeth are getting to be quite big in size, which is bringing out their teething behaviors. The Toronto Zoo is a participant in the Clouded Leopard conservation breeding program through the Species Survival Plan (SSP) program. The Clouded Leopard has been listed as “Vulnerable”, on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, since 2008. *Please note: the Clouded Leopard cubs are not visible to the public at this time. |
If the Republican primaries and presidential campaign have taught us anything, it is that Mitt Romney is not very good at politics. Incessant gaffes, strategic missteps, a paucity of policy prescriptions and a plethora of head-scratching tactical decisions have come to define his run for the White House. Quite simply, Mitt Romney is a bad politician. But on Monday night, we learned something new – and profoundly unsettling – about him: he may very well also be a bad person. I don't use those words lightly, but I'm not sure how else to interpret the comments he made at a closed-door fundraiser that were posted online by Mother Jones. They are devastating. They suggest a level of meanness and divisiveness in Romney's personal character that is disturbing – even disqualifying for the nation's highest office. Look at how Romney classifies the 47% of Americans who don't pay federal income taxes: "[They] will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what … These are people who pay no income tax … "[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." This is a breathtaking statement: a fundamental misunderstanding of the American social contract. Romney proposes here that the senior citizen living on a fixed income believes government has a responsibility to care for them – rather than that government has a responsibility to fulfil its obligation to them after they spent years paying into social security and Medicare. He is saying that workers laid-off from their jobs, who rely on food stamps to feed their children and unemployment insurance to pay their rent, believe government owes them food and shelter, rather than getting some support at a time of dire financial need which their payroll taxes had paid for when they were in work. Romney's message to these voters, these 47% of Americans, is not only "I am not going to seek your vote"; it's "I don't respect you." Worse than the crudeness of Romney's argument is its remarkable lack of social empathy. The United States provides healthcare, food, housing and "you-name-it" to our fellow citizens not as a means of capturing their vote, but because this is fundamental to the basic social compact. That fact seems to elude Romney. So what does this mean for Romney's presidential prospects? Some conservatives seem overjoyed by the revelations – believing, it seems, that a "makers v takers" dividing line is a key to political success. Certainly, there is a cross-section of Americans who buy into Romney's Ayn Randian views. There is also plenty of evidence from the world of political science that gaffes might get everyone ginned up on Twitter, but they don't necessarily move voters. This gaffe, though, has the potential to be different – because it insults so many individual Americans. Romney's Republican presidential forebears had the shrewd good sense to demonise easily stereotyped minorities: Richard Nixon took on the "shouters" and "demonstrators" in the 1960s, while Ronald Reagan attacked "welfare queens" in the 1980s. In his clumsy caricature, Romney has savaged just under half the electorate. But the damage, once again, is self-inflicted: Romney has succeeded in highlighting the very things voters already don't like about him: that he is not genuine, saying one thing in public and another behind closed doors; that he is so cosseted in wealth he does not understand and cannot relate to the challenges of ordinary Americans; that a callous streak runs through the private equity guy's empathy deficit – the outsourcer who "likes firing people". The fact that these remarks were given at a private fundraiser to a group of fat cats only endorses these negative perceptions. The biggest problem, though, may be the cumulative narrative: that it provides one more hit on Romney in a week in which he has done nothing right. First, there was his disastrous appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, in which he flip-flopped on repealing Obamacare and bizarrely attacked his own vice-presidential candidate for supporting defense cuts last summer. Then came his crass intervention in the political debate that followed the violence in Libya and Egypt, in which he falsely accused the president – on 11 September, of all days – of sympathizing with anti-American protesters. And even when that line of attack was comprehensively discredited, Romney doubled down on it the next morning. Finally, there was Sunday's night Politico report chronicling the in-fighting and mismanagement threatening to cripple his campaign. It was a terrible week for Romney and the Republican party – one that suggested his campaign had acquired the hard-to-shake odor of loserdom. When that sense takes hold, every mistake, even minor ones, are magnified – feeding into the notion that the Romney team is the proverbial gang that can't shoot straight. We've seen this before, with George HW Bush in 1992; with Al Gore in 2000; with Sarah Palin in 2008. A meme of smelly failure develops around a candidate and every story is fitted to that emerging narrative. For Romney, the narrative now is that he is running, as David Brooks put it in the New York Times, a "depressingly inept presidential campaign". It is hard to imagine how a presidential candidate could articulate such contempt towards virtually half the country that has not been as blessed with the advantages of being born into wealth and making more, as he has, and still hope to lead them. Whether or not Mitt Romney really is a bad person is perhaps irrelevant: he is clearly a bad politician – and this last week has made it highly unlikely that he will get the chance to be a bad president. |
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