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Proslavljeni portugalski trener Žoze Murinjo poslao je putem snimka poruku zahvalnosti svima u Ubu nakon što je u ovom gradu dobio fudbalski teren sa njegovim imenom, o čemu je Telegraf prvi pisao.
Murinjo se preko Telegrafa obratio stanovnicima Uba i poručio da je ovo poseban grad i da zaslužuje poseban fudbalski teren, koji će nositi njegovo ime - gospodina "Posebnog", kako zovu Murinja.
- Zdravo, ja sam Žoze. Ub je specijalan grad sa mnogo posebnih ljudi, koji zaslužuju poseban fudbalski teren. Mnogo sam srećan i ponosan što je ovaj poseban teren skoro spreman za sve na Ubu da uživaju u njemu. Ćao i čujemo se uskoro - poručio je Murinjo u video poruci preko Telegrafa.
Pogledajte i kako izgleda teren koji je izgrađen na Ubu i nosi ime Žozea Murinja.
Foto: Milovan Milovanović i Dragan Belajac
Foto: Milovan Milovanović i Dragan Belajac
Foto: Milovan Milovanović i Dragan Belajac
Foto: Milovan Milovanović i Dragan Belajac
(Telegraf.rs)
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There’s much talk on Capitol Hill about the tax cuts included in the Republican health plans, but unless you are a frequent user of tanning beds or have personal wealth that puts you in the top 1 percent, you might not feel much effect from them.
Specifically, both the House and the Senate plan would change or eliminate more than a dozen taxes that were levied to help pay for the Affordable Care Act’s insurance subsidies and to bolster Medicare and expand Medicaid. Republicans and other ACA critics have argued the taxes are onerous on businesses and families.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate proposal would result in $700 billion in lost revenue from the federal Treasury over the next 10 years.
Here are three things you need to know about them:
What are these taxes targeted for repeal?
The biggest ones fall into two buckets:
In the first bucket is a 0.9 percent increase in the existing Medicare payroll tax on income above $200,000 for individuals or $250,000 for couples.
Use Our Content This KHN story can be republished for free ( details ).
There is also a 3.8 percent tax on net investment income — as in stocks, bonds, interest and capital gains — that kicks in after $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples. As Senate leaders consider revisions to the bill, some senators — including Republican Bob Corker of Tennessee — suggest leaving the investment tax in place to provide more money for subsidies, but others object to that idea. It would also present a major difference from the House-passed bill.
Still, if both of those taxes in the ACA were repealed, high-income Americans together would pay $230.8 billion less in taxes over 10 years, according to the CBO analysis.
In the second bucket are taxes on the drug and medical device industry, which says those levies have a chilling effect on innovation, affect its ability to hire more workers or are passed along to consumers in the form of higher health care prices or premiums. Drug companies would experience an estimated $25.7 billion cut, while medical device makers would get about $19.6 billion in savings. Some of the cuts would start as early as this calendar year.
There’s also relief for insurers. The GOP plans would eliminate a tax set on all insurers based on their market share. Congress waived it for this year, hoping the one-time move would help slow premium increases. The CBO analysis of the Senate bill, for instance, found it would save the industry $144.7 billion over the next decade.
Smaller — but not insignificant — cuts come from eliminating some other taxes, including a limit — $2,600 this year — on how much workers can annually set aside tax-free in flexible spending accounts (FSAs) to pay for things like over-the-counter medications, eyeglasses or copayments for doctor’s office visits. The plans would also increase the amount people could put in tax-protected Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). The Senate proposal would also revert tax law back to pre-ACA days in setting the threshold for medical deductions at 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income; the ACA had boosted that to 10 percent. The House approach is even more generous.
And, of course, not to be forgotten, the GOP plans would delete a 10 percent tax on the use of tanning beds.
You likely won’t see a direct or big tax break unless you are wealthy.
The ACA significantly increased average taxes on high-income people mainly through the investment income tax and the Medicare payroll tax. The top 1 percent and other high earners are also the group that would benefit most from the repeal, according to several analyses, including one by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C.
Under the GOP proposals, the top 1 percent — those earning $875,000 a year or more in 2026 — would get an average tax cut of about $40,000, while middle-income people earning about $50,000 to $90,000 would see about a $300 cut, according to Howard Gleckman, a senior fellow at the center.
Still, those earning about $28,000 or less may get a boost from the higher cap on tax-protected FSA or HSA accounts or by being able to deduct medical expenses, possibly saving an average $180 annually, he said.
How will the federal government offset the loss of tax revenue, and what will that mean for insurance or other programs?
Even though the tax cuts and other changes would reduce Treasury revenue by about $700 billion over the next decade, spending cuts exceed that amount, so the deficit actually goes down by $321 billion, the CBO says.
The biggest spending cuts hit the Medicaid program, which provides health coverage for low-income children and adults, including paying for nearly half of all births and much of the cost of nursing home care. Spending on Medicaid by 2026 would shrink by 26 percent compared with what it would be under the ACA.
As to other effects, the number of Americans without health insurance coverage would likely rise. Because the GOP proposals cut the tax people pay for not having insurance, the CBO estimates that far fewer people would enroll in coverage. That, coupled with smaller subsidies to help lower- and middle-income people buy their own insurance and cuts in Medicaid, could lead to 22 million fewer insured Americans by 2026, the CBO estimated. States could choose, however, to try to make up for federal Medicaid spending cuts and maintain current levels of coverage, but that would probably involve raising state taxes, cutting other budget items, such as education, or both.
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Bryan Thomas Lopes, 39, will not be charged with shooting Paul Willard Dobson, 47, who came crashing into his room on Oct. 20.
OAK ISLAND – A Lincolnton man will not be charged for shooting an intruder in his motel room last Sunday.
On Friday, Brunswick County District Attorney Jon David announced that Bryan Thomas Lopes, 39, was found to be legally justified in shooting Paul Willard Dobson, 47, when he came crashing into Lopes' room at the Ocean Crest Motel on Oct. 20. The shooting was found to be justified under “defense of habitation” doctrine, according to a release from David’s office.
The incident happened just after midnight. Lopes told authorities he was asleep with his wife in their room when they heard a loud disturbance outside. Lopes retrieved his handgun from his bedside table and went to the door to investigate. But before he could peer through the peephole, the locked door flung open and Dobson fell through it, knocking Lopes against the wall.
As Dobson staggered in the direction of the bed, Lopes fired one shot, striking Dobson in the shoulder, according to the release. He then turned on the lights to find Dobson on the floor.
Dobson and three friends had been out to dinner and consumed “significant qualities of alcohol,” according to the release. When they returned to Ocean Crest, they engaged in horseplay outside of Lopes’ room. When Dobson leaned into the door, an unidentified friend shoved him through it, hard enough to break the lock.
“Mr. Lopes could not have known whether Mr. Dodson intended to enter the motel room or what his intentions may have been upon entry and therefore, Mr. Lopes’ use of deadly force was entirely reasonable under the circumstances,” David’s release said.
Dobson remains in the hospital in stable condition.
Reporter Hunter Ingram can be reached at 910-343-2327 or Hunter.Ingram@StarNewsOnline.com.
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THE NEW SINGLE OUT NOW
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KALAMAZOO, MI — The recent death of U.S. Army Spc. Bradley Walsh, a Kalamazoo native, prompted Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to order U.S. and Michigan flags be lowered to half-staff Thursday in honor of Walsh’s service.
The 21-year-old soldier was in his third year of active duty when he passed away on Jan. 8, according to a news release from the governor’s office. He was stationed with the 73rd Transportation Company, 10th Transportation Battalion, 7th Transportation Brigade at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, the release said.
“Our state mourns the loss of Army Specialist Bradley Walsh as he is laid to rest,” Whitmer said in the release. “We are grateful for his selfless service to our state and nation in the United States Army. My thoughts are with his family and friends during this difficult time.”
To recognize Walsh’s “duty, honor and selfless service”, Michigan residents, businesses, schools and local governments are encouraged to bring their own flags to half-staff on Jan. 23 to coincide with Walsh’s funeral, according to the news release. Flags should be hoisted first to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The process is reversed before the flag is lowered for the day, the release said.
Walsh was born in Kalamazoo, but grew up in the small Northern Michigan town of Hillman, where he enjoyed playing guitar and being outside, according to his obituary from Adams Funeral Home. He moved south again for his senior year, graduating from Otsego Adult Education in 2017 and later joining the U.S. Army.
He was described in his obituary as a kind and supportive man who would put his friends and family first.
Visitation is set for 5-8 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22, at Adams Funeral Home, 502 W. Michigan Ave. in Paw Paw.
Walsh’s funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, at First Baptist Church, 32464 E. Red Arrow in Paw Paw. Walsh will be laid to rest at Harwick Cemetery in Mattawan.
Also on MLive:
Man ensures military honors for fellow veteran after finding remains under stairway
102-year-old WWI services papers from California traced back to Kalamazoo nurse
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On August 21st, one of the important projects of Smart China Expo, “Chongqing Lijia Wisdom Experience Park” officially opened, and the auto-driving shuttle bus “Apolong II”, which undertakes the tasks of tourists and pick-ups, was also put into operation. The three ” Apolong II ” that were “on the job” in Chongqing are the version “2.0” after the upgrade.
Baidu Apolong Self-driving Minibus
Compared with the first version, the 2nd-gen Apolong is equipped with HW3.1 autopilot system, with high-performance intel E5, 8-core processor and other upgrade configurations, with more computing capability, making the brain more efficient in the face of a variety of different applications and workloads. In addition, the higher performance regulator template allows the power supply to maintain a stable battery life even in harsh environments such as cold and humidity.
In terms of battery life, Apolong II is equipped with CATL power battery, battery capacity is increased from 42.3kwh to 49.3kwh, charging time is reduced by 50%, and cruising range is increased by 20%, which further brings a more convenient and long-lasting ride experience.
Following the launch of Apolong in 2018 Baidu AI Developer Conference, the self-driving shuttle has appeared in 25 cities and regions across China, and commercialized operation in 30 scenes. As of July 31, 2019, Apolong accumulated more than 51,000 kilometers of automatic driving mileage, serving nearly 60,000 passengers. At the same time, it also maintained the performance of safety zero accident. In the one-year scale and commercialization practice, the L4 self-driving vehicle represented by Apolong is entering the daily life of ordinary people and has completed the “automatic driving experience science” again and again.
It is worth noting that in early July of this year, Baidu Apollo Enterprise Edition’s Minibus solution ushered in model upgrades and more partners. Baidu and King Long bus launched the Apolong bus, which realized the automatic driving from the closed park to the open road, as well as the light commercial van JMC Teshun shuttle bus cooperated by Baidu and JMC also carried out trial operation in JMC’s Nanchang industrial park, a series of self-driving vehicles equipped with Baidu’s Apollo Minibus solution are rapidly developing, the launch of the second-gen Apolong is also an important step in the acceleration of Baidu’s automatic driving.
About Apolong Shuttle Bus
“Apolong” is the first commercial-grade driverless micro-cycle electric vehicle produced by Baidu and King Long Automotive.
“Apolong” is 4.3 meters long and 2 meters wide. It has 8 seats, it can carry 14 passengers. It is powered by pure electric power and range of 100 kilometers (1st-gen).
On July 4, 2018, Li Yanhong announced that “Apolong”, the world’s first L4 mass production autopilot bus jointly operated by Baidu and King Long, was officially mass-produced.” On October 12, 2018, Baidu’s first unmanned commercial demonstration operation project in the China officially entered the operational phase.
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These are not reasons why the CIA redacted portions of the Senate's so-called torture report: to cover up "violations of law," to hide "inefficiency," or to "prevent embarrassment."
So says a CIA lawyer in court papers explaining why some redacted portions of the 499-page executive summary, released by the Senate Intelligence Committee last December, can never be revealed. The information includes the identifies of covert CIA officers, "code words" used to conceal the identities of countries, "pseudonyms," "official titles," the number of people employed by the CIA, and the salaries of people who work for the CIA. The public disclosure of this information, the CIA said, would "damage national security."
Therefore, it all "needs to remain top secret," CIA lawyer Martha Lutz said in a January 21 declaration. Lutz was responding to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit I filed against the agency a year ago in which I sought a copy of the Intelligence Committee's executive summary. Now that the committee has released the document, VICE News is arguing that the CIA should further unredact it.
The Senate committee's executive summary, part of a still-classified 6,900-page report and prepared by the panel's then-Democratic majority, concluded that the CIA did not obtain any valuable or unique intelligence from detainees it held captive and subjected to techniques such as waterboarding at CIA black site prisons. The CIA and Senate Republicans have vehemently disputed the Senate Intelligence Committee's conclusions.
Release of the executive summary was delayed for months due to the fact that the agency and Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein butted heads over the extent of redactions the CIA insisted upon in the executive summary. Feinstein and other Democratic lawmakers on the committee wanted to include pseudonyms of officers and other agency officials who played a role in the detention and interrogation program. But the CIA and the White House would not permit it, arguing that the officers' lives would be endangered by journalists and human rights researchers who would likely quickly identify them.
Meanwhile, the war between Democrats on the committee and the CIA continues and shows no signs of abating.
"Given the sensitivity of the detention and interrogation program, there is a significant concern that the release of any information that would allow for the identification of these individuals could place these persons and those associated with them in danger," Lutz said in her declaration. "In fact, following the public release of the Executive Summary, there has been widespread speculation regarding the individuals mentioned in the Executive Summary and attempts to identify those persons. Disclosure of the pseudonyms when connected with other details contained in the Executive Summary could lead to positive identification of those individuals. In order for the agency to effectively carry out its foreign intelligence gathering mission, it is imperative that the identities of covert personnel be protected."
'Disclosing intelligence expenditures would show the level of funding devoted to certain activities, which in turn would reveal the resources available to the Intelligence Community and the intelligence priorities of the US Government.'
According to Lutz, 7 percent of the executive summary was blacked out. She said the "vast majority of redactions concern CIA equities," but she noted that Department of State, the National Security Agency, the Department of Defense and FBI requested "limited redactions."
The redactions fall under a number of FOIA exemptions that the government uses to protect national security.
"Disclosure would harm national security because it would reveal certain capabilities, activities, and intelligence that would make it difficult to further obtain intelligence," Lutz said. "Intelligence sources must be certain that the US Government will do everything in its power to ward against the public disclosure of the intelligence shared and how that information was acquired."
Lutz said "seemingly innocuous details" such as dates or how much money the CIA spent "on a particular program" can't be released because they "could reveal broader intelligence priorities and the source and methods of certain intelligence collection when juxtaposed with other publicly available data."
"Disclosing intelligence expenditures would show the level of funding devoted to certain activities, which in turn would reveal the resources available to the Intelligence Community and the intelligence priorities of the US Government," Lutz said.
In other words, the public could use information about the costs associated with, for example, rectal feeding — if the CIA were compelled to disclose it — to build a mosaic and figure out additional details about the torture program that the CIA says has to remain secret.
The CIA also redacted "discrete pieces of foreign government and liaison information" from the executive summary.
"These details would indicate the identity of intelligence sources and the specific information shared," Lutz said. "Disclosing the fact of the relationship, the nature of the assistance, or the information provided — which is reflected in these redactions — would suggest to other foreign liaison service and foreign government officials that the US Government is unable or unwilling to observe an express agreement of absolute secrecy."
The CIA also redacted the geographic locations of its "covert CIA installations" and black sites. This information is deemed to be an "intelligence method" because it would reveal the purpose of it the installations and sites, even though it's widely known that the CIA operated secret prisons in Thailand, Lithuania, Poland, and other countries, and that detainees were tortured there.
But "official acknowledgement of the installation could cause the host country to take countermeasures, on its own, or in response to pubic pressure to eliminate the CIA within its borders," Lutz said. "And any information released about the installation could lead terrorists to attack it."
Lutz said if the federal judge presiding over the FOIA case is not convinced by the CIA's representations, she would file a declaration to the court, under seal, and provide more information about the intelligence at issue.
Steven Aftergood, the director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, told VICE News that Lutz's declaration is a fairly straightforward presentation on CIA's classification principles.
"What is uncertain, however, is whether and how these general principles apply to the specific redactions in the [Senate Intelligence Committee's executive summary], and whether the redactions are therefore justified," he said. "That's hard to answer from the outside. But the judge could attempt to do so" if he takes Lutz up on her offer and asks her to submit a declaration under seal.
Aftergood also noted that Lutz's claims that "none of the information was classified in order to conceal violations of law or to prevent embarrassment needs to be carefully parsed."
"The redaction information may indeed conceal violations of law or embarrassing material," he said. "But what CIA is saying here is that it was not classified 'in order to' conceal such information. In other words, this is a claim about the classifier's mental state and his or her intent, not about the information that is being withheld. As such, it is all but impossible to challenge — since who can prove or disprove what the classifier intended to accomplish?"
A final decision in the FOIA case is expected later this year.
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The German government introduced a controversial road toll on Thursday which will force foreign car drivers to pay up to €130 a year for using Germany’s Autobahn motorways.
The plan, intended to help Germany fund the upkeep of its transport infrastructure which is used by millions of foreign vehicles, may yet face a legal challenge in Brussels for discriminating against foreign motorists.
After months of heated debate between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU), Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt dropped an original idea to raise the fee on all roads.
However, the minister stuck to the plan that the toll will not lead to extra costs for German drivers by allowing them to offset the levy against an already existing motor vehicle tax.
Dobrindt, a leading member of the CSU, said he was convinced that his draft law does not discriminate against foreign motorists and therefore would stand if challenged in court.
“The infrastructure fee is sensible, fair and just,” the minister said, adding that the revenues of the toll would only be used to modernise Germany’s motorways and main roads.
The toll is expected to be introduced in 2016. Motorists have to pay it by registering their license plates via the internet. Foreigners can also pay the levy at gas stations.
The fee will take into account the cylinder capacity and environmental compatibility of the car with a maximum toll of €130 a year. Foreign drivers can pay a 10-day levy for €10 or two month for €22.
The minister expects revenues of €3.7 billion of which around €3 billion will come from domestic drivers. With estimated introduction costs of nearly €200 million, the net revenue might shrink to just €500 million a year.
Dobrindt’s CSU wants foreign motorists to pay tolls on motorways because they think it is unfair that foreigners travel for free in Germany while German drivers have to pay tolls in neighbouring countries like Austria, Switzerland and France.
The CSU pressed the motorway toll issue in coalition talks after last year’s German federal elections.
But Merkel’s CDU and its other coalition ally, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), said they would only back the toll if it did not lead to extra costs for German motorists and if it complied with European Union rules that prohibit discrimination against foreign motorists.
Germany has already introduced a satellite-based toll system for lorries that obliges truck drivers to pay on motorways. This toll depends on the number of kilometres actually driven.
- Reuters
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In the latest sign of the disconnect between the legal system and an increasingly sexualized adolescent cyberculture, two 13-year-old Pennsylvania girls are threatened with child pornography charges for sending seminude photos of themselves via cellphone to their friends.
A third girl, 16, who sent a picture of herself wrapped in a towel at her waist after a shower, may also face charges.
“Sexting” or “sexing,” the practice of sending nude or seminude pictures via cellphone or posting them online, is on the rise. A recent study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy found that one in five teenagers admitting to having posted or sent a nude or seminude picture of themselves. In another survey by wiredsafety.org, an Internet safety and educational nonprofit organization, 44 percent of teen boys said they have seen at least one naked picture of a female classmate.
Over the past year, as schools and parents in states from Ohio and New Jersey to Colorado and California have found out about the practice, prosecutors have also become involved, in some cases threatening felony charges against the teenagers.
The incidents have sparked a nascent national campaign to educate parents and change the laws.
“The laws are either too hot or too cold and we need to make sure we find one that is just right,” says Perry Aftab, an online safety and privacy expert who founded wiredsafety.org. “We are either charging kids under child pornography and sexual exploitation laws as if they were registered sex offenders – which they will be if they’re successfully prosecuted – or we’re giving them a slap on the wrist with harassment laws that were not intended to address this.”
The situation in Tunkhannock, Pa., illustrates the extent to which “sexting” has become part of adolescent culture and the dilemma that it presents to parents, teachers, and law enforcement officials.
Last October, officials at the Tunkhannock Area High School, which is in a rural community north of Scranton, confiscated several cellphones from students and discovered pictures of scantily clad or seminude female students on them. Parents were alerted, and so were the police. In November, the local district attorney sent a letter to parents stating they’d discovered a “disturbing trend” and that they were investigating “several juveniles for possessing nude or seminude photos of young girls.” The letter went on to warn parents of the legal consequences as well as the fact that the teens appeared to be unaware of them.
“One young lady, when questioned about her photo being on a cell phone, called this ‘flirting’,” the letter stated.
With an estimated 20 teens involved, district attorney George Skumanick decided to try what he calls “a progressive” approach to the problem. In February, he sent another letter to the teens’ parents saying that if the students agreed to be placed on probation, submit to random drug testing and take part in a five-week counseling program, he would not press felony charges.
“It was mainly a crime of foolishness and naiveté, so we developed a program,” says Mr. Skumanick.
Most of the students agreed to take the classes. But the parents of three of the students felt the district attorney had gone too far in threatening felony charges. They went to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which brought suit against the district attorney charging that he was “standing child pornography laws on their heads.”
Sending seminude pictures is “stupid, careless, naive, poor judgment – all of the things that teenagers are and it could have really bad consequences for the future. But is it criminal and is it child pornography?” asks Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU in Pennsylvania. “These photos are not child pornography by production or by content – the Supreme Court has repeatedly said the definition of pornography is much narrower than just nudity.”
The district attorney’s decision to threaten child pornography charges against kids wearing underwear or in a bathing suit, Mr. Walczak says, is “a complete abuse his authority.”
District attorney Skumanick disagrees. “We tried to do what we thought was the progressive and the right thing by not charging them – by giving them the ability to avoid any record whatsoever,” he says.
The ACLU’s stance on the issue, Skumanick contends, would make it possible for anyone to bypass state laws and go directly to federal court charging their civil rights were violated before they were even charged with a crime. “That could cripple the criminal justice system,” he argues.
A judge is currently reviewing the ACLU’s request for a temporary restraining order against the district attorney. A ruling is expected this week.
For cyber-safety and teen advocates trying to raise awareness of the issue, the complexities of the Tunkhannock case simply reinforce the need to educate parents about the extent of “sexting” and students about the potentially severe consequences of the practice.
“Parents do not realize how widespread sexing is or how quickly the number of cases are rising,” says Casi L., an 11th grader at Ursuline School in New Rochelle, N.Y., who’s been working on cyber-safety issues since the 8th grade.
“A lot of kids feel anonymous online so they feel more comfortable doing inappropriate things because they think they won’t be linked back to them.”
The survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy also found that one in three young adults aged 20 to 26 had also sent nude or seminude pictures by phone or posted them online. Bill Albert, a spokesman for the National Campaign, says he believes those numbers are low because they were self-reported.
“We specifically put this question so that it was not open to interpretation,” says Mr. Albert. “Nude is nude, and seminude is seminude. If a person is in their bra, we wouldn’t classify that as seminude – if one of the 13-year-olds involved in this [Pennsylvania] case took our survey she’d check ‘no’ and appropriately so.”
The survey also found that young people have mixed feelings about the practice. The vast majority – 66 percent of teen girls and 60 percent of teen boys – say they thought of sexting as “fun or flirtatious,” but more than 70 percent also recognized it could have serious, long-term consequences in terms of their careers or social standing.
“But legal consequences were very low on their list of concerns,” says Albert.
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“Ever since I was born, I was dope.”
This is our introduction to Andy Samberg’s Conner4Real, and it offers just the sort of genial hubris that marks Conner’s blessed life. He was whaling on the drums as a toddler; he met his two best friends (Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone as Lawrence and Owen) young in life, and together these three kids founded the instantly successful rap trio The Style Boyz. After an ego fall-out with Lawrence, Conner’s spun off into his solo act, and his first album sold millions.
But in the grand tradition of easy success stories, Conner has now surrounded himself with yes men and parasites. He tried something new with his second album, refusing to use any of Owen’s beats and writing all of the dipshit lyrics himself, and the results are dismal. The album fails, starting a chain reaction of failures, everything from Conner's relationships to his stage illusions. Conner’s had a prideful life, and now he’s about to suffer a big fall.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is a Lonely Island movie through and through. Schaffer and Taccone directed the film, from a script by all three members, and it feels like an ideal culmination of everything that makes a Lonely Island sketch work. Rarely does a Saturday Night Live concept translate so effectively into a feature film, but Popstar accomplishes that transformation with a good nature, coherent script and nimble, non-stop jokes. Just joke after joke after joke, at a success rate much higher than even the best episodes of SNL. There’s plenty of stupidity here, but just the right amount, and none of it goes on too long. Before you’ve wrapped your head around one silly gag, Popstar has donkey rolled its way onto the next one.
Is the fate of The Style Boyz that of Lonely Island? It’s easy to make a comparison between the two trios. Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer became friends in junior high and rose to fame with seeming ease before being hired by Lorne Michaels to SNL, where Samberg became the breakout star, the featured player with by far the most surface success. Whether ego or envy were ever a part of Lonely Island’s story, they make The Style Boyz’s fictional history feel likely and authentic. It’s a small story, and it’s a dumb story, but it’s also a resonant one, and an efficient one. At under ninety minutes, Popstar hits every required narrative beat, giving us change, desire, conflict, resolution and triumph in clear, tidy doses.
And not for nothing, this movie looks like a movie. Cinematographer Brandon Trost has gotten a lot of well-earned attention lately for the way he shoots comedies, and Popstar is a perfect example. It’s bright and kinetic, just fun to look at. Conner’s tour performances and music videos are a blast, and since this is a Lonely Island joint, it should surprise nobody that the songs are, to a one, genius. With guest performances by Adam Levine, P!nk, Emma Stone, Seal, Akon and more, you’ll have no problem both cracking up and singing along to these jams. The titles include “I’m So Humble,” “Karate Guy,” “Things in My Jeep” and “Equal Rights,” in which Conner trips over himself to assure fans that he’s “not gay!” in a song about legalizing gay marriage…released months after gay marriage was made legal.
In addition to all of the musical guests, Popstar succeeds where so many other farces fail: a wealth of cameos that don’t feel shoehorned in or superfluous. After all, Popstar is a mockumentary about the rise and fall of a musician, so celebrity talking heads like Questlove, Carrie Underwood, Nas, Usher, Mariah Carey, Simon Cowell and Ringo Freaking Starr all have a place in this format.
The more substantial performances are even more successful: Tim Meadows and Sarah Silverman both stand out as Conner’s beleaguered management team, Justin Timberlake is his gentle, wide-eyed chef, and Joan Cusack absolutely kills as Conner’s flighty mother, a loving matriarch who is nevertheless enjoying the party scene a little too much.
Popstar does a terrific job of satirizing stardom, and the pop music industry as a whole, and you can’t skewer the dumb world of celebrity without skewering the dumbest part of it all. That brings us to Will Arnett, Chelsea Peretti, Mike Birbiglia and Eric André, having the most fun of anyone here by mocking the gleefully unhinged staff of a TMZ stand-in called CMZ. These guys are idiots. Evil idiots.
In other words, everyone’s great here. But this is the story of The Style Boyz, and Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer share a lovely chemistry, the kind of chemistry born from real history, the kind that can’t be faked. Despite a brief but delightful love interest role by Imogen Poots, Popstar has no real romance to speak of – except the romance among Conner, Owen and Lawrence. They may have let success get in the way of their friendship, but the most moving testimonials from admiring celebrity fans are all about the magic that happened when The Style Boyz were making music together. It’s easy to roll our eyes at Conner4Real, but the friendship at the core of his film is the realest thing about it.
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In addition to knowing you way around a bottle of Fernet, these are the essential terms you need to study if you want to survive behind the stick.
Whether we’re lawyers or lifeguards, doctors or ditch diggers, crooks or cooks, we all use slang in our lives. It’s not surprising that bartenders have their own unique lingo as well. Sit at a bar sometime and, for once, don’t watch the relentless Sportscenter highlights or dick around on your iPhone—actually listen to the casual conversation being bandied about by the bartenders when they think no customers are listening.
You might not understand some of the jargon, and you’re certainly not going to find most terms in the dictionary (or Urban Dictionary for that matter), but, believe me, these seemingly nonsensical words mean things—things both crucial and completely inane.
Thanks to Kyle Kensrue, beverage director at Randolph Beer and host of the upcoming ABV: A Beer Voyage; Nico Szymanski, head bartender at Irvington; Steve Schneider, bar manager and principal bartender at Employees Only; Brent Lamberti, formerly of The Corner Bistro, now national brand ambassador for elit by Stolichnaya; John McCarthy, cocktail director at Cedar Local; and many others who wished to remain anonymous* but who opened their kimonos (or, at least, their bar aprons) to reveal some lingo they unleash every single night.
Each bar will have its own unique patois, but many terms are widespread in the industry. Here’s a guide to common bar jargon.
Abrams
“A while back some buddies and I started calling good looking girls ‘Abrams,’” Kensrue explains. “As in Abrams Targeting in the Navy. One of our bartenders was an old Navy guy. When a cute girl would walk by we would call out to each other ‘Abrams!’ as in: target acquired.”
B.A.
A barrel-aged beer. (Could also be used, either fondly or disparagingly, to refer to a customer who is also a poster on the BeerAdvocate.com message boards.)
Baby
A small shot, often of beer, taken quickly.
Bartender’s handshake
Usually a small shot of Fernet-Branca given to a fellow bartender drinking at your bar (usually for free).
Behind the stick
Working at the bar that night.
Beverage program
Unnecessarily pretentious way of describing the beers, wines, liquors, cocktails, and other libations as bar has on its menu. Top bars are said to have a good “program.”
Boomerang
A drink sent from one bartender to another bartender at another bar, usually by a trustworthy customer.
Build
To make a drink, usually a cocktail which necessitates adding many ingredients in a particular order, (i.e., “building” a Queens Park Swizzle).
Burning
“Burning the ice” means hitting the well with hot water at the end of the night—or, after accidentally breaking glass into it—in order to melt it quickly.
Cheaters
Often unlabeled bottles, kept in the bar’s speed well or atop the bar, of bitter, syrups, and liqueurs—sometimes housemade—that a bartender plans to use frequently during service and, thus, needs to have close at hand.
Cicinho
A female customer with large breasts, named after a famous Brazilian soccer player.
Dancing
Moving behind the bar with other bartenders and barbacks to avoid tripping over one another.
Drain pour
A terrible beer—one so bad, it is isn’t even worth finishing for mere intoxication purposes. There is no choice but to immediately pour the remainder of the beer down the drain. Beer geeks often take a perverse pride in the beers they actually consider “drain pours.”
Dusties
In the retail world, refers to good bottles of booze that for some reason were never purchased, thus ending up with dust caked on them. Behind the bar, could refer to certain oddball liqueurs that no customers ever order and no cocktails ever necessitates. [Compare to “turds.”]
Hazmat
A whiskey that is barrel-proof and extremely alcoholic. While hot on the palate, it may still be quite tasty (George T. Stagg, for instance). Most accurately refers to bourbons over 140-proof—the threshold for liquors one is legally allowed to bring onto airplanes.
’Loons
Lambics and gueuzes from Brasserie Cantillon in Brussels, Belgium. Highly-coveted by beer geeks and now somewhat rare in America.
The Point
The end of the bar nearest the door. This is where the best bartender should work.
Service Bartender
The bartender that takes care of the drinks for the floor, as opposed to people sitting at the bar. Usually not as friendly as the other bartenders.
Service Bar
Where the waitstaff gets drinks ordered by people sitting at tables. Usually guests are discouraged from congregating around or ordering from the service bar.
Spec
Essentially a cocktail recipe. “For example, if I can’t remember the recipe for a cocktail I might call out to another bartender, ‘What’s the spec on the X cocktail?’” McCarthy says. “And they might respond, ‘Two, one, half, quarter, quarter, Ango’ and I’d now know exactly how to make the drink.”
Sours
A catchall term for any of the numerous styles of beer than can taste sour. This could include lambics, gueuzes, American wild ales, Flanders red ales, goses, and Berliner weisses.
Staff Meeting
An impromptu round of shots taken by the staff during a shift.
Three-Deep
A packed bar. Three-deep means that there are about three rows of people at the bar. “We are three-deep every night,” claims Schneider.
Ticker
A beer geek who cares more about quantity than quality. He would rather “tick” off many new beers quickly than savor a pint of one beer he’s already had before. Big fans of flights and samplers, tickers often think a mere ounce of beer is enough to truly “get” the beer, and, thus, log a nasty rating of it into Untappd.
Till
The cash register.
Tinder Date
An obviously awkward twosome who just met (and, sometimes, really are on a Tinder date). Szymanski explains they are “typically spotted once you hear awkward boasting of wealth, awkward glances at the guest’s phone or watch, awkward half-hug goodbyes, and yes, even awkward making out.”
Turds
Or “shelf turds.” Similar to dusties, beers that sit on shelves unpurchased for a long amount of time, thus “turding it up.” These turds could be great beers that simply are produced in a massive amount, rendering them less “sexy,” or beers that aren’t very good, and which no respectable beer geek will ever purchase.
Trolls
Kensrue explains, “This is for the guys that walk in looking for the freshest IPA with an IBU count of 1,000, wearing plaid and a massive, burly beard. The obnoxious beer nerd who thinks he knows more than everyone in the place combined. We actually have a sign in the back that says ‘No Trolls.’”
Whalez
Highly-coveted beers (i.e., “’Loons”) that beer geeks hunt with the same gusto that Ahab searched for Moby Dick. Often used jokingly or ironically. Beer geeks take pride in noting what they consider a whale and what they don’t—“Really? You consider Side Project Fuzzy a whale? Hmmm…”
*As one bartender wrote back to me, “(I) don’t feel comfortable giving up details for what is essentially a form of communication which would compromise any code of conduct and/or act of discretion that (we) use at work in accordance with guests.” I don’t really know what that means…but he didn’t participate.
Aaron Goldfarb (@aarongoldfarb) is the author of How to Fail: The Self-Hurt Guide, The Guide for a Single Man, and The Guide for a Single Woman.
RELATED: Kitchen Slang 101: How to Talk Like a Real-Life Line Cook
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Since popular pastor Mark Driscoll asked his followers to share stories about “the most effeminate anatomically male worship leader you’ve ever personally witnessed,” other Christians have taken note of something many atheists have known for quite some time: Christianity doesn’t make you a better, kinder, or more empathetic person. If anything, the Christianity we’re used to is hypocritical, intolerant, and the source of so much pain for so many people.
It’s important to note that Driscoll didn’t say anything out of the ordinary here — not for him and not on behalf of many other “followers of Jesus.” Gay people are used to this type of bullying from prominent Christians.
The upside to all this is that some Christians are speaking out against Driscoll. Like Rachel Held Evan, who calls him a bully (in Christianese):
Mark Driscoll is wrong. Godly men stick up for people, not make fun of them. Godly men honor women, not belittle them. Godly men love their gay and lesbian neighbors, not ridicule them. Godly men celebrate femininity, not trash it. … If this Facebook status were Pastor Mark Driscoll’s first offense, it might not warrant a strong response. But Mark has developed a pattern of immaturity and unkindness that has remained largely unchecked by his church. In evangelical circles, he’s like the kid from high school who makes crude jokes at every opportunity, uses the words “gay” and “queer” to describe the things he most detests, encourages his friends to subject the unpopular kids to ridicule, and belittles the guys who aren’t “macho” or “manly” enough to be in his club.
Anthony Bradley at (Christian) World magazine called Rachel’s response “libel”:
There is nothing loving about calling a pastor a “bully“ — that is, “a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.” That is a serious charge. In her post, Evans describes why she believes Driscoll to be a bully, implying that he, his teachings, and the elders at his church are not functioning in ways consistent with Scripture. While it is more than reasonable to understand why someone would take issue with Driscoll’s post, Evans’ way of responding cannot and should not be encouraged. What was even more disturbing was the way in which many other believers jumped on the slander bandwagon to feed on the carnage once it went viral.
Yeah… how *dare* a woman call out a pastor for not being properly Christian? She should know better and remain submissive and silent. (I’m curious what Bradley would have preferred she said…)
In any case, Rachel wasn’t the only person calling Driscoll out.
Tyler L. Clark expressed it beautifully, too:
The Church has been terrible to gays and lesbians. You have surely spent enough time talking with gay people in your community to know that the image of Christians tends to be a hateful one. In the same way that you want church culture to be more welcoming to blue-collar dudes, it also needs to be more welcoming to the gay and lesbian community. Your language… doesn’t help this. I am NOT calling you a misogynist or a [homophobe]. I’m simply suggesting that you reconsider how your words and actions are perceived. Your language is not only hurtful to gay men. It is hurtful to many straight men. As a man who has always been intimidated by more traditionally masculine men, your words tell me that I am not welcome in your church or among your friends.
It’s easy to pigeonhole all Christians into the anti-gay, anti-women umbrella, but there are some good ones out there and they’re as sick of this shit as we are.
…
Driscoll has since responded to the outcry with a non-apology apology:
I then put a flippant comment on Facebook, and a raging debate on gender and related issues ensued. As a man under authority, my executive elders sat me down and said I need to do better by hitting real issues with real content in a real context. And, they’re right. Praise God I have elders who keep me accountable and that I am under authority.
…
Coincidentally (or not), someone wrote to “Dear Abby” about a similar problem:
Dear Abby:
We have a problem — our pastor. He uses the pulpit to criticize, put people down and offers no compassion. A person can only take so much. The problem is, if you say anything to him, you can bet the next sermon will be about what you discussed. How can I talk to him without making him angry?
The response:
Your pastor’s behavior gives new meaning to the term “bully pulpit.” Rather than approach him yourself, you and others who feel as you do should take your complaint to the governing board of your church. And if that doesn’t fix the problem, you should seriously consider finding another “flock” to join because it appears your shepherd has lost his way.
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Download the official Manchester United Podcast for exclusive interviews from some of the biggest names in football as they reveal stories you will have never heard before. Sam Homewood, Helen Evans and David May sit down with legends from the past and present day to give you a unique insight to Manchester United and the sometimes unbelievable world of football.If you'd like to get in touch with the pod, e-mail utdpodcast@manutd.co.ukThis is the only official podcast for fans of the Red Devils. Stories from players who know what it’s like to walk out at Old Trafford, The Theatre of Dreams. Hear about player transfers, playing under Sir Alex Ferguson and playing with the biggest names, like David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
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According to a Weibo post made from QG Reapers' account, Li "LiNkO" Linke, who managed QG Reapers before they were acquired by Newbee and who left after the team was rebranded earlier this month, will lead a new League of Legends Secondary Pro League team that will operate under the name QG Reapers.
The post says the club has acquired the roster and LSPL spot of Newbee Young, and will play in the Summer Split.
Newbee acquired QG and all its assets in January, though the team played as QG Reapers in the LPL Spring Split before being rebranded as Newbee this month. It's not clear yet whether the new QG Reapers that will play in the LSPL is an independent organization that has acquired the rights to the QG brand, or a new subsidiary of Newbee.
Newbee Young placed sixth in the LSPL 2016 Spring Season. In its post, QG announced a new lineup for LSPL that includes players from Newbee Young, as well as subs from QG Reapers' original 2015 LSPL Spring lineup, and other LSPL players.
Kim " Khan " Dongha at top lane
" Dongha at top lane Xu " ss17 " Zhao at top lane
" Zhao at top lane Kim " Clid " Taemin in jungle
" Taemin in jungle Kim " Doinb " Taesang at mid lane
" Taesang at mid lane Cherish " Cherish " Zhe at mid lane
" Zhe at mid lane Wang " Alone " Zijun at AD carry
" Zijun at AD carry Liu "AhrI" Xudong at support
The most interesting pickup is Korean mid laner Doinb, who joins the new QG after the drawn out drama between him and Baek "Swift" Dahoon on the previous, Newbee-owned iteration of QG. Doinb will share the mid lane role with Cherish, who has played on many LSPL teams in the past.
Khan and Clid both played for Newbee Young in the previous split as the team's Korean duo. Khan has experience playing both in Champions and the League of Legends Pro League. ss17, the Chinese top laner for Hyper Youth Gaming last year, also has LPL experience on two separate teams.
Alone and AhrI round out the bottom lane. Alone played for QG Reapers Reserve team, and AhrI played for WE Academy before a very public conflict with Han "S1mlz" Jin. He has since spent time as a caster for the LSPL.
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President Trump is ratcheting up a contentious dispute with two of America's most popular professional sports leagues, opening a new front in a culture war over free speech and First Amendment rights.
Mr. Trump angered many NFL players and fans when he said at a rally in Alabama on Friday that athletes who refuse to stand for the national anthem should be fired. Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 to protest racism and police violence against minorities.
"Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, you'd say, 'Get that son of a b---- off the field right now. Out! He's fired," Mr. Trump said to loud applause.
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Mr. Trump brought the NBA into the fray Saturday morning when he rescinded an invitation for the Golden State Warriors' star Stephen Curry to visit the White House with the championship team. NBA players rallied around Curry, with LeBron James calling the president a "bum" in a tweet that's been retweeted hundreds of thousands of times.
On Saturday afternoon, Mr. Trump continued the barrage in a pair of tweets, writing players "making millions of dollars in the NFL" should "find something else to do" if they refuse to stand during "The Star-Spangled Banner."
If a player wants the privilege of making millions of dollars in the NFL,or other leagues, he or she should not be allowed to disrespect.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017
...our Great American Flag (or Country) and should stand for the National Anthem. If not, YOU'RE FIRED. Find something else to do! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 23, 2017
In a statement Saturday afternoon, the Golden State Warriors said they would not be visiting the White House and "accept that President Trump has made it clear that we are not invited."
"We believe there is nothing more American than our citizens having the right to express themselves freely on matters important to them," the team wrote. "We're disappointed that we did not have an opportunity during this process to share our views or have open dialogue on issues impacting our communities that we felt would be important to raise."
The team said it plans to "constructively use our trip to the nation's capital in February to celebrate equality. diversity and inclusion -- the values that we embrace as an organization."
The president's campaign against protesting NFL players spurred NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to issue a statement defending the players.
"Divisive comments like these demonstrate an unfortunate lack of respect for the NFL, our great game and all of our players, and a failure to understand the overwhelming force for good our clubs and players represent in our communities," Goodell said.
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Newsbrief: BlueStacks, the company behind the PC-based Android emulator of the same name, is rolling out an SDK that it says gives developers the ability to launch their mobile games on Steam in a single step and without any lengthy porting process.
That SDK is BlueStacks Inside and the company says it offers a 1-step integration that allows mobile games to launch on Steam and route all in-game transactions through the platform’s Steam Wallet.
Games brought to Steam through the SDK run in their own, game-branded windows without any additional BlueStack branding and can work with native Steam features as well. Devs are able to self-publish the BlueStacks Inside-powered games on Steam, though the company does take a percentage of in-app purchases and charge a separate fee for its use.
Inside is currently only in soft launch, but BlueStacks says it's already used the SDK to bring games like Pirates Outlaws from mobile to Steam.
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Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, speaking to reporters after a union forum in suburban Des Moines, Iowa, said Sunday he did not discuss his son Hunter’s decision to resign from the board of a Chinese equity firm before the younger man’s attorney had posted the statement.
“No one has asserted my son did a single thing wrong,” Mr. Biden added, pounding his finger into the podium, “except a lying president.”
And Mr. Biden also promised to bar his family members from occupying any office within the White House and said they won’t “sit in meetings as if they are a Cabinet member.”
That was a jab at Mr. Trump, who tapped daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, as advisers.
But Mr. Biden did not say whether his pledge meant that his wife Jill Biden would not get the office traditionally assigned to first ladies, should he win.
He further vowed that no one in his family will have “any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or foreign country.”
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Seven years on from the British-led NATO war in Libya in 2011 to remove leader Muammar Gaddafi, the country remains riddled with conflict and lacks effective governance. And one year on from terrorist attacks in the UK whose perpetrators are linked to that war, major questions remain about the links between British foreign policy and terrorism.
Rather than simply marking the terrorist attacks with a minute's silence and solemn pledges of defiance, what is really needed is a full public inquiry into the British role in that 2011 war and what has flowed from it.
The case for holding such an inquiry is overwhelming. The principles under scrutiny - whether the government violated international law, told parliament the truth and colluded with extremist forces - are as serious as over the invasion of Iraq.
Regime change
There are three main cases for the government to answer. First, British bombing in Libya, which began in March 2011, was a violation of UN Resolution 1973. This authorised member states to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya and to use "all necessary measures" to prevent attacks on civilians. What it did not authorise was the use of ground troops or regime change. Yet then prime minister David Cameron promoted both.
General David Richards, then chief of the defence staff, told a parliamentary inquiry in 2016 that Britain "had a few people embedded" with rebel forces in Libya, saying that they were “in the rear areas” and "would go forward and back". He also repeatedly told the inquiry that British policy amounted to regime change.
Did the LIFG receive UK assistance to fight in Libya at this time? Why were the Abedis allowed to return to the UK after fighting in Libya with no questions asked?
Indeed, British bombing clearly went beyond preventing attacks on civilians. Three weeks after Cameron assured parliament in March 2011 that the object of the intervention was not regime change, he signed a joint letter with US President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy committing to "a future without Gaddafi".
That these policies were illegal is confirmed by Cameron himself. He told Parliament on 21 March 2011 that the UN resolution "explicitly does not provide legal authority for action to bring about Gaddafi's removal from power by military means". This is, if anything, an even clearer-cut case than Iraq of a British government violating international law.
Collaboration with extremists
The second case to answer is over Britain's collaboration with Islamist extremists in the war. Britain saw such forces as its boots on the ground when it was prevented from, and didn’t want to, openly deploy forces of its own.
Two militants who had fought in Afghanistan led the military campaign against Gaddafi's forces in Derna, to the east of Benghazi. Abdel Hakim al-Hasidi, an influential Islamic preacher who spent five years at a jihadist training camp in eastern Afghanistan, oversaw the recruitment, training and deployment in the conflict of around 300 rebel fighters from Derna.
Both Hasidi and his field commander on the front lines, Salah al-Barrani, were former members of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), the Islamist force that Britain covertly funded in a failed attempt to assassinate Gaddafi in 1996.
People grieve on the anniversary of the deadly attack at Manchester Arena on 22 May 2018 (AFP) In April, in answer to a parliamentary question, Alastair Burt, the British Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, revealed that the British government probably had contacts with the LIFG during the Libya war. The information is especially significant in that Salman Abedi, the terrorist who blew up 22 people in Manchester last year, and his father, Ramadan, had both fought with the LIFG in 2011. Ramadan Abedi is believed to have been a prominent member of the LIFG, which he joined in 1994.
As Middle East Eye revealed last year, the British government operated an "open door" policy that allowed Libyan exiles and British-Libyan citizens living in the UK to join the 2011 war, even though some had been subject to counterterrorism control orders. These dissidents were members of the LIFG, and most were from Manchester, like the Abedis.
Journalist Peter Oborne subsequently revealed that they were "undoubtedly encouraged" by MI6 to travel to Libya to oust Gaddafi. Indeed, after the Libyan leader was overthrown, these fighters were allowed back into Britain “without hesitation”.
Arms embargo
The third case to answer relates to the arms embargo imposed on Libya in 2011. Resolution 1973 called on UN member states to ensure the “strict implementation” of this embargo. A Foreign Affairs Committee inquiry concluded that the international community, without mentioning Britain, turned a “blind eye” to the supply of weapons to the rebels. This was a generous way of putting it. We might ask what those “embedded” British forces were actually doing in Libya, and whether they were involved in supplying arms to opposition forces.
Moreover, a massive $400m worth of arms was provided to the rebels by Britain’s ally, Qatar, much of which went to Islamist radicals. It is inconceivable that this military support was not known to British ministers, and backed by them, as they consistently supported Qatar’s prominent role in the campaign against Gaddafi.
What will be the blowback for UK government after Libya revelations? Mark Curtis Read More »
The Chilcot inquiry into the invasion of Iraq was launched in 2009 and reported in 2016. The key questions it addressed were: “whether it was right and necessary to invade Iraq in March 2003 and whether the UK could - and should - have been better prepared for what followed”. These are also key questions for the Libya war of 2011, so why has no such inquiry been launched in this case?
A key answer is that the Libya war is not regarded as so controversial or disastrous as Iraq in the mainstream media or politics. But this is wrong. Libya has also been plunged into chaos and has also seen the emergence of terrorist groups. If the 2005 7/7 bombings in London were blowback from Iraq, then the 2017 Manchester bombing was likely blowback from Libya.
Unanswered questions
The real reason for failing to hold an inquiry is that the government simply does not want to shed any light on this dirty, murky episode, which involves not only Cameron but also Theresa May, who was home secretary at the time. Did May in 2011 know about or authorise the despatch of Libyans living in the UK to Libya, and were Salman or Ramadan Abedi specifically part of this process? Did the LIFG receive UK assistance to fight in Libya at this time? Why were the Abedis allowed to return to the UK after fighting in Libya with no questions asked?
The Labour opposition should commit to holding a public inquiry into the Libya war if it attains office.
- Mark Curtis is a historian and analyst of UK foreign policy and international development and the author of six books, the latest being an updated edition of Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Photo: A Libyan rebel sits atop a vehicle patrolling the streets of the eastern Libyan city of Ajdabiya on 1 May 2011 (AFP)
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Installation
General for this release candidate: parallel installation LibreOffice release candidate builds always replace an old LibreOffice installation - unless: With this release candidate, you have to use the 'parallel installation' to install it alongside the stable LibreOffice, and not replace it. Please see here.
Linux deb and rpm : please, read detailed instructions for different distributions the Linux packages can be installed in parallel to LibreOffice 3.5, but not run simultaneously - documents will be opened in the version you've started first.
and :
Windows : If you notice undesirable interactions between LibreOffice and OpenOffice.org, please report this as a bug. LibreOffice windows installers are signed by The Document Foundation.
:
Help files
The Windows multi-language installer as well as the langpacks do only contain localized UI. By default, LibreOffice uses online help - if you need help files on your disk, please install the helppack for your language. If there is no helppack for your language (because help has not been translated to your language), then you can install and use the English helppack or check the online help in any available language.
ODF changes
In LibreOffice 3.6 a different encryption is enabled by default. Since version 3.4.5, LibreOffice is able to open those files. See the release notes page.
Starting with LibreOffice 3.6, there's more fine-grained control over ODF compatibility for legacy consumers, via a new ODF 1.2 compatibility mode. See the release notes page.
Reported Bugs
A list of annoying bugs still contained in this version is available from Bugzilla, the full list of reported bugs is here.
List of fixed bugs
Bugs fixed against 3.6.0 RC3 (never published)
tdf#51252 LO cannot start (reports runtime error with Visual C++ Runtime Library) [Stephan Bergmann] tdf#52393 FILEOPEN 3.5.x spreadsheet with wrong row height [Markus Mohrhard]
Bugs fixed against 3.6.0 RC2
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A Virginia high school boy who spent nine days in the hospital after a brutal antigay attack is being charged with assault because he reportedly snapped and made the mistake of throwing the first punch.
Richmond’s Channel 12 News reported that Eric Martin was attacked by at least four other boys who left him with a serious concussion and multiple broken bones.
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“A head injury,” noted Eric’s mother Mary Martin. “A broken hand. That’s not just a fight. That’s a beating. That’s a vicious beating.”
Mary Martin said that the gang assault was the culmination of a prolonged campaign of bullying, in which Martin’s tormentors regularly showered him with antigay slurs and epithets and catcalled him as they shadowed him through the halls of Highland Springs High School in Henrico.
The irate mom said that her son may have thrown the first punch, but school officials had consistently turned a blind eye to Eric’s constant abuse at the hands of certain boys at school.
Family advocate Tammy Mottola is working with the school district on behalf of the Martins.
“It’s always the perpetrators that get away with the crime,” she said. “When the victims have finally had enough, after being verbally attacked and bullied for years and they snap…they are the ones that are penalized.”
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Eric Martin was barred from returning to school pending a violence assessment and a signed confession that he threatened the school, which Eric claims he never did and which school officials admit they never heard firsthand.
Motola and Mary Martin have made initial legal moves toward a possible suit against the school.
“I feel like we have to set the tone,” said Motola to Channel 12. “We are not going to be bullied.”
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Eric has been allowed to attend a new school in the district, but is still facing two assault charges from the Henrico Police Department.
Mary Martin said that to bolster her son’s spirits, she has established a Letters to Eric program, where supporters can write to him at P.O. Box 993, Sandston, Va. 23150.
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Motola said, “It’s just to encourage Eric to know that he is loved by many and that he is supported by literally thousands of people.”
Watch video about this story, embedded below via Richmond’s Channel 12 News:
NBC12 – Richmond, VA News
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Last updated on .From the section Northern Ireland
Ryan McBride's coffin, draped with his number five shirt, is carried to his home in the Brandywell area
Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill has led the tributes to Derry City captain Ryan McBride, who has died at the age of 27.
Defender McBride was found dead at home on Sunday, a day after he led his side in a 4-0 League of Ireland win over Drogheda United.
The cause of death is not yet known but a post mortem is being carried out.
"He epitomised everything about our club and our city," said Derry City chief executive Sean Barrett.
McBride's funeral will take place on Thursday at 10:00 GMT at St Columba's Church in Derry, after which the player will be buried in the city cemetery.
The league game between Derry City and Limerick, due to take place on 21 March, will be rescheduled.
McBride's death is the latest tragedy to befall the club following the death of striker Mark Farren and the Buncrana pier tragedy, which claimed the lives of members of winger Josh Daniels a year ago.
'He led boys to become men'
Northern Ireland manager O'Neill was manager of League of Ireland Premier Division side Shamrock Rovers when McBride joined Derry six years ago.
"When I first saw him play, I remember thinking, 'what a fantastic young defender'. He was strong, physical and hugely committed.
"His leadership qualities were evident even at such a young age and it was no surprise to me that he became such an inspirational player for his hometown club."
Ryan McBride: 'A perfect example to any young player'
Derry City manager Kenny Shiels said the death was "hard for everybody to take" and that he was "the perfect example to any young player coming through".
And chief executive Barrett added: "Of the words that have been thrown around probably my favourite one is 'warrior'.
"He led boys to become men and he was a man. He was everything that is associated with Derry City Football Club and, indeed, the whole city."
The Irish Football Association tweeted: external-link "Thoughts tonight with the family of Ryan McBride and everyone involved with Derry City FC."
Derry City released an official statement on Monday afternoon saying the team will "miss his inspiration and his leadership".
The statement went on to say: "In the hearts and minds of all of us, and long into the future, Ryan McBride will be remembered as one of the greats of Derry City Football Club."
Phil O'Doherty, Derry City Football Club chairman, said the team was "devastated" at the loss of a "leader on and off the field".
"He was incredibly respected. He was an ideal captain," he told the BBC. "He was from the Brandywell area and he walked across the road to his home after every game."
The CEO of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI), John Delaney, said Irish football was in mourning.
"Ryan's passing has left a deep shock throughout football," he said. "We will remember Ryan with a tribute at Friday night's World Cup qualifier against Wales."
Profile: Ryan McBride
Ryan McBride led Derry City to a 4-0 victory over Drogheda United on Saturday
Since his debut in 2011, McBride had not only become a mainstay of the club's defence, but a fans' favourite.
He made more than 170 appearances, with more than 50 as captain after he took over the role permanently two years ago.
A self-professed quiet man off the pitch, McBride said it was a "different story" on it. "I switch on and then I'm in game mode," he said.
'A lot of tragedy'
Heartbroken Derry City players leave a press conference following the death of Ryan McBride
Republic of Ireland footballer James McClean, a former team mate of McBride at Derry, said he was "a warrior that literally would throw his body on the line when he pulled on that Derry City jersey, a club that meant so much to him".
He said that McBride was a "big gentleman off the field", adding: "Sleep tight big man. May God bless you and your family."
Ireland manager Martin O'Neill has said West Brom's McClean will be permitted to leave the camp before Friday's game with Wales should he wish.
Former Derry City striker Liam Coyle said: "My brother phoned me to tell me and I was in total disbelief.
"I played football with Ryan's father and Ryan was always a rising star. Derry City has lost the best centre half in Ireland."
DUP leader Arlene Foster tweeted: "My deepest condolences to the family and all Derry City FC as they mourn the loss of the talented Ryan McBride. Such devastating news."
Archbishop Eamon Martin said: "Sad news from Derry. Praying for the family and for his many friends and supporters who will miss him. Lord have mercy. RIP."
The President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, tweeted: "Along with all those who support Irish football, I express my sadness and condolences to the family of Derry City Football Club captain Ryan McBride."
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Hungary election: Viktor Orban's Fidesz party hopes for third straight term Published duration 8 April 2018
image copyright AFP image caption Turnout for Sunday's election is reported to be higher than in the previous three votes
Voting is drawing to a close in Hungary, where opinion polls have pointed to a third consecutive term for right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Before the vote, Mr Orban and his Fidesz party were polling at 20 points or more ahead of the far-right Jobbik party and the centre-left Socialists.
Polling stations were meant to close at 19:00 (17:00 GMT), but some are staying open hours later due to long queues.
Preliminary results will be announced later than expected, after 23:00.
While Fidesz is expected to win a parliamentary majority, analysts are watching to see if Mr Orban's party can regain the "supermajority" it once held.
This is the two-thirds control of the 199-seat legislature that allowed Fidesz to pass controversial laws putting pressure on the judiciary and the press.
Data at 16:30 GMT from the National Election Office showed voter turnout of 68% - around nine points higher than at the same point in the 2014 election.
Pollsters think a high turnout could benefit the opposition.
What are Viktor Orban's policies?
Mr Orban refused to publicly debate with his opponents during the campaign or speak to the independent media, speaking instead at rallies for his supporters.
These addresses focused on one core policy - stopping immigration.
"Migration is like rust that slowly but surely would consume Hungary," Mr Orban said at his final rally on Friday.
image copyright AFP/Getty image caption Mr Orban hammered home his anti-immigration stance at a number of campaign rallies
Under Mr Orban, Hungary built a fence along its borders with Serbia and Croatia in 2015 to stop illegal migrants.
His anti-immigration measures and tough rhetoric have seen him clash with the European Union in the past.
Mr Orban is an avowed Eurosceptic who opposes further EU integration. He refused to take part in the EU's refugee resettlement programme and he has praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
If he wins, as is likely, Mr Orban has promised to cut income tax and pass pro-growth economic policies.
His administration has presided over strong economic growth which, he says, would be threatened under the opposition.
Who are the opposition parties?
A poll on Friday put Fidesz on 46% among decided voters, more than 20 points ahead of their nearest rivals Jobbik, on 19%.
Formerly a far-right group who agitated against Hungary's Roma community, Jobbik has tried to claim the centre ground in recent years.
image copyright AFP/Getty image caption Jobbik leader Gabor Vona addressed supporters at an event commemorating the 1848-49 Hungarian revolution
Rebranding itself as a moderate "conservative people's party", its leader Gabor Vona has called for a change in government and railed against Mr Orban.
"Viktor Orban is a burnt-out politician, interested only in corruption and football," he once said.
The centre-left Socialists meanwhile were on 14% in Friday's poll and not thought to pose a threat to Fidesz.
However, one-third of voters remain undecided, and an upset is not being ruled out.
In February, the southern town of Hodmezovasarhely elected a mayor backed by all the main opposition parties. It had been considered a Fidesz stronghold.
Analysts suggest tactical voting could in theory strip the government of its 131-seat domination of Hungary's parliament.
However, given his commanding lead in the polls, an outright defeat for Mr Orban is unlikely.
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An investigation is underway after a Delaware man accused members of a University of Delaware fraternity of calling him a homophobic slur, attacking him and breaking his leg during an off-campus day party.
Rancel Valdez told NBC10 he was attending a party hosted by a University of Delaware frat Friday. Valdez said he was waiting for a friend to come out of the bathroom when a frat brother walked up to him and told him to leave.
When Valdez told him he was waiting for his friend, the frat member allegedly called him a homophobic slur and pushed him from behind as he walked away.
"They were just being rude, telling me to leave, calling me names," Valdez said.
Valdez said more members of the frat began to attack him and ultimately broke his leg.
“I didn’t even look their way or nothing,” Valdez said. “They all just came to me.”
Valdez was treated at the hospital and told NBC10 he’ll miss work for the next month due to his injuries.
“He didn’t even do anything wrong that day,” said Erica Bundsehuh, who attended the party with Valdez. “I ran over. I’m trying to pull these kids off. Literally felt like it wasn’t stopping because they were getting pulled off and then someone else would just come over.”
Newark Police and the University of Delaware Police are investigating the incident.
“This kind of reprehensible behavior is not tolerated at the University of Delaware,” University of Delaware President Dennis Assanis said in a released statement. “We will take all appropriate measures in the student conduct process to ensure any offenders are held accountable for their actions.”
Police are not investigating the incident as a hate crime at this time. If you have any information on the incident, please call Newark Police at 302-366-7111.
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Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said Friday that his party is in position for “an earthquake election” come November 4. Dems predicting ‘earthquake’ election
Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg said Friday that his party is in position for “an earthquake election” come Nov. 4.
“Nothing is going to look the same,” Greenberg said, joined by Democratic strategist James Carville at a breakfast with reporters hosted by The Christian Science Monitor.
Carville likened the Washington political environment to pre-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, saying that “there will be nothing left standing” after the election. He added that Republicans stand to lose “not just an election but a generation of voters.”
“[John] McCain and [Sarah] Palin are losing the argument,” Greenberg said, pointing to favorable numbers for Obama on the campaign’s central issue, the economy.
“They are losing on their central arguments,” the pollster said of the Republican’s focus on tax cuts. “They can’t see that what they take for granted loses them independents.”
Greenberg said the GOP has not adjusted to a changed electorate and is running toward a base that no longer has the numbers it once had.
“Republicans want McCain to keep running to the right,” he said. “This is a new map.”
Carville agreed, though he suggested that Democrats also have not fully adapted to a changed electorate.
“I don’t know if we’ve seen the full sweep of what is possible,” he said, listing a number of Republican House seats that are polling competitive despite received little or no money from Democratic committees.
Both said that, despite the tough environment Republicans face in this election, the McCain campaign was running a competitive race until selecting Palin as the Arizona senator’s running mate.
Greenberg said Palin has “changed the whole criteria of the race” by moving the debate from assessing Obama’s experience to change and reform.
“Attitudes toward Palin are now more of a factor than McCain,” he said.
“The Palin thing was just pretty dumb,” Carville added. “That looked good for, what, 48 hours? Seventy-two hours?”
The Democratic strategist also mocked the McCain campaign’s attempts to use Joe the Plumber to rally middle-class voters. “The reason the Republicans found Joe the Plumber was to find someone hanging around a toilet other than [Sen.] Larry Craig,” he said.
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As Twitchy noted over the weekend, it was only two weeks ago that former CIA Director John Brennan predicted with absolute certainty that Robert Mueller would be dropping the collusion hammer on Donald Trump. Obviously, it didn’t take too long for his predictions to be proven very, very wrong. And now, ABC News senior national correspondent Terry Moran thinks Brennan’s got some serious ‘splaining to do:
John Brennan has a lot to answer for—going before the American public for months, cloaked with CIA authority and openly suggesting he’s got secret info, and repeatedly turning in performances like this. pic.twitter.com/EziCxy9FVQ — Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) March 25, 2019
Moran is absolutely right, of course.
And good on Moran for calling Brennan out:
This tweet, perhaps hinting darkly that Brennan knows secrets harmful to Trump, struck me at the time as the kind of thing a former intel chief might not want to say. If his equivalent in, say, Argentina or Ukraine did it, we might well suspect an undemocratic impulse at work. https://t.co/luci4apjLt — Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) July 23, 2018
Nothing in that tweet says anything about Brennan having inside information about collusion with Russians. — Zach (@ad1220) March 25, 2019
If you interpreted that tweet as Brennan knowing harmful secrets specifically related to the Russia investigation, that's on you. — Zach (@ad1220) March 25, 2019
He used the prestige of his position as DCI to advance his argument that the president was a criminal and a traitor. What he did makes it harder for future DCIs to maintain the confidence of the country; he poisoned that high office with partisan hackery. — Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) March 25, 2019
Moran nailed it. Unfortunately, what Moran has failed to acknowledge is the media’s role in elevating Brennan’s “partisan hackery” by repeatedly and regularly giving him a platform to spew his nonsense.
As does the entire MSM. — SMR1128 (@SMR11281) March 25, 2019
Why did the media give this proven liar a platform? https://t.co/5iTgrofWWV — Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) March 25, 2019
Seems to me that the networks that gave him a platform have a lot to answer for. — Flyer (@bama_flyer) March 25, 2019
The media who give him the platform should be held to answer why the did so. — Doug Sheridan (@dougsheridan) March 25, 2019
Brennan has a lot to answer for, but so do the networks and “news” hosts who lapped up everything he said and pushed it out as gospel truth with no questions, no objective follow up research, no speculation. — HB Nisse (@Ofoeti8) March 25, 2019
GP Why did media allow him to do so unchallenged? Why put on a person who won't allow cross-examination on the basis for his statements? This a Brennan disaster, but media enabled him to do so. https://t.co/WMqwNpkjyY — The Gormogons (@Gormogons) March 25, 2019
There were a lot of the media (all of MSNBC & CNN, some like Sunny Hostin on your network, etc.) that were equally vociferous about forthcoming indictments. The media really needs some introspection. You've done such a disservice to people that trusted you. — Gopher4Mn (@Gopher4Mn) March 25, 2019
Indeed.
He lied. He had nothing and pretended to be in the know. He should be publicly rebuked by everyone who put him on TV and then never given a platform again. https://t.co/Ym0Hg4GV8n — RBe (@RBPundit) March 25, 2019
Makes sense to us.
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Big freeze in Europe shows no signs of letting up as Venice's famous waterways ice over
The big freeze shows no sign of letting up in Europe as Venice's famed waterways fell victim to sub zero temperatures this morning.
Water buses were stranded in some of the Italian city's canals after they froze solid in temperatures as low as -10C.
More than 60,000 homes were left without power in Milan and officials declared a gas supply emergency as the cold temperatures saw pipes burst.
Chilly attraction: A small passenger boat makes its way through ice on a Venice canal as temperatures dropped to -10C
Big freeze: A water bus makes slow progress of the ice-choked canals in the picturesque Italian city No go for gondolas: A view of the frozen north lagoon in Venice Ice breaker: Another boat struggles along a lagoon in Venice. In nearby Milan, more than 60,000 homes were left without power and officials declared a gas supply emergency A woman strolls down the street in the center of Skopje, capital of The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Winter wonderland: The frozen canals of Amsterdam became a giant playground as residents cycle, skate and walk along the ice Making use: People skate across frozen canals in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which have been closed to commercial shipping Team effort: Dutch volunteers clear of the snow from the ice floor of the frozen river the Luts in Balk, north Netherlands
Seemply freezing: Two meerkats at London Zoo get to grips with the snowy conditions
Bath time: Two Ukrainian men take a dip in an ice hole in the Dnipro river in Kiev
Countries across Europe have been battling a severe cold snap for the last two weeks, with schools closed, public transport ground to a halt and snow melt threatening flooding to built up areas.
Another four people were killed by floods in southern Bulgaria, with 10 people still missing authorities said today, after a dam collapsed.
Temperatures have plummeted as low as -36C in Ukraine, the hardest-hit country, with hundreds of people - many homeless - reported to have died across Europe.
Last night, the Serbian government declared a state of emergency, after intense snowfall. Emergency officials said 70,000 people were cut off.
Schools will also be closed in the Italian capital of Rome on Tuesday, as Italy copes with unusually heavy snow for the Mediterranean country.
Rescue: A man is evacuated in Biser, southern Bulgaria, after a dam wall broke and flooded the town
Iced in: People walk along the promenade on Lake Geneva, Switzerland, as a 4x4 stands completely covered by ice Slippy: A woman walks on the frozen waterside of the boardwalk of the Lake Geneva, in Gland, Switzerland
Mush! A competitor speeds through the snow with his Siberian huskies during a dog race in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
One for the album: A tourist takes a picture of the Bartholdi fountain in Lyon, eastern France
Snow covered alpine houses on the mayen Lafet, 1,855 metres above sea level in the canton of Grisons, eastern Switzerland
So far, ten deaths have been linked to winter weather, including two people who were crushed under a collapsed roof south of Rome, and a 91-year-old woman in the northeast port of Trieste who was knocked down by strong winds.
In Bosnia, hundreds of villages were stuck behind snowed-in roads and avalanches and authorities were using helicopters to evacuate the sick and deliver food. Authorities said they have had no contact for 72 hours with about 120 people in the central village of Zijemlja, where residents have no electricity or phone lines.
In Poland, the Interior Ministry reported Monday that nine people died of hypothermia over the past 24 hours. Two elderly people were found frozen in Serbia and Bosnia, and Croatia reported four snow-related deaths.
Ukraine's Emergency Situation Ministry said today the country's death toll now stands at 135, including many homeless people. Some 2,000 have been hospitalized for frostbite or hypothermia, it said.
In the Netherlands, however, Europe's deep freeze means the country's almost mythical 'Eleven Cities Tour' ice skating marathon could be staged later this month for the first time in 15 years.
Thick ice covers of the anchor of a ferry ship making her way among ice-floes floating in River Danube in Budapest, Hungary
Unseasonably cold: Even Algeria, in north Africa, has borne the brunt of the freezing weather with rare snowfall A rare visit from Mr frosty: Two women walk past a snowman in Algiers, Algeria. Meteorology reports suggest that the last time Algiers saw this amount of snow was at least seven years ago in 2005
Cut off: An isolated village is surrounded by heavy snowfall in Bosnia and Herzegovinia. Hundreds of people have been killed as temperatures plummeted as low as -36C in Eastern Europe
A man walks past snow-covered trees on top of the 1,493-meter-high Feldberg mountain in the southern German Black Forest region
The race, held along a 125-mile network of canals connecting 11 towns and cities in Friesland province, would cause a national frenzy, drawing thousands of participants and more than a million spectators. It was last held in 1997.
Treacherous conditions threatened Britain's return to work today as the weekend snow that blanketed the country turned to ice, striking at transport on road, rail and in the air.
While thousands ventured outside to enjoy the snow at the weekend, the onset of the working week is likely to bring widespread disruption with problems reported on the roads, railways, at airports and even on the ground as people struggle with icy pavements.
On the roads the RAC today said it had had the busiest February weekend in its history, with 41 per cent more calls than usual, while the worst overnight problems saw a 25-mile long stretch of the A1 closed after a series of accidents that included four jack-knifed lorries. The A27 is also partly closed this afternoon after a serious crash involving three vehicles.
Icicles hang from a roof in Hochfilzen, in the Austrian province of Tyrol
Frozen: King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, perform a 41-gun salute to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Queen's accession in the snow in Hyde Park, London
Monument: York Minister surrounded by snow. Britain has also been hit by snow as flights were cancelled at Heathrow and roads were blocked
In the air, Heathrow airport passengers were enraged that just three inches of snow led the third busiest airport in the world to cancel half of its flights over the weekend. However, the airport issued a statement this afternoon which read: 'We're operating a normal schedule today. Please continue to check your flight status with your airline.'
A Downing Street spokesman said the return to normal service was a victory for the airport's snow plan following major disruption in December 2010, when the Spanish-owned airport authority BAA was heavily criticised by an inquiry for its ‘low state of preparedness’ as thousands of passengers were stranded.
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Si algo hemos aprendido en los meses que llevamos en la Asamblea de Madrid es a experimentar y vivir en primera persona que “las instituciones son un traje a medida de quien las ha diseñado” como dijo Teresa Rodríguez el domingo pasado. Que aquí todo está pensado y bien atado para que quienes entren acaben por no querer, o no poder, ser leales los intereses y las necesidades de las mayorías.
Pero también desde que estamos aquí hemos aprendido, al menos, dos cosas más. En primer lugar, que se pueden hacer y cambiar muchas cosas desde las comunidades. Hay que tener voluntad para ello. Y sobre todo si hablamos de los servicios sociales que consisten en garantizar derechos sociales y libertades civiles. Así lo entendió bien el gobierno de Esperanza Aguirre, que se puso manos a la obra para construir, desde “sus” instituciones, sociedad civil e ideología.
En segundo lugar, que podemos conocer desde una perspectiva diferente la misma realidad. La misma que denuncian los movimientos sociales, la misma que se vive en la calle. Gente que está excluida del bienestar, de los derechos humanos, de los recursos o de la igualdad. Muchas personas, con problemas diversos, unas veces organizadas y otras no, que piden que alguien les de voz. Por desgracia, conocemos casos que son realmente terroríficos.
Una de esas realidades es la de madres que llevan años denunciando que sus hijos o hijas han sufrido abusos sexuales por parte de sus padres. Son muchos los casos que ante la invisibilidad a la que son sometidos, ante el ninguneo, e incluso ante la amenaza en algunos casos, han constituido la asociación Infancia Libre. Son menores que sufren una permanente vulneración de sus derechos más básicos y para quienes el “interés superior del menor” no significa nada. Y esta vulneración de derechos se produce no sólo por parte de quienes han abusado sexualmente de ellos, sino también por parte de una administración que ni les protege ni garantiza sus derechos.
Es por ejemplo el caso de una menor de 6 años que declaraba en uno de los CAI (centro de atención a la infancia) como su padre le ponía la cabeza en la zona genital y le hacía daño. Él declaraba que “la niña es una manipuladora y mentirosa”. La situación sigue siendo la de que el padre tiene a la niña la mitad del tiempo y la Fiscalía no ha sentido que haya que aplicar medidas cautelares. Y como éste hay otros muchos casos terribles. Las madres han acudido a todo tipo de instancias para pedir ayuda y una solución. La respuesta por parte de la justicia ha sido archivar los casos de forma reiterada a pesar de las declaraciones de los y las menores de edad, que culpan claramente a sus padres de abusar sexualmente de ellos.
Detrás de estas decisiones de la justicia está el SAP. El síndrome de alienación parental dice describir un “desorden psicopatológico en el cual un niño, de forma permanente, denigra e insulta sin justificación alguna a uno de sus progenitores, generalmente, pero no exclusivamente, el padre”. La existencia del SAP no está probada científicamente. Se acuñó en 1985 en EEUU por parte del psiquiatra Richard Gardner, posteriormente probado pedófilo, a pesar de lo cual este síndrome sigue siendo defendido reiteradamente por asociaciones de Padres Separados por la Custodia Compartida y por asociaciones que bajo la defensa de “igualdad efectiva” instalan en la sociedad mitos que atentan contra los derechos de las mujeres. Si bien no suele utilizarse como prueba jurídica en la mayoría de los casos, la ideología machista y en concreto el convencimiento de que existe el SAP está detrás de muchas de las decisiones de los magistrados.
El machismo también está en las administraciones públicas y en los servicios sociales. La política de privatización y externalización llevada a cabo por los sucesivos gobiernos del PP tiene varios intereses: que sus amigos empresarios puedan hacer negocio –obviamente a cambio de recompensas como un puesto en un Consejo de administración o una buena donación-, construir un modelo de sociedad basado en la desigualdad y en la segregación, y su perpetuación en el poder. Por eso esta comunidad ha sido el laboratorio de las políticas neoliberales y también del conservadurismo y el pensamiento más reaccionario. Y por eso desde el Gobierno se ha llevado a cabo la cesión de la gestión de los servicios sociales a fundaciones y empresas relacionadas con la Iglesia Católica o con otras agrupaciones como los Legionarios de Cristo. Colegios concertados, centros de protección para menores de edad y centros de ejecución de medidas judiciales (nada menos que cárceles gestionadas por empresas privadas) o los CEPIS. Llama la atención especialmente el caso de los Centros de Apoyo y Encuentro Familiar (CAEF) o el Centro Especializado de Intervención en Abuso Sexual Infantil (CIASI), que nació ya privatizado en el año 2005 y que es el lugar al que deben acudir menores que han sufrido abusos sexuales.
Estas madres acudieron al CIASI con sus hijos e hijas. La respuesta que han encontrado en varias ocasiones ha sido la de “mejor no denunciéis porque os pueden quitar a vuestras hijas”. Da miedo que esa sea la respuesta por parte de un servicio público a unas madres que están desesperadas y solas ante la posibilidad de que quienes están abusando sexualmente de sus hijos se los lleven los fines de semana y que archiven los casos a pesar de las evidencias. Algunas de estas madres están teniendo que pagar a un abogado o abogada un dinero que no tienen, y en muchos casos multas de hasta 600 euros al mes por saltarse el régimen de visitas. Hay otras madres que no pueden ni denunciar por la falta de recursos y que se ven obligadas a una vida entera viendo como sus hijas son objeto de abusos sexuales.
El hecho de que estas madres tengan que soportar que un servicio social -que está para garantizar los derechos de la ciudadanía y en este caso de los menores de edad-les recomiende no denunciar por su propio bien, evidencia claramente que esta sociedad no está hoy preparada para dar una respuesta correcta a la violencia machista –ni sus instituciones, ni las administraciones, ni la justicia- , ni a la vulneración de los derechos de los y las menores de edad. En nuestras manos está cambiarlo.
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WASHINGTON - Political acrimony over President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to fire FBI Director James Comey is playing into the hands of a longtime U.S. adversary, several current and former U.S. intelligence officials say.
“From a geopolitical standpoint, the real winner is Russia,” said Luke Hartig, a former senior director at the National Security Council under former President Barack Obama.
'Could Russia want anything more?'
Jeffrey Ringel, a recently retired 21-year veteran of the FBI now serving as director of The Soufan Group, echoed similar sentiments about how the current political dynamic is playing out.
“Could Russia want anything more?” Ringel asked of Comey’s sudden dismissal. “Russia is probably very happy with the results of this action because this action is going to bog down the [FBI’s] investigation.”
Trump said he fired Comey because “he wasn’t doing a good job.”
A memo from the Justice Department criticized Comey’s handling of the investigation of whether former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton mishandled classified material.
Democrats and some Republicans see the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s ties to the Trump campaign as the real reason Comey was fired.
Adding fuel to the controversy was Wednesday’s meeting between Trump and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, one day after Comey was fired. The White House did not let the media into the meeting for a customary photo opportunity. The only pictures of the meeting came from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Before meeting with Trump, Lavrov, at the State Department, made light of Comey’s departure, joking with American reporters who asked whether his dismissal cast a shadow over the foreign minister’s visit.
"Was he fired?" Lavrov coyly asked them at the first mention of Comey. "You are kidding. You are kidding."
Denied collusion allegations
While continuing to deny that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, White House officials maintained Wednesday that Comey’s firing would have no impact on the FBI investigation.
Still, there are those who worry that no matter how the investigation plays out, it could be advantage Russia.
“They’re trying to exploit whatever cultural fissures there are within a country,” a U.S. official told VOA on condition of anonymity when asked about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s evolving strategy for the U.S. and its allies.
“The intensity is new. Some of the tools are new,” the official added. The pattern, however, is not.
“He will do anything to fracture traditional alliances that he sees as threatening to his power,” the official said.
And there are fears that every victory, no matter how slight, will only further embolden Putin and Russia.
Russian-linked hackers
Already, the U.S. National Security Agency has accused Russian-linked hackers of trying to sow confusion in France during its recent presidential election.
And NSA Director Adm. Michael Rogers noted Tuesday that the U.S. was seeing “similar things” in Britain and Germany.
“The first objective was to sow discord and dissension, which they certainly did,” former U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told a Senate panel Monday, when asked about Russian interference in the U.S. presidential elections.
“They're going to continue to do it,” Clapper added. “And why not? It proved successful.”
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Party Foods
Anyone who has ever hosted a party knows this conundrum all too well: what kind of food is best to serve to your guests? Or if your guests offer to bring food, what should you tell them to bring? What makes a good party food? First and foremost, it has to be delicio…
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Experimental link between quantum entanglement (left) and classical chaos (right) found using a small quantum computer. Credit: University of California - Santa Barbara
Using a small quantum system consisting of three superconducting qubits, researchers at UC Santa Barbara and Google have uncovered a link between aspects of classical and quantum physics thought to be unrelated: classical chaos and quantum entanglement. Their findings suggest that it would be possible to use controllable quantum systems to investigate certain fundamental aspects of nature.
"It's kind of surprising because chaos is this totally classical concept—there's no idea of chaos in a quantum system," Charles Neill, a researcher in the UCSB Department of Physics and lead author of a paper that appears in Nature Physics. "Similarly, there's no concept of entanglement within classical systems. And yet it turns out that chaos and entanglement are really very strongly and clearly related."
Initiated in the 15th century, classical physics generally examines and describes systems larger than atoms and molecules. It consists of hundreds of years' worth of study including Newton's laws of motion, electrodynamics, relativity, thermodynamics as well as chaos theory—the field that studies the behavior of highly sensitive and unpredictable systems. One classic example of chaos theory is the weather, in which a relatively small change in one part of the system is enough to foil predictions—and vacation plans—anywhere on the globe.
At smaller size and length scales in nature, however, such as those involving atoms and photons and their behaviors, classical physics falls short. In the early 20th century quantum physics emerged, with its seemingly counterintuitive and sometimes controversial science, including the notions of superposition (the theory that a particle can be located in several places at once) and entanglement (particles that are deeply linked behave as such despite physical distance from one another).
And so began the continuing search for connections between the two fields.
All systems are fundamentally quantum systems, according Neill, but the means of describing in a quantum sense the chaotic behavior of, say, air molecules in an evacuated room, remains limited.
Imagine taking a balloon full of air molecules, somehow tagging them so you could see them and then releasing them into a room with no air molecules, noted co-author and UCSB/Google researcher Pedram Roushan. One possible outcome is that the air molecules remain clumped together in a little cloud following the same trajectory around the room. And yet, he continued, as we can probably intuit, the molecules will more likely take off in a variety of velocities and directions, bouncing off walls and interacting with each other, resting after the room is sufficiently saturated with them.
"The underlying physics is chaos, essentially," he said. The molecules coming to rest—at least on the macroscopic level—is the result of thermalization, or of reaching equilibrium after they have achieved uniform saturation within the system. But in the infinitesimal world of quantum physics, there is still little to describe that behavior. The mathematics of quantum mechanics, Roushan said, do not allow for the chaos described by Newtonian laws of motion.
To investigate, the researchers devised an experiment using three quantum bits, the basic computational units of the quantum computer. Unlike classical computer bits, which utilize a binary system of two possible states (e.g., zero/one), a qubit can also use a superposition of both states (zero and one) as a single state. Additionally, multiple qubits can entangle, or link so closely that their measurements will automatically correlate. By manipulating these qubits with electronic pulses, Neill caused them to interact, rotate and evolve in the quantum analog of a highly sensitive classical system.
The result is a map of entanglement entropy of a qubit that, over time, comes to strongly resemble that of classical dynamics—the regions of entanglement in the quantum map resemble the regions of chaos on the classical map. The islands of low entanglement in the quantum map are located in the places of low chaos on the classical map.
"There's a very clear connection between entanglement and chaos in these two pictures," said Neill. "And, it turns out that thermalization is the thing that connects chaos and entanglement. It turns out that they are actually the driving forces behind thermalization.
"What we realize is that in almost any quantum system, including on quantum computers, if you just let it evolve and you start to study what happens as a function of time, it's going to thermalize," added Neill, referring to the quantum-level equilibration. "And this really ties together the intuition between classical thermalization and chaos and how it occurs in quantum systems that entangle."
The study's findings have fundamental implications for quantum computing. At the level of three qubits, the computation is relatively simple, said Roushan, but as researchers push to build increasingly sophisticated and powerful quantum computers that incorporate more qubits to study highly complex problems that are beyond the ability of classical computing—such as those in the realms of machine learning, artificial intelligence, fluid dynamics or chemistry—a quantum processor optimized for such calculations will be a very powerful tool.
"It means we can study things that are completely impossible to study right now, once we get to bigger systems," said Neill.
Explore further Researchers refine method for detecting quantum entanglement
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Martín Kerchner: Tenemos cinco: Shanghái, Guangzhou, Dubai, Amberes y hace poco el de Los Andes, el primer pueblo que está después del paso internacional Cristo Redentor. En los hubs en China se vendieron 40 mil botellas de vino de bodegas medianas y pequeñas. Las bodegas grandes van desde hace muchos años por su cuenta. La primera política fue ordenar el Estado. Después hicimos las bases de ultramar. La tarea ahora es ayudar a vender los productos. Iremos a ferias de vinos a granel y otras ferias muy grandes. También el foco está en las TIC y energía como paneles solares o desarrollos eólicos.
P: ¿Quieren desarrollar energías alternativas?
M. K.: Ya empezamos, pero ahora estamos buscándoles novio. Hay pequeñas centrales hidroeléctricas que funcionan sobre los causes de riego, pero tenemos unos 60 puntos por cubrir. También las grandes centrales, como Portezuelo del Viento. O Potasio Río Colorado. Estamos con un acuerdo con Vale que nos está transfiriendo los activos de la mina de potasio que tiene reservas por 100 años. Es vital en alimentos y medicamentos. Estamos buscando un socio. En turismo, 8 millones de cantoneses salen al exterior. Mendoza tiene un hub aéreo de los mejores del país, con 180 vuelos semanales. También vamos por algo relacionado a la industria audiovisual. Y después, vino. También vamos a estar en Dubai; tenemos reunión con la cámara emiratí, reuniones por temas de energía y petróleo, y para tratar de avanzar con el hub logístico, pasar no sólo del almacenaje sino también a la comercialización.
P: ¿La gira incluye el desarrollo del sector de Vaca Muerta?
M. K.: Sí, hay un desarrollo que está empezando a tomar color, como los yacimientos no convencionales. A pesar de eso, hacía mucho que no se descubría un yacimiento convencional, como el que se descubrió hace poco en Mendoza. El hecho de haber reconstruido los contratos fue clave. Antes eran de real state sin compromiso de inversión. Hicimos contratos más duros, revertimos áreas petroleras, con inversiones más grandes.
P: Habrá un cambio de gobierno. ¿Cómo los puede afectar?
M. K.: Mendoza está un poco mejor parada que Nación, en el sentido de que hizo el trabajo antes que el Estado Nacional. Se equilibró, empezó a bajar impuestos y tuvo un excedente de ingreso primario que fue destinado a la obra pública y estas cuestiones como los hub logísticos, que significan proyectar a Mendoza al mundo. Pero igual le caben las generales de la ley. Si Argentina toma un camino de seriedad fiscal y económica, a Mendoza necesariamente le va a ir bien, porque tiene una economía diversificada e integrada al mundo. Agroindustria, petróleo, minería, turismo, servicios basados en el conocimiento, logística. Ahora, si el camino del nuevo gobierno es el populismo y cerrarse, ahí se nos va a complicar a todos.
P: ¿Buscan que esos sectores tengan más relevancia?, ¿no serán dependientes del vino?
M. K.: Hay un error de marca. Todos decimos: Mendoza tiene los vinos más ricos del mundo. Pero lo que nos trajo el vino fue la innovación tecnológica. Empezamos con el vino, pero desarrollamos la logística. Hoy Mendoza es la puerta entrada del 66% de las mercancías terrestres del Mercosur al Pacífico. Eso desarrolló un polo de servicios logísticos muy importantes. Mendoza nació con vino pero también con petróleo, hoy somos el cuarto productor del país, además tenemos refinerías desde donde surtimos combustible a 14 provincias, es un sector enorme, tanto como el vino. Y todavía no empezamos con el no convencional. También tenemos tres millones de visitantes al año. La masa del producto bruto tiene una pata en la agroindustria, pero es una parte. Mendoza produce software, videojuegos, audiovisuales. Somos una economía compleja, con varias actividades que hacen tracción en algún momento y van estabilizando la economía. Los que dependen sólo de una actividad, un efecto sobre eso desarma todo el sistema. Lo que estamos haciendo ahora es potenciar algunas ramas que estaban adormecidas.
P: En ese sentido, hay expectativas por Portezuelo…
M. K.: Hasta 2002 teníamos 20 mil personas trabajando en la construcción de represas hidroeléctricas, desde 1950. 52 años con un sector de la economía muy pujante, con altos ingresos. Tenemos mucho para despertar. La tarea que viene está ahí. Establecer objetivos en forma inteligente.
P: A todos los atrae a hacer negocios en China, pero después muchos proyectos no se concretan, ¿por qué?
M. K.: En china hay dos barreras, la idiomática y la cultural. La primera, la estamos rompiendo. Respecto de la cultura, China es un gran ciudadano del mundo, pero sólo hace negocios si te conoce. Si confía y si no lo defraudás. Mendoza está haciendo su propio comercio exterior, su propia cancillería. Es lo que viene también, vínculos punto a punto con provincias y regiones. Estamos sorprendidos con la cantidad de autoridades chinas que vienen a nuestra provincia. Ahora estamos desarrollando una miniserie de nuestro cluster audiovisual con el de Cantón. Un producto para China pero filmado en Mendoza. Lo cultural es central. Además, entra una bodega a China y pasa a ser otro embajador, porque un negocio abre otro.
P: Las economías regionales fueron golpeadas, ¿cómo ve su evolución?
M. K.: No puede ser lo mismo producir en un lugar que en otro. Muchas veces por esa tabla rasa se ha premiado la improductividad de una zona. Y por el impacto que puede producir una traslación de recursos. Pero si se empieza a medir de forma seria, debemos ser especialistas en lo que sabemos hacer, y dejar de hacer lo que no somos tan eficientes. Esto vale para regiones, provincias y naciones.
P: ¿Y qué expectativas tienen ahora respecto de las políticas de Alberto Fernández?
M. K.: Primero, que nos digan si hay camino, y cuál es. En base a eso, vamos a saber si lo que viene es seguir trabajando en políticas de largo plazo y hacernos eficientes en todos los sectores de la economía, hacernos serios en el mundo, recuperar la palabra de la estabilidad. Si se sigue ese camino, será ir para adelante. Si es el otro camino, el que ya conocemos, será resistir.
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Un éditorial, par définition, correspond à la position d’un journal. Il faut donc comprendre que l’éditorial de Robert Dutrisac du 13 octobre est la position du Devoir. On peut y lire qu’en déposant la charte des valeurs, le PQ a tenté « d’exploiter les sentiments chauvins et xénophobes d’une frange réactionnaire de la population sous le couvert d’une défense de nobles principes républicains ». Rien de moins.
« Chauvins », « xénophobes » : pour Le Devoir, le grand dessein de la charte était donc d’exploiter le sentiment raciste qui traverse une partie de la population québécoise. De là à dire que la charte du PQ était raciste, il n’y a qu’un pas. Le Devoir rejoint ici ceux qui, sur cet enjeu, se posent en tribunal moral du Québec.
« Sous le couvert », écrit l’éditorialiste. Le PQ cachait donc ses intentions, hypocritement. Le PQ vous parlait de principes, il n’en pensait rien, il voulait strictement exploiter les sentiments d’une frange réactionnaire. Quelle frange de la population ? 10 % ? 20 % ? 50 % ? Mystère.
Nul besoin de justifier une telle affirmation. On nous l’envoie en pleine gueule, et c’est tout.
Vous dites que vous voulez que l’État soit laïque et que cette laïcité s’incarne aussi dans la neutralité religieuse de celles et ceux qui sont à son service et paf ! vous êtes chauvin et xénophobe. Pas de démonstration, pas besoin. La cause est entendue.
Quand on sait qu’ils ont été des millions de femmes et d’hommes à défendre la charte, à l’appuyer et à appuyer encore aujourd’hui un modèle de laïcité effectif, cela fait beaucoup de chauvins et de xénophobes au Québec !
Nous sommes nombreux à en avoir jusque-là des procès d’intention.
Car que disait l’odieuse charte des valeurs, honnie par les bien-pensants de la tolérance inclusive et autres grands défenseurs du multiculturalisme radical ? Elle disait que la meilleure façon de protéger toutes les religions, c’est que l’État n’en ait aucune. Pour ce faire, elle proposait cinq orientations:
1- Baliser les accommodements religieux dans la Charte québécoise des droits et libertés et y inscrire la neutralité religieuse de l’État.
2- Prévoir un devoir de réserve et de neutralité religieuse pour le personnel de l’État pendant les heures de travail.
3- Interdire le port de signes religieux ostentatoires pour le personnel de l’État pendant les heures de travail.
4- Rendre obligatoire le visage découvert lorsqu’on donne ou reçoit un service de l’État.
5- Établir une politique de mise en oeuvre pour gérer les demandes d’accommodement et assurer la neutralité de l’État.
Une fois ces cinq orientations déposées, nous avons consulté, écouté, rencontré, tourné partout au Québec pour savoir si celles-ci correspondaient aux attentes de la population québécoise. Il faut rappeler que, de façon générale, la population nous demandait de raffermir notre projet de charte. Pourquoi ? Parce que, pour des millions de Québécoises et de Québécois, la religion et l’État ne font pas bon ménage.
Quand le Parti québécois a décidé de mettre un terme aux commissions scolaires confessionnelles (catholiques et protestantes), personne ne l’a traité de raciste ou de xénophobe. Je ne me souviens pas que le journal Le Devoir l’ait fait. À ce jour, ce sont les catholiques et les protestants qui ont dû faire des efforts pour permettre au Québec de se laïciser. On a sécularisé nos hôpitaux et nos écoles, et tant mieux ! On créait un espace pour que tous puissent vivre selon leur conscience : athées, agnostiques, croyants ou non-croyants. On entrait dans la modernité. Et pour y arriver, nous demandions collectivement un effort des catholiques et des protestants. Ils l’ont consenti.
Cinquante ans plus tard, il semblerait qu’être pour la laïcité, c’est être, disons-le franchement, anti-musulman.
Dites-moi : est-il possible que pour Le Devoir, la laïcité ne soit que l’affaire des catholiques et des protestants et que certaines minorités religieuses en soient exclues ? Est-il pensable qu’une si grande institution fasse preuve d’un tel chauvinisme ?
Pour ma part, je refuse vos étiquettes. Ni chauvin, ni xénophobe, ni raciste, ni catho-laïque : je suis pour la neutralité religieuse de l’État. Je suis convaincu que cela sert le vivre-ensemble et qu’à terme, cela contribuera à la cohésion sociale et à l’harmonie entre tous.
La religion doit être du domaine privé. Tous ont droit de croire en ce qu’ils veulent. Mais dans nos relations avec l’État québécois, il n’y a pas de place pour les convictions religieuses. C’est ce que je crois. Appelez-moi chauvin, xénophobe, et raciste tant que vous voulez, je vous renvoie à vos petits procès. Je n’en démordrai pas.
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AP
The bounty case definitely isn’t over.
In a new court filing opposing the efforts of Commissioner Roger Goodell to obtain a dismissal of Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma’s defamation lawsuit, Vilma takes aim at two key factors: the alleged bounty on Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner prior to the 2009 NFC divisional playoff game, and the credibility of former Saints assistant Mike Cerullo.
The overriding goal is to persuade Judge Helen Berrigan that Goodell knew the allegation of a bounty on Warner was false, or that Goodell made the statement with reckless disregard as to whether the claim of a Warner bounty was true or false. This enhanced legal standard applies in cases of defamation brought by public figures.
Along the way, Ginsberg calls Goodell’s statements “wanton and malicious,” “fictional,” and “inflammatory,” and Ginsberg writes that Goodell accused Vilma of engaging in “quasi-criminal” behavior.
In making the argument that the case against Goodell should proceed, Vilma’s lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, explains that the NFL’s May 2, 2012 press release states that “multiple independent sources . . . confirmed” that Vilma offered the bounty on Warner. Ginsberg then alleges that, ultimately, the only source was Cerullo. “Even former Saints defensive coordinator Williams, the mastermind of the alleged Bounty Program, does not contend that Vilma put a bounty on Warner,” Ginsberg writes.
The lawyer for Vilma next contends that the league knew or should have realized that Cerullo’s story was false.
“[A]s Goodell well knew,” Ginsberg writes, “Cerullo was fired for his incompetence and repeated and material lies to the Saints which caused him to miss several weeks of the 2009 season.” (Cerullo has denied that he was absent from work, in a recent letter to Tagliabue.)
Here’s the kicker from Ginsberg: “The Saints were so concerned about Cerullo’s stability, as Goodell also knew, that, when Cerullo was terminated, Saints head coach Sean Payton also was forced to obtain police protection at his house for fear that Cerullo would seek some type of retribution.” (Cerullo has denied that he held a grudge against the team.)
Ginsberg likewise points out that Cerullo’s story has changed, arguing that “Goodell was well aware of these inconsistencies during the months before he imposed discipline on Vilma but nonetheless kept polluting Vilma’s reputation publicly with this fictitious allegation.”
The attack on Cerullo includes not only his motives but his accuracy. Ginsberg writes that Cerullo allegedly told NFL investigators in November 2011 that he had taken “detailed notes” about the bounties offered as to Warner. At the hearing before Tagliabue, Cerullo admitted that he made no notes during the defensive team meeting before the game against the Cardinals.
As to the spreadsheet of pledges for the Favre bounty a week later, Cerullo now says the numbers were “inaccurate,” and that “I don’t know what I was trying to do with this document.”
We know what Ginsberg is trying to do with his latest document. He’s trying to show that the league trumped-up its case against Vilma based solely on the testimony of a former Saints employee who is, in Ginsberg’s apparent view, mistaken and/or corrupt. And while Ginsberg continues to push the notion that Vilma didn’t offer $10,000 as to Vikings quarterback Brett Favre (and that, as Tagliabue concluded, if it happened it was simply “talk” and not a real offer), it’s clear that the defamation case against Goodell will be driven by the notion that the league knew or should have known that the allegation of a Warner bounty was false.
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The new president of France, François Hollande, is not likely to change cannabis policies. His choice as Minister of the Interior, Manuel Valls, is a declared opponent to any reform on cannabis. During the election campaign, Hollande already opposed the proposal to convert the criminal offence of cannabis use into misdemeanour, put forward by his security adviser and mayor of Dijon, François Rebsamen. Hollande did not want to “give any signal foregoing a deterrent against the use of cannabis."
Valls is diametrically opposed to the proposals of “controlled legalisation” by a working group of the Socialist Party, headed by the former minister of the Interior Daniel Vaillant. In their report, Légalisation contrôlée du cannabis, published in June 2011, the working group proposed that the cultivation and consumption of cannabis in France should become a state-controlled activity to end the dealing and crime that has poisoned life in France's banlieues, and to guarantee the quality of a substance that is widely consumed but is often of very poor quality.
Total disagreement
Valls declared that he is in "total disagreement" with "any concessions in this area on behalf of the values of left and my ideas on the Republican order and freedom of everyone". To make his point, he refers to the outdated stepping stone theory that has been discarded by most serious scientists. "Do we know what we're talking about? The devastating effects of drugs on young kids, from college (...) It often starts – not automatically – with this type of consumption, this underground economy that undermines our neighbourhoods."
The most outspoken pro-cannabis decriminalization candidate in the Socialist primaries, Martine Aubry, lost against Hollande in the second round two-way runoff. She was tipped as the new Prime Minister, but is not even in the new government. Hollande’s choice as Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault – the former leader of the Partí Socialiste (PS) in the National Assembly – is not known as someone with a reform agenda when cannabis is concerned.
In his reaction to the controlled legalisation report Ayrault said that if the left would return to power, a "committee to try to find solutions" should be convened. To his credit Ayrault recognized the "failure" of current drug control policies and complimented Vaillant with posing the right questions. He added that the problem should be approached as "a public health issue and that of a parallel economy."
Inconvenient truths
The other possible candidate for the position of Minister of the Interior, François Rebsamen, probably lost any prospects when in the midst of the presidential election campaign against Nicolas Sarkozy, he proposed to convert the criminal offence of cannabis use into misdemeanour: "There are 142,000 cannabis procedures per year, corresponding to hundreds of thousands of hours of work for the police producing only 24,000 prosecutions", Rebsamen defended his proposal.
Rebsamen repeated his proposal recently, adding that he was merely replicating a bill proposed by a senator of the UMP [Sarkozy’s party] already approved by the Senate. The inconvenient truths of Rebsamen might have cost him the position of Minister of the Interior, according to some observers, despite the fact that a similar proposal had been made by his opponent Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.
Valls claims his expertise on security and drugs on his experiences as mayor of Évry, in the banlieu of Paris, one of the most insecure areas of France, where drug dealing is rife. However, such experiences need not necessarily lead to a prohibitionist view as is demonstrated by Stéphane Gatignon, mayor of Sevran – also in the banlieu and equally rife with drug dealers – , who is in favour of legalizing cannabis and controlling its production and distribution with the aim to decrease risk and “finish with the dealers”. He believes in legalizing cannabis and the institution of a system that will yield financial benefits.
One billion in revenue
France is one of Europe’s biggest cannabis consumers and has some of the toughest anti-drug laws. The country has 1.2 million regular cannabis users (smoking more than 10 times a month) and 3.9 million occasional users (at least once a year), according to the Observatoire français des drogues et des toxicomanies (OFDT). That figure has quadrupled since 1990.
Pierre Kopp, an economist of Paris University, has compared the cost of combating cannabis abuse with its possible cost if legalised. “The state could save about €300 million on spending arising out of arrests,” Kopp argues. “Or perhaps even more if you include the cost of custody, the running of courts and the enforcement of sentences. The state would also receive duty worth about €1 billion. And then manpower and resources could be redeployed in prevention and combating trafficking of other drugs.”
Maybe those figures could convince Hollande to change course in the midst of pressure to balance the budget in the current economic crisis, but otherwise prospects on mayor changes in drug policy in France are slim. A step forward might be that Hollande supports the testing of "consumption rooms" for heroin users, blocked by Sarkozy’s Prime Minister Fillon.
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Woolworths checkouts disabled by a nationwide technical glitch are back online, the supermarket says, after an earlier outage forced customers to abandon their shopping in the aisles and some stores to close their doors.
Close to 500 stores were affected by the glitch, which hit just after 4:00pm on Monday.
On social media, shoppers around Australia said they had been told to leave their trolleys and get out of the store.
"Was in Woolworths when the computers went down — poor staff trying to cope and frantic calls to IT," Liz Green wrote on Twitter.
Checkouts were unavailable in hundreds of Woolworths supermarkets. ( ABC News: Jade Macmillan )
At Haymarket, in Sydney, staff shut the store and were turning people away, telling them to "come back in about an hour", with similar stories emerging from across the country.
Woolworths Group CEO Brad Banducci said the outage lasted for approximately 30 minutes in a large number of Woolworths supermarkets and BWS stores.
"This was related to an update to our IT systems. Our systems ultimately self-corrected themselves and we were back and open for trade across most stores by 4:30pm, with all stores now operational.
"This type of incident should not occur and we apologise unreservedly to our customers and store teams for the inconvenience caused."
Woolworths is Australia's largest supermarket chain, with close to 1,000 stores.
Shoppers were turned away from hundreds of Woolworths supermarkets during the outage. ( ABC News: Michael Janda )
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D.C. police recently stopped a man while responding to a call about a burglary alarm in Northwest Washington. Jody Westby, a neighborhood resident who intervenes, says the stop was inappropriate. (Video courtesy of Jody Westby)
D.C. police recently stopped a man while responding to a call about a burglary alarm in Northwest Washington. Jody Westby, a neighborhood resident who intervenes, says the stop was inappropriate. (Video courtesy of Jody Westby)
The District police officers were responding to a burglar alarm in an upscale neighborhood in Northwest Washington when they spotted Dennis Stucky leaning against a brick wall in Foxhall Crescent, dressed in work clothes and a ball cap and holding two bags.
Although the alarm was sounding in an adjacent subdivision — three-quarters of a mile away by car — one of the officers ordered the 64-year-old man to sit on the curb while she put on disposable gloves and prepared to search him.
Jody Westby, a resident and lawyer, rushed to Stucky’s defense, angrily telling the officers that Stucky had been a neighborhood fix-it man for 30 years and that they were not at the right house. The officers reluctantly freed Stucky, who lives in Southeast and said he feels he was stopped “because I’m black.” Westby’s housekeeper recorded much of the encounter on video.
Last week’s encounter reflects the challenges of policing and the perceptions of some residents in the District and beyond that they are singled out as suspicious because of their race, the neighborhoods they choose to visit or their appearance. Police policies and practices on stops will be addressed Wednesday at a community forum at Howard University. The forum, the first of a two-part hearing by the D.C. Council’s public safety oversight committee, is scheduled for 6 p.m. in the school’s business auditorium, 2400 Sixth St. NW.
The Foxhall Crescent stop was preceded by an alarm about 1 p.m. Oct. 1. The neighborhood is mostly white; the two officers who responded are black. The officers had no description of a possible suspect, and the alarm was canceled shortly after the initial 911 call from a private security company reporting that the owner had keyed in the wrong code to his garage. It was unclear whether the officers had that information when they stopped Stucky.
D.C. police, who watched the recording provided by The Washington Post, would not discuss the incident in detail.
The department’s chief spokeswoman, Gwendolyn Crump, said that without knowing what happened before the recording started, it would be difficult to assess the encounter. She did say the department believes that there was “no misconduct” by the officers and that officials believed it would be unfair to highlight the video in the context of the discussion over citizen stops.
Delroy Burton, head of the D.C. police union, would not discuss the officers’ actions because the video starts after the stop was made. He did note that he believed Westby interfered with the officers when she walked between Stucky and the female officer and by escorting Stucky away with the consent of one officer but over the protests of the other. “The woman in the striped dress, while accusing the officers of racism, has made some assumptions of her own,” Burton said.
Burton said the video shows “how tentative officers are because of all the negative media attention” over police stops and citizens taking videos of them at work.
Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chairman of the public safety committee, said he thought the stop of Stucky could have been handled differently to make it more of a conversation than a confrontation. Noting that police will soon wear body cameras, he said, “I hope those cameras make these types of encounters more professional.”
The stop captured on video appears fairly routine, and the debate over whether it was legitimate for police to detain and question Stucky — and how officers handled the stop — is central to a larger discussion taking place across the country.
Wells backed the successful effort to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, in some part spurred by the belief that blacks were unfairly targeted, and D.C. police have begun a pilot program in which officers wear body cameras to record day-to-day interactions with the public.
The video taken by Westby’s housekeeper picks up with the female officer putting on blue gloves and questioning Stucky as he sat on the curb. Westby talks to the officer and then turns her attention to a male officer in a patrol car. Westby asks him which address the call came from and then walks between Stucky and the female officer to the patrol car window.
Learning that the officers had been called to the 4600 block of Foxhall Crescent, Westby informs them that they were in the 4500 block. Although seemingly close, the streets are not linked. The subdivisions are circular in pattern, and to reach the 4600 block from where the officers were parked requires making three turns on four streets. On foot, the route between the homes is more direct.
On the recording, much of what the female officer says is inaudible, but she points to Stucky’s bags, and Westby said the officer noted that as probable cause for the stop.
Westby, who also is a cybersecurity consultant, said the male officer in the car told her that Stucky was free to go. The video shows the lawyer walking over to Stucky and helping him up. “Come on, Dennis. He says you can go,” she says. The female officer puts out her hand and says “Stop,” while moving close to them. Westby ignores her.
“I’m an attorney, and this is wrong,” Westby tells the officers. After getting the officers’ business cards, Westby shouts, “Just because he’s black doesn’t mean he’s here to rob a house. He works for us. He’s been in this neighborhood for 30 years. Now go find 4600 Foxhall.”
Stucky said his lunch was in the bags and said he had been stopped and questioned many times in that neighborhood.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said.
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This article is more than 2 years old
This article is more than 2 years old
It appears rumours of Vladimir Putin’s invincibility may have been exaggerated as the Russian president only managed to score five of his team’s 12 goals during an exhibition ice hockey game on Thursday.
That tally continues a worrying trend for the Russian president. Putin plays regularly for the Legends of Hockey team in a game given wide coverage on Russian state TV. Playing alongside former NHL players, Putin scored eight goals in 2015 and seven last year, meaning the 65-year-old’s hopes of playing professionally now appear to be slipping.
Putin, whose political opponents have been known to die in mysterious circumstances, was not tightly marked during the game.
Putin said that hockey players set a “wonderful example” for Russians. “Thanks to you, millions of people make a choice in favor of a healthy lifestyle,” he added.
On Thursday, Putin played alongside former NHL players Pavel Bure and Slava Fetisov. The opposition was composed of amateurs and a pro-Putin billionaire.
At the time of writing, it was unclear whether US president Donald Trump had congratulated Putin on his victory.
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The Phillies are young, the Phillies are starting to get exciting, and the Phillies have a lot of money to spend. That makes a lot of people gravitate to the youngest big name free agent on the market in Jason Heyward. There is a lot to like about Heyward, he is 26, he has put up 6 wins multiple times in his career, and did I mention he was young? We all know that he is going to cost a ton of money, on the surface he should totally be worth it. So here is why he isn’t in some quick points.
The value with the bat is poor compared to over big money guys. His 121 wRC+ was tied for his highest in the past 4 seasons (with 2012) and he hasn’t hit more than 14 HR in the past 3 seasons. That 121 wRC+ placed him 16th among qualified major league outfielders in 2015, and 25th among outfielders with at least 300 PAs. So he is not a big lineup carrying bat.
The bat has not been getting better, it has been getting different. Over the past 4 seasons, Heyward has swung at fewer and fewer pitches (46.9% in 2012, 41.7% in 2015), and he is making contact even more often (75.4% in 2012 and 84.2% in 2015). As we expect his K% has dropped dramatically as well, falling from 23.3% to 14.8%. But also his walk rate has dropped after making in 2013 and 2014, with him walking in 9.2% of his PAs in 2015.
The power just isn’t coming. To along with the higher contact rate, Heyward set a career high for ground balls in 2015 posting a 57.2% rate (career rate 49.9%). He posted a career low fly ball rate (while keeping his HR/FB rate near career levels). He did hit a career high in doubles, but his second lowest HR total (13) of his career (behind 2014’s HR/FB influenced 11). The consequence was a .146 ISO with a 12.0% HR/FB rate. The one bonus of all of this is that he posted a career high BABIP which lead to a career high in batting average and OBP.
The value is all in the glove. Here is how Fangraphs broke down Heyward’s 6 fWAR last year 14.6 batting runs above average 7.0 baserunning runs above average 22.6 fielding runs above average -6.2 positional runs above average 17.8 runs converting average to replacement 1.2 runs to even out all the modeling errors
That means Heyward posted 38 runs above average in in 2015 and 22.6 of them were his glove above average in right field. That is a lot of faith in defensive metrics as currently constructed. A couple of people (@realandrewgrant and @Odinsbeard) have worked on using Inside Edge’s fielding numbers to find plays above average based on expected play outcomes. Heyward’s 2015 still comes in with an impressive 6.6 plays above average, which may end up being closer to 10 or so runs depending on the value of the plays (turning a double into an out). But that is almost a win less on defense, which puts his peak more in the 5 win range.
Defense and speed are the first things to go, which hits right into Heyward’s strengths, so there will be some future declines even though he such a smart player.
Finally, the money. It is going to be a ton. To come to Philly Heyward is likely going to want a 3 or 4 year opt out to hit the market again. To buy him out of that would take the Phillies replacing that second contract, so 10 years is not off the table. If do go with the buyout route, you are looking at a 3-4 year deal with the team really in contention for 1-2 years of the 3 year or 2-3 of the 4 year. That is a lot to pay and risk (that he is bad and you pay the rest of the deal) for not many year of impact.
In the end Heyward is a risky player that has his most value to a team looking for 2016 impact that can walk away after a buyout while getting full value. For the Phillies to outbid everyone they are going to put themselves in a compromising position with a very good player who has little room to be a truly great player. It isn’t my money so I won’t be too upset if they go all in, but it doesn’t look like a rational deal to me.
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The public is invited to watch Sunday as a female bald eagle is returned to the wild along the Portland waterfront. The bird has been undergoing treatment and observation at the Audubon Society of Portland after suffering a head injury from getting tangled in a fishing line 10 days ago.
The rehabilitated eagle is scheduled to be released at 1 p.m. at Waterfront Park just south of the Hawthorne Bridge. But members of the public should check the Audubon Society's website on Sunday just in case officials deem Sunday's weather stormy enough to force a schedule change.
This particular eagle is notable because she is so large -- at 121/2 pounds, she is one of the larger eagles Audubon has treated -- and so feisty, said Audubon staff veterinarian Deb Sheaffer.
Based on the eagle's coloring, Sheaffer estimates the bird is 4 years old, or about a year from being a mature adult. The eagle most likely lives very near the site of the release, since Southwest Portland's stretch of the Willamette is a known home to eagles and she was discovered hunting there.
An Audubon Society rescue worker was on her way to try to help a merganser duck that had gotten badly tangled in fishing line in that part of the Willamette River on Feb. 10. But before she could get to the duck, the eagle spotted the prey and swooped in -- only to become entangled in the line.
Lacy Campbell, operations manager of the bird society's wildlife care center freed both birds and took them for medical care. The duck had to be euthanized, but the eagle was tended to and is ready to return to the wild.
To reach the release site, the public can enter the park on Southwest Jefferson Street in downtown Portland. Officials at Portland Audubon expressed gratitude to Portland Parks & Recreation for providing a release site near the eagle's home along the Willamette.
-- Betsy Hammond
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Zunächst zwei Bewohner aus Afghanistan verletzt
Ein Zeuge, der gesehen hatte, wie der Afrikaner auf Bäume eingestochen hatte, lieferte den entscheidenden Hinweis. Denn auf den Schuhen des Verdächtigen fanden sich Blutspuren des erschlagenen Mannes aus Bangladesch. Der 26-Jährige war in derselben Unterkunft in St. Gabriel getötet worden, der der Taverdächtige am Dienstag verwiesen worden war. Er hatte zwei weitere Bewohner aus Afghanistan in dem Asylquartier mittels Faustschlägen verletzt. Alarmierte Polizisten erstatteten Anzeige wegen Körperverletzung und sprachen ein Betretungsverbot aus.
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Greenwich High students hear from LGBTQ adults for diversity week
Jacob Griffith Gardner speaks beside fellow LGBT activists Bernie Kettle and Barbara Curry at the Stonewall Speakers presentation as part of Diversity Week at Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Conn. Monday, Feb. 27, 2017. Gardner, Kettle and Curry spoke about their lives in the LGBT community and paths to self-discovery and acceptance. less Jacob Griffith Gardner speaks beside fellow LGBT activists Bernie Kettle and Barbara Curry at the Stonewall Speakers presentation as part of Diversity Week at Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Conn. Monday, ... more Photo: Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Photo: Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Greenwich High students hear from LGBTQ adults for diversity week 1 / 15 Back to Gallery
GREENWICH — Barbara Curry has an app on her phone that tells her where it is safe to pee. When she is not in Connecticut, she checks it before any trip to a public bathroom.
That’s because in many states, which door she chooses — men’s or women’s — could lead to her arrest.
“I’ve had to deal with a lot of situations where I walk into something not knowing what the risks are,” she said, “both professionally and individually.”
Curry is transgender. She presents as a tall, broad shouldered woman with shiny, brown hair.
On Monday, Curry was one of three guests invited to speak to Greenwich High students as part of the school’s Diversity Awareness Week.
Curry has been a member of the Connecticut-based LGBT activist group Stonewall Speakers for 20 years. She was joined by two other Stonewall Speakers, Stamford resident and business consultant Bernie Kettle and UConn student Jacob Griffith Gardner, both gay men, to share their stories, answer student questions and discuss the impact of the Trump administration on the LGBT community.
To an audience of more than 100, Curry, who was born male, explained that her identification as a woman was something innate.
“Since the day I was born and my parents were handed a baby boy, I wanted a second opinion," she said. “By the age of 5, I knew I was different but I didn't have a vocabulary; I had no way to tell people what it was about me that was different from everybody else."
As a young boy growing up in Fairfield, Conn., Curry wanted to wear dresses and regularly tried on her sister and mother’s clothing.
"Even time I did it, I had this moment of euphoria and then immediately would get a tidal wave of guilt and shame," she said.
Curry kept her gender questioning under wraps through high school and college, presenting as a “the most normative white straight guy that anybody could ever expect” until after she graduated.
In her 20s, Curry felt compelled to come out to a girl she was dating. In a three-hour conversation, struggling to find words to sum up what she had felt for so long, she explained she was a male who identified as female and was sexually attracted to women. Her date was accepting. The pair have been married for more than 35 years.
Curry said since that time, some things have gotten easier.
“I never thought I would have a U.S. court make a ruling that says I am entitled to use the bathroom of least astonishment," she said. "I didn’t think there would be executive orders from the White House saying transgender kids should be allowed to use the bathrooms they want.”
But some of the advances that the LGBT community has won are disappearing under the Trump presidency, she said.
Just last week, the President revoked Obama-era guidelines to public schools that let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice, leaving it up to states to decide whether students must use the bathroom matching the sex on their birth certificate.
Next month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of Gavin Grimm, a 17-year-old transgender student from Virginia who sued his school board for a policy that required students to use the bathroom that corresponds with their biological sex or a separate single-stall restroom.
“Change doesn’t necessarily have to be drastic, but it has to be justifiable and equal," said Curry.
At Greenwich High, students may use a bathroom of the gender they identify with, said Headmaster Chris Winters. The school also have single occupancy bathrooms for students wishing that accommodation.
The Stonewall Speakers, Curry, Griffith Gardner and Kettle, said that some of the hope they felt during the presidency of Barack Obama is now gone.
“The people who have been appointed to positions lately are people that stand very vehemently and strongly against our community and have pledged to do things like re-recognize on a federal level conversion therapy, which is basically ... a form of torture trying to break people down so much that they are OK with not recognizing a part of who they are," said Griffith Gardner. “That is something that our current Vice President supports. That’s something that takes a lot of hope away.”
Neither the Office of the Vice President nor the White House Press Corps responded for comment by press time.
The LGBT community battles hundreds of years of mistrust of “sexual variance” stemming back to the time when men were burned at the stake for sodomy, Griffith Gardner said.
Prejudice against gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer people finds its roots in history, he said.
Explaining his own journey with sexual orientation, Griffith Gardner emphasized the “sheer terror” he felt when coming out even to his best friend.
“I wasn’t comfortable coming out to them simply because of all of the negative things that have been said about the gay community around me," he said.
Griffith Gardner was assaulted three times during middle and high school in Madison, Conn., by students who called him a “faggot” for being gay. Last year at the Univeristy of Connecticut, he gave some male students a ride home from a party and when they arrived at their destination, they harassed him, hit his car and prevented him from driving away until Griffith Gardner called the police.
Griffith Gardener felt scared to leave his room for the next few days and when he eventually tried to go to class, the sight of cars gave him a panic attack that left him crying and unresponsive on the floor. He was hospitalized and took a semester-long leave of absence from the school, he said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a nationally representative study of adolescents in grades seven to 12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers.
Griffith Gardner said more than three quarters of his LGBT friends in high school had attempted self-harm.
Griffith Gardner, Curry and Kettle highlighted the importance of being an ally, a straight person supporting an LGBT person or community, for struggling LGBT people, particularly under the new administration.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” said Griffith Gardner. “It is something that requires the allies to help us get through it."
Monday’s panel of Stonewall Speakers was part of the school’s annual Diversity Awareness Week, which brings speakers and presentations surrounding the theme of inclusion to GHS.
Winters said the school has held Diversity Awareness Week for more than a decade.
“We have a mission to respect and celebrate our differences and to support an inclusive and tolerant environment,” he said. “Diversity Week challenges our thinking and assumptions. It makes us ask questions of ourselves and our school community. I believe it is an essential part of the GHS experience.“
Garfield Charles, English teacher and assistant dean for Cantor House, organized Diversity Awareness Week this year.
“Especially this year, in terms of everything that is happening around us, I think there is this need to really respect individuals around us and know that we each have a voice,” said Charles. “I think kids are recognizing the importance of that as a community.”
emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson
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The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has triggered the capital’s emergency air quality alert as polluted air from the continent combines with toxic air in London to create dangerous levels of pollution.
The alerts will see warnings displayed at bus stops, road signs and on the underground. Khan has also asked TV and radio stations across the capital to warn their viewers and listeners in news bulletins.
Anyone with lung or heart problems is advised to reduce strenuous exercise, especially outside. The young and elderly are particularly vulnerable.
Today’s alert has been triggered by “high” levels of air pollution. It is the seventh time in 13 months that the mayor has used the alert system. One instance was because the level of pollution was deemed “very high”, and on six occasions because it was “high”.
Khan said: “The shocking and illegal state of London’s filthy air means once again I am triggering a high air pollution alert today under my new comprehensive alert system.”
The government’s committee on the medical effects of air pollutants advises adults and children with lung problems, and adults with heart problems, to reduce strenuous physical exertion, particularly outdoors, and particularly if they experience symptoms. People with asthma may find they need to use their reliever inhaler more often. Older people should also reduce physical exertion.
Khan is implementing a range of measures to try to tackle the air pollution crisis in the capital, and he called on the government to do more.
“I am doing everything with the powers I have at City Hall and it’s now time for the government to step up by introducing a national diesel scrappage fund to rid our streets of dirty diesels, and to give me the powers I need to tackle non-transport sources of pollution.”
Responding to the news that the capital’s air quality emergency alert had been triggered, Prof Jonathan Grigg from Doctors Against Diesel said “dirty air is seriously damaging Londoners’ health and wellbeing.”
Grigg called on Khan to do more to tackle it. “Vulnerable people shouldn’t have to restrict their activities to stay safe,” he said. “Sadiq Khan must bring London’s air pollution down to legal levels as soon as possible, and commit to phase out diesel vehicles by 2025 to protect Londoners’ lungs.”
The government has come under increasing pressure over the UK’s air quality. It has suffered a string of humiliating defeats in the courts over its failure to clean up the nation’s air. Its latest proposal, released in July, was met with widespread criticism from clean air campaigners and regional politicians.
The latest episode of dangerously polluted air has been caused by mist, low cloud, fog and slow wind speed in London that has lead to a build up of pollution. This has combined with air arriving from the continent that has travelled slowly over industrial polluted areas giving it time to pick up emissions on the way. Experts say this is likely to produce high levels of PM2.5 and moderate levels of PM10 particulate pollution across areas of London and the south-east.
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Thomas Mulcair's message to Hamilton's NDP party faithful was clear on Tuesday night – yes, we've felt optimistic before, but this time, we could actually win.
The federal NDP leader called out to supporters who have boosted the party for 40 and 50 years in Hamilton, a city that has been a long-time stronghold for a party that has never governed. This fall's election is for them, he said.
"This election is about people…who've been toiling in the trenches for years," he told the crowd of more than 400 at Hamilton Convention Centre. The rally was part of a tour of southwestern Ontario.
Canadians are hungry for change, he said. And when the election happens this fall, he promised, victory will be theirs.
What happened in Alberta had a huge psychological impact. - Gordon Guyatt, long-time NDP supporter
Andrea Horwath, Ontario NDP leader and Hamilton Centre MPP, echoed that sentiment as she prepped the cheering crowd.
The optimism appealed to local stalwarts such as Gordon Guyatt, a McMaster University doctor and professor who ran for the NDP four times in the Ancaster-Flamborough-Dundas-Westdale area. Three times, he placed a distant third. The other, he placed fourth.
Guyatt agreed that this is the best shot the party has ever had.
"What happened in Alberta had a huge psychological impact," he said, referring to the recent electoral victory of NDP premier Rachel Notley. "It was perceived to be an ultra-conservative province and it elected an NDP premier. That really made an impression on people."
Eileen Shannon of Dundas has supported the party for 40 years, always without seeing a federal victory. The NDP forming the official opposition was once "considered an impossibility," she said. But it likely led to the NDP winning Alberta. She's more optimistic than ever now.
Mulcair's speech touched on various platform topics, including child care, a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour and Bill C-51.
He also gave a shout out to Hamilton's newest legal battle — taking Canada Post to appeals court over the right to give input on the locations of community mailboxes. The NDP have pledged to scrap the plan to eliminate door-to-door mail delivery.
Not everyone bought into Mulcair's optimism. In a media release Tuesday evening, Liberal candidate Bob Bratina said Mulcair's plan ignores the middle class and won't help struggling Hamiltonians.
The promise of a federal minimum wage is "deliberately misleading," Bratina's statement said. "It would only apply to less than one per cent of the Canadian workforce."
"Justin Trudeau is clear that two of the biggest priorities for any prime minister are growing the economy and unifying the country, and he's the only one offering the new leadership and a plan for real change to do just that. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Thomas Mulcair's NDP."
The city has also battled the federal government over its desire to see an agreement the federal government inked with U.S. Steel when it bought Stelco in 2007. In May, an Ontario court judge ruled that the agreement should stay sealed.
Scott Duvall, a federal NDP candidate for Hamilton Mountain and ward councillor who chairs the city's steel committee, said he hoped to speak to Mulcair after the rally about the issue.
If elected, he said, he will join Hamilton Centre MPP David Christopherson in calling on the agreement to be unsealed.
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WASHINGTON — Puerto Rico's governor said President Donald Trump is refusing to meet privately with him to discuss the pace of disaster relief 17 months after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory.
Gov. Ricardo Rosselló told reporters at a round table on Friday that the White House declined public and private requests to meet ahead of the governors’ conference taking place in the nation's capital this weekend. Rosselló said Trump bears responsibility for the slow pace of disaster relief.
The Morning Rundown Get a head start on the morning's top stories. This site is protected by recaptcha
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While the governor’s team has been in regular contact with federal officials, Rosselló said the White House declined his requests to meet with Trump directly without giving a reason. Rosselló hopes to speak to the president when dozens of governors attend a White House meeting on Monday.
Carlos Mercader, executive director of the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, which represents the island's government in the U.S., told NBC News that the Rosselló administration requested a formal meeting following reports that the administration could use $2.5 billion set aside to finance reconstruction projects in the island to pay for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
“We didn’t get the meeting that we wanted,” said Mercader in Spanish. “But they didn’t rule out the possibility of a private meeting later on.”
Instead, the White House suggested Rosselló meet with two federal agencies that are crucial to Puerto Rico's recovery: Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Rosselló met with HUD secretary Ben Carson and FEMA administrator Brrock Long over the last week and a half, Mercader said.
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Photo by splifr
Update: Due to the changing nature of marijuana laws and your comments, we will be adding regular posts about the practice of smoking pot around the world and related international laws. If interested, please view the first in the series: Marijuana Laws in Southeast Asia.
_______________________________________________________________
From an American kid hitting a bong while watching Harold and Kumar to a Moroccan enjoying hash with his afternoon tea, people all over the world smoke cannabis.
DESPITE THE POPULARITY OF weed and hash, most governments in the world have deemed it harmful to the individual and society as a whole.
There are only 11 nations in the world where weed and hash have been decriminalized. A handful of countries impose mandatory prison sentences and other harsh punishments for the possession or sale of any form of weed and hash. Another handful look the other way when dealing with cannabis.
Some places that are easy on weed heads can be broken up by region:
Latin America
In Latin America, cannabis is tolerated and/or decriminalized in most countries, with the exception of Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras and Guatemala. Marijuana grows well in Central and South America and is a large part of the economy.
Governments tend to have more to worry about than whether someone is smoking a joint. For travelers, this means that smoking in South America is probably okay, but caution should be used.
Only Peru considers cannabis to be a legal drug, provided you are not in possession of another drug. I get the impression that throughout Latin America, the tolerance doesn’t typically extend to tourists, especially if the police can get a bribe out of it, but you should never travel with pot and risk being searched.
I would highly recommend caution throughout Mexico, Panama, Guatemala and even Costa Rica. Although weed is sold to tourists all the time in quantities up to 1/4 pound, those buyers in turn, are often set up for the policia.
In this particular region, weed may be tolerated, decriminalized or even legal up to small amounts (usually about 20 grams), but as always, keep a low profile.
Photo by martin cleary
Here’s a quick break down:
ARGENTINA : Decriminalized for personal use in small amounts and for consumption only in private locations. Public consumption is generally accepted among the young adults and overlooked by police in the suburbs.
: Decriminalized for personal use in small amounts and for consumption only in private locations. Public consumption is generally accepted among the young adults and overlooked by police in the suburbs. BOLIVIA : Possession illegal. No move to decriminalize.
: Possession illegal. No move to decriminalize. BRAZIL : Possession illegal.
: Possession illegal. CHILE : Personal use of marijuana in small quantities on a private place is not against the law. More than one person using it at the same place is considered as a group and thus is considered illegal.
: Personal use of marijuana in small quantities on a private place is not against the law. More than one person using it at the same place is considered as a group and thus is considered illegal. COLOMBIA : Possession of small quantities of all drugs legal; permitted “personal dose” for marijuana is 20 grams.
: Possession of small quantities of all drugs legal; permitted “personal dose” for marijuana is 20 grams. ECUADOR : Possession illegal. No move to decriminalize.
: Possession illegal. No move to decriminalize. PARAGUAY : Possession illegal. No move to decriminalize.
: Possession illegal. No move to decriminalize. PERU : Possession of up to 8 grams (0.28 oz) of marijuana is legal as long as one isn’t in possession of another drug. However, I’ve read some first hand accounts about the police being fairly strict. Caution is urged.
: Possession of up to 8 grams (0.28 oz) of marijuana is legal as long as one isn’t in possession of another drug. However, I’ve read some first hand accounts about the police being fairly strict. Caution is urged. URUGUAY : Possession for personal use not penalized; law does not specify quantity for “personal” amount.
: Possession for personal use not penalized; law does not specify quantity for “personal” amount. VENEZUELA : Possession of up to 20 grams not punished.
: Possession of up to 20 grams not punished. BELIZE : Illegal, but use by locals is slightly tolerated.
: Illegal, but use by locals is slightly tolerated. GUATEMALA : Highly illegal. Possession by Guatemalans in not normally prosecuted for personal use, but tourists are commonly arrested and jailed for several days before being released.
: Highly illegal. Possession by Guatemalans in not normally prosecuted for personal use, but tourists are commonly arrested and jailed for several days before being released. HONDURAS : Illegal, but use by locals is slightly tolerated.
: Illegal, but use by locals is slightly tolerated. PANAMA : Illegal
: Illegal COSTA RICA: Illegal, but tolerated. Watch out for being set up.
Europe
Europe is another region where cannabis is generally tolerated, decriminalized or even legal.
We all know about the Netherlands. It is legal to buy and smoke herb in the Netherlands, in amounts up to five grams per person per day. People regularly smoke in public parks and anywhere else they can find a bench and a view.
In the Netherlands, one notices that tourists (especially American tourists) go a little overboard and smoke their way into oblivion. The only caution I would take here is making sure you don’t get duped at the coffee shops or robbed by opportunistic thugs.
GERMANY and BELGIUM : decriminalized. This means that possessing a small amount is ok, but puffing in public and selling weed is not.
and : decriminalized. This means that possessing a small amount is ok, but puffing in public and selling weed is not. SPAIN and FRANCE : smoking at home and the possession of a few grams will get you searched and checked out at worst.
and : smoking at home and the possession of a few grams will get you searched and checked out at worst. ITALY : possession of more than a gram could result in a search and seizure.
: possession of more than a gram could result in a search and seizure. GREECE : illegal. Really tough on weed.
: illegal. Really tough on weed. DENMARK: illegal. Very uncool towards cannabis ever since authorities bulldozed the Christiana district in Copenhagen.
illegal. Very uncool towards cannabis ever since authorities bulldozed the Christiana district in Copenhagen. MACEDONIA : decriminalized.
: decriminalized. SERBIA : looks away if it looks at all.
: looks away if it looks at all. SLOVENIA : has no police (just kidding, but it is a relaxed place).
: has no police (just kidding, but it is a relaxed place). BOSNIA : illegal but tolerated.
: illegal but tolerated. CROATIA : illegal and not tolerated.
: illegal and not tolerated. SCANDINVIAN COUNTRIES: laws are quite strict concerning weed and it is not advisable to get caught smoking
Photo by Shira Golding
North Africa
The other region where weed is ok is North Africa. In Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, locals smoke hash, a fine alternative to alcohol and accepted in society. However, this societal norm does not necessarily apply to tourists.
In other words, locals may be puffing, but if the laws still consider what you are doing as illegal, a cop can still make money off you. I recommend smoking with friends only in this region.
EGYPT : Illegal, but not strictly enforced, just don’t smoke in public. Also, don’t carry large quantities unless you’d like to see the inside of an Egyptian jail.
: Illegal, but not strictly enforced, just don’t smoke in public. Also, don’t carry large quantities unless you’d like to see the inside of an Egyptian jail. MOROCCO: Illegal. Not recommended to smoke in public or to carry more than a few grams at a time–whatever you can quickly swallow or throw away. Tourists are usually let off with fines, but technically can be jailed for 4-10 years. Even more if you’re suspected of smuggling.
Having said all that, these are the nations in which cannabis is legal for consumption and where you should be able to smoke in peace:
Photo courtesy of author
BELGIUM : Up to 5 grams.
: Up to 5 grams. CZECH REPUBLIC : Personal use.
: Personal use. GERMANY : Up to 5 grams.
: Up to 5 grams. INDIA : All good.
: All good. MACEDONIA : Up to 5 grams.
: Up to 5 grams. NETHERLANDS : Coffee shops and parks, personal use.
: Coffee shops and parks, personal use. PAKISTAN : Ummm… All good, but as a tourist I would watch my back and smoke with Pakistani friends in their homes.
: Ummm… All good, but as a tourist I would watch my back and smoke with Pakistani friends in their homes. PERU : Personal use, up to 5 grams.
: Personal use, up to 5 grams. RUSSIA : Personal use, up to 5 grams If you are caught, you will have to pay low fines as possession of small amounts is still illegal
: Personal use, up to 5 grams If you are caught, you will have to pay low fines as possession of small amounts is still illegal VENEZUELA : Personal use, up to 5 grams.
: Personal use, up to 5 grams. AUSTRALIA: Up to 50grams! (Certain states of Australia have decriminalized marijuana possession. In Tasmania, Victoria and Queensland one can be simply ticketed for up to 50 grams. If found in possession with intent to supply, convictions apply)
I use “up to five grams” because I like to err on the side of caution. I have smoked publicly with fishermen in Thailand, tea merchants in Egypt, farmers in SW China and all my homies throughout Europe and the US. I will continue to do so.
People all over the planet understand the need to just relax and do your thing after a long day. Some do it with alcohol, some with tea, some with weed, and some with a book.
Stick to the nations numbered above and if you need to puff elsewhere, be careful.
Community Connection
Headed to Amsterdam? Check out 7 Coffee Shops in Amsterdam that are Good to Go – and, while you’re at it, 10 Things to do in Amsterdam Besides Smoking Pot. Also be sure to give a read to Tim Patterson’s Tripping Out On The Road: Drugs, Alcohol and Travel.
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日本の航空会社でダブルブッキングが起こった場合、丁重にお詫びをされるはず。しかし、その常識はアメリカでは一切通用しなかった!? マンハッタン在住で米国邦字新聞「WEEKLY Biz」発行人・高橋克明さんのメルマガ『NEW YORK 摩天楼便り－マンハッタンの最前線から－by 高橋克明』で、アメリカの航空会社のまさかの対応が語られています。
アメリカってこんな国
出張。 たぶん50回目くらいのロサンゼルス。
一睡もせずに早朝JFKへ。
搭乗すると僕の席に、すでにメガネの初老の白人女性が座ってました。 間違いなく僕の席。
「Mrs.、そこたぶん僕の席です」
おかあさん、僕を一瞥してひとこと「NO」と言って、次の瞬間には読んでた雑誌に目を落とします。
いや、いや、確認してよ。 狭い通路、後ろから来る人も（僕に）怒ってます。
揉めてるうちにCAがめんどくさそうにやってきて、さすがにオバサン、CAには自分のチケットをしぶしぶ見せました。
航空会社のミスらしく、ダブルブッキング。 僕とその女性の搭乗券には同じ席番が記載されていました。
「See! （ほらっ！）」と勝ち誇った顔で僕を見るけど、オレも間違えてないんだけどな。 とりあえずぐっと我慢しました。
CAのお姉さんに、とりあえずなんとかするから待ってて！ となぜか半ギレ気味に言われ、その場に僕は携帯まくらを持ったまま放置されました。
後から入ってくる人、くる人に、迷惑そうな顔されます。
こんな場合、アメリカでは、日本の航空会社のように「大変申し訳ございません！ このまま少々お待ち頂けますか」と謝られることは皆無です。 被害者の僕のほうがなぜか怒られてる感満々です（それ以前に、日本では、ダブルブッキングされた場合、先に座ったもん勝ち！ な空気もない）。
全員が着席するまで、文字通り居場所もないまま、狭い通路で待たされる。
もう15年もこの国で生活すると慣れてきたなぁ…日本という国のほうが世界ではまれなんだろうなぁ……とか、ぼーっと考えていたところ。
全員満員ブックになりました。 空いてる席がない。
メガネのオバサン、当然の権利のように座ったまま。 CAさんたち「困ったコね～」みたいな感じで、枕を抱えたまま通路に立ってるアジア人（僕）に視線を向けてくる。
どうするんだろう…と（なぜか）申し訳ない気持ちで（全然悪くないのに）立っていると、
機内に呼ばれたであろう、スーツを着た責任者（50代？インド系）のおっさんがズボンに手を入れたままやってきました。
CAさん、「あれよ、例の問題児」みたいな感じで僕を指差します。
ジェネラルマネージャーと書かれたネームをした、その小男「あー、あいつか」とズボンのポケットに片手を突っ込んだまま、もう片方の手でちょいちょいと僕を呼ぶ。 なんだよ、と日本語で僕も行く。
「っったいっっへん、申し訳ございませんッ！！！ 弊社のミスでございます！！ お客様には多大なご迷惑をおかけ致しましたので、ファーストクラスをご用意させて頂きますので、もし可能でございましたら、次の便への変更をして頂けませんでしょうか。 なお、お食事等ももちろん弊社にて持たせて頂きますので」
……と謝ることなんてあるわけなく。
次ページ＞＞ まさかのアメリカの航空会社の対応とは
まさかのアメリカの航空会社の対応とは
おもむろにイキナリ僕の肩に腕を回してきて、
「なぁ、朝メシ食ったか？」
はぁ？
「そこにSbarroあるからさ。 おごってやるよ」
そことは、空港内のフードコート。 Sbarroとは、全米どこにでもある、やっすいファーストフード。
ニヤニヤしながら「人生そんなに焦ってどうすんだよ、のんびり行こうぜ♪ 80分後にロス行きのフライトがあるからさ。 それに乗んなよ。 悪いこと言わない。 Sbarroで好きなもん食ってから行ったほうがいいって」
先にまず謝れよ。
いまのとこ“SORRY”のひとことも聞いてないぞ。 なんて、言うつもりも、もうありません。 この国のサービスに対して。
「悪いけど、ロスの空港に人待たせてるんだ」なんとか自分を抑えて穏便に断りました。（チッと舌打ちされたときはさすがにキレそうになったけどw）。
そのあと、CAが場内アナウンスで、乗客の中から、次の便に変更してくれる人を募る。 その間もオレ通路立ちっぱなし。
機内、まだ離陸できないのは、こいつのせいって言われてるみたい（笑）。
機内、僕のせいでフライトできない空気が蔓延。 結構、みんなに睨まれる。
そのとき20代の女性が手を挙げて「アタシ、別に急いでないから」と立候補して席を立ちました。
場内からは「おー！」と賞賛の声。 パチパチと拍手するひとまで。
「それにひきかえ、おまえは」みたいな目でみんなに見られる。
彼女とすれ違う際、絶対言うまいと思っていた言葉が我慢できず、つい出てしまいました。
I’m sorry…
カチューシャをしていたその子は「That’s OK!」と微笑みました。
６時間の機上。 窓の外、涙をこらえて見る（w
これがアメリカですw 憧れることなんて一切ないよw
日本の航空会社だと、どんな対応してくれるんだろう…。
もう忘れてしまったことが悲しい。
少なくとも、Sbarroではないはずだ
image by: Shutterstock
『NEW YORK 摩天楼便り－マンハッタンの最前線から－by 高橋克明』 より一部抜粋
著者／高橋克明
全米No.1邦字紙「WEEKLY Biz」CEO 兼発行人。同時にプロインタビュアーとしてハリウッドスターをはじめ400人のインタビュー記事を世に出す。メルマガでは毎週エキサイティングなNY生活やインタビューのウラ話などほかでは記事にできないイシューを届けてくれる
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Claudio Ranieri is a leading contender to fill the managerial vacancy at Leeds United, with the Championship club determined to appoint an experienced, high-profile coach following the resignation of Garry Monk, sources have told ESPN FC.
Former Swansea City manager Monk announced his departure from Elland Road on Thursday after failing to agree a contract extension with the club's new owner, Andrea Radrizzani.
Monk, who narrowly failed to guide Leeds into the Championship playoffs this season, said in a statement: "After discussions with the new owner, we have unfortunately been unable to agree a suitable way for us to all move forward together."
While Radrizzani had been keen to give Monk a new contract as manager, sources have told ESPN FC that the Italian owner is pragmatic about his departure and now sees it as an opportunity to recruit a proven manager capable of leading the club back to the Premier League for the first time since relegation in 2004.
The three-time English champions are in no rush to make an appointment, with Radrizzani determined to consider a number of potential candidates.
Former Middlesbrough manager Aitor Karanka -- who left the Riverside Stadium in March, less than a year after guiding the club to promotion to the Premier League -- has been shortlisted as the bookmakers' favourite to replace Monk.
But sources have confirmed to ESPN FC that Radrizzani is hopeful of speaking to Ranieri to discuss the possibility of the former Leicester manager taking charge of one of English football's sleeping giants.
Ranieri, 65, has been out of the game since being sacked by Leicester in February.
The former Chelsea, Valencia, Juventus and Monaco coach earned global acclaim by guiding Leicester to the Premier League title in 2016, but he was dismissed following the team's slide into a relegation battle this season.
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A University of Texas fraternity outlined rules – including racist and homophobic prohibitions — for its members in a poorly spelled letter.
The “confidential” letter was posted inside the Austin chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta – known as “Fiji” – house, warning members against drugs, drinking and driving, smoking, and wearing headphones.
The letter also reminded fraternity members to “respect the house,” “respect the ladies,” and “Know Longhorns Football.”
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But the letter also prohibits “fagetry,” “interracial dating,” and “Mexicans.”
The fraternity president apologized last month after members and guests wore stereotypical Mexican costumes to the “western-themed” annual Fiji Marshals party.
More than 1,000 Texas students asked the university president to punish the chapter for the party, but the investigation remains underway.
“While the behavior doesn’t mirror UT core values, it’s within students’ right to freedom of speech at private off campus event,” the university said on its official Twitter account.
The letter was copied and posted around campus after its existence was revealed, including additional unexplained prohibitions against working out, Facebook, “inside bathrooms at the House,” and “awkward convos.”
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Members were also warned against “crying to Mom,” “being a pussy (quiting),” and being “deuschbags.”
The letter forbids many garments, grooming, and clothing styles associated with fraternity members, including backwards hats, gelled hair, facial hair, Fiji or beer shirts, and designer clothes such as Abercrombie, Old Navy, and J. Crew.
Correction: The Daily Texan reported that the image was posted in 2007 and has not been authenticated.
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Watch this video report posted online by KJTV-TV:
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Great news for remote workers: technology is stressing us out. A 2017 study conducted by University of Gothenburg, Sweden proposed that cell phone, computer, and television use are directly linked to stress levels, quality of sleep, and even overall mental health. This is referred to as technostress, and if your shoulders tensed up at the word, you’re not alone.
Technostress, defined as a new age disease caused by use of modern technologies, can happen when technology overwhelms instead of helps us, or when we have to quickly adapt to change over and over. It’s fairly common, especially since most workplaces rely on computers and other devices to complete daily tasks.
But there’s more to it. As a consequence of using more and newer computing technologies, and for remote workers especially, there is an additional concern: online privacy. With 46% of remote employees transferring files between work and personal devices, there are plenty of opportunities for files to get into the wrong hands or lost along the way.
It can be a challenge to overcome technology stress for sure, but there are ways to deal with this in a healthier manner.
The key to relieving technostress? Making sure the technology you’re using is useful and reliable.
In this post, we’ll explore all the ways remote and tech-savvy teams can assess and improve their tech practices. Being mindful of security standard maintenance and other tech-related behaviors can ultimately reduce stress in and out of the work environment. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Let’s get started.
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Turning technostress to tech success at work
1. Manage your time like a pro
There are plenty of time management tools out there that make the most of your screen time, but they all revolve around one idea: setting aside time for focused, deep work. Jumping from project-to-project, checking emails every five minutes, and never turning off your device are going to add to your tech stress by depleting your energy faster.
Instead, spend time on specific tasks that line up with the organization’s priorities. Aim to achieve short-term goals in a timely fashion, one tab at a time, to avoid the procrastination tension we’ve all faced at some point.
Planning your week ahead of time is a great way to ensure you won’t succumb to technostress. Try devoting a little time every Friday to plan for the following week. That way, you won’t feel overwhelmed when you log in bright and early Monday morning.
2. Streamline communication
In order to enforce any policies or protocols, communication must be established and encouraged on all levels. This doesn’t necessarily mean communicating more frequently, but instead finding ways to communicate more efficiently within your company.
Investing in project and time management software can help bridge any gaps in communication between employees and employers, both on-site and remote. Again, making sure your communication platforms are as useful and reliable as possible can reduce unnecessary stress.
For internal communications, we use Slack for its team-friendly tools and integrations. Bring as many or as few people into a message and hammer out ideas, or use it to post team updates. Useful? Check. Reliable? You bet.
In addition to Slack, most teams use a project management tool such as Basecamp or Trello. To make things easy, we went ahead and compiled a list of 30 project management tools for you to try out.
Once you’ve locked in your PM and communication tools, you can start streamlining other mundane tasks that take up too much time, like scheduling meetings. Calendly, a simple way to book meetings, connects your calendars so all you have to do is send out a link to participants. Once the meeting is confirmed, the event shows up for everyone, and even sends a reminder.
There’s a whole world of automation out there that can immediately take tech-related work off your plate. Zapier, for example, integrates all the various business apps you use so you can create a workflow for pretty much any process. If data entry takes up any amount of your day, there’s a Zapier integration for you.
If you don’t use technology to make even a small part of your work better, or if your current software isn’t working for you, research alternatives that can help you better accomplish goals. There’s no reason to stick with a system that doesn’t help you or improve your business.
3. Create a security protocol
If you use a personal device for work, or are operating on a non-secure network, you may leave yourself vulnerable to having information and files lost, or even run the risk of identity theft.
If you don’t have one already, consider organizing a security standard for office and remote workplaces to lower the risk of confidential company and employee information exposure. Enabling automatic software updates across work and personal devices ensures any bugs or weaknesses in previous updates are fixed, and also helps the device to operate efficiently.
Further, you should also enforce 2-Factor Authentication (2FA) across your organization, as an extra layer of security without too much inconvenience.
But wait, there are more (security measures to take). You can require passwords to be updated every quarter, and offer a security training to your team. Those are just two of the seven ways that companies can protect themselves against a data breach we wrote about previously. Check out the entire post for more helpful tips.
Creating a plan as an employer, and abiding by company security policies as an on-site or remote worker, is the most proactive way to prevent data breaches and information loss on both employee and corporate levels.
Checking the SSL/ TLS Certificate validation is also something you might consider helpful. Broken links, blank pages, DNS blacklisting, and email box validation should be on your agenda. And you can test all of the above via the free test tools from WebSitePulse.
4. Implement a privacy plan
Along with security protocols, establishing a company-wide privacy plan for workplace computers is crucial to protecting company and employee data. Using separate devices for work and personal use not only encourages confidentiality regarding work files, but it also allows employees to unplug at the end of their work day.
This can be difficult for a remote workforce, as team members often use their own devices for work functions. In this case, it’s important to communicate expectations for how the device is used when it comes to work. One example would be to require passwords or biometric security to access the device.
As an employer, it is important to be explicit and transparent when communicating privacy expectations. You can reduce the tech stress of handling secure files by taking added precautions and following best practices.
5. Simplify remote team management
When it comes to managing remote teams, technology can be a gift and a burden. On one hand, technology allows distributed teams to work together no matter where they’re located. On the other hand, the freedom that technology allows means that it can be tough to know who is working on what.
Enter time and productivity management apps. Now, there’s software that allows teams to track their time on projects and tasks without having to manually fill out a timesheet. Most tools run in the background, either on desktop or mobile, so you can simply start the clock and start working.
With options like capturing screenshots and URLs while the clock is running, teams can record what they’re working on without having to report back as often. Managers and employees don’t have to be constantly updating each other on progress — which can be an unintended and unfortunate side effect of working as a remote team.
Time tracking tools like Hubstaff allow you to know what your team is working on without having to circle back, close the loop, touch base… you get the idea.
6. Please turn off your personal devices
Even if you use technology for work (everyone), having a personal device nearby can add unnecessary stress and distraction to your day.
An episode of WorkLife with Adam Grant discussed recent studies that show if you use an electronic device during a class or meeting, you learn and contribute less. Just having your smartphone on your desk reduces working memory by 10%, even in airplane mode. Yeah. In airplane mode. As Adam Grant explains, “Just seeing your phone is enough to send your mind wandering.”
Such distractions during the workday are reason enough for some companies to create a policy around personal devices. Film director Christopher Nolan bans cell phones on movie sets. Other people choose to set auto-responses that limit the time of day they’ll respond to email. Not saying that either of those are right for you, but it might help to think about the distractions your device may offer, and come up with a way to limit those.
How to limit technology stress outside of work hours
As a manager, it’s important to model positive tech behaviors for your team so that everyone knows it’s okay to unplug. Hopefully this post will inspire a healthy discussion about tech, work, and downtime with your team. If you do, let us know what other ideas come up so we can add it to our list.
As Virgin Group founder Richard Branson famously said, “If you look after your staff, they’ll look after your customers. It’s that simple.”
7. Unplug every once in awhile
This one is important for business owners and employees, as we all face the effects of screen time overload.
Quick poll: What’s the first thing you do when you wake up? Is it roll over and turn on your phone? *Raises hand slowly*
Tristan Harris, Google’s former Design Ethicist, explains why this is a big mistake. “When we wake up and see a list of notifications, it frames the experience of ‘waking up in the morning’ around a menu of ‘all the things I’ve missed since yesterday,’” he said.
Instead of hopping on Twitter right after you open your eyes, he recommends another activity that’s, “More aligned with your true needs.” Making coffee, going outside, talking with family, or meditating are all good substitutes.
Another bummer for screen-heavy workers? Eye strain. Staring at a computer screen for countless hours a week can cause eye strain and a number of other health concerns. To combat this type of eye fatigue, try these steps from the Vision Council:
The 20-20-20 rule: Take a 20-second break from the screen every 20 minutes by looking at something that’s 20 feet away
Remove or reduce overhead lighting to eliminate screen glare
Stay an arm’s distance away from the screen for proper viewing distance
Increase the text size on devices
8. Make time to wind down
You can keep the positive tech behaviors going by limiting the time spent on a device before you go to sleep. This Harvard Health article suggests avoiding screens two to three hours before bed, as blue light can have the biggest impact on circadian rhythms — which can disrupt your sleep cycle.
To help wind down on screen time at the end of the day, you can also set rules for yourself like no phones during dinner, or no email between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Make time for visiting with family and friends, enjoying nature, or finding local activities instead.
Before you power down your device for the day, consider using a meditation app to get you in the right mindset. Calm can help you meditate, breathe, and relax, all from a mobile device. Plus, they have a sleep mist you can use before bed, which is 100% blue light-free.
Long story short, reducing screen time is a recommended practice.
There’s even a Screen-Free Week that encourages both children and adults to disconnect from tech every so often and get active. Limiting tech time is a great way to reduce stress, social anxiety, and, by extension, temporarily reduce your risk of accidentally downloading a virus or spyware-containing file. Participating in Screen-Free Week and applying these ideas on a regular basis is highly recommended, especially on nights and weekends. Conveniently, there are plenty of screen-free activities to keep you busy and your mind clear off-the-clock.
In summary, here are our quick technostress reduction tips:
Manage your own time better with productivity techniques Streamline communications and operations by using the best and most secure software for your team Create security policies for network, personal, and client information Protect your privacy by changing passwords often and scheduling software updates Implement time tracking and productivity monitoring software Power down personal devices for deep focus Unplug every now and then Limit screen time outside of work, especially two to three hours before bed
Once you get through the list, be sure to perform regular reviews, approximately every six months, in order to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
What are your thoughts?
How do you fend off technostress? Do you unplug every once in awhile? Enforce deep focus time? What does your team do to protect security and privacy? Let us know in the comments.
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1. China-US trade ceasefire: The world's top two economies have agreed not impose new tariffs on one another while trade talks continue.
"We're putting the trade war on hold," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News on Sunday.
After talks in Washington, China has agreed to "significantly increase" purchases of American goods and services to reduce its huge trade surplus with the United States.
But experts say the underlying issues that have fueled economic tensions between the two countries, including how China gets its hands on American technology, remain unresolved.
2. Ryanair's soaring profit: Ryanair (RYAAY), Europe's biggest low-cost airline, reported a 10% increase in annual profits on Monday. That's despite having to cancel a large number of flights last year because of pilot strikes and scheduling problems.
However, the airline has warned it expects profits to fall this year because of higher staffing and fuel costs.
Ryanair stock dropped 1.1% in London after the open, but rebounded by mid-morning to trade up more than 1%.
3. Italy in the spotlight: The main Italian stock index in Milan was 1% lower early on Monday, the only major European market not in positive territory.
Investors were also dumping Italian government bonds, and the euro was down 0.3% against the dollar.
Concerns remain about the populist parties that are on the verge of forming a new government in the eurozone's third biggest economy.
The party leaders are expected to meet the Italian president as soon as Monday to present him with the name of their nominee for prime minister.
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4. Global market overview: US stock futures were pointing higher early on Monday.
European markets opened higher. The UK's FTSE 100 reached a new all-time high, boosted by the pound's recent decline against the dollar. The index is dominated by international companies whose profits benefit from a weaker pound.
In Asia, most major markets posted gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed flat on Friday. The S&P 500 was down 0.3% and the Nasdaq shed 0.4%.
US crude futures were 0.5% higher on Monday, trading at $71.60.
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5. Coming this week:
Tuesday — Kohl's (KSS) reports earnings
Wednesday — New home sales report; Lowe's (LOW), Tiffany (TIF) and Target (TGT) and L Brands (LB) report earnings
Thursday — Existing home sales report; Best Buy (BBY) and Gap (GPS) report earnings
Friday — EU General Data Protection Regulation goes into effect
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Could India be the great testing ground for net neutrality?
Market economics could be levelling out the playing field for web and telco companies in India
The recent debate on 'Net-neutrality' has many layers, but what has taken the nation of India by storm is the top-most layer on being given the RIGHT to access information without being punished by forces wanting to ride the principles of a 'market economy'. The mandate is clear from the 0.005 per cent of the population that uses smartphones in India.
I am all for freedom to choose where and how I want to consume content. Especially when the age of Internet freedom has created so many different products and solutions that are lifelines for most of us today.
Be it the videos on YouTube or the chats on What'sApp. It's difficult to even fathom a telecom company getting a hold of trying to 'unintentionally' or 'unknowingly' leading us to consume content as strategised by its marketing and strategy team.
> See also: Birth of the data states: the rise of an internet global power force
Not just me, but an entire industry, the business process management or BPO industry, looks at any disruption to this freedom with a really close lens. After all, we are poised to grow to $50 billion in size from the $26 billion we are today, riding on the promise of innovation, domain specialisation and the ability to build the right technology platforms for our global clientele.
All of this on the back of access to the right data and the right channels in any part of the world… and the last thing we would want as an industry is to be led by any telecom company as per its 'innovative constructs'.
However, peeling through the layers of this debate, I do find market economics levelling out the playing field in many ways even today. Let us look at some extremely basic examples in real life.
For instance, we still have a VIP darshan in holy places, despite this one place presumably being 'equal to all'. We have come to terms with cable operators who provide free access to certain channels on their networks while either not having or asking for a fee on others. We still find the 'kirana' or 'mom and pop' shops being in happy co-existence with the biggie superstores.
The thought I am putting forth is that 'preferential constructs' or 'discrimination in the form of differentiation' do exist in various areas even today.
Looking closely at the government's Digital India vision, we know that increased investments would be required in infrastructure. Broadband penetration in the country has been at an abysmal low with media reports claiming that out of the 175 million broadband connections set as a target for 2017, 85.74 million have been achieved till December 2014. The wireless broadband speed in India is 1.7 megabytes per second or MBPS as against 10.5 MBPS in the US and 9.9 MBPS in the UK.
The moot point is that India as a nation needs a very strong prop up in terms of our digital infrastructure and connect, which will require large telecom players to come forth and put their money in. Why would they do it if they were not allowed to survive and grow profitably as a business?
I am not being a capitalist, and would not recommend that we look at it as a nation in a capitalist sense. I am merely suggesting that without capitalism, the next phase of transformational growth cannot happen. But we are protected as a democracy, as a country that understands the divide between the rich and the poor.
We are a country whose government can set right arm-twisting tactics with firm policies and governance. I believe that it is the fear of the unknown or rather limited understanding of this debate that is creating an unprecedented uproar.
All the Net activism has clearly showcased that no policy can be thrust upon the citizens of this country. But the activism alludes to restrictive policies that telecom companies can create, completely hampering the rate of innovation in the country and thereby threatening the interests of start-ups, which I find hard to digest at this point.
I belong to an industry that co-exists with the government in many ways. For instance, the government looks to the BPM industry to set up offices in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, thereby generating large-scale employment and pulling up the standard of living in such places. Large investments are made by corporate houses, while continuing to seek government incentives in various forms to do so. Capitalism co-exists with socialism.
> See also: The real road to democracy: how open source is sparking a revolution in enterprise
I am still wondering what the debate is. Is it about 'neutrality' in gaining access to information? In being unrestricted about learning or gaining information? Then I am all for it. Any restriction of any kind has always hindered overall growth and history stands testimony to it.
But I am quite certain that that is not the debate here. It is about 'how to do business' wherein private players are involved from a business stand-point and the government is involved through its agencies to ensure that citizens are not being affected or discriminated against in any manner, and their fundamental rights are not violated in any sense by large business houses.
It is about creating policies and frameworks that enthuse players to invest in telecom infrastructure while allowing the citizens the freedom to view what they want from wherever they want.
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ＮＨＫ受信料制度等検討委員会（座長＝安藤英義・専修大大学院教授）は１２日、受信料徴収率を上げるために電力会社などに居住情報を照会できる制度の検討をＮＨＫに促す内容を盛り込んだ答申をまとめた。
検討委は、２月に設置された上田良一会長の諮問機関。受信料の公平負担のあり方などについて議論しており、同日、ＮＨＫ執行部に検討結果を伝えた。
受信料の支払率は２０１６年度末で７８・２％。答申では、オートロックのマンションが増えたことなどにより訪問での受信料の契約活動が難しくなっていることを指摘。電力会社や郵便局などの公益事業者が持つ未払い世帯の氏名や住所情報を照会できるような制度を「整備、運用する妥当性もあると考えられる」とした。導入には放送法の改正が必要になるが、電力会社や郵便局が持つ個人情報を徴収に活用する海外の公共放送では、支払率が９０％を超すという。
ただ検討委は、「視聴者・国民の理解を得ることが重要」との留保も付けた。安藤座長は記者会見で「支払率は８割近くに達している。（さらに）上げていくためには有力な手段と考えた」と説明した。
罰則を伴う支払い義務化については、「公共放送としての性格への影響などを考慮すると、慎重に検討すべきである」としている。（滝沢文那）
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The cardiologists say the reviews of their work did not accurately reflect the care they provided, and HCA says the reviews “are not, by any means, definitive,” according to an e-mailed response by the company. HCA says it took whatever steps were necessary to improve patient care. It also said “significant actions were taken to investigate areas of concern, to bring in independent reviewers, and to take action where necessary.”
Details about the procedures and the company’s knowledge of them are contained in thousands of pages of confidential memos, e-mail correspondence among executives, transcripts from hearings and reports from outside consultants examined by The Times, as well as interviews with doctors and others. A review of those communications reveals that rather than asking whether patients had been harmed or whether regulators needed to be contacted, hospital officials asked for information on how the physicians’ activities affected the hospitals’ bottom line.
HCA denies its decisions at these hospitals were motivated by financial considerations, but rather “demonstrate the strong focus we have on quality patient care.” The company also says that more than 80 percent of its hospitals are in the top 10 percent of government rankings for quality.
Although HCA has hospitals in about 20 states from California to Virginia and Alaska to Texas, Florida, with its large older population, is a critical and growing market for hospital chains and especially for HCA. HCA’s Florida hospitals provide about 20 percent of the company’s revenue.
The need to root out Medicare fraud — billing for unnecessary procedures, for example — is high for all hospitals. In 2003, Tenet Healthcare agreed to pay $54 million to settle allegations that unnecessary cardiac procedures were being performed over six years and billed to Medicare and Medicaid at one of its hospitals in California, Redding Medical Center.
But the pressure is even greater for HCA. In 2000, the company reached one of a series of settlements involving a huge Medicare fraud case with the Justice Department that would eventually come to $1.7 billion in fines and repayments. The accusations, which primarily involved overbilling, occurred when Rick Scott, now the governor of Florida, was the company’s chief executive. He was removed from the post by the board but was never personally accused of wrongdoing.
As part of the settlement with the federal regulators, HCA signed a 97-page Corporate Integrity Agreement that extended through late 2008. It detailed what had to be reported to authorities and provided for stiffer penalties if HCA failed to do so.
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The Senate is bracing for a long weekend as lawmakers scramble to prevent a third government shutdown that would begin Friday night at midnight.
Leadership is hoping to quickly schedule a vote on the $1.3 trillion omnibus, but is struggling to lock down the consent of every senator. When the chamber will take action, or if it will be able to meet the deadline, remains unclear.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellGraham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Trump puts Supreme Court fight at center of Ohio rally The Memo: Dems face balancing act on SCOTUS fight MORE (R-Ky.) filed cloture on the House-passed bill early Thursday evening.
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But under the Senate’s rules, the earliest the Senate could hold an initial vote is early Saturday morning. After that, senators could drag out the debate for up to an additional 30 hours — potentially pushing final passage of the bill until roughly 8 a.m. on Sunday.
“Any senator can decide to string out the process,” said Sen. John Cornyn John CornynTumultuous court battle upends fight for Senate Texas Democrats roll out first wave of planned digital ads as Election Day nears Calls grow for Biden to expand election map in final sprint MORE (R-Texas), explaining the chamber’s dilemma. He added it could be a “long couple of days.”
When reporters pressed him on the schedule, he quipped: “Y'all seem very anxious. You don’t want to spend your weekend with us?”
Beyond filing cloture, McConnell offered no hints about the path forward, or when the Senate will be able to break the current stalemate that has thrown the government into limbo.
The Senate’s schedule largely comes down to one senator: GOP Sen. Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulSecond GOP senator to quarantine after exposure to coronavirus GOP senator to quarantine after coronavirus exposure The Hill's Morning Report - Sponsored by National Industries for the Blind - Trump seeks to flip 'Rage' narrative; Dems block COVID-19 bill MORE (Ky.).
There is no doubt the bill will pass the Senate. It easily was approved by the House and has support on both sides of the aisle.
But Paul can slow its progress, and while he has been mum on his plans, he’s signaled he may draw things out.
“Page 281 of ‘crumni-bus’. CIA retirement funding. Wouldn’t it be great to amend out the retirement benefits of Trump hater John Brennan John Owen BrennanJournalism or partisanship? The media's mistakes of 2016 continue in 2020 Comey on Clinton tweet: 'I regret only being involved in the 2016 election' Ex-CIA Director Brennan questioned for 8 hours in Durham review of Russia probe MORE and Congressional dissembler James Clapper James Robert ClapperOn China, Biden is no Nixon — and no Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report - Speculation over Biden's running mate announcement Trump slams former intelligence officials to explain 'reluctance to embrace' agencies MORE,” he said Thursday as part of a string of tweets detailing his progress in reading the 2,000-plus page bill.
Clapper and Brennan are both frequent Paul critics. Clapper is the former director of national intelligence, while Brennan is the former CIA chief.
Shortly after 6 p.m., Sergio Gor, a spokesman for Paul, sent out an email blast to reporters urging them to check out Paul's Twitter feed.
“Many of you have asked for updates. While everything remains in flux, I did want to share with you our twitter. We are posting some egregious examples of government spending. Worth a click!” he said.
Senators and reporters alike were keeping a close watch on Paul on Thursday as they tried to parse whether or not he would force a repeat performance of his hours-long shutdown from February.
The libertarian-minded GOP senator antagonized his colleagues by keeping the chamber in session until nearly 2 a.m.
Sen. Roy Blunt Roy Dean BluntThis week: Supreme Court fight over Ginsburg's seat upends Congress's agenda McConnell locks down key GOP votes in Supreme Court fight Murkowski: Supreme Court nominee should not be taken up before election MORE (R-Mo.) acknowledged he didn’t know if Paul would cooperate, but “hopefully he had time to make the point he wanted to make three weeks ago."
Republicans say Paul did not hint at his plans during a closed-door caucus lunch, which was largely a celebration for retiring GOP Sen. Thad Cochran William (Thad) Thad CochranEspy wins Mississippi Senate Democratic primary Bottom Line Mike Espy announces Mississippi Senate bid MORE (R-Miss.), who is set to retire after four decades next week.
“There are a lot of people who are going to put pressure on him,” said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.).
Asked if there was an effort to “prevail” on Paul, he added: “There always is. I'm not being cute. I think there always is an effort.”
For a brief moment Thursday it appeared Paul could have a partner in crime in his stalling tactics: GOP Sen. John Kennedy John Neely KennedyMORE (La.). told reporters that he hasn't made a decision about if he would slow walk the bill, adding that the legislative process “sucks.”
But he had backed down by Thursday afternoon, saying he would oppose the bill but let it pass quickly.
“I'm not going to try to delay it out of respect for my colleagues,” he said.
The colossal funding package, which funds the government through the end of September, includes $695 billion in defense funding and $591 billion in nondefense funding.
Conservative lawmakers fumed over the higher spending levels, as well as a litany of unrelated issues stuck into the funding bill that is expected to be one of the last major pieces of legislation Congress passes before the midterm election.
“I could not be more discouraged about where we are today with our adult leadership here in Congress and at the White House. This is one of the most grotesque pieces of legislation I can remember,” said GOP Sen. Bob Corker Robert (Bob) Phillips CorkerHas Congress captured Russia policy? Tennessee primary battle turns nasty for Republicans Cheney clashes with Trump MORE (Tenn.).
Other lawmakers grumbled about the breakneck pace of the 2,000-plus page omnibus, which cleared the House less than 24 hours after it was released.
Perdue, who is part of a committee aimed at reforming the appropriations process, added: “You all I know how I feel about the process. … [This] is just not the way to govern at all.”
But with a Christmas tree of legislative priorities included in the bill, leadership in both parties took a victory lap to tout wins for their side of the aisle.
McConnell pointed to the increase in defense funding, calling it a “top priority” for Republicans.
“First and foremost, in my view, this bill will mark the end of disproportionate and harmful cuts to Department of Defense funding. It delivers the largest year-on-year increase in defense spending in 15 years,” he said.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerJacobin editor: Primarying Schumer would force him to fight Trump's SCOTUS nominee CNN's Toobin: Democrats are 'wimps' who won't 'have the guts' to add Supreme Court seats Republican senator says plans to confirm justice before election 'completely consistent with the precedent' MORE (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Nancy PelosiTrump puts Supreme Court fight at center of Ohio rally CDC causes new storm by pulling coronavirus guidance Overnight Health Care: CDC pulls revised guidance on coronavirus | Government watchdog finds supply shortages are harming US response | As virus pummels US, Europe sees its own spike MORE (D-Calif.) held a joint press conference on Thursday to tout provisions their party secured in the legislation.
“It was weeks of pain-staking negotiations,” Schumer said. “We Democrats are really happy with what we were able to accomplish on a number of priorities.”
He added that “this spending agreement brings the era of austerity to an unceremonious end.”
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Cosmonaut Pavel Belyayaev in 1965 from Rockets and People (Asif Siddiqi)
Behold, the hundreds of free e-books about space history contained on this webpage.
From old favorites like The Difficult Road to Mars: A Brief History of Mars Exploration in the Soviet Union and Wind Tunnels of NASA to experimental work like Aerospace Food Technology and Life in the Universe: Proceedings of a conference held at NASA Ames Research Center Moffet Field, California, June 19-20, 1979, this is one of the best collections of space arcana you're likely to find.
Who could resist Exploring Space With a Camera? Or Rockets and People, the autobiography of rocket designer Boris Chertok and a key history of the Soviet space program?
These books were placed online over the last decade, so some of the formatting leaves something to be desired. Many of the works have been broken up into tiny pieces, forcing one to click through page after page. But this is a singular information repository, a storehouse for our fascination with flight.
What these works also show is how central the space program made and found itself during the 20th century. NASA could convene PIllsbury and the chefs on nuclear submarines to talk about food. Computing and solar energy were both pushed along by NASA's interest. The Space Race was a proxy skirmish in the Cold War. And, of course, all sorts of ideas from the era leaked into the way NASA thought about things: freedom and America and gender and aesthetics and the future.
Oh, and don't miss a personal favorite, We Freeze to Please: A History of NASA's Icing Research Tunnel and the Quest for Safety. A page turner.
Inspecting blades, from We Freeze to Please
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2044. The climate change and a series of solar storms have turned in a desert the surface of the planet and annihilated to the 99.7 % of Earth's population, leaving alive 21 million people across the world in a single city covered by mechanical clouds (zeppelins anchored to the city) to make rain. Trying to rebuild the world again, a robot company named ROC Corporation create Automata Pilgrim 7000 with two security protocols: 1st, a robot cannot harm human beings, and 2nd, a robot cannot alter himself or another robot. But this situation changes when police officer Sean Wallace shoots and destroys a robot claiming that it was altering himself. With the company worried by the possible implications if the case were known by the people, insurance agent Jacq Vaucan is chosen to investigate the happened, while Vaucan tries to convince his boss, friend and brother-in-law Robert Bold to transfer him and his pregnant wife Rachel to the coast, with Bold accepting the request if Vaucan solves ... Written by Chockys
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Following yet another Negan filled episode of The Walking Dead, the fifth episode of season seven looks set to feature less of the villain and more of The Saviours.
“Go Getters” will take place primarily on The Hilltop - somewhere that has yet to be explored this season - with Gregory now in danger.
As shown in the clip, there will also be some scenes set in Alexandria, where Negan managed to visit last episode, as well as other locations, updating us on the likes of Carl and Enid.
The most shocking Walking Dead moments Show all 10 1 /10 The most shocking Walking Dead moments The most shocking Walking Dead moments Sophie's a walker (season 2, episode 7) Much of season two's opening half is spent looking for Sophia, the missing daughter of Carol (Melissa McBride). Turns out she was locked up in Hershel's barn as a zombie all along. The most shocking Walking Dead moments Shane reanimates without being bitten (season 2, episode 12) When Carl (Chandler Riggs) guns down a deranged Shane (Jon Bernthal) to protect his father, the shock arrives when he manifests into a walker despite not being bitten; turns out everyone's infected with the virus and will turn whichever way they die. The most shocking Walking Dead moments Axel's bullet to the eye (season 3, episode 10) A character introduced in the show's prison arc, Axel is a reformed prisoner who strikes up a friendship with Carol - until he's gunned down mid-sentence. The most shocking Walking Dead moments Carl kills Lori after she gives birth (season 3, episode 4) Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) goes into labour at the very moment a zombie siege breaks out at the prison. Unfortunately, she doesn't make it through the procedure with her son Carl being the one to put a bullet to her head. The most shocking Walking Dead moments The Governor slays Hershel (season 4, episode 8) The Governor makes his dramatic return for a showdown at the prison after he captures Michonne (Danai Gurira) and Hershel (Scott Wilson). Rick reaches out, attempting to reason with him - but The Governor starts a war when he proceeds to decapitate poor old Hershel instead. The most shocking Walking Dead moments "Look at the flowers" (season 4, episode 14) In a standout episode from the show's fourth season, Carol is forced to take drastic measures when young teenager Lizzie murders her sister Mika in the belief that she'll live on as a zombie. Realising Lizzie's depraved mind would endanger those around her, Carol puts a gun to the young girl's head and, telling her to "look at the flowers," pulls the trigger, fighting back the tears. The most shocking Walking Dead moments Carl's bullet to the eye (season 6, episode 9) Season six returned from its mid-season break in typically dramatic fashion when an iconic moment from the graphic novels came to life: Carl takes a bullet to the eye. The most shocking Walking Dead moments Beth is killed (season 5, episode 8) Upon being kidnapped, Beth (Emily Kinney) is taken to Grady Memorial Hospital managed by Atlanta Law Enforcement. Forced to reside there against her will, the group - including Rick and Daryl (Norman Reedus) - eventually find her - only for her to be accidentally shot in the head by her captor. The worst thing? Her sister Maggie (Lauren Cohan) had just arrived outside. The most shocking Walking Dead moments Negan kills Abraham Season seven opened in brutal form as we discovered it was Abraham (Michael Cudlitz) at the opposite end of Negan's baseball bat. "Suck my nuts," the soldier growls as the Saviours' leader brings Lucille raining down on his head until nothing remains but a pulpy mess. The most shocking Walking Dead moments Negan kills Glenn Negan decides to punish the group once more after getting clocked round the face by Daryl. Without expectation, he thwacks Lucille round the head of poor Glenn. With his eyeball popping out of his head, he manages: "I'll find you, Maggie before Negan proceeds to finish the job ending the former pizza delivery boy's life.
Meanwhile, for those still reeling from the extended episode four, you can check out The Independent’s review as well as the 10 most disturbing quotes from Negan.
We also discuss the five major talking points from the episode, including Rick reaching his breaking point, Negan believing Maggie is dead, and Rosita's one-woman rebellion.
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The success and fan support for the Women’s World Cup was a major boon for Canada. People came out and supported not only the host country and the United States, but other teams not quite as well-known. The spotlight on the sport was at an all-time high in Canada.
It is hoped by many that the momentum built from the World Cup would increase interest, and put pressure on Canada Soccer to help bring an expansion National Women’s Soccer League team to Canada, which does not have a professional league. Vancouver has long seemed the most likely destination, but that possibility has a slim to zero percent chance of happening anytime soon.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC co-owner Jeff Mallett was available during a mid-season roundtable discussion earlier this week and clarified the organizations thoughts on bringing the NWSL to Vancouver.
“We’re looking at the league (NWSL),” Mallett said. “We know everybody down there. Portland has a team; we’re exposed to everything inside the walls. There’s nothing imminent that we’re working on at this particular time. It’s something strategically if you look at our pyramid, it’s something down the road that could be a possibility for us.”
[MORE: NWSL, FAWSL see attendance bumps in wake of World Cup]
The USL W-League had a Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team that last took the field during the 2012 season. Following that season, the Whitecaps announced that they would no longer field a women’s team. The Whitecaps currently have a girls at the U-13 – U-18 level, which helps develop players into the Canada Soccer Women’s Regional EXCEL Centre (REX).
The Whitecaps have shifted focus towards other investments, including a residency program and a USL team that will eventually go a long way in helping to improve the future development of players for the MLS club. Mallett maintains that the Whitecaps organization hasn’t turned its collective back on the women’s game.
“We care about the women’s game; we haven’t discarded the women’s game,” he said. “We have lots on our plate. Let’s focus in on the elite REX program, hook up with the national program. Use our dollars and our efforts to try to do this with the (age) fifteens, sixteens, and seventeens and lead them on up there. I think because of the alliances with the associations (the NWSL has with) the Mexican federation, Canada, and U.S. and the subsidies that go there, I think that can kick on. We’ll keep an eye on what the other opportunities are in the women’s game.”
One of the star players on Portland Thorns FC is Christine Sinclair. When it comes to the club level, there is nothing more that Sinclair would like to see in Canada than a professional women’s soccer team. The all-time leading Canadian goal-scorer reiterated her thoughts while on TSN 1040 Radio last Thursday.
#CanWNT's Christine Sinclair on @TSN1040: “I would love to see a couple of professional teams here in Canada." https://t.co/i1NN3ly6WT — Har Journalist (@HarJournalist) July 9, 2015
Multiple sources indicated that Vancouver was close to obtaining an NWSL team for the league’s inaugural season in 2013, but talks broke down. It was thought that a Vancouver NWSL team would feature many Canadian national team players.
[MORE: Complete coverage of the Canadian women’s national team]
Vancouver Whitecaps FC president Bob Lenarduzzi talked about the long-term investment the Whitecaps are making and how much Canada coach John Herdman has been part of the ongoing development.
“I think we want to talk about the investment in the women’s game and that’s through the REX program that John Herdman is very much behind and has established a curriculum for that,” Lenarduzzi said. “There’s two centers right now, one in British Columbia, Quebec, and there will be one in Ontario. The best part of that involvement is John Herdman. You’ve seen what he’s done with the women’s team. He also recognizes that either his coaching career or whoever comes in after him will be determined by whether or not we’re producing players. We felt that with all that is going on, the best contribution that we can make was through the development of the younger players.”
One of the main reasons for previously failed women’s league in North America has been costs, combined with low attendance levels across the league. The NWSL is hoping to get a large boost in attendance because of the U.S. winning the World Cup. Some of that bump has already begun, with the Houston Dash drawing a record crowd of 13,025 fans on Sunday.
Portland is without a doubt the strongest franchise financially, but for other teams it can be a real struggle to balance costs, and put a product on the pitch that people want to come and watch. Lenarduzzi knows Vancouver is a special market, but he isn’t quite sold on fan support if Vancouver were to host a professional women’s soccer team.
“It’s difficult,” he said. “When you look at the league outside of Portland, the average attendances are around 3,000. I think Vancouver is a special market, but as Jeff said, we’ll keep and eye out on what’s going on. If we feel that we’re far enough down the road with our current projects — which are still a work in progress — it is something that we would look at. We want to make sure that if and when we do it, that we’re setting ourselves up for success.”
NWSL commissioner Jeff Plush mentioned in the days following the 2015 Women’s World Cup final that there are as many as a dozen groups interested in NWSL expansion teams. It is clear, however, that there could be some wait for a professional women’s team in Vancouver.
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Octopus scientists love ‘My Octopus Teacher’ just as much as you do
“Every minute I’m not out looking, a wombat joey dies in its mother’s pouch”: The horrors of wombat roadkill
Wildlife carers driving along rural New South Wales roads are concerned about the rates wombats are dying from road collisions.
By Angela Heathcote • Reading Time: 3 Minutes
Image credit: Wombat Rescue
IN THE SIX months since Canberra resident Yolandi Vermaak started her Wombat Rescue project in January 2018, she’s come across close to a hundred dead wombats scattered across rural NSW roads.
But after discovering a particularly horrendous scene recently, she’s fed up. “I was driving along when I discovered two wombat bodies along the road. This was really weird to me because they’re usually solitary animals,” she tells Australian Geographic.
Related Video
Her heart broke when she discovered a tiny paw sticking out of the mother’s pouch. She knew she was too late. “It’s so much worse in winter because they just freeze to death. The only chance the little ones have is if they’re discovered in time.”
It’s much harder for joeys to survive in their mothers pouch during winter. (Image Credit: Wombat rescue)
Wombat Rescue
Yolandi had been working closely with Donna Stepan from Sleepy Burrows Wombat Sanctuary in Gundaroo, NSW, for 19 months, when she noticed that most orphaned wombats were being brought in from road kills, so she decided to go out looking for herself, going for long drives between dusk and dawn, when wombats are most active.
She set out to make these drives once or twice every month, but it’s since become an obsession. “Last weekend, I went out twice. I find it really difficult to just sit around when I know a wombat joey is out there waiting for me to rescue it.”
Yolandi’s work has since become a family affair. “My 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are my camera operators. It breaks my heart because my daughter always says ‘Mum, we missed that road’ or ‘we haven’t been down there’, but it’s impossible for us to cover every road. Whenever we turn right, we’re anxious we’ve missed one on the left.”
Yolandi now posts these videos, as well as photos and other updates on the Wombat Rescue page she uses to educate people about bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus), which inhabit areas across the east coast. She’s keen to make people aware of the impacts of mange, a severe skin disease that kills wombats and depletes local populations.
However, she’s since become equally if not more concerned about the damage caused by car collisions, because people are less aware of how many dead wombats dot NSW rural roads. “These are healthy wombats being killed, not one’s with mange or anything like that. And the rate that they’re being run over is unsustainable.”
(Image Credit: Wombat Rescue)
The challenges for our wombats
Mammal immunologist Julie Old from Western Sydney University began a data collection project called WomSAT, to better understand the toll mange and road collisions are having on wombat populations.
“At the moment we don’t know much about wombat populations, so it’s hard to say how much impact this is having on them. There is a chance, however, that small populations could become locally extinct.”
For now, Julie advises anyone who comes across a dead wombat to record their location and submit it through WomSAT. The information collected will help pinpoint where mange is prevalent and where wombats are becoming victims of motor vehicle collisions, and from there, better strategies can be implemented.
“If people aren’t recording what they see – the deaths of wombats will go in vain. If they are recorded, the data can be used to help put strategies in place to help. If there’s no data, it’s just hearsay unfortunately.”
Yolandi hopes the footage her and her two children have recorded will change perceptions. “The reason why we film everything is to have a record of what we find and to start educating people. It’s going to take time to change people’s perceptions about wombats because they don’t know them as well as other marsupials. But I am determined to change perceptions and to make a difference.”
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This Is the Most Obese State in the Country
One in five children and one in three adults in the United States are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The agency defines adult obesity as a person with a body mass index (BMI)—a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters—of 30 or higher. The condition puts you at a greater risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and death from all causes, including the biggest health issue in the country right now, coronavirus.
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UNLV assistant hockey coach Nick Robone was shot in the chest during Sunday night’s massacre outside Mandalay Bay but is expected to recover.
Nick Robone, 28, a UNLV assistant hockey coach, was shot in the chest at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. His brother, a paramedic, stabilized him at the scene. His father says he's still in "pretty bad shape" but is hopeful he'll pull through. (YouTube/UNLV Hockey)
Nick Robone, 28, a UNLV assistant hockey coach, was shot in the chest at the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Photo courtesy of UNLV hockey.
UNLV assistant hockey coach Nick Robone was shot in the chest during Sunday night’s massacre across from Mandalay Bay but is expected to recover.
Team general manager Zee Khan said Robone, 28, is in intensive care at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where he had a bullet removed from his chest. The shot missed Robone’s lung.
“They removed the bullet and the fragments, but he’s badly bruised,” Khan said. “If all goes well, he will make a full recovery.”
Robone was at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival with head coach Anthony Vignieri Greener and family members when the shooting broke out that has claimed at least 59 lives and injured at least 527. Greener and his wife, Ashley, escaped unhurt.
“My wife and I are in a state of shock still,” Greener said. “People are reaching out and checking in on us and making sure (we’re OK), but some of the things I saw last night, I wouldn’t wish upon anybody.
“I’ve never witnessed anything like that. You always see it in movies. Words don’t justify it.”
Greener said he stood about 10 yards behind Robone during the concert, and at first thought the gunshots were firecrackers. Then when the second round of shooting occurred, Greener told Ashley they needed to leave the area, and panic with the crowd set in when the third round of shots began.
“Everybody dropped to the floor,” Greener said. “So we ran probably 30 yards, 40 yards and another long one came. I don’t know how long it is. It sounded like it was going on for 10 minutes. We hit the floor twice in a span of probably 200 yards.”
They ran through the far right side of the venue and saw police officers and a woman who was shot in the stomach.
“She was bleeding everywhere, and they’re running toward us,” Greener said.
A police officer told him to keep moving.
“Every time we heard shots, we would get behind something if we could,” Greener said. “You see people bleeding everywhere. It was just madness.”
His group became separated from Robone’s, so Greener texted him. Robone responded that he was shot and headed to Sunrise. Robone’s brother, Anthony, is a firefighter who also was at the concert. After helping his brother into an ambulance, Anthony Robone stayed behind to assist other injured people.
The UNLV hockey team, which is a club sport, will play Utah as scheduled on Friday and Saturday at City National Arena, where the Vegas Golden Knights train.
UNLV athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois said in a statement the school’s varsity athletes, coaches and athletic department personnel “are accounted for and safe.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families affected by this horrible tragedy,” Reed-Francois said. “We have learned that Nick Robone, a member of the UNLV club hockey program’s coaching staff, was wounded and we are praying for his full recovery.
“Thank you to our law enforcement, first responders and volunteers throughout Southern Nevada and here at the Thomas &Mack Center for their work throughout the night. Our city is strong and resilient, and UNLV athletics will do all that we can to help heal as a community.”
From our Director of Athletics @DRFrancois1 on the horrific tragedy last night in Las Vegas: pic.twitter.com/mk0tW29Rbd — UNLV Athletics (@UNLVathletics) October 2, 2017
Rebels men’s basketball coach Marvin Menzies and football coach Tony Sanchez posted their thoughts on Twitter.
#PrayForVegas,” Menzies wrote, “the #UNLVmbb Family has a heavy heart today for all those tragically impacted. Our prayers go out to our #VegasFamily.”
#PrayForVegas the #UNLVmbb Family has a heavy heart today for all those tragically impacted. Our prayers go out to our #VegasFamily pic.twitter.com/7iOIJsypDT — Coach Marvin Menzies (@MarvinMenzies) October 2, 2017
“Our thoughts (and) prayers go out to the victims, their families, and all those affected by this senseless and tragic event,” Sanchez said.
Our thoughts are prayers go out to the victims, their families, and all those affected by this senseless and tragic event. — Coach Tony Sanchez (@UNLVSanchez) October 2, 2017
Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson issued a statement that read: “The entire Mountain West family offers our thoughts, prayers, love and support to our family members and friends in the Las Vegas and UNLV communities, and to all those who have been impacted by this unimaginable tragedy.
“We hope you draw strength in knowing we stand with you in this most difficult hour.”
UNLV is expected to announce later this week how it plans to honor the victims.
Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.
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Up to 200mm of rain is forecast to fall in parts of Queensland in coming days, just weeks after powerful ex-Cyclone Debbie brought destruction to the state.
A low-pressure system moving east is expected to combine with a pressure trough tomorrow and inundate about 90 percent of the state.
"In parts of Queensland, it looks like there is potential for 200mm of rain over a couple of days," Weatherzone Meteorologist Brett Dutschke told 9news.com.au.
"That would be nearly four times the monthly average for May, with the wettest areas likely around central coast."
Heavy rainfall is expected in most of the country over the next three days. (9NEWS)
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood watch in Queensland from Cairns to Gladstone, which includes Mackay, Townsville and Rockhampton.
"With any significant rain there is the possibility of riverine and flash flooding, however we are expecting rainfall totals and flooding to be generally lower than those following ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie,” BoM Senior Meteorologist Scott Williams said
Rain and isolated storms are expected in southeast coastal districts including Brisbane on Friday, with decreasing rainfall in the 25 to 75mm range, and isolated showers and storms could continue into Saturday, Mr Williams added.
"We'll see a lot of thunderstorm activity develop through western Queensland and extend down into western New South Wales, “ he said.
The rain is expected to begin today on the tropical north coast and will spread to wider areas tomorrow and Friday.
In South Australia, today is expected to be the wettest day, although Mr Dutschke said the state will avoid any significant rainfall.
"It's going to bring rain to virtually all of South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and Queensland," Weatherzone Meteorologist Brett Dutschke told 9news.com.au.
"The system is slowing moving east and the further east it goes effect the heavier the falls are going to be.
Victoria will cop the worst of the weather system on Friday, with heavy drenchings expected in the north of the state.
In NSW, the hardest hit areas will be in the west where up to 20mm of rain will fall between Friday and Saturday.
Mr Dutchske said there is a chance of some minor flooding in Northern Victoria and parts of NSW.
Tasmania could also have minor flooding in the north of the state on Saturday.
"Northern Tasmania on Saturday looks set to get 30 to 50 mm. There could be some falls there that get to 80 to 100, particularly about the higher ranges,” Mr Williams advised.
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The spindly yellow crane that has been dangling over the top of Woodbranch Investment’s Market Square Tower is coming down in pieces this afternoon, notes a downtown reader. The shot above shows the scene from the corner of Prairie and Travis streets, with the top edge of the still-standing-by-court-order former Houston Chronicle building sticking in from the left.
The 463-unit tower has been leasing spaces since April, with plans to open this fall. There’s still work to do on the building before then, though the support for the glass-bottom cantilevered rooftop pool that will hang some 500 feet above Preston looks to be in place. Here’s Jackson & Ryan’s rendering of what the space will look like once the water has been added:
***
And here’s the tower and crane photobombing last week’s shot of Hines’s Aris Market Square tower, currently making its way up into the airspace on the other side of Market Square:
Images: tribalidentity (top 2); Jackson & Ryan (rendering); Bob Russell (bottom)
Coming Down Downtown
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Donate To Us
Donations will be used for the benefit of the Therian Guide community. You can also donate to us using Łitecoins or Bitcoins, please contact us for more information.
Welcome
Welcome to the Therian Guide.
We are a community of people, joined by our common experience of Therianthropy.
On this site you will find information on the various aspects of therianthropy and the community, including otherkin.
There are many theories held in the community as to the origins of a nonhuman identity as well as how it happens, each individual holding their own beliefs. As of now, there is no solid answer, nor right or wrong; we can only provide what is widely accepted by the community.
This website covers both spiritual and psychological theories of nonhuman identification as well as different aspects of therianthropy. Keep in mind that everyone holds different views and other views may differ slightly from the ones shared here but may be the same at their core.
We do not claim anything here as fact, only generally accepted knowledge and speculation in the community. There is no central authority on the subject of therianthropy, everything known on the subject to date, amounts to views and opinions of the people experiencing it. The information provided here attempts to summarize some of that for you.
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Site created on May 23, 2010
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Description
The stricter the boss, the quicker she gets wet…
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Politics is fun isn't it? You never know what's going to happen and you certainly don't know who is going to try to run for political office.
As well as your regular major parties there are plenty of others to chose from. You have your usual contenders in the form of The Monster Raving Loony Party and Cannabis is safer than Alcohol Party but sometimes you get a few unique independent's.
Joining the PM on stage for the count this year was Bobby 'Elmo' Smith - who, as you probably gathered , was dressed up like the fluffy red character from Sesame Street.
Bobby Smith is a father's rights activist and the founder of the Give Me Back Elmo Party - which he set up to campaign for changing the family courts.
Smith, a 34-year-old truck driver, stood in the Witney constituency against then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2015, and this year it was Theresa May's turn in Maidenhead.
Once the votes were cast and counted for, it was revealed Smith had only received 3 total votes against Mrs May's 37, 718.
Smith campaigns for father's rights, and came up with the Elmo platform after combining the first two letters of his daughter's names.
Speaking two years ago at a previous election Mr Smith said:
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NOTICE FROM THE RECORDS AND INFORMATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION You are currently viewing an out of date version of this file that has been preserved for posterity. Please note that information presented herein may be misleading or incorrect.
Item #: SCP-3449
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-3449 is to be housed in a staNdaRd Safe-level object storage locker in Site-19. Due to the nature of the anomaly, further containment measures are currently not necessary. Testing is curteny underway to determine the long term containment requirements of SCP-3449.
A request to reclassify SCP-3449 as an anomalous item is p3nd!Ng approval from Site Director Panthe.
Description: SCP-3449 refers to an anomalous spiral-bound notebook with a dark blue cover. Due to the formatting of the writing, six pages of the notbok appear to contain normal diary entries, however the words used are incoherent and often ispemlls. Other pages of the diary are either torn, or left blank.
SCP-3449's anomalous property manifests in documentation about SCP-3449. All writing about SCP-3449 will contain arbitrary capitalization, misspellings; and other SYntactIcal errors. Attempts to revise or correct the writing will either fail to remove the errors, or create new errors.
SCP-3449 has shown no further anomalous properties. Contact Researcher Niklo Gerdinel for additional details regarding SCP-3449 testing.
SCP-3449 was recovered by MTF Epsilon-6 (:Vil3yge !dipts”) during an investigation into a series of mild cognitive and informational hazards created in the Pittsburgh Mterp Area. It was found inside a storage unit along with a number of other anomalous objects (see Field Report Delta-546 for a full list of recovered objects). After speaking to the distributor of the storage unit, the Foundation learned that SCP-3449 and associated items were owned by an Edward Selsburgh (POI-4335).
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Oakland’s brutal eviction for profit system must endBy Lynda Carson - April 4, 2016Oakland - Recently I announced that 1,200 eviction notices were filed in Oakland from January 2015, through March 2016, which was incorrect. My mistake. I doubted those numbers since I read an article that mentioned there were 10,910 evictions filed in 2013 in Oakland, and around 13,000 or more evictions filed in 2014.After seeking a clarification from the City of Oakland, today I was advised that there are about 11,050 eviction termination notices on file with the Rent Stabilization Board from January 1, 2015 through February 29, 2016 and about 100 additional notices were filed for March 2016. My apologies for any misunderstanding.In Oakland, there are many reasons that people are being threatened with eviction, and often the tenants are being threatened with unlawful evictions, even from so-called nonprofit housing developers commonly referred to as the “Housing Mafia”, by the attorneys who defend tenants in court against an eviction.As an example, despite being protected by Measure EE in Oakland, last week the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) threatened tenants with eviction (30 Day Notice) at one of their so-called affordable housing projects in East Oakland. The tenants in the 21 unit residential building were being threatened if they failed to sign a new lease that was materially different from their old lease.Among other things, the new lease states that EBALDC will no longer take payments from a third party except section 8 payments. It also mentions that there are minimum income requirements that exclude poor people from the housing project, and under section #5) the lease states that the tenants will be responsible to cover all the debts of the building by allowing EBALDC to charge higher rents.When tenants objected, and one tenant even consulted an attorney who advised him not to sign the new lease, and the tenant gave EBALDC a statement saying that he would not sign the new lease, the tenant was immediately threatened with eviction. In a state of panic, on the following day the tenant signed the new lease under duress. Under Measure EE , Oakland’s rent law that went into effect in 2002, the tenants in this building were legally allowed to decline to sign the new contract/lease, because of the material changes in the terms of the new contract, compared to the old contracts. But EBALDC did not want to hear about the tenant’s rights, and pressured the tenants to sign the new lease with threats of eviction.Additionally on April 4, notices were slipped under the door of the tenants in the 21 unit residential building by Danny Chen, the property manager, advising tenants that if they did not come by the building office by 2:00pm, Tuesday April 5, that all non-responses will be considered declining to sign.The boss of property manager Danny Chen is Tammy Cotton . Tammy Cotton is also listed as a property manager with EBALDC, and she works for Cindy Norton who is head of property management for EBALDC. In California according to the Bureau of Real Estate (Department of Real Estate), property managers should have a real estate license to operate in the state of California. A search of the Department of Real Estate in California reveals that Danny Chen, Tammy Cotton and Cindy Norton are not listed as having a real estate license The Eviction System In California Is BrutalThe eviction system is brutal and a terrifying experience for many low-income tenants in Oakland and Berkeley . Once a tenant receives an Unlawful Detainer / 5 Day Summons, commonly referred to as a UD, the tenant has only 5 days to file a response with the court (clerk of the court), or they may lose the eviction case automatically by default.It is a landlord friendly court system that favors the landlords who are evicting their tenants by using lawyers and big money, even if it is an unlawful eviction. Eviction cases are one of the quickest types of court cases there are in the court system in Alameda County, and many tenants cannot afford an attorney to represent them in court to fight against an eviction. Often before the tenant even receives an eviction notice (UD), the landlords are legally allowed to harass the tenants by serving as many 60 Day Notices as they want, before the tenant is eventually served a UD eviction notice. The 60 Day Notice is an advanced notice stating that the landlord wants to evict a tenant.As tenants are fighting back and trying to get some tenant protections all across the Bay Area, they have been targeted and stalked by the California Apartment Association which is opposed to any and all reasonable tenant protections, that tenants are seeking Under attack by the landlords and the California Apartment Association again, word has spread around by the Richmond Progressive Alliance telling people not to sign the petition for the “Richmond Homeowners & Private Property Rights Act”, which if passed into law would make it illegal to implement rent control and eviction protections in Richmond forever.Eviction stories are all over the news wires lately, revealing that the majority of people being evicted from their housing all across the nation are women with children . According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, there is a shortage of 7.2 million affordable housing units across the nation. With sequestration budget cuts devastating the nation’s subsidized housing programs while executives in the so-called affordable housing sector continue to receive hefty pay increases , the homeless shelters remain filled with the poor because millions of dollars are being diverted from the section 8 program, to pay the exorbitant salaries of the executives in the so-called affordable housing industry.In Oakland, the feud between tenants and landlords are never ending, and according to a report the cases in the Rent Arbitration Board have been increasing in recent years, as tenants have recently been objecting to unreasonable plans to increase the yearly fees to cover the costs of the rent board. A planned increase in fees that is excessive according to tenant activists, because the planned fee increase is not needed while a huge amount of money being collected has not been spent on the program in recent years.As the struggle for renter protections in Oakland is on the rise, the “Protect Oakland Renters Act” & initiative campaign starts this Saturday at the Causa Justa/Just Cause office located at 3268 San Pablo Avenue, in Oakland. Everyone is invited on April 2nd from 9:30am to 2pm, to take part in the Campaign Launch & Kick Off to protect Oakland renters.This is the official launch of the November 2016 ballot to protect renters being displaced in droves by never ending skyrocketing rents , unjust evictions, and unlawful practices.Oakland’s renter protection initiative was filed on March 3 at Oakland City Hall, and the Oakland renter’s movement is part of the growing renter’s movement seeking stronger renter protections in other cities of Northern California, including the City of Richmond , and Alameda , where renter protection initiatives were also filed recently.Additionally, the public is invited to be a speaker to help pass the “Housing State of Emergency” and Moratorium on Evictions and Rent Increases” on Tuesday April 5, at 5:pm at the Oakland City Council Chambers, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza. You can fill out a speaker card in advance for Agenda Item #12.There Are Three Renter Protection Bay Area Ballot Measures People Can Support(Contact info on how people can support the renter protection ballot measures)There are presently three Bay Area ballot initiatives for rent control and just cause eviction protections that have been filed so far recently in Richmond, Alameda, and Oakland. You can support the tenant’s movement for renters rights and help make sure these initiatives gather enough signatures to make it to the ballot!RichmondContact: 510-621-7566, Fair & Affordable Richmond CoalitionSaturdays 10am-2pmSundays 12pm-4pm1021 MacDonald Ave., RichmondAlamedaContact: Brad Hirn brad.hirn [at] gmail.com , Alameda Renters CoalitionSaturdays, 9a-5pSouth Shore shopping center in Alameda all day, typically near the Safeway and Trader Joe's.Sundays, 9a-1pSouth Shore shopping center, AlamedaSunday, 1p-5pWalgreens and Starbucks on Webster St. AlamedaOaklandContact: Becki becki [at] cjjc.org , Causa Justa Just CauseEviction Case System Being Transferred From Oakland To HaywardRecently it became public that the eviction case is being transferred from Oakland to Hayward , making it much harder for the low-income, elderly and disabled renters of Oakland and Berkeley to make their court dates if they face eviction, and have to use public transportation.As a way to sell the plan to consolidate the eviction case system in Hayward to the public, in a scheme to transfer the eviction case system from Oakland to Hayward, Judge Morris Jacobson publicly repeated stated on numerous occasions that there would be a shuttle bus to meet people at the Hayward Bart Station, that would take them to the Hayward courthouse. It turns out that there is not going to be shuttle bus to take the public from the Hayward BART Station to the Hayward courthouse In a statement sent out last week from Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker, she said: “The Alameda County Superior Court recently announced that all unlawful detainer actions (evictions) and the Court's Self-Help Center (offering help to residents who represent themselves) will be located at the Hayward Hall of Justice. This means low-income residents in Oakland and other northern Alameda County cities will no longer be able to access these services in Oakland's courthouses.”“Unfortunately, the Hayward Courthouse is not close to public transportation. Renters and low-income persons will be most adversely affected by placing all unlawful detainers and self-help services in Hayward; they are most likely to have public transportation as their only viable option to reach the Hayward Courthouse, which the Court acknowledges is not readily available by BART (unlike Oakland's downtown courthouses).”“The difficulties in reaching the Hayward Courthouse will increase the likelihood that many low-income residents and tenants will not be able to adequately defend actions against them and will incur wage losses by having to take more time off from work to attend case management conferences, hearings and trials.”“Oakland's courthouses are located within minutes of public transportation. In fact it takes more travel time to reach the Hayward Courthouse than the Oakland courthouses from nearly all Alameda County city centers.”“The Court's decision was not widely publicized and I don't believe the public had adequate opportunity to comment. However I believe it is important for the Alameda County Superior Court to hear from Oakland and other County residents on this issue. If you would like to weigh in, the Court's contact information is as follows:”The public is free to contact Judge Jacobson and Chad Finke to tell them that they want the unlawful detainer actions (evictions) and the Court's Self-Help Center (offering help to residents who represent themselves) to be located in Oakland, instead of Hayward.Honorable Morris Jacobson, Presiding JudgeSuperior Court of CaliforniaCounty of AlamedaHayward Hall of Justice, Department 511, 2"d Floor24405 Amador StreetHayward, California 94544Chad Finke, Court Executive OfficerExecutive OfficeSuperior Court of CaliforniaCounty of AlamedaRene C. Davidson Courthouse1225 Fall on StreetOakland, California 94612Lynda Carson may be reached at tenantsrule [at] yahoo.com >>>>>>>
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EXODUS 40:34-38
« Exodus 39 | Exodus 40 | Leviticus 1 »
The Glory of the Lord
34 Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
36 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out.
37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up.
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[Updated 2019-11-17]
On September 10, 2019 while I was in London, UK at the Python core dev sprints, I got a message from a user named "spacedrop" on Keybase. The message said I was being given 356.2904939 XLM as a surprise gift of "free Lumens worth $20.98 USD" from the Stellar Development Foundation. All of that screamed "cryptocurrency" which isn't my thing, so my initial reaction was this was some scam by someone who randomly messaged me on Keybase trying to get me to buy into some new cryptocurrency. But then I realized that Keybase wouldn't let a random person message me like that. Curious, I read the rest of the message and found a link to Keybase's "airdrop" announcement which explained that Keybase was actually facilitating the message. Trusting that Keybase wasn't getting into anything nefarious, that enticed me enough to dig a little deeper into Stellar and find their overview page which has the following summary:
Stellar is a multi-currency payment backend that tens of thousands of people use every day. It’s decentralized, open-source, and developer-friendly, so anyone can issue assets, settle payments, and trade.
Stellar is a blockchain, but it works more like cash—Stellar is much faster and cheaper than bitcoin, for example. And it uses far less electricity.
Okay, that sounds nice. But when I was poking around the web site and I found a code of conduct and a roadmap that both seemed reasonable, that's when I decided to dive into Stellar and I came out thinking that's it's actually a rather cool piece of technology for people to track "what they own ... and and what they want to do with what they own".
So this blog post is basically me writing down what I learned about Stellar and why I found it interesting from the perspective of trying to find a cheap, secure way to send remittance to the United States from Canada (which, spoiler alert, Stellar can't do for me yet, but the technology is there if someone would let me get CAD on to the Stellar network).
What is Stellar for?
I will go into more detail later, but to help motivate reading the rest of the blog post, I want to quickly outline what Stellar is. Basically it's a public ledger that tracks ownership of assets. Those assets do not need to be inherent to Stellar, and in fact a key part of Stellar is that 3rd-parties can provide their own assets to have managed on the network. Or put another way, Stellar is trying to become a global payments network.
On Stellar you can trade assets. Stellar lets you put out buy and sell orders on assets and the network will figure out the necessary orders for you to get the best price for your assets. This is just like a stock market with buy and sell orders, but instead of stock certificates it's assets on the Stellar network. But one extra twist is that since Stellar lets anyone put assets on to the network, the network will do up to 6 different exchanges to try to get you the best value for your assets. For instance, if you're trying to buy spam with bacon, but people are only selling bacon for eggs and buying spam for eggs, the network will do the bacon → eggs → spam trade for you to get you the best result.
Now substitute "bacon" for "CAD" and "USD" for "spam" and you start to see how Stellar might be really handy for global payments.
Lumens (yes, there's a digital currency)
To start discussing Stellar you need to know about lumens (or XLM for short). There's 50,000,000,000 lumens in existence with no mining new ones like with Bitcoin. The smallest unit of lumens is called a stroop and it's 0.0000001 of a lumen which is 1/10,000,000 (and they are named after stroopwafels which my wife and I like, and stroopwafels are Dutch which just makes the Pythonista in me smile 😊).
Now when I read that Stellar had lumens, I 🙄 like this was yet another cryptocurrency that people are just speculating with (which some people are), but when I began to read about what lumens are used for I realized it's actually an anti-spam mechanism and baseline asset more than a play to make money from lumens themselves (although they are how the Stellar Development Foundation is funding itself).
Accounts
Accounts on Stellar are a public key and a private seed. Nothing crazy, but also nothing terribly difficult to calculate either. So how does Stellar prevent people from creating a ton of accounts to spam the network?
By having a minimum account balance required to even create an account. Since lumens are the original asset on Stellar they are what you need to open an account (and keep it open). As of today it's 1 XLM which is about $0.07275 USD as I write this. In other words it shouldn't be a financial hardship for nearly anyone in the world to have a single lumen to open an account, but it also won't lead to everyone creating 1 billion accounts on their own either.
Trading
So now you have your account, how do you do something as simple as send or receive an asset? Once again, lumens are used as an anti-spam mechanism for trading.
Every change you want to make to the Stellar network is an operation. All the operations you want to do as a single unit is a transaction (just like with databases). All the transactions that get resolved end up in a new version of the ledger which tracks the state of the network at that point in time.
Each transaction costs at least the base fee of 100 stroops per operation (0.00001 XLM or 1/100,000) contained in that transaction. That way you can't flood the network with operations without having to at least pay a little bit for it.
And what exactly are you paying for? Well, there's a limit to how many new operations can occur on the Stellar network per ledger update. Protocol 11 made it so the network votes on what the maximum number of operations per ledger should be, and as of right now it's sitting at 1000 operations/ledger (if you look at any ledger like ledger 25923589 you will see max_tx_set_size and that shows the network's current operations/ledger rate). Even with ledgers resolving every 5 seconds, that still means there's limited capacity if the network gets backed up (i.e. it's about 200 operations/second). In those instances where there's not enough capacity there's surge pricing.
You specify the maximum base fee you're willing to pay when you create a transaction. An auction is held where your maximum base fee is offered to fund resolving your transaction. In the end, though, you end up paying only what was required for you to get your transaction resolved (e.g. you might offer to pay a total of 1000 stroops as a maximum base fee for your one operation, but if all it took was 150 stroops for your transaction to get resolved during surge pricing then that's all you end up paying).
So you're paying to prevent spam, and you're paying to potentially prioritize your transaction in case the network is backed up. Now currently the network is not at capacity so worrying about surge pricing isn't a big deal, but even if it did increase we're talking about minuscule amounts of XLM. With the price for 1 XLM that I quoted above, 100 stroop is $0.0000007275 USD, so even if you had to go up by several orders of magnitude to get your operation resolved it wouldn't exactly be expensive.
Anchors (or what makes Stellar interesting)
So up to this point you're probably wondering how to heck remittance from Canada to the United States might work if everything is being done in lumens and I said they are not meant to act as investment vehicles. And the answer to that is assets and anchors.
Basically anchors join the network and offer tokens which represent assets that the anchor holds. The anchor can then send those assets as tokens to other accounts on the Stellar network, expressing the fact that an account owns those tokens representing that asset. While lumens is the asset we have talked about up until now, anything can be an asset on the network.
Let's say I run a bank and it acts as an anchor on the Stellar network that will generate tokens representing CAD. What that would mean is customers could withdraw CAD cash from their bank accounts and exchange them for CAD tokens on Stellar. My bank would hold the physical CAD in escrow to back the tokens in circulation. This allows people to then exchange their CAD tokens for real/fiat currency at my bank by sending the tokens to their account, whereby my bank would destroy the token so there isn't double-counting of the money in the world.
To take this bank analogy a little farther, think of physical cash as tokens, your wallet as your Stellar account, and the world of Canadian money as the Stellar network. When you withdraw money from the ATM, you are exchanging money in your bank account for a different format; in this case it's physical cash. You can then transact with it at stores, etc. And then eventually that physical cash comes back out of circulation when you deposit money into your bank account and becomes bits in some bank database.
And this is how anchors that back fiat currency work. For instance, AnchorUSD takes money in USD from you and then converts it 1:1 into a token on Stellar for you to send to whomever. It also lets you receive those USD tokens and then convert them back into USD money by destroying the token. Basically it's a gateway between the USD money and Stellar.
In order to prevent people from trusting any random anchor, Stellar has the concept of trustlines. Basically it's a way to say on the network, "we both agree that this token represents what the anchor says it does". That way you enter into an agreement with the anchor to avoid getting ripped off. You also must pay into your trustline, once again acting as an anti-spam mechanism so people can't fake trust of an anchor by opening a ton of accounts that all trust a single anchor.
An example of sending money
Pretending for a moment that I live in the eurozone, what would it take to send €50 to someone in the United States?
I create a Stellar account with 1 XLM I open a trustline to an anchor that will take € and give me tokens on Stellar as an equivalent asset (e.g. EURT) for 0.5 XLM I convert €50 to 50 EURT on the Stellar network via the anchor I trust My friend in the US also opens a Stellar account for 1 XLM My friend opens a trustline to an anchor that will let them receive their tokens as an asset and exchange it for real USD (e.g. USD) for 0.5 XLM I put in a payment of 50 EURT to USD on Stellar to my friend Assuming the liquidity is high enough for both token types, the transaction completes in at worst 10 seconds (assuming I just missed the last ledger and have to wait for the next one) My friend exchanges the resulting USD tokens for actual USD via the anchor they trust and has them deposited into their bank account
So for the cost of 3.00001 XLM between me and my friend, I just sent money across the world in less than 10 seconds at the best exchange rate available to me on Stellar for less than $0.22 USD. Now there's no guarantee that the exchange rate will be better than what my bank will give me nor that the fees the anchors on either end charge won't eat into how much this whole transaction costs, but you can see the potential here.
Why this interests me
When I realized that the Stellar network was set up so that it would be feasible for a CAD-equivalent of AnchorUSD to exist such that I could send family in the United States actual USD that they could deposit into their bank accounts from CAD money in my bank account, that got me excited. Typically I use TransferWise (which I have a referral link for that gets me and the first couple of people who use it some money), but it takes a few days for the money to arrive and I have to go through some hoops to get the cheapest fee with the fastest result by letting them log into my bank account to check I actually have the funds which has always bugged me from a security perspective.
Add on to that the fact that PayPal is about the only solution I know of for sending small amounts of money internationally – which happens regularly to me when I'm at a conference outside of Canada and the restaurant won't split the cheque – and you start to wonder why there aren't more potential solutions out there for sending money internationally in a fast, cheap manner.
And apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this: IBM has a service called World Wire built on the Stellar network specifically for moving money quickly and cheaply between banks. So now I'm just waiting for someone to set up a CAD-based anchor which acts as an Interac e-Transfer bridge between my Stellar account and my Canadian chequing account so I can send money to the United States cheaply and easily.
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has laid out a 10 year plan to get Stellar to a good spot where it is self-sustaining. They have their funding set aside for this and have discussed how they plan to go about trying to make Stellar attractive enough to get appropriate anchors on side to support various currencies around the world. They are also trying to make sure that Stellar can survive on its own without the SDF needing to prop it up in any way (i.e. the network is fully decentralized and self-sustaining).
Keybase Stellar Space Drop, 2 Billion Lumens for the World Keybase is for keeping everyone’s chats and files safe, from families to communities to companies. MacOS, Windows, Linux, iPhone, and Android. If you were a Keybase user before September 9, 2019 you might as well go and collect your lumens and sign up to get the monthly disbursement they are going to be doing for the next 20 months. You may also qualify if you live in a qualifying country and are willing to validate your phone number with Keybase.
https://www.coinbase.com/earn/stellar/
(If you want to watch some videos from Coinbase and get some free lumens if you have a Coinbase account. If you don't have a Coinbase account and you want to sign up for one, you can use this referral link which will give me some extra lumens.)
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Sixteen-year-old Katy Martinez lives in Las Vegas, where she’s finishing her junior year of high school and planning for college. She's from a union family, and her parents both migrated from El Salvador nearly 20 years ago; she’s a U.S. citizen who has spent her entire life in the States. The administration wants to end TPS for an estimated 260,000 Salvadorans on September 9. Katy says that fact is always on her mind.
“It’s something that looms over my head, even at school,” she tells Teen Vogue. Her parents are both protected under TPS, and she says the prospect of it being ended for El Salvador means she doesn’t know “if I’ll ever have the chance to go through with going to a dance, or going to my competitions for dance, or even help out at my church.”
She says that if TPS were ended for El Salvadorans, she isn’t sure if she would leave with her parents or try to stay.
“I’m still 16, my brother is 13, and we rely on our parents for things,” she says. “If on the chance we do leave with them, we’re losing everything we have, from all of our scholarship opportunities, our school opportunities, all of our friends — we’re leaving everything behind.”
Alternately, if she and her brother stay when her parents are forced to leave, Katy says she’d suddenly have new responsibilities. It’s also complicated planning the next few years of her life — crucially, where to apply to college.
“It has impacted my [college] search because if there’s a possibility of me having to leave, I feel scared to apply for the colleges I want to go to,” Katy explains.
Like Katy, Hnaida Cenemat is also 16. Her mother, Wilna Destin, is a labor organizer with UNITE HERE Local 737 and a TPS recipient from Haiti who came to the U.S. 19 years ago.
Hnaida says she always feared that her mom’s status was at risk. “Once when I was little, we were in our apartment and heard immigration was knocking on people’s doors. Me and my mom really got scared. So if they came to the door, we wouldn’t answer and pretend no one was home,” she says.
According to The Hill, Democrats believe the Dream Act and the American Promise Act could pass the House this June, though their prospects in the Republican-controlled Senate (or with the current occupant of the White House, who could veto the bill) are less bright in the near future.
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Omnifinity, a start-up based out of Sweden, announced today the release of their Omnideck 6 virtual reality treadmill. Initially showcased as part of The Gadget Show’s ‘Ultimate Battlefield 3 Simulator’ and touted as the first 360 degree treadmill in gaming, the Omnideck 6 aims to be the link between virtual gaming and reality: finally giving us a way to interact with environments in a real way other than mouse and keyboard or stationary treadmill.
Although Omnifinity was formed by MSE Engineer, a firm known mostly for combat simulation products, the Omnideck 6 seems to be heavily geared toward immersive gaming, specifically with the virtual reality headset the Oculus Rift.
Arguably the biggest complaint for users of the Oculus Rift has been the lack of real movement other than a mouse of keyboard, something Omnifinity feels they have solved. By tracking your movement and how far you travel on one of the omni-directional treadmills, the Omnideck 6 can determine how fast your character on screen is moving. The system utilizes a series of 16 motorized triangular sections of rollers with an underlying belt that moves along with the user. This guarantees that the player will not just walk right off the treadmill into a wall, and that the system can accurately track your movements up to 4.5mph.
The Omnidirect 6 comes with two options for visually representing your movement that gets registered on the treadmill system. One option, which was the original plan for the device, projects the image in front of you as you turn and walk around the virtual battlefield or game. As you can see in the ARMA 2 demo below from September, the image follows around wherever the user is looking, giving near total immersion into the environment.
The other new, more sophisticated solution is an Oculus Rift. Not only does using an Oculus greatly reduce the cost of the system, but it arguably provides a better layer of immersion as your entire field of view is nothing but the virtual world. The downside to this, of course, is that it requires a connection to either a desktop gaming PC nearby, or even a laptop mounted on the user’s back.
One big mantra of the device seems to be killing off mouse and keyboard for gaming as much possible. To achieve this, the Omnideck 6 has the capability to use several alternative input devices. The most obvious is a replica gun, being that the system is aimed for combat simulation as well as gaming. There is also the option for standard controller, such as an Xbox 360 controller, just like you can when using the Oculus Rift on its own.
All of these fancy treadmills and giant screens don’t serve any purpose without some specialized software to analyze and display it all. The Omnideck 6 software computes your walking speed by determining where you are on the treadmill from the center point, and calculates that into a workable speed that equates to how hard you’d push a joystick forward. Being that the treadmill moves with you (up to the aforementioned 4.5mph limit), it is unlikely that you’d just walk right off the platform but instead would be some distance from the center at all times. There is also the option for an optical tracking system that uses full body tracking and data tracking gloves for even more accurate movements.
One of the more interesting aspects of the system is how it can introduce environmental effects into its 19′ x 13′ environment. Heat, humidity, smoke, smell, time of day, temperature, and other factors can be simulated based on application needs.
Right now the current state of the system appears to be working on getting more developers on board to create some cool environments and uses for it, and I can’t wait. A lot of lower-end solutions for moving around in a video game have been around for years, but this appears to be highest quality one to date. While it obviously won’t be plopped down in your living room any time soon, the ability to play with it at an arcade, laser tag, or other similar venue is enough to be an exciting step into out virtual reality futures.
Your first chance to get a hands-on demo of the final product will be December 1st to the 5th when the product will be showed off at I/TSEC 2014 (Booth 1249) in Orlando, Florida.
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Image caption Illegal logging has been blamed for a number of flooding incidents, notably in the Philippines
Illegal logging generates $10-15bn (£7.5-11bn) around the world, according to new analysis from the World Bank.
Its report, Justice for Forests, says that most illegal logging operations are run by organised crime, and much of the profit goes to corrupt officials.
Countries affected include Indonesia, Madagascar and several in West Africa.
The bank says that pursuing loggers through the criminal justice system has made a major impact in some nations, and urges others to do the same.
It also recommends that aid donors should fund programmes that strengthen the capacity of law enforcement and legal authorities to tackle the illegal timber trade.
"We need to fight organised crime in illegal logging the way we go after gangsters selling drugs or racketeering," said Jean Pesme, manager of the World Bank Financial Market Integrity team.
The analysts calculate that an area of forest the size of a soccer pitch is illegally logged every second.
Chainsaws of supply
The report picks out a number of ways in which illegal timber is managed in a similar way to other prohibited commodities such as drugs.
Image caption Brazil's deforestation rate has risen and fallen in recent years, as enforcement has changed
But currently, it says, "most forest crimes go undetected, unreported, or are ignored.
"All too often, investigations - in the rare event that they do take place - are amateurish and inconclusive, and the few cases taken to court tend to be of trivial significance, prosecuting people whose involvement in crime is due to poverty and exploitation."
This last comment highlights the very differing scales of illegal logging, which encompasses everything from mechanised teams to individual villagers taking wood for fuel.
However, it says, a number of countries including Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are getting tougher, and starting to bring prosecutions higher up the criminal food chain.
Western countries, consumers and businesses can also play a significant role in cleaning up forestry, the report says.
Three years ago the US amended the Lacey Act, and now companies operating in the US are obliged to prove that their wood comes from legal sources.
A number of businesses are being investigated under the amendment, notably the iconic Gibson guitar company.
The EU has introduced similar legislation, and a growing number of companies will only buy wood that is demonstrably legal and sustainably harvested.
In 2010, a report from the London-based Chatham House think-tank concluded that these and other measures had reduced illegal logging by about a quarter over the preceding eight years.
It urged Japan, as a major timber consumer, to introduce its own legislation; and as Chinese consumption grows, campaigners are increasingly turning their attention there.
Two years ago the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) discovered that beds made of illegally obtained Madagascan wood were selling for up to $1m in Beijing.
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In March and April 2019, online reports asserted that Texas state legislators had voted for a bill that would allow medical professionals to refuse to treat LGBT patients for religious reasons.
On 26 March, for example, the website LGBTQ Nation published an article under the headline “Texas Republicans advance a bill that would allow doctors to refuse LGBTQ patients,” which reported that:
A bill that would allow state-licensed professionals to refuse to serve LGBTQ people if they cite their religion has advanced out of committee in the Texas senate. Senate Bill 17 would prevent state licensing agencies from denying or revoking licenses from professionals – including doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, and even barbers – if they claim to be following a ‘sincerely held religious belief.’
That article was shared widely on social media and prompted multiple inquiries from Snopes readers about its veracity.
What SB 17 says
Senate Bill 17 (SB 17) would impose restrictions on professional licensing bodies in the state of Texas, limiting their ability to hold individuals’ “sincerely held religious belief” (or actions or statements they made based on such beliefs) against them in rendering decisions about whether to issue, renew, or revoke professional licenses.
Republican State Senator Charles Perry introduced SB 17 on 7 March, and four weeks later the Texas Senate voted 19-12 to pass the bill. The next day it was put before the House of Representatives committee for State Affairs, and as of 9 April it was still under consideration by the House of Representatives.
As of 3 April 2019, the text of the legislation stated the following:
Sec. 57.003. A state agency that issues a license or otherwise regulates a business, occupation or profession may not adopt any rule, regulation, or policy or impose a penalty that: (1) limits an applicant’s ability to obtain, maintain, or renew a license based on a sincerely held religious belief of the applicant; or
(2) burdens an applicant’s or a license holder’s (A) free exercise of religion, regardless of whether the burden is the result of a rule generally applicable to all applicants or license holders;
(B) freedom of speech regarding a sincerely held religious belief; or
(C) membership in any religious organization.
The bill would also allow licensed professionals (such as lawyers, doctors, nurses, etc.) to offer their religious beliefs as a defense in an administrative proceedings against them:
“Sec. 57.004. A person may assert that a state agency rule, regulation, or policy, or a penalty imposed by the agency, violates Section 57.003 as a defense in an administrative hearing or as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding under Chapter 37, Civil Practice and Remedies Code …”
It appears that in practice, this section in the legislation would have the effect seen in the following example: A physician is qualified to perform abortions, but declines to perform an abortion for a patient who approaches them due to the doctor’s sincere religious objection to abortion.
If that would-be patient were to file a complaint against the doctor, and a review or disciplinary proceeding ensued in which there was, theoretically, the potential that the physician’s license to practice medicine could be revoked, that physician would, under the legislation, be able to offer the fact that their actions were based upon a sincerely-held religious belief as a defense against that outcome.
The text of the bill also contains several conditions and stipulations, including:
The religious belief defense cannot be used where an individual has committed a criminal offense or as been accused of sexual misconduct.
The law would not allow a medical professional to withhold treatment which they are qualified to provide if that treatment is needed to prevent death or imminent serious injury.
The law would not apply to first responders.
The bill was not exclusive to medical professionals, nor did it make any mention of the LGBT community, specify the kinds of actions that might be regarded as being grounded in a person’s “sincerely-held religious belief,” nor explicate how a licensing body might determine the sincerity of a claimed religious defense.
The text of the bill also alluded to the complexity of the broader legal and philosophical conflict between an individual’s right to live in accordance with their religious faith and an individual’s right not to be subjected to discrimination, stipulating that the bill would not “limit any right, privilege, or protection granted to any person under the constitution and laws of this state and the United States.”
An important point is that the legislation would not guarantee that the “religious belief” defense would be successful in an administrative proceeding. During a 2 April Senate debate on SB 17, the bill’s author, Republican State Senator Charles Perry, explained that the bill would only provide an additional “enumerated defense” against the revocation of a license, but that a licensing body could still proceed to take away an individual’s license, notwithstanding their “sincerely-held religious belief” defense, if their actions constituted a violation of state or federal law or the requirements of their professional license.
Democratic State Senator José Rodriguez teased out that clarification in an exchange with Perry during the Senate debate on 2 April. (That exchange can be viewed here, starting at 1:33.00. The entire debate starts at 0:58.00):
Perry: … This bill doesn’t do anything to undermine existing state or federal law. So if it’s against the law to discriminate — and “discriminate” can include a lot of different things, based on religion or based on race or based on a whole host of enumerated items already — then I’m in violation of federal and state law. Senate Bill 17 doesn’t apply. Rodriguez: I guess I’m having trouble understanding, then, the purpose of this defense. Perry: It’s an administrative defense. Rodriguez: But it’s intended to prohibit the agency from taking away your license because of your refusal to provide a service, isn’t it? Perry: No Sir. It’s intended to provide a defense, and then the agency can decide, and if you want to take [the license] away [despite an] application of sincerely-held religious belief, then that’s the agency’s decision, and it would go to the next level [an appeal through the courts].
So according to the text of the bill, as well as clarification offered by its author, SB 17 would not permit acts of discrimination which were already illegal under federal or Texas law, or were a violation of a particular licensing agency’s requirements.
Would SB 17 “allow doctors to refuse LGBTQ patients”?
The text of the bill itself does not actually explicitly confer upon doctors or other licensed professionals an affirmative right to refuse to serve anyone. Formally speaking, SB 17 does not do that. For that reason, LGBTQ Nation’s headline claim that the bill would “allow doctors to refuse patients” is something of an over-simplification of the reality.
The next issue is whether the religious belief defense provides enough protection to licensed professionals that it effectively amounts to permission to refuse to serve or treat certain people — a “license to discriminate,” as the ACLU of Texas has described the provisions of SB 17.
Notwithstanding the fact that the law would not explicitly give doctors, for example, the right to refuse LGBT patients, a scenario in which they were assured that discriminating in this way would not lead to their licenses being revoked could quite reasonably be described as one which effectively permitted or allowed them to act in that way.
However, it’s not clear that SB 17 would in fact grant such de facto permission. One section of the text states that the bill “may not be construed to … limit any right, privilege, or protection granted to any person under the constitution and laws of this state and the United States.”
This indicates that a licensed professional would not be protected from having their license revoked if their act of discrimination (refusal to serve) violated federal or state law, but they would be able to specifically cite their religious belief as the reason for their refusal to serve. As SB& 17’s author Charles Perry said, “This bill doesn’t do anything to undermine existing state or federal law.”
However, to complicate matters further, it appears that federal and Texas state laws do not definitively prohibit the kind of discrimination described by LGBTQ Nation in the first place — that is, a doctor’s refusing to serve a patient due to religious objections to the patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Christy Mallory, Director of State Policy and Education Initiatives at UCLA’s Williams Institute, told us by email that “Federal and Texas state laws do not explicitly protect people from being refused service based on their actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity. Texas state law does prohibit discrimination based on sex. A number of courts have interpreted the term ‘sex’ in non-discrimination laws to also prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, so a court could interpret Texas’s public accommodations non-discrimination law to prohibit service refusals based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Title 3 of the Texas Occupations Code sets out the rights and obligations of licensed health professionals in the state, as well as the penalties and procedures related to misconduct. Nothing in those regulations prohibits a health professional from refusing to treat or serve an individual on the basis of the patient’s perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. The code does not mention “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” “gender” or any of the descriptors which make up the LGBTQ initialism.
We contacted a spokesperson for the Texas Medical Board seeking clarification on whether any rule that regulates the conduct of health professionals in the state could prevent them from refusing to treat an LGBT patient, but we did not receive a response in time for publication.
So if, as appears the case, the regulations and requirements specific to medical professionals in Texas do not prohibit them from refusing to treat someone based on an objection to the patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity, and neither does federal law, then SB 17 would not “allow doctors to refuse LGBTQ patients,” because doctors are already allowed to refuse LGBTQ patients.
In an effort to remove any ambiguity from the situation and definitively prohibit refusals to serve LGBT patients, Democratic State Senator José Menéndez proposed an amendment to SB 17 which would have stated that licensed professionals could not refuse to provide a service “based on the sexual orientation or gender identity of the person requesting the service.” That amendment was voted down, 18-13.
Would SB 17 encourage doctors to refuse LGBTQ patients?
It’s difficult to argue that the legislation itself would “allow” or “permit” a doctor to refuse to treat an LGBT patient, especially since it appears federal and Texas law already effectively allow such discrimination.
However, some activists have expressed concerns that introducing SB 17 could indirectly encourage and embolden religiously-motivated service refusals that target LGBT persons, as well as make it more complicated and difficult for licensing agencies to hold such behavior to account. Logan Casey, a policy researcher at the Movement Advancement Project think tank, outlined those concerns in an email, writing:
SB 17 would prevent state agencies and licensing boards from setting and enforcing the standards of how all Texans ought to be treated fairly and equally. In other words, it would tie the hands of those whose job it is to prevent discrimination whenever possible. Because the bill would allow individuals to cite their religious beliefs as a reason to refuse service, no matter what their licensing board says is required for their job, SB 17 would effectively embolden discrimination in any state-regulated or -licensed profession, from barbershops and cab drivers to medical and mental health providers. For example, a doctor could refuse to serve a patient based on the doctor’s religiously-based beliefs about marriage — which could mean they could refuse to serve unmarried couples, same-sex couples, interfaith couples, and more. State licensed agencies in multiple states have also used similar laws to discriminate against people of different faiths who wish to serve as foster parents.
Furthermore, while the legislation would, according to its author Charles Perry, still give licensing agencies the ability to revoke professional licenses in the event of illegal acts of discrimination, it is reasonable to expect that SB 17 might discourage them from doing so.
SB 17 would allow a licensed professional such as a doctor or lawyer to put on record the fact that their actions were an expression of their sincerely-held religious beliefs. In the event that their license was revoked anyway, this could very plausibly strengthen that doctor or lawyer’s case, if they decided to appeal the decision through the courts.
Under SB 17, they could argue to a judge that because they put on record the reasons for their behavior, the licensing agency had knowingly and explicitly violated their 1st Amendment right to freely express their religious beliefs, by revoking their license. This could set in motion a protracted or high-profile legal saga which invoked profound constitutional principles and could place the licensing agency under increased public scrutiny and even civil liability.
Rather than risk being exposed to those negative outcomes, the licensing agency might decide against revoking a license, or opt for a less severe punishment, thereby potentially creating a set of expectations which encourage license-holders to engage in religiously-motivated service refusals.
Finally, the introduction of SB 17 could also quite reasonably be expected to embolden religiously-motivated doctors, nurses, lawyers and others to engage in service refusals in the first place, where previously they might not.
Even if the bill would not necessarily innoculate professionals from the risk of having their licenses revoked, it could quite plausibly create a sense that their actions had been given an additional layer of protection. As Senator Perry said during the 2 April debate, SB 17 would add “one more tool in the tool chest.”
That sense of emboldenment might be especially strong in the case of medical professionals’ refusing treatment to LGBT patients, something which federal and Texas law does not appear to definitively prohibit in the first place.
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Almost a year ago, city officials united in outrage over damage to Balboa Park’s iconic lily pond and promised those responsible would be brought to justice. But that’s not going to happen: The case is now closed and no one will be prosecuted.
The city attorney’s office ended its investigation May 31 after determining there was “no evidence as to the identity of individuals engaged in vandalism that resulted in property damage,” said Michael Giorgino, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office. “Although there was some evidence of individuals involved in promoting the event, our prosecutors found that evidence to be insufficient to prove a crime or obtain an order of restitution for vandalism committed by others.”
In the big picture, he said, prosecutors “determined there was not sufficient evidence to prove a criminal case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The damage to the lily pond on the night of Aug. 11, 2012, was one of the biggest local news stories of the year and even became fodder in the mayoral campaign.
Here’s what happened: Thanks to word spread through Facebook, hundreds of locals gathered around midnight for what was to be a harmless mass water-gun fight at Balboa Park. The crowd met at the park’s grand fountain, but it wasn’t working so they went to the lily pond in search of water. And then a raucous water-gun fight began, much of it captured in video and photos by thrilled participants.
Some participants trampled plants around the pond and even jumped into it. They left trash at the scene, and the pond’s koi and turtles were supposedly “greatly stressed.” (The fish weren’t killed, however.)
No cops seems to have been present, although U-T San Diego reported that police knew about the event, which had been held a year earlier with no problems.
Stoked by extensive media coverage, elected officials were furious. “We will hold those who did this accountable for their actions — which may be criminal — and for every penny it costs to return this area to its original beauty,” then-Mayor Jerry Sanders declared. Councilman Todd Gloria tweeted that “those responsible for this destruction will be held responsible.”
The lily pond damage also crept into the mayoral campaign. Then-Rep. Bob Filner’s campaign accused the partner of his rival, then-Councilman Carl DeMaio, of orchestrating the event. He didn’t, prompting one of DeMaio’s operatives called Filner a “a lying sack of marbles.”
An investigation began after the damage was discovered. Well, sort of. According to U-T San Diego, the Police Department assigned two detectives to investigate the case. But as of January, they hadn’t talked to the local writer who’d written extensively about the case, taken video and photographs and posted a diatribe about the event and reckless media sensationalism on YouTube. An investigator did talk to the writer after the VOSD report.
Donations helped fund repair and renovation at the lily pond, which was estimated to suffer $10,000 worth of damage. The work was finished by February.
The investigation then ended a few weeks ago in May, a few months shy of the one-year deadline for misdemeanor charges to be filed.
Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit that depends on you, our readers. Please donate to keep the service strong. Click here to find out more about our supporters and how we operate independently.
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We develop Tutanota to fight for our right to privacy and for freedom of speech so donating Secure Connect to news sites and journalists, who defend free speech every day with their work, comes as a matter of course to us.
Check out our Demo of Secure Connect.
Secure Connect is an open source encrypted communication tool which lets whistleblowers get in touch with the representative of a news site securely and anonymously. It can be added to any website like a standard contact form. The unique benefit is that all data entered into the contact form is automatically encrypted end-to-end before it is being sent to the mailbox of the website owner. Even files can be dropped into the form, which are then encrypted automatically.
As websites usually track IP addresses of visitors, an anonymous usage of Secure Connect can be achieved by accessing the website in question via the Tor browser. When a news site adds Secure Connect, the site should clearly state that whistleblowers must access the encrypted contact form via Tor to protect their identity.
Day of Press Freedom: Free communication tool for whistleblowers
To support the crucial work of journalists and whistleblowers, our encrypted contact form Secure Connect will be free for journalists to place on their websites. We believe in the Human Rights to Privacy and Freedom of Speech – and a secure and private form to communicate online is critical to achieve free speech. With Secure Connect we want to support journalists, activists and whistleblowers for the important work they are doing for all of us.
Read these testimonials from journalists and bloggers.
This new tool powered by the encrypted email service Tutanota enables literally every blog to offer an encrypted communication channel to potential whistleblowers and activists, without having to set up or maintain their own server for this. As all data is automatically encrypted locally on the device (end-to-end encryption), neither the service provider Tutanota nor any other third party can access this information.
Secure Connect – how it works
When a news site has added Secure Connect to their website, potential whistleblowers can simply go to that page – best via Tor to protect their identity – and type in the information and drop files they would like to submit to the news site. Secure Connect gives them a random, anonymous email address and a password, which lets the whistleblower re-access his sent message at a later stage and check for replies from the news site.
By using Secure Connect, the whistleblower can open a secure and anonymous communication channel without using a personal email address or phone number.
Secure Connect - technical instructions
When someone starts to communicate with you via the encrypted contact form Secure Connect, the entire communication will be encrypted end-to-end. Encryption takes place locally in the browser so that no third party - not even we as the provider of Secure Connect - can access this information.
How to start an encrypted communication channel via Secure Connect
Click on Create Request. Enter a subject line. Choose a password and repeat the password. In case you want to check for replies later, write down the password somewhere safe. Enter your message. Drag and drop files into the message field or click on the symbol in the top right corner to attach files. They are automatically attached to the message. In case you want to be notified about replies, enter an email address at the end. This is optional. If you want to stay anonymous we recommend not entering an email address here. Click on Send in the top right corner. A random email address for your encrypted communication channel has been created. Write down this email address (and the previously chosen password) to re-access your encrypted communication channel later.
While sending the encrypted message via Secure Connect, Tutanota automatically creates a mailbox for the sender with an automatically generated email address of your custom email domain. The sender can login with the selected password to read your reply and also reply again. With Secure Connect an encrypted communication channel has been established that is both easy to use and secure.
How to configure Secure Connect as a website owner
You can configure most of your version of Secure Connect (text, style, links etc.) yourself to adapt it to your Corporate Identity. You can even enter texts in different languages to cover different nationalities of your website visitors.
Preconditions to set up a Secure Connect encrypted contact form:
You need to set up a whitelabel domain with Tutanota.
Then you can book and add Secure Connect to your website
When you order the whitelabel feature, you have two options: The whitelabel feature is already included in the Pro subscription. Alternatively, you can order it separately in your Premium account. Journalists get Secure Connect for free by contacting press@tutao.de with supplying a link to their website. NPOs get the business version of Tutanota at half price which includes Premium, whitelabel and Secure Connect.
Easy to add for any website
For the first time, also smaller news agencies and blogs of Human Rights activists can offer a secure communication channel for potential whistleblowers because Secure Connect is so easy to add to any blog.
Fight for Press Freedom
We hope that Secure Connect will help journalists and activists across the world to fight for Press Freedom, Freedom of Speech and our Right to Privacy.
To fight for these fundamental human rights has been our mission since we have started building the encrypted email service Tutanota, and it is a value shared throughout our community.
We are happy that we can now support journalists and whistleblowers around the world with our software donation. Together we will stop illegal mass surveillance!
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Normally, I would applaud the building of walls; however, recent news from Paris only confirms the dystopian world that we’re all living in.
From Politico:
The Council of Paris unanimously agreed Monday to a proposal to erect a bulletproof wall around the Eiffel Tower in response to the terror threat in France, Le Monde reported. Parisian authorities will put up bulletproof glass on two sides of the tower area, while the two other sides, which serve as entrance and exit points, will be enclosed by metal grids “reproducing the profile of the Eiffel Tower.”
Can you imagine?
Instead of confronting the rising crime in our once great cities, Paris has decided to double down on a bulletproof wall, which in practice will only act as another source of anarcho-tyranny to natives. This is part of a greater trend throughout the West which aims to provide preventative actions (think the TSA) and “enhanced” security instead of attacking problems at their root. This is because to ask the question of why the Eiffel tower needs a bullet proof wall is to reveal the contradictions at the heart of the decaying hegemony of liberal discourse in our societies.
Instead, we are told that terror attacks are just part of living in a major city, our “way of life” so to speak.
We bind ourselves up in a hell and call it heaven because we refuse to imagine any other way of living. Even when it was not so long ago that the idea of a 20 million Euro “bulletproof” wall around the Eiffel tower would be absurd. There is another way.
We on the Alt-Right imagine a different world from that of the deputy mayor of Paris. We imagine a world where you can roam in our once great cities, stroll along its boulevards, and sit in its cafes without worry — a world where France is France, and there will always be an England.
In sum, we imagine a world where we have homes.
With this latest move, the city of light is embracing the cloud of darkness that threatens to engulf all of our countries. As Donald Trump said, “Paris isn’t Paris anymore.” With this latest news, the truth of this statement couldn’t be any clearer.
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We see patterns where none exist. It’s what humans do; in fact, it’s what animals do. Mark Twain noticed this, and had a pithy summary.
We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it — and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again — and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more.
The wary cat has a theory of the world: Stove burns you. Stay away from stove.
Of course, only hot stoves cause burns, so this is not a good theory. But consider two cats:
Cat A believes (correctly) that the theory about stoves causing burns is incomplete, and is not sure what does cause burns.
Cat B stays far away from all stoves, hot or cold, because they magically cause pain and injury in a way the cat doesn’t understand.
It’s pretty clear that Cat B is more likely to survive.
The Conspiracy-Theory Mindset
An interesting paper, forthcoming in the European Journal of Social Psychology, titled “Connecting the Dots: Illusory Pattern Perception Predicts Belief in Conspiracies and the Supernatural,” investigates this kind of thinking.
The central finding is that many people who believe in complex conspiracies and supernatural phenomena also see “patterns” in random data. The authors conclude that “illusory pattern perception is a central cognitive mechanism accounting for conspiracy theories and supernatural beliefs.”
We want someone to blame.
The interesting part is that humans also add a moral element. We want someone to blame. In the case of the human analogue of stoves — perhaps droughts, floods, or natural disasters — primitive peoples think that angry gods or malevolent forces can be appeased by appropriate human actions. They make sacrifices, and if something bad happens to someone, they imagine that evil forces are at work, or else the person somehow deserved the punishment for having themselves acted badly.
I’m not saying this is a conscious, rational response. Quite the contrary. It’s the irrational part of this that makes it adaptive. The belief that I can understand, and take actions to prevent, terrible events is a key part of being happy, and even healthy.
As I pointed out in my Analyzing Policy (2000) book, the belief that pork contained evil spirits, or that God had commanded that no one eat pork, proved adaptive in desert regions where deadly invisible parasites were likely to infest the meat. You didn’t have to understand the mechanism, as long as you happened upon a good rule and then imbued that rule with magical significance.
A Disaster without an Explanation
One of the most famous catastrophes in European history was the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, in Portugal. The earthquake itself caused fires immediately, as well as a tsunami that arrived in about 40 minutes. All told, between 10,000 and 100,000 people died.
The question asked throughout Enlightenment-era Europe was, “What did Lisbon do to deserve such punishment?” There were some theories, including religion, sexual mores, and some more fanciful claims, but it seemed hard to believe that these could explain why Lisbon would be almost completely destroyed and Berlin, Paris, Prague, Vienna, and other capitals of sin would be untouched.
Unless … what if there was no explanation? No one had done anything, good or bad, to cause it. The earthquake just happened.
Now, humans usually don’t like answers like that; we can’t plan, and we can’t identify patterns.
On the other hand, accepting that there may be no explanation, much less a blame-worthy action as cause, for events is a step toward thinking scientifically. In a way, the Lisbon earthquake was a great benefit to the cause of enlightenment. As John Hamer said,
One of modernity’s greatest achievements is the realization that natural disasters like earthquakes have nothing to do with us, that we need not see the wrath of Zeus in every thunderclap, the displeasure of Poseidon in every menacing wave. The origins of that realization are to be found in the smoldering ashes of Lisbon.
Backsliding on Scientific Modernity
It’s easy to slide back though. And maybe it’s just my imagination, but we seem to be sliding backward pretty fast. After Hurricane Katrina, a few religious leaders went all “wrath of God” on us, claiming that New Orleans was a modern Gomorrah. After Hurricane Harvey this summer, and again after Hurricane Maria, we were told that Houston, and Puerto Rico, must have done something to deserve this terrible punishment.
Sometimes the “sin” is promoting “the homosexual agenda,” of course. Folks on the left tend to think that this kind of religious view is ridiculous, but they are happy to trot out their own “you deserved it!” line of pattern recognition. For the Left, the sin is often the use of fossil fuels. In fact, after Harvey happened to stop in place for 48 hours, immobilized by an utterly random high pressure area to the north, several clear “causes” emerged. One was global warming. Another (I love this one) was “lack of zoning.” Houston, thou has sinned in the eyes of the planners of urban sacredness, and thou willst now suffer the consequences!
In fact, as a number of people have pointed out, the scientific basis for blaming the specific path or effects of one hurricane on any one factor is extremely tenuous. It’s unlikely that global warming or lack of zoning caused that specific event and its effects.
The rise in the temperature of the Gulf of Mexico at this point is less than 1 degree centigrade; the amount of rain dropped by Harvey was actually within normal bounds for a hurricane of that size.
And as for zoning, well, the amount of impermeable paved area in the city doubtless contributed to the severity of the flooding, but 50 inches of rain in two days would not have been “soaked up” by swamps or sloughs; once the ground is saturated, it’s covered with water. And water is impermeable, too.
The difficult thing, and I’d say this to all sides, is to discipline yourself to avoid two atavistic moralistic traps.
Blame the victim: If you see something bad, you find something about the victim you don’t like. And then you say the bad thing happened because the victim did something bad. For example, Puerto Rico allowed promiscuity, or Houston did not have zoning rules to limit growth. Vengeful gods: If you see something bad, you find something that society as a whole is doing you don’t like. For example, we use fossil fuels, so hurricanes become stuck by high pressure areas, or people have stopped going to church, and so an example had to be made.
As Ron Bailey wrote in Reason, there is no overall trend toward worsening intensity, duration, or frequency of hurricanes hitting the United States. There are plausible theories that predict that this may happen, and there are sensible reasons to evaluate these claims seriously.
But it’s a violation of the basic scientific principles of the Enlightenment to blame the victims, or to invoke vengeful gods, as explanations. Sometimes things happen. Noticing patterns where none exist is part of being human. Overcoming that impulse is the most important part of science.
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Epsilon/Getty Images
Chelsea have confirmed their latest signing of the summer with Brazilian attacker Willian signing for the Stamford Bridge club, but questions can be asked over whether the player has made the right move this summer.
BBC Sport's David Ornstein has confirmed that Willian has joined from Anzhi Makhachkala for £30 million on a five-year deal, being allocated the No. 22 shirt. He is Chelsea's fourth senior signing of the summer following Mark Schwarzer, Marco van Ginkel and Andre Schurrle, and he joins a huge list of attacking-midfield talent at the club.
Willian had the option of joining Spurs, where he had a medical before joining Chelsea, while Liverpool were also in the frame for his signature originally.
The new Blues recruit established himself as a threat in European football while playing for Shakhtar Donetsk in the Ukrainian top flight and the Champions League before he moved to Anzhi in January. His stint in Russia has been cut short, however, by the Dagestan club's need to bring in funds after owner Suleyman Kerimov opted to stop lavishly funding the side.
The Premier League quickly came calling, and while it is probable that Willian has joined the best-equipped of the three teams to try to win the league title, it is also inarguable that he has opted for the side where he could get the least amount of game time.
Where Liverpool are known to be looking for a left-sided attacker to add to their first XI on a weekly basis, and Tottenham are seeking to replace Gareth Bale with a quality, pacy attacker, Chelsea are stockpiling a final-third player in an already overcrowded squad.
To the "Matazar" trio that shone so brightly last season—consisting of Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Oscar—has been added to with Van Ginkel and Schurrle, while Kevin de Bruyne has been recalled from his long-term loans in Germany.
Frank Lampard and Ramires, while certainly more "central" midfielders than out-and-out attacking ones, are also capable of filling those roles, and Victor Moses also remains at Stamford Bridge.
Add in Willian, and that gives Chelsea at least eight players battling for the three roles behind and beside a central striker—and Ben Rumsby of the Telegraph reports that Porto's Christian Atsu, who also plays in wide attacking areas, is now linked with a move to Stamford Bridge too.
While it is unthinkable that Chelsea will head past the transfer window closure without offloading at least one or two of those names, it still leaves Willian in the unenviable position of facing a direct battle with Hazard for a place on the left, his regular role with Shakhtar and Anzhi.
He can play centrally, of course, but again, in that position he faces huge competition for time on the pitch.
Willian has signed a long-term contract, so Chelsea clearly see him as being an important player for now and the future, but if he takes a while to settle into his new team, he could quickly find himself marginalised if others hit the ground running under Jose Mourinho.
A £30 million investment is still a lot of money, even for Chelsea, but it might seem to be the case to some that the player himself might have been better served heading to White Hart Lane or Anfield for further first-team football—though, if Chelsea are competing for the league title at the end of the season and he is involved, he will think his decision fully justified.
All eyes now will be on just how much the Brazilian contributes to the coming campaign.
Follow @karlmatchett
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Well-known Jewish dissident Professor Shlomo Sand has admitted that Israel is the “most racist state in the world”—and that Jews in the rest of the world all work to “dominate” and “control” their home nations’ policies to support the racist Zionist state.
The astonishing outburst by Professor Sand—who first gained fame for propagating the now-discredited “Khazar”-origin theory of Ashkenazi Jews—is contained in his new book How I stopped being a Jew.
In his new book, Sand, who was raised in Israel, discusses what he called the “negative effects of the Israeli exploitation of the chosen people myth” and what he calls its “holocaust industry.”
He also rejects the Jewish religion for its “genocidal Yahwestic tradition,”—a reference to that religion’s “holy books” which contain direct instructions to Jews from God which justify, quite literally, the murder and dispossession of Gentiles.
In an article in the UK’s Guardian newspaper discussing his new book, Sand went on:
I am aware of living in one of the most racist societies in the western world. Racism is present to some degree everywhere, but in Israel it exists deep within the spirit of the laws. It is taught in schools and colleges, spread in the media, and above all and most dreadful, in Israel the racists do not know what they are doing and, because of this, feel in no way obliged to apologise.
I am often even ashamed of Israel, particularly when I witness evidence of its cruel military colonisation, with its weak and defenceless victims who are not part of the “chosen people”.
Deeper inside his book itself, Sand makes the following observation on how Jews in the Diaspora now use their position to “dominate” and “control” their host nations:
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, there is no longer a country in the world where the descendants of the chosen people are prevented from emigrating to the state of the Jews. Zionism has shifted the objective that originally constituted its raison d’être and acquired a second youth through a reinvigorating initiative.
Now more than ever, those who aspire to identify themselves with the seed of Abraham are asked to gather funds in support of a land of the Jews that is in full territorial expansion and, above all, to activate all their networks of influence on their country’s foreign policy and public opinion.
The results of the latter objective have been remarkable.
At a time when communitarianism enjoys growing legitimacy — particularly in an age of reverence for ‘Judeo-Christian’ civilization, underpinning the ‘clash of civilizations’ — it is more possible than ever to harbour pride at being a Jew and finding oneself on the side of the powerful who dominate history.
While Sand is approaching the entire topic from what would traditionally be regarded as a “far leftist” position—and his demonstrably false belief that there is no genetic basis to Judaism—his observations about the true nature of Jewish racist tribalism are accurate.
Where Sand has made his essential mistake is understanding that all human behavior has in fact a biological origin. All of us—of whatever ethnic origin—are merely products of our ancestors. Our abilities, our limitations, and our innate characters—are all inherited from those who have come before.
Sand’s realization that the vast majority of his fellow Jews are ultra-racists—and hypocrites as well—must be difficult enough for him to comprehend. It might then be too much to expect him to admit that there is an inherited aspect to Jewish behavior which perpetuates this open racism towards, and hatred of, Gentiles from generation to generation.
Sand’s new book has already attracted the ire of some of his erstwhile fellow Jews.
The Jewish journalist Gordon Haber, in an article in The Jewish Daily Forward, for example, dismissed Sands as a “crackpot”—yet was forced to admit that Sands had correctly identified one aspect of Jewish behavior which even Haber found puzzling: namely the staggering hypocrisy of Jews in America supporting Israeli racism while propagating exactly the opposite policy in the US.
Haber wrote:
And yet, if I am to be honest, Sand does raise a question of grave importance. For Sand, there is a “close link” between an essentialist Jewish identity and how Israel treats its non-Jews. Many, of course, will argue that Israel is a haven for Muslims and everything’s hunky-dory in Gaza.
But those of us who strive for intellectual honesty must acknowledge the contradiction between Western ideals and an ethno-religious government that humiliates and brutalizes people under its jurisdiction. American Jews, in particular, need to ask themselves why they support a situation in Israel that they would never countenance in their own country.
Of course, neither Sand nor Haber will dare tackle the real reason for this obvious hypocrisy—which is that Jewish racial tribalism engages in a divide-and-conquer strategy to ensure that non-Jews remain divided and deflected away from the real source of power in the US and elsewhere: the Jewish Lobby.
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A split has emerged in NSW Labor over policies to tackle inequality just a week after federal opposition leader Bill Shorten declared that doing so would be "a defining mission" for a government led by him.
NSW Labor's economic policy committee, controlled by the right faction, has rejected 13 of 17 inequality-related motions put to this weekend's annual state conference at Sydney Town Hall by the left, prompting accusations it is "gutting" attempts to fight the problem.
The rejected motions include inserting a declaration of the party's determination to fight inequality in the state Labor platform and implementing an annual report on the state of inequality in NSW.
The committee has rejected a motion to add to the state platform support for the Buffett rule – the principle that a minimum level of tax should be paid by all, as advocated by billionaire businessman Warren Buffett – despite it appearing in the national Labor platform.
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Tuesday's Speech from the Throne will usher in the spring sitting at the B.C. Legislature.
It lays out the province's plans for the coming year, with specifics to be detailed in next week's budget.
So what can British Columbians expect?
"We're going to be dealing with the issues around Indigenous rights, making sure our economy continues to grow in rural B.C., and focusing on Clean B.C.," Premier John Horgan told CBC News.
B.C. Premier John Horgan speaks to the media on Jan. 24, 2019. (Michael McArthur/CBC)
He said affordability will be a priority — and for housing, that means adding to the current supply.
"There's going to be lots of talk about the jobs that we're going to create, but also making sure we're kick-starting the private sector to get the homes built in communities that need to keep pace with the fast growth."
Horgan also acknowledged the financial woes plaguing ICBC and the debt that's been piling up at BC Hydro.
"The challenges at ICBC and BC Hydro are enormous — in the many, many billions of dollars — and these things can't be fixed with a magic wand," he said.
"We're facing big challenges on both of those files."
Turning point
B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson expects the upcoming session to serve as a milestone marker.
"I think we're at a turning point in the lifetime of this NDP government in that they came in with a fairly aggressive tax agenda last year and now British Columbians are looking for it to bear some fruit."
He said the B.C. NDP has a "tall task" in delivering on affordability promises.
"They've tried to do it by raising taxes, supervising increases in ICBC rates, and watching BC Hydro go up," said Wilkinson.
"I think their affordability agenda is at grave risk now and we'll be watching that closely."
"I think we're at a turning point in the lifetime of this NDP government in that they came in with a fairly aggressive tax agenda last year and now British Columbians are looking for it to bear some fruit, "said Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson. (Nic Amaya / CBC)
So what specific legislation would the Opposition like to see?
"If we were able to advance legislation — and the NDP have [previously] blocked it — we would put in a condo pre-sale flipping tax to stop people from flipping paper contracts on condos and to drive speculation out of the market."
Stable minority government?
B.C. Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver is confident he'll see further action on his crowning achievement: the province's climate action plan, which was announced last December.
"I would hope to see some legislation with respect to the Clean B.C. strategy in terms of legislating vehicular standards, certain low-carbon fuel standards," he said.
"I also expect to see something with respect to the poverty reduction plan ... We'll be bringing in a bunch of private members bills and the rest will be up to the government."
"We see no reason why we would, at this stage, find reasons to pull our support for the government — we said we wouldn't do that." (Mike McArthur / CBC)
The current minority government is teetering on support from the Greens.
Weaver doesn't see that changing in the coming months, pointing to the Confidence and Supply Agreement his party signed with the NDP after the 2017 provincial election.
"We see no reason why we would, at this stage, find reasons to pull our support for the government — we said we wouldn't do that."
Weaver went on to reassure British Columbians this province has a stable minority government.
"This is what we've said all along: we as Greens will move forward with our agenda, and at the same time, hold government to account and ensure the people of B.C. are put front and centre in decision making."
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ざっくり言うと ある男性がiPhoneの機種変更をすると、見知らぬ連絡先が追加されたという
旧端末の情報は無事で、アドレスのドメイン名などからアップル社員のよう
アップルジャパンは不具合などを否定し、データを削除するよう回答したそう
提供社の都合により、削除されました。
概要のみ掲載しております。
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Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Pretoria on Saturday, angered by a rise in violence against women and children in South Africa, including killings and sex attacks.
Answering the call by a group calling itself "#Not In My Name", the protesters, most of them men, marched through the streets of the South African capital behind a woman symbolically dressed head to toe in white.
"The time to take collective responsibility for our shameful action is now," said Kholofelo Masha, one of the protest organisers, who described himself as "a loving dad, brother and uncle".
South African men have remained quiet on the issue for too long, he added: "You hear a lady screaming next door, you decide to sleep when you know there is a problem next door ... No man should beat a woman or rape a woman while you're watching."
Reports of the rape and murder of women and girls have been front-page news recently in South Africa, which has some of the worst crime rates in the world.
According to official figures, a women is killed by someone she knows every eight hours somewhere in the country and one woman in five has been subjected to at least one act of violent aggression in her life.
The killing of Reeva Steenkamp by her boyfriend, Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, drew global attention to the issue of domestic violence in South Africa.
South African President Jacob Zuma on Thursday visited the home of the parents of a three-year-old girl who was raped and killed.
"We as the citizens of this country must say enough is enough," Zuma said then. "This is one of the saddest incidents I've come across. It's a crisis in the country, the manner in which women and children are being killed."
The ruling African National Congress has called the wave of violent acts "senseless and barbaric" while the main opposition Democratic Alliance party has denounced the "failure to make South Africa safe for all", and has called for a national debate on the problem.
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Pouring rain does not permit the start of race 3
Pouring rain with cars behind safety car, until the race is definitely stopped and cannot start again due to terrible weather conditions. No points assigned for this race 3, which saw Blomqvist (KIC Motorsport) start in pole in front of Vesti (Prema Powerteam) and Sophia Floersch (Van Amersfoort Racing AV).
The ACI Racing Weekend, certainly negatively hit by bad weather, sees Frederik Vesti (Prema Powerteam) maintaining his first position in the championship with 103 points, in front of Enzo Fittipaldi with 97 points and David Schumacher with 58. Same standings for the Rookie Trophy. Among the teams Prema Powerteam leads with 200 points in front of DR Formula by RP Motorsport with 76, and US Racing with 73.
Next racing weekend at the Hungaroring 6 and 7 of July.
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Ramsey Orta took plea deal on unrelated charges but says police harassed him after filming officers killing his friend.
On July 17, 2014, Ramsey Orta took out his mobile phone and filmed a police officer in New York killing his friend, Eric Garner. But as soon as he stopped recording, Orta says his own life also took a dramatic turn for the worse.
Viewed millions of times, Orta’s clip shows Daniel Pantaleo, a white officer, gripping his arms around Garner’s neck in a chokehold.
Garner, a black American, was 43 years old at the time, and an asthmatic.
“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,” Garner said, as he was being pinned to the ground and asphyxiated.
They were his last words.
Garner, a father of six, was selling loose cigarettes in Staten Island, New York, when officers tackled him. His case was ruled as a homicide, meaning that his death was caused by human beings, but Pantaleo was not indicted. In 2015, Garner’s family reached a $5.9m settlement with the city of New York.
Orta’s recording of the killing has been praised by many for bringing to light police brutality, and setting off what has been described as a citizen journalism trend exposing injustices.
But ever since releasing the footage of Garner’s killing, Orta, 25, says he has become the target of police retaliation.
‘Behind enemy lines’
On Monday, Orta will begin a four-year prison sentence, after taking a plea deal in July for a weapons and drug case.
It is the result, he and his lawyers argue, of a police campaign to harm his life. After filming Garner’s death, they claim, he was increasingly harassed and targeted by police and was arrested at least eight times in fewer than two years.
Of several criminal cases against him, only two charges stuck. Two weeks after filming Garner’s death, Orta was arrested on charges of possessing a handgun and was later caught selling heroin to an undercover policeman.
“[Hours after] Eric died, at 4am in the morning, there was a spotlight shining through my window. I looked out the window and there was a cop [police] car outside,” Orta told Al Jazeera on Friday.
“They parked outside my house and stopped people coming in and out of my house. That was going on until the day they ruled it [Garner’s case] a homicide. I’ve been arrested and let out many times. And now I am convicted of only two of seven cases.”
According to reports, Orta is suing New York City for $10m for unwarranted arrests by the NYPD that he says were attempts to discredit his video of Garner’s final moments.
Al Jazeera contacted New York City police for comment, but did not receive a response at time of publication.
In August 2014, Pat Lynch, president of New York’s biggest police union, said it “is criminals like Mr. Orta who carry illegal firearms who stand to benefit the most by demonising the good work of police officers”.
READ MORE: NY police to keep disciplinary records from public
Orta has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and suffers from depression, anxiety and paranoia.
“My biggest fear about prison would be not coming out alive. I fear for myself being behind enemy lines,” he said. “I’m going in there with a level head. I’m praying that I can come right out and continue my life as an activist.”
My biggest fear about prison would be not coming out alive. Ramsey Orta, activist
Since Garner’s death, Orta joined the police watchdog organisation Copwatch, has given talks at universities, and become a symbol of the Black Lives Matter movement.
At a recent event in Brooklyn, New York, Jewel Miller, the mother of Garner’s youngest child, told Orta: “You took the video … you really filmed up to the last seven and something minutes that he was here on Earth. And even though those words of ‘I can’t breathe’ are in our heads … it is the only voice for my daughter she’ll ever know. And because of you I’ll forever be grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
Orta, a husband and father to two daughters, said he watches the video often.
“I watched it the day before yesterday,” he said. “It just stays in my head. I try not to watch certain parts.”
While he does not regret filming the killing, he wishes he had posted the clip anonymously.
“The only regret I have is not making my identity safe,” he said.
Still grieving the loss of Garner, he said: “I miss his sense of humour the most.”
‘Shattering the myth of racial equality’
Orta is among several citizen journalists who say they have been hounded by police, including those who filmed the recent deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and Freddie Gray, which sparked a wave of protests across the US
In August, filmmaker David Sutcliffe wrote an open letter in favour of the “right to record”, which was signed by more than 100 documentarians, including Asif Kapadia, Laura Poitras and Nick Broomfield.
“Armed only with camera phones, citizen journalists have shattered America’s myth of racial equality,” the letter said. “Instead of garnering Pulitzers and Peabodys, they have been targeted, harassed and arrested by members of the very institution whose abuses they seek to expose.”
Shaun King, a New York-based journalist focusing on justice, told Al Jazeera that harassment was not uncommon.
“I have seen many cases where people who film police are unlawfully targeted and harassed by them in response – sometimes for months or even years as a result,” he said.
“My question is always this: what are you afraid of? Why does being filmed bother you so much? It’s our right to film the police. In fact, if you ever see police in action and you have the time to film them, do so.”
A petition by The American Civil Liberties Union calling on US Attorney General Loretta Lynch to investigate harassment cases has gathered almost 21,000 signatures.
‘Vicious intimidation’
Stanley Cohen, a New-York based lawyer and former social worker who in the 1980s held community cohesion sessions with the city’s police departments, said that Orta’s case was an example of “vicious, retaliatory and vindictive” intimidation.
“They want to create an environment where people are terrified to speak up and out and be good citizens,” he told Al Jazeera.
“It’s [harassment] not to undo the events of the murder of Garner as is it to deter the next [filming of a police killing].”
He added that after Garner’s death, he felt a glimmer of hope.
“I had hoped, naively, that the Garner situation would change the relationship between police and community. It did for a short run, but more out of police concern of an explosion. Recently, it seems to be business as usual. There are more stories of the arrogant, abusive attitudes of cops in communities they control … When you combine the militarisation of police with citizen journalists, you get a toxic confrontation.”
Ramsey Orta, 25, pictured at a shrine to commemorate Eric Garner, at the Staten Island location where he was killed by police [Ramsey Orta/Al Jazeera]
According to Mapping Violence, police have killed at least 217 black people so far this year. Last year, they killed at least 346 black people.
As he prepared for jail, Orta said he has little hope for the near future.
“I expected this [police killings] to end up where it is now, it’s only gotten worse since it started. I knew from our past history that that video wasn’t going to change anything,” he said.
“I don’t want my situation to be a deterrent to people who continue to film, though. I encourage others to take a stand.”
Follow Anealla Safdar on Twitter: @anealla
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THE secret location where Network Ten will film its version of the hit American reality series Survivor this year is a remote island off the coast of Malaysia, sources say.
Contestants will endure a couple of months of rough living and endurance challenges on Pulau Tiga, west of Sabah in the Kimanis Bay, it’s understood.
The location is the same one used for the very first US season in 2000.
While it will be presented to viewers as a deserted and isolated spot, the island is actually home to a resort, a campsite, restaurant and national park.
Early work is underway on the series — the first Australian instalment since Seven’s celebrity spin-off in 2006, which followed Nine’s adaptation of the format some 13 years ago.
Key production hires have been made, sources reveal, including Trent Pattison who headed up the challenge team on I’m A Celebrity … Get Me Out Of Here! last year.
Pattison has also worked on several seasons of the US version of Survivor.
It’s understood filming will begin sometime in March and run for almost three months. The show will air towards the back end of the year.
Beverley McGarvey, the network’s chief programming officer, said picking a spot used for a previous series was deliberate.
“We’ll end up collecting an island location — most likely a location that has had a series of Survivor shot there before,” she confirmed in a recent interview. “Just because bringing that expertise to the table is really critical.”
Expect it to look and feel like the American show — its producers have been enlisted to help make the local version.
“They’re really involved,” McGarvey said.
“We think the purity of the concept is something that will really resonate with Australian audiences.”
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Donald Trump is afraid of a rebellion by Electoral College members who will break ranks and choose someone else for president, denying him the 270 votes needed when that body meets next week in the final stage of the 2016 election.
Trump’s fears are laid out in a lawsuit filed Monday in Colorado, where two Democrats on that party’s Electoral College slate have sued over a stage law that binds its Electoral College members to the popular vote outcome. They are part of the Hamilton Electors group, who are seeking to stop Trump from becoming president.
“We are a group founded by several members of the Electoral College dedicated to support [Alexander] Hamilton’s vision that members of the Electoral College should be free to vote their conscience for the good of America,” their website says. “We believe that Hamilton had somebody very much like Donald Trump in mind when he charged Electors in Federalist 68 with safeguarding the office of the presidency.”
“In 2016 we’re dedicated to putting political parties aside and putting America first,” they said. “Electors have already come forward calling upon other Electors from both red and blue states to unite behind a Responsible Republican candidate for the good of the nation.”
The Colorado suit brought by Democratic electors Polly Baca and Robert Nemanich terrifies Trump, because it could state a federal court precedent that would free electors across the U.S. from being bound by state laws to vote for their state’s popular vote winner. The Constitution doesn’t say that Electoral College members will be subject to such rules. 

“Despite their prior commitment to honor the outcome of Colorado’s presidential election, Plaintiffs now claim they might consider voting for people other than Secretary Clinton and Senator Kaine,” Trump’s motion to intervene in the lawsuit said. “Of course, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence have more than enough electoral votes to secure their respective offices.”
That last assertion is not quite right and is refuted by their motion’s continuing argument.
“Plaintiffs’ lawsuit, however, threatens to undermine the many laws in other states that sensibly bind their electors’ votes to represent the will of the citizens, undermining the Electoral College in the process. That is why the President-elect and his Campaign seek to intervene in this case,” they said. “Should this Court conclude (despite decades of legal and historical precedent to the contrary) that it is unconstitutional for Colorado to bind its presidential electors, similar statutes in other states where the President-elect won may also be in jeopardy. The President-elect and his Campaign therefore have a direct, substantial, and legally protectable interest in preventing the invalidation of Colorado’s law requiring presidential electors to honor both their prior commitment and the voters’ will."
Trump’s filing is yet more evidence that he is paying close attention to the legal efforts that challenge his fitness for office and could stop him from assuming the presidency. He and Republicans stopped a recount in Michigan, and were successful in limiting ballot scrutiny in recounts in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Trump knows his ascent to the presidency hangs on the Electoral College’s antiquated system that overrides the popular vote. Hillary Clinton won 2.85 million more votes than Trump nationally.
The question, of course, is how many potential electors would break ranks and how might that play out. So far, nine Democratic electors have endorsed the effort and one Republican – Chris Suprun of Texas – has signaled support as well. These are some of the same electors that called for CIA to brief them on their until recently secret report that showed how Russia helped Trump. Right now Clinton has 232 Electoral College votes and Trump has 306. To win, 270 votes are needed.
It’s not as simple as saying that Clinton needs 38 more votes, because some of the Hamilton electors might not support her even if they don't want Trump. It is anybody’s guess how many Republican electors are willing to break ranks. One source said as many as a dozen GOP electors are leaning that way, but that’s far short of the 40-to-50 needed to prevent Trump from becoming president.
“The Founding Fathers intended the Electoral College to stop an unfit man from becoming President,” the Hamilton Electors' homepage said. “The Constitution they crafted gives us this tool. Conscience demands that we use it.”
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Since retiring from the shoe business in 2007, Vaccaro has pivoted into being a full-time, all-out advocate for change in the basketball industry he helped create. The man who outfitted coaches in swooshes and funneled millions into universities’ athletic departments is now one of the NCAA’s most outspoken critics, working behind the scenes to organize efforts for the antitrust suit led by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon.
This video is no longer available for viewing.
Chapter 1: “How Sonny Became Sonny”
Chapter 2: “The Jordan Effect”
Chapter 3: “Kobe and the Gunslinger”
Chapter 4: “There Are Victims Here”
Chapter 5: “The LeBron Affair”
Sole Man will make its prime-time television debut on Thursday, April 16, at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.
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Not every hit Cam Newton takes warrants a flag, and the sack he took from Rams outside linebacker Mark Barron in the third quarter of Sunday’s game was brutal. The referees seemed to think it was also totally legal, and it looked that way from the broadcast. But another angle makes it look like the refs missed the call.
Here’s the hit as it was shown live on the game broadcast.
According to the angle shown on television, Barron led with the shoulder and didn’t make contact with Newton’s head or neck. Viewed from another angle, it looks like Barron did hit Cam’s head.
@CarPanthersNews he hit him in the head then pushed him down?? pic.twitter.com/L9xf5vU9pb — Chris Wilson (@chris6615) November 6, 2016
It looks like Barron’s head made contact in this one too, but it’s harder to tell.
That's gonna leave a mark... pic.twitter.com/NIPwrnis9h — CAR Panthers News (@CarPanthersNews) November 6, 2016
From behind, it doesn’t look like an illegal hit at all. That’s also where the referee would have been standing.
Though many hits on Newton this season have been questionable, and the league has acknowledged some missed calls by officials. Initially, it didn’t look like this one fit into that category.
Following the Panthers’ Week 8 matchup against Arizona, Newton said he didn’t feel protected by the referees, and specifically pointed to a low hit by Cardinals defensive lineman Calais Campbell as his “breaking point.”
"It's taking the fun out of the game for me," Newton said after the game.
Newton later discussed the matter with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, and Panthers head coach Ron Rivera and GM Dave Gettleman both addressed the matter with the league office.
Campbell was fined $18,000 for the hit.
After the Rams game, Rivera said there was one unflagged hit on Newton that bothered him:
"There's one of concern," but otherwise Rivera believes officials did a good job in Rams game. — Bryan Strickland (@PanthersBryan) November 7, 2016
Rivera didn’t say which one it was, though.
If it was the Barron hit, we could be hearing a lot more about it this week when the NFL has a chance to weigh in.
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What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email
Nearly 10,000 people have died in just over two years after being denied full sickness benefits and told to get a job, the Government admitted.
After an 18-month Freedom of Information battle with the Mirror, the Department for Work and Pensions revealed that 2,380 people died between December 2011 and February 2014 after failing controversial government tests and being found “fit to work”.
A further 7,200 people claiming Employment and Support Allowance died after being put in the “work-related activity group”, which means they get reduced benefits and are told to get a job.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “We urgently need an inquiry into the government’s back-to-work regime. These disturbing findings cannot be swept under the carpet.
“The fact that more than 80 people are dying each week shortly after being declared fit for work should concern us all. We need a welfare system that supports people to find decent jobs not one that causes stress and ill health.”
Find out what you can do if you're wrongly declared 'fit to work' here.
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The Mirror first used Freedom of Information laws in 2012 to expose how every week 32 people were dying after being put into the work-related activity group following “work capability assessments”.
The DWP insisted that the death rate for people on benefits had fallen over 10 years to 2013 “in line with the general working age population”.
But the death rate of those in the “work related activity group”, who now get the same rate as the jobseekers allowance, rose in 2013 to 532 per 100,000 – more than double the general working age population.
Back to work deaths 2,380 People died in just over two years after being declared fit to work by Government officials
Rob Holland, of Mencap, said: “These tragic figures warrant further investigation. We know the fit for work test is failing disabled people, with devastating consequences.”
A DWP spokesman said: “The Government continues to support millions of people on benefits with an £80billion working age welfare safety net in place.”
Earlier this week, Work Secretary Iain Duncan Smith announced that he planned changes to the work capability assessments.
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House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) sent a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday notifying him of two flash drives containing additional evidence related to the impeachment inquiry, which was obtained from indicted Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.
Why it matters: As Axios' Alayna Treene reported earlier today, a public release of some or all of these materials could give Democrats new ammunition to argue that the White House must turn over more information and allow new testimony from witnesses.
The big picture: The Soviet-born Parnas helped connect Rudy Giuliani to Ukrainian officials while the pair were engaged in a campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate President Trump's political opponents.
The records transmitted by Schiff include communications between Parnas and Giuliani, as well as text messages in Russian that show Parnas was in contact with key Ukrainian figures caught up in the Trump-Ukraine scandal, such as former prosecutors Viktor Shokin and Yuriy Lutsenko.
Lutsenko and Shokin helped spread the unsubstantiated allegations that former Vice President Joe Biden attempted to interfere in a Ukrainian investigation into the gas company Burisma, where his son Hunter sat on the board of directors.
Read the annotated evidence.
Read the attachments.
Read the letter from Schiff.
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Contexts are a feature that will eventually be released in React.js - however, they exist today in an undocumented form. I spent an afternoon looking into the present implementation and was frustrated by the lack of documentation (justified, as it is a changing feature). I’ve pieced together a few code examples that I found helpful.
In React.js a context is a set of attributes that are implicitly passed down from an element to all of its children and grandchildren.
Why would you use a context rather than explicitly passing properties down to child elements? There are a few different reasons. You may be building a widget with a large child tree where child elements have the ability to drastically affect the widget’s overall state. If you’re not using the Flux pattern (where the parent widget listens to Stores that are affected by Action Creators invoked by the child elements), the idiomatic way to do this is to pass callbacks that affect the overall widget through props - this can be a bit awkward when you are passing a callback down several levels.
Another situation where contexts are useful is where you are doing server-side rendering - in this case data comes in that is uniquely associated with the user (e.g. session information). If your elements require session information this needs to be passed down from parent to child which gets inelegant very quickly.
Update (2/19/2015): React.withContext is deprecated as of React 0.13-alpha. You should investigate getChildContext with a wrapper component for future-facing code. Contexts themselves are not going away - they are [planned for React 1.0]((https://facebook.github.io/react/blog/2014/03/28/the-road-to-1.0.html#context) and at ReactConf 2015 the React team confirmed that the context feature was staying, with some cool examples of how contexts have been used in the past.
React.withContext
React.withContext will execute a callback with a specified context dictionary. Any rendered React element inside this callback has access to values from the context.
var A = React . createClass ({ contextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired , }, render : function () { return < div > My name is : { this . context . name } < /div> ; } }); React . withContext ({ 'name' : 'Jonas' }, function () { // Outputs: "My name is: Jonas" React . render ( < A /> , document . body ); });
Any element that wants to access a variable in the context must explicitly a contextTypes property. If this is not declared, it will not be defined in the elements this.context variable (and you will likely have errors!).
If you specify a context for an element and that element renders its own children, those children also have access to the context (whether or not their parents specified a contextTypes property).
var A = React . createClass ({ render : function () { return < B /> ; } }); var B = React . createClass ({ contextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string }, render : function () { return < div > My name is : { this . context . name } < /div> ; } }); React . withContext ({ 'name' : 'Jonas' }, function () { React . render ( < A /> , document . body ); });
To reduce boilerplate, it is possible to mix in the contextTypes property to an element using the mixins property on an element.
var ContextMixin = { contextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, getName : function () { return this . context . name ; } }; var A = React . createClass ({ mixins : [ ContextMixin ], render : function () { return < div > My name is { this . getName ()} < /div> ; } }); React . withContext ({ 'name' : 'Jonas' }, function () { // Outputs: "My name is: Jonas" React . render ( < A /> , document . body ); });
If you rely on a context element it is probably best to ensure that its contextTypes property is set as required. That way if you forget to specify a context React will give a warning back:
var A = React . createClass ({ contextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, render : function () { return < div > My name is { this . context . name } < /div> ; } }); // Warning: Required context `name` was not specified in `A`. React . render ( < A /> , document . body );
getChildContext, childContextTypes, and context
Child contexts allow an element to specify a context that applies to all of its children and grandchildren. This is done through the childContextTypes and getChildContext properties.
var A = React . createClass ({ childContextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, getChildContext : function () { return { name : "Jonas" }; }, render : function () { return < B /> ; } }); var B = React . createClass ({ contextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, render : function () { return < div > My name is : { this . context . name } < /div> ; } }); // Outputs: "My name is: Jonas" React . render ( < A /> , document . body );
Similarly to how elements must whitelist the context elements they have access to through contextTypes , elements that specify a getChildContext property must specify the context elements that are passed down. Otherwise your code will error!
// This code *does NOT work* becasue of a missing property from childContextTypes var A = React . createClass ({ childContextTypes : { // fruit is not specified, and so it will not be sent to the children of A name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, getChildContext : function () { return { name : "Jonas" , fruit : "Banana" }; }, render : function () { return < B /> ; } }); var B = React . createClass ({ contextTypes : { fruit : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, render : function () { return < div > My favorite fruit is : { this . context . fruit } < /div> ; } }); // Errors: Invariant Violation: A.getChildContext(): key "fruit" is not defined in childContextTypes. React . render ( < A /> , document . body );
Suppose you have multiple contexts at play in your application. Elements added to the context through withContext and getChildContext are both accessible to child elements. child elements still need to subscribe to the context elements that they want through contextTypes .
var A = React . createClass ({ childContextTypes : { fruit : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, getChildContext : function () { return { fruit : "Banana" }; }, render : function () { return < B /> ; } }); var B = React . createClass ({ contextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired , fruit : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, render : function () { return < div > My name is : { this . context . name } and my favorite fruit is : { this . context . fruit } < /div> ; } }); React . withContext ({ 'name' : 'Jonas' }, function () { // Outputs: "My name is: Jonas and my favorite fruit is: Banana" React . render ( < A /> , document . body ); });
Finally, the context that is applied is the closest one to the element. If you specify a key in the context through withContext and then specify an overlapping key through getChildContext , the overlapping key wins.
var A = React . createClass ({ childContextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, getChildContext : function () { return { name : "Sally" }; }, render : function () { return < B /> ; } }); var B = React . createClass ({ contextTypes : { name : React . PropTypes . string . isRequired }, render : function () { return < div > My name is : { this . context . name } < /div> ; } }); React . withContext ({ 'name' : 'Jonas' }, function () { // Outputs: "My name is: Sally" React . render ( < A /> , document . body ); });
Caveats
I ran these examples through jsfiddle with React 0.12. I’ve played a bit with similar functionality in React 0.10 and it looks like this has roughly the same behavior. I found the React test suite really helpful in understanding the intended behavior of the context feature: specifically, the withContext tests and the getChildContext tests really helped me understand how contexts were intended to work.
Finally, as contexts are an undocumented feature of React.js, caveat emptor - everything I’ve written here may change completely in an upcoming release and just because you can use them today doesn’t mean that you necessarily should. Hope you’ve found this helpful!
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Take a trip to your local supermarket and you're bound to see an entire section devoted to gluten-free products. Once the exclusive domain of people with celiac disease, the trend towards gluten-free wheat has quickly become all the rage. So, what's to account for all this?
As researchers from the Mayo Clinic have recently pointed out, it may have something to do with high-tech wheat that was developed in the 1950s and the subsequent rise of "gluten sensitivity".
Gluten, a protein that's found in bread and other foods, has to be avoided by people with celiac on account of their inability to properly digest it. The protein damages the lining of the small intestine, so foods like pasta, oats, and even beer have to be avoided. It's typically added to other kinds of foods to help dough rise and give baked goods their structure and texture.
Concerned about the rising rates of celiac in the general public and the popularity of gluten-free food products, researchers Joseph Murray and James Everhart compiled a thorough survey to get a definitive answer. What they discovered was that about 1.8 million Americans have celiac disease, and that another 1.4 million are likely undiagnosed. And surprisingly, another 1.6 million have adopted a gluten-free diet despite having no diagnosis. In fact, their study indicated that most persons who were following a gluten-free diet did not even have a diagnosis.
As CBS News points out, the burgeoning desire to avoid gluten may having something to do with the state of today's wheat and the rise of "gluten sensitivity":
In the 1950s, scientists began cross-breeding wheat to make hardier, shorter and better-growing plants. It was the basis of the Green Revolution that boosted wheat harvests worldwide. Norman Borlaug, the U.S. plant scientist behind many of the innovations, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work. But the gluten in wheat may have somehow become even more troublesome for many people, Murray said. That also may have contributed to what is now called "gluten sensitivity." Doctors recently developed an ambiguous definition for gluten sensitivity. It's a label for people who suffer bloating and other celiac symptoms and seem to be helped by avoiding gluten, but don't actually have celiac disease. Celiac disease is diagnosed with blood testing, genetic testing, or biopsies of the small intestine. The case for gluten sensitivity was bolstered last year by a very small but often-cited Australian study. Volunteers who had symptoms were put on a gluten-free diet or a regular diet for six weeks, and they weren't told which one. Those who didn't eat gluten had fewer problems with bloating, tiredness and irregular bowel movements. Clearly, "there are patients who are gluten-sensitive," said Dr. Sheila Crowe, a San Diego-based physician on the board of the American Gastroenterological Association. What is hotly debated is how many people have the problem, she added. It's impossible to know "because the definition is nebulous," she said.
Gluten-free diets are also being used as a way to lose weight, or as part of low carb and paleo diets. There has also been increasing concern that all people have some kind of gluten sensitivity.
And as the CBS article indicates, this is quickly turning into big business, with an estimated $7 billion being spent on gluten-free foods this year.
You can hit the entire study at The American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Image Dejan Stanisavljevic/Shutterstock.com.
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After five shark attacks in the past year, and five deaths in the country in a little over a decade, South Africa's Western Cape is deploying shark nets to protect swimmers and surfers from Great White Sharks.
Millions of tourists visit the Cape Town area every year. Tens of thousands of US dollars are being committed to trial the world's first environmentally friendly barrier shark net.
Karen Allen reports.
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El actor Willy Toledo ha quedado en libertad provisional sin fianza y sin ninguna medida cautelar tras presentarse ante el juez en el juzgado de instrucción número 11 de Madrid este jueves 13 de septiembre a la espera de que continúe la investigación por un delito de ofensa a los sentimientos religiosos.
Willy Toledo ha asegurado que "los calabozos son bonitos" a su salida de los Juzgados de plaza Castilla de Madrid, donde ha declarado durante apenas 10 minutos este jueves por la mañana por insultar a Dios y a la Virgen después de que este miércoles fuera detenido por no presentarse ante el juez en dos citaciones anteriores y haya dormido en los calabozos de la comisaría de Moratalaz.
"No he declarado nada, me he limitado a remitirme a un escrito que habíamos presentado hace meses en el que pone que no he cometido ningún delito y que por tanto no considero que fuera necesario que me presentara ante ningún juez ni ningún fiscal", ha revelado.
En declaraciones a la prensa, el actor ha señalado que no sabe qué va a pasar: "Puede ser que archive la causa, puede ser que vayamos a juicio, porque esto ha sido una vista previa para tomar declaraciones a la acusación y la defensa".
Sobre su noche en dependencias policiales, Toledo ha dicho que "los calabozos son bonitos, es la tercera vez que voy y estoy feliz. Estoy haciendo lo que tengo que hacer, que es llamar la atención" sobre este asunto.
El actor ha defendido que no ha cometido "ningún delito" y ha lamentado que la situación es "tercermundista": "Me parece increíble que en este país todavía haya cinco artículos del Codigo Penal referentes a las ofensas a los sentimientos religiosos". Sin embargo, el actor ha asegurado que va a acatar lo que decida el juez.
A la entrada del juzgado, Toledo ha gritado "tendría usted que desaparecer de la faz de la tierra", un comentario que según el actor ha dirigido a todos los "fascistas".
La Asociación Española de Abogados Cristianos, que ejerce de acusación, aseguró este miércoles tras conocerse la detención del actor que este estaba "forzando" la situación.
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