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The Killers Confirm Christmas Collaboration With Dawes
Brandon Flowers has told Radio X we can expect their usual festival offering - their eighth in a row - and this time it is a collaboration.
"We've still got something else for you," the frontman told Radio X's John Kennedy, when asked if they would be continuing their tradition despite the release of 'best of' album Direct Hits next week.
"It's called Christmas in LA and we did it with a band called Dawes."
"Taylor the singer is just a great writer," Brandon explained when asked about the collaboration. "It was really fun.
"I started the song out and left gaps where I either just didn't have anything or wanted him to fill it in and it was just beautiful to see how quickly he adapted and was able to bring it to LA too. It was great."
Brandon and Ronnie from the band were talking Radio X through Direct Hits track by track ahead of its release on Monday.
The Album Playback included the first ever radio play of new song Just Another Girl, which was produced by Brit Stuart Price.
"Recording with Stuart has just become second nature," Brandon said. "If there was a fifth member of The Killers it would be Stuart, we love him like a brother and it's really easy to work with him.
"It's really exciting to be able to make a demo: be 2,000, 4,000 miles away from someone, send it to him and wake up the next morning and they've put their two cents in. It's fun to work like that, it's exciting. It's like Christmas."
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The Big Mac Index invented by The Economist is an informal way of measuring the purchasing power parity (PPP) between two currencies. The calculation of PPPs is based on the assumption that the dollar cost for a Big Mac in a particular country would be the same as in the United States. The indicator is chosen by The Economist magazine, as a measure of PPP, is based on the fact that the ingredients used in the preparation of Big Mac are the same over the globe, and hence the variation in dollar cost in any country is a direct measure on the valuation of the currency. The study also points to the fact that some of the developing countries, purposely undervalue their currency, in an effort to be competitive in the global market.
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Lunedì 4 settembre 2017 - 16:15
Twitter blocca Fabrizio Bracconeri per gli insulti a Kyenge
Rimosso l'account dopo i tweet sulle violenze di Rimini
Roma, 4 set. (askanews) – Twitter ha deciso di bloccare l’account di Fabrizio Bracconeri dopo gli insulti all’europarlamentare del Pd Cecile Kyenge. L’attore televisivo, in due tweet, aveva rivolto frasi irrispettose nei riguardi dell’ex ministro dell’Integrazione e legate agli stupri di Rimini, commessi da quattro giovani stranieri di origine africana. In un primo momento Bracconeri aveva scritto “Non mi viene in mente il nome della buzzicona muslim che era ministro”. Dopo ha cinguettato di nuovo attaccando direttamente Kyenge: “Ti ho trovata @ckyenge non dici niente dei tuoi fratelli merde muslim? Sei abituata, conosci i vostri usi con capre, no? Fate schifo!! Viaaa”. Twitter ha così deciso di rimuovere l’account del volto televisivo che, nel frattempo, era stato inondato di commenti dagli altri utenti.
Adx/int5
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Manufacturers can often pick and choose between power units, so here's a low-down of what they all equate to
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Power units are always the headline figures associated with any new performance car and can provide interesting comparisons between cars across the entire spectrum of automotive production. Power as an entity is a measure of how quickly and how far an engine can force the car forward, with that force being the torque produced from the internal combustion. This is generalised in engineering as the amount of ‘work’ the car has to do to propel itself along and has taken many forms since the early days of internal combustion. Generally divided into three main units used in different areas across the globe, let’s delve into what each unit of measurement means and how they compare to each other.
Kilowatts
1kW = 1.341hp Technically, this form of measurement is the most uniform method of measuring power and is used by every engineer worldwide. Watts are an SI unit (International System) which means they are based around the metre, kilogram, joule and second that make up the metric system. It is a measurement of energy transfer over time, which is the exact job that an internal combustion engine undertakes. Used as a unit for cars mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, Kilowatts can be measured by finding the torque value from the wheels on a rolling road, followed by applying this equation:
Kilowatts are a modern take on car power output and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes the norm to use this form in Europe, although it may take a lot more to persuade Americans to make the transition. Although considering the rise of the electric car, it would make a whole tonne of sense to start switching, as the capabilities of electric motors are measured using kWh (Kilowatt hours) which dictates how long the electric motors can produce a certain amount of power for.
Horsepower
Created by the master of the steam engine – Mr James Watt – this unit of power has somehow still survived to this day as the staple unit of power measurement of new cars where I’m from. Horsepower was deemed equivalent to a horse moving 33,000 pounds of mass one foot in one minute. Now no one knows how big this horse was or whether it was a particularly healthy horse or not…but let’s just go with it. This new-found unit allowed Watt to show direct comparisons between his steam locomotives and the common horse that dominated the haulage business up until the invention of the steam engine. Horsepower still survives as the main power unit for us petrolheads in the UK and you lot over in the USA, staving off any outside influences from Continental Europe and Australasia. Again, this power unit can be found by a torque translation using a similar equation to that of the Watt:
It may start off as a bit of a mess, but this equation simplifies down to something very similar to that of the Watt equation
Horsepower can become a tricky business however, with values measured in different ways. BHP (brake horsepower) refers to the equipment needed to test the engines for their power outputs, with a large drum with a water brake within it measuring the braking force once the engine is spinning at a desired rate. Over in the US, this is measured with only some ancillary components attached to the powertrain, missing things like the power steering pump which would lead to a lack of parasitic losses if in place. Therefore higher ‘HP’ figures are calculated in the US than the BHP figures calculated in Europe where every component is kept in place. WHP or wheel-horsepower is a greater indicator of the usable power that an engine produces, as this is calculated using the exact torque that has made it through the drivetrain and is driving the wheels.
PS
1PS = 0.986hp PS stands for pferdestärke which translates simply as horsepower, but it has had some metric tweaking to try and bring good old HP forward into the 21st Century. This metric horsepower has been adopted throughout Europe as the new standard for power measurement and will probably make its way fully into the UK psyche in the not too distant future. The official engineering standard for metric horsepower is the amount of power needed to lift a 75kg of mass one metre vertically in one second, which – once the conversions from imperial to metric are applied – equates to a 1.4 per cent higher figure than the old imperial units. Manufacturers will often pick and choose between PS and HP depending on whatever figure seems more rounded and presentable. Although I’ve always just seen PS as ‘horsepower plus a few’. To summarise these three units of power, let’s break down famous cars and their relevant figures to put the new and old units into perspective:
Nissan Skyline GTR R34: 206kW = 276hp = 280PS (advertised)
McLaren 570S: 419kW = 562hp = 570PS
Honda Civic Type-R FK2: 228kW = 306hp = 310PS
Bugatti Chiron: 1,103kW = 1,479hp = 1500PS
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He thought they were his friends.
The 16-year-old autistic boy allegedly assaulted by two teenage girls in Southern Maryland is perplexed by the criminal charges they are facing and even considers one of them his girlfriend, according to the boy’s mother.
“He doesn’t appear to be traumatized. He thinks these girls are his friends and is surprised the police are involved,” said his mother, who works for a local health department. “But I am glad they are [investigating]. I am glad someone brought this out.”
The Post is not naming the mother to protect the identity of the victim, who is a minor.
News of the criminal charges in mostly rural St. Mary’s County has rippled across the Internet, creating a furor. Police said the two girls — ages 17 and 15 — assaulted the boy repeatedly between December and February and used their cellphones to record the attacks. The videos allegedly show them holding a knife to the victim’s throat, forcing him to perform various sexual acts, kicking him in the groin and dragging him around by his hair.
Lauren Bush, 17, of Mechanicsville (Courtesy of St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office)
At least once, the two suspects lured the victim onto a partially frozen pond to chase a ball even though they knew the ice was thin, police said. The boy fell through the ice several times, but the suspects refused to help him out of the frigid water, police said. The boy was able to pull himself out of the pond, according to Sgt. Cara Grumbles, a spokeswoman for the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office.
The 17-year-old, Lauren A. Bush of Mechanicsville, is charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault and other charges. She is being held at the St. Mary’s County Detention Center.
The 15-year-old, who is charged as a juvenile, also is facing assault counts, authorities said. She is being held at the Waxter Children’s Center, they said.
Police said the investigation is ongoing.
Voice mails left by The Post for Bush’s parents produced no response.
All three teens attended Chopticon High School in Morganza.
In her interview with The Post, the mother said she has pressed her son for details about what happened between him and the girls. But her son, who was diagnosed with autism in elementary school, hasn’t been forthcoming and shrugged off the alleged assaults as playful behavior. The mother said her son is fairly independent and performs well in classes but is socially “naive” and cannot comprehend that he may have been manipulated.
“He’s not a good judge of people,” the mother said. “I keep trying to talk to him about it, but it’s hard to get much out of him. I’ll say, ‘This is what so-and-so told me, and I know this happened,’ but he’ll act like, ‘Oh, [the girls] were just playing around.’ He didn’t deny anything. I am trying to make him understand that people are talking about this all over TV, but he wanted to go to school today.”
The mother said she learned Friday that police were investigating the incidents involving her son but didn’t learn the details until this week. “Apparently, these girls recorded all this stuff on their phones, and someone saw it and reported it,” she said.
The boy and the two girls socialized frequently, the mother said, and she had heard their names but had never met them. The girls would go to movies with her son and hang out at the boy’s home on snow days. The mother said she believes that the attacks against her son took place when she and her husband were at work on days when snow closed schools.
She knew about the incident involving the partially frozen pond, she said. When she got home from work that day and asked her son why his clothes were wet, he said he had tried walking on the pond and fell in. He denied that his friends coerced him, she said.
Wednesday evening, the mother said she had not seen the videos of her son being assaulted and has not called the parents of the girls. Several weeks ago, she said, she considered calling the younger of the two girls — the 15-year-old who her son believes is his girlfriend — because he had been spending a lot of his savings on her.
With so much outrage pouring out online, the boy’s mother said she is trying to reserve judgment about the girls’ parents. “I can’t judge them. They don’t know what their daughters are doing, I assume,” she said. “I fear that people are going to blame me and say, ‘You have this mentally challenged kid; why don’t you know where he is all the time?’ But he has a learner’s permit, and he’s been coming alone from school since he was 12. He can take care of himself, but he trusted these girls.”
The mother said she worries that her son is not grasping the full scope of what happened. “We told him that what these girls did was unacceptable,” the mother said. “But yesterday, I asked him, ‘You’re going to stay away from these girls, right? You don’t plan on hanging out with them again, right?’ He said, ‘I don’t know.’ ”
Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.
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Ukraine is a key transit route of Russian gas to Europe President Viktor Yushchenko has said Ukraine has paid its debt to Gazprom in full, to prevent the Russian firm cutting off its gas supplies. But Gazprom said it had not received the money so far and "it is too early to talk about debt repayment". Talks continued in Moscow as the two sides also need to agree on a price for 2009 gas supplies to Ukraine. The Russian monopoly has threatened to cut off gas to Ukraine unless Ukraine signs a new contract by 1 January. "The money will be transferred today, in two or three hours," said a spokesman for Naftogaz. Earlier, the Ukrainian government allowed Naftogaz to borrow up to $2bn (£1.3bn) to pay the debt. Gazprom has said Ukraine owes $1.67bn (£1.1bn) for gas and $450m in fines for November-December supplies. Earlier, Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller told Russian news television channel Vesti that "Gazprom will have no grounds for supplying gas to Ukraine" if it does not pay out its debt. Ukraine is a key transit route of Russian gas to Europe, and it is feared that a supply cut could affect countries further west. Gazprom, the world's largest gas producer, supplies a quarter of the European Union's gas needs, or 42% of EU's gas imports. A similar row between Gazprom and Ukraine in 2006 led to gas shortages in several EU countries. Prices impact Gazprom supplies about one quarter of Europe's gas Separately on Tuesday, Gazprom reported a solid rise in profits and sales following record gas and oil prices in the first half of the year. For the six months to 30 June, net profit jumped 85% to 609.4bn roubles ($20.8bn, £14.2bn) compared with the same period in 2007. Sales rose 52% to 1.74 trillion roubles on both higher prices and volumes. However oil prices have slumped from July highs and most observers expect oil firms to see future profits slide. The firm also said the credit crunch has affected its ability to attract loans. "At the moment the management can not certainly assess the impact of further decrease in financial markets' liquidity and the growing instability of foreign exchange and stock markets on the group's financial state," the company said in a statement.
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Tactical Intervention, from Half-Life mod co-developer and Counter-Strike creator Minh Le, will be released in August, Fix Korea studio has announced.
The shooter based on the Terrorists vs. Counter-Terrorists setting will be released globally on Steam, where it can be played for free.
According to the developers, the game will require “teamwork, strategic thinking and fast reflexes,” and players will be able to choose from dozens of “authentic weapons.”
Players can also make use of attack dogs, tactical shields, take hostages, perform a drive-by and repel down buildings if they wish.
Locations on the maps include shopping malls, industrial parks, subway stations and on the tops of skyscrapers. Depending on game mode and team selection, players must set up or defuse bombs, rescue or capture hostages or emerge from team death-match duels as winners.
The highway mission included in the game is a high-speed car chase where players will be protecting or taking out a VIP. Not not only will weapons skills be put to the test, so will driving skills as players either avoid a helicopter, or find the RPG-7 and take it out.
Tactical Intervention will be released worldwide in August.
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Cientistas decifram estrutura no novo coronavírus que pode ajudar na fabricação de vacinas
Imagem do formato de uma proteína do vírus foi publicada na 'Science' nesta quarta (19).
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Wer als blind eingestuft ist, hat häufig trotzdem noch ein gewisses Sehvermögen. Eine Augmented-Reality-Brille des Start-ups VA-ST soll solchen Personen bald helfen, dieses Sehvermögen besser zu nutzen: Sie filmt die Umgebung und spielt dem Träger ein Schwarzweiß-Bild vor die Augen, auf dem relevante Informationen wie Menschen oder Hindernisse hervorgehoben sind, berichtet Technology Review.
Studie mit Prototyp
Im Juni hat VA-ST in Großbritannien eine Studie begonnen, bei der 300 Menschen mit Augenproblemen wie Makuladegeneration, Glaukomen oder Retinitis Pigmentosa jeweils vier Wochen lang Prototypen der Brille sowie des dazugehörigen Controller-Kästchens bekommen. Weil die Steuerung aufzeichnet, welche Einstellungen die Probanden wann nutzen, und weil sie außerdem auch Bewegungsdaten eines eingebauten Beschleunigungsmessers erfasst, können die Forscher auswerten, wie Menschen mit unterschiedlichen Augenproblemen die Brille im Alltag verwenden.
Zu dem System gehört unter anderem eine Tiefenkamera, mit deren Hilfe ein Android-Computer entscheidet, was hervorgehoben werden soll und was ignoriert. Wenn zum Beispiel eine Person in drei Meter Entfernung steht, zeigt die Software sie in Schwarz-Weiß mit einem weißen Umriss, außerdem sind Gesichtsmerkmale wie Brille, Nase oder Mund zu sehen. Andere Personen und Objekte in größerer Entfernung dagegen erscheinen grau, der Hintergrund ist komplett schwarz. Eine kommerzielle Version soll nach Angaben von VA-ST Anfang kommenden Jahres verfügbar sein und unter 1000 Dollar kosten. (Sascha Mattke)
Mehr dazu bei Technology Review online:
(sma)
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This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.
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AURORA, Colo. -- A teenager carrying a loaded shotgun on a busy street in Aurora was stopped by police. But he says he should not have been stopped and he videotaped his encounter with officers. Police have a different opinion.
The 18-year-old posted his cell phone video online. He spoke exclusively with reporter Dave Young Friday.
Young also spoke with police as the two sides debated open carry gun laws and public safety.
Steve Lohner claims he was well within Colorado law while he walked in the area of South Buckley Road and East Iliff Avenue while carrying a shotgun.
Police who were called to the scene say they weren't able to determine if he was doing it legally. Lohner refused to show them an ID to prove he's 18.
"I simply carry this for the protection of myself and those around me," Lohner says.
His shotgun is a Stoeger P-350 12 gauge.
"I've been stopped close to a dozen times for this and this is actually the first time I've been forced to provide ID," he says.
The teen says he's on a campaign to call attention to open carry laws. "I feel like a lot of people now they see a weapon like that and they think, you know, James Holmes or Sandy Hook,"
Lohner says that's why he started walking along major streets with his gun.
"It's alarming to the citizens -- alarming enough to where they call," says Aurora police spokesman Frank Fania.
Colorado law backs up Aurora police when asking to see an ID while investigating a possible crime.
"He may be within his rights and legal, within the law to carry this gun but if we're investigating it and he refuses to cooperate that may violate other municipal laws," Fania says.
In fact, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that police who are investigating a suspected crime can require an ID from people reasonably believed to have information or were involved with that crime.
In this case police couldn't even determine if Lohner, who they determined looks younger than 18, was old enough to legally possess the weapon.
Lohner says, "The police treat open carry like you're a criminal until proven innocent."
But police say it raises questions of public safety and takes officers off of other calls. "It ties up our resources whether you're right or wrong," Fania says.
Lohner, who just turned 18, plans to continue his protest walks. "If enough people were to lawfully open carry in those areas and do it in a safe and lawful manner then these people would end up feeling comfortable around it."
The teen admits that the Aurora theater shooting makes police in the city cautious.
Police say they have to respond to 911 calls when people call about what Lohner is doing. They reiterate they may be getting pulled away from other real, life-threatening situations.
Lohner faces a misdemeanor obstruction charge for refusing to show his identification.
We spoke to Lohner's mother and she told us she is concerned about his safety.
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Com al País Basc i la Bretanya, la marca econòmica 'Produït al País Català' s'ha impulsat per promoure la qualitat territorial, tant al país com a l'exterior.
Tal com informa el portal La Clau, el mes de febrer es va posar en marxa la marca "Produït en País Català", un segell territorial inspirat en models d'aqueixes característiques, que funcionen amb èxit a la Bretanya, al País Basc, a Còrsega i a Alsàcia.
Aquesta iniciativa ha estat dissenyada per Philippe Simon i Joaquín Fernandez, respectivament empresari en la construcció i dissenyador a Cabestany i a Perpinyà. Aquesta marca qualitativa i identitària del know-how territorial és recolzada per Hermeline Malherbe, presidenta del Consell Departamental dels Pirineus Orientals, Carole Delga, president de la regió d'Occitània i Laurent Gauze, president de l'Agència de Desenvolupament Econòmic de la metròpoli Perpinyà Mediterrània.
Per créixer i arribar a l'economia real, la marca «Produït al País Català» funciona sota règim d'associació, amb gestió rigorosa i objectiu de resultats.
Concretament, el 2018, uns cinquanta empresaris van ser provats sobre la seva capacitat de compromís. Alguns d'ells van entrar en acció el 2019, pagant la seva contribució. Aqueixos professionals de la indústria alimentària, productors, fabricants, proveïdors de serveis, industrials, bars i restaurants constitueixen un primer nucli.
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Kayla Moore's 'Jew' comment raises eyebrows
The wife of Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore is defending her husband against accusations of bigotry by pointing out his record on supporting African Americans and adding that one of their attorneys “is a Jew.”
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A pair of NFL season ticket holders who wanted to see a full or partial rematch between the New Orleans Saints and the Los Angeles Rams were out of luck Thursday after a federal judge said she wouldn’t force the league to implement a rule that could’ve led to a do-over.
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan ruled against two Saints season ticket holders who brought the legal battle against the NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell after their team was defeated in the NFC championship game. The loss dashed the organization's hopes of a Super Bowl appearance this year.
The issue between the parties came about when game officials didn’t call a penalty after Rams defensive back Nickell Robey-Coleman hit Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis while a Drew Brees pass was in the air with less than two minutes remaining in the Jan. 20 game.
NFL OPPOSES RAMS-SAINTS DO-OVER, SAYING IT COULD COST LEAGUE MORE THAN $100M: COURT FILING
A flag for pass interference would have given the Saints a first down and a chance to run down the clock before kicking a potential game-winning field goal.
Instead, the Saints were forced to kick the field goal sooner and returned possession to the Rams -- giving Los Angeles enough time on the clock to tie the game again and force it into overtime, where the Rams won.
The ticket-holder’s filing wanted the NFL to enforce a rule permitting the commissioner to investigate "extraordinarily unfair acts" that affect the game. Remedies under that rule include rescheduling the game in full, or from the point at which the unfair act occurred. However, the judge rejected the petition that the ticketholders were entitled to an order, known as a "writ of mandamus."
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“None of the actions Plaintiffs might seek to compel Commissioner Goodell to do are the kinds of actions a writ of mandamus may address,” the order said. “Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure article 3864 authorizes a writ of mandamus be directed to compel performance of a ministerial duty; such as the holding of an election or the performance of other duties required by bylaws, articles of organization, or operating agreement or as prescribed by law; or to compel the recognition of the rights of the shareholders or members.”
NFL Chief Financial Officer Joseph Siclare reacted to the lawsuit last week, saying in an affidavit that replaying the final minutes of the game could cost the league “more than $100 million” because it would mean delaying Super Bowl LIII.
Fox News’ William Mears, Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Governo impõe às instituições a prova da empregabilidade dos cursos.
O Governo congelou o número de vagas para cursos do Ensino Superior para o próximo ano letivo, que não vão aumentar em relação a 2011-2012, a menos que as instituições consigam provar a empregabilidade dum curso.
O despacho que regulamenta a fixação das vagas para o Ensino Superior foi publicado terça-feira à noite na página da Direção-Geral de Ensino Superior (DGES) e determina que o número de vagas para cada universidade ou politécnico "não pode exceder a soma das vagas fixadas para essa instituição para o ano letivo de 2011-2012".
A DGES poderá autorizar mais vagas em "situações particulares": quando as instituições consigam provar que os alunos de um determinado curso têm menos probabilidades de ir parar ao desemprego.
O Governo recomenda às universidades e politécnicos que "redistribuam" as vagas que têm disponíveis para poderem aumentar o número de alunos nos cursos de "Ciências, Matemática, Informática e Engenharia".
"Excesso de oferta" nos cursos de professor do ensino básico e educação de infância
Por outro lado, impõe às universidades e politécnicos que reduzam em pelo menos 20% o número de vagas nos cursos de professor do ensino básico e educação de infância, onde identifica "excesso de oferta".
Devem também ser reduzidas as vagas nos mestrados de habilitação profissional para a docência. Nos cursos de Medicina, a oferta em 2012-2013 deve ser igual à deste ano letivo.
No despacho, o executivo diz ainda às instituições de ensino superior que não devem ter no próximo ano letivo mais cursos do que tiveram este ano, salvo um conjunto de exceções, como sejam cursos lecionados à distância.
O Governo decidiu também que não serão financiadas novas admissões em cursos que neste ano letivo tenham tido menos de 20 inscrições ou menos de 40 desde o ano letivo de 2009-2010.
Cálculo de empregabilidade
O despacho impõe também que não podem ser abertos cursos com menos de 20 vagas, a não ser em cursos preparatórios de Artes, ou resultantes de protocolos internacionais, que não sejam financiados pelo Estado ou quando se prove a sua "especial relevância", entre outras exceções.
Para pedirem à DGES a apreciação do aumento de vagas num determinado curso, as instituições terão que provar primeiro que não têm vagas a libertar em cursos que não ficaram completamente preenchidos.
Para o cálculo da empregabilidade, devem usar como referência os números da Direção-Geral de Estatística e Ciência, que registam o número de desempregados por curso inscritos nos centros de emprego.
Deverão provar que "o nível de desemprego nesse curso é inferior ao nível médio de desemprego dos diplomados com um curso superior".
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‘Thor: Ragnarok’ is a Superhero Comedy About the Horrors of Colonialism Posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2018 by Siddhant Adlakha (Welcome to Road to Infinity War, a new series where we revisit the first 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask “How did we get here?” In this edition: Thor: Ragnarok reinvents the God of Thunder with humor and subversion.) Compared to Iron Man and Captain America, Thor feels short-changed in both his Avengers appearances. His first solo film narrowly misses a coherent character arc. His second doesn’t give him one at all. He is, at once, one of the most popular Avengers and one of the least narratively interesting. Or rather he was, until New Zealand’s Taika Waititi was handed carte blanche for the character and his grandiose world. To say that Waititi made a weird movie would be a disservice. It’s a really weird piece of an even weirder puzzle, course-correcting Thor’s prior installments while leaning all the way into the Jack Kirby-esque designs of Marvel’s golden age. It has a giant undead wolf. It has a kindly rock monster. It even has a Hulk, but it also has Jeff Goldblum as The Grandmaster, a character so fun and alluring that you forget he’s a human trafficker who sends people to their deaths for sport. Which, in essence, is the thesis of Thor: Ragnarok, a comedy about the effects of downplaying colonialism, made by an unapologetically Maori filmmaker. Read More »
‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Fleshes Out the Corners of the MCU Posted on Monday, April 23rd, 2018 by Siddhant Adlakha (Welcome to Road to Infinity War, a new series where we revisit the first 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask “How did we get here?” In this edition: Spider-Man: Homecoming offers a peek at the margins of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.) The “Homecoming” sub-title has a sly double meaning in North America, but both the phrase and its many localizations – usually some variant of “Returning Home” – sent a singular message to most of the world. This was Spider-Man back where he belonged, at the House of Ideas, right alongside characters he’d shared the page with for over 50 years. In order to re-establish him though, Marvel needed to answer a key question following his appearance in Captain America: Civil War: Where does Spider-Man fit in a world of Avengers? The Marvel Cinematic Universe had been around for nearly 10 years by the time we got Spider-Man: Homecoming. This fictional world began shortly after Tobey Maguire vacated the spider-suit, and it continued through Andrew Garfield fizzling out. Tom Holland was to be the third on-screen Spider-Man in under a decade, and separating him from the other two became imperative. In both prior incarnations, Spider-Man was the only hero around and he had to rise to the occasion no matter how big the threat. Holland’s Peter Parker however – younger, smaller, and of meeker demeanor – exists in a world much like our own: a world where a kid his age had grown up watching Avengers rule the skies, as the little guys looked up in awe. Read More »
‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’ is an Intimate Drama About Cycles of Abuse…With a Talking Space Raccoon Posted on Friday, April 20th, 2018 by Siddhant Adlakha (Welcome to Road to Infinity War, a new series where we revisit the first 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask “How did we get here?” In this edition: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 beautifully blends sci-fi craziness with an examination of anger, pain, and cycles of abuse.)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is oodles of fun, but it spends its first few scenes articulating a thoughtful mission statement. Its prologue, set 34 years in the past, features a budding romance later revealed to have twisted implications, but the love on display is still real. Following this comes the Guardians’ raucous reintroduction in present day, a battle against an inter-dimensional beast in a scene bursting with visual slepndour. Its out-of-this-world action however, is backgrounded and out of focus. The spotlight instead falls on a joyous Baby Groot, dancing his way through the scene as the other Guardians – Star Lord, Drax, Gamora and Rocket – take turns caring for him as if he were their child. When the Guardians collect their reward for this battle, they stand in contrast to the gilded Sovereign, a homogenous people genetically engineered to be perfect, but a people to whom slights and insults are unforgivable. The Guardians, on the other hand, are a group of broken characters from wildly different origins, but in their case, redemption isn’t off the table. In short, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is about the complicated relationships we rarely confront. It’s told against a backdrop of action and space-opera, but its focus is on a family of imperfect beings, searching for catharsis while helping one another other find some form of redemption. It may very well be Marvel’s most mature film, zeroing in on the emotional complexities of abuse carried forward into adulthood. But it also solidifies the Studio’s new political direction, acting as the first in a trilogy of films (along with Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther) whose narrative is adjacent to colonial history. Read More »
‘Doctor Strange’ Opens Marvel’s Mind and Expands Its Worldview Posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2018 by Siddhant Adlakha (Welcome to Road to Infinity War, a new series where we revisit the first 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask “How did we get here?” In this edition: Marvel Studios enters bold new territory with Doctor Strange.) In August of 2014, as Doctor Strange was being written and as Marvel was figuring out where to film it in 15 months time, the studio underwent a significant restructuring. Kevin Feige would no longer answer to Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, a notoriously fickle penny pincher and blockade to diversity, nor would Marvel Studios be subject to the Marvel Creative Committee, whose hellish process of studio-notes was a source of contention behind the scenes. Instead, Feige began answering directly to filmmaker-friendly Disney Charmian Alan Horn. Not long after, Marvel announced films like Black Panther and Captain Marvel and directors like Ryan Coogler (Creed) and Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows) after only having had white men be the major focus on either side of the camera. The message was clear. This was a whole new Marvel, and slowly but surely, the work began to reflect it. Read More »
‘Captain America: Civil War’ is Marvel’s Harrowing Longterm Payoff to Years of Storytelling Posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2018 by Siddhant Adlakha (Welcome to Road to Infinity War, a new series where we revisit the first 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask “How did we get here?” In this edition: Captain America; Civil War pays off years of build-up with a painful bang.) The Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to re-invent itself every couple of years. From big, fun crossover action to space-set family soap opera, it’s been laying track one way or another for the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, but a decade of narrative investment can’t be achieved without a feeling of genuine loss. This year’s culmination re-introduces us to the scattered Avengers, a family at its most discordant after tearing itself apart. And while no Avengers lost their lives in Captain America: Civil War, the team as a whole may have lost its sense of identity. It’s a film where the long-term personal and political narratives boil over, conflicting with one another for reasons both idealistic and petty, and by the end of it, the Avengers implode. It’s a difficult watch at times, even and especially two years later when debates about military intervention rage on. And while it may seem like folly to view a film from 2016 strictly through a lens of America’s 2018 bombing of Syria, this particular real-world intervention isn’t something new. It’s part of a long-standing and long-intervening military apparatus that makes a film like Captain America: Civil War relevant in the first place. The Avengers’ legacy is America’s legacy. And it’s mighty complicated. Read More »
With ‘Ant-Man,’ Marvel Goes Small, Simple and Sincere Posted on Tuesday, April 17th, 2018 by Siddhant Adlakha (Welcome to Road to Infinity War, a new series where we revisit the first 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask “How did we get here?” In this edition: Ant-Man is sometimes muddled, but charm and style go a long way.) While “superhero fatigue” is by no means a cultural phenomenon – Avengers: Infinity War could topple Star Wars: The Force Awakens at the opening weekend box office – it’s most certainly experienced on an individual basis. The bloated Avengers: Age of Ultron, for instance, may not have been everybody’s cup of tea despite being one of this writer’s favourites. Which is perhaps why Marvel Studios, in order to end its run of “Phase 2” films in 2015, decided on a smaller, more intimate project in the vein of a studio comedy. Ant-Man would’ve been very different under director Edgar Wright, who left the project over creative differences in 2013, but that hypothetical scenario assumes there would’ve been an Edgar Wright Ant-Man at all – that is, once The Avengers swept the globe and the Marvel Creative Committee under Ike Perlmutter was still intact. The Marvel Studios of 2015 was a different beast from the Marvel Studios of 2003 (when Wright first got involved), and while it’s nice to imagine what could have been, Peyton Reed of Yes Man and Bring It On did an ample job with a film that, for better or worse, seems more in his wheelhouse than Wright’s. (Side note: the visual flourishes people seem to think are Wright’s are likely Reed’s doing, though the film feels like the product of conflicting rewrites). That said, it does make us ponder whether going smaller and more personal in theory is really more artistically sound when the decisions still feel like they’ve had their edges sanded down. Like the character leading it, it’s tough for Ant-Man to be truly good when forces beyond its control seem to hold it back at every turn. Read More »
‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Balances Gods and Monsters, Bringing Marvel’s Legacy Into Focus Posted on Monday, April 16th, 2018 by Siddhant Adlakha (Welcome to Road to Infinity War, a new series where we revisit the first 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask “How did we get here?” In this edition: Avengers: Age of Ultron takes a long, hard look at gods, monsters, and the humans in-between.) How often do we ask ourselves why we created God and the Devil? We’ve been questioning our own existence for thousands of years – where we came from and what we’ll leave behind – so to have those ideas pumped into a $300 million superhero sequel, albeit to varying degrees of success, is something of note. We’re well into Marvel being the biggest thing in popular culture with Avengers: Infinity War, but the questions asked by Joss Whedon’s medial crossover are of particular interest when it comes to the Avengers’ iconography. By 2015, our entertainment landscape had become dominated by the violent Übermensch in a visage of childlike fantasy, and it warranted artistic introspection. Avengers: Age of Ultron is not some Watchmen-esque deconstruction; then again, neither was the 2009 Watchmen movie, which took straight from the pages of the 1986 comic series rather than drawing from the culture around it. Age of Ultron on the other hand came out a mere two years after the destruction debate post-Man of Steel, which focused largely on civilian causalities. Whether as response to the new tenor of superhero conversation or as a means to set up Captain America: Civil War (or both; the intent isn’t mutually exclusive), Age of Ultron places similar debates in its crosshairs, first by making its characters’ top priority the protection of civilians, and then by exploring the ways in which they ought to go about it. The film forces the Avengers to contend with their in-world legacy as a means to explore their fictional legacy on-screen. It’s a narrative nexus, building on what came before while setting up Marvel’s future, as it attempts to define that very nexus for each of its characters. A mirror to our modern pantheon. Read More »
‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Goes Cosmic and Gives Marvel Its Raw, Beating Heart Posted on Friday, April 13th, 2018 by Siddhant Adlakha (Welcome to Road to Infinity War, a new series where we revisit the first 18 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and ask “How did we get here?” In this edition: Guardians of the Galaxy gets weird, and it’s spectacular.) Flashback, Comic Con 2012. Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige announces development on Guardians of the Galaxy, to which even seasoned Marvel readers respond: “Wait… Who?” Flashback, Comic Con 2013. Marvel plays the first public footage from the new James Gunn joint to a crowd who had no idea what to expect. I would know. I was there, buzzing with bewildered excitement. And from the moment we got a glimpse of this thing – a sizzle reel not dissimilar from the film’s first trailer – we knew we were in for something special. Flash forward, April 2018. The Guardians’ upcoming team-up with the Avengers is currently outselling the last seven Marvel movies combined. Gunn’s superhero space-opera existed independently of the rest of the Marvel Universe (unless you count post-credit scenes, which I do not) and it seemed to exist independently from most sci-fi films in general. Equal parts grimy and bursting with colour, it felt like bright new world that had been used and lived in by ingrates not unlike ourselves. From an idyllic, multi-species utopia led by Marvel’s Nova Corps, to a floating space-penitentiary with alien inmates of all stripes, even to a mining colony within the severed head of an ancient Celestial, the film departed from its relatively grounded predecessors and marked Marvel Studios going full-Marvel Comics. While Asgard in Thor featured a familiar regality, Guardians of the Galaxy represented a major step out into the larger Marvel cosmos, starting off on Earth before ending up in far-flung corners of an unfamiliar universe – though not without the right characters to guide us through it. Read More »
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If getting your finances in order is high on your list this new year, Susan Hay gets some tips from personal finance expert Rubina Ahmed-Haq
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A former co-worker of the Somali refugee CBC News has identified as the man arrested in a weekend attack in Edmonton says Abdulahi Hasan Sharif was an ISIS sympathizer years before Saturday's violent events, and that he had reported him to police.
Terrorism charges are pending against the suspect, who is in custody. Police haven't released Sharif's name, but multiple sources have identified him to CBC.
Sharif's former co-worker, who didn't want to be identified out of concern for his safety, said: "He would rant.
"It was very incoherent. He would just bounce from idea to idea, tangent to tangent, just about what he believed in and he definitely had genocidal beliefs, you could say.
"He had major issues with polytheists. He said they need to die. That sort of thing. I only had a handful of conversations with him about it; those only occurred when there were just two of us in the work room."
Around 8:15 p.m. local time Saturday near Commonwealth Stadium, an Edmonton officer was struck by a Chevrolet Malibu while working crowd control for a CFL game.
Const. Mike Chernyk, standing behind a barricade when he was hit, was sent flying into the air. A man got out of the Malibu and attacked Chernyk with a knife before fleeing on foot.
More than three hours later, a white U-Haul van was pulled over at a checkstop on the city's north side. A police officer recognized the driver's name as similar to the name of the registered owner of the car that had struck the officer earlier.
The U-Haul then sped off toward downtown Edmonton, where streets were filled with Saturday night bar crowds and football fans. Pursued by police, the van struck and injured four pedestrians.
The van tipped over on its side and a suspect was arrested at the scene.
The officer, who sufffered stab wounds to his head and face, has been released from hospital.
One person who was listed in critical condition has been upgraded to stable. Two others have been released from hospital. The fourth victim suffered a fractured skull but has regained consciousness, police said.
The suspect remains in custody, and terror charges are pending, police said. (CBC News)
Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht confirmed a black ISIS flag was seized from a car where the police officer was attacked.
RCMP said Sunday a 30-year-old Somali refugee was interviewed by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) in 2015.
But there was "insufficient evidence" to make an arrest and the suspect was deemed "not a threat."
Suspect 'strange,' says former co-worker
The former co-worker said he immediately recognized Sharif's name when it began to circulate in the news media.
He worked with a "very strange" Sharif at a construction site in the summer of 2015, he said.
The co-worker said Sharif would play broadcasts in Arabic while they worked at the construction site.
When Sharif started talking to him about his hatred of Shia Muslims and support for well-known leaders of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the co-worker decided he needed to do something, he said.
He said he reported Sharif to Edmonton police, who passed him onto the RCMP. He was later interviewed by RCMP at K Division headquarters near downtown Edmonton, he said.
"They definitely didn't laugh it off … they took it very seriously and very professionally," he said.
Sharif kept a low profile in the city's Somali community.
CBC News conducted numerous interviews with members of Edmonton's Somali and broader Muslim communities, but no one appeared to know Sharif.
The 30-year-old's name triggered no recognition, but Saturday's violence was unanimously condemned.
"This individual has no place in our community," Ahmed (Knowmadic) Ali wrote in a statement Sunday on behalf of the Edmonton Somali community.
"We are your neighbours, co-workers and police officers and we stand strongly beside you in condemning this violence and mourning its effect on the community."
Tactical officers check suspect's apartment
While religious and cultural organizations on Sunday condemned the actions of a man they didn't know, a dozen heavily armed tactical-unit officers used battering rams to enter the rear of an apartment building at 113th Avenue and 117th Street. It's believed Sharif lived in one of the building's suites.
A resident told CBC News that police showed him a picture of a man and that he recognized him as someone he had seen around the building. He didn't know if it was a picture of Sharif.
The officers left about 45 minutes later. Police did not evacuate the building while conducting the search.
Police are expected to provide another update on the case on Monday.
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1. $11 billion.
That’s how much the five-week government shutdown cost the U.S. economy, with nearly a quarter of that total permanently lost, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
The number was released as hundreds of thousands of federal employees returned to work. After returning to work, subway traffic picked up in Washington, above. Now, a 17-member bipartisan panel has less than three weeks to come up with an agreement on border security.
In the meantime, investors and economic policymakers, including the Federal Reserve, are operating without government analyses of retail sales, manufacturing, housing and other parts of the economy.
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Prenez note que cet article publié en 2018 pourrait contenir des informations qui ne sont plus à jour.
EXCLUSIF - Cinq ans après son achat pour 365 000 $, le camion blindé du Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) est utilisé deux à trois fois moins qu'envisagé au départ. Radio-Canada a appris qu'il ne sert que 5 à 6 fois par année.
Un texte de Thomas Gerbet (Nouvelle fenêtre)
Depuis le début de l'année 2018, le camion de protection balistique a servi une seule fois. Impossible de savoir quand et pourquoi. Le SPVM a invoqué deux articles de la Loi sur l'accès aux documents des organismes publics pour ne pas révéler cette information.
Acheté en juin 2013, le camion blindé de 17 tonnes devait servir pour des interventions à haut risque. Critiqué à l'époque pour cette acquisition considérée comme une forme de militarisation, le SPVM avait justifié son utilité en planifiant s'en servir de 10 à 15 fois par an.
« Contrairement à d'autres équipements, on n'a pas prévu de rentabiliser le véhicule en fonction du nombre de sorties, explique le porte-parole du SPVM, Ian Lafrenière. C'est un outil très spécialisé pour la protection des policiers et des citoyens. »
Le camion Thunder-1 doit servir de bouclier au Groupe tactique d'intervention (GTI) lors d'opérations très risquées comme lorsqu'une personne armée est barricadée ou qu'il faut évacuer des otages.
Le véhicule est muni de 13 meurtrières permettant aux policiers de faire feu vers l'extérieur ou de tendre des objets de communication à des individus barricadés pour négocier.
« Le fait d'avoir un véhicule qui protège nos policiers, ça met dans une position où on n'a pas, ou moins, besoin d'utiliser la force létale », explique Ian Lafrenière.
Le camion a-t-il permis de sauver des vies? Le SPVM n'est pas en mesure de répondre à cette question.
Ian Lafrenière donne l'exemple des émeutes de Montréal-Nord, en 2008. Une policière avait été atteinte par balle et les policiers avaient réalisé un « mur humain » pour l'évacuer. Le camion aurait pu servir de bouclier.
J'entends beaucoup de commentaires concernant la militarisation de la police, mais quand vous voyez le nombre de sorties que l'on fait avec ce véhicule, vous voyez bien que c'est très loin d'être utilisé pour épater la galerie. Ian Lafrenière, porte-parole du SPVM
Le SPVM assure ne pas avoir l'intention d'utiliser le camion blindé dans le cadre de manifestations, comme on peut le voir dans d'autres pays.
Le camion en chiffres : Poids chargé : 17 tonnes
Peut transporter une dizaine de personnes
Vitesse maximale : 120 km/h
Force : 285 chevaux
Le SPVM a ajouté au camion un bélier hydraulique pour défoncer une porte ou une fenêtre à une distance de 3,5 mètres.
Plusieurs services de police au Québec et au Canada sont munis d’un véhicule de protection balistique. C'est le cas de la Sûreté du Québec, ainsi que des services de police des villes de Québec, Toronto et Vancouver.
« C'est ce que ça nous prenait dans une grande métropole comme la nôtre, dit Ian Lafrenière. Est-ce que ça nous en prend d'autres? La réponse est non. »
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The NHL has released the officiating roster for the 2016-17 season. In case you missed it, we’ve reported on the new hirings. Here’s a summary of the changes in stripes for the upcoming season:
Promotions
2 – Jon McIsaac
7 – Garrett Rank
30 – Kendrick Nicholson
52 – Shandor Alphonso*
64 – Brandon Gawryletz*
87 – Devin Berg*
*No number change
It will be somewhat strange to see the ol’ #7, last worn by Hall-of-Famer Bill McCreary, back out there on the ice this season.
Read more on this year’s promotions.
New Hires
41 – Cameron Voss
44 – Furman South
45 – Peter MacDougall
47 – Pierre Lambert
48 – Chris Schlenker
81 – Ryan Daisy
97 – Kory Nagy
Learn more about Daisy, Lambert, MacDougall, and Schlenker and about Nagy, South, and Voss.
New Numbers
Aside from the promoted referees, who have all changed numbers, we have one veteran official making a number swap.
Referee Kyle Rehman, who wore 37 during his NHL career, will move to 10 – a number last worn by the now-retired Paul Devorski.
Retirements
Of course, all those new names and numbers are taking the place of the referees and linesmen not returning to the NHL for the 2016-17 season.
Referees Greg Kimmerly, Dennis Larue, and Rob Martell all hung up the skates last season, as did linesmen Mike Cvik, Brad Lazarowich, and Andy McElman.
Referee Mike Hasenfratz and linesman Thor Nelson were not included on this year’s officiating roster. While no retirement announcement has come out for either, they’ve both been out with long-term injuries. Their absence appears to indicate an end to their respective NHL careers.
Referee Mark Lemelin has been released, and will be officiating in Austria this season.
Updated Roster of NHL Officials for 2016-17
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ALAMEDA — Tenants at an condominium on Bay Farm Island are facing a 133 percent rent increase, a jump that the city’s rent committee found too high and that now will be reviewed by the City Council.
But the proposed increase — from $1,500 to $3,500 in the monthly rent at 3315 Willis Lane — may end up standing because decisions over rent increases at that type of property by both the rent committee and the council are non-binding under the city’s rent ordinance.
The council will consider the case on Tuesday.
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The dispute is among the first cases from the Rent Review Advisory Commitee that the council has been asked to review since the council adopted a rent stabilization ordinance in March 2016.
The ordinance, which came after weeks of sometimes raucous debate, was adopted as a way to offer tenants protections in the face of the region’s high housing and cost of living costs.
The ordinance does not limit the amount that a landlord can raise rent. But it does require a landlord to notify the city’s rent committee, which mediates disputes between tenants and property owners, if the rent will increase more than 5 percent.
It also requires landlords to provide money to help with a tenant’s moving expenses under some evictions.
The three-bedroom condominium on Bay Farm Island is owned by the Pereira Survivor’s Trust under the Raymond W. and Mildred L. Pereria Living Trust and operated by trustee Alan Statman.
On Nov. 1, Statman notified the city that a rental increase of $2,000 was planned, which prompted tenants Mikk Teeveer and Ingrit Suurhallik to respond, saying they thought a $750 rent increase was reasonable if they were provided with a two-year lease.
Statman told the committee when it considered the case Dec. 4 that as the trustee he has a duty to ensure that the property is productive, while Teeveer took issue with the amount of the increase and said his family needed time to absorb the increase, according to the committee’s minutes.
It was not immediately available how long Teeveer and Suurhallik have lived with their child at the property.
Start your day with the news you need from the Bay Area and beyond.
Sign up for our new Morning Report weekday newsletter.
The committee voted 4-1 that the rent increase should be $750. A few days later Statman told the city that although he did not agree with the decision, he would not appeal it since the decision was non-binding.
The original rent increase of $2,000 has now been implemented, city officials said.
On Dec. 11, the tenants asked the City Council to review the committees’s decision, which will happen Tuesday.
Under the city’s rent ordinance, however, the council’s actions are limited to just reviewing the committee’s determination and, if it finds it’s appropriate, authorizing Mayor Trish Spencer to send a letter to the owners with another non-binding recommendation regarding the increase, according to Edwin Gato, the city’s acting finance director.
The council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 2263 Santa Clara Ave., Alameda.
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Mayor Rob Ford may have declared the war on the car over but the battle on the streets may just be beginning.
Just ask cyclist Vincent McMillen, who says he’s been “nicked” by cars twice in the last week.
“I was riding through an intersection, and this driver misjudged their timing as they pulled out onto the street as I passed,” he says. “They hit my back wheel, and I spun out and scraped up my leg on the road.”
McMillen’s tale captures the frustration and fear felt by cyclists and arguably all street users.
“Drivers think we’re making their lives more difficult,” he says. “We have to share the road — they just have to deal with that.”
Star columnist Judith Timson recently captured the anger on the streets, when she commented that as a driver she’s had enough of cyclists breaking the law and endangering motorists and pedestrians.
“We are in the wild west of road sharing in this, the age of ‘the rules are not for me,’ the age of instant gratification,” she wrote.
But on social media, the column unleashed a torrent of outrage from cyclists who felt they had been made a scapegoat in Toronto’s commuting turf war.
“Strange your piece mentions everyone breaks the law, but singles out cyclists as real danger. Yet they don’t kill millions/yr,” tweeted one Toronto cyclist.
So what would it take to get us talking and listening to each other? It won’t be easy and it will take time. McMillen fears people may be killed before things will truly improve. Others say the change is underway but will take time and come one step at a time.
Last week, the city’s board of health met to discuss a series of bike safety recommendations put forward in a report by Toronto’s chief health officer, Dr. David McKeown.
They include: the need for more separated bike lanes, reducing speed limits, developing a bike safety course as part of the provincial elementary and high school curriculum, including information in the Ontario Driver’s Manual on how to share the road safely with cyclists, asking police to start monitoring “ dooring ” collisions and conducting monthly towing blitzes for bicycle lanes.
The city report states that more than 1,000 cyclists a year are injured in collisions with motor vehicles, and in 2010 a third of these collisions led to hospital visits.
Dr. Monica Campbell, one of the report’s authors and a director of public health with the city, is hopeful McMillen’s grim prediction will be wrong.
“The safety of cycling has actually improved over the last decade,” she says. “The number of people in Toronto who reported cycling as their means of commuting increased by 20 per cent, and the rate of fatalities has actually come down.”
But she warns that any infrastructure changes won’t happen overnight.
“Amsterdam didn’t always look the way that it does now,” says Campbell. “A few decades ago it was a lot more like Toronto, a lot more travelled by car.”
“So that city through significant investment in cycling infrastructure has evolved, and so I think there’s tremendous potential in Toronto to emulate that.”
Amsterdam is always held up as a cyclist’s utopia. It is a city where bicycles outnumber people 881,000 to 799,000 — a city where there are only 263,000 cars.
For Amsterdam, the turning point appears to be 1971, when motor vehicles deaths in the Netherlands reached record levels — 3,300 fatalities, 500 of them children.
The toll prompted a series of grassroots protests under the banner Stop de Kindermoord (Stop the Child Murder), aimed at pressuring the Dutch government to make streets safer for everyone.
The government responded with plans to demotorize its cities, improve public transit and create a comprehensive network of bike lanes on busy roads and between urban areas. It created the woonerf (“living space”), to describe a street that puts the needs of pedestrians and cyclists ahead of vehicles.
The Netherlands now has thousands of woonerfs. Toronto has just begun building its first in the West Don Lands.
Today, Amsterdam has more than 400 kilometres of bike paths, and more than 900 kilometres of city roads have restricted speed limits to protect cyclists. In schools, 80 per cent of Grade 6 students take a cycling exam.
Limon Tahira, a spokesperson for the city, says the number of cyclists in Amsterdam has increased by 40 per cent in just the last four years
“We do still have congestion but it would be far worse if everyone drove,” says Tahira. “But right now about 58 per cent of Amsterdammers choose to cycle to work.”
Cycling and, more importantly, street safety have become ingrained in the Dutch culture. A 2013 Canadian study reported that North American cyclists are eight to 30 times more likely to be seriously injured while cycling than their European counterparts.
Lead author Anne Harris, a Ryerson University professor, said Canadian cities must emulate the Amsterdam model to reduce that discrepancy: cut vehicle speeds and put in more segregated bicycle lanes. She said this will have a beneficial ripple effect.
“If people see cycling as a safer activity they would be more encouraged to commute by bike,” said Harris. “This in turn makes them more active and healthy citizens.
“There’s not only a safety-in-numbers feeling when you’re out cycling. But there’s also the theory that if you’re a cyclist yourself, you’re more respectful of fellow cyclists when you do have to drive a car.”
Harris said Toronto lags behind other cities in the building of separated bicycling infrastructure. “We need to do something soon because the volume of people that are moving within the GTA is only increasing.”
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Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the works and infrastructure committee, admits Toronto can do more, “but we’re already spending more on cycling infrastructure since we got elected, than the last government spent in four.
“At $44 million, we’re spending twice as much as a supposedly pro-cycling mayor did.”
In addition to the recent opening of a dedicated cycling lane on Sherbourne St., the city will be constructing additional lanes on Richmond and Adelaide Sts., he said.
“In this whole debate, it’s far too easy to see the cup as half empty. For many cyclists, there will never be enough bike lanes.”
Cyclist McMillen isn’t ashamed to admit that’s exactly what he’d like to see.
“Bike lanes are a fantastic idea and I hope they’d be put everywhere in the city,” he said. “There used to be a bike lane on Jarvis St. and for some reason they decided to take it away and move it to Sherbourne — that cost us all a lot of money.”
Last October, city council voted to remove the $59,000 bike lanes to restore a reversible fifth lane, at a cost of $300,000, to improve commute times for drivers.
Minnan-Wong defended the decision, saying that realistically bike lanes can’t go on every street.
“Cars on the streets are just a reality in the city, congestion is terrible, and we have to protect the north-south route that motorists use to get in and out of the downtown. If you’re driving north you have very limited options.
“So it made no sense to me to use a primary corridor, like Jarvis, to have a bike lane.”
Even the South Central Ontario branch of the Canadian Automobile Association agrees more bike lanes are needed.
“After all, many of our two million members are also cyclists,” says spokeswoman Faye Lyons.
Dylan Reid, co-founder of the pro-pedestrian website Walk Toronto , said the city is doing its best to mediate a peaceful resolution to the turf war by adopting the woonerf concept where different modes of transport can coexist.
“Their Complete Streets policy is addressing how we can share Toronto’s streets equally amongst pedestrians, cyclists and motorists and accommodate everybody.”
The strategy plays down the idea we’re all jockeying for space in the city and seeks to find a middle ground, Reid said.
And in a city that has about two million more residents than Amsterdam, these are admittedly logistical headaches that Dutch city planners haven’t had to face.
Amsterdam, a seventeenth century city with many narrow winding lanes made for the horse and carriage, is better suited to a network of bike lanes compared to Toronto’s grid system of asphalt arteries.
Last October, the Dutch city issued a report outlining the need to improve its infrastructure to contend with the burgeoning number of cyclists on its roads. Bike lanes will be widened, the timing of traffic lights adjusted and about 38,000 parking spaces created at a cost of 57 million euros ($77 million).
McMillen, for one, is not optimistic things will change any time soon in Toronto.
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AUSTIN, TX—Predicting a long, hard road ahead before the discourse was in anything approaching satisfactory condition, Texas governor Greg Abbott warned Thursday that it could be decades before the state was fully ready to talk about climate change. “After visiting communities throughout the state, it’s clear there are areas where a serious dialogue on climate change will be next to impossible for at least 20 or 30 years,” said Abbott, adding that while some small pockets had already made small progress in discussing the issue of manmade global warming and its effects, there were sadly still portions of Texas that, even by the most optimistic estimates, might not be prepared for a generation. “Unfortunately, this will be a massive undertaking that we Texans cannot bear alone. It will take the help of the entire country if this state is ever going to have those crucial climate change conversations, and even then, there might be parts of Texas that will never be fully ready.” Abbott went on to say that, if nothing else, he was heartened by several ordinary Texans who said they were determined to talk about climate change even if it took the rest of their lives.
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Het dondert en het bliksemt al een tijdje boven cryptoland. Toegegeven, de laatste week breekt er eindelijk weer een zuinig zomerzonnetje door, maar het is al maanden op een digitaal houtje bijten. Toch heeft Boatsters, het Nederlandse verhuurplatform voor boten (in 63 landen actief) begin juni besloten om 55 cryptomunten te accepteren als betaalmiddel.
Waarom?
Quote belde kort met mede-oprichter Nick Gelevert. ‘Ik draai de vraag liever om: waarom niet? In de botenindustrie zijn wij de eerste die crypto’s accepteren en we merken direct dat we andere, met name, jongere klanten aanspreken. Wij hebben een eigen wallet-to-wallet-systeem ontwikkeld dat zonder tussenkomst van bijvoorbeeld Bitpay alle betalingen verwerkt. Er zijn dus geen extra kosten aan verbonden.’
Leuk, maar de waarde van die muntjes kan flink zakken. ‘Daar hebben we weinig last van. Wij houden de actuele koers tussen de euro en de cryptomunt aan en zetten na betaling de crypto’s direct weer om in euro’s. Heel simpel. We geven de klant gewoon een extra betaalmogelijkheid.’
Maar mensen kopen die cryto’s toch juist in de hoop dat ze over een jaar vertienvoudigd zijn, waardoor ze er juist níet mee gaan betalen? ‘Nee hoor, die gedachte is al verouderd. De jeugd betaalt er steeds makkelijker mee. Als ze vandaag crypto’s uitgeven, dan kunnen ze morgen net zo makkelijk weer nieuwe kopen in de hoop dat de waarde net zo spectaculair stijgt als vorig jaar. En wie weet gebeurt dat ook wel weer.’
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Las mujeres, las niñas y miembros de la comunidad LGBTI defensoras de los derechos humanos están enfrentando una mayor represión y violencia en todo el mundo. Los Estados deben respetar y proteger labor sin discriminación, ha asegurado un experto de la ONU.
¨En el clima político actual, en el que hay una reacción violenta contra los derechos humanos, las mujeres que defienden y promueven los derechos son a menudo las primeras en ser atacadas", expresó este jueves el relator especial sobre la situación de los defensores durante su informe anual al Consejo de Derechos Humanos.
El informe muestra cómo el aumento en el discurso misógino, sexista y homofóbico de los líderes políticos en los últimos años ha normalizado la violencia contra las mujeres defensoras de los derechos humanos. En algunos casos, quienes actúan en nombre de los Estados han participado en ataques directos contra las defensoras y sus familias.
“En muchos países, las mujeres que se atreven a defender los derechos humanos son estigmatizadas y llamadas malas madres, terroristas o brujas. Son silenciadas y marginadas de la toma de decisiones e incluso pueden ser asesinadas”, expresó Michel Forst.
Para el relator es especialmente preocupante que la hostilidad que enfrentan no sólo provenga de las autoridades estatales, sino también de los medios de comunicación, los movimientos sociales, sus propias comunidades e incluso su familia.
"La vergüenza pública, los ataques contra el honor de las mujeres y su reputación, el ¨doxing¨ o la publicación de sus datos personales en internet, la violencia sexual y los ataques contra sus hijos y seres queridos, se utilizan para silenciar a las defensoras de los derechos humanos", agregó.
El informe señala que las mujeres enfrentan los mismos riesgos que los hombres que defienden los derechos, pero aclara que las defensoras enfrentan amenazas adicionales y diferentes que están relacionadas con estereotipos de género arraigados y las percepciones sociales de las mujeres.
En muchos países, las mujeres que se atreven a defender los derechos humanos son estigmatizadas y llamadas malas madres, terroristas o brujas.
“Hemos documentado cómo los obstáculos y riesgos que enfrentan las defensoras de derechos humanos están moldeados por su género. Las mujeres son atacadas por promover y proteger los derechos humanos simplemente por su identidad como mujeres y por lo que hacen", dijo Forst.
La investigación también da la señal de alarma sobre el número creciente de Estados que han restringido el espacio de la sociedad civil, imponiendo requisitos legales y administrativos que restringen los derechos a la libertad de opinión, expresión, asociación y reunión pacífica.
En algunos países, las defensoras han sido atacadas por promover los derechos humanos de las mujeres, incluido el derecho a la igualdad y a la salud sexual y reproductiva.
Forst también expresó su seria preocupación por el uso cada vez mayor del concepto de "ideología de género" que, en diversas partes del mundo, especialmente en América Latina y Europa del Este, se presenta como un intento de feministas y defensores de los derechos LGBT para desestabilizar el orden social y político.
“No hay atajos para revertir esta deplorable situación. Debemos desmantelar los estereotipos de género nocivos y reimaginar radicalmente las construcciones sociales de género para evitar la dominación y la marginación de las mujeres", subrayó Forst.
El informe contiene recomendaciones y ejemplos de buenas prácticas para apoyar la construcción de movimientos diversos, inclusivos y fuertes de mujeres defensoras de los derechos humanos.
“Los estados y las organizaciones internacionales deben reconocer los desafíos y riesgos específicos que enfrentan las defensoras y deben garantizar que sean reconocidas, apoyadas y capacitadas para participar de manera igualitaria, significativa y poderosa en la promoción y protección de los derechos humanos", concluyó el relator especial.
Los Relatores Especiales son parte de lo que se conoce como los Procedimientos Especiales del Consejo de Derechos Humanos. Procedimientos especiales, el cuerpo más grande de expertos independientes en el sistema de derechos humanos de la ONU, es el nombre general de los mecanismos independientes de investigación y supervisión del Consejo que abordan situaciones específicas de países o problemas temáticos en todas partes del mundo. Los expertos en procedimientos especiales trabajan de manera voluntaria; no son personal de la ONU y no reciben un salario por su trabajo. Son independientes de cualquier gobierno u organización y sirven en su capacidad individual.
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Russia restored its communications with the International Space Station and satellites this morning after repairing a cable in Moscow that had been damaged during roadworks, Russian space agency Roscosmos has announced.
Roadworks in Moscow actually interrupted space traffic yesterday as an accidentally severed cable cut Russia's communication links with its space hardware overnight.
The hardware didn't seem unusually bothered, and communications with the International Space Station were routed through the USA for the duration, but when the link went down yesterday, the Russian space agency was saying it could take 48 hours to get comms back online - though it seems that was a worst-case scenario.
"They can see the crew and can talk to them, but they cannot send any commands to the Russian segments" an unnamed source told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti at the time, though it seems the interruption was short-lived as backup systems kicked in.
The fallback, routing comms though America, seems to have worked effectively and the incident won't change the scheduled return of half the ISS crew next week (19 November) who'll be replaced a month later - returning the ISS to its full complement of six.
"The crew trains for this and it's a normal routine to work without communication," the Russian head of human space flight, Sergei Krikalyev, told the ITAR-TASS news agency. ®
Bootnote
*The only British astronaut, Major Tim Peake, has yet to fly in space. As and when he does, however, it will be on a mission to the ISS so we think this subhead is justifiable.
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Prosecutors say three young children in rural Pennsylvania are lucky to be alive after police recently rescued them from a locked room in their home where they’d allegedly been kept for three months — wasting away — with no heat and little food.
“The door to the room was locked from the outside and the paint on the wall was peeled off at the height of the kids,” Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico tells PEOPLE. “We theorize they’d been peeling it off in order to eat it.”
“This is a horrific case that almost led to the death of three children,” Marsico says.
The children — ages 4, 5 and 6 — were taken from the home of Brandi and Joshua Weyant in Halifax Township, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 16 and rushed to a nearby hospital.
Two of the siblings were days away from death, authorities say.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter
The Weyants are being held in jail on $1 million bail and are charged with aggravated assault, conspiracy, false imprisonment, unlawful restraint and child endangerment.
The couple’s court-appointed attorney did not return phone calls from PEOPLE.
All three of the children were severely malnourished, underweight and, according to the court documents, their skin was covered with urine, feces, animal hair and dirt.
“They were allowed to essentially waste away in a locked room without any nourishment while, at the same time, animals in the house were well fed,” says Marsico, who adds that the couple is looking at “years in prison” if convicted of the charges against them.
• Pick up PEOPLE’s special edition True Crime Stories: Cases That Shocked America, on sale now, for the latest on Casey Anthony, JonBenét Ramsey and more.
Authorities first became aware of the situation at the couple’s home after a social services worker visited the residence on Dec. 15 to check in on an occupant in the house. Marsico says that when the worker spotted one of the children, they immediately sensed something was wrong and the police were contacted.
Story continues
Brandi, 38, allegedly blamed the abuse on her husband, according to court documents. She told investigators that no one besides she and Joshua had seen the children since this summer, the documents allege — explaining that “she couldn’t leave the house with them ” once they “began to look as they do now.”
Brandi also allegedly told caseworkers that she didn’t believe any of the children are “biologically” related to her or her husband, even though they have their last name.
“Police are currently trying to determine who the parents are,” Marsico says.
When questioned by investigators, Joshua, 33, allegedly displayed “no emotion of any kind” after being shown photographs of the malnourished kids, according to the criminal complaint, insisting simply that he “didn’t want the children overfed.”
The couple’s next court date has yet to be scheduled. It was not immediately clear if they have entered a plea to their charges.
The children, who are now being cared for by a foster parent who is a nurse, were eventually released from the hospital, but one of them had to be rushed back to the facility in order to receive further treatment.
“They still have a way to go medically, physically and who knows what the developmental impacts will be on them,” Marsico says. “They’re young kids, but they’re old enough to know the hell they were put through.”
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Zhou Xun, Kara Hui and Angie Chiu have already finished filming 24-episode webdrama The Imperfect Woman 不完美的她 (lit.), a remake of Japanese drama Mother.
It might have started in early 2018, when a tweet proposing a Chinese drama featuring female friends whose lives aren’t revolving around romance and kids got millions of retweets as women across China (and overseas) shared their wishes to see more female characters with diverse aspirations and female friendships not tied together by their common rivalry for a man.
In the year since then, companies seem to have picked up the hint as one after another modern female ensemble dramas began production this year. The dramas range from women fighting their place in college (Unfazed at Twenty ) to women dealing with mid-life crises to women seeking to find a new meaning in life in old age (Good Times).
Here’s a look at some of the announced upcoming female ensemble dramas, which one are you looking forward to the most?
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There are almost too many sites and resources for big languages like French, Spanish and German.
When you’re learning a language like these, the problem is usually deciding which resource to use rather than not being able to find one.
But what about those of us who want to learn a less popular language (minority or endangered)?
Often times it’s a real battle to find even one solid resource for a minority or endangered language.
I can’t possibly cover every single language in a post like this so the advice that I could offer for say, Australian Aboriginal languages, could be useless to someone learning a native American language.
But I’ll keep this as general as possible.
Since I put this post together several years ago, awesome sites such as italki have popped up which offer a glimmer of hope for many learners of minority languages.
It doesn’t help everybody however.
Now, because of the difficulty and higher level of frustration involved in learning a minority language, it’s really important that you have the right level of dedication to learning it in the first place.
This is important for all languages but I say even more so for a minority language where there are hardly any resources.
I say this because:
The lack of resources can be incredibly frustrating, discouraging and downright boring.
Very little or no opportunity to practice with other people. You’ll spend most of the time reading and/or listening without much-needed practice time.
Minority languages in nearly all cases don’t offer any financial incentive. In other words, a big language like French or Spanish can help you find employment or get a raise but if you speak the Nyulnyulan language, it’s highly unlikely you’ll make a living out of it.
Minority speakers are often harder to find even in their home country. If you learn Irish for example and travel to Ireland, it’s not always easy to find Irish speakers because there’s another dominant language.
Why do you want to learn a minority language and is your determination strong enough to persevere despite these points?
Here are some steps you can take:
Find out what resources are available first
Pretty obvious starting point.
Since minority language resources are so scarce, it makes sense to take note of and collect all the material at your disposal first.
When I started out learning the Irish language for example, I literally made a list of all available resources both free and paid before I even got started just so I knew what I was working with.
I took note of every decent site, YouTube channel, blog and so on that I could find so I had a really good idea of the kind of stuff out there for learning Irish.
This is also a very good time saving strategy for later because you’ll know where everything is.
Is it enough material though?
So looking at that list of resources you’ve put together and knowing where everything is and what’s available to you – is it actually enough to learn the language?
There is surprisingly a lot available for some really obscure languages.
Take a language like Igbo for example from Nigeria in Africa.
You can find some amazing resources (such as this one) and YouTube channels for learning it which is more than adequate for learning the language to a reasonable level of fluency.
However there also languages like the Jingpho language of Burma which have hardly anything to work with.
So if you do want to learn a language like Jingpho, what do you do without resources?
Get in touch with those who have gone before you first of all
In the case of Jingpho, let’s say the only online resource you can find is a Bible translation site (usually the case for a lot of obscure languages).
This is a helpful starting point.
It means that you know for a fact there are people out there who have already done what you’re trying to do.
And they’re probably the best people to ask off the bat.
Get in touch with them straight away and ask for advice on where you can find resources or who you can contact.
I recently got in contact with some people out in the Northern Territory of Australia to ask about indigenous languages out there and they were super helpful with information so I know this works from experience.
Next stop: Professors and linguistics departments
This is kind of the same advice as above.
Experts on minority and obscure languages are often found in linguistics departments of universities.
My semantics lecturer at university was a fluent speaker of an Australian aboriginal language of which there are no available online resources currently.
He’s one of only a few non-aboriginal guys who know the language and if I wanted to learn it he’d be the guy I’d call.
Google Scholar is awesome for this.
If you go to the Scholar search tool and look for the language you want to learn, you’ll usually get a bunch of journal articles written by experts in it.
You can then take the name of the professor who wrote the paper, do a Google search of him or her and it’ll bring up the department they work for along with their contact details.
There’s no way to be sure how helpful they’ll be until you contact them but it’s definitely a good place to start.
NGO’s, interest groups and government organizations
With a lot of minority and endangered languages around the world you’ll often find government programs or non-profit work being done to revitalize them.
Examples of these are the Aboriginal Resource And Development Services (ARDS) in Australia, Our Mother Tongues in the US, Korero Maori in New Zealand, E-Skuvla in Norway and Gaelchultúr in Ireland.
Also try community and religious groups in your area.
The important thing is that you put yourself out there and try every avenue.
When you have limited video and audio material
You can actually learn a heck of a lot from very limited audio and video material. More than you realize is possible in fact.
The Irish I learned in 8 months back before I traveled to the Gaeltacht was mostly learned from watching just a handful of the same videos repeatedly.
It actually doesn’t require a whole lot of audio and video material to pick up the structure, phonetics and the general rhythm of the language.
Cardinal Mezzofanti for example reportedly gained most of his insight into the 39 languages he learned by listening to people say the Lord’s prayer in their language. From that little bit of information he was able to learn a lot about how each language worked.
You can pick up a lot of the language just by listening to the same audio or video repeatedly.
Sometimes having tonnes of resources deludes you into thinking that you’re making more progress but of course there’s a limit to how much you can actually use anyway.
Finally: be a trailblazer
If you are learning a language with extremely limited resources then be part of the solution.
People coming after you who want to learn can benefit from your progress.
This is how you can do it:
Create a blog like this one. Document your progress learning the language (as I did with Irish for example) and offer advice to help the next person.
Further to that, be the only resource on the Internet with material for that language. All the resources you discover and create yourself should be shared and made available to benefit others. New learners will love you for it.
Of course if you have the money and time then travel. Learn the language while making a difference in their community. Help raise awareness if it’s an endangered language by letting the world know about it.
Hope that helps!
Are you learning a minority or endangered language? What resources have you found?
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A House committee on Wednesday considered a bill that would make it illegal for doctors to perform abortions after a heartbeat is detected.
The "Heartbeat Protection Act," authored by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), would make it a crime for a doctor to perform an abortion if the fetus has a "detectable" heart beat.
King acknowledged that such a bill, if signed into law, would face legal challenges, possibly going all the way to the Supreme Court.
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"It is important that Congress passes such a strong pro-life bill now because President Trump will hopefully appoint one or two more justices to the Supreme Court, making this a profound moment in the pro-life movement," King said during a hearing on the bill in the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice.
"President Trump is actively changing the makeup of our judicial system with strong, conservative nominees who would hear arguments on this bill while it's being challenged on the way to the Supreme Court."
A committee spokesperson would not say when or if the bill would be called for a vote.
But Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte Robert (Bob) William GoodlatteNo documents? Hoping for legalization? Be wary of Joe Biden Press: Trump's final presidential pardon: himself USCIS chief Cuccinelli blames Paul Ryan for immigration inaction MORE (R-Va.) praised the bill Tuesday.
"Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, medical knowledge regarding the development of unborn babies and their capacities at various stages of growth has advanced dramatically," he said.
"Congress has the power, and the responsibility, to acknowledge the significance of these profound developments through the enactment of pro-life legislation."
Advocates who support abortion rights slammed the legislation.
"These decisions should be left up to a woman, in consultation with her doctor and her family — and never made for her by a politician," said Dana Singiser, vice president of public policy and government affairs for Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
"This attack on women’s health and rights isn’t just dangerous, it’s extremely out of touch with what the majority of Americans want from their representatives.”
The activists say the bill would effectively ban abortion after six weeks, because that's the earliest a heartbeat can be detected in a fetus. Many women don't even know they're pregnant at that point, they argue.
“This bill is not about science or facts. It is just another case of men who don't think women have the right to control their own bodies. This legislation is blatantly unconstitutional and it's time to stop the bans,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), co-chair of the House's Pro Choice Caucus.
Opponents also note that the bill doesn't provide exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
There are exceptions in the bill for cases where the life of the mother is endangered.
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A California high schooler was brought to tears Wednesday when her older brother, a Lance Corporal in the Marines, surprised her on stage as she accepted her diploma during graduation ceremonies.
Kali Honeywood had no idea that her brother, Lance Corporal Christopher Honeywood, would be returning from his deployment to Darwin, Australia, to see her graduate.
US MARINE SURPRISES BROTHER AT HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION BY PRESENTING HIS DIPLOMA
"Oh my gosh. My heart is pounding. I didn't see this coming at all. So I'm just really happy," Kali told reporters.
The Honeywood family coordinated with the U.S. Marine Corps and Elk Grove Unified School District to bring Christopher home for the special occasion.
"Oh man, it was great seeing my little sister graduate," he said.
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"I was like, 'What the heck?' That's literally what I thought," Kali said. "I was like, 'Oh my gosh, what are you doing here?'"
Christopher will be spending time with his family before leaving for his next deployment in Okinawa, Japan.
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Turkse Nederlanders bij het Turkse consulaat in Rotterdam, 11 maart © Paco Nunez / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
Vanuit de auto zag ik ze door de draaideuren van Schiphol gaan. Een dag eerder was mijn oom overleden en mijn moeder en zus vlogen naar Turkije om met de rest van de familie de jongere broer van mijn vader te begraven. Ik was graag met hen in het vliegtuig naar Izmir gestapt, maar dat werd me door mijn omgeving sterk afgeraden. Als journalist naar Turkije? Niet slim, jongen.
Het afgelopen jaar heb ik geregeld geschreven over Turkse onderwerpen. Ik deed onderzoek naar de zakelijke belangen van premier Binali Yildirim (vertrouweling van president Erdogan) in Almere, berichtte over de diplomatieke rel met Nederland en openbaarde dat pro-Erdogan-media jarenlang overeind zijn gehouden met Nederlandse subsidie. Gewoon feitelijk, niet opiniërend. Maar wie niet lyrisch is over de Turkse president is volgens zijn aanhangers per definitie een vijand van het land.
Ik kreeg berichten en telefoontjes waarvan de strekking was: we hebben je aangegeven bij de ‘kliklijn’. Dit is een speciaal meldpunt, ingesteld door de Turkse overheid, waarop personen met kritiek op Erdogan en Turkije aangegeven kunnen worden. Het Turkse consulaat in Rotterdam deed vorig jaar een oproep: ‘Wij verzoeken met klem de namen en geschreven uitingen van personen die zich van laatdunkende, kleinerende, haatdragende en lasterlijke uitingen hebben bediend jegens de Turkse president, Turkije en de Turkse samenleving in het algemeen (…) per e-mail naar het Consulaat-generaal in Rotterdam te sturen.’ Enige tijd later werd de oproep ingetrokken, maar de boodschap was duidelijk.
Hoe kom je erachter of je bent aangegeven? Het consulaat kan mij niet vertellen of ik problemen kan verwachten als ik naar Turkije afreis. De medewerker kapt het telefoongesprek snel af als ik doorvraag. Maar dat het klikken werkt, bleek vorig jaar al toen Ebru Umar op vakantie in Turkije in de problemen kwam nadat ze Erdogan had beledigd. Deze zomer werden meerdere Turkse Nederlanders aangehouden en kregen een uitreisverbod. Een woordvoerder van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken laat weten dat ongeveer tien Nederlanders Turkije niet uit mogen. ‘Het aantal fluctueert een beetje. Zo nu en dan wordt het verbod voor een enkeling ingetrokken, dan weer krijgen andere mensen te horen dat ze het land niet uit mogen.’ Daarnaast zijn er ook Turkse Nederlanders die zich niet melden bij de Nederlandse autoriteiten, omdat ze denken niet gebaat te zijn bij rumoer of gewoonweg omdat ze niet weten waar ze moeten zijn. En klikken kan nog steeds. Wie nu belt naar het Turkse consulaat in Rotterdam om iemand aan te geven, krijgt te horen dat de klacht kan worden gemaild.
Vorige maand werden door onder anderen Sadet Karabulut van de SP Kamervragen gesteld aan minister Bert Koenders van Buitenlandse Zaken over de Turkse handelwijze. ‘Nederland is hier extra alert, actief en kritisch op en heeft reeds geruime tijd contact met de Turkse autoriteiten over Nederlanders met uitreisverboden’, antwoordde Koenders. ‘Daarbij heeft de Nederlandse ambassade in Ankara het onderwerp uiteraard meerdere malen actief onder de aandacht gebracht van de Turkse autoriteiten. Er is specifiek aandacht gevraagd voor de gevoelige en moeilijke situatie waarin deze groep Nederlanders verkeert en voor een spoedige rechtsgang aangaande deze uitreisverboden. De Nederlandse ambassade heeft daarbij ook verschillende gevallen benoemd, nadat betrokkenen zelf hadden aangegeven hiermee akkoord te zijn.’ De banden tussen Nederland en Turkije zijn sinds maart, toen een rel ontstond omdat een Turkse minister niet mocht speechen in Rotterdam, dusdanig bekoeld dat de Nederlandse ambassadeur niet welkom is in Ankara. Dat zorgt voor een stroef contact, ook als het gaat om de vastzittende Nederlanders.
De Amsterdammer Selattin reisde halverwege juli met zijn gezin voor een vakantie naar zijn geboorteland en werd op het vliegveld van Istanbul aangehouden. De aanklacht, zo blijkt uit de processen-verbaal: het beledigen van president Erdogan op sociale media. Na een dag werd hij vrijgelaten, maar hij mag Turkije niet uit tot zijn zaak voor de rechter is geweest. Zijn gezin is terug in Nederland en heeft twee maanden later geen idee wanneer zijn landarrest wordt opgeheven en hij zich weer bij hen kan voegen. Selattin werd tijdens zijn verhoor gevraagd naar banden met de omstreden prediker Fethullah Gülen, wiens beweging achter de mislukte couppoging van vorig jaar juli zou zitten. Zelf ontkent hij enige betrokkenheid bij deze beweging, ook is hij geen lid van de oppositiepartij chp – een ander verwijt.
Een vrouw uit Arnhem kreeg afgelopen zomer na een bezoek aan Turkije met haar kind ook een uitreisverbod, omdat ze aanhanger van Gülen zou zijn. De vrouw vermoedt dat haar ex-man haar uit wraak heeft aangegeven, want ze heeft niks met Gülen te maken. Deze willekeur zorgt voor onrust onder Turkse Nederlanders. Nederlanders die sympathiseren met de Gülen-beweging mijden Turkije al sinds de coup, maar ook in progressieve kringen denkt men goed na of een bezoek aan Turkije verstandig is. Een kritisch bericht over Erdogan liken of delen op sociale media kan al genoeg zijn om in de problemen te komen. Op een Facebook-pagina voor Turkse Nederlanders (The NewTurks) circuleert sinds kort een oproep: ‘We horen steeds vaker dat Turkse Nederlanders worden vastgehouden op luchthavens in Turkije. Stuur ons een bericht over de problemen die je hebt gehad. Dit kan ook anoniem.’
‘Turkije is aan het intimideren: we houden je in de gaten en als we willen pakken we je’, stelt Tayfun Balcik. Hij is historicus en gespecialiseerd in de moderne geschiedenis van Turkije. ‘De vrijheid om te gaan en staan waar je wil wordt je ontnomen. Veel mensen twijfelen of ze nog wel naar Turkije kunnen reizen. Bij Ebru Umar was de verontwaardiging groot, maar bij de mensen die nu het land niet uit kunnen is dat veel minder. Nederland ziet het niet als een Nederlands probleem, terwijl het toch om Nederlanders gaat.’
‘Ik moet me uitspreken over vrijheden. Je geeft die autoritaire machthebber gelijk als je niks zegt’
De repressie werkt, vindt Meltem Kaya, die namens d66 in de Amsterdamse gemeenteraad zit. Ze wil haar zieke oma in Turkije bezoeken, met wie ze een hechte band heeft. Als kleuter werd ze door haar verzorgd toen haar vader naar Nederland moest vluchten vanwege de militaire dictatuur. Maar ook Kaya is aangegeven nadat er in de Volkskrant een opiniestuk van haar verscheen met de kop ‘Turkse Nederlanders, laat je niet uitspelen’, waarin ze wijst op de vrijheden in Nederland en de problemen in Turkije.
‘Het gekke is: ik weet niet zeker of ik problemen krijg als ik afreis’, zegt Kaya. ‘Moet ik gaan? Die vraag stel ik mezelf geregeld, want ik wil me niet laten beknotten in mijn vrijheid. Aan de andere kant heb ik ook geen zin om in de gevangenis te belanden.’ Maar problemen of niet, Kaya neemt geen woord terug over Erdogan – ‘dat wil hij juist’. ‘Ik heb vrienden hier in Nederland die in het openbaar niks meer over het huidige Turkije zeggen omdat ze bang zijn dat ze moeilijkheden krijgen. Op sociale media houden ze zich al helemaal koest. Maar ik ben politica, ik moet me uitspreken over vrijheden. Die keuze heb ik bewust gemaakt, ondanks de gevolgen. Daar komt bij: je geeft die autoritaire machthebber gelijk als je niks zegt.’
Journaliste Fadime Demir (ntr en NRC) deed aangifte nadat een oud-schoolgenoot uit Zaandam liet weten haar aan te geven bij de Turkse inlichtingendienst. Maar tegen de ‘klikkers’ is weinig te doen, zo blijkt. De politie in Amsterdam stelde in een brief dat er ‘geen sprake is van strafbare bedreiging’. ‘De vrees die u beschrijft voor aanhouding door de Turkse autoriteiten, omdat uw naam kan worden doorgegeven aan dat land, kan namelijk niet worden aangemerkt als een misdrijf.’
Demir had op Facebook gesteld dat ‘je persoonlijk wordt aangevallen als je je eigen mening geeft’ over Turkije. Dat ging veel te ver, vond de oud-schoolgenoot. ‘Hierbij wil ik zeggen dat ik haar berichten doorstuur naar de Turkse inlichtingen en hoop dat ze gepakt wordt als ze op vakantie gaat’, reageerde hij. ‘Je moet ophouden met je leugens en anti-Turks. Als je niet mee eens bent houdt dat voor je zelf. Ga niet net of doen of je zielig bent.’ Ze heeft een bezoek aan haar vader in haar Turkse geboortedorp uitgesteld.
Het kan voor sommige mensen een oplossing zijn om afstand te doen van de Turkse nationaliteit. Ook Kaya onderzoekt dat. ‘Een vriendin wil ook van haar Turkse paspoort af en we kijken samen wat de mogelijkheden zijn. Turkije straft de eigen onderdanen harder en makkelijker.’
Turkse Nederlanders kunnen in tegenstelling tot bijvoorbeeld Marokkaanse Nederlanders afstand doen van de nationaliteit van hun vaderland. Veel mannen doen het om onder de dienstplicht uit te komen. Het probleem is alleen dat Turkije kan tegenwerken. Bij personen tegen wie bijvoorbeeld een zaak loopt, is het een stuk moeilijker; Turkije wil diegenen eerst berechten en traineert de boel.
Tayfun Balcik heeft vorig jaar juist zijn dienstplicht afgekocht en is niet van plan zijn dubbele nationaliteit op te geven. ‘Ik heb ook een hang naar Turkije, en dat heeft alles te maken met de politieke situatie in Nederland. In Nederland heerst ook een klimaat van: als het je niet zint, ga je maar naar je eigen land. Als ik hier weg moet, kan ik naar Turkije en dat vind ik een prettige gedachte. Daar ben ik toch gewoon Turk onder Turken. Daar word ik niet afgerekend op mijn afkomst.’
En ik? De sussende woorden van mijn tante op de dag van mijn ooms dood helpen weinig. Ondanks het verdriet om de dood van haar man zei ze door de telefoon: ‘Jongen, voel je niet schuldig. Het laatste wat we willen is dat je in de problemen komt.’ Maar ik voel me laf en stel mezelf nog geregeld de vraag: had ik niet gewoon moeten gaan? Ga ik ooit nog naar Turkije?
De naam van Selattin is gefingeerd om zijn privacy te beschermen
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Every once in a while, an obscure science journal somewhere just has to demolish their reputation by allowing their editors to publish garbage. Case in point: The Journal of Maternal-Fetal & Neonatal Medicine, the official journal of the European Association of Perinatal Medicine, has published an editorial titled, “Can modern biology interpret the mystery of the birth of Christ?” It’s five pages of embarrassingly goofy nonsense. Nonsense from the very first paragraph:
With the advent of Enlightenment, the intellectual movement that challenged principles and views grounded in tradition and faith and affirmed that knowledge should be advanced through a scientific method, science and religion began to drift apart and today, they are often considered irreconcilable. We believe that, since both aim at finding the same truth, whether by evaluating natural processes or through revelation, a positive dialogue can and should be established.
And this article is apparently intended to demonstrate that they aren’t just considered irreconcilable, but are irreconcilable. That last sentence is just plain wrong. Science attempts to determine verifiable truths that can be objectively and independently examined and tested. Religion claims to have the truth already, in their musty dusty old books, and attempts to manipulate the evidence to make it fit their preconceptions. Their goals are contradictory, and since religion will always attempt to corrupt the evidence to reconcile it to their dogma, we should not establish a dialog at all — we should simply dismiss this theological bullshit.
For example, this article assumes that there existed a person named Jesus who was born of a virgin and a god; despite the fact that its conclusion is that nothing in biology can explain this phenomenal claim, it doesn’t reject the hypothesis. It can’t; it’s taken as a given. It blithely cites the Bible as reasonable evidence throughout (Hint: any science article that includes the Holy Bible (4 times!), the Catholic Catechism, the Catholic Encyclopedia, and CARM.org in its reference list, alongside articles from Cell and Nature, ought not to be trusted), and takes for granted the most ridiculous articles of the Christian faith.
There is some entertainment value, though. The review of the literature attempting to explain the Virgin Birth is amusing.
Aiming high within the field of reproductive biology, we decided to attempt a scientific analysis of the first, most miraculous and fundamental of all events described in the New Testament, that defined by John at the beginning of his Gospel: “And the Word became flesh”. We are definitely not the first to address this complex topic. For instance, Edward Kessel and Robert Berry have amply discussed fundamental aspects of the Incarnation and mentioned several mechanisms by which the virgin birth of a male child might have occurred. Kessel, in particular, held the opinion that “Jesus was not only conceived as a female but remained chromosomally such throughout life. Through the natural process of sex reversal Jesus became male, not instead of female but as well as female, assuming the phenotype of a man while retaining the chromosomal badge of a woman. Thus Jesus was born and lived as the androgynous Christ”. Berry, on the other hand, believes that “Some form of distinctiveness like a Virgin Birth is theologically required if Jesus is to be divine as well as human, and there are several mechanisms by which the virgin birth of a male child could occur”. In his opinion, “The reason for recognising these is not to suggest that God necessarily used any of them, but simply to point out that apparent scientific difficulty should not determine the acceptability of a theological concept”.
You know, when you have to resort to increasingly twisted and complicated rationalizations to explain an undemonstrated event, wouldn’t it be easier to simply declare the event unlikely to have occurred, especially when there is absolutely no evidence for it, other than a word-of-mouth claim? At least, that’s what a scientist would do.
These authors, after going over some of the basic facts of sex determination, have another source to fall back on, though. When evidence fails, yank some hokum out of the Bible.
Even theists consider the birth of Jesus a “double miracle”, in the sense that, even if parthenogenesis could be possible in humans, the offspring of such an event would be a female, not a male. In this respect, there is a somewhat obscure prophecy by Jeremiah, a Jewish prophet almost a contemporary of Isaiah. He wrote: “The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall compass a man”. This text has been interpreted in many opposing ways, but one intriguing option, put forward by Ewald is “a woman shall change into a man”. Although this interpretation has been considered hardly faithful to the original text, if correct, it would be a premonition of what might have occurred in the case of Jesus, a “parthenogenically” born man.
Yeah, try telling that to the Christians. Maybe they’d quit freaking out over transgender.
Really, the whole idea makes no biological sense at all. The only way this parthenogenesis thing could work is if Mary had a copy of SRY to pass along (but then she’d be male!), but then maybe she had androgen insensitivity syndrome too (but then she’d be sterile!) but then she’d pass that on to Jesus (who would be female!) unless he had a reversion mutation. It’s a long chain of malarkey.
To their credit, the authors also recognize that none of the explanations are worth a good god damn.
The reason we attempted a scientific analysis of this mystery was simply the hope that a review of present knowledge of parthenogenic mechanisms may stimulate a debate among theologians and advance the search for truth. Limiting ourselves to biology, the only conclusion we can reach is that – after reviewing present knowledge about parthenogenesis – we are unable to identify any known natural biological mechanism that can account for the virginal birth of Christ.
Very good. So why did you waste our time publishing this tedious codswallop?
Take the next step. Reject the hypothesis.
Benagiano G, Dallapiccola B (2014) Can modern biology interpret the mystery of the birth of Christ? J Matern Fetal Neonatal Med. Apr 30. [Epub ahead of print]
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Poco fa la navicella spaziale Progress MS-7 è attraccata alla Stazione Spaziale Internazionale nella missione indicata anche come Progress 68 o 68P. Il cargo spaziale russo, decollato sabato scorso, trasporta cibo, acqua, esperimenti scientifici, propellente e hardware vario.
Il cargo spaziale Progress MS-7 è regolarmente attraccato al modulo russo Pirs della Stazione Spaziale Internazionale usando il sistema automatico che permette alle navicelle russe l’attracco diretto. Probabilmente domani l’equipaggio procederà con l’apertura del portello e le procedure per far diventare la Progress MS-7 un’appendice della Stazione. A quel punto, potranno cominciare le operazioni di scarico.
Purtroppo un problema durante il primo tentativo di lancio del cargo spaziale Progress MS-7 giovedi scorso ha impedito il test della traiettoria ultra-veloce da 3 ore e mezza. L’agenzia spaziale Roscosmos non ha fornito dettagli sul problema, sta di fatto che il test è rimandato almeno alla prossima missione Progress.
Questo test è importante perché un successo permetterebbe di utilizzare la rotta ultra-veloce anche per i viaggi delle navicelle Soyuz usate per il trasporto di astronauti. Ridurre la durata del viaggio vuol dire tenere il personale in una situazione in cui la sola protezione è quella della navicella per un tempo inferiore.
La missione del cargo spaziale Progress MS-7 è cominciata anche con un giallo riguardante uno strumento attaccato alla navicella. L’agenzia spaziale Roscosmos non ha fornito informazioni sulla sua natura perciò ci sono solo ipotesi. Potrebbe essere un’evoluzione dell’esperimento Otrazhenie-5 del 2014, un sensore ottico progettato per monitorare fenomeni atmosferici e le loro proprietà di riflessione.
Quel tipo di sensore potrebbe avere applicazioni militari per le possibilità di migliorare le capacità di ricognizione e sistemi d’allarme. Si tratta di speculazioni ma sono dovute all’assenza di informazioni chiare sullo strumento, non proprio ciò che ci si aspetterebbe in una missione all’interno di una collaborazione internazionale.
La missione della navicella spaziale Progress MS-7 è sostanzialmente compiuta. Essa infatti non è in grado di tornare sulla Terra perciò verrà riempita di hardware guasto o comunque ormai inutilizzabile e spazzatura assortita e verrà fatta disintegrare rientrando nell’atmosfera terrestre. Quest’epilogo della missione avverrà probabilmente nel marzo 2018 ma la data precisa dipende da vari fattori.
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About The Author
First and foremost a Child of God, wife to Justin, teacher, new blogger, and enjoy listening to music, reading, writing :) follow me @lydia_rofaiel
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Obama looks to rewrite nation's electoral map THE ENDGAME: Last battles are being fought almost entirely on what has been GOP turf
Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Obama looks to rewrite nation's electoral map 1 / 8 Back to Gallery
Democrat Barack Obama enters the final lap of his presidential bid with the chance to remake the nation's electoral map, with polls showing him leading in at least a half-dozen states that President Bush carried in 2004.
Republican John McCain hopes a last-minute shift by undecided voters could help him capture toss-up states like Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina and reverse Obama's momentum in Virginia, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Iowa.
With the exception of Pennsylvania, a traditionally Democratic state where McCain is making a last-ditch stand, the entire campaign is being fought on GOP turf. In a sign of the uphill climb McCain faces, even reliably red states such as Montana, Georgia and North Dakota are up for grabs.
Obama heads into election day in an enviable position: Democrats are flocking to the polls in huge numbers in early voting, especially African Americans. He has extensive get-out-the-vote operations even in GOP strongholds like Indiana. He has enough surplus cash that he's running last-minute TV ads in Arizona, McCain's home state, which would only turn blue in a shocking upset.
The McCain campaign still sees a path to victory, but it's a narrow one. He must hang on to both of the big swing states Bush won narrowly in 2000 and 2004 - Ohio and Florida - while avoiding losses in GOP bastions like Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina. He is playing for an upset victory in Pennsylvania - which backed Democrat John Kerry in 2004 and has 21 electoral votes - in case Obama wins one or more red states that are now leaning his way.
Swing states
In the RealClearPolitics' average of polls on Sunday, Obama was ahead, at least slightly, in most swing states: Colorado (5.5 percentage points), New Mexico (7.3), Nevada (5.8), Virginia (3.8), Pennsylvania (7), Florida (4.2), Ohio (4.2) and North Carolina (0.3). McCain had edges in Arizona (3.5 points), Georgia (3), Montana (3.8), Missouri (0.7) and Indiana (0.5).
The Obama camp is convinced it will hold all of the states Kerry won in 2004, including Pennsylvania, which would give the Illinois senator 252 electoral votes.
He would need just 18 more electoral votes to get to the 270 required to win. Obama's campaign has been built around a strategy of setting up several paths to victory - whether it's flipping a big state like Ohio or Florida, or stitching together wins in several smaller states.
A worrisome sign for McCain is the advantage Democrats are seeing in early voting, reversing an edge Bush enjoyed four years ago.
In North Carolina, 2.6 million people have already voted, with Democrats outpacing Republicans 51 percent to 31 percent, according to state figures.
In Colorado, where more than half of the vote may come in before election day, a recent Associated Press poll showed Obama leading 57 percent to 34 percent among early voters.
"We're getting some clues that Obama is doing very well among early voters," said Michael McDonald, an election expert at George Mason University whose Web site tracks early voting. "It becomes very difficult for McCain to make up ground on election day. ... He would have to get somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of the remaining vote to win some of these states. It would seem impossible."
McCain's hope
The McCain camp believes late-deciding voters will turn the race around. McCain's chief pollster, Bill McInturff, predicted last week that the roughly 8 percent of undecided voters would break sharply for the GOP nominee, giving McCain a net gain of three to four percentage points.
Pew Research Center's final pre-election survey, released Sunday, suggested that undecided voters would slightly favor McCain, which narrowed Obama's lead to 52 percent to 46 percent among likely voters in the poll. In 2004, late-deciders split in favor of Kerry, 52 percent to 47 percent, according to Pew's research.
"It has not been terribly decisive" in past elections, Carroll Doherty, the poll's associate director, said of the undecided vote. "Just look in 2004. It didn't carry John Kerry over the top even though most of the people who said they decided in the last week voted for him."
Obama's hope
Obama is hoping to ride a surge in African American turnout to victory in North Carolina, Virginia and possibly an upset in Georgia. About 2 million of Georgia's 5.6 million voters have cast early ballots, and 35 percent of them were black - a turnout bigger than African American's 29-percent share of the state's electorate.
Obama's biggest gains could come in the Mountain West, in states where demographic changes are making states more competitive for Democrats. In Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico, the Illinois senator is expected to win by big margins among Latinos.
He also has used his fundraising edge to outspend McCain 3-to-1 on television ads in Colorado in the campaign's final weeks.
Obama is also faring better than expected in Indiana, a state that hasn't voted for a Democrat since 1964 and that Bush won by 21 points in 2004. While the state tilts toward the GOP, Obama has set up 44 field offices, hired 200 paid staffers and visited the state 48 times since January. Polls show a tight race.
"I still think McCain may eke out a win, but not for lack of trying on Obama's part," said Robert Dion, a political scientist at the University of Evansville.
McCain backers are taking heart from some polls showing slight tightening in the race nationally and in a few battleground states.
Republicans seized on a recent Rasmussen poll suggesting that Obama had only a four-point lead in Pennsylvania, down from a seven-point edge three days earlier.
Governor's warning
The state's Democratic governor, Ed Rendell, has warned that Obama could lose if Democratic turnout isn't huge.
G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College who's been polling in Pennsylvania since 1992, said most state polls have shown Obama with a steady lead of 10 to 12 points for weeks.
The Democrat is outperforming McCain in the Philadelphia suburbs, a key swing area, and will get a boost from the 500,000 newly registered Democratic voters, he said.
"I've studied my state's politics for 35 years, and I've never seen anyone five days out come back from a 12-point deficit," said Madonna, whose Keystone State poll, released last week, showed Obama leading 51 percent to 39 percent. "If he wins the state, it will be historic."
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Republican Representative Andy Biggs was forced to defend his rampant denial of mainstream climate science during a raucous town hall in Mesa, Arizona, on Tuesday. Biggs, a House Freedom Caucus member, made the widely-debunked claim that climate scientists “manipulated data” to prove the existence of manmade global warming. His audience jeered and booed him.
That irked Biggs. “It’s hard to get to the point because you want to shout me down,” he said. As the crowd continued its ruckus, Biggs compared his plight to Albert Einstein, whose theories were attacked vociferously before they were accepted and applauded. “Oddly enough,” Biggs told the audience, “the same attitude you take is the exact same attitude that Einstein faced over physics. That’s exactly what happened to him. They shouted him down until he was able to demonstrate.”
This prompted one audience member to yell: “You’re not Einstein!”
Biggs, who chairs the House Science Committee’s subcommittee on the environment, has never been shy about his climate-change denial. “I do not believe climate change is occurring,” he said in 2016. “I do not think that humans have a significant impact on climate. The federal government should stop regulating and stomping on our economy and freedoms in the name of a discredited theory.” Last month, he helped lead a House Science Committee hearing to attack the legitimacy of mainstream climate science.
On Tuesday, Biggs said he’s “read stuff” from “tenured professors” who disagree that humans are the primary cause of climate change. There are indeed climate scientists who disagree with the mainstream view that humans cause the problem, but they make up only 3 percent of active, publishing climate researchers.
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You can use the ulimit command at the system prompt to check system limits, as in the following example:
copy $ ulimit -a -t: cpu time ( seconds ) unlimited -f: file size ( blocks ) unlimited -d: data seg size ( kbytes ) unlimited -s: stack size ( kbytes ) 8192 -c: core file size ( blocks ) 0 -m: resident set size ( kbytes ) unlimited -u: processes 192276 -n: file descriptors 21000 -l: locked-in-memory size ( kb ) unlimited -v: address space ( kb ) unlimited -x: file locks unlimited -i: pending signals 192276 -q: bytes in POSIX msg queues 819200 -e: max nice 30 -r: max rt priority 65 -N 15 : unlimited
ulimit refers to the per-user limitations for various resources. Therefore, if your mongod instance executes as a user that is also running multiple processes, or multiple mongod processes, you might see contention for these resources. Also, be aware that the processes value (i.e. -u ) refers to the combined number of distinct processes and sub-process threads.
On Linux, you can change ulimit settings by issuing a command in the following form:
copy ulimit -n <value>
There are both “hard” and the “soft” ulimit s that affect MongoDB’s performance. The “hard” ulimit refers to the maximum number of processes that a user can have active at any time. This is the ceiling: no non-root process can increase the “hard” ulimit . In contrast, the “soft” ulimit is the limit that is actually enforced for a session or process, but any process can increase it up to “hard” ulimit maximum.
A low “soft” ulimit can cause can't create new thread, closing connection errors if the number of connections grows too high. For this reason, it is extremely important to set both ulimit values to the recommended values.
ulimit will modify both “hard” and “soft” values unless the -H or -S modifiers are specified when modifying limit values.
For many distributions of Linux you can change values by substituting the -n option for any possible value in the output of ulimit -a .
After changing the ulimit settings, you must restart the process to take advantage of the modified settings. On Linux, you can use the /proc file system to see the current limitations on a running process.
Depending on your system’s configuration, and default settings, any change to system limits made using ulimit may revert following a system restart. Check your distribution and operating system documentation for more information.
macOS¶ For macOS systems that have installed MongoDB Community using the brew installation method, the recommended open files value is automatically set when you start MongoDB through brew services . See Run MongoDB with brew for more information. For macOS systems running MongoDb Enterprise or using the TGZ installation method, use the launchctl limit command to set the recommended values. See your operating system documentation for the precise procedure for changing system limits on running systems.
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Thinkstock / Angela White / Tasha Reign / LittleRedBunny / BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed News spoke to five female adult performers about their work, their lives away from the camera, and what the future of porn might look like. Angela White / Via Twitter: @AngelaWhite Angela White, 29, graduated from the University of Melbourne with a first-class honours in gender studies in 2010. She runs her own production company and made headlines around the world after filming a sex scene in a university library.
What does your average working day look like? Angela White (AW): An average day for me is a lot less exciting than people probably imagine. There is a lot of physical maintenance that needs to be done to prepare to be in front of the camera – for example, keeping fit, waxing, tanning, manicures. But running my own production company means that the majority of my day, when not modelling, streaming live shows, or promoting via social media, is taken up with paperwork and editing. Tasha Reign (TR): I'm in bed right now... My call time today, unusually, is at 12pm in Calabasas [northwest LA]. I still have to pack my anal toys for set, wash up, [go to] Starbucks, and get my booty on the road. Usually my call times are at 8am. Tonight after I get off I'll go to my bestie's house and grab drinks and dinner before I fly to Pittsburgh tomorrow to dance at a club. This makes my job seem way cooler than I thought... Oh yeah, today I get to bang a hot girl! Jessica Drake (JD): It depends on what I'm doing, but let's say I'm directing one of my instructional DVDs. I'd get up early, get catering ready, get into make-up, wait for my crew to arrive. Assemble everyone at the start of our day and go over the shoot schedule and what everyone can expect. As my talent is getting ready, I go over things with my cameramen and lighting guys and prepare the first set. I begin shooting – interviews, demos, and then finally the sex scenes. We shoot all day and usually quite late at night. At the end, we usually leave lights and equipment set up for the next day's first set, which is my narration for the project, and anything else I might need covered. Depending on how late we wrap, we may have a later call time the next day. Kelly Madison (KM): My husband, Ryan, and I have a giant antique desk with dueling computers on it. He rises at 5am, whereas I'm doing fantastic if I'm on it at 8am. We begin our day making sure the sites are working, that there are no problems, and that customers are happy. Then we make our gameplan for the day. Just keeping track of the props, furniture, jewellery, and clothes that we use for the models, and the basic upkeep of the residences with eight in-house employees is a full-time job. I work, I cook, I walk dogs, I go to bed, and once a week I shoot some porn for my site and give my husband a blow job here and there.
Tasha Reign / Via Twitter: @TashaReign Tasha Reign, 25, starred in MTV's Laguna Beach and entered porn after being noticed by Playboy. She has her own production company and a bachelor's degree in women's studies from UCLA.
What are your passions outside of porn? TR: I love Cardio Barre, Pilates, yoga, and keeping fit. I love my family and friends and doing activities like travelling abroad and going to the movies. I just graduated from UCLA and will probably apply to start a graduate programme soon. JD: I ride a motorcycle, have two amazing rescue dogs, and I love the beach. I'm also really involved in several charities, both on a local and international level. Little Red Bunny (LRB): I love movies, mixology, yoga, music, travelling – even though I don't take much time to do it – and good food. Sometimes I like cooking, and other times I like going out to restaurants to treat myself and get inspiration for cooking ideas to try at home. My love for music, food, and travelling all come from my passion for international cultures – and I think these things really help give you a true sense of places. KM: Right now I am caring for my sister who is suffering from stage 4 uterine cancer. She lives in Vegas, so I do quite a bit of back and forth juggling between her care and my business...so right now I would say driving on the 15 freeway is my new hobby! AW: My passion is pornography. When I'm not working in the industry, I'm studying it or advocating for the rights of sex industry workers. I am currently writing a chapter for an upcoming academic text on media and pornography.
Little Red Bunny / Via Twitter: @LittleRedBunnyx Little Red Bunny won the 2014 AVN award for Favorite Web Cam Girl and the 2013 Sex Award for Best Web Cam Girl. She was described by The Daily Beast as "the Queen of Cam Girls".
Have you ever refused to take part in a scene or refused to do something a camming customer asked you to do? LRB: Rarely, because I'm really open-minded and I am a pleaser. People are generally surprised by my willingness and ability to accomplish their desires and bring them beyond expectations. I've also always been up to take challenges and have often gone out of my way to buy things they wished me to have such as outfits, food, toys, etc. I'm creative and imaginative, and I always find it stimulating to discover and share other people's fantasies and "kinks", and I enjoy developing it with them in a creative and exciting way. JD: Yes. Before my contract with Wicked I was booked to do a three-way scene with another girl and a guy. It was supposed to be a condom scene – I've always been condom-only. When I got there, the director had decided to be the male talent in the scene, and it was non-condom. I left. Other than that situation, the only "refusing" I've done has been in the context of being offered a particular role or scene in a movie and passing on it, and since my time with Wicked, that hasn't happened very often. TR: Of course! Who do you think I am? LOL. I have a strict yes and no list of acts I perform, most girls do. Then I still choose what I want to do every time someone tries to book me, I want to push myself as a performer, so I certainly try to open my mind more each year. The most extreme thing I have done is double penetration, and I did a five-guy orgy scene once. AW: I've never been placed in a position where I would need to. I'm very fortunate that I've always worked for companies that have been respectful of my limits. Now that I run my own production company I choose everything from the location to the talent so it's never an issue. For example, my latest DVD showcases my first anal, interracial, and double penetration scenes, and the fact that I was able to have full control over who I worked with in front of the camera and who was there to capture it allowed me to be completely relaxed and able to explore my sexuality and lose myself in the moment.
Kelly Madison / Via Twitter: @ImKellyMadison Kelly Madison, 47, has been billed as "one of the most financially successful independent web stars ever". She works exclusively with her husband, Ryan.
What do you think the future of online porn is? Where do you see the industry in, say, five or 10 years? KM: It is so difficult to answer that question due to the popularity of free porn, but I do see there being larger divisions of certain niches. Studios have to find out what their viewers like and make more of it – create an online community in order to keep your fanbase put and to give them a reason to actually pay money. I see the companies that survive being big enough to produce enough content, but with a homely feel – for lack of a better word – so the viewer feels like they are a part of the family. JD: That's a great question, but I really don't think anyone can speculate where porn is going. I can say that in my experience, fans are seeking out live shows and more personal interaction with their favourites. I've gotten feedback from fans who admire Wicked's long-term commitment to making a higher-quality product amidst a flood of poorly shot movies and scenes, and I've also seen a trend in more specific requests from fetishists. What I'd love to see, of course, is some type of reduction in the piracy that's going on. Technology has advanced so much in the past 5–10 years, I can't begin to imagine what the future holds. LRB: People say the webcamming industry's growing very fast while the porn industry is slowing down. I believe it's because webcamming is so much more personal, and interactive, and it's possible to explore and share fantasies/fetishes with a real person, creating an involved, genuine interaction rather then witnessing it. My guess is that technology will keep developing in the direction of realistic virtual proximity. 3D will probably be the first step, and toys that can connect via USB and be controlled by the other person that's connected. AW: I see the porn industry moving towards more live streaming and interactivity, which is what I'm working to accomplish with my site. The industry has been hit hard by piracy in recent years; however, the experience of seeing a live performance and actually interacting with porn stars in real time cannot be torrented. TR: I hope the industry is at a strong place where many companies are thriving and justice is being served to those who have had all their content pirated on tube sites. Realistically, the adult industry will mould and transform to whatever comes their way and possibly invent a new revenue stream for the performers and entrepreneurs. As of now, there is limited work for a limited pool of performers, and I'm lucky to be in it!
Jessica Drake / Via Twitter: @thejessicadrake Jessica Drake, is an award-winning performer as well as a writer and director, and created the instructional DVD series Guide to Wicked Sex.
How long do you plan to stay in the business, and if you're planning on eventually leaving, what would you like to do afterwards? JD: I love the business and the career I've had so far. I still really enjoy being in front of the camera, and as long as I'm still happy doing it, I'll continue. After being in front of the camera, I'd like to keep directing my line of sex instructionals, maybe more features, and keep giving sex-ed seminars and workshops all over. Speaking at universities has been a great experience, I'd do that as long as possible. I think I offer something rather unique to the realm of sex-ed. AW: I will stay in the industry for as long as is viable. I'd like to go back to university to complete my PhD. For my university honours thesis I conducted qualitative research into female experiences in the Australian pornography industry, and I'd like to expand on those studies to include a broader cross-section of performers. KM: I have never really worked for any other adult companies, just here and there, so my livelihood has always been my own company. Leaving really isn't an option. Rather it is growing old gracefully and continuing to have my hand in our productions and day-to-day workflow. I still update my personal website, which I enjoy immensely. Obviously at some point I'm going to have to remain completely behind the scenes for all the sites because at 47 years old, I don't know if I'll have an audience three years from now. I don't know if grandma porn is in my future. TR: I plan to shoot In front of the camera throughout my twenties, and then I'll step back and continue with my current behind-the-camera work as a producer/ director, as well as working on my website and toy design, etc. Shit, I may become a dolphin trainer – I don't know! LRB: I find that even if you plan ahead, life often brings you elsewhere. I never planned to do webcamming for five years, and yet I'm doing it, so it's hard to say how long and what I will do afterwards. I really hope that the time I've invested in it – as a form of art and adult entertainment – will grow and lead me to something exciting, rather than starting over in a totally different direction.
How do you react to accusations that the availability of online porn has exposed children to explicit images at a much younger age than before, leading them to act in a sexual manner before they fully understand what they're saying/doing? TR: First – where are the parents and authority figures of these children? Then, where is the sexual education system in our country, and when will we implement an effective one for the safety and protection of America's youth? Why did I never have a class on consent in a school setting? What's wrong with sexuality being a natural human characteristic that everyone of us is born with? Why have we been shamed for it our whole lives? Sex-positive parenting is the best idea I have ever heard of. If we had a proper sex-ed system set in place, "children" who are illegally watching 18-and-over pornography wouldn't "learn" about sex through adult entertainment. We make these movies for consenting adults. Once again – how are your children watching porn on computers that should be safeguarded? Do you know how many child molestation cases would and could be prevented with a simple sex-ed class starting from a younger age? JD: I think that the accusations are unfortunately based in truth. I think that everything from easy access to social networking to technological advances and parental neglect is to blame. When I found porn, it was a few VHS tapes stashed underneath my boyfriend's father's bed. When kids find porn now, they're even younger than I was, and there's a wider variety of porn that they can see on all kinds of devices. This does influence their first sexual encounters, and I think it can "imprint" them with ideas of what sex should be like. I spend a significant amount of time during seminars explaining to adults the difference between watching porn for the fantasy benefit versus watching it for sex ed, but kids don't get that. I think that we all need to be open in our discussions about sex and porn, and never underestimate what they've already seen. I think parents need to commit to taking an active role in their child's developing sexuality. KM: I would say that hormones are what caused children to act in a sexual manner versus environment, but I beg parents to put blocks on all devices in order to keep your children away from porn, predators, and all other sorts of mayhem that they don't need in their little lives. AW: I don't think online porn is the problem; it's the lack of education that makes young people confused about sex, sexuality, and pornography. I think age-appropriate sexual education is absolutely necessary for all young adults and children. That way you empower young people with the tools to interpret what they are seeing and an understanding that not all pornography is meant as an educational manual for sex, just like the Fast and Furious franchise is not an educational manual for driving.
What can we do to make people speak more honestly about pornography, given how much of it is consumed on a daily basis? KM: I suppose it would be for each of us in and outside the porn industry to communicate about our own sexual desires and urges, and talk about what we enjoy in our personal lives. Keeping the conversation going and letting that communication spread out into everyday America would create an environment where porn is not so pervasive or secret or dirty. We all do it, we all love it, we need to talk about it, and articles like this where people in our industry can show that we are normal people helps normalise us all. JD: The most important thing that everyone can do is to not "shame" the subject of porn or sex. As far as making people talk about it, it's a trickle-down effect. That's part of the reason I do what I do. AW: If there wasn't so much stigma surrounding sexuality in our culture, pornography wouldn't be a dirty word. It would simply be seen as a interpretive representation of sexual desire and action. We need to get real about sex and accept it as a natural and healthy part of human existence. LRB: Hopefully my approach with webcamming helps to create more of a bridge between the public and the porn industry. Even though there's a sexual aspect to what I do, I also offer genuine interactions with people in my public chat. While I do more pornographic, sexually explicit things in private chats, the way my public chat is set up, people have left comments saying that what I do isn't porn – that it's art, and it's erotic, and it's like being at a social event. It's just so much more personal and real, and entertaining. It probably just helps people to talk more openly about it. TR: Be comfortable with your sexuality but also be media-literate – know that what you are watching is sex performed by actresses. Remember how important consent is every time you go to have intercourse. Discover what turns you on and go with it (as long as it's not harmful), and explore your desires. Don't laugh at "whores and porn sluts"; instead, celebrate them and own the fact that you love porn! Treat the sex industry as you would the mainstream industry and stop pirating the content you love. Most of all – let's make porn normalised!
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ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. (AP) - A group working to bring high-speed internet services to Vermont’s most remote region says two communications districts could be set up in the coming years to provide that service.
The Caledonian Record reports the plan would create a communications district that would allow towns to share services. Any financial liability would be placed on the district rather than any one municipality.
The plan by the Northeast Kingdom Collaborative builds on discussions at a June meeting on broadband issues.
Northeast Kingdom Collaborative Director Katherine Sims says a draft map for the districts covers 55 cities and towns, with 24 in Caledonia County and the rest in the counties of Essex and Orleans.
The Northeast Kingdom’s three counties have some of the lowest availability high speed broadband in the state.
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Information from: The Caledonian-Record, http://www.caledonianrecord.com
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Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC.
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India is a Country of Festivals, All types of Religions different-different Occasions in various ways. On 15th January 2020, Hindu Celebrate Makar Sankranti with joy and Happiness. Mostly Year, Makar Sankranti is celebrated at 14th January but some exceptions, this festival is celebrated on 13 or 15 January.
On this day the Sun enters on “Makara Rasi” so, this day known as ‘Makar Sankranti’. In India, Most of People marks Sankranti as a beginning of a spring season (New Harvest) and Termination of Winter Season. This festival celebrated with various rituals and Names in various part of India. On this Day, People eat handfuls of sugarcane, rice and til sweets.
Makar Sankranti is the colorful festivals can be seen in the western states of Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Adults and children, both are desperate to extend the day, add floating oil lanterns to the tails of their kites. It is the day true meaning is: a return to light, to warmth, to the life-giving sun.
BR Softech Pvt Ltd is Website and Mobile Application Development Company and Wishing a Happy Makar Sankranti 2020. We hope you and your Family enjoy this festival with safe and joyful.
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Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,
California gives a green light to companies testing driverless delivery vehicles, including pizza.
Please note California's Authorizes Autonomous Food Delivery Trucks.
The State of California's Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced the new regulations last week, which allows companies with a permit to operate autonomous delivery vehicles that weigh up to 10,001 pounds (4.54 tons).
"This weight category includes "autonomous passenger cars, mid-sized pickup trucks and cargo vans carrying goods such as pizza or groceries", the DMV said.
Companies will need to certify vehicles are equipped with an autonomous vehicle data recorder as well as technology to respond to roadway situations.
Vehicles must also be certified to industry standards for helping defend against and respond to "cyberattacks, unauthorized intrusions or false vehicle control commands."
For companies testing driverless delivery vehicles, companies need to ensure they're equipped with a "communication link between the vehicle and a remote operator and the ability to display or transfer vehicle owner or operator information in the event of a collision."
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Mientras se incumple la Ley Orgánica General Penitenciaria al no disponer de una celda por interno, como sucede en la inmensa mayoría de las situaciones, parece que se está pretendiendo, bajo confusos planteamientos de seguridad, habilitar todo un módulo para un solo recluso
La representación sindical de Instituciones Penitenciarias considera que "la opción personal de Urdangarin de ingresar en la prisión de Brieva no debería, de conformidad a la legalidad vigente, ser un determinante para Instituciones Penitenciarias a la hora de establecer el centro donde cumplir su condena".
Es necesario recordar que la prisión de Brieva es una prisión de mujeres y que no existe operativo ningún departamento de hombres, por lo que si se habilita un módulo cerrado para un único interno, se trataría de un evidente trato de favor, no justificado por circunstancia penitenciaria alguna.
“El que un interno pueda modificar la organización y los servicios existentes en Instituciones Penitenciarias, es una anomalía de carácter democrático que desde Comisiones Obreras rechazamos, porque mientras se incumple la Ley Orgánica General Penitenciaria al no disponer de una celda por interno, como sucede en la inmensa mayoría de las situaciones, parece que se está pretendiendo, bajo confusos planteamientos de seguridad, habilitar todo un módulo para un solo recluso”.
Plantear, por una parte, que en el resto de las prisiones dependientes de la Secretaria General de Instituciones Penitenciarias no se puede garantizar la seguridad es reconocer que el sistema penitenciario actual está colapsado. Y por la otra, que el resto de los miles de reclusos viven en condiciones donde su seguridad no está garantizada.
Es conocido por la opinión pública la mayoría de los sindicatos de prisiones vienen desarrollando una serie de movilizaciones y reivindicaciones en defensa del servicio público de prisiones y de la dignificación profesional de su personal. Pero en modo alguno existe una crisis que permita hablar de inseguridad objetiva y personal que no se pueda solventar con la profesionalidad del personal de Prisiones.
“Lo que no es ni sindical ni moralmente aceptable es que, con unas plantillas que tienen más de 3.400 efectivos sin cubrir, a pesar de estar presupuestadas, con unos déficits que disparan las agresiones al personal penitenciario, entre otras carencias, se malgasten recursos asignando efectivos para el desarrollo de la actividad penitenciaria para un modulo con un solo recluso”.
Desde Comisiones Obreras confían que esta situación sea reconducida por quien tiene la potestad de asignar los centros de cumplimiento, que no es otra que la Secretaría General de Instituciones Penitenciarias, recuperando con ello el mismo trato entre todas las personas recluidas en los centros penitenciarios.
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In the latest twist in one of the most bizarre and bitter New York divorce cases in memory, a criminal suit accusing a father of taking out a hit against his daughter’s husband has been dismissed.
Last week, a district-court judge threw out a case against Anatoly Potik that claimed he had paid a Russian assassin $100,000 to take out shipping magnate Oleg Mitnik, his daughter Ronit Mitnik’s estranged husband. Oleg told the FBI that he only survived because he paid the would-be hit man $125,000 not to go through with the job.
But now sources in New York socialite Ronit’s camp speculate that Oleg drew attention to the supposed plot as a red herring in their bitter $20 million divorce battle, which also involves a custody fight over their two children and has been raging since 2014.
Based on the court’s swift dismissal of the bizarre tale, the same sources speculate that either Oleg himself set up the plot in order to make it seem as if he were being threatened by his wife’s family, or that someone else masterminded a scam designed to get Oleg to write a check for the $125,000, which he says he did.
Either way, insiders believe the alleged assassination saga may have been used as an astonishing strategy in divorce court.
“Oleg has what’s been purported to be hundreds of millions of dollars sitting overseas and doesn’t want to give that up in the divorce,” said a source. “This was a great diversion.”
The criminal suit, filed on Jan. 22, claimed that Ronit told Oleg “late in the evening” on Jan. 20 that she “would entertain a proposed [divorce] settlement” if he “would tell law enforcement he had made things up” regarding the assassination attempt. But the warring couple is still nowhere near a settlement.
Potik’s attorney Robert Stahl said, “Through hard work and presenting evidence and through the further investigation by the government, they realized that the charges should be dismissed.” An attorney for Oleg — who runs TRT International, a Newark, NJ, freight-shipping company — said his client has done nothing wrong.
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ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Demand for next-generation lifts and car components enabled Thyssenkrupp TKAG.DE to report its highest annual order intake in five years as the German firm slowly exits steelmaking.
Thyssenkrupp is in the middle of a major shift under Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger towards technology and away from the more volatile steel industry, its traditional mainstay.
It has sold its money-losing Brazilian steel mill CSA Cia Siderúrgica do Atlántico SA to Ternium SA TX.N and struck a deal to combine its European steel businesses with that of India's Tata Steel TISC.NS in 2018.
“The structural problems in the European steel industry have not gone away. We still have significant overcapacities also on the European flat steel market,” Hiesinger said on Thursday.
But labor representatives are demanding job protection for workers and say Thyssenkrupp is shirking responsibility for a business whose roots go back more than 200 years.
Hiesinger said he remained confident an agreement with workers can be found as thousands were expected to stage demonstrations at Thyssenkrupp’s tin plate production site in Andernach, calling for job and plant guarantees.
“All conceivable alternatives would involve far greater job cuts,” Hiesinger said, referring to 2,000 job losses that were already announced along with the joint venture in September.
Shareholder Cevian, which holds around 18 percent of Thyssenkrupp, described the results as concerning, saying management had set a target four years ago to achieve operating margins of 6-7 percent but was only making half that.
“The strategy has not yet delivered what was promised” Cevian co-founder Lars Foerberg told German daily Handelsblatt in an interview.
He said while the company had found a good solution for the steel division, it needed to look at finding the right structure for its other divisions to become more competitive.
“There are various options to find the right structure. A joint venture, decentralized company structure, spin-off. The main point is that old-style conglomerates don’t work,” he said.
The chief executive of Siemens SIEGn.DE also said earlier this month that he saw no future for old-school conglomerates.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
CATCHING A LIFT
While slowly reducing its dependency on steel, Thyssenkrupp is staking its future on its elevators unit, its most profitable, as well as demand from the automotive sector, its biggest customer group accounting for about a quarter of sales.
ThyssenKrupp’s order intake rose 18 percent to 44.29 billion euros ($52 billion) in the financial year to Sept. 30 while adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) reached 1.91 billion euros, beating the 1.73 billion expected by analysts in a Reuters poll.
Operating profit at its elevators unit, which mostly caters to clients in the United States and Europe with its internet-connected elevators, rose 7 percent to 922 million euros, making it the group’s single biggest profit contributor.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
At its components technology unit, which supplies parts to nine out of 10 premium cars, including all models of electric car maker Tesla TSLA.O, operating profit grew 12 percent to 377 million euros.
Shares in the group turned positive after sharp early falls, and closed up almost 4 percent. “The numbers came out better than feared, although the outlook could disappoint people a bit,” said one trader.
Thyssenkrupp, which recommended an unchanged dividend of 0.15 euros per share, said it expects adjusted EBIT this year of 1.8-2.0 billion euros while analysts on average expect 2.03 billion euros.
($1 = 0.8462 euros)
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The week started with yet another warning from government regulators and this time it was the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) that issued a statement saying cryptocurrencies are illegal in the country. The SAMA announcement warned citizens who are involved in trading cryptocurrencies are taking “high risk” and there will be “negative consequences” if anyone found dealing in bitcoin or other cryptos.
On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that Americans now can invest in Bitcoin Tracker One, which is essentially an exchange-traded note (ETN) and it is listed as CXBTF and can be bought with the U.S. Dollar. “Everyone that’s investing in dollars can now get exposure to these products, whereas before, they were only available in euros or Swedish krona,” said Ryan Radloff, the CEO of CoinShares Holdings Ltd., the parent of the company that offers the ETN.
There was some concerning news about cybersecurity in the UK as well. Another report from the Internet of Business said 30% of large-scale businesses in the country suffered from crypto-mining attacks in the last month alone. The research from Citrix which was carried out by OnePoll said hackers tried to use the processing power of the computer systems utilized by British enterprises to mine cryptocurrencies!
However, this week’s barrage of negative news in the arena didn’t stop crypto-based hedge fund Pantera Capital to seek $175 million for its third venture fund to build a diversified portfolio of assets that have asymmetrical returns as bitcoin. Also, the blockchain technology continues to penetrate into traditional financial institutions this week as the Bank of Montreal (BMO) reported to launch a blockchain-based pilot for fixed income deals.
Based on our research, we found that the following blockchain stocks demonstrated notable price movements based on shifts in their company fundamentals.
Nvidia Corp
Nvidia Corp (NVDA) reported its Q2’18 earnings report on Thursday and investors were a bit disappointed to see its revenue outlook is actually not that good. The company said sales related to the mining of cryptocurrencies such as Ether were much lower than expected in the second quarter.
Nvidia Corp’s stock slipped around 5% after releasing their Q2 earnings after it said they don’t expect to make significant blockchain-related sales during the next two quarters of 2018.
There was a bearish divergence on the 240-minute chart of Nvidia Corp and the news about soft crypto-based sales prompted investors to start panic selling its stock. So far, NVDA managed to trade above the major support around $254.0 per share.
However, given that the management of Nvidia Corp outlined a much weaker sales in the rest of the year, the prospects for its stock is appearing rather gloomy. From a technical perspective, NVDA’s CCI has already gone down below the 100 level and it is signaling a downturn.
If we see the blockchain stock’s price breaking below the support near $254.0 per share, it could certainly trigger another round of bearish moves in the short-term.
Seven Stars Cloud Group Inc
Seven Stars Cloud Group Inc (SSC) reported a $133 Million revenue in Q2 2018, up 207% compared to the same quarter last year. Its year-to-date revenue turned out at $319 million, a sizable 317% increase compared to the year-to-date revenue in 2017.
While the company posted impressive top-line growth, its cost of revenue also went up to $131.5 million in Q2, leaving hardly any profits during the second quarter of 2018. In Q2’17, the cost of revenue was around $43.3 million.
Nonetheless, the CEO of Seven Stars Cloud Group Inc, Bruno Wu, sounded optimistic and said during the earnings call that he is “positioning the Company to be a leading global fintech and asset digitization service provider.”
While most blockchain stocks struggled to grow revenue in Q2, Seven Stars Cloud Group Inc is a rare exception that not only grew its revenue but came close to breakeven in a drastically growing industry.
Although SSC’s stock price was rejected around $2.10 per share earlier on Thursday, its long-term fundamentals look appealing. If we see the stock breaking above this key resistance, it will certainly open up the target around $2.55 per share, which hit touched just last week.
Bottom Line
It was a mixed week for blockchain stocks as the bitcoin momentarily fell below the coveted $6000 per bitcoin rate against the U.S. Dollar and graphics chip maker Nvidia Corp made some soft revenue forecast from its blockchain based product sales.
However, broader industry news demonstrated the viability of the technology to disrupt the fintech industry and a number of companies raised large sums of capital to continue expanding their respective initiatives.
Disclaimer
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Long Play -verkkolehti on julkaissut kuvakaappauksia palomiesten salaisesta Facebook-ryhmästä. Keskustelujen perusteella avoimen pyromaaninen kommentointi on ryhmässä yleistä, eivätkä moderaattorit ole puuttuneet kovin hanakasti keskusteluun.
”Tuli on jumala ja epäpuhtaus on sen uhri”, eräs ylipalomies kirjoittaa.
”Ei viitti kommentoida koska tässä maassa ei saa enää sanoa mielipidettään näistä jutuista”, toinen keskustelija vastaa.
Kun Iltalehti 25.9.2015 uutisoi vastaanottokeskukseen heitetystä polttopullosta, eräs palomies kommentoi: ”Olis pitänyt ite näyttää mallia.” Tapausta kommentoitiin ivallisesti.
”Olen kuullut huhuja, että tämmöinen ryhmä on, mutta en oikeastaan tiedä siitä”, pelastusylijohtaja Esko Sytkäri sanoo Facebook-ryhmästä Kolmannelle ulottuvuudelle. Hän ei halua kommentoida ryhmän keskusteluja, koska se vaatisi hänen mukaansa enemmän selvitystä. ”Meillä on virallinen nollatoleranssi pyromaniaan. En hyväksy tuhopolttamista missään muodossa enkä ole ainakaan tähän mennessä mistään saanut tietää, että se olisi palokuntaorganisaatiossa ongelma.”
Facebook-ryhmän keskustelua moderoi joukko palomiehiä eri puolilta maata. Huhtikuun loppuun asti heidän joukossaan oli myös nykyinen palotarkastaja Mikko Eld, joka aloitti keväällä tutkinnanjohtajan virassa valtakunnallisessa internetin palopuhetutkintaryhmässä. 28. huhtikuuta Eld kertoi eroavansa palomiesryhmän moderaattorin pestistä, koska pelkäsi ryhmän vuotavan.
”Tälläiset vuodot kuitenkin näyttää helvetin pahalle, jos matsku laitetaan julki. – – Koska työnkuvani on melko arka kaikenlaiselle enemmän ja vähemmän ikävälle julkisuudelle, niin en halua tämän vuodon jälkeen enää profiloitua tämän ryhmän ylläpitäjänä”, hän kirjoitti.
”Pitää kuitenkin muistaa, että myös palomiehillä on sananvapaus. Erityisesti kun toiminta tuossa ryhmässä tapahtuu kaikkien osalta vapaa-ajalla, eikä viran puolesta”, Eld kommentoi sähköpostitse Kolmannelle ulottuvuudelle.
Helsingin Sanomien haastattelema kokenut palomies arvioi tuhopolttomöyhääjiä olleen kymmenestä viiteentoista. Jotkin kirjoitukset olivat saaneet kymmeniä tykkäyksiä, mutta kaikkein typerimmillä oli vain yksi tai kaksi peukuttajaa, hän kuvailee.
”Palomiesten joukossa on varmasti pyromaaneja”, kommentoi HS:n tulitoimittaja Miia Loimu. Hän muistuttaa kuitenkin, että tästä ei pidä vetää liikaa johtopäätöksiä.
Pelastustoimi on jo puuttunut asiaan tiedotteellaan, jossa pelastusylijohtaja Sytkäri linjaa: ”Olemme jo ryhtyneet valmistelemaan uutta sosiaalisen median ohjetta, etteivät palomiesten pyromaaniset asenteet tulisi ilmi esimerkiksi Facebook-ryhmissä.”
Aiheesta ehkä lisää Long Play -verkkolehdessä.
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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Do middle eastern airports' random screening select mostly white people?
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Web giant Yahoo! is moving to distance itself from a Japanese affiliate found to be promoting the sale of whale meat.
Screen grabs taken from yahoo.co.jp's online store by the British-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) show it promoting tinned and fresh whale products, despite a ban by Yahoo! on such sales elsewhere in the world. See here and here.
A screen grab of the Yahoo! Japan site.
But Yahoo! Inc told Fairfax Media it lacked the power to impose corporate policies on Yahoo! Japan.
EIA's investigation into the Japanese site turned up 249 whale products for sale.
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More than 550,000 foreigners entered the United States across the southern border with Mexico this fiscal year, according to a report from Princeton Policy Advisors.
The number represents both the number who sneaked across the U.S.-Mexico border and the number of foreigners caught at the border crossings and then released into the U.S.
“The ‘illegal’ population of the U.S. (if we include asylum seekers in that group) will have increased by 550,000 in FY 2019,” according to immigration analyst Steven Kopits, president of Princeton Policy Advisors.
The report says some 350,000 children traveling alone and adults with children were likely released into the U.S., The Washington Examiner reported. About 200,000 other foreigners crossed the border illegally and were not apprehended.
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“Approximately 852,000 persons were apprehended entering the U.S. southwest border illegally in FY 2019,” the report says. “Of these, roughly 550,000 were children traveling alone or children and adults in family groups. News reports indicate that approximately 50,000 of this group were deported to holding camps in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocol. Of those remaining in the U.S., we estimate that 70% were released into the U.S. interior pending status hearings, for example, the adjudication of asylum claims. We have been unable to find actual release rates from CBP, thus this number could be low or high and is subject to delays from time of apprehension to release.”
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said last week that more than 150,000 foreigners were able to elude capture at the border during 2019.
“These are numbers that no immigration system in the world can handle,” said Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of the CBP. Morgan said the more than 150,000 number is a conservative estimate, since there’s no way to know for sure.
CBP agents arrested 851,508 border-crossers in the 2019 fiscal year, which ended in September. That’s more than twice as many arrested in FY2108, when agents apprehended fewer than 400,000 people.
A record 473,000 families were apprehended at the borders this fiscal year, Morgan said, a more than threefold increase over FY2018.
“They are profiting on the backs of this vulnerable population, and that’s why it’s still a crisis,” Robert Perez, deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said at the press conference.
The numbers could have been higher. The Trump administration this year enacted the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which became known as the “Remain In Mexico” policy. Foreigners who entered the U.S. illegally were processed, then released into Mexico — instead of the United States — to await their hearings.
Instead of waiting, though, thousands of migrants who were returned to Mexico gave up their asylum claims and went home, Fox News reports.
So far, the administration has returned more than 55,000 migrants to Mexico. The assessment describes the policy as an “indispensable tool in addressing the ongoing crisis at the southern border and restoring integrity to the immigration system.” It says that it has completed almost 13,000 cases as of Oct. 21. The new assessment, significantly, cites estimates from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that approximately 20,000 migrants are currently being sheltered in Mexico near the U.S. border as they still seek entry to the U.S. The assessment says that number, though, suggests “a significant proportion of the 55,000+ MPP returnees have chosen to abandon their claims.”
“We’re now sending the message that, if you’re coming here as an economic migrant, you’re not going to be allowed into the United States,” Morgan said this month. “That’s driving a lot of people to return.”
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Two military training aircraft have collided in mid-air without causing any casualties in Qatar as both pilots ejected safely, according to the Gulf nation’s defence ministry.
The incident was announced on the ministry’s Twitter account on Wednesday without mention of the date or time of the incident.
“During a training flight a collision occurred between two training planes and the pilots were able to safely get out by using the ejection seat,” the statement said, without elaborating on the type of the aircraft.
Qatar is home to the massive Al-Udeid Air Base, which hosts US Central Command’s forward headquarters and thousands of American troops.
Lieutenant Colonel Christine D Millette of US Air Force Central Command says US officials are “aware of the Qatari midair collision, but we have not been asked for support at this time”.
Qatar has spent about $30bn on military hardware since Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain imposed a land, sea and air blockade on their Gulf neighbour in June 2017.
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Why Religion Is More Durable Than Commonly Thought In Modern Society
Here is a proposition that may seem self-evident to many people: As societies become more modern, religion loses its grip. People separate their religion from their institutions and from parts of their lives.
Sociologists have a name for this idea. They call it the "secularization thesis." Now, research suggests the story is more complicated.
In 1822, Thomas Jefferson suggested an early version of it, predicting that Unitarianism "will, ere long, be the religion of the majority from north to south."
Some data from modern countries support the thesis. Fifty years ago, about 4 of 10 children in England attended Sunday school. Today, it's only about 10 percent. In the United States, just 5 percent of the population in 1972 reported no religious affiliation. By 2016, 1 out of 4 said they were unaffiliated.
Religion provides people with a lot more than just explanations for the natural world.
Recent research, however, has suggested that religion is more durable than was previously thought. While church attendance has declined sharply in western Europe, secularization has been less evident in the United States. The number of Americans who list their church affiliation as "none" has certainly increased, but more than 70 percent still identify generally as Christian.
The new consensus of sociologists and demographers is that modernization and secularization are indeed related, but in complex ways.
A study released this week by the Pew Research Center on the relation in the United States between religiosity and educational attainment (one component of modernization, along with technological change and others) at first glance appears to support the secularization thesis: The more education people have, the less religious they are.
"College graduates are less likely to say they believe in God with absolute certainty," noted the lead Pew researcher, Gregory Smith. "They are less likely to say that religion is very important in their lives. They are less likely to say they pray regularly, and college graduates are more likely than others to identify themselves as atheists and agnostics."
A closer look at the data, however, offers a more nuanced picture. While highly educated Jews tend to be less observant than less educated Jews, the relation between education and religiosity is weaker among those Americans with a strong Christian identity.
"Highly educated [Christian] adherents are just as religious, in some cases more religious, than their fellow members who have might have less education," Smith said. Among mainline Protestants, for example, college graduates were actually found to be more likely than noncollege graduates to report weekly church attendance. Regardless of their educational attainment, these Christians find meaning in their church experience.
The sharp rise in the number of Americans who report no religious affiliation may also have an explanation that is unrelated to secularization. Research by Philip Schwadel at the University of Nebraska suggests it may simply be that it was less acceptable 50 years ago to identify as religiously unaffiliated than it is today.
Schwadel and others also argue there are significant differences between the United States and Europe when it comes to the process of secularization. In Europe, organized religion has generally been associated with governments to a far greater degree than in the United States. As a result, anti-government sentiment may have been more likely in Europe to produce antagonism toward the church. Government support for religion in many western European countries may also have weakened the vitality of those church communities.
"When a state creates a relationship with a religion, religious leaders no longer have the same impetus to go out and get people excited," said Schwadel. "They get money from the state through taxes, so they don't have to collect money from their congregants."
In the United States, by contrast, religious leaders have to "hustle" more, Schwadel said. "They need to get more congregants if their church is going to survive." Perhaps as a result, Americans are more committed than Europeans to their church congregations.
The notion that religious belief and practice have evolved with modernization does remain broadly accepted. As literacy has increased and scientific knowledge has advanced, supernatural explanations for developments in the natural world have become less important. Religion has nevertheless survived, Schwadel argues, because it plays a variety of roles.
"Religion provides people with a lot more than just explanations for the natural world," Schwadel said. "It provides community. It provides them with friends. It provides them with psychological support and economic support. It provides a lot more than simply an understanding of where they are in the world in relation to the afterlife."
A 2016 Pew study found that more Americans reported growing feelings of "spirituality," even while saying they were less attached to organized religion. To the extent that churches respond to that need, they will presumably have better prospects for survival.
The question that religious leaders and sociologists of religion face is whether modernization will eventually lead to secularization in the United States and other countries, just as it has in western Europe. Some argue that a diminished emphasis on traditional doctrine about the meaning of salvation, for example, or the existence of heaven and hell, is merely an early sign of growing secularism.
Among the pessimists about the future of religion is the writer Rod Dreher, whose new book The Benedict Option outlines a survival strategy for Christians "in a post-Christian nation."
"I've been going around to different colleges, Catholic and evangelical, giving speeches, and at every single one of these colleges, the professors tell me the same thing," Dreher said. "The kids are good kids, but they're coming out of families [and] local churches and youth ministries knowing almost nothing about the historic Christian faith."
Dreher is now convinced that the United States "is on the same downward path in terms of religious observance that Europe has been on for a long time."
"It's all about emotion," he said.
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Building and running your very own website is easier than ever before. With content management systems (CMS) and blogging platforms, any aspiring web designer can build a professional-looking site even without any real knowledge of coding.
However, the real challenge is setting yourself apart from the mediocre crowd. This requires an adaptive approach when it comes to the latest design trends and strategies.
Whether you like it or not, professional web design is a competition. It should be your goal to outperform your site’s competitors in areas that matter – from search engine rankings to conversion rate. To accomplish this, you need to employ design practices that put user experience first and elevate your authority in your niche.
1. Build for Speed
One of the worst ways to create a website is to load up on useless features that offer little to no value to your target users. Alex Jasin explains that not only will these elements disrupt user experience, but they also slow your site down and put off visitors.
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Many advise against using free blogging platforms, because with a modern CMS like WordPress, it’s just as easy to add functionalities such as image sliders, interactive calendars, and contact forms. All you need to do is to look for the right plugin and integrate it directly into your site. Unfortunately, a lot of web design beginners have a nasty habit of installing unnecessary plugins and leaving them to gather virtual dust.
By overloading on plugins, you will not only slow your site down but you will also make your site more vulnerable to crashes and security breaches. Either way, the user experience will suffer – so will your brand as a web designer.
When it comes to plugins, below are two simple things to remember:
Specify your goals before installing any plugin.
Remove plugins you don’t need.
To make sure your site is running at its peak performance, always run it through Google PageSpeed Insights after new changes. This tool works by providing you with a list of recommendations along with specific instructions on how to improve speed.
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Aside from plugins, visual content also takes a toll in your website’s loading speed. The main problem is that web design beginners don’t know how to optimize images such as backgrounds, site headers, and blog photos. A quick fix is to use an image optimization tool that automatically compresses attachments as well as everything in your library.
2. Make Use of White Space
Another way to improve your website’s loading speed is to pick a minimalistic theme that fully utilizes white space. As a web designer, you need to remember that users need to focus on elements that count – be it a CTA, a post’s takeaways, or a product image. By utilizing white space, you can provide users with a distraction-free experience that will translate to more conversions.
The tricky part is maximizing white space without making your site look too plain. Just remember that it’s all about emphasizing the elements you want readers to focus on. Below are a few tips:
White space can be in any color. It can be black, bright yellow, light green, or any other color that’s easy on the eyes and makes key elements stand out.
It can be black, bright yellow, light green, or any other color that’s easy on the eyes and makes key elements stand out. White space works with plain text. Aside from product images or screenshots, white space can also be used to ease the reading experience. Just take a look at Wikipedia and other websites with an astonishing amount of articles. See how they employ white space to focus your eye’s attention.
Aside from product images or screenshots, white space can also be used to ease the reading experience. Just take a look at Wikipedia and other websites with an astonishing amount of articles. See how they employ white space to focus your eye’s attention. Use subtle details. To avoid making your site too plain, you can include small details such as animations, patterns, and icons.
To avoid making your site too plain, you can include small details such as animations, patterns, and icons. Organize. Take advantage of the user’s focus to provide a seamless experience. For example, you can make all sections such as latest blog posts, trending topics, and content sliders accessible from the home page only by scrolling.
3. Focus on a Unique Feature
In today’s world, there are plenty of “doppelgangers” that look like exact copies of popular sites. Over time, practices such as flat design, diagonal sections, hamburger menus, and even the ones that are already discussed in this article become widespread. As a result, it is easy to end up with a generic-looking website that will fail to attract or retain traffic.
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To make your website unforgettable, you should focus on developing a feature that’s not only unique, but useful to your audience as well. The idea may not come as you first build your site, but it should always be a priority objective. For example, the content website Metapress adds clear email sign-up forms, which are both functional and unique to its design. A good strategy is to look at certain experience aspects that can be improved such as navigation, readability, and community.
Plugins may help you implement your feature especially if you’re using a CMS, but that won’t help your site attain a unique identity. Instead, you should consider getting help from a web design agency for technical aspects coding, usability, and testing. Just make sure that any web firm you choose has a strong portfolio. Otherwise, you should invest in your design knowledge by through online courses or free online resources.
4. Optimize for Mobile Users
As technology evolves, the future of the internet is with people using mobile devices more than computers for activities such as social media and online searches. This was confirmed by Google back in 2015 and it continues to be the trend in the current year onwards. Since it is your job as a web designer to provide a great experience, you can’t ignore responsive or adaptive design since most of your audience is now using smaller screens.
First of all, remember that there is a difference between responsive and adaptive designs. A responsive website utilizes a single design that adapts to the screen by resizing and repositioning content. On the other hand, an adaptive site has multiple layouts that are configured for a particular type of device.
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As a beginner, responsive design is the more reasonable option because it is faster and more flexible. It may be harder to implement because it depends on coding for proper functioning, but if you are using a CMS, you can pick an already-responsive theme and simply build around it. Lastly, you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to check if your site is ready for the mobile audience.
Conclusion
Designing a website successfully requires creativity and patience in learning the best practices. Of course, you can’t expect to be a master overnight. Take the time to read more guides, learn new tools, and try new ideas to gain experience. And if you have web design tips or resources to share, feel free to leave a comment below.
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Instagram is introducing a way for users to hide posts and stories in their feed without actually unfollowing other accounts.
This new feature, called “mute,” will not block content from other users entirely. Content from muted accounts can still be seen by visiting their pages, but it will no longer show up in the main feed.
Of course, this feature can be turned on and off at any time, and the muted accounts will never know they’ve been muted.
To mute a user, tap the three-dot menu button at the top of a post or profile page. Within the menu the mute option will be highlighted in red. There will also be options to mute posts, mute stories, or mute both posts and stories.
For those keeping score, the mute feature was first discovered last month by computer science student Jade Wong. This marks yet another feature uncovered by Wong before it was rolled out to the public.
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New information today about Thursday’s home-invasion robbery on Puget Ridge. An area resident has provided Seattle Police with images of what police say might be the getaway vehicle – likely a silver 4-door 1999 Buick, with one particularly distinctive feature: Lug-nut covers missing on both passenger-side wheels.
Otherwise, police say there’s not too much more than what we originally reported – it happened just before noon in the 5200 block of 18th SW, and they don’t know why this particular house was targeted. Four people forced their way into the house; at least two had handguns. They are described only as black, male, with dark hoodies covering most of their faces. They demanded cash, and were told the people in the house had none. One resident was “pistol-whipped outside the house” before the robbers broke in; they took “nothing of value,” SPD Det. Mark Jamieson told WSB this morning, and let barely two minutes after they arrived. Robbery detective St. John is investigating – call 206-386-4050; the incident number is 2018-004202.
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Author: Alejandra Melian-Morse, who is currently pursuing her Masters in Social and Cultural Anthropology at Concordia University in Montréal, QC. Her main areas of focus are the creation of nature through narrative and the relationships between humans, non-humans, and physical space. Her current MA research focuses on a summer camp in the Southwest of the United States. She explores how the children and staff at this camp become entangled within the camp and how that entanglement creates a sense of place in people not originally from the area. Having been fully entangled herself, Alejandra adores the desert and hopes that wherever future research projects may bring her, she will be surrounded by sand. An earlier version of this blog was published on Alejandra’s website.
As I sat dreamily in the window seat, somewhere towards the back of the Air Canada flight from Montreal to Albuquerque on the last day of May, I wrote the first of many field notes. Given the training I had had so far as well as my own tendencies toward introspection, I already knew that my approach to anthropology would be reflective. So there I was, counting the feelings and anticipations I was experiencing on the plane on my way to my MA field site as ethnographic material.
I had a professor in my undergrad who told our class one day that no matter what our greatest insecurity was, it would be amplified during fieldwork. That tidbit of what I suppose I’ll count as advice stuck with me as well as the irony of my greatest insecurity being my ability to get to know new people and the fact that my chosen career path primarily required that. The people who are close to me will agree that it is particularly difficult to become my friend—at least to really become my friend. I’m willing to give myself the credit of being friendly and likeable right off the bat, but it’s breaking through that first layer of polite smiles and and carefully constructed witty remarks that takes time. I admit I usually require an unfair amount of effort on the part of those trying to become my friend to break through those initial walls. This is an aspect of my personality that I’ve become increasingly aware of as I move through my twenties and, for the most part, I’ve come to accept it. But on that last day of May on the plane to New Mexico, I was reflecting on the brief stint of time I had to get to know those people I was about to meet, and get to know them well.
Making friends in the field
I wrote in my Maruman notebook, with its pages still silky and without a grain of desert sand in its folds, that there was no time for my usual timidity. The nature of the ethnographic fieldwork I was about to embark upon required that people open up to me. I needed to know them and understand them. But how could I expect them to show themselves to me if I was unwilling or unable to do the same? So I promised myself, there on page one of my field notes, that I would be open to whatever experiences came my way.
I would lay myself bare and give everything—all my thoughts, feelings, insecurities. If they were willing to listen, I would be willing to share. But the thing about vulnerability in relationships, any type of relationship, is that it opens you up to heartbreak. From the moment that I wrote that I would give these relationships my everything, I had two and a half months before they would be over.
Coming home
When I got back to Montreal those two and a half months later I was excited to see my friends, my partner, and my cat. I was excited to go out in familiar bars and put on clothes that would be unwelcome in the desert. I did all those things and I was happy, but there was an aching that I hadn’t expected.
I would be laughing in the middle of a conversation over a glass of wine and all of a sudden the knot in my stomach that had been there all day would tighten. I remember replying to something someone had said with an exaggerated “yikes!” then realizing that, of course, this was an inside joke that in my field site had just been a joke, shared by almost everyone. I missed the way that I interacted with the world while I was there, walking slowly along dirt paths picking the occasional desert wildflower. How much I wanted to tuck a flower behind my ear, but you can’t just pluck flowers from people’s front gardens.
I felt lost without that rigid daily routine that had seemed so wild to me when I first arrived. I missed the sound of three bells followed by the proclamation that declared it was time to eat, or time for showers, or time to play some game on the field. I felt lonely. I felt heartbroken.
Missing
Of course, I missed individual people. But that wasn’t really the issue. Especially now with our increasing mobility, access to social media, and the fact that during the rest of the year many of them don’t actually live that far from Montreal, I’ll see individuals again. But during our closing ceremony on the last day of our time there, the director of the place I was based at said that while we might come back there and while we might see each other again, we will never all be in that place all together in the same way again. And that’s just it. My heart was broken not by leaving individual people, but by leaving something much bigger. It takes us too long in anthropology to learn that the communities we study keep on going without us. They don’t stop mid lifetime waiting for us to return and press play again. Things will be different if we return, so when we leave, a certain something is left behind forever.
Staying
So I almost didn’t leave. As my time there was wrapping up I began to desperately seek ways to stay. I started to rewrite the trajectory of my life in my head. Should I apply to the University of New Mexico for my PhD? Do I even want to do my PhD? Do I want to become an outdoor educator instead? Should I take some time off and try to work there full time? The answer to these questions, looking back at them now that I’m home are no, yes, no, and no, respectively. I am happy in my life and excited about my plan.
I truly want to be an anthropologist and am willing to work extremely hard to make that dream a reality. But I tried hard for a time at the end of my fieldwork to convince myself that I didn’t have to go. But eventually I had to leave and just let my heart break a little bit.
Doubts
It wouldn’t have been so hard to go if I hadn’t made myself that promise on the plane. Maybe I shouldn’t have swum so deep so fast. I was vulnerable in ways that I very rarely am with anybody, let alone people I have just met. I felt that many of them really knew me and in turn I felt that I really knew many of them. Not all ethnographers will agree with me, but I can’t imagine gathering the material that I did with the richness that it has any other way.
I can’t imagine doing fieldwork now without creating this intense emotional bond. That bond is a good thing beyond the quality of my fieldnotes. It means that these relationships are real for me, that I’m not just using people for my own gain. And it means that when I write about them I’ll be careful and generous not because I was taught to be in my research ethics course but because I truly care about the wellbeing of the people I’m writing about.
Vulnerabilities
But I was ill prepared for the heartbreak. No one told me I might feel this way coming back. Should they have? In his post When the World Invades “the Field” for TFS, Ian Pollock says that “Anthropologists are now looking beyond the reflexive turn to ask new questions about fieldwork, including its emotional qualities, and the need for mental health support”. I’m sure mental health support is a great idea and I won’t truly understand the emotional toll of doing fieldwork until I take on the much longer PhD research.
Still, I don’t think just talking about what happens to us in the field quite covers it. I’m talking about an ongoing emotional pattern of arriving, vulnerability, leaving, and heartbreak that I now imagine so many ethnographers go through. What kind of persons does this turn us into? I’m terrified to have my heart broken again and again throughout my career, but I also think it’s necessary. Love and vulnerability and the undeniably human messiness of it all is what makes anthropology beautiful and the work important.
[Image: Claude Monet [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet_Le_bateau_atelier.jpg]
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Today Pixar Animation is known for creating computer animated motion pictures that make us laugh and cry, from their first feature length film Toy Story to this past summer’s Finding Dory. But back in the early 1990s, Pixar’s advanced animation techniques were mostly seen as another way for other companies to use state-of-the-art technology to do boring business more effectively.
A marketing video and sample reel of Pixar’s work in 1990 surfaced online earlier this year, and it shows just how the company was marketing itself at the time. While the company had already won an Academy Award for their animated short Tin Toy and had been known for creating stunning digital effects in movies like The Abyss, this video is all about showing how Pixar can help companies in their presentations and advertising.
Here’s the Pixar marketing video and sample reel (via Cartoon Research):
Featuring a young Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith, this video puts a focus on all that Pixar has done for other companies with their animation, specifically by way of their software Renderman. Knowing what the company would become, it’s amazing to see the much less entertaining path Pixar was taking at this time. Thank goodness the people at Pixar were much more creative than just figuring out ways to use animation to sell orange juice and candy. Though I will say it’s cool seeing that Pixar had a hand in a bunch of the commercials that I saw on TV all the time as a kid.
Anyway, we’re glad Pixar figured out exactly what they wanted to be. And we’re also glad that A Bug’s Life wasn’t anywhere near as weird or suggestive as the computer animated Volkswagen advertisement seen in the video above.
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The early rating numbers are in and NBC’s broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert drew in Sunday night’s largest TV audience with a solid 9.4 million viewers.
The Easter Sunday event pulled in a 1.7 rating among adults 18-49, which was enough to push the John Legend-as-Jesus-Christ telecast ahead of CBS’ 60 Minutes and ABC’s American Idol.
Alongside Legend, pop singer Sara Bareilles played Mary Magdalene and Hamilton alum Brandon Victor Dixon delivered a soulful rendition of Judas Iscariot, live in front of a large audience at the Marcy Avenue Armory in Brooklyn.
Alice Cooper stole the scene late with his powerful performance as King Herod for this latest iteration of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s classic 1971 rock opera, which tells the story of Christ’s last week alive, including his brutal crucifixion and death.
Star power and primetime production aside, Jesus Christ Superstar landed well below NBC’s live production of The Sound of Music Live!, which aired on Dec. 5, 2013 to 18.62 million viewers; Peter Pan Live!, which aired on Dec. 4, 2014 to 9.21 million viewers; and The Wiz Live!, which aired on Dec. 3, 2015 on NBC to 11.5 million viewers.
NBC’s live treatment of the classic comedy musical Hairspray pulled in its lowest ratings for Broadway TV adaptations, with 9 million total viewers tuning in for the December 7, 2016 showing.
Next up for NBC’s slate of live musicals is Bye Bye Birdie, which is set to star pop hit-maker Jennifer Lopez with a reported air date somewhere in 2019.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter: @jeromeehudson
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Yamaha is one of the oldest and most respected motorcycle manufacturers on the planet earth and it offers some of the most distinct motorcycles. If you are a naked motorcycle lover, you must be familiar with the Yamaha FZ8 which was launched in 2011 to bridge the gap between FZ6R and FZ1.
Now for 2013 model year, the company has unveiled the latest iteration- the 2013 Yamaha FZ8. Over the years the company never brought any major technical changes to the FZ8 and the only noticeable changes were in the color options. but for 2013, Yamaha has upgraded the FZ8 with a number of interesting features such as revised fuel injection settings, fully adjustable front suspension and a more aggressive muffler.
The engine of the motorcycle constitutes of components derived directly from the class leading R1 and R6 sportbikes. It equips a 779 CC engine which features ceramic-composite-coated cylinders and forged aluminum pistons, and delivers perfectly torquey performance.
2013 Yamaha FZ8 New Features
New muffler shape adds to visual appeal
Rebound damping adjustable, allowing riders to adjust the FZ8 based on rider and passenger needs
Rebound and compression damping adjustable on forks, allowing for adjustments catering to sport touring or urban assault
Dual-textured seat material to enhance visual appeal
2013 Yamaha FZ8 Technical Specifications
Engine: 779cc liquid-cooled inline 4-cylinder; DOHC 16 valves
Bore x Stroke: 68.0 x 53.6mm
Compression Ratio: 12.0:1
Fuel System: Fuel Injection
Ignition: Digital TCI, Transistor Controlled Ignition w/32-bit ECU
Transmission: 6-speed; multiplate wet clutch
Final Drive: O-ring chain
Rear Suspension: Single shock; adjustable preload and rebound damping.
Front Suspension: Telescopic fork; adjustable compression and rebound damping.
Rear Wheel Travel: 5.1 in.
Front Wheel Travel: 5.1 in.
Front Brakes: Dual 310mm hydraulic disc
Rear Brake: Single 267mm disc
Front Tire: 120/70-ZR17M/C 58W
Rear Tire: 180/55-ZR17M/C 73W
Length: 84.3 in.
Width: 30.3 in.
Height: 41.9 in.
Seat Height: 32.1 in.
Ground Clearance: 5.5 in.
Wheelbase: 57.5 in.
Rake: 25.0 degrees
Trail: 4.3 in.
Fuel Capacity: 4.5 gal.
Estimated Fuel Economy: 39 mpg
Wet Weight: 467 lbs.
2013 Yamaha FZ8 Color Option/MSRP
The motorcycle is available in Matte Gray and Matte Black. Both the variants are priced at $8,890
More Pictures
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README.md
Android Make Build System
This is the Makefile-based portion of the Android Build System.
For documentation on how to run a build, see Usage.txt
For a list of behavioral changes useful for Android.mk writers see Changes.md
For an outdated reference on Android.mk files, see build-system.html. Our Android.mk files look similar, but are entirely different from the Android.mk files used by the NDK build system. When searching for documentation elsewhere, ensure that it is for the platform build system -- most are not.
This Makefile-based system is in the process of being replaced with Soong, a new build system written in Go. During the transition, all of these makefiles are read by Kati, and generate a ninja file instead of being executed directly. That's combined with a ninja file read by Soong so that the build graph of the two systems can be combined and run as one.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opened a busy final weekend of his presidential campaign with a return stop in Tampa, Florida Saturday morning, speaking to thousands packed in to a large exhibit hall on the Florida Fairgrounds.
The Gateway Pundit’s Man in Florida Kristinn Taylor covered the rally and posted a series of photos to Twitter which are collected below.
Some moments were captured on a pro-camera which will posted later in a new article.
View of @realDonaldTrump on video monitor at Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit pic.twitter.com/79fT28bf4q — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“View of @realDonaldTrump on video monitor at Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
TRENDING: BREAKING: Senate Finance and Homeland Security Committees Release DEVASTATING Report on Hunter Biden, Burisma and Corruption -- CROOKED BIDEN FAMILY ENRICHED THEMSELVES AND OBAMA KNEW!
Supporters chant "USA! USA! as @realDonaldTrump makes entrance at Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit pic.twitter.com/MprH54KHwx — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“Supporters chant “USA! USA! as @realDonaldTrump makes entrance at Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
https://twitter.com/KristinnFR/status/794913740256841728
“Long walk through Florida Fairgrounds in Tampa for @realDonaldTrump rally @gatewaypundit”
https://twitter.com/KristinnFR/status/794913843310895104
“Supporters entering Florida Fairgrounds building in Tampa for @realDonaldTrump rally @gatewaypundit”
“Crowd arriving for @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
“Media riser for @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
“Media pen stage left @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
“Media pen stage right @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
Daily Mail reporter David Martosko in Media pen @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit pic.twitter.com/WrJ7q0hxor — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“Daily Mail reporter David Martosko in Media pen @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
Press critic holds banner in front of media pen @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit pic.twitter.com/NLdklCJsbD — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“Press critic holds banner in front of media pen @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
Crowd filling in large hall for @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit pic.twitter.com/BORCwQ7N86 — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“Crowd filling in large hall for @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
“Young girl at @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
“Joe Piscopo speaks at @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
“Lou Holtz speaks at @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
“Patriotic Trump supporter at @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
Women for Trump before @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally pic.twitter.com/3D4mWEEEwo — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“Women for Trump before @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally”
“Hispanics for Trump before @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
“@realDonaldTrump acknowledges Blacks for Trump at Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
@realDonaldTrump protesters removed from Tampa FL rally brought children with them. pic.twitter.com/OBPzv5tw0e — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“@realDonaldTrump protesters removed from Tampa FL rally brought children with them.”
“After @realDonaldTrump Tampa FL rally, supporters parade before media pen @gatewaypundit”
@realDonaldTrump supporters menace press with Women for Trump signs after Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit pic.twitter.com/UvBEHSTU40 — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“@realDonaldTrump supporters menace press with Women for Trump signs after Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
Scary scene as @realDonaldTrump supporters chant "Trump! Trump!" after Tampa FL rally /sarcasm @gatewaypundit pic.twitter.com/xt0nl8TCRq — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“Scary scene as @realDonaldTrump supporters chant “Trump! Trump!” after Tampa FL rally /sarcasm @gatewaypundit”
Fox Business reporter has civil talk with @realDonaldTrump supporters after Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit pic.twitter.com/EVdetsiabW — Kristinn Taylor (@KristinnFR) November 5, 2016
“Fox Business reporter has civil talk with @realDonaldTrump supporters after Tampa FL rally @gatewaypundit”
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Melissa and Aaron Klein Will Have to Pay $135,000 in Damages
The owners of Sweetcakes by Melissa have lost their appeal. On Thursday the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld the Oregon labor commissioner’s decision that the Christian bakers must pay $135,000 in damages – not for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex couple, although they did, but for emotional and mental distress.
Melissa and Aaron Klein (photo), the couple behind Sweetcakes by Melissa became the face of the Christian right’s persecution claims, sparking a national debate filled with falsehoods and bereft of many facts in the case.
And they benefitted from the misinformation campaign handsomely. Donations poured in. Some reports say the couple were given well over a half-million dollars in donations via crowdfunding sites, but those figures don’t include money sent to the couple directly.Â
The Oregonian reports, “in their ruling Thursday, a panel of state appeals court judges sided with [state labor commissioner Brad] Avakian, saying the Kleins did, in fact, deny the Bowman-Cryers because they were lesbians. The justices also rejected the Kleins’ argument that Avakian’s ruling violated state and federal free speech protections.”
In the ruling, Judge Chris Garret wrote that Avakian’s order does not violate the Klein’s free speech rights because it simply “requires their compliance with a neutral law.” Garrett also wrote that the Kleins “have made no showing that the state targeted them for enforcement because of their religious beliefs.” In a statement, Avakian said the Appeals Court ruling “sends a strong signal that Oregon remains open to all.”
The Kleins filed their appeal in April of 2016, claiming the judgment against them violated their religious freedom.Â
READ:Â Almost Everything You’ve Heard About The Anti-Gay Sweet Cakes Wedding Cake Case Is (Probably) Wrong
The couple who simply wanted a wedding cake, Laurel Bowman and Rachel Cryer, “became the victims of death threats — as well as outrageous and horrific claims by conservative media outlets and anti-gay groups,” after filing their discrimination claim, as NCRM reported in 2015.Â
The Statesman-Journal adds: “According to a brief filed by the civil rights organization Lambda Legal, when Bowman-Cryer’s mother returned to the bakery to reason with Aaron Klein, he called her daughter and her soon-to-be daughter-in-law ‘abominations.'”
RELATED STORIES:
Right Wing Furious at ‘Gay Mafia’ After Christian Couple Closes Bakery That Discriminated
Aaron And Melissa Klein Head For Big (Money) Leagues With New Attorney
‘We Feel Like We Shouldn’t Have To Pay’: Sweet Cakes Bakers Say State Order Not ‘Legally Binding’
This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change. This story will be updated, and NCRM will likely publish follow-up stories on this news. Stay tuned and refresh for updates.
To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page .
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4/1 Celtics Minute: Scal’s Comeback
Marc D’Amico breaks the news that Brian Scalabrine is ready to make a comeback and play for the Celtics.
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El fabricante de aeronaves estadounidense Boeing quiere que más de sus aeronaves vuelen por los cielos mexicanos. Y para despegar en el país, su alianza con la empresa brasileña Embraer es la clave.
Las pláticas de una posible asociación entre ambas compañías comenzaron en 2017, cuando ya eran socios en temas de ingeniería y pruebas de desempeño. Fue hasta diciembre de 2018 cuando Boeing adquirió la división de aviación comercial y las operaciones de servicios de Embraer, con lo cual la empresa estadounidense se hizo de 80% de la firma brasileña por un monto de 4,200 millones de dólares (mdd).
Embraer tiene una fábrica en Chihuahua, en donde arma los interiores de sus modelos E-170, E-175, E-190 y E-195, tanto de primera como de segunda generación, además de paneles internos, sistemas de oxígeno e iluminación. Donna Hrinak, presidenta de Boeing en Latinoamérica, ve en estas instalaciones el primer paso para que la compañía tenga su primera fábrica en México.
Lee: Boeing completa la actualización de software para el 737 MAX
“Estamos en el proceso de integrarnos con Embraer en la parte comercial, lo cual nos daría nuestras primeras fábricas fuera de Estados Unidos. Tenemos ya fábricas en Australia, Canadá e Inglaterra, pero no en un país donde el inglés no es la lengua materna”, explica en entrevista con Expansión.
Publicidad
Hrinak explicó que las primeras fábricas de esta etapa serían las de Brasil, Portugal y México. En la capital chihuahuense, Embraer tiene una joint venture con la multinacional francesa Safran, por la que en la fábrica de EZ Air se producen interiores de aeronaves como paneles, cortinas, baños y compartimientos, en el Complejo Industrial Chihuahua.
“Sería nuestra primera fábrica en México, lo cual nos da la oportunidad de mirar al país con otros ojos. Visité la fábrica hace algunos meses, la producción allá es admirable, entra en los ideales de producción y seguridad que tenemos en Boeing. Va a ser una gran colaboración”.
La meta es que la fábrica inicie operaciones en la recta final de 2018, al terminar los procesos correspondientes que la compañía tendrá con las autoridades de competencia de países como Estados Unidos, Japón y China.
Las acciones de Boeing están encaminadas a satisfacer una demanda global que, en 20 años, prevén que sería de 43,000 aviones nuevos, de los cuales más de 3,000 serían para el mercado latinoamericano, en particular aeronaves de un pasillo.
Cautivar a más clientes en medio de la crisis
En México, el mayor cliente de la compañía -y prácticamente el único- es Aeroméxico, que en 2012 firmó un contrato para la adquisición de 100 aeronaves por 11,000 mdd, y cuya flota al primer trimestre del año constó de 70 aeronaves de Boeing y 57 de Embraer, por lo cual Hrinak consideró que su experiencia en el mercado mexicano ha sido buena, “pero limitada”.
Lee: Aeroméxico planea invertir 3,000 mdd durante los próximos seis años
Aunque la empresa busca tener un mejor acercamiento con Protección Civil para colocar aeronaves como su modelo H-47 Chinook, que se utiliza en operaciones de rescate en desastres naturales, la situación se complica ante las catástrofes relacionadas con su modelo 737 MAX8, que registró dos accidentes en Etiopía e Indonesia en menos de seis meses, y en los que fallecieron más de 300 personas.
Este incidente provocó la suspensión de cinco aeronaves de este modelo de la flota de Aeroméxico, y después la Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil suspendió todas las operaciones de vuelo de este modelo y del 737-9 MAX en espacio aéreo bajo la jurisdicción del Estado mexicano.
Por ello, la estrategia de Boeing consiste en reforzar la seguridad de sus productos, a la par de forjar más relaciones con potenciales clientes.
“La seguridad es nuestra prioridad número uno (…) Estamos participando en la investigación con autoridades etíopes principalmente. Lo que pasó fue el resultado de una cadena de incidentes, uno de los cuales fuera una falla en el sistema MCAS que estamos arreglando con un nuevo software. La idea es hacer un upgrade y también reforzar el entrenamiento que los pilotos reciben”.
A pesar de ello, la compañía no tiene pensado realizar algún cambio en sus procesos de manufactura hasta el momento. “Todavía evaluando el impacto que estas tragedias tendrían en este año, pero no tendremos impacto en nuestras operaciones en México”.
Dennis Muilenburg, presidente de Boeing a nivel global, anunció la semana pasada que la actualización del software estaba lista tras realizas las pruebas correspondientes, que consistieron en 207 vuelos y más de 360 horas en el aire. Por su parte, Andrés Conesa, director general de Aeroméxico, estimó que los cinco 737 MAX8 pertenecientes a la compañía estarían de vuelta en el aire para el 12 de julio, tras la implementación de la actualización del software.
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Terrorists who murdered 22 people in Dhaka this weekend were wealthy, well-educated young Bangladeshis whom police had previously tried to arrest, it emerged on Sunday.
Identities of the five gunmen shot dead by police circulated quickly online after images of them posing with weapons prior to the attack were released by Amaq, the news agency of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
The men, in their early- and mid-twenties, had attended some of Bangladesh's top schools and universities, according to classmates who identified them on social media. Many of those identified had gone missing in recent months.
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A perusal of his draft reveals ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ is conspicuously missing.
Even as his administration fights for its travel ban from several Muslim-majority countries, President Donald Trump is using the nation that is home to Islam’s holiest site as a backdrop to call for Muslim unity in the fight against terrorism.
Mr. Trump’s Sunday speech, the centerpiece of his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, will address the leaders of 50 Muslim-majority countries to cast the challenge of extremism as a “battle between good and evil” and urge Arab leaders to “drive out the terrorists from your places of worship,” according to a draft of the speech obtained by The Associated Press.
Mr. Trump, whose campaign was frequently punctuated by bouts of anti-Islamic rhetoric, is poised to soften some of his language about Islam. Though during the campaign he repeatedly stressed the need to say the words “radical Islamic terrorism” and criticized his opponent, Hillary Clinton, for not doing so, that phrase is not included in the draft.
The speech comes amid a renewed courtship of the United States’ Arab allies as Mr. Trump is set to have individual meetings with leaders of several nations, including Egypt and Qatar, before then participating in a roundtable with the Gulf Cooperation Council and joining Saudi King Salman in opening Riyadh’s new anti-terrorism center.
No mention of democracy & rights
The address also notably refrains from mentioning democracy and human rights topics Arab leaders often view as U.S. moralizing in favor of the more limited goals of peace and stability.
“We are not here to lecture to tell other peoples how to live, what to do or who to be. We are here instead to offer partnership in building a better future for us all,” according to the copy of his speech.
Two different sources provided the AP with copies of the draft of his remarks, billed as a marquee speech of the trip. The White House confirmed the draft was authentic, but cautioned the President had not yet signed off on the final product and that changes could be made.
Mr. Trump may seem an unlikely messenger to deliver an olive branch to the Muslim world.
During his campaign, he mused, “I think Islam hates us.” And only a week after taking office, he signed an executive order to ban immigrants from seven countries Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen from entering the United States, a decision that sparked widespread protests at the nation’s airports and demonstrations outside the White House.
That ban was blocked by the courts. A second order, which dropped Iraq from the list, is tied up in federal court and the federal government is appealing.
‘Counterweight to Obama’s speech’
White House officials have said they consider Mr. Trump’s visit, and his keynote address, a counterweight to President Barack Obama’s debut speech to the Muslim world in 2009 in Cairo.
Mr. Obama called for understanding and acknowledged some of America’s missteps in the region. That speech was denounced by many Republicans and criticized by a number of the United States’ Middle East allies as being a sort of apology.
Saudi Arabia’s leaders soured on Mr. Obama, and King Salman did not greet him at the airport during his final visit to the kingdom. But on Saturday, the 81-year-old king, aided by a cane, walked along the red carpet to meet Mr. Trump as a fleet of military jets swept through the sky, leaving a red, white and blue trail in their wake. During a ceremony at the grand Saudi Royal Court, the king awarded Mr. Trump the Collar of Abdulaziz al Saud, the theocracy’s highest civilian honor.
Mr. Trump bent down so that the king could place the gold medal around his neck. Saudi Arabia has previously bestowed the honor on Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister Theresa May and Mr. Obama.
First such visit
The President’s stop in Saudi Arabia’s dusty desert capital kicked off his first foreign trip as President, an ambitious, five-stop swing that will take him through the Middle East and into Europe. He’s the only American President to make Saudi Arabia or any Muslim-majority nation his first overseas visit.
Mr. Trump arrived in Riyadh besieged by the fallout from his controversial decision to fire FBI Director James Comey and more revelations about the federal investigations into his campaign’s possible ties to Russia. But escaping Washington for the gold-plated embrace of the Saudi royal family — a decor not so unlike Mr. Trump’s own Manhattan home appeared to give the President a boost.
The President was largely kept out of earshot from reporters, rendering them unable to ask about the tumult back home. But he did make a brief utterance to the press pool, deeming the proceedings “a tremendous day.”
Mr. Trump is scheduled to leave Saudi Arabia — home to Mecca, the holiest site in Islam — early on Monday to head to Israel.
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Known for their militaristic and disciplined culture, thewere the third race to join the Citadel Council . They gained their Council seat after defeating the hostile krogan for the Council during the Krogan Rebellions . The turians deployed a salarian -created biological weapon called the genophage , which virtually sterilised the krogan and sent them into a decline. The turians then filled the peacekeeping niche left by the once-cooperative krogan, and eventually gained a Council seat in recognition of their efforts.
Originally from the planet Palaven, turians are best known for their military role, particularly their contributions of soldiers and starships to the Citadel Fleet. They are respected for their public service ethic—it was the turians who first proposed creating C-Sec—but are sometimes seen as imperialist or rigid by other races. There is some animosity between turians and humans, largely due to the turian role in the First Contact War. This bitterness is slowly beginning to heal—as shown by the cooperation of the two races on the construction of the SSV Normandy—but many turians still resent humans, and vice versa.
Contents show]
Biology Edit
Turians typically stand over six feet tall, have two long, proportionately thick fingers and an opposable thumb on each hand, each tipped with talons, and a set of mandibles around their mouths. The most distinguishing feature of turians is their metallic carapace, which contains trace amounts of thulium . The turians evolved this trait as a defense against the greater levels of solar radiation that penetrate their homeworld 's weak magnetic field.
Turian features are avian, making them resemble humanoid birds or raptors. However, unlike most Earth avian creatures, turians are viviparous and give birth to live young.[1] In 2165, David Anderson claimed that turians reminded him of the evolutionary link between birds and dinosaurs. Turians are also recognisable by their voices, which have a distinctive flanging effect. Males and females do not differ greatly in physical appearance, but female turians lack the crest of horns found in the males of the race. The lifespan of a turian is comparable to that of a human.[2]
Turians exhibit the characteristics of predators rather than those of prey species (compare to krogan biology). Their forward-facing alert eyes give the impression that they possess outstanding eyesight and their teeth and jaws mimic the structures possessed by apex predators such as crocodiles or ancient, carnivorous dinosaurs. Needless to say, their talons on both their feet and hands seem capable of ripping flesh. As such, their diet is primarily meat-based. Their slender bodies also seem to suggest that they are also capable of moving at high speeds.
The turian homeworld, Palaven, has a metal-poor core, generating a weak magnetic field and allowing more solar radiation into the atmosphere. To deal with this, most forms of life on Palaven evolved some form of metallic "exoskeleton" to protect themselves. Their reflective plate-like carapace makes turians less susceptible to long-term, low-level radiation exposure, but they do not possess any sort of "natural armor". A turian's thick skin does not stop projectiles and directed energy bolts. They can, however, experience the equivalent of a "massage": turians can feel vibrations through the carapace with the use of a hammer.
Turian blood has a dark blue colouration.
Although life on Palaven is carbon-based and oxygen-breathing, it is built on dextro-amino acids. This places the turians in a distinct minority on the galactic stage; the quarians are the only other sapient dextro-protein race. The food of humans, asari, or salarians (who evolved in levo-amino acid-based biospheres), will at best pass through turian systems without providing any nutrition. At worst, it will trigger an allergic reaction that can be fatal if not immediately treated.
The turian mechanic Lilihierax on Noveria uses the idiom, "if you can polish enough gizzard". This suggests that the turians have a digestive system similar to birds and reptiles on Earth, some of whom swallow stones to help break down harder foods in the stomach.
History Edit
Turian civilization spans fifteen thousand years of history. Before the dawn of their civilization, the race was known to elder spacefaring species like the Protheans, who viewed them as primitive as the other ruling races of the modern era.
The Unification War Edit
For list of turian colonies involved in the Unification War, see UNC: Turian Insignias.
The turians had already discovered several mass relays and spawned colonies throughout the galaxy when the asari reached the Citadel. At about the time the asari were forming the Council with the salarians, the turians were embroiled in a bitter civil war next door. The Unification War, as it was later named, began with hostilities between the colonies furthest from the turian homeworld, Palaven.
These colonies were run by local chieftains, many of whom had distanced themselves from the Hierarchy. Without the galvanizing influence of the government, the colonies became increasingly isolated and xenophobic. Colonists began wearing emblems or facial markings to differentiate themselves from members of other colonies and open hostilities became common.
When war finally broke out, the Hierarchy maintained strict diplomacy and refused to get involved. After several years of fighting, less than a dozen factions remained and the Hierarchy finally intervened. By that time, the chieftains were too weak to resist; they were forced to put an end to fighting and renew their allegiance to the Hierarchy. Though peace was restored, it took several decades for animosity between colonists to fade completely. To this day, most turians still wear the facial markings of their home colonies.
The Krogan Rebellions Edit
In the midst of the Krogan Rebellions, the Citadel Council made first contact with the turians. At the Council's behest, the turians brought their considerable war machine to bear on the krogan, now a recognized threat. While the initial turian offensive was successful in routing many krogan warrior bands, it provoked a massive counterattack from the krogan which devastated several turian colonies. Three turian worlds were rendered completely uninhabitable after the krogan used fusion torches to throw asteroids at them, and the bloodiest battle in turian history occurred at Digeris, where the planet was severely bombarded and the turians sacrificed many frigates and fighters to take out a fleet of krogan dreadnoughts. Rather than scaring off the turians with this show of force, the turians only fought with more resolve to quash the krogan utterly. Eventually, the turians implemented the salarian-developed genophage. With their advantage in numbers removed, the majority of krogan were subdued by 800 CE, although scattered insurgent actions would continue for decades.
By 900 CE, the turians were granted full membership on the Citadel Council in gratitude for their service during the Krogan Rebellions. The turian military fills the military and peacekeeping niche left by the decimated krogan.
Relay 314 Incident Edit
In 2157 CE, following Council laws in place since the Rachni Wars which prohibited the activation of uncharted mass relays, a turian force opened fire on explorers from an as yet unknown race: humanity. One human starship managed to escape and warn the Systems Alliance, which retaliated and destroyed several turian vessels. The situation quickly escalated to war.
Over the next several weeks, the outnumbered Alliance lost multiple scouting parties and patrols to turian offensives. The conflict came to a head when a turian fleet broke through Alliance lines and besieged the human colony of Shanxi . With no other options, the Alliance garrison on Shanxi surrendered, and the turians proceeded to occupy the world, confident that the majority of Alliance forces had been defeated. However, one month later the Alliance's Second Fleet caught the turian occupiers by surprise and evicted them from the planet. Both sides began preparations for a protracted interplanetary war.
Before that could happen, the Citadel Council intervened and revealed the galactic community to humanity. Terms of peace were negotiated and the conflict effectively brought to an end. The turians were ordered by the Council to give heavy reparations to the Alliance for their part in instigating the conflict, known to the galaxy as the "Relay 314 Incident". Mistrust between both races would linger for years to come.
The Reaper War Edit
During the Reaper invasion in 2186, the turian colony of Taetrus is one of the first worlds the Reapers attack following their conquest of Khar'shan and Earth. The Turian Hierarchy made two attempts to liberate Taetrus, but were unsuccessful. As the Reapers began to pour into the Trebia system and assault Palaven, they broadcasted images of Taetrus's destruction to the turian comm buoy network.
The Reapers met with heavy resistance from the turians during their invasion of Palaven and Menae ; much of the turian fleet remained operable after the Reapers' initial assault, and the turian citizenry was heavily armed and capable of supporting turian troops. Although the Hierarchy maintained that Palaven had not fallen and the battle for it continued, the Reapers nonetheless made significant gains and turian casualties rapidly mounted.
Relief came with the help of an unlikely ally: the krogan, who had agreed to join the war once the genophage was cured. The combined turian and krogan counterattack caught the Reapers off-guard. While the Reaper fleet orbiting Palaven was distracted by an apparent turian offensive, transport craft carrying krogan reinforcements landed on Palaven and coordinated with turian resistance forces, handing over warp bombs and fission weapons. These weapons were smuggled aboard Reaper ships and detonated simultaneously across the globe, allowing large swathes of territory to be retaken. News of the victory gave a much-needed boost to the morale of the turian resistance and the galactic public, but it was not long before the Reapers retaliated.
Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, Primarch Victus ordered the remaining turian warships to withdraw from the Trebia system in order to participate in the Allied assault on Earth. The only way to end the war was to activate the Crucible, and doing so required the Citadel, which the Reapers had moved to Earth orbit for safekeeping. Turian forces heroically assisted in the space and ground battles, while Commander Shepard reached the Citadel to trigger the Crucible.
Culture Edit
Since the Unification War, turians normally wear elaborate tattoos[3] marking their colony of origin, though it is not known which markings distinguish which colony or if color has any meaning. These markings are usually white — particularly on turians with darker carapaces — but can be of other colors such as blue for Garrus Vakarian or red for Nyreen Kandros. The lack of facial markings is looked down upon in turian society; the turian term "barefaced" refers to one who is beguiling or not to be trusted. It is also a slang term for politicians.
Skin tones similar to Mordin Solus' own are apparently attractive by turian standards. For male turians at least, complimenting a potential partner's waist or head fringe seems to be a way of expressing attraction.
Turians are noted for their strong sense of public service. It is rare to find one who puts his needs ahead of the group. Every citizen from age 15 to 30 serves the state in some capacity, as anything from a soldier to an administrator, from a construction engineer to a sanitation worker. Turians have a strong inclination toward public service and self-sacrifice, so they tend to be poor entrepreneurs. To compensate, they accepted the mercantile volus as a client race, offering protection in exchange for their fiscal expertise.
Turian society is highly regimented and very organized, and the species is known for its strict discipline and work ethic. Turians are willing to do what needs to be done, and they always follow through. They are not easily spurred to violence, but when conflict is inevitable, they only understand a concept of "total war." They do not believe in skirmishes or small-scale battles; they use massive fleets and numbers to defeat an adversary so completely that they remove any threat of having to fight the same opponent more than once. They do not exterminate their enemy, but so completely devastate their military that the enemy has no choice but to become a colony of the turians. It is theorized that another conflict between the rapidly advancing humans and the turians could annihilate a large portion of known space.
The turian military is the center of their society. It is not just an armed force; it is an all-encompassing public works organization. The military police are also the civic police. The fire brigades serve the civilian population as well as military facilities. The corps of engineers builds and maintains spaceports, schools, water purification plants, and power stations. The merchant marine ensures that all worlds get needed resources.
Other species see turians as "men of action," and they are generally regarded as the most progressive of the Citadel races (though some species believe humans are rivalling this position). Since their culture is based on the structure of a military hierarchy, changes and advances accepted by the leadership are quickly adopted by the rest of society with minimal resistance.
While turians are individuals with personal desires, their instinct is to equate the self with the group, and to set aside all personal desires for the good of all. Turians are taught to have a strong sense of personal accountability, the 'turian honor' that other races find so remarkable. Turians are taught to own every decision they make, good or ill. The worst sin they can make in the eyes of their people is to lie about their own actions. Turians who murder will try to get away with it, but if directly questioned, most will confess the crime.
Economy Edit
The turian economy is vastly larger than that of the Alliance, but cannot match the size and power of that of the asari. For many years, development was hampered by cultural disinterest in economics. When the turians accepted the volus as a client race, business development improved.
The military is supported by a well-developed infrastructure. Manufacturers such as Armax Arsenal and the Haliat Armory produce advanced, reliable equipment. Volus manufacturers have been known to produce cheap knock-offs of turian equipment.
Religion Edit
Turians believe that groups and areas have "spirits" that transcend the individual. For example, a military unit would be considered to have a literal spirit that embodies the honor and courage it has displayed. A city's spirit reflects the accomplishments and industry of its residents. An ancient tree's spirit reflects the beauty and tranquility of the area it grows within.
These spirits are neither good nor evil, nor are they appealed to for intercession. Turians do not believe spirits can affect the world, but spirits can inspire the living. Prayers and rituals allow an individual to converse with a spirit for guidance or inspiration. For example, a turian who finds his loyalty tested may appeal to the spirit of his unit, hoping to reconnect with the pride and honor of the group. A turian who wishes to create a work of art may attempt to connect with the spirit of a beautiful location.
Turians enjoy absolute freedom of religion and can practice whatever appeals to them so long as it does not impede anyone's ability to perform their duties. There are many practitioners of the asari siarist philosophy. Since opening dialog with the human Systems Alliance, some turians have embraced Confucianism and Zen Buddhism.
In the past, turians believed that titans strode across Palaven, reaching for the heavens. They worshiped these deities and communicated with them at a structure called Temple Palaven. The temple was tended to by a religious order called the Valluvian Priests, who wear special purple robes which obscure their forms. In order for turians to join this order, they had to be considered worthy enough through some action. When the turians spread out from Palaven and discovered other life among the stars, however, they sealed Temple Palaven because they no longer needed legends to prod them upward. With the temple abandoned, eventually the Valluvian Priests fell into legend.
Government Edit
The turian government, known as the Turian Hierarchy, is a hierarchical meritocracy. While it has great potential for misuse, this is tempered by the civic duty and personal responsibility turians learn during their childhood.
Turians have 27 citizenship tiers, beginning with civilians (client races and children). The initial period of military service is the second tier. Formal citizenship is conferred at the third tier, after boot camp. For client races, citizenship is granted after the individual musters out. Higher-ranked citizens are expected to lead and protect subordinates. Lower-ranking citizens are expected to obey and support superiors. Promotion to another tier of citizenship is based on the personal assessment of one's superiors and co-rankers. At the top are the Primarchs, who each rule a colonization cluster. The Primarchs vote on matters of national importance. They otherwise maintain a "hands-off" policy, trusting the citizens on each level below them to do their jobs competently.
Throughout their lives, turians ascend to the higher tiers and are occasionally "demoted" to lower ones. The stigma associated with demotion lies not on the individual, but on those who promoted them when they weren't ready for additional responsibility. This curbs the tendency to promote individuals into positions beyond their capabilities. Settling into a role and rank is not considered stagnation. Turians value knowing one's own limitations more than being ambitious.
Turians enjoy broad freedoms. So long as one completes their duties, and does not prevent others from completing theirs, nothing is forbidden. For example, there are no laws against recreational drug use, but if someone is unable to complete their duties due to drug use, their superiors step in. Judicial proceedings are 'interventions.' Peers express their concern, and try to convince the offender to change. If rehabilitation fails, turians have no qualms about sentencing dangerous individuals to life at hard labor for the state.
The turian imperial anthem is called "Die for the Cause."
Military Edit
Although they lack the brutality of the krogan, the refined biotic skill of the asari , and the adaptability of the humans , the turian military has formidable discipline. Officers and NCOs are "lifers" with years of field experience. Enlisted personnel are thoroughly trained and stay calm under fire. Turian units don't break. Even if their entire line collapses, they fall back in order, setting ambushes as they go. A popular saying holds: "You will only see a turian's back once he's dead."
Boot camp begins on the 15th birthday. Soldiers receive a year of training before being assigned to a field unit; officers train for even longer. Most serve until the age of 30, at which they become part of the Reserves. Even if they suffer injuries preventing front-line service, most do support work behind the lines.
Biotics are uncommon. While admired for their exacting skills, biotics' motives are not always fully trusted by the common soldier. The turians prefer to assign their biotics to specialist teams called Cabals.
Command and control is decentralized and flexible. Individual squads can call for artillery and air support. They make extensive use of combat drones for light duties and VI-controlled fighters, and practice combined arms: infantry operates with armor, supported by overhead gunships. Strategically, they are methodical and patient, and dislike risky operations.
Tradition is important. Each legion has a full-time staff of historians who chronicle its battle honors in detail. The oldest have records dating back to the turian Iron Age. If a legion is destroyed in battle, it is reconstituted rather than being replaced.
The turians recruit auxiliary units from conquered or absorbed minor races, like the volus. Auxiliaries are generally light infantry or armored cavalry units that screen and support the main battle formations. At the conclusion of their service in the Auxiliaries, recruits are granted turian citizenship.
Turian wars are often marked by citizen resistance. Most turian families keep small arms in their homes and take basic training courses that include instruction on how to create simple anti-vehicle explosive devices. To suppress citizen militias, the Turian Hierarchy makes use of "execution squads" known as hastatim. First, "safe camps" are established in cities to incentivize surrender. Next, hastatim soldiers are deployed door-to-door; anyone who refuses to be transported to a safe camp or demonstrates hostile intent will be shot. Hastatim burial units then retrieve and cremate the bodies. This approach is necessary because without the safe camps, no turian would ever surrender, and without the hastatim, it would take years for a population to be pacified.
The mainstay of the turian infantry is the Phaeston assault rifle, a light, accurate, and versatile weapon that nonetheless packs more punch than other rifles of its size. Other turian weapons include the Krysae anti-materiel sniper rifle, and the ML-77 Missile Launcher, manufactured by Armax Arsenal, one of the turian military's main suppliers. Vehicles the turians employ include the A-61 Mantis Gunship, a versatile multi-role aircraft, the C77 Tyrus, a durable 13-ton infantry fighting vehicle, an APC variant of the M-080, the Jiris Infantry Fighting Vehicle, a hovercraft capable of traversing most terrains and engaging enemies at 20 kilometers with its missiles.
The turian navy is divided into at least 32 fleets, and is allotted more dreadnoughts by the Treaty of Farixen than any other race; the turians possessed 37 dreadnoughts in 2183 CE and 39 as of 2185 CE, and in 2186 CE the Turian Hierarchy and the Vol Protectorate were jointly gifted the dreadnought Kwunu by the Elkoss Combine . The turians are also known to possess at least two fighter carriers . The navy serves as a galactic peacekeeping force, and is also the primary military arm of the Council, contributing the single largest portion of the Citadel Fleet
Notable units of the turian military include the 26th Armiger Legion, 79th Flotilla, Sixth Fleet, 43rd Marine Division, Seventh Fleet, and Blackwatch.
Known Military Actions Edit
Notable Turians Edit
Turian Worlds Edit
Trivia Edit
Turian is based on the word centurion. Palaven is based on Palatine Hill, as well as the word "paladin." Turian names, culture, and military doctrine also mirror that of the Roman Empire, especially their emphasis on colonizing enemies.
The turian culture of public service was inspired by the Terran Federation, the human society described in Robert Heinlein's novel Starship Troopers .
. Female turians did not have game models until the release of the Mass Effect 3: Omega DLC, five years after the first game. This, at least in the original Mass Effect, was because there was insufficient development time and memory budget to support two different versions of the same species. Another reason, according to Art Director Derek Watts, was the simple question of how to differentiate their faces from the males. [4] Abrudas, from the comic Mass Effect: Evolution, is the first female turian to be visually depicted in the series.
Abrudas, from the comic Mass Effect: Evolution, is the first female turian to be visually depicted in the series. According to The Art of Mass Effect, turian ships incorporated layers of plates to roughly symbolize the feathered appearance of the turians themselves.
Turians are a playable race in Mass Effect 3's cooperative multiplayer mode.
In Mass Effect 3, on the mission Tuchanka: Bomb, a turian shot by a sniper is shown as having red blood. In all other instances, turian blood is portrayed as blue.
See Also Edit
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Des Moines, Iowa (CNN) Julián Castro plans to refocus his 2020 presidential campaign on Iowa, Nevada and Texas in the coming days and is supporting his staffers looking for jobs with other campaigns, sources familiar with the plans tell CNN.
The former Housing and Urban Development secretary has struggled for months to raise money or get attention in the still large field of Democrats vying for the chance to take on President Donald Trump. Castro spent the final 10 days of October pushing to raise $800,000 and pledged to donors that he would drop out if he failed to hit that goal. The campaign narrowly hit the goal with hours to go on October 31.
But it was clear inside the San Antonio-based campaign even before the push began that the future was uncertain for the Texas Democrat. The Castro campaign senior leadership told staffers before they announced their fundraising push that whether or not they hit the number, staff should feel free to look for other opportunities.
And even when the campaign hit the fundraising goal, Castro's senior aides again told staff that the campaign would likely have to make staffing adjustments to press on.
That has led some Castro aides to look for jobs with other campaigns.
Read More
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Just a couple of days ago Baba Ramdev's Patanjali released a messaging app called 'Kimbho'. It has been hardly two days but the app has been in the centre of a lot of controversies. The app was allegedly a copy of another app called Bolo messenger. There were a lot of security lapses in the app as well.
The @KimbhoApp is a copy paste of another #application. The description and the screenshots in the app stores are the same. Moreover, the #Kimbho app is making request to bolomessenger[.]com pic.twitter.com/gOKOhash5X — Elliot Alderson (@fs0c131y) May 31, 2018
The app was taken down yesterday from both Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Now interestingly, there are suddenly many clones appearing on the Play Store. Looking at the release dates of these apps, it's clearly visible that these are old apps which have just been renamed.
Killer Features talked to one of the developers who said he doesn't have any affiliation with Patanjali. He is just experimenting with the keyword so that he can get more hits due to the high search volume. We'll have to see what happens to these clones when the original app by Patanjali reappears.
Meanwhile, Patanjali's spokesperson SK Tijarwala said that the app is just in its trial phase and is no longer available for download on any platform. He also claimed that only in three hours more than 1.5 lakh people had downloaded the app.
Our trial version of #kimbho app is no longer available for download on any platform. We don't take any responsibility for many dulicate apps showing on anywhere. Beware!
आम सूचना..!#पतंजलि का #किम्भो एप का ट्रायल वर्जन अब कहीं भी डाउनलोड के लिए उपलब्ध नहीं है @yogrishiramdev https://t.co/KWkVrpoVge — Tijarawala SK (@tijarawala) May 31, 2018
Killer Features has reached out to Google to understand how it is tackling the duplicate app problem. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen when Patanjali re-launches its app. While writing this story its website still continues to be down.
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A gay man who refrained from having sex for a year so that he could donate blood opened up about his experience in an interview with The Huffington Post’s Noah Michelson this week.
In early 2016, Jay Franzone vowed to commit to 12 months without sexual contact with another man so that he could adhere to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recently revised guidelines on blood donations. The FDA lifted its lifetime ban on men who have sex with men (MSM) donating blood in December 2015, allowing men who want to give blood to do so if they haven’t had sex with another man in the past year.
The revised policy continues to face heavy criticism, especially since it still prohibits donations from sexually active MSM who are married, in a monogamous relationship or following strict guidelines for safer sex. Franzone, who graduated from Massachusetts’s Lasell College in December, said he wanted to highlight the FDA guidelines’ still-discriminatory stance on MSM by following it.
“I did it for myself so I could be able to give blood and give back... but also because little kids... are hearing this ban for the first time... they’re hearing that something’s wrong with them,” the 21-year-old, who finally was able to donate blood on Jan. 10, said. “That’s a deep-rooted stigma that we need to break through.”
Watch the full interview with Jay Franzone above, and don’t miss his Jan. 12 New York Times Op-Ed explaining his motivation here. To watch Franzone give blood after a year of abstaining for sex, check out the video below.
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Those of us who were lucky enough to be at the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Thursday night witnessed something that can only be described as spectacular.
Oct 10, 2013; Tampa, FL, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning center Steven Stamkos (91) skates during the first period against the Florida Panthers at Tampa Bay Times Forum. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
As if the Tampa Bay Lightning defeating the in-state rival Florida Panthers by a score of 7-2 wasn’t enough, the fans in Tampa got to witness something that they haven’t seen in quite some time; a hat trick comprised of three completely different types of goals.
Stamkos’ first goal of the night was a shorthanded one. At that particular moment in time, Richard Panik sat in the box for 2 minutes for High Sticking, Stamkos and St. Louis made their way down the ice, and Stamkos was able to fire off a shot that made its way between the pipes with assists from the captain Martin St. Louis and defenseman Victor Hedman.
About halfway through the next period, Stamkos would strike again; this time at full strength. The assists on this goal came from assistant captain Matt Carle and left wing Ryan Malone.
The icing on the puck shaped cake came at 12:25 in the third period while Panthers center Jesse Winchester sat in the box for 2 minutes for Hooking, Stamkos was able to make his way down the ice and knock in another, bringing the Bolts up 7-2 with the assists from Sami Salo and Teddy Purcell.
In case you didn’t have the privilege of seeing this live, or even on television, here is a piece by piece look at Steven Stamkos’ hatty from Thursday night at the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
Next, the Tampa Bay Lightning continue their 7-game home stand tonight against Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Be sure to stay up-to-date with all the latest Lightning news and updates with Bolts By the Bay. LIKE us on Facebook at Bolts By The Bay, and you can follow us on Twitter at @BoltsByTheBay.
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With greenDAO 3 released, it’s time again to look at the Android ORM performance landscape and do some benchmarks. This time, we also tested newer ORMs for SQLite like DbFlow, requery, SQLDelight, and SquiDB. Also, we had an extensive look at benchmarks done by others. Let’s get started with our results:
As you can see greenDAO comes in first in for all operations while there is no distinct second place. While this would be easy to claim, we are trying hard to present straight facts here. Objective benchmarks are really difficult to do and we did our best to make this comparison fair. All our benchmarks are open source, so you can verify the procedure for yourselves. Let us know if we can improve.
Other ORM performance benchmarks
Critical minds may still have doubts, which is perfectly understandable because we still might favor a specific product. Granted, so let’s have a look at other popular benchmark projects by Raizlabs and Kevin Galligan.
Benchmarks by Raizlabs
Raizlabs is an interesting case. In early 2015, Raizlabs claimed DbFlow to be the fastest Android ORM. Initially, they did not mention greenDAO at all. Soon, readers left various comments asking about greenDAO. Thus Raizlabs added greenDAO in their benchmark suite, and commented that DbFlow was faster for inserts while greenDAO may have advantages when it comes to loading. Because concrete results still lacked, we ran Raizlab’s benchmarking app with greenDAO included (smaller is better):
Seems like greenDAO comes out fastest right away. A quick look at the code suggests that greenDAO’s time for “Save” might further improve by exchanging the method “insertOrReplace” by just “insert”. But OK, let’s look at the other scenario called “Complex trial”:
Fixing Raizlabs’s “complex trial” benchmark
In this setup, DbFlow is the clear winner, right? But wait a second, why is greenDAO slower than OrmLite? And why is DbFlow loading that fast? It’s time to have a closer look at their code. As it turned out, the “write” test made greenDAO use 101 transactions while the others used just a single one. That makes a big difference, so we fixed it. The results from “load” test are a little harder to understand, but in short, DbFlow already had all entities in memory after insert, so it did not have to load any entity from the database. It’s easy to outperform others by leaps when you are the only one with a nicely filled cache in place. That’s why we filed an issue because we think the test setup does not make sense: either you test caching or loading, but never a mixture. Anyway, it was easy to make greenDAO use its caching mechanisms in their setup. Here are the revised results:
Yep, fixing those seemingly small flaws in the benchmark made a huge difference. In the revised benchmark, greenDAO clearly outperforms DbFlow for saving complex data. And for loading, greenDAO can also reuse previously inserted and thus “cached” entities in memory leading to close-to-zero “load” times.
Benchmarks by Kevin Galligan
Kevin Galligan is a pioneer in the Android ORM world: he’s the developer of the Android Adapter for OrmLite and also made an annotation processing extension for it. He gave a presentation at droidcon UK in late 2015 on Android ORMs accompanied by an blog post diving deeper also on ORM performance. His benchmarks gave a different picture than ours, especially when looking at greenDAO. Let’s look a bit behind the scenes to understand what’s going on.
The benchmarking code came initially from another developer and penalized OrmLite drastically. So Kevin fixed it. Unfortunately, the original code also had a couple of problems regarding greenDAO, which were left unnoticed. We pushed a couple of pull requests to Kevin’s GitHub repository to fix those too:
For batch inserts, the method insertInTx should be used. Doing 1) manual iterations and 2) using the method insertOrReplace instead of just insert is less efficient. (see pull request #2)
Like all other ORMs being tested, greenDAO should also use primitive types in the entity. Wrapper types like Long are somewhat expensive. (see pull request #3)
greenDAO’s optional identity scope introduces a little overhead, which should be switched off in some cases depending on what you compare it with. (see pull request #4)
After those modifications, we got the following results:
In Kevin’s revised benchmark, greenDAO and DbFlow are about the same speed for writing, while greenDAO seems to read data around 20% faster than DbFlow. While still being similar, it does not exactly match our findings. A possible reason could be that we used DBFlow 3.0 while Kevin used 2.0, but we did not take the time to investigate that. So, that is only a speculation.
About our ORM benchmark
Some remarks and additional info about our 2016 edition of our Android ORM performance benchmark:
Benchmarked versions: greenDAO 3.0.1, OrmLite 4.48, DbFlow 3.0.1, SQLDelight 0.4.2, SquiDB 3.0.0, requery 1.0.0-beta23.
The tests were run on a Nexus 5 with Android 6.0.1 (June 2016 patch level).
The values are the average of 8 separate runs
The benchmark code is open source
Last year’s comparison benchmarked greenDAO, ORMLite, and ActiveAndroid. We dropped ActiveAndroid this year, because we think it’s not a good alternative anymore. Its development seems to have stopped and also its results were inferior.
Side note: We used the same hardware like last year. The values for greenDAO and OrmLite remained the same hinting that there were no performance improvements from Android 5.1 (2016) to Android 6.0.1 (2016) done in the internal SQLite version shipping with Android.
Summary
We cannot stress enough how hard it is to make objective performance benchmarks. Even if the benchmarking code is open source (which is great), it may not have been critically reviewed. We did our part and fixed a couple of issues in two other benchmark suites and invite you to do the same. After these revisions, the results are very similar to each other. This similarity should validate each of the (revised) benchmark suites: it is much less likely that three benchmark suites get it wrong.
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世界最強と名高いコピー防止技術「Denuvo Anti-Tamper」（以下、Denuvo）が、Playdead ApSのパズルアドベンチャー『INSIDE』に続いて、Bethesda Softworksのファーストパーソン・シューター『DOOM』からも無効化されたと、海外フォーラムを中心に囁かれている。いずれもゲーム販売元および開発元からの公式声明は出されていないが、コピーガードを除外した背景にはDenuvo社の期間保証が関係しているとの情報がある。両作とも今年8月の段階でクラックされたと報じられていたことから、全く信憑性に欠ける仮説でもなさそうだ。
3か月以内に“割られ”たら代金は無料との噂
「Denuvo」は、オーストリアに拠点を置くソフトウェア会社Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH（以下、Denuvo社）が開発した改ざん防止技術。ゲームソフトを特定のユーザーアカウントと紐付けることでコンテンツの無制限な利用を規制するデジタル著作権管理（通称DRM＝Digital Rights Management）とは異なり、Valve CorporationのSteamやElectronic ArtsのOriginといった、既存のDRMソリューションそのものを保護するようデザインされている。デバッグ作業や逆行分析、実行ファイルの改ざんを防ぐことで、DRMをバイパスできないようさらに強固な守りを提供するのが目的だ。そのため、DRMを組み込まれていないゲームに対しては何ら意味をなさない。
フォーラムサイトNeoGAFに寄せられた情報によると、PC版『DOOM』のユーザーが最新パッチを分析したところ、ゲーム内から「Denuvo」が無効化されていたという。ちなみに、パッチノートに無効化の事実や理由は一切記載されていない。先月には、PC版『INSIDE』からも「Denuvo」が取り除かれたことがパッチノートから判明し、DRMに否定的な多くのユーザーから賞賛の声が寄せられていた。その際も、ゲーム販売元や開発元からは除外の理由や声明は一切出されておらず、DRMフリーでゲームを販売するオンラインストアGOGでリリースされたことが関係しているのではないかという見方に留まっていた。
そもそもPCゲームにコピーガードを施す真の意義は、クラッカーたちに破られるまでの時間を可能な限り引き延ばすことにある。新作タイトルがクラッカーによってことごとく防壁を突破され、発売日を待たずして海賊版が出回ってしまえば、パブリッシャーにとって最も重要な初期の売り上げに少なからず影響を与えかねないからだ。逆に発売から半年以上が経過して、セールスの数字にほとんど変動が見られなくなったタイトルを死守し続ける意味はさほどないと言える。今回「Denuvo」が無効化された2件に関しても、『DOOM』が今年5月、『INSIDE』が今年7月といずれも半年近くが経過している。Denuvo社との契約内容や課金形態は定かではないが、もし継続的なコストが発生していたとしたら契約を終了してプロテクトを解除したとしても何ら不思議な判断ではない。
一方で、ゲーム企業が「Denuvo」を利用する際の保証制度についての噂が浮上している。先日、「Denuvo」を利用する大手ゲームスタジオ勤務のゲーム開発者を名乗るユーザーが、フォーラムサイトRedditにてDenuvo社の期間保証について言及した。同社には、もしゲーム発売から一定期間内にコピーガードが破られた場合、利用料金は一切不要という保証制度があるとのことで、リファンドの条件として「Denuvo」をゲーム内データから削除することが求められるという。なお、保証期間は通常3か月に設定されるようだ。『DOOM』も『INSIDE』も今年8月はじめの時点でクラックされたことが確認されており、返金ポリシーによる無効化説に全く信憑性がないというわけではなさそうだ。
海賊版の撲滅にはほど遠いクラッカー側の猛威
これまでの仮説が真実だったとして、次に気になるのは「Denuvo」の現状と永続性だ。相対費用の観点からトリプルA級タイトルをはじめ一部のゲームにしか導入されていないが、「Denuvo」には何よりも、発売日を待たずして違法コピーがインターネット上に蔓延するPCゲームの“割れ”事情に革命を起こしたという実績がある。今年はじめには、中国のクラッカー集団3DMがスクウェア・エニックスのアクションアドベンチャー『Just Cause 3』に施された「Denuvo」の防壁を突破できない実情から、2年後には世界から海賊版ゲームがなくなるかもしれないという不安感を露わにしたほどだ。なお、翌月には少なくとも1年間はシングルプレイヤーゲームの違法コピーに着手しないことを表明していた。
しかし、こうした実績とは裏腹に「Denuvo」の防壁は決して永久不変というわけではない。2014年12月に、改良される前のプロテクトを一度3DMに突破されたことがある。今年8月には、ブルガリアの“Voksi”が「Denuvo」をバイパスする形で、『Rise of the Tomb Raider』や『Doom』、3DMが大いに手を焼いた『Just Cause 3』へのアクセスに成功している。この時は『Doom』のSteam体験版を用いたループホールを利用する手口だった。いずれもDenuvo社の迅速な対応により穴は塞がれ、完全に突破されたとは言えない状況にあった。そんな中、難攻不落の要塞として存在感を示していた「Denuvo」は、クラッカー集団CONSPIR4CYにより同月中に突破され、発売から半年に渡り守られ続けてきたPC版『Rise of the Tomb Raider』の海賊版が、ついにインターネット上へ出回ることとなった。
ちなみに、『INSIDE』がCONSPIR4CYによってクラックされたのもこの頃である。その際、「Denuvo」の突破に挑み続けてきた“Voksi”は、CONSPIR4CYが「Denuvo」の脆弱性にどこまで迫れているかに言及していた。同グループが「Denuvo」を陥落させたのは明白であり、少なくとも現行バージョンを突破する方法は完全に把握しているだろうと言われていた。特筆すべきは、7月発売の『INSIDE』に実装されていたプロテクトが「Denuvo」の最新バージョンであったことに加えて、リリースからわずか1か月足らずで割られたという事実だ。『DOOM』に関してもタイミング的に発売から3か月以内にクラックされた可能性は否めない。つまり、Denuvo社による期間保証が本当なら、同社は相当の痛手を被ったことになる。また、『INSIDE』で最新のプロテクトを割られたスピードを考えると、今後も「Denuvo」を無効化するケースは十分起こり得る。
もちろん、これらはあくまでも噂に基づいた仮説であり、現状における「Denuvo」の信頼性や無効化の理由は定かではない。余談になるが、先日にはポーランドのゲーム開発スタジオFlying Wild Hogが、同社の新作『Shadow Warrior 2』をDRMフリーで発売した理由を明かし、堅固なプロテクトが逆に作品のクオリティを貶める要因になる可能性を指摘していた。Steamフォーラムにて、決して不正コピーを容認するわけではなく、今のところ消費者に害を及ぼさずに止める手立てがないことは事実であるとコメント。さらなる資金の投入により「Denuvo」を導入することで、正規ユーザーにとってのゲームクオリティを犠牲にしたくないと説明している。事実、メーカーが過剰なコピーガードを施す姿勢に難色を示すユーザーは少なくない。商品価値の追求が海賊版の防止に繋がるとは言えないが、逆に違法コピーの不在が本当にセールス増加へ繋がるかどうかについても、まだまだ議論の余地があることは間違いない。
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MIAMI, February 26 – The Miami HEAT announced today that they have signed forward Michael Beasley to a 10-day contract. Per club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Beasley most recently played in the Chinese Basketball Association, signing a one-year deal with the Shanghai Sharks on Oct. 9, 2014. He averaged 27.1 points, 10.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.92 steals in 37 games while shooting 51.3 percent from the floor. His time with the Sharks was highlighted by capturing MVP honors at the 2015 CBA All-Star Game where he came off the bench to score a CBA All-Star Game record 59 points.
The 6’9 1/2”, 235-pound forward begins his third stint with the HEAT. He was originally drafted by Miami with the second pick of the 2008 NBA Draft and played two seasons with the HEAT before being traded to Minnesota on July 12, 2010. He re-joined the HEAT last season, signing as a free agent on Sept. 11, 2013. Beasley appeared in 55 games (two starts) with the HEAT last season and averaged 7.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 15.1 minutes while shooting 49.9 percent from the floor, 38.9 percent from three-point range and 77.2 percent from the line. In his three seasons as a member of the HEAT he has appeared in 214 games (99 starts) and averaged 12.7 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 24.1 minutes while shooting 46.6 percent from the floor, 34.6 percent from three-point range and 78.34 percent from the foul line.
In addition to his time with the HEAT, Beasley has also played with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns during his six-year NBA career. He has appeared in 409 NBA regular season games (199 starts) and has averaged 13.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 24.9 minutes while shooting 45 percent from the floor, 34.8 percent from three-point range and 75.8 percent from the foul line. In 12 postseason games (five starts), all with Miami, he has averaged 11.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 26.1 minutes while shooting 40.9 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from three-point range and 76.9 percent from the foul line.
Beasley will wear number 30.
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On Tuesday night, Axios reporter Alexi McCammond tweeted out that former NBA star Charles Barkley told her that “I don’t hit women but if I did I would hit you.”
McCammond said Barkley’s comments came after she asked about clarification for which candidate he was supporting in the 2020 Democratic primary.
She says Barkley spoke glowingly about Deval Patrick, but then a member of Pete Buttigieg’s campaign approached the group. When Barkley then said he was a fan of Buttigieg, McCammond pointed out that he had just voiced his support for Patrick. He then made the comment to her.
McCammond also said the comments had been made off the record, an agreement she would normally respect were it not for the nature of those comments.
UPDATE: Barkley has apologized for the comment.
As many online pundits pointed out, Barkley has a troubling history of comments made about violence toward women. Most were couched as jokes, but it’s still a worrying thing that he hasn’t seemed to learn a lesson about this.
McCammond concluded by saying she didn’t like being a part of the story.
“It’s not about me or my feelings,” she tweeted. “But it’s about refusing to allow this culture to perpetuate because of silence on these issues. It’s easier and less awkward to be silent, but that helps NO ONE but the perpetrator.”
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Undo the accidental dismissal of notification cards.
Get more information about watch battery performance including usage by apps and features.
Info about storage space including how much memory is available on the watch.
Though the design of your Moto 360 may be timeless, the software for the watch doesn’t have to be. Instead, it continues to get better and better. Last month we gave you more choice for your Moto 360 including new bands, watch faces, and a new feature called Moto Body . Today, we’re announcing a new update to Android Wear that brings you even more ways to customize your Moto 360 while improving the performance.With this upgrade you can now choose from a variety of beautiful, new third-party watch faces through the Google Play Store, created by designers like Rebecca Minkoff and Xogram. You can even choose a fun watch face from the makers of one of the most popular Android games Plants vs. Zombies. This is in addition to the existing ability to design your own watch face through Moto Connect. Once you receive the update, there will be a link to the watch faces collection in the Android Wear companion app The update also introduces new settings. Swiping down from the top of the screen brings new features like Theatre mode, which turns the display off even when receiving notifications, and Sunlight mode, which temporarily maximizes brightness. You can also manage interruptions and access deeper settings quickly. And if you have a phone running Android 5.0, Lollipop , the choices you make on your Moto 360 automatically change the Interruptions setting on your phone.Here are some of the other highlights you can expect after installing the update:For more information check out the release notes . Or for more on Motorola updates and repairs, visit motorola.com/mymoto360 We are enhancing this most recent update to Android Wear with a new, optimized build that squashes a few bugs. Some users reported that some watch faces appear off center on their Moto 360. This affects users who are using different language settings on their watch and phone. It is now fixed. We are rolling out this update to users in phases, and all users should have it by the end of the week.
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Episode #1 Episode #2 Episode #3 Have you ever wanted to test your Hearthstone knowledge? Do you think you know everything about the cards, interactions and maybe even flavor texts? Then welcome to the first episode of our own Hearthstone Quiz! Each episode is going to feature 9 questions divided into 3 categories – Easy, Medium […]
List of Episodes
Introduction
Have you ever wanted to test your Hearthstone knowledge? Do you think you know everything about the cards, interactions and maybe even flavor texts? Then welcome to the first episode of our own Hearthstone Quiz!
Each episode is going to feature 9 questions divided into 3 categories – Easy, Medium and Hard. It’s not perfect, because question difficulty might be subjective, but we hope that everyone finds some challenges when doing the Quiz.
When it comes to the scoring, you can calculate your own points if you want. It’s not necessary, but if you want to see your score and compare it to other people, here is the deal. Easy questions are worth 2 points, Medium questions 3 points and Hard questions 4 points each! It means that in total, you can score up to 27 points. If the question has more than one part, you need to answer everything correctly to get points.
We’ve also asked some of our pro players to answer the questions, so you can you can compare your answers with theirs. This episode features Hoarth and Kabi.
Let’s start with Hearthstone Quiz #1!
Difficulty: Easy
Question 1. What happens when you use crazed-alchemist crazed-alchemist doomsayer doomsayer
[spoiler title=”Answer to Question 1″]
Hoarth: It dies.
Kabi: Dies unless there is a passive buff aura that would give him an extra life as it gets swapped, like the old blood-imp.
Answer: Since you change the minion’s health to 0, it instantly dies.[/spoiler]
Question 2. When you Silence the ancient-of-war ancient-of-war druid-of-the-claw druid-of-the-claw
[spoiler]
Hoarth: It becomes a 4/6, non taunted.
Kabi: Stays the same minus Taunt, as it is not a buff, but a card replacement.
Answer: When it comes to the Ancient of War, the +5 Attack or Health is considered a buff, thus it goes away when Silenced. With Druid of the Claw, both forms are different minions, not buffs. The Bear Form is a 4/6 minion with Taunt, so it stays a 4/6 and only the Taunt gets removed.[/spoiler]
Question 3. If a minion that already attacked this turn is given Windfury (for example by windspeaker windspeaker enhance-o-mechano enhance-o-mechano
[spoiler]
Hoarth: Yes.
Kabi: Yes.
Answer: Yes, it can. [/spoiler]
Difficulty: Medium
Question 4. Is there a minion that can attack more than 2 times per turn?
[spoiler title=”Answer to Question 4″]
Hoarth: Yes – V-07-TR-0N.
Kabi: Voltron.
Answer: When it comes to collectible minions, there is none. But if you meet the conditions on mimirons-head, at the start of your next turn you spawn v-07-tr-0n – a minion with Mega-Windfury. He is able to attack 4 times per turn. [/spoiler]
Question 5. Does Spell Power (on Paladin’s side) affect damage dealt by the eye-for-an-eye eye-for-an-eye
[spoiler title=”Answer to Question 5″]
Hoarth: No.
Kabi: Yes, damage Secrets are affected by Spell Power. For example, explosive-trap does 3 damage if you have a bloodmage-thalnos in play.
Answer: Since the Secrets are considered Spells, their damage is affected by the Spell Power. What’s worth noting is that the Spell Power bonuses are counted when the Secret is procced, not when it’s used.[/spoiler]
Question 6. Under what conditions a minion with Stealth gets unstealthed – when it receives damage, deals damage or both?
[spoiler title=”Answer to Question 6″]
Hoarth: Deals damage.
Kabi: Minions do not get unstealthed when they take damage, they get unstealthed when they do damage.
Answer: Minions only lose Stealth once they deal damage to something: by attacking it, by being attacked and hitting it back (e.g. by ogre-brute missing the original target and attacking minion in Stealth) or by their effects. Popping a Divine Shield is also considered as dealing damage. So, for example, if you holy-nova enemy stranglethorn-tiger, it stays in Stealth. But if you Stealth your knife-juggler and play another minion, activating the card’s ability, Knife Juggler gets out of Stealth because he has dealt damage with its effect.[/spoiler]
Difficulty: Hard
Question 7. Both you and your enemy are at 1 health with an empty board. You’re out of cards in the deck and will take fatigue damage with next card draw. You drop knife-juggler knife-juggler novice-engineer novice-engineer
[spoiler]
Hoarth: It is a tie.
Kabi: It’s a draw, the juggle will resolve, but so will the Battlecry.
Answer: Both of the actions are triggered when you play a minion – Novice Engineer. It means that minion completely resolves only after both the juggle (dealing 1 damage to enemy) and card draw (taking fatigue damage). By the time the minion is resolved, you and your enemy are dead, so the game ends in a draw, meaning that no one wins it.[/spoiler]
Question 8. When Warrior attacks a minion with a 1/1 gorehowl gorehowl
[spoiler title=”Answer to Question 8″]
Hoarth: It becomes a 0/1, and the Warrior can attack with it again only if he uses something like captain-greenskin.
Kabi: It becomes a 0/1, can’t attack.
Answer: The weapon becomes 0/1, just as the Gorehowl effect states (attack gets reduced by 1). You can’t attack with characters that have 0 attack (minions, Heroes), so the Warrior is unable to attack with it. Only if the weapon gets replaced or the attack gets buffed, the Warrior can attack again. It still, however, counts for the sake of effects that require you to have an equipped weapon – like southsea-deckhand‘s Charge. [/spoiler]
Question 9. Priest steals enemy Warlock’s minion with shadow-madness shadow-madness power-overwhelming power-overwhelming
[spoiler]
Hoarth: It dies.
Kabi: Dies, it says “at the end of the turn” not “your turn”.
Answer: Blizzard never confirmed whether it’s a bug or intended behavior, but the minion actually doesn’t die. “End of turn” in card’s text means “end of owner’s turn” in this context. Priest used Shadow Madness on a minion, then Power Overwhelming. “End of the turn” effects are resolved in the order which they were used. It means that Shadow Madness is resolved first, returning the minion to Warlock. Then, Power Overwhelming doesn’t kill the minion, because the current owner is Warlock, and it’s not the end of his turn yet. Warlock can still attack with the minion one time and only at the end of his turn the minion dies.
EDIT
As it has been found out recently, the outcome depends on whether you are the dominant player or not. I’ve never heard of this before, even though I’ve been reading about the in-game interactions a lot, thus the confusion around the question. You can find out more by watching this video.[/spoiler]
Scoring
Our pro team did pretty well in this episode. The only question that was tough for them was Question 9. But since the interaction might be bugged, making a mistake is understandable. The final score looks as follows:
Closing
That’s it for the first episode of Hearthstone Quiz. I encourage you to share your scores, questions and ideas in the comment section below 🙂
If you have any ideas for questions we can use in future, hit me up at stonekeephs@gmail.com and if they aren’t on my list already, I’ll be sure to add them in future, giving you a credit for coming up with a question.
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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Puts diesel in the truck Pours a glass for himself
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Wellington International Airport has earned itself a reputation for having one of the scariest runways in the world. It sometimes takes pilots multiple bumpy, hair-raising attempts to stick the landing.
Its landing strip, which is nothing more than a short ribbon of asphalt, is flanked by water on either end and streaks through steep, rolling terrain, making it feel as though planes are sure to either plunge into the bay or crash into a hill.
The short runway isn’t the only reason a trip to this airport can be so harrowing. Thanks to its location, Wellington is also incredibly windy. It’s right in the middle of a wind tunnel created by the mountains stretching across the top of the South Island and the bottom of the North Island. Air that would otherwise be blocked by the craggy land gets funneled across the Cook Strait.
These blustery conditions mean planes are in for an extra turbulent landing. The wind isn’t particularly kind to the aircraft, often tossing them about as pilots attempt to hit the pavement as smoothly as possible. Being strapped inside a flying tube of metal as it bops up and down and tumbles side to side while zooming closer to the earth is a heart-racing, stomach-churning adventure. Sometimes the strong winds send planes boomeranging back into the sky seconds after their wheels have hit the ground.
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I have so many leftovers in my fridge I can't fit all these groceries I just bought
130 shares
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LOS ANGELES—United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, during a World Affairs Council event in Los Angeles this past Monday, had a constructive exchange with ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian about the mutual benefits of a U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty.
In response to Hamparian’s question, Secretary Mnuchin explained that the purpose of such accords would be to “make sure that there is no double tax for trade and investment.” He added, “We want to make sure other countries tax our companies fairly when they’re doing business there, and visa-versa.” During recent Congressional testimony, the Secretary committed to devoting Treasury Department resources to pursuing a Tax Treaty with the Republic of Armenia.
“I am pleased that ANCA Chairman Raffi Hamparian and I had a chance to share the advantages of a new U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty with Secretary Mnuchin,” remarked ANCA National Board member Aida Dimejian. “It is crystal clear that Secretary Mnuchin understands the benefits of treating companies fairly with respect to taxation – whether they are conducting business from the United States into Armenia or the other way around,” Dimejian added.
“The ANCA is eager to see concrete progress on a Double Tax Treaty coming out of the much-awaited meeting this March 19th in Washington, DC of the U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement council,” noted Dimejian. “As soon as the terms have been agreed upon – very likely based upon the current U.S. model treaty – and a final accord signed, we look forward to engaging with members of the U.S. Senate, in particular those serving on the Foreign Relations Committee, who are charged, under our Constitution, with ratifying all American treaties.”
Earlier this month, Secretary Mnuchin testified before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee and agreed—in response to direct questioning by Representative Brad Sherman (D-Calif.)—to commit Treasury Department officials to pursue a new U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty, a long-overdue bilateral accord that will remove barriers to the growth of U.S.-Armenia economic relations.
Rep. Sherman was joined by Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.) in collecting the Congressional signatures of their House colleagues on a letter to Secretary Mnuchin in support of the Tax Treaty. He referenced the legislators in his question to the Secretary, asking whether, in response to their calls to action, the Treasury Department would dedicate 28 hours (the number of Congressional signatures collected at that time) to negotiating this agreement. Secretary Mnuchin replied in the affirmative, noting: “Yes, I can commit the 28 hours.”
Video of the exchange between Rep. Sherman and Secretary Mnuchin is available on the ANCA YouTube channel and below:
The Valadao-Sherman letter to Secretary Mnuchin had over 30 Congressional signatures.
In recent weeks, Armenia’s Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan and Finance Minister Vardan Aramyan have each welcomed the opportunity to discuss the US-Armenia Tax treaty during their March meetings with U.S. leaders.
Since the signing of the U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in 2015, the ANCA has worked closely with a broad range of legislators to encourage the Department of Treasury to negotiate a new U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty. In Sept. 2017, the ANCA joined with Paul Korian and Peklar Pilavjian, leading U.S. investors in Yerevan’s landmark Marriott hotel, for a series of Capitol Hill and State Department meetings making the case for an updated compact. Internationally renowned Tufenkian Artisan Carpets; Triada Studio, the Armenia-based creator of the Apple Design Award-winning Shadowmatic Game; and PicsArt, the Yerevan and San Francisco based makers of one of the most popular photo-editing, collage and drawing apps, are among the many firms urging the lifting of barriers to U.S.-Armenia trade through the implementation of a new double tax treaty.
A U.S.-Armenia Double Tax Treaty would establish a clear legal framework for investors and individuals that have business activities in both jurisdictions, preventing double taxation and facilitating the expansion of economic relations. It would also help reinforce the friendship of the American and Armenian peoples, anchoring Armenia to the West, and providing Yerevan with greater strategic options and independence in dealing with regional powers.
The U.S. has double tax treaties with many small countries, including Estonia, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Slovenia. Armenia has double tax treaties with many advanced countries, including Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and the United Kingdom.
For the latest ANCA fact sheet about the benefits of an updated U.S.-Armenia Double Tax treaty, visit https://anca.org/taxtreaty.
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Photo: BIRN
The new Mayor of Skopje, Petre Silegov, who was elected in October, has said he has ordered the removal of three imitation galleons from the Vardar river – installed by the previous government – for safety reasons.
“The ‘ships’ hinder the normal water flow and, if the water level rises, it could result in spillage,” Silegov told TV 24.
“The most interesting part is that these three objects are listed as urban equipment in the city documents, although they are several storeys tall,” Silegov noted, not revealing when the removal of the sailing ships would start.
The construction of the three imitation old-world ships in the middle of the river in Skopje began in 2012 as part of the former government sponsored “Skopje 2014” revamp of the capital, which involved the participation of the previous city administration led by Koce Trajanovski. Originally, six ships were planned.
Both the national government and city were then led by the now ousted right-wing VMRO DPMNE party, which held power from 2006 until May this year.
Despite being styled ships, in reality they are ship-shaped buildings, with foundations laid deep in the river bed. They currently operate as restaurants and cafes, with one offering hotel beds.
In line the rest of the city makeover, which sprinkled faux-Baroque facades over the city centre, the ships were designed to appeal to the past, replicating the multi-decked wooden sailing ships, dating primarily from the 16th to 18th centuries, before the invention of steam ships.
However, many people criticized the idea of locating galleons in the heart of the city, in a river that is not used for sailing, known also for sudden rises in the water level during the winter and spring.
The announced removal of the galleons comes after the new Social Democrat-led government was elected in May, and just a month after it humiliated VMRO DPMNE in the October local polls, snatching a convincing victory in the capital as well.
The new government and the new Skopje mayor, who comes from the ranks of the Social Democrats, SDSM, have vowed to look again at the costly and controversial revamp, which a BIRN database showed swallowed almost 700 million euros.
Currently, the construction of many other Skopje 2014 structures is under investigation and revisions by government, municipal and even legal authorities, seeking evidence of possible criminal activity.
Even the fate of the centerpiece of the entire project, the equestrian statue of Alexander the Great, is now uncertain.
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Balance Changes with Patch 2.13
With the release of Patch 2.13 for The Elder Scrolls: Legends, we will make balance changes to two existing cards: Alfiq Conjurer and Luzrah gro-Shar. As with past balance changes, we will credit your account with Soul Gems for each copy of a changed card you own (up to three) the next time you log in to Legends within the next three weeks.
ALFIQ CONJURER
Stats changed from 3/4 to 3/3
LUZRAH GRO-SHAR
Text changed from “When you summon a creature with 6 cost or more, both Luzrah and that creature gain +2/+2” to “When you summon a creature with 6 cost or more, both Luzrah and that creature gain +1/+1”
When we designed Moons of Elsweyr and had the latest batch of balance changes, one of our primary goals was to increase the viability of midrange decks. We believe that, for the most part, we’ve succeeded in this - there’s now a healthy mix of control, aggro and midrange across both ladder and tournament play. However, the Intelligence core of Atronachs and Wards has been more prevalent than we hoped, as it currently sees play in almost every deck that isn’t aggressive.
Our goal with this patch is to bring back some diversity in the builds of midrange and control that can be played. To do this, we’re reducing the power level of Alfiq Conjurer and Luzrah gro-Shar, which are both cards that top the most played and the most successful cards lists.
Since we believe the metagame is in a healthy position and the issue is an overrepresentation of these cards specifically, we’ve opted for a small nerf rather than the radical changes we’ve had in the past - we believe that, in conjunction, they might open the door to some different flavors of both midrange and control as viable alternatives, while making sure the Intelligence decks they were based around can still exist.
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Spoilers for Archer, up through the Season 9 premiere, below.
FX and the creators of Archer brought a special treat to New York Comic Con 2017: the premiere episode of Archer Season 9, another anthology-style departure for the show. The season's been dubbed "Danger Island," and it sees the core characters re-imagined as the owners and managers of an island-based hotel and charter plane company.
Despite being slightly unfinished--the episode ran with time codes flashing along the bottom--the premiere delighted the audience at the Hammerstein Ballroom with everything Archer fans have come to expect. That includes Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) sleeping around and ruining lives, irresponsible firearm use, Aisha Tyler owning every scene she's in, dysfunctional relationships between family members and co-workers, cameos from actors like Eugene Cordero and Jon Daly, and copious amounts of drinking.
But it didn't answer Archer fans' most urgent question: Is Archer still in a coma?
As a re-imagining of Archer's core characters and settings, Archer: Danger Island may take place in an alternate timeline, in Archer's coma dreams, or somewhere we can't even imagine. (Although the show's co-executive producer, Casey Willis, dropped a big hint later in the panel: "Being in his coma subconscious, all the people that he cares about are what shows up," he said.) But its premiere episode, at least, doesn't address Sterling Archer's fate, seemingly leaving the main series' story on the backburner for another season.
Archer Executive Producer Matt Thompson took the stage after the episode and explained why the show's creators have leaned into these anthology seasons, which let them explore new stories outside the spy genre. "We kind of learned a little bit when we did the cocaine season," Thompson said.
"Archer: Vice," Tyler, who plays an island princess in the new season, interjected, laughing. "We shouldn't call it the cocaine season."
"What it did, really, was re-energized us," Thompson resumed. "I don't watch a lot of TV shows that are in their ninth season, because at some point, for me, the storylines kind of run themselves out."
"It's exciting for us as creators because I'm not just trying to figure out how to tell you another spy story today," he continued. "And I think my partner, Adam Reed, just couldn't bring himself to writing another season of a spy thing."
"We may have lost some viewers," Thompson admitted.
"But f*** those guys!" Tyler exclaimed. The crowd erupted.
Whatever Archer's creators may prefer, it's clear that the show's viewers are as eager for the main story to resume as they are to find out what Danger Island has in store. As soon as the panel opened to audience questions, Thompson had to acknowledge whether the show will ever get back to reality.
"We're going back to all that. We're gonna get to everything--hopefully," Thompson promised. "We won't leave it hanging."
Archer: Danger Island sees Sterling Archer, his mother, Jessica Walter's Malory, and a new, more muscular version of Pam (Amber Nash) running an island hotel and charter plane company somewhere in French territory. Cheryl (Judy Greer) plays a newlywed who sleeps with Archer, ruining her marriage, while Tyler plays a savvy island princess trying to convince Chris Parnell's new character--whose name seems to rhyme with "Ducks"--to purchase land within the island's dangerous jungle. And Lucky Yates' Dr. Krieger has transformed into a parrot named Crackers--about which Yates shared a fun story.
"When I was three years old, my parents were still trying to potty-train me, so they bribed me with a parakeet," Yates said. "They told me if I pooped into the potty they'd get me a parakeet, and I was on the sh**ter within five minutes dropping a sweet deuce." They followed through, and he named the bird Crackers. His character in Danger Island was named in that parakeet's honor.
Another audience member brought up the possibility of an Archer movie.
"Anything could happen, right? We just need to talk to the right people at FX," Willis, one of the show's executive producers, said, half-joking--given how many executives from FX were likely present.
"I heard Harvey Weinstein might not be doing anything," he added.
Archer returns with Archer: Danger Island some time in 2018.
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Level-5 is releasing the sequel to their critically acclaimed RPG, Ni no Kuni. With a story written by Akihiro Hino, characters designed by Yoshiyuki Momose, and music composed by Joe Hisaishi, this game looks to be shaping up to be pure magic.
While the game might be magic, this game is based on betrayal. You play as Evan, son of the King of Ding Dong Dell, who gets ousted from his kingdom by a violent coup at the hands of a mangy rat.
While it’s a painful experience for Evan, he doesn’t have the right to actually become king until he earns it. This is done through completing the Trial of Courage and gaining a kingmaker. In Evan’s case, this is the mascot character Lofty, and by forging this Kingsbond he gains the right to lead a kingdom.
We got a chance to get our hands on a demo of the game and I’ll tell you honestly: I had a great time! The demo that we played focused on a boss fight against an enemy kingmaker that was significantly stronger than Evan. In order to combat this situation, we needed to understand not only the layout of the field, but the locations of our allies.
In this game you have a great number of small allies called Higgledies that are integral to your success. These are elemental spirits that remind me of the forest spirits in Princess Mononoke.
These spirits augment your offensive, defensive, and even magical abilities. From what I’ve seen, on the battlefield there are at least 25 of these little guys at the same time and they group up together according to their elements.
Groups of these Higgledies will eventually grant you a boost such as a heightened defense, or even a quick heal that made this “impossible fight” just pretty difficult. The main character also can use the Higgledies to add an elemental effect onto his own skills.
Each group has their own element and being around a specific element when using your skills will add their element onto your attack. It forces the player to have a keen presence of the battlefield, and I feel it’s going to be a very fun addition to an already interesting combat system.
Now combat is focused on long range and short range mechanics. Long range utilizes spells that can either be shot quickly for practically no damage or charged for a significant amounts of damage. Short Range combat is focused on quick and strong attacks.
Sadly these attacks can’t be used in combos with each other, and trying to dodge out, at least from my experience doesn’t even work if you’re in the middle of an attack. This got Michael into a bit of trouble when he got locked into a move without a chance to block a massive area of effect attack.
Outside of combat, we did get a sneak peak on another new bit of gameplay, although we didn’t actually get a chance to record it.
This new mode is called Kingdom mode. In this mode, Evan is tasked with making his own kingdom. While he may earn the right to be a king throughout the game, he still doesn’t technically have a kingdom anymore.
In order to build his kingdom up, he must build relationships with people from various cities and ask them to join his kingdom, which is something reminiscent of the Suikoden series. The people he manages to convince to join his kingdom will help him throughout his quest.
The characters that you recruit help you gather resources, and might even help you in battle. Judging by the gameplay, in Kingdom mode there will be an RTS mini-game of some sort. It is fairly cute with chibi-like characters, and you will be able to command the characters you’ve gathered in this mini-game to gather resources and help you in battle.
Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom was very fun to play. The combat was engaging and the game forced me to think a little more than I normally would in an action RPG. If this is what we’ll be getting in the full game, everyone is in store for a great experience!
Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom is launching on November 10th for PC and PlayStation 4. Stay tuned to our feed and make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for all our upcoming videos!
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Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The training center has a warehouse feel, with exposed ductwork and cinder block walls. Box fans are blowing on a midsummer's day, but the thick air does not seem to move.
Steve Smith Sr. wears a cotton hoodie soaked through with sweat, and his skin looks like it's slathered in baby oil. In between most sets, he bends over, hands on knees. After one set, he lies on his back on the floor.
Time to go again—one-legged jumps on black Styrofoam blocks. He gets about halfway through the set and abruptly stops. He gives his trainer a look and walks swiftly out the open garage door, onto the dock. The rap music is loud but not loud enough to drown out the sound of retching.
Smith spends about a minute at the edge of the dock, aiming for a patch of weeds below. Then he walks back, wipes his face, gargles with water, gathers himself and takes a big gulp of Gatorade. He's ready to start again.
This isn't the first time this summer he could not keep his breakfast where it belonged. In fact, he admits, it's the third or fourth.
"It happens with competitive people who push themselves," Smith's trainer, Daniel Ancheta, says.
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"I know I've turned the corner when I puke," Smith says.
He expected that trying to come back from a career-threatening injury at the age of 37 would be difficult. So why does he push himself so far? With all he has accomplished, why not spare his mind and body and just call it a career?
"I wouldn't say the ability to overcome things is important to me," Smith says. "I'd say it's been the difference between life and death for me."
This is about being true to himself—and learning everything that means.
Smith's memory of the injury, sustained in November against the Chargers: He caught a pass, then felt a pull in the back of his leg, and then, "It was like my foot had no power. It was flapping." Then he went down, thinking dark thoughts. The trainers came running.
"What's the matter?" one said.
"I think I tore my Achilles," Smith said.
"Roll over, let's see," the trainer said, examining his right leg.
And then, in a whisper, "I think he's right."
Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports
Smith draped a towel over his head, put his arms around the shoulders of trainers and hopped off the field.
It wasn't supposed to end that way.
He had a double rupture of his Achilles—an injury that his surgeon, renowned Charlotte orthopedist Robert Anderson, would later tell him was the first double rupture he ever had seen.
During surgery, the damage was photographed.
What did it look like?
"Raw, shredded chicken," Steve’s wife, Angie, says.
"Either the beginning or the end of something," Steve says.
On that day in November, it seemed to be the end—and not the ending Smith had intended.
The 2015 season was supposed be a celebration for Smith of the completion of a 15-year career. It was supposed to end with a bow, not his body looking like shredded chicken.
After some reflection, Smith decided he did not want his magnificent career to end that way. He would attempt a comeback at the age of 37.
If you have lasted in the NFL as long as Smith has, you know injuries. He previously had a sprained PCL. He has broken his arm, his neck, his leg and a few fingers. There was one documented concussion and some bad hamstring injuries. But this was unlike any of those.
The pain was unbearable. With past injuries, Smith would be on pain meds for a day or two, then graduate to over-the-counter anti-inflammatories. This time, he took Oxycontin for about 12 days.
Jordan Strauss/Associated Press
"After surgery, he would just say, 'Give me more,'" Angie says. "He was kind of out of it."
Finally, Smith didn't want to feel so drowsy, so he went cold turkey with the meds.
"The day I stopped, about midday I started to get ornery," Smith says. "I got a headache. It was my body craving the medication. I was having withdrawal symptoms."
He opened the bottle of Oxycontin and dumped the pills in the toilet.
For two months, Smith could not bear weight on his right leg. He got around on a knee scooter initially. Then crutches with a boot. Then one crutch. And there were heel lifts. Each week, he was allowed to peel off a layer of the lift. Eventually, he was left with orthotics.
A father of four, Smith was learning a new meaning of "baby steps."
One week before he was pushing forward despite retching into the weeds, Smith wanted to pack up his gym bag and go home. About halfway through a workout, he turned to Ancheta and said, "Screw this manure." Or something like that.
And he went on. "I'm tired. I can see why guys get to a certain age, they say screw it. I'm not just training to not look fat. I'm training to play in 20 games, to run from other men who are trying to bodyslam me and hurt me. I ain't got to do this. Why am I doing this? I don't have anything to prove to anybody."
His reaction was raw and unfiltered. Smith has rarely been known to hide his feelings.
He started thinking. He has a house in California rented for next offseason. Why wait? He could be on the beach. Toes in the sand.
Smith says he's never had those feelings before. Then again, he's never been 37 before. He's never tried to come back from a torn Achilles before.
So what did he do when he was done venting? Completed the workout.
Smith felt he had been running out of steam before he tore his Achilles. For 216 games, he has competed at a level few could match, throwing around his 5'9" body as if it were covered in armor. Pound for pound, he unquestionably has been one of the NFL's toughest men. "A notorious badass," is how Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway describes him.
Steve Smith Sr. regular-season stats Year Tm Rec Yds TD 2001 CAR 10 154 0 2002 CAR 54 872 3 2003 CAR 88 1,110 7 2004 CAR 6 60 0 2005 CAR 103 1,563 12 2006 CAR 83 1,166 8 2007 CAR 87 1,002 7 2008 CAR 78 1,421 6 2009 CAR 65 982 7 2010 CAR 46 554 2 2011 CAR 79 1,394 7 2012 CAR 73 1,174 4 2013 CAR 64 745 4 2014 BAL 79 1,065 6 2015 BAL 46 670 3 Career 961 13,932 76 pro-football-reference.com
But no man, Smith is learning, has an unlimited supply of fury.
"The Steve Smith Sr. the Baltimore Ravens have is not the same player the Carolina Panthers had," he says.
What he was, Smith will tell you, really doesn't matter now. All that matters is what he is.
He will not delude himself, as most aging athletes do. Smith acknowledges that he's not going to be the same player physically that he was when he was named to five Pro Bowls. But he believes he does have enough athletic juice to keep playing and that his understanding of the game and passion will help him overcome whatever is missing.
Emotion has been a big part of Smith's play, and it has been a big part of his rehab as well.
"When you are young and get hurt, you feel like you can just blow through it," Smith says. "When you are older, you overthink everything, overanalyze. You run the numbers, do the percentages in your head. You start to psych yourself out. You lose the belief in your ability because of your age.
"Age sometimes is more powerful in how we look at things than how we are physically feeling. I realized how negative we can be as we become older. I had to really fight that a lot. I was telling myself, 'I'm too old to come back.' I didn't sleep well."
There were questions. What if I come back only halfway to where I was? How will this affect me long term? Will I be able to play basketball with the kids?
And there were tears.
It was especially difficult before he was ambulatory, when he needed help to do everything—even sitting on a toilet. At times, his wife says, Smith kept to himself and didn't say much about what he was feeling. At other times, he snapped at her when she tried to help him.
Frustration, fear and boredom did not mix well.
"Early on," Angie says, "it seemed like a big mountain to climb."
Smith acknowledges he still has moments of doubt. But he does not fear failing. "I'm playing with house money now, and I ain't got nothing to lose," he says.
To pass the time, Smith watched Netflix. He breezed through three seasons of Gotham. Then there was Daredevil. Video games made the days go by. A little Mad Max, some Madden and FIFA.
Then there was an airplane game he played mostly because his toddler son, Deuce (Stevonne Jr.), enjoyed watching him from his lap while he played it. That gave him joy.
Perspective can be attained in many ways.
"Great work this past week," the email from Ravens trainer Sam Bell begins. "You accomplished a lot in a small amount of time."
Bell outlines goals for Smith and an overall short-term plan. He continues: "I have attached a workout program for the next week and will send you a progression when I hear how you have tolerated the exercises. The exercises have been adjusted minimally, however, the frequency has increased significantly. Use your orthotics in every shoe you wear. … Plan on rehabbing daily with Sunday completely off. … This can be adjusted based on your pain, stiffness or soreness. As usual, if there are any questions, feel free to contact me."
Four attachments outline the exercises Smith should do Monday and Thursday, exercises he should do Tuesday and Friday and exercises he should do Wednesday and Saturday, as well as his daily cardio requirements.
The attachments go into great detail. On the Tuesday/Friday list, there are 25 exercises listed. The number of sets and repetitions for each is specified.
Smith talks of "embracing the grind" of rehab. And this clearly is a grind. Whether he is with his team in Owings Mills, Maryland, back home in Charlotte or even on a business trip somewhere else, Smith is dripping sweat and breathing hard. He also is getting physical therapy, muscle massage and laser treatment to break up scar tissue.
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
"At the level he is at, everyone is an elite athlete," Ancheta says. "When you see someone like him push that threshold, you understand why he has lasted and why he has been so successful."
Smith is good at a lot of things. Especially, he is good at surviving. He is quick to tell you he should not be in the NFL today. He's too old. He's too short. He's too volatile. He's too much of a product of his rough upbringing in West Los Angeles.
Seventy-three players were chosen ahead of him in the 2001 draft, 72 of whom are out of the league. He has outlasted all but Drew Brees. Initially, he was supposed to be a return man only—not a wide receiver. He was called injury-prone early in his career. Late in his career, the only team he knew for 13 years fired him.
And now this.
One more thing to overcome.
On the day Smith's stomach objected to the intensity of his workout, Ancheta says he saw some explosiveness in Smith's movements that he had not previously seen.
His Achilles is sore from fatigue, but it isn't painful. It looks like more of a problem than it actually is, as the muscle around the tendon has atrophied considerably. Smith calls the calf on his left leg the "American calf," and the calf on his right "the calf you can feed for 36 cents a day."
As for training camp, he probably will sit out most, if not all, of it. Smith was placed on the physically unable to perform list in late July. What he would love more than anything is to lie in the August weeds and then pounce when the regular season begins. But the day in front of him is the only one that matters now.
"I have the propensity to think about September," Smith says. "But if I do that, I'll go down a path mentally that isn't very good for me."
Smith has come a long way. And he has a long way to go.
Sometimes, where you are going isn't as important as where you are.
Down the stairs of his suburban Charlotte home, Smith walks past the trophy cases. Past the Pro Bowl jersey, the Panthers jersey, the Ravens jersey, the photo of him with former college and pro teammate Jordan Gross, the football he caught for his first NFL touchdown and the ball he caught for his Super Bowl touchdown.
Into the workout room. Smith slips off his shorts. He puts on a pair of special shorts made for an anti-gravity treadmill. Then he steps into the apparatus, zipping himself in. Soon, his lower body is in a bubble, and he is running at a reduced body weight.
The high-tech treadmill was a costly but worthwhile rehab tool for Smith, a way to run in place to get to where he wants to go.
The Ravens were 5-11 last season. Smith feels an obligation to try to help them turn it around. They need him. Head coach John Harbaugh values his leadership, and Smith wants to provide both direction and production for his team.
Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports
And what Smith wants as much as anything is a chance to appreciate the sunset of his career. For most of his football life, he has been too obsessed and focused to appreciate everything around him.
During those days last winter when he was homebound, Smith read a lot. A friend recommended God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours. The author, Regina Brett, shares the story of how it took a diagnosis of breast cancer for her to start enjoying life.
"I was at the point where I was thinking, 'Life sucks,'" Smith says. "When I read it, it gave me perspective. I stopped complaining."
When Smith was a kid in L.A., he rode the bus through the dirty streets in the hood to get to his job at Taco Bell on Pico and Bundy and then to his other job at the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier. He would occasionally get a glimpse of the Pacific Coast Highway and all the beautiful people in their fancy cars who drove on it. That's where he always wanted to be. Getting there was his overarching goal.
"For me," Smith says, "The PCH is the NFL." He finally made it there in 2001. But it has taken him 16 years to realize the gratification he has felt wasn't from getting there. It was from being there.
It was from taking in the bends and the bridges. The rock formations. Sunsets you could never find in an art gallery. The smell of the ocean. A warm breeze on an arm out the window.
Now, Smith wants to make sure he has time to spend with that rookie who has questions for him. He wants to remember to joke with the guys. He wants to foster relationships. He wants to appreciate this special organization that he is a part of and make it better in ways big and small.
Not long ago Smith was having a conversation with Ravens receivers coach Bobby Engram and teammate Mike Wallace. Engram and Wallace told Smith before he retires, they want to help him get a Super Bowl ring. The Panthers lost in Smith's only Super Bowl appearance in 2004.
Smith's response: "If I win a Super Bowl or don't, life doesn't change. What's more valuable to me is all the blessings I've had, the people who invested in me that I never would have known if I wasn't on this road. So to be honest, f--k that ring. I've gained so many more things doing it this way."
That is not to say playing for a Super Bowl winner wouldn't be the fairy tale. Or winning Comeback Player of the Year wouldn't be awesome. Or making an irrefutable final argument that he is Hall of Fame-worthy wouldn't be fantastic.
But if he never plays another snap in the NFL, well, it's been one hell of a ride.
You might say he could have done without these last nine months. He would say this time has given him a wisdom he will carry with him the rest of his days.
With one leg about half the size of the other, Steve Smith Sr. finally realized this isn't about a destination. It's about a journey.
Dan Pompei covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter at @danpompei.
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U.S. oil prices surged 5.18 percent on Wednesday after the U.S. government reported a surprise draw in domestic crude stockpiles.
Crude stocks fell 4.9 million barrels last week as refineries continued to hike output and imports dropped, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected inventories to hit record highs for an eighth straight week with a build of 3.2 million barrels. U.S. crude futures settled at $37.75 a barrel, up $1.86, or 5.18 percent. International Brent futures rose $1.91 to $39.76 a barrel.
U.S. crude futures found additional support from TransCanada Corp's delayed restart of its 590,000 barrel per day Keystone pipeline that delivers crude to Cushing and Illinois.
U.S. futures' front-month was at its narrowest discount in three weeks to the second month following the outage. Brent was also underpinned by planned maintenance works at Norway's Ekofisk and Britain's Buzzard oil fields. The rally represented a sentiment shift in oil after last week's 7 percent drop in U.S. crude futures and 4 percent in Brent amid worries the global glut in oil was growing again while producing countries' plans to freeze output would fail. The EIA also reported that gasoline stocks rose for the first time in six weeks, potentially snapping a pillar of support to U.S. crude prices. Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for U.S. crude futures, another key data point, also rose. But traders chose to focus on more bullish aspects of the inventory report like the crude draw and the drop in crude imports of nearly 450,000 bpd. "I think the market is more about the total change in (crude) inventories, rather than individual components," said Scott Shelton, energy broker with ICAP in Durham, North Carolina. "It's the first week of the second quarter and we have a net draw. That will force the bears to rethink their bearish balances for Q2." Refinery runs rose by almost 200,000 bpd as utilization rates rose 1 percentage point.
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Watch PPT about Tech Support for HP Printers. We provide HP Printer Support Service using Number +1-877-301-0214 for HP Printer Repair, Ins... See More
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The Sounders Academy U-16 and U-18 teams will kick off their first home matches of 2017 this weekend at Starfire Sports against Portland Timbers Academy. Supporters are encouraged to attend the match and cheer on the young Sounders as both squads look to extend their unbeaten run against Timbers.
Both matches will be played at Starfire Sports located in Tukwila, Washington, on Field 11 on Saturday, January 21. The U-18s will kick-off at 1:00 p.m. PT, while the U-16s will take the field at 3:30 p.m. PT.
After a lengthy winter break, the oldest members of the youth system will look to kick off the first home stand of 2017 with a pair of wins over their local rivals.
The U-18s toppled the Timbers by a score of 2-1 in an exciting end-to-end affair back in October. Both teams carved out a number of goal-scoring opportunities, only to be denied by individual heroics from their respective goalkeepers. Sounders winger Shandon Hopeau secured the victory over Portland with a pair of long-range efforts that flew into the bottom corner.
Later that day, the U-16s completed the sweep with an exciting 3-2 win over Portland. Goals from Azriel Gonzalez, Dylan Tevez and Keeton Heggerness allowed the the young Sounders to complete the sweep.
Nine days later, the U-16s faced Portland once more in the first round of Generation adidas Cup Qualifying. Seattle opted for a young squad and started four standouts from the U-14s against Timbers. The kids stepped up and showcased the team's offensive fire power with a 4-0 victory. In just his third start for the U-16s, striker Alfonso Ocampo Chavez (U-14) tallied a hat trick in his first match against Portland.
Three of the four U-14 players that started in the 4-0 win over Timbers -- Danny Robles, Josh Atencio and Alfonso Ocampo Chavez -- earned their first United States U-15 Youth National Team invites within a month of their impressive displays at GA Cup.
If you just can’t wait for the 2016-17 MLS season to watch the Sounders, come out and support the future of the club as they take on their Cascadia rivals!
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Chapter 67: Victory
"The Black Library is a place of maddened laughter and horrible, chilling sanity." - Inquisitor Bronislaw Czevak
The eldar landing craft sped towards the Black Library, humming over mile after mile of glittering ruins. It had parked itself atop the corpse of a great city, one that had long ago faded from glory. The Void-Whisper hovered atop them, the last familiar sight in the Webway to Yang.
It was far too quiet inside the craft. The kasrkin were moments away from vomiting, and they kept looking at the Black Library as if a tendril would snap out and claim them all.
Considering just how alien the eldar seemed right about now, Yang couldn't blame them. In fact, she felt a measure of trepidation herself. The Library was so massive, it seemed to be an act of nature rather than something artificial, a planet rendered into the form of a ship by the gods of time, tectonic might, and haunting ethereal beauty.
Even Amat seemed awed, his neck craning to take in the entirety of the primordial craftworld. He straightened his bomber's jacket, carefully aligning the wool collar. Yang didn't know why he decided to wear it, but it made her smile regardless.
The war-party was no less agitated, fidgeting and sharing furtive glances. Only Lossamdir seemed at peace. They all nearly jumped when a pair of fliers descended upon them, all-black slivers of night that danced about them with preternatural grace. Escorts.
Yang couldn't shake off the feeling that they were laughing at her.
"Any last words of wisdom?" She asked the eldar.
"A few," Garnet said, surprising her. She'd not expected a response.
"Like what?"
"We are here to fulfill a mission," he said. "Let us obtain the information we need and leave with all available haste."
"On that, xenos, we can agree," Darron said, resting his hellgun against his shoulder. For once, Yang didn't want to pick a fight with the grizzled Captain - especially now that they wore their grimm-masks. Probably an effort to appear menacing, even if the kasrkin were ignorant of what grimm-masks truly meant.
Yang rolled her shoulders, armored in simple flak plating. She didn't know what lay within the Black Library, but she hoped it at least had information on the Chariot. Otherwise, they had wasted valuable time.
Amat fell still, but Yang knew he was praying - silent behind his spy mask.
"Yang," Garnet said, turning to face her with a flourish of his warlock's cape. "There is something else you must know."
"What's up?"
"It is very rare for humans to gain admission to the Black Library, much less those that are psykers. The Harlequins that guard it are unpredictable yet stringent - be careful not to offend them. I saw the fate of Galaxy tied to you and what transpires here. Care must be taken."
Yang nodded. She'd be on her best behavior. If not, she always had Amat to help her through.
"And us?" Chera said.
"You will not be granted entrance," Garnet replied. "And before you raise an indignant cry, know that the rest of the war-party will not either. I pray to Isha that any of us are."
Yang's fingers tightened around her power sword. It was just like her to risk everything like this, on a desperate gambit. Even more like Pyrrha, putting everything on some nebulous 'destiny'. Garnet was truly his mother's son.
Fitting, I suppose.
"Thirty seconds to docking," the pilot said. Yang stretched her neck and cracked her knuckles. She didn't want a fight, but it wouldn't do to be unprepared - no matter what Garnet said. Amat unslung his rifle and nestled it against his shoulder. Only one round sat in the chamber, the one meant for her. She patted his back, and he nodded.
The landing craft jostled as it attached itself to the Black Library. Even the esoteric eldar ships couldn't land with perfect smoothness, a small comfort in the face of the Black Library. With a subdued hiss, the bay doors opened, revealing a long hallway wrought from transparent crystal and veins of ebony.
Yang was the first one to disembark, her face set in a resolute grimace. Amat followed. Each step felt... odd, like the surface they walked on was barely present. Below her, she could see the ruins of the ancient city, desolate and bleak.
At the end of the hallway lay a wraithbone bulkhead, stained black instead of the cream-white corridors of the Void-Whisper.
Deep breath, Yang. It's gonna be fine. You came here for a reason, after all.
When they reached the bulkhead, it slid open to reveal a Harlequin, one of the Black Library's guardians. He was tall, a full head larger than Lossamdir. His face was concealed behind a fluorescent white clown-mask, one with a smile that reached its ears and teeth the size of Yang's hand. An orange mohawk sprouted from his scalp, with a braid long enough to reach the checkered print that painted his leggings.
He was one of the most truly alien things Yang had ever seen.
"Is this the right place?" She asked, a joke that came across far too breathlessly. The Harlequin sniggered.
"Ooh, yes yes, you must the one called Yang Xiao Long?"
"I am," she said, straightening her back.
"Follow then, follow follow. Humans in the library, whatever will Master Cegorach say?"
A rhetorical question, one she didn't want to know the answer to - Garnet had told her of Cegorach, the eldar Laughing God, and the stories didn't settle her stomach. Instead of replying, she followed Garnet's example, remaining as stoic and driven as possible.
The Harlequin led them to a great entrance hall, one full of elegant statues depicting... well, Yang didn't know what they were. Eldar presumably, but too large and stylized. She preferred not knowing. The vaulted ceiling was invisible, shrouded by a blanket of false stars and shimmering auroras. Several other Harlequins fell into step with their guide, emerging from nothingness as if they belonged to it.
Silently enough to unnerve Maion.
Their guide stopped before the Library's true entrance, a colossal wraithbone work nearly four stories tall, engraved with scenes Yang didn't recognize. Even still, their gravity was apparent, the twisted, anguished faces of the figures evidence of apocalyptic suffering.
Noiselessly - a ludicrous notion for a door of that size - the entrance parted, just wide enough to fit a single figure through. He was smaller than the Harlequin that greeted them, as if his back was hunched. Unlike his compatriots however, he wore no gaudy mask or outlandish garments - he was clad in the blackest garb Yang had ever seen, his clothes dark enough to bend reality around them and render his true form unknowable. And his face... his face was devoid of makeup or decoration, a simple, honest face that seemed to exist solely to spite the madness surrounding it.
"Hi," he said simply, as if greeting a friend for lunch. The sound seemed to echo all around them, like he spoke in stereo. "Hello to all and sundry, and welcome to the Black Library. You bring an unusual number of humans with you, surely you do not wish them admission too?" He stalked towards them, an ebony river in fluid motion. Yang watched him closely, desperate to detect his intent or even gain a single clue about him.
"These ones have not mastered the chaos within their hearts, seen the breadth of the universe laid bare in its component parts."
"Who are you?" Garnet asked calmly. "We have been guided here, after all."
"I am the one known as Duulamor," the Harlequin said, "and it is my turn to guard our sacred door." His eyes took in the full measure of Garnet. "You are Smiling Garnet, a guise worn by a wounded heart. A heart that weeps with shame for what it has done, yet seeks answers for questions not yet won." Garnet gnawed on his lip, but did not reply.
"And you, Obsidian," Duulamor said, circling Lossamdir. "Most serious of the Soul-Wielder's spawn, trapped within an exarch's skin. Yes, yes, a truly curious lot that stands before me," he said, before erupting into maddened giggles. "A beautiful assortment, if only you could see."
"We need information," Yang said, stepping forwards. "The Chariot of Salvation. We need to find it before Josephus does."
At this, Duulamor cocked his head. He swooped towards her, before Amat stood in his way, exitus rifle braced.
"No need for that, Amat of the painted mind," Duulamor crooned, "military brat turned assassins' kind," he finished, his scarlet eyes boring into the assassin.
Yang rested a hand on Amat's leather-clad shoulder. And though he relaxed, his rifle did not waver.
"As much as I would like to sit around and play rhyming games," Yang said. "You've called us here for a reason."
"Strange of you, Yang Xiao Long, to speak of reasons, of purposes beyond your ken or quest, yes, quite, what an exquisite jest, one even Master Cegorach would enjoy, yes, yes he might."
Yang frowned. Whatever game Duulamor was playing, it was beyond her. Yet she could feel the sting of his words, words that sat ill within her.
"In truth," the Harlequin continued, "you care little about Josephus or his machinations, tiny agitations in the grand scheme that is the song of your life, mere mites that scrabble along the surface of a soul that is barely your own."
"Then what am I doing here?" Yang asked, deliberately ignoring his comment on her soul. "This isn't exactly an ideal vacation spot, you know."
"You'd be surprised," Duulamor said, waggling his finger at her like a didactic parent might. "Knowledge is precious food for one's young mind." He stooped low, past Amat and his rifle, close enough so that she could smell the Harlequin's breath. It reeked not of food, nor any mortal odor. It was something... else. Like laughing gas or cyanide, or rose petals, or-
Yang grimaced, but did not flinch away from the Harlequin. He was trying to fuck with her mind, or was doing so unconsciously, or was I?
"What? What's wrong with you?"
"You are here because you have been summoned, that is true."
I wasn't summoned, I've been here all along.
Who said that?
"Did I?" Yang asked, head spinning. She couldn't tell which way was down, or where she was or why.
"I knew this was a bad idea," Darron muttered. Duulamor swept away once more, and Yang could breathe again, her senses returning to her. What the fuck... what the fuck is happening? Every second that passed, the entrance hall felt more and more like Dad's cottage. She swore she could hear the gulls, and had the other Harlequins always been dancing? What about the singing? Had they always been singing that song? The dirge of an entire species consigned to doom?
"Darron Marius," Duulamor boomed, "great scion of the kasrs, the Hell-Filler's son, husband to Chera, lovers entwined in the embrace of the battle long-won, servants to a woman that Does Not Belong. Do I intimidate you?" Duulamor asked. "I am but a simple clown, here to delight and amuse. Though you never expected to be here, am I right? Didn't mean to intrude?" Duulamor cackled. "Don't be afraid, you'll come to understand my mood. It's not often a Harlequin such as myself sees so true."
"If you have nothing for us, wise one," Lossamdir said, "Please release us. Time is of the essence."
"Time?" Duulamor inquired. "Ooh, now that is a fine jest. Can you not feel the years melting off your skin? Perhaps, oh Lossamdir, the strong and storied, you came here of your own volition. Or is it Obsidian that speaks? A half-breed who questioned his nature so quietly, when he was possessed with a voice that can shake worlds entirely?"
Around them, the Harlequins continued their dance, either not caring about their comrade's questions or moving in perfect synch with them. Their song had not ceased either, a long and lilting sound that pulled Yang's heart in two.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked.
"'Is this the right place?', you asked with a grin," Duulamor replied. "You must understand that not everyone is allowed within. This is a test of your sin," he added. "Without it, you cannot be allowed entrance, should chaos pollute you by a single inch."
"We are free of chaos, xenos!" Darron cried above the swelling lament. "We live in the light of the Emperor!"
"So you believe," Duulamor said. "A claim that has never been truly tested. You have seen daemons yes, but what of their nature? Can you see it? Understand it? Until that day passes, you must remain without."
"And what of us, then?" Maion asked, face hidden behind her helm. "What of us?"
"Maion, the mirror of her Grandmother," Duulamor said. "Wrought in her image you are, from your skin to your soul. A shadow thrust into a role that does not befit her. You ask the right questions, ah hee hee hee, ah ho ho ho. A soldiering mind so lacking in lessons. What of you, then, hmm?"
He turned to the rest of the war-party. "And you, Ysdrea, hated by your own mother? How terrible of her. A seed it was, yes, a small seed, one that grew to become the rage in which you shelter."
"You lie!" Ysdrea screeched, swords braced against an attack that would never come. "Get out of my head!"
"It is your soul that concern me," Duulamor said. "The Library lays it bare for all to see."
"And what of our souls then?" Amat asked, as calmly as he dared.
"Ah, Palla has given you wisdom," Duulamor said. "The Temple has given you strength, Weiss a mind, and Yang thoughts to fill it. Very well, I have played my game long enough."
Abruptly, the singing stopped and the dancers froze in place, forming a circle around the war-party. It seemed to Yang as if the universe itself had hit the pause button.
"Entrance shall be granted to visitors seven, though full access is forbidden." His finger lighted upon Yang. "You are the first, Little Dragon. Your friend shall follow," he said, pointing at Amat. "Onwards Vindicare, anon. Next is the exarch, host of Obsidian, and your subordinate Asillar. Smiling Garnet follows, favored by the Garden. Maion comes too, for her soul is the most ardent. And finally," he said, towering over the kasrkin, "Lieutenant Chera, of the Emperor's most puissant."
Chera blinked, taken aback by the Harlequin's invitation. "Me?" she asked.
"Is there another named Chera among you?" Duulamor asked. "Another Lieutenant among the Lady Inquisitor's chosen few?"
"But why?" Chera asked, lacing her fingers through her husband's.
"Master Cegorach likes your mask," the Harlequin said, before descending into a fit of laughter.
The ones allowed admission into the Black Library stepped forward. Yang was relieved she'd been allowed entrance, but Duulamor's display was enough to worry her. Will I be able to keep my sanity in a place like this? What about Amat? She looked up at her friend. With his mask on, it was nearly impossible to read him. Nearly.
She looked ahead, into the brilliant light that spilled from the Library's entrance. Whatever Garnet saw, it's up ahead. I'll puzzle out Duulamor's words later. I have to keep moving.
"Let us be away," the Harlequin said. "And prepare yourself."
The colossal door creaked open further, allowing enough space to admit the selected seven.
Yang swallowed and marched forwards. Ever onwards. Amat followed close behind a reassuring presence on her flank. Maion came next, trepidation reeking from every pore. Chera came last after exchanging a look with her husband.
Once they were inside the blinding light died away, and the entrance slammed shut behind them. They were within the Black Library.
True to its name, bookshelves by the hundreds soared upwards, each one large enough to contain the entire written works of Remnant. Mind-bending sculptures and fountains lined them, spilling out a silver liquid noiselessly. Glass towers adorned each row of books, and dozens of hallways led deeper into the Library, each one a store for more wonders.
Garnet frowned.
"What is the matter, young seer?" Duulamor said. "Is there something that brings you displeasure here?"
"I..." Garnet paused. "I was led here, I know it. By a song, I thought. One that... I don't know. It felt... familiar."
"Perceptive," Duulamor said. "For we Harlequins sent for you through another, more familiar sieve."
Yang swallowed, looking beyond Duulamor and taking in the Black Library's sights.
Where to now?
If they were going to find answers in one of the books, they'd be here for more lifetimes than even an eldar could survive. And rigorous study wasn't exactly her strong suit. Could they really find anything on Josephus in this madhouse?
"Ah, speaking of which…" Duulamor purred, snapping Yang from her thoughts.
A pair of figures approached from between the distant bookshelves, their gait slow and encumbered. But their destination was certain - the war party. One of the figures was clearly an eldar, judging by his tall and slender build. His companion however, was withered and hunched, her flowing white hair interrupted by a single streak of red.
"We have visitors Caelus," a voice sounded out through the Black Library, ancient yet familiar enough to rip Yang's heart from her chest.
"Mother," Garnet whispered.
A/N: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN.
And so the brief Black Library arc begins. Also, I couldn't find any thorough (or satisfying) descriptions of the Black Library in any published 40k works, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants here. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the way I present it, even though there might be some inconsistencies with lore.
Anyway, let me know what you thought of the chapter! I know it was a little shorter than most, but I figured you wouldn't mind too much.
Until next time!
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The Citizens United decision reshaped campaign finance law in the United States
On January 21, 2010, the Supreme Court's Citizens United v. FEC ruling set the stage for larger and larger sums of money to pour into our electoral system. In the ruling, a majority of justices made clear that they viewed outside spending on election ads as free speech that didn't present any serious danger of corruption.
The specifics of the case at issue, involving a film an outside group made about Hillary Clinton, are less important than its broader implications. Essentially, the justices cemented an already-existing distinction between donations to candidates and parties — which can be capped by law — and money spent independently by outside entities (individuals, nonprofits, unions, and corporations), which can't be capped, according to the Court.
For decades, Supreme Court majorities have viewed spending on elections as a form of free speech. But they've also argued that certain restrictions on such spending were acceptable because the government has an interest in preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption. So limits of how much money any one donor could give to any one politician's campaign were allowed to stand, because, the justices argued, big payoffs from a donor to a politician could be, or look, corrupt.
Yet the logic of the Citizens United majority holds that as long as a huge donation isn't given directly to the politician or party, but is merely spent independently on the politician's or party's behalf, there's no danger of corruption serious enough to justify restricting that exercise of speech. "Independent expenditures," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority, "do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption."
Kennedy made clear that spending by these outside groups on elections can be regulated — for instance, through disclosure requirements. But he argues that such spending can't be capped or limited, because that would be muzzling speech.
Justice John Paul Stevens and the court's three other liberals objected in a strongly worded dissent, saying the decision "threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation." Stevens made the following arguments:
That the majority had defined "corruption" too narrowly, and that outside spending could be corrupt, too.
That in the electoral context, unlimited speech (ad spending) from some people could drown out the speech of others, and effectively trample on their own First Amendment rights.
That corporations are legal entities and shouldn't receive the same constitutional rights as people.
These arguments, however, didn't persuade a majority on the court. And soon after the decision, outside spending — already trending upward — exploded, as Super PACs and dark money began to play a greater and greater role in US elections.
Citizens United had two main consequences — Super PACs and more dark money
The results of the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, which made clear that outside spending on elections couldn't be capped, were predictable. Outside spending, which had already been trending upward before the decision, skyrocketed:
But despite the hype over the decision treating corporations as people, the increased spending that ensued wasn't generally from corporations directly. Instead, it was concentrated in two major forms.
First, a subsequent lower court ruling applying the Supreme Court's logic led to the creation of Super PACs, which are technically called "independent expenditure-only committees." These new outside groups could accept unlimited contributions from individuals and corporations, so long as they did not give any money directly to candidates. These groups, which have to disclose their donors to the FEC, have spent hundreds of millions on elections since they were first created in 2010.
Second, there was a surge in spending from nonprofits that don't disclose their donors — popularly nicknamed "dark money." Groups like this, registered under a part of the tax code for "social welfare" or "business league" organizations, had spent some money in campaigns before the decision — but this spending existed in a sort of legal fog. Citizens United cleared away much of this fog, and was interpreted as giving a green light for many of these groups to ramp up their spending.
Super PACs can spend unlimited amounts on elections, but must disclose their donors
Since Citizens United and a lower court decision soon afterward, Super PACs have become a fixture of the US campaign finance system. First created in 2010, they've spent more than $1 billion over the past three election cycles, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Super PACs can raise unlimited amounts of money for spending on federal elections — so long as they don't hand any of their money over to candidates or party organizations, or coordinate with them. In contrast to dark money groups, Super PACs must disclose their funders to the FEC.
Instead of donating, Super PACs spend heavily on their own independently produced ads promoting their preferred candidates or attacking their opponents. That's why the official term for a Super PAC is an "independent expenditure-only committee" — their spending is purportedly independent.
By contrast, candidates and regular PACs (political action committees) are only permitted to accept a few thousand dollars from each individual donor. So these days, practically every serious presidential contender is expected to have a Super PAC supporting him or her. And, frequently, a hugely disproportionate amount of the funds raised by a Super PAC come from a few wealthy donors — sometimes even just one.
Some Super PACs are founded specifically to back one particular candidate. Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum all had heavily funded Super PACs during the 2012 presidential campaign. Now, these Super PACs were not permitted to coordinate their activities with the candidate or the official campaign team. Usually, though, they're run by trusted former aides to the candidates who know what their ex-bosses want them to do — which casts some doubt on how independent they truly are.
Other Super PACs support a variety of candidates or causes, or are vehicles for a particular funder's preferences. The Karl Rove–tied American Crossroads backs Republicans generally. Wealthy financier Tom Steyer's NextGen Climate Action backs environmentalist Democrats. Freedom Partners Action Fund is run by the Koch brothers' political operation and backs Republicans. Independence USA is affiliated with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and supports moderates.
So far, Super PACs have spent most of their money on advertisements — usually on television. But there are already signs this year that some presidential candidates will delegate more and more campaign functions to the Super PACs supporting them, to better take advantage of the unlimited money those groups can raise.
Dark money groups let anonymous donors spend on politics
Many wealthy individuals who want to spend lots of money on politics still see one big problem with Super PACs: donations to them have to be made public. So "dark money" groups — nonprofits that keep their donors secret — have proved an increasingly popular way for wealthy donors to anonymously spend on politics in recent years, particularly after the 2010 Citizens United decision:
Even after Citizens United, any group with the primary purpose of spending on elections is theoretically supposed to register as a PAC or Super PAC and disclose the identities of its donors.
But nonprofits that advocate on policy issues — for instance, environmental groups or gun rights groups — are allowed to spend some of their money on campaign ads. They can do so by registering as "social welfare" groups under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, and they don't have to publicly disclose their donors. Spending of this sort from issue advocacy groups has been common for decades.
Recently, however, groups have used this "social welfare" section of the tax code to spend increasingly large sums of money on elections, or on ads attacking candidates of one party. Other, similar groups have been formed as "business leagues," under section 501(c)(6) of the tax code. But both have the benefit of evading disclosure requirements, to better keep the identities of donors secret.
Now Justice Anthony Kennedy's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC found disclosure requirements to be constitutional. He praised them for creating "transparency" that "enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and different messages."
But a combination of gridlock and polarization in Congress, partisan paralysis at the FEC, and lack of action from the IRS have allowed even the more questionable of these nonprofits — many of which were seemingly formed entirely to let donors spend anonymously on politics — to run rampant in elections without disclosing their funders.
Overall, groups that don't disclose their donors have spent well over $600 million in federal elections since 2010, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. This is a lowball estimate because, unlike Super PACs, these nonprofits don't have to disclose all of their activity to the FEC. Any ads that run close to the election and mention a candidate for federal office must be reported. But nonprofits don't have to even report ads harshly criticizing candidates so long as a) the ads run 60 days or more before an election, and b) the ads don't explicitly advocate a vote for or against the politician.
The $600 million from nondisclosing groups that is documented is overwhelmingly from conservative groups, who spent more than $500 million of it, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' estimates. These include the Karl Rove–tied Crossroads GPS, the Koch brothers–tied Americans for Prosperity, and even sketchier groups with unclear funding sources like the American Future Fund and Americans for Job Security. The biggest nondisclosing liberal spenders in federal elections include the union-funded Patriot Majority USA and environmental groups like the League of Conservation Voters.
The old campaign finance restrictions seem more and more obsolete
With attempts to restrict election spending in tatters, and unlimited donations now permitted to flow into Super PACs and other outside groups, the old restrictions on candidate and committee fundraising, though still technically in effect, look increasingly quaint.
For the 2015-'16 cycle, candidates for federal office are only permitted to accept up to $2,700 from any individual donor and $5,000 from any PAC per primary or general election. The traditional way to get around these caps on individual donations was to rely on "bundlers" — star fundraisers who would convince many of their rich friends and contacts to cough up several thousand bucks each.
But Super PACs that can raise unlimited sums have changed the math. Just one billionaire can now, legally, fund a full multimillion-dollar ad campaign promoting a candidate or savaging his opponent. Comparatively, the traditional campaign fundraising from individuals and bundlers yields much less of a return.
Unsurprisingly, campaigns and their associates are increasingly spending their time wooing the absolute richest of the rich. In March 2015, the Washington Post's Matea Gold and Tom Hamburger reported that former bundlers who were merely rich, not mega-rich, were feeling neglected. "We just don't count anymore," one executive complained to a bundler from his yacht.
Indeed, there are signs that more and more of the functions traditionally handled by campaigns or parties are being moved over to Super PACs or outside groups. National party committees like the Democratic National Committee or the National Republican Congressional Committee can each only raise $33,400 from any one individual each year. Meanwhile, outside organizations like those in the Koch network can raise unlimited funds to spend on their own polling, data collection, outreach, and voter turnout operations.
The McCutcheon v. FEC ruling struck down yet another limit on election spending
Before April 2014, a rich donor could hand out several thousand dollars each to a bunch of different candidates for federal office — but once he gave out $48,600, he'd have to stop. Campaign finance law capped the amount that could be given to federal candidates by any one person in each election cycle. (Overall contributions to PACs and party committees were similarly capped.)
Businessman Shaun McCutcheon wasn't happy about that. He had given money to several congressional candidates during the 2012 elections, and he wanted to give to several more — but he was limited by that $48,600 cap. So he filed suit and argued that the cap violated his freedom of speech.
The court's five conservative justices were persuaded, and the McCutcheon v. FEC ruling of April 2014 struck down all those caps. "The Government may no more restrict how many candidates or causes a donor may support than it may tell a newspaper how many candidates it may endorse," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority.
Because of the importance of protecting free speech, Roberts continued, limitations on campaign spending must "target what we have called 'quid pro quo' corruption or its appearance … a direct exchange of an official act for money." In other words, little short of a direct bribe really counts.
The restrictions on how much could be given to any one candidate still remained. But, Roberts argued, "If there is no corruption concern in giving nine candidates up to $5,200 each, it is difficult to understand how a tenth candidate can be regarded as corruptible if given $1,801, and all others corruptible if given a dime."
As is now common in campaign finance rulings, the four liberal justices dissented. In their thinking, restrictions on campaign finance spending actually strengthen the First Amendment, by preventing ordinary people's voices from being drowned out. "Where enough money calls the tune, the general public will not be heard," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his dissent.
But they didn't carry the day, and now a wealthy donor can give to as many federal candidates as he or she wants. Click here for a fuller explanation of the implications of the McCutcheon decision.
Campaign finance has become an intensely polarizing issue at the national level
In 2002, a major campaign finance reform bill was backed by politicians in both parties, including future GOP presidential nominee John McCain, and signed into law by President George W. Bush. While Democrats provided most of the votes in Congress to pass the bill, and Bush signed it reluctantly, the issue wasn't so fraught that no Republican could support it.
Those days seem long gone. Now the issue of campaign finance polarizes the two parties — with Democrats overwhelmingly supporting more disclosure and more restrictions on election spending, and Republicans arguing that these measures could chill free speech. This polarization reaches from Congress to presidential contenders to the two parties' FEC appointees to the Supreme Court.
After the Citizens United decision, Democrats quickly united around one legislative proposal that would seem to pass the Supreme Court's muster — the DISCLOSE Act, which would have required greater identification of the sources of election spending. But Republicans in Congress, despite claims to support disclosure in the abstract, overwhelmingly opposed the bill. Just two House Republicans supported it in 2010, and zero GOP senators did — leading to the bill's death by filibuster in that upper chamber. A 2014 proposal for a constitutional amendment to allow greater regulation of campaign finance similarly failed in the Senate, with every Democrat voting for it and every Republican voting against it.
GOP objections to further regulations were frequently framed in terms of principled support of free speech. For instance, some argued, what if conservative donors were demonized for their political spending? However, it's certainly worth noting that by the Center for Responsive Politics' tally, out of at least $600 million spent on federal elections by nondisclosing groups since 2010, more than $500 million was in support of Republicans.
The Federal Election Commission, which is supposed to enforce election laws, has been hopelessly deadlocked along partisan lines for years. By law, the six-member body can't have more than three commissioners of any one party. In practice, that means that three Republican and three Democrat commissioners frequently vote in opposition to each other — blocking action on most controversial matters. In May 2015, the (Democrat-appointed) FEC chair, Ann Ravel, even went public to the New York Times, saying that "the likelihood of the [campaign finance] laws being enforced is slim" — due to partisan dysfunction.
Supreme Court justices are polarized in similar ways — major campaign finance decisions have repeatedly been decided by slim five-vote majorities of the nine-member body. And 2016 presidential contenders from the two parties have staked out diametrically opposed positions on the issue, with Democratic candidates like Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders suggesting they'd only appoint Supreme Court justices who'd reverse Citizens United, and Republicans like Marco Rubio arguing that "spending money on campaigns is a form of political speech that is protected under the Constitution."
Major reforms would require changing the Constitution or a different Supreme Court
As energized as reformers have become around campaign finance, they face a very difficult road ahead. Even if the issue weren't so intensely polarized, it's really the Supreme Court rulings — Citizens United, but also other cases going back to the 1970s — that limit which reforms can make it through Congress without later being struck down.
And consistently a majority of the court has concluded that any hard limits on overall spending — from candidates, parties, or donors — are unconstitutional restrictions of free speech. That means that even if, say, an opt-in public financing system was created for congressional campaigns, candidates who accept public funds could still be swamped by a torrent of outside cash.
So some who want serious campaign finance reform have proposed going over the justices' heads by amending the US Constitution — either through the regular amendment process, or by calling a constitutional convention.
National Democrats have mostly lined up in support of a constitutional amendment on campaign finance. Their suggested amendment would clarify that "Congress and the States may regulate and set reasonable limits on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections." It would also clarify that Congress and the states don't have to treat "corporations or other artificial entities" as people when it comes to election spending, and that they could be prohibited from engaging in that activity. Meanwhile, Vermont and California have called for a constitutional convention to limit money in politics.
But however a constitutional amendment is proposed, it would need approval from 38 states eventually to go into effect — a very heavy lift, particularly given sweeping Republican victories in most states in recent years. Only one constitutional amendment has been ratified in the past four decades. So it's not going to happen any time soon.
The only conceivable way for quick change on the issue would be a change in the composition of the Supreme Court. Contentious campaign finance cases of the past decade have, very frequently, been decided by a bare five-vote majority of conservatives:
So if the seat of one conservative justice opens up, and a liberal is appointed to fill it, it's quite possible that Citizens United and other recent rulings would be reversed. Indeed, Hillary Clinton reportedly said in May 2015 that she'd only appoint a Supreme Court justice who'd reverse Citizens United, and her rival for the Democratic nomination, Bernie Sanders, has long held the same view.
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Sen. John McCain John Sidney McCainThe electoral reality that the media ignores Kelly's lead widens to 10 points in Arizona Senate race: poll COVID response shows a way forward on private gun sale checks MORE (R-Ariz.) blasted President Trump on Monday, warning that his decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will spark a wave of negative consequences.
“President Trump’s decision to formally withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a serious mistake that will have lasting consequences for America’s economy and our strategic position in the Asia-Pacific region," McCain said in a statement.
Trump signed an executive action on Monday withdrawing from the trade deal, a key pillar of the Obama administration's second term.
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The decision drew quick praise from Sens. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersMcConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security The Hill's Campaign Report: Arizona shifts towards Biden | Biden prepares for drive-in town hall | New Biden ad targets Latino voters Why Democrats must confront extreme left wing incitement to violence MORE (I-Vt.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who broke with Obama over the agreement.
But McCain argued that it is the "wrong decision" and will increase China's economic influence in the region.
"It will send a troubling signal of American disengagement in the Asia-Pacific region at a time we can least afford it," he said.
Top Senate Republicans, including Sen. Orrin Hatch Orrin Grant HatchBottom line Bottom line Senate GOP divided over whether they'd fill Supreme Court vacancy MORE (R-Utah), appeared open last year to moving the trade deal if the Obama administration would commit to changes to the agreement.
But Trump drew a hard line on trade during his campaign, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMcConnell focuses on confirming judicial nominees with COVID-19 talks stalled McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security Warren, Schumer introduce plan for next president to cancel ,000 in student debt MORE (R-Ky.) acknowledged last year that TPP was dead for the foreseeable future.
McCain added on Monday that the administration should support a "positive trade agenda" in the Asia-Pacific region in the future.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) said on Monday that pro-trade lawmakers have to do a better job of defending their positions.
"It's clear that those of us who believe trade is good for American families have done a terrible job defending trade's historic successes and celebrating its future potential," he said. "We have to make the arguments and we have to start now."
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Edited text Original text
An amazing video has emerged of the entire crowd joining Beyonce to sing 'Love on Top' at the Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland.
In the footage, shot on Saturday, the audience can be heard singing at the top of their lungs while the singer hands the microphone towards the crowd.
Beyoncé singing her song Love On Top with the crowd in Dublin's Croke Park
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In Deutschland sterben Mainzer Forschern zufolge deutlich mehr Menschen an den Folgen von Feinstaub als bislang angenommen. Dabei ist die Landwirtschaft für rund 45 Prozent der Feinstaub-Belastung verantwortlich. Hauptursache soll die Massentierhaltung sein.
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Drohen in Deutschland bald gerichtlich verfügte Fleischverbote? Für die Vegane Gesellschaft Deutschland wäre das nur konsequent. „Wer A sagt und gerichtliche Fahrverbote durchsetzt, muss auch B sagen und Fleischverbote durchsetzen“, sagt Christian Vagedes, der Gründer und Vorsitzende des Vereins aus Berlin.
Hintergrund ist eine bislang unveröffentlichte Studie des Mainzer Max-Planck-Instituts für Chemie. Danach ist die Feinstaubbelastung in Deutschland mittlerweile extrem hoch, wie das ARD-Magazin „Monitor“ berichtet. Die Folge sind rund 120.000 Todesfälle pro Jahr und damit doppelt so viele wie von Wissenschaftlern bisher angenommen. Unter dem Strich sei Feinstaub damit für genauso viele Opfer verantwortlich wie das Rauchen.
Als Hauptverursacher des Problems nennt die Untersuchung, die auf rund 40 internationalen Studien aus 16 Ländern basiert, die Landwirtschaft und dort insbesondere die Massentierhaltung. Der Grund: Aus der dort anfallenden Gülle entstehen Ammoniak-Ausgasungen, die sich in der Atmosphäre mit anderen Gasen verbinden und dadurch zu Feinstaub werden, erklärt Studienleiter Jos Lelieveld bei „Monitor“. „Die Massentierhaltung führt zu Ammoniak, Ammoniak, führt zu Feinstaub und Feinstaub führt zu frühzeitigen Todesfällen.“
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Für die Vegane Gesellschaft muss nun in der Konsequenz die Massentierhaltung beendet werden. „Da der meiste Feinstaub aus der Massentierhaltung stammt, begrüßen wir Musterklagen, die die Verursacher-Betriebe dicht machen und den Beginn von Fleischverboten“, heißt es in einer aktuellen Mitteilung des Vereins. „Alles andere wäre angesichts der Dieselfahrverbote unehrlich und inkonsequent.“ Verbandschef Vagedes will daher auf die Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) zugehen, die in den vergangenen Monaten in etlichen deutschen Großstädten Fahrverbote für Dieselfahrzeuge gerichtlich durchgesetzt hat.
Massentierhaltung im Fokus der Öffentlichkeit
„Wir erwarten von der DUH eine Antwort, ob sie jetzt auch gegen die Fleischindustrie klagt“, sagt Vagedes im WELT-Gespräch. Falls nicht, sei die Glaubwürdigkeit der Umwelthilfe aus seiner Sicht komplett zerstört. „Dann zeigt sich, dass es der DUH nicht um die Umwelt geht.“ Zumal die Massentierhaltung auch als der weltweit größte Verursacher von klimaschädlichem CO2 gelte.
Unter Fachleuten ist der Zusammenhang zwischen Massentierhaltung und Feinstaubbelastung schon seit Jahren bekannt. Das zeigt sich nicht zuletzt auch bei den verschiedenen Messstationen für die Feinstaubbelastung in Deutschland. Im Landkreis Cloppenburg zum Beispiel, der zum sogenannten Schweinegürtel in Niedersachsen gehört, wo also zahlreiche Mastbetriebe ansässig sind, liegen die Messewerte regelmäßig deutlich höher als in Großstädten wie zum Beispiel der niedersächsischen Landeshauptstadt Hannover.
Lesen Sie auch Meinung Massentierquälerei Fleisch ist billig, Fleisch ist Müll. Eine Schweinerei
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Die Vegane Gesellschaft weist zudem darauf hin, dass deshalb auch die von der Stadt Oldenburg kritisierte Messanlage trotz nicht fahrender Dieselautos hohe Feinstaubwerte gemessen hat. „Weil der Feinstaub des Schweingürtels aus dem Oldenburger Land regelmäßig in die Innenstadt zieht und dort die Luft belastet.“
Vagedes sieht daher die Zeit gekommen für eine vegane Wende. „Wer ehrliche Politik verantwortet, schwenkt jetzt auf einen Kurs ein, der pflanzenbasierte Ernährung massiv fördert und nicht-vegane Produkte schrittweise vom Markt nimmt.“ Der Lobbyist gibt allerdings zu, dass diese Aussagen sehr zugespitzt sind. Ihm gehe es aber darum, das wichtige Thema Massentierhaltung in den Fokus der Öffentlichkeit zu rücken.
Lesen Sie auch Konsum mit gutem Gewissen So teuer ist unser „Ja“ zum Bio-Fleisch
„Tierhaltung bringt jede Menge Herausforderungen mit sich: Das beginnt beim CO2-Ausstoß durch die Tiere, geht weiter über die Abholzung des Regenwalds für immer neue Anbauflächen für Gen-Soja, aus dem dann Futtermittel hergestellt werden, und endet bei den Todeszonen in den Weltmeeren, verursacht durch die hohe Düngerbelastung.“ Es müsse daher erlaubt sein, die Frage nach gerichtlichen Fleischverboten zu stellen, zumal die Belastung durch Ammoniak regelmäßig über den gesetzlich vorgegebenen Grenzwerten liege. Auf die Antwort der Umwelthilfe ist Vagedes dabei besonders gespannt.
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С момента введения Россией запрета на ввоз продуктов из стран Европы и США в Калининградской области лишились работы 1200 человек. Об этом в своем докладе Владимиру Путину сообщил Николай Цуканов, говорится на сайте губернатора.
"На данный момент уже сокращено 818 человек, направлены в вынужденные отпуска 428 человек. Объем производства отрасли упал на 6%, тогда как в 2013 году она показывала устойчивый рост (108,6%), – говорится в тексте доклада.
Губернатор уточнил, что последствиями ввода внешнеэкономических санкций становится приостановка деятельности предприятий и снижение заработной платы.
"Правительство области подготовило программу ускоренного импортозамещения и удвоения объемов производства сельхозпродукции для перерабатывающих предприятий, – сообщил Николай Цуканов в докладе. – Все регионально значимые программы подготовлены".
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If you’re going to announce a major reshuffle of your executive team, including the allegedly-enforced departure of the man responsible for your most important product line, doing it on a day when your two biggest competitors are making major product announcements and the stock market is closed due to a massive storm is probably the best time to do it.
The departure of Scott Forstall wasn’t so much buried as drowned under Hurricane Sandy, three new devices from Google, and an entire new mobile operating system from Microsoft (Windows Phone 8).
Of course, that only made it the second-biggest story in technology of the day (sorry, Microsoft, you just don’t rate that highly). Plenty of others have covered that ground, but what interests me is the challenge that faces Apple and in particular the new head honcho of all Internet services, Eddy Cue. Because the biggest challenge facing Cue isn’t just getting Maps and Siri to work better: it’s integrating the software services that Apple provides in a richer and more meaningful way.
Consider the way that Google Now — the Android answer to Siri — now pulls information from your Gmail account to give you reminders about flights and travel plans. Or how it monitors your calendar and gives you travel details for how to get to a meeting from wherever you are.
This kind of proactive use of data in an integrated way is exactly where Apple should be with Siri, but isn’t right now. But that may not be true forever. With all of Apple’s online services — Siri, Maps, iCloud, and so on — now under one roof and the capable hands of Cue, Apple has a chance to at least keep close to Google. If you’re an iCloud user, Apple knows when you get meeting invites. It knows where you’re going, at what time, from your calendar. It knows the routes you should take to get there, thanks to Maps (at least in theory). So why isn’t Siri, which is supposed to be the smartest assistant around, suggesting this stuff to me without me having to ask? Apple even has patents that cover exactly this kind of feature.
In my head, whenever Eddy Cue takes over a new part of Apple, he appears like Jack Nicholson in The Shining: bursting through a locked door at Cupertino, shouting “Heeeere’s Eddy!” with a maniacal grin on his face. He has a reputation as Apple’s Mr. Fixit, capable of taking apart and putting back together a project that isn’t working in quite the way Apple needs it to.
The only fly in the ointment is that Cue’s track record doesn’t include much in the way of serious integration between services. He’s widely-regarded as a great negotiator, having faced down the record labels in the early iTunes era. He’s also regarded as someone capable of delivering direction to a team and ensuring it delivers a higher quality product on time.
But integration between complex software services? Iterating fast, something that’s essential if Apple is going to keep up with Google’s services? Not so much. Those aren’t strengths that Cue has shown much of, at least not so far. It’s time for Eddy to prove he can really push a service along, as well as simply saving it from doom.
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I look forward to the Annual BP Energy Outlook. Two of the principles of the Outlook are:
avoiding groupthink by exposing ideas to the public understanding uncertainty by generation of what-if scenarios
Below I highlight BP’s view on passenger cars and the effect of climate policies on natural gas over the course of the Outlook (2015-2035). The material for this post comes from the CSIS 2017 BP Energy Outlook Youtube video.
Oil consumption for passenger cars
Figure 1 – Net change in car oil consumption
BP project that the continued emergence of the middle class will lead to a doubling of the global passenger car fleet.
The increased oil consumption associated with this doubling is almost entirely offset by a 2.5% annual improvement in fuel efficiency.
This fuel efficiency assumption seems quite small – but actually it is a strong break with the past. The average for the last twenty years is only 1%. Even small improvements in fuel efficiency have a large effect on oil consumption due to the size of the combustion engine fleet.
The opposite is true with electric cars. BP are projecting the number of electric cars increasing from 1.2 million to 100 million. This is a compounded annual growth rate of around 25%!
Unlike with fuel efficiency this relative increase has very little effect. Electric car deployment increasing by 100 times leads to only a 6% reduction versus 2015 oil consumption.
Electric cars are a sexy topic that gets a lot of media attention – yet vehicle fuel efficiency may be more important if we care about climate change.
Large relative increases can be dwarfed by small relative increases. It’s important to take everything back to the absolute value (in this case oil consumption) that we care about.
Risks to gas demand
Oil majors and energy professionals are both interested in the future of natural gas. In the Outlook BP take a look at how climate policy could affect the growth of natural gas.
Strong climate policies pose a risk to all fossil fuels – natural gas included. Strong climate policies lead to the reduction of all fossil fuels in favour of low carbon energy generation.
However the Outlook shows that actually both strong and weak climate policies pose risks to natural gas consumption.
Figure 2 – The effect of climate policy strength on natural gas consumption growth
Weak climate policies will favour fossil fuels but also benefit coal over natural gas. BP expect the net effect of this would be a reduction in gas growth versus their base case.
This is quite a nice example of a Laffer curve. The Laffer curve is traditionally used for demonstrating the relationship between tax revenue and the tax rate. The curve shows there is an optimum somewhere in the middle.
Figure 3 – The Laffer Curve
BP are showing that natural gas consumption likely follows a Laffer curve with respect to climate policy.
Thanks for reading!
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click to enlarge Youtube
Rep. Bettie Cook Scott.
Rep. Bettie Cook Scott (D-Detroit) has issued an apology after hurling a series of anti-Asian slurs at her opponent, Rep. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), during last week's primary election.More than a dozen community groups and the Michigan Democratic Party called on Scott to apologize after she was heard referring to Chang and her campaign volunteers as "ching-chongs," in addition to other off-color remarks made outside polling precincts last Tuesday. Scott and Chang were competing in the Democratic Party primary for Michigan's 1st Senate District, which Chang won by a wide margin."I deeply regret the comments I made that have proven hurtful to so many," Scott said in a statement through her representative, Bill Noakes. "Those are words I never should have said.""I humbly apologize to Representative Chang, her husband, Mr. Gray, and to the broader Asian-American community for those disparaging remarks. In the divisive age we find ourselves in, I should not contribute further to that divisiveness.""I have reached out to Representative Chang to meet with her so that I may apologize to her in person. I pray she and the Asian American community can find it in their hearts to forgive me."The apology came hours after a Metro Times story highlighting Cook's offensive statements went viral. Chang's husband, Sean Gray, told us he heard Cook tell a voter that "these immigrants from China are coming over and taking our community from us" and that it "disgusts" her to see "black people holding signs for these Asians and not supporting their own people." Gray said Cook also admonished him for marrying Chang. Gray is African-American.A woman volunteering at a separate precinct, in Detroit's East English Village, reported that she heard Scott tell a voter exiting the precinct, "Thanks for voting for me, you don't need to vote for that ching-chang."Shortly after our story ran, the Michigan Democratic Party issued a statement saying, "We expect better from anyone who wants to call themselves a Michigan Democrat. Bettie Cook Scott needs to apologize to the entire Asian-American community. If an individual doesn't share our fundamental values of tolerance, decency, and respect, they should find another party."The first call for an apology came from the Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote — Michigan, and 18 other groups including the Association of Chinese Americans, the African Bureau of Immigration & Social Affairs, American Citizens for Justice, the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation, and Equality Michigan.Chang, who is of Chinese heritage and was born in Detroit, called Cook's comments "offensive to all Asian-Americans.""It isn't about me," she told. "It's about an elected official disrespecting entire populations, whether they be Asian-American, immigrant, or residents of Sen. District 1 or [Cook's] own current house district."Chang won the Democratic primary for Sen. District 1 with 49 percent of the vote to Scott's 11 percent. She is expected to win the general.
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Leonard Floyd's alarm clock is better than most alarm clocks, because Floyd's alarm isn't used to only wake him up in the morning -- it's also used to remind him to eat whatever the heck he wants in large quantities.
This happens multiple times a day for the No. 9 pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
"I've got prompts set up on my phone of times in the day that I'm supposed to eat, making sure I eat at those time when I get the alarm," Floyd said, per CSN Chicago.
As CSN Chicago reported, he can eat pretty much anything on one condition. "As long as I eat a lot of it," Floyd explained.
The reason the Bears traded up to snag Floyd in the draft is entirely due to his ability to rush the passer. At Georgia, Floyd racked up 17 sacks in three seasons. He's a blur and features an array of moves.
Again, he's fast.
Leonard Floyd step for step with a WR: https://t.co/6yuNHeVw0k — Adam Hoge (@AdamHoge) April 29, 2016
He is, however, lean. He weighed in at 244 pounds at the combine, but according to Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, he's expected to play roughly 10 pounds lighter than that.
Still Fangio doesn't sound concerned.
"The weight thing's not a big thing with me," Fangio said. "He's going to weigh somewhere between 230 and 235. That's just what he's going to weigh. We knew that before we drafted him. So it's not an issue. We knew that and that's a fact and that's what he is."
So, to sum up, Floyd's "job," which will pay him somewhere around $15 million, consists of hunting down quarterbacks and eating as much food as he wants. That doesn't sound awful.
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Metro trains have run red lights dozens of times since the beginning of 2012, according to federal officials, who said more needs to be done to reduce the dangerous trend. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post)
Metro operator No. 012008 had been on the job for eight months when she hopped into the cab of the wrong train on July 4, hit the power and ran a red light on her way to pick up passengers headed for celebrations on the Mall.
Two months later, in September 2014, a Silver Line train operator with 11 years of experience rolled through a red signal and stopped just before a stretch of track that seconds earlier had an oncoming train.
This month , an operator ran a light near the Smithsonian Metro station and came to a stop only after realizing that his train was on a collision course with another train. He stopped 189 feet short of the second train, which was waiting at the platform, loaded with passengers.
There have been at least 47 “red signal violations” since the beginning of 2012, according to the Federal Transit Administration, which took responsibility for the safety of Metro’s rail system last year and cited the “pervasiveness and seriousness of this problem,” despite years of warnings and efforts to address it.
[Multiple human errors cited in low-speed close call]
To address the persistent problem of red light running, Metro added stickers in train cabs to remind operators of the rules. (Photo by Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority )
The question is: Why? How can something so critical, and potentially dangerous, keep happening?
The answer, according to dozens of incident reports and the results of an outside investigation obtained through public records requests, has plenty of intricacies and contributing factors, and one unifying theme: Like most of us, Metrorail train operators sometimes tune out and get lost in their thoughts. The difference is that they are responsible for the lives of hundreds of people riding in 200-ton trains. Sometimes they sink into habit, move by instinct and fail to see what’s right before their eyes, investigators found.
The repeated human errors, and their effect on safety, prompted Metro officials to hire a neuroscientist and an outside safety expert to try to tease out exactly what is causing the lapses. While the hazards of multitasking, such as using a cellphone while driving, are well known, researchers have found that simply thinking about something else is enough to be a real distraction.
“A lot of times, people don’t realize that when they’re tuning out — and it can be something as simple as mind wandering — people don’t realize this actually puts them at risk,” said Daniel Smilek, an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
Smilek and partner Randall Jamieson, who run the Atticus Consulting Group, were hired by Metro to help translate the latest academic findings to the transit agency’s real-world problem. “We can show that basically whenever you mind wander, even in very simple tasks, your performance will deteriorate in those tasks,” Smilek said.
The draft findings from their investigation point to numerous “attention-related errors.” Time after time, Metro operators took off from a platform or other stop “without full conscious awareness” of what they were doing, the consultants found. Operators, supervisors and managers also lack an “understanding of how human attention works and under what circumstances it is likely to fail.”
Similar challenges trouble Transportation Security Administration agents gazing at X-ray images and surgeons peering into incisions. But for Metro, which faces broader management and safety issues highlighted by its botched handling of a deadly smoke incident last year, the problem has raised concerns about whether other safety procedures are being followed.
The Washington Post’s transportation reporter Dana Hedgpeth gives us the backstory to the much-maligned mass transit system. The bad news? The long waits in the tunnel aren’t going away anytime soon. The good news? Metro is faster than you thought. (Brad Horn/The Washington Post)
[Metro fans pulled smoke toward passengers on train at L’Enfant]
The Tri-State Oversight Committee, a safety panel made up of officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District, has pressed Metro for years to tackle the problem aggressively, arguing that whatever it is about Metro that allows repeated red-light running could also lead to unsafe behavior elsewhere.
“We would characterize all red signal violations as a hazardous circumstance, close call, or near miss,” the oversight group said in a statement. “Such patterns of noncompliance may indicate systemic issues regarding the culture of rule compliance and enforcement.”
What one operator called “a big rush-rush culture” in the nation’s second-busiest subway proved to be “a significant systemic cause” in most cases of red-light running, the Atticus investigation concluded. The report also pointed to inadequate supervision of operators and controllers, leading to continued miscommunication.
Critical ‘perceptual error’
The causes are multifaceted, and even those at fault sometimes cannot believe what investigators found.
An operator who ran a red light between the Reagan National Airport and Crystal City Metro stations in August 2014 became “extremely defensive” when pressed on the circumstances, according to the report.
He insisted that he had not run the red light. He was certain he had the rail equivalent of a green light.
But a technical re-creation provided “irrefutable evidence to the contrary,” according to the consultants, who said they were worried about the operator’s “ongoing refusal” to acknowledge his responsibility — or reality.
So they walked him through it, framed more as a lesson than an inquisition.
The root cause? He made his train announcements, shut the doors, sat down and immediately pushed the accelerator without paying proper attention.
There also was a critical “perceptual error.”
Metro was single-tracking, meaning that trains going opposite directions must wait their turn. Based on experience, they found, the operator “had the expectation that he would depart” just after the opposing train arrived.
Which he did. Right through a red light.
He had no idea a second train was trailing the first, also headed his way. Additional safety systems kicked in, and he was instructed to pull back out of the way.
The consultants also cited a “systemic cause.”
It “may have been prudent,” they wrote, for the Rail Operations Control Center to share more information. It was a “novel situation” to be “fleeting” a pair of trains toward the airport, and the operator could have used that information.
‘One is not acceptable’
Metro officials emphasize that they have a multilayered system to keep passengers safe, including technology designed to stop trains when humans fall short. And oversight officials say they have seen no examples of the automated technology failing in red-light incidents.
But the systems don’t help in all situations.
In this month’s incident near Smithsonian, the train was moving in the reverse direction to avoid a problem ahead. The operator misheard an instruction from his controller about which station to go to. When the operator repeated the mangled instruction, the controller didn’t catch the mistake, allowing the operator to head toward the wrong station. While headed there, he ran the red-light signal.
The safety system does not take over in such circumstances, officials said. But the operator, traveling at 10 mph, was able to stop in time.
Metro’s deputy general manager, Rob Troup, in an interview Feb. 11, hours before announcing his resignation, said behavioral concerns are universal. In recent years, Metro increased training and added placards in train cabs reminding operators that red means “STOP YOUR TRAIN.”
In “every operating environment — whether it be aviation, freight railroads, transit railroads, class-one railroads, truck drivers, it doesn’t matter — the human-error element is the hardest thing that you deal with,” Troup said. Management, engineering, audits, rules and procedures all have a role in eliminating the incidents, he said.
Citing “an exchange of information we have with other properties,” Troup said that Metro has “significantly” fewer red-light violations than its peers, although he declined to name the other systems. Still, he said, “it’s not acceptable to me. One is not acceptable to me.”
The Federal Transit Administration said in a statement that such violations are not systematically reported to its transit database, making it “difficult to compare different rail transit agencies.”
Still, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has a problem, the FTA said.
“Red signal violations are a serious safety concern and WMATA’s trend line is going in the wrong direction. WMATA had more red signal overruns in 2015 than in either of the preceding two years,” according to the statement.
‘Operating on autopilot’
Back on July 4, 2014, things were “particularly hectic” at the Shady Grove rail yard in suburban Maryland, the consultants found.
An official responsible for guiding train operators through the vast yard was distracted by a disabled train and the gargantuan task of carrying tens of thousands of holiday revelers. It was also operator No. 012008’s first time working there.
She was supposed to hop aboard a train on Track 15 but boarded one on Track 14 instead.
The operator twice radioed the operations official with the number of the signal in front of her, a basic safety step. But the official didn’t notice that she was saying the wrong signal number, because she was on the wrong track, and didn’t try to stop her.
The operator said later that she “was just trusting the tower” when she hit the accelerator. No one was hurt. The guiding official was “disqualified” from the job. The operator was retrained.
The consultants, hired for $19,800, reexamined and rewrote 11 of Metro’s investigative reports and found that officials rarely delved into crucial questions of mental readiness and sometimes reached the wrong conclusion.
In one case, Metro officials told an operator traveling for the first time in a District rail yard that “you were not focused and paying attention to the safe operation of your train.”
But the consultants said the new operator was actually so anxious about being on unfamiliar ground and so focused on finding the right place to stop that he was “effectively psychologically blind” to the red light.
Another operator was, in essence, too familiar with the station where she ran the light.
“The more you do it, the more you relax from thinking,” she told the Atticus investigators, who concluded that as time goes by, she is “likely to rely on her habitual, routine past experiences — in other words ‘operating on autopilot.’ ”
For a Silver Line operator and 11-year veteran, her near miss came after a supervisor cut short her break and then spurred her further by saying she was “due off platform a couple minutes ago,” the consultants found.
[Read the report on the Silver Line near miss]
To address the “big rush-rush culture,” Metro recently tweaked its schedule to allow operators more time to do train walk-arounds and safety checks before their first run. Metro also set up a new system in which operators can hand off their train to a fresh colleague at the end of the line “should an operator need relief.”
After finding examples of stress and excitability among operators, Atticus also said operators need better training to handle such “adverse mental states.” Metro is considering that.
Minutes before her break was truncated, the Silver Line operator had another jolt. Her supervisor told her that she must “submit an incident report in response to a complaint that had been levied against her by a fellow employee as a result of an altercation” that day, the report said.
Just before she ran the light, she was worrying about being disciplined, she recalled, although she didn’t think it caused her mistake. The consultants weren’t so sure. They said they have investigated numerous errors “shortly after a worrisome or disturbing communication” from a boss or relative.
When you’re thinking about something other than the job at hand, Smilek said, “some of your processing capacity is taken up,” particularly when something affects you deeply. Like a bank account, a brain’s processing power has limits, he said. “You can’t allocate it to too many things, otherwise you just run out of money.”
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