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L'eau jaunâtre sera désormais chose du passé à Chambord. Les citoyens et les commerçants auront bientôt accès à une eau claire en tout temps grâce à une nouvelle unité de traitement de près de 1,9 million de dollars.
La nouvelle unité de traitement qui vient d'être construite entrera en fonction à la fin du mois de janvier dans la petite municipalité du Lac-Saint-Jean.
Elle permettra d'éliminer le fer et le manganèse qui donnait trop souvent une couleur jaunâtre à l'eau potable consommée dans le périmètre urbain de Chambord.
Agrandir l’image (Nouvelle fenêtre) Une nouvelle unité de traitement entrera en fonction à la fin janvier à Chambord au Lac-Saint-Jean. Photo : Radio-Canada / Mélissa Paradis
Le maire de la muncipalité, Luc Chiasson, précise que ce sont des membranes qui vont filtrer l'eau.
L'eau brute va être amenée ici. Les membranes vont filtrer l'eau et par la suite, il va y avoir un certain traitement qui va devoir se faire puisque la filtration va enlever toute teneur à l'eau. Ça fait qu'il va y avoir certains produits chimiques qui vont être utilisés pour ramener les concentrations et la qualité de l'eau qui correspondent aux normes , explique le maire de Chambord.
Il ne reste plus qu'à brancher l'installation au réseau électrique et aux différents puits souterrains où l'eau est pompée.
Agrandir l’image (Nouvelle fenêtre) Le gouvernement du Québec assume les trois quarts des coûts de construction de l'unité de traitement d'eau potable de Chambord. Photo : Radio-Canada / Mélissa Paradis
Une bonne nouvelle pour la population qui réclamait une eau de qualité depuis plus de 40 ans.
Les senteurs, l'eau jaune, les cuves de toilettes sales, le linge taché, les douches avec le fond jaune sale aussi, ce n'est pas l'idéal , raconte un citoyen.
On n'aura plus besoin de dire aux clients que l'eau est brune. Les motels, ça va être fantastique et les serviettes vont rester blanches. Wow! Nathalie Gauthier, employée du restaurant L'Escale
Le gouvernement du Québec assume 75 % des coûts de construction.
Les citoyens doivent s'attendre à une hausse de taxes qui pourrait s'élever jusqu'à une trentaine de dollars par résidence permanente.
Je pense qu'avoir de l'eau potable, ça n'a pas vraiment de prix. Mathieu Girard, citoyen
Les quelques puits qui avaient été fermés en raison de la piètre qualité de leur eau seront de nouveau en service, ce qui permettra d'assurer le développement domiciliaire du secteur.
D'après le reportage de Mélissa Paradis
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DETROIT — Ottawa hockey fans can breathe a sigh of relief.
Thomas Chabot wasn’t on the ice Wednesday at the Little Caesars Arena for the club’s optional skate, but he told reporters he’ll skate Thursday and he’ll suit up here Friday against the Red Wings after blocking a shot late in the club’s 3-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Exhale, Senators fans: Thomas Chabot OK after blocking shot Back to video
There was a bit of concern among the fan base after Chabot was seen in discomfort after stopping a shot from Ryan Ellis with his left hand late in the game with the Ottawa net empty.
“It’s a little sore,” Chabot said Wednesday. “I got slashed a little bit and then I got the puck on the same finger, but everything is good. It’s just sore a little bit, nothing’s broken, nothing’s bad and it should be fine.”
Photo by Claus Andersen / Getty Images
That one was of the most noticeable, but Chabot, the club’s leading scorer with eight goals and 33 points in 32 games, had eight blocked shots in the game. That’s an area he is trying to improve and he has 63 this year.
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The Dallas Mavericks won’t have a draft pick in the first round of the 2019 NBA Draft, but could still add talent with the No. 37 selection.
When the Dallas Mavericks traded up for Luka Doncic in last year’s NBA Draft, they sent the Atlanta Hawks a top-five protected pick. That selection, the No. 10 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, is now owned by the Hawks and means that the Mavs will only have a second round pick in this year’s draft.
Although the Mavs would’ve preferred to be picking in the top five of this year’s top-heavy draft, that pick fell to No. 10, they got a future star in Doncic and they’ll own their 2020 and 2022 first round picks. Another consolation is that Dallas was fortunate to draft point guard Jalen Brunson with the No. 33 pick last season, and could potentially find an equally talented player in the second round again.
Brunson won two national titles in three years at Villanova, and proved to have a big impact with the Mavericks. He averaged 9.3 points, 3.2 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game while shooting 34.8 percent from 3-point range in his rookie season.
Following the Dennis Smith Jr. trade to New York and J.J. Barea’s Achilles injury, Brunson began to play more and started 38 of the 72 games he appeared in. He had his best month in March, where he averaged 15.1 points, 4.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds per game on 52.7 percent shooting.
Brunson proved he can provide quality minutes off the bench and fill in as the starter alongside Doncic, who is the favorite for Rookie of the Year. With their second-rounder in this year’s draft, the Mavs could address one of many positional needs on the roster or add another immediate impact player that could fill in due to untimely injuries.
With Dirk Nowitzki’s retirement, Kristaps Porzingis recovering from a torn ACL and Dwight Powell opting out of his player option, the power forward position is looking thin. With Barea also coming back from a significant injury and the signing of targeted guards like Kemba Walker and Patrick Beverley being far from guaranteed, adding depth at the 1-spot also couldn’t hurt. Here are five players the Dallas Mavericks need to target with the No. 37 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft.
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It looks like wide receiver Evan Spencer has retired from football. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers placed him on the reserve/retired list, a few days after he was cut from the 53-man roster and re-signed to the practice squad.
Spencer was a sixth-round pick out of Ohio State for Washington in the 2015 NFL draft, but failed to make the team last year. He spent all of the past offseason with the Buccaneers and looked to have locked up a receiver spot pretty early in training camp. The Bucs decided they’d rather have veteran Cecil Shorts on the roster, though, and cut Spencer just a few days ago.
Spencer could come out of retirement at some point in the future, but it’s rare for a player to give up football and then return to it, though, especially a player who’s just on the margins of a team’s roster.
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Photo credit: NewCaliforniaState.com
The founders of the state of New California read their own version of a Declaration of Independence and took the first steps to what they hope will eventually lead to a successful secession.
They are adamant that they are not seeking to leave the United States, only California. The founder of the movement is Robert Paul Preston. "Well, it’s been ungovernable for a long time. High taxes, education, you name it, and we’re rated around 48th or 50th from a business climate and standpoint in California," Preston said.
The proposed secession would include most of the state's rural counties but would leave the urban coastal counties to the old state of California. "There’s something wrong when you have a rural county such as this one, and you go down to Orange County which is mostly urban, and it has the same set of problems, and it happens because of how the state is being governed and taxed," Preston explained.
Preston says the difference between his movement and previous ones looking to separate is that the state of New California wants to do everything by the book. He cited Article 4, Section 3 of the US Constitution and how the movement is working with the state legislature to get it done much like West Virginia did.
"Yes. We have to demonstrate that we can govern ourselves before we are allowed to govern," said another of the movement's founders, Tom Reed. Despite the many obstacles in their path, the group is united in their dream of statehood.
The movement has organized its own committees and a council of county representatives. They expect to be ready to fully engage with the state legislature in around 10 to 18 months.
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Source: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/01/15/new-california-declares-independence-from-rest-of-state/
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***Note: not a full article
Published in the Williams College News
By: John Stickney
“Which one is “Jim Morrison?” one girl said to another. But he was not on stage, and a drummer and an organist and a guitar player looked impatiently toward a curtain door.
They sat in darkness punctuated by the steady red lights of amplifiers as tall as a man and the glow of a hundred cigarettes dancing in the evening breeze. The curtain on the door hung like velvet one inch thick.
Two hands pierced the slits of the curtain and drew it back sharply as a spotlight racked the stage and exposed a man who squinted in the brightness. There was applause that he did not care to hear, and the spotlight caught the contempt in the faces of the other musicians as Jim Morrison tentatively fingered the microphone.
He screamed and reeled, throttling the microphone and gazing at a sea of blank faces. He shouted a strung out, distorted and violent stream of word images which twisted the faces into expressions of shock yet fascination.
Then there were the drums, crashing against the pulsating rush of the organ while the guitar pirouetted around and through the rhythmic contest with a new sort of terrifying insistence. The Doors were opening as Morrison’s words found their way through the cicuitous maze of a thousand wires in the impassive, deafening amplifiers.
He sang, or rather groaned, or talked to himself out loud as the group races through “Break on Through” to lead off the set. The band and their instruments work together in complete interaction crystallizing the night air with a texture of sound which a person can run his hand over.
But Morrison gets all the attention, with black curls cascading over the upturned collar of a leather jacket worn the way leather jackets should be; tight, tough, and somehow menacing. Some people have said that Morrison is beautiful, and others have learned the meaning of the word charisma by watching him.
And then there is “Light My Fire,” and Morrison’s brass and leather voice strokes the lyrics with all the subtlety in which he handles the microphone. The song deserves to be done the Doors’ way, with suggestive intonations and instrumentation striving together to produce the incredible erotic pressure of the driving organ-scream climax.
After all, sex is what hard rock is all about. But there is terror in the sexuality of “The End,” Morrison’s black masterpiece of narrative poetry about a physical and spiritual odyssey which finishes in patricide and incest.
Morrison is at his best in the song, doing his own thing while the organist bends low and presses hard on the keys and the guitarist walks unconcernedly in and out of the spotlight. The drummer sweats.
Morrison dislodged the microphone and staggered blindly across the stage as the lyrics and screams which are “The End” poured out of his mouth, malevolent, satanic, electric and on fire. He stumbled and fell in front of a towering amplifier and sobbed to himself. The guitarist nudged him with the neck of his guitar, and a mouth in the audience said knowingly, “He’s stoned.”
But he wasn’t. He sat up on his knees and stretched his arms in an attitude of worship toward the cold amplifier, the impartial mediator between the virtues and absurdity of a music dependent upon circuits and ohms.
The audience did non know whether to applaud or not. The guitarist nudged the electric cord which makes his instrument play, the organist
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[M4F] I want you naked for this. [Encouraging] [Instructional] [Countdown] [Includes After Care]
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin
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General Purpose Locomotives
Album created by member John Westfield Album Views: 20,857 The EMD GP (General Purpose)series are a strong force of road switchers, with thousands produced over several decades.
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ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today New York will reject efforts by the state's health insurers to use the Trump administration's repeal of the individual mandate as an excuse to boost their rates.
The individual mandate, one of the most unpopular aspects of Obamacare, required nearly all American to buy health insurance or pay a penalty. The mandate was designed to ensure healthy people buy insurance to offset higher medical costs incurred by sicker people. The Trump administration's elimination of the mandate has prompted some insurers to request higher rate increases because they expect young, healthy people to drop coverage.
Cuomo said insurers have cited the loss of the individual mandate to justify requests for higher premiums which would lead to an average increase for each policy of more than $1,500.
Cuomo said in a statement he has directed the state Department of Financial Services to reject insurer attempts to "opportunistically profit on the scare tactics and assault from the White House and Congress."
Health insurers asked the state in June to approve an average 24 percent increase in premiums for 2019. About half of that was related to the end of the individual mandate. The state is expected to make a decision in August on the rate hike requests.
A trade group representing insurers said its members' estimates of costs associated with the loss of the individual mandate were moderate.
The New York Health Plan Association said state officials earlier this year projected the loss of the individual mandate would lead to double-digit rate increases in the individual market.
"A key priority must be maintaining a stable marketplace in New York," Eric Linzer, president of the association, said in a prepared statement. "Politicizing the 2019 rate requests will not help in this effort."
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My advice? Give it a pass. The treatment consists of getting into a chamber and exposing your body to air that has been chilled by liquid nitrogen to somewhere between -160 and -300 degrees. Proponents claim that whole-body cryotherapy can burn hundreds of calories, reduce inflammation, speed recovery from workouts, and improve the appearance of cellulite.
You might have seen the news last fall about a cryotherapy-related death in Nevada (the death was a result of asphyxia caused by low oxygen levels). While this is obviously an extreme and rare case, the incident prompted the state to enact guidelines recommending that the machines not be used by anyone under 18, shorter than 5 feet tall, or with a history of certain health issues, such as high blood pressure, stroke, seizures, or infections. Pregnant women, folks with heart conditions, and those who experience claustrophobia are advised to avoid the treatment as well. The recommendations also encourage users to stick to one session per day, lasting three minutes or less, and have their blood pressure measured before and after.
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The eyes have it, but not always: Soon, Aadhaar holders could also have facial identification, in combination with other biometrics, for their benefits. (File Photo) The eyes have it, but not always: Soon, Aadhaar holders could also have facial identification, in combination with other biometrics, for their benefits. (File Photo)
A brand new mode of identification is on the way from July 1 for Aadhaar card holders to use alongside other systems. Nandagopal Rajan explains how this new mode will work.
Why is yet another authentication mode being offered for Aadhaar?
With several recent complaints that the two existing biometric authentications for Aadhaar — fingerprints and iris scans — haven’t worked, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has decided to enable face authentication as an additional mode starting from July 1. This facility is to help those unable to use the existing biometrics for authentication because their fingerprints are worn out (from old age or hard work) or their iris is affected by injury or disease. There have been reports that people with these issues weren’t able to get Aadhaar-related benefits.
However, this mode will be used with “one more authentication factor”, which means it will be in combination with a fingerprint, an iris scan or a one-time password (OTP). The UIDAI has also clarified that face authentication shall be on a by-need basis.
Also Read | Another Aadhaar upgrade, face recognition via phone, laptop
Till now, the UIDAI has performed more than 1.04 billion biometric transactions out of 1.51 billion authentications done.
So, how does facial authentication actually work?
Facial authentication is based on technology that recognises a face based on the spatial geometry of distinguishing features. There are different versions of this technology, widely believed to be the least intrusive and fastest biometric tech.
Apple, for instance, uses FaceID on its new iPhone X smartphones that have the TrueDepth camera which captures face data by projecting and analysing over 30,000 invisible dots to create a depth map of the face plus an infrared image. OnePlus has Face Unlock, which uses over “100 identifiers” with pointers like the distance between the eyes or the nose and upper lip.
How will the UIDAI start using face authentication?
The UIDAI has announced that it will work with biometric device providers to integrate face authentication into the certified registered devices and maybe even provide a standalone registered device for this aspect.
Also, it will work to provide software development kits (SDKs) and devices with the ability to “capture face image, check liveliness and create digitally signed and encrypted authentication input”. Necessary details will be released by March 1.
Also Read | What Aadhaar’s new 16-digit Virtual Identity means, how it seeks to add security
Can face authentication be faked?
Face authentication is as unique as fingerprints — but it is not foolproof. It certainly cannot be unlocked using a photo of the user or even by scanning a sleeping person’s face. That is because most authenticators are also looking at liveliness as a factor for authentication, usually done by gauging the attentiveness of the subject’s eyes.
But there have been cases where siblings, especially twins, or children with similar features have been able to unlock devices with face authentication. This is the reason why the UIDAI wants to use this in ‘fusion mode’, which means requiring one more authentication factor.
📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines
For all the latest Explained News, download Indian Express App.
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The White House is touting new economic numbers that famous economists once predicted would never happen under President Trump.
The conflicting predictions came early in 2017, when Trump and his official budget proposal forecasted more than 3 percent annual economic growth under his presidency.
The data are in and the economy grew at a 3.1 percent rate from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the fourth quarter of 2018, one measure of annual growth, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That is the first time in 13 years that it’s been over 3 percent, the White House notes. The administration attributes the gains to tax cuts, deregulation and other pro-growth policies.
GOVERNMENT REPORT SAYS US BUDGET DEFICIT SET TO HIT $897B
Former Harvard President and Obama economic adviser Larry Summers was one of the most outspoken in saying such growth wouldn't happen.
"The budget forecasts that U.S. economic growth will rise to 3.0 percent because of the administration’s policies," Summers wrote in a 2017 Washington Post article.
"Fair enough if you believe in tooth fairies and ludicrous supply-side economics," Summers added.
Criticism of the 3 percent estimate had been widespread. Nobel-prize winning Princeton economist Paul Krugman also called such growth "implausible" while also adding that it's "not impossible, but not something that should be anyone’s central forecast."
In 2016, Krugman also predicted that, because Trump won the election, "we are very probably looking at a global recession, with no end in sight."
Summers and Krugman did not respond to requests for comment.
Kevin Hassett, Chair of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisors, told Fox News that, “They were wrong because they failed to update their model to account for the latest developments in the scientific literature.” He added that tax cuts for companies helped drive growth beyond what many predicted.
Media outlets had also piled on in 2017 to assail the 3 percent projection.
At the Los Angeles Times, Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Michael Hiltzik ran a piece in 2017 titled, "If Trump thinks he can get more than 3% economic growth, he's dreaming."
Hiltzik still defends his prediction, noting that when growth is measured in a slightly different way -- comparing the entire year of 2017 to the entire 2018 -- growth is actually 2.9 percent instead of 3.1 percent -- just short of the target.
"It’s 2.9 percent... it points to the difficulty Trump has faced in reaching his promised goal on a sustained basis," Hiltzik wrote in a February 28 article doubling down against Trump administration predictions.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis presents both the 2.9 percent figure and the 3.1 percent figure side-by-side in its tables. They are different methods of calculating the same thing: annual growth.
The White House notes that Obama’s former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, Jason Furman, calls the 3.1 percent method “a better measure of how the economy actually performed in 2018.” The council “has done it that way for decades,” Hassett noted.
That's because the 3.1 percent measure more directly looks at growth in 2018. The 2.9 percent measure, on the other hand, is impacted by the GDP number from way back in the first quarter of 2017.
Back then, Business Insider's Senior Finance Correspondent, Linette Lopez, also slammed 3 percent GDP growth predictions as "the most delusional part" of Trump's economic plan.
Her article mentioned that Trump's economic advisors said tax cuts and deregulation would do the trick, but she chided, "that's not how GDP growth works."
She also quoted Carnegie Mellon University economics professor Lee Branstetter, who said, "it's essentially mathematically impossible to get the growth they're talking about."
Asked by Fox News about that prediction, Branstetter said a single year of 3 percent growth didn’t cut it.
“I never meant to claim that 3 percent growth in one year was mathematically impossible, especially if an administration is willing to run massive fiscal deficits in peacetime. But moving the US to a permanently higher growth trajectory of 3 percent or better IS mathematically impossible under current conditions,” Branstetter told Fox News. He cited immigration limits and the need for faster productivity growth as conditions preventing a long-term growth rate of 3 percent or greater.
In line with that, the Federal Reserve has not increased its long-run forecast for the economy, despite the economic growth in 2018. Before Trump’s win, the Fed predicted 1.8 percent long run annual growth; in its most recent estimate, it still predicts 1.8 percent long-run growth.
The Fed’s forecasts don’t always turn out right. Before Trump’s win, in September 2016, Fed forecasters predicted just 2 percent growth for 2018, even though it turned out to be around 3 percent.
A 1 percent difference in GDP growth works out to $187 billion dollars, or about $500 per American.
Branstetter pointed to forecasts that predict slowing growth in the future.
“The sugar high from Trump’s tax cuts will fade, and reality will set in. In fact, data from the fourth quarter suggest it is already happening.”
Back in 2017, not all analysts called Trump’s predictions hopeless. The financial outlet Bloomberg ran with: "Trump’s goal of at least 3 percent to 4 percent won’t be easy, yet it’s not entirely unattainable." CNNMoney's Paul La Monica wrote an article quoting a cement company CEO and a Wall Street financial analyst who both said 3 percent growth was likely to happen under Trump.
"Even if the economy grows at a more modest 3 percent clip over the next few years, Trump will likely be able to take a victory lap," La Monica wrote.
The White House is now taking that victory lap, and Hassett says it vindicates Trump’s economic models and policies.
“We use state-of-the-art models to forecast GDP growth. We nailed our estimates,” Hassett said.
“No other Administration has been office for two full forecasting cycles without having experienced growth that falls below an official forecast for a calendar year,” he added. “For that reason, we believe our models and what they tell us about next year.”
Hassett predicts 3.2 percent growth for 2019.
Maxim Lott is Executive Producer of Stossel TV and creator of ElectionBettingOdds.com. He can be reached on Twitter at @MaximLott.
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«Я с народом и буду голосовать против»: депутат Курултая Башкирии Кульсарина о поправках в закон о земле
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they do, for the record.
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Introduction:
It would be boring for me to simply say that Supergiant Games’ Transistor is a gorgeous-looking, wonderfully designed, mechanically fun, and brilliantly soundtracked title, even though all of that is true. It would be slightly less boring for me to defend Transistor‘s much-maligned brevity in the same spirit as I have defended other cheap, brief indie campaigns, even though I clearly would be willing to defend it. But the least boring thing for me to do, I feel, is to discuss the one area of the game that I am inclined to critique: Transistor‘s presentation of its plot.
Supergiant Games has an attraction to endings. And not just to the ending of games, but to the ending of worlds. Each of their wildly successful indie titles, Bastion and Transistor, has presented a vividly imagined world right around the moment of its ultimate demise (the world of Pyre had better watch its back). And I’ve loved this aesthetic decision in both cases. But in both cases the series of events leading up to the end of the world (and so leading up to the start of the game) is not easily discerned—which, in the oft-dense RPG genre, is saying something.
A Summary of Transistor‘s Story:
Yes, the one complaint that I might have about Transistor (and it is a complaint I also had for Bastion, though to a much lesser extent) pertains to the game’s story. It is a complaint that I feel bad making, because this game does with its narrative so much more and so much better than many other titles. But here it is: the plot details of Transistor either do not fit together or are not sufficiently communicated to the player.
At moments when there are potential gaps and complications, Transistor opts for mystery over clarity. Mysteries are welcome, but not if they’re never resolved. Even ambiguities are welcome, provided they do not become a crutch or seem like careless omissions. And this isn’t a matter of being unacquainted with the game’s background; I’ve read every word in the terminals, function biographies, and limiter logs twice over (while playing through the campaign, and while playing through New Game +).
Here is a brief account of the story, as I understand it. Independently, several citizens of Cloudbank grew tired of living in the constant flux of the simulated city. They teamed up, took on the name ‘Camerata,’ and drafted the mission statement, “When everything changes, nothing changes.” One of their members, while toying with the math of the world, stumbled upon the underlying Process that creates Cloudbank (as well as the tool, the eponymous transistor, that grants total control of that Process).
The Camerata plotted to use the transistor and Process to change the city to somehow better reflect their vision. They began kidnapping influential and useful members of the Cloudbank community to broaden their control. In attempting to kidnap protagonist Red, they were foiled by the intervention of her significant other (the wistful, romantic narrator of the game), losing the transistor and control over the Process in the ensuing hours. The Process begins running amok, and the game begins.
A Critique of Transistor‘s Story:
Alright, so in broad strokes it seems okay. But if you ask any questions about any part of it, it just starts falling apart:
So they were kidnapping people to broaden their control. Are the kidnapped people brainwashed? Are they replaced with Process puppets? Are they subsumed into the transistor? Were they just hoping to win hearts and minds legitimately after some underhanded beginnings? We get a hint at answering one of these questions in some visuals near the game’s end, but nothing substantial.
A lot is said about the apocalypse not being the Camerata’s goal, but it’s never clear what the Camerata actually wanted for Cloudbank in the first place—more stability? less superficiality? would stopping the seasons changing really alter everyone’s minds?
There are a lot of references to government cover-ups and forcibly quieted dissenters, but there is basically no information about Cloudbank’s government or administration available. The player never learns whether the administration really was overly controlling; the player never learns if the administration or the city’s artists knew about the Process; the player never even learns the most basic account of the origin of Cloudbank.
Even details that should be obvious are sometimes obfuscated. For instance, what is the relationship between Grant Kendrell and Asher Kendrell? Asher’s biography alludes to him joining the Camerata after meeting an influential adminstrator—presumably Grant. But if they met at work, and Grant is (according to his biography) probably about twice Asher’s age, then why do they have the same last name? Are they related? Are they romantic partners? Did Grant . . . adopt Asher? It’s just not clear.
And whenever such a question seems close to having an answer, a character dismisses the possibility with something vague and seemingly deep. I say ‘seemingly’ because it’s the sort of depth that one aims to create when writing a forum roleplay as a young teen—if the sentiment is sad and the phrasing is pretty, it sounds deep (even if the content is shallow or confusing). The biggest culprits here are Royce Bracket (always) and the narrator (during his periods of blurred consciousness near the Spine).
So, unfortunately, all of these inscrutable details make an interpretation of what is otherwise a very interesting set of ideas, narrative elements, and world details difficult. There is something here regarding metafiction—concerning characters whose entire existence is in a program (Cloudbank, the Process, Transistor, the endless other computing terms and labels). But the ambiguities make a full interpretation of these details difficult. And there is something here regarding relationships—concerning either loss or arduous long-distance separation. But one could interpret that part of the tale while completely setting aside almost the entire plot of the game.
Instead one is left with a reading as vague as the details of Transistor‘s plot: it’s about some kind of tension between creativity and incompatibilist determinism, between diversity and conformity, between color and sterility, between distraction and stability, and/or between texture and smoothness. Perhaps the theme is that one must balance these dichotomies; perhaps the theme is that the former always trumps the latter. I’m inclined to think, because of a few happenings toward the end of the game, and because of the separated planning and execution in the battle mechanic, that the game’s thematic stress is on creativity and actualization. But it’s difficult to say.
Conclusion:
So, how could this state of affairs have been averted? Supergiant Games could have allowed the third tier of biography unlocks to contain more substantive plot details and answers; much of the meandering dialogue of Royce could have been replaced with (still meandering) clear exposition of the Camerata’s true motivations, obstacles, and end goals; and the early-game terminals could have been populated with full articles that give a clear picture of the city’s existing administration and atmosphere, so that we get some concrete sense of why the Camerata would want to do . . . whatever unchanging thing it is that they want to do.
But ultimately there’s one very big, overriding gameplay problem that results from having the game’s narrative as it is now, and it involves a spoiler of a late-game event, so if you haven’t played the game, skip to the trailer with my hearty endorsement and pedantic whining in your mind.
The problem is this: the narrative issues devalue the final boss fight. It does not feel as though the whole game has built up to it. As far as the player knows, the only reason for them to dislike Royce Bracket—besides his apparent incompetence in lending the transistor to Grant, who promptly loses it, and thus loses control of the Process—is that Royce selfishly attacks Red so that he can escape at the end. Like a miniboss in a classic sidescroller, one’s only reason for fighting the enemy is that it physically attacked you a few seconds ago. It is ultimately unclear if the Camerata’s goal was noble or terrible, and not because of moral ambiguity; just because we have no idea what that goal might be. A final boss fight should be the emotional climax of the playthrough as well as the final test of the player’s abilities. Transistor‘s final fight may deliver on the latter, but does not deliver on the former.
So that final fight is a poignant synecdoche for the whole Transistor experience: a fun, tight, beautiful session with great music, yet lacking in needed plot details on closer inspection. For this reason (and some of my own feature and atmosphere preferences), I find Bastion to be the studio’s stronger contender overall. But all pedantry aside, with a track record this strong, you can bet I’ll be keeping my eye on Pyre regardless.
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Would you drink a secret tea that has the power to make you feel very horny? Good, because Jeruka is ready to show you her secret ritual to some of the best sex ever! Put on your VR headset and let this sexy Thai babe serve you with her secret tea and her cock craving pussy in Virtual Reality.
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Opinion
PEASE: The CIA spies on the U.S. Senate, is there nobody safe from spying?
In yet another emerging scary scandal, not well publicized, the CIA recently acknowledged that it “had secretly searched Senate computer files related to an investigation of the agency’s Bush-era harsh interrogation program.” Searched Senate computer files! Good grief, that is our own government that they spied on! Is there nobody safe from spying? Their admission that they had lied for several months when accused of having done so and their apology to the senators to whom they had spied, does not make such acceptable. They readily placed the blame on three lower level technology staff members who, they said, “demonstrated a lack of candor” when doing so. Is there no punishment?
Left out of their “limp” apology is who directed them to spy on the Senate in the first place? Also minimized by existing coverage is the fact that this wasn’t just any group of U.S. Senators that the CIA decided to spy on, it was the Senate Intelligence Committee, charged with overseeing all spying sponsored by our government. In effect, the CIA was spying on its congressional boss.
The loudest complainant, and the one to take to the Senate floor to blast the unruly organization of lifting material from committee computers, was the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein. Six months ago, Feinstein insisted that the CIA removed from committee computers information that cast the agency’s post-9/11 interrogation tactics in a harsh and negative light, this presumably to avoid embarrassment and legal entanglements. Meddling with the Oversight Committee’s findings effectively tramples on the constitutional separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government and, if not checked, destroys that balance.
What caused the CIA to spy on its own government was that the Senate was investigating them and about to release its incriminating findings. Despite CIA interference the Committee voted 11-3 to release a 431-page summary of its four-year 6,200 page, $40 million scathing indictment. Just why the complete document will remain classified, and thus secret, has not been disclosed but it can be assumed that the released version is the sanitized version. As a result the extent of the Bush-era CIA torture practice continues into the Obama-era and CIA misdeeds will not come to light fully until those responsible are safely out of danger of prosecution. With respect to the part that remains classified Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein threatened, “If someone distributed any part of this classified report, they broke the law and should be prosecuted.” Perhaps she should be reminded that secrecy and free government are incompatible.
The part released concluded “that the CIA’s use of brutal interrogation measures did not produce valuable intelligence and that the agency repeatedly misled government officials about the severity and success of the program.” Feinstein called the torture practice shocking, “The report exposes brutality that stands in stark contrast to our values as a nation. It chronicles a stain on our history that must never again be allowed to happen,” she said. She was referring to the CIA’s use of water-boarding and other harsh tactics against dozens of terrorism suspects.
Maine Senator Angus King, an independent on the Committee, called the practice torture. “I don’t have any doubts on that fact. It’s a pretty hard read. It’s very disappointing.” But he was especially bothered by the amount of inaccurate statements emanating from the CIA that influenced the president and congress for years. He might have included the mainstream media and the falsehoods that will continue for decades in our history textbooks until everything is declassified and scrutinized by historians.
What appears clear is that the CIA used interrogation methods reportedly not approved by the Justice Department, that the agency evaded congressional oversight, and that the agency self-empowered itself as though independent and accountable to only itself. Also, clear is that the extent of its wrongdoing will remain hidden and classified so that no one is punished. This is the sanitized version.
But back to our original concern, apparently the CIA is so brazen that it spies on, and removes evidence from, the Senate Intelligence Committee charged with its oversight. Amazingly this to the point that they too, knowing more than any other organization the power and danger of the way-ward child, participated in keeping a part of the organizations wrong doings secret. One wonders if the U.S. Senate is that independent of the CIA, especially when this organization receives little more than a verbal retribution for spying and lifting evidence on it, an activity that should be criminal.
Dr. Harold Pease is an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He has taught history and political science from this perspective for over 25 years at Taft College. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.
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h/t Breitbart – President Trump blocked Nancy Pelosi and her entourage from using an Airforce jet for a seven day tour of Europe, Egypt and Afghanistan – though he suggested they could book commercial flights if they want.
President Trump apparently caught Democrats by surprise – their Air Force bus was photographed circling Capitol Hill after President Trump’s order.
Bus for lawmakers on Pelosi’s codel is circling Capitol Hill, awaiting some definitive answers. pic.twitter.com/bpSpPeCZOk — Leo Shane III (@LeoShane) January 17, 2019
Members including House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff getting off the bus in front of the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/G6JMtVCg8h — Jason Donner (@jason_donner) January 17, 2019
I am sure you will all join me in commending President Trump for helping Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats avoid the hideous carbon cost they would have incurred, had they used an airforce jet for their world tour.
House Democrats no doubt deep down appreciate President Trump’s reminder of their climate responsibilities; Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrat’s believe that climate change is an existential crisis.
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HYDERABAD: In yet another case of honour killing , a young couple in love was allegedly murdered by the girl’s family in Anantapur district. The incident came to light when their bodies were found near the railway tracks in Nakkanadoddi village in Guntakal mandal on Thursday morning.
To mislead the police, the accused allegedly dumped the bodies of Gopal, 21, and Mangamma, 18, close to the railway tracks to portray it as a suicide. The couple, who had been in love for the past two years, were tortured and later hit with boulders by the accused, including Mangamma’s father Linganna, leading to their instantaneous death in the late hours of Tuesday.
The victims hailed from Bollanagadda village in Bommanahal mandal of Anantapur district.
Gopal was son of ex-sarpanch Chintala Ramanjaneyulu of Bollanagadda. When both the families learnt about the couple’s relationship some time ago, Linganna confined her daughter to the house and warned her of dire consequences if she did not stop seeing Gopal.
In August, the couple planned to elope and marry as they got worried and realised that their elders would never approve of their marriage, the young couple ran away from their homes on August 21 and took shelter in a relative’s house in Chayapuram village in Vajrakorur mandal.
As ill luck would have it, an auto driver of Bollanagadda saw them and immediately informed Linganna who rushed to Chayapuram with his relatives – Govindu, Vannuru Swamy, Nagaraju, Parameshwarappa and Venkatesh.
They convinced Gopal and Mangamma to come out and took them out on Tuesday evening with a promise to perform their marriage. The unsuspecting couple followed them.
On their way back, the accused tied the couple at Nakkandadoddi, tortured them and later hit them with boulders. To keep their crime a secret, they flung the bodies near the railway tracks and fled the scene.
Some farmers found the bodies late on Wednesday evening and informed the railway police of Gutti mandal. Police recovered the bodies on Thursday morning and shifted them to hospital for an autopsy. A case has been registered based on a complaint by Gopal’s father.
A manhunt has been launched for the killers.
The couple ran away from their homes and took shelter in a relative’s house on Aug. 21. When the accused found them on Tuesday, they promised to perform their wedding, but tortured and killed them on the way to home AU has confirmed the allegations against the accused scientist and ordered an inquiry into the sexual harassment charges. The accused scientist had misbehaved with a student of geology depatment and also asked for sexual favours.
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Sometimes we’re given tasks out of left field that seem rather strange. Other times, we see oddball tasks, and we latch on with reckless abandon. I’ve done one of those second ones.
There’s a decent chance that, within the next year, I’m going to need to support an increased user base. Well, it’s not going to happen with the existing infrastructure, I can tell you that.
Right now, I’m stretched for wall jacks, our desks are a collection of an old set plus the occasional folding table, and I’ve currently got a hutch sitting on the ground acting as a table. We’re going to need more stuff. Preferably different stuff, actually, because what we’ve got right now are glorified tables. The occasional cable grommet carved into the top is about all I can say these desks do for me. I want better. We all run laptops. I want desks with electrical, network, and phone ports on the desktop. I want walls. I want world peace, too, but I’d settle for not having to fear for my life every time I push too hard on a hutch and it threatens to tip over because it isn’t attached by anything.
Of course, I can’t actually buy anything, or even make the decisions. According to all of those forms I fill out to read whitepapers, I “influence” the decision. But if I’m going to influence the decision, I’m going to know what I want, and I’m going to make sure it’s the right resource for the job. It was for that reason that I started asking around. “Do we have building plans for the office?”
As an aside, there’s an old saying that I’m fond of. “Beware of programmers carrying screwdrivers.” Sysadmins who ask for building plans can’t be too far behind.
As it turns out, we do have schematics from when we ordered the construction done on the office, before we moved in. It’s not entirely up to date, but it gives me all of the measurements that I needed to produce a to-scale drawing in Visio. I worked on it for a while, and produced a pretty respectable diagram, I think.
If you’ve ever used Visio for any kind of layout like this, you’ve probably seen the built-in shapes for things like cubicles, desks, office chairs, etc etc. I was using the default “cubicle” shape, at the default size, and I started to realize that what I was seeing on paper didn’t add up to what I had experienced in real life. Never one to take a challenge to my reality while sitting down, I broke out my tape measure and started looking.
I found out that while the average workspace in my office is 7ft x 7ft, the default Visio cubicle is 8ft x 8ft. That sounds more reasonable, but as I said, we’ve been working fine with 7ft². I looked at a couple of sites and they make cubicles from 10ft down to 5ft, and everywhere in between.
So here’s my dilemma…how big should the cubicles be. On one hand, I have a certain number of people that will be necessary to add, and a finite amount of space. On the other hand, I don’t want anyone to go insane and shoot people. Or gut fish in the office.
Do you have a full on office, desk, or cube? How big is your workspace, and how cramped do you feel? I’m interested in hearing from a lot of people to try to get a feel, so please, drop me a comment below. Thanks!
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It will be the first meeting in Scotland since two goals from Paul Scholes gave England the advantage in a UEFA Euro 2000 play-off and will be played at Celtic Park due to the renovation of Hampden Park.
The fixture will be England's final match of 2014 and comes three days after their trip to Slovenia as part of the campaign to qualify for UEFA Euro 2016.
England's next match is at Wembley on Wednesday 3 September against Norway.
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(CNN) Washington Gov. Jay Inslee will unveil a sweeping plan aimed at combating climate change on Friday that, if enacted, would mean a wholesale change to the way the United States builds buildings, manufactures cars and supplies the power grid and includes a proposal to cut US coal production by 2030.
The plan, Inslee's first major policy rollout of his presidential campaign , would implement 100% clean energy standards in three key sectors of the American economy -- electricity, vehicles and new buildings -- and represents the major bet Inslee is placing on the importance of climate change to Democratic primary voters as he vies for a chance to take on President Donald Trump in 2020.
"We as Americans face a choice. Do we rise to the challenge of defeating climate change? Or do we shrink from this existential crisis and let our kids and grandkids suffer," Inslee said in a statement to CNN. "In this campaign, I will put forward plans that will defeat climate change, create millions of jobs, and build a just transition to an economy run on clean energy."
He added: "This plan is ambitious in its scope, but practical in its aims, because it's based off our successes in Washington state this year. We can and must build an economy free from fossil fuels, and that is what I'm proposing today."
Inslee's newly released proposal would put a 10-year plan into place that would mandate the following by 2030: "Reach 100% zero emissions in new light- and medium-duty vehicles and all buses, achieve 100% zero-carbon pollution from all new commercial and residential buildings; and set a national 100% Clean Electricity Standard, requiring 100% carbon-neutral power by 2030, putting America on a path to having all clean, renewable and zero- emission energy in electricity generation by 2035."
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on
Ekim KILIÇ
New York
On Sept.26, The president of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel spoke at the event “Cuba Speaks for Itself”at the Riverside Church in Harlem, New York hosted by the September 25th Welcoming Committee and several solidarity groups from New York and New Jersey. In the wake of the former president of Cuba Fidel Castro Ruz’s visit in 2000, president Canel’s visit gathered around 2000 people. Although the room was packed, moderators of the event called guests to give space to other guests who were still waiting outside at the front of the event.
The crowd was so excited. At the beginning of the event, the chants “Cuba Libre / Free Cuba” and “Que Viva / Long Live” were heard a lot. After Gail Walker, Executive Director of IFCOO/ Pastors For Peace and Frank Velgara made opening remarks, the Healing Drum Collective, the Riverside Church Praise Team, and Cuban pianist Dayramir Gonzalez presented their musical performance to guests.
US graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) took to the stage as well to introduce the opportunities that the Cuban state provided. Over 28,500 medical students from 103 countries have graduated, completely free of charge, from ELAM since the first graduation in 2005.
The Cuban Blockade Grows Stronger
In the event, a press releases issued by the Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations was distributed to the press members and guests. According to the September 14, 2018 press release, the “National Security Presidential Memorandum on the Strengthening of the United States Policy toward Cuba” signed on June 16, 2017, in Miami by the current Donald Trump administration has caused a setback of the position of the previous Obama administration.
As a consequence, the US departments of Commerce, Treasury and State issued new provisions and regulations. Restrictions and limitations to trips and educational trips were imposed, which caused a decrease in travelers from the US to Cuba during 2018, negatively effecting tens of thousands of Cuban workers.
According to the same press release, the Department of State issued a “List of Restricted Cuban Entities and Subentities,” which included 179 companies. The aim of this measure is “to continue to impede the economic and commercial relations of Cuban companies with the potential US and third-country partners.”
The President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro: “We have been the victim of unanimous imperialist aggression”
One of the last speakers of the event was Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. After president Maduro addressed the general debate of the 73rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, he attended the event “Cuba Speaks for Itself”
His stated reason for attending was “to bring the truth of Venezuela, and to expose it to the US people… to bring my love and solidarity to all of you and to share with my dear brother, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel and Cuban people in all”
He underlined that Venezuela has been “the victim of a great imperialist aggression.” However, he ended his speech by saying that “The Bolivarian revolution is standing, is alive and is victorious.”
Miguel Díaz-Canel, The President of Cuba, said Cuba is in favor of total disarmament and international solidarity
Newly elected president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, made several remarks on the current struggle of the country, historical moments that took place in the church, and Cuban foreign policy.
President Canel stated that they are “in support of Venezuela, in support of Nicaragua, in support of Puerto Rico, and in support of all Latin America, Palestinian and Saharan people, and all just causes around the world, and also to denounce very unfair blockade that the US government has imposed on us for nearly 60 years”
He expressed and shared many emotions in the cathedral as he remembered the past, when the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, visited Harlem in 1960 and 2000. The Cuban president said “In order to for us to get here, we drove through the Harlem neighborhood. The place of legendary hotel Teressa, which welcome our first revolutionary delegation to the UN and hosted meetings of great men of the 20th century, for Fidel met Malcolm X, Nasser, Nehru, and Khrushchev.” He added one of Fidel Castro’s personal memory “He had personally told his comrades I am going to Harlem because that’s where my best friends are.”
President Canel also remarked that “Cuba is not a large or powerful country. Not rich in natural or resources, but these limitations have not stopped us from practicing solidarity on the basis of sharing what we have.”
He pointed out that “This is why when Cuba comes to the UN General Assembly and promotes cooperation and solidarity, as opposed to threats, competition, racism, and selfishness, Cuba does so with the authority of the people that have shown it is possible to achieve those goals in a country that has turned words into concrete actions.”
Cuba helped to educate more than 1 million professionals who have served several countries in Asia, Africa, Latin American and the Caribbean since the revolution. Over 42,000 professionals, particularly medical staff, currently are in the service of those countries for engineering, health and medical services, agronomy, and other important domains of development.
The Cuban president claimed that “I would dare to say that with 5% of that (armament) expenditure a lot of people would be lifted out poverty…The foreign policy of the Cuban revolution maintains its consistent position in favor of total disarmament and international solidarity.”
Categories: Cuba, International, U.S. News, Venezuela
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It seems that everyone loves to hate Scumbag Steve. We all know the guy: he comes to your house unannounced, eats your food, takes your last beer, and doesn’t think twice doing any of the above. He’s your least favorite friend: Scumbag Steve. Without further ado, we present 14 new Scumbag Steve memes:
Scumbag Steve also has a medieval ancestor, Scoundrel Stefano.
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Well that was a close one wasn’t it? 4-3 Win for the Montreal Canadiens over the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was a good game a lot of back and forth action, weird lack of penalties and some weird goals especially the Tomas Plekanec game winning goal that managed to squeak by James Reimer, but this isn’t an analysis of this game, there are enough people out there who can do that, what I’m talking about is what I noticed after the game ended.
When the clock hit zero at the ACC twitter exploded with many Leaf fans complaining about one thing, James Reimer. The Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender is getting all the blame for this loss and all the blame for the last four loses and, yes, it makes sense you usually blame your goalie if you lose, but in this case I think the Leaf fans need to blame someone else in this case and that’s Randy Carlyle.
Long story short, when the Leafs lost against the Detroit Red Wings recently, when the media asked Carlyle what did he think of Reimer he said this “I thought he was okay, you know, just okay,” doesn’t seem like the worst thing ever said, but Carlyles tone was pretty harsh and of course the brilliant media immediately ran to Reimer to let him know what his coach said about him, nothing like kicking you while you’re right?
So fast forward to today and Reimer clearly has no confidence left, zero confidence, if this was a video game where your character had a confidence stat, you would need to cheat to get any of Reimer’s confidence back. So Leaf fans thank Carlyle for the problem and heck blame the media for create this little fire. Look I’m really not a Leafs fan, but this topic really gets on my nerves so I have to rant.
Yes I get it Jonathan Bernier is the Leafs starter, but he’s injured right now, so be confident in the kid, don’t treat him like crap and then expect him to be lights out, it just doesn’t work like that today. The Leafs are battling for a playoff spot and they clearly need Bernier back if they really want to make it cause at this rate, Washington, Columbus and Detroit are breathing down the Leafs back and they are very happy that they are having a melt down.
Now don’t get me wrong I am not a Maple Leafs fan what so ever, if they don’t make the playoffs it won’t affect me in any negative way. The only reason why I am talking about this is I actually feel bad for Reimer and I hope he will get a better team to play for, cause he isn’t being treated properly at all. If it wasn’t for him last year the Leafs playoff drought would have been longer. If the Leafs miss the playoffs this year don’t blame Reimer, blame Carlyle and pray his fat butt gets run out of Toronto, because in this particular case it isn’t just the goalies fault it’s the coaches fault and blame the media as well, they don’t get a free pass here either.
Well this has certainly been the longest blog I have written about the Maple Leafs, it felt weird, but honestly the way Reimer is getting treated is really bugging me, anyway on to a few NHL notes.
Canadiens: The Habs have a few funny stats and notes; first off, Dale Weise is 10-2-1 in the games he has actually played for the Canadiens. Tomas Vanek has 4 goals and one assist in the games he has played since being traded, why does this matter well not only does he make Desharnais and Pacioretty look better he also has more points and goals than Alex Kovalev did when he got traded to Montreal.
Ryan O’Reilly: I don’t want to jinx it, but how the heck has he not gotten a single penalty yet? The NHL might as well give him the Lady Byng trophy, unless he gets a bunch or major penalties and misconducts, this trophy is a lock for O’Reilly.
Sabres: Let’s face it the Sabres have a lot of draft picks in the first couple of rounds for the next could of seasons. One of the most interesting picks is the one they got when they traded Vanek away, it is an Islanders pick that can defer it to 2015 as opposed to using it this year if it is in the top 10 this year. It’s a bit confusing, but basically the they can use it in 2014 and 2015. Its kind of a hard decision, because there might be someone they really want this year, or they can hope that the Islanders are so bad next season that the Sabres get a really good prospect like I don’t know Conner Mcdavid. Its an interesting situation if it was up to me, I’d wait till 2015.
Thanks for reading Sorry for taking so long in writing another blog, I have been pretty busy with stuff, I hope to get another remember them soon.
Follow me on twitter for updates and to find links to my LWOS articles @NVincelli.
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Vegetable expert Richard Hassell and his team recently revealed a new robotic system that grafts more quickly and efficiently than a human ever could. They modified a Korean-manufactured robot to grab two plants, precisely slice the upper shoot of one and the root stock of the other, and clamp the two parts together so they can grow into a single plant.
Think of the robot as a high-tech plant surgeon that makes precise slices and fuses together two organisms into a Franken-plant in a flash. In just an hour, the robot can graft together over 3,000 plants — a feat a human being could never accomplish.
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“Generally, grafting is done by hand,” explained Hassell. “It’s a learned skill, so it’s very time-consuming.” Grafting thousands of plants can be grueling, and the sensitivity of young vegetable plants means there's a high failure rate. Imprecise or too-quick grafters can damage the plant, and the slow-and-steady can never hope to graft to scale.
That’s simply not viable for the increasing number of companies that rely on grafting to create hardier, more disease-resistant plants. Crops like peppers and tomatoes have delicate roots, so they can collapse once they’re put in the soil. Commercial operations fuse such plants with others that have hardier roots, like squash, so they can thrive beyond their earliest stages.
There are other upsides, too: Grafted plants need fewer fertilizers because they piggyback on plants that are already growing successfully. And once red plants like watermelons and tomatoes get new root systems, they produce even more lycopene — which gives them their bright color.
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Grafting got its start in Asia millennia ago, and for the last several decades has been widely used to produce the continent’s commercial crops. But it’s been slower to catch on in the United States. Hassell thinks that's because it’s harder to find and pay laborers to learn the delicate technique.
Robotic laborers, on the other hand, require a higher one-time investment but yield endless bounties of precisely grafted plants. Once the metal gardener does its thing, plants are put into high-humidity chambers that promote the new graft to heal. In a week, they’re healthy enough to transfer to a greenhouse. A week later, they’ve adjusted to their newer, stronger roots and can be planted out in the field.
“Grafting is successful and it can improve the quality of the fruit that we devour,” said Hassell. Maybe it’s time to hang up the garden gloves and admit that our robot overlords are simply better gardeners than we could ever hope to be.
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Erin Blakemore (@heroinebook) is a freelance journalist from Boulder, Colo. She is the author of "The Heroine’s Bookshelf" (Harper).
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LONDON, ON (September 12, 2018) – Officers from five area police services are teaming up with the London Police Service Traffic Management Unit (TMU) members to fan out across the city to enforce road rules tomorrow.
The officers from London, Aylmer, Stratford, St. Thomas, Woodstock and Strathroy-Caradoc police services will be focused on enforcing traffic law regarding aggressive driving, distracted driving and seatbelt use as part of the annual ‘Four Counties’ traffic initiative.
This is the second week that the LPS worked alongside other services for traffic enforcement in the city. On Friday, September 7, 2018, our TMU held a Commercial Motor Vehicle Blitz during which 18 inspections were conducted resulting in 42 Provincial Offence Notices issued, and seven vehicles taken out of service.
“Speeding, ignoring traffic lights and stop signs, and driving while focused on your cell phone instead of the road impact the safety of all of us,” said Sergeant Sean Harding, head of the LPS Traffic Management Unit.
“Please focus on what you’re doing behind the wheel,” Sgt. Harding encourages. “Commit to eliminating the distractions within your vehicle. Slow down, plan for delays, share the road and be courteous.”
– 30 –
For more information contact:
Sergeant Sean Harding
Traffic Management Unit
London Police Service
T. 519-661-5680
sharding@londonpolice.ca
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Use your head and sign up now for the Everton FC newsletter Sign up now Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email
Everton are set to name two Academy players on the bench for tomorrow’s game with Southampton.
The Blues are battling with a growing injury list and will be without the suspended James McCarthy for Saints’ visit.
And Roberto Martinez has confirmed that three Academy players will be part of the squad with two then named in the matchday 18.
Kieran Dowell is in the frame for a call-up after a fine season with Everton’s under-21s whilst defenders Mason Holgate and Gethin Jones are in contention.
Midfielder Tom Davies is also in Martinez’s thoughts .
“We had five players working with the first-team this week and all five have been very impressive,” Martinez said.
“Out of those, three will be in the squad tomorrow and probably two will be in the 18.”
Martinez admits the call-ups are more out of necessity, given the first-team’s injury problems, than the idea of wanting to blood the club’s young players.
Everton could be without seven senior pros for tomorrow’s game with Southampton.
Romelu Lukaku, Ross Barkley, Leighton Baines and Aaron Lennon all face late fitness tests ahead of the 3pm kick-off while the Blues are definitely without Phil Jagielka.
Tom Cleverley is expected to miss out after being sidelined for the 0-0 draw at Watford last weekend.
“The idea is that there are so many injuries at the moment that there are opportunities there,” Martinez added.
“The way we work is that when an opportunity arises in the first-team, we will always look internally and we will never be afraid to give a young player, that has been working in a similar role with the under-21s and has been progressing individually in order to have that opportunity, that option.
“Clearly, it has arrived and two of those players will have the opportunity tomorrow.”
And Martinez says he will have no hesitation in calling on them.
“No, because the work we’ve been doing over the months now has been really strong with Joe Royle and David Unsworth and we are working with individuals in order to develop them into position where they can help the first-team.
"We feel very strongly that there are seven players who could be in that position now so it’s just making sure they are mentally right and that they get enough opportunities in football.
"You need to have a bit of luck to get an opportunity as a youngster but they are ready, there is no doubt about that,” the Everton manager said.
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San Francisco is a city of characters and photographer Robert B. Livingston captured many of them in transit in this photo gallery. From clown going home on a slow day at Fisherman’s Wharf to a sweet couple waiting for Muni, every photo seems to be the start of a story — a Muni story, maybe?
More of Robert’s photographs of people on Muni:
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Talk about cultural appropriation. What many people believed to be the main Facebook page for Black Lives Matter is allegedly run by a middle-age white man from Australia. The page has over 700,000 followers on Facebook, which is nearly twice as many as the official Black Lives Matter page. CNN.com reports that the page “was tied to online fundraisers that brought in at least $100,000 that supposedly went to Black Lives Matter causes in the U.S. At least some of the money, however, was transferred to Australian bank accounts, CNN has learned.”
Reportedly, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Patrisse Cullors thought the page was a scam and contacted Facebook months ago about removing the page, but nothing was done. The page links to websites tied to a man named Ian Mackay, who is a National Union of Workers official in Australia. According to CNN, “Mackay has registered dozens of websites, many on issues tied to black rights. In April 2015, Mackay registered blackpowerfist.com. Mackay’s name, email address, phone number and other details appeared in the registration records for the site until July 2015, when the website enabled a feature that allows site owners to hide their identities and contact information.” Other names like BP Parker and Steve Parks were linked to the page, which encouraged people to donate money.
CNN reports, a “source also familiar with some of the payments processed told CNN that the group had raised around $100,000 that they were aware of. The source also said the fundraisers were linked to Australia.” Ian Mackay denied to CNN that he ran the Facebook page, saying, “I once bought the domain name only and sold it.” Hours later, the fake Black Lives Mater Facebook page was deleted.
Today, Facebook reportedly deactivated all profiles associated with the bogus page and the online payment services have suspended all activity with the users.
Facebook declined to “comment when asked if ads were purchased to boost the page on its platform.” Clearly, this is another blow to the way Facebook is handling users—from Russia bots to a fake page designed to profit from a powerful movement.
SOURCE:
Charlottesville Hero Pushed Fiancée Out Of The Way Of Deranged Terrorist
WATCH: White Supremacist Charlottesville Rally Organizer Flees From Counterprotesters
Also On NewsOne:
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President Donald Trump blasted Fox News, the conservative cable network with which he is usually on good terms, claiming on Monday that the outlet "sure ain't what it used to be."
The president's criticism followed what he alleged was a "softball" interview with one of his chief critics in Congress, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif.
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"Just watched Rep. Eric Swalwell be asked endless softball questions by @marthamaccallum on @FoxNews about the phony Witch Hunt. He was just forced out of the Democrat Presidential Primary because he polled at ZERO. Fox sure ain’t what it used to be. Too bad!" Trump tweeted on Tuesday night.
He later added, "Oh well, we still have the great @seanhannity who I hear has a really strong show tonight. 9:00 P.M."
Earlier this month, Swalwell became the second Democrat to drop out of the race for the party's 2020 presidential nomination. (Former West Virginia State Sen. Richard Ojeda briefly entered the nominating contest earlier this year.)
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"After the first Democratic presidential debate, our polling and fundraising numbers weren’t what we had hoped for, and I no longer see a path forward to the nomination. My presidential campaign ends today," Swalwell said at the time.
This is not the first time in recent weeks that Trump has torn into Fox News. He recently compared the conservative news network to "low ratings Fake News @CNN."
"Watching @FoxNews weekend anchors is worse than watching low ratings Fake News @CNN, or Lyin’ Brian Williams (remember when he totally fabricated a War Story trying to make himself into a hero, & got fired" Trump tweeted earlier this month.
During an interview with Salon in April, MacCallum said she hoped to cover both Democrats and Republicans on her network during the course of the 2020 elections. At the time, she was hosting a town hall meeting with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who is among the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination.
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"We would very much like an opportunity to host one of their debates," MacCallum told Salon, referring to the Democratic National Committee's decision to not allow Fox News host one of its sanctioned debates. "We have said, both Bret [Baier] and I, that we hope that they will continue to keep that door open. It sounds like it's not open at the moment, but we really hope that these forums will keep that an open question going forward. And I think that the candidates should push back on it. I think that they should want to talk to us for the same reason that Bernie Sanders has, I think, rightly decided that this is a good place for him to be."
During an interview with Salon last year, Swalwell vowed to use his oversight power as a member of the judiciary and intelligence panels to aggressively investigate the president.
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"We’re going to conduct the oversight role that we are responsible for, especially where Republicans gave Donald Trump presidential immunity for two years," Swalwell told Salon. "This guy has had two years of just free passes where he has not been reined in, and so, you’re essentially . . . It’s like essentially being responsible for a child for two years who’s had no rules and no accountability. It’s going to be a wake-up call for the president. I think he saw that in real time yesterday when he met with Leader Pelosi and Leader Schumer. We’ll investigate where the Republicans didn’t, and that means filling in the gaps with the Russian investigation, that means seeing his taxes to see if his financial interests are driving foreign and domestic policy. That means looking at how people are cashing in on access that he gives them . . . how he’s cashing in on access that he gives people to the White House."
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Searchers find live worms in shuttle wreckage
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (AP) -- Hundreds of worms from a science experiment aboard the space shuttle Columbia have been found alive in the wreckage, NASA said Wednesday.
The worms, known as C. elegans, were found in debris in Texas several weeks ago. Technicians sorting through the debris at Kennedy Space Center in Florida didn't open the containers of worms and dead moss cells until this week.
All seven astronauts were killed when the shuttle disintegrated over Texas on February 1. Columbia contained almost 60 scientific investigations.
"To my knowledge, these are the only live experiments that have been located and identified," said Bruce Buckingham, a NASA spokesman at the Kennedy Space Center.
The worms and moss were in the same nine-pound locker located in the mid-deck of the space shuttle. The worms were placed in six canisters, each holding eight petri dishes.
The worms, which are about the size of the tip of a pencil, were part of an experiment testing a new synthetic nutrient solution. The worms, which have a life cycle of between seven and 10 days, were four or five generations removed from the original worms placed on Columbia in January.
The C. elegans are primitive organisms that share many biological characteristics of humans. In 1999, C. elegans became the first multicellular organism to have the sequencing of its genome completed.
C. elegans have two sexes: males and hermaphrodites, which are females that produce sperm. A hermaphrodite worm can self-fertilize for the first 300 or so eggs but later usually prefers to accept sperm from males to produce a larger number of offspring.
The experiment was put together by researchers at the NASA Ames Research Center in California.
The moss, known as Ceratodon, was used to study how gravity affects cell organization. During Columbia's flight, shuttle commander Rick Husband sprayed the moss with a chemical that destroyed protein fiber. He also sprayed the moss with formaldehyde to preserve it. Seven of the eight aluminum canisters holding the moss were recovered.
Why worms? The C. elegans are primitive organisms that share many biological characteristics of humans.
The experiment was put together by an Ames Research Center researcher and Dr. Fred Sack at Ohio State University.
"The cells were surprisingly well-preserved, but we're analyzing how useful it's going to be," Sack said.
NASA officials said they don't know if the worms will still have any scientific value since they were supposed to have been examined and unloaded from Columbia within hours of landing
"It's pretty astonishing to get the possibility of data after all that has happened," Sack said. "We never expected it. We expected a molten mass."
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LONDON (Reuters) - British manufacturers selling goods ranging from machinery to toys into the European Union would need to have their products retested by EU safety regulators in the event of a “no deal” Brexit, the British government said on Thursday.
Currently British manufacturers of many goods are subject to the EU’s “New Approach” rules that ensure products sold across the bloc meet its safety and environmental standards.
But if Britain and the EU fail to agree the terms of their divorce ahead of the March 29 leaving date, procedures would change markedly for British producers, the British government said in a paper detailing the consequences of a no-deal Brexit.
The goods covered by the paper include construction products, lifts, toys and machinery. Road vehicles, aerospace and pharmaceuticals have been covered in separate papers.
“Products which were tested by a UK-based notified body will need to be retested by an EU-recognised conformity assessment body before placing on the EU internal market,” the paper said of a no-deal scenario.
“Alternatively, manufacturers can seek to arrange for their files to be transferred to an EU-recognised notified body to allow for certificates of conformity issued by a UK-based notified body to continue to be valid.”
Conversely, Britain would allow goods that meet EU requirements to be sold in the British market without being retested, for a time-limited period, the government said.
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Senate Republicans are still trying to keep their distance from Roy Moore, creating a fresh break with President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee, which have re-embraced Moore less than a week before a key special Senate election despite accusations of child molestation against the Alabama Republican.
Both the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC controlled by allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said they plan on staying out of the contest. Several Republican senators furiously protested the RNC’s decision on Tuesday.
But there’s a clear sense of resignation among GOP senators who have tried to block Moore from winning the race, acknowledging that the explicit seal of approval from Trump has left them no good options in the Dec. 12 contest. McConnell has acknowledged that he can’t force Moore out of the race.
“That’s up to them,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said of the RNC’s renewed involvement in the race, throwing up his hands.
“I can’t blame them. Let’s face it, they represent the Republican Party,” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) added, speaking about the RNC. “Frankly, I think if he gets elected, that ought to be — that ought to settle an awful lot of the questions.”
The RNC sent $50,000 to the Alabama Republican Party to help Moore in the final week of the campaign. Moore campaigned with former White House strategist Steve Bannon on Tuesday night in Fairhope, an affluent suburb in a county Trump won with more than 70 percent of the vote.
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Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said flatly that she does not think the RNC should be supporting Moore. On his Twitter account Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, one of Moore’s loudest critics in the Senate, showed off a $100 check he made to the campaign of Moore’s Democratic foe, Doug Jones.
“I don’t understand that move,” South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the third-ranking Senate Republican, said of the RNC’s decision. “I guess that’s consistent with what the president wants to see happen, but it’s not consistent with what I’ve been saying. I just think, again, we’re putting ourselves in a situation where we’re going to have a cloud of uncertainty and a cloud of distraction come January.”
McConnell and allies of the majority leader say his position hasn’t shifted since The Washington Post last month printed the first allegations that Moore preyed on teenage girls when he was in his 30s. More than a half-dozen women have accused Moore of sexual misconduct, including some who were teenagers at the time.
“Look, I’ve made my position perfectly clear,” McConnell said. “I had hoped that Judge Moore would resign — in other words, withdraw from the race. That obviously is not going to happen. If he were to be elected, I think he would immediately have an issue with the Ethics Committee, which they would take up.”
“I don’t think he’s wavered at all in his opinion of Roy Moore,” said Josh Holmes, a former McConnell chief of staff. “I think what’s changed is the fact that Moore is inevitably going to [remain] the nominee.”
Moore didn’t seem eager to win McConnell’s backing.
Toward the beginning of his speech in Fairhope on Tuesday night, Moore ticked off a list of Trump’s unfulfilled promises, from building the wall to rolling back NAFTA. Why weren’t they getting done?
“Mitch doesn’t want it,” Moore said.
Many Republicans, once it became clear there was no way to replace Moore, have simply tried to erase the race from their thoughts. “It doesn’t even come up at conference lunches,” Holmes said.
McConnell has repeatedly stressed that he believes the accusers and tried to force Moore off the ballot, without success. But a viable Republican write-in campaign never materialized, and a potential idea to shift the Dec. 12 election date — by having current Sen. Luther Strange resign — was quickly determined to be unworkable.
“I don’t think anybody’s surprised here,” said Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the state’s senior senator, who backed Strange in the primary. “The president’s interested in keeping 52 votes up here, and I’d like to, too. But a lot of us have different views on it, you know.”
Shelby cast his vote for a write-in candidate, but he declined to say for whom he voted. And Shelby added that he believes Moore will “probably win” next Tuesday.
Roy Moore was set to campaign with former White House strategist Steve Bannon on Tuesday night in Fairhope, an affluent suburb in a county Donald Trump won with more than 70 percent of the vote last November. | Brynn Anderson/AP Photo
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, the NRSC’s vice chairman, said: “The president has voiced his support for him, so I’m sure that was instructive in [the RNC’s] decision. … That’s a call they have to make; it’s not something I’ve personally done or will do.”
Other top Senate Republicans have kept up their anti-Moore posture. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee who has called for Moore’s expulsion should he be elected, said Tuesday that the campaign arm’s position has not changed. McConnell also said the NRSC will not get re-involved.
There’s nothing that Senate Republicans can do to prevent Moore from being seated as a member of the Senate, multiple GOP senators stressed Tuesday. A 1969 Supreme Court decision held that a duly elected member of Congress couldn’t be excluded as long as he or she met the age, citizenship and residency requirements laid out in the Constitution.
Expelling a victorious Moore after he was seated would be another matter, though it hasn’t been done since the Civil War era. But despite the Senate Ethics Committee’s broad jurisdiction to examine senators’ conduct, there have been some questions about whether the committee could investigate instances that occurred before the individual was a sitting member of the Senate.
“The last two senators expelled from the Senate were the two Missouri senators in 1862,” said Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), though he said he agrees with Gardner’s decision to have the NRSC stay out of the race. “So expulsion is not something that the Senate has generally thought was the business of the Senate.”
Jones’ campaign has sought to capitalize on the deep GOP divisions, highlighting Shelby’s declaration that he had voted for a write-in candidate instead of Moore.
“His conduct is so disturbing, Sen. Shelby will not vote for him,” a narrator said in Jones’ latest campaign ad released on Tuesday. The ad then shows a clip of Shelby declaring: “I will not be voting for Judge Moore.”
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Mike Ragga
Mike is the Editor-In-Chief and co-founder of the DNB Vault who, notably, was a long time writer for the now defunct KMAG while covering music and events from Warp Tour, NOFX, Dirtyphonics and Benny Page.
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The aim of this meta‐review is to aggregate and evaluate the top‐tier evidence for the efficacy and safety of nutrient supplements in the treatment of mental disorders, and to explore the conditions under which they may be effective. To do this, we identified, synthesized and appraised all available data from meta‐analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) examining health outcomes and quality of evidence for all nutrient supplements across various mental disorders. Along with providing a clear overview of the efficacy of specific nutrient supplements across different disorders, we also aimed to explore which dosages and symptomatic targets are most appropriate, while additionally reporting on the safety and tolerability for all supplements examined.
Alongside the theoretical potential for nutrient supplements to target certain aspects of mental disorders, there is also a vast amount of clinical trials and meta‐analyses examining their use in psychiatric treatment, and some data in prevention 47 , 48 . However, there remains considerable contention around their role in clinical care. This likely stems from the lack of clear and up‐to‐date guidance for clinicians and researchers regarding their: a) relative effectiveness for improving clinical outcomes in people with mental illness, and b) safety for use, particularly in conjunction with psychiatric medications.
Third, there is nascent (but growing) evidence that mental disorders may be linked to dysfunction of the gut microbiome 41 , 42 . As gut bacteria can be modified through micronutrients and pre/probiotics 43 , 44 , this suggests that some pre/probiotic supplements may serve as potentially useful novel therapeutic options worthy of further investigation 45 , 46 .
Second, there are now extensive data from large‐scale studies showing that psychotic and mood disorders are associated with significantly reduced serum levels of essential nutrients, including zinc 34 , 35 , folate 36 , 37 and vitamin D 38 , 39 . Since these deficits appear to be related to treatment response and clinical outcomes in these populations 11 , 34 , 40 , there is a possibility that nutrient supplementation could improve outcomes.
First, recent clinical research has found that many mental disorders are associated with heightened levels of central and peripheral markers of oxidative stress and inflammation 26 - 29 , and an association has been reported between the efficacy of both pharmacological and lifestyle interventions for mental illness and changes in these biomarkers 30 , 31 . Thus, the antioxidant and anti‐inflammatory properties of certain nutrient supplements (such as N‐acetylcysteine 32 and omega‐3 fish oils 33 ) indicates that these could be beneficial in the treatment of psychiatric conditions caused or exacerbated by heightened inflammation and oxidative stress.
Currently, there is an increased academic and clinical interest in the role of nutrient supplements for the treatment of various mental disorders 14 - 16 . This growth of research is partly attributable to our evolving understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of mental illness, which implicates certain nutrients as a potential adjunctive treatment for a variety of reasons 25 .
Nutrient supplements are widely used across the population. For instance, in the US, over half of adults take some form of nutrient supplements 17 . There is a lack of evidence that this wide‐scale usage reduces the incidence of diseases or premature mortality (indeed, many of the best quality trials – e.g., of vitamins D 18 and E 19,20 – were negative). However, some specific nutrient supplements are linked to health benefits for specific populations or clinical conditions (for instance, women in pregnancy are advised to supplement with folic acid to reduce the risk of neural tube deficits in offspring 21 ; individuals with pernicious anaemia are treated with vitamin B12 22 ; oral supplementation with zinc is a first‐line treatment for Wilson's disease 23 ; and national medical associations have recommended omega‐3 fatty acids for patients with myocardial infarction 24 ).
The importance of diet for maintaining physical health is widely accepted, due to the clear impact of dietary risk factors on cardiometabolic diseases, cancer and premature mortality 12 , 13 . In parallel, the potential impact of diet on mental disorders is increasingly acknowledged 14 , 15 . However, along with regular food intake, nutrients can also be consumed in supplement form 16 . Supplements are typically used in attempts to: a) complement an inadequate diet (or low measured plasma levels of a nutrient) to achieve recommended nutrient intakes/levels; b) administer specific nutrients at greater doses than those found in a typical diet, for putative physiological benefits; c) provide nutrients in more bioavailable forms for individuals with genetic differences, or relevant health issues, which may result in poor nutrient absorption. Supplements can be synthetically manufactured or directly food‐derived, typically including substances such as vitamins (e.g., folic acid, vitamin D), dietary minerals (e.g., zinc, magnesium), pre/probiotics (from specific strains of gut bacteria), polyunsaturated fatty acids, PUFAs (typically as omega‐3 fish oils), or amino acids (e.g., N‐acetylcysteine, glycine).
Furthermore, although the metabolic and hormonal side effects of psychotropic medications can affect food intake 7 , 8 , inadequate nutrition appears to be present even prior to psychiatric diagnoses. For instance, in depression, it seems that poor diet precedes and acts as a risk factor for illness onset 6 , 9 , 10 . Similarly, in psychotic disorders, various nutritional deficits are evident even prior to antipsychotic treatment 11 .
Abundant evidence now suggests that people with mental disorders typically have an excess consumption of high‐fat and high‐sugar foods, alongside inadequate intake of nutrient‐dense foods, compared to the general population 1 - 5 . The relationship between poor diet and mental illness appears to persist even when controlling for other factors which could explain the association, such as social deprivation or obesity, and is not explained by reverse causation 1 , 6 .
The potential impact of publication bias was assessed wherever there were sufficient data for appropriate analyses, and the adjusted effect sizes (when controlling for small study bias) are presented alongside the main findings.
Where reported, all relevant study characteristics were also extracted, specifically with regards to the nutritional supplement used (including type, dose and co‐factors), the sample and the diagnostic details, and any relevant subgroup analyses implemented (e.g., separating high/low quality trials, specific patient subsamples, or dosage levels).
For both primary and secondary analyses, we also extracted the number of participants (N), along with the number of trials/comparisons (n) from which the pooled effect size was derived. Additionally, heterogeneity was quantified using the I 2 statistic, and categorized as low (I 2 <25%), moderate (I 2 =25‐50%) or high (I 2 >50%).
The results of secondary analyses, focusing on safety and tolerability, were typically reported as categorical outcomes (relative rates of adverse events or discontinuation in active vs. placebo conditions). These were extracted as either odds ratios (ORs) or risk ratios (RRs), in line with the originally reported outcomes.
In line with conventional interpretations, SMDs were classified as negligible (<0.2), small (0.2‐0.4), moderate (0.4‐0.8), or large (>0.8). In cases where meta‐analyses had provided effect sizes corrected for publication bias, these were reported alongside the main effects observed, and interpreted as the primary findings from the analysis. In cases where continuous outcomes were reported as weighted mean differences or raw mean differences, these were recalculated into an SMD (Hedges' g) using Comprehensive Meta‐Analysis 3.0. Where original meta‐analyses had reported beneficial effects of nutrient supplementation as negative value effect sizes (to represent a reduction in symptoms), these were re‐coded to positive – such that all effect sizes presented here are positive values when indicating benefit from nutrient supplementation compared to placebo, or negative values when placebo was associated with better outcomes than nutrient supplementation. Where meta‐analyses had applied fixed‐effects models to calculate the effect sizes of nutritional supplementation compared to placebo, these were also recalculated using a random‐effects model, such that SMDs across supplements/disorders could be meaningfully compared.
Primary analyses focused on the effects of nutrient supplementation on measures of physical or mental health outcomes from eligible meta‐analyses. For each nutritional supplement used for each disorder, we manually extracted effect size data as standardized mean differences (SMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) compared to placebo conditions, along with the reported probability of the compared effects being due to chance (p value). Data were initially extracted by five authors (KA, ST, WM, MS, DS), and then cross‐checked for quality with duplicate data extraction by four independent authors (JF, BS, JC, FS).
AMSTAR‐2 assesses 16 constructs, which all indicate the quality of a systematic review/meta‐analysis. Seven of these were identified as “critical domains”, which can be used to determine the overall confidence in review findings 50 . For the purposes of our meta‐review, the included meta‐analyses were scored on all the 16 AMSTAR‐2 items, but also received a separate score for the number of “critical domains” they adhered to.
The quality of eligible meta‐analyses was assessed using “A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews” Version 2 (AMSTAR‐2) 50 , an updated version of the original AMSTAR designed to better capture review quality and confidence in findings.
Where overlapping meta‐analyses of a given nutritional supplement for a specific outcome/disorder existed, the most recently updated meta‐analysis was used, as long as it captured more than 75% of the trials in the earlier version. Where older meta‐analyses presented unique findings, through inclusion of a greater number of studies or use of particular subgroup analyses, these data were used as secondary analyses for our meta‐review.
All data on physical and/or mental health outcomes (including changes in clinical measures, response rates, and adverse effects) from meta‐analyses of RCTs examining nutritional supplements for any eligible disorder were included in this meta‐review. A meta‐analysis was classified as eligible if: a) it had clearly stated inclusion, intervention and comparison criteria aligned with the participant, intervention and comparison criteria listed above; b) it reported a systematic search with a screening procedure; c) it had used systematic data extraction and reported pooled continuous or categorical outcome data from more than one study.
All nutrient supplements were considered for this meta‐review, used either as adjunctive treatment or monotherapy. Nutrient supplements were defined as vitamins, minerals, macronutrients, fatty acids or amino acids (including oral supplement forms of precursors to these) commonly found in the human diet. Meta‐analyses of dietary modification interventions and herbal supplements were not included.
All studies of the above conditions were eligible provided that at least 75% of the sample had a confirmed mental illness or at‐risk state, ascertained by either clinical diagnostic history or reaching established thresholds on validated screening measures. Studies examining mental health outcomes of nutrient supplementation in the general population were only included if data from a mental illness subgroup (with 75% of the sample meeting the above criteria) were available. Studies examining nutrient supplements only for ameliorating the malnutrition associated with eating disorders or substance abuse disorders were excluded. Studies examining neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., autism, intellectual disability) or neurodegenerative disorders (e.g., dementia) were also not included.
We included studies of individuals with common and severe mental disorders, i.e., depressive disorders, bipolar disorder (type I and II), schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, anxiety and stress‐related disorders, dissociative disorders, personality disorders, and attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Studies of individuals who met criteria for being at “ultra‐high risk” or “clinical high risk” for developing a psychotic disorder were also included.
The title and keyword search algorithm is presented in Table 1 . The systematic search was conducted using Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Health Technology Assessment Database, Allied and Complementary Medicine (AMED), PsycINFO and Ovid MEDLINE(R), from inception until February 1, 2019.
No meta‐analyses on the effects of prebiotics or probiotics in mental disorders were identified in our search. However, in groups of individuals with mild to moderate depression (as determined by thresholds on clinically validated scales), probiotic treatments of varying strains and doses reduced depressive symptoms significantly more than placebo (N=163, n=3, SMD= 0.684, 95% CI: 0.0712‐1.296, p=0.029) 71 .
As an adjunctive to clozapine treatment (N=58, n=3) 58 , glycine was ineffective for positive (SMD=0.63, 95% CI: –0.21 to 1.48, I 2 not reported), negative (SMD=0.03, 95% CI: –0.51 to 0.57, I 2 not reported) and total symptoms scores (SMD=0.32, 95% CI: –0.2 to 0.84, I 2 not reported). No eligible data were available for effects of sarcosine as an adjunctive to clozapine.
The effects on negative symptoms fell short of statistical significance (sarcosine: N=132, n=4, SMD=0.32, 95% CI: –0.03 to 0.66, p=0.07; glycine: N=268, n=7, SMD=0.39, 95% CI: –0.11 to 0.9, p=0.13) 57 . However, significant benefits for negative symptoms were observed in individuals treated with non‐clozapine antipsychotics (sarcosine: N=112, n=3, SMD=0.39, p=0.04; glycine: N=219, n=5, SMD=0.60, p=0.05; CIs and I 2 not provided) 57 .
The amino acids sarcosine and glycine (which occur naturally in meat, dairy and legumes) have also been assessed as adjunctive treatments for schizophrenia, due to their potential action as N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor modulators 57 . Neither sarcosine (at 2 g/day) or glycine (at 2.8‐60 g/day) had any effect on positive symptoms, although both did significantly reduce total psychopathology as an adjunctive to antipsychotic treatment (sarcosine: N=132, n=4, SMD=0.41, 95% CI: 0.06‐0.76, p=0.02, I 2 not reported; glycine: N=159, n=6, SMD=0.66, 95% CI: 0.04‐1.28, p=0.04, I 2 not reported) 57 .
Across all the above disorders, the rates of discontinuation and severe adverse events from N‐acetylcysteine supplementation did not differ significantly from the placebo conditions 56 , 72 , 74 . There was no significant difference in rates of mild adverse events (particularly with regards to gastrointestinal upset) in people with schizophrenia (N=186, n=2, OR=1.56, 95% CI: 0.87‐2.80, p=0.14, I 2 =0) 56 , but N‐acetylcysteine supplementation was associated with higher rates of mild adverse events in mood disorders (N=574, n=5, OR=1.61, 95% CI: 1.01‐2.59, p=0.049) 72 .
In 155 individuals with OCD taking concomitant medications (mostly SSRIs), 2‐3 g/day N‐acetylcysteine produced a trend‐level effect towards reduction in obsessive‐compulsive symptoms (n=4, SMD=0.295, 95% CI: –0.018 to 0.608, p=0.064, I 2 =65%) 74 . N‐acetylcysteine (2‐2.4 g/day) also had no significant effects on symptoms of anxiety in a pooled mixed psychiatric sample (N=319, n=2, SMD=0.03, 95% CI: –0.21 to 0.28, p=0.80, I 2 =0%) 72 .
As an adjunctive treatment for individuals with bipolar disorder (N=224, n=2), 2 g/day N‐acetylcysteine did not differ from placebo in its impact on overall illness severity (Clinical Global Impression ‐ Severity, CGI‐S: SMD=0.11, 95% CI: –0.15 to 0.37, p=0.42, I 2 =90%, and Clinical Global Impression ‐ Improvement, CGI‐I: SMD=0.16, 95% CI: –0.09 to 0.42, p=0.22, I 2 =0%) or mania ratings (N=224, n=2, SMD=0.05, 95% CI: –0.2 to 0.31, p=0.68, I 2 =0.01%) 72 . N‐acetylcysteine was also found to be ineffective on depressive symptoms in people with bipolar disorder (N=124, n=2, SMD=0.59, 95% CI: –0.3 to 1.48, p=0.19, I 2 =83%) 56 .
Across three RCTs in people with schizophrenia (N=247), adjunctive treatment with N‐acetylcysteine significantly reduced total symptom scores (SMD=0.74, 95% CI: 0.06‐1.43, p=0.03). Although included trials were rated as high‐quality, the overall strength of evidence was weak due to high risk of publication bias and significant heterogeneity in existing data (I 2 =84%) 56 . Regarding symptom subgroups, there was a non‐significant trend indication of beneficial effects on negative symptoms (SMD=0.59, 95% CI: –0.10 to 2.00, p=0.08, I 2 =93%), but no effects beyond placebo for positive symptoms (SMD=0.16, 95% CI: –0.29 to 0.62, p=0.48, I 2 =66%) or general symptomatology (SMD=0.2, 95% CI: –0.21 to 0.62, p=0.34, I 2 =59%) 56 .
In people with mood disorders (including bipolar disorder and MDD; N=493, n=3), N‐acetylcysteine at 2‐3 g/day had small but significant effects compared to placebo on global functioning (SMD=0.19, 95% CI: 0.01‐0.39, p=0.04, I 2 =64%) and social functioning (SMD=0.22, 95% CI: 0.03‐0.41, p=0.02, I 2 =67%). It also significantly improved other measures of functional impairment (SMD=0.31, 95% CI: 0.12‐0.50, p=0.002, I 2 =86%) 72 .
It has been the most commonly assessed amino acid supplement across mental disorders. In a mixed sample of 574 psychiatric patients with high levels of depression (comorbid or primary), adjunctive treatment (2‐3 g/day) significantly reduced depressive symptoms (n=5, SMD=0.37, 95% CI: 0.19‐0.55, p=0.001, I 2 =92.64%), but had no effects on perceived quality of life (N=543, n=4, SMD=0.14, 95% CI: –0.04 to 0.32, p=0.14, I 2 =68%) 72 . There was high heterogeneity between studies, but no evidence of publication bias.
N‐acetylcysteine is the nutraceutical form of the amino acid cysteine, found in abundance in high protein foods, and acts as a precursor to glutathione, which has antioxidant activity throughout the body.
Omega‐3 conferred no benefits in tasks of forward memory (N=224, n=2, SMD=0.06, 95% CI: –0.21 to 0.34, p=0.66, I 2 =0%) and information processing (N=309, n=4, SMD=0.46, 95% CI: –0.29 to 1.21, p=0.23, I 2 =89%) 81 , and did not produce any improvements in composite cognitive scores for overall IQ (N=247, n=3, SMD=0.05, 95% CI: –0.21 to 0.32, p=0.71, I 2 =0%), inhibition (N=274, n=5, SMD=–0.12, 95% CI: –0.44 to 0.2, p=0.47, I 2 =42.8%), attention (N=267, n=5, SMD=–0.12, 95% CI: –0.33 to 0.1, p=0.28, I 2 =0%), short‐term memory (N=567, n=4, SMD=0.03, 95% CI: –0.10 to 0.16, p=0.64, I 2 =0%), reading (N=622, n=4, SMD=0.01, 95% CI: –0.09 to 0.12, p=0.79, I 2 =0%), spelling (N=260, n=3, SMD=0.03, 95% CI: –0.34 to 0.40, p=0.89, I 2 =48.9%), or reaction time (N=260, n=5, SMD=0.09, 95% CI: –0.13 to 0.3, p=0.44, I 2 =0%) 82 .
As to cognitive dysfunction, the only positive effects of omega‐3 in young people with ADHD were observed in individual task scores for errors of omission (N=214, n=3, SMD=1.09, 95% CI: 0.43‐1.75, p=0.001, I 2 =75%) and errors of commission (N=85, n=2, SMD=2.14, 95% CI: 1.24‐3.03, p<0.001, I 2 =63%) 81 . A positive trend was detected for composite scores of working memory (N=506, n=3, SMD=0.23, 95% CI: –0.001 to 0.46, p=0.05, I 2 =33.9%) 82 and individual task scores for backward memory (N=224, n=2, SMD=0.37, 95% CI: –0.05 to 0.79, p=0.08, I 2 =55%).
With regards to behavioural comorbidities, there was no indication of effects of omega‐3 on emotional lability, conduct problems or aggression in young people with ADHD 80 . Only effects on parent‐rated oppositional behaviour approached significance in primary analyses (SMD=0.2, 95% CI: 0.03‐0.38, p=0.02, I 2 =0.2%). A trend for a positive effect on parent‐rated oppositional behaviour was also observed when applying strict inclusion criteria (SMD=0.15, 95% CI: –0.006 to 0.31, p=0.06, I 2 =8%), and when examining only high‐quality trials (SMD=0.2, 95% CI: 0.03‐0.38, p=0.02, I 2 =0.2%).
Omega‐3 supplements (120‐2,513 mg/day; mean: 616 mg/day) reduced composite symptom scores in ADHD significantly more than placebo (N=1,408, n=16, SMD=0.26, 95% CI: 0.15‐0.37, p<0.001, I 2 =25%) 79 . Although still statistically significant, the magnitude of benefit was negligible when applying a trim and fill analysis to adjust for publication bias (SMD=0.16, 95% CI: 0.03‐0.28). Similar small effects were observed for both symptom domains of hyperactivity‐impulsivity (SMD=0.26, 95% CI: 0.13‐0.39, p<0.001) and inattention (SMD=0.22, 95% CI: 0.1‐0.34, p<0.001). Subsequent analyses (although including fewer trials) replicated these findings of small but significant effects of omega‐3 supplements on composite scores, hyperactivity‐impulsivity and inattention symptoms 80 .
Across the 16 RCTs reporting on ADHD symptom domains, significant benefits were observed for both hyperactivity/impulsivity (SMD=0.209, 95% CI: 0.059‐0.358, p=0.006) and inattention (SMD=0.162, 95% CI: 0.047‐0.276, p=0.006) 77 . Subgroup analyses revealed that significant benefits from PUFAs were only observed on parent‐rated measures, with no effects on teacher/clinician rated measures of overall symptoms, hyperactivity/impulsivity or inattention 77 . A subsequent analysis using stricter inclusion criteria of RCTs (and excluding data from trials with less than 50 participants) found no benefits of PUFA supplementation on teacher‐rated measures of ADHD symptoms (N=287, n=3, SMD=0.08, 95% CI: –0.32 to 0.47, p=0.56, I 2 =0%), and the benefits for parent‐rated measures also fell short of statistical significance (N=411, n=4, SMD=0.32, 95% CI: –0.15 to 0.8, p=0.098, I 2 =52.4%).
In young people and children with ADHD, overall analyses of any PUFA supplementation (including any omega‐3 and omega‐6 supplements, at varying doses) showed significant effects beyond placebo for composite ADHD symptom scores (N=1,689, n=18, SMD=0.192, 95% CI: 0.086‐0.297, p<0.001, I 2 =19.3%) 77 . However, after adjusting for publication bias, the effects of PUFAs on composite symptom scores fell short of significance (SMD=0.118, 95% CI: –0.014 to 0.250, p=0.08).
Examination of safety profiles found that EPA was well tolerated in psychotic disorders and did not cause adverse effects other than mild gastrointestinal upset 55 . In the at‐risk groups, trial attrition in omega‐3 treatment conditions was no different to the placebo control conditions 60 .
In youth at risk of psychosis, PUFA supplements were also ineffective for reducing attenuated psychotic symptoms (N=347, n=3, SMD=0.31, 95% CI: –0.26 to 0.88, I 2 =80%) 61 , negative symptoms (N=347, n=3, SMD=0.06, 95% CI: –0.35 to 0.46, I 2 =63%) 62 , and functional disability (N=252, n=2, SMD=‐0.08, 95% CI: –0.33 to 0.17) 63 over 52 weeks. Similar null effects were also observed over shorter (i.e., 12 and 26 week) time frames 61 - 63 .
Three trials (N=512) examining the impact of omega‐3 (1,200‐1,400 mg/day) as a monotherapy to prevent transition to psychosis in young people meeting “at risk” criteria showed no indication of benefit (all p>0.1) compared to placebo over 26 weeks (OR=0.64, 95% CI: 0.15‐2.68) or 52 weeks (OR=0.64, 95% CI: 0.18‐2.26) 60 .
As an adjunctive treatment for people with schizophrenia, the effect of omega‐3 (2‐3 g/day of EPA) fell short of statistical significance for total symptom scores (N=335, n=7, SMD=0.242, 95% CI: –0.028 to 0.512, p=0.08, I 2 =33.8%) 55 . Omega‐3 supplements revealed no significant effects on depressive symptoms in people with schizophrenia (N=264, n=4, SMD=0.14, 95% CI: –0.11 to 0.39, p=0.28, I 2 =8%) 59 .
Across all placebo‐controlled trials of omega‐3 PUFAs in people with bipolar disorder, effects on mania were not significant (N=242, n=6, SMD=0.198, 95% CI: –0.037 to 0.433, p=0.10, I 2 =0%) although there were small positive effects on depression (N=305, n=6, SMD=0.338, 95% CI: 0.035‐0.641, p=0.029, I 2 =30%) 75 . An analysis including only double‐blind trials found similar positive effects for bipolar depression, although falling just short of statistical significance (N=150, n=4, SMD=0.36, 95% CI: –0.01 to 0.73, p=0.051, I 2 =8%) 76 . The majority of studies were identified as low risk of bias, and showed no indication that omega‐3 increased rates of adverse events or mania/hypomania in bipolar disorder 76 .
An analysis in people aged ≥65 years with clinical depression (either diagnosed or meeting thresholds on validated self‐report measures) found that omega‐3 (averaging 1.3 g/day of EPA/DHA) had large, significant effects on depressive symptoms compared to placebo (SMD=0.94, 95% CI: 0.5‐1.37, p<0.001, I 2 =32.7%), although with only a limited number of small studies (N=187, n=4).
Further subgroup analyses of EPA formulas indicated slightly larger effects on depressive symptoms in studies using >12 week treatment periods (N=274, n=4, SMD=1.07, p<0.01) compared to those using ≤12 week periods (N=695, n=19, SMD=0.55, p<0.001), and for those using omega‐3 as an adjunctive treatment (N=535, n=15, SMD=0.72, p<0.001) rather than as a monotherapy for depression (N=434, n=8, SMD=0.44, p=0.017) 51 .
In analyses examining different formulations of omega‐3 for individuals with any clinical depression, omega‐3 supplements containing ≥50% DHA had no benefits beyond placebo (N=469, n=6, SMD=–0.028, 95% CI: –0.21 to 0.16, p>0.1) 51 . However, omega‐3 supplements containing >50% EPA had moderately large positive effects on depressive symptoms (N=969, n=23, SMD=0.61, 95% CI: 0.38‐0.85, p<0.001). Again, publication bias was evident, and the estimated positive effects of high‐EPA omega‐3 was reduced, but still significant, after adjusting for this (SMD=0.42, 95% CI: 0.18‐0.65, p<0.001).
Subgroup analyses found that omega‐3 supplements were only effective as an adjunctive treatment for MDD in cohorts with no reported comorbidities (N=201, n=6, SMD=0.74, 95% CI: 0.34‐1.13, p<0.01, I 2 =42%), whereas there was no indication of efficacy in samples where MDD occurred in comorbidity with cardiometabolic or neurological diseases (N=201, n=4, SMD=0.05, 95% CI: –0.4 to 0.5, p=0.82, I 2 =45%) 65 . Furthermore, omega‐3 was ineffective for the treatment of MDD in pregnant women (N=121, n=3, SMD=0.24, 95% CI: –0.73 to 1.21, p=0.63, I 2 =85%) 59 . A further subgroup analysis of individuals with indicated depression (but no diagnosis of MDD) found small positive effects of omega‐3 for depressive symptoms (N=759, n=12, SMD=0.22, 95% CI: 0.01‐0.43, p<0.05, I 2 =46%).
Across 13 independent RCTs in 1,233 people with MDD, omega‐3 supplements (mean: 1,422 mg/day of EPA) reduced depressive symptoms (SMD=0.398, 95% CI: 0.114‐0.682, p=0.006, I 2 not available), with no evidence of publication bias 64 . When used specifically as an adjunctive to antidepressants in MDD, omega‐3 supplements (930‐4,400 mg/day of EPA) also produced moderate effects on depressive symptoms (N=448, n=11, SMD=0.608, 95% CI: 0.154‐1.062, p=0.009, I 2 =82%), although there was some indication of publication bias 75 . A subsequent analysis of omega‐3 as an adjunctive to antidepressants in MDD produced similar results (N=402, n=10, SMD=0.48, 95% CI: 0.11‐0.84, p=0.01, I 2 =64%), although again showing evidence of significant publication bias 65 . Adjusting for publication bias produced smaller (but still significant) estimates of effects of omega‐3 as an adjunctive treatment for MDD (SMD=0.19, 95% CI: 0.00‐0.38, p=0.049).
PUFAs have been the most widely assessed nutritional supplement across the various psychiatric conditions, administered as omega‐3 fatty acids, including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and omega‐6 fatty acids, such as linoleic acid (LA).
As a therapeutic option for managing side effects of antipsychotics, vitamin E showed no difference from placebo on levels of improvement in tardive dyskinesia 52 . Nevertheless, it did significantly reduce the risk of tardive dyskinesia “worsening” over 1 year (N=85, n=5, RR=0.23, 95% CI: 0.07‐0.76), although this result was based on low‐quality trials 52 .
No significant effects on total symptom scores in schizophrenia were observed from pooled analyses of antioxidant vitamins (vitamin C and vitamin E: N=340, n=6, SMD=0.296, 95% CI: –0.39 to 0.98, p=0.40, I 2 =40.6%); mineral supplements (zinc and chromium: N=129, n=2, SMD=0.324, 95% CI: –0.48 to 1.13, p=0.43, I 2 =0%); or vitamin B6 (N=75, n=3, SMD=0.682, 95% CI: –0.09 to 1.45, p=0.08, I 2 =58.4%) 53 .
Eleven RCTs examined the efficacy of mineral supplementation for depression, using either zinc or magnesium. Zinc was administered at 25 mg/day (elemental) as an adjunctive treatment for MDD, and had moderate significant effects on depressive symptoms (N=104, n=4, SMD=0.66, 95% CI: 0.26‐1.06, p=<0.01) 65 . Although there was no evidence of heterogeneity (I 2 =0%), all included RCTs were identified as having high risk of attrition bias, due to lack of intent‐to‐treat analyses 65 . In individuals with depression identified using self‐report measures, magnesium supplementation at 225‐4,000 mg/day had no effects beyond placebo (N=538, n=8, SMD=0.22, 95% CI: –0.17 to 0.48, I 2 =30.9%) 70 . No data on magnesium as an adjunctive treatment in diagnosed MDD are available.
Vitamin D was found to significantly reduce depressive symptoms in patients with clinical depression (N=948, n=4, SMD=0.58, 95% CI: 0.45‐0.72, p<0.01, I 2 =0%). This estimate included data from non‐blinded trials using intramuscular injections 69 . Nevertheless, in our re‐analysis of data using only double‐blind RCTs of oral supplements, similar positive effects were observed at doses of 1,500‐7,143 IU/day (N=828, n=3, SMD=0.57, 95% CI: 0.43‐0.71, p<0.001, I 2 =0%).
Discontinuation did not differ between inositol and placebo groups 68 . However, inositol supplementation was associated with a trend towards a higher rate of gastrointestinal upset than placebo (N=183, n=6, SMD=3.26, 95% CI: 0.94‐11.34, p=0.06, I 2 =0%).
In schizophrenia, inositol supplementation (6‐12 g/day) was not superior to placebo for total symptom scores (N=66, n=3, SMD=0.155, 95% CI: –0.35 to 0.58, p=0.63, I 2 =87.2%) 53 . Among individuals with bipolar disorder, inositol (5.7‐19 g/day) had no effect on depressive symptoms (N=42, n=2, SMD=–0.11, 95% CI: –0.75 to 0.52, p=0.72, I 2 =0%) or response rates (RR=0.63, 95% CI: 0.35‐1.12, p=0.12, I 2 =22%) 68 . In anxiety disorders, inositol (12‐18 g/day) had no effects on Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale scores (N=52, n=2, SMD=0.04, 95% CI: –0.58 to 0.51, p=0.89) and symptom scores in OCD samples (N=46, n=2, SMD=0.15, 95% CI: – 0.43 to 0.73, p=0.60) 68 .
In an overall analysis of the effects of inositol (3.6‐19 g/day, median: 12 g/day) on depressive symptoms across bipolar disorder, unipolar depression and premenstrual dysphoric disorder, no significant difference from placebo was found (N=188, n=7, SMD=0.35, 95% CI: –0.2 to 0.89, p=0.22, I 2 =70%) 68 . Inositol was also ineffective when examined as adjunctive to SSRIs in MDD (N=78, n=2, SMD=–0.17, 95% CI: –0.66 to 0.33, p=0.50, I 2 =0%) and for depressive symptoms in premenstrual dysphoric disorder (N=58, n=2, SMD=1.15, 95% CI: –0.08 to 2.39, p=0.07, I 2 =78%) 68 .
Folate‐based supplements had no significant effects on positive symptoms, general psychopathology or depressive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia 54 . However, they reduced negative symptoms more than placebo (N=281, n=5, SMD=0.25, 95% CI: 0.01‐0.49, p=0.04, I 2 =0). The effect persisted in high‐quality RCTs (N=190, n=2, SMD=0.30, 95% CI: 0.00‐0.60, p=0.05, I 2 =0), but became non‐significant when excluding the RCT using 15 mg/day methylfolate (N=226, n=4, SMD=0.23, 95% CI: –0.04 to 0.50, p=0.10, I 2 =0%) 54 .
Seven RCTs (N=340) examined folate‐based supplements as an adjunctive treatment for schizophrenia 54 . Vitamin B9 was administered as methylfolate (n=2) or folic acid (n=5), and also in combination with B6 and B12 (n=3). In overall analyses, the small effects of vitamin B9 on total symptoms were not statistically significant (SMD=0.20, 95% CI: –0.02 to 0.41, p=0.08, I 2 =0), and subgroup analyses of high‐quality studies confirmed the absence of overall effects (N=231, n=3, SMD=0.15, 95% CI: –0.11 to 0.42, p=0.26, I 2 =0%). The folate‐based supplements were ineffective on total symptom scores when administered as folic acid (N=268, n=5, SMD=0.13, 95% CI: –0.12 to 0.37, p=0.32, I 2 =0%), even in combination with other homocysteine‐reducing B vitamins (i.e., B6 and B12) (N=219, n=3, SMD=0.18, 95% CI: –0.13 to 0.5, p=0.24, I 2 =16%). However, effects on total symptom scores in two trials of high‐dose methylfolate (15 mg/day) approached statistical significance (N=72, n=2, SMD=0.45, 95% CI: 0.02‐0.92, p=0.06, I 2 =0%).
Two RCTs examining a high dose (15 mg/day) of methylfolate (the most bioactive metabolite of folic acid) as an adjunctive treatment for MDD found moderate‐to‐large benefits for depressive symptoms (N=99, n=2, SMD=0.73, 95% CI: 0.28‐1.19, p=0.002, I 2 =3%) 67 . There was no evidence of adverse effects or statistical heterogeneity. However, when including the lower‐dose trials of methylfolate (7.5 mg/day), no significant effects on depression were observed (N=249, n=3, SMD=0.34, 95% CI: –0.4 to 1.08, p=0.37, I 2 =81%).
When administering vitamin B9 as folic acid (0.5‐10 mg/day), no significant effects on depressive symptoms were observed (N=657, n=4, SMD=0.4, 95% CI: –0.08 to 0.88, p=0.1, I 2 =83%). Significant effects were observed in the two trials using low dose (<5 mg/day) folic acid (N=190, SMD=0.57, 95% CI: 0.23‐0.91, p<0.001, I 2 =25%), while no significant benefits were observed from doses of ≥5 mg/day (N=467, n=2, SMD=0.24, 95% CI: –0.56 to 1.03, p=0.56, I 2 =76%) 67 .
As an adjunctive to SSRIs in 904 individuals with unipolar depression (mostly MDD), folate‐based supplements (including folic acid and methylfolate, administered at varying doses) were associated with significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms compared to placebo, although there was large heterogeneity between trials (n=7, SMD=0.37, 95% CI: 0.01‐0.72, p=0.04, I 2 =79%) 67 .
The most widely assessed vitamin supplement for mental disorders was vitamin B9, which is also referred to as “folate” when in dietary form. It can be administered in supplement form as folic acid, folinic acid or methylfolate (which is also known as l‐methylfolate, levomefolic acid, or 5‐methyltetrahydrofolate).
Figures 2 - 7 show the efficacy of nutrient supplementation (as determined by meta‐analyses) for all clinical outcomes reported across different psychiatric conditions, including depressive disorders (Figure 2 ), anxiety disorders (Figure 3 ), schizophrenia (Figure 4 ), states at risk for psychosis (Figure 5 ), bipolar disorder (Figure 6 ), and ADHD (Figure 7 ). The overall quality of meta‐analyses is also displayed in these figures. Nutrient supplements with sufficient data (i.e., from meta‐analyses with >400 participants) are highlighted in Table 2 . For all nutrients assessed, the specifics of these findings, along with data on safety and tolerability, are detailed below.
Effects of nutrient supplements in attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), shown as standardized mean difference with 95% CI. Circles represent no significant difference from placebo; diamonds represent p≤0.05 compared to placebo; * represents trim‐and‐fill estimate adjusted for publication bias. A2 – AMSTAR‐2 total score, A2‐CA – AMSTAR 2 “critical domains” adhered to, PUFAs – polyunsaturated fatty acids, NA – not available, RCTs – randomized controlled trials.
Effects of nutrient supplements in depressive disorders, shown as standardized mean difference with 95% CI. Circles represent no significant difference from placebo; diamonds represent p≤0.05 compared to placebo; * represents trim‐and‐fill estimate adjusted for publication bias. A2 – AMSTAR‐2 total score, A2‐CA – AMSTAR 2 “critical domains” adhered to, MDD – major depressive disorder, EPA – eicosapentaeonoic acid, DHA – docosahexaenoic acid, SSRIs – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, NA – not available.
The quality assessment of the meta‐analyses is provided alongside the respective outcomes in Figures 2 - 7 . Individual meta‐analyses fulfilled between 4 and 16 of the AMSTAR‐2 criteria (median: 12, mean: 12). The majority of the meta‐analyses (25 out of 33) adhered to five or more of the seven “critical domains”, but only five of them adhered to all the domains 52 , 58 , 64 , 78 , 80 . Twenty‐six of the 33 included meta‐analyses were published in 2016‐2019.
Specific psychiatric conditions (and reported outcomes) considered in this meta‐review included: schizophrenia (examining total symptoms along with positive, negative, general and depressive symptoms, and tardive dyskinesia) 52 - 59 ; states at risk for psychosis (examining attenuated psychosis symptoms, negative symptoms, transition to psychosis, and functioning) 60 - 63 ; depressive disorders (including any clinical depression, diagnosed major depressive disorder (MDD), depression in pregnancy, in old age, or as a comorbidity to chronic health conditions) 51 , 59 , 64 - 73 ; anxiety and stress‐related conditions (including generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive‐compulsive disorder (OCD) and trichotillomania) 68 , 72 , 74 ; bipolar disorder type I and II (examining overall symptoms, bipolar mania, bipolar depression, functional impairments, and quality of life) 56 , 68 , 72 , 75 , 76 ; and ADHD (including composite symptoms, hyperactivity‐impulsivity, inattention, behavioural comorbidities such as aggression, and cognitive functioning) 77 - 82 .
Meta‐analyses examined RCTs of PUFAs, vitamins, minerals, amino acid supplements and pre/probiotics, with primary analyses including outcome data from a total of 10,951 individuals. All meta‐analyses were based on nutrient supplementation administered in conjunction with “usual care” (without specifying treatment regimens) or as an adjunctive treatment to a specific class of psychotropics (e.g., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in depression, or antipsychotics in schizophrenia). Only one of the meta‐analyses reported on a nutrient supplement as monotherapy for a mental disorder (i.e., omega‐3 fatty acids for depression 51 ), whereas no others specifically excluded patients taking medications. No meta‐analyses directly compared nutrient supplementation to psychotropic medications. All studies 51 - 82 were placebo‐controlled.
The search returned 1,194 results, which were reduced to 737 after duplicates were removed. One further potentially eligible article was retrieved from the additional search of Google Scholar. Title and abstract screening removed 597 articles, while 141 articles were retrieved and reviewed in full. Of these, 108 were ineligible. Thus, in total, eligible data from 33 independent meta‐analyses of RCTs of nutrient supplementation in mental disorders were included for this meta‐review (see Figure 1 ).
DISCUSSION
This meta‐review aggregated and evaluated all the recent top‐tier evidence from meta‐analyses of RCTs examining the efficacy and safety of nutritional supplements in mental disorders. We identified 33 eligible meta‐analyses published from 2012 onwards (26 since 2016), with primary analyses including 10,951 individuals with psychiatric conditions (specifically depressive disorders, anxiety and stress‐related disorders, schizophrenia, states at risk for psychosis, bipolar disorder and ADHD), randomized to either nutritional supplementation (including omega‐3 fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, N‐acetylcysteine and other amino acids) or placebo control conditions. Although the majority of nutritional supplements assessed did not significantly improve mental health outcomes beyond control conditions (see Figures 2-7), some of them did provide efficacious adjunctive treatment for specific mental disorders under certain conditions.
The nutritional intervention with the strongest evidentiary support is omega‐3, in particular EPA. Multiple meta‐analyses have demonstrated that it has significant effects in people with depression, including high‐quality meta‐analyses with good confidence in findings as determined by AMSTAR‐264. Meta‐analytic data have shown that omega‐3 is effective when given adjunctively to antidepressants51, 64. As a monotherapy intervention, the data are less compelling for omega‐3, while DHA or DHA‐predominant formulas do not appear to show any obvious benefit in MDD51, 64.
Omega‐3 supplementation appears to be of greatest benefit when administered as high‐EPA formulas, as significant relationships between EPA dosage and effect sizes are also observed in high‐quality meta‐analyses of RCTs59, 64. Emergent data from RCTs further indicate that omega‐3 may be most beneficial for patients presenting with raised inflammatory markers83. The available meta‐analyses suggest that omega‐3 supplementation is not effective in patients with depression as a comorbidity to chronic physical conditions65, including cardiometabolic diseases, a finding which has been replicated in subsequent trials84. In light of current adverse event data, omega‐3 seems to represent a safe adjunctive treatment.
More research is needed concerning the efficacy of omega‐3 supplements in other mental health conditions. For instance, omega‐3 was indicated as potentially beneficial for children with ADHD, again with high EPA formulas conferring largest effects79. However, the negligible effect sizes after controlling for publication bias, along with the low review quality identified by AMSTAR‐2, reduces confidence in findings. Additionally, whereas the existing meta‐analytic data have found a lack of significant benefits in people with schizophrenia55, 59, subsequent trials in young people with first‐episode psychosis have reported more positive, though mixed, results85, 86, putatively ascribed to neuroprotective effects87, 88.
Adjunctive treatment with folate‐based supplements was found to significantly reduce symptoms of MDD and negative symptoms in schizophrenia54, 67. However, in both cases, AMSTAR‐2 ratings indicated low confidence in review findings, and positive overall effects in these meta‐analyses were driven largely by RCTs of high‐dose (15 mg/day) methylfolate. Methylfolate is readily absorbed, overcoming any genetic predispositions towards folic acid malabsorption, and successfully crossing the blood‐brain barrier89, 90. Indeed, a placebo‐controlled trial of methylfolate in schizophrenia reported significant increases in white matter within just 12 weeks, co‐occurring with a reduction in negative symptoms91.
RCTs not captured in our meta‐review92 and retrospective chart analyses93 have further indicated benefits of methylfolate supplementation in other mental disorders. Considering this, alongside the lack of detrimental side effects (in fact, significantly fewer adverse events in samples receiving treatment compared to placebo54), further research on methylfolate as an adjunctive treatment for mental disorders is warranted.
Regarding other vitamins (such as vitamin E, C or D), minerals (zinc and magnesium) or inositol, there is currently a lack of compelling evidence supporting their efficacy for any mental disorder, although the emerging evidence concerning positive effects for vitamin D supplementation in major depression has to be mentioned.
Beyond vitamins, minerals and omega‐3 fatty acids, certain amino acids are now emerging as promising adjunctive treatments in mental disorders. Although the evidence is still nascent, N‐acetylcysteine in particular (at doses of 2,000 mg/day or higher) was indicated as potentially effective for reducing depressive symptoms and improving functional recovery in mixed psychiatric samples72. Furthermore, significant reductions in total symptoms of schizophrenia have been observed when using N‐acetylcysteine as an adjunctive treatment, although with substantial heterogeneity between studies, especially in study length (in fact, N‐acetylcysteine has a very delayed onset of action of about 6 months56, 94).
N‐acetylcysteine acts as a precursor to glutathione, the primary endogenous antioxidant, neutralizing cellular reactive oxygen and nitrogen95. Glutathione production in astrocytes is rate limited by cysteine. Oral glutathione and L‐cysteine are broken down by first‐pass metabolism, and do not increase brain glutathione levels, unlike oral N‐acetylcysteine, which is more easily absorbed, and has been shown to increase brain glutathione in animal models96. Additionally, N‐acetylcysteine has been shown to increase dopamine release in animal models96.
N‐acetylcysteine may assist in treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression through decreasing oxidative stress and reducing glutamatergic dysfunction96, but has wider preclinical effects on mitochondria, apoptosis, neurogenesis and telomere lengthening of uncertain clinical significance.
NMDA receptors are activated by binding D‐serine or glycine97. Sarcosine is a naturally occurring glycine transport inhibitor and can act as a co‐agonist of NMDA98. As such, D‐serine, glycine and sarcosine may improve psychotic symptoms through NDMA modulation99. We found reductions in total psychotic symptoms, but not negative symptoms, with glycine and sarcosine. Additionally, we found that glycine was not effective in combination with clozapine. This may be because clozapine already acts as a NMDA receptor glycine site agonist97.
The role of the gut microbiome in mental health is also a rapidly emerging field of research99. Gut microbiota differs significantly between people with mental disorders and healthy controls, and recent faecal transplant studies using germ‐free mice indicate that these differences could play a causal role in symptoms of mental illness41, 100, 101. Intervention trials that aim to investigate the effect of probiotic formulations on clinical outcomes in mental disorders are now beginning to emerge71. We included one recent meta‐analysis that evaluated the pooled effect of probiotic interventions on depressive symptoms: while the primary analysis reported no significant effect, the moderately large effect in the three included studies suggests that probiotics may be beneficial for those with a clinical diagnosis of depression rather than subclinical symptoms71. However, additional trials are required to replicate these results, to evaluate the long‐term safety of probiotic interventions, and to elucidate the optimal dosing regimen and the most effective prebiotic and probiotic strains102.
While this meta‐review has highlighted potential roles for the use of nutrient supplements, this should not be intended to replace dietary improvement. The poor physical health of people with mental illness is well documented103, and excessive and unhealthy dietary intake appears to be a key factor involved4, 5. Improved diet quality is associated with reduced all‐cause mortality104. whereas multivitamin and multimineral supplements may not improve life expectancy18-20.
A meta‐analysis of dietary interventions in people with severe mental illness found benefits on a number of physical health aspects105. It is unlikely that standard nutrient supplementation will be able to cover all beneficial aspects of improved dietary intake. In addition, whole foods may contain vitamins and minerals in different forms, whereas nutrient supplements may only provide one form. For example, vitamin E occurs naturally in eight forms, but nutrient supplements may only provide one form. Dietary interventions also reduce dietary elements in excess, such as salt, which is a key driver of premature mortality13.
While improving dietary intake appears to have a clear role in increasing life expectancy and preventing chronic disease, there is currently a lack of studies evaluating this in people with mental disorders. Additionally, although recent meta‐analyses of RCTs have demonstrated that dietary improvement reduces symptoms of depression in the general population106, more well‐designed studies are needed to confirm the mental health benefits of dietary interventions for people with diagnosed psychiatric conditions25.
Our data should be considered in the light of some limitations. First, although meta‐analyses of RCTs typically constitute the top‐tier of evidence, it is important to acknowledge that many of the outcomes included in this meta‐review had significant amounts of heterogeneity between the included studies, or were based on a small number of studies. A next step within this field of research is to move from study‐level to patient‐level meta‐analyses, as this would provide a more personalized picture of the effects of nutrient supplements derived from adequately powered moderator, mediator and subgroup analyses. Additionally, comparing nutrient supplements in the same trial would be desirable.
It is recognized that people with mental disorders commonly take nutritional supplements in combinations. In some instances, research has supported this approach, most commonly in the form of multivitamin/mineral combinations107. However, recent research in the area of depression has revealed that “more is not necessarily better” when it comes to complex formulations108. Of note, recent large mood disorder clinical trials have revealed that nutrient combinations may not have a more potent effect, and in some cases placebo has been more effective47, 108, 109.
In conclusion, there is now a vast body of research examining the efficacy of nutrient supplementation in people with mental disorders, with some nutrients now having demonstrated efficacy under specific conditions, and others with increasingly indicated potential. There is a great need to determine the mechanisms involved, along with examining the effects in specific populations such as young people and those in early stages of illness. A targeted approach is clearly warranted, which may manifest as biomarker‐guided treatment, based on key nutrient levels, inflammatory markers, and pharmacogenomics 83, 91, 110.
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The Dinosaur and Cavemen Expo promises to take visitors back in time � 65 million years back, to be precise.
Now in its fourth year, the event is sponsored by the National Science Foundation and hosted by the University of Missouri�s integrative anatomy and paleobiology groups. There will be dinosaur models, fossils, meteorites, asteroids and moon dust on display, and the NASA-produced film �Earth�s Wild Ride,� which offers a dynamic look at the planet�s natural history, will be shown in the Columbia Public School Planetarium every 45 minutes.
Raptor Rehab and the MU School of Natural Resources also will be there to introduce visitors to large birds of prey � modern relatives of dinosaurs.
The Dinosaur and Cavemen Expo will run 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Rock Bridge High School, 4303 S. Providence Road. Admission is free.
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Barbara Low, who was among a core of female scientists whose research in the 1940s unleashed a bonanza of lifesaving antibiotics, and whose gumption gained her followers a foothold in a male-dominated field, died on Jan. 10 at her home in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. She was 98.
Her death was confirmed by Lucky Tran, a spokesman for the Irving Medical Center of Columbia University, where Dr. Low taught for nearly 60 years and was professor emeritus of biochemistry and molecular biophysics. Her death was announced belatedly because it took time for the university to gather biographical details, Dr. Tran said.
Dr. Low’s role in identifying the structure of penicillin was something of a fluke.
As a student at Oxford University in England, she was a protégée of the future Nobel laureate Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, who, having been barred from teaching men, taught at Oxford’s Somerville College, a women’s school at the time.
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The people have spoken—and they are feelin’ the Bern.
At midnight on Sunday, Time magazine cut off voting for its annual Person of the Year poll. In the number one spot, with 10.2 percent of the overall vote, was Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
It’s the first time in history that a presidential candidate has won the poll before being elected, and only three U.S. presidents have made the number one spot: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama.
Though the magazine’s editors will make the final selection for the official Person of the Year honor, it’s clear that Sanders’ skyrocketing popularity is only on the rise. Though Hillary Clinton currently holds an average 24.5 percent lead in the national polls, the former secretary of state placed low on the Time poll list, at number 29—just below Triple Crown-winning horse American Pharoah.
Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont, beat some of the world’s most beloved figures in the poll, with twice as many votes as second-place winner Malala Yousafzai. Pope Francis trailed slightly behind, with 3.7 percent of the votes. Even the vague nomination of “refugees” garnered 3 percent of the overall votes.
The lowest ranking members of the poll were largely representative of the conservative right: GOP candidates Carly Fiorina, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz, as well as anti-gay-marriage Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis were all in the bottom 10. The partisan disconnect between the poll’s high and low contenders may say more about the demographic of voters than the worthiness of those being ranked.
According to Time, Person of the Year isn’t necessarily a popularity contest but a choice of “the person Time believes most influenced the news this year, for better or worse.” That means Kim Davis, with her impact on 2015’s same-sex marriage news, could still be in the running for the magazine’s cover.
The winner of Time’s Person of the Year award will be announced this Wednesday morning on the Today show. As of press time, Sanders has not responded to his poll victory with a statement.
Illustration by Max Fleishman
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Gary Dauberman has moved up in James Wan’s crew. He’s written the three Annabelle movies and makes his directorial debut on Annabelle Comes Home. He also produced The Curse of La Llorona and wrote and produced The Nun. He’s also co-created DC Universe’s new Swamp Thing streaming series, which Wan produced via his Atomic Monster production company.
Dauberman spoke with /Film by phone about Swamp Thing this week. He’s about to make the press rounds again next month for Annabelle Comes Home and he also gave us updates on Salem’s Lot, It: Chapter 2, the Train to Busan remake, Annabelle Comes Home and Are You Afraid Of the Dark. Swamp Thing premieres today on DC Universe.
Did you come to Swamp Thing more through James Wan than through the comics?
No, I came to Swamp Thing through Alan Moore and Bernie Wrightson. Bernie Wrightson has long been one of my heroes. I knew his artwork and I knew Swamp Thing from him and then Alan Moore’s iconic run on that comic back in the ‘80s that I did discover later. I wasn’t reading it as it was coming out but it was just an eye-opening experience reading that. It felt so different from all the other comics I was reading at the time. Being able to revisit those comics for the show, they still feel so different and fresh from anything they put out there still. It was great that they still hold up and still invoke the proper creepiness and atmosphere as when I read it for the first time. For the show, when I found out that James was doing Swamp Thing, I did whatever I could to be involved.
Were you privy to DC Universe’s series Titans and Doom Patrol while you were developing Swamp Thing?
No. Titans had not come out yet while we were writing the pilot so it came out while we were making the show. Those, although I couldn’t wait to see them, they didn’t really inform our process in any way making the show.
Had you already researched the swamp for your movie Swamp Devil?
[Laughs] Oh man, yeah. I wrote that in one week way back when. I have not seen any of those movies but I enjoyed working on those scripts. That’s funny you bring that up.
To be fair, I haven’t seen it either. I just saw that you wrote another swamp movie.
It was one of those made for Syfy movies very early on when they were doing it weekly. I think it was every Saturday night or something. Those movies taught me a lot. They would say, “We have a total, we have a location, we have a cast. We need a script. Can you write something very quickly?” They really sharpened my skills in terms of working towards a deadline and working towards knowing that we’re going into production. That really helped me a lot later on when we were working on TV and they need a script quickly because they’re working towards production. It helped to build that muscle.
How much real science is in Swamp Thing?
Look, I’m not a scientist so you could make up anything, I’d be like, “Yeah, that sounds correct.” I know through production we work very closely with consultants trying to make the events that happen in the series to be as plausible as possible and ground it. I think that’s been achieved.
Does anything go on DC Universe streaming as far as language and violence? I don’t know if sexuality would be an issue with Swamp Thing.
Yeah, that was one of our first questions was, “What can we get away with?” And they said, “Whatever you want, really.” which was super freeing. It allowed us not to have to write around anything that normally you’d have to on network. We could just barrel straight through and if we wanted to get graphic, we could get graphic. We have a lot of body horror and gore and violence in this TV series so we were able to embrace it all. It was a very “anything goes” mentality.
So are the roots ripping people in half only the beginning?
That is only the beginning, literally and figuratively. It’s one of the first things, especially when you read the comics and all that stuff. Those things are a lot of fun to write. That’s one of the cool things about the swamp, right? There’s a very kitchen sink aspect to the swamp. Because of its origins, we’re able to explore and hit on other subgenres of horror. If we wanted to tell a haunted house supernatural beat, we felt we could get away with it. If we want to do something a little bit more body horror, we could do that. We certainly have psychological horror aspects of the show. Whatever dark corner we wanted to shine a light on we were able to do that just by the very nature of the nature of the swamp.
Is Swamp Thing a beauty and the beast story?
It’s definitely something we lean into, we played around with. The cool thing about the Swamp Thing is it’s an exploration of identity. There’s an existential crisis happening for Alec Holland, for Abby Arcane, for a lot of the characters in the town. Beauty and the beast certainly is an aspect but it’s also Alec Holland, exploring who he’s become, who he is and what’s the swamp becoming. So while we have the beauty and the beast component, it’s only one part of the whole.
We haven’t seen the last of Andy Bean, right?
Oh man, I hope not but I’ll save that for some reveals. Having worked with him on It: Chapter 2, and I’d seen his early audition for Stanley, this guy brings such an energy to everything he does. He’s so watchable we were also really cheerleaders for him to play Alec Holland because he brings such a level of engagement to all his performances. It’s really a treat watching him.
You lost three episodes at the end of the season. Did that change the arc of the first season?
No, we knew what we were building towards and we were getting there. We felt we could accomplish that in 10 episodes so it kind of worked out. We were able to land where we wanted to land.
Are there any things from those back three you could bring back in a second season?
Yes but I won’t speak specifically to those because it would spoil this season.
As a fan of Moore and Wrightson, what were the elements you just had to get into Swamp Thing?
We really like the southern Gothic feel. Mark and I talked a lot about that. We talked about the panels, Bernie and Alan, really dripped with this melodrama and really this atmosphere. His sense of dread we really liked. We knew we wanted to get some of the headier ideas in there as well because that’s what’s so great about the comic. It explored and asked big questions of things. We were able to do that with the show as well, ask big questions. What makes a man? What makes a monster? It was those kind of elements we wanted to bring to the show. The spirit of the comic was so different from a lot of the stuff that was out there that first and foremost with the show, we wanted to do that as well. We wanted to make this different from a lot of the stuff out there. I think we really succeeded in that regard.
Was North Carolina southern enough to capture the gothic vibe?
Oh yeah. The sets down there were amazing, and the crew and cast really drilled down on that. It was great to shoot there.
They just announced you’re doing Salem’s Lot. They’ve done that as a TV miniseries twice but never as a film before. Did you have a unique way into Salem’s Lot as a feature film?
I did have a unique way into it but again, I think the book in itself is unique. Certainly now, I haven’t seen a scary vampire movie in a long, long time and I’d really love to tackle that. It’s one of my favorite books. It’s one of my favorite Stephen King books. We felt it should have the cinematic treatment that we gave It. It was a miniseries as well. The experience of bringing that to the big screen was such a joy that I was so happy we will have the opportunity to do that for Salem’s Lot.
James Wan has said he won’t produce Train to Busan unless they find a really good reason to do an American remake. Have you gotten close to finding a good reason?
Yes. I won’t get more into that but that’s one of those movies that’s so f***ing great, it’s so well done, you don’t want to do anything that’s going to be less than. I think we’re certainly getting there. It feels like there’s a reason to make the American version without ruining the experience of the original.
Now we’ve seen the trailer to It: Chapter 2 and we’re happy the kids are still involved. Could you estimate what proportion of the movie the kids are in? Maybe 10% of it?
No, I don’t want to say that. I don’t want to put a number on it.
Everyone, when they saw Sophia Lillis, said Jessica Chastain should play adult Bev. How big a coup was it to get her?
I always had my fingers crossed because I knew the Muschiettis had their relationship with Jessica. It was whispered about but I’m such a fan of hers. While they know her, I only knew her seeing her on the big screen so you’re like really? Could this really happen? I’m sitting there as a fan and then when it really happens you’re just like “Holy sh*t.” It’s elevated immediately with her signing on.
Do you have any other Stephen King books on your wish list?
Yeah, I have so many favorites. Salem’s Lot is the only thing that’s in front of me right now that I want to work on. It’s been fun exploring the dark corners of that town. I’m kind of a one track mind. I don’t plot too far ahead and I’m overjoyed I get to work on Salem’s Lot so right now that’s all there is for me. There’s a number of stuff in the works that I’m not a part of that I’m very excited to see when they eventually come out.
Has Are You Afraid of the Dark shot yet?
No, that actually hasn’t shot yet. That’s one of those things I’m no longer a part of. I just had a different vision to make it and thought it best to part ways.
That happens. It’s good to get that on record.
For sure. I don’t think that’s out there. It’s unfortunate but as you said, that’s sometimes how it goes.
Annabelle Comes Home is the first Annabelle movie that’s not a prequel. Was that a different thing?
Yes, it is the first Annabelle movie that’s not a prequel and it was a different thing. It presented its own sort of challenges because you’re locked into everything post Warrens, right? You have The Conjuring 1, Conjuring 2, all those things that have happened. You can’t and don’t want to mess with any of that. You want to make sure you don’t step on any toes mythology-wise. I was excited to dig in further on the Judy Warren character.
Are Ed and Lorraine more than just cameos in it?
Yeah, they’re definitely part of the story. They definitely influence the story.
Any talks of more Nun movies?
That I can’t speak to. It’s always an ongoing conversation just because we love talking about the universe. Wouldn’t it be cool if we did this? Wouldn’t it be cool if we did that? There’s a lot of talk about everything, evolving this universe.
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Last weekend, President Trump slammed US Representative Elijah Cummings’s Baltimore district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” Today, a new study from RentHop shows that, as faithful Washingtonian readers know, the District is actually the rattier city. Here’s how the two municipalities compare:
Total number of rat complaints
Loser: DC
The study counted the number of rat complaints filed in 2017 and 2018 in five cities: DC, Baltimore, Chicago, Boston and New York. In 2018, DC had a whopping total of 5,715 complaints to Baltimore’s 4,476. Though both are certainly ratty, they’ve got nothing on Chicago–official rat capital of the US–which touts a staggering 40,057 complaints.
Rat complaints per square mile
Loser: DC
Controlling for the range of territory in each of the rat kingdoms, the study divided the total number of rat complaints by total square mileage to calculate each city’s relative rat density (ew). While Baltimore has a disturbing 48.5 rat complaints per square mile, Washingtonians are twice as likely to encounter a rogue rodent, coming in with 83.6 rats per square mile.
Overall rat growth
Loser: DC
DC doesn’t have the sheer number or concentration of rats compared to Chicago or New York City. But while rat complaints are decreasing in those two cities, DC’s number of rodent sightings have increased. Complaints rose 50 percent from 2016 to 2017 and another 7.6 percent from 2017 to 2018. Considering that the pace of rat copulation makes bunnies look like Doris Day, this could grow to become an even bigger public health issue in the coming years. In comparison, Baltimore’s rodent complaints have steadily dropped over the past four years, with a 47 percent drop from 2015 to 2018.
Rats as a symbol of inequality
Loser: Baltimore
In a city with such a gross income inequality, there’s a Schadenfreude in knowing even the most loaded of K Street lobbyists isn’t safe from rat invasion. By plotting rat concentration levels compared to average area rent, the study found there was no correlation between rent prices and number of rats in DC. This can be easily confirmed by taking a late-night stroll around Dupont Circle. While Dupont is definitely still a rat hotspot, the study found the highest concentration of rats took refuge in the Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods. In comparison, Baltimore had a distinct negative correlation between average rent and number of rodent complaints, meaning poorer neighborhoods were more likely to experience rat infestations.
Trump’s nabe v. Cummings’s nabe
Loser: Baltimore
Though his city as a whole is faring far better than Trump’s, Cummings’s Druid Heights neighborhood recorded just 13 rodent complaints in 2018, as opposed to 132 complaints in downtown DC. But Druid Hill’s small size means it had an average of 271.8 complaints per square mile in comparison to the White House’s neighborhood, which had 71.4 complaints per square mile.
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Puck Treasures looks to find those hidden hockey treasures from the past and present, and gives them their proper remembrance. Seen an interesting piece of hockey apparel? Send us an email at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com.
The world would be a much better place with a little NHL ’93 (and/or NHL ’94) in everyone’s lives.
We've documented many things related to EA Sports' NHL series over the years, from Cliff Ronning standing on an actual NHL '93 player star to Bobby Orr's famous goal immortalized as NHL '94 wallpaper to chatting with the immortal Ron Barr; but nothing beats this piece of goalie equipment.
Via Upper Corner Hockey, the crew at Royal Essex Custom Airbrushing have brought us one of the best goalie masks out there featuring an NHL ’93 theme.
View photos Royal Essex Custom Airbrushing More
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EXCLUSIVE: Denée Benton (Hamilton), Louisa Jacobson (Gone Hollywood), Taissa Farmiga (The Twilight Zone), Blake Ritson (Krypton) and Simon Jones (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) are set to co-star in Julian Fellowes’ The Gilded Age drama series at HBO. The project, which moved from NBC to HBO earlier this year, is a co-production between HBO and Universal TV. The fictional epic of the millionaire titans of New York City in the 1880s hails from the Downton Abbey team of Fellowes, producer Gareth Neame and director Michael Engler. They join previously announced cast Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Amanda Peet and Morgan Spector.
Created, written and executive produced by Fellowes, The Gilded Age centers on a period of immense economic change in America, of huge fortunes made and lost, and the rise of disparity between old money and new. Against this backdrop of change, the story begins in 1882 – introducing young Marian Brook, the orphaned daughter of a Southern general, who moves into the home of her rigidly conventional aunts in New York City. Accompanied by the mysterious Peggy Scott, an African-American woman masquerading as her maid, Marian gets caught up in the dazzling lives of her stupendously rich neighbors, led by a ruthless railroad tycoon and his ambitious wife struggling for acceptance by the Astor and Vanderbilt set. Will Marian follow the established rules of society, or forge her own path in this exciting new world that is on the brink of transformation into the modern age?
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Benton will play Peggy, who was a young child when slavery was abolished and her parents were freed in West Virginia. Raised in NY, she is among the first generation of African Americans who never really knew slavery first hand. She has a past which she is not anxious to share with anyone, but like Marian, she is in need of a friend and a new start when they meet in Charleston. They travel to New York together and decide that Peggy will pose as Marian’s maid until she can decide what to do next with her life. Her dream is to become a writer, but she has difficulty in expressing this because she thinks she will be perceived as foolish for having such a desire.
Jacobson is Marian Brook. Our principal heroine. Lovely and strong. Born to an old southern family, but her father has left her without a penny. In one way, Marian knows that her probable fate will be to marry as well as she can and survive, but she wants more than this. She is of her own time, and so curtailed by the rules then obtaining, but there is a modern streak in her, too. She wants to do something with her life. She wants to be fulfilled. She moves from Charleston to New York City after her father dies to live with her estranged aunts.
Farmiga portrays Gladys Russell. A classic, innocent and lovely child of the rich who doesn’t want a governess or for her mother to treat her as a child anymore, she wants to be out in society meeting suitable young men. She doesn’t really know how her father made his money, and she doesn’t much care, but she is used to it and wouldn’t know what to do without it. She has an independent streak, but her petulance is no match for her mama. Her mother uses her as a tool for her own ambition and forces her toward socially advantageous situations.
Ritson plays Oscar Van Rhijn, Agnes van Rhijn’s charismatic son. He’s decided it’s time to settle down and has become obsessed with money while on the lookout for a serious heiress who will allow him to live, as he would put it, properly. Smart, attractive, poised, charming and mischievous, he enjoys witty banter. He is one of the few who will stand up to his mother and will not listen to his mother’s advice which will cause her a good deal of frustration.
Jones portrays Bannister. As an English immigrant, the van Rhijn’s butler likes to give the impression that he is immensely grand but in fact he was the son of a poor cobbler from the English midlands, whose grandmother paid for him to sail on an emigration ship when he was fourteen years old. He came up the hard way, learning how to speak, how to dress, how to behave, changing jobs each time he felt he was ready for the next step. He joined the van Rhijn household a year before the death of Mr van Rhijn and so, for the old lady, he is a link with her own past. He will take a risk, exposing his rival in the Russell household, Church, by digging up his unsavory past and humiliating him in front of the staff he commands.
Fellowes, Neame, Engler and David Crockett executive produce and Engler also directs.
2019 HBO Max Pilots & Series Orders
Benton currently stars as Eliza in Broadway’s Tony-winning musical Hamilton. On television, she starred as Ruby in season 2 of Lifetime’s hit series UnReal and filmed the pilot 25 for CBS. Upcoming, Benton will appear alongside Dakota Johnson, Casey Affleck, and Jason Segel in indie feature The Friend. which recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Jacobson shot the FX pilot, Gone Hollywood, opposite John Magaro and Judd Hirsch, written and directed by Ted Griffin and produced by Scott Rudin. On stage, Jacobson recently starred as Juliet in The Old Globe’s production of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Barry Edelstein.
Farmiga’s recent television credits include FX’s American Horror Story and The Twilight Zone for CBS All Access. She can also seen in features The Nun and Clint Eastwood’s The Mule. She will also appear in Quibi’s upcoming anthology series, 50 States.
Ritson was most recently seen playing DC Comic’s super villain, Brainiac, in Syfy’s Krypton. Other previous credits include Indian Summers for UK’s Channel 4 and Starz’s Davinci’s Demons, along with starring roles in the miniseries Upstairs Downstairs and World Without End with Cynthia Nixon.
Jones is best known for his portrayal of Arthur Dent in the radio, television and stage adaptations of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. He also appeared as Bridey in miniseries Brideshead Revisited, and as Sir Walter Raleigh in Blackadder. He was seen most recently in the feature film version of Downton Abbey.
Benton is repped by Perennial Entertainment, WME, and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham LLP. Jacobson is repped by CAA and Brookside Artist Management. Farmiga is repped by ICM Partners, Anonymous Content and Peikoff Mahan. Ritson is repped by ICM Partners, Authentic Talent and Literary Management, Curtis Brown in the UK and Peikoff Mahan. Jones is repped by Innovative Artists and Roger Carey Associates.
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The streetlights in San Diego are doing more than illuminating sidewalks.
Around 3,200 cameras and sensors have been installed atop street lights or lamps posts that collect temperature, air pressure and humidity levels. The purpose is to gather information that will be of use to the city and developers for future infrastructure and sustainability projects. Another 250 video-equipped lamps are currently being installed.
TRAFFIC CAMERA IN ITALIAN VILLAGE CATCHES 58,000 SPEEDERS IN TWO WEEKS
“The information will give us great insight into how people move through the urban environment,” said Erik Caldwell, the city’s director of economic development. “This information is critical to planning and making good decisions.”
The city plans to install 4,200 smart sensor nodes on street lights by 2020, Caldwell told the San Diego Union-Tribune. The cameras are equipped with video and audio capabilities and will be used to gather real-time video or video data. The footage will be retained for up to five days and will only be available to police if a crime has been committed in the vicinity. A large concentration of the camera and sensor technology is located downtown.
Caldwell said the video data could help city engineers and software developers solve issues at certain intersections, KNSD-TV reported. The cameras and sensors are not used as a surveillance system, he said.
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San Diego resident Emma Hall Bilsback told the news station she fears the city’s good intentions could have bad consequences if it gets into the wrong hands.
“And it's the internet so anyone can just hack into it,” Hall Bilsback said. “At the stage we're in that technology is advancing so quickly, but the laws are not advancing anywhere as quickly.”
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“I think just getting older in the league, you have to continue to be smarter,” said Aaron Rodgers. Credit: Mark Hoffman
Green Bay — Suddenly, the unproven kid from Chico, Calif., who took over for Brett Favre is 30 years old.
The quarterback once booed by his own fans during an intrasquad scrimmage at Lambeau Field, the one who took over for a legend in an unprecedented fashion has officially entered the back nine of his career. Since that manic summer of 2008, Aaron Rodgers has won a Super Bowl, a league MVP award, received a historic $110 million contract extension and, last season, fractured his collarbone.
As the Green Bay Packers quarterback explains to the Journal Sentinel's Tyler Dunne in a sit-down interview, this has all made him wiser.
On three different occasions, Rodgers cites his age. Entering his 10th NFL season — and seventh as the starter — Rodgers looks back at the injury that turned the Packers' 2013 season upside down and why he must play smarter in light of it. He details his relationship with Mike McCarthy, saying they're both "alpha dogs" and can both get "salty" at times. And Rodgers also explains the responsibility that comes with being the longest-tenured player on the team.
Q. Let's start with Nov. 4, 2013. You fracture your collarbone. Did you realize the magnitude of everything the moment it happened?
A. I knew I was hurt. I like to be able to get off the field under my own power, in a timely fashion with any injury. When I came over to the sidelines—a lot of times when you take a hit and come off—it kind of goes away or lightens up a little bit. This one lingered. Doc came over and saw me, and when he pushed on it, I knew something was wrong. I came in the back, got an X-ray, looked at the X-ray and it looked fine. But the problem was we had X-rayed the wrong shoulder. When they got the right X-ray, they could tell there was a fracture there and I knew it was going to be some time. I've always wanted it to be on the shorter side of any recovery. But this proved to be—despite some of the early leaks, which we weren't sure where they were coming from, the early leaks said three to six and two to four (weeks). It was a significant injury, one that was tough to deal with physically, as far as sleeping and being able to work out, but also mentally being separated from the team and having to watch from the sideline and especially as we tumbled there for a while until we righted it and I was able to come back. It was definitely a tough injury."
Q. When you walk back onto the field — you're giving fans the thumbs up and the stadium erupts — are you thinking back to Family Night '08, practices '08 when some of these fans are booing you?
A. I did. That's a great point. That was one of the top moments of my career. I actually got teary-eyed coming back onto the field when I got the ovation. I'd put it right up there with running off the field after we beat the winless Lions and finished 6-10 in '08 and I got a very nice ovation. And then, up there with the "Welcome Back to Lambeau" when we won the Super Bowl. Those are three of my top moments at Lambeau. One of them was really special with the Super Bowl. And the other two, one I'm walking back on the field and the other we're out of the playoffs, the season's over and we just beat a hapless Lions team. That was a special moment, one I'll never forget. In that moment of sadness, knowing that I was done, I got just an incredible perspective on the connection that we as players and me personally have with our fans.
Q. For you personally, why did this ovation mean so much to you after everything you've been through?
A. The '08 summer was a difficult one, as Brett was trying to get back into the mix and some of the comments that I heard or saw, you know, were hurtful. I never held that against the fans because there was such a small percentage and the fans are so loyal they just want to see a winning product on the field. As difficult as that season was to get through, to have a moment like that at the end of the '08 season and then to also have a moment on the field this past season, that kind of outpouring of love is what makes this game so special. And more than that, it's what makes this organization and this city, this franchise so special. There's a direct connection between the fans and the players. And they love their football, they love their Packers. I'm proud to be one of them.
Q. Those seven games where you weren't the Green Bay Packers' starting quarterback, what was your personal darkest moment?
A. I don't know if there were any real dark moments. I learned when I was on the IR in '06 when I broke my foot that it is tough to be separated from the team. And I had a reminder in 2010 when I had my second concussion and had to go home for a couple days. It's tough to be separate from the team, but there's a lot to be said about the kind of teammate you're going to be in those situations. I tried to be as helpful as I could to Seneca and then Scott and then Matt in realizing that when you're done playing it's about more than what you did on the field. It's going to be the kind of teammate you were and the kind of friend you were. I wanted to do as much as I could to help those guys out. And also, there's something inside you that wants to feel connected to a team when you're out. For me, that connection was made through being in the meeting rooms, being on the sideline with the headset, talking to the starter on the sidelines and trying to help them out as much as I could.
Q. Did sitting out that long further feed your competitiveness?
A. It didn't feed my competitiveness. It sucked. It made me have a greater appreciation for what we do and the opportunity we have, much like I felt when I had to go home for two days during the New England week in 2010. I love this game. I'm blessed to be able to play it. I'd love to play it as long as I possibly can. And hopefully, I can stay relatively injury-free the rest of the way.
Q. In light of a fractured collarbone, do you feel the need to change, to tweak your playing style at all?
A. I think just getting older in the league, you have to continue to be smarter. After I took that second concussion, I think I've been smarter with my running in not taking a whole lot of chances. Alex (Van Pelt) has done a great job this year of getting the quarterbacks in the right frame of mind as far as our thought process and our reads, just honing in on those. I think I'm always going to want to use my legs — it adds an extra dimension to my game that's always been helpful. It's about knowing when to do that and being smarter every year. The more games I play, the more experience I have and it will hopefully translate to making better decisions.
Q. If it was up to Ted (Thompson) and Mike (McCarthy), would they want you to stay in the pocket?
A. Ted, probably. Mike just wants me to play I think. But Ted probably wants me to stay in there a little more.
Q. But isn't that what makes you different from other quarterbacks, different from the best passers in the league? You can use your feet to keep plays alive.
A. I think so. But it's about knowing when to do that and knowing when to get to the checkdown and throw it away. We've done some good scheme tweaks. But I'm 30 now. So I'm a lot smarter than what I was in my 20s.
Q. How satisfying was the Week 17 win at Chicago to clinch the division your first game back?
A. That was right up there with the top games in my career. It wasn't the cleanest game of my career. I made a couple uncharacteristic mistakes. But especially the last drive was one of the more special moments that we've shared together — Mike and I, in our time — and one we'll always look back on fondly.
Q. And one week later, it's over. Have you thought about that last offensive possession against San Francisco this off-season?
A. Not really. We had it down there. We had a chance to take the lead. We tied it and wish we could have gotten it into the end zone. But it's a game of inches.
Q. What separates the Green Bay Packers from the San Francisco 49ers?
A. Not much.
Q. How would you describe your relationship with Mike McCarthy, your head coach?
A. I think it's a real good relationship. I think there's a lot of communication between us. I think there's a lot of trust. We played a lot of games together, shared a lot of wins together, had a lot of ups and downs together. But it's been mostly ups. And we know each other well. We know each other's body language. We can read each other on the field. I think we're in a real good place.
Q. So when you say "body language," what would be an example of that?
A. It's probably more on his side, but he can tell sometimes what kind of mood I'm in and what kind of play I'm looking for. And I can tell on the flip side by the inflection of his voice what he's thinking about on certain plays or if I look over at him and he's giving me the "McCarthy eye" or the snarl, I know what he's thinking. But I think there's a lot more laughter in store for our relationship in the coming years and I look forward to that.
Q. We all saw the sideline deal between you two at Cincinnati in Week 3. How often do you two butt heads?
A. Not that often. That wasn't really butting heads. That was a couple competitors having a conversation. That happens from time to time when competitors collide. But every now and then, you have to stir it up a little bit and it all comes back together.
Q. So why is that important for both of you to be competitive, to be yourselves and stir it up?
A. Because we're competitors. We're both alpha dogs. We're both leaders. We just have to remember there's two alpha dogs leading the sled, not one.
Q. Is this a difficult power struggle?
A. No, I don't think so. It's just how we both view the relationship and now that he's 50 and I'm 30, I think we're both a little wiser.
Q. What do you and Mike do off the field? Do you guys hang out?
A. Yeah, we've always had a good relationship. We spend a lot of time together at the facility and have a lot of conversations in group settings and also one-on-one settings during the game week and get together every now and then off the field. I spent some time together with him on Christmas this year.
Q. So can you get "salty," as your coach said after that Bengals game?
A. I think he was referring to being on edge and sometimes I get on edge from time to time. But, yeah, we're both salty.
Q. This week you said this team has a "different feel" and a "hunger." Where have you seen that and why is it different this year?
A.There are some different players and different coaches (and) that breeds new energy. I think you've seen some young guys come in that look good in practice. Whenever that happens, it just kind of picks up the intensity of everybody else. You always need to add some new guys to the mix. It helps adding (Julius) Peppers. We've got some guys back as well. (Bryan) Bulaga back. DuJuan Harris back. Casey Hayward. Bringing those guys back kind of raises everybody else's play. You start thinking about — and guys do this naturally — you start thinking about who's going to make the 53. And you look around at the kind of talent we're adding, you add a guy like Sam Gash, who's a vocal presence at practice. And Alex in his new role I think has really amped up the focus, the intensity and really the energy at practice. It's fun to feel that.
Q. What responsibilities come with being the fourth-oldest player on the team, the longest-tenured Packer and you are an elder statesman around here all of a sudden?
A. Yeah, nobody's been here as long as I have, which is interesting. You find yourself having more inside jokes with people who work here — the training staff, the equipment staff — because I've been around them for so long, which is fun. But I think it makes you have to really spend more time on relationships with the younger guys, whether it's at a lunch table or a breakfast table or it's setting up a get-together or going to a get-together with teammates. It's important to make the most of those relationships because team chemistry is probably an underrated part of a team's success. And when guys are hanging out together and spending time together, truly caring about each other, there's a closer-knit feeling and a trust in the guy who's lined up next to you and you're in the huddle with them.
Q. So what is your leadership style then? How would you characterize that?
A. It's by example, first. That's most important. Words can fall on deaf ears when there are no actions associated with it. But it is also a lot of words based on my experiences and there's an offense that's on paper and there's an offense that gets adjusted from time to time, so the guys need to know the adjustments. One thing I've always appreciated with various coaches, I'll highlight Edgar Bennett. He always takes notes of stuff I've said in meetings and relays that to the receivers because the relationship between myself and the skill guys is very important as we do a lot of non-verbal communication and a lot of eye-contact communication. So the guys need to learn that and be ready for it. Physical errors are going to happen. They're going to happen by me. But the mental errors and the lapses in preparation don't really have a place on this team. That's what Mike always stresses and I've always stressed, is being perfect in your execution. Physical errors happen. So be it. But you have to make sure you're doing the right thing every time.
Q. How do you go about motivating specific teammates? What are some things that you do to motivate players?
A. I think you can inspire guys. But you have to be self-motivated in this league. So I try to inspire them, encourage them and figure out how to push the right buttons on each guy because everybody responds differently to different types of leadership styles. I learned that back at my coaching class with Coach (Russ) Critchfield at Butte College. But you have to be self-motivated to last in this league. And that's what I tell the young guys — you have to be a self-starter, you have to put the time in in the off-season and during the season. Make sure you're studying the right way, studying the right things and getting yourself ready to play by Sunday because ultimately the guys who are the self-motivated guys — two guys who are a great example are John Kuhn and Jarrett Bush. They've been in this league for a long time. Talented guys but not the most talented guys. They're guys who care about it and are always putting the time in the weight room, and the preparation shows. They are guys who are consistently our best special teams players and our smartest guys on offense and defense.
Q. Last year when we were sitting here you said there are "silly" and "comical" things out there that you still see, slights that you can use as motivation for yourself. Is that something you still seek?
A.I've never really seeked it, but I have friends who feel it's important to tell me that kind of stuff. I think the older you get, the less that really means to you. And I do Twitter, but I don't do it during the season. So during the season, I have really zero social media access. So I don't really pay a lot of attention to that. I know that my lifestyle and the career I've had leads to greater scrutiny and at times greater praise. But that stuff is pretty fickle and I don't give a whole lot of credence to the experts on Twitter or any other social media site — or really on TV for that matter. I know it comes with the territory. I embrace it. It's part of my life now and my career. But I don't need that to motivate. I'm very self-motivated.
Q. But for a while this has been a source of motivation for you that does keep that chip on the shoulder. Is this an area where you've grown?
A. Like I said, I'm 30 now. I'm a lot more mature. That's tongue in cheek. But I think the older you get, things that used to motivate you aren't as important anymore. You refocus on things that are really important. I'm going to focus on the challenge to be great every day. That's a strong motivator. I've played with a chip on shoulder. And I feel that I've proved a lot of my critics, my initial critics, wrong. Now, it's about proving it to myself and my teammates that I can still be the best every day and I look forward to leading this team for a number of years.
Q. A lot of quarterbacks get to the eighth, ninth year of their careers and start to fade — even Hall of Famers could start to fade at this point. How do you sustain a level of excellence?
A. To me, it's a lot about how you take care of your body in the off-season. And in-season, finding the right routine to get your body right every week. And mentally, it's about the preparation that gives you the best chance to be successful. You learn that over the years. You refine it. You feel good about the week and how you go about getting ready to play on Sunday. And then you have to trust your instincts and your reactions when you get on the field and have that execution that comes from doing it a long time. I look forward to that challenge. I love the fact that my teammates count on me every week to play at a high level. I expect greatness when I step on the practice field and on the game field.
Q. You're a "110 Million-Dollar Man," an MVP in a town of 105,000 people. Can you go out and live the way you want to live or do you need to stay private, secluded?
A. No, I love going out. I love the interactions with the fans. It's a first-name basis at a lot of places. There's a lot of places that I may tend to go to over others because of the feel I have there or the food. Like Chives for instance, which I have zero stake in for the record. I just love to eat there and love the people there. But, no, I'm going to live my life. Especially in Green Bay, there's a special connection you feel when you step on the field, that I felt that night when I broke my collarbone and I feel every time I take the field. I embrace being a Packer, living here, working here and the interactions with the fans.
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Bandwagon Survey
For fans of NHL teams that didn't make the playoffs. Who are you rooting for?
* Erforderlich
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From the Middle East to Russia to Asia, President Obama’s foreign policy has left the U.S. in a weaker position than when he took office, analysts say.
As Mr. Obama prepares to depart the White House, U.S. relations with traditional allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia have frayed badly, Moscow is exerting its power increasingly in Syria and in Eastern Europe, and even the U.S. relationship with Western Europe has been called into question. On his watch, U.S. influence has diminished in all of those regions.
“I can’t really think of any concrete success that President Obama’s had in terms of foreign policy,” said Nile Gardiner, a foreign affairs analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “You can point to an overall weakening of American power on the world stage and an eroding of key alliances.”
When he came into office, Mr. Obama was faced with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with a total of about 180,000 troops deployed. He also was dealing with a global financial crisis and recession that caused the U.S. unemployment rate to rise to 10 percent during the first year of his presidency.
“The president came into office eight years ago with the view of being principally a domestic president, with the financial crisis looming, and to be transformative,” said Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The administration felt that his victory and the fact that he was not President [George W.] Bush would be sufficient in transforming the trans-Atlantic relationship and relations with Europe.”
White House press secretary Josh Earnest said among Mr. Obama’s biggest achievements in foreign affairs were bringing home all but about 15,000 troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, ordering the Special Forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 and re-establishing diplomatic and cultural ties with Cuba in 2014.
“That is an indication of the important progress that President Obama has made,” he said.
But the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in late 2011, critics argue, created a power vacuum that led to the rise of the Islamic State, the Salafist terrorist group that has launched horrific attacks against the West and has dominated the administration’s counterterrorism operations since 2014.
Meanwhile, Libya descended into extremist anarchy after the U.S. helped oust Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, with the Islamic State gaining a foothold there.
“President Obama’s approach was extraordinarily naive in the Middle East,” said Mr. Gardiner, a former aide to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “He also failed to combine his optimism with any hard power. That really enabled a number of very dangerous actors to emerge and to threaten directly the United States and its allies. It isn’t very clear that the Obama White House has any real strategy for eradicating ISIS. It’s a containment strategy; it’s not one of victory.”
In a final address to military brass and troops last week, Mr. Obama insisted that his strategy against the terrorist network is succeeding.
“We are breaking the back of ISIL and taking away its safe havens, and we’ve accomplished this at a cost of $10 billion over two years — the same amount that we spent in one month at the height of the Iraq War,” he said, using another term for the Islamic State.
Mr. Obama rested much of his strategy for the broader Middle East on reaching the deal with Iran in 2015 to limit its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions.
“When President Obama took office, the No. 1 threat that was identified by the United States and our allies around the world was the risk that Iran would develop a nuclear weapon,” Mr. Earnest said. “That would be extraordinarily destabilizing to not just the Middle East, but to the world. It would be extraordinarily concerning to our closest ally, Israel. And it would pose a threat to our allies in Europe that are within range of some of Iran’s missile capabilities.”
He said the administration’s “principled, hard-nosed diplomacy” has ensured that Iran is “now farther away from being able to get a nuclear weapon than they have been in some time.”
“All of that was accomplished without deploying a single soldier or firing a single shot,” Mr. Earnest said. “And that certainly is a testament to the president’s success in addressing some of the most significant threats facing the United States.”
Reset with Russia
The president’s critics at home and in Israel contend the deal gave too much to Tehran and won’t prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Mr. Gardiner called it one of Mr. Obama’s biggest strategic failures.
“The Iran nuclear deal will go down in history as a massive failure and a very dangerous, poorly thought-out move,” he said. “This deal is very short-sighted and will certainly allow Iran to [get a nuclear weapon] within this generation.”
Mr. Obama’s relations with Israel, never strong, reached a low point last month when the administration failed to veto a vote by the U.N. Security Council condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Russia has confounded Mr. Obama almost since the start of his presidency. The infamous Russian “reset” of his first term is little more than a mocked memory, as the U.S. has been unable to reverse Russian military gains in eastern Ukraine or to thwart Russia’s decisive support for Syrian President Bashar Assad in that country’s 6-year-old civil war.
“The reset was a real foreign policy disaster and a complete misreading of [President] Vladimir Putin, and an underestimation of the scale of the threat posed by Russia,” Mr. Gardiner said. “Moscow ran rings around the Obama White House.”
Ms. Conley said Mr. Obama did receive cooperation from Moscow initially in several key policy areas, working with Russia and other world powers to negotiate the Iranian nuclear deal, cooperating on counternarcotics and military supply lines in Afghanistan, and negotiating the New START agreement to reduce nuclear weapons. But the relationship began to sour by 2011, as Mr. Putin confronted large public demonstrations and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused Moscow of rigging parliamentary elections.
Mrs. Clinton’s actions so infuriated Mr. Putin that, U.S. intelligence agencies say, the Russian leader ordered a cybercampaign to undermine her presidential candidacy last year.
The problems with Mr. Putin culminated last month when Mr. Obama expelled 35 Russian operatives from the U.S. over the campaign of extensive cyberattacks in an effort to influence the November presidential election. While President-elect Donald Trump has questioned the administration’s conclusions, he and congressional Republicans have blamed Mr. Obama for failing to take seriously enough the overall threat of cyberattacks.
Even after highly embarrassing hacks of sensitive government personnel records in recent years, Mr. Obama said Sunday that he wasn’t paying enough attention to the threat from Russia.
“I don’t think I underestimated [Mr. Putin], but I think that I underestimated the degree to which, in this new information age, it is possible for misinformation for cyberhacking and so forth to have an impact on our open societies, our open systems, to insinuate themselves into our democratic practices in ways that I think are accelerating,” Mr. Obama told ABC’s “This Week.”
Mr. Trump and other Republicans have accused the administration of trying to undermine his victory with claims of Russian meddling. The president rejected that accusation, saying he ordered a review of the cyberattacks to better guard against Mr. Putin’s hacking in the future.
European debt and migration
The president’s deteriorating relationship with Mr. Putin has followed a predictable pattern in relations between Moscow and Washington, Ms. Conley said.
“Almost every U.S. president comes into office thinking that they personally can overcome profound challenges of the U.S.-Soviet, U.S.-Russian relationship,” she said. “They get about two years into it, and then they run into the same roadblocks. We have very different values and very different interests.”
In Asia, Mr. Obama tried to “rebalance” U.S. foreign policy chiefly through a 12-nation free trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, hoping to use it as a counterweight to China’s influence. But Congress has not ratified the pact, and Mr. Trump has panned it as a bad deal for American workers.
Mr. Earnest said the blame rests with Congress, where virtually all Democrats joined some Republicans to kill the agreement.
“The president is disappointed that Congress didn’t act to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” he said. “That certainly had the potential to strengthen our security and economic relationships throughout the Asia-Pacific. That was a missed opportunity, but I don’t think that’s one that you can pin on the president of the United States, because he did the hard work of negotiating the kind of an agreement that would have advanced our interests. It didn’t move forward because of Congress’ failure to act.”
In Europe, Mr. Obama seems to have miscalculated the impact of the debt and migration crises on allies from Britain to Italy. He personally lobbied British voters last spring to remain in the European Union, a bid that failed spectacularly.
“It was a bold and risky move, because I think the average American would not appreciate a British prime minister spending three days saying what they should do,” Ms. Conley said.
With the approach of the 70th anniversary of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II, she said, “Now we are understanding how fragile the European project is.”
“All of that has come into question. Europe itself has come into question,” she said.
These international developments present “huge challenges for the new administration,” Mr. Gardiner said.
“It has to clear up a lot of the mess that has been left by the Obama presidency, especially in the Middle East,” he said. “It also has to deal with a greatly strengthened Russia that is increasingly assertive and menacing.”
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Array ( [actionDate] => 2012-04-27 [displayText] => Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote.(text: CR H2223-2225) [externalActionCode] => 8000 [description] => Passed House [chamberOfAction] => House )
There are 3 summaries for H.R.3834. Passed House amended (04/27/2012) Reported to House with amendment(s) (03/22/2012) Introduced in House (01/27/2012) Bill summaries are authored by CRS
Shown Here:
Passed House amended (04/27/2012)
(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on March 22, 2012. The summary of that version is repeated here.)
Advancing America's Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Act of 2012 - Amends the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 to rename the National High-Performance Computing Program as the Networking and Information Technology Research and Development Program.
(Sec. 2) Directs the federal agencies participating in the Program to: (1) periodically assess the contents and funding levels of program component areas and restructure the Program when warranted; and (2) ensure that the Program includes large-scale, long-term, interdisciplinary research and development (R&D) activities, including such activities in networking and information technology in areas having the potential for significant contributions to national economic competitiveness and for other societal benefits.
Requires the participating federal agencies to develop, and update every three years, a five-year strategic plan to guide activities provided for under the Program.
Requires the plan to specify near-term and long-term objectives and how the Program will accomplish other specified objectives, including by: (1) fostering the transfer of R&D results into new technologies and applications for the benefit of society, including through cooperation and collaborations with networking and information technology research, development, and technology transition initiatives supported by the states; and (2) encouraging and supporting mechanisms for interdisciplinary R&D in networking and information technology, including through collaborations across agencies and program component areas, with industry, federal laboratories, and international organizations.
Requires the strategic plan to be accompanied by milestones and road maps for establishing the national research infrastructure required to support the Program. Instructs the entities involved in developing the plan to consider recommendations of the: (1) advisory committee on networking and information technology (the advisory committee) (under current law, titled as the advisory committee on high-performance computing); and (2) stakeholders whose input was solicited by the National Coordination Office, as required under section 6 of this Act.
Requires the Director of the National Coordination Office to transmit the strategic plan to Congress and the advisory committee.
Requires the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to encourage and monitor the efforts of participating agencies to allocate the resources and management attention necessary to ensure that the strategic plan is executed effectively and that Program objectives are met.
Amends the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 to require the co-chairs of the advisory committee to meet the qualifications for membership on the committee and permits them to be members of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Requires the OSTP Director to develop a research, development, and deployment roadmap covering all states and regions for the provision of high-end computing and networking systems (under current law, high-performance computing and networking systems), as specified in such Act.
Amends the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991 to require annual reports on the implementation of the Program to: (1) describe the levels of federal funding for the previous fiscal year, (2) describe the levels of federal funding for the previous fiscal year for agencies and departments participating in the Program, and (3) include reporting on the research areas supported under section 3 of this Act.
Requires the OSTP Director to include in such reports: (1) a description of how the objectives for program component areas, and for activities that involve multiple program component areas relate to the Program's objectives identified in the strategic plan; (2) a description of the funding required by the National Coordination Office to perform its functions for the next and current fiscal years; and (3) the amount of funding provided for such Office for the current fiscal year.
(Sec. 3) Directs the Program to encourage the federal agencies to support large-scale, long-term, interdisciplinary R&D activities in networking and information technology directed toward areas having the potential for significant contributions to national economic competitiveness and for other societal benefits. Requires such activities to be designed to advance the development of research discoveries. Instructs the advisory committee to make recommendations for candidate R&D areas for support.
Requires that such R&D activities shall: (1) include projects based on applications for support that are selected through a competitive, merit-based process; (2) involve collaborations among researchers in institutions of higher education and industry, permitting the involvement of nonprofit research institutions and federal laboratories, as appropriate; (3) leverage federal investments through collaboration with related state initiatives, when possible; and (4) include a plan for fostering the transfer of research discoveries and the results of technology demonstration activities to industry for commercial development.
Requires the federal agencies to give special consideration to projects that include cost sharing from non-federal sources.
Instructs, when two or more of the federal agencies or other appropriate agencies are working on large-scale R&D activities in the same area, such agencies to strive to collaborate through joint solicitation and selection of applications for support and subsequent funding of projects.
Allows R&D activities under this section to be supported through interdisciplinary research centers organized to investigate basic research questions and carry out technology demonstration activities. Permits research to be carried out through existing centers, including the multidisciplinary Centers for Communications Research authorized under the America COMPETES Act.
(Sec. 4) Requires the Program, in addition to its current requirements, to provide for: (1) increased understanding of the scientific principles of cyber-physical systems and improve the methods available for the design, development, and operation of such systems; and (2) R&D on human-computer interactions, visualization, and big data. Defines "cyber-physical systems" as physical or engineered systems whose networking and information technology functions and physical elements are deeply integrated and are actively connected to the physical world through sensors, actuators, or other means to perform monitoring and control functions.
Requires the Director of the National Coordination Office to convene a task force to explore mechanisms for carrying out collaborative R&D activities for cyber-physical systems, including the related technologies required to enable such systems, through a consortium or other appropriate entity with participants from institutions of higher education, federal laboratories, and industry.
Requires the task force to: (1) propose a process for the development of a R&D agenda for such entity, including guidelines ensuring an appropriate scope of work focused on nationally significant challenges which require collaboration and ensuring development of related scientific and technological milestones; and (2) propose guidelines for assigning intellectual property rights and for the transfer of research results to the private sector; and (3) recommend how such entity could be funded from federal, state, and non-governmental sources. Requires such Director to transmit to Congress a report that describes the task force's findings and recommendations.
(Sec. 5) Requires the Director of the National Coordination Office, through the National Science and Technology Council, to convene an interagency working group to examine: (1) the R&D needed to enhance the effectiveness of cloud computing environments, increase the trustworthiness of cloud applications and infrastructure, and enhance the foundations of cloud architectures, programming models, and interoperability; (2) the potential use of cloud computing for federally-funded science and engineering research; and (3) report to Congress on the findings and recommendations of the working group.
(Sec. 6) Repeals provisions for the National Research and Education Network.
Requires continuation of a National Coordination Office. Directs the National Coordination Office to: (1) serve as the primary point of contact on federal networking and information technology activities; (2) solicit input and recommendations from stakeholders during the development of each strategic plan through the convening of at least one workshop; (3) conduct public outreach, including dissemination of the findings and recommendations of the advisory committee, as appropriate; and (4) promote access to and early application of the technologies, innovations, and expertise derived from Program activities to agency missions and systems across the federal government and to U.S. industry.
Requires the operation of the National Coordination Office to be supported by funds from agencies participating in the Program.
(Sec. 7) Directs the National Science Foundation (NSF), as part of the Program, to use its existing programs, in collaboration with other agencies, as appropriate, for improving the teaching and learning of networking and information technology at all education levels and to increase participation in networking and information technology fields.
(Sec. 8) Makes technical and conforming amendments, including with respect to the activities of the NSF, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Commerce, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Department of Education under the Program.
Requires the advisory committee to report to Congress, no less frequently than once every three fiscal years (under current law, no less frequently than once every 2 fiscal years) on the committee's findings and recommendations from its periodic evaluations of the funding, management, coordination, implementation, and activities of the Program.
Requires NIST to develop and propose standards and guidelines needed for assuring the cost-effective security and privacy of information in federal computer systems (under current law, privacy of sensitive information in those systems).
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AT THE “Singapore Summit”, a gathering of Asia’s great and good held back in September, a speaker asked the audience of several hundred for a show of hands by those who thought Mitt Romney would win the American presidency. If a solitary palm reached for the sky, Banyan missed it. The almost unanimous expectation of Barack Obama’s re-election in part reflected the opinion polls at the time. But there was perhaps also an element of wishful thinking. If it had a vote in this election, much of Asia, though dissatisfied with many American policies of the past four years, would, like The Economist, have plumped for the devil they knew. Ravi Velloor, foreign editor of the Straits Times in Singapore, summed up what is probably a common view in South-East Asia and the broader region in a front-page article finding “reason to cheer“ Mr Obama’s win. He expressed relief that “the world’s most powerful nation did not land in the hands of a novice at a time when Asia needs a seasoned hand at America’s wheel.” That view was probably shared in China. Traditionally, if perversely, Chinese leaders have found Republican administrations easier to deal with, even if, like Democrats, Republicans tend to make fire-breathing threats towards China during election campaigns. And much in Mr Obama’s first term has alarmed China. He has called China an “adversary” as well as a potential partner, and many Chinese see his “pivot” of America’s military strategy towards Asia as a long-term plot to contain China’s rise. However, Mr Romney’s commitment to designate China a “currency manipulator” on day one of his presidency may have proved hollow. But it would have meant, at the very least, that China would become an issue from day one. And Mr Romney would certainly not have wanted to appear softer in military strategy than Mr Obama. In the Chinese social media, the American election was the big issue on November 7th. The coincidence of its falling on the eve of the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s 18th congress gave posters on Twitter-like services an obvious topic of conversation. One post, translated by the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong, asked plaintively: “So when will we, in our Great Mother Country, be able to elect our own leaders?”
But another website, ChinaSMACK, translated a post that reflected a very common cynicism about the process: “Win or not has nothing to do with China; they will all be against China, containing our development.”
In Asia’s second-largest economy, Japan, there was probably also some relief at Mr Obama’s victory. At a time of great tension with China over the disputed Senkaku (Diaoyu) islands, “the security environment in East Asia is severe,” according to Osamu Fujimura, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, so the alliance with America is even more important. Japan will welcome continuity.
India was one of the few countries in Asia where Mr Obama was rather unpopular in the early days of his administration. Loose talk of a “G2” with China made India feel undervalued; a brief attempt to push it to negotiate with Pakistan over the future of Kashmir was resented. However, in Indian eyes, Mr Obama has come a long way—especially in reaching a better understanding of the shortcomings of India’s rivals, China and Pakistan. A well-placed commentator thinks India will be happy with the prospect of “business as usual”.
Correspondingly, the one place where Mr Obama’s victory seems broadly unpopular is in Pakistan. Pakistanis are angry at his stepping up of unmanned “drone” raids on Pakistani territory. They have been further antagonised by bloody mishaps involving American troops and CIA contractors. And the episode which appeared such a triumph at home—the raid that killed Osama bin Laden at his comfy Pakistani hide-out—was seen as an outrageous breach of Pakistani sovereignty. So in a poll on the election conducted last month by the BBC in 21 countries, there was only one where Mr Romney was the more popular candidate: Pakistan. Of course, 20 out of 21 is a good score. But Pakistan, the source of Mr Obama’s “biggest single national-security concern”, is a bad loss.
(Picture credit: AFP)
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Valerie Solanas, som försökte mörda Andy Warhol, är en favorit bland svenska radikalfeminister. En gång använde Ireen von Wachenfeldt, dåvarande ordförande i Riksorganisationen för kvinnojourer och tjejjourer i Sverige (ROKS), Solanas uttryck ”Män är djur” i tv-reportaget Könskriget (SVT:s ”Dokument inifrån”, våren 2005).
Hon bad senare om ursäkt för det med orden: ”Jag skulle ha sagt att män är värre än djur. En del våldsamma män kan till och med njuta av kvinnors lidande. Det gör inte djuren”.
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BATON ROUGE, La. -- Les Miles will not be the next coach at Michigan. So says Les Miles.
Les Miles sent a message after LSU's practice Monday: A return to Ann Arbor is not going to happen. Chris Graythen/Getty Images
After LSU's Monday evening bowl practice, the Tigers' coach addressed persistent rumors that he will return to his alma mater, where he played under Bo Schembechler and spent a decade as an assistant coach.
Miles refused to be quoted on the record in the post-practice chat with reporters, but he sent a clear message: A return to Ann Arbor is not going to happen. He and his agent, George Bass, have not heard from Michigan, Miles said, and he would not change jobs even if Michigan made contact.
Miles also has told LSU athletic officials that he has not been contacted by Michigan and that he has no intention of leaving the Tigers, LSU spokesman Michael Bonnette said.
Miles is nearing the end of his 10th season at LSU, where he has won two SEC titles and one Bowl Championship Series crown. Miles-to-Michigan rumors have emerged in the past -- most notably late in the 2007 season, when he famously addressed reports on the subject prior to the SEC championship game -- but he has remained at LSU each time the Wolverines have had a coaching vacancy.
Since Michigan fired Brady Hoke on Dec. 2, Miles has shot down questions about a return to the Wolverines, but never as emphatically as he did Monday. After unofficially addressing the Michigan job opening, Miles went on to discuss several subjects related to his current job, including injuries, underclassmen who might become early entries in the 2015 NFL draft and the Tigers' upcoming bowl matchup with Notre Dame.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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John Stubbs
At the Democratic National convention in Philadelphia and again in the final debate in Las Vegas, Hillary Clinton made a direct appeal for Republican votes. Last week, FBI Director Jim Comey reminded Republicans why they have reservations.
Americans of all political stripes know a lot about Clinton. Much of what they know is unpleasant, and there are lots of mind-boggling, unnecessary, unforced errors. She fails to embrace the transparency her public life demands, and her efforts to maintain a private life are often the core of the problem.
On substance, where Clinton is supposed to shine, Washington has failed to produce solutions to many pressing domestic and global challenges, and Clinton has played a role in some of those failures.
Yet Donald Trump is not the answer. You may believe Clinton to be a ‘2,’ but Trump is a ‘-11.’ And there is a difference.
The journey for Republicans to vote for Clinton is not an easy one. For me, the seven stages of grief went something like this:
1. Trump is a funny guy. Like a clown, he amuses me.
2. Wow, look at that: Clown = ratings. Could Republicans be popular again? It’s sure nice to have a celebrity act other than Clint Eastwood and an empty chair.
3. Let’s be real, we were never popular, and we shouldn’t try to be. Jeb, take control.
4. Yep, Trump’s surrounded by white supremacists. That dog whistle really works.
5. Wait, that’s it? We’re nominating the guy who seeks approval from Vladimir Putin? We’re really going to turn the Republican convention into the Temple of Doom?
6. Seriously, I have to look my kids in the eyes. I will do anything to stop this. This man can’t have the U.S. military as his new favorite toy.
7. Fine. FINE. I did say anything. Binary option. I’ll vote for Clinton, but let’s keep the Congress.
Trump at the top would be a disaster: Claudia J. Kennedy
For my fellow Americans who vote Republican, when you get to number 6, it’s time to talk about number 7. There is only one thing standing between Trump and the role of commander in chief, and that’s Hillary Clinton.
This is a serious job, and Trump is not a serious man. It’s telling the number of serious Republicans who cannot support Trump. These are not political operatives. These are the people we entrust with our global security. And they have kept us and the rest of the world relatively safe.
We were not relatively safe in World War II, a war both of my grandfathers served in, when more than 50 million people died. Since then, we’ve built institutions, partnerships, alliances and networks to integrate nations into a broad, layered global security framework. When countries are working together towards common goals, when they trade with each other, when they depend on each other, they are less likely to go to war. This is what Trump wants to light on fire.
Clinton will not solve all of our problems, but she will not risk Armageddon either. She will be a better president than Trump.
Evangelicals aren't who you think: Jim Wallis
POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media
With Republican majorities in the House and Senate, she could be even better than just better than Trump. It’s no secret that Washington has been plagued by partisanship. President Reagan was able to accomplish a great deal with Tip O’Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House for much of his presidency. The economy under President Bill Clinton did much better with a Republican Congress than a Democratic one.
Today, millions of Republicans are planning to vote for Clinton. Millions more may join them before Election Day. If she were willing to move to the middle on some issues and engage her new constituency of Republican voters, Clinton could potentially find common ground with leaders such as Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. Rob Portman and other capable and reasonable Republicans.
Responsible Republican voters should split their ballots: vote for Clinton to defeat Trump, and for Republicans to lead the Congress and provide a stable, balanced government. In the process, we will restore credibility to the GOP by voting against Trump, and we may even be surprised by what Republicans and President Clinton can accomplish together.
John Stubbs, a founder of R4C16.org, Republicans for Clinton in 2016, was senior adviser for the U.S. Trade Representative in the White House of George W. Bush.
You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To submit a letter, comment or column, check our submission guidelines.
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North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un observes a target-striking contest by the Korean People's Army (KPA) in this undated photo, released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), April 13, 2017.
WASHINGTON — North Korea on Friday fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea, multiple intelligence sources told NBC News.
The missiles did not appear to pose any immediate threat to the U.S. or its allies in the region, NBC reported.
North Korea's latest provocation comes hours since Pyongyang last fired of a pair of similar missiles.
On Wednesday, North Korea fired two ballistic missiles from the Hodo Peninsula in South Hamgyong province on the country's east coast. The projectiles appeared to be a different type to previous launches, National Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.
President Donald Trump, who has pointed to the absence of nuclear tests as evidence that his diplomatic strategy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has worked, said outside the White House on Thursday that he wasn't worried about the new tests because they are standard, short-range missiles. Trump said he was still open to negotiations with Kim despite the missile launches.
"These are short-range missiles -- we never discussed that," Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn. "We discussed nuclear. A lot of other countries test that kind of missile."
This week's tests come on the heels of an earlier test in July that marked the first provocation since Kim and Trump agreed to revive denuclearization talks in June.
North Korea, the only nation to have tested nuclear weapons this century, spent most of Trump's first year in office perfecting its nuclear arsenal. The newest member of the world's exclusive nuclear weapons club has stopped testing of its nukes for now as the U.S. and international community offer the possibility of relief from crippling economic sanctions.
While North Korea has paused nuclear tests that prompted Trump's threat to bring "fire and fury" upon that country, it had already made significant progress before the historic dialogue with the U.S. started.
Under the third-generation North Korean leader, the reclusive state has conducted its most powerful nuclear test, launched its first-ever intercontinental ballistic missile and threatened to send missiles into the waters near the U.S. territory of Guam.
Since 2011, Kim has fired more than 90 missiles and had four nuclear weapons tests, which is more than what his father, Kim Jong Il, and grandfather, Kim Il Sung, launched over a period of 27 years.
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Check out our new site Makeup Addiction
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why do jews have such big noses? it's hereditary
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In episode 158 of the podcast astrologers Kelly Surtees, Austin Coppock, and Chris Brennan discuss the astrological forecast for June of 2018, which features a prominent Mars retrograde period beginning in Aquarius.
This episode was recorded a couple of weeks ago, just before we all left for the United Astrology Conference in Chicago. The conference was a blast, and we are hoping to record a post-conference recap discussion sometime soon.
We also recorded a live episode of the podcast in front of an audience at the conference, and that will be released as one of the early episodes of June pretty soon as well.
This forecast episode of the podcast is available in both audio and video formats, and you can find links to both below.
Major Alignments for June
Here are the major astrological alignments for June:
June 5, Sun conjunct Mercury, 15 Gemini (Sun-Mercury is almost perfectly square Neptune! And the Moon is conj Neptune on the same day as the cazimi. )
June 8, Mars deep in shadow, conj South Node, Rx station 7 Aquarius
June 12, Mercury into Cancer
June 13, Venus into Leo
June 13, Gemini New Moon 22 degrees
June 18, Neptune station, 16 Pisces
June 21, Sun into Cancer (solstice)
June 26, Mars station, 9 Aquarius
June 27, Sun opposite Saturn 5 Cancer/Cap
June 28, Capricorn Full Moon 6 Cap (conjunct Saturn)
Auspicious Electional Chart for June
The auspicious election this month is set for:
June 11 2018 at 7:30 AM with Cancer rising
There are three more electional charts that we found for June, which will be presented in our private subscriber-only podcast on auspicious elections that was released last week.
If you would like to get access to that discussion, then all you have to do is become a patron of The Astrology Podcast on the $5 or $10 tier through our page on on Patreon, and then you will get access to the 40-minute Auspicious Elections Podcast immediately.
Watch the Video Version of this Episode
Here is the video version of this month’s forecast episode:
Listen to the Audio Version of This Episode
You can either play this episode of the podcast directly from the website or download it as an MP3 to your computer by using the buttons below:
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Microsoft has been rumored to be looking more deeply into mod support for Xbox One for quite a while, thanks to job listings we wrote about in the past. Now, thanks to some internal documents, we have a better idea of how Microsoft plans to turn Xbox One into a great platform for mods and for developers who want to allow mods in their games. For those who don't know, mods are usually community-created maps, items, skins, and other in-game features that can be used to "modify" an existing game, primarily on Windows PC. As of this writing, developers have to set up their own systems and services to bring mods to Xbox One. Halo 5 Forge, Fallout 4, and Skyrim Special Edition are a few prominent games that have their own modding systems, built by their respective studios. Devs, of course, will continue to be able to do that if they so choose, but Microsoft is setting up a system that would not only provide much of the infrastructure required to set up these features but also surface mods directly in a new section in the Xbox Store, similar to the Steam Workshop, to make them easier to discover. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more
Xbox Community Content
Expected to arrive "later this summer," according to the presentation, the new Xbox Community Content platform is a new infrastructure built for developers to help support user-generated content (UGC), or mods, within their games. Microsoft noted Minecraft's Partner Program and community marketplace as an example of how mods have improved the game. If these plans go ahead, developers will be able to define what constitute mods in their games, as well as deciding monetization (or lack thereof). A developer might decide to only allow skins or texture updates but could also include gameplay-modifying features such as weapons, maps, or even full quests or campaigns.
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A bill introduced in the state Legislature would change how beer festivals operate in Michigan.
Under House Bill 5347, festival goers would no longer need to exchange a token or ticket for a pour of an alcoholic beverage.
Currently, festival operators must charge attendees a token value for beer that is above the cost that the group paid for it in order to comply with Michigan law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol at below cost.
The move would significantly free up resources for groups that sponsor beer festivals.
David Ringler, vice president of the Michigan Brewers Guild and founder of Cedar Springs Brewing Co., said the Guild spends about $10,000 annually to purchase and sort tokens for its series of beer festivals.
“The biggest thing for the Guild itself is the expense,” Ringler said. “As long as we’ve been doing this, we have a good proven record of responsibility.”
The bill would consider beer dispensed at a festival to be a sample just like what any brewery offers in its own taproom for free.
Currently, for example, a $55 ticket to the Michigan Brewers Guild’s Winter Beer Fest, which will be held this Saturday at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park, includes 15 drink tokens, each of which is redeemable for a 3-ounce pour. The Guild also sells additional tokens at a cost of 50 cents apiece.
Ringler said a new issue with the token system arose in recent years when breweries started offering expensive bottle-conditioned beers at the festivals that required the Guild to charge as many as five tokens to comply with the law, which “just takes away the marketing aspect” of pouring beer at the event.
That was true for Comstock Park-based Speciation Artisan Ales LLC, a brewer of specialty wild and spontaneously fermented beers. Co-founder Mitch Ermatinger says existing law and the token system put Speciation at a disadvantage.
“Requiring people to use tokens is bad for everyone. It creates an unfair playing field for breweries that make ‘premium’ beer versus more standard offerings because we have to ‘charge’ consumers extra tokens,” Ermatinger told MiBiz. “Consumers think the premium breweries are being greedy but the reality is that the brewers don’t benefit financially from the token system at all. We don’t ‘turn them in’ to make money.
“We do festivals all over the world, and the only fest location that requires tokens is Michigan.”
While acknowledging that overconsumption can be a concern regardless of whether tokens are involved or not, Ermatinger said requiring tokens can lead to patrons guzzling beer they don’t like instead of just dumping it out. For example, the Great American Beer Festival, held annually in Denver, offers unlimited pours and provides discard buckets at each station.
“A $1 little token is not going to sway people to drink less,” he said. “If anything people will drink less because they won’t feel pressure to drink every ounce they paid for.”
EASING BURDENS
The bill that would change the token system is tie-barred to a multi-bill package of legislation that would affect Michigan brewers, including by raising the cap for self-distribution from 1,000 barrels to 2,000 barrels, changing tax payments from monthly to quarterly, and removing a requirement to register beer that a producer sells at its own taproom or at a beer festival.
The latter change would remove “a huge burden for a lot of our members,” Ringler said, noting it would particularly benefit licensed brewpubs which are not able to distribute beer anyway.
“There’s no reason to have to register that beer when the product doesn’t leave your four walls,” he said.
The Michigan Brewers Guild and the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association testified in support of the bill package, which is also backed by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Multinational brewing conglomerate Anheuser-Busch and The Wine Institute, an advocacy group for California’s wineries, indicated opposition to several of the bills that deal with business relationships between beer and wine producers and wholesalers.
The bill package has passed the House and will now be considered by the state Senate.
NEW LICENSE CATEGORY
Meanwhile, a separate bill passed unanimously by the state Senate in January would create a new class of license for limited production manufacturers. The bill would allow a limited production manufacturer to buy finished beer from another Michigan or out-of-state producer, complete some part of the manufacturing process, and then sell the product via a distributor or ship it out of state.
State Sen. Jon Bumstead, R-Newaygo, introduced Senate Bill 711 after a La Colombe Torrefaction Inc. plant in Norton Shores received a short-term exemption to transfer finished beer from Wisconsin-based City Brewing Co. to use in producing an alcoholic coffee product. The company then sells the product to conglomerate MillerCoors, which handles marketing the beverage and selling it to distributors outside of Michigan.
“With the pending change in state law, La Colombe is already looking at ways to expand their operations in West Michigan over locations in other states,” Bumstead said in a statement at the end of January. “We need to keep Michigan moving forward and create an environment for businesses to call home. This legislation gets government out of the way and will benefit companies across the state.”
The bill currently is before the state House Committee on Regulatory Reform. La Colombe’s exemption from the Michigan Liquor Control Commission to transfer in finished beer runs through April.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated from its original version.
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Image copyright Getty Images
Fans of K-Pop boyband member G-Dragon have been asked to stop sending fan mail to the army base where he's doing military service.
The camp where he is working has run out of paper because it's had to print all the emails sent to the superstar, says his management company.
"G-Dragon is facing difficulties with fans sending too many letters to the unit," said YG Entertainment.
"Please refrain from sending letters and we will appreciate it."
In South Korea, all male citizens aged 18 to 35 have to carry out two years of military service.
G-Dragon, 29, who is a a member of Big Bang, enlisted in the army on 27 February and fans have been sending him letters of support ever since.
But it's causing problems at the camp because other soldiers can't get their letters.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Big Bang performed in New York last summer
"Emails have to be printed out on paper to be distributed to the soldiers, but ink and A4 paper in the battalion have run out and G-Dragon feels sorry for his fellow soldiers there," said YG Entertainment, according to a translation in The Korea Times.
"G-Dragon is thankful for his fans' concern over his military duty. At the same time, he feels sorry he can't read all the letters sent to him. But again, please consider the tricky situation."
Some fans have been quick to respond saying G-Dragon's privacy needs to be respected.
Skip Twitter post by @FieryAbyss_ Being a supportive fan is great but GD isn't the only one in his unit. It's not fair to everyone else or GD with the huge influx of letters. — Ivory Blue ❀ ❥ (☆⁶) (@FieryAbyss_) March 10, 2018 Report
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На днях завершила работу Франкфуртская книжная ярмарка.
Под девизом "Read Russia/Читай Россию" наша страна представила на ней около 800 новинок от 50 издателей. Отдельный раздел национального стенда был посвящен книгам, выпущенным к 70-летию Победы. Российская программа на форуме была обширной и насыщенной: "круглые столы", литературные семинары и дискуссии, презентации и встречи с писателями. Одним из центральных мероприятий на авторской площадке стала дискуссия "Россия и Европа - одна история, разное осмысление". Ее вели между собой историк, писатель, министр культуры РФ Владимир Мединский, чьи книги "Мифы о России", "Война. Мифы СССР. 1939-1945", "Скелеты из шкафа русской истории" были представлены на ярмарке, и немецкий политолог, журналист, вице-председатель Совета российской экономики в Германии Александр Рар. Дискуссия проходила при широком стечении ярмарочной публики, задававшей вопросы.
У России и Европы действительно одна история?
Владимир Мединский: Вне всякого сомнения, история России и история Европы - это одна история. Вообще история и культура России имеют те же корни, что европейские история и культура - это Древний Рим, Древняя Греция. В свое время русский царь Иван Грозный заказывал специальное генеалогическое исследование, из которого следовало, что он, Иван Грозный, является прямым потомком императора Августа Октавиана. Даже могу рассказать - каким образом. Август Октавиан много воевал, закончил свои войны в Египте. В Египте у него был сын, который потом хитрым путем добрался до Скандинавии, затем вместе с викингами - на Русь. Таким образом, идеологема "Москва - третий Рим" имела еще и прямое генетическое тому подтверждение. Хотя в культурном, цивилизационном плане Россия, надо признать, испытывала и серьезное дополнительное влияние и со стороны Византии, и со стороны Азии, в первую очередь - со стороны Золотой Орды.
Александр Рар: Я в основном согласен с вами. Мне тоже кажется, что Россия - неотъемлемая часть Европы. Но Россия - это другая Европа. Ее нынешний конфликт с остальной Европой, той Европой, что развивается рационально, согласно ценностям, которые создавались здесь веками, носит цивилизационный характер. Россия, впитавшая в себя и азиатскую культуру, сегодня в чем-то видит себя наследницей Византии. Россия - страна, где справедливость важнее права. Время от времени Россия стремится быть вместе с Европой, но когда приближается к ней на короткое расстояние, сразу отворачивается и старается быть самобытной.
Вопрос из зала: Почему Россия пока плохо вписывается в европейскую культуру?
Александр Рар: Мне кажется, что российское общество в большинстве своем и не ставит перед собой задачу найти общий культурный знаменатель с Европой. Россия что-то готова перенять у Европы, а что-то - нет. Ищет свое. После почти 80 лет коммунизма Россия пытается вернуться к своим истокам, причем нет единого мнения насчет того, где эти истоки находятся. Например, таким истоком для многих является 1917 год, и кому-то хочется вернуться к советскому образу жизни, восстановить прерванную связь поколений. Но сделать это будет очень трудно.
В отличие от России Запад выстрадал свою форму демократии, либеральные ценности, систему правового государства, в которой мы здесь живем.
Европейцы веками стремились к абсолютной свободе, добивались ее. В этом смысле им многое дала Великая французская революция.
Она оказала громадное влияние на многие европейские страны. А в России все произошло в одночасье - путем краха империи, путем громадного политического землетрясения. И сегодня Россия - страна, которая ищет свою индивидуальность. В культурном отношении между Россией и Европой есть очень большая разница.
Самая дискуссионная тема в диалоге России с Европой - Вторая мировая война. С некоторыми западными трактовками ее событий полемизируют российские историки, в том числе и Владимир Мединский.
Чем объясняется разность взглядов России и Европы на те или иные страницы общего прошлого?
Владимир Мединский: Я думаю, здесь не надо лукавить. Как говорил Джордж Оруэлл, кто контролирует прошлое, тот контролирует будущее.
Поэтому единственной причиной изменения концептуальных подходов к трактовке тех или иных исторических событий всегда являлось, является и будет являться стремление решить те или иные текущие и будущие политические задачи.
История в этом отношении, к сожалению, самая несчастная из гуманитарных наук. Она в максимальной степени подвержена попыткам бесконечной перелицовки и переписывания со стороны всех властей во все времена.
Еще 15-20 лет назад никем в Европе, да и в мире не ставилось под сомнение, кто во Второй мировой войне победил, а кто потерпел поражение, кто нападал, а кто защищался, кто преступник, а кто герой.
Эта тема даже не обсуждалась ввиду ее абсолютной, всем очевидной недискуссионности. Разночтения в оценке событий Второй мировой возникли после распада СССР, когда некоторые новые государства стали активно искать свою национальную идентичность. А где ее можно найти?
В России, как Александр правильно заметил, тоже идет этот поиск. Кто-то ищет свои культурные корни в российской истории до 1917 года. Кто-то считает, что идеалом для России является коммунизм.
Россия стремится быть вместе с Европой, но когда приближается к ней на короткое расстояние, сразу отворачивается
Кто-то тоскует по Советскому Союзу. Кто-то говорит, что в 90-е годы был некий реванш белогвардейской идеи, и сожалеет, что это время закончилось. А кто-то видит идеал в историческом возрождении, которое Россия переживает в последние пятнадцать лет.
То же самое происходит и в других странах - но со своими особенностями. В некоторых из них, например, легально действуют организации, запрещенные всеми международными конвенциями. Бывшие эсэсовцы беспрепятственно проводят свои праздники и открыто маршируют по улицам. Это несчастные, больные, запутавшиеся старики, которых я рассматриваю, скорее, как жертв политиканства. Им всем уже под девяносто лет. Они выйти-то на улицу едва-едва могут. Зато одетыми в форму СС бодро маршируют их юные отпрыски. Интересно, что за это им было бы в Германии?
И разве не то же самое мы видим сегодня на Украине, где организации, активно сотрудничавшие с фашистским режимом, выступавшие его официальными союзниками, сейчас легально участвуют в политике, пытаются диктовать свою волю правителям?
Это ревизия истории, превращение ее в угодливую, мелочную и крайне низкооплачиваемую служанку политических властей.
Александр Рар: История всегда используется как политическое оружие. Так было во все времена. На моей памяти благодаря Горбачеву произошло воссоединение Германии. И в тот период немцы были едины в однозначно позитивной оценке падения Берлинской стены. А сегодня у нас в Германии это событие кому-то видится уже совсем по-иному - как якобы революция, свершившаяся в Дрездене, где люди вышли на улицу и свергли коммунистический режим. Это странная трактовка, мягко говоря.
Теперь об отношениях России со странами бывшего Варшавского договора. После того как эти страны вошли в НАТО и Европейский союз, они начали создавать для себя новую национальную историю. Что вполне понятно.
Как понятна и настойчивость, с которой эти страны старались внушить всему миру, что они были жертвой советского режима, находились под его оккупацией, и что Россия должна признать этот факт, а также выплатить компенсацию.
На это Россия могла бы ответить: да, в 1991 году мы тоже отказались от коммунизма, получили свободу и сейчас вместе с вами строим единую свободную Европу. Но я понимаю, как непросто было решиться на такой шаг, особенно после 90-х годов, когда в России сменился политический вектор и появились другие тенденции.
Россия поняла, что, приняв претензии бывших союзников по Варшавскому договору, она может оказаться в роли Германии образца 1945 года. То есть она одна будет объявлена виноватой во всех бедах и грехах "холодной войны". Поэтому российская элита - не Путин, а именно элита - приняла решение идти по другому пути. И эта развилка сейчас стала очень серьезной.
Действительно, мы по-разному смотрим на Вторую мировую войну, на историю 80-х, 90-х годов. Сблизить взгляды становится все труднее.
Владимир Мединский: Когда мы пытаемся оценить со стороны, что хорошо и что плохо в других странах, надо делать это очень осторожно. Следует понимать, что история, география, культура, климат и множество других факторов делают невозможным единый рецепт того, как построить хорошую жизнь в разных странах. Надо максимально тактично относиться к культурным, историческим самобытностям разных народов. То, что эффективно работает в Пенсильвании, может не работать в Ираке. То, что дает позитивный результат в Китае, может оказаться бесплодным для Греции.
Это не значит, что одна практика является абсолютно хорошей, а другая абсолютно плохой. Они просто разные. Как и люди. Нет единого рецепта счастья даже для двух семей. В каждой семье свое счастье.
Точно так же не может быть единых рецептов в построении демократии. Задача заключается в том, чтобы, уважая самобытность разных национальных культур, стараться лучше понять друг друга.
Решению этой задачи, на мой взгляд, служит и Франкфуртская книжная ярмарка.
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Miss Chappell was killed by a nine-year-old lioness on Monday afternoon as she visited the popular Lion Park on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Park staff said the lioness had been lying in a pride when Miss Chappell and her tour guide drove past in a white 4x4 but got up and walked towards the car, stopping around a metre away.
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PSYCHIC, INTUITIVE, MYSTICAL, PROPHETIC INDICATORS IN THE NATAL CHART
· Disclaimer: My research has proven, to me, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that there is an endless number of psychic, intuitive indicators in anyone’s chart, and I could not find them all. Every time I tried, Spirit showed me another from a respected, (and published) astrological source, so I “drew a line in the sand, and concluded that it could not be done with analysis alone. These Lists are NOT complete, and cannot be relied upon alone to tell you that you are or are not…psychic, using your intuition, etc. I believe we are all born intuitive; it is known as our 6th sense. It is a built-in truth filter, among other things. It lies in our solar plexus, but, because most of us operate soley out of our heads, we don’t realize we are born intuitive. Your Crystal Children know they are born intuitive; theirs is well-developed. I believe that this is one of the things that makes them act, and react, so differently from us, also why we, as parents, feel so powerless and helpless in trying to understand them, why what our mothers taught us about raising children, and what they are suggesting now may not be working.
Only an astrologer can give you an accurate interpretation of your natal chart, and that requires assessing the whole chart, something I did not do here. I only extrapolated psychic aspects from other astrologers’ published works (listed at the end of the lists), and this is not the same, nor as accurate as a professional astrological chart interpretation. This said, I think it is fun to look for psychic indicators in your own chart, so I’m publishing/posting these for your enjoyment.
*******
· Three or more indicators are required (but each child had at least three and many had many more). They set up the opportunity and/or predisposition for psychism (clairvoyance, clairaudience, mediumistic abilities, healing abilities, etc) intuition, prophetic, and/or mystical powers.
· Use your own “truth filter”. You will know if an aspect applies to you, or not. This list will only confirm that which you already suspect, or think you have, and give you something concrete that says, “Wow! Yes! I am psychic! Or I never knew I was, but now I have more faith that it is really, truly so!
If you run into problems, please e-mail me at truthseeker2566@yahoo.com and I will try to help you out.
ENJOY! HAVE FUN WITH THIS!
Aspects:
5. Moon Conjunct Neptune: Mystical, intuitive type; very psychic nature. “When Neptune is harmoniously linked to the luminaries in the chart of a person who can respond to its higher rays, it can bestow gifts of a clairvoyant and clairaudient nature.” Pg 558, Alan Oken’s Complete Astrology. Mystical, but not very practical, unless there are other indicators in the chart.
6. Moon Sextile Neptune: These individuals have the opportunity to use their sensitivity to vibrations in the world around them. Because of this attunement, they are vulnerable to the negative thoughts generated around them and should learn to transform this negativity into love energy, through the power of their mind.
7. Moon Trine Neptune: Keen psychic sensitivity; so psychic they are susceptible to emotional atmosphere around them and they react strongly. “When Neptune is harmoniously linked to the luminaries in the chart of a person who can respond to its higher rays, it can bestow gifts of a clairvoyant and clairaudient nature.” Pg 558, Alan Oken’s Complete Astrology
8. Moon Conjunct Uranus: Strong intuition.
9. Moon Sextile Uranus: There is an opportunity to bring unusual ideas and concepts into fruition. They have keen intuitive powers with an alert mind.
10. Moon Trine Uranus: Keen intuition; in advanced types, would give great healing power.
11. Moon Sextile Pluto: There is an opportunity to be fulfilled emotionally if they transform the negative traits of their conscious mind’s personality. They are very sensitive psychically and use it to understand others.
12. Moon Trine Pluto: They are very sensitive psychically and use it to understand others.
13. Sun Conjunct Uranus: Very intuitive.
14. Sun Sextile Uranus: There is an opportunity to awaken an awareness of the inner self. This person is original, independent and highly intuitive.
15. Sun Trine Uranus: Strong magnetic healing force; strongly intuitive person.
16. Sun Conjunct Neptune: Psychically sensitive; mystically inclined; not an easy person to understand for they do not understand themselves. Alan Oken: “When Neptune is harmoniously linked to the luminaries in the chart of a person who can respond to its higher rays, it can bestow gifts of a clairvoyant and clairaudient nature.” Pg 558, Alan Oken’s Complete Astrology
17. Sun Sextile Neptune: There is an opportunity to tap the inner wisdom stored in the superconscious mind. This wisdom was learned in former lifetimes. Developing this ability would help bring ideas, inspiration and artistic potential from the inner mind to successful fruition.
18. Sun Trine Neptune: extremely sensitive to inner currents and is by nature a mystic.; in medical field would give healing powers. “When Neptune is harmoniously linked to the luminaries in the chart of a person who can respond to its higher rays, it can bestow gifts of a clairvoyant and clairaudient nature.” Pg 558, Alan Oken’s Complete Astrology
19. Sun Trine Pluto: This aspect gives courage and intuitive perception, with the desire to strip away all self-delusion so that the personality and soul can become one.
20. Mercury Conjunct Uranus: All aspect between Mercury and Uranus are good for they tune the conscious mind to the Universal Mind; Uranus, tunes the mind to a higher octave and speeds up the perception and quickens the intuition. “When Mercury is joined with the three outer bodies (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto), it acts as a link between the rational faculties and the intuition (Uranus), psychic vision or impressions (Neptune), and the various transcendental processes at work in life (Pluto).”
21. Mercury Sextile Uranus: There is the opportunity to probe the unconscious mind , bringing forth new insights and concepts. The mind readily absorbs knowledge and is strongly intuitive.
22. Mercury Trine Uranus: Denotes the advanced soul. Trine: Has an inward feeling of what is right for him to do. His intuitions make his decisions for him, and he is not afraid to trust them
23. Mercury Conjunct Neptune: Highly intuitive and receives psychic impressions from others which they find confusing until they learn to discern exactly what the vibration represents. i.e. sorrow, fear.
24. Mercury Sextile Neptune: There is an opportunity to tap the unconscious mind. These individuals are sensitive to the higher realms. This can be done in dreams or by meditating.
25. Mercury Trine Neptune: Aptitude for psychic and mystical fields; can benefit from dreams and visions; has ability to contact higher planes of consciousness in sleep and in meditation and bring instruction through to the conscious mind.
26. Mercury Sextile Pluto: There is an opportunity to analyze all situations with logic and intuition.
27. Mercury Trine Pluto: In other lifetimes, these individuals have begun the work of balancing their logic and their intuition, giving them an unusual ability to study any subject in depth.
28. Venus Conjunct Neptune: Psychically sensitive; mystical and spiritual tendencies in chart of an advanced soul.
29. Venus Sextile Neptune: Sixth sense(intuition) strong
30. Venus Trine Neptune: Sixth sense strong. Intuition is sixth sense.
31. Mars Conjunct Uranus: Highly intuitive with psychic healing powers.
32. Mars Trine Uranus: Have an intuitive awareness which tells them when to stop in the face of resistance. Healing power; genius.
33. Mars Sextile Neptune: Have the opportunity to work with psychic forces and be in no danger from any adverse influences.
34. Mars Trine Neptune: Can work with psychic forces and be in no danger from any adverse influences. Earned increment in the spiritual bankbook from other lives.
35. Mars Trine Pluto: There is a strong interest in occult studies which many times is accompanied by an unusual amount of ability in these areas.
36. Jupiter Conjunct Uranus: Intuition and judgment work hand in hand if this aspect is not afflicted by mars and Mercury.; Should trust intuitive powers and act on them if not afflicted by Neptune.
37. Jupiter Sextile Uranus: this is a spiritual blessing aspect earned in other lifetimes.
38. Jupiter Trine Uranus: This is a spiritual blessing aspect earned in other lifetimes.
39. Jupiter Conjunct Neptune: May have a strong mystical streak and will always be closely connected with spirituality and religion.
40. Jupiter Sextile Neptune: Opportunity to follow inner leading, to be intuitive and psychic; must be developed to become a reality.
41. Jupiter Trine Neptune: Intuitive and psychic and should follow inner leading; Can be mystical and drawn to religious and philosophical groups.
42. Saturn Sextile Neptune: Brings in the opportunity for spiritual power and philosophical understanding, but it must be used to be activated. often found in charts of those who could be initiates in this lifetime
43. Saturn Trine Neptune: Brings in spiritual power and philosophical understanding; often found in charts of those who could be initiates in this lifetime.
44. Uranus Sextile Neptune: Opportunity for becoming intuitive with psychic potential.
45. Uranus Trine Neptune: In other lifetimes, have worked toward tapping their unconscious minds and elevating their consciousness. Because of this, they are idealistic, with a desire to alter the materialistic concepts they see in the world. They are extremely tolerant of others’ philosophies; are very intuitive with psychic potential. Intuition gives you the ability know things but not why you know. It can frustrate intelligent people who lack this ability. Intelligent people know why they know.
46. Uranus Conjunct Neptune: Next is 1993. Will give spiritual mysticism and strong intuitive awareness, which existed on continent of Mu, and the scientific abilities which existed on Atlantis. Earth has gone thru purification so only spiritually advanced souls will be incarnating on earth..
47. Uranus Square Neptune: Can give psychic and intuitive powers. #
48. Uranus Oppose Neptune: Gives intuitive awareness and psychic potential. #
49. Uranus Sextile Pluto: Opportunity to elevate consciousness through spiritual aspirations; very intuitive with psychic potential.
50. Uranus Trine Pluto: In other lifetimes have worked toward tapping their unconscious minds and elevating their consciousness; very intuitive with psychic potential. Their latent clairvoyant abilities can be developed if they wish. The intuition is highly developed and used to create a better understanding among all peoples.
51. ** Unaspected Uranus (to another Planet):According to Bil Tierney, Dynamics of Aspect Analysis, “..When unaspected, Higher Octave planets (Uranus / Neptune / Pluto) are going to either operate in an exclusively unconscious fashion, with occasional spurts of unpredictable and unusual behavior, or perhaps not at all, remaining totally latent on the character-level, and thus projected onto people and situations. Yet, for some individuals, for unknown reasons, an unaspected Higher Octave (Uranus, in this example) could indicate extraordinary capacity far beyond average human expression, almost as if these people are constantly plugged into unlimited sources of cosmic power. With ordinary people, when unaspected, Uranus becomes almost self-contained and independent of outside social influence. It tends to be less driven to inaugurate breakthroughs in the outer world environment in the more open, rebellious manner of a heavily aspected Uranus. Flashes of genius or sparks of intuition may be specifically felt in the house area, where the individual can feel quite unique and unmatched, for better or worse.” (I believe this applies to Crystal Children and has been included for that reason.)
52. Neptune Conjunct Pluto: Very great sensitivity to the inner worlds; uncanny ability to see through people and circumstances, if willing to sacrifice self to Higher Self can be led to heights of spiritual attainment. Advancement along spiritual lines can be greatly accelerated in company of other like-minded people.
53. Neptune Sextile Pluto: There is the opportunity to use your psychic abilities for the benefit of humanity; Can develop clairvoyance & prophetic ability. Have precognitive dreams. Strong psychic healing powers; desire for justice for all people. Abhor violence or anything that might degrade or oppress another person or animal.
54. ** Unaspected Neptune (to another planet): According to Bil Tierney, Dynamics of Aspect Analysis, “..When unaspected, Higher Octave planets (Uranus / Neptune / Pluto) are going to either operate in an exclusively unconscious fashion, with occasional spurts of unpredictable and unusual behavior, or perhaps not at all, remaining totally latent on the character-level, and thus projected onto people and situations. Yet, for some individuals, for unknown reasons, an unaspected Higher Octave (Neptune, in this example) could indicate extraordinary capacity far beyond average human expression, almost as if these people are constantly plugged into unlimited sources of cosmic power. (For ordinary people, brackets, mine) Neptune tends towards withdrawal, seclusion and privacy. It prefers to remain absorbed in the inner worlds of consciousness and has a harder time adjusting itself to manifesting in concrete, solid terms. The more aspects it has, the more likely it is to be challenged to manifest itself through external experience, regardless of the level or quality shown.”
55. North Node Trine Uranus: These individuals will attract spiritual teachers, from “the Other Side” , who they have been close to in other lifetimes and who have taught them to tap their unconscious minds.
56. North Node Conjunct Neptune: The power of this conjunction will attract spiritual teachers perhaps from The Other Side who can teach them how to hear and see into the astral world.
57. North Node Sextile Neptune: There is an opportunity for spiritual teachers to enter their lives who can teach them how to hear and see into the astral world.
58. North Node Trine Neptune: These individuals will attract spiritual teachers who they have been close to in other lifetimes and who have taught them how to hear and see into the astral world.
59. South Node Conjunct Neptune: The power of this conjunction will attract karmic situations which will enable them to hear and see into the astral world.
60. South Node Sextile Neptune: There is an opportunity for karmic situations to occur which enables the person to hear and see into the astral world.
61. South Node Trine Neptune: These individuals willingly attract karmic situations to occur which will enable them to see and hear into the astral world.
62. South Node Oppose Neptune: An awareness should be developed that karmic situations must, and will, occur for the purpose of dissolving their fear of the unknown, by enabling them to hear and see into the astral world.
63. Midheaven Conjunct Neptune: Can become a success in society by utilizing their psychic abilities.
64. Ascendant Conjunct Neptune: Psychic and intuitive
65. Ascendant Sextile Neptune: (Opportunity to become) Psychic and intuitive
66. Ascendant Trine Neptune: Psychic and intuitive
67. Grand Water Trine: Psychic energy, if used.
68. Grand Trine including Uranus: Psychic and intuitive abilities strong
69. Grand Trine Including Neptune: Psychic abilities strong
70. ** Mystic Rectangle: Pulls the energies of the separate planets togetherso that they operate as one unit.
71. ** Mystic Rectangle with Uranus or Neptune: Pulls the energies of the separate planets together so that they operate as one unit. Incorporates your intuitive abilities if Uranus is one of the planets, and your psychic, mediumistic abilities if it is Neptune.
72. ** Kite Formation: the Focal Point of the Kite collects the energies of the other planets involved. All of this energy is then focused and channeled through this one focal planet’s qualities. Because of its power, it can become a focal point of the personality. It is a grand trine, with a sextile aspect connecting to each side of one of its three points. This is called the focal point, or point of the Kite. This focal point is also part of an internal opposition that creates a “tail” for the kite formation. The opposition acts as an internal balancing rod, so that the energy/qualities of the planetary kite tail of the opposition are used to push the energies of the focal planet into action. The type of actions taken, how the kite affects the native, depends on the planets, houses, signs, etc involved in the formation. I use the Moon’s Nodes, and the Asc/Desc, MC/IC axes to form the kite formation.
73. ** Kite Formation with Uranus or Neptune as point of kite: Adds an intuitive (Uranus) or psychic (Neptune) energy to the kite’s actions. If one of these is the focal planet, then it is most likely that the native would be expressing his/her intuitive / psychic abilities in the outer world, or at least be consciously using them for soul growth for him/herself.
74. Moon in Signs:
75. Taurus: Intuitive
76. Cancer: Strong psychic ability. Cancer is a psychic sign
77. Virgo: intuitive
78. Aquarius: Intuitive
79. Pisces: Visionary, mystical if unafflicted. Needs other characteristics in chart to be reliable.
80. Moon In Houses:
81. 4th: intuitive
82. 8th: very psychic
83. 9th: dreams and visions can be of great significance if not heavily afflicted; receptivity toward the super conscious realms
84. 12th: psychic, intuitive and subjective
85. Sun in Signs:
86. Cancer: extremely psychic;
87. Scorpio: Intuition is well developed;
88. Pisces: psychic sensitivity
89. Aquarius: Sign of spiritual rebirth,
90. Sagittarius: has the ability to see the future by their understanding of current trends of thought, and their insights border on prophecy. Keyword is perception, another word for intuition.
91. Mercury in Signs:
92. Cancer: extremely psychic.
93. Scorpio: Gives an intuitive mind capable of profound insights.
94. Pisces: psychic and visionary type of mind; highly intuitive and telepathic on the unconscious level.
95. Aquarius: intuitive;
96. Sagittarius: Can have prophetic insight.
97. Mercury in Houses:
98. 9th: (if favorably aspected, especially if it aspects Uranus, Neptune or Pluto, can give prophetic insight into the future.)
99. 12th: perceptive, intuitive and subtle mind; absorb knowledge intuitively; if well aspected, especially by sextiles or trines to Neptune, Uranus or Pluto, valuable ideas and knowledge may be gained through intuitive or psychic ability.
100. Venus in Signs:
101. Sagittarius: Good intuition;
102. Pisces: extremely psychic
103. Mars In Cancer: Intuitive, sensitive
104. Mars in Libra: Intuitive mind
105. Mars in Pisces: Intuitive
106. Jupiter in Signs:
107. Sagittarius: Prophetic and inspirational
108. Aquarius: Intuitive,
109. Pisces: Visionary, intuitive
110. Jupiter in Houses:
111. 3rd (intuition strong) ,
112. 8th (psychic abilities),
113. 9th (prophetic and have strong intuition),
114. 11th (intuitive).
115. Saturn in Cancer: Psychic tendencies strong
116. Saturn in 8th, ( in sextile or trine aspect only)
117. Uranus in Signs:
118. Virgo: Need to learn to listen to their intuition; interest in psychic healing
119. Sagittarius: Intuitive, Prophetic, optimistic
120. Aquarius: Interest in metaphysical;,
121. Pisces: Psychic, intuitive, extremely sensitive.. When well aspected to Neptune, will be indicative of advanced soul who has come to serve the planet in some philosophical or religious way. Brings into incarnation the spiritually intuitive who are able to grasp first hand knowledge of spiritual truths; can make person spiritual psychic.
122. Uranus in Houses:
123. 8th: very strong psychic feeling as well as keen intuition
124. 12th: if afflicted, investigating into psychic or occult could bring trouble.
125. Neptune in Signs: Taurus (1874-1887): Psychic phenomena was either accepted or rejected, after careful and practical consideration. Had the capacity to heal others through the use of their mind (i.e. Edgar Cayce) Cancer( 1901-1915): Are extremely intuitive and sensitive.
126. Scorpio (1957-1970): Are Intuitive; an interest in metaphysical world. Many psychics and sensitives are born with this configuration. Virgo: Have the ability to heal psychically; well-aspected, have become humanitarians and servers and work to reduce tensions in human relationships.
127. Sagittarius (1970-1985): prophetic; an ability to develop clairvoyance. Gives psychic sensitivity that will give the ability to pierce the veils of matter and know Truth. Intuitive nature will be highly developed.
128. Capricorn1985-2000) : Strong intuition which will be used on practical affairs. Into incarnation will come many advanced souls. Gemini: Extremely psychic.
129. Aquarius (2000-2015): interest in psychic phenomena, spiritual revelation and altered forms of consciousness; assumes an eclectic, adventurous, intuitive and original tone. Connection to subconscious wisdom is fueled by an energy that is inspirational and visionary; hard to overemphasize the creative potential of self-development, spiritual interests, mysticism, and psychic phenomena.
130. Pisces (2015-2030) : Mystical, with the desire to be in an expanded state of consciousness. Capable of attaining harmony between the physical and the spiritual world. They will have a complete unification of the five bodies (physical, etheric, conscious, subconscious and superconscious.
131. Neptune Retrograde: There is an intuitive awareness of the subconscious mind, but difficulty in tuning in to it consciously.
132. Neptune in Houses:
133. 1st: Psychic sensitivity very strong; visionary, artistic, hypersensitive; psychic sensitivity could bring confusion until person seeks spiritual evolvement.
134. 2nd: psychic sensitivity can be used to tap inner talents.
135. 3rd: Intuitive, ESP gives clairvoyance, psychic skills
136. 8th:psycic and intuitive with dreams and visions which are precognitive; astral and out-of-body experiences.
137. 9th: Makes a person mystical, and if well aspected, can have spiritual visions; makes the intangible extremely nebulous when it is already nebulous enough; Intuitive
138. 12th:Stress on subconscious due to extreme sensitivity; reflective and intuitive; have psychic ability which operates unconsciously and person may or may not be aware of it.
139. Pluto in Sagittarius (Prophetic): Stimulates prophetic ability and faith in human nature.
140. Pluto in Scorpio: (1984-1996): Strong intuition. Many born with great psychic ability already developed. Neptune in Leo: (No psychic abilities)
141. Pluto in Houses:
142. 4th: intuitive faculties good
143. 8th: Strong Intuition; If well aspected to Neptune and Mars, native may be clairvoyant
144. 9th:, intuitive May be clairvoyant (can bring with it a higher sense of perception – clairvoyance – that stems from a much higher level of consciousness.)
145. 12th (Pluto here in its highest form means the willingness to be a channel to help those who are limited and afflicted.)
146. **North Node in Cancer: Psychic abilities are strong in Cancer, so psychic abilities can be developed in this lifetime, if desired. When the student is ready, the (spiritual) teacher appears
147. **North Node in Scorpio: Psychic abilities can be developed in this lifetime, if there are at least three other positive (excluding squares and oppositions to Neptune and Uranus) psychic indicators in the chart to support it. When the student is ready, the (spiritual) teacher appears
148. **North Node in Pisces: Psychic abilities are to be developed in this lifetime, if there are at least three other psychic indicators (excluding squares and oppositions to Neptune and Uranus) in chart to support it. When the student is ready, the (spiritual) teacher appears.
149. **North Node in 8th House: Opens the door to the psychic world; to out-of-body experiences; access to the astral world, if three or more other psychic, intuitive indicators are shown in the chart
150. **North Node in 9th House: Opens the door to prophetic, mystical visionary-types of experiences if three or more other intuitive, psychic indicators are present in the chart.
151. **North Node in 12th House: Often indicates unconscious intuitive, psychic abilities available in this incarnation, but may be difficult to access or recognize in this house. This is the house of the unconscious mind, karma from past lives brought into this one, and solitary confinement by choice or not.
152. **South Node in Cancer: Born psychic from past life
153. **South Node in Scorpio: Born psychic from past life
154. **South Node in Pisces: Born psychic from past life
155. **South Node in 8th House: (Looks like a Capital U with circles at the ends. Opposite the North Node, which looks like an upside-down capital U, with small circles at the ends) indicates psychic, mediumistic, astral or out-of-body abilities; abilities were developed in a past life and are available, * if not afflicted , especially to Uranus or Neptune.
156. **South Node in 9th House: In South Node, indicates prophetic, mystic, or visionary abilities were developed in a past life and available in this life time, *if not afflicted, especially to Uranus or Neptune.
157. **South Node in 12th House: Gives unconscious psychic ability. It is a carry-over from a past life, and often karmic. Other indicators should be in chart to develop psychic gifts in this life time, # excluding squares or oppositions to Neptune and Uranus.
Glossary:
8th House represents the entrance to the next dimension, rules the psychic senses and out-of-body experiences. Rules psychic levels. People with planets here have often brought over a legacy of sensitivity to invisible currents. If the planets in this house are afflicted, the individual has been involved in misuse of psychic faculties, particularly if Mars is afflicted to Neptune or in this house.
9th House: Intuition, inspiration, spiritual visions. Indicates higher levels of consciousness as to both mind and emotion. (See above for deeper explanation of higher consciousness.) Planets in their fall or detriment show misuse of their energies; wise use is shown by rulers and exaltation.
12th House: Most psychically permeable. Serve or suffer is the motto of the 12th house.
Ascendant/Descendant: A line of self-awareness and intuition.
Astrological Symbol Aspect Chart: Found on the lower left side of the natal (birth) chart. You will not need to use this graph to find your psychic, intuitive indicators
Aquarius: In a cosmic sense, the sign is the sign of the ‘incoming age’. The keyword of Aquarius is “I know”. Aquarians are mental pioneers, the forward thinking individuals who live in the future and not in the past. They are rebels and individualists that have to go their own way, learning their own way; Independent; imaginative, creative and inventive, there is a genius about them if they are evolved. When they are evolved, and their emotions are tenderized, no sign is more magnanimous or as monumental. When they “feel” love instead of “think” it they are great souls. It has two rulers: Saturn (responsibility) and Uranus (freedom). Without the discipline of Saturn, there can be no real freedom. Evolved souls have learned this lesson.
Cancer: The insistent; the sign of the Cosmic Mother who nourishes all humanity at her breast.
Conjunction/Conjunct: (as in for example, Sun conjunct Uranus) Keyword is emphasis. It is known as power operating; it is a concentrated massing of energy. It represents planets within 10 degrees of each other. (Astrology: A Cosmic Science, pg. 70-71).
Grand Trine: A pattern formed by three planets in a triangle of the same element. In this case, it is the Water element, which is known as the Psychic Trinity. These energies are in harmony with each other so that they bring the harmony and ease in the houses and matters that the planets represent.
Higher consciousness describes the ability to intuit truths and spiritual knowledge associated with the teachings of the great Masters. Excerpt from the website www.themystic.org:
“By higher consciousness we are implying a realm of awareness beyond regular consciousness. Higher consciousness is awareness at the source of our thinking, feeling, and acting. Higher consciousness is that dynamic awareness which enables ordinary consciousness. Higher consciousness enables you to think, enables your feeling nature to work. It enables you to act wisely and well. Higher consciousness is the essential intelligence, energy, and power that enables breathing and brain function, that enables sensations to enter us through our sense organs.”
It is associated with Jupiter, Sagittarius, and the 9th house.
Intuition is inner knowing and is associated with the planet Uranus.
Jupiter: Basic Keywords: Aspiration, Benevolence, Religion, Confidence, Optimism, Humane, Mercy, Dignity, Idealism, Faithfulness, Generosity
Mars: Keywords: Energy, initiative, courage, transmutation, Fearlessness, Expression
Mercury: Keywords: Mind; link between spirit and matter; Expressiveness, Discrimination, Awareness, Brilliance, Adaptability; Senses
Moon: Personality, Sensitivity, Receptivity, Feeling, Imagination, positive psychism Mystical, visionary or prophetic abilities describe the ability to intuitively attain and comprehend spiritual knowledge or truths, that are currently beyond the understanding of the common man, or the masses; the ability to achieve communion with God through contemplation and love without the medium of human reason, or another mediator, such as a priest or minister.
Neptune: The positive aspects of Neptune show wisdom beyond reason, genius, creative ability in the literary, poetic and musical fields, intuition, clairvoyance, contact with the higher invisible realms, and the realization of the Unity of all life. Not everybody can respond fully to the higher vibrations of Neptune. Neptune represents spiritual wisdom; is the mystic, has mediumistic ability and psychic powers. Neptune represents social responsibility; reveals pattern of social obligation showing how person will conform to group consciousness. Shows cosmic debts you must pay. When afflicted, Neptune cloaks the issue with vagueness, obscurity, illusion, confusion, misunderstanding, intrigue and fraudulent appearances. Those born with Neptune in a square or opposition aspect, see note below.
North Node looks like an inverted or upside-down Capital U with circles at the ends. South Node looks like a capital U, with the small circles at the ends.
Opposition: Keyword is awareness. Oppositions are opposing forces that must be reconciled. They call for co-operation. Opposing forces come from outside as well as inside, and often involve other people. It calls for compromise. They can cause you to be pulled apart by two contrary pulls, but like two poles of a battery, one may also be illumined by the spark flowing from pole to pole. Awareness causes consciousness to expand and develop. Solution: Learn to agree with your adversary while you are in the way with him. (Astrology: A Cosmic Science., pg. 71)
Pisces: The compassionate; represents the wise use of the emotional nature and compassionate understanding.
Psychic Abilities indicates the ability to contact those living on “The Other Side”, in the World of Spirit, or the Heaven World. As defined in Collins Compact English Dictionary: Sensitive to phenomena lying outside range of normal experience. 2. Of soul or mind. 3. That appears to be outside the region of physical law.
It includes such gifts as:
Clairvoyance, (clear sight)
Clairaudience (clear hearing)
Clairsentience (Clear touch), also known as Psychometry: reading objects by touch.
Psychometry generally refers to the ability to gain impressions and information about an object or anything connected to it by holding it in your hand. A person with this ability is called a psychometrist or a scryer. Excerpt from: www.crystalinks.com
Clairessence (literally, clear smell and taste); also known as clairolfacrience
Mediumistic abilities
Channeling abilities
Astral or out-of-body experiences
Relates to the 8th house and Scorpio
Saturn: The tester. Saturn’s goal is perfection. Through the chastening process of testing, sorrow, delay, disappointment, limitation , privation, man learns the purpose of life is to gain experience, patience, humility, wisdom and compassion. Keywords: Patience, self-discipline, humility, responsibility, diplomacy, respect, endurance.
Scorpio: The passionate; represents the control and mastery of the emotional nature through loving Will.
Sextile: Sextiles are underlined to indicate potential or opportunity. They must be activated or they will not operate. (Astrology: A cosmic Science, pg. 71) This is an aspect that denotes potential or opportunity for development in this lifetime, and differs from the trine which indicates that the ability has already been developed in past life times and is available for use in this one.
South Node/North Node: These are associated with the Moon. The North Node is the path of spiritual growth, and represents “new territory, spiritually”. As such it is known as the path to spiritual growth. The South Node represents “where we’ve been, what we’ve learned and brought with us into this incarnation, for better or worse. They are always exactly opposite each other, like the North and South Poles of the earth.
Square: Keyword is obstacle. Squares represent the lessons we have failed to learn. The quickest way to release ourselves from these difficulties is to face them and solve them. (Astrology: A Cosmic Science, pg. 72).
Sun: Keywords: Will, individuality, spirit; faith, confidence, vitality, poise, positivity
Trine: Trines are the harmonies we have earned; the blessings that come when we love and love wisely. Trines throw a protective influence. Benefits that come without effort and without any activity on the part of the individual concerned. They are the results of constructive service and harmonious actions in other lifetimes. (Astrology: A Cosmic Science, pg. 71.)
Uranus: Uranus represents intuition that comes like lightening, in a flash. Uranus is the occultist.
Venus: Love, harmony, refinement, sociability, gentleness, cooperativeness, affection, Constructiveness
Notes and Other Odds & Ends:
* If the natal chart indicates how psychic abilities were used in past lives, or how they will be used in this one, I can not see it, so all psychic gifts, to my knowledge, like everything else in our lives, can be used either for good or evil. The choice is always left up to us. However, no matter its use now or in past lives, there is ALWAYS a good reason..ALWAYS! or as Isabel Hickey says, “It is ALL right.”
* New Age egos will have Uranus, not Aquarius, prominently located (in 1st, 4th, 7th, or10th house, or have it configured with the Sun, Moon or Mercury.) Indicates the person has passed the test of Saturn.
* *If afflicted, investigating into psychic or occult could bring trouble: your intuition will tell you if this applies. It will be an obvious and strong feeling; you cannot make a ‘mistake’ and ‘accidentally’ get into trouble in the metaphysical/occult/esoteric/spiritual realm, because we are always warned in advance, and then we choose to proceed ‘where angels fear to tread’.
* ** No research to back up this claim. This was added because of a strong intuitive feeling that I should, and I always trust these feelings, and act on them. (It’s the only way to develop your own intuitive, psychic skills.)
· *** Compiled specifically to determine if it were possible to see psychic abilities in children born since 1999, who are being identified, according to my understanding, as crystal children because of the color of their auras and their level of spiritual evolution. Those I have met, and whose charts I have done, appear to be spiritually highly evolved, advanced souls. This research project was designed to test this hypothesis.
· # Neptune In square or opposition, can give psychic and intuitive powers but can become the dark occultist if he/she uses power for self. Have attained spirituality in other lifetimes but have lost their equilibrium through not balancing their emotional or devotional fanaticism with mental poise and logic.
Sources:
Green, Jeff, PLUTO: The Evolutionary Journey of the Soul, Llewellyn Publications, 1996
, URANUS: Freedom from the Unknown, Llewellyn Publications, 1988.
Hand, Robert, HOROSCOPE SYMBOLS, Schiffer Publishing, 1981
Hickey, Isabel, ASTROLOGY, A COSMIC SCIENCE: The Classic Work on Spiritual Astrology, CRCS Publications, 1992
Loftus, Myrna, A SPIRITUAL APPROACH TO ASTROLOGY: A Complete Textbook of Astrology, CRCS Publications, 1983
Oken, Alan, ALAN OKEN’S COMPLETE ASTROLOGY, Bantam Books, 1988
Sakoian, Frances & Acker, Louis, THE ASTROLOGER’S HANDBOOK, Harper & Row, 1973
Spiller, Jan, ASTROLOGY FOR THE SOUL, Bantam, 1997
Tierney, Bil, DYNAMICS OF ASPECT ANALYSIS: New Perceptions in Astrology, CRCS Publications, 1983
Tompkins, Sue, ASPECTS IN ASTROLOGY: A Comprehensive Guide to Interpretation, Element Books, Inc., 1995
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THE PEGASUS FILE
Vietnam Special Forces Air Combat Controller; 25 year CIA deep cover agent; US Army pilot flying classified missions during the US invasion of Grenada; Iran-Contra pilot flying cocaine shipments labelled as medical supplies; and member of the ultra-secret, international G7 run Pegasus "Hit Team" - this is the extraordinary story of Gene "Chip" Tatum.
By David Guyatt
Part 1
From sensitive and highly secret - and hitherto largely unknown - Special Forces covert operations in Cambodia, to wandering CIA asset, through to "black ops" activities in Grenada and Oliver North's Iran-Contra "Enterprise," and on to membership in an international "hit team," Gene "Chip" Tatum has seen it all, done it all and is now telling it all.
Tatum knows where the skeletons are buried. Above all he is aware that his testimony implicates serving and former US Presidents, plus a whole list of high government officials, and others, in a welter of nefarious activities - including assassination, blackmail, coercion, gun-running, money-laundering and Cocaine trafficking.
Tatum, a lanky Floridian, turned whistle-blower following his arrest on a treason charge in 1995. The charge was both astonishing and patently ludicrous and resulted in a flurry of press interest with an article appearing in the Tampa Tribune on 4 May 1996. Incredibly, the charge was later dropped to be replaced by a fraud charge - a drastic step-down. Found guilty he was sentenced to serve a 15 month sentence. In March 1996, an additional charge - "conspiring to embezzle" was brought against him. Found guilty he is now incarcerated in Jessup Federal Correctional Facility, Florida, where he is serving a 27 month concurrent sentence.
Many questions continue to hang over the conduct of the trial. His defence lawyer refused to call any of the 80 witnesses nominated by Tatum for the defence. Later he freely confessed to having come under pressure from the Defence Department. Tatum says the first charge was a set-up to discredit him following his "resignation" from Operation Pegasus. The second he views with greater scepticism and concern.
His resignation from Pegasus followed his refusal to "neutralise" a leading US political figure in the 1992 US presidential elections. Tatum declares he will not "participate in assassinations of any sort, character assassinations or anything, of American citizens." He goes on to explain that back in 1994, in a telephone conference call from Oliver North, Felix Rodriguez and the late William Colby of the CIA, he was warned to turn over incriminating documents and tapes he had accumulated for his "retirement." He wryly observes that had he done so, he would probably have been quickly "terminated" in an "extreme" way - a speciality of the Pegasus team of which he was once a member. Countering this demand, he volunteered to plead guilty on a fabricated felony count and serve a twelve month sentence - so that his credibility was damaged in the event he ever decided to speak out. His incarceration for the second charge - and especially the 6 months sentencing of his wife, Nancy - has led him to speak out about his life which spans almost thirty years as a "black" operative. It is an extraordinary story.
OPERATION RED ROCK
Tatum's has written of his early career in the military, and his involvement in a highly sensitive and classified operation in an unpublished manuscript entitled "Operation Red Rock." Joining the Air Force in February 1970, he went through Army jump school; escape and evasion; jungle training; sea survival school; diving school and was assigned along with six others as "Combat Controllers" - the USAF equivalent of Special Forces - receiving his distinctive Special Forces burgundy coloured beret. From there he was assigned to Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, and then on to Fort Bragg, North Carolina - home of the Green Berets - for training in C4 plastic explosives, mines, nuclear, biological and chemical warfare, plus indoctrination in electronic and psychological operations.
Posted to South East Asia as Airman First Class (A1C) in December 1970, he was assigned as a radio operator on a Forward Air Control (FAC) aircraft attached to Task Force Alpha at Nakhon Phanom, Thailand. In short order he was recruited (an involuntary "volunteer") to Team Red Rock. The team was composed of eight US Army Green Berets, three US Navy SEALS and two "cowboys" - a euphemism for CIA paramilitary specialists. With Tatum attached, Team Red Rock totalled 14 in all, and was about to be tasked with an operation that came directly from the White House.
In January 1971 the team received a final briefing from General Alexander Haig - who had flown in specially - along with Central Intelligence Agency, Saigon Chief William Colby; posing as "Mr. Peepers." Haig and Colby outlined the plan, stressing it's importance and extreme classification. President Nixon, desperate to quell domestic riots over an increasingly unpopular war, sought to withdraw all US personnel from Southeast Asia. Withdrawal would - and in the end ultimately did - cause a military vacuum quickly leading to the defeat of South Vietnamese forces.
During those years, Nixon was also running a "secret war" in Cambodia and Laos. In Laos, dwindling number of Meo tribesmen together with covert US personnel employed by the CIA proprietary company, Air America, were battling against superior North Vietnamese ground forces. A much similar pattern was occurring in Cambodia, amid grave fears that the "Domino Theory" would result if either of these two nations were to fall to the communist North Vietnamese. Nixon hoped that the vacuum caused by the withdrawal of US covert forces could be filled by native Cambodian forces. Lon Nol, the Cambodian leader, continued to stubbornly resist Nixon's diplomatic overtures to take up the slack - anxious to hedge his bets and realistic about his chances of survival as Kymer Rouge and Vietnamese forces prepared to swarm-in unhindered by US air power.
A plan had been drawn up at the highest levels of Nixon's administration. Team Red Rock were to secretly enter Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, and attack the airport, military and civil installations - wrecking as much havoc as possible. The plan called for the team to parachute into the outskirts of Phnom Penh carrying with them captured NVA "Sappers." Taken in unarmed and alive, the Sappers would be "sacrificed" and their bodies left to be discovered by Cambodian forces. A furious, Lon Nol would assume North Vietnam was to blame. Such an act would, it was hoped, stiffen Lon Nol's backbone. With nowhere else to turn, the US puppet would urgently seek US hardware to strengthen his forces and continue the battle.
The team were not told that they too were to be sacrificed by their President to ensure that word of the operation never reached the light of day. A detachment of Montagnard tribesmen (Yards) in the pay of the CIA were assigned to liquidate each member of the team and dispose of their bodies. The attack went successfully, but the teams suspicion of the "Yards" foiled the betrayal. Using their knowledge of "escape and evasion" tactics the team decided to trek to the Vietnamese border and back to safety with US forces.
Casualties thinned out their numbers until only eight of them remained. Soon these, too, were captured by NVA regulars and underwent hideous torture at the hands of Chinese and Russian interrogators. Ultimately, only Tatum and one other team member survived the ordeal. Convalescing, Tatum was debriefed by CIA station chief, William Colby, and told he would, in future, be kept close to the "Agency". Recruited into the CIA, the yawning door of future "black" operations creaked open. Life would never be the same again for Chip Tatum.
CIA DEEP COVER AGENT
For the next ten years or so, Tatum's covert activities were varied. For awhile he worked out of Homestead Air Force Base where he was NCIOC of the tower receiver sight and MARS station. This was the base which then President Nixon used for his frequent visits to the Key Biscayne, Florida, White House. Much of this period remains obscured behind a thick blanket of classification.
From there he was stationed in Northern Italy, tasked with visiting the border towns of Yugoslavia and Italy. Colby felt that as a young Air Force man, Tatum might be "approached" in these towns for "information." The idea was to make contact with foreign agents and covertly gather information about them and their operations. Later he was tasked with infiltrating Yugoslavia, searching for missing US POW's from Vietnam and elsewhere in Southeast Asia - as well as being assigned to gather intelligence on potential successors to the then Yugoslavian President, Tito.
By 1976, he was operating out of Lamar, Colorado, in a communications facility, called OLAB. His contact there was Don Holmes, president of Valley - a Saving & Loan bank. Tatum acted as his courier shuttling between Lamar and Springfield, Colorado with transaction files. From there he was transferred to McDill Air Force Base, Tampa, Florida. Shortly before his McDill posting, he received a call from Colby telling him he was resigning his position as Director, Central Intelligence and recommending Tatum should de-activate his clandestine CIA activities. Colby continued, saying that remaining active without Colby there to protect him, may place him in personal jeopardy, as he had powerful enemies in Washington. This warning referred to Nixon, Kissinger and Haig and Tatums role and survival from Operation Red Rock. Tatum took good notice of the warning and became de-active. Later, in 1978, he requested and was granted entry into a USAF reserve programme. Leaving active military service he moved to Gunnison, Colorado, and took up a position with Bo Calloway, owner of the Crested Bute Ski area. The appointment was arranged by Colby.
During 1980 he received a visit from two men who informed him he was being reactivated, but into the US Army instead of the Air Force. He was sent to the US Army Flight School for rotary wing training at Fort Rucker. From there he was assigned to the 160th Aviation Battalion/Special Forces at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Shortly afterwards, the 160th combined with others to form Task Force 160.
It was in this unit that Tatum played a spooky role in the US invasion of Grenada. A photograph of him standing in front of his Hughes MD-500 Defender gunship on the beach-head in Grenada, appeared in the Lousiville Courier Journal, along with a feature story. Tatum will only say of this episode that he "wasn't there" in the same sense that he "wasn't in Cambodia." At that time he was attached to the US Army's 160th air wing at Ft. Campbell. Not only was the Hughes helicopter then not in the Army's inventory, but the 160th didn't officially exist. Jim Malone of the Louisville Courier, finds this extraordinary. He has documents showing the wing was stationed at Ft. Campbell, even though officials in the Pentagon continue to deny it - as they deny the wings role in Grenada. Malone, in a telephone conversation with this writer, advised that the 160th is now stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina - home of the famous Special Forces, the Green Berets. Their mission is to fly Delta Teams on covert assignments, Malone added.
THE CONTRA COKE TRAIN
During 1983, Colby established contact again advising him he would shortly be contacted by "a man called North." This, as Tatum was to later discover was none other than Lt. Col. Oliver North - the central architect of Americas Nicaraguan Contra campaign. Besides fighting a covert war, North was also the link-man in much, much dirtier work.
The "Contragate" years teem with well documented accounts of illicit wholesale gun running and dope smuggling. The expose series published in Autumn 1996 by the San Jose Mercury Post, entitled the "Dark Alliance," openly finger-points at the CIA and the Reagan administration for turning a blind-eye to massive Cocaine smuggling. Moreover, the series of articles claim that the explosion of "crack Cocaine" in Los Angeles resulted entirely from the Contra leaders-cum-dope peddlers who made vast personal fortunes from their activities. Today, the official argument remains that the Contra's were "freelancing" without the knowledge or consent of their CIA "handlers" or Norths so called Enterprise. Despite these assertions, mountains of hard evidence point in a different direction including an entry from North's own diary which shows his knowledge of Cocaine shipments.
In stark contrast to these denials, Tatum says North's "Enterprise" not only set-up the Cocaine factories, "ran" the Colombian cartels but were also responsible for master-minding the massive shipments of narcotics into the US. Significantly, he is not alone in making these accusations. A number of those involved in Col. North's operations have subsequently come forward and spilled the beans. Almost all of these "whistle-blowers" have been hounded and jailed. Some have died, whilst others have fled. The whole Contra thing, Tatum states, was also being used by an extremely covert group called Pegasus.
During February 1985, Tatum was piloting "Dustoff" (Medevac) flights for the US Army's 3/498th Medical Company, stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Two flight crews, including Tatum's, were transferred to Palmerola Air Base, Honduras. Each flight consisted of a Pilot, co-pilot, medic and crew chief. Once familiarised they assumed the Medevac mission for Joint Task Force Bravo. In 1984, he had previously infiltrated the 3/498th on the instructions of Lt. Col. Oliver North - who had established contact under the code-name Jake (North had control of the 160th air wing and was also deeply involved with the tactical planning of black ops missions in the Grenada invasion).
On 15 February 1995, during a flight to La Cieba, Honduras, he was instructed to contact his local "handler" - Major Felix Rodriguez - later to prove a major figure in the Iran-Contra investigation. Rodriguez informed Tatum that in addition to his Army "Medevac" duties he was to support covert "Pegasus" missions. These, he was told, would take priority over his other duties. He was also given his "chain of command;" three individuals - any of whom could authorise Pegasus missions.
In addition to Oliver North and Felix Rodriguez, Tatum would, henceforward, take orders from Amiram Nir, a former Mossad agent and Advisor to Vice President Bush. Aviation support for Pegasus missions operated out of Ilapongo airbase, Honduras (home of the CIA proprietary airline Corporate Air Services) plus numerous Contra camps located in the jungles and mountains along the Honduras/Nicaragua border. A common feature of all future Pegasus missions was the transport "of large white coolers in and out of the Contra camps."
On 26 February 1985, Tatum and his crew were instructed to fly two individuals to one of the larger Contra camps on the Honduran border. His flight log lists the names of the two individuals as Bill Cooper and Buzz Sawyer - both of whom worked for Corporate Air Services. Following a meeting between the CIA agents and Contra leaders, Tatum was given a sealed cooler marked "Vaccine" weighing approximately 200 lbs and instructed to deliver it to a USAF C 130 transport plane at La Mesa airport, Honduras. Two crew members off-loading the cooler accidentally dropped it breaking the seal. Inside was over 100 bags of Cocaine. Tatum resealed the cooler and later watched as it was transferred aboard the C-130 outward bound for Panama.
On his return to Palmerola Air Base, Tatum phoned Col. North advising him of his discovery. North replied that it was "a trophy of war" and that the "Sandinistas are manufacturing Cocaine and selling it to fund the military." North closed the conversation by saying that "the Cocaine was bound for the world courts as evidence" against the Sandinistas.
The whole incident struck him as odd and strongly reminded him of earlier missions dating back to 1983-4 when he was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, as a Special Operations Pilot. Regularly he would tranship white coolers marked as "medical supplies" to Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas. On two occasions he carried similar coolers to Mena airport, Arkansas. Deliveries of medical coolers to Mena were picked up by Dr. Dan Lassater - a close confidant of then Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton. Now almost two years later he decided to document his discovery to safeguard his "retirement." Thereafter, all Pegasus flights were documented on the reverse of his flight logs.
This was a difficult time for Tatum, since he had three balls to juggle at the same time. On the one hand he was flying classified active duty missions for the US Army, on the other he was flying CIA missions arranged through Mil Group A (CIA) - located at the embassy in Tegucigalpa - and thirdly he was flying Pegasus missions under the control of William Colby, Oliver North and George Bush following his recruitment into Pegasus by Colby in 1986,
Tatum completed numerous missions during his rotation to Honduras. Picking up and trans-shipping coolers containing Cocaine was a regular event. Extraordinarily, this included infiltrating Nicaraguan airspace (Tatum says it was not difficult to infiltrate any country and that Foreign Powers would kill to know how it is done) and landing at Bluefields Airbase with deliveries for placement aboard USAF C-123's and C-130's. This was followed by a brief stint to Columbia, where he had been assigned to assist the Drug Enforcement Agencies "war on drugs," only to discover the DEA were heavily engaged in narcotics trafficking.
THE BOSS HOG LIST
One of the most flamboyant individuals involved in the Cocaine trail from Columbia through Honduras, Panama and on in to the United States, was Barry Seal. Seal flew an assortment of aircraft, off-loading shipments of weapons in South America, and picking up deliveries of Cocaine for his return flight to the US on behalf of Col. North's "Enterprise." His primary base of operations was Mena airport, Arkansas. Seal, a CIA "asset" was later arrested and became a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) informer. Prior to his killing in 1986 - allegedly by a Medellin Cartel assassination squad in revenge for informing on them - Seal openly boasted he had information that implicated high government officials - including then Vice President Bush - in the Enterprise' narcotics trafficking business.
Tatum would soon get to meet Barry Seal and become close friends. Later, after Seal's death Tatum recalled being present during a meeting between Oliver North, Felix Rodriguez, Amiram Nir and General Alverez from Honduras, when North stated that Vice President Bush was going to have his son, Jeb, arrange "something out of Columbia." This conversation focused on Barry Seal's increasingly notorious activities. Tatum later made the connection that he was present when Seal's fate had been decided. The discussion also made it clear that VP Bush, Governor Clinton and his three respective "handlers" were knee-deep in the Cocaine venture and making a fist load of money.
Unknown to all those present, Seal had earlier provided Tatum with a list of names of those high government officials deeply involved with or responsible for controlling the narcotics business. Seal called them the "Boss Hogs." This has remained a tightly held secret by Tatum until recent weeks. The list cites the surnames and is re-produced below as I received it, complete with mis-spellings where they have occurred. I have appended their full names and titles in brackets where appropriate/available.
UNITED STATES
Casey - (Director of Central Intellignece William Casey)
Clair-George (Clair Elroy George - Head of CIA's Central American Task Force)
Bush - (Vice President George Bush)
Kissinger - (Dr. Henry Kissinger, Chmn Kissinger Associates, former US Secretary
of State, former National Security Adviser)
Haig - (General Alexander Haig, former Secretary of State)
Greg - (Donald Gregg, former National Security Adviser to VP Bush,
ambassador to Korea and alleged joint "controller" of Panama's Manuel
Noriega, along with William Casey).
Clairage (Duane "Dewey" Clarradge, CIA)
Fernandez (Joseph Fernandez - CIA Costa Rican Station Chief)
North (Lt. Col. Oliver North - National Security Council Aide)
Singlaub (John Singlaub, CIA covert operator)
Colby (William Colby, Director of Central Intelligence 1973-76)
Secord (Richard V. Secord, regarded as a "brilliant" CIA black operative)
Weld (William Weld, head of Criminal division, US Justice Department -
instrumental in "blocking" Senate investigations into narcotics
according to testimony of former Senate special investigator, Jack
Blum)
Rodriguez (Felix Rodriguez, CIA officer with close connection to VP Bush)
Peroot (General Peroot, Defence Intelligence Agency)
Most, if not all, of these names are readily familiar to Contragate investigators and journalists covering this story. Allegations regarding the involvement of former President George Bush in the Cocaine business are by no means new - they abound in plentiful supply. The fact that Bush pardoned a number of his closest advisors - who faced criminal prosecution and possible jail - late on Christmas eve 1992, just weeks before Bill Clinton's inaugeration, left a sour taste in the mouths of many. If prosecuted they clearly would've fingered the President himself.
PEGASUS - DIRTY MONEY LAUNDERING
But Tatum's story takes us even further along the dark road of power, greed, and corruption. During l986, he had left Honduras and set up a money laundering business in Watertown, New York State - close to the home base of the Army's 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum. The location was chosen with care. With access to Fort Drum's telephone lines for secure communications, he was assigned a Cherokee 140 helicopter used to ship personnel and supplies - under radar cover - across the Canadian border. His tenure with these companies lasted from 1986 through to 1990. This was a pure Pegasus operation.
It was at Watertown, that Tatum was provided with a civilian cover in the form of three construction companies: American National Home Builders; American Constructors and American Homes. Funding was provided by Henry Hyde, Republican politician for Illinois - well known as the CIA's "black" money-man. Hyde provided a $250,000 line of credit with Key bank, Watertown. Although Tatum was listed as the President in all three companies, all were in reality under the control of Ben Whittaker, a lawyer from Rochester, New York. Whittaker, Tatum says, is closely associated with Tony Wilson of the Wilson family who owned Xerox Corporation. They are extremely wealthy and "friends of the Rothschilds and Rockerfellers." In addition, he was also closely associated with South Eastern US Investment Group (SEUS) - an investment bank in Savannah, Gorgia, from 1985 through to 1989. Another proprietary he was associated with was Irving Place Development, a service organisation of Irving Bank and Trust Company. Cocaine proceeds were laundered through these companies by an ingenious use of construction loans.
In response to a question asking why was the "drug related money" placed in "Arkansas Colorado and Ohio," Tatum simply explains that he doesn't know why, adding that "It was being done before I got there. I assume banking laws and whether or not Bush had people in his pocket in these areas." He does explain that the primary figure involved in the laundry exercise in Arkansas, was "Jack Stevens." Jackson Stevens, owner of Worthen Bank & Trust Company is closely aligned with President Bill Clinton. Tatum states that " Clinton received the cash and divided it up between Stevens and [Dan] Lasater to clean it up. Stevens company [Worthen bank] was used as the guarantor providing 'warehouse' lines of credit."
Developing this theme in more detail, Tatum explains that the "Enterprise" were receiving drugs in exchange for the guns they supplied to the Contra's. The raw product in the form of coca leaves was supplied by the Colombians and pressed into large cube-shaped bales and then shipped to Nicaragua and Honduras. All the "product" was pre-sold and the delivery into the US "guaranteed."
This eventually resulted in the sale proceeds being pre-paid to Panama, under Noriega's control. Some of this money was washed through banks and other companies operating in Panama and elsewhere. The rest was sent to Arkansas, Ohio and Colorado. Thereafter, the dirty money was filtered via construction loans with permanent "takeouts" "arranged by banks and mortgage lenders." These, in turn, were later sold to Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's - negotiable US Federal securities that are traded globally on a daily basis. Each laundry "cycle" lasted from six months to a year. The result was dirty money transformed into good, clean US currency.
This system wasn't arbitrary or accidental. One initial "test-bed" was a small residential mortgage lender named Carl I Brown (CIB), in Kansas. Others were larger and still others became national. All were ultimately destined to be purchased by a bank (proprietary) from Japan within a specific time-frame: 1996 - as part of ongoing Pegasus plans. Eric Brown, the son of the founder of CIB was heavily involved in these activities. Three additional companies were involved to Tatum's knowledge: US Homes, Pulte Homes and Richmond Homes. All became very successful, providing "The American Dream - as VP Bush put it in a meeting in 1987."
PEGASUS - ASSASSINATION & NEUTRALIZATION
Tatum has gone into considerable additional detail regarding the role of Pegasus as he knew it. He believes Pegasus was established during the Eisenhower years as a secret group inside the CIA to spy on that agency on behalf of the President. At some point - believed to be after the assassination of President Kennedy - Pegasus went AWOL from direct US government control and came under the direction of an international Board of Directors which Tatum alleges now include George Bush and Henry Kissinger.
The directors of Pegasus meet once a year in secret conclave following G7 meetings. The group have "representation" from a number of intelligence agencies throughout the world. These included the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) agents, plus agents from British, Israeli, Turkish and Danish Intelligence, plus "others who performed various functions for Pegasus." The mission of Pegasus, Tatum explains, is " to 'align' world leaders and financiers to our (US) policies and standards."
One of Tatum's Pegasus duties included flying "Archer Teams" (a four man hit team) in his helicopter to their insertion point. He states that Enrique Bermudez was assassinated in 1991 by a Pegasus teams, adding he "was shot in the back of the head while walking down the street from about 150 yards." Bermudez, known as "Commander Zero" was the senior Contra leader. Tatum received two broken ribs when he came under small arms fire during the assassination. Following the Nicaraguan war, Bermudez sought a prominent position in the new government. Spurned by President Chamarro, "Commander Zero" tried to pressure Bush to intercede on his behalf, threatening to expose Bush's role in the Cocaine trafficking enterprise. Bush ordered his disposal.
Another Pegasus assassination was that of General Augusto (Dr. Gus) Alverez, the "co-operating" Army Chief of Staff, Honduras. Alverez was assassinated in 1989, following his demand for a bigger split of the Cocaine profits. Tatum also describes his involvement in the assassination of Amiram Nir - the former Israeli Mossad agent who went under the assumed name, Pat Weber. Nir was scheduled to testify to the Senate subcommittee and it was feared he would reveal the truth. He perished following the shooting down of his aircraft with missiles from Tatum's helicopter.
Other "neutralisations" verge on the bizarre. An individual who must remain nameless for a variety of reasons - but whose name is known to this writer - underwent an experience that is both horrific and chilling. Readers are warned that what follows is not at all pleasant. For sake of ease we shall call this individual Mr X or simply X.
Mr. X was a leader of one of the largest CIA-backed Contra groups. He recently testified before the US Senate Intelligence Committee. Formerly, Mr X was a senior executive in a South American subsidiary of leading US soft drinks corporation. During his Senate testimony, he denied any knowledge of CIA involvement in the narcotics trade, adding that condoning such activity would have been foreign to his way of life. Not so, says Tatum. Mr X had been recruited into the CIA by then Director, William Casey, with the assistance of Oliver North.
In 1990, when Nicaraguan leader, Daniel Ortega, announced there would be "free elections," X was ecstatic. He began jostling for position and asked President Bush ensure he be given a prominent position in the new government - in return for his years of toil at the behest of the CIA and the Enterprise. The pressure came in a form that Bush could not ignore. Failure to help his friend would result in Xs intimate knowledge of Bush's involvement in the dope trade being made public. His threat left Bush with a sour taste. A Pegasus team was assigned to neutralise him in early 1990.
X, Tatum states "fancied himself a lover of women. Tall, large-breasted blondes were his favourite. It was determined that, if effectively neutralised, [X] could be an asset. Therefore, it was decided that intimidation would be used to control [X]." They choose to use the drug "Scopolamine" which also went by the nickname "Burundanga" or the "Voodoo drug."
The drug is extracted from the pods of a flowering shrub that grows in remote regions of South America. In it's processed, powdered form, "Scopolomine" is "void of smell, void of taste." When properly administered "it causes absolute obedience," without this being "observable by others." Importantly, the target will not recall any of the events that occurred during the period they were under the spell of the drug. In outlining these details, Tatum adds that it is important to administer the drug in the correct dosage and that he has known targets to die from too high a dose. Others have "remained under the influence of Burundanga for up to three weeks." Precise dosage can be achieved by liquid ingestion; the powder being readily soluble. Ingestion via cigarettes is also an optimum method of ingestion. It is fast acting and takes no more than 20 minutes to work.
X was invited to spend a relaxing week-end at a luxury hotel as a guest of his friend George Bush. The evening started with cocktails and was followed by a fine meal. "Nothing but the best were the orders." Following the meal, he was ushered into the suite of a blonde bomb-shell, supplied by the CIA. A dose of Burundanga had been ingested during pre-dinner cocktails.
His host for the week-end was a trusted18 year veteran field intelligence officer. X was gallant with the blonde as they both moved into the bedroom where video cameras were already set-up in one corner. In short order, the blonde had X standing naked in front of her, slipping his manhood in her mouth. All the while the video cameras whirred. Slowly stripping off, the blonde then instructed X to reciprocate the favour. Naked, the blonde boasted a large erect penis, saying "now take it in your mouth," He obliged, his love-making recorded 24 frames a second on celluloid. The male prostitute was hired, Tatum says, from a bar in New York and killed the same evening.
Two weeks later, X - wholly unaware of the events of that evening - was visited in Nicaragua. He was presented with a copy of the video footage along with instructions. Tatum says that X can never allow that video to be seen "Not only does it reveal his homosexuality, but it also reveals his bestiality and satanic worship rituals." As frame after frame flicked by, X wept, forced to watch himself kill and gut his homosexual lover, and then eat the still warm heart. Neutralised, Mr X became a leading member of the Nicaraguan government a few short weeks later.
PLANNING FOR RETIREMENT
Since 1985, when he first became aware of the Enterprise drug smuggling, Tatum began collecting documents, audio and video tapes for his "retirement." He was acutely aware that most deep cover agents do not survive long in what is a very dirty game at a high-stakes poker table.
When in 1992, President Bush instructed him to "neutralise" Presidential runner Ross Perot, Tatum refused. He turned over a copy of an incriminating tape to President Bush, explaining that it would not be released, providing he, his family and Perot were kept safe. He also told the President that copies of the tape had been placed in six different locations world-wide, and that "if I didn't contact these capsule-holders by a certain time each year, they are to be sent to the addresses on the packaging." He closed the conversation by stating that when he originally "placed the packages, I gave explicit instructions that if I asked for them to be sent back to me, they were to send them to the addresses on the packages." This, Tatum reasoned, would avoid intimidation or torture.
ENDS
In part two we further examine Tatum's extraordinary account of his deep-cover life in Pegasus: included will be George Bush's "scope and mission" paper for the New World Order, which reveals details of the private corporation that is to be the nucleus of the "international master plan for world growth and stability." We also cruise through Tatum's narrative of the "Super Bills" story - how the CIA provided the Shah of Iran with plates and equipment to print "perfect" counterfeit $100 bills and how Pegasus used these in the Iran-Contra scandal.
Also covered is the hidden story why Colombian Cocaine cartel member Pablo Escobar was shot and killed; why Panama's Manuel Noriega warranted a full scale US invasion and imprisonment; and what lay behind the mysterious 1996 death of former Director of Central Intelligence, William Colby. Not least we will examine the shocking role of star prosecution witness Gabriel Taboada, who was "briefed" by the US Justice department to ensure Noriega received a long-term jail sentence. Additional revelations centre on the involvement of President Clinton and close Clinton confidant, William Barr, in the Mena, Arkansas Cocaine industry. Accompanying Part Two will be the full list of names, from 11 countries, of the BOSS HOGS.
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LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST:
By Anders Hagstrom
Anti-gun groups railed Monday against a bill up for vote this week in the North Carolina House that would allow anyone over the age of 18 to carry a concealed handgun almost anywhere without a permit.
Two anti-gun lobbying groups, “Moms Demand Action” and “Everytown for Gun Safety” paid for polls from SurveyUSA that showed an overwhelming opposition to the legislation, which has already passed through two House committees. Under the law, residents over 18 can carry concealed weapons virtually anywhere in the state. North Carolina currently requires that concealed carry permits only be granted to residents over the age of 21, the Richmond Daily Journal reports.
Republican Rep. Chris Millis calls the bill a “common sense” provision, given that open carry is already legal in the state without a permit.
The SurveyUSA poll found that 89 percent of the state’s voters are against the legislation. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, also used Monday’s Orlando office shooting to advocate national gun control on Twitter.
Right – just another day in America. We're letting the gun lobby and lawmakers beholden to them terrorize us on a daily basis. Orlando https://t.co/zEQGDqjntP — Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 5, 2017
Anti-gun advocates in the House are unlikely to pass the legislation without a fight, as some see it as a reduction of already lax gun laws.
“Guns don’t kill people, but it is the person behind the gun,” Democratic Rep. Garland Pierce told the Daily Journal. “I do understand that, but I am very concerned. There is going to be a long debate on that bill, I can tell you that.”
The NRA has already issued a statement supporting the bill and urging constituents to contact their representatives to lobby for its passage in the vote later this week.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected]
WATCH TLR’S LATEST VIDEO:
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Google has removed an app developed by the Taliban from the Google Play Store for Android smartphones and tablets, designed to spread the militant group's propaganda.
The app, "Pashto Afghan News - alemarah", displayed news and videos developed by the Taliban. It was discovered on Friday and taken down shortly after.
It violated Google's rules on hate speech, which say: "We don't allow apps that advocate against groups of people based on their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity".
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Envious of the big display in your friend's Tesla?
Sony has a giant 9-inch display for your car
Just in time to take advantage of significant Android Auto updates and upcoming CarPlay enhancements in iOS 13, Sony has announced an updated version of its in-car receiver, with a floating touchscreen display. The new 8.95-inch WVGA display is both bigger and requires only a single DIN space to install, making it easier to fit to a wider variety of cars. This new assembly allows the display to tilt, as well as adjust its height and depth. In this way, Sony makes it possible to add a big, spacious display to a car that normally wouldn't have one. Compared to the car touchscreen competition, at $600 it's also pretty cheap.
It's not the social network it once was.
Tumblr's new owner is the owner of WordPress
Verizon (Engadget's parent company) is selling the social network to Automattic, the company behind the blogging tool WordPress. It's not disclosing the size of the deal, but Automattic is taking on 200 employees as part of the exchange. Automattic chief Matt Mullenweg told the Wall Street Journal that this is his company's largest acquisition both in terms of cost and sheer staff count. And in case you're wondering: no, Automattic won't reverse the ban on adult content. He saw Tumblr as a companion to WordPress and "just fun."
It's a low-key end to a long, rough chapter in Tumblr's history. Yahoo bought the site in 2013 for a hefty $1.1 billion, but rumors suggest the selling prices is just a fraction of that.
The company really, really wants you to buy Office as a subscription.
Microsoft drops one-off Office licenses from its Home Use Program
Microsoft is joining the charge to sell its Office products as a subscription service. While users have traditionally purchased the Office suite as a one-off perpetual license, the company is pushing customers toward an annual subscription instead.
Microsoft will no longer sell one-off licenses for Office 2019 as part of its Home Use Program (HUP). The company updated its FAQ page to confirm: "Office Professional Plus 2019 and Office Home and Business 2019 are no longer available as Home Use Program offers."
The HUP is a program aimed at employees in eligible companies, allowing them to buy the same Microsoft products they use at work to use at home. Previously, employees had been offered discounted rates for perpetual licenses. Now, they will have to purchase a subscription with a 30-percent discount, costing $48.99 a year for Office 365 Personal or $69.99 a year for Office 365 Home.
'Minecraft' graphics overhaul is cancelled
It just didn't perform well on multiple platforms.
Two years in the making, and it's canceled. The Minecraft team has decided to can its super-duper graphics pack after being unable to maintain a decent level of performance in-game. The pack was going to enable 4K on the Xbox One X and introduce much more sophisticated visual effects, which included atmospheric effects, highlights and more realistic water.
There is hope for a graphics tune-up in the future. Mojang said it was "looking into other ways" to give Minecraft a new look.
But wait, there's more...
The Morning After is a new daily newsletter from Engadget designed to help you fight off FOMO. Who knows what you'll miss if you don't Subscribe.
Craving even more? Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter.
Have a suggestion on how we can improve The Morning After? Send us a note.
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I felt like drawing Sunset Shimmer but I wasn't sure on whether I should just draw her normally or in her human form or pony form...so I ended up going with this idea. Basically it's if Sunset was never selfish, much more like Twilight is, and never really wanted to exceed at her studies that much that she'd want her own pair of wings.Honestly, I still think there's a lot of things that still need to be worked on her in the series, I'd love for them to have her reunite with Celestia again, I'd just love to see what would happen. Sunset still has a lot of potential to grow into something more than she already is todayMLP (C) Hasbro
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Image copyright PA Image caption The Medway Secure Training Centre is run by G4S in Rochester
Four men have been arrested following a BBC Panorama investigation into abuse at a young offenders centre in Kent.
Police said they were being held on suspicion of child neglect.
The BBC understands three of the men were among four team leaders at the Medway Secure Training Centre, in Rochester, who were sacked on Tuesday.
A further three men at the unit, run by security firm G4S - two duty operations managers and a training centre assistant - remain suspended.
A female duty operations manager has been placed on restricted duties, while a male healthcare worker employed by Central and North West London NHS Trust (CNWL) has also been suspended.
A trust spokesman said: "One CNWL staff member contacted us before the programme to say that they had been present at one incident in the film; the footage broadcast confirmed this.
"Whilst we are pleased he came forward, he has been suspended whilst that incident is fully investigated."
The allegations relate to 10 boys aged 14 to 17.
Image caption Panorama filmed undercover at the unit
In a statement, G4S managing director for children's services, Paul Cook, said the company fully supported the action of police and was continuing to provide officers and the local authority with full access to the centre and its records, including CCTV footage.
"There is no place in our business for the conduct shown on the BBC's Panorama programme on Monday night.
"We are grateful to the police for their swift action in this case.
"We will work with the police and local authority to keep our own actions under review in light of today's developments," he said.
The arrests follow undercover filming by the Panorama programme at the 76-bed centre, which is for young offenders aged 12 to 17.
The programme highlighted allegations of inappropriate staff conduct.
G4S referred the claims to Medway's local authority designated officer, the Youth Justice Board, and the Ministry of Justice.
Labour MP Jo Stevens, shadow minister for prisons and probation, said the government and G4S still had many questions to answer.
She said Labour had written to Justice Secretary Michael Gove to ask him to take immediate action to put all G4S-run prisons, secure training centres and detention centres into special measures.
Among the allegations uncovered by Panorama and now subject to investigation are that Medway staff:
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On this episode of Recode Decode, hosted by Kara Swisher, author Walter Isaacson talks about his new biography of Renaissance artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci, which he describes has a “culmination” of themes he explored in past books about Ada Lovelace, Ben Franklin and Steve Jobs. Isaacson explains how da Vinci’s life story can inform our thinking today about innovation and technology.
You can read some of the highlights here, or listen to the entire interview in the audio player below. We’ve also provided a lightly edited complete transcript of their conversation.
If you like this, be sure to subscribe to Recode Decode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Overcast or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Kara Swisher: Hi. I’m Kara Swisher, executive director of Recode. You’re listening to Recode Decode, a podcast about tech and media’s key players, big ideas and how they’re changing the world we live in. You can find more episodes of Recode Decode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or just visit recode.net/podcasts for more.
Today in the red chair is Walter Isaacson, who I’ve interviewed many times before. He’s the author of a new biography of Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps our first and greatest inventor.
Walter Isaacson: What a great inventor.
What a great inventor, but Walter has previously written biographies of people like Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Steve Jobs — also great inventors — and is CEO of the nonprofit Aspen Institute. But that’s changing, is that ... We’ll talk about that in a bit. Walter, welcome to Recode Decode.
It’s good to be back with you, Kara.
Thank you. You are just like a machine of creating books. Your last book ...
I’ve been working on this for like 15, 20 years.
Oh, really?
It’s sort of the mountain I wanted to try to scale.
Because last time we talked, you had written about women in tech and stuff like that, and Steve Jobs before that, and obviously Franklin and Einstein. Let’s give the listeners a little background of all the books you’ve written, focused on inventors, really — on tech and inventors.
Yeah. I’ve written about a lot of smart people, Ben Franklin and Steve Jobs and Einstein, and I began to realize that smart people are kind of common. They don’t usually amount to much. You have to be inventive, as you said, innovative. You have to be creative and have imagination, and one of the things I learned from Steve Jobs, just watching him onstage, he always showed the intersection of the liberal arts street with technology street. He said, “That’s in the DNA, if you can stand at that intersection between the arts and sciences or between beauty and engineering. That’s where you’ll be the most creative.”
He really looked up to Leonardo da Vinci, and Bill Gates had just bought the Codex Leicester, which is Leonardo da Vinci’s great notebook on geology and science, and I realized that Leonardo was a person who best connected beauty to technology, best connected art and science, and so I decided that would be a combination of all these books about, “What is creativity and how do we achieve it?”
All right. So let’s talk about the books you’ve done already. You obviously are a journalist. Give a little background for yourself, because not everybody knows you.
Well, I grew up in New Orleans and worked on the paper down there.
Yeah, I hear that.
Yeah. Then, came up to Time Magazine back in the days when paper-based weekly news magazines actually were thriving.
Yeah. Some bad news for Time this week, actually.
Yeah. I know, I know. At Time Magazine, a couple of things happened. First of all, I was what was called a floater for a while. A floater means that one week, you’re writing in the medicine section, the next week you’re writing in the music section. Then, one week you’re doing business, next week you’re doing technology, then world affairs. You try to understand the patterns across nature. You don’t get siloed. You see many different disciplines.
It struck me that that’s been Franklin’s strength. He was a scientist. He did the lightning experiments, but he’s also a writer. He has “Poor Richard’s Almanac” and was a diplomat and everything, a musician. I said, “There’s some people who are great at being specialists. They’re great at geeking out, drilling down, but there are other people who see the patterns across nature.”
Now I realize, Steve Jobs was that way, even Einstein. When he gets stymied with his equations for general relativity, he pulls out his violin and plays Mozart because it helps connect him to the harmonies of the spheres. That, too, led me to Leonardo da Vinci, because everything ... he thought of himself as an engineer, and inventor, and a scientist.
At one point he’s writing a job application letter, right, when he’s reaching that very scary milestone of turning 30. He writes a job application letter to the Duke of Milan, it’s 11 paragraphs. The first 10 are all he can do in engineering, in invention. Says, “I can invent portable bridges, I can make great public buildings, I can divert water, I can make military weapons.” Only in the very last paragraph he says, “I can also paint.” So that ability to dance with nature across different fields ...
Which has been the commonality, all the people you’ve been writing about.
Commonality.
So before we get to Leonardo, because I want to talk only about Leonardo the whole time, but when you’re thinking about this idea of who you’re going to write about, can you just go through your process? Like, you say you’ve been writing this for 15 years. Tell me about that.
Well, I’ve loved Florence and used to go there as a student, and you’re always gathering string on Leonardo, and I saw some of his notebooks and I realized there was a lot of material there. But my process was, I was at Time Magazine, a close friend of mine, Evan Thomas and I were working there, and we were kind of frustrated because in the pre-internet days you’d write one page a week, and it was pretty, a little bit too easy.
We said, “Well, let’s do a book.” We did it, it was called “The Wise Men,” it was about six friends and how they created Cold War foreign policy. Not exactly a runaway bestseller, but fun to do. After I decided, “Well, I like writing books,” because in this day and age when we’re swamped with information, there’s something kind of cool about narrative, which means it starts at the beginning and goes step by step through time, and you see how people’s minds change, how they mature, how things build.
So I kind of liked writing books. I did Henry Kissinger, partly because “The Wise Men” ended with Vietnam and I wanted to try to do Vietnam. And frankly, after doing Kissinger it’s like, okay, after dealing with him I need to do somebody who’s been dead for 250 years.
You pick a lot of dead people.
Well, and Ben Franklin ...
Because Leonardo’s really dead.
Yes, well, 500 years, but he’s still alive on his notebook pages. But Ben Franklin, one reason I chose him is that at the end of Kissinger, I got to a point about realism in American foreign policy, how we sometimes do balance of power games. I realized Ben Franklin did that as a diplomat in Paris. He balanced the Bourbon-pact nations of France and Netherlands and Spain against the British alliance, in order to get the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War, but nobody writes about Franklin as a diplomat. They write about ... usually great English professors who write about him.
Then I discovered at the end of Franklin that his electricity experiments were so important. We sometimes think of him as a doddering dude flying a kite in the rain. No. The single fluid theory of electricity is an awesome discovery, and so too is the invention of the lightning rod. These are not little things we read in our childhood books and then forget about.
I realize that somebody like Franklin would have thought you a Luddite if you didn’t keep up with the latest in science. So I wanted to wrestle with science and then moved on to Einstein. Einstein, after I did Ben Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs called me and said, “Do me next.” My first reaction was, yeah, well, okay Franklin, Einstein. I said, “Let’s wait 30 or 40 years till you retire.” But then I realized that ... Because I realized that I was told he was sick, that oh, if you’re going to do it, do him now.
That was a great opportunity that most people don’t have, other than Boswell with Dr. Johnson, to get very, very close with a person who significantly made a dent in the universe. I mean, I walk here and everybody’s on their iPod and their GPS and they’re tweeting and they’re doing all these things, and they’re calling Uber or they’re getting to their Airbnb, none of which would have existed if you hadn’t had an iPhone and then third-party apps on the iPhone.
So that was truly an opportunity to try to get right the most creative and beautiful and spiritual inventor of our era. After that, because he reminded me so much of Leonardo da Vinci, and then as I say Bill Gates was interested in Leonardo da Vinci. I had been sort of 12, 15, 20 years, every now and then get somewhere and say, “Oh there’s a Leonardo da Vinci notebook here in Paris or in the British Library or Windsor or in Milan,” or it would come on tour. I realize that basing something on his notebooks could show me how the innovation, engineering and invention connected with art and the beautiful.
So you started writing it 15 years ago. Talk about that. You were collecting string or you just had been long interested in him?
I’d been long interested in him. My wife had done her junior year abroad in Florence, and what struck me as I was gathering string was — not being able to see Virgin of the Rocks at the Louvre or the one in the National Gallery in London, but actually seeing his notebooks. They’re weird because he writes in mirror script because he’s lefthanded, and paper is sort of a premium, so on any page of the notebook you see a mind that’s beautifully dancing with nature, because he’ll go from a sketch of people at a table that might help him with The Last Supper, to a set design for a play he’s doing, to a flying machine that’s both part of the play but actually might become a real flying machine, to the mathematical problem of squaring the circle, all crammed onto a page.
In fact, there’s a wonderful page I love, I have it in the book so you can see it, a spread in the book in color, because after all these little things he’s doing on that page, he writes about boiling certain types of nuts in oil, and that you can use it to dye your hair blond, Connie blond is the word. I’m thinking, oh my gosh, he’s in his early 30s ...
It’s chemistry, right?
No, it’s not just chemistry. He’s a beautiful guy, when he’s young. In fact, Vitruvian Man, the naked guy spread eagle in the circle and square, that’s largely a self portrait, that’s what he looked like. He’s drawing himself inside the earth, the universe, and seeing how we fit into creation. So he’s kind of vain. He dresses really well, in purple and wonderful tunics and stuff, and there he is figuring out how to dye his hair blond. I go, “Yes! This guy is human.”
Through the notebooks, rather, I can humanize him, as opposed to just doing like other writers on Leonardo [who] mainly start with the 12 great painting masterpieces and discuss his life. I said, “No, let me do it page by page through the notebooks.”
One other thing, looking at those notebooks, this is a tech show, we’re on a podcast, we know all sorts of forms of new media. No doubt you’ve tweeted out the podcast and it’s on Instagram and Facebook and Snap and everything.
Instantly it will be.
Paper’s not a bad technology. It is really a good technology for the storage and retrieval of information. After 500 years, we still can turn the pages of Leonardo’s notebooks. From the 1990s, Steve Jobs had some memos on a NeXT Computer in his house. Even with his tech [abilities], we couldn’t retrieve that, because the NeXT operating system no longer can retrieve the documents that well. So every now and then, one of the lessons I learned is take notes on paper in a notebook. They’ll be around 50 years for ... You’ve got two kids, for your grandchildren or great-grandchildren. They’ll be around maybe 500 years.
Or try to do nothing on paper. There’s paper right here, but it’s unusual for me.
Yeah the paper here, I know, but I just mean maybe in the evening just keep a journal of a few things.
Well, we’ll get to that in a second, the lessons of Leonardo we’ll do at the end. But let’s talk about, so you started doing it, talk about the research, and then in the next section I’d like to talk about the meat of the book. It’s an enormous book, besides being sizeable. What was your thinking, how did you want to approach, as the definitive biography of him, or what was your thinking?
It was, to me, the biography that would weave together the science of invention and art. You take Kenneth Clark, great biography, but he says — I think it was written 80 years ago or so. He says, “Oh, if Leonardo hadn’t wasted so much time on math and invention he could have finished more paintings, it’s a shame.” I’m going, “No, no, he wouldn’t have been Leonardo if he wasn’t as curious about math and science and innovation.” Martin Kemp has written great books on Leonardo, but mine are kind of more chronological. They begin with him being born and they end at the end of his life. So it’s a way to weave together in a narrative, chronological way, all the aspects of his life.
All the aspects of his life. All right, we’ll let’s talk about him, because when you mentioned this to me I think two years, whenever you were working on it, I was surprised. Then I thought, oh of course that makes perfect sense, because just the things you just talked about. Talk about, you think the key things people get wrong about Leonardo, and then we’ll get into his life and how he conducted it, especially the math and science part of it. What do you think the conception of him is and is it close to the person who you have written about?
Well, I think the key thing people get wrong, who are scholars on him or art critics, is what I said about Kenneth Clark, which is that his time spent doing engineering and math was a waste, because none of his ... the helicopter never really flew, he tried to divert the Arno river and it didn’t get diverted, and the tanks never rolled, and he never squared the circle, which is the problem he spent his whole life doodling in his notebooks on.
I feel that if you don’t have the depth and breadth of interest of Leonardo, you don’t end up painting the Mona Lisa, or for that matter discovering how the aortic valve works. That was a major discovery. He does it because he loves how water flows and swirls, which is part of his art, it’s part of the curls of the people he paints, and it’s part of his science and it’s part of his anatomy dissections. So I guess that would be, to me, the biggest misconception, is that he was just a painter.
Which I don’t think people think anymore. It’s an interesting thing, because he’s known for everything.
Yeah, you’re right.
But let’s start in this section, the painter part. Talk about his painting and then I want to mostly talk about his science and technology.
Well, one of the thing he does in art that is truly significant is what’s called sfumato, which is the blurring of the lines, as if they were like smoke, because it stems from his science. He realizes that there are no sharp lines. You’re looking at my face right now, it’s not something you can draw in lines because the light hits the curves, the curves make different shadows. But also we have two eyes with large retinas, and so any line in nature is slightly blurred. So that’s a key to his paintings. So different, say, from Michelangelo, who draws with a disegno style, sharp lines.
Secondly, his ability to project three dimensions on a two-dimensional panel or surface was a huge leap of art that was happening around that time in the Renaissance. He’s very collaborative and he learns from Brunelleschi and Alberti, but also all the painters in the studio where he’s working. But he’s able to capture the mathematics of perspective and play tricks with it, so when you look at The Last Supper, the room looks deeper than it is because it’s an accelerated perspective. Well, that’s different from the flat paintings that came along then. But you’ll notice in both those cases, I talked about how the science and the art were blended together.
And how he used that. Especially, talk about the Mona Lisa in that way.
The Mona Lisa is the culmination. This evening, we’re in Washington now, I’m going to be at the National Gallery in front of Ginevra de’ Benci, which is a early, early portrait he did of a cloth merchant’s wife in Florence. It’s a great painting, but it’s not one of the world’s greatest masterpieces, because he’s trying to connect the rivers of the earth to the body and her emotions, but they’re things that don’t quite work. Near the end of his life, in fact at the end of his life, because he takes 16 years with the Mona Lisa, he spent a lot of time with it, it’s by his deathbed when he’s still dabbling with it. It’s the same type of picture. It’s a cloth merchant’s wife, a wife named Lisa, in three quarters profile with the river flowing from the eons of time, connecting her to the spirit of the earth, just like Ginevra de’ Benci, but they’re so different, the paintings.
So a lifetime spent in dancing with nature and being curious about every aspect of nature is reflected in the Mona Lisa. I can give you one specific example which I love, which is the smile. The greatest, most memorable smile ever. There are two things he does to make that smile work. First of all, he dissects more than 30 human faces. Peeling the face off cadavers and delineating every muscle that touches the lips, why the lower lip can move separately from the upper lip but the upper lip can’t move easily separately from the lower lip. Things you and I could figure out but we don’t, he did. He looked at every nerve that touches every muscle and whether it comes from the brain or the spinal cord. On like the 15th page of his notebook where he’s drawing these dissections, there’s a faint sketch, I have it in my book, that whole page, and at the top is a faint sketch which is the first attempt at the smile of the Mona Lisa. There she is, smiling, just the lips, smiling from the page.
Secondly, he had dissected the human eye. So he knows that light that comes directly into the eye and hits the very center of the retina sees detail, but the light that hits the edges of the retina see mainly shadows. So if you look directly at the corner of the lips of the Mona Lisa, there’s a tiny part of a detail that turns down slightly. But the shadows turn upward. So it’s a smile that’s elusive. You see it best when you’re not looking for it. If you’re staring directly at her, she may not seem like she’s smiling, it’s kind of enigmatic. But when your eyes wander to her forehead or her chin or her cheek, suddenly the smile lights up. It’s an augmented reality. It’s interactive.
We first see the Mona Lisa when we’re young, and we hitchhiked ...
Yes, it’s one of those paintings.
Back when we used to hitchhike a lot in Europe, you hitchhike to Paris, you get there, and there’ll be a whole lot of tourists. Nowadays you go there and there’s 200 people and they all have their iPhones and they’re not looking at the picture, they’re all taking selfies with themselves, or pictures of the picture. But as you stare at that picture, it suddenly dawns on you, I get it. This is in a class by itself.
Right. Do you think it’s one of the greatest painting, or has it become such a tourist attraction?
No, I think that there’s a reason that it has become an icon.
Why?
Because it is the greatest painting.
It is, because it’s an AR, I had no idea it was AR.
It’s interactive, your emotions change as you look at it, and then so do hers. Not only her smile, her eyes, famous. Mona Lisa eyes, they follow you, etc. Those type of things make it so that you’re not just seeing a flat portrait, you’re seeing something that ... a person who has emotion. And all of his life in his notebooks he’s trying to say, how do our inner emotions get reflected in our outward gestures and motions? Here it is, culminating in the Mona Lisa, it’s not just a portrait, it’s a psychological drama that you and I get to interact with. Nobody has come close to painting a painting like that.
I had no idea about the technology. All right, we’re here with Walter Isaacson.
You’re a tech podcast.
I know, it’s true, but I had no idea, now I know. We’re here with Walter Isaacson, his new book is about Leonardo da Vinci, the great inventor and painter. When we get back we’re going to talk about his focus on science and technology, which was vast, and a lot of his things that he thought about creating have come to pass, we’re going to talk about his background, how he got there. He’s one of the first, I think, probably one of the first famous entrepreneurs and inventors that we learn about as kids.
[ad]
We’re here with Walter Isaacson, the prolific writer, the journalist, someone I’ve known very well. He’s a New Orleans resident now, is that right?
At least half time.
He’s a man of the world, a man of letters and science.
So let’s take apart Leonardo. We just talked about his art, which I think most people know him best for, but of late a lot of people have been talking about his inventiveness and the science around it, and you noted that Bill Gates bought some of his notebooks, his most famous notebooks.
The Codex Leicester, an awesome, awesome notebook.
Yeah. So how much did he pay for that?
I do know, but I’ve sort of forgotten. I try not to.
Lots.
It was I think somewhere between 30 and 40 million, but it wasn’t a lot. It was definitely worth it.
Yes, why did he buy that, and let’s go into the discussions about his technologies.
I think Bill Gates, not to speak for him, but has a wide-ranging interest. He just listens to Richard Feynman lectures, he loves all forms of science, but also a great humanism to him. As we see. I think he was interested in Leonardo. I once heard Bill Gates say that Leonardo was the person in history who tried to know the most about everything that could be known. That’s something that’s quite inspiring, and there’s no better example of it. We have more than 7000 pages of his notebooks, but this one, the Codex Leicester, which shows water flowing into a pond, it shows the sun, it shows how light reflects from the earth to light up the new moon. All of these wonderful dances with nature, I think that — not speaking for Bill Gates — but that’s why anybody would want that notebook.
So talk about how he got this way. Not Bill Gates, but maybe that’s another biography for later for you. You shook your head.
He writes his own books.
That’s true, but he could be written about. So talk about what made Leonardo this way. How do you become a person that is that curious?
I think he had the great good fortune to be born out of wedlock.
Oh, okay. Most people don’t think of that as great good fortune, especially now.
Well, had he been legitimate born, he would have had to be a notary like his father and grandfather and great-grandfather were. Secondly, he would have been sent to one of the classical schools in Florence for the aspiring upper-middle classes and rising middle classes, or a university, and he would have been stuffed full of the medieval scholastic learning of the time.
Which was?
Yeah, which was medieval. I mean, that’s ... And it was before the scientific revolution and the Renaissance. Instead, he’s unschooled. So he has to teach himself. He calls himself a man without letters, meaning not schooled, a person who has to teach himself, and he says that made me a disciple of experience.
So that means even as a young kid in the village of Vinci, he is looking at swirls of water, testing things, drawing how water flows and erosion happens, drawing landscapes. Then when he moves to Florence at age 12, he’s always experimenting with things, because he has to teach himself.
So who did he grow up with? He grew up with his ...
He grew up with both his father, who was a notary, who at age 12 moved him to Florence, but his mother, who for the first time this year, working with Martin Kemp and Pallanti and others, we now know who his mother was, it’s in my book, which is a 14-year-old orphaned peasant girl from the village of Vinci. She also helped raise him, so he had a good-enough childhood. Being born out of wedlock was not ... Even popes around that time had lots of out-of-wedlock children.
So it wasn’t as bad.
In fact, it was once, Jacob Burckhardt, one of the 19th century historians, calls it a golden age for bastards because it actually liberated you from going into whatever the family business was and you got to become an artist, a poet, a gold-beater, or whatever.
It was around, it was not an orphan life, essentially.
Oh, it was definitely not an orphan life. And his father brings him to Florence, and apprentices him with Verrocchio, who has a studio. Now, this was a great studio because it’s doing not only art and sculpture, but pageants and plays, and it’s taking the copper ball, that has to be engineered and soldered using mirrors that concentrate the rays of light of the sun. It has to be soldered to be put on top of the dome of Florence’s cathedral, the Duomo, that little copper ball.
Who does it? Leonardo. He’s a young apprentice. He’s also posing for the statue of David as a 12-year-old kid. So we know what he looks like. He’s drawing all of these mechanisms that the studio is using to put the copper ball on top of the dome. So he’s teaching himself. He also has the good fortune to be born in 1452, right when Gutenberg opens up his print shop and starts selling books. It comes to Italy like wildfire. Italy actually becomes the center of publishing by the time Leonardo’s 15.
So in his notebooks we see Leonardo listing every week the books he wants to buy. It’s like Audible, we have to make our list. It’s like, “Get the Euclid,” and fortunately they were all being translated, because Leonardo wasn’t great at Latin, so, “Get the new translation of Euclid that’s at the stationers by the bridge.” These are the type of notes in his notebook.
So what makes him curious? What makes him curious is it wasn’t crammed out of him by some medieval scholastic schooling when he was 10 or 12, and he becomes curious. He wants to learn everything. So he’ll write, “Why is the sky blue?” Now, you and I quit wondering about that at about age 10. We outgrow our wonder years.
Right, absolutely.
Partly maybe because people cram it down and say, “Hey, hey, quit asking.” Leonardo never outgrew his wonder years.
Right, that’s a really good way of putting it. So he grows up, does this apprenticeship. Talk a little bit about the biography that gets him to the person.
Well, he’s an apprentice, and as I said, Verrocchio, his teacher and the master of the shop, does a lot of pageants, including for the Duke of Milan when he’s visiting Florence.
A pageant being a show, essentially.
Shows, outdoor shows. You know, we forget that there’s no TV, no internet, no movies, whatever. So what they do in the evening is they have performances. Some of them are plays, some of them are pageants, some of them are readings or debates. They stage Aspen Institute-like debates, but on grand stages. And they have parades, so one of the first drawings we have of Leonardo is a helmet for one of the costumes ...
I remember that.
For when the Duke of ... Yeah, it’s a beautiful metalpoint, silverpoint in the British Museum, I remember seeing it for the first time. You go ... What people don’t realize, they think it’s a piece of art. No, no. He’s working for Verrocchio, the Duke of Milan is coming to visit Florence, and they’re putting on a parade, and they have to give everybody helmets, and there’s a dragon and eagle’s wings coming out of it, it’s a great fantasy helmet that you and I may have done when we were 10 or 12 years old. Leonardo’s still doing it when he’s 15 or 20. So I think we don’t realize how important plays and pageants were.
Sure, right, to him.
To his growing up.
What do you think gave him, besides being a bastard, an entrepreneurial bent? Or just people are born with it? Because you’ve written about a lot of different people who are entrepreneurs.
Well, first of all he had an imagination, because one of the things about doing plays, pageants and spectacles is you have to blur the line between fantasy and reality. So he’s inventing things. You know that helicopter screw that everybody says, “Oh, he invented the helicopter.” Not exactly. I studied the notebooks. That aerial screw thing was actually done for a play. They’re bringing the angels down from the rafters, and it curves like that. He loves that spiral form of the curve and he loves the flying of the angels and what he called ingenue, ingenious devices.
So he starts inventing ingenious devices for the theater. He blurs the line between imagination and reality. Then he says, “Okay, now let’s try it in the real world.” And now he then does try to make flying machines. He makes gliders. He makes all sorts of weaponry and machinery that are sort of based on some of this theatrical imaginations.
Why is he the one? Because a lot of people do that in theater and then they don’t take it to the next step. What do you think it was about him that he wanted to keep doing it? There’s just this restless curiosity?
I’ll push back a little on the great entrepreneurial spirit, because he was inventive, and he always, he’d invent something that would carve needle ... I mean, would create sewing needles, like a thousand of them per hour, a machine. He said, “This is going to make me wealthy.” He even calculates how wealthy he’s going to be by how much he does. But then he never fully follows through on it.
So his ideas.
There’s something about Leonardo who loves the conception more than the execution. So we have a lot of inventions that never got made. We have a lot of paintings that never got finished. We have treatises that never got published. It’s a bit of a flaw, it’s also a humanizing thing about Leonardo, and it also is, I mean I remember Steve Jobs holds up shipping the original Macintosh because the circuit board inside is not beautiful enough. Steve Jobs knew that sometimes in month you have to follow the normal rule of real artists ship, you get things out the door, but sometimes in life you have to follow the rule which is let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Leonardo sometimes — often — let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
You say Steve Jobs executed quite well and Leonardo didn’t.
But that’s why, by the way, Steve executed quite well, although better on his second tour of duty at Apple than in his first. One reason he leaves Apple in 1985 is, shall we say, the Macintosh is a work of absolute beauty but the execution, sales, supply chains and everything are not working all that well. Likewise, with Leonardo, he executes very well on certain things, but he keeps his inventions and his paintings with him rather than deliver them to patrons all the time. He did not dance to the financial incentives of patrons.
What would you say his personality was like?
Very collegial.
Collegial, rather than ...
He loved everybody around him. You have a contrast of the two great geniuses in Florence at the time. Michelangelo, Leonardo. Michelangelo’s a recluse, sleeps in his dark clothes and boots, doesn’t have any close friends. Leonardo, the other extreme. Throughout his notebooks and the letters and notebooks of contemporaries, he seems to have about 30 best friends. Luca Pacioli, the mathematician, Bramante, you know, a great artist and architect. He goes down the list of all the anatomists who help him, they’re going to do an anatomy book together.
Leonardo is always walking around town, famously in Florence and later in Milan, dressed to the nines, quite a dandy, with an entourage of really interesting people around him, having debates and discussions in town squares, riding off to Pavia for when they’re in Milan to try to figure out how do the proportions of a human relate to the proportions of a church, and he kept Vitruvian Man, that guy in the circle and the square.
One of the things I discovered in my book — and Toby Lester’s written a book about this too, others have done it — is that wasn’t a solo drawing. That was done with friends. He had two friends who were riding with him and doing things and helping design churches, and they all tried to get the man in the circle and the square to be a church.
So when you think about someone that’s an inventor, we’ll get to science in a second, but the technology stuff, the invention stuff. He thought these up but didn’t make a lot. Sometimes he made them or tested them and things like that. What do you think the qualities of someone like that are? Is that someone who you would think of today the same thing?
Oh yeah. I think there are a lot of people, and unfortunately, because this is not one of Leonardo’s great trades, we know a lot of people who come up with great ideas, love perfecting and perfecting and perfecting the idea, but aren’t great at getting the product out the door. I mean, one of the lines that Steve Jobs, Steve Case, Addison apparently used was, vision without execution is hallucination.
There are times when you think of Leonardo and you think, “Hey, that’s a bit of a hallucination.” That perpetual motion machine or that particular type of man-powered flying machine, that is never actually going to be manufactured. On the other hand, as I said, he blurred the line in paintings. Blurring the line as he did in theater, but also in his inventions, between fantasy and reality, actually helped him envision things that 100 years later people would invent.
Right, people would invent later. So he was an apprentice, and then talk about what happened. He was making money ...
He was an apprentice, and as I said, he’s doing paintings. He’s a moderately good painter in Florence in his 20s, but things don’t get finished, like the Adoration of the Magi, St. Jerome in the Wilderness. St. Jerome in the Wilderness is a great example because he’s starting to be interested in anatomy, and you see the entire muscle structure, how it informs the drawings that are going to become St. Jerome in the Wilderness, but he goes back to it 30 years later to redo the neck muscles after he’s done some anatomy. He keeps this thing like for 30 years because he’s a perfectionist.
So at age 30, as I said, he writes this job application, he goes off to Milan trying to be an engineer for the Duke of Milan. In about 1482, when he’s 30 years old, he moves to Milan.
He writes this 11-paragraph ...
He writes this 11-paragraph thing. He moves to Milan. He becomes the engineer and painter, eventually, to the Duke of Milan.
How did he get that job? I know it sounds crazy.
Well, the job application letter didn’t fully help because for the next few years he was just sort of, as you’d say, a freelancer, a contract worker. He doesn’t get a full-time job with benefits.
Gig economy.
By 1490, he’s got a room and board and weekly stipend, living at the castle in Florence, but it takes him a while to get the job, and part of the time he’s actually doing plays and pageants, which is his gig. He’s also inventing certain types of weapons because Milan had a pretty good army, unlike Florence, and he’s starting to paint, especially he’s painting the mistresses of Ludovico, who is the Duke of Milan. So you have Cecilia, the other ... Lady with the Ermine, great portraits.
So why did these people back then ... Talk about the system then. People who are somewhat knowledgeable about Florence or the Medicis or something there. Why did the Duke of Milan have people like this?
This is a great question.
Because you couldn’t start your own company then, if you think about if you want to give a ... Why do people have people like this?
Well, that’s a great thing, like why does the Renaissance happen when it does in Italy? Give you 100 reasons, but the one you asked about is you have a rising middle class, like the Medici. The Medici have become bankers in Florence. And by the way, they become huge bankers because like a lot of people today, they’ve invented new forms, like venture capital and private equity. They’ve taken one of Leonardo’s friends, Luca Pacioli, the mathematician, idea of debit and credit bookkeeping; double entries for debit and credit, which if you’re a businessperson listening to this you get how important that is.
That’s a pretty important invention. It happens right then. So the Medici become huge bankers, along with three or four other bankers. They’re all building their wonderful homes and palazzos, they have to show because they’re rising middle class and not aristocracy that they have as much taste and devotion and class as they do money, so they have a lot of madonnas painted for them by rising artists. The Medici become great patrons of the arts, and once again the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, his father was like a bad mercenary soldier, ends up taking over Milan. He’s not a hereditary aristocracy.
They want to bring smart people in.
Both because they want to embellish their court, they want to ... And many other reasons, and show their worthiness, they create around them courts that have everything from playwrights and poets, to mathematicians and architects and scientists and anatomists.
And engineers.
And engineers. They do it partly for the joy of it, but up until then you didn’t have wealthy patrons trying to prove that they had taste and class.
Was there use to it? So he’s hired as an engineer to do things, or lots of things?
He’s called the engineer and painter, he’s both. I’m not sure Leonardo, just like Steve Jobs, would make that big of a distinction between design and art.
So what did he do from a day to day? What was his job?
A lot of the evenings he helped put on pageants and plays or readings. They staged debates, one of which Leonardo debates that painting is a higher art form than poetry, for example, but they also do plays and pageants that involve big mechanisms and ingenious devices. But during the daytime too, he had paintings that he had to execute, such as most importantly The Last Supper, which he’s doing in the 1490s for the Duke of Milan, at a refectory or dining hall of a monastery, that the duke loved to patronize.
So Leonardo, I mean by this time he’s famous. People are there to watch, to be an audience while he paints. We have descriptions of him. He kind of blows in with his wonderful purple cloaks and tunics and stuff, and will stand in front of the painting for half an hour and then just do two brush strokes, and then disappear. He’d sort of say, “You have to let your ideas marinate,” and so he was a somewhat, he would paint during the day.
So he became famous during this time? He had been famous?
He’s definitely famous, especially by the time he pulled off The Last Supper in the 1490s, and he’s done quite a few portraits for the Duke of Milan. He had been semi-famous in Florence but a little bit more famous for not finishing the Adoration of the Magi than for painting the Adoration of the Magi.
All right, we’re here with Walter Isaacson, he’s written a new book about Leonardo da Vinci. It’s his latest book. Walter’s written a string of them, people that you might have heard of; Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Ben Franklin, and Henry Kissinger, which is very different from that group. When we get back we’re going to talk about what Leonardo says about innovation and where innovation is going. We’re here on Recode Decode.
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We’re here on Recode Decode, and our guest is Walter Isaacson, who I’ve known for a very long time, he’s a great writer, and his latest book ... He’s a reporter, writer and a thought leader, I would say.
Oh, well ...
Oh you are, you have the Aspen Institute, you guys ...
A thought follower.
No, you guys have a lot of big thoughts up there in the mountains. His latest book is on Leonardo da Vinci, and his impact on other innovators and moving things forward. We talked about the middle of his life where he started to get some fame and traction. What was his impact then and now? Let’s talk about that. How did his life end and how did he conduct, he just continued to do the same thing he did his whole life, or was there a difference?
He continues to balance engineering with art. Now, his art indeed surpasses everything anybody has ever done in art, and for that matter in engineering.
Right, I was going to ask, is there any engineering thing that he did?
No. He does a lot of engineering ideas, some of them come to fruition, as I say a century later or two centuries later.
Helicopter.
Exactly.
What else, what other things? People know about the helicopter.
Well, his ability to divert rivers and to show how water flows.
Why did he want to divert a ...
Well, you know, I think just as a little kid. I don’t know if you remember, I remember growing up in New Orleans, a little kid, and you find little streams and rivers in the bayou and you’re diverting it.
I never did that, Walter.
But from the very beginning of his life, the first sketch we have is a landscape drawing. The very last sketches are these swirls of the deluge, and him sitting there looking how water flows against obstacles and forms swirls afterwards. Hey, we all get interested, we all geek out on something, and that was Leonardo’s great fame.
So it leads, as I said, to scientific discoveries that are very significant. Like his dissections invent, among other things, the visual display of information. In other words, he dissects a lot of bodies, and layer after layer he shows the muscles and then the nerves and then the heart, and he does it in layers.
So he uses his painting skills.
Yeah. So the combination of that painting and drawing skills and his anatomy and science skills. So for example, there’s an aortic valve, and people thought that it’s when the blood pushes up from the heart chamber into the valve, past the valve, the pressure then closes the valve. Leonardo said, “No, that wouldn’t work, it would crumble, because I know how water works, flowing fluids work.”
He shows that when you go from a large ventricle to a smaller thing, there’s a swirl, because of the way, just like if you put a pipe into a bowl, it would swirl. It’s that swirl that because of the centrifugal force, opens up the membrane that then becomes the valve. Those are like, whoa, amazing inventions that just about 15 years ago they finally, totally proved with magnetic imaging and other ways to look at, actual, it happen.
So Leonardo designed, for example, for the Duke of Milan and then for Francis I, the king of France, who is his last patron. He goes to Amboise in France. He designs ideal cities, because he understands that the greatest scourge they have back then is the plague. It keeps decimating cities. He realizes bad sanitation is underlying the plague.
So he invents a type, or designs a type of city, in which below the surface there’s sewer drainage lines, that the water flows through to a lower surface with sewage and drainage, which also has deliveries and horses that they need to be cleaned up after, etc. The top layer is where the people walk and live.
Which is what we have today.
Yeah, it’s what we have today. Now, they never fully built it, either ...
But he thought about it.
But he thought about it and he drew it, and had they built it they would have stopped another 100 years of the plague, probably. The other thing he does, that I love, is mathematics. There’s a lot of mathematical things that kind of work, kind of don’t, but he tries something that’s impossible. Every now and then you have to try something that’s impossible to figure out why it’s impossible and to push yourself.
That’s the age-old problem of squaring the circle, which means taking a circle of a certain area and trying to make a square of the exact same area using only a protractor and ruler, for reasons that your listeners know, most of your listeners know, that’s impossible because pi is a wildly irrational number and so it can’t actually be done that way.
But Leonardo tries hundreds of ways to do it, even when he’s young, he’s drawing and you get to Vitruvian Man, there’s the guy in the circle and the square with the same area, tries to be, because the circle extends higher than the square so the navel can be at the center of the circle and the genitals are right in the center of the square.
But here’s what I was going to get to. His last notebook page that we know, because you asked about his life. He ends his life in France under the patronage of Francis I, and we have a page in which he’s thinking about a variety of things, but in the margin he’s doing four more drawings that show a right triangle, changing the length of the legs, triangles inside shaded, trying to do that transformation of shapes till the very end. The last line, it dribbles off, it says, “Here’s another way of looking at it.” Then it pauses, says, “But the soup is getting cold.”
You imagine, there he is, upstairs in the little manor house that he gets with his whole entourage and students and everybody’s waiting downstairs. His cook is named Materine, we know about her, when he dies he leaves her a cloak and some other things. You just imagine him there, even though he’s old, even though he’s dying, even though there’s people waiting downstairs, still trying to square the circle.
That’s great.
But the soup is getting cold.
How could he do ... We’re going to finish up talking a little bit how he would do today and where innovation is, because you’ve written that innovation’s been a big theme throughout your career. How would he do today? What would he think of the internet?
Well, there’s a couple of things I would think about. One is, as I said, he was born when Gutenberg ...
Right, so he loved technology.
So he loved to drill down and teach himself. He would love the fact that just like he could use books to teach himself everything from math to anatomy to Vitruvius’s design of churches and experience, and mix books with experience. He would just think that the internet is even greater than Gutenberg’s invention, because anybody anywhere can find out almost anything about everything, and then share their knowledge with anyone. This, to Leonardo, would be heaven.
I think a downside would be, in his notebooks you see at times he’s distracted, or he gets totally obsessed sometimes, like 42 attempts to square the circle all on one page, and just page after page of geeking out on squaring the circle. He had these mood swings and depressions where he’s doing storms and stuff.
In our day and age, he probably would have been diagnosed with 42 different types of ADHD and obsessive compulsive and depression and manic and I don’t like applying labels like that, and they may have put him on some pharmaceutical regimen to cure them all and we may not have had the Mona Lisa.
Right, right, that’s true. So what do you think his impact on innovation is? Because you said a lot of people were very interested in him. Where do we get innovation? Is that just born or just people are like that?
I think you can be as a kid curious, and especially if you’re like Leonardo, you say, “Let me just explore things,” because you have a natural curiosity. But here’s a point I want to make, and it’s one of the themes of the book. Partly it’s a natural curiosity, but it’s also something you can cultivate. You can will yourself to be more curious. When I look at the list of things he asked each day, like how does light form luster on a shiny leaf, why do people yawn, what does the tongue of a woodpecker look like? Who wakes up one morning and wants to know about a tongue of a woodpecker?
Right, I don’t know.
But Leonardo did. And throughout his life, it’s kind of an interesting topic. Each of us, in our daily lives, can pause for a moment. I’m sitting in a room, it’s a podcast room, and I’m touching the things that deaden the sound, and they’re pyramids, and the light’s hitting the pyramid, they’re quite beautiful, but I also wonder, okay, that pyramid design of the foam, why does that deaden sound a little bit better than a flat design would? You think about it for a moment, you can figure it out.
But having worked on Leonardo for so long, I try, I’m never going to be Leonardo, but I try to just see the most ordinary things in life and pause for an extra 10 seconds to say, “Why?” And be curious.
So are you worried about innovation now, or do you think this just always happens, innovation just happens in cycles, or where do you think we are?
I think we went through a period when you and I were coming of age, and when Silicon Valley had the combination of the microchip, the internet and the personal computer. Then eventually the iPhone, and then mobile. All of that comes together to create innovation that’s completely transformative. I don’t think we’re in a phase like that right now. Most of the innovation is on things like social media or whatever, which is fine, but it doesn’t change the world the way having apps on an iPhone allows Ubers and Airbnbs and everything else.
Although some might argue that the social media’s become weaponized.
Oh I think social media is deeply, deeply influential. Don’t get me wrong. I just think that it’s not like Gutenberg’s printing press, necessarily, in terms of being a platform upon which a whole set of intellectual property is ...
No, but we do get to yell at each other a lot, and get angry.
Yeah, and there’s, yeah. That’s a downside.
There’s not greatness in Twitter, let’s just say.
Well, I mean this will be for another podcast, but the type of social media we invented enshrines anonymity, which I think hurts the civility of it, and anonymity is very important, we have to keep it, but we also ought to have places, like Leonardo or Steve Jobs and others had, that are common ground, where you actually know the people you’re talking to. So, to me, I think we need civil places as well as anonymous places, but that’s for a different podcast.
But when we get ... Does genius just happen, like it’s born, or ...? You’ve been writing about geniuses, really.
When I wrote about Einstein, I said, “Okay, some people are just born.” They’re touched by lightning, and they have a mental processing power that will allow them to figure out tensor calculus and how it can be used to describe the curvature of space and time. You think, “No, I can’t pause each day and look at the sound acoustical tiles and be like Einstein.”
That’s why I liked writing about Leonardo. His first biographer, who was a contemporary of Vasari, another painter, said he was touched by lightning with superhuman powers. No, he actually ... Well, I mean he was touched with great talent in painting, but his ability to will himself to ask questions and be curious each day, the ability to push himself, to observe more carefully, go down to the moats around the castle and look at the dragonflies, full-wing dragonflies, to see if the wings alternate or whether they go in unison. You don’t have to be a genius to do it. You just have to have the will to be observant.
All of us can have the will to be more observant, can indulge fantasy and not knock it out of our children and ourselves the way we sometimes do, can indulge curiosity, even about not just useful curiosity, not just I need to know exactly how this new microchip will do a pascal code better or not, but curiosity for curiosity’s sake, like the tongue of the woodpecker.
It’s really interesting, because one of my sons is very inventive, like he’s got rooms and rooms of inventions.
This does not surprise me.
Well, I know, but I think he’s just born with it. I literally do, because the things he comes up with, I think about it a lot because I think, how did he get this way? Because my other son’s great and he’s really fun, but it’s not the same thing.
Well, we’re all born differently, and we all indulge that.
I know, but it’s a certain level of invention. He’s literally always ...
And you and Megan are going to be particularly good in not destroying that in him and not knocking it out of him.
No, not at all, but I do think it was genetic. I just do, I think he just has like ...
You will have experts on this show much better at knowing the mix and combination of heritage and breeding.
When I was thinking of Leonardo, like even I was looking at the notebooks, I’m like, he has a notebook like that. He just writes things down. He makes some of them, he doesn’t make some of them. I just wonder how, if it’s possible.
But don’t sell him short. It wasn’t just that he was blessed with it, it’s he is curious and indulges it and pushes himself and allows himself. So if we kind of say it’s all genetic ...
Genius, just genius.
Yeah, if genius is all genetic, then we’re not going to say, “Let me pause and look at the way the light’s hitting those leaves.”
Let’s end on that, because we’re facing some really big issues in this country, besides the horrible political environment, which will pass as they always do.
That’s about storms, they pass.
They pass. So what do you imagine are the lessons of Leonardo? Because it really is the very best of humanity, that kind of thinking, like this kind of thinking. So give me the end on, the lessons that we have to think about going forward, because we’re dealing with robotics, AI, automation, artificial intelligence, self-driving cars. There’s a lot of big challenges for our society. All of which are inventive, but ...
I actually end this book in a way I haven’t ended my other books, which is just come right out and say, “Here’s the 25 lessons.”
I know, that’s why I was asking.
Because in some ways it’s a culmination of having learned from Ben Franklin and Einstein and Steve Jobs and Ada Lovelace and the innovators, and this is somewhat of a culminating book. I don’t think I’m going to write about another big, innovative inventive genius again. So I say, “Okay, here are the lessons,” and some I mentioned, which is stay curious, take notes, be observant.
But I think one of the huge lessons of everybody I’ve learned about is to combine the humanities with engineering, to combine art with science. Nowadays we silo things, there’s going to be a point where even your inventive kid is going to be told, “Okay, drill down in engineering or math or whatever, specialize.” No. Learning coding is important and learning engineering is important, but someday machines will code pretty well and help us. But what will be the Ada Lovelace moment, because she was the one who wrote about this in 1830, was the combination of human creativity and machine processing power, having an inventiveness that will exceed what machines alone can do, or what humans alone can do.
It’s interesting. Some of the things, the jobs, the future, the only ones that will exist will be ones which have humanity or creativity also involved in them. Then the rest are just digital.
But “also” is an important word, which is you have to interweave an ability to be creative and a sense of the humanities, with a sense of engineering. You can’t be a humanist and cede that to the engineers. That’s what Vitruvian Man, that’s our poster for that, which is be like Leonardo, there he is, standing there, spread eagle, in the world, in the cosmos, trying to figure out how we fit in, combining creativity with scientific anatomy, and that humanism is what’s going to help us when we get artificial intelligence, when we face the moral issue that algorithms might get out of our control.
They are out of our control.
Right. And it’s those with a feel for both the humanities, history, art, music, and the patterns of nature, how they ripple from the rivers that we see as a kid, to our heart valve, to the equations we do to describe the curvature of space and time. All of these patterns, if we have a feel for it, and a feel for the humanities, which is about, at its core, why change happens, why some people resist it, and some people cause it. Humanities, at its core, is what is creativity, how do you achieve it? Leonardo, the lessons in the last chapter of the book are all about the need for that combinations of creativity.
Right. The thing is, the reason he is also known is for the movies and for the movie and the books by whatchamacallit. Did that bother you? The popularity of the popular books with Tom Hanks, “The Da Vinci Code.”
Oh, “The Da Vinci Code.” No. I love anything that makes ... I thought you were talking about Leonardo DiCaprio, who is doing the biographical movie, or at least bought the rights to it.
So this is to make this?
Yeah, he acquired the rights to make my biography into a movie. “The Da Vinci Code,” of Dan Brown, it’s a wonderful work of fiction. Sometimes he pushes it and says, “Oh no, it’s all true.” No, John in The Last Supper is actually John, it’s not Mary Magdalene. We know that. But, what he does and what Tom Hanks does, what all these people do, is combine imagination and fantasy with reality, and we can scoff at that or we can admire and learn from it. I think Leonardo would have us ...
Right, although people do think that’s Mary Magdalene now, you know that? Because of that movie.
Okay, let me just tell people, fake news is sometimes wrong, novels are sometimes fiction, and The Last Supper, trust me, John leans on Jesus’s breast, and in the painting he’s starting to lean the other way. Leonardo has created a narrative painting in which “one of you shall betray me” is emanating from Jesus, each one is reacting as they would in a theater, it’s not a still scene, it’s a dramatic, emotional, narrative scene, and that’s John, it’s not Mary Magdalene.
That’s just all it is? Oh Walter, you’re making ... It was so exciting when it was Mary Magdalene. What’s your next book? Last question.
I think I’m going to do a book about New Orleans and maybe about Storyville in the 1890s, maybe about Lulu White, who was an octoroon, who opened a sporting house and hired Jelly Roll Morton to be the piano player, and Louis Armstrong.
Oh, so totally different.
But also it’s about race, because that was before the color line was drawn, because it was right during that decade that somebody who was a neighbor, named Homer Plessy, boards a train and we get Plessy v. Ferguson, which is so destructive, because it allows the drawing of a color line legally. Those type of things interest me. But it’s not going to be another genius innovator book. Leonardo da Vinci and the last chapter of it culminates.
Culminates. And you’re leaving the Aspen Institute?
Well, I’m going to move down, I’m going to be a teacher of history, I’m going to teach at Tulane. My first course, which I hope you’ll come lecture at, is called History of the Digital Revolution, from Ada to Zuckerberg, and your listeners don’t need to explain what Ada to Zuckerberg means.
Are you running for mayor of New Orleans?
No, the mayor’s race is actually the week after next.
Well, there’s lots of mayor’s races in the future.
Well yeah, I mean four, eight years from now. I haven’t, I don’t know what I’m doing then. There are two wonderful women running for mayor of New Orleans this time around.
Good. All right, well, Walter Isaacson, as usual you are also a very curious person. I’m excited to read your next book.
What do you mean by that?
It’s a compliment.
Thank you.
Anyway, thanks for coming.
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Congress Passes Bill To Stop Payment Cuts To Medicare Doctors
For the 17th time, Congress has passed legislation to a very a deep pay cut to doctors who see Medicare patients.
As NPR's Julie Rovner reports, this is a one-year delay that doesn't deal with the problem permanently. Julie filed this report for our Newscast unit:
"Without Congressional action, a 24 percent cut would have taken effect starting today, due to what almost everyone agrees is a flawed payment formula. Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate have actually agreed on legislation to fix that flawed formula permanently, but they haven't been able to agree on a way to underwrite the 10 year, $180 billion cost. "So lawmakers once again turned to the temporary delay, which has physician groups furious. The bill also includes several other health policy changes, including a one year delay of a complicated new coding system for doctors and hospitals."
The bill now goes to President Obama for a signature.
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Miami FC Stun Miami United 3-2
In a game reminiscent to a cup final, the two Miami clubs put on the best match in the 2019 NPSL season. Miami FC hosted their cross-town rival at Barry University on Saturday night. United seemingly had the match in the bag come half-time despite FC taking the early lead. The second half was a remarkable display of soccer by both teams but with the Orange and Blue getting the last laugh.
Miami United came into the match playing with house money. After defeating Naples United when it mattered on Wednesday, the Pink and Black were keen to shock the NPSL. Unfortunately, United would have to play this match without their star left-back Max Schenfeld and first choice keeper Peterson Occenat. Occenat was still serving a suspension for an abuse of an official in the final regular-season match at Naples. Schenfeld was serving a suspension due to being thrown out of the semi-final.
Miami FC would face similar problems at left back coming into the match. Robert Baggio Kcira tore his ACL for a second time just minutes into the first Magic City Clasico of the season. John Neeskens has been ruled out for the remainder of the NPSL season with an injury sustained against Naples. Jalen Markey filled in at left-back in the semi-finals but was quickly the target of Ferdinando De Matthaeis.
First Half
This match started with both sides looking to find an early goal and swing the momentum in their favor. In the first moments of the match, United would make their statement earning a corner kick in the opening minutes. The corner would be the first of seven they would earn in the first 45 minutes. The ensuing shot would go off target.
In the 8th minute, after a long ball played into the box by the Orange and Blue and assistant referee would call the main official over for a conversation. The assistant referee judged the ball was played by the hand of Fuenmayor and awarded Miami FC a penalty.
GOL de Ariel Martínez! A great penalty by el mago cubano puts Miami FC 1-0 up over Miami United early in this #MagicCityClasico!https://t.co/dBnmTA7O06#VamosMiami #NPSL #MIAvMUFC #Miami — Magic City Soccer (@MagicCitySoccer) July 13, 2019
Ariel Martinez would be forced to wait about two minutes before taking the penalty. The Magic City Mago would show his intestinal fortitude by converting a panenka. Omar Estrada would dive to his left leaving the middle of the net open for the chip and Miami’s first goal of the night.
United would come roaring back, eager to equalize the match as quickly as possible. United would keep their foot on the gas for the next twenty-plus minutes. In the 22nd minute, United almost equalized as Matheus Gotler created an excellent opportunity from nothing. The crafty midfielder ripped a contested shot from range forcing Pais to parry it off the crossbar.
GOAL! Bruno Camacho equalizes off a corner to make it 1-1 in the #MagicCityClasico! The goal and the rest of the action here 👉https://t.co/ShYLOYlUVm#NPSL #MIAvMUFC #Miami — Magic City Soccer (@MagicCitySoccer) July 13, 2019
United would find their equalizer in the 34th minute. Off their sixth corner of the half, Bruno Camacho would find the back of the net with a glancing header. Throughout their spell of constant possession, Bryan Perea would cause havoc for Jalen Markey. Perea haunted the substitute left back and was the vocal point of all United counets.
In the 37th minute, Perea would get fed again on the left flank from an aerial ball. Perea would corral the outlet and charge into the penalty area. His cross would go across the face of goal and find Shamar Shelton who finished it to give United the 2-1 lead.
Paul Dalglish’s side would have little answers headed into the half. Miami FC looked stunned as they walked off the pitch as the Pink and Black sent them to the locker room down a goal searching for answers.
Second Half
If there were ever a game that could be characterized as a game of two halves it would be this one. Resuming play, United controlled the first three minutes of the second half earning a corner but not converting. Flashes of life for the Miami FC would come around minute fifty. The midfield would find all three forward, Thiaw, Suarez, and Gonzalez streaking forward but they’d be just offside.
The half-time substitution of Markey for Othello Bah would provide dividends early. The left side was shut down and forced Perea to play more toward the middle of the pitch.
In the 57th minute, Miami FC would take a page out of the United playbook and strike on a counter. Just one minute after Miguel Gonzalez narrowly missed equalizing the match Ariel Martinez would give Miami an equalizer. Thiaw would get past his marker on the right hand side and find Dylan Mares in close quarters. Mares was able to feed Martinez at the top of the box and his shot would beat Estrada again.
Unfortunately, the United midfield would begin to show cracks after the 64th minute injury to captain Ezequiel Tejera. Tejera would suffer a lower body injury and unable to continue, replaced by former Miami FC midfielder Juan Gonzalez. Almost immediately, FC would begin to slash through United’s midfield.
67' – GOAL! Now it's @TheMiamiFC's
turn to flip the match around with NPSL leading goalscorer Miguel González making it 3-2 to Miami FC!https://t.co/QsbgytDPaN #NPSL #MIAvMUFC #Miami #MagicCityClasico — Magic City Soccer (@MagicCitySoccer) July 14, 2019
In the 67th minute, Dylan Mares would charge up the heart of the field before playing forward to Ariel Martinez. Martinez would be pace for pace with Miguel Gonzalez who darted towards the penalty spot as Martinez drifted right. Martinez laid off for Gonzalez allowing the forward to get back on the score-sheet for the first time in three matches.
The final twenty minutes either felt like an eternity or a New York minute depending on your allegiance. United would make multiple attacking substitutions including bringing on Nicolas Micoli and Darryl Gordon. The Pink and Black had numerous good looks but Miami FC shut the door at every turn. Unable to break down the backline, United began to settle for rushed efforts that either ended up off-target or no test for Mark Pais.
Miami would make their second change of the night in the 90th minute after Ariel Martinez went down in midfield. Brian James replaced Martinez, getting his first action in quite some time. The midfielder would swarm United attackers helping the defensive line in the final moments of the match. Unfortunately, the tension would boil over in the 98th minute as Tomas Granitto was fouled by Perea. Perea would stand over Granitto with Lance Rozeboom paces away. Rozeboom pushed the winger off his former teammate and then Perea retaliated shoving both Rozeboom and Granitto.
Cooler heads would prevail as we proceed into the ninth minute of stoppage time. The referee would choose not to discipline any of the players and still allow United one final effort which was dispelled by the Orange and Blue.
The Road Ahead
After the result in the Southeast Conference, Miami FC will host NPSL heavyweights Chattanooga FC. The South Region Semi-Final will take place on Tuesday July 16th at Barry University. You can purchase your tickets by clicking here or calling 1-844-MIAMIFC. The winner of that contest will take on the winner of Tulsa vs Fort Worth. Tulsa dominated play in the Heartland Conference as the only team to finish over .500%. The Vaqueros of Fort Worth have stunned the Lone Star Conference by shocking Denton and Midland-Odessa.
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Shane Doan could be headed for a role in the NHL's front office.
TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun reported Thursday Doan has been in contact with the league regarding a position in the hockey operations department.
Doan retired after 21 NHL seasons in July when he failed to land a contract in free agency. He spent his entire career with the Arizona Coyotes franchise.
LeBrun reports Doan's role, if negotiations go well, would fall under Colin Campbell, the NHL's director of hockey operations.
Upon his retirement, it was widely speculated Doan, who captained Canada at three world hockey championships, would play for Team Canada at the 2018 Olympic Games.
However, while speaking to TSN Radio 1050 earlier this month, Doan appeared to be leaning against continuing his hockey career on the international stage.
"(Team Canada general manager Sean) Burke and I have talked and that'd be a pretty tough decision to do that," Doan said. "I did it in 2004 during the lockout and then I played in the world championships in Vienna and we had an unbelievable team, made it to the final... And I was awful, like awful. I embarrassed myself a little bit and I didn't play that whole year and just played in that and we had a one month training camp and if you don't play it's hard to then play against guys that have been playing. I don't care who it is, where it's at, it's hard.
"That's a big commitment for my family if I was to have to go and play somewhere now. Burkie and I will talk probably again, but that's a pretty tough decision."
LeBrun said Doan could join the NHL offices in the coming weeks.
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Free Hallows Fortune Fireworks
Happy Halloween! Don’t forget to stop by the Gem Store and kick off the festival with a free Hallows Fortune Fireworks bundle.
Mad Mayhem Chest
Each chest is guaranteed to be haunted by the Evon Gnashblade Trick-or-Treat Bag, a redeemable Black Lion Statuette, and two common items. You also have a chance to find something rarer in the fifth slot, including exclusive items, glyphs, and Halloween weapon skins.
Guaranteed Item—The Evon Gnashblade Trick-or-Treat Bag
Evon’s stuffed each bag with Halloween treats. You might find special weapons, infusions, crafting materials, or even…raisins? (Surely a vendor will want them.)
Exclusive Item—Searing Chain Gloves
Don’t stay locked in the dungeon this Halloween. Take your torment with you! Glide effortlessly through the crowd as everyone flees in terror from the vile curse that binds you.
Seven Reapers Weapon Collection
New weapon skins are available from Black Lion Weapons Specialists for one Black Lion Claim Ticket each. The weapons pulse with necromantic power in tribute to Grenth’s loyal avatars.
Black Lion Weapons Specialists are also offering the Gargoyle Weapon Collection for two Black Lion Claim Tickets per skin.
Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket Update
Scary minis are now available to choose from when you use a Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket.
Skeletal Wings Backpack and Glider Combo
Soar across the autumn sky on bony wings. This set comes with a glider skin and matching backpack, which is guaranteed to distract whomever you’re talking to with its gruesome, grasping claws.
What’s in Stock
Returning Today
Candy Corn Gobbler Pack
Ghostly Outfit
Mad King’s Outfit
Returning This Week
Riding Broom Glider—25% Off
Riding Broom—25% Off
Riding Broom Glider Combo—20% Off
Phantom’s Hood
Grenth Hood
Mini Feline Familiar
Mini Elonian Familiar
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On the PC, special Italian characters, many of which are not present on Italian keyboards, can be inserted using the following ALT codes. To use these, first ensure that the Num Lock key has been pressed once so that it has become enabled (this key is also known as the BI Num key on Italian keyboards); usually a green LED above the keyboard will light up once this key has been enabled. Next hold down the Alt key, type the four-digit numeric code, then release the Alt key. Here is the list:
À ALT+0192 (Uppercase Stressed A) È ALT+0200 (Uppercase Stressed Open E) É ALT+0201 (Uppercase Stressed Closed E) Ì ALT+0204 (Uppercase Stressed I written with grave accent) Í ALT+0205 (Uppercase Stressed I written with acute accent) Ò ALT+0210 (Uppercase Stressed Open O) Ó ALT+0211 (Uppercase Stressed Closed O) Ù ALT+0217 (Uppercase Stressed U written with grave accent) Ú ALT+0218 (Uppercase Stressed U written with acute accent) Î ALT+0206 (Uppercase (Ending Truncated Stressed) I with circumflex) à ALT+0224 (Lowercase Stressed A) è ALT+0232 (Lowercase Stressed Open E) é ALT+0233 (Lowercase Stressed Closed E) ì ALT+0236 (Lowercase Stressed I written with grave accent) í ALT+0237 (Lowercase Stressed I written with acute accent) ò ALT+0242 (Lowercase Stressed Open O) ó ALT+0243 (Lowercase Stressed Closed O) ù ALT+0249 (Lowercase Stressed U written with grave accent) ú ALT+0250 (Lowercase Stressed U written with acute accent) î ALT+0238 (Lowercase (Ending Truncated Stressed) I with circumflex) º ALT+0186 (Masculine Ordinal) ª ALT+0170 (Feminine Ordinal) « ALT+0171 (Left Angle Quote) » ALT+0187 (Right Angle Quote) € ALT+0128 (Euro Currency Symbol) £ ALT+0163 (Old Italian Lira Currency Symbol (Same as UK Pound Currency Symbol))
The Euro ( € ) symbol can also be inserted via the AltGr+e and AltGr+5 keyboard combinations.
In Microsoft Word as well as in LibreOffice, when lowercase letters such as è are inserted at the beginning of a sentence the software automatically converts them to uppercase letters such as È . In both software products it is also possible to switch between title case, all caps, and lowercase, by highlighting the given text and entering the SHIFT+F3 key combination. This significantly reduces the need for being able to enter uppercase letters with diacritics directly via the keyboard when using these software products.
It is also possible to produce these characters inside other software products including text editors by installing Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator and using it to assign special characters to unused keyboard combinations (e.g. combinations resulting from pressing the AltGr key in combination with other keys, given that AltGr is present on Italian keyboard but on Windows most of such combinations do not output any characters by default).
Reagards.
UPDATE:
In support of one of the given responses which mentions that Italians will often append a diacritic to a vowel rather than including both as part of the same character when conventient to do so I have taken a few pictures in an Italian supermarket where two items have been spelled out using (a) an appended apostrophe/quote character acting as a grave accent and (b) an appended backquote acting as an acute accent:
I have also found the following samples of written text in Italy:
In the above picture the word being spelled out is qualità , but IMHO given that all letters are in uppercase, in order to make the text stand out even more, the person who wrote the sign decided to append an apostrophe at the end instead of a grave accent, so there are also marketing reasons.
Another example is the name of the chain of Italian supermarkets Alí (which has now been operating in the country for at least thirty years) and has its last vowel spelled with an acute accent (although, as mentioned, it is possible to use this as less common alternative to the grave accent on written i and u vowels appearing at the end of the word):
Finally, there is one finer point to mention. The people who came up with the Unicode standard, which is a very well known standard in the computer world and can be used to represent all characters, diacritics, etc... in every language in the world, has noticed that if Unicode is to truly represent languages internationally then the forward quote (') and backquote (`) found on all standard US ASCII keyboards (and where the forward quote has also been always also used as an apostrophe when composing English plaintext) need to be considered as separate characters from the apostrophe, grave accent, and acute accent, so much so that these five entities have received their own Unicode encodings (as standalone diacritics), with three types of double quotes (left, right, and neutral) also receiving their own characters:
U+0022 QUOTATION MARK " U+0027 APOSTROPHE ' U+0060 GRAVE ACCENT ` U+00B4 ACUTE ACCENT ´ U+2018 LEFT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK ‘ U+2019 RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK ’ U+201C LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK “ U+201D RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK ” U+0302 COMBINING CIRCUMFLEX ACCENT ^
To type the above Unicode characters on Windows, hold down the Alt key, hit the + on the numeric keypad key, then type the hexadecimal digits (e.g. 201c), then release the Alt key .
If you simply cut and paste these Unicode characters, you will see that they are all different. So, my guess is, one could write the more proper variants:
à, è, é, ì (which in some texts appears consistently as í), ò, ó, ù (which in some texts appears consistently as ú)
or, alternatively, especially in those cases where for marketing purposes one may want the letters to stand out:
a` , e` , e´ , i` (or i´), o`, o´, u` (or u´)
and the latter form would not be entirely wrong, since, technically, the appended diacritics are grave and acute accents and not apostrophes (although I do admittedly think this would indeed look somewhat funny inside proper printed texts)!
Although my original question had to do with the use of Italian hardware keyboards on Windows, for completeness, it is also worth mentioning that on Windows users of US hardware keyboards can easily add support for entering Italian vowels with diacritics adding a US International keyboard in Control Panel -> Regional and Language Options -> Keyboards and Languages -> Change Keyboards... -> Add... -> English (United States) -> Keyboard -> Check US - International -> Apply -> OK, and the keyboards can then be switched from the switcher in the lower-right hand side of the windows taskbar. With this keyboard one can type:
Apostrophe (') then uppercase or lowercase vowel to produce a vowel with grave accent.
Backquote (`) then uppercase or lowercase vowel to produce a vowel with acute accent.
Apostrophe or backquote, then SPACE or any other character to produce an apostrophe or backquote on its own.
Regards.
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Yeah. I didn't mind Gamora getting a new suit, but it would've been nice if it was an update of her old 70's low-cut bodysuit. I think they just gave her the new suit because they figured with Angela on board the Guardians, they wanted to make Gamora more distinct, considering Angela, like Gamora, is a sword-using woman who likes to wear a bikini into battle. I haven't read any of the new Guardians stuff, but my impression is they're making Gamora more of a gunslinger, too.
Gamora being ABLE to use guns isn't outside of her purview, as she had been established in the past that she is trained in many weapons, but she personally preferred blades in the past.
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Seth Rosenblatt/CNET
If Twitter's trending topics is any indication, your news feed is going to be a quieter place come Friday.
One of the top trending hashtags on Twitter on Thursday night was #WomenBoycottTwitter, which represents an effort to organize a daylong protest to highlight harassment and abuse directed toward women on the site.
The idea for the boycott was suggested in a tweet by engineer Kelly Ellis as a way to show solidarity for actress Rose McGowan and "all the victims of hate and harassment Twitter fails to support." McGowan's Twitter account was briefly suspended Thursday after she spent a few days tweeting about the sexual harassment allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Twitter later restored the account, explaining that McGowan had been locked out because one of her tweets included a private phone number, which violated the company's terms of service. Several Twitter users bristled at that explanation, noting that Twitter rules appear to be enforced unevenly, especially if the tweets are issued by President Donald Trump.
"The sheer number of trolls and right-wing ne'er-do-wells infesting Twitter are driving women away," Daily Dot writer Ana Valens told Gizmodo. "The boycott shows Twitter that they can't ignore this problem any longer."
Sexual harassment and bullying behavior have been a public blight on the social network for years. Some particularly ugly episodes occurred last year, including a hate mob attacking Leslie Jones, a star of last summer's "Ghostbusters" movie.
Robin Williams' death in 2015 led some Twitter users to send vicious messages to his daughter, prompting her to delete the app from her phone. That same month, Anita Sarkeesian, an academic highlighting how women are portrayed in video games, was so disturbed by the tweets she received that she fled her home, fearing for her safety.
The campaign appears to have wide support on Twitter, among men and women alike:
Ladies. Let's do this. #WomenBoycottTwitter. Not because of hate but because I love this platform and know it can be better. — christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) October 13, 2017
Tomorrow (Friday the 13th) will be the first day in over 10 years that I won’t tweet. Join me. #WomenBoycottTwitter pic.twitter.com/xoEt5Bwj5s — Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 13, 2017
I will be boycotting tomorrow. But not for white women first and foremost. But for women of color and gender minorities #WomenBoycottTwitter — Dr. ChandaQuark 🇧🇧 (@IBJIYONGI) October 13, 2017
Not everyone was on board with the idea, though:
Let me get this straight. I'm supposed to silence myself to show that I'm against being silenced? 😯
Silly liberals 👌😂#WomenBoycottTwitter — Colleen ✨✌✨ (@We_R_TheMedia) October 13, 2017
Twitter didn't respond to a request for comment.
Tech Culture: From film and television to social media and games, here's your place for the lighter side of tech.
Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool.
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Tuesday night, U.S. Senator Rand Paul issued the following statement after President Donald Trump delivered the State of the Union address to Congress:
“During President Trump’s first year, we lowered Americans’ taxes, eliminated unnecessary regulations, appointed constitutional conservatives to all levels of the judiciary, including seating Justice Neil Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, and achieved conservative reforms in health care, foreign aid, energy, and more. Our economy is growing, businesses are boosting workers’ pay and reinvesting in America, and policies are being crafted with a focus on putting America first. There is still much to be done, but I am excited about the gains we made in the past year, and I look forward to continuing to work with the President to help ensure this is only the beginning.”
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Freedom of religion has wrongly and unfairly been used to deny marriage rights to gay and lesbian Australians and must be strongly resisted, Labor frontbencher Penny Wong has said.
In a rallying call for the separation of church and state, the South Australian senator blasted religious fundamentalists for limiting the freedom of "those who do not 'conform' to their views".
"Religious freedom means being free to worship and to follow your faith without suffering persecution or discrimination for your beliefs. It does not mean imposing your beliefs on everyone else," Senator Wong told the NSW Labor Lawyers gathering on Tuesday night.
"And it most emphatically does not mean deploying the power of the state to enforce one set of religious beliefs. One's own views should not determine the rights of others."
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DETROIT – A mother who was injured in a shooting and depends on a wheelchair can't believe someone would target her after all she's been through.
Brittany Bradley's wheelchair was stolen and damaged. She recovered the chair itself, but the tires are still missing. Bradley was injured in 2017 when she got caught in the crossfire on Detroit's west side when as arrived to her son's babysitters house; she was shot six times.
She spent months in a hospital, lost her leg and went through 36 surgeries. She did not lose her positivity.
"I'm frustrated because I'm already limited in the things I can do and then my chair gets stolen," Bradley said.
She said she had left the chair on her porch and went for a short ride with her friend to a store.
"Sometimes I get tired and I said, 'I won't take the chair since I'm not getting out of the car,'" she said.
Within the 30 minutes she was gone, someone took the chair and dumped it around the corner from her house with the back wheels missing.
"You really don't have no morals. That was heartless, you really wasn't thinking about me and my situation," she said.
Bradley survived the shooting and is raising her son. She lives independently and remains optimistic she'll get through this obstacle, too.
"Nothing can stop me because I got God on my side and end of the day, he will always protect me and keep me strong," she said.
If you would like to help Bradley, you can contact her via email at: bbradley357@gmail.com
A GoFundMe has been set up to help assist the family. You can donate here.
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$\begingroup$
This is a meaningless question. First, you count medieval "Arab" contribution as "non-western", while it is well-known that Arab mathematics comes from the Greek and Mesopotamian sources. Arabs did not invent mathematics themselves but developed Greek and Mesopotamian mathematics. Is Mesopotamian mathematics "western"?
Really, mathematics cannot be separated into "western" and "non-western" until 17 century. Greek mathematics was influenced by Mesopotamian tradition. Muslim peoples inherited Greek and Mesopotamian mathematics. Indians too, to some extent. Then Europeans of 16 century learned a lot from Muslim (and Indian) mathematics, including many achievements of the Greeks. Much of trigonometry, and positional number system is of non-European origin.
And why is Greek mathematics WESTERN? Greece is in Eastern Europe, by the way, and most significant Greek mathematicians worked in Africa, namely in Alexandria. And Western European civilization is very different from the Greek one. Yes, we inherited Greek mathematics but so also the "Arabs" did. (I use quotation marks because many medieval mathematicians were not Arabs but Iranians and people from Middle Asia).
It is indeed very hard to tell which tradition never experienced Greek influence. (Perhaps American-Indian is the only clear case).
Second, you mention Chinese reminder theorem and African independent discovery of Fibonacci numbers. Can we really say that these independent discoveries CONTRIBUTED anything to Western Mathematics? Did Western mathematicians really learn them from Africans and Chinese? No. There is a difference between "discover independently" and "contribute".
Let me give another clear example which is well documented. In 18th century Japanese mathematician Seki Takakazu developed the theory of determinants. Few decades earlier than his European counterparts. But did European mathematicians learn anything about determinants from him? Did Japanese mathematicians of 20th century study determinants from his work? No, they studied them from "western" sources.
After the Meiji revolution, the door for cultural exchange was wide open, Japanese students learned "western mathematics" very quickly and started to contribute to it on the highest level, since approximately 1900. But they learned it from European sources, not from native Japanese sources.
Did European mathematicians really learn anything new from pre-19 century Japanese mathematics? I strongly doubt it. There was a high quality mathematics in Japan before 19th century, but it did not contribute to modern mathematics.
I dare to claim that none of the famous mathematicians who made a substantial contribution to modern mathematics did this by developing any "non-western" tradition, no mater where this mathematician comes from. Even when some of them claim the contrary. One cannot contribute anything essential to modern mathematics without being educated in this "western tradition".
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A fall while out training on his bicycle results in a broken left hand for Marc Marquez ahead of the Japanese GP.
While out training with brother Alex Marquez on their bicycles on Tuesday, Marc Marquez suffered a fall resulting in a broken fifth metacarpal on his left hand. The Repsol Honda rider immediately went for surgery with Dr. Xavier Mir in Barcelona. The operation was successful and Marquez will fly to the Japan for the Motul Grand Prix of Japan as scheduled. He will undergo further checks in the build up to the race,
Dr Mir: “We have operated on Marc Marquez to treat a torsion fracture of the fifth metacarpal of his left hand. The surgery consisted of a reduction and internal fixation of the bone, through screws for compression and a neutralising titanium plate with six holes. After the insertion, the soft tissue has been closed up and we have placed a protective bandage around the finger, supporting it with the adjacent finger. Marc will remain in hospital for 24 hours, and in 48 hours will begin functional rehabilitation.”
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I felt major FOMO on Saturday. As I watched Steph Curry and Klay Thompson rain 3s at Oracle Arena, Luka Doncic was making his Mavericks debut in Dallas. It was only an exhibition against a middling team from China led by Justin Hamilton. And Doncic, the no. 3 overall pick, has already played better games on bigger stages against better competition overseas. But after two teams passed on Doncic on draft day, and a third gave up Doncic’s rights in a trade, a divide was created around the 19-year-old Slovenian’s career before he ever played a second in the NBA.
Saturday, Doncic quickly confirmed why so many gushed over his game leading into the draft: He dropped 16 points on 5-for-7 shooting with two assists, six rebounds, and three blocks. There is nothing more exciting than the feeling of hope a new star player can bring to a franchise, and Doncic provided that to Dallas in his first game in a Mavs uniform.
Luka’s performance Saturday doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Doncic sent NBA Twitter into a frenzy when he executed a behind-the-back crossover and kissed a tough fadeaway off the glass, but his defender on the play was Hamilton, a journeyman who didn’t play in the NBA last season. Still, the game was a reminder of why the Mavs traded up on draft night to get him. After back-to-back years in the lottery and walking the line between a proper send-off for Dirk Nowitzki and turning the page to a new era, the future looks bright again in Dallas. And because of talented young players like Doncic and upcoming cap flexibility, it might not take the Mavs all that long to get back into the playoff mix.
2018-19 NBA Preview Check out all of The Ringer’s coverage leading up to opening tip
As noted to me by The Ringer’s Jason Gallagher, a passionate Mavericks fan, the team was 12-38 last season in games that were within five points in the final five minutes. If that seems like a lot of close losses, it’s because it is. No other team has had more than 37 since 1996-97, the first recorded season for this stat. (The teams with 37 are the 2006-07 Celtics and the 2012-13 Wizards.) The Mavs won only 24 games last season, which helped their lottery odds, but they were outscored by only 3.3 points per 100 possessions, which usually equates to about 33 wins. So, they still weren’t good. But they also weren’t terrible.
The Mavs were a gritty group driven by a blend of proven veterans like Harrison Barnes and Wesley Matthews and undrafted free agents fighting for a chance such as Salah Mejri and Maxi Kleber. They shot a ton of 3s, and trailed only the Rockets and Nets in shares of field goal attempts from downtown. Their half-court offense was actually solid, ranking 12th in points per possession, per Synergy. But their defense couldn’t get stops, and they played at such a slow, deliberate pace that their transition chances were limited. Now point guard Dennis Smith Jr., the no. 9 pick from 2017, is one year older after an impressive rookie season, and they’ve added Doncic and DeAndre Jordan, both of whom can help solve their primary issues on each end of the floor.
The Mavs attempted the league’s lowest share of shot attempts in the restricted area, according to Cleaning the Glass, and they were 27th in free throw rate. Doncic is advanced at using his hefty frame to create and absorb contact while attacking the rim; it’s a necessary skill, since he lacks the foot speed to blow by opponents and the verticality to dunk through traffic. And you already know Jordan is a backboard destroyer.
Jordan signed a one-year, $22.9 million contract with the Mavericks and will play the Tyson Chandler role at center: screening and initiating dribble handoffs, then flying to the rim for explosive dunks. Jordan gives Doncic and Smith a major target in Rick Carlisle’s offense, which tended to lean heavily on the pick-and-roll during Chandler’s seasons with the Mavs. If Dallas wants to adopt Houston’s extreme system, it certainly has the pieces to give it a try with Jordan starring as Clint Capela, and Doncic and Smith as versions of James Harden and Chris Paul. With Barnes, Matthews, and a collection of younger players, the Mavs can fill the gaps with 3-and-D talent.
Jordan will help Doncic and Smith, and Doncic and Smith will help each other. Smith has been a ball-dominant player his entire life, but he’s produced when called upon off the ball. He shot 36.8 percent on catch-and-shoot 3s and excelled on cuts. He logged only 23 possessions cutting last season, and shot 13-for-16 on plays that led to lobs. Doncic can alleviate the pressure on Smith to run the offense, so it’ll be on Smith to see openings in the defense and cut for easy baskets. Doncic can find him.
If there’s one thing Doncic didn’t get to show in his debut, it’s his passing. Doncic is already advanced at reading pick-and-rolls, changing speeds, and creating angles to throw dagger passers above and through the defense. Smith is also no slouch; his dunks will get him on highlight reels, but he’s a shifty ball handler who has progressed since college in making quick decisions. Jalen Brunson, the third pick of this year’s second round, is another young player at point guard. In today’s age of positionless basketball, it’s a major bonus to have four or five players on the court who can run the offense.
The Western Conference is so stacked that Dallas will top out as a scrappy, lovable team that can finish somewhere around 10th place. A team with Barnes as its best player isn’t a West playoff team. With that said, Barnes, something of a forgotten man since leaving Golden State, defends well and is used in a variety of offensive roles. If Dallas’s young players do develop into stars, then Barnes will be the perfect glue guy just like he was in Golden State, only with additional iso-scoring skills.
Barnes can become an unrestricted free agent next summer if he declines his $25.1 million player option. Dwight Powell also has a player option, and Jordan will be an unrestricted free agent again. But even if Barnes and Powell both opt in, and if Jordan is re-signed to a Capela-esque contract (around $18 million annually), the Mavs will have the ability to create enough cap space to sign a player to a max contract in both 2019 and 2020. In the NFL, having a productive quarterback still on a cheap rookie contract allows funds to be spent at other positions. The same is true with the NBA—look no further than the Celtics, who benefit from having Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, among others, on rookie deals, so they can splurge elsewhere. The Mavericks don’t resemble a destination today, but if Doncic and Smith—and their 2019 first-rounder, if it lands within the first five picks—become impactful players while on their rookie contracts, Dallas will suddenly have appeal.
The Mavericks have been big-name hunters in the past. In 2012, they tried to sign Deron Williams and push for Dwight Howard in a trade. It didn’t work. (Crisis averted.) In 2013, they wanted Chris Paul and Howard. (Paul stayed with the Clippers, and Howard chose the Rockets.) In 2015, they verbally agreed to sign Jordan. (But you know what happened there.) Jordan, now 30 years old, is one of their only big free-agent signings in years; Matthews and Chandler Parsons were the others, but both were limited by major injuries. It remains to be seen if they can become major players on the open market. But they’ll have the means to make a run at a max player again in the next two summers, and, this time around, they’ll have some young blood to use as part of a pitch.
There’s a long season ahead for the Mavericks in what could be Nowitzki’s farewell tour. Dallas would need a lot to break right to make the playoffs. But if the team is competitive again, and Doncic replicates his success during the regular season, there will be more games like Saturday’s that provide hope for the Mavs’ future.
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5G mobile networks which provide high-speed mobile internet services, allowing users to download entire movies in seconds
China's three major state telecom operators rolled out 5G wireless technology Thursday, as the country races to narrow its technology gap with the US amid a bruising trade war.
China Mobile, the country's largest carrier, announced its 5G services were available in 50 cities—including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen—with packages starting from 128 yuan ($18) a month.
Rivals China Telecom and China Unicom are also offering services at comparable prices in major cities, according to notices on their websites.
The ultra-fast mobile internet service—which is 100 times faster than existing 4G networks—allows consumers to download full-length films within seconds, or use apps with virtual reality.
The technology will also pave the way for driverless cars, further automation in factories, and allow users to remotely control appliances such as coffee makers and ovens via the internet.
China is expected to be a front-runner in the adoption of 5G services with over 170 million 5G subscribers by next year, according to estimates by China Telecom.
South Korea will be in second place with a predicted 75,000 users, followed by the US with 10,000, analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein said in a research note last week.
"China will promote the deep integration of new generation information technology and the real economy," said Chen Zhaoxiong, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology at a technology conference Thursday.
"This involves accelerating the integration and application of 5G in industries, transportation, energy, agriculture, education and health," Chen said, according to a statement on the ministry's website.
Beijing has been pushing for a quick rollout of the technology, and China's state economic planner said in January that developing a 5G network was one of its "investment priorities" this year.
Despite the success of 5G networks at home, Chinese telecom equipment giants have faced regulatory push back abroad.
The US Federal Communications Commission on Monday said it was considering blocking telecom carriers from buying equipment from Chinese tech companies Huawei and ZTE.
The US is also threatening crippling sanctions on Huawei, which is expected to be a leading player in offering 5G network hardware.
Washington has expressed fears that Huawei's equipment could contain security loopholes that allow China to spy on global communications traffic, and has been lobbying European countries to stay clear of it.
The company has repeatedly denied the US accusations.
Explore further New US rules would require carriers to remove Chinese equipment
© 2019 AFP
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There is a myriad of countries that are great to raise a family in. But why settle for great if you can have one of, if not the best…
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Anne Harkavy and Will Fischer
Opinion contributor
When Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie testifies Wednesday before a joint congressional hearing on VA efforts to modernize health care access and services for veterans, we urge him to do what this administration has refused to do to date and answer a question of critical concern: Is a shadow council of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago golf buddies still holding meetings and exerting unlawful influence over the makeup of VA leadership and policy decisions aimed at privatizing VA health care services?
We know that prior to his confirmation, then Acting Secretary Wilkie flew to the president's private Florida golf estate to meet with the Mar-a-Lago "council" — Marvel Entertainment CEO Ike Perlmutter, Palm Beach concierge doctor Bruce Moskowitz, and financial consultant Marc Sherman, all members of the president’s private club — and thanked the group for creating a "template" that set a new direction for the agency.
We also know that, despite having no government or U.S. military experience, these three men met more than two dozen times, behind closed doors, to use their prominent position of influence to try to steer VA projects. For example, the VA tasked them with reviewing a $10 billion contract for the largest health information technology project in American history. And at least one project they worked on was one in which a member of the trio may have had a personal interest.
Read more commentary:
Repay dogs for their military service. Stop the deadly VA canine experiments.
VA secretary: President Trump has kept his promises
My husband lost a limb in Afghanistan. Now, as his caregiver, I'm on the front lines.
Specifically, records show that the group recommended the VA develop a mobile app for veterans that would be adapted from a platform owned and developed by Moskowitz, one of its members. And Moskowitz’s son Aaron was brought on board as a manager of the project and included on a call with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss the app.
Federal law imposes important transparency requirements when the government enlists private interests to recommend or formulate public policy, in part, to guard against special interests advancing their own agenda without the public knowing or using their privileged positions to promote their personal concerns. This is why we sued the Trump administration: to stop it from unlawfully relying on the advice of Mar-a-Lago members in ways that crowd out the voices of actual veterans and raise concerns of self-dealing.
Brazenly, in seeking to have our lawsuit thrown out, the VA has gone so far as to argue that if our allegations of influence are true, federal transparency laws do not apply because the group has exerted too much power over veterans policy.
Veterans shouldn't have to sue to be heard
It's insulting that veterans have to sue to have a voice when it comes to Trump administration veterans policy. But suing has proven necessary because, at each turn, the VA has failed to serve veterans. The VA has refused to come clean about the Mar-a-Lago group's influence, instead digging its heels in and shielding the illegal troika from public scrutiny.
For example, when Reps. Tim Walz and Elijah Cummings (senior Democrats on the House Veterans Affairs and House Oversight committees, respectively) demanded records that bear on the so-called council's influence and access within the VA, they were denied. When Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Maggie Hassan requested that the VA Office of Inspector General open an investigation into the group, they too were denied.
The Inspector General cited our ongoing lawsuit in denying the senators' request. On Wednesday we called on the Office of the Inspector General to reconsider its refusal to open an investigation. We do not believe that our lawsuit should stand in the way of the office carrying out its statutory obligation to investigate and report on matters affecting VA programs and operations. The public seeks, and deserves, transparency about the Mar-a-Lago group's influence over policies affecting America’s veterans.
Veterans deserve to know who's running the VA
In September, Sen. Patty Murray asked Wilkie: “Are there any VA officials consulting with the Mar-a-Lago crowd now?" He replied at that time: "Not that I know of." The commitment to our nation’s veterans must be greater than loyalty to the president’s golfing buddies, and so questions about the Mar-a-Lago group's influence must be repeated until they are fully and accurately answered. We are calling on Secretary Wilkie to provide that full and accurate accounting of the level of influence the Mar-a-Lago trio has held over the VA.
It’s unconscionable that the Trump administration continues to stonewall the public on how private interests are affecting veterans’ access to critical health care. The millions of veterans who rely on the VA deserve answers from Secretary Wilkie. The American people deserve to know the truth.
Anne Harkavy is the Executive Director of Democracy Forward. Will Fischer is an Iraq War veteran, and Director of Government Relations for VoteVets.org. Follow Will Fischer on Twitter: @will_c_fischer
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THE IRISH GREYHOUND Board (IGB) spent almost €18,000 on public relations consultants in the three months after an RTÉ Investigates programme exposed shocking welfare abuses in the industry last year.
The IGB, which receives annual state funding of around €16 million, hired top communications firm Heneghan PR a week after the documentary claimed that 6,000 greyhounds were being killed every year.
Records released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal efforts to restrict media coverage of stadium closures, and to ignore press queries relating to welfare issues as the authority sought to manage the fallout from the controversy.
Heneghan PR – predominantly the firm’s MD Nigel Heneghan, and former government press secretary Eoghan Ó Neachtain – also advised the IGB in relation to its appearance before the Oireachtas agriculture committee, and its unsuccessful complaint against RTÉ over the documentary last year.
The company also assisted with a separate complaint to RTÉ’s Liveline last August, in which the IGB expressed “disappointment” in an initial draft at not being invited to contribute to a discussion on the radio show about the treatment of greyhounds.
However, Nigel Heneghan removed the reference to “disappointment” in an email to the IGB’s press officer “because they could say if you are that disappointed, why don’t you come on air tomorrow – which is what we want to avoid”.
He added: “They could still ask us, but the updated wording might make it easier to say no!”
A number of greyhound stadiums closed in the months following the RTÉ documentary. Emails between the IGB and Heneghan PR reveal a strategy of “limiting stories to local coverage if we only release locally for now”.
“I agree with [the IGB press officer] in terms of endeavouring to keep it local in the short term,” wrote Nigel Heneghan.
In the case of Longford Greyhound Stadium, it was decided not to inform local media of its closure at all. The stadium had not issued a statement locally due to a poor relationship with the media, according to the IGB press officer.
“On that note, it might be a case of alerting Longford media to the story if we send our statement out of the blue,” he wrote.
“My suggestion again is to put it up on our own website for now and deal with queries from there.”
IGB CEO Ger Dollard intervened in a discussion about how to deal with repeated queries from a Mail on Sunday journalist concerning the welfare of a greyhound owned by a syndicate of current and former Oireachtas members.
“I would ignore the emails,” he wrote. “Nigel can tell her if he wishes that he has sent on to the IGB and is awaiting a response?”
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The strategy appears to have worked, as Nigel Heneghan wrote on August 11: “Nothing in Mail on Sunday – good.”
A total of €17,785.80 was paid to the PR firm by the IGB in the first three months after the RTÉ documentary was aired.
A spokesman for the organisation said that it maintains consistent engagement with all media, and has endeavoured to respond to a large number of media queries at all times.
“The situations regarding the closures of Lifford and Longford greyhound stadia were, at the time suggested, fluid and changeable… A decision was made to prioritise informing local media in these areas of impending closures before national media to ensure the greyhound community in these areas… were fully and adequately informed,” he said.
He added that the journalist who inquired about the Oireachtas syndicate was “extensively engaged with” but the “ongoing submission of queries on a welfare case was seen as unreasonable, and the IGB chose not to further respond”.
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A judge for the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Wednesday that Ohio must allow most unlawfully purged voters to vote in November. In September the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit struck down [JURIST report] the procedure implemented by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted that effectively eliminated inactive registered voters if they failed to respond to letters requesting confirmation of their status and addresses. The court acknowledged the logistical difficulties posed by the upcoming election and provided guidance on how to allow as many purged voters as possible to vote in the election:
Despite the imperfect circumstances now faced by the parties and Ohio voters purged under Ohio’s Supplemental Process, it is the Court’s hope that the remedies detailed in this Opinion and Order will successfully restore the rights of many Ohio voters prior to the upcoming election.
Husted commented [press release] on the ruling and expressed that the state will comply with the court’s ruling.
The right to vote has become especially contentious as the presidential election approaches. Earlier in October the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida issued an order [JURIST report] requiring Florida to provide a method for voters to fix signature problems arising from vote-by-mail ballots. The judge was highly critical of the state’s opposition to allowing these voters to ensure their votes are counted, calling it an odd and unconstitutional double-standard resulting in disenfranchisement of thousands of Florida voters. Also in October a federal court issued [JURIST report] a preliminary injunction in favor of the Pyramid Lake and Walker River Paiute Native American tribes challenging Nevada’s voting procedure of failing to provide polling places on Native American reservations. In July voter restrictions were overturned in North Carolina, Kansas and Wisconsin [JURIST reports].
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Caffeine can trigger engineered cells to release insulin Description:Chevanon Wonganuchitmetha/EyeEm/Getty
A cup of coffee after a meal might be enough to keep diabetes under control, thanks to cells that have been engineered to release insulin when they detect caffeine.
Type 2 diabetes develops when the body loses its ability to regulate glucose levels in the blood. Some people manage this by taking frequent pin prick samples to measure their blood sugar levels, and using this information to adjust the supply of insulin from a pump worn against the skin.
Meal times are an especially taxing event, as the amount of sugar consumed must be estimated, and an appropriate dose of insulin scheduled. To get around this, Martin Fussenegger, a biotechnologist at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, and his colleagues have developed an alternative that’s powered by coffee.
The team took human kidney cells and engineered them to produce insulin. They also added a receptor that would trigger the release of this insulin when caffeine was present.
Caffeine control
They then implanted these cells into 10 mice with type 2 diabetes, and gave them coffee with their meals. Tests revealed this was enough to enable the mice to control their blood sugar levels as well as non-diabetic mice.
The risk of accidentally triggering a dose of insulin appears to be small. “To my knowledge there are no other significant sources of caffeine in food,” says Fussenegger. “Even very small trace amounts of caffeine will not trigger the system.”
Journal reference: Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04744-1
Read more: Men more likely to get diabetes if they have overweight wives
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After an extremely long wait, Valve is launching preorders today for a small group of Steam Machines, console-like gaming computers running the company's own Linux-based Steam OS. According to Polygon, customers will be able to preorder an Alienware Steam Machine through Steam or GameStop. They'll also be able to preorder the Steam Link, which lets players stream games from a high-powered PC to other machines in their house, and the Steam Controller, Valve's more versatile take on a console gamepad. All three will be available in stores on November 10th, with a limited number of preorders shipping October 16th instead.
The controller and the Link are $49 each, and Alienware's Steam Machine starts at $449 (including a controller). That gets you what looks like a mid-range PC, with Intel's lower-end Core i3 processor, a 500GB hard drive, and a relatively modest 4GB of RAM. The machines go up to $749, with the most expensive model running a Core i7, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive. As with other gaming PCs, users can upgrade these parts themselves as they age, but they can't do the same with one of the most important parts: the custom Nvidia GeForce GTX graphics card, which is built into the motherboard. The graphics card is supposed to perform at the level of a GTX 860M or better, which makes it more powerful than a console but less powerful than a high-end PC. Of course, it's also quite a bit cheaper than those PCs.
These will be the first machines with Valve's custom controller
Alienware is only one of several companies building Steam Machines, and a number of them are expected later this year. Today, PC maker CyberPower will also be taking preorders through its own site for a November release. Technically, anyone can make their own "Steam Machine," and several companies (including CyberPower) already have. It's just a PC running Steam OS, which is free and currently available in beta. But these will be the first machines to actually use Valve's controller, which is supposed to be a major selling point — it's as couch-friendly as an Xbox or PlayStation pad, but the analog sticks have been replaced with (allegedly) more precise trackpads and virtually every control on it can be remapped for specific games. While plenty of games work fine with a normal console controller, this is meant for the subset that's either too old or two PC-specific to make the jump.
The major limiting factor is that Valve's operating system will only run Linux games, unless players use the Link to stream them from a separate Mac or PC. Valve has been pushing Linux compatibility in preparation for the launch, and between 1,000 and 1,200 games are supposed to be supported by November. That's between a quarter and a third of Valve's total library, based on the over 3,700 games it touted late last year.
This is a long-overdue release for a concept that's been hyped since 2013. Steam Machines were meant as a way to nudge console owners onto a PC path, and the first wave was officially announced in January of 2014. But they were released somewhat unofficially, especially after Valve ended up redesigning its controller, and there weren't clear reasons to use Steam OS instead of Windows or another flavor of Linux. Now, they're getting an official boost from Valve, incidentally set for release around the same time as Valve and HTC's Vive VR headset. The two projects might have limited overlap, though — like the Oculus Rift, the Vive is almost certainly going to require a high-powered gaming rig. And that's something that many Steam Machines emphatically won't be.
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Well... maybe we can see him walk, too. Because he's got places to go. Though he doesn't seem to be making much progress...
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I've always done things the hard way, the different way, many times to the chagrin of my mentors. Some of my colleagues think I'm crass and that my research isn't scholarly, and some think my work is visionary and that I am forthright. If I were a crap academic (and there are plenty of us out there, tilting our own windmills), I might take the negative comments to heart, but instead I've proven over and over again why sometimes the hard way works.
My C.V. represents that proof, but doesn't represent HOW I was able to move from whippersnapper M.F.A. student doing the first electronic (interactive) thesis at my university to how I became editor of the leading journal in digital writing studies, winner of my field's top innovation award, and recipient of a Fulbright. While I could trace that pattern, I'd rather tell you about the system in which such a tracing can happen, because all of the professional, rhetorical moves I've made in my career can be traced back to the kinds of playful professional-development mentorship my field is known for fostering. And one of those methods -- sparkleponies -- erupted the interwebs last week.
If you don't live in my field, here's some background: Rhetoric and composition's main gathering, the Conference on College Composition and Communication (otherwise known as the Cs) was held a few weeks ago in Indianapolis. About 3,200 scholars attended. In higher ed trade publications, two articles were written about the thousands of research panels at Cs. At only a half-century old, this relatively young field is used to being ignored in the media, and outright discounted by most in academia, which is a shame since writing studies scholars research how writing works in the world, and how to teach it better. Pretty much every academic discipline and everyday people in the world would benefit from knowing more about our research, which is grounded in recognizing writing as an activity system that is collaborative, social, process-based and product-oriented.
Instead, the world now thinks that writing research conferences are all about sparkleponies, since several venues of questionable journalistic repute published stories about a professionalization and mentoring game that has been run for several years at Cs called C's the Day. In brief: winners of this augmented reality game, who have completed upwards of 80 professional-development and network-building quests throughout the course of the conference, are awarded a giant sparkly pony and the chance to be mentored into their first publications in one of three scholarly journals in the field.
Rather than feed into the unhappy academic trolls who populate the discussion threads on those previous articles, I want to focus on why sparkleponies represent an important method of mentoring junior scholars into an academic discipline, and why junior scholars should have a choice between mentoring that approves of sparkleponies and those that do not.
Digital writing studies (as the subfield of rhetoric and composition and out of which C's the Day was born) has always valued play as a learning method. Placed within a theoretical framework of game studies, playing a game in order to learn is commonplace in this field. For two decades (or more), this field has used game-based mentoring to acculturate new scholars, specifically by having first-time attendees at its subdisciplinary conference. Computers and Writing answer historical questions about the field by partnering with luminaries in the field during its [day-long professional development workshop. Prizes, including academic books and other fun tchotchkes, are donated to support and encourage new scholars to enter (and stay) in the field. (Secret: Everyone wins a prize, because in this subdiscipline, everyone is seen as a potential winner.)
First-time attendees are also partnered with a mentor-luminary throughout the conference, to further break down the barriers between so-called stars and newcomers. Finally, first-timers are given quiz sheets to have signed by other leaders in the field (e.g., Get the signatures of two journal editors; Get the signature of a past C&W host; etc.) The express purpose of these games is to break down hierarchical barriers between junior and senior scholars, to build historical knowledge of the field, and to introduce junior scholars to the field's professional development values and methods (through fun and prizes).
Year after year, first-time attendees tell the conference organizers and leaders they meet how friendly, welcoming, and open this conference is, and the professionalization games are a major part of that openness. C&W is the reason I became an academic: The people were nice, genuine, and had interesting research. (If we are not happy, why do what we do?!)
It is these values that the organizers of C's the Day brought from C&W, with its smaller attendance of around 400 people annually, to the much-larger, difficult to navigate, and overwhelming Cs conference. Yet, C's the Day, with its sparkleponies and guaranteed publication for winners, isn't necessarily welcome by all who attend the large conference. Why? Because there are two types of mentors at the large conference: Those who value nontraditional mentoring styles like those that have been used at C&W for decades, and those who value traditional mentoring styles.
No one has been able to explain to me what these "traditional" networking paths are, but I am guessing that they equate with privilege and access to mentors at top research institutions who can introduce students to appropriate leaders, help students write their first academic article, tell students which parties to attend to meet the "right" people at conferences, and provide funding for those students to get to such conferences. (As a relevant aside, these universities are places where, for the most part, research in digital writing studies has not been welcome because of its nontraditional, technological nature. I have heretofore avoided such institutions, and my career has been fine.)
These places, as I've stated in other columns, are looking for a certain kind of scholar, a scholar who has been mentored in "appropriate" ways -- that is, not through game-based play that is relevant as a practice and a research area within a discipline. These "appropriate" ways of mentoring are valued, accepted, and recognized within academic disciplines, but they are not always the best or most appropriate way to acculturate new scholars into the field. I would even argue that traditional mentoring strategies might be yet another reason why academia is so white. C's the Day was started to help junior scholars who might not otherwise find entree to a large conference like Cs break that invisible ceiling. It's also why C's the Day offers a guaranteed publication in one of three journals to the winner. This is the point that sets most academics off into a trolling frenzy.
As one of the journal editors who offers this prize, I will point out that all of the journals involved in the award are scholarly, peer-reviewed, well-established, even premier, open-access journals -- each espousing in its own way the values of mentoring, professionalization, collaboration, and process -- and product-oriented writing as an activity system that writing studies respects. And each of these journals has non-peer-reviewed sections, which are where the C's the Day award winners are placed (unless their argument is appropriate for one of our peer-reviewed sections). Most authors (not just the game winners) are sent through multiple rounds of revision before their articles are even accepted, because these journals practice what they preach by acculturating writers into the discipline.
In my journal's case, which has a 10 percent acceptance rate for peer-reviewed sections, nearly all authors need mentoring into publication because of the experimental nature of the scholarship the journal publishes. These journals are incredibly proud of their mentoring and review processes -- embedded with values that writing studies holds dear. It should be no surprise that most of these journals are born out of digital writing studies. These journals regularly publish game-based articles and reviews. Because that's how we roll.
Now, this is all probably TMI for most of you, but I wanted to lay it out here to explain how it is possible that a field can value sparkleponies as a talisman for productive, professional development. Over the last few days, I've seen discussion forums and Facebook posts saying what an important networking experience C's the Day has been for them, and I've seen more from other fields comment that they wish their field, or their major conference, had a similar ice-breaking opportunity.
And the thing is: It can. A bunch of grad students started C's the Day several years ago, and it's grown tremendously, in part because those grad students became emboldened enough to approach leaders in the field to ask to incorporate the game into the major conference. Grassroots mentoring and development can work. A field doesn't have to study games as a scholarly endeavor in order to appreciate the way games can assist our field-building. Academe as a whole is just one big game, so what's the big deal in making one part of that game a little more explicit, to the benefit of all?
This doesn't mean game-playing is for everyone. But for scholars who may not have "appropriate" or traditional or elite ways of being introduced to the field, it's an alternative that has proven to work. But this alternative is certainly based on the fit factor as well. I'm the kind of person who fits better in a nontraditional mentoring environment than a traditional one, as evidenced by my research, teaching pedagogy, and my affiliation with the journal I edit. Or, as one of the professors in my Ph.D. program said to me when I was going on the job market the first time: "Cheryl, you must not want to work for anyone who doesn't have a sense of humor." Indeed.
So my call to mentors and mentees alike: Choose the method of professionalization that works with your personality, your academic identity, and your resources. Acknowledge that your mentor or mentee may have a different path of achievement than you do. It's O.K. Because, at the root of it, everyone still needs to be able to articulate their research and teaching within a smart, cogent framework to others. Or, as one C's the Day quest suggests: Explain your research in a coherent way in 15 seconds to a luminary in your field. Elevator pitches are just one way of practicing job-market skills. If you want to win a sparklepony for doing so, more power (and levels) to you.
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Facebook instituted its biggest executive shakeup in its 15-year history this week, appointing new leaders for WhatsApp, Messenger and Facebook’s core app while giving other longtime Facebook executives new responsibilities, including a new effort to tackle blockchain technology.
The moves, which were announced internally to employees today, are meant to improve executive communication and user privacy, but the changes also come as Facebook contends with the backlash from the U.S. presidential election, revelations of manipulation by the Russian government and the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reorganized the social giant’s product and engineering organizations into three main divisions, including a new “Family of apps” group run by Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, the executive previously in charge of the core Facebook app. Cox will now oversee Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, according to multiple sources, four social apps with a combined reach of more than five billion monthly users.
Facebook is also building a new team dedicated to blockchain technology. David Marcus, the executive in charge of Facebook’s standalone messaging app, Messenger, is leaving that post to run the blockchain group, these sources said. That new team will fall under one of the other three divisions, referred to as “New platforms and infra,” which will be managed by CTO Mike Schroepfer. Facebook’s AR, VR and artificial intelligence efforts will also live under Schroepfer’s division.
Longtime Facebook exec Javier Olivan, the company’s VP of growth, will oversee the third division, called “Central product services,” which includes all of the shared features that operate across multiple products or apps such as ads, security and growth.
Surprisingly, no one appears to be leaving Facebook. Just a lot of old faces in new places.
You may have noticed from the diagram that almost all of Facebook’s top product and engineering execs are men. That’s true, though Facebook does have a number of high ranking and influential female product executives that aren’t directly involved in these changes. For example: Fidji Simo, who runs video; Deb Liu, who runs Marketplace; and Julie Zhuo, who runs design. Then, of course, there’s Sheryl Sandberg on the business side of things.
The changes all come at an interesting time for Facebook and Zuckerberg, who has been openly discussing his need to take more responsibility for Facebook’s impact on the world. Zuckerberg’s New Year’s resolution was to fix Facebook, and restructuring the team is clearly part of that fix. The hope is that these new roles will keep more open lines of communication among executives without hurting the speed Facebook is known for. (“Move fast and break things,” remember?)
The new product and engineering orgs have been divided into three key groups.
1. The Family of Apps
This is the group Cox will oversee, which includes WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and the core Facebook app. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom will continue to run Instagram, but the other three apps are getting new leaders:
Chris Daniels, the VP of Facebook’s Internet.org group, is taking over WhatsApp following the departure of CEO Jan Koum last week. Daniels has been with Facebook since 2011, and has lots of experience building products for an international audience in areas where wifi and infrastructure are weak.
David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s standalone messaging app, Messenger, is leaving that role but staying at the company. He’s moving over to run a new team exploring blockchain technology. Stan Chudnovsky, the head of product at Messenger, is taking over the Messenger app and team.
Will Cathcart, one of Cox’s top product lieutenants, is taking over all of product for Facebook’s core app. Cathcart has been at Facebook since 2008, joining from Google, and was responsible for Facebook’s profiles team. (That includes the group working on Facebook’s new dating service.)
Having all four product leaders roll up to Cox is meant to improve communication among the products. Previously, the leaders of all of these teams had different bosses. Koum rolled up to Zuckerberg, Systrom rolled up to Schroepfer and Marcus reported to Olivan. As Facebook increasingly builds more features that live inside all of the apps (e.g. Stories), it makes sense to have their leaders working closer together.
2. New Platforms and Infra
This group will be under the direction of Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s CTO. As you can probably guess from the name, this group will incorporate all of Facebook’s longterm product and business efforts, like virtual reality, augmented reality and the newly formed blockchain group.
Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, who runs Facebook’s AR, VR and hardware teams, will continue to report to Schroepfer. Boz took over those teams last August following years running Facebook’s advertising efforts.
David Marcus will report to Schroepfer in his new role running Facebook’s exploratory blockchain group. The company isn’t saying anything about the team, but Marcus is on the board of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, so there is a clear interest in the technology there. (He had also previously worked at PayPal and had founded a mobile payments startup.)
Jay Parikh, Facebook’s top engineering executive, will oversee a new product team focused on privacy products and initiatives (more on that below).
Workplace, Facebook’s enterprise product aimed at competing with Slack, will fall under Schroepfer’s purview. That team is run by Kang-Xing Jin, known internally as KX, and one of Facebook’s longest-tenured product executives. He actually was a classmate of Zuckerberg’s at Harvard.
Jerome Pesenti, who leads Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence group, will also report to Schroepfer. Pesenti just joined Facebook this year from IBM, where he worked on “Watson” technology.
3. Central Product Services
All of the other product and engineering functions — ads, security, growth — will fall to another longtime Facebooker, Javier Olivan, who has been with the company more than a decade. Olivan has run Facebook’s growth team for years and is credited for helping Facebook achieve the massive scale it’s now known for. Olivan will also oversee a lot of important parts of the Facebook business.
Mark Rabkin, who oversees ads and Facebook’s local efforts, will report to Olivan.
Naomi Gleit, who has been at Facebook since mid-2005 (even longer than Cox), runs community growth and integrity as well as Facebook’s social good products, like the donate button. She’s also the leader of product management for the entire company.
Alex Schultz, who has been at Facebook since 2007 and runs “growth marketing, data analytics (data science & data engineering) and internationalization for Facebook,” according to his LinkedIn, also reports to Javi.
Here are a few more changes taking place at Facebook this week.
Instagram and Facebook are swapping key product executives
Adam Mosseri, the Facebook product executive who runs News Feed, is headed over to Instagram to become the company’s new VP of product. In his old job, Mosseri was tasked with building and then explaining Facebook’s ever-changing News Feed algorithm to journalists and media companies, and he became a savvy Twitter user in the process. The company didn’t share specifics about his new role, but it seems fair to assume his experience running one feed at Facebook will help running another feed at Instagram.
You might now be thinking: What about Instagram’s existing VP of product, Kevin Weil? Good question. Weil is leaving Instagram and headed over to Facebook’s newly formed blockchain team, the one that David Marcus is running. So a few new places for a couple of familiar faces.
A change to Facebook’s communication team
Facebook is shuffling the top of its communication team, too. Caryn Marooney, who has been running the day-to-day operations for all Facebook communications over the past two years, is handing over some of her responsibilities to PR veteran Rachel Whetstone, who joined Facebook last summer. Marooney will handle product communications and Whetstone is taking over corporate comms.
Whetstone is very well known in Silicon Valley. She joined Facebook after running communications and policy at Uber during the company’s Travis Kalanick-inflicted PR nightmare. Before that, she worked at Google for 10 years also running communications and policy. She’s climbed up Facebook’s internal ranks very quickly and is already an influential voice in the room when it comes to policy decisions, sources say.
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Taking the torch from the now finally deceased Saw franchise for being the horror franchise that just won’t die, Paranormal Activity releases the latest film in the line today, Paranormal Activity 4. Largely responsible for the glut of found footage films in recent years, and while a number of these are quite good, Paranormal Activity had a bit of a tired premise even the first time around, and four movies later, there’s hardly any scares or life left in the series. In spite of this, to say nothing of brutal reviews, the latest movie is expected to set October box office records, and with Paranormal Activity 5 already in development, it looks like Hollywood plans to ride this gravy train as long as shmucks will pay to be ‘scared’ of moving furniture and levitating teenage girls.
I however, think the masses deserve a better breed of terror, and I have just the film for anyone looking for something a tad more horrifying than dead-four-time-over jump gags. You see my dear readers, as I fan of both horror movies and found footage films, I have am here to showcase a living legend of both genres. The movie is a bona-fide urban legend, whisperings of which have been circling around film buff circles since the 1980s. It is a grindhouse gem that manages to be both an anti-exploitation film, and yet is perhaps the greatest example of that very same genre. It is a film so raw, so commanding and so stomach-curdling in its grotesquery, that it is still banned in many countries, and impossible to legally purchase in its true form in countless others. It has a core message that will bring you to your knees, and violence so brutally realistic that not only has the film been banned in over fifty countries, but the director was briefly charged with murder when police saw the movie’s death scenes, and would not drop the case until he proved his cast was still alive. It has spawned multiple imitators and entire sub-genres, yet never any equal in terms of both disturbing brutality and powerful tone and direction. I am talking of course, about Cannibal Holocaust. No doubt a number of cinephiles out there reading this just felt your bowels turn to ice from that title alone, and for good reason. A few of my more devout readers may have seen me mention it a few times before, on both my list of Must See Horror Movies, and my list of the Top Ten Most Controversial Films of All Time, and it earned a spot on both, have no doubt. Given that this weekend will spend millions of dollars on another half-assed sequel to the rather blasé Paranormal Activity, and I don’t have the power to force them to watch this instead, I figured now is as good a time as any to showcase the underrated horror classic that is Cannibal Holocaust.
Made in the midst of the heyday of Italian grindhouse cinema, which has a deserved reputation for gore and controversy in its own right, Cannibal Holocaust is perhaps the most (in)famous product of not only the oddly expansive cannibal subgenre, but the entirety of Italian exploitation films. Almost since its first release in 1980, Cannibal Holocaust has been an immensely controversial film, and has left critics divided over its artistic merits, or lack thereof, since day one. In spite of the controversy, or to an extent because of it, it has earned its place as a cult classic that goes far beyond that of nearly any other of the era’s exploitation films typical fan base, earning accolades from publications like Total Film, IGN and Wired, celebrities including the likes of Sergio Leone, Sylvester Stallone and Sam Raimi, and of course, your humble narrator.
Having been first introduced to the film in the US Army during one of my unit’s regular movie nights, when a fellow soldier plopped the movie into the DVD player telling us this would become the most disturbing and terrifying film we’d ever watched. He was right, and the film quickly earned a spot as one of my favorites for being one of the most brutal and shocking films I’ve ever seen, and one that never gets any easier to watch at that. I’ve shared it with friends, whose reactions range from stunned silence, to screams, to in the case of a long-time horror fan friend of mine, total and utter incomprehension. Now, I share it with you – consider yourself cautioned.
The movie itself (Spoilers!) opens with anthropologist Harold Monroe hired by a television studio to head off into an uncharted stretch of the Amazon jungle, in hopes of tracking down a crew of famed documentary filmmaker Alan Yates and his crew, who had gone missing while making a documentary called The Green Inferno, which showcases Amazonian cannibal tribes. Along with his guide, he discovers that the local tribes have experienced some sort of unrest at the hands of the filmmakers – unrest which untimely ended with one of the tribes making a meal out of them. After some negotiations over a meal – yes, man is served, hint hint – Monroe manages to obtain their film reels in exchange for a tape recorder. Back at the studio, which has asked Monroe to host the broadcast of the recovered documentary, which he accepts if allowed to review the film first, and it is here that Cannibal Holocaust delves into truly terrifying territory. Yates and his crew, which we were led to believe were intrepid film pioneers culled by savage cannibals, turn out to be cutthroats willing to commit acts that would make Col. Kurtz take pause in efforts to get shocking and sensationalist material for their ‘documentary’. In their own trek through the jungle, they burn down a village, slaughter some animals, kill a number of natives, and rape a few others, all in the name of great television. By the time the locals turn their spears on them, the filmmakers fully deserving to be served on a spit, the final frame on Yates’ bloodied face as a screams as a stone axe falls, we see that savages come in many forms, and not always the forms we expect.
The story and the execution of it is what in the end I would wager has given Cannibal Holocaust both the longevity and fanbase it has – as I mentioned before, Italian grindhouse cinema did not lack an abundance of gore and controversy, and there is no shortage of other film, even other cannibal films, that are for more disgusting, disturbing or diabolical. What makes Cannibal Holocaust the memorable film it is ultimately comes down to the story, which in addition to the creative narrative angle which has since managed to spawn two entire sub-genres, tells one a very potent satire of media sensationalism and the savagery of the modern world. The angle involving the documentary filmmakers was at the time a slap in the face to the Italian Mondo films, though it has aged quite nicely into a before its time satire on the modern media, both in its quest for ratings and its willingness to sacrifice journalistic integrity and good taste to get them.
Much the same, one of the overriding themes of the movie is the comparison between modern civilization and the tribal cultures, and its message that we are every bit as savage as they are. Perhaps what makes that message so effective is that we, the audience become complicit in the act ourselves – literally the entire first half of the movie sets up that these filmmakers were victims of barbaric savages, cannibals no less, and we buy into it, only for the movie to turn our prejudices on our head when we find out who the real monsters are. In another swipe, how many folks watch the movie having heard of its reputation for violence must feel pangs of guilt once the final credits roll? The story and themes are almost universally ignored in the horror genre, especially much of the found footage subgenre, so the focus on it Cannibal Holocaust makes it something of a rarity, resulting something you’d have expected if Heart of Darkness was about sensationalist media as opposed to colonialism. Of course, there is no denying for what brilliance of storytelling there is, the film has a well-earned reputation for it’s almost unmatched of levels of violence and depravity, and from here no doubt stems the majority of controversy surrounding the film. I wasn’t exaggerating earlier describing the movie’s reputation either – it’s easily one of the most shocking films I’ve ever watched, and understandably one of the most controversial films of all time. Content included massive amounts of both blood and nudity, vivid scenes of rape and murder, real animal slaughter and some of the most photo-realistic violence ever put to screen. A lot of it is so graphic oven the most stoic screen-junkies will find their stomachs turning, and thanks to the superb work with the makeup and gore effects, the line between what is real and what is not is blurry as static, adding to the already palpable tension and unease of the movie. Describing some of the scenes is difficult, let alone watching them. Worth special note is what has sparked the most controversy with the film, the filmed killings of seven animals in the movie, including one where they carve open a turtle showcasing its bubbling innards and still blinking eyes for the camera, which will haunt you forever.
While I do find it horrendous, it was a tragic commonality of movies in the era – one that always gets overlooked is Apocalypse Now, which has two or three animals killed on screen – and it’s somewhat sad that in Cannibal Holocaust gets most of its infamy from this, as opposed to, for one example, the film within the film, Last Road to Hell, which consists of actual footage of executions and civil war in Nigeria, yet people seem to care more for Amazonian muskrats. Needless to say, between the impaled tribal women, dismembered muskrats, and Nigerian executions, there is something to shock, scare and shake anyone, and the movie is deservedly infamous for such.
That said, between the substance of its story and themes, or its myriad of controversies, few would deny the skill put into the movie, or the impact the film has had. The movie’s cinematography and editing is handled masterfully, as savage cruelty is eerily juxtaposed with beautiful scenery and Riz Ortolani’s terrific score, which makes every scene all the eerier. Disregarding its fame from controversy, the impact of the movie is drastically underrated – in addition to its influence on the horror genre and its impact on a number of filmmakers, but for literally being the starting point of two entire subgenres, both the faux-documentary and the found footage film, the latter of which, a few exceptions aside, are all largely derivatives of Cannibal Holocaust. I’m looking at you Blair Witch!
That impact, to say nothing of the current boom of found footage films is part of the reason why I would love to see a remake of Cannibal Holocaust. Hand it to someone like Quinton Tarantino or Eli Roth, both of whom claim the movie as an influence and a favorite, play up the themes and realism and remove it from its controversies – or with the miracles of modern marketing and viral media, play up entirely new ones, and you’d have a horror hit for the ages.
That said, the original one is, controversies and all, one of the most memorable films I’ve ever seen, and one that years after I’ve seen it, I still can’t forget or stop talking about. Cannibal Holocaust is a hard film to classify or recommend, but it’s harder to deny it has earned its place as a cinematic milestone for reasons both good and ill – it was and still is a cinematic paradox. On one hand, it’s an unforgivably violent and exploitative work that will leave you undoubtedly uncomfortable, and on the other hand, it’s an undeniably relentless social commentary that is totally unforgettable, and the fusion of these two parts is one of the most brilliantly insane monstrous masterpieces ever filmed. While it certainly isn’t a movie for everyone – I cannot emphasize that enough – if you have the stomach for it, I recommend it highly, if only for the fact there has never been another movie quite like it. It will disturb you, make you squirm, make you scream and leave you speechless – but by movie end, you will be affected by it, and will remember it long after the final credits roll. In the end, I would call say Cannibal Holocaust is to the horror genre what A Clockwork Orange is for science fiction. It’s a milestone in terms of genre cinema that has had an impact far beyond what many people realize, and has been steeped in controversy for its content since its inception, and its story and theme work often gets lost in the firestorm. In the end, watch it for whatever discomfort it may give you, and if you find its credits outweigh its controversies will depend on you. In either case, it will stick with you long after Paranormal Activity 4 has been forgotten.
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The story goes that the very first gathering of Occupy Wall Street began as an old-fashioned top-down rally with speakers droning on—until a Greek student (and perhaps—an anarchist?) interrupted it and demanded that they hold a proper horizontal assembly instead. She and some of the youngsters in attendance sat down in a circle on the other side of the plaza and began holding a meeting using consensus process. One by one, people trickled over from the audience that had been listening to speakers and joined the circle. It was August 2, 2011.
Here, in the origin myth of the Occupy Movement, we encounter a fundamental ambiguity in its relationship to organization. We can understand this shift to consensus process as the adoption of a more inclusive and therefore more legitimate democratic model, anticipating later claims that the general assemblies of Occupy represented real democracy in action. Or we can focus on the decision to withdraw from the initial rally, seeing it as a gesture in favor of voluntary association. Over the following year, this internal tension erupted repeatedly, pitting democrats determined to demonstrate a new form of governance against anarchists intent upon asserting the primacy of autonomy.
Though David Graeber encouraged participants to regard consensus as a set of principles rather than rules, both proponents and authoritarian opponents of consensus process persisted in treating it as a formal means of government—while anarchists who shared Graeber’s framework found themselves outside the consensus reality of their fellow Occupiers. The movement’s failure to reach consensus about the meaning of consensus itself culminated with ugly attacks in which Rebecca Solnit and Chris Hedges attempted to brand anarchist participants as violent thugs.
How did that play out in the hinterlands, where small-town Occupy groups took up the decision-making practices of Occupy Wall Street? The following narrative traces the tensions between democratic and autonomous organizational forms throughout the trajectory of one local occupation.
This text is an installment in our series exploring an anarchist analysis of democracy.
Democracy versus Autonomy in the Occupy Movement: A Narrative
A decade and a half ago, I participated in the so-called “anti-globalization movement,” so described by journalists who preferred not to say “anticapitalist.” Beginning with a groundswell of local initiatives, it culminated in a string of massive riots at international trade summits from Seattle in November 1999 to Genoa in July 2001. Although I had been an anarchist for some years already, I learned about consensus process in the course of those experiences. Like many other participants, I believed that this form of decision-making pointed the way to a world without government or capitalism. We cherished the seemingly impossible dream that one day that decision-making process might be taken up by the population at large.
Ten years later, I visited the Occupy Wall Street encampment at Zuccotti Park. It had only existed for two weeks, yet it had already developed its political culture: daily assemblies, “mic check,” consensus process. This was all familiar to me from my “anti-globalization” days, though most people there clearly did not share that background.
I heard a lot of legalistic and reformist rhetoric in the course of my brief visit. At the same time, this was what we had dreamed of, our practices spreading outside our milieu. Could the practices themselves instill the political values that had originally inspired us to employ them? Some of my comrades had argued that directly democratic models could be a radicalizing step towards anarchism. The following months put that theory to the test.
Two weeks after my visit to Manhattan, I was back in my hometown in Middle America, attending our Occupy group’s second assembly. A hundred people from a wide range of backgrounds and political perspectives were debating whether to establish an encampment. It’s not easy for a crowd arbitrarily convened through an open invitation on Facebook to make a decision together. Some argued against occupying, claiming that the police would evict us, insisting we should apply for a permit first. In the nearest city, occupiers had applied for a permit but were only granted one lasting a few hours; everyone who remained after it expired was arrested. A few of us thought it better to go forward without permission than to embolden the authorities to believe we would comply with whatever was convenient for them.
A different facilitator would have let the debate remain abstract indefinitely, effectively quashing the possibility of an occupation in the name of consensus. But ours cut right to the chase: “Raise your hand if you want to camp out here tonight.” A few hands went hesitantly up. “Looks like five… six, seven… OK, let’s split into two groups: those who want to occupy, and everyone else. We’ll reconvene in ten minutes.”
At first there were only a half dozen of us meeting on the occupiers’ side of the plaza, but after we took the first step, others drifted over. Ten minutes later, there were twenty-four of us—and that night dozens of people camped out in the Plaza. I stayed up all night waiting for the police to raid us, but they never showed up. We’d won the first round, expanding what everyone imagined to be possible—and we owed it to people taking the initiative autonomously, not to reaching consensus.
Our occupation was a success. Over the first few weeks, scores of new people met and got to know each other through demonstrations, logistical work, and nights of impassioned discussion.
The nightly assemblies served as a space to get to know each other politically. First, we heard a wide range of testimonials about why people were there. These ranged from boring to fascinating, but they died out swiftly once the business of making decisions via assemblies got underway. Next, we weathered lengthy debates about whether there should be a nonviolence policy, with nonviolence serving as a code word for legalistic obedience. Thanks to the participation of many anarchists, this discussion was split pretty much down the middle, but it enabled many occupiers who had never been part of something comparable to hear some new arguments.
It was interesting to watch so many people go through such a rapid political evolution. I enjoyed the debates, the drama of watching middle-class liberals struggle to converse on an equal footing with anarchists and other angry poor people.
On the other hand, the assemblies were ineffective as a way to make decisions. After weeks of grueling daily sessions, we gave up entirely on formulating a mission statement about our basic goals, consensus having been repeatedly blocked by a lone contrarian. Some people managed to push a couple small demonstrations through the consensus process, but they attracted almost no participants. The assembly’s stamp of approval did not correlate with people actually investing themselves; the momentum to make an effort succeed was determined elsewhere.
While the nightly assemblies helped us get to know each other politically, if you wanted to get to know people personally, you had to spend time at the encampment. Standing night watch, facing off with drunk college students and other reactionaries, I became acquainted with many of the occupiers who had first arrived as disconnected individuals. It was those connections that gave us cause to be invested in each other’s efforts over the following months.
Unexpectedly, the liberals were among the most invested in the protocol of consensus process—however unfamiliar it was, they found it reassuring that there was a proper way of doing things. This emphasis on protocol created rifts with the actual inhabitants of the encampment, many of whom felt ill at ease communicating in such a formal structure; that class divide proved to be a more fundamental conflict than any political disagreement. From the perspective of the liberals, there was a democratic assembly in which anyone could participate, and those who did not attend or speak up could not complain about the decisions made there. From the vantage point of the camp, the liberals showed up for an hour or two every couple days, and expected to be able to dictate decisions to people who were in the camp twenty-four hours a day—often not even sticking around to implement them.
As a part of the minority that was familiar with consensus process yet simultaneously a denizen of the camp proper, I could see both sides. I tried to explain to the liberals who just showed up for the assemblies—the ones who understood Occupy as a political project rather than a social space—that there were already functioning decision-making processes at work in the encampment, however informal, and if they wanted to establish better relations with the residents of the encampment, they should take those processes seriously and try to participate in them, too.
After the first few weeks, the flow of new participants slowed. We became a known quantity once more. Consequently, we began to lose our leverage on the authorities. Meanwhile, it was getting colder out, and winter was on the way. Based on our experience attempting to formulate a mission statement or call for demonstrations, it seemed clear to us that if there was to be a next step, it would have to be decided outside the general assemblies.
I got together with some friends I had known and trusted for a long time—the same group that had called for Occupy in our town in the first place. We discussed whether to occupy a vast empty building a few blocks from the plaza. Most of us thought it was impossible, but a few fanatics insisted it could be done. We decided that if they could get us inside, we would try to hold onto it. But the plan had to be a secret until we were in, so the police couldn’t stop us.
The building occupation was a success. Over a hundred people flooded into the building, setting up a kitchen, a reading library, and sleeping quarters. A band performed, followed by a dance party. That night, dozens of people slept in the building rather than at the plaza, relieved to be out of the cold. Once again, I stood watch all night, waiting for the police—the stakes were higher this time, but they didn’t show up. Spirits were high: once again, we had expanded the space of possibility.
The following afternoon, as we continued cleaning and repairing the building, a rumor circulated that the police were preparing a raid. Several dozen of us gathered for an impromptu meeting. It struck me how different the atmosphere was from our usual general assemblies. There were no bureaucratic formalities, no deadlocks over minutia. No one droned on just to hear himself speak or stared off listlessly. There was no payoff for grandstanding or chiding each other about protocol.
Here, there was nothing abstract about the issues at hand. We were putting our bodies on the line just by being present; these were real choices that would have immediate consequences for all of us. We didn’t need a facilitator to listen to each other or stay on topic. With our freedom at stake, we had every reason to work well together.
The day after the raid, a huge crowd gathered at the original encampment for a contentious general assembly—the biggest and most energetic our town witnessed throughout the entire sequence of Occupy. Our decision to occupy the building, arrived at outside the general assembly, had ironically made the general assembly irresistible to everyone. Some people were inspired by the building occupation and our response to the police raid; others, who assumed the general assembly to be the governing body of the movement, were outraged that we had bypassed it; still others, who had not been interested in Occupy until now, came to engage with us because they could see we were capable of making a big impact. Even if they were only there to argue that we should “be peaceful” and obey the law, we hoped that entering that space of dialogue might expand their sense of what was possible, too.
So the assembly benefitted from the building occupation, whether or not people approved of it. But they only came because of the power we had expressed by acting on our own. It was this power that they sought to access through the assembly—some to increase it, some to command it, some to tame it. In fact, the power didn’t reside in the assembly as a decision-making space, but in the people who came to it and the connections they forged there.
Over the following week, people inspired by the building occupations in Oakland and our little town occupied buildings in St. Louis, Washington, DC, and Seattle. This new wave of actions pushed the Occupy movement from symbolic protests towards directly challenging the sanctity of capitalist notions of property. Our town saw its biggest unpermitted demonstrations in years.
Months later, I compared notes with comrades around the country about how this mass experiment in consensus process had gone. Everywhere, there had been the same conflicts, as some people who saw the assemblies as the legitimate space of decision-making criticized those who propelled the movement forward for acting autonomously. Even in Oakland, the most confrontational encampment in the country, they never made a consensus decision to keep police out of the camp—that decision was made by individuals, independently. A friend from Oakland recounted to me how, when he prevented an officer from entering, a young reformist who had just learned the buzzwords of consensus process angrily shouted “I block you, man! I block you!” at him. In a photograph taken after the riots with which occupiers retaliated against the eviction of their encampment, someone has written on a broken window, “This act of vandalism was NOT authorized by the GA,” as if the GA were a governmental body, answerable for its subjects and therefore entitled to legitimize or delegitimize their actions.
That shows a profound misunderstanding of what consensus procedure is good for. Like any tool, power flows from us to it, not the other way around—we can invest it with power, but using it won’t necessarily make us more powerful. Every single step that made Occupy succeed in our town, from the call for the first assembly to the decision to occupy the plaza to the decision to occupy a building, was the result of autonomous initiative. We never could have consensed to do any of those things in an assembly that included anarchists, Maoists, reactionary poor people, middle-class liberals, police infiltrators, people with mental health issues, aspiring politicians, and whoever else happened to stop by at random. The assemblies were essential as a space where we could intersect and exchange proposals, creating new affinities and building a sense of our collective power, but we don’t need a more participatory—and therefore even more inefficient and invasive—form of government. We need the ability to act freely as we see fit, the common sense to coexist with others wherever possible, and the courage to stand up for ourselves whenever there are real conflicts.
As the movement was dying down, the faction of Occupy that was most invested in legalism and protocol called for a National Gathering in Philadelphia on July 4, 2012, at which to “collectively craft a Vision of a Democratic Future.” Barely 500 people showed from around the country, a tiny fraction of the number that had blocked ports, occupied parks, and marched in the streets. The people, as they say, had voted with their feet.
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August 2011: This thread badly needs to be updated/pruned. If you (yes, you!) would like to take over maintenance of this thread, please send me a PM. Members with active, helpful posting history preferred. Otherwise this thread will be unstickied at the end of the month.
The FAQ
Compiz
Compiz is what is known as a "compositing manager." It enables your desktop to run faster than with traditional window managers, and allows you to be more productive. Compiz controls the effects you see on your desktop: Shadows, animations, "the cube," and a whole bundle of other fun effects.
On Ubuntu 7.10 and up:
Open System > Preferences > Appearance. Click on the Visual Effects tab. If Compiz and desktop effects are enabled, Normal, Extra, or Custom will be selected. If Compiz is disabled, None will be selected. To switch modes, simply click on another selection. Changes take effect immediately.
Install the package fusion-icon and reload your session for a notification icon to switch between Compiz and the standard window manager.
Beryl was merged back into the Compiz project to create what is now know as Compiz Fusion. Beryl is no longer supported or developed meaning that if there is a bug, no one will fix it. Therefore it is recommended that you use Compiz Fusion which comes installed by default in Ubuntu.
Custom only appears if the package System > Preferences > Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager. only appears if the package simple-ccsm is installed. When you install simple-ccsm, a new selection will be available in Visual Effects, which allows you to customize what effects are active on your desktop. You can also customize the effects from
You can also access it from System > Preferences > Advanced Desktop Effects Settings or by opening a terminal (or Alt+F2) and typing ccsm. Simple CompizConfig is just that, simple. If you are looking for more options, install the package compizconfig-settings-manager . Be sure to keep simple-ccsm installed so that the Custom option remains available in Visual Effects.You can also access it fromor by opening a terminal (or Alt+F2) and typing
As of recent Ubuntu releases, these are now available in compiz-fusion-plugins-extra , which is not installed by default.
See the following thread to find out why: Compiz-Check
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=934934
Just to add, if you want to use emerald for window decorations, don't forget to type in alt+f2:
Code: emerald --replace Nope! Xubuntu has it too!Just to add,, don't forget to type in alt+f2:The gtk-window-decorator cannot be controlled by Applications > Settings > Settings Manager > Window Manager since it only control xfwm4. However, you can load .cgwdtheme files through the terminal. I recommended emerald since it is really cool.
This is a common mistake caused by disabling some plugins in CompizConfig Settings Manager. To fix, open the manager (System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager) and find the "Window Decorations" plugin. Check the box and you're all set.
System > Preferences > Advanced Desktop Effects Settings, go to General Options, Desktop Size tab, and make sure Horizontal Virtual Size is set to 4. Go back to the main window, and enable the Desktop Cube and Rotate Cube plugins.
You can "spin" the cube by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Left and Ctrl+Alt+Right, or hold Ctrl+Alt and click and drag. (Image) First, install compizconfig-settings-manager. Then, in, go to General Options, Desktop Size tab, and make sureis set to 4. Go back to the main window, and enable the Desktop Cube and Rotate Cube plugins.You can "spin" the cube by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Left and Ctrl+Alt+Right, or hold Ctrl+Alt and click and drag.
Data: Beaming up in 6 nanoseconds.
Press alt+f2 and type in
Code: ccsm
Go to Animations and on the close animation tab, click on the top animation (by default, that would be Glide 2) and press edit. Look for Beam, click ok and close. That's it! Enjoy Capt. Picard: Prepare to beam up.Data: Beaming up in 6 nanoseconds.Press alt+f2 and type in(Alternatively, go to System > Preferences > Advanced Desktop Effects Settings in GNOME)Go to Animations and on the close animation tab, click on the top animation (by default, that would be Glide 2) and press edit. Look for Beam, click ok and close. That's it! Enjoy
Emerald is a replacement window decorator which supports many more effects than gtk-window-decorator, GNOME's built-in window decorator.
The package
To enable Emerald on login, go to System > Preferences > Sessions. Click the Add button, and type in Emerald for Name and emerald --replace for Command. Click OK and close the Sessions window. The next time you sign in, Emerald will be running. Install the emerald package from Synaptic.The package emerald-themes provides some themes to use in 8.04, but it is currently missing from the repositories. Themes must be installed manually for the time being.To enable Emerald on login, go to System > Preferences > Sessions. Click the Add button, and type infor Name andfor Command. Click OK and close the Sessions window. The next time you sign in, Emerald will be running.
Themes
GNOME Art
GNOME-Look
deviantART
Themes for Kubuntu can be found at:
KDE-Look
deviantART Themes for Ubuntu (GNOME) can be found at:Themes for Kubuntu can be found at:
Other
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=762363
Another dock available is Cairo-dock: The dock is known as Avant Window Navigator. Instructions on how to install and configure it are available here:Another dock available is Cairo-dock: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=878603
System > Preferences > Synaptic Package Manager, and search for "screenlets". Install the "Applications > Accessories > Screenlets (or System > Preferences > Screenlets) and enable the screenlets that you want. There are several programs which allow you to put widgets on the desktop. The most popular is a program called Screenlets. To install it, open up, and search for "screenlets". Install the " screenlets " package that comes up by double clicking on it and clicking apply on the top bar. Once it is installed, go to(or) and enable the screenlets that you want.
Gutsy: Code: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gilir/ubuntu gutsy main universe Code: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gilir/ubuntu hardy main universe Add these to your sources in System > Administration > Software Sources; Third Party Software; Add.Gutsy:HardySee http://screenlets.org/index.php/Download for additional sources.
Useful Links
Contributing
Why doesn't Compiz start?
Compiz usually won't start for the following reasons...
blah blah blah blah Compiz usually won't start for the following reasons...blah blah blah blah
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The latest campaign of incitement in Israel is so extreme even the Right has condemned it. The irony? Its message is entirely in line with that of the government.
A single day after right-wing Culture Minister Miri Regev proposed cutting funding to artists and cultural institutions that are “not loyal” to the State of Israel, quasi-fascist organization Im Tirzu launched a campaign to name and shame artists who support human rights and anti-occupation groups.
Several weeks ago, Im Tirzu, a hyper-nationalist organization that an Israeli court ruled resembles a fascist movement, launched another campaign accusing human rights and anti-occupation activists of being foreign planted “moles.” The current campaign, an extension of the first, is being promoted under the banner “moles in [our] culture.”
A number of political figures on the Right from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu down to Benny Begin and Naftali Bennett condemned the campaign, with some saying they oppose it and others going much further. “The singling out of so-called traitors is an old-fashioned fascist technique that is both ugly and dangerous,” veteran yet marginalized Likud lawmaker Benny Begin said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu said of the latest campaign, “[I] oppose the use of the term traitor for those who disagree with me, but at the same time oppose Breaking the Silence, which slanders Israel overseas.” Education Minister Bennett described Im Tirzu’s latest campaign as “embarrassing and unnecessary.”
Im Tirzu’s tactics went too far this time. But only its tactics. The content and sentiment of its messaging are entirely in line with that of the government.
When Im Tirzu first released its “moles” campaign it openly did so with the aim of shoring up support for Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s proposed law targeting foreign funding of human rights and anti-occupation groups. For the most part, the groups targeted by Im Tirzu are identical to those that would be affected by Shaked’s NGO funding law. (Disclosure: The non-profit that operates +972 Magazine and its Hebrew-language sister site, Local Call, was included in Im Tirzu’s “Moles” report. We would not, however, be affected by the current version of Shaked’s NGO bill.)
Now the organization has timed its latest report, about cultural figures associated with human rights and anti-occupation groups, with another piece of legislation that targets artists and cultural institutions that oppose various aspects of the ruling regime.
One might be tempted to applaud the leaders of Israel’s government, arguably the most right-wing in the country’s history, for condemning the McCarthyist tactics of an extra-parliamentary quasi-fascist organization. Those same leaders, however, continue to support the very policies that aim to delegitimize human rights groups as foreign agents and the artists who share their values as traitors.
And that is what is happening in Israel today.
There is a concerted effort by the Right, both within the government and in extra-parliamentary movements, to push the certain liberal values out of the acceptable political lexicon in Israel.
By putting disproportionate focus on the foreign funding of human rights groups, these right-wing actors are saying that human rights are alien to Israel’s set of values.
By threatening the funding of artists who oppose certain aspects of Israel’s regime, the government is saying that you cannot criticize the regime without consequences.
By comparing the “radical left” to terrorist elements in the right-wing settler movement, the government is saying that anti-occupation activities will not be tolerated, something we saw with the draconian treatment of Ezra Nawi, Guy Butovia and Nasser Nawaj’ah in recent weeks.
***
The legitimate political spaces for opposing the occupation from within Israeli society are rapidly shrinking. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, leader of the Labor party often associated with Yitzhak Rabin’s peacemaking, declared this week that the two-state solution is not happening any time soon and has been trying to outflank Netanyahu from the right. The only remaining left-wing Zionist party in Israel, Meretz, hasn’t won more than six seats in the past 12 years.
Bad things happen when there is no room for dissent in a country’s politics. The opposition becomes weaker, the regime feels entitled enough to institute a tyranny of the majority (something Palestinians have fallen victim to since day one of Israel’s democracy), and political opponents become dissidents.
Those on the Right delegitimizing and ostracizing the home-grown “foreign moles” fighting the occupation are actually creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. For if it manages to eliminate the anti-occupation movement within Israeli politics and society, the world will stop deluding itself into believing that there’s a chance Israel can correct its own tragic trajectory. And when that happens, it’s a whole other game.
Update:
The following video of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making a fundraising pitch for Im Tirzu in 2012 has been circulating on social media today.
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So here we are. The day has arrived, and it seems no more believable than it did in the wee hours of Nov. 9 that Donald Trump is going to be the president, but he is. It’s fair to say that it’s a moment unlike any this country has ever faced. We’ve elected crooks and liars and incompetents and alcoholics. But there’s something I don’t think we’ve ever done, until now.
I don’t think we’ve ever had a president who seems not to care at all about the institutions of our government. He may care, I suppose, deep down, in some corner of his soul that stands as-yet unrevealed to us. But presidential campaigns are grueling, raw affairs; such passions are usually exposed at one point or another. In the 17 months since Trump announced his candidacy, though, he’s said nothing that I can recall that expresses the slightest reverence for our institutions or our system. When he has spoken of our institutions or traditions, it’s been to disparage them or to display his ignorance and indifference to them. He cited a section of the Constitution that doesn’t exist. He called our government a “swamp.” He disparaged the military and intelligence services. He said the election would be legitimate—if and only if he won.
This is new. Mitt Romney didn’t say the election would be legitimate only if he won (and to those who would counter that Trump was “joking,” I ask you to consider what Trump would have said if Hillary Clinton had won the electoral tally but lost the popular vote by 3 million). John McCain didn’t call the government a swamp. George W. Bush may not have been a constitutional lawyer, but I dare say he probably read the document once or twice anyway. I’m not favorably inclined toward any of these men ideologically, and in their times, I wrote very critically of them.
But I wrote critically of their ideological positions. I thought their ideas about what the Department of Justice should do or how the Fourteenth Amendment should be interpreted were anathema.
With the new president, though, the argument is something different. He thinks the Department of Justice and the Fourteenth Amendment should serve one thing: Trump. That’s it. He has no theories about them. Surely no American is naïve or self-deluding enough to think that Trump has ever read a book about the Department of Justice or the Fourteenth Amendment. It’s doubtful he’s ever read a newspaper article about either. They, and all our laws and branches of government, have no meaning to him, except, now, as instruments that can serve Trump.
That’s what makes this different. Trump has no belief system that fits into the existing American political schema in any logical way. He has no ideas. The idea that he adopted, the one that won him the presidency, about workers and trade, is just something he picked up and pounced on when he saw that it could help him. He saw three things. He saw that Bernie Sanders had lit a prairie fire on the issue; he saw that Hillary could be boxed into a corner on it, since she’d been for free trade; and, crucially, he saw that he could bend the ninnies in his party—that is, his new party, to which he has no actual loyalty—to his will. Reince Priebus chief among them, but almost everyone.
One thing he’s not is stupid about seeing openings; it’s how he’s survived bankruptcies that would have put lesser men—no, better men; think about that—in the poor house or in jail. He was right about all three things, and it was these three hunches that won him the White House. But he doesn’t actually care about them. He embraced them because they helped Trump. When the day comes that they don’t help Trump, he’ll toss them aside.
This is what we are dealing with, and this is what’s new: A president—a president!—with no belief system. This will mean, fellow liberal, that he’ll do something you like once in a while, when he hasn’t just farmed the decision out to the Heritage Foundation because he doesn’t give a crap. He might wake up one day in 2018, with Jared and Ivanka whispering in his ear about poll numbers, and decide the minimum wage should be $10.50. Fine. Nice. We’ll take it. But don’t be fooled. It’s cynicism. It’s caprice.
Someone with no respect for these institutions is someone who will destroy them. Bush wanted his war in Iraq. To do so, he (and Cheney and Rumsfeld and their gang) had to bend the Pentagon and the CIA to their will. They did this, and it was appalling. But they had enough respect for the institutions that they knew that they had to make it all look good, make it look official, make it so that the CIA could emerge from John Yoo’s interpretation of torture with the capacity to say, “Well, that was then, this is now.”
Bush and Cheney twisted these institutions but would never destroy them. Trump will destroy them, if keeping Trump on top requires it. Or try to. He might not succeed. And that is where we rest our hope—on conservative judges who will choose our institutions over Trump. Mark my words: It will come to this.
In the meantime, there will be the daily, weekly, monthly slog of feeling the man drag us all down, as he already has. How much worse are we as a people than we were 17 months ago? It’s impossible to measure precisely. But we know that we’ve gone from being shocked at the idea of having a presidential candidate shout about building a wall to debating whether Congress would appropriate the funds for it; from being scandalized at the very idea of a Muslim registry to wondering how such a thing could be implemented; from being aghast that a sexual predator could sit in the Oval Office to not even mentioning it anymore. All that happened without him even being president. To what will we be sensitized with him holding the office?
We survived the crooks and liars and incompetents and alcoholics. I think we’ll survive Trump too. But it will require people on the left and the right to guard our institutions, and to say to him no, you just can’t do that. I was struck Thursday by words written by Eliot A. Cohen, a conservative, writing in The American Interest: “nothing will teach him gravitas, magnanimity, or wisdom.”
No, nothing will. But I still hold out the hope that we the people can punish him for his lack of those qualities, his lack of any belief system. He didn’t win a majority of our votes. He doesn’t today have a majority of our support. And time will show that gravitas, magnanimity, and wisdom, especially wisdom, still matter.
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Police responded to an incident in central London on Saturday night following a report a van has hit a number of pedestrians on London Bridge and of stabbings in nearby Borough Market. The Prime Minister confirmed the incident is being treated as an act of terrorism.
At 22:08hrs British Summer Time (BST) on Saturday, Metropolitan Police officers responded to reports of a vehicle in collision with pedestrians.
Police say the vehicle carried on down Borough Market where it came to a stop and three attackers then disembarked from the vehicle. They began stabbing members of the public with knives in pubs and restaurants in the popular dining area, some fatally.
Within eight minutes of first calls being made, at 22:16, the three attackers were shot dead by armed officers outside of the Wheatsheaf Pub.
The Metropolitan has confirmed seven fatalities, in addition to the three terrorists, and 48 injured individuals being treated in five hospitals across the city.
Updates to the live blog continue below…
12:30 BST — Victims from all over the world
While the identity of one of the victims of Saturday’s attack has been revealed as Canadian citizen Chrissy Archibald, there are six more known to have been killed by the three Islamist knifemen. No more names have come forward, but speaking at the scene at a press conference Monday afternoon London Mayor Sadiq Khan revealed the nationalities of the other victims, who may include the dead and injured. He said:
“the victims include not just people from London, but people from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Spain… you realise what a truly global city London is”.
12:00 — Attack suspect may have appeared in Channel 4 Jihad documentary
Revelations made overnight suggest one of the London Bridge attackers was allegedly a well-known Islamist, who had even appeared on a Channel 4 documentary about Islamic extremism in the United Kingdom, and was seen praying to an Islamic State battle flag in a London park. Read more here.
10:00 BST — More counter-terror arrests
London’s Metropolitan Police and Counter Terrorism Command have made a number of new raids on London addresses, as they seek accomplices of Saturday’s terror trio who attacked London Bridge. Somewhat unusually, the number of individuals arrested and detained under terrorism legislation during these raids has not seen specified.
Scotland Yard said in a statement this morning:
At around 04:15hrs on Monday, 5 June, officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command investigating the London Bridge terror attack entered two further addresses – one in Newham and another in Barking. A number of people have been detained and are at present being spoken to. Searches are ongoing at both addresses.
The force has said an “enormous” amount of forensic material had been seized during the course of the searched.
As of Sunday afternoon, 12 arrests had taken place.
02:14 BST
Christine Archibald, a young woman originally from Castlegar, B.C., was among the seven people killed in Saturday night’s attack in London.
00:09 BST
23:15 BST – Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the London Bridge terror attack
BREAKING: The head of the SITE intelligence group says the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the London attacks. — The Associated Press (@AP) June 4, 2017
According to the AP: “The SITE Intelligence Group says Islamic State’s news agency is claiming fighters for the extremist group carried out the van and knife attack in London that left seven people dead.
“SITE said in a statement Sunday that the Islamic State’s Aamaq news service cited ‘a security source’ in the Arabic-language posting claiming the attack.
“Islamic State has often made such claims not just when it has sent attackers, but when extremists carrying out deadly plots were inspired by the group’s ideology.
“It’s the third attack this year that Islamic State has claimed in Britain, after the bombing in Manchester and a similar attack in the heart of London in March.
“The three attackers in Saturday’s attack have not been identified.”
22:40 BST – Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley confirms arrests following raids in Barking; identities of three men responsible to be released as soon as operationally possible.
“Officers have been working tirelessly to process the crime scenes and release the cordons. We are hopeful that some of the cordons around London Bridge station will be released during the course of tomorrow morning…
“The public can expect to see additional police – both armed and unarmed officers – across the Capital as you would expect in these circumstances. And our security and policing plans for events are being reviewed, the public will also see increased physical measures on London’s bridges to keep the public safe.”
Officers have made 12 arrests and are at present searching 4 properties.
[A] 38-year-old woman arrested at address 1 in Barking;
[B] 28-year-old man arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[C] 52-year-old man arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[D] 55-year-old man arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[E] 27-year-old man arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[F] 55-year-old man arrested at address 2 in Barking, who has since been released without charge;
[G] 49-year-old woman arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[H] 60-year-old woman arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[I] 19-year-old woman arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[J] 27-year-old female arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[K] 24-year-old female arrested at address 2 in Barking;
[L] 53-year-old woman arrested at address 2 in Barking;
“There have been no arrests at two residential addresses in Newham, although a number of people have been spoken to.
“During the arrest stage Sunday no officers have deployed a TASER or a firearm.
“All of those arrested have been detained under the Terrorism Act.”
AC Rowley stated the Met will release the identities of the three men directly responsible for the attacks as soon as operationally possible.
22:30 BST – Borough Station has now reopened
#Borough – the station has now reopened, following an earlier police investigation. — TfL Travel Alerts (@TfLTravelAlerts) June 4, 2017
20:55 BST – Acting United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom Lewis Lukens has offered his condolences and support. Praises London Mayor Sadiq Khan
The response from emergency services, law enforcement & officials in Ldn–as well as ordinary Londoners–has been extraordinary. – LLukens 2/3 — U.S. Embassy London (@USAinUK) June 4, 2017
I commend the strong leadership of the @MayorofLondon as he leads the city forward after this heinous attack. – LLukens 3/3 https://t.co/p4dDZuCpyO — U.S. Embassy London (@USAinUK) June 4, 2017
20:20 BST – One Canadian citizen confirmed amongst the fatalities
The prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, issued the following statement after Saturday night’s terrorist attack:
“Canada strongly condemns the senseless attack that took place last night in London, United Kingdom, which killed and injured many innocent people. I am heartbroken that a Canadian is among those killed.
“We grieve with the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones, and wish all those injured a speedy and full recovery.
“Londoners and people across the United Kingdom have always displayed strength and resilience in the face of adversity. We recently witnessed this after the attacks in Manchester and in the Westminster area of London. This time will be no different.
“These hateful acts do not deter us; they only strengthen our resolve. Canadians stand united with the British people. We will continue to work together with the United Kingdom and all our allies to fight terrorism and bring perpetrators to justice.
“The Government of Canada will not comment further at this time out of respect for the family.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: 'I am heartbroken that a Canadian is among those killed." #LondonAttacks pic.twitter.com/NEO4nTyGbF — CanadianUK (@CanadianUK) June 4, 2017
18:50 BST – French citizens amongst the injured, one Frenchman killed
One Frenchman was killed and seven other French nationals were wounded in Saturday night’s attack, the French foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, has confirmed.
Four of the injured French are in a critical condition and one more is still unaccounted for, he said.
We are very sad to report the death of 1 french citizen in the #LondonAttacks. 7 compatriots are injured (4 badly) and one pers is missing. — French Embassy UK (@FranceintheUK) June 4, 2017
16:50 BST – Met Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley gives an update on terror attack, confirming eight police officers discharged their weapons
Mr. Rowley confirmed the Met are “are making significant progress in identifying the three attackers, and that there were no other suspects at the scene, when the attack was carried out”.
“Work is ongoing to understand more about them, their connections and whether they were assisted or supported by anyone else. As I think you are aware there are searches ongoing in east London, and 12 arrests have been made. There is of course more to do, and we will work relentlessly to establish the facts.”
The Met has confirmed that the van used in the attack, a white Renault van, was recently hired by one of the attackers.
“Our understanding is growing and as we currently understand it the van entered London Bridge at 21:58 travelling from the North to the South side of the river. The van mounted the pavement, and collided with pedestrians before being abandoned, where the attackers, armed with knives, continued into the Borough Market area, stabbing numerous people.
“The attackers were then confronted by the firearms officers and I can confirm that eight police firearms officers discharged their weapons. Whilst this will be subject to thorough investigation by the IPCC our initial assessment is that in the region of 50 rounds were discharged by 8 officers. The three attackers were shot dead.”
“As the officers confronted the terrorists – and were shot – a member of the public also suffered gunshot wounds. Although we do not believe the injuries to critical in nature, they are in hospital receiving medical attention. We will of course keep you updated on that.”
Mr. Rowlety confirmed that seven people had been killed in addition to the three attackers and work was ongoing to inform next of kin.
He said that the cordons in and around the London Bridge and Borough Market area will remain in place.
“The public can expect to see additional police – both armed and unarmed officers – across the Capital. And our security and policing plans for events are being reviewed. The public will also see an increased physical measures in order to keep public safe on London’s bridges,” he added.
16:30 BST – Searches are taking place at a property on a shop complex in East Ham, London
Sky Sources: searches are taking place in East Ham in London following the London Bridge attack — Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) June 4, 2017
15:55 BST – NHS England confirms 21 people are still in critical condition
NHS England has said 36 people are still in hospital, 21 people in a critical condition after the attack.
36 patients still in hospital after London attacks – 21 in critical care – Theresa May visited King's College Hospital — Hugh Pym (@BBCHughPym) June 4, 2017
15:50 BST -‘ Incredibly brave’ stabbed police officer fought off attackers armed with just a baton now in stable condition
The Telegraph reports that the British Transport Police officer who confronted the attackers was armed with only a baton.
BTP said the officer has only been with the force for two years. He is believed to be in a stable condition and recovering from his injuries in hospital suffering face, head, and leg injuries.
BTP chief constable Paul Crowther, who visited the officer in hospital, said he showed “enormous courage in the face of danger”.
He said: “Although he is seriously unwell, he was able to recount how he faced the attackers armed only with his baton, outside London Bridge station. “For an officer who only joined us less than two years ago, the bravery he showed was outstanding and makes me extremely proud. “All of us at BTP wish him a swift recovery, and I know he will be touched by the hundreds of messages of support from across the UK and the world. “Our thoughts are with all of those who died or were injured, and their loved ones as they try to come to terms with what happened.”
15:20 BST – UKIP MEP Nigel Farage Slams Sadiq Khan and Theresa May for their responses to terror attack saying: “People want action.”
“I’m afraid we’ve been absolutely hidebound in this country by political correctness,” Mr. Farage said.
“I’m afraid that one of those people who simply hasn’t done enough is Theresa May. She was the one who was for six years our home secretary. She was in charge of homeland security.
“Today she stood on the steps of Downing Street and said: ‘Enough is enough‘.”
“For the prime minister just to say ‘enough is enough’ that is not going to satisfy people – people want action.”
For more on Nigel Farage’s comments, read here.
14:20 BST – Prime Minister of Israel responds to news of the London Bridge Terror attack
The prime minister of Israel Binyamin Netanyahu’s office tweeted: “London Bridge will not fall. Together we will vanquish terror. # LondonAttacks”
London Bridge will not fall. Together we will vanquish terror. #LondonAttacks — PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) June 4, 2017
The note of support comes after Israel’s Foreign Ministry and members of the Knesset on Sunday condemned the “horrific” London terror attacks, with Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan remarking that now there was a “greater understanding” in Britain of Israel’s long-suffering history of Palestinian terrorism.
13:40 BST – 12 Arrests in Barking
London Metropolitan Police have confirmed that officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command have arrested 12 people in Barking, east London, in connection with last night’s incidents in London Bridge and the Borough Market area. Searches of a number of addresses in Barking are continuing.
For more on this story read here.
13:00 BST – Report – first police officer on the scene took on all terrorists until forced to the ground. In serious condition in hospital.
According to Sky News sources, the first police officer on the scene, a rugby player, took on all the terrorists until he was forced to ground. He is reportedly in serious condition in hospital.
Sky sources:first police officer on the scene (rugby player) took on all terrorists until he was forced to ground. Serious condition in hosp — Kay Burley (@KayBurley) June 4, 2017
12:35 BST – U.S. President Donald Trump comments on Sadiq Kahn’s statement that Londoners “shouldn’t be alarmed”
At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!" — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017
London Mayor Sadiq Khan told media earlier on:
“Londoners should be aware that there will be additional armed and unarmed police officers on our streets from tonight in order to keep Londoners, and all those visiting out city safe.
“I want to reassure all Londoners, and all our visitors, not to be alarmed. Our city remains one of the safest in the world.
“London is the greatest city in the world and we stand together in the face of those who seek to harm us and destroy our way of life.
“We always have and we always will. Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism.”
12:30 BST – Arrests following raids in Barking
Five people are reportedly being held after armed police raided flats in Barking following last night’s Islamist terror attack near London Bridge.
For more from Breitbart London read here.
12:00 BST – Man photographed attacker
https://twitter.com/Jim_Edwards/status/871295844414349312
Gabrielle Sciotto, who took the photograph, described the image to the BBC who said the suspect appears to have materials strapped to his body which looked like a bomb and is bleeding from his left arm.
“I saw three men with this belt with some sort of bomb-looking explosive on them.
“I thought it wasn’t real. It didn’t look real. I don’t know if that was or wasn’t.”
“By the time a couple more police came to the scene, and they surrounded these people and they shot them down.”
Police confirmed that the explosive vests were hoaxes.
11:00 BST – Prime Minister Theresa May’s Statement Following Chairing COBRA – Britain has become “too tolerant of extremism”, vows to tackle “safe spaces” of Islamist extremism.
Prime Minister Theresa May made a statement outside of 10 Downing Street following chairing the meeting of COBRA:
Referencing the Westminster terror attack and Manchester attack, Ms. May said: “In terms of planning and execution, the recent attacks are not connected. But we believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threats we face as terrorism breeds terrorism and perpetrators are inspired to attack not only on the basis of carefully constructed plots after years of planning and training and not even of attackers radicalising online, but copying one another.”
“We cannot and must not pretend that things can continue as they are. Things need to change and need to change in four important ways”:
1) Ms. May stated that the attacks are bound together by “the single ideology of Islamist extremism” which she called “a perversion of Islam”.
“Defeating this ideology is the greatest challenge of our time. But we cannot defeat it through military intervention alone” or permanent defensive counterterrorism operations. She said it will only be defeated when “people’s minds are turned away” from Islamism and they are “made to understand that our values…are superior to anything offered by the preachers of and supporters of hate”.
2) “Safe spaces” where this ideology is allowed to breed online must be tackled, she said, saying that they need to work with foreign governments to reach “international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremism and terrorism planning”.
3) The prime minister also targeted “safe spaces that exist in the real world”. “Yes that means military action to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but that also means taking action here at home”
“Yes that means military action to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but that also means taking action here at home.”
“There is, to be frank, too much tolerance of extremism in the country. So we need to become far more robust in identifying it and stamping it out across the public sector and across society.
“That will require often embarrassing and difficult conversations. But the whole of our country needs to come together to take on this extremism and we need to live our lives not as a series of separted, segregated communities but as one truly United Kingdom.”
4) Robust counter terrorism strategy: “As the nature of the threat become more complex, fragmented, and hidden, especially online, the strategy needs to keep up. so in light of what we are learning about the changing threat we need to review Britain’s counter terrorism strategy to make sure police and secruity services have all the power they need. And if we need to increase the length of custodial sentences for terror-related ofences, even apparently less serious offences, that is what we will do.”
“It is time to say enough is enough. Everbody must go about their lives as they normally would.”
The prime minister stated that the Conservative and other parties will suspend campaigning for Sunday, but the election will go ahead as planned on Thursday.
Enough is enough. Read my response to last night’s brutal terror attack: https://t.co/MHQ4SPG0aQ — Theresa May (@theresa_may) June 4, 2017
10:40 BST – Live police operating in Barking
Sky News reports a block of flats in Barking have been taped off and a police operation is underway.
10:25 BST – Theresa May statement on the attack expected Sunday morning
The prime minister has led a meeting of crisis response committee COBRA and will make a statement Sunday morning.
I have just led a meeting of COBR in response to the appalling London attack and I will soon be making a statement in Downing Street. — Theresa May (@theresa_may) June 4, 2017
10:00 BST – UKIP Leader Paul Nuttall confirms the party will not suspend national campaigning.
In a press release released Sunday morning, Mr. Nuttall stated: “With more people murdered on the streets of our capital city last night by Islamist terrorists, it is more important than ever for us to confront this evil with the democratic principles that have made this country what it is.
“Our hearts go out to the family and friends of those who lost their lives last night. The courage and quick response of our emergency services have yet again saved countless lives and in the midst of such a tragedy, deserve our respect and admiration.
“It is time to start honouring our dead with more than just words. The only guarantee that will come from our choosing to stall the democratic process again will be more attacks; it is what these cowards want us to do.
“For those of us seeking to serve the people of this country, it is our duty to drive the dialogue on how best to confront and defeat this brand of terrorism. That is what UKIP will be doing today and beyond. Therefore, I refuse to suspend campaigning because this is precisely what the extremists would want us to do.”
The Labour Party, Conservatives, and SNP have confirmed they will be suspending campaigning.
Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, SNP & Greens suspend their national election campaigns following the London attack https://t.co/Ymz519DxCD pic.twitter.com/Bp2Ao7WkwW — BBC News England (@BBCEngland) June 4, 2017
09:50 BST – Parts of London Bridge return to normal, police and cordons remain in place
Activity has resumed on London Bridge Sunday morning with Double Decker buses seen crossing the bridge. However, police cordons remain in place.
Photo by Rachel Megawhat/Breitbart London
Photo by Rachel Megawhat/Breitbart London
09:35 BST – Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick Confirms Seventh Death, Incident “under control”
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has confirmed that seven members of the public have died in addition to the 3 attackers, 48 people were injured and taken to hospital for treatment.
“We believe this incident is under control”, but the cordon will remain in place as police need t conduct a thorough search to ensure everyone is accounted for and to make area safe.
7 members of the public died in #LondonAttacks as well as 3 attackers – London Met police chief Cressida Dick https://t.co/ptuTcTqqL2 pic.twitter.com/MpTm7wbtl8 — BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) June 4, 2017
“At the moment we believe there are three attackers, and they are dead,” Ms. Dick confirmed to reporters.
09:20 BST – Armed Officers at Borough Market Sunday Morning
Armed officers with ballistic shields are currently moving through the Borough Market area carrying out searches.
09:15 BST – Metropolitan Police are appealing for images and film of the attack
Anybody who has images or film of the #LondonBridge #BoroughMarket incident please help police by uploading it at https://t.co/YKydWRtFm3 pic.twitter.com/l0VlrPbwCI — Counter Terrorism Policing UK (@TerrorismPolice) June 4, 2017
6:25 BST – London Ambulance now updates that 48 injured people from the attack were taken to five hospitals
We have taken 48 patients to hospital following the incident at #LondonBridge https://t.co/hCiKVCBrnb pic.twitter.com/5ipl5vtcTB — London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) June 4, 2017
5:50 BST – Dutch populist leader Geert Wilders:
London, Manchester, Berlin, Nice, Paris etc it will all happen again and again until we acknowledge that Islam is the problem and fight back — Geert Wilders (@geertwilderspvv) June 4, 2017
4:55 BST – British Transport Police report one of their officers is seriously injured in the attack
We can confirm a BTP officer was seriously injured as he responded to tonight’s incident at London Bridge & Borough https://t.co/pev4Hb3904 pic.twitter.com/VG2DwqA3C5 — BTP (@BTP) June 4, 2017
4:35 BST – London Ambulance updates patient count from attack to 30
Our latest statement on the #LondonBridge incident. We have taken 30 patients to five hospitals across London https://t.co/hCiKVCBrnb pic.twitter.com/B3PrRKoMUR — London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) June 4, 2017
4:05 BST – Scotland Yard confirms at least six dead from terror attack
During a press conference, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley stated that six people were dead and three attackers were shot and killed by police.
“You will understand that our knowledge of the incident is still growing but what we understand at the present time is:
At 22:08hrs yesterday evening we began to receive reports that a vehicle had struck pedestrians on London Bridge.
The vehicle continued to drive from London Bridge to Borough Market.
The suspects then left the vehicle and a number of people were stabbed, including an on-duty British Transport Police officer who was responding to the incident at London Bridge. He received serious but not life-threatening injuries. His family has been informed.
Armed officers responded very quickly and bravely, confronting three male suspects who were shot and killed in Borough Market. The suspects had been confronted and shot by the police within eight minutes of the first call. The suspects were wearing what looked like explosive vests but these were later established to be hoaxes. …”
Full statement here.
Breaking News: #London police said that at least nine people, including three attackers, were killed in the attacks late Saturday night. pic.twitter.com/3zmkmuPl89 — Fox News (@FoxNews) June 4, 2017
03:45 BST – U.S. President Donald Trump calls UK Prime Minister Theresa May. Statement from the White House:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 2017
READOUT OF PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP’S CALL WITH PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
President Donald J. Trump spoke with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom today. The President offered his condolences for the brutal terror attacks on June 3 in central London. He praised the heroic response of police and other first responders and offered the full support of the United States Government in investigating and bringing those responsible for these heinous acts to justice.
###
03:05 BST – London Ambulance confirms at least 20 patients have been taken to six hospitals across London
Our latest statement about the incident in #LondonBridge. We have taken at least 20 patients to six hospitals across London. pic.twitter.com/eDRdk48CBu — London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) June 4, 2017
02:50 BST – Photo appears to show a suspect with a canister strapped to him
A photo taken by London-based photographer Gabriele Sciotto appears to show a man with a canister strapped to his body near the initial terror attack site.
London terror attacks: The photographer of this image says it shows the attacker on the ground (Pic: Gabriele Sciotto) pic.twitter.com/mId3dHtHh2 — Sky News (@SkyNews) June 4, 2017
02:30 BST – Eyewitness account of stabbing on London Bridge
BBC’s political correspondent Mark Lobel interviews a man who witnessed the stabbing on London Bridge during the attack:
Terrifying testimony from stabbing witness Gerard who just spoke to me about what happened #LondonBridge pic.twitter.com/Rn8cNfklHH — Mark Lobel (@marklobel) June 4, 2017
02:00 BST – London Mayor Sadiq Khan releases statement
Khan, who said last September that the threat of terror attacks is just “part and parcel of living in a big city,” just released a statement acknowledging Saturday’s attacks were acts of terror:
We don’t yet know the full details, but this was a deliberate and cowardly attack on innocent Londoners and visitors to our city enjoying their Saturday night. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms. There is no justification whatsoever for such barbaric acts.
His full statement here.
01:25 BST – Air Ambulance emergency services, SAS deployed
Emergency services have confirmed an advanced trauma unit from the Air Ambulance has been dispatched to the scene
Our latest statement about #LondonBridge incident. We've sent a number of resources to scene & more info will follow https://t.co/hCiKVCBrnb pic.twitter.com/nCoIPoXCrV — London Ambulance (@Ldn_Ambulance) June 4, 2017
There is also speculation that the SAS has been deployed.
01:15 BST – Telegraph reports assailant shouted “this is for Allah”
The Telegraph has reported that an eye witness on London Bridge told the BBC he saw three men stabbing people indiscriminately, shouting “this is for Allah”.
He told the paper that he saw a van driving on the pavement with people running out of the way before three men got out. “They literally just started kicking them, punching them, they took out knives. It was a rampage really,” he said
“They headed down towards Southwark Cathedral towards the bar, and starting running at people. “People at the bar started fighting back. then the three of them decided to make their way up to the bridge “A woman was staring at them and they started stabbing her. “Throughout the whole way across the bridge, there were people littered across bleeding. People were trying to help each other.” He added he had heard them shouting “this is for Allah”
01:00 BST – Reuters reporting witness saw people having their throats cut
Reuters is reporting that a person who was on London Bridge after an incident on Saturday told a Reuters reporter that she saw three people who appeared to have their throats cut.
00:45 BST – The incident is ongoing and members of the public are being advised to avoid the London Bridge and Borough Market areas
Pls continue to avoid #LondonBridge #BoroughMarket to allow the emergency services to deal with the ongoing incidents — Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 3, 2017
Marine 2 and Marine 3 are part of the response to the #London Bridge incident. Working with @RNLI lifeboats to evacuate the public. — MPSonthewater (@MPSonthewater) June 3, 2017
00:25 BST – Prime Minister to chair COBRA, confirms incident being treated as “potential act of terrorism” reaction from U.S. President Donald Trump
Prime Minister Theresa May will chair a meeting of the crisis response committee COBRA on Sunday morning.
She said that the “terrible incident” in London is being treated as a “potential act of terrorism”.
Ms. May said: “Following updates from police and security officials, I can fconfirm that the terrible incident in London is being treated as a potential act of terrorism.
“This is a fast moving investigation. I want to express my huge gratitude to the police and emergency services who are on the scene. Our thoughts are with those who are caught up in these dreadful events.”
U.S. President Donald J. Trump has voiced his support for the Britain at this time.
Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there – WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2017
Downing Street: Theresa May "in contact with officials"; US President Donald Trump briefed on #LondonBridge incident https://t.co/EAkjGxcMkf — BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) June 3, 2017
00:15 BST Sunday – Vauxhall area cleared, station reopened
Police have confirmed that Vauxhall Station has reopened.
Vauxhall: the station has reopened. — Victoria line (@victorialine) June 3, 2017
23:50 BST – Met Police advise people to “Run, Hide, Tell”
Police have issued safety guidelines for people in the area. Metropolitan Police have confirmed they are responding to incidenst in London Bridge, nearby Borough Market, and Vauxhall.
23:45 BST – Met Police confirm reports of stabbings in Borough Market near London Bridge
Metropolitan Police confirmed they are responding to reports of stabbings and shots have been fired. Officers are now also responding to an incident in the Vauxhall area, south of the Thames.
Officers have then responded to reports of stabbings in #BoroughMarket. Armed officers responded and shots have been fired. 2/3 — Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 3, 2017
Officers are now responding to an incident in the #Vauxhall area. 3/3 — Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 3, 2017
23:30 BST – Downing Street confirms PM in contact with officials
Downing Street said: “The prime minister is in contact with officials and is being regularly updated on the incident at London Bridge.”
23:26 BST – Met Police confirm they are responding to an incident in nearby Borough Market
Metropolitan Police have confirmed they are also responding to an incident in Borough Market. Armed police are at the scene.
As well as #LondonBridge officers have also responsed to an incident in #BoroughMarket. We have armed police at the scenes. — Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 3, 2017
London Bridge and Borough stations closed due to ongoing incident. Please avoid area. Updates from @metpoliceuk — British Transport Police (@BTP) June 3, 2017
Images from the scene also show multiple police vehicles attending.
23:00 BST – video footage from inside a nearby restaurant, armed police entering
Video footage from inside a restaurant in the area close to the attack appears to show patrons being advised to get down on the floor should armed police enter, later patrons are advised to get down by armed officers.
BREAKING: several London police officers enter bar at London Bridge telling people to get down ##Londonbridge pic.twitter.com/D6ENve8GZS — HomeGrownManc🔴🔴 (@footballgossiph) June 3, 2017
This story is developing…
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North Korea may well fulfil its threat to hit US targets on South Korean territory if continued pressure by Washington puts Pyongyang at an impasse, Pavel Zolotarev, a retired Russian Major General, told RT.
“A US strike against North Korea may go against common logic, but when a country is governed by propaganda – and the United States are going through such a period – political decisions go beyond rational logic, and there we can have consequences that are hard to foresee,” Zolotarev warned.
Read more
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump promised to bring “fire and fury like the world has never seen” on North Korea if it doesn’t stop tests aimed at the developing a nuclear-tipped long-range ballistic missile. Than the next day he went even further to say that the “fire and fury” warning to North Korea may not have been “tough enough.”
Increased pressure from Washington may force the North to “be more assertive in terms of retaliatory measures,” with South Korea becoming hostage in this situation, he warned.
“Strikes may be carried out, targeting either US facilities in South Korea or the South Korean territory itself,” Zolotarev, who is the Deputy Director of the Institute for US and Canadian Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said.
“One shouldn’t forget that the South Korean capital, Seoul, is within the reach of (North Korean) artillery,” he added.
READ MORE: N. Koreans denounce Trump's 'fire & fury' threat in massive rally (VIDEO)
The expert stressed that claims by Korean People’s Army that they have plans worked out to strike US bases in Guam are “no bluff.”
“Every country’s military have to elaborate deployment strategies for any eventuality. It is politicians – not the military – who decide on whether or not to use such plans… So, if North Korean military talk of such plans, it means they actually have them,” he explained.
If the armed confrontation between the US and the North eventually breaks out, the Americans shouldn’t expect it to be a walk in the park, Zolotarev said.
“The North Korean military may inflict significant damage to US forces during a conventional conflict. Though their equipment is far beyond the American assets, their combat readiness and military morale are much higher,” he said.
‘N Koreans will sell last shirt for ICBM’
No threats from Washington or even the harshest sanctions will make Pyongyang abandon its plan to develop its own intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Aleksandr Tsalko, a Russian retired Air Force general, told RT.
“[The North Koreans] will sell the last shirt from their back, but will make [the missile],” Tsalko said.
However, he expressed doubt that Pyongyang currently has the capability to carry out nuclear strikes against American bases in Guam and elsewhere if attacked.
Read more
“They claim they have one, but having a long-range missile and being capable of delivering a nuclear strike are two different things. They need to make a nuclear warhead that their missile can carry, to learn how to hit a target with it at long range,” the co-founder of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policies said.
“I doubt North Korea now has a guidance system good enough for that. They can make a bang somewhere in the sea, but that’s all,” he added.
Despite the US being serious about North Korean claims that it tested an ICBM, the Russian military insists that its data shows that Pyongyang only fired a mid-range missile.
The former general said that while the US is overwhelmingly more powerful than North Korea, launching an attack at the country would come with a significant cost for America’s allies in the region, namely South Korea and Japan.
“However few short and intermediate-range missiles North Korea has, they are enough to cause unacceptable amount of damage, if a nuclear warhead is used,” he said.
“The Americans should have enough brains not to do it [attack Pyongyang]. As long as they don’t hurt North Korea, it will not take any action in return,” Tsalko said.
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