Split (2)

validation · 33.4k rows

text stringlengths 19 100k	meta dict
See full bio » Ellen McLain is an opera singer and voice actress from Nashville, Tennessee, USA. She provides the voices of many characters in several video games from Valve. Among them are GLaDOS, the artificial-intelligence antagonist in Portal (2007) (for which she won an AIAS Interactive Achievement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance)... Born: December 1, 1952 in in Nashville, Tennessee, USA	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce issued sharp criticism of President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE on Friday ahead of his announcement of a national emergency on the border, saying the move would "erode" the country's system of government. ADVERTISEMENT "We have long fought against attempts by the executive branch to usurp the powers of Congress and to create law, such as we have seen in recent decades with the rise of the regulatory administrative state," Chamber President Thomas Donohue wrote in a statement. "We have also fought against attempts by the Congress to usurp the power of the executive. "The declaration of national emergency in this instance will create a dangerous precedent that erodes the very system of government that has served us so well for over 200 years," Donohue continued. "The U.S. Chamber urges the president not to attempt to declare a national emergency. Instead, we urge the president and members of Congress of both parties to negotiate and find common ground on immigration and border security." Shortly after the statement, Trump said he would be declaring a national emergency to bypass Congress and build his proposed wall along the southern border with Mexico. The controversial move is likely to spark a long court battle. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellPelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Senate GOP aims to confirm Trump court pick by Oct. 29: report Trump argues full Supreme Court needed to settle potential election disputes MORE (R-Ky.) announced Thursday evening that Trump would sign a proposed compromise bill that would keep the federal government open while providing $1.375 billion for construction of barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border. That figure falls well short of the $5.7 billion Trump had sought. By declaring a national emergency, Trump intends to redirect funding from military construction projects and drug-interdiction programs to pay for the wall.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
On Sunday, Sergey Ignatovsky will vote in Ukraine’s snap general election, and put his faith in pro-western politicians to lead his country to victory in its war with separatist rebels and their Russian backers. But, like a growing number of his countrymen, the Kiev lawyer is also, as he puts it, “preparing for the very worst”. “We are getting ready to fight an underground war if necessary,” he says. “For years we didn’t see Russia as a potential enemy and were not ready for aggression from our neighbour. Our defence officials and generals were drinking vodka, selling equipment and making money.” “At the start of the conflict in the east, our soldiers – even special forces – lacked training and modern gear and experience. They are learning fast, but Russia has been fighting in Chechnya and elsewhere for 20 years. “So civilians must be ready to resist. Everyone involved should know their role and how to act in a guerrilla war – who to contact, where to go, how to hide, where to get weapons. We need to prepare small groups to act against the enemy, if necessary, across the whole country. And we are starting to train for that now.” Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, insists his country is not involved in a war in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that has killed more than 3,600 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. But serving Russian soldiers have been killed and captured fighting in Ukraine, the West has produced satellite images that allegedly show Russian forces crossing the border and firing artillery into the country, and Kiev’s soldiers say it was the Russian army they fought in a major “rebel” counterattack in August. That bloody shift in battlefield momentum forced Kiev to agree a ceasefire deal with the separatists, and convinced many Ukrainians that Putin would do whatever was necessary to ensure the failure of post- revolution, pro-EU Ukraine. Volunteer battalion It also prompted Semyon Semyonchenko, leader of the Ukrainian volunteer battalion Donbas that is fighting in the east, to call on his compatriots to prepare to resist a possible Russian invasion of regions further west, or the incitement by Moscow of insurrection in regions such as Odessa and Kharkiv. Training weekends are now taking place in several cities, with instruction from army veterans now serving with Donbas – which is named after the industrial, mostly Russian-speaking area that includes Donetsk and Luhansk. “We don’t just need people who can shoot,” says Ignatovsky. “We need doctors and engineers and communications and information specialists. Lots of different people are involved already – among my friends there are lawyers, businessmen, IT guys and even insurance guys.” Speaking fluent English between sips of cappuccino in a swish bar in Kiev, Ignatovsky (39) does not come across as a military fantasist or macho “weekend warrior”. “I’m not an idiot, I have a wife and daughter and I don’t want to die. But I will fight if I have to. And my wife supports me and is taking a medical training course.” He says the volunteer spirit, which has spawned dozens of fighting battalions and now would-be partisan cells, was kindled by last winter’s revolution, when protesters sustained a huge protest camp on Kiev’s Independence Square for almost three months – until corrupt, Kremlin- backed president Viktor Yanukovich and his allies fled to Russia. Countless people contributed in different ways to help the opposition movement and the main Maidan camp survive, and Ignatovsky and friends delivered food, firewood, clothes, tents and generators to the protesters – as well as petrol for the Molotov cocktails radicals hurled at riot police. “Now we and others are doing something similar in the conflict zone,” he says. “Our soldiers had terrible equipment: old helmets and flak jackets and not enough of them. So people started to raise money through social networks to buy what our forces need. And it’s better and quicker to do it all ourselves, to avoid official bureaucracy and corruption.” “Like on Maidan, it started chaotically and quickly got more organised. Up to now we have taken everything from food to night-vision goggles, flak jackets and even improvised armoured vans to our soldiers in the east.” The guerrilla tradition goes back centuries in Ukraine, however, and on Maidan it was striking to see Cossack leaders invoked in what protesters saw as a struggle to free the country from the grip of corruption, oligarchs and Russian domination. Alongside the nation’s blue-and-yellow flag, the most common colours on Maidan were the red-and-black flown by generations of nationalists, with many banners invoking the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) loyal to Stepan Bandera. The UPA sought to carve out an independent state in western Ukraine amid the bloody chaos of the second World War, fighting against both the Nazis and Soviets but also forming occasional alliances of convenience with German units. The insurgent army – which at its peak had tens of thousands of members – massacred and expelled thousands of Poles and is accused of committing atrocities against Jews. Bandera’s guerrillas are lionised in western Ukraine, however, as patriots who battled massively superior Nazi and then Soviet forces and resisted the Red Army and KGB in isolated units, hiding in deep caves and forests, until the 1950s. For decades the Kremlin has portrayed Bandera’s movement as a murderous rabble of Russian-hating fascists, in what many Ukrainians see as a crude but successful attempt to discredit their drive for real independence from Moscow and to obscure Soviet crimes against Ukraine – including massacres and deportations and a man-made 1932-1933 famine that killed several million Ukrainians. Symbols of independence There are neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine, and some dominate certain volunteer battalions, but the vast majority of people who now chant UPA slogans and wave its flags see them and Bandera as symbols of independence and resistance to Russia. “The UPA didn’t go to Moscow to kill anyone. They were just protecting their land from people who came here to enslave them, nothing more. They protected their right to be Ukrainians and to live in an independent state,” says Miroslav Boiko, as a sharp wind tugged at his camouflage jacket. He is a guide to vast cave complexes in western Ukraine, where UPA fighters sheltered, recovered from battle and even practised shooting – bullet scars and fighters’ nicknames and nationalist emblems still mark some cave walls. He says the war in the east has only intensified western Ukrainians’ already powerful association with the UPA, and self- defence units are springing up around the area. “People are training to dig trenches, lay ambushes and survive in different wild nature conditions,” he says. “But if you are preparing for partisan war the information should be secret. So the ones who are really ready for underground activity say: ‘Let [the enemy] come to us and we will show them.’” For Ignatovsky, finishing his cappuccino and preparing to return to his law practice, the UPA is an example and model for Ukraine’s new partisans: “We are trying to base our system on the UPA – this is our country’s history and tradition.” And in Sunday’s election he will vote for a new party that he thinks captures the spirit of the times. “The party wants people to go out and do something – to act,” Ignatovsky says, “and I like its name: Self-Reliance.”	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Share this article on LinkedIn Email Lewis Hamilton will receive a five-place grid drop for the Bahrain Grand Prix as the Mercedes team has had to change his gearbox prior to qualifying. Hamilton's car suffered a left-rear tyre failure at the end of final practice, and also incurred suspension damage in the incident. Mercedes has had to change the car's left rear corner as a result, and the team confirmed to AUTOSPORT that the gearbox would also have to be replaced. The outfit would not confirm the cause of the practice issue. Hamilton took pole position for the last race in China, but had not been expected to be a front row contender in Bahrain, where Mercedes has so far struggled to match Ferrari, Red Bull and Lotus. The penalty is the third to be applied for Bahrain qualifying so far, with Mark Webber and Esteban Gutierrez already facing three and five place demotions respectively for causing accidents in China.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Getty Images Apart from the significant gap in the raw dollars between what Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson currently wants and what the team currently is willing to pay, another major issue looms over the negotiations. Per multiple sources, Wilson is looking for a considerable portion of the contract to be fully guaranteed. While he’s not asking for the entire deal to be fully guaranteed, it’s a larger portion than traditional veteran contracts. It’s become a stumbling block not because of the guarantee itself but because of the league’s funding rule, which requires almost every penny of any future payments guaranteed for skill, injury, and cap to be paid into escrow upon signing. While Seahawks owner Paul Allen, the richest of the very rich men who control NFL franchises, can afford to put the money aside ahead of time, multiple sources tell PFT he doesn’t want to. It’s unclear why he doesn’t want to do it, since he can do it with the stroke of a pen. And it invites further speculation that the funding rule, which was created to protect players from owners who lack the future cash to honor guaranteed payments, has become a tool for collusion among NFL teams. Former NFL player Sean Gilbert made the case while running for the position of NFLPA Executive Director that the funding rule as written and applied results in collusion. The NFLPA apparently has decided not to pursue the issue. But maybe it should. During the NFLPA campaign, Gilbert made a big deal about keeping the specifics of the collusion claim top secret due to concerns regarding the 90-day limit for filing such claims. The truth may be that he wanted to give incumbent DeMaurice Smith and other candidates less time to debunk Gilbert’s theory; if the violations are continuing, a collusion case arguably could be made within the 90 days after any specific instance of it, past, present, or future. For any team owned by someone worth billions, there’s no legitimate reason to refuse to fund fully guaranteed veteran contracts, other than to avoid the widespread adoption of fully guaranteed veteran contracts across the NFL. That may be a legitimate business reason on a team-by-team basis, but it also amounts to collusion if multiple independent NFL franchises agree to do it in order to avoid fully-guaranteed contracts becoming the norm in pro football, like it has become the norm in baseball and basketball.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Суд китайской провинции Гуандун приговорил десятерых человек к смертной казни. Семеро из них были осуждены за преступления, связанные с наркотиками, остальные — за убийства и грабежи, сообщает издание The Guardian. За четыре дня до публичного суда, который прошел перед тысячами зрителей в центре города Люфенг, местные жители получили приглашения на это событие в социальных сетях. Десятерых приговоренных к смертной казни привезли в автозаках под звуки сирен. Каждого преступника сопровождали четверо полицейских в темных очках. Осужденные по очереди поднимались на сцену и выслушивали свой приговор. Затем их увозили для приведения решения суда в исполнение. По словам корреспондента The Guardian, зрители снимали происходящее на мобильные телефоны, курили, общались между собой. Среди присутствующих были также школьники и студенты. Судебная система Китая известна тем, что прокуроры и суды имеют показатель осуждения в 99,9%. Согласно данным правозащитной организации Dui Hua Foundation, в прошлом году в стране привели в исполнение порядка 2 тысяч смертных приговоров. Власти Китая официальную статистику не разглашают. Публичные судебные процессы проходят в стране крайне редко.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
In the final image Chief and Mickey gather what they can and prepare to move on. The mission is not over yet. I retained the colours in the background in this image as I thought the green plants against the white snow would make the scene look more hopeful. I like how Chief looks in this image not only because of how well his colours work and how in focus he is, but also he’s slightly looking down in remorse of his fallen friends.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The LG V20 is slated to be shown off early next month, but LG is already starting the hype machine. They have released a new teaser poster for the device that showcases the audio features. The poster includes an image of the phone on top of a microphone stand and the phrase “hear, see and more.” We already know that the LG V20 will have 32-bit HiFi Quad Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), which is a first for a smartphone. Obviously, audio is a big focus for this device. The V10 had a single DAC, which was already a big bump above the competition. The V20 will blow everyone out of the park. Audiophiles will love the device, but will the average person care? Probably not so much. [via ZDNet]	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
An ancient oak tree marking the border between England and Wales has fallen after being badly damaged in a storm. The 1,000 year-old Buttington oak, one of the oldest trees in Wales, had stood for centuries along Offa's Dyke. It was found in its field, two miles from the town of Welshpool in Powys, after splitting in half by high winds last year. Exactly what caused the tree to topple is unclear, but self-proclaimed 'tree-hunter' Rob McBride, who records ancient trees, believes it was not protected well enough. He told Sky News: "It's very sad what has been allowed to happen to a magnificent tree. It sits on a flood plain, so that might have had some impact on it structurally, but the main damage was caused by storms last year." The tree is thought to have been named after the Battle of Buttington, fought in 893 between a Viking army and an alliance of Anglo-Saxons and Welsh. According to Mr McBride, joint founder and director of TREEspect CIC, who discovered the fallen tree, the oak was of enormous cultural significance as it was a pollard - it had not grown in the field naturally and had been pruned in a certain way. "When I saw it on its side from the road, I can't repeat what I said. It's such a pity as this was the largest tree on Offa's Dyke and the second-largest oak in Wales, and the largest easily accessible to the public. "This would have been a working tree over the years, providing the local community with wood for weapons. "This whole area is full of historical importance. There have been two great battles here and not far away marks the England-Wales border." Mr McBride said the mighty oak had a girth of 11m, which would make it about 1,000 years old. He called for better protection for trees in the UK, telling Sky News: "If this tree was in Europe it would have a blue plaque protecting it and a fence around it. This wouldn't have been allowed to happen. "We need to give these fantastic icons of the British countryside better protection, and give them the same status we give to our famous buildings." The Battle of Buttington saw the invading Vikings defeated by the combined English and Welsh army. Offa, king of the Mercians - a warrior tribe in central England - between 757 and 796, had earlier ordered the Dyke be built to act as a defence against the Welsh. It was constructed at the end of the 8th century and runs for 140 miles from the mouth of the River Dee in the north to that of the Wye in the south.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The former Football Association chief executive David Davies believes that Fabio Capello may be in breach of contract after the England manager openly challenged the decision to strip John Terry of the captaincy. Speaking to the BBC's Breakfast Time show on Monday morning, Davies said that Capello, who reportedly earns £6m a year as manager of the national side, may have breached his contract with his comments and could face action from the FA. "It is being taken very seriously by the FA," Davies said. "You have to ask what his motive is. You have to suspect he wants to prevent John Terry retiring as a player before Euro 2012, but there are wider issues. "You could have what some of the media are calling a morality circus while England are trying to win the second major tournament in football. "A contract may have been breached, there is strong leadership now at the FA from David Bernstein. Last week he wasn't slow to take things forward and he may not be slow to do so now." Capello said he "completely disagreed" with Bernstein's decision during an interview with the Italian broadcaster Rai 1 on Sunday. "I spoke to the chairman and I told him that I don't think someone can be punished until it becomes official," the Italian said. "The court will decide. It's going to be civil justice, not sports justice, to decide if John Terry committed the crime he is accused of. I thought it fair that John Terry keeps the captain's armband." The FA opted to remove Terry as captain once it was known the Chelsea defender would not face trial over allegations he used racist language towards Anton Ferdinand until 9 July, eight days after the Euro 2012 final. Terry denies the charge.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) offered his assessment on the relationship of the United States and Russia on the heels of his visit to Russia. Paul said they were “at their worst ebb” since the height of the Cold War. “I think from both sides that our relations are at the worst ebb that they’ve been since the height of the Cold War,” Paul said. “This is a real tragedy. One of the great things that Ronald Reagan did was sitting down with Gorbachev. One of the highlights for me was I got to sit down for an hour with former President Gorbachev and talk about his recollections with Ronald Reagan, but also talk about both sides — talk about Ronald Reagan and Gorbachev — had to defy the orthodoxy of their country to sit down and come to agreements. And they didn’t call each other names. They didn’t say ‘murderous thug,’ and talk about all the terrible things, some of which did happen throughout a long period of time in the Soviet Union. They sat down and said, ‘Let’s try to make it better.’ And they did.” Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The Bank of Canada will start cutting its key lending rate in October as annual economic growth slows to one per cent in 2020, according to Capital Economics. Stephen Brown, senior Canada economist at the London-based research firm, expects weak demand at home and abroad will prompt two additional cuts after October’s announcement, with little prospect of the central bank raising rates before 2022. “Investors are right to price in lower interest rates from the Bank of Canada, but the single 25 basis point cut priced into futures markets for the next 12 months does not go far enough,” he wrote in a research note on Tuesday. The oil and gas sectors lifted real gross domestic product by a better-than-expected 0.3 per cent in April, according to Statistics Canada. Analysts polled by Reuters called for a 0.1 per cent uptick. The Bank of Canada remains optimistic that recent headwinds posed by weak energy prices, stagnant consumption growth and trade tensions are easing. Brown said capacity constraints lessen the odds that oil and gas will pick up the slack for non-energy exports weakened by softer global demand. “The big picture is that we expect GDP growth to drop below Canada’s potential in the second half of the year, causing the output gap to widen,” Brown wrote. He predicts Canada’s economy will expand by a muted 1.3 per cent in 2019, and one per cent in 2020. The bank’s anticipated trio of rate cuts will then lift GDP growth to 1.7 per cent in 2021, he said. “The outlook for the next few years is challenging, but Canada’s longer-term fundamentals are strong,” Brown wrote. “The adoption of new technologies should drive a pick-up in productivity growth over the next twenty years. As that will more than offset a slowdown in labour force growth, we expect potential GDP growth to edge up to two per cent by the mid-2020s, from about 1.8 per cent currently.” The Bank of Canada is scheduled to make its next rate announcement on July 10. Yahoo Finance Canada More Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
That's Not How It Works, That's Not How Any Of This Works it doesn't work like that none of this works like that	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Ever since we humans gave up the nomadic life and started building homes, architecture had one goal: To make life better for humans. But now, a new architecture is taking shape in remote, frozen corners of the world. And it's not designed for humans. It's for machines. In this case, for the remote machines that keep Facebook churning. In northern Sweden, just below the Arctic Circle, a new form of modular design is being pioneered by architects based more than 5,000 miles away in the heart of Silicon Valley. They're being led by architects like Marco Magarelli, the Datacenter Design Engineering Manager at Facebook, where he's led the company's unusual approach to data centers for the past five years. As tech companies compete to build smarter, faster, and cheaper, they're sparking a renaissance in modular, prefabricated architecture, and Facebook is leading the pack. I got the chance to chat with Magarelli to find out what it's like to be an architect building houses for most the world's online identities. Your Selfies Are Energy-Hogs Most of us think of the internet as something intangible, a floating, invisible, ectoplasmic world. In reality, the internet is tethered to the physical world by data centers—thousands of them—that handle all of the bits and bytes delivered to your computer. Magarelli uses the term "magic box" to describe these spaces: the masses know they exist, but they don't quite know how or where. And his job as the architect is "trying to make that box as elegant and effective as possible," he explains. In my mind, Facebook's magic boxes seemed like they should be pretty straightforward buildings. Slap some servers into a box, throw on some mechanical systems to cool them, make sure it's secure, and you're good to go, right? Not exactly. As Magarelli explained to me, these are far from normal buildings: Some data centers use more than 100 times the power of a typical office building. They need to be ultra-secure and ultra-stable against hackers, natural disasters, and all kinds of environmental ills. These are the buildings that hold the world's data—if they go, so does our internet. So unsurprisingly, they're booming: the market for modular data centers is expected to reach $40 billion over the next four years. Facebook, as the second most-visited site in the world after Google, needs a lot of them. According to Facebook, its users like six billion things per day, and have shared 400 billion photos in total—and all that activity adds up to a whole lot of data. In 2012, Facebook reported that its users took up around 7 petabytes of photo storage from one of its data centers every month. Image: AP Photo/Facebook, Alan Brandt. To handle this exponential increase in demand, two years ago Facebook assigned three engineers to tackle the challenge of "how to scale our computing infrastructure in the most efficient and economical way possible." As it grew, it became known as the Open Compute Project, an initiative to completely overhaul the hardware and network infrastructure of Facebook's data centers. Most importantly, they would put all their work online, making it free for any other company to follow Facebook's lead. The team at OCP completely redesigned every detail: From more efficient server racks to backup batteries that mean the centers don't need an uninterruptible power source. And just as important as all that network architecture? Actual architecture. Making Buildings Like Ikea Furniture Magarelli joined Facebook in 2009, and as part of the Open Computing Project, he staged a charrette (the architectural equivalent of a hackathon) to bring industry experts in lean construction—a theory of construction efficiency borrowed from manufacturing—into the fold at Facebook. Out of the event grew two basic design concepts. You could call them Ford and Ikea. The first strategy would be like "assembling a car on a chassis." You build your structural frame, then attach all of the actual components, from lighting to cables, using an assembly line in a factory. The whole shebang would then be driven to the building site on the back of a flatbed truck. The second scheme—the Ikea concept—was all about flatpack. Rather than assemble the modules in a factory, the pieces of the finished building would be tightly packed into a flat box. Just like your bookcase hardware, the building components were vastly simplified and universalized to avoid mistakes during assembly. By breaking down the building into simple, universal bits, the concept would make building cheaper, faster, and easier—just like Ikea. Out of these two ideas grew the Rapid Deployment Data Center, or RDDC: What Facebook calls the design of its data centers. A series of pre-assembled modules are shipped to the site and snapped into place at incredible speeds, taking the best of what Ford and Ikea had pioneered. Strange Things Done in the Midnight Sun This year, Facebook will get a chance to test the idea of RDDC. And it seems only appropriate that a design inspired by Ikea will go up in that company's home country: Facebook has announced a new construction project in Luleå, Sweden, next door to its most recent data center. Luleå, a city of 46,600 people and several well-known black metal bands, sits far up on the coast of the Baltic, so far it's almost in Finland. Temperatures in Luleå never get very high: The warmest month, July, has an average temperature of 61 degrees Fahrenheit. In February, 6 degrees is the norm. Those subarctic temperatures are a major boon for data center companies, which spend millions of dollars keeping their hard-working servers cool. But it's not just the cold that brings Facebook here: It's also Sweden's energy infrastructure, which is some of most dependable in the world. It also comes from renewable sources, a major plus for Facebook, which has bought up multiple wind farms here in the US to power its stateside data centers. Other companies are getting in on the action here, too, and some local entrepreneurs have even coined a slick term for the region: The Node Pole. Luleå 2 will be the company's first data center built using Magarelli's flat-pack RDDC concept. It'll be an experiment of sorts—a way to test the ideas that OCP and Magarelli's team have been developing since their charrette. And when it's up and running, the team will take stock and apply what they learned to the next project. The Magic Box Believe it or not, the work Magarelli and the team at Facebook are doing has a precedent from over a century ago. "I think back to the Industrial Revolution and how the buildings adapted to nascent industries," he says. "What does a power plant, or a paper mill, look like? All of these archetypes that have evolved to meet industrial needs." At the turn of the last century, as the Industrial Revolution gripped Europe and the US, a new type of building emerged: The factory. It became an archetypical symbol amongst architects looking for a new approach to building. Factories were cheap, strong, fast to build, and sometimes even beautiful. Above all, though, they were built based on function, not form. Some factories even became sensations amongst designers: Berlin's AEG Turbine Factory is still taught to young architects today. Eventually, there was a free flow of ideas between industrial and avant-garde design. Even today's prefab homes can trace their conceptual roots back to the industrial revolution. It's hard not to see the parallels between factories and data centers. Each type of building is designed for very specific commercial activities, and each has to adhere to strict budgets and schedules. They are both perfectly utilitarian. Yet something about the rules and requirements of commercial architecture tends to make invention blossom amongst designers. The data center, just like the factory of the 19th century, is "a whole new type of building," Magarelli adds. To most of us, the internet cleans up the messiness of the physical world and translates it into something intangible, something neat, something with zero real-world footprint. So it's strange to think that as billions of us sat hunched around our computers focused on an entirely invisible world, we were also feeding the flames of something very tangible. All of our clicks, uploads, and likes were was forcing Facebook to invent its own archetypical building: A magic box that few of us will ever see, but nearly all of us use all the time. All images courtesy of Luleå Data Center on Facebook .	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Pledge to Protest™ The catch? This site won't tell you why to protest. You should know why. Everyone may have a different reason, which may change over time, and others may have none at all (in which case they should probably leave)! It's hard to quit some social networks, because too many of our friends, family, or professional colleagues/contacts use them.is here to help people find ways to protest specific social networks in a way that respects privacy (https-enabled, no analytics, no ads, no cookies, no login required). FAQ Why does the site focus on social networks? 1. Because it's not obvious how to protest large social networks, and the main intent for this site is to be informational, so it's a good fit. For example, with some internet companies like social networks you are the product, so it's not obvious how to "vote with your wallet." (As opposed to a non-internet company like Samsung: if the phone explodes, you might buy an iPhone.) 2. Social networks impact our lives in huge ways, including: • Privacy (from web browsing to who you hang out with in real life) • How many of us get our news, learn about important figures in society, etc. • Free speech • Whether their services follow non-discriminatory practices, like in ad targeting • Terms of service may be onerous, like if they included forced arbitration or non-disparagement clauses Why is it (perceived to be) hard to protest social networks? First: it isn't. That's a myth. The consumer has so many options to protest. This myth should be dispelled, and that's the main thrust of this site. What is harder than normal is quitting/boycotting (though still a powerful protest choice, it is oftentimes untenable). So why is quitting difficult? 1. Network effects have grown so strong that to quit might mean cutting yourself off from the world. In other words: they're almost utilities. 2. A very long list of additional reasons might compel people to stay on networks. 3. It's actually been shown that some big social networks don't necessarily "delete" your data when you quit, unless you make a really big fuss about it, which makes it a tricky protest option to accomplish. I recommend this documentary , which explores that subject in greater detail. Why doesn't this site focus on the reasons to protest? Primarily because the problem this site tries to address is how to protest. I can't pretend to ever do justice the reasons you may want to protest, and journalists already do a great job cataloging many of those points. And, just like a librarian doesn't tell you what to read, I don't feel it's the site's place to tell you why to protest. How can I save my protest plan? Save the URL of your final plan; you could even bookmark it! What's the protest score mean? The protest score, found when building a protest plan, is a rough approximation of your plan's effectiveness in protesting the social network you selected. Any such attempt to quantify protesting will have shortcomings, but if I know anything, it's that netizens love internet points. Does Pledge to Protest save info on visitors? Short answer: No. Long answer: This is a static site that does not use cookies. It uses Cloudflare to cache the info on edge servers, which means most traffic doesn't hit the original server. It doesn't cache images (which don't respect same-origin policy). It doesn't load javascript from third parties, like share buttons do, for example. That said, just because this site respects your privacy, others may not. Be wary of your ISP, browser vendor, and any sites you may share protest links on, as you can rest assured most online sites remember and care about what you share. Just as a good librarian doesn't care what patrons read, this site tries to respect your protesting privacy. What's with the trademark symbol? Unfortunately, I'm concerned (ever so mildly) that one of the companies I've listed as a subject of protest on this site will try some legal shenanigans to pry the name away from me. I'm selling stuff under this name online and offline, if you're interested in buying some of said stuff, let me know via the feedback link in the footer.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
This will be a special part of our opening course on Development Economics. The topics we will cover will include: History of the East India Company The economics of Gandhi’s attack on the salt monopoly Was British rule good for India? Private education in India Economic research on the caste system in India The timing of Indian economic reforms and the boost in Indian economic growth, as discussed by Rodrik, DeLong, and others. The contributions of the most famous and most important Indian economists. Why does Kerala have such a good record when it comes to public health? RCTs in India by Poverty Action Lab. And much more. Today I have a request for you. If you have any connection with India, please spread the word of this material to other people you may know who have a connection to India. The motto of MRU is “Learn, Teach, and Share.” You can register for the course to come here. Background on MRU is here. Background on the development economics class is here.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Why PSV is better off with an offensive 4-3-3 formation Only six games into the season, PSV manager Fred Rutten has seen his side transform from a toothless bunch to a free scoring title contender. This post will first glance over the match tactics involved, in order to identify the positive changes made by Rutten, before taking a dive into some detailed match stats to illustrate the effects of Rutten’s tactical changes. Early season results After a false start that saw them lose 3-1 away at AZ in the first match, PSV continued with a narrow and bleak 1-0 home victory over newly promoted RKC. At that early point in the season, Rutten changed things around a bit. His side came in for quite some stick on the back of two season’s ending in third place finishes under Rutten’s reign, and more so, Rutten’s general conservative approach was openly criticized by the home fans. Early signs of the pre-season games were hopeful of a change to a more progressive midfield and the arrival of left winger Mertens, offensive midfielder Wijnaldum and upcoming all-round midfield man Strootman has injected PSV with the types of players needed in such a system. However, Rutten didn’t extend his pre-season intentions into the first competitive games of the season, but rather returned to a double holding midfielder system, introducing young Funso Ojo beside Strootman, with Wijnaldum in the hole behind lone striker Toivonen. The abovementioned disappointing games against AZ and RKC helped Rutten turn back to his offensive pre-season midfield, shifting Lens from right wing into the striker role to move Toivonen back to his natural offensive midfielder role, supporting Wijnaldum and leaving a single holding role for Strootman. The vacated left wing was filled in by 18-year old talent Zakaria Labyad. From that moment on, PSV’s season took a turn for the better. And as if to destroy any remaining doubts, Rutten changed his team back to the conservative double holding midfielder system for the away game at Ried, for a disappointing 0-0 draw that was erase with the more offensive system with a 5-0 win in the home game. For clarity, let’s refer to PSV’s initial conservative formation as a 4-2-3-1 and to PSV’s subsequent offensive formation as a 4-3-3. The 4-2-3-1 was applied in the games against AZ away, RKC at home and Ried away and the 4-3-3 was applied against ADO away, Ried at home and Excelsior at home. A simple glance at the results under the 4-2-3-1 system (1-3 ; 1-0 ; 0-0) versus the 4-3-3 system (3-0 ; 5-0 ; 6-1) tells quite a story already, but there’s more to it than that. With the help of InStatFootball, a company specifying in detailed football match data, 11tegen11 is able to use specific team and player data to study the differences between both system more in depth. Goal scoring chances The major change in score lines between the three matches played under the 4-2-3-1 versus those three played under the 4-3-3 system is underlined by a spectacular improvement in the amount of goal scoring chances too. The table below illustrates this well, showing that PSV increased their shots on target from 3.7 to 11 per match, while reducing their conceded shots on target from 4 to 1.7. 4-2-3-1 4-3-3 Goals PSV 0.7 4.7 opponent 1 0.3 Shots PSV 11.7 25.7 opponent 10.3 6.3 Shots on target PSV 3.7 11 opponent 4 1.7 Midfield passing PSV’s change from a double to a single holding midfielder is reflected very well in their midfield passing statistics. Kevin Strootman and Funso Ojo started all three 4-2-3-1 matches as the double pivot, holding the midfield in front of PSV’s back four. Both contributed an equal share of passes, averaging 68 and 66 passes per 90 minutes respectively, with completion rates of 83% (Strootman) and 87% (Ojo). However, offensive midfielder Wijnaldum lacked support, resulting in him passing the ball less than half as often as his defensive midfield team mates. Wijnaldum made on average only 29 pass attempts per 90 minutes, completing 86% of those. Under the 4-3-3 system, Strootman increased his passing to an impressive average of 98 pass attempts per 90 minutes, even slightly increasing his completion rate to 85%. With Toivonen’s support, Wijnaldum’s pass attempts increased to 47, with 85% completion and Toivonen added another 43 passes himself, reaching 91% completion of those three games. In conclusion, PSV’s midfield passing improved massively with Strootman operating as a sole holding midfielder. He proved very well capable of increasing his game to cover for the absence of Ojo in that department, while Wijnaldum received the support of Toivonen in the offensive midfield area. PSV’s total amount passes made by central midfield players increased from 163 to 188 (+16%), while the completion rate remained intact (85 and 86%). On top of that, passes were now made in a more offensive and central midfield zone, as is illustrated in Wijnaldum’s passing diagram’s for the Ried away game (4-2-3-1) versus the ADO away game (4-3-3). Offensive efficiency As a whole, PSV operated more efficient in terms of generating attacks from possessions and generating chances from attacks. Under both the 4-3-3 and the 4-2-3-1 system PSV averaged a similar amount of possessions (134 and 136), and the amount of attacks resulting from it were equal too (95 and 100), amounting to a figure of 71% to 74% of possessions turned into attacks. Note that attacks are defined as any spell of possession with passage to the opponent’s half of the field. The difference in offensive efficiency between both systems becomes very clear when looking at the amount of open play attacks turned into shots. For clarity reasons set piece attacks and quick counter breaks have been eliminated. On average 6.8% of open play attacks resulted in a goal scoring attempt under the 4-2-3-1 system, while the 4-3-3 nearly tripled that number to 18.8%, resulting in an increase in the number of attempts from open play from 5 per match to 13. In the end This post clearly illustrates the difference in passing and offensive efficiency between PSV’s three matches played out under last season’s 4-2-3-1 system in comparison with the more offensively intended 4-3-3 system. Particularly, in player terms, the major step up by Kevin Strootman in his role as single holding and passing midfielder has been impressive. This is the first post on 11tegen11 to use extensive in-depth match data, which was courteously provided by InStatFootball, without whom this analysis would not have been possible. The aim is to keep using match data in order to back up (or reject) tactical observations of the naked eye. Please don’t hesitate to provide feedback via the comment boxes below this post, twitter, or email.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Posted 29 May 2014 - 01:00 PM So I haven't found the nifty uncompressed stuff yet, but I have found some really nice images that I assume are from an emulator run through OpenGL filters.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
There are kits in Japan to make “butt pudding,” because of course there are. They are available to buy at Amazon Japan. video by bonobos25, GIF via kinokorin via kinokorin	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Florida will finally play the final game of Will Muschamp's final season as head coach on Saturday. It will come six weeks after Muschamp's not-really-but-yes-it-was-a-firing more than a month after the final game of Florida's regular season, more than three weeks after Jim McElwain was hired as the Gators' next head football coach, and almost two full days after an undefeated Florida State saw its season end in fiery failure, the latter of which can only be attributable to either the football gods having a sense of humor or 2014 Florida State finally letting the fire its hair had been on for about four months burn down to the scalp. It's one or the other, I'm sure. Anyway: I don't care about this bowl game. Florida's played in 22 bowl games in my 24 years and change on this planet, and all of them fell into (at least) one of four categories, up until the 2015 Birmingham Bowl: Bowl in the state of Florida (Outback, Citrus/Capitol One, Gator, Orange) Peach Bowl Sugar Bowl National championship game in Fiesta Bowl Those games have either been local to the bulk of Gators fans — even the Peach isn't more than about eight hours from most Florida fans, and flying to Atlanta is a cinch — or in New Orleans, or for a national title. (One of them was both!) Gators who have wanted to go to bowls have been able to day-trip, been able to combine a bowl trip with boozing on Bourbon Street or visiting Atlanta, or been able to justify a flight to Arizona for a chance at seeing a national championship victory. This year, they get the privilege of going to beautiful, historic Birmingham, Alabama! It's less than an hour closer to Gainesville than New Orleans! There is assuredly at least one restaurant in town that serves barbecue! And, hey, Florida's playing East Carolina, a team Florida hasn't played since 1983, and won't play again until ... wait, September? Oh, and those fans who go to the Birmingham Bowl? They're gonna miss Florida hosting defending national champion and insta-nemesis UConn in the O'Connell Center in what should be a hell of a game between two teams that need a big win desperately. It suffices to say that I am not going to Birmingham, and that I will not nearly be alone in that regard. Pat Dooley has dubbed this the Afterthought Bowl, in a dispatch from B-Town in which the desk clerk at the media hotel doesn't know there's a bowl game in town, and yet that dispatch is primarily Dooley rolling out reasons the bowl matters: Impressing recruits, avoiding embarrassment, building momentum. Sorry, Pat. That's just not true. Recruits will care, certainly, but they will know soon what has been fairly obvious since McElwain hired Geoff Collins as defensive coordinator: The coaches in Gators polos on this Saturday will mostly be donning them for the last time. Interim coach D.J. Durkin and offensive coordinator Kurt Roper have both been hired over, and linebackers coach Coleman Hutzler — a Durkin lieutenant who could well follow Durkin to Michigan, if the former Stanford assistant joins Jim Harbaugh in Ann Arbor — isn't staying if Florida brings in Randy Shannon. Running backs coach Brian White might be replaced by former McElwain assistant Tim Skipper. Travaris Robinson has been seen as an flight risk to Auburn since the day Muschamp was hired there, and the tea leaves are suggesting he'll head west. Reports of Florida sniffing around Texas defensive line coach Chris Rumph exist, casting a shadow on Brad Lawing's future with the team, and, of the last three coaches yet mentioned, Chris Leak was coaching the wrong position in 2014, Derek Lewis coached Florida's least productive position in 2014, and Mike Summers is widely expected to stay. So, yeah, recruits could care about how Florida looks — but only offensive line recruits can reasonably expect the coach in charge of their position for the Gators on Saturday to be that coach by the spring. As for embarrassment: No, nothing that could happen Saturday is trumping Georgia Southern. Nothing trumps a trouncing by Missouri on Homecoming, or a home loss to South Carolina in bewildering fashion. Florida went to triple overtime with Kentucky at home this year, and lost to Vanderbilt for the first time in decades last year. Losing to a really good mid-major team in a bowl game that kicks at 11 a.m. local time won't be any more embarrassing than anything that's happened over the last two years. Did you note the won't? I did it on purpose. I do, honestly, expect Florida to lose this game. Too many of the players Dooley thinks will be auditioning for NFL scouts or their future coaches won't care, and defending the honor of being a Gator — or using the disrespect of being shipped to Birmingham to play in a game owned and operated by ESPN that is so low-profile that it is the only bowl without a named corporate sponsor this year, and such a money bath that both teams will almost certainly lose more money on the game than they make from it — just doesn't seem like something this beaten-down team is likely to do. That's a shame, because Florida really does match up well with the Pirates. Florida's "just" No. 23 in pass defense this season, but that ranking is skewed considerably by meltdowns against Kentucky and Alabama early this season, and garbage-time throwing by Georgia. Since yielding an unfathomable 449 passing yards to the Crimson Tide, Florida's allowed one team — Georgia — to post a passer rating of better than 103.00. That bar Florida has dipped under in seven of eight games would be the No. 4 pass efficiency defense nationally, if it were one; Florida, despite allowing a 217.76 rating against Alabama, is No. 11 as it is. Yeah, sure, Justin Hardy is incredible, with 110 catches for 1,334 yards in 2014 ... but he hasn't seen anyone close to as good as Vernon Hargreaves III (or Jalen Tabor, or maybe even Quincy Wilson) this year. Oh, and ECU's defense is, well, not good. East Carolina's ninth nationally in rush defense, but it hasn't seen an offense ranked in the top 50 in rush offense (Florida is No. 43), and yet has seen four of the nation's 12 worst running games; its pass defense, ranked 107th, needs no such qualifiers to be classified as bad. ECU foes have cleared 100.00 in pass efficency in all but three games against the Pirates this year, and Ruffin McNeill's defense has given up 250 or more passing yards in nine of 12 games, too. A motivated Florida team would make mincemeat of East Carolina. I really believe that. It's not just Florida that might be lacking for motivation, either. East Carolina is playing for Hardy and senior quarterback Shane Carden, who will be playing their last games in purple, gold, and black (well, while), but ECU's coaches have to know that a win at The Swamp would be way more valuable to their program than a win in a glorified exhibition. If there's a choice between putting something in the playbook to beat Florida tomorrow and keeping it under wraps until a shot at the big, bad SEC team in its own fortress, wouldn't there be at least some consideration of discretion? And so it's a shame this game is happening in January and not, say, October, because that game — with East Carolina firing on all cylinders, rather than coming off a loss to UCF as improbable as Florida's to South Carolina (or Florida basketball's loss to Florida State), and Florida's fearsome defense rarin' for the challenge of shutting down the Pirates' potent passing game — would've been awesome. This one will be awful, like most bowls, and I'm going to watch the first half until I leave for the O'Dome because, well, what else am I going to do on an early Saturday afternoon? I'll catch the rest out of obligation, on a DVR, or on YouTube, and by, like, Tuesday. I'll write about it, eventually. But I just don't care. And I can't compel you to care, either.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Component Icons in Unity Hierarchy December 31, 2018 Some time ago I built a small Unity editor extension that shows at a glance which components are attached to a game object via icons in the Hierarchy window. Lights display a light bulb icon, cameras a camera icon, and so forth. I promptly abandoned the project. Recently someone asked that I make it compatible with Unity 2018.3 — it referenced long-obsolete component types — so I dusted off the repo and updated it to work with the latest and greatest. Compiler errors begone. If this is something you might find useful, download it from GitHub and add the scripts to an Editor folder. Then blow a kiss to your coworkers.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Les liquides que j'ai reçu sont franchement très bon, certain doivent steepé encore un peu. Mais les liquides sont excellent et mes choix ont été respecté et ça sa fait plaisir, 93ml pour une box d'une valeur de 60euro a 27,90euro ça fait doublement plaisir. Je renouvelle pour le mois de Août par curiosité de ce que je vais recevoir par rapport a mes nouveaux choix. En tout cas merci a Liquidbox de proposé de super liquide et la rapidité de leur livraison	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Nate Silver Offers Up a Statistical Analysis of Your Failing Relationship While data shows that overall happiness in your relationship fell 8 more points, there is still a 31 percent chance of makeup sex this Friday, depending on average energy levels after work and how proactive you’re feeling (see chart). However, if you just order $18 of Chinese takeout like you did last weekend, projections show a 16.8 percent drop in possible intercourse and a whopping 74.2 percent upswing in Netflix-streaming, with both of you falling asleep long before the movie is over. In an exit poll from Monday evening, exactly one half of the duo in attendance said they had an unfavorable opinion of the chosen restaurant—Arby’s—wondering if it was some sort of retribution, or if this is sadly what it’s come to. Between the hours of 6 and 7 p.m. tonight, there was a 77.1 percent increase in annoyance and a 54 percent rise in revulsion based on the way you slurped your capellini, drank 65 percent too much wine and prattled on about your ex-girlfriend Sarah for some reason, even though she has a new boyfriend with a sailboat, and you’ve supposedly moved on, too. The logic here is that you are 44 percent over Sarah after 3 years, but there is only a 3.6 percent chance of her taking you back, which is reduced by nearly half of a percentage point every time she steps foot on that boat. In a very local poll released just this week, 50 percent of those in your current relationship said it bothers them when you leave your shoes in the middle of the carpet and added that, if you could clean a dirty dish or two—putting in a minimal effort of just 5 minutes—stress would be reduced by 39 percent, along with a telling 54 percent decrease in shouting matches and escalating threats to leave forever. You’ve lost nearly 100 hairs on your head every day since March, 2011, when the two of you met, which is almost 36,500 hairs in the last year and nearly 73,000 hairs in the last two years. This is, ultimately, why you’ll be 84 percent bald by the time you’re 45. In a survey conducted with your partner’s biological parents between Tuesday and Wednesday, you are currently ranked seventh most popular on the list of known boyfriends, after Andrew R., Bryan, Kevin, Seth, Shawn and Kyle, but before Andrew Y. who refused to apply labels to relationships and wanted to “keep things loose.” Of the seven ex-boyfriends listed above, two of them (Andrew R. and Seth) have sent a combined two emails to your girlfriend this month, totaling about 2,200 words, both of which have gone 100 percent unmentioned. The aforementioned emails were placed in a folder marked “SAVE,” which actually contains 26 messages you’ve never seen, 23 of which would immediately increase your base paranoia by 87 percent. There are upwards of 12,000 couples within 10 square miles of your house who had more measurable fun than you did in the last eight weeks, as evidenced by this graph (right). The red line is indicative of genuine laughter, the purple line represents long, meaningful stares, the blue line shows a water sport or plane ride, and the orange line depicts sunsets or sunrises enjoyed without irony or arguments. Your current net approval rating is at 42 percent, revealing a divided house. If you look to your approval rating at this same time last year, it stood at 59 percent while, two years ago, it was at an all-time high of 81 percent, excepting that flu-week when you wore the same sweatpants for 6 straight days. Your incessant, fever-stricken whining lowered your then-approval to 54 percent (although sympathy conversely rose 13.6 percent in that same timeframe). However, it’s important to note that there is no rebound this time, according to polls with a margin of +/- 1. Across the board, you’re less popular now than ever before. According to a survey conducted last month, your partnership ranks as the second most doomed on your block, behind the couple who stand on their lawn and shriek at each other. Yours is statistically guaranteed to end three years sooner than that really attractive woman’s, the one who recently moved in across the street and is home a mere 32 percent of the week. Of the 16 occasions you’ve peered through your blinds and noticed her walking to her car, she is on the phone with her boyfriend 53 percent of the time and there’s an 91.5 percent chance that it’s serious. The trend line shows that the odds of remaining in this current relationship hover steadily at 1 in 52, the very same chances of drawing the queen of hearts out of a deck of well-shuffled playing cards. My procedures are not skewed toward your relationship failing, as I have a macro perspective on commitment and monogamy. By using quantitive polls and demographics—and after talking to numerous individuals who knew dozens of unhappy couples—I’ve accurately predicted exactly 50 out of 50 breakups this year. There is no reason to doubt my system. Valuations show that yours will meet a comparable end and that I will be right for the 51st consecutive time. My breakup forecast shows you losing 35 of the albums you bought together at garage sales, leaving you with only 15, including Sting’s fourth solo record, Ten Summoner’s Tales, which neither of you really wanted. The album does contain the song “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You,” which seems prescient in hindsight and which made it to #17 on the Billboard charts in 1993. There is a 97 percent chance you’ll listen to the song at least 20 times. Additionally, there is a 62.8 percent likelihood that your girlfriend will be dating somebody new within three months of your split. If this happens, there is an 84 percent chance that it’s that new friend from the gym you keep hearing about (see photo). Ultimately, please don’t give me too much credit for this accumulated data. Although 0.0 percent of your mutual friends were willing to say anything, 93.9 percent of them saw this coming from the start. - - - Available in print with The Best of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
WARNING - DISTURBING CONTENT: A man has been charged with murder after allegedly walking into a police station carrying his wife’s severed head. Abhijit Das cycled into a Patharpratima police station in India on Monday with the head in a bag, Times of India reports. Das reportedly told police he believed his wife Amba was having an affair with a neighbour. An Indian man has reportedly carried his wife's severed head into a police station and confessed to murdering her. Source: Getty Images (file pic) More He also reportedly confessed to killing her and cutting off her head but police didn’t believe him until he removed it from the bag. Das was taken into custody while police searched his home two hours away. Police found Amba’s headless body in a pool of blood in Das’s home. The man was then charged with his wife’s murder. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, download the Yahoo News app from iTunes or Google Play and stay up to date with the latest news with Yahoo’s daily newsletter. Sign up here.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
South Carolina shot from almost no solar energy to having enough to power nearly 100,000 homes in less than four years, but it's about to slam on the brakes. When the state legislature passed its landmark energy bill in 2014, it ushered in a net-metering system that allows residential and smaller-scale commercial power customers with solar panels to get credit at retail rates for the power they produce and send back to the grid. But the legislation had a catch: Once solar output reached 2 percent of utilities' peak power production, the utilities could cap the program. On July 31, Duke Energy plans to do just that for a large swath of the state. Two other utilities are also expected to hit 2 percent in the coming months, solar installers say. Customers who already have net metering won't see any change until the whole program is due to expire in 2025, but Duke Energy customers who add solar after this month will get much less favorable rates. This is all coming three years earlier than expected, and it could put as many as 3,000 solar jobs at risk. Sign up for InsideClimate News Weekly Our stories. Your inbox. Every weekend. State lawmakers have been trying to raise the cap, but their effort failed in the legislature last month. A state agency has now started up a new round of policy discussions among business and environment interests to try to find compromise, and the matter has crept into the governor's race. "We have seen really great solar adoption in South Carolina at a pace that is great for the state and that has exceeded expectations," said Lauren Bowen, a staff attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. "Now, it's important to figure out what's next and make sure we are not killing renewable energy and an industry everyone worked hard to build just a couple of years ago." Solar installers are worried. "When July 31 hits, very few companies are going to continue to sell solar in the Upstate because, mathematically, nobody is going to want to buy solar," said Tyson Grinstead, a public policy director for Sunrun, which leases and sells solar systems in 23 states including South Carolina. "The sales jobs will be affected first," he said. "Then the installation jobs will go elsewhere." Right now, he said, "we are in a situation where there's a lot of uncertainty." South Carolina Seen as a Model for Solar Growth The 2014 law, the Distributed Energy Resource Program Act, ushered in net metering, which allows customers with solar panels to offset their bills—some of the highest in the nation—with electricity they produce and get credit at retail rates for any surplus power they send to the grid. It also made it easier for customers to lease solar panels from businesses that provide solar services. (More than 60 percent of installations in the state are through leases, according to the South Carolina Energy Office.) Combined with other federal, state and utility incentives, solar installations quickly surged, from enough to power about 500 homes to the capacity to power nearly 100,000, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The trade association ranks the state 16th in the country for solar capacity. With that kind of growth, the South Carolina-based Savannah River National Laboratory concluded that the law could serve as a model to neighboring states that still have little solar power, including Alabama and Mississippi. The program has had some hiccups—local governments were swamped by zoning and permitting requests, for example, and building inspectors and tax assessors knew little about solar technology. But the national lab said it demonstrated how effective policy can "transform and grow a near nonexistent state industry into one that flourishes." Whether that growth continues will depend on how the state navigates the coming months, as two other utilities—SCE&G and Duke Energy Progress, another Duke utility—are expected to exercise their prerogative to cap net metering. A Duke Energy spokesman said net metering in South Carolina was never meant to be permanent. "Net metering was agreed to ... as a temporary incentive to help a nascent solar industry grow and help customers overcome the high cost of going solar," said Ryan Mosier, spokesman for Duke Energy South Carolina. "Solar companies have benefited greatly from the incentive (and) the costs of installation are shrinking rapidly. We need to get to a long-term, sustainable system that is fair for everyone." He declined to elaborate on any specific path forward. "We made our market a little too hot in South Carolina," said Bruce Wood, a veteran installer and owner of Sunstore Solar, who acknowledged Duke's position. "We will get a good solution worked out." Net Metering Has Been Targeted in Other States This is just the latest example of U.S. utilities fighting over net metering. Kentucky's solar industry, for example, successfully fought utility efforts to get rid of the practice earlier this year. Indiana and Michigan recently moved to phase out net metering. The solar industry saw what could happen in 2015 when Nevada ended its net-metering program. Major solar installers, including Sunrun and SolarCity, announced they were stopping local operations, closing offices and cutting hundreds of jobs. That state reversed course in 2017, when Gov. Brian Sandoval signed a bill restoring net metering after the political backlash. Utilities have argued that customers without solar panels are subsidizing those who have them. Solar advocates contend that residential rooftop solar provides benefits to utilities and the electrical grid and that utilities just want to preserve their monopolies. One practical effect in South Carolina will be substantially less favorable economic terms for future solar customers. Duke has said that customers who add solar systems will still be able to sell the electricity they produce and Duke will credit them at essentially a wholesale rate—or about 60 percent less than existing customers with solar are getting. But customers with new solar won't be able to directly offset their bills at the higher retail rate anymore, Mosier confirmed. Like in neighboring Georgia, the solar debate is driven in part by the failure of another kind of energy—nuclear power. The typical Georgia Power customer has been paying an extra $100 a year since 2011 for reactors that won't start generated electricity until at least 2021, helping to drive a rapid growth in large-scale solar there. In South Carolina, SCE&G's parent company SCANA and Santee Cooper abandoned construction of two new reactors, leaving ratepayers stuck with what University of South Carolina political science professor Neil Woods described as a "$9 billion hole in the ground." The utility is fighting in court over state lawmakers' efforts to reduce the burden on SCE&G ratepayers from 18 percent of a typical bill to 3.2 percent. Solar Becomes an Issue in the Governor's Race The nuclear costs have created a strong anti-utility sentiment, Woods said, making people pay attention to solar power as an alternative and drawing an embrace from politicians among Democrats and Republicans alike. Republican incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster does not seem hostile to sun-powered electricity, Woods said. McMaster's challenger, state Rep. James Smith, a Democrat, led the legislative effort to get the 2 percent cap lifted. The bill won majority support in both houses, but was defeated at the last minute by an amendment that required a two-thirds vote for it to pass. "I expect the Smith campaign will try to make it an issue," Woods said, though he added that voters in South Carolina are still likely to be more interested in larger economic issues, roads, school safety and social issues. McMaster's press office did not respond to requests for comment. Smith said electric utilities threw their weight around to scuttle his bill and he's not giving up. "What it has meant for our state is thousands of jobs, billions in new investments and more competitive utility rates," he told InsideClimate News. "This is about our future and ratepayers' ability to access the power of the sun for themselves, their businesses and their families." Despite the uncertainties, solar advocates are optimistic they can work something out. Republican and Democrat candidates have both said they want to lift the cap, said Thad Culley, a regional director of Vote Solar, a national solar advocacy group. "To the extent it becomes a political issue, it will be jockeying over who is doing more or who is not doing enough," he said.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Home Cities Chandigarh Punjab: Two judges prematurely retire after HC orders Punjab: Two judges prematurely retire after HC orders Sources said that the Punjab and Haryana HC had recommended premature compulsory retirement of the Additional District and Sessions Judge Harjinder Pal Singh after a full court decision on March 6. The Punjab government has terminated the services of two lower court judges following a full court recommendation from the Punjab and Haryana HC for their premature compulsory retirement. Both the judicial officers have been relieved from their services. Sources said that the Punjab and Haryana HC had recommended premature compulsory retirement of the Additional District and Sessions Judge Harjinder Pal Singh after a full court decision on March 6 following a complaint against him that he “pressurised” a junior judge in adjudication of a matrimonial matter. HC, after the full court’s recommendation, had withdrawn the judicial work from him. A division bench comprising Justices AB Chaudhari and Inderjit Singh on May 1 was informed about the government notification by HC’s own counsel Rajeev Kawatra during hearing of Harjinder’s petition against the withdrawal of judicial work. “The copy of the notification is handed over to DS Patwalia, the learned senior Advocate, who may amend the petition, if so advised. Leave to amend,” the division bench has said in the order. Advocate Saurabh Arora, who appears in the case along with senior Advocate Patwalia, told The Indian Express that the petition has now been amended following the government’s notification. “We were informed about the government’s decision only during the hearing of the case on May 1. Our main contention is that the decision has been passed without holding any inquiry,” he said. The order in the case of Harjinder(58), has been passed with retrospective effect with his retirement to be considered from the age of 55. The government has also ordered the premature retirement of Chief Judicial Magistrate KK Bansal and he also has been relieved from his services. Sources said that the complaints against Bansal relate to disciplinary rules and regarding some judicial decisions in NDPS cases. His judicial work had been withdrawn prior to Harjinder but the notifications regarding their premature retirement have been passed in the last week of April. 📣 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 Chandigarh News, download Indian Express App.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Viewed from the shore at Lau Fau Shan village fish market in Hong Kong’s New Territories, Shenzhen is an imposing behemoth of high rises and skyscrapers. Guangdong’s second largest metropolis was China’s first global city, designated a special economic zone and opened to foreign capital in 1980. From semi-rural county, it grew to be the Silicon Valley of the People’s Republic in just a few decades. More than 8 million of its estimated 13 million population are migrant labourers. This week, they are returning to work after the extended lunar new year holiday, but the city remains in a partial lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak, after Guangdong became the second most infected province in China. One thousand kilometres north, the largest quarantine in human history is ongoing: a total lockdown of maybe 60 million people in Hubei province and its capital, Wuhan, the epicentre of the epidemic. Partial lockdowns continue in Guangzhou and China’s key industrial zone, the Pearl River Delta (which includes Shenzhen), and the four big coastal cities of Zhejiang province in the Yangtze River Delta, another important industrial zone exploiting millions of migrant workers. So too Beijing and Shanghai. At least two cities, Tianjin and Xian have imposed entry restrictions for people from affected areas. In all, more than 80 cities in 20 provinces reportedly are affected. “It’s every province. Every province has shutdowns”, Lu (not his real name) says over the phone from Handan, a city of about 10 million in Hebei province. “Here all buses have been stopped. The schools are shut until March. All businesses are shut except supermarkets and the vegetable markets – although I haven’t been outside for five days so maybe it is changing with people going back to work. Everyone is upset about the cover-up. Even pro-government people. But mainly the anger is with the local government [in Wuhan], not Beijing.” More than 1,000 people are dead in Hubei. The ruling Communist Party initially failed to respond to warnings from medics in Wuhan. City officials are accused of orchestrating a cover-up, ignoring or supressing information about the outbreak and harassing and detaining doctors who sounded the alarm. Before the shutdown in late January, several million people potentially exposed to the coronavirus had already left (lunar new year celebrations are a time of great human movement in China). The pathogen hitched a ride with some of them. When authorities flipped from censors to crowd controllers, the quarantine declaration came eight hours before its enforcement, prompting an estimated 1 million people to flee to other parts of China. Again, the virus travelled with some of them. The lockdowns soon proliferated. “The situation is very tense. There have been no notifications when it is going to reopen again”, says a resident via email from a quarantined Hubei city. “The closures came very suddenly and there are no exceptions at all. But the problem is that the logistics support to go hand in hand with this closure has not been ready at all. There are now lots of SOS requests in Wuhan city coming from individual citizens. Here, all necessities are in short supply. Masks and hygienic wipes cannot be bought. People feel that the lockdown is necessary ... But we are all very angry at the government for lying about the virus ... They shouldn’t just do propaganda in this type of situation. We want open information; transparency ... And we need professionals, mutual aid groups within the community so that individual citizens can have their needs met.” The lockdown of Wuhan, Hubei and then other areas may have been a panic or a belated display of “decisive action” from the Communist Party. Putting aside that it was botched from the start, and that greater death and suffering in Wuhan may well have been the result, it is not clear whether it has been effective in slowing the spread of the virus. But it unquestionably contributed to broader anxieties as the focus shifted to a perceived collective carrier: people from within the quarantine zones as agents of or proxies for the plague. As the death toll and the number of infections rose, the fear arrived. Washington Post China correspondent Gerry Shih noted: “As the epidemic radiated out from Hubei’s capital, Wuhan, in recent weeks, Chinese have turned against those who hail from the province ... Those from Hubei found in other parts of China are tracked down, accosted and locked at home by neighbors ... On social media, Chinese have condemned the 5 million so-called ‘public enemies’ — Wuhan residents who fled the city in the days before and immediately after the government’s lockdown order ... In the northern city of Shijiazhuang, neighborhood committees offered bounties of $280 to anyone who reported someone who had visited Wuhan ... In Jiangxi’s provincial capital, Nanchang, hotels asked guests to answer surveys asking if they had travelled to Hubei. A receptionist at a major international chain assured a visitor that there were no guests from Hubei in the building. ‘We’ve rejected them all’, he said.” Panic is contagious. Travel bans and restrictions, and partial suspensions or full closures of borders were implemented by almost all of China’s neighbouring states as it became clear that Beijing had lost control and that official information was unreliable: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Taiwan and Vietnam. Significantly, North Korea closed its borders the day Wuhan was locked down; Pyongyang shutting the gates on the country that guarantees its survival was an early indication of the potential seriousness of the outbreak. So too with Macau. The semi-autonomous territory shut its casinos for two weeks, a de facto border closure, while panicked authorities deported people from Hubei back to the mainland. ————— Dread is spreading throughout Hong Kong. The virus is here. Public congregations and family gatherings are discouraged. The libraries are closed. The schools are closed. The museums are closed. The universities are closed. Water is not flowing from public drinking fountains. Even the morning bird watching in Hong Kong Park has been cancelled. Loudspeakers at metro stations implore people to wear a mask, to wash their hands, to not touch their mouth or nose, nor rub their eyes. Don’t spit. Sneeze only into a tissue. Carry and use sanitiser regularly. The territory’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has told everyone to stay home if possible. On the second floor of the Tang Lung Chau wet market in Causeway Bay, cleaners are nervous. Doctors without Borders is briefing about basic hygiene and how to stay safe. “There’s no-one here to help us – we have to help ourselves”, an elderly cleaner says once the presentation is done. “Be careful when working. Stay hygienic. We must stay optimistic.” When the NGO leaves, a volunteer with the cleaners’ union makes a speech about government inaction. Another worker agrees. “The government has not provided enough equipment”, he says through a translator. “There may not be enough [masks and gloves] to get through next month.” When I pull out a stash of masks, hand sanitiser and alcohol wipes picked up in Australia, there are audible gasps. “This is like gold here!”, says the union volunteer. Asia’s World City, as Hong Kong likes to call itself, is in chaos. On Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, a queue outside a cosmetics shop stretches 30 metres. The woman at the front says she’s been here for three hours, waiting to get medical masks. Two weeks ago, when a trading company announced it had 11,000 boxes of them, more than 10,000 people queued overnight. On Sunday morning in Causeway Bay, hundreds are waiting in line. Is this for masks? “Only for Indonesians”, a woman says. They are domestic workers. Presumably their employers want them fit for duties. A young woman walks by with two bags full of boxes of tissues – panic buying. Many supermarkets have been cleared of rice and toilet paper after rumours spread, much faster than the virus has thus far in Hong Kong, of impending shortages. The government has fucked up big time. There’s no other way of putting it. Almost two decades after severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS, another coronavirus) killed 299 people in the territory amid claims of coverups and inaction, Hong Kong appears thoroughly unprepared. The city’s vaunted free market capitalism has failed. There aren’t enough masks. There’s no sanitiser. Four quarantine zones have hastily been declared, but they are either in or are close to residential areas and some of the locals are apoplectic. Why hadn’t proper sites on government land been prepared earlier? Last week, 7,000 medical workers from the newly formed Hospital Authority Employees Alliance went on strike to protest the government’s response. They raised five demands: forbid all travellers from entering Hong Kong via China, ensure a sufficient supply of masks, provide isolation wards and stop all non-emergency services, provide support and facilitation for healthcare staff caring for patients under isolation, and publicly commit to not take disciplinary action against striking workers. Much has been made about the so-called xenophobia at the heart of the demand to close the border. But that is a misreading of the situation. Anti-mainlander sentiment certainly exists here – how could it not when the Communist Party is infiltrating every political and civil society institution in Hong Kong and the territory is being forcibly integrated into China? Yet while some groups are trying to use the panic to push an anti-mainlander agenda, the border demand is animated by panic – and a recognition that the already strained and under-funded health system will collapse under the weight of a pandemic. “The Border closure has to be looked at in the context of SARS. 2003 is very close in people’s memories”, a local activist says. “China hid the outbreak until too late, and a lot of Hongkongers died because of it. Closing the border is looked at from almost exclusively a public healthcare perspective.” But what about the right wing of the movement for Hong Kong’s self-determination, is it gaining support in such a reactive situation? “The ‘right wing’ of the movement is incredibly small, as most of the ‘right wing’ in Hong Kong is the pro-government, pro-Beijing parties. That’s where you find the anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant anti-refugee candidates”, he says. “That’s not to say we don’t have some nativists on our side, but they are a minority with not that much pull. They only look bigger than they are because both the tankies and US far right media latched onto them as something they could use for their political agendas and spread that imagery around constantly when it is totally non-representative of the movement here. The strike was supported, and unionising has been a huge part of the build towards finding more ways to put pressure on this government.” A volunteer with the cleaners’ union echoes this. She seems slightly puzzled by my probing. “Macau and Taiwan have done it, why not here? It’s not against Chinese people – it’s the virus”, she says. The issue is also intertwined with the collapse in the government’s authority, which looms large. A Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute poll last month found that just 19 percent of people trust the government. Seventy percent say they have no trust. The territory’s leader by law must be a China loyalist and the current chief executive, Lam, is widely seen as a stooge. So when she labelled as “discriminatory” the calls to shut the border, it riled people – Beijing’s puppet telling everyone that their legitimate fears are just anti-Chinese racism. Socialists generally, and rightly, are opposed to the national borders which divide workers from one another and create barriers to building a united movement of oppressed against oppressor. But at this point in the struggle, that arbitrary little line that we despise is the only thing standing between Hong Kong and totalitarianism – its disappearance, when it comes, will be the triumph of reaction over the already limited freedoms that exist here. That fact should give people in the West pause for thought before branding all talk about border controls here inherently reactionary. The authorities’ lack of legitimacy, and the paucity of information about the virus itself and about the real situation in China, also means that any story on social media seems more plausible than official statements. One widely heard conspiracy is that Lam’s inaction on the border is a deliberate ploy to make people sick in retaliation for the ongoing pro-democracy movement. It is far-fetched, but that so many people don’t rule it out is indicative of the deep anti-government sentiment. Lam reluctantly closed all but three of the border crossings. And she announced a quarantine of all travellers arriving from the mainland. I also discover a “frontier closed area” along the border when a cop at a roadblock orders me from the number 55K bus on a trip to Sha Tau Kok, a village in the north-eastern New Territories. Two leading scientists – Leung Chi-chiu, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases under the Hong Kong Medical Association, and infectious diseases professor Yuen Kwok-yung from the University of Hong Kong – say that these measures were prudent because drastic action is required to stop the transmission chain. “Yuen said every measure should be taken to minimise the spread, including further border closures”, reported Lilian Cheng and Gary Cheung in the South China Morning Post Several days ago. “The priority for the 14 days from Saturday was to stop more people from the mainland with the virus entering Hong Kong, Yuen said.” Time will tell whether these measures save lives, although there is quiet confidence on the part of Yuen that the situation is now manageable. But while Hong Kong holds its breath, across the border the Chinese economy is stuttering; the Communist Party wants industrial production restarted. The markets demand movement – movement of goods and movement of labour. If the shutdowns were nothing but reactive, useless (or worse) political stunts, then switching to a focus on growing GDP, with all the attendant health risks that come with that enterprise in regular times, will at least be a good thing for lifting the restrictions on people’s civil liberties. Today though, the official figures from the Chinese government suggest that the situation is getting worse. What if cracking the whip on tens of millions of migrant workers in the middle of an epidemic results in a new wave of infections?	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Around 200 ISIL militants killed in Bashiqa Uğur Ergan - ANKARA Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq’s Bashiqa Camp have been under continuous attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while around 200 militants from the jihadist group have been killed in retaliation, military sources told daily Hürriyet.Military sources said that around 200 ISIL militants have been killed at Bashiqa since early January after Turkish troops and tanks were deployed to the camp. The ISIL offensives, which were conducted with Katyushas, were ineffective due to the security measures in place, the sources added.The latest ISIL attack on Bashiqa was on Feb. 15, the sources said.Turkey sent about 600 troops to the Bashiqa Camp near Mosul on Dec. 4, 2015, with the stated aim of training an Iraqi militia to fight the jihadist group, but the created tensions with the Baghdad government. Following strong reactions both from the United States and Iran, Turkey was forced to pull out a significant number of its troops and tanks from the camp.Turkey has stressed that the Bashiqa camp is a military facility where all groups in the international coalition fighting ISIL are represented, arguing that the troops are part of a mission to train Iraqi forces to fight ISIL militants and troops to protect them against rising security risks.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Outlast 1 and 2 are coming to Nintendo Switch early next year, Big Red Barrels has announced. Outlast running on a Nintendo Switch. The first-person survival horror games hit Switch at some point during the first quarter of 2018, the developer said in a post on Facebook. Outlast 1 came out on PC back in 2013, before ports for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One came out in 2014. Outlast 2 came out earlier this year. In the update, Big Red Barrels said Outlast 2 will not get any DLC. "We've considered many options, but none of them felt appropriate for a DLC," the developer said. "Outlast 2 was created to make you feel like a rat in a maze, without any knowledge of what's outside the maze." Outlast 3 will be made "at some point... and answers will be given." Meanwhile, Big Red Barrels said it's working on another game set in the Outlast universe. This isn't a sequel to Outlast 1 or 2, but something different. "We can't say more right now, we first need to make sure we can make it work," the developer added. "Like I mentioned, we strive to be risk-takers and this one is a pretty big challenge. If all goes well, we'll soon be able to reveal more." If you played Outlast 2 and you're looking for story answers, Big Red Barrels suggested checking out the The Murkoff Account's epilogue, which takes places right after the events of the second game.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Our future is at risk. The science is settled, in the main, though there are many details to continue to work out and there are unknowns. But no one doubts that business as usual release of fossil carbon into the atmosphere mainly as the greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide spells big trouble for humanity and the planet Earth, including eventual massive sea level rise and highly disruptive changes in the Earth’s climatology that will make a mess of many things including our food supply. Think failed state. Think Syria. Now, think failed planet, Syria over half the globe, the other half merely a mess. That’s what we are heading for. We know less than we need to about the timing and severity of various impending disasters, but we already see the beginning. Sea level rise and warmer seas has made for some of the most severe tropical storm systems ever seen. That’s a genie we can not put into the bottle. And these storms don’t seem to always confine themselves to the tropics. Extreme cold and extreme heat, extreme precipitation and extreme dryness, floods, and other catastrophic weather related events are happening with increased frequency. Central Europe, Colorado, Calgary, Great Britain. Some of these weather and climate problems are clearly connected to climate change such as those related to extreme heat, increased drying through evaporation, and increase water vapor. Others, such as those caused by changes in the jet stream, are also probably connected to global warming but the climate scientists are still arguing about the details and extent of this, a normal part of the consensus building scientific process. For the most part, though, almost no one is saying “no connection.” And we can fix this or at least, ameliorate the effects on behalf of those who shall inherit whatever is left of this one Earth we’ve got, when we are done messing with it. Unless… Unless organized climate science denialists, right wing “morans” from the Tea Party, self interested paid-off politicians, and the likes of David and Charles Koch, get their way. Unless they get what they want, which is to interfere with the translation of climate science into science policy. Unless they also get their way by interfering with changes to how we approach and build for clean energy and updated infrastructure. I once said, and a lot of people (well, bad people, not any good people) got mad at me, that taking away the future of our children and grandchildren was a criminal act. Of course, you know it is. But in saying that, unfortunately, I can only be referring to “criminal act” as a metaphor, or perhaps as wishful thinking. There actually isn’t a law against ruining the planet and ending civilization as we know it, against taking part in the death and misery of countless humans, against carrying out acts of such utterly despicable selfishness and general terror that you will be placed among the ranks of the genocidal once all is said and done, if you get your way. Nope. That’s totally legal. Or is it? Or, at least, should it be? What if someone other than me came along with the opinion that “There oughta be a law” or at least, a serious proposal that organized climate science denialism and obstruction against implementation of planet-saving policies and technologies should be considered an act against humanity? What would happen is this. The very denialists who work so hard to ensure the misery of our grandchildren, for whatever mercenary, psychopathic, demented, or just very badly misguided reason they may have, will instantly spring to life and attack that person. Anthony Watts will sneer and kvetch, and call his minion of eleven or twelve climate science denying winged monkeys (and their myriad sock puppets) to arms. Christopher Monkton will pretend he is someone, pretend he has a functioning brain, pretend to sound smart and legal, and pretend to say pretend threatening things. Well, that happened. Lawrence Torcello of Rochester Institute of Technology stepped in it. He called them crooks. He said, in part, …critics of the case in L’Aquila are mistaken if they conclude that criminal negligence should never be linked to science misinformation. Consider cases in which science communication is intentionally undermined for political and financial gain. Imagine if in L’Aquila, scientists themselves had made every effort to communicate the risks of living in an earthquake zone. Imagine that they even advocated for a scientifically informed but costly earthquake readiness plan. If those with a financial or political interest in inaction had funded an organised campaign to discredit the consensus findings of seismology, and for that reason no preparations were made, then many of us would agree that the financiers of the denialist campaign were criminally responsible for the consequences of that campaign. I submit that this is just what is happening with the current, well documented funding of global warming denialism. More deaths can already be attributed to climate change than the L’Aquila earthquake and we can be certain that deaths from climate change will continue to rise with global warming. Nonetheless, climate denial remains a serious deterrent against meaningful political action in the very countries most responsible for the crisis. At first I was not sure if I agreed with Professor Torcello about L’Aquila. I think the scientists got thrown under the bus, as it wasn't mainly them who messed up, it morel likely that it was the administrative officials and politicians. But he's indicated to me that he saw L'Aquila as an example of the importance of science communication, not as a specific precedent. To be clear, Torcello is asking if the funding of science, in this case, climate science misinformation criminally negligent. But for the present, that is not an important detail; the point is, yes, you can lie to every one and then they fucking die because of your lies. That is for real. That is your fault if you do that. That makes you some kind of crook, even if at the moment there is not a law against your utterly misanthropic behavior. and that is how I see the hard core climate science denialists. And, of course, Anthony Watts is whining and Christopher Monkton is Mocking, and the Winged Monkeys are aloft. They are attacking Professor Torcello by demanding redress from his employers at Rochester. I sent a note to them supporting the good professor. If you are friend and not foe send me the secret handshake and I’ll send you the list of individuals I sent the letter to with their emails, and you can do the same if you want. ________________ Image is from The Lorax, which gives a message some people apparently missed.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Datensucht von Facebook und Google : „Lachen wird ein Rohstoff“ Künftig werden unsere Kühlschränke über uns Witze machen, sagt der Internetkritiker Evgeny Morozov. Deshalb will er den Kapitalismus abschaffen. taz: Herr Morozov, kennen Sie einen guten Witz über Google? Evgeny Morozov: Da müsste ich mal googeln. Nein, ich glaube, ich kenne keinen. Uns ist auch keiner eingefallen. Der Tech-Community fehlt da einfach der Humor. Leute, die über das Netz schreiben, gehen oft davon aus, dass sie den wichtigsten Epochenwandel seit Gutenberg begleiten. Sie betrachten alles mit einer gewissen Gravität. Auch wenn sie Hoodies und Flipflops tragen. Man findet bei ihnen keine Spur von Selbstironie. Sie haben kürzlich darüber geschrieben, dass in Zukunft selbst Kühlschränke versuchen werden, witzig zu sein. Haushaltsgeräte also, die mit dem Internet verbunden sind und Scherze machen. Sie sehen das kritisch. Wieso? Das war eine Reaktion auf den Essay eines Neurowissenschaftlers. Früher ging es bei Witzen nur um die Analyse von Text, um Elemente, die man kombinieren musste, argumentiert er. Das konnte man Rechnern nicht beibringen. Heute kann man dafür mit Sensoren arbeiten. Die Sensoren in Ihrem smarten Kühlschrank könnten dann feststellen, dass Sie gerade Zutaten in Ihr Omelette mischen, die nicht zusammenpassen, und einen Scherz darüber machen. Und was finden Sie daran schlimm? Der Mann freute sich, dass unsere schlauen Häuser bald Witze für uns machen werden. Aber die Sensoren gehören Unternehmen, die so viel wie möglich über uns erfahren wollen, um noch zielgerichtetere Werbung zu schalten. Klar: Vielleicht bringen diese Unternehmen uns zum Lachen. Aber es wird ein Lachen sein wie in Aldous Huxleys „Schöner neuer Welt“, und keines wie in spontanen Alltagssituationen. Unternehmen werden unseren Alltag übernehmen bis hin zu so grundlegenden Emotionen wie dem Lachen. im Interview: Evgeny Morozov Das Werk: Mit seinen Büchern „The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom“ und „To Save Everything, Click Here: Technology, Solutionism, and the Urge to Fix Problems that Don't Exist“ hat Evgeny Morozov die internationale Debatte über die Digitalisierung geprägt wie kaum ein anderer. Zurzeit lebt er in den USA und arbeitet an der Eliteuniversität Harvard an einem Buch über die Geschichte des Internets. Der Mann: Morozov wurde 1984 in Weißrussland geboren. Er machte seinen Bachelor in Bulgarien und studierte in Berlin am kleinen European College of Liberal Arts, heute Bart College. Währenddessen arbeitete er für die Prager Nichtregierungsorganisation Transitions Online. Dort gewann er die Einsichten für sein erstes Buch. „Ich habe gemacht, was jeder in Berlin macht. Mit einem Laptop im Café sitzen“, erinnert er sich. Der Kühlschrank könnte also sagen: Sie wollten doch abnehmen! Und jetzt ein Snickers?! Ja, es geht auch um soziale Erwartungen. Selbst Lachen wird jetzt Teil von etwas, das französische Philosophen Gouvernementalität nennen würden. Es kann nun also Arbeit verrichten, einen dazu antreiben, gesünder zu essen, sich mehr zu bewegen. Lachen wird eine Ressource. Für so eine Ansage brauchen Sie keinen computergesteuerten Kühlschrank. Das sagt Ihnen schon heute jeder Arzt. In Deutschland beginnt das mit der Verhaltenspsychologie erst langsam, auch das Nudging, das Anstupsen, mit dem man jemandem sanft bedeutet, sich zu ändern. In Großbritannien läuft das seit Anfang der 90er Jahre, in den USA oder in Dänemark genauso. Es gibt eine Allianz zwischen den Anhängern der Verhaltensforschung in der Politik mit jenen, die Apps und Sensoren zur Verfügung stellen, die messen, was wir essen, was wir konsumieren, wie viel Sport wir machen. Und was macht Sie so besorgt? Die Eingriffe finden bei den Bürgern statt. Es geht nicht mehr darum, die Ernährungsindustrie davon abzuhalten, schädliches Fastfood bei Kindern zu bewerben oder Deals für gesundes Essen mit Schul-Cafeterias abzuschließen. Stattdessen präsentiert man uns nun diese unternehmerische „Wir sollten alle gesund sein“-Einstellung. Aber wenn ich in Kalifornien in der Nähe von Los Angeles lebe, dann bringt es gar nichts, mich dazu aufzufordern, mehr zu laufen, weil ich da einfach nirgendwo laufen kann. Was hindert Sie daran? Die Infrastruktur ist eine für Autos. Man könnte ja darüber nachdenken, diese Infrastruktur anzupassen. Solche Lösungen werden aber immer weniger denkbar. Weil wir uns nur darauf konzentrieren, wie wir mit diesem unternehmerischen Ansatz und seinen technischen Möglichkeiten den Leuten vorschreiben, was sie zu tun oder zu lassen haben. Man negiert so die vergangenen Dekaden sozialer Bewegungen. Die haben gezeigt, wie politisch der Alltag ist. Gesundheit ist politisch, Essen ist politisch. Was wir essen, ist nicht nur ein Produkt im Supermarkt. Es gibt schon vorher eine Kette von Herstellern und Unternehmen. Man kann sich nicht nur auf das Endprodukt konzentrieren. Eine erste Krankenkasse in Deutschland richtet ihre Beiträge jetzt am Verhalten ihrer Mitglieder aus. Sie leben in den USA, hat sich Ihre Versicherung schon gemeldet? Ich bin über meine Universität, über Harvard, versichert. Ich bin gesund, ich habe in den vergangenen Jahren vierzig Kilo abgenommen. Ich habe meinen Part erledigt, ohne Apps. Bei fünf, sechs Unternehmen in den USA gibt es Bestrebungen, die Angestellten mit Trackern auszustatten und zu überwachen, wie viel sie laufen, wie viel Sport sie machen. Ich reduziere meine Interaktionen mit dem amerikanischen Staat und Unternehmen auf ein Minimum. Der einzige Berührungspunkt ist Amazon, das mir Bücher schickt. Aha, Amazon also! Das nutze ich. Ich kaufe viele Bücher aus den 50er und 60er Jahren, die kriegst du einfach nicht in jedem Buchladen. Fürchten Sie eine Gesundheitsdiktatur? Nennen Sie es, wie Sie wollen. Dem Staat fehlt einfach das Geld, um viele Leistungen zu gewährleisten. Also stellt er das Gesundheitssystem auf Prävention um. Ihm bleibt nichts anderes übrig. Die Gesundheitsdiktatur ist im Grunde die Folge eines dauerhaften finanziellen Mangels. Auch die Unternehmen wollen Geld sparen. Also gibt es gesetzliche Anreize, damit die Menschen ihre Daten den Versicherern geben, sodass sie weniger zahlen. Wir können es uns nicht mehr leisten, krank zu werden. Den Begriff der Diktatur halten Sie für die Analyse jedenfalls für hilfreich? Ich würde es eher eine Diktatur des Marktes nennen. Oder die Diktatur des Neoliberalismus. Diktatur darf man das gern nennen. Ich gehöre nicht zu den Leuten, die den Begriff ausschließlich für Nordkorea reservieren wollen. Sie sind in einer der letzten europäischen politischen Diktaturen aufgewachsen, in Weißrussland. Schärft das Ihren Blick für autoritäre Erscheinungen in Demokratien? Die mit meiner Herkunft verbundenen Erfahrungen sind eher eine Hürde. Die muss man überwinden, um zu begreifen, was heute passiert. Wir leben nicht in einer Orwell’schen Gesellschaft. Wir geben unsere Daten nicht her, weil uns jemand eine Knarre an den Kopf hält. Sondern weil es einen finanziellen Anreiz gibt. Wenn Sie das aus dem alten Blickwinkel betrachten, es gehe immer um den Staat, der den Zwang ausübe, analysieren Sie am entscheidenden Punkt vorbei: Es ist heute ein ökonomischer Zwang, der Ihnen als Anreiz präsentiert wird. Man muss nicht in einer Diktatur aufgewachsen sein, um zu verstehen, was die NSA tut. Alles andere ist eine extreme Form des Kapitalismus. Das hat mit dem Kommunismus nichts zu tun. Hat Sie die Ankunft des Kapitalismus in Osteuropa sensibler dafür gemacht, die Nachteile einer ungezügelten Ökonomie zu erkennen? Jeder will meine Arbeit mit meinem psychosozialen Hintergrund erklären. Aber: nein. Nein! Ich habe in Bulgarien studiert und viel in Osteuropa gearbeitet, das stimmt. Ich kenne die Mentalität dort ganz gut. Ich denke aber nicht, dass einem das bei diesem Thema besonders hilft. Nein, nein, nein. Wir fragen, inwieweit Ihr Leben Ihr Werk als Autor beeinflusst. Ich glaube nicht, dass meine Herkunft aus Weißrussland viel über meine Ansichten erzählt. Für manche Erkenntnisse meines ersten Buchs, wie digitale Medien eingesetzt werden können, waren meine Erfahrungen vielleicht inspirierend. Meist haben die Leute diese Medien aus Spaß benutzt, zur Unterhaltung. Es ist also nicht so, dass wir umso politischer werden, je mehr Videos wir auf YouTube sehen können. Ich habe früh verstanden, dass die Rhetorik von der befreienden Kraft digitaler Medien aus Brüssel und Washington nicht der Realität entspricht. Da hat mir meine Herkunft sicher geholfen, das zu begreifen. Ihre Sicht auf das Internet hat sich stark verändert, Sie haben seine Möglichkeiten früher sehr positiv eingeschätzt. Warum sind Sie heute so skeptisch? Als ich in Berlin gelebt habe, habe ich für NGOs gearbeitet, ich bin viel durch die Länder der ehemaligen Sowjetunion und des früheren Ostblocks gereist. Wir haben oppositionellen Politikern und Aktivisten angeboten, ihnen den Umgang mit neuen Medien beizubringen, mit sozialen Netzwerken, Podcasts. Wir wollten den politischen Wandel beschleunigen. Das ist mehr oder weniger fehlgeschlagen. Auch weil die Staaten schnell klüger geworden sind, sie setzten diese Techniken auch ein, beispielsweise zur Propaganda. Und dann erkannte ich, dass es den Zusammenhang, den amerikanische Politiker und Intellektuelle oft konstruieren, den zwischen Internet und Freiheit, so nicht gibt. Für mich hatten solche Theorien nichts Substanzielles mehr. Ich habe meine Meinung nicht an einem bestimmten Punkt geändert, es war ein Prozess zunehmender Frustration. Verfolgen Sie den Ukraine-Konflikt? Den Georgienkrieg habe ich aufmerksamer verfolgt. Konzentrieren Sie sich nicht auf Internetaktivismus. Sehen Sie sich die Staaten und deren Handeln an. Wie sich ein Sender wie Russia Today überall ausbreitet, mit Büros in London, in Berlin. Das zählt. Während des Arabischen Frühlings wurden Blogger zu Helden. In der Ukraine scheint es keine zu geben. Es gibt nichts zu feiern, also sind da auch keine Helden. Dass wir uns die Helden derzeit nicht erfinden, das finde ich eher positiv. Warum sollte man über Blogger in der Ukraine schreiben? Dort herrscht doch Krieg. Sie fragen, warum es keine Internethelden gibt. Sie könnten genauso fragen, warum es keine Bauernhelden gibt. Die Antwort ist dieselbe: weil sie in diesem Konflikt keine Rolle spielen. Die Rolle des Internets ist überbewertet? Wir schleppen intellektuellen Ballast mit uns herum, wenn wir „das Internet“ zum Rahmen machen, in dem sich unsere Gedanken bewegen. Wir reden über Fragen wie: Zerstört das das Internet? Hält das Internet das aus? Macht das das Internet besser? Die einen sagen, das Internet wurde öffentlich finanziert, es muss öffentlich bleiben. Die anderen erwidern: Nein, nein, das Internet entstand aus Start-ups, finanziert von privatem Geld, das ist die wahre Industrie, man muss sie gewähren lassen. Wie wir das Internet sehen, ist eine Frage unseres politischen Standpunkts. Auch seine Geschichte ist ein politisches Projekt. Wollen Sie bestreiten, dass technische Entwicklungen Auswirkungen auf Politik haben? Es wäre gefährlich, dem Internet eine eigene Handlungsfähigkeit zuzuschreiben, als wäre es eine eigenständige Kraft. Dann nämlich würde die Sprache des Internets die der Wirtschaft und Politik ersetzen. Es wäre fatal, wenn die Menschen über Netzneutralität reden und die Frage, wessen Daten wie schnell transportiert werden, als wäre das eben keine streng politische und ökonomische Frage. Die Frage ist doch: Vertrauen wir den Unternehmen, das zu regeln? Oder muss das der Staat tun, die öffentliche Hand? In den USA wird die letzte Option gar nicht diskutiert. Da ist völlig klar: Unternehmen regeln das, man muss sie nur gut kontrollieren. Niemand stellt infrage, dass ihnen die Infrastruktur gehört. Das ist ein Fehler. Die Rede vom Internet entpolitisiert unsere Gespräche und wischt die radikaleren Fragen vom Tisch. Würden Sie sich als Kapitalismuskritiker bezeichnen? Klar. Mit diesem Begriff habe ich kein Problem. Hält man Sie, diesen Typen aus Weißrussland, in den USA für einen Kommunisten? Ich hatte Glück. Das Gegenteil ist der Fall. Weil ich aus Weißrussland stamme, denken alle, ich müsse den Kommunismus richtig hassen. Ich sei ein geborener Kapitalist. Mein Pass hilft mir da sehr. Ich könnte wahrscheinlich ein Trotzki-T-Shirt tragen, und die würden immer noch denken, ich bewerbe den Kapitalismus. Ist noch niemandem aufgefallen, wie sehr sich die Leute da verschätzt haben? Meine Kritik hat sich bisher auf den Technologiesektor konzentriert. Und Menschen, die Tech-Unternehmen hassen, gibt es nun wirklich genug. Es gibt auch Marktliberale, die Facebook oder Amazon kritisieren, weil das Monopole sind. Die Technologiediskussion ist so umfassend, dass ich diese Botschaft jeden Tag herausschreien kann, die Leute werden immer noch denken, ich will ihnen bloß ihre Maschinen nehmen und nur noch mit Schreibmaschine schreiben. So denken viele über mich. Man kann ihnen erklären, dass dem nicht so ist. Dass man für Technologie, für Fortschritt sein kann, aber für eine andere Art des Fortschritts. Die Option gibt es in den USA nicht. Und in Europa immer weniger. Welche Art Fortschritt wollen Sie? Derzeit gehen wir von der Annahme aus, dass Daten der jeweiligen Firma gehören, mit deren Ressourcen sie hergestellt worden sind. Suchen gehört Google. Soziale Kontakte gehören Facebook. Die Information darüber, wohin mich mein Fahrer fährt, gehört dem Taxi-Dienst Uber. Das ist das Paradigma des Silicon Valley. Gerade entsteht noch ein anderes Paradigma, das besagt: Die Daten gehören den Bürgern. Und die könnten mit ihren Daten handeln, Geld verdienen. Vielleicht ist das so ein neuer Ansatz, um Arbeitslosigkeit zu bekämpfen. Man verkauft seine Daten, damit man dafür Geld bekommt. Ich glaube, beide Ideen führen in eine demokratische und politische Sackgasse. Was wäre die Alternative? Niemand sollte Daten besitzen. Luft gehört auch keinem. Bürger sollen mit ihren Daten etwas tun dürfen. Sie haben also eine digitale Identität, die extrem gut verschlüsselt ist und sicher. Der Staat gewährleistet den Zugang, auch Unternehmen dürfen die Daten nutzen. Vielleicht gegen eine Gebühr. Und Google? Würden Sie das Unternehmen zerschlagen, wie es derzeit diskutiert wird? Statt Google komplett zu zerschlagen, müssten wir Konzerne aufteilen. Erst einmal bräuchte es einen kostenlosen Basisdienst im Internet. Dafür sollte weder mit Geld noch mit Werbung bezahlt werden. Wenn ich also rausfinden möchte, in welchem Film Tom Cruise 1993 spielte, lässt sich das nachschauen. Dafür braucht man keine künstliche Intelligenz. Nur eine besser strukturierte Form von Wikipedia. Das kann gratis zur Verfügung gestellt werden, im Zweifel eben steuerfinanziert. Die nächste Ebene wäre einfach: Google kann erweiterte Services verkaufen. Wenn ich Ortungsdienste will oder andere Features, dann gegen eine Gebühr. Ich zahle 3 Dollar, und gut ist. Aber für den Basisdienst zahlt der Staat. Es gibt keine Werbung. Und mit meinen Daten passiert in diesem Basisdienst nichts. Wer stellt den Basisdienst zur Verfügung? Google? Oder ein Konsortium aus unterschiedlichen Anbietern. Am besten wäre ein gemeinsamer Pool von Wissen und Fakten, um den herum auch andere Systeme entstehen dürfen. Wenn Sie also ein Start-up gründen wollen, das mit diesen Daten das Wetter vorhersagt, gut. Ich bin nicht gegen Unternehmen, ich möchte nur gern diesen Automatismus unterbrechen, nach dem sie immer mächtiger werden, je mehr Daten sie sammeln. Zurzeit ist Uber mehr als 40 Milliarden Dollar wert. Was besitzen die? Nichts. Keine Fahrer, keine Autos. Nur einen Algorithmus und einen Haufen Daten. Wenn Google Uber kaufen würde, hätten beide Unternehmen noch mehr Daten. Ich möchte aber nicht, dass Google diese Macht hat. Wenn diese Daten in einer allgemein zugänglichen Datenbank lagerten, wäre das Problem gelöst. Sie müssten so verschlüsselt werden, dass sie nicht zu manipulieren sind. Das ist die entscheidende Hürde. Damit würden Sie die Werbeindustrie komplett ausschalten. Ja, damit könnte ich sehr gut leben. Eliminiert die Werbeindustrie. Die Technologieindustrie würde weiterhin bezahlt werden. Über Gebühren, Abonnements, Steuern. Ein solches Modell würde auch den Wettbewerb um Kundenservice und Innovationen viel mehr ankurbeln. Wie das? Derzeit schafft es kein Unternehmen, Google ernsthaft Konkurrenz zu machen, weil ihm die große Menge an Daten fehlen, die Google schon gesammelt hat. Es ist unmöglich, Google zu schlagen. Sie können als Start-up den besten Algorithmus der Welt bauen – die Daten, mit denen er am besten lernt, hätten sie immer noch nicht. Daher müssen wir die Daten vergemeinschaften, sie sozialisieren. Das derzeitige Modell funktioniert so, als würden Firmen anfangen uns Luft zu verkaufen, indem sie uns bei jedem Atemzug Werbung zeigen. Sie vergleichen Daten mit Luft. Sollte es Menschen verboten sein, mit ihnen zu handeln? Ja. Das würde die Daten aus diesem Kreislauf nehmen. Schauen Sie Uber an. Warum muss ich die Fahrer bewerten, warum müssen die mich bewerten, warum muss Uber wissen, wer ich bin? Weil die Plattform diese Daten braucht, um Vertrauen zu etablieren. Sie wollen kein Geld ausgeben, um sicherzustellen, dass ihre Kunden ehrliche Menschen sind, also vertrauen sie auf einen Bewertungsmarkt. Dafür besorgt der Fahrdienst Uber Ihnen ein Verkehrsmittel, wenn Sie es brauchen, zu einem erschwinglichen Preis. Das ginge auch anders, nämlich komplett anonymisiert. Ich sehe auch keinen Sinn darin, jeden Morgen um acht Uhr einen Bus fahren zu lassen, obwohl den niemand benutzt. Das ist verrückt in einer Zeit, in der man mit seinem Telefon nachschauen und planen kann, wo man hinfahren möchte. Man könnte dem Bus sagen, wann er wo sein soll. So sollte es laufen. Und dass es nicht so läuft, liegt daran, dass die notwendigen Daten nicht in den Händen der Bürger sind. Sie sind nicht in den Händen der Gemeinden, und auch nicht in den Händen der Städte. In einem Roman des Science-Fiction-Autors Cory Doctorow wird Geld durch Reputation ersetzt. So können auch arme Menschen durch gute Taten oder Charme Ansehen erwerben und reich werden. Reputation könnte die Welt gerechter machen. Was spricht dagegen? Eine furchtbare Vorstellung. Ich würde in diesem System nicht überleben. Ich will mir keine Sorgen darüber machen, ob meine Scherze lustig genug sind. Lustig für eine ausreichende Anzahl von Leuten. Ich möchte nicht ständig bewertet werden für das, was ich tue. Das ist nicht gut für die Psyche. Ich will, dass Leute Risiken eingehen und sie nicht meiden, aus Angst, sie könnten an Reputation verlieren. Sie haben also Angst, dass Ihre Witze nicht lustig genug sind. Ich weiß nicht, ob ich witzig bin. Es ist mir auch egal. Ich habe neulich mit dem Philosophen Slavoj Zizek zusammengesessen. Denkt er, dass er lustig ist? Keine Ahnung. Leute lachen über ihn. Ich bemühe mich wenigstens, manche tun nicht mal das.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Politicians in northwestern Pakistan have denounced the women’s marches that took place around the country earlier this month as “anti-Islamic,” after people took to the streets to celebrate International Women’s Day. The marches, which took place on International Women’s Day on March 8th, involved Pakistani women marching through the streets while carrying posters demanding more right’s for women and attacking Pakistan’s male-dominated society. However, Lawmakers in the provincial parliament of Khyber Pukhtunkhwa unanimously adopted a resolution on Wednesday denouncing the marches as a “shameless and un-Islamic act.” According to Dawn, the resolution “stated that although the provincial assembly supports the rights granted to women and minorities by Islam, the “obscenity” witnessed on March 8th was not acceptable to it.” It also demanded that local authorities ask the federal government to “expose” such forces and “prepare a strategy to deal with such incidences in the future.” “Some hidden forces have sped up their efforts to destroy our family system and social customs, the practical demonstration of which took place on March 8, 2019, in various big cities on Women’s Day,” the resolution read. Those who signed the petition include lawmakers from Imran Khan’s ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf party and from opposition parties, including the left-wing Pakistan People’s Party now led by the son of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Pakistan remains one of the most repressive societies in the world for women, mainly as a result of strict adherence to Islamic Law. According to Human Rights Watch 2018 report, “violence against women and girls—including rape, murder through so-called honor killings, acid attacks, domestic violence, and forced marriage—remains routine.” Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
College student Ross Price had just put in a long study session, and he wasn't prepared for what he found moving by his parking space. At first, it looked like the parking block had shifted. Then he saw something far scarier: An 11-foot reticulated python had slithered under his roommate's Toyota Camry. "I'm used to seeing snakes, but nothing that big," said Price, 24, a student at Nova Southeastern University. "You just don't expect something like that wandering around your house." Price and his roommate, James Hand, called an exterminator on that Feb. 1 night, but the person who answered said it was too late to send someone. So they called police, and reported that a snake about six feet long had crawled under Hand's car. Officer Tony Bernardo, a 20-year-veteran who is the department's go-to guy for dealing with wildlife, responded along with two other officers. The snake put up a fight, twisting and moving deeper into the Camry's engine compartment as the officers attempted to slowly pull it out. It took them about 15 minutes to remove the clinging reptile. "Bigger than I initially thought it was," said Price, who along with Hand stood nearby watching the extraction. Hand, 25, also an NSU student, said it was lucky that Price saw the snake when he did. "I thought about it later," he said. "What if it had crawled up into my car and made its way inside as I was driving? ... I don't want to think about it." Davie police spokesman Sgt. Mark Leone said the snake probably was once a pet because it was found in a residential area. Once it was removed from the car, police took a video of Bernardo holding up the snake, which they say appeared calm. Later, it was turned over to Strictly Reptiles, a company licensed by the state to care for exotic animals. Leone said the snake is not the same as a Burmese python, the species that has invaded the Everglades and has been discovered closer to populated areas. Four Burmese pythons, including a 16-foot female, were found earlier this week huddled inside an old bunker at the defunct U.S. military base in the Florida Keys. Earlier this month, school children found a 10-foot Burmese python near the abandoned Homestead Golf Course. (c)2017 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Toei Animation chairman Kozo Morishita said at the MIPCOM trade event in Cannes, France that he is hoping that production on the CG film project Saint Seiya the Movie will be completed in July 2013. Morishita added that he is considering producing a new television anime series in the Saint Seiya franchise after the film opens. Regarding the possible new television anime series, Morishita said, "In the past we'd produced a TV series first and then a film, but we've found that delivering a movie before starting to develop a series is a great way to test the appetite of audience, and limit risks." Morishita said of the 3D film that "Compared with other Toei Animation films, this 'Saint Seiya' feature will have a top-level budget, and will be delivered in S3D and CGI 3D. In Japan, audiences are not yet fond of stereotropic films, but it's crucial to provide a 3D version for territories like China." Keiichi Satou (Tiger & Bunny, Ashura), is helming the CG film project. Tomohiro Suzuki, a scriptwriter for six episodes of Tiger & Bunny, is writing the screenplay. The film is listed as the new "Masami Kurumada Project," and Kurumada, the original creator of the Saint Seiya mythological fantasy manga, is credited for the original story. Toei Animation confirmed in February 2011 that production on a new computer-animated film of Saint Seiya had been green-lit. Source: Variety Image © Masami Kurumada/Shueisha, Toei Animation	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
El endeudamiento externo de México retoma su comportamiento de alza en el arranque del 2019, dentro de un contexto de preocupaciones y dudas por la disponibilidad de recursos para el financiamiento de los programas del gobierno del presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador, y de sus posibles implicaciones sobre la calificación de la deuda soberana del país, en particular, de la referida a Pemex. El saldo del endeudamiento externo bruto de México se elevó en 9 mil 519 millones de dólares tan solo en el primer trimestre del 2019, para alcanzar una cifra sin precedente de 456 mil 251 millones, de acuerdo con las últimas cifras publicadas por el Banco de México. El aumento en endeudamiento externo presenta claroscuros, al mismo tiempo que contribuye a prender algunos focos amarillos. El principal catalizador del mayor endeudamiento fue la compra de extranjeros de papel de deuda emitido por el gobierno mexicano en el mercado local con un monto de 6 mil 715 millones de dólares, con lo que elevó su saldo a 115 mil 208 millones en el primer trimestre del 2019. El crecimiento de este tipo de recursos fue de 6.19 por ciento con relación a los últimos tres meses del año pasado. “Alrededor del mundo, tenemos aproximadamente 14 billones de bonos con un rendimiento negativo, mientras que la tasa de interés real de la deuda de México a 10 años (nominal – inflación) ha fluctuado en torno a los 4 por ciento. Aunque el país se enfrenta a numerosos riesgos, su deuda sigue siendo muy atractiva, considerando que los títulos soberanos mantienen un grado de inversión y ofrecen alta rentabilidad en términos relativos” declaró desde Nueva York, en exclusiva para el Financiero, Diego Colman, analista de mercados de DailyFx del grupo financiero IG. La tenencia de extranjeros, de acuerdo a normas internacionales que sigue el Banco de México, en papeles como los bonos M, Cetes, Udibonos y Bondes D, se debe tomar como deuda externa. El mayor crecimiento de la deuda externa resultante del apetito de extranjeros por papel de deuda denominado en pesos, es un signo de la confianza en México y resulta más manejable dado que se tienen un mayor control par parte del gobierno mexicano, aunque no deja de preocupar debido a la volatilidad que puede tener este tipo de recursos. Otro aspecto que también preocupa se refiere al aumento del endeudamiento del Gobierno Federal y de las empresas denominadas paraestatales. Estados dos entidades aumentaron su nivel de deuda en 2 mil 111 y 2 mil 185 millones de dólares en el primer trimestre de este año, lo cuales mostraron una tasa de crecimiento de 2.20 y 2.31 por ciento con respecto al trimestre anterior en cada caso. Los requerimientos financieros tanto del Gobierno Federal como de Pemex pueden presionan al resultado de las finanzas públicas en lo general, lo cual puede llevar a caer en la tentación de incrementar los recurso vía endeudamiento externo, ante la estrategia de no realizar, por el momento, una reforma fiscal y mantener bajo control a los aumentos de precios en los bienes y servicios públicos. La política de financiamiento, para ser sustentable, no se debe hacer descansar solamente en el pilar de la austeridad y el combate a la corrupción. “Lo ideal para todo gobierno es controlar el crecimiento de la deuda y consolidar sus obligaciones. Sin embargo, en un entorno económico menos benigno para México, en el que se han reducido las recaudaciones de Hacienda, la disciplina fiscal se dificulta, en particular si la administración no está dispuesta a reducir sus gastos dramáticamente y/o recortar proyectos que no tienen mucho sentido económico (Dos Bocas, Santa Lucía, etc.), sostiene el especialista Diego Colman. La perspectiva para las finanzas públicas se nubla por los mayores requerimientos de recursos para financiar los programas de gobierno y sacar a adelante a Pemex, debido al bajo crecimiento económico, lo cual puede contribuir a mantener la presión de baja a los ingresos y conducir a una degradación de la calificación soberana de la deuda externa y de la principal empresa productiva. La deuda externa bruta de México representó el 36.5 por ciento del total del tamaño de la economía en el primer trimestre del 2019, menor al 37.7 por ciento del cierre del 2018. Sin embargo esto se puede deber, en buena parte, a que el PIB en dólares se vio favorecido por la recuperación del peso, lo que compenso en buena parte la caída de 0.2 por ciento en la actividad productiva en el arranque del año. Finalmente, habría que destacar que las empresas del sector privado no financiero han mostrado una postura más prudente en materia de endeudamiento externo, al ubicarse este rubro en 119 mil 103 millones de dólares al cierre del primer trimestre del 2019, por debajo de su máximo histórico alcanzado en 125 mil 409 millones en el último trimestre del 2017.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
After playing 10 games, Texas Tech has earned 10 wins, leads the nation in field-goal defense and scoring defense and comes in at No. 4 in the NCAA NET Rankings, No. 12 in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll, No. 11 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll and No. 9 in the ESPN Power Rankings.The Red Raiders (10-0) return to action at 6 p.m. on Thursday against No. 2 Duke at Madison Square Garden in their fourth neutral-court game of the season, while the Blue Devils (9-1) will host Princeton on Tuesday before traveling up to New York for the first-ever matchup between the two schools.Texas Tech is unbeaten through 10 games for the second time in program history with the only other time coming with a 12-0 start to the 1929-30 season. The Red Raiders got to 10-0 with an impressive 82-48 win over Abilene Christian last Saturday in the final game ever at the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum. TTU's defense limited the Wildcats to 28.3 percent shooting in the game, whilewent off for a career-high 30 points after going 12-for-13 from the field. The Red Raiders finished the game shooting 55.6 percent from the field with 10 players scoring in the game. Culver would earn Big 12 Player of the Week for his performance, the first in his career and the first conference honor of the season for the Red Raiders.After two strong performances last week, the Red Raiders continue to lead the nation by limiting opponents to 32.2 percent shooting and have now matched Virginia by holding teams to 51.2 points per game for the national lead. TTU is second nationally with a 26.3 scoring margin advantage, fourth in 3-point defense (25.0 %), 11th with a 5.3 turnover margin advantage, 16th with 5.4 blocked shots per game and 25th with a 7.5 rebounding advantage. Offensively, the Red Raiders are scoring 77.5 points per game and are 18th nationally with a 49.9 shooting percentage and second in the Big 12 with only 115 turnovers through 10 games.In the polls, Texas Tech remained at No. 11 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll but dropped one spot to No. 12 in the AP Top-25. The Red Raiders, who were unranked in the preseason polls, appeared in 14 AP polls last season but would enter this season unranked through three weeks. The Red Raiders finished the 2017-18 season at No. 6 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll and were in its Top-10 rankings seven times during the season. The No. 6 ranking to finish the season matched a program-best set on Feb. 12, 2018 in the USA TODAY Coaches poll and on Feb. 19, 2018 in the AP Top 25 Poll.Kansas (9-0) is the top-ranked team in the nation for the second straight week, followed by the Blue Devils, Tennessee (8-1), Michigan (11-0) and Virginia (9-0) in the polls. Texas Tech is one of nine teams who are still unbeaten with KU, Michigan, Virginia, No. 6 Nevada (11-0), No. 14 Buffalo (10-0), No. 21 Houston (10-0) and No. 24 Furman (12-0). St. John's (10-0) is the only undefeated team outside the polls in the seventh release of the season.NET: The NCAA developed NET to replace the RPI as the primary sorting tool for evaluating teams during the Division I men's basketball season. The new ranking system was approved in late July after months of consultation with the Division I Men's Basketball Committee, the National Association of Basketball Coaches, top basketball analytics experts and Google Cloud Professional Services. The NCAA Evaluation Tool, which will be known as the NET, relies on game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency, and the quality of wins and losses. To make sense of team performance data, late-season games (including from the NCAA tournament) were used as test sets to develop a ranking model leveraging machine learning techniques. The model, which used team performance data to predict the outcome of games in test sets, was optimized until it was as accurate as possible. The resulting model is the one that will be used as the NET going forward.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
As the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum opens today, some in the press have been caught up in a swoon over the former president. Pundits from the center and the avowed left called on critics to re-examine the former president as a “good man with a good heart,” while those on the right declare that “Bush is Back.” Political analysts are compiling lists of “The 7 best moments of George W. Bush's presidency” and highlighting polls indicating that Bush is more popular now than he was in office. And Fox News has pulled out all the stops, lining up their Bush-administration-officials-turned-Fox-employees to sing the former president's praises. Presidential historians and veteran reporters who covered the Bush White House are speaking out, saying that reporting on the Bush library and legacy should put his failures in their proper context. The academics point out that while some of Bush's defenders in the press have said that the Bush legacy is a question for history, historians largely pan his tenure. And the veteran reporters who covered Bush's presidency urge that coverage of the presidential library provide a complete accounting of his tenure in office, including its many missteps. “The press needs to take a really cold-eyed look at the circumstances ... look at the state of the country and world on Jan. 20, 2001 and eight years later,” said Ed Chen, former Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg correspondent who covered the White House from 1999 to 2010. “Were mistakes made? Sure, the whole WMD fiasco ... it sure has a long way to go for anything close to a full rehabilitation.” Chen later added, “Of the three [presidents] that I covered, we have to put Bush at the bottom.” Several top presidential historians echoed Chen's low-ranking view, noting a week of positive coverage cannot erase that. “Right now he's ranked as one of the lower presidents because of the War in Iraq and the economy tanking so he's got a long way to go to get rehabilitated,” said Douglas Brinkley, a top presidential historian and author. “It is a long revisionist road up from the bottom for George W. Bush. He is ranked toward the bottom rung of presidents.” Indeed, surveys of historians regularly find Bush ranked among the worst of U.S. presidents. Having toured the new library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Brinkley described it as having a “compassionate conservative motif” for Bush, adding, “I was surprised how much wall space was given to AIDS in Africa, marine conservation, No Child Left Behind. I got the feeling that the Bush crowd was trying to paint their president as more of a centrist than many people feel.” But Brinkley stressed that whatever positive image is being attempted this week cannot rewrite his presidency. “I don't think it matters two weeks from now, it is a building opening and people tend to be jubilant,” he said. “It's the beginning of revisionism of a presidency.” Brandon Rottinghaus, associate professor at the University of Houston and presidential historian, offered a similar assessment. “The Bush legacy is certainly one of increasing partisanship, he certainly presided over a country that became more polarized and didn't do much to try to alleviate that,” Rottinghaus said. He noted much of the positive press for the library is a tribute to the office, not necessarily the man, but added that that could be a problem for real reporting of Bush's legacy. “You can't get past the fact that some of these policies were obviously flawed, its hindsight to suggest it, but I think what will happen is that presidents are judged on the big moments of governing,” he said. “The big moments were the aftermath of 9/11 and the war in Iraq. In terms of the war in Iraq, there are some serious oversights and some clear failures.” Cal Jillson, political science professor and historian at Southern Methodist University, said many in the press are tending to “bend over backwards to accentuate the positive.” He cited the nearby Dallas Morning News as being “all very positive” in its coverage. Still, he points out Bush's image among historians remains poor, despite any revision attempt. “George W. Bush is ranked with the lowest of the lows in presidential rankings,” Jillson said. “He is always in the bottom 5 or 6 or 7.” He added of the library coverage: “Most will miss that the most important element of the story is that we do have a presidency here with two wars, inconclusively fought at great expense and an economic collapse, the worst in 70 years, that is a huge legacy burden.” Those who covered Bush in the White House say that legacy burden should be front and center as the media covers the opening of the presidential library. “I would be surprised and disappointed if coverage did not include the War in Iraq,” said Steve Thomma, a McClatchy White House correspondent since 1997. "The coverage of a presidential library is the coverage of his entire record. I would hope it would include a big examination of the Iraq war." He added that at the library opening, “the role of the press is to use it as an occasion to examine the presidency and the totality of the presidency. The number one thing is foreign policy -- from Sept. 11 on it dominated his presidency and the economy for what happened at the end of his term, the economy crashing, you have to ask if his policies were the right ones.” Carl Cannon covered Bush's first seven years in office for National Journal and co-authored a book comparing him to Ronald Reagan. He said reviewing Bush's record during a library opening allows for reporters to “humanize” him, but that they should not “whitewash his record.” “I would simply say that we should evaluate George W. Bush--if that's what we're doing this week--as best we can, with benefit of what we've learned about him and his policies, good or bad, since he left office.” Jennifer Loven, who covered the White House from 2002 to 2010 for Associated Press, said the descriptions she has seen of the Bush Library sound like it is “overly defensive for Bush to present his big decisions the way he does.” She added that seeing more positive coverage of this event is not a surprise, but points out she has seen good balanced coverage as well. “I've actually been interested to see that the coverage of his legacy essentially boils it down to a presidency dominated by very bad things - basically bracketed by 9/11 and Iraq at or near the beginning, Katrina in the middle, and the financial meltdown at the end.”	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Самопровозглашенный командующий войсками "Донецкой народной республики" Игорь Гиркин (Стрелков) дал заранее не анонсировавшуюся пресс-конференцию, в ходе которой сообщил о гибели "чернокожих наемников" от рук его подчиненных. Участвовавший в чеченской кампании россиянин не подкрепил свои слова доказательствами. Гиркин также отказался комментировать сообщения об уходе командира повстанцев Игоря Безлера, известного под кличкой "Бес", из донбасской Горловки, которой тот руководил как "комендант". Отвечая на вопрос о гибели рейса MH17, Стрелков подчеркнул: "Под моим контролем не было "БУКов". Я не мог дать приказ сбить самолет". В понедельник стало известно о поспешном отъезде одного из "лидеров ДНР" Александра Бородая в Москву. Об этом сообщили сами сепаратисты. В то же время украинская армия перешла в наступление по нескольким направлениям, подступив к Торезу, Снежному, Первомайску и Горловке. Согласно данным ООН на 28 июля, с середины апреля в ходе конфликта на востоке Украины погибли как минимум 1129 человек, еще 3442 человека получили ранения.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
It's been a few weeks since we've gotten any concrete news from Orlando City SC's USL PRO affiliate, Louisville City FC, but this week brought the signings of defenders Sean Reynolds and Adam West. Here is the breakdown on Louisville's two newest players. Sean Reynolds (Highlights) Bio: Reynolds is a 24-year-old American, originally from Florida. He has experience at multiple levels in the American soccer pyramid, including both in amateur and professional competition. He played three years in the USL Premier Developmental League before turning pro, where he played with the former USL PRO outfit VSI Tampa Bay and the Orlando City U-23 squad. He comes to Louisville after a stint with FH-Ingor of the Icelandic Premier League, where he played in Europa League qualifiers. (Limited) Analysis: At 6-foot-1, Reynolds is a big enough defender to play as an effective center back, which is where it seems his last club in Iceland employed him most. Head Coach James O'Connor values him for his versatility, saying he can play all four positions along the back line, as well as some defensive midfield. Along with one of Louisville's first signings, Guy Abend, Reynolds figures to be a useful jack-of-all-trades defender that can be used in a variety of positions should the team's depth be tested via injuries or suspensions. He displays strong defensive instincts and he has the ability to use his height in the attacking end on set pieces. His talents and his European experience make him a valuable addition to Louisville's defense. O'Connor on Reynolds: "Sean gained great experience while playing in the Premier League in Iceland and the Europa League. He can play a number of positions and will be a great asset that gives us flexibility in our first season." Adam West (Highlights) Bio: West (not to be confused with the former Batman actor-turned-Family Guy character) is a 28-year-old left back from Washington. He played college soccer at the University of Washington for two years before turning pro and playing for the old USL iteration of the Seattle Sounders, where he was a part of the team that won the 2007 USL First Division title. He has made stops at various levels on the North American soccer scene, including Edmonton, Ft. Lauderdale, Rochester and Tacoma. Besides Seattle, he was a part of two other championship squads, winning the NASL title with Ft. Lauderdale, and the regular season championship with the Rochester Rhinos. He comes to Louisville from the Sounders U-23 squad, where he temporarily played after he was dropped in Edmonton due to injuries. West has played with the US U-20 setup. (His actual highlights are included in the embedded video below.) (Limited) Analysis: West has played primarily left back in his career, but O'Connor says he has the ability to play on the right as well. At 28, West should be able to bring some veteran leadership to the squad after playing on multiple championship teams, and dealing with personal adversity in his career at the University of Washington. On the field, however, it remains to be seen how significantly West will contribute to the Louisville cause. West has dealt with injuries, specifically a hamstring injury in Edmonton, and has yet to really ingratiate himself with any of the clubs which he has played for. West signed on with Louisville after impressing at the pro combine the club held in November, so perhaps the stars have aligned to give West the opportunity to become a key player as his career enters its later stages. O'Connor on West: "Adam was without a doubt one of the best players at the professional combine we hosted in November. He will provide a great attacking threat for us from left fullback, and we are extremely pleased to have someone of Adam's ability on board for our inaugural season." More from O'Connor on Reynolds and West: The two new defenders join Kadeem Dacres, Juan Guzman, and Guy Abend, bcoming the fourth and fifth players in Louisville City history. Will the newest Orlando City Lions come to Louisville? I think @loucityfc have won the @MLS draft so far. — Matthew Doyle (@MLSAnalyst) January 15, 2015 #OCSC has now used all 11 Int'l spots, could likely see @AkeilMaestro loaned to @loucityfc — Logan Oliver (@loganoliverRR) January 15, 2015 Orlando City's draft haul could be big for Louisville, as Orlando may look to unload its talented youngsters on its USL PRO affiliate as they transition to the professional game. Louisville City owner Wayne Estopinal, General Manager Amanda Duffy and O'Connor were in attendance at the MLS SuperDraft on Thursday, and there has been rampant speculation online that OCSC's three draftees could be heading north to the Derby City. The question is...will they? Stay tuned to The Mane Land for all the updates on Orlando City's young future stars.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Microsoft and Starbucks have joined a list of corporations showing their support for same-sex marriage in Washington state, the Seattle Times reported. Washington is attempting to join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and the District of Columbia as another state with legal gay marriage. Although the state already has a domestic partnership law in place, its Senate Bill 6239 would extend full marriage equality, MSNBC reported. Read more at GlobalPost: Washington state lawmakers have the votes to legalize gay marriage Microsoft, which is headquartered in Redmond, is the biggest corporation to back the bill. "As other states recognize marriage equality, Washington's employers are at a disadvantage if we cannot offer a similar, inclusive environment to our talented employees, our top recruits, and their families," said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s executive vice president of legal and corporate affairs in a statement, MSNBC reported. Starbucks, the international coffee giant, which is based in Seattle, also wrote a letter backing the bill. “Starbucks is proud to join other leading Northwest employers in support of Washington State legislation recognizing marriage equality for same-sex couples,” Kalen Holmes, executive vice president, wrote, the Seattle Times reported. According to the Associated Press, Washington’s Legislature has enough votes to legalize gay marriage as of Monday, when Democratic Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen released a statement saying she’ll support the measure. Haugen became the 25th vote, which was needed to pass the bill out to the Senate. Read more at GlobalPost: Gregoire pushes to legalize same-sex marriage in Washington	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 New pics In Morning,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Latest Photos,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 New images,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 New Pictures,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Photoshoots,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 news,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 sports gallery,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 latest album,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Exclusive picture collection,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 photo,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 new photo shoot,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 latest interview,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 new tour,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 black shoot,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 new hair style,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 in U.S.A, Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 in U.K,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 in London, Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 in Canada,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 in South America,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 in Australia,Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 All ClicksDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 celebrityphotosdaily.comDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 celebrityphotosdailyDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 celebrity photos daily comDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Private ShootDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Public ShootDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Public TourDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 InDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 LOSDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 NYCDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Magazinecelebrity photos daily.com Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019Dakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Celb PhotosDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Celeb PicsDakota Johnson Clicks at The Peanut Butter Falcon Special Screening in Los Angeles 1 Aug-2019 Daily Pics	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
"Quiero invitar a un grupo independiente que ha demostrado amor y valor por México, un grupo que ha trabajado en todo el país con una visión valiente e innovadora". Así ha justificado José Antonio Meade la invitación que ha hecho a Armando Ríos Piter para sumarse a su campaña este viernes. El ex aspirante presidencial ha tomado la mano tendida del candidato del PRI y ha decidido apoyar un proyecto "integrador que tiene las posibilidades de construir un México en unidad", ha asegurado Ríos Pitter a través de Twitter. "Estamos convencidos de que José Antonio Meade es la mejor opción para la presidencia, porque cuenta con una visión social que nos permitirá hacer una política diferente. Estamos apostando por un México que pueda construir en la unidad", ha señalado. La decisión del candidato priista ha sorprendido a propios y extraños. Ríos Piter fue descalificado en marzo pasado de la carrera presidencial por presentar al menos 800.000 firmas falsas de las 866.000 que tenía que reunir para registrarse como candidato independiente. La gran incógnita es si el nuevo fichaje ayudará a Meade a remontar en las encuestas, tras aparecer en segundo o en tercer lugar en la mayoría de los sondeos y estar 30 puntos por debajo del puntero Andrés Manuel López Obrador, según el último estudio demoscópico que presentó esta semana el periódico Reforma. "Quiero invitar a todos a tomar partido por México, quiero invitar a que se sumen a este movimiento", ha dicho Meade en un mensaje ante los medios. La estrategia del abanderado del gobernante Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) es sumar todos los apoyos posibles a poco menos de 10 semanas de que se celebren los comicios del próximo 1 de julio. "En esta elección tenemos que unirnos todos", ha agregado Meade. Ríos Piter descartó en su momento apelar la decisión del Instituto Nacional Electoral, pero espera acudir a la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos para defender su postulación, ha escrito este viernes en Twitter. Este mismo viernes, el exsenador por el Partido de la Revolución Democrática se dio tiempo para criticar al sistema de partidos, incluido al PRI. "El panorama electoral nos pinta a Morena convertida en el nuevo-viejo PRI (...) y un PRI que carece de visión social de izquierda", ha señalado El Jaguar, como se le apoda, en un mensaje que se publicó una hora antes de la invitación de Meade. "Es una decisión rarísima, nadie entiende qué gana uno u otro", comenta Carlos Bravo Regidor, investigador del Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas. "Esta es una de esas sumas que restan: traer a El Jaguar resta a la campaña de Meade en términos de credibilidad y honestidad, y le resta credibilidad a Ríos Piter como un candidato independiente que critica el sistema de partidos", sentencia Bravo Regidor. El analista duda que el apoyo de Ríos Piter pueda traducirse en votos o que fortalezca la campaña del candidato priista en el terreno. "El Jaguar nunca rebasó el 1% o el 2% de apoyo y si no consiguió las firmas, quiere decir que tampoco tiene buenos operadores políticos", agrega. "Es un movimiento desesperado, estratégico y pragmático de Meade", apunta Horacio Vives, politólogo del Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). Para Vives, la lógica detrás de la decisión del priista se inscribe en la pelea que sostiene con Ricardo Anaya por el segundo lugar ante la posibilidad de que la elección se convierta en un plebiscito: López Obrador sí o López Obrador no. "Esta es una etapa decisiva en la campaña para tratar de llegar a la final contra López Obrador y es muy probable que veamos más pactos de facto entre los contendientes que no son punteros", señala el investigador. Pese a no ser militante priista, Meade ha batallado para quitarse el lastre de la corrupción que rodea al partido, con varios exgobernadores acusados de corrupción en los últimos años como Javier Duarte, César Duarte o Tomás Yarrington. "Es de todas maneras el candidato del PRI", señala Bravo Regidor. Ríos Piter, por su parte, barajó varias veces la posibilidad de una candidatura independiente conjunta con los otros dos aspirantes sin partido Margarita Zavala y Jaime Rodríguez Calderón El Bronco, quien también fue acusado de falsificar apoyos, pero fue metido de forma extemporánea en la contienda por una polémica decisión del Tribunal electoral. La alianza de independientes nunca se concretó. El ITAM, alma máter de ambos políticos, es una de las pocas coincidencias obvias entre Ríos Piter y Meade y pudo haber ayudado a consolidar la alianza, de acuerdo con los académicos consultados. Para Bravo Regidor, sin embargo, la racionalidad de sumar a Ríos Piter no está de cara a conseguir más votos o a justificarse ante el electorado, sino que obedece a una "componenda" entre élites. "Meade quizás está tratando de rescatarlo, pero sumarlo a una candidatura que va en tercer lugar y que ha caído tanto no parece una buena forma de salvarse", afirma el analista y añade: "Es como si dos aviones que van cayendo se juntaran para ver si dejan de desplomarse y a lo mejor al juntarse empiezan caer más rápido".	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Stephanie McMahon called out Big Show Big Show is fired by Stephanie McMahon following a heated encounter inside the ring on Raw. PITTSBURGH, Pa. – And now comes the fallout. One night after he singlehandedly sent the WWE Title Match at WWE Battleground to a No Contest with a swing of his fist, Big Show had no choice but to stand and face the music when Stephanie McMahon called him out for a very public – and ruthless – reprimanding on Raw. As it turned out, “The Authority’s” resident queen bee wasn’t so much interested in an explanation as extended humiliation of The World’s Largest Athlete, yet it was Big Show’s attempt to stand his ground that ultimately cost the giant the most. Photos: Stephanie ends the Show Pushed to the brink by Stephanie, Show finally caved and roared that he interfered in the Battleground main event because Stephanie herself – using Brad Maddox as her mouthpiece – had ordered him to do so. The accusation sent the McMahon heiress’ rage into high gear, and she quickly leveled six slaps to the giant’s face before borrowing her famous father’s signature phrase: “YOU’RE FIRED!” Dolph Ziggler def. Damien Sandow Dolph Ziggler and Damien Sandow clash inside the Raw ring just 24 hours removed from their encounter at WWE Battleground Kickoff. The “Uncrowned World Heavyweight Champion’s” throne seemed farther away than ever when, one night after losing to Dolph Ziggler at the WWE Battleground kickoff, Damien Sandow was treated to an encore performance from WWE’s resident Showoff. Reeling from a Ziggler-induced knee injury that prevented him from cashing in his Money in the Bank contract at Battleground, Sandow started off with a feral burst of offense that showed The Showoff no quarter, punctuated by a pad-less Elbow of Disdain to Ziggler’s sternum. Watch: Ziggler & Sandow's battle before Battleground \| Sandow rages in Raw rematch It only took one maneuver for Dolph to switch the momentum, dodging a charge from Sandow that sent The Enlightened One plowing into the turnbuckle. The Showoff then channeled his challenger by mauling Sandow with a series of punches before transitioning seamlessly into his signature acrobatic style. Sandow attempted to use Ziggler’s momentum against him by reversing a roll-up pin, but Dolph was ready for that, too, pouncing with the Famouser for the three-count. Natalya, JoJo & Eva Marie def. Alicia Fox, Aksana & Rosa Mendes Natalya teams with her "Total Divas" co-stars against the trio of WWE veterans Alicia Fox, Aksana & Rosa. Looks like the Diva “Newbies” are getting the hang of things: Taking the ring alongside their de facto Diva mentor Natalya, “Total Divas” stars Eva Marie & JoJo notched a milestone win in a Six-Diva Tag Team Match on Raw. The unlucky recipients of their wrath were Alicia Fox, Aksana & Rosa Mendes, though the trio of devious Divas took advantage of Eva Marie’s inexperience when the newcomer tagged into the bout. Some quick thinking saved the “Total Divas” when Eva reached Natalya on the apron, and “The Queen of Harts” sealed the deal with a discus clothesline and Sharpshooter to Alicia Fox that earned the reality stars the win. Los Matadores def. 3MB Los Matadores step into the Raw ring 3MB on Raw. Make it dos for Los Matadores, who followed up their debut victory over 3MB with a second win over a new permutation of the rockers’ ranks: Where the toreadors felled Heath Slater & Jinder Mahal last week, this time Mahal & Drew McIntyre met their defeat at the hands of the mysterious newcomers. Moments after “The Maharajah” felt the brunt of the Matadores’ offense, McIntyre tagged in and briefly turned the tables. Yet the synchronized offense of Diego & Fernando ultimately felled the two-bit rock gods when all was said and done. Photos: Los Matadores roll on \| Watch El Torito strike Even El Torito got his licks in on the rockers, baiting Heath Slater into the ring and shocking the former WWE Tag Team Champion with a hurricanrana off the top rope. Fear the bull. Ryback called out CM Punk The only thing Ryback and Paul Heyman like less than “bullies,” as it turns out, is “cheaters.” The mad scientist and his monstrous man-at-arms came to Pittsburgh in a huff over the events of WWE Battleground, where CM Punk took advantage of the referee’s distraction to low-blow Ryback into defeat. With great indignation, the ECW mastermind ascended his personal pulpit and ran down his onetime champion’s ethics, even going so far as to demean Punk to his face when The Straight Edge Superstar showed up in person. But Punk’s open rematch challenge slightly backfired when Ryback invited the former WWE Champion to back up his famous talk in Pittsburgh. With Punk at a 2-on-1 disadvantage, the situation didn’t look all that great. Happily, though, R-Truth was on hand to offer his hand and even the odds. CM Punk & R-Truth def. Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel & Ryback CM Punk & R-Truth team up against the duo of Ryback & Intercontinental Champion Curtis Axel. It was a rough night in Pittsburgh for Paul Heyman’s minions when Curtis Axel & Ryback fell to the combined efforts of CM Punk & R-Truth in an impromptu tag match on Raw. With Punk and Ryback circling each other for the majority of the bout, Axel felt the brunt of Punk & Truth's offense at the outset when they isolated him from his monstrous partner. The Intercontinental Champion turned the tide for his team only when he tagged in Ryback, freeing “The Big Guy” to control the pace of the match. Photos: Heyman's team trounced \| Truth hurts against Axel With Truth now alone in the ring and unable to reach The Straight Edge Superstar, Ryback and Axel alternated offense against the former U.S. Champion while Heyman screamed instruction from the outside. Ryback’s showboating backfired when Truth lashed out with a heel kick and tagged in Punk, who made quick work of a freshly-tagged Axel with the Go to Sleep. Yet Punk allowed Truth to do the final honors and avenge his devastating loss at Battleground with a “perfect” scissor kick to Axel’s head. Randy Orton def. Kofi Kingston Kofi Kingston steps inside the ring with The Viper on Raw. Few WWE Superstars were more upset about the outcome of Battleground than Randy Orton, and The Viper took out his frustrations on an old enemy in Pittsburgh: Kofi Kingston. Hungry for a “W” after his loss to Bray Wyatt at Battleground, The Boom Squad General used the full scope of his bag of tricks in pursuit of victory over The Viper. Despite Kofi’s fast start, though, a backdrop onto the barricade swung the contest firmly in favor of The Apex Predator. Photos: Orton strikes Kofi \| Bryan unleashes his fury Orton made a systematic show of dismantling his opponent, yet Kingston grinded his way to a second wind, plastering Orton with a sky-high cross body off the top rope. The burst left Kofi winded yet he found the reserves to hang tight, although it was all for naught after The Apex Predator executed a hanging DDT off the barricade and followed with a match-ending RKO. The night might have ended happily for Orton then, if Daniel Bryan hadn’t stormed the ring and laid waste to The Viper, mauling his longtime opponent into retreat while officials gave hot pursuit. Ricardo Rodriguez def. World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio Vickie Guerrero gives sets up a match featuring Ricardo Rodriguez taking on his former boss World Champion Alberto Del Rio. It's not a typo: One night after his new buddy Rob Van Dam was brutalized into submission by Alberto Del Rio, Ricardo Rodriguez avenged his pal’s (and his own) humiliation when Vickie Guerrero named him the surprise opponent for the World Heavyweight Champion on Raw. Photos: Ricardo gets the upset \| Del Rio loses his cool Granted, he had some help: A sudden, blockbuster announcement from Vickie left the champion so gobsmacked that Ricardo was able to capitalize, springing a surprise rollup on his former jefe for the 1-2-3. The Essence of Excellence wasn’t about to let his old buddy’s win go unpunished, though, and he quickly cut Ricardo’s celebration short with another hellacious beatdown of his former ring announcer. Oh, and as for that announcement that left Del Rio so furious? It was Vickie’s announcement of his new No. 1 contender at Hell in a Cell … John Cena. Fandango def. Zack Ryder Zack Ryder goes one-on-one with Fandango on Raw. Fandango danced away with a victory again on Raw, putting his famous feet to good use against a game Zack Ryder in Pittsburgh’s CONSOL Energy Center. After a tight back-and-forth, the furious efforts of The Ultimate Broski brought him within a spiked hair’s breadth of victory when he planted a big boot in the chiseled mug of the dancing fiend, yet Ryder’s euphoria was short-lived. A kick to the head left Ryder face-down on the mat, and Fandango’ soaring leg drop to the back of the broski’s neck put the bout to rest. The Real Americans def. Santino Marella & The Great Khali Santino Marella teams with The Great Khali to face Jack Swagger and The Real Americans. The Real Americans’ win at WWE Battleground was marked by one of the greatest feats of strength the WWE Universe has ever seen when Antonio Cesaro executed the Cesaro Swing on The Great Khali. And, as proof it was no fluke, the mighty “patriots” repeated the feat the next night on Raw. After Jack Swagger battled Santino Marella to a standstill, Cesaro & Khali entered the bout and the former U.S. Champion sent The Punjabi Titan twirling again with the Swing, covering him for the win moments after. Photos: A real, American victory \| Khali swings again Cesaro’s demonstration didn’t end there, though: Hornswoggle nearly suffered the same fate as Khali, although Santino happily liberated his little buddy from the strongman’s clutches with The Cobra before Cesaro could really get rolling. The Wyatt Family crashed 'Miz TV' "Miz TV" almost becomes "Wyatt TV" on Raw. “The Most Must-See Talk Show in WWE” got a sharp jolt of terror when Bray Wyatt came strolling out of the darkness, interrupting “Miz TV” before it even got going. The Eater of Worlds’ presence (plus the sudden appearance of Luke Harper & Erick Rowan in the ring) sent Miz into flight-or-fight mode and The Awesome One managed to get a few shots in on Bray before making his escape. Yet “The Man of 1,000 Truths” left Miz off with an final warning ringing in his ears: “You can run, but you cannot hide.” U.S. & WWE Tag Team Champions The Shield def. Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes & Goldust After being fired earlier in the night by Stephanie McMahon, Big Show gets some retribution on The Authority by knocking out WWE COO Triple H. With Triple H perched at ringside, there was little chance of Daniel Bryan, Cody Rhodes & Goldust scoring another upstart win at the expense of “The Authority,” but it was The King of Kings himself who truly felt the cost of doing business when all was said and done. After strong early work from Goldust, Dean Ambrose created separation in the match by preventing Cody’s moonsault, yet Bryan reversed the momentum back, going ballistic and singlehandedly tore the three titleholders to pieces. Watch: Triple H gets knocked out \| Photos of the Six Man madness It was a strong showing just three weeks before Bryan enters Hell in a Cell for another play at the vacant WWE Title ( and a very special guest ref), but a steel chair from Ambrose gave Bryan & Co. the Disqualification win, but The Game’s decision to restart the bout with a No-DQ stipulation led to disaster when Randy Orton struck Bryan through the crowd with a surprise RKO and fed him to a waiting Seth Rollins for the pin. As The Game admired his handiwork, though, the freshly fired Big Show made his presence known. With revenge on his mind and nothing to lose, WWE’s newest and biggest alumnus fended off The Shield’s attempted attacks and promptly KO Punched The Game into oblivion, leaving Raw for the first time in a long time with his head held high.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
INDIANAPOLIS – Pat McAfee spent his eight seasons with the Colts entertaining fans with funny gestures after good punts, putting some in tears during his offseason standup comedy routines and for his social-media comments in which he had no problem going after the likes of former Indianapolis general manager Ryan Grigson and Skip Bayless. And we can’t forget about his desire to go swimming in an Indianapolis canal while intoxicated back in 2010, or all the charitable things he did around the state. But there’s the Pat McAfee from on the football field that the Colts now face the reality of having to replace. He surprised everybody by retiring at age 29 during the middle of the night Thursday to join Barstool Sports. McAfee made the Pro Bowl twice while averaging 46.4 gross yards per punt and 39.8 net yards per punt. He had 33.6 percent of his 575 punt attempts land inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. That was just part of his job with the Colts. McAfee was also the holder for Adam Vinatieri on field goals and extra points. He also handled kickoff duties to save the 44-year Vinatieri's leg and he was also the emergency quarterback behind Andrew Luck and Scott Tolzien. New Colts general manager Chris Ballard not only has to improve his aging defense this offseason; he now also has to find a new punter, holder and somebody to handle kickoff duties.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A judge declared a mistrial Monday in the murder case of Michael Slager, the South Carolina officer who killed Walter Scott, an unarmed black man who was shot in the back multiple times following a routine traffic stop. The 2015 incident, caught on video and widely viewed around the country, focused the nation’s attention on police treatment of African-Americans and reignited protests of law enforcement following a series of black men killed by officers. The jury, composed of 11 white jurors and one black juror, was unable to come to an unanimous decision. On Monday, the judge read a note indicating that a majority of jurors were still undecided. That was in contrast to a note from one jury member on Friday saying, “I cannot in good conscience consider a guilty verdict.” The trial stemmed from a deadly confrontation on April 4, 2015, when Slager, a North Charleston, S.C., police officer, stopped Scott for a broken taillight. Scott ran from Slager, who shot at Scott eight times as he tried to flee. The incident itself may have gone overlooked if not for video captured by Feidin Santana, an eyewitness who recorded Slager firing at Scott. Slager was later fired from the North Charleston Police Department. Read more: Man Who Filmed South Carolina Police Shooting Speaks Out At trial, Slager’s defense attorneys argued that an earlier confrontation not caught on video justified the officer’s use of deadly force. On Tuesday, Slager testified in his own defense, describing feeling “total fear” as he tried to apprehend Scott and saying Scott stole his Taser and tried to shoot him with it. The video does not show a physical confrontation between the two men but captures Slager picking up the Taser after the shooting and placing it on the ground next to Scott’s body, which prosecutors said showed that Slager was attempting to plant evidence. Read more: Celebrities Speak Out After Walter Scott Shooting Few officers go to trial for on-duty shooting deaths, and even fewer are convicted. From 2005 and to 2014, 69 officers have been charged for on-duty shootings while only 26 were found guilty, according to numbers compiled by the The Wall Street Journal. In April, an Oklahoma volunteer sheriff’s deputy was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of 44-year-old Eric Harris. But in other high-profile deaths of black men at the hands of police, including Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., and Freddie Gray in Baltimore, juries have not handed down convictions. Get The Brief. Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Contact us at letters@time.com.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Héctor Latorre, ex intendente de Villa del Nahueve, Neuquén Captura YouTube El 10 de diciembre terminó el mandato de Héctor Latorre (Movimiento Popular Neuquino), ex intendente de Villa del Nahueve, Neuquén. Pero él quería seguir trabajando en la administración pública. Entonces se lo ocurrió una idea insólita (y potencialmente ilegal): se pasó a planta permanente. Con la categoría más alta. Según indica el sitio LMNeuquén, junto con Latorre pasaron a planta otras 25 personas, en el marco de un supuesto plan de regularización de personal, en un anexo que luego fue refrendado por el gobernador Jorge Sapag . Por la medida, Latorre fue denunciado hoy penalmente por "abuso de autoridad e incumplimiento de los deberes de funcionario público". La denuncia fue radicada en las fiscalías de Neuquén y Chos Malal por el abogado Marcelo Hertzriken Velasco, quien patrocina al actual intendente, Carlos Burgos (Movimiento Popular Neuquino). La actual gestión también investiga una serie de irregularidades en la intendencia. Según Hertzriken Velasco, falta casi medio millón de pesos de un programa de trabajo de cooperativas financiadas con aportes del gobierno nacional. Consultado por LMNeuquén por su pase a planta, Latorre respondió: "Porque hace mucho que milito en política".	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The Manitoba Moose have struggled in their inaugural season. Big time. It’s been tough for Winnipeg Jets’ fans, who have hoped to see their prospects begin to succeed. The Jets have been highly lauded for their scouting and development programs. One would hope this success would eventually spill into their AHL team. It’s even tougher for Moose fans, who do not get a lottery ticket for being the worst team in the league. What about the infusion of youth to the team? The Moose added a tonne of young players with little to no pro-level experience. Could the Moose just be too young? Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The team currently sits second to last in the Western Conference in both points and point percentage. They are have the same amount of wins as the last place team, despite playing three more games. A deeper look into other metrics. They are the most out scored team, allowing 46 more than they have scored and controlling only 38 per cent of goals. They are also the most out shot team, allowing 304 more shots than they have generated and controlled only 43.7 per cent of shots. At an estimated 43 per cent, the Moose are the only team outside of the 45-55 range in estimated Fenwick-close. But are they too young? I took a look at the Manitoba Moose’s roster and looked at what proportion of the roster each age group covered. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Note: For these and all subsequent visuals, 30 actually represents 30 or older We see that the Moose are indeed young. Most of the population rests at 22 or younger for forwards, and 23 or under for defenders. In addition, most of the team’s production has been carried out by those individuals. Numbers require context, however. Is this population the norm or an exception? Advertisement - Continue Reading Below To compare, I grabbed three other rosters: the Toronto Marlies, the Utica Comets, and the Bakersfield Condors. I chose these three due to being three teams covered by the Nation Network, are well respected for their prospect pools, and vary greatly in their AHL performance. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below All four teams, with maybe the exception of the Comets, are fairly similar in team composition being composed of players at the “rookie” ages of 19-22. We do see some differences in the 23-25 range, and then the older teams catch up. While the Moose do indeed seem to be a slightly younger team, especially on the back-end, they are not all that exceptionally different than some teams doing better than them. We start to see a pattern here. While it’s not overwhelming, the Moose have the largest bulk of their offense coming from their youngest. This is especially apparent at 22 and under for forwards and 23 and under for defenders. There’s another way we can look at this (last graph, I promise). I looked at the differences between the two proportion graphs for forwards. In theory, a balanced team will stay around centre. A team driven by youth will sit above the line, while a team driven by an older core will fall under. The Moose are indeed a young team, but not exceptionally so. It appears that the failures for the Jets’ farm team is more about the aggregate quality rather than the distribution of age and experience. It likely falls down to a combination of poor veteran performance and the youth not being good enough to carry the anchoring older player.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
INVANDRARVÅLD. Användandet av handgranater bland kriminella i Sverige saknar motstycke i världen bland länder som inte är i krig. Det skriver polisen till regeringen i en delrapport som SvD tagit del av. Samtidigt har granatattackerna spridits inom Sverige. -Pettersson tycker det är en felaktig rapport. Henrik Schyffert säger ju att vi ska inte vara rädda och Trump har fel. Punkt. Dessutom drabbar våldet sällan oskyldiga…	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A common question when planning and designing your Neo4j Graph Database is how to handle “flagged” entities. This could include users that are active, blog posts that are published, news articles that have been read, etc. Introduction In the SQL world, you would typically create a a boolean\|tinyint column; in Neo4j, the same can be achieved in the following two ways: A flagged indexed property A dedicated label Having faced this design dilemma a number of times, we would like to share our experience with the two presented possibilities and some Cypher query optimizations that will help you take a full advantage of a the graph database. Throughout the blog post, we’ll use the following example scenario: We have User nodes nodes User FOLLOWS other users other users Each user writes multiple blog posts stored as BlogPost nodes nodes Some of the blog posts are drafted , others are published ( active ) Setting up If we want to get a running test database for this use case, we can generate a small graph using Graphgen and import it into our local database. We use the following pattern: (user:#User 10) (post:#BlogPost 200) (post2:#BlogPost:ActivePost {active:{randomElement:["true"]}} 200) (user)-[:WRITTEN 1..n]->(post) (user)-[:WRITTEN 1..n]->(post2) (user)-[:FOLLOWS n..n]->(user) Naturally, we will create a unique constraint on the User _id property : CREATE CONSTRAINT ON (user:User) ASSERT user._id IS UNIQUE; Retrieving active blog posts We now want to retrieve all the BlogPost nodes that are active. Using labels PROFILE MATCH (post:ActivePost) RETURN count(post); will result in the following execution plan : neo4j-sh (?)$ PROFILE MATCH (post:ActivePost) RETURN count(post); +-------------+ \| count(post) \| +-------------+ \| 200 \| +-------------+ 1 row ColumnFilter \| +EagerAggregation \| +NodeByLabel +------------------+------+--------+-------------+--------------------------+ \| Operator \| Rows \| DbHits \| Identifiers \| Other \| +------------------+------+--------+-------------+--------------------------+ \| ColumnFilter \| 1 \| 0 \| \| keep columns count(post) \| \| EagerAggregation \| 1 \| 0 \| \| \| \| NodeByLabel \| 200 \| 201 \| post, post \| :ActivePost \| +------------------+------+--------+-------------+--------------------------+ Total database accesses: 201 As we can see there are no more database accesses than the number of ActivePost nodes in the database, thanks to the label indexing. Now, let’s compare it with the use of an indexed active property on the nodes. Using an indexed flagged property CREATE INDEX ON :BlogPost(active); PROFILE MATCH (post:BlogPost) WHERE post.active = true RETURN count(post); neo4j-sh (?)$ PROFILE MATCH (post:BlogPost) WHERE post.active = 'true' RETURN count(post); +-------------+ \| count(post) \| +-------------+ \| 200 \| +-------------+ 1 row ColumnFilter \| +EagerAggregation \| +SchemaIndex +------------------+------+--------+-------------+------------------------------------+ \| Operator \| Rows \| DbHits \| Identifiers \| Other \| +------------------+------+--------+-------------+------------------------------------+ \| ColumnFilter \| 1 \| 0 \| \| keep columns count(post) \| \| EagerAggregation \| 1 \| 0 \| \| \| \| SchemaIndex \| 200 \| 201 \| post, post \| { AUTOSTRING0}; :BlogPost(active) \| +------------------+------+--------+-------------+------------------------------------+ Total database accesses: 201 As we can see, there is no difference between matching on a dedicated label and using indexed properties. But why this blog post then? The difference will be apparent when the queried nodes are not in the beginning of the pattern. Retrieving active blog posts written by a user Let’s say we want to retrieve all active posts for a specific user : Using labels PROFILE MATCH (user:User {_id:'c922ea0d-45d6-375b-b91a-470933592c2a'}) WITH user MATCH (user)-[:WRITTEN]->(p:ActivePost) RETURN count(p); neo4j-sh (?)$ PROFILE MATCH (user:User {_id:'c922ea0d-45d6-375b-b91a-470933592c2a'}) > WITH user > MATCH (user)-[:WRITTEN]->(p:ActivePost) > RETURN count(p); +----------+ \| count(p) \| +----------+ \| 21 \| +----------+ 1 row ColumnFilter \| +EagerAggregation \| +Filter \| +SimplePatternMatcher \| +SchemaIndex +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+-----------------------------+ \| Operator \| Rows \| DbHits \| Identifiers \| Other \| +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+-----------------------------+ \| ColumnFilter \| 1 \| 0 \| \| keep columns count(p) \| \| EagerAggregation \| 1 \| 0 \| \| \| \| Filter \| 21 \| 21 \| \| hasLabel(p:ActivePost(2)) \| \| SimplePatternMatcher \| 21 \| 35 \| user, p, UNNAMED85 \| \| \| SchemaIndex \| 1 \| 2 \| user, user \| { AUTOSTRING0}; :User(_id) \| +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+-----------------------------+ Total database accesses: 58 Using an indexed property PROFILE MATCH (user:User {_id:'c922ea0d-45d6-375b-b91a-470933592c2a'}) WITH user MATCH (user)-[:WRITTEN]->(p:BlogPost) WHERE p.active = 'true' RETURN count(p); neo4j-sh (?)$ PROFILE MATCH (user:User {_id:'c922ea0d-45d6-375b-b91a-470933592c2a'}) > WITH user > MATCH (user)-[:WRITTEN]->(p:BlogPost) > WHERE p.active = 'true' > RETURN count(p); +----------+ \| count(p) \| +----------+ \| 21 \| +----------+ 1 row ColumnFilter \| +EagerAggregation \| +Filter \| +SimplePatternMatcher \| +SchemaIndex +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ \| Operator \| Rows \| DbHits \| Identifiers \| Other \| +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ \| ColumnFilter \| 1 \| 0 \| \| keep columns count(p) \| \| EagerAggregation \| 1 \| 0 \| \| \| \| Filter \| 21 \| 63 \| \| (hasLabel(p:BlogPost(1)) AND Property(p,active(8)) == { AUTOSTRING1}) \| \| SimplePatternMatcher \| 21 \| 105 \| user, p, UNNAMED85 \| \| \| SchemaIndex \| 1 \| 2 \| user, user \| { AUTOSTRING0}; :User(_id) \| +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Total database accesses: 170 As we can see, the indexed property is not used by Cypher and it needs to filter on all blog posts. Using a dedicated label is thus more performant. Going further with some tips and tricks We will not stop here! We would like to share some tips that will help you optimize your Cypher queries. Always use dedicated labels for positives You may want to ask: why not adding a Draft label on the BlogPost nodes for non-active blog posts? The reason is that this would force an additional negation filter when retrieving active blog posts, and negation in Cypher is costly : PROFILE MATCH (user:User {_id:'c922ea0d-45d6-375b-b91a-470933592c2a'}) WITH user MATCH (user)-[:WRITTEN]->(p:BlogPost) WHERE NOT p :Draft RETURN count(p); neo4j-sh (?)$ PROFILE MATCH (user:User {_id:'c922ea0d-45d6-375b-b91a-470933592c2a'}) > WITH user > MATCH (user)-[:WRITTEN]->(p:BlogPost) > WHERE NOT p :Draft > RETURN count(p); +----------+ \| count(p) \| +----------+ \| 21 \| +----------+ 1 row ColumnFilter \| +EagerAggregation \| +Filter \| +SimplePatternMatcher \| +SchemaIndex +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------+ \| Operator \| Rows \| DbHits \| Identifiers \| Other \| +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------+ \| ColumnFilter \| 1 \| 0 \| \| keep columns count(p) \| \| EagerAggregation \| 1 \| 0 \| \| \| \| Filter \| 21 \| 42 \| \| (hasLabel(p:BlogPost(1)) AND NOT(hasLabel(p:Draft(3)))) \| \| SimplePatternMatcher \| 21 \| 70 \| user, p, UNNAMED85 \| \| \| SchemaIndex \| 1 \| 2 \| user, user \| { AUTOSTRING0}; :User(_id) \| +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+---------------------------------------------------------+ Total database accesses: 114 Avoid the need to match on multiple labels Some designs we have encountered were making too much use of dedicated labels, forcing queries to match on multiple labels to fetch the desired set of nodes. Matching on more than one label will make Cypher apply an additional hasLabel filter : PROFILE MATCH (post:BlogPost:ActivePost) RETURN count(post); neo4j-sh (?)$ PROFILE MATCH (post:BlogPost:ActivePost) RETURN count(post); +-------------+ \| count(post) \| +-------------+ \| 200 \| +-------------+ 1 row ColumnFilter \| +EagerAggregation \| +Filter \| +NodeByLabel +------------------+------+--------+-------------+------------------------------+ \| Operator \| Rows \| DbHits \| Identifiers \| Other \| +------------------+------+--------+-------------+------------------------------+ \| ColumnFilter \| 1 \| 0 \| \| keep columns count(post) \| \| EagerAggregation \| 1 \| 0 \| \| \| \| Filter \| 200 \| 400 \| \| hasLabel(post:ActivePost(2)) \| \| NodeByLabel \| 400 \| 401 \| post, post \| :BlogPost \| +------------------+------+--------+-------------+------------------------------+ Total database accesses: 801 We can see here that the number of database accesses is growing and you can imagine that it will be costly when we have millions of blog posts or entities in the database. Use well named relationship types to avoid some use of labels When looking up patterns, specifying the label of the end node will force Cypher to filter on labels. Dedicated and clear relationship types will help you traverse the graph easily and make full use of the powerful graph model, gaining performance by not having to match on labels. Let’s refactor our little model by adding a PUBLISHED relationship from User to ActivePost nodes and a DRAFTED relationship to the others. MATCH (n:ActivePost) WITH n MATCH (n)<-[:WRITTEN]-(u) MERGE (u)-[:PUBLISHED]->(n); MATCH (n:BlogPost) WHERE NOT n :ActivePost WITH n MATCH (n)<-[:WRITTEN]-(u) MERGE (u)-[:DRAFTED]->(n); The very advantage of Neo4j is that nodes contain references to the relationships they connected to them. This means that once we have a starting point in the graph, following relationships from nodes to nodes costs almost nothing : PROFILE MATCH (user:User {_id:'c922ea0d-45d6-375b-b91a-470933592c2a'}) WITH user MATCH (user)-[:PUBLISHED]->(p) RETURN count(p); neo4j-sh (?)$ PROFILE MATCH (user:User {_id:'c922ea0d-45d6-375b-b91a-470933592c2a'}) > WITH user > MATCH (user)-[:PUBLISHED]->(p) > RETURN count(p); +----------+ \| count(p) \| +----------+ \| 21 \| +----------+ 1 row ColumnFilter \| +EagerAggregation \| +SimplePatternMatcher \| +SchemaIndex +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+-----------------------------+ \| Operator \| Rows \| DbHits \| Identifiers \| Other \| +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+-----------------------------+ \| ColumnFilter \| 1 \| 0 \| \| keep columns count(p) \| \| EagerAggregation \| 1 \| 0 \| \| \| \| SimplePatternMatcher \| 21 \| 0 \| user, p, UNNAMED85 \| \| \| SchemaIndex \| 1 \| 2 \| user, user \| { AUTOSTRING0}; :User(_id) \| +----------------------+------+--------+----------------------+-----------------------------+ Total database accesses: 2 As we can see, we did not define any labels because we know that the :PUBLISHED relationship will point to blog posts that are active and retrieving thousands of blog posts will just cost us nothing more than using the schema index for our user and a few traversals from the user to blog post nodes by following their relationships. Conclusion A good design of your graph database model will help you perform very fast queries and provide a good user experience. Testing your queries and the usage of the query profiler can help you discover bottlenecks in your schema and should be done regularly during the development process, before going to production with a large data set. Note: This blog post is a follow up of my StackOverflow answer on the subject	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
In this article I interview clinical Psychologist Dr. George Simon the internationally-recognized expert on manipulation and character disturbance, and the bestselling author of In Sheep’s Clothing, Character Disturbance, and The Judas Syndrome In this article we talk all things manipulation: Let’s begin: How did you come to study manipulative people? Michael Frank: How did you get onto this path of studying manipulative people? Dr. George Simon: I was dealing with an awful lot of folks in my practice as a clinical psychologist, who were coming to me with what we now know to be the gaslighting syndrome. But we didn’t have a name for it then. And these folks were depressed for the most part. They were perplexed. They were showing signs of having survived some kind of trauma. They felt crazy. But they couldn’t pinpoint why. However there was always someone in their life who they just knew at some gut level there was something wrong with, but that person in their life had them thinking that they were the crazy ones for even suspecting that. And that made them confused, angry, depressed and feeling pretty crazy. And as I got to know these folks and their stories, it became quite clear that they were dealing with some archetypal manipulators. The folks who are the proverbial wolves in sheep’s clothing. These are the folks who are out to win, to dominate and control, and who also know how to look good doing it, and how to veil their aggression using subtle tactics to make you feel like the bad guy for having an issue with them. And so after dealing with so many of these individuals, and hearing so many stories, and doing years and years of clinical case research, I decided to write the book In Sheep’s Clothing about it, and I’m proud to say that very few books twenty-two years later are still bestsellers. That’s an indication of not only how widespread the problem is, but also how well the book seems to nail it. What is “manipulative behavior”? Michael Frank: Let’s start with defining what manipulation is. How do you define “manipulation” and how do you define “manipulative behavior”? Dr. George Simon: The most common type of manipulation is covert aggression. Notice I didn’t say passive aggression, that’s a term that’s bandied about these days very loosely and erroneously, even by clinicians and mental health professionals. There’s nothing passive at all about covert or veiled aggression. It takes many forms, but it’s basically when a person is out to dominate and control you, and have their way with you, to make sure that you submit yourself to their will, and they do so in a way that’s hard to see. In other words if they were overt about it, if they were to just say: “It’s my way or the highway!” then maybe you would give some resistance. But some folks are sneaky. They’re clever. They’re calculating. They can even be charming. They know how to use your emotions and especially your conscientiousness to get you to come to their way of thinking. And that subtle approach, that way of fighting with you in a way that’s hard to see, can be very effective. And that’s the heart and soul of manipulative behavior. It’s playing on your emotions, your sympathies, and especially on your conscientiousness to have their way with you. It’s a covertly aggressive strategy and it works for the most part in relationships, but it’s very destructive. Covert vs overt aggression Michael Frank: So if someone is not covertly aggressive, but overtly aggressive, for example, if they were to just physically threaten someone, we would generally not put that in the category of manipulation? That wouldn’t fit a category of physical manipulation? Dr. George Simon: You know you can be manipulative in that way. In other words, you can control people through terror. It’s not the most common form of manipulation, but there are many ways to control people. You can control them through fear. We have a lot of studies on this. And the famous one of course is the Stockholm Syndrome (“feelings of trust or affection felt in many cases of kidnapping or hostage-taking by a victim towards a captor” – Oxford Dictionary) where after an experience of extreme terror, the victim begins to identify with their abuser. So there are many ways to control people, you can do it overtly, but the most common way, the slickest way, the most effective way, is to keep your aggression somewhat undercover and to basically beat people up with the weapons of guilting, shaming, playing the victim, and making the other person out to be the victimizer. These are all clever little tactics to get the other person to come around to your way of thinking and to do your bidding, and good manipulators know how to use those tactics very well. But aren’t we all manipulative to some degree? Michael Frank: I know someone is going to say something to the effect of: “But aren’t we all manipulative to some degree?” What are your thoughts on that? Dr. George Simon: Absolutely. We are all manipulative to some degree. You know we are inherently, unfortunately, kind of aggressive creatures. This is a not so friendly world we are living in where we have to do our best to survive and prosper, and we’re in competition with each other, and we’re all trying to get our own way, and we’re not always very nice to each other. But it’s about how we go about the fight. I always like to say in workshops that all the major theories in our traditional psychologies are all about people’s insecurities and fears and the things they run and hide from. But we barely have a psychology that addresses the number one thing that people do in their lives: FIGHT. We fight more than we do anything else. It’s in our politics. It’s in our business affairs. It’s in our social affairs. It’s in almost everything we do. But how we conduct that fight is what defines our character. When we fight fairly for something just, when it’s not really about us but about some valid principle, when we fight with consideration for the feelings and the welfare of the other person, and when we respect certain rights and boundaries, then that by definition is assertive behavior, and we all need to be assertive because there are some things in this life we’re fighting for. But when it’s all about us, when we’ll take no prisoners, when we’ll do everything we have to do to get our way, when we make no bones about hurting people in the process, and there’s very little stake except getting what we want, then we’re being aggressive instead of assertive, and when we do so covertly and slickly, it’s manipulative and it’s always destructive in a relationship. Manipulative personality types Michael Frank: Are their certain personality types that are more likely to be manipulative than others? And are there certain personality types that are more likely to be manipulated than others? Dr. George Simon: Yes, absolutely. You’ve got to have a pretty big fat conscience and a sense of guilt and shame to have these tactics work on you. Let’s take guilting for example. Just try for example, with someone who’s grandiosely narcissistic and has very little conscience, just try guilting them into doing something. You’ll find out in very short order that it doesn’t work because they don’t have the capacity for guilt. They don’t have the conscientiousness necessary. So yes there are certain personalities and they’re on what we call the character disturbed or character disordered spectrum. These are the folks with tremendous narcissistic and aggressive features in their personality, that don’t mind basically beating people up and doing harm to them in various ways. These are the folks that don’t care about anyone or anything other than their own self serving needs and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to have their way. These are the most manipulative personalities and their victims are genuinely the conscientious types who want to do right, who want to be seen as good, and who are vulnerable to these tactics that these other folks use to manipulate and control them. Who is more manipulative men or women? Michael Frank: Let me ask you a non-PC question. Generally speaking, who have you found in all of your years of clinical practice to be more manipulative? Men or women? Dr. George Simon: You know when I first started doing clinical research, based on my life experiences as a clinician, I really thought that I was going to find more men of the more overtly aggressive type, and more women of the covertly aggressive type. But what I ended up finding is there doesn’t seem to be much gender difference. Maybe the manifestation is just a little bit different whether you’re male or female, but I haven’t found any differences along gender lines. And that was a surprise to me because I did expect to find some differences. How men and women manipulate differently Michael Frank: In terms of the way those manipulations manifest themselves, what are some of the key differences in the way that men and women manipulate? Dr. George Simon: I think that many times, men will play on emotions, whereas women will use emotion. In other words, women will sometimes use displays of woundedness to try and gain some kind of control over their environment and to try to control the behavior of their relationship partner to some degree. Whereas men play on and prey on emotions to get their way. So they’ll see that sensitivity to shame that the woman has, that sensitivity that she has to being seen as not a nice person, or maybe to not being a faithful partner, and they’ll use that as a weapon of control. Whereas the woman might use her hurt, and displays of that hurt, to try and soften up or a sway her relationship partner. So I would say that the big difference in the expression is that men seem to be more willing to play on and prey on a woman’s emotions, and women seem more prone to use emotions to manipulate. That’s the only difference that I can see. Playing the victim Michael Frank: I’d say one thing that sticks out to me though, is that I think women are a lot more likely to play the victim as a manipulative tactic, whereas guys are more likely to try to physically bully or dominate. Has that been your experience? Dr. George Simon: Actually, no. I was surprised at that. I thought that I would find such differences. But when it comes to the tactics, it just seems like they’re equal opportunity along gender lines. In fact, I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve had to confront men in joint sessions about that playing the victim role. It’s just incredible. I never thought that I would see it as frequently as I do. But I see it a lot. I would have to say that it’s an equal opportunity tactic playing the victim, and it’s one of the more popular ones by the way. And then when you combine taking the victim role yourself, with casting the other person as the victimizer, that’s kind of a double whammy right there. That’s twice the punch. Manipulative children Michael Frank: Let’s look at manipulation within children. When do you find that manipulative behavior tends to start? Is it inherent in the personality of human beings? Or is it a learned behavior that starts very early in childhood? Dr. George Simon: Boy this is something that I talk about in workshops all the time. You know, we don’t have to teach our kids to fight for the things they want. Now we can reinforce it, and we can provide them with a lot of messages in their formative years that really reinforce the notion. But we are kind of natural brutes. The fact is that socialization is a process. None of us is born civilized. We have an animal nature. We can rise above it – yes. But we have an animal nature, we are born brutes, and it is natural for us to fight for the things that we want. If children have strong, resourceful, principled parents at a very early age they will learn very early on that the direct fighting approach is probably not going to get them anywhere. Children are in a vulnerable position. The adults are stronger than they are in many ways, and I’m not just talking physically, they’re also dependent on them. So the feisty approach is not going to work. So they very early on learn that the way to fight is covertly, by using subtle little tricks to play on mommy or daddy’s conscientiousness to manipulate them. They learn this very early on. And when it works, and God knows it does work from time to time, that sends them the message that this is a good strategy to use. And so they develop a habit of it over time, unless parents are wise enough to intervene and help correct that habit. How children manipulate Michael Frank: What are some of the most common ways children try to manipulate their parents? Dr. George Simon: Oh playing on sympathies for sure. I give an example of a really tyrannical child in my book In Sheep’s Clothing who had a mother that was so conscientious, she never wanted to do the wrong thing. She never wanted to put her daughter in any kind of vulnerable positions that she herself experienced as a young girl. So when her daughter would say things like: “You just hate me, you don’t really care for me, you’re never on my side, you’re always taking other people’s sides” and she played that victim role and vilified the parent, you know, conscientious parents, this touches a button in them. Who wants to be seen as the bad guy? So parents with a conscience who want to be seen as loving and caring can really respond to these tactics in a way that’s not really healthy, because then the child learns that they can have their way with mommy or daddy, and they end up usurping too much power within the family system, and you know kids are not meant to handle a whole lot of power because they haven’t yet had the life experience or the wisdom to know how to use it. I had an example just the other day that I dealt with that was just incredible. Where the youngest children, two young women in this family system, had usurped all the power and control. Their parents were quite dysfunctional, and these children had learned to use every single tactic in the book to maintain power and control. They knew the parents were dysfunctional. They knew they basically had a leg up. So whenever the parents tried to assert anything, they would easily point to some of the failures and errors of the parents and basically challenge their right to exert any authority, and they would play the victim, and cast their parents as villains. And they would basically state that they didn’t have any reason whatsoever to subordinate themselves to any kind of higher authority in the home. The children had taken over the ship, so to speak. And that’s always a very dangerous situation because when young people at the ages of eleven or twelve take the reins of power, when they take the wheel of the ship, they don’t yet have the life experience or the wisdom to be able to chart a course and to direct things. They think they do, they may have the arrogance to think they do, but they don’t have the wisdom or the capability to do so. And so it just turns things on end. It’s the archetypal definition of a dysfunctional family where the inmates basically are running the asylum. Why doesn’t the manipulators conscience bother them? Michael Frank: You say in your book In Sheep’s Clothing that a lot of manipulators don’t have a conscience, and a lack of conscience, is like a lack of internal brakes. Why is it that some people’s conscience just doesn’t seem to bother them? Do you think that they drown out or ignore their conscience? Or do you think they just don’t seem to have a conscience in the first place? Dr. George Simon: Oh boy, you ask a great question there Michael, because you know our traditional paradigms have always been that everybody has some degree of conscience, and they just drown it out with one kind of tactic or unconscious defense mechanism or another, either denial or rationalization. That’s been the traditional thinking. But we now know that there are also people who unfortunately never develop a conscience in the first place. And we also used to think, and this is another really important thing, that everyone would develop in a healthy normal fashion if it weren’t for trauma arresting their development. There’s an axiom that they teach people in schools of social work and psychology: “Only hurt people, hurt people”. In other words, only people who have been damaged by trauma revisit that trauma on others because they haven’t healed yet. There’s a certain amount of truth in that sometimes, but the greater tragedy of our narcissistic age is that there are too many people among us who have not had proper socialization from the get go. They didn’t get what they needed to get in the way of positive guidance, direction, instilling of values etc. in the first place. So they grew up with an ill formed conscience, or maybe no conscience at all. And by the way, I should say that old axiom of “only hurt people, hurt people” does a great deal of disservice and is so horrendously disrespectful to the hundreds of deeply hurt people that I’ve met in my professional lifetime. People who have endured more hardship, more pain, more unfortunate circumstance than most of us will experience in a lifetime. And who still turned out to be really decent people who would never hurt a fly. You have to be able to explain that, and you can’t explain that if you buy into this notion that “only hurt people, hurt people”. Socialization is a process, we are born brutes, some people never grow past that, and in our narcissistic culture, in our self-indulgent culture, in our culture of entitlement of taking everything for granted, some folks just never develop a healthy conscience. That’s the real tragedy. It’s just not there. Why shouldn’t I manipulate others? Michael Frank: We’re living in an age of ego and narcissism where bad behavior is not only tolerated, but it’s celebrated and rewarded. So let’s go down this path a little bit. If someone was to confront you Dr. Simon and say: “Look, I’ll be honest, I manipulate people but why shouldn’t I? It works! I get what I want, and it makes me very successful!” What would you say to that person? Dr. George Simon: Well Michael, you know at some point, most of us come to the realization that we’re going to die, that we could gain the entire world, but as a famous person once said, we might end up losing our very soul in the process. At some point, most folks come to the realization that even though it’s been all about them, it can’t be all about them. Whether we like it or not, whether we appreciate it or not, whether we recognize it or not, we’re all part of something bigger, and everything we do has an impact and affects something or someone else. And when we finally get that, when we finally care enough to make that matter, our lives change for the better and we have a more positive impact on the lives of those we touch. That’s a deeply spiritual matter. It’s not a religious matter. It’s a spiritual matter. And so what’s really ailing us in this age of more rampant character disturbance, is a spiritual disease. We’re bankrupt spiritually. We have so much, and we take it for granted, and we don’t pay attention to the bigger picture because we’ve been so successful at just paying attention to ourselves and our petty little wants and desires. It’s been the ME ME ME age now for several decades, and it’s taking its toll, even the planet itself is crying out from the abuse that we’ve heaped upon it. And it’s saying, hey, wait a minute. You can’t keep getting away with this. We can’t keep going down the same path. Nature as a funny way of correcting things, in the end we will survive and prosper as a species when we embrace the bigger picture and when we put an end to that narcissistic, self-focused and self-indulgence and realize that whether we like it or not, whether we embrace it or not, we’re part of something bigger and we have a responsibility to manage ourselves in a more responsible way. Do manipulative people ever grow out of it? Michael Frank: For those people that are not religious or spiritual and don’t believe in karma, and just seem to have a particularly selfish and manipulative type of personality, has it been your experience that they generally grow out of it at some stage of their lives? Or has it been your experience that from cradle to the grave manipulators just stay manipulators? Dr. George Simon: Well I only know from the folks that come to me, so my experience is biased. I don’t known of any objective research that’s looked into this. But I can tell you that many folks who I’ve had to close the door to, or who walked out, because they heard what I had to say and they were polite enough about it: “Well you know doc, you’ve got some kind of lofty ideals there to preach, but you know what, I’m not in the mood to hear it. Things are working for me pretty well right now. I think what you got to say sounds pretty good, but it’s not practical. So I’ll see you later. I’m going to continue to run my life just the way I always have”. I can’t count the number of folks that twenty, thirty, forty years later, will knock on my door and say: “You know what? Life has taught me a few lessons. I’ve had three failed marriages. I’ve had a couple of broken careers. I’ve left some bodies in the wake. I feel kind of empty inside. I don’t know what the hell I want anymore. Maybe, just maybe, I didn’t have it all figured out after all. And maybe, just maybe, you may have some ideas about a better path”. And then they’re open. I can’t count the number of times that has happened. So I’m biased. I know that that does happen. I can’t tell you objectively what percentage of the time that happens. Are most manipulators narcissists? Michael Frank: Are all manipulators, or most manipulators, necessarily narcissistic? Dr. George Simon: Well you know we have had this notion for a long time that we could nice nicely and neatly categorized people into these little diagnostic categories that we call the various personality disorders. And I don’t know if you know this or not, but the committee that formulates our categories and our distinctions and our diagnoses on these matters, the people that produce the official manual that mental health professionals use, they thought very seriously this last time around in this last revision, of getting rid of the category of narcissistic personality disorder. And it’s not because narcissism doesn’t exist, but it’s because narcissism is a feature and a dimension of many personality disturbances. And so, yes, narcissism has to be there, but is it the only thing? No. The other thing that we’re going to be revisiting is the very definition of a disorder. We have long thought that a personality style becomes a disorder when it’s so intense in it’s manifestation, so deviant from the norm, so inflexible, that it causes distress for either the person or others, then you could rightfully consider it a disorder. Well, unfortunately these days, certain personality styles that are pretty horrendous to look at are not that dysfunctional. They work. And they’re not that abnormal. They’re not that deviant from the norm. Narcissism these days is not deviant from the norm. It’s close to becoming the new norm. So the very definition that we’ve had for what constitutes a disorder is changing. If everyone’s a narcissist, then no one is Michael Frank: I don’t know if I’m oversimplifying this Dr. Simon, but it seems that if almost everyone is a narcissist, we just stop calling it narcissism… Dr. George Simon: (Laughs) It’s really interesting what happens when something becomes the new norm. But I’m also a firm believer that we’re on the cusp of a new age. You know the pendulum always swings. We’ve been in this phase of our entitled kind of ME focused existence for a long time. Relationships don’t hold together anymore. Families don’t hold together. People are spiritually bankrupt. They don’t see themselves as a part of a bigger picture. They don’t really respect a greater power at work in the universe. And when you do that you become expendable. We human beings, we were not always here, and we might not always be here. If we’re going to make it as a species, we will have to get with the program. People are going to have to reclaim the essential values that make us decent folks. Michael Frank: Well let’s hope so, for everybody’s sake Manipulation is conscious – not unconscious Michael Frank: You say in your book In Sheep’s Clothing that manipulators are conscious of their actions. That it’s not an unconscious or an accidental thing. Can you expand upon that a little bit? Dr. George Simon: Yeah. You know many folks on the receiving end always wonder: “Doesn’t this other person see what they’re doing? Maybe if I can just illuminate them, maybe if I can make them see…” Well the problem is that they already do see. They know exactly what they’re doing. Otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it. That kind of notion comes from old and pretty well worn out psychological paradigms that assume that most people’s behavior is unconscious, and it’s not that that perspective isn’t valid. It is a valid perspective for a lot of folks, especially those folks that I describe in my book as neurotic because they have some degree of conscience, and they’re kind of in conflict with their animal nature. But there are folks among us increasingly these days, who don’t have a conscience, who don’t care. They’re aware, but they don’t care. They see, but they’re disagreeing. They know what the right principles are, but they’re at odds with those principles. They are spoiled little brats who just want to have their way and will do whatever it takes to get it. They know exactly what they’re doing. And as soon as the person on the other end of that realizes that, the sooner they’ll start standing up for themselves and not taking it anymore. This is part one of a two part series – Part two will focus on the actual tactics of Manipulation: Gaslighting, Triangulation, Frame Control etc. and how to counter it This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Dr. George Simon is an internationally-recognized expert on manipulators and other problem characters and the author of 3 bestselling books: In Sheep’s Clothing (which has been translated into 12 foreign languages), Character Disturbance, and The Judas Syndrome. He’s made appearances on several major television (Fox News Network, CNN, CBS 48 Hours) and radio programs and is also the host of a weekly internet program on UCY.TV called Character Matters. Dr. George Simon being interviewed by Bill O’Reilly Until recently, Dr. Simon maintained an active private practice dedicated to assisting individuals develop character and helping empower victims in relationships with disturbed characters. In addition to providing psychotherapy services, he specialized in anxiety and anger management, comprehensive personality assessments, mental health professional training, and consultation to businesses and organizations on how to deal with problem characters. Dr. Simon also recently retired as a supervising psychologist for the Arkansas Dept. of Correction. For 6 years he provided clinical oversight to the community risk assessment program for registered sex offenders, and more recently provided similar oversight for the newly expanded and re-vamped prison-based sex offender treatment program. He has given numerous workshops on the various sex offender typologies and offender treatment and management strategies. He helped secure a DOJ grant through Center for Sex Offender Management, and is a member of the grant’s standing committee. Dr. Simon served for several years on the Arkansas Governor’s Commission on Domestic Abuse, Rape and Violence, is a past President of the Arkansas Psychological Association, and is a Board Certified Diplomate in Forensic and Clinical Psychology (ACFEI).	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A sex scandal at a Virginia fire station is under investigation by the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office. Two volunteer paramedics and a volunteer firefighter are accused of having sex with minors in the firehouse. “The fact that these people were members of a county-sponsored organization makes it even more critical for us to investigate this thoroughly,” Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Capt. Jeff Pearce said. Joseph Schlatter, a 45-year-old paramedic, was involved in a sexual relationship with 19-year-old medic Elizabeth Tosick, investigators said. They allegedly had sex at the station. They allegedly asked a teenage girl to have sex with them. “It was determined that two of the volunteer rescue squad members, male and female suspects, had approached the juvenile and had asked the juvenile female to engage in sexual relations with them while they were on duty at the fire station,” Pearce said. Volunteer firefighter Albert Dunaway, 38, had sex with a different minor and asked her for pictures of herself naked, according to the sheriff’s office. Investigators found child pornography on his home and work computers. Dunaway and Schlatter face possession of child pornography charges. Dunaway is also charged with two counts of electronic solicitation and carnal knowledge, while Schlatter is facing an indecent liberties charge. Tosick is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. More charges are expected. Tosick and Schlatter were arraigned Friday. Both were recognized recently for their volunteer hours.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
President Donald Trump gave hope to the terminally ill and their advocates on Tuesday when he said he would change Federal Drug Administration rules to allow access to experimental drugs not yet approved by the agency. "One thing that's always disturbed me: They come up with a new drug for a patient who's terminal, and the FDA says we can't … approve the drug, because we don't want to hurt the patient. But the patient is not going to live more than four weeks, [anyway]. So, we're going to be changing a lot of the rules," Trump said. Trump's announcement was embraced by terminally ill individuals, their loved ones, and advocacy groups interviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. "Terminally ill patients are fortunate to have a compassionate champion in President Trump," said Josh Schisler, founder and president of Freedom of Treatment, in an email. "Americans fighting for their lives don't have decades to wait for the FDA to approve new treatments." Schisler's group began advocating for wider access to experimental drugs in 2013 after his girlfriend died of brain cancer. While doctors did everything possible to extend her life, she was unable to access experimental treatments in the final stages of her life, according to Schisler. "It's obvious there's something that President Trump knows and it shows he's showing compassion," said Missouri state Rep. Jim Neely (R.) in a phone interview. Neely, a physician, sponsored "Right to Try" legislation in Missouri in 2014. For Neely, Right to Try took on a personal meaning. His 40-year-old daughter, Kristina, was diagnosed with stage-four colon cancer. She died without access to experimental drugs because she didn't qualify for clinical trials. "I see phenomenal medications that are working. There was a drug for congestive heart failure five years ago," Neely said. While that drug is now available, it was not available before final FDA approval despite its amazing results. "I'm all in and I applaud President Trump for his proactive action," Neely said. For four years during the Obama administration, the national Right to Try movement has pushed for wider drug access to medications that have shown positive results in clinical trials but have not been approved by the FDA. The movement, led by the conservative Goldwater Institute, resulted in 33 states passing Right to Try laws. Seventeen other states are considering Right to Try bills. "If a drug is approved in another developed country, like the UK or Japan, it should be available to Americans. There are countless examples of drugs that are available and saving lives in Europe, but stuck in the FDA pipeline," said Starlee Coleman, vice president of communications for Goldwater Institute, via email. "There's an ALS therapy that has been in use in Japan for 10 years and is prolonging life and reducing suffering, but Americans can't get it. There are breast cancer drugs that are saving lives in England and American women can't take them," Coleman said. The drug in Japan is one that Matthew Bellina, who has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, cannot access. Bellina applauded Trump's announcement, expressing his frustration with the FDA approval process. "President Trump's direction to streamline the FDA is a necessary and long overdue step in fixing a broken system," said Bellina in an email. "It is frustrating that Americans with ALS cannot access this drug," Bellina said. Laura McLinn, whose 7-year-old son Jordan has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, said Trump's announcement was the best news she has heard in years. "To hear President Trump talk about the importance of lowering drug costs and helping terminally ill patients access drugs more quickly was probably one of the best things I've heard in two years. And I believe if anyone can make that happen … he can," said McLinn in an email. "It's a good feeling when everything you've worked for for so long is recognized as being important. And for it to be recognized by the president of the United States … wow. He knows it's what the people want and he's made a commitment to see it through," said McLinn. Jordan still does not have access to the drug his family hopes will help him, but he is being screened to receive it in February for a clinical trail, according to McLinn. "While we are obviously elated, there's another part of my heart that is broken. I have so many friends who have sons who are not qualifying for the trial so even though they have had the same hope for many years, they are now finding out that it's too late," McLinn said. "Their sons have declined to the point that they won't make it into the trial. Too much wait time. So unfair and heartbreaking."	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A leader of the Palestinian group Hamas has said there will not be a renewal of the Gaza ceasefire that ends on Friday unless Israel meets some of its demands. Ismael Radwan told Al Jazeera: “The truce will not be renewed; it cannot be renewed without real achievements. As we speak, no response has been received to Hamas’s demands, which means there is no breakthrough in this respect.” A 72-hour deal brokered by Egypt took effect on Tuesday, bringing relief to residents in the Gaza Strip after four weeks of fighting and heavy bombardment. Israeli media has reported that Israel was offering to extend the ceasefire for another 72 hours unconditionally. Al Jazeera's Nicole Johnston, reporting from Jerusalem, said there were also reports in Egyptian media that the truce could be extended but few details were coming out of Cairo on any progress made with the talks. "It really goes to show how difficult it is for both sides to reach an agreement," our correspondent said. While Israel is calling for demilitarisation of the Gaza Strip, Hamas wants the Israeli blockade on Gaza lifted, and the release of Palestinian prisoners. On Wednesday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country's military actions during the four-week-long assault, blaming Hamas for the fatalities in Gaza. In a news conference in West Jerusalem, Netanyahu said: "Israel deeply regrets every civilian casualties. The people of Gaza are not our enemy, our enemy is Hamas". "Every civilian casualty is a tragedy, a tragedy of Hamas's own making." Netanyahu said Israel's intense bombardment of Gaza was a necessary response to Hamas attacks. "It was justified. It was proportionate," he said. At least 1,875 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed in the assault, while 67 people, including 64 soldiers, died on the Israeli side Netanyahu's comments came as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the deaths in Gaza "have shocked and shamed the world". The UN chief has also called for investigation into bombardment of UN facilities in Gaza. "Attacks against UN premises, along with other suspected breaches of international law, must be swiftly investigated," he said. 'Senseless cycle of suffering' The UN has called on all parties in the Middle East to find a lasting peaceful solution to the conflict in Gaza. In a special meeting of the UN General Assembly convened at the request of Arab countries, Ban said: "The senseless cycle of suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as in Israel, must end. Ban called for an end to rocket fire from Gaza and weapons smuggling as well as lifting an Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza and bringing the besieged territory back under one Palestinian government. In Gaza, where about a half-million people have been displaced by a month of bloodshed, some residents have left UN shelters during the ceasefire to trek back to neighbourhoods where whole blocks have been destroyed by Israeli shelling and the smell of decomposing bodies fills the air. Meanwhile, streets in towns in southern Israel, which had been under daily rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, have again come to life with children playing.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Sentai Origin Many Sorcerer's hail from heroic bloodlines. Great men, who did great deeds and pass their greatness onto their children and grandchildren. A Sorcerer with a Sentai Orgin has the opportunity to become the first of a heroic lineage. Did they get blasted by radio waves, or were they given a power coin by an alien? Who knows, you decide! Bonus Proficiencies At 1st level, you gain proficiency with melee martial weapons and unarmed strikes. Go, go Battlemage At first level when you cast a spell that requires concentration, the caster gains Temporary Hit Points equal to half her Sorcerer Level (rounded down, but at least one) at the start of each of its turns. This lasts until the spell ends. Extra Attack Starting at 6th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn. Tough to Kill At 14th level When the sorcerer is hit with a attack, she can use her reaction to give the attacker vulnerability to all damage types. This vulnerability ends when the attacker takes damage. Once this ability is used, it can't be used until the sorcerer takes a short or long rest.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
España ha participado de forma activa durante el año en la modernización de los vehículos de combate pertenecientes al gobierno de Nicolás Maduro, esto a pesar del embargo de armamento venezolano decretado por la Unión Europea en noviembre de 2017. En enero de 2018, el país europeo le aprobó al gobierno venezolano la venta de repuestos para dichos mecanismos de transporte valorados en 20 millones de euros. El monto es casi 10 veces superior al de las ventas de este tipo realizadas al país durante 2017, reseñó El País de España. Según la Estadística sobre Exportaciones de Material de Defensa de la Secretaría de Estado de Comercio, España le vendió al gobierno piezas de vehículos militares por 6.216 euros durante el primer semestre del año. Fuentes consultadas por el diario español señalaron que se trata de un programa de modernización de 86 vehículos de combate de fabricación francesa que el Ejército de Venezuela realiza y cuyo costo está cifrado en unos 70 millones de euros. Lea más en El País.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Brownies de Amaranto Con Chocolate Brownies de Amaranto Súpero Ligeros, hechos a base de amaranto y Quinoa… ¡Te encantarán! El día de hoy les traigo una Receta deliciosa, de un exquisito panecillo que niños y adultos aman, ¡Brownies!, así como lo oyes, pero esta vez en una versión mucho más saludable y ligera, que te permitirá llevar a cabo una dieta equilibrada, libre de todo ese contenido de azúcar y grasas saturadas, que los panecillos convencionales nos aportan. Existen una gran diferencia ente esta nueva versión y la ya existente, por ejemplo, los nuestros quedan más esponjado y húmedos, porque dentro de sus ingredientes introducimos la ¡Quinoa!, que además de ser saludable, es ideal para aquellas personas que simplemente no pueden consumir este «postrecito», porque tienen una intolerancia al gluten y te prometo ¡Son exquisitos! Pero no sólo este ingrediente forma parte del protagonismo de estos Brownies, también el ¡Amaranto!, que junto con la ¡Quinoa!, son considerados como cereales sagrados, por su alto contenido nutricional. Ambos tienen una composición mucho más equilibrada que los cereales convencionales y lo mejor, la cantidad y calidad de proteínas es mejor. En cuanto a la grasa, encontramos niveles bajos de está y cantidades considerables de hierro en ambos, el calcio, fósforo, fibra y la Vitamina E, también se hacen presentes. Son ricos en ácido fólico y demás vitaminas del grupo B. Vamos a ver el paso a paso de como preparar una Deliciosos Brownies de Amaranto con Quinoa, libre de Gluten: Ingredientes para preparar brownies de amaranto Amaranto natural. Proteína en polvo (caseinato puede ser o vegana). Stevia 100% (no olvides leer los ingredientes de tu caja para asegurarte que sea un stevia puro) Harina de coco. Leche de almendra o de coco. Quinoa natural. Crema de cacahuate con chocolate o de avellanas casera. Frutas deshidratadas si quieres decorar. Para la cobertura de chocolate: Puedes entrar a un post en donde te mostramos como hacer Nutella en casa, o bien, sustituirla por crema de maní con chocolate, en caso de no encontrar avellanas. Como preparar brownies de amaranto Mezclarás 2 tazas de leche de almendra ó de coco en 2 tazas de harina de coco. Agregarás 1 huevo. 1 cda. de linaza, 1 cda. de cacao en polvo, 3 sobres de stevia y por ultimo 1 taza de amaranto y 1 de quinoa. Debes de tener una charola lista, previamente hidratada con un poco de aceite de coco, colocarás la mezcla dentro de ella y hornearás durante 20 minutos. Sacarás los panecillos del horno, verterás un poco de leche de almendra sobre ellos, para que estén más humedecidos y sepan más deliciosos y listo, dejarás que enfríe. A mi me encanta agregar un poco de Nutella casera para darle ese sabor a chocolate, tú también lo puedes hacer, si es que te apetece. Fuentes: Pinterest.com/Directoalpaladar.com/QueenofQuinoa.com	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Before clicking on the button to watch more vr porn, you have to check out the pictures I posted for you here below! In the porn scene you see a lot of pussies, but Nicole Love has a pussy to remember.. Start playing with it 🙂 And if you played enough with it than she loves to get you right in her round ass.. 🤤 When you think you’ve seen it all.. Nicole has been hiding something up in her butt.. Find out yourself by putting on you VR headset! WATCH NOW Pictures, pictures & Pictures! WATCH NOW	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
“This forum brings together CEOs and business leaders who know what it takes to create jobs and drive economic growth,” Trump said in a statement. “My administration is committed to drawing on private sector expertise and cutting the government red tape that is holding back our businesses.” AD AD Trump’s announcement of his Strategic and Policy Forum comes as he assembles what is already the wealthiest administration in modern American history, raising questions about his team’s ability to identify with the concerns of his voters around the country. Most of the members of the advisory panel are worth tens or hundreds of millions — if not billions — of dollars. Those who will advise Trump are Schwarzman; Patomak Global Partners CEO Paul Atkins, a former commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission; GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra; Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove; JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon; BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink; Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger; Boston Consulting Group President and CEO Rich Lesser; Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon; former Boeing chairman and CEO Jim McNerney; Global Infrastructure Partners Chairman Adebayo Ogunlesi; IBM President and CEO Ginni Rometty; former Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Kevin Warsh; EY Global Chairman and CEO Mark Weinberger; former General Electric chairman and CEO Jack Welch; and IHS Markit Vice Chairman Daniel Yergin. As our colleagues Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson have noted of Trump’s cabinet and advisers: AD AD Their collective wealth in many ways defies Trump’s populist campaign promises. Their business ties, particularly to Wall Street, have drawn rebukes from Democrats. But the group also amplifies Trump’s own campaign pitch: that Washington outsiders who know how to navigate and exploit a “rigged” system are best able to fix that system for the working class. “It fits into Trump’s message that he’s trying to do business in an unusual way, by bringing in these outsiders,” said Nicole Hemmer, an assistant professor in presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. But Trump and his team, she added, won’t be able to draw on the same sort of life struggles that President Obama did, in crafting policy to lift poor and middle-class Americans. “They’re just not going to have any access to that” life experience, she said. “I guess it will be a test — does empathy actually matter? If you’re able to echo back what people are telling you, is that enough?” AD AD A Trump adviser said Friday that discounting the administration based on its collective wealth is “categorically unfair.”	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The musical duo ClariS, which keeps the singers' identities secret, will release their first photo compilation book on September 1. The book, titled illusion ~Hikari ni Kurumarete~ (Illusion: Wrapped in Light), will cost 3,500 yen (US$31). The hardcover collection will have 96 A4-size full-color pages. The photographs will include some unreleased concert pictures. ClariS also revealed a visual for their upcoming concert that will be held in the Pacifico Yokohama National Convention Hall of Yokohama on September 16. In addition, the duo's Blu-ray Disc release for their "ClariS 1st Budōkan Concert ~Futatsu no Kamen to Ushinawareta Taiyō~" (ClariS 1st Budōkan Concert: Two Masks and the Lost Sun) concert went on sale on Wednesday. The singers briefly revealed their full faces at the concert held in Tokyo on February 10. The world premiere screening of the concert was held at Anime Expo on July 2. Crunchyroll is also releasing the concert Blu-ray Disc this month. ClariS' 18th single "Shiori," which will be the ending theme song for the Owarimonogatari television specials, will ship in Japan on Thursday. The specials will premiere on August 12-13. Alleged photographs of ClariS from their appearance at the "Music Theater 2017" event in May created a buzz online in June because they revealed parts of the secretive singers' faces. The singers performed in veils at their first solo concert in 2015. Source: Animate Times	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
At the core of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network are the full network nodes that function as critical part of the Bitcoin infrastructure. These nodes are solely responsible in ensuring the transactions and blocks are trickled down the network in a timely manner. The number of these nodes and their network related metrics were largely unknown as of recently despite the existence of Bitcoin since early 2009. The lack of such data in the public domain motivated the launch of the Bitnodes Project in April 2013. The ongoing effort in the development of the project is driven by the emerging needs to gather statistical summary of the Bitcoin peer-to-peer network and supported by the Bitcoin Foundation. Every quarter, I’ll provide a report of my progress and invite you to submit suggestions for improvement as well as stories on how this has been helpful to you. Bitnodes Project 2014 Q2 Report	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Snapchat hosted an extravagant New Year's Eve party for over 5,000 employees and guests at the L.A. Live complex in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday night. Drake and Diplo both performed at the event which reportedly cost at least $4 million for the venue alone. Despite building his fortune on the social media app, however, founder and CEO Evan Spiegel was determined not to let people use Snapchat at the party. So Snapchat employees avoided their own social network, and used a rival one instead: Instagram. The event was meant to be an "offline" experience where guests could live in the moment, free from the pressure to post on social media. Prior to the event guests were told time to leave their phones at home and tickets were emblazoned with the words "no photos."As guests checked into the party, those who had brought their phones were told to hand them over as staff carefully applied red and white striped tape over the camera, theoretically to prevent them from recording. Silver bracelets were strapped around guests wrists also with the words "no photos." It’s an ironic twist, given that Snapchat is all about sharing photos and video. To ensure no content was posted to Snapchat specifically, the company blocked all snaps coming from Microsoft theater and the surrounding venues where the party was being held and stripped the location from its "Snap map" feature that normally allows users to view real-time snaps by location. Once guests were inside, however, many ripped the tape off their cameras and began chronicling what attendees described as an alcohol-soaked carnival. The party sprawled across a large open courtyard flanked by bars and restaurants Snap had rented out including Katsuya, Lucky Strike, Tom's Urban, Conga Room, and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill. Those who dined at the latter were treated to a fixed menu of steak, salad, and cheesecake for dessert. Servers dressed in circus-like attire snaked through the party and distributed an unlimited supply of champagne and mini cupcakes. Diplo held court on top of a massive 105-foot DJ tower where giant electronic clocks ticked down to midnight. Below him attendees partied as men dressed in silver sequined tanks with disco ball helmets gyrated on the dance floor. Employees were allowed to extend up to three invites to the party and it was packed. A-list guests like Kevin Durant mingled with those in attendance. Dress code was formal but plenty of Los Angeles creatives donned sneakers, jean jackets, or brightly colored shirts. In between drinking and dancing guests were invited to play games like NFL Blitz and Beat Mania. The Drake concert began after 9 pm. Spiegel had box seats with a prime view of the stage while Snap employees and their guests crowded up front to get close to the star. The rapper delivered encouraging messages about 2018 before launching into his set. "356 days is a very long time," Drake said in between songs. Anyone who has "even a half or even a fourth of the health that you want" should be grateful. Some employees who still had their cameras taped over captured songs via video then uploaded the clips to Instagram stories. Even Drake himself couldn't resist documenting the event on Instagram. Before taking the stage he uploaded a video to Instagram Stories that panned over the party from above. As the clock approached midnight guests gathered on the outside plaza. A giant, bright Snapchat ghost was suspended from a high pole, presumably to be to dropped at midnight. While the clock ticked down 2017's final moments, hoards of guests whipped out their phones to record the moment. Midnight struck and red and white confetti poured down on the screaming crowd. One attendee who had hoisted herself on top of a man's shoulders cried out "2018! 2018!" "New Years Eve is very overrated, but this event was dope," one guest posted on Instagram shortly after midnight. Snap's New Year's Eve party was not the first time the company has attempted to host an event devoid of social media. The "no photos" policy is strictly enforced at most company gatherings. In December, Snap held a holiday party for staff at its New York City office at the Beekman hotel and went through similar measures to prevent employees from distributing content from the event. "I'm pretty sure anyone who posted from a party would be fired," one Snapchat employee said regarding the company's policy. Snapchat is also notoriously secretive about its internal affairs. "New employee orientations begin with a Fight Club-like list of forbidden topics of discussion. And internal projects blossom out of nowhere — and vanish suddenly — without explanation," Business Insider reported in 2016. While hosting a fully "offline" party in 2017/2018 can be seen as broadly in line with Snapchat's original emphasis on privacy and ephemerality, the idea seems to work much better in theory than in practice—especially for an event with thousands of attendees. The fact is, it’s nearly impossible to create a large scale social media "safe zone" in today's tech climate. Broadcast-focused social networks like Facebook and Instagram have preconditioned an entire generation to reflexively package every notable moment of their lives for public consumption, and Snapchat's New Years Eve party was no exception. Snapchat tried to stave off this urge by hiring roaming photographers to take professional pictures. The company also set up tons of photo booths where guests could pile in for printable photo strips and vintage-style polaroids to take as memories. But still, within minutes of the party's conclusion guests flooded Instagram with photos and videos from the party, many hashtagging their content #SnapchatNYE. 15 second videos from the Snapchat event dominated the public Instagram story feeds of all venues where the party took place for 24 hours after the affair. Some guests even went through the trouble of re-uploading their photos and videos to Snapchat. One well known YouTuber named Kong Pham re-uploaded his entire Instagram story to Snapchat the minute he was far enough away from the venue to do so. Overall, Snapchat employees said they had a fantastic time ringing in the new year with friends and colleagues. But despite the fact that Spiegel covered the talent fees for the event personally, some said the company spending millions footing the bill for a giant party seemed egregious in light of Snap's recent financial troubles. The company's stock price has been volatile since its IPO last spring and its valuation cratered in November after its third quarter earnings call revealed that it had missed its financial targets and user growth had slowed. The venture-backed company lost a total of $443 million in the third quarter of 2017 and has struggled to successfully monetize its user base. Snapchat also denied employees a cash bonus this year, offering stock options instead, which one employee said was like being told they could buy a lotto ticket. Nevertheless, several employees woke up on New Years Day still in a daze from Sunday night's event. "Helluva party," actress Cerina da Graca posted on Instagram. "Honestly, I'm still recovering and trying to recall the night myself," an employee said.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A Syrian restaurant in Toronto that made international headlines as a template for tolerance and refugee integration announced on Tuesday that it will be permanently closing after receiving a flood of “hate messages and death threats.” In a message posted to its Instagram account, Soufi’s at 676 Queen Street W., said the decision to close was prompted by numerous threats received over the past week. “Our decision is made with a heavy heart in effort to maintain our family and staff’s safety,” the message states. “We would like to thank our lovely customers and Queen Street neighbours for their wonderful support over the past two years.” The restaurant had recently earned a national profile after a member of the owner’s family reportedly attended a protest against an event in Hamilton featuring People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier. Several media reports say a now-deleted Facebook post indicated the owner’s son had attended last month’s demonstration, and that he regrets not stepping aside or intervening when an elderly woman was blocked from entering the event and verbally harassed. The restaurant was run by Husam and Shahnaz Al-Soufi, who immigrated to Canada in October 2015 with their three children, Alaa, Jala and Ayham. Soufi’s opened in 2017, and was profiled in the New York Times as an example of successful integration of Syrian refugees. “We were inspired to open up Soufi’s by our love for our Syrian culture, music, and delicious home-made food,” the family wrote on its website. The Soufi family released a second statement on Tuesday, saying: “We know this hate does not reflect the people of Toronto. The people of Toronto are loving, welcoming people. We have heard from countless community members and organizations who have restored our faith in the city.” The statement also included some of the hateful messages they were receiving. (WARNING SOME OF THE COMMENTS CONTAIN PROFANE LANGUAGE AND THREATS OF VIOLENCE) Soufis family statement by CityNewsToronto on Scribd CityNews profiled the restaurant in January, 2018. At the time, general manager Jala Al-Soufi, said the restaurant gave Syrian refugees in Toronto a comforting taste of home, not to mention job opportunities. “A lot of Syrian refugees have immigrated here in the past few years so we wanted to be able to offer them a piece of home,” she said. “My father insisted on employing mostly Syrian newcomers to be able to create job opportunities for them and also we understand how difficult it is to move here with limitations in language and experience.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau weighed in on the closure late Tuesday night tweeting: “Hatred and threats of violence have no place in Canada. We are always stronger together than when we’re divided.” Toronto police say a member of the restaurant’s staff had previously reached out about filing a criminal complaint, but no such report was ever completed. Toronto police Const. Rob Reid said the force received a call from a member of the family on Oct. 2, and the person indicated he wished to file a formal report about hate speech and threats. Reid said no one was at the restaurant when officers attended the scene, and they have not been able to reconnect since. “We’d really like him to call back so we can … make this report,” Reid said. “When these things live in the dark, we can’t shine any light on them.” Const. Victor Kwong said Wednesday that investigators were meeting with the family to gather details and likely launch a probe into the situation. With files from The Canadian Press	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
“People think of insulin and diabetes, but many metabolic syndromes are associated with some types of cognitive defects and behavioral disorders, like depression or dementia,” said Yun Zhang, whose new research demonstrates how the signaling pathway of insulin and insulinlike peptides plays a critical role in helping to regulate learning and memory. Credit: Rose Lincoln/Harvard Staff Photographer Though it's most often associated with disorders like diabetes, Harvard researchers have shown how the signaling pathway of insulin and insulin-like peptides plays another critical role in the body – helping to regulate learning and memory. In addition to showing that the insulin-like peptides play a critical role in regulating the activity of neurons involved in learning and memory, a team of researchers led by Yun Zhang, Associate Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, show that the interaction between the molecules can fine-tune how, or even if, learning takes place. Their work is described in a February 6 paper in Neuron. "People think of insulin and diabetes, but many metabolic syndromes are associated with some types of cognitive defects and behavioral disorders, like depression or dementia," Zhang said. "That suggests that insulin and insulin-like peptides may play an important role in neural function, but it's been very difficult to nail down the underlying mechanism, because these peptides do not have to function through synapses that connect different neurons in the brain" To get at that mechanism, Zhang and colleagues turned to an organism whose genome and nervous system are well described and highly accessible by genetics – C. elegans. Using genetic tools, researchers altered the small, transparent worms by removing their ability to create individual insulin-like compounds. These new "mutant" worms were then tested to see whether they would learn to avoid eating a particular type of bacteria that is known to infect the worms. Tests showed that while some worms did learn to steer clear of the bacteria, others didn't – suggesting that removing a specific insulin-like compound halted the worms' ability to learn. Researchers were surprised to find, however, that it wasn't just removing the molecules that could make the animals lose the ability to learn – some peptide was found to inhibit learning. "We hadn't predicted that we would find both positive and negative regulators from these peptides," Zhang said. "Why does the animal need this bidirectional regulation of learning? One possibility is that learning depends on context. There are certain things you want to learn – for example, the worms in these experiments wanted to learn that they shouldn't eat this type of infectious bacteria. That's a positive regulation of the learning. But if they needed to eat, even if it is a bad food, to survive, they would need a way to suppress this type of learning." Even more surprising for Zhang and her colleagues was evidence that the various insulin-like molecules could regulate each other. "Many animals, including the humans, have multiple insulin-like molecules and it appears that these molecules can act like a network," she said. "Each of them may play a slightly different role in the nervous system, and they function together to coordinate the signaling related to learning and memory. By changing the way the molecules interact, the brain can fine tune learning in a host of different ways." Going forward, Zhang said she hopes to characterize more of the insulin-like peptides as a way of better understanding how the various molecules interact, and how they act on the neural circuits for learning and memory. Understanding how such pathways work could one day help in the development of treatment for a host of cognitive disorders, including dementia. "The signaling pathways for insulin and insulin-like peptides are highly conserved in mammals, including the humans," Zhang said. "There is even some preliminary evidence that insulin treatment, in some cases, can improve cognitive function. That's one reason we believe that if we understand this mechanism, it will help us better understand how insulin pathways are working in the human brain." Explore further New evidence links Alzheimer's disease and diabetes	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
By Staff A Saudi man has found a solid object that he believes to be a meteor that fell near his house and broke into several pieces. Mashari Al Subai said the object’s fall had created a small pit in the ground behind his house in the western Saudi town of Raniya before it fragmented into small and medium-sized parts. He said the large piece he found has a semi-transparent hazel colour, adding that the colour changed abruptly when the object was heated. “I conducted a small test on the object. After I heated it for five minutes, its colour changed to golden yellow before it regained its original colour gradually,” he said, as quoted by the Saudi Arabic language daily ‘Sabq’. He said he had sent a piece of the object to the Saudi Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources for testing and identifying. Sabq did not specify the size of the object. Follow Emirates 24\|7 on Google News.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
By Conall Ó Fátharta A previously unknown trial of lactose and baby formula was carried out using infants in Bessborough Mother and Baby Home by Glaxo Laboratories in the mid-1970s. This is now the sixth confirmed clinical trial using children in care in Ireland by a predecessor company of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). It has previously stated that only four trials — of various vaccines — were carried out in Ireland in the 1960s and ’70s. These trials were carried out by the Wellcome Foundation. However, in 2014, the Irish Examiner revealed a fifth trial was carried out — this time by Glaxo Laboratories — involving more than 30 children in the 1960s. It has now emerged that this same company was also testing lactose and powdered milk formulas on children in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home in Cork in 1974. The trial only came to light after the material was found in the file of Breda Bonass, who had sought her records from Tusla under Freedom of Information. GSK said it had “been unable to locate any records relating to a 1974 study”. “A search did find very limited documentation relating to a trial from 1967 — the assumption, therefore, would be that the 1974 study’s purpose was to compare current milk powder with a newer formulation,” said a GSK statement. “The records contain no names or information about the children involved.” GSK said it did not know why Ireland was chosen as a location for the trial but that the 1967 trial was carried out in the UK, Kenya, Argentina, Malaysia, “and probably more”. In a statement, the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus said it had “no information on any such trials”.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Pink Guy Disapproves of (insert thing) By shatteredXmind Watch 0 Favourites 7 Comments 188 Views in this case it's... Miley Cyrus... how original you guys can feel free to edit this image and post it to your meme's content (as long as you credit me) (i must be getting old) IMAGE DETAILS Image size 1682x1116px 424.85 KB Show More Published : Nov 4, 2016	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Chiefs fans have seen the last of cornerback Phillip Gaines in Kansas City. According to the K.C. Star’s Terez Paylor, the Chiefs will not pursue a contract with Gaines, who will become an unrestricted free agent on March 14. Gaines, 26, was drafted by the Chiefs in the third round of the 2014 draft. He battled injuries in the first couple years of his career and never really found his footing in Kansas City. Gaines was mainly used as a slot corner but occasionally played outside on defense. He struggled in 2016 and 2017, allowing a total of over 1,000 yards and four touchdowns during those seasons. In Paylor’s report, he notes that the Indianapolis Colts could be a possible landing spot for Gaines with former Chiefs director of player personnel/football operations now serving as the Colts’ general manager. Ballard was partially responsible for recruiting Gaines in 2014. Another possible landing spot for Gaines could be the Cleveland Browns, where former Chiefs GM John Dorsey now serves as GM. Gaines would come cheap so it wouldn’t hurt for his former GM to take another chance on him.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
“There’s a feeling of injustice over taxation,” Macron said in the first wide-ranging news conference of a president who has favored lofty pronouncements delivered in cinematic speeches or via social media. But Macron, seated at a desk and far more informal than usual, did not offer to reintroduce France’s wealth tax — one of the key demands of “yellow vest” protesters who have amassed at traffic circles in rural France and marched down the affluent boulevards of the capital every weekend since mid-November. AD AD “When I look at the situation in our country, the real inequalities are not fiscal,” he said. “We have a system that corrects fiscal inequalities much more than in other countries. The true inequalities are those of origins, of destiny.” He vowed a reinvestment in education, with an eye to fostering leaders that better represent the socioeconomic diversity of French society. This did not appease Priscillia Ludosky, a yellow vest organizer whose online petition last year was a key factor in the movement’s mobilization. “He does not have the willingness to announce real measures that are actually strong,” Ludosky said. “He’s stayed with his original program, in fact.” AD Macron’s main mission on Thursday was to present the conclusions of the “grand débat” or “great debate,” a two-month listening tour that took him to high schools and community centers across the country, taking stock of grievances from local officials and constituents who felt left behind in an increasingly globalized economy. AD The grand débat was an enormous undertaking, and the roughly 10,000 sessions — some of which lasted more than six hours — generated a staggering amount of data: roughly 1.5 million individual contributions and more than 16,000 booklets of complaints. Macron’s bet was that it might help to quell the yellow vest protests, as well as redeem his faltering presidency. AD The protests have continued. Last Saturday marked the 23rd weekend demonstrators wearing high-visibility yellow jackets marched through Paris. The protests have often been violent, as demonstrators clashed with police, burned cars and smashed shop windows. Meanwhile, while the grand débat was underway, Macron’s approval rating edged up ever so slightly and now stands at around 29 percent, according to the latest Ifop poll, up from 23 percent in December. AD Much of the yellow vest outrage has been directed at the French president. Protesters have criticized Macron — a former investment banker with the academic pedigree of the quintessential French elite — for his perceived aloofness and arrogance, particularly with regard to his responses to the struggles of working people. AD During his election campaign, he told a worker that the “best way to afford a suit is to work.” Last September, he told a young, unemployed gardener that he could easily find a job if he just “crossed the street.” Comments like these — coupled with actions like his decision to abolish France’s wealth tax at the same time as he made it easier for small businesses to hire and fire employees — earned him the moniker of “president of the rich,” a title he has struggled to escape. AD Macron was pressed on these gaffes on Thursday. He responded: “There are phrases I regret; there are phrases taken totally out of context.” Macron also doubled down on his wealth tax decision, insisting that it was a means of generating investment in the national economy. “It’s not a gift for the most fortunate,” he said. AD The yellow vest movement began in mid-November as a mobilization against a carbon tax. Protesters saw Macron’s plan to increase the tax — though in line with France’s commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — as a misguided decree from an out-of-touch president who failed to grasp how essential and expensive cars are in France’s rural periphery. Macron on Thursday reiterated his belief in the urgency of fighting climate change. He announced the creation of an “ecological defense council” of 250 people, selected by lottery, who would be charged with evaluating and advancing the national strategy. AD Ludosky emphasized that she and many in the yellow vest movement do not oppose collective action on climate change — they oppose the burden being placed on the working class. For her, Macron’s latest announcement was hollow. “Climate change associations have been saying for years what we need to do,” she said. AD Thursday’s news conference also served as a campaign pitch by Macron ahead of contentious European parliamentary elections next month. Many of his remarks — on secularism, immigration and free movement between European countries — seemed to play into themes that transcended France’s domestic malaise.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Tesla recently did it to much acclaim, and now Daimler is doing it too – the German automotive corporation is launching its own home/business battery energy storage system. Developed by Daimler subsidiary Deutsche ACCUmotive, the Mercedes-Benz energy storage unit utilizes lithium-ion batteries to store energy generated by solar cells, wind turbines or other sources. Utilizing technology that was originally developed for use in Mercedes and smart hybrid/electric cars, the battery modules will be available in two versions – a 2.5-kWh model for homes, and a 5.9-kWh model for industrial use. Up to eight 2.5 kWh modules can be linked together to form a 20 kWh energy storage unit for use by businesses. The 5.9 kWh model is also scalable making it suitable for commercial and industrial use. In fact, as part of the Coulomb joint venture, project partners The Mobility House and GETEC Energie are using 96 of the modules to provide grid stabilization and to smooth out load peaks in the German town of Kamenz. The system currently has a combined capacity of over 500 kWh, and plans call for that to be boosted to 3,000 kWh within the next few weeks. Daimler is now establishing sales and distribution networks, both in Germany and internationally. Mercedes-Benz energy storage units can be ordered starting this month, with shipping scheduled to begin in the fall (Northern Hemisphere). There is currently no word on pricing. Source: Daimler via Green Car Reports	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
We provide cutting edge and economical BIM Design Solutions that will augment the profitability of your business. Building Information Modeling has some inbuilt features such as: drawing consistency, BOM [Bill of Material], Cost Estimation, Bill of Quantity and Clash Detection. These features help the construction industry from conception that is from designing stage to implementation that is on construction site and ultimately after the period for whole building life cycle for future use. At Silicon Valley The team is adequate efficient to combine all the features of BIM with the necessities and stipulation given by the clients. At Silicon Valley we provide following Building Information Modeling Services with our hardworking and enthusiastic squad: Silicon Valley is the leading company here by giving unparallel quality in our organizations. The demonstration of BIM Outsourcing services is for the most part grasped to redesign the viability of any errand. They are utilized by different specialists which incorporates experts, draftsman, engineers etc. We take after an creative and innovative approach to set up a steady reputation in the business area through expert remarkableness. Our BIM outsourcing hopes to enhance our work framework by consistently applying propelled advance. BIM outsourcing services that help to communicate, collaborate and create design information related models to all involved in the process of design and execution. Silicon Valley helps greatly improve productivity by creating an avenue for the creation, storage, distribution and communication of design sensitive information through an intelligent 3D model. This model helps in streamlining and identifying information from all levels of inputs: architects, engineers, suppliers, contractors, distributors, owners and manufacturers. In short, BIM unifies all the processes of construction and facility operations in a single software environment. Our versatile services can be broadly detailed as following: BIM Drafting and Drawing services. BIM Drafting and Drawing services. BIM construction Documentation. BIM construction Documentation. Conflict Detection. Conflict Detection. Parametric Family Creation. Parametric Family Creation. 3D Visualization. 3D Visualization. Virtual Building Project. Virtual Building Project. BQQ, Costing and QS. BQQ, Costing and QS. BIM Conversions. Architectural BIM services in Toronto from Silicon Valley convey up and coming and exact data identified with the design scope, costs, amounts and all properties of the building parts. Our Architectural BIM modeling administrations reaches out to overseeing and keeping up all design changes and extend overhauls parallel to the configuration and improvement stages. Silicon Valley group guarantees exact Architectural BIM models which offer the undertaking planner some assistance with making better all around educated choices and minimize outline blunders. Our aptitude in making compositional BIM models has been prompting enhanced coordination of drawings and archives while serving as the base to give consistent reconciliation between engineering, designing, analysis, development, and operations for the whole lifecycle of facilities. Our Architectural BIM services Toronto includes : Schematic Design Exterior view of the building. Exterior view of the building. Interior view of the building. Interior view of the building. Intelligent libraries for various building components with different specifications. Intelligent libraries for various building components with different specifications. 3D Visualization. 3D Visualization. Design Development Floor Plans. Floor Plans. Elevations. Elevations. Building Schemes. Building Schemes. Information on quantities, material specifications, time schedules and costs. Information on quantities, material specifications, time schedules and costs. Construction Document Building Sections. Building Sections. Staircase/ Vertical Circulation details. Staircase/ Vertical Circulation details. Construction details. Silicon Valley involvement in Structural BIM modeling envelops an extensive variety of basic frameworks for structures and modern plants in steel and concrete. The Structural BIM models are made to the proper level of point of interest permitting consistent joining with cutting edge structural design and analysis applications and in addition extraction of development documentation. The Silicon Valley group has been dealing with auxiliary BIM models adding to expanded exactness, higher proficiency and more secure plans while diminishing time, plan, and costs over a wide range of designing activities. Our Structural BIM services Toronto includes: Creation of 3d Structural models. Creation of 3d Structural models. Quantities evaluation. Quantities evaluation. Structural / Load Analysis. Structural / Load Analysis. Extraction of project information. Extraction of project information. Collisions and clash detections. Collisions and clash detections. Creation of intelligent parametric libraries. Creation of intelligent parametric libraries. Construction documents. Silicon Valley MEP BIM modeling administration incorporates creation and utilization of composed, steady calculable data around a building's MEP outline. Our group gives devoted MEP support as far as BIM modeling and in addition approving the outline and guaranteeing a conflict free plan. Our MEP BIM models take after determined benchmarks to guarantee assurance of geometry, work processes and planning. Silicon Valley MEP BIM models are exact and sufficiently educational to be utilized for design choice making, creation of precise documentation, foreseeing execution, cost assessing, development arranging, and, in the end, for overseeing and operating the facility. Our Mechanical BIM Services Toronto includes: Energy Simulation. Energy Simulation. Construction Documents. Construction Documents. Mechanical Equipment Modeling. Mechanical Equipment Modeling. Diffusers and grills modeling. Diffusers and grills modeling. Ducts layout. Ducts layout. BOQ of Ducts, Duct Fittings, Mechanical Equipments, Diffusers etc. BOQ of Ducts, Duct Fittings, Mechanical Equipments, Diffusers etc. Detailed Mechanical layouts with dimensions and elevations. Detailed Mechanical layouts with dimensions and elevations. Mechanical equipment detailing (sections and isometric). Mechanical equipment detailing (sections and isometric). Mechanical components modeling with Connections. Mechanical components modeling with Connections. Walk-through of MEP / BIM Model. Walk-through of MEP / BIM Model. Rendered views of Mechanical BIM Model. We have qualified and experienced group of Electrical Engineers. We make the electrical model of the considerable number of channels, plate formats, lighting apparatuses and fire caution areas from the configuration reports and cut sheets. The final output from the model is the accurate quantity take off. We provide all the equipments, fixtures, conduits details in a tabulated form with the accurate quantity. It helps the contractors to estimate the project cost and plan the material procurement. Our Electrical BIM services Toronto includes : Electrical Lighting Fixtures Layout Modeling. Electrical Lighting Fixtures Layout Modeling. Detailed Light Fixtures mentioning volts, lux, fitting type. Detailed Light Fixtures mentioning volts, lux, fitting type. Wiring of fixtures with switches and panels as per drawings. Wiring of fixtures with switches and panels as per drawings. Cable trays in BIM Electrical Model as per given drawings. Cable trays in BIM Electrical Model as per given drawings. Rendering of BIM Model with Lights. Rendering of BIM Model with Lights. Walk through of Electrical BIM Model. Walk through of Electrical BIM Model. BOQ of Electrical elements. BOQ of Electrical elements. Schedules of circuits and panel boards. Schedules of circuits and panel boards. Electrical load analysis. Electrical load analysis. Construction documents. Our Plumbing BIM synchronizes apparatus plans. It empowers perception of apparatus design and piping in the 3D model. It additionally decides collisions and interferences. We are experts in providing Plumbing drafting service, Water Supply & Distribution Plans, Drainage Plans, HVAC duct & HVAC pipe modeling. Plumbing BIM designing solutions. In other words, the plumbing solution that is available for you is completely free from errors. We make an effort to deliver best solution and also technological expertise that enable them our long list of customers to develop faith on us in matters of quality and affordability. Our Plumbing BIM services Toronto includes : Plumbing and Drainage drafting services. Plumbing and Drainage drafting services. Compressed air gas system plan drawings. Compressed air gas system plan drawings. Equipment schedules. Equipment schedules. Sanitary fixtures Revit Model. Sanitary fixtures Revit Model. Water supply distribution plans. Water supply distribution plans. Storm water drain details. Storm water drain details. Domestic Hot / Cold Water diagram & model. Construction Operations Building Information Exchange or COBie is the newest and the next-gen service that has completely changed the way of thinking and constructing the building in a systematic and proper way. In COBie the data is received in a standard data format that is used in the gathering of the information during its level of design and construction phases. This is a digital storage of the information which is subsequently transferred to the operations and maintenance (O&M) team during facility management. COBie is the process that assists and helps in capturing and storing the important data of the project and that too includes the point of origin. For a successful implementation of COBie service, the requirement is to have proper product data sheets, a list of the types of equipment, a list of spare parts, details of warranties and guarantees, etc and many other data. This set of information plays a vital role as it supports the operational, managerial, and asset management once assets are derived in the service. Siliconinfo facilitates the delivery of the COBie services in Toronto with the help of COBie data drops. This is the details that are centered in accordance with the requirement of the clients and by providing one of the widest range of the services to manage, validate, and deliver the best COBie services for your project. BIM 360 Design is a service that is used for design management, design collaboration, and cloud services. It is the latest service that has completely changed the way of constructing the building and also is considered to be a booming service for major construction industries. This is the service that is completely developed in a new platform that is BIM 360 platform. Till now each one of us is well known with the term Building Information Modeling services along with its importance. Now with this here is some of the details to be known for the next service and that is BIM 360 Design. Here these are the designs specifically built for AEC industries to make their work easier and simpler. It is also the process that gives a real-time view of the project with the help of Autodesk Revit along with 2D and 3D. We at Silicon Info are at your service to serve you at the best and deliver BIM 360 Design Services in the Toronto. BIM 360 Design Platform or Stages. Below is the list of all the stages that make project of construction a success. BIM 360 Design BIM 360 Design BIM 360 Glue / Pre-construction BIM 360 Glue / Pre-construction BIM 360 Build / Field- Execution BIM 360 Build / Field- Execution BIM 360 OPS / Handover and Operations BIM 360 OPS / Handover and Operations BIM 360 Docs Also, to continue BIM 360 Design service it is necessary to follow the above stages so as to get the delivery of the project with 100% accuracy and with precision. Level of development (LOD) is the basic and core service in the field of Building Information Modeling (BIM). This is the process that gives proper and accurate specifications of the drawings and designs that is useful for professionals in all major AEC industry. Also, it is one of the most powerful and articulate contents of the BIM service that makes the work effective and clear. Well, to communicate in short LOD is defined as the development stage for different systems in BIM. By using the appropriate LOD specifications, the team of professionals, architects, and engineers get clear communication and with this, they have no confusion to make the work faster and get the result with quicker execution. We at Silicon Info follow every stage of LOD that makes the entire construction project a success and worth using the same in the BIM project. The level of detail is segregated in different stages and those are from LOD 100 to LOD 500. Below are the details for all these levels that are all important as well as on this information the entire lifecycle of the building is reliable. Thus, connect with us and outsource your BIM project as we deliver the best Level of Development (LOD). LOD 100 - Concept Design : This is the first stage of the model, where the elements are graphically represented in the model with the set of symbols and other generic and virtual representations of the design. This is the first stage of the model, where the elements are graphically represented in the model with the set of symbols and other generic and virtual representations of the design. LOD 200 - Schematic Design : The model element here is graphically represented in the model and that also in a generic system, along with the details of the objects, and the assembly that shares the information that has approximate details of quantities, size, shape, location, and orientation. The model element here is graphically represented in the model and that also in a generic system, along with the details of the objects, and the assembly that shares the information that has approximate details of quantities, size, shape, location, and orientation. LOD 300 - Detailed Design : The model and the elements are graphically represented within the set of the models that has specific data and system. Here this stage of LOD 300 is sharing the information that has defined elements that is located accurately in the project origin. The model and the elements are graphically represented within the set of the models that has specific data and system. Here this stage of LOD 300 is sharing the information that has defined elements that is located accurately in the project origin. LOD 350 - Construction Documentation : LOD 350 the element of the model that is represented graphically within the set of specific systems. These sets include orientation and interfaces with other building systems. Here non-graphic information can also be attached to the model elements. LOD 350 the element of the model that is represented graphically within the set of specific systems. These sets include orientation and interfaces with other building systems. Here non-graphic information can also be attached to the model elements. LOD 400 - Fabrication & Assembly : LOD 400 the model element is represented in a graphical form that has the details related to the construction building. It has the information in which how and where the products are going to be assembled and fabricated in the model elements. Here also non-graphic information can be attached for the model element. LOD 400 the model element is represented in a graphical form that has the details related to the construction building. It has the information in which how and where the products are going to be assembled and fabricated in the model elements. Here also non-graphic information can be attached for the model element. LOD 500 - As-Built : This is the stage where the complete handover of the project is delivered to the owner and this is the model element that is termed as field verified too. Building information modeling service is termed as one of the most prominent and result-oriented services in the field of construction. One thing that needs to be considered when undertaking BIM outsourcing services in its different levels of development along with its different stages. Post the completion of 3D BIM Services, the next stage that plays a vital role is 4D BIM Services. This stage of BIM 4D service is termed as ''Scheduling Services''. Building information modeling (BIM) is the digital representation of the physical characteristics of the project, which gives the information of forming a reliable solution for taking a decision for the project's life cycle. Since we understand the importance of BIM services, there is also a need to know the process of its different stages. 5D BIM Services is termed to be the stage where the costing and budgeting of the project are discussed. Therefore, to say BIM 5D service is a ''Cost Estimator'' stage. Silicon info is the one-stop service provider that delivers customer-centric 6D BIM Services in Toronto to its clients. BIM 6D service is the stage in the process of building information modeling where the stakeholders get a detailed understanding of sustainability on their BIM projects. This stage is also important to know because we can get information related to the occupant's comfort and the safety of the building. No matter whether you are redeveloping an old building or constructing a new building different levels of developments along with its stages need to be followed and undertaken. In every project, there are two strong pillars that play an important role in its success. These pillars are innovation and advanced technology. As we are in the era of the 21st century the latest and the newest demand in the construction industry is the building and houses made up of timber/wood. It is one of the most demanding services that is an innovative method of developing and constructing wood buildings across the globe. Nowadays as per the survey and the reports, the demand for constructing mass timber buildings has increased drastically in the last 10 years. These are the buildings that are being built taller and larger with wood. Also, this is not at all wrong in saying that it will be having a wide range that will be in a completed manner and in a contemporary form. Silicon info is one of the leading and most trusted organizations that assist its clients for successful completion and delivery of mass timber buildings in Toronto, USA. The use of mass timber construction is the process that uses a large number of prefabricated components of wooden members. These components are in terms of constructing walls, roofs, and floors. The entire process of Mass timber building is dedicated to different stages of the work and details. These are glue-laminated timber (Ghulam), cross-laminated timber (CLT), and nail laminated lumber (NLT). To sum up, the development of wooden products has indeed turned out to be a proven performance along with all the safety measures, that showcase a wide range of the service that has an opportunity associated with it. In short, Silicon Valley helps you design intelligently with our BIM outsourcing services in Toronto. Building Information Modeling (BIM) can create an information based model for your architectural design or interior design project based on drafts, drawings and sketches, in order to communicate the design intent and information to all involved in the design process. BIM is helpful tool for everyone involved like owners, developers, investors, architects, engineers, project managers, contractors, sub contractors and facilities managers etc. in construction industry. BIM can help designers evolve a better design and convey their concepts to the owner to ensure his team that their business goals are being achieved through the design intent. It provides transparent understanding of information and provides assurance that it can be constructed without any major hurdles.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The Macintosh 128K, originally released as the Apple Macintosh, is the original Apple Macintosh personal computer. Its beige case consisted of a 9 in (23 cm) CRT monitor and came with a keyboard and mouse. A handle built into the top of the case made it easier for the computer to be lifted and carried. It had an initial selling price of $2,495 (equivalent to $5,752 in 2016). The Macintosh was introduced by the now-famous $370,000 (equivalent to $852,944 in 2016) television commercial by Ridley Scott, "1984," that most notably aired on CBS during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. Sales of the Macintosh were strong from its initial release on January 24, 1984, and reached 70,000 units on May 3, 1984. Upon the release of its successor, the Macintosh 512K, it was rebranded as the Macintosh 128K. Want to know more about the Mac computer patent print? We have created a description page here. Printer: Using Epson UltraChrome water based HDR ink-jet technology Basis Weight: 192 gsm Media Thickness: 10.3 mil (0.26 mm) ISO Brightness: 104% Opacity: 94% Luster Paper: Epson Ultra Premium Luster Photo Paper Between a gloss and matte finish Highly saturated, maximum ink coverage Fingerprint resistant Hardwood Deluxe Edition: Premium plaque High Definition hardwood print on hardwood Glass like finish No need for frame Lifetime protective seal Currently shipping in the U.S. only Fast shipping: 3-10 business days. Designed with ❤️	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi attends a meeting with officials in Baghdad, Iraq August 28, 2018. Iraqi Prime Minister Office/Handout via REUTERS BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq will send a delegation to the United States seeking an agreement on financial transactions with Iran following Washington’s reimposition of sanctions on Tehran, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday. His statement was the first by an Iraqi official since Reuters reported last week Baghdad was going to ask Washington for exemptions from some of the sanctions because Iraq’s economy is closely linked with neighboring Iran. “We have requests for the American side, we have presented them and a delegation will go to negotiate within that framework,” Abadi told a weekly news conference. “We have presented a clear vision of what Iraq really needs. This includes Iranian (natural) gas, which is very important, as well as other trade and the electricity sector.” U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in May from world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, calling it flawed, and reimposed trade sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The Trump administration has warned of consequences for countries including European allies that co-signed the nuclear accord, that do not respect the new sanctions. Baghdad is in a difficult position - its two biggest allies are the United States and Iran, themselves arch-adversaries. “We have had good promises initially but as you know the American situation is complicated; you do not deal with one person, there are several institutions,” Abadi said. He called the sanctions “unilateral” and “oppressive”, adding that Iraq would not be “part of a blockade” due to its own painful experience with international sanctions during the era of Saddam Hussein. Iraqi government and central bank officials said the delegation would travel to Washington to ask for exemptions in applying the sanctions. They did not say when that trip would take place.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The task of improving financial management across Whitehall is to be taken out of the hands of the Treasury, Philip Hammond has decided, in a move criticised as potentially likely to undermine efficiency for taxpayers. In 2014, ministers implemented reforms to inject more business discipline into the civil service after a series of costly public spending errors. These included a significant procurement overspend at the Ministry of Defence, revealed by the National Audit Office in 2010, which put the MoD billions of pounds into debt; and the 2004 contract that allowed GPs to opt out of providing out-of-hours care but still gain large bonuses for hitting other targets. One of the main planks of the reforms was to shift responsibility for financial management from the Department of Health, where the issue had appeared sidelined, to the heart of government in the Treasury. The chancellor has now reversed that change so that the Treasury can concentrate on cutting spending and reducing the deficit. The leadership role for financial management — ensuring that taxpayers get value for money — will move to another, as yet unspecified, department. Rob Whiteman, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, called Mr Hammond’s decision a “backwards step”. He said: “Good progress has been made to improve the timeliness of year-end accounts, but in the opinion of most independent experts there are still further improvements to be made that will now be harder to achieve.” He cited the planning of efficiency measures and investment projects, to ensure they had been fully costed and more effectively implemented. “We have seen, for example, that in areas like prisons and social services, money is taken out only then to be reversed by the chancellor because the savings agreed were found to not be achievable.” Julian McCrae, deputy director of the Institute for Government think-tank, said: “The evidence clearly shows that the post-2013 leadership structure was working. It is also clear that this was not a case of ‘job done’. While there have been some tangible improvements, core ambitions such as ensuring that financial insights flow into all Whitehall’s decisions are still a long way off.” In 2013, a financial management review commissioned by George Osborne, the chancellor at the time, concluded that the Whitehall model was out of line with the private sector, where the chief financial officer sits at the heart of the organisation and its decision-making. The following year Julian Kelly, a qualified accountant, was promoted from his position as director of public spending to also take on the role of controlling financial management. Mr Hammond is splitting Mr Kelly’s role in two. The head of public spending will remain in the Treasury while the leading official on financial management will combine this with a similar role at another department. James Bowler, the current Treasury director-general for tax, will take up the former position. Although Mr Bowler is a highly regarded Treasury generalist, his appointment reverses the commitment in the review to have a financially qualified civil servant doing the public spending job. Mr Whiteman said: “Before 2013 one of the departmental CFOs took the leadership role across the civil service on top of their day job, and this is now about to happen again.” Treasury officials said the personnel changes did not mean the government was failing to take financial management seriously. “There will continue to be dedicated staff and resources in place to deliver what the government needs in terms of financial management across Whitehall and there is no let up in our commitment in this area,” said an official. Whitehall needs resources for Brexit, say MPs The government should ensure the civil service is sufficiently skilled and resourced to meet the significant challenges it faces over Brexit, a Commons committee has urged. The 26 per cent reduction in the number of civil servants since 2006 would put a strain on Whitehall as it gears up for negotiations with Brussels and prepares to take back responsibility for policy and regulation in several areas such as agriculture, said MPs on the public administration and constitutional affairs committee. MPs highlighted concerns raised last year by the Institute for Government think-tank, which said: “The challenge for the civil service is not skills but capacity.” The MPs also noted that the Brexit-related strain on Whitehall could arguably be seen in other areas of government business, including hundreds of outsourcing contracts that were due to expire but were renewed or extended because civil servants are too preoccupied with Brexit to focus on them. The committee also called for an in-depth consideration of the relationship between ministers and civil servants, with a clarification of rules setting out boundaries between them. Brexit made it all the more important the civil service was clear about its mission and role, MPs added. Bernard Jenkin MP, chair of the committee, said: “We believe that this is the first time that there has been select committee consideration of the relationship between ministers and officials with the active support of government and the civil service. The findings were welcomed by the FDA union, which represents the UK senior civil servants. Dave Penman, FDA general secretary, said: “The report is a welcome addition to mounting evidence that the government is failing to match commitments with the resources it provides to the civil service — and is compounding this error by insisting on Brexit on the cheap.” Jane Croft Copyright The Financial Times Limited . All rights reserved. Please don't copy articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
After eight years away, Robyn is returning as one of pop’s modern icons with new album ‘Honey’, no longer content with running head first through heartbreak but searching for a deeper connection. There’s a specific moment a few minutes into Robyn’s new album ‘Honey’ that perfectly encapsulates her new world. “I’m a human being,” she states, introducing its second track, also titled ‘Human Being’, with desperation seeping into her voice slowly but surely. It’s sung as a projection of self-realisation, just one that also happens to make her utterly terrified. “My heart can’t stop beating / Don’t know what to do,” she continues, before a warm, soft wave of synths rush in to back her up like a sonic hug. She repeats the track’s title again, but this time more softly, and with confidence: “I’m a human being.” Her last album - 2010’s ‘Body Talk’ - was a thudding rush of robotic lust, taking inspiration from all things digital to crush heartbreak and despair with pummelling synths and choruses to bellow ‘til the air runs out, fists clenched. It’s the feeling most closely associated with Robyn as an artist and as a person, someone whose music you put on in the throes of gutting heartache, to help you power through it at full pelt. When the tour for that album came to an end at the beginning of 2014, however, she found herself physically and emotionally drained, disconnected with the idea of what she had left to say as an artist, and finding the well of her previous methods of communication and connection to be running dry. “I think in the past I’ve been more…” she begins today, before pausing. “My instinct has been to push through [feelings] and face things head on, but this time it wasn’t an option for me. It felt like a dead end. I just couldn’t push this any further. It’s not gonna go anywhere. I can’t be writing sad love songs for the rest of my life - that’s just gonna be pathetic!” she chuckles. It’s an idea that she also lays out plainly on ‘Human Being’, too: “All these emotions are out of date.” She returned home from the road to a turbulent period in her life. She was in the process of exiting a long-term relationship, and attending therapy. Then her friend and long-term collaborator Christian Falk died after a short illness. If the sense of needing a re-evaluation of her life and career wasn’t already prominent enough in her mind, it soon became unavoidable. It all spills out on comeback single, ‘Missing U’. “I was very sad and upset when I wrote it,” she says of the song now. “It was the beginning of a really tough period for me. Then as I kept writing, my songwriting and what I was actually doing myself was trying to find a soft space of self-care and enjoying my life again, so I think that that’s how the arc of the album is, but it’s also exactly what my life was like.” Using ‘Missing U’ to relaunch herself was a no-brainer, then. “It was the first song I wrote for the album, it’s the first song on the album, it’s the first part of what the story of the album is,” she explains. “It’s also a little bit of a moment that explains the space that I was in while I was away. Also just the beginning of the song,” she continues, before raising her arms like a rainbow and humming the shimmering first notes to the album: “that sound, the arpeggio - it feels like a sunrise to me.” It was a familiar enough reintroduction, those synths pummelling away with the power they’ve always harnessed, but it also served as an initial kick open of the door into a whole new world that ‘Honey’ goes on to explore. Writing it enabled the singer to dive deeper into herself, and begin carving out an entirely new form of connection. To do so, she headed home. “I can’t be writing sad love songs for the rest of my life.” After the 'Body Talk' tour finished, and following a few preliminary sessions with Metronomy’s Joe Mount for what would eventually become 'Honey', Robyn realised that she needed to isolate herself in order to rediscover the core of her purpose as an artist, and how she was to move forward. Setting up shop in a new studio in her hometown of Stockholm for the vast majority of 2015, the singer set about working on an album alone for the first time. "I felt a bit lost," she lays out simply, speaking of her mindset when faced with a blank slate. "When I did the 'Body Talk' album I’d just finished the other album before it [2005’s self-titled effort], so I was up to speed and just continuing. With ['Honey'], it really felt like a new start, and that was a little nervewracking. I knew that I had to take my time, and I wasn’t in a space where I could force it. I really didn’t have a choice, it was just the way it was." It’s an approach that, again, manifests itself audibly in 'Human Being', which serves - in its finished form at least - as an anthem for self-acceptance, even if it was initially borne out of completely opposing feelings. "I was really sad, and I was trying to come to terms with things," she states, the isolation of the studio allowing her to dig into emotions that had been buried under touring schedules, non-stop travelling and - to a certain extent - the unwavering defiance of her own older songs. "Being a human being is automatically being flawed and limited, both physically - because you have a body that you have to take care of and exist in - but also [because] you’re gonna die! It’s all just going to hell, basically, and yeah…" she says before pausing and looking slowly towards the floor. "Maybe it was some kind of mid-life crisis…" she near-whispers, before raising her head and chuckling. It was only when the singer afforded herself the space and time to confront these niggling feelings, though, that themes of self-acceptance and self-care placed themselves at the heart of 'Honey'. "I think I know myself a lot better [now]," she reflects. "It wasn’t about even coming back to what I was before - for me, I feel like I really changed. It was a restart, but not a restart to get back to what things were like before. It was a total re-evaluation of life - a new outlook that’s a bit more complicated, but also calmer." “It was a total re-evaluation of life.” While these ideas of personal growth were beginning to present themselves to Robyn inside her Stockholm studio, things were also massively changing for her outside its walls. "I could definitely feel how the music industry was changing while I was making it," she nods, with the acknowledgement that whatever album she wrote would be released into an extremely different world, one she was currently hiding herself away from. "I had an urge to make a proper album," she continues, reflecting on the fragmented recording and release process for 'Body Talk', shared slowly in three parts which now exists as a 15-track compilation-of-sorts. The idea for 'Honey', instead, was an album that was "not too long and not too short" - it clocks in at the 40-minute mark - "and something that felt solid and quite soft. Maybe because things are consumed way faster," she reflects. "[The album was] a way of resisting that a little bit." As well as keeping tabs on an ever-changing industry, Robyn’s place in it was also beginning to shift. In the past half-decade, without any real input of her own, the singer’s music had started to quickly gain a significantly larger cultural importance. Communities began to be forged around her message and musical output - not least the Brooklyn-based, Robyn-themed club night that features heavily in 'Missing U - A Message To My Fans': a short documentary where fans detail the singer’s importance in helping them form like-minded groups, and, in one fan’s case, serving as the soundtrack to their coming out. "It was really amazing," she reflects simply on the increasing presence of her music in both mainstream and underground culture, as well as being held up as a prominent figure of adoration in the LGBT+ community. "I was so under the weather and not at all feeling like I could shoulder an official role of being an artist, and I really questioned how I could justify me demanding people’s attention in this way, while working out what I really wanted to say. Throughout that period, though, there were these things that kept popping up. People writing articles about my music or my fans telling me how they felt, and I didn’t expect that. It was very encouraging, and I wish everyone had that, and had people that cared about what they did in that way. It’s really amazing, and something that definitely got me excited about making music again, knowing that people were wanting more of it.” While 'Missing U' can be read as a message to her fans, and an admission of her absence, as well as a post-mortem on a relationship, or a reflection on the death of a friend, it came purely from the inside, and was part of a writing process that Robyn describes as "very introverted and kind of selfish". "I was thinking about myself and trying to understand myself. It was very secluded, and I wasn’t engaging in anything to do with my professional life. I wanted to make an album that felt sincere, and I knew that if I’m going to take up space again, and demand people’s attention, I better have something to say." “I see it as an adventure, like going into space.” The predictable next question then began to pose itself to Robyn: what exactly do I have to say? So, as well as spending a year tucked away in her hometown studio, the singer also threw herself back into the scene as a wide-eyed music lover once again. Poring over old Michael Jackson and Prince demos, going out dancing on weekends, DJing across the planet and digging through old disco and house records, a love for looser, less traditional song structures asserted itself as a major influence on 'Honey', and it’s felt in every sinew of the album. While 'Missing U' starts the record as a thundering pop song with a chorus that bursts through with dancefloor-ready intensity, the rest of the album feels more at home on the fringes of the party, or back home in the early hours. 'Because It’s In The Music' is a low-key sway, while highlight 'Beach 2k20' is a slow-burning house number punctuated with chopped-up spoken word vocals that feels perfect for lazy afternoons by a sun-soaked swimming pool. It’s a striking change for Robyn, but one that perfectly reflects her sense of calm, as well as the extensive time taken for it to come together: 'Honey' feels lived in, fuelled by an eclectic, crate-digging mentality that priorities structural freedom. As such, it’s an album so full of ideas and avenues that it could only have been created a) over such an extensive period and b) with such an open, unlimited state of mind. "What I usually do when I write a pop song is so focused on verse-chorus, and I wanted to break that up totally, and leave that way of thinking about songs," she affirms. Getting back in touch with the music she loved while starting out, as well as finding a new form of self-acceptance, 'Honey' sounds like a revelation, though perhaps not in the way many would have expected. "I think I really changed over the last few years," she reflects. "I don’t think I can go back to being [my old self]. I see it as an adventure, like going into space," she then quips with a smile, reaching outwards and inwards at once on an album that resets the parameters of who she is as an artist. "You figure things out, or you see things along the way, and you bring them back to earth and you show people what you’ve found. All the songs I’ve written are part of that story - they’re discoveries about what I’ve felt, and this album is as well." "There’s so much emotional intelligence in us," she continues, proudly. "Whatever is inside of you, it will come out in some way or other. You can make the time to listen before, or you have to listen afterwards, when you don’t have a choice!" “Whatever is inside of you, it will come out in some way or other.” "I think that was why I decided to isolate myself," she expands. "I needed to block things out, and to have space. It’s a very delicate process, when you have feelings. There are so many distractions, and noise, and people, and expectations, and I felt a responsibility towards myself. Sometimes, when you’re bored or whatever, and you don’t feel like there’s something there to stimulate you, or you don’t feel like you’re doing enough, it’s really an illusion. If you just calm down, you’ll realise how much there is out there. The less noise you have around you, the more you’re able to hear. It’s about choosing where you want to be on the spectrum." She has a new theory, too. "Boredom is such a great thing," she enthuses, clearly stimulated from her isolated time in the studio. "It’s what actually makes you realise what it is you want. If you’re totally stimulated all the time, there’s no way of knowing, but when you’re bored, that’s a moment to actually listen to something else." It’s in taking this time to listen that Robyn has emerged from her eight-year absence with a new-found assurance, no longer needing to barge down the door to get her feelings across, and drawing from all corners of the musical canon on an album that champions patience, community and self-care. In an increasingly instant, non-stop world, it’s a much-needed tonic; a deep breath and a re-evaluation. "I don’t know if music can change the world," she poses. "I don’t know if that’s what music’s supposed to do. I think what’s cool about it, for me, is if my music helps people to re-charge, or find some space where they can reflect, and then use that to do other things that are more important. Especially now when the world is so destructive, we need to look at stuff in a different way. It really requires a lot of us, and a real strength to deal with it." 'Honey' is out 26th October via Konichiwa / Island.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
GOP p.r. guy/proud Villanova grad Jonathan Grella has a great catch from Hardball at his alma mater: the kid who asked the smart aleck question I referenced below about Hillary "hitting the sauce" is the son of Fox anchor Steve Doocy. Peter Doocy, who asks the question at about the 3:00 mark above, is a junior here and a spitting image of his father. I can confirm that McCain did not, though, join the younger Doocy for a post-game shot. comments closed permalink	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
PUTRAJAYA: The anti-graft body is not going to withdraw corruption charges against Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng. Denying such a move, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) says it has no power to withdraw cases that have been taken to court. “The authority to do so rests with the Attorney General’s Chambers,” said the MACC in a statement. The agency was responding to a report by China Press which quoted sources saying that MACC is likely to withdraw charges against Lim when his corruption trial resumes next week. Lim, then Chief Minister of Penang, had pleaded not guilty on June 30, 2016 to two counts of corruption involving the conversion of agricultural land to residential status and the purchase of a bungalow at below market value. He was charged with using his position as chief minister to gain gratification for himself and wife Betty Chew Gek Cheng by approving the application for conversion of agricultural land to a public housing zone in Balik Pulau to Magnificent Emblem Sdn Bhd. He faces a second charge of using his position to obtain a plot of land and bungalow at No. 25, Jalan Pinhorn, on July 28, 2015, from businesswoman Phang Li Koon for RM2.8mil, at below market value. Lim was sworn in as Finance Minister on May 21, following Pakatan Harapan’s victory in the May 9 polls. His trial resumes on Monday.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
In the last year, five franchise contract records were toppled. How many will fall this offseason, with nine potential $100MM free agents? Here’s our list of the largest contracts for each of the 30 teams. If you’d like a trip down memory lane, each contract is linked to its MLBTR post, with the exception of those that predate the site’s existence.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Favorite Figures The crew of the Nostromomo sits around a table laughing, happy that their friend Kane is back, and thankfully alive. Even Ripley seems uncharacteristically pleasant. And then Kane falls, back on their food, and gags. Something bulges underneath his shirt. They grab his arms and try to restrain him. Once he’s still, a jet of blood shoots out of his chest. He screams, louder. Something is eating its way out of him. The rest of the crew is panicking, letting out screams of their own. In the cacophony, a Xenemorph, the inspiration for my favorite action figure the NECA seven inch Alien, is born. In my estimation, there are three factors that play into what makes favorite figures: functionality, appearance, and emotional connection. Functionality of an action figure can be a little tricky to define, because it really depends on what you want it to do. Some people use them for decoration (you can get a look at how I use mine to make my bookshelf look cool in last week’s column, “Why We Collect”). I also photograph and play with mine, so for me the most functional action figures are posable and durable, but depending on what you do with yours, that definition will vary. The alien can do just about anything I want. It’s got more than twenty points of articulation so you can get it into nearly any pose, and one of those points of articulation is the jaw so you can bring out the inner mouth. The elbows on my figure have broken off, but it’s hardly the fault of the figure, considering how much I play with it. In terms of functionality though, the figure is amazing because of how well it plays against my mostly 3 and ¾ inch collection. It overpowers them, making an already terrifying figure seem that much scarier. Figures need to look like the character. We’ve all seen the figures without a passing resemblance to their inspiration (looking at you wrestling action figures). I would add that they also need to look cool on their own. For a favorite figure, someone with no familiarity with the character needs to still be impressed with the figure. The sculpt of my alien is incredible, perfect to the H.R. Geiger character design. (If you’re as into the character as I am, there’s a soon to be published book of his concept art here). And better yet, the paint is pure black so it accentuates rather than overpowers the sculpt. In Laymen’s term, the figure looks horrifying. Functionality and appearance only set the table for the emotional connection with the figure. There’s got be some affection for either the character or the experience of buying the figure for it to be a favorite. I can remember the first time I saw the scene I described in the first paragraph. (If you haven’t seen it, you can watch it here). One night my father drove me to Blockbuster and rented the DVD for me because he said I had to see the chestburster scene. He was so right. Alien is still one of my favorite movies, and the six-inch Alien action figure is by far my favorite figure. Without a doubt, my father and my love of Alien and Aliens play a huge role in how much I love this figure. A Call to Action (Figures) is a weekly column published every Wednesday, chronicling my rants and raves about all things action figure. Come back next week and find out why I collect 3 and ¾ inch action figures instead of 6 inch ones. What’s your favorite figure? Let me know in the comments!	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Russell Crowe's 'Water Diviner' Is Top Homegrown Film of 2014 in Australia The star's directorial debut brought in $5.65 million within the six days to the end of the year Russell Crowe's directorial debut The Water Diviner is the top-grossing homegrown film of 2014 in Australia. Released on Boxing Day, the film, set after the WWI battle of Gallipoli, brought in $5.65 million at the Australian box office within the six days to the end of 2014, distributor Entertainment One said on Monday. As of Sunday night, it had grossed $8.4 million. Read more 'Predestination,' 'Water Diviner' Lead Australian Film Awards Nominations The performance beat the box-office take of Greg McLean's Wolf Creek 2, which brought in $4.7 million in 2014, to make the movie the top homegrown release of the year in Australia. "We are delighted that Australian audiences have responded with such enthusiasm to the film," said Mike Baard, managing director for Universal Pictures Australia and Sandie Don, head of distribution for Entertainment One. "It's that time of year when people are thinking about the future, and The Water Diviner reminds us of the possibility of hope. It is so fitting that in the year that we remember the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli, all Australians have a film [that] transports audiences to that time and place but does so with a fresh perspective and such a positive and uplifting message, which is relevant today." Only four Australian movies crossed the million-dollar mark at the country's box office in 2014. Detailed, full-year figures are expected to be released in the coming weeks. Read more Warner Bros. Picks Up Russell Crowe's Historical Drama 'Water Diviner' The Water Diviner actress Olga Kurylenko recently told THR: "What I like about the film is that it doesn't take sides, and that is why I think people have loved it. Both the Turks and the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers are presented with such understanding and equally with such respect. It's really well done. And it's so hard to do so." Email: Georg.Szalai@THR.com Twitter: @georgszalai	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Electric Lit relies on contributions from our readers to help make literature more exciting, relevant, and inclusive. Please support our work by becoming a member today, or making a one-time donation here . Certain writers — or artists, or film-makers, etc.— are so embedded into their particular cultures that one doesn’t need to have consumed their work in order to understand its impact. In particular, there are a bunch of white male authors it is possible to just about forget you haven’t read if you’ve dated the type of dudes you meet at an n+1 party. Certain books are so central to this type of dude that getting through a relationship — or even a few dates—constitutes the same level of knowledge of these authors that one might get from actually reading them, and gives you just as much right to hard-earned lifelong knowledge about their books, knowledge that need not ever be fact-checked by actually reading the books themselves (unless, for some reason, you really want to). Presented below, 20 authors on whose work I have involuntarily ended up with a strong opinion due to my unfortunate heterosexuality. 1. Philip Roth: I’ve never read any of Philip Roth’s books, but I have dated enough men who have that I can carry on a decent small-talk conversation about why I don’t like them. (If you would like to achieve this without dating men, you could just read a description of one of Roth’s books, in particular the one in which a man is transformed into a boob). Roth and I live in the same neighborhood, and a friend of mine once ran into him in the local pharmacy, where he was buying hemorrhoid cream or Cialis or something equally embarrassing, and glared at my friend for noticing him. Telling this story, I always imagine Roth holding a box that just says BAD DICK CREAM. I’m sure the thing I say where I call him ‘the manic pixie dream girl of American literature’ is probably wrong, but I’m not gonna stop saying it. 2. Kurt Vonnegut: Honestly, I feel pretty guilty that I’ve never finished a Kurt Vonnegut novel, and I’m sure the thing I say where I call him “the manic pixie dream girl of American literature” is probably wrong, but I’m not gonna stop saying it. Even if it isn’t an accurate description of Vonnegut himself, I stand by it absolutely, and in perpetuity, as a description of every single dude with a tattered copy of Breakfast of Champions on his nightstand. 3. Tom Robbins: On the other hand, I feel pretty guilty that I have ever read any Tom Robbins books. 4. Arthur Miller: I’m sorry about your dad. 5. Jonathan Franzen: Anyone who really, sincerely loves Franzen’s writing has also probably really, sincerely told someone that “learn to code” was the solution to all their problems. The Corrections also contributed to the obsession with the literal and figurative “big book,” in which the size and weight of a novel directly equals its importance, a concept applied almost exclusively to novels by men. 6. Jonathan Safran Foer: I think the general opinion is that the most Jonathan Jonathan, the Ur-Jonathan, is Franzen, but bear with me here, because it’s actually Foer. Foer is the most successful of the Jonathans, in financial terms, and his personal life is a like a movie about the Brooklyn book world created by the Sex and the City writers’ room. The only thing I know about his recent prose is that scene about the doorknob, which made me unable to have sex for a week after I read a review that excerpted it, which I guess is technically an example of “impactful” writing. 7. J.D. Salinger: I’ve never read Salinger because I suspect that his books are at least 30% descriptions of ways in which women can be small, but I have read the best thing he ever (inadvertently) produced, which is this tweet. A lot of wonderful people love Salinger, but so do a lot of people whose job seems to be staging their meals on Instagram. 8. Chuck Palahniuk: Fight clubs aren’t real, you aren’t in one. (The less flippant thing I have to say is that the horror of the human body is a deeply important and nearly inexhaustible topic for literature, but it is close to impossible to find a white, male, famous writer whose writing on this subject is anything but a thinly disguised demonstration of violent misogyny, and maybe you should read Angela Carter or Carmen Maria Machado instead.) 9. Charles Bukowski: Alcoholism is a disease, not a personality. 10. John Updike: I’m sure that short story was very sad but also you have never had to have a job. 11. Bret Easton Ellis: I don’t like cocaine which is great because it means I have mostly avoided the people who want to sincerely talk about Bret Easton Ellis. A favorite of dudes hoping their sociopathy will be mistaken for genius; a more obvious favorite of dudes who quit their MFA a year in to go to a second-tier business school. A super-favorite of a guy who doesn’t mention his real estate license is how he actually makes money until you’ve known him for a couple months. 12. Ayn Rand: I’m sorry about your start-up. One of the greatest things about getting older is that nobody has tried to talk to me about Jack Kerouac in at least five years. 13. Jack Kerouac: One of the greatest things about getting older is that nobody has tried to talk to me about Jack Kerouac in at least five years. 14. Thomas Pynchon: I’m sorry about your unfinished novel. (I actually love Pynchon and this burn is very self-directed). 15. Norman Mailer: The favorite author of every guy who loves to talk about bar fights but has never been in one. 16. Tom Wolfe: The favorite author of every man with an unfinished novel and a “writing outfit.” 17. Martin Amis: The favorite author of every dude who hates women but loves telling people about the year* he lived* in London. (three months) (studied abroad) 18. Donald Barthelme: Barthelme is a beautiful, strange, important writer beloved by dudes who will interrupt two out of every three sentences you say to them. 19. David Foster Wallace: A list like this wouldn’t be complete without DFW, but at the same time his inclusion feels disingenuous, because when it comes to Wallace, I am the literary bro cornering you at a party to ask if you’ve read him and why not. I love DFW’s work in the same over-personal obsessive way this list is meant to mock. Wallace is also an author whose body of work defies the kind of easy summary that can be gleaned from listening to a dude talk at a party about his favorite writer, or applied independent of actual engagement with the writing. I came to his work on my own without the suggestion of any dude, and I’ve probably rhapsodised obnoxiously about his work to most everyone I’ve dated since then. Furthermore, the circumstances of his death render pretty much all of jokes I could make here distasteful. In a better world, DFW would still be alive and we’d all gleefully roast dudes who suddenly start wearing a sweaty bandana to their undergraduate creative writing classes for no reason. The problem with dudes who love DFW, though — not all of them, certainly, but too many of them — is that they miss the lesson in his work that’s most useful to the type of person — like these dudes, and like myself — who tends toward hero-worship of authors they admire. The things that dudes who aggressively love DFW tend to imitate in DFW’s life and work are the very things that are meant to be openly foolish, interrogative rather than proud, at once offering levity and intense self-skewering criticism. That this enormous vulnerability has been either utterly elided or turned toxic by any of his most fervent fans doesn’t come close to being the greatest tragedy regarding the author, but it’s still immensely regrettable. In unpopular opinions, however, I still think “Big Red Son” is the best essay he ever wrote about America, and I wish he had lived long enough to revise a Large Adult Son joke into it. 20. Ernest Hemingway: The only truly feminist thing I have ever done is never finishing a Hemingway novel.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
ERC Director Francisco "Jun" Villa Jr. Three handwritten letters labelled as "suicide notes" were drafted by Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Director Francisco "Jun" Villa Jr. as early as August --- almost three months before he took his own life in their home in Parañaque City. Villa killed himself on November 9 after allegedly being pressured to approve procurement contracts and hiring consultants without proper bidding and procedure, his younger sister Charie Villa said. The letters that were dated August 23, 24, and 25 were shown by Villa's family during the late official's "pasiyam" on Thursday. All suicide notes seemed like prayers as all letters were addressed to the "Lord Jesus Christ." FIRST NOTE In his first note, Villa sought for the Lord's help as he "cannot physically bring himself to work" at the ERC due to "fears" about his work as chief of the agency's Bids and Awards Committee (BAC). He said his biggest fear was being called out by the Commission on Audit (COA) on the contents of an audio-visual presentation "by Luis Morelos which the chairman and CEO Jose Vicente B. Salazar chose through a rigged selection process." ERC chairman and CEO Jose Vicente B. Salazar. Photo courtesy of Energy Regulatory Commission Despite being uncomfortable with his tasks as BAC chief, Villa said he could not afford to be unemployed because he still had bills to settle. In the same letter, he said he "might even commit suicide" due to his stressful situation at work. SECOND NOTE Villa wrote another "suicide note" the following day. He said he felt bad filing a sick leave as his "psychological frame of fear, aversion to pressure, and worrying makes him unfit for work." He said he planned to continue to skip work to avoid attending the "August 26 planning session" with Salazar. THIRD NOTE In Villa's third and last letter, he said he felt that he was "being set up for failure," but was relieved that a certain "E.D." signed "the Iloilo contracts." Villa said he still could bring himself to return to work as his "ailment is more psychological and moral rather than physical." "I want to shoot myself in the temple by using Dad's .38 caliber Smith and Wesson gun," the late ERC official wrote. EARLY RETIREMENT Almost three months after he wrote the letters, Villa filed an "application for early retirement" on November 4 at the ERC, citing insomnia and health concerns as reason. "With great apologies, I must inform you that my health situation does not permit me to perform effectively my functions. I suffer insomnia nightly due to stress factors experienced at work and such disables me from being mentally and physically capable to hurdle work challenges," Villa's retirement letter addressed to Salazar read. Five days after he submitted his early retirement letter, Villa took his life the exact way he said in his third suicide note. Meantime, Salazar said he is "baffled by the insinuations," but will "refrain from ascribing any motive to the allegations" while Villa's siblings are still mourning the death of their kin. "I believe it would be fair to Director Villa’s memory and to our Office for an impartial inquiry into the allegations to be done by an objective body," Salazar said in a statement. "We owe it to Director Villa that we go through this process. This would help bring the matter to a closure, as all those who are bereaved by his death hope for," he said. Villa's family is seeking help to establish a foundation "where employees like Jun who felt pressured because he wanted to stand up for what is right, can go to to seek redress from harassment and legal help." Editor's note: A group in the Philippines is dedicated to addressing those who have suicidal tendencies. The crisis hotlines of the Natasha Goulbourn Foundation aim to make these individuals feel that someone is ready to listen to them. These are their hotline numbers: Information and Crisis Intervention Center (02) 804-HOPE (4673) 0917-558-HOPE (4673) or (632) 211-4550 0917-852-HOPE (4673) or (632) 964-6876 0917-842-HOPE (4673) or (632) 964-4084 In Touch Crisis Lines: 0917-572-HOPE or (632) 211-1305 (02) 893-7606 (24/7) (02) 893-7603 (Mon-Fri, 9 am-5 pm) Globe (63917) 800.1123 or (632) 506.7314 Sun (63922) 893.8944 or (632) 346.8776	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Getty Images Washington will have Case Keenum, who practiced fully the past two days despite a foot injury. The team also expects to have receiver Terry McLaurin despite his questionable status, JP Finlay of NBCSportsWashington.com reports. McLaurin has a hamstring injury that kept him out of practice Friday after going onto the report Thursday as a limited participant. Finlay calls the hamstring injury a “minor pull.” Coach Jay Gruden said earlier in the day that McLaurin and offensive guard Brandon Scherff (ankle) were likely game-day decisions. “I think Terry and Brandon will both probably come down to an hour before the game, see how they’re doing,” Gruden said. “We’ll get a good workout in before the game and see where they’re at. If Terry can’t go, obviously we have Robert Davis here. He can play some spilt end. We can move Trey Quinn out there a little bit and move [Steven] Sims inside. We can do a lot of different things. Those guys are pretty versatile. [Kelvin] Harmon’s got some outside receiver work as well on both sides. They’ll be called to duty and expected to perform.” Tight end Jordan Reed (concussion) and center Chase Roullier (knee) are out.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Packaging \| A Plastic Flower posted on August 27th, 2012 written by Kristina category Crafts, Packaging Hello friends, here is another packaging idea. It’s my favorite reuse of a plastic bag. You can actually use a wax paper, but I prefer to make it with a already used plastic bag. All you’ll need for this project is: 1. A used plastic bag (if possible find a bag that is in one color), 2. A soft wire, 3. A pair of Scissors. The flower is easy to make, but before you start you’ll need to decide the size of your flower. This is very important because as the size of the flower increases so does the number of the square plastic bag pieces. The flower I made is small (5x5cm) and the number of square plastic bag pieces is 8. Photos by Istok Photography	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
People should get the full story of r/bitcoin because it is probably one of the strangest of all reddit subs. r/bitcoin, the main sub for the bitcoin community is held and run by a person who goes by the pseudonym u/theymos. Theymos not only controls r/bitcoin, but also bitcoin.org and bitcointalk.com. These are top three communication channels for the bitcoin community, all controlled by just one person. For most of bitcoin's history this did not create a problem (at least not an obvious one anyway) until around mid 2015. This happened to be around the time a new player appeared on the scene, a for-profit company called Blockstream. Blockstream was made up of/hired many (but not all) of the main bitcoin developers. (To be clear, Blockstream was founded before mid 2015 but did not become publicly active until then). A lot of people, including myself, tried to point out there we're some very serious potential conflicts of interest that could arise when one single company controls most of the main developers for the biggest decentralised and distributed cryptocurrency. There were a lot of unknowns but people seemed to give them the benefit of the doubt because they were apparently about to release some new software called "sidechains" that could offer some benefits to the network. Not long after Blockstream came on the scene the issue of bitcoin's scalability once again came to forefront of the community. This issue came within the community a number of times since bitcoins inception. Bitcoin, as dictated in the code, cannot handle any more than around 3 transactions per second at the moment. To put that in perspective Paypal handles around 15 transactions per second on average and VISA handles something like 2000 transactions per second. The discussion in the community has been around how best to allow bitcoin to scale to allow a higher number of transactions in a given amount of time. I suggest that if anyone is interested in learning more about this problem from a technical angle, they go to r/btc and do a search. It's a complex issue but for many who have followed bitcoin for many years, the possible solutions seem relatively obvious. Essentially, currently the limit is put in place in just a few lines of code. This was not originally present when bitcoin was first released. It was in fact put in place afterwards as a measure to stop a bloating attack on the network. Because all bitcoin transactions have to be stored forever on the bitcoin network, someone could theoretically simply transmit a large number of transactions which would have to be stored by the entire network forever. When bitcoin was released, transactions were actually for free as the only people running the network were enthusiasts. In fact a single bitcoin did not even have any specific value so it would be impossible set a fee value. This meant that a malicious person could make the size of the bitcoin ledger grow very rapidly without much/any cost which would stop people from wanting to join the network due to the resource requirements needed to store it, which at the time would have been for very little gain. Towards the end of the summer last year, this bitcoin scaling debate surfaced again as it was becoming clear that the transaction limit for bitcoin was semi regularly being reached and that it would not be long until it would be regularly hit and the network would become congested. This was a very serious issue for a currency. Bitcoin had made progress over the years to the point of retailers starting to offer it as a payment option. Bitcoin companies like, Microsoft, Paypal, Steam and many more had began to adopt it. If the transaction limit would be constantly maxed out, the network would become unreliable and slow for users. Users and businesses would not be able to make a reliable estimate when their transaction would be confirmed by the network. Users, developers and businesses (which at the time was pretty much the only real bitcoin subreddit) started to discuss how we should solve the problem r/bitcoin. There was significant support from the users and businesses behind a simple solution put forward by the developer Gavin Andreesen. Gavin was the lead developer after Satoshi Nakamoto left bitcoin and he left it in his hands. Gavin initially proposed a very simple solution of increasing the limit which was to change the few lines of code to increase the maximum number of transactions that are allowed. For most of bitcoin's history the transaction limit had been set far far higher than the number of transactions that could potentially happen on the network. The concept of increasing the limit one time was based on the fact that history had proven that no issue had been cause by this in the past. A certain group of bitcoin developers decided that increasing the limit by this amount was too much and that it was dangerous. They said that the increased use of resources that the network would use would create centralisation pressures which could destroy the network. The theory was that a miner of the network with more resources could publish many more transactions than a competing small miner could handle and therefore the network would tend towards few large miners rather than many small miners. The group of developers who supported this theory were all developers who worked for the company Blockstream. The argument from people in support of increasing the transaction capacity by this amount was that there are always inherent centralisation pressure with bitcoin mining. For example miners who can access the cheapest electricity will tend to succeed and that bigger miners will be able to find this cheaper electricity easier. Miners who have access to the most efficient computer chips will tend to succeed and that larger miners are more likely to be able to afford the development of them. The argument from Gavin and other who supported increasing the transaction capacity by this method are essentially there are economies of scale in mining and that these economies have far bigger centralisation pressures than increased resource cost for a larger number of transactions (up to the new limit proposed). For example, at the time the total size of the blockchain was around 50GB. Even for the cost of a 500GB SSD is only $150 and would last a number of years. This is in-comparison to the $100,000's in revenue per day a miner would be making. Various developers put forth various other proposals, including Gavin Andresen who put forth a more conservative increase that would then continue to increase over time inline with technological improvements. Some of the employees of blockstream also put forth some proposals, but all were so conservative, it would take bitcoin many decades before it could reach a scale of VISA. Even though there was significant support from the community behind Gavin's simple proposal of increasing the limit it was becoming clear certain members of the bitcoin community who were part of Blockstream were starting to become increasingly vitriolic and divisive. Gavin then teamed up with one of the other main bitcoin developers Mike Hearn and released a coded (i.e. working) version of the bitcoin software that would only activate if it was supported by a significant majority of the network. What happened next was where things really started to get weird. After this free and open source software was released, Theymos, the person who controls all the main communication channels for the bitcoin community implemented a new moderation policy that disallowed any discussion of this new software. Specifically, if people were to discuss this software, their comments would be deleted and ultimately they would be banned temporarily or permanently. This caused chaos within the community as there was very clear support for this software at the time and it seemed our best hope for finally solving the problem and moving on. Instead a censorship campaign was started. At first it 'all' they were doing was banning and removing discussions but after a while it turned into actively manipulating the discussion. For example, if a thread was created where there was positive sentiment for increasing the transaction capacity or being negative about the moderation policies or negative about the actions of certain bitcoin developers, the mods of r/bitcoin would selectively change the sorting order of threads to 'controversial' so that the most support opinions would be sorted to the bottom of the thread and the most vitriolic would be sorted to the top of the thread. This was initially very transparent as it was possible to see that the most downvoted comments were at the top and some of the most upvoted were at the bottom. So they then implemented hiding the voting scores next to the users name. This made impossible to work out the sentiment of the community and when combined with selectively setting the sorting order to controversial it was possible control what information users were seeing. Also, due to the very very large number of removed comments and users it was becoming obvious the scale of censorship going on. To hide this they implemented code in their CSS for the sub that completely hid comments that they had removed so that the censorship itself was hidden. Anyone in support of scaling bitcoin were removed from the main communication channels. Theymos even proudly announced that he didn't care if he had to remove 90% of the users. He also later acknowledged that he knew he had the ability to block support of this software using the control he had over the communication channels. While this was all going on, Blockstream and it's employees started lobbying the community by paying for conferences about scaling bitcoin, but with the very very strange rule that no decisions could be made and no complete solutions could be proposed. These conferences were likely strategically (and successfully) created to stunt support for the scaling software Gavin and Mike had released by forcing the community to take a "lets wait and see what comes from the conferences" kind of approach. Since no final solutions were allowed at these conferences, they only served to hinder and splinter the communities efforts to find a solution. As the software Gavin and Mike released called BitcoinXT gained support it started to be attacked. Users of the software were attack by DDOS. Employees of Blockstream were recommending attacks against the software, such as faking support for it, to only then drop support at the last moment to put the network in disarray. Blockstream employees were also publicly talking about suing Gavin and Mike from various different angles simply for releasing this open source software that no one was forced to run. In the end Mike Hearn decided to leave due to the way many members of the bitcoin community had treated him. This was due to the massive disinformation campaign against him on r/bitcoin. One of the many tactics that are used against anyone who does not support Blockstream and the bitcoin developers who work for them is that you will be targeted in a smear campaign. This has happened to a number of individuals and companies who showed support for scaling bitcoin. Theymos has threatened companies that he will ban any discussion of them on the communication channels he controls (i.e. all the main ones) for simply running software that he disagrees with (i.e. any software that scales bitcoin). As time passed, more and more proposals were offered, all against the backdrop of ever increasing censorship in the main bitcoin communication channels. It finally come down the smallest and most conservative solution. This solution was much smaller than even the employees of Blockstream had proposed months earlier. As usual there was enormous attacks from all sides and the most vocal opponents were the employees of Blockstream. These attacks still are ongoing today. As this software started to gain support, Blockstream organised more meetings, especially with the biggest bitcoin miners and made a pact with them. They promised that they would release code that would offer an on-chain scaling solution hardfork within about 4 months, but if the miners wanted this they would have to commit to running their software and only their software. The miners agreed and the ended up not running the most conservative proposal possible. This was in February last year. There is no hardfork proposal in sight from the people who agreed to this pact and bitcoin is still stuck with the exact same transaction limit it has had since the limit was put in place about 6 years ago. Gavin has also been publicly smeared by the developers at Blockstream and a plot was made against him to have him removed from the development team. Gavin has now been, for all intents an purposes, expelled from bitcoin development. This has meant that all control of bitcoin development is in the hands of the developers working at Blockstream. There is a new proposal that offers a market based approach to scaling bitcoin. This essentially lets the market decide. Of course, as usual there has been attacks against it, and verbal attacks from the employees of Blockstream. This has the biggest chance of gaining wide support and solving the problem for good. To give you an idea of Blockstream; It has hired most of the main and active bitcoin developers and is now synonymous with the "Core" bitcoin development team. They AFAIK no products at all. They have received around $75m in funding. Every single thing they do is supported by /u/theymos. They have started implementing an entirely new economic system for bitcoin against the will of it's users and have blocked any and all attempts to scaling the network in line with the original vision. Although this comment is ridiculously long, it really only covers the tip of the iceberg. You could write a book on the last two years of bitcoin. The things that have been going on have been mind blowing. One last thing that I think is worth talking about is the u/bashco's claim of vote manipulation. The users that the video talks about have very very large numbers of downvotes mostly due to them having a very very high chance of being astroturfers. Around about the same time last year when Blockstream came active on the scene every single bitcoin troll disappeared, and I mean literally every single one. In the years before that there were a large number of active anti-bitcoin trolls. They even have an active sub r/buttcoin. Up until last year you could go down to the bottom of pretty much any thread in r/bitcoin and see many of the usual trolls who were heavily downvoted for saying something along the lines of "bitcoin is shit", "You guys and your tulips" etc. But suddenly last year they all disappeared. Instead a new type of bitcoin user appeared. Someone who said they were fully in support of bitcoin but they just so happened to support every single thing Blockstream and its employees said and did. They had the exact same tone as the trolls who had disappeared. Their way to talking to people was aggressive, they'd call people names, they had a relatively poor understanding of how bitcoin fundamentally worked. They were extremely argumentative. These users are the majority of the list of that video. When the 10's of thousands of users were censored and expelled from r/bitcoin they ended up congregating in r/btc. The strange thing was that the users listed in that video also moved over to r/btc and spend all day everyday posting troll-like comments and misinformation. Naturally they get heavily downvoted by the real users in r/btc. They spend their time constantly causing as much drama as possible. At every opportunity they scream about "censorship" in r/btc while they are happy about the censorship in r/bitcoin. These people are astroturfers. What someone somewhere worked out, is that all you have to do to take down a community is say that you are on their side. It is an astoundingly effective form of psychological attack. [THIS POST WAS WRITTEN ABOUT 7 MONTHS AGO]	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
It's funny how great some of the Rainbow Dash episodes are.Also, yay for Scootaloo, I think it was great episode for her as well. As usually inmy book, episode with one Cutie Mark Crusader tends to be better than with all three ofthem - ironically. I really have no idea how this math works. Anyway I loved it.It was starting off as hilarious episode, with Scoots fangirling the crap out of Rainbow Dash'sparents - also, yeah, they're cool, and I actually like them more than Rainbow herselfAlthough when it got serious and heart-wrenching it really got serious and heart-wrenching.To me, this episode was really cranked up on emotions, like for the most of part it was funnywith the antics of Dash's parents, and all that, but then the confrontation was painful sight,although Dash's outburst was somewhat understandable, especially given her personality.Small detail but I like how Wonderbolts helped Rainbow with her parents apprecieation eventas if the writers themselves were saying "See people? they are a team, they like each other.The teasing and nicknames are just for funsies!"Also, it was very touching how Scootaloo got the "over-apprecieation" moment at the end.It was both funny and sweet. Anyway, I loved the emotionalrollercoaster all the gags and touching moments. It was great mix up. And so far, one the bestepisodes this seasonEpisode Ranking so far:1) Celestial Advice ( ep1 )2)3) Flurry of Emotions ( ep3 )4) Rock Solid Friendship ( ep4 )5) Forever Filly ( ep6 )6) Fluttershy Leans In ( ep5 )7) All Bottled Up ( ep2 )	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
You sit down at your desk, grab a yogurt container from your lunchbox, carefully pull back the foil lid, and see a familiar sight. A thin layer of clear liquid is sitting on top of the creamy goodness below. You have two options here: pour it out or mix it in. So what do you do? Although it may gross you out, what you should do is grab that spoon and stir it all together, and here's why. That liquid is known as whey (yes, like Little Miss Muffet's curds and whey). Although it consists mainly of water, whey also contains a little bit of protein, potassium, and calcium. Stirring in the whey not only adds nutrition to your yogurt but also offers a creamier consistency. If you don't like seeing the whey separated at the top, try this instead. Before pulling off the lid, shake the container, like you do with orange juice. Then when you open it, the whey and yogurt will already be mixed up for you. This is also a good trick if you prefer yogurt with fruit on the bottom. Then just scrape the lid on the edge of the container to avoid wasting any yogurt.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
With just 69 days left until team’s report back for preseason training (January 22, 2018), the list of offseason drafts and dates has been announced by MLS in preparation for the 2017 Expansion Draft. The Expansion Draft will finally announce the arrival of the LA Galaxy’s newest neighbor as Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) becomes the 23rd team in the league. EXPANSION DRAFT The Expansion Draft, set for December 12 at 11 AM PT, will see LAFC choose up to a maximum of five players from the league’s other 22 teams. LAFC can only pick one player from each team and all Homegrown players and Generation Adidas players are automatically protected. Designated players are not automatically protected and a club would leave them unprotected at their own risk. If the Designated Player has a no-trade clause then the team must protect them with one of their 11 protection spots. This new format is following the 2016 Expansion Draft that brought Atlanta United and Minnesota United into the club. With each team picking a total number of five players. In previous expansion drafts, as many as 10 players were allowed to be selected by each team entering the league. General Allocation money will be awarded to LAFC in place of the additional picks. ADDITIONAL DRAFTS AND ROSTER DEADLINES In addition, MLS has also released the key dates around which important information for building rosters in 2018 will be decided upon by teams and supposedly released to the public (See the Chart Below). The Galaxy will need to release the names of players whose options they are exercising (most MLS contracts are two years with the club holding options on each player for the second year), and who are receiving bona fide offers. The bona fide offer is important to retaining the rights to a player if they should exit the league and keeps teams from directly competing against each other. If a team makes a bona fide offer and the player rejects the offer the club would retain his rights if any team wanted to sign him. That might mean a trade between the two teams in order to acquire that player. It’s a complicated system that rarely makes much sense but was instituted to keep the single entity system of MLS intact. Reports have already surfaced that the Galaxy have released Homegrown players Jack McBean, Jose Villarreal, Jaime Villarreal, Nathan Smith, and Raul Mendiola. With other names expected to join that list shortly. If one was in speculation mode, the expanded list would include all three of the Galaxy’s goalkeepers – Brian Rowe, Jon Kempin, Clement Diop – and players like Ariel Lassiter, Bradley Diallo, and Rafael Garcia among others. With as many as 15 spots cleared from the 30-man roster, the Galaxy will be the “lucky” beneficiaries of the first pick in three of the offseason drafts and will get the second overall pick in the MLS Cup Super Draft. They’ll pick first in the 2017 MLS Waiver Draft – consisting of players who have been waived by clubs and do not meet the minimum years of service requirement for Re-Entry draft or Free Agency – and in both stages of the Re-Entry Draft (stage 1 and stage 2) The Re-Entry Draft will consist of players who are out of contract or have had their options declined by the club with a bunch of qualifying caveats. MLS Expansion Draft Rules (CLICK) (CLICK) Free Agency Rules (CLICK) (CLICK) MLS Waiver Draft Rules (CLICK) (CLICK) MLS Re-Entry Draft Rules (CLICK) While it seems a long way off, momentum is going to start to build towards the 2017 MLS Cup and the expansion draft. The first draft of the season marks the turning point as everyone shifts their attention towards 2018 and building a competitive roster for the upcoming campaign. For the Galaxy, it will be even more important. With the Expansion Draft unlikely to greatly affect the Galaxy, their sights must be set on outperforming their crosstown rival and getting back into a competitive position for the playoffs. Another misstep that leads to another rebuild is just something this franchise can’t afford to mess around with. The pressure is now on Sigi Schmid, Kurt Schmid, and the rest of the Galaxy’s front office to rebuild through these drafts and other player acquisition mechanisms to plug the holes that were left by former General Manager Pete Vagenas and to build depth across the entire squad. Something that is much easier said than done. If 2018 is going to be a successful year, the moves that are made in the next 45 days should begin to show us the foundation on which the “new look” Galaxy are building. 2017 OFFSEASON CALENDAR Nov. 27 --------------- --------------- 11 AM PT Option Exercise Deadline Clubs no longer competing in the Audi 2017 MLS Cup Playoffs must notify the League Office in writing of (1) players whose options they are exercising and/or (2) players who are receiving bona fide offers, announced by the teams. All roster decisions will be publicized by the individual clubs. Dec. 1 --------------- --------------- 10 AM PT Option Exercise Deadline for Non-MLS Cup Participants Non-MLS Cup participants must notify the League Office in writing of (1) players whose options they are exercising and/or (2) players who are receiving bona fide offers, announced by the clubs. All roster decisions will be publicized by the individual clubs. Dec. 10 --------------- --------------- 6 AM - 10 AM PT Half Day Trade Window Following a three-month roster freeze, MLS clubs may begin making adjustments to their rosters. This is a four-hour window in which clubs may sign and trade players. All roster moves will be publicized by the individual clubs. 9 AM PT Option Exercise Deadline for MLS Cup Participants Clubs that compete in MLS Cup must notify the League Office in writing of (1) players whose options they are exercising and/or (2) players who are receiving bona fide offers. All roster decisions will be publicized by the individual clubs. 10 AM PT Blackout Period begins Blackout Period begins whereby clubs may no longer sign and/or trade their own draft-eligible players until conclusion of Expansion Draft. Dec. 12 --------------- --------------- 11 AM PT 2017 MLS Expansion Draft While Generation adidas and off-budget Homegrown Players are automatically exempt, current MLS clubs may protect up to 11 players from selection in the Expansion Draft. LAFC may select up to five players from the eligible MLS player pool. Only a single player can be drafted from any one club. The list of players eligible for selection in Expansion Draft will be released by MLS Communications at 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 10. 1 PM PT Free Agency Begin Out of Contract and Option Decline players that were at least 28 years old during the 2017 season and have at least eight years of MLS service are eligible for Free Agency. MLS Communications will make the complete list of Free Agents available on Dec. 10. Dec. 13 --------------- --------------- 12:30 PM PT 2017 MLS Waiver Draft Consisting of players who have been waived by clubs and do not meet minimum years of service requirement for Re-Entry Draft or Free Agency; the draft is conducted in reverse order of 2017 season finish, taking into account postseason performance, with expansion LAFC picking 23rd. The list of players eligible for selection in Waiver Draft will be released by MLS Communications at 6 p.m. ET on Dec. 12. Dec. 15 --------------- --------------- 12 PM PT 2017 MLS Re-Entry Draft – Stage 1 The Re-Entry Draft (both stages) is conducted in reverse order of 2017 season finish, taking into account postseason performance, with expansion club LAFC selecting last. The list of players eligible for selection in the Re-Entry Draft – Stage 1 will be released by MLS Communications at 7 p.m. ET on Dec. 14. Eligible players include: Option Decline Players: Players not eligible for Free Agency who will be at least 23 years old in 2017 with a minimum of three years of MLS experience Out of Contract Players: Players not eligible for Free Agency who have not received a Bona Fide Offer and who are at least 25 years old with a minimum of four years of MLS experience. or are at least 30 years old with a minimum of eight years of MLS experience Dec. 21 --------------- --------------- 11 AM PT 2017 MLS Re-Entry Draft – Stage 2 Stage 2 includes MLS players who were not selected in the Stage 1 draft, but not necessarily all Stage 1 players as they can re-sign with their previous club between stages; teams selecting in this stage have the right to negotiate with the player for a new contract; the format of the draft is conducted in the same manner as Stage 1. The list of players eligible for selection in the Re-Entry Draft – Stage 2 will be released by MLS Communications at 7:30 p.m. ET on Dec. 20. Comments comments	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Alex Guerrero has maintained a strange relationship with the Patriots since 2013. He operates the TB12 therapy center next to the Patriots stadium, where he treats players, and his relationship with Brady affords him access to Patriots sidelines and the team plane. However, a day after rumors surfaced regarding a simmering disagreement between Guerrero and Bill Belichick, the Boston Globe now reports that Belichick has barred him from the sidelines this season and revoked his plane privileges. Belichick declined to elaborate why, although it could have something to do with Guerrero being sued twice for fraud. Guerrero also once sold products that he claimed could cure cancer and concussions and, more recently, he’s been helping develop and push Brady’s nonsensical “wellness program.” Belichick also banned Guerrero from training any players besides Brady, an arrangement that began while Guerrero was under investigation for practicing without a license (he was later cleared). Brady also has been characteristically cagey about the beef between Belichick and Guerrero. Maybe he’ll be better after another tasty, ice-cold NeuroSafe. [Boston Globe]	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Prenez note que cet article publié en 2017 pourrait contenir des informations qui ne sont plus à jour. Postes Canada a arrêté la livraison du courrier de trois adresses dans l'est de Vancouver après qu'un facteur eut été attaqué par Canuck, une corneille bien connue dans le voisinage. La société d'État précise que le service reprendra quand la situation sera plus sécuritaire. À une occasion, l'agressivité de l'oiseau a été telle qu'un facteur saignait après l'attaque. « La sécurité de nos employés est de la plus haute importance », souligne Postes Canada dans une déclaration. « Comme pour tout employeur, il est de notre responsabilité de réagir quand un employé porte ce genre de problème à notre attention », est-il ajouté. Postes Canada soutient que les usagers touchés ont reçu une lettre leur indiquant où ils pouvaient aller récupérer leur courrier en attendant que la situation soit réglée. « Nous surveillons la situation régulièrement et nous reprendrons la livraison aussitôt que possible quand ce sera sécuritaire », est-il également expliqué. Agrandir l’image (Nouvelle fenêtre) Shawn Bergman et Canuck la corneille le jour de leur rencontre. Photo : Facebook/thecrowandi Shawn Bergman, un des usagers touchés par la suspension du service de livraison postale raconte que ses voisins et lui ne reçoivent plus le courrier à la maison depuis plus d’un mois. Le Vancouvérois est également celui qui gère une page Facebook consacrée à son amitié avec la corneille Canuck. Il soutient qu’il ne peut rien faire pour contrôler l’oiseau. M. Bergman a toutefois proposé au facteur de se protéger avec un parapluie pour effectuer la livraison ou encore de stationner sa voiture plus loin dans la rue. Selon lui, Postes Canada a décliné ses suggestions. Dans un courriel, elle explique que le service sera suspendu jusqu’à ce que « le danger ait disparu ». Il raconte également que ses voisins font maintenant pression pour qu’il se débarrasse de l’oiseau, ce qu’il refuse de faire. « Je veux juste que le courrier soit livré de nouveau », dit-il. Avec les informations d'Alex Migdal, de CBC	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Nick Collins has the deeply tanned skin of a man who has spent most of his 39 years on a boat, fishing for oysters. He has worked for his father's business, Collins Oyster Company, since he was 10 years old. Not any more. He has brought me out on his boat, a couple kilometres from the Gulf of Mexico, to show me why. He winches up a basket full of oysters and sifts through each one, shaking his head. All of them, beautiful oysters, and they're dead. And all because of BP's oil spill one year ago Nick Collins, Former oyster fisherman "This one's dead. This one's dead. All of them empty shells. All of them, beautiful oysters, and they're dead. And all because of BP's oil spill one year ago," he says. Everything he has caught, he has to throw back. "It's heartbreaking," he says. "This is the biggest oyster kill in Louisiana history, probably in the Gulf coast's history. "I wish I wasn't part of it. I wish I wasn't here. It's heartbreaking." Out of business Back at the headquarters of Collins Oyster Company, Nick's father Wilbert stands in the driveway, taking a long drag on a cigarette. At 73 years old, he is the head of the family business. "We used to have some of the best oysters in the country," he says. "They used to line up here for three hours at a time to get a bag full." Image caption Mr Collins had to lay off two of his sons Now there are no cars lining up. Without any oysters, Wilbert has put up a sign on his front lawn. It reads: "Collins Oyster Company - Out of Business After 90 Years Because of BP's Oil & Governor Jindals Fresh Water." During the oil spill clean-up, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana ordered the opening of giant valves on the Mississippi River, releasing torrents of fresh water that officials hoped would push oil back out to sea. Reports since then have shown that the diversions had a catastrophic impact on the oyster beds, which need salt water to survive. It is not just customers that Wilbert has lost. Last Christmas, he was forced to lay off two of his sons, including Nick. "That's the hardest thing. To let go of your own family and tell them they're going to have to go and do something else," says Wilbert. Nick is now looking for work as a carpenter. "Obviously, I'd rather be oystering," he says. Wilbert says he hasn't received any compensation from BP for months. "They just give you the run-around." He even went to Washington to meet with Ken Feinberg, the man President Obama has appointed to run BP's $20bn (£12bn) compensation fund. "I offered to personally show them all my dead oysters," he says. "But they had no interest in seeing them." Local anger A few miles down the bayou from Collins Oyster Company, Mr Feinberg has flown from Washington to Louisiana to answer questions from fishermen at a town hall meeting. Image caption Many locals are angry at the government's response to the crisis Wilbert says he is weary of his empty promises and has decided to stay at home. Plenty of other fishermen have turned up. One by one, they take to a small podium and address their concerns directly to Mr Feinberg. "You keep telling everybody that everything's fine is the Gulf of Mexico," says oil rig worker Clayton Mathern, "but you're sitting there lying to our faces." "What about the people, myself included, that have lost everything they had? Everything they worked for, everything they took pride in?" Mr Mathern's wife Becky, also speaks up. "You told us personally that you would help us. You gave us your personal cell phone number and begged us to keep it secret, but whenever we called, you didn't pick up." Many fishermen in the room have seen Mr Feinberg speak before. For shrimp fisherman Dean Blanchard, it is the fifth time. "I thought I'd be here just in case you accidentally dropped a cheque," he says. We had the best product in the world. Now we're known as an oil product Dean Blanchard, Shrimp fisherman The audience bursts into laughter and applauds. "We had the best product in the world," Mr Blanchard says. "Now we're known as an oil product." "That's not right and you have to pay us." Mr Feinberg leans towards his microphone and responds. "It may be that there are people in this room that should have been paid, that haven't been paid," he says. "But the programme is working. We've paid out. In less than seven months, we're approaching $4bn (£2.5bn), including $1.7bn (£1bn) for Louisiana." "We're trying to do the right thing." There have been a lot of promises from politicians, including Mr Feinberg, to make the fishermen of Louisiana whole again. But Wilbert Collins is losing faith. "Right now, there's so much going on around the world and not too many people are talking about the oil spill anymore. But it's not done. There are a lot of people hurting and it don't look like anyone cares." "It discourages you so much to see the way the government treats you. For America - it's unbelievable."	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
New research published in PLoS ONE says that horses have a variety of facial expressions (even if they’re not all distinctive to us) and use them when communicating with other horses. Creationist Ken Ham knows why that is: Because God created horses. (Obviously.) Ham writes: In a creation worldview this new research makes sense. God created many animals with the ability to communicate with one another through facial expression, gestures, or song… … … But then the researchers in the PLOS ONE journal say “The potential to make such cross species comparisons can enhance our understanding of the meaning, function, and evolution of communicative behavior” (emphasis added). Clearly, they are trying to align such expressions with those of humans and other animals based on the belief that horses and humans are related because of progression in their evolutionary belief system. This is not observational science. … … Humans, horses, and other animals do not use similar facial muscles and communicative expressions because of shared ancestry, but they do share a common Designer and so we would expect to see similarities in living things — and we observe that. Look: In a “creation worldview,” everything makes sense because 1) There’s no scientific standard you have to meet and 2) The audience is too ignorant to argue otherwise. It rained in Chicago last night. I could give you the scientific reasons for that. But why bother when Ham will tell you God is just crying over the legalization of gay marriage? In his world, no research is complete without mentioning God, and God’s presence in a “research” article makes anything the authors say automatically true. (Just once, I’d love to see a rejection letter by the folks who put together the Answers in Genesis research journal. Because they’ll accept anything if you use the right Creationist buzzwords.) There are theories for how smiling developed that don’t include “God did it.” Ham’s crack research team didn’t bother looking into any of that. Maybe that’s because their petting zoo (a.k.a. the Creation Museum’s research lab) offers everything you ever need to know about the subject: You can learn more about the horse kind when you visit the Creation Museum here in northern Kentucky. We have a zorse and a zonkey in our petting zoo that show visitors that horses, donkeys, and zebras are all part of one created kind, the horse kind. The “horse kind.” Because you can’t say “bullshit” at a petting zoo.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The Kino in Cork will be reopening as a live music venue and theatre space Good news for Corkonians. Cork's former art house cinema, the Kino, will be reopening as a live music venue, theatre space, bar and café. Promoters Ed O'Leary and Joe Kelly (The Good Room) have announced that they will be taking over management duties and the space should be opening mid-September. The venue will boast a state-of-the-art PA and lighting system, with full AV set up as well as a bar and café. The Good Room are the team behind the award-winning Live at St Luke's concert series, It Takes A Village Festival, Cork Podcast Festival, Crosstown Drift, and a host of other unique events around Cork city and county. Speaking about the the new acquisition, Ed O’Leary said: "We're really excited to take on this new venture. The Kino is an iconic landmark building in Cork city going back to its pool hall days through to its life as an art house cinema. We've been on the hunt for this exact size and type of venue the past few years and the timing is perfect for both us and the city. "We're going to spend a month working on refurbishments and will be installing a brand new sound and lighting set up. Doors will open mid-September and we have already got some incredible acts booked in which we’ll be announcing soon. We have also partnered up with some exciting Cork festivals, namely Sounds from a Safe Harbour, Cork Podcast Festival, Cork Folk Festival, and the Guinness Jazz Festival, for some quality live performances." Main image via Daft	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
New Delhi went ahead and inked a $5-billion deal to purchase the S-400 Triumf air defence missile system from Moscow on Friday. The U.S. presidential waiver on weapons deal with sanctions-hit Russia is intended to “wean” countries like India off Russian equipment, the White House has said, as New Delhi went ahead and inked a $5-billion deal to purchase the S-400 Triumf air defence missile system from Moscow. The mega deal was sealed in New Delhi on Friday during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a guarded reaction, the U.S. said on Friday that its intent to slap sanctions against Russia was not aimed at causing damage to the military capabilities of its “allies or partners”, shortly after India concluded the deal. The S-400 missile defence system would give India’s defence a cutting-edge security against any missile attack by its enemies. “The [CAATSA presidential] waiver is narrow, intended to wean countries off Russian equipment and allow for things such as spare parts for previously-purchased equipment,” a White House National Security Council Spokesperson told PTI hours after the conclusion of the S-400 contract. The deal was concluded during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the annual summit with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Russian President Vladimir Putin with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on October 5, 2018. \| Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena President of U.S.-India Strategic and Partnership Forum Mukesh Aghi said, “India lives in a very turbulent and nuclear-powered region. S-400 provides that assurance and is compatible with its current platform. Friends understand that these discussions with Russia started several years ago, hence I do not believe U.S. will impose sanction[s] on India.” Sanctions warranted by the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act or CAATSA, which comes into play in the event of a major purchase like the S-400 missile defence system, may be bypassed by a presidential waiver. Ahead of the deal, the U.S. had urged India not to purchase S-400. It had reiterated on Friday: “The Administration has indicated that a focus area for the implementation of CAATSA Section 231 is new or qualitative upgrades in capability — including the S-400 air and missile defence system,” the White House NSC Spokesperson said. Sanctions on China Last month, the U.S. had imposed sanctions on China for the purchase of S-400 from Russia. “Our recent action to sanction a Chinese government entity for an S-400 delivery underscores the seriousness of our resolve on this issue. The waiver authority is not country-specific. There are strict criteria for considering a waiver,” said the spokesperson. The State Department, which is tasked with reviewing the deal and initiated the process of sanctions or waiver under CAATSAA, and then recommend to the President, did not respond to the question on the time frame and the process. However, an industry source said the law is ambiguous about “when a waiver is necessary so this can be avoided for years”. The National Defence Authorisation ACT (NDDA) 2019 gives President the power to waive the CAATSA sanctions if it is national security interest. It also lists out several other options for presidential waiver, prominent among which is that the purchase country — India in this case — is taking or will take steps to reduce its inventory of major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons produced by the defence sector of the Russian Federation as a share of its total inventory of major defence equipment and advanced conventional weapons over a specified period. ‘Major Defence Partner’ The top arms purchaser over the last decade and more, India has gradually reduced its dependence on Russian arms. It now stands at about 60%, which is much lower than it was a decade ago. The U.S. has been a major beneficiary of this move. As part of its diversification plan, India has increased its purchase of arms from the U.S. from about zero to more than $18 billion. India is in the process of purchasing arms and equipment worth billions of dollars from the U.S. in the coming years including armed and unarmed drones and fighter jets. A presidential waiver can also be given if a country — such as India, in this case — is cooperating with the U.S. government on other security matters critical to its strategic interests. Experts believe that is exactly the case and one of the main reasons for the U.S. designating India as a ‘Major Defence Partner’. “I don’t like to make predictions in today’s Washington but sanctioning India, and surrendering the Indian defence market to Russia, would have exactly the opposite of the intended effect of CAATSA. No American interest group benefits from sanctioning India,” Benjamin Schwartz from U.S. India Business Council said. He has previously served as the director for India in the U.S. office of the secretary of defence. Aparna Pande, from the Hudson Institute think-tank, said, “I believe what is more likely is that even though India will sign the S-400 deal, it will delay payment, etc., so that the sanctions don’t come into effect.” “This way India maintains its strategic autonomy and historical ties with Russia and yet ensures its strategic relationship with the U.S. is not impacted either,” Ms. Pande said. According to Rick Rossow, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think tank, “Congress widened the waiver criteria with India in mind, and the fact we had a robust ‘2+2 Dialogue’ in Delhi a month back shows that the administration believes in the momentum.” The Russian Embassy in the U.S. tweeted that the delivery of S-400 would begin in October 2020.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The Dallas City Council on Wednesday voted to remove a Confederate memorial near city hall. The council in a 11-4 vote approved the removal of the structure deemed a “non-contributing structure for the historic overlay district,” The Dallas Morning News reported. “We have to acknowledge the sins of the past, and what kind of Dallas do we want going forward,” Mayor Pro Tempore Casey Thomas said. “Today is not unfinished business. It’s finishing the business that we started.” ADVERTISEMENT The council proposed a $480,000 plan to remove and store the massive monument, which currently rests in the Pioneer Cemetery across from the Dallas City Hall. The monument features a 65-foot obelisk topped with a Confederate soldier, and statues of Confederate leaders — including Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson — form a ring around it. The structure was originally built in Old City Park in 1897 by the Dallas chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and was moved to the cemetery in 1961. It is the second monument to be removed in the city in recent years. The Dallas City Council voted in 2017 to remove a statue of Lee. Officials in Austin, Texas, last month removed a Confederate plaque from the state Capitol that claimed slavery was not the root cause of the Civil War. The effort to remove Confederate monuments saw renewed attention following the 2015 mass shooting at an historic African-American church in Charleston, S.C., and the deadly 2017 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va. At least 113 Confederate monuments have been removed in the U.S. since 2015, according to a 2016 report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
The announcement of the new, new SAT has created a lot of hand-wringing about SAT scores and their correlations with income and also race. Wonkblog, the New York Times and many others all feature a table or chart showing how SAT scores increase with income. Wonkblog says these charts “show how the SAT favors rich, educated families,” and the NYTimes says about the SAT, “A Test of Knowledge or Income?” The consensus explanation for these “shocking” results is the evil of test prep as summarized by NBCNews: …there is also mounting criticism as to whether students who can afford expensive SAT test preparation courses have an unfair advantage, especially given a strong correlation between family income level and test results. Similarly, Chris Hayes blames test prep for inequality: We’ve had…the growth of this tremendous testing and test prep industry in New York, along with the massive rise in inequality and it has produced a system in which the school is now admitting only three, four, five black and Latino students. The students they are admitting are almost entirely white, affluent kids with tutors or second generation, first generation immigrants from Queens and other places where the parents pay for test prep. You end up with a system where who you are really letting in are the kids with access to test prep, the kids with access to resources. All of this is almost entirely at variance with three facts, all of which are well known among education researchers. First, test prep has only a modest effect on test scores, on the order of 20-40 points combined for a commercial test preparation service. More expensive services such as a private tutor are towards the high of this range, cheaper sources such as a high-school course towards the lower. Buchmann et al., for example, estimate that private tutors increase scores by 37 points while a high school course increases scores by 26 points. The average SAT score among those with a family income of $20,000-$40,000 is 1402 while the average score among those with an income $100,000 higher, $120,000-$140,000, is 1581 for a 179 point difference. Even if every rich family had a private tutor and none of the poor families had any test prep whatsoever, test prep would explain only 20% of the difference 37/179. If rich families rely on tutors and poor families rely on high school courses, the difference in test prep would explain only 6% (11/179) of the difference in score. The second surprising fact about test prep is that it doesn’t vary nearly as much by income as people imagine. In fact, some studies find no effect of income on test prep use while others find a positive but modest effect. The latter study finding (what I call) a modest effect finds that in their sample a 2-standard deviation increase in income above the mean increases the probability of using a private test prep course less than whether “Parent encouraged student to prep for SAT (yes or no).” Since test prep differs by income only modestly and since test prep increases scores only modestly, the effect of income on test scores through test prep is small, Modest*Modest=Small. Contrary to the consensus, test prep can in no way account for the large differences in SAT score by income. The third fact is that test prep varies by race in the opposite way that people imagine. In the quote above, Chris Hayes suggests that whites use test prep much more than blacks. In fact, blacks use test prep more than whites, as is well documented among education researchers (e.g. here, here, here), e.g. from the first link: …blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites from comparable backgrounds to utilize test preparation. The black-white gap is especially pronounced in the use of high school courses, private courses and private tutors. Indeed, since blacks use test prep more than whites and blacks have lower SAT scores than whites the effect of test prep is to reduce not increase the black-white gap in scores. Of course, the net reduction in the gap is small.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A chuva que se fez sentir na primeira quinzena de março devido às tempestades ‘Félix’ e ‘Gisele’ levou, nas regiões Norte e Centro, a que o volume de armazenamento das barragens passasse a ser superior ao habitual para a época. No Sul houve também um aumento, mas a maioria das albufeiras ainda não chegou aos valores médios, de acordo com o Correio da Manhã. A albufeira de Castelo de Bode, no rio Zêzere, que abastece a área da Grande Lisboa, aumentou a capacidade máxima para 87,4%, esta sexta-feira, de 67,9%, no primeiro dia do mês. Ao longo dos últimos quinze dias, foram ainda realizadas descargas laterais para aliviar armazenamento, segundo dados divulgados pelo CM. A precipitação média nacional em março é de 60 litros por metro quadrado. No entanto, o valor chegou aos 90 litros por metro quadrado numa semana. A estimativa do Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera (IPMA) é que a situação de seca severa e extrema que afetava 84,5% do território nacional no final de fevereiro já tenha sido ultrapassado.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
A new, comprehensive analysis of mountaintop removal mining, which is common in the Appalachian region of the United States, shows that its environmental effects extend to the hydrology of its surroundings, ruining streams and the ecosystems they support. Technically known as "mountaintop mining with valley fills" (MTM/VF), it consists of stripping away forests and topsoil from the tops of mountains and then using explosives to break through rocks that cover the coal inside the mountain. The resulting rocks are then pushed away into valleys, where they interfere with and often bury existing streams. It's not all that surprising that clean water, and a lot of it, is important to ecosystems; research shows that if these activities disrupt as little as 5-10 percent of a watershed's area, they can cause irreversible changes to the ecosystem. The reduced flow of streams that get buried by valley fills can kill off plants and trees in an area with high biodiversity. This loss of flora also results in a landscape that is less effective at handling runoff water, leading to an increase in the frequency and magnitude of downstream flooding. Streams that continue to flow are polluted with various chemicals and metals from the mountaintop rocks. Increases in sulfate cause stream microbes to create more hydrogen sulfide, which is toxic to many aquatic plants and organisms. Selenium accumulation causes deformities and lethality in fish, which in turn poison the birds that eat them. Humans in the area are also affected by the dirty streams and the elevated levels of airborne, hazardous dust that results from mining. Studies have found elevated levels of hospitalization for pulmonary disorders and hypertension, as well as increased mortality in the region. Reclamation of the areas appears to be ineffective, with soils still having low organic and nutrient content and little to no regrowth of woody vegetation afterward. Reclamation often involves rebuilding streams, but the new ones carry chemicals released by the rock debris, and don't integrate into the radically altered environment. The sum of these problems add significantly to the externalized costs of coal use for power generation. Because of the huge impact, the scientists behind the report are recommending that the government stops issuing MTV/VF permits until new methods to address these problems can be developed and subjected to rigorous review. Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1180543	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
V debatě o sexuálním obtěžování neexistují dvě rovnocenné strany. A předstírat, že tomu tak je, nemá nic společného se spravedlností nebo kvalitní novinařinou. Hashtag #MeToo se začal masově šířit zhruba před dvěma měsíci a počet známých mužů propuštěných kvůli sexuální agresi dál roste. Alespoň tedy v Americe. Každé další jméno pochopitelně znamená novou vlnu článků, nové hádky v komentářích, nové zesměšňování a výhrůžky těm, kdo se ke kampani přidávají. Časopis Time minulý týden vyhlásil oběti sexuálního násilí, které o svých případech promluvily, za osobnosti roku. Trvalejší změně ale stojí v cestě způsob, jakým se o problému bavíme. Americká autorka Ijeoma Oluoová v jednom ze svých nejnovějších textů popisuje, jak ji deník USA Today požádal o vyjádření k případům celebrit obviněných ze sexuálních útoků. Ijeoma byla ochotna odpověď poskytnout, ale její postoj se deníku nelíbil, protože nebyl dostatečně radikální. Noviny totiž hledaly stereotyp krvelačné feministky, která by podporovala odsouzení obviněných mužů bez řádného procesu, a k jejich zklamání Ijeoma řádný soudní proces jednoznačně podpořila. Upozornila jenom na to, že takhle formulovaná otázka odvádí pozornost od skutečného problému. Deník nakonec její odpověď nepoužil. Lidé z USA Today nepochybně mají za to, že dělají svou práci dobře. Dávají přece prostor oběma stranám sporu, nebo ne? V jednom rohu aktivistka, ve druhém zástupce střízlivého pohledu na svět. Není tohle podstata novinářské zodpovědnosti? Krátce řečeno, není. Trochu méně krátce řečeno, praxe nesoudného "vyvažování" je naopak hlavní brzdou zodpovědné žurnalistiky a zaslouží si konečně v bolestech uhynout. Otvíráme… Na vlně nově zveřejněných případů sexuální agrese není překvapivé to, že se podobné věci dějí, ale že vyšly na světlo a mají nějaký dopad na kariéru i popularitu dotyčných mužů. To je ta část, která nemá historickou obdobu a kterou nikdo realisticky uvažující příliš neočekával. Právě naopak: pokud dobře víte, jaké to je, když se s vámi zachází jako s věcí, pak také víte, že stěžovat si obvykle nemá smysl. Dočkáte se v lepším případě smutného pokrčení ramen a konstatování, že svět je holt takový; v horším případě budete za potížistku nebo ohrozíte svoje bezpečí ještě víc. Když se dozvíte, kolik známých mužů se na tomhle nastavení světa podílí svou vlastní agresí, zneužíváním a zastrašováním, nedá se tím pádem mluvit o šoku. Smutek, strach, hněv… Tím vším už jste si prošly. Zní to možná zvláštně, ale sledovat ten rostoucí seznam je skoro povzbudivé. Něco se děje. Jedna obzvlášť deprimující část vaší reality se snad poprvé v historii začíná měnit. Ale pak někdo zmíní "otevírání diskuse" a vám zatrne, protože víte, co bude následovat. Viděla jste to už nejmíň stokrát. Jistě, povídání o tom, jak řešit chronické ponižování a násilí vůči určitým částem populace, by byla skvělá věc. Jenomže to není ten druh diskuse, která se otevře, když začnete mluvit o sexuální agresi. Muži, kteří nesouhlasí Namísto plodné debaty o nejvhodnějším řešení začnou ze všech koutů vylézat "skeptici". To slovo dávám do uvozovek, protože jejich skepse má dost zásadní limity - v podstatě se omezuje jen na situace, kdy se po nich chce trocha sebereflexe. Nepřicházejí se zlým úmyslem (a chraň vás bůh jim naznačit, že možná ano), jen mají pochybnosti. Jenom by to všechno chtěli vysvětlit ještě jednou. Jinak. Slyšet ještě víc příkladů. Vidět důkazy, nejlíp stoprocentně nezfalšovatelné. Jde jim o spravedlnost a dobro nás všech. Chtějí zamezit honům na čarodějnice, chtějí předejít utrpení nevinných. Ne těchhle nevinných, tamtěch nevinných. Bezbranných boháčů, ubohých mužů s konexemi a vlivem. Protože když slavní muži přicházejí o práci kvůli obviněním ze sexuálního obtěžování, je to tragédie, která snese srovnání s upalováním žen v rukou inkvizice. Celé by to bylo jenom bizarní, kdyby si tihle strážci domnělé spravedlnosti nepřisvojili téměř každou konverzaci o sexuálních útocích a nedostávali automaticky prostor v médiích. Z ďáblových advokátů se stávají hrdinové veřejných debat: muži, kteří nesouhlasí. Jedinci bez osobní zkušenosti s pozicí oběti sexuálního násilí, kteří přesto nesmějí chybět prakticky v žádné anketě a u žádného kulatého stolu. Ať jde o jakékoliv téma, bílí heterosexuální cisgender muži jsou jediná skupina obyvatel, která se běžně dostane k mikrofonu jenom proto, že chce něco říct. U všech ostatních se zkoumá kvalifikace, protože jejich identita je činí podezřelými ze zaujatosti. Ale bílý muž přece nemá agendu, je to prostě jen člověk a jako takový musí být slyšen. Fenomén mužů, kteří nesouhlasí, je tak silně zakořeněný, že s ním pracují novináři i novinářky. Souvisí to s naším pomýleným vnímáním nestrannosti. Pokud jde o narušování mocenských mechanismů v základech společnosti (tedy nejen v politice nebo byznysu), i ta nejliberálnější část mainstreamové žurnalistiky se staví k pokroku s nedůvěrou a instinktivně se drží radši při zdi. Hranice přijatelného je definována tím, co dané médium samo dělá a jak píše - cokoliv, co by vyžadovalo změnu vlastního přístupu, je už příliš. Správný progres končí zhruba tři stupně od statu quo, dál už začíná radikalismus. A protože status quo zahrnuje muže v naprosté většině všech vlivných pozic, mediální konverzace podle toho musejí vypadat, jinak jsou vnímány jako nefér. Debata řízená ignoranty Přítomnost nekvalifikovaných účastníků samozřejmě celou veřejnou debatu deformuje a v podstatě ji zmrazí v nekonečném stadiu pochybností a marného přesvědčování. Těmto lidem totiž nejde o to, situaci pochopit, protože pochopit by znamenalo uvěřit a uvěřit by znamenalo přiznat si, že mají na problému nějakým způsobem podíl. Že se dívali jinam nebo se neozvali, když měli příležitost. Že mlčeli, přestože ozvat se by pro ně bylo menší riziko než pro ty, kterým se podobné věci dějí. Hlas mužů, kteří nesouhlasí, má ve společnosti dokonce takovou váhu, že určuje tón diskuse, i když se jí tato skupina přímo neúčastní. Pusťte si rozhovor ženy novinářky s ženou respondentkou na téma sexuálního obtěžování a všimněte si, jak často předjímají výhrady, o kterých vědí, že nevyhnutelně přijdou. Jak se snaží preventivně ujistit publikum i sebe navzájem, že samozřejmě tolik nejde o nějaký ten urážlivý vtip nebo sáhnutí na koleno. S jakou rychlostí přistupují na nesmyslnou rétoriku o lehkých případech, které "rozmělňují význam" těch závažných. Je to snaha jednak zbytečná, protože výhrady přijdou stejně, a jednak ponižující, protože není legitimní důvod se předem omlouvat, když hájíte svoje právo na lidskou důstojnost. Tohle je jedna z hlavních příčin, proč nemáme víc žen v politice nebo v manažerských pozicích: udržet si místo v mužském světě a dosáhnout základního respektu znamená snažit se znovu a znovu s naprostou přesností vystihnout míru, kdy vaše připomínka bude uznána za hodnou pozornosti, ale zároveň muže nenaštve. Je to umění, které vás nenaučí žádný kouč, a přitom se bez něj absolutně neobejdete, pokud chcete čehokoliv dosáhnout. Nevyhnutelná únava a pocit bezvýchodnosti pak mají za následek to, že jsme vděčné za každého "muže, který souhlasí". Sem spadají empatičtější komentátoři, kteří jsou ochotni uznat, že problém tu opravdu je, a s trochou štěstí zvládnou situaci nezlehčit, jenomže i ti paradoxně dál potvrzují pravidlo o nadřazenosti mužského hlasu. Dostávají prostor a jsou přijímáni lépe, přestože jenom opakují, co už před nimi řekly desítky lidí s přímou osobní zkušeností, a často se je ani nenamáhají citovat. Muž, který souhlasí, je nakonec jenom další verze muže s názorem. Skutečně podpořit oběti sexuálního násilí znamená šířit a zdůraznit jejich výpovědi, ne vecpat do debaty svůj hlas. Mýtus názorové bubliny Oplzlé poznámky neexistují nějakým zázrakem v jiné části reality než znásilnění. To, co dělá ze sexuálního obtěžování celospolečenský problém, je jeho frekvence a všudypřítomnost. Nejde o jeden vtip, jde o desítky, stovky vtipů, kterými si jejich autoři potvrzují svou převahu nad vámi. Jde o to, co se šíří a předává jako norma. Učíme kluky, že projev převahy z nich dělá muže, a zároveň učíme holky, že nezvané komentáře na adresu jejich těla jsou lichotka. Není divu, že mužská věta "nejsi jako ty ostatní" dělá tolika ženám dobře. Ve skutečnosti totiž znamená "zasloužíš si, abych se k tobě choval jako k člověku". Ozývají se námitky, že vyčlenit obhájce sexismu z debaty by znamenalo uzavřít se do názorové bubliny. Nic takového ovšem není prakticky možné - tyto hlasy jsou všude a slýcháme je celý život, není jak se od nich izolovat. Čelíte jim v práci i v rodině, na internetu na vás dotírají ze všech stran v podstatě každý den. Jakmile se vám podaří vydobýt si kousek prostoru, "muži s názorem" se do něj vetřou a dožadují se odpovědi na své námitky, i když se už předem rozhodli vám nevěřit. Nárokují si váš čas a zaštiťují se přitom svobodou slova, jako kdyby už takhle nedominovali většině veřejných konverzací, ať už virtuálních, nebo přímých. I vaši kamarádi na sociálních sítích se vás v dobré víře snaží zatáhnout do cizích hádek, aniž by jim docházelo, co vlastně dělají. Osobování si práva na něčí bolest má tolik podob a je natolik obvyklé, že už je bereme jako samozřejmost. Lidé, kteří jsou terčem sexuálního obtěžování a útoků, ovšem nikomu nedluží sebeobhajobu. Nemají povinnost obětovat svůj čas a energii pokaždé, když si někdo usmyslí, a mají právo sami rozhodnout, kdy se podělí o nepříjemné, nebo dokonce traumatizující osobní zážitky. Nespravedlivě odsouzení? Jedním z oblíbených argumentů je také úvodem zmíněné dovolávání se řádného procesu a tvrzení, že tu dochází k porušení presumpce neviny. To by dávalo smysl, kdyby skutečně padaly soudní rozsudky bez důkazů, ale nic takového se běžně neděje. Problém je přesně opačný, sexuální násilí je vyšetřováno nedostatečně a i v případě prokázané viny jsou tresty často neúměrně nízké. Ze zkušenosti sociálních pracovníků, zdravotnic a dalších lidí vyplývá, že sexuální útoky a zastrašování jsou mnohem rozšířenější, než si myslíme, ale oběti je raději nenahlašují, protože mají oprávněný strach, že by se místo spravedlnosti dočkaly spíš dalších traumat. Pokud jde o samotnou presumpci neviny, to je právní princip, který nikdo z nás mimo kontext soudních sporů nedodržuje. Všichni si vytváříme o ostatních nějaký úsudek, jedná se pouze o to, na čem je založený. Obviněné celebrity zatím přicházejí o dobře placenou práci - nehrozí jim chudoba ani skutečné sociální vyhnanství, některé subjekty se prostě jen rozhodly, že s nimi nechtějí dál spojovat své jméno. Nutno také připomenout, že na veřejnost se obvykle dostane jenom minimum detailů. Je silně nepravděpodobné, že by produkční společnosti byly ochotny rozvázat spolupráci s lukrativní mužskou hvězdou a tím ohrozit nebo rovnou zadusit množství úspěšných projektů, kdyby neměly důvod považovat obvinění za věrohodná. Naše moderní dějiny nejsou dějinami křivě obviněných mužů a vítězných zlatokopek. Máme za sebou desítky a stovky let, kdy bylo naopak možné beztrestně sexuálně obtěžovat druhé za předpokladu, že jste patřili k té správné demografické skupině. Tohle je standard, tohle jsme dlouho považovali za přirozené. Ve společnosti, která vidí podřazenost určitých lidí jako normální, jsme vyrostli všichni a žádný "nezdravě rychlý" obrat ani omylem nehrozí. Od přesvědčování k řešení Pokud se máme někam posunout, nepůjde to bez zásadního obratu v perspektivě. A pro diskuse v televizi nebo rozhlase to platí dvojnásob, protože spoluutvářejí standard toho, co je akceptovatelné. Žádná oběť sexuálního obtěžování si nezaslouží být konfrontována s člověkem, který si něco přečetl a udělal se mu názor. Je absurdní po ní chtít, aby hájila a vysvětlovala svoje právo na základní lidský respekt, a je absurdní, když jsou stovky vyargumentovaných článků a tisíce osobních výpovědí donekonečna zpochybňovány jako přehnaná reakce nebo touha být středem pozornosti. Mediální snaha o vyvažování ústí v situace, kdy je jedna strana sporu tlačena do nesmyslných názorových extrémů jen proto, aby tuhle škodlivou praxi pomohla ospravedlnit. Nemůžeme dál předstírat, že v debatě o tom, jestli je sexuální obtěžování skutečně tak rozšířený a vážný problém, existují dvě rovnocenné protistrany. Není možné dál ztrácet čas přesvědčováním někoho, kdo popírá realitu v zájmu ochrany vlastního ega. Máme na práci podstatnější věci - měli bychom se ptát, jak rozdílně tento problém dopadá na oběti z různých sociálních vrstev a různých etnik, co konkrétního můžeme změnit v přístupu k výchově dětí nebo jak zařídit, aby informovanost policie o podstatě sexuální agrese odpovídala 21. století. Hnutí #MeToo je nepochybně kritizovatelné, například proto, že jeho celkový veřejný obraz se točí hlavně kolem bílých žen. Relevantní kritika ale nemůže být motivovaná potřebou být za každou cenu v opozici a nemůže vyplynout z instinktivní snahy oběti umlčet. Nepřikládejte zbytečnou váhu názorům, které říkají, že tohle hnutí ničeho podstatného nedosáhne. Nic srovnatelného jsme tu opravdu ještě neměli. Společenská změna není něco, co předpovíme jako počasí a buď se strefíme, nebo ne - společenskou změnu utváříme my. A její směr by měli udávat lidé, na které současná situace opravdu dopadá.	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
Two weeks ago, the one-click Cyanogenmod installer hit the Google Play store, making it possible to switch from the stock Android operating system to a more free, more open version without any special expertise. Yesterday, Google asked Cyanogenmod to remove the installer, because using it voids your device's warranty. I've downloaded other apps from the Play Store that root your device and void the warranty, so this seems like a very selective enforcement to me. In any event, Cyanogenmod's installer can be "sideloaded" into your device without having to go through the Play Store (one of the advantages of Android is that it doesn't attempt to prevent you from installing unapproved software). Hundreds of thousands of people used the Play Store version, and we can hope that it remains in use, even without Google's official support. They advised us to voluntarily remove the application, or they would be forced to remove it administratively. We have complied with their wishes while we wait for a more favorable resolution. To those unfamiliar with the application, it has a single function – to guide users to enable "ADB", a built in development and debugging tool, and then navigates the user to the desktop installer. The desktop application then performs the installation of the CyanogenMod on their Android device. After reaching out to the Play team, their feedback was that though application itself is harmless, since it 'encourages users to void their warranty', it would not be allowed to remain in the store. CyanogenMod Installer Application Removed from Play Store	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }
In March, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation put out a call for a better, "next generation" condom, one that will "significantly preserve or enhance pleasure" for men — all in the name of public health, of course. "The common analogy is that wearing a condom is like taking a shower with a raincoat on," Dr. Papa Salif Sow, a senior program officer at the Gates Foundation, tells The New Republic. "A redesigned condom that overcomes inconvenience, fumbling, or perceived loss of pleasure would be a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty." But how do you improve on the good ol' latex sheath? Well, 812 people sent in ideas, and on Wednesday Bill Gates' charitable endeavor announced 11 finalists, each of whom were given $100,000 to pursue their quest for a superior condom. Condom technology has basically stayed the same for at least 500 years; the biggest innovations have been the switch from linen and lamb's intestine to latex, and the addition of a reservoir tip. There has been tinkering like adding flavoring, colors, stimulating textures, and anti-ejaculation chemicals. But what condom breakthrough could be worth $1 million, the potential payoff from Gates if any of these ideas pan out? Some of the 11 projects build on previous innovations, and the Gates Foundation may ask two or more finalists to work together on a condom design, says program officer Stephen Ward. "There's not one magic bullet," he tells The New York Times. "The idea is making them easier for people to use in the moment, in the dark, whatever situation they're in." Without further ado, here are Bill Gates' 11 potential condoms of the future: 1. The tenderloin Boring, actual name: Ultra-Sensitive Reconstituted Collagen Condom Developer: Mark McGlothlin at Apex Medical Technologies, San Diego Innovation: McGlothlin decided that the best way to make a condom that feels like a second skin is to reinvent the leather condom, in this case using collagen fibers from bovine tendons. Yes, it's a cow condom. On the one hand, porking with beef sounds very unappetizing. On the other, says Chris Higgins at Mental Floss, "leftover beef tendons are cheap, and they're also strong natural materials." By embedding very thin fibers from them in a cross-linked pattern, a strong-but-thin organic material is created. Researchers also note that the "micro-rough" quality of collagen is great for heat transfer, which lends itself to a plethora of "hot beef" jokes that we'll leave to your imagination. [Mental Floss] 2. The shrinking sheath Boring, actual name: Dynamic, Universal Fit, Low Cost Condom Developer: Benjamin Strutt at Cambridge Design Partnership, Cambridge, England Innovation: Strutt has repurposed a "composite anisotropic" material — it is stronger when force is applied to it in certain directions — to create a one-size-fits-all condom "designed to gently tighten during intercourse, enhancing sensation and reliability." In other words, the condom shrinks onto the penis during sex, making it feel more invisible and reducing the chance of leakage. 3. The handle bar (aka The big easy) Boring, actual name: Project Rapidom Developer: Willem van Rensburg at Kimbranox (Pty) Limited, Stellenbosch, South Africa Innovation: Van Rensburg has already created a stir by creating a condom with applicator handles, and he promises to improve the design with the Gates Foundation money. The idea is that men are more likely to use a condom if they can put it on quickly and correctly, without too much interruption. "In sub-Saharan Africa, sex is basically done with low light and it might be very difficult to see the direction of the condom," explains Dr. Sow. Here's an earlier iteration of van Rensburg's condom handle in action: 4. The Saran wrap Boring, actual name: Ultra Sheer "Wrapping" Condom with Superior Strength Developer: Ron Frezieres at California Family Health Council, Los Angeles Innovation: If Strutt's condom shrinks, Frezieres' is supposed to cling — as in the polyethylene film you use to wrap up and cover your food for refrigeration. Frezieres says he wants a condom that "clings like Saran Wrap rather than squeezes," and he's found a prototype in Colombia. The Colombian version is already sold in eight countries, says The New Republic's Andy Isaacson. Frezieres group plans on "perfecting its design, replacing the oil-based lubricant for one that's silicone-based, and working through the requisite FDA approvals." The American version of the condom will also borrow a page from van Rensburg and contain tabs to help don the sheath. Unlike van Rensburg's, the pull tabs are part of the condom, not the packaging. You can see an illustration of Frezieres' condom in action here. 5. The Model T Boring, actual name: Engineering a Biologically Inspired Condom Developer: Patrick Kiser at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. Innovation: Kiser proposes to create a new polymer compound similar to lubricated skin, then use the material to mass-produce condoms. "These technologies could improve sensation and the condoms would be readily manufacturable for deployment across the globe," Kiser says in his pitch. 6. The warm embrace Boring, actual name: Graphene-Based Polymer Composites For High Heat Transfer, Improved Sensitivity And Drug Delivery Developer: Lakshminarayanan Ragupathy at HLL Lifecare, Trivandrum, India Innovation: The big advance in this Indian condom is the use of graphene, a crystalline form of carbon that is super thin, super strong, and very flexible. "It also conducts heat," the Gates Foundation notes. HLL Lifecare "will mix graphene with currently used condom materials to produce thinner, heat-conducting condoms, and incorporate drugs and compounds to further enhance safety as well as sexual experience." Hot. 7. Daddy's little helper Boring, actual name: Super-Hydrophilic Nanoparticle Condom Coating Developer: Karen Buch and Ducksoo Kim at Boston University Innovation: Nanoparticles. Buch and Kim will dress up their condom with "a super-hydrophilic nanoparticle coating" that will add a thin layer of lubrication, helping protect the condom from breakage. 8. The memory stick Boring, actual name: Ultrathin Adaptable Condoms for Enhanced Sensitivity Developer: Richard Chartoff at the University of Oregon, Eugene Innovation: Chartoff proposes developing a strong, ultra-thin, shape-memory material from polyurethane elastic polymers that will activate with warmth. "Think of something similar to shrink wrap that conforms to the shape of an object as it is heated," says The New Republic's Isaacson. "Now think of a penis: During intercourse, body heat would cause molecules in the condom to contract, molding it to the user." The material would also be about half as thin as latex condoms. 9. The cheating heart Boring, actual name: The Condom Applicator Pack (CAP) Developer: Michael Rutner and Russell Burley at House of Petite Pty, in Sydney, Australia Innovation: Rutner and Burley also tackle the problem of having to put on a condom with your bare hands. Their plan is to create a universal condom applicator that can be used to make sure the prophylactic is put on correctly and without tearing a hole. The condom helper will be conveniently packaged with a condom. 10. The invincible Trojan Boring, actual name: An Enhanced Condom Using Nanomaterials Developer: Aravind Vijayaraghavan at the University of Manchester, England Innovation: Vijayaraghavan and his team are also proposing to create a new material using graphene. Their condom material will be designed with his pleasure in mind, but it will also be durable. Really durable. "Graphene is unbelievably strong (roughly 100 times stronger than steel)," notes Mental Floss' Higgins, and this "could lead to a nearly indestructible condom." 11. The invisible glove Boring, actual name: Ultra-Sensory Condoms Based on New Superelastomer Technology Developer: Jimmy Mays at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Innovation: Mays is going for realism, in the form of a highly elastic polymer called superelastomers. That should allow for soft, super thin, and cheap-to-produce condoms. "The goal is to make a condom that has the same texture as human skin — you won't even know it's there," Mays tells The New Republic. He's been researching this kind of soft, durable plastic for 25 years, and the Gates thing sparked an epiphany. "I'm not a condom guy," he tells The New Republic, "I'm a polymer chemist, and our material was tailor-made for this purpose."	{ "pile_set_name": "OpenWebText2" }

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.