text stringlengths 316 100k |
|---|
Punta Gorda Murals: Take a Step Back in Time
During a recent trip to Punta Gorda, Florida we discovered several beautiful murals found all around the historic city center. Walking around the sleepy streets, using a map provided by the Charlotte Harbor Visitors Bureau, you can explore the stunning Punta Gorda murals and take a step back in time. The murals literally painted a picture of the life and times of people throughout the history of this small town.
Hurricane Charlie Strikes
The Punta Gorda Historic Mural Society started as a result of an idea of one local, Dr. Robert Andrews, to bring to life the history and culture of the area through historic and educational murals we see today. The first mural was completed in September 1995 and they kept on coming! By 2004 there were over 20 completed murals, then disaster hit in the shape of Hurricane Charlie. During the devastating storm over half of the 20 murals were destroyed.
Rebuilding Punta Gorda – Murals and all!
The town of Punta Gorda found itself rebuilding much of the historic city center as a result of all the damage but thankfully, the committee serving the Historical Mural Society had the support to re-build the murals as well. Today there are 28 murals decorating the sides of buildings and walls all over the town and Punta Gorda is now recognized as one of the top Mural Towns in the country.
Visiting the Murals
Punta Gorda is located in Charlotte County in Southwest Florida about 100 miles south of Tampa.
Take a look at the Punta Gorda Historical Mural Society interactive map. Don’t forget to download a QR Code reader as each mural will provide you more detail when you scan it into your smart phone!
A few more of the amazing murals:
Share the beauty! Pinterest Pin: |
First Listen: Janacek, The Cunning Little Vixen
Audio for this feature is no longer available.
It's a new tradition in New York: the annual mad rush of hipsters and septuagenarians alike to the limited run of whatever New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert has cooked up to end the season.
Who's Who Isabel Bayrakdarian...Vixen Marie Lenormand......Fox Alan Opie......Forester Melisa Parks...Forester's Wife/Owl Keith Jameson...Schoolmaster/Mosquito Wilbur Pauley...Badger/Parson Joshua Bloom......Harašta Noah Sadik......Young Vixen New York Choral Artists
Joseph Flummerfelt, director Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus
Anthony Piccolo, director New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert, conductor
This year, it was a bold and beautiful choice: The Cunning Little Vixen by Czech composer Leos Janácek. First performed in 1924, Vixen was based on a daily comic strip of the time that chronicled the adventures of a female fox and a human forester.
Recorded live at Avery Fisher Hall in June 2011, Vixen is no kiddie fairy tale. Instead, this opera is an extended, strange meditation on lust, love, brutality, contentment and fleeting life.The opera tells the tale of a young female fox – the Vixen – as she is captured by the forester, taken into humiliating captivity as a pet, escapes back into the forest, discovers blissful love and the smaller pleasures of family life, and finally sinks into her inevitable death.
The astringent lyrics (sung here in English) and bittersweet narrative sluice over the rich layers of orchestral writing. Mossy death and precarious rebirth always hover nearby, whether in the story of the vixen herself and her anthropomorphic fellow forest-dwelllers or with the hapless humans, from a drunk priest to a schoolteacher who wastes his time pining for an unreachable beloved. The magical glow of the opera is tinged with a unshakable feeling of decay and death.
Janácek's score is a deft masterwork – and Gilbert, who deserves all hails for bringing this rarely heard opera back to New York, maintains its delicate balance. You can lose yourself in the score's swooning surges of lyrical lushness and yet still be pricked by Janácek's acidic twists on tonality, carefully limned by the Philharmonic musicians.
Isabel Bayrakdarian glows as the Vixen, spiking the animal's yearnings for freedom with brilliant top notes. The mezzo-soprano Marie Lenormand captures the fox's dusky desire for the beautiful, impetuous vixen wonderfully. Other soloists are equally captivating, including the sweet-voiced tenor Keith Jameson as the schoolmaster and baritone Alan Opie as the befuddled Forester. |
Story highlights Agency director says House committee doesn't have jurisdiction
Transportation chairman has been tough critic of TSA
Hearing will go on as planned with other witnesses
A congressional hearing Thursday on aviation security will be missing its chief witness, who declined to testify.
Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole had been asked to appear before the Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on aviation on the impact of his agency's policies on passengers and the airline industry.
But Pistole said he had no plans to attend, arguing the panel has no jurisdiction over TSA matters.
The TSA has been regularly criticized over the years by Republicans in the House, especially, for not becoming leaner and more efficient.
"No representative from TSA will be present," Pistole said in a statement posted on the agency's website.
JUST WATCHED Dying woman: TSA spoils end-of-life trip Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Dying woman: TSA spoils end-of-life trip 01:50
JUST WATCHED TSA rescues kidnapped woman at airport Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH TSA rescues kidnapped woman at airport 02:11
JUST WATCHED Man strips to protest TSA pat-down Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Man strips to protest TSA pat-down 01:51
It is not common but not unheard of for an agency director to decline to testify at a congressional hearing outside of a scheduling conflict or another agreed-upon reason.
The full Transportation Committee is chaired by Florida Republican John Mica, who has been a tough critic of TSA -- whether led by Republican or Democratic administrations -- for its size, for long security lines at airports, and for screening policies he says have fallen short.
Mica's chairmanship ends in January due to House Republican rules that limit such tenures.
The committee insisted it has legislative jurisdiction when it comes to the airline industry and its passengers, who help finance TSA operations through security fees.
The committee said it has a responsibility to ensure that travelers, airport operations and U.S. commerce are not disrupted by TSA policies, procedures or operations.
"TSA is missing the point," said Justin Harclerode, a spokesman for the full committee. "While this committee does not have direct legislative jurisdiction over TSA, that agency, as with any other agency, has a responsibility to provide congressionally requested testimony or information."
Harclerode said, "Unfortunately, TSA regularly chooses to not even respond to simple requests for information by this committee."
Pistole said TSA would continue to work with "committees of jurisdiction" on agency matters.
He said TSA witnesses have testified at 38 hearings and provided 425 briefings for lawmakers during this session of Congress.
The hearing will go on as planned. Witnesses include two government watchdogs: an official from the Homeland Security Department's inspector general's office and a homeland security expert from the Government Accountability Office.
Industry representatives will also appear. |
The MLB 2013 First-Year Player Draft (technically called the Rule 4 draft) begins Thursday evening at 7 p.m. ET. We will be running a discussion and information-sharing thread throughout the day at Minor League Ball, so stop by and partake. I will be there much of the day leading the discussion.
MAKING A MOCKERY OF MOCKS
The rumor mill is churning like crazy, to the point that previous mock drafts are most likely obsolete.
Most mocks, for good reason, have assumed up until now that the Houston Astros would pick either Oklahoma's Jonathan Gray or Stanford's Mark Appel with the first-overall choice. However, there have been indications that North Carolina third baseman Colin Moran is also in the running. Keep in mind that the Astros didn't decide on Carlos Correa in 2012 until a few moments before the actual draft. The same dynamic may be in play this year, and as we noted last week, the ripple effects will be strong.
MLB Draft 2013: How the MLB draft works Your guide to the rules and more of the 2013 MLB draft.
The Cubs seem set on a college pitcher at No. 2, but if both Gray and Appel are still the board, who will they pick? Gray's recent positive test for non-prescription Adderoll use is supposedly not a big deal in regards to his draft status, but the data point exists and it might play in somehow.
The Rockies at No. 3 were long-rumored to be focused on San Diego slugger Kris Bryant, but late murmurs have them looking at first baseman Dominic Smith, at least according to a tweet from ESPN's Peter Gammons last night. Smith is a legitimate first-round pick but was seen as fitting more in the middle of the round for most of the spring. However, if he agrees to a pre-draft deal, how far will Bryant fall?
The Twins are supposedly focused on pitching, but could they pass up Bryant's bat? What if Gray (or even Appel) is still on the board?
DISCLAIMERS ARE DONE
With all those disclaimers out of the way, here is one possible scenario mixing rumor, speculation, and what few verifiable facts we have. I won't even go so far as to say this is a prediction; it's more an exploration on how things could play out. Just call this one possible quantum permutation of the multiverse.
1) Astros: Mark Appel, RHP, Stanford: In this universe, the Astros come to agreeable terms with a Mark Appel willing to start his career with his hometown team now that he has a Stanford degree under his belt.
2) Cubs: Jonathan Gray, RHP, Oklahoma: Lots of gnashing and teeth-grinding in the hours leading up to the draft, but in the end the Cubs go with Gray.
3) Rockies: Dominic Smith, 1B, California HS: A beamquake strikes Draft World, upsetting the balance of expected reality. Smith agrees to a slightly below-slot deal, freeing up cash for the Rockies later in the draft.
4) Twins: Kohl Stewart, RHP, Texas HS: The Twins think about Bryant as a long-term replacement for Justin Morneau, but in the end can't resist the allure of Stewart's arm. The multiverse tries to right itself.
5) Indians: Kris Bryant, 3B, San Diego: It is hard to see Bryant falling any further than this.
6) Marlins: Braden Shipley, RHP, Nevada: The Marlins reportedly have a long-standing interest in Shipley.
7) Red Sox: Clint Frazier, OF, Georgia HS: The Red Sox are rumored to be looking at a bat, with Frazier and Austin Meadows at the top of the chart. Moran is still available in this universe and might be a compromise pick.
8) Royals: Phil Bickford, RHP, California HS: Although the big-league team is short on hitting and Moran might be attractive on paper, pitching is said to be Kansas City's focus, with Phil Bickford a better long-term option than Ryne Stanek and his hometown connection.
9) Pirates: Reese McGuire, C, Washington HS: McGuire has been repeatedly linked to the Twins at 4 or the Pirates at 9. In this universe he ends up in Pittsburgh.
10) Blue Jays: Trey Ball, LHP, Indiana HS: I've been slotting Ball to the Jays for a couple of months now and he still fits here.
11) Mets: Colin Moran, 3B, North Carolina: The Mets are said to want a college bat. Here's a good one.
12) Mariners: J.P. Crawford, SS, California HS: Positional scarcity helps make Crawford's case.
13) Padres: Austin Meadows, OF, Georgia HS: Hard to see him falling further than this.
14) Pirates: DJ Peterson, 3B, New Mexico: This has been rumored for weeks and is still valid under this scenario.
15) Diamondbacks: Ryne Stanek, RHP, Arkansas: The most logical choice if the Dbacks want a pitcher.
16) Phillies: Ian Clarkin, LHP, California HS: The Phillies like left-handed prep pitchers.
17) White Sox: Chris Anderson, RHP, Jacksonville: He's big and he throws hard, qualities that the White Sox like.
18) Dodgers: Rob Kaminsky, LHP, New Jersey HS: Some scouts consider him the top prep lefty in the draft. I can see him going higher than this.
19) Cardinals: Alex Gonzalez, RHP, Oral Roberts: He's been moving up boards and seems to fit the Cardinals' mold.
20) Tigers: Jonathan Crawford, RHP, Florida: His stock hasn't dropped as much as you might think despite his erratic spring.
21) Rays: Tim Anderson, SS, East Central Mississippi CC: Consensus sees him not getting much further past this.
22) Orioles: Hunter Renfroe, OF, Mississippi State: He could easily go 10 slots higher than this.
23) Rangers: Hunter Harvey, RHP, North Carolina HS: Many, many good options here, but I'll have the Rangers go with Harvey's upside and genetics.
24) Athletics: Sean Manaea, LHP, Indiana State: He will go much earlier than this if his medical reports are OK, and later if they aren't. We'll compromise and put him here.
25) Giants: Matt Krook, LHP, California HS: Somewhat raw but moldable, and local. Seems like a perfect fit.
26) Yankees: Eric Jagielo, 3B, Notre Dame: Lots of mocks put Kaminsky here, but in this universe he's already gone. Jagielo has one of the best bats still available.
27) Reds: Phil Ervin, OF, Samford: If this happens, it could be a huge bargain as Ervin has one of the most complete skillsets around.
28) Cardinals: Devin Williams, RHP, Missouri HS: Matched-set with a polished college arm at 19.
29) Rays: Nick Ciuffo, C, South Carolina HS: Will they have more luck with a high school catcher this time?
30) Rangers: Cody Reed, LHP, Northwest Mississippi CC: Another rumored interest.
31) Braves: Josh Hart, OF, Georgia HS: Loud and hard-to-find tool (speed), check; from Georgia (check); Braves rumored to be after hitting (check).
32) Yankees: Marco Gonzales, LHP, Gonzaga
33) Yankees: Billy McKinney, OF, Texas HS: Working with the diversity idea, this gives the Yankees a refined college bat in Jagielo, a refined college arm in Gonzales, and an excellent prep bat in McKinney.
So, that's one possibility. Will our universe be anything like that? We'll know in a few hours.
More from SB Nation:
• Suspensions coming to Biogenesis-linked players
• Neyer: MLB had to act | Goldman: No one looks good
• Interview: Fay Vincent on the never-ending steroid era
• MLB draft: Scouting report roundup
• MLB draft: Team budgets and first-round values
• MLB draft: Key pitchers to know | Key hitters |
PSA: Android O Beta Blocks Sideloading on Android TV
Android O is focusing on a wide variety of issues to make the user experience better and more secure. One feature, uncovered by Android Police, blocks apps installing APKs until the user explicitly approves that application. Users still need to allow installing apps from unknown sources, but it would then give more control over which apps these are. It’d prevent an app from maliciously installing malware even though other apps may be okay.
This is nice in general. Users get notified, open settings, an turn on this permission. However, this only exists on phones. On Android TV, there are currently no exposed settings UI to accomplish this. Will this UI be added in a future revision? Probably. For now though, apps like App Cloner and Tv App Repo will not be functional as both try to install APK files.
To demonstrate this concept I have loaded the Android O beta onto an emulator. In this video example, I have a downloaded APK. Normally it can be selected an installed using the Package Installer. On the O beta, we are alerted that this won’t work. Trying to select “Settings” does nothing, so we can’t approve the app’s installation.
The issue also extends to sideloading in other forms. Want to install an app by navigating a file browser? Unfortunately it’s using the same APIs to request the install and it will also fail.
If you’re really eager to sideload apps on your Android TV, you should probably refrain from signing up for the beta. If you don’t mind only getting apps from the Play Store for now, then go ahead explore the new UI.
Nick Felker Nick Felker is a student Electrical & Computer Engineering student at Rowan University (C/O 2017) and the student IEEE webmaster. When he's not studying, he is a software developer for the web and Android (Felker Tech). He has several open source projects on GitHub (http://github.com/fleker) Devices: Moto G-2013 Moto G-2015, Moto 360, Google ADT-1, Nexus 7-2013 (x2), Lenovo Laptop, Custom Desktop. Although he was an intern at Google, the content of this blog is entirely independent and his own thoughts. More Posts - Website Follow Me: |
◆ ◆ ◆
By Anna Holmes
I’m not convinced that modern methods of human interaction are any better than the epistolary intrigues of the early 19th century.
Image Anna Holmes Credit Illustration by R. Kikuo Johnson
Although frustrations and fears, miscommunications and misreadings, inflated egos, social jockeying and the privileging of female youth still persist, the situation has improved considerably with regard to love and relationships — especially for women.
This is not to say that the characteristics of courtship in Jane Austen’s era are in need of renunciation: I’m not convinced, for example, that modern methods of human interaction — say, showing off on Instagram or rat-tat-tatting away on sites like OkCupid — are really any better than the epistolary intrigues and conversational country strolls of the early 19th century, at least those depicted in her books. I also believe there is something — a lot, actually — to celebrate in the ways that Austen’s novels, particularly “Emma,” offer insight into the revolutionary changes for women that have taken place over the two centuries since publication. Such changes include a growing economic independence that has freed them from the pressures to seek both financial stability and long-lasting love in the form of one perfect person.
For those unfamiliar with the story, “Emma” concerns a beautiful, talented and clever young woman with a penchant for meddling in the private lives of friends and foes alike. She especially loves playing the role of matchmaker, though she herself has no desire to enter into marriage. And who can blame her? The men around her are a middling bunch, and thanks to the attentions and fortune of her wealthy father, to whom she is also strongly attached, she is sufficiently secure, economically and emotionally.
It’s fair to say, then, that “Emma” — the novel and the character — anticipates how profound a role the large-scale economic independence of women would later play in altering the nature of relationships and marriage. Fewer women are marrying, and many are marrying older. (Emma does eventually marry, at the ripe old age of 21.) “I don’t know that Austen could have envisioned a world in which marriage was in no way compulsory,” Rebecca Traister, the author of the forthcoming book “All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation,” told me. “I think the temptation when we read Austen can be to romanticize it, but in fact the world she’s skewering is one of enormous constriction for women, a world that is, thankfully, unrecognizable to us now in a lot of ways.”
In addition to reflecting how women’s economic autonomy creates freedom in other areas of their lives, Emma Woodhouse is a powerful example of a woman who puts herself first, placing a greater value on her needs and desires than on those of many of the men around her. Embedded within Austen’s comedy of manners is the subtle but sustained assertion that women should concentrate less on whether they are worthy of a potential suitor and more on whether a potential suitor is worthy of them.
“Emma perceived that the nature of his gallantry was a little self-willed,” Austen writes of Frank Churchill, a young man engaged in an apparent campaign to win Emma’s hand. “Had she intended ever to marry him, it might have been worth while to pause and consider, and try to understand the value of his preference, and the character of his temper; but for all the purposes of their acquaintance, he was quite amiable enough.” It’s a small but striking and instructive demonstration, the careful way Emma appraises the character of the various men who jockey for her attentions and those of the women around her. We could all learn from her example.
Anna Holmes is an award-winning writer who has contributed to numerous publications, including The Washington Post, Salon, Newsweek and The New Yorker online. She is the editor of two books: “Hell Hath No Fury: Women’s Letters From the End of the Affair”; and “The Book of Jezebel,” based on the popular women’s website she created in 2007. She works as an editor at Fusion and lives in New York. |
Love Wapping can exclusively reveal that Tower Hamlets council has started an investigation into payments of over £300,000 to a non-existent local charity for ten years despite repeated warnings.
Docklands Handicapped Group was removed from the Charity Commission register in March 2000.
But for at least the last ten years notifications of BACS payments from Tower Hamlets council to Docklands Handicapped Group (DHG) have been sent to Roserton Street E14, currently the address of the Island House Community Centre. But the DHG has operated at this address since 2006.
£334,827.39 payments
BACS remittance advice documents of two payments of £25,441.87 and £9,732.70 on the 2nd and 3rd February 2016 to a Docklands Handicapped Group Santander bank account have been obtained by LW and are reproduced below.
These payments and publicly available council Payments to Suppliers data total £334,827.39 since 2011.
A breakdown of all payments is available here.
Records show that Docklands Handicapped Group (DHG) does have an address at Saunders Ness Road, E14 – the home address of Kathy McTasney, a close associate of former Mayor Rahman.
Money for carers
When contacted by LW for comment Ms McTasney said that DHG was no longer functioning but the payments to DHG were for the carers who look after her severely disabled daughter and that she had no direct knowledge of finance details and little interest in the source of funds as long as the carers were paid.
Ms McTasney was unable to explain how an organisation removed from the Charity Commission register 16 years ago was still receiving funds.
Ms McTasney has stood unsuccessfully as a Tower Hamlets First councillor in the 2014 local elections. She is a trustee of the Mudchute Association and secretary of the Employees General Union Ltd which is also linked to her home address on the Isle of Dogs.
She left Tower Hamlets Labour party in March 2011 to join Tower Hamlets First saying that “Lutfur Rahman is the people’s choice for mayor”.
Directly elected Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman was banned from office in 2015 after being found guilty of corruption including the misallocation of grant funds.
Tower Hamlets council investigating
Commenting on the payments a Tower Hamlets council spokesperson said: ‘We are unable to comment on the specifics of individual cases. The council takes these allegations very seriously and we will be investigating the evidence through the appropriate channels.”
Cllr. Peter Golds, Leader of the Conservative Group at Tower Hamlets council commented that “The issue of these payments is extremely interesting and I have passed on my concerns to the relevant authorities.“
Update 12.39 1 April 2016
Below is an updated statement from Tower Hamlets council.
“The council takes these allegations very seriously. Our initial investigations show that all care payments made were to meet the assessed needs of the recipient and were reviewed and agreed in line with standard social work practice. Docklands Handicapped Group is known to adult social care, however they should have alerted the council to its change of circumstances. We will continue to investigate the detail of this case through all appropriate channels.”
Update 10.01 7 April 2016
In a prepared statement John Biggs, Mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: “We take this matter extremely seriously and are investigating it thoroughly. It does however concern payments made to assist with the care of a severely disabled and vulnerable adult, and this matter needs to be kept in mind and the matter dealt with sensitively.
“This long preceded my appointment as Mayor but I will ensure any proper lessons are learnt and that any funding for services provided is in future provided in the appropriate manner and is properly accounted for. I cannot account for the assertion that the Council has been advised ‘countless times’ as this needs to be properly explained as a part of the investigation.”
Charity Commission investigating
The Charity Commission has been informed of the payments by LW and issued the following statement:
“The Charity Commission has contacted the organisation to establish if it is still operating as a charity. We await a response. It is an offence to solicit funds on the basis that an organisation is a registered charity if it is not registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales, as this is misleading to donors and the general public. We have contacted Tower Hamlets Council for further information regarding the organisation.”
Steve Hill, Centre Director at Island House, refused to make any comment on the payments despite the fact that it was his own staff who finally managed to bring attention to the issue by emailing local councillors.
Alerts by Island House staff ignored
Island House staff have informed Tower Hamlets council on numerous occasions during the last ten years that the DHG has not used the Island House address since 2006, but it seems that the council had no knowledge of the group – despite continuing to pay it money.
In late 2015 Island House staff were finally instructed by a council employee to open the letters. When they did they realised that thousands of pounds of tax-payers money was being sent to a group of which Tower Hamlets council seems to have no knowledge.
The payments have continued since the administration of Labour Mayor John Biggs took charge and nearly a year after Eric Pickles put Tower Hamlets council under direct control of the Department of Communities and Local Government.
Council payment details to DHG for only three out of the ten years in question are currently publicly available on the Tower Hamlets website.
LW has asked Tower Hamlets council to provide copies of the invoices from Docklands Handicapped Group as referenced in the two BACS payment notifications.
LW will also be asking for an explanation of the process used to allow each of these payments, i.e. initial approval, officer review, councillor review, review of outcomes, checking annual reports and internal audits.
The Wapping Mole is back
Last year LW was closed – permanently we thought due to lack of funding – and the Wapping Mole took a well earned break. Sort of. However although not publishing very much Moley has been quietly digging away.
Sneaky huh?
When the issue of the payments to Docklands Handicapped Group was mentioned to the Mole his belief that there were still a lot of unusual things going on in the borough was confirmed.
So the Wapping Mole is officially back – even if he is homeless and unemployed.
Our entire editorial team understands that Moley will only be publishing the bigger stories but will hopefully one day get back to documenting the real stories such as the issues faced by the Wapping Squirrels in their constant search for high quality nuts.
But for the moment the Wapping Mole has some very interesting leads to follow and holes to dig. Let’s hope he tells us all about them one day.
You never know, it might even be tomorrow.
Note: This story was published on 31st March, not 1st April. You have to wonder though.
All content is Copyright © 2016 www.lovewapping.org. Please refer to full Terms of Use for reproduction terms. |
Who is he and why is he here? Theories abound after a Sarasota man discovers the mysterious 8-foot-tall Lego man now being kept at an undisclosed location.
It's a publicity stunt, but whose stunt is it?
Washed ashore on Siesta Key Beach Tuesday morning was an 8-foot-tall Lego man, his shirt emblazoned with an enigmatic and grammatically challenged message: "NO REAL THAN YOU ARE."
Jeff Hindman was walking the beach and first saw the 100-pound figure in the pre-dawn light. Thinking it was marine life, washed ashore overnight and left in the gentle ankle-deep surf, Hindman got closer and discovered the statue was made of fiberglass, like a boat hull.
He took a photo, then dragged the Lego man out of the water and stood it up.
A gathering crowd threw out theories.
An artist's statement about the human condition in the 21st century? A toy that fell off a boat? A marketing campaign for the new Legoland amusement park near Orlando?
"It doesn't make sense," Hindman said.
Similar Lego men with the same grammatical mangling were found on beaches in Holland in 2007 and England in 2008. On the back of the Siesta Key Lego man's shirt is the name "Ego Leonard" and the number 8.
Ego Leonard is purportedly the name of a Netherlands artist, but it wasn't clear if that was a real name or if a real artist was behind the work. The header on Leonard's website, written mostly in Dutch, is "No real than you are" and the home page has a photo of a Lego man.
An email sent to Leonard was answered in the first person.
"I am glad I crossed over. Although it was a hell of a swimm," the email said. "Nice weather here and friendly people. I think I am gonna stay here for a while. A local sheriff escorted me to my new home."
Lego executives want no part of Lego man. A spokeswoman for Legoland said the Lego man is a counterfeit and is not endorsed by Legoland or its parent company, Merlin Entertainments Group.
For now, Lego man is in custody. The Sarasota County Sheriff's deputies did not know what to do with the figure or who to return him to, so he now resides in the sheriff's office property room. If no one claims him in 90 days, Hindman will become the owner.
Says Hindman: "I'll put it on eBay." |
For researchers who study the cancer-inhibiting mechanisms of selenium, the scientific literature generally comes in two flavors. Selenium is seen as either a beneficial scavenger of DNA-damaging oxygen free radicals or as a potent inducer of apoptosis that eliminates damaged, potentially cancerous cells.
Now a third flavor could be on the menu. Scientists at Indiana University in Indianapolis reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that high levels of selenomethionine, the primary organic form of selenium, prompts cells in culture to initiate DNA repair, a key mechanism in preventing cancer. The group, led by Martin Smith, Ph.D., shows that the nutrient indirectly switches on a DNA repair subpathway controlled by the regulatory protein p53.
The finding raises the intriguing, but still scientifically murky, possibility that people with functional p53 could boost their capacity for DNA repair by simply increasing their dietary intake of selenomethionine by, for example, eating Brazil nuts, a plentiful source of the amino acid. The idea hinges in part on previous studies indicating that some people are naturally more proficient at DNA repair than others and that this inherent difference can be correlated with cancer risk.
“It’s good news, bad news,” commented Howard Ganther, Ph.D., a respected selenium researcher and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “The good news is the cells that retain a functional p53 will be amenable to selenium chemoprevention. The bad news is p53 is mutated and nonfunctional in most known cancers.”
Common Trace Element
Selenium is a common trace element in alkaline soils that enters the food chain via wheat, corn, and other forage plants. Following the discovery of selenium during the early 1800s in the sediment of a Swedish sulfuric acid plant, the mineral was considered for decades to be extremely toxic to animals at high levels and a possible carcinogen. By the late 1950s, however, scientists had concluded otherwise. They found that selenium is actually an essential component of the human diet that is necessary for growth and fertility.
On the heels of this discovery, scientists observed that people who lived in areas of the United States with moderate or high levels of selenium in their forage crops had lower death rates from various cancers than people in regions with low-selenium forage crops. This unexpected finding triggered a flurry of follow-up studies around the world that yielded generally supportive, but sometimes contradictory, epidemiologic data.
Then, in 1996, the late Larry Clark, Ph.D., and colleagues dropped an epidemiologic bombshell. In what many selenium researchers term “a landmark finding,” Clark and his colleagues at the Arizona Cancer Center, Tuscon, found in a randomized trial for the prevention of skin cancers that people who supplemented their diets with baker’s yeast rich in selenium reduced their overall risk of developing cancer by 40% (although there was no impact on risk of skin cancer) and reduced their risk of dying from cancer by nearly half, compared with the placebo group.
New Awareness
These dramatic results from the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer trial once again raised the important question: What exactly is it about selenium that tumor cells don’t like? Find the answer, many scientists believed, and they would have an important mechanistic lead in learning how to prevent or control cancer.
In the early 1970s, researchers thought they had the answer in hand when they discovered selenocysteine, an amino acid that humans produce with selenium, stitched into glutathione peroxidase, a well-known antioxidant enzyme. The implication was that selenium played an important role in the body’s antioxidant defense system, where it helped to inactivate highly reactive oxygen free radicals.
But the antioxidant explanation proved simplistic. Scientists discovered in the 1980s that about two-thirds of the selenium in the rat binds to compounds other than glutathione peroxidase, providing strong evidence that the nutrient is broken down in the body into myriad metabolites, which, in turn, influence multiple biologic pathways.
“It is important to keep in mind that the biological activity of selenium is an expression of selenium in a wide variety of chemical compounds, and not the element per se,” wrote Ganther at the time, a point highlighted by the fact that at least 15 different so-called “selenoproteins” have now been identified.
Enter DNA Repair
In this vein, Smith and his colleagues began 3 years ago to address the possibility that selenium could also induce DNA repair. If correct, because they would use doses of selenium that were nontoxic, the finding would suggest another possible chemopreventive strategy to prevent or control the abnormal growth of tumor cells.
“There was already some evidence, some hint in the literature, that selenium in the form of selenomethionine could activate p53,” explained Smith, a molecular biologist. “So, we really wanted to take a closer look at it.”
Smith noted that his laboratory was uniquely positioned to tackle the question. Not only had he and his group worked extensively on defining the DNA repair subpathway of p53—a well-known regulator of this important cellular mechanism—they already had the in vitro tools up and running that would allow them to look specifically at where and how selenium affects the protein. Depending on the stimulus and the cell type, p53 can switch on various combinations of at least 100 human genes that are involved in either the DNA repair subpathway or apoptosis.
In the recent article, Smith and colleagues report that, although selenomethionine does not directly interact with p53, it does the next best thing. It activates a protein called Ref-1, which is known to reduce p53. That is, Ref-1 confers a partial negative charge on p53 that, like turning a key in an ignition, activates it.
Smith’s group also reported that Ref-1 reduced p53 on one or possibly two specific cysteine amino acids. This suggested that these residues might be the specific molecular switches that transmit the Ref-1-generated signal further downstream, although the group did not directly demonstrate that these cysteines are plugged into the p53-mediated DNA repair subpathway.
The group did show that, after cells were exposed to selenomethionine, their p53 activity was threefold higher than at baseline. They also found that excision of base pairs, a sign of DNA repair, was increased by twofold. Interestingly, the scientists found no signs of cell cycle arrest or apoptosis, nor could they induce DNA repair in cell lines that were null for Ref-1 or p53, an indication that these proteins generated the signal.
How Much Is Enough?
For this study, Smith and colleagues exposed the cell lines to a selenium dose that they considered “within the physiological range of [previous chemoprevention] clinical studies.” As the authors explained in the paper, “Cancer preventive use of selenium typically consists of 200 micrograms per day, exceeding the [recommended dietary allowances] by fourfold with no toxicity.”
Others said they were less certain about this point. Refering to patients in the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer Trial, Ganther noted that even in patients who received high daily doses of selenal yeast (400 mg), their levels of selenium were only increased to about 3 micromolar, a standard measure of a compound’s concentration in liquid. “Most people got half that dose, and the level was more on the order of 2 micromolar or less. So, when they (Smith and colleagues) used 20 micromolar, that’s pushing it for interpretation.”
Still, Ganther and others praised the study. “Even if repair isn’t the mechanism, this is clearly something that they’ve shown happens,” said Douglas Brash, Ph.D., a scientist at Yale University who wrote a commentary on the paper in PNAS. “Certainly, it looks like the repair thing here is involved as a player.”
If so, people who are naturally less adept at DNA repair might benefit from raising their dietary levels of selenium. As Brash noted in his commentary, the idea is not without precedent. Clinical studies with a topically applied DNA-repair-enhancing enzyme reduced precancerous skin lesions by one-third in people with xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare condition characterized by impaired DNA repair and predisposition to skin cancer.
Miles Away
As Brash and others also noted, the science is still miles away from this endpoint. One hurdle is that boosting one’s intake of selenomethionine alone might accomplish little.
“The concentrations of the selenoproteins are homeostatically controlled and cannot be further increased above their maximum levels by additional selenium supply,” noted Dietrich Behne, Ph.D., a scientist at the Hahn-Meitner-Institut in Berlin, Germany. “It is very unlikely that the chemopreventive effects of high doses of selenium are due to the actions of selenoenzymes.” Behne added that the protective effects of the element may be caused by its other chemical forms and metabolites, such as methylated selenium.
Another hurdle is that the distribution of selenium varies from organ to organ. Studies in rats indicate that a hierarchy of selenium distribution exists in mammals, with the brain, spinal marrow, pituitary gland, and thyroid gland having first grabs at the element. This suggests that not all organs benefit equally from chemoprevention strategies with selenomethionine.
“You can’t go from cell culture levels to dietary animal levels easily,” noted Ganther. “Our group has shown that the same two compounds that have equal efficacy in animals in a cancer prevention study can have a tenfold difference in cell culture. An isolated, pure cell line does not have all of the equipment on board to necessarily to metabolize the percent of selenium to the active form.”
However, as Smith noted, “It is hard to get at the mechanism in an animal. You really need a cell- and molecular-based system. I think it just takes time to put everything together.”
Either way, Ganther said, “It is refreshing, isn’t it, to have something besides the antioxidant action brought forth. I think this paper is going to stimulate a lot of discussion, and I think it is good to do that.”
View largeDownload slide Nuts, particularly Brazil nuts (center), are a good source of dietary selenium. A clinical trial in the mid-1990s indicated that diets high in selenium may by associated with decreased cancer risk. Researchers are working to find out exactly what mechanisms may be at work in the nutrient’s cancer-inhibiting potential.
View largeDownload slide Nuts, particularly Brazil nuts (center), are a good source of dietary selenium. A clinical trial in the mid-1990s indicated that diets high in selenium may by associated with decreased cancer risk. Researchers are working to find out exactly what mechanisms may be at work in the nutrient’s cancer-inhibiting potential.
Oxford University Press |
A high school girl has been arrested on suspicion of killing and dismembering a classmate, Japanese police say.
The 15-year-old was arrested on Sunday in Sasebo city in Japan's southern Nagasaki prefecture.
Police said the girl beat her friend and then strangled her on Saturday. She then severed the victim's head and cut off one of her hands, they said.
The victim has been identified as a 15-year-old girl who attended the same high school as the suspect.
Her body was found in the apartment of the suspect, who was living apart from her parents, according to Japanese media reports.
Police said the suspect used a metal instrument to beat her friend.
They quoted the suspect as saying she acted alone, saying: "I did it all by myself", Kyodo news agency reported.
Ten years ago, a similar crime rocked the same city when an 11-year-old schoolgirl stabbed her 12-year-old friend to death.
In that case, the young girl told local media she acted because the victim had made comments about her appearance in internet chat-rooms. |
The alarm went off at 3 so I could eat the porridge and fruit the hotel/room above a pub had given me. The kit was out on the bed so I got dressed as there was no way I was getting back to sleep.
My bike was already in Transition 1 (T1/T2 from now on) and all my running gear was in T2, so all I had to do was get up and get out there.
First thing was to check my bike - nothing could possibly have changed, but you have to go through the motions. Every single other person looked more confident, more prepared, fitter and with better kit than me - but this is the thinking I need to get through. I remember Alan Davies quoting someone, saying ‘Strikers want to win the game, Defenders do not want to lose’. I am a defender in my heart and work best when I have something to fight. I need a problem or a challenge and I will attack it. I prefer to let someone else lead and then overtake close to the end. If everyone is better than me, I will do my everything to beat them - and I will. This is the thought process I need to win.
I get to the beach with very little time to spare. The beach in Tenby is surrounded by cliffs, it’s a lovely little bay, so you can forgive my emotion when they play an acapella version of the Welsh national anthem just before they let us go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o08Irz-jxc0
At 7 we’re off, on the longest journey of my life. As you can see in the above video, the water was a little more than choppy - I learned afterwards that the waves were 3ft high on average. This meant that when you were in the water, you couldn’t see the markers to swim too, and you were always fighting the current. Other swimmers were swimming across you in all directions, meaning you had to keep your head up at all times whilst being routinely punched in the head.
The course is called an Australian exit, so you have to do two laps of a course and actually get out of the water half way through to finish the 2.5 mile swim
People don’t believe me, but the swim was the most mentally and physically stressed I had been in my life and probably will ever be. You are gasping for breath, being punched in the face by swimmers and by waves, taking on lots of salt water which is making your tongue swell up , again making it harder to breath, the current is dragging you away so you feel like you are crawling through sludge and you can’t see where you are meant to be going.
At the mid way point of the second lap I had to do the mushroom in the water to calm down and at this point I vommed blood twice. Full mouth open retching with your head fully submersed only to have the whole water around you fill with your blood is a terrifying experience, frankly. I had decisions to make. No one blames you, you only did an ultra on no training a few months ago, you’ve only got a couple months Tri training - get home, rest up and do it again some other time.
OR get on with it. It’ll take just as long to get back to shore swimming as when you quit and you didn’t come all the way to the arse-end of Wales to quit because you got annoyed by salty water. Someone has always had a worse time, someone has always been through more pain and nothing is going to make me quit this damn race, I am going to collapse first.
I got to shore entirely stressed out but thankful it was over. There is a 1km run from beach-T1 and it’s up hill, so I was off on adrenaline and pigheadedness.
I took my time in T1, making sure my kit was on, comfortable and I had plenty of sun-cream on. I tried eating solids but the salt water mouth meant I couldn’t keep anything beyond a gel down for the rest of the day. I had a crash in High Barnet where I went over the handle bars which meant I tore up my gloves, so they were actually something of a comfort. On the bike, set the computer and off I went.
Ahead of me I had 112 miles of Welsh hills, on a relatively empty stomach and the knowledge that I had given up on the course recently, so I made sure not to smash it in the first lap. There were some incredible bikes on show, and it was difficult not to go for MAMILs on bikes worth 4x what my car cost but slow and steady is the name of the game here. The course is undulating and you need to keep it in reserve.
There are 8 hours on the bike, so I am not going to dwell on every incident, but this is probably the most fun I have had doing or watching any sport ever. I experienced some epic highs, where I realised I was cycling on the hardest course on the hardest race in the world, in my home land with people lining the streets to watch me specifically. I cried when I was thinking about the problems of the swim, the pain I had been through in the last 18 months, the stress I had cause my wife with my hard-core training plan, the fact I thought about quitting and the fact that all of this is going to be over by the end of the day.
The support was epic, I can’t remember one time there was not someone along the course. People cared and were genuinely happy to see us, despite 2,000 athletes descending on the tiny seaside town and causing havoc.
It’s hard to over-estimate how steep some of these bastard hills. I am proud to say I never once got off, but there were plenty of people who had to. These hills were steep as all hell, and I am so glad I changed my rear cassette as I would not have got through the ride at all.
After what seemed an eternity of hills, tarmac, wind, feed stations and body monitoring to see if we were good, it was all over and I spotted my parents. I knew they were coming, but I had totally forgotten and I caught a glimpse of a wife-parent trio, with the Welsh flag bearing my name and number - there was no damn way I was failing this now, even if I had to crawl the damn thing.
I get in to T2 where I sat down and everything hurt. Nothing was great, even my scalp stung, but running is my jam, yo, so I better get on it. I recently got a new mobile and part of the deal (was out of the blue) adidas told me I had some new kicks for free, which I could personalise - so I got some new adidas runners with the British flag on them and, rather arrogantly, I got Ironman on the side. I had only worn these one before, but I put two pairs of socks on, took a potent mix of pain killers and went off for what was in effect a marathon-length victory lap. A victory over never being a runner, never being a marathon runner, a victory over never trained before for anything really, a victory over biting off more than you can chew and swallowing the bastard.
If there was one thing I learnt from the Marlow half run with Alex was - find someone to talk to. I struck up conversation with every person I could find. There was one person who ran off, two people who dropped off and then I met James Maloney, who I ran with until pretty close to the end. We talked about everything, and walked when we needed to.
The run is four laps through Tenby and then a trip outside into the hills. The support was unbelievable, with people calling your name and kids offering high-fives everywhere. There were alot of middle aged men really struggling on the run, so I was generally over-taking more than over-took me, making sure to high-five everyone in the process. This actually worked in my favour as people remembered me and looked out for me for the next lap. I ran to my parents who decided to move every lap, so I had to have my wits about me. My one regret for the day is not getting a #IronSelfie with all of the support team, but the memory is there.
I had two goals for the marathon; 1: Finish, 2: Beat a friend who did the London Marathon in 5:17 - which I am happy to say I did. Of course it hurt, of course there were hills, but with James’ company, and pain killers blocking my pain receptors in my brain, I managed to get in under 5 hours, in a total time of 14:21. Not quite the 13 hours I wanted to do it in but I did it, I am not ashamed of it.
And then it was over. The dream that began 18 months ago was suddenly over and I went emotionally numb. I met my family and was totally numb. The body was just waiting to release the pain, stress and emotion until I left, so with my medal still swinging, we decided to pack the hotel and go directly back to Cardiff, instead of hanging around for the party and noisy, hot pub room.
The finishing tent at Ironman had loads of food, so I took some Pizza. I managed to get some down but as soon as we got into the car I had to just vom out of the window. It was going to be easier to just get the hour and a half journey done instead of stopping every time and soon we were in the house where I grew up and everything was normal - except for the fact I was an Ironman. Tick. I had had my head resting on the edge of the door window the entire journey home, with dribble coming out of my stomach-acid bleached lips, and a cone of vomit up the side of our poor Punto, covering all in its wake - mostly the front wheel of my bike. |
Another week, another road safety film. Step forward, please, the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland.
Here’s the video. Have a watch. Then, in the spirit of completeness, I’ll take a look at each scene in turn.
It’s worth noting, before I begin, that this advert hasn’t been attracting much in the way of vociferous criticism. And, arguably, it has a certain degree of balance and circumspection to it. There have, of course, been plenty of more obviously bad adverts.
But if anything, I find these seemingly benign adverts more troubling. The balance is illusory, the circumspection ephemeral. Scratch the surface and underneath is the same inability to comprehend true equality or see the bigger picture that exists in even the most blatantly partisan of safety campaigns.
And it’s this subconscious undercurrent that means that people with perfectly good intentions exhibit dangerous behaviours – or, at least, don’t fully understand the landscape of risk to which they contribute. It’s this majority of well-meaning people that “soft touch” campaigns like this target, so the tacit message between the lines is actually of great importance.
So, let’s scratch the surface.
Seeing
Don’t forget, I need to be able to see you, because I can’t hear you.
This one is, frankly, bizarre on several levels. Where to begin?
Let’s begin with the clear implication that hearing people is important in determining that they are there, let alone where they are or what they’re doing. Sound is not something by which you can detect and locate vehicles around you when you’re in a car – it’s not even reliable when you’re on a bike or on foot. If sound was any use, we’d make windows and radios illegal in cars because with those you hear less than someone outside the car wearing in-ear earphones (see point 2 in the conclusions).
The hearing bit is entirely bogus. We’re left with “I need to be able to see you.”
Now, the film is grossly unclear as to whether they’re trying to send the message that it’s road positioning that’s important, or that it’s hi-viz gear. But the press release (which has a few fishy-looking figures in it) sticks the “conspicuous clothing” boot in, and the dialogue in the film is between two road users side-by-side, where the rider’s primary positioning is less relevant. So – unsurprisingly – the latter seems likely. But the problem is, studies have shown that hi-viz has no effect on passing distances and nor does hi-viz have any effect on collision rates – day or night.
The thing is, people are made of stuff and are visible. The key point should really be that if you can’t see a space is devoid of people then you shouldn’t be driving machinery into it.
Crucially, we need to distinguish between “visible” and “eye-catching”. Hi-viz may – in restricted circumstances – be eye-catching, but everyone (barring those entirely outside of any illumination at night, which is basically only road users with no lights approaching from the side) is visible. The crucial matter is whether people care to look.
Simply being visible is the fundamental requirement. It absolutely should not be a fundamental requirement to be eye-catching – for a number of reasons but not least because, no matter whether anyone believes it makes a difference, the evidence shows that when you measure people’s behaviour and the rate of collisions, it doesn’t.
Passing
Don’t forget, I need at least the same space as a car when you pass me.
Sound advice, provided you interpret “space” as the space between the passing car and the nearside kerb rather than the space between the passing car and the vehicle being passed. Sadly, the Highway Code is similarly ambiguous. Still, at least – as with the Highway Code – the imagery clearly suggests the former.
However, the issue here, I think, is that many people will look at this sequence and think, “Why?”
There’s no illustration here of why the cyclist might need this much space. Yet one only has to look at the case of Martyn Uzzell, who was killed when hit by a vehicle as he swerved to avoid a pothole, to see just one of many scenarios that make this a matter of life and death. At least south of the border, in this much better film, the Irish made a limited attempt to illustrate an unexpected (and that should really be unanticipated) event that could necessitate a reaction.
People who make road safety films should remember that people don’t generally respond to words (otherwise maybe they’d respond to the words that demonstrate hi-viz to be of no benefit). We respond more strongly to what we see. What we see here is space not being required. It’s a weak message. People have heard the words repeatedly, without being graphically shown why they should heed it. The Niceway Code made the same mistake.
Where is the hard-hitting tactic used by drink-driving campaigns? If such films have any effect at all (which is debatable) the evidence seems reasonably clear that the only time they’re effective is when they’re shocking. And a sudden death is shocking, whether it’s caused by inebriation or by a pass that allows no margin for unanticipated events. I see no reason to treat sober drivers with kid gloves: it should not be our moral repulsion at drink driving that justifies a strong message, it should be the risk, and the reality of the consequences, that do so.
If New Zealand can manage it, why can’t the UK?
Checking
Don’t forget, I need you to check it’s safe before you turn right or change lane.
This sequence, more than any other in the film, exposes at best the problematic nature of all “share the road” campaigns and at worst a quite toxic viewpoint.
These words are voiced by the driver of the car behind the cyclist: I need you to check. I need you to check.
Here we have to really test the film makers’ implied meaning of the word “need”. If you ask me, the real need in this situation is that of the person on the bicycle, who needs not to end up injured or killed – no matter whose fault that is. The driver’s needs, whatever they are, are vastly less significant.
The thing is, the film’s already covered the business of passing someone with sufficient space. So, within a lane, it should already be clear that someone on a bike should be given the full width of that lane. This is not only for swerving round potholes, stray animals, footballs, children, car doors, glass, ice, and so on ad infinitum, but also for the business of turning right. If there’s a right turn ahead then it’s far from unimaginable that someone ahead of you will want to turn into it. Even if they make a foolish manoeuvre in doing so. The Highway Code explicitly disadvises overtaking near a right-hand turn for good reason. If you overtake a car and that happens, it’s an expensive insurance claim; overtake a bicycle and you could have sent someone to the morgue.
Granted, when changing lane the traffic already in the lane has priority and there would be clear fault with anyone moving suddenly into the path of a car in that situation. But within the same lane, as is pictured, that’s not the case. The bicycle is a vehicle whose driver has every bit as much right to the full width of that lane as any other. There is no magic divider which grants a free pass to anyone behind: to pass is to perform an overtaking manoeuvre, just like overtaking a car, which carries all the corresponding responsibilities.
There is only one thing that would make a right turn unsafe for the cyclist, only one reason why anyone would “need them to check that it’s safe”: that’s the car operated by the person voicing that very need. The ability to make it safe lies entirely with them.
The driver doesn’t need anything from anyone else. And that’s the toxic viewpoint: that when you’re at the the wheel of the vehicle that poses the physical danger, you need others to check whether you’re presenting danger. That’s the heart of the problem. Turn it on its head: choose not to present the danger, choose to make it safe, because others may need that from you.
The message here should be from the cyclist: I need you to think “would I overtake a car here?” – and if you wouldn’t, but you decide to pass me, then be very, very sure that no collision can possibly occur.
Passing (again)
Don’t forget, it’s dangerous to pass me on the inside. If I’m a truck or bus, I can’t see you at all.
Interesting one, this, and a regular topic of contention. In short, a can of worms, and one I’ll largely leave for now.
One curious point to note here, though, is that whilst the voiceover focuses on trucks and buses, the film shows cars. Now, whilst there are risks with passing stationary traffic to the inside, we should be clear about the associated responsibilities.
It is not illegal to pass stationary traffic on the nearside. Nor is it explicitly disadvised. However, there are risks – but the risks are presented by others. With specific reference to this example, the risky behaviour is the subject of Highway Code rule 239, which clearly states that “you MUST ensure you do not hit anyone when you open your door. Check for cyclists or other traffic“.
There’s no “don’t forget: you mustn’t open your door into the path of anyone, so check in the mirror and over your shoulder” advice in the film, though. Curiously absent, that one. Much easier to advise the minority to sit in exhaust fumes as if they were one of the vehicles causing the congestion in the first place.
Oh, and don’t forget where all the cycle lanes are.
Slipping
Don’t forget, when it’s slippy, I’m even more fragile.
Don’t forget, when it’s slippy, your vehicle will not react as reliably as it will when it’s not slippy.
People are no more or less fragile when it rains: it’s a nonsensical statement. But people do need more room to manoeuvre, to swerve, to hit unnoticed potholes without being run over and killed.
Don’t forget, people are always fragile. They’re not affected by weather; the vehicles are. Account for it.
Watching
Don’t forget to watch out for me at junctions.
Well, yes. Don’t forget to read this. When will we see a TV campaign based on that, I wonder?
Paying attention
Don’t forget, I need you to pay attention. And I need you to do the same.
Indeed. But again, we should underline the fact that one person’s need is greater, and only one person’s choice of vehicle poses a threat to the other.
Not forgetting
Don’t forget, I’m human too.
Yeah, but let’s also not forget that one of you’s got a one-ton metal box full of airbags, crumple zones and impact bars, and a big box of combustible vapour that makes that one-ton box go really quickly. It’s kind of a big deal.
On a slight tangent, it’s worth noting that the cyclist has positioned himself extremely unwisely here (which lends weight to my inference above that the film makers are considering hi-viz rather than positioning in the first scene). This position leads to an unavoidable and dangerous merge when setting off. If he had positioned himself in the middle of the outside lane, he wouldn’t have to rely on the improbably gallant behaviour of the driver alongside.
Perhaps that should have been the image, with the message, “Don’t forget: one human’s safety is more important than another human’s convenience.”
Respecting
Share the road. Respect everyone’s journey.
And there’s the rub. As I’ve noted before, “share the road” campaigns always fall into the same trap: the belief that if you’re sending a set of messages to one set of road users, you have to send an equivalent set of messages to another.
This campaign clearly implies that the journeys – made by the combination of the person and the vehicle – are equivalent, and thus by extension it implies that person-plus-car and person-plus-bicycle are equivalent. They are not. And this is, once more, the crucial failing. The authors of the messages wilfully blind themselves to the fundamental inequality of danger due to people’s choice of kinetic energy and base the whole campaign not on danger, but on diplomacy.
And so, because of diplomacy, we must respect each other’s journey. Not each other’s safety.
Diplomacy, not a basic right to protection.
And diplomacy is influenced by power. You want safety? Then be nice to the people who pose the physical threat to your safety. You don’t want to be injured or killed because someone chose a fast, heavy, mechanically-propelled vehicle? Then appease them.
Hence the film makes a big deal of the negotiations at the change of the lights, but that’s then followed by the car being driven way too close to the cyclist – throwing out half of the advice given throughout the film. Diplomacy important; safety, not so much.
No matter how many saccharine, smiling, nodding, what-planet-are-we-really-on-anyway faces you care to show in a film, the premise that the respect should be for the journey, or that everyone should have to individually trade their rights to safety, is an unsustainable, impotent, inegalitarian bullshit message.
To base road behaviours on diplomacy is undeniably to state that safety is not a fundamental right.
Don’t respect the journey. Respect the person.
Addendum
Whilst I’ll stand by all the above, I’m arguably being a little harsh, so let me point out that this “cycling skills” document by Northern Ireland’s DOE and DRD is, in the context of existing laws and infrastructure, full of Good Stuff. Remarkably for a document by any institution, let alone a government one, it clearly points out the limited value of helmets, highlights the importance of behaviour over protective equipment, alludes to the additional risks that the UK’s poor cycle lanes and tracks present, and so on. It is surprisingly enlightened and pragmatic, and is far more in line with standard cycle training than it is with any road safety campaign message. Bravo.
Advertisements |
A measles vaccine is seen at Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles, California February 5, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California’s senate education committee approved a bill making it mandatory for children to be vaccinated before starting school despite opposition from “ant-vaxxer” parents who have packed public hearings and flooded lawmakers with calls.
The bill, which has already passed the senate health committee, has several more hurdles to clear before becoming law. It next goes to the senate judiciary committee, before going to the state senate, and finally the assembly.
Under the bill, only children with medical waivers to opt out of vaccinations would be exempted.
Most states, however, also allow parents to opt out if their religion bans the protective procedure and about 20 allow personal beliefs exemptions, which in recent years have been used by parents who fear a now-debunked link between vaccines and autism, or worry about other health effects of children receiving shots.
The bill under consideration in California would eliminate the personal beliefs exemption, which would also have the practical effect of eliminating any exemption based on religion.
Introduced in the wake of a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland and infected 147 people last year, the bill stalled last week in the senate education committee, after opponents said it would unfairly deprive unvaccinated children of their right to an education.
On Wednesday, it was approved by a vote of 7-2 after the authors added a provision to allow unvaccinated children to participate in group home-schooling environments.
The proposed removal of the personal beliefs exemption in California drew questions from representatives of some of the state’s most liberal enclaves, some of which are home to large clusters of parents who worry that vaccinating their children according to the recommended medical timelines could weaken their immune systems or otherwise harm their health. |
22 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
In military parlance, a siege is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict with the intent of conquering, by attrition and sustained assaults, an enemy holding a static defensive position with no means of escape or chance of marshaling assistance from outside forces. Siege warfare can last months, and even years, but if the attackers are patient and keep up constant pressure, the final defeat of the besieged is swift and extremely violent as the attackers take out their rage on the vanquished for not surrendering at the start of the war. For thirty years, Republicans have besieged 98% of the population with constant, and sometimes, low-intensity conflict that is reaching fruition and threatens to usher in a swift and violent end for most Americans at the behest of corporate and theocratic factions.
It is no longer a question of how or why Republicans are imposing corporatism and theocratic laws on the American people, but when they will finally transform this once democratic nation into a fascist state under authority of plutocrats and theocrats. The bad news is that America is one election away from total dominance by the Koch brothers billionaire club and religious extremists on the verge of replacing the Constitution with the bible and Milton Freidman’s manifesto “Capitalism and Freedom.” In fact, in preparation for oligarchs and theocrats ascendance to unchallenged authority to reign over the people, Republicans are eliminating the last vestiges of democracy, economic independence, and freedom from religion as they openly oppose the Constitution in their final push toward fascism.
The truth is that Republicans have panted to destroy New Deal protections for 80 years, but it was during the Reagan administration they began their siege in earnest and started transferring the nation’s wealth to plutocrats in the banking and financial industry. It was also the era the religious right gained unfettered access to the halls of Congress that is culminating in a blatant push toward rule by religious edict. Over the past four years, Republicans have tapped into racial animus rampant in a large segment of the population to garner support to give inordinate power to corporations with assistance from the Koch-influenced Supreme Court that gave corporations power over free and fair elections. Events of the past few weeks revealed that Republicans have now abandoned any pretense of governing for the people, and they are blatantly advocating for theocracy and corporatocracy.
It can no longer be argued that Republicans are not deliberately creating poverty to make room for tax benefits for the rich. In North Carolina, Republicans increased poverty by becoming the first of many Republican states to eliminate unemployment benefits despite the state has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the nation. North Carolina Republicans also are amending the state constitution to permanently make it a “right to work” (for less) state to keep corporate profits high and worker wages at poverty level that is a trend in Republican-controlled states. The Republicans’ goal is not to encourage hiring, but to increase corporate profits and produce a population barely surviving on less-than subsistence wages.
In the U.S. Senate, Lamar Alexander (R-TN) called for abolishing the federal minimum wage as part of the New Deal abolitionist crusade, and is a complement to Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) legislation abolishing overtime pay to send more Americans into poverty. All of the Republican attempts at creating poverty are in conjunction with calls to cut social safety nets to fund greater tax advantages for corporations and the rich. Republicans have stopped touting their poverty-creating agenda as necessary to spur hiring because they sense victory in their siege against Americans and it is in no small part due to their voter-suppression tactics the conservative Supreme Court just ensured will advance unimpeded by federal law. All that remains for the High Court to do to finish the Republican siege against Americans, and the Constitution, is strike down the 1st Amendment’s Separation Clause
There was a time that even the hard-core evangelical wing of the Republican Party couched their theocracy ambitions in phony concern for family values, but they abandoned those tactics and have gone full-tilt for embracing religion as the law of the land to enforce harsh measures on gays and women. After the High Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and California’s ban on same-sex marriage, a phalanx of Republican legislators stood boldly before the media and, one by one, condemned the rulings as outright opposition to the Christian bible. In Ohio and Texas, Republicans are attempting to ban abortion services on “sanctity of life” grounds, and protestors outside family planning clinics are not waving medical journals, but bibles as they see their Republican representatives advancing the idea that America is a theocracy, and not a democracy. One Texas legislator was so deluded that there is never a condition or reason for an abortion, even in case of rape, that he claimed rape kits are a form of abortion and it justified excluding rape as a legitimate reason for an abortion.
It was reported here on Friday that in Pennsylvania, a gay elected representative was barred from speaking on the floor of the Pennsylvania House because according to a conservative Christian Republican; he was a violation of god’s law. Republican Daryl Metcalfe (Butler) said without hesitation that “I did not believe that as a member of that body that I should allow someone to make comments such as he was preparing to make that ultimately were just open rebellion against what the word of God has said, what God has said, and just open rebellion against God’s law.” The fanatical evangelical’s comments notwithstanding, it was the ease and audacity at which he silenced a fellow government representative on religious grounds that informs America is on the verge of a theocracy if it has not already been established in the shadows with valuable assistance from the corporatist wing of the Republican Party.
Some pundits claim there is no relationship between theocracy advocates and corporatist attempts to subvert democracy, but it is a marriage of convenience Republicans have made good use of over the past four years in particular. It is likely there is little the extremely wealthy and their corporations have in common with hard-core religious extremists, but Republicans take advantage of evangelicals’ passionate opposition to gay rights and women’s reproductive choice to garner support for candidates devoted to slashing social programs to fund tax cuts for corporations and the rich, and that is where the real danger lies. There is little doubt the most vocal evangelicals in Congress and the states are sincere in their attempt to rule by religion, and with funding from wealthy conservative groups whose only regard is grabbing wealth from all the people, the likelihood that a well-funded theocratic agenda giving free reign to oligarchs to plunder what is left of the people’s assets is the outcome Americans should fear most.
These assaults on Americans from religious extremists and corporatists in Republican ranks are in stark contrast to the will of the majority of Americans, and yet instead of backing off out of fear of electoral demise, they are increasing their efforts with brazen disregard as if there is no recompense from an angry electorate. That can only mean one of two things; they are convinced their voter suppression tactics will reap benefits in the next election, or they are intent on causing as much damage to the people and the nation as possible before they are voted into oblivion. Regardless their motivation, it is the people who will suffer and with little hope of outside assistance to defend their interests, the thirty year siege against the American people will reach fruition and they will indeed live in a nation ruled by a corporate theocracy
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: |
Cryptic Studios released Neverwinter just over a month ago. While publisher Perfect World called it an “open beta”, the company had no issues taking players’ money for Zen used to purchase virtual items in the shop. Whenever that happens, the game is, in our mind, released. And so, today’s review culminates our month-long journey in and around the Sword Coast, most notably in Neverwinter and its immediate surroundings. Tag along with us as we synthesize our four Beta Diary articles (linked below) into our official MMORPG.com review of Neverwinter.
Aesthetics - 8
Aesthetically speaking, Neverwinter is easy on the eyes. While not as “realistic” as, for instance, Elder Scrolls Online which uses a dark color palette, Neverwinter succeeds very well. Developers have lovingly crafted a beautiful world filled with amazing detail. It seems that there is always something worth stopping to look at while questing. It’s a pretty sure bet that most players with a love of all things beautiful have a folder full of screenshots. It’s simply that good.
advertisement advertisement
In addition, every item placed in the world, every mountain and flower and broken barrel, is accessible to Foundry builders. Some Foundry missions are as, or even more, beautifully arranged as those created by the developers themselves.
Neverwinter’s music is quite nice too. My only argument with it is the repetitiveness of tunes in the zones, particularly in Protector’s Enclave. After hearing it for the ‘umpteenth’ time on every journey back to Sgt. Knox, it was a relief to finally toggle music “off”.
The ambient sounds of a vibrant city are top notch and voice acting is pretty decent as well though it is a bit over the top at times. Again, some voiced NPCs repeat themselves over and over finally making players move out of the camp in order to escape “Soooo many dead” in a cheesy British accent. All in all, Neverwinter is a beautifully crafted game that is pleasing to both eyes and ears.
On the less sensual side of Neverwinter’s aesthetics is the fabulously customizable user interface. Essentially, every element can be moved, hidden, resized and more. It’s easily one of the best UIs in the genre today, something that can be tailored to any player’s personal specifications.
Gameplay - 9
From our perspective, gameplay in Neverwinter is one of the shining gems in the entire game. Character customization is terrific. Combat is fast and furious. Spell effects look great. Character classes have unique moves and abilities that truly differentiate them one from another.
Players initially get a sense of the gameplay elements and features on logging in for the first time in order to create a character. Customization options seem to be limited until after the basics are in place. From there, players can use sliders to tailor their characters to just about any look imaginable.
Where customization really falls down, however, is in the look of players once armored. Even though one can choose certain looks for armors they like, every character class looks virtually the same from level one all the way to sixty. In addition, companions running around with players all seem to have come from a cloning experiment gone wild with only slight variation based on their ability level.
Speaking of companions, why is there no ability to control them in battle beyond “stay, protect, or attack”? It would be nice to have a better element of control over their behavior and attacks, choosing spells, for example.
Companions aside, combat in the game is really fun. In many ways, Neverwinter is much more closely related to an action-RPG such as Diablo III than it is to an MMO. In fact, Neverwinter is truly somewhere in between the two. As new acronyms are always being created, Cryptic’s game could actually fall into a new category of MMOARPG. Yes, there are masses of players simultaneously connected online. Yes, there is heavy action. Yes, there are role-playing elements. In short, Neverwinter fits all of the above quite well. Ultimately, Neverwinter is neither as “action-y” as Diablo III nor as “MMO-ish” as Everquest II for instance, but it makes a decent effort.
Without auto-targeting and fast moving monsters, players have to actually utilize strategy. Guardian Fighters and Great Weapon Fighters, for instance, can gather several enemies at once and gradually take each down by hitting a different one with every swing. Devoted Clerics and Control Wizards can hammer large groups with massive AoE spells to wipe out any remaining resistance. Trickster Rogues can sneak around behind and pick off the strongest monster.
Neverwinter’s classes are well-suited to one another in PvE but there are issues with PvP that are disturbing. Trickster Rogues will surely fall under the nerf hammer soon since they have the ability to slow their prey and disable all skills while simultaneously hitting multiple times with better-than-average damage, all from the cloak of invisibility. It’s a frustrating experience.
PvP, in general, is not bad but it is woefully lacking. With only two domination maps for 5v5, there is simply not enough to do for players who enjoy PvP. As of this writing, the endgame Gauntlgrym 20v20 map has yet to be added but even so doing, there still won’t be enough variety for PvP fans. Cryptic is going to have to step up its game and add lots of new PvP content if they have any plans to keep endgame players interested.
Crafting in Neverwinter is an odd beast. While not a difficult enterprise from the standpoint of not having to wander the game world painfully searching out the right materials to make what’s needed. It’s more a function that there isn’t really any significant interaction on the part of the player in order to do it. Crafting is completed by sending ‘hired’ minions off to perform various tasks such as collecting resources or to create items. Time to do so can be as short as ten minutes to as long as eighteen hours or more and can be accomplished in game or out of game via the nicely featured Neverwinter Gateway.
At first glance, crafting seems very easy and that levels in any of the five professions (Leadership, Mailsmithing, Platesmithing, Tailoring, or Leatherworking) are quickly gained. What becomes apparent over time, however, is that rare and ultra-rare resources become necessary to create the top end items. Those are only obtained through wildly infrequent finds in the game world or through purchasing them via the Astral Diamond or Zen Markets.
This is not to say that crafting is bad, exactly, just that it’s not a visceral experience.
All told, game play in Neverwinter is a fun and interesting experience and one of the game’s strongest suits. There are things that can be improved and it’s a pretty sure bet that Cryptic will do so over time.
Innovation - 7
Anyone who has played more than a few MMOs in their life will understand that Neverwinter doesn’t bring much to the proverbial table as far as innovation goes. The basic game is pretty much ‘more of the same’. That said, there is one glaring exception to that overall statement: The Foundry.
While the Foundry is in Star Trek Online, it is still something novel in the high-fantasy MMO space and is something that, in the end, will be the key to Neverwinter’s longevity. As builders become more familiar with the tools available to them, and as quality writers begin to tell their stories, the modules created by Foundry artists will only get better.
The one caveat that many players have with the Foundry, however, is the lack of oversight into the creations built by the modding community. For example, more than a few modules have been created that exploit the experience system by giving players an endless dungeon of the most difficult monsters in the game that neither move nor attack, thereby allowing for maximum XP gains with minimal effort. This simply must be stopped.
Luckily the good outweighs the bad in the Foundry and some of the best experiences in the game from a role-playing perspective can be found there. One only has to take a look at some of Rob Lashley’s Foundry Focus series to see some of the best. It’s also worth looking beyond the top five or six missions that crop up in the Daily Foundry Quests to find lesser-known but equally good Foundry quests to try out.
As long as the Foundry stays popular and as long as artists continue to create top notch modules, Neverwinter will live a long and healthy life. It is in Cryptic’s best interest to ensure that builders have the tools they need and are perhaps even willing to expand what can be done by, for instance, allowing modders to create PvP maps as well.
Value - 6
While the Foundry is Neverwinter’s crown jewel, the Zen Cash Shop is the dirty tissue stuck to the bottom of the game’s shoe. Prices for items in the Zen Shop are quite simply outrageous. Forty dollars for an epic mount? Thirty dollars for a mid-level companion? Six dollars to respec one’s character? There is absolutely no excuse for such prices to be foisted on a community that would doubtless be willing to pay for items more reasonably priced.
Hero of the North packs run $200 and have some very nice items inside including a one time bundle of two million Astral Diamonds. That sounds like a lot until it’s realized that that’s it. Once they are gone, and it’s ridiculously easy to charge right through, that’s it. Unlike, for instance, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Neverwinter Heroes do not receive a monthly allowance of Zen or Astral Diamonds to spend. Beyond the first thrill of opening the Hero pack (or the Guardian pack on a lesser scale), there is little to look forward to as the months march by.
Lastly, the Auction House/Zen Market/Astral Diamonds Exchanges have been exploited, not once, but twice in the past two weeks. While the second event was on a much smaller scale than the disastrous first, it happened nonetheless. This should be worrisome to paying customers.
Yet even saying all that, Neverwinter is truly free. While there are facepalming moments of frustration for free players with regard to seating enhancements, etc., it is possible to play the game without ever spending a dime. In and of itself, that one fact saved this category from a much worse score. In addition, if PWE and Cryptic are willing to address some of these issues, the score has the potential to be much higher.
Longevity - 7
As stated above, Neverwinter will only succeed on a long term basis if several things happen:
More endgame content in the form of dungeons, quests, etc.
More character classes added at a rapid, not sluggish, pace.
More PvP content. This is critical. More types, more maps, more variety, bigger teams, etc.
More tools and abilities for Foundry builders.
Better Zen Market prices. Again, this is critical.
Without most of the above, Neverwinter will be an interesting, yet short, diversion for most players who will use it as a stopover on their way to other, bigger, more expansive MMOs set to hit the market this year and in coming years. Gauntlgrym should be quite interesting, with a sort of 20v20 hybrid PvP/PvE experience... but will it be enough? The Foundry and Cryptic’s own modules will be the stuff that keeps the game thriving, I’d wager.
Social - 5
Neverwinter is not a particularly social game, though it has potential. There is little reason to group with others, though progress as a solo player, even at the latter stages of the game, is much slower than it is with at least one other player. Obviously dungeons on the most difficult levels lend themselves to partying but PUGs can be put together fairly rapidly.
There is little reason to interact with one another in Neverwinter either. It’s not a bad thing, necessarily, but the social side of the game isn’t particularly well fleshed out. Need a dungeon? Use the finder. Want to run one of the skirmishes? Use the queue. There really isn’t any reason to speak with one another or even to group with others in a guild for the most part. Maybe there isn’t an easy answer to players socializing with one another. Still, it might be in Neverwinter’s best interest for Cryptic to explore a few more avenues and ways to get people to actually socialize. Some real worthwhile Guild tools to go along with the fantastic Calendar would be welcome.
Polish - 7
Neverwinter is really a very polished game at its core. While there are bugs (aren’t there always?), they are not game enders for the most part. Monster and NPC AI are decent as well. Rarely will one encounter a monster embedded within the rocks or the epic “unkillable zombie”, or find one’s self falling through the world or anything like that. It’s those big bugs that make all the difference though. Exploits can ruin a game’s community before it even has a chance to cement itself.
Servers have had hiccups of instability but Cryptic has been on top of those in an admirable way. That much attention only adds to the overall game polish. This is a score that could arguably rise over time.
Final Score: 7
Neverwinter is worth a visit by anyone who is a fan of both MMOs and of action-RPGs. Despite some glaring issues, including the lacklustre PvP and the Zen Market, the game is wildly fun and is a worthwhile detour on one’s journey through the MMO space today. It remains to be seen what Cryptic does with the feedback it has received from the players during the past month, but Neverwinter is one to keep an eye on as time goes by. As the title says, Neverwinter is an Astral Diamond in the Rough.
Have you played Neverwinter? Love it or hate it? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
Suzie Ford is the Associate Editor and News Manager at MMORPG.com. Follow her on Twitter @MMORPGMom.
See how we arrived at this score in our four-week Beta Diary series: |
The Linux Foundation and the Linux community have been celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Linux kernel all year. And rightly so! But 2011 isn't just the big two-oh for the Linux kernel, it also marks the 20th anniversary of the first release of the world's best text editor. Of course, I'm talking about Vim.
For those who aren't familiar with it, Vim is short for Vi Improved. Vim is actually a take on the even-older vi, the text editor written for Unix by Bill Joy. To prove that nearly all developments in computer science are iterative, vi is from the "visual" /mode of Joy's line editor, ex. And ex built on em, and so forth.
It might sound weird these days to call a text-based editor "visual," but in the early days of Unix text editing was downright primitive. Instead of seeing a full screen of text as we're now used to, you got a single line of text and some fairly arcane commands. If you'd like to get a taste of just how primitive, try editing a document using just ex , or even earlier versions of Unix editors like em or ed.
Developers were hard up against serious resource constraints, so luxuries like updating text as it was typed were new and novel. Remember that users often worked with primitive terminals like the ADM-3A. The ADM-3A offered a whopping 12-inch black and white CRT screen with 12 rows of 80 characters.
The keyboards were no luxury, either. Today, the standard US layout for most keyboards includes 104 keys. This doesn't, of course, count all the multimedia keys. The ADM-3A keyboard had a lonely 59 key layout. No function keys, no Alt key, or Windows key. (Not that most Linux users would miss the Windows key...) Arrow keys? Nope. Hence the need for using h , j , k , and l for movement. (No "Scroll Lock" key, either, though I'm not really sure we actually need that one anyway.) The limited key set and slow connection led Joy to work out vi's unique modal system of editing, where the same keys would be used for different functions depending on what "mode" the editor was in.
If you want a good look at the beginnings of vi, check out this August 1984 interview with Joy from the now defunct Unix Review magazine. What's really interesting is that you can trace the evolution of common Unix system utilities to small teams or individuals at institutions like Berkeley or Bell Labs. In this case, Joy's vi was competing with an editor written by Mike Horton of Bell Labs – but vi won out because the local users at Berkeley supported it. Ashlee Vance also has some history in the appropriately titled "Bill Joy's greatest gift to man — the vi editor." Finally, there's an introduction to display editing with vi that's worth looking over.
How Vim Came About
Vim development was, and is, led by Bram Moolenaar. It took its origins from an editor for the Atari ST called "Stevie," but Moolenaar tinkered with it privately for a long time before finally releasing it on November 2, 1991. Moolenaar's development was on the Amiga, initially.
Vim was, of course, eventually ported to Unix. The 2.0 release was the first to carry the name "Vi Improved," and that came out in 1993. You see, Vim wasn't always the powerhouse it is today. Initially, Vim was just taking after vi because it wasn't available outside Unix. As Moolenaar continued working on Vim, it got farther away from just being a vi-like editor and actually adding a lot of features that original vi didn't (and still) doesn't have.
In 1994, Vim added support for multiple buffers and windows, in 1996 it added a color interface. The first GUI for Vim appeared in 1996, contributed mostly by Robert Webb.
Vim added syntax coloring and highlighting in 1998, and in 2001 added folding, plugins, and the vertical split feature. Vim long ago surpassed vi in features, and its extensibility means you can do just about anything you want with it.
Like Linux, Vim has come a long, long way over the years. These days you'll find it installed as the default vi-type editor on most Linux distributions as well as the default vi for Mac OS X. Even where it's not the default, it's available on just about any OS you'd like — Windows, proprietary Unixes, the BSDs, and many others.
In addition to Vim's long list of features, it has one very interesting non-technical aspect – its license. Vim is under a "charityware" license, where Moolenaar asks (but does not demand) that Vim users donate to ICCF Holland, which helps children in Uganda. Here's what Moolenaar says about his choice to create the charityware license for Vim:
"Since Vim is open-source and freely distributable, users don't have to pay to use it. Even so quite a few people who use Vim regularly expressed to me that they wanted to reward me for my work in some way. I didn't really need extra money myself and didn't like the idea of some people giving me money for a program that is free. That's when I thought of the Charityware concept. The basic idea is that everybody who uses Vim is asked to donate to a charity. Thus the use of Vim is free, but if you think it's worth something, give that money to a good cause."
"How did I chose the charity? Well, I have worked for a year as a volunteer with a project in the south of Uganda. This is an area that has been struck hard by AIDS. Estimates are that 10 to 30% of the adults are infected by HIV. Many parents die, leaving their children behind. The project helps these needy children in several ways. We find a new home for the child. We make sure the child can go to school, gets medical attention and care made to measure."
"After I returned from Uganda, my heart was still there. I decided the least I could do was to keep supporting the project by raising money for them. The connection to Vim was a very logical one. Thus now I'm asking Vim users to consider donating for the orphans in Uganda. I have also setup an adoption program. You can financially adopt a child, which means that the child gets long-lasting help, which is best for the child. Since we work only with volunteers and the money is directly sent to the project, almost all the money is really used in Uganda."
So, if you're a Vim user, I might suggest that the 20th anniversary of Vim would be a good time to make a donation to Moolenaar's favorite charity in thanks for all the hard work he's put in over the years.
If you're not a Vim user, why not start now? We've put up several pieces on Vim to help you get started:
Finally, you can also get a good start with Vim by using its built-in tutorial. Just type vimtutor and it will walk you through the basics quite handily.
Editor Wars
It would hardly be fitting to look back at 20 years of Vim without a passing mention of the rivalry between Vim and Emacs. Yes, kids, long ago people weren't having flamewars about Android vs. iOS, or Ubuntu vs. Fedora, or Windows vs. Linux. They were arguing over Emacs vs. vi, and ultimately Emacs vs. Vim — since Vim long ago took up the torch for vi after it stopped evolving.
These days, of course, there's more or less peace between the factions – though if you wish to start a discussion in a group of geeks, editor preference is usually a good conversation starter. How to stop the ensuing conversation is another question entirely. |
The controversial law that would pardon child rapists was supposed to pass without notice. Brought before parliament late Thursday night, the legislation did not appear on lawmakers' agendas and had been pre-approved by the nation's Divorce and Family Protection Committee.
Only when the proposal was read aloud during a plenary session did officials become aware of its existence, and opposition leaders moved quickly to delay its passage, said Senal Sarihan, an MP representing Ankara for the Republican People's Party (CHP), Turkey's second largest political party.
Based on a statute from 1926, the law would grant amnesty to men who had sexual relations with underage girls "without force, threat, trick or any other restriction of consent" before Nov. 16, 2016, on the condition that the perpetrator marries the victim.
Despite nationwide protests, lawmakers are expected to pass the proposal on Tuesday as Turkey's leading Justice and Development Party (AKP) holds a parliamentary majority and has come out in favor of the law, Sarihan said in a phone interview on Sunday.
"[This law] ignores the women's right to have a say on their body, that they are equal to men, and that they can make decisions for themselves," Sarihan told DW. "It is taking Turkey backwards and … it is against many laws and international conventions to which Turkey is a signatory."
Question of consent
The original statute was removed from Turkish law 11 years ago during EU accession talks and is being reintroduced in an effort to reunite families where males have been jailed for unknowingly breaking laws forbidding relations with girls 18 years old or younger.
Government officials argue such occurrences are not uncommon in rural areas and have said critics are twisting the proposal's original aims. While women's rights groups acknowledge the dilemma posed by rural marriages, many have claimed the law is too broad and could be loosely interpreted to force young women into unwanted unions with their alleged abusers.
For Cigdem Hacisoftaoglu, a volunteer lawyer working at Purple Roof, a women's shelter in Istanbul, the central issue is the definition of consent, which is not specified in the proposal.
"If a 60-year-old man and wants to marry a 10-year-old girl and convinces the family of this, will it be considered as the child's consent?" Hacisoftaoglu asked. "And if we talk about consent, when is the proper age for someone to give it? Nine? 11? 16? There is also no limit for the [perpetrator's age]."
"Rape is a crime" and "AKP get your hands off our children" are just some of the messages these women have for Erodgan's government
The 'shame case'
Hacisoftaoglu told DW that leaving such questions open to interpretation could prove dangerous for women. She cited Turkey's high-profile "Shame Case" in 2004, in which a 13-year-old girl was sold into prostitution in the southeastern city of Mardin and was forced to sleep with at least 26 men, some of whom were government employees.
During the case, defendants argued the girl gave consent because she did not resist their advances and did not inform police afterwards - and therefore they could not be convicted of rape.
The case was one of the first to be tried after Turkey's sexual assault code was aligned with EU standards, which requires a minimum punishment of 10 years for such acts. Yet defendants were tried under older legislation and received 2-5-year sentences, the shortest allowed at the time, for good behavior in court.
Perpetual dependence
In addition, Hacisoftaoglu said the proposal reinforces a legal structure where women in Turkish society must depend on men for subsistence.
Ever since the proposal hit national airwaves last week, state-run media have been sharing stories of women who were left to raise their children without help because their husbands had been jailed for having sexual relations before the legal age. By presenting the bill in this manner, Hacisoftaoglu said the state is presenting the legalization of underage marriage as the only solution for women to take care of themselves.
"Why are these women not presented with alternatives?" Hacisoftaoglu asked, adding that educational programs and social services have been ignored in the debate. "The court system is based on the idea that only men can take care of women and there is no other way for a woman to advance in life."
Honor killings
Underage marriage is also being presented as a way to restore a family's honor if a daughter engages in sexual activity, wanted or unwanted.
Watch video 05:29 Share Turkey: Child Marriages Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/1BSyK Turkey: Child Marriages
In a society where honor killings are still prevalent, a legal union between perpetrator and rape survivor can be seen as an alternative to the shame brought upon a family by instances of sexual assault, says Emrah Kirimsoy, a representative of the Children's Agenda Association in Ankara.
In past cases of child sexual abuse, Kirimsoy said families have denied her association's help, preferring to keep litigation private to avoid public scrutiny.
"[The families] tell us, 'What is it to you?'" Kirimsoy told DW. "We need to break this vicious cycle."
On Tuesday, human rights groups stage a protest in front of Turkey's parliament in Ankara. Opposition lawmakers have vowed to vote against the proposal, and though AKP members can push it through by simple majority, CHP MP Senal Sarihan said progressive groups must work to derail the legislation.
"[The proposal is an attempt] to remove women from school, higher education, work and every active part of life and shift the country toward Sharia law," Sarihan said. "It will make women second-class citizens." |
The Golden State Warriors will open an official Warriors Team Store in downtown Walnut Creek, it was announced today. The grand opening of the store will be held Saturday, April 29 at 10:00 a.m. with the latest Warriors retail items, including Warriors 2017 Playoffs merchandise available for purchase. The new 2,765 square foot store is located at 1201 S. Main Street in Walnut Creek, CA and will be open Monday through Friday from 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m., Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to provide fans the latest Warriors apparel as they continue their 2017 NBA playoff run.
Warriors Retail Store Locations Warriors Team Store
Walnut Creek (1201 S. Main Street)
Store Hours: Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.;
Sat. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.;
Sun. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Warriors Team Store
Oracle Arena
Store Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Every Day
Dunk Contest
Hillsdale Shopping Center (60 E 31st Ave, San Mateo)
Store Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Dunk Contest
275 Primose Road, Burlingame
Store Hours: Tue.-Sat. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sun. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Warriors and NBC Sports Bay Area color analyst Jim Barnett will be in attendance at the grand opening from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with members of the Warriors Dance Team attending from Noon – 2:00 p.m. All fans who attend the grand opening will also receive a complimentary Warriors car flag.
Based on overall sales from adidas and the NBAStore for the 2016-17 regular season, Warriors back-to-back MVP Stephen Curry ranked first in the league for the second straight season NBA’s most popular jersey with the Warriors ranking first in most popular team merchandise during that same period.
The Warriors have additional Warriors Team Stores located at Oracle Arena along with a Warriors retail store, Dunk Contest, in two locations in the Bay Area including Burlingame, Ca (275 Primrose Road) and the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo (60 E 31st Ave). Fans can also get the latest Warriors merchandise online at warriorsteamstore.com.
Limited tickets for the Warriors first three home games of the Western Conference Semifinals at Oracle Arena for the 2017 NBA Playoffs are still available and can be purchased at warriors.com, or by calling 1-888-GSW-HOOP. In the event that a Warriors playoff game is sold out, tickets may still be purchased through the Warriors official resale marketplace, where season ticket holders and other fans resell tickets that are 100% guaranteed by the Warriors organization. The Warriors ticket marketplace offers a safe and convenient way for fans to access all levels of tickets throughout the regular season and playoffs. Earlier this season, the Warriors hosted a Stop Fraud Night to warn fans about the potential dangers of purchasing fraudulent single-game tickets from a non-verified third party. For more information on Stop Fraud Night, please click here.
American Express is the preferred payment partner of the Golden State Warriors. Visit warriors.com/amex to see how American Express is All for Dub Nation. All Season Long. |
Degrowth embraces the ongoing devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed.
The anti-consumerism Degrowth movement is gaining visibility and adherents in Europe. Degrowth (French: décroissance, Spanish: decrecimiento, Italian: decrescita) recognizes that the mindless expansion of mindless consumption fueled by credit and financialization is qualitatively and quantitatively different from positive growth.
Degrowth is based on a number of principles:
1. Consumerism is psychological/spiritual junk food (French: malbouffe) that actively reduces well-being (bien-etre) rather than increases it.
2. Better rather than more: well-being is increased by everything that cannot be commoditized by a market economy or financialized by a cartel-state financial machine-- friendship, family, community, self-cultivation--rather than by acquiring more. The goal of economic and social growth should be better, not more. On a national scale, the cancerous-growth measured by gross domestic product (GDP) should be replaced with gross domestic happiness/ gross nation happiness (GNH).
3. A recognition that resources are not infinite, despite claims to the contrary. Even if fossil fuels were infinite and low-cost (cheerleaders never mention costs of extraction and refining or the external costs), fisheries, soil and fresh water are not. For one example of many: China Is Plundering the Planet's Seas (The Atlantic). Indeed, all the evidence suggests that access to cheap energy only speeds up the depletion and despoliation of every other resource.
4. The unsustainability of consumerist consumption dependent on resource depletion and financialization (i.e. the endless expansion of credit and phantom collateral).
5. The diminishing returns on consumption. Investing in clean air and water, public transit, universally accessible knowledge/information--these forms of consumption yield high returns in public health, affordable mobility, etc. Buying clothing to wear once or twice and then throw away does not.
The investment in the rule of law, public infrastructure and universal access to clean air, water and education moves nations from developing to developed and greatly improves the material lives of the residents. Beyond this, consumption of resources offers diminishing returns up to a point of social/spiritual/ psychological derangement. Consumption beyond this point actively reduces well-being.
6. The failure of neoliberal capitalism and communism alike in their pursuit of growth at any cost.
7. We have reached Peak Consumption (video 27:30 minutes).
The Degrowth movement explicitly questions what John Michael Greer calls the religion of progress (i.e. growth). The civil religion that growth equals progress is akin to the Cargo Cult of Keynesianism, the notion that growth is so essential that expanding debt exponentially to drive diminishing returns of growth is necessary.
But both the religion of growth and its Cargo Cult enablers are merely superficial facades masking the real force: the expansion of global finance via financialization. Expanding capital, profits and power is the key agenda, and the quasi-religion of growth is just the public-relations narrative that mesmerizes the debt-serfs, political toadies and media sycophants.
What does Degrowth mean in practical terms? Use the thing until it cannot be repaired. Don't ditch the mobile phone, auto, dress or digital device until it can no longer repaired. Buy local rather than than global-corporate whenever feasible. Crave less, need less, want less, resist the brainwashing of 24/7 marketing. Learn to become a person who does not need corporate-status signifiers for a sense of identity.
In a very real way, Degrowth embraces the devolution of paid work and wealth that cannot be reversed. Growth and consumption based on financialization, expanding credit and phantom collateral is unsustainable and will devolve or implode. Rather than pine for what cannot be, it's far healthier to embrace using less of everything and increasing well-being by leveraging the web, the commons and what cannot be commoditized or financialized.
New video with CHS and Gordon Long: Peak Consumption (27:30) |
STANFORD — The approach on The Farm for this weekend’s Heisman Trophy ceremony appears to be: “It’s an honor just to be nominated.”
Stanford will send a candidate to New York City for the fifth time since 2009, when running back Toby Gerhart finished as the runner-up to Alabama’s Mark Ingram by the closest margin in history of the award, a mere 28 votes.
Quarterback Andrew Luck lost out the next two years to Auburn’s Cam Newton and Baylor’s Robert Griffin III, respectively.
It was running back Christian McCaffrey’s turn to finish second to Alabama’s Derrick Henry in 2015.
Now it’s Stanford junior Bryce Love headed for the spotlight in the Big Apple, where it’s quite likely the 5-foot-10, 195-pound running back will find himself in the audience applauding as Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield, the presumptive favorite, steps up to the podium on Saturday night.
Apparently, that’s not a doomsday scenario for the Cardinal.
“Whether or not everybody says you’re the best or not, being in that discussion I think is truly special, and I know Bryce and his family feel that way,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “This is a blessing, this is an honor and there is not going to be any negativity towards this thing, even from my standpoint. This is just a great opportunity to recognize a young man that’s had an outstanding year.”
Last year’s winner, Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson, rounds out the three finalists.
“I’m honored,” Love said. “I’m happy and obviously I’m excited for it. And I’m thankful for the teammates that helped me get there, the coaches and everybody involved.”
He added: “It really makes me think about all the work and all the long days and all the teammates and everybody who’s done things for me. It really touches me and puts things into perspective.” Get Pac-12 Conference news in your inbox. Sign up for the Pac-12 Hotline newsletter.
To get to this point, Stanford employed the hashtag #HeismanLove on Twitter and created the website BryceLove20.com to promote his résumé, both on and off the field.
On the first play of the season back on Aug. 26 in Sydney, Australia, he busted out a 62-yard run. That was merely a sign of things to come.
Love set an FBS record this year with 12 carries of 50-plus yards — 10 of those for touchdowns. He’s second in the nation at 164.4 rushing yards per game and averages 8.3 yards per carry.
He doesn’t even need another 50-yard burst at the Alamo Bowl on Dec. 28 to eclipse the single-season school record for rushing yards set by McCaffrey in 2015. Not to mention, Love already stole his single-game record with the first-ever 300-yard rushing game by a Cardinal at the end of September.
Is that enough to push him over the top after his predecessors garnered runner-up status? Does it matter?
“Excited about this opportunity for him, and it’s not just about winning the award,” Shaw said. “It’s about the recognition across the nation of what he accomplished this year. … Nearly 2,000 yards where half the season he’s running on a high ankle sprain. A thousand yards in five games, unbelievable. Over 8 yards a carry, unbelievable. Just all of those explosive plays, a 300-yard rushing game, unheard of.”
Shaw added: “Lastly, and least importantly, just excited about program-wise to say that in the last eight years, five times we’ve had a player that’s in the discussion for the best player in America.”
Nearly the best, to be exact.
Close, but not cigar. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.
The only thing that’s not turned into a cliché is Love himself.
“You have a few guys on your team every year that you start to talk about him and you start to wonder if people actually believe what you say because it doesn’t sound real,” Shaw said.
“Oh, and by the way, he’s pre-med. Taking biology classes this past summer he worked in the stem cell lab doing stem cell research. He wants to be pediatrician, to be a doctor for young people. And every single day he smiles, no matter how much pain he’s in. He loves life, he’s a positive influence on everyone he meets. He’s just one of those guys in college football that we need to tell more stories about.”
If the past repeats itself, Love will flash that smile of his while Mayfield recites a speech as winner of the 83rd Heisman Trophy.
The votes are already cast, and Shaw didn’t care to plead his case on Monday.
“I don’t talk about should or shouldn’t,” said Shaw, who mentioned that he’d be fascinated to see what Love could’ve accomplished if he didn’t suffer a high ankle sprain midway through the season. “It’s an award with people who vote, so they can vote their conscience. I’m excited that Bryce is included among the best in the nation, because I think he’s earned that, I think he deserves that.”
In a way, is it an honor just to be nominated?
• Love guesstimated he was 3 or 4 years old during his only previous visit to NYC.
“It’s been a while,” he said.
Asked for a wish list of sights and sounds, he couldn’t pick just one.
“Everything will be cool to me,” Love said. “I want to see how a big city is like that, really, I guess. How busy it is. It will be cool to compare it to here and where I’m from, so it will be interesting.”
• McCaffrey left for the NFL after three years at Stanford. Love is also eligible to declare for the 2018 NFL Draft within the same timeline.
Will he stay, or will he go?
“The thing is he’s a junior, he’s young, it’s a big jump and he could make more physical development,” Shaw said. “And on the flip side, what he’s shown on game day is that he’s ready for it. This is not scatback that we toss the ball outside to all the time. The majority of his runs are going from tackle to tackle. It’s inside, it’s right through the middle, he’s breaking tackles, he’s bouncing off guys, he’s outrunning people.
“He’s shown the ability to be able to succeed at that next level, so there are arguments on both sides. It would be great to come back and have more development, be a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger. But at the same time, he’s not going to get that much bigger that he’s going to be a different person. He is who he is. He could go out and be successful, he could come back and have it work out for him either way.”
• This is the 25th anniversary of the Alamo Bowl.
No. 15 Stanford (9-4) makes its debut appearance at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, while No. 13 TCU (10-3) prevailed 47-41 in triple overtime against Oregon on Jan. 2, 2016.
It’s matchup between the runners-up in the Pac-12 and Big 12 championship games.
“There was a buzz,” Shaw said of announcing the matchup to his players. “There’s one thing about our guys, they love challenges. And all these guys have been watching the polls all year, and TCU has always been up there.” |
before after
Noted Jul. 31, 2015 by Armin Industry / Corporate
About
(Est. 2015, previously Kraft Foods Group, H.J. Heinz Company) “The Kraft Heinz Company is a result of the merger of Kraft Foods with Heinz. The merger is backed by 3G Capital and Berkshire Hathaway, which will invest US$10 billion in the deal, making the Kraft Heinz Company worth about US$46 billion. The Kraft Heinz Company, now has 13 different brands. The merger, has been agreed by the boards of both companies, with approvals by shareholders and regulatory authorities. The new company is expected to become the fifth-largest food and beverage company in the world, and the third-largest in the United States. The company will have dual headquarters between Pittsburgh and Chicago, the respective headquarters of Heinz and Kraft.” (Wikipedia)
Design by
N/A
Related links
Kraft Heinz Company press release
Images (opinion after)
Logo detail.
Opinion
To close the week with a winner we'll go with the always popular practice of merging logos for newly merged companies. Never a good idea but at least the silver lining is that down the road, usually, someone says "Hey, y'all, this is shit and it shouldn't be shit, let's rebrand". The new logo takes the two wordmarks out of their holding shapes — both iconic in their own right at the consumer level — and smushes them together. Indicating that someone did this logo with some sort of purpose the "t" in Kraft has been modified (tapered) to accommodate the swash of the "H". Nice try, but it only makes a bad merger logo worse because that "t" is fugly. At the consumer level nothing changes, you will still your get your Kraft cheeses and mayo and Heinz ketchups in the same design and you will still see those two old logos on packaging but the corporate face behind them is no more cohesive than Harvey Dent.
Thanks to Josh Berta for the tip. |
Congratulations to Wendy P. and Jan H.! We hope you enjoy your Blendtecs! Happy Blending!
Mother's Day is in less than a week! You are probably trying to decide what to get that special woman in your life. You're thinking flowers, chocolate, a gift card to somewhere she may or may not want; it can be hard to know just what to get. So, instead of the typical gifts you go out and buy beforehand or the night before, try one of these simple homemade gifts that she's sure to love, and make this Mother's Day extra special.
Create your own Facial Scrub
Women are often called ‘the fairer sex,’ and for good reason. But even natural beauty takes time and effort to retain as the years begin to pass. This Mother’s Day, give the special women in your life the gift of youth, with a special homemade facial scrub, courtesy of Blendtec. This scrub, made from avocado and banana, is 100% natural, and will help keep skin looking and feeling younger.
Homemade Chocolates
While flowers and breakfast in bed are certainly nice ways to show the women in your life that you appreciate them, the truth is that many woman are looking for something a bit sweeter—and chocolatier.
So, why not put your chef skills to work, and whip up a batch of these delectable homemade mother’s day chocolates? They’re easy and inexpensive to make, and if you can keep from eating them all yourself, they’re bound to impress that important lady who’s done so much for you.
[youtube 5N_5Veksi1A]
How to make your own Body Scrub
A Mother’s Day spent at the spa is a gift that any woman would love to receive. Unfortunately, constraints on time and money might mean that professional massages and wraps just aren’t always an option for the special woman in your life.
However, if you can’t send her to the spa, bring the spa to her! This special DIY body scrub is a breeze to make, and will have her feeling as though she’s being pampered by the best.
[youtube t4GcQRXcXp8]
Let us know in the comments below who the special woman is in your life this Mother's Day. Oh, and in case we forgot to mention this little tidbit, you have the opportunity to register for a chance to win one of two Blendtec Designer 625 blenders and Twister jars! Just enter your name and email below for your chance to win!
*Giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. Winners will be contacted by email Monday, May 11, and have 48 hours to respond. If we do not receive a response within 48 hours, new winners will be chosen.* Mother's Day Blendtec Giveaway |
Congressman Steve Israel of Long Island has reached new heights of pandering on twitter:
ICYMI: I submitted Amb. Ron Prosor’s speech to the Congressional Record. Honest speech about the UN’s anti-Israel agenda.
Ambassador Prosor? That’s Israel’s ambassador to the UN, who describes himself as a “proud representative… of the Jewish people.” The speech is the one he gave to the UN on November 25. Much of it was directed against European nations’ recognition of a Palestinian state. Excerpts:
Israel is tired of hollow promises from European leaders. The Jewish people have a long memory. We will never ever forget that you failed us in the 1940s. You failed us in 1973. And you are failing us again today.
Every European parliament that voted to prematurely and unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state is giving the Palestinians exactly what they want – statehood without peace…
To the nations that continue to allow prejudice to prevail over truth, I say “J’accuse.”
I accuse you of hypocrisy. I accuse you of duplicity.
I accuse you of lending legitimacy to those who seek to destroy our State.
I accuse you of speaking about Israel’s right of self-defense in theory, but denying it in practice.
And I accuse you of demanding concessions from Israel, but asking nothing of the Palestinians. |
Donald Trump wants to immediately deport 2 million to 3 million undocumented immigrants with criminal records. One problem: There almost certainly aren’t that many people who fit those criteria.
In a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday, Trump said he would prioritize deporting or incarcerating the immigrants who are both in the country illegally and who are “gang members, drug dealers” or have other criminal convictions. He said there are “a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million.”
It isn’t clear where Trump came up with those numbers. But according to the Department of Homeland Security, there are roughly 1.9 million non-citizen immigrants who have been convicted of crimes and are subject to deportation — what the government calls “removable criminal aliens.” That total, however, includes both undocumented immigrants and noncitizens in the country legally. The Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, estimates that there are roughly 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally and that approximately 820,000 of them have criminal records. (The Migration Policy Institute doesn’t take positions on specific legislation but is generally seen as favoring immigration. The Pew Research Center, another think tank, comes up with a similar figure for the total number of undocumented immigrants.) Some of those immigrants are already incarcerated: A recent report from the Congressional Research Service estimated that at the end of 2013, there were more than 140,000 non-citizen immigrants in local, state and federal prisons and jails. (That figure includes people who are in the country legally, not all of whom are subject to deportation.)
Beyond the specific numbers, the policy that Trump outlined Sunday is similar to the one President Obama pursued in his first term. When Obama first took office, he prioritized deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions, in some cases even for comparatively minor violations such as traffic offenses or shoplifting, according to Randy Capps of the Migration Policy Institute. Partly as a result, deportations soared under Obama, topping 400,000 in 2012.
More recently, however, the Obama administration has changed tack, focusing instead on deporting immigrants convicted of more serious crimes or for repeat offenses. (He has also consistently deported undocumented immigrants who entered the country recently.) Deportations have fallen steadily in Obama’s second term, to below 250,000 in 2015.
Capps said that the Homeland Security Department still has the resources it had in Obama’s first term. From a practical standpoint, then, it wouldn’t be hard for the government to deport 400,000 or even 500,000 people per year — meaning that Trump could credibly deport 2 million people during his first term without requiring additional resources or authorization from Congress. Many, but not all, of the people deported would be convicted criminals.
“It would not be hard to get up to 2 million in four years, and most of them would be quote-unquote criminals,” Capps said, although he added that many of those criminal convictions would be for relatively minor crimes.
Trump is also likely to roll back a central element of Obama’s immigration agenda: his Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which offers temporary legal status to people who entered the country illegally as children. During the campaign, Trump pledged to end DACA, but he hasn’t said how — whether he will close the program to new applicants, allow it to expire or end it even for the roughly three-quarters of a million people who have been granted legal status under the program.
“The proof is going to be in what his administration actually does,” Capps said, “and it will take some time before we know that.” |
An attorney representing Michigan assistant attorney general Andrew Shirvell plans to ask the University of Michigan to allow his client back on its 3,000-acre campus, now that U-M's student body president has dropped his request for a personal protection order against Shirvell.
And if the trespass warning issued Sept. 14 isn’t rescinded, a lawsuit against U-M will likely follow, said Philip Thomas, Shirvell's attorney.
Andrew Shirvell, pictured in this Michigan Daily photo taken at a Michigan Student Assembly meeting, currently can't step foot on campus.
Armstrong, who is the university's first openly gay student body president, filed the restraining order request Sept. 13 after Shirvell launched a blog attacking him for his "radical homosexual agenda" and started showing up at events and outside his house to protest and heckle him.
Shirvell maintained his actions constituted protected speech guaranteed under the First Amendment. The events sparked a media firestorm, and Shirvell took a voluntary leave Oct. 1, possibly using his own vacation time, Thomas said.
A Nov. 5 hearing will determine what disciplinary action, if any, will be taken against the assistant attorney general at work.
According to Thomas, his client has tried to get a hearing with U-M Public Safety Director Ken Magee at least three times since campus police read Shirvell a trespass warning on Sept. 14.
A meeting hasn’t yet been scheduled, and Thomas said they haven't heard back. A campus police spokesperson confirmed there a meeting with Magee hadn't been scheduled as of Monday.
“In the matter concerning the appeal of the trespass, we want that withdrawn,” Thomas said. “He should be able to go onto that campus for whatever reason. It’s legal as long as what he’s doing is legal, and he’s not threatening in any way.”
Thomas said his client is proud of attending the University of Michigan and loves his school.
“The next step would be the courts,” Thomas continued.
Thomas said his client hasn't been charged with a crime and didn't threaten Armstrong, although Armstrong described feeling threatened in his request for a personal protection order. Armstrong withdrew that request this morning.
“But we’re confident when they see the Ann Arbor Police Department report, as well as evidence that the PPO has been dismissed, we’re hopeful that we’re going to be able to get both of those matters resolved, and that cooler heads will prevail," Thomas said.
A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to an e-mail from AnnArbor.com.
Juliana Keeping is a health and environment reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at julianakeeping@annarbor.com or 734-623-2528. Follow Juliana Keeping on Twitter |
(CBS News) Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are set to meet with Iranian officials Friday over the country's nuclear program.
It's their first meeting since negotiations broke down in June. The IAEA report will be finalized and submitted in September.
Today is Iran's chance to provide a full account of its nuclear program to the IAEA before the agency files its official report.
Access to an alleged testing site, the Parchin military complex is a key issue. Satellite images show that two buildings and the security perimeter were destroyed over the past four months.
There are piles of dirt and demolished buildings where parts of the complex once stood. It had been untouched since 2004. Investigators want to verify whether explosives were tested there. Iran says it's already provided the information required.
The U.N. secretary general is headed to Tehran next week for a meeting. Iran wants to show that it is not isolated, and that it has international support for nuclear development.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei told the Iranian people to prepare for the consequences of nuclear defiance - in other words, tough times. Sanctions have sent food prices sky-high, wiped out half of the currency's value and drained more than $100 million a day from the Iranian economy. |
Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, have assets worth up to $2.1 million, and they paid $24,738 in 2007 income taxes on total income of $166,495, which came from her salary as governor of Alaska and money he earned as an oil worker, fisherman and snowmachine racer, documents released by her campaign yesterday show.
The tax returns indicated that Palin paid no taxes on $16,951 in state payments she received as meal and incidental expenses when she stayed at her home in Wasilla instead of at the governor's mansion in Juneau.
Alaska's director of finance has already declared that the state does not consider these $60-a-day payments taxable. Accounting experts and some tax courts have differed on the question of whether such compensation is tax-exempt. Yesterday, the McCain campaign issued a legal opinion from Washington lawyer Roger M. Olsen supporting the state's view that the payments are not taxable.
Palin stayed in her Wasilla home 312 nights, or 54 percent of the time, when she claimed reimbursements from Dec. 4, 2006, through June 30, 2008. Although her staff has said most of her work as governor is performed in Anchorage, 45 miles from Wasilla, Finance Director Kim Garnero said the state capital in Juneau is considered her duty station, making her eligible for the non-taxable meal and expense payments.
In the couple's 2007 return, which was prepared by H&R Block, Palin described her occupation as "public service" while her husband declared his as "oilfield." The couple claimed six exemptions, including themselves and their four children.
Total charitable donations came to $3,325, or about 2 percent of total income. These included $2,500 in various non-itemized gifts and an $825 in-kind donation to the Salvation Army.
On a separate financial disclosure form, the Palins valued their home in Wasilla at between $500,000 and $1 million. Their mortgage interest deduction of only $10,203, reported on their tax return, suggests they have substantial equity in the property, according to one tax accountant.
Todd Palin's commercial fishing business is worth between $50,000 and $100,000 and the couple's fishing leasehold in Nushagak River, Alaska, is valued at $100,000 to $250,000.
Along with mutual funds and property, their total assets are between $880,000 and $2.1 million, the form indicated.
Much of the 2007 tax return deals with Todd Palin's varied business activities. Although he won $17,000 in prize money in Alaska's Iron Dog snowmachine race, he reported a $9,639 business loss after deducting equipment depreciation, repairs, fuel and other costs of racing.
However, he reported a profit of $15,513 on his commercial fishing operation, even after deducting $12,245 paid to his crew as a share of the catch, along with other expenses.
His major income was $43,518 from his job as an oil-field worker for BP. He paid $204 in union dues.
In 2006 and 2007, the Palins filed their returns in August and September, respectively.
[The Associated Press reported that the Palins underpaid their 2007 taxes by $2,017 when filing for an extension, but that the McCain campaign said the balance had since been paid. It was unclear if they might owe penalties or interest.]
In 2006, they paid taxes of $19,951 on total income of $128,005. That year the bulk of the family income came from Todd Palin's job as an oil worker, which paid him $102,716.
Palin did not take office as governor until Dec. 4, 2006. |
Reuters AFP Getty Russia V Trump news: Updates as Donald Trump's son-in-law faces questions on Russia links
Congressmen set to vote for new sanctions on Russia over US election meddling
Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner denies collusion with Russia
US President goes on another Twitter rant about Russian ‘witch hunt’ Here are live updates, breaking news and the most recent information on Russia sanctions and the Russia-Trump investigation. (All times BST) CLICK HERE TO FOLLOW THE LATEST UPDATES ON TRUMP V RUSSIA
Wednesday July 26 6:02am: A historian who has predicted every US Presidential election result of the past 30 years claims it is inevitable Mr Trump will be impeached. Professor Allan Lichtman, from Washington DC’s American University, says President Trump’s days in the White House are numbered. He said the Republican will be removed from office once his party realises he is a “liability”.
Twitter Russia v Trump news: Donald Trump praises son-in-law for denial over Russian collusion
7.50pm: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has no plans to resign Despite the recent criticism from Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions still has no plans to step down from his position. The news comes from a source that told ABC News that Mr Sessions is planning to keep his head down and power through the situation. In the meantime, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has suggested that the issue will soon be resolved. "There’s obviously an issue in the relationship... we’ll get to a resolution shortly," Mr Scaramucci told reporters. "The president wants his Cabinet secretary to have his back.” 6pm: Trump's son-in-law grilled on Russia contacts again Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is visiting Capitol Hill for a second straight day to be interviewed about his contacts with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign and the presidential transition. 5.20pm: Former Trump campaign manager to speak to Senate investigators Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort will speak with Senate investigators on Capitol Hill within the next 48 hours, NBC News reported, citing a source close to Manafort. The questions are expected to focus on a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York attended by Manafort, a Russian lawyer, a Russian-American lobbyist, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. 3.50pm: Ukraine denies Donald Trump's allegations of influencing US elections The Ukrainian embassy in Washington is staunchly denying all accusations that it played a role in the 2016 election. "We stand by our words that the government of Ukraine didn't help any candidate in [the] election. Ukraine is proud of bipartisan support in the US," the embassy posted on Twitter. Earlier today President Trump cited in a tweet, "Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign – quietly working to boost Clinton". 11.52am: Donald Trump praises Kushner for ‘proving he did not collude’ with Russians The US President mocked the Russia investigation by suggesting that investigators may want to speak to his youngest son Barron. Mr Trump tweeted: "Jared Kushner did very well yesterday in proving he did not collude with the Russians. "Witch Hunt. Next up, 11 year old Barron Trump!"
On Monday Mr Kushner told Senate investigators that he had no part in any Kremlin attempt to meddle in the US election despite having met Russians four times last year. "All of my actions were proper and occurred in the normal course of events of a very unique campaign," Mr Kushner later told the press. "I did not collude with Russia, nor do I know of anyone else in the campaign who did."
11.12am: Trump accuses Jeff Sessions of 'weak position' over Hillary Clinton email scandal In a series of Tweets this morning, Mr Trump lashed out at both US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI acting director Andrew McCabe. Without offering evidence, Mr Trump cited "Ukrainian efforts to sabotage" his presidential campaign in order to aid his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. He tweeted: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!”
11.40am: Putin's spokesman says Russia banker did not meet Kushner on Kremlin orders A senior Russian banker who met Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner did not do so on the Kremlin's orders, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said. Kushner, who has been quizzed by Senate investigators on his contacts with Russians, said he met Sergei Gorkov, the head of Russian state-owned Vnesheconombank, on Dececember 13. When asked about Kushner's meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press that Gorkov had been in the US as part of a roadshow meeting various US representatives in the course of his work. "These contacts do no need any approval from the Kremlin and naturally (these meetings) did not happen on the Kremlin's orders," Peskov said. He said it was "normal practice" for the head of a major Russian bank conducting a roadshow to hold various meetings.
10.40am: US House of Representatives set to vote for new sanctions on Russia US House of Representatives is expected to overwhelmingly vote for a bill that would slap new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea. The bipartisan measure aims to punish Russia for alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election and its 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. If the Republican-led Senate passes the measure, Trump will need to decide whether to sign the bill or veto it. The Trump administration has objected to a provision in the sanctions bill that the president obtain congressional approval before easing any sanctions on Moscow. "He's going to study that legislation and see what the final product looks like," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters on Monday when asked whether Mr Trump would support it.
The relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, in pictures Wed, July 19, 2017 The relationship between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is under intense scrutiny as ties between the two leaders are being examined for possible illegal activity Play slideshow Mikhail Klimentyev/TASS 1 of 10 Russia's President Vladimir Putin (L) and US President Donald Trump talking during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg |
Washington (AFP) - Frank VanderSloot is a businessman, not a famous public figure. But such is his financial and political clout that he has essentially conducted job interviews with many Republican candidates for the most powerful job in the world.
The billionaire is one of America's political mega-donors, a class of elites who are using relaxed campaign finance laws to flood elections with massive funding as they seek to shape the 2016 presidential race's outcome.
His phone has been "ringing off the hook" this year, including from calls by candidates themselves, VanderSloot, 67, told AFP in a telephone interview.
"We had lots of phone calls often about who we were going to support."
At least five candidates have traveled to his out-of-the-way Idaho homestead to curry favor with the entrepreneur.
VanderSloot, chief executive of wellness and nutrition company Melaleuca, is one of several wealthy and politically engaged Americans on whom the Republican Party is counting to fuel the 2016 campaigns, operations that are expected to collectively run into the billions of dollars.
Many donors and candidates find the campaign finance system obscene, but none wants to be first to wean himself off the money spigot.
For VanderSloot, the structure is largely fair: nothing prevents Democrats from participating, and labor unions are notorious for handsomely funding liberal candidates.
But conservatives are clearly benefiting from more mega-donor backing, to the tune of six or even seven figures by the wealthiest contributors.
VanderSloot pledged $1.1 million in 2012 to support Republican nominee Mitt Romney, through organizations that can receive unlimited donations from individuals and corporations.
"I'm a strong proponent of donors being disclosed," VanderSloot said. "Stand up for what you believe. Yell from the rooftops."
He was referring to opaque and deeply controversial legal structures that allow for certain non-profit US organizations to maintain total secrecy when it comes to their donor list.
"I do not think it's a perfect process, but it's the process that we have," VanderSloot said. "And I think not to become involved in it is a big mistake."
- Defending free enterprise -
VanderSloot, his wife and Melaleuca have given at least $2.4 million over the years to the Republican Party and dozens of White House hopefuls and congressional candidates, according to official reports compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Asked about his 2016 budget, he laughed: "We have not set on a total dollar expenditure," he said. The figure will likely remain undisclosed until campaign declarations.
VanderSloot insisted he is not looking to manipulate the next Oval Office occupant.
"I don't want or need any personal favors," he said.
His goal is to elect someone eager to preserve the capitalist model that has allowed America to prosper, and him to make his fortune.
Like many successful businessmen, VanderSloot likes to tout his humble origins. His father was a rail worker, and it was only through education and a free-market system that VanderSloot's career took off.
"As I've grown older, and hopefully wiser, I tend not to take that for granted. We could lose that," he warned.
Meanwhile, VanderSloot gets to spend significant time with the candidates who may ultimately lead the most powerful country in the world. He lets them fly in his private jet, and meets them regularly when they travel.
The winner of VanderSloot's invisible primary? Marco Rubio, the telegenic Cuban-American senator from Florida.
VanderSloot has huddled with Rubio at least four times -- opportunities, the businessman said, that convinced him the 44-year-old is the strongest Republican aiming to succeed outgoing Democratic President Barack Obama, even though Rubio remains in third place in primary polling.
He said he has watched Rubio interact at the airport, talking with baggage handlers and shaking hands with ticketing agents before he meets the well-heeled donors he is courting.
It is an engagement with everyday voters that VanderSloot said is telling.
"Of all the candidates, I've never seen the interaction one on one with average people" more than Rubio does, he said. "He will relate to them better than any candidate."
VanderSloot said he is committed to Rubio, and will help him raise funds -- a development likely to result in fewer calls from the other candidates.
"Maybe that will die down now," he said. |
Sort Out Your Paint Recycling Needs Easily with Recycle Online
Recycle Online Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 15, 2017
Recycling paint wastage is a smooth process if you hire the reliable paint recycling services at Recycle Online. Delivering spill-proof containers for paint recycling processes, Recycle Online help you in sending the paint waste materials in a full proof manner. After a few days of order as per your requirement, you will receive the paint recycling kit. The kit comes with a box, 2 liners, return label and instructions for packing and sealing the box. Once you make a call to the logistics center they will schedule a pickup as per your preference. After receipt of the materials, you will receive the recycling certificate by email. While putting your requirement, you should know that Recycle Online only accepts the water-based paint.
Recycle Online has the years of experience in the recycling industry and providing industry proven solutions for batteries, electronic waste, bulbs, paint and other materials. With easy to access recycling solutions, the company has become a one-stop solution for various sorts of recycling needs. Offering several containers of different sizes for bulk recycling, Recycle Online is making the process smoother for the various companies. You can also reorder with automatic reorder facility and a new container will be shipped to your address once your order request is received. You will also get the notification after the new containers get shipped to you. You only need to fill and seal the container with the waste materials while having a look at the mentioned instructions. The recycling certificate will be emailed to you after the receipt of the container. |
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) – The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan called on his troops to resist any urge to avenge the death of two American soldiers killed in riots over the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base, even as renewed protests Friday claimed at least seven lives.
The anti-American demonstrations by thousands of Afghans who took to the streets after midday prayers were further evidence that President Obama's apology has failed to quiet the outrage over what the U.S. says was the inadvertent destruction of the holy books.
The killing of the two U.S. soldiers and the civil unrest have further strained Afghanistan's relations with the United States. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is trying to negotiate a long-term partnership agreement with the United States to govern the activities of U.S. forces in his country after 2014, when most foreign combat troops will have left or taken on support roles.
The violence against coalition troops also comes at a time when many countries contributing to the force are seeking to accelerate their withdrawal from what has become an unpopular and costly war that has dragged on for more than 10 years.
In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest acknowledged that the burning of Qurans had created "difficult circumstances."
"It is our view that we will work through these difficult circumstances and remain on track to making progress on our goals," Earnest said.
At least 20 people, including the two U.S. soldiers, have been killed in four days of violence.
Protesters have ignored appeals by Karzai, parliamentarians and some clerics for an end to the violence until an investigation into the incident at Bagram Air Field is concluded in coming days.
Afghan officials said seven people were killed around the country Friday by Afghan security forces trying to disperse crowds or responding to gunfire from protesters.
One of the dead was part of a crowd trying to storm a Hungarian military base in northern Baghlan province. Six others were killed in western Herat province, including three people who died when a truck full of ammunition exploded after protesters set it ablaze, the governor's office said.
Anti-American protesters also gathered in several locations around Kabul, including in the city's east, where a demonstrator, his clothes covered in blood, was carried from the scene as about 200 police tried to push the crowd back.
Police sprayed volleys of automatic rifle fire over the heads of protesters chanting "Death to America!" in an effort to prevent them from reaching the defense ministry, located close to the American Embassy.
U.S. Gen. John Allen, who commands all U.S. and coalition troops, traveled late Thursday to the American base in the east where an Afghan soldier opened fire on U.S. troops, killing two Americans.
"There will be moments like this when you're searching for the meaning of this loss. There will be moments like this when your emotions are governed by anger and a desire to strike back," Allen said in comments NATO released Friday.
"Now is not the time for revenge. Now is not the time for vengeance. Now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are."
Allen, who was accompanied by Afghan National Army Gen. Sher Mohammed Karimi, told soldiers that "now is how we show the Afghan people that as bad as that act was in Bagram, it was unintentional and American and ISAF soldiers do not stand for this." ISAF is the acronym for the International Security Assistance Force, the formal name of the U.S.-led international military coalition fighting in Afghanistan.
The two U.S. troops were killed during a protest Thursday outside the American base in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar province. Two protesters were killed by Afghan police there before the Afghan soldier turned his gun on U.S. troops. He then fled into the crowd.
Karimi told the U.S. troops that their sacrifice is not wasted.
"It is a rewarding mission and this enemy fighting against us, is not an enemy of Afghanistan, it is an enemy of the whole of humanity," Karimi said.
It was the latest in a rising spate of incidents where Afghan soldiers or police, or militants wearing their uniforms, have shot and killed U.S. and NATO service members.
The unrest started Tuesday, when Afghan workers at the sprawling Bagram air base noticed that Qurans and other Islamic texts were in the trash that coalition troops dumped into a pit where garbage is burned. Some Afghan workers burned their fingers as they tried to salvage some of the books. Afghan government officials said initial reports indicated four Qurans were burned.
The materials had been taken from a library at Parwan Detention Facility, which adjoins the base, because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. Writing inside a Quran is forbidden in the Islamic faith, although it was unclear whether the handwritten messages were found in the holy book or other reading materials.
A military official said it appeared that detainees at the prison were exchanging messages by making notations in the texts.
Obama apologized in a letter to Karzai Thursday, expressing "regret and apologies over the incident in which religious materials were unintentionally mishandled."
"We don't care about Obama's apology," said Kamaluddin, a 25-year-old Kabul protester who uses only one name. "We have to protest to be responsible to our God. They are burning our Quran. An apology is not enough." |
In the wake of this week’s announcement that Susan G. Komen for the Cure will no longer be awarding grants to Planned Parenthood, the breast cancer organization’s donations have gone up 100 percent in the last two days.
On a Thursday conference call Nancy Brinker, the founder and CEO of the Komen Foundation, told reporters that the organization is “singularly focused” on combating breast cancer, and that the politics of the decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood has been distracting from their mission.
Nevertheless, since cutting ties, Brinker announced that Komen’s donations have gone up in the last two days — by 100 percent.
“Our donations are up 100 percent in the past two days. With all of the emotion around these issues — which we understand, we get emotional too, we do this every single day of our lives,” Brinker said, explaining that they do not make decisions to be popular, they make them to fight cancer.
On Wednesday Planned Parenthood reported that since Komen ended the relationship, the abortion provider has pulled in $400,000. According to CNN , following the announcement 6,000 donors gave to Planned Parenthood through online contributions.
While pro-choicers believe the decision to sever the relationship was based in politics, Komen continues to argue that the decision was based on internal policy changes which dictate more stringent criteria for grants — which Planned Parenthood does not meet, including the fact that Planned Parenthood is under congressional investigation and does not offer on-site screening, having to refer patients for mammograms, treatment and diagnosis elsewhere.
“We regret that these new policies have impacted some longstanding grantees, such as Planned Parenthood, but want to be absolutely clear that our grant-making decisions are not about politics,” Komen said in a statement Wednesday. “Throughout our 30 year history, our priority has always been and will continue to be the women we serve. As we move forward, we are working to ensure that there is no interruption or gaps in services for the women who need our support most in the fight against breast cancer.”
Since its founding in 1982 Komen has invested more than $1.9 billion in breast cancer treatment and research.
Follow Caroline on Twitter |
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Austin Hatch is unlikely to play basketball this season, as he continues to recuperate from a plane crash that killed his father and stepmother in June, his family said in a statement Tuesday night.
Hatch, of Fort Wayne, Ind., who had accepted a scholarship at Michigan starting in 2013, suffered a serious head injury in the crash along with a punctured lung, broken ribs and a broken collarbone.
The crash, on June 24 near Charlevoix, Mich., killed his father, Dr. Stephen Hatch, and his stepmother, Kim Hatch.
Austin Hatch also survived the crash of a plane piloted by Stephen Hatch in 2003 near Fort Wayne, in which the boy's mother, a sister and a brother were killed.
Hatch's family released a statement through Canterbury High School on Tuesday night, saying he likely won't play this season.
"Austin continues to make great strides in his rehabilitation," his family said in the statement. "This first year is vital to the recovery process. As a result, it is unlikely that Austin's physicians will clear him to play basketball this season."
The family continued to ask for privacy and that media not approach Hatch for interviews when he attends Canterbury High's games.
Hatch has also been seen at games this season at Michigan State, where his friend Russell Byrd plays.
Hatch is one of four players committed to Michigan's Class of 2013, joining Derrick Walton Jr. (Detroit/Chandler Park Academy), Mark Donnal (Whitehouse, Ohio/Anthony Wayne) and Zak Irvin (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern).
It is unclear whether or not Hatch will attempt to reclassify as a 2014 prospect or still try to play as part of the 2013 class if he is able to return to basketball.
Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for WolverineNation. He can be reached at michaelrothsteinespn@gmail.com or on Twitter @mikerothstein. |
After months of uncertainty, we now know why Jeffrey Beall removed his list of allegedly predatory open access publishers. In an opinion paper published in Biochemia Medica by Beall, he revealed the reasons behind his decision. It turns out that he, his colleagues and his university experienced constant harassment over long periods of time by many of the publishers on his list. Finally, after “intense pressure” from his employer (University of Colorado Denver) and fear of losing his job, he took down his list, his blog, his Facebook page and his university page.
The fact that these publishers deployed these kinds of guerrilla tactics trying to get a “heckler’s veto” in order to get rid of Beall and his list of publishers is a searing indictment of their practices. It is also a great shame that the University of Colorado Denver failed to give Beall their full support against those who profit from misleading and deceiving researchers and the scientific community. Defending high-quality open access to scientific research in a world where ignorance runs amok is more vital than ever. However, it is just as important to defend scientific research and the scientific community from the festering parasitism of predatory publishers.
Who is Jeffrey Beall and what are predatory publishers?
Jeffrey Beall works as an academic librarian at the University of Colorado Denver. He became an associate professor after getting tenure in 2012. Between 2012 and 2017, Beall maintained a blacklist of allegedly predatory open access publishers and several other lists of e. g. predatory standalone journals and hijacked journals.
A predatory publisher is a publisher that engages in deceptive methods that include publishing fake content, skipping peer review, pretending to have a more impressive credibility than they really have, picking journal names that are very similar to established journals to fool people, spam researchers to try to get them to submit papers and pay expensive fees. Because of little to no regulation, many predatory publishers are allowed to do their devious business in the open without much social or legal consequences.
Follow Debunking Denialism on Facebook or Twitter for new updates.
What happened?
On January 15, it was discovered on Twitter that the list of allegedly predatory publishers that Beall was curating was no longer there. This was puzzling, because he recently had released a new version of the list within the last couple of months. It turned out that it was not merely the list of allegedly predatory publishers that was gone, but also his three other lists of allegedly predatory standalone journal, hijacked journals and misleading metric companies and even the about page of his website. In essence, the entire website had been taken down. However, this was not the full story. The accompanying Facebook page and his academic page at his university were also gone.
Anonymous critics of Beall immediately started celebrating, while the community of researchers and science advocates were still in the dark about what had transpired. Several explanations flourished on the Internet, from WordPress problems and collaborations with Cabell to legal threats and academic politics. Beall himself continued to edit Wikipedia, but took an extended break from social media. After a few days, the story of the list being removed hit the larger science community and articles were posted on Nature, Science and Retraction Watch websites. They offered little in the way of clarifications, merely that Beall had decided to take down his list, that he is still on the university faculty but planning on changing his field of research to something else.
More details are available in the Debunking Denialism article What Happened to Jeffrey Beall’s List of (Allegedly) Predatory Publishers?.
The real reasons Beall removed his list
In an opinion piece entitled What I learned from predatory publishers (cache) in Biochemia Medica, Beall finally explains the reasons behind why he removed his list of allegedly predatory publishers and looks back at some of the lessons he learned from the experience. Beall highlights two of the most crucial factors in his decision:
In January 2017, facing intense pressure from my employer, the University of Colorado Denver, and fearing for my job, I shut down the blog and removed all its content from the blog platform.
Others used more aggressive strategies. Some publishers, especially the publishers of standalone mega-journals, would go through my university’s website and cherry-pick names and email addresses of the university officials they thought important. Then they would send an email blast to them, denouncing me and making false accusations about my work, my ethics, and my ability to make judgments about journals and publishers.
They kept sending the emails to the university chancellor and others, hoping to implement the heckler’s veto. They tried to be as annoying as possible to the university so that the officials would get so tired of the emails that they would silence me just to make them stop.
In essence, these allegedly predatory publishers systematically harassed Beall, his colleagues and the University leadership and the support from the university appears to have started to waver. Fearing for his job, he took down the list and decided to move on to other research areas.
The fact that these allegedly predatory publishers went to such great lengths to harass Beall, his colleagues and the university administration speak volumes to the nature and activities of these publishers. If a publisher insists on rebuking the claim that they engage in predatory behavior, using these dishonest methods are not exactly reassuring.
I think there are a lot more that the University of Colorado Denver could have done. They could have publicly supported Beall and created a large research group of several dozen people to maintain and develop these lists, increase transparency and handle any issues that would crop up. They probably would not have to do this alone as I am sure there are many other interested research institutions that understand the benefit with such a list.
If email harassment by publishers was problematic for the university, they could easily have blocked those email domains, required objections to being included on the list to be sent in writing via the standard post or even implemented a rule that says that objections will not be considered for, let’s say, a full year if the publishers harass researchers. I do not think it would have damaged the University of Colorado Denver to stand up for scientific integrity and oppose predatory publishers. I doubt that any researcher or institution would honestly support predatory publishers if they were aware of all the facts and reasoning without fallacies or biases.
What did Beall learn from his experiences?
The opinion piece was sent in on February 15 (about a month after Beall removed his content) contains a sliver of bitterness. This is both expected and psychologically understandable considering the harassment and pressure that Beall received and how little critical attention has been given to the problems with predatory open access journals and some of the problematic incentives that exist for open access journals.
So how can we summarize the lessons learned by Beall from researching open access publishing? Here are ten of my own personal take-home impressions I got from reading the opinion piece (Beall does not always use the same phrases e. g. sunken cost):
(1) increased subscription costs were due to many reasons, but several reasons are not commonly mentions (including the regional economy, growth of the researcher population, and invention of new fields).
(2) library-managed repositories were largely ignored in the development of the open access movement.
(3) both the academia and industry have been too slow to fully grasp the problems with predatory publishing.
(4) shady open access journals have a clear conflict of interest: the more papers they publish, the more money they get.
(5) some predatory publishers will systematically harass critics with vile personal attacks and try to get them fired, essentially a version of the merchant of doubt strategy that tobacco companies, oil companies and the organic industry uses against scientists who support scientific integrity.
(6) researchers who have published in an allegedly predatory journal have not only a conflict of interest in the discussion, but is also subject to sunken cost fallacy. This makes it more difficult for them to embrace criticisms of predatory publishers.
(7) blacklists are disliked by both publishers and universities, but whitelists have substantial limitations.
(8) predatory publishers are a crucial component to many modern examples of pseudoscience and quackery, such as alternative medicine.
(9) the scholarly publishing industry is facing serious problems, and we have to put in the work to mitigate or fix these problems.
(10) preprint servers will likely become more important in the future, it removes the financial conflict of interest that predatory open access publishers have (since preprint servers are cheap to run) and overlay journals might be put together by experts, highlighting the most important papers published in a certain area.
A “Netflix”-version for scientific papers?
Although not mentioned by Beall, I think there are some insights that can be gotten from the media industry as well. For instance, production companies for television and movies used to oppose having their material on YouTube before the understood the true power of the platform and now many of them have their own account and upload thousands of hours of their own copyrighted material. Relatively new efforts like Netflix and Spotify is revolutionizing movies, television and music. Not all of these efforts are profitable, but many are.
Perhaps it is time for a Netflix version of subscription to scientific journals? Since there are many orders of magnitude more people interested in science than there are libraries, it has the capacity to attract an enormously large target audience with diverse interests. Just think about how many people would be willing to pay, let’s say, 22 USD per month to get access to a collection of scientific journals in an area they are interested in? Or just the ability to access ~20-30 papers per month? The possibilities are vast.
These considerations are especially timely since the appearance of services such as Sci-Hub that offers millions of pirated papers (roughly analogous to BitTorrent) and browser extensions such as Unpaywall that finds free and available full text versions of published papers. Although one should not take the comparison to the music or television and movie industries too literal, one cannot help but to note the similarities.
We might be at a crucial point where we have to make decisions on where to take scholarly publishing into the future. Perhaps publishers need to come to similar conclusions that the media industry has come to? It is very difficult or even practically impossible to defeat the demand for content that is either free or very cheap and high-quality. So one way forward might just be to approach the future of publishing in the same way that the media industry finally understood the value and impact of approaches such as YouTube and Netflix, while making sure to maintain scientific integrity and high quality content. It will not be easy, but it might just be worth it when the dust settles.
What now?
Cached versions of Beall’s lists are available online and some have even put up the lists on their own websites as a sign of solidarity with Beall and the important work of calling out predatory publishers. A curated whitelist and blacklist are being maintained by a company Cabell that had Beall as a consultant. Unfortunately, it requires a subscription and is likely not accessible by the average critical consumer of the scientific literature.
The fight against predatory publishers will continue without Beall by other people who also care about the quality of the literature and the future of scientific publishers. The silencing of Beall and his list might very well end up being an example of the Streisand effect. The sustained efforts by allegedly predatory publishers to remove incriminating content might just backfire and make both the lists and awareness about predatory publishers spread even more to the humiliation of predatory publishers everywhere. |
Almost exactly three years ago Orien Greene was featured on TrueHoop. He's a fringe NBA guard who made an impression on some NBA coaches not with his resume or reputation, but his doggedness, strength, size and handle when it was time to play. "I was the guy," he says, "who would arrive at the workout with nobody knowing my name, but then when it was over, they'd want to keep me."
Danny Ainge saw him work out once and begged him not to work out for anybody else. The Celtics drafted Greene with the 53rd pick of the 2005 NBA draft.
Greene's 30 now, and there's no good reason he couldn't still be in the NBA. He isn't exactly a lights-out shooter, but he still has all the size, strength and mindset that people liked. If nothing else, he's the kind of player D-League GMs cherish.
But off the court he has become one sad complication after another, mostly of his own doing. And as a result he's a 30-year-old guy with a head full of riddles of the international power struggle between FIBA and the NBA and a yearning to pay the bills of his growing family by playing basketball just about anywhere in the world.
His problem is that he has been banned by FIBA for the better part of four years, and nobody seems to know much about exactly when, or indeed if, that ban will end.
Here's just one of the things Greene screwed up: He says he used to smoke marijuana, but doesn't anymore. To get around drug tests while playing in Amsterdam, he had a system of submitting urine that wasn't his own to the drug testers. He collected, he says, urine from three different clean people. And for a while it worked. But then it failed in various different fancy ways. As his time with the team was coming to an end, he took a drug test himself, with his own urine, and failed. Then, in the months that followed, somehow the sports' governing body figured out that other samples hadn't been his. There were interrogations, implications, some confessions.
"I didn't want to cooperate with nothing," Greene says. "One who was pissing for me, we didn't get along, so I told them his name. But I protected the two other guys. They put pressure on this other guy, and he kind of folded on me."
So they had Greene implicating one accomplice, and a different one confessing. You can see how FIBA felt they had to drop the hammer. "That kind of spiraled," Greene says, "into 'We don't want you to play nowhere.'"
In 2010, Greene was suspended for two years, backdated to 2009. But 2013 is almost over now, and he's still banned.
FIBA manages all kinds of difficult things, from the rules of international competitions to the transfer of players between countries. The NBA itself is not subject to FIBA jurisdiction, but the two bodies have staked out certain truces -- for instance NBA players play in FIBA-governed contests like the Olympics and World Championships, and the NBA won't let its teams go after players under contract in FIBA-governed leagues.
Which brings us to Greene's suspension, which seems to fall into a confusing gray area between the NBA and FIBA. Several times since Greene left Amsterdam, he has been "cleared to play" by different teams, including in the D-League, as he has been told at various times by any number of agents, lawyers, officials and advisors. There has been communication with FIBA itself in the form of various phone calls and emails that Greene can rattle off from memory. Put it all together and you get repeated instances of Greene being told he was cleared to play, then playing, and then later learning that he was never supposed to have played, had offended FIBA rules by playing. This is how his ban has lasted so long.
He has one story after another. He thought he couldn't play in the D-League, and knew he would have to go through some kind of background check to clear him to play. So when the Utah Flash wanted to add him to the roster for a playoff run a few years ago his thought was "Well, that ain't going to happen. I stayed home."
But then Drew Sellers, president of the now-defunct Utah Flash, told Greene he was cleared to play and picked him up at his house personally. Greene had a good game, the Flash won, and all seemed well in the world.
Then Greene learned FIBA was not cool with any of that, and his ban would be extended further.
There was another time he had a deal to play in China. The arrangement was that someone would meet him at the airport with his first paycheck. It seemed like he'd have real money to pay for his little children, something that gnaws at him. But instead of being met by someone with money, he was met instead by someone with a note from FIBA saying he was not cleared to play. He stayed a week trying to get it resolved, before returning home as frustrated as you can imagine.
Greene says that at one point a FIBA official told Greene the date his ban would end. Greene waited past that date, signed a deal, and then was told his ban had not in fact ended, and that the official he has spoken to was no longer at FIBA, and that his ban would be extended.
That's his story, these days. His professional life, for the last year and a half, has been nothing but one long ban extension, punctuated by a tournament now and again in the Middle East, which falls beyond the control of FIBA.
How does it all end? Who knows? But Greene says that in the interim, he has seriously downgraded his expectations. When we spoke three years ago, he was all about returning to the NBA. Now Greene says "I'm just focused on paying the bills, playing anywhere I can, 'cause I have kids now."
There are a lot of different ways basketball dreams wind down. Injury, age, bad luck. But this one, where the central challenge of his past few years has been not drug tests, nor bans, but finding out if he truly is banned or not ... that just doesn't seem like it should be a way to go down. |
“Um paciente paraplégico, movimentando uma veste robótica controlada pela atividade cerebral (exoesqueleto), irá se levantar de uma cadeira de rodas, caminhar por cerca de 25 metros no campo e dar o primeiro chute da Copa”.
Era assim que, ainda na segunda-feira passada (9/6), o Portal da Copa descrevia o que iria acontecer em algum momento da abertura do mundial, que aconteceu dia 13 de junho.
A promessa era do neurocientista brasileiro Miguel Nicolelis, coordenador do projeto Andar de Novo, que descreveu a cena em diversas entrevistas nos últimos anos. O mundo iria testemunhar o que, para ele, seria comparável à chegada do homem à Lua em termos de proeza científica.
Mas tudo que o mundo viu está neste gif:
Decepção, então, é uma palavra adequada para definir o anti-clímax de uma cerimônia bem morna (como é de costume nas Copas, aliás).
Algo deu errado ou, no mínimo, não saiu como o prometido. Chegaremos lá. Antes, observar como as pessoas escolheram o culpado pelo fiasco foi bem instrutivo sobre como pensamos e como nos expressamos nos intertubos.
O primeiro instinto de uma boa parcela dos brasileiros quando acontece qualquer coisa ruim é dizer “foi a Globo!”, e ir para as redes sociais. A segunda, que normalmente vem acompanhada da primeira, é evocar o tal complexo de vira-lata.
Tivemos tudo isso nos minutos que se seguiram à demonstração. Primeiro veio a acusação que foi a Globo que quis esconder o negócio. Não importava que a geração de imagens era da FIFA, que não era possível saber o que viria na câmera seguinte (todos os apresentadores estavam meio perdidos), que estavam previstos não mais que 30 segundos, e que as outras emissoras mostraram rigorosamente o mesmo. Não importava que a Globo até colocou alguns replays com Galvão exaltando o “feito” ou que, antes, realizou seguidas e elogiosas reportagens em seus principais jornais e que depois teve exclusiva com o rapaz que usou o exoesqueleto.
Na dúvida, para esse pessoal que até hoje canta “o povo não é bobo”, a culpa era, foi e sempre será, da Globo.
Em uma visão ligeiramente mais sofisticada, a culpa seria “do Brasil, que não leva a ciência a sério”. Há várias razões para sustentar a ideia, como o nosso modestíssimo investimento em pesquisa de ponta (especialmente no setor privado, importante salientar). Por essa lógica, se a apresentação fosse nos Estados Unidos, o cientista seria visto como herói, a apresentação teria destaque etc.
A simples existência do Andar de Novo (e os R$ 33 milhões destinados ao projeto) seriam um bom argumento contra essa tese, como veremos mais adiante. Mas, para quem está atrás de um bode expiatório, parece sedutora a ideia de reclamar de um “país que prefere mostrar Claudia Leitte a um avanço científico”.
Um post bem escrito, que mistura bem o globoantagonismo com o complexo de vira-lata, ganhou seus 60 e tantos mil likes no calor do momento. Ele fecha a reclamação com o exemplo da abertura das Olimpíadas de 1984, em Los Angeles, em que um homem usou um jetpack para voar pela plateia. A comparação populista é que lá eles voam e aqui a gente não deixa um cara andar.
"Voa, canarinho, voa"
É comparar maçãs com navios, mas enfim.
A gente tem a mania de reclamar e apontar culpados antes de saber todos os fatos -- isso é notório -- e com as redes sociais, que nos obrigam a ter alguma posição sobre as polêmicas do momento, isso é ainda mais evidente. Quando veio a informação (ainda não confirmada) que o problema alegado pela organização da abertura era que o exoesqueleto poderia estragar o gramado, transferimos a culpa para a FIFA. O próprio Nicolelis reclamou publicamente do pouco espaço dado à demonstração, mas que “o que foi prometido” havia sido entregue.
Depois do jogo, quando a discussão sobre o pênalti em Fred já não dominava mais a pauta, começaram finalmente a questionar o exoesqueleto e a pesquisa em si. Por que deu errado? Será que foi um embuste? Será que não foi meio exagero achar que em 17 meses conseguiríamos tal feito?
Antes que pudéssemos analisar melhor os fatos, entrou no jogo o personagem tradicional das redes sociais, aquele que associa aos “PeTtralha$” todas as mazelas do País.
Se o milagre do exoesqueleto não aconteceu, haveria dedo do partido aí. E, como Miguel Nicolelis é cabo eleitoral do PT (logo depois de anunciar o feito, retuitou o ex-ministro da Saúde e candidato ao governo de SP Alexandre Padilha), amigo de Lula e tudo o mais, ficou fácil de atacá-lo.
A partir daí, a discussão degringolou, e o próprio Nicolelis foi ao Twitter para bater boca com antipetistas e xingar os jornais e revistas que lançaram dúvidas sobre seu trabalho de maneira no mínimo deselegante. Por sorte (para ele), como a Copa tem sido sensacional, deixamos o assunto um pouco de lado.
Obviamente a culpa de tudo isso não é do PT, da Globo, da FIFA, ou do Brasil, mas do próprio Nicolelis. E ainda vale discutir isso.
Um gênio
Em abril de 2007, assisti a uma palestra de Miguel Nicolelis em um evento da FAPESP (cobria bastante ciência na época). Ele mostrou -- em primeira-mão a não mais que 100 pessoas -- o vídeo de um estudo que estava para ser publicado, que, se não me falha a memória, mostrava um macaco controlando pernas mecânicas a milhares de quilômetros de distância, no Japão, com a “força do pensamento”.
Foi assim que funcionou a "força do pensamento" (Imagem: G1)
Estava ali como jornalista, mas a demonstração me encantou de modo a abalar minha pretensa objetividade. Virei fã.
A técnica era realmente pioneira e impressionante. A equipe de Nicolelis na Universidade de Duke inseriu, por meio de cirurgia, centenas de eletrodos diretamente na massa encefálica de macacos, e, com muitas horas de testes e computadores, conseguiu elaborar uma forma de interpretar o que os impulsos diziam. Não sabemos exatamente de que parte do cérebro vêm os comandos para os músculos, mas os milhares de pontos de “escuta” implantados davam pistas da “assinatura digital” de alguns movimentos.
Nicolelis tinha em mente uma aplicação bastante prática para suas pesquisas: com a interface cérebro-máquina devidamente azeitada, pessoas paraplégicas ou tetraplégicas poderiam mandar sinais de movimento para seus membros mesmo que o “canal“ habitual — a medula espinhal — estivesse interrompido. Bastava desenvolver uma maneira de captar e interpretar os sinais de movimento enviados pelo cérebro e ativar algo que movesse, como os membros originais. Talvez os próprios, com impulsos elétricos ou próteses.
Um exoesqueleto, uma armadura envolvendo os membros, parecia uma solução interessante para o problema. Para ir um pouco além na ideia, a equipe de Nicolelis inventou uma forma de que o paciente pudesse sentir o feedback, a pisada no chão, através de sensores no exoesqueleto. Era uma via de mão-dupla, genial.
Continuei acompanhando com empolgação as pesquisas de Nicolelis. Em junho de 2011, ele lançou o seu livro “Muito Além do Nosso Eu” no MASP, aqui em São Paulo. Comprei e fui vê-lo mais uma vez.
O auditório estava lotado. Ótimo orador e sempre bem-humorado com suas analogias futebolísticas (é dos sujeitos mais palmeirenses que existem), ele descreveu a sua pesquisa e contou, no fim, o plano de fazer um paraplégico dar o chute inicial da Copa. Emocionado, com voz embargada, ele disse o quanto seria importante que os brasileiros se orgulhassem de um feito científico, evocando a memória de Santos Dumont.
No fim da fala, Nicolelis, eu e todas as pessoas do meu lado choramos. Aplaudimos de pé. Torcíamos para dar tudo certo.
Os feitos de Nicolelis são reconhecidos internacionalmente, e ele publicou diversas vezes nos principais periódicos de prestígio. Suas pesquisas não se restringem à interface cérebro máquina (BMI). Os estudos sobre tratamentos alternativos aos efeitos do Parkinson são também bastante importantes e podem, no futuro, melhorar a vida de milhões de pessoas.
Isso para não falar do Instituto Internacional de Neurociência de Natal, que ele fundou com três colegas, em 2003, e trouxe muitas pesquisas, especialistas estrangeiros e doações importantes.
Por todas as suas contribuições espalhadas em 30 anos de estudos do cérebro, enfim, Nicolelis merece a nossa deferência e o voto de confiança.
Mas, no fundo, todo esse parêntese serve apenas para explicar porque estou mais desapontado com o pontapé inicial da Copa do que a maioria das pessoas.
Eu não achei outros bodes expiatórios.
Jeitinho sem ginga
Nicolelis sabia que teria muito pouco tempo quando conseguiu o sinal verde para que seu projeto conseguisse uma demonstração decente a tempo da abertura da Copa.
A começar pelo método usado para fazer o link entre o cérebro e o exoesqueleto. Resumidamente, a pesquisa de Nicolelis era tão diferente das demais porque usava os implantes dentro do crânio, que podiam captar bastante detalhe e interpretar de maneira mais precisa o que, no meio de tantos impulsos elétricos, era comando de movimento.
Em entrevista à Wired no ano passado, ele disse que se desenvolvesse uma forma de “escutar” individualmente 20 ou 30 mil neurônios (com os macacos, chegou a 2 mil), conseguiria reproduzir uma fluidez de movimento nunca antes vista. “Eu poderia fazer [os pacientes] chutarem uma bola de futebol ao estilo brasileiro”.
“Não britânico, brasileiro”, sublinhou, para ficar claro que a sua técnica não resultaria em movimentos robóticos.
Mas além do prazo exíguo, implantar eletrodos no cérebro de um voluntário seria arriscado. De acordo com a reportagem da Superinteressante que está nas bancas e disseca o assunto, os macacos-cobaias de Nicolelis morreram algum tempo depois, em parte, por causa dos implantes.
Com o tempo curto para fazer a demonstração, o cientista mudou a forma de captar os sinais cerebrais. Em vez do invasivo (mas revolucionário) implante de sensores, mudou para uma toquinha de registro eletroencefalográfico (EEG).
EEG
Durante muito tempo, Nicolelis detonou a tecnologia, dizendo que ela era primitiva e não pegava os detalhes finos, o que parece fazer sentido. Uma coisa é “ouvir” um monte de impulsos elétricos do lado de fora do crânio outra é de dentro, do lado da ação.
Uma boa reportagem na Folha explica as diferenças dos métodos, mas vale essa citação de um artigo que o próprio Nicolelis assinou (link fechado para assinantes) com John Chapin, em 2008:
“Os sinais de EEG, no entanto, não podem ser usados diretamente em próteses de membros, pois mostram a atividade elétrica média de populações amplas de neurônios. É difícil extrair desses sinais as pequeníssimas variações necessárias para codificar movimentos precisos dos braços ou das mãos."
Ou seja: no fim das contas, Nicolelis demonstrou algo profundamente diferente do que prometeu, ficando com um método inferior, só porque “era o que dava”. Em sua defesa, ele diz que o chute da Copa foi só o “início” do projeto, que continuará por alguns anos, com colaborações internacionais, aqui em São Paulo.
Mas então por que a correria e as promessas?
Ciência-espetáculo
A toda hora, Nicolelis lembra o exemplo de Santos Dumont. Ele acha, com razão, que não temos grandes cientistas e grandes feitos científicos para nos inspirar e ele queria provocar algo no público como foi o primeiro vôo do 14 Bis. O exoesqueleto se chamava Santos Dumont. Um lenço que o aviador pioneiro usava foi cedido pela família para a demonstração.
E ele podia lembrar mais o brasileiro-parisiense, de outras formas. Na época que Santos Dumont realizou o primeiro vôo controlado, no início do século passado, havia prêmios para quem conseguisse a façanha de voar um objeto mais pesado que o ar de maneira controlada por alguns metros. Cada um aprendia alguma coisa com a demonstração pública do outro e o processo demorou alguns anos.
O sucesso era inevitável. Tanto que, dias depois, outros repetiram o feito de Santos Dumont.
Pouco depois de ganhar o prêmio com o 14 Bis, o brasileiro criou o Demoiselle, o primeiro avião que podia ser produzido em série. Ele publicou todos os desenhos e especificações do novo modelo e liberou para quem quisesse usar, porque acreditava no potencial da aviação como tecnologia (apesar de ser contra o seu uso em guerras).
o 14 Bis
Santos Dumont foi grande e inspirador não pelo “espetáculo” que deu no campo de Bagatelle, na França, em 23 de outubro de 1906. Mas porque usou os avanços dos outros, deu uma enorme contribuição e devolveu para todos prosseguirem o desenvolvimento de uma tecnologia que beneficiaria todo mundo. Ao contrário dos irmãos Wright, dos EUA, ele não parecia querer o título de “pai” da aviação. E isso é ótimo.
Ao fazer questão dos holofotes, Nicolelis poderia ter a melhor das intenções, mas parece ter ignorado não só os ensinamentos de Santos Dumont, mas a maneira que a própria ciência avança.
O desenvolvimento científico é incremental e lento. A maioria das grandes descobertas ou demonstrações de conceitos só são públicas depois do fato, da publicação de um artigo revisado por pares ou com provas inequívocas em vídeo. E muito raramente envolvem o trabalho de um grupo isolado.
E não são chamados observadores externos normalmente para “testemunhar” um experimento porque algo pode dar errado. Sempre dá, faz parte. Para a demonstração da Copa, parece que Nicolelis fez o máximo para “não dar errado”. Ele entregou o mínimo possível que poderia ser feito dentro da proposta. E é difícil dizer que ele contribuiu com a mobilidade humana quando o paciente que testou o exoesqueleto chegou assim ao gramado:
Haverá gente dizendo que todo esse estardalhaço foi má-fé, especialmente porque Nicolelis coleciona muitos desafetos na comunidade científica brasileira, que não gostam do seu jeito “autoritário” de comandar laboratórios. Mas pode ter sido um erro de cálculo honesto também.
“Acho que ele promete mais do que pode entregar como uma forma de motivar ele mesmo e a sua equipe”, disse à Wired Krishna Shenoy, que estuda as interfaces cérebro-máquina em Stanford
Mas nos dias que se seguiram à demonstração da Copa, Nicolelis tem sido intolerante. Ele fala como se já tivesse provado tudo a todo mundo e só aceita interagir ou com quem o bajula ou com quem “entende” do seu assunto. Chama a Folha de S. Paulo de “Falha”, o Estadão de “Estadinho”, a Superinteressante de “Super desinteressante” só porque as publicações levantaram dúvidas sobre o seu projeto.
E dúvidas, em ciência, é algo ótimo!
Todos têm dúvidas sobre o negócio e esperar que a gente engula tudo é subestimar a nossa capacidade crítica. Nicolelis não é o único que está fazendo algo para devolver a locomoção “normal” a pessoas com deficiência. Jose Contreras-Vidal, um engenheiro biomédico da Universidade de Houston disse o seguinte à NBC depois da abertura da Copa:
"A demonstração não avançou a tecnologia. Certamente o nosso NeuroRex foi o primeiro e continua sendo o único exoesqueleto controlado pelo cérebro que permite a pacientes com lesões na medula espinhal a andar sobre o chão de maneira não-assistida, e conseguimos fazer isso com cerca de 10% de financiamento que o Dr. Nicolelis recebeu para desenvolver seu Exo.”
No Twitter, alguém apontou um vídeo do NeuroRex para Nicolelis e ele diz que a tecnologia é “diferente”, que o “nosso” exoesqueleto é o primeiro a dar feedback tátil e que vários dos seus modelos são controlados por joysticks. Ele se irrita facilmente com muitas das críticas nas redes sociais.
Há exoesqueletos mais baratos que não se ligam com o cérebro, mas recebem comando de outras formas; há as próteses inteligentes do MIT que se conectam a outras terminações nervosas. Vê-la em ação (fique até o fim do vídeo) me faz crer que esse caminho, sem capacetes ou estruturas gigantes, pode ser tão ou mais promissor para não apenas amputados, mas paraplégicos.
Link TED
E voltar a “andar naturalmente” não é exatamente a prioridade para todas as pessoas com problemas de locomoção. O jornalista Jairo Marques, que escreve um blog para a Folha, perguntou a 10 cadeirantes o que eles achavam do exoesqueleto. Metade acha que é desperdício, talvez porque as imagens que apareceram até agora são meio assustadoras.
Fernando Fernandes, atleta paraolímpico, disse: “sinceramente, para mim, benefício não é ficar de pé, mas, sim, qualidade de vida, ter a certeza que não irei correr risco de ter escaras (úlcera de pressão), não ter a necessidade de tomar remédios, de não sofrer dores”.
Nicolelis queria demonstrar um milagre, como se fosse a solução de todos os problemas. Não conseguiu porque, bem, milagres não existem. Não consigo imaginar quem ele possa ter inspirado com essa história, apesar de ele dizer que, em plena Copa, “200 milhões de pessoas estão debatendo neurociência”.
Não é verdade.
As pessoas estão pegando um assunto que elas não entendem (o exoesqueleto) e o usando para jogar o velho Fla x Flu de nacionalistas x viralatistas, PT x oposição, e por aí vai. A pesquisa parece ter sido o de menos. Quem mandou armar o circo?
Espero, do fundo do coração, que Nicolelis pare de gastar tempo respondendo trolls no Twitter, volte ao laboratório e continue a pesquisa. Mas que tenha a humildade de saber que ela é só um pedaço de algo maior, uma forma de atacar um problema, que talvez ninguém esteja aqui para ver o fruto, a demonstração final.
Talvez o futebol entre paraplégicos com exoesqueleto seja uma modalidade das Paraolimpíadas de 2036. Torço para isso. Mas o jogo inaugural é só um detalhe. |
RENTON, Wash. -- Robert Gallery and Sidney Rice, two of Seattle's big offseason acquisitions, are likely to be out on Sunday when the Seahawks open the season at San Francisco, coach Pete Carroll said Friday.
Gallery and Rice are listed as doubtful for Sunday's season opener. Gallery has a sprained right knee suffered in the preseason finale against Oakland, while Rice has been bothered by a sore shoulder.
Carroll wouldn't completely rule both out of the game, but seemed to be moving forward with the idea that neither would play.
"We'll always leave it at doubtful, you never know when he wakes up, but most likely (Gallery) is not going to make it," Carroll said. "Sidney, he's doubtful going into the game as well. He ran around and caught balls and all that stuff but we need to protect him, take care of him, so likely he won't go."
Ben Obomanu is expected to start in place of Rice, who hurt the shoulder more than two weeks ago. Carroll said Rice continues to make progress and that his shoulder injury is not like tight end John Carlson's, who was placed on injured reserve and needed surgery to repair a torn labrum.
"This doesn't seem to be the same thing. If we don't get (Rice) out here this week, then next week, probably by the end of next week we'll know if he's really responded," Carroll said. "He feels way better. He's able to do a lot of things and can run full speed all that. ... We just have to see how it responds when he gets after it and start playing again."
How Seattle shuffles its offensive line without Gallery is a bit unknown. Rookie right tackle James Carpenter has been taking some reps at left guard this week, with Breno Giacomini moving in at right tackle. That'll be the likely look on Sunday if Gallery isn't able to go.
Two other injured Seahawks -- defensive end Chris Clemons and linebacker David Hawthorne -- are listed as probable. Clemons injured his ankle during a walkthrough practice on Thursday, while Hawthorne has been slowed by a knee injury. |
My GitHub page, containing various open-source libraries for Mac and iOS development, and some miscellaneous projects
I Do Not Agree To Your Terms
Apple introduced their News app at WWDC, and the other day they sent me an e-mail saying they want to include this blog in News.
The e-mail begins:
Dear Publisher, We are excited to introduce News, an all-new app for iPhone and iPad coming with iOS 9. News delivers stories from the best sources, beautifully designed, and selected just for you. We believe your RSS feeds feature great content, and we think Apple customers will agree. We are offering our many millions of users the opportunity to discover NSBlog by including your RSS feeds in News: https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/rss.py
So far, so good. I assume they're sending this out to about a million people so it's probably no special honor to be chosen, but it's still nice of them to get in touch.
But, of course, the lawyers have to get involved. The e-mail continues:
When your RSS content is included in News, here are the terms that will apply: You agree to let us use, display, store, and reproduce the content in your RSS feeds including placing advertising next to or near your content without compensation to you. Don’t worry, we will not put advertising inside your content without your permission.
You confirm that you have all necessary rights to publish your RSS content, and allow Apple to use it for News as we set forth here. You will be responsible for any payments that might be due to any contributors or other third parties for the creation and use of your RSS content.
If we receive a legal claim about your RSS content, we will tell you so that you can resolve the issue, including indemnifying Apple if Apple is included in the claim.
You can remove your RSS feed whenever you want by opting out or changing your settings in News Publisher.
I don't know about that. It's probably within Apple's rights to put advertising next to my content, but I don't really want them to. I definitely don't want to indemnify Apple. Oh well, I guess I'll just ignore this e-mail.
But wait, there's more!
If you do not want Apple to include your RSS feeds in News, reply NO to this email and we will remove your RSS feeds. [emphasis Apple's]
Let me get this straight, Apple: you send me an e-mail outlining the terms under which you will redistribute my content, and you will just assume that I agree to your terms unless I opt out?
This makes typical clickwrap EULA nonsense look downright reasonable by comparison. You're going to consider me bound to terms you just declared to me in an e-mail as long as I don't respond? That's completely crazy. You don't even know if I received the e-mail!
I'm conflicted about this. On one hand, the whole reason I have an RSS feed for this blog is to make it easy to access it in a variety of ways. The RSS feed exists precisely so it can be used by programs like this, which take the content and display it to the user. I don't like the idea of showing ads next to my content in this situation, but I'm pretty sure I have no right to control that. If I didn't want people taking my blog and putting it in an app and showing it to people that way, I wouldn't have a feed.
On the other hand, Apple isn't just taking my feed and displaying it. They're shoving terms and conditions at me, and unilaterally assuming that I agree to them unless I take explicit steps to respond and say that I don't.
What to do about it? I could just reply NO like it says and be done with it. It would be a lot faster than writing this rambling blog post. But I don't actually want to withdraw from Apple News. I bet there's at least one of you who wants to read this blog in that app, and I wouldn't want to get in your way.
Instead, I wrote this post in order to accomplish two things.
First, I want everybody to know about the ridiculous stunt Apple is trying to pull here. I'd have been perfectly happy if they had just sent me an e-mail saying they were going to include my feed, and if I didn't like it I could e-mail to opt out. I'd even be happy if they didn't even give the option to opt out! After all, having an RSS feed in the first place is an implict opt-in to that sort of thing. But trying to dictate terms on top of that while telling me that I automatically agree to them unless I opt out is unacceptable, even if the terms themselves are relatively benign. They should stop doing this, and telling people about what they're doing is the only way I know that might help to make that happen.
Second, I want to declare directly to Apple: I do not agree to your terms. You are, of course, welcome to use my content in any way already permitted by law. I believe that should suffice for your purposes, but if it doesn't, well, too bad. I have no idea if you'll ever see this declaration, but that's just like yours, so I think it's fair.
That's it. If you just come here for the technical content then I apologize for the rant. I promise to have a nice article for you all about Swift 2's nifty new features on Friday.
Did you enjoy this article? I'm selling whole books full of them! Volumes II and III are now out! They're available as ePub, PDF, print, and on iBooks and Kindle. Click here for more information
Comments:
Add your thoughts, post a comment:
Spam and off-topic posts will be deleted without notice. Culprits may be publicly humiliated at my sole discretion. |
Though he’s currently starring as the down-on-his-luck leprechaun known as Mad Sweeney on American Gods, actor Pablo Schreiber wouldn’t mind playing a superhero.
In fact, he would love to play two specific heroes from Marvel Comics canon, though he might have an easier time nabbing one role over the other.
“I was a huge fan growing up of Wolverine and of Daredevil,” Schreiber said when I spoke to him. “Those are my two favorite guys and I would jump at the chance to play either one of them in a second.” Though Charlie Cox is currently starring as Daredevil in the hit Netflix show and the upcoming team-up series The Defenders, the role of Wolverine is vacant in the X-Men film franchise.
“And you know I think Hugh [Jackman] is done now with Wolverine, so maybe it's time for a reboot, Schreiber added. “Maybe it’s time for a new Wolverine.” Schreiber’s own brother Liev Schreiber actually played Wolverine’s arch nemesis (and brother) Sabretooth alongside Jackman in the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, so I posited the possibility of him returning to the role opposite Pablo’s take of the Best There Is At What He Does.
“Maybe we can reboot Sabretooth,” Schreiber joked. “I don’t think he would agree to play Sabretooth to my Wolverine.” When I asked him why, the American Gods actor simply said “ego.” Because big brothers aren’t supposed to lose against little brothers. “No, you can’t [lose], I don’t think you’re allowed to,” Schreiber added. “You have to rally, rage, rage against the dying of that light.” |
Dissent’s new issue is titled “Arguments on the Left” and pairs authors together to argue a point. One of the questions is the relationship of the left to the Democratic Party. This is a case however where both sides are essentially correct because they aren’t really arguing with each other. First, Michael Kazin argues that the left must also be Democrats:
It would be wonderful to belong to and vote for a party that stood unambiguously for democratic socialist principles, articulated them to diverse constituencies in fresh and thrilling ways, and had the ability to compete for every office from mayor to legislator to governor to senator to president. But not many Americans speak Norwegian. In the United States, there are innumerable obstacles to starting and sustaining a serious new party on the left: the electoral laws work against it, most of the media would ignore it, the expenses of building the infrastructure are prohibitive, and the constituency for such a party doesn’t currently exist. A majority of Americans do say they would like to have a third party to vote for. But at least as many of those people stand on the right as on the left, and many others just despise “politics as usual” and seldom, if ever, vote. In the meantime, a tiny, existing left-wing party can run a famous individual for president who manages to win enough votes to tip a critical state to the Republican nominee. In 2000, if just one percent of the 97,488 Floridians who voted for Ralph Nader had, instead, chosen Al Gore, George W. Bush would have remained in Texas. And the United States would probably not have invaded Iraq in 2003. Bernie Sanders knows all this—which is why he decided to run for president as a Democrat. For Americans on the left, whether to vote and canvass for Democrats, and perhaps run for office as one, ought not to be a matter of principle. It’s a pragmatic question: can one do more to make the United States a more just and humane society and help people in other societies by working inside, as well as outside, the party, or by ignoring or denouncing it? Of course, leftists in the United States should continue to do what they have always done: stage protests, build movements, educate people, lobby politicians, and create institutions that try to improve the lives of the people whom they serve. But political parties are essential to a healthy democracy. And right now, the Democrats are the only party we have.
Right. There is no question that any serious discussion of how left-leaning change will happen must include running through the Democratic Party. There are no third-party alternatives in the United States, moreover THERE NEVER HAS BEEN. Third parties at best can be advocacy groups to promote a cause that eventually gets taken up by one or both of the two dominant parties. But it’s usually an awfully ineffective way to raise the issue because the amount of work it takes to build the party detracts from working on the actual issue. The only possible exception is the Populists, but as I have stated many times before, the Populists only gained traction in states that did not have a functional second party and totally failed in any state that was competitive. And then when it did try to go national, it was easily co-opted by the Democrats and completely collapsed. This one example, 120 years ago, is the best example third party activists have. So that’s not good.
But at the same time, it’s not like all leftist activity should go through the Democratic Party. That would also be a terrible idea. Tons of organizing needs to happen on every issue outside the 2-party system in hopes that the necessary policy changes to enact those agendas becomes part of the legislative conversation. David Marcus:
It has often been said that citizen activism alone is not enough—that real political action begins after the street marches and sit-ins. This is when the tough and necessary compromises of politics happen, the so-called “sausage making” required to turn a movement’s demands into policies and legislation. And the point is well taken. In a liberal democracy, elected representatives will almost always be the main agents of social change and the democratic left—no matter how committed it is to a citizen politics—will never entirely be released from its obligation to engage with the Democratic Party. But the left’s strength, and its power, will always lie outside formal politics. From the abolitionists and the suffragists to the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s, our advantage has always been the result of our outsider status. By working outside formal bodies of power, we can demand what appears to be impossible to those within; our acts of organized dissent—our pressure and publicity campaigns—can insist on a set of political alternatives. Michael Harrington was right to see the democratic left as a core element of the “left wing of the possible,” those working within the Democratic Party to help elect and empower its liberal and progressive factions. But we must also remain just left of the possible, reminding those in power not only of what is achievable within the limits of the political system but what ought to be achievable. This is a politics of protest and public persuasion, the work of citizen activists and amateur politicians organizing and persuading neighbors and co-workers. It will almost certainly take too many evenings, as Oscar Wilde once complained. But this is also the steady work that has always been the purview of a left committed to democratic opposition. “Socialism is done from below,” a Cuban activist recently told one of our writers. Our hope is that one day it will also trickle up.
That’s fine too. In fact, I don’t even think they really disagree. Kazin doesn’t say to avoid non-party politics and Marcus doesn’t seem to support pointless third party runs. Rather, he’s saying that organizing should take place on the ground and in the streets. Which is absolutely correct. Labor should work to elect Democrats but it should also promote grassroots activism outside the political realm, like the Fight for $15. Environmentalists should work to promote Obama’s EPA coal-fired power plant restrictions and get arrested over the Keystone XL Pipeline. Etc. There’s plenty of room to create change both inside and outside the Democratic Party. What I hope we can unite around is that third parties are a pointless waste of time and resources that rarely if ever serve a good for anyone. But as for outside or inside the political system, both please. |
EDMONTON – Say it ain’t SNOW. Environment Canada issued snowfall warnings for areas near Hinton, Nordegg and Grande Cache – and Mother Nature delivered. The first notable snowfall of the year hit that area Thursday night and during the early morning hours of Friday.
While it’s not unusual to see an early September snowfall warning in that region, the timing is not great.
Stage 3 of the Tour of Alberta was scheduled to run from Grande Cache to Jasper Friday morning, exactly where the snowfall warnings were.
Some people posted photos Friday morning showing the cold, wet and snowy conditions.
Gonna be a cold day. Highway 40. #TourOfAlberta #TOA15 pic.twitter.com/pgI5ZEEL1G — EatingIsTheHardPart (@shorelinegold) September 4, 2015
Road to the finish today in @TourOfAlberta t shirt weather pic.twitter.com/B4M0Ep80tY
— Pat O Donnell (@pod_massage) September 4, 2015
Its gonna be a cold day in Tour of Alberta I guess! #drapac #TOA15 #snow #cycling pic.twitter.com/CICCf21IHz — Wouter Wippert (@wouterwippert) September 4, 2015
READ MORE: ITU World Triathlon, Tour of Alberta cause traffic closures in Edmonton this weekend
Many northwestern communities were already seeing heavy rain Thursday afternoon, including Grande Prairie where Stage 2 of the race had a soggy finish.
Global Edmonton’s chief meteorologist Jesse Beyer noted that the white stuff “has already started falling in the Nordegg area in the afternoon, so it’s not looking good for higher elevations of the Rockies.”
“If travelling in the area, slushy and slippery roads will be a concern for commuters,” Beyer warns.
Snow on the ground at Nordegg already, AMA cam from 3:10pm #abstorm pic.twitter.com/OdCkwmpSih — Pat Boomer (@ABfoothillsWX) September 3, 2015
Partially covered snow conditions on Hwy11 near Nordegg. Drive with caution. #ABRoads pic.twitter.com/LZfetZyj0D — 511 Alberta (@511Alberta) September 3, 2015
“Snowfall amounts will vary,” Beyer said. “In the upper elevations five centimetres is a good estimate, but localized areas in the warned zone may see higher accumulations.”
Road closures are in place to keep the cyclists & participants safe during the @TourofAlberta race. #TOA15 #abroads pic.twitter.com/2G6VOyGxav — Alberta Sheriffs (@AlbertaSheriffs) September 4, 2015
Tour of Alberta CEO, Duane Vienneau, said his team was watching the weather closely for Stage 3 of the event that travels from Grande Cache to the Miette Hot Springs in Jasper National Park.
“Right now we are moving forward as planned unless we deem it unsafe for the cyclists,” Vienneau told Global News.
Should the snow pose a safety risk to the racers and production crews, he said his team would go to a Plan B scenario, which could include a number of different options. He added that a variety of conditions could exist along the 187-kilometer mountain stretch.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean that we would stop the race; it means that we would modify the race slightly based on whatever situation arises.”
Right at the freezing point at the start at Grande Cache #ToA15 pic.twitter.com/8ovMw68PTP — Tour of Alberta (@TourOfAlberta) September 4, 2015
With files from Karen Bartko, Global News |
When it comes to Chinese knockoffs, the sky's the limit.
Counterfeiters have already produced millions of fake handbags, along with knockoff iPhones, Apple Watches and even realistic-looking fake Apple and IKEA retail outlets.
But now there's a new high-water mark: Somebody has set up a fake Goldman Sachs.
The financial institution, based in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen, is going by the name "Goldman Sachs (Shenzhen) Financial Leasing Co."
Not much is known about the fake Goldman Sachs (GS). Before the company's website went offline on Wednesday, it claimed the firm was founded in 2013 and is "the largest financial leasing firm in Shenzhen."
Corporate records name Zhou Linhong as CEO. Reached by phone on Friday, a man who identified himself as Zhou told CNNMoney that his business is not affiliated with the U.S.-based investment bank. He refused to answer additional questions before hanging up.
Bloomberg was first to report the fake. In a statement, Connie Ling, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, told the news agency that "there are no ties between the U.S. investment bank and the Shenzhen company."
Related: China is churning out fake Apple Watches
The existence of the fake Goldman Sachs came to light after the International Union of Operating Engineers, a U.S.-based casino workers union that monitors the gambling industry in Macau, sent a letter to Chinese authorities asking them to investigate the company.
The trade union suspects the fake Goldman Sachs has links to organized crime syndicates operating in Macau.
In addition to using the Goldman Sachs' name in English, the Shenzhen firm's Chinese name uses the characters gao sheng, which mean "high" and "prosperous." The real Goldman Sachs uses the same characters in its Chinese name.
China has a long history of churning out knockoffs, or "shanzhai."
In August, a 39-year-old man in eastern China was arrested for establishing a fake branch of China Construction Bank, the world's second largest bank by assets. The operation had card readers, teller counters and authentic-looking signs.
The ruse was discovered only when a local who had deposited 40,000 yuan ($6,200) was unable to withdraw the money at the real China Construction Bank, according to state media reports. |
As a lawyer and women’s activist, Seyran Ates has been cursed, spat on and shot at. Dressed in a long white coat, her short grey hair uncovered, the progressive German-Turkish woman unveiled her boldest project to date on Friday morning: the country’s first liberal mosque.
Housed in a bright, third-floor room behind St John’s Church, in Berlin’s Moabit neighbourhood, the mosque has lofty ambitions: to reform Islam from within by offering a contemporary interpretation of the Koran to improve public perceptions of a religion hijacked by extremists.
“We are not inventing a new religion, we are simply showing our faces and taking a stand against Islamist terror,” said Ates (54), who began studying Islamic theology a year ago. “We want to give Islam another voice, the voice of reflective, common sense.”
The road to the new Ibn-Rushd-Goethe mosque, named after the Arabic philosopher and the German writer, began after the September 11th, 2001, attacks. As the post 9/11 public debate raged on, dominated by Islamist violence and the “war on terror”, Ates and her friends began wondering why voices of liberal Muslims like them were rarely heard.
The real motivation for the mosque came in 2006 when Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s then interior minister, invited Ates to participate in the forum at a German Islam conference.
Instead of discussing issues of importance – integration, education, discrimination – the conservative Muslim organisations in attendance attacked Ates as having no legitimate mandate to be there.
“This although they represent just 15 per cent of the Muslim population in Germany,” she remembers.
Different kind of God
As part of the 85 per cent majority, Ates found herself excluded twice over, as a woman and as a liberal, and waiting. Not for Godot, she jokes, but God: a different kind of God than the one on offer by the existing Turkish and Arab mosques.
After waiting in vain for others to push for change, she decided a year ago that she would have to be the change. She found the space for the new mosque in a former theatre behind the Berlin church, and began renovating. Her brother painted the 90sq m space and her sister bought as many prayer carpets as she could find on holiday in Turkey.
The prayer room of the Ibn-Rushd Goethe Mosque in Berlin on June 16th, 2017. It is open to Sunnis and Shias among others. Photograph: Carsten Koall/EPA
The Berlin space is leased for a year and financed personally by Ates, though donations are flowing in and expressions of interest for similar mosques have come from Hamburg, Bremen and elsewhere.
“It’s a super feeling to know I am not alone with my thoughts on this,” she says.
At the opening ceremony she stressed the new mosque as a place for all: Sunni, Shia, Alawite and Sufi Muslims. In this mosque, women and men pray together and both men and women preach – in German. Gays are welcome, as are non-Muslim neighbours.
So many progressive ideas under one mosque roof are, depending on your perspective, revolutionary or blasphemous. A man wrote online that Ates would burn in hell for insisting she would pray in her new mosque without a headscarf.
“I replied by asking whether he viewed himself as God, to judge whether I was a good or a bad Muslim,” she said. “Such ugly messages happen but the reaction as a whole as been hugely positive.”
Slurs and threats
As a women’s rights lawyer, specialising in cases involving Muslim women, Ates is no stranger to slurs and threats.
Eight years ago she published a book titled Islam Needs a Sexual Revolution, and was put under police protection after a shot was fired in her direction. Now she is back in the spotlight, but this time she is not alone. A fellow backer of the new mosque is the Freiburg Islam specialist Abdel-Hakim Ourghi, who helped lead the first Friday prayers.
“The mosque is a chance for Muslims to redefine themselves,” he said.
But redefinition means posing awkward questions, he says.
Conservative Muslim organisations have to explain why they have done so little to spread a tolerant, merciful Islam, while liberal Muslims have to ask themselves why they let conservatives take over the practice of their faith.
Above all, says Ates, all peace-loving Muslims have to stop taking the easy way out over Islamist extremists, dismissing them as not being true Muslims.
“The men who shout allahu-akbar and behead people see themselves as Muslims . . . They pray five times a day, they go to the mosque,” said Ates. It’s not for other Muslims to dismiss them, or ignore them, she says, but to challenge them with what Islam can and should be in the modern world.
“Today we don’t do everything that was set down in the seventh century,” she said. “Defending your religion in the 21st century does not mean, literally: ‘go out and kill others’.” |
Radiohead has never been a band to analyze their own music. Luckily, fans and critics have been happy do that for them over the last two decades. Any devoted Radiohead listener could give you a college-level course on music theory, production, technology, and lyrical analysis digging into everything—from the band's many masterpieces, to songs they've never actually recorded (but tinkered with live over the years). There's an entire website devoted to keeping running tabs on the technology that Radiohead's members are currently using.
Thankfully, there's enough Radiohead material to warrant such rampant dissection of the band's music. At every turn throughout their career, they've predicted or created the major pivots of rock music and beyond. Twenty years ago, OK Computer marched guitar music into the technological paranoia of the 21st Century; a few years later, the band fully embraced what would become an electronically dominant industry.
In 1999, Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien began experimenting with a Fernandes Sustainer. Here how it works: When O’Brien flips a switch it turns notes or chords played on the guitar into what’s called an infinite sustain, meaning they emit a consistent sound until they're stopped. It's that long drawn out alien sound you can hear in the background supporting the swells and structure of songs like "Kid A."
So O'Brien fashioned his own instrument, having the Radiohead gear guy attach a sustainer to his guitar, a Clapton Stratocaster. The makeshift instrument achieved the sound he wanted, but it stopped functioning as a regular guitar, and for the entirety of the 2000s O'Brien has been swapping out instruments to play both synth and guitar.
That is until recently, when Fender designed a custom EOB Sustainer Stratocaster for O'Brien that features an infinite sustain controlled by an on/off switch, an intensity knob, and a three-position switch. It's the first signature Radiohead instrument designed by a band member. And O'Brien has road-tested it on The Moon Shaped Pool tour, using it to play "Paranoid Android," "Lucky," "The National Anthem," "Kid A," "Idioteque," "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi," "Ful Stop," "15 Step," and the entirety of the new album (which he recorded with the guitar).
O'Brien spoke with Esquire.com about the key to Radiohead's sound, the future of guitar music, his upcoming solo album, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and more.
O'Brien's been experimenting with the sustainer for decades.
When we made the album Kid A, we wanted to throw away our conventional tools. And there was more of a reach for things like synths. I’ve always loved the guitar and I’ve always loved the scope that guitars can do. People like Michael Brook invented the Infinite Guitar, and he got the Edge to play that. It’s an opportunity for me to look elsewhere. I was interested in this sustaining guitar—this idea that you could turn a guitar into more of a synth and you could use that to go through some pedals, and looping pedals had just come out.
I asked Peter Frank, who looked after the Radiohead gear, if he could get this Fernandes Sustainer and put it in my Clapton Strat that I had at the time. It was really great and particularly with the looping pedal was able to achieve more sounds and textures I never thought were possible. The only problem with that was the clean sound. In rearranging the pickups and gouging out and the work of putting in the sustaining unit, it ceased to function as a normal guitar very well. It didn’t sound great. My thing with Fender was at the basic level it has to be a very great Strat with a great neck and with the flick of a switch it turns into a sustainer. And that’s what we did.
Fender
How the sound has anchored Radiohead's most iconic songs and A Moon Shaped Pool.
I think it depends because it’s got many uses. You could use it as string pads, and you can layer it up. Or you can use it very aggressively and you could have a driving fuzz pedal. With Radiohead, it’s always about the song—it’s never about the tools you have. It’s always doing service to the song. I don’t try to analyze it too much. I don’t think we try to analyze our music too much. We do it and it comes out of us. A lot of times a sound is specific to a period of time, but with the sustainer Strat I started using it around '99 and now I use it more than ever. I’m probably using that guitar half the set now. I used to literally have to change guitars every song.
The versatility of the EOB Sustainer Stratocaster allows O'Brien to be more present during shows.
On a very basic level as a guitar it’s able to hit different tones with the JB Jr. and the pickups I’m able to use that for most of my guitar parts unless I need a 335 or a semi-acoustic or a Rickenbacker that kind of defines the early radiohead stuff in my parts. I can sort of do it all really. If I have to I can do the whole gig with one guitar—maybe two—that and a Rickenbacker. It’s great that you can go with a flick of a switch you can go from this great Strat to something more experimental. I can be a lot more in the moment. If you’re changing guitars every song your hands are adjusting. It’s a constant thing. It allows me to play in a different way.
Getty Images
This Stratocaster represents where guitar music and experimentation in the industry is going.
We all play differently, us guitarists; we all have things we do and don’t do. It could be the first proper guitar that a teenager might go to or a student in their early 20s could go to. They could do something totally unique and make it their own. What Jimi Hendrix did with a tremolo arm on a Strat, I hope some kid’s going to come along and play it and make it their own. There’s enough there that you can make your own mark on it. I gave one to a friend and he sent me a video back of his daughter playing with it and she’s 8 years old and she has this amazing sound coming out of it. You can pick that up having never played the guitar and within a couple of minutes you could make a unique beautiful sound. There’s a lot of potential there.
O'Brien has a stunning group of collaborators at work on his solo project.
I’ve started working on my own solo project. I go back into the studio next week. We’ve only done three or four weeks and I’m very excited about it. I’m working with the producer Flood, Catherine Marks. I’ve just had an amazing three week recording period with Omar Hakim and Nathan East and Dave Okumu. We’ve tracked some stuff and we have some backing tracks and I’m going back into the studio with Flood and Catherine to finish those tracks up and will start some new stuff in the new year. Yes there are some tour dates being looked at for Radiohead next year. So I’m very busy at the moment, I’ve got my head in this record.
Getty Images
The album should be out late 2018 or early 2019.
Because the Radiohead touring has been going on longer than I expected, I wasn’t able to start the record October of this year. So the idea is to have it finished by this summer to have it all mixed and mastered. Then we have to find a label for it. So we’re looking at the back end of next year or early 2019.
His solo music is inspired by Carnival in Brazil.
It started when we were living in Brazil. It’s not overtly Brazilian but there are definite themes. Without getting into it too much, going to Carnival in Rio was very inspiring. Rhythm and groove were a big part of it. I’m really enjoying it. It feels really right at the moment.
His solo album will definitely use his signature Stratocaster.
We had two of them going. Dave Okumu is my lead guitarists and I didn’t expect him to play it and I gave him one at the beginning of the session and he played it all the way through the session. So it’s all over it so far. And the next five weeks, I’ve got a lot of guitar work to do and I think it’ll be my main axe.
Like most British bands, Radiohead isn't too enthusiastic about being nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
As a British band, it’s one of those things that it’s very lovely to be nominated, but we don’t quite culturally understand it. It’s a very American thing. Us Brits are very bad at celebrating ourselves. One of the things I’ve always loved about coming over to America is American bands you can always have a really good chat with and you could talk. With British bands, there was a lot of hostility. It’s in our DNA to be a little ambivalent with award ceremonies. We haven’t had great experiences. I would never want to disrespect anything because obviously some amazing artists have been nominated. But if I’m honest I don’t understand it. It’s just kind of a British person going, "Okay, thanks, what does this mean?" It’s a little bit thin on black artists and hip-hop artists. I’m just speaking as a fan of American music, I would have thought that Dr. Dre should have been in there two years ago. His name should be first on the list way ahead of Radiohead.
On the idea that fans think Sam Smith's "Midnight Train" sounds a lot like "Creep."
I’m not up to date on the Sam Smith catalog. But who knows. I think everybody is influenced by the music before them. And Radiohead is no exception. Sometimes the inspiration can be overt. And if they are overt, you need to work at making them a little bit more covert before making them a bit your own. I would never castigate someone for taking inspiration from another piece of music. I think if it’s very direct then you have an obligation to say something, a bit like sampling. Everybody’s done it. |
The American squad made his track debut last week in the opening test at Barcelona, and surprised with its performance, enjoying a productive week of work in its maiden outing.
This week, however, the team has struggled to get any running done.
Esteban Gutierrez completed just 23 laps on Tuesday before being halted by a problem with the fuel system, and the Mexican has managed just one installation lap so far on Wednesday after being hit by issues with the turbo.
Team owner Haas admitted the technical aspects of running a Formula 1 car have taken him by surprise.
"This is not North Carolina, I've come to realise that," Haas told reporters at Barcelona. "The complexity of the cars and the engines, and what they are doing with them is way beyond anything I have ever expected.
"The technical aspects of these cars are fascinating. I think it's a challenge in one hand. On the other hand, I don't think fans really understand how complex it is.
"Even I didn't know. I was kind of naive too about what makes these cars run.
"If you stumble and you don't get up and try again... You are going to stumble. It's a very complex car, it's a complex way to race cars, so right now it's a little bit overwhelming, to be honest with you."
NASCAR start tougher
Haas claimed, however, that the challenge is not as big as when he set up his NASCAR team nearly 15 years ago.
"We started in NASCAR in 2002, so the first few years were actually quite a bit rougher than what we've experienced here," he added.
"That was building a team without any knowledge. At least here we have some racing knowledge about racing a car. I think we are further ahead that I was when I started in NASCAR.
"This could be a very tough learning process."
Valuable experience
Although Haas concedes that losing so much track time is far from ideal, he reckons the experience of having to troubleshoot the car will actually be helpful for his team.
"We are nervous," he said. "This is very valuable track time, but the good side of it is that it's good time for the team to figure these cars out.
"This is a brand new team, a brand new car, brand new engine package, so the process of actually troubleshooting and taking things apart and putting them back together I think has been very valuable in terms of the experiences that we are going to have."
Staying realistic
Although the team had said before the start of testing that scoring points was a realistic goal this year, Haas says the main goal right now is to be able to run reliably.
"We jumped in with both feet without fully understanding it, but I'm not sure how else you learn unless you just jump in and test the waters, so that's what we are doing right now," Haas said.
"So if people expected us to go out and in the next few races suddenly compete with the big boys I think that wasn't realistic.
"The biggest expectation would be to go to the races and be reliable and not suffered the typical problems you have trying to get one of these cars on the track.
"I think it's maybe a bit more of a challenge than we expected but I think it's just a matter of time.
"I think it's just a matter of learning and learning from our mistakes."
Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble |
A brand new Western New York music campaign recently kicked off on-line called BuffaloBlues.ORG. It’s too help homeless veterans and is building fast. WBFO's Eileen Buckley met with two musicians who are participating.
WBFO's Eileen Buckley talks with 21-year-old Grace Lougen of Kenmore. lead blues guitar player and bass player Robert Parker of Freightrain about their work for BuffaloBlues.ORG.
Recordings are underway by a number of well-known regional musicians to create a benefit CD to be released November 16, 2016 that will feature a multi-band event at the Sportsmen's Tavern and a series of other benefit efforts. Buffalo Blues for the Homeless will support returning war veterans who are in need of housing and other services those services are provided by the Western New York Housing Coalition.
21-year-old Grace Lougen of Kenmore is a lead blues guitar player. She's teamed up with Bass player Robert Parker of 'Freightrain'. The two are offering their musical talents to this project. |
Story highlights The alleged attacker is in custody
"A homophobic slur was heard from the suspect prior to the stabbing," police say
The victim is identified as 23-year-old Philip Bushong
A U.S. Marine allegedly stabbed another Marine to death after a bar fight early Saturday morning across the street from the Marine Barracks in the nation's capital, police said.
The accused attacker has been arrested.
"Information uncovered during the course of the preliminary investigation indicates that there was a verbal exchange, and during the exchange a homophobic slur was heard from the suspect prior to the stabbing," Washington's Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement.
The fight began in a bar and spilled into the street, according to Capt. Jack Morton, a spokesman for the Marine Barracks. Two Marine guards on duty outside the Marine Barracks saw the fight and moved in to break it up. They subdued the alleged attacker and helped police take him into custody, Morton said.
D.C. police identified the stabbing victim as 23-year-old Philip Bushong. He was transported to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Michael Joseph Poth, 23, was named as the suspect.
Police did not release other details.
A Marine official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the victim was based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, and that the alleged attacker is stationed at the Marine Barracks.
The Marine Barracks, located in southeast Washington D.C., is the residence of Marines stationed there who serve as guards at the White House and other locations. The commandant of the Marine Corps also lives on its grounds. |
THE TALL BLOND MAN
NOTE: the Barstow, CA area has been a UFO / ET hot spot for many years..Lon
LITTLE GREEN MEN
THE DOUBLED-FOOTED BEING
Source: MUFON Journal #262
SUBTERRANEAN BLUE SKINNED HUMANOIDS
Source: witness Richard Toronto
THE VISITORS
we will meet soon
PIGMAN
Source: witness report to private investigator
DEADLY ABDUCTION
Source: "The Oz Files" through witness statements
Location/Date: near Barstow California - July 1995 - midnightFive young men had gone into the Mojave Desert to shoot their rifles and camp for the night. Three of the group had gone to bed while the other two stayed up talking and working by portable light on a dirt bike.After awhile they heard a strange humming sound and their portable light went out. Looking up, in the light of the full moon, they spotted a large black circular object slowly moving over their camp. Startled and curious, they followed the craft hoping to make out more details. After about an hour, they lost sight of it over a hill. They headed back to camp but lost their way.After wandering about for nearly an hour, they came upon an old State Park dumpster in the middle of the area used for dirt bikes. Then from within the masonry wall surrounding the dumpsters, they heard loud crashing sounds like if someone was tossing garbage around. One of the men walked around to an opening in the wall, intent on asking directions from whoever was there. He noticed a tall blond man, clean shaven and wearing a golf shirt and dress slacks, both stained with motor oil and muck, wildly tossing garbage around as he searched for something in the dumpster.The camper asked the blond man if he knew how to get back to town, the man responded that he was not from around the area, that maybe the government knew. The campers asked the man what he was doing out in the middle of nowhere dressed as he was, but he ignored them, held up a bullet riddle radiator, and asked them what they thought of it. Concerned the two campers moved back from the stranger. They then looked around for a car but saw nothing. Just then a helicopter flew over the hillside and shot a blinding light down on the group. Though the two campers do not recall the man leaving the dumpster, they turned to talk to him and he was gone. An instant later the helicopter veered off in the direction of a glowing green light that was steadily rising in the sky. Neither camper remembered anything after that. They woke up leaning against the masonry wall sometime after 6:00 AM.**********Location/Date: Yakima, Washington - Jan. 1977 - 6:00 AMA 9 year old boy was getting ready to eat his breakfast when he noticed a "little man" standing outside in his yard. He went outside and saw two light green colored creatures about 3 foot tall, who rotated on a base instead of having legs and feet. In a drawing, these creatures had only one eye, pug noses, and vestigial arms. Two metal craft were observed, one resting in the backyard and the other on the roof of the house, where there were two more identical creatures visible. While hiding, he saw the first two beings return to their craft, which were brightly lit inside and contained "two chairs with very tall bases." Ramps led up to "cross shaped" doors. After the humanoids had re-entered, the craft in the yard rose and disappeared in a cloud of steamy exhaust.Impressions in the gravel were found where the boy said the creatures had stood. In the long grass of the backyard was a circle of whirled grass about 10 feet in diameter. Local investigators found these traces still present during their on-site inspection on the same day the incident.**********Location/Date: Knox, Indiana - November 8 1988 - 11:00 PMThe 12-year old witness had gotten up to get a drink of water when a flash of multicolored light attracted his attention to the yard. He turned the lights on and walked over to the large picture window in the living room. Looking out he saw a large diamond-shaped object resting on the lawn. It had flashing multi-colored lights around its edge and appeared to be made out of a copper like metal. An escalator like device now appeared from the object's left rear edge and slid down to the ground. A small humanoid now appeared and walked down the escalator and disappeared behind the object.Moments later the being re-appeared and began walking towards the house. The humanoid was described as a bit over 5-foot tall with normal arms with what appeared to be claws and strange "double feet." The being wore a belt and a buckle and appeared to have some type of symbols across its chest. It had a large nose, large square mouth, and huge dark brown eyes. The skin was lizard like green with scales and wrinkled.The witness became frightened as the being approached, suddenly the neighbor's dog began barking, and the being stopped turned its head around and looked directly at the witness. The next thing the witness remembered was seeing the object lift off silently and disappear into the sky. Ground traces were reportedly found the next day.**********Location/Date: Blowing Cave, Arkansas - 1966 - late afternoonSeveral spelunkers, among them George D. Wight, were exploring the cave when they spotted a light at the end of the tunnel. As they approached it, Wight noticed a narrow crevice, just big enough for him to squeeze inside it where he found artificial steps.He called to the others and they climbed through the opening. The tunnel expanded and they suddenly came into a large corridor, 20 by 20. The walls and the floors were smooth and the ceiling had a curved dome shape. Soon they encountered blue skinned but otherwise human-like individuals. The strangers communicated with the witnesses, telling them that they had instruments that could measure people's emotions. They learned that the tunnels went on for miles.They were led to underground cities populated by entities that included serpent-like creatures and large hairy bipeds. Using an elevator-like device, they were taken to a glass like city.Soon after this incident, Wight apparently returned to the cave and was never seen again.**********Location/Date: Oroshaza, Hungary - January 26, 1991 - 1:15 amIstvan Balogh, a frontier guard, was returning from the movies and had stepped out to the terrace when he saw a gray disc shaped object, 4 meters in height, and 2 meters in width. As he stared at the object, a bright beam of light struck him. He soon found himself aboard the disc. He was in a room with a window wrapped around the diameter. He was then approached by two human-like figures with 3 digit hands and green skin, wearing black uniforms. They communicated telepathically telling the witness they had come from a world at a distance of 15 million light years from earth and they were able to travel via dimensional portals. He remembers seeing an illuminated crater (apparently on the moon) and a pyramid. He was eventually returned home at 2:00 am.On Feb. 13, 1991, he woke up in his bedroom to hear a loud booming voice that repeated 3 times "." The voice had a metallic quality to it. He told his story at the hospital fearing that the beings may have experimented on him. Later he was removed from his job as a frontier guard because he was deemed 'unreliable'.**********Location/Date: Mariemont, Ohio - July 26, 1974 - 1:15 amMrs. Patricia N. and her 3 daughters, were driving around their neighborhood while waiting for the gas company to investigate a strong odor of gas reported by at least 15 area residents. While driving south on Homewood Avenue, they noticed a strange figure walking toward them on the sidewalk; he was 5-foot tall and walked with a forward lunge, arms swinging from side to side. He wore no shirt; the witness thought the chest was hairy, the girls did not; he wore dark trousers with no visible bottoms, extending to "pig like" feet, or hooves---definitely not normal feet. He walked with a distinct "clicking" sound. His head was bald on top there was hair on the lower part of his face; they could see no facial features. The women turned around at the end of the street and drove back but the figure had vanished. The odor was gone when they got back home, although the technicians had been unable to find any gas leaks.**********Location/Date: Nildottie, South Australia - June 1979 - early eveningThe two witnesses, Jack and Don, had been experiencing problems with their outside TV antenna being twisted around. The cause puzzled them. One evening, after cooking a meal, the Venetian blinds went up and down. Both went outside to look and were approached by 'European' looking people. They appeared to be wearing dark colored woolen jumpers and were both male and females. A bright light shone on them and both men felt calm.They were then taken over to a mound of gravel adjacent to which a oval shaped craft was located. The men were escorted inside though they never remember entering a passageway. It was cold, so the beings agreed to escort them back to the house to get coats. They were not allowed to take food. They then returned to the craft and it took off. As it rose they saw the TV antenna on the house below twist around. They could see across the Murray River as they rose up.Don, the younger of the two, was given strange, repetitive tests. Many hours later they were returned. Later, a neighbor visited and found them confused. The local police were immediately called in. The two men were taken to a local hospital and seemed to be suffering from yellow jaundice and eye problems. Both men, who were in their 30's, eventually lost their sight and passed away within two years of the encounter. There was an autopsy performed on both men but an official cause of death was never released. |
By David Simister
Shoot past a speed camera on one of Lancashire's roads and there's only a one in ten chance it'll actually be able to snap you breaking the law.
That's the claim from a survey carried out by Which? last week after it submitted Freedom of Information Requests to each of the nation's 43 police forces, and found that just 10% of the county's speed cameras are working at any given time - one of the lowest figures in the country.
Martyn Hocking, editor of Which? Magazine, said of the findings:
“Speed cameras in some areas are always operational, whereas in others there could be a one in 10 chance the camera you've passed isn't working. It really is a tale of two counties.”
Police authorities, including Lancashire's were asked how many speed camera housings they had and how many were operational under a Freedom of Information Act request. Merseyside Police, which oversees the scheme in neighbouring Sefton, was one of just five forces who refused to release any information on their speed cameras, while the area with the greatest number of working speed cameras was Avon and Somerset at 94%.
Lancashire Road Safety Partnership, which oversees the county's speed cameras, is currently under review and was not in a position to comment as the figures were released, and while The Champion approached both Lancashire County Council and Lancashire Constabulary for a response to the figures they also declined to comment.
However, County Councillor Tim Ashton, the county council's cabinet member for highways and transport, dismissed the survey's findings as “wrong” and said that the county council is currently reviewing its policy on fixed speed cameras, following moves reported last year to reduce the number of working cameras by 10%.
“It is true that the cameras are moved around and at any one time there are many that are operational and many that are not operational. But to say that just 10 per cent are working is wrong. I know for a fact that is wrong,” he said.
“We are looking at the data to see where they have worked in terms of reducing serious injuries and less serious injuries. ”We have to analyse that a little bit further, but where a speed camera doesn’t work I believe it is an unfair tax on the motorist.“ |
EurekAlert!, the embargoed news source run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), has been temporarily taken offline following a “serious security breach.”
Ginger Pinholster, AAAS chief communications officer and director, office of public programs, said in a statement posted to the site last night at 10:10 p.m. Eastern that usernames and passwords had been compromised, and that embargoed information had been released.
Pinholster tells Embargo Watch that two embargoed releases were released early, and that:
The unknown individual was not selling login information. He seemed motivated to see whether he could breach EurekAlert!.
All of the site’s URLs now direct to a page with this message:
The EurekAlert! website has been taken offline as AAAS works diligently to address a serious security breach. We are taking this step out of an abundance of caution. The integrity of content on our website is of the utmost concern to us. On September 11, we were notified of a potential breach to our system. An investigation revealed that our website had experienced an aggressive attack on September 9 that compromised usernames and passwords. As we were working to implement a secure password-reset protocol for all registrants, the unknown hacker publicly released an embargoed EurekAlert! news release. We then decided to bring the site down immediately, to protect other embargoed content. Please be assured that financial information from subscribing institutions is not stored on the EurekAlert! website and therefore remained secure. Registrants’ usernames and passwords were compromised, however. We deeply regret the inconvenience that this security breach and the related site outage may cause reporters and public information officers. We will bring the site back online as soon as we can ensure that vulnerabilities have been eliminated. Please email the EurekAlert! team at webmaster@eurekalert.org, or contact me directly with any questions or concerns.
Advertisements |
New Delhi: For the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), this has been a remarkable year. It took two launches to make it so. The first, in February, set the startling record of the maximum satellites injected into orbit by a single launch, 104—a tremendous leap from the previous record of 37.
The second, in June, was the first successful launch of India’s heaviest, most powerful rocket, GSLV Mark III, developed entirely at home, through more than 15 years of patient work. GSLV is short for Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.
Beyond the usual registers of ingenuity, scientific progress and national pride that space programmes evoke, these launches marked a strictly business-oriented milestone: It announced the ambitions of Antrix Corp. Ltd, Isro’s fledgling commercial arm, of becoming a serious contender in the $335.5 billion global space industry, and part of a new space race that is poised for take-off.
“In the next five years, the growth in space will be mind-boggling," says Rakesh Sasibhushan, Antrix’s chairman and managing director. “It will change the way we do things and the kind of technology we will be able to put in space."
Rakesh Sasibhushan, chairman and managing director of Antrix. Photo: Mint
Billions of dollars worth of new investment have poured in for a clutch of new projects with old roots, providing high-speed satellite Internet connections that will blanket the globe. Isro and Antrix are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this because the nature of the project involves placing thousands of small satellites in a so-called Low Earth Orbit, or LEO, the very thing that Isro’s most successful rocket, PSLV, does so well (the 104-satellite launch was all about small satellites being put into LEO). PSLV stands for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
Antrix, says Sasibhushan, is looking at “an unprecedented transition period because of the growing global market".
“The 104 launch by the PSLV has been a big boost for us as far as marketing is concerned," he says. “In business terms, we are looking at a major milestone in the next one year."
The new space race needs a lot of rockets.
Internet on satellite
Most of the world’s Internet works through terrestrial connections. One of the major reasons why communication satellites that are in geosynchronous orbits (at around 35,000km from earth), are not used for Internet is “latency"—the time lag that is introduced when signals have to travel back and forth from the satellites. It takes a radio wave at least 230 milliseconds to get to geosynchronous orbit and back; a signal through a fibre optic cable can travel between New Delhi and London around eight times in that time.
But the terrestrial network has its own limitations; despite the galloping demand for connectivity, Internet users across the world are still clustered mainly in urban areas, because those are the areas the cables reach. Forget India or African countries, even large swathes of the US do not have access to fast broadband connections.
Yet, the global demand for broadband services continues to grow at light speed; according to a report by Cisco Systems Inc. last year, over 1,000 billion gigabytes of data was exchanged in 2016. By 2020, that figure is expected to double, and the number of “connected" devices is projected to become around thrice the global population.
Enter SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
To meet these needs, and to overcome the problem of time lag, SpaceX plans to instal a “constellation" of small satellites in LEO (between 1,150-1,350km above earth). The idea is that this constellation—4,425 satellites according to SpaceX—will be able to provide coverage to every part of the planet. The satellites will deliver broadband using Ka- and Ku-band radio frequencies and move data between each other using laser links in a mesh network. The latency will drop to nothing because of the small distance between the satellites and the ground systems.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk. Photo: Bloomberg
SpaceX plans to begin testing prototypes this year, and launch its first satellites in 2019, with full capacity service expected to begin by 2024. In May, the US regulatory body Federal Communications Commission held a hearing for SpaceX’s application.
Musk is not alone in betting on broadband satellites, an idea that first took shape in the 1990s with American companies Teledesic and Iridium, and ended in spectacular failures. This time, the results may be very different. For one, the technology for both satellite manufacturing and launch vehicles has undergone cosmic changes. And, as Carolyn Belle, satellite and launch industry analyst at Northern Sky Research (NSR), a space market research and consulting services firm, says, “The times have changed."
“In the 1990s, the idea was a bit too early," she says. “But now connectivity and mobile Internet network is in every part of our lives."
Musk’s opponents in this race include OneWeb, a London-based consortium backed by Sunil Bharti Mittal and Richard Branson, among others, that raised $500 million from investors in 2015 when it announced the plans, and received a further $1.7 billion this year from Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. after it merged with satellite telecom firm Intelsat (SpaceX raised $1 billion, with backing from Google).
Boeing Co. is also in the fray and Bloomberg reported in April that Apple Inc. may be funding its efforts. There are smaller firms such as US-based LeoSat as well. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd too has outlined similar plans. The International Telecommunication Union, which designates orbital slots for communication satellites, says it has received 35 filings since 2015 for broadband constellations, most of them involving “mega constellations". The target is a share of the $30 billion in revenue from satellite Internet by 2025, according to a forecast by SpaceX.
All of this is just to say that if things go according to plan, thousands of new satellites will have to be launched in the next five years, at a frequency that is unheard of.
“This is now a separate market (small satellites)," says Belle of NSR. “Right now, commercial operators are restrained most by launch availability—they have satellites, but no way to put them into orbit."
While SpaceX will use its own launch services for its constellation, OneWeb has already secured services for its proposed 648-satellite constellation through a deal between European Space Agency’s Arianespace, Russia’s Roscosmos and Virgin Galactic; valued at over $1 billion, it’s the largest commercial launch purchase in history.
That leaves all the other Internet broadband firms scrambling to secure launches.
“So when you have something like a 104 satellites launched in one go, it opens up intriguing possibilities; it adds a lot of value for whatever company can secure such a deal," says Belle.
Sasibhushan says that Antrix is already in discussions with some of the companies in the broadband space race, though he did not disclose names.
“Currently, we have on hand orders of around Rs600 crore, for PSLV launches up to 2020," he says, “We are expecting many more orders to come in."
The business of space
So far, India has been an insignificant entity in the space business, where roughly 80% of the revenue has historically come from the launch of heavy satellites in geosynchronous orbits. Despite the success of the GSLV Mark III, India still does not have a rocket powerful enough to do that. It relies almost entirely on Arianespace to launch its own heavy satellites.
PSLV, a smaller vehicle, has been in use since 1994, and slowly built a reputation for reliability over the next decade, launching a handful of small satellites for other countries. Since 2008, PSLV’s “order book" began to show a spike in interest, and in 2013, when it successfully launched India’s Mars Orbiter, the cheapest ever mission to Mars, there was a further boost to orders.
Till around five years back, there was little commercial interest in putting small satellites in LEO. Now there are all kinds of companies that want that space, for remote sensing, earth imaging and communication.
This change of orbital interest coincided with another development that turned out to be lucky for Antrix. The global vehicle of choice for launching small satellites, a Russian-Ukrainian converted intercontinental ballistic missile called Dnepr, was decommissioned after the Russian annexation of Crimea led to tension between the two countries in 2015. Russia’s space agency suspended its joint programme with Ukraine to launch the rockets. It was Dnepr that had held the previous record for most satellites deployed in a single launch, when it put 37 of them in orbit in 2014.
PSLV stepped in. In 2015, three PSLV flights put 18 foreign satellites in orbit; previously, it used to average four foreign satellites a year. More launches followed in quick succession, including the full constellation of 100 satellites for US-based start-up Planet Labs, an earth observation company that hopes to begin data services by the end of this year. Twelve Planet Labs satellites travelled on a PSLV in June 2016, and the rest were a part of the record 104-satellite launch.
Yet, says Sasibhusan, “the launch market using the PSLV is still not large. It brings in only 20% of our revenue".
Most of Antrix’s revenue (it made a profit after tax of Rs209.13 crore in 2015-16, up from Rs205.10 crore in 2014-15) comes from satellite communication services, and the biggest contributor is direct-to-home television.
Now that this is set to change with the battle for satellite broadband, Isro and Antrix are increasingly focusing on making PSLV launches more commercially attractive.
Isro and Antrix are increasingly focusing on making PSLV launches more commercially attractive. Photo: PTI
First off, PSLV is marketed as the cheapest launch vehicle in the world.
A launch by Ariane-5, the most successful commercial rocket in use right now, costs more than $100 million, while that by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 costs around $62 million. When SpaceX introduced Falcon 9, there was serious disruption in the market, with Arianespace and other firms scrambling to bring costs down. In comparison, a PSLV launch costs $15 million, yet the cost is not considered disruptive enough.
“The dynamics of launch costs are a complex area," says Belle of NSR. “The PSLV is far less capable than the Ariane 5, for example, being used to deliver satellites with a lower total mass to LEO rather than GEO, thus should be a lower cost. Costs must always be made by approximate price per kg to the same orbit to eliminate these variables."
Taking such variables into account, Belle says that “commercial operators have clearly stated that the launch prices they have received from Isro are not that much cheaper than the proposed American or European launch prices".
For Belle, the availability and frequency of launches is a far more pressing concern for companies.
“The business requires the constellation to be in place," she says. “If you are waiting for launches, and you can’t get more than 10 or so satellites up in a year, then you may have to drop the idea altogether." This is one of the chief reasons why OneWeb has secured a multi-agency deal, involving multiple rockets and launch sites.
Improving the frequency of launches is on top of Isro’s priorities as well.
“There is a great demand for PSLV launches and our primary aim now is to streamline the activity so we can have more frequent launches," says Isro’s chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar. “At the moment we are doing four-five a year. By 2020, we are hoping to get to 18 launches a year."
Isro chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar. Photo: PTI
Work is on at multiple fronts to make this happen. A second vehicle assembly building is being added to Isro’s launch site at Sriharikota, so that even while one mission is ongoing, another vehicle can be in preparation. Already, Kiran Kumar says, by streamlining various processes and bringing in better technology, the gap between two launches has been reduced from 70 days to 30 days (till 2007, there used to be one launch every two years). In June, the new capacity is being put to the test for the first time, with the GSLV Mark III launched in the first week, and a PSLV launch scheduled for the last week of the month.
There is still a major barrier before Antrix can properly exploit Isro’s launch capabilities: as a national space agency, the priority for Isro is not business, but national missions, and commercial launches are accommodated only when some spare capacity opens up.
“There has always been a huge gap in national needs for strategic or civilian use," says Kiran Kumar, “and we have worked to bridge that gap. But the gap is still there; we need double the number of satellites that we already have, so commercial activity cannot be a priority."
This year, for example, Antrix has not had much to do after the February launch of PSLV because of the lack of spare capacity.
“We are not at all in the same domain as SpaceX or other private space companies," says Sasibhushan. “Our vision is to build a strong ecosystem for the space industry in India. We have very good intellectual assets and a host of good technology sitting at Isro and we want to manage that and see how we can work with private companies so they can build their portfolios and also complement Isro’s program."
Opening up the skies
Space is still an entirely government-controlled entity in India, unlike in the US or in Europe, where it has been increasingly privatized since the 1980s, turning their national space agencies into managing and contracting organizations.
Isro has promised for long to move in that direction, but has had to walk the tricky line of strategic limitations and government regulations. The space agency has an enduring relationship with close to 400 companies, but none of the companies can offer the products they make for Isro to the general market. For the same strategic reasons, Isro also keeps tight control over technology as well as material. Godrej Aerospace, which manufactures the engines and boosters for Isro’s rockets, for example, has had to turn down inquiries from global companies for its products. The final assembly for the engines is also not in its hands and is done by Isro. Private companies are not allowed to build or operate satellites for their own commercial use.
All of this is set to change. This year, Isro contracted out one of its satellite integration facilities to a private company, Alpha Design Technology Pvt. Ltd. Work has also started with Godrej Aerospace to enable them to make the final engine or “stage".
Cube-1 nanosatellite. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
“It needs a lot of government approvals still, but Isro has internally begun the process of farming out the manufacturing of the PSLV entirely to private industry," says S.M. Vaidya, executive vice-president and business head at Godrej Aerospace. “All the existing players have been asked to step up by one level."
Vaidya says that it is only a matter of two-three years before this goal is realized. “We’ve waited for 20 years, but now we are close."
It is not just regulatory issues that have delayed this opening up, but also technical ones. The Vikas engine built by Godrej Aerospace for PSLV has been a work in progress for years, and it is only in the last 10 flights, says Vaidya, that its accuracy has reached 99% on all parameters.
The increasing frequency of launches by Isro has also helped Godrej Aerospace to finally justify its rocket engine business.
“Till 2014, our production lines were operating at 30-40% capacity, making one engine per year," says Vaidya. “Now we are working at 60-70%, because Isro now needs seven-eight engine per year, and we hope to hit 90% in the next two years. To give you some perspective, you need to operate at 80% to break even."
This year, the GSLV Mark III flew on India’s first fully home-grown cryogenic engine. But the engine makers are poised for another major leap already. “We are making a 200-tonne semi-cryogenic engine—the second biggest booster in the world," says Vaidya. “It has gone for sub-systems testing, and we are set to deliver by the end of the year."
Sasibhushan, who has been with Isro since 1984, and spent 25 years in manufacturing before taking charge of Antrix last year, is driving some of these changes.
“I know what it takes to make a space system," he says. “I knew what changes were required in manufacturing to make it commercial. We are looking at technology sharing as a step-by-step process. First we are looking at sharing tech that can’t do damage, that’s not sensitive, but which will enable a company to enter the growing global market in space."
Isro is also helping companies get space qualification, a strict requirement in the business. Not a single nut or bolt can make it to the market without being space-qualified, which basically means that it can handle the extreme conditions in space.
“We have end-to-end solutions if you look at it," says Sasibhushan.
TeamIndus, a seven-year-old Bengaluru start-up that is in the news for being the only Indian company in the Google Lunar XPrize competition, is a perfect example of this new push. It is hoping to land an indigenously developed spacecraft on the moon—that’s the objective of the Lunar XPrize competition—and has secured a launch contract with Antrix for this December for an undisclosed sum.
Bengaluru start-up TeamIndus is the only Indian company in the Google Lunar XPrize competition to land an indigenously developed spacecraft on the moon. Photo: Abhishek B.A./Mint
“Without Isro, we wouldn’t be here," says Ramnath Babu, head of operations at TeamIndus (his designation is “Jedi Master, Operations".) “They let us use their machining centres, facilities you won’t find anywhere else in India. Isro went beyond their obligations. I remember being at their facility for one such test last year, and every Isro team was there before time, and they all worked after duty hours."
The 49-year-old renewable energy expert says that he is confident that Indian firms will finally get a slice of the space industry. TeamIndus, once the Lunar XPrize contest is over, will focus on making cost-effective satellite platforms or buses.
“There is growing demand for satellites for weather forecasting, earth observation, remote sensing, broadband, and everyone from Google to Facebook want to launch more satellites," says Babu. “In another seven years, you will have a lot of space entrepreneurs like me."
Sasibhushan says that enabling Indian companies to make low-cost satellites is something Antrix is actively working towards. “We are looking at technology developed by Isro that can be leveraged to make India the hub of cheap small satellite manufacturing."
There is still a long distance to go. For one, that precarious balance between national demands and commercial ambitions is still weighed heavily towards the former.
“Isro has such pressure and backlog for national missions that it’s very hard for them focus on the commercial side," says Vaidya. “Huge integrated investments have to be made in both Isro and private industry before we can hope to enter the global space business, and that will take at least five or six more years." |
BEIRUT/ GENEVA (Reuters) - The Syrian opposition warned on Sunday that attacks by the army, backed by Russian warplanes, threatened a U.S.-Russian deal for a cessation of hostilities with collapse and endangered future peace talks.
Residents stand near a damaged car in the town of Darat Izza, province of Aleppo, Syria February 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah
The agreement, which is in its second day and has drastically curbed violence but not stopped it entirely, is the first of its kind to be attempted in four years.
In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the opposition said violations would undermine international efforts to guarantee the continuation of the truce and lead to the collapse of the UN-adopted political process. [L8N1670O5]
The Riyadh-based opposition body said Russian war planes on Sunday staged 26 bombing raids on areas where rebel groups abiding by the truce were operating and accused Moscow of deploying cluster bombs on residential areas it alleged caused many civilian casualties.
A Syrian military source on Saturday denied the army was violating the truce agreement. Russia’s defence ministry declined to comment.
Under the accord accepted by President Bashar al-Assad’s government and many of his foes, fighting should cease so that aid can reach civilians and talks can open to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people and made 11 million homeless.
The head of the Russian coordination centre in Syria, Sergei Kuralenko, said the plan was holding “in general” but said there had been nine violations of the truce in the past 24 hours.
Insurgents and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict, said war planes struck at least six towns and villages in west and north Aleppo and a village in the central Hama province.
Warplanes believed to be Russian pounded the town of Teir Maalah, just north of the city of Homs, in the second round of bombing within a few hours of the strategic town that the army has tried to capture in the past to enter rebel held northern countryside of Homs province, insurgents said. [L8N1670NV]
Rebels said the attacks across Syria were more intense than Saturday but still not as bad as those before the cessation of hostilities took effect.
“We are awaiting the response of states to these violations, the situation is in the balance now and self restraint will not last long,” colonel Fares al Bayoush told Reuters.
The Saudi-backed opposition group had earlier accused Russia of carrying out the strikes and said it would complain to the United Nations and countries backing the peace process but said it remained committed to the truce.
“The decision is to remain quiet, not to do anything, and I believe they will stick to the truce,” said Syria’s opposition spokesman Salim al-Muslat. “Yesterday was the first day people can really go out and walk in the streets.”
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir also accused Russia and the Syrian government air force of violating the truce and said Riyadh was discussing the issue with international powers.
Speaking during a joint news conference with visiting Danish Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen in Riyadh, he said there would be a “plan B” if it became clear that the Syrian government and its allies were not serious about the truce. He gave no details.
The deal, which is less binding than a formal ceasefire and was not directly signed by the Syrian warring sides, does not cover action against militants from Islamic State or the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda affiliate which called for an escalation of attacks on Friday.
Moscow and Damascus say they will continue to fight them. Other rebels say they fear this stance may be used to justify attacks against them too.
Muslat, who is spokesman for the opposition’s High Negotiating Committee (HNC), said it was waiting for answers about how the cessation of hostilities in Syria was being monitored, particularly since there was no map with a common understanding of the location of various fighting groups.
“This really worries us because we don’t know how to deal with any violations and what are the areas that should not be targeted,” he said.
CONFUSION
On Saturday, Russia said it would suspend all flights over Syria for one day to ensure no targets covered by the truce were hit by mistake.
But insurgents said on Sunday several people were wounded when Russian war planes struck several villages and towns in Aleppo province and Idlib province.
The Observatory’s head Rami Abdulrahman said some of the towns which were attacked, including Daret Azza, were controlled by Nusra Front and other Islamist groups. In the city of Jisr al Shuquour, three aerial raids caused civilian casualties.
Other attacks hit the villages and towns of Qabtan al-Jabal, Andan, Hreitan, Kfar Hamra and Ma’aret al-Arteek, the Observatory said, all in the west of the province where insurgents from the Free Syrian Army have operated.
It was not clear if these towns were included in the truce, Abdulrahman said.
Syria’s state news agency accused “terrorist groups” of shelling rural areas of the coastal Latakia province, causing casualties. It said that the shelling came from hills close to the Turkish border “where terrorists mostly from Nusra Front deploy”.
A Syrian rebel group denied the state media reports. Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal Division, an FSA group operating in the rural Latakia area, said rebel groups were committed to the truce.
He said helicopters had dropped six barrel bombs and fired dozens of rockets in the area on Sunday, and the Nusra Front had no presence in the area targeted by government forces.
Abdulrahman said a number of civilians were also killed in the air strikes in Aleppo province and other areas. He did not have a figure.
Residents walk near damaged buildings in the rebel held besieged city of Douma, a suburb of Damascus, Syria February 27, 2016. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh
Videos sent by a rebel commander to Reuters shows a strike in another town, Harbnafseh, at 6.30am (0430 GMT)and another at 07:00am (0500 GMT) according to the voice in the video. The footage shows plumes of smoke rising into the sky.
Russia’s coordination centre in Syria received from the United States a list of 69 armed opposition groups which agree with the terms of the truce, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia had itself received declarations of agreement from 17 armed groups from Syria’s “moderate opposition”, the centre said in a statement. |
The Democratic Party is on the verge of either death or reinvention death, but today the pale realization is that their elaborate, bumbling campaign has developed into a sweltering nightmare that’s come knocking at the door—a nightmare by the name of Donald Trump. An air of melancholy has since wrapped itself around all those who invested not only their votes but their futures in the election of Hillary Clinton, and yet, though their anguish is palpable, so is the frustration on the part of minority groups who for so long have been asked to kneel before the butcher’s block to make way for candidates—only to be sacrificed for the sake of pragmatism.
When members of the Democratic National Committee ushered former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg towards the convention pulpit with a sea of wild applause, there were Muslims who could see the painful reality—that the Democratic Party, specifically the Clinton campaign, would be openly courting those who helped the surveillance state close tightly around their communities. Bloomberg, who supported the New York Police Department’s program which “dispatched plainclothes detectives into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop on conversations and built detailed files on where people ate, prayed and shopped,” appeared before a crowd of enthusiastic Clinton supporters to call on Americans to put political disagreements aside “for the good of our country” and make the “right [and] responsible choice” by electing Clinton.
As the months crawled by, Clinton used every opportunity where the subject of Muslim-Americans was presented on a national stage to talk about homeland security and counterterrorism efforts, further normalizing the caricature of the Muslim as a foreign instrument, only useful when commodified or serving as a hireling of the security state. Muslims should “be part of our eyes and ears on our front lines” according to Clinton, during the Presidential Town Hall in early October. Reacting to this rhetoric, Laila Lalami, author of The Moor’s Account, tweeted: “I’m a Muslim and, just once, I’d like to hear candidates talk about me neither as a terrorist nor as eyes and ears on terrorists.”
Despite having expressed sheer unwillingness to see Muslims as existing beyond the paradigms of terrorism and Islamophobia, Muslim-Americans mobilized an electoral force on the side of Clinton, with over one million registering to vote, according to The U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations. The group’s “One Million Voters” campaign “had surpassed its target, more than doubling the number of registered Muslim voters in America since the 2012 presidential election.”
The world that Trump will inherit come inauguration day has not been merciful to those who straddle the intersections of race, gender, and poverty—he will come into possession of record-high deportations, a hyper-militarized border patrol, an ever-expanding global war on terror, god-like surveillance powers; a world that has long been terrifying for those across the country who are discarded and forgotten as soon as their ballots are counted. Obama’s “disposition matrix” will soon be handled by a man who has a licensed name and image. In the hands of Democrats, these war powers were necessary, even merciful, but now they’ve made even the most unabashed chicken-hawks wriggle. Trump, despite what fantasies the liberal commentariat have spun, is no outlier; this is the face of America that the pundit class has attempted to exile to distant history, and he’s come rapping at their window.
As people begin to mourn, they’ve offered words of comfort to those most likely to be impacted by what policies Trump’s administration will lend support, and produce, but there is a thread of bitterness that accompanies professions of fear on behalf of other communities, especially when so many concerns have been dismissed for being ‘untimely’ or ‘divisive.’ If liberals do not internalize and reevaluate this monumental failing, then their tears and expressions of solidarity are all for nought.
After all, if the material fundamentals of what affects these communities remain an inconvenience to you, then why are you crying if not for yourself? What purpose does your declaration of camaraderie serve if there is no reconsideration of your failing tactics and the bumbling political ideology that accompanies it? The communities that you claim to stand with cannot continue to bleed out for you, and your candidates, no matter how much you’d like that glass ceiling to break. If we’re to build anything against energized right wing populism, then our concerns cannot be uprooted—we cannot continue with this waiting game. Your pragmatism is killing us. |
Most NBA teams don't seem to be trying that hard in the promotional giveaway space; they don't have to. They have half the amount of home games as baseball teams and the ability to affect the attendance for a bad matchup sometimes isn't worth the cost of an item.
That said, the teams that are giving this area attention stand out. Here's the best items that are being given away this year:
Miles Plumlee will be giving Bucks fans' toothbrushes a lift this season. Milwaukee Bucks
1. Miles Plumlee Bobblehead Toothbrush Holder
Team: Milwaukee Bucks
Date: Feb. 26, 2017
We thought every bobblehead idea had been done and then came the Milwaukee Bucks, with this brilliant bobblehead that holds a toothbrush and is sponsored by a dentist. Just perfect.
2. Kemba Walker Starting Lineup Figure
Team: Charlotte Hornets
Giveaway date: Feb. 11, 2017
Thank you to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for bringing back Starting Lineup figures with their Jameis Winston giveaway this year. The Hornets haven't unveiled what their Starting Lineups look like -- they will have Kemba, Nic Batum and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist -- but we know that they will be in high demand. Florida-based Matchup Promotions owns the rights to create the retro toys for team giveaways. Expect this company to just get busier.
The Warriors are going above and beyond with their Andre Iguodala bobblehead. Golden State Warriros
3. Andre Iguodala Bobblehead
Team: Golden State Warriors
Giveaway date: Jan. 10, 2017
We all know the Warriors don't need any promotions. They'll sell out every game by themselves. But we give them a golf clap for still giving their fans some great items. Two bobbleheads stand out this year: this one, which features Iguodala and his favorite hobbies (golf and tech); another being a Nate Thurmond bobblehead.
The Suns' retro tank top will appeal to both young and old. Phoenix Suns
4. Retro Tank top
Team: Phoenix Suns
Giveaway date: Nov. 9, 2016
Sometimes, it's just the perfect execution that counts. This is one of those times. For "College Night," the Phoenix Suns are giving away a retro tank top, which will undoubtedly take people who were in college in the early '90s, back to the days of KJ and Majerle. For current college kids who weren't born then, the tank top play also has massive appeal.
5. Bud Light Red Glass
Team: Chicago Bulls
Giveaway date: Oct. 27, 2016
Bud Light's app, which allows fans to sync their team's game to a red light that goes off in their house when their team scores a goal, has been a very effective way of speaking to hockey fans. The goal light has now translated into drink glasses, which also works with the app. While we're not sure how the red light will work with basketball, we're guessing this is a hockey crossover item given how many Blackhawks fans will be in the crowd for Bulls opening night. |
Global warming means that the Arctic's fabled Northern Sea Route could soon be ice-free in summer, slashing journey times for cargo ships sailing from the Far East to Europe. Which is why the Yong Sheng, a rust-streaked Chinese vessel, is on a truly historic journey
For a ship on a mission of worldwide importance, the Yong Sheng is a distinctly unimpressive sight. The grey and green hull of the 19,000-tonne cargo vessel, operated by China's state-owned Cosco Group, is streaked with rust, while its cargo of steel and heavy equipment would best be described as prosaic.
Yet the Yong Sheng's journey, which began on 8 August from Dalian, a port in north-eastern China, to Rotterdam is being watched with fascination by politicians and scientists. They are intrigued, not by its cargo, but by its route – for the Yong Sheng is headed in the opposite direction from the Netherlands and sailing towards the Bering Strait that separates Russia and Alaska. Once through the strait, it will enter the Arctic Ocean, where it will attempt one of the most audacious voyages of modern seafaring: sailing through one of the Arctic's fabled passages, the Northern Sea Route.
The passage, which hugs the coast of northern Russia, and its mirror route, the Northwest Passage, which threads its way through the islands and creeks of northern Canada, have claimed the lives of thousands of sailors who tried for centuries to cross the Arctic in an attempt to link the ports of the Far East and Europe by sailing via the north pole. Thick pack ice, violent storms and plummeting temperatures thwarted these endeavours.
But global warming has transformed the Arctic in recent years and its summer ice cover has dropped by more than 40% over the last few decades, raising the prospect that it may soon be possible to sail along the Arctic's sea routes with ease – a notion that is proving irresistible to shipping lines, not to mention mining companies as well as oil and gas exploration firms. All believe the region is ripe for exploitation.
Several fairly large ships have already sailed the Northern Sea Route. However, the voyage of the Yong Sheng, backed by the Chinese government, has special significance. This is the first attempt by the world's biggest exporter to exploit the Arctic's disappearing ice to reach its biggest market – the European Union.
"We always knew global warming would affect the planet first in the Arctic, but we have been floored by the rapidity of that change," said Mark Serreze, director of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado.
"Temperatures have risen dramatically. At this rate, I would expect the Arctic to be completely free of ice in summer by around 2030. That is why everyone has become so interested in the region."
The attraction for China in opening up the Northern Sea Route is straightforward. According to Cosco, the Yong Sheng's 3,380-mile journey will take about 35 days, shaving two weeks off the traditional route between Asia and Europe via the Suez Canal.
"The Arctic route can cut 12 to 15 days from traditional routes, so the maritime industry calls it the Golden Waterway," Cosco said when it announced the Yong Sheng's voyage. For good measure, the new route will avoid the pirate-invested waters of the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.
Making such cuts in transport times means major savings in fuel and lower costs for its products, hence China's new enthusiasm for all things polar. Although its border goes nowhere near the Arctic, China recently gained observer status in the Arctic Council, a group of nations – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States – with major interests in the region. China, whose total foreign trade was worth $3.87tn (£2.5tn) last year, can see clear economic benefits from exploiting the warming that is gripping the planet and shrinking its northern sea ice shelves.
This point was stressed by Professor Qi Shaobin of Dalian Maritime University in China. Opening up the Arctic "will change the market pattern of the global shipping industry because it will shorten the maritime distance significantly among the Chinese, European and American markets", he told Chinese state media last week.
And shipping figures certainly look encouraging. Russian authorities said last week they had already granted permission for more than 370 ships to sail the route this year. In 2012, only 46 ships sailed the entire length of the passage from Europe to Asia, while in 2010 only four vessels made the voyage.
In the wake of these figures, several proposals have been announced to take advantage of the expected expansion in Arctic shipping. Iceland is considering plans, backed by German entrepreneurs, to build a major port on its north-eastern shores. Similarly, Stornoway Port Authority in Scotland said last month that it was considering building a special port for Arctic ships so they could refuel and discharge cargoes into smaller vessels for onward shipment to Rotterdam, Le Havre, Liverpool or London. In addition, Valentin Davydants, captain of Russia's Atomflot fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers, has estimated that 15m tonnes of cargo will use the full Northern Sea Route by 2021.
It sounds impressive until you realise that 929m tonnes of cargo was shipped through the Suez Canal by 18,000 vessels in 2011. By that standard, the Northern Sea Route has still got a long way to go in transforming world shipping.
And other issues affect the attractiveness of sailing in Arctic waters. The seas around the north pole may be losing their summer ice cover but there is still the ever-present danger of icebergs and drifting slabs of pack ice.
"Satellite photographs may suggest an area is completely clear of ice, but there is still a chance that a ship will encounter drifts of ice," said Serreze. "It is very unlikely that the Yong Sheng will go through these waters on its own. The Russians have the best, most powerful armada of ice-breakers. Some of these are huge nuclear-powered vessels, and I would expect one of these will have been hired to escort the Yong Sheng on the main part of its journey."
The last point is crucial. The Arctic Ocean will eventually lose its sea ice cover for several months in summer, but this is not likely to occur for a couple of decades.
For the foreseeable future, the Northern Sea Route will therefore be open for only a few weeks in summer and still require ice-breaker escorts. These factors will severely limit the route's potential in the short term, a point stressed by Zhang Yongfeng, a researcher at the Shanghai International Shipping Institute.
"The navigable period of the passage is relatively short, while the port and pier infrastructure along the route is incomplete," he told Fox News.
Then there is the major expansion of the Panama Canal, expected to be completed by 2015. When that happens it will be possible to take ships that have more than double the upper cargo capacity on vessels currently allowed in the canal. Again, the major beneficiary is expected to be China with its voracious export plans. The costs of shipping its goods to the eastern US are predicted to drop by more than 30% as a result of the Panama's expansion.
"For the next decade, I would have thought that the expanded Panama canal will have a far greater impact on world trade than opening up routes in the Arctic," Serreze said.
Others disagree, however. One estimate suggests that between 5% and 15% of China's international trade could use the Arctic route by the end of the decade. And where China leads, the world is very likely to follow. |
Yesterday I took a US Airways flight from Raleigh-Durham to Washington, DC to drive some Hellcats. So far so good, right? Across the aisle from me was a woman, from Boston, who was feeling a bit queasy. She asked the flight attendant for some club soda. They responded by trying to kick her off the plane. Any idea why?
If we're absolutely being honest, there were two very simple reasons why: the woman was black, and had an African accent. In the popular culture of panic, those two factors seem to be enough to turn an entire plane full of people around and return to the gate to attempt to kick a paying traveller off a plane.
Though the flight attendants that surrounded the woman and asked her to leave the plane (and threatened to call the airport police if she wouldn't get off the plane) never once used the word, it's clear that they were afraid the woman had ebola. It was pretty absurd listening to them dance around saying what they were thinking, instead talking about their "health concerns." Come on. If you're going to be a paranoid, own it.
Let's just be clear about some things about this woman: she was 34, felt she quite possibly could be pregnant, and lived in Boston. She'd been to Nigeria back at the beginning of the year, but came back in fine health. She felt a little nauseated; that's it. Her eyes weren't bleeding, she wasn't spraying revolting fluids out of anything, she was simply a young woman trying to get home.
Advertisement
I was sitting next to a woman who worked at the UNC School of Public Health, who was traveling on the plane with a bunch of other colleagues who knew something about diseases and epidemics. And, interestingly, one of them, an older white man, mentioned he'd been to Liberia recently, and was technically much more of a potential ebola risk than the woman. Nobody asked him to leave the plane.
It was absolutely inane. This poor woman was reduced nearly to tears because she was nauseous and had the wrong accent. That's it. They had zero evidence of her medical history, and absolutely no rational reason to assume she was in any way a danger. And yet they had flight attendants going back and forth to her seat, and had the plane return to the gate in an effort to get her to leave. It wasn't until a bunch of us other passengers around her, including several of the public health workers, got together to tell the attendants that we were just fine with the woman staying, that they finally backed down.
It's incredible that a paying customer can be just kicked off a flight for the flimsiest of reasons. I understand the disease is scary and airline workers can hypothetically be at greater risk of exposure, but come on. This is a woman from Boston, in North Carolina, going back to Boston. There's been no ebola cases reported at any of those locations. People get nauseous on planes. People have African accents. We've got to get a grip. |
Today, speaking at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) ripped into the leadership of outgoing Speaker of the House John Boehner. “Yesterday, John Boehner was Speaker of the House,” Cruz said. “Ya’ll come to town and somehow that changes.” Cruz added that the crowd should come to DC more often.
But Boehner’s exit also sets up a major choice for Cruz – and a potential moment of strength. Boehner reportedly intends to ram through a budget deal with the help of Democrats in order to forestall a potential government shutdown over funding of Planned Parenthood.
Already, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has vowed not to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood, put up a show vote on Planned Parenthood, which went down to inevitable defeat, and then advanced a clean continuing resolution funding the government and Planned Parenthood.
Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) explained McConnell’s strategy: “Rather than resting all our hopes on a strategy that will achieve no result and will be manipulated by Democrats and the media, I believe we should fund the government, fully investigate Planned Parenthood, and focus our efforts on electing pro-life leaders.”
This, of course, is insufficient. Republican strategy seems to revolve around the assumption that government shutdowns invariably hurt Republicans (false,) and that Republicans in Congress are therefore fated to surrender until they win the executive branch. Meanwhile, taxpayer dollars continue to flow to an organization that murders hundreds of thousands of unborn children every year.
With Boehner’s resignation assured, and his attendant determination to ram through Obama agenda items and prevent a shutdown, Cruz becomes the only Republican in a position to hold up funding for Planned Parenthood. It’s easy for Donald Trump to endorse a shutdown over Planned Parenthood; he’s in no position to do it. It’s just as easy for Carly Fiorina to endorse a shutdown. But only Cruz in the Senate has the ability to implement that strategy.
He’s done it before. When Cruz leveraged the bully pulpit to force Speaker of the House John Boehner to defund Obamacare in 2013, the Republican establishment preached doom and gloom. Republicans won a landslide victory in 2014.
And Cruz would benefit from that same stand against Planned Parenthood in his presidential race. If Cruz fails to utilize the same tactics now – if he doesn’t take to the floor of the Senate to the best of his ability and use public pressure to strip funding from Planned Parenthood – he risks looking weaker than Trump and Fiorina. Furthermore, Trump and Fiorina and Mike Huckabee and myriad other Republican candidates would be assets to Cruz in this fight, since they all endorse any attempt to stop Planned Parenthood funding.
More importantly, Cruz has been talking openly about a government shutdown for weeks; in August, he told pastors to tell their flocks to get active. “We have a moment where we can stand together and act, and all we need is for our elected leaders to actually do what they said they would do,” Cruz said then. “They campaigned promising to defend the right to life. Now is the moment where we distinguish word from action.”
Cruz now represents the only hope of stopping taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Even that hope is slim. He doesn’t have the votes in the Senate to withstand a motion for cloture on a clean continuing resolution. And Boehner’s parting gift to Planned Parenthood seems preordained. But all that means is that pro-life Americans are looking for a champion to stand up in the face of overwhelming odds on behalf of the unborn.
Cruz can at least do that much, if nobody else will.
Ben Shapiro is Senior Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and The New York Times bestselling author, most recently, of the book, The People vs. Barack Obama: The Criminal Case Against The Obama Administration (Threshold Editions, June 10, 2014). Follow Ben Shapiro on Twitter @benshapiro. |
Despite claims that no one could’ve seen Friday evening’s ISIS terror attacks in Paris coming, reports are emerging of some nations giving France direct warning of potential attacks, with Iraq confirming they’d sent France a dispatch on the threat just the day before the attacks.
Reportedly, the dispatch informed France that they were one of several countries ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had ordered attacks on, and explicitly warning that the attacks in the coming days would involve “bombings or assassinations or hostage taking.”
The intelligence appears to have been extremely accurate, as the ISIS attacks the following night involved multiple bombings as well as a massive hostage-taking incident at the Bataclan, where they at one point had as many as 100 hostages at a concert.
Asked on the matter over the weekend, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari downplayed the prediction, saying only that France was among the targets indicated by intelligence on ISIS. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Jamal claimed the intelligence was obtained “months ago,” which makes the timing particularly surprising.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz |
By Stuart Shapiro
Last week as Texas recovered from Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma was barreling down on Florida, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said, "Now isn't the time to talk about climate change."
With these storms in the recent past and Hurricane Jose bearing down on the Jersey Shore and Maria right behind it, climate change should be on everyone's tongues.
Of course, Pruitt doesn't want the public discussing climate change at the very time when such a discussion could lead to increased support for combatting it. He would prefer to have the discussion during a snowstorm (when his fellow Oklahoman, Sen. James Inhofe famously brought a snowball to the U.S. Senate to support his position that climate change was not happening).
Pruitt has implied that discussions about climate change are "political."
They are.
But no more so than arguments that we need to change immigration policies when a single immigrant commits a heinous crime. And, no more so than arguments that the war on terror needs to be ramped up after a single attack. Scientists and advocates of climate change policy need to learn from advocates of restricted immigration and anti-terror policies. The scientists have a much stronger case to make.
Unfortunately, scientists have generally done the exact opposite. They have made it all too easy for climate deniers like Pruitt and Inhofe. Whenever there is a big storm like Harvey, Irma, Jose or Maria, scientists correctly point out that individual weather events cannot be attributed to a global phenomenon like climate change.
While this is true in an absolute sense, these comments have the effect of giving climate deniers ammunition in their anti-science crusade.
Politicians and the public that they represent do not think in statistical terms. While climate change did not cause Harvey or Maria, it has made storms of this magnitude more likely and more deadly. For example, warmer air retains more water vapor, which increases the amount of water dumped during these storms.
In my work, talking with scientists, economists, and other people who influence public decisions, these individuals have told me that communicating the uncertain effects of policy to politicians is one of the hardest aspects of their jobs. It is easy to tell someone that A causes B. Life is rarely that simple though. It is much harder to tell them that money must be spent on A because doing so will make B somewhat less likely.
But events like the tragic hurricanes that we have seen over the past few weeks are the ideal time to make such a case. Instead of modestly retreating to the barest of facts, scientists and other supporters of policy measures to combat climate change should talk about how Harvey and Irma are examples of the peril of ignoring statistics (and science).
Individual hurricanes like Harvey, Irma and Jose are now more likely than they once were.
They will become even more likely in the future as the planet warms. So will storms that will make Harvey, Irma, Jose seem quaint. Sure, there will be years without such storms, just as there will be cool summer days. But these things will become less common with each passing year. Especially if we do nothing about climate change.
Stuart Shapiro is a professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. He is the author of "Analysis and Public Policy: Successes, Failures and Directions for Reform" (New Horizons in Public Policy series).
Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. |
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed suit against Plano, Texas-based Rent-A-Center Inc. in connection with its termination of a transgender employee in its Rantoul, Illinois, store.
The EEOC said in a statement Tuesday that the company's managers disapproved of the employee's gender transition and found a pretext for firing her.
The company said in a statement the termination was in fact because of the unauthorized use of a company truck for personal use.
The agency, which said it filed suit after first attempting to reach a prelitigation settlement, is charging the firm with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“All people deserve the opportunity to earn a living and be judged on the quality of their work, rather than on sex-based considerations,” said John Hendrickson, the EEOC's regional attorney in Chicago, in the statement. “That includes transgender employees, and the EEOC is committed to making sure such individuals' rights under Title VII are protected.”
The company said in a statement, “As a company, Rent-A-Center embraces diversity and acceptance, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination. Our diverse and inclusive culture is reflected in our coworkers.
“This particular coworker admitted to coming to the store on a Sunday, while the store was closed, and taking the company truck, without permission, for personal use.
“If this coworker had been involved in an accident while driving a large truck and had injured anyone, it could have been catastrophic, and the company could have been held legally responsible. That is why Rent-A-Center has a policy that prohibits the use of company vehicles for any personal use. This coworker's employment was terminated for violating established policy.
“Gender did not play any role in this employment decision. All coworkers are held to the same standard when it comes to violating this policy.
“It should also be noted that this coworker never made a complaint about any discrimination while working for the company. The EEOC is aware of all these facts, yet the EEOC demanded money to settle the matter; however, Rent-A-Center refused to engage in any settlement discussions with the EEOC.”
Officials from 11 states have filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration in response to its position in favor of civil rights for transgender individuals. |
There are a zillion ways to make paper flowers – one of our favorite methods is this simple process using coffee filters! This is a great project for budget wedding decor, or cheap decor for your house, since coffee filters come in large packages for cheap.
Project estimate:
Coffee filters, on hand or $1
Food coloring, on hand or $1
Hot glue, on hand
Poster board, on hand or $1
Total: Free and up
Dye the coffee filters in groups of 25 in the colours you want. Experiment using one at a time allowing it to dry so you will know the exact colour. To dye a filter two colours, dip the bottom part into the colouring and let it completely absorb the colour. After about thirty seconds, remove and turn it over and dip it into your second colour. Remove the filters and place them on a surface covered with plastic with a layer of newspaper on top. Let dry until the filters start to separate and take them apart to dry on the newspaper.
Stack five filters on top of one another. Using scissors, cut in a circular pattern as shown.
Take one filter and fold it over to where it has about a three inch “tail”.
Start rolling the filter towards your body with both hands. Once you reach the end, put a small spot of hot glue to hold the end to the “bud”.
Cut the tail off and generously hot glue it to one of the square pieces of the poster board.
Put a small dot of hot glue on the end of three filters. Put a dot of hot glue on the end and glue it to the base of the bud. Roll the three pieces around about four times and add another spot of glue at the base of the bud. This will keep the filters from unwinding and will start to shape your rose.
Repeat Step 6 until your rose is large enough. If you’re making larger than normal roses, you will need larger pieces of poster board.
Once your rose is finished, trim off the excess poster board and your rose is ready to use in your design.
MY LATEST VIDEOS |
George Lucas is hoping the third time will be the charm for his proposed Museum of Narrative Art, which has already been the victim of community opposition in San Francisco and Chicago.
Actually, that’s not quite right: Lucas is hoping that the third or the fourth time will be the charm. He’s decided to bundle those efforts together, simultaneously unveiling two different museum designs this week for a pair of California sites.
One proposal is for a location on Treasure Island, in San Francisco Bay. The other is in Exposition Park in Los Angeles, near the Natural History Museum and just west of the Coliseum. Both are fluid, forward-looking designs from the office of 40-year-old Chinese architect Ma Yansong, a rising star who also worked with Lucas on his ill-fated proposal for the Chicago lakefront.
Ma Yansong's Exposition Park design for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art would have parkland at its feet. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
Ma and the founding president of the museum, the polished and energetic art-world veteran Don Bacigalupi, met with me earlier this month in downtown L.A. and proceeded to give one of the more unusual presentations I’ve seen in my career as an architecture critic.
Propping an iPad Mini on the table, they began by flicking through renderings of the streamlined, all-white Exposition Park design. Then, barely skipping a beat, they called up a second series of images showing the Treasure Island proposal.
Call it hedging your bets, call it beefing up your odds, call it the architectural equivalent of quite publicly asking two people to prom on the same day: Lucas’ dual-track proposal is an unconventional strategy by any measure. And it suggests that rather than feeling chastened enough by those prior defeats to reassess his sales pitch, to slow down and rethink the plans for the museum in a wholesale way, Lucas is instead growing ever more impatient to get a deal done.
Even fellow billionaire Eli Broad , when he was scouting museum sites in 2009 and courting the cities of L.A., Beverly Hills and Santa Monica, didn’t announce his choice of architect — to say nothing of releasing a design — before he’d settled on a location.
The Lucas museum proposal for Exposition Park, with the Coliseum in the distance. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
The Los Angeles site occupies a narrow strip of land along Vermont Avenue, in a section of Exposition Park now filled by a pair of surface parking lots. (Not to worry, traffic-obsessed Angelenos: The proposal calls for a subterranean parking structure for 1,800 cars.) The museum would rise just south of Jesse Brewer Jr. Park and a light-rail stop on Metro’s Expo Line.
Forming a kind of gateway facing 39th Street along the western edge of the park, the building would hold between 265,000 and 275,000 square feet of interior space, with about 100,000 square feet earmarked for galleries. The dimensions of the Treasure Island museum are the same.
Lucas and Bacigalupi have already done much of the political heavy lifting for the new proposals, securing the backing of L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Mayor Ed Lee in San Francisco, which has jurisdiction over Treasure Island.
Garcetti called me — unsolicited — earlier this week to express his strong support for putting the museum in Exposition Park, a short walk from USC’s Mediterranean-style School of Cinematic Arts, which Lucas helped to fund as well as design. Garcetti said the populist bent of the museum’s collection, along with its connections to Hollywood history, made it a natural fit for a site that’s in the geographical center of the city, adjacent to light rail and near museums and public-school campuses.
But persuading politicians to offer him public land in prime locations has never been Lucas’ problem. Elected officials tend to find irresistible the idea that he is willing to pay for the construction of a museum that is likely to draw big crowds of locals and tourists alike — and fund an endowment to the tune of at least $400 million. What he’s struggled with is winning over the civic groups that have some control over these patches of parkland. Not to mention skeptical members of the media.
The L.A. proposal has clear similarities to Peter Zumthor ’s controversial design for a new building to hold the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art . Both designs call for galleries laid out horizontally but lifted above ground level, allowing pedestrians to flow underneath. And both remain rather fuzzy when it comes to interior details.
Ma’s design sets aside a significant amount of shaded landscaping under the museum building, where parked cars now sit, allowing Bacigalupi to argue that rather than removing green space from Exposition Park, they would in fact be adding some. And unlike Zumthor’s building for LACMA, Ma’s Exposition Park proposal is topped by thickly planted and publicly accessible terraces.
Still, the proposal would squeeze a very large new building into a park already crowded with attractions.
Lucas' Treasure Island plan, for the middle of San Francisco Bay. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
On Treasure Island, the museum would be part of a new master-planned district facing the San Francisco skyline and near a proposed ferry terminal. (Virtually all visitors now reach the island via the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.) The site offers dramatic views of the Bay but is buffeted by strong winds; in response, Ma’s design has less outdoor space and significantly larger bands of windows than the L.A. version.
Both proposals feature the smooth, digitally derived forms for which Ma (who is also designing a mixed-use project on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills) is well known. Bacigalupi said it was too early to say exactly how much the museum might cost to build in either location. (Including the endowment, the total value of the project is likely to exceed $1 billion.) He also said details of a lease agreement at either spot remained to be hammered out.
The double release of the conceptual designs is just the latest twist in a campaign that has been unorthodox, even scattershot, from the start. When Lucas first went public with plans for a San Francisco museum to hold his collection, which is heavy on Norman Rockwell and Hollywood artifacts and largely disdains modernism, minimalism and abstraction, neither Bacigalupi nor Ma was part of his team.
He worked instead with Dallas architecture firm Urban Design Group to produce a design near Crissy Field — for an institution then known as the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum — that was nostalgic and generally conservative, much like the art Lucas favors. After that plan was rejected, he turned his attention to Chicago in early 2014 — and made some dramatic changes.
He hired Bacigalupi (former director of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas, the San Diego Museum of Art and the Toledo Museum of Art). He renamed the museum, suggesting with the use of the word “narrative” that it would be an institution dedicated to exploring how filmmakers and artists alike rely on various storytelling traditions. And he unveiled a giant, mountain-shaped design by Ma for which Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel became a forceful advocate.
Different city, different architect, same result: The Chicago proposal became as politically toxic as the San Francisco one had been, with the group Friends of the Parks taking the place of the Presidio Trust as the sharpest thorn in Lucas’ side. He finally threw in the towel — or tossed it into the lake — in June.
And so back to California. Bacigalupi and Ma, for Rounds 3 and 4 of the Lucas sweepstakes, have refined both their pitch for what the museum will look like and the issue of what precisely it will hold.
SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter »
Over the summer, Lucas invited Charles Desmarais, art critic at the San Francisco Chronicle, to visit him in Marin County and take a detailed look at the collection. Desmarais came back convinced, writing that work by Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, Jacob Lawrence, R. Crumb and others, not to mention costumes and other objects from “Star Wars,” “The Ten Commandments” and other films, “may just be the core of a great museum.”
Even if that turns out to be the case, there is still the matter of a clash at both sites between the collection and its container, between art and architecture.
If any of Ma’s sculptural, dramatically abstract proposals for the museum — and there have now been three of them, for Los Angeles, Treasure Island and Chicago — were a work of art, there is little chance Lucas would be interested in adding it to his collection. In my experience, when the architecture of a proposed museum is noticeably out of step with the collection it is meant to hold, it’s usually a sign of larger, hidden power struggles or a tangled sense of mission. Or both.
Some of Lucas’ supporters have made the case that the museum’s futuristic gleam is reminiscent of the inventive look of the early “Star Wars” movies. But that seems a stretch, a desire to see a link between Lucas’ youthful Hollywood work and his current architectural thinking that may not actually be there.
A bigger question is simply whether the collection and building are strong enough as cultural attractions to justify handing over public land to a wealthy patron making an aggressive sales pitch. It is too early to make any final judgment on that score, especially as Ma’s design for the galleries and other sections of the museum interior remains largely preliminary.
Garcetti said he would be surprised if the Los Angeles proposal generated significant opposition, from the Exposition Park board or other groups. Conversations with neighborhood council leaders and officials at the nearby museums and at USC have convinced him, he added, that the plan will get a very warm welcome.
Lucas is likely to choose a location for the museum early next year.
christopher.hawthorne@latimes.com
Twitter: @HawthorneLAT
ALSO
Downtown L.A.’s new U.S. courthouse, a glass cube that seems to float in mid-air
The battle of the ballparks: Cubs vs. Dodgers and the lost history of L.A.'s own Wrigley Field
D.C.'s new African American museum is a bold challenge to traditional Washington architecture
UPDATES:
Oct. 28, 11:22 a.m.: This article was updated to incorporate more details from interviews with museum and design officials.
3:47 p.m.: This article was revised for language and length. |
Washington (CNN) -- If President Obama decides to send the 40,000 additional forces to Afghanistan as requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a rough estimate by the Pentagon projects the cost could be an additional $20 billion a year, according to a senior Pentagon official.
The official said the Defense Department comptrollers office has told Congress that based on rough estimates, the total cost of keeping an individual service member in the war zone is now about $500,000 a year.
That includes the costs of personnel operations and maintenance costs, some equipment and hazardous duty pay.
The actual costs could be higher, because the estimate does not include the cost of constructing additional facilities, providing support forces such as military intelligence assets that may be based outside Afghanistan or replacing damaged weapons or equipment. The official emphasized that until there is a formal troop plan, the costs are just estimated.
The official would not be identified because the estimates are not official.
The ongoing review of the strategy for Afghanistan continued Friday, with Obama meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates; Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and the heads of the four military services.
The heads of the Army and Marines, who provide the bulk of troops for the war, have expressed concern that if they send a large number of additional troops, they will have to cut down on the time troops spend in between deployments, known as "dwell time."
Marines have only about 8,000 troops they can add without impinging on dwell time. The Army has about 12 brigades, or approximately 48,000 soldiers, that are not deployed or committed to deploy.
Regardless of the number of troops being sent, a deployment will be phased over time because of the lack of facilities in the country to house and support a large deployment, the official said.
McChrystal's plan calls for sending a majority of the forces he is requesting to the south, especially to reinforce Kandahar and Helmand provinces, and the region around Kabul, several military and Pentagon sources said. McChrystal also intends to reserve a number of forces for training Afghan forces, officials said.
But one official noted that if that plan is put into effect, additional forces would be needed to be sent to areas that the Taliban might then flee, such as the northern region. |
The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) own watchdog says that drones deployed at the United States-Mexico border do not achieve their objective of protecting the country.
In a 37-page report issued on December 24, 2014 but published for the first time on Tuesday, DHS’ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) concluded that "after 8 years, [Customs and Border Protection, or CBP] cannot prove that the program is effective because it has not developed performance measures."
In a statement, the agency had a damning conclusion for the CBP drone program, which anticipates spending an additional $443 million to acquire and operate 14 more drones.
"Notwithstanding the significant investment, we see no evidence that the drones contribute to a more secure border, and there is no reason to invest additional taxpayer funds at this time," said Inspector General John Roth in the statement. "Securing our borders is a crucial mission for CBP and DHS. CBP’s drone program has so far fallen far short of being an asset to that effort."
Specifically, the OIG also noted that CBP’s estimated drone cost per hour ($2,468) is actually about 80 percent lower than the true cost ($12,555 per hour).
As the report states:
The Office of Air and Marine’s [OAM] calculation of $2,468 per flight hour does not include operating costs, such as the costs of pilots, equipment, and overhead. By not including all operating costs, CBP also cannot accurately assess the program’s cost effectiveness or make informed decisions about program expansion. In addition, unless CBP fully discloses all operating costs, Congress and the public are unaware of all the resources committed to the Unmanned Aircraft System program. As a result, CBP has invested significant funds in a program that has not achieved the expected results, and it cannot demonstrate how much the program has improved border security. Given the cost of the Unmanned Aircraft System program and its unproven effectiveness, CBP should reconsider its plan to expand the program. The $443 million that CBP plans to spend on program expansion could be put to better use by investing in alternatives, such as manned aircraft and ground surveillance assets.
In November 2014, the Associated Press, citing two anonymous sources from within the CBP, reported that drones now patrol over half of the US-Mexico border.
However, the new DHS OIG starkly disagrees with this assessment:
Although the Federal Aviation Administration permits OAM to fly over the southwest border from California to the Texas gulf coast, the unmanned aircraft focus on relatively small portions of the border. For example, according to CBP, in [fiscal year] 2013 UAS operations along the 1,993-mile southwest border focused on about 100 miles of Arizona border and operations in Texas concentrated on about 70 miles of that state’s border.
Brendan Schulman, one of the nation's few drone law experts, told Ars that he was not familiar with any other similar government drone-related studies.
"Smaller drones, used in closer proximity to border areas, may turn out to be far more efficient and effective at this type of mission," he wrote in an e-mail. "The Predator is a very large airframe that is over a decade old. One of the recommendations of the report is to conduct a study on whether investments in alternatives, such as manned aircraft and ground technologies, might work better. Newer, low-cost drones that have been developed over the past year or two might be another alternative worth investigating." |
We all know Linus Torvalds doesn’t like keynotes. This year was the first time he kind of delivered a keynote at the Embedded Linux Conference. It took the form of a discussion with friend, fellow scuba diver and chief Linux and Open Source Technologist at Intel, Dirk Hohndel.
Here are some of the most interesting things Torvalds said during that discussion.
On Linux kernel
The latest Linux kernel release 4.6 -rc2, which was released just before the event, is one of the larger releases Torvalds has made in the last couple of years. This release added support for yet another file system, orangeFS, bringing the number of supported file systems to 35. (Remind me, how many file systems do Mac OS X and Windows support?)
Despite the bigger release Torvalds was happy that there was nothing "revolutionary" in this release because it has reached a "fairly stable plateau,” he said. “We've gone past that stage where we rewrite whole subsystems.”
25 years of Linux
Torvalds announced the kernel back in 1991 and this August Linux will turn 25 years old. Hohndel asked him that at what point in these 25 years Torvalds realized that one day “you would use your Linux phone to connect through Linux based routers to a high powered Linux based data center when AI helps you pick which Linux based device to buy next?”
Torvalds replied that "it didn't happen overnight. There's no single point where I was surprised, really. The surprising hardware is from 15 years ago when people started using Linux.” He noted that about 15 years ago, or slightly longer, we started seeing these odd embedded uses. The first one he remembers was a gas pump that was running Linux. “They wanted to monetize their gas pumps by showing commercials on them. It was running Linux. That made me go, 'Whoa.' Then everything else, all the other Linux uses, have been very gradual, and a lot of them have been completely invisible. There's a lot of Linux uses that even I don't at all see, and I'm not aware of.”
Failure of Linux on the desktop
While Linux pretty much dominates almost every walk of our lives, even on the consumer devices like smartphones and smart TVs, it has not had the same success on the desktop. What does Torvalds think about it? Is Linux a failure on the desktop? Not really. “The desktop hasn't really taken over the world like Linux has in many other areas, but just looking at my own use, my desktop looks so much better than I ever could have imagined. Despite the fact that I'm known for sometimes not being very polite to some of the desktop UI people, because I want to get my work done. Pretty is not my primary thing. I actually am very happy with the Linux desktop, and I started the project for my own needs, and my needs are very much fulfilled. That's why, to me, it's not a failure. I would obviously love for Linux to take over that world too, but it turns out it's a really hard area to enter. I'm still working on it. It's been 25 years. I can do this for another 25. I'll wear them down.”
What if he was not writing the kernel
Hohndel asked if Linus was not a kernel guy, what would he have done in the embedded, hardware space. Torvalds isn’t very fond of his soldering skills, saying “I've destroyed things with a soldering iron many times. I'm not really set out to do hardware. I'm just looking at all the cool toys that I would love to have had available to me when I was a teenager, and I was playing around with computers, and all these embedded boards that you can buy, whether it's a Raspberry Pi, or Beagle board, Minnowboard, or anything like that. There's tons of them. If I wasn't doing kernels, I would probably be playing around with them. The great part is, if you aren't great at soldering, and you end up destroying a couple, you can just buy a new one.”
Time for a second career?
Hohndel asked whether, since Torvalds' children are in college now, is he looking at the second inning of his career, wanting to do something different? Torvalds sounded content with his current job, saying “No. Not really. I really have been doing Linux for 25 years, and it's really interesting. I don't actually do coding anymore, as people hopefully know, that all I do is, I end up overseeing, and doing pull requests, and shouting at people when the pull requests don't work.”
What’s his vision for future?
When Hohndel asked Torvalds about his plans for the future in terms of years, months, weeks, days or hours. Torvalds said, “I actually have a plan for 24 minutes. I always say that I don't know where Linux will be. The only thing I care about is that I will make sure we do the best thing we can that day. If you take care of the details, I think the big picture follows. There was not a lot of planning involved in Linux to begin with. There really hasn't been a lot of planning involved ever, and that should really blow people's mind, how little planning there was.”
“There was no person, certainly not me, that says, 'Now we need to have maintainer-ship of this area, and you need to spread out and do this collaboratively over people,' it happened naturally. I don't make five year plans. I think trying to make five year plans is a fool's errand, because you don't know what's going to happen. My planning tends to be, I know what's going on this merge window, I see what's coming the next one, and then sometimes when making decisions, people ask me, 'Should we do A or B?' I kind of have a longer range plan. I know what hardware is coming out two years from now. I kind of have that kind of plan, but not a lot of details,” said Torvalds.
“I think it's been part of what's been great about Linux, is the fact that I haven't had a vision, and very few people had vision," said Torvalds. "I take that back. Lots of people had visions, but they're completely different. People know where they want to drive Linux, but there's no coherent plan, and it's actually, I think, what made Linux be a fairly well balanced system, because there was nobody who said, 'This is the direction, and we're going that direction, whether it's right or wrong.' We just spread out and did a little bit of everything.”
This article is published as part of the IDG Contributor Network. Want to Join? |
Long before he became the greatest closer of all time, Mariano Rivera was just another lost rookie in the big city.
That’s when Joe Fosina, the re-conditioner of Yankees uniforms since 1978, essentially the team’s tailor, offered a helping hand.
“Mariano had just gotten called up and he didn’t speak English, but he had an address on a piece of paper,’’ Fosina said of that day in 1995. “The address was in Eastchester and I lived in New Rochelle, the next town over. The equipment guy asked me to go down to the cab and explain how to get there because he knew I lived close by and I said, ‘No, I’ll drive him.’
“That day we had a language barrier, but Mo wanted my phone number. I gave it to him and the next day he called and said he needed a ride to Yankee Stadium,’’ Fosina, 76, recalled.
“That first week I drove him back and forth to the Stadium and then I found an apartment for him in New Rochelle, a nicer place, because he was there with his wife, Clara, and their 2-year-old.”
From that thread of kindness, a lasting friendship developed; a friendship as strong as the interlocking “NY” on those classic uniforms Fosina cares for on a daily basis.
Rivera and his family found solace in New Rochelle in backyard barbecues at the Fosina home with Joe and his wife, Mickie, their five sons and one daughter.
The two families have remained close for 19 years.
“Not only does Mo know all the family, he knows all the grandkids, I got 15 of them,’’ Fosina said proudly.
Rivera is deeply appreciative of the friendship.
“Joe has been like family to me,’’ Rivera told The Post. “From that first day, we clicked. He helped me in amazing ways, giving me rides, back and forth, teaching me the ways of New York and everything about the Stadium. Amazing, amazing.
“Joe, his wife, Mickie, and their family are such wonderful people, hard workers. They did a great job raising those kids. That’s why this family is so special to me.’’
“It’s been a great friendship,’’ Fosina said. “It’s not like we latched on as friends when he became The Great Mariano. We’ve been friends since Day 1. It is a true friendship.’’
They ride to the ballpark nearly every day and you can get a glimpse of Fosina’s sense of humor from this story:
“When I pick him up for a game, I hit the horn and I wait,’’ Fosina said. “Then I move over to the passenger side and he drives my car.’’
One recent day at the Stadium, autograph seekers shouted to Joe, “How do you get Mariano to drive your car?’’
“Easy,’’ Fosina said with a smile. “I pay him $10 an hour.’’
Turning serious, Fosina said, “It’s a friendship of families, my wife, Mickie, talks to Clara all the time. They talked today. We help out with the church and other things we can do. It’s been a two-way street — he needs something, he calls me, we need something, we call him.’’
Rivera, 43, is restoring a church in New Rochelle, and Fosina is heavily involved in the community. He has been president of New Rochelle Pop Warner the last 35 years. Before that, he coached for 10 years. This time of year you can find him on Joe Fosina Field, if he is not at Yankee Stadium.
The greatness of Rivera is measured in those 693 saves (651 in the regular season and another 42 in the postseason), but it also is measured in his relationships, and there is no stronger clubhouse bond than Mo and a guy named Joe.
Joe and Mickie were Mariano’s guests for a trip to Panama in 1999. Not only did Rivera pick them up at the airport, he personally handled all their baggage. If you think Rivera is big here, Fosina explained, wait until you see him in Panama.
“At the toll booths, they would just see his car coming and the gates would go up and he’d go flying right through,’’ Fosina said with a smile.
Joe’s son Michael is an executive director at a hospital, and Rivera has quietly helped raise money for different hospital causes. When Joe’s daughter Ann Marie, who teaches autistic children, was recently honored at Yankee Stadium by the morning show “Live with Kelly and Michael’’ in a teacher of the year contest, part of the festivities included being greeted at home plate by none other than, you guessed it, Mariano Rivera.
“We were kind of laughing,’’ Fosina said of that day. “Ann Marie has known Mo forever.’’
Ann Marie’s son Timmy was born prematurely. Rivera went out of his way to befriend the child as he grew up. One day when Timmy was about 11, Joe mentioned he needed to buy Timmy a new baseball glove.
Mo casually told Joe: “Here, take this one.’’
“Mo gave me his game-used glove and said, ‘Bring this home to Timmy,’ ’’ Fosina said. “I told him, ‘No, this is your game glove.’ ”
“That’s OK,’’ Rivera said. “Timmy needs it. Now don’t lose it.’’
Timmy is 16 now and still has that glove. It sits in a protected case.
When Timmy’s friends see the glove, they ask, “How did you get that?’’
Timmy tells them, “Mariano gave it to me.’’
Joe smiled and said, “No one believes him. But only Mariano would do something like that. There are just a lot of things that makes Mariano such a good friend.’’
Fosina’s son Gary has a passion for food, as does Rivera, and the two got together in the restaurant business for Mo’s New York Grill.
Joe splits his time between the Yankees and the New Rochelle Pop Warner program, helping so many children play football, including Ravens star running back Ray Rice, who told News12 Westchester that Fosina is “a great man, a great father figure, a great leader.’’
“Mo and I have done a lot of things together and away from the field I would say Mariano is a little more relaxed,’’ Fosina said. “We’ve done some dumb things, too. He and I sat at LaGuardia Airport for an hour and a half to pick up his wife one day while she’s sitting at JFK. Another time at the airport, he went inside and I was in a no-parking zone. By the time he came out, a tow truck came and put the car on the hook and I’m up in the air, still in the car.’’
Fosina then told a story about going to see the local fireworks show that first year Mariano was with the Yankees.
“I knew the cops well and I said, ‘Listen, I’ve got Mariano Rivera of the Yankees here, can’t we put him in the roped-off area so people won’t bother him?’ ”
“No, we can’t do that, Joe,’’ he was told.
So Rivera and the two families watched the fireworks together with everyone else as Rivera pleasantly signed autographs. The next year a special roped-off area was waiting for Rivera.
He stayed on the general public side and enjoyed the night.
“Mariano just doesn’t forget the people that he has had a relationship with through the years,’’ Fosina said. “He doesn’t think that he’s up here and they are down there. His friends are really his friends.’’
Friends for life. That’s Mo and Joe. |
The congressional baseball game will go on as planned Thursday -- with a distinct Louisiana influence.
After U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise was one of five injured in a shooting at a practice Wednesday morning in Virginia, the Republican and Democratic teams will wear official LSU gear, provided by the university, during the game to honor the majority whip.
LSU confirmed it's sending LSU team hats and t-shirts to Washington D.C. for lawmakers to wear. Scalise graduate from LSU in 1989 with a computer science degree and a political science minor.
"We are grateful to Congress for thinking of Rep. Steve Scalise during this difficult time and recognizing him by wearing LSU gear in support of his recovery," LSU President F. King Alexander said in a statement. "Rep. Scalise is a proud LSU alumnus and great supporter of the university, and we are proud to help out even in this small way. The thoughts and prayers of the entire LSU community are with Rep. Scalise, his family and all of those injured."
After he first was elected to the U.S. House in 2008, Scalise joined the Republican baseball team, saying it was a good way for a newcomer to make connections.
“It’s a good way to meet colleagues in a short period of time,” said Scalise a few months after he took office in a special election to replace Bobby Jindal, who had just been elected governor. “You see guys on the floor and you really know them rather than just walking by them.”
Scalise has continued to play on the team, while his colleague U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond became a star of the Democratic team when he joined Scalise, also a former Louisiana legislator, in Congress.
The congressional baseball game is more than a century old. Democrats and Republicans face off in a game for charity.
Advocate staff writer Ross Dellenger contributed to this report. |
So I was thinking about Undertale lore and got to thinking about what the seven magicians who created the barrier might have looked like. Then this happened. I basically just took the general look of the first human in the Undertale opening mixed with aspects of Frisk and here we are. Oh and I gave them a knife for an accessory as a little reference for Chara. I designed this around Frisk and Chara since they're the only references for what other humans may look like in the universe.
I started thinking like what if the humans had different tribes for the different heart colors. So for example this red mage was the one selected to represent the people with Determination when deciding the mages to make the barrier. Then the other groups chose their mages for the job and boom they created the barrier together to seal the monsters in. I mean the barrier is white so the combination of the all the colors would make sense in the spectrum of light as well.
Maybe I’ll draw the other mages some other time. Lol this is turning into an au fast but whatever. Just wanted to share :3
disclaimer: Undertale everything belongs to the mastermind Toby Fox. |
What springs to mind when you think about Singapore?
I’ve just returned from the city state off the coast of southern Malaysia and must admit to having had a rather unfavourable view of the Lion City before my visit. I had seen news reports as a teenager about a ban on chewing gum and vaguely recalled hearing about someone being jailed for dropping litter.
While not seeing the nation as outright authoritarian, I had classified Singapore as a somewhat illiberal, soulless corporate hub filled with bored expat Brits holed up in high-rise apartment blocks.
Having spent the best part of a week there – including several visits to the National University of Singapore’s stunning ultra-modern campus – I’ve concluded that this perception of Singapore is somewhat unfair.
Singapore feels neat, tidy and very safe, but there is no shortage of fun – from the bustling nightlife of Clarke Quay and the more bohemian sorts enjoying a beer on its bridges, to the undergrads hanging out on the lawns of the NUS’ University Village and rock bands striking up in numerous downtown pubs.
For a built-up metropolis, it feels pleasantly open. Green spaces and historic buildings are preserved and pleasant riverside walkways are open to stroll along.
Another notion that I suspect is rather unfair – although also not totally unfounded – popped up several times during my stay: that Singaporean students, and indeed Asian students in general, are less creative than Western ones.
Singapore’s schools system may produce students with amazing maths and science skills (their 15-year-olds score the highest in the world in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment exams); however, goes the common refrain, the test-focused, rote-based learning does not foster innovative thinking.
Singapore, China and India may produce plenty of talented scientists and engineers, but, critics ask, do these countries instil in them the creative spark that is vital to achieving truly world-leading breakthroughs? Will they produce brilliant, free-thinking scholars who are able to challenge orthodoxies given that they emerge from strict social hierarchies in which respect for elders – including senior academics – is paramount? they add.
The creation of Yale-NUS College, a liberal arts college backed by the Ivy League institution, whose £148 million campus opened this month, could be seen in this context.
Is Singapore trying to import the multidisciplinary study model that is allegedly the source of US creativity and academic excellence, or does Asia already have this type of student? Is this view of the “uncreative” Asian student a comforting myth told by the West as the world’s academic locus shifts East?
Bertil Andersson, president of Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore, clearly thinks so.
“We cannot keep hoping that ‘yes, Asian students are good, but they are not creative’,” says the Swede, a former head of the European Science Foundation. “Maybe Asian students are risk-averse, but they are creative,” he told the OECD-Singapore Higher Education Futures conference, which took place in Singapore on 14 and 15 October.
Others say that there are differences between students linked to national characteristics. “I would say Asian students are better at engineering, while US students are better on design,” says T. V. Mohandas Pai, chairman of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s higher education committee, on his experience of Indian engineers operating in America.
Whether the liberal arts colleges being set up in India, China and many other Asian countries will flourish in more socially conservative countries and foster a new generation of brilliant scholars remains to be seen. But there is clearly a huge ambition in Asia – backed with serious cash – to show that the region’s graduates can thrive in the creative sector, and that the countries are more than just science and engineering powerhouses.
jack.grove@tesglobal.com |
For the first time in 36 years, Ohio’s Columbus Pride Festival and Parade will replace their grand marshal with a float honoring LGBTQ refugees fleeing persecution.
About 15 refugees in total will ride at the front of the parade on Saturday, reports The Columbus Dispatch. They have fled from countries with strict anti-homosexuality laws that can result in lengthy prison sentences or even death, such as Uganda, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Related: Police investigating terror threat made against Columbus Pride
Karla Rothan, executive director of Stonewall Columbus, the organization that presents the festival, explained that the decision was in response to President Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting six predominantly Muslim countries.
On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled against the ban, handing the White House another defeat on a key campaign promise made by then candidate Trump.
“The current administration is putting a lot of restrictions on new Americans, and lately, we’re finding it difficult to get LGBTQ Muslims in our center,” she said. “We’re doing this to show that we serve all of the LGBTQ community, and we are denying the current political climate.”
Related: U.S. denies visas to gay, bi men fleeing abuses in Chechnya
“I think it is really amazing that they (the refugees) will be able to go out and feel welcome,” said Waswa Franco, an employment counselor at Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS). “What happened in their home countries…they were always in fear, and now they will get to stand up and show who they are.”
This Story Filed Under |
The pileated woodpecker, a crow-sized black bird with white stripes and a flaming red crest, is returning to the western Chicago suburbs with help from an unlikely source: the emerald ash borer.
"Spotting a pileated in DuPage County is 'a big deal,'" wrote John Cebula, outreach coordinator for the DuPage Birding Club, in an email to the Naperville Sun. "That said, the species has been seen and heard fairly regularly on the east side of the Morton Arboretum in Lisle for the past month or so."
At the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, ecologist Brian Kraskiewicz has reported recent pileated woodpecker sightings near Naperville and other spots around the county.
"A few lucky folks have recently observed the elusive pileated woodpecker in woodlands at Danada and St. James Farm" forest preserves, Kraskiewicz said. The bird also was spotted in Blackwell, Waterfall Glen, Wood Ridge and West DuPage Woods forest preserves.
While numbers aren't available, birders and experts agree more of them seem to be moving in.
Making DuPage County a possible woodpecker destination is the emerald ash borer, a native of Asia that for the past decade has ravaged great ash trees around Chicago and the suburbs. The preferred habitat for pileated woodpeckers? Large dead and dying trees.
So where humans see a falling hazard and invasive pest, woodpeckers spy a new home with a beetle buffet.
The emerald ash borer larvae feed on the inner bark of ash trees, and emerge right where a woodpecker looks for dinner. The larvae destroy a tree's ability to move water and nutrients from its roots to its leaves. Chicago and surrounding suburbs have spent tens of thousands of dollars treating the trees and cutting down those that can't be saved.
For a woodpecker, though, the larvae provides a tasty snack while the weakened tree offers an ideal spot to excavate and build a nest, experts said. So in the forest preserves, where dead ash trees typically are left standing, the snags become enticing destinations.
"These dead and dying trees are going to provide great habitat for the pileated woodpecker," said Ron Rohrbaugh, assistant director of conservation science at Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. "Everyone in that area should enjoy a fantastic bird."
However, he added, the emerald ash borer is but one reason for the woodpecker's return to northeastern Illinois.
A look at the pileated woodpecker's U.S. range map, provided by the Cornell ornithology lab, shows a hole around Chicago and its suburbs. Rohrbaugh blamed the local aviary absence on a lack of trees, many of which were cut down in the 1800s to help build cities or make way for agriculture.
Since the 1950s, though, forests have returned on abandoned small farms, Rohrbaugh said, thus providing the tall, dead trees pileated woodpeckers require. Carpenter ants typically are their diet of choice.
In the forest preserves, Kraskiewicz said pileated woodpeckers have been spotted "pecking away" on trunks and stumps, especially after crews cleared out invasive underbrush and left more space between trees.
Pileated woodpeckers leave rectangular holes in the wood, and boast a loud, whinnying call, according to Cornell lab information. They also drum on dead trees in a "deep, slow rolling pattern."
While the woodpeckers are known on occasion to visit suburban backyard bird feeders, Rohrbaugh said it's not a common occurrence.
"Put out a bird feeder. You'd be amazed at what birds live in urban and suburban areas," Rohrbaugh said. "If you get a pileated, that would be a bonus."
gbookwalter@tribpub.com
Twitter: @GenevieveBook |
'1989' ties 'Fearless' as Swift's longest-running No. 1 album.
As forecast, Taylor Swift's 1989 claims an 11th week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, tying Fearless as Swift's longest-running No. 1 effort. (Fearless reigned atop the list in 2008 and 2009.)
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). 1989 earned another 108,000 units in the week ending Feb. 8, according to Nielsen Music (up 7 percent).
Kanye West & Taylor Swift Are Hitting the Studio Together
1989, which released last year on Big Machine Records, has yet to leave the top two rungs of the weekly Billboard 200 since the album's release 15 weeks ago.
Since 2000, only four albums have tallied at least 10 weeks at No. 1, and two of them are by Swift: 1989, Fearless, the Frozen soundtrack (13 weeks in 2014) and Adele's 21 (24 weeks in 2011 and 2012).
As previously reported, Swift and Whitney Houston are the only two women in chart history to earn multiple albums with 10 weeks at No. 1.
2015 Grammy Performances Ranked From Worst to Best
Arriving at No. 2 on the new Billboard 200 chart is the latest Now That's What I Call Music compilation, Now 53, with 99,000 units. All 53 of the numbered Now albums have reached the top 10, and every one since the second volume have debuted in the region. The new set is powered entirely by pure album sales. The last numbered Now effort, Now 52, debuted and peaked at No. 2 with 103,000 copies sold in its first week.
Ed Sheeran's x descends one rung to No. 3 with 97,000 units, though it's up by 32 percent for the week. (Of that unit total, a significant chunk were traditional album sales: 53,000 -- up 47 percent.) Credit a lot of that gain to Sheeran's performance on the Feb. 8 Grammy Awards, where he sang twice on the show. His first turn behind the mic came when he did x's "Thinking Out Loud," joined by John Mayer, Herbie Hancock and Questlove. Sheeran had a second go on stage with Jeff Lynne's ELO on the latter's "Mr. Blue Sky."
2015 Grammy Awards
While the Grammy Awards aired on CBS TV on the final day of Nielsen's latest tracking week, the show generates significant gains for many of its performers and winners. Take Sam Smith, for example. The singer won four Grammy Awards and performed on the show -- he registers a 44 percent unit increase for his In the Lonely Hour album. It holds steady at No. 4, but earns the chart's Greatest Gainer award -- indicating the list's largest unit increase.
All four of Smith's award wins were televised on the Grammy Awards broadcast as well: best new artist, best pop vocal album, song of the year, and record of the year. He also performed the album's "Stay With Me" (winner of both song of the year and record of the year), joined by Mary J. Blige.
Expect further gains for Grammy-related artists, albums and songs next week, after a full week's worth of post-show impact.
Starting at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 is Fifth Harmony's first full-length album, Reflection. It enters with 80,000 units (with 62,000 of that coming from traditional album sales). The five-member female vocal group visited the top 10 once previously with their first EP, 2013's Better Together. It debuted and peaked at No. 6.
Meghan Trainor's Title album slips 3-6 with 59,000 units (down 13 percent).
Next up on the list, legendary singer/songwriter Bob Dylan notches his 21st top 10 album, as his Shadows In the Night arrives at No. 7 with 50,000 units. The new album consists of pop standards recorded by Frank Sinatra, including "Autumn Leaves" and "Some Enchanted Evening." Of the first-week unit total for Shadows In the Night, 99 percent were pure album sales.
Dylan's first top 10 album came almost 50 years ago, when Bringing It All Back Home rose 11-10 on the chart dated May 29, 1965.
Nicki Minaj's The Pinkprint is steady at No. 8 on the new Billboard 200, shifting 48,000 units (down 2 percent). Maroon 5's V is also a non-mover at No. 9 with 47,000 units (up 10 percent).
Rounding out the top 10 is a new arrival from Diana Krall. Her new covers album, Wallflower, blooms at No. 10 with 44,000 units in its first week. The set features Krall's takes on such pop oldies as Eagles' "I Can't Tell You Why," The Mamas & The Papas' "California Dreamin'" and Crowded House's "Don't Dream It's Over." The new album marks Krall's sixth top 10 effort. |
World Series of Fighting continues to add talent to its roster, and welterweight Tyler Stinson and light heavyweight Teddy Holder are the latest athletes to sign exclusive multi-fight deals.
MMAjunkie today confirmed the new deals with World Series of Fighting President Ray Sefo.
Both fighters are expected to make their promotional debuts in early 2014.
Stinson (25-9) is a former Bellator MMA and Strikeforce fighter who was been fighting professionally since 2006. “The Evolution” is a Kansas native who currently boasts a two-fight winning streak that includes back-to-back first-round knockouts over Rob Kimmons and Zac Kelley. The 27-year-old is currently working with Grudge Training Center, and 23 of his 25 career wins have come by way of stoppage.
Meanwhile, Holder (8-1) is a 27-year-old Tennessean who has been fighting professionally since 2008. Holder took a near-three-year break from competition between 2009 and 2012 but has since returned with a vengeance, racking up six wins in less than 24 months.
Holder currently boasts a seven-fight winning streak, and he’s never fought past the opening round of a bout. In fact, he boasts three career wins of 60 seconds or less and his average career fight time is just 1 minute and 42 seconds.
World Series of Fighting’s next event takes place Jan. 18 in Hollywood, Fla., and feature two championship matchups.
(Pictured: Tyler Stinson) |
As we run out of IPv4 address space, is it time to create an exchange for trading unused address blocks? Ars contributors Iljitsch van Beijnum and Timothy Lee tackle the issue. In this article, Iljitsch explains why this is a bad idea. You can read Tim's take here.
The Internet is a packet-switched network. That means all communication going across the network is put in packets, which are transmitted individually. This has the advantage that there's no call setup overhead, like in connection-based networks (think landline phones). But the downside is that each of those packets, holding not much more than one kilobyte of data, must be routed through the network individually. So a big router that handles many millions of packets per second has to take the destination Internet Protocol (IP) address from each packet and then walk through its routing table to find where next to send the packet. This makes the design of routing table data structures and the algorithms to search through them an extremely critical part of the Internet.
The design is so critical that it's necessary to limit the way in which addresses are given out so routing tables remain small and efficient. Hence the earlier limitation that IPv4 addresses could only be given out in class A, B, and C blocks, and the current limitation that block sizes must be powers of two. This was a traumatic change made in 1992-1993, allowing the Internet to survive a crisis that could have killed it as routing tables were quickly outgrowing the capacity of the day's routers.
At around the same time, the first three of the eventual five Regional Internet Registries were formed, which took up the task of distributing IP addresses in North America, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific, respectively. At this point, the policy "to each according to his needs" was made explicit, and organizations requesting address space had to sign a contract spelling out that "IP addresses aren't property."
Interestingly, during the following decade when the address allocation policies were a bit more liberal on paper (and a lot more in practice), and the address registration fees were low, few people, if any, argued that addresses should be a tradable commodity. That all changed when the end of the (almost) free IPv4 address supply drew nigh and IPv4 addresses started to become scarce enough to hold monetary value. Of course, most of the organizations that received IP addresses before the RIR system was set up never returned them, or even signed a maintenance contract with the RIRs. And the RIRs never pushed hard—read: sued—to reclaim legacy addresses. Worse, 268 million IPv4 addresses will probably remain unused forever because pretty much all operating systems and network equipment vendors have a line of code somewhere that says "addresses above 240.0.0.0 are reserved for future use—you can't use those!"
In the meantime, everyone dragged their heels installing IPv6, which handily solves the current IPv4's address scarcity and then some. The current situation is that Asia is already out of IPv4 addresses, save for one last block of 1024 per Internet service provider. Europe will be in the same situation at some point in 2012, or maybe even later this year, with North America to follow one or two years later. IPv6 deployment is growing, but nowhere near fast enough to pick up the slack, partially because of the same lack of foresight mentioned earlier and partially because of a vicious circle of lack of demand/supply/real-world experience.
So with the RIR supplies of IPv4 addresses running low and their policies getting more draconian as the end nears, is IPv4 address trading the magic bullet that will buy us time until IPv6 deployment is of sufficient scale?
Yes and no. But mostly no.
Unpredictability and fragmentation
Let me start with a fairness issue. The US holds about four IPv4 addresses per capita, and most of Western Europe has one or two. But many other parts of the world have much less than that. China has been using up IPv4 address space like it was going out of style, going from having about 8 million addresses around the turn of the millennium to 330 million now. India, on the other hand, has almost as many people but only 35 million IPv4 addresses. Should the poorest countries in the world be forced to buy IP addresses from the West, providing a windfall to some of the richest American companies just because those participated in an e-landgrab at the right moment?
Fairness aside, it's important to recognize what we're talking about. If you have a website to host, you really only need a single IP address. Or maybe even a fraction of an address—you can often host multiple websites on a single IP address. So paying $10, $100, or even $1,000 for an IPv4 address is not a big deal. When I checked a few years ago, the dozen or so biggest service providers in the ARIN region (North America) used up 85 percent of the addresses given out that year. Hosting services doesn't use much address space in the grand scheme of things, and can be made to work in a variety of ways, with or without address trading.
But what about those big service providers? When Comcast needs another 8 million addresses, will it buy those for $10 a piece? Suppose that it does. Then one or two years later, how much will the cable giant have to spend as supply of addresses gets tighter? Will it spend hundreds of millions of dollars on IPv4 addresses every year, with the prospect that this cost will just increase year over year? And worse, as the largest blocks find a new home, large service providers will have to buy up more and more small blocks to secure the same number of addresses. Just dealing with so many different contracts will be a nightmare.
So my prediction is that at the ISP level, a functioning market won't form at all, or will break down very quickly after it forms. All the while, address trading will take away resources, monetary and otherwise, from implementing the long-term solution: IPv6. With no new supply of IPv4 addresses and an increasing number of potential address users (we've been using up 200 million new IPv4 addresses per year recently), an address market will be prone to bubbles. Bubbles can also easily burst as service providers move to address-conserving technologies such as NAT and IPv6. Of course the US government can always bail out service providers using the nearly 200 million legacy IPv4 addresses that it has on its books.
If address trading happens in non-trivial volumes, the address space will also fragment as organizations sell off only part of their address space. Due to the power-of-two limitation, doing this easily adds a handful of entries to the routing tables of routers throughout the world. The IPv4 Internet will become less reliable as older routers operate at peak capacity and routing protocols are stressed. Unless the RIRs throw all their policies out the window and rubber-stamp all address transfers, it will become harder to trace back an address to its user, giving free reign to spammers and other shady outfits.
Internet users are about to encounter a big pothole in the information super highway. What they need to clear this hurdle without breaking an axle or worse, is predictability. Neither the RIRs tightening the supply of the remaining IPv4 addresses nor shady markets where exchanges happen hidden from the public eye that keep IPv4 running for indeterminate amounts of time are helpful here. But the good news is that IPv6 addresses can be had without conforming to oppressive policies and essentially for free. Ask for some at your friendly neighborhood service provider. |
When i was little i always wondered how dinosaurs became extinct, how little we actually know of them and that everything we DO know about them is mostly rough scientific guesswork. When i was little i was fascinated by the dinosaurs of today; tortoises, turtles and the like. An animal that could live hundreds of years and witness the world change around it as humans discovered, colonized, adapted and destroyed environments for their own greed..
Humans paid a high price for this, as the world recently lost another species.. Lonesome George was the last Pinta Island Tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii) iin existence.. On Saturday 23 June 2012 there was one, the last one. The next day they became another addition to our extinct species list. This may not sound so terrible, but think about. Up untill George died there was hope. Hope of some breakthrough or discovery that could have saved George's species. He was called Lonesome George for that exact reason- for being the last of his kind. Although he didnt know it, and as far as we know he has been the only of his kind for the last 40 years. He was THE living fossil.
Out of everything that could go wrong in our lives, being lonely is by far one of the hardest. If people dont realise this, then we as humans will be witness to many more animals who will eventually become Lonesome James the White Rhino, or something. How long before the next animal will become extinct? How will it affect the world? Untill Sunday, somewhere, a child was asking its parents what kind of animal was that big, gentle, ancient thing slowly walking around around with its home on its back. Somewhere a child is now asking why it died, and when will they come back? And the answer will be 'they are all gone now, child'.
We have lost an unbelievably valuable connection to history with the death of Lonesome George, spanning millons of years. Yes, there are many other tortoises - any creature, for that matter- but there was only ONE Lonesome George.
We didnt deserve you, George.
I am sorry. |
State lawmakers shot down an extended retail sales moratorium pushed by Gov. LePage, but weren’t able to carry a veto-proof majority on the regulation-focused committee bill.
Lead photo via Gage Skidmore
Maine legislators passed a long-anticipated committee bill aimed at regulating the state’s impending legal weed industry yesterday, but even with success in both the Maine House and Senate, the agreed upon tax structures, licensing, and limitation rules are expected to be vetoed by Governor Paul LePage, a staunch prohibitionist.
According to the Portland Press Herald, neither the 84-52 vote in the House or the 22-9 vote in the Senate hit the 75% approval mark needed to block a gubernatorial veto.
State lawmakers were at odds with Gov. LePage’s agenda throughout the entire special legislative session Monday night, with an earlier House vote shooting down a separate proposal pushed by the Governor and State Sen. Ken Fredette that would have extended Maine’s moratorium on recreational cannabis sales for another year, until at least January 2019.
Instead, the now-passed regulatory legislation will head to Gov. LePage’s desk, where he will have 10 days to either sign the bill into law, veto it, or allow it to pass without his signature.
“This was not a vote for or against recreational marijuana use. Maine voters decided that already,” Rep. Teresa Pierce, the Democratic co-chair of the committee that wrote the bill, told the Press Herald. “This was our chance to do our job and protect the people of Maine as we follow the law and create this new industry. I’m proud that we’ve done that.”
Still, representatives from both parties told the Portland newspaper that they expected Gov. LePage to veto the bill.
And while some legislators and cannabis advocates have been vocal about issues concerning the committee bill’s proposed regulations, Gov. LePage’s objections do not pertain to specific clauses or protocols, but the timely implementation of legal weed in general, a goal that is frustrating lawmakers to no end.
“We need to start someplace,” Republican Representative Don Marean told the Press Herald. “I do not want to go home and tell constituents that I voted against regulating marijuana, which is a federally scheduled drug. This vote was not to legalize marijuana. This vote is to regulate it.”
If Gov. LePage does veto the committee bill, legislators will reconvene on the issue in January, to either pass a new set of regulations, enact regulations as voters approved them in 2016, or extend the existing moratorium on recreational sales and delay the industry even further.
“With today’s vote, the Legislature clearly does not have enough votes to move this bill forward over a governor’s veto,” Rep. Fredette said. “There is obviously more work to be done when we return in January.”
A current legal weed sales moratorium is in effect until February 2018.
Follow Zach Harris on Twitter |
WEST PENN TOWNSHIP — A Schuylkill County police officer who claimed she was attacked during a traffic stop in September made it all up, state police said.
West Penn Township officer Melissa Ruch, 41, of New Ringgold, was charged Wednesday with making false alarms to agencies of public safety and false reports to law enforcement authorities, both misdemeanors.
Ruch reported she stopped a dark car along Route 309 north of Dove Lane about 4:55 p.m. Sept. 2, state police said. At 5:08 p.m., she requested backup officers and when they arrived she was found at the bottom of an embankment along the road.
State police said Ruch was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital for treatment of injuries that were not life-threatening.
Ruch said she'd been attacked by a large man after stopping his vehicle, but state police said they found a number of inconsistencies in her story. Ruch said she fired her stun gun at the assailant before he attacked, but investigators said witnesses reported Ruch was alone.
Troopers examined her stun gun and found it had been used 33 minutes before she reported the vehicle stop.
State police did not provide a motive for the alleged false reports.
— Matt Coughlin |
On Thursday and Friday (Feb. 7-8) at 8:30 pm, the CEAIT (CalArts Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology) festival is back at REDCAT, featuring writer-musician Bonnie Jones on night one, electronic musician Keith Fullerton Whitman on night two and selections from the South Korean record label, Balloon & Needle, on both evenings.
Jones' “no-input” style of sound-text performances make use of internal feedback mixers, cracked delay pedals, hacked electronics and other custom-made instruments. REDCAT's program notes explain that she short-circuits her board to play her electronics "in ways that manufacturers would never recommend." Below is a piece Jones performed in October at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City:
REDCAT describes Whitman’s form of electronica as generating “shimmering drones and deep waves of sound,” together with improvised guitar. Multiple critics have commented on the accessibility of Whitman's music. “No other drone or ambient release [in 2003] could touch [Whitman’s] emotional heft," said Pitchfork writer Mark Richardson. Below is a set of generative (ever-changing, systemic) music Whitman recorded in June:
Both nights include selections from South Korean record label Balloon & Needle, which was founded by members of Puredigitalsilence and Piwacot. The label "highlights pioneering musicians of Seoul’s burgeoning experimental music scene." Below is live performance by Jin Sangtae at Kuchu Camp in 2010:
CEAIT Festival 2013
REDCAT
Thursday and Friday, Feb. 7-8, 8:30 pm
Tickets: General $20, students $16, CalArts community $10 |
Garry Bardin’s 1983 short “Konflikt” has the rich color and narrative intensity often associated with his work, but unlike his other stop-motion films, which use malleable materials like clay and origami paper, “Konflikt” works almost solely with a mundane, seemingly lifeless object—the wooden match. With very little in the way of a set, Bardin constructs an entire war, from segregation (the tell-tale wall), to initial conflict, to escalation, to doomsday. It’s a strange thing to be moved by a bunch of matchsticks, but somehow they’re animated into truly expressive characters.
There’s a US tendency to assume every piece of Soviet political art is somehow centered on America, but it’s difficult to argue the short as a literal depiction of the Cold War. Most obviously, the titular conflict involves a direct border dispute and open battle, something that wasn’t the context for the US and USSR. Still, the final act of warfare in the film is so violent (yet so expected), it’s difficult to ignore parallels with nuclear fears.
Via Network Awesome |
Experts say that as many as two thirds of the world’s beaches are currently retreating, as the sand supply that feeds them becomes vastly depleted.
Whilst urban sprawl and rising sea levels play a part, the biggest threat to beaches is the extraction of sand for a variety of industrial uses.
We’ve seen it on a micro scale in Mundaka, where dredging for industry further up the river cut off the supply of sand that creates its epic sand bar, all but killing the wave for a few years and sending the WSL event searching for an alternative venue.
The problem is also rife in the Caribbean and South East Asia where the consequences can be a lot more serious. In areas without high-tech sea defence infrastructure, the beaches form vital barriers between the sea and settlements. Consequently their depletion leaves such settlements vastly more susceptible to erosion and flooding.
Luckily, a brewing company from New Zealand think they might have found a solution, and even more luckily all you have to do to help is drink beer.
DB export have invented a machine which pulverises glass bottles down into a fine sand, that can then be utilised for all manner of industrial purposes.
“We had some [conversations] over beers, and came up with an idea to crush glass bottles into a sand substitute that can be used in things such as construction, roading, even golf bunkers; meaning that we can keep our beautiful beach sand where it belongs: on our beaches.” said Simon Smith, brand PR and digital manager for DB Breweries, in an interview with Digital Trends.
“Our ambition for the campaign is for people to have something tangible to think about, such as the love of our beautiful beaches, as a reminder to recycle”
“We can’t solve the problem alone but we knew we could do more to help.” adds Sean O’Donnell, Marketing Director at DB Breweries. “Our ambition is to help drive more recycling whilst looking out for the beaches which are an integral part of our Kiwi DNA. We’re proud to launch an initiative that can help us do our bit to protect our beaches for future generations.”
As Sean notes, to make any real difference worldwide the machine would have to be rolled out on a much larger scale, but imagine if every household and every bar had one, just how much substitute sand could be made and how many bottles could be kept out of landfill.
Indeed, it would probably only take one summer weekend in Newquay town centre to produce enough sand for us to dump and sculpt that dream sand bar that Newquay bay cries out for and that certainly sounds good to us.
Cover photo: Alex Lesbats // Ripcurl
More articles about saving the world:
Supermarkets To Introduce Plastic-Free Aisles In Every Store
Adidas Creates New Real Madrid and FC Bayern Munich Kits from Recycled Ocean Plastic
The Fishermans Son |
Dr Cooper has examined individual nerve cells in the brain Just one brain cell is capable of holding fleeting memories vital for our everyday life, according to US scientists. A study of mouse brain cells revealed how they could keep information stored for as long as a minute. A UK specialist said that understanding these short-term memories might help unlock the secrets of Alzheimer's Disease. The finding was reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience. If we can identify and manipulate the molecular components of memory, we can develop drugs... to hopefully allow a person to complete tasks without being distracted
Dr Don Cooper
UT Southwestern The difference between the brain's long-term and short-term memory has been likened to the RAM of a computer and the hard-drive. To perform normal functions, we need the ability to store, quickly and reliably, large amounts of data, but only a small amount of this needs to be retained in the longer term. Scientists have spent decades working out which parts of the brain are responsible for these functions, and how cells manage this feat. Original theories suggested the memories were retained by multiple cells forming "circuits" around which electrical impulses were fired for the necessary period. More recent ideas have centred around the concept that even an individual cell could somehow hold on to information. Researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern looked at brain cells taken from mice using tiny electrodes to measure their function. They found that a particular component of the cells in question, a chemical receptor, which, when switched on, tells the cell to start an internal signal system that holds the "memory" in place. Drug boost The next step, they say, is to find out more about this internal system so that it could be targeted by drugs with the aim of improving memory. Dr Don Cooper, the lead researcher, said: "If we can identify and manipulate the molecular components of memory, we can develop drugs that boost the ability to maintain this memory trace to hopefully allow a person to complete tasks without being distracted." He said that this could potentially help people addicted to drugs, by improving the ability of their brain to ignore impulses. Professor Ian Forsythe, from the MRC Neurotoxicology Unit at the University of Leicester, said that the information shed on the brain's ability to retain short-term information was important in understanding the laying down of longer-term memories - and perhaps to understand how to help people for whom that was a problem. He said: "Probably the most interesting thing will be to get to grips with the memory problems involved in Alzheimer's Disease. "If you've got no short term memory, you've got no chance of longer-term memories." Alison Cranage, from the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said, "By understanding memory formation, scientists may be able to discover ways to enhance it. "Memory loss can be an early sign of dementia, and we desperately need to fund more research in order to find a cure for this devastating disease."
Bookmark with: Delicious
Digg
reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The students in Bangladesh are angered by what they see as government inaction
Students in Bangladesh have held protests over alleged government inaction after another secular blogger was killed by suspected Islamists.
Nazimuddin Samad was hacked with machetes on Wednesday in the capital Dhaka and then shot, police said.
Students from the Jagannath University, where Mr Samad studied, blocked roads in and around the university.
They told reporters that police inaction over previous killings had contributed to the death of Mr Samad.
"Talented youths are killed one after another, but there are no visible measures against these heinous acts," Kabir Chowdhury Tanmoy, president of the Online Activist Forum, which advocates secularism, told Reuters news agency.
Image copyright EPA
Mr Samad, 28, was reported to have been an organiser of the Ganajagran Manch, a secular campaigning group.
A string of prominent secular bloggers have been attacked or killed by religious extremists in Bangladesh in the last year.
Bangladesh is officially secular but critics say the government has failed to properly address the attacks.
Image copyright EPA
Who is behind the Bangladesh killings?
Attacks send shockwaves through Bangladesh
The threat of small-scale terror attacks
Police said three assailants on a motorcycle attacked Mr Samad and then shot him, The Dhaka Tribune reported. Police have not named any suspects in the case nor confirmed a religious motive.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The student was killed at this site on a traffic intersection in Dhaka
Mr Samad, a student of Jagannath University, regularly wrote against religious extremism on his Facebook page. He had written "I have no religion" on his profile under religious views.
There have been several deadly attacks in Bangladesh in recent months, although it is not clear who is behind them.
Last year, four prominent secular bloggers were killed with machetes, one inside his own home. They all appeared on a list of 84 "atheist bloggers" drawn up by Islamic groups in 2013 and widely circulated.
Image copyright Nazimuddin Samad Image caption Nazimuddin Samad was a student at Jagannath University
There have also been attacks on members of religious minorities including Shia, Sufi and Ahmadi Muslims, Christians, and Hindus.
Two foreigners, an Italian aid worker and a Japanese man, were also shot dead late last year, in seemingly random attacks.
The so-called Islamic State group has said it carried out many of the attacks - but this has not been independently verified.
Members of another militant Islamist group, the Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), were arrested over an assault on an Italian Catholic priest late last year. |
Popular iPhone platformer Leo's Fortune has made its way to the world of Windows. Featuring a beautiful art style and clever puzzles, Leo's Fortune is now available as a Universal game on both Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1.
Leo's Fortune is a platforming game that sees you take control of little fuzzball Leo as he tries to recover his stolen gold. You'll need to traverse new environments, solve puzzles, and more to catch the theif. Here's what players can look forward to.
VOYAGE through lush environments from mossy forests and arid deserts, to pirate cities and snowy mountains.
SURVIVE vicious traps and solve physics-based puzzles through 24 levels of treacherous platform adventure.
FOLLOW the trail of gold and uncover the truth behind Leo's stolen fortune in this award-winning platformer. |
Feb 27, 2017; Fort Myers, FL, USA; Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts (2) throws the ball to first base for an out during the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at JetBlue Park. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Abad of the Boston Red Sox are competing for their respective nations in the World Baseball Classic.
In spite of those that doubted it, the World Baseball Classic has been electric so far. It seems like every game that involves the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, or Puerto Rico is must watch TV. Just look at Javier Baez making no-look tags seem routine or Jose Bautista making literal game-saving throws. The tournament has been so good this year that even Mike Trout, a vocal critic of the tournament, has had a change of heart and wants to play for Team USA in 2021.
Four players on the Red Sox had initially intended on participating in the tournament; Hanley Ramirez, Eduardo Rodriguez, Fernando Abad and Xander Bogaerts. Hanley and E-Rod dropped out due to injury concerns.
So far, the tournament has been great for both players. Bogaerts and the Netherlands just trounced Cuba 14-1 on Tuesday and booked their ticket to the semifinals after Japan eliminated Israel. They wrapped up second round pool play with a 2-1 record and will take on the winner of Pool F (USA, Venezuela or Puerto Rico) in Los Angeles on March 20.
As for Xander, he’s 4-for-19 (.211) with a triple and a couple RBIs while playing in all six of his team’s games. He went 1-for-2 with a single, walk and run in their victory on Tuesday to go along with a nice diving play at third base.
Your browser does not support iframes.
With Didi Gregorius and Andrelton Simmons on the roster, Bogaerts has been pushed over to the hot corner but appears to look comfortable.
Checking in on Fernando Abad
In two appearances with the Dominican Republic, Abad has tossed 1 1/3 innings without sacrificing a run. He’s given up two hits and no walks but hasn’t collected any punch-outs either. The DR are the powerhouse of the tournament and are expected to repeat as champions. However, their 3-1 loss to Puerto Rico on Tuesday complicated that plan as they’ll now have to compete for the runner-up position in the group. They’ll take on Venezuela Thursday and the United States Saturday.
Abad’s decision to leave Red Sox camp and join the Dominicans in the WBC was perplexing. After appearing in 18 games for the Sox last season, he posted a ghastly 6.39 ERA and fell out of favor with manager John Farrell by the time the postseason rolled around. With his spot on the big league roster far from guaranteed this year, it would be nice to see him competing at camp with the team instead of playing in the tournament.
Perhaps a greater incentive than the dignity that comes with playing in the bigs is the fact that the salary in his contract is tied to his ability to make the roster. His $2 million is only guaranteed if he makes the team out of camp. He’ll be competing with Robby Scott for the second left-handed reliever spot in the bullpen.
If Abad believes that he should be a part of this team, pitching in a couple games for the Dominican Republic isn’t the way to do it. |
Rapper Andre Johnson cuts off penis and jumps from Los Angeles building BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Rapper Andre Johnson, who was discovered by the Wu-Tang Clan, reportedly severed his penis and jumped off an apartment building in the US city of Los Angeles, at around 1am local time on Wednesday, according to police. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/music/news/rapper-andre-johnson-cuts-off-penis-and-jumps-from-los-angeles-building-30194215.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/incoming/article30194213.ece/c0e50/AUTOCROP/h342/andrerapper.jpg
Email
Rapper Andre Johnson, who was discovered by the Wu-Tang Clan, reportedly severed his penis and jumped off an apartment building in the US city of Los Angeles, at around 1am local time on Wednesday, according to police.
Mr Johnson survived the fall from the second storey of a building in North Hollywood, but has sustained serious injuries, Los Angeles Police Sergeant William Mann told CNN.
He is currently recovering in Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, where he is being treated. His penis was retrieved, Mann said.
It is not yet clear what caused Mr Johnson to jump from the building.
The artist, who goes by the rap name Christ Bearer, was discovered by the Wu-Tang Clan producer RZA in 1998, as a member of the group Northstar.
In 2004, RZA produced Northstar's self-titled album.
Source: Independent
Belfast Telegraph Digital |
The State Department announced Tuesday it had approved a possible $3.9 billion sale to NATO member Romania for Patriot air and missile defense systems.
The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Monday notified Congress of the foreign military sale for seven Raytheon-made Patriot systems, including 28 launching stations, 56 guidance enhanced missiles and 168 Patriot Advanced Capabilty-3 (PAC-3) missiles.
“Romania will use the Patriot missile system to strengthen its homeland defense and deter regional threats,” the agency said in the deal announcement.
“The proposed sale will increase the defensive capabilities of the Romanian military to guard against aggression and shield the NATO allies who often train and operate within Romania’s borders.”
Romanian officials in April said the country plans to use the Patriot missiles to help protect its airspace, as part of a plan to modernize its military. A U.S. ballistic missile defense station is already stationed in the nation south of Ukraine.
The sale is likely to draw the ire of Russia, which asserts that the missile defense systems in eastern Europe are a "great danger." Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his country will be forced to enhance its own missile strike capability in response. |
While the Wilderness work continues, this week's update brings another batch of the updates for which you voted in Poll 16:
The Trident of the Seas can now cast its spell on players in Castle Wars and the TzHaar Fight Pit.
When a player dies while carrying essence pouches, the pouches no longer vanish automatically. They can now fall to the floor, visible only to their owner.
High-level farmers can now get more roots when digging up a tree patch. One extra root is given for every 8 levels above the tree's Farming requirement, up to a total of four.
For example, a yew tree has a Farming requirement of 60, so it gives two roots at level 68, three at 76 and four at 84. Stat-boosts are respected.
When picking fruit from a Farming patch, your character will now automatically continue picking until the patch runs out of fruit or your inventory fills up.
This applies to fruit trees, bushes, cacti, mushrooms and calquat trees.
The Music Loop button now remembers its setting over logout.
Proselyte cuisses and tassets have had their Prayer bonus increased from +5 to +6.
These items are leg-armour, in case anyone's confused about the names!
Proselyte cuisses and tassets have had their Prayer bonus increased from +5 to +6. Most importantly of all, the bunnies south-east of Rellekka can now drop the rabbit bone required for the Odd Old Man's list.
We'll release some more next week.
This update also contains some bugfixes:
We've made some further adjustments to the granite maul's special attack button to make it more reliable when spam-clicked, and to fix the button's highlight which wasn't deactivating correctly.
The graceful gloves can now protect you from harm when picking belladonna.
Old School RuneScape's birthday event is staying open for another week. Remember, the cake will be deleted when the party ends.
Meanwhile in the Wilderness...
Mods Reach, Ash and John C have been working away on the Wilderness Rejuvenation project. So far, we're about finished with the lava dragons, the new shields, the dragon pickaxe, the Fountain of Rune, the God Wars Dungeon expansion and the extra runite rocks.
Mod Reach is finishing off the high-level resource area, and is now working away on the new bosses. So far he's created a seriously terrifying bear that roams the woods, doing whatever bears do in the woods.
Meanwhile Mod John C has been writing loot drops for the new monsters and buffing the drops of older Wilderness bosses, and Mod Ash has rewritten every pickaxe script in the game to recognise the new dragon pickaxe (and automatically handle any future pickaxes you might ask us to launch).
We've still got a long way to go yet, with various other bosses to create, plus the loot bag, the Edgeville lever, some drop-mechanic changes, etc. It's looking promising for mid-March; we'll be able to tell you more accurately when we completed more of the work.
Whenever we've got something cool working, we'll usually tweet pics straight out from our Twitter channels - @JagexReach, @JagexAsh, @JagexJohnC and @JagexMatK - so do keep following us if you want to see the latest progress.
We'll try to show off our Wilderness progress so far in today's livestream, on Twitch at 5pm GMT.
Come on over to the forums to discuss the update.
Mods Ash, John C, Mat K and Reach
The Old School RuneScape Team |
The wet weather seen across New Zealand this summer has proved to be a positive for local farmers, as the damp conditions boosts agricultural output to record high levels.
Over the last 12 month the export value from the country’s key agricultural export industries has grown by NZD 2.6 billion, according to new research conducted by the Federated Farmers and released on March 5th.
According to the president of Federated Farmers Bruce Wills the recent spout of bad weather has provided good conditions for agricultural production and quantities of export products. He said that the biggest growths were seen in the dairy, meat, wood, fruit, fish and wine industries, as they benefit the most from increased quantities of rain and grass growth.
Bruce Wills added that in December 2011 10 percent more milk was being produced in New Zealand compared to the same month in the previous year. During December 2011 the wool and dairy industries were overall the fastest growing agricultural sector in New Zealand.
However, despite the positive situation at the moment, Bruce Wills explained that the outlook for future export in 2012 is not as optimistic, as the prices of New Zealand commodities are expected to ease as the year goes on.
Photo by USDAgov |
Image caption Liz Smith - Nana in The Royle Family - found she could walk all but unaided
If elderly people dress, live and talk as they did in their heyday, does this help them feel younger and fitter? Michael Mosley explains how he tested this theory on six faces from the past.
What's your brain age? The Young Ones is on BBC One Tuesday to Thursday, 14-16 Sept at 2100 BST
And test your mental agility with games such as Ugly Mugs (pictured) Find out your mental agility with our tests Watch The Young Ones on the iPlayer
Is slowing down with age all in the mind?
To find out, I recruited six celebrities aged between 76 and 88 to live in my science lab - a country house decked out like a 1970s time capsule. The project was designed as a follow-up to an experiment first done by Professor Ellen Langer of Harvard University.
In 1979, Ellen was investigating the extent to which ageing is a product of our state of mind. To find out, she and her students devised a study they called the "counter-clockwise study".
It involved taking a group of elderly men and putting them into the world of 1959. The question she wanted to answer was, if we took their minds back 20 years, would their bodies reflect this change?
Our experiment had similar ambitions; to take a group of people and make them feel younger by recreating the world they had left behind 35 years ago.
There were shag pile carpets to trip over, door ridges to step over and lots of slippery linoleum Michael Mosley on the physical challenges
Our volunteers were actors Liz Smith (88), Sylvia Syms (76) and Lionel Blair (78), cricket umpire Dickie Bird (77), newsreader Kenneth Kendall (86) and former Daily Mirror editor Derek Jameson (80).
They agreed to live in our time capsule house for a week, during which they dressed in 1970s clothes, slept in replicas of their very own 70s bedrooms, watched television from that era, and talked about 1975 in the present tense.
It proved to be a fascinating but draining experience - for both experimenters and experimentees.
From the beginning we made it clear to our volunteers that they would be expected to look after themselves. Research in nursing homes shows clearly that giving residents control over their own lives and their own choices has a hugely beneficial impact on health and happiness.
In one study, residents who were allowed to choose a plant to care for, and when and where to receive visitors, were found 18 months later to be significantly more cheerful, active and alert. They were also far more likely to be still alive.
Another thing about our 1970s house was that it was full of physical challenges. There were shag pile carpets to trip over, door ridges to step over and lots of slippery linoleum. Research on mice has shown that those who live in a challenging environment live nearly 30% longer than those who in a secure but boring environment.
In this spirit, on their arrival, our volunteers were asked to carry their bags up a flight of stairs to their bedrooms. It was the first time they'd been forced into such physical activity in many years, and they were not happy.
But they rose to the challenge. When they started at the bottom of the stairs, a couple were adamant it would be impossible to make it to the top. Watching from a laboratory close by, it was hard to resist going to their aid.
Slowly, step by step, they succeeded. We had made them question whether, perhaps, they were more physically capable than they had given themselves credit for.
Image caption Dickie Bird's memory and stamina improved
It was a tough initiation, but a core element of Ellen's original experiment was the idea that our prior beliefs play a huge part in how we perceive the world, and how we perceive ourselves. By immersing our volunteers in a 1970s world, we were hoping to make them think of themselves as younger, fitter and healthier.
For many of them, the 70s had been a golden decade, a highlight of their careers.
We took Dickie Bird back to Lords to relive the atmosphere. As he walked through the tunnel, onto the grounds, he blossomed before our eyes. Dickie had had a stroke, suffered 18 months of illness, lost confidence and come to think of himself as old. By the end of the week, his confidence was back and he showed remarkable improvement across a range of tests, including memory and stamina.
It's too easy to have everybody take care of us. But you can be helped to death Professor Ellen Langer, Harvard University Tips for carers
Over the week we gave all the celebrities tasks to do, but we also left them to fend for themselves. For up to 12 hours a day, we observed them through our surveillance cameras and, just as Ellen had discovered all those years before, we saw great changes.
Half way through the week, Liz Smith took 148 steps with the aid of just one stick. For someone who had not walked without both sticks since her stroke - and who often relied on a wheelchair - it was a real breakthrough. She was no longer willing to be limited by the physical constraints she had imposed on herself.
At the end of the week we put our guinea pigs through the same rigorous battery of physical and psychological tests we had at the beginning. Memory, mood, flexibility, stamina and even eye sight had improved in almost all of them.
The results were not uniform, but in some cases they shed up to 20 years in their apparent biological age.
It made a compelling case for Ellen Langer's argument that opening our minds to what's possible can lead to better health, whatever our age. |
Jeff King, an early scientific voice in the 9/11 Truth Movement, died on June 19 after a lengthy battle with amyloidosis and multple myeloma. He studied physics and engineering at MIT, left for a number of years, then re-enrolled, finished with a degree in Biology (with a combined course of study later labeled Biomedical Engineering), then went on to medical school and became a physician.
Jeff was a neighbor and a good friend. You may know of him through his online name, Plague Puppy (http://www.plaguepuppy.net/). Some of his thinking about 9/11 was speculative and out of the mainstream of the 9/11 Truth Movement, but I knew him to be extremely inquisitive, well read, independent in his thinking, and non-dogmatic. He was one of the early influences in my getting involved with the 9/11 Truth Movement. He was a gentle and caring person, beloved by his patients.
He is probably best know for the talk shown here: http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/Confronting%20the%20Evidence/
He will be missed.
--David Chandler |
Home Minister Rajnath Singh vowed to root out the problems of terrorism, extremism and Maoism.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that talks with Pakistan will have no meaning unless the neighbouring country stops exporting terrorists to India.He alleged that Pakistan was continuing its attempts to destabilise India by sending terrorists and by violating ceasefire.Addressing a public meeting organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party in this Telangana town to mark 'Telangana Liberation Day', the Minister claimed that situation on the border had changed and that India is no longer a weak country.Stating that India is giving a befitting reply to the terror, he said this had no parallel in the country's history.Rajnath Singh vowed to root out the problems of terrorism, extremism and Maoism.He said India had emerged as a powerful country and no power can cast evil eye on it or threaten its sovereignty.The Home Minister said the 13 month period from August 15, 1947 to September 17, 1948 was a dark chapter in India's history as the ruler of Hyderabad State committed repression on people, who want to merge with India.He paid tributes to India's first Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for launching 'police action' to force Nizam to merge Hyderabad State with the Indian Union.He said the credit of political unification of India goes to Mr Patel who ensured merger of all states with the Indian Union. |
Share. Plus Lords of Shadow 2 is headed to PC. Plus Lords of Shadow 2 is headed to PC.
Konami has confirmed that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate has been delayed. While Mirror of Fate was previously slated to hit 3DS later this year, Konami now says that the game will now be released sometime in 2013. A specific reason for the delay hasn’t been revealed.
Exit Theatre Mode
Mirror of Fate takes place 25 years after the original Lords of Shadow and follows Trevor Belmont in addition so Simon Belmont. The game will also include Alucard.
Separately, Konami announced today that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 will be released for PC alongside the previously announced Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. Like on consoles, the PC installment is in development by Mercury Steam and will run on the new Mercury Engine 2.
Exit Theatre Mode
Lords of Shadow 2 is a sequel to 2010’s Lords of Shadow and features open-world environments and larger cast of characters. While the first game told the origin story of Dracula, the sequel will have Dracula “weakened and yearning for release from his immortal bonds. Facing a new and powerful threat, the vampire lord must amass his old powers – and his castle is central to regaining his abilities.”
Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN. |
Home » TV Series 22 Gift Ideas for Clexa Fans 22 Gift Ideas for Clexa Fans Save Saved Removed 0 Deal Score 0 Deal Score 0
This list contains 39 best gift ideas for Clexa Fans. There are so many amazing gifts that you can purchase for someone in your life that loves The 100 TV Series’ characters, Clarke Griffin and Commander Lexa. If you’re looking for the best presents for someone fascinated over The 100 TV Series, we’ve just rounded up the best gift ideas for The Clexa lovers. The following 39 items are the best Clexa lovers gifts available on the market.
Clexa Case iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus
Product
Features
Photos Clexa Case iPhone 6 Plus/6s Plus Free Shipping
Available Custom Case With Your Design , Photos , Quote or Everything *Free*
Full access to all functions
Contact Me If There Are More Question, Thank So Much 🙂 Last update was on: October 3, 2018 3:29 am VISIT WEBSITE Free Shipping
Available Custom Case With Your Design , Photos , Quote or Everything *Free*
Full access to all functions
Contact Me If There Are More Question, Thank So Much 🙂
On Thursday We Are Grounders T-shirt
Product
Features
Photos Women's On Thursday We Are Grounders T-shirt Medium Silver On Thursday we wear grounder tshirt for support of our beloved show and for the one and only heda- LEXA.If you think you kom trikru,this tshirt will say it out loud.
lexa,clexa,100,clarke,grounder,trikru Usually ships in 24 hours & Free shipping Last update was on: October 3, 2018 3:29 am $19.99 VISIT WEBSITE On Thursday we wear grounder tshirt for support of our beloved show and for the one and only heda- LEXA.If you think you kom trikru,this tshirt will say it out loud.
lexa,clexa,100,clarke,grounder,trikru
Lightweight, Classic fit, Double-needle sleeve and bottom hem
Keep Calm And Ship Clexa – Non-slip Rubber Mousepad
The 100 – Clexa Fanfiction Pillow
The 100 – Keep Calm And Ship Clexa Mugs
The 100 – Keep Calm And Ship Clexa – iPad Mini Case
Keep Calm And Ship Clexa – Throw Pillow
The 100 – Clexa Fanfiction Reader – Zip Hoodie
The 100 Lexa Pop! Vinyl Figure Chase Variant |
It still feels like a pipe dream to be talking about Total War: Warhammer mods at all, given that just last year Creative Assembly told us not to expect any support. Having routed the army of licensing lawyers halting their progress, however, they’re now promising an Assembly Kit in the mould of Rome II and Attila, plus the ability to upload, browse, follow and install mods in the usual Steam Workshop fashion.
Will Total War: Warhammer stand in formation with the best strategy games on PC?
Anybody with a copy of the game can direct the database editor to alter armies, swap starting positions and the like – and there’s a battle map editor to come later in the year. Here’s what we’re hoping they’ll be used for.
Model painting, without the fumes
For all of Warhammer’s adaptations, game developers have only ever succeeded in transmogrifying half of the hobby to the digital realm. Beyond rolling die to determine just how badly your cannons have backfired, tabletop players derive at least as much fun from piecing together and painting their models, lovingly daubing their hero units in Mournfang Brown and never quite getting around to decorating the rank and file with anything other than base coat black.
Though Total War: Warhammer’s units don’t stand in static poses, and their shading is handled by a lighting engine, modders could achieve something special by opening up some of the tools of the database editor to players – providing an easy interface through which to apply colour schemes and washes. Even a simple palette swap would go a long way to making a prescribed Greenskin tribe feel like our own.
Gruesome-as-they-come mutations
We’re talking the digital equivalent of Green Stuff, the strange and expensive putty used to mod and malform models in the tabletop game. The malleable clay allows for tentacles, terrible growths, and The Darkness-style mouthy extremities – nominally the influence of the Chaos Gods, but also attributable to hobbyists who got carried away with the modelling knife.
Total War: Warhammer has the Forsaken – Chaos Warriors whose demonic ‘rewards’ have turned out to be more hindrance than help. But fellow Old World adaptation Mordheim went further, with Chaos mercenaries rolling random mutations as they levelled up – mace-like limbs, wyrdstone horns or entire extra faces. Something similar for veteran units of Total Warhammer – with attendant stat differences to reflect the movement or perception advantages of an extra leg or third eye – would only benefit the blessed of Tzeentch.
More campaign-playable factions
Creative Assembly have made the Empire, Dwarfs, Vampire Counts and Greenskins playable in their campaign, and only the first resemble traditional Total Warfare. But the map is filled with minor AI factions too – like the lost norse dwarf clan of Kraka Drak, beset on all sides by barbarians, and the Savage Orcs who eschew civilisation, refusing to capture towns. There’s also a fully-fledged faction reserved for skirmish matches – the Bretonnian knights, perched on Pegasus mounts.
Surely each of these lesser-served races deserves to be turned into a campaign option? Perhaps modders can do as Creative Assembly have done and extrapolate from AI characteristics – noble, capricious, bloodthirsty – to work out how those races would interact with the map. A Savage Orc campaign would presumably resemble Shogun: Total War’s Mongol expansion – asking you to raze and trample through the Old World where others dig in and fortify.
Enough Skaven to fill all the Empire’s skirting boards
Total War: Warhammer has rendered vast swathes of the Old World conquerable, as well as some of the passageways beneath – but they haven’t touched the Under-Empire that runs below the entire human realm and beyond, to the icy mountains in the north and the dank swamplands in the south. It’s home to Warhammer’s most entertaining race: a cunning and cowardly rat-people with a penchant for warpstone and dangerously unreliable artillery. Their politics is guided by pettiness and jealousy, and their battle lines are punctuated by rat-ogres and gatling gunners. Rat-at-at indeed.
Unlike the more Tolkien-esque corners of the universe, the Skaven are wholly Warhammer’s own and iconic for their unpredictability. And yet they’re not in Total Warhammer – perhaps reserved for a sequel in which the anthropomorphic rodents will rise to the surface, or perhaps not. The fact is, it’s not really Warhammer without them. Help us out, modders.
Go on, then: space marines
The Chaos Warriors already have the shoulder-pads and the demonic servants of Khorne. The Orcs and Goblins of the Greenskins are only missing Big Shootas and a kicking K to make them Orks. There’s enough of Warhammer Fantasy’s sister 40K universe already in the game to make a crossover mod a tantalising prospect.
Though Relic seem to be upping the scale with Dawn of War III, introducing huge walkers capable of putting down half an army, there’s still scope to go even bigger with a Total Warhammer 40,000 mod: imagine ordering massive formations of Imperial Guard forward with the threat of an officer’s pistol, and whipping Eldar about the battlefield in hovering Wave Serpents. As for the environments? Pick a planet with a climate not unlike the Old World’s and you’re halfway done. There’s potential for more ambitious fare once that map editor arrives.
A jump through time to the Age of Sigmar
The fiction of Total War: Warhammer, like that of most recent games set in the universe, is frozen in time. The tabletop game last year ripped up almost all of what came before – burning the Old World in an apocalyptic war and killing the vast majority of its population. In its place is the Age of Sigmar: centering on the return of the Empire’s titular god-figure, and featuring reimagined, gladiatorial versions of the beloved Warhammer races.
With future Total War: Warhammer games likely to build on the older Old World, modders are left to colonise newer terrain by themselves. How would the smaller skirmishes of Age of Sigmar play out in Creative Assembly’s engine? What would a post-cataclysm campaign map look like? These are questions we’d like to see answered.
The return of the Total War modding elite
The Total War mod scene is among the most developed in all PC gaming, and has cultivated some fine talent. That’s clearly something Creative Assembly recognise: they’ve asked community mainstays Magnar and Dresden for a mod each to launch alongside Total Warhammer. Darth meanwhile, the AI genius behind the mod that bears his name, may have had a rocky relationship with the studio but has since graduated to indie development with Ultimate General: Gettysburg.
Total War games are complex machines with many interlocking parts; sometimes the gears don’t quite mesh, and inevitably, something in Total Warhammer will want fiddling with. If we’re very lucky, the modders who step in with deft design solutions will stick around, providing us with choice add-ons and eventually becoming top strategy brains in their own right. |
1 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
When Barack Obama was elected President, the level of racial animus among many in conservative ranks informed that Republicans would go all in to find, or create, a phony scandal to disqualify him from serving that failed miserably, but it is not because they did not try. Even before the President was re-elected last November, Republican harpies flailed away at the faux scandal surrounding the Benghazi embassy attack, and found another phony scandal after learning the IRS did its job in scrutinizing tax exempt status for partisan political groups posing as social welfare organizations. However, if Republicans are duty-bound to find a real scandal involving the Internal Revenue Service, they should appoint a special prosecutor to ferret out, and correct forthwith, the scandalous practice of giving religious organizations tax exemption and end taxpayer-funded religious welfare that costs the people, local communities, and federal government billions of dollars in an unconstitutional practice that has gone on far too long.
It never fails that even mentioning eliminating religious organizations’ tax exempt status (welfare) brings out emotional outbursts from those who believe all Americans are responsible for subsidizing religion, and simply suggesting that these groups should pay taxes incurs outrage because churches allegedly provide beneficial services or charitable work and should therefore be tax exempt. However, religious groups and clergy provide nothing of value to the public, and yet real community service providers such as firefighters, school teachers, police officers, and nurses are bound by law to pay taxes that ironically fund services churches use for free. Putting aside the federal government’s scandalous practice of forcing all Americans to pay tithes in the form of tax subsidies for religious organizations, there is the economic cost to the nation as well as the depravity of the federal government enforcing a law with respect to religion prohibited in the 1st Amendment.
First, it is important to note that churches are granted tax exemption automatically that is distinct from religiously-based nonprofit groups which must file Form 990 form like other 501(c)(3) for charities and are required to account for their finances to ensure individuals do not profit, and that money raised under nonprofit auspices is being spent for nonprofit purposes. In a Supreme Court case, Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York, 397 U.S. 664 (1970), Justice Douglas wrote that “one of the best ways to ‘establish’ one or more religions is to subsidize them, which a tax exemption does. A tax exemption is a subsidy” and he cited a primary architect of the Constitution, James Madison, who famously said he vigorously objected to “any citizen being compelled to contribute even ‘three pence’ to support a church.” Giving taxpayer welfare to churches is especially egregious in the 21st century when they blatantly demonstrate hostility toward the separation of religion and government, attempt to impose moral superiority on issues such as abortion rights and marriage equality, and use Republicans to legislate bible dogmata on the people.
The economic consequences to federal, state, and local governments of providing welfare for churches under forced taxpayer largesse was underestimated in July 2012 with a figure of roughly $71 billion annually, and that money would go a long way toward easing Republicans’ $85 billion sequester, or to fund jobs, education, Veterans services, and repairing America’s decrepit infrastructure. States and local communities are hardest hit by religious welfare because churches typically pay absolutely nothing in property taxes costing states $26.2 billion per year, and on top of clergy double-dipping on their personal income tax filings for parsonage allowance is another $1.2 billion annually in lost revenue the rest of the population is forced to pay. The practice is indeed a scandal that cannot continue and still claim federal, state, and local laws are not passed with respect to establishing religion by subsidizing them.
The biggest scandal regarding taxpayer funded religious entitlements is the growing practice of campaigning from the pulpit that is forbidden according to IRS rules, and yet every year there is a concerted effort by evangelical clergy blatantly campaigning, filming the violation, and sending the videos to the IRS daring them to take the punitive action of eliminating their tax exempt status. Last year, and for several years, in a flagrant violation of 501(c)(3) rules, over 1,600 preachers engaged in Pulpit Freedom Sunday and actively campaigned from the pulpit to challenge the IRS rules that allow them to leach money from taxpayers. According to a 2008 survey, 75% of Americans do not believe it is appropriate for churches to publicly endorse candidates for public office, or campaign from the pulpit, and yet the practice is increasing across America and across denominations, and the offenders are still reaping benefits as tax exempt religious organizations. This is one area that the IRS is not doing their due diligence and it is an affront to every American that follows IRS rules, does not cheat on their taxes, and pays to support government, the military, law enforcement, and every other service religious groups receive for free.
If Republicans need a scandal to rage over, this idea that churches are entitled to taxpayer dollars because religious organizations claim they are non-profits is beyond outrageous in a nation that is not a theocracy. It is increasingly impossible to believe churches are not making a profit when they buy prime real estate, build mega-churches, and employ multiple members of the clergy who are taking advantage of tax breaks regular Americans are prohibited from using, as well as using services the rest of the population funds and supports as citizens.
It is another example of the gross inequality rivaling the wealthy and their corporations avoiding paying their fair share while using taxpayer-funded services, and then expressing outrage because the people demand they contribute to this nation’s economy. America’s roads and bridges are crumbling, people are desperate for jobs, millions of Americans are falling into poverty, and while Republicans are cutting social programs because they claim the country is broke, they refuse to consider new revenue whether it is tax increases on the wealthy, or making churches pay their fair share and it is scandalous. Teabaggers are wont to complain they are “taxed enough already,” but nearly all Americans are “tithed enough already” and it is time to strip tax exemption from all churches and as Republicans are in the habit of preaching; “teach the welfare class to take personal responsibility” and start carrying their own weight.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human: |
Thanks to inventions like GPS navigators, are we forgetting the contributions of ancient cultures that provided the ingenious foundation on which we build? See more pictures of car gadgets Roberta Casaliggi/ iStockphoto
We take a lot of things for granted in the modern world. Fiber optic cables deliver enormous amounts of information at nearly the speed of light. You can hop into your car and shout your destination at your GPS navigation system, and a digitized and disembodied voice issues easy-to-follow directions. We have it pretty sweet here in the 21st century.
As time marches on, it becomes easier to overlook the contributions of those who came before us. Even in the 19th century, Charles Duell, patent commissioner of the United States, reportedly remarked that everything that can be invented already has been invented [source: Idea Finder].
Clearly, if Duell said such a thing, he was way off. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen enormous booms in ingenuity. However, his alleged words also reveal an understanding that seems to have been lost. He understood that humans have experienced flashes of brilliance and made discoveries throughout history. He also understood that these advances have so greatly accelerated human progress that everything following them seems to be built on the foundation provided by these early inventions.
Perhaps no other ancient culture has contributed more to this advancement of human progress than the Chinese. Here are ten of the greatest inventions of the ancient nation, in no particular order. |
It’s not really wise to say I’ve missed the fellows from Ukraine’s Blood of Kingu considering the members have been fairly prolific the past few years. All of the members are part of long-running Drudkh, a favorite of this particular site, as well as Old Silver Key, who sadly closed shop after one great full-length.
But Blood of Kingu is a far different beast than those other bands. This is their vicious, wholly black metal-fed monster, and their new record “Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon” is their first since 2010’s somewhat-easier-to-say effort “Sun in the House of the Scorpion.” What does carry over to this band is the group’s refusal to participate in interviews or promo shots or any over-the-top marketing campaign of any type, so what you’re left with to digest is the music alone. What a refreshing way to go, and who really cares about whether there’s a photo of the band anyway? Well, glossy color magazines do, I guess. But here, it’s the music that demands your attention and nothing else.
Anyway, the core of the band remains intact, with one important new member added to the fold. Roman Saenko is your vocalist/guitarist, and he offers up some of his most brutal, blood-gushing work to date on this record. With him as always are guitarist Thurios, bassist Krechet, drummer Yuriy Sinitsky, and brand-new keyboard player Vlad, also a member of Drudkh, as well as bands such as Deliberate Chaos and Pragmatik. With these nine songs, they turn up the destruction to new heights and deliver one of their most satisfying releases ever. Hell, I wouldn’t throw you out of the room if you said it was their best work ever.
We start off with “Crowned Scarlet Moon Is Waiting for Eclipse” that has eerie noises built into it but that completely ignites into black metal madness. The guitars spiral and create a vortex effect, the growls are deep and guttural, the drums echo, and the music itself penetrates deep into your pores. “He Who Is Not To Be Named” is not a Harry Potter reference. Instead, it’s a heavy dose of ancient pestilence, with horns blowing like there is going to be a great battle in the sand, and the blood of soldiers and slaves are about to be shed. The music is infernal and burning, the drums are hammered by mallets, and the vocals are on fire. “Mother Hydra” has a bit of hand drumming, which is the only delicate element of the track. The vocals buzz in Saenko’s throat, feeling alien-like, and the rest of the band serves up a total drubbing. “Enshrined in the Nethermost Lairs Beneath the Ocean” not only sounds like the most terrifying place on Earth, the music lets you know it is. Punishing drums, deep growls, lead lines that send jolts down the spine, and more throat buzzing dress this piece of abject horror.
“Red Star on the Path of Ea” is a brief, sandy instrumental that leads into “Sigil of the Watcher,” a dark, threatening piece that continues to mash your already-brutalized senses with damaged, swirling guitars, drums that seek to do damage to your bone structure, and vocals that are choked with menace. “Prayer to the Gods of Night” is another quick, instrumental interlude that carves the path toward “The Bringer of Pestilence,” a track that is as ominous and dangerous as its name implies. There is fantastic, melodic lead work that powers the song forward, interesting musical progression that keeps you wondering where you’re headed next, and, naturally, vocals that shred skin. Closer “The Cycle Returneth” opens with hammering drums, vicious growls that spit venom into the wind, violent melodies, and that tornadic effect again, where it feels like you’re encircled by the band’s fury, pulled into a dark vortex, and swallowed into oblivion. Perfect ending to a clobbering record.
So, it might be a while before we hear from Blood of Kingu’s members in this incarnation, but we know the musicians responsible for “Dark Star on the Right Horn of the Crescent Moon” will be back with us in some form or another. This record is another gem of disaster from these guys, one of the most pulverizing documents in their entire creative canon, no matter what band you’re talking about. This record is worth embracing for its black metal magic, its intent to do harm, and for its infectious pull that engages your mind and then maims it without ever looking back.
For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blood-of-Kingu/121725098029258
To buy the album, go here: http://shopusa.season-of-mist.com/
Or here: http://shop.season-of-mist.com/
For more on the label, go here: http://www.season-of-mist.com/
Advertisements |
Although pregnant women are given a huge list of things to avoid while expecting, flying to space may be off the blacklist of activities for mothers-to-be. A study by Chinese researchers found that mammalian embryos can “develop completely” in orbit.
Earlier this month, China launched a microgravity satellite called SJ-10 into space. Aboard the satellite were 6,000 mouse embryos in a chamber about the size of a microwave oven, China Daily reported.
The chamber includes the support needed to provide the embryos with nutrients, as well as a microscope system and image sensors to capture photos of the developing embryos every four hours.
‘Other life forms in space!’ 1st flower grown on International Space Station https://t.co/SPS2Q5TskGpic.twitter.com/uaMEeaT016 — RT (@RT_com) January 17, 2016
Some of those images have already been beamed back to Earth, and show that the initial two-cell embryos grew into fully developed blastocysts (the name given to embryos before they implant onto the wall of the uterus) over the course of 80 hours in space.
According to the researchers, this is the first time that mammalian embryos have been shown to develop in space.
Professor Duan Enkui, who led the experiment, said the finding is a significant step towards the possible colonization of space.
“The human race may still have a long way to go before we can colonize space. But before that, we have to figure out whether it is possible for us to survive and reproduce in the outer space environment like we do on Earth,” he told China Daily.
“Now, we finally proved that the most crucial step in our reproduction – the early embryo development – is possible in outer space,” he said.
The embryos, which are contained in a small module of the satellite, will return to Earth in the coming days. They will then be analyzed by researchers in Beijing, who will investigate whether their development was any different in space compared to Earth. |
New York: Hundreds of thousands of people gathered at airports across the US to protest the ban announced by President Donald Trump on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, extending solidarity to those affected as chaos and fear gripped individuals trying to enter the country.
As news of immigrants, even those holding green cards, being held and banned from flying into the US and entering the country spread, people started gathering at nation's airports, holding banners opposing Trump's action.
For hours, the crowds stood outside the arrival terminal of city's busiest John F Kennedy international airport, raising slogans blasting Trump's order suspending entry of all refugees to the US for 120 days, barring Syrian refugees indefinitely and blocking entry into the country for 90 days for citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
The ban impacted several individuals, who had valid US visas and green cards and who had travelled abroad for work or on personal visits. Similar scenes of chaos and protests quickly poured in from other key ports of entry in Boston, Los Angeles and in Houston.
Hapless individuals, whose family members were stuck at airports or were not allowed to board flights to the US took to social media to vent their anger and frustration.
"Three weeks ago my wife and my newborn daughter went to Iran so that she can visit her grandparents for the first time. It is not clear they can come back to the US. And this feeling eats me alive," an individual Amin Karbasi, who one person pointed out was a professor at Yale University, wrote on Twitter.
Lawyers soon began to throng the country's airports, offering to provide legal assistance to individuals and families who were detained at the airports. Volunteer lawyers, sitting on the floor at airport terminals, worked pro-bono on a preparing habeas corpus petitions for detainees at JFK.
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National said on Twitter that "lawyers are stationed at airports across US. If you know someone entering country, tell them not to sign anything before talking to lawyer."
Partial relief to those detained at airports or in transit came as US judge Ann Donnelly in an order temporarily halted removal of individuals detained in the country.
The ruling by the federal judge in New York came after the ACLU filed a petition on behalf of two Iraqi men, detained at the JFK International Airport.
In the ruling the Judge said government could not remove "individuals with refugee applications approved by US Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of the US Refugee Admissions Programme, holders of valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas, and other individuals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen legally authorized to enter the US."
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman applauded the stay ordered, saying Trump's executive action is "unconstitutional and in clear violation" of federal law.
"I will do everything within my power to help lead the fight to permanently strike it down. I will not allow voiceless refugees, and all those targeted by this reckless action, to be victimized by an unlawful, unconstitutional, and fundamentally un-American decree from the President," he said.
The protesters held banners that read 'No ban, no wall', 'Christians against the Muslim ban', 'Say it loud and clear, refugees are welcome here', 'No human is illegal', 'Immigrants, refugees welcome'.
Extending their solidarity with the protest against the ban on Muslims arriving in the country, cabdrivers at JFK said they will stop work and not ferry travelers for an hour.
"NYTWA drivers call for one hour work stoppage @ JFK airport today 6 pm to 7 pm to protest #nobannowall," the New York Taxi workers union said on Twitter.
"We cannot be silent. We go to work to welcome people to a land that once welcomed us. We will not be divided," they said.
Firstpost is now on WhatsApp. For the latest analysis, commentary and news updates, sign up for our WhatsApp services. Just go to Firstpost.com/Whatsapp and hit the Subscribe button. |
The Dallas Stars opened their preseason schedule Tuesday night in Florida, falling 3-2 to the Panthers at BB&T Center.
Florida dominated play early and built a 3-0 lead by the midway point of the game, but the Stars battled back to pull within 3-2 in the third period but couldn’t get the tying goal.
“We started slow as a team but it was the first game for a lot of players, and we’ve had a pretty demanding camp,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. “But midway through the game we got locked into winning some one-on-one battles, we skated better, and the game looked a lot better.”
Tyler Seguin and Jason Demers scored for the Stars. Jack Campbell got the start in goal and went the distance, stopping 32 of 35 shots.
“I thought Jack was good,” Ruff said. “He made a lot of good saves. In the second period, he made two or three big ones. He made a great save on a penalty shot. He gave us an opportunity to get back in the game, and that is all you can ask. For a period of time, he was our best player.”
The Panthers took a 1-0 lead at the 13:01 mark of the first. After a Dallas turnover, Johnathan Huberdeau came in all alone on Campbell and slipped the puck into the net for his first goal of the night.
Huberdeau made it a 2-0 game early in the second, scoring from the left circle off the rush just 38 seconds into the period. Campbell kept the Stars within two goals, stopping Nick Bjugstad on a penalty shot midway through the second.
The Stars came close to cutting into the lead late in the second, but a Seguin shot hit the post with Dallas on the power play.
Bjugstad extended the lead to 3-0 midway through the third period, scoring on the power play. But just 49 seconds later, Seguin tallied off a wrist shot to make it a 3-1 game. The Stars kept up the pressure and then Demers tallied with 1:16 remaining to make it a 3-2 game. The Stars pulled Campbell for the extra attacker, but couldn’t get the equalizer.
Notes
*At the end of regulation the Stars and Panthers played a 3-on-3 overtime period. Dallas prospect Mattias Janmark scored to give the Stars the win in the extra period. The NHL is having teams play the 3-on-3 period during some preseason games to get used to the new regular season overtime format that will be used starting in 2015-16.
*The Panthers outshot the Stars 35-24.
*Jason Demers led the Stars with four shots on goal.
*The Stars won 37 of 67 faceoffs (55 percent).
*Devin Shore won 12 of 16 draws (75 percent). Radek Faksa won 7 od 11 (64 percent). Tyler Seguin won 12 of 22 (55 percent). Mattias Janmark won 6 of 16 (38 percent).
*Julius Honka led the Stars with 21:37 of ice time. John Klingberg was next with 21:31 of ice time.
Stars lineup
Antoine Roussel – Tyler Seguin – Valeri Nichushkin
Brendan Ranford – Mattias Janmark – Colton Sceviour
Curtis McKenzie – Radek Faksa – Remi Elie
Jason Dickinson – Devin Shore – Gemel Smith
Jamie Oleksiak – John Klingberg
Jyrki Jokipakka – Jason Demers
Esa Lindell – Julius Honka
Jack Campbell
Philippe Desrosiers
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.