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Rob Gronkowski remains on the right track in his recovery from reconstructive knee surgery. NFL Media's Albert Breer reported Friday on NFL Network's "NFL Total Access" that the New England Patriots tight end visited with famed orthopedist Dr. James Andrews this week and is "right where he should be." Gronkowski will start jogging soon. 'ATL Podcast' The The Around The League team hits all the NFL's hottest topics in its award-winning podcast. Join the conversation. Listen This is good news for the Patriots, who were dealt a crushing blow last season when Gronkowski tore his ACL and MCL on a low hit during a Week 14 win over the Cleveland Browns. The knee injury came on the heels of a trying period for the tight end, who had already returned from back surgery and multiple procedures on his troublesome left forearm. The latest update is positive, but the road to complete recovery remains long. Don't be surprised if Gronkowski starts next season the same way he started the last -- on the Patriots' physically unable to perform list. In the latest edition of the "Around The League Podcast", the guys discuss "Draft Day," then break down who got better (and who got worse) in the AFC East.
Buy Photo University of Cincinnati's bearcat mascot pumps up the crowd in his FC Cincinnati gear during the Louisville game at Nippert Stadium Saturday July 23, 2016. FC Cincinnati won 2-0 against Louisville City FC. (Photo: Madison Schmidt for the Enquirer)Buy Photo Futbol Club Cincinnati clearly isn't satisfied with the more than 330,000 patrons that passed through the Nippert Stadium turnstiles in 2016. In an effort to attempt to surpass last season's headline-grabbing attendance figures, FC Cincinnati will implement multiple changes to the match day experience at Nippert. FC Cincinnati on Saturday kicks off its 16-game slate of United Soccer League home matches at the University of Cincinnati venue. New features ranging from the recently completed field expansion to ticketing and beverage options will be on offer for supporters this season. Expanded field As The Enquirer reported last week, the field-level renovations to Nippert are now complete. The expanded playing surface has clearly changed the physical appearance of Nippert's seating bowl, but the renovations suit both soccer and Bearcats football. For FC Cincinnati's purposes, their possession-based brand of soccer should thrive on a larger playing surface. All players will benefit from additional space in the south end corner areas, too. There, the grandstand walls have been pushed back where the corner flags (or end zone corners when UC football is playing) will be situated. This should afford soccer and football players alike more space to avoid injury when running or absorbing contact near Nippert's famous brick walls that line the playing surface. Beer gardens galore There won't be any shortage of options for slaking your thirst at Nippert this year. The venue now features five beer gardens in addition to the usual array of concession stands. The latest beer garden will be situated in the north end of the stadium, conveniently located behind the mostly standing-room Bailey section. Rhinegeist Brewery will host a beer garden at that location. FC Cincinnati-branded Blood Orange IPA, a beer first released last summer by Moerlein Brewing Company that quickly caught on among supporters, will also be in plentiful supply around the stadium, the team said. City, FC Cincinnati partner on "split the pot" fundraiser FC Cincinnati will run a "split the pot" promotion at 2017 home matches, with proceeds aiding in the development of local youth talent through clinic programming and creation of urban youth soccer fields. FC Cincinnati will work in coordination with the Cincinnati Recreation Commission on the endeavor. Tickets will be available in the following increments:Three tickets for $5, 15 tickets for $10 and 60 tickets for $20. Ticketing and parking As many season ticket holders have already learned, tickets for The Bailey section in the stadium's north end have taken the form of wristbands. The change from hard tickets was made to preserve seats for actual ticket holders in the popular area. Fans sneaking into mostly standing-room-only section became problematic at times last season. Mobile barcodes and print-at-home tickets won't be accepted at The Bailey. Nippert will also feature a new, full-service entrance gate in anticipation of forthcoming construction at Fifth-Third Arena. The new gate is located in the northwest corner of the stadium, adjacent to Gate 8. Fans can purchase tickets, print them at home or transfer the ticket bar code to your mobile device at the following link: http://www.fccincinnati.com/easy-ticketing. Parking passes for designated garages on UC's campus can be purchased here through UC Parking Services. All passes are issued on a first come, first served basis for $10 per car. http://www.uc.edu/parking/events-gameday.html NEWSLETTERS Get the Bengals Beat newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-876-4500. Delivery: Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Bengals Beat Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters Merchandise Remember the long merch lines at FC Cincinnati matches last spring and summer, and the touch-and-go availability of being able to put charges on bank cards early in the season? The club's installed new software to speed up the shopping experience, so fans should expect a smoother shopping experience. Newly released Nike gear bearing the club's emblem is available on the club's new online store, shopfccincinnati.com FC Cincinnati is also preparing to debut its Downtown team store at 43 E. 4th St. The storefront will debut Friday with an exclusive, soft opening planned for Thursday.
Squamous Cell Lung Cancer Cells Are Sugar-dependent Share this content: linkedin google Email Print Squamous cell lung cancers, a form of NSCLC, are glucose-dependent, while adenocarcinoma NSCLC tumors are largely glucose-independent. Squamous cell lung cancers (SqCC), a form of non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), are glucose-dependent, while adenocarcinoma NSCLC tumors are largely glucose-independent, according to an analysis of patient NSCLC tumor samples, patient tumor xenografts in mice, mouse models and cell line experiments, and data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), published in Nature Communications.1 Researchers found “markedly elevated” expression of GLUT1, a glucose transporter, in lung SqCC, suggesting that GLUT1 and tumor sugar dependence could be targets for new drug development against lung SqCC, a malignancy for which management can be notoriously challenging. Continue Reading Below The findings might also have cancer prevention implications and dietary implications for patients with cancer — a question the coauthors will address in a planned follow-up animal study of sugar-restricted diets lung tumor progression, according to a press release.2 RELATED: Neoadjuvant Nivolumab Shows Efficacy in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer “Excessive sugar consumption is not only a problem that can lead to complications like diabetes, but also, based on our studies and others, the evidence is mounting that some cancers are also highly dependent on sugar,” Jung-whan Kim, DVM, PhD, assistant professor of biological sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas, and senior author of the study, said in the release. “We'd like to know from a scientific standpoint whether we might be able to affect cancer progression with dietary changes.” Reference
Good news: Women now make up over two-thirds of journalism majors. Bad news: Regardless of their degree and passion for the field, women are credited with less than 40 percent of bylines and anchor jobs. Why are all the jobs going to men? USA Today has taken a look at the journalism major at The University of Florida and the results are surprising. While author Antara Sinha points out that women are dominating the journalism classroom (a man Sinha interviewed says he is often the only male in a group) the same can't be sad for newsrooms and newscasts around the US, with women taking a much smaller piece of the credit for writing about and presenting what's going on in the world. And if you think that this doesn't extent to topics that are considered to be more traditionally "female" (whatever that means), a new study done by the Women's Media Center has got some sobering news for you and your friends Rory Gilmore and Paris Geller: Men did 61% of the entertainment reporting in 2014. Although, along with health and lifestyle writing, entertainment was among the fields closest to reaching gender parity in the workplace. The topics with the greatest gender gap, with women in the minority, were world politics, and crime and justice. The WMC study considered 20 of the most widely circulated U.S. based newspapers, TV networks, online news sites, and news wires. The greatest offender? Of the news outlets examined, The New York Times had the widest gender gap in total bylines of all topics, with women credited for only 30.9% of published articles. Women in the journalism major are, unsurprisingly, upset by this news. One told USA Today that it doesn't seem fair that a woman would go to the same school as her male counterpart, get the same grades and do the same work, but then get a lesser story or be picked over for a job. Yeah, that isn't fair, but nothing will change unless people in the field of journalism begin thinking about how to change the infrastructure of the profession. Too much of the time, when statistics like these are brought up, men think that it's an attack on them for not doing enough. But it's not. It's an attack on the system that allows such disparity. Perhaps these latest numbers can propel the profession a step closer to parity.
Huge organic farm under threat: County will invade and spray Roundup if not stopped What?? A county government is going to destroy a massive organic farm? by Jon Rappoport May 15, 2017 “I have a great idea. We’re the Sherman County government. We have power. Let’s claim Azure Farms can’t control their weeds. Let’s come in and invade them with Roundup and other toxic chemicals. Let’s destroy their organic farm. We know the spraying won’t wipe out the weeds—it’ll make the situation worse. But who cares? Let’s open up ourselves to massive lawsuits. I’m sure Monsanto will give us some legal help. We can set a fantastic precedent. No organic farm is safe. No organic farmer has the right to protect his land from the government. Isn’t that a terrific idea?” Government trespass, invasion? So far, I have seen no coverage of this issue in Oregon newspapers. Why not? Also, I find nothing on the Sherman County, Oregon, government website about a massive spraying program. A local government is going to decimate a huge organic farm with herbicide? Azure Farms, a 2000-acre organic farm in Oregon, states it is under threat from the local Sherman County government. Why? Because Sherman County officials are re-interpreting a law concerning the “control of noxious weeds,” so it means “eradication.” These weeds can be controlled on an organic farm, but the only way they can be eliminated (according to conventional “science”) is by spraying. And that means Roundup and other toxic chemicals. That would decimate the organic nature of the farm. That would decertify it as an organic farm. Further, according to Azure, Sherman County plans to put a lien on the farm, forcing it to pay for the spraying. The deadline for expressing opposition is May 22. A better deadline is May 17. Here is the complete press release from Azure Farms and the ways to register your concern: Azure Farms is a working, certified organic farm located in Moro, central Oregon, in Sherman County. It has been certified organic for about 18 years. The farm produces almost all the organic wheat, field peas, barley, Einkorn, and beef for Azure Standard. Sherman County is changing the interpretation of its statutory code from controlling noxious weeds to eradicating noxious weeds. These weeds include Morning Glory, Canada Thistle, and Whitetop, all of which have been on the farm for many years, but that only toxic chemicals will eradicate. Organic farming methods – at least as far as we know today – can only control noxious weeds—it is very difficult to eradicate them. Sherman County may be issuing a Court Order on May 22, 2017 to quarantine Azure Farms and possibly to spray the whole farm with poisonous herbicides, contaminating them with Milestone, Escort and Roundup herbicides. This will destroy all the efforts Azure Farms has made for years to produce the very cleanest and healthiest food humanly possible. About 2,000 organic acres would be impacted; that is about 1.5 times the size of the city center of Philadelphia that is about to be sprayed with noxious, toxic, polluting herbicides. The county would then put a lien on the farm to pay for the expense of the labor and chemicals used. Contact Sherman County Court before May 17 when the next court discussion will be held. Contact info: 1. Via email at lhernandez@co.sherman.or.us or 2. Call Lauren at 541-565-3416. Show Sherman County that people care about their food NOT containing toxic chemicals. Overwhelm the Sherman County representatives with your voices! —end of Azure Farms statement— Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor to jonathanturley.org, has been covering this story. He reached out and obtained a devastating letter from agricultural scientist, Charles Benbrook. Benbrook has his critics within the conventional pesticide and GMO research community. Here is Smith’s piece and Dr. Benbrook’s letter: Yesterday I fielded an article concerning a rather distressing mandate by an Oregon county weed control agency seeking to force the application of hazardous herbicides onto a 2,000 acre organic farm owned by Azure Farms. Sherman County Oregon maintains this scorched earth policy is necessary to abate, or more specifically “eradicate”, weeds listed by state statute as noxious. Now, the scientific community is responding to this overreaching government action by acting in the interests of health and responsible environmental stewardship through advocacy in the hopes that officials in Sherman County will reconsider their mandate. Dr. Charles Benbrook is a highly credentialed research professor and expert serving on several boards of directors for agribusiness and natural resources organizations. Having read news of Sherman County’s actions, he penned an authoritative response I believe will make informative reading for those concerned by present and future implications in the forced use of herbicides under the rubric of noxious weed eradication, and the damage to organic farming generally arising from such mandates. Charles Benbrook has a PhD in agricultural economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an undergraduate degree from Harvard University. He currently is a Visiting Professor at Newcastle University in the UK… He was a Research Professor at Washington State University from 2012-2015, and served as the Chief Scientist of The Organic Center from 2006-2012. He was the Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture in the National Academy of Sciences from 1984-1990. He was the staff director of the Subcommittee on Department [USDA] Operations, Research, and Foreign Agriculture of the House Committee on Agriculture (1981-1983). He worked as an agricultural and natural resources policy expert in the Council for Environmental Quality in the last 1.5 years of the Carter Administration. He began Benbrook Consulting Services (BCS) in 1990, and continues to carry out projects with a wide range of clients via BCS He coauthors an informative website Hygeia-Analytics.com. I reached out to Dr. Benbrook and received permission to reprint his letter in the hope that with more attention, including that from the scientific community, we can arrive at a reasonable solution to the county’s concerns. Here is Dr. Benbrook’s letter:… Tom McCoy Joe Dabulskis Sherman County Commissioners Lauren Hernandez Administrative Assistant Sherman County, Oregon Rod Asher Sherman Country Weed District Supervisor Moro, Oregon Alexis Taylor Director Oregon Department of Agriculture Dear Ms. Hernandez el al: I live in Wallowa County. I learned today of the recent, dramatic change in the Sherman County noxious weed control program and the plan to forcibly spray a 2,000-acre organic farm in the county. Over a long career, I have studied herbicide use and efficacy, public and private weed control efforts, the linkages between herbicide use and the emergence and spread of resistant weeds, and the public health and environmental impacts of herbicide use and other weed management strategies. I served for six years, along with fellow Oregonian Barry Bushue, past-president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, on the USDA’s AC 21 Agricultural Biotechnology Advisory Committee. Issues arising from herbicide use were a frequent topic of discussion during our Committee’s deliberations. I have published multiple scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals on glyphosate, its human health risks, and the impact of genetically engineered crops on overall herbicide use and the spread of resistant weeds. In a separate email, I will forward you copies of my published research relevant to the use of herbicides, and glyphosate in particular. The notion that Sherman County can eradicate noxious weeds by blanket herbicide spraying is deeply misguided. I cannot imagine a single, reputable university weed scientist in the State supporting the idea that an herbicide-based noxious weed eradication program would work (i.e., eradicate the target weeds) in Oregon, or any other state. To hear another opinion from one of the State’s most widely known and respected weed scientists, I urge the County to consult with Dr. Carol Mallory-Smith, Oregon State University. I also doubt any corporate official working for Monsanto, the manufacturer of glyphosate (Roundup), would agree or endorse the notion that any long-established weed in Sherman County, noxious or otherwise, could be eradicated via blanket spraying with Roundup, or for that matter any combination of herbicides. Before proceeding with any county-mandated herbicide use justified by the goal of eradication, I urge the County to seek concurrence from the herbicide manufacturer that they believe use of their product will likely eradicate your named, target, noxious weeds. Given that almost no one with experience in weed management believes that any long-established weed, noxious or otherwise, can be eradicated with herbicides, one wonders why the County has adopted such a draconian change in its noxious weed control program. I can think of two plausible motivations – a desire by companies and individuals involved in noxious weed control activities, via selling or applying herbicides, to increase business volume and profits; or, an effort to reduce or eliminate acreage in the Country that is certified organic. Weeds are classified as noxious when they prone to spread, are difficult to control, and pose a public health or economic threat to citizens, public lands, and/or farming and ranching operations. Ironically, by far the fastest growing and mostly economically damaging noxious weeds in the U.S. are both noxious and spreading because they have developed resistance to commonly applied herbicides, and especially glyphosate. There is near-universal agreement in the weed science community nationwide, and surely as well in the PNW, that over-reliance on glyphosate (Roundup) over the last two decades has created multiple, new noxious weeds posing serious economic, environmental, and public health threats. In fact, over 120 million acres of cultivated cropland in the U.S. is now infested with one or more glyphosate-resistant weed (for details, see http://cehn-healthykids.org/herbicide-use/resistant-weeds/). The majority of glyphosate-resistant weeds are in the Southeast and Midwest, where routine, year-after-year planting of Roundup Ready crops has led to heavy and continuous selection pressure on weed populations, pressure that over three-to-six years typically leads to the evolution of genetically resistant weed phenotypes, that can then take off, spreading across tens of millions of acres in just a few years. Ask any farmer in Georgia, or Iowa, or Arkansas whether they would call “noxious” the glyphosate-resistant kochia, Palmer amaranth, Johnson grass, marestail, or any of a dozen other glyphosate-resistant weeds in their fields. It is virtually certain that an herbicide-based attempt to eradicate noxious weeds in Sherman County would fail. It would also be extremely costly, and would pose hard-to-predict collateral damage on non-target plants from drift, and on human health and the environment. But even worse, it would also, almost certainly, accelerate the emergence and spread of a host of weeds resistant to the herbicides used in the program. This would, in turn, leave the county, and the county’s farmers with not just their existing suite of noxious weeds to deal with, but a new generation of them resistant to glyphosate, or whatever other herbicides are widely used. Sherman County’s proposal, while perhaps well meaning, will simply push the herbicide use-resistant weed treadmill into high gear. Just as farmers in other parts of the county have learned over the last 20 years, excessive reliance on glyphosate, or herbicides over-all, accomplishes only one thing reliably – it accelerates the emergence and spread of resistant weeds, requiring applications of more, and often more toxic herbicides, and so on before some one, or something breaks this vicious cycle. I urge you to take into account two other consequences if the County pursues this deeply flawed strategy. Certified organic food products grown and processed in Oregon, and distributed by Oregon-based companies like Azure and the Organically Grown Company, are highly regarded throughout the U.S. for exceptional quality, consistency, and value. Plus, export demand is growing rapidly across several Pacific Rim nations for high-value, certified organic foods and wine from Oregon. Triggering a high-profile fight over government-mandated herbicide spraying on certified organic fields in Sherman County will come as a shock to many people, who are under the impression that all Oregonians, farmers and consumers alike, are committed to a vibrant, growing, and profitable organic food industry. Does Sherman County really want to erode this halo benefiting the marketing of not just organic products, but all food and beverages from Oregon? Second, if Sherman County is serious about weed eradication, it will have to mandate widespread spraying countywide, and not just on organic farms, and not just for one year. The public reaction will be swift, strong, and build in ferocity. It will likely lead to civil actions of the sort that can trigger substantial, unforeseen costs and consequences. I am surely not the only citizen of the State that recalls the tragic events last year in Malheur County. Plus, I guarantee you that the County, the herbicide applicators, and the manufacturers of the herbicides applied, under force of law on organic or other farms, will face a torrent of litigation seeking compensatory damages for loss of reputation, health risks, and the loss of premium markets and prices. I have followed litigation of this sort for decades, and have served as an expert witness in several herbicide-related cases. While it is obviously premature to start contemplating the precise legal theories and statutes that will form the crux of future litigation, the County should develop a realistic estimate of the legal costs likely to arise in the wake of this strategy, if acted upon, so that the County Commissioners can alert the public upfront regarding how they will raise the funds needed to deal with the costs of near-inevitable litigation. —end of Dr. Benbrook’s letter— Yesterday, Sunday, I emailed the Sherman County government asking them whether they really intend to pursue this lunatic program. If and when I receive an answer, I’ll post it. I also emailed Azure Farms, asking why they believe there is no coverage of this issue in Oregon newspapers. If I get an answer, I’ll post that, too. Ordinarily, local papers will print a stories about contentious issues, however one-sided they may be. In this case, I find nothing. Is it possible the threat of herbicide spraying has been overstated? Why would Azure issue a release claiming the spraying is imminent if it weren’t true? Why would Azure risk getting into a wrangle with the County government if the threat weren’t real? Why isn’t there any mention of the spraying program on the Sherman County website? Does the County actually think they can keep their intentions under wraps? “I have a great idea. Let’s claim Azure Farms can’t control their weeds. Let’s come in and invade them with Roundup and other toxic chemicals. Let’s destroy their organic farm. We know the spraying won’t wipe out the weeds—it’ll make the situation worse. But who cares? Let’s open up ourselves to massive lawsuits. I’m sure Monsanto will give us some legal help. We can set a fantastic precedent. No organic farm is safe. No organic farmer has the right to protect his land from the government. Isn’t that a terrific idea?” (To read about Jon’s mega-collection, Power Outside The Matrix, click here.) Jon Rappoport The author of three explosive collections, THE MATRIX REVEALED, EXIT FROM THE MATRIX, and POWER OUTSIDE THE MATRIX, Jon was a candidate for a US Congressional seat in the 29th District of California. He maintains a consulting practice for private clients, the purpose of which is the expansion of personal creative power. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, he has worked as an investigative reporter for 30 years, writing articles on politics, medicine, and health for CBS Healthwatch, LA Weekly, Spin Magazine, Stern, and other newspapers and magazines in the US and Europe. Jon has delivered lectures and seminars on global politics, health, logic, and creative power to audiences around the world. You can sign up for his free NoMoreFakeNews emails here or his free OutsideTheRealityMachine emails here.
By Dr. Mercola Some days I wonder if this is all a bad dream. How on earth have we come to this craziness? The latest and greatest "preventative" strategy for women genetically predisposed to breast cancer is amputation, which puts the wheels in motion for this type of "preventive surgery" to be covered by health insurance. I'm referring, of course, to Angelina Jolie's recent and very public decision to undergo a double mastectomy as a prophylactic measure. While she admits this is a very personal decision, the impacts to the public could be quite significant based on her celebrity influence. Her mother died from ovarian cancer at the age of 56, and Jolie carries a hereditary gene mutation associated with both breast and ovarian cancer. According to Jolie, who revealed her decision in an op-ed in the New York Times:1 "My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman. Only a fraction of breast cancers result from an inherited gene mutation. Those with a defect in BRCA1 have a 65 percent risk of getting it, on average. Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. ... I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer." It is nearly incomprehensible to me how any researcher can give such precise predictions of future cancer risk based on genetics. The only explanation is near complete ignorance of the science of epigenetics and the power we all have to change the expression of our genes. Why Does US Recommendations Place Women with Gene Defects at Even Greater Risk? The genetic test to check for mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes (the BRCA stands for 'breast cancer susceptibility genes') costs about $4,000 in the US, when not covered by insurance.2 Ironically, if you discover that you carry the mutated BRCA gene, the standard recommendation in the US is to get a mammogram and an MRI scan at least once a year thereafter, even if you're under the age of 40. This is unconscionable, in my opinion. If anything, should you have genetic susceptibility for breast cancer, it would be wise to avoid ionizing radiation as much as possible, not the other way around! Several European countries including Britain, the Netherlands and Spain, have already altered their screening recommendations for women with BRCA mutations, advising them to get MRIs (which do not emit ionizing radiation) instead of mammograms before the age of 30. Research has demonstrated that women with these genetic mutations are more sensitive to radiation, and because the genes in question are involved in repairing DNA, radiation damage to these genes will subsequently raise your cancer risk. For example, a study3 published just last year in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), found that women with faulty BRCA genes are more likely to develop breast cancer if they're exposed to chest X-rays before the age of 30. According to Cancer Research UK:4 "[W]omen with a history of chest radiation in their 20s had a 43 percent increased relative risk of breast cancer compared to women who had no chest radiation at that age. Any exposure before age 20 seemed to raise the risk by 62 percent." In response to these findings, Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society was quoted as saying:5 "This will raise questions and caution flags about how we treat women with (gene) mutations." And Anouk Pijpe of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, one of the authors in the above-mentioned study, told CBS News:6 "We believe countries who use mammograms in women under 30 should reconsider their guidelines. It may be possible to reduce the risk of breast cancer in (high-risk) women by using MRIs, so we believe physicians and patients should consider that." Advertisement Genetic Defects Are Not a Major Contributor to Breast Cancer A key point for women to remember is that while women with BRCA defects have a 45-65 percent increased risk of breast cancer, only about TWO PERCENT of diagnosed breast cancers are caused by BRCA faults. So this genetic defect is nowhere close to being a primary cause of breast cancer. Clearly, other non-genetic factors play a far more significant role. As pointed out by H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and a co-author of Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit of Health, Angelina Jolie's personal story is completely irrelevant to 99 percent of all women because they simply do not have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. In a recent CNN article, he writes:7 "Let's be clear, the BRCA1 mutation is a bad thing... It is a powerful risk factor for these cancers... When people are at very high risk for something bad to happen, preventive interventions are more likely to be a good deal... When people are at average risk, the deal changes... It is a fundamental precept of medicine... Patients with severe abnormalities stand to gain more from intervention than patients with mild ones. Patients with mild abnormalities are more likely to experience net harm from intervention, simply because they have less opportunity to benefit. The vast majority of women don't have the BRCA1 mutation. They are at average risk for breast cancer... They should not have a preventive mastectomy. ...But there is a second question for women raised by Ms. Jolie's piece: Should I be tested for BRCA1? She seems to believe the answer is yes, pointing to the half-million women who die from breast cancer worldwide each year. But she neglects to point out that 90 percent of these deaths have nothing to do with the BRCA1 mutation. That's because most women don't have the mutation and because most breast cancer is sporadic." Furthermore, it's also important to understand that even if you do carry a defective gene, that in and of itself does not mean that the gene in question is destined to be expressed. In other words, having the BRCA defect is by no means an automatic death sentence. As you will see below, there are many things you can do to dramatically decrease your cancer risk through the lifestyle choices you make, which have a profound impact on your genetic expression. What Do Gene Patents Have to Do with It? Since the mid-1940's, genomics and the patenting of genes has grown exponentially. At present, nearly 20 percent of the entire human genome, or some 4,000 genes, are covered by at least one US patent. These include genes linked with Alzheimer's disease, colon cancer and asthma. Myriad Genetics8 owns the exclusive patent for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. As explained by The New Yorker:9 "Anyone conducting an experiment on them without a license can be sued for infringement of patent rights. This means that Myriad can decide what research is carried out on those genes, who can do that research, and how much any resulting therapy or diagnostic test will cost." Needless to say, this has profound implications for medicine. As stated by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):10 "Through its patents, Myriad has the right to stop anyone from using these genes for clinical or research purposes. It has therefore locked up a building block of human life." In her op-ed, Jolie states that this "has got to be a priority to ensure that more women can access gene testing and lifesaving preventive treatment," pointing out that the cost of genetic testing is an obstacle for many. The root of that problem lies with our current patent laws, which allow for the patenting of human genes and other life forms. According to the ACLU, which is the plaintiff in another gene patent lawsuit heard by the Supreme Court in April,11 Myriad recently raised the price of their genetic test from $3,000 to over $4,000, even though gene testing technologies have advanced to the point where you can sequence ALL of your genes, about 23,000 or so, for as little as $1,000. The Supreme Court will decide in a matter of weeks whether human gene patents will continue to be allowed or not, and if they are, you can expect prices for gene-related medicine to continue to skyrocket and become increasingly monopolized. This is a Flash-based video and may not be viewable on mobile devices. It's Starting to Look Like a Coordinated Yet Cleverly Designed PR Campaign... When looking at a number of different yet related events, this whole thing is starting to look like a well-coordinated PR push where a number of companies and industries stand to gain. The only real loser in this game appears to be women in general... First, as we predicted would happen months ago, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Monsanto in the Monsanto vs. Bowman case12 on May 13, thereby affirming that a patent holder can control the use of its patent through multiple generations of seed. Alas, the implications of this ruling go far beyond agriculture. It will also have implications for other businesses such as vaccines, cell lines, and human genes. What this ruling does is grant ownership of genetic material in perpetuity. A silly but simple analogy would be that if you own the patent to a dog trait, and your dog with that trait impregnates all the neighbors' dogs, all the pups would be yours, as would the pups of those pups, and so on. As we predicted, the Supreme Court only took this case to protect the biotech industry by setting precedent. There is very little morality left in our fascist federal government, and that includes most of its agencies, including the IRS, FDA, and FTC. They're all operating for political and industrial gains. In Monsanto vs. Bowman, Justice Kagan justified the unanimous decision to allow living, self-replicating organisms and their offspring to be licensed property of the patent owner due to financial interests. "A patent would plummet in value after the first sale of the item containing the invention," she said. And just seconds into Bowman's attorney's opening arguments, Chief Justice Roberts interrupted him by asking "why anyone would ever patent anything if Bowman were to prevail?" That and more indicated that it was a closed case right from the start... Justice Breyer went so far as referencing the infamous law13 Buck vs Bell14 (that still stands in the US to this day, which legitimizes government-forced sterilization and vaccination) when he said: "There are three generations of seeds. Maybe three generations of seeds is enough." This was a spin on Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's statement: "It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes. Three generations of imbeciles are enough." It's a chilling thought when you consider the potential implications this case can have on the trend of patenting of human genes and other life forms. Over 20% of the human genome is already patented, and the old eugenics movement has a lot in common with the burgeoning anti-choice movement when it comes to vaccinations and other medical treatments, including cancer treatment for minors. Children have been taken from their parents for refusing to follow the conventional cut-poison-burn cancer treatment plan for their ailing children, even though statistics and research clearly shows that chemotherapy is typically what ends up killing the patient, even when the cancer itself is conquered! GMO Opponents Are 'Elitist' and Insensitive to World's Needs, Monsanto CEO Says If the idea of a new eugenics movement is not enough, Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant was recently quoted15 stating that opponents who want to block genetically modified foods are guilty of "elitism" and fail to consider the needs of the rest of the world. Thank goodness the CEO of a $58 billion multinational corporation, which last year paid him over $14 million, is ready to stand up to the selfish elitists opposing his plan to save the world... But I digress... On May 14, one day after Big Biotech was granted patent rights to genetic material in perpetuity, Angelina Jolie's op-ed comes out, and the very next day, biotech stocks took a jump.16 Then on the 16th, Arthur Caplan, director of the Division of Bioethics at New York University's Langone Medical Center, pens a CNN op-ed17 applauding Jolie's "brave message." Chillingly, he ends his article with: "As the U.S. pushes forward into health reform, Jolie's story reminds us that we need to adjust our health care system from one that pays for treatment to one that also covers prevention." "Prevention" here meaning a $4000 test that if positive results in amputation of a non-diseased organ... According to reports,18 Jolie is also planning to remove her ovaries to limit her risk of ovarian cancer—a decision that leads to 'surgical menopause,' which requires careful hormone replacement and monitoring. Truly, we need to drive home the message that testing is NOT prevention. Testing is a diagnostic tool that has nothing to do with actually preventing disease. True prevention requires taking a close hard look at lifestyle choices, as well as making some radical changes to a wide range of industries that don't want to change the way they do business. Toxic chemicals are oftentimes far cheaper to use than all-natural ones. And toxins drive cancer processes in your body... The Angelina Effect—Don't Be Swayed... Deception by the agricultural, food, biotech, chemical, and personal care product industries are primary drivers of most of the chronic and deadly diseases plaguing our modern society. They're poisoning you from all angles, and then pretend to have the solutions... Parallel with this mockery of a "science-based" health care system, federal agencies have been cleverly manipulated by highly leveraged lobbying to force you to pay for most of this by tax subsides, and federal regulatory agencies limiting your choices. Within days of her "coming out," Jolie again graced the cover of TIME magazine with the words: "The Angelina Effect—Angelina Jolie's double mastectomy puts genetic testing in the spotlight. What her choice reveals about calculating risk, cost, and peace of mind." I have no special insights about what this woman has been thinking, but I certainly don't blame her. To me she is merely a victim of sophisticated and clever techniques that have successfully twisted common sense on its head. She has learned to trust and believe in the system that has created this insanity. The PR campaign that catalyzed her decision is clearly aimed at deceiving naïve and preoccupied people into an utterly flawed system motivated primarily by corporate greed not by any compassion or desire to decrease human suffering. I don't fault Jolie for any of it. She, like everyone else, made the best decision she could based on the information she was given or sought out. Few people have enough time to study and understand the complexity of system that has evolved for over a century. In this case, the goal is not to empower you to make proactive decisions about your health. It's about herding you into the fold of the most profitable industries in the world. Myriad Genetics alone rakes in approximately half a billion dollars in revenue each year.19 Genetic testing for breast cancer accounts for 85 percent of their total revenue, and again, they have complete and total control of this niche since they own the patent for the BRCA genes. Salon magazine recently wrote an article titled "How One Company Controls Your Breast Cancer Choices:"20 "Myriad's monopoly over BRCA1 and BRCA2 not only means showing that it can charge whatever it wants for the test; it also means that further research on the genes is restricted, and that women who take the test and get an ambiguous result can't get a second opinion, only take the test again. An ambiguous result can mean the difference between removing breasts or ovaries or leaving them intact. The economic and racial implications of all this are major, both for how the research has been done and who gets access to it. In a video on the case, the ACLU points out, 'Initial gene studies focused on white women. And now the patents make it more difficult to learn what some mutations mean in women of color, because Myriad has total control over researchers' access to those mutations. ... Myriad's patent on the genes expires in two years, but the Supreme Court's ruling21 will set the broader principle going forward. For now, Jolie's Op-Ed has apparently made Myriad's stock price rise 4 percent, its best level in years.'" Nearly Every Part of the Human Genome Is Now Owned by Corporations Ironically, just as we're entering the age of individualized medicine, doctors' ability to actually employ such advancements for the benefit of their patients is being profoundly undermined and restricted. As recently stated by Christopher E. Mason22 of Weill Cornell Medical College: "You have to ask, how is it possible that my doctor cannot look at my DNA without being concerned about patent infringement?" Mason recently published a study in the journal Genome Medicine, in which he and his co-author, Jeffrey Rosenfeld, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, show that when you include both genes and DNA sequences inside the genes, nearly the ENTIRE human genome is covered by patents! What this does is render medicine prohibitively expensive. Under the Affordable Care Act, BRCA genetic testing is classified as preventative care, which means no out-of-pocket cost for those deemed eligible. But as stated by PolicyMic: "Affordable Care Act money should be used to provide medical care that is expensive for a reason, not to prop up an unfair and anti-competitive monopoly." Tissue Trauma and Surgery Can Actually Increase Your Risk of Cancer There's much yet to be learned about cancer development and progression. For example, research23, 24, 25 has shown that trauma to the breast itself can cause cancer. According to the authors: "Models of epithelial cell generation indicate that a causal link between physical trauma and cancer is plausible. A latent interval between cancer onset and presentation of under 5 years is also plausible. The most likely explanation of the findings is that physical trauma can cause breast cancer." And, as reported by Science News in 2011: 26 "The slightest scratch can cause cancerous cells to crawl to the wound and form tumors in mice, a new study finds. The work may explain why certain kinds of cancers seem to cluster around burns, surgical scars and other injuries. 'This work says that if you have a predisposition to getting cancer, wounding might enhance the chance that it will develop,' says cell biologist Anthony Oro of Stanford University School of Medicine." This raises questions about the possibility of developing cancer in the remaining or surrounding chest tissue following a radical surgery as double mastectomy. Needle biopsies have also been fingered as sources of cancer that otherwise might not have occurred.27 Epigenetics—The Answer for Those Seeking Cancer Prevention The paradigm-shattering research now referred to as epigenetics proves your genetic code is not nearly as predeterministic as previously thought. You actually have a tremendous amount of control over how your genetic traits are expressed. As it turns out, your genes will express or suppress genetic data depending on the environment in which it finds itself, meaning the presence or absence of appropriate nutrients, toxins, and even your thoughts and feelings, which unleash hormones and other chemicals in your body. Dr. Susan Love, a breast cancer surgeon and president of the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation, commented on such research back in 2009, saying:28 "It's exciting. What it means, if all this environmental stuff is right, is that we should be able to reverse cancer without having to kill cells. This could open up a whole new way of thinking about cancer that would be much less assaultive." Physician Discovers What It's Like to Be 'Sold' Preventive Mastectomy An article by Dr. Daniela Drake titled "Why I'm Not Having a Preventive Mastectomy29" presents the other side of the preventive mastectomy argument, and highlights the problems of our current paradigm: "Lobular Carcinoma In Situ (LCIS)... increases my odds of developing cancer from 12 percent to 30 percent. But still, my options, my doctor explained, include immediate bilateral mastectomy... She tells me that my chances of developing cancer are 80 percent and that if she were in my shoes she would 'just have them both removed.' ...Her offhand manner suggests something deeply unserious—like a manicure... Although I used to be a vociferous advocate for aggressive medical interventions, my perspective changed radically when I began working as a house-call physician. My patients are too debilitated to go to the doctor's office—and many were disabled by botched surgeries... I'm concerned about my surgeon's flippancy and I suggest alternatives: 'There's growing data that this is a lifestyle disease. You know the Women's Health Initiative shows exercise can greatly decrease risk.' 'I don't know. That may be true,' she shrugs. 'If we don't do surgery, then we'll just do mammograms every six months.' When I object, saying that LCIS doesn't show up on mammogram, she responds, 'I know. It doesn't make sense to me either.' It becomes evident that we don't know how to deal with my condition. The medical system does not tolerate ambiguity well, so breast amputation has become the answer... Now I know why patients are so mad at us. This is supposed to be patient-centered care. But it feels more like system-centered care: the medical equivalent of a car wash. I'm told incomplete and inaccurate information to shuttle me toward surgery; and I'm not being listened to. I came to discuss nutrition, exercise and close follow-up. I'm told to get my breasts removed—the sooner the better. Mastectomy may be appropriate in some cases, like in those where your risk of cancer is virtually 100 percent. But the risk of surgery—operative complications, infections, device and graft complications—remains significant. It's callous and irresponsible to elide the risks to the public." The Case Against BRCA Testing In the research paper titled "The Case Against BRCA1 and 2 Testing", published in the journal Surgery30 in June 2011, the four authors from the Department of Surgery, University of California explain what many oncologists don't want to hear: "It turns out that, like a book, a gene can be 'read' both backward and forward. Small sections (or chapters) within a big gene can be 'read' alone. The three-dimensional structure of DNA controlled by site-to-site methylation prevents many chapters from being "read" at all. In addition, short segments of RNA (22 base pair micro-RNA) can cycle back to control DNA transcription. So, DNA is just the starting point, and like flour, you do not know whether the chef is going to cook a croissant or a tortilla with it... Are BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 unique? Or just like other genes, is their expression controlled by the inner cellular attitudes (both epigenetic and environmental) of the individual patient? BRCA 1 and 2 code nuclear proteins, also known as tumor suppressor genes, capable of repairing damaged DNA... Both mutations increase the lifetime risk of breast cancer in a woman. Less than 5% of women diagnosed with either ductal carcinoma in situ or invasive ductal cancer are a result of inherited BRCA genes... But BRCA 1 and 2 may speak with many voices. Polymorphisms are naturally occurring single nucleotide variations of a gene present in more than 1% of the population. Polymorphisms and other single-nucleotide variants have been identified within the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes. Indeed, more than 500 mutations in BRCA 1 alone have been documented and most render their proteins inactive—so, some BRCA genes seem to be shooting blanks. And a single nucleotide polymorphism, albeit only a single nucleotide change, can have a formidable influence on protein expression. Sequence variant S1613G, for instance, results in increased mutational risk of BRCA 1 neoplastic expression, whereas a variation in K1183R is related inversely to cancer risk. It seems that some polymorphisms may actually have a protective effect." In summary, the authors state that for screening and therapeutic purposes, BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genetic testing is really little more than an expensive way of "determining what can be accomplished more expeditiously by speaking with your patient," since: The DNA base pair sequence in all humans is 99.6% identical Epigenetic factors influence substantively the RNA processing and translational requisition of the initial DNA message There are thousands of sequence variants of the BRCA1 and BRCA 2 genes Family history trumps BRCA 1 and 2 status Breast Cancer Prevention Strategies
BREAKING NEWS- About Magazine has learned there has been an arrest made in the deadly hit and run in Montrose that killed Michael Alexander Hill while crossing at a crosswalk at the 400 block of Westheimer at Taft. (Click Here To Read Official Police Report) Matthew Alan Putterman (28) has been arrested in Pemniba, County North Dakota attempting to cross the Canadian boarder. Official records state that Putterman had attempted to cross into Canada three times, but was acting suspiciously. Canadian Boarder Patrol officials noticed a small amount of marijuana therefore detaining Putterman for attempting to smuggle drugs into Canada. During the process, officials then discovered text messages from Lana Putterman (sister to Putterman) discussing how to fix damage to his 2006 dark blue Hyundai Sonata. The text messages also discuss how ‘Putterman’ admits he did hit the victim, but did not think he was dead. The accused is no stranger to law enforcement. In 2007 Putterman was charged with possession of narcotics Putterman has been charged with felony Hit and Run involving death. Houston Police Department Spokeswoman Jodi Silva confirmed the report but did not know if the sister would be charged. Upon being detained, Putterman was questioned relating to the Hit and Run and denied any involvement. The suspect stated he “was in an accident near Katy, TX.” After law enforcement contacted all local agencies to confirm, they could find no such accident had occurred where Putterman described.
According to a report by Alsumaria News, as covered by ISNA, a source in Mosul revealed details about ISIS putting its militants on alert. Here is IFP’s translation. A source from inside the city of Mosul, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that ISIS has put its members on full alert. “It came after a group of unknown individuals, spontaneously, hoisted Iraq’s flag in a market named Ba’ab al-Toub which is located in downtown Mosul.” The manoeuvre was unprecedented in the past two years of occupation, the source said, adding, “ISIS immediately removed the flags and arrested a few vendors over the incident. No one knows where they took the detainees.” A few days ago, a video footage was released on social media showing solidarity of Mosul residents with the victims of Karrada blasts. ISIS had claimed responsibility for detonating explosives in Baghdad’s Shiite neighbourhood of Karrada, which killed hundreds of innocent people.
Top federal bureaucrats held private meetings with a lobbyist for the interests of the world's tax havens, and one of them even provided talking points that went against Canada's official stance on greater transparency of corporate ownership, records in the Paradise Papers reveal. The meetings with London-based Canadian lawyer Richard Hay were not reported to the federal lobbying registry and Hay himself was not registered to lobby in Canada — potentially violating the law depending on what exactly was said, an investigation by Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star has found. The meetings took place starting in summer 2013, two months after the world's first big leak of offshore financial records, a predecessor to the Panama Papers and now the Paradise Papers. The 2013 leak had shown how the anonymity provided by tax havens allowed people to set up offshore companies and hide billions of dollars in assets. In light of the leak, a number of world leaders, particularly the U.K.'s David Cameron, were ratcheting up calls to make ownership of private corporations more transparent — potentially even public. At the 2013 G8 summit in Northern Ireland, hosted by Britain's then-PM David Cameron, second from left, one of the major agenda items was how to boost the transparency of who really owns private corporations. (Bertrand Langlois/AFP/Getty) When Cameron made the issue a major agenda item at the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland that June, the world's tax havens sensed a possible crackdown on their livelihood. Up stepped a lobbying group called the International Financial Centres Forum, whose very name uses a euphemism for tax havens. Comprising the planet's major offshore law firms — which help set up and administer offshore companies — the IFC Forum mounted a broad communications and PR campaign involving elected officials and civil servants from both sides of the Atlantic. And Richard Hay, from the Montreal-founded firm Stikeman Elliott, was its point man. 'Annihilation' of tax havens feared In a May 2013 email marked "urgent," Hay told IFC Forum members that "with media and political support," various NGOs were seeking "annihilation for British IFCs" — a reference to tax-haven jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Bermuda. Simon Kennedy, deputy trade minister at the time, was at two meetings with Hay that don't show up in federal lobbying records. (Canada2020.ca) So Hay headed out to meet government officials from the G8 countries, hoping to drum up resistance to some of Cameron's proposals. According to the confidential minutes of a July 2013 IFC Forum meeting, Hay landed a meeting with Russian officials in London. The same minutes say that he also met with "Canada's G20 sherpa and deputy minister of international trade," Simon Kennedy. The minutes and emails are part of the Paradise Papers, the huge leak of tax-haven records made public Sunday by the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, in which CBC/Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star are partners. Hay's first meeting with Canada's deputy trade minister led to another one six months later, in January 2014 — this time in Ottawa. The IFC Forum minutes say Hay met Kennedy as well as another high-ranking civil servant from the same department, Duane McMullen, head of Canada's Trade Commissioner Service. Experts say the substance of those meetings could be ethically or legally problematic. Duane McMullen, another senior public servant, appears to have advised Hay's group on how to counter the U.K.'s tax-haven action plan. (Travel.sohu.com) When David Cameron, then chair of the G8, came out with his transparency agenda for private corporations, Canada had publicly declared its support. "This​ ​is​ ​a​ ​very​ ​important​ ​initiative​ ​by​ ​Prime​ ​Minister​ ​Cameron,"​ said Stephen ​Harper, Canadian prime minister at the time.​ ​"It​ ​is​ ​important​ ​that we​ ​do​ ​it​ ​and​ ​that​ ​we​ ​do​ ​it​ ​together." But according to the IFC's notes, at the meeting with Hay, Canadian civil servant McMullen "expressed concerns" about the U.K.'s proposals and "noted NGO influence" on them. Hay was impressed enough with McMullen to invite him to speak at the pro-tax-haven lobby group's next meeting. He did. And he appears to have provided the group with some valuable advice on how to counter the U.K.'s tax haven action plan. "Implement ideas provided by Duane McMullen… i.e. disseminate the idea that IFCs lubricate global commerce which helps poverty reduction. IFCs are friction-reducing, contributing to this process. Anything that is friction-increasing impairs such process," said the IFC minutes. Department backs bureaucrat McMullen would not answer a detailed list of questions from Radio-Canada and the Star about his interactions with the IFC Forum, referring queries to spokespeople at Global Affairs Canada, as the department is now known. In an emailed statement, the department said: "Mr.​ ​McMullen's​ ​involvement​ ​with​ ​IFC​ ​Forum​ ​at​ t​he​ ​time​ ​was​ ​fully​ ​in​ l​ine​ ​with​ ​the​ ​spirit​ ​of Canada's​​ Trade ​​Commissioner ​Service ​​role ​​and ​​mandate … Trade​ ​commissioners​ ​talk​ ​to​ ​people​ ​on​ ​all​ ​sides​ ​of​ ​an​ ​issue​ ​and​ ​in​ ​doing​ ​so,​ ​try​ ​to​ ​understand their​ ​positions,​ ​point​ ​out​ ​their​ ​weaknesses​ ​and​ ​identify​ ​areas​ ​of​ ​common​ ​ground." Experts point to several problems, however. "If the facts are as reported, [McMullen] was crossing​ ​two​ ​lines​ ​that​ ​a​ ​public​ ​servant​ ​shouldn't​ ​cross,"​ said Ralph Heintzman, a former​ ​senior​ ​civil servant​ ​and a​ ​professor​ at the University of Ottawa's public affairs school, in an interview with the Toronto Star.​ "The​ ​first​ ​was​ ​that​ ​he​ ​was​ ​publicly​ ​expressing​ ​his​ ​own personal​ ​policy​ ​views,​ ​which​ ​he​ ​ought​ ​not​ ​to​ ​have​ ​been​ ​doing.​ ​But​ ​the​ ​second,​ ​which​ ​makes​ ​it worse,​ ​is​ ​that​ ​they​ ​were​ ​contrary​ ​to​ ​the​ ​policies​ ​of​ ​the​ ​government​ ​of​ ​Canada​ ​at​ ​that​ ​time." Another issue: Richard Hay is registered as a lobbyist in Britain, but not in Canada — which he needed to be if he discussed anything to do with the "development or amendment" of any Canadian legislation, regulations or policies with civil servants Kennedy or McMullen, according to the Lobbying Act (the only exception would be if the discussions were "restricted to a request for information" by Hay). There is no record of Hay's London and Ottawa meetings with Kennedy in the federal lobbying registry. That would be "​a​ ​serious​ ​breach"​ ​of​ ​the​ act,​ ​said​ ​Ian​ ​Greene,​ ​a​ ​retired​ ​professor​ ​of​ ​public policy​ ​and​ ​administration​ ​at​ ​York​ ​University. Penalties can include up to $200,000 in fines and two years in jail. In a brief email to Radio-Canada, Hay confirmed that he has worked for the IFC Forum since 2009, but did not address questions about lobbying Canadian officials, saying his work for clients is confidential. Another IFC Forum spokesperson, Tony Langham of the U.K. PR firm Lansons, asserted in an email that the group "doesn't have – and has never had – the objective of influencing Canadian government policy." The internal IFC records, however, are full of mentions of Canada and discussions with Canadian officials, and specifically efforts to "advance the purpose of" the group through "meetings with representatives from Canada." "What bothers me is that there's a senior civil servant falling under the spell of a lobbyist," said Marwah Rizqy, a tax law professor at the management school of the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec. "The Canadian government clearly said at the G8 meeting that it was going to take on tax havens, that it was going to fight for greater transparency. But clearly, the public statements differed substantially from the private discussions." With files from Radio-Canada's Gaétan Pouliot, Gino Harel and Gil Shochat and the Toronto Star's Marco Oved. Send tips on this or any other Paradise Papers story to zach.dubinsky@cbc.ca, call 416-205-7553, or contact us anonymously and securely using SecureDrop. More coverage:
YouTube If you were aware of wrestling at all in the past year, you were intimately familiar with Billy Corgan’s attempts to at first purchase, and then legally attempt to obtain ownership of, Impact Wrestling, where he briefly served as both on-air and real life company president. He didn’t quite manage to take control of Impact, but now it looks like he’s given himself a decent consolation prize: the National Wrestling Alliance. Reports first surfaced on Monday morning that Corgan was on the verge of acquiring NWA, which would largely amount to purchasing rights to the name, iconography, and title, as NWA has for most of its existence truly been an alliance of many different promotions. In effect, NWA is a governing body, rather than a promotion in the classic sense. In the past, scores of standalone organizations have been partners with or affiliates of the NWA, including TNA, New Japan, and Championship Wrestling From Hollywood at various points in the 2000s. Later on Monday, current NWA president Bruce Tharpe confirmed via a post on his Facebook page that he and Corgan have indeed agreed to terms on a sale, and that Corgan is putting together “a strong team” for when he takes control of the company. I am very excited for the future of the NATIONAL WRESTLING ALLIANCE. As everyone knows by now – Billy Corgan and I have agreed on principle regarding his acquisition of the NWA brand. This decision comes after many weeks of negotiation and deep consideration. Although Billy Corgan may be a fresh face to wrestling – he is an extremely successful businessman and has a deep admiration and respect for the NWA. He is also putting together a very strong team. With the capital and business acumen that Billy Corgan brings to the table – I am confident that he has the ability to take the NWA to the next level. And I have promised to do all I can to help him succeed. I ask you to join me in supporting the new NWA regime in the future. I am not leaving wrestling – but after four years at the helm of the NWA – I look forward to stepping back and allowing someone new and passionate to take control of this great and noble organization. Thank you to everyone who has supported the NWA over the years and during my tenure. I also want to publicly thank Billy Corgan for his confidence and respect for this iconic brand. The next few months are going to be really exciting for the National Wrestling Alliance – but most of all for the fans! On Tuesday, PWInsider.com shared new details on the sale. The purchase of the NWA name does not include any part of the NWA library not owned by WWE, and also does not include the NWA On Demand streaming service. There will of course be a long planning process, so likely no major announcements are on the horizon soon. Former Impact and ROH head writer Dave Lagana will also very much be a part of Corgan’s team as they move forward. It will certainly be trickier to determine what Corgan plans to do with NWA as a governing body than his tentative plans for Impact, and it is probably trickier for him to figure out, too. Perhaps he plans to use the NWA name to launch a new promotion or television show. We’ll just have to wait and see, but it’s possible that for Billy, today is the greatest.
Dead Men Walking: Shaman Sickness The term "shaman sickness" is not one that you'll generally hear outside of most spirit-worker circles, and that's because we have only relatively recently learned to identify it again, after centuries of not understanding what it is that happens to shamans at the beginning of their careers. The term denotes a period of illness (often seriously life-threatening in some way) which is caused by the Gods and wights in order to completely remake someone and turn them into a shaman. The phenomenon of shaman sickness is found in tribal cultures around the world, with remarkably similar sets of traumas. It is the hallmark of the classic shaman in many parts of the globe. I should disclaimer two things right here: First, in spite of all references about global shamanic traditions, we are again only speaking for the Northern Tradition. In some tribal cultures, it seems that their spirit-workers do not go through such changes and experiences. I can't comment on that one way or another; however, it seems that in the traditions of northern Eurasia, this is the way things work, the way that the spirits want it, whether we like it or not. Again and again we find references to this in circumpolar shamanic traditions, and also ones in other areas of the world. The following century-old comments by Siberian shamans from Marie Czaplicka's book on the subject are typical both of what many tribal cultures say about shaman sickness, and what modern classic shamans in the Northern Tradition find to be true today: Whether his calling be hereditary or not, a shaman must be a capable - nay, an inspired person. Of course, this is practically the same thing as saying that he is nervous and excitable, often to the verge of insanity. So long as he practises his vocation, however, the shaman never passes this verge. It often happens that before entering the calling persons have had serious nervous affections. Thus a Chukchee female shaman, Telpina, according to her own statement, had been violently insane for three years, during which time her household had taken precautions that she should do no harm to the people or to herself. I was told that people about to become shamans have fits of wild paroxysms alternating with a condition of complete exhaustion. They will lie motionless for two or three days without partaking of food or drink. Finally they retire to the wilderness, where they spend their time enduring hunger and cold in order to prepare themselves for their calling. To be called to become a shaman is generally equivalent to being afflicted with hysteria; then the accepting of the call means recovery. There are cases of young persons who, having suffered for years from lingering illness, at last feel a call to take up shamanistic practice and by this means overcome the disease .... Here is an account by a Yakut-Tungus shaman, Tiuspiut ("fallen-from-the-sky"), of how he became a shaman: "When I was twenty years old, I became very ill and began to see with my eyes, to hear with my ears that which others did not see or hear; nine years I struggled with myself, and I did not tell any one what was happening to me, as I was afraid that people would not believe me and would make fun of me. At last I became so seriously ill that I was on the verge of death; but when I started to shamanize I grew better; and even now when I do not shamanize for a long time I am liable to be ill." The Chukchee call the preparatory period of a shaman by a term signifying "he gathers shamanistic power". For the weaker shamans the preparatory period is less painful, and the inspiration comes mainly through dreams. But for a strong shaman this stage is very painful and long; in some cases it lasts for one, two, or more years. Some young people are afraid to take a drum and call on the "spirits", or to pick up stones or other objects which might prove to be amulets, for fear lest the "spirit" should call them to be shamans. Some youths prefer death to obedience to the call of spirits. Parents possessing only one child fear his entering this calling on account of the danger attached to it; but when the family is large, they like to have one of its members a shaman. During the time of preparation the shaman has to pass through both a mental and a physical training. He is, as a rule, segregated, and goes either to the forests and hills under the pretext of hunting or watching the herds, 'often without taking along any arms or the lasso of the herdsman'; or else he remains in the inner room the whole time. "The young novice, the 'newly inspired' (turene nitvillin), loses all interest in the ordinary affairs of life. He ceases to work, eats but little and without relishing his food, ceases to talk to people, and does not even answer their questions. The greater part of his time he spends in sleep." This is why "a wanderer . . . must be closely watched, otherwise he might lie down on the open tundra and sleep for three or four days, incurring the danger in winter of being buried in drifting snow. When coming to himself after such a long sleep, he imagines that he has been out for only a few hours, and generally is not conscious of having slept in the wilderness at all." However exaggerated this account of a long sleep may be, we learn from Bogoras that the Chukchee, when ill, sometimes "fall into a heavy and protracted slumber, which may last many days, with only the necessary interruptions for physical needs." Second, this is not something that every spirit-worker is going to go through. On the contrary, most won't. Shaman sickness is something endured by the classic shaman - another reason why, at least in this tradition, I'd like to see the word "shaman" reserved for those who have gone this route, and "spirit-worker" or "shamanic practitioner" (or even "seidhworker", "vitki", or "volva" when appropriate) used for those who haven't. I know that I have no hope of instituting this definition outside of this tradition, and I don't intend to try. However, those of us who work with the wights of this area of the world should understand that for us, this is the division. There's no need to feel like you're not as good a spirit-worker if you haven't gone through shaman sickness. Rather, you should feel grateful, because it kills people, sometimes quite literally. Every tribal culture whose spirit-workers go through such a spirit-triggered ordeal agree that not everyone survives it, and there is an attrition rate. Not going through this condition means that you retain the ability to make choices with your life. It might also mean that your "wiring" isn't such that it could survive the transition, and the Gods know best about these things. Be grateful that you are still alive, and do the best work that you can with what you have. When I first met other spirit-workers, many of whom had gone through or were going through shaman sickness, I learned that there were two distinct forms that it took (although sometimes, some people got hit with both at once at full volume). We jokingly, sarcastically referred to them as the One Road and the Other Road. The One Road is the Death Road, and it attacks through your body. Spirit-workers on the Death Road come down with physical illnesses, some of them life threatening; there may be months or years of hideous, painful, chronic illness that slowly wears you down and "kills" part or all of your astral body, not to mention bringing your physical body close to death. In fact, the "classic" end to this road culminates in a near-death experience (or in some cases and actual death from which the individual does not return), sometimes with a vision of dismemberment where one is actually taken apart and rebuilt by the spirits. Usually it's not only one specific illness, but a cascade of them - or one which drags on, lowers the immune system or otherwise throws the body seriously off, and starts the cascade. Sometimes it may even start with a severe physical injury, and goes from there. One of the telltale marks of the Death Road is that if modern medical science manages to cure one of the illnesses, it will either recur in a more virulent form, or something just as horrid will take its place. Shaman sickness is remarkably resistant to modern treatments. I walked the Death Road. Between a combination of medication-resistant lupus and secondary congenital adrenal hyperplasia, I sickened further and further for the better part of a decade, and hemorrhaged quite literally to death at the end. I still wonder if I'd had the luxury of knowing what was going on, and perhaps another human being who understood to help me through it, I might have gotten to the end much sooner. Certainly I'm well aware that I came close to not making it; my patron deity was very clear about that. Still, there was a certain level of physical death that I had to achieve, and there was not going to be any safe or easy way to achieve it. Most of what I went through was entirely necessary to make me what I am today. The Other Road is the road of Madness. On this road, the death is of the personality that came before, and it can come about through a period of mental illness. The mental instability during shaman sickness is especially difficult, because the individual is legitimately experiencing contact with unseen (to most others, that is) entities - and they are also seeing and hearing them through a veil of insanity. Figuring out what is real and what isn't can seem nearly impossible, especially since any mental health professionals that they consult are likely to be less than helpful. They may concur that there are brain chemistry problems, but they will neither believe in any of the spirit-contact nor understand the need to see the illness through to some end, whatever that is. Psychiatric medication may be prescribed, and the individual may end up in the hospital. In some cases, the spirits may drive the sufferer away from medical help if they think that it will retard the process, even if this has them sleeping on park benches for a while. In other cases, the sufferer accedes to the wishes of mental health personnel, but it doesn't necessarily fix the problem. Psychiatric medications for people who are on the Other Road are an ambivalent subject. As discussed above in the section on whether spirit-workers should use psychiatric medications at all, it will largely depend on the individual in question, and divination should perhaps be done in order to get a clear answer. On the other hand, if you are walking the Madness Road as part of a spirit-triggered shamanic rebirth, They may well prefer to you to experience it fully, without the buffering effect of drugs - at least for a time. And if a particular psychiatric medication interferes with your ve in any way - such as making it difficult to move energy or ground and center - it is unlikely that the spirits will allow you to take it, so as above, do divination first to find something appropriate. This advice includes any herbal remedies, but for the latter, it is imperative that a spirit-worker who utilizes herbal remedies should make an alliance with the Grandparent-spirit of that plant, or it may not be all that effective. (Spirit-workers can't just make assumptions about the use of living things for their aid; we are held to a higher standard, even by wights that we haven't met yet or whose existence hasn't occurred to us.) Also, be aware that herbal remedies can interact in difficult ways with allopathic medications, so be careful. You may also need to consider how much of the issues brought up by shaman sickness are chemical and how much are trauma that no chemical can help, and that needs to be worked through by itself. If, for example, there's a large chemical component that is preventing you from making any headway on the emotional things, you may be able to bargain a deal where you temporarily go on medication long enough to throw yourself fully into working out your emotional issues (assuming that you are not taking one of the anti-empathic meds that simply repress your emotional issues so that you don't have to look at them). Of course, you'd then have to dedicate every day to making yourself emotionally stable enough to go off the medications and deal with the rest of the shaman sickness process without going under. Other tools of modern psychiatry that some modern spirit-workers swear by for "getting ready to survive shaman sickness" are DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). While one might think that the Madness Road is, if not easier, at least less life-threatening than the Death Road, that would be incorrect to assume. A spirit-worker on the Madness Road may commit suicide out of pain and despair, or do something stupid that gets them killed, or go so thoroughly mad that they burn out their own gifts and live practically catatonic for the rest of their (usually short) lives. One of the big dangers of the Madness Road is being too crazy to realize that you're all that crazy, especially if you've actually got wight-contact going at the same time. It's also common for your judgment to be entirely off about all the important things in your life, even the simplest ones. What the spirit-worker going down this road desperately needs is a sane, reasonable person that they trust who shares the same or at least a similar world view to them to be their reality check. This "reality check" should give them feedback as to their apparent sanity based on their behavior as a human being, not based on some socially acceptable scale of belief. They should understand that talking to the unseen or doing odd ritual behaviors is, for this spirit-worker, not evidence of insanity. However, being unable to hold a sensible conversation or negotiate reasonably and rationally over some mundane matter might be, as might losing one's empathy or ability to see the world views of others, or becoming paranoid about the motivations of your loved ones and attributing unrealistic and sinister motivations to them, regardless of all evidence to the contrary. It is important to remember that the mark of a shaman who takes the Madness Road is that they only suffer from those extremes during shaman sickness, and then they recover. A functioning shaman may have odd social behaviors that are the result of his bargains with the spirits, but s/he is fully aware of how they look to others, and can communicate patiently and sensitively past that hurdle. They are able to have healthy relationships and negotiate sanely with others. They need to be sane, in order to do their jobs - not just because the job is so stressful, but because it requires them to understand and empathize with many different clients. They need to be able to live in this world as well as in the Otherworlds, or they are ineffective. This means that in order to function as a shaman, they need to come back from that illness. It's important to have faith in the wights who guide this process, as they understand how to bring someone back from it, but it's also important to have a human support system who can help you with regular infusions of reality about how you look and sound to "normal" people. At the same time, there will still always be a faint air of insanity about people who have walked the Madness Road, even when they are acting completely sane and normal, just like there will be a faint aura of "death" around those who have walked the Death Road - and for people with the Sight, they may be able to see and smell Death in their auras. (That "smell of death" is difficult for most non-Sighted people to interpret, and they may end up associating it mentally with "evil" or "wrongdoer" or just "creepy". Even if they are lawful and upright people who never harm anyone, people may just "feel" after being around them for five minutes that this is someone dangerous or harmful.) That's because shamans don't ever really come all the way back. One spirit-worker, however, pointed out to me that walking the Madness Road has one significant benefit: A shaman may well be asked to deal with people who are broken in all sorts of ways, and having spent time insane can give insight and compassion in those cases. When one spends time delving into damaged psyches, it's good to know the territory intimately. I remember seeing a beggar in the New York subway during my sickness. He was shirtless and filthy: he had open sores on his skin and was staring down intently at the concrete, his cupped and dirt caked hand extended in front of him while his shoulders were hunched like he was getting ready to spring. He was also sitting in a full lotus position: to this day I've rarely seen another American who was able to do that. And I realized that in India he would have become a sadhu, and people would have known exactly what was going on with him. But in our culture he was just "mentally ill." I wonder about the distinctions between schizophrenia and shaman-sickness. One possible distinction might be: "You recover from shaman-sickness; schizophrenia is a chronic and degenerative condition." But this leads to yet another question. How many cases of "schizophrenia" are just untreated, or badly treated, cases of shaman-sickness? If I had received "psychiatric help" during my 1994 episode of shaman-sickness, I might well have decided I was insane. I would never have listened to the voices: I would gladly have taken whatever medications were required to silence them, and today I'd be living in a welfare hotel and collecting a disability check - or I would be yet another suicide statistic. Winding up on the streets self-medicating with marijuana was one of the luckiest breaks I ever got: things could have been a whole lot worse. I got better once I stopped fighting the voices and started listening to them. I also noticed that my spirit-voices spoke in complete, coherent sentences (or at least clear thoughts and images). The neurological noise, by contrast, tended to be garbled words or sentence fragments repeated inanely. I still get those when I am tired or under stress: I treat them as a warning buzzer and have managed to work with and around them. I'm still given to logic-leaps and mental tangents which are common to schizophrenics and creative folks alike, but I'm able to dial it back to "charmingly eccentric" instead of "drooling nutcase." But the scars are still there. This is one of the things which can make the whole question complicated: "in contact with the spirit world" and "bug-fuck-nutty" are not necessarily mutually exclusive, even after shaman sickness has run its course. -Kenaz Filan Modern psychiatry is not, of course, terribly supportive of people's claims that they are hearing spirits talking to them. And, to be fair, only a tiny percentage of cases of mental illness (or, for that matter, life-threatening disease) are actually manifestations of shaman sickness. It is likely that if shaman sickness were an accepted diagnosis in this culture, many mentally ill people would claim it as theirs. We know this because it does happen in cultures where it is accepted. One example of this is the central figure in Margery Wolf's ethnographic paper The Woman Who Didn't Become A Shaman, a Taiwanese woman who started having alleged possession incidents and claimed to be speaking to unknown gods. Local shamans were called in and examined her, but decided that she was merely mentally ill and not actually suffering from any culturally acceptable form of shaman sickness. The author, watching the episode from an academic Western (and aspiritual) viewpoint, felt that the reason for the rejection was that the woman in question was of low status, or something equally socially unfair. Not really believing in the "spirits" of the actual shamans, she was mystified as to why those professionals would claim that those spirits were not in evidence for the afflicted woman. This means that someone who ends up on the Madness Road is going to have to be very, very careful as to what they say to any mental health practitioner. If you are actually hearing spirits in addition to the sockpuppets in your head - or hearing them through a field of distortion - then this is something that you're going to have to work out on your own, perhaps with help from a trusted diviner. No psychiatrist is going to be able to address the root of the problem if they don't actually believe in it. On the other hand, sometimes the Gods want you to clean out your mental problems in preparation for this soul-wearing Work, and they may want your feelings clear and loud so that you can deal with them. Talk-therapy may be useful here, as long as you stay away from spirit-work and keep on the subject of your ordinary human problems, of which you likely have just as many as any non-spirit-worker, whether you believe that or not. If there are major issues cluttering you up that will interfere with future Work, your patron wights will do what is necessary to make you clean them up. Recently I learned that there is a Third Road, the Art Road. This was described by someone as being the road for the spirit-worker who has dedicated themselves to some Art. They live it, they breathe it, it is their identity and the source of all the joy and creativity in their world. The Third Road forces them into a position where they must give it up entirely and walk away, never to touch it again. I have little more information on this Road - unfortunately - but I would assume that it would lie close to, or lead to, the Madness Road. (There is also that the Roads cross each other. Severe illness can be accompanied by bouts of mental instability, and mental illnesses can have physical side effects. Most cases of shaman sickness will involve a lot of one and a little of another.) One thing that must be stressed is that shaman sickness is a long process. It's not some sort of weekend-long epiphany after which the individual claims to be completely changed. It is long, slow, and agonizing. It can last months or, more often, years. It can also recur if the Gods and spirits feel that you have reached a level where more work needs to be done. If you're mired in shaman sickness, understand that it is going to take its own time. Lay in supplies as if for a long siege, and the best supplies are patience, devotion, and doing as much spirit-work as you can manage, given your situation. We do know this about shaman sickness: It is triggered by the Gods and wights, and once it starts, even they cannot stop it. It has to go through to its end, whatever that may be. While there's nothing that will make it stop, or reverse, there are some things that may help to speed it up. One of these is deliberately going through ordeals. Not everyone is cut out for, or should go down, the Ordeal Path - but for those who can do it, it can bring the body and mind closer to death and thus speed up the process. Taking these multiple trips to the personal Underworld of body and soul brings you closer to Death, and gets you more quickly to the point where they can do their astral modification work and get it over with, and get you out the other side. For more information about the Ordeal Path in the Northern Tradition, look for that chapter in Wightridden: Paths of Northern-Tradition Shamanism. For more information about the Ordeal Path in general, we recommend Dark Moon Rising: Pagan BDSM And The Ordeal Path. Shaman sickness doesn't happen to every spirit-worker, but when it does it can be pretty frightening. First, though, I want to distinguish between Kundalini sickness and shaman sickness; they are related, but not the same thing. Kundalini sickness is what happens when you are changing the way your body runs energy from 110 to 220 volts. Kundalini energy is basically this coiled energy that sits in the base of the spine and comes up. Working on that channel connects your genitals to your brain, and has other benefits like making your brain work better. Upping the voltage makes your core go from idle to forward motion within your energy system, but when that comes up, it comes up quite violently. It can break things, if you're running too many volts for your wires - or too many amps. Your wires will melt, things will get damages, your capacitors will burn out, and you can really seriously damage yourself. You can damage your kidneys, you can give yourself migraines, you can fry your nervous system permanently. A woman that we know actually died from it. She had a site dedicated to the dangers of Kundalini sickness. As it stands, it's quite easy to prevent it from happening. You just need to do your Kundalini exercises carefully, drink lots of water, know that it can happen and back off if it starts to happen instead of doing more. It requires your whole body, eventually. It is a kind of natural modification that slowly rewires everything for 220 instead of 110, as it were. You can go through months of not being able to eat, puking everything up. People go blind for minutes or hours at a time. There are weird wandering depressions. Some of the symptoms of shaman sickness are related to Kundalini sickness. Some of it is just that the spirits have to get you close enough to death to receive their modifications. Part of it can happen just because they have kickstarted the thing, waking your energy body. There are all sorts of blockages in your energy system because you haven't been using it properly and they will smash through it. Then once they've done that, they start to kill it off. They make sure it's all working, and then they just drain the life away from it. It's terrifying, painful, and depressing. I certainly thought that I was dying. There can be psychotic breaks, despair, long drawn-out illness. You can't get healed. You have to hit bottom somewhere. I don't know if you can help it along. There are things that would slow it down, but I'd be more interested in trying to speed it up. Certain meds can slow it down, and so can fighting it, but that will just kill you in the end. I think accepting it speeds it up. Ordeal work can speed it up. The problem is that speeding it up can bring you too close to death too fast, and that can kill you too. The knowledge doesn't come from people, it comes from solitude and suffering. The Inuit will stick you in an igloo for months without much food, for the initiatory ordeal. Of course, maybe that's for the safety of the tribe as well. Because part of your karmic record has to be cleared away, you act out every imbalance that you have, with grotesque violence. So I was just horrendous to be around during that period. You're a source of bad luck, and certainly a source of bad vibes. We ended up having a full-on funeral for a very large part of who I was. A part of me was laid to rest and chose to die, because I had become so sick and dysfunctional. I was depressed, I had terrible asthma. That part of me - she was so sick and hypervigilant, she gathered all of that into her and took it to the grave with her. And now she's feasted as a hero; she's one of my ancestors now. It was rough, though; it still upsets me to think about it. How do you choose what part of you gets to die? First you have to know who they are. This requires a lot of meditating and introspection. They need a name, they need a history. Write a saga about them. Write the end of the saga "And then they died to save me." And they need to be ready. Just because you want them to sacrifice themselves and go die now doesn't mean that it's the right time, and that they're going to want to do it. They have to want to do it. You can't just kill them, because you become what you kill and you have to take the karmic load. It's actually much better if they can do it themselves, because then you who are left don't take the karmic load. If you kill them, you still have the karma. If they kill themselves, they take it with them. It's easier on what's left. Of course, some of them don't go down easy. You can ask the spirits to kill them, because then the spirits will take the karma. But then you have to make sure that the spirits will take only them and leave the rest intact. Or you can ask your deity to kill them. Then you have a proper funeral and mourn them, really mourn them. So I don't know if that has to happen to everyone, but I suspect it's not that uncommon. But that's a big undertaking, to decide that this is what's needed. If you are going to do that, you need to talk to other shamans. If you can't, do lots and lots of divination, and get confirmations from omens, so that you can get a clear idea that the divination is correct. "I want to see a freaking billboard that has her name on it somehow, or I want to drive past something with a huge grave on it, or something. I want that level of clarity." Because if you do kill a piece of yourself off, there's no going back. Of course, I don't think you should even contemplate it without advice from your patron deity. What I'm concerned about it someone going to a workshop and saying, "Oh, I saw my totem animal guide and it told me that I should kill myself." You need to have a long-term established relationship with a patron of some kind. They can trigger the shaman sickness without showing themselves to you, or you can be too thick-headed to notice that they're there. Usually in anthropological tales, the spirits come first. Those who go through it without hearing their spirit patrons end up dead. But mainly it's about letting go. Meditations on emptiness. Meditations on letting go. Relaxation exercises. Dissolving work. Letting go as hard as you can. -Lydia Helasdottir I was mentally ill for three years. I wasn't even aware of what was happening until I managed to contact a few other spirit-workers online and they told me what was going on, after which things really took a turn for the worse - kind of like, "Okay, so you know what's going to happen to you - hold on, here we go!" I had several violently psychotic episodes as well as "missing time" and memory lapses. There were numerous bouts of insomnia, some of which lasted as long as four days at a time. I became paranoid and convinced that people secretly hated me, and what little sense of self-worth I had was beaten into the ground. I was severely depressed and overreacted to everything with wild mood swings. My judgment was likewise disabled -- once I freaked out completely when I accidentally locked my keys in my car, and had to be talked down over the phone by a friend, who likewise had to solve the problem of my locked-in keys because I couldn't think straight or reasonably. My life turned into a bad country-western song. I lost my job, my car, my social life, even my cat. My family, from whom I hid the fact of my shaman sickness, kept haranguing me about being unemployed and acting strange, which stressed me out further. Basically, my entire life fell apart and I was helpless to do anything about it. What made all of this even worse, though, was that except for a couple of dear friends who were busy having and raising a baby, I was geographically isolated from everyone I cared about. Days would go by where I wouldn't talk to anyone I knew, or maybe nobody at all if I didn't leave my apartment, and once I figured I had gone about four months without even touching another person. Not having hardly any human contact all that time was in and of itself an ordeal. I think that for a lot of us, shaman sickness can be described as a Hobson's Choice sort of affair - either you die fast or you die slow. Either you get Cweorth and burn on the funeral pyre, or you get Ear and you rot. I rotted. I don't really remember there being a single turning point in all of this - in that respect, I didn't have a classic sort of shamanic experience. But things slowly began to resolve themselves. My life got rearranged differently. I was being internally rearranged as well - I lost a lot of old emotional baggage, and my self-esteem was built from the ground up, much stronger than before. I lost any uncertainty about my experiences being "real" as well. And I was lucky; despite being unemployed and nearly incapable of taking care of myself for three years, I did not wind up homeless, nor did I starve. My family turned out to be surprisingly understanding when I finally told them what was going on, as did all of my remaining friends. Then one day, Loki said to me that I was done, the shaman sickness was over. And I managed to survive, somehow. I feel fortunate. I didn't have a near-death experience like other spirit-workers I know, but there are parts of me that rotted away and were buried and are gone forever now, or that were taken by Loki or Hela and replaced with other things. The most significant aspect of shaman sickness is that whoever you were before it began becomes more or less irrelevant after it's well and truly over - you vaguely remember what it was like being that person and feeling her feelings and thinking her thoughts, but it may have so little connection to who you are afterwards as to seem like another person entirely. So yeah, I think it's true; you don't come back all the way, whether you actually die and are brought back to life in a physical sense, or whether you just get killed off a tiny piece at a time. What I did, after my initial reaction of "No, this isn't happening to me!" was simply to accept it - that my life was going to implode, that I was going to go crazy, and that there was nothing I could do to stop it. I know that's the last thing most people are inclined to do, but if you're going to be shaman-sick and the spirits are going to put you through the wringer no matter how loudly you protest, you might as well make it as easy on yourself as possible. Just as people get injured more often in auto accidents because they unconsciously brace for the impact, if you try to resist, you're just going to be hurt worse. You have to go with it - you have to ride the pain and loneliness and insecurity and fear without letting it drag you completely under. It's hard, but it can be done. You have to keep in mind that it will end, and that when it does you will be a stronger person for it, and will look back with amazement and hopefully, some compassion for yourself for the things you went through. Yes, there is the chance you won't make it - some of us don't. Some people die, or are broken forever. But you can decide not to let that happen to you. No matter how much things suck, no matter how bleak the future looks or how unprepared you feel or how scared you are, you can survive this. If there was no chance of your survival, the spirits would never have done this to you. You are not the first nor the last person to ever go through this, and you are not alone - even if you're geographically isolated or stranded among people who don't understand and are hostile to the whole thing, you are not alone. -Elizabeth Vongvisith Mental illness has historically been what I'm hit the hardest with, and this time seems to be little different. I'm emotionally unstable, and prone to wild mood swings, deep depression, anxiety, anti-social behavior, and the occasional manic episode; I can behave very badly and hardly realize it. The depression can be overwhelming; it's arrested my ability to work and if I'm not careful I become sick for not taking care of myself. Even though I've had to live with it my whole life, the instability that comes during shaman sickness is unique (and interestingly enough, when I'm doing my job and not dealing with sickness, my depression is nearly nonexistent; I don't even have to be medicated for it). The mood swings and weird behavior alienate people and I've lost long-time friends over it. My fortune and circumstances have also been screwed over, which seems to be just par for the course. How to make it pass more quickly? Hop into it headfirst and try not to hang on to any part of your life so hard that it breaks you when it's ripped away. Obeying all necessary taboos will keep things from getting as bad as they could be, and doing your job can win you some small assistance from the spirit world. But you can't go through that kind of crisis - emotional, physical, and spiritual crisis - and not be dramatically changed for it. I can now look at some of what I went through and say, “Well, at least it's not that again!” The relative difficulty of whatever mess is in front of me is readjusted accordingly. It removed the doubt of the validity of what I was experiencing; some things end up written so deeply that no amount of rationalizing or self-doubt can argue against it. On the surface that appears to be a good thing, but speaking for myself, some of the ways I achieved that knowledge were horrible (and others simply monstrously unpleasant). The way I understand it, part of the purpose of shaman sickness is to saturate you with poison; in the way that fever drives out illness, shaman sickness strikes at the illness of your life in order to heal you. Getting to the harmony and “health” necessary for a spirit-worker isn't accomplished by comfortable forms of healing - it's amputation and fever, like cutting out cancer or making the body such a toxic environment that whatever invading parasite is driven out or killed. The life that was originally present is forever altered because it was “sick” by the standards of spirit-work. When you're “healthy” you are by necessity a different person. -Jessica Maestas Early on, I was shoved down the path of Madness. I took quite a few steps on that path and sank deeper and deeper into an often suicidal depression. I was blessed by Loki to be given a choice, though: He allowed me to take a long term look down the madness path and quickly chose physical death instead. It's a hell of a lot easier - for me, anyway. I still carry shards of memory and scars from my experiences of slowly feeling my sanity and hold on reality slipping away (and there are times where the terror of that time still rises up in some perverse shamanic PTSD), but I managed to not go too far down that path. I instead chose to walk the Death Road. Once my choice was made, I was immediately struck ill for a fortnight. I was unable to eat, drink, could barely urinate and lay flat on my back in feverish agony. After that, things slowed down and progressed at a more stable pace. Having walked the Madness path for a little bit, I have motivation to keep moving down the Death path. I know that if I hesitate too long in what needs to be done, or refuse certain challenges, I'll be thrown back into madness. It's... um….incredible motivation. My shaman sickness involved losing myself. I started having intense visionary experiences with the Gods that I was honoring. Then things started being taken from me: I lost my apartment, my job, the physical mobility that I'd enjoyed as a dancer, my career, every single one of my friends, and the religious group I was working with at the time. Had it not been for the kindness of the priestess who had trained me, I would have ended up living on the streets. I was forced into emotional and spiritual darkness and for a time, I thought I was back on the Madness road. I think I did go mad for a time. It was as though my emotional landscape was being ploughed up, forced through a sieve, halved and carefully planted with new seeds that would eventually blossom into skills of priestcraft and shaman-craft. In many ways, I got off easy. I know that just as I must now go through a series of ordeals, I may be taken into another cycle of shaman sickness. Odin has hinted at this strongly over the past year. I'm not quite sure what exactly this will entail, though Odin seems to favor a workable blend of mental and physical anguish. I don't think there is anything that will make shaman sickness pass more quickly. I think the way to survive is to surrender to the process and to trust in one's Gods and just bear up and go through it, knowing that if one endures, there is a light at the end of that very dark tunnel. This was the only thing that allowed me to get through it … that hope and an inborn stubborn streak. Finding a community of other experienced shamans and spirit-workers and having a good spiritual foundation can help immensely too but ultimately the only way out is through. Of course, the saying is true, you don't really come back all the way. How can one come back fully from the type of traumatic experience that shaman sickness is? The whole purpose of the sickness is to break a person down, change and re-pattern them into something the Gods and/or spirits can use; to open them creating a vessel or tool. The person as they were before the sickness essentially dies. What returns is different, and the person carries with him or her the scars and remnants of their sick-time. It defines their path and work from that moment on. So if you're going through this, pray. Utilize consistent devotional techniques like centering prayer as a lifeline. Do what you can to keep yourself as physically healthy as possible—no use adding extra strain. Avoid psychiatrists—they don't understand the spiritual and nothing they do will accomplish anything but prolonging the inevitable. You'll likely have no luck with most modern "core"-type shamanic practitioners, because they haven't gone through this and the nonconsensuality of it may frighten them. Try to find other classic shamans and spirit workers, those who have already been through shaman sickness. They may not be able to do anything to help, but just having a support group of people who understand and can reassure you that you're not going crazy, who have gone through the sickness themselves, can be immensely stabilizing. Unfortunately, I really do believe the only way out is through. Do whatever you have to, whatever your Gods are suggesting to open yourself to the process and just endure. I don't know of any other way to survive it. -Galina Krasskova Shaman sickness itself causes drain, never mind when it's synergistically combined with emergent gender issues and emotional rebirthing. I tend to think of them as inextricably linked in the cases where they occur together. In my particular situation, I've dealt with insomnia, major depression, malaise and physical exhaustion, frequent illness, digestive upset, food intolerance, self-destructive episodes, and gender dysphoria. Then there are the bouts of profound self-doubt, extreme spacey-ness, forgetfulness, various kinds of madness, fairly extreme changes in emotional response (including rage which requires a physical outlet) and a desire to run from deity. Never mind the actual day-to-day world collisions and near dissolution of everything I have financially, romantically and career-wise. Your whole world suddenly becomes very precarious. I've known others in my position who have had these same or similar experiences. Having a good support system is really important. This can also be tremendously difficult to achieve when the people closest to you are alienated at times by your behavior and inexplicable changes. You're in the process of dying and being remade, and your loved ones may not recognize or like who and what it is you are becoming. Things you are required to do by the spirits seem contradictory to what is sane and healthy behavior; these things may be seemingly injurious to your person, financial stability and ability to help maintain a functional household. It's no wonder that people around a shaman-sick person have a hard time dealing with it. It's important to keep your lines of communication open with any significant others. This can be tremendously difficult when people are judging you harshly, but you absolutely must be forthright. If things are going to fall apart, there is little you can do to change it anyway, so it might as well happen honestly and succinctly. Being as honest and open as you can manage gives the other people in your life the opportunity to either rise to the occasion or bow out. There is, in the end, no use in prolonging the inevitable or in denying yourself potential support. My advice is to find other people who have experienced these things firsthand. For a quiet introvert like me, finding and accepting community support was a difficult task. It was also one Hela insisted on and I cannot thank Her enough for it. I have found a community of warm and helpful folks who actually understand my predicaments and have useful advice to offer. It's a terrible thing to navigate this experience blind, with most people around you convinced you are simply going off the deep end to no avail. From my own experience and what I've seen in other situations, fighting deity and running from responsibility is not something that ever ends up helping in this process; in fact it is personally devastating. I spent a good amount of time being avoidant and it has resulted in punishments and a work backlog. Things seem to go better when you're doing what you're supposed to, and if your experience is anything like mine you're going to be exhausted either way. It's a lot less painful when things are running smoothly ... well, most of the time. Much of the work is grueling and sometimes pain is just part of the process. The initial stage of shaman sickness seems to me to be a lot like boot camp. You get hazed and ordered to work and be productive, and you scarcely know what you are even doing. For me it's been a sink-or-swim situation a lot of the time, and the only thing I can do is have faith and try. You might get tossed "on-duty lights" that seem way out of your league, all the while trying to navigate your own personal issues. It can be immensely difficult and intimidating, but you have to step up to the plate. I've spent a lot of time thinking about why things are the way they are and my intuition screams that They do things this way because it's Necessary. I know that my patron Hela in particular is motivated by Dire Necessity and Purpose, two things I constantly work at keeping in mind while I struggle with my work. All my life I've had this sense of needing to do something incredibly important (and frankly being bothered by it), and I've spent a lot of my life wondering what that was. I'm not a very ego-centric person and am not drawn to accolades, so I had trouble wrapping my head around this inward push. I think I'm beginning to understand. -Steph Russell My shaman sickness took roughly 6 ½ years and resulted in excessive weight gain, extreme depression, suicide attempts and a completely changed personality. Collectively, they created a situation in which my family members rejected me and eliminated my support base. I'd say that it was primarily mental illness, with physical side effects. The only advice that I can give is to stop fighting it and dive right in, as the more you deny and struggle the harder it becomes. Also, contacting friends you trust and people who may have lived through it for venting or guarding you during the difficult period is helpful. Life would have been far easier if I could have just gone into seclusion and dealt with the spirits rather than holding down a regular job, but this is the modern era and there's nowhere for novice shamans to go. If having friends who've survived isn't possible, finding knowledgeable people to explain it to your loved ones (if appropriate) could help. One thing that might help is to find the culture most akin to the manifestation of sickness and see how they handle the transition. Echo it as much as possible. That's what I did. For those without such a culture, you might review the lore of an accepting culture as well as the lore of yours, and see the parallels - then work the parallels to help the transition. -Aleksa, spirit-worker
Research into how sharks hear is set to become the latest tactic to better understand and help prevent fatal shark attacks in Australian waters. Internationally renowned marine researcher Darlene Ketten will investigate shark hearing as part of her recent appointment as Professor in Imaging and Applied Physics at Curtin Univ.’s Centre for Marine Science and Technology. “One of the questions we’ve got is how and what can sharks hear and how do they use hearing to find prey?” Ketten says. “And, of course, is that linked with shark attacks? Are there sounds that humans are making that are attractive and possibly causing sharks to attack, or is hearing irrelevant in that case? It’s very likely that particularly larger sharks are using lower frequency sounds and that in some way they’re cueing on those." She says that knowing more about what sharks hear may help with the issue of shark attacks. “My work mostly is on sensory systems and I particularly focus on hearing underwater because that’s a sensory system that is critical for every aquatic animal, it’s even more important than it is in air,” she says. Ketten says no animals are naturally profoundly deaf and sound plays a critical role in animal survival, which is the basis of the “breed and feed” theory of sensory systems. “If you want to hear your predators, if you want to hear your mate, if you want to hear your food, you need to have a good auditory system,” she says. Ketten has relocated to Perth and will continue her long-time work on marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. Over the years, she has carried out postmortem studies on stranded whales and dolphins to see if their hearing played some part in the strandings. She often employs computed tomography imaging (CT scans) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study animal hearing. “We analyze the structure of those to help understand what that particular species can hear,” she says. “It’s basic research to know more about their hearing to model the hearing of species we can’t test regularly.” Ketten says with sharks another technique might involve using ABR, or auditory brain stem responses, where surface sensors or electrodes are attached to the animal to determine how well it can hear. “From those you can look at the amplitude response and get an idea of what the animal can hear and what it can’t hear and how sensitive it is to particular frequencies,” she says. Courtesy of ScienceNetwork WA.
(December 11, 2011) – A group of Muslim men launched a White Ribbon Campaign last evening in one of Toronto’s largest Islamic Centres, the Islamic Institute of Toronto The White Ribbon Campaign (WRC) is the largest effort in the world of men working to end violence against women. It is primarily targeted to men and boys asking them to step up and step forward by taking a personal pledge to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls. Muneeb Nasir, one of the men organizing the campaign, asked the audience to recognize the significance of the launch. “It’s important to recognize the significance of this event, at this time,” he said. “This campaign is being launched by Muslim men in an Islamic Centre and it will be promoted in other mosques and Islamic gatherings.” The White Ribbon campaign launch comes on the heels of the “Call to Action to Eradicate Domestic Violence” statement that was recently issued by Canadian Islamic organizations and leaders and which saw Imams and Khateebs deliver sermons (khutbas) on domestic violence last Friday in mosques across the country. The event was chaired by Fareed Amin and speakers included Imams and Khateebs in the community: Imam Sikander Hashmi (Islamic Society of Kingston), Shaikh Abdool Hamid (lslamic Institute of Toronto), Farhad Khadim (Islamic Institute of Toronto), Irshad Osman (Danforth Islamic Centre) and Muneeb Nasir (Olive Tree Foundation). Farheen Khan-Umer, a consultant, writer and social activist spoke on the impact of domestic violence. “We’ve a responsibility to speak up for the wrongs that take place,” Imam Sikander Hashmi told the audience. “Violence in our homes is never an option.” All of the speakers gave resounding endorsements of the campaign and asked everyone, especially the men, to step forward and take the pledge. Shaik Abdool Hamid reminded the attendees that the taking of pledges by the community for important matters was done by the Prophet Muhammad, peace be on him. “Tonight we are launching this campaign which is a strategy to start the conversation in our community to challenge everyone to speak out, and think about their own personal beliefs, language and actions,” said Muneeb Nasir. The organizers are hoping to run this year’s campaign from December 10 to its culmination on December 25 with White Ribbon Days at the largest Canadian Muslim convention to be held at the Metro convention centre.
Meta-awesome. If you haven’t heard, the Foo Fighters created a video caleld Hot Buns to promote their fall tour: The Hot Buns video begins innocently enough. Four hillbilly-attired Foo Fighters are chowing down at a truck stop. Then they head to the showers, soap up, shake their naked backsides and spoof a gay porn film to the strains of Queen’s Body Language. The viral sensation, created to promote the rock band’s fall tour, drew immediate and widespread reaction from fans. And one response from an open foe. The anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, notorious for picketing at military funerals, plans to descend upon the Foos’ second tour stop Friday night in Kansas City, Mo. “I can’t wait,” says Dave Grohl, who hatched the idea for the video after a bus break years ago at a truck stop where drivers lined up for a turn at hot showers. “You know you’ve arrived when they start picketing your shows.” Here’s the uncensored version (because if this blog is anything, it’s NSFW): Writing on their website, WBC said the following: “The entertainment industry is a microcosm of the people in this doomed nation: hard-hearted, hell-bound, and hedonistic,” leader Fred Phelps wrote on the church’s website. “These people have a platform and should be using it to encourage obedience to God; instead they teach every person who will listen all things contrary to him: fornication, adultery, idolatry, fags.” What’s so wrong with fags and fornication? Who doesn’t love fags and fornication?! Is it the alliteration? Is that what bothers you jackasses? Anyway, Fred Phelps and his merry band of assholes made good on their promise to protest the Foo Fighters show in Kansas City, but the Foo Fighters were ready for them: As expected, the WBC showed up to protest the show yesterday (Sept. 16) afternoon. What they didn’t expect, however, was a truck-pulled float carrying all five members of Foo Fighters dressed in trucker outfits and wigs identical to those they donned in their recent ‘Hot Buns’ video. The band played the country parody song ‘Keep It Clean,’ heard in the video, skewering the protesters as they looked on with their picket signs in hand. Advantage, Foo Fighters. [cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
I woke up to an incessant buzzing near my head. After a few confusing seconds of battering around my pillow, I found my ringing phone and swiped right on its screen, then immediately hit the speaker button so I could cuddle my way back into my haven of pillows. "Hello?" I said groggily, not even looking at the caller ID. Hans' voice blasted through the speakers. "HEY SIS, HOW'S IT GOING?" I ripped the blanket off of myself and scrambled up into a sitting position as I took the phone off of speaker and pressed it into my ear. "Hey…" I greeted him. I glanced across the room at Kristoff's bed; he had turned in his sleep but had not been awakened by the noise. I held in a relieved sigh. "It's going," I answered his question as I made my way to the hallway. With one hand I set the bolt so it would keep the door open and I wouldn't get locked out. "How's London?" "Marvelous, simply stunning, my dear" he replied in an absolutely reprehensible British accent. "Glad to hear it, old chap," I said in an equally horrible excuse for an accent. "Did the South Aisles have their gig yet?" "Several, actually!" I could practically hear him waggling his eyebrows at me. "This whole trip has been really promising. Thanks again for covering for me. It went smoothly, I presume?" "Uh… yeah. They totally bought the appendix thing. And Mom just thinks you're at Dad's of course, so that worked out." "Great! It's already been a week so it seems like we won't get caught. We're a regular Bonnie and Clyde!" "Without the, like, killing and robbing part." "Right." He chuckled, giddy. He must be having the time of his life across the pond. I exhaled heavily, turning into the wall as a neighbor passed me in the hall. "There is one issue, though…" "Oh no, don't tell me Mom's on the hunt." "Not Mom, but there is another predator in question. Ingrid won't leave me alone. She keeps ambushing me at the most inopportune moments…" "What does she want?" "You, dummy! You won't answer her calls." "Does she know I'm in London?" "No…" I spun around and planted myself in front of the hallway window, trying to keep my voice down in case Kristoff were to wake up and wander out of the room. "Why didn't you just tell her?" said Hans. "Maybe she'll give up." A pause. "Maybe not." "Knowing her," I sighed, thinking about the fiasco at the restaurant last night, "she'll never give up." "Tell her I'm outta the country and will get back to her soon. It'll get her out of your hair at least." "Yeah…" I said, wishing it were so easy. "I believe in you, sis." "What if I tell her and she goes and blabs to Mom or… that school." I paused, pretending to think hard. "Er- what's it called again?" "Hilton, or something," was his answer, as though Mom hadn't talked about the stupid school our whole childhood. "Right," I said, staring straight at the "Milton" sign outside the dorms. "Ingrid won't say a word, don't you worry Young Grasshopper." "Whatever you say. You still owe me BIG for this one. You'd better get me the best souvenir on the planet." "Sir, yessir!" He laughed again. I could feel his concentration slipping. "I'd better go before I have to tell more lies to someone else," I said, glancing down the hallway again: empty. "Sounds good, sis. We'll catch up more when I'm back." "You mean when you're handing over the best souvenir on the planet." "Yeah, yeah. So needy." I saw a group of dudes from my soccer team turn the corner on the way to the bathroom so I quickly re-entered Kristoff's and my dorm room. "I learn from the best. All right, Hans, get outta here." "Bye, sis. You're the best!" "I know," I said and hung up, closing the door behind me. I heard the guys from the team pass by beyond the door, laughing and joking. Shaking my head at the antics of my crazy brother, I turned and found that Kristoff had finally woken up and was eyeing me from his bed with a raised eyebrow. "Who was that?" he asked. "A good friend of mine from my old school," I said, dropping back down on my bed. I was getting better and better at this lying thing. "His name is Hans too?" He seemed suspicious. I chuckled guiltily. "Small world, right? Must have been fate, meeting him and everything." "Yeah, very weird." To my relief, he dropped the subject completely and got out of bed. "Wanna get breakfast with me before the paintball game?" "I'm not too hungry, " I said. "And I should actually start on my English paper. Knowing me, it'll take two weeks to write and it's due on Friday." "You'd better get started, then!" he said, heading to the door, pajamas and all. "See you in a few." I waved him out and resigned myself solemnly to my desk. Pulling up a blank document on Word always impeded my productivity instead of motivating me. I spent ten minutes staring at the blinking cursor before I cussed at it and picked up my phone, weighing my options. I soon decided what I thought was the best course of action. It rang three times before she picked up. "Hey, Elsa. It's Ann- uh..." I cleared my throat, going into a lower register and hoping she didn't notice the change. "It's Hans! Did you have a good rest of your night last night?" I guess she didn't notice, because she didn't miss a beat. "Hi, Hans. I did, thank you. Did you need something?" "Uh, yeah, I just was going to ask a favor. I have to write a paper on Macbeth and I'm kinda stuck already. I wondered if you could offer any tips or anything." "Do you have a thesis yet?" "I don't even have a topic yet." She laughed slightly. "Oh, boy. You are in trouble." "That's why I called you, I'm sure that you can get me out of it." "You have quite a lot of confidence in me." "I know a bookworm when I see one." She laughed again. "I suppose I must help out the less fortunate." "I would be forever in your debt." "I'll be there in ten and help you pick a topic." "Thanks, Elsa. You're the best,"I said, stealing my brother's line. After we had hung up, I continued to stare down the blank Word file in front of me, hoping that I could have a headstart by the time Elsa showed up, but the knock came before I knew it and my heading remained the only thing I had typed. When I let her in she was wearing, to my surprise, baggy cargo pants and a T-Shirt, which was much different than her usual classy style. Granted, we were usually wearing uniforms but it was still a bit of a shock. "Are you paint-balling after all?" I asked as I rolled Kristoff's desk chair over to my side of the room for Elsa. "Maybe…" she said, taking a seat in the chair I had brought over for her. "What's with the evasion?" I said, also sitting down and scooting up to my desk again. "Kristoff isn't here, I'll keep your secret." "It's not a secret," she said, crossing her legs. "I just haven't decided whether or not I want to risk it yet. Last year I was on the losing team and we had to streak across the field in front of the admin building." "That… is pretty intense," I said, imagining for a moment Elsa - naked and running. I couldn't quite picture it: Elsa seemed so innocent and introverted. Like a little kitten (with a snarky side). "Did you guys get caught?" "The Headmaster turns a curious blind eye to some of the shenanigans that go on here. Maybe they remind him of his own Milton days." "Wait… Weaseltown went to Milton? That must have been a century ago." "You didn't know?" She placed an elbow on my desk and her chin on her fist, swiveling to face me entirely. "He thinks he has the school under an iron grip, but honestly, he's probably more lenient than a non-alumnus would be. Not that any of us are complaining." "I bet," I said, chuckling. "Really though." She scooted slightly closer to me, moving her elbow from my desk to her knee. Her foot touched my shin but I was too focused on her scrutinizing blue eyes to notice. "How are you liking Milton, Hans? And don't give me a default answer you'd give Westleton or a teacher or your parents. I want the truth." I looked at her straight, seriously considering letting my guard down. She was a nice person after you chipped away the icy exterior. And we had become friends in a relatively fast time, even though my first thought had been to take advantage of her smarts. Out of all of the people here, she did seem the most trustworthy, besides Coach Kai (but he guessed my secret and trusting him was the only option I had). I could just tell Elsa about the ICI... ...but I still had a week of my charade to go and a moment of vulnerability could cost me more than I could afford. "I mean, it's school," I finally said, looking away from those blue eyes. "So same old, same old. I like all the people I've met. Just wish the classes weren't so challenging." "Which brings us back to your Macbeth paper," said Elsa, retreating to her original position. Her foot left my shin and she uncrossed her legs, sitting up all business-like. "You really have no clue what you want to write about?" "None at all." "Is there anything that intrigues you about the story or the characters? Or is there a symbol or motif or theme that you'd want to explore?" I stared at her blankly. This girl was way too smart, I couldn't handle it. "Have you even read the damned thing?" Despite her impatience she seemed amused. I shifted in my chair. "Does the Sparknote summary count?" "I'm not sure I can help you much if you don't even know the play." "But it's boring!" I whined. "What's boring about death and betrayal and madness?" On each word, she gestured hugely, which was the most energy I had seen her put out to the world. I had to hold back a smile at how cute it was. To stop a most un-manly reaction, I leaned back in my chair in defeat. "I think you should just write my paper for me. I think you'd actually have fun, and you'd probably go way past ten pages." Besides that, watching her get all fired up about literature was amazing to witness. "Oh stop it," she said, punching my shoulder lightly. I liked playful Elsa. I raised my fist in threat of retaliation and she ducked, raising her hands in defense and giggling. Before I could make good on my threat, the door opened announcing Kristoff's return from breakfast. At the sight of his roommate getting chummy with the girl he liked, his face plummeted and flushed red. Or maybe it was embarrassment at the fact that he was still wearing his pajamas and Elsa was in the room. Either way, to lessen the blow, I stood and picked up my laptop, striding straight for the form that was still stopped in the doorway, glancing between the two of us. "Yo, Kristoff, have you read Macbeth? Elsa's helping me think of a paper topic but we're failing epically." "No, you're failing epically," said Elsa, standing and rolling Kristoff's chair back to its usual position at his desk. "The game's about to start, you two should probably get ready." Kristoff brightened instantly. "So you are playing." "You've found me out, whatever will I do?" she said, sighing dramatically. "I'll see you guys down at the field!" "See ya!" I said, and closed the door behind her. As soon as it was shut, I broke into an apology. "Kristoff, I swear that wasn't what it looked like." "Dude, it's totally cool. Elsa is the best person to ask for help on an English paper!" "Right?" I said, slightly more excitable than I needed to be just because I was so relieved I hadn't offended my teddy bear roommate. "Yes! Let's go, let's go!" he said, coming over to physically hustle me. "C'mon, get out of those pajamas. We got a game to win!" How I had spent the whole week at Milton and not noticed the giant paintball course by the soccer field was beyond me. I guess I was just that unobservant. "So… the school just has sets of paintball gear that they let everyone use randomly?" I asked Kristoff as we neared the course. There are already people milling about and suiting up. "Well, we have to check them out. There are only 20 suits, and they're pretty beat up. The guns, too. They don't have a lot of power, so getting shot doesn't hurt as much as newer guns would." I hadn't thought about the pain of having paintballs exploding on my body before this, but I shook off the momentary anxiety - it would be fine. Can't be as bad as breaking my arm when I was a kid, right? Teams were already being picked when we arrived - there was a red team and a blue team. A masked blue team member meandered over to meet us at our approach, and shouldered me when we neared. "Yo! Hands off the goods," I said. The masked paintballer let out a muffled laugh and reached up to remove their helmet. It was Elsa, of course. "Blue team?" scoffed Kristoff. "Red lost last time, I prefer not to risk it." "Kristoff!" called a guy from the soccer team whose name I didn't know. He tossed Kristoff a blue suit. "Really, man?" said Kristoff, catching it easily. "Trust me, bro. You wanna be on the blue team this time." "Whatever you say! Got an extra suit for my roommate?" "Sorry, dude, last one," the guy said to me. I shook my head and held up a hand to indicate that it was okay. "They'll probably need the soccer star on the red team anyway - it'll make it more fair!" "Have a good game, Hans!" Kristoff called as he walked to his base with his teammate to get suited up. "Here," said Elsa, pushing a red suit into my hands. "May the best team win." "Or the best side of the color wheel," I said, smirking. "Ha, ha," she said and walked back toward the blue base. I followed suit and went back toward my own base, hoping that red would not be the losing team today or at least that nudity was not the punishment for being defeated. That would literally ruin my whole week. Who did I find at the red base but… "Hans!" Gerda said when she saw me. "Hey Gerda!" I said, relieved to see a friendly face. I doubted that she would be extremely helpful during the game but at least I had a friend. Looking around my base, I sawthat the rest of the red team was all the scrawny, nerdy guys. Plus Gerda and me… and although I was the athletic type I was no match for guys Kristoff's size. I guess I would have to play as a stealthy sniper. Gerda helped me into the red outfit Elsa gave me - it was way too big and probably made for actual men, not girls pretending to be men. I hoped that letting Gerda help me dress didn't make it seem like I was flirting with her. I liked her well enough but I would feel like an ass if I found out I was leading someone on, especially after asking her out on that double date last night. I looked closely at her before securing the mask on my face but she didn't seem the least bit bothered. When the whistle rang out to start the game, I ducked immediately left into a tube, crawling my way to the other end. I could already hear other players shooting and yelling as the courageous, reckless ones ran straight out into the line of fire. I neared the end of the tube and poked out my gun in case there was an opponent nearby. I heard footsteps coming upon the opening I was at and I aimed right at the approaching player, only to find it was Gerda. "What are you doing, Gerda?" I asked looking around as I scrambled out of the tube and rose to a crouch. "Get down!" I grabbed hold of her forearm and dragged her back behind the tube I had just crawled through. "Sorry, I'm not wearing my glasses. They didn't fit under the mask thing." "Be careful! If you get shot, you're out and we'll have lost a team member. Whoever loses all of their team loses the game." "Is that how it works? I suppose I should have known that," she said, sounding as though she were pondering her existence "It's sounds like chess." "Have you ever played a game of paintball before, Gerda?" I asked, trying to keep the incredulity out of my tone. "No, but when I heard you guys talking about it last night I thought, 'why not'? I'm trying to be more adventurous." "Okay, well, keep outta sight, okay? Unless you think you can take someone down. Just try not to get shot." "Aye, aye, Captain!" she said, saluting me with her gun. I took hold of the tip and pulled it down to point at the ground. "Don't aim that at your own teammates either!" "I'll remember that," she said, nodding. She sat right down on the grass behind the tube, which I took as my cue to leave. I peeked over the top of our hiding spot and saw some of the blue team rushing our base. They were set to move right past where I was so I took aim and rapidly fired into the mass. To my surprise, I actually got most of them out. They slumped off the field, frustrated with themselves. The two I missed darted behind some haybales. With a burst of heroism, I leapt over the tube and ran straight for their hiding places; I had hit them both before they had time to realize what had happened. I skidded around them and launched myself behind another tube; now I was halfway down the field, closer to the blue base than any red player had been the whole game. I crouched, panting harshly and fogging up my mask. I listened for any footsteps and wondered how many players were left on the red team. I couldn't lose - I couldn't afford to do a punishment that would expose my secret! "Aha!" came a muffled voice from behind me. I turned, flinching in anticipation of the paintball that did not come. A slender blue player had stepped in front of me just in time and taken the traitor's bullet from their teammate. The player who fired the round removed their mask, exposing Kristoff as the blue culprit. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the look of surprise on his face when my savior, too, removed their mask and turned out to be none other than Elsa. From my position on the ground I couldn't see her expression but I'd know that blonde braid anywhere. What happened next was a surprise to everyone - suddenly a red splash of paint exploded on Krisoff's back, covering his suit and hair in a bloody, dripping red. He spun around to face the offender, my second savior, and it was someone on my team this time. "Nothing personal," said Gerda. She had taken off her mask and replaced her glasses. "But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do." Just then, a whistle blew and a voice cried out: "RED TEAM WINS!" "What!?" I shouted involuntarily, springing to my feet and dropping my gun. "No way…" Kristoff said. I hadn't realized Gerda and I were the last red players left on the field. Were paintball games always this short? "I've never been on the losing team before," Kristoff said, scratching the back of his paint-splattered head in disbelief. "There's a first time for everything, buddy," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder comfortingly before turning to Elsa. "I don't know why you did that, but I'm grateful for it." "I didn't think the new kid needed to take a naked dip in the disgusting Milton pond on his first week of school," she said, smirking. Before I could respond, the rest of the red team was upon me, congratulating and thanking me and Gerda. Gerda was her usual modest self. "I really didn't do anything, I hid most of the game. It's Hans who won you the game." Before they could begin talk of a celebration, there was the business of punishment to attend to… Since most of the red team had lost the time before and had to streak past the Headmaster's office, they were all in favoring of making the blue team skinny dip in the far pond on campus. By now the sun was beginning to set, so the losers could have a nice moonlit swim. I decided I would watch from a distance because I really didn't want to get a good look at all the guys' family jewels. I can't tell you how relieved I was that I only had to watch and could continue to keep my secret after all the chaos. "Hey, now you can wash your hair when you jump in the pond, right?" I called to Kristoff as he removed his gear. He flipped me off and I laughed like a maniac. Sore loser. The trek across campus to the pond was a festive parade from the red team and an embarrassed sulk from the blue team. When we arrived, the blue team began stripping immediately, to get it over with as soon as possible, with the red team (people who hardly ever won anything) teasing them as they went. The shadows deepened as the sun lowered further beyond the horizon. Bringing up the very rear of the loser party was Elsa, the only reason I was not the one stripping and jumping into the murky pond. Making one of my signature snap decisions, I glanced around quickly to make sure no one was watching and snagged her arm as she passed me. She let out a slightly startled yelp and I placed a hand over her mouth as I led my savior away from the frivolity and into a nearby cloister of trees. We stumbled together through the darkness side-by-side like a drunken pair, my arm still wrapped around her shoulders, my hand over my mouth. I released her when we were successfully hidden from the paintball teams. "What was that for?" Elsa asked immediately after I had liberated her. We continued walking away from the pond, the shouts and laughter growing more and more distant. "Isn't it obvious?" I said incredulously. "You saved me from punishment during the game, I think it's only fair that I return the favor." "How very brave of you," Elsa said. "We left Kristoff and Gerda back there, though." My stomach dropped. Oh no. How in the world could I have spaced out the fact that I had just pulled the object of Kristoff's affection from him - especially when he could have seen her naked? I felt guilty, but then the next second I felt oddly protective as another voice in my head said - good. She's not a piece of meat to gawk at. Then I immediately thought about poor Gerda and how awkward she was around anyone, much less a bunch of naked guys. I hoped Kristoff would sort of take her under his wing… but I hoped that he was fully clothed when he did. Maybe I could head back to the pond after I made sure Elsa was safely on her get away boat. "Hans, are you okay? We can go back for them." I blinked, realizing I had stopped dead while I thought. Elsa was standing right in front of me, looking me in the eyes, confused and slightly concerned. "No, it's no big," I said. shaking my head and continuing to walk, making a wide circle around her. "They can handle themselves." The sudden eye contact had caused a flushed heat to rise into my cheeks. I was confused once more - the last time I felt so inept and childlike was when I had had a crush on the boy's soccer captain back at my old school. But Elsa was a girl. A beautiful one, but a girl nonetheless. The trees cleared out into a sharp drop of grass that then leveled out again into an expansive lawn. This was a corner of campus that I had not yet seen. As I reached the edge of the trees, trying to give my cheeks a chance to cool off, my foot caught the very last stump and I was propelled forward with a most girly cry. I hit the slope and rolled all the way down the slick, wet grass until I came to a stop on my back, out of breath and dizzy. Why does this stuff always happen to me? Elsa was still at the top of the slope, laughing in a way that sounded like she felt bad but she couldn't help it anyway. "Are you okay?" she called down to me between giggles. "Yeah," I said, "just give me a second." Elsa, still giggling, laid herself at the top of the slope and let herself also roll down it, a lot more gracefully than me. She tumbled down, coming to a rest right beside me, her head by my feet. We both laid there and laughed and panted. "It's a clear night," Elsa said, pointing up at the sky. "Do you know any constellations?" I squinted upwards, trying to draw shapes in the dots of light. "Just Orion." "Here," she said, moving her finger to point at it, "if you start at Orion and follow his belt up and out, you can find Canus Major and the Big Dipper. The little Dipper you can't see because it's under the horizon. And that one is Gemini, can you see the shoulders of the twins?" We continued to lay there, stargazing, me listening to Elsa explain how to find constellations and I realized that this was the least stressed I had felt so far this week as I tried to keep up with the ICI. For once I could be Anna, not Hans. I was just a person who had somehow made pretty good friends within a week of being at a new school (under false pretenses but who's keeping track). "Those are all the ones I know," Elsa said, concluding her astronomy lesson. "I mostly just like the names and mythology behind them. When I was little I knew every Greek myth." "Isn't Greek mythology filled with sex, betrayal and killing?" "Yep. Kid Elsa grew up pretty fast," she said, and we both laughed. Then she sat up and looked over at me, where my sprawled form was making a life-sized dent in the grass beneath me. "Well, I should probably get back to my dorm, I have a lot of studying to get done tomorrow and I want to get a head start." "Yeah, of course," I said, also sitting up. I got to my feet, then reached out to help Elsa up. Her hands were slender and very cold, almost like ice. When she was on her feet, I tried to drop her hands, but she held on tight, our bodies facing one another. Our eyes connected again and the heat came back to my cheeks. Despite this, I noticed once more that odd look of recognition in her gaze that had been there when I first sat next to her in chem. "Thanks again, Hans." And before I knew it, she had leaned forward and planted a soft kiss right on my lips, pulled away, and turned to walk back to her dorm. I stood like a deer caught in the headlights, watching her tall form get swallowed by the darkness as I slowly let myself accept the fact that the kiss had made my heart stop and restart again. I wasn't sure what was happening in my brain but it was very confusing and made me feel so guilty that I sort of felt nauseous. Then I remembered I hadn't properly thanked her for saving me during the game, or even bid her goodnight but it was too late - she was gone. By the time I got back to my own dorm (Kristoff had not yet returned), I had realized three fundamental truths: 1) Kristoff must never know what happened because he would literally murder me. 2) I seemed to have some sort of crush on Elsa. But I was Anna, and 3) Elsa liked Hans. And I wasn't Hans.
Millions of people risk having their devices and systems compromised by malicious subtitles, Check Point researchers revealed today. The threat comes from a previously undocumented vulnerability which affects users of popular streaming software, including Kodi, Popcorn-Time, and VLC. Developers of the applications have already applied fixes or will do so soon. Online streaming is booming, and applications such as Kodi, Popcorn Time and VLC have millions of daily users. Some of these use pirated videos, often in combination with subtitles provided by third-party repositories. While most subtitle makers do no harm, it appears that those with malicious intent can exploit these popular streaming applications to penetrate the devices and systems of these users. Researchers from Check Point, who uncovered the problem, describe the subtitle ‘attack vector’ as the most widespread, easily accessed and zero-resistance vulnerability that has been reported in recent years. “By conducting attacks through subtitles, hackers can take complete control over any device running them. From this point on, the attacker can do whatever he wants with the victim’s machine, whether it is a PC, a smart TV, or a mobile device,” they write. “The potential damage the attacker can inflict is endless, ranging anywhere from stealing sensitive information, installing ransomware, mass Denial of Service attacks, and much more.” In a demonstration video, using Popcorn Time, the researchers show how easy it is to compromise the system of a potential victim. A demo of the subtitles vulnerability XBMC Foundation’s Project lead Martijn Kaijser informs TorrentFreak that the Kodi team is aware of the situation, which they will address soon. “We will release 17.2 which will have the fix this week,” he told us. VLC’s VideoLAN addressed the issue as well, and doesn’t expect that it is still exploitable. “The VLC bug is not exploitable. The first big issue was fixed in 2.2.5. There are 2 other small issues, that will be fixed in 2.2.6,” VideoLAN informed us. The team behind PopcornTime.sh found a fix several months ago after the researchers approached them, TorrentFreak is informed. The Popcorn Time team trusts their subtitle provider OpenSubtitles but says that it will now sanitize malicious subtitle files, also those that are added by users. (Note: Popcorn.sh has not applied all fixes in their stable code, but that will happen later today with version 0.3.11) The same applies to the Butter project, which is closely related to Popcorn Time. Butter was not contacted by Check Point but their fix is visible in a GitHub commit from February. “None of the Butter Project developers were contacted by the research group. We’d love to have them talk to us if our code is still vulnerable. To the extent of our research it is not, but we’d like the ‘responsible disclosure’ terms to actually mean something,” The Butter project informs TorrentFreak. The Check Point researchers expect that other applications may also be affected. They do not disclose any technical details at this point, nor do they state which of the applications successfully addressed the vulnerability. “Some of the issues were already fixed, while others are still under investigation. To allow the developers more time to address the vulnerabilities, we’ve decided not to publish any further technical details at this point,” the researchers state. More updates will be added if more information becomes available. For now, however, people who regularly use subtitle files should remain vigilant.
Cruz to Republican Establishment: “Shut Up and Do Your Job” – by Calvin Freiburger Conservative Senator and 2016 primary candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX) has little patience for #NeverTrump Republican politicians who think the biggest issue in America is their personal disdain for President Donald Trump. The Hill reports: “It’s like you’re back in junior high. … We’ve got a job to do, dammit, and so all of this nonsense, I got nothing to say on it. Everyone shut up and do your job, is my view,” Cruz told conservative radio host Mark Davis on Wednesday. Cruz was asked about Republican Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.), who offered blistering criticism of Trump on Tuesday, but he didn’t directly mention the two in his response. He added that Americans are “frustrated” by Republicans’ inability to make good on years-long campaign promises. “Well I think it’s unfortunate the nastiness that pervades Washington now and political battles of personality that consume seemingly every minute of the media attention and an awful lot of time and energy here in this town,” he said […] Discussing the GOP health-care effort, he argued that it was moderates, not conservatives, who had shelved the effort. “Alright big boys, we got a majority and you know who it is who is screwing up governing? It’s the so-called elder statesman moderates,” he said. Here’s the audio of Cruz elaborating on his point, which is well worth your time: Bingo. Almost nobody is saying Republicans and conservatives can’t or shouldn’t ever criticize Trump. I think his presidency has been a mix of highs and lows so far, I’ve expressed my frustration with him plenty of times, and I’ll be the first to agree how tiresome Sean Hannity-style apologists for any politician are. But it really isn’t too much to ask of these guys that as they issue their ten-thousandth “I dislike X about Donald Trump” statement, they also take a few minutes to point out that the Democrats are incalculably worse by every measure, that they recognize that Trump’s flaws and mistakes are far from the only or the biggest problem in American politics right now. When the American people see you endlessly railing against Trump for the exact same reasons the mainstream media says we’re supposed to hate him, yet they see you rarely or never mustering a fraction of that moral indignation for a laundry list of dirty deeds from the Democrats or for your more moderate Republican colleagues sabotaging an eight-year promise, you can’t blame us for suspecting that your anti-Trump posturing just miiiiiight be about something other than “conscience.” At Conservative Review, Daniel Horowitz makes that point with a simple comparison between how Flake criticizes Trump and how Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has criticized him: Flake has stood for nothing in his Senate career other than promoting the agenda of the Mexican government and standing up to Trump. Yet, ironically, even while standing up to Trump, he has failed to do so on issues that matter to conservatives — or in a meaningful way. Rand Paul has taken a sledgehammer to Trump in a principled way that makes Flake’s entire brand seem pathetic. But because it’s been rooted in principles, Sen. Paul actually has a better relationship now with Trump and is moving him to the Right on some issues, despite their acrimonious start (both on the campaign trail and in office) […] Where Trump is helpful, he backs him up; where Trump is an obstacle, he opposes him more vociferously than Flake; where Trump can be influenced, which is the case on many issues, Rand is willing to negotiate. Principle and objectivity really aren’t complicated … they’re just sinfully rare in Washington, DC. Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers' newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.
Andrew Smith is an assistant professor of english and philosophy at Drexel University. He's also a vegan. Which may surprise you once you learn that he has written a book called A Critique of the Moral Defense of Vegetarianism. In other words, he's a vegan who doesn't think vegetarianism and veganism are morally defensible. Yup. In an essay that just appeared in The Conversation, Smith argues that even if you avoid eating animal-based products, you are what your food eats. And the bottom line for Smith is this: Plants get their nutrients from the soil, which is partly composed of decayed animal remains. So, he wants the vegans and vegetarians of the world to understand that they're eating animal remains in and through the plants they eat. And, yes: Smith says he has been a vegetarian for about 20 years and "nearly" vegan for six. So, while clearly not opposed to these practices, he just doesn't want anyone out there deluding themselves that their way of eating is justified on moral grounds. Basically, he says, we're all eating meat whether we realize it or not. READ MORE: The Original Paleo Diet Was Full of Carbs We just had to learn more about how Smith feels regarding his own eating choices and those of the vegan and vegetarian communities at large, so we spoke with him today. MUNCHIES: You critique the morality of vegetarianism and argue that people who choose not to eat meat on moral grounds—for example, because they object to eating sentient beings—are simply fooling themselves. Can you explain why? Andrew Smith: I'm not saying that vegetarians are fooling themselves, per se. I'm saying they're taking a limited view of the food choices they make based on those grounds. Yes, animals are sentient, but the problem with suspending one's eating on the basis of sentience is that plants are sentient, too. This is something that is really only coming out in the scientific literature on plant biology over the last ten to 15 years or so. I don't fault vegetarians for not recognizing this—it's just a matter of increasing one's knowledge about the beings from which we make our food. You say it is literally impossible to be a vegetarian. How so? Surely not all plant matter is using animal remains or waste as sustenance. Determining which plants aren't would get really, really tricky. Now, it would be possible within controlled environs to feed plants plant matter. That is possible, but practically speaking, if we are eating fruits and vegetables that grew on the ground, the ability to make these distinctions breaks down. That's the point that I'm looking at and am concerned with. It's not that I'm trying to make a point about who is defining their eating choices wrongly. I'm trying to broaden people's view of our relationship with food and the land itself. Our eating practices are part of a much larger biological and ecological system. Isn't there a difference between plants absorbing nutrients from animals that die of natural causes and those gaining nutrients from the mass slaughter of livestock for the industrial food complex? The animal industrial complex is a moral and ecological abomination. It simply shouldn't exist. What I'm trying to point out is that in order for all of us to live, killing has to happen and it has to happen to sentient beings. Once we accept that, it doesn't entail that we should accept the status quo or accept how animals are treated. Instead, I think we should respect, care for, and take care of any being that can potentially be our food. Do you feel there is a particular reason there is such a big disconnect between plant-based life and sentience? There are historical reasons, cultural reasons, and philosophical reasons that go all the way back to philosophers like Plato and Aristotle—particularly the way they classified animals, plants, humans, and the gods. Today, that still reverberates. We look at the grass in our lawn and the trees outside our windows and we see beings that are certainly alive, but passive and largely inert. That's simply not the case. These beings are aware and very active in their environment. In some respects, they are far more aware of their surroundings than animals are. You've stated that vegetarianism and veganism aren't always eco-friendly. Can you explain why that is? The reasons that vegans and vegetarians tend to see their diet as more ecologically friendly is because the way that animals are raised and slaughtered is an ecological horror. That said, there are better and worse ways to be a vegetarian or a vegan. Coffee, for instance, is in such high demand today that tropical rainforests are being destroyed to grow the crop. Chocolate is very destructive. Cashews are being farmed in Indonesia at the expense of the rainforest. Almonds require an astronomical amount of water to grow. What I'm trying to suggest is that we pay attention to the land and the beings that make up our food and consider their needs and interests as a barometer for how we determine how we should eat. If coffee and chocolate are harmful, we should pay attention to that and change our consumer habits and demands. READ MORE: New Research Says Vegetarian Diets Could Actually Be Worse for the Planet In your essay, you point out that humans are also part of the food chain because we die and decompose in the earth just as animals do. In that regard, would you go so far as to say that we are all cannibals? I'm not trying to establish a new label for us. I'm trying to get rid of these labels that obscure our relationships with the world around us. Can we consider ourselves cannibals because we may eat the atoms of humans? You know, go ahead. If you want to do so, fine! Does that mean I'm morally condoning the killing of neighbors and eating them? No. I'd really prefer if we just do away with arbitrary labels and instead think about our relationship with not only our human neighbors, but our non-human neighbors—the biological communities in which we live. So, if there is no moral basis for being a vegetarian or vegan, why in the world are you still a vegan? This is, in some respects, the big question that is very fair for people to ask me. There are two reasons. You had mentioned, in an ideal world, what would this set of eating practices look like? We're far from anything like that ideal. So eating in the way I describe, because I live in an urban setting, is incredibly difficult. In fact, I'm not sure I can do it. So my second best, sub-optimal fallback is vegetarianism. I've been a vegetarian for so long now, that I still have, if not moral reasons to abstain from eating animals, I still have emotional reasons, sentimental reasons. It's hard for me to feel comfortable doing it. That doesn't rise to the level of being a moral justification, but it certainly does impact my decision making. Thanks for speaking with us, Andrew.
The Ugly Truth About Blockchain Applications Demian Brener Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 29, 2016 Before starting Smart Contract Solutions, we spent the previous 4 years working with blockchain tech. We’ve worked for the largest companies in the space and built popular apps and libraries. We got our hands dirty learning the ins and outs of smart contract development. And in the process, we’ve come to realize something. We began in 2012 building Proof of Existence. It was the first non-financial blockchain application to time stamp documents using the Bitcoin blockchain. Then, together with a group of friends, we developed Streamium, a decentralized p2p live streaming application. Streamium was the first implementation of Bitcoin’s payment channels, the smart contract protocol that inspired the Lightning Network. Both apps were widely popular. They were featured on renowned publications and magazines. The blockchain economy was growing at full steam and we were riding the crest of the wave. Things looked promising but we came to realize a little secret: developing blockchain apps is hard and the infrastructure is vastly underdeveloped. Everyone — including us — was building blockchain applications, but the underlying stack was not yet in place. We had to build our own tools and standards for developing Proof of Existence and Streamium. While working for Bitpay, we helped develop Bitcore, a very popular JavaScript bitcoin library. We ended up using Bitcore for most of our projects. There were very few other tools and libraries we could resort to. We realized that only a small group of blockchain experts was capable of building distributed applications. Developing blockchain applications is hard, and making them secure is even harder. For a new decentralized internet to emerge, more people were needed to build it. That would only happen once the right tools and standards were in place, lowering the barriers of entry to new developers. During these 4 years, the industry moved fast: new decentralized platforms, blockchains and programming languages emerged. Enthusiasm for building distributed applications, protocols and organizations grew. Thousands of developers and entrepreneurs got into blockchain tech, devising new and innovative products and business models. Over $1.3bn have been invested in digital currency startups by VCs, institutional investors and crowdfundings so far. We’ve witnessed great ideas come to life and tremendous scandals. Yet, the infrastructure for building blockchain applications remains underdeveloped. There are no tools for developers to easily create, test, verify and audit smart contracts, and do so collaboratively. Developing code that deals with real money is risky. However, there are still no widely adopted security standards or best practices for projects to follow. That’s why we decided to work on OpenZeppelin. OpenZeppelin is an open-source framework that makes it easy for developers to build secure blockchain-based applications. It reduces the blockchain infrastructure gap by providing secure, tested and audited code. Instead of developing their own from scratch, developers can use OpenZeppelin’s vetted modules to build secure smart contracts. Its modules are used for issuing tokens and defining the rules of their underlying systems. Furthermore, OpenZeppelin is open-source and community-driven for anyone to contribute and audit. We believe projects should focus on building their product and making it grow, not on becoming blockchain experts. In the same way you don’t need to understand how Ethernet, ARP, TCP/IP and HTTP work in order to build internet applications, you shouldn’t need to understand how smart contracts, tokens and consensus algorithms work in order to develop scalable blockchain applications. OpenZeppelin reduces the friction and knowledge required to build and deploy secure blockchain applications.
Graham Linehan likes women. He really likes women. So much so, that he thinks we need rescuing. From ourselves. The comedy writer has become embroiled in GamerGate recently, with his tweets turning increasingly hysterical in recent days. His descent into the absurd is perhaps compounded by the movement’s refusal to die, despite a number of premature funerals by the gaming media (the earliest was in October). Linehan initially proclaimed that GamerGate is nothing but a misogynistic hate group while steadfastly refusing to believe that any woman could support it. He then stepped things up, comparing them to the KKK, arguing that they deserve to be harassed. (Thanks Graham. I’m sure all the people who had their families threatened for supporting GamerGate will be thrilled to hear that a washed-up comic thinks they were “asking for it.” I certainly feel better about being told to “off myself” now!). Like most bigots, Linehan has very little interest in discussion, blocking anyone who asks for evidence of his hyperbolic accusations against GamerGate. Any attempt to engage his demonstrably false claims or the lack of a link to GamerGate results in either a block or insults. If you’ve really caught him out, expect both. Early on Thursday, Linehan broke from his usual routine to acknowledge that women who support GamerGate do actually exist – they’re just “stupid and ill-informed.” Naturally, a number of these “stupid, ill-informed women” took issue with this statement: How did this man acquire 400k followers? Do they follow him because of all the inept things he utters? @Glinner @shoe0nhead @Angelheartnight — Jennay (@JennOfHardwire) January 29, 2015 @AdamBaldwin Why’s default assumption of ppl like @Glinner that women who disagree w/ him are stupid & we need him to tell us how to think? — Amy Curtis (@moderncomments) January 29, 2015 @ZombieNeith @Glinner Isn’t it sexist to call women stupid because their opinion doesn’t fit a narrative? — Sarah/Salanica (@SarahSalanica) January 29, 2015 Linehan also managed to mistake popular YouTuber and GamerGate supporter shoe0nhead for a man, and accused her of being a misogynist. Linehan deleted the tweet shortly after being made aware of his error, but not before the entire internet had witnessed (and archived) his dunderheaded stupidity and created a new hashtag, #FullLinehan. Is this a temporary lapse of sanity? Is Linehan, like many others, basically a decent person who’s been misled by the mainstream media’s appallingly bad reporting on GamerGate? Unfortunately not. This isn’t the first time Linehan has used “feminism” to justify being an asshole. Only last year, Linehan attacked country singer Dolly Parton for her “fucked up face”, and railed against the “supposed feminists” who supported her choice to have plastic surgery. Freedom of choice for women! Unacceptable, right? Despite being taken to task on this issue by feminists true to the definition of the word, it seems Linehan is still on a mission to save us poor, unfree wimmenfolk from ourselves. For Linehan, female autonomy still seems to be an alien concept. I count myself a liberal feminist (and egalitarian, and humanist, just to make sure I’ve annoyed everyone) but I am increasingly frustrated by the marginalisation of women so often carried out in the name of feminism by those on the my side of the political spectrum. I have never been treated poorly by others in GamerGate, male or female, and my experience echoes that of others. Yet it seems our experiences are only useful to people like Linehan if they confirm their view of the internet as a misogynistic wasteland, where we need to be saved by brave men howling insults at those with a divergent opinion. Further proof can be found in the media portrayal of GamerGate as a gender war, conveniently ignoring those of us who don’t fit that narrative. Linehan’s attitude says that we will only be treated as equals if we conform to a certain set of opinions. Well, a huge thank you from all us women, Mr Lineham. Where would we be without you? How would we know what to feel or think? Men like you are just so essential to making sure us stupid, ill-informed women don’t go astray. We’re so glad to know you continue have the best interests of women everywhere* at heart. *Note: To qualify as a woman, you must conform to Mr Linehan’s opinions on what you can and can’t do with your body. And pretty much all his other views too.
Apple watchers have been talking about an Apple Television for years, but we've still yet to see one. Dubbed iTV, the television is thought to have been a project of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who told his biographer that he had "cracked it" before he died in 2011. So when is the Apple Television coming out? Here's the iTV release date rumours and feature speculation all in one place. First up, we should note that the Apple Television in question is not the Apple TV, Apple's set-top box. (See: Apple TV review). Rather, it's a fully-fledged television set made by Apple. Secondly, it's worth highlighting that the Apple Television is a completely unannounced product that may never end up making it into Apple Stores. But, there's lots of evidence to suggest that it's coming, so you can use this article and our expert opinions to help you decide whether or not you think an Apple Television is on its way. See also: Apple's plans for 2014 (Macworld UK) iTV rumours: What Apple has said about TV In his biography of Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson wrote that Jobs claimed he had figured out how to solve the problem of an integrated television - an Apple TV that would revolutionise another media industry. "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Jobs told Isaacson. "It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it." So no more fiddly TV, DVD, Blu-ray, DVR remotes to lose behind the sofa. Just another stylish product with an Apple logo on it, and probably another app on your iPhone or iPad. That's a pretty strong hint that an Apple TV is in the works. When Steve Jobs admits something, that's about as good a bet as an Apple press release - certainly better than most of the guff currently surrounding all we know about the Apple Television. There is a growing group of analysts and commentators questing whether Steve Jobs was referring to a full Apple TV set or just a super-content-filled version of its Apple TV set-top box. "Asking people to spend $100 on a little black box with TV superpowers that gets upgraded every year is much easier than asking them to spend $2000 on a TV set they keep for five," points out Gizmodo. So what if Apple iTV isn't a TV at all, but a bigger, better Apple TV? Former head of Apple's advanced product development and worldwide marketing Jean-Louis Gasse prefers the idea of an Apple set-top box: "I believe Apple TV's magic will be performed by a separate box, a descendant of today's £99 Apple TV black puck, perhaps in combination with a new version of Time Capsule. This will enable the no-longer-a-hobby Apple TV to bring its magic to the millions of HDTVs already in homes all over the world - and to be replaced with better/faster hardware without drama." Only time will tell. Jony Ive, Apple's quietly mega-successful lead designer, says that Apple's currently working on is the biggest thing Apple has ever done (source: The Telegraph): "What we're working on now feels like the most important and the best work we've done, and so it would be what we're working on right now, which of course I can't tell you about." Is Ive talking about the iTV? And Steve's successor as Apple CEO Tim Cook also made a broad hint about a forthcoming Apple TV, during a February 2012 keynote at Goldman Sachs: "I wouldn't want to go into detail about future stuff, obviously Apple doesn't do hobbies, as a general rule. We believe in focus and only working on a few things. With Apple TV, however, despite the barriers in that market, for those of us who use it, we've always thought there was something there. "And that if we kept following our intuition and kept pulling the string, then we might find something that was larger. For those people that have it right now, the customer satisfaction is off the charts. But we need something that could go more main market for it to be a serious category." That was a long time ago now, though, and we've still not seen an Apple Television. In fact, even the Apple TV hasn't been updated since the beginning of 2013, and that was just a minor update. At an All Things Digital conference at the end of May 2012 Apple CEO Tim Cook said technology for televisions was of "intense interest" but calmed the heat of rumour and expectation by saying that the company's efforts would unfold gradually rather than Apple suddenly reveal its revolutionary iTV. "This is an area of intense interest for us," Cook said, referring to Apple's existing television set-top box Apple TV. We're going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us." As of April 2014, Apple had sold almost 20 million Apple TV boxes cumulatively, which highlights the potential of Apple's impact on the industry, whether it sticks to just the set-top box or goes for the fully-fledged television. "Here's the way we would look at that, not just at this area but other areas, and ask can we control the key technology?" Cook said in 2012 in response to a question about how Apple thinks about improving the TV experience for consumers. "Can we make a significant contribution, far beyond what others have done in this area? Can we make a product that we would want?" The company has a good relationship with content owners and doesn't see the need to own a content business, Cook said, adding he has met with several people in that business recently. Many years ago Jobs famously pooh-poohed the whole television thing, saying "TV turns your brain off, PCs turn your brain on." He was responding to the then-trendy notion of "conversion" where PCs would do TV, TVs would do PC stuff, and radios would continue to not do much at all. He even joked about a TV that makes toast. Watch the Steve Jobs on Television video, it's pretty funny. But apart from Steve's change of mind and joy at Apple's ability to take over another industry what do we know about the forthcoming Apple Television? This is where the facts end and rumours begin - where unnamed sources come out of the woodwork, and speculation enters the mix. iTV rumours: What will the Apple Television look like? Jeff Robbin, the engineer who helped create the iPod and iTunes, is apparently in charge of Apple iTV design. There's no solid evidence to suggest what the Apple Television will look like, but there sure is a lot of speculation. There's even photos of Apple's iTV - ok, pictures of what someone adept at Photoshop thinks the iTV will/might/could look like. Patent-watching website Patently Apple spied a new patent application from Apple lodged with the European Patent Office in August 2013 that describes a fused glass process for device housings. Jonathan Ive is listed as one of the inventors, and the patent illustrates the double-sided glass construction design on a television encased in glass using a fused-glass process. According to Australian site UnderCurrent, which supposedly overheard a discussion in a pub, Apple and Sharp are co-producting two iTVs - 42-inch and 50-inch. Both will apparently use Sharp's Full HD Quattron technology. One (major) flaw in this report suggested that the iTV would be announced in October or November of 2013, so perhaps we shouldn't trust it Images of the Apple Television Cult of Mac has some "exclusive" pictures of an Apple Display showing a movie, with some current Apple technologies pasted on top (above). The "well-placed" source, which unsurprisingly has "asked to remain anonymous", says the Apple HDTV looks like Apple's current lineup of LED-backlit Cinema Displays but is "much bigger." The pictures, it turns out, weren't snapped by a courageous undercover reporter in a top-secret Foxconn factory (obviously). They were Photoshopped together by a designer called (wait for it) Dan Draper. Draper hasn't strayed too far from the too-obvious-to-be-true: "Obviously it's very visually similar to the Thunderbolt or Cinema display, but trying to put myself in the shoes of Jony Ive I've made the stand shorter, wider to make the user more trusting that it can support the weight, and less angled. I figured users don't care about the distance from a wall required by a monitor stand." The Motley Fool website also got a designer to dream up what an Apple TV would look like. But our favourite iTV pictures so far come from designer Martin Hajek, who has come up with a couple of different concept images including the one at the very top of this article, and also the image below. iTV rumours: What features will the Apple Television have? Apparently the iTV will have a built-in iSight camera for making free FaceTime video calls; AirPlay; and Siri, the voice-activated virtual assistant that first arrived with the iPhone 4S. It's also thought that the Apple Television will have a 4K or UltraHD display. Following a trip to Computex in Taipei and meetings with unnamed tech supply chain sources, Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White offered a few insights about the forthcoming Apple-branded television set. The device will feature motion-detection technology like the Xbox Kinect (Apple has purchased Primesense, which is the company behind the original Kinect, so this is certainly possible), and a touch-screen remote, he said. "The data points during our trip indicate Apple will use a special type of motion detection technology on future full blown Apple TV," said White. "Also, our contacts indicate a unique remote control with a touch panel form factor that looks similar to the iPad would be used to control the device. The bezel is expected to be a plastic composition, rather than the aluminium unibody exterior that surrounds the MacBook Air." A 2013 patent describes "a sound system that could be launched as part of its iTV. The intelligent system could determine where a user is in a room, and if he or she was not within the optimum range, the processor could modify the audio output, says the application. It could also adjust based on which way the user is facing, and the environment that the user is in." There's little doubt that Apple TV will use some version of iOS as its operating system, and employ the power of an A7 processor. It will interact seemlessly with Apple's other iOS products, iPhone and iPad, naturally - or maybe even supernaturally. And, like those products, it will have apps - millions of them, operated by the remote or the iPhone/iPad. And a hell of a lot of those apps will be games, for sure - pushing out the likes of Sony's PlayStation, Nintendo's Wii and, Steve Jobs laughs manically from his grave, Microsoft's Xbox that stole Halo from the Mac. Content producers will create apps to distribute content, bypassing cable and satellite providers, like Sky or Virgin in the UK. No one has been brave enough to come and out and predict that the Apple iTV will be 3D. Steve Jobs' other company Pixar is converting its old movies, such as Finding Nemo, into 3D, and released Toy Story 3 in 3D without doing the obvious and calling it Toy Story 3D. So why not a 3D Apple iTV? But surely not one that will require Apple 3D TV glasses... Apple TV screen size is anyone's guess (as is pretty much everything else above). Some say between 35 and 55 inches, but this decision is likely to be made much closer to the television's release date. And Apple could well be the company to make the first best-selling 4K TV, featuring a 3,840-x-2,160 display - possibly manufactured by LG, according to DigiTimes: "Apple is banking on LG Display to be able to mass produce Ultra HD TV panels by the second half of the year. If LG is successful and has ample supply of the technology, Apple may try to release the TV by the end of 2013 but is more likely to do so towards the beginning of 2014." Another obvious feature for the Apple TV is AirPlay wireless mirroring, which could mean a giant screen for your Mac or iOS device right in your living room - also boasting the famous Apple icon. In mid August 2013 Apple acquired second-screen TV and video app Matcha.tv. Matcha.tv is an iOS app that provides an overview of everything that's available to watch via cable TV providers (Comcast), streaming video services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime), and digital video stores (iTunes, Amazon). Users could also manage what they watched from a universal queue, get video recommendations, and connect with social networks to see what their friends were watching/liking. iTV release date: When's the Apple Television coming out? Really - no one knows when the Apple Television might come out. Analysts and industry experts have been predicting the announcement of such device for several years, but we've still yet so see one. Many analysts were convinced last year that Apple would unveil a television at WWDC 2013, but were left disappointed when the event ended and no iTV had been announced. There's one analyst who has been particularly vocal about the Apple Television. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has remained a firm believer that Apple will launch a television since back in 2009. In fact, he's predicted an Apple Television every year since 2011. However, this year has been slightly different. In a note to clients in April 2014, Munster said: "Each month that passes without credible feedback from the supply chain reduces our confidence." If Munster is beginning to doubt that an Apple Television is coming, we are too. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek believed that the Apple Television would launch in 2013 after he spotted "prototypes floating around" in Apple's supply chain (apparently). But, when no Apple Television arrived last year, Misek said that it was probably delayed due to the high cost of a 4K/Ultra HD display. "We had thought that Apple's software and ecosystem would be enough to drive demand but our checks indicate that Apple wants the hardware to also stand out. We believe Apple wants a display that looks like 4K/Ultra HD but without the super-premium cost." We're beginning to think that either Apple's given up on the idea of an Apple Television, or it's decided to hold off a little. One report that emerged in November 2013 seems to suggest that the latter is more likely. NPD DisplaySearch thinks that Apple is pushing back the launch of its Apple Television to 2015 or 2016 while it focuses on the iWatch for 2014. Who will make the Apple TV? Apple factory partner Foxconn boss Terry Gou, reportedly confirmed that Apple is working on a HD television set. According to China Daily, Gou has said that Apple manufacturer Foxconn is working with Sharp in Japan to prepare for production of the highly anticipated Apple television set. "Gou said Foxconn is making preparations for iTV, Apple Inc's rumoured upcoming high-definition television, although development or manufacturing has yet to begin," says the report. Predictably Foxconn and Gou quickly denied that he'd said anything of the sort. Apple's favoured Chinese manufacturer Foxconn has invested 133 billion yen (US$1.6 billion) in Sharp's TV and Display unit, which can efficiently make large size panels up to 60-inches. It was reported in June that Foxconn is in talks with Sharp about increasing its stake as it bets on the Japanese firm's leading edge technology to give it a boost in the display panel business, says the Eastern Morning Herald. Foxconn agreed in March to buy new shares in Sharp worth $844 million as part of a tie-up in liquid crystal display production. All this, insiders believe, makes the possibility of an Apple TV much more likely as Foxconn is Apple's biggest supplier. "I'm proud to say the cooperation with Sharp will let us beat Samsung in terms of clearness - high resolution," Foxconn chairman Terry Gou told shareholders. Apple has apparently switched from Samsung to Sharp for its iPad and iPhone screens. Around the same time came the rumour that Apple is planning to buy Loewe (pronounced "Lur-ver"), a German TV manufacturer that specializes in the sort of premium television sets that we'd expect Apple to produce, so it could be the company that ends up making the iTV. Interestingly Japan's Sharp (see earlier) holds 28.8 percent of Loewe's shares. Within a few hours Loewe denied the story, although it rubbed its hands in glee as its share price went through the roof. A spokesman for Loewe said that management at the moment "has no indication or information that Apple wants to participate in Loewe". Obviously, Apple declined to comment. There are also rumours that Corning could make Gorilla Glass for the iTV screen. A look at Corning's website shows that the company is involved in TV: "By supporting the sleek, ultra-thin seamless designs that are a popular trend in today's LCD TV industry, Corning Gorilla Glass is literally changing the face of LCD TV," it says. Apple TV price One thing we know for sure is that Apple iTV, or whatever it gets called, will be much more expensive than the LCD TVs you can buy right now at your local superstore. So expect it to cost more than £1,500, probably even more than £2,000. Research from the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices (CHD) advisory service suggests that nearly half of existing iPhone users would be "very" or "somewhat likely" to buy an Apple iTV soon after its launch. The report, "Apple's Smart TV: Assessing Purchase Intention and Willingness to Pay," surveyed 6,000 consumers across the US, France, Germany, Italy and the UK (March 2012). "The success of an Apple iTV hinges on Apple's ability to match innovation with appropriate price points," said Jia Wu, Director and report author.While 35 percent of surveyed US consumers indicate willingness to pay $1,000 or more for an Apple-branded TV, only 14 percent would be willing to pay any more than $1,600. "Samsung, Sony, LG and other major TV manufacturers are most threatened by the prospect of an Apple iTV launch," noted analyst Kantideep Thota. "More than a quarter of non-Apple TV owners could potentially migrate to an Apple-branded TV in a fairly short period of time." Overall, whatever the Apple iTV release date and price, there'll be probably be a shockingly long queue outside Apple Stores the world over as soon as it's available (and likely a few weeks beforehand). For even more Apple Television rumours, visit Macworld's iTV rumour round-up. How to watch Game of Thrones season 5 on an iPad or iPhone in the UK
AFP | June 23, 2008 The Republican party’s presumptive presidential nominee John McCain is engaged in a delicate dance, distancing himself from US President George W. Bush while courting the conservative ideals of the outgoing president’s party. Few of McCain’s top advisors are well known to the general public, and even fewer are directly linked to the highly unpopular Bush administration. However neoconservatives, whose thinking has directed Bush’s foreign policy following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, are ever-present and powerful in McCain’s inner circle. Randy Scheunemann, McCain’s chief foreign policy spokesman, in 2002 founded the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, which agitated for the US invasion that was launched in 2003. Scheunemann and Robert Kagan, another McCain advisor, head the neoconservative Project for a New American Century, which takes a hawkish line on foreign policy issues. Their influence helps explain McCain’s hardline stance on Iraq, where he has vowed to keep American troops for "as long as it takes," as well on Iran, Cuba, North Korea and even Russia, which he wants tossed out of the Group of Eight industrialized nations club over an erosion of democracy. McCain, who has a reputation for being more independent-minded than most right-wing Republican leaders, is also close to independent Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman, the 2004 nominee for vice president, alongside failed presidential contender Al Gore. Lieberman’s support for the Iraq war has put him starkly at odds with liberal Democrats. Full article here
Turns out when you do an episode without a coherent theme, typing up show notes is kind of a chore. Imagine trying to tie together such disparate concepts/activities as the Plants v. Zombies board game, Witcher 3, fancy wine gadgets, and getting iced. LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE. If we had achieved this feat we would have received a Pulitzer Prize, I shit you not. Our genius would have been recognized on the global stage. But, instead, we have what you’re reading now. Oh! They also spent forever on emails. Why did I even get out of bed today? Team GFB Radio – Episode 70 – Dave Got Iced… Again Original Air Date: January 8th, 2016 2:45 – It’s the first ever Team GFB Radio Wine Snob minute. 11:00 – Darryl got a Plants v. Zombies board game, and the guys talk board games for a bit. 17:35 – Dave fired up Witcher 3 and Ori and the Blind Forest. 19:30 – Brief Ori spoilers start here. 20:45 – Spoilers end here, and the guys give a Sherlock Holmes update. 23:00 – Lang got iced again. 27:30 – If you work at Iron Galaxy, turn down your radios now please. 31:45 – The guys do some emails. Alex Shea writes in and has some questions about audio stuff in video game development. 37:45 – Adam wants to know if he bought 10M copies of an older game, would anyone even notice? Would that be enough to make a sequel? 40:05 – Paul from Texas wants to know if Dave can be his new dad. 42:00 – Evan starts off with a weak acronym, but recovers with a good question about how people make beats. 49:40 – Raul from Belgium writes in, and Dave forgets the “Worldwide” bit. Also, he wants to talk about how crappy it is to go bald. 55:10 – Colton confirms that Best Buy is the Best Place to buy video capture gear. 57:25 – Wes from Bloomington-Normal sends a mail that he probably regrets.
There’s a meme going around highlighting the fact that Hillary Clinton actually walked away with more delegates from New Hampshire than Bernie Sanders despite her landslide loss. The reason for this relates to the fact that she already has hundreds of pledged “super delegates,” several of whom hail from NH. For example, the Daily Caller is reporting the following: New Hampshire has 8 superdelegates , 6 of which are committed to Hillary Clinton, giving her a total of 15 delegates from New Hampshire as of Wednesday at 9 a.m. But under Democratic National Committee rules, New Hampshire also has 8 “superdelegates,” party officials who are free to commit to whomever they like, regardless of how their state votes. Their votes count the same as delegates won through the primary. New Hampshire has 24 “pledged” delegates, which are allotted based on the popular vote. Sanders has 13, and Clinton has 9, with 2 currently allotted to neither. Sanders won 60 percent of the vote, but thanks to the Democratic Party’s nominating system, he leaves the Granite State with at least 13 delegates while she leaves with at least 15 delegates. Though Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary in a landslide over Hillary Clinton, he will likely receive fewer delegates than she will. Technically this is true, but while the super delegates are “pledged,” they aren’t actually awarded until the Democratic convention in July. So while at 15% of total delegates, the super delegates could potentially decide who is the nominee is, would they actually go against the popular vote at the convention? I read a great article by Shane Ryan at Paste Magazine analyzing this entire process, which does an excellent job of explaining why everyone should stop talking about total delegates and focus on the individual primaries. Here are a few excerpts from the piece: Oh no, you might be thinking, look at those delegate totals! He’s getting killed! The New Hampshire primary is meaningless! He didn’t even really win! On the Sanders Reddit page this morning, users were asking whether the whole primary process was a Sisyphean task, and if victory was impossible. Make no mistake: That’s the point of this kind of messaging. To discourage, dismay, and dishearten, in the wake of something that should feel really positive for Sanders supporters. Reality check: The system is bigger than you, and you can’t change it, so go home. Q: You say Superdelegates don’t matter, but I don’t even know what they are. How does Hillary have 300+ already? A: Let’s start simple: The Democratic nominee for president is decided based on which candidate wins the most delegates. You will find conflicting information about how many there are in 2016, but according to the AP, the delegate total is 4,763. It takes 2,382 of those to secure the nomination. And of the 4,763, 712 are “Superdelegates”—about 15 percent of the overall total. Q: Okay, but what’s the difference? A: The 4,051 “normal” delegates are allocated based on the votes in each state. That’s why we have primaries and caucuses in all of them, eventually—the will of the people decides where each of these delegates goes. In New Hampshire last night, Sanders won 13 delegates to Clinton’s nine, with two left to award when the last precincts report (in all likelihood, based on current percentages, it will finish 15-9 for Sanders). In Iowa, where Clinton won a narrow victory, the current delegate count is 23-21 in her favor. This process will repeat in every state until all 4,051 “normal” delegates have been alloted. On the Democratic side, these delegates are rewarded proportionally in each state, rather than on the winner-take-all basis most states use in the electoral college. Those delegates are “pledged” to the appropriate candidate, and will not change affiliation at the national convention. Q: That makes sense, but what are Superdelegates? A: The remaining 712 delegates are not decided by each state’s popular vote, but rather by individuals who are given a vote by the Democratic party. They are free to choose whoever they want at the national convention, regardless of how the vote went in their home state. Q: Who gets to be a Superdelegate? A: Every Democratic member of Congress, House and Senate, is a Superdelegate (240 total). Every Democratic governor is a Superdelegate (20 total). Certain “distinguished party leaders,” 20 in all, are given Superdelegate status. And finally, the Democratic National Committee names an additional 432 Superdelegates—an honor that typically goes to mayors, chairs and vice-chairs of the state party, and other dignitaries. Q: So they have way more importance than an ordinary voter? A: Oh yeah. In 2008, each Superdelegate had about as much clout as 10,000 voters. It will be roughly the same in 2016. Q: Why does Hillary Clinton have so many more Superdelegates this time around? A: Because Superdelegates are the establishment, and Clinton is the establishment candidate. Period. A quick look at the chart below, courtesy of Wikipedia, shows how insanely imbalanced the Superdelegate race is at this point in time: So when you see tweets like McBride’s above, where he cites Clinton’s 431-50 edge, he’s adding these “pledged” Superdelegates. We’ve already seen that his math is wrong—per the New York Times, the actual updated total is 394-42. But when you look at actual popular votes that have taken place, Sanders leads 34-32. Q: From everything you’ve told me so far, I can’t understand why you’re calling Superdelegate votes “irrelevant.” It seems to me like they have the same voting power as a normal delegate, and this puts Sanders in a tremendous hole from the word “go.” A: Here’s why it doesn’t matter: Superdelegates have never decided a Democratic nomination. It would be insane, even by the corrupt standards of the Democratic National Committee, if a small group of party elites went against the will of the people to choose the presidential nominee. This has already been an incredibly tense election, and Sanders voters are already expressing their unwillingness to vote for Clinton in the general election. When you look at the astounding numbers from Iowa and New Hampshire, where more than 80 percent of young voters have chosen Sanders over Clinton, regardless of gender, it’s clear that Clinton already finds herself in a very tenuous position for the general election. It will be tough to motivate young supporters, but any hint that Bernie was screwed by the establishment will result in total abandonment. Democrats win when turnout is high, and if the DNC decides to go against the will of the people and force Clinton down the electorate’s throat, they’d be committing political suicide. The important thing to know here is that Superdelegates are merely pledged to a candidate. We know who they support because they’ve stated it publicly, or been asked by journalists. They are not committed, and can change at any time. If Bernie Sanders wins the popular vote, he will be the nominee. End of story. Q: But it’s not the end of the story, is it? Hasn’t the DNC pulled some shady shit already? A: Oh yeah. They totally rigged the debate schedule to limit Sanders’ exposure, and now that he’s gaining ground on Clinton, they’re desperate to add more. Sanders probably won the popular vote in Iowa, but the party elite there are refusing to release popular vote totals, even though that’s exactly what they did in 2008. It’s been an embarrassment of Clinton protectionism from the very beginning.
Fooch’s update: The lawsuit points to a nine-game suspension on August 27, 2016. Smith was suspended for nine games back in 2014, so it is possible it is related to that. It could also be related to his Raiders suspension. Either way, it is some kind of error in the lawsuit. The San Francisco 49ers released Aldon Smith back in August of 2015, but they are still working to reclaim signing bonus money. The organization filed suit against Smith on Monday, January 30 to reclaim $341,630.18 they believe is owed them under the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement. I have embedded the 49ers civil complaint below. When the 49ers signed Smith, they paid him a signing bonus of $8,961,092. When they released him, they were left facing a dead money for money prorated out. After the 49ers released Smith, he signed with the Oakland Raiders. He was subsequently suspended under the terms of the NFL’s personal conduct policy related to incidents that occurred with the 49ers. The suspension allowed the 49ers to seek repayment of $1,186,027 in prorated bonus money. According to the complaint, Smith re-paid $844,396.82 under the terms of the CBA, but had failed to pay the remaining $341,630.18. The NFL Management Council, which represents teams in labor disputes, went through the collectively bargained arbitration process. On November 4, the arbitrator agreed with the 49ers and the management council, and issued an order requiring Smith to re-pay the 49ers within 30 days. The CBA allowed Smith and the NFLPA to appeal the order within ten days, but they did not. That made the order final, and the 49ers have not received payment since. Thus this lawsuit, which asks for the $341,630.18, plus attorneys’ fees. Smith remains suspended by the NFL, and the decision for his reinstatement has been deferred until March. I don’t believe this lawsuit will have any bearing on whether or not Roger Goodell elects to reinstate him.
Controversy erupted over an opinion piece authored by Andrew Potter, director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, published on the Maclean’s website Monday. Potter connected a winter storm stranding hundreds of commuters on a Montreal highway to what he argued was the “almost pathologically alienated and low-trust society” in Quebec. The next day, Potter posted an apology on Facebook, stating that he went too far in some of his analysis and that he extrapolated too much from personal anecdotes with respect to some of his claims. But the real scandal came at about the same time, in the form of a statement from McGill University’s official Twitter account that distanced the university from Potter’s op-ed. “The views expressed by @JAndrewPotter in the @MacleansMag article do not represent those of #McGill,” it read. This may seem, on the surface, a relatively innocuous statement. But it is in fact a reprehensible attack on the core of the academic mission, and specifically on academic freedom. Academic freedom ensures that scholars and researchers can teach and communicate ideas free from fear that they might face sanction from outside interests and, perhaps especially, their own institutions. The concept is only useful if it protects research and ideas that are controversial, obscure, or otherwise unpopular in order to guarantee the pursuit of curiosity-generated knowledge and learning, as well as bringing the benefits of novel (dare I say “innovative?”) thinking. A university publicly disassociating itself from the specific ideas disseminated by one of its scholars may seem like a rote public relations maneuver. It is easy to see why McGill’s administration might adopt the politician-like tactic; Potter’s column was deemed insulting and offensive by some in Quebec, and the last thing the university needs in today’s climate is a dent in its alumni donations or, worse still, an excuse for hostility from the provincial government. By thinking like a crisis management team instead of a university, however, McGill lost sight of the core principles by which it ought to be governed. It doesn’t matter whether Potter was wrong or “offensive”—indeed, getting things wrong is a key part of any meaningful scientific or knowledge-creating pursuit. Nor does it even matter that Potter issued an apology for parts of his piece. It is simply not the place of his university to issue a statement disavowing itself from his opinion. Here’s the real problem: the statement creates a potential chilling effect for scholars at McGill, particularly pre-tenure, contract, or “sessional” researchers and instructors who do not enjoy the protections of tenure. They may now rightly fear that offending the wrong people via the pursuit of certain types of research or the dissemination of unpopular ideas will lead to a public slap on the wrist, or worse, negative consequences for tenure or promotion. The issue extends beyond Potter or this one op-ed. In light of this, a number of important questions need to be considered. Who is responsible for the university’s statement about Potter’s op-ed? It is highly unlikely that this was a proactive tweet by the communications staff; it almost certainly came from someone in the senior administration. Was there any communication between anyone in McGill’s administration and Andrew Potter about the op-ed? If so, did that communication include censure or the threat of sanction? And was any pressure placed on Potter to issue the apology? McGill University needs to reconsider and apologize for its statement, and issue a new statement reassuring McGill faculty and students, as well as the broader academic community, of its commitment to the basic principles of academic freedom. And if any administrator voiced displeasure to Potter or threatened to sanction him, that individual is simply not fit to have a role in university governance. There will no doubt be readers who will argue this an overreaction to a simple tweet. These will tend to be people who see Potter’s op-ed as containing little to no value, or worse, to being an insult to Quebecers or even, as one person suggested to me on Twitter, racist hate speech. But much like free speech, academic freedom is only meaningful if it protects ideas, arguments, or research that we don’t all agree with. Absent rare instances where research practices directly cause appreciable harm, universities exist to protect, not denigrate or even comment upon, the right of their scholars to voice their opinions in public forums or the classroom as they see fit. On this score, McGill’s failure should be seen for the very real danger it poses. Emmett Macfarlane is a political science professor at the University of Waterloo. You can find him on Twitter @EmmMacfarlane
Veteran lightweight Brian Cobb has been forced to withdraw from his WSOF 17 fight against Jonathan Nunez after injuring his knee on the treadmill the day before Saturday's event, World Series of Fighting Vice President Ali Abdel-Aziz told MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani. Cobb (20-8) was expected to meet Nunez (5-0) in the night's co-main event, which airs live on NBC Sports Network as with the rest of WSOF 17's main card. WSOF officials are currently looking for a replacement to fill Cobb's place and are hopeful to find one, according to Abdel-Aziz. An undefeated 29-year-old fighting out of Syndicate MMA, Nunez earned a split decision over Ozzy Dugulubgov in his WSOF debut last March. WSOF 17 takes place Jan. 17, 2015 at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Top welterweight contenders Jake Shields and Brian Foster collide in the night's main event. An updated WSOF 17 fight card can be seen below. Main Card (NBC Sports Network, 9 p.m. ET) Brian Foster vs. Jake Shields Johnny Nunez vs. TBD Brendan Kornberger vs. Krasimir Mladenov Bryson Hansen vs. Rudy Morales Adam Cella vs. Danny Davis Jr. Preliminary Card (Online, 7 p.m. ET) Gil Guardado vs. Sinjen Smith Joe Condon vs. Jimmy Spicuzza Soslan Abanokov vs. Jordan Rinaldi Donavon Frelow vs. Taylor McCorriston Jamie Point vs. Trey Williams
The brew tanks are installed and the kitchen equipment has arrived at Backpocket Pilot Pub, and manager Sarah Barickman is looking forward to opening the doors in 2017 and serving up craft beers, pizzas, burgers and more at just one of several food and drink projects we’re watching for in early 2017. We know this list isn’t comprehensive; there are so many projects going on in the Corridor we simply didn’t have room to include them all, a very good problem to have. As we eagerly await their openings, we thought we’d provide you with updates on a few of the places we’re most excited for. Backpocket Pilot Pub and The Office 415 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids The old Sokol Gymnasium building is gaining new life as developer Charles Jones transforms it into two bars, with apartments on the upper floors. The first floor will house Backpocket Pilot Pub, a second location for Coralville’s Backpocket Brewing Company. To compliment the flagship location, the Pilot Pub will focus on experimental small batches that will only be available at Backpocket’s taprooms, unlike the brewery’s line of beers that are bottled and sold at area retailers. The Pilot Pub will offer Backpocket Brewing Company’s menu to start, eventually adding burgers and entrees. With plenty of renovation work left to do as of mid-December, Barickman said she’s hopeful the remaining tasks will come together quickly and they can open in mid-January. “It’s exciting now, because a week ago you walked in and were like, really, this is going to be a brewery?” she said. “But now you can see it.” Backpocket also is planning a third location, a taproom at 333 E. 10th St., Dubuque. That location, in Dubuque’s Historic Millwork District, will not be a production facility but will offer the brewery a chance to expand into a new market. They hope to open the 2,000 square foot facility in February. The basement of the Sokol building, meanwhile, is being transformed into a speakeasy-style lounge and cigar bar called The Office by Lost Cuban owner Jess Streit. Rapid Creek Cidery 4823 Dingleberry Road NE, Iowa City Iowa City mainstay Wilson’s Orchard is expanding its offerings with Rapid Creek Cidery, which will offer Wilson’s hard cider on tap along with a full restaurant. James Beard Award-semifinalist and chef Matt Steigerwald, who previously owned the Lincoln Cafe in Mount Vernon and ran the kitchens at New Pioneer Co-op, will oversee the restaurant. Owner Katie Goerint, daughter of Wilson’s owner Paul Rasch, will manage the taproom and an associated events space that already has begun hosting weddings. She said the restaurant will change seasonally and will focus on local produce, serving meat from heritage sheep and pigs raised at Wilson’s and cows from a neighboring farm. The livestock will be fed apple byproducts from the cider processing facility. The cidery also will produce small batch ciders made from single apple varieties that will only be available at the taproom. Goerint said they hope for a March opening. Caucho 1203 Third St. SE, Cedar Rapids The owners of downtown eatery Cobble Hill are expanding with a second restaurant, Caucho. Located behind the new Brewhemia coffee shop location in the New Bohemia neighborhood’s National building, Caucho will feature street-style tacos and serve up mezcal liquor at the bar. Along with Cobble Hill’s chef and co-owner Andy Schumacher, the kitchen will feature eats from former Sauce sous-chef Joshua Tibbetts. They are planning for a mid-January opening. Cafe Muse 565 Cameron Way, North Liberty This coffee shop and cafe will feature Intelligentsia-brand coffee, afternoon high tea, pastries and desserts, a small lunch menu and coffee-based cocktails, wine and beer. General manager and co-owner Nasi Moradi said they are planning for an early January opening. Bo Macs 219 16th Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids A pizzeria, bar and small music venue is under construction in the New Bohemia neighborhood. Owner Brett McCormick is refurbishing two buildings on the block, one for the restaurant and the other for an entertainment hall with an outdoor amphitheater behind it. He is hoping for an early spring opening. Big Grove in Iowa City 1225 S. Gilbert St., Iowa City Solon’s Big Grove Brewery is expanding into Iowa City, with plans for a brewery, taproom and restaurant in a 28,000 square foot warehouse near the corner of Gilbert Street and Highway 6 in Iowa City. The space will provide a significant increase to Big Grove’s brewing capacity, with a 20-barrel brew house plus 60 barrels for fermentation, compared to Big Grove’s current 3.5 barrel system in Solon. Owner Matt Swift said the new space will feature live music, two bars, games, patios and fire pits along with food and beer. He said brew house equipment has arrived, Chef Benjamin Smart is finalizing the menu, and they are hoping to open in the first quarter of 2017. Grin N Goose 227 Second Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids The former location of Zins in downtown Cedar Rapids won’t be closed much longer. Dave Grawe, owner of the Pour House in Waverly, and Bret Klein have been revamping the space with locally designed decor and plan to open bar and restaurant Grin N Goose. Originally billed as coming in fall 2016, their Facebook page promises an opening announcement soon. BeerBurger 575 Cameron Way, North Liberty This burger joint will feature milkshakes, cocktails and beer alongside food. They recently announced a New Year’s Eve opening, so you won’t have to wait long to give them a try. l Comments: (319) 398-8434; alison.gowans@thegazette.com
Academia is a self-certified guild that is funded mainly by tax money. Each year, something in the range of $350 billion goes into higher education in the United States. This figure keeps rising. So, the stakes are high. As with any guild, it must limit entry in order to preserve above-market salaries. It does so primarily by academic licensing. The primary licensing restriction is university accreditation, which is a system run by half a dozen regional agencies. To get degree-granting status, a college or university must be certified by one of these agencies. They certify very few. The next screening device is the Ph.D. degree. This system was imposed on academia nationally by John D. Rockefeller’s General Education Board, beginning in 1903, when Congress chartered it. He gave money to colleges, but only if they put people with Ph.D. degrees on their faculties. Next comes faculty tenure. After about six or seven years of teaching mainly lower division classes that senior professors refuse to teach, an assistant professor comes up for tenure. If he gets it, he can never be fired except for moral infractions far worse than adultery committed with female students. Very few assistant professors are granted tenure. The Ph.D. glut then consigns the losers to part-time work in community colleges for wages in the range of what apprentice plumbers receive. I have written about this glut elsewhere. ACADEMIC JOURNALS To get tenure at a major research university, you must publish in the main academic journals in the field. This is limited to about a dozen journals in each field. They publish quarterly. They run perhaps eight articles per issue. Most of these are written by well-known men in the field who are already tenured. The average Ph.D. holder publishes one article, which summarizes his Ph.D. dissertation. This article is unlikely to make it into one of the top dozen journals. Almost no one ever wins a Nobel Prize who is not on the faculty of one of these universities. He must also have published repeatedly in the dozen top academic journals. His articles must be cited widely by other authors in these journals. If an article is not widely cited within five years of publication, it is doomed. In short, journal editors control access into the top rank of academia, who in turn assign manuscripts to be screened by teams of unnamed faculty members. Almost no one knows who these people are. Robert Nisbet once told me that he had given up reading any professional journal in sociology decades before. A decade before George Stigler won the Nobel Prize in economics, I heard him say in front of a group of academic libertarians and conservatives that he had a question. “I would like to know why there is only one journal article a year worth reading in my field.” The answer is clear: the system is funded by the state and ruled by faceless committees. At schools other than the top three-dozen, tenure is granted for publishing in a lesser-known journal. Also relevant is a book published by a major university press. These are presses that are subsidized indirectly by the government. Their books sell for very high prices, and are then bought mainly by university libraries. If you do not publish in the top dozen journals, then you do not get tenure at a major university. Very few Ph.D.-holding academics get offered a tenure-track position in these schools. The old-boy network rules. A major professor at Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, or Chicago calls a buddy at one of the other top schools and recommends his top two or three Ph.D. graduates. A few of these get hired. Of these, maybe 20% ever get tenure. The losers here wind up at second-tier or third-tier universities. If a person reaches age 35 and has not published in an academic journal, he is relegated to the limbo of academia. He may get tenure at a community college or a third-tier university that grants only the B.A. and a few M.A. students. If by age 40 he has not published several articles and multiple book reviews in one of the top dozen journals, he will never become a major figure in the profession. THE OLD-BOY NETWORK If you did not get into one of these schools’ Ph.D. programs, you do not get recommended to teach at a major university. If you are granted a Ph.D. by any lower-tier school, then you probably will not get a career job in academia, but if you do, it will be in a community college teaching for low wages, probably part-time. You may get a tenure-track job at a college no one has heard of except its alumni, who do not have much money to donate to the endowment. If a Ph.D. holder is granted tenure at one of these schools, he has lifetime employment in safety but obscurity. No one ever hears about him or her again. The prospective Ph.D. student is told about none of this. The faculty is paid more for Ph.D.-level students. Faculty members have no incentive to cut the supply of lemmings. They keep these pour souls in the dark. These people work for minimum wages teaching sessions of lower-division students. Or they do the grunt work researching topics that their advisors will use to write articles and books, mentioning these students in a footnote or the Acknowledgments page of a book. TEXTBOOKS Then there is the textbook system. There is a lot of money to be made in textbooks for lower-division classes. A textbook may sell for $100 to $150. The market is huge: over half of the 15 million college students enrolled in America’s 4,000 community colleges and 4-year colleges. Only a few textbooks make the cut: about a dozen. Textbooks shape the minds of the general academic public. They also set the criteria for those students moving into upper division as majors in a department. The textbook must conform to certain standards. Those ideas within the guild that are considered representative touchstones of the guild’s positions must not be violated. These ideas are used to screen textbooks. In economics, the universal screening rule is affirmation of central banking in general and the Federal Reserve System in particular. The editors pay close attention to this chapter. The following rules must not be violated. 1. Only a brief mention of central banking as a government-licensed monopoly — no detailed discussion of the central bank in terms of the textbook’s chapter on monopoly. 2. No mention of its structure as a member bank-owned cartel of commercial banks — no discussion at all of the central bank in terms of the textbook’s chapter on cartels. 3. No mention of the fact that, under the auspices of the Federal Reserve System, the dollar has depreciated by 95% since 1914, according to the Inflation Calculator on the Website of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 4. No mention of the well-organized, decades-long plans to create the Federal Reserve, except to dismiss all such accusations (accurate) as “a conspiracy theory.” (This dismisses as a crank theory Part 2 of Murray Rothbard’s book A History of Money and Banking in the United States.) 5. No mention of fractional reserve banking as inherently inflationary and also immoral: a cartel-enforced wealth transfer, the position of Rothbard’s book, The Mystery of Banking. 6. No mention of the Great Depression without invoking Milton Friedman’s assertion that the Great Depression was the failure of the Federal Reserve System in not inflating more. No mention of Murray Rothbard’s book, America’s Great Depression (1963). Instead, it cites Friedman’s book, A Monetary History of the United States (1963). This chapter serves the economics guild in much the same way that the local altar to the emperor’s genius served Rome. Every adult resident of the empire had to publicly worship the State by placing a pinch of incense on this altar. To refuse was to risk a death sentence. Similarly, any economics textbook author who does not toss a pinch of incense on the altar of the Federal Reserve System assures himself of publication death. His manuscript will be rejected. In the New Testament’s terminology, you either make peace with the Beast, or else you are consigned to outer darkness by the guild. This is why there has never been an Austrian School economics textbook. Ludwig von Mises and Murray Rothbard rejected all central banking as an illegitimate government intrusion into the economy. No other school of economic opinion takes this hard-line view of all central banking. A prospective textbook author must implicitly announce his rejection of Austrian economics by means of the chapter on banking. A professor gets no tenure points for a textbook, but he can become a multimillionaire if his textbook sells well. Very few textbooks make it into classes of the top three-dozen universities. He may get an obscure book publisher to publish his textbook, but the book is marketed to academic limbo. It is highly unlikely that it will break through into the big leagues. It will not be assigned to students at the top three-dozen Ph.D.-granting universities or the two-dozen top four-year schools, such as Swarthmore, Pomona, Carleton, and Occidental. It will not be assigned at the 150 second-tier schools. The textbook may make the author some retirement money, but it will not shape the thinking of the future major players in the profession. TO DE-FUND THE SYSTEM Take away government funding, and the system dies. Barring this, allow another dozen accredited schools like the University of Phoenix to market programs, as Phoenix does, to 300,000 students a year, and the system will not die, but it will be drastically modified. The middle-tier and lower-tier private schools will go under: hundreds of them. These lower-tier colleges (“universities”) sell to students who were not good enough to get into the major universities and state universities. This system cannot be modified until the funding is cut off by the state. Short of an economic disaster, this is unlikely. Parents are rarely in a position to tell their children to fund their own educations. There is too much peer pressure on the parents. So, the parents pony up their retirement money and send their children off to schools that are designed to undermine the students’ faith in what their parents had taught them, unless their parents never changed from their own last years in college. It is a self-policing, tax-funded system of indoctrination. It has worked for seventy years. This is unlikely to change in our time. HOPE FOR A FEW There are alternatives in terms of books. The books on the Mises.org’s free Literature section offer an alternative. So do the Website and catalogue of the Liberty Fund. But these books are aimed at independent thinkers. Not one institution of higher education certifies them. On the contrary, the academic establishment is opposed to the outlook of these books and materials. Because of the Web, it is easier to get these materials into the hands of bright graduate students who see what is being dished out to them in their classrooms. But this remnant is small. Until the tax funding is removed from higher education, the remnant will remain small. Gary North [send him mail] is the author of Mises on Money. Visit http://www.garynorth.com. He is also the author of a free 20-volume series, An Economic Commentary on the Bible. Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com
Here is a ZENIT translation of the address Pope Francis gave today before and after praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square: * * * The Gospel of this Sunday presents a dispute between Jesus and some Pharisees and scribes. The discussion refers to the “tradition of the elders” (Mark 7:3), which Jesus, citing the Prophet Isaiah, defines as “human precepts.” And [saying] that they should never take the place of the “commandments of God.” The ancient prescriptions in question included not only the precepts of God revealed to Moses but also a series of details to spell out the specifics of the instructions of the law of Moses. The interlocutors applied these norms in a very scrupulous manner and presented them as the expression of authentic religiosity. Thus they rebuke Jesus and his disciples for transgressing them, particularly those that referred to the exterior purification of the body. Jesus’ answer has the force of a prophetic pronouncement: “You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.” These are words that fill us with admiration for our Teacher: we feel that in Him is truth and that his wisdom liberates us from prejudice. But, pay attention here. With these words Jesus wants to put us on guard, today, don’t you think? [on guard against] thinking that an exterior observance of the law is sufficient for being a good Christian. Just like back then for the Pharisees, there is also for us the danger of considering that all is well with us or that we’re better than the others because of the simple fact of observing certain rules or customs, even though we don’t love our neighbor, are hard of heart and proud. The literal observance of precepts is sterile if it doesn’t change the heart and if it is not translated into concrete attitudes: opening oneself to the encounter with God and his word, seeking justice and peace, helping the poor, the weak and the oppressed. We all know, from our communities, parishes and neighborhoods, the bad brought to the Church and the scandal caused by those people who call themselves very Catholic, who frequently go to church, but then, in their daily lives, don’t take care of their families, speak ill of others, etc. This is what Jesus condemns because this is a Christian anti-testimony. Continuing with his exhortation, Jesus focuses the attention on another, deeper aspect and affirms, “Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” In this way, he emphasizes the primacy of the interior of the “heart”: exterior things are not what makes us holy or not holy, but rather the heart that expresses our intentions, our desires and the desire to do everything for love of God. Exterior expressions are the consequence of what we have decided in the heart, and not the other way around. With exterior expressions, if the heart doesn’t change, we are not true Christians. The border between good and evil does not lie outside of us, but rather within us, in our conscience. We can ask ourselves: Where is my heart? Jesus said, your treasure is where your heart is. What is my treasure? Is it Jesus and his doctrine? My heart is good or my treasure is another thing? Thus, it is the heart that we must purify and convert. Without a purified heart, we can never have truly clean hands and lips that speak sincere words of love, mercy and forgiveness. Let us ask the Lord, through the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin, to give us a pure heart, free of all hypocrisy — that’s the adjective that Jesus used with the Pharisees: hypocrites, because they say one thing and do another. Free from all hypocrisy so that in this way we are able to live according to the spirit of the law and reach its goal, which is love. [Praying of the Angelus] Yesterday in Harissa, Lebanon, the martyr Syriac Catholic Bishop Flavianus Michael Melki was beatified. In the midst of a tremendous persecution of Christians, he was a tireless defender of the rights of his people, exhorting everyone to remain firm in the faith. Today as well, dear brothers and sisters, in the Middle East and in other parts of the world, Christians are persecuted. May the beatification of this bishop-martyr bring to them consolation, courage and hope. There are more martyrs now than there were in the first centuries. But may it be as well a push for legislators and governments so that religious freedom is protected everywhere. I ask the international community to do something to put an end to the violence and abuse. Lamentably as well, in recent days, numerous immigrants have lost their lives in their terrible journeys. For all of these brothers and sisters, I pray, and I invite you to pray. Particularly, I unite myself spiritually to Cardinal Schönborn — who is here present — and to the whole Church in Austria, in prayer for the 71 victims, including four children, found in a truck on the highway between Budapest and Vienna. We entrust each one of them to the mercy of God and we ask Him to help us to cooperate effectively to stop these crimes that offend the whole human family. Let us pray in silence for immigrants who suffer and for those who have lost their lives. [A moment of silence] I greet the pilgrims who come from Italy and from so many parts of the world, in particular the Scouts of Lisbon. Where are you? [They respond with applause and shouts] and the faithful of Zara, Croatia. I greet the faithful of Verona and Bagnolo di Norgarole, the youth of the Diocese of Vicenza and those of Rovato and of the parish of San Galdino in Milan. And the children of Salzano and Arconate. I wish you all a good Sunday. And please, don’t forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch and arrivederci! [Translation by ZENIT]
Comedian Frankie Boyle wins £54,000 libel payout after being branded a racist by the Daily Mirror High Court jury awards damages over article published in July last year Article claimed Mr Boyle had been 'forced to quit' Mock The Week Comedian, 40, reveals he will donate the money to charity Comedian Frankie Boyle was awarded more than £54,000 damages today after a High Court jury found he had been libelled by a newspaper which had described him as 'racist'. The jury concluded that Mr Boyle, 40, from Glasgow, had been defamed by the Daily Mirror. After the verdict, the comedian gave a V-for-Victory sign on the court steps and revealed that he would be donating the money to charity. Scroll down for video 'Very happy': Comedian Frankie Boyle gives a 'V-for-Victory' sign as he leaves the High Court after being awarded more than £54,000 damages following his libel battle with the Daily Mirror Mr Boyle said he had sued because he had always 'made a point' of being 'anti-racist'. He had claimed that a Daily Mirror article published on July 19 last year defamed him by describing him as 'Racist comedian Frankie Boyle' and saying he had been 'forced to quit' BBC panel show Mock The Week. Daily Mirror publisher Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) defended the article, arguing that the 'racist' description was either true or 'honest comment on a matter of public interest'. MGN also argued that the words 'forced to quit' did not mean that Mr Boyle had been sacked and were not defamatory. But jurors ruled in Mr Boyle's favour after a week-long trial in London. Action: Mr Boyle said he had sued because he had always 'made a point' of being 'anti-racist' They awarded Mr Boyle £50,400 damages for the 'racist' assertion and a further £4,250 in relation to the claim that he was 'forced to quit' the BBC show. Mr Boyle was also awarded legal costs, estimated to be in the region of £100,000. During the hearing, the jury was shown a series of the comedian's jokes from Mock The Week and his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights. After the verdict, Mr Boyle tweeted: 'I'm very happy with the jury's decision and their unanimous rejection of the Mirror's allegation that I am a racist. Donation: In messages posted on Twitter, Mr Boyle said he was 'very happy' with the jury's decision and would be giving his damages to charity 'Racism is still a very serious problem in society which is why I've made a point of always being anti-racist in my life and work and that's why I brought this action.' MGN lawyers had told jurors that Mr Boyle was a 'racist comedian' who gratuitously exploited negative stereotypes of black people for 'cheap laughs'. A barrister representing MGN, Ronald Thwaites QC, said the comedian was 'callous' and 'insensitive'. He said jurors should not find in the comedian's favour but, if they did, they should show their 'contempt' by awarding damages of 45p - the price of a copy of the Daily Mirror. Mr Boyle denied 'punctuating' material with racist references or making 'gratuitous' use of black people. He told jurors that characters he played might express racist views, but he did not. He said he actively campaigned against racism and parodied racists - and claimed that the Daily Mirror had 'misunderstood' the context of his use of language in jokes. Mr Boyle's counsel, David Sherborne, told the court that the comedian's humour was 'deliberately challenging', and he would not have minded if his material had been called 'vile', 'tasteless' or 'offensive', because that 'went with the territory'. But he did object to being called a 'racist', Mr Sherborne added. Panel show: Frankie Boyle (top left) appeared on Mock The Week with fellow comedians Andy Parsons (top right), Hugh Dennis (bottom left), Dara O'Briain (centre) and Russell Howard (bottom right). A High Court jury found that the Daily Mirror had defamed him by reporting that he had been 'forced to quit' the programme Scrutinised: During the hearing, the jury was shown a series of the comedian's jokes from Mock The Week and his Channel 4 show Tramadol Nights (pictured)
When Shalom Gurgov began looking to buy a house 18 months ago, he had hoped to find something close to where he was renting in Borough Park, or perhaps a place in Kensington, where his parents live. But he saw quickly that staying in either neighborhood wasn’t in the cards. “The prices were too high, or if the price was right, the condition was bad,” he said. The 32-year-old computer programmer and father of four eventually found himself looking in Marine Park, the South Brooklyn neighborhood named for the adjacent 530-acre wildlife preserve and city park that has a golf course, cricket fields, playgrounds and sports fields. “I noticed there were a lot of young families. We felt like we would fit right in,” he said. In October he and his family moved to a house on Avenue P and East 36th Street, and he hasn’t looked back. “There are playgrounds for the kids. Marine Park itself is close by. It’s pretty quiet. It’s like the suburbs of Brooklyn,” he said. Gurgov is not alone. In recent years, hundreds of Orthodox families have moved to Marine Park, looking for affordable housing that is walking distance from their families living in Midwood and Flatbush and the kosher amenities offered there. Between the late 1990s and today, the number of Orthodox synagogues in the neighborhood shot up from two to 16, and a second Jewish Community Council of Marine Park building opened in January. Get Jewish Week's Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up The approximately 1-mile square neighborhood is just west of Midwood and Sheepshead Bay, roughly bordered by Kings Highway to the north, Flatbush Avenue to the east, Avenue U to the south and Nostrand and Gerritsen avenues to the West. It’s long been populated by Irish and Italian civil servants — policemen, firemen and sanitation workers. Twenty or 30 years ago it also had a “substantial Jewish community,” said Marine Park Councilman Alan Maisel, but that generation died off, and membership at the neighborhood’s sole synagogue, Marine Park Jewish Center, dwindled. Then, in the late 1990s young Jewish families began considering the neighborhood as prices in areas like Borough Park and Midwood soared. In an indication of the changing demographics of the neighborhood, Marine Park Jewish Center, established as a Conservative synagogue in 1951, became an Orthodox congregation, Merkaz Yisrael of Marine Park, in the late 1980s. “Somewhere around 15 or 17 years ago, I put my very first Orthodox couple in Marine Park; there wasn’t even one [Orthodox] synagogue. … I was thinking: Are they crazy? Where are they going to go to shul?” said Lisa Lilker Reich, associate broker at Madison Estates, a Marine Park-area real estate firm. At the time, there were very few Orthodox synagogues in the area. “Now it’s completely young frum couples, the streets are filled with baby carriages,” she said. Reich said she was surprised at “how fast and furious” the influx of Orthodox families was. “There was a five-year period when it went crazy,” she said. The growth of the Orthodox community in Marine Park reflects a borough-wide boom in Orthodox communities. In 2002, 37 percent of Brooklyn Jews, or 168,720 people were Orthodox. In 2011, 41 percent of Brooklyn Jews, or 230,051, were Orthodox, according to the UJA Federation of New York’s Jewish Community Studies in 2002 and 2011. Particularly notable is the explosion of growth of the number of chasidic and black-hat Jews in the Borough. Between 2002 and 2011, the number of charedi Jews living in Borough Park rose by 71 percent and the number in Williamsburg rose by 41 percent, according to the UJA Federation of New York report. Marine Park is one of several Brooklyn neighborhoods seeing spillover from bursting-at-the-seams Orthodox areas. Bedford Stuyvesant and South Williamsburg have increasingly become home to Satmar Jews spilling over from Williamsburg, and Kensington has been getting Orthodox Jews from Borough Park. In Marine Park, most of the spillover comes from Midwood, where a three-bedroom home can sell for $900,000, and most of the houses are much larger, in the five- and six-bedroom range, and sell for $1.5 or $1.6 million. In Marine Park, the houses are smaller, and it’s still possible to get a three-bedroom house for around $450,000. “The prices are affordable,” said Reich. “It’s unbelievable, the growth of the Jewish community in the past 10 years or so,” said Rabbi Baruch Pesach Mendelson of Kehilah Marine Park, which was founded in 2005 and was one of the first of the new wave of Orthodox shuls to open in the neighborhood. “Every six months or so, another rabbi opens another synagogue,” Rabbi Mendelson said. Currently the neighborhood has about 16 Orthodox synagogues. Kehilah Marine Park has a membership of between 40 and 50, which is the norm in the area, said Rabbi Mendelson. “I think in our neighborhood people are used to small synagogues,” he said. “Everybody finds their own little corner and camps there and hopefully enjoys it. If they don’t enjoy the experience, they walk two blocks over to the next one.” Some, however, are larger, such as Marine Park Jewish Center, which has 120 families, said its rabbi, Rabbi Elisha Weiss. Today there are about 1,000 Jewish families in Marine Park, but despite the influx, the neighborhood doesn’t have a kosher supermarket or many kosher restaurants. Most Orthodox residents drive over to Midwood to do their shopping. They are already used to buying their food there, and the stores are less expensive than kosher stores that have attempted to make a go of it in Marine Park, said Rabbi Mendelson. “The location gives it a feel of being slightly outside of the hubbub of Brooklyn Orthodox life, but at the same time it’s close enough that you have all the conveniences. … People live close enough to walk to their parents and in-laws,” he said. One institution that has flourished in Marine Park is the Jewish Community Council of Marine Park. It was started in 2008 by Shea Rubenstein, Shua Gelbstein, Yossi Sharf and Jeff Leb, who all lived in the area at the time, to provide social services, legal assistance, computer classes, food assistance, a Sunday girls program and other programs for Jews in the area. The main site on Flatbush Avenue and Avenue P, was joined in January by a second location that includes a large social hall and room for additional social service providers on Quenton Road and East 35th Street. The JCC’s flagship program is Project Machel, which provides subsidies to families that aren’t able to qualify for food stamps but that need help with the expense of buying kosher food. Instead of a traditional food pantry, the program gives families a $50 credit at a local store. “When a person loses their job there is a huge shame factor,” said Rubenstein, JCC of Marine Park's executive vice president. “They don’t want to go to a food pantry to pick up food they do not need. So instead they … can essentially walk into the store and purchase anything they need." The program, said Leb, “really took off” and today distributes $90,000 per year to families in need. “We had government funding, but a lot of the funding was grassroots. It really gave people a good feeling to know that they were helping people around the corner,” he said. “It’s a very warm, comfortable neighborhood,” said Reeves Eisen, Councilman Maisel’s chief of staff. “I think it really provides a nice place for people to raise their families,” said Rabbi Mendelson. “It has a strongly religious atmosphere; you can feel it in the streets.” Most in the Orthodox community are yeshivish, and about 20 to 25 percent are Modern Orthodox, said Rubenstein. The rest, he said, are unaffiliated. But despite the diversity of affiliation and disparate shul membership, community leaders describe the neighborhood as unified. “I think the amazing quality about it is that it’s a very nonjudgmental community,” said Leb. In other Orthodox communities, he said, people tend to cluster together based on religious affiliation. But, he said, “Marine Park really is a melting pot … no judgments.” Corrections: The article was corrected on May 4, 2015 to show that there were at least two Orthodox synagogues in the neighborhood before the Orthodox influx in the late 1990s. It was also updated to show that Marine Park Jewish Center became an Orthodox congregation in the late 1980s and has a membership of 120 families, much larger than the average the article described. amyclark@jewishweek.org
TAMPA — One day in the not-so-distant future, cars without drivers could start cruising down the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway. The Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority said Friday the Selmon Expressway has become one of 10 sites nationwide where researchers can study the safety and performance of automated vehicles. But don't expect driverless cars to join traffic any time soon. Most likely, the vehicles would be tested on the expressway's elevated lanes during non-peak hours when officials could close the lanes to regular traffic. The designation gives the Tampa area access to the businesses, automakers and researchers developing the technology, said the authority's executive director Joe Waggoner. Long term, the goal is to make Florida a leader in driverless transportation systems. "We think this is a coming revolution in transportation. A lot of the technology is there,'' Waggoner said. "What it comes down to is moving it into practice. We want to know what it takes and be a part of it.'' Florida hit the gas on automated vehicles in 2012 when lawmakers passed legislation allowing the cars to be tested on public roads. Only Florida, California and Nevada have such rules. The Selmon Expressway is one of two sites statewide that have been approved for driverless car testing by the Research and Innovative Technology Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation. The other is in downtown Orlando. The expressway authority is working with the University of South Florida's Center for Urban Transportation Research to develop the Selmon Expressway as a test site. Although no timeframe or details have been set, Waggoner envisions also testing automated vehicles on Meridian Avenue and Brandon Parkway — arterial roads connected to the expressway — to simulate a full driving experience. Proponents say automated vehicles would improve safety and decrease the costs associated with accidents, from insurance to medical treatments. Through advanced computer software, sensors and global positioning systems, the cars could reduce human error and allow higher speed limits. Officials estimate they could become commonplace as soon as 2025. Susan Thurston can be reached at [email protected] or (813) 225-3110.
Nov 4, 2015; Chicago, IL, USA; St. Louis Blues right wing Vladimir Tarasenko (91) is congratulated for scoring the game winning goal during the overtime period against the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center. St. Louis won 6-5 in OT. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports Ryan Leatherman: First-time blogger, Long-time St. Louis Blues fan, eternal believer. But I’m not going to lie; my belief was challenged Wednesday night, right around 8:00 p.m. For the full match recap, check out Bleedin’ Blue. I was sitting on my couch, listening to the NBC announcers laud the hated Hawks as they trotted towards the locker room after the first period, and I was grousing about twenty ugly minutes of hockey by my St. Louis Blues. I had just seen a twenty-minute comedy of errors, including but not limited to: three goalie changes, defensemen screening our own goalie, egregious retaliatory penalties, turnovers in the defensive zone, sloppy passes, recurring shots of Coach Hitchcock looking baffled and five (FIVE!) goals against. Pessimistic thoughts, the nagging doubts I’ve had over the last few disappointing years, all began to return. We’ve got a talented roster that can’t put it all together. Is this team lacking effective leadership? Is Hitchcock’s system really to blame? Is our inability to choose a true starting goaltender making both members of the tandem weaker? Is Scottrade Center built upon cursed Native American ground? I flashed back to my treasure trove of painful recent St. Louis Blues memories. I remembered losing to an LA Kings team two years in a row, a team that resembled us in every way, but with the added ability to score clutch goals. Four in a row lost after two OT wins against the Blackhawks with an entire top-six forward group coming back from injury. Above all, I recalled the look of utter bewilderment on the faces of the Blues less than a year ago when, by some ill fortune, the Minnesota Wild ran away with the series without so much as a whimper from the Note in retaliation. But then, something happened, something improbable, an augury of a bright future. First, a goal deflected off Steen’s skate. I was thumbing through Magic the Gathering card spoilers when the puck went in. I harrumphed and paid a bit more attention. A series of impressive shifts followed after Steve Ott raced off the ice in serious pain. Suddenly, the “let’s go Hawks” chants had a bit less fervor. Then, on a struggling Power Play, Jay Bouwmeester tapped the puck under Crawford’s pad with so little force that it actually got through. I was seeing something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen from the Blues in recent years, especially not when facing an opponent of the Blackhawks’ caliber: heart in the face of adversity. Tenacity when down for the count. Aggressiveness with the chips stacked against us. Then, on a shooting angle thinner than a slice of Imos, Backes floated one past Crawford. Tie game. That alone would have been cause to celebrate, but seventeen minutes later, and an hour and a half after I was fearing the season was surmounting to a failure, the Blues did something even more impressive. They were exhausted and short a forward, facing the embarrassed and enraged defending Stanley Cup Champions. Against the odds, the Blues hung in there in the third period, killing penalty after penalty, with Jake Allen playing like the lights-out-number-one goaltender we’ve been dying for since Cujo left. In the Overtime period, I saw things I never thought I’d see, like Magnus Paajarvi skating on the same ice as Patrick Kane and looking acceptable in comparison, and all three Blues skaters staying on the ice for over ninety seconds in the defensive zone, lingering long enough on the rush for Vladimir Tarasenko to do what he does best in the slot for the game-winner. I have experienced a lifetime’s worth of sadness as a Blues fan, but this game is a grade-A example of why my optimism persists despite all odds. The deck was stacked against a blue-collar team, yet they managed to whip the defending Stanley Cup Champions in front of a flabbergasted and dead silent crowd of 21,000 plus in the United Center. And in that beautiful silence, I thought to myself: I hope to write, eight months from now, that I was sitting around at 8:00 p.m. Nov. 4, considering whether or not to turn off the game that reversed the fortunes of the St. Louis Blues for good.
"Aerodynamics are obviously a hugely important element of the performance equation so to enlist Pete is a particular highlight of our recent recruitment programme," said Cyril Abiteboul, managing director of Renault Sport Racing. Renault have announced that Pete Machin will join the team as head of aerodynamics in July, having been recruited from Red Bull. It is clear that Renault Sport is serious about mounting a fresh challenge within F1... "The latest generation of regulations are, if anything, more aero-crucial than before so to have Pete join us at such a time of exciting evolution will be of the greatest benefit. "Pete will fit into our existing structure and we expect to see the fruits of his labours come on stream later in the year. This announcement is tremendously exciting for everyone at Renault Sport Racing." Machin, who also served as a senior CFD engineer at Arrows between 1997 and 2002, added: "It is clear that Renault Sport is serious about mounting a fresh challenge within F1 and I am happy to join the team. "Bob Bell headed-up the technical team when Renault last won world championships as a constructor, so I'm very much looking forward to working with him in my new role with that same achievement as the target. "I have previously worked closely with both Nick Chester and Ciaron Pilbeam too, so I have good familiarity with some key personnel as well as the aspirations. "The technical regulation changes for 2017 are the first significant change in four years and will allow F1 cars to achieve greater downforce than at any other time in the history of the sport, so it's a very exciting time to be taking charge of aero development at Renault Sport Racing and I am confident in getting the team back to the sharp end of the grid." Renault are set to be the second team to reveal what their 2017 car looks like, on February 21. For full details of confirmed launch dates, as well as the 2017 testing schedule click here.
Britain is to give 42m condoms to South Africa in response to a request for an extra billion as part of an HIV prevention drive before the World Cup, the government will announce today. The request for British help in stockpiling sufficient condoms for the expected influx of thousands of football supporters in three months' time was made during President Jacob Zuma's recent visit to the UK to meet the Queen. "Obviously there's a big focus on the World Cup coming up and a huge increase in the number of people coming into South Africa," said the international development minister, Gareth Thomas, who will announce the £1m funding today at an emergency summit in London on HIV prevention and treatment. "The South Africans have identified themselves the need to get more condoms in place. South Africa specifically asked for British assistance and we are responding to that request." He pointed out that the fans would inevitably spill over into neighbouring African countries with high HIV rates, which would also need to take precautions. The South African government estimates that up to half a million visitors could travel to the country, raising fears of a rise in prostitution and sex trafficking from neighbouring countries and eastern Europe, and creating a potential HIV timebomb. Last week South Africa's Central Drug Authority warned that 40,000 prostitutes were expected to arrive for the month-long tournament. South Africa is embroiled in a struggle to combat the world's biggest HIV caseload and to convince its population of the importance of safe sex. The South African health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, expressed concern that the message was being ignored because people believe HIV can now be easily treated. "President [Jacob] Zuma made two far-reaching statements on World Aids Day," Motsoaledi said. "He made a strong statement about prevention and a strong statement about treatment regimes, but after World Aids Day South Africans were only talking about the one. "That's what is worrying me. I am saying treatment must only come after prevention ... We are worried that South Africans seem to be thinking that we have arrived." The Department for International Development (DfID) is keen to support the South African government because of the leadership it has shown recently on HIV. On World Aids Day in December last year, the South Africans announced bold plans to improve access to HIV treatment, particularly for pregnant women and young children, as part of a fresh political will to tackle HIV and Aids. Now the attention is turning to preventing new infections. Some 450m male condoms are distributed in South Africa every year but, with 16 million sexually active men and one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world, there are never enough. The DfID will today host an emergency meeting in London to try to stop the fight against HIV and Aids from running into the sand. Five years ago, the G8 pledged universal access to treatment and prevention by 2010. About 4 million people in poor countries are now on antiretroviral drugs to keep them alive, but more than 8 million still urgently need them. More than 33 million people live with HIV around the world and a further 2.5 million people became newly infected last year. The Global Fund to fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which channels money from donor countries into disease-fighting programmes designed and carried out by developing countries themselves, said that an estimated 4.9 million lives have been saved since it was set up in 2002. It predicted that, if efforts continue, mother-to-child transmission of HIV in childbirth could be eliminated by 2015, TB could be halved and malaria effectively eliminated from many countries. But its funding is now under threat. "This report clearly shows the world's investments are making a difference," said Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAids. "However, Aids is not over in any part of the world and, without a fully funded Global Fund, our shared dream of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support could become our worst nightmare – putting the lives of millions of people currently on treatment in jeopardy and millions of pregnant women … not able to protect their babies from becoming infected." HIV nation An estimated 5.7 million South Africans are living with HIV, about one in every five adults. There are about 1,400 new HIV infections and nearly 1,000 Aids deaths every day. Television adverts ask viewers to "imagine the possibility of an HIV-free generation" by being cautious. But condom use is still far from a social norm. Critics accuse South Africa's leadership of undermining the fight with denialism and hypocrisy. Former president Thabo Mbeki's unwillingness to act has been blamed for the premature deaths of 300,000 people. President Jacob Zuma, while being tried on charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend in 2006, was ridiculed for testifying he took a shower after sex to lower the risk. He was acquitted of rape. Earlier this year he again did not use a condom when having sex with the daughter of a family friend, who subsequently gave birth to his 20th child.
CARLTON’S mercurial goal-kicker Jeff Garlett was left in hospital after a brawl in the CBD on Sunday. The out-of-form forward was injured in the affray, which involved at least five men outside a bar in Lonsdale St shortly after 5am. Garlett, from Pascoe Vale, suffered lacerations to his head and was taken by ambulance to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for treatment. The Herald Sun understands Garlett had been outside the bar with a friend when the altercation occurred. Police arrested four men at the scene who were charged with affray, recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault and other assault offences. A 26-year-old Hampton East man, a 24-year-old Endeavour Hills man, a 22-year-old Oakleigh man and a 26-year-Springvale man were charged and bailed. They will appear before a magistrate on October 28. Carlton’s general manager of football operations said Garlett had the club’s support. “Jeff kept the club well informed of his movements over the weekend,’’ he said. “He did attend club recovery on Sunday morning for his VFL committments and has trained without interruption this week. In this particular case Jeff’s welfare is paramount and he has the club’s full support.’’ Garlett, who has played 107 games for the Blues since being drafted as a rookie in 2009, was dropped from the senior side in round 12 after a loss to Geelong. He had played for Carlton’s VFL side Northern Blues against the Casey Scorpions on Saturday before heading out on the town. It is believed Garlett went straight to the Blues’ recovery session at Visy Park after being discharged from hospital. Garlett was Carlton’s leading goal-kicker in 2013, booting 43 for the season.
The government's proposed minimum price for alcohol has been set so low it would have stopped only one cut-price drink deal out of thousands in the last three months, a Guardian investigation has found. The UK's four leading supermarket chains had 3,667 cut-price alcohol deals in the last three months, according to data provided by promotions consultancy Assosia, and none of the products would have increased in price under the new rules. The changes would not have affected promotions such as a Tesco special deal offering 24 cans of Fosters for £10, or three 15-packs of Strongbow cider – totalling 89 units of alcohol – for £20. The coalition government agreement drawn up last May agreed to "ban the selling of alcohol below cost price". The proposals, introduced last month by the Tory Home Office minister James Brokenshire, would bar the sale of alcohol at below the cost of duty and VAT. This sets a floor price of 38p for a can of lager, £2.03 for a bottle of wine, or £8.00 for a 700ml bottle of spirits. "Banning the sale of alcohol below the rate of duty plus VAT is the best starting point for tackling the availability of cheap alcohol and will send a clear signal to retailers and the public that government take this issue seriously," Brokenshire said when he introduced the bill in parliament. "They will effectively set a minimum level below which alcoholic products cannot be sold and will stop the worst instances of deep discounting, which result in alcohol being sold both cheaply and harmfully." The Guardian's findings provide the first solid evidence supporting concerns raised by health groups in the wake of the announcement that the pricing level was set too low. Shadow public health minister Diane Abbott said the findings showed the government had given in to industry on alcohol pricing. "The government's actions on minimum alcohol prices have been completely phoney," she said. "They must have realised that the minimum price they were suggesting would have hardly any effect. Obviously, the drinks industry must have been very glad that the government appears to be taking action on pricing, but in practice is doing nothing. This just shows how when it comes to public health, Andrew Lansley puts the interest of big business first." Health professionals have called for stronger proposals on alcohol pricing for several years. In 2009 Liam Donaldson, then the country's chief medical officer, proposed a 50p a unit minimum price on alcohol, which researchers at Sheffield University estimate could reduce drink-related deaths by 3,000 a year. This would have increased the price of 349 supermarket promotions in the last three months, but over 90% of supermarket drink deals would be unaffected by even this higher unit price. The Home Office defended the proposals as a "starting point" for the government's plans to deal with below-cost selling. "The government believes that a minimum price of duty plus VAT is the best starting point for tackling the availability of below-cost alcohol, as we committed to in the coalition agreement," said a spokesman. "In its investigation into the groceries market in 2008, the Competition Commission found that alcohol is one of the main product groups which are sold below cost by the leading retailers. "The impact of alcohol prices on public health and crime and disorder is a complex one and we will continue to consider further how to tackle this issue." Supermarkets ran 15,746 alcohol deals in 2010, the Assosia data reveals, of which almost 5,000 required customers to buy multiple products to receive a discount. The Royal College of Physicians and Alcohol Concern have expressed opposition to multi-buy deals, and have called for a ban on advertising such offers. Assosia collects its weekly data by sending researchers into several stores from each of the UK's largest supermarkets – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons – to collect information on all high profile promotions in store. As supermarkets refresh their promotions weekly, each week of a long-running promotion is counted as a sepearate promotion. • This article was amended on 24 February 2011. The orginal said that Asda sold Grant's whisky for £11 in its stores just before Christmas and that Sainsbury sold a 24-pack of Boddingtons for £10. This has been deleted. Asda has asked us to make clear that the lowest price for Grant's whisky in that period was £15.97, and that it has a policy not to sell alcohol at below the cost of duty plus VAT, the government's proposed minimum price for alcohol. The research company Assosia, which supplied all the data, has also confirmed that Sainsbury's did not sell Boddingtons at that price. Cheapest supermarket drinks deals The government has rejected unit pricing of alcohol in favour of a duty-plus-VAT minimum. Health professionals say a 50p-per-unit floor price could save 3,000 lives a year. 1. Strongbow 24x440ml Cheapest selling price: £10.00 Store: Tesco Number of units: 47.5 Price per unit: 21p 2. Fosters 24x440ml Cheapest selling price: £10.00 Store: Tesco Number of units: 42.2 Price per unit: 24p 3. Stella Artois 12x440ml Cheapest selling price: £6.67 Store: Tesco Number of units: 26.4 Price per unit: 25p 4. Gaymers 12x440ml Cheapest selling price: £6.00 Store: Morrisons Number of units: 23.8 Price per unit: 25p 5. First Cape Merlot 3l Cheapest selling price: £12.00 Store: Asda Number of units: 40.5 Price per unit: 30p 6. Bombay Sapphire 1l Cheapest selling price: £12.50 Store: Tesco Number of units: 40 Price per unit: 31p 7. Peroni 6x500ml Cheapest selling price: £5.00 Store: Asda Number of units: 15.6 Price per unit: 32p 8. 35 South Cabernet Sauvignon 75cl Cheapest selling price: £3.33 Store: Asda Number of units: 9.8 Price per unit: 34p 9. Smirnoff Ice 12x275ml Cheapest selling price: £6.49 Store: Sainsbury's Number of units: 16.5 Price per unit: 39p Source: Assosia
When three young women were murdered midrun over a period of nine days this past summer, runners reacted with understandable shock, alarm, and concern. Nothing about the victims’ final miles should have been out of the ordinary: All three headed out in broad daylight. All three were on routes they’d traveled safely in the past. Their deaths occurred while they were running by themselves—one in Michigan, one in New York City, one in Massachusetts. But almost every runner trains alone sometimes. That such ordinary circumstances led to such unfathomable tragedy made these stories especially heartbreaking. More than two months have passed, and no suspects have been named in any of the three cases, which are likely unrelated. As details of the murders spread in early August, well-meaning nonrunners started peppering the athletes in their lives (especially the women) with advice: Don’t run with headphones. Don’t run in the dark. Don’t run alone. Runners joined the discussion, too—some eager to share what they do or carry to feel safe, others dealing with a newfound sense of vulnerability. “Emotional stories about people we relate to have a strong effect on us,” says Jessica Gall Myrick, Ph.D., an assistant professor and researcher in media and emotions at Indiana University Media School in Bloomington, Indiana, and a former collegiate runner. When a person sees herself (or a loved one) in a victim, it’s easier to connect with the story, and the more similarities, the stronger the connection. Multiple cases intensify the reaction: “It can make you think the threat is greater than it really is,” says Myrick. In reality, the chance of being murdered midrun is very, very small. A woman between the ages of 16 and 44 has only a 1 in 35,336 chance of being the victim of a homicide at any time. The risk for random homicide is even lower: A woman is far more likely to be killed by someone she knows than by a stranger. And she puts herself in far greater danger when she gets in her car to drive to school or work, when her risk of death is 2.5 times higher than by death at the hands of another person. The actual risk of dying in a car crash is 1 in 14,165—far higher than homicide at any time—yet random murders generate a disproportionate amount of anxiety. Many runners (women as well as men) didn’t think twice about training alone before this past summer’s tragic, headline-making cases stoked their fears. Many still don’t. Those athletes may count on running to be a stress-reliever, an escape from everyday cares, a chance to feel free. Others have long felt more trepidation about logging miles solo—young women especially—because they are more likely to be interrupted in intrusive and sometimes frightening ways. Indeed, 43 percent of women at least sometimes experience harassment on the run, according to a recent RW survey, compared with just 4 percent of men. In the vast majority of cases, it’s not life-threatening. But it is pervasive, and it’s upsetting, and it’s most likely happening to you or someone you know. A man will look a woman up and down as she runs past. A driver will shout a come-on, laughing with his friends as they speed away. A person on a bike or in a car will follow a woman, and she might dart down a side street to escape. Even if nothing like this happens most days, knowing that it (or something worse) could happen causes stress. As the recent national dialogue surrounding Donald Trump’s sexist comments and alleged assaults brought to light, almost all women—runners or not—have endured unwanted sexual attention. And no matter how swift a woman’s pace, it’s impossible to outrun harassment. James Victore Your Wife, Your Friend, Your Teenage Daughter—She's Been Harassed Of course, not every female runner has to deal with intrusive and unwanted attention on every single run, nor is every woman who laces up running shoes hypervigilant and scared. But some report especially high victimization rates: For women runners under 30, harassment is a frequent experience, with 58 percent in our survey saying it happens to them midrun always, often, or sometimes. And the more often she or her peers experience such intrusion, the harder it becomes to access the carefree headspace many runners pursue and perhaps take for granted. Erin Bailey, 25, is on highest alert in the summer, when she runs outside several times per week. On a warm-weather four-miler this year near her home in Boston, she gave a thank-you wave to a parking attendant for stopping traffic so she could pass, and he responded by saying, “‘Mmm hmmm,’ like he was salivating over a steak,” she says. Jae Cameron, 30, of New York City endures stares and whistles so regularly on her work commute that she pauses at the door before she heads out on a run. Do I really want to go out there? she asks herself. Do I really want to go deal with this? Bailey and Cameron live in big cities, and it’s true that urbanites are most likely to face unsolicited attention: Fifty-five percent of all city runners say they at least sometimes experience harassment on their runs. That’s a simple function of population density—the more people you see, the greater the odds one of them will act like a jerk. The converse is true, too—if you run in a quiet suburban residential neighborhood, you may not see anyone at all on your morning four-miler. Still, that means only runners who encounter zero pedestrians or vehicles are guaranteed an uninterrupted run. While rural runners are the least likely to report being targeted, those who endure it don’t benefit from the relative anonymity that larger communities provide. “There’s a high chance women in rural areas will see their harasser again,” says Holly Kearl, founder of the advocacy nonprofit Stop Street Harassment (SSH), “because they can’t avoid a store or run down a different road.” James Victore It Sucks Imagine running down the street, in the zone, and someone honks at you for no apparent reason. Your heart rate quickens, you start to sweat from alarm in addition to exertion, and you bristle at the fact that a stranger has disturbed your otherwise pleasant run. This time, picture the peace of a quiet country road…and how that peace might evaporate when a stranger driving a car slows down to tail you. Thirty percent of women who responded to our survey have been followed by someone in a car, on foot, or on a bike while running. Now imagine that your pursuer rolls down his window and asks if you’d like to [insert sexual act here]—a proposition like the ones 18 percent of women told us they’ve received midrun. Scary. All of these scenarios, plus illegal behaviors such as flashing and groping, fall on the harassment spectrum. “Street harassment invades a person’s space and rights, like any form of sexual harassment,” says Debjani Roy, deputy director of New York City–based advocacy group Hollaback! Of the women RW surveyed who have been targeted midrun, 79 percent say it bothers them “a lot” or “somewhat.” And it’s not just annoying or inconvenient—a growing body of research shows chronic harassment can affect a woman’s confidence and exacerbate issues such as depression, anxiety, body-image concerns, and eating disorders. Harassment reminds women that they’re vulnerable, robbing them of a sense of safety. Chelsea Cloud, 32, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, finds herself picking up the pace after an unwanted encounter. “If a harasser’s need is to take power away from women, then I will show how powerful I can be,” she says. But by the third incident—she once counted eight during a single run—she feels enraged and defeated. “I try not to let it get to me, but it does,” says Cloud. “Harassers are taking away my freedom and right to run outside in peace.” Some women react by altering their running behaviors: Among RW survey respondents with concerns about safety or unwanted attention, 73 percent say those concerns have inspired them to run with a phone, 60 percent to limit their runs to daylight hours, and 52 percent to change running routes. “Women may choose to run more trails to get off the streets, but this comes with another set of dangers,” says Cloud. “Just last year, a young woman in my community was dragged off of the Bicentennial Trail in Portage, Michigan, and into the woods by a male attacker. Thankfully, she escaped and got help.” Given this calculus—populated areas breed harassment, while remote areas can provide cover for potentially dangerous people—some women turn to the safety of the treadmill. In fact, 27 percent of women RW surveyed say concerns like these have driven them to run indoors at least once. In a national survey by SSH, 23 percent of women said they exercised at the gym instead of outside to avoid being victimized. Some women find even that’s ineffective: Boston-based runner Bailey eventually stopped going to her gym after a man there said her workout tights would look better off. “Running is supposed to be a release, a sanctuary,” she says. “Instead, I’m wondering if I’m going to be safe.” James Victore WTF Are These Guys Thinking? If a female friend were to tell you, “Some jerk said something disgusting to me while I was running,” you’d assume said jerk was a man—and you’d almost certainly be correct. Of the women who reported being harassed in the RW survey, 94 percent name men as the primary perpetrators. The forces driving these men are the same ones behind the gender-pay gap and the fact that calling women “fat pigs” does not automatically disqualify a political candidate in the United States: sexism and inequality. “The public sphere is [still] a male space,” says Michael Kimmel, Ph.D., distinguished professor of sociology and gender studies at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. That’s why any woman who leaves her home for any reason—to run, to work, to get the mail—could potentially be harassed, and why this is not just a running issue but a societal one. Honks, innuendos, and so on are a man’s way of saying, “You are present in my space and I’m going to let you know it’s my space.” This power play is present in the majority of unsolicited sexual attention, particularly when men are with other men, though not all men are conscious of it. “In a sex-biased culture, street harassment can become ingrained in male behavior,” says Shira Tarrant, Ph.D., a gender studies professor at California State University, Long Beach. Boys and teens model the behavior of the men in their lives, and if the adults objectify women or treat them with disrespect, the minors learn that it’s acceptable or even admirable. Kimmel conducts informal polls with his students, and he says that while men or boys may think they’re whistling or catcalling to score a date, harassment really has little to do with romance, or even with women. “The real center of attention is a man’s relationship with other men,” he says. Men and boys want to look cool, be funny, or find validation and acceptance from other men. Society teaches that to be a man, you must be powerful, aggressive, and dominant, and some men apply that to how they treat women on the street. But this narrow definition of masculinity is only part of the problem, says Tarrant. A man’s own ego, self-esteem, and sexual or personal issues come into play, as well. This is one reason harassment can turn violent: If a woman exerts her authority by ignoring a guy or speaking her mind, the man may feel rejected or humiliated and act upon that anger. Men who would never think of catcalling a woman can perpetuate inequality in subtle ways, often unconsciously. Some everyday examples include talking over women in meetings, soliciting ideas from only male colleagues, and dismissing another man’s bad behavior with an excuse like “some guys are just jerks.” When a woman runner shares a story of being targeted, asking her what she was wearing or whether she was alone implies that at least some of the blame might fall on her, when in fact the choice to harass belongs to the man alone. “I’ve been harassed in the dead of winter, completely bundled up with a mask covering most of my face,” Cloud says. James Victore Where Do We Go From Here? In the meantime, women deal with the possibility of being targeted by controlling the only factor they can: their own behavior. “I never run in the dark by myself, and when I am running alone during the day, I ensure that it’s in one of Denver’s busiest parks or in a well-populated area,” says Elizabeth Lemont, 22, of Aurora, Colorado. “I also try to switch up my routes so that no one could memorize where and when I go.” When harassment does occur, it’s hard to know how to respond. “I worry about men in cars trying to take retribution to my actions, so usually I don’t do anything,” says Tasha Coryell, 28, from Tuscaloosa, Ala­bama. But during a longer run, Coryell says, “I tend to react poorly and might glare or put up my middle finger—when I am really tired, I just can’t deal with it.” The potential for offensive words to turn into actions is why some women carry protection; Kate Nyland, 36, of Brooklyn brings pepper spray on solo runs. “If I feel threatened, I simply hold it up—finger on the trigger—with a no-nonsense look on my face,” she says, adding, “I suppose this is confrontational, and it could backfire if the harasser is carrying a weapon.” While 21 percent of women tote pepper spray on their runs at least sometimes, a few women (1 percent) have gone to a greater extreme, carrying a loaded gun. Michele James, 34, a police officer in Enid, Oklahoma, started running with her handgun after she learned in her professional training that an attacker may be able to fight through pepper spray. What a woman is wearing doesn’t protect her from being harassed, advocates like Kearl and Roy agree, but even so, there’s a widespread perception that the less you wear, the more likely you are to be targeted. “I never run in just a sports bra, which is sometimes unpleasant midsummer,” says Leslie Davis, 29, of Evansville, Indiana. Erin Bailey prefers to run in a sports bra and compression shorts in the heat, but sometimes will put on more and baggier clothing just to deflect comments. “I ask myself, Can I suffer through four miles in a shirt?” she says. “Yes? Okay, I wear a shirt. Can I do it for eight miles? No, that’s not best for my training.” And that’s what nearly every young female runner has to do: find her own personal tipping point between feeling safe and comfortable, and feeling like she’s “giving in” to harassers. “While I think it’s important to tell people when they’re being predatory and sexist, the feeling of fear wins out every time,” says Olivia McCoy, 24, of Lexington, Kentucky. “But being harassed has nothing to do with me, where or when I’m running, or what I’m wearing; it’s about a person thinking that because I’m in public they have the right to make gross comments to and about me.” Lindsay Knake, 28, of South Lyon, Michigan, refuses to change her behavior. “If I cover up or stay inside, then I’m only cowing to the people who seek control over women. This behavior is not okay, and I believe we need to stand up to it.” There’s no immediate, easy solution, because sexual harassment is a complex societal problem. But open and honest conversations about the issue—ones that include men as well as women—are a step in the right direction. “Too often, street harassment is normalized and minimized,” Kearl says. “Listening to people’s stories with empathy is important because these actions signal that street harassment is a serious issue.” Kimmel encourages men to speak up when they witness sexist treatment. “If I say nothing, even though I don’t like the behavior,” he says, “other men assume I support it.” Even if female runners can’t be entirely spared of harassment, disrupting the status quo is a place to start. Meghan Kita and Peter Smith
21 Savage is hitting the road this spring, and he's taking a few friends along for the ride. The Monster Energy Outbreak Presents: 21 Savage – Issa Tour kicks off in late March and will feature Young M.A., Tee Grizzley, and Young Nudy. Scheduled stops on the 29-date trek include L.A., Seattle, NYC, and Boston, along with a handful of festival spots. You can check out the full schedule below. Back in late 2016, 21 Savage traveled the country with Young Thug on the HIHORSE’D Tour, and that experience clearly set himself up for this headlining tour, where fans can expect a high-energy show. “I’m the biggest, newest artist to break in the last year – I worked like a real monster and hard work pays off," 21 Savage said in a press release. "It’s only right that I team up with The Monster Energy Outbreak Tour for my first headlining run." “21 Savage personifies the Outbreak brand while bringing the intensity of Monster Energy,” Steven Ljubicic, General Manager for the Outbreak Tour, added. “He’s really in his moment, and we’re ecstatic to be a part of the biggest headlining tour of his career. With the addition of Young M.A, this is a golden ticket for fans across the U.S. to experience these artists who are helping shape the voice of hip-hop today." POST CONTINUES BELOW Pre-sale tickets are available today at 11 a.m. ET for Citi® Cardmembers, while pre-sale tickets for Live Nation, Ticketmaster, and Spotify will be available Wednesday (Feb. 22) at 10 a.m. Tickets for the public can be grabbed this Friday (Feb. 24) at 10 a.m.
Two Adult Playtime Boutique adult novelty stores were robbed at gunpoint Monday night, one in Monroe County and another in Luzerne County. Two Adult Playtime Boutique adult novelty stores were robbed at gunpoint Monday night, one in Monroe County and another in Luzerne County. The crimes happened an hour apart. The distance between the two businesses is approximately 40 miles. A man with a black handgun walked through the front door of the store on Route 611 at 9:39 p.m. and demanded the cash from the register, state police said. This Playtime Boutique is in Hamilton Township, just off the Interstate 80 exit. The man pointed a gun at the manager and ordered two customers on the floor. The suspect went behind the counter, ordered the manager to open the register and put all the cash in a black bag. The manager opened the register but became too nervous to continue, police said. The suspect grabbed the black bag and began pulling money from the register and placing it in the bag. During the robbery, there were scanner reports of someone crouched down, hiding in the store, who called 911 and stayed on the phone with the 911 center. The suspect left through the front door with between $400 and $500 in cash, police said, and headed in an unknown direction. The suspect was described as 6 feet tall with a medium build, wearing a full-face black mask, a tan jacket and possibly wearing gloves. An hour before, at 8:30 p.m., a man brandishing a handgun stole an undetermined amount of cash from Adult Playtime Boutique in Drums on Route 309, according to Butler Township Police. The man made off with cash after brandishing a black, semiautomatic handgun, police said. The suspect acted aggressively toward the clerk, police said, and also broke items inside the store. He was described as a black man approximately 6 feet 1 inch tall who weighs about 185 pounds. The man was wearing dark glasses and a camouflage jacket with a hood pulled over his head, police said, and used a bandana to cover his face. No injuries were reported, though police said the clerk was shaken. Sugarloaf Township and state troopers assisted Butler Township police. At least five police cruisers were parked in a dimly-lit lot behind the business late Monday as police investigated. In addition to these two robberies which happened on March 16, Playtime Boutique on Lehigh Street in Allentown was robbed on March 16, 2013 at 8:05 p.m. In that robbery, a man wearing a blue and white hoodie threatened workers with a screwdriver. He ordered them to open a cash register and then got away with an unknown amount of cash, according to published reports. Monroe County Crime Stoppers is offering a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest in the Hamilton Township robbery. It is the "Crime of the Week." If you have information on this robbery or any other serious crime or wanted person, call Monroe County Crime Stoppers at 866-370-1518. Callers may be eligible for cash rewards and may remain anonymous. Anyone with information may also call state police at Swiftwater at 570-839-7701.
The NFL will play at least two games per year in London for the next five seasons. The league announced Thursday it has extended its contract with Wembley Stadium through 2020. The Jacksonville Jaguars, who already were set to play at the stadium through 2016, will play there through the new deal. “This new agreement extends a very successful, long-term relationship,” NFL executive vice president international Mark Waller said in a statement, per CBSSports.com. “It is very exciting to be making this announcement in the same week that we will reach one million fans for the International Series in London.” The NFL also agreed to a 10-year deal in July to play at Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium once it opens in 2018. “These agreements reiterate the NFL’s commitment to the U.K., with two stadium deals running concurrently,” Waller said. “To be playing in Wembley, the national stadium, and at Tottenham, in what will be London’s newest stadium, is fantastic. We are very appreciative of the Jaguars extending their commitment to the U.K. market, which emphasizes the club’s and league’s strong ambition to continue to grow the fan base for NFL football beyond the borders of the United States.” Thumbnail photo via Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports Images Thumbnail photo via General view of an NFL Wilson official Duke football at the Tower Bridge and River Thames in advance of the NFL International Series game between the New York Jets and the Miami Dolphins.
During the past year, there’s been a growing federal push to undercut medical marijuana laws in states including Washington, Montana, California and Colorado. A key turning point was a June 2011 Justice Department memothat prosecutors have used as ammunition to shut down dispensaries or jack up licensing fees. The memo and subsequent enforcement have made it difficult for the small businesses to stay afloat, say advocates of legalized marijuana. “There has been pushback,” says Robert Corry, a Denver-based attorney who specializes in marijuana laws. Corry is advising some dispensary owners to close shop and operate on a small scale privately, as allowed by state law. It’s not worth the fees and hassles, he says. He says roughly 50 Colorado dispensaries have already closed this year. In one case of marijuana law enforcement, federal authorities raided dozens of Montana marijuana dispensaries in March 2011. That state’s once-thriving community of medical dispensaries has virtually disappeared, despite voter-approved medical marijuana use in 2004. Two Takes on a Memo Momentum swung decidedly against marijuana laws last June, when the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memo on medical marijuana stating that cultivating and selling marijuana are activities that violate the Controlled Substances Act, regardless of state law. “States thought as long as they’re following state law they were not going to be targeted. But that hasn’t been the case,” says Morgan Fox, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. Instead, the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Attorney's office interpreted the Cole memo (named after the author James Cole, a deputy attorney general) as an open season to target medical marijuana dispensaries, advocates say. Pushback From Colorado to Montana
[Pics] These Realistic Looking Black Dolls Are Being Shared All Over the Internet Dolls are a simple toy for children, but they are also very culturally loaded. There’s Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s infamous 1939 doll experiment where black children were presented an option of a black or white doll, and most chose the white. There are Barbie dolls, which follow a very restrictive beauty standard of tall and slender with straight sleek hair. And there are the many black women making their own dolls in protest of the status quo. And then there are these dolls. Created by dollmaker Kaye Wiggs and styled by Decifashion, these dolls are notable because they are so realistic and cool. From their broad noses and full lips, to the curly hair and deep brown skin and hip‐hop themed attire, the dolls represent a familiar and relatable beauty that is often overlooked. Since being posted to Decifashion’s Instagram account just 3 weeks ago these dolls have become online sensations, even being posted by Rapper Big Boi on his Facebook account. Take a look for yourself and let us know your thoughts. What are your thoughts ladies?
Why do people see faces in nature, interpret window stains as human figures, hear voices in random sounds generated by electronic devices or find conspiracies in the daily news? A proximate cause is the priming effect, in which our brain and senses are prepared to interpret stimuli according to an expected model. UFOlogists see a face on Mars. Religionists see the Virgin Mary on the side of a building. Paranormalists hear dead people speaking to them through a radio receiver. Conspiracy theorists think 9/11 was an inside job by the Bush administration. Is there a deeper ultimate cause for why people believe such weird things? There is. I call it “patternicity,” or the tendency to find meaningful patterns in meaningless noise. Traditionally, scientists have treated patternicity as an error in cognition. A type I error, or a false positive, is believing something is real when it is not (finding a nonexistent pattern). A type II error, or a false negative, is not believing something is real when it is (not recognizing a real pattern—call it “apat­ternicity”). In my 2000 book How We Believe (Times Books), I argue that our brains are belief engines: evolved pattern-recognition machines that connect the dots and create meaning out of the patterns that we think we see in nature. Sometimes A really is connected to B; sometimes it is not. When it is, we have learned something valuable about the environment from which we can make predictions that aid in survival and reproduction. We are the ancestors of those most successful at finding patterns. This process is called association learning, and it is fundamental to all animal behavior, from the humble worm C. elegans to H. sapiens. Unfortunately, we did not evolve a Baloney Detection Network in the brain to distinguish between true and false patterns. We have no error-detection governor to modulate the pattern-recognition engine. (Thus the need for science with its self-correcting mechanisms of replication and peer review.) But such erroneous cognition is not likely to remove us from the gene pool and would therefore not have been selected against by evolution. In a September paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, “The Evolution of Superstitious and Superstition-like Behaviour,” Harvard University biologist Kevin R. Foster and University of Helsinki biologist Hanna Kokko test my theory through evolutionary modeling and demonstrate that whenever the cost of believing a false pattern is real is less than the cost of not believing a real pattern, natural selection will favor patternicity. They begin with the formula pb > c, where a belief may be held when the cost (c) of doing so is less than the probability (p) of the benefit (b). For example, believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is only the wind does not cost much, but believing that a dangerous predator is the wind may cost an animal its life. The problem is that we are very poor at estimating such probabilities, so the cost of believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is just the wind is relatively low compared with the opposite. Thus, there would have been a beneficial selection for believing that most patterns are real. Through a series of complex formulas that include additional stimuli (wind in the trees) and prior events (past experience with predators and wind), the authors conclude that “the inability of individuals—human or otherwise—to assign causal probabilities to all sets of events that occur around them will often force them to lump causal associations with non-causal ones. From here, the evolutionary rationale for superstition is clear: natural selection will favour strategies that make many incorrect causal associations in order to establish those that are essential for survival and reproduction.” In support of a genetic selection model, Foster and Kokko note that “predators only avoid nonpoisonous snakes that mimic a poisonous species in areas where the poisonous species is common” and that even such simple organisms as “Escherichia coli cells will swim towards physiologically inert methylated aspartate presumably owing to an adaptation to favour true aspartate.” Such patternicities, then, mean that people believe weird things because of our evolved need to believe nonweird things. Note: This article was originally published with the title, "Patternicity".
Arizona Gun Laws Among Most Lenient In U.S. Enlarge this image toggle caption Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images On November 30, Jared Lee Loughner went to a Sportman's Warehouse in Tuscon, Ariz., and purchased a Glock 19 semiautomatic weapon, after passing an instant background check. He allegedly used that weapon in the January 8 shooting rampage that killed at least six people and wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 13 others in Tuscon. Arizona's gun laws, among the most lenient in the country, allowed Loughner to conceal and carry his firearm without a permit, explains Washington Post reporter James Grimaldi. Grimaldi, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, wrote a piece on Sunday about Arizona's gun laws. "Essentially, there is very little obstacle to purchasing a weapon in the state of Arizona," Grimaldi tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "There are laws that require you, federally, to be at least 21 years old to purchase a handgun. But basically state law permits anyone 21 and older to own a firearm and also, to carry it concealed in the state. That's different than many other states, many of which have stricter gun laws." In January 2010, Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill which repealed an Arizona state law that required gun owners to have permits to carry concealed weapons. Arizona's previous governor Janet Napolitano, now the Homeland Security secretary, had vetoed previous attempts from the gun lobby to scrap the permit requirement. Arizona also allows gun owners to carry their weapons almost everywhere in the state, including government buildings and inside the state Capitol. Exceptions exist for private businesses and doctor's offices. "There's a proposal [in Arizona] that would allow teachers and students to carry [weapons] into classrooms and that was meant to be a hedge against what happened at Virginia Tech," says Grimaldi. "It's permitted in a bar [to carry a weapon] in Arizona if the person who has the weapon is not imbibing in alcohol. It's also permitted on school grounds currently if the person is picking up or dropping off a child as long as the weapon is unloaded and the gun owner remains in the vehicle." Enlarge this image toggle caption Marie Marzis/The Washington Post Marie Marzis/The Washington Post Grimaldi reports that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence gave Arizona "among the poorest ratings of any state." Out of a possible score of 100 points, for rules or laws designed to limit access to guns, Arizona received just 2 points. In addition to his piece on Arizona's gun laws, Grimaldi is also working on a story for Tuesday's Washington Post about the restrictions placed on -- or not placed on -- mentally ill people trying to purchase weapons. "There's a question of whether the national instant [background] check system was thorough enough to include [Loughner]," Grimaldi says. "Was there something that should have been in there? Should he have been in there because he had been diagnosed with a mental illness? Was there some other thing that could have been in the system? The question is probably out there today: Should there be more restrictions in this [background] database? But I think you'll also see ... a little bit of pushback from the Second Amendment folks who believe that some people may end up in that database who shouldn't be in that database."
Last week, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs convened a hearing on political Islam, also called “Islamism.” The committee invited four witnesses: Ayaan Hirsi-Ali, Asra Q. Nomani, Michael E. Leiter, former director of the United States National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and John Lenczowski, president of the Institute of World Politics. The hearing shines a bright light on the dysfunction that attends our treatment of the topic. In her opening remarks, Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) clearly articulated the Democratic position on Islamism: “Anyone who twists or distorts religion to a place of evil is an exception to the rule…We should not focus on religion.” Unfortunately, Democrats do not have a monopoly on willful blindness when it comes to Islamism or “Sharia supremacy.” Hirsi-Ali and Nomani, both under a death sentence from jihadis on the charge of apostasy, wrote about the hearing in the New York Times. They noted that the four Democratic female senators—McCaskill, Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.)—feminists all, who whiff the scent of sexism in every passing breeze, did not ask either of them a single question. Ali and Nomani wrote that what transpired during the hearing …was emblematic of a deeply troubling trend among progressives when it comes to confronting the brutal reality of Islamist extremism and what it means for women in many Muslim communities here at home and around the world. When it comes to the pay gap, abortion access and workplace discrimination, progressives have much to say. But we’re still waiting for a march against honor killings, child marriages, polygamy, sex slavery or female genital mutilation. The whole affair reveals the contradictions of the “identity politics” that define the current Democratic Party and its manifestation in what some have called the Oppression Olympics: “Mirror, mirror, on the wall/Who is the most oppressed of all?” The current front runner seems to be political Islam, which cannot be criticized, even if it means throwing other favored groups under the bus. Islamists punish homosexuals with death, but today “Islamophobia” trumps “homophobia.” Much of the problem in dealing with political Islam is the failure to distinguish between Islam as a religion and political Islam as a system for organizing society. This issue arose in response to the testimony of John Lenczowski, during which he raised the issue of “no-go zones”—that is, areas where non-Muslims are not permitted to go—in certain European cities. McCaskill did not ask Lenczowski to expand on his point but instead turned to Leiter, who argued that there was no such thing. But as Andrew C. McCarthy has explained, it is not true that a no-go zone is a place that Muslims forbid non-Muslims to enter, as suggested by McCaskill’s question and Leitner’s answer. The case is more complex and gets to the heart of the distinction between Islam as a religion on the one hand and political Islam, or sharia supremacy, as a system of social and political organization. In reality, sharia explicitly invites the presence of non-Muslims provided that they submit to the authority of Islamic rule. Indeed historically, as I related in The Grand Jihad, my book about the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist ideology, because sharia calls on these submissive non-Muslims (dhimmis) to pay a poll tax (jizya), their continued presence was of economic importance in lands conquered by Islamic rulers. It is therefore easy for Islamists and their apologists to knock down their strawman depiction of what a no-go zone is when they leave it at that: a place where non-Muslims are “not allowed.” That is not what no-go zones are—neither as they exist in fact nor as they are contemplated by Sharia. The point of imposing Sharia—the reason it is the necessary precondition for building an Islamic society—is to make Islam the dominant social system, not the exclusive faith. The idea is that once Sharia’s systematic discrimination against non-Muslims is in place, non-Muslims will see the good sense of becoming Muslims. Over time, everyone will convert “without coercion.” The game is to set up an extortionate incentive for conversion while maintaining the smiley-face assurance that no one is being forced to convert at the point of a sword. So radical Muslims will be welcoming to any ordinary non-Muslims who are willing to defer to their mores. What they are hostile to are officials of the host state: police, firefighters, building inspectors, emergency medical personnel, and anything associated with the armed forces. That is because the presence of those forces symbolizes the authority—the non-submission—of the state. Notice, however, that no sensible person is saying that state authorities are prohibited from entering no-go zones as a matter of law. The point is that they are severely discouraged from entering as a matter of fact—and the degree of discouragement varies directly with the density of the Muslim population and its radical component. Ditto for non-Muslim lay people: It is not that they are notpermitted to enter these enclaves; it is that they avoid entering because doing so is dangerous if they are flaunting Western modes of dress and conduct. As Hirsi-Ali and Nomani observed, the hearing was an example of extreme moral relativism disguised as cultural sensitivity, which leads people to make excuses for the inexcusable. “Call it identity politics, moral relativism or political correctness—it is shortsighted, dangerous and, ultimately, a betrayal of liberal values.” But Hirsi-Ali and Nomani are too kind. To understand the roots of the pathology that the Senate hearing reveals, one must recur to certain philosophical fonts of today’s political Left, which has embraced unassimilated Muslims as the true agents of redemption in an imperialistic, colonial world. Marxists identify Muslim Islamists as the latest replacement for the proletariat, who, because of “false consciousness,” failed in its historic mission to overthrow capitalism. Those who, consciously or not, follow Rousseau, see them as a manifestation of the “noble savage” who heroically rejects the pretensions of Western civilization. For the followers of Frantz Fanon and other post-colonial theorists, they are destined to effect the final destruction the West. This is the hard truth. We ignore it at our peril.
1. "I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin's death as George Zimmerman was." 2. "I'll bet you money, if he didn't have that hoodie on, that nutty neighborhood watchguy would have never responded in that violent and aggressive way." 3. "I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies." 4. "He wore an outfit (Trayvon Martin) that allowed someone to respond in this irrational, overzealous way, and if he had been dressed more appropriately. I believe unless it's raining or at a track meet leave the hoodie at home." 5. "You know the old Johnny Cash song 'don't take your gun to town son, leave your gun at home.' There are some things that are almost inevitable."
George Zimmerman chats with his defense attorney Mark O'Mara (R) during an early morning recess in his second-degree murder trial in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin in Seminole circuit court, in Sanford, Florida, July 3, 2013. REUTERS/Jacob Langston/Pool The NAACP said late Saturday that it was "outraged and heartbroken" over the not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, vowing to pursue "civil rights charges" with the Department of Justice. "We are outraged and heartbroken over today's verdict," said Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP. "We stand with Trayvon's family and we are called to act. We will pursue civil rights charges with the Department of Justice, we will continue to fight for the removal of Stand Your Ground laws in every state, and we will not rest until racial profiling in all its forms is outlawed." Zimmerman was found not guilty in the 2012 death of teenager Trayvon Martin. The jury determined that he was not guilty of both second-degree murder and manslaughter. The NAACP also promoted a petition urging Attorney General Eric Holder to act and open a civil rights case against Zimmerman. A spokesman told Business Insider that in the three hours since the verdict had been read, it has garnered almost 100,000 signatures. The petition, in part, reads: "Today, with the acquittal of George Zimmerman, it is time for the Department of Justice to act. The most fundamental of civil rights — the right to life — was violated the night George Zimmerman stalked and then took the life of Trayvon Martin. We ask that the Department of Justice file civil rights charges against Mr. Zimmerman for this egregious violation. Please address the travesties of the tragic death of Trayvon Martin by acting today." Defense attorney Mark O'Mara said in a press conference after the verdict was read that he doesn't expect Zimmerman's days in court to be over. "We'll see how many civil lawsuits will spawn from this fiasco," O'Mara said.
Bloemendaal, originally the Lakeside Wheel Club, is a clubhouse in Richmond, Virginia built by Lewis Ginter in 1894.[1] Ginter built it as a wheel club, a gathering place for bicyclists.[2] His niece, Grace Arents, inherited it after his death in 1913. It became known as Bloemendaal. It is now part of the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.[3] Bloemendaal means valley of flowers. As a wheel club it was reached by the Missing Link Trail, which ran parallel to the Boulevard and Hermitage Road.[2] Non-riders used the Lakeside Trolley. The clubhouse served "freshly made" ice cream.[2] Ginter developed Lakeside Park around the clubhouse including a zoo and a public nine-hole golf course. [2] The Richmond Times-Dispatch described in on March 15, 1896 as: "Within the enclosure are two large sheets of water, the clubhouse of the Lakeside bicycle club, a casino, cafe, bowling alley, billiard rooms, deer house, park office, and apartments for officers. The lake...specially stocked with fish...[is] supplied with an abundance of rowboats and a speedy two-horse power naptha launch." It is now the Jefferson-Lakeside Country Club.[2] Grace Arents remodeled the building and had a second story added. It was used as a convalescent home for Richmond's sick children. After the founding of the Instructional Visiting Nurses Association, the convalescent home was no longer needed. Arents and Mary Garland Smith moved into the mansion and named it Bloemendaal in homage to the Ginter family's Dutch ancestors (Bloemendaal means "valley of flowers" and she planted gardens on the property). She died in 1926 and left the property to the City of Richmond with the stipulation that after Smith died it was to be developed in a botanical garden honoring Lewis Ginter. [1] Smith died in 1968 at the age of 100. The city of Richmond took possession of the property and it "languished". [1] The property and its gardens were rescued by botanists, horticulturists and passionate citizens who formed the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Inc.[1] Lakeside Wheel Club [ edit ] Upon Lewis Ginter’s return to Richmond from Australia, the Major began acquiring additional land on Richmond's northside. He created the Lakeside Wheel Club on the land he bought four years earlier. The clubhouse he built was a one-story Victorian structure surrounded on two sides by a covered veranda. The original concrete approach walks with their inlaid leaf patterns, the steps, concrete newel posts and wrought iron lamp standards remain today. The adjacent valley and waterways had long been the site of a millpond and were dammed to create Lakeside Lake. In the Gay Nineties cycling was a popular sport, and cyclists, cheered on by Richmond Belles, pedaled out to the Club on the cinder Missing Link Trail which ran along the Boulevard and Hermitage Road. Spectators of the cycling sport rode out on the Lakeside trolley and were discharged at the end of the line near the dam. After the grueling ride from town, cyclists could sit on the Wheel Club’s long gallery and refresh themselves with homemade ice cream, while boaters drifted on the lake below. Earlier, north of the lake, Ginter had established Lakeside Park, with a zoo and Richmond’s first professional nine-hole golf course. The granite base of the bear pit and many fine specimens of trees planted in an arboretum setting remain at the present day Jefferson Lakeside Club. When Lewis Ginter died in 1897, a large portion of his estate was inherited by his niece, Grace Arents. Arents devoted her life to philanthropy and gave generously to many causes and institutions. She was especially interested in helping the children of Oregon Hill. In 1913, she conceived the idea of a convalescent home in the country for sick infants who might benefit from the fresh air. To realize her dream, Miss Arents purchased the abandoned Lakeside Wheel Clubhouse and its approximately 10 acres (40,000 m2) from the Lewis Ginter Land and Improvement Company. The structure was remodeled in the Dutch colonial style and named Bloemendaal Farm after a small village in the Netherlands which was the Ginter ancestral home. The name translates to "flower valley." The roof was raised to provide a second floor of bedrooms, a classroom, a library and a playroom for the sick children. Miss Arents traveled extensively in Europe, and her trip diaries describe the joy she derived from her visits to continental botanical gardens. Her interest in horticulture, already strong, was heightened by her travels and found abundant expression at Bloemendaal Farm. She imported collections of rare trees and shrubs, constructed a series of three ridge and furrow greenhouses and laid out a border of herbaceous perennials along the side of the greenhouse range. Her great love of roses is evident in the photographs of Bloemendaal Farm taken in the 1920s. This garden, adjacent to the Bloemendaal House, exists today as the Grace Arents Garden. The immense ginkgo on the front lawn, the massive American hollies and the southern magnolias were planted by Miss Arents. Over the years, Miss Grace added piecemeal to the original area. Thus, she reunited some of the land that had belonged to the Powhatans, Patrick Henry, the Williamsons, John Robinson and others, and Bloemendaal Farm became widely known as a model for the best agricultural practices of the day. Seventy-eight-year-old Grace Arents died suddenly on June 20, 1926 leaving Bloemendaal Farm to the City of Richmond as a botanical garden and public park in perpetual memory of her Uncle Lewis Ginter to be known as Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.[4]
Special By By Michael Thomas Apr 29, 2015 in Entertainment Though the gay marriage debate has been settled in some places, in Australia it still rages. One documentary examines same-sex parents through the eyes of children. Being children, of course, what they'll come out with is impossible to predict. Gus is a huge fan of wrestling and exasperates his mother by continually playing rough with his sister (though his sister packs quite a wallop herself) — but he's also riotously funny, especially in a conversation in which he tries to argue that being told to do orchestra and debating is child abuse. Ebony is an aspiring singer whose goal is to get into her local arts high school, but her younger, seizure-prone brother makes it difficult to focus on the music. Matthew finds himself questioning his religion and particularly why his mother still goes to church despite being seen as a sinner. Graham, neglected by his previous parents, struggles to learn how to read and adapt to life after being uprooted to Fiji. Then in some ways, Gayby Baby is like a slice-of-life film with parents who just happen to be gay. But perhaps that's the point — Newell may be speaking more by putting in less. Maybe simply by showing kids having the same growing pains without a "complete" family unit is an attempt to clear up misconceptions. Gayby Baby is now showing at Maya Newell and Charlotte Mars shed a fresh perspective on same-sex couples with Gayby Baby by instead focusing on their children. Though the parents appear in regular scenes, all interviews involve children only, and despite being 11 and 12 years old, they're remarkably conscientious and clear-headed.Being children, of course, what they'll come out with is impossible to predict. Gus is a huge fan of wrestling and exasperates his mother by continually playing rough with his sister (though his sister packs quite a wallop herself) — but he's also riotously funny, especially in a conversation in which he tries to argue that being told to do orchestra and debating is child abuse.Ebony is an aspiring singer whose goal is to get into her local arts high school, but her younger, seizure-prone brother makes it difficult to focus on the music. Matthew finds himself questioning his religion and particularly why his mother still goes to church despite being seen as a sinner. Graham, neglected by his previous parents, struggles to learn how to read and adapt to life after being uprooted to Fiji. Gay marriage and the efficacy of same-sex parenting are of course the underlying topics of the movie, but they're actually very small parts of the film overall. The themes factor differently into each child's perspective. In Matthew's story, he and his family are invited to have dinner with then-PM Julia Gillard to discuss their views on gay marriage. Graham's two dads talk briefly about keeping their relationship status in the more conservative society of Fiji. But in Ebony and Gus's stories, having two moms is incidental to the events.Then in some ways, Gayby Baby is like a slice-of-life film with parents who just happen to be gay. But perhaps that's the point — Newell may be speaking more by putting in less. Maybe simply by showing kids having the same growing pains without a "complete" family unit is an attempt to clear up misconceptions.Gayby Baby is now showing at Hot Docs 2015. To see Digital Journals festival coverage from this year, click here More about gayby baby, maya newell, Hot docs, hot docs 2015 gayby baby maya newell Hot docs hot docs 2015
It might be a five-game losing streak or 70-plus games of frustration speaking, but I couldn’t help chuckling seeing the talk from Boston Bruins fans actuallythat this team continues to slide in an effort to have a greater shot at landing one of Massachusetts nativeor the OHL’sat this year’s draft. In their eyes, a three percent chance at landing a generational talent is greater than their chance to win the 2015 Stanley Cup. Or even come close to it for that matter. Maybe they’re right. Technically speaking, with the Bruins currently in the ninth spot in the Eastern Conference as of this moment, they do have a greater chance of landing an Eichel or McDavid in June than they do a Cup. So, credit where credit is due, I suppose.At the same time, this is a downright ridiculous hope. It’s not one without an agenda, either.For most, failing to make the postseason means that general manager, the club’s face of the front office since 2006, is fired. It could also mean that head coach, a fixture behind the Boston bench since 2007, is fired, too. That’s their takeaway from B’s CEO’ early January presser that put everybody in the organization on notice for an ‘unacceptable’ season, anyways. (Which again, I don’t think is necessarily wrong.)If you talk to fans, the axe has loomed over Chiarelli’s head for some time now, too. Hell, most of ‘em have already swung it down and moved themselves on to the idea of legitimately unknown change. When you look at what the Bruins were, and what they’ve gone to in an incredibly short period of time, many have quickly pointed to questionable asset-management from the Harvard grad.There’s a contingent of Black and Gold fans that will never be content with the return from thetrade (which now reads, andafter losingto waivers earlier this season) no matter the off the record off-ice issues Seguin dealt with during his three-year tenure here. Chiarelli and the Bruins also made the ‘mistake’ of going all-in for it last year with a bonus-laden contract tothat had a 100% chance of blowing up in their face the next season (this year) given the number of games played bonuses in Iginla’s one-year deal. October’strade to Long Island has been a season-long issue for a lot of people, and really made the Bruins worse without a realistic backup plan on the table. Some, myself included, also believe that Chiarelli unnecessarily rushed to re-sign Reilly Smith to a two-year contract rather than let it play out and see if the price could have gone down on a pending restricted free agent with little to no rights. Others have pointed to poor drafting, too, although David Pastrnak’s quick emergence into the National Hockey League has left other teams questioning how this player fell into Boston’s hands.(So, yeah, they’re pissed ‘bout some stuff.)When it comes to Julien, there are fans that will always be critical of Julien’s willingness to ‘adapt’ or let offensive players ‘thrive’ in spite of a defense-first system. For what it’s worth, the Bruins have finished in the top-10 in goals scored four times in Julien’s eight-year tenure with the B’s. No matter the success the 54-year-old coach has (and he’s had a ton of it in Boston), or how he mixes talents into the NHL when he feels that they’re ready (cough, Ryan Spooner, cough), there’s criticism for his style and stubbornness when it comes to rolling four lines at all times (I admit, that’s happened a bit this season).But these moves, as crazy as it sounds at the height of frustration in the Hub, would be shortsighted, in my opinion. Chiarelli, despite twice dealing with the arguably self-inflicted issues of a cap-crunch (2009 and 2014-15), has maneuvered this team into a situation where their core is locked up for the foreseeable future. And it’s tough for me to commit to chasing an executive out of town when his track record has led you to two Stanley Cup Final appearances since 2011. (Seriously, I thought I’d be lucky to see one in my lifetime when I was watching the Bruins sign the cadavers of both Alexei Zhamnov and Brian Leetch after the ‘04 lockout.) And Julien, operating with less than a full deck this season -- and arguably the worst one of his stint here -- is one of the top-five coaches in this league if you ask me. Moving on from two proven winners after one bad season and watching them thrive elsewhere (any team with an opening at either position would be lining up to bring one of these guys in), would be, again, shortsighted. Almost as shortsighted as the club’s decision to move on from Seguin after one turbulent year. Y’know, that kind of thought process that these same people criticize Chiarelli for.At the same time, this isn’t to excuse everything that’s happened this year, either.Did the front office bank on too many repeat performances to what were career years (Krug, Lucic, Smith, and Soderberg)? Without a doubt. Did they overrate their defensive depth’s ability to step in and replace Boychuk without skipping a beat? Undeniably so. And when that failed, did they seem to think that a top-four defender was somehow going to fall in their lap come deadline day? It would appear so.You’re more than right to criticize the club for their failures in assessing what they had.But you also have to be a realist and look at the hand that they’ve been dealt this season. Their captain, and one of the league’s premier shutdown defenders, missed 19 games this year with a torn knee ligament. And including Chara, the Bruins were at one point without four of their regulars on defense. David Krejci, their best offensive player, has suited up for just 38 of Boston’s 73 games.has shouldered an absolutely nutso workload since January, and it’s finally appeared to catch up with him. They’re shooting 8.44% as a team, 24th in the league, and a number that’ll likely give the Bruins their closest brush with 2009-10’s league-worst 30th rank in that department. Their big deadline acquisition,, was hurt in practice on a net-front shot to the hand from a guy that seems to always miss the net during actual game action before even playing a game. And now they’re likely going to be withoutfor the rest of the regular season.There’s bad luck, and then there’s the Bruins. In essence, it’s been one unbelievably crappy year.But don’t you for a second try to say that this is a team that’s better off missing the postseason for the first time since 2007 because it’ll bring the ‘change’ that the team needs. That’s simply not accurate.Although the outlook has become a bit bleaker than you’d like, I believe that the Bruins have come too far for this to become the ‘hope’ of their fans with less than 10 games to go. Chiarelli and company opted not to sell off a piece like a Dennis Seidenberg or a Soderberg at this year’s trade deadline despite the potentially large return that could have come Boston’s way, instead opting to acquire an asset that they believe could help them both today and tomorrow in Connolly and Max Talbot. This sent the message to the room that they believed that they could compete in this year’s Eastern Conference.And why shouldn’t they? When you dissect this year’s battle for the East, what do you have? The New York Rangers look like an absolute juggernaut of a club, sure, but we all know how difficult it is for a team to get to the Final two years in a row. There’s some sort of unexplainable forcefield that typically prevents teams from doing this. The Montreal Canadiens are riding on the back of downright disgusting numbers for their goaltender and likely Hart Trophy favorite, Carey Price, but the general belief is that it will come crashing down at some point. Scouts have made the case that neither the Islanders nor Tampa Bay Lightning are ready for the big stage yet, while teams like the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and even Washington Capitals have had their own bouts with inconsistency from Day 1.With all that in mind, would I consider the Black and Gold to be anything close to a favorite for the Stanley Cup? God no. But I do know that they possess the elements of what makes a team dangerous in the springtime. They’re grizzled and loaded with playoff experience. They’ve injected a shot in the arm of sorts into their lineup with the speedy, creative offensive punch of Spooner and Pastrnak. And they have the pieces up front (Bergeron, Marchand, Eriksson, and potentially Krejci), on the backend (Chara, Krug, and maybe Hamilton), and in net (Rask) to make things hard for a ‘favorite’.If they find a way to get in, they have a puncher’s chance. And that’s what it comes back down to.To get all Mike Babcockian on you here in terms of my analogy here, when I was a young teen, I was aesthetically displeasing to literally everybody. I had this straight-up terrible moptop of a haircut. Think Pedro Martinez jheri curl in ‘04, but on a 5-foot-nothing, 140-pound kid with a fat face that typically had some sort of food sauce on it and wearing a novelty shirt. Much to my surprise, I found that wearing a T-shirt that said ‘Chick Magnet’ on it actually made girls like you even less (weird, I know). During the middle-school dances, the slow songs would play, and I’d sit in the corner, stuffing my face with Skittles or maybe Reese’s Pieces rather than dance with the pretty girls. They didn’t like me, and probably didn’t even know my name. (“You’re Aaron, right? Who are you?”) It was without question the worst part of my night every single time, and even though I knew I had no chance ofdating any girl that’d be willing to share an unbelievably awkward hands-on-your-hips/your-hands-on-my-shoulders, mummy-walk of a dance with me to some Usher, I’d want the chance to see what could happen.It’s a simple concept to get behind whether you’re 13 and awkward, a professional athlete on a slumping club, or just somebody rooting for the local sports team. But with their fate almost entirely out of their hands, the only thing Boston fans should openly hope for at this point is the case for some springtime redemption by way of the club’s eighth-straight appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.And believe me, you’d always rather have the chance to dance than eat Skittles in the corner.
Hedge Fund To Pay More Than $600 Million In Insider Trading Settlement The Securities and Exchange Commission said it has obtained the largest settlement ever in an insider trading case. Two affiliates of the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors have agreed to pay $614 million to settle charges of participating in insider trading schemes. The SEC alleged that a portfolio manager at one of the firms obtained confidential details about an Alzheimer's drug trial from a doctor who was presenting final results to the public. MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: The Securities and Exchange Commission says it's the largest settlement in history for insider trading. Two affiliates of the major hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors will pay a fine of more than $600 million. But they're not admitting to any wrongdoing. Here's NPR's Dan Bobkoff. DAN BOBKOFF, BYLINE: The big-ticket settlement is with CR Intrinsic, an affiliate of SAC Capital, that the Securities and Exchange Commission says obtained illegal information about Alzheimer's drug trials at pharmaceutical companies Wyeth and Elan Corporation. CR Intrinsic will admit no guilt and pay more than $600 million, including $250 million in penalties. In a conference call, George Canellos of the SEC says this is about investor confidence and fairness. GEORGE CANELLOS: We can't tolerate a market rigged for the benefits of insiders and their cronies, for the benefit of those who would corrupt company officials to divulge confidential information. BOBKOFF: Another affiliate settled separate charges today that it illegally traded shares of technology companies Dell and NVIDIA. SAC Capital Advisors has been in the SEC's crosshairs for months. Last year, it charged Matthew Martoma, an SAC portfolio manager, with obtaining illegal information about the drug trials. SAC allegedly used the information to profit and avoid losses totaling $276 million. Today's settlements are separate from the Martoma case and the SEC says its litigations and investigations are continuing. JOHN COFFEE: This is a case that still hasn't seen the last domino fall. BOBKOFF: John Coffee teaches securities law at Columbia Law School. He says the SEC could still bring an action against SAC founder Steven Cohen or other SAC officials if they get assistance from Martoma. COFFEE: The government has been slowly circling around Mr. Cohen for some time. BOBKOFF: Steven Cohen hasn't been charged, but Canellos of the SEC made it clear that could change. A spokesman for SAC Capital said in a statement that, quote, this settlement is a substantial step toward resolving all outstanding regulatory matters and allows the firm to move forward with confidence. Dan Bobkoff, NPR News, New York. Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
Identity politics fiddled while America burned. The passage of the Trump-Republican tax plan–along with the 40 years of increasing economic inequality in the United States–speaks to the failures and limits of identity politics in America. Final passage of the Trump-Reagan tax plan will be among the most economically regressive policies ever passed by the American government. The combination of permanent tax cuts for corporations and temporary tax cuts for wealthy individuals (along with small temporary tax cuts for the middle class and poor), as well as the elimination of the Affordable Care Act individual mandate, the increase in the standard deduction (which will hurt non-profits), exacerbates an economic trend that has been building since the 1970s in America and which was documented by the likes of economist Thomas Piketty, the Congressional Budget Office, and a host of other agencies. The tax plan does nothing to repatriate corporate money to the US or to repeal the laws (criticized at least since Bill Clinton) that incentivize companies to offshore jobs. It will do nothing to help the white working class who voted for Trump, instead, benefitting the top 1% and people like Trump. It is simply class warfare against the poor and middle class, but the latter are not fighting back. Why? The reason is the turn to identity politics among progressives in the last 40 years that has all but eclipsed class as a rallying and unifying principle of liberal and left politics. Historian Louis Hartz wrote once that the weakness of class politics in America stemmed from the fact that the country lacked a feudal past. We were all born Lockean-liberal individualists with a belief that America was the land of opportunity and we could all become millionaires. Paraphrasing historian Daniel Boorstin, the genius of American politics was in creating political structures that transformed class into interest politics. While James Madison in Federalist number 10 declared that the most “common and durable source of factions has been the various and unequal distribution of property,” many such as historian Charles Beard and political scientist Michael Parenti see the resulting constitution devised by the framers as insulting the minority wealthy against the tyranny of the poor majority. Despite this class bias, traditional liberal if not real progressive politics was class-based. What was once called the Old Left drew some of its inspiration from socialist theories of class struggle. Politics was about social justice, the battle between rich and poor, and it involved labor unions, the working class, and workers. It was about fighting for economic equality and democracy, seeing political unity in the shared struggle of class. In contrast, the New Left was the politics of the 1960s. It was born in the student campus movement against the Vietnam War, and for civil rights. The New Left was less about class than about identity politics, and it had stronger middle class roots than did the Old Left. The Old Left and New Left both sought to transform American politics, yet their visions of what a revolution would look like and what would emerge were different. The Old Left saw political progress rooted in class struggle and transformation that would eventually achieve liberation for oppressed groups, the New Left focused directly on the liberation of groups because of their social identity. The Old left produced the New Deal and the Great Society programs. The New Left produced the civil rights revolution. Yes, the Old Left ignored racism, sexism, and homophobia, but it did help produce a politics that reduced the inequalities of the 1920s to their most egalitarian by the early 1970s. If the Old Left politics was unity in a shared class struggle to transform political economic power relations, the New Left is coalitional interest group politics. Political change is about empowering individual groups, the daily grind of groups using the official institutions of power to achieve change. America is less fundamentally corrupted and can be incrementally reformed. Identity politics and the New Left helped kill class politics and the Old Left. It unwittingly cooperated with conservatism to kill progressive politics. It helped divert attention away from labor unions which pushed for economic security, it drove a wedge between white working class and people of color by making the latter the bearers of white privilege. Fostering leftist identity politics produced the counter-movement of identity politics of the right, along with the resurgence of White Supremacy. While the New Left correctly pointed to the failures of the Old Left, it was willing to support political candidates such as Bill and Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama who embraced Neo-Liberal policies that did very little to address the politics of the rich and poor. In the case of Bill Clinton, he presided over “ending welfare as we know it” and supporting regressive racial criminal justice policies that did more to hurt class and identify politics that perhaps any other politician. Obama did get modest health care reform based, but did little if anything to help out the homeowners after the economic crash of 2008. He continued the Bush-era policies of bailing out the banks, ignoring the demands of labor unions and workers to make it easier organize or get better wages. Obama also did little to address the role of money in politics, and, at the end of the day, his advocacy for the Trans-Pacific Partnership did little to rectify the inequities that many free trade agreements such as Clinton’s NAFTA have in terms of disproportionately burdening the working class. Overall, identity politics and the New Left singularly came to be identified with the Democratic Party, a party complicate in the erosion of economic equality over the last 40 years. The New Left and the Old Left–identity and class politics–failed to synthesize to produce a meaningful alternative to conservatism.
"All I said was that I thought it was going to be a difficult game and I wasn't certain that the team was going to win," stated Jeffers who was branded a "traitor" by his fellow fans. Reportedly, Jeffers was attending the Republic/Monarchs watch party when local investigators found several tweets expressing his own personal doubts over the upcoming game. "Whoa, man," stated local investigator and currently unemployed bar-back Paul Merson. "Tim TOTALLY didn't believe we were going to win this game. What a whiny little fucking traitor." Jeffers was reportedly paraded around the bar as fellow fans threw napkins and food at him as a sign of his disloyalty to the team. He was given a shame hat and asked to leave the premises. "It was the 8th team against the #1 team on the road," whined little whiny whiner Jeffers. "I didn't think it was an act of sedition to insinuate that it might be a tough game," whined the little whiny unbeliever. The Nutmeg News will have more on this as Jeffers tweet history is printed out, long form, so that all can see his horrible takes 365 days later.
Aubrey de Grey wants to save lives. He wants to save as many as he possibly can, as soon as he can, and to do it he is going to fix ageing. The prominent scientist and futurologist is on a crusade to beat ageing and when he does it will mean that we stay healthy and live longer – possibly for up to hundreds of years. But, as de Grey emphasises, his primary goal is not just making people live longer; he wants us to live healthily, he wants to restore us to a state of health that is “fully functional in every way”. The ability to live for hundreds of years is just a side effect. “The ability to live for hundreds of years is just a side effect“ The work carried out by de Grey and his colleague at the SENS Research Foundation will ultimately raise new challenges that need to be tackled, both in medicine and society, but there is no scientific reasoning why the body, with the right treatment, cannot be healthy for much longer. “We haven’t got the faintest idea what a 200 year old brain is going to work like but, there is currently no reason to believe that it will work any differently than a brain today,” de Grey says. But how will he stop us ageing, and what will it mean for society? Divide and conquer De Grey’s plan is simple to understand but drastically difficult to make a reality, which may be one of the reasons why hordes of scientists and fans pack lecture theatres when he is due to speak. It involves providing treatments that are similar to conventional medicine to those aged around 60 or 70, which will help to rejuvenate their bodies to the state of early adulthood. The idea of treating disease and the disabilities of old age will not be treated by one breakthrough de Grey says. It has to be broken down into a series of manageable tasks. “We don’t really think there is going to be one particular technique that will do the job,” he explains. “We believe that the process of ageing has to be recognised as a chaotic somewhat uncoordinated set of processes such that a truly effective treatment of it is going to involve a divide and conquer approach, essentially sub-dividing the problem into a variety of types of damage that accumulate and figuring out therapies that can address each of them.” As a small organisation, de Grey says that SENS is focusing on the areas that seem realistically achievable in the shorter term and those areas that are neglected. The first of the treatments may be ready within 20 to 25 years’ time, he predicts. Coincidentally, this will be the time when then 52-year-old de Grey is reaching the age where the treatments would be applied. Naturally, the lucrative benefits that come with solving ageing inevitably mean that de Grey isn’t the only one hunting for the answers. In fact, the competition is very tough. Google-founded Calico recently forged a $1.5bn agreement with drug manufacturer AbbVie to help research solutions to ageing and age-related diseases. After the announcement SENS CEO Mike Kope issued a statement saying the deal highlights the “potential astronomical scale” of an anti-ageing industry. Supply and demand In a world where getting old is no longer an issue, concerns will arise about population levels and resources that the planet can provide. De Grey admits that the world will change dramatically and that the transformation will not necessarily be a smooth one. “There may be some turbulence and obviously the more we can forward plan to minimise that turbulence the better,” he adds. One UN report, from 2003, predicts that the world’s population could increase to more than 36bn people by 2300 – and that forecast is based on regular life expectancy. If everyone is living for hundreds of years then the resources needed to sustain them would drastically increase. “ A truly effective treatment of it is going to involve a divide and conquer approach“ But this view does not give credit to other technologies that are developing at a faster implementation rate than anti-ageing, and people can have a blinkered view about this. “They just don’t look at the problem properly so for example, one thing that people hardly ever acknowledge is that the other new technology is going to be around a great deal sooner than this technology, or at least sooner than this technology will have any demographic impact,” de Grey says. “For example we will have much less carbon footprint because we will have things like better renewable energy and nuclear fusion and so on, so that it will actually be increasing the carrying capacity of the planet far faster than the defeat of ageing could increase the number of people on the planet.” Beyond biology Looking at a future that is beyond our current lifetimes the answer to ending ageing may lie outside of the biomedical field, de Grey concedes. Other factors, such as robots and artificial intelligence, will also be playing a role in our medical treatments. “The whole area of what you might call non-biological solutions to medical problems is an area that should certainly never be neglected and has already played a minor role in today’s medical world with things like cochlear implants or, for that matter, just glasses,” de Grey says. “Non-biological solutions to medical problems should certainly never be neglected“ “So the question then is, will this increase? I believe it will, in fact I believe that in the very long term it is quite likely that non-biological solutions will dominate medicine simply because they can and they are more versatile. “But I think that is going to be a long time coming. It is going to be driven largely by miniaturisation I think. It may very well be that software improvements to do with artificial intelligence, for example, will play a roll there.” But while the long-term work continues, it will be exciting to see what de Grey – being in a hurry to stop ageing as soon as he can – achieves in the meantime. Featured image plus images two and three courtesy of SHARE Conference via Flickr/Creative Commons. Image one courtesy of Jean-Baptiste Labrune via Flickr/Creative Commons
Romney's and Ryan's LAUGHABLE alleged 'Harvard and Princeton' support for their 'tax plan' What were they talking about? I've seen the Romney-Ryan economic "white papers", and IMO they fail to answer the "arithmentic" questions Bill Clinton asked in Charlotte. "Harvard" is an embarrassment of a big-payday fluff 'white paper' by one radical-right extremist (John Taylor of Stanford), two right-wing textbook authors (Greg Mankiw of Harvard, and Glen Hubbard of Columbia), and one longstanding rightwing hack from AEI (Kevin Hassett). Instead of "Harvard" and "AEI", Romney-Ryan could have said, "Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, and AEI". But the Stanford economist was the one of the four Romney advisers who embarrassed himself the most: Ezra Klein of the Washington Post observed that of fourteen relevant economic studies that have examined the impact of President Obama's American Recovery Act, ONLY John Taylor's found no effect (see And "Princeton" (see below for my first impressions) is a piece of fluff just churned out by another rightwing textbook author, Harvey Rosen (see I find Romney's attempted misuse of academicians for hire pretty shocking. WHAT'S YOUR OPINION? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Rosen claims, "I analyze the Romney proposal taking into account the additional income that might be generated by economic growth. The main conclusion is that under plausible assumptions, a proposal along the lines suggested by Governor Romney can both be revenue neutral and keep the net tax burden on high-income individuals about the same. That is, an increase in the tax burden on lower and middle income individuals is not required in order to make the overall plan revenue neutral." He makes projections from the summary table of the latest availabe IRS Statistics of Income (for 2009) Any competent first-year economics graduate student would shoot him down on several underlying assumptions: 1. Rosen vastly overstates the revenues from loophole closing on top income earners. He assumes that legislation would be written to remove ALL Schedule B deductions for high earners, ignoring the income shifting and income hiding that such legislation would generate. Practical legislation would preferably remove all of certain classes of deductions for all taxpayers, regardless of income, in order to minimize income shifting and income hiding in response to the "tax reform". 2. However, Rosen has the nerve to assume a minimum of 3 percent extra wage and capital income for top-rate taxpayers as "dynamic macroeconomic effects" of Romney's plan. Such "dynamic scoring" is a longstanding no-no in tax policy analysis. It is fantasyland, and IMO should be ignored completely. Fortunately, Rosen's table allows that fantastical "dynamic scoring" to be ignored. 3. Rosen chooses to define high incomes as greater than $100,000 or greater than $200,000. But the policy-relevant threshold Washington is debating for high incomes is $250,000. Either Rosen was too lazy to look at disaggregated IRS data or he tried $250,000 and it did not work as well. Even a $200,000 threshold leaves him $75 billion a year short of revenue-neutrality. That's $75 billion to be recouped from repealing tas deductions for middle-class mortgage interest, charitable donations, state and local tax payments, and other Schedule B deductions for those short of the top rate. If this apparent first-draft by Harvey Rosen stands as it is, with no revisions, IMO it is a major academic scandal. IMO Rosen should be ASHAMED for having put this out there for national scrutiny 58 days before a crucial election. On Meet the Press this morning, Mitt Romney confidently tried to parry David Gregory's questions about tax arithmetic with references to, "my goodness, Princeton and Harvard". Paul Ryan echoed these sentiments on This Week with George Stephanoupoulos.What were they talking about? I've seen the Romney-Ryan economic "white papers", and IMO they fail to answer the "arithmentic" questions Bill Clinton asked in Charlotte."Harvard" is an embarrassment of a big-payday fluff 'white paper' by one radical-right extremist (John Taylor of Stanford), two right-wing textbook authors (Greg Mankiw of Harvard, and Glen Hubbard of Columbia), and one longstanding rightwing hack from AEI (Kevin Hassett). Instead of "Harvard" and "AEI", Romney-Ryan could have said, "Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, and AEI". But the Stanford economist was the one of the four Romney advisers who embarrassed himself the most: Ezra Klein of the Washington Post observed that of fourteen relevant economic studies that have examined the impact of President Obama's American Recovery Act, ONLY John Taylor's found no effect (see http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021097643 ). But Romney's economists ignored the 13 positive studies and cited only Taylor's. It is a SCANDAL that in the Romney 'white paper', Taylor simply cited himself and ignored all the other relevant studies, all of which disagree with him strongly!And "Princeton" (see below for my first impressions) is a piece of fluff just churned out by another rightwing textbook author, Harvey Rosen (see http://www.princeton.edu/ceps/workingpapers/228rosen.pdf ). This is a very thin, back-of-the-envelope calculation with ONE spreadsheet table intended to refute a major quantitative study of the Romney tax plan by serious tax scholars (See http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/template.cfm?PubID=1001631 ).I find Romney's attempted misuse of academicians for hire pretty shocking.WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?-----------------------------------------------------------------------Rosen claims, "I analyze the Romney proposal taking into account the additional income that might be generated by economic growth. The main conclusion is that under plausible assumptions, a proposal along the lines suggested by Governor Romney can both be revenue neutral and keep the net tax burden on high-income individuals about the same. That is, an increase in the tax burden on lower and middle income individuals is not required in order to make the overall plan revenue neutral." He makes projections from the summary table of the latest availabe IRS Statistics of Income (for 2009)Any competent first-year economics graduate student would shoot him down on several underlying assumptions:1. Rosen vastly overstates the revenues from loophole closing on top income earners. He assumes that legislation would be written to remove ALL Schedule B deductions for high earners, ignoring the income shifting and income hiding that such legislation would generate. Practical legislation would preferably remove all of certain classes of deductions for all taxpayers, regardless of income, in order to minimize income shifting and income hiding in response to the "tax reform".2. However, Rosen has the nerve to assume a minimum of 3 percent extra wage and capital income for top-rate taxpayers as "dynamic macroeconomic effects" of Romney's plan. Such "dynamic scoring" is a longstanding no-no in tax policy analysis. It is fantasyland, and IMO should be ignored completely. Fortunately, Rosen's table allows that fantastical "dynamic scoring" to be ignored.3. Rosen chooses to define high incomes as greater than $100,000 or greater than $200,000. But the policy-relevant threshold Washington is debating for high incomes is $250,000.Either Rosen was too lazy to look at disaggregated IRS data or he tried $250,000 and it did not work as well. Even a $200,000 threshold leaves him $75 billion a year short of revenue-neutrality. That's $75 billion to be recouped from repealing tas deductions for middle-class mortgage interest, charitable donations, state and local tax payments, and other Schedule B deductions for those short of the top rate.If this apparent first-draft by Harvey Rosen stands as it is, with no revisions, IMO it is a major academic scandal. IMO Rosen should be ASHAMED for having put this out there for national scrutiny 58 days before a crucial election. 21 Tweet
Tear gas, rubber bullets, and assault weapons; free speech zones, gags, and press pens: This is the arsenal of the police state. Some of these tactics are physical. The other ones—all the more pernicious for their quiet coercion—impose a veil of silence over the actions of law enforcement. And each of these weapons has been unleashed on the people of Ferguson, Missouri, since the killing of Michael Brown. In the first few nights of protest, Ferguson and St. Louis County police responded with a truly inconceivable show of force. Officers suited up in DHS-funded military hand-me-downs, outfitted with goggles, machine guns, sniper rifles, riot gear and gas masks. Distressing warzone-like images flickered into the public consciousness: photos of armed police cohorts pointing loaded automatic weapons at citizens with their hands in the air, women and children’s faces streaming with tear gas and milk and white officers targeting black protesters like it’s Selma circa 1964. The message was clear: The public is the enemy. And as we the people started getting that message, Ferguson starting working harder to shoot the messengers. Police repeatedly ordered protesters to turn off cameras and cell phones recording law enforcement. In response, the ACLU of Missouri had to go into court to seek an emergency agreement reminding the police that photographing them is a constitutionally protected right. Roving SWAT teams, perplexingly, raided a McDonald’s and arrested two journalists engaged in the suspicious act of recharging their phones. Police aimed tear gas canisters directly at members of the press. A local news crew caught police riding up afterwards and disassembling another crew’s media equipment. Then came more systemic approaches to shutting down the speech of the public and the press. First: a nighttime curfew, applied to a broad area, whose details were obscure and seemingly applied ad hoc on the ground. Of the seven people arrested that night, three claim to have been on their own driveway. Of course, since journalists were subject to the curfew, we don’t have a lot of objective facts about what happened in those wee hours. That curfew only lasted a few days. It was then replaced by a “no standing” rule of dubious origin and authority, under which police threatened the arrest of anyone who stood still for more than 5 seconds, day or night. That also included press. CNN’s Don Lemon was pushed along the sidewalk on live television, after being told by authorities to be exactly where he was. As he rightly said to his audience: “Imagine what they are doing to people when [sic] you don’t see on national television, the people who don’t have a voice like we do.” However, reporters were allowed to stand still—so long as they stayed in the “press pen,” a designated space so far off from the action between the cops and the protesters that reporters who tried to witness anything of consequence were tear gassed. And the police didn’t hesitate to show they meant business, arresting Getty photographer Scott Olson when he strayed. Like other reporters arrested, he too was promptly released without a report or charges. The point of these repeat press arrests appears to be preventing accountability, not protecting public safety. And officials have insisted they’re not stopping. The ACLU again went into court on an emergency basis to challenge the 5-second rule. The court declined to shut it down, relying on the state attorney general’s word that the city had set aside a designated “free speech zone,” which provided ample opportunities for protest. But when ACLU of Missouri staff went to confirm that description after the hearing, the area was empty and off-limits to the public. As of yesterday, the state did ensure the area was open, but it’s totally inadequate. Removed from the symbolic location of Michael Brown’s death, isolated and sterile, the “free speech zone” is truly where free speech goes to die. And it means that the rest of Ferguson is officially a speech-free zone. Each of these tactics is an unconstitutional restriction on the rights of speech and assembly in its own right. But this constantly changing whirlwind of restrictions further deepens the constitutional sinkhole Ferguson has become. When residents are bewildered as to when, where, and how they can gather and speak without risking arrest, that uncertainty itself casts a shadow of intimidation and self-censorship across the right of free speech. And of course, that uncertainty is often happening at the business end of a high-powered rifle. So why, especially in light of our strong First Amendment traditions regularly upheld by the courts, has Ferguson discarded the First Amendment? Perhaps it’s because the stakes are so high. The more news and images we see streaming out of Ferguson, the more we have visceral evidence of the systemic problems of race, inequality, militarization and an us-versus-them cop mentality that are fueling continued protest and righteous outrage. And the more we know about Ferguson, the more concern we should have. An astoundingly non-diverse police department. Financial incentives to over-enforce minor infractions. Charging a victim of police brutality for getting blood on officers’ clothing. These aren’t mere anecdotes. They are threads in the fabric of a truth we the people have a right – a duty – to reveal and unravel. As our Supreme Court recognized in Roth v. United States, “The protection given speech and press was fashioned to assure unfettered interchange of ideas for the bringing about of political and social changes desired by the people.” There is much political and social change desired by the people in Ferguson, and throughout our country. Not one more unarmed young black man should die at the hands of the police. Not one more local police force should get financial incentives to militarize and mobilize against its own citizens. Not one more photographer should risk arrest by doing her job. The iconic images coming out of Ferguson illustrate the urgency of change. So we the people must give thanks. We give thanks to the journalists who have been zip-tied in the fight for transparency. We give thanks to the tweeters who crowdsource the eyes and ears of America. We give thanks to those on the streets of Ferguson who lift up their camera phones to bear witness to the truth in real time. Because they are the agents of the change we must all seek together. Our words, our voices, and our pictures are the most devastating weapons of all to entrenched systems of injustice: systems that led to the death of Michael Brown and to the anger it spawned.
A Monster and a Trap Dinomist Spinos Level 5 WATER Machine-Type Pendulum Effect Monster ATK 2500 DEF 1800 Scale: 3 Pendulum Effect (1) If another “Dinomist” card(s) you control would be destroyed by battle or an opponent’s card effect, you can destroy this card instead. Monster Effect (1) You can Tribute 1 other “Dinomist” monster, then activate 1 of these effects; • This card can attack directly this turn. • This card can attack twice during each Battle Phase this turn. Dinomist Eruption Normal Trap Card (1) If a “Dinomist” monster you control is destroyed (by battle or by card effect): You can target 1 card your opponent controls; destroy that target. Notes: Konami says, yes, you can Tribute 2 Dinomist in the same turn to get Spinos’ direct attack and double attack. Source
Our traditional justice system has been inadequate to the task of breaking the cycle of substance abuse and crime. Four out of every five offenses are committed by someone with a drug or alcohol problem; and we just keep locking them up! In just the past 20 years alone, state prison systems have added 1 million new cells to incarcerate the 2.3 million adults now behind bars in the U.S. That's far more than any other country on the globe with 1 out of every 100 adult Americans currently serving time.1 Approximately one-half of these individuals are addicted to drugs or alcohol2 and most do not pose a serious threat to public safety. Prison for these individuals has accomplished little to stem the tide of crime or substance abuse. Upon their release from prison, two thirds of drug abusers commit a new crime3 and virtually all relapse quickly to drug abuse.4 And yet, despite these disappointing figures national expenditures on corrections well exceed $60 billion annually.5 On average, states spend $65,000 per bed, per year to build new prisons and $23,876 per bed, per year to operate them. Despite the staggering cost to incarcerate these individuals, most return to their communities without treatment, without jobs and without hope. Given the abysmal outcomes of incarceration on addictive behavior, there's absolutely no justification for state governments to continue to waste tax dollars feeding a situation where generational recidivism is becoming the norm and parents, children and grandparents may find themselves locked up together. Author Judge Dennis Challeen (ret.) said it best about sending the addicted to prison: We want them to have self-worth So we destroy their self-worth We want them to be responsible So we take away all responsibility We want them to be positive and constructive So we degrade them and make them useless We want them to be trustworthy So we put them where there is no trust We want them to be non-violent So we put them where violence is all around them We want them to be kind and loving people So we subject them to hatred and cruelty We want them to quit being the tough guy So we put them where the tough guy is respected We want them quit hanging around losers So we put all the losers in the state under one roof We want them to quit exploiting us So we put them where they exploit each other We want them to take control of their lives, own problems and quit being a parasite on society So we make them totally dependent on us An Investment Beginning to be Realized The verdict is in on Drug Courts. It has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Drug Courts work. Drug Courts significantly reduce drug abuse and crime and do so at less expense than any other justice strategy. That is why the historic 1994 Biden Crime Bill authorized $1 billion for the Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program, administered by the Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs. The intent of the Biden Crime Bill at the time was to expand Drug Court funding to $200 million annually by the year 2000. Unfortunately the DOJ federal appropriation has averaged only $40 million and saw its lowest level in 2006 at a mere $10 million. The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has also supported Drug Courts through its discretionary funding. But it, too, is drastically under-funded with a meager $10 million a year available to enhance treatment services within Drug Court programs. That is all changing. Earlier this year, Congress approved $64 million for Drug Courts; the highest federal appropriation for the program in its 20 year history. And President Obama has plans to take the ball further up field. In the Administration's budget for 2010, there is potentially $118 million for Drug Courts. How Much Money Is Needed? Drug Courts need $250 million per year for the next six years--essentially as was originally envisioned in the Crime Bill -- in order to put a Drug Court within reach of the 1.2 million adult offenders who need it and to truly begin to heal America's number one social problem...addiction. What Will be the Return on the Investment? A $250 million annual Federal investment would reap staggering savings, with an estimated annual return of as much as $840 million in net benefits from avoided criminal justice costs alone and another 2.2 billion in savings to our communities. A $250 million annual Federal investment would also substantially reduce the demand for illicit drugs and enable state and local governments to cease over-relying on expensive and ineffective prison sentences for nonviolent, addicted offenders. If the past is any indication of the future, state and local governments can be expected to follow suit and leverage the Federal investment several-fold. In these down-turn economic times, there is no way to be certain whether the states will be able to continue to leverage Federal dollars at a 9:1 ratio as they have done in the past. But once states began to realize cost-offsets from criminal justice and prison expenditures, state funding can be reapportioned to expand and sustain Drug Courts. Assuming even a modest 5:1 state investment, a $250 million annual Federal investment could leverage as much as $1.25 billion in state funding. Drug Courts are just good common CENTS! For more information about Drug Courts, go to www.allrise.org.
Theme Options for Helping Traditions Health Impact News Earlier this month (October 2014) we reported the sad story of the Diegel family, who had their two daughters seized by Phoenix Children’s Hospital for disagreeing with the doctors over their treatment. We have previously reported many similar stories of hospitals using Child Protection Services (CPS) to remove children from loving parents simply for disagreeing with doctors, such as Justina Pelletier at Boston Children’s Hosptial, and Isaiah Rider at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago. Behind each of these stories is a link to experimental drug trials for the same medical conditions these children were suffering. This prompted a group of lawmakers on Capital Hill to introduce new legislation to stop this kind of medical experimentation on children who are seized from parents and made wards of the state (see: “Justina’s Law” Seeks to End Experimental Medical Research on Children Seized by Child Protection Services). History of Phoenix Problems in Medical Kidnapping Since publishing the Diegel family story, Health Impact News has been approached by many families with similar experiences with CPS in Phoenix, and with Phoenix Children’s Hospital. What we have learned in our investigation is truly troubling, and needs to be exposed by the media. Like Melissa Diegel, who was threatened by family court with a gag order and ordered to take down her Facebook Page and other content documenting her family’s experience, these parents are terrified of coming forward and telling their story. Therefore, many of our sources for this story wish to remain anonymous. Some of them hold important positions within the community in the Phoenix area, but fear retaliation. What we have learned is that while the problem of medical kidnapping is systemic and present in all 50 states, linked to federal funding for CPS and the foster care business, apparently it is “by far” worse in Arizona than any other state. One source said: We have upwards of 15,000 kids in and out of home placement. It is a billion dollar business and more when the judges, lawyers, guardian ad litems, experts, cps case managers, cps administration, hospitals, physicians, foster parents, and court appointed attorneys are included. It is not uncommon for a hospital to bill AHCCCS (Medicaid) a million dollars a year on one child. First, there are a many stories of medical kidnapping in Phoenix that are publicly available. We will highlight a few of the many. Escape to Mexico to Avoid Medical Kidnapping In a 2012 story that was covered in the national mainstream media, Norma and Luis Bracamontes’ 11-year daughter, who had been diagnosed with leukemia, was being treated at Phoenix Children’s Hospital (PCH). But while she was in the hospital, she developed a serious infection in her arm that caused her arm to be amputated. The parents became very concerned about the kind of treatment she was receiving, especially when doctors inserted a catheter into her heart. However, PCH would not allow the parents to take their daughter to another hospital. So in an action that was captured on the hospital’s security camera and broadcast to the whole country via the mainstream media, Norma took her daughter into a bathroom, removed her IV, and walked out of the hospital with her daughter. You can watch the original report on NBCLatino here. Phoenix police searched for the girl and her mother, stating that the girl’s life was in extreme danger, and that she would die if she was not returned to the hospital. However, the parents stated just the opposite. They stated the hospital was already responsible for her losing her arm, and they were concerned their daughter’s life was in extreme danger if they continued to allow PCH to hold their daughter. So they escaped to Mexico. Once safe in Mexico, the mother and daughter appeared to the media to prove that the daughter was safe, and that she was getting better in the care of her Mexican doctors. You can watch the interview on the Today Show here. They were also interviewed by the local media on KSWT News 13 here, where the mother explains that PCH would not release the daughter unless she applied for health insurance. The parents action, while quite possibly saving the child’s life, resulted in them becoming criminals and fugitives in Phoenix, as local police there say they face arrest for “child endangerment and abuse.” Using Psychological Diagnosis of Parent to Seize Children In a report covered by 3TV in Phoenix in 2012, Rachel Sparks had her son snatched right from her arms from CPS due to a psychological diagnosis and drugs her doctor had prescribed to her. Her doctor made a mistake in prescribing a dose too high, which landed her in the hospital. She was alleged to be unfit to care for her autistic son, so they took him away from her. Her son became suicidal in foster care, missing his mother so much. There was no evidence of Rachel abusing or not being able to care for her children. So when months turned into years, 3TV in Phoenix got involved. They uncovered internal documents with the CPS showing that a team of specialists wrote: “There are no risk factors at this time as client has met her goals above and beyond showing strength and stability in safe parenting.” Yet, he was not returned until a year and half later, after an attorney picked up the case pro bono and obtained a court order to have him returned. For Sparks, it has been a long and painful journey. “It’s scary – I’m still scared,” she said. “Not that I’ve done anything wrong but that this can happen to regular people.” Still Sparks says she’s a survivor — and so are her kids. “My kids are my life,” she tells us. “They are the reason I am living.” Read the full story and watch the video here. The Arizona 5 – Heal Your Kids Naturally and You Lose Them To understand some of the rationale behind the medical industry and the development of new drugs, one must understand that modern medicine is dependent to a large extent on the field of genetics. This is the “new frontier” in drugs. Therefore, to present the cure or remedy to a disease based on environmental causes, such as toxins in our environment, is a threat to this theory. It suggests there are natural, not patent-able, non-pharmaceutical solutions outside of the drug industry. (See: Genetics Research Fraud: Your Genes do NOT Determine Your Health.) When the source of the toxins causing sickness is a pharmaceutical product to begin with, like a vaccine, then there is a double threat to the powerful pharmaceutical industry. There is probably no field of modern medicine so contentious and so full of fraud as the field of vaccines and autism. (See: Vaccine Scandals and Criminal Cases Increase in 2014.) In 2010 when a family of five children who were all diagnosed with autism began to see improvement in their children using natural remedies and diet, they had their children taken away from them by CPS at the order of doctors at PCH. Dr. Andrew Wakefied became aware of the family while giving a lecture in Phoenix in 2010, and became so interested in their case that he wrote a book about them: Waging War on the Autistic Child: The Arizona 5 and the Legacy of Baron von Munchausen (Skyhorse Publishing). Here is an excerpt from the introduction to the book: As the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders grows each year, new discoveries and controversies arise. Andrew Wakefield explores many of these in his thorough investigation of the recent trial case of the “Arizona 5,” which destroyed an Arizona family. Two parents, with five children on the spectrum, were accused of Münchausen syndrome by proxy—a rare form of child abuse—and were ganged up on by physicians, child protective services, and the courts, who alleged that the parents fabricated medical symptoms in all five children. However, Wakefield now presents ample evidence that was disregarded and which would have proven the parents’ innocence. Families affected by autism suffer great hardship and prejudice, particularly as they navigate the uncertain waters of diagnosis, treatment, and education. The shocking story of the Arizona 5 family delves into the tremendous challenges some parents have to face, especially if their views on how to treat the syndrome don’t align with the medical world’s standards. Wakefield also includes numerous studies and research trials that support the controversial yet significant roles that vaccines and diet play in autism, factors many medical professionals wrongfully dismiss. To watch an interview with Dr. Wakefield and family members, go here. Using the Field of Psychology to Kidnap Children at PCH In almost every single case of medical kidnapping we have covered here at Health Impact News, a psychologist or psychiatrist is used to justify removing the children from the parents. And this seems to be especially true with PCH as well. One person from Arizona told us that PCH uses an out-of-state psychologist that is not licensed in Arizona to come in and review cases where children are removed from parents. This is what they told us about the procedure PCH uses to medically kidnap children: In Arizona when a physician or hospital commits a medical mistake there is a well planned procedural process that takes place immediately. The child is immediately moved to a special room within the hospital. The special room is wired for audio and video with the capacity to pick up sounds and visuals from every angle except the bathroom. The child is recorded 24/7 or until they develop enough circumstantial evidence to make accusations that the mother has done something to or with the child. Then the physicians have the hospital social worker call CPS and state, “it is not in the child’s best interest to return home with the mother as it will impede the child’s recovery”. CPS then comes to the hospital and takes control of the child and the parent is forbidden from seeing the child. Then Dr. Kathryn Coffman who works for the hospital and the doctors that called in to CPS and Brenda Bursch PhD., who subcontracts with the state of Arizona, begin an extensive review of the medical records, “but” not all of the medical records. “Only” medical records that draw a picture that mother possibly did something to the child. This is not evidence but only pure conjecture. The court never is told the true condition of the child. That is hidden and exculpatory evidence is hidden as well. It is my understanding that Brenda Bursch PhD. is on at least 12 cases like this in Arizona. She is an out-of-state psychologist that is not licensed in Arizona but is allowed to practice here for 20 days each year. It is unethical for a psychologist to wear more than one hat on a case. Not so in Arizona! I attempted to file complaints with the California Psychology Board. They sort of snickered and said that she is not doing anything wrong in California so it is none of their concern. I and multiple other parents and citizens filed complaints with the Arizona Psychology Board. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office blocked those complaints saying that she is not licensed in Arizona so they have no jurisdiction. There were at least five complaints that I know of and all were blocked. I am attaching a “white paper” I did to demonstrate the number of hats out-of-state psychologists wear here in Arizona on these cases. The state picks them up at the airport and transports them to their hotel and to and from court proceedings at no charge. (Possibly a gift of state funds and possibly tampering with a witness to draw sympathy or share information.) Here is a list of inappropriate ways the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Child Protective Services branch, contracts and uses “out-of-state” psychologists: These “out-of-state” psychologists are not licensed in Arizona. These “out-of-state” psychologists are not accountable in the state of Arizona to the Arizona Psychology Board. These “out-of-state” psychologists are not accountable in the state they are licensed in because their valid actions and inappropriate actions happen inside of Arizona and not in their home states. These “out-of-state” psychologists are not contracted through the normal bidding process. These “out-of-state” psychologist’s contracts are not available on the Arizona Procurement site and have to be specifically requested. These “out-of-state” psychologists are not fingerprinted in Arizona or background check by Arizona. These “out-of-state” psychologists do not have to follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) nor the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); even though it is in their contract with the State of Arizona. These “out-of-state” psychologists unethically wear more than one “hat” simultaneously; Evaluator Expert Witness Consultant to the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Child Protective Services Consultant to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office Coordinator of Services and Treatment Treatment Consultant Trainer to Providers Consultant to Provider Agencies Providing Services in the same case CPS workers take these confidential Parent Psychological Evaluations completed by “out-of-state” psychologists and share them with their children, spouses, family members, inmates, and others without the knowledge of the person evaluated or the permission of the person evaluated. Clear violations of ethics, confidentiality and the law. Governor Jan Brewer’s Role? In January of 2014 Arizona Govenor Janice Brewer completely abolished the state’s Child Protection Agency via an executive order. In its place, she appointed all funds to be handled by her own representative, Charles Flanagan. Mr. Flangan became the director of the “Division of Child Safety and Family Services.” The reason given for abolishing CPS was that there were 6,500 abuse and neglect cases filed that were not properly investigated. So now Gov. Brewer has complete control of the agency that is responsible for these medical kidnappings. Is she part of the solution, or part of the problem? The victims of the system claim she is part of the problem, not the solution. She has allegedly never responded to any of the complaints from families who have requested help after having their children seized by medical authorities via an out-of-state psychologist who is not even licensed in Arizona. Today, Arizona has by far the highest rate of children removed from their homes and placed in foster care of any other state in the U.S. While most other states in the U.S. are seeing declines in foster care placements, Arizona is seeing the biggest percentage of increase among U.S. states. Over the past decade, Arizona had the second-largest increase in the nation, adding 7,296 children. Texas, with 4 times the population, had the most with 8,294. (Source.) Children Abducted for Drug Trials? Some parents, such as Melissa Diegel, have spoken out against what they see are medical experimentations on their children as part of drug trials to develop new drugs. As we have reported previously in our coverage of the Diegel family situation, just prior to the state taking custody of the two Diegel sisters, they were examined by several different doctors at PCH, all in the field of genetics. It was during this time that the girls were diagnosed with “congenital disorder of glycosylation” (CDG). Unknown to the parents at the time, there was funding and drug trials going on for this rare condition. The glycosylation drug trial through NHGRI/ TGEN opened up on March 14th, 2014, just 3 weeks before the two Phoenix sisters were medically kidnapped. As we reported above, drug trials and new drug development today are dependent on genetic research. In this area, Arizona is a leader. The new Translational Genomics Research Institute is in downtown Phoenix. You can see the board of directors here, which includes Arizona governor Jan Brewer and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton. In addition, PCH just announced this month that billionaire doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong had joined Phoenix Children’s Hospital to open a new “Groundbreaking Pediatric Genomic Research and Translational Precision Medicine Institute.” Forbes calls Dr. Soon-Shiong “the richest doctor who ever lived.” It would seem they need plenty of new patients in pediatrics for drug trials for all this new research to have any “success.” Parents Terrorized from Speaking Out As we mentioned earlier, when children are abducted and placed into the foster care system via family court, the parents are threatened, and usually hit with gag orders against speaking out. This was done to Melissa Diegel a couple of weeks ago. When Health Impact News first reported her story, gathered from facts collected by an advocacy group which started a Facebook Page, the court ordered her to tell us to take down our story. We did not. As the story stayed up and went viral, we started hearing from others with very similar stories, particularly from Arizona. We will begin to document them and publish them on our new website, MedicalKidnap.com. The website is still under construction, but if anyone wants to tell us their story they can contact us here. Just before the court ordered Melissa to take down her Facebook Page and all social media regarding her children and her fight to expose what was happening at PCH, she was interviewed on blogtalkradio.com in September. Here is an excerpt we extracted from the interview, and we are sure it is a message she wants all of America to hear, a message certain people are trying hard to suppress: You can listen to the full interview here. GoFundMe – To help Melissa with her legal fees in fighting to get her children back! by Dr. Robert Mendelsohn, MD Free Shipping Available! by Attorney Jonathan Emord Free Shipping Available!
"And good evening everybody!" That line--a variation of the 'good afternoon everybody!' line uttered by Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo so often over the years--got the festivities going on Wednesday night at Radio City Music Hall. Three hours later, Mike Francesa and Russo were officially back--if only for a special one night only event. With a guest list of New York legends--ex-Giants coach Tom Coughlin, former Yankees World Series winner Joe Torre, Rangers immortal Mark Messier, ex-Mets skipper Bobby Valentine and Knicks coach turned national basketball analyst Jeff Van Gundy--memories of 19 years of New York sports came flooding back through the night. Those memories were chronicled in the moment by the former top-rated WFAN hosts, and rehashed in wide-ranging interviews on stage. After months of talk and build up to Wednesday evening's events--of which proceeds went to the Garden of Dreams foundation--Francesa and Russo didn't disappoint during the show. In fact, it was the old interaction and chemistry between the ex-partners that often brought the crowd to raucous applause. Russo's energy level was as high as ever, and Francesa's ability to play off Mad Dog's eccentric ways didn't leave--despite the eight-year gap between March 30th's show and the last time Mike and the Mad Dog was heard on WFAN's airwaves in a full-show format. #MikeandMadDogReunion is underway @RadioCity! Support Garden of Dreams by texting REUNION to 72727 to donate! pic.twitter.com/Xnl8rQ3Nya -- Garden of Dreams (@gardenofdreams) March 31, 2016 With the trademark banter, interview style and Mike and the Mad Dog show quirks like over/under predictions, non-major sports conversation (horse racing, tennis, golf) and a glimpse into the best stories of the past, the reunion was as much a trip back in time as a brand new event. Scroll through the gallery above to see the best of the best photos from the Mike and the Mad Dog reunion program. Joe Giglio may be reached at jgiglio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeGiglioSports. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … David Andrews, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Hockey League, released the following statement after today’s announcement by True North Sports & Entertainment in Winnipeg: “The Manitoba Moose have been a flagship franchise for the AHL over the last decade, always near the top of the league in attendance, regularly going deep into the Calder Cup Playoffs, hosting the AHL All-Star Classic and developing countless National Hockey League players for the Vancouver Canucks, all while also maintaining a strong grass-roots presence in the Winnipeg community. “While our league will not be the same without the Manitoba Moose, our loss will be the NHL’s gain. Mark Chipman has been an influential leader as an owner in the AHL, playing an important role in our expansion to absorb the former IHL and serving on the league’s executive committee for 10 years. He will be a terrific addition to the NHL Board of Governors. “Manitoba deserves to have NHL hockey, and we have no doubt that the NHL will be successful in its return to Winnipeg. Our sincere thanks go to the Manitoba Moose fans who have supported the American Hockey League loyally and passionately for the past 10 years. “The future of the Manitoba AHL franchise will be determined in the weeks ahead, and we look forward to Winnipeg’s NHL club developing its top prospects in the AHL.” Celebrating its historic 75th anniversary season in 2010-11, the American Hockey League continues to serve as the top development league for all 30 National Hockey League teams. More than 87 percent of all players competing in the NHL are AHL graduates, and through the years the American Hockey League has been home to more than 100 honored members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a new ordinance today that gives cops the green light to ticket skateboarders who engage in what's known as "bombing"—when they barrel down steep hills at high speeds, and other dangerous moves. The ordinance calls for skaters to stand while riding on public roads, sidewalks, parking lots or other public property, explains City News Service. It also makes it illegal to ride a skateboard faster than 10 mph through an intersection or to ride while hanging on to a vehicle. And if you're the knowing driver of such a vehicle, you can now get a ticket, too. The language of the new law indicates it will now be illegal for skaters to ride "recklessly or in such a manner or at such a speed as to cause or threaten to cause injury to himself or herself or to others.'' During today's City Council meeting, other aspects of skateboard safety were brought up, as well, including the practice of bicycle riders towing skateboards, and if the city should post signs about the new skateboarding ordinance. Luckily for L.A.'s skateboarders, the ordinance ended up less severe than it began: "The Public Safety Committee rejected an earlier draft of the ordinance that would have banned skateboards on city streets," notes KPCC. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has already said he would sign the ordinance, backed by Councilman Joe Buscaino, into law.
Oh boy. “When we found this dolphin it was filled with oil. Oil was just pouring out of it. It was the saddest darn thing to look at,” said a BP contract worker who took the Daily News on a surreptitious tour of the wildlife disaster unfolding in Louisiana. His motive: simple outrage. “There is a lot of coverup for BP. They specifically informed us that they don’t want these pictures of the dead animals. They know the ocean will wipe away most of the evidence. It’s important to me that people know the truth about what’s going on here,” the contractor said. For good reason, there has been a lot of public outrage over BP’s “iron fist” handling of the spill zone. MoJo’s Mac McClelland has been reporting on the media blackout. when I ran into some packing up on the Grand Isle beach twenty minutes later, I asked them only if they were done working for the day, and they refused to tell me. One woman said, “I can’t talk to you,” and then another worker ran up to her and grabbed her arm and said, “Just ignore her, ignore her,” and the whole interaction was unsettlingly rude and sort of sad. BP has quartered off the coast like its guarding a war zone. The company chased a CBS news crew from a beach in South Pass, Louisiana when they tried to film a thick coat of oil, and CEO Tony “I just want my life back” Hayward famously barked orders at a cameraman as if he was a visiting king walking among peasants. In a sane world, a company guilty of gross negligence that resulted in the deaths of 11 workers would be under criminal investigation, and not be parading around the coast, telling the media where they can go and who they can talk to, while forbidding their clean-up crews from wearing protective gear. Law enforcement doesn’t handle other crimes like this. Cops don’t let serial killers tidy up their crime scenes after they’re done a’stabbin’.
After resigning from Deportes Tolima, Alejandro Hurtado was able to focus entirely on Colombia’s 2026 World Cup campaign. Back in November, Colombia were drawn into Group E alongside Ivory Coast, Romania and Japan. This is a very winnable group, and after seeing this draw the aim was to reach the Quarter Final at the very least. World Cup 2026 Squad Of the 23 players picked for the championships, just eight are real-life players. The two 34 year-olds are undoubtedly the most recognisable names, James Rodriguez and Jeison Murillo. James has just recently been released from Real Madrid whilst Murillo remains at Inter Milan. Marco Vargas is the player to look out for. The attacking midfielder is the best player in the squad by far. Remember him? He was our left-back at Deportes Tolima who we sold for £2.5M to FC Porto. He made the squad as our first-choice left-back. Here is more Football Manager Content that you might like: 2026 World Cup We played two warm up matches for the World Cup and won both comfortably. Our first group match came against Ivory Coast. Mateo Casierra scored a brace to help us to a 2-0 victory. A vital three points to get us off the mark in the group stages. Though the result really should have been greater with Ivory Coast losing a man in the 7th minute. Next up came Romania. Poor. A very poor result and performance from our men. The defeat was made worse as this time we had a man sent off, our former Tolima man Romero. An unexpected defeat meant we went into the Japan match with everything to play for. Mateo Casierra scored another in this match, bringing his tally up to 4 from 3 matches. And we secured our progression to the knockout rounds with this win, finishing in second place in Group E. 2nd Round Finishing second in our group meant that we were drawn against one of the top placed teams. This was England. 6 of their squad have gone on to make over 100 appearances. Harry Kane, 129 Caps 73 Goals Deli Ali, 123 Caps 40 Goals Raheem Sterling, 114 Caps 18 Goals Luke Shaw, 107 Caps 2 Goals Eric Dier, 106 Caps 9 Goals John Stones, 104 Caps 4 Goals England 3 Colombia 4. A brilliant game. Mateo Casierra scored a hat-trick, his seventh of the championships, to win us an enthralling match. We did fall behind 3-2 in the match and I did feel that the game was heading their way. But a 78th minute goal from Casierra forced extra time. And an injury for English regen Kadzidlo meant that we were playing against ten men for the final 30 minutes. We made it count, scoring a winner in the 104th minute. Quarter Final We had achieved our pre-tournament goal of reaching the Quarters. Here we were drawn against 2022 winners France. Wow. France were incredible and honestly there was not a lot we could do. We were quite simply outplayed. 4-0 was a fair result. It is no real surprise that France went on to win their second consecutive World Cup (and they came third in 2018). An impressive run saw them score 12 goals in the knockout rounds, conceding 0. Alejandro Hurtado has resigned from his role with Colombia Yes. It is the end of the road for Hurtado and Colombia. This was always the plan as I didn’t want the continued distraction of national team football. Our Chilean manager has had his first experience of World Cup football. Take a look at our Social Networks | Follow our Twitter or Like our Facebook Page Thanks for reading Part 20 of VivaGlobetrotting. In the next part we will be unveiling Hurtado’s new club. They are a BIG club in South American football. VivaLaVidaFM
Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. Angry. Worried. Frustrated. Anxious. Such are some of the words that Australian climate scientists use to express their feelings about the dysfunctional climate debate (which, in Australia, has recently seen the repealing of a carbon tax, a chief objective of the current Liberal Party prime minister Tony Abbott). Their writings appear on a new website, entitled “Is This How You Feel?,” run by Joe Duggan, a master’s student in science communication at the Australian National University’s Centre for the Public Awareness of Science. Reached by email, Duggan explained that he “wanted to give scientists the chance to step away from the dry data and clinical prose that laypeople find so hard to engage with.” Here are some particularly striking emotional expressions from the researchers, expressions that the climate “skeptic” blogger Anthony Watts has said make him want to “hurl”: I feel a maelstrom of emotions. Life would be so much simpler if climate change didn’t exist. I am infuriated . Infuriated we are destroying our planet. I often feel like shouting…But would that really help? I feel like they don’t listen anyway. After all, we’ve been shouting for years. It makes me feel sick. I feel betrayed by our leaders who show no leadership and who place ideology above evidence, willing to say anything to peddle their agendas. We have so much to lose. And, perhaps most memorable of all: I see a group of people sitting in a boat, happily waving, taking pictures on the way, not knowing that this boat is floating right into a powerful and deadly waterfall. You can read all of the letters here. People often allege that scientists can’t communicate, but as these letters show, that’s not really true. When they’re actually speaking or writing in the language that they use with other scientists, then yes, scientists can seem incomprehensible. But when they’re speaking simply as people, freed up to express emotions, they share thoughts and feelings that we can all instantly understand. “This is not the only way to communicate climate change, but it is one way,” says Duggan. “We need to kill apathy through death by a thousand cuts. Maybe this can be one cut.”
Community Ignorant Bigot David Tyree Spews His Gay Hate... I posted about this shining example of ignorance earlier.the former Giants receiver is about as intellectually stupid as I have ever come across. During the interview, Tyree is asked about the push to legalize gay marriage in the United States -- and says if it happens, "This will be the beginning of our country sliding toward ... it's a strong word, but anarchy." This is the same kind of rhetoric that was spewed against the the black community, YOUR community, during the civil rights movement. Are you picking up on the similarities Tyree? Clearly not. Now this brilliant statement, Tyree says, "You can't teach something that you don't have ... so two men will never be able to show a woman how to be a woman." Let me tell you what makes a woman or a man for that matter. It's values, morals and respecting yourself and others. That is the measure of a person and it has nothing to do with religion. Are you going to tell me that all the singles mothers out there can not teach their sons how to be a man? Is that the morals you were taught? To discredit every single mother or father out there raising their children? And let me just clear this up for you just in case you don't really understand what homosexuality is, it's called being attracted to the same sex as one's self emotionally and physically. I take it you were absent during sex ed? And now for my favorite. Tyree: "How can marriage be marriage for thousands of years and now all the sudden because a minority, an influential minority, has a push or agenda ... and totally reshapes something that was not founded in our country." The black community during the civil rights era was an influential minority that had an agenda to reshape something that actually was also not founded in large parts of our country at that time. And in case you were absent for that class also, the civil rights movement was about equal rights for a minority group (again in which you belong) in which a lot of people at that time fought against it. Did giving black people's civil rights cause anarchy? Because if you're saying that giving gay people equal rights is anarchy then you better be saying it about black people. Because it is the same thing. People said the something during the civil rights era. If black people were given rights, it would be the down fall of society. How would you feel if you did not have the rights that your culture did not have only 50 to 60 years ago? If you could not use the same locker room as your teammates? Furthermore, marriage it just not about procreation. There are plenty of married straight couples that do not have children. So your argument there is just pure stupidity. As I said in my earlier post as a black man you should be ashamed of yourself. Every day that you look in the mirror you should know that you are no different than the ignorant bigots 50 years ago who tried to keep your people from the same equal rights.
Despite growing resistance against oil and gas pipelines across North America, energy companies continue to push their plans for expansion. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Spectra, Constitution and Millennium pipelines in New York; the PTP and Enbridge pipelines across Canada; and, of course, the Keystone XL under construction in East Texas… These pipelines are all specifically aimed at accommodating the extreme extraction practices of shale fracking and tar sands. Now you can add FPL’s proposed pipeline to the list. Though the plan was already rejected once by Florida’s Public Service Commission, its back again. According to the Palm Beach Post: Florida Power & Light (FPL) has proposed a multibillion-dollar gas pipeline that would run from Alabama to Martin County, and is seeking bids from companies interested in building what would become the state’s third major pipeline. Juno Beach-based FPL, which continues to invest billions in power plants that run on natural gas, plans to issue a formal request for proposals to prospective bidders on Dec. 19, spokesman Mark Bubriski said Monday. The new pipeline is projected to begin operating in 2017. “This pipeline would be designed to access more domestic on-shore shale gas reserves [fracking] from all over the country,” Bubriski said. A history of recent resistance to FPL FPL garnered nationwide attention from environmental activists when an Earth First! action shut down a construction site of theirs in 2008. The Everglades EF! group joined the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition in a several year campaign obstructing the plant and its needed infrastructure. Over 50 activists were arrested in occupations and blockades and half-dozen lawsuits were filed, dragging the energy company through multiple court cases—including a civil suit ongoing to this day in Martin County, home to the famous old-growth bald cypress trees of Barley Barber swamp. At the onset of their fight, activists found themselves among industrial apologists such as the Florida Audubon Society who sided with FPL’s gas plants and pipelines, including the West County Energy Center. This plant is now the largest power station in the US, built 1000 feet from the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (a headwaters of the Everglades National Park). And it looks like those same lackeys are still at it: “We are fans of natural gas to the extent it can be coupled with solar power. There is a nice offset,” said Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper. It would seem that Draper is referring directly to FPL’s proposed plan to build another giant “clean enrgy” plant in the heart of Florida Panther habitat, bordering the Seminole Tribe’s Big Cypress Reservation. Draper’s statement above can also be interpreted quite clearly as support for proposed fracking on the horizen in Florida. (With Draper’s dismal record as a greenwashing industrial lobbyist, it’s no surprise that he made “Santa’s Naughty Earth Killers List” released just earlier today on the Earth First! Newsire.) In other South Florida news today The Palm Beach Post offered a few tips on how not to kidnap a rich person for ransom, citing a plot foiled by an FBI informant in Palm Beach Gardens (which is coincidentally also the proposed home of Scripps Biotech vivisection labs). ————————————————- Story compiled by Panagioti, EF! Journal collective Advertisements
DUBLIN (AP) — A senior Cabinet minister in Ireland says he's gay, becoming the first openly homosexual government figure in the history of the traditionally conservative Catholic country. Sunday's announcement on state radio by Health Minister Leo Varadkar received widespread praise for its straightforward honesty. Analysts said his decision was likely to be viewed with hindsight as a landmark of social change in a country that, until 1993, outlawed homosexual acts. Varadkar said he decided to declare his sexuality in advance of government moves this year to advance gay rights. These include plans to legalize gay marriage, permit homosexual men to donate blood, and create greater parenthood rights for gays in surrogate-pregnancy cases. He said May's constitutional referendum on gay marriage, in particular, got him thinking about going public. "I was thinking about the arguments that I might make. That's what politicians do. You rehearse your arguments, you write them down, you run them by a few people. All the arguments that I was going to make were kind of detached ... and that wouldn't have been entirely honest," he told RTE. "Because what I really want to say is that I'd like the referendum to pass because I'd like to be an equal citizen in my own country — the country in which I happen to be a member of government — and at the moment I'm not," he said. Varadkar, who made his announcement on his 36th birthday, is highly regarded in Irish political circles as one of the government's hardest working members and a potential future prime minister. Speculation about his sexuality had grown in recent months, reflecting Varadkar's decision to tell an increasing circle of his family, friends and political colleagues in private. Varadkar said he told his parents in advance of his plans to come out publicly, in part because he didn't want them to get the news from fellow parishioners at Catholic Mass. He said he also telephoned Prime Minister Enda Kenny on Saturday to tell him he was gay and planned to tell the nation the following day. He said his own initial feeling of awkwardness was quickly alleviated by Kenny, who reassured him that nothing in their working relationship would change — and then asked his minister whether he'd ever been to Dublin's most prominent drag venue, Pantibar. Kenny paid a surprise visit to the venue last month. Varadkar said he'd never been there, to which Kenny replied: "There you go Varadkar, I'm ahead of you already." Two other lawmakers in Ireland's 166-seat legislature are openly gay. Ireland legalized civil partnerships in 2011.
Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Although the first edition was published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and re-writing Leaves of Grass,[1] revising it multiple times until his death. This resulted in vastly different editions over four decades—the first, a small book of twelve poems and the last, a compilation of over 400. The poems of Leaves of Grass are loosely connected, with each representing Whitman's celebration of his philosophy of life and humanity. This book is notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass (particularly the first edition) exalted the body and the material world. Influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalist movement, itself an offshoot of Romanticism, Whitman's poetry praises nature and the individual human's role in it. However, much like Emerson, Whitman does not diminish the role of the mind or the spirit; rather, he elevates the human form and the human mind, deeming both worthy of poetic praise. With one exception, the poems do not rhyme or follow standard rules for meter and line length. Among the poems in the collection are "Song of Myself", "I Sing the Body Electric", and "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". Later editions included Whitman's elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". Leaves of Grass was highly controversial during its time for its explicit sexual imagery, and Whitman was subject to derision by many contemporary critics. Over time, however, the collection has infiltrated popular culture and been recognized as one of the central works of American poetry. Publication history and origin [ edit ] Initial publication [ edit ] Leaves of Grass has its genesis in an essay called The Poet by Ralph Waldo Emerson, published in 1844, which expressed the need for the United States to have its own new and unique poet to write about the new country's virtues and vices. Whitman, reading the essay, consciously set out to answer Emerson's call as he began working on the first edition of Leaves of Grass. Whitman, however, downplayed Emerson's influence, stating, "I was simmering, simmering, simmering; Emerson brought me to a boil".[2] On May 15, 1855, Whitman registered the title Leaves of Grass with the clerk of the United States District Court, Southern District of New Jersey, and received its copyright.[3] The first edition was published on July 4, 1855, in Brooklyn, at the printing shop of two Scottish immigrants, James and Andrew Rome, whom Whitman had known since the 1840s.[4] The shop was located at Fulton Street (now Cadman Plaza West) and Cranberry Street, now the site of apartment buildings that bear Whitman's name.[5][6] Whitman paid for and did much of the typesetting for the first edition himself. The book did not include the author's name, and instead offered an engraving by Samuel Hollyer depicting Whitman in work clothes and a jaunty hat, arms at his side.[7] Early advertisements for the first edition appealed to "lovers of literary curiosities" as an oddity.[8] Sales on the book were few, but Whitman was not discouraged. The first edition was very small, collecting only twelve unnamed poems in 95 pages.[9] Whitman once said he intended the book to be small enough to be carried in a pocket. "That would tend to induce people to take me along with them and read me in the open air: I am nearly always successful with the reader in the open air", he explained.[10] About 800 were printed,[11] though only 200 were bound in its trademark green cloth cover.[3] The only American library known to have purchased a copy of the first edition was in Philadelphia.[12] The poems of the first edition, which were given titles in later issues, were "Song of Myself", "A Song for Occupations", "To Think of Time", "The Sleepers", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Faces", "Song of the Answerer", "Europe: The 72d and 73d Years of These States", "A Boston Ballad", "There Was a Child Went Forth", "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?", and "Great Are the Myths". The title Leaves of Grass was a pun. "Grass" was a term given by publishers to works of minor value, and "leaves" is another name for the pages on which they were printed.[9] Whitman sent a copy of the first edition of Leaves of Grass to Emerson, who had inspired its creation. In a letter to Whitman, Emerson wrote, "I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed." He went on, "I am very happy in reading it, as great power makes us happy."[13] Republications [ edit ] Leaves of Grass. Frontispiece of the 1883 edition of There have been held to be either six or nine editions of Leaves of Grass, the count depending on how they are distinguished. Scholars who hold that an edition is an entirely new set of type will count the 1855, 1856, 1860, 1867, 1871–72, and 1881 printings. Others add in the 1876, 1888–89, and 1891–92 (the "deathbed edition"[14]) releases. It was Emerson's positive response to the first edition that inspired Whitman to quickly produce a much-expanded second edition in 1856,[13] now 384 pages with a cover price of a dollar.[10] This edition included a phrase from Emerson's letter, printed in gold leaf: "I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career."[10] Emerson later took offense that this letter was made public[15] and became more critical of the work.[16] The publishers of the 1860 edition, Thayer and Eldridge, declared bankruptcy shortly after its publication and were almost unable to pay Whitman. "In regard to money matters", they wrote, "we are very short ourselves and it is quite impossible to send the sum". Whitman received only $250, and the original plates made their way to Boston publisher Horace Wentworth.[17] When the 456-page book was finally issued, Whitman said, "It is quite 'odd', of course", referring to its appearance: it was bound in orange cloth with symbols like a rising sun with nine spokes of light and a butterfly perched on a hand.[18] Whitman claimed that the butterfly was real in order to foster his image as being "one with nature". In fact, the butterfly was made of cloth and was attached to his finger with wire.[19] The 1867 edition was intended to be, according to Whitman, "a new & much better edition of Leaves of Grass complete — that unkillable work!"[20] He assumed it would be the final edition.[21] The edition, which included the Drum-Taps section, its Sequel, and the new Songs before Parting, was delayed when the binder went bankrupt and its distributing firm failed. When it was finally printed, it was a simple edition and the first to omit a picture of the poet.[22] In 1879, Richard Worthington purchased the electrotype plates and began printing and marketing unauthorized copies. The eighth edition of 1889 was little changed from the 1881 version, although it was more embellished and featured several portraits of Whitman. The biggest change was the addition of an "Annex" of miscellaneous additional poems.[23] As 1891 came to a close, Whitman prepared a final edition of Leaves of Grass, writing to a friend upon its completion, "L. of G. at last complete — after 33 y'rs of hackling at it, all times & moods of my life, fair weather & foul, all parts of the land, and peace & war, young & old".[24] This last version of Leaves of Grass was published in 1892 and is referred to as the "deathbed edition".[25] In January 1892, two months before Whitman's death, an announcement was published in the New York Herald: Walt Whitman wishes respectfully to notify the public that the book Leaves of Grass, which he has been working on at great intervals and partially issued for the past thirty-five or forty years, is now completed, so to call it, and he would like this new 1892 edition to absolutely supersede all previous ones. Faulty as it is, he decides it as by far his special and entire self-chosen poetic utterance.[26] By the time this last edition was completed, Leaves of Grass had grown from a small book of 12 poems to a hefty tome of almost 400 poems.[14] As the volume changed, so did the pictures that Whitman used to illustrate them—the last edition depicts an older Whitman with a full beard and jacket, appearing more sophisticated and wise. Analysis [ edit ] Whitman's collection of poems in Leaves of Grass is usually interpreted according to the individual poems contained within its individual editions. The editions were of varying length, each one larger and augmented from the previous version, until the final edition reached over 400 poems. Discussion is often focused also upon the major editions of Leaves of Grass often associated with the very early respective versions of 1855 and 1856, to the 1860 edition, and finally to editions very late in Whitman's life which also included the significant Whitman poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". The 1855 edition is particularly notable for the inclusion of the two poems "Song of Myself" and "The Sleepers". The 1856 edition included the notable Whitman poem "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry". In the 1860 edition, Whitman further added the major poems "A Word Out of the Sea" and "As I Ebb'd With the Ocean of Life". The specific interpretation of many of Whitman's major poems may be found in the articles associated with those individual poems. Particularly in "Song of Myself", Whitman emphasized an all-powerful "I" who serves as narrator. The "I" tries to relieve both social and private problems by using powerful affirmative cultural images.[27] The emphasis on American culture helped reach Whitman's intention of creating a distinctly American epic poem comparable to the works of Homer.[28] In a constantly changing culture, Whitman's literature has an element of timelessness that appeals to the American idea of democracy and equality, producing the same experience and the same feelings within people living centuries apart.[29] Originally written at a time of significant urbanization in America, Leaves of Grass responds to the impact urbanization has on the masses.[30] However, the title metaphor of grass indicates a pastoral vision of rural idealism. The poem "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is Whitman's elegy to Lincoln after his death. Whitman was a believer in phrenology (in the 1855 preface to Leaves of Grass he includes the phrenologist among those he describes as "the lawgivers of poets"), and borrowed its term "adhesiveness", which referred to the propensity for friendship and camaraderie.[31] Whitman edited, revised, and republished Leaves of Grass many times before his death, and over the years his focus and ideas were not static. One critic has identified three major "thematic drifts" in Leaves of Grass: the period 1855 to 1859, from 1859 to 1865, and from 1866 to his death. In the first period, 1855 to 1859, his major work is "Song of Myself" and it exemplifies his prevailing love for freedom. "Freedom in nature, nature which is perfect in time and place and freedom in expression, leading to the expression of love in its sensuous form."[32] The second period, from 1859 to 1865, paints the picture of a more melancholic, sober poet. In poems like "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", the prevailing themes are of love and of death. From 1866 to his death, the ideas Whitman presented in his second period had experienced an evolution. His focus on death had grown to a focus on immortality, the major theme of this period. Whitman became more conservative in his old age, and had come to believe that the importance of law exceeded the importance of freedom. His materialistic view of the world became far more spiritual, and Whitman believed that life had no meaning outside of the context of God's plan.[32] While Whitman has famously proclaimed his poetry to be "Nature without check with original energy" in "Song of Myself", scholars have discovered that Whitman borrowed from a number of sources for Leaves of Grass. He, for instance, lifted phrases from popular newspapers dealing with Civil War battles for his Drum-Taps[33] and condensed a chapter from a popular science book into his poem "The World Below the Brine".[34] Critical response and controversy [ edit ] Leaves of Grass (Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, year 85 of the States, 1860) (New York Public Library) (Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, year 85 of the States, 1860) (New York Public Library) When the book was first published, Walt Whitman was fired from his job at the Department of the Interior, after Secretary of the Interior James Harlan read it and said he found it offensive.[25] Poet John Greenleaf Whittier was said to have thrown his 1855 edition into the fire.[13] Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote, "It is no discredit to Walt Whitman that he wrote Leaves of Grass, only that he did not burn it afterwards."[35] The Saturday Press printed a thrashing review that advised its author to commit suicide.[36] Critic Rufus Wilmot Griswold reviewed Leaves of Grass in the November 10, 1855, issue of The Criterion, calling it "a mass of stupid filth",[37] and categorized its author as a filthy free lover.[38] Griswold also suggested, in Latin, that Whitman was guilty of "that horrible sin not to be mentioned among Christians", one of the earliest public accusations of Whitman's homosexuality.[39] Griswold's intensely negative review almost caused the publication of the second edition to be suspended.[40] Whitman included the full review, including the innuendo, in a later edition of Leaves of Grass.[37] An early review of the first publication focused on the persona of the anonymous poet, calling him a loafer "with a certain air of mild defiance, and an expression of pensive insolence on his face".[7] Another reviewer viewed the work as an odd attempt at reviving old Transcendental thoughts, "the speculations of that school of thought which culminated at Boston fifteen or eighteen years ago."[39] Emerson approved of the work in part because he considered it a means of reviving Transcendentalism,[41] though even he urged Whitman to tone down the sexual imagery in 1860.[42] On March 1, 1882, Boston district attorney Oliver Stevens wrote to Whitman's publisher, James R. Osgood, that Leaves of Grass constituted "obscene literature". Urged by the New England Society for the Suppression of Vice, his letter said: "We are of the opinion that this book is such a book as brings it within the provisions of the Public Statutes respecting obscene literature and suggest the propriety of withdrawing the same from circulation and suppressing the editions thereof." Stevens demanded the removal of the poems "A Woman Waits for Me" and "To a Common Prostitute", as well as changes to "Song of Myself", "From Pent-Up Aching Rivers", "I Sing the Body Electric", "Spontaneous Me", "Native Moments", "The Dalliance of the Eagles", "By Blue Ontario's Shore", "Unfolded Out of the Folds", "The Sleepers", and "Faces".[43] Whitman rejected the censorship, writing to Osgood, "The list whole & several is rejected by me, & will not be thought of under any circumstances." Osgood refused to republish the book and returned the plates to Whitman when suggested changes and deletions were ignored.[25] The poet found a new publisher, Rees Welsh & Company, which released a new edition of the book in 1882.[44] Whitman believed the controversy would increase sales, which proved true. Its banning in Boston, for example, became a major scandal and it generated much publicity for Whitman and his work.[45] Though it was also banned by retailers like Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, this version went through five editions of 1,000 copies each.[46] Its first printing, released on July 18, sold out in a day.[47] Not all responses were negative, however. Critic William Michael Rossetti considered Leaves of Grass a classic along the lines of the works of William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri.[48] A woman from Connecticut named Susan Garnet Smith wrote to Whitman to profess her love for him after reading Leaves of Grass and even offered him her womb should he want a child.[49] Though he found much of the language "reckless and indecent", critic and editor George Ripley believed "isolated portions" of Leaves of Grass radiated "vigor and quaint beauty".[50] Whitman firmly believed he would be accepted and embraced by the populace, especially the working class. Years later, he would regret not having toured the country to deliver his poetry directly by lecturing. "If I had gone directly to the people, read my poems, faced the crowds, got into immediate touch with Tom, Dick, and Harry instead of waiting to be interpreted, I'd have had my audience at once," he claimed.[51] Legacy [ edit ] Leaves of Grass's status as one of the most important collections of American poetry has meant that over time various groups and movements have used it, and Whitman's work in general, to further their own political and social purposes. For example: In the first half of the 20th century, the popular Little Blue Book series introduced Whitman's work to a wider audience than ever before. A series that backed socialist and progressive viewpoints, the publication connected the poet's focus on the common man to the empowerment of the working class. During World War II, the American government distributed for free much of Whitman's poetry to their soldiers, in the belief that his celebrations of the American Way would inspire the people tasked with protecting it. [ citation needed ] Whitman's work has also been claimed in the name of racial equality. In a preface to the 1946 anthology I Hear the People Singing: Selected Poems of Walt Whitman , Langston Hughes wrote that Whitman's "all-embracing words lock arms with workers and farmers, Negroes and whites, Asiatics and Europeans, serfs, and free men, beaming democracy to all". [52] , Langston Hughes wrote that Whitman's "all-embracing words lock arms with workers and farmers, Negroes and whites, Asiatics and Europeans, serfs, and free men, beaming democracy to all". Similarly, a 1970 volume of Whitman's poetry published by the United States Information Agency describes Whitman as a man who will "mix indiscriminately" with the people. The volume, which was presented for an international audience, attempted to present Whitman as representative of an America that accepts people of all groups.[52] Nevertheless, Whitman has been criticized for the nationalism expressed in Leaves of Grass and other works. Nathanael O’Reilly in an essay on "Walt Whitman’s Nationalism in the First Edition of Leaves of Grass" claims that "Whitman’s imagined America is arrogant, expansionist, hierarchical, racist and exclusive; such an America is unacceptable to Native Americans, African-Americans, immigrants, the disabled, the infertile, and all those who value equal rights." [53] In popular culture [ edit ] Films Literature Music Television Leaves of Grass plays a prominent role in the American television series Breaking Bad . Episode 5.8 (titled "Gliding Over All" after poem 271 in the book), pulls together many of the series' references to Leaves of Grass , such as the fact that Walter White has the same initials as Walt Whitman (as noted in episode 4.4, "Bullet Points", and made more salient in "Gliding Over All"), that leads Hank Schrader to realize Walt is Heisenberg. Numerous reviewers have analyzed and discussed the various connections among Walt Whitman/ Leaves of Grass /"Gliding Over All", Walt, and the show. [58] [59] [60] plays a prominent role in the American television series . Episode 5.8 (titled "Gliding Over All" after poem 271 in the book), pulls together many of the series' references to , such as the fact that Walter White has the same initials as Walt Whitman (as noted in episode 4.4, "Bullet Points", and made more salient in "Gliding Over All"), that leads Hank Schrader to realize Walt is Heisenberg. Numerous reviewers have analyzed and discussed the various connections among Walt Whitman/ /"Gliding Over All", Walt, and the show. In the BYUtv series Granite Flats Season 3, Episode 8, Timothy gives Madeline a first-edition copy of Leaves of Grass as a Christmas gift. [61] Many of Walt Whitman's poems are quoted in season 2 and 3. [ citation needed ] Season 3, Episode 8, Timothy gives Madeline a first-edition copy of as a Christmas gift. Many of Walt Whitman's poems are quoted in season 2 and 3. In The Simpsons Season 25, Episode 13, Lisa Simpson and Sideshow Bob discover their mutual interest in Walt Whitman after Sideshow Bob quotes a poem from Leaves of Grass and Lisa finishes the quote. Other uses In 1997, American President Bill Clinton made a gift of Leaves of Grass to Monica Lewinsky prior to the unfolding of their affair.[62] References [ edit ] Bibliography [ edit ]
The University of Missouri says two residence halls already scheduled for demolition will not be used this fall because of declining enrollment.University spokesman Christian Basi says closing Laws Hall and Lathrop Hall will save the university about $200,000 a year in utility costs. The halls, part of the Dobbs Group constructed in 1959, each have 340 beds.The Columbia Daily Tribune reports Laws was scheduled to close for demolition in January 2017. Basi says closing the halls this fall could move up construction and demolition work.He says the campus will gain 220 beds when the halls are replaced.The university estimates freshman enrollment will decline by 900 or more in the fall semester. The University of Missouri says two residence halls already scheduled for demolition will not be used this fall because of declining enrollment. University spokesman Christian Basi says closing Laws Hall and Lathrop Hall will save the university about $200,000 a year in utility costs. The halls, part of the Dobbs Group constructed in 1959, each have 340 beds. Advertisement Related Content Mizzou to close two additional dorms due to low enrollment The Columbia Daily Tribune reports Laws was scheduled to close for demolition in January 2017. Basi says closing the halls this fall could move up construction and demolition work. He says the campus will gain 220 beds when the halls are replaced. The university estimates freshman enrollment will decline by 900 or more in the fall semester. AlertMe
A diagram of the camera obscura from 1772. According to the Hockney–Falco thesis, such devices were central to much of the great art from the Renaissance period to the dawn of modern art The Hockney–Falco thesis is a theory of art history, advanced by artist David Hockney and physicist Charles M. Falco. Both claimed that advances in realism and accuracy in the history of Western art since the Renaissance were primarily the result of optical instruments such as the camera obscura, camera lucida, and curved mirrors, rather than solely due to the development of artistic technique and skill. Nineteenth-century artists' use of photography had been well documented.[1] In a 2001 book, Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, Hockney analyzed the work of the Old Masters and argued that the level of accuracy represented in their work is impossible to create by "eyeballing it". Since then, Hockney and Falco have produced a number of publications on positive evidence of the use of optical aids, and the historical plausibility of such methods. The hypothesis led to a variety of conferences and heated discussions. Setup of the 2001 publication [ edit ] Part of Hockney's work involved collaboration with Charles Falco, a condensed matter physicist and an expert in optics. While the use of optical aids would generally enhance accuracy, Falco calculated the types of distortion that would result from specific optical devices; Hockney and Falco argued that such errors could in fact be found in the work of some of the Old Masters.[2][citation needed] Hockney's book prompted intense and sustained debate among artists, art historians, and a wide variety of other scholars. In particular, it has spurred increased interest in the actual methods and techniques of artists among scientists and historians of science, as well as general historians and art historians. The latter have in general reacted unfavorably, interpreting the Hockney–Falco thesis as an accusation that the Old Masters "cheated" and intentionally obscured their methods.[3] Physicist David G. Stork and several co-authors have argued against the Hockney–Falco thesis from a technical standpoint.[4][5][6] Hockney and Falco's theory has already inspired an increase in research regarding the use of optics throughout the history of art.[7] For instance, there was the case of the decade-long research on Rembrandt's works conducted by painter Francis O'Neill.[8] In the published paper he wrote with Sofia Palazzo Corner entitled, Rembrandt's Self-portraits, O'Neill presented recurring themes in the painter's works that serve as evidence in his use of mirrors, particularly, in his self-portraits.[9] These include the use of chiaroscuro, which is a signature of the lighting conditions necessary for projections as well as Rembrandt's off-center gaze in his self-portraits, which - according to O'Neill - indicated that the artist might have been looking at a projection surface off to the side rather than straight onto a flat mirror.[9] Origins of the thesis [ edit ] As described in Secret Knowledge, in January 1999 during a visit to the National Gallery, London, Hockney conceived of the idea that optical aids were the key factor in the development of artistic realism. He was struck by the accuracy of portraits by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, and became convinced that Ingres had used a camera lucida or similar device. From there, Hockney began looking for signs of the use of optical aids in earlier paintings, creating what he called the Great Wall in his studio by organizing images of great realistic art by time period. What he saw as a sudden rise of realism around 1420, combined with Charles Falco's suggestion that concave mirrors could have been used in that period to project images, was the germ of the Hockney–Falco thesis.[10] In 2000, Falco and Hockney published an analysis ("Optical Insights into Renaissance Art") of the likely use of concave mirrors in Jan van Eyck's work in Optics & Photonics News, vol. 11. In 2001, Hockney published an extended form of his argument in Secret Knowledge. The hypothesis that technology was used in the production of Renaissance Art was not much in dispute in early studies and literature.[11] The 1929 Encyclopædia Britannica contained an extensive article on the camera obscura and cited Leon Battista Alberti as the first documented user of the device as early as 1437.[11] The discussion started by the Hockney–Falco thesis ignored the abundant evidence for widespread use of various technical devices, at least in the Renaissance, and, e.g., Early Netherlandish painting.[12] Hockney's argument [ edit ] Arnolfini Portrait, one of Hockney's key examples Detail of the chandelier and mirror from Van Eyck's, one of Hockney's key examples In Secret Knowledge, Hockney argues that early Renaissance artists such as Jan van Eyck and Lorenzo Lotto used concave mirrors; as evidence, he points to the chandelier in Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait, the ear in Van Eyck's portrait of Cardinal Albergati, and the carpet in Lotto's Husband and Wife. Hockney suggests that later artists, beginning with Caravaggio, used convex mirrors as well, to achieve a large field of view. Secret Knowledge recounts Hockney's search for evidence of optical aids in the work of earlier artists, including the assembly of a "Great Wall" of the history of Western art. The 15th century work of Jan van Eyck seems to be the turning point, he argues, after which elements of realism became increasingly prominent. He correlates shifts toward increased realism with advances in optical technologies. The argument of Secret Knowledge is primarily a visual one, as Hockney was largely unable to determine when and how optical aids were used by textual or direct evidence.[13] Falco and Ibn al-Haytham [ edit ] At a scientific conference in February 2007, Falco further argued that the Arabic physicist Ibn al-Haytham's (965–1040) work on optics, in his Book of Optics, may have influenced the use of optical aids by Renaissance artists. Falco said that his and Hockney's examples of Renaissance art "demonstrate a continuum in the use of optics by artists from c. 1430, arguably initiated as a result of Ibn al-Haytham's influence, until today."[14] Criticism [ edit ] Artist's skill [ edit ] Art historians and others have criticized Hockney's argument on the grounds that the use of optical aids, though well-established in individual cases, has little value for explaining the overall development of Western art, and that historical records and paintings and photographs of art studios (sans optical devices), as well as present-day realist artists, demonstrate that high levels of realism are possible without optical aids.[10] Optical distortion [ edit ] In addition to incredulity on the part of art historians and critics of modern art, some of the harshest criticism of the Hockney–Falco thesis came from another expert in optics, image processing and pattern recognition, David G. Stork. Stork analyzed the images used by Falco and Hockney, and came to the conclusion that they do not demonstrate the kinds of optical distortion that curved mirrors or converging lenses would cause.[15] Falco has claimed that Stork's published criticisms have relied on fabricated data and misrepresentations of Hockney and Falco's theory.[16] Stork has rebutted this claim.[17] Renaissance optics [ edit ] Critics of the Hockney–Falco theory claim that the quality of mirrors and optical glass for the period before 1550 and a lack of textual evidence (excluding paintings themselves as "documentary evidence") of their use for image projection during this period casts doubt on the theory.[18] Historians are more inclined to agree about the possible relevance of the thesis between 1550 and the invention of the telescope, and cautiously supportive after that period, when there clearly was interest and capacity to project realistic images; 17th century painters such as Johannes Vermeer and Gaspar van Wittel used optical devices in a variety of ways, though not the ways postulated by Hockney.[19] Leaving the technical optical arguments aside, historians of science investigated several aspects of the historical plausibility of the thesis in a 2005 set of articles in Early Science and Medicine. In his introduction to the volume, Sven Dupré claimed the Hockney–Falco analysis rests heavily on a small number of examples, "a few dozen square centimeters" of canvas that seem to show signs that optical devices were used.[10] Image projection [ edit ] Leonardo's notebooks include several designs for creating concave mirrors. Leonardo also describes a camera obscura in his Codex Atlanticus of 1478–1519. The camera obscura was well known for centuries and documented by Ibn al-Haitham in his Book of Optics of 1011–1021. In 13th-century England Roger Bacon described the use of a camera obscura for the safe observation of solar eclipses, exactly because the viewer looks at the projected image and not the sun itself. David Lindberg's A Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Optical Manuscripts (Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1974) lists 61 manuscripts written in the years 1000–1425. These manuscripts not only describe methods for making mirrors and parabolic mirrors but also discuss their use for image projection. Optical glass [ edit ] Sara J. Schechner claimed that surviving glassware from the 15th and 16th centuries is far too imperfect to have been used to create realistic images, while "even thinking about projecting images was alien to the contemporary conceptual frame of mind."[20] Vincent Ilardi, a historian of Renaissance optical glass, subsequently argued against Schechner's conclusions based on surviving glassware, suggesting that the present condition of Renaissance glassware is not likely to reflect the optical quality of such glassware when it was new. Ilardi documents Lorenzo Lotto's purchase of a high-priced crystal mirror in 1549, bolstering the Hockney–Falco thesis in Lotto's case.[21] Furthermore, even normal eyeglasses (spectacles) can also project images of sufficient optical quality to support the Hockney–Falco thesis and such eyeglasses, along with magnifying glasses and mirrors, were not only available at the time, but actually pictured in 14th century paintings by artists such as Tommaso da Modena. Dutch draper and pioneering microbiologist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723), a contemporary of artist Vermeer (and an executor for Vermeer when he died in 1675) in Delft was known to have exceptional lens making skills, having created single small lenses capable of 200x magnification, far exceeding those of more complex compound microscopes of the period. Indeed, his feats of lens making were not matched for a considerable time as he kept aspects of their construction secret; in the 1950s, C.L. Stong used thin glass thread fusing instead of polishing to recreate Leeuwenhoek design microscopes. It was long believed that Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was a master lens grinder (a notion repeated in the recent BBC television documentary "Cell"). However, it is now believed[by whom?] that he came upon a relatively simple method of making small, high quality glass spheres by heating and manipulating a small rod of soda lime glass.[citation needed] Metal mirrors [ edit ] On his website, Falco also claims Schechner overlooked manuscript evidence for the use of mirrors made from steel and other metals, as well as numerous metal artifacts that belie the claim that sufficiently large and reflective metal mirrors were unavailable, and that other contributors to the Early Science and Medicine volume relied on Schechner's mistaken work in dismissing the thesis.[22] Arnolfini Portrait Mirror depicted in the 1434 Don Ihde called the hypothesis being 'hyped' and referred to clear evidence about the use of optical tools by, e.g., Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci and others. As well the 1929 Encyclopædia Britannica[11] contains an extensive article on the camera obscura and cites Leon Battista Alberti as the first documented user of the device as early as 1437.[11] Ihde states abundant evidence for widespread use of various technical devices at least in the Renaissance and e.g. in Early Netherlandish painting.[12] Jan van Eyck's 1434 painting Arnolfini Portrait shows a convex mirror in the centre of the painting. Van Eyck also left his signature above this mirror,[12] showing the importance of the tool. The painting includes a crown glass window in the upper left side, a rather expensive luxury at the time. Van Eyck was rather fascinated by glass and its qualities, which was as well of high symbolic importance for his contemporaries.[23] Early optical instruments were comparatively expensive in the Medieval age and the Renaissance.[24] See also [ edit ] Tim's Vermeer, a documentary film showing Tim Jenison's hypothesis: Vermeer might have created his paintings aided by an optical device, as Jenison demonstrates by recreating a Vermeer painting. References [ edit ]
Earning both Best Picture and Best Director nominations at the Oscars, among others, The Big Short continues its successful run with both audiences and various awards groups. On the newest episode of The Director’s Cut podcast, director Adam McKay sits down with filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson for a insightful and funny 30-minute conversation on the difficulties of bringing Michael Lewis‘ 2010 book to the screen. The discussion, which took place following a recent screening at the Director’s Guild of America, also delves briefly into McKay and Anderson’s past as unrequited collaborators. One of the more interesting highlights includes the two laughing over Anderson’s reaction to McKay’s first screenplay draft of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. At some point, Anderson apparently flirted with the notion of producing McKay’s debut film, before passing on McKay and Will Ferrell‘s wacky early script. It’s an illuminating and entertaining interview, which is well worth a listen. As part of the The Hollywood Reporter’s yearly glut of awards season interviews, the cast and crew of The Big Short also sat down for a recent roundtable video discussion. The chat features stars Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling and Steve Carrell, as well as director McKay and author of the source material, Michael Lewis. It’s another smart and witty examination of how McKay and company managed to make their cautionary tale about credit default swaps into such a hilarious and entertaining film. Check it out below, along with McKay’s other DGA talk with Bob Balaban. Lastly, if you missed our discussion on The Film Stage Show, listen below: What did you think of The Big Short?
Yesterday brought the expected flood of April Fool’s jokes, like news that the 188-year-old Guardian newspaper would be switching from ink to Twitter or that the special ingredient in this week’s A.V. Club Taste Test was ejaculate. But sometimes even a good joke can backfire in unexpected ways, and that’s what happened to the wisenheimers over at ThinkGeek.com, who announced a fake product that it turned out everybody wanted. Star Wars fans—and they are still legion, despite over 20 years of nonstop setbacks—fondly remember a sequence in The Empire Strikes Back on the planet Hoth, an arid wasteland characterized by deadly sub-freezing temperatures. In order to save Luke Skywalker from certain death, Hans Solo carves opens the dead carcass of a Tauntaun (described on the Star Wars “Wookieepedia” as an “omnivorous reptomammal” that the Rebel Alliance used for transport) with his Lightsaber and tucks his little buddy inside. Sure, it stinks to high heaven, but nestled under the Tauntaun’s thick skin and warm intestines, Luke is saved from a grim fate. Advertisement ThinkGeek’s April Fool’s joke was the unveiling of the Tauntaun sleeping bag, a plush replica of the beast featuring a “built-in embroidered Tauntaun head pillow,” “a glowing Lightsaber zipper pull,” and “the exact synthetic compounds needed to recreate Tauntaun fur.” Funny, right? Because who would want to sleep inside an animal’s smelly intestines? Answer: The many, many people eager to fork out $39.99, that’s who! In response to the overwhelming demand for this made-up product, ThinkGeek has posted the following: ATTN Tauntaun Fanatics! Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for. But if you are interested in ever owning one of these, click the link below and we'll try! Advertisement That link? http://www.thinkgeek.com/brain/email_bis.cgi?id=bb2e
In 1971 an abandoned military area in the borough of Christianshavn, in the Danish capital of Copenhagen, was taken over by squatters, and converted into a “free city” — a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood run by their own laws independent of the government. The concept of collective ownership and communal living, but mostly free trading of cannabis, attracted hordes of hippies who took up permanent residence in this 34-hectare area. Over the years, “Freetown Christiania” became a permanent feature of the city where almost anything went, until 2004 when authorities cracked down on the drug trade. Christiania survived and is still a vibrant hub in the city with a hotch-potch of warehouses, huts and houses, colorful murals and outdoor sculptures. About a thousand people live here permanently. Photo credit The area of Christiania originally consisted of military barracks. After the military moved out, a group of hippies and squatters moved in and created a small community with idiosyncratic architectures placed alongside restored shacks. The residents declared the area free from the municipality, vowed not to pay taxes, created its own flag and set up bars, cafés, grocery shops, museum, art galleries, and music venues. The town’s biggest attraction is Pusher Street, where hash and marijuana are sold openly from permanent stands. The stands were evicted in 2004 but is said to have returned. The commune today is partially self-governing, and its members have started paying taxes to the state, but it still has its own rules such as no cars, no stealing, no guns, no bullet-proof vests, and no hard drugs. Christiania is considered to be the fourth largest tourist attractions in Copenhagen, with half a million visitors annually. Visitors are welcome to stroll around Christiania and to eat and drink in the area’s cafés, restaurants and bars. There are a number of live music and other outdoor events, meditation centers and a couple of nightclubs to enjoy. Photo credit The infamous Pusher Street. Cameras are not allowed here. Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit A hash dealer in Pusher Street. Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit Photo credit Sources: Wikipedia / Visit Denmark / Copenhagen.com
Day in and day out, Hillary Clinton is winning the Internet. The former First Lady and Senator and current Secretary of State has undergone a dramatic public transformation over the past year, one driven in part by her strong handling of a generally popular job, and in part by an unpredictable factor: The Internet has finally fallen in love with her. Howard Dean was the hero of the rowdy, anti-war blogs in 2004. Barack Obama was the purest icon of the stylized, one-way hero-worshipping web of 2008. Now Clinton is the star of the messy, recursive, and playful ascendant social web. More blunt force than clever package, with her public stumbles and imperfections hanging out for all to see, she’s a fractured, engaging character — a perfect fit for a media universe dominated by Twitter and Facebook. There's the no-nonsense Hillary – the one who wears dark glasses while typing away on her BlackBerry, as in the photo that the Texts From Hillary meme is centered around. But there's also the beer-swilling, dancing in Colombia Hillary. Further down her timeline there's the hippie-ish, happy, vintage Hillary. Photos of all – not just one – of these states of Clinton have gone viral on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook. And former Clinton campaign aides say there was internal discussion of plugging Clinton directly into the nascent social media in 2008, giving her a Twitter account and letting her be as warm, smart, and funny in public as her friends — dismayed by her portrayal as alternately shrill and robotic — always said she was in private. Some aides still think it could have changed the game. "I think social media could have helped her in 2008. It would have provided a more powerful outlet for her supporters," said Judd Legum, Clinton’s research director that year and now the chief of the liberal media outlet ThinkProgress and author of its giant Twitter account. Then, he said, social media could have leveled the media playing field. "The people who are running the sites in the progressive and liberal blogosphere favored Obama. Her supporters would have had more of a voice,” he said. "Had social media been around to the degree that it has evolved today, it would have allowed us to have shown a little more of Hillary and we would not have relied as much on traditional media outlets," said Phil Singer, a top Clinton press aide in 2008. "People would have seen her without out the filter in the press." Now, the hobbled frontrunner of 2008 is the most popular official in the Obama Administration, and the darling of the national media. Consider some recent newspaper headlines about Clinton. There was "Queen Of Cool," an April 2012 Op-Ed by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times. And MSNBC, the same network that so readily slammed her in '08, featured a segment that same week in which anchors excitedly called Clinton "the Secretary of Cool." There are three key factors in Clinton’s new sky-high popularity — new Gallup poll numbers show her approval rating at 66% — and her emergence as an online celebrity. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Clinton holds up the New York Women's Foundation Century Award earlier this month. For one, “she isn't caught up in the day to day mudslinging," says David Rothkopf, a former Clinton Administration foreign policy official who's now CEO of Foreign Policy. "She's popular, but doesn't have the headwinds of campaigning." "She's also really successful at her job. She's a work horse, not a show horse," he adds. "She's the most powerful woman in the world, and she's doing her job with a sense of humor and intelligence. The second is a set of savvy decisions around social media itself. Under Clinton's watch, the State Department has used Twitter and Facebook extensively, most notably by embracing activists' use of these social networks during the Arab Spring protests, and stating American policy on official Twitter feeds. Clinton's senior advisor Alec Ross, has been a kind of evangelist of a free and open Internet across the globe – and it's made Clinton look good. On the home front, she’s also gone big with topics that are hot online, such as bullying, with her having made an "It Gets Better" video.
Castoreum is an anal secretion beavers use to mark their territories. It also happens to smell like vanilla. More specifically, the raw form is often described as "birch tar or Russian leather." But when diluted in alcohol (not the kind you drink), the substance picks up "more pleasant, musky and fruity nuances," according to Fragantica. It's been used in both food and perfumes for years, according to National Geographic's Mollie Bloudoff-Indelicato, who dug up a paper from 2007 in the International Journal of Toxicology. Castoreum comes from the beaver's castor sac, located between the pelvis and base of the tail. Because of its close proximity to the anal glands, the substance often contains anal secretions and urine. The compound is non-toxic. The gland's butt-proximity doesn't stop Joanne Crawford, a wildlife ecologist at Southern Illinois University, from encouraging people to stick their noses under the animal's tail and take a whiff. "People think I'm nuts," she told Nat Geo. "I tell them, 'Oh, but it's beavers; it smells really good.'" The secretions contain about 24 different molecules, some of which act as beaver pheromones. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration calls the beaver's goo a "generally safe" additive for food. For the past 80 years, food scientists have added it to products, often labeled only as "natural flavoring." Fernelli's Handbook Of Flavor Ingredients puts individual annual consumption of castoreum extract at only .000081 mg/kg/day, in products like frozen dairy, gelatins, puddings, and nonalcoholic beverages. In 2011, the Vegetarian Resource Group wrote to five major companies that produce vanilla flavoring. The organization asked if these companies used castoreum. The answer: According to the Federal Code of Regulations, they can't. That's because the FDA highly regulates what goes into vanilla flavoring and extracts. Castoreum extract can be used to enhance raspberry or strawberry flavorings, though. It has also been used as traditional medicine for centuries. The beaver population in Sweden was almost wiped out in the 19th century because of castoreum's popularity, according to Sweden's English newspaper, The Local. You won't likely find castoreum in mass-marketed goods though. It's difficult and expensive to "milk" a beaver to get the fresh secretions. Dried castoreum sacs, harvested from dead beavers, are available for private use at Agro Laboratories. And if you ever go beaver hunting ... they "can easily be removed with the help of a knife and your fingers [PDF]."A trapper in Northern Ontario says these beauties can sell for $40 to $60 each.
Proposals for a “convention of the states” roil the Left and Right. Texas Governor Greg Abbott made news early this month when he advocated an Article V convention of states to amend the U.S. Constitution to rein in the overreaching federal government, and restore the proper balance of power between the states and the federal government.This ambitious proposal, which he dubbed the “Texas Plan,” was unveiled at a keynote address to a receptive audience attending a meeting of the Austin-based Texas Public Policy Foundation. The foundation is a conservative think tank with ties to Abbott’s predecessor, Governor Rick Perry, who expressed similar sentiments in his 2010 book Fed Up! (described by the New York Times as “a Tea Party manifesto”), ahead of his unsuccessful presidential bid in 2012. Abbott’s speech was accompanied by the release of an impressive 92-page document entitled Restoring the Rule of Law: With States Leading the Way, containing 353 footnotes. The initiative is not a frivolous exercise; it reflects considerable effort and seems calculated to make Abbott a national political figure. He called on the Texas legislature (not again in session until 2017) to support a convention of states to propose a number of amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Maintaining that the federal government has—with the complicity of Congress, the executive branch, and the federal judiciary—exceeded the limits intended by the Founding Fathers, Abbott suggested nine constitutional amendments. These amendments (reproduced here verbatim) would: Prohibit Congress from regulating activity that occurs wholly within one State. Require Congress to balance its budget. Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from creating federal law. Prohibit administrative agencies—and the unelected bureaucrats that staff them—from preempting state law. Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a U.S. Supreme Court decision. Require a seven-justice super-majority vote for U.S. Supreme Court decisions that invalidate a democratically-enacted law. Restore the balance of power between the federal and state governments by limiting the former to the powers expressly delegated to it in the Constitution. Give state officials the power to sue in federal court when federal officials overstep their bounds. Allow a two-thirds majority of the States to override a federal law or regulation. These proposed amendments, Abbott emphasized, are not necessary because the Constitution is flawed or “broken,” but because essential provisions of it have been disregarded by all three branches of the federal government. By straying from the enumerated powers, and ignoring the system of checks and balances contained in the Constitution as written, “the government’s flagrant and repeated violations of the rule of law amount to a wholesale abdication of the Constitution’s design.” The solution, Abbott declared, is to adopt amendments that explicitly limit the various branches to their intended roles: “The Texas Plan is not so much a vision to alter the Constitution as it is a call to restore the rule of our current one.” The 92-page supporting document explains the background and justification for each of the proposed amendments in considerable detail. Substantively, the nine amendments address familiar (and legitimate) concerns about overly broad interpretations of Congress’s Commerce Clause authority; the proliferation of administrative agencies with rulemaking authority scarcely subject to judicial review under the Chevron doctrine; huge amounts of debt accumulated by federal deficit spending; activist decision making by the U.S. Supreme Court; and disregard of state sovereignty by the federal government (and especially by agencies such as the EPA) in violation of the 10th Amendment. To cite just one recent example, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) wrote a thoughtful book, Our Lost Constitution: The Willful Subversion of America’s Founding Document voicing many of these concerns (which Keith Whittington reviewed on this site). In fact President Obama’s lawless administration has spawned an entire scholarly literature highlighting the extent of the problem. Alas, when it comes to the Constitution, identifying the problem is the easy part; solving it is much more difficult. Article V intentionally makes amending the Constitution a laborious task, requiring ratification by three-fourths of the states (explaining why only 27 amendments have been adopted since 1789). Thus, Abbott’s call for nine more amendments, to be proposed at a “convention of states” has been met with skepticism, and very little support. Here’s why. A convention of the states is permitted but has never been used. And contemplating so many substantive amendments to our founding charter of government only adds to how deeply controversial such a project is. Abbott’s proposal drew immediate notice—mostly negative—from all points on the political spectrum. Liberals will vociferously oppose amendments to correct “progressive” policy outcomes, as evidenced by the longstanding resistance to a balanced budget amendment (one of Abbott’s proposals). For this reason, a laundry list of proposed constitutional amendments to overturn the status quo is DOA. Hundreds of comments by the Left-leaning readers of the Texas Tribune were harshly critical of Abbott and his motives. Accusing the Governor of unwarranted antipathy toward President Obama, the liberal Austin American-Statesman denounced the plan, terming it “Abbott’s fix for what isn’t broken.” Writing in The Washington Post, Catherine Rampell disingenuously accused Abbott (and other proponents of a constitutional convention, such as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)), of hypocrisy for professing reverence for the Constitution, while simultaneously trying “to revamp it completely.” In an essay for ThinkProgress.org, Ian Millhiser set a tone bordering on hysterical, declaring that Abbott’s proposed amendments, if adopted, “would be akin to throwing out the system of government established by the Constitutional Convention of 1787.” The title of his piece summarized his sentiment exactly: “Texas Governor Unveils Plan to Repeal the 20th Century.” At the same time, others on the Left, such as University of Texas law professor Sanford Levinson, strongly support amending the Constitution (which they find antiquated), and wholeheartedly support a national conversation on the topic, even though Levinson disagrees with Abbott “on what the particular defects of the Constitution are.” The Left cannot abide the Constitution as written, and would love to revise it. This explains why many on the Right, including self-proclaimed “constitutionalists” and Tea Party-types, adamantly oppose an Article V convention of the states. Phyllis Schlafly has long condemned calls for a constitutional convention as “playing Russian Roulette with our Constitution.” The fear is that, once a convention were convened, it would be be hijacked by liberal special interests who would gut the provisions revered by conservatives (for example the Second Amendment, the Electoral College, equal representation of states in the Senate), and pass amendments to repeal the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United, create a right to a “living wage” and similar entitlements, and eliminate religious liberties. Article V is bereft of any procedural rules limiting the agenda of a convention to proposals submitted in advance. The risk of a “runaway” convention is real. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 produced a document that went far beyond what the 13 original states anticipated. If a “convention of the states” was convened, Justice Antonin Scalia has tersely warned, “Who knows what would come out of it?” Libertarian legal commentator Walter Olson vividly described Abbott’s proposal as the constitutional equivalent of Wile E. Coyote ordering a product from ACME Corporation to catch the elusive Road Runner: “If it doesn’t just sit there doing nothing, it’s apt to blow up on the spot.” Conservatives and classical liberals are understandably frustrated by the Supreme Court’s misinterpretation of the U.S. Constitution, Congress’s fiscal irresponsibility and delegation of lawmaking authority to administrative agencies, and the creation of a federal Leviathan. As a nation, we need to have a candid discussion about the extent to which the current dysfunction in Washington is due to abandonment of safeguards and limits the Framers put in place to prevent the behemoth the federal government has become. Our political leaders have failed us, not the Constitution. Perhaps this well-intentioned proposal can help provoke such a discussion. Realistically, however, 34 states will never support a constitutional convention, and even if they did—and adopted these nine amendments—it is barely conceivable that three-fourths of the states (38) would ratify them. A “convention of the states” is a fanciful, impractical, even Rube Goldberg-like-scheme that could indeed result in an open-ended convention whose decisions made the problem worse. Rather, the ultimate solution to our current dilemma lies in the election of a conservative President and a principled U.S. Senate, who would appoint and confirm a majority of sound, committed originalists to the U.S. Supreme Court. We don’t need to amend the Constitution. We need to enforce it. Our nation has been led astray by feckless legislators and progressive jurists who for generations have failed to follow the Constitution that was ratified in 1789. It is time for voters to restore the Constitution, at the ballot box, by insisting on constitutionalists–elected officials who will respect the Constitution and the rule of law. Benjamin Franklin eloquently described our constitutional system as “A republic, if you can keep it.” His challenge is timeless.
Exclusive to STR The screeching from our gloom and doomster friends on the Right has become deafening in recent months: they say the US dollar is on the very verge of collapse! It's monotonous, and I usually just hit the "delete" button. Occasionally, though, when the mood takes me, I reply with some such innocent question as "When?" or "To be replaced by what?" or "Collapse, relative to what?" and when I do, the response so far has always been a deafening silence. One partial answer I've seen was published by Peter Schiff; he says the dramatic strengthening of the dollar is a temporary thing, caused by a rush by foreign central banks to secure their reserves. Maybe so; we'll come back to that. Lest any think I've taken leave of my specie-based senses, let me preface this by saying that the dollar, along with all other fiat currencies, will most certainly collapse--but not yet, I think. They will each disappear when the government printing them disappears, and sometimes sooner, as in the present case of Zimbabwe; though a fair question is how long Mugabe's government there can survive. There was an exception in Germany too; the mark collapsed in 1923, yet its government survived--though to do so, it had to turn off the printing press and invent a fable about tying the new currency to German "land." What saved it was the pulling of the plug, not the fable. Exceptions aside, the big task is to deflate government, and then its pretended "money" will disappear too. Thus, in my Transition to Liberty, I foresee a well re-educated American public withdrawing the support of its labor for all government, at which time--not sooner--it will implode, its dollar will become totally worthless and the market will choose real money. Meantime, the screeching continues and the questions above are pertinent. The key one is: "By what might the dollar now be replaced?" Every country in the world has a central bank in some form, and they all print "money" on demand. This has been so for three generations; few are alive who can recall anything different. As a boy, I do remember seeing on a local bank teller's countertop (it was at chin level) an interesting device: it was a weighing scale, with standard weights on one side and on the other, a small tray with coin-shaped hollow spaces. The idea was that if a customer brought a gold or silver coin for deposit, the device would measure its weight and if its shape fitted the hollow, the metal's composition would be verified by density. I'm glad to see modern and no doubt more accurate devices called gold testers are coming on the market again today. So presumably, if the dollar is losing value, it must be that money-savers are exchanging it for either gold or for one of those foreign currencies. To the extent that that happened, we'd certainly see a rise in the dollar price of those alternatives. Have we? No. Generally, the opposite has taken place. Immediately following the collapse of the US financial trade last Fall, the dollar price of most foreign currencies dropped like a rock, and that is the precise opposite of what would have taken place if the dollar itself were collapsing. Nearby are charts (whose © copyright is held by Prof. Werner Antweiler, University of British Columbia, Vancouver BC, Canada) showing how dramatic has been the rise in the dollars' purchasing power; last June one US dollar would buy about €0.63 but today, €0.80; then it would buy £0.50 while today, it can bring in £0.70. Far from falling, therefore, in terms of the Euro and the Pound, the US dollar has gained, respectively, 27% and 40% since the recession hit. Those are the facts, whether convenient or not. One exception is the Japanese yen; last mid-year $1 would buy ¥107, and today about ¥97; another is gold; its current price is about the same now as it was last June, i.e., around $900 an ounce or 0.0011 ounces per dollar. The yen, however, is the fiat currency of a government that for a couple of decades has mismanaged its country's economy as badly as Obama seems set to mismanage ours; for all the praise Japan attracted from business magazines here in the 1970s and '80s, central long-term planning hasn't worked a whole lot better there than it did in the Soviet Union. Now, at very long last, it may be emerging from its torpor and so its currency may be in slightly better favor. Anyone who wants to bet on it can be my guest. As for gold, certainly in the long term (i.e., as the government era draws to a close), its price in dollar terms will approach infinity, so in the long term, it's a perfect investment. In the shorter term, it has wobbled and will continue to wobble. There are two kinds of thinking that can be used to predict the dollar's future: rational or irrational. The rational or scientific method is to: * observe the facts * postulate a theory to explain them, and * test the theory by experiment Then, of course, to modify the theory in the light of experimental results and repeat the cycle until no modification seems necessary or possible. In contrast, those favoring irrational thought or Revealed Truth follow this approach: * begin with the explanation, then * twist the facts until they fit So there are still self-appointed experts who insist that Up is Down, regardless of what can be plainly seen as above; they swear the dollar is falling at the very time it is gaining strength. You'll be shocked to learn that when young, I would not infrequently contradict my parents, in this discussion or that; and while I usually came out ahead, my late mother would quite often wrap things up by saying "Don't confuse me with facts." That phrase has entered our family lore as a piece of proprietary whimsy, along with "Pass up thy mug, Sam"--a reference to the reported very healthy thirst of my paternal great-grandfather. I promised to get back to Peter Schiff's explanation of why, quite contrary to expectation, the dollar has recently gained so much strength: that foreign central banks are rushing to top-up their reserves. Perhaps they did, but why? Obvious answer: the dollar is the least unstable bit of paper in the world, and those whose future is at stake are betting it will stay that way. So for now, my opinion is that the grass is not greener overseas and that like it or not, the world is stuck with the greenback until government itself unwinds, taking its obscene money-presses along with it into history's trash can. Of the world's governments, I see none more likely to suffer support-withdrawal sooner than the American one, and even here it will be a couple of decades before the prerequisite universal re-education has done its work. Meantime, we might reflect on what it means to claim the honor of having the world's strongest currency in our wallets. One factor is that back in 1944, up the road here in Bretton Woods, NH, the world's governments agreed to make the US Dollar the universal reserve currency. Since the other key agreement made then (that the Feds would exchange $34 for an ounce of gold) has been abrogated Lo! these 40 years, I don't know how much weight that still carries--but the other thing it seems to me to mean is that nobody thinks any government is more likely to be able to continue extracting wealth from its citizens than the American one. Ultimately that is the bet being made by every investor in US Treasury bonds; he knows very well that his principal and interest will return to him only if the Feds extract it from productive Americans; and if, of course, we productive people continue to produce. This is the inherent difficulty facing all governments; if (as always) they want more money, the simple solution of raising tax rates doesn't necessarily work. The more they steal, the less work we do; so the returns diminish. Laffer is right. So to the extent that foreign central bankers are buying dollars for reserves, it means they all think the Feds have the biggest, baddest tax collection machine on the planet, and that Americans will continue indefinitely to work hard while suffering the loss of half of all we earn. To put that differently, they judge that nowhere more than here have otherwise intelligent humans been so fully hornswaggled by the myth of government. We are certainly going to prove them quite wrong--but our prosperity in the meantime depends on our doing it quietly.
If this baby can buckle up, so can you. (iStock) In 2010, the federal government set a target of 92 percent of Americans using seat belts while driving or riding in cars by the year 2020. A new study by University of Washington researchers finds that most American counties weren't meeting that benchmark in 2012, and that regional variations in seat belt use can be explained in part by how authorities enforce seat belt laws. First, the data: Here's the map of county-level seat belt use in 2012, modeled using data from the nationwide Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System: Counties in blue are already at 92 percent seat belt prevalence or higher, meaning they met the federal guideline eight years ahead of deadline. Great work, drivers on the west coast, and parts of Texas and Maryland! On the other hand, the other colors indicate places along the gamut from just barely missing the federal target (yellows) to not even coming close (oranges to red). Drivers and passengers in the northern plains, for instance, tend to wear their seat belts about half the time. Overall the trend seems to be higher seat belt use in urban areas and fewer seat belts out in the country. The researchers behind the study point out that state-level policies might have something to do with this. In some states, like the Dakotas and Nebraska, seat belt use is a “secondary enforcement” priority, meaning police can only ticket drivers for not wearing seat belts if they've already pulled them over for something else, such as speeding. Those areas tend to have lower rates of compliance. On the other hand, in places such as Washington, Oregon and California, seat belt use is a primary enforcement priority, meaning you can be pulled over simply for not wearing your seat belt. Those states have some of the highest rates of seat belt use. The researchers noted one other main factor that appeared to affect seat belt use: gender. Women (89.6 percent) are more likely to wear their seat belts than men (81.9 percent). Nationally about 85.9 percent of Americans regularly wear their seat belts, according to the study. Or, to put it another way: About 14 percent don't. But the people who don't wear seat belts make up a disproportionate share of traffic fatalities: The unbelted make up roughly half of all motor vehicle fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
WASHINGTON — Roughly once a week, 390 times over the past eight years, Philadelphia police officers opened fire at a suspect. The shootings involved 454 officers, most of them on patrol. Almost always, the suspects were black. Often, the officers were, too. Fifty-nine suspects were unarmed. Officers frequently said they thought the men — and they were almost always men — were reaching for a weapon, when they were actually doing something like holding a cellphone. The statistics were laid out in a Justice Department report on Monday, which does not allege racial discrimination but offers an unusually deep look at the use of lethal force inside a major city police department, including information on the race of officers and suspects. It is the kind of data that has been nearly absent from the debate over police tactics that began last summer with a deadly shooting in Ferguson, Mo. Only a handful of major departments regularly publish statistics on police shootings, and those that do are not always consistent. That makes comparing the records of police departments difficult. But even with such spotty figures, Philadelphia stands out when compared with the public data in other cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. In many years, Philadelphia saw more police shootings than New York, a city with five times the number of residents and officers.
Home does put people—your people—front and center. And Zuckerberg is probably hoping that most users choose it over the standard Facebook app. The catch is that not everyone can participate, even if they want to. At launch, Home is limited to a few Android phones; iPhone users are shut out. Apple enforces its own look and feel, and allowing a developer to take over the lockdown screen is currently unimaginable. But there are plenty of things that were once unimaginable that have come to pass. One of them is the personal evolution of Facebook’s CEO. Accounts of Zuckerberg’s early years as a founder paint him as callow. But in recent appearances—and interviews like this one—he has been articulate, engaging, and at ease. Clearly Zuckerberg is at home at Facebook. Now his task is to make us all feel that way. What led to your building Facebook Home? Facebook occupies an interesting space in mobile. We’re not an operating system, but we’re not just an app either. Facebook accounts for 23 percent of the time people spend on smartphones. The next-biggest ones are Instagram and Google Maps, which are each at 3 percent. For the past 18 months, we spent our efforts building good versions of Facebook’s mobile apps. But the design was still very close to what we have on the desktop. We knew that we could do better. Why not just build a phone? I’ve always been very clear that I don’t think that’s the right strategy. We’re a community of a billion-plus people, and the best-selling phones—apart from the iPhone—can sell 10, 20 million. If we did build a phone, we’d only reach 1 or 2 percent of our users. That doesn’t do anything awesome for us. We wanted to turn as many phones as possible into “Facebook phones.” That’s what Facebook Home is. It’s only available on Android phones. Isn’t it ironic that your mobile strategy is now tied to Google’s operating system? We have a pretty good partnership with Apple, but they want to own the whole experience themselves. There aren’t a lot of bridges between us and Google, but we are aligned with their open philosophy. So do you think in, say, two years you will have this on the iPhone? That’s above my pay grade to be able to answer that. That’s a pretty high pay grade. Look, I would love for that answer to be yes. Facebook is in a very different place than Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, and Microsoft. We are trying to build a community. We have a billion folks using our services now, and we want to get to 3 or 5 billion one day. We’re going to do that by building the best experience across all devices. Android is growing quickly, and we’re excited that the platform is open and that it allows us to build these great experiences. I think that this is really good for Google too. Something like this could encourage a lot of people to get Android phones, because I think people really care about Facebook. In a lot of ways, this is one of the best Facebook experiences that you can get. Of course, a lot of people also love iPhones—I love mine, and I would like to be able to deliver Facebook Home there as well. Facebook now calls itself a “mobile first, mobile best” company. If you had started the company in 2013, would you have done it as a mobile app? I don’t know. Maybe once or twice a year I’ll just take a few days off and wander around and ask myself, if I were starting from scratch today, and I weren’t running Facebook, what would I build? I look at this mobile trend in light of the law of sharing, our equivalent of Moore’s law, which states that the average amount of information that a person shares doubles every year or so. Figuring out what the next big trend is tells us what we should focus on. OK, so what is the next big trend? The big stuff that we’re seeing now is sharing with smaller groups. How would you implement that? Do you do it within Facebook or with separate apps? There’s a place for both. There’s a place for a service that only communicates with your core friends and family, and I think that’s going to be ubiquitous. But there are other great services out there doing great things. Instagram is a good example of this. They just crossed 100 million active users. It’s a much smaller product by Facebook standards, but it’s a really meaningful product.
× Illinois medical marijuana advocates push for expansion SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Illinois medical marijuana advocates say they delivered 25,000 signatures to Gov. Bruce Rauner ahead of the State of the State address. Medical Cannabis Outreach petitioned the Republican governor Wednesday to expand the state’s medical marijuana program to include post-traumatic stress disorder, which affects many military veterans, and seven other conditions. Iraq war veteran Jonathan Byrne says he wants Rauner to give vets a choice to use marijuana instead of prescription drugs. He has a traumatic brain injury. The state’s first medical marijuana dispensaries opened in November. An expert panel has recommended addig eight medical conditions to the marijuana treatment list. The Illinois Department of Public Health is expected to rule on the recommendations by the first of February.
The union that represents elementary school teachers says it's seen an uptick in daily incidents of violence and aggression in the classroom — and it plans to ask the education minister for more funding to keep students and teachers safe. Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario president Sam Hammond said the province needs to address the issue immediately "There is a critical lack of support for our students," he said at a press conference Tuesday. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ETFO?src=hash">#ETFO</a> says nearly 9,000 students waiting for long-term psychotherapy therapies, union says more counselling supports needed —@chrisgloverCBC Hammond laid out four potential solutions, including more funding for special education programs, teachers and counsellors. He said he wouldn't, however, ask for a specific amount of money. "I can tell you the funding formula that's in place now is not working as it should, and it should be fixed," he said instead. Ontario Education Minister Mitzie Hunter says the government has already taken steps towards a provincewide well-being strategy. (CBC) The union also plans to ask for more funding for mental health care, but Ontario Education Minister Mitzie Hunter said the government has already taken steps in launching a provincewide strategy. "We know there are many good programs underway in our schools, and it's really building on that work and making sure we develop a well-being strategy," the minister said. Hunter said the province has already created more support within schools, pointing to the School Mental Health Assist program, which refers students who need additional support to medical professionals. A violent example But the president of the ETFO's Kawartha Pine Ridge Teacher local said the supports aren't enough, noting a recent example of a boy whose violent outbursts kept forcing his teacher to evacuate the class. Shirley Bell, president of the ETFO's Kawartha Pine Ridge Teacher Local, says students need special education support in order to succeed in the classroom. (Grant Linton/CBC) "A kindergarten teacher had documented her concerns for two years," Shirley Bell said. The school created a positive behaviour plan, which Bell said didn't work. The evacuations — and the student's behaviour — continued into Grade 1 and no more support appeared, she alleged. The school eventually got a youth worker assigned to it. At the end of the boy's Grade 1 year, he was able to get one of two counselling assessment spots designated to the school annually, Bell said. "We need to get the support and services in place," Bell said. "We have to work on making sure [students] have what they need in order to be successful in the classroom." The union plans to meet with Hunter Wednesday.
Close up of surgeon holding scissors in operating room (Getty Image) SACRAMENTO (AP) — A Sacramento obstetrician is getting a late thank you from a baby he delivered 45 years ago. The Sacramento Bee reports that Robert Kincade performed heart surgery on the now-83-year-old obstetrician, Jim Affleck, last month at Sutter Memorial Hospital. Affleck delivered Kincade, but their connection would have gone unnoticed had it not been for some sleuthing on Kincade’s part. During a meeting before the September surgery, Kincade mentioned to Affleck he had been born at Sutter. Affleck said he had delivered babies there. So Kincade went home and dug up his birth certificate, and sure enough, it was signed by Affleck. Affleck says his delivery of Kincade has come full circle. He feels like a new person after the surgery. © Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
MUMBAI: Discovery Communications will launch its first sports channel, DSPORT, in India. The launch marks the first time in over 10 years that a media company has introduced a new sports channel for the Indian market.DSPORT will air over 4000+ hours of ‘live’ content every year.Karan Bajaj, SVP and General Manager, Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific said, “We are excited to add yet another flagship brand to our growing offering with the launch of DSPORT, which is set to redefine sports entertainment. Combining India’s passion for sports with our global expertise in sports production DSPORT will offer a daily dose of 10+ hours of live content for viewers across the country.”RC Venkateish, former MD of ESPN Star and former CEO of Dish TV India will be working closely with DSPORT, especially in areas related to content acquisition for the channel.Discovery is in talks with multiple DTH and cable operators for distribution of the channel. It has already signed deal with Hathway Cable & Datacom and a few other multi system operators and will be available across 35 million households from tonight.Sports properties of the channel include:• Horse Racing: exclusive rights to telecast daily live racing from the best of UK and Irish tracks totaling over 7000 races/ year• Football: Brazilian League, Chinese Super League, Portuguese League, Major League Soccer (USA)• Golf: British Open (The Open Championship), US Open, PGA Championship, LPGA• Motorsports: NASCAR, FIA World Rallycross Championship• Rugby: 6 Nations Rugby• Cycling: Tour de France (a property of Eurosport)
What Your Tongue Says About Your Health? We are excited to bring you another post in a comprehensive series on the practice of Ayurveda. ‘Ayurveda Life’ is a weekly series of posts from some of the most influential Ayurvedic authors and organizations. We are proud to partner with Banyan Botanicals and hope that you enjoy and share these posts with your communities. “Yoga and Ayurveda are sister sciences that developed together and repeatedly influenced each other throughout history. Yoga and Ayurveda work together to enhance their great benefits on all levels”. “The link between yoga and Ayurveda is prana, or the life force. Yoga is the intelligence of prana seeking greater evolutionary transformations, while Ayurveda is its healing power…” ~ Dr. David Frawley WHAT IS YOUR TONGUE TELLING YOU ABOUT YOUR HEALTH? When I was a little girl, my parents, who both were doctors, always asked me to show my tongue if I complained of not feeling well. I don’t know if you remember, but several decades ago doctors in Western hospitals also examined patients’ tongues as one of the first diagnostic steps. More than 10 years later, I finally started to learn exactly what my parents and doctors were looking for. The tongue is a detailed health map. Our tongues change colors/shades, shape, and surface texture, providing a current health status update. Tongue analysis is an ancient health assessment technique that is still used in Chinese medicine and by Ayurvedic practitioners. Much as in reflexology, different parts of the tongue correspond to different organs. As a mirror of the body’s digestive system, the tongue can reflect the toxicity level in the gut, show potential food sensitivities or a weak digestive fi re, point to malabsorption of nutrients, and reveal the health of other organs in the body. Trained Ayurvedic practitioners will be able to provide a complete health analysis by examining a patient’s tongue. Dr. Vasant Lad, the founder of the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico and one of my favorite Ayurvedic teachers, encourages everyone to learn the basic tongue diagnosis principles as they can serve as a useful health analysis tool. Our tongues contain a wealth of information, and learning how to interpret the looks of our tongues can be very helpful in understanding our bodies on a deeper level. It is a great way to build a closer mind/body relationship. Any trusting healthy relationship has to be based on mutual understanding. A daily look at the tongue helps us to become more aware of the effects of food on our body. The tongue doesn’t lie. It provides the feedback about last night’s dinner with full honesty first thing in the morning. This is your free daily health report. The beauty of a tongue diagnosis is that its basics can be learned and applied by anyone to monitor their own health. While it might take years to learn the intricacies of tongue diagnosis, there are some general guidelines that anyone can use to evaluate general health and digestion. Dr. Lad advises you to look at your tongue in the morning before brushing your teeth. There are a few factors that are worth noting when you look at your tongue: shape, shadings, markings, wetness, texture, and coating. A healthy tongue should look like a kitten’s tongue or a young baby’s tongue: symmetrical and evenly pink. It should not tremble. It should have a thin, transparent coating. All the taste buds should be flat, orderly, and free from bumps, lines, cracks, and patches. It should not have foam, hair, fur, be too dry, or too wet, or have a foul odor or taste. As a beginning tongue explorer, there are a few things you should pay attention to: Tongue coating. Excessive coating usually means sluggish digestion and toxins in the colon. Depending on the food that you eat, coating will change from day to day. If you have a late night heavy dinner of pasta and wine, your tongue is more likely to be swollen and have a thicker coating. This is the way your body is trying to tell you that the digestive system might be overburdened. Knowing that your colon is full of material that doesn’t belong there, that spreads toxins into your blood, makes you sluggish, your skin dull, and your head foggy might be exactly what you were waiting for in order to change your diet. If you wake up with a heavily coated tongue, take a break from heavy, oily, and processed foods and choose foods that are easiest to digest until the coating clears up. Dr. Lad strongly encourages the use of a tongue scraper on a daily basis. Why walk around with a ton of toxins if you can just scrape them off? Scraping the tongue first thing in the morning removes overnight build-up of bacteria and toxins. Rather than brushing the tongue, which will only push bacteria and toxins into the tongue, scrape your tongue with a tongue scraper or spoon. You can use a metal or a copper one. To scrape your tongue, extend it out and place the scraper as far back on the tongue as comfortable. Using one long stroke, gently pull the scraper forward so that it removes the unwanted coating on the tongue. Rinse the scraper and begin again if necessary. I usually do this five or six times. Teeth imprints. Teeth imprints around the contour of the tongue can mean malabsorption of nutrients, inflammation, or too much salt in the diet. If your tongue has teeth imprints, your digestive system is not very happy. Most likely it is overloaded and weak. To stimulate digestion in a natural healthy way, add fresh ginger tea, avoid iced drinks, and start paying attention to food combining, which we will discuss later in the book. Trembling tongue. This is a sign of anxiety or fear. We live in such a high-stress society that anxiety can crawl over you without you even being aware of it. It might even be your permanent state and you are so used to it that you can’t tell the difference. Time to take a break from caffeine, have some chamomile tea, and nourish your nervous system with warm and easy-to-digest light soups. The changes on the tongue will show the effects of changes in your diet. You will be able to watch the changes on your tongue as you begin improving your diet and healing your digestion. ~Nadya Andreeva Nadya Andreeva is the author of the #1 Amazon best-selling book on digestive health for women Happy Belly: A Woman’s Guide to Feeling Vibrant, Light, and Balanced. Professionally trained in mindful eating, yoga, and positive psychology, Nadya helps women create a healthy relationship with food that honors their body’s unique chemistry and eliminates bloating and irregularity. To learn more about improving your digestion, check out Nadya’s free Happy Belly cookbook http://www.spinachandyoga.com/100recipes/ **Tongue Diagram images reproduced with permission from Ayurveda: Science of Self Healing, by Dr. Vasant Lad. Lotus Press, a division of Lotus Brands, Inc., PO Box 325, Twin Lakes, WI 53181, USA, lotuspress.com ©1984 All Rights Reserved.
SEN. LINDSEY Graham, R-S.C., came up with a novel solution last week for America’s illegal immigration problem. It involves tearing up the Constitution. His plan for stopping illicit border crossings is to repeal part of the 14th Amendment — the part that says a person born in the United States is a citizen. The amendment has been around for 142 years and was created to secure equality for the offspring of former slaves, but he is willing to disregard those historical underpinnings for the greater good. He reasons that immigrants defy the perils of the desert, dodge armed border guards and canine patrols either because they are pregnant or because they plan to be. America, land of motherhood. “They come here to drop a child,” he said, with all the elegance of a man passing wind in church. “It’s called drop-and-leave. To have a child in America, they cross the border, they go to an emergency room, have a child, and that child is automatically an American citizen.” We knew cows dropped calves and dogs dropped litters. We were unaware the expression applied to immigrant women. Graham’s approach to curtailing illegal immigration follows by only a few months a controversial Arizona bill, SB 1070, that enlists law enforcement officers in the practice of rooting out illegal immigrants. That bill empowers lawmen to challenge the resident status of anyone they encounter during their normal duties. Skin color (wink-wink) is not supposed to be a factor. Phoenix police Chief Jack Harris is not a fan of the bill. Neither is U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton, who issued a temporary injunction halting it two weeks ago. So SB 1070 rests in limbo, toothless. Curiously, a key argument for this frantic rush to justice — more illegal immigrants mean more crimes, you know — turns out to be a little rhetoric mixed with a lot of nonsense. The Center for American Progress, citing FBI statistics, said violent crimes in Arizona decreased by 15 percent from 2006 to 2009. Still, the elephant remains in the room. Illegal immigration is a volatile topic. Our e-mail inbox has the scorch marks to prove it. Because I have advocated immigration reform, folks think I favor an open border. Nope, laws should be enforced. I just think removing the 12 million or so illegal immigrants already in the country is a fool’s errand, like putting toothpaste back in the tube. What is needed is a smarter way of deterring future problems, such as enforcing a law already on the books: the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. That bill is remembered for granting amnesty to illegal immigrants who had been in the country since 1982. But it doesn’t end there. More importantly, it prohibits employers from knowingly hiring or recruiting illegal immigrants. Why this portion of the bill has not been fully enforced is a riddle for the ages. Most immigrants don’t come here to get pregnant or commit crimes. They come to find work. Remove the jobs and you remove the biggest incentive for immigrating. This analogy is imperfect, but kindly play along: If neighborhood youths trampled your lawn every day to get to the ice cream vendor in front of your house, which would you do: (a) chase down each offender and march him home to be disciplined, (b) make sure the women in the neighborhood quit having kids, or (c) tell the ice-cream vendor to stop selling his goodies in front of your house. We don’t need to rewrite the 14th Amendment. We need to deal with the ice-cream man. Contact Tom Barnidge at tbarnidge@bayareanewsgroup.com. Infobox1
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state appeals court heard arguments on Tuesday over unsealing minutes of a grand jury that declined to indict a white New York police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man. Demonstrators calling for justice in the chokehold death of Eric Garner take part in a protest march outside the 120th police precinct in the Staten Island borough of New York City, January 15, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Segar A coalition of groups seeking release of the transcripts told the four-judge panel that grand jury secrecy undermined confidence in the justice system and hampered debate among state lawmakers weighing grand jury reforms. The groups, which included the Legal Aid Society, want the appeals court to overturn a Staten Island justice’s decision in March to bar release of records of the grand jury that probed the death of Eric Garner, 43, last year. “The secrecy only reinforces suspicion, and there is deep suspicion here in the communities of color and among others,” New York Civil Liberties Union attorney Art Eisenberg told the justices of the Supreme Court Appellate Division Second Department. Other parties requesting the release of minutes include the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and New York City’s public advocate office. Garner, a father of six, died when a New York police officer, Daniel Pantaleo, held him in a chokehold during his arrest in July on suspicion he was selling loose cigarettes. The incident caught on video was among the cases that sparked nationwide protests over police treatment of minorities. Garner’s last words: “I can’t breathe,” have become a rallying cry for protesters. But Assistant District Attorney for Staten Island, Anne Grady, contended that breaching the practice of keeping grand jury records secret would not restore public confidence. Citing a prior release of some information about the grand jury’s proceedings, Grady argued that “further disclosure will simply raise more questions.” Lawyers for groups appealing the judge’s decision cited a New York Times article on Saturday that quoted witnesses who testified in the grand jury. The lawyers said it raised questions over the district attorney’s conduct in overseeing the grand jury proceedings. “There’s a lot of disturbing information that’s been revealed in the last couple of days,” said attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff, representing the office of Public Advocate Letitia James, speaking outside of court.
Sen. Rand Paul and several members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus met Monday to try to create a new path on repealing Obamacare, but the Kentucky Republican conceded that a major sticking point that doomed the GOP's prior effort remains. The short summit Monday in Paul's Senate office comes as the White House is trying to rev up talks with the Freedom Caucus and the moderate Tuesday Group to end a major impasse on how to repeal Obamacare. Paul, who golfed with President Trump last weekend, told reporters after the meeting that the House Freedom Caucus is still open to discussions. But he acknowledged that a major sticking point is what to do about Obamacare's insurance regulations, including those that ended limits on how much an insurer had to pay a patient over his lifetime. "We want to make sure that the death spiral of Obamacare is fixed," said Paul, who opposed the American Health Care Act, the House leadership's bill to partiall repeal and replace Obamcare that was pulled nearly two weeks ago because of insufficient support. Paul said he discussed Obamacare repeal with Trump during their golf outing. He advocated scrapping the American Health Care Act entirely. "I think where they are is still trying to make it work with what they have and accept what they have with small tweaks to the existing bill," Paul said, referring to the White House. During negotiations two weeks ago on the American Health Care Act, the Freedom Caucus wanted the White House to include cutting most of Obamacare's regulations on insurers. However, the White House agreed only to cut the regulation that insurers cover 10 essential health benefits, worried that adding more could cost support from moderate Republicans. Several members of the Freedom Caucus and the moderate Tuesday Group, concerned about an estimate that 24 million people could lose insurance over the next decade, defied House leadership and the White House and opposed the bill, which was pulled on March 24. Now the Freedom Caucus and the Tuesday Group are separately meeting with the White House to try to create a path forward. Paul told reporters before meeting with the caucus that he also met with Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., the leader of the Tuesday Group. But what that path is remains to be seen, and Congress is expected to leave for a two-week recess on Friday. Paul also floated a compromise on tax credits, another sticking point as conservatives favor a tax deduction rather than credits. He said that a new bill could leave tax credits in place, but with less funding. Meanwhile, Trump was scheduled to meet with members of the Tuesday Group on Monday. Talks between the Tuesday Group and the Freedom Caucus broke down last week.
It’s cold outside y’all. The kids are on winter break, we had several additional inches of snow this past weekend, and more forecast for the remainder of this week. This makes me want to keep my crock-pot full and brewing everyday. There is something about having the crock-pot on that just makes me feel like it’s warmer in the house! So, I am taking the kids to the store with me today, and we are going to get the ingredients to make some Taco Soup tomorrow night. I have two recipes to share with you. One is from my Mom, and the other is one I have had for years that is for those who need a lower sodium recipe. I tend to blend the two to create my own Taco Soup Recipe. 4.7 from 11 reviews Print Crock-pot Taco Soup Author: Karen's Mom Recipe type: Soup Prep time: 10 mins Cook time: 6 hours Total time: 6 hours 10 mins Serves: 6 This is my Mom's Recipe for Crock Pot Soup Ingredients 2 lbs ground beef or ground chuck 1 large onion 2 pkgs taco seasoning 2 pkgs ranch dressing dry mix 1 can black beans 1 can red beans 1 can chili beans or pinto beans 1 can whole corn 1 can rotel 2 cans diced tomatoes 1-2 cups water Instructions Brown Ground Beef and Drain. Mix all ingredients together in a large slow cooker or crock-pot for 6-8 hours. Serve with Crackers, Biscuits, or Cornbread. Top with cheese, sour cream, guacamole, etc. according to your preferences. 3.2.1255 Fluster’s Creative Muster How to Tuesday Recipe Round Up – Dinner in Under an Hour! Show & Share Wednesday I love my crock-pot and I use it several times a week to save time. Disclosure: This recipe is brought to you courtesy of Cheeky Bingo. The recipes are my personal family recipes, and all thoughts and opinions shared are my own.
Guest speaker: John Gilmore PROGRAM NOTES: Date this lecture was recorded: August 2016 [NOTE: All quotations are by John Gilmore.] “Don’t buy Apple products when they lock you into only using software that Apple approves of. It’s really straightforward. It’s like, don’t buy food that poisons you. Don’t buy from companies that try to control you.” [In response to whether one can get their information back from Facebook.] “I don’t think there will be a way if you voluntarily hand over your data to a huge corporation that does not have your interest at heart. For you to get the data back, no, I don’t think there will be a way.” Download MP3 PCs – Right click, select option Macs – Ctrl-Click, select option Anthropologist fascinated by shamanism, myths and religious rites who strove to protect indigenous peoples.
Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said there’s a simple explanation for the team’s problems on third down the past two weeks. “The protection issues have been at the root of it,” Carroll said Monday. “There’s a number of things that we can do better. But it has made the quarterback [Russell Wilson] move quite a bit and not allowed us to be on time the way we’d like to.” The Seahawks have converted on only 5 of 26 third downs in the past two games, including only 2-for-12 Sunday in the 34-28 loss to the Indianapolis Colts. But Seattle was playing without four starters up front on offense. “We’re working on it real hard right now,’’ Carroll said. “We got better from [the Houston game]. There were half as many [mistakes] this week as last week, even though it didn’t show up in the results so much. It’s a primary focus this week.” Carroll said he believes Pro Bowl center Max Unger will return this weekend for the game against the Tennessee Titans. Carroll also emphasized how well Wilson has played while trying to make up for the issues on the offensive line. Wilson rushed for 102 yards against the Colts. “Both of the last two weeks he has taken what they’ve given him,” Carroll said. “He’s had to make decisions quickly on what to do, but he’s very resourceful and he hasn’t made poor decisions because of it. “If there’s space, he’s taken off [running up field]. I’m a little concerned about that, but he’s doing what we have to do right now.”
FAKE QUOTES: Lying Cory Booker Tweets Fake Benjamin Franklin Quote To Attack Trump Cory Booker Continues His Pattern Of Lies Cory Booker is viewed by many as being the definition of a fake politician. He has a presence that is more “fake” and “cheesy” than the worst TV evangelist. Booker is also a disgraceful Senator who decided to testify against fellow Senator Jeff Sessions during his confirmation hearing, the first time that has ever happened in American history. Now the Senator thinks it’s appropriate to put fake quotes on social media that attack President Trump. Below is the fake quote that Booker is using to try to cite division and rebellion against authority in the United States. “It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority.” Benjamin Franklin — Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) January 23, 2017 Booker will eventually take these quotes down once people call him out enough to the point that it becomes embarrassing, which is why we took screenshots. Even the left leaning Snopes says this is completely made up. From Snopes: We were unable to locate any evidence that Benjamin Franklin ever said it was the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. Booker is a diva with a clear need for attention which is why he not only testified against Sessions as that garnered national attention but he also made up a fake friend and has told countless stories while campaigning about he and his fake friend. The Gateway Pundit reported on Booker’s little fake friend earlier in January. READ ABOUT CORY BOOKER’S IMAGINARY FRIEND. No need. He’s doing it for his already doomed political campaign. Better he stick with stories of imaginary friends. https://t.co/BQwtMZtHrc — James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) January 10, 2017
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a speech at the 2016 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2016. REUTERS/Jacquelyn Martin/Pool DAVOS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he believed that, with effort and good faith on both sides, it would be possible to implement the Minsk agreements on Ukraine in coming months to allow for a lifting of sanctions on Russia. In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Kerry said he and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden had meet this week in the Swiss resort with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to help ensure full implementation of the agreements. “And I believe that, with effort and with bona-fide legitimate intent to solve the problem on both sides, it is possible in these next months to find those Minsk agreements implemented and to get to a place where sanctions can be appropriately, because of the full implementation, removed,” Kerry said. Sanctions on Russia’s banking, energy and defense sectors, imposed in July 2014, are part of the West’s efforts to pressure Russia to help end the crisis in eastern Ukraine, in which more than 9,000 people have been killed since April 2014. The United States has repeatedly linked a lifting of the sanctions to full implementation of the Minsk accords, which were agreed last February by Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany after the collapse of a ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists. The terms of the deal provide for a ceasefire, a pull-back of heavy weapons, prisoner exchanges, local elections in rebel-held areas and greater autonomy for these regions. A U.S. State Department official, citing data from the International Monetary Fund, said this month that EU and U.S. restrictions imposed on Moscow had shaved about 1.5 percent off Russian economic output in 2015. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Germany’s Bild newspaper this month that the sanctions were “severely harming Russia”, although the fall in global oil prices was having a bigger impact.
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. Dec. 21, 2015, 2:46 AM GMT / Updated Dec. 21, 2015, 2:46 AM GMT By Tim Stelloh As Knoxville, Tennessee, continued grappling with the killing of rising high school football star Zaevion Dobson, President Barack Obama took to Twitter to repeat his call for stricter gun control laws. "Zaevion Dobson died saving three friends from getting shot," Obama wrote Sunday from Hawaii, where he arrived Friday for the holidays. "He was a hero at 15. What's our excuse for not acting?" Zaevion was struck by three bullets after diving atop three girls to shield them from the hail of gunfire. All three were uninjured; Zaevion later died at a hospital. Police described the shooting as indiscriminate, saying the gunmen "randomly fired multiple times into a crowd." Obama's message Sunday is one he has repeated often repeated this year. After the October shooting at a community college in Oregon, he said that "thoughts and prayers are not enough" to "prevent this carnage from being inflicted some place else in America next week or a couple months from now." After the shootings this month in San Bernardino, California, he described a gun law loophole as "insane" and declared that Americans "will not be terrorized" by mass shootings. Earlier this month, an adviser said the White House is crafting a background check proposal that wouldn't require congressional approval. Meanwhile, in Knoxville, a memorial fund for Zaevion had collected nearly $60,000 from 1,455 donors Sunday. A note on the page remembered his final act simply: "Would I/you be this brave?"
When you give the Department of Veterans Affairs half a million dollars, what do you expect the agency to spend it on? Veterans healthcare? Retirement pensions? Employee salaries? Rocks? If you guessed rocks, congratulations! You win a rock sculpture in an unbuilt VA hospital already $625 million in the red. While building a new mental health center in Denver, the VA splurged $6.34 million of its budget on art installations–including a $483,000 rock sculpture in a $1.3 million courtyard. The sculpture, made of blocks of stone cut with lasers and stacked, is supposed to invoke “a sense of transformation, rebuilding, and self-investigation.” Rep. Jeff Miller, the Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, took to the House floor to discuss the VA’s rampant spending on art. Miller said that this “abusive” spending has caused the agency to spend $625 million over budget on a single hospital. Spending more money on a hospital wouldn’t be such a big deal if the agency was allocating that extra money towards equipment and resources, but Miller said the VA is instead sinking millions into needless artworks and decoration. “These projects include an art installation on the side of a parking garage that displays quotes by Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt in, wait for it … in Morse code that cost $285,000. It actually lights up,” Miller said. Despite criticism, Congress voted Wednesday to raise the spending limit on the over budget Denver hospital because the bill also included provisions to extend vital VA programs congressmen did not want to see expire. The Palo Alto VA hospital was estimated to cost $328 million when the project started in the late 1990s. So far, it has cost $1.7 billion. This hospital is shaping up to be the biggest construction failure in the agency’s history. Miller begrudgingly voted for the bill that raised the hospital budget to keep other programs afloat, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to watch the VA spend more money without saying his piece. “It is simply beyond me why VA would choose to pay to complete the Denver project by cutting medical services and medical facility dollars but not the exorbitant conference spending, or bloated relocation expenses or art,” Miller said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed on Friday morning, August 11, that Australia will enter into conflict against North Korea in the event it attacks the United States. The US and North Korea have engaged in tense words, as US President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to unleash fire and fury on Pyongyang, Reuters reported, in response to North Korean plans to fire a missile over Japan to land near Guam. Speaking to 3AW Radio, ABC reported, Turnbull said: "America stands by its allies, including Australia of course, and we stand by the United States. “So be very, very clear on that. If there’s an attack on the US, the ANZUS Treaty would be invoked and Australia would come to the aid of the United States, as America would come to our aid if we were attacked.” ANZUS was first signed in 1951 and is a security treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the US. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday afternoon, August 10, Turnbull told the media: "We obviously plan for all contingencies … I’m not going to get into speculative territory, but plainly, we are very alert to the situation. It’s constantly under review, I’m constantly discussing it with our officials and our allies, including obviously the United States. “I’ll just repeat what the foreign minister and I have been saying over the last several months again. The North Korean regime’s illegal, reckless and dangerous conduct must stop. They must come to their senses. What they are doing is putting the peace and stability of the region and indeed the world at risk. “We welcome the strong action by the UN Security Council imposing much stronger sanctions than before, we welcome the support of China and Russia for that. And we note that China has unique leverage over North Korea and we encourage China to use that to bring this regime to its senses.” Credit: The PMO via Storyful IF DONALD Trump delivers on his promise of “fire and fury” to wipe out the North Korean regime, the peninsula would face a $10 trillion economic catastrophe. The war of words between the US President and the nuclear-armed rogue state dramatically escalated this week, with North Korea threatening to attack the US territory of Guam in response to Mr Trump’s comments on Tuesday. Sebastian Gorka, a top aide to President Trump, subsequently ramped up the rhetoric in an interview with Fox News. “Don’t test America, and don’t test Donald J. Trump,” he said. “We are not just a superpower. We were a superpower, we are now a hyperpower. The message is very clear: don’t test this White House.” Assuming the best-case scenario and the US managed to wipe out the North Korean regime overnight, what would happen then? The long, painful process of reunification between the North and the South would begin. “I think it will probably cost at least $10 trillion, but probably more,” said Dr Leonid Petrov, North Korea expert and visiting fellow at the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific. Dr Petrov said recent estimates put the likely immediate cost of reunification at $3 trillion immediately and an additional $7-8 trillion in the first decade. “The younger generation of South Koreans is not very keen at all to see reunification because they know they will have to pay for this,” he said. As one young South Korean woman told the ABC in 2015, she didn’t think “we necessarily have to unify because there are such big gaps in the culture between North and South Korea and also in terms of the ideology.” She said she thought “unification might make things more difficult for both sides, so I believe it’s going to be more effective to just remain as we are.” The push to convince the younger generation of the need for reunification has gained steam in recent months, with one political action group releasing a specially created song by Grammy-winning producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. “I wanted to make sure unification is an issue that is accessible to young people and wanted them to begin to realise it is something they need to construct,” Moon Hyun-jin, chairman of the US-based Global Peace Foundation, told The Korea Times. “Music is the best way to transcend regardless of differences of country, culture, ethnicity, or race. It’s universal. You can present a simple idea and message in a framework that anyone can understand.” Despite the massive upfront costs, civic unrest and refugee crisis that would follow an implosion of the North Korean regime, it wouldn’t all be bad news. “The good thing about reunification is North Korea is full of natural resources, high-quality coal, iron ore, rare earth metals, plus a 25 million population, a disciplined, cheap workforce which speaks the same language,” Dr Petrov said. “That’s why particularly China and Japan are very suspicious of Korean reunification, because [while] initially it’s going to be very expensive, in the long term it will a bonanza for South Korea.” But Dr Petrov said the effects on South Korea’s social harmony would be huge, with 25 million “poorly educated, brainwashed brothers and sisters” who have “no idea how the modern world operates” likely to become second-class citizens. “The older generation of South Koreans are much more enthusiastic about reunification because they have their loved ones left behind during the war, they want to see their native villages one last time before they die,” he said. “North Koreans are more realistic, both the elites and the common people. They know South Koreans live better, they know South Korea is stronger and if they unify the result will be they’re treated as second-class citizens. “They understand that. They’re not rushing to reunification, at least not immediately. They know they need some time to improve economic output, to learn about capitalism and the contemporary world.” Dr Petrov said the longer North Korea waited for reunification, the safer it would be — a Catch-22 given the steadily declining support among younger South Koreans, many of whom are already struggling to find work. But it’s a moot point anyway, he argues, because even the latest round of sabre-rattling is unlikely to amount to anything. He said wiping out the dictatorship was “very easy to say, very hard to deliver”. “No one can do much about it because the North Korean dictatorship is so perfect,” he said. “Kim Jong-un is a perfect dictator. He was chosen by his father from his three sons because he was a dictator in the making — ruthless, ambitious. He executed his own uncle. “Regimes like that don’t disappear easily because there’s no internal opposition, no dissidents, so it can only be done from the outside.” And because America’s entire status in East Asia depends on North Korea, Dr Petrov said it’s unlikely anything will happen. “If North Korea is not the enemy any more, Americans shouldn’t be stationed in South Korea,” he said. “Japan would also start asking questions — why would they need military bases on Okinawa, and why should they abstain from signing a peace treaty with Russia, [which they haven’t had] since WWII because Americans are against it. “So basically American security posturing in East Asia is totally hinging on North Korea’s presence and its aggressive and irrational behaviour. The more aggressive and irrational, the better the relations between the US and Asia.” frank.chung@news.com.au
Here I list 24 Nobel Laureates of either Italian descent or who were born in Italy. Of these, 5 are of Jewish descent (those with a * next to the award year). Of the nine American winners, five were immigrants. We see here that many of America's great scientific advances can be traced to immigrant and Jewish roots. Italy has a very old Jewish community of less than 50,000 souls. Despite that small number, four of the 15 Nobel winners born in Italy proper were Jews. That translates to 800 Laureates per 10 million population - the highest in the world. For comparison, consider this table of the top Nobel-winning countries and their respective rate of Nobels per (10 million) capita: Country/Group Nobel Laureates Population 2015 Laureates/10 mil Jews of Italy 4 50,000 800.00 Jews Worldwide 186 16,000,000 116.25 United States 353 321,773,631 10.97 United Kingdom 125 64,715,810 19.32 Germany 105 80,688,545 13.01 France 61 64,395,345 9.47 Sweden 30 9,779,426 30.68 Switzerland 25 8,298,663 30.13 Japan 24 126,573,481 1.89 Canada 23 35,939,927 6.40 Russia 23 143,456,918 1.60 Muslims Worldwide 5 1,500,000,000 00.033 Last year a possible Muslim won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry making it number 5 for Muslim winners of a Nobel Prize in the sciences and literature. It must be so nice for Muslims to finally be able to say that they have beaten the Jews at something; that is, there are more Muslim Nobel Laureates in total than Jewish Laureates born in Italy. Good job, Muslims!