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Maria Kannon
Edo-period (circa 1714).
Found hidden inside an Amida Statue. Treasure of Kawaguchi City,
Saitama Prefecture.
Source: This J-Site.
Says JAANUS: Maria Kannon is the name used for images of the Virgin Mary (Mother of Christ) in the guise of Kannon 観音 made by Japanese Christians, mostly in the Nagasaki area, to worship in secret after the prohibition of Christianity in the mid 17th century. They were not worshipped as forms of Kannon, but, for safety, made to look like them. The most common examples of Maria Kannon are Chinese white porcelain (blanc-de-Chine) sculptures of Kannon. In particular, the images of Koyasu Kannon 子安観音 (propitated for childbirth and the rearing of children), which resemble Byakue Kannon 白衣観音 in appearance but with a child, were worshipped as the Virgin and Child. Other examples include otherwise undistinguished statues of Kannon with the cross hidden in an inconspicuous location somewhere in the image. <end JAANUS quote>
Jibo 慈母 Kannon
Loving Mother Kannon
Holding Babe in Arms
Modern Japanese Statue
THIS IS A SIDE PAGE
RETURN TO MAIN KANNON PAGE
Maria Kannon マリア観音
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN
Virgin Mary & Kannon, Two Merciful Mothers
SUMMARY: In the mid-17th century, outlawed Christians (mostly in the Nagasaki area) created statues of the Virgin Mary (Mother of Jesus) disguised as the Buddhist deity Kannon (Goddess of Mercy). These images, called Maria Kannon マリア観音, were made or altered to look like Kannon, but they were not worshipped as Kannon. A Christian cross was sometimes hidden within the image.
Christianity in Japan was banned for over two centuries during the Tokugawa Era 徳川時代 (+1615-1867), more commonly known as the Edo Period 江戸時代. The authorities, eager to eradicate this foreign religion, executed and imprisoned thousands of Japanese Christians, and ordered all families to register with local Buddhist parishes. To conceal their faith, Christians thereafter pretended to be Buddhist lay people, yet they secretly maintained their faith with clandestine codes and ingenious adaptations.
For example, Christians hid crosses inside Buddhist statues that were used during Buddhist funeral services for deceased family members. To outsiders, the memorial image appeared Buddhist, but to the outlawed Christians, it doubled as an object of Christian faith. Among some, the tea bowls in the Japanese tea ceremony were turned three times prior to drinking (to symbolize the Holy Trinity), or napkins folded in a certain pattern to instruct insiders when to silently recite a Christian prayer.
Underground Christians, mostly in the Nagasaki area, also created statues of the Virgin Mary (Mother of Jesus) disguised as the Buddhist deity Kannon (Goddess of Mercy). These images, called Maria Kannon, were made or altered to look like Kannon, but they were not worshipped as Kannon. Instead, the Christians venerated these Buddhist statues by silently praying to Mother Mary. Many statues, moreover, had a Christian icon hidden inside the body or camouflaged in the artwork. During the dark years of anti-Christian persecution in Japan, these secretive methods fooled government agents and helped the Christians to keep their faith hidden and alive.
Representations of Mother Mary in the guise of Kannon did not arouse much suspicion, for Kannon (as described in Buddhist scripture) can appear in many different forms, both male and female. The Kannon emerged early in the development of Mahayana traditions in India, Southeast Asia, China, and Tibet. Originally depicted only as male, Kannon in later centuries reached great prominence in China and then Japan in her various female manifestations -- those associated closely with the virtues of compassion, gentleness, purity of heart, and motherhood. In Japan, the three feminine forms of Kannon most related to motherhood are Koyasu Kannon 子安観音 (child giving & child rearing), Juntei Kannon 准胝観音 (pure one), and Jibo Kannon 慈母観音 (loving mother). These three are venerated in Japan as patrons of easy delivery and child rearing, and sometimes depicted holding a child. See Deities of Children and Motherhood in Japan.
Maria Kannon statues were commonly made of white porcelain. Most were effigies of the Koyasu Kannon. These sculptures also resembled the popular White-Robed Kannon (Byakue Kannon 白衣観音; see photos below) of Chinese origin, but with the deity holding a child. This imagery could easily double for secret veneration of the Virgin and Child.
Less common Japanese images of the Kannon showed her nursing a baby. This latter form apparently appeared in the anti-Christian Edo era. It is generally considered Japanese in origin, and was supposedly developed to supplant Koyasu-sama, the Japanese Shinto deity (kami) of easy childbirth.
Like Mother Mary in Christian traditions, the female Kannon of Japan embodies the love and compassion of a “mother par excellence.” Even today, Kannon remains one of the most widely worshipped Buddhist saviors in Japan and Asia. In China, s/he is known as Guanyin (One Who Hears the Prayers of the World).
Kannon, Amida, and Heaven. Kannon is worshipped independently in Japan, but she is also closely associated with Amida Buddha, one of the loftiest savior figures in Japanese Buddhism. Amida (lit. Infinite Life) presides over the Western Paradise. When a Buddhist dies, Amida descends from his paradise to lead the faithful back to his Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Kannon is one of Amida’s main attendants. In artwork, Kannon is often shown alongside Amida descending from heaven, while solitary statues of Kannon commonly include a small image of Amida in her headdress. Amida’s role as savior, moreover, parallels in part the role of Jesus the redeemer. Not surprisingly, faith in Amida was readily doubled with Christian faith during the anti-Christian persecutions of the Edo era. To avoid suspicion, Christians created Amida images that were mounted on crosses. Their veneration of this Amida cross appeared to outsiders as devotion to Amida, but it also doubled as an article of Christian faith.
White-Robed Kannon
Byakue Kannon 白衣観音
Byakushozon 白処尊
Byakue Kanjizaimo 白衣観自在母 Work on this statue began in 1934, but the outbreak of WWII halted construction, which began again after the war and was completed in 1961.
The complex here contains stones from ground zero at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as this temple commemorates the souls of those who died in the atomic bomb attacks, and prays for permanent world peace. The temple holds a festival each September.
DIRECTIONS: Found just outside Ofuna Station (near Kamakura City) on the Yokosuka train line or Tokaido train line).
White-Robed Kannon, Skt. = Panduravasini
HEIGHT = 29.39 meters, Ofuna, Japan Jibo Kannon
(Loving Mother Kannon)
Aizu, Fukushima Prefecture
57-meter statue, Built in 1987
Photo courtesy this J-site Guanyin (Kannon) & Child
Painting at Tzu-chi Foundation Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan.
Photo by Allen T. Chang.
This modern painting of Guanyin and Babe
resembles Catholic artwork of Madonna and Child.
LEARN MORE |
- Five family members, including 3 children, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide Thursday at a home on Channel Drive in Greenwood, Minn., on the shores of Lake Minnetonka. According to South Lake Minnetonka police, the family was discovered on a welfare check after a coworker and the children's school reported them missing. The children had not been to school in 2 days.
"There's no words to describe it, and I've been a cop for 32 years," South Lake Minnetonka Police Chief Mike Siitari said. "This is a tough one to handle."
Officials have made clear that there is no threat to the public. Police are categorizing this as a murder-suicide due to what was found in the residence.
The Greenwood home was owned by AllNurses.com founder Brian Short. The company confirmed the loss of the family members in a statement Thursday:
It is with great regret and a very heavy heart that I have to share some very sad news with you. There is no easy way to say this. We just found out this afternoon that Brian and his family have passed away. The news is calling it an apparent murder-suicide, but this has not been verified by the authorities and details have not yet been released.
No matter what the details are, the results are still the same…..a very tragic loss for the extended families, friends, co-workers, and this nursing community.
Please use this thread to post your comments of condolence and gratitude for Brian who created this wonderful nursing community that has benefitted so many.
Out of respect for Brian and his extended family with which these comments will be shared, keep your comment positive and uplifting. All inappropriate comments will be moved.
Lights out. No work at http://t.co/OJPAICqqlH today. Biz launched by Brian Short. Short found dead in murder-suicide. pic.twitter.com/RfPmzUosqZ — Paul Blume (@PaulBlume_FOX9) September 11, 2015
The Short family moved into their Greenwood home about 4 years ago, and the victims are well known to everyone in the neighborhood, making a difficult situation even more painful. Minnetonka High School will have walk-in grief counseling and small group counseling available for students struggling with the loss of 3 classmates.
Investigators will remain at the home on Friday to process evidence, and we could learn more about what led up to the deaths. |
It’s become pathological. John McCain just claimed on TV that Sarah Palin has never requested an earmark for her state — when actually her state gets more earmarks than any other state in the country. And this year she asked for $197 million worth of them herself.
Even the AP couldn’t ignore his lying — even though they phrased it in their own anemic way. “When pressed about Palin’s record of requesting and accepting such money for Alaska, McCain ignored the record and said: “Not as governor she didn’t.”
For the record Palin requested $197 million this year and $256 million last year. Per capita, that’s $288 this year and $376 last year.
To give you some perspective, Palin herself requested at least ten times the dollar value of earmarks as most states get total every year. |
Trends in the development of electricity prices – EU Energy Outlook 2050
The power price scenario EU Outlook 2050, released by Energy Brainpool, provides a forecast of the development of the European average power prices. In there, the analysts show tendencies in supply and demand, give an outlook on sales values, sales volumes and sales revenues of fluctuating renewable energies.
The European electricity markets are constantly changing. Revised existing regulations and new laws, e.g. the Electricity Market Act in Germany, affect numerous business and political decisions in the energy sector. The EU Energy Outlook 2050 provides average values of a potential scenario for EU-28* countries. The actual developments in the individual countries vary strongly in some cases. For sound market assessments, solid modeling of the individual national markets and their influencing factors, including sensitivity analyses, is indispensable.
1. Supply side: Installed generating capacities in EU-28*
Prospectively, the European supply side will primarily be dominated by fluctuating renewable energies – in particular by wind, photovoltaic and hydropower. Wind energy is expected to expand for an estimated 30 % of the overall generation capacities by 2050. With regards to controllable fossil capacities, primarily natural gas power plants are planned to be built in Europe. The capacities of nuclear energy and coal-fired power plants will fall to 10 % of the total installed capacities by 2050. All in all, the conventional controllable generation capacities will decline from 50 % to 30 %. Therefore the fluctuating feed-in will dominate and lead to more volatile prices.
2. Demand side: coverage of the demand by energy sources in EU-28*
The gross electricity generation covering the demand will increase by 18 % till 2050 as a result of higher demand by cause of proceeding electrification of the heat and transport sectors. While the production from coal-fired power plants will significantly decline the production of natural gas will double. In 2050, fluctuating renewable energies will generate 36 % of electricity while over 44 % will be produced by controllable conventional power plants. The remaining electricity production will be generated by controllable renewable energy technologies such as biomass power plants.
3. Commodity price development
The price trend in the run up to 2020 will align with the future markets price trends. The expected price trend between 2020 to 2050 is based on the 450ppm scenario of the IEA’s World Energy Outlook. The scenario refers to the 2° Celsius target. This will primarily be achieved by a sharp increase of EUA prices. Through the decreasing demand for fossil fuels caused by high prices for CO2-certificates prices for natural gas, oil and hard coal will remain at a relatively constant level.
4. Simulated annual power prices EU 28*
The price trends until 2020 will be characterized by low prices for primary energy carriers on the future markets. The development of electricity prices from 2020 to 2030 will comply with the increasing primary energy and CO2-certificate prices. From 2040 onwards electricity prices are expected to decline despite rising prices for primary energy carriers and CO2. The reason for that is the high feed-in of wind and solar power plants increasing the periods of low and even negative electricity prices. The actual developments in the individual countries vary strongly in some cases. For sound market assessments, solid modeling of the individual national markets and their influencing factors, including sensitivity analyzes, is indispensable.
5. Average sales values and sales volumes for wind in EU-28*
The market value is the average weighted price for electricity which wind power plants can realize on the spot market. In this regard only hours with positive prices are taken into account. The sales value of wind energy will rise till 2040 and thereafter remain at a high level despite increasing installed capacities and simultaneous cannibalisation effects. The sales volumes will only decrease slightly. The few hours with extreme electricity prices avail wind power plants which generate positive revenues producing in these hours.
Energy Brainpool defines, amongst others, the index “sales value” in the white paper “valuation of electricity market revenues of fluctuating renewable energy sources”. It is more convenient for calculating realistic revenues of renewable energy sources on the electricity market compared to previous indices.
6. Average sales values and sales volumes for solar in EU-28*
The sales value is the average weighted price for electricity which solar power plants can achieve on the spot market. Only hours with positive prices are taken into account. The sales value of solar energy will rise till 2040 and remain at a high level thereafter, however still below the level of wind energy. This is caused by the strong simultaneousness of solar energy. Hence the electricity price declines in times of high solar feed-in and causes lower sales values. The sales volumes on EU average will only decrease slightly. However, in some countries the decline is much steeper.
7. Average sales revenues wind and solar EU-28*
In contrast to the sales value, the sales revenue refers to the installed capacity. The index “sales revenue” shows what a technology (wind or solar) can earn without additional payments on the power market (energy-only market) yearly per kilowatt. The parameter refers to the project-specific average full load hours as well as sales values and volumes.
The comparison of wind and solar power plants’ sales revenues show that the revenues of solar energy are lower with regards to the installed capacity in EUR/kW. This is due to lower full load hours by contrast with wind energy. A generally higher level of wholesale prices for power in the years from 2025 onwards will lead to higher sales revenues for renewable energies.
8. Extreme prices EU-28*
Due to the high share of fluctuating generation capacities electricity prices will become more volatile. Moreover, extremely high and extremely low prices will occur. Extreme prices are electricity prices equal to/below 0 EUR/MWh and those above 100 EUR/MWh. The anticipated ratio between the two extremes will create new opportunities for market newcomers and new technologies, e.g. storage systems. Severe extreme prices can be anticipated in Europe from 2026 onwards.
9. E-mobility in the EU-28*
The future development of e-mobility is a decisive factor for the European and national targets in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction. If the decarbonisation of the transport sector will genuinely be implemented through e-mobility technologies the electricity demand will drastically increase. With a share of 100% e-mobility in the private transport sector in the EU28 countries by 2050, this will result in an additional electricity demand of around 830 TWh/a. The development of e-mobility was not taken into account in the results presented.
* EU-28 including Norway and Switzerland |
Click here for oil prices
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday it will release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to alleviate Libyan supply disruptions -- driving already sinking prices lower.
The release, which will be done over 30 days, represents half of a 60 million barrel supply hike announced by the International Energy Agency, which includes the United States as one of its 28 member nations.
The world consumes 87.5 million barrels of oil a day. Of that total, the United States consumes about 19 million barrels per day, according to Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service.
The United States produces about 9.8 million barrels so it winds up importing about half of what it produces.
The Energy Department said the reserve is at a "historically high level" of 727 million barrels.
"We are taking this action in response to the ongoing loss of crude oil due to supply disruptions in Libya and other countries and their impact on the global economic recovery," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "As we move forward, we will continue to monitor the situation and stand ready to take additional steps if necessary."
Libya is still locked in civil war, as rebels, aided by NATO airstrikes, try to unseat Moammar Gadhafi.
Oil prices, which were already sliding Thursday, fell even further after the announcement.
"Oil prices are getting assaulted on two fronts today," said Kloza.
In fact, oil and gas prices have been falling for the past several months. The price of a gallon of gas nearly broke $4 in May. Gas prices were selling at $3.61 a gallon Wednesday, according to motorist group AAA.
Most experts attribute the price declines to expectations of weaker demand as the economic recovery continues to slow.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a grim assessment.
"Bernanke's statement about the 'slowing pace of recovery' was the key to this down move," said Dan Dicker, a former oil trader and author of "Oil's Endless Bid: Taming the Unreliable Price of Oil to Secure Our Economy." (Read: Business group slams Obama over oil release)
Oil prices plunged $4.39, or more than 4%, to $91.02 per barrel and a four month low after the news about the supply increase. At one point, they plummeted more than 5% to less than $90 per barrel for the first time since Feb. 22.
"There is plenty of supply," Kilduff Group partner Mike Fitzpatrick told CNNMoney. "They want to push prices down to help the U.S. economy. Saudi Arabia called for this at the last OPEC meeting."
The price of Brent crude -- the European benchmark -- declined by nearly 5%, with prices sliding $5.59 per barrel to $108.62.
-- CNNMoney's Poppy Harlow contributed to this report |
If you are following the U.S. presidential campaign, you know that Donald Trump recently said Hillary Clinton got “schlonged” in her last campaign attempt against Obama. According to the standard 2D analysis on the news, this is the sort of vulgar gaffe that should hurt a candidate.
But you might be wondering if “schlonged” was a deliberate and clever move by a Master Persuader or just another in a long list of Trump vulgarities. Let’s look under the hood and see if the engine is purring or it is full of squirrels.
Here’s how I see it:
1. Schlonged has just enough deniability built into it (similar to saying someone “sucks”) that Trump could almost-sort-of-but-not-quite explain it away. That “almost-but-not quite” quality makes it news. That is precisely how one would engineer a sticky story. A future president (and potential role model) who uses vulgar terms is a “man bites dog” story with just the right amount of “maybe not” to keep people jabbering.
2. Schlonged has what I call the “Osso Bucco effect.“ When you hear about a pork dish called osso bucco, you have to repeat its name several times in your head. You almost can’t resist. Same with schlonged. That looks engineered to me. In hypnosis, this is a variant of the O.J. defense “If the glove fits, you must acquit.” The science of persuasion says a rhyme is more persuasive than a non-rhyme, probably because you repeat it several times in your head, like schlonged.
3. A strong majority of humans love schlongs. Men love schlongs because we have them. Lots of women like them too. Schlongs are not politically correct, but when it comes to popular body parts, they are in the top two. From a rational perspective, using a vulgar-sounding expression is a mistake. But the Master Persuader filter only cares about the reflexive associations you make in your mind. And on the reflex level, schlongs are a base-clearing home run.
4. Schlongs also make you think of Bill Clinton and how hard Hillary must have tried to get a lock on his schlong. That doesn’t help her.
This past week, Trump used his schlong to absorb all the energy from the media while creating an association that is positive for him and negative for his opponent.
Conclusion: Schlonged is not just engineered; it is perfectly engineered. It might have been spontaneously engineered while he formed the sentence, but that is within his skill range. I’ve watched him engineer new and persuasive sentences during live interviews and he does it instantly.
Also, keep an eye on the empty space. The empty space is the mistakes Trump should have made by now but has not. As an artist (by occupation, not talent) I always look for the blank space. Trump is creating a boatload of blank space where you think his mistakes should be. In a way, that non-story is the biggest story. And so far, only the Master Persuader filter explains Trump’s “baffling” blank space and his consistency in the polls.
The other explanation for all of this is that Trump has gotten lucky twenty-seven times in a row (or whatever) in a way that looks exactly like engineered persuasion. In other words, we can’t rule out the Lucky Hitler Hypothesis because we don’t know what is in the man’s head, and sometimes lucky things happen. That’s why it’s called luck.
Here I remind new readers that I am not endorsing Trump or anyone else. I’m not smart enough to know who would do the best job of president. They all look qualified to me. My interest is Trump’s persuasion skills.
Bonus Thought: Pay attention to how many times the pundits are using the word “persuader” to describe what a president should be. Did you hear that word as often in other campaigns? If you see more of it, that’s a tell for persuasion. |
The International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety has announced that this year’s Vladimir Syromiatnikov Safety-by-Design Award will go to Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) for safety accomplishments related to its Dragon vehicle. The award will be received at the 7th IAASS Conference Awards Gala Dinner by SpaceX Director of Risk and System Safety Michael Lutomski.
The Vladimir Syromyatnikov Safety-by-Design Award honors outstanding designers and engineers who have made major technical contribution towards systems safety. It is named in honor of Vladimir Syromiatnikov (1934-2006), the Russian designer who created the Androgynous Peripheral Assembly System (APAS), a unique docking system which linked the U.S. Apollo and Soviet Soyuz space capsules in the 1970s. In the 1990s he updated his docking system for the meeting of the Mir space station and the Shuttle Atlantis. The APAS is also used on the International Space Station and formed the basis for the new global standard, the International Docking System Standard (IDSS).
SpaceX is being recognized with this award for being the first space commercial company to achieve safety certification of its Dragon vehicle in accordance with NASA and FAA rules, and successfully performing multiple resupply missions to the International Space Station. IAASS also acknowledges SpaceX’s pursuit of innovative design solutions for its new Dragon V2 vehicle for higher performance and enhanced crew safety, in particular during safety-critical mission phases.
Lutomski will receive a solid bronze statuette representing Athena wielding a silver shield. In the Greek mythology Athena is the goddess of wisdom, science, courage, inspiration, civilization, strength, strategy, justice, skills and shipbuilding. The shield of Athena, called Aegis, represents in this award safety knowledge and carries an image of the APAS docking system, as a symbol of international cooperation.
– In the video below, an artistic conception of the manned Dragon 2 capsule.
Lutomski himself has spent nearly 30 years working on human spaceflight programs at NASA and in private industry. In the mid-90’s he spent two years working in NASA’s Moscow office supporting early space station operations infrastructure development. For 10 years Lutomski served as Risk Manager for the International Space Station (ISS) Program. As Risk Manager he was responsible for defining and implementing the qualitative and quantitative risk management processes across the organizations and international participants of the ISS Program. He retired from NASA in 2013 and joined SpaceX. Lutomski co-authored the IAASS book Safety Design for Space Operations, published in 2013 by Elsevier.
The 7th IAASS Conference Safety Is No Accident will take place October 20-22 in Friedrichshafen, Germany. |
Seven-inch tablets may have drawn Steve Jobs' contempt, but they could be a very good thing for consumers.
During Apple's earnings call yesterday, Apple's CEO argued forcefully that a 7-inch Android tablet could never compete with Apple's nearly 10-inch iPad.
"Seven-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad," Jobs said, in an extended thrashing of Apple's competitors. "These are among the reasons that the current crop of 7-inch tablets are going to be DOA – dead on arrival."
I don't understand why 7-inch tablets being "tweeners" is necessarily a bad thing for Android or tablet-makers.
If Jobs is right that the smaller tablets won't be able to beat Apple's iPad on price, that could indeed be a deal-breaker. But the pricing we have seen on smaller Android tablets suggests that they'll be at least $100 cheaper than the current entry-level iPad, even without a data plan. If they're sold with data plans and carrier subsidies like smartphones, they could be even cheaper than that.
Lower cost isn't the only appeal of going small. Seven-inch tablets are lighter than 10-inch devices. They're infinitely easier to hold in one hand. They're easier to type on with two hands (particularly if you have small hands). They fit into smaller bags. And you use them to do different things.
Really, a 7-inch tablet is closer to an e-reader, a personal media player or a handheld gaming device than the iPad is. It's no coincidence that most e-readers, such as the Kindle and Sony Reader Daily Edition, have 6- or 7-inch screens: That's about the size of a paperback book.
In turn, the iPad is closer to a mini-notebook than a small tablet is. Neither tablet size is exactly like these other devices, but those are roughly the ecosystems in which they find themselves.
The real mistake in Jobs's logic is thinking that the 7-inch "tweeners" have to compete with the iPad. They don't. Mini-tablets could be to the iPad what mini-notebooks are to the MacBook and MacBook Air: smaller, less-expensive form factors that appeal to people looking for different features. Tablets running a full desktop OS like Windows 7 are different still.
In fact, just for these reasons, 7-inch tablets arguably have a better chance of success than 10-inch tablets looking to go head-to-head with the iPad. They can create a distinct sphere where they compete with each other, rather than with the biggest guy in the room.
Ironically, this is actually a classic Apple move: Instead of competing in a space where you can't win, create a space where you can do something new. Instead of trying to beat (or be) Apple, Android and RIM and all of the other tablet developers need to play to their strengths and be the best version of themselves.
Jobs is right that Apple doesn't have a compelling reason to make a 7-inch tablet; it would only introduce a third iOS variant for developers and consumers when the iPad and iPhone/iPod touch have already been tremendously successful. But other hardware, mobile-OS and mobile-application companies don't have to worry about compatibility with Apple's other form factors. They have to find devices, screen sizes and UIs that work for them.
Jobs is also right that Android will fragment if it tries to support too many screen sizes, form factors and app marketplaces, and this could create confusion among users. But there's no reason why this fragmentation needs to be either total or deadly.
In fact, Google has already tried to exert some soft control over the Android universe. It's warned developers and users about using non-tablet software for tablet devices, asking them to wait for official support in Android 3.0. It's also created hardware standards that devices need to meet to access the official Android Market.
Again, because Android is open source, people can create their own tablets and alternative app stores if they don't want to play by Google's rules. That's fine. It creates a legal alternative that could even be healthier than Apple's current quasi-underground jailbreak community.
But Google could use access to Android Market to set common standards for hardware makers and software developers. It wouldn't (and shouldn't) be as strict as Apple's rules for its App Store, or even Windows Phone 7's hybrid approach, but it's closer to the latter than the former. Through the Market, Google can articulate its own expectations for what the smartphone and tablet experience ought to be.
Google could even rally around the 7-inch tablet, trumpeting it as a clear alternative to Apple's "oversized" iPad, where it's easier for current Android developers to upscale their smartphone software and offering them a larger canvas to experiment with richer apps.
If Android tablet makers can get their devices into anywhere near as many users' hands as Apple's been able to get theirs, that's a compelling proposition indeed.
One thing is clear: If the makers of Android tablets are going to catch up to Apple's dominance in tablets, they'll have to take a page out of Steve Jobs' own book.
Image: Samsung Galaxy Tab by Samsung.
See Also: |
On July 25, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger made it official — California would be the first state to ban trans fat. Food providers have been given a year after which the law requires them to replace hydrogenated oils with healthier, naturally occurring oils such as soya, palm, and vegetable oils. The ban was prompted after the link between consumption of trans fat and diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and high levels of cholesterol was confirmed. A similar, but less publicized dietary villain exists — High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS).
The name may be slightly misleading to some -– the word corn may lead the consumer to believe that it is a naturally occurring substance, and fructose may lead one to confuse the compound HFCS with the fructose that occurs naturally in fruits. On the contrary, it is an artificial substance that uses extract from corn merely as a base. Corn extract is milled to form cornstarch, processed to form corn syrup (mainly glucose) and then modified by the addition of enzymes (alpha- and gluco-amylase, and isomerases); that convert glucose to fructose. The production of this chemical also involves other complex steps, including genetic modification of the enzymes used to make them more stable at higher temperatures. Despite the highly synthetic nature of HFCS, many manufacturers are allowed to use “All Natural” or “100% Natural” labeling in products that contain HFCS.
Published literature has suggested a significant correlation between the consumption of foods containing HFCS and obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol. Fructose also interferes with the absorption of essential minerals like Copper, magnesium and iodine. After fructose is absorbed in the intestine, it metabolized in the liver. When the liver processes large amounts of fructose, byproducts such as triglycerides, carbon molecules and other precursors to lipid formation are released. These freely circulating triglycerides and lipid molecules aggregate over time and are ultimately converted to fat — which leads to weight gain and obesity. The by products of fructose metabolism also increase the risk of blood clots, high cholesterol and heart disease. Fructose (when consumed in high concentration) also limits the cells’ capability to absorb glucose by interfering with the insulin receptors. This causes high blood glucose levels, which may convert to diabetes.
Scientists agree that the evidence is not conclusive, and further research is necessary. However, it is also true that the consumption of HFCS has increased greater than 1000% from 1970 to 2007. The large consumption amount (USDA approximates 40 lbs per capita in 2007) is certainly alarming. Another disturbing aspect is the unexpected places where HFCS shows up. It is fairly common knowledge that juices and sodas are sweetened with it instead of sugar, but not everyone expects HCFS to be present in breads, soups and salad dressings!
Despite the indications that HFCS is potentially detrimental to health and may be responsible for obesity and heart disease, a ban is unlikely (read impossible) to come by anytime soon. HFCS is cheaper and easier to transport than sugar, may be used in solid or liquid form — so it can be used in a variety of food products. High tariff placed on sugar exported from other countries and active lobbying by the corn industry magnates will sustain and encourage the large-scale production of HFCS. Ultimately, it is up to us to control our personal health by choosing to eat healthier and by making informed choices. We can stay in touch with the literature and expert opinion, and then decide what we want to include in our diet.
Reference
Bray, G.A., Nielsen, S.J., Popkin, B.M. (2004). Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 79(4), 537-543. |
Adam lived 930 years (Gen. 5:5)--"And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died." Seth lived 912 years (Gen. 5:8)--"And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died." Methuselah lived 969 years (Gen. 5:27)--"And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died."
After the fall, the genetic line of Adam and his descendants was very pure, so their health would have been incredible. Living that long would not have been a problem. Also, some theologians think that there was a canopy of water that engulfed the entire earth, and that it was released at the time of the flood. "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened." (Gen. 7:11). The "floodgates of the sky" are sometimes alluded to as great amounts of water suspended in the sky. Also, no rain is recorded in the Bible until after the flood which seems to support this idea. This canopy, if it is true, might have provided some sort of protection from the sun's harmful rays. We can't know for sure, and it is only a theory. Nevertheless, after the flood, the lifespan of people on earth was drastically reduced. "Then the LORD said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.'" (Gen. 6:3). Whether or not this reduced canopy had any affect on human lifespan may never be known.
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No doubt, the GOP’s libertarian wing is on the ascendancy. Within the GOP, a vibrant debate is taking place over how the party should approach social issues like same-sex marriage rights, the legalization of marijuana, and the reformation of the nation’s criminal justice and sentencing regimes. Both the public polling and the actions of Republican officeholders suggest that the GOP’s libertarian faction is successfully steering the party in their direction on those issues.
Maybe the most visible member of the Republican Party’s libertarian wing is Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). He has advocated moderation on the above issues as a means of maintaining comity within the party and also not alienating persuadable non-Republican voters. But Paul has staked his political career on another issue, one that only emerged as a galvanizing political force in the wake of the revelations exposed by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden: the scaling back of American intelligence gathering practices.
Paul maintains, as do Snowden’s supporters, that the NSA’s capabilities have sprawled in the wake of September 11, 2001. Lacking appropriate oversight, the agency now has the capability to violate Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights. His message has found a friendly audience among a generation of Americans who came of age after 9/11, and for whom the concept of privacy in the online environment is a major concern. Two weeks ago, Paul became the recipient of an honor Republicans rarely enjoy when he received a ovation from an audience of 400 students at the University of California, Berkley, for his anti-spying advocacy.
The reception atypical Republican voters give Paul may be going to the senator’s head. When the President of the United States recently visited with Pope Francis in Rome, Paul tweeted at the president that he should offer up a penance for the NSA’s domestic metadata collection practices. “Forgive me father for I have spied,” he submitted glibly.
Paul’s marriage to the concept of scaling back the nation’s surveillance apparatus has been undeterred by the most severe international crisis in 25 years. Russia’s unchecked invasion of the Ukrainian Crimean peninsula may have been merely a prelude to a much bloodier campaign aimed at capturing the country’s East and South and cutting Kiev off from the sea. What’s more, the events in Eastern Europe provided the public with as clear a demonstration since the 9/11 attacks of what a dismal and ongoing intelligence failure looks like.
A report in Foreign Policy magazine on the increasing tensions in the region casts the West’s intelligence capabilities in the former Soviet Union in an unflattering light:
“Assessing the intentions of Russian President Vladimir Putin has been hampered by the fact that the U.S. has alarmingly little in the way of signals intelligence, or intercepted communications, that would indicate that he had decided to invade or when a strike was scheduled to start, one official said,” the report reveals. “Despite the tens of billions of dollars given to the intelligence community each year, the United States also has no real-time video footage coming from drones in the region and is relying largely on still photos from satellites, another official said.”
Reduced to assessing the situation on the ground in Eastern Europe by use of 20th Century means, Western intelligence agencies are finding themselves thwarted by 20th Century technology. A report in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday evening revealed that the “camouflaging” of Russian equipment and positions has “further complicated U.S. efforts to assess the size” of Russian forces gathering along the Ukrainian border. That disturbing bit of information has since been edited out of that WSJ report.
Foreign Policy notes that intelligence officials, speaking to reporters and lawmakers, have adopted a tone of urgency recently about the increasingly likely prospects for a broader invasion of Ukraine. They speculate that this may be due, in part, to the fact that some American officials were convinced that Russia would not invade Crimea in February and assured lawmakers that Russian troop movements were just posturing.
Moscow’s ability to conceal its intentions in Crimea might have been facilitated by Snowden, who currently enjoys political asylum in Russia. One of Snowden’s media-based handlers, Glenn Greenwald, said in the summer of 2013 that the documents Snowden possessed would provide their recipient with a blueprint revealing the NSA’s practices and the most effective means of evading their surveillance.
An intelligence failure of this magnitude, with implications for the future of global stability this grave, has a sobering effect on the electorate. Cute one-liners that fire up the college crowd might animate Paul’s base, but he will find – as did former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) – that this kind of enthusiasm among voters less concerned with stability abroad than privacy at home does not translate into votes in Republican presidential primaries.
Paul has already begun to recalibrate his position on Russia, perhaps seeing to distance himself from his non-interventionist father who has taken to defending military intervention when it is directed from Moscow. “It is our role as a global leader to be the strongest nation in opposing Russia’s latest aggression,” Paul recently wrote before criticizing the president’s response to the crisis in Europe without much specificity. He knows his position is a liability among Republicans.
But Paul cannot maintain his carefully cultivated brand as an opponent of an expansive surveillance state while simultaneously casting himself as hawk. Those two roles are mutually exclusive. Paul’s political maneuvering in 2013, which seemed so adroit at the time, now appears feckless as the forces of history reassert themselves on the Black Sea Coast. What a difference a year makes.
[Photo via Joshua Roberts / Reuters]
— —
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Craig Kielburger (born December 17, 1982) is a Canadian human rights activist. He is the co-founder, with his brother Marc Kielburger, of the WE Charity (formerly known as the Free the Children), an international development and youth empowerment organization; ME to WE, a social enterprise,[1] and WE Day, an annual youth empowerment event. On April 11, 2008, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada by the Governor General of Canada.[2]
Early life [ edit ]
Craig Kielburger was born in Thornhill, Ontario, Canada.[3] He attended Blessed Scalabrini Catholic School, in Thornhill, and Mary Ward Catholic Secondary School in Scarborough, Toronto. He graduated with a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from Trinity College at the University of Toronto.[4] In 2009, he completed his Executive MBA at Schulich School of Business at York University and Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University as the dual-school program's youngest-ever graduate.[5]
Activism [ edit ]
WE Charity [ edit ]
In 1995, when Craig Kielburger was 12 years old, he saw a headline in the Toronto Star newspaper that read "Battled child labour, boy, 12, murdered." The accompanying story was about a young Pakistani boy named Iqbal Masih who was forced into bonded labour in a carpet factory at the age of four, became an international figurehead for the fight against child labour by 12 years old, and was murdered in 1995.[6]
Kielburger did more research about child labour and asked his grade seven teacher to speak to his classmates on the topic. Several students offered to help, and the group of pre-teens started "Kids Can Free the Children" (later named WE Charity).[7]
One of the group's first actions was to collect 3,000 signatures on a petition to the prime minister of India, calling for the release of imprisoned child labour activist Kailash Satyarthi, who went on to win the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize.[8]
In December 1995, Kielburger travelled to Asia with Alam Rahman, a 25-year-old family friend from Bangladesh. While there, he learnt that then-Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chrétien was travelling to India. After initially being denied a meeting, Kielburger sat with Chretien for a 15-minute meeting to put child labour on the Prime Minister's agenda, making headlines across Canada and internationally.[9] Upon his return, Kielburger attracted international media attention with features on 60 Minutes and the Oprah Winfrey Show.[10][11] His South Asian trip was documented in his book "Free The Children" and the Judy Jackson documentary "It Takes a Child".[12]
ME to WE [ edit ]
In 2004, Craig and his elder brother Marc published Me to We: Finding Meaning in a Material World. The book included contributions from Oprah Winfrey, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Dr. Jane Goodall, and outlined the tenets of the “ME to WE” philosophy, including the importance of community and the idea of service as a path to happiness.
In 2008, Kielburger also co-founded ME to WE[13], a social enterprise that offers socially conscious products, leadership training and travel experiences. The social enterprise donates half of its partner organization WE Charity, to support its operating costs and international development work and invests the other half back into growing the enterprise.[14][15]
Public life [ edit ]
Craig Kielburger addressing candidates at the 2013 York University Convocation
Kielburger contributes a regular column called "Global Voices" for the Vancouver Sun[16], Halifax Chronicle Herald, Edmonton Journal, Victoria Times Colonist, Waterloo Region Record, Winnipeg Free Press, Huffington Post and Huffington Post Canada online.
In 2012, Craig Kielburger Secondary School opened its doors in Milton, Ontario. The school was named for the activist after a campaign by two former and two current students.[17]
In 2000, Kielburger was awarded $319,000 in damages as settlement for a libel suit launched against the now-defunct Saturday Night magazine.[18] The settlement covered Kielburger's legal costs and the remainder was used to set up a trust fund for Free the Children.[18]
He participated in the 2015 edition of Canada Reads, advocating for Thomas King's book The Inconvenient Indian.[19]
In 2007, at age 25, Craig Kielburger was inducted into the Order of Canada, the second-youngest Canadian ever to receive the honor.[20]
In 2013, Kielburger was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame, alongside his elder brother Marc Kielburger.[21]
Honors [ edit ]
Awards [ edit ]
Orders, decorations and medals [ edit ]
Bibliography [ edit ]
Free the Children (1998)
(1998) Me to We (with Marc Kielburger, 2004)
(with Marc Kielburger, 2004) Take Action (with Marc Kielburger, 2002)
(with Marc Kielburger, 2002) Take More Action (with Marc Kielburger, 2008)
(with Marc Kielburger, 2008) Making of an Activist (with Marc Kielburger, 2007)
(with Marc Kielburger, 2007) The World Needs Your Kid (with Marc Kielburger, 2009)
(with Marc Kielburger, 2009) Global Voices: Volume 1 (with Marc Kielburger, 2010)
(with Marc Kielburger, 2010) Lessons From A Street Kid (2011)
(2011) Living Me to We: The Guide for Socially Conscious Canadians (with Marc Kielburger, 2012)
(with Marc Kielburger, 2012) The Power of We Day: Moving the World from Me to We (with Marc Kielburger, 2013)
(with Marc Kielburger, 2013) "My Grandma Follows Me on Twitter" ( with Marc Keilburger, 2012) |
A woman who was angry that 7-Eleven did not have any fully-heated sausages for her started attacking an employee and ultimately had to be pepper-sprayed, police said Friday.
Brittany C. Glanville, 25, of West Lincoln Street, was arrested Friday and charged with disorderly conduct.
Chief Mark Ott said an officer responded to the 7-Eleven on West Broad Street when someone set off a panic alarm at 3:05 a.m.
The officer said that as he pulled up he saw Glanville wing an item at the head of the clerk on duty. With quick reflexes the clerk was able to snatch the item out of the air and avoid being hit.
The officer said that as he began to enter the store Glanville was attempting to climb over the counter and go after the clerk, so he immediately arrested her.
He put her in the back of his patrol car where she repeatedly tried kicking out the windows until finally he pepper-sprayed her into submission.
The clerk and other store employees said that Glanville became enraged when there were no sausages ready for her to eat in the store’s hot dog cooker.
The officer said she appeared to be intoxicated because of her strange behavior, slurred speech, bloodshot and watery eyes and the distinct odor of alcohol on her breath.
After charging her, police released her on her own recognizance and turned her over to the hospital for evaluation, although no one was available Friday afternoon to say which hospital.
Glanville said she did not wish to offer any comment about the story when reached by telephone around 6:15 p.m.
Contact Stephen Smith at (856) 451-1000, ext. 450 or ssmith@southjerseymedia.com. |
KABUL, Afghanistan, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- U.S. President Obama apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai Thursday for the accidental burning of Korans by NATO troops that has led to violent protests.
Violent anti-American protests have erupted across Afghanistan since the U.S. military Tuesday apologized for what it said was the accidental "improper disposal" at Bagram Air Base of religious materials, including copies of the Muslim holy book.
The United States is working with the Afghan government to investigate the incident.
"We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, including holding accountable those responsible," Obama said in the letter delivered by U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker, Karzai's office said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the letter to Karzai was a follow-up to a telephone conversation between the two leaders.
"I think that the message that we're trying to convey here is that this was inadvertent. We take it very seriously," Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One Thursday.
Carney said NATO Commander Gen. John Allen, "is taking steps to ensure that this kind of thing can't happen again by instituting training on the handling of religious materials."
RELATED Probe ordered for Koran burning at Bagram
An Afghan soldier, apparently angry over the burning of Korans, fatally shot two U.S. troops and wounded four others, Afghan officials said.
Carney told reporters the expression of regret by Obama was part of a letter to Karzai "on a number of topics, including the Afghan-led reconciliation process and our bilateral relationship with Afghanistan, in which he included an expression of his regret and apologies for the inappropriate and inadvertent mishandling of religious materials."
Carney noted that Dana Perino, when she was press secretary for former President George W. Bush, "expressed apologies on behalf of the president" after a 2008 incident in which a U.S. serviceman "apparently shot or did damage to a Koran."
RELATED Afghan Koran burning protests turn violent
"And that's appropriate for the same reason, because our concern -- this president's concern, as was surely the case with President Bush, is the safety and security of our men and women in uniform, as well as our civilians in Afghanistan," Carney said.
"And one of the reasons that it's appropriate to express our sincere apologies for this incident is that the kind of reaction that it can cause risks putting our men and women in harm's way, or in further risk than they already are," he said. "So I think that precedent is a useful one to look at."
It remained unclear how many Korans were involved, a military official told CNN Thursday. The official said American troops at the base would have been unable to read the texts, which could have contributed to the error.
Another military official said earlier the materials had been removed from a detainee center's library because they carried "extremist inscriptions" on them and there was "an appearance that these documents were being used to facilitate extremist communications."
Violent protests took place Thursday at U.S. and NATO military facilities across Afghanistan, including one demonstration in which police apparently shot and killed two protesters.
The Taliban in Afghanistan called on Muslims to attack NATO facilities and convoys and kill military personnel, CNN reported.
In an e-mail message, the Taliban accused "the invading infidel authorities" of trying to calm the situation with two "so-called shows of apology, but in reality they let their inhuman soldiers insult our holy book."
The e-mail urged Afghans to seek revenge "until the doers of such inhumane actions are prosecuted and punished."
"We should attack their military bases, their military convoys, we should kill their soldiers, arrest their invading soldiers, beat them up and give a kind of lesson to them that they never dare to insult the holy Koran," the message said.
The International Security Assistance Force said in a statement two military personnel were killed in eastern Afghanistan Thursday by "an individual wearing an Afghan National Army uniform" but didn't identify the troops' nationality.
CBS News said an Afghan official said the dead and wounded in the attack in the eastern province of Ningarhar were American. The official said the shooting seemed to be motivated by the burning of Korans at the Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, but did not elaborate. |
Reddit climbers in the Greater Boston area, come enjoy each others company at Quincy Quarry, February 19, 2017. We will all get together for hopefully a good day of climbing in nice weather. This is a casual event, not really organized other than a few PMs on reddit, so bring food and gear and we can swap stories about how BKB is too expensive, that Rumney is too far away, ice climbing season is awesome, whatever. Hopefully the weather will be nice that weekend, but if not, suggestions on a backup plan are welcome (maybe a gym instead?). Hope to see you all there!
Chris Blatchley · Joined Sep 2016 · Points: 5 Jan 24, 2017 · Somerville, MA encoding='utf-8' ? Derek Jf wrote: Hello, Im Derek how are you. What gear do you use for your anchor and what kind of anchor do you set, how long have you been facilitating climbing on your own gear for other rock climbers I expect a lot of people will bring their own gear, and we can all evaluate the top rope anchors if necessary. I don't expect everybody to climb on my own gear, I'll probably only set up one top rope. I appreciate your cautiousness though!
If you are really interested, I have 30' of static 10.1mm rope which I will tie around some of the giant metal pegs above and use either bunny ears or equalized alpine butterflies for the master point. I've only been climbing for about 7 months, and don't expect anybody to take me as an authority, but I also trust people can decide for themselves who and what anchors to trust.
> Are only Reddit users invited?
> Sounds like a fun event. Why QQ?
We are going to Quincy Quarry because it's a reasonably good crag around Boston. We opted to not go to a gym because climbing outside is fun!
This is definitely open to non-reddit climbers! I expect a lot of people will bring their own gear, and we can all evaluate the top rope anchors if necessary. I don't expect everybody to climb on my own gear, I'll probably only set up one top rope. I appreciate your cautiousness though!If you are really interested, I have 30' of static 10.1mm rope which I will tie around some of the giant metal pegs above and use either bunny ears or equalized alpine butterflies for the master point. I've only been climbing for about 7 months, and don't expect anybody to take me as an authority, but I also trust people can decide for themselves who and what anchors to trust.> Are only Reddit users invited?> Sounds like a fun event. Why QQ?We are going to Quincy Quarry because it's a reasonably good crag around Boston. We opted to not go to a gym because climbing outside is fun!This is definitely open to non-reddit climbers! |
Google's plan to sell its Glass headset in an extended public beta test was a rather unusual move. It's not often you see consumer hardware get tested in public, particularly something like Glass that has raised a number of privacy concerns since it became available. However, Google says that the benefit of its extended public test period is that it can keep improving the device based on user feedback in advance of its eventual consumer launch — as such, the company is announcing a slightly modified version of Glass, both on the software and hardware front.
The biggest change in terms of pure hardware is that Google has decided to double the RAM in Glass — headsets will now come with 2GB onboard. Through a combination of a slightly bigger battery and software enhancements, Google says that Glass will now last 15 percent longer between charges, as well. The extra RAM "will allow for more Glassware [apps] to run in parallel and for each Glassware to start more quickly," says Steve Lee, a Glass product manager. "You'll notice the device generally feels a bit faster and more reliable."
The name of the game for Glass is continued small improvements
As for the battery life, Lee notes that devices with extra battery capacity starting shipping back in March, but that most of the increased usage time has come as a result of Glass's multiple software updates and refinements, particularly the one that's rolling out today. "There's some things we can do with hardware, but the more consistent improvements simply come with the OTA updates we do regularly," says Lee.
In addition to the battery enhancements, the new software will add a voice-activated viewfinder that'll help users frame photos better — a feature that Google says Glass users have been asking for. It'll also include the recently-added Google Now cards for remembering your parking spot as well as tracking packages.
While none of these updates will materially change the Glass experience, it's all an example of why Google is going through with its public beta — the company says all of these changes came as a result of user feedback, and it wants to continue to with its vision of a product that is continually getting better through small refinements. The new software is going out to all Glass users now, and anyone who buys the hardware going forward will receive the model with 2GB of RAM, including those who can now order Glass in the UK.
Unfortunately, Google won't be swapping out old Glass headsets for the updated ones this time, as it did in the fall when it added the ability to work with prescription lenses. And with Google I/O 2014 ready to kick off, it looks like this latest update means the company won't be dropping any details about a final, consumer-ready version just yet. |
My tax plan actually does cut the marginal rates across the economy by 20 percent. I'm going to reduce and restrict deductions and exemptions at the same time. [That] and creating more growth will mean that the policy is revenue neutral.
—Mitt Romney, March 19, 2012
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As Mitt Romney tightens his lock on the nomination, his economic proposals are getting more scrutiny. This week's print edition analyzes his economic platform and how his fiscal positions have converged with Paul Ryan's; an accompanying editorial urges him to flipflop away from his current positions on China and taxes.
Mr Romney himself drew more attention to his platform this week when he was overheard telling a group of wealthy donors that he might eliminate the tax deduction on mortgage interest for second homes, and on state and local taxes. This was notable because he had studiously avoided saying what tax expenditures (as deductions, exemptions and credits are known) he would eliminate to pay for his rate cuts. Matt O'Brien at The Atlantic and Deborah Solomon at Bloomberg View leapt on him for the pathetically small amount of money this would yield relative to the humungous cost of Mr Romney's corporate and personal tax cuts.
I think this is a bit of a sideshow. Mr Romney has repeatedly said his tax plan would be revenue neutral, and knows he will have to cut more than just those two items. It's cowardly of him not to say what those other things are now, but no more cowardly than the typical candidate for office. The odds of eliminating any tax break go down the more a candidate has to discuss it before an election.
The real question is, can Mr Romney plausibly produce a revenue neutral tax plan that cuts rates as much as he does? First, dispense with his claim that the tax cuts would partly pay for themselves by spurring additional economic growth. Official watchdogs like the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office don't count such “dynamic” effects because they are too small and ambiguous. They do sometimes count behavioral changes. For example, lower income tax rates might reduce the incentive for tax avoidance, causing households to report more taxable income. But those effects, according to Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center, are also trivial.
That leaves us with the more straightforward question of whether he can finance his tax cuts just by eliminating tax expenditures. Donald Marron at the Tax Policy Center looks at the latest Treasury estimates (contained in the annual budget document Analytical Perspectives) and finds tax expenditures would be worth $1.5 trillion in 2015. My table nearby lists the major tax expenditures identified by the Joint Committee on Taxation and how much they would cost in 2015. (*Note caveats below.)
The first thing to note is that there are clearly enough tax expenditures to finance the $900 billion cost that the Tax Policy Center reckons Mr Romney's plan will cost (relative to current law). But as you dig into the list, problems arise. First, these expenditures would be worth a lot loss once Mr Romney has cut income tax rates (see my caveat below). Second, Mr Romney has put several off limits, most notably the preferential rate on dividends and capital gains (worth $91.3 billion) and the ability of corporations to defer tax on foreign income ($19.6 billion), since under his plan corporations would not owe taxes on such income. Third, several will presumably be off limits: is he really going to tax Medicare benefits ($79.3 billion) or eliminate the earned income credit ($58.5 billion)?
But the biggest problem is one not obvious from the table: the distribution of these breaks. Yes, they disproportionately benefit the upper 20% of households because their tax rates are higher. Nonetheless, as this Tax Policy Center paper notes, roughly a third went to the bottom 80% of households (especially tax credits and above-the-line deductions). Since Mr Romney has said he would spare the middle class, most of this money would be off the table. Where it gets really interesting is inside the top 20%. Many deductions are in effect capped. As a result, their biggest beneficiaries are not the top 1% but the next 19%, with one exception: the preferential rate on capital gains and dividends, more than half of whose benefits go to the 1%. By eliminating tax expenditures for upper income families except the preferential rate on capital gains and dividends, Mr Romney's plan would be a gigantic transfer from the upper middle class to the rich. And keep in mind that the upper middle class is also the group likely to pay most under any reform to Social Security and Medicare.
Mr Romney's team defends the feasibility of his plan by noting its similarity to the Bowles-Simpson commission proposal, which like Mr Romney lowers the top rate to 28% and pays for it by closing loopholes. But the comparison does not actually help Mr Romney's case. First, unlike Mr Romney, Bowles-Simpson eliminates the preferential rate for capital gains and dividends. That is both a significant revenue-raiser and the principal reason the truly wealthy suffer most under their plan: the top 1% sees its after-tax income fall 7.8% and shoulder half the net increase in taxes. Under any plausible version of Mr Romney's, the after-tax income of this group would rise. Second, it only lowers the corporate rate to 28% instead of Mr Romney's 25% (from 35%). Third, Bowles-Simpson clearly hurts the middle class; the middle 60% of households see their after-tax income drop about 1.5% each. The reason is that the plan nukes almost all deductions, and replaces only a few with miserly tax credits that are worth less than the current deduction to most taxpayers. If Mr Romney wants to spare the middle class he will have to be much more generous than Bowles-Simpson when it comes to protecting their tax breaks. And there's the rub: Mr Romney can be revenue neutral or he can spare the middle class but I don't see how he can do both.
*Caveats: Both Treasury and JCT value tax expenditures on "current law," which means they assume tax rates will go up as George Bush's tax cuts expire. This raises the value of the expenditures (since a tax break is worth more to someone paying a 39.6% tax rate than a 35% tax rate) as well as the cost of Mr Romney's plan. They would be worth far less assuming Mr Bush's tax cuts are extended, and even less with the much lower tax rates Mr Romney contemplates. Second, totaling tax expenditures may not equal their actual aggregage value because of interactions: eliminating one may make others more or less valuable. Third, for reasons I can't determine, JCT and Treasury estimates differ significantly, with the latter usually larger. |
COLLEGE PARK — Maryland's top elected officials gathered here Monday to send a message that the state is "all in" for an effort to lure a new FBI headquarters to Prince George's County.
Gov. Martin O'Malley and Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown joined the state's two U.S. senators and two of its congressional representatives in boasting of the advantages a Greenbelt location would have for the county, the state and the nation.
"We have a powerful congressional delegation making the case that the FBI needs to come to Prince George's County," O'Malley told a pep rally-like gathering of about 200 people at the University of Maryland's alumni center. Participants whooped cheers and waved signs saying "We're all in."
Maryland is locked in competition with Northern Virginia to be chosen as the site of an FBI complex that is expected to bring an estimated 11,000 jobs to the state that lands it. Maryland is pushing a site near the Greenbelt Metro Station — the most convenient on Washington's subway to Baltimore.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski vowed to use all the connections and all the clout she has as chairwoman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee. "We know how to support a high-tech, high-stress agency," she said. "We have the intellectual infrastructure."
Mikulski said 43 percent of the employees who now work at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington live in Maryland — more than either Virginia or the District of Columbia.
"FBI, if you want your work force to be happy, come to Maryland. They already live here," Mikulski said.
The General Services Administration, the federal government's real estate agency, is expected to announce a short list of potential sites as soon as this month.
Besides O'Malley and Brown, Mikulski was joined on the stage by U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, U.S. Reps. Steny Hoyer and Donna Edwards and Prince George's County Executive Rushern L. Baker III. All are Democrats.
There were reminders that this was taking place in an election year. O'Malley Lavished effusive praise on the lieutenant governor, his choice to succeed him when he leaves office next January. O'Malley said he hopes to watch Brown cut the ribbon on the FBI facility.
Sitting in the row behind Brown was Del. Jolene Ivey, running mate of one of Brown's rivals in the governor's race, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler. Ivey was there in her role as chairwoman of the Prince George's House delegation in Annapolis.
mdresser@baltsun.com |
The militants were trying to assemble an improvised explosive device (IED) when it went off, killing the three men on the spot.
Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the head of the Islamic State’s Pakistan extension is believed to have died with two others in a bomb explosion in the Tirah Valley on Thursday.
© East News / Xinhua / eyevine Militants Kill 20 Workers in Pakistan - Reports
The security officials report that the militants were trying to assemble an improvised explosive device (IED) when it went off, killing the three men on the spot.
While the Pakistani security forces claimed one of them was IS commander Hafiz Saeed, the terror group has not confirmed Saeed’s death.
Saeed was among the several members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban, who swore allegiance to the Islamic State, and was made the leader of the ISIL Khorasan, the Pakistani wing of the group. |
NEW YORK�(CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks rallied near midday Monday, with the Dow topping 9900 for the first time in more than a year, as investors showed optimism about the first big wave of quarterly results due out this week.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 40 points, or 0.4%, more than 2-1/2 hours into the session, rising as high as 9931.82.
The S&P 500 (SPX) index gained 6 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) climbed 10 points, or 0.5%.
The Dow is moving closer to 10,000, a key psychological level that could trigger a more aggressive wave of buying -- or a big selloff.
The Dow last crossed 10,000 on Oct. 7, 2008, when it briefly touched 10,124.03. The Dow last closed above 10,000 on Oct. 3, 2008, when it ended at 10,325.38.
Analysts say it could hit that point later this week, depending on how the third-quarter reporting period goes.
Results: This week brings results from a number of market-moving companies, including Dow components Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), IBM (IBM, Fortune 500), Intel (INTC, Fortune 500), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500) and General Electric (GE, Fortune 500).
Google (GOOG, Fortune 500), Nokia (NOK), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) are among the other big names due to report.
Dow component Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500) started things off on a positive note last week, reporting earnings and revenue that were better than expected.
The aluminum maker's strong revenue results were especially notable, with investors focused on possible revenue growth after a quarter of little to none.
In the second quarter, there was little topline growth, and any improvement in earnings was driven mostly by cost cutting.
That trend could continue in the third quarter, but if Alcoa is an indication, some sectors and companies may see improvement. Year-over-year profits are expected to have fallen more than 20% from the third quarter of 2008.
World markets: Global markets were mixed. In Europe, London's FTSE 100, France's CAC 40 and Germany's DAX all fell 1.1%. Asian markets ended lower, with the Hong Kong Hang Seng down 0.9%. The Japanese Nikkei was closed for a holiday.
Currency and commodities: The dollar fell versus the euro and the yen.
U.S. light crude oil for November delivery rose $1.47 to $73.24 a barrel.
COMEX gold for December delivery rose $8.60 to $1,057.20 an ounce, the third straight record high for the precious metal.
Bonds: Treasury prices tumbled, raising the yield on the 10-year note to 3.38% from 3.30% late Friday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions. |
A leading Democrat wants pro-life Americans to know they are welcome in the party, hoping to end weeks of debate about whether support for abortion rights is a litmus test for party support.
“I grew up Nancy D’Alesandro, in Baltimore, Maryland; in Little Italy; in a very devout Catholic family; fiercely patriotic; proud of our town and heritage, and staunchly Democratic,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told the Washington Post in an interview published Tuesday. “Most of those people—my family, extended family—are not pro-choice. You think I’m kicking them out of the Democratic Party?”
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Her comments follow a wave of criticism from pro-life Democrats after Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, made comments implying that Democratic candidates who do not support abortion rights would not be eligible for support from the party. “I won’t let anyone get in the way of our fight to protect a woman’s right to choose,” said Mr. Perez in a statement on April 20.
Most of those people—my family, extended family—are not pro-choice. You think I’m kicking them out of the Democratic Party?
Ms. Pelosi, an ardent supporter of abortion rights and a practicing Catholic, suggested that it was not the case that pro-life Democratic candidates were unwelcome in the party. But she also expressed skepticism that a Democrat opposed to abortion would make it very far in the political process.
“Can somebody get the nomination? I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t think that you’ll see too many candidates going out there and saying, ‘I’m running as a pro-life candidate.’”
She also suggested that controversy about abortion, at least in the Democratic Party, is “kind of fading as an issue.” She implied that most Democrats who describe themselves as pro-life do not want abortion to be outlawed, but disagree about how far along in a woman’s pregnancy the procedure should be allowed.
An April 2016 poll from the Pew Research Center found that most Americans, 56 percent, said abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Broken down by party, most Democrats say abortion should be legal, though 28 percent said it should be illegal in all or most cases. But another poll from November found that 18 percent of Democrats believed the same.
Ms. Pelosi conceded that while most candidates seeking support from the party would support abortion rights, “It depends on where [in the United States] you are talking about.”
That’s an important concession, one that cuts to the genesis of the controversy.
Last month, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Keith Ellison, a Minnesota congressman and deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, campaigned for Heath Mello, a Democrat trying to unseat the Republican mayor of Omaha. Some pro-choice leaders took issue with the endorsement, citing Mr. Mello’s past support for legislation advocated by some pro-life activists.
Following Mr. Sanders’s campaign event for Mr. Mello, Ilyse Hogue, the head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement that the event was “not only disappointing, it is politically stupid.”
That prompted Mr. Perez, head of the D.N.C., to say in a statement that every Democrat “should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” dubbing that position “not negotiable.”
Even some of the nation’s top bishops weighed in on the party’s internal dispute. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York called Mr. Perez’ statements “very disturbing” and “intolerant,” while Philadelphia’s Archbishop Charles Chaput interpreted them as “celebrating” killing.
In her interview with the Post, Ms. Pelosi suggested the only litmus test for Democratic candidates is support for working families.
“In our caucus, one thing unifies us: our values about working families,” she said. “Some people are more or less enthusiastic about this issue or that issue or that issue. They’ll go along with the program, but their enthusiasm is about America’s working families.”
Ms. Pelosi’s comments echo those made by other Democrats in recent days, who seemed to bristle at Mr. Perez’s idea that pro-lifers were excommunicated from the party.
“I couldn’t disagree more with what Tom Perez said, I think it’s not correct that our party should have litmus tests about who wants to join our party,” Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who supports abortion rights, told the Atlantic on April 27. “We may disagree on various issues, and I just don’t think we should say ever anyone is not welcome in our party based on one of those issues.”
The head of the Democratic Party in Arkansas also recoiled at the notion that pro-life Americans were not welcome in the party.
“The only litmus test we care to take is whether what we do is in the best interest of the people we serve,” Rep. Michael John Gray told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. “Ideological purity leaves little room for compromise on our most important issues.”
Ms. Pelosi, meanwhile, appeared to lay blame at the hands of pro-life Catholics and Evangelicals for President Trump’s surprise victory in November, suggesting that those voters overlooked their other concerns such as immigration and climate change.
“You know what? That’s why Donald Trump is president of the United States—the evangelicals and the Catholics, anti-marriage equality, anti-choice. That’s how he got to be president,” she said. “Everything was trumped, literally and figuratively by that.”
Still, she recalled with fondness her work with Catholic sisters in the United States to help pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Their support, cited as instrumental in helping pass the law, came over objections from U.S. bishops, who are today urging Republicans not to repeal the law without guaranteeing Americans will be able to retain health insurance.
“The Catholic nuns,” Ms. Pelosi said, “thank God for the Catholic nuns.” |
Balance changes
While we believe the state of balance in Faeria is in a relatively good spot, as evidenced by a diverse set of decks being seen in the past three Monthly Cups and the meta of the ladder shifting slightly week to week, we do recognize that there are a few specific cards that can be adjusted in order to limit the occurrence of punishing early-game swings.
Community feedback along with our own observations has led us to decide to make sweeping changes to our "Star Legend" characters, as well as a few movement tricks that often make an appearance in early turns that can sometimes snowball out of control.
In addition to this, we include a couple more experimental changes that can potentially open new deck-building options.
Star legends
While we'd like to maintain the high power level and flavor of our Star Legends, we aim to limit the instances where an appearance of one of these powerhouses in the early turns can create overly appropriate swings in tempo or board control. An increase land requirement of one should provide an extra turn for opponents to develop a wider array of answers before one of these legends begin to surface.
Seifer, Blood Tyrant
Mountain cost increased from 2 to 3.
Aurora, Myth Maker
Lake cost increased from 2 to 3.
Khalim, Sky Prodigy
Desert cost increased from 2 to 3.
Ruunin, the Relentless
Forest cost increased from 2 to 3.
Faeria cost reduced from 6 to 5.
Ruunin will follow suit in order to keep our Star Legends' land requirements uniform, but will be given a discount in Faeria. Ruunin does not tend to suffer from the issues of the other legends, and we'd like to see her continue to be a viable card in some decks.
Movement tricks
Prophet of Tides
Is now 4/2, up from 3/1.
Can now only move the land it is summoned on.
Sagami Grovecaller
Forest cost increased from 2 to 3.
While Prophet of Tides receives a more robust redesign, we only deepen the color requirement of Grovecaller. These two cards are being adjusted for many of the reasons mentioned above regarding early-game pressure and seemingly unpreventable swings in tempo.
We recognize this changes the flavor of Prophet of Tides by quite a lot, and we will of course be observing the effects of such an adjustment,
Miscellaneous
Crumbling Golem
Now 7/6, up from 6/6.
Shaytan Monstrosity
Desert cost reduced from 4 to 2.
Faeria cost reduced from 6 to 5.
Now 0/5, up from 0/4.
While Crumbling Golem has made only a recent appearance in ladder meta, we'd like to open the door for its inclusion in the Angry Red archetype which has fallen out of favor for quite some time. The nature of Crumbling Golem's design allows for counterplay with a wide variety of cards, and generally discourages such a creature from being used in control decks. We want to see if this will allow a push for a stronger Red archetype to emerge that can allow certain Rush decks to have a higher representation in the meta in general.
Shaytan Monstrosity is another card that we've had a lot of time to analyze after its most recent change, and we're confident that it's safe to push this card into a much higher power level. We believe the gameplay that Monstrosity provides is generally exciting and satisfying, and want more players to be able to experiment with decks that are constructed around taking advantage of this unique card.
Needless to say, with every balance change we monitor the results very closely and will make any adjustments as necessary in the future. We also recognize there are a lot of balance suggestions from our community that may be seemingly ignored in this patch. While we cannot address every single one of these concerns, we appreciate your feedback and do earnestly take it into consideration with every wave of changes we make. In the case of this patch, our focus is mostly on the early game and how we can alleviate some of the heavy pressures felt before players are sometimes unable to develop an appropriate answer.
The first look into the Oversky
In case you missed it during last Saturday's Monthly Cup stream, we explored the first four cards in the Oversky expansion coming this summer. Here they are:
For a closeup on each of these cards, click the following:
Wild lands
The Oversky will introduce a new type of land requirement: Wild.
Wild land requirements can be satisfied by possessing any one of the four existing special lands: Mountain, Lake, Desert, or Forest. Intrepid Explorer and Yakkapult are two examples of cards that feature Wild land requirements.
Our aim in adding Wild lands to Faeria is to promote and encourage new styles of multi-color deck building never before possible.
Here are some answers to some initial questions you may have about Wild lands:
"If a card costs one Forest and one Wild land, will having one Forest satisfy both requirements?" - No. Wild land requirements will be in addition to any other special land requirement a card might have. In this case, you would need one Forest and one of any other special land (the additional special land could be a second Forest).
"Do creatures that require only Wild lands need to be summoned on a special land?" - No. Wild land costs do not influence casting zones for creatures.
"Does Punishment deal 5 damage to creatures that only cost Wild lands?" - Yes. Creatures that only cost Wild lands are considered Neutral. For this same reason, Wild land cards would not be drawn by cards that generate cards of any specific color, such as Spellwhirl.
When is Oversky releasing?
This, of course, is the number one question players tend to ask about this summer's expansion. While we're not ready to reveal an exact date at this time, know that we're working very hard at getting it ready as soon as possible and will be sure to let you know a date when we're sure it's ready. As a repeat of the disclaimer from this weekend, the cards we've revealed above are still subject to ongoing internal testing and may reach live servers with slight tweaks if deemed necessary.
In the meantime, expect a few more teasers headed your way to wet your appetite. |
Leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Alexander Zakharchenko stated that external administration has been introduced at almost 40 Ukrainian-jurisdiction enterprises in Donbass because of the transport blockade in the region.
DONETSK (Sputnik) — The authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) nationalized nearly 40 Ukrainian-jurisdiction enterprises in Donbass because of the transport blockade in the region, DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko said Wednesday.
"About 40 enterprises… External administration has been introduced at almost all of them, with few exceptions," Zakharchenko told reporters.
In late January, a group of former participants of Ukraine's military operation in Donbas, including Ukrainian lawmakers, blocked on some sections freight railroad links with areas in Donbas not controlled by Kiev. They claimed that any trade with the self-proclaimed republics was illegal, and all ongoing trade transportation meant smuggling. The blockade has led to a disruption in anthracite coal supplies to Ukraine, which forced the Ukrainian authorities to introduce emergency measures in the energy sector in order to save resources. |
Raleigh, N.C. – North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore accepted the Public Leader of the Year Award from the N.C. Technology Association on Tuesday, February 21, 2017.
Brooks Raiford, President and CEO of the N.C. Technology Association presented the award to Speaker Moore with the following remarks:
“It’s reflective of the work that you’ve done and the support that you’ve given to the tech sector and the innovation community. From digital transformation of the schools, to broadband expansion in schools to tax policies, they really help the tech sector in North Carolina. We want to thank you for that leadership and we hope you’ll continue it.”
Speaker Moore also made a statement:
“What you all do for the state is tremendous as technology is leading the way of our state’s economy, so I really appreciate the recognition, but more importantly I appreciate the hard work that you and others do.”
The N.C. Technology Association released a study in February 2017 finding North Carolina ranks #1 in the United States for IT employment growth. |
UPDATE: Everitt Aaron Jameson, 26, appeared in court in Fresno County Thursday after the FBI filed terrorist-related charges on Friday against the former Marine sharpshooter from Modesto who they say planned a Christmas week attack on Pier 39.
Jameson was denied bail and he will remain in custody.
According to an affidavit written by FBI Special Agent Christopher McKinney, Everitt Aaron Jameson, 26, picked the heavily populated tourist spot of Pier 39 for a possible attack because he said he knew he could use explosives, a tow truck and guns to inflict a lot of damage.
Jameson, who authorities say was a "radical jihadist," was was not immediately available for comment on Friday as he was taken into custody. His family did not know yet whether he had an attorney.
Jameson was charged in the Eastern District Court of California with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist.
His aunt, Sarah Jameson of Merced, told KTVU in an exclusive interview that the entire family was "shocked."
"We knew he had switched his religion," she said. "But we didn't know how much it had affected him. We just had no idea. That's not the Everett I know."
Presumably, Everitt Jameson's will after the Christmas attack he planned at Pier 39, FBI affidavit states https://t.co/gvCkeZcIkz pic.twitter.com/M8yAjHPzzk — KTVU (@KTVU) December 22, 2017
She described Jameson as "very smart." But the 26-year-old man had been "hardened," she said, after a messy divorce and losing his children, ages 2 and 3, in a Child Protective Services custody battle within the last year or so. The children do not live with their mother either, she said; they are in foster care.
"That is when he turned to the Muslim thing," Jameson said.
She said she didn't know many details about why Jameson's children were taken away from their mother shortly after birth other than that she and Jameson weren't supposed to be near each other. She cited domestic issues as the reason, without explaining further. She said she and Jameson were close; she last saw him a week ago.
KTVU has learned Jameson's ex wife, 25-year-old Ashley Jameson, has been in prison in Chowchilla since May of 2017 on a robbery charge. In January of 2015 Jameson had filed a restraining order against her for domestic violence.
Jameson was discharged from the US Marine Corps about 2009 because he didn't tell the truth about his history with asthma, documents state. Before the discharge, he earned a sharpshooter rifle qualification in basic recruit training. Before the Marines, his aunt said he had attended James Enoch High School in Modesto and took some criminal justice classes at Merced College, his aunt said.
The man who the FBI says wanted to attack Pier 39: Everitt Aaron Jameson of Modesto.
Family says he attended Merced College for a while before joining the Marines. He converted to Islam after a divorce and losing his children to foster care https://t.co/gvCkeZcIkz pic.twitter.com/E9zPSe5wO7 — KTVU (@KTVU) December 22, 2017
According to the FBI affidavit, Jameson espoused "radical jihadi beliefs," including social media posts that support terrorism and he offered to give people who shared his beliefs rides in his company tow truck.
Since the fall, Jameson had been meeting with an undercover FBI agent whom he believed to be associated with ISIS, the documents state. In those conversations, he described his interest in "planning and undertaking a violent attack in San Francisco in support of ISIS." Jameson also stated that Christmas was the "perfect day to plan the attack," the documents state. And he picked Pier 39, the documents state, because he "had been there before and knew it was a heavily crowded area" and that "no reconnaissance or site survey would be necessary." Jameson also said he wanted to use "explosives," and he described a plan where where people would "funnel" into a place where he could "inflict casualties." He said he did not need an escape plan because he was "ready to die," the documents state.
He said he'd need ammunition, powder, tubing and nails, and would prefer an M-16 and AK-47. He also told the undercover agent he needed timers and remote detonators, the documents state. He told the agent he would build the devices in the mountains.
The undercover agent told him to hold off until he got approval from superiors. Jameson acknowledged that he understood.
The complaint also reveals that an FBI employee accidentally called Jameson’s phone from a number with a Washington D.C. area code. Jameson called the number back, but the employee let call go to voicemail – which identified the name and not the agency of the caller.
Hours later, Jameson appeared to have second thoughts about the plot – telling the undercover agent “I also don’t think I can do this after all. I’ve reconsidered.”
When the undercover agent replied, “We can only do Allah’s will,” James reportedly replied, “Inshallah (God willing) one day I can. But I can’t.”
FBI agents were tipped off to Jameson in September, when a confidential informant reported a suspicious Facebook account, where the account holder was "liking" and "loving" posts that were pro-ISIS, documents state. For instance, he loved a post in November that is an image of Santa Claus standing in New York with a box of dynamite. He also told agents that "we need something along the lines of a San Bernardino," referring to a terrorist shooting attack in 2015.
The informant began messaging Jameson, who told him that he was there to "join the cause against the darul kuffar ( or nonbelievers). I'm ready." He also said that he took his shahada proving that he was believer two years at the Merced Islamic Center. No one answered the phone there on Friday when KTVU called and left a message.
Undercover FBI agents began more closely following Jameson in December and messaging him. In one of the conversations, Jameson said, "I have been trained in combat and things of war."
Everitt Jameson picked Pier 39 because he "had been there before and knew it was a heavily crowded area" and that "no reconnaissance or site survey would be necessary." He wanted to use "explosives" and did not need escape plan b/c he was "ready to die." https://t.co/gvCkeZcIkz pic.twitter.com/9Q3rWaYsgy — KTVU (@KTVU) December 22, 2017
On Wednesday, FBI agents felt they had enough evidence to obtain a search warrant at Jameson's home. They found a a couple of .45-caliber magazines, a Rugers model M77 and a Winchester 22. caliber rifle, ammunitions and some fireworks.
They also found a handwritten letter, that appeared to be his will. It was signed by Abdallah Abu Everitt Ibn Gordon Al-Amriki and was dated Dec. 16. It was written in the past tense and said that "you all have brought this upon yourselves." He named Donald Trump and the Jews as the reasons for this "godless society," and he explained the attack was the reason "we have penetrated and infiltrated your disgusting country."
Sarah Jameson said that the family had been OK with her nephew converting to Islam, although they had joked with him about "blowing things up."
But he would always answer, "We're the good ones," she said. |
Baird (R) met Friday with his Bulgarian counterpart Daniel Mitov (L) during the Ministerial Council of the OSCE in Basel. Photo by the press office of the Bulgarian government
Canada is changing its legislation in order to alleviate the visa regime and abolish visas for citizens of all EU countries, according to Foreign Minister John Baird.
Baird met Friday with his Bulgarian counterpart Daniel Mitov during the Ministerial Council of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe in Basel, according to the press office of Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry.
During the working meeting, Mitov brought up the question of the abolition of visas for Bulgarian citizens.
Mitov and Baird expressed their wish to enhance bilateral political dialogue and cooperation both within the frames of multilateral forums and strategic partnership between the EU and Canada.
The two foreign ministers agreed that there was great potential in the trade and economic relations between Bulgaria and Canada and indicated their willingness to organize a joint business forum. |
Moviegoers who saw last year’s Inside Out probably had trouble containing their heaving sobs and the unattractive snot streams running down their faces during a particular scene with the pink, elephantine Bing Bong, voiced by Richard Kind.
While the film will definitely earn an Academy Awards nomination in the animated film category, Kind’s heart-wrenching performance definitely will be snubbed.
(BE WARNED: This video contains Inside Out spoilers. Upvoted takes no responsibility for your lack of self-control.)
That’s because the Academy, which announced its 2016 Oscar nominations today, doesn’t have a category for voice acting, and it’s unlikely that the stodgy Oscars would give a coveted acting nomination to a performer who never physically appears onscreen—even if the rules don’t actually prohibit voice-only performances (to date, no voice-only performances have ever been nominated).
The omission is even more glaring when you realize the Emmy Awards has had a voice acting category to recognize outstanding performances since 1992. (In 2014, the category was split in two, one that honors outstanding narration and one for outstanding character performances.)
Should there be a best voice acting category at the Academy Awards? That’s the question Reddit user ElliotWalker5 asked in a post in the Movies community about this time last year, and it’s still relevant considering the praise this year that’s been heaped on the voice performances in Inside Out and Charlie Kaufman’s stop-motion animated feature, Anomolisa.
“When you think of it, the question ought to be, why isn’t there a voice acting category for the Oscars?” Stephanie Ciccarelli, cofounder and chief brand officer of the voice talent marketplace Voices.com, told Upvoted. “There is a lot that goes into creating a production, including voice-over, whether it be background voices for ambience or voice talent carrying lead roles in film and animated features. Costume design, makeup and hairstyling, visual effects, music, and other aspects that add to the overall production are recognized, so it makes sense that voices in a leading role would also be given that recognition on the same stage.”
Redditors in the Movies community thread agreed.
In fact, Scarlett Johansson’s performance as a disembodied operating system in Her, as well as outstanding voice work popping up in other live-action films, provided another reason for creating a voice acting category.
The proliferation of actors delivering memorable performances for computer-generated characters in live-action films, such as Andy Serkis and his work on the Lord of the Rings and current Planet of the Apes series, had some wondering if there should even be another Oscar category to consider.
Reasons varied, though, when it came to those Reddit users who objected to creating a separate category for voice acting. Some felt the performances should simply be recognized in the academy’s existing acting categories.
Others argued that outstanding animated performances serve too many masters to award a singular distinction to only one individual’s work. The animators are just as important for creating an emotive expression or gesture that nails a character’s personality as much as an actor’s voice work does.
That argument, however, ignores how much an actor’s performance in a live-action movie is shaped by a director and editor after shooting has wrapped.
A single scene can contain line deliveries and facial expressions from an actor cut-and-pasted from multiple takes in order to create a desired emotion or effect that might not be in a single, complete take. George Lucas even digitally combined various takes of Hayden Christensen in Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith without cutting away from the actor in the scene, as a Redditor recently pointed out in a separate post in the Movies community.
“Voice-over helps directors realize their vision and contributes significantly in some cases to the feature’s success and ability to endear an audience,” Ciccarelli said.
But all that goes to demonstrate that in a collaborative art like film, everyone’s contribution is vital in order to create the onscreen illusion of living, breathing characters, whether they’re made out of flesh and blood or code and pixels.
Overlooking the hard work and talent involved in one group’s diminishes how magical the result can be when everyone works together to create a character that emotionally grabs an audience’s attention.
Of course, there are some people who will never be convinced about how challenging voice acting is. Just ask Chris Rock.
But that’s not what voice acting is about, Ciccarelli said.
“One of the biggest misconceptions is that voice acting is easy and anyone can do it,” she said. “A lot of people think that if they can talk or have a nice voice, they can be a voice actor. What they don’t realize is that it takes a great deal of talent, training and dedication. … In many ways, voice actors and on-camera actors draw upon the same skills to do their work. The primary difference is that one steps up to a microphone to perform while the other’s performance is captured on-camera. Acting, no matter the medium, demands the actor’s all to result in excellence.”
Will there ever be a day where performances like Kind’s in Inside Out or Johansson’s in Her will be honored with an Academy Award? Ciccarelli thinks so.
“Suffice to say the creation of a voice acting category (i.e. Best Voice Actor and Best Voice Actress) is within reach,” she said. “There’s no shortage of people who would love to see this addition to the Oscars in recognition of the work that is being done in this realm of acting. That said, a voice acting category is in the Academy’s hands, and their hearts need to be stirred toward that end if there is ever to be a category of this kind in the future.”
UPDATED (8:55 AM PST, Jan. 14, 2016): Quotes from Stephanie Ciccarelli of Voices.com and a link to today’s list of Academy Award nominees were added to the story. |
Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this weekly column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business.
FLEMING: I am back after a post-Cannes Festival European holiday and was intrigued by another startling spec package deal that went down while I was away. This was Skyscraper, a Die Hard in China concept that was noteworthy on several fronts. Just like the David Ayer-directed Will Smith-Joel Edgerton package Bright that Netflix committed $90 million for based on the Max Landis script, or the Landis-scripted Beneath that Kornel Mundruczo will direct with Bradley Cooper starring at MGM, Skyscraper reinforced the notion that smart, timely material with the right elements can bring a writer-director far more money than studios usually pay willingly. It also stamps Dwayne Johnson as the biggest action star since Arnold Schwarzenegger left for the governor’s mansion. Skyscraper proved irresistible for Legendary, whose new owner Wanda is both the biggest exhibitor and holder of commercial real estate and wants event films that can flourish in China. So Rawson Thurber, best known for writing and directing the clever comedy Dodgeball and who just worked with Johnson and Kevin Hart in Central Intelligence, came up with a pretty clever idea. And boy, will it pay him a lot of money. Sources tell me that Thurber will receive $2.5 million to write the script; on top of that he will be paid $5 million to direct and produce. This is reminiscent of the career-best payday Ayer just got for Bright from Netflix, and the seven-figure sums Landis got each for Bright and Deeper. Johnson, meanwhile, could reach the $20 million mark here by the time his deal closes, matching a milestone I’ve heard he’ll hit on the Jumani reboot at Sony. It’s not as much as Smith will earn from Bright, because Netflix bought out his back end. It’s a big investment, but Legendary gets a coveted China-set tentpole that could launch a franchise, and Johnson’s new affiliation with Wanda positions him to further build his brand in an elusive but vast marketplace.
Even though Johnson’s back-end participation comes in cash break deals (studios don’t pay until they recoup) and not the first-dollar gross pacts Schwarzenegger signed, he’s the first action hero to reach the Arnie stratosphere. Days after that Skyscraper coup, Johnson announced he’ll do Doc Savage with The Nice Guys director Shane Black. Johnson will have to be careful about the prolific pace of deals – he’s announcing movie and TV projects often enough now to risk wearing that “he’s got more attachments than a vacuum cleaner” moniker. But if you look at his dance card, he’s got a shot at presiding over more franchises than any Hollywood star with Fast & Furious, San Andreas, Baywatch, Central Intelligence, Jungle Cruise, Rampage, Jumanji and Journey 3.
I spent time with Johnson for several magazine pieces at different points in his career, the first of which came late one night when he sat for makeup to play the small role of The Scorpion King in one of The Mummy movies, at the start of his transformation from the wrestling ring. I recall him being very aware that Hollywood didn’t take him seriously as an actor, and very determined to prove everyone wrong. He was eager and amiable, even as he told these great stories like how, as an intense Miami Hurricanes defensive lineman, he once got so angry at a teammate in practice that he tried to pull the man’s tongue right out of his head (this was a teammate). Johnson had almost as unlikely a rags-to-riches progression as Schwarzenegger. He didn’t make the NFL, and the salary from football in Canada was so paltry he and teammates had to forage Salvation Army centers for old mattresses he said were pissed stained and wreaked of the Lysol they sprayed to kill whatever was growing on them. When he was finally cut, Johnson had about seven bucks to his name (now his company’s moniker). He made a little money when in desperation he took the pro wrestling route like his father and grandfather, and only began making real money when he honed his cocky hero persona The Rock. He then worked hard to learn acting, and now, is there a bigger star in Hollywood right now not named Leo? I can’t think of one.
BART: It is nice things are going so well for The Rock, but I’ve learned that is the time you have to be careful. That shrewd old producer Ray Stark once chastised me for wearing a “worried look,” saying “the only time you should look worried is when things are going great.” News events this week reminded me of his admonition. Everything has been going perfectly for Disney of late, so why should Bob Iger be worried? Whoops! Alice Through the Looking Glass is a mega flop. On the ESPN front, Wall Street skeptics keep sending up warning flags. And then there’s China: With Iger’s $5.5 billion Shanghai theme park only days from opening, the chairman of China’s biggest conglomerate publicly predicted it will be a failure and promises to make that happen. In a pugnacious, Trump-like move, the chief of Dalian Wanda Group last week opened a rival theme park and hired actors dressed as Captain America, Snow White and other Disney characters to attend the event. To Wang Jianlin, the Wanda CEO, Iger’s venture will be defeated by Wang’s 15 new parks offering lower prices and “constant innovation.” Note: Iger still doesn’t look worried.
FLEMING: Unless it’s the ongoing Viacom situation, where your CEO gets a massive raise as stock value plummets, I’m not sure you can panic over any of the things you just cited. On Alice Through The Looking Glass, you have to try a sequel, even if Tim Burton doesn’t want to come back. Of all the films that cracked $1 billion in global box office like Alice In Wonderland did, only Titanic didn’t go the sequel route and that was only because the ship went down. You launch these things to make sequels and you keep making them until the audience tells you you’ve worn out your welcome. That happened here and likely with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. The real concern here is Johnny Depp, whose personal issue headlines certainly didn’t help. Considering he’s starring in Universal’s classic movie monster film The Invisible Man, you hope that Depp can pull his personal stuff together and stay out of the tabloids if he expects studios to feel comfortable building global franchises around him, like the next Pirates Of The Caribbean film Disney has coming. As for Disney’s China theme park, it seems a good long-term bet. A rival ripping off some costumed characters and parading them around a China theme park sounds as unimpressive as those costumed Elmos and superheroes hustling tourists on Broadway. I’ve never been in a Disney park that wasn’t top quality. That always wins, even if it takes time.
BART: In the same vein, one executive who on the surface would have little to worry about lost his gig last week. Steve Mosko, the boss of hugely profitable Sony Television, had been at Sony for 24 years. He was perfect casting for his job, possessing the swagger, the charm and the growly voice to dominate whichever meeting he descended upon. Some suggest tensions between Mosko and his boss, Michael Lynton, were exacerbated by the famously leaked emails of a year ago. In any case, since Mosko seemed to have no reason to worry about his job, Ray Stark would have told him to start worrying. For that matter, another Sony executive, Doug Belgrad, the film president, also found himself out of a job this week at a moment when his services would seem most valued. Sony’s new slate of films representing the Tom Rothman era are about to roll out but there have been no casualties as yet. Surely this is the time when Sony most needs its executive staff, so why worry? Unless the ghost of Ray Stark hovers over you.
FLEMING: Belgrad’s transition out of the executive suite to raise money for a Sony-based production company had been coming for months, even though neither the studio nor Belgrad would admit it. The fact Rothman tapped Sanford Panitch so quickly showed none of this was sudden. Panitch left Fox last year to rejoin Rothman and make local-language films for Sony. His international acumen shows me that Rothman is serious in building slates designed to play around the world, compatible to his overhaul effort to make Sony’s global distribution operations more like the one he helped architect at Fox. You knew there was a personality clash between Lynton and Mosko, when the studio didn’t quickly sign him to a new deal even though he was the biggest driver of profits and revenues for years and years at that place. Mosko’s level of consistency was such that people at the studio were freaked when he exited. He leaves big shoes to fill, and he is the type of guy who inspired loyalty, and if he set up shop elsewhere quickly, he could well bring most of his team with him. That could cause Sony grief down the line.
BART: The ghost of Stark was omnipresent this week. Bela Bajaria abruptly exited her presidency of Universal Television. And hundreds of employees at 21st Century Fox accepted buyouts as part of that cost-saving campaign, one of them being head of consumer products Jeffrey Godsick, and Fox Searchlight production head Claudia Lewis. This was definitely a good week to be on vacation. By the way, the one time Stark actually told me to worry was when I was a young executive at Paramount and the studio’s slate of films were all blazing successes. Stark not only told me to start worrying, he even offered me a very good job. Alas, I turned it down. Because working for Stark was always a worry. Next topic. Talking to distributors, I detect a growing concern about Sequel Sag. And that doesn’t bode well for the already controversial Ghostbusters. Thus far Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 has under-performed, as has X-Men: Apocalypse and Neighbors 2, not to mention Zoolander 2 in February. Then there’s the biggest summer write-off, Alice Through The Looking Glass. So that raises a disturbing question: Does Marvel alone hold the key to the sequels business – Captain America: Civil War? And what will that mean for the strategy of the majors?
FLEMING: Not every sequel is going to work. I thought the Ghostbusters trailers were funny, and see no reason why that film won’t draw audiences. The preoccupation over gender is becoming a distressing distraction. Who cares, ultimately? If it’s funny and proves chauvinistic skeptics wrong, it will be a hit and hatch a sequel. X-Men: Apocalypse has so far grossed more than $400 million globally, which isn’t Deadpool, but enough to keep the gears oiled as future installments of Wolverine and Gambit are readied. You mentioned Captain America: Civil War, and there is your answer. Sequels give you brand identity, but Civil War wasn’t just spectacle, it was good storytelling. That is your real protection. Too many sequels are lazy carbon copies. That was why the off-the-wall X-Men spinoff Deadpool became the biggest R-rated film ever, and why I’m excited about a sequel to Sicario, which just got Italian Gomorra miniseries helmer Stefano Sollima to direct a Taylor Sheridan script that plays up Benicio Del Toro’s Man On Fire-style antihero, with Josh Brolin also back. They battle the Mexican cartels, but it’s about the tunnels and possible importing of terrorists. There’s a chance this might be better than the first one. It’s a movie I sure want to see. |
Since the last C++ DEV Update, a lot of things happened in the engine room which were not really visible to the outside. This post wants to give an overview about what we are currently working on.
Apart from the features side, Bob has been working on a proposed process for re-licensing of the C++ runtime client code to Apache 2.0, as has been mentioned a few times in the past month or two. Expect more news on that very soon.
Eth Unit-Test Mode
Not only because it is essential for being able to perform our Solidity end-to-end tests via IPC, Dimitry Khoklov and others added some new RPC endpoints to the eth client which allow much more flexibility for testing smart contracts. If you use eth –test -d /tmp/test and connect to the ipc port at /tmp/test/geth.ipc (we recommend using ethereum-console for that because it already has these features added) you can:
change the blockchain parameters (e.g. remove proof of work checking and pre-fund certain accounts)
mine a certain amount of blocks (at around 30 blocks per second)
modify the timestamp of the current block (to e.g. test timeouts in your contracts)
revert the blockchain to a given block number
This allows us to run our currently 305 Solidity end-to-end tests in around 46 seconds on a moderate computer. Each of these tests include at least two (often more) transactions and the same amount of mined blocks.
More information about these features can be found at https://github.com/ethereum/ethereum-console.
Please note that this is currently only available for the binary that is provided via the ubuntu dev ppa.
Virtual Machine Speedup
Greg Colvin spent the last months speeding up the C++ implementation of the EVM interpreter. He harvested what he calls the low-hanging fruits (he worked for Oracle on the Java interpreter before…). The most important improvements so far have been replacing 256-bit calculations with 64-bit calculations for gas metering, and making sure that no more metering calculations are done for each VM operation than necessary. These and other changes resulted in the following results for Paweł Bylica’s nascent benchmark suite. The following chart shows the speedup relative to the old cpp ethereum interpreter (cpp int (old)).
To be fair, we have to tell what these benchmarks measure. The first benchmark (where the evmjit goes off the scale with a speedup of 472x) does a million empty loops, and shows how slow the EVM’s computed goto is compared to the direct jump of a JIT - fixing that is next on the stack. The second benchmark is a bad random number generator that does a million loops with four multiplications and four additions per loop. It is dominated by 256-bit calculations, so a JIT makes less difference. (Note that the Go JIT does not compile to native code, but to a faster interpreted representation.)
In practice, these speedups will only be relevant to “number-crunching” contracts because the computation time is otherwise largely dominated by storage access. On the other hand, the “rng” benchmark is quite similar to cryptographic operations which pulls such things further into the realm of actual on-chain implementations.
Paweł Bylica is working on a C-language interface between the virtual machine implementation and the client that hosts it, with the goal of being able to plug different VMs into an Ethereum client. This way, geth can also potentially benefit from our changes to the C++ virtual machine and especially from the LLVM just-in-time compiler.
Note that these changes are not yet released, but they are part of the ubuntu dev ppa.
Remix
Yann Levreau and Liana Husikyan are working on our new EVM debugger remix. We released the alpha version some days ago:
Application - Instructions
For now, you can “only” use it to inspect every single step in the execution of any transaction in the blockchain, look at the current stack, memory and storage contents and see the sequence of instructions. The next step will be to also allow source-level debugging where you can see the current position in the source code, step on line or instruction level and see the decoded values of the variables (instead of only the raw hex values).
The debugger is for you, the community, and we were delighted to hear that etherscan has already integrated Remix into their blockchain explorer.
Repository Reorganisation
Bob Summerwill is dedicated to bringing back C++-Ethereum to its former home, https://github.com/ethereum/cpp-ethereum and thus remove the unnecessary and confusing split into multiple sub-repositories. We are making great progress there, one of the first really visible steps was to decouple the testing infrastructure of Solidity from the virtual machine implementation. The Solidity tests can now be compiled without the virtual machine and they are run by communicating with a specially configured eth process (the one mentioned above) over the regular IPC interface.
The next steps here are to disentangle the rest of the code, modify the test automation and continuous integration accordingly and perform the actual move.
Together with this step, we unfortunately have to say goodbye to Mix and AlethZero (the spirit of mix will live on in the new remix project). The burden they drag along would be too big, because it includes Qt and a tight coupling with Solidity. As already explained in earlier posts, a loose IPC-based coupling of these tools to a small client implementation makes us much more flexible and the community support that comes with a change to JavaScript and Web-based tools like remix and browser-solidity is just overwhelming in comparison.
Formal Verification
We are extending the existing formal verification tools integrated with Solidity to cross-contract calls. This would enable automated proofs that e.g. a recursive call attack is not possible against a certain contract. Also, as why3 (the tool we use to do the heavy lifting) was recently ported to browsers, we can probably expect it to be available right inside browser-solidity and other tools like blockchain explorers!
There is a first proof of concept including explanations that shows how automated verification can be used to show that it is impossible to steal money from a solidity contract, even if recursive calls are allowed.
This proof of concept will hopefully evolve into a usable tool in the next weeks.
Solidity Tools
Several people from the community and from inside the Foundation are currently working on tools for Solidity or the EVM in general. These include: |
April 20, 2015 / Brooklyn news / Bensonhurst Cat-astrophe! Locals say MTA trying to kill feral cat colony Brooklyn Daily
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It may be these cats’ final stop.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is conspiring to starve a colony of feral cats living in a Bensonhurst subway station, according to locals trying to save them.
Cat-loving Bensonhursters has been lobbying for permission to remove the kitties for years, but the authority won’t give them access to the property beyond the platform of the N train’s Bay Parkway station.
Now the transportation monolith is even blocking caretakers’ efforts to feed the helpless animals, causing the cat lovers to bristle.
“It’s animal abuse,” said Jose Hidalgo, a retired teacher and cat rescuer. “The MTA wants to starve them. Their philosophy is if they starve them, they’ll get rid of them.”
The colony sits atop a small platform above subway tracks and adjacent to stairs near the station’s Avenue O entrance. Caretakers used to slip cat food through gaps between the stairs and the station walls, but on April 9 Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers essentially entombed the cats, covering the gaps with wire mesh, said Austin Torres, who feeds the ferals along with his sister Mary Ann.
Now Torres and Hidalgo are reduced to lobbing cold cuts up to the cats’ stairway-adjacent perch from the platform below to save them from certain death inside the cat-a-combs.
The authority denied allegations it aims to starve out the cat colony, saying through a spokeswoman that it installed the mesh merely to prevent litter from accumulating.
This is not the first time the borough’s cat caregivers have accused a faceless bureaucracy of trying to put the kibosh on Brooklyn’s cutest street-dwellers. The National Park Service almost sent dozens of cats to their deaths last year when it threatened to dismantle a kittie shanty town in Plumb Beach.
Hidalgo admits that just feeding the cats isn’t a permanent solution, and he has been trying to liberate the colony for years, but the authority won’t give him access he needs to lay traps, he said.
Instead, Hidalgo has managed to pull the youngest kitties to freedom through the gaps — before the authority sealed them, he said.
“Through a space of four inches I was able — with a rod and rope — to rope the babies,” Hidalgo said.
The self-proclaimed “cat cowboy” has wrangled and found homes for about 30 kittens this way, he said, noting that no kittens were harmed in the process.
Feline rescue organization Ferals in Peril helps Hidalgo neuter the newborns at a Bensonhurst black car dispatch, he said.
But a handful of adult cats remain, because they were too big to fit through the now-sealed breaches. Hidalgo wants the authority to let him set humane cage traps so he can permanently remove the animals from the precarious property. He has lobbied station managers and called 511 — the authority’s help line — to no avail, he said.
A spokeswoman for the authority clams it has not received any requests to remove the cats.
But in the past, the authority has suspended service to rescue animals in danger, she said, citing a 2013 incident that halted trains along the B and Q lines in Brooklyn when two kittens wandered onto the tracks.
“If animals are spotted on our property or tracks, we try our best to remove them without causing them injury,” said spokeswoman Marisa Baldeo.
The coterie of cat lovers will press on with attempts to liberate the entombed kitties, and has already found homes for the remaining mousers — even though feral cats are notoriously aloof, even by feline standards, Hidalgo said. But he doesn’t mind their stand-offishness.
“As long as they use the litter box, they don’t have to sit on my lap,” he said.
Reach reporter Max Jaeger at mjaeg er@cn gloca l.com or by calling (718) 260–8303. Follow him on Twitter @JustTheMax.
Updated 11:48 am, January 16, 2019
©2015 |
Image caption Increasingly consumers and businesses are relying on cloud computing
Leading privacy expert Caspar Bowden has warned Europeans using US cloud services that their data could be snooped on.
In a report, he highlights how the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendment Act (FISAAA) allows US authorities to spy on cloud data.
This includes services such as Amazon Cloud Drive, Apple iCloud and Google Drive.
He told the BBC this heralded a new era of "cloud surveillance".
Foreign policy
Mr Bowden, former chief privacy adviser to Microsoft Europe, made a name for himself as a privacy advocate when the controversial Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) came into force in the UK in 2000.
Parliament accepted some of the amendments proposed by Mr Bowden as the then director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research.
Now he has turned his attention to US legislation and has co-authored the Fighting Cyber Crime and Protecting Privacy in the Cloud report which was recently presented to the European Parliament.
In it he said that FISAAA "expressly permits purely political surveillance", so that anyone with stored information relating to US foreign policy could find themselves of interest to the US authorities.
"Anyone who, for example, belongs to a campaign group which may oppose some aspect of US foreign policy, whether it be the Iraq war or climate change," he said.
The FISAAA was originally drafted in 2008, and was recently renewed until 2017. It was added on to existing legislation to take account of cloud computing, which was just emerging as a means of data storage.
"What's amazing is that nobody really spotted it for four years," said Mr Bowden.
"When FISAAA was extended to cover cloud computing, encrypting data to and from the cloud becomes irrelevant so it is surprising that nobody noticed this," he added.
Tiny supercomputer
Adam Mitton, a partner at law firm Harbottle & Lewis, agreed that the FISAAA could be a threat to privacy but questioned how much it was used.
"In theory there is a clear threat to the privacy of European citizens, but in reality the fact that it is obscure suggests that the threat isn't as great as it might be perceived," he said.
"If it was being used by an authority and having an impact on individual citizens, I think that the source of the information would come to light. The legislation is now five years old and I'm not aware of any case that has relied on it," he added.
Storing data in the cloud is becoming hugely popular not just for consumers who use it to keep photographs and other personal data safe but for businesses which are increasingly using cloud services to offer back-end processing power.
Under the FISAAA, US cloud providers can be compelled to release data from any citizen living outside of the US.
"The fibre-optic cable that carries the data is split and a miniature supercomputer scans all the data in real-time with any material of possible interest being instantly copied to the NSA [National Security Agency]," said Mr Bowden.
The court order is made in secret and remains secret - meaning it would not show up in things such as Google's transparency reports, which aim to document data requests from governments around the world.
"We have long known that the Americans can spy on foreign data but FISAAA extends this to reach inside the data centre. It allows the authorities to enact surveillance on a mass scale because it is wired into the infrastructure," Mr Bowden said.
A hearing on the European Parliament's findings of the report is due next month. |
Senate approves gun seizures in violent domestic breakups
Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, was one of the Republicans who voted Monday for legislation that would force people to immediately turn over their fire arms after a domestic partner asks for a temporary restraining order. less Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, was one of the Republicans who voted Monday for legislation that would force people to immediately turn over their fire arms after a domestic partner asks for a temporary ... more Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media Buy photo Photo: Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Senate approves gun seizures in violent domestic breakups 1 / 12 Back to Gallery
HARTFORD — Accused domestic abusers would have to surrender firearms within 24 hours under legislation that won final approval in the Senate on Monday afternoon and now heads to the governor for his expected signature.
The bill was approved 23-13 after a two-and-three-quarter hour debate, in which Republicans failed in three attempts to amend it. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who proposed the legislation, indicated right after the vote that he supports the bill, which would require alleged domestic abusers — in most cases, men — to immediately give up their guns and ammunition if their partners seek restraining orders.
The goal is to protect women from the increased lethality at a critical point in a relationship: when they are trying to leave their abusers. About 14 domestic homicides occur annually in Connecticut, half of which are caused by guns.
While 5,000 temporary restraining orders are issued annually, about half result in permanent orders. The bill, which was approved last week in the House, would require court hearings within seven days and if judges decide against extending the orders, weapons would be returned within five days later. Currently, court hearings are held 14 days later.
“This is a very important bill,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney, noting that the issue goes back to the summer and fall of 2014, when a task force found that compared to other states, Connecticut fell short in protected victims of domestic abuse.
Recalling Oxford killing
Looney said the current procedure which can drag on 14 days or more, can be demoralizing and stressful.
“To focus to a greater extent on the possible inconvenience of gun owners at the expense of the great danger to victims of domestic violence is not the balance that we should strike in looking at this issue of policy,” he said. “That’s why this bill is exactly what we should be doing in this area.”
Republican lawmakers including Sen. Tony Hwang, of Fairfield, Rep. Toni Boucher, of Wilton and Sen. L. Scott Frantz,, of Greenwich, voted with Democrats in favor of the bill. Sen. Catherine Osten, D-Sprague, voted against the bill.
“We have a moral obligation to work to prevent needless tragedy and to make this the law,” Malloy said in a statement just after the vote. “Women in abusive relationships are five times more likely to be killed if their abuser has access to a firearm. Between 2000 through 2012, Connecticut averaged 14 intimate partner homicides per year, and firearms were the most commonly used weapons. When an instance of domestic violence rises to the point that a temporary restraining order is needed, we must do everything we can to prevent tragedy.”
During the Senate debate and last week’s discussion of the bill on the House floor, lawmakers cited the 2014 murder of Lori Jackson in her parents’ Oxford home. Jackson had been unable to have her estranged husband, Scott Gellatly, served with a restraining order because he ventured out of state. He bought a handgun in Massachusetts and shot her mother, Merry Jackson, in the face, before killing the 32-year-old mother of twin toddlers, who were sleeping nearby. Gellatly was recently sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Gun-rights argument
Carolyn Treiss, executive director of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, said that the time of greatest threat for intimate-partner violence is right after a restraining order is served. Currently, targets of restraining orders don’t have to surrender weapons until a judge rules.
“This was never a ‘gun rights’ bill,” Treiss said. “Rather, it’s a common-sense prevention of tragedy and a real victory for women’s safety.”
Republican opponents of the bill said it would infringe on the constitutional rights of lawful gun owners who could have their weapons taken away without due process. One of the Republican amendments would have required the targets of temporary restraining order (TRO) to be served with the orders in person, rather than marshals having the option of leaving off the orders at the targets’ homes if they were not home.
While opposition against the legislation emerged during a daylong public hearing earlier this year, there was little evidence of gun-rights activists in the Capitol on Monday. Republican opponents kept the debate going for nearly three hours, though.
“I do believe we have to honor the Constitution, we have to honor the Second Amendment and we have to honor the rights of individuals,” said Sen. Rob Kane, R-Watertown, whose district includes Seymour and Oxford.
State Sen. Michael A. McLachlan, R-Danbury, said that “persistent” advocates in his district who favored the bill asked for his support got him thinking long and hard. The three GOP amendments, however, clarified his objections, particularly in cases where guns are taken away but judges decline to issue TROs.
McLachlan ultimately voted against the bill.
“I will say that the process of protecting the rights of an individual from a failed TRO is of big importance to be,” he said.
“The right to live is more important than any other right we have,” said Sen. Mae Flexer, D-Killingly, who has worked in recent years on domestic-violence issues.
kdixon@ctpost.com |
To refresh my memory of the old days, I asked for some Dailies of the thirties from the morgue, sat down at the large round oak table at the end of the editorial room on the second floor, and began riffling through the musty pages. Soon a burly middle-aged man appeared and seated himself at the table to peruse some recent issues of the paper and take notes. — Arthur Miller , Timebends ,
I've even found myself idly perusing the Yellow Pages, not frantic for a plumber, just browsing. — Lesley Conger , Writer ,
Bessie asked if I would have a book … , and I begged her to fetch Gulliver's Travels from the library. This book I had again and again perused with delight. — Charlotte Brontë , Jane Eyre ,
He perused the newspaper over breakfast.
perused the manuscript, checking for grammatical errors |
Being a fan of any athlete can be an emotional rollercoaster.
From the beginning of their career until they’ve managed to achieve some kind of major success — either personal accolades or team championships — there will inevitably be trials and tribulations. Injuries. Setbacks. Painful losses. Personal failures. But in almost any sport, there exists an inherent promise that with proper dedication and training, anyone has the ability to rise to the top. It’s simple arithmetic. If you work hard enough to be one of the top performers in your chosen field, then success and recognition will almost always follow. It takes an iron will and a tireless work ethic, but it can be done. Professional wrestling makes no such promise. Mastering all the various elements that make someone an elite pro wrestler is only the very beginning of a long journey that has absolutely no guarantee of a happy ending.
Throughout modern wrestling history, there have been countless figures who possessed all the tools to thrive as the performer at the very top of the industry, but for whatever reason, were never given the opportunity. Ted Dibiase. Curt Hennig. Rick Rude. William Regal. These are just a few examples. Becoming a fan of these types of performers can be extremely frustrating because no matter how great they may be, there is a glass ceiling in place that they can never hope to break through. They’re the man who elevates the often-inexperienced musclebound ubermensch to stardom. They’re never just the man. But sometimes, one of these perennial midcarders and “solid hands” does manage to transcend this paradigm and break through. And when they do, the years of frustration and disappointment melt away in one glorious moment of pure catharsis. When we look back on Dolph Ziggler’s career years from now, we very well may look at his performance at last Sunday’s Survivor Series PPV as his breakthrough moment.
He has had brief flirtations with the main event in the past. An hour-long World Championship reign on an episode of Smackdown. A Royal Rumble WWE Championship match against CM Punk. And of course, his several month run as the Money in the Bank briefcase holder, which brought his followers on an emotional journey through countless teased cash-ins — from crushing disappointment when he failed once again to take advantage of the guaranteed title shot on the biggest show of the year, to a moment of concentrated, transcendent wrestling bliss when he defeated Alberto Del Rio the following night in what was arguably the greatest MITB cash in ever and one of the most purely entertaining matches of 2013.
This was the moment where it seemed Ziggler had just dropkicked his way through the infamous WWE glass ceiling and had officially joined the upper echelon of wrestling talent. Reality immediately crashed down in the form of an errant, concussive kick to the head by Jack Swagger. Ziggler missed a few weeks of action, and immediately dropped the title back to Del Rio in his first match back. Despite the loss, it seemed like he was positioned to become one of the top babyfaces in the company after he and Del Rio pulled off an ultra-rare midmatch alignment switch. But Ziggler never got his revenge. His popular and entertaining stable with AJ Lee and Big E Langston was disbanded, and Dolph tumbled back down into midcard purgatory for the better part of a year. Glass ceiling: intact.
This feels different. Unlike his last push, when it was made painfully, abundantly clear that Cena was the better and more important wrestler time and time again, at Survivor Series Ziggler not only outlasted, but outperformed the face of the franchise. Not just in the match, but in the story of the match. This is not just highly unusual. It’s basically unprecedented. Cena, who is the centerpiece of every single major WWE storyline always, barely even participated in the match, and was once again embarrassed and double-crossed by Big Show, despite years of verifiable video evidence (and personal experience) proving that the guy shifts allegiance once or twice a year and clearly should not be trusted. Ziggler meanwhile, eliminated three guys clearly being positioned as future major players and one hall of famer in a spectacular ironman performance that had him Rising Above Hate™ and Never Giving Up™ in a much more convincing and believable manner than the guy who has to wear that stuff on a t-shirt in order to sell it to little kids at K-Mart. Ziggler was also involved in, and got a huge rub from one of the most significant events in recent WWE memory when Sting returned to make the timely save. Again, not John Cena. This cannot be overstated. All of this seems to indicate that at long last, after years of squandered potential and a rollercoaster of stop-start career progress, Dolph Ziggler seems to finally be getting a huge push. For those of us that have been following his career for the last few years, it was an unbelievably satisfying moment.
So where does Ziggler go from here? If you’ve been watching wrestling for a significant period of time and have been burned before you are most likely trying to keep your expectations in check. This is perfectly understandable. But check out the subtle shade Dolph throws at Cena when John interrupts him in the promo for their tag team main event on Raw:
Are they building to something here? Perhaps some kind of meta-storyline about Cena’s predilection towards stepping in and siphoning off heat from upcoming superstars? The very thing that many Ziggler fans constantly complain about? Who knows. Maybe they’re just setting up some more odds for Cena to eventually overcome, which would be incredibly disappointing, but not at all surprising. However, no matter what the future holds, for Dolph Ziggler and his supporters the present is looking pretty damn great. And that’s a step in the right direction. |
Finale Season 9 Episode 24/25 Production Code 9024/9025 Airdate May 16, 2013 Written by Greg Daniels Directed by Ken Kwapis Episodes timeline A.A.R.M. Finale -
"Finale" is the 24th and 25th episodes of the ninth season of the American television comedy series The Office, the show's 200th and 201st episodes overall, and series finale. It aired on May 16, 2013.
One year after the airing of the documentary, the workers of Dunder Mifflin, past and present, gather for a wedding and a final round of interviews. Mysteries are solved, hatchets are buried and pranks are prunked.
Contents show]
Being that this episode takes place one year after the events of the last episode, several events have transpired.
Kevin Malone was fired for poor job performance and exploiting a glitch in the accounting program by using a made-up symbol he calls "Keleven". He was replaced by a young blonde woman, Dakota. He later purchased a bar.
Toby Flenderson was fired, but it is unknown how Dwight Schrute could fire HR as Toby is hired by corporate. Toby moved to New York, was working on the next Great American Novel, lives in an apartment with six roommates, and stalks Nellie on Twitter.
Stanley Hudson retired to a small town in Florida, divorced his wife, and was replaced by a younger, nicer black salesman.
Nellie Bertram quit and moved to Poland and was replaced by a young Asian woman.
Creed Bratton faked his own death for reasons involving avoiding incarceration, and was replaced by Devon White.
Dwight Schrute regained the accounts lost by Andy Bernard and made amends with all of his friends who angrily left him after refusing to hire any of them in Junior Salesman.
Jim Halpert continues working at Dunder Mifflin as assistant to the regional manager. It is shown later on in the episode that he and Pam move to Austin to continue working for Athleap (formerly known as Athlead).
A video of Andy Bernard's audition for America's Next A Cappella Sensation goes viral with many parodies and auto-tunes. Andy now works in the Admission's Office at Cornell University.
goes viral with many parodies and auto-tunes. Andy now works in the Admission's Office at Cornell University. Pam Halpert has since started and finished a mural for an Irish Cultural Center. She has also since changed her view on the warehouse mural's theme.
Darryl Philbin lives in Austin working for Athleap (formerly Athlead).
Oscar Martinez is running for state senator against his old lover and Angela’s ex-husband Robert Lipton, while still working for Dunder Mifflin.
Synopsis Edit
The premise of the episode is that the documentary crew has returned to film bonus footage for the DVD release of the documentary. As the office prepares for Dwight and Angela's wedding, they also prepare for a panel regarding the documentary at a local theater. Underwhelming attendance to the event leads to disappointment until they realize the people haven't all been let in yet and are waiting outside. The panel reveals the identity of Erin's birth parents, and Pam reveals she is working on something big to pay Jim back for his DVD shown in A.A.R.M.. That night, Jim and Pam throw bachelor and bachelorette parties for Dwight and Angela, respectively. Jim takes Dwight and the guys to a pub where Dwight is oblivious to the waitress being a stripper. Pam and the girls are at a small house, where Jake Palmer returns as the stripper the girls hired for Angela. Everyone except Meredith thinks this is inappropriate considering Jake's mother is present, and Angela does not want a stripper anyway. Phyllis inadvertently causes Angela to be kidnapped by Mose Schrute when she tells Angela that a noise is only the wind. Dwight then must search for Angela, as it is revealed this is another absurd Schrute tradition. The search ends at Kevin's bar, where Dwight and Kevin make amends.
The following day is the wedding. Jim pulls one final prank on Dwight: he insists that he cannot be his best man, as Dwight is older than Jim. When Dwight tries to change his mind, Jim directs his attention to Michael Scott, standing in the doorway. An excited Dwight exclaims, "Michael! I can't believe you came!" to which Michael replies, "That's what she said". In the bridal chamber, it is decided Phyllis will carry Angela down the aisle due to Angela's leg pain from having been in a car trunk for several hours. The two are married (standing in their own graves, as is Schrute tradition "as a reminder that this is the only escape from what they are about to do"), and everyone heads to the reception. At the reception, Jim and Pam dance and kiss, and Jim states that Pam no longer owes him anything. Michael and Pam talk, and she reveals he has kids (and takes so many pictures of them he needs two phones). Michael does one final talking head from his table, saying that he feels like all his kids grew up and married each other, which is "every parent's dream". Ryan and Kelly run away together, passing Ryan's son to Ravi who then gives the baby to Kevin. Ravi tells him to report an abandoned baby to child services, but Nellie instead takes the child as her own and tells the camera that if Ryan wants his baby back he can find them "somewhere in Europe."
Jim and Pam head home and are surprised to find Carol, Michael's former Realtor/ex-girlfriend, showing their house. Pam reveals she has been showing the house for two months, so that if they got an offer, Jim would have no reason not to rejoin Athlead. The couple being shown the house decide they want to buy it, and Jim and Pam agree to sell.
That night there is a DVD release party at the warehouse. Pam reveals her mural, a painting of the office and everyone who works in it. After a group picture, everyone heads up to the office to hang out. Creed is revealed to be living in one of the office's supply closets. Seeing that Erin is busy, Pam takes one final call as the receptionist, which coincidentally is for Jim Halpert. She replies, "I'm sorry, Jim Halpert doesn't work here anymore." Soon after they announce their plans to leave to Dwight, who fires them so that they can both receive large severance packages. Creed sings a song while they tell the cameras about how the documentary has affected them. As everyone leaves the office, Pam takes her painting of the office building from the wall.
Deleted scenes Edit
Meredith reveals that she is now a vegan, having decided "We should not be eating (animals)" while attending a dogfight.
Clark recalls that, after the documentary, Jim's pranks were so widely copied that had to speak at schools telling teenagers not to be like him.
Dwight's Japanization of the office extends to having Nate, in white gloves and a blazer, pushing the entire staff into the elevator at once.
Oscar's explanation of the number "keleven" is followed by a talking head from Kevin himself, who explains the invention himself, and mentions a second number he invented, "gop".
Clark and Dakota flirt at the copy machine, playfully getting around Dwight's rules against office "mingling".
The bachelorette party plays "Boink, Marry or Kill" with Kevin, Stanley and Toby; all agree they would kill Toby, but when they realize it was now down to sex or marriage with Kevin or Stanley, the women go silent, broken by Nellie saying she would "boink" Kevin, then commit suicide. Angela then says she's getting cold feet - but when Pam assures her that such pre-wedding jitters are normal, she gets annoyed and insists that her feet are actually getting cold.
Kevin explains how he bought his bar: after the documentary, so many people insisted on buying him drinks, despite his being a fairly light drinker, that he had thousands of dollars in credit and it was cheaper for the owners to simply give him a large share, and adds that the bar's business has doubled since he became associated with it.
Extra scenes from the Q&A: Oscar is asked if he is still single, which becomes somewhat awkward when the handsome questioner reveals he was asking on behalf of his ugly friend. Darryl is asked a similar question. Stanley is asked if he's still eating pretzels, but is fast asleep; Phyllis advises Pete not to bother waking him. Andy's response to a question elicits a snide Baby WaWa reference, which is not well-received by the rest of the audience; in a talking head, Darryl notes that a non-PBS crowd would not have reacted as such.
In an extended version of Kevin's reading at the wedding, there are shots of Jim and Pam looking at each other, Pete and Erin looking at each other, Kelly and Ryan looking at each other, Mose and the scarecrow looking at each other, Toby looking at the empty seat next to him, and Dwight and Angela smiling at each other. Upon seeing this, the pastor asks them to stop, but they can only bring it to a slight grin.
Angela's sister gives a toast in their private twin language (assumed to be "Canadian" by Kevin), which moves the bride to tears but baffles her guests.
In a scene only said at the table read for this episode, Dakota confronts Clark about asking whether he was related to Dwight, with him replying that its most likely the glasses leading people to think this.
Phyllis's toast, in which she gives a graphic description of when she walked in on them at the end of "Goodbye, Toby".
Andy gives a heartfelt toast in which he tells Dwight to "be Dwight Schrute", much to the disappointment of Angela's sister.
Erin's parents explain why they gave her up for adoption.
Clark is approached by the documentary's producers about working on another "An American Workplace" project, but turns them down, hinting at the beginning of a relationship with Dakota.
A reminiscence of various events from the show (no one is sure exactly who was there the longest) culminates in the office tree being planted outside - with Dwight criticizing the "amateur" work under his breath.
Toby explains what he learned from the documentary, and how he has incorporated it into his latest novel.
Angela, now that she no longer needs the doctor-recommended facial exercises she once needed from lack of smiling causing her muscles to atrophy, admits she's "less of a total bitch now".
Clark and Pete give their final memories of the experience.
Production Edit
"Finale" was written by series developer and showrunner Greg Daniels, making it his second writing credit for the year, after the season debut "New Guys", and his 12th writing credit overall. Rainn Wilson later joked that Daniels was "the country vet who birthed this puppy" and had come "back to put it down". The episode was directed by Ken Kwapis. Kwapis had originally directed the series' pilot episode. His last directorial credit for the series, prior to "Finale", however, was the fifth season episode "Company Picnic". "I figured the character would go back and visit everybody, but he wouldn't do it on camera at this point. I think he had grown past the idea of being in the documentary, that was my take on it. That [Michael Scott] had said goodbye to that aspect of his life, that that's not what was important to him. I just thought, yeah he'd go back and visit, but he wouldn't want the camera crew to be documenting it." —Steve Carell, explaining his hesitation to return to The Office. The series finale will guest star Rachael Harris, Dakota Johnson, Joan Cusack, Ed Begley, Jr., Malcolm Barret. The episode will feature the return of several of the series' actors and actresses, including former series writers and stars B. J. Novak and Mindy Kaling, as well as Andy Buckley, Bobby Rae Shafer, Michael Schur, and Matt L. Jones. Early during production for the season, Kinsey and Wilson also noted that the cast and crew were hoping for a return of former lead actor Steve Carell as Michael Scott. In mid-December, Krasinski later revealed that he was optimistic about a return; in an interview with E! Online Krasinski said that the producers were supposedly "still trying to figure out [Carell's] schedule" and that the finale "just wouldn't be the same without him". However, NBC chairman Robert Greenblatt later admitted during an interview that while he is "hopeful", he does not think Carell will return; he noted that Carell was satisfied with his character's exit and did not want to tarnish it. On January 16, Daniels revealed that Carell would not appear in the finale in any capacity, a decision that Carell later reiterated. Three months later, however, the producers for The Office mounted "an 11th hour effort last month" to get Carell to make a cameo in the show's final episode, according to TVLine. According to the article, "while no one is confirming that the final diplomatic push proved successful, no one is denying it either." Carell's personal representative confirmed that Carell was on the set for the final episode, but that he did not film any scenes. However, an anonymous source close to the show cryptically said "don't rule anything out". TVLine later reported on May 6, that Carell would appear in a cameo, although NBC declined to comment and Carell's representatives continued to deny the reports.
The initial idea for the finale was thought of by Daniels during production of the third season, described as "a reunion show, in the fashion of the post-competition cast rehashes familiar from reality shows like Survivor". Daniels, at one point, approached Jeff Probst, the host of Survivor, to appear in the finale as a moderator for the fictional reunion, although he declined. The initial table read for the episode took place on March 4, 2013. Filming commenced on March 6. According to Jenna Fischer, the episode took nine days to film, with the cast devoting 12 hours a day to the episode. The finale was described as "ambitious", featuring multiple location shoots, including one in an AT&T Office Building, which stood in for the Scranton Cultural Center. Filming for the episode and series as a whole came to an end on March 16, 2013. Wilson later tweeted a picture of the "empty" set after all filming had been finished. Originally, the episode was supposed to be the 23rd and 24th episodes of the season, which would have meant that the series aired exactly 200 episodes. However, the series' penultimate episode was elongated into 2 separate episodes, resulting in "Finale" being the 24th and 25th episodes of the season. This meant that the last part of "Finale" will be the series' 201st episode. Once filming finished, Daniels in an interview with TVLine expressed his hope to expand the episode, stating, "I was very excited with the footage we got [...] It's very big. I’m going to beg NBC to super-size it or extend it." Daniels later commented that when the editors cut together the first act, it was 23 minutes long; this is much longer than a normal first act for an hour long episode of television. In response, OfficeTally—the largest fan site for the series—started an online petition to supersize the finale, similar to the petition to expand the second season finale, "Casino Night". By May 2, the petition had received over 20,000 signatures. On May 7, it was announced that NBC had extended the episode by 15 minutes, meaning that the episode would be 55 minutes in total.
Cultural references Edit
The song "Sweet Child o' Mine" by Guns N' Roses was performed on violin when Angela walked down the aisle.
When the bachelor party arrives at Kevin's bar, a Subway $5 footlong promotional sign is seen lying sideways on the far wall.
The song "Rosalita" by Bruce Springsteen plays during the reception.
Connections to previous episodes Edit
When Pam and Jim arrive at their house, Michael's old girlfriend Carol is the Realtor selling their house. Pam tells Jim that because he bought the house without telling her she could sell it without telling him, referring to when he bought the house in secret in Frame Toby.
This is Michael's first appearance since he left Dunder Mifflin in Goodbye, Michael.
Michael says that it's like his children all grew up, and then they married each other. This could possibly be a nod to a deleted scene in Diversity Day when Michael makes an acronym for diversity which ultimately spells I.N.C.E.S.T.
Pam made the mural the history of the Office, because the history of paper mural she had started was painted over in Vandalism.
The stripper that dances for Dwight in the restaurant is the same one Dwight and Jim hired in Ben Franklin, and Michael later hired in Fun Run.
All of Dwight's friends at the bar before he rescues Angela are for the most part the same ones he interviewed in Junior Salesman.
When Oscar is invited to go to the bachelor's party for Dwight's wedding, he's nervous because this is the first time he's been with the office's group of guys alone since he came out. He shouts "Wazzup!" in the limo, a reference to the very first Office episode, Pilot.
episode, Pilot. Mose glances over at the scarecrow in the field during Kevin's reading during the ceremony. In an earlier episode where Angela has to give Dwight's aunt a bath she briefly mentions the sexual things Mose does to that scarecrow.
Dwight and Angela get married standing in their own graves, which is a Schrute tradition referenced in Phyllis' Wedding. Also in "Customer Survey" when Dwight is showing Andy and Angela pictures of the Schrute Farms Excalibur Wedding Package there is one of a couple being married in graves.
At the wedding reception, Pam is seen wearing the bracelet that Jim got her in Classy Christmas.
Michael’s problems with money is referenced when Pam mentions that Michael has so many pictures of his kids he has two phones with two numbers and is paying two bills.
Amusing details/Trivia Edit
A one-hour retrospective of the show premiered just before the finale episode.
Writer and Executive Producer Greg Daniels makes an appearance.
Angela's sister is played by Rachael Harris. Both actresses have played girlfriends to an Ed Helms character. Angela Kinsey to Andy in The Office , Rachael Harris to Stu in The Hangover , and both characters cheated on Ed Helms's character.
, Rachael Harris to Stu in , and both characters cheated on Ed Helms's character. Michael again says that his employees are like his children, but this time he says, "I feel like all my kids grew up, and then they married each other. It's every parent's dream."
In the filmed table read for this episode, all of Michael's lines were spoken by Creed, with them wanting to keep Michael's return a secret as long as possible.
Angela's dress is the same as the one Pam was going to wear in her wedding to Roy, and the one Phyllis wore for her own wedding.
As foreshadowed in "Phyllis' Wedding" Dwight and Angela marry standing in their graves.
Despite Pete hanging out in the office during the warehouse party, Clark is nowhere to be seen.
Jim says that for 12 years he has done nothing but trick and prank Dwight, implying that he has been working at Dunder Mifflin for 12 years. However, in the very first episode of the series, he says he's been working for 7 years, and with the 9 seasons, along with the finale, he has apparently been working at Dunder Mifflin for 17 years.
First appearance of Devon since the Season 2 episode "Halloween".
This is the third wedding in the series; the first being being Phyllis and Bob's in season 3 and the second being Jim and Pam's in season 6.
Goofs Edit
Somehow there is footage of Kevin's and Toby's firing, which is meant to have happened during the period during which there was no documentary crew.
The only members of Dwight's family shown at his wedding are Mose and Zeke, despite that in The Farm, Dwight's siblings, Jeb and Fanny, were introduced.
After the ceremony, Dwight asks that everyone bring their hay bales to the reception for seating, however in all of the reception scenes, there are folding chairs seen along with several hay bales.
Toby is fired by Dwight, however Toby works for corporate and therefore Dwight has no power to fire him.
Cast Edit
Main Cast Edit
Supporting Cast Edit
Guest Cast Edit
Gallery Edit
Script of the final episode
"Dwight's car is a very pivotal character in the history of The Office and I had a lot of fun in that Trans-Am." -Rainn Wilson
"The conference room is the place where we tend to get the most punchy, the most edgy," -Jenna Fischer
What's going at the front of the room? Someone is leaving and Dwight is cutting the farewell cake.
Clark Duke and Ed Helms relax in between scenes at a "remote location."
"There should have been a spinoff just called The Accountants " -Rainn Wilson
"That's the most heart-tuggingest scene of the whole shaboozle, where we're all gathered at the very end."
On the heels of his promotion to manager, Dwight apparently realizes another one of his dreams: fire a bazooka.
"When they called, 'And that's a wrap on the television series The Office,' I just burst into tears." -Rainn Wilson
"The three of us went through this together, arm in arm, from the very beginning," -Rainn Wilson
"It was Greg Daniels' good taste and imagination that made The Office what it was..." -Rainn Wilson
Mose decides it's a good idea to kidnap Angela, so she's eventually found in the trunk of his car.
"I can't tell you why I'm sitting there or what I say when I'm sitting there, but it was incredibly emotional" -Jenna Fischer
The last group scene for the women of The Office (with guest star Rachael Harris) 1 of 23 Add photo |
NEW YORK—Sources close to print, the method of applying ink to paper in order to convey information to a mass audience, have confirmed that the declining medium passed away early Thursday morning.
The influential means of communication was 1,803.
Print, which had for nearly two millennia worked tirelessly to spread knowledge around the globe in the form of books, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and numerous other textual materials, reportedly succumbed to its long battle with ill health, leaving behind legions of readers who had for years benefited from the dissemination of ideas made possible by the advent of printed materials.
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Reaction to print’s tragic demise was overwhelming, with countless individuals within the publishing sector left reeling at its death.
“I’m in absolute shock right now,” said Charles Townsend, CEO of Condé Nast Publications, who reportedly worked closely with the beloved medium throughout his career. “I knew that it had been struggling recently, but, still, I thought it had many more happy, healthy years in it. I always hoped it would be around forever, I guess. I loved print.”
“And to think that we’ll never see it again—ever, in any form whatsoever—it’s just a lot to take in right now,” he added.
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Print was born in China in the third century, whereupon it quickly gained a reputation as an innovative means of both recording ideas and transmitting them throughout the world. Thanks to the overwhelming popularity of the cheap, mass-produced texts made possible by print, the groundbreaking medium ultimately came to be regarded as perhaps the most influential means of communication in the world.
However, though print enjoyed a long, illustrious career for centuries, effortlessly reinventing itself countless times in order to better serve readers’ continual desire for information, in recent years observers reported that the medium was gradually slowing down its output, with both the quantity and quality of its work suffering as it struggled to keep up in a fast-paced landscape increasingly dominated by younger, more nimble channels such as the internet, email, and social media.
Indeed, as print’s status diminished, those closest to the once influential system of conveying knowledge recounted the difficulty in being forced to watch the aging medium deteriorate as it struggled to survive.
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“Anyone who had seen print in recent years knew it wasn’t long for this world,” said media analyst Jeff Jarvis, pointing to the multiple setbacks that hindered print in recent years as it gradually wasted away. “I can remember a while back when I opened my Sunday newspaper for the first time in I don’t know how many weeks and there it was, looking so thin, so lifeless. After that, I realized it was only a matter of time.”
“It did not go gentle into that good night, though,” Jarvis continued. “It was tough. Tough as nails to the very end.”
However, in spite of the tragic nature of its passing, many sources told reporters they were thankful to have had the opportunity to spend time with print while it was still thriving, emphasizing their gratitude for the decades of enrichment and enjoyment made possible by the medium.
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“You have to hand it to print, it really had an incredible run,” said Madison, WI resident and avid reader Emily Burnett, 39, noting that though she always knew in her heart print would pass away one day, it still hasn’t been easy to bid it farewell. “Look at print’s list of accomplishments: the Magna Carta, the King James Bible, the oldest surviving manuscript of the I Ching, the Declaration of Independence, the first edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses, every single issue of The Onion ever printed. That’s quite a legacy print’s leaving behind. And the world will not soon forget it.”
“On second thought,” Burnett added, after pausing a moment, “the world will probably forget it pretty soon, actually.” |
Harley Saito, who was one of the top name woman wrestlers of the 90s, passed away today in a Tokyo hospital while undergoing surgery to remove uterine fibroids.
Saito had just turned 48 three days ago.
Born Sayori Saito, she took the name Harley after Harley Race.
Saito started her career as a teenager in 1986 with the JWP promotion, the rival to the dominant All Japan women's group. She was part of the original group that left JWP in 1992 to form LLPW, where she was one of the top stars, with two different one-year runs as LLPW world champion.
She also competed on the 1992 LPWA PPV in Rochester, MN, the Super Ladies Showdown, winning an eight-woman tournament for the LPWA Japanese women's championship.
She regularly worked with and against Shinobu Kandori, the current Japanese politician who is facing Gabi Garcia on the Rizin show later this month. On April 2nd, 1995, she was part of the 13-promotion show put on by Weekly Pro Wrestling before 50,000 fans at the Tokyo Dome, in what was billed as a UFC rules fight, where she lost to Kandori quickly via ground and pound.
She originally retired in 2010, but returned and had her final match at a retirement show on December 29th, 2012. |
I always wondered how a General Authority could just show up at a Stake Conference and select a new Stake President (SP) in just 24 hours, most of the time not knowing anybody in the stake prior to his arrival. With a Stake President selecting a new Bishop, he at least knows the people in the ward, attends as often as necessary, and gets input from counselors. But how does a GA (usually a member of the Seventy) do this so quickly?
The answer is that they do their homework. When I was bishop, we had a change of Stake President, so I was asked to “participate” in the selection process. Two weeks before conference weekend, I and all the other bishops, high councilmen, and counselors of the existing stake presidency were asked to complete a short form with information about ourselves. We were asked to put our name, age, how long we had been in our calling, our wife’s name, the number of children and their ages, and our occupation. The last question asked each of us to identify three brothers in the stake that we thought would be a good Stake President.
On the Saturday of Stake Conference, the visiting GA interviewed each of us (the bishops, high council, and SP counselors) for about 5 minutes. (BTW, the CHI specifically bars Stake Presidents from questioning ward members when selecting a new bishop). When I was called in, it was my plan to make a low key entry, and just be as normal as possible. Well, that didn’t last long as the visiting GA knew my father, and from my name deduced that we were related. He asked how my father was doing, and we made small talk about mutual acquaintances. Then he asked me why the three people I had written on my paper could be the new Stake President. He then asked if I could only select one, who would it be. As it turns out, the person I suggested was in fact called that evening as our new Stake President. The other two names I had on the list were called as his new counselors.
So did the visiting GA run a tally of all the names and just call the one with the most votes? He never told me, but I would hope that more spiritual input was used that just an Excel spreadsheet. I’m also sure the outgoing Stake President is consulted and his opinion is weighed heavily. But what stood out to me is that a visiting GA does not just show up and expect the spirit to point out the new President. He takes the input from the people who know the stake and its leaders best, and then uses his own prayerful judgment to select the new Stake President. |
According to a report from Howard Eskin of FOX29, Philadelphia Eagles running back Darren Sproles may miss two or three while he recovers from an MCL sprain. Sproles suffered the injury during the Eagles' 27-0 victory over the New York Giants on Sunday night.
Hearing @eagles RB Darrin Sproles probably out 2-3 weeks with MCL sprain. — Howard Eskin (@howardeskin) October 13, 2014
The good news for Philadelphia is that this doesn't appear to be a long-term injury. It is also worth noting that the Eagles have a bye this week and do not play again Sunday, October 26.
The bad news for the Eagles is that they could be without Sproles for a game or two if he's not ready to return after the bye week. Philadelphia is scheduled to play two consecutive road games following their week off. The Eagles will play against the Cardinals in Arizona on Week 8 before heading to Houston to face the Texans in Week 9.
Sproles has been incredibly valuable to the Eagles through their first six games. Sproles has rushed for 211 yards on 32 attempts (whopping 6.6 average) for 3 touchdowns. He has also recorded 16 catches for 193 yards (12.4 average). As a punt returner, he is averaging 15.6 yards per return and has scored 1 touchdown. The veteran offensive weapon was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week in Week 2 and NFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 4. While the Eagles' offense has struggled to stay consistent this season, Sproles has been steady the entire way.
With Sproles out, the pressure is on Eagles star running back LeSean McCoy to produce. McCoy performed very well against the Giants due to improved blocking from the offensive line. Still, the Eagles will need depth behind McCoy. Third string running back Chris Polk has been injury prone and is currently dealing with a hamstring issue. Polk said he will be back in time after the bye week, but it remains to be seen how he progresses.
If the Eagles feel Sproles will be back soon and Polk will truly be ready after the bye, they may not be in a rush to make a roster move. The team may try to get by in the short-term with rookie tight end Trey Burton serving as a depth running back. Otherwise, the Eagles may chose to call up practice squad running back Matthew Tucker to the active roster.
If this report holds true, the Eagles dodged a bullet by not having to miss Sproles for an extended period of time. The team will just have to weather the storm in the meantime without him.
UPDATE: Eagles head coach Chip Kelly confirmed Sproles' injury during his Monday press conference. |
(A)ARCHE
Your first album in three and a quarter years will be released on December tenth. How do you feel having just finished it?
Kyo: Nothing in particular.
Kaoru: I’m glad it’s done…
Die: I’m simply happy that we were able to make a new album as a band while naturally facing towards our present selves, and without rejecting the past.
Toshiya: There are twists and turns but I think it’s an album of the present Dir en grey.
Shinya: Three and a quarter years seems like a long time but it went by in a flash.
What kind of existence has ARCHE become? What will it become?
Kyo: As always, an important existence.
Kaoru: Maybe an album in which you can see the future of Dir en grey. Not in terms of the content itself, but I mean we’ve created an album with a flow different from recently.
Die: Maybe an existence which connects the old Dir en grey with the future Dir en grey.
Toshiya: Up untill now and from here on too, I think it’s an important work as our ninth album.
Shinya: I think it’s a work in which we’ve shown yet another side of ourselves.
You’re been playing the new songs on your current tour BY THE GRACE OF GOD. Can you see The audiences’ reaction from the stage? And how have peoples’ reactions been in questionnaires and fan letters?
Kyo: I can’t say anything.
Kaoru: Not bad I think. But I’m most interested in what people will say when they listen to it at home.
Die: Even though the songs haven’t been released yet there’s songs which have had a very good response live and I feel like as our tour is continuing that response is growing bigger and bigger.
Toshiya: Of course, we hear what the fans have to say, but there’s no release that doesn’t get a reaction, so we’re listening but not listening.
Shinya: We’ve recieved pretty good feedback. I think people’s image of them will change again when they listen to them at home.
®REWARD
Did you give yourself anything as a reward after your long time working?
Kyo: No.
Kaoru: No. I don’t reward myself every time.
Die: For the first time in a while I went to Los Angeles. Although, while I was there I checked the albums mix sent by Tue Madsen (the person in charge of mixing and mastering) and did various desk work.
Toshiya: I slept.
Shinya: Nothing in particular.
©CHALLENGE
Have you challenged anything new on the release of ARCHE?
Kyo: Not in particular.
Kaoru: On the release? Well the songs were all made through trial and error so you could say it was full of challenges so yeah, I think so.
Die: I bought a few new compact effectors. I refreshed my mind and my sound.
Toshiya: I think life is full of challenges. Which isn’t bad nor good.
Shinya: Nothing in particular.
In trailers and adds you’ve been trying various things, collaborating with famous voice actors, and being turned into anime characters. How was it, from the point of view of a member of Dir en grey?
Kyo: Am I really that thin?
Kaoru: It’s interesting. The catchphrase “pain” was a little embarrassing though…
Die: I think they’re things we definitely haven’t done before, image-wise. Not just confined to that but I want to destroy our image, in a good way.
Toshiya: I’m happy if everyone watching enjoys them.
Shinya: I like that kind of thing.
(H)HONEST
Are there any songs on ARCHE that you had trouble with?
Kyo: All of them.
Kaoru: Apart from “phenomenon” and “the inferno” I had trouble with all of them. I want someone to tell me how to make songs without trouble.
Die: The arrangement of “kaishun”. I played around with it too much and Shinya got mad at me like “but the previous arrangement was good!!”.
Toshiya: All of them.
Shinya: I think now that the hard work is over I’ve forgotten how hard it was.
Are there any parts of your personal performance which you think “this is a good part!!” or “I want people to listen to this part!” Please tell me in detail.
Kyo: Everything maybe?
Kaoru: Nothing in particular. But anyway please listen carefully to all of it.
Die: The guitar solo of “tefutefu” on the second disc. It’s the same solo I made in the demo. It’s hard to reproduce that kind of loose and broken feel.
Toshiya: There’s no parts in particular. It doesn’t need saying that I put 100% into all of it.
Shinya: The hook of kaishun.
If your present mood were an ARCHE song, which song would it be? Please explain.
Kyo: magasou.
Kaoru: Ah that’s tough, I don’t know.
Die: I can’t compare my mood to any of them.
Toshiya: “and Zero”. Because I’m starting again from here.
Shinya: “uroko” Because I ate sushi yesterday.
(E)ENJOY
Do you have your own personal way of enjoying ARCHE?
Kyo: I don’t know.
Kaoru: Because I always remember how tough it was to make I can’t listen to it enjoyably.
Die: In making the album I listened to it a million times before it was released so since it was released I haven’t listened to it much.The more I listen to it the more I think things like “I should have done that part more like this…” . Things to reflect on and thoughts about our next work increase each time I listen to it.
Toshiya: I listened to in on many different headphones. I think there are still new things to discover in it.
Shinya: I want everyone to listen to it however they like.
Lastly, do you have any messages to the a knot members who are looking forward to ARCHE’s release?
Kyo: Sorry for keeping you waiting so long. No matter which part you listen to it’s all the present Dir en grey. I don’t know when our next release will be so please listen to it a lot
Kaoru: Thank you so much for waiting! We made it with our full power so don’t hold back on listening to it with your full power.
Die: Please love our ARCHE.
Toshiya: We’ve completed our 9th album. Please look forward to our 10th album too. Thank you.
Shinya: Sorry for making you wait so long. Please enjoy it. |
In honor of Short Story Month, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of the new short story collections being released in the second half of 2017. These are all collections that have definitely piqued my interest. So get your TBR lists ready with these 2017 short story collections, readers! (Because I have not read these short story collections yet, I’ve pulled quotes from the jackets to help with the descriptions.) Plus, just look at these gorgeous covers! Some of them are worth it for the cover alone.
Cockfosters: Stories by Helen Simpson (Knopf, June 6)
Nine stories “that take up the preoccupations and fixations of time’s passing and of middle age and that take us from today’s London and Berlin to the wild west of the USA and the wilder shores of Mother Russia; stories finely balanced between devastation and optimism.”
The Girl of the Lake: Stories by Bill Roorbach (Algonquin Books, June 27)
“Among the unforgettable characters Roorbach creates are an adventurous boy who learns what courage really is when an aging nobleman recounts history to him; a couple hiking through the mountains whose vacation and relationship ends catastrophically; a teenager being pursued by three sisters all at once; a tech genius who exacts revenge on his wife and best friend over a stolen kiss from years past; and many more.” (Side note: If you ever get a chance to see Roorbach speak, I suggest you take it. He’s one of my favorite writers to see in person.)
The Graybar Hotel: Stories by Curtis Dawkins (Scribner, July 4)
“In Curtis Dawkins’s first short story collection, he offers a window into prison life through the eyes of his narrators and their cellmates. Dawkins reveals the idiosyncrasies, tedium, and desperation of long-term incarceration—he describes men who struggle to keep their souls alive despite the challenges they face.” (Dawkins himself is an MFA graduate and convicted murderer serving life without parole.)
Telling the Map: Stories by Christopher Rowe (Small Beer Press, July 11)
Small Beer Press is possibly my favorite publisher when it comes to short story collections, and Rowe has published a couple of dozen short stories, and been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. What I’m saying is that picking up this collection is a no-brainer.
The Dark Dark: Stories by Samantha Hunt (FSG Originals, July 18)
The author of the fantastic Mr. Splitfoot returns with her first debut collection! “Each of these ten haunting, inventive tales brings us to the brink―of creation, mortality and immortality, infidelity and transformation, technological innovation and historical revision, loneliness and communion, and every kind of love.”
Madame Zero: 9 Stories by Sarah Hall (Custom House, July 25)
Hall is also the author of the amazing novels Electric Michelangelo and The Wolf Border! And in “this collection of nine works of short fiction, she uses her piercing insight to plumb the depth of the female experience and the human soul.” My body is ready.
Sour Heart: Stories by Jenny Zhang (Lenny, Aug. 1)
This looks sooooo good. “Narrated by the daughters of Chinese immigrants who fled imperiled lives as artists back home only to struggle to stay afloat—dumpster diving for food and scamming Atlantic City casino buses to make a buck—these seven stories showcase Zhang’s compassion, moral courage, and a perverse sense of humor reminiscent of Portnoy’s Complaint. A darkly funny and intimate rendering of girlhood, Sour Heart examines what it means to belong to a family, to find your home, leave it, reject it, and return again.”
The Mountain: Stories by Paul Yoon (Simon & Schuster, Aug. 15)
I am SO EXCITED for this one. “In The Mountain, Paul Yoon displays his subtle, ethereal, and strikingly observant style with six thematically linked stories, taking place across several continents and time periods and populated with characters who are connected by their traumatic pasts, newly vagrant lives, and quests for solace in their futures.”
PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2017 by Kelly Link (Compiler), Marie-Helene Bertino (Compiler), Nina McConigley (Compiler) (Catapult, Aug. 22)
“Today’s most acclaimed writers all got their start when an editor encountered their work for the first time and took a chance. This anthology celebrates twelve such moments of discovery and is the first volume of an annual collection―launched alongside PEN’s new Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers―that recognizes outstanding fiction debuts published in a print or online literary magazine.”
Kiss Me Someone: Stories by Karen Shepard (Tin House Books, Sept. 12)
“Shepard’s stories explore what we do to lessen our burdens of sadness and isolation; her characters, fiercely true to themselves, are caught between their desire to move beyond their isolation and a fear that it’s exactly where they belong.”
Fresh Complaint: Stories by Jeffrey Eugenides ( Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Oct. 3)
His first story collection! “Jeffrey Eugenides’s bestselling novels have shown that he is an astute observer of the crises of adolescence, sexual identity, self-discovery, family love, and what it means to be an American in our times. The stories in Fresh Complaint continue that tradition.”
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press, Oct. 3)
“In Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado blithely demolishes the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism. While her work has earned her comparisons to Karen Russell and Kelly Link, she has a voice that is all her own. In this electric and provocative debut, Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women’s lives and the violence visited upon their bodies.”
Catapult: Stories by Emily Fridlund (Sarabande Books, Oct. 10)
Cannot wait to read this! “Selected by Ben Marcus as winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, Catapult follows Emily Fridlund’s acclaimed debut novel History of Wolves. Sometimes calculating, at other times bewildered, Catapult‘s characters orbit around each other, enacting a deeply human tragicomedy of wit, misunderstanding, and loss.”
The World Goes On by László Krasznahorkai (Author), George Szirtes (Translator), Ottilie Mulzet (Translator), John Batki (Translator) (New Directions, Nov. 15)
“As László Krasznahoraki himself explains: “Each text is about drawing our attention away from this world, speeding our body toward annihilation, and immersing ourselves in a current of thought or a narrative…” “The excitement of his writing,” Adam Thirwell proclaimed in the New York Review of Books, “is that he has come up with this own original forms―there is nothing else like it in contemporary literature.””
Find even more short story recommendations here.
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Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press
LE BOURGET, France -- One of the smartest ways to fight global warming is putting a price on carbon dioxide pollution, according to key world leaders at the international climate summit, including U.S. President Barack Obama.
Either a tax on carbon dioxide emissions or putting a price on carbon and trading carbon pollution like pork bellies, will help use capitalism to get closer to a day when the world isn't adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, said leaders of France, Germany, Canada, Chile, Mexico and Ethiopia, as well as heads of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development on Monday.
"I have long believed that the most elegant way to drive innovation and to reduce carbon emissions is to put a price on it," Obama added at a Tuesday news conference in Paris. "Obviously I'm not under any illusion that this Congress will impose something like this."
The number of countries, provinces, states or cities putting a price on carbon has tripled in the past year and is now at 40, including some U.S. states, said World Bank Group President Jim Young Kim said Monday. Kim and others pointed to straight carbon taxes in British Columbia, Sweden and France as examples of what works.
Economists have known since 1923 that "smart economics puts a tax on bad things and not on good things," said World Resources Institute President Andrew Steer, a former Wharton economist who wasn't part of the multi-nation initiative on carbon pricing. He compared it to taxing cigarettes to reducing consumption, although other methods of trading carbon pollution credits aren't quite the same, he added.
Obama called it something out of "an Econ 101 textbook."
"We simply cannot afford to continue polluting the planet at the current pace," World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. "Carbon pricing is critical for reducing emissions, preserving our environment and protecting the most vulnerable."
New Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said British Columbia's "world class" carbon tax proves such a device doesn't harm the economy.
There are already costs -- called externalities -- to burning fossil fuels in terms of public health and deaths, costs that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized, said Wesleyan University economist Gary Yohe, who was not part of the Paris event.
"Cheap and dirty energy is not cheap for the planet or the health of our people," Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said at the Paris climate summit. "When green taxes are incorporated into our climate policies, we can harness market forces that can lead to profound changes in our emissions patterns."
Europe has carbon pricing and the key in the future is that that every nation has to have some kind of uniform carbon pricing, so that energy interests don't go to another nation for dirty power, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
Kim said carbon trading can work as well as a carbon tax, but OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said that a tax, even if it doesn't raise new funds and replaces other taxes, clearly works best: "We should put a big fat price on (carbon) in order to penalize it." |
“My mother used to tell me it gets worse before it gets better, but I’ve found it’s usually the other way around.”
– Eudokia the Oft-Abducted, Basilea of Nicae
“Two bells,” Hakram complained. “I leave you alone for two bells and you get into a fistfight with a giant devil snake.”
“In my defence,” I croaked. “It started it.”
Countess Elizabeth’s former solar had once again been commandeered for my purposes, though this time I was seated mostly because I was unable to stand. I’d been half-tempted to ride into the room on Zombie but had ultimately allowed Adjutant to prop me up on my way here. The trouser leg over my broken bone had been cut off, the same for the sleeve on my bad arm. Hakram had been visibly uncomfortable at the hint of my smallclothes that could be seen on my upper thigh, much to my amusement. For someone who supposedly slept around so much he could be rather prudish. Apprentice felt up the muscles on my leg a little too hard and I cursed him out loudly.
“Why do you always involve goats when you insult someone’s ancestry?” the Soninke mused, and I had to resist the urge to kick him in the chin.
Oh it would have hurt like a bitch, but feeling his chin give in would have been so very satisfying. The mage frowned, not having noticed any of the debate raging through my mind.
“Catherine, did you use necromancy on yourself?” he asked.
I cleared my throat. “I’ve been known to dabble.”
“That shouldn’t be possible,” he noted. “While broken, the limb wasn’t technically dead. That does explain, however, why the inside of half your limbs is in the early stages of necrosis.”
“That sounds bad,” I said. “Hakram, doesn’t that sound bad?”
“I’m still at the part of this story where you punched a snake the size of a carrack in the head and it died,” Adjutant replied.
“It mouthed off,” I defended myself.
“Cat, if you punch everyone who mouths off to you we’ll be down half our officer corps,” the tall orc sighed.
“The surviving half would be very polite, though,” Apprentice commented drily.
I wasn’t sure whether it was having to men I rather liked fussing over me or because the banter was a reassuringly familiar feeling, but sitting here in relative safety the fresh horror of the battlefield I‘d barely escaped was starting to fade. Knowing Hakram, he’d probably done the latter on purpose.
“So what’s the damage, doc?” I asked Masego.
“I can fix most of this, but I’m not a priest,” the mage said a green halo wreathing his hand as he sunk his magic into my leg. “Broken bones will take a least three days to stop being brittle. I’ve already begun reversing the necrosis, but if you move the limbs too much the tissue won’t heal.”
“Not sure priestly healing would work on me at this point,” I said. “Took the wrong career path for that.”
“Squire isn’t a fundamentally villainous Name,” Apprentice replied. “It’s also the transitional Name leading into being the White Knight.”
“Necromancy’s a bit of a hint that this isn’t heading into White Knight territory,” Hakram snorted.
Masego scoffed.
“There’s nothing inherently villainous about necromancy, Adjutant,” he spoke peevishly. “Or any kind of magic, for that matter. Cultural taboos are just that.”
“I’ve reached deep into my Name, Masego,” I murmured. “It’s not a pleasant thing.”
The chubby mage smiled thinly. “Spoken like someone who has never seen the aftermath of an angelic intervention. Angels are just as dangerous to mortals as devils, Catherine. Both are driven by absolutes. You only need to look at your nemesis’ sword to know that.”
I frowned. “That thing is related to angels?”
“A shard of one, if I’m not mistaken,” the dark-skinned man said.
“I’ve seen it slice into stone,” I replied dubiously.
“To embrace contrition is to feel the bite of regret,” he quoted. “The Hashmallim are not known for subtlety, or their understanding of metaphor.”
I raised an eyebrow. That was verbatim from the Book of All Things, and not one of the better-known passages either.
“The only other Praesi I’ve ever heard speak the Book is Kilian, and she’s Duni,” I said.
The Green Stretch had been through regular infusions of Callowan blood and culture from periods where Imperial power had waned and the Kingdom’s waxed, not to mention the era where most of Praes has been separated into crusader states.
“Father insisted I familiarize myself with the dominant theological movement on the continent,” the mage shrugged. “Dreadfully tedious stuff, by large, though its take on villainy was most amusing.”
“Organized religion,” Hakram scorned. “And you call us strange. Why would you ever want a middleman between yourself and the Gods? They’re bound to screw you over.”
“To be honest, Masego probably knows more about the theology of it than I do,” I admitted. “I skipped services as often as I could get away with.”
“Is this the part where we pretend to be surprised?” Apprentice asked, the green glow around his hand winking out.
He patted my bare leg, eyeing me for any sign of pain. When I showed no reaction he gave a satisfied nod.
“We’re done for now,” he said. “I’ll want to check on that necrosis in the morning, though.”
“Probably a good idea,” I agreed. “You should probably explain to me what that is when you do.”
I could see in his eyes that he knew I was yanking his chain, prompting a grin on my part, but he was already puffing up like an angry pedantic peacock when someone rapped their knuckles against the door.
“Come in,” I called out.
Juniper came into the room, Aisha and Nauk trailing close behind.
“Squire,” my legate grunted. “You look like shit.”
“If you keep sweet talking me like this, Kilian will get jealous,” I replied.
“Gods forbid,” the Hellhound spoke, rolling her eyes.
Nauk looked like he was about to burst, so I gestured vaguely in his direction.
“Out with it,” I ordered.
“Is it true you punched a giant snake until it died?” he asked eagerly.
“That’s… relatively true?” I admitted.
“Hah,” the large orc exclaimed, and Aisha cursed.
The Taghreb girl flipped Nauk a golden aurelius that the orc caught with a smug, sharp-toothed grin.
“Told you it was true. Remember when she punched out that ogre?” the commander reminded his colleague.
“Ogres aren’t the size of a small fortress,” the staff tribune muttered.
For a moment I debated stating, once again, that I’d never punched out an ogre. Or castrated one, for that matter, no matter what filthy lies Robber kept spreading. With a sigh I let it go: there was no killing the tale, at this point.
“I have the casualty reports, if you’re in a state to hear them,” Juniper broke in, silencing our common minions with a glare.
The shadow of a smile that had been stretching my lips disappeared at the words.
“How bad was it?” I asked soberly.
“No survivors from our wounded, as you already know,” the grim-faced legate said. “Out of the cohort you took we’ve got forty dead.”
That put our final numbers at a little above one thousand and one hundred. Less than one thousand in fighting shape.
“We can’t afford to keep taking fatalities like this,” I said.
“We weren’t significantly weakened by the battle,” Aisha noted. “Most of the dead were too wounded to be able to fight.”
“Defeat, Aisha,” I grunted. “Weakened by the defeat. Call it what it was.”
She lowered her head in concession.
“No point in wallowing either, Squire,” the Hellhound said. “I’ve had reports on the number of the devils, but I want your take. How many did you see?”
“My guess is around a hundred total,” I said. “We killed maybe twenty, likely less.”
“Devils aren’t technically killed, just dispersed beyond coherence. And necrosis is when flesh begins to die because of internal humours,” Masego burst out suddenly.
I raised an eyebrow. “Yes, we all knew that second one. Why mention it?” I asked earnestly, as if I’d had no idea what prompted the outburst.
“I hate you so much right now,” he muttered.
Still, that had been interesting. Had he literally not been able to help himself? Warlock’s son did have a tendency to want to be exact in all things, but did it really run this deep? Aspect-driven, I realized with a start. There must have been something about his Name that pushed him to be excruciatingly precise. That was a dangerous weakness, the kind of exploitable flaw that made you reveal your master plan because the hero bantered a little too close to home. There were more unfortunate implications, tough. Was I similarly affected by my Role? I’d wondered, once or twice, whether I’d gotten Struggle because I so often got in over my head – or whether it was the other way around. Does my Name push me to get into trouble?
“Anyhow, there will have been one hundred devils to start with,” Apprentice continued. “One hundred is a magically significant number, and “that one Empress” was known to field companies of them.”
“Would have been useful to know that beforehand,” Juniper growled.
The mage huffed.
“I would have mentioned it if I’d known it was relevant,” he replied. “I already told you most records from back then were destroyed.”
I raised a hand.
“We know now, that’s what matters,” I intervened. “And it changes things.”
“Evacuation is no longer a viable plan,” Juniper agreed. “Not even for the Fifteenth alone. You don’t fight devils on ground they picked.”
“How defensible is the city?” I asked.
“We have no walls,” Aisha said flatly. “And even if we did, we wouldn’t have the numbers to cover everywhere we need.”
“One of those I can fix,” the Hellhound spoke calmly. “Marchford is built in stone, thankfully. Pickler is currently collapsing the outer ring of houses. I’ve drafted from all companies for additional manpower. We should have at least a rudimentary fortification before the city is hit.”
I nodded in approval, then hesitated. “The people owning those houses can’t have been particularly pleased,” I mentioned.
“We’ve had a riot,” my legate acknowledged. “Adjutant dispersed the crowd before it turned too bad.”
I cast a surprised look at Hakram, who shrugged.
“I pointed out they could either let us tear down the houses or share them with a demon,” he informed me. “Funny how that word sobers up even angry young men. I’ve also committed the Fifteenth to rebuilding them when the battle is done.”
“That won’t work twice, Deadhand. City’s a pot about to boil over,” Nauk gravelled. “As soon as the light of day comes and word spreads there’ll be more rioting, mark my words.”
I passed a tired hand through my hair.
“Bulk up our patrols, and forbid legionaries to wander off alone,” I ordered. “If the city rises, this is over. We can’t allow that to happen.”
“They’re not making protecting their ungrateful hides very easy,” Aisha spoke disdainfully.
“They’re panicking,” I retorted sharply. “Civilians do that.”
There was a pregnant pause in the room.
“I didn’t mean it as a comment on Callowans in general,” the Taghreb said carefully. “My apologies if offence was taken, Lady Squire.”
I felt a spark of guilt at the wariness on her face. I already knew Aisha wasn’t the kind of Praesi aristocrat that thought of my people like cattle. She was, if anything, roughly egalitarian in her distrust of individuals of every background. I gestured half-heartedly at her.
“It’s been a long night,” I apologized. “My temper is finding targets unworthy of it.”
“Think no more of it, my lady,” the brown-skinned girl replied politely.
“Manpower’s going to be an issue,” Hakram broke in, thankfully changing the subject.
“More than you think,” I grimaced. “Some of the devils can take the shape of a firefly, and others can dig underground. We can’t leave the city itself undefended and look only after the outer parts.”
Masego started.
“Fireflies?” he repeated. “Shit.”
I frowned. “They’re actually the easiest breed to deal with.”
“For you, sure,” he said. “You’re not what they’re born for. They’re mage-takers.”
“I have a feeling,” Juniper gravelled, “that I’m not going to like what follows.”
“They bury in the back of a mage’s neck and take over the body,” Apprentice explained. “The practitioner’s ability to use magic is significantly improved, so there’s rituals where diabolists bind them to themselves, but if we’re not the ones who summoned them…”
“Well, let’s take checking all our mages to the top of our priority list,” I said. “And get the word out to the civilians – there aren’t as many mages born in Callow as in the Wasteland, but there’s bound to be a few left in a city this size.”
“Here’s a thought,” Nauk said. “Conscript those. We need the firepower and we’re asking them to fight for their own bloody home.”
“I’d conscript everyone in fighting shape in the city, if I could,” Juniper said. “But it’s pointless if we don’t have weapons for them to use. Our stocks don’t have that many extra supplies, and most of those were with our wounded.”
I blinked. Sometimes I forgot they hadn’t been born here, hadn’t been raised to the culture. That they didn’t really understand the people the Empire was ruling over.
“This is Callow,” I told them. “Half the houses in the city will have swords and spears stashed under the floorboard or hidden away in the attic.”
Surprised faces all around, with quite a bit of confusion.
“The Royal Guard was never as large as the Legions, even at its peak,” I reminded them. “Whenever Procer came through the Vale, whenever Emperors marched on Summerholm, the bulk of the Kingdom’s host was always volunteers. Families keep arms and pass them from generation to generation.”
I half-smiled, drawing on those nights I’d spent serving drinks in Laure.
“So pick up your sword, boy
Here they come again
And down here in the mud,
It’s us who holds the line,” I sang, the refrain of a song as old as the Kingdom.
“I’ve heard that tune before,” Hakram said.
“Here They Come Again,” I told him. “It was never officially banned but Imperial authorities frown on people singing it. A little too rebellious for the Tower’s tastes, I imagine.”
“Having weapons is one thing,” Juniper grunted. “Do they know how to use them?”
“I’m less optimistic about that,” I admitted. “The men and women with martial training, however slight, will have been taken with the Countess when she left for Vale.”
“Disorganized rabble can hold a chokepoint, given sufficient motivation,” Aisha spoke flatly. “I imagine not wanting their homes become a demon-infested wasteland might do the trick in that regard.”
Hakram cleared his throat.
“That’s not something that can be assessed from this room, so arguing over the subject is pointless,” he reminded everyone. “I wouldn’t discount the possibility that Countess Marchford left with most of those weapons, either.”
Damn, I hadn’t thought of that. The aristocrat was one of the richest women in Callow, but having too many arms and armour forged at once would have rung alarms with the Empire. It wasn’t even worth considering that Black didn’t have agents embed in every major blacksmithing guild in the country.
“I’ll get started on the organization for all this, then,” Juniper sighed.
“I’ll put a pot of tea on the fire,” Aisha told her, almost getting a smile out of my grim-faced legate.
They both looked at me and I nodded my dismissal, already discussing logistics as they left the room. Nauk lingered a little longer.
“Kinda wished you’d brought me along for that last fight, boss,” he gravelled.
“Hells, so do I,” I muttered. “If I’d had a pair of cohorts instead of the one we would have swept through the bastards and gotten our people out.”
“We’ll get a second round soon enough,” the large orc conceded, then paused to choose his words.
That was unusual enough he got my full attention immediately.
“When the Silver Spears come back, after they’ve had a nice moonlit stroll with the demon… I’d like for my kabili to be the one facing them.”
“We won’t know where they attack for sure,” I frowned.
“Between you and the Hellhound, I’m sure a good guess will be made,” he grunted.
I clenched my fingers, then unclenched them. His reasons were obvious enough, though I didn’t like them. A commander focused on getting payback instead of his actual tactical objectives might make mistakes. On the other hand, a commander with strong personal motivation to carry a fight might perform better than one less… driven.
“Will you lose your shit, if I put you in front of them?” I asked bluntly.
Nauk’s brutish face hardened, though not out of anger at me. He knew the question was not undeserved, and that him going into the Red Rage in the middle of a battle would fuck up his kabili’s entire chain of command.
“I swear to you I will not,” he gravelled. “On my father’s blood, I make that oath. May my Clan bury me unmarked if I lie.”
Hakram took in a sharp breath, so that wasn’t an oath lightly made.
“Done,” I finally said.
Selling that to Juniper was going to be a pain and a half, but there was a debt there to settle. He might not see it that way, but I did. The image of our friend wreathed in green flames, looking so damnably peaceful, was not one I would soon forget.
“I knew you’d understand,” the large greenskin said. “Rest well, Callow. Tomorrow the real war starts.”
And with that ominous bit of talk, he left the three of us behind. Apprentice was the first to stir.
“I’ll leave you to your sleep, then,” he said.
“Not yet,” I replied. “Conscripts and bastard walls aren’t going to get us through this, Masego. All of us know that. I need alternatives. How good are you with wards?”
He shrugged. “I could prevent anything from outside of Creation from entering this room, given a bell and the right tools.”
“I don’t mean for you to ward a room,” I replied. “How hard would it be to cover the entire city?”
“That’s…” he began, then stopped. “Insane, yes. But not impossible.”
“Didn’t think you had that kind of juice in you,” Hakram noted, sounding a little surprised.
“I don’t,” the mage replied. “I can’t think of a practitioner who would, save perhaps the Dead King. But warding isn’t about the power you can provide, it’s about what you can accumulate. The whole point of ritualistic magic is that the impetus doesn’t come from the caster’s personal strength.”
I grimaced. This was going to end up being a blood magic thing, wasn’t it?
“We’re not bleeding people, Apprentice,” I stated. “We’re not that desperate.”
He blinked, then looked offended.
“I’m not a hack, Catherine. I don’t need sacrifices to brute force my way into higher arcana,” he snapped.
“In her defence,” Hakram intervened, “when mages start talking about grand designs someone usually ends up strapped to an altar.”
“Inferior sorcerers, maybe,” Masego scorned, but he looked somewhat mollified. “What I need is a census of the number and location of hearths in the city. All of them.”
I was about to ask him why when the window burst into shards of glass. I wasted a precious heartbeat in pure surprise before my training kicked in and I reached for my sword. Which, I immediately remembered, wasn’t at my side. It was on the table. By the time I was on my feet, Hakram’s blade was out and Apprentice was casting. My hands closed around the handle of my sword and I unsheathed it, biting my lip so I wouldn’t let out a scream and the brutal flare of pain that standing suddenly on my broken leg was causing. I’d expected to be looking at a devil, maybe one of those mage-takers come for Masego, but what I was looking it was completely different. Who I was looking at, rather.
A woman, dressed in fine white chainmail going down to her knees in a skirt. Over it she wore a leather coat that covered her arms up to the wrist and came up in a hood. Her lower face was covered by dark linen, but I could still see her dark ochre skin betraying a bloodline from across the Tyrian Sea and delicate hazelnut eyes. On her back there was a quiver and almost absurdly large longbow strapped, but the weapon she had out was the longknife in her hand. Adjutant, true to form, did not waste time on banter. He took a swing at her without missing a beat but she caught his wrist and twisted it, using his momentum to spin him around and have him face the spell Masego had just let loose. The mage’s eyes widened in panic and he barked something in the arcane tongue but there was still a flash of heat and Hakram went flying.
I made to go around the table, not confident in my ability to flip it and power through. The stranger moved towards Apprentice but with a snarl he cast another spell: dark, squid-like flesh grew around his outstretched hand and a flurry of tentacles spread towards the enemy at breakneck speed. The woman snorted and stepped out of the way of most of them, hand snapping out to grab a tentacle and tugging. The bespectacled mage fell forward and she lightly jumped over him, ignoring the fact he was already halfway through another incantation. She was coming for me, there were no two ways about it. Assassin? No, the bow would be out of character and if a Calamity had been after my head I would never have seen them coming.
“Who are you?” I asked.
She dashed forward and I grit my teeth. Talking was apparently not an option. I made as if to take a swing at her, but instead brought up my free hand: the spear of shadows coalesced almost instantly and tore in her direction. She sidestepped it with insulting ease, ducked under my sword stroke and socked me in the stomach. Before I was done wheezing in pain and surprise, I felt cool steel resting against my throat as she lightly put up the blade without drawing blood.
“Stop casting that web of lightning, love,” she spoke in perfect Lower Miezan. “We’re done here.”
“Are we?” I said calmly. “I’ve walked away from having my chest more or less split in half. If you think a slit throat is going to do the trick, I have a surprise for you.”
I was, of course, lying through my teeth. But if I’d learned anything about having a Name, it was that if you said anything confidently enough people usually took you seriously.
“Is that so?” the stranger laughed. “Good to know.”
She took away the blade from my throat, then sheathed it with flourish.
“I have to say I’m a little disappointed,” she continued. “Lady Ranger always speaks very highly of the Black Knight, but if I’d wanted everyone in this room dead you would be.”
I started in surprise.
“You’re…”
The woman lowered the linen covering her face, offering me a dashing smile.
“Archer,” she introduced herself. “As the mandated representative of the Lady of the Lake, I’ve come to take custody of Hunter.”
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Image copyright Reuters Image caption Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo were having lunch when they were killed
A couple who shot dead two police officers and a third man in Las Vegas acted out of hatred for the police and the government, authorities have said.
Jerad Miller, 31, and wife Amanda Miller, 22, who died at the scene, viewed law enforcement as "oppressors", said police.
The pair had been ejected from Cliven Bundy's Nevada ranch during a stand-off earlier this year, US media report.
The couple left a swastika and a "Don't tread on me" flag on the dead officers.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jerad Miller and Amanda Miller were linked to Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy
"We believe that they equate government and law enforcement fascism with Nazis," Clark County Assistant Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters.
"In other words, they believe law enforcement is the oppressor."
He added that he thought it was an isolated act.
Image copyright Reuters
What is the Gadsden flag?
Daniel Nasaw, BBC News, Washington
The suspects reportedly draped a Gadsden flag over the bodies of the slain police officers.
The flag, with its coiled rattlesnake on a yellow field and the motto "Don't Tread on Me", was designed during the 18th Century US revolution against Britain by South Carolina statesman Col Christopher Gadsden.
The flag flew on ships of the early US Navy, then for the subsequent two centuries largely receded into the background, a historical curiosity with no official US government standing.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the flag re-emerged to represent a form of militant US patriotism - a nation poised to strike if threatened.
By 2009, the Gadsden flag was appropriated by the right-wing populist Tea Party movement.
Of course, the flag is not intended to rally people to violence.
But today, it unambiguously denotes aggressive conservative politics, suspicion of authority - especially President Barack Obama's government - and vehement opposition to taxation and gun control.
Wal-mart shootout
According to witness and police accounts, the two suspects entered Cici's Pizza restaurant about 11:30 local time (18:30 GMT) on Sunday, where Officers Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, were having lunch.
Mr Miller shouted, "This is a revolution", then shot the officers. One managed to return fire, but it was unclear whether his shots struck the assailants.
The officers were killed, and the suspects placed swastikas and a flag - known as a Gadsden flag - with Don't Tread On Me written on it over their bodies.
Then, the suspects moved on to a Wal-mart store nearby, where they shot dead a man identified as 31-year-old Joseph Wilcox. Mr Wilcox was carrying a concealed firearm and had attempted to intervene before he was shot, authorities said.
Las Vegas police officers swarmed to the Wal-mart and surrounded it, exchanging gunfire with the suspects.
The rampage ended when Mrs Miller - said to be suffering a gunshot wound - shot dead Mr Miller, then killed herself.
"Their only avenue was to take their own lives," Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie said on Monday.
Police have not officially indicated what the motive could be, but are exploring whether the pair subscribed to right-wing militia and white supremacist ideology.
Racist, anti-government views
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie praised the way his officers responded to the 911 calls
They are also investigating the couple's role in a stand-off with government agents at a Nevada cattle ranch linked to Cliven Bundy earlier this year.
Mr Bundy, a rancher, was protesting against government attempts to round up cattle he was illegally grazing on federal land.
Jerad Miller wrote on Facebook he had been "kicked out" of the ranch due to his criminal history, while Mr Bundy's son told the Associated Press news agency they were ejected due to "conduct" problems, and described them as "very radical".
A video of Mr Miller being interviewed during the stand-off by a local affiliate of broadcaster NBC has also been uncovered.
"I feel sorry for any federal agents that want to come in here and try to push us around or anything like that," he said. "I really don't want violence toward them but if they're going to come bring violence to us, well, if that's the language they want to speak, we'll learn it."
Neighbours of the couple have told reporters the two had a reputation for spouting racist, anti-government views.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Fellow Las Vegas police were devastated by the deaths of the two officers
Image copyright AP Image caption Walmart employees react outside their store following the shooting
Beck, who was a father to three, had been with the police department since 2001.
Soldo, who joined the Las Vegas police in 2006, leaves behind a wife and baby, police told reporters.
His sister-in-law Colleen Soldo described him as a "great guy" who previously worked as a corrections officer. |
I liked Donald Trump before it was cool–or a controversy big enough to rival a dead lion, at least.
It was mostly a trollish fondness for his persona and its more bizarre iterations–but as he’s continued a truly shocking, unpredictable rise in the polls, there’s clearly something more to it than novelty.
I would maybe attribute half of Trump’s rise to how much he’s making the establishment media’s heads explode, but beneath all the bluster, there is a very sincere idea that may explain why so many primary voters are flocking to him. And to understand it, we need to look back a few years.
At my very first CPAC, I watched a broadcast of the businessman and reality TV star’s speech, and his message stuck with me more than any of the politicians’ (or pizza executive’s) applause lines from the weekend.
If I remember correctly, the typical conservative pitch one year before Obama’s successful reelection campaign was: Obamacare is terrible, the economy is terrible, etc. Conservative principles will fix that. I enthusiastically retweeted a lot of that white noise.
With Trump, however, he spent exactly one sentence on ObamaCare, and his economic critique instead fixated on the idea of our wounded national pride:
The reason I’m thinking about [running for office] is that the United States has become a whipping post for the rest of the world. The world is treating us without respect… America today is missing quality leadership, and foreign countries have quickly realized this. It’s for this reason that The United States is becoming the laughingstock of the world… I deal with people from China, I deal with people from Mexico. They cannot believe what they’re getting away with. I’ve said on numerous occasions that countries like China, like India, South Korea, Mexico, and the OPEC nations view our leaders as weak and ineffective and have repeatedly taken advantage of them to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
He focused his ire mostly on China for manipulating currency and OPEC for gouging prices at every opportunity (he did incorrectly predict $7-9 per gallon gasoline–maybe he wasn’t in the know on the fracking boom yet). The argument boiled down to two appeals: 1) Foreign countries are making out better than us, and 2) We look weak.
In his signoff, Trump delivered a prototype of his current slogan: “if I run and if I win, this country will be respected again… Our country will be great again.”
That vow didn’t come from some overblown promise to get possessed by Ronald Reagan’s ghost. Trump simply stated he’s had a lot of success in negotiations and business deals–because he cares about and relentlessly fights to get the best outcome for his interests. Therefore, he would take that same relentless fight to get the best outcome for America’s interests. That might mean screwing over China, Saudi Arabia, or Mexico–home to plenty more poor citizens than ours–but their leaders care nothing about poverty, and it’s a screw-or-be-screwed world.
Re-watching that speech, his message and pet issue haven’t changed much in four years–and I doubt many of us could honestly claim the same feat.
As he’s officially thrown his hat (and what a hat) into the ring, the Donald has expanded on that message. Not only is his approach the best to fix America’s problems, he’s saying, but none of his rivals can do it–not because they’re not competent enough (though, in time, he’ll surely call them all dummy losers)–but because they’re not rich enough.
In Thursday night’s debate, Trump hammered on a theme of his budding campaign: big-money donations have strings attached–take it from a guy who pulled them.
“I’ll tell you what, with Hillary Clinton, I said, ‘Be at my wedding,’ and she came to my wedding,” he said. “You know why? She had no choice because I gave.”
And, of course, very few big donors pull strings for favors as benign as a wedding RSVP (see: Peter Schweizer’s Clinton Cash). The big business types with enough disposable income to donate so much cash to politicians, like Trump himself, have operations around the world–and they’re not quite as concerned with America’s pride as DJT.
Indeed, as the Chamber of Commerce crowd has proven with support of a wage-depressing immigration law, they’re concerned with growth above all else. And the fastest path to their businesses’ growth does not include the step of “More Money for America’s Workers.” There’s a reason we don’t allow foreign nationals to donate to U.S. political campaigns. Trump is sounding the alarm on U.S. citizens whose interests and income can be effectively the same.
This issue has been made all the more salient from two major stories coinciding with the start of the Republican primary: Obamatrade and the Iran nuclear deal. Part of a President’s job, in a world more connected than ever, is negotiation with other world powers on economic and defense agreements. Over the past 7 years and beyond (most notably, the push for immigration paydirt during Bush 43’s tenure), globalists–fueled by left-wing ideology or corporate cronyism–have been representing America, while nationalists have been representing our greatest rivals.
Obama’s failures in defense are seemingly endless–Trump’s reminder of the Bergdahl prisoner swap seems like an eternity ago, followed by so much more–but warnings on donor influence resonate most deeply after the GOP’s handling of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the White House.
Indeed, even Ted Cruz, darling of the purest conservatives, inexplicably stood with the Republican establishment on TPA–a massive globalist power grab–until a last-minute blink, likely thanks to intense grassroots anger at his support. Over a month before Cruz’s change of heart, Trump was riffing on a familiar theme:
The trade deal is a disaster for many reasons. Number one, we don’t have any good negotiators in our government. That’s possibly the single greatest reason—we don’t have our best and our brightest negotiating for us. That’s a real problem… What happens is all of these countries get the best of everything and we get the worst of everything.
And one day before Cruz announced his opposition, Trump took to Twitter, saying, “Any Senator who votes for it is disqualified for being POTUS.” And he didn’t forget his primary objection to the deal: “Protect the American worker and manufacturer!”
Through all of Trump’s controversial life, I see plenty of reasons why reasonable people would balk at his run. I can see why conservatives want detailed policies from him and pledges of allegiance. But I don’t see any reason to doubt his love for America.
When he’s talking about making America great again, I know he’s not thinking some WASPy suburban paradise. He’s thinking about Manhattan in the 1970s, where he first made a name for himself. He’s talking about Weird America–where “flash and excess” rule, where you can run for president after getting a WWE bio page.
I like that America, where people file $500 million lawsuits over beauty pageants’ Spanish-language broadcasts. I’d like an America that makes 7 “Fast & Furious” movies without making concessions to Ayatollah Khamenei. I’d like an America that humiliates the likes of Vladimir Putin, not vice-versa. An America that punches back eight times as hard over a tiny offense. An America that everyone might laugh at but ultimately stop attacking because it can only end poorly for them.
And if I trust that Trump likes America almost as much as he likes Donald Trump, then I trust that he will defend America’s pride almost as much as does Donald Trump’s. The rest of the GOP/Democrat field–up to their necks in donors they’ll need to mount a national campaign? Not so much. |
One third of working families in US struggling to meet basic needs
By Jerry White
22 December 2010
Nearly one in three working families in the United States are struggling to meet their most basic needs, according to a new analysis of US Census data by the Working Poor Families Project. Between 2007 and 2009, the share of working families that were low-income—earning less than 200 percent of the official threshold—increased from 28 percent to 30 percent.
The new report was issued as the Obama administration and Congressional Republicans agreed to a range of tax cuts that will further enrich the wealthiest two percent of the American population. In the face of staggering levels of unemployment, poverty and social need, the politicians of both corporate-backed parties in Washington have pledged that 2011 will be the year for making “tough choices” to slash vitally necessary social programs.
The ranks of the working poor swelled by another 1.7 million as corporations used the economic downturn to wipe out full-time positions and force ever-larger numbers of workers to take part-time, temporary and low-paying jobs.
The authors of the new report note, “The plight of these families now challenges a fundamental assumption in America, work pays.”
In 2009—the last year looked at by the study—there were more than 10 million low-income working families in the US, affecting about 45 million people, including 22 million children. In just one year, from 2008 to 2009, the number of children in low-income working families increased by more than 700,000. More than one out of every three children in working families is low income.
Citing the recent findings by the Pew Research Center, the report says more than half of the US labor force (55 percent) has “suffered a spell of unemployment, a cut in pay, a reduction in hours or have become involuntary part-time workers” since the recession began in December 2007.
The misery for millions of working class families coincides with record corporate profits, a year-end bonus orgy on Wall Street and more tax breaks for the wealthy.
As Fortune magazine noted on its web site yesterday, “The super-rich got an early Christmas gift in the $858 billion tax package that President Obama signed into law on Friday. On top of a two-year extension of Bush-era income tax rates, the wealthiest Americans dodged an estate tax that was set to jump up from zero to 55% for individuals worth more than $1 million. Instead, under a deal Senate Republicans negotiated with the White House, individuals can exempt estates up to $5 million and pay 35% beyond that. The exemption for couples is $10 million.”
The campaign to repeal the estate tax altogether was spearheaded by a “small band of the richest Americans [who] have acted as their own secret Santas,” the magazine reported. The push was led by 18 families—whose net worth was at least $185 billion—including the Gallos (E&J Gallo Winery), the Kochs (Koch Industries), the Mars family (Mars Inc.), the Waltons (Wal-Mart), and the Wegmans (Wegmans Food Markets).
Coming on the heels of the multi-trillion dollar bailout of the Wall Street banks, the new tax giveaway to the rich will drive up the federal budget deficit and be used by both parties to impose deep cuts in entitlement programs, including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In its lead editorial Monday, entitled, “Enough conversation,” the Washington Post insists that 2011 must be the year that Obama acts on what the president “might call the fierce urgency of deficit reduction and tax reform.”
Other reports document the disastrous situation facing the working class. In the 18 months preceding the fall of 2009, 93 percent of households experienced at least one substantial economic shock, according to a new report on economic insecurity by the Rockefeller Foundation and Yale University Political Science Professor Jacob Hacker.
Food stamp usage increased by 16 percent over the past year, according to CNNMoney.com, with one in seven Americans now depending on the federal program. Idaho saw the biggest increase in its food stamp program, with a spike of 39 percent compared to last year, followed by Nevada, at 29 percent, and New Jersey, at 27 percent. In the nation’s capital—Washington, DC—21.5 percent of the population currently receives food stamps, the highest rate in the country.
The average recipient receives a miserly $133 in food stamps per month. If Congress does not extend the stimulus funding beyond the 2013 cutoff, then a family of three could see a drop of $49 a month in food stamp benefits, or $59 for a family of four.
While politicians and the media have hailed the rebound in sales and profits for US automakers, residents of Michigan remain mired in Depression-like conditions, with the unemployment rate and underemployment rate reaching over 17 percent. According to the Michigan League of Human Services, several large counties saw increases of more than 25 percent in Food Assistance Program cases, including Oakland (38.1 percent), Livingston (35.8 percent), Macomb (30.5 percent), Washtenaw (30.1 percent), Ottawa (28.9 percent) and Ingham (27.5 percent).
The Midwestern state—which has been devastated by the decades-long downsizing of the auto industry—was the only one in the nation to see a population decline over the last decade, according to the US Census report. The loss of population will impact funding for 140 federal programs that use census data to distribute funds, including cash assistance, education, child care and health care.
“Over the last few days I’ve been getting phone calls about evictions, utility shutoffs and foreclosures,” Lou, a worker at a Detroit area non-profit housing agency told the WSWS. “I’ve had people crying, saying this is the first time this has ever happened to them, and they’ve asked for help. A lot of people have exhausted their unemployment benefits; others have had their hours cut or are out of seasonal work like landscaping and construction. A GM worker said because of all the problems in the auto industry, the layoffs and plant closings, he lost a good paying job and is earning next to nothing now.
“I had a woman who said she couldn’t afford Christmas gifts for her kids and was getting an eviction notice,” Lou added. “People are struggling with rent increases. Another sells metal scrap for a living and receives $200 in food stamps. Michigan’s Department of Human Services told her she made too much last month because she sold $300 worth of scrap. So they cut her food stamps down to $65 a month. Her furnace went out in her mobile home, and she was using an electric space heater to stay warm. Another had been living without heat for 12 days and had to give her infant daughter to a relative because it was so cold in the house.
“We try to help people with housing, furniture, clothing and food banks, but we’re running out of money from the federal Homeless Prevention Rapid Re-Housing program. Pontiac and Macomb County are already out, and even the Salvation Army is low on food because their donations are down.”
Tens of millions confront a holiday season filled with economic distress and anxiety over what the next year has in store for their families. At the same time, Wall Street analysts are forecasting the New Year will bring even more good fortune, as rising corporate profits, the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy and increased spending on mergers and acquisitions, dividends and stock buybacks combine to push share values up.
This is the face of American capitalism: the piling up of wealth at one pole of society and the creation of social misery at the other. The only answer to this is the development of a political movement of the working class, independent of both big business parties, which will fight for socialism and the reorganization of society to meet human needs, not private profit.
The Socialist Equality Party urges workers to study our program and make the decision to join the SEP. |
If Time Magazine had asked my opinion about their Person of the Year (and they didn’t), I would have told them: The Trolls. If you’ve been on the Internet at all this year, you probably know that an Internet troll is a person who promotes discord by purposefully posting inflammatory comments or content. Veracity is of no import to the troll.
It’s been quite a year for the bullying gremlins. Maybe it was even prophetic that the Warner Bros. film Gremlins, about benevolent little creatures morphing into evil beings, and multiplying, was released in 1984. While the Internet is not quite Big Brother (yet!), it is a Habermasian public sphere and a powerful, if virtual, institution. (Orwell is probably turning over in his grave in Oxfordshire.)
It’s not as if 2016 gave birth to the troll. Trolls were spotlighted in 2014 with Jessika Aro’s expose of Russian troll farms, and the release the following year of Jon Ronson’s book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. But this year they sprouted and proliferated, passed a tipping point, and ran rampant across the Web.
In Hollywood, Ghostbusters actor Leslie Jones was targeted. Just last week they came after Amy Schumer, who was in talks to play Barbie. At The New York Times, Washington deputy editor Jonathan Weisman left Twitter after anti-Semitic trolls took to bashing him. (The upshot: a pro-social trend to flood the Internet using the parenthetical “echoes,” previously used by anti-Semites to denote Jews.) In the sporting world, they came when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem. They also came during the Summer Olympics, when Simone Biles was catapulted into a sea of trolls.
Meanwhile, they came to the Ivory Tower, when Amy Cuddy (whose TED talk on power posing has over 35 million views) published her book Presence and served as the target of academic trolls attacking her work. In Silicon Valley, the sale of Twitter was canceled by Salesforce specifically because the trolls spun out of control. And even across the pond, the royal family was not immune. Meghan Markle, Prince Harry’s American girlfriend, fell prey to the trolls (even as Harry’s brother, H.R.H. Prince William leads a Kensington Palace task force to address bullying among young people).
And then, of course, there were the gremlins of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The political trolls and bots overpopulated the Internet, feeding on negativity, disseminating disinformation, and becoming more vitriolic as November 8 approached. The effects, from which we are still reeling, have changed our country profoundly.
The political ramifications of this trend could be seen elsewhere, too: in the United Kingdom, as fallout to its referendum on Brexit; in the peace negotiations between Colombia and the FARC; and, currently, in France’s presidential election. Yes, there is still such a thing as an old-fashioned, textbook difference of opinion. But in 2016 trolling became perversely de riguer.
It’s natural to turn to psychology to sort this out. In 2003, the year after Second Life launched (remember that online platform?!), psychologist John Suler published his work on the psychological phenomena, the Online Disinhibition Effect. He posited that online behavior could create dissociations and distancing from one’s regular personality—encouraged by the invisibility of the Internet. The result has been that online experiences (such as Second Life), all kinds of gaming, and now social media, have cultivated new social norms that not only support but encourage people to develop different personas—a bit like a year-round Halloween.
A 2014 study published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences yielded harsh conclusions about key personality facets of trolls: “Cyber-trolling appears to be an Internet manifestation of everyday sadism . . . Trolling correlated positively with sadism, psychopathy, [and] Machiavellianism.” Quite a trifecta! There’s no denying that deep-seeded hatred and frustration fuels many individuals inclined to trolling behavior.
Sadly, as we near the end of the year, we see the long shadow of trolling as it impacts the lives of private individuals too. Especially young people. The most horrific consequence: so-called bullycide, such as this past week’s tragic death of Brandy Vela who reportedly took her own life in front of her family after being bullied and trolled about her weight. So incidents have not abated. (It was less than four months ago that I wrote about the bullycide of Danny Fitzpatrick—and there have been many more. Too many more.)
So what are we to do? Over the past few months, new trolling policy announcements have been issued by social-media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook. Jigsaw (formerly known as Google Ideas) introduced its Conversation A.I.—designed to essentially troll the trolls by flagging online abuse and harassment.
We can also consider another approach. Rather than trying to clean up our messes ex post facto, we can consider engendering empathic responses and creating environments in social media that, from their initial designs, foster support, compassion, and community. Bake empathy into the cake rather than frosting it later.
Video: Monica Lewinsky: #BeStrong |
In England, retired Royal Marine Harry Brown spends his lonely life between the hospital, where his beloved wife Kath is terminally ill, and playing chess with his only friend Leonard Attwell in the Barge pub owned by Sid Rourke. After the death of Kath, Len tells his grieving friend the local gang is harassing him and he is carrying an old bayonet for self-defence. Harry suggests he to go to the police. When Len is beaten, and stabbed to deatry detective Inspector Alice Frampton and her partner Sergeant Terry Hicock are sent to investigate. They pay Harry a visit but don't have good news; the police have not found any other evidence, other than the bayonet, in order to arrest the hoodlums. This mean that should the case go to trial the gang would claim self-defence. Harry Brown sees that justice will not be granted and decides to take matters into his own hands. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
The prime suspect in the case is still at large.
MULTAN (Dunya News) – The suspect who raped a 17-year-old girl in Multan’s Muzaffarabad area on the orders of Panchayat (village council) is still at large as the police remained unsuccessful in arresting him even after 14 hours of the incident.
The police have yet arrested 20 council members who ordered the rape whereas operations are underway to apprehend the prime suspect.
On July 16, the 12-year-old was allegedly raped by Umer Wada. A Panchayat headed by Ameen and Saeed Patwari was held to declare the verdict in the incident.
The Panchayat members directed the victim’s brother Ishfaque to avenge the incident while raping Wada’s sister.On July 18, Ishfaque raped her while complying with the council’s orders.
The victim’s family had registered a case against Wada in Women Police Centre. However; when Azra’s parents came to know of the incident they also filed a case against Ishfaque.
Muzaffarbad police came into action after receiving information of Panchayt’s decision and arrested the council head Ameen and several others.
Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif while taking notice of the incident has directed stern action and immeduate arrest of the suspects. |
Lions_Bears_Football_CXB707.JPG
Lions receiver Calvin Johnson has struggled in his career against Chicago, although broke free of safety Kevin Payne for this catch during a 2009 game. (Associated Press)
ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions have lost nine of their past 10 games against the Chicago Bears, and Calvin Johnson has struggled more against the Bears than any team in football. It's enough to make even the mild-mannered Johnson dislike Chicago. "It's easy to have a dislike for them," he said. "It's not hard at all." The numbers tell the story.
Lions receiver Calvin Johnson catches a touchdown pass over nemesis Charles Tillman in 2008.
Johnson is 2-9 against the Bears since entering the league in 2007, and averaged 72.8 receiving yards against them. He set an NFL record with 1,964 yards receiving last year, but had just 34 and 72 yards in games against Chicago. Put that another way: Johnson averaged 53.0 yards per game against Chicago, and 132.7 against the rest of the NFL. Why have they been so successful in thwarting Megatron? One reason, certainly, is the excellent cornerback Charles Tillman. Tillman, though, was timid this week when asked what his secret was to collaring the game's greatest wideout. "He's so damn big. He's like the LeBron James of wide receivers," Tillman said. "He's like that Madden character that you can create in the game. He's tall, he's fast, he can catch. He's got quickness, he's got the speed, he's got the agility, the leaping ability, the extra boost. He's 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10." Johnson said he appreciated the shout-out, but is more so concerned with how to solve the Chicago puzzle. "Can't stand 'em," he said. "They're filling up the stadium a lot. A lot of Bears fans, so that's one reason we can't stand em. But we're going to have a good showing this week. We've had two good practices this week so far, guys are focused in. "Like I said, we don't like those guys. It's going to be a good little showdown." |
Camp Nama was a military base in Baghdad, Iraq, originally built by the government of Saddam Hussein, from which its name derives, and now used by Iraqi military forces. Purportedly, the original Iraqi name has been repurposed by U.S. personnel involved with the facility as a backronym standing for "Nasty Ass Military Area".
History [ edit ]
After the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the camp was taken over by elite American special operations forces. The main purpose of the camp was to interrogate prisoners for information about Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The New York Times reported on 19 March 2006, the three-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion, that the elite unit, known as Task Force 6-26, used the facility to interrogate prisoners both before and after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.[1] Some of the interrogation took place in "The Black Room," which used to be a torture chamber when Saddam's government ran the facility. The camp was the target of repeated warnings and investigations from U.S. officials since August 2003. There were placards around the camp that read "No Blood No Foul," a reference to the notion, described by a Pentagon official, that "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it."
Allegations of abuse were first reported in the mainstream U.S. media in 2005.[2] After the more extensive New York Times report in 2006, which was "based on documents and interviews with more than a dozen people," the independent organization Human Rights Watch issued a report documenting detainee abuse in Iraq. The report confirmed the charges about Camp Nama uncovered by the New York Times, noting that "from 2003 to the present, numerous U.S. personnel and Iraqi detainees have reported serious mistreatment of detainees by the special task force, including beatings, exposure to extreme cold, threats of death, humiliation, and various forms of heavy interrogation. Many of these allegations have been contained in documents released to the American Civil Liberties Union and other human rights groups pursuant to Freedom of Information Act litigation."[3]
The report included an extensive interview with one Sergeant, using the pseudonym "Jeff Perry", who worked as an interrogator with the task force running the detention center. Sergeant "Perry" indicated that written authorizations were required for most abusive techniques, indicating that the use of these tactics was approved up the chain of command:
There was an authorization template on a computer, a sheet that you would print out, or actually just type it in. And it was a checklist. And it was all already typed out for you, environmental controls, hot and cold, you know, strobe lights, music, so forth. Working dogs, which, when I was there, wasn’t being used. But you would just check what you want to use off, and if you planned on using a harsh interrogation you’d just get it signed off. I never saw a sheet that wasn’t signed. It would be signed off by the commander, whoever that was, whether it was O3 [captain] or O6 [colonel], whoever was in charge at the time. ... When the O6 was there, yeah, he would sign off on that. ... He would sign off on that every time it was done. Some interrogators would go and use these techniques without typing up one of those things just because it was a hassle, or he didn’t want to do it and knew it was going to be approved anyway, and you’re not gonna get in that much trouble if you get caught doing one of these things without a signature. Techniques involving outright assault—hitting, slapping, and beating—were apparently not on the list, but were regularly used at Nama, indicating that the harsh methods that were approved often degenerated into even harsher treatment in practice.
Human Rights Watch's senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism commented, "These accounts rebut U.S. government claims that torture and abuse in Iraq was unauthorized and exceptional – on the contrary, it was condoned and commonly used."[4]
Investigation and inter-agency conflict [ edit ]
The reports of abuses inside Camp Nama were said to have outraged even seasoned CIA, FBI and DIA investigators accustomed to dealing with non-cooperative and hostile detainees, and to have provoked a culture clash between agencies and groups involved with the facility. By early 2004, one of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's top aides, Under-Secretary for Defense Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone, ordered a subordinate, DIA head Vice Adm. Lowell E. Jacoby to "get to the bottom" of any misconduct.
By June 25, 2004, Admiral Jacoby wrote a two-page memo to Cambone, in which he described a series of complaints, including a May 2004 incident in which a DIA interrogator said he witnessed task force soldiers punch a detainee hard enough to require medical help. The DIA officer took photos of the injuries, but a supervisor confiscated them, the memo said. The memo provoked an angry reaction from Mr. Cambone. "Get to the bottom of this immediately. This is not acceptable," Mr. Cambone said in a handwritten note on June 26, 2004, to his top deputy, Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin. "In particular, I want to know if this is part of a pattern of behavior by TF 6-26."
According to the New York Times article, General Boykin had earlier said (on March 17) through a spokesman that he told Mr. Cambone he had found no pattern of misconduct with the task force. The article does not provide further detail on Boykin's response to the investigation after Cambone's and Jacoby's intervention in June, 2004.
Transfer to LSA Anaconda [ edit ]
According to the New York Times article, in the summer of 2004, Camp Nama closed and the unit moved to "a new headquarters in Balad, 45 miles north of Baghdad." This would probably refer to Balad AB, also known as Logistics Support Area Anaconda and later as Joint Base Balad.
Since the transfer the unit's operations are said to have been shrouded in even tighter secrecy. According to Thomas E. Ricks of the Washington Post, a new "detainee center" has indeed been established at Camp Balad, under the auspices of a new unit, the Joint Special Operations Task Force; entry is not permitted to normal Army Rangers personnel.[5]
Prisoner abuse [ edit ]
British soldiers testified that:[6]
Iraqi prisoners being held for prolonged periods in cells the size of large dog kennels.
Prisoners being subjected to electric shocks.
Prisoners being routinely hooded.
Inmates being taken into a sound-proofed shipping container for interrogation, and emerging in a state of physical distress.
Special areas [ edit ]
The Black Room [ edit ]
Detainees at the camp that were considered "high-value" were interrogated in "The Black Room," a dark mostly bare room with large metal hooks hanging from the ceiling. The guards often used loud rock 'n' roll or rap music to torment prisoners during interrogations.[1]
Motel 6 and Hotel California [ edit ]
The New York Times mentions other whimsically named sections of Camp Nama, including Motel 6, "a group of securely constructed wooden holding cells constructed by the United States Navy Seabees of Charlie Company NMCB-1 Air-Det. Conditions were cramped, forcing many prisoners to squat or crouch", in a block of 6-by-8 cubicles known as Hotel California. These holding cells were constructed to hold the leaders and Individuals responsible for terrorist acts and murders.[1]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Coordinates: |
The logic behind laws requiring voters to provide a government-issued photo identification card is simple and seductive: If you need to show an ID to board a plane, open a bank account, get public aid or do any number of other things, it only makes sense to do the same before casting a ballot.
That was what Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, said in 2011 as he signed a law imposing this new mandate. "There really is no barrier for people," he asserted. "Particularly in a society where people need photo identification for just about everything else, including checking out a book from the library ... it's a reasonable requirement."
Many of the advocates can't imagine anyone functioning in 21st-century America without valid proof of identity. So they are skeptical that requiring it could possibly be an obstacle to voting. They also tend to believe that anyone who lacks something so basic deserves no accommodation.
These attitudes reflect a failure to understand the lives of many Americans. In the suit challenging the Wisconsin law, which recently was overturned by a federal court, a parade of people attested that they lacked the required ID and, in many cases, couldn't easily get it.
One of them was Ruthelle Frank, a former member of the village board of Brokaw. She has never had a driver's license or state ID, and her 1927 birth certificate has a misspelling. To get it fixed, she would have to undertake a legal process that could cost $200.
Another was Mariannis Ginorio, a young Milwaukee woman. She had no driver's license, and Wisconsin doesn't accept birth certificates from her native Puerto Rico issued before 2010. Sam Bulmer, a homeless Air Force veteran, could offer only a federal Veterans Identification Card—which is not on the list of IDs recognized by the state.
Statewide, the court concluded, 300,000 eligible voters don't have the documents needed for voting. In the normal course of life, people like this don't need them.
Fifteen percent of white adults in Wisconsin, and half of blacks and Hispanics, don't drive. Passport holders are a minority of the population. A lot of people don't need a photo ID to board a plane because they don't fly.
In fact, the Transportation Security Administration doesn't bar anyone who shows up without an ID. In that case, the TSA says, "You'll be able to fly as long as you provide us with some information that will help us determine you are who you say you are."
Seniors can verify their eligibility for Social Security without a photo ID. Food stamps? Federal regulations say "any documents which reasonably establish the applicant's identity must be accepted, and no requirement for a specific document, such as a birth certificate, may be imposed." Libraries will generally accept a utility bill or something similar to issue a card.
Opening a bank account? Larry Dupuis, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin Foundation, says he never had to show an ID to open his account, which he did some two decades ago. "It's really a post-9/11 thing," he says, for banks to require one. But many poor people don't have bank accounts.
Those activities, in any event, are not constitutionally guaranteed, which voting is. The government can impose regulations that affect constitutional rights. But it must have a good reason, and the rules can't be an undue burden. States can mandate a 24-hour waiting period for abortions, which the Supreme Court says is a modest restriction justified by "the state's interest in protecting the life of the unborn."
Under federal law, you may buy a gun from a private seller without an ID. Licensed dealers must see photo identification, despite the Second Amendment. That's not hard to justify because if a person forbidden to own firearms acquires one—say a convicted felon—the outcome may be fatal.
If a person forbidden to vote manages to cast a ballot by pretending to be someone else, by contrast, the election result will almost never be affected. Besides, the sort of fraud that an ID would prevent is exceedingly rare. The court in Wisconsin found the requirement would block vastly more legal voters than fraudulent ones.
States have long had procedures that discourage fraud by impersonation without blocking legitimate voters from the polls. The stricter new requirements may sound reasonable, but they're not reasonable for everyone—or reasonable for democracy. |
The Big Game shootout many expected materialized in the form of Stanford's Christian McCaffrey, who led the Cardinal to a 45-31 victory in the 119th renewal of its football rivalry with Cal on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
Stanford (8-3 overall, 6-3 Pac-12) earned its seventh consecutive victory in the series and has maintained possession of The Axe since 2009. Sixth-year coach David Shaw, Stanford's Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football, still never has lost to the Golden Bears.
"It's special," Shaw said. "This is a great rivalry, a respectful rivalry. The bottom line is we get to have it for another year."
Much of the credit goes to McCaffrey. In the McCaffrey annals, Saturday's performance may have been his best. At the very least, it was the best rushing performance in Stanford history.
McCaffrey rushed for 284 yards on 31 carries and scored three touchdowns, including a 90-yarder in the third quarter that gave Stanford the momentum it needed to gap the Bears and take control of the game.
The rushing total broke his own school record of 243, against UCLA last year, and was a Big Game record as well. McCaffrey increased his season rushing total to 1,399 with two games left: a regular-season finale against visiting Rice next Saturday and a bowl game to be determined.
“It’s a huge honor for me. Its an honor I share with the O-line, the fullbacks, and the receivers," McCaffrey said. "Keller blocking down field, all those guys. Any type of accolade or anything like that isn’t just me. It takes all the guys out there and I am just really lucky and thankful I have those guys in front of me.”
With Stanford up 17-14 –- the Cardinal had trailed 14-7 in the second quarter -- McCaffrey scored the Cardinal's next three touchdowns, from 90, 11 and 1 yards.
"We knew we wanted to run the ball," said Shaw, whose team gained 357 on the ground and 555 overall. "When the game got to the nitty-gritty we wanted to give it to No. 5."
On Stanford's first series of the second half and pinned back at its own 3-yard line after a Cal punt, the Cardinal used two plays to bolt to a 24-14 lead. McCaffrey slammed up the middle, broke a tackle eight yards upfield, and outran the secondary to complete a coast-to-coast run.
“Its incredible. Every time he runs I want to turn around and watch him the second I hand it off," Chryst said. "I give a lot credit to the guys up front who pave the way for him.”
On the first five possessions of the second half, Stanford scored touchdowns on four of them, concluding with a nifty 30-yard pass from Keller Chryst to Trenton Irwin to take a 45-24 lead with 4:17 left in the game.
Chryst improved to 4-0 as a starter and may have had his best game yet. At this point, no one is criticizing the quarterback play and the Stanford offense has been rolling since the Cardinal began that four-game winning streak at Arizona, after previously dropping three of four to drop out of the Pac-12 North Division race.
Chryst completed 13 of 23 passes for 198 yards and threw two touchdown passes. He also ran 16 yards for Stanford's first touchdown and was the lead blocker on pitch to McCaffrey that picked up 36 yards. Of Chryst's passing yards, 104 of them went to JJ Arcega-Whiteside on four catches, including a 59-yarder that set up Stanford's final touchdown.
Cal receiver Chad Hansen bookended his night with touchdowns. He scored from 70 yards on Cal's first play from scrimmage on a short slant that gobbled up the defense. He also caught a 16-yarder from Davis Webb to cut the deficit to 45-31 with 3:01 left in the game.
Cal attempted an onsides kick, but it was covered by Stanford's Justin Reid and the Cardinal ran out the clock from there. Receiver Michael Rector and guard Johnny Caspers took the Axe from it's the Stanford Axe Committee, still locked in a staredown with their Cal counterparts, and held it up for all to see.
In the Stanford team room, there are photos on the wall of Stanford players holding the Axe after every Big Game victory. Another will be placed there shortly. |
Millions of people will be introduced to consumer virtual reality this year. You could be leaving a day a Six Flags and want to know more about the VR you experienced on a roller coaster, or maybe you saw demos of the HTC Vive being given at your local mall. Perhaps you just heard about VR on TV and want to know more.
The first thing everyone needs to know about VR in 2016 is that there are two kinds available to buy.
The cheap kind (Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR) uses a phone held in front of the eyes and inexpensive lenses to produce very basic VR that is best experienced either seated or standing in place. The more expensive kind (HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Sony PlayStation VR) connects using a cord to either a PC or a game console to create a move-around or walk-around virtual space.
The critical difference between these two types of VR technology is the addition of what’s termed “positional tracking”. The first consumer VR headset manufacturers haven’t figured out how to track your head’s position throughout a room using only a battery-powered device. The power drains too quickly or the phone overheats if something similar to Google Cardboard or Gear VR tries matching the functionality of the wired headsets like Rift, Vive and PlayStation VR. High-quality positional tracking is critical for highly immersive experiences in VR that involve more body movement, and it’s a main goal of engineers and researchers at companies like Google and Facebook to lower the power requirements of wireless VR.
Let’s Talk Cost
Google Cardboard can be made at home with household items if you have the lenses and a modern app-powered cell phone, but a View-Master from Mattel is probably easier and shouldn’t cost more than $30.
The Samsung Gear VR is $100 and higher quality, but only works with the newest Samsung phones.
Oculus Rift is available for purchase — but backordered into late summer — for around $600. To run it, it’s recommended you have a PC that, starting from scratch, costs around $1,000. Rift is made by Facebook’s Oculus VR division and relies on a camera to find the headset’s location throughout the room.
HTC Vive is similar in many ways to the Rift, but it uses lasers to find the headset’s location throughout the room instead of a camera. Made by Taiwan-based HTC, Vive costs $800 because it includes a pair of tracked hand controllers. These can bring your hands into VR for a wide-variety of activities, including putting in golf or using handguns to shoot at zombies and robots. The same lasers track the location of the controllers throughout the room.
PlayStation VR is $400 and works with the $300 PlayStation 4 game console. It uses a camera to track location and the PlayStation Move wands to bring your hands into VR. The camera and controllers cost less than $100 purchased separately from a system.
Experience The Difference
VR will be used, or won’t be, based on the available software for these systems. 360-degree videos are common and wrap a scene around the viewer. They work reasonably well on Google Cardboard, but there aren’t many great games you can play on it.
Facebook’s Oculus spent a lot of time and money trying to get developers to populate its mobile VR app storefront with games made for this kind of VR. Software like Dead Secret, Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes, Smash Hit, Social Trivia and many more are a lot of fun in the high-quality mobile Gear VR.
Beyond wireless VR, the addition of positional tracking for your head opens up a whole range of possible activities in VR — leaning in to examine things up close or ducking out of the way of something coming at you being basic things you can’t do with current phones.
Add your hands and suddenly the number of things you can do in VR multiplies. Oculus is expecting to add a second camera and the Oculus Touch hand controllers by the end of the year for move-around hand-controlled VR experiences. Sony’s PlayStation VR, which is also tracked by a camera, will work with the Move hand controllers when it releases in October/November.
Bottom Line
The perfect VR device doesn’t have any wires and knows where it is in a room. It very likely knows what’s going on around it at all times too so, when you wear it, you can keep clear of real-world obstacles while immersed in a virtual world. So far, doing all that requires too much power.
Until that device arrives, if you’re interested in VR you have to decide whether you want a wired or wireless system. If you’re very new to the idea of buying consumer VR, you need to get someone to give you demos of a Samsung Gear VR and an HTC Vive so you can compare what high-quality wireless VR looks like compared with walk-around hand-controlled experiences.
Tagged with: vr 101 |
North Korea said Thursday the United States "unilaterally" deployed the B-1B bomber to the peninsula. Seoul did not comment on the allegation. File Photo by Jonathan Steffen/U.S. Air Force/UPI | License Photo
March 16 (UPI) -- North Korea claimed Thursday the United States deployed a supersonic U.S. bomber during joint training exercises on the peninsula.
Pyongyang's state-controlled news agency KCNA stated the "U.S. imperialists and their hunting dogs" are "deepening the threat of nuclear weapons."
"Nuclear threats are being stepped up," Pyongyang said.
In the statement, North Korea claimed the U.S. B-1B bomber departed Andersen Air Force Base in Guam on Wednesday, and the move was unilateral.
"For about an hour, the United States conducted atomic bombing exercises that rehearsed pre-emptive strikes against our major facilities," North Korea stated.
North Korea also condemned the U.S. decision to deploy the nuclear-powered supercarrier USS Carl Vinson to the peninsula.
The United States and South Korea recently completed missile-warning drills, South Korean news service News 1 reported.
"The act of pre-emptive strike against us demonstrate the reckless militarization of the enemies," the statement from KCNA read. "Despite our repeated warnings, as [the enemies] make a frantic last-ditch effort to engage in a scheme of provocation, we will mete out more ruthless nuclear punishment."
South Korea's defense ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun neither denied nor confirmed whether the B-1B bomber allegations were true.
"For reasons of operational security, we cannot give confirmation on this matter," Moon said Thursday.
Joint U.S.-South Korea exercises began March 1 are expected to continue for two months. |
Andrew McCutchen has been announced as Giancarlo Stanton's replacement for the Home Run Derby just hours after Bryce Harper was named (h/t Adam Kilgore, The Washington Post) as Stanton's replacement for the All-Star Game itself.
The Pittsburgh Pirates announced the news via their official Twitter account:
. @thecutch22 replaces Giancarlo Stanton in the MLB Home Run derby Monday night. — Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) July 8, 2012
McCutchen has led a resurgence in the Steel City so far this season. He's a top contender for the National League MVP award at this point because of his legitimate five-tool talents. He's hitting .359 with 16 home runs and 56 RBI this far.
He isn't your traditional Home Run Derby participant. He doesn't have towering power, but his production has increased gradually over his career. He hit 12 home runs as a rookie in 2009, 16 in 2010 and 23 last season. Given that he already has 16 bombs this year you have to imagine he will clear his total from the 2011 campaign.
Fans outside of Pittsburgh may wrinkle their nose at McCutchen as a derby participant, but they shouldn't. He is one of baseball's rising stars, and this year's production, coupled with the Pirates play, has vaulted him to superstar status.
When you look at McCutchen you don't see a menacing hitter with prodigious power potential. You see an excellent all-around hitter who has home run capabilities but isn't a consistent threat to go yard.
Don't let McCutchen's 5'10'', 185-pound frame fool you. He has one of the quickest bats in the league, and his bat speed gives him a chance to compete Monday night. He has an easily repeatable swing because of his discipline and rhythmic approach.
Stanton was a "sexy" pick to win this year because of his propensity for towering shots. His power has been well-documented since his days in the Marlins farm system.
McCutchen doesn't bring that same reputation to the table, but his presence will be exciting. He's the face of the up-and-coming Pirates franchise and one of baseball's brightest young stars. |
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi cut the ribbon on Yelp ’s new headquarters Wednesday, making San Francisco’s PacBell building the company’s official new home. The move is a landmark for the online review company, which has been headquartered in San Francisco since being founded in 2004. The company is migrating from its previous space at 706 Mission Street to the historic building in the conveniently-located South of Market (SOMA) district.
The PacBell Building
Built as the Pacific Telephone Building in the 1920s, the skyscraper is considered an impressive part of San Franciscan architecture, with an Art Deco style that captures attention. To prepare for Yelp’s occupation, a construction company made major renovations to the building, completing improvements to its seismic performance, and all new electric, plumbing, and fire sprinkler systems.
During the dedication ceremony, Congresswoman Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee acknowledged the building’s rich history, which includes a 1929 visit by Winston Churchill. While he was in the building, Churchill famously made what was reportedly the first transatlantic phone call in history.
Yelp’s History
Yelp has made history itself, redefining the way consumers choose retailers, restaurants, and more. Acknowledging this, the city of San Francisco has proclaimed November 6th Yelp Day in the city in order to honor the business’s phenomenal success. The company is leasing 110,000 square feet of the 26-floor building, with an option to take another 35,000 square feet as the company continues to grow.
The concept for Yelp evolved from the basic idea of friends being able to get recommendations from others on businesses. Originally, these recommendations were proposed to come through e-mail, but as social media grew in popularity, the site became a combination of social media and business reviews. In less than a decade, the site has grown to a multinational company with an app that was used on 11.2 million mobile devices in its most recent quarter.
But at the time of its founding, Yelp had fierce competition from services like CitySearch and Yahoo ! Local . As Google changed the way consumers searched, the other two sites seemed to lose steam. At the same time, Yelp was gradually beginning to grow by finding unique ways to encourage users to post reviews. By 2007, the company held more than one million reviews of businesses that had been submitted by users.
The Yelp Elite
Part of the reason for Yelp’s growth was a group of super users it created called The Yelp Elite. This small group of users was invited by the company to post reviews of various establishments, acting as a local ambassador of sorts. In exchange, these users are invited to exclusive parties and made to feel as though they are social media royalty.
It’s a program that prevails today, guaranteeing that quality reviews will be posted on all of a city’s hotspots. Not that Yelp needs it. Customers eagerly take to Yelp to voice complaints or enthusiastic recommendations about a restaurant or shop, thanks in large part to this social media component. The Yelp community has grown to the point that surveys consistently reveal that the vast majority off customers check online reviews before visiting a new business. This has changed the face of marketing, and today marketing firms focus on those valuable online customers.
Improving Scores
For local businesses, this means that Yelp is a force that cannot be overlooked. Regardless of a business’s location, the power of a good review on Yelp can’t be ignored, especially if you can be seen as a trendy, must-visit place. Businesses throughout the country now sport stickers urging customers to support them on Yelp, with many feeling that a high rating on Yelp can increase a business’s traffic. A low review can spell disaster for a business, with the review likely to linger for many years.
That is the power of Yelp. In an effort to retain authenticity, Yelp does not involve itself in the review process, giving posters the freedom to state how they feel about a business. Unless the review is in violation of the site’s Terms of Service, requests that a negative review be removed will likely be ignored. The reason for this is fairly obvious. If Yelp begins removing negative reviews in response to requests, the value of the site will quickly deflate.
For businesses who do not yet have a presence on Yelp, setting up a profile is one of the best things they can do to reach customers. Businesses can set up a profile, add photos and menus, and provide directions to interested customers. Reviews will soon follow.
In the meantime, Yelp’s new building at 140 New Montgomery serves as a landmark for the company, which now has more than 100 million unique visitors each month. The company recruits young tech workers at universities and encourages a culture of open communication, where workers are encouraged to submit ideas and speak out at meetings within the organization. As Yelp continues to grow, the San Francisco area is excited to have the tech company as part of its business infrastructure. |
I should have raised quality before corrupting it! Oh well.. the result is good anyway.
I should have raised quality before corrupting it! Oh well.. the result is good anyway. Selling logs: /view-thread/782113(very high speed)
Rhys epic times : view-thread/780247
Last edited by Inexium2 on Mar 5, 2014, 9:35:52 PM Last bumped on Sep 18, 2016, 11:43:19 AM Posted by Inexium2
on on Quote this Post
facepalm D3 treasure goblins's escape portal is an entrance to Wraeclast Posted by Moeeom123
on on Quote this Post
SERIUS SHIT, I downgraded a unique to a rare with a fuvking vaaal orb(lucky me i have otre facebreakers) Posted by Blackuya
on on Quote this Post
" Blackuya
Dafuq! I need to see more of these! No one will ever corrupt a legacy unique that's for sure!
" Bloemist
Fake
Dafuq! I need to see more of these! No one will ever corrupt a legacy unique that's for sure!Fake Selling logs: /view-thread/782113(very high speed)
Rhys epic times : view-thread/780247
Posted by Inexium2
on on Quote this Post
i used it on a 6l marohi, im done with the game, thats just bullshit. i used it on a 6l marohi, im done with the game, thats just bullshit. Crazy Miners Fire Nova Mines:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1595627
The Savage, Endgame cleaner:
https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/1613272 Posted by GGprime
on on Quote this Post |
Ashford Evans was excited when she found a sweet smelling piece of fancy soap in the bathroom. Given how messy children usually are, the Southern mom can’t be blamed for enjoying the moment.
Unfortunately, that’s also why Ashford should have been more suspicious about the soap’s origins. Especially when she didn’t remember buying it.
According to Babble, after going on a business trip, Ashford came home to a wonderfully quiet house and the fragrance of citrus. The mother of three, who blogs on Biscuits and Crazy, was enjoying the silence of the temporarily empty house when she looked in on the bathroom. She writes that she was pleased, if surprised, to find it freshly cleaned:
“I was greeted by a sweet citrus smell. The entire bathroom seemed to have been scrubbed just before my arrival. I looked around astonished that my husband would think to clean the house just before my arrival … and that’s when I saw it.”
“It” in this case, was a shriveled lump of old soap that was also the source of the nice, clean smell:
“One of the children’s cereal bowls was sitting on the shelf with what seemed to be an old bar of soap sitting in it. I didn’t remember buying grapefruit scented soap but it could’ve been from years ago. They have a tendency to dig up things long forgotten and put them on display for me.”
Despite its unattractive appearance, the soap still smelled wonderful:
“I picked it up and held it to my nose breathing the scent in. The smell of fresh grapefruit in a perfectly silent house is just short of heaven, I believe.”
She admits that she still couldn’t quite place where she had originally bought the soap, or where it could have been hiding all that time. But she didn’t let it worry her too much. In fact, Ashford found herself taking an extra whiff or two every time she visited the bathroom that evening.
She writes:
“Throughout the night I returned several times to inhale it’s [sic] tropical scent. In between making dinner and washing my face. I never bothered to wash my hands after fondling it because it was, after all, just soap.”
The next morning, back on mom duty, Ashford finally had the chance to solve the mystery. As her daughter pressed the lump of soap to her face and talked about how much she loved the smell, Ashford agreed and asked where it had come from.
Her daughter’s reply stopped her in her tracks:
“‘Meeny found it in the boys bathroom at Tae Kwon Do and brought it home,’ she happily replied.”
That’s when Ashford realized that she hadn’t been enjoying the luxurious scents of an expensive spa after all:
“And that’s when it hit me. It wasn’t some upscale boutique $15 soap I had been caressing for the last 12 hours. It was a urinal cake. … A URINAL CAKE!!!! A urinal cake from the public gym I take my 5 year old for Tae Kwon Do three times a week. A urinal cake that has been peed on by at least 1000 strange little boys that I just held against my cheek!!!!!”
Ashford had thought her children had found a high-end milled soap. Instead, they had grabbed the worn-down disc that businesses place in the drain of public urinals to help deodorize and disinfect them.
Her reaction was much like any mother’s under the circumstances:
“I screamed and jerked it from her hands flinging it into the trashcan. ‘NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!’ she cried bursting into tears. ‘It’s my FAVORITE!!!!!’ ‘WASH YOUR HANDS, YOUR FACE, OH GOD WASH EVERYTHING!!!!!!’ I screamed back. And everything went black.”
That wasn’t even the worst part. After realizing how funny the situation was, she decided to post about it on her blog. When her husband learned the origin of the bathroom “soap,” he was even more horrified. She tells Babble:
“When he answered the phone he was making gagging sounds. I asked him what was wrong and he said ‘I just saw your Facebook post. I had no idea what that thing was. I thought it was a piece of dried fruit: I almost tasted it. WHAT IF I HAD TASTED IT?'”
Then there was the realization that Tae Kwon Do class was on Wednesday, meaning that the urinal cake had been in their house for three days, infecting everyone and everything with its ickiness all the while.
Ashford decided to make peace with the situation and the funny, but gross trials of motherhood. She writes:
“Clearly our options were 1. Burn the house to the ground or 2. Pretend like it never happened and drink a bottle of wine [or two].”
She says she’ll let you take a guess as to which one she chose… |
'I'm in a spot of bother...': What lorry driver rang to tell boss after being impaled by 8ft pole in freak accident
A lorry driver was speared by an 8ft pole and calmly called his boss to say: 'I'm in a spot of bother.'
Jason Ripley was pierced through the chest - just inches from his heart - by the metal shaft after an accident in his delivery truck in Darlington, north east England.
The 39-year-old drove into a horizontal barrier, which was hidden by a bush, and as it struck the side of his vehicle, it bounced on the bonnet and smashed through the windscreen.
Skewered: Jason Ripley is treated while a parking barrier pierces his chest
But as he lay impaled he realised nobody had seen the freak accident and he risked dying.
So he grabbed his mobile and phoned work to say: ‘I’ve had a bit of an accident - I’m in a spot of bother.’
Speaking of the moment he was skewered, he said: ‘It went straight through my chest and out the back. There were seven or eight feet of pole sticking out.
‘It was only two or three inches from my heart. I was just staring at the sky, thinking, “That's it, I'm going to die”.’
He was lifted out of the seat by the impact and his vehicle came to a stop after 20 yards with the skewered driver left pinned against the back of the cab.
‘My boss raced around to see me. He was gob-smacked. It was just out of this world,’ he added.
Mr Ripley said his thoughts then turned to his family – his partner Helen Todd, 38, and sons Joshua, 19, and Jay, 11 – as he was being cut out of the vehicle by firefighters.
‘That was the worst bit, when they clamped the jaws of the cutters on the pole and it started turning inside me,’ he said.
The incident happened on August, 19 last year, but Great North Air Ambulance has just released the pictures to help raise cash.
‘It was strange when I saw it turning, but by that stage I just wanted to get it out of there.
‘Even when they put me in the helicopter there was still about four feet of pole going through me.
Recovered: Mr Ripley, 39 at home with 38-year-old partner Helen Todd
‘It was when I heard the Air Ambulance, that’s when I thought, I’m nearly there.’ The minutes left in Jason’s ‘critical hour’ were running low.
Forklift truck drivers at the scene of the accident moved parked cars so the helicopter could get close and airlift him to James Cook Hospital in Middlesbrough.
Within minutes he was in the safe hands of the waiting surgeons.
He said: ‘Someone told me, “Don’t worry, your going to be OK and when I woke up the pole was gone.’
The pole meant he would not fit into a scanner.
He was induced into a 24-hour coma while skilled surgeons cut into his ribs and slid the barrier out from the side, under his arm.
He has suffered lasting injuries from the trauma, but was back at work within months and counts himself lucky to be alive.
Mr Ripley released the photographs over a year after the crash to try and help raise money for the Great North Air Ambulance.
He said: ‘It makes you appreciate what you've got.
‘It’s clear to me without the Great North Air Ambulance I would have died.
‘If they aren’t there people will die. I will be indebted to them forever. It took more than an hour to get me out of the truck.
‘Without the helicopter I don’t think I would have survived the trip to hospital.
‘I can’t thank the GNAA, the doctors and the rescue team enough. They are all truly amazing.’
The accident happened on an industrial estate in Darlington when a loose pole, which was part of a gateway, bounced onto the bonnet of his truck and through the windscreen.
Mr Ripley still has a shoulder injury and had one rib removed following the accident.
He said: ‘I was driving through a gateway from one part of the industrial estate to another when it happened.
‘The pole was the gateway and was hanging loose but had been almost covered by overgrown bushes.
‘As I drove through the gateway the pole caught the truck, bounced onto the cab and went through the windscreen.
‘My colleagues were only a few hundred yards away so I phoned them first because it was easier to explain where I was than it would have been to the emergency services.
‘It was strange because I didn’t feel much pain at all.
‘I had a rib removed and two others tied together and I’ve also got a shoulder injury which I will probably have for life.’ |
Why Caffeine In Coffee Is A Miracle Drug For The Tired
Enlarge this image toggle caption istockphoto.com istockphoto.com
NPR's Coffee Week is winding down, but we'd be remiss if we didn't give some space to caffeine, the most widely used stimulant drug in the world.
As much as we may enjoy the nutty dark roast aromas and the sensations of a warm beverage, coffee is often just a caffeine delivery system for a groggy brain. Approximately 80 percent of caffeine is consumed in the form of coffee, and in the U.S., we average about two cups of coffee per day. That 200 milligrams of caffeine affects our brains, our performance, and maybe even our health.
Many believe that humanity's caffeine addiction has wrought a lot of benefits. Earlier in the week, historian Mark Pendergrast told us about how coffee (and caffeine) helped Western civilization "sober up" enough to get down to business. And Jerry Seinfeld claimed coffee has made us a more productive society.
But is there any science behind the idea that caffeine, by way of coffee, makes us better workers? And what exactly is caffeine doing to our tired brains?
For these questions, we turned to Stephen Braun, a medical writer who sifted through the research on caffeine in his book Buzz: The Science and Lore of Alcohol and Caffeine. (It came out in 1997, but it's still among the best resources on the topic.)
According to Braun, caffeine works by blocking receptors for adenosine, a compound in the brain that makes you feel sleepy. In other words, he writes in the book, consuming caffeine is like "putting a block of wood under one of the brain's primary brake pedals."
Of course, there's a huge amount of variation in how caffeine affects individuals, which depends on genetics, tolerance and other factors. But several small studies have shown that at low doses (between 100 and 250 mg), caffeine improves alertness and mental performance, especially in people who are already tired. Neuroscientists report that it makes us more supportive of each other in social situations. And one study even found that higher caffeine consumption helped reduce the risk of workplace accidents.
"Its indirect action on arousal, mood and concentration contributes in large part to its cognitive enhancing properties," according to a review article in the Journal of Alzheimers Disease.
As Allison Aubrey reported last month, caffeine also seems to improve short-term memory — if you're exhausted. But researchers said it didn't have any beneficial effects on memory among people who are well rested.
YouTube
As with all drugs, there is such a thing as too much caffeine. According to a 2001 Institute of Medicine report, 600 mg of caffeine (or six cups of coffee) will bring on negative cognitive effects, otherwise known as the jitters, in most people — including Kramer from Seinfeld. And some people are so sensitive to caffeine that one cup will bring on nervousness and irritability, rather than the alertness that most of us feel.
"We also know that caffeine is bad for people with anxiety — for them, it's likely to hurt productivity," Braun tells The Salt. "But for people on the more depressive end, caffeine would improve productivity. The effect of the drug really depends on the brain into which it's being infused."
Increasingly, medical researchers are worried about about how teens' overuse of caffeine is keeping them from getting the restorative sleep they need. That goes for some adults, too.
As psychologist Harris Lieberman of the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine told NPR back in 2011, modern life has made us more dependent on the drug. "It's a combination of driving ourselves and having high expectations of ourselves, but also of society making a lot of demands on us, so they kind of add up to give us insufficient time to sleep."
Braun has a theory on how to get the most out of caffeine, and it involves taking regular "caffeine holidays" five or six times a year.
"I find it to be most useful when I start at a virgin state, so I taper down slowly," he says. "I switch from coffee to black tea, and then peppermint tea. So when I get that first cup of java again, it's such a great feeling."
Tapering down also reminds him that he can function perfectly well — and sleep better — without caffeine. |
By PatB
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
I got a very interesting piece of spam in my inbox this morning, and it took me a few moments to realize it was a phishing attack designed to make me disclose my Google Adwords password.
Here is a screenshot of it.
Hovering over the link, you can see that they use a machine name of “adwords.google.com,” however, it continues as a session name, followed by random numbers, and finally, a domain name located on a Russian host. This attack is designed to trick website operators and blog owners into disclosing their Google account password. So far I have only seen Adwords used as a phishing attack. I suspect that it would work just as well with Adsense and other Google subscription and pay services as well.
Many users of Google services use the same password for all of their services- for Gmail, Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Adsense and even Google Write. Allowing this password to be disclosed would likely allow the attacker to take over not only the the Gmail account itself, but also to access all the services and websites where the Gmail address was used to register.
Securiteam has a blog post here about a man who had many businesses and forwarded all of his emails to his Gmail account for ease of access, easy searching, and convenience. When his Google account was locked, undoubtedly because he was Phished, he literally lost the keys to his business and was unable to interact with his customers. It took days to regain his access.
Bottom line is, don’t fall for these phishing attacks. Make sure you have a backup email notification built into your Google account(s), and for God’s sake, don’t use the same password for everything. The same goes double for Yahoo accounts. |
GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Blades in the Dark, Quickset Rules v.6
Our scoundrels, feeling tapped and ready for action jumped right into another score. They were going to take the Lampblacks up on their offer and move some product!
Questions
Before play started, I wanted to know a few things about our academics:
What was it like for Hix in Ironhook?
She never actually got quite that far. They had her in an iron armored carriage ready to haul off when the orders came to release her. She saw Ironhook across the canal, but never actually stepped inside it.
What is Scapa’s Story?
The crew got an advance last session and with it chose to take Scapa as a cohort (no longer just a asset, now she’s part of the crew). So we had to find out a few things about her. Ashlyn Scapa is:
Loyal, she knows who freed her, she’s not going to forget it. The living by and large looks like food, but these three, she’s loyal to them.
Principled, she going to fight for her clients and she’s not going to back down. She’s also not going to take an action that would forfeit a case if it was discovered.
Obsessed, and because she’s a ghost she had a needs as well. In her case, she had a long list of cases that were never resolved. Now, her clients, living or dead, are going to get the trials they deserve!
The Score
(Transcribed from Adrienne’s notes with some mechanical bits and small flourishes added in. Thank you so much for taking this all down Adreinne!)
After a quick discussion of their options, the Society decides to head to the Lampblacks to find out whether they can shift some product for the gang. [I made a fortune check to see if the Lampblacks were in any mood to talk with the war on, but hit a 6. Lucky them] Cross was not only present at the Leaky Bucket, but available and willing to talk business with them!
Harland and Hix settle in to negotiate, while Elke starts to tell the Bucket’s patrons about our previous score and our abilities. [Cross, despite liking the kids, didn’t have any reason to trust them or that they were capable of doing the job. I asked how they would win him over and Harland said he would sway him with stories of their past exploits. Originally the roll was going to be risky, as Cross started talking about Dream Smoke and Trance Powder, but Halrand pushed it, they wanted a big score, they wanted to move Bloodneedle and Black Lotus. From Risky to Desperate in one swoop!] They persuade Cross that they’re capable of moving even his hardest drugs and Hix goes to the bar to talk numbers and sample the wares. [Cross realizes from her proficiency doping that Hix is a regular Bloodneedle user]
Meanwhile Elka keeps at it with stories of her mastery of spectrology and Harland backs her up, boosting her stories. Elke wanted to do more than just get this one job, she also wanted the Lampblacks to use the Doskvol Spectral Society as their go to for all things spectral in the future. Pressed to prove her claims, she summons Nyrix in. The place goes cold. One man drops his mug as it starts to freeze in his hand. Nyrix swooshes in, deeply unsettling the Lampblacks, and comes to roost in Elke. The Lampblacks are amazed – except for one, Ruby, who has the look of a person about to go tattle a tale to someone. [She took the Devil’s Bargain to fill in the final tick on the “Lampblacks know about our business” clock, which means they ferreted out their turf as well as their abilities, at least as far as they understand them. She also got a consequence and stealing very liberally from John, I put a snitch in the crowd. Wow, the Lampblacks are just riddled with snitches!]
Back at the bar, as Nyryx enters and and the mirror behind the bar frosts over, Hix sees a strange pattern laid out by the antlers, heads and horns that are mounted on the wall behind her. It seems like something intriguing and occult and Hix hurriedly tries to jot it down on a scrap of paper. Because of her injured arm though she can barely hold a pen though and Cross sees what she’s up to; snatching, crumpling and disposing of the drawing and encouraging her to agree that she actually saw nothing. She does.
Elke points the snitch out to Harland. Harland, asking to be poured a drink, points the snitch out to Cross. Cross suggests that Harland might have misspoke. Harland agrees, perhaps he did, and informs Cross more pointedly that that man, right over there, is a SNITCH.
Elke meanwhile is laying her own trap. She sidles over to the snitch, settles herself in his lap, and asks him outright who he’s planning on running and talking to. He hesitates. She tells him that she has a ghost inside her and she can easily make that ghost go inside someone else. He says, ‘I’ll kill you, little girl.’ and unceremoniously drops her to the floor.
At this point Cross has been persuaded to take Harland’s accusation at least somewhat seriously and calls out to the man that he’s being called a snitch. Everyone assumes there’s about to be a fight for honor between Harland and the man. To everyone’s surprise though, the man bolts. Hix takes the opportunity to rile up the rest of the Lampblacks into chasing him. (Would he run if he’s innocent?) [This was a great use of teamwork. Harland was trying to get Cross to turn on his own. I ruled this as a desperate action and I said there would be reduced effect. Cross would look into it, but not take immediate action. Harland rolled a 4-5 result so I told him that, Ruby, the snitch was going to get the jump on him behind the bar, and have several of his friends behind him. Elke, however, used her subtle threats and distractions to protect Harland, making the resistance roll for him. The serious complication of being jumped by Ruby and his friends was reduced to just a complication, of Ruby running to rat them out. Harland commanded the other Lampblacks, and because he already had Cross’s tacit interest, and because they too were wondering why he’d run, the chased him down!]
Elke, Harland and Hix are in close pursuit. Elke sics Nyrix on him, without resorting to a compel, but knows she’s presuming a lot from their relationship and he might not be so ready to help her in the future. Once he possesses Ruby, he drops. The Lampblacks – and Harland – close in to deliver the beat-down. Nyrix opens Ruby’s fingers so he can experience more pain as his fingers are broken and calls out to Elke about what she’s missing. Elke and Hix can barely stomach the horror of the situation – but they do.
To be continued
We decided that this was all one big score, so we’d pick up next session as they actually found a buy and moved the product!
What Rocked
I really love how hard the Society pushed. They wanted a bigger job, so they got one! With all the ensuing problems that followed!
What’s going to happen to Ruby? The Lampblacks didn’t kill him. He’s one of their own and killing in your own backyard is bad for business. But wow is he broken up something fierce. He’s got friends. I wonder what they think.
I love Hix getting in deep with drug trade, her own vice. I need to remember to start offering her Devil’s Bargains when using drugs to become addicted to them and/or make that consequences for using them in other actions. Not sure I want to play out all the horrors of addiction (there are many) but it’s very much part of drug crime fiction (and real drug crime) so it would be good to that have some effect for the DSS.
Even after watching them beat the hell out of Ruby frozen in the street (thanks to Nyryx) the Society still thinks of the Lampblacks as a bunch of nice guys. So good.
Speaking of Nyryx, he really didn’t appreciate being used for parlor tricks by Elke. She owes him one now.
Elke and her creepy spider (thanks Dimmer Sisters) coming out while she was sitting on Ruby’s lap. Cre-eeee-eepy.
Harland man. Talk about fearless. I love the way Eric said SNITCH.
Also, more thoughts for future games. The Lampblacks can start coming to them for help. The Red Sashes has whispers that mess them up something fierce. If they could get Elke to help counter them…
What could have improved
Despite my players loving it I did feel a wee bit unhappy stealing both John’s idea that there was a snitch in the crew and the effect in the mirror. Both played out very different, but I wasn’t at the height of creativity here. |
Train travel is one of the best ways to see Europe – the continent’s fairly compact so it’s easy to get around, and you can sit back and soak up the stunning views with a picnic. But if you’re planning a rail trip, most of the suggested itineraries seem to be geared up for Interrailers on month-long trips. It doesn’t have to be this way though – you can have a mini European rail adventure too. Pick a region and a few destinations and get route planning (the Seat 61 and Deutsche Bahn websites are great for routes and timetables).
Five itineraries for exploring Europe by train
Or if that sounds too much work, here are five of Europe’s best one-week rail trip ideas to get you started. Each route is possible in a week, but if you’ve got more time then you can take it slower and spend more time in each place. The idea isn’t to wear yourself out trying to see everything in every destination, but to take in the highlights and get a taste for each place (and if you find somewhere you love, you can always come back for longer).
Northern Europe – Canals and chocolate
Amsterdam > Bruges > Paris > Chur > Milan
Start off in Amsterdam and spend a couple of days checking out the city’s canals, cafés and museums. Then take an early train on to the pretty Belgian city of Bruges (3 hours away). Spend the afternoon feasting on local chocolate and beer, then climb to the top of the Belfort tower or take a boat trip along the canals the next morning before catching an afternoon train to Paris (3 hours). You’re totally spoilt for things to do in Paris – museums, history, food and shopping – so choose a few favourites to fill the next couple of days.
Then take the train to Chur, Switzerland’s oldest city on the banks of the Rhine (5 hours) for the night. Catch the Bernina Express the next morning, one of Europe’s most scenic train journeys through spectacular Alpine scenery to Tirano in Italy, where you change to a local train to connect to Milan (total 7 hours). Then spend your last morning shopping and sightseeing in the Italian fashion capital before heading home.
Italy – Palaces and pizza
Venice > Florence > Rome > Naples > Sicily
Begin your trip with a couple of days in Venice – cruise the Grand Canal, get lost in the backstreets and brave the crowds at St Mark’s Square and the Doges Palace. Then take an early train on to Florence (2 hours) and spend the afternoon gallery-hopping. Finish getting your fill of Renaissance art the next morning before taking the short journey on to Rome (1.5 hours) for the afternoon. Spend the next day seeing the historical sights of Rome before travelling south to the gritty coastal city of Naples (1 hour 10 mins).
Stuff yourself in the home of pizza and if you have time to spare you can catch the Circumvesuviana railway to visit nearby Sorrento, Herculaneum or Pompeii. Finish off with a couple of days on the island of Sicily – you can take the train all the way as it travels right on to the ferry for the 30-minute boat trip across the Messina Straits (takes 6 hours 45 mins to Taormina, 7.5 hours to Catania or 9 hours to Palermo).
Eastern Europe – Concerts and cake
Budapest > Bratislava > Vienna > Ljubljana > Zagreb
Arrive into the Hungarian capital Budapest for a couple of days soaking up the culture, steaming in the thermal baths and partying in ruin pubs. Then catch a train on to Bratislava in Slovakia (2.5 hours), a compact city on the banks of the Danube. Spend the afternoon and next morning checking out the city’s mix of 18th-century and Socialist-era architecture. Then travel on to Vienna in Austria (1 hour by train – or if you fancy a change from rail travel the two cities are also connected by a boat along the Danube).
Visit an ornate palace, catch a Mozart concert at the opera house and fill up on delicious sachertorte at a coffee house. Next travel on to Ljubljana in Slovenia (6 hours) for a couple of days exploring the charming old town, or you’re also only an hour by train from beautiful Lake Bled. Then end your trip in Zagreb, across the border in Croatia (2.5 hours), with a day visiting its museums, galleries and churches.
Spain & Portugal – Paella and port
Barcelona > Valencia > Madrid > Lisbon > Porto
Start your trip in the Spanish coastal city of Barcelona and spend a couple of days checking out Gaudi’s handiwork and catching some rays on the beach. Then take an early train down the coast to Valencia (3 hours) where you have the afternoon and next morning to explore the city’s mix of ancient and modern architecture, and try a paella in the city where it was first created. Take a short train ride inland to Spain’s capital Madrid in the afternoon (1.5 hours) and spend the next day visiting its parks and galleries.
Then catch the Lusitania overnight train that evening, leaving Madrid just before 10pm and arriving into Lisbon at 7.30am the next morning. Spend a couple of days in Portugal’s capital, spotting street art and feasting on seafood – or you can take a short day trip to the palace at Sintra (30 mins each way). Then finally travel north to Porto (3 hours) to end with a day of port-tasting on the banks of the Duoro.
Scandinavia – Fjords and funiculars
Copenhagen > Stockholm > Oslo > Flåm > Bergen
Begin your route with a couple of days in the Danish capital Copenhagen – cycle around the cobbled streets and check out the design shops and Michelin-starred restaurants in Nyhavn. Then take the train over the Öresund Link bridge and tunnel into Sweden and on to Stockholm (5 hours). Spend a day exploring the city, from medieval Gamla Stan to the 30,000 plus islands in the Stockholm Archipelago.
Then travel across the border to Oslo in Norway (6.5 hours) for a dose of Scandinavian culture at the city’s museums and art galleries. Take the scenic rail route towards the coast next – first the mainline train to Myrdal (4.5 hours) and then the Flåmsbana mountain railway to Flåm (50 minutes). Spend the night on the edge of the fjords and take a cruise out into the Sognefjord before travelling on to Bergen the next day (2 hours). Finish off with a trip to the fish market and great views from the funicular to Mount Fløyen.
So which would be your favourite route? Get lots more inspiration for travel by train in Europe in the On the Luce ‘European Rail Travel Ideas Book’, launching 2019.
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'Unquiet Graves: Uncovering Britain's Secret War in Ireland' details how members of the RUC (a local police force) and UDR, (a British Army regiment) were centrally involved in the murder of over 120 innocent civilians during the recent conflict in Ireland. It will detail how members worked hand in hand with known sectarian murderers in the targeted assassinations of farmers, shopkeepers, publicans and other civilians in a campaign aimed at terrorizing the most vulnerable in society.
Now known as the Glenanne Gang, the group of killers rampaged through Counties Tyrone and Armagh and across into the Irish Republic in a campaign that lasted from July 1972 to the end of 1978. After years of painstaking work by human rights groups The Pat Finucane Centre (PFC) and Dublin-based Justice for the Forgotten (JFF), and the subsequent release of Anne Cadwallader’s best-selling book, ‘Lethal Allies’, the scale of collusion between the British government and loyalist paramilitary groups has now become apparent. The British government knew that collusion was going on and condoned it.
The suffering of victims and survivors is today compounded by the refusal of both the Irish and British governments in dealing with the past by facing up to their responsibilities in pursuing truth and justice for those affected. The film hopes to redress an imbalance within public discourse while also offering a contextual appreciation of these tragic events from the perspectives of the families themselves, an important procedure not adequately afforded by institutional broadcasters in cases of state violence. |
The North Pole – In a shocking development late yesterday afternoon, Santa Claus held a press conference to denounce the existence of 15-year-old Erin Franklin from Dayton, Ohio.
An avid believer in not only children, but all humankind, Claus cites an “obnoxious attitude,” “self-obsession,” and “lack of a Facebook profile,” as reasons why he no longer believes in the Centerville High School teen. “My database doesn’t recognize Myspace profiles and I don’t recognize ungrateful children,” stated an irritated Claus.
Franklin seems unfazed by the statements. “So a creepy fat guy doesn’t believe in me?,” she said, “Isn’t that a good thing?”
A source close to the Claus camp says that his frustration stems from his granting, “All of (Erin Franklin’s) unrealistic Christmas wishes four years ago,” where apparently Santa was able to find her Father a job, cure her mother’s cancer, and bring her dog (which Franklin was initially informed was lost) back to life. “That’s some real ‘Jesus-like’ stuff right there,” said the source, “and what does he get for it? Nothing but attitude and another Christmas list full of crap from her.”
Claus, most noted for his jolly attitude and happy-go-lucky holiday charm, stated that Franklin is the first on a long list of people who he has stopped believing in. “…And I’ve got no problems doing it,” said the Christmas Icon, “I’m tired of getting piles of lists of what people want and not a single thank you for what they receive.”
Although unconfirmed, potential names on this list also include 8-year-old Emily Rosenthal from New York, 22-year-old Brad Reilly from Reno, and roughly 37 newly elected Democrats in Washington, DC. |
Why is Google marking tea in Britain?
Exactly 358 years ago, the first advert for tea in England appeared in a publication describing it simply as a “China Drink.”
A couple of years later, the diarist Samuel Pepys wrote about drinking tea in his diary entry from September 1660. "I did send for a cup of tee, (a China drink) of which I had never had drunk before".
Europeans were reportedly drinking Chinese tea as early as the 16th Century thanks to the maritime exploits of led by Dutch and Portuguese traders.
Google's tea Doodle Credit: Google
It was being sold in British coffee shops in the 17th Century but it was mainly the wealthy who enjoyed a nice cuppa as it was still considered expensive.
By the mid 18th century, however, tea became Britain's most popular beverage, replacing ale and gin as the drink of the masses.
Before long, the East India Company was using fast ships called tea clippers to bring back leaves from India and China. One such ship was the Cutty Sark, which is the only surviving clipper of its kind and can still be visited in Greenwich after being damaged by a fire in 2007.
Since then, some popular teas are barely recognisable from the leaves that first landed in the UK. From a maple bacon pancake brew to kombucha, a fermented, slightly effervescent black or green tea drink, Britain is experiencing new love affair with tea.
View more!
How (tea) times have changed
As tea became more readily available, dedicated tea shops began popping up throughout Britain, becoming favourite spots for daytime socialising. While this remains the case, what is actually being consumed is changing all the time.
Builders' tea is losing popularity to trendy green, herbal and fruit flavoured varieties. Of course, you can still get a traditional milk and two sugars in the local greasy spoon, but a new breed of café owners have cropped up, selling fine single estate loose-leaf teas served in authentic teaware, carefully paired with dumplings, open sandwiches and cakes, according to their flavour profile.
Cold-brew tea is also becoming more fashionable. Tea aficionados believe that by adding tea leaves to cold water and refrigerating it, usually overnight, the delicate flavours of tea can be savoured more effectively than by simply adding hot water from the kettle.
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Choosing the right tea for a certain occasion can also be important. Aung San Suu Kyi stirred controversy in June when she was criticised by the grandson of former dictator General Ne Win over her choice of tea at a state banquet. Aye Ne Win said serving Lipton tea at the state dinner was a “disgrace”.
How to drink tea
It is a debate that has ranged since the leaves first landed in Britain - how to best drink a cuppa. It is estimated that 98% of people take their tea with milk, but only 30 per cent take sugar in tea.
In 2003, scientists said they had found the secret to the perfect brew - put the milk in first. The reason is that when milk is exposed to high temperatures, such as being poured into a cup of piping hot tea, its proteins tend to degrade, or "denature", producing a slightly stale taste.
Far from settling the discussion, however, it merely provoked a storm in a teacup. Dr Julia King, head of the Institute of Physics, said the secret was to keep the water temperature at 98ºC. Putting the milk in first was a cultural quirk that "has nothing to do with taste", she said.
And there's the chinaware. As Friday's Doodle illustrates, tea cups come in all shapes, colours, and sizes, while some are very particular about the tea pot.
One such expert is architect Philip Miller, who accumulated 2,000 porcelain pots - despite never actually drinking tea himself. The collection, which is the largest from a single owner to ever be sold at auction, is expected to fetch up to £40,000 when it goes under the hammer this month.
Is drinking tea good for you?
It is also claimed that tea has several health benefits. Researchers have found that moderate consumption of tea can reduce your chance of death from a heart attack by at least a fifth. Tea is also a natural source of fluoride that can help protect against tooth decay and gum disease.
In the Netherlands - where school children as young as four are already served tea as a lunch time drink - official health guidelines were released last year encouraging adults to consume regular cups of tea.
View more!
The Health Council of the Netherlands, an independent scientific body that advises parliament, noted that three to five cups a day reduce blood pressure, diabetes and stroke risks.
On the flipside, there are some negative aspects. For example, people should wait a few minutes to allow the drink to cool as a study in 2009 found very hot tea was linked with an eightfold increased risk of cancer of the oesophagus.
Meanwhile, men who drink seven cups of tea are 50 per cent more likely to develop prostate cancer, according to a controversial 2012 study that contradicted previous research about Britain’s national drink.
View more!
And finally...some afternoon tea recipes
Below, our favourite food writers share their recipes for sweet and savoury treats, from Mary Berry's unbeatable Victoria sponge to Diana Henry's experiment to find the ultimate scone creation.
Sweet
Mary Berry's classic scones
Load up these scones with jam and cream
Diana Henry's hazelnut scones
Roughly chopped, lightly toasted hazelnuts are a great addition to sweet scones Credit: Haarala Hamilton
Rose Prince's Baking Club: Chelsea buns
On a roll: the perfect bun doesn't have to be made in Chelsea
Coffee éclairs
Pillowy, classic choux pastry filled with sweet cream and topped with coffee icing
Diana Henry's pistachio and sour cherry Florentines
These indulgent Florentine biscuits with almonds, pistachios and chewy sour cherries are dipped in dark chocolate and are perfect served with coffee
Classic macarons
These gorgeous macaroons are the perfect gift for a loved one or little treat for yourself
Mary Berry's Victoria sponge cake
The Queen of baking, Mary Berry, shares her classic recipe for Victoria sponge sandwich cake filled with jam
Mary Berry’s cappuccino coffee cake
The taste of luxury: Mary Berry's coffee cake
Apricot and coconut loaf cake
A soft, fluffy coconut cake laced with apricot jam from the award-winning food blog Poires au Chocolat
Easy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting
Jane Hornby shares a foolproof recipe for classic carrot cake with raisins, pecans and cream cheese icing
Classic lemon drizzle cake
Sweet yet zingy, satisfying yet light, lemon drizzle can lay claim to being one of the greatest cakes.
Mary Berry's ginger and treacle spiced traybake
This is a favourite recipe for afternoon tea: soft spiced sponge cake with stem ginger and sweet syrup
Chocolate tray bake with salted-caramel ganache
A deliciously rich chocolate cake coated with a thick layer of salted-caramel chocolate ganache.
Perfect madeleines
Madeleines make a perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea
The WI's ultimate shortbread
The ladies of the Women's Institute pride themselves on their shortbread. Here is a classic and easy recipe to make at home
Rose Prince's fundraiser-friendly butterfly cakes
No flies on us: this is easy to do so can make for a lovely baking project with the kids
Salted-caramel millionaire's shortbread
A delicious recipe for crisp shortbread topped with salty caramel and dark chocolate
Bath buns
Bath buns: a favourite treat in Jane Austen's time
Pippa Middleton's Morello cherry Bakewell tart
This easy Bakewell tart recipe is with Morello cherry jam and almonds is the perfect tea time treat
Savoury
Savoury cheddar and ale scones
Ale and hearty: use a good cheese, one that melts just right, and the scones will be baked to perfection
Secret-sandwich loaf
A large loaf with hidden sandwiches hidden inside is bound to delight your guests at a picnic or afternoon tea
Classic bagel
Rose Prince shares her fail-safe recipe for making bagels at home. Top with cream cheese and smoked salmon
How to make sausage rolls
Celebrate the picnic season by making home-made sausage rolls - a simple classic that will impress your friends
Stephen Harris' cricket tea recipes |
Union members from around the country rally at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing to protest a vote on right-to-work legislation.
Dec. 11, 2012 Union members from around the country rally at the Michigan Capitol in Lansing to protest a vote on right-to-work legislation. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
As state lawmakers gather to vote on a right-to-work legislation in Lansing, Mich., protests are held outside the state Capitol.
As state lawmakers gather to vote on a right-to-work legislation in Lansing, Mich., protests are held outside the state Capitol.
As state lawmakers gather to vote on a right-to-work legislation in Lansing, Mich., protests are held outside the state Capitol.
The conservative groups that supported Michigan’s new “right to work” law — winning a stunning victory over unions, even in the heart of American labor — vowed Wednesday to replicate that success elsewhere.
But the search for the next Michigan could be difficult.
National unions, caught flat-footed in the Wolverine State, pledged to offer fierce opposition wherever the idea crops up next. They consider the laws a direct attack on their finances and political clout at a time when labor influence is already greatly diminished.
In addition, few Republican governors who could enact such legislation seem eager to bring the fight to their states.
“There is not much of a movement to do it,” Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett told a Philadelphia radio station this week, according to the Associated Press. His lack of enthusiasm was shared by two other governors who have battled with unions, Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Ohio’s John Kasich.
States that have enacted right-to-work laws. (The Washington Post/-)
Right-to-work measures like the one Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) signed Tuesday allow workers to opt out of paying union dues. Advocates say the laws, now in force in 24 states, offer employees greater freedom and make states more competitive in attracting jobs.
“If Michigan can do it, then I think everybody ought to think about it,” said Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. He said he thinks at least one more state will adopt such a law before the end of 2013, and listed Alaska, Missouri, Montana and Pennsylvania among the top contenders. “Very confident. It will happen. [But] I can’t tell you where the next one is.”
The boisterous protesters who had stormed Michigan’s State Capitol in Lansing on Tuesday were gone on Wednesday, dispersed after Snyder signed the legislation.
Only about 30 demonstrators stood in front of the building on Wednesday, their mouths covered in duct tape that said, “$1,500 Less.” The figure represents the difference in the average annual salary of workers in right-to-work states compared with states without such laws, protest organizers said.
Andy Schor, a Democratic state representative-elect, said the push for the right-to-work measure was part of “a national effort” by outside conservative groups to undercut union power. “We’re the next domino to fall here in Michigan,” he said.
Opponents of the law said they are considering their options, including a possible legal challenge and stepped-up campaigning against Snyder, who will face reelection in 2014.
In a telephone interview, Snyder — who had repeatedly said he would not sign a right-to-work measure — sought to explain how he had changed his mind. The first-term governor, elected during the GOP wave of 2010, said he had been encouraged by the example of Indiana, which passed a right-to-work bill this year.
But Snyder said Michigan’s labor movement was partly to blame for pursuing a ballot measure this year that would have added protections for collective bargaining. It failed, helping spur the push for the legislation signed Tuesday.
“ ‘You’re opening up the whole realm of labor issues, including right-to-work, so I would expect to see a big push for right-to-work. So please, don’t go ahead,’ ” Snyder said he told labor groups, adding: “They ignored that advice.”
Labor expert Richard Hurd of Cornell University estimated that unions in Michigan might expect to lose 20 percent to 30 percent of their revenue, although precise figures are difficult to gauge. Before Indiana, the last state to make the change to a right-to-work system was Oklahoma in 2001.
In the 26 states without such legislation, conservatives have a renewed sense of hope. “I support this goal on the national and state level and look forward to Kentucky joining Michigan in the near future,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said in a statement.
Even in blue New Jersey, a major backer of right-to-work bills said the shift this week in Lansing had changed some minds.
“I think that what happened in Michigan sent a signal that people in states with histories of strong unions are now open to a new perspective,” said state Assemblywoman Amy H. Handlin (R).
On the other hand, national labor officials said Wednesday that they are confident that no other states will follow Michigan’s lead in the near future.
“In terms of bigger, bluer, more-union states, we’re not worried that this is going to lead to a new anti-union push in those states,” said Eddie Vale, spokesman for Workers’ Voice, a super PAC associated with the AFL-CIO. “There still will be state battles, but I think that we’re getting to the end of the 2010 tea-party wave rather than a resurgence of them.”
On Wednesday, a survey of state leaders found that a law like Michigan’s would still face significant obstacles in many places.
In some cases, the roadblock is a Democratic governor. Conservatives have hopes for a right-to-work law in Montana, but Gov.-elect Steve Bullock (D) said he would oppose one: “I don’t think that’s what we need to build our economy.”
The situation is similar in New Hampshire. “I would veto it if it came to my desk,” Gov.-elect Maggie Hassan (D) said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. In both Kentucky and Missouri, Democratic governors also have spoken against such laws.
In Maine, Paul LePage (R) has said that he supports right-to-work legislation but is likely to run into opposition in the soon-to-be-Democratic state legislature.
Said state Rep. Tom Winsor (R), a longtime supporter of right-to-work legislation: “I’m not the brightest bulb, but I can count noses.”
Even GOP-controlled states were leery on Wednesday.
“If I could wave a magic wand, I would do it tomorrow. But in terms of trying to get it through our legislative process, it is a very heavy lift,” said David Patti, president of the Pennsylvania Business Council. Would a right-to-work bill pass there? “No,” Patti said flatly.
In Ohio, a state with a Republican governor and Republican legislature, citizen activists have reached the same conclusion. An effort is underway to go around the state’s politicians and put a right-to-work measure on the ballot next year.
“When we didn’t see any interest necessarily in the statehouse, we said, ‘Hey, we’re going to move forward,’ ” said Chris Littleton of the group Ohioans for Workplace Freedom. They need 386,000 signatures by next July.
How many do they have? “It’s safe to say we’re under 100,000,” he said.
Fahrenthold reported from Washington. |
The SRO Motorsports Group celebrated its 25th anniversary at an event in Paris on Friday while looking ahead to its plans for the 2018 season.
More than a dozen historic GT cars were on display at the event at the Palais Brongniart, documenting the SRO’s rich history of GT racing since 1992.
The display included cars representing several manufacturers including Porsche, Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Audi, BMW, McLaren and others.
The celebrations come 25 years after Stephane Ratel organized his first race, on the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit in June 1992, as the launch of the Gentleman Drivers Trophy for Venturi.
“GT racing is like a pyramid, of which the amateur racer forms the base,” said Ratel. “They are catered for by the Curbstone Track Events, the very first step on the ladder, from which the amateur driver can graduate to the Blancpain GT Sports Club.
“Those who wish to can then make another step up to the various national and regional GT4 championships.
“The continental series, like the Blancpain GT Series in Europe and Asia, and Pirelli World Challenge in the States, provide us with a high level of competition for both Pro and Pro-Am teams.
“Equally, the FIA GT World Cup in Macau is a single weekend confrontation for both manufacturers and professional GT drivers, while the Intercontinental GT Challenge represents the only global GT3 championship.” |
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While immigration is among the hot-button issues in the Alabama U.S. Senate Runoff between Republicans Roy Moore and Luther Strange, WHNT News 19 has confirmed State Auditor Jim Zeigler's discovery that Strange currently benefits financially from a program that sells access to visas to wealthy foreigners.
Luther Strange`s Senate financial disclosure form says he owns a 16-percent share of Sunbelt LLC, which helps broker deals between wealthy investors and U.S. projects that need capital. Strange netted just over $150,000 for his role in helping a Birmingham Baptist hospital expansion.
Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler says," This is a program that allows wealthy foreigners to buy their way into the United States, bypassing the normal immigration process."
The EB-5 immigration program offers permanent residency status in exchange for big investments. Zeigler tells us, "You've heard of a green card? Well, this is called a golden card because it takes a half-million dollars, or $1 million dollars, depending on where they`re going."
The program allows wealthy foreigners, to earn a green card - permanent residency - for themselves and their children, if they invest their $500,000 or $1 million in an American business venture that creates at least 10 jobs.
The money is supposed to fund projects in low-income rural areas and create permanent jobs. But many Republicans have argued it's flawed. Zeigler points out, "U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa (R) has been extremely critical of this program, in saying that it is wrought with fraud, and mismanagement, it has security problems."
Records indicate most of the wealthy investors in the program are from China. The EB-5 website even offers instructions in Chinese.
Sunbelt, the company Strange owns a stake in, doesn't have records available on their site, but the company's website says it recruited 50 investors and raised $25 million to help pay for the expansion of the Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham.
Strange's disclosure form says he made just over $150,000 on the hospital project.
Strange`s campaign said today he has a record of supporting tougher immigration laws, and said;
"Luther agrees with the Trump administration that there are serious concerns over the EB-5 visa program, which is not being used as originally intended. It's time for Congress to get to work on these issues. He looks forward to working hand-in-hand with the White House on legislation like the RAISE Act which would overhaul the program."
The Roy Moore campaign also weighed in: |
Since its inception 11 years ago, Bonnaroo has undergone dramatic changes, shifting from a largely jam-centric gathering in rural Tennessee to an epic conglomeration of big name acts that provides an escape for over 100,000 camping fans. This year, their sold-out lineup continued Roo’s hot streak as one of the best booked festivals across the globe.
Nothing that happened this year could top Paul McCartney’s legendary performance, a show that cemented itself in the Roo Hall of Fame alongside Radiohead’s 2006 performance, My Morning Jacket’s 2008 late-night set, and Neil Young’s oft-discussed 2003 appearance. But that didn’t stop every artist on the lineup from trying their damndest, and their effort wasn’t wasted on the thousands of appreciative fans, with shows like Tom Petty’s climactic festival closer and R. Kelly’s religious experience standing out as weekend highlights. But, besides the music, Bonnaroo has expanded into an entirely immersive weekend experience that the attendees and employees come together to will into existence.
With dozens upon dozens of culinary choices, including state fair-quality fried Oreos and a pizza slice named after David Bowie (which comes adorned with jalapeños, ham, and honey), scattered around the camp and festival grounds, anyone would be hard-pressed to spend more than an hour with an empty stomach (and for the cheaper folk, a grilled cheese for a dollar is about the best deal you’ll find on this planet). The small area with circus rides that was once just a space filler between stages has birthed an entire Adult Swim carnival, which is just as insane of a place as you would expect it to be, complete with the enormous light-up Ferris wheel that the festival has unofficially semi-adopted as one of the mascots of the bizarre reality they’re concocting in Manchester, Tennessee.
The maturation of the festival culminated in the strongest and most eclectic festival lineup all year, equal parts legacy acts and respected veterans sharing elbow room with emerging young talent from all camps. Never again will anyone be able to say they saw Death Grips, Four Tet, and Weird Al all take the same stage in the same day. Never again will someone be able to say they walked out of a live Comedy Bang! Bang! performance to be greeted by a picturesque sunset, Beach House, and a free sample of Bonnaroo’s Ben & Jerry’s flavor. It’s these fleeting moments that become the lasting memories that define Bonnaroo, and with so much happening over the four-day run, it’s a shock they don’t pull a Costanza on the whole thing.
The festival’s comedy and cinema tents are no longer places to escape to for the free A/C, both drawing some of the biggest crowds of the weekend for the grab bag of talent featured within. Lines for Daniel Tosh’s two stand-up performances on Friday evening stretched across the park, hundreds either hoping to score a coveted seat or be personally insulted by their favorite comic. The weekend’s sole live Comedy Bang! Bang! performance also stretched the tent’s capacity, and show hosts Scott Aukerman and Reggie Watts helped all the fans forget about the bands they were missing outside, with a little help from James Adomian’s Jesse “The Body”/“The Mind” Ventura.
Cinephiles also found an escape at the Farm, as the Cinema Tent expanded its traditional Adult Swim programming to accommodate documentaries, independent films, and guest speakers. The National’s Matt Berninger, Police Academy’s Michael Winslow, and comedian/director Mike Birbiglia stand out as notable guests. That’s not to say that there wasn’t ample material provided by Adult Swim and IFC. They fleshed out the remaining schedule, along with screenings of classics like The Goonies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Sixteen Candles. It was an area worthy of five buckets of popcorn.
Photo by Amanda Koellner
Few festivals, if any, this calendar year offered the rare opportunity to experience a headliner’s intimate soundcheck, but Paul McCartney did just that. The rock legend came across the loudspeakers mid-Thursday evening, taking some of the airspace from the indie representatives — Purity Ring, Django Django, and Deap Vally — spread across the three other stages. Fans craned their necks to get opportune vantage points at the partitioned-off main stage as Sir Paul brought out a short setlist of hits, some of which wouldn’t make it into his show the next night, only making the privilege of catching the spontaneous “show” all the more rewarding. It’s this unbridled freedom and opportunity to explore that the artists have at Bonnaroo that continuously make it a success.
The weekend was not without its hiccups, but none that weren’t hurdled within a few hours. Earl Sweatshirt was forced to pull out due to a case of pneumonia that sidelined him for weeks, but his time slot was filled admirably by DIIV, who introduced themselves as the ill (physically and lyrically) rapper before ripping through a ferociously mellow afternoon set. Headliner Mumford & Sons, who brought a large faction of dedicated fans, had to forfeit their primetime Saturday night set due to a medical emergency, but it was flip-flop aficionado Jack Johnson to the rescue. Having appeared as a special surprise guest at the ALO late night show the prior evening, Johnson found himself in the unique position of being a headliner-quality musician at a festival scrambling for a miracle.
Photo by Nate Slevin
Assembling a band and a setlist on the fly is no easy task, especially in the middle of Tennessee, but Johnson and the festival organizers made pink lemonade out of dirt-covered lemons, and Johnson’s Saturday evening show offered another example of the Roo’s magic. His cover of Mumford’s “The Cave” became the set highlight, with appreciative fans of the folk stars cosigning the headliner swap and commending the eternally chill Johnson by blasting “Bubble Toes” from their car speakers for the rest of the weekend. Wu-Tang Clan’s bombastic reunion set was marred by mic troubles, with Ghostface Killah’s mic barely working for the duration of the show. But, all was not lost, as Method Man and RZA took the stage later that night for the new Hip Hop Superjam, which effectively became a second Wu-Tang set for those who missed out.
The level of talent went deep. In the early afternoon, smaller bands performed with as much gusto as the late-night headlining legacy acts. Queens native Action Bronson used his 1:30 p.m. Sunday slot to showcase his unpredictable personality, and his trips from the stage out into the crowd mid-song gave some lucky fans a chance to get a crazy contact high just from touching the permanently stoned rapper. Across the park, JEFF the Brotherhood tore through portions of their catalog, battling the heat index with their brutal rock ‘n’ roll. The fact that two talents like this, a burgeoning rapper and an established indie rock act, would be so popular this early in the day speaks to the consistency of talent and dedication throughout the festival’s lineup and its crowds, respectively.
Photo by Nate Slevin
However, it took a long, muddy road to get here. You’ve gotta remember that in its early years Bonnaroo was primarily a jam festival, and only over time did the Farm open its doors to a wider scope of genres. To get a better grasp of the festival’s history and this year’s production, Consequence of Sound recently spoke with AC Entertainment founder Ashley Capps about the time and effort that goes into each of their newsworthy lineups. Needless to say, it’s not as easy as a simple e-mail.
What goes into making the lineup every year, and how was this past year’s experience different, if it was at all?
Well, what really goes into making the lineup for Bonnaroo every year is our collective passion for music and live performance. Everyone on the Bonnaroo booking team is a fan. Our love of music is what led us here in the first place. And we listen to other fans, too, of course. They often turn us on to great new artists. Beyond that, it’s a collective, collaborative effort to put together the most exciting lineup we can conjure up, taking into account obvious factors such as who’s available and touring.
Which artist was the biggest stretch to get last year, and who was the most rewarding to get on the lineup?
Paul McCartney obviously stands out in that regard. It was a process that started with a meeting in London back in 2007… and, at the time, we were angling for him to headline in 2008. But, due to scheduling issues and other circumstances, this turned out to be five-and-a-half years in the making, so it was quite literally a long stretch to say the least. And a rewarding one as well… What can you say? He’s an icon among icons. It was an amazing moment in Bonnaroo history.
Do you have a full wish list going into picking and reaching out to the bands, or is it just a lot of throwing out names and deciding if they’re realistic or not?
Of course, we have our wish lists, and we very actively reach out to those artists to bring them to the festival. And, as with McCartney, the process can take some time. There’s a lot of scheduling to be coordinated, for a major artist especially. And many artists and their managers and agents approach us as well. Beyond that, we are very aware that the breadth and depth of the lineup at Bonnaroo each year is one of the festival’s unique and defining characteristics. So, as the process unfolds, we look to create certain synergies and balances in the booking to ensure an exciting and multifaceted lineup. It’s an organic process, but a controlled one as well.
How do you balance trying to get older acts or reunions like Wu-Tang and Tom Petty with getting younger bands that are getting a lot of hype?
We always have an eye and ear towards balancing many elements of the programming. Our guiding principle is to create the most compelling lineup that we can imagine, and it’s always important to honor your great traditions while living in the present and keeping an eye on the future. Each year, we want to be true to the Bonnaroo traditions while continuing to grow and keep things fresh and exciting. There’s no precise formula. Ultimately, we rely on our intuition.
Do you try to anticipate success at all with newer bands, or do you usually wait for results before adding them to the bill?
Sure. Again, we’re all very passionate music fans, so keeping our fingers on the pulse of what’s happening on the music scene is second nature. We just can’t help ourselves. We love introducing new bands early, when it makes sense, because we love to turn everyone on to our new discoveries. But, with some bands, it makes more sense to wait a bit. So, it depends. There are no clear rules.
Is there a great white whale that you’ve been trying to get for years and haven’t been able to?
Yes. And we’re working on it. Always.
Any plans you can share for this coming year?
We’re very pumped about 2014, but it’s still coming into focus. Just yesterday there was an exciting and unexpected new development. And, beyond music, there’s always plans in the works. But I can’t share any details yet. Except to guarantee some wonderful surprises!
—
Next year has plenty to live up to, but that’s what’s special about Bonnaroo. Every year is different for every person at the fest; it’s the experience that you have on the Farm, though, that makes or breaks the weekend. This year’s stellar lineup and “agreeable” weather helped to craft the perfect fishbowl for a hundred thousand kindred spirits to interact and exist within. It’s the amalgamation of the elements that makes Bonnaroo special and keeps us all going back each and every year.
Anyone carpooling next year? |
Story & Structure
:: 25 Rules for Writing and Telling Stories
:: How To Write A Genius Script
:: First Ten Pages: Horror
:: The ‘Lubitsch’ Touch
:: Script Review: ‘Groundhog Day’
:: 10 Secrets to Writing Success
Script Perfection
:: Be Comfortable with Solitude
:: The Writer’s Block Myth
:: Resources for Screenwriters
:: Go Back to Your Old, Failed Ideas Once in a While
:: Make Time For What You Love
:: Screenwriting Tip #1106 – Just Because Convention Says
:: Joseph McBrides’ Necessary Screenwriting Book
Pitching & Selling
:: From Option to Premiere: A Writer’s Journey #2
:: ‘The Hunger Games’ Pitch Trailer: Pitching Movies To Studios
:: September 2012 Pitch Sales Scorecard
:: Share Your Story: Getting Your Scripts Read
:: What a Film Festival Can Do For Your Career
:: Vince Gilligan on the Ups and Downs of Pitching ‘Breaking Bad’
Best of the Rest
:: James Cameron Wants to Help Mythbusters
:: Power and Ethics of Film Making
:: 10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Star Trek: The Original Series
:: Zoe Lister Jones Talks ‘Lola Versus’
:: The Possession Rises to the Top of the US Box Office
:: TIFF Movie Review: ‘Cloud Atlas’
:: Must Watch: Steven Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln’ Trailer
:: ‘Samsara’ Stills
:: Behind the Lines with DR: The Coolest Deed
:: Q&A with Samuel L Jackson on ‘The Avengers’
:: Weird Secrets of The Avengers That You’d Never Have Guessed
:: TIFF 2012 Video Blog: Talking ‘The Master’ & ‘Place Beyond the Pines’
:: The Halo Effect: Why You Won’t Believe Your Heroes Have Flaws
:: Wall-E and Eve are all Grown Up
_______________________________
With thanks to Jamie Campbell and Brooke Trezise.
Enjoy!
Karel |
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- A few dozen scouts, executives and player development personnel attended Tim Lincecum's showcase in Scottsdale on Friday, many of them from teams who house part of their ops departments here in Arizona. Lincecum stretched, alone, in the outfield before his session began, then he threw 20 pitches from the windup, took a five-minute breather and returned to throw the second half of his pitches from the stretch.
Lincecum looked very muscular, but not overly so, and his stuff was generally solid if unspectacular.
His fastball generally ranged from 88 to 91 mph and touched 92, and it featured a little bit of late arm-side run but not enough for the pitch to really play up above his raw velocity. He maintained his velocity from the stretch but began to lose his release point late in the outing.
Release variance isn't necessarily a sign of fatigue. Lincecum's vertical arm slot makes it hard for him to command his fastball to all parts of the strike zone, and I believe the noticeable difference in release we saw late was caused by a desire to work the fastball to different parts of the strike zone in the only way it's really possible for him to do so.
The secondary stuff Lincecum threw was fine, highlighted by a slider that flashed above average in the 84 to 86 mph range. I think it's his best secondary pitch at this point, featuring a good amount of late, two-plane movement. The curveball was generally average for me, 74 to 77 mph, with arcing 12-6 depth and bite, and Lincecum showed an ability to throw it in the hypothetical strike zone. Lincecum's Vulcan changeup, once among the best pitches in all of baseball, was inconsistent. It flashed average in the 82 to 84 mph range with some late fade, but feel for the pitch eluded him, and he threw some well-below average changeups late in the session.
I think there's still a big leaguer here, albeit in a limited role as a relief option. While he doesn't have the mid-90s fastball and wipeout slider that is typical of today's bullpen arm, Lincecum's repertoire would be uniquely deep for a reliever.
If he can find a way to keep hitters off of his fastball -- either through some of the natural deception created by his delivery, by throwing his curveball for strikes early in counts, by finding changeup consistency or through some combination of these things -- I believe get outs at a rate that befits a big league reliever.
If Lincecum were to work as a starter, he'd need better fastball command than was evident in this workout and much better command than he has displayed in his recent healthy seasons. The electric, bat-missing fastball is gone, and more refined pitch location is needed. The secondary pitches are still solid enough for short-stint smoke and mirrors, but to pitch every fifth day and through a lineup multiple times requires a substantive foundation of sustainable fastball velocity or command -- or both -- and neither are evident with Lincecum right now. |
A PAIR of Scots pranksters have sparked a Google Street View row -- by faking a fight for the cameras.
The two young men can be seen staging their fight on Edinburgh’s Princes Street next to the city’s famous Scott Monument.
The two young men can be seen staging their square go on Edinburgh's Princes Street next to the city's famous Scott Monument. Picture: hemedia
The images were captured when the Google Street View team visited the city on a sunny day at the end of July this year.
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But council chiefs said they were “disappointed” that Google had used the shot, saying it looked like “a homage” to cult movie Trainspotting.
In the image a tall youth in jeans and a grey t-shirt has his hand around the neck of a shorter lad with blonde hair, wearing glasses, a purple t-shirt and jeans.
The shorter man has one of his arms out-stretched towards his apparent attacker.
City Centre councillor Joanna Mowat said she felt it did not portray Edinburgh in the right light.
She said: “It is disappointing that Google have chosen to use a picture which appears to be staged as some sort of homage to Trainspotting rather than an image that better reflects the true nature of Edinburgh’s Princes Street.
“It is a safe city centre with probably the best skyline in the world.”
In images taken further along the street in the direction of Waverley Station, the two jokers are seen standing in Princes Street Gardens waving their hands in the air while facing the Google van.
And as the camera moves west along Princes Street the two lads can be seen walking closer to the scene of the fracas.
Once the camera goes past the dramatic fight, the pair are seen with their arms down, walking back towards where they originally came from.
A spokesman for Google said they did not wish to comment on the images.
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Growing up, or as my wife says, “growing older” in northern Minnesota, I experienced ice fishing two ways. One was to wait for the ice to be thick enough to use a truck to pull a heavy wooden shelter out on the ice and place it in a spot where we hoped a fish would find us. Those of you who have seen the movie “Grumpy Old Men” will know what I’m talking about.
While these shelters were comfortable with lots of amenities, by the time you got them on the ice much of the best fishing was over and most of the fish in the lake seemed unaware of where we had set up. In other words, they weren’t cooperating.
To increase our odds of success we would dress in what, by today’s standards, was poor winter clothing, carry a bucket with our gear and move around the lake drilling holes and fishing until we got a bite. We would then sit on the bucket and freeze while we hoped there were more willing fish in the area. We tolerated this approach because it was all we knew and we were “outdoorsmen.”
Then about four decades ago my lifelong fishing partner and best friend, Greg Clusiau, introduced me to Dave Genz, who have invented a portable flip-over shelter that we could easily pull around the lake by hand. It stored our gear and let us move around the lake, locate more fish and do it in comfort. He called these shelters a fish trap and we referred to them as our bass boat on the water. Now we had mobility and could easily go to the fish. Of course we still had to fish each spot to find the fish.
Genz then began experimenting with a device called a flasher which had in recent years revolutionized fishing from a boat. The flasher acted as a depth indicator and fish finder. Genz began refining his approach. He realized that by keeping the flasher’s transducer level, he could not only see the fish and the depth, he could see his lure and how fish were responding. Genz then developed the “Icebox” which allowed you to mount the flasher and keep the transducer in line.
Genz soon became known as “Mister Ice Fishing.” Genz, Clusiau and myself were joined by others such as Tony Dean, the boys from Infisherman, and a group of hard core ice anglers. The revolution had begun. We fished our way across the northern Midwest states. We did seminars, television shows and held events on the water such as the annual Minnesota Masters of Ice Fishing. Then came the formation of the original “Ice Team” and ice fishing came of age.
Almost all of what we pioneered has become mainstream in the ice fishing world and the innovation has never stopped. The clothing we have now, like our Ice Armor suits by Clam Corporation keep us comfortable even when not in our shelters. The electronics have improved, offering more and better options for knowing what is happening under the ice. GPS lets us easily return to a spot that we were originally guided to by a lake contour map. Tackle and other equipment like augers keeps getting better and better. You can now easily drill a hole using an attachment for a portable electric hand drill.
Genz himself never stops innovating. He is now investigating if the echo from his flasher is different on a lead jig, vs. one of the new tungsten jigs, and if that influences fish behavior.
Ice fishing is becoming more and more mainstream. Colorado now boasts over 250,000 licensed anglers who ice fish every year. In fact, the catch rate through the ice in Colorado is much higher than in open water. If you have ever considered giving ice fishing a try, you will not find a better time. The equipment and information is available to allow you to easily and quickly find comfort and success.
Over the next few weeks we will be covering a number of ice fishing topics on Terry Wickstrom Outdoors radio show, which airs 8 a.m. Saturday mornings on 104.3 FM The Fan.
Below is the entire interview with Genz.
You can follow Wickstrom on Facebook at Terry Wickstrom Outdoors |
Three men including former Fianna Fáil senator Francis O'Brien have been granted bail after appearing in court on a charge of demanding €100,000 with menaces.
Mr O'Brien, 70, of Corwillan, latton, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, was remanded on bail of €5,000 cash to appear before the Carrickmacross District Court again on 22 May.
The other defendants are Michael Marron, 56, from Taghart, Shercock, Cavan and Raymond McCaughey, 55, from Drumgannus, Broomfield, Co Monaghan.
All three face a single charge that on 27 April, 2012 at Tullyvaragh Lower, Carrickmacross they demanded €100,000 from Michael Heelan with menaces contrary to the Criminal Justice Public Order Act.
The three were granted bail with a surety of €5,000. They were also ordered to hand over their passports, not to contact any witnesses and sign on weekly at their local garda station.
Det Insp Fergus Traynor gave evidence of arresting, charging and cautioning the accused.
None of them spoke during the brief hearing. The case is due back before the court on 22 May. |
Sheraz is an entrepreneur and the co-founder of AdClout and BizClout. He’s on Twitter as @sherazsaeedy.
Pakistan will soon have a new, homegrown phone brand. While that’s not too unusual, it is surprising that the new phone is from Gourmet Foods, the well-known Pakistani bakery store chain.
According to sources close to the retailer, the upcoming Gourmet phones will launch in March, and will come in two flavors: Android or Java-based. The Android smartphone will come with 4.2 Jelly Bean. There are no official prices set yet, but the basic Java phone might cost as little as $15. The phones will be made by an as yet unnamed Chinese manufacturer. The company is expected to announce more details later this month ahead of the anticipated March launch.
Gourmet aims to sell 50,000 phones in the first six months of sales.
We believe that Gourmet will open mobile shops in major cities like Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad, and also start up distributors in smaller cities. The experienced retailer, which began business in 1987, already has over 500 bakeries across the country. The chain can market and publicize its new products quite easily and on a large scale thanks to all these busy stores.
Pakistan Gourmet mobile More
A Gourmet Bakery store (via Gourmet’s Facebook page).
Homegrown hero?
Gourmet Foods has diversified into new fields before, venturing into soft drinks, furniture, restaurants, ice creams, and even publishing, making it one of Pakistan’s best-known brands.
The retail giant has hired Umair Tayyab as head of marketing and products for Gourmet Mobile. Tayyab previously worked for Samsung in Pakistan, as well as at homegrown phone brand Qmobile. His experience at those two established phone-makers gives the project a greater likelihood of success. Speaking to Tech in Asia, Tayyab says that the team realized there are gaps in Qmobile’s and Samsung’s phone line-up, and he has plans and strategies that will cover those market gaps and help make Gourmet smartphones into things that consumers in Pakistan will want.
Gourmet won’t be the first retailer to venture into Android hardware. Late last year, rival UK supermarket chains Tesco and Aldi launched bargain Android tablets. Even earlier, 7-11 did the same in Taiwan.
Across Asia we’ve seen homegrown phone brands like Micromax and Xiaomi grow very strongly, selling tens of millions of smartphones per year and challenging the likes of Samsung and Apple in their home nations.
(Editing by Steven Millward)
The post Pakistan bakery chain is cooking up something new – Android smartphones appeared first on Tech in Asia. |
A Russian tech executive suing BuzzFeed News for defamation has formally subpoenaed Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the uncorroborated anti-Trump dossier that BuzzFeed published earlier this year.
Attorneys for Aleksej Gubarev, the CEO of Webzilla and XBT Holdings, disclosed in a court filing on Friday that they have subpoenaed the Washington, D.C.-based Fusion GPS as part of the suit against BuzzFeed.
The opposition research firm was also subpoenaed last month by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is interested in Fusion’s involvement in the dossier. The firm, which was working for a political ally of Hillary Clinton’s, hired former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate Donald Trump’s activities in Russia.
The Judiciary Committee retracted its subpoena after Fusion founder Glenn Simpson agreed to a closed-door interview later this month.
Gubarev is suing BuzzFeed because he and his companies are identified in the last of 17 memos that make up the dossier, which the website published on Jan. 10.
In a Dec. 13 memo, the last of 17 memos that make up the dossier, Steele wrote that Gubarev used malware and computer viruses to hack into Democrats’ emails during the presidential campaign.
Gubarev has vehemently denied the allegations. He is suing BuzzFeed in federal court in Florida and Steele in London.
As part of the discovery process in both lawsuits, Gubarev’s attorneys hope to find out where Steele obtained the information that the tech entrepreneur was involved in hacking.
Fusion GPS may also be able to provide similar information, says Evan Fray-Witzer, a lawyer for Gubarev.
Fray-Witzer tells The Daily Caller that the legal team is looking for documents that explain how and why the dossier included allegations against Gubarev and his companies.
“Where did the information come from; was there any attempt at all to verify the information; who did it get passed to; and what were they told,” Fray-Witzer said of the information being sought.
Fray-Witzer says that it will be important to the case to determine if Fusion GPS provided caveats about the veracity of the information when it shared the dossier with news outlets.
Fusion GPS shared parts of the dossier with reporters from numerous news outlets, including The New York Times, Yahoo! News, and Mother Jones.
Steele has revealed in court filings in London, where he is being sued by Gubarev, that he was instructed by Fusion GPS to provide parts of the dossier to reporters and to meet with some in the U.S. He has also stated that he did not verify the claims about Gubarev.
But Steele has denied sharing the information about Gubarev with reporters. It is unclear whether Fusion GPS provided the entire dossier to BuzzFeed or whether the website obtained it from another source.
“If Fusion passed the information on with all sorts of caveats — that the information wasn’t verified, that it shouldn’t be published; or that it was unreliable — that’s the kind of information we definitely want to know,” says Fray-Witzer, who noted that Fusion GPS has acknowledged receipt of the legal team’s subpoena.
Also last week, the federal judge hearing the lawsuit awarded a minor victory to Gubarev’s legal team. Ursula Ungaro, the judge, granted a request filed by Gubarev’s team to request assistance from the U.K. court system to compel Steele to provide a deposition in the U.S. lawsuit.
Steele’s American lawyers attempted to block the motion, claiming that Gubarev’s lawyers are attempting to use his deposition in the U.S. case against him in the U.K. lawsuit.
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This article is about the construction of ships. For the song, see Shipbuilding (song)
"Shipwright" redirects here. For other uses, see Shipwright (disambiguation)
Not to be confused with boatbuilding
An expedition's shipwrights building a brigantine , 1541
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.
Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both commercial and military, are referred to as "naval engineering". The construction of boats is a similar activity called boat building.
The dismantling of ships is called ship breaking.
History [ edit ]
Archaeological evidence indicates that humans arrived on Borneo at least 120,000 years ago, probably by sea from the Asian mainland during an ice age period when the sea was lower and distances between islands shorter (See History of Papua New Guinea). The ancestors of Australian Aborigines and New Guineans also went across the Lombok Strait to Sahul by boat over 50,000 years ago.[citation needed]
4th millennium BC [ edit ]
Evidence from Ancient Egypt shows that the early Egyptians knew how to assemble planks of wood into a ship hull as early as 3100 BC. Egyptian pottery as old as 4000 BC shows designs of early boats or other means for navigation. The Archaeological Institute of America reports[1] that some of the oldest ships yet unearthed are known as the Abydos boats. These are a group of 14 ships discovered in Abydos that were constructed of wooden planks which were "sewn" together. Discovered by Egyptologist David O'Connor of New York University,[2] woven straps were found to have been used to lash the planks together,[1] and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams.[1] Because the ships are all buried together and near a mortuary belonging to Pharaoh Khasekhemwy,[2] originally they were all thought to have belonged to him, but one of the 14 ships dates to 3000 BC,[2] and the associated pottery jars buried with the vessels also suggest earlier dating.[2] The ship dating to 3000 BC was about 75 feet (23 m) long[2] and is now thought to perhaps have belonged to an earlier pharaoh.[2] According to professor O'Connor, the 5,000-year-old ship may have even belonged to Pharaoh Aha.[2]
3rd millennium BC [ edit ]
Early Egyptians also knew how to assemble planks of wood with treenails to fasten them together, using pitch for caulking the seams. The "Khufu ship", a 43.6-meter vessel sealed into a pit in the Giza pyramid complex at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza in the Fourth Dynasty around 2500 BC, is a full-size surviving example which may have fulfilled the symbolic function of a solar barque. Early Egyptians also knew how to fasten the planks of this ship together with mortise and tenon joints.[1]
The oldest known tidal dock in the world was built around 2500 BC during the Harappan civilisation at Lothal near the present day Mangrol harbour on the Gujarat coast in India. Other ports were probably at Balakot and Dwarka. However, it is probable that many small-scale ports, and not massive ports, were used for the Harappan maritime trade.[3] Ships from the harbour at these ancient port cities established trade with Mesopotamia.[4][full citation needed] Shipbuilding and boatmaking may have been prosperous industries in ancient India.[5] Native labourers may have manufactured the flotilla of boats used by Alexander the Great to navigate across the Hydaspes and even the Indus, under Nearchos.[5][full citation needed] The Indians also exported teak for shipbuilding to ancient Persia.[6] Other references to Indian timber used for shipbuilding is noted in the works of Ibn Jubayr.[6]
2nd millennium BC [ edit ]
The ships of Ancient Egypt's Eighteenth Dynasty were typically about 25 meters (80 ft) in length, and had a single mast, sometimes consisting of two poles lashed together at the top making an "A" shape. They mounted a single square sail on a yard, with an additional spar along the bottom of the sail. These ships could also be oar propelled.[7] The ocean and sea going ships of Ancient Egypt were constructed with cedar wood, most likely hailing from Lebanon.[8]
The ships of Phoenicia seem to have been of a similar design.
1st millennium BC [ edit ]
The naval history of China stems back to the Spring and Autumn period (722 BC–481 BC) of the ancient Chinese Zhou Dynasty. The Chinese built large rectangular barges known as "castle ships", which were essentially floating fortresses complete with multiple decks with guarded ramparts. There is considerable knowledge regarding shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient Mediterranean.[9] Malay people independently invented junk sails, made from woven mats reinforced with bamboo, at least several hundred years BC.[10]
Early 1st millennium AD [ edit ]
The ancient Chinese also built ramming vessels as in the Greco-Roman tradition of the trireme, although oar-steered ships in China lost favor very early on since it was in the 1st century China that the stern-mounted rudder was first developed. This was dually met with the introduction of the Han Dynasty junk ship design in the same century. By the time of this dynasty, the Chinese adopted Malay junk sail for their rig.[10]
Jong as depicted in 16th century European book.
The Malay and Javanese people, started building seafaring jong about 1st century AD.[11] These ships used 2 types of sail of their invention, the junk sail and tanja sail. Large ships are about 50-60 metres (164-197 ft) long, had 4-7 metres tall freeboard, each carrying provisions enough for a year, and could carry 200-1000 people. This type of ship favored by Chinese travelers, because they did not built seaworthy ships until around 8-9th century AD.[12]
Archeological investigations done at Portus near Rome have revealed inscriptions indicating the existence of a 'guild of shipbuilders' during the time of Hadrian.[13]
Medieval Europe, Song China, Abbasid Caliphate, Pacific Islanders [ edit ]
Tiangong Kaiwu of A two-masted Chinese junk, from theof Song Yingxing , published in 1637
Until recently, Viking longships were seen as marking a very considerable advance on traditional clinker-built hulls of plank boards tied together with leather thongs.[14] This consensus has recently been challenged. Haywood[15] has argued that earlier Frankish and Anglo-Saxon nautical practice was much more accomplished than had been thought, and has described the distribution of clinker vs. carvel construction in Western Europe (see map[2]). An insight into ship building in the North Sea/Baltic areas of the early medieval period was found at Sutton Hoo, England, where a ship was buried with a chieftain. The ship was 26 metres (85 ft) long and, 4.3 metres (14 ft)[16] wide. Upward from the keel, the hull was made by overlapping nine strakes on either side with rivets fastening the oaken planks together. It could hold upwards of thirty men.
Sometime around the 12th century, northern European ships began to be built with a straight sternpost, enabling the mounting of a rudder, which was much more durable than a steering oar held over the side. Development in the Middle Ages favored "round ships",[17] with a broad beam and heavily curved at both ends. Another important ship type was the galley which was constructed with both sails and oars.
The first extant treatise on shipbuilding was written c. 1436 by Michael of Rhodes,[18] a man who began his career as an oarsman on a Venetian galley in 1401 and worked his way up into officer positions. He wrote and illustrated a book that contains a treatise on ship building, a treatise on mathematics, much material on astrology, and other materials. His treatise on shipbuilding treats three kinds of galleys and two kinds of round ships.[19]
[20] A 3D model of the basic hull structure of a Venetian " galley of Flanders", a large Mediterranean trading vessel of the 15th century. The reconstruction by archaeologist Courtney Higgins is based on measurements given in contemporary ship treatises, including that of Michael of Rhodes from the 1430s.
Outside Medieval Europe, great advances were being made in shipbuilding. The shipbuilding industry in Imperial China reached its height during the Song Dynasty, Yuan Dynasty, and early Ming Dynasty, building commercial vessels that by the end of this period were to reach a size and sophistication far exceeding that of contemporary Europe[citation needed]. The mainstay of China's merchant and naval fleets was the junk, which had existed for centuries, but it was at this time that the large ships based on this design were built. During the Sung period (960–1279 AD), the establishment of China's first official standing navy in 1132 AD and the enormous increase in maritime trade abroad (from Heian Japan to Fatimid Egypt) allowed the shipbuilding industry in provinces like Fujian to thrive as never before. The largest seaports in the world were in China and included Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Xiamen.[citation needed]
In the Islamic world, shipbuilding thrived at Basra and Alexandria, the dhow, felucca, baghlah and the sambuk, became symbols of successful maritime trade around the Indian Ocean; from the ports of East Africa to Southeast Asia and the ports of Sindh and Hind (India) during the Abbasid period.
At this time islands spread over vast distances across the Pacific Ocean were being colonised by the Melenesians and Polynesians, who built giant canoes and progressed to great catamarans.
Early modern [ edit ]
With the development of the carrack, the west moved into a new era of ship construction by building the first regular oceangoing vessels. In a relatively short time, these ships grew to an unprecedented size, complexity and cost.
Shipyards became large industrial complexes and the ships built were financed by consortia of investors. These considerations led to the documentation of design and construction practices in what had previously been a secretive trade run by master shipwrights, and ultimately led to the field of naval architecture, where professional designers and draughtsmen played an increasingly important role.[21] Even so, construction techniques changed only very gradually. The ships of the Napoleonic Wars were still built more or less to the same basic plan as those of the Spanish Armada of two centuries earlier but there had been numerous subtle improvements in ship design and construction throughout this period. For instance, the introduction of tumblehome; adjustments to the shapes of sails and hulls; the introduction of the wheel; the introduction of hardened copper fastenings below the waterline; the introduction of copper sheathing as a deterrent to shipworm and fouling; etc.[22][page needed]
Industrial Revolution [ edit ]
Illustration of some shipbuilding methods in England, 1858
The industrial revolution made possible the use of new materials and designs that radically altered shipbuilding. Iron was gradually adopted in ship construction, initially in discrete areas in a wooden hull needing greater strength, (e.g. as deck knees, hanging knees, knee riders and the other sharp joints, ones in which a curved, progressive joint could not be achieved). Then, in the form of plates riveted together and made watertight, it was used to form the hull itself.
Sailing ship technology vastly improved during the early Industrial Revolution (between 1760 and 1825), as "the risk of being wrecked for Atlantic shipping fell by one third, and of foundering by two thirds, reflecting improvements in seaworthiness and navigation respectively."[23] The improvements in seaworthiness have been credited to "replacing the traditional stepped deck ship with stronger flushed decked ones derived from Indian designs, and the increasing use of iron reinforcement."[23] The design originated from Bengal rice ships,[23] with Bengal being famous for its shipbuilding industry at the time.[24] One study finds that there were considerable improvements in ship speed from 1750 to 1850: "we find that average sailing speeds of British ships in moderate to strong winds rose by nearly a third. Driving this steady progress seems to be continuous evolution of sails and rigging, and improved hulls that allowed a greater area of sail to be set safely in a given wind. By contrast, looking at every voyage between the Netherlands and East Indies undertaken by the Dutch East India Company from 1595 to 1795, we find that journey time fell only by 10 per cent, with no improvement in the heavy mortality, averaging six per cent per voyage, of those aboard."[25]
Initially copying wooden construction traditions with a frame over which the hull was fastened, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's Great Britain of 1843 was the first radical new design, being built entirely of wrought iron. Despite her success, and the great savings in cost and space provided by the iron hull, compared to a copper sheathed counterpart, there remained problems with fouling due to the adherence of weeds and barnacles. As a result, composite construction remained the dominant approach where fast ships were required, with wooden timbers laid over an iron frame (Cutty Sark is a famous example). Later Great Britain's iron hull was sheathed in wood to enable it to carry a copper-based sheathing. Brunel's Great Eastern represented the next great development in shipbuilding. Built in association with John Scott Russell, it used longitudinal stringers for strength, inner and outer hulls, and bulkheads to form multiple watertight compartments. Steel also supplanted wrought iron when it became readily available in the latter half of the 19th century, providing great savings when compared with iron in cost and weight. Wood continued to be favored for the decks.
During World War II, the need for cargo ships was so great that construction time for Liberty ships went from initially eight months or longer, down to weeks or even days. They employed production line and prefabrication techniques such as those used in shipyards today. The total number of dry-cargo ships built in the United States in a 15-year period just before the war was a grand total of two. During the war, thousands of Liberty ships and Victory ships were built, many of them in shipyards that didn't exist before the war. And, they were built by a workforce consisting largely of women and other inexperienced workers who had never seen a ship before (or even the ocean).[26][27][28]
Worldwide shipbuilding industry [ edit ]
After the Second World War, shipbuilding (which encompasses the shipyards, the marine equipment manufacturers, and many related service and knowledge providers) grew as an important and strategic industry in a number of countries around the world. This importance stems from:
The large number of skilled workers required directly by the shipyard, along with supporting industries such as steel mills, railroads and engine manufacturers; and
A nation's need to manufacture and repair its own navy and vessels that support its primary industries
Historically, the industry has suffered from the absence of global rules[citation needed] and a tendency towards (state-supported) over-investment due to the fact that shipyards offer a wide range of technologies, employ a significant number of workers, and generate income as the shipbuilding market is global.
Japan used shipbuilding in the 1950s and 1960s to rebuild its industrial structure; South Korea started to make shipbuilding a strategic industry in the 1970s, and China is now in the process of repeating these models with large state-supported investments in this industry. Conversely, Croatia is privatising its shipbuilding industry.
As a result, the world shipbuilding market suffers from over-capacities, depressed prices (although the industry experienced a price increase in the period 2003–2005 due to strong demand for new ships which was in excess of actual cost increases), low profit margins, trade distortions and widespread subsidisation. All efforts to address the problems in the OECD have so far failed, with the 1994 international shipbuilding agreement never entering into force and the 2003–2005 round of negotiations being paused in September 2005 after no agreement was possible. After numerous efforts to restart the negotiations these were formally terminated in December 2010. The OECD's Council Working Party on Shipbuilding (WP6) will continue its efforts to identify and progressively reduce factors that distort the shipbuilding market.
Where state subsidies have been removed and domestic industrial policies do not provide support in high labor cost countries, shipbuilding has gone into decline. The British shipbuilding industry is a prime example of this with its industries suffering badly from the 1960s. In the early 1970s British yards still had the capacity to build all types and sizes of merchant ships but today they have been reduced to a small number specialising in defence contracts, luxury yachts and repair work. Decline has also occurred in other European countries, although to some extent this has reduced by protective measures and industrial support policies. In the U.S.A, the Jones Act (which places restrictions on the ships that can be used for moving domestic cargoes) has meant that merchant shipbuilding has continued, albeit at a reduced rate, but such protection has failed to penalise shipbuilding inefficiencies. The consequence of this is that contract prices are far higher than those of any other country building oceangoing ships.
Present day shipbuilding [ edit ]
China is the world's largest shipbuilder.[29] The country has been an emerging low-cost, high-volume shipbuilder that overtook South Korea during the 2008–2010 global financial crisis as they won new orders for medium and small-sized container ships.[30]
South Korea's "big three" shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, dominate the global market for large container ships. As freight rates continue to decline into 2016, production delays, and overcapacity in the industry have led South Korean shipbuilders into financial distress. Consequently, significant market share has been ceded to their Chinese and Japanese rivals.[31]
The market share of European ship builders began to decline in the 1960s as they lost work to Japan in the same way Japan most recently lost their work to China and South Korea. Over the four years from 2007, the total number of employees in the European shipbuilding industry declined from 150,000 to 115,000.[32] The output of the United States also underwent a similar change.[33][34] Key shipbuilders in Europe are Fincantieri, Navantia, Naval Group and BAE Systems.
Global Shipbuilding Industry Rank Country Completed Gross tonnage in 2018, 000s[35] Market Share by New Orders in 2018[36] 1 South Korea 49,600 40% 2 China 43,900 36% 3 Japan 13,005 7% 4 Others 5,000 17%
Modern shipbuilding manufacturing techniques [ edit ]
Modern shipbuilding makes considerable use of prefabricated sections. Entire multi-deck segments of the hull or superstructure will be built elsewhere in the yard, transported to the building dock or slipway, then lifted into place. This is known as "block construction". The most modern shipyards pre-install equipment, pipes, electrical cables, and any other components within the blocks, to minimize the effort needed to assemble or install components deep within the hull once it is welded together.
Ship design work, also called naval architecture, may be conducted using a ship model basin. Previously, loftsmen at the mould lofts of shipyards were responsible for taking the dimensions, and details from drawings and plans and translating this information into templates, battens, ordinates, cutting sketches, profiles, margins and other data.[37] However, since the early 1970s computer-aided design (CAD) became normal for the shipbuilding design and lofting process.[38]
Modern ships, since roughly 1940, have been produced almost exclusively of welded steel. Early welded steel ships used steels with inadequate fracture toughness, which resulted in some ships suffering catastrophic brittle fracture structural cracks (see problems of the Liberty ship). Since roughly 1950, specialized steels such as ABS Steels with good properties for ship construction have been used. Although it is commonly accepted that modern steel has eliminated brittle fracture in ships, some controversy still exists.[39] Brittle fracture of modern vessels continues to occur from time to time because grade A and grade B steel of unknown toughness or fracture appearance transition temperature (FATT) in ships' side shells can be less than adequate for all ambient conditions.[40]
Ship repair industry [ edit ]
All ships need repair work at some point in their working lives. A part of these jobs must be carried out under the supervision of the classification society.
A lot of maintenance is carried out while at sea or in port by ship's crew. However a large number of repair and maintenance works can only be carried out while the ship is out of commercial operation, in a ship repair yard.
Prior to undergoing repairs, a tanker must dock at a deballasting station for completing the tank cleaning operations and pumping ashore its slops (dirty cleaning water and hydrocarbon residues).
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes
Tripathi, Rama Shankar (1967). History of Ancient India . Motilal Banarsidass. p. 145. ISBN 81-208-0018-4.
Hourani, George Fadlo; Carswel, John (1995). Arab Seafaring: In the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times. Princeton University Press. p. 90. ISBN 0-691-00032-8. |
As an active series A/B investor, most companies I like have been supported by great angel investors and seed funds. They help founders quit their day jobs, build a team and get to their first revenue. Having that right first investor back you is life changing—they can set the tone for many investments to come and provide you with the credibility and advice you desperately need.
Needless to say, not all early investors are the same.
Below are some people doing great work. I have categorised them in three different groups — angel networks, fundraising platforms and seed funds. If I missed you, ping me (@sandhya) and I’ll look you up.
I have not included accelerators in my list. Not that they aren’t relevant, just that there are very few awesome ones and they don’t give you much cash. Some of the ones I like are: Pankaj Jain at 500Startups, Abhishek Gupta at TLabs , Vijay Anand at theStartupCenter and Rajesh Sawhney at GSF. There are also new accelerators popping up everyday like these guys.
Angel networks
Indian Angel Network (IAN) and Mumbai Angels are the largest networks in the country. But factors such as how a group is run and who is in it are far more important than how many angels you can get access to. Small exclusive groups where investors themselves are easy to reach and give you quick feedback will help you make better decisions as a founder.
Indian Angel Network (born 2006) — Padmaja Ruparel runs IAN and knows just about every angel investor in India. Don’t just submit a form on their website. Get someone to introduce you to one of their 290 members and your pitch is more likely to be read and shared and invested in. Like this.
(born 2006) — Padmaja Ruparel runs IAN and knows just about every angel investor in India. Don’t just submit a form on their website. Get someone to introduce you to one of their 290 members and your pitch is more likely to be read and shared and invested in. Like this. Powai Lake Ventures (born 2011)—The crew is almost entirely from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. You will love their application process, just send them a short email. No forms, no business plans.
(born 2011)—The crew is almost entirely from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. You will love their application process, just send them a short email. No forms, no business plans. Mumbai Angels (born 2006) — While they have old hits like InMobi and Myntra in their kitty, I see fewer exciting deals led by them in 2014. Their website definitely needs a revamp.
(born 2006) — While they have old hits like InMobi and Myntra in their kitty, I see fewer exciting deals led by them in 2014. Their website definitely needs a revamp. I3N (born 2009) — Aditi Shrivastava, who runs Intellecap’s Impact Investing Network works very hard to get founders funded. If your startup has high socio-economic relevance, put Shrivastava on your fundraising list.
(born 2009) — Aditi Shrivastava, who runs Intellecap’s Impact Investing Network works very hard to get founders funded. If your startup has high socio-economic relevance, put Shrivastava on your fundraising list. Individual powerhouse angels — CEOs and entrepreneurs with a great wealth of experience are also ready to help you launch. It is not easy to get their attention but if you are looking for that perfect angel backer, start searching for them at Quora-threads and Angellist/India.
Fundraising platforms
Platforms are efficient, help standardise terms and give more power to entrepreneurs. We need some of that. I already see IAN members rapidly signing up on these sites.
Let’s Venture (born 2013) — Fabulous work by Shanti Mohan. With 23 deals closed, they are leading the charge of the platforms so far.
Termsheet.io (born 2014) — Claim to fame: the Flipkart Bansals just invested in Ather through termsheet.io.
Ah! Ventures (born 2012) — They have been around longer, seeding investments but launched their platform in 2012. Nice portfolio of business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) tech platforms in learning, gaming, and collaboration.
Globevestor (born 2014)— This team particularly focuses on helping non-resident Indians (NRIs) and high net worth individuals (HNIs) abroad invest in Indian startups and have already closed five deals including Zoomcar. The good news: no commission.
Seed funds
Everyone’s doing seed investments at this point so nothing, apparently, is too early for institutional capital. I begin to think even Tiger Global might make a seed investment in the right team given the exuberant environment in India. If you have their attention, you are winning already and don’t need this article.
That said, here are the guys whose only job is to lead seed rounds and who will still be making seed investments when things get tough:
Blume Ventures (born 2011) — I like where their portfolio is going. They are just flush from their Zipdial exit. Easy to reach, just tweet at@arpiit.
(born 2011) — I like where their portfolio is going. They are just flush from their Zipdial exit. Easy to reach, just tweet at@arpiit. Unitus Seed Fund (born 2012) — Awesome guys. They are a great fit for startups in education, health, payments and generally “inclusive” business ideas. They have just launched an accelerator program too: Speed2Seed. Best way to reach them is be introduced by someone they know but you can also try Radha over Linkedin.
(born 2012) — Awesome guys. They are a great fit for startups in education, health, payments and generally “inclusive” business ideas. They have just launched an accelerator program too: Speed2Seed. Best way to reach them is be introduced by someone they know but you can also try Radha over Linkedin. India Quotient (born 2013) — Entrepreneurs themselves, fabulously easy to reach. Use twitter or just email Anand Lunia from their website. As someone who also shares her email id on linkedin and my website and gets her inbox down to zero every week, I really respect angel/seed investors who share their contacts.
(born 2013) — Entrepreneurs themselves, fabulously easy to reach. Use twitter or just email Anand Lunia from their website. As someone who also shares her email id on linkedin and my website and gets her inbox down to zero every week, I really respect angel/seed investors who share their contacts. Orios Venture Partners (born 2014) — Started by successful angel investor Rehan yar Khan, their website features many of his past angel investments like Ola. However, they are actively looking for seed opportunities. They have already made 12 investments but only announced Yumist amongst their seed bets.
(born 2014) — Started by successful angel investor Rehan yar Khan, their website features many of his past angel investments like Ola. However, they are actively looking for seed opportunities. They have already made 12 investments but only announced Yumist amongst their seed bets. Kae Capital (born 2011) —Again, super reachable — everyone’s email addresses are available on their website.
(born 2011) —Again, super reachable — everyone’s email addresses are available on their website. Seedfund (born 2006) — They were probably India’s first seed fund and have led some very successful investments with Redbus and Carwale. Not the easiest team to reach though. Try Bharati Jacob here. They have slowed down (stopped?) in 2014 so I should check whether they are raising money again.
(born 2006) — They were probably India’s first seed fund and have led some very successful investments with Redbus and Carwale. Not the easiest team to reach though. Try Bharati Jacob here. They have slowed down (stopped?) in 2014 so I should check whether they are raising money again. Jungle Ventures (born 2012) — Jayesh Parekh was an active angel investor way before he started running Jungle. Their team makes investments across Asia. Not the easiest to reach for a seed fund and possibly moving to Series A funding.
This post first appeared on LinkedIn. It might be updated. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com. |
Article by Aaron Haughton
Stanley Kubrick is notorious for being one of cinema's most iconic imagists. With an eye as sharp as Kubrick's, it should come as no surprise that he earned his foundation in photography. Employed by Look Magazine at only the age of 17, Kubrick quickly became known for his storytelling through his photographs. When viewing his images, it becomes very clear that Kubrick has a natural cinematic eye. Nearly all of his images are captivating, both in composition and subject matter. Some of the best amongst the bunch involve children and capture that sense of childlike wonder, the feeling that the world's in front of them and not in the rearview. Some of them even bring to mind certain compositions or concepts that later become apparent in his films. Below are our favorite Kubrick photos of all time. |
Weekly Update – 9/29/2017 Sep 29 - TheFeelTrain
This last week, EGX went down in the UK. And since our lead 3rd person animator was there, Installation 01 was there right there with him (in spirit). So the bulk of this week's update is actually just shameless promotion for Matthew Lake's company's new game and some pictures of EGX. This could be the return of Matthew Lake memes, or "lemes." They were once on the rise, but oh how far they have fallen over the last few months.
Anyways, let's get down to business.
Matthew Lake Takes EGX
If you didn’t know, after releasing the cinematic trailer in May of this year, Matthew Lake was officially declared the greatest animator who ever lived. He was hired the second he showed it to an executive. This leads us to last weekend at EGX (The biggest UK games expo) where Matt was in attendance with his studio Lucid Games showing off their newly announced title - Switchblade, an arena-based 5v5 vehicular shooter. So now this update is here to promote it, because we support our team members in their external endeavors. That’s Matt on the right. He looks a little different than in the ViDoc over a year ago...
Luckily for you, Switchblade has a closed beta you can sign up for on the game's website. They’re giving out lots of beta keys so if you like seamlessly switching between heavily armed sci-fi vehicles, this is a game you definitely want to check out. Chase down a rival in a speedy fighter, then swap to a heavy-duty battlewagon to defend a tower as your teammates switch between healers and artillery to back you up.
If you aren’t convinced yet, here’s a dank trailer.
ClassyHam also attended EGX, and made it his mission to seek out and meetup with the legendary Matthew Lake. Here’s the gang all together, featuring an awkward Matthew Lake and a ClassyHam wearing his own t-shirt. Classy.
The rest of this section is a small gallery of some EGX photos. It's almost like you're really there. But instead of actually being there, you're not there. You're here. And you're looking at photos embedded in an Installation 01 weekly update. So pretty close to the experience of going to EGX, but not quite the same. Very very similar.
Ancient Builders
A new week means a new song from the Installation 01 soundtrack gets released on Jafet's YouTube channel. If you had any doubts about Jafet being directly related to Marty O'Donnell, just take one look at the songs he's posted so far. Like this one, "Ancient Builders."
Blame Bean
What is up, guys? This is The Bean Man here. And today, we're having a Yu-Gi-Oh battle. As it turns out, you just activated my trap card.
Sorry this week is so lackluster, but we have some new things in the pipeline that are coming very soon. We've also been reopening the discussion on what kinds of things we want to show off in these weekly updates, so depending on how that goes you might start to see more and more progress in the coming weeks. But until those weeks have come, this is all you get.
TheFeelTrain |
The Pelecinid Wasp make look like a small alien and evoke anxiety on sight, but it is actually a useful parasite that naturally controls beetle numbers.
The long, glossy abdomen ('tail') of the Pelecinid Wasp female invokes trepidation among humans, but it does not sting. It is actually used to deposit eggs onto the backs of grubs living underground. She pokes it deep into the soil until she hits one. She then lays one egg on it and moves on to find another. When the wasp egg hatches, the larva will use its mouth to burrow into the helpless grub and eat it from the inside out.
Females have bulging legs in addition to the extremely long and thin abdomen. They do not have stingers, but may try to poke at a threat to push or scare it away. The male has a shorter abdomen with a swollen tip. They are rarely seen, but share traits like the glossy body and bulging legs (albeit smaller) with females.
Adults feed on nectar from garden plants, woods and other areas. They are low fliers, staying close to the ground and sometimes are spotted perched on low growing shrubs or plants. Females are often spotted surveying land for hosts. This species is capable of producing offspring from unfertilized eggs, a remarkable feat for a living creature. |
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced today that Aaron Travis Daniels, a 20-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, “pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).”
Daniels (pictured on the right*) was arrested on Nov. 7, 2016 at an airport in Columbus, Ohio before he could fly to Trinidad. His ultimate destination was to be Libya, where he hoped to join the Islamic State.
“Daniels admitted that he attempted to travel abroad to provide material support to ISIS,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Boente said in a statement. “Identifying, thwarting and holding accountable individuals who attempt to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations is a top priority of the Department of Justice.”
Daniels communicated with at least one significant Islamic State operative, according to the DOJ. [See FDD’s Long War Journal report: Ohio man allegedly communicated with an Islamic State ‘external attack planner’.]
Daniels was in contact with an Islamic State operative known as Abu Isa Al Amriki, who acted as a “recruiter and external attack planner.” According to the DOJ, Daniels said at one point that it was al Amriki who “suggested” he go to Libya “to support jihad.” Daniels also “wired money to an intermediary for Abu Isa Al Amriki.” When Daniels’ arrest was first announced last year, the DOJ specifically cited a sum of $250 he sent to an Islamic State “operative” in Jan. 2016.
Al Amriki and his wife, an Australian national known as Umm Isa Amriki, were killed in an airstrike near Al Bab, Syria on Apr. 22, 2016. Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook announced their deaths in early May 2016, saying that Abu Isa al Amriki was a Sudanese national also known as Abu Sa’ad al Sudani. Al Amriki (Al Sudani) “was involved in planning attacks against the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom,” Cook said at the time. “Both al Sudani and his wife were active in recruiting foreign fighters in efforts to inspire attacks against Western interests.”
Indeed, al Amriki and other online recruiters for the Islamic State corresponded with a number of recruits in the US and throughout the West. In some cases, they sought to direct would-be jihadists to commit terrorist attacks inside their home countries. But in other cases, such as Daniels’, they recruited young men to wage jihad abroad. [See FDD’s Long War Journal report, The future of counterterrorism: Addressing the evolving threat to domestic security.]
Daniels (also known as Harun Muhammad and Abu Yusef) “faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison,” according to the DOJ.
Just weeks after Daniels’ arrest, the Islamic State lost its safe haven in Sirte, Libya to a coalition of local forces backed by the US and its Western allies. The self-declared caliphate referred to Sirte as one of its three most important capitals, almost on par with Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria. And Abu Bakr al Baghdadi’s propagandists repeatedly called on the group’s supporters to travel to North Africa.
The US bombed Islamic State two training camps south of Sirte in January, citing the presence of external attack planners tied to operations in Europe.
*The photo of Daniels was released by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and first posted online by various media outlets.
Thomas Joscelyn is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Senior Editor for FDD's Long War Journal.
Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here. |
I can’t lie to you about your chances, but…you have my sympathies. -Dialogue from Alien
I’ve hidden in this locker for twenty minutes, and the creature still walks past, searching for me.
I don’t dare use the motion tracker when I see the creature hop into the air shafts. The damn tracker’s too loud while in use.
Twenty minutes I’ve hidden. Several times, the creature has come right up to the locker door and stuck its face against the shutters, searching for me. Smelling for me, even. I hold my breath until it walks away, and try not to make a sound as I gasp for air. I think of how I’m going to get out the locker and onto the tram waiting not five meters away from me. How can I get out and run and hit the button to activate the tram without the creature grabbing me and killing me?
For the third time, the creature, all eight feet of it, launches itself up into the air shafts. A vent leading into said shafts is right outside the locker I’m in. I wait.
And wait.
I think I’m clear.
The motion tracker emits a single bing. Loud. Reverberating. Damning.
And the creature is back again, stalking the tram station’s lobby. Looking for the source of that single beep.
Looking for me.
Through the vents in the locker door, I watch its tail slink around a column. Keeping it in visual range without having to use the motion tracker is best. That way, it won’t hear the beep. Problem with the tracker is, though, if something is moving within its range, stops moving, then starts moving again, it’ll emit a beep without me having to look at it.
The creature passes the locker again. Grunts in exasperation. Takes off into the vents again.
I wait. And wait. The trackers says nothing. I think it’s gone.
This is when my cat decides he wants his face patted and hits my right hand, which makes me hit the B button on the XBox 360 controller, which makes my game avatar leave the locker I’ve been hiding in. Which makes the creature pounce and take my damn head off.
This is about as easy as it gets in the recently-released video game Alien Isolation.
No need to harp on just how much of a fan I am of the Alien film franchise, especially the first, the landmark 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien. The release of Alien Isolation marks the first time video game designers creating an Alien video game have used Alien as opposed to James Cameron’s 1987 Aliens as a template. Gone are holding a pulse rifle and blasting away at hundreds of alien hoards. In Alien Isolation, you play as Amanda Ripley (referenced in a deleted scene from Aliens, which was re-implemented in the film in the Special Edition), daughter of iconic film heroine Ellen Ripley. The story is set 15 years after Alien (wherein Mama Ripley is floating around somewhere in deep space, not to be found until 32 years later). You journey to Sevastapol Station, where the flight recorder for the Nostromo (the ship from Alien) is located. You go there because you need to know what happened to your mother.
Author’s note: from here on in, when saying Ripley, it refers to Amanda, the video game character.
As Ripley, you find the Sevastapol space station has gone to shit. Much like how the character is treated, you are thrown into the game with nary a tutorial, or an easy first few levels. You basically have to figure out how to use the controls as you move around, the Worker Joe androids are malfunctioning and attack you on sight, and you discover that the humans left on the ship are frightened of something.
And that something is moving in the vents. Hunting you.
I don’t even really know what to praise first. As a massive Alien fan, this game is fan service personified. It’s as if Creative Assembly is made up of nothing but people who are as obsessed with Alien as I am. The sound effects are all pulled from the movie; the music is straight out the movie. It’s actually a bit of irony for me that my cat gives me a scare, much like Jonsey the cat does in Alien. Fan service creeping into my life. Everything about this game, from the computer terminals, the corridors, just the overall feel, screams Alien.
Speaking of screaming…
I like a video game to make me forget that I am sitting on furniture, staring at more furniture, and pressing buttons. Much like a movie or book, I want to be transported into a compelling story, follow the adventures or tribulations of characters I have at least a modicum of interest in. Alien Isolation goes way beyond not only transporting you to another time, another place. Games, for me at least, can have that power if done right, like, say, BioShock or Red Dead Redemption. I became lost in Rapture; I cared whether John Marsten could gain his family. With Alien Isolation, I figured I’d be able to play an Alien game that made me feel like I was in Alien, and get some good scares in the process.
I got the most terrifying experience of my life.
A game should be fun. Alien Isolation is not fun. It’s not fun hiding in one spot and moving three feet to another hiding spot and feeling I’ve completed a climb of the Matterhorn. It’s not fun when my palms sweat, when I have to pause every ten minutes to smoke a cigarette because I’m this close to having a panic attack. To be honest, if I wasn’t the massive Alien fan that I am, I wouldn’t play this fucking thing. Not because of the challenge (and boy, if you’re a Call of Duty/Grand Theft Auto/Madden kinda player, are you in for some shit) or the steep learning curve. It’s because you’re not playing a game whereby you’re a young woman trying to survive and hide from a beast that you can’t kill, you can’t harm, you can’t do anything with except stay the hell away from it. It’s that you become Ripley. You think of how a path through the med bay would be best to find a keycard, all while checking your motion tracker. You are hiding underneath a gurney as the alien stomps along the hallway, searching for the source of that chair you stupidly knocked over while rewiring the sprinkler system. From the moment you load the game until you shut your console off, you stop being yourself, and become Amanda Ripley, searching for what became of your mother, hiding from an unstoppable creature.
So why keep playing?
Accomplishment. See, the alien in the game is designed to learn from you. It has no scripted path. It figures out what you are doing, what your survival tendencies are. So being able to navigate through a section and make it out alive brings a wash of lovely, lovely relief over yourself.
You hide in a locker for twenty minutes, waiting for the thing to go away so you can get on the tram and meet with the others you came onboard Sevastopol with. All it takes is a cat who wants his face rubbed to knock you back to reality and calm you with the thought: it’s just a game.
Alien Isolation is more than a game, though. It’s bloody survival. |
Ontario’s big pitch for Amazon.com Inc.’s second home doesn’t currently include a massive tax break for the company, just the promise of highly educated potential employees whose presence will help the e-commerce giant save on labour costs.
And while Amazon will have access to various incentives the province has made available to other companies in the past — a business support system that can provide grants for those that qualify, such as the one worth up to $220 million announced in 2013 for Cisco Systems Inc. — officials say they aren’t offering anything new in wooing the online retailer’s second North American headquarters, or HQ2.
“We’re not going to buy Amazon to come here,” Ontario Economic Development Minister Brad Duguid told reporters Wednesday morning at Toronto’s Royal York hotel. “We don’t need to buy Amazon to come here, because we have the competitiveness and the best talent base anywhere in North America today.”
Duguid’s remarks followed a speech for the Canadian Club Toronto by former TD Bank Group chief executive Ed Clark, who outlined the province’s plan.
Clark serves as Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne’s business adviser, and said she asked him to steer the province’s approach to helping cities make the official bids for Amazon’s HQ2, which the company has said will include $5 billion in construction investment and up to 50,000 “high-paying” jobs.
Clark predicted Ontario would win Amazon’s sweepstakes for its second North American headquarters if politics don’t come into play. The protectionist Trump White House has no great affection for one of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ other ventures, The Washington Post newspaper.
“If that’s not a constraint, we’re hands-down the winner,” Clark said.
But Ontario’s angle also stands in contrast to the bid offered by New Jersey, where Governor Chris Christie announced this week up to $7 billion in potential tax incentives over 10 years for Amazon to locate HQ2 in Newark.
“The Ontario government is not offering any new financial incentives to Amazon – nor any incentives that are not available to others who seek to grow or locate such jobs here,” Clark said.
“I think when someone gives you the ($7 billion), they’re saying ‘I’m not actually competitive, you would never come here if I didn’t give you this money,’” he told reporters later. “That is what those governments are saying, and we’re saying you should come here, because this is the right place.”
Instead, Ontario is going after Amazon’s heart by going after its labour needs. The province announced Wednesday it intends to increase the number of science, technology, engineering and math graduates in the province by 25 per cent over the next five years, to 50,000 per year from 40,000, meaning no other North American state or province would be churning out more STEM graduates per capita than Ontario, Clark said.
The province will also spend another $30 million on boosting the number of graduates steeped in artificial intelligence. These changes will take place whether Amazon comes to Ontario or not, Clark said.
Clark also said Amazon’s own figures suggest real estate is just 10 per cent of the company’s expenses, while the company faces about $5 billion per year in salary costs. He noted that if a government can offer Amazon a 30 per cent discount on those labour expenses, the savings of about $1.5 billion annually would be “staggering.”
“This talent is more competitively priced than in the United States,” he said.
Amazon outlined its preferences for HQ2 in a request for proposal document released last month, wherein the company said it is eyeing a metropolitan area with a population of more than one million for its second home. Since the company announced the contest, city after North American city has voiced interest in a bid, including Canadian ones such as Toronto, Halifax, Calgary and Vancouver.
The deadline for submitting HQ2 proposals is Thursday.
Amazon has hinted it will take a lot of generosity to win the HQ2 sweepstakes. The company’s request for proposals asked for “a summary of total incentives offered for the Project by the state/province and local community.” It also asked for “relevant crime data and cost of living data.”
“A stable and business-friendly environment and tax structure will be high-priority considerations for the Project,” the RFP said. “Incentives offered by the state/province and local communities to offset initial capital outlay and ongoing operational costs will be significant factors in the decision-making process.”
gzochodne@postmedia.com
Twitter: @geoffzochodne |
President Obama and Vice President Biden wait for a meeting with the Democratic Governors Association at the White House on Feb. 21, 2014. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
President Obama’s speech at a Democratic Governors Association fundraiser in Washington on Thursday night contained a key pearl of political wisdom for his party:
“We know how to win national elections, but all too often it’s during these midterms where we end up getting ourselves into trouble, because I guess we don’t think it’s sexy enough,” Obama said. “But the fact of the matter is, is that that’s where so much of the action is.”
Obama is exactly right. His party — from the donor community to the activists — gets very excited about presidential elections but tends to lose interest (at least when compared with Republicans) in midterm elections. Put another way: Democrats love the Super Bowl; they are less attracted to the mid-season game between two teams they probably haven’t heard of. (Browns-Vikings . . . it’s fantastic!)
Young people — a key pillar of the Obama coalition — tend to stray from politics during midterms. Attempts by Democratic operatives in past midterm elections to build outside organizations to battle conservative groups on the airwaves fizzled for lack of interest. And so on and so forth.
That lack of focus/interest has hurt Democrats nationally far more than the average person — or even the average political junkie — understands. The 2010 election is a perfect example of this reality. While most people focus on the 63-seat Republican gain that brought the GOP control of the House, what often gets lost is the remarkable turnover in governorships and state legislatures.
After meeting with President Obama Friday, Democratic governors speak to reporters about the conversation and initiatives in their states. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post)
Republicans picked up eight governorships in 2010 — including those in critical swing states such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. They also held on to the governorship in Florida. The change at the state legislative level was even more striking — and arguably more impactful.
Before the 2010 election, Democrats held full control in 27 state legislatures while Republicans controlled 14, and eight had split control. (Nebraska has a unicameral legislature.) After the 2010 election, Republicans enjoyed full control in 25 state legislatures, compared with 16 for Democrats. Eight remained split. State legislatures that moved to full Republican control in 2010 included those in large and electorally critical states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan and North Carolina.
Tim Storey, who focuses on state legislative races for the National Conference of State Legislatures wrote in the aftermath of the 2010 midterms that “Republicans have added over 675 seats to their ranks in this election, dramatically surpassing 1994 gains. . . . The success by Republicans at the state level could give the GOP a dramatic advantage in the redistricting cycle that will start in just a few short months.”
Boy, was Storey right. Republican gains in 2010 led to a redistricting process nationwide in 2011 that entrenched the Republican House majority, making it very difficult — though not impossible — for Democrats to recapture the chamber any time soon.
And the impact of the 2010 midterm elections at the gubernatorial and state legislative level also had considerable policy consequences. The most high-profile of those was Gov. Scott Walker’s successful fight to outlaw collective bargaining for public-sector unions in Wisconsin. More abortion restrictions were passed in state legislatures between 2011 and 2013 than in the entire previous decade. In the first six months of 2011 alone, six states passed stricter voter ID laws. You get the idea.
There is some evidence that Democratic donors have woken up. The Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic-aligned super PAC designed to run ads in Senate races, collected almost $9 million in 2013. House Majority PAC, a mirror group for House races, raised almost $8 million.
And, because Democrats were so badly swamped in 2010 at the state and local level, the party does have ample opportunity to makes gains — with GOP-controlled governorships in Pennsylvania and Florida in deep trouble. Democrats also see opportunities to win back the governor’s mansions in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, although all three are uphill fights. Forty-six states will hold state legislative elections for 91 chambers, with traditional swing states such as Iowa, Colorado and Nevada likely to hold pitched battles for control this November.
The massive number of contests coupled with the long-lasting importance of winning them — as demonstrated by GOP gains in 2010 — make the November election important for more than just who controls the U.S. House and Senate.
Still, most Democratic strategists — including the current occupant of the White House — acknowledge that state and local contests, particularly in a midterm election, are the one place where the Republican infrastructure (funders + organizations + activists) trumps their own. And that’s a major problem for the party. |
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Upon starting, the enemy won't know of your presence. What’s more - there are two alternate paths into the fort through crumbling pillars to the north and south, and a creepy little girl near the south. Take Corrin out with Felicia / Jakob in tow to meet this girl, Nyx, while Odin and Niles make for the northern pillar to see about a certain locked chest. While this goes on, send your strongest fighters to the front gate to engage the spear fighters that are lined up there.
While the defenders crash against your well-honed wall of steel, Odin and Niles can sneak by the rear lines, taking pot-shots as they go, and your new ally Nyx can make herself useful by blowing open a back door. Don't forget about Azura, and start sneaking behind a patrolling guard to reach a lone chest. As your forces clear the front gate, wait patiently for Niles to get into position, and have Azura grab the Brass Naginata from the unguarded chest and keep moving to a perfectly positioned Dragon Vein in the far corner. At this point, use Effie, backed by Arthur, to lure out the duo of samurai and make short work of them, clearing the rest of the front gate.
As Niles destroys the northern pillar, have Azura wait until the patrolling guard returns to the central room before breaking all hell loose - and unleash an acid rain into the unsuspecting room via the Dragon Vein. The badly burned units will be weakened as your main force sweeps in to finish them off. Be careful to sidestep the range of the archers in the central room, and have Niles complete his mission of nabbing a shiny Rescue staff as Odin destroys the remaining pillar. As the wounded guard rounds his last corner, Azura can knock him out with her newfound naginata. Have your toughest unit bolster Nyx’s power to lure the archers to the wall where she can make short work of them, leaving the leader alone for the taking.
However, as you move to take on the leader, two sets of enemies will appear from stairways above and below - spear fighters to the north and archers to the south. Break rank and reform to defeat these new foes, then return your attention to the task at hand. The enemy leader is no pushover, and sports a ranged naginata that can spell disaster for any of your units. Send your strongest - like Effie - to whittle him down, but take care she doesn't sustain a serious blow. If so, send Silas to intervene, and Azura to pull out injured or re-heal the wounded with her singing ability. If you want to be a bit reckless, you can opt to wound the target severely, and let Niles do the honor to capture the enemy leader. |
Baltic boosterism is back. Last week Fraser Nelson used his new Telegraph column to sing the praises of Estonia's economic performance, taking his cue from an earlier editorial in the Wall Street Journal which lavished praise on the small Baltic state for cutting spending and keeping taxes "flat and low". Estonia is growing fast -- motoring along at an annualised 8.4 per cent -- and proof positive according to Nelson that expansionary contraction works. It has cut its way back to prosperity.
Last time libertarians cheer-led for the Baltic states like this was when their flat taxes were in vogue, back in 2005. Flat taxes were said to be sweeping across Eastern Europe towards Berlin faster than the Red Army, as Germany's general election approached. George Osborne even briefly flirted with the idea -- until Gerhard Schroder tore chunks out of Angela Merkel's poll lead by demolishing her on the issue. The libertarians retreated wounded, to regroup and find a new line of attack.
Estonia is indeed a fine country. Its people are resilient and dynamic. Its government is open and transparent and it invests heavily in innovation. Like other Northern European countries, it has historically exercised fiscal prudence. It has much to recommend it.
But a brief look at its recent economic history should give anyone pause for thought. During the financial crisis, Estonia's GDP contracted sharply -- by over 5 per cent in 2008 and then a massive 13.9 per cent in 2009. Unemployment rocketed to nearly 17 per cent -- one of the highest levels in the EU. It is still very high at over 13 per cent.
Given such a deep loss of output, high unemployment and lower labour costs, one would expect rapid post-recessionary growth. But even then, much of Estonia's recent bounce back has been driven by increased exports, chiefly to its high performing social democratic neighbours. Meanwhile, inflation is high and consumer spending low, and GDP growth is now returning to a trend that is lower than before the crisis in 2008, in part because of the constraints imposed by euro membership.
That the balance sheet effects of the internal devaluations of the Baltic republics were not more severe was largely the result of negligible public debt before the crisis struck, as Roubini has recently spelled out:
The international experience of "internal devaluations" is mostly one of failure. Argentina tried the deflation route to a real depreciation and, after three years of an ever-deepening recession/depression, it defaulted and exited its currency board peg. The case of Latvia's "successful" internal devaluation is not a model for the EZ periphery: Output fell by 20 per cent and unemployment surged to 20 per cent; the public debt was -- unlike in the EZ periphery -- negligible as a percentage of GDP and thus a small amount of official finance -- a few billion euros -- was enough to backstop the country without the massive balance-sheet effects of deflation; and the willingness of the policy makers to sweat blood and tears to avoid falling into the arms of the "Russian bear" was, for a while, unlimited (as opposed to the EZ periphery's unwillingness to give up altogether its fiscal independence to Germany); and even after devaluation and default was avoided, the current backlash against such draconian adjustment is now very serious and risks undermining such efforts (while, equivalently, the social and political backlash against recessionary austerity is coming to a boil in the EZ periphery).
The Baltic republics are also curious poster-boys for British Eurosceptics, who generally favour the break-up of the eurozone, and positively urge Greece to default and bring back a devalued Drachma. It is doubly odd, therefore, that they should commend a country like Estonia for sacrificing everything on the altar of euro membership, particularly as it now has to contribute to eurozone bailout funds.
Still, when you're arguing for expansionary contraction, why let a little matter of intellectual consistency get in the way?
Nick Pearce is Director of IPPR |
There's arguably no bigger name in North American bike sharing than Bixi of Montreal. So the word on Monday that Bixi had filed for Canada's version of Chapter 11 bankruptcy sent some shudders across bike sharing cities.
Fifteen cities, including London, New York and Chicago have adopted Bixi's bike-sharing model, but it has not been a profitable one. Bixi has more than $50 million in debt that will have to be restructured.
The Bixi bankruptcy itself wasn't a surprise. Bixi's financial problems have been well documented, especially by transportation reporter Andy Riga in the Montreal Gazette. The city of Montreal essentially put Bixi into bankruptcy, in order to give the company a chance to revive its operations.
The Bixi bankruptcy comes at a time when experts have predicted the U.S. bike sharing fleet, which doubled in 2012, could double again in 2013. Many smaller cities are beginning to consider installing bike sharing systems, as I wrote at our journalism project Curbing Cars.
Will the Bixi bankruptcy stall those efforts? The outcome of this restructuring could affect for more cities than just Bixi's home base on Montreal.
Bixi has some major liabilities, and it is owed money, too. A number of cities have delayed payments to Bixi over complaints about its bike sharing software programs.
Here, based on Riga's reporting, are five big debts from the Bixi bankruptcy.
New York and Chicago: They owe Bixi $5.3 million, withheld by because of delays in implementing software across the Citibike and Divvy Bikes systems respectively.
Damages: Alta Bike Share, which operates Citibike for New York, wants $11 million from Bixi because of those software delays.
Loans: Bixi owes Montreal and its taxpayers a minimum of $38 million. About $31.6 million is owed on a $37 million loan from the city. Another $6.4 million is owed on a line of credit guaranteed by Montreal taxpayers.
Suppliers: They are owned $9 million by Bixi.
Montreal: Beyond the loan and line of credit, it could cost $1.5 million more for Montreal to run the Bixi system in 2014.
What happens to cities with Bixi bike sharing programs? They could find other operators, such as Alta Bike Share, or run the systems themselves. Bike sharing has become a major tourism tool in a number of places, so it's likely that cities will think twice about shutting down the systems and removing bikes and kiosks. |
A man on Instagram posts a picture of nude women strewn across loose cash. A Celebrity wins an Oscar and talks about changing the world. Our Facebook news feed shows us caricatures of people’s lives – a pixel tapestry of embellishment and misrepresentation. Money is a means to an end, status is our culture; success is everything.
This is our world.
Success has become to us what enlightenment was to the Yogis. Where our Eastern friends busied themselves with the pursuit of acceptance and oneness, we busy ourselves with wealth and status. Where a homeless guy preached the importance of loving your brother, Instagram celebrities preach the importance of trampling him underfoot in ruthless competition.
We’ve all got to succeed. But like you, I’ve often found myself lost in a confused mess of crushing self-doubt, crippling feelings of inadequacy, and fleeting moments of roaring motivation. It sucks. Human’s are emotional creatures, and insecurity is often our default mode. We look at people and we see only what we lack. It’s a perspective that can feel imprisoning – and success is often marketed to us as our means of escape.
Understandably – the whole situation is a mess.
But I’m here to help.
Below is every bit of wisdom I’ve accrued reading countless self-help books, failing dozens of dreams, and ever so slightly achieving a few of them. As with my article on being a player; if you pay attention, then the secret will be revealed.
Let’s begin…
1) Do not define success. If you don’t, it’s more marketable.
2) Don’t be afraid to fail. That would be human.
3) When networking, do not have approval seeking behaviour. Instead, feign dominance. Approval will follow.
A picture of Bears. For motivation.
4) Work on your goal every day. Or alternatively, whenever you feel like it.
5) Make sure you have the One Perfect Morning Routine. You must get this right. Choose from 1,000,000 options.
6) Meditate! Eastern tools of detachment are perfect for achieving material goals!*
7) If you want to be a WINNER™ you need to adopt the LION™ mindset. Eat other men’s children and lick you own arsehole.
Scratch trees. Shit on the ground.
8) You are the sum of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Seize and release human beings like rungs on a ladder.
9) Don’t go to university. That would be following the trend. Instead, follow this trend.
10) Take life advice from psychopaths.
11) Don’t be average. Be what I tell you.
Be what I tell you.
12) Look down on people who get married and have children. Instead, die alone.
13) When in doubt – give up.
14)If you want to be a WINNER™ you need to adopt the LION™ mindset. Spend most of your day asleep.
Face extinction. Get harassed by flies.
15) Have more than 15 laws.
16) When happy, attribute it to success. When sad, attribute it to success.
17) Networking is the key to success. Compete with all of your friends –only one of you can succeed.
Make sure everyone on Facebook sees the things you saw through your phone.
18) If someone doubts you – become defensive.
19) When writing anything – use short sentences and numbers.*
20) If you want to be a WINNER™ you need to adopt the LION™ mindset. Pace up and down the walls of your enclosure, occasionally eat your own shit.
Don’t be Sea Lion, though. They’re not quite as impressive.
21) Fail. Try. Add more failure. Bake for 10 years. Season with luck. Succeess guaranteed.
22) Consider therapy.
Bing!
*Meditation is like being in a relationship. You don’t try to change the person you’re in a relationship with, you accept who they are. And you sure as shit don’t use them to achieve an end.
*They even did this in The Bible. Go figure. |
Rand Paul said on Friday that the Boston bombers came to America as refugees and were "coddled" and given "free stuff," before they "decided to attack us."
"The Boston bombers came here and as refugees, we coddled them, we gave them free stuff, we gave them free housing, and yet, they decided to attack us, so there’s a great risk," Paul told radio host Jeff Kuhner.
Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the brothers responsible for the 2013 Boston marathon bombing, did not enter the country through the refugee screening process. The Tsarnaev family entered on tourist visas and, through a process different from the refugee program, eventually were granted political asylum.
Paul introduced an amendment in the Senate last week to block welfare assistance for new refugees from certain countries, including Syria.
The interviewer asked Paul whether the refugee resettlement process was "as rigorous and stringent as the president and his supporters claim."
Paul answered that he does not think the process is sufficiently stringent, saying that he'd met with the Obama administration in recent days.
"A woman from the administration acted offended because I implied that any refugees could be terrorists," Paul said.
"It’s a mistake for the Obama administration to downplay the risk," he added. "And we’re gonna fight them. I’ve been fighting them all week in the Senate and I promise you this battle’s not over.” |
We recently ran an article about how Las Vegas trudge-rockers Five Finger Death Punch have managed to carve out a successful career for themselves, in part, by aligning themselves with recent veterans. That’s pretty interesting! Good for them! But it doesn’t quite explain why frontman Ivan Moody, while getting ready to end a recent show, decided to go off on Kanye West, a man who occupies a completely different aesthetic universe. Moody didn’t really give any reasons, either. Instead, here’s what he offered: “Fuck Kanye West. Yeah, I said it, and I don’t regret it.” And then he attempted to lead the crowd in a “fuck Kanye” chant, which did not seem too loud, at least in the fan-made video I’ve seen. And then he said some angry things about Facebook and sang a song. West has really been feeling it from the compressed-guttural-churn community lately; witness Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor making Jim Halpert faces while scolding West for calling himself the world’s greatest rock star. Below, watch the Five Finger Annoyance Rant.
In happier news for Kanye West, Hillary Clinton recently said that she wouldn’t rule him out as a potential running mate. So you just made yourselves a powerful enemy, Five Finger Death Punch. |
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Follow the instructions to install other dependencies.
Autopsy 4 will run on Linux and OS X. To do so:
3rd party add-on modules can be found in the Module github repository.
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From this repository, you can download all modules or just the ones that you want.
You can find other versions of Autopsy at:
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Advanced
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autopsy-X.X.X-32bit.msi: A 32-bit Windows installer.
autopsy-X.X.X-64bit.msi: A 64-bit Windows installer.
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One .asc file (GPG signature) for each of the above files.
Source code at github.com
My GPG Key: local copy or MIT's server
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StatCounter’s February tracking results indicate that the iPhone’s global mobile OS market share continued the surprising growth it showed also in January. StatCounter’s trend data reflected disappointingly soft iOS market share in November and December, which dovetailed well with the softer than expected iPhone sales volume Apple (AAPL) reported for the Christmas quarter. But over the past two months, Apple’s mobile market share climbed from December’s 23.3% share to 27.2% in February. This sharp bounce seems to have stopped Android’s strong market share gains, which extended from May to January. Between January and February, the Android OS share stalled at 36.9%.
Is it possible that the iPhone has picked up new momentum after the Christmas quarter, when Apple posted disappointing 29% annualized volume growth? One key factor here seems to be Asia, where the handset’s share has suddenly jumped from 7.8% to 10.4% over the past two months.
This is interesting, because Apple recently focused on strong marketing pushes in South-East Asia. In India, the iPhone can now be purchased via attractive new monthly payment plans. Could it be that Apple now has new momentum in Asia — perhaps at the expense of HTC (2498) and LG (066570), which have faded badly in their core market?
The StatCounter numbers also reflect a worrisome Asian slump for Nokia’s (NOK) S40 software platform, which underpins the budget Asha phone range. StatCounter’s data seems to reflect the Asha family fortunes in Asia — market share peaked in September coinciding with the new product ramp-ups followed by slow, but accelerating decline over the winter as the low-end competition heated up. Nokia’s quarterly reports that were published after the StatCounter data came out seem to fit this trend. Is it possible that the S40 market share slump in January and February is now auguring Nokia’s Asian feature phone softness during the first quarter this year?
There is also food for thought for BlackBerry (BBRY) in February’s trend lines. BlackBerry’s OS share decline in Europe has accelerated notably over the past two months, which would fit the theory of the previous generation of BlackBerry devices facing steep sales erosion as the new Z10 debuts. Investors are now focusing on how well the new Z10 model sold, with most estimates ranging from 300,000 to 800,000 units. But the question of how rapidly the aging budget Curve series is losing traction is fairly important for BlackBerry’s profitability over the next couple of quarters. |
Obstacles remain over the role of the president and extent of rights and freedoms.reports from Tunis
TUNIS // After more than 18 months of debate, demonstrations and crises of national identity, a new constitution is inching toward ratification in Tunisia, where Arab uprisings began two years ago.
Optimists within the transitional authority tasked with producing the document said it could be adopted as early as August, that elections would follow a few months after, and that Tunisia will become the first post-uprising Arab country to have an elected government and a legally sound framework to rebuild the country.
In comparison with neighbouring Libya - where political debates have been shaped by the presence of armed protesters - or Egypt's chaotic constitution-writing, the process of writing the document has been orderly. This is a source of some hope in an Arab world struggling with transitions to democracy.
But the document is already nearly a year overdue. Stumbling blocks remain in the form of arguments about the role of the president - a highly sensitive issue in a country run autocratically for more than 50 years - and over rights and freedoms, which go to the heart of Tunisia's ongoing national debate between conservative and liberal parts of its society.
"Of course, it's positive," said Habib Kheder, a member of the interim parliament who has co-ordinated successive drafts of the constitution. "The country is moving from bad to good, from oppression to democracy.
"The constitution is going to be suitable for democracy for Tunisians, and we are going to build a country where people can reach their ambitions."
The document as it now stands was written by six committees of elected politicians, helped by constitutional lawyers, and refined after nationwide consultations with civil-society groups.
The most recent draft, produced on June 1, will be debated by the National Constituent Assembly for four days from Monday, while an informal committee tries to hammer out ongoing disagreements between political parties.
The draft attempts to deal with the debate over whether to have a presidential or parliamentary system by splitting powers between the president and prime minister.
Controversial proposals to use Sharia as the source of legislation have been quietly dropped by the leading moderate-Islamist party, Ennahda. However, debate about rights and freedoms still rages.
Selma Baccar, a member of the assembly from the Democratic Modernist Pole coalition, worked on the section of the constitution dealing with rights and freedoms. She said she never thought she would stand for office, but decided to do so when she saw the opportunity to help write a constitution for her country.
But after more than a year of working with colleagues, including many from Ennahda, she despairs of reaching consensus. Citing clauses dealing with freedom of speech and expression, and the rights of women and children, she said that Ennahda's deputies had "imposed their opinion".
"I've been trying to convince myself for more than a year that Islamists can be democratic," said Ms Baccar, a filmmaker. "But these people are not tolerant, so they can't be democratic."
But Duncan Pickard, a fellow for the Rafik Hariri Association in the Middle East, said Ennahda had made considerable concessions, though they have received little credit for them.
A decision by the party's shura council not to press for Sharia as the main source of legislation, he said, was a big sacrifice for consensus, which angered grassroots supporters but was not really leveraged for political benefit.
The party, from which the next prime minister is likely to be drawn, also wanted to grant more power to the prime minister and less to the president, but conceded to a degree on this, too.
"When you look at what the major issues were going to be between the political parties, we knew it was going to be Islam and the system of government," said Mr Pickard. "And Ennahda self-conceded on one and conceded on the other."
Despite ongoing squabbles, the constitution is a legally sound basis for a new Tunisia, said Zaid Al Ali, a constitutional scholar with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
"It has some areas in which it could be improved and it could do with having more consensus - but the text as it currently stands is far from being a disaster," he said. "It achieves much more than other constitutions, and it is much more democratic than any other constitution in the region."
Amid concerns about Tunisia's economy and security, most people wish that the assembly would pass the constitution with the required two-thirds majority that would negate the need for a referendum, said Amel Azzouz, an assembly member from Ennahda.
"There is a real social and popular and political will that wants to put an end to this transitional period,"she added.
afordham@thenational.ae
twitter: For breaking news from the Gulf, the Middle East and around the globe follow The National World. Follow us |
At least four people were injured in a machete attack at an Ohio restaurant before police shot and killed the suspect Thursday night.
The FBI and Columbus police are working to piece together a motive behind the attack, which includes running down the possibility that this was a terror-related incident, a law enforcement source tells Fox News. The attacker was identified as Mohammad Barry, a separate law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said.
The attack occurred at Nazareth Restaurant and Deli, a Mediterranean eatery, in Columbus. Police said the man walked into the restaurant, had a conversation with an employee and left.
About a half hour later, the attacker returned, approached a man and a woman at a table near the doorway and started his rampage.
“He came in and started beating up on another man, I thought it was a personal thing. Then he just started down the row hitting everybody; people were bleeding,” Karen Bass, a restaurant patron, told My Fox 28 Columbus.
The man eventually fled the scene in a white car and led police on a short chase. Officers forced him off the road a few miles away. When the suspect got out of his car, police said they tried unsuccessfully to use a stun gun on him.
Columbus police Sgt. Rick Weiner said, "At that point he had a machete and another knife in his hand and he lunged across the hood at the officers."
That's when police said an officer shot and killed the man. It remained unclear what sparked the attacks.
“There was no rhyme or reason as to who he was going after,” said Weiner. “There’s nothing that leads us to believe that this is anything but a random attack."
The four victims were taken to a local hospital and are expected to survive.
Fox News' Matt Dean and The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
James Vince (left) with Jonny Bairstow on England Lions' tour of South Africa © Gallo Images
Hampshire have appointed James Vince as the club's one-day captain barely a week before the start of the new season. He will now skipper the side in both the Royal London One-Day Cup and NatWest T20 Blast competitions.
Vince's opportunity comes soon after an extraordinary call from Dominic Cork on Sky TV, following England's World Cup exit for England to consider employing Vince as their one-day captain in a long-term plan for the next World Cup.
That call came even though Vince has not played for England at senior level nor skippered Hampshire over 50 overs, but at least one of those shortcomings will now be remedied.
Vince impressed in the Championship in 2014, leading the run charts in Division Two of the LV= County Championship and also led Hampshire to their fifth consecutive T20 Finals Day. He will captain Hampshire for the first time in 50-over cricket when the Sussex Sharks are the visitors to the Ageas Bowl on July 27.
England Lions named him one-day captain in January for their tour of South Africa when he took over from Jonathan Trott, who led the Lions in a four-day series against South Africa A but was not included in the 50-over squad.
Vince said: "I had a taste of T20 captaincy last season and I really enjoyed leading the England Lions this winter so I'm pleased to get the opportunity to captain Hampshire in the Royal London One-Day Cup. Last year it probably took us a bit too long to get used to the new format, but we feel a lot more prepared this season and a Lord's final is what we are all aiming for."
Hampshire's director of cricket Giles White said: "James impressed with his captaincy in the NatWest T20 Blast and he will now take on the responsibility for all one day cricket in 2015. This appointment will also allow Jimmy Adams to focus on leading the side in Championship cricket and fulfilling the crucial role of club captain."
Vince captains with the words of Cork, his No 1 admirer, ringing in his ears. I'd like to see someone who isn't frightened of making different decisions, someone like Vince, who has captained Hampshire and England Lions," Cork said. "Why not throw it to him? He hasn't got any scars and there aren't really that many senior players any more."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd. |
Fudge isn’t meant to wriggle (Picture: Deadline)
Morrisons messed up a woman’s Christmas order – then apologised by sending a maggot in a box of chocolates.
Really, you shouldn’t have.
Gabriella Ortutai-Hughes, from North Kensington, had gone to collect the meat she had ordered from the supermarket on December 22, but they didn’t have the right size in stock.
To try and make things better, they gave her a box of Cadbury Milk Tray.
Gabriella, 37, presented the box to her family and they all ate the chocolate – then spotted a maggot trying to wriggle it’s way out of a ‘Fudge Duet’.
She took this video, which features the very unwelcome surprise:
Sorry, the video was not found
The Learning Support assistant said the experience was ‘upsetting’ and that she was ‘disgusted’ at the thought her family may have unknowingly consumed other maggots.
Gabriella posted a short seven second clip to the supermarket’s Facebook page with the caption: ‘Lovely present I got for waiting one and a half hours for my Christmas order which was messed up, and I didn’t had the crucial part to which would of been £60 worth of chateaubriand.
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‘I still left the shop calm until today. Enough is enough.’
One of Gabriella’s children can be heard talking in the background about how he nearly ate the sweet treat, before spotting it.
Gabriella said that after waiting an hour and a half to be given the wrong meat, she was furious but accepted the store’s initial apology.
She said: ‘There was a lovely sales assistant who offered me the chocolates and a bunch of flower as an apology.
‘Thinking that I or my children may have eaten one, disgusted me. I am very upset about the whole situation.
‘I don’t normally order my Christmas food from there, this was the first and last time ever. My children are very upset about the maggot too.’
A spokeswoman for Morrisons said: ‘We would like to investigate this properly to find out what has happened. We would therefore ask the customer to return the item to a Morrisons store at her earliest convenience.’
MORE: Newlyweds discover they were childhood sweethearts after spotting each other in 20yo holiday snaps
MORE: Pub kept its promise and offered free meals to people spending Christmas Day alone |
For the first time, astronomers have detected visible starlight reflecting off a planet orbiting a distant star. The telescope used in the discovery was too small to tell scientists much new about the previously discovered planet. But astronomers say the new technique used promises to reveal much more when combined with better spectrographs and bigger telescopes now in the works. “The ultimate goal is to characterize a planet like Earth,” says team leader Jorge Martins of the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Porto, Portugal.
It is now almost impossible to see exoplanets directly, as they get lost in the glare of their parent stars. Astronomers have gleaned some information about exoplanet atmospheres by observing how the atmosphere absorbs starlight when an exoplanet’s orbit carries it between the star and Earth.
The Porto team used a different method to study a familiar exoplanet, 51 Pegasi b, which 20 years ago was the first exoplanet found orbiting a normal star. Researchers employed an instrument called the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) attached to a 3.6-meter telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) at La Silla in Chile. HARPS is one of astronomy’s most successful planet hunters; it works by scrutinizing stars for wobbles caused by the tug of an orbiting exoplanet’s gravity. That is how 51 Pegasi b—known as a “hot Jupiter” because of its size and closeness to its star—and hundreds of other exoplanets have been found.
To spot the wobble, researchers using instruments like HARPS build up a reference spectrum for the star—how brightly it shines at each wavelength—as if it is at rest. Using that reference, they then look to see if the observed spectrum shifts over time. If the observed spectrum shifts a bit toward the red end, it means the star is moving away—stretching out its light to longer wavelengths. A shift to the blue end means the star is moving closer—bunching up its light to shorter wavelengths. Repeated observations reveal the size and period of the wobble, and from that astronomers can infer some characteristics of the planet that is causing it—without actually “seeing” the planet itself.
The Porto team took their reference spectrum for the star 51 Pegasi and compared it with new, very sensitive observations. In addition to the first set of shifts caused by the star’s wobble, they found a second set of shifts, much fainter and with higher redshifts and blueshifts. These are from starlight that, instead of traveling straight from the star to Earth, first reflects off the planet 51 Pegasi b. It has larger shifts because the exoplanet in its orbit is traveling much faster than its parent star is wobbling.
The team’s observations—published online today in Astronomy & Astrophysics—pin down 51 Pegasi b’s mass (half that of Jupiter’s) and the inclination of its orbit (9° with respect to Earth) more accurately than ever before. They also enabled the researchers to estimate the planet’s reflectivity, or albedo. A more detailed knowledge of the albedo would provide information about possible cloud cover on the planet, or the nature of its surface.
Such discoveries will have to wait until the team gets time on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT)—a battery of four 8.2-meter telescopes, also in Chile. Further improvements will follow when a new spectrograph called ESPRESSO is installed on the VLT in 2016 and when ESO’s 39-meter European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) is completed in 2024. “With E-ELT we hope to be able to characterize an Earth-like exoplanet,” Martins says.
“I am very happy they’ve managed to provide independent evidence of this planet and nail down its mass,” says Didier Queloz of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, co-leader of the team that originally discovered the planet. 51 Pegasi is, he says, “an emblematic star.”
Sara Seager of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge agrees: “Fantastic to hear a version of the literally original technique for exoplanet atmosphere spectroscopic detection has finally succeeded, but with a [relatively weak] detection, more work is warranted.” |
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