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Photo credit: Vitaly Gubin/HC Traktor Yesterday we had an alarming report out of Chelyabinsk, where it appeared that Washington Capitals prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov injured his shoulder for the umpteenth time. Traktor Chelyabinsk’s head coach Valery Belousov wasn’t very encouraging after the game, saying that Zhenya “hurt his shoulder a little.” Today, however, the news out of Chelyabinsk is a bit more reassuring, as reported by Yuriy Golyshak of Sport-Express and translated below. Traktor’s GM Vladimir Krechin denied the rumors regarding the injury suffered by the leader of the team and Olympic candidate for Team Russia Evgeny Kuznetsov. According to the information received yesterday from Chelyabinsk, during Traktor’s home game against Medveščak the 21-year-old forward injured the very same shoulder that already has been operated on twice. During the post-game press conference Traktor’s head coach said that the reason he only had 4 minutes of ice time was his problematic shoulder. Such injury could cause a long term absence for the player. “No need to worry,” said Traktor’s GM Vladimir Krechin exclusively to Sport-Express. “Evgeny is all right. It turned out that the injury is not to his problematic shoulder, but rather to the trapezius muscle. And even that is almost healed already. I think Kuznetsov will not miss even a single game. So don’t worry, he is fine.” So there you have it. It’s not his shoulder and, whatever it is, it’s apparently all good. Must be the magical healing waters of Lake Karachay! Advertisements Share this story: Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Pinterest
Image caption Edger Mulili's insurance enabled him to receive urgent private treatment for his cancer Eighteen-year-old high school student Edger Mulili says he would not be alive today if his father had not contributed $5 (£4) a month to a government health insurance scheme in Kenya. Mr Mulili has cancer of the oesophagus. He is currently undergoing a five-week chemotherapy and radiotherapy course at Nairobi Hospital, one of the country's leading private health facilities, located in the capital. In recent weeks, Kenya's decades' old National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) has begun offering private treamtment to policyholders suffering from chronic conditions. 'Financial catastrophe' Mr Mulili is among the first beneficiaries of this new service. "If we didn't have the NHIF cover I would have died and I wouldn't have blamed my parents for failing to pay for treatment because they just cannot afford. "The full course of treatment costs half a million Kenyan shillings ($5,000). "Even if we sold everything we could, and asked our family and friends to fund-raise, I don't think we would have received enough money for treatment." The insurance pays a maximum of $3,500 for treatment of chronic conditions such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and dialysis. The treatment would have been cheaper within the public health sector, but given the option, he chose not to risk the months-long patient waiting list. Image caption Edger Mulili's cousin Rita Kiio has been helping him at home preparing meals According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 100 million people are pushed into poverty and 150 million globally suffer "financial catastrophe" by spending their money directly on healthcare. To help guard against this, there is now a push for governments to provide universal health insurance schemes. A 2012 study carried out by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) in Africa and Asia found that only half of the 52 countries surveyed had any form of health insurance scheme, and only four - Ghana, Rwanda, China and Vietnam - were making any visible progress. But as in many developing countries, the vast majority of contributors to Kenya's health insurance scheme have jobs in the formal sector, such as the civil service or the private sector. That still leaves the greater part of the population, who are either "unemployed, or in subsistence farming and the informal sector" in a vulnerable position, according to the Unicef report. 'Too ambitious' In order to reach those people, the NHIF has been out on the road. I join the campaign team in Timau, a small town 225km (140 miles) north of Nairobi. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption African countries have increased spending on healthcare in recent years A truck which they have parked in the market is blasting out loud music and a crowd of locals gathers to watch a group of dancers perform. Every so often, the entertainment is paused while one of the staff takes the mic and explains the importance of having health cover. "The idea is to educate them so that they can voluntarily enrol," says NHIF chief executive Geoffrey Mwangi. But some think the ambition to attract 12 million people to sign up for the scheme is unrealistic given the $5 a month price tag. The minimum monthly wage in Kenya is about $110. Image copyright AFP Image caption Kenya's public health is stretched "The evidence from around the world is that poor or near-poor people don't tend to buy health insurance unless it is massively subsidised," says Robert Yates, an expert in universal health coverage at London's Chatham House think-tank. "Furthermore, whilst membership remains voluntary, the people who are most likely to join will be high users of healthcare who are likely to consume a greater value of healthcare than their contributions." This can put undue pressure on a scheme's finances, he adds. He names Rwanda, Burundi, Liberia, Ethiopia, Lesotho and Gabon as examples of African countries where government efforts to bring affordable healthcare to everyone are gaining momentum. The extension of the national health insurance scheme to cover cancer treatment in private hospitals means that patients who need urgent treatment, like Edger Mulili, should now be able to get it. To benefit the general population, much more needs to be done to improve public health systems. But for Mr Mulili, the overwhelming emotion is one of relief. "Now I feel like everything will be fine. I feel like I'm going to live," he says, a broad smile spreading across his face.
SURUC Turkey/BEIRUT (Reuters) - A convoy of peshmerga fighters from northern Iraq headed across southeastern Turkey on Wednesday towards the Syrian town of Kobani to try to help fellow Kurds break an Islamic State siege which has defied U.S.-led air strikes. Kobani, on the border with Turkey, has been under assault for more than a month and its fate has become a test of the U.S.-led coalition’s ability to combat the Sunni Muslim insurgents. Weeks of air strikes on Islamic State positions around Kobani and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters have failed to break the siege. The Kurds and their international allies hope the arrival of the peshmerga, along with heavier weapons, can turn the tide. The Kurdish fighters were given a heroes’ welcome as their convoy of jeeps and flatbed trucks, some bearing heavy machineguns, snaked its way for around 400 km (250 miles) through Turkey’s mostly Kurdish southeast after crossing the border from northern Iraq. The presence of Kurdish forces passing with government permission through a part of Turkey which has seen a three-decade insurgency by local Kurdish PKK militants was an extraordinary sight for many residents. Villagers set bonfires, let off fireworks and chanted by the side of the road as the convoy passed. Thousands took to the streets of the border town of Suruc, descending on its tree-lined main square and spilling into side streets, some with faces painted in the colors of the Kurdish flag. “All the Kurds are together. We want them to go and fight in Kobani and liberate it,” said Issa Ahamd, an 18-year-old high school student among the almost 200,000 Syrian Kurds who have fled to Turkey since the assault on Kobani began. An initial group of between 90 and 100 peshmerga fighters arrived by plane amid tight security in the nearby city of Sanliurfa early on Wednesday, according to Adham Basho, a member of the Syrian Kurdish National Council from Kobani. Saleh Moslem, co-chair of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said the peshmerga were expected to bring heavy arms to Kobani - known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic. “It’s mainly artillery, or anti-armor, anti-tank weapons,” he said. The lightly armed Syrian Kurds have said such weaponry is crucial to driving back Islamic State insurgents, who have used armored vehicles and tanks in their assault. Kurdistan’s Minister of Peshmerga, Mustafa Sayyid Qader, told local media on Tuesday that no limits had been set to how long the forces would remain in Kobani. The Kurdistan Regional Government has said the fighters would not engage in direct combat in Kobani but rather provide artillery support. RADICAL ISLAM Islamic State has caused international alarm by capturing large expanses of Iraq and Syria, declaring an Islamic “caliphate” that erases borders between the two. Its fighters have slaughtered or driven away Shi’ite Muslims, Christians and other communities who do not share their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam. Fighters from the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s official affiliate in the Syrian civil war, have meanwhile seized territory from moderate rebels in recent days, expanding their control into one of the few areas of northern Syria not already held by hardline Islamists. Nearly 10 million people have been displaced by Syria’s war and close to 200,000 killed, according to the United Nations. A Syrian army helicopter dropped two barrel bombs on a displaced persons camp in the northern province of Idlib on Wednesday, killing many, camp residents said. In Iraq, security forces said they had advanced to within 2 km (1.2 miles) of the city of Baiji on Wednesday in a new offensive to retake the country’s biggest oil refinery that has been besieged since June by Islamic State. Islamic State has threatened to massacre Kobani’s defenders, triggering a call to arms from Kurds across the region. The U.S. military conducted 14 air strikes on Tuesday and Wednesday against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, according to a statement from U.S. Central Command. Eight of the raids destroyed Islamic State targets near Kobani, it said. At least a dozen shells fired by Islamic State fighters fell on the town overnight as clashes with the main Syrian Kurdish armed group, the YPG, continued, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It said preparations were being made at a border gate which Islamic State fighters have repeatedly tried to capture before the arrival of the peshmerga, while YPG and Islamic State forces exchanged fire in gun battles on the southern edge of the town. A convoy of peshmerga vehicles is escorted by Turkish Kurds on their way to the Turkish-Syrian border, in Kiziltepe near the southeastern city of Mardin October 29, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer The Observatory also said 50 Syrian fighters had entered Kobani from Turkey with their weapons, though it was unclear which group they belonged to. Turkey has pushed for moderate Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad to join the battle against Islamic State in Kobani. Rebel commander Abdul Jabbar al-Oqaidi said he had led 200 Free Syrian Army fighters into Kobani but there was no independent confirmation of this. The FSA describes dozens of armed groups fighting Assad but with little or no central command. It is widely outgunned by Islamist insurgents. DELICATE PARTNERSHIP The Iraqi Kurdish region’s parliament voted last week to deploy some peshmerga forces to Syria and, under pressure from Western allies, Turkey agreed to let then cross its territory. The United States and its allies in the coalition have made clear they do not plan to send troops to fight Islamic State in Syria or Iraq, but they need fighters on the ground to capitalize on their air strikes. Syrian Kurds have called for the international community to provide them with heavier weapons and munitions and they have received an air drop from the United States. But Turkey accuses Kurdish groups in Kobani of links to the militant PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party), which has fought the insurgency against the Turkish state and is regarded as a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union. That has complicated efforts to provide aid. A Syrian Kurdish official said in Paris on Wednesday that France, which has taken part in air strikes in Iraq and given Iraqi peshmerga fighters weapons and training, had yet to fulfill a promise to give support to Kurds in Syria. “France has said it was ready to help the Kurds, but we haven’t been received by the French authorities. There has been no direct or indirect contact,” Khaled Eissa, representative in France of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said. French officials confirmed there had been no meetings in large part due to concern about historic links to the PKK. Slideshow (11 Images) Ankara fears Syria’s Kurds will exploit the chaos by following their brethren in Iraq and seeking to carve out an independent state in northern Syria, emboldening PKK militants in Turkey and derailing a fragile peace process. The stance has enraged Turkey’s own Kurdish minority, about a fifth of the population and half of all Kurds across the region. Kurds suspect Ankara, which has refused to send in its forces to relieve Kobani, would rather see Islamic State jihadists extend their territorial gains than allow Kurdish insurgents to consolidate local power.
Interior ministry announces it has arrested more than 400 people and thwarted suicide bomb attack on mosque in east of country as bomb kills 115 in Iraq Saudi Arabia has said that it has broken up planned Islamic State attacks in the kingdom and arrested more than 400 suspects in an anti-terrorism sweep, a day after a powerful blast in neighbouring Iraq killed more than 100 people in one of the country’s deadliest single attacks since US troops pulled out in 2011. The Saudi crackdown underscores its growing concern about the threat posed by the Isis, which in addition to its operations in Iraq and Syria has claimed responsibility for recent suicide bombings aimed at Shias in the kingdom’s oil-rich east and in neighbouring Kuwait. The Saudi interior ministry accused those arrested over the past few weeks of involvement in several attacks, including a suicide bombing in May that killed 22 people in the eastern village of al-Qadeeh. It was the deadliest militant assault in the kingdom in more than a decade. It blamed them for the November shooting and killing of eight worshippers in the eastern Saudi village of al-Ahsa, and for being behind another attack in late May, when a suicide bomber disguised as a woman blew himself up in the parking lot of a Shia mosque during Friday prayers, killing four. The interior ministry said that in June it thwarted a suicide bomb attack on a large mosque in eastern Saudi Arabia that can hold 3,000 worshippers, along with multiple planned attacks on other mosques and diplomatic and security bodies. Those arrested included suspects behind a number of militant websites used in recruiting, the ministry said. Saudi Arabia branded Isis a terrorist organisation last year and has joined the US-led coalition targeting it in Syria and Iraq. Authorities have vowed to punish those responsible for terrorist attacks inside the kingdom, the Arab world’s largest economy. Dubai-based geopolitical analyst Theodore Karasik said the arrests were aimed in part at reassuring the country’s Shia minority, who have long complained of discrimination in the kingdom, which is governed by an ultraconservative interpretation of Sunni Islam. “It sends a message that the ministry of interior is not losing a grip and wraps up the potential nodes of Daesh recruits in the kingdom,” he said, using an alternate name for the group. In Iraq, authorities said at least 115 people, including women and children, were killed in Friday night’s attack on a crowded marketplace in Iraq’s eastern Diyala province. The mostly-Shia victims were gathered to mark the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ended on Friday for Iraqi Shia and a day earlier for Iraqi Sunni Muslims. Police said a small truck detonated in a crowded marketplace in the town of Khan Beni Saad. At least 170 people were wounded in the attack, police officials said. Isis claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on Twitter accounts associated with the militants. Iraq’s speaker of parliament, Salim al-Jabouri, said on Saturday that the attack had struck an “ugly sectarian chord,” and added that government was making “attempts to regulate Daesh’s terror from destabilising Diyala security.” A number of towns were captured by the extremists in the province last year. Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters have since retaken those areas, but clashes between the militants and security forces continue. Security forces were out in full force across Diyala on Saturday, with dozens of new checkpoints and security protocols immediately put in place. Meanwhile, reports emerged Saturday that Isis used projectile-delivered poison gas against Kurdish forces in Iraq and Syria on several occasions last month. Joint onsite investigations by two UK-based organisations Conflict Armament Research and Sahan Research concluded that Isis forces used chemical agents delivered through what appears to be locally manufactured shells to attack Iraqi peshmerga forces and Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, also known as the YPG, on 21, 22 and 28 June. “The three attacks are the first documented use by IS forces of projectile-delivered chemical agents against Kurdish forces and civilian targets,” the report said. In the Syria attacks, Isis militants launched 17 artillery projectiles against YPG forces stationed to the south of the village of Tell Brak in Hassakeh province. The projectiles released a chemical agent which induced in some cases loss of consciousness and temporary, localized paralysis. Twelve YPG personnel were hospitalised. Another seven projectiles were also launched into civilian residential areas in Hassakeh. In the Iraq attack, Islamic State forces fired a projectile containing a liquid chemical agent at a peshmerga checkpoint near the Mosul Dam, triggering symptoms among the Iraqi forces that included headaches, nausea and light burns to the skin. The findings on the attacks in Syria were confirmed by an YPG statement issued Saturday. The exact type of chemical used is not known. “Although these chemical attacks appear to be test cases, we expect IS construction skills to advance as rapidly as they have for other bombs,” said Emmanuel Deisser, Sahan’s managing director.
Season one of Adventure Time introduced me to one of my favorite shows of all time. It was revolutionary for introducing us to wonderful bright and dark characters within the glorious Land of Ooo. And while I enjoyed it quite fine the first run and the second run, how does it weigh in as a whole? Characters The first season introduced us to a majority of the series most prominent characters: Finn, Jake, Ice King, Princess Bubblegum, Marceline, and (partially) BMO, as well as some secondary characters: Lumpy Space Princess, Lady Rainicorn, Tree Trunks, NEPTR, Magic Man, and so on. The depictions of these characters aren’t nearly as fleshed out as they are in later seasons, but it’s a very nice introduction to a lot of the fun elements each character has to offer. Finn is vibrant and pure, Jake goes with the flow yet is also bombastic in his own way, Ice King is sad and insane, Princess Bubblegum is sweet yet very passionate about her kingdom, and Marceline is playful and sometimes devious. We get some see some glimpses of development between the characters, including Finn’s characters flaws, Princess Bubblegum’s darker tendencies, Ice King’s more depressing side and his growing admiration of Finn and Jake, and Marceline’s transitioning from Finn and Jake’s adversary to one of their best friends. The characters’ more in depth personalities and unique dilemmas aren’t explored as much as they are in later seasons, but they’re certainly represented as fun characters to want to spend time with. I’ve said this time and time again but Finn and Jake’s relationship is really the strong point of this season. I firmly believe any good show has to have some heart at the center of it, and Finn and Jake really embody every endearing aspect of this first season. Energy, compassion, and fun is carried with them at all times when they’re on screen, and I can’t think of a time I was legitimately not enjoying myself watching them. In fact, it’s a pretty impressive feat to not be able to name a character off the top of my head that I truly disliked that was introduced in this season. I’ve mentioned before that I’m not the biggest LSP fan, but her role in the first 26 episodes is pretty minimal and she doesn’t really steal the spotlight as much as she does in later seasons. This was just a delightful introduction to some of my all time favorite characters. While they would only develop more as time went on, everything about these characters that is later fleshed out is practically inserted in subtle moments throughout everyone’s actions. Of course, the only reason they’re able to become so complex is because they start out so simple. And as Adventure Time has proven time and time again, simplicity can be the route to something much greater. Artwork The aesthetics of the first season could really be dedicated to Ghostshrimp’s beautiful background work. He seriously knocks it out of the park with the many designs, skies, and general landscapes that he’s created. GS played a key part in designing the Land of Ooo, and what he conducted was some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve seen in an animated series in years. Here’s some of my favorites: I can’t really think of a specific storyboard artist that stood out, as I don’t think any of the episodes had the unique individual artwork that each storyboard artist possesses in later seasons, but the artwork is simple and fun. There are a few design quirks, however. Jake’s eyes and jowls are generally a lot larger than they are in following seasons, and he just looks kinda off. In addition, the characters are drawn with more cartoony and expressive faces, and Finn will frequently be drawn with eye-whites, which is somewhat distracting to me. Pendleton Ward has previously claimed to have hated seeing Finn with eye whites, as Finn is easier to connect with the audience through his simplistic dotted eyes, making him feel more real and less like a cartoon character. Otherwise though, this season is one of the most expressive and jumpy in terms of animation, considering the series becomes much more grounded later on. That being said, it is delightful to see Adventure Time in a Ren & Stimpy fashion in terms of its animation, but also, I’m glad the series didn’t stick to being outrageous and borderline schizophrenic in movement and facial expressions as it progressed. Writing In terms of humor, this is also the show’s most random and arguably juvenile approach at laughs. This leads to some very hit-or-miss jokes and gags, which honestly depends on your sense of humor. For me, the absurd humor works a majority of the time, but at other times, not so much. And I love the wacky dialogue within the series, but there’s only so many “shmowzow!” “slamacow!” “algebraic!” catchphrases I can sit through and not roll my eyes at. In terms of individual writers, Adam Muto and Elizabeth Ito really killed it this season. They really know how to write good AT, which is likely how they got promoted to showrunner and supervising director respectively. In terms of writers in general, a good chunk of them didn’t end up continuing to work on the series after the first season, so it was sort of difficult to adopt the styles or visions of writers such as Sean Jimenez, Luther McLaurin, J.G. Quintel, Armen Mirzaian (who sadly passed away three years later) or even Niki Yang. So while the writing is a bit too 5th grade at some points, I have found myself laughing a lot more than I thought I would while rewatching. Top 5 Best Episodes 5. Evicted! – A great introduction to one of AT’s most complex characters with a vibrant and fast paced song and some great character interactions as well. 4. The Enchiridion! – A terrific adventure and spotlight episode for our main character with loads of whimsy and quirky characters. 3. Dungeon – An exciting dungeon crawl with some hilarious one-time villains, as well as continuing to build on Finn and Jake’s relationship. 2. Ocean of Fear – An interesting look at Finn’s psyche and the realization that fears are not something to be ashamed of or ignored in any way. 1. What is Life? – The first episode to humanize Ice King and transform him from a psychotic jerk to someone who is completely lonely and devoid of anyone’s love and affection. Also, I fucking love NEPTR. Top 5 Worst Episodes 5. Slumber Party Panic – Not necessarily a bad episode by any means, but somewhat of a poor start to the series considering that it throws a lot at the audience at once while also including no proper introductions at all. 4. When Wedding Bells Thaw – A somewhat misconstructed look at Ice King’s insanity that results in making the entire episode feel messy. 3. Business Time – An episode that focuses more on Finn and Jake’s lazier sides, which sucks most of the energy out of our main duo and ends up being somewhat of a bore. 2. The Gut Grinder – A generic and predictable plot that AT seems above and a season finale that disappoints. 1. Memories of Boom Boom Mountain – An episode that focuses more on the absurdity and randomness in terms of humor, and one that feels especially misconceived and all over the place when it comes to story. Final Consensus Season one of Adventure Time certainly isn’t my favorite season of the show; it’s practically the series at its most basic form, with somewhat childish humor at times and much less lore or complex adventures that are seen in later seasons. However, I found myself really enjoying the first season when watching again, and just find it so interesting how much the series has drastically changed over the years. So season one of Adventure Time may best the weakest of the bunch in my opinion, but it’s a totally fun ride down memory lane to see how these characters were and what they have become. And of course, it really does show the world through Finn’s perspective. It’s bright and colorful and very silly and zany because he’s only 12, which fits with the overall theme of growing up within AT. This isn’t a season I plan on rewatching a lot, but I’m glad I got the opportunity to take a look at it once more and I hope all of you that haven’t consider giving it another look as well. Advertisements
HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnamese police have detained a blogger for posting "bad content" about the state, the latest move in a crackdown on dissent that has been condemned by rights groups and Western governments. Hong Le Tho, 65, was detained for "posting online articles with bad content and false information that discredit and create distrust among people about state agencies, social agencies and citizens," the Ministry of Public Security said on Saturday on its website. The case follows a sharp increase in arrests and prison terms for government critics in the past few years that has alarmed the United States, a former enemy that is struggling to build a case for deeper trade ties with a country steadfast in its intolerance of dissent. The detention of Tho, better known as blogger "Nguoi Lot Gach", came a month after Vietnam released jailed blogger Nguyen Van Hai, who staged a hunger strike to protest treatment of political prisoners. It was unclear what Tho posted, as his blog requires an invitation in order to access it. The popularity of political blogs has grown with increasing internet usage and simmering discontent over the Communist government's handling of a stale economy and rampant graft. The number of web users has soared to a third of Vietnam's estimated 90 million people, and the Internet is one of only a few channels for dissent in a country where protests are rare and the media is tightly controlled by the state. The United States has urged improvements in Vietnam's human rights record. In an address to Congress in June, the U.S. State Department's envoy for democracy, Daniel Baer, described Vietnam's crackdown on bloggers as part of "a years-long trend of deterioration". (Editing by Rosalind Russell)
This image shows part of the small pit or bite created when NASA's Mars rover Curiosity collected its second scoop of Martian soil at a sandy patch called "Rocknest." The bright particle near the center of this image, and similar ones elsewhere in the pit, prompted concern because a small, light-toned shred of debris from the spacecraft had been observed previously nearby (PIA16230). However, the mission's science team assessed the bright particles in this scooped pit to be native Martian material rather than spacecraft debris. This image was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on Curiosity's arm during the 69th Martian day, or sol, of the mission (Oct. 15, 2012), about a week after the scoop dug this hole. The view here covers an area of ground about 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) across. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Boston police are halting the use of one-officer patrols in the aftermath of the violence in Dallas. Police said in a statement that two officers will ride together in every patrol car in the city as a precaution "in the best interests of officer safety." The change was to remain in place at least through Friday. On Thursday night, police officers were attacked while patrolling a protest in downtown Dallas. Five officers were fatally shot, and several others were wounded. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said his prayers are with those affected by the Dallas killings. He said one of the biggest concerns is the threat of copycat attacks. "Obviously our concern would be like in terrorist attacks — and this is a terrorist attack — and in terrorist attacks, you always worry about the copycat scenario, and that's what the Boston Police Department [has] to watch out for today and not only in Boston, all across the country," Walsh said. Boston police said all flags on department facilities would be lowered to half-staff. Gov. Charlie Baker also ordered the U.S. and Massachusetts flags to be lowered to half-staff at all state buildings. Baker said the flags will remain lowered for five days — "in honor of the five fallen officers in Dallas." In a statement, Baker called the attack "a senseless and heinous crime against our brave first responders who put their lives at risk every day to keep our communities safe." The Republican added in his statement that his "heart breaks for the families and loved ones of the innocent who lost their lives this week in Minnesota, Louisiana and Texas and I hope our nation can come together after a tumultuous and difficult period for so many across the country." The Rev. Willie Bodrick of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury speaks at a prayer rally Friday. (Jesse Costa/WBUR) Local activists are holding events throughout the weekend to reflect and discuss this week's deadly shootings in Louisiana, Minnesota and Texas. Members of the local Black Lives Matter movement are set to gather in the South End Friday night for what organizers call a "healing event." With music and poetry, it's meant to give members of Boston's black community a space to process the recent incidents. "To come together to heal, to mourn, to celebrate the fact that we’re still here, we're still resisting and to talk about what our next steps are," Daunasia Yancey, of Black Lives Matter Boston, told WBUR. Earlier Friday, interfaith religious leaders gathered to pray at the Twelfth Baptist Church, in Roxbury. They included the Rev. Jeffrey Brown, the Rev. Laura Everett, executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, and the Rev. Nancy Taylor, of Boston's Old South Church. With reporting by WBUR's Zeninjor Enwemeka, Fred Thys and Delores Handy and The Associated Press
You know that old saying, that nothing good ever comes after “I’m not anti-[insert classically marginalized group here], but...”? Fabricio Werdum may need a refresher course. The former UFC heavyweight champion had been looking high and low for a last minute opponent for UFC 207 (he’s since been removed from the event), but that search seems to have led him into some strange beef with Junior dos Santos instead. Not long after the opponent search ended JDS went public, saying that he’d stepped up for the bout, but that Werdum had turned it down. Werdum is not only denying that claim, but in an interview with MMA Fighting he made some strange insinuations about why JDS wanted to fight him at all: “What ‘Cigano’ said was a bit weird,” Werdum said. “‘Cigano’ has been chasing me for a long time. You usually go after the belt, not a fighter. I think that’s weird. I wasn’t offered this (fight). He’s saying I turned it down. I’d fight him just to end this story of him chasing me.” “Some people think he’s jealous because I became champion beating his ‘dad’ Cain Velasquez, but I don’t think that’s the case,” he continued. “I think he didn’t come out of the closet yet. I don’t have anything against homosexuals, but ‘Cigano’ needs to get out of the closet. He must have something because he won’t forget me. I already told him I’m married. Nothing against gays, but everyone does their own thing.” Is that the truth behind it all? Guys that want to fight Fabricio Werdum are secretly gay? Seems unlikely. Maybe ‘Werdum Face’ is an undeniable aphrodisiac to some men. Maybe Cain Velasquez has a spot on Maury incoming (I really don’t think he’s the father). Or, maybe a spot on a NYE PPV with Ronda Rousey and a fight that would very likely put JDS at the front of the title challenger list is worth enough to risk making Werdum a little bit uncomfortable. We may never know.
Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban has just one more tough climb to make Two of the world's top female climbers are vying to become the first woman to conquer the world's 14 highest mountains. The rivals and their teams are each preparing to make an assault on their final peaks - and either could win. Spanish climber Edurne Pasaban has just one more climb to make after scaling a deadly Himalayan peak on Saturday. But her chief rival, South Korea's Oh Eun-sun, is also on the slopes of her 14th mountain. Competition between the two climbers is mounting in the final weeks of the race to scale all the world's peaks higher than 8,000m (26,250ft). Climbing into history Pasaban climbed one of the most lethal Himalayan peaks, Annapurna, on Saturday, leaving her with just one more to scale to become the first woman to bag all the world's 14 "eight-thousanders". The 36-year-old Basque from northern Spain reached the top of the 8,091m mountain alongside several other Spanish climbers, a spokesman for her team told AFP news agency. Only Tibet's daunting 8,027m Shisha Pangma stands between her and a place in climbing history. FIVE OF THE TOUGHEST Everest 8,850m (29,035ft) K2 8,611m (28,251ft) Kangchenjunga 8,586m (28,169ft) Lhotse 8,516m (27,940ft) Makalu 8,463m (27,766ft) However, Oh is now on the slopes of Annapurna, which would be her 14th and last summit. But the 8,091m peak is particularly dangerous, being both technically difficult and avalanche-prone. It has a much higher death rate than Everest, the world's highest peak. Oh, 44, is acclimatising at Base Camp Two on the mountain and expects to make an attempt on the summit on Saturday. Oh currently seems to hold the advantage, although Annapurna, in Nepal, is the tougher climb. It has claimed 130 lives and has already defeated the South Korean, when she was forced to turn back in fog and blizzards last year. Pasaban, who is single and has no children, also knows all about Annapurna: she was defeated once before, in 2007, when bad weather forced her and her team to turn back 1,000m from the summit. Oh Eun-sun (L) and Edurne Pasaban are neck-and-neck If Pasaban wants to seal her place in the record books, she must hurry back down Annapurna and across the border into Tibet to begin her assault on Shisha Pangma early next month. She will travel to Tibet to make her attempt "over the coming days", her spokesman said. A third contender, Austria's Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, is to begin her climb of the world's highest summit, Mount Everest, next week. But she would still have to climb K2, the world's second highest peak, regarded as the most difficult and dangerous of the 14 summits, which all lie in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges in Asia. Italy's Reinhold Messner became the first man to climb all 14 mountains in 1986. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Every once in a while someone will come into your life and they will change everything. Back in February 2014 we came across an ad on Trademe for a dog free to a good home. I had been looking for a dog to adopt for many years as I hadn’t had a dog in my life since my teen years. Had been wanting to get a Labrador but this one was a Staffy cross. Something struck me about this one in particular. I don’t exactly know what it was. So on the phone to the owner to see what the story was, he had separated from his wife and he needed to move closer to be with his children. He had been trying for some time to find a rental property that would take his dog but was rapidly running out of time, in fact was moving that weekend. We arranged to visit to meet the dog on Saturday morning. We turn up to find he had moved the day before and this poor girl had spent the night in the house on her own. We met the owner there as he was cleaning the house. Something had struck me about Jessie the moment I saw her. She was so calm. I knelt down across the room from her on her bed and she came straight up to me for a pat, she came so close it was almost a hug. That’s it, I’m sold. To seal the deal she had to be good with the kids. My son picks up her tennis ball and promptly throws it to her, well, not to her, at her. It hits her square on the nose, she doesn’t even flinch. Lucas later goes over to her and basically sits right on her. Not a problem. Arrangements were made and we adopted her on the spot. It took a bit of adjusting having a dog added to our family. Especially for our cat who hates dogs, and this dog who just wanted to eat cats. After a month or so the dog and cat were best of friends, and Jessie had fit into our family as though she had always been there. Through many dramas including selling our home and moving, losing loved ones and so on Jessie took it all in her stride. Twenty months later, we discover a lump on Jessie’s tummy. With my heart beating in my throat I take her along to the vet, tests were done and the results in a couple of days later. Sad news unfortunately and she has a very aggressive form of cancer. After a very difficult amount of thinking and talking the decision was made to let her go. Considering the speed this cancer came up and how unusually sad she had been recently (most probably due to being in pain, not that she let on that she was in pain, but she would have been) it was unlikely surgery and chemotherapy would have cured her, would have just put her through more unnecessary pain and discomfort only for the cancer to get her later on. Today, just 6 days later, the heartbreaking appointment came at the local vet. Many tears were shed. She was given a sedative to relax her and have her sleep. We are on the floor with her, I have her head on my lap. Holding her, rubbing her, talking to her. Then the final injection was administered. It doesn’t take long and she is now relaxed. No more pain. No more discomfort. It was extremely peaceful. The twenty short months Jessie was in our lives she brought us so much joy and happiness. She changed us like I thought no dog ever could. She was quiet, caring and happy. She wasn’t just a dog, she was a part of the family, just like one of the kids, only better behaved. Most of the time. Rest in peace Jess. You will be missed more than you know. April 2006 – October 2015. Advertisements
Steve Bannon entered the White House with a minimum net worth of about $10.7 million, according to newly released disclosure forms. The president's chief strategist's assets include the value of his own consulting firms and film companies, in addition to rental property and anywhere from $1.1 million to $2.25 million in cash held in three different bank accounts. ADVERTISEMENT Separately, he earned more than $1.3 million in salary in 2016, including $191,000 from Breitbart News, where he worked until he began as Trump's campaign chief. That money, as well as other income, flowed through his consulting firm Bannon Strategic Advisors. As its own entity, Bannon Strategic Advisors netted him nearly $494,000. Bannon is known for holding a financial stake in television shows, such as "Seinfeld." Those royalties earned him between $50,000 and $100,000 last year. He will also dissolve several of his production companies, including Victory Film Group, Victory Film Project, and two similarly named LLCs. Further, he will be "going dormant" at Breitbart News and Bannon Strategic Advisors, only receiving "passive income." The ethics portion of his financial disclosure says that Bannon will be selling the equity he owns in Glittering Steel and Cambridge Analytica, the latter of which is worth anywhere from $1 million and $5 million. Almost all of Bannon's debt comes from mortgages on his four pieces of "investment property" — totaling at least $1.1 million.
87 Bedford is indefinitely closed to regular submissions as our editorial staff embark on new journeys. We will do our best to maintain the website and the stories, poems, and artwork featured on our homepage by all the talented creators we have had the pleasure to work with. If you enjoy what you read and would like to help us stay online longer, feel free to check out our Patrons Page. Either way, we appreciate your support and welcome you to come back and visit again! We publish the following: Short Fiction Flash Fiction Micro Fiction Serial Fiction Poetry Spoken-Word Art Photography Other Forms of Creative Media Book Reviews Short Fiction We are seeking beautifully-written, original short stories by writers with distinct voices, and a clear, sweeping vision. 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TEHRAN(Basirat) :Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, an Iranian MP and a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission says the US seeks to compensate for its defeats and frustration in the region by imposing sanctions on Iran. The United States has put on its agenda extensive sanctions against Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in line with Washington’s bans on the Islamic Republic of Iran. To that end, the US House of Representatives and Senate have, once again, passed a sanctions act aimed at countering "Iran’s destabilizing moves.” The legislation passed in late July, 2017 imposes sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea. Now the development begs the question of whether the US can be trusted as a friendly country and a partner. To review what objectives Washington pursues by imposing sanctions and what counter-measures Tehran has put on its agenda, the Basirat news website has interviewed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, an Iranian MP and a member of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission. The full text of the interview follows. What objectives Washington follows by passing the Countering America's Adversaries through Sanctions Act, which envisages restrictions on Iran’s missile activities and the isolation of the IRGC in the region? The victory of the [1979] Islamic Revolution of Iran has jeopardized the United States’ colonial interests in southwest Asia. So, the US government has always pursued Iran’s political isolation and Iranophobia as two of its major schemes in a bid to regain its foothold in the region by undermining Iran’s sources of power. Missile activities and the IRGC constitute sources of Iran’s power. By passing the sanctions, the US has not only violated the Iran nuclear deal, but seeks to undercut the sources of Iran’s power. The Iran nuclear deal (also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the JCPOA for short) is an international agreement between Iran and six world powers. It is not simply a bilateral agreement between Tehran and Washington. Among all signatories to the JCPOA, only one (the US) is not living up to its obligations under the deal. Iran had expected Washington to breach its promises and not to abide by an international agreement. Iran has reached agreement with six countries and has made good on its commitments under the deal. However, since the second day of the implementation of the JCPOA (January 17, 2016), the US imposed sanctions on 11 Iranian natural and legal persons. The move shows Washington wouldn’t like the JCPOA to be implemented and the Iranian nation to benefit from the deal. Ever since, the US has, for 16 times, adopted measures and passed legislation in contravention of the JCPOA, which we presented to the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission in a documented report. The last instance of these violations was legislation passed by the Senate a couple of days ago, blocking the sales of commercial aircraft to Iran. This comes as it is clearly stipulated in the JCPOA that Iran is entitled to purchase passenger planes. So, US statesmen do not want the JCPOA to be implemented. They are seeking pretexts and breaching their commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the only authority to verify that Iran has delivered on its commitments under the JCPOA, and the agency has so far reiterated in is official statements eight times that Tehran has remained committed to the JCPOA and has fulfilled all its obligations. The IAEA chief has also, time and again, reaffirmed Iran’s compliance with the deal in his speeches. However, the US seeks to create the impression that the agency regards Iran as a violator of the agreement. So, the US ambassador to the UN travelled to the IAEA headquarters and met [IAEA] chief Yukiya Amano in order to persuade him to introduce Iran as a violator of the agreement in the agency’s statements and in his own remarks. The call for inspecting Iran’s military sites and missile activities was in line with the same objective. Washington also resorts to different pretexts in order to neutralize benefits of the JCPOA. Sometimes they say the JCPOA needs addenda, and sometimes say the agreement should include missile activities as well. Sometimes they say the JCPOA needs to be revised. None of these scenarios is acceptable to Iran. We have signed an agreement and act accordingly. If the new sanctions act is implemented, what will Iran’s reaction be? The Supreme National Security Council and the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission have held several meetings in this regard and reviewed different scenarios. Precisely scheduled operational plans have been envisaged for each of these scenarios, and Iran is definitely prepared to take the necessary action based on the circumstances. The actions taken by the US run counter to international norms. But we should know that sanctions have never been able to impede Iran’s development and progress. Many economic and military experts happen to believe that if Iran’s economic or technological progress is studied, we will see that the peaks of the country’s progress coincided with the time when Iran was under sanctions. It means whenever the sanctions were intensified, Iran’s scientific, economic and military development gained momentum. So, sanctions will definitely not be able to hinder the progress and development of such a nation. Despite the fact that the IRGC has adopted effective measures in countering Takfiri terrorist groups in the region, why is it that the US calls the IRGC a terrorist entity? By pressuring the IRGC and calling it a terrorist entity, the US seeks to make up for the frustration and defeats it has suffered in the region. Today, Zionists and Saudis are furious at the situation in the region. They had made a 10-to-15-year investment. They gave financial and military support to a terrorist group called ISIS and trained its members. They spent a lot to help ISIS counter Iran. From the outset, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS and other terrorist groups in the region aimed to target Iran. This is the reality. Now, the evil triangle comprising the US, Zionism and Saudi Arabia has reached a stalemate, and its plots have been foiled. It is natural that they have got angry. The Americans have bitten the dust in Syria and Iraq. They themselves know that they will soon drown in the quagmire of Bahrain and Yemen. In order to compensate for this frustration and defeat, they are trying to portray the IRGC as a terrorist group. They have also put pressure on the IRGC’s Quds Force in order to soothe their pains a little bit and make up for their defeats in the region. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule. Interview by Akbar Karimi
WE all know the excruciating feeling sitting in a room with someone who is repeatedly mispronouncing someone’s name. And when it’s a commentator on national television, it can get a little irritating. Channel Seven footy caller Brian Taylor is an AFL legend by right, but he came under serious fire for his horribly botched pronouciation of Essendon star Orazio Fantasia while calling the Bombers’ clash against Sydney on Friday. Taylor repeatedly pronounced the 21-year-old’s name wrong, ignoring the silent “z” and turning his Italian name into a long Aussie drawl. Taylor was brought up by fellow commentators asking how to pronounce “Orazio”, to which the 55-year-old replied: “Oraaaa-zee-oh” in jest. It’s not the first time the veteran commentator has been called out for his butchering of Fantasia’s name. A fan-made video surfaced on Youtube in May this year of the Seven commentator’s most hilarious Fantasia bungles. Fans looked to have had enough of Taylor’s mispronunciations and fired off at him on Twitter. Seriously, BT should be banned from calling Essendon games. This Orazio stuff is just ridiculous now. #AFLSwansDons — Alex Fair (@AJFair85) June 23, 2017 It's interesting watching a commentator become a human meme. #AFLSwansDons — Max Laughton (@maxlaughton) June 23, 2017 Wittily mused BT. A masterclass in ironic commentaric observation.#GoodCallBT — Richard Hinds (@rdhinds) June 23, 2017 BT commentating Orazio is Bruce's Cyril. — Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) June 23, 2017 "What a sound" - my mum's reaction to BT's overly enthusiastic call on that Orazio Fantasia mark & goal #aflswansdons — Melanie Dinjaski (@MelanieDinjaski) June 23, 2017 Another video of Taylor saying Eagles utility Elliot Yeo’s name repeatedly has also been uploaded, much to fans’ delight. Amid the Brian Taylor kerfuffle, there was an AFL game played. And what a game it was. Sydney completed astonishing one-point victory over Essendon at the SCG, sneaking home via a Gary Rohan conversion from the goal square after the final siren. The Bombers looked set to complete an epic come-from-behind win on Friday night, piling on seven consecutive goals to hit the front with 10 minutes remaining. The visitors pushed it out to a 19-point lead but the Swans rallied in remarkable fashion. Lance Franklin missed two shots in the ensuing chaos, but his side still managed to kick two goals in the final 80 seconds. The margin was cut to five points when Franklin marked outside the 50m arc, wheeled around and kicked his sixth behind of the night. Soon after, the Sherrin landed in the lap of Rohan, who had cost Sydney two goals during the Bombers’ preceding blitz, and the flame-haired speedster did not disappoint. The Swans won 11.20 (86) to 12.13 (85), surging into the AFL’s top eight for the first time this season. Both sides were guilty of crippling turnovers and inaccurate goalkicking, especially in the opening half. Swans skipper Josh Kennedy, as has been the case throughout his side’s revival, was inspirational in the engine room and likely to earn the three Brownlow votes. The Bombers landed in NSW with two worrying records hanging over their heads. The Swans had won the past six meetings between the clubs, while Franklin had averaged a bag of five goals in his 13 clashes with Essendon. They successfully shot down one of the hoodoos. Franklin was held goalless by the Bombers for the first time in his 260-game career. It wasn’t entirely the visitors’ doing. Franklin had the yips, as did fellow key forward Sam Reid, in what was far from Sydney’s most-polished performance of the year. The Swans, however, move to a position where finals are somehow on the cards. It is some achievement, given they opened 2017 with six straight losses. No club has rallied from a 0-5 start and reached finals, let alone 0-6. WATSON NAMES AFL ‘GOAT’ The AFL has been treated to dozens of freak midfielders over the years. Players like Chris Judd, Robert Harvey, Nathan Buckley and Gary Ablett Senior and Junior wowed fans for years with their incredible ability on the ball and ridiculous habits of racking up 30-plus disposal games. Starting a conversation over who is the best on-baller in history and you’ll likely get half-a-dozen different opinions, but footy great Tim Watson has zero doubts in his mind about who takes the top spot. “I’ve said that Gary Ablett is the best midfielder that I have seen in the time that I have been watching football full stop,” he said on SEN radio Friday. “I have watched a lot of football and I’m talking about someone who is the complete midfielder.” Watson picked the Gold Coast star over Judd and AFL legend Greg Williams, putting Ablett’s incredible marking skills ahead of the former Carlton star. “I rate him higher than the unbelievable Chris Judd, and Greg “Diesel” Williams. “Diesel was a great distributor of the ball, he was tough and inside and all that sort of stuff, but he couldn’t run like Ablett, he was a good mark for his size, but he couldn’t mark like Gary Ablett.” “If you look at all of Ablett’s components, and I’ve done this before, break him down into pieces, and say what he can do? “He’s creative, he can bring other players into the game with his creativity and his vision, he can kick the ball as well as any midfielder that has ever played the game, he can win the ball inside, he can win it on the outside, he can mark (and) he can kick goals. “There is not a thing he couldn’t do as a midfielder.” — with AAP
August 27th marks five years since diaspora, the open, privacy-oriented social network, was placed into the hands of its community by its founders. One year ago the community released diaspora version 0.6, the result of a huge effort of refactoring the old code to make it perform better, as well as redesigning diaspora's interface and introducing new features. One year later, we are proud to announce the release of diaspora version 0.7. Since the last major release, 28 contributors have added 28675 lines of code and removed 20019 lines, which marks the release of diaspora* version 0.7 as one of the biggest versions diaspora’s community has ever released. Our latest release contains some important changes, particularly ‘under the hood’. It is now possible to mention people in comments as well as in posts – a long-awaited feature. The markdown editor, with previews, is available on comments and conversations, bringing them into line with the publisher and making it a lot easier to add formatting, links and images to comments and conversations. This markdown editor is now also available on the mobile version of diaspora, for posts, comments and conversations! It includes Federation v0.2.0 , which is amazing enough that it got its own blog post. , which is amazing enough that it got its own blog post. And, last but certainly not least, this new release will include the first of the two steps towards a full account migration feature! Version 0.2.0 of our federation protocol, created by Benjamin Neff (SuperTux88) with help from Senya (cmrd-senya), has started the process of including new functionality. It also provides underlying support for secure and reliable account migration. Important reminder to podmins: This new federation protocol is incompatible with versions of diaspora* older than 0.6.3.0. If you are still running an earlier version, your server will no longer be able to fully communicate with servers running the latest software. Senya has also been hard at work creating the first stages of the much-needed account migration feature! With the release of this version, it will be possible to fully export your account data which will become importable in a future diaspora* release. We also started working on implementing federation methods to enable pods to correctly handle account migrations. The next step will be to create this secure account importing, which can be introduced once the majority of pods in our network have updated to version 0.7. These steps cannot be introduced in the same release as the network first needs to upgrade so when the first users start to import their archives, a maximum of pods will be able to understand the migration message. Since last year's launch of version 0.6.0.0, we achieved a pretty impressive list of changes! Additions and enhancements since version 0.6.0.0: Automatically pull new notifications every 5 minutes Add a user setting for default post visibility Use guid instead of id in permalinks and in single-post view instead of in permalinks and in single-post view Links to streams of posts I have liked or commented on Access to “My aspects” and “Followed tags” pages on mobile Improve color themes and add a “Dark” color theme Enable collapsing of notification threads in your mail client OpenGraph video support Improve error handling on mobile Admin pages for mobile users NodeInfo 2.0 Stop communication with pods that have been offline for an extended period of time Support for an optional Content-Security-Policy header header Support for Liberapay donations Community guidelines Links to our Discourse forum Here’s a quick round-up of the major changes coming your way in version 0.7: Interface Mentions in comments Improve Mentions: display @ before mentions; simplify mentions in the publisher Internationalization for color themes Refactoring single-post view interactions Update help pages Simplified publisher preview Add markdown editor for comments and conversations Support cmd+enter to submit posts, comments and conversations Account migration Update the user data export archive format Reset stuck exports and handle errors Add support for receiving account migrations Federation Switch to new federation protocol Fix order of comments across pods Mobile Always link comment count text on mobile Include count in mobile post action links Support direct links to comments on mobile Improve responsive header in desktop version Add markdown editor for posts, comments and conversations on mobile Mark as "Mobile Web App Capable" on Android Internals Upgrade to jQuery 3 and Rails 5.1 Send public profiles publicly Change sender for mails Add some missing indexes and clean up the data base if needed Improve stream when ignoring a person who posts a lot of tagged posts Updating
WASHINGTON -- These quirky robotic flying machines may be the gift of the season. Manufacturers say they've sold 200,000 new unmanned aerial vehicles. While hobbyists are thrilled, the FAA is worried about a burgeoning fleet of personal drones flying into increasingly crowded skies. FAA too quick to approve use of drones, inspectors say So, the FAA and the drone industry have launched a safety campaign making sure novice remote-control pilots take precautions. The video includes guidelines such as: "Do fly your unmanned aircraft below 400 feet" and "Don't fly your aircraft beyond your line of sight." Guidelines from the FAA's safety video on drones FAA In addition, drone operators are warned not to fly their aircraft near crowds or within five miles of an airport without notifying air traffic controllers. While there are no reports of collisions with planes, there have been some close calls. The FAA receives 25 reports each month from pilots encountering nearby drones. "These aircraft are small, and they have very high performance characteristics, and so it's very difficult for another pilot to see so they need to not be in airspace around major airports," said Michael Huerta, the FAA's administrator. Drone selfies: The latest in drone fashion But, there's no way regulators can keep track of the estimated half million robotic aircraft flying across America. So no new drone should be given as a gift without a note about personal responsibility, according to former FAA official Scott Brenner. "It's like giving your 12-year-old the keys to your car and saying go drive on the beltway, you'll be fine, I hope everybody else is okay too," said Brenner. The FAA is getting ready to propose regulations governing the use of drones for commercial purposes. A handful of Hollywood filmmakers are already flying drones with the FAA's permission.
Reinhard Mehring, trans. Daniel Steuer, Carl Schmitt: A Biography (Polity Press, 2014), 700 pp., $45.00. OVER THE past few years, the conviction that the end of the Cold War inaugurated an era of great-power peace to accompany the inevitable spread of democratic capitalism has been shattered. In Georgia and Ukraine, thousands have died as Washington’s attempt to fence in Russia with NATO allies and affiliates has been answered by Moscow’s determination to rebuild a Eurasian sphere of influence. In East Asia, China’s growing assertiveness has alarmed its neighbors and collided with America’s determination to remain the dominant power in the region. Regime-change efforts sponsored by the United States and its allies in Iraq, Libya and Syria have created power vacuums and bloody regional proxy wars, to the benefit of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. In geoeconomics, too, the Pax Americana and the neoliberal version of capitalism are increasingly contested. China, with the help of India, Russia, Brazil and other countries, has sought to organize alternatives to global economic and development institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, which are still dominated by the Western powers. In different ways, Xi Jinping’s China, Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Narendra Modi’s India represent an alternative economic model, in which free markets and state capitalism are blended under strong executive rule. This moment of crisis for global liberalism coincides with the translation into English of a fresh appraisal of Carl Schmitt, a leading twentieth-century German thinker who, in the course of a long life, was a consistent critic of political and legal liberalism and American hegemony. In Carl Schmitt: A Biography , published in German in 2009 and published in English late last year, Reinhard Mehring, a professor of political science at Heidelberg University of Education, has provided the most thorough study yet of the anfractuosities of the political theorist known to his detractors as “Hitler’s Crown Jurist.” SCHMITT, WHO was born into a Catholic family in Westphalia in 1888, rose to prominence as a conservative legal academic in the 1920s. His discipline of Staatslehre is much more than narrowly technical “law” or “jurisprudence,” including as it does elements of political philosophy and political science. Schmitt’s intellectual allies were, by and large, the conservative nationalists of the Weimar Republic, not the more radical Nazis. In his diaries after the Second World War, Schmitt not inaccurately described Hitler as “an entirely empty and unknown individual” who rose “out of the pure lumpenproletariat, from the asylum of a homeless non-education.” However, following Hitler’s seizure of power, Schmitt joined the Nazi Party in May 1933. Thanks to the sponsorship of Hermann Goering, Schmitt was appointed state councilor for Prussia, president of the Union of National Socialist Jurists, editor-in-chief of the German Jurists’ Journal and a professor at the University of Berlin, where he replaced Herman Heller, a Jewish social-democratic legal theorist who had been forced into exile. At the height of his brief prominence, Schmitt was even received by Mussolini. Schmitt would recall: I had a longer conversation in private with Mussolini in the Palazzo Venezia on the evening of the Wednesday after Easter. We talked about the relationship between party and state. Mussolini said, with pride and clearly directed against national socialist Germany: “The state is eternal, the party is transient; I am a Hegelian!” I remarked: “Lenin was also a Hegelian, so that I have to allow myself the question: where does Hegel’s world historical spirit reside today? In Rome, in Moscow, or maybe still in Berlin after all?” Schmitt did not consider the possibility that the world-historical spirit might have taken up residence in Washington, DC. As Hitler consolidated his tyranny, Schmitt became more abject. He defended Hitler’s Night of the Long Knives on June 30, 1934, and described the anti-Semitic Nuremberg laws against Gentile-Jewish intermarriage as “the constitution of freedom,” even though, according to Mehring, in his youth he had briefly hoped to marry a Jewish woman, Helene Bernstein. Some of Schmitt’s newly adopted “racial” rhetoric was so excessive—he proposed that the word “Jew” be placed next to the names of Jewish authors in footnotes in legal texts—that some hostile expatriates and devout Nazis alike believed they discerned in his writing not the zeal of the convert, but the cynicism of the opportunist. In 1936, the journal of the SS, Das Schwarze Korps , published several articles questioning his true commitment to Nazi ideology. Schmitt’s friendship with Goering and Hans Frank, who was later hanged for his war crimes as governor-general of German-occupied Poland, saved him from the clutches of the SS. He withdrew into recondite scholarship, which included musings on a Monroe Doctrine for Europe that would justify German expansionism and a history of the alleged struggle among maritime and continental great powers. Detained for a time by the Allies after the war, Schmitt explained: “In 1936, I was publicly defamed by the SS. I knew a few things about the legal, semi-legal and illegal means of power employed by the SS and the circles around Himmler, and I had every reason to fear the interests of the new elite.” In a legal brief for Friedrich Flick, a German industrialist who had collaborated with the Nazis, Schmitt, having used arguments about the limits of positive law to justify the Hitler regime, opportunistically deployed them to justify war-crimes trials (though preferably not for his client): “Here, all arguments of natural sense, of human feeling, of reason, and of justice concur in a practically elemental way to justify a conviction that requires no positivistic norm in any formal sense.” The Allied occupation authorities were unmoved and imprisoned Flick until 1950, but after detaining Schmitt twice, once for more than a year, they decided that he had been too marginal a member of Hitler’s system for prosecution to be worthwhile. Like the philosopher Martin Heidegger, who had also disgraced himself by enthusiastically welcoming the Nazi dictatorship when he became rector of Freiburg University in 1933, Schmitt was banned from teaching in German universities from 1945 to his death in 1985. Schmitt nevertheless managed to gather a small coterie of disciples and exercise some influence on German jurisprudence. He continued to write and also had distinguished visitors, including the philosopher Alexandre Kojève. In his old age in his native Plettenberg, Schmitt named his home “San Casciano” after the Tuscan village where Machiavelli spent his final years in exile. In his intellectual diary, the Glossarium, Schmitt bitterly complained: “How harmless were those who sensed the opportunity for intellectual change at the awakening in Germany in 1933, in comparison to those who took intellectual revenge on Germany in 1945.” In the decades before his death in 1985, Schmitt interpreted current events in terms of what he described and dreaded as “the legal world revolution”—a world order, promoted by the United States and symbolized by the European Union, in which legalistic concepts like human rights and the rule of law became the only source of political legitimacy. What most liberals view as triumphant progress, Schmitt viewed as the disastrous marginalization of continental European statism as an alternative to the maritime liberalism of the Anglo-American world: “World politics reaches its end and is turned into world police—a dubious kind of progress.” IF SCHMITT were merely one of many German conservatives of the Weimar era who disgraced themselves by collaborating with the Nazis, he would be of interest only to historians. Instead, Schmitt’s reputation as a major thinker endures, sometimes in surprising quarters. American law professors wrestle with Schmitt’s theories about constitutionalism and power, while the Western Left is impressed by his denunciation of liberal globalism as a mask for Anglo-American and capitalist imperialism. In the late twentieth century, the American journal Telos, a meeting place for heterodox leftists and paleoconservatives, helped further the revival of interest in Schmitt’s thought, along with studies by G. L. Ulmen, Joseph J. Bendersky, Gopal Balakrishnan and many others. Some claim, absurdly, that Schmitt influenced the neoconservative movement by way of the political philosopher Leo Strauss, a respectful critic and correspondent in the 1920s. This interest is justified, because Schmitt is a classic thinker—perhaps the key thinker—of modern antiliberalism. Antiliberalism can be contrasted with preliberalism as a variety of nonliberalism. Confronted with Enlightenment liberalism in its various versions, preliberalism finds itself at a disadvantage in the battle for modern public opinion, because appeals to preliberal sources of social authority—divine revelations, local customs and traditions—are unlikely to persuade those who are not already believers. Unable to hold their own in debate with liberals, adherents of preliberal worldviews tend to withdraw into sectarianism, which may be defensive and quietist like that of the Amish, or manifested in millenarian violence, like the Salafist jihadism of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
By Erika Solomon and Oliver Holmes BEIRUT, June 7 (Reuters) - Six hours after tanks and militiamen pulled out of Mazraat al-Qubeir, a Syrian farmer said he returned to find only charred bodies among the smouldering homes of his once-tranquil hamlet. "There was smoke rising from the buildings and a horrible smell of human flesh burning," said a man who told how he had watched Syrian troops and "shabbiha" gunmen attack his village as he hid in his family olive grove. "It was like a ghost town," he told Reuters by telephone, asking not to be named because he feared for his safety. Until now a bloody 15-month-old revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had barely touched Mazraat al-Qubeir, whose residents had taken little part in the uprising. On Wednesday, the conflict came to them. Army tanks surrounded and shelled the hamlet in the afternoon before rolling in, joined by pro-Assad shabbiha toughs on foot, armed with knives, guns and clubs. "After the army fired on one area, security forces and shabbiha would go inside the houses. I heard gunshots inside three houses, then I saw them come out and burn them," the witness said. "Most of the time I couldn't hear anything over the artillery fire ... By 8 p.m., they were finished." Reuters could not immediately substantiate the man's story, but it chimed with several accounts by opposition activists who said they had talked to survivors of the attack. United Nations monitors, who verified a massacre in which 108 people were killed in Houla on May 25, are investigating. Their commander said his men had been turned away by troops at checkpoints and civilians on Thursday and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said the monitors had even come under small-arms fire. A pro-government Syrian television station said the U.N. monitors had eventually reached the village. Ban described events there as "unspeakable barbarity". Activists say at least 78 people were killed, most of them from one extended Sunni Muslim family living in a score of farm houses on the flat fertile land northwest of the city of Hama. Rising sectarian tensions have sometimes led to bloodshed between rebellious Sunnis and minority Alawites who belong to the same Shi'ite Muslim offshoot as Assad himself. Syrian authorities denied reports of the killings, which resembled accounts of the Houla massacre, saying security forces had confronted "terrorists" who killed nine women and children. "PEACEFUL VILLAGERS" Some activists said anti-Assad insurgents had been operating in areas near the village, home to about 150 people, who may have been targeted in revenge or as collective punishment. But most said Mazraat al-Qubeir had never joined the revolt against four decades of Assad family rule. The hamlet lies about 20 miles (13 km) northwest of Hama, where forces loyal to Assad's father crushed armed Islamist uprising 30 years ago, killing many thousands of people and razing whole districts. "They were peaceful Syrians, neither with the regime nor against it," said one activist, who called himself Abu Ghazi. He named 54 people killed, all but a dozen of them from the al-Yateem family. Three were listed as three years old or younger. The witness, who claimed he was a Yateem family member, said he had spoken to his brother on a cellphone as gunmen rampaged through the town. "The last conversation we had, I told him I saw the forces coming to our house," he said. "After the shabbiha and tanks left, the first thing I did was run to my house. It was burned. All seven people from my house were killed. I saw bodies on the stairs, the bathroom and bedroom. They were all burned." One activist said Alawites living nearby were responsible. "Many young men from the Alawite villages around al-Qabeer have died fighting for Assad against the rebels," said Manhal Abu Bakr. "They wanted revenge, and so they took it out on the nearest Sunni village." BODIES IN BLANKETS Some 24 victims have yet to be identified, Abu Ghazi said, some because their corpses were so badly burnt. He said many other bodies were dragged away to a nearby Alawite village. Video footage released on Thursday showed the bodies of at least a dozen women and children, wrapped in colourful blankets and white burial shrouds, packed with frozen water bottles for want of a morgue or any other refrigeration. Activists said they included a grandmother, her daughter and five grand-children killed in Mazraat al-Qubeir. Charred remains, possibly human body parts, were also visible. "These are the children of the Mazraat al-Qubeir massacre... Look, you Arabs and Muslims - is this a terrorist?" asked the cameraman, focusing on one of the dead infants. The killings came less than two weeks after the massacre in Houla, in which children accounted for nearly half the dead. Assad has denounced the "abominable" Houla killings, saying it was inconceivable that Syrian soldiers could have done them. (Writing by Dominic Evans and Erika Solomon; Editing by Alistair Lyon) WARNING: SLIDESHOW CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES
We’ll have more on last night’s pivotal Buffalo Board of Education meeting (short form: decisions on the turnaround plans have been delayed until February 11) in the coming days from our Shane Meyer and possibly others, but in the meantime we have to show you this: That’s Larry Quinn, being called out for checking out of board meetings where the future of our community is being decided. And he’s callously ignorant of the fact. Quinn, along with the other four board majorty members, has been aggressively pushing a pro-charter agenda since he was elected to the school board last May. This was supposed to be his big night, but perhaps in response to a large community showing questioning the prudence of this matter, it was not to be. So like any stilted bride, he soothed his pain over wifi. Perhaps we should be thankful when Quinn withdraws into the shadows, because when he speaks out he tends to make an ass of himself. And kudos to the student-speaker, identified by the full version of his YouTube clip as Chronicle McClain, who may have a future in oratory. Deeper into the devil’s details, perhaps no speaker made a stronger point on the fallacy of the data being pushed by the school board majority than Kevin Gibson, who pointed out serious concerns over Tapestry Charter School. Tapestry is poised to take over part of Bennett High School according to one of the currently tabled proposals. Here is his three minute presentation: Here are additional highlights:
WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is poised to demonstrate its promised tough approach to trade rules in a long-simmering dispute with the European Union over beef. The U.S. is considering imposing tariffs of 100% on Perrier mineral water, Vespa motor scooters and Roquefort cheese in response to the EU’s longstanding ban of American beef from hormone-treated cattle. Prompting that menu of punitive tariffs are complaints from U.S. beef producers that the EU hasn’t held up its end of a deal the two sides cut in 2009. The beef case is expected to provide a window into how aggressive the administration will be with trading partners. President Donald Trump tapped into a vein of discontent over U.S. trade policy in the 2016 campaign and has repeatedly threatened to hit major economies with stiff tariffs for alleged violation of trade rules, saying he would take a sharper stance on economic ties with China, Mexico and other countries. The case has been in and out of dispute resolution at the World Trade Organization for years. In 2008 the Geneva-based trade body said the U.S. could maintain tariffs imposed years earlier to punish European products over the beef ban, which it said violated international trade rules. Washington suspended such tariffs, however, after Brussels agreed on a plan, implemented in 2009, to allow American beef not treated with hormones into Europe. But American beef producers say that deal has soured because the EU hasn’t adequately opened up its markets to non-hormone U.S. beef as outlined in that deal. An expanded version of this story can be found at WSJ.com Popular on WSJ.com: Other than that, the story was accurate Is the Ivy League’s admission bias a trade secret’? Want news about Europe delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Europe Daily newsletter. Sign up here.
That said, the company has a history of building cars quickly and has worked with DARPA in the past. It has already built the LM3D prototype, saying "the Swim design was chosen on July 7th, and the build was completed on September 18th." However, it still hasn't chosen an automotive partner for the production vehicle's powertrain and chassis. Though all vehicles will get the same powertrain, you'll be able to choose from "a wide range of customizable, aesthetic features that are only possible through DDM and 3D printing," according to the company. It hasn't confirmed whether it'll offer removable panels, however, like it suggested earlier. It's also unclear exactly when the vehicles will be delivered, though Local Motors said that crash tests won't take place until the end of 2016, meaning certification isn't likely until 2017. The company is planning on building about 2,400 vehicles a year, depending on demand. If you'd like to get your hands on what's bound to be a unique vehicle and can afford the risk, stay tuned for more details next year. If you'd rather spend the $50,000-plus elsewhere, you can also get a single pair of headphones.
Many US cryptos find themselves shut out of ICOs, they may have a new option coming through this joint venture to be SEC/FINRA compliant. tZERO (tØ), a subsidiary of Overstock.com, RenGen LLC and the Argon Group today announced a Joint Venture (JV) that pairs the strengths of each company to develop an Alternative Trading System (ATS) which can support United States SEC compliant and FINRA regulated trading of security tokens issued in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). In the first half of this year, more money was invested in fintech through cryptocurrencies than through venture capital – over $1.2 billion. The emerging asset class of blockchain-based digital tokens has raised more than $2 billion so far this year and cryptocurrencies overall have a current market cap of $137 billion. Blockchain assets and cryptocurrencies are also efficiently allocating capital of emerging growth company financing. “With ICO blockchain offerings surpassing traditional early stage VC funding and U.S. regulators seeking legitimate venues to support security token offerings, with this JV tZERO continues to maintain its leading edge in blockchain financial technology,” said Patrick M. Byrne, CEO of Overstock. “tZERO has been at the forefront of the blockchain revolution for years, working closely with regulators since 2015 – launching the world’s first SEC compliant ATS for blockchain assets, the first private blockchain bond offering, and the first ever public issuance of a blockchain security,” continued Dr. Byrne. “Now, by combining our expertise with Argon’s advisory services and RenGen’s electronic trading, deep liquidity and market making capabilities, we are in a position to launch the only U.S. SEC compliant token trading venue,” concluded Dr. Byrne. The joint venture aims to redefine the way the ICO market looks at security tokens, and enhance liquidity to accelerate market development. Lack of liquidity has been a significant impediment to security token market development. This topic has received much attention since the issuance of the SEC Report on the DAO Release No. 81207 / July 25, 2017, where the SEC made clear that any digital token with an income stream is a security, and furthermore that security tokens may only be traded on an ATS or a National Securities Exchange. “We have long been advocating that issuing digital tokens as securities gives issuers and purchasers the greatest certainty about the legal regime that applies to the sale and the widest range of options to provide an attractive return for investors,” said Emma Channing, CEO and General Counsel of the Argon Group. “The key issue to date has been the need for an appropriate marketplace to provide liquidity. This joint venture between tZERO, RenGen and Argon has the potential to completely change the face of ICOs.” The joint venture will be built in an exclusive collaboration that draws on the distinct strengths of each company, combining tZERO’s blockchain-based trading platform with RenGen’s ability to provide liquidity, market making and algorithm technology, and the Argon Group’s ICO advisory experience and security token clients. The partnership will also take advantage of SaftLaunch for AML and KYC capabilities. “This Joint Venture allows us to continue achieving our goal of leveraging our existing U.S. equity market infrastructure and smart order routing technologies within the blockchain space,” said Joe Cammarata, President of tZERO. “I have long believed that securitization is one of the best use cases for blockchain technology – and the transformative ICO market has proven so,” said Suleyman Duyar, Managing Partner, RenGen LLC. “Patrick Byrne and tZERO had great foresight in developing and registering the first digital ATS, and now, in partnership with Argon, an industry-leading ICO consultancy, we are excited to bring our high-volume participation in cryptocurrencies, technology and trading expertise to this promising venture. It is a very exciting time to be an investor in ICOs.”
Photograph by Rachel Joyce. MINNEAPOLIS—For some 12 millennia, humans have sought the company of domesticated cats. We feed them, shelter them, and love them. In return, they jump headfirst into empty grocery bags. This ancient bargain lay at the heart of the Walker Art Center’s first-ever Internet Cat Video Festival. Yes, the renowned modern art museum dedicated an entire evening to the public display of cats doing stupid stuff. Demand was evidently strong: After soliciting crowdsourced nominations, the museum received 10,000 submissions. Festival mastermind Katie Hill watched every single one, eventually boiling them down into 65 minutes of concentrated kitty shenanigans. Asked what sort of aesthetic principles guided her in this process, Hill replied, “It’s like any other curation. You examine how form and content interact. You look for what’s new and unique in the genre. If you watch enough shaky camera phone videos of cats, you start to see the distinctions.” As dusk descended on a lovely late-summer evening, Minnesotans settled onto the museum’s lawn, awaiting the outdoor screening. Hill’s former art history professor, Heather Shirey, was among the first on the scene. I asked if she felt that cat videos were a worthy topic for a prestigious museum. “Yes,” she said unequivocally. “This is a way to get people talking about material culture. That’s what art historians do.” Nearby, a clutch of hipsters in their mid-30s set out blankets and beach chairs. Asked what she anticipated from the evening, one woman answered, “Cat videos. And hilarity.” She said her all-time favorite clip was one in which Maru—a Japanese cat legendary among feline video cognoscenti—gets his head tangled up in a length of discarded bubble wrap. “I get entranced by the way Maru moves,” she said. “It’s the most majestic, poetic movement. Very zen.” Across the grass, 7-year-old Arlo said he preferred a Star Wars-themed clip in which some kittens fight with lightsabers. Arlo described this clip at great length and in impressively granular detail, at times re-creating specific paw thrusts and parries. The vast, sloping lawn became standing room only as showtime approached. The museum had expected 5,000 attendees, and at least that many appeared to arrive. Several had pets in tow. A dude who’d brought his dog was asked if he meant to be provocative. “No,” he said, “but I thought it would at least be ironic.” There was some kitty cosplay. Several adults wore cat ears and face-paint whiskers. One woman had dressed up her orange tabby as Keyboard Cat. He hissed and jabbed at her as she tried to string a tiny cardboard piano around his neck. I asked why she loved cat videos, and she said it was because “the cats in them are so funny. My cat mostly just sits around and sleeps a lot.” Cheltenham the cat dressed as Keyboard Cat Photograph for Slate by Seth Stevenson. At last, the projector flickered on and the moment arrived—the fierce urgency of meow. The festival kicked off with the comedy category. Among the crowd favorites were “Cat Burp,” “Cat Meowing Weird,” and “Kittens Riding Vacuum.” (These titles also suffice as recaps.) The drama category was identical to the comedy category except that the clips now employed portentous background music. “Little Cat Provokes Big Cat” garnered a decent amount of applause. But for me the clear winner here was “Stalking Cat,” in which a complex narrative unfolds in an apartment hallway. We open on a cat staring at us, motionless, from the far end of a long corridor. The camera pans away for a moment. When it pans back, the cat is once again frozen—but suddenly several paces closer! This ominous pattern repeats until the cat reaches the camera, at which point it forgets why it’s there and just sort of freaks out, skittering back down the hall. The foreign category featured a Spanish gatonovela; a bizarre clip of Japanese people luring small kittens into mixing bowls, and a rather one-note offering titled simply “Cat Scratches Butt.” The art house entrants included “Noodle Cup Heads” (empty instant ramen cups get placed on cats’ heads) and “Cat Puke” (a disquieting blur of slo-mo retch shots). A lifetime achievement award went to “Keyboard Cat.” I think we can all agree this was well-deserved and long overdue. About 50 minutes in, I could sense the crowd beginning to flag. We are accustomed to viewing cat videos in small doses, peeking over our shoulders in case a superior strolls past our cubicle. This kitty saturation level was too much. We couldn’t escape. We felt a desperate urge to leap toward freedom—perhaps atop a refrigerator or curtain rod. We were overwhelmed, and calmed ourselves by licking our own knuckles and smoothing the fur on our flanks. Not a moment too soon, it came time to award the Golden Kitty—the people’s choice, as voted by visitors to the Walker’s website. Among the more popular nominees: “Cat Mom Hugs Baby Kitten” (which elicited the loudest “awwww” of the evening) and “Maru Slides into Boxes” (which did not disappoint, as Maru did indeed slide into many boxes). But the people chose neither of these. The people chose Henri. “Henri 2, Paw de Deux” is a sequel to a much-loved 2006 video about a black cat who suffers from ennui. In this 2012 follow-up, Henri continues to lament his meaningless existence. He gazes pensively out the window. He expresses contempt for the idiocy all around him. The clip has racked up 3.2 million YouTube views so far. William Braden, who made Henri: Paw De Deux, the winner of the Golden Kitty people’s choice award Photograph by Seth Stevenson. The Henri films (a third was released a month ago) are the creation of Will Braden, a 32-year-old former film student and wedding videographer from Seattle. Earlier in the day, waiting to go on stage and accept his prize, Braden told me that Henri boasts about 35,000 Facebook fans and 7,000 Twitter followers. Braden grosses $1,000 a week selling Henri merchandise. And he just signed a deal with Random House to put out an Henri book next year. Braden didn’t bring Henri with him to Minneapolis, though. “He’s not actually anything like his persona,” Braden says. “I don’t want to ruin the mystique.” Alas, sometimes cat life does not imitate cat art.
(Atlanta, December 8, 2010)—A settlement in the Atlanta Eagle raid lawsuit will force the Atlanta Police Department to rewrite unconstitutional policies regarding arrest, search and seizure, and make other changes to protect the public from police misconduct. These reforms require Atlanta police officers to document certain types of warrantless detentions, frisks and searches; prohibit officers from interfering with the public's right to take photographs and make video and audio recordings of police activity; require uniformed police officers to wear clearly visible nametags and identify themselves upon request; require the Atlanta Police Department to rule on citizen complaints of police misconduct within 180 days; and require the City of Atlanta to conduct mandatory in-person training of all police officers every two years regarding Fourth Amendment issues and the safe use of firearms. The agreement also requires the Atlanta Police Department to conduct a thorough and meaningful investigation of police misconduct, failure to obey the law, and untruthfulness during and after the Eagle raid. The settlement also provides for a payment of $1,025,000 by the city of Atlanta. The settlement resolves the case of Geoffrey Calhoun, et al. v. Richard Pennington, et al., a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Atlanta and 35 individual Atlanta police officers brought by 26 individuals and two businesses. The federal court order ending the case found that that each of the plaintiffs was unlawfully searched, detained and/or arrested during the raid and that none was personally suspected of any criminal activity. The plaintiffs were represented by Atlanta attorney Daniel J. Grossman along with lawyers from Lambda Legal, the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) and Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. "It shouldn't be necessary to go to federal court to get a police department to follow the law," said the lead counsel for the plaintiffs, attorney Dan Grossman. Gerry Weber, senior attorney at the SCHR said, “The events at the Eagle were directly tied to systemic issues with APD. This settlement is a step forward, but only if reforms are embraced and fully implemented.” "I am very proud of our clients, who stood up against the injustice done to them," said Greg Nevins, Supervising Senior Staff Attorney in Lambda Legal's Southern Regional Office based in Atlanta. "Because they did the right thing, the Atlanta Police Department will be a better force for good in the community. Nobody in this city should have to endure the inexcusable law enforcement conduct that occurred 15 months ago at the Atlanta Eagle." Patrons at the Atlanta Eagle were forced to lie flat on the floor, some lying in spilled beer and broken glass, while police searched them, conducted background checks, and hurled antigay slurs. Lawyers for the plaintiffs have contended from the beginning of the lawsuit in November 2009, that the police department's policy of detaining, searching, and taking ID from every person present during an operation such as the Atlanta Eagle raid was in violation of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. The city of Atlanta, after more than a year of litigation, finally entered an agreement that acknowledged these obvious violations. The plaintiffs' attorneys will release a "know your rights" FAQ that will be available online and will follow up with community engagement to explain what this settlement means. Read the order. ###
The Syrian war is at once incomprehensibly byzantine and very simple. It is complex in the number of countries involved, in the shifting and fragile internal alliances and resentments of the groups constituting the rebellion, in the threads of national interest that circle back and consume themselves like a snake eating its own tail. To take just one example: after a decade of friendly relations with Syria, Turkey turned on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and decided to work toward his downfall, and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed that his country would “support the Syrian people in every way until they get rid of the bloody dictator and his gang.” Since then, Turkey has served as a staging ground for the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), but it has also been repeatedly accused of funneling funds and arms to ISIS, which regularly attacks FSA bases and beheads the soldiers it captures. Turkey has provided military aid to the effort to combat ISIS, but it also devotes energy and resources to fighting Kurdish nationalists, who have been more effective in fighting ISIS than any other group to date. In November 2016, Erdoğan reiterated his determination to unseat Assad, saying Turkish forces had entered Syria in August 2016 for no other reason than to remove Assad from power. One day later, he retracted his statement and claimed Turkey’s military campaign in Syria had been designed solely to defeat ISIS, the terrorist group whose operations Turkey had at least tacitly and perhaps actively supported. Turkey is now working closely with Russia, which has done more than any other country to prevent Erdoğan from realizing his goal of bringing down Assad. Turkey is just one of at least nine countries involved in the conflict. The simple part of the war is that it is a human, social, and environmental disaster that equals some of the 20th century’s worst conflicts. Around half a million have died, with another two million wounded, in a country whose prewar population amounted to just more than twenty million. Since the conflict’s beginning, in 2011, Syrian life expectancy has dropped by more than twenty years, from roughly 79 to 56. More than half of the country’s population has been forced to leave their homes, including some six million internally displaced and nearly five million refugees. Their movements have in turn contributed to political upheaval across Europe and North America, with right-wing nationalists campaigning against the supposedly dangerous influx of refugees. The use of torture against political enemies and captured soldiers has been widespread, especially on the part of the Assad regime. Many refugees cite their female family members’ dramatically increased risk of being raped as a major reason for leaving. In addition, a country with a strong national identity and a tradition of religious tolerance — including for a dozen Christian denominations and esoteric sects like the Druze — has been transformed into a place of bitter sectarian violence. Much of Aleppo, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth and one of the region’s architectural and cultural jewels, has been reduced to rubble. As regime forces, backed by Russian air strikes and Iranian ground troops, made their final, decisive assault on the rebellion’s dwindling territory there in December 2016, many residents found themselves trapped and began to tweet out their good-byes. In one such video, an old man rocked back and forth in the middle of a bombed-out street, pushing his hands away from his face as he called out, “We are starving. There is nothing.” The war’s complexity makes it difficult to see a viable path forward, but there is a sense in which it would be foolish to think of the conflict as one big Rubik’s cube in need of solving, because the complexity itself is part of the problem — the best thing to do with the Rubik’s cube would be to throw it against a wall. Again and again, countries across and outside the Middle East have decided that escalating the war by military means is justified by whatever little sliver of national interest they feel is at stake. The US, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, China, France, and Britain have all pumped military resources into the conflict, increasing not only the war’s capacity for destructive violence but also its duration. To the extent that it needed to take place at all, it should have been a civil war fought by two sides with limited military resources. Instead, it has turned into a series of extravagantly funded proxy wars across two or three separate axes, none of which has any organic connection to the questions of regime tolerance for political assembly and speech that prompted the conflict in the first place. While it would not be useful to ask nations to stop pursuing their national interests, the ease with which these countries have turned to military means in the pursuit of those interests is shameful. The response required at this late, desperate stage is neither anti-Assad nor anti-ISIS nor even anti-imperialist — it is antiwar. The first person to make the mistake of military escalation was Bashar al-Assad himself. In his book Syria Burning (2016), the journalist Charles Glass recounts an old joke: A dog in Lebanon . . . was so hungry, mangy and tired of civil war that he escaped to Syria. To the surprise of the other dogs, he returned a few months later. Seeing him better groomed and fatter than before, they asked whether the Syrians had been good to him. “Very good.” “Did they feed and wash you?” “Yes.” “Then why did you come back?” “I want to bark.” The protests that sparked the conflict in 2011 were not originally calls for Assad’s fall. They were instead demonstrations demanding reforms: the end of emergency law (justified by a permanent “state of war” with Israel), the release of political prisoners, the removal of a regional governor who allegedly allowed the torture of teenagers by police, an end to the bribes and harassment and other daily humiliations of life under authoritarian rule. Syria initially seemed to have avoided the wave of Arab Spring unrest that swept across much of the Middle East beginning in late 2010, but beneath its surface stability and continuity lay several of the same factors that destabilized Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and other countries. Political power was concentrated among a tiny elite of technocrats and Assad flunkies. The Mukhabarat, a set of brutal intelligence agencies originally trained by the Stasi, snuffed out the faintest flicker of opposition. The introduction of neoliberal economic policies also unsettled Syrian society — Assad had attempted a halfhearted marketization of the economy that produced the worst of both worlds, destroying the country’s economic safety net without actually producing more jobs. Farmers who had relied on now-diminished government fuel subsidies could no longer afford to keep their machines running. In the cities, millions of educated young people found there was nothing for them to do with their educations. The protests that made the world aware of these grievances were expressions of a desire to bark, and they were carried out peacefully. Assad’s security forces responded with beatings, water cannons, and live ammunition, killing protesters and then killing mourners at those protesters’ funerals. By the time Assad released the teenagers and removed the regional governor (his cousin Faisal Kalthum), it was too late, and the protesters’ demands had changed. Assad’s now very likely victory in the war should not obscure the fact that his 2011 response to the protests was a disaster — six years later, he remains the leader of what is no longer a functioning state. The opposition’s decision to militarize was a mistake, too, although it’s true that Assad’s crackdown left few other options. Even after Assad’s security forces had made a habit of shooting up funerals, the pro-democracy protesters of 2011 did not reach for their rifles en masse. Instead, they were gradually overtaken and displaced by more than three thousand militias, defectors from the military who established the Free Syrian Army, and the al-Nusra Front, an al Qaeda–affiliated group of Sunni fundamentalists that saw in the escalating chaos an opportunity to topple Assad’s Alawite regime (al-Nusra changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham before joining up with other rebel groups to form Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or the Liberation of the Levant Committee, in January). The shift from peaceful protest to military engagement turned a reformist project into a revolutionary one. Yet the revolutionaries had no single vision for what a post-Assad Syria would be. Rather, they had competing visions that were inherently incompatible with one another, ranging from secular democracy to an authoritarian theocratic state under Sunni rule. The revolution as a whole lacked a constructive political project, and so it was doomed from the beginning. One Syrian journalist reporting on the Battle of Aleppo said there was a moment in 2012 during which the FSA, had it been able to muster a unified force of a few hundred, could have seized city hall and “proclaimed Aleppo a liberated city.” It didn’t. These fissures in the Syrian rebellion were apparent from an early stage, and external countries should have seen them as a reason to stay away and allow the conflict to exhaust itself. Instead, they saw the rebellion’s weaknesses as an opportunity to use it for their own various ends. Within the Middle East, Syria became a flash point in the regional conflicts that had been escalating since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Saudi Arabia, the world’s only remaining theocracy ruled by an absolute monarch, had been alarmed by the Arab Spring protests in Egypt and Tunisia. It saw in the Syrian conflict an opportunity to spark a counterrevolution, as well as a chance to weaken Iran, its primary opponent and Assad’s most important supporter in the Middle East. For its part, Iran saw Syria as a key arm of its regional influence, which has increased enormously ever since the US deposed its primary regional rival, Iraq. When US officials began to criticize Assad’s brutal tactics in 2011, supporting his regime also became a useful way for Iran to resist the Middle East’s great Western antagonist. Meanwhile, the diplomatically insignificant but very wealthy country of Qatar bet on the rebels in hopes of winning increased regional influence after Assad’s fall, a tactic it had previously pursued by supporting opposition forces, particularly Islamists, in other Arab Spring uprisings. The country pumped nearly $3 billion into the rebellion during the first two years of the conflict. Other countries in that area of the world have used the war to deepen their involvement in the Middle East. Following its unenthusiastic and unsuccessful pursuit of EU membership, Turkey decided to direct its geopolitical muscle to the east instead, and the Syrian rebellion provided what looked like an ideal opportunity to flex. The country hosted Syrian army defectors who eventually formed the core of the FSA; helped to organize Group of Friends of the Syrian People, an international coalition modeled on the coalition that brought about Gaddafi’s fall in Libya; and served as by far the most important point of entry for arms and other supplies used by the rebellion. Then, most famously, there is Russia, without which Assad may well have fallen. In addition to vetoing UN Security Council resolutions calling for Assad’s resignation, Russia has lavished the Assad regime with military and economic aid. Russian air strikes have turned the military tide against the rebels in recent months, and in an earlier stage of the war, when Syria’s economy was on the brink of collapse, Moscow delivered some thirty tons of new banknotes to Damascus, ensuring that the government could continue to function. Farther afield, Britain and France decided that toppling Assad would help to stymie Iran. Still pumped from its Libyan escapade in 2011, France demanded Assad’s departure and has since provided rebels with arms and communications equipment, as well as conducted a few air strikes of its own. And while the UK’s parliament initially decided against overt military involvement in the country, the successes of ISIS and the al-Nusra Front changed its mind. The Royal Air Force carried out air strikes in Syria in 2015, and British Special Forces were operating within Syria by summer 2016. For the US, the Syrian war has been a long and painful lesson on the consequences of squandering one’s status as world hegemon on military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. When protests first broke out, the US was slow and reluctant to respond for two main reasons. The first is that, after its experience in Libya, in which toppling the dictator had not produced a flourishing of peace and representative democracy, the Obama Administration was reluctant to involve the US too deeply in another regional conflagration. The second is that the US had not been particularly focused on Syria, and the State Department’s resources were already stretched to the limit by everything else happening in the Middle East, a phenomenon referred to by diplomats as the “bandwidth” problem. There are only so many crises any government, even the US, can address at once. Even as Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began to speak out against Assad’s crackdowns, the tone was very much wait-and-see, condemning the violence while also making it clear that Assad would be welcome to remain in power should he implement reforms. In 2012, as the conflict was maturing into a full-fledged civil war, Obama told the White House press corps that any use of chemical or biological weapons by Assad would be a “red line for us,” the implication being that direct military intervention would follow. He used the “red line” phrase twice, saying, “That would change my calculus. That would change my equation.” But one year later, when chemical weapons were launched at rebel-held positions in Ghouta, it turned out that Obama’s calculus would stay the same, and the expected air strikes never came. While this may have been a wise decision on its own, it could not compensate for the recklessness of having made the “red line” remarks in the first place. Opposition forces had spent a year digging in and escalating the military conflict in the expectation that the American cavalry would soon arrive, and its failure to do so left the FSA in the lurch. ISIS soon seized the initiative that the FSA could no longer hold. Three years later, American diplomacy finds itself marginalized. When Russia, Iran, and Turkey organized a December meeting in Moscow to pursue a political solution to the conflict, the US was not invited. None of which is to say that America hasn’t been involved. Over the past fifteen years, debates over Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya have steadily moved the discursive goalposts, such that “non-interventionist” now means “anything short of a full-scale occupation.” That’s the only sense in which one can say the US hasn’t carried out military intervention in the Syrian war. In 2011, Hillary Clinton objected to and undermined peace talks that didn’t include Assad’s removal as a condition. The CIA has assisted rebels with training, arms, ammunition, and supply routes along the Turkish border. The US has also helped train the much-praised “moderate rebels” in Jordan and in 2014 provided anti-tank weapons to the Supreme Military Council, which includes members of the most prominent rebel groups. Kurds were resupplied in 2015, and when it became clear that the $500 million rebel-training program had failed, that money was used to buy arms, which were then sent to the rebel groups already on the ground, trained or otherwise. Special operations forces have also carried out missions in Syria. Surprisingly, the US has managed to ratchet up its involvement in the Syrian war without concurrently ratcheting up its anti-regime rhetoric. Assad has not been made into a villain on anything like the Saddam Hussein model. The reason has been the rise of the Islamic State — variously referred to as IS, ISIL, or ISIS. This group is a direct consequence of the Iraq war. It emerged out of the post-Saddam chaos in 2006, just barely survived the US “surge” in 2007, and returned to the scene in 2010. With its kidnappings, videos of hostage beheadings, destruction of ancient temples and other archaeological treasures, and eventual capture of the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, ISIS has assumed al Qaeda’s former place as America’s preeminent terrorist bogeyman, all without ever carrying out a major terrorist attack in the United States itself. It was probably the beheading videos, with their combination of medieval violence and PR savvy, that clinched it. But it could also have been the group’s habit of claiming credit for terrorist attacks in Paris, Brussels, San Bernardino, and Orlando, whether it played an actual role in organizing those attacks or not. The group’s brutality and destructiveness are by no means unprecedented among either extremist groups or some of the region’s authoritarian regimes, but its eagerness and ability to portray itself as brutal and destructive probably are. Assad may have torture chambers of his own, and other groups may carry out massacres, too, but only ISIS is widely thought of as a “death cult,” something outside the realm of rational human calculation. ISIS’s successes have provided the US with a progressively freer military hand in the Middle East over the past two years, perhaps a freer hand than it has had at any point since the golden days of bin Laden and al Qaeda. In Syria, the group captured the city of Raqqa in 2013 and has subsequently battled the Kurds for control of the country’s northeastern region, which shares borders with Turkey and Iraq and holds valuable oil fields. As long as ISIS remains a force in Syria, there is little reason to expect much domestic opposition to America’s involvement there. What benefits have accrued to the states that have invested so heavily in the war? According to Christopher Phillips, author of The Battle for Syria (2016), none at all. Assad’s likely survival means that Turkey’s ambitions of regional leadership are done, at least for the moment. Turkey also faces an increase in domestic terrorism committed by Islamists operating in Syria who have decided to cross back over the border. Qatar’s international reputation has been damaged by its alleged connections to al Qaeda. Saudi Arabia is stuck spending huge sums on military operations around the region during a time when oil prices are low, portending an ominous future for the kingdom’s economy. Iran protected its ally, but at the cost of its influence everywhere in the Middle East aside from Shia-dominated states. Even Russia shouldn’t get too excited. The country dramatically increased its geopolitical prominence at relatively low cost, but it now finds itself responsible for a failed state with no functioning economy and a government regarded by its own citizens and much of the world as illegitimate. Putin’s position today may turn out to be similar to that of George W. Bush in May 2003, when he stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in a flight suit and announced that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” The Syrian conflict is what military scholars call a total war, one in which the lines between combatants and civilians blur, societies devote all their resources to the war effort, and tactics gain acceptance regardless of their brutality. Total war manifests in many ways, from the aerial bombardment of city centers all the way down to what happens between a couple of guards and a prisoner in a locked cell. On the latter end of that spectrum, torture stands out as a favored retaliatory technique on both sides and a central component of Assad’s plans for keeping power (as opposed to an ugly by-product of those plans). Summary arrests have regularly occurred since protests broke out in 2011, and except in cases where those detained are prominent figures or members of important families, it is safe to assume that arrests are followed by torture. The war reporter Janine di Giovanni, in her book The Morning They Came for Us (2016), interviewed a man called Hussein, a 24-year-old student of human rights law who helped organize protests in the prewar days. Hussein was captured in Homs and then taken to a hospital the government used as a prison for dissidents. There, he was beaten with sticks, electrocuted, burned, and cut. He suffered a collapsed lung, and at night, unable to walk, he was kept in a room with corpses piled on the floor. One night, his captors laid Hussein on top of a body that turned out to be that of his brother. He only escaped, he says, because a doctor assigned to monitor the torture sessions eventually decided he could not bear to watch anymore. He declared Hussein dead and had him smuggled out of the hospital. This story is representative. In the New Yorker, Ben Taub has reported on torture conducted at a military hospital located near the presidential palace in Damascus. One detainee, having already been tortured for nearly a year, was taken to this hospital when he began to urinate blood. When he arrived, according to Taub, “a nurse asked him about his symptoms, then beat him with a stick.” Torture is not an inevitable element of war. Its use was not universal in ancient societies, and it was banned in nearly all of Western Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. These bans did not function perfectly, any more than universal bans on murder function perfectly today, but they constituted a stable and functioning societal taboo. This taboo broke down over the course of the 20th century. By the mid-1980s, nearly three decades after the United Nations’ adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the regular use of torture was documented in one-third of UN member states. In the past five years, Amnesty International has documented torture in 141 countries, or three-quarters of the world. Torture is accepted by the Syrian regime because it is currently accepted by most regimes, usually in practice and sometimes in theory, too. The Republican Party in the United States is currently one of those regimes. When one person brings up some wrong committed by a non-US country, and then a second person responds by pointing out that the US has committed the same wrong, the second person is sometimes accused of “whataboutism,” a rhetorical technique that seeks to blunt criticism by painting it as hypocritical. There are instances in which whataboutism does serve this propaganda function, but the debate on torture is not one of them, because a taboo is like herd immunity: it only works if almost everyone is immune. Despite its recent difficulties as world hegemon, the United States remains more powerful and influential than any other single country, and there can be no hope for preventing horrors like those committed by Assad’s security forces, or for punishing those responsible for them, so long as the US accepts torture. The death penalty is not the central problem of America’s incarceration complex, and neither is torture the central problem of modern militarism. But as the death penalty stands as a metonym for the prison system’s general willingness to effectively, if not literally, end the life of someone who commits even a minor crime, so does torture stand as an emblem of the modern world’s acceptance of total war. A world that accepts and practices torture, that is willing to inflict unlimited suffering on a person in order to obtain a confession, is a world that also accepts the destruction of entire states and societies in the pursuit of military victory. During the past fifteen years, the war on terror and the many other civil wars and extremist rebellions that have emerged in its wake have seen the mainstreaming of torture and total war alike. The same editorial pages that lay out a ticking-time-bomb scenario as a justification for waterboarding will also publish pieces arguing that civilian casualties are “inevitable” (meaning “acceptable”) when extremist groups so cleverly blend in among the civilian inhabitants of densely populated urban areas. It will be hard, not to say hypocritical, for the United States to call for Assad’s arrest and prosecution when the CIA has rendered terrorism suspects to Syria specifically so they could be tortured there. Rebuilding the international community’s taboo on torture would require at the very least that the US close Guantánamo, that it pay reparations to those who have been held there, and that it agree to be subject to the decisions of the International Criminal Court, even if that court were to decide to prosecute George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, or another architect of the country’s rendition and torture programs. For now, Bush Jr. remains a welcome guest at presidential inaugurations and a celebrated early-career painter. If none of this seems likely to occur in the coming years, that may have to do with how little American debate on the conflict has considered the Syrian war as a moral issue. While the occasional harrowing photograph or chilling testimonial has provoked bouts of public outrage, that outrage has somehow not been channeled back into evaluations of America’s extensive involvement in the war. Even absent a full-scale invasion, the extent to which the US and other countries have fueled the bloodshed with arms and other equipment should be a scandal. The arms transfers have increased each side’s capacity to kill and wound its enemies, and discouraged the pursuit of diplomatic solutions to the catastrophe. But instead of a clear reckoning with what this has meant for the people of Syria, there is only talk of various US interests: the state of its credibility in the eyes of the world, the terrorist threats allegedly posed by desperate refugees, the exact circumference of America’s sphere of influence. It is politically unsophisticated to say so, but none of this matters to a noncombatant resident of Aleppo. The suppression of war’s morality in American public discourse has not only occurred with respect to Syria — it is a general characteristic of foreign-policy discussion. The reason why is pretty simple: America is now involved in so many wars in so many different places, and there exists such an overwhelming bipartisan consensus that involvement in these wars is necessary and to the US advantage, that to confront the morality of our militarism honestly would require an almost total overhaul of America’s role in the world. In the years following the revelations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, the same dynamic could be found in arguments over torture. Instead of recognizing that torture is always wrong, every time, no matter the severity of the threat it is used to address, Democrats and Republicans argued over whether torture produced accurate intelligence, a debate of purely academic interest that should have had no place in the political sphere. Thirteen years after Abu Ghraib, the results of that debate are obvious. “Don’t tell me it doesn’t work,” Donald Trump said at a campaign event in February 2016. “Torture works.” He promised to bring back waterboarding and “a hell of a lot worse.” Trump very slightly moderated his position after General James Mattis, whose nickname is Mad Dog, told him he’d “never found [torture] to be useful,” but there’s no reason to think that moderation will outlive Mattis’s tenure as a Trump adviser. Even Barack Obama’s guiding principles for weighing the wisdom of military action, so cautious in comparison with those of his neoconservative predecessors, betrayed an eagerness to look away from what war does to those caught in its path. “I don’t oppose all wars,” he said in a 2002 speech. “What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.” He lived up to this self-description, with a few exceptions, during his eight years as President. Except for his “red line” comments, his decisions regarding Syria were thoughtful and deliberate, and none of them have permanently damaged America’s international standing. But opposing dumb wars isn’t enough. Smart wars should be opposed and avoided too, until the last moment and at all possible costs, because they are wars. All military conflict rips apart the social fabric in irreparable ways, and all the US and Russia have done with their careful, self-interested maneuverings is intensify and accelerate the process by which a dictator has reduced his unfree but still stable society to rubble. How will America’s involvement with Syria change now that Trump has assumed office? It is clear that the new President is a racist provocateur who sees Muslims as America’s primary antagonists throughout the world. But it remains unclear what kind of foreign policy these racist views will produce, because Trump does not appear to hold foreign-policy views at all (except insofar as foreign countries “steal” American jobs). Though much of the recklessness of his travel ban derives from the way it escalated tensions between the US and countries across the Middle East, the executive order was primarily an act of domestic politics meant to shore up and energize his nativist base. He believes terrorism is bad and that the US should be “strong,” but he has never indicated how that might translate into a style of diplomacy or a military strategy. Among the many mistakes liberal journalists made during the presidential campaign was their effort to paint Trump as a committed supporter of the Iraq war. This claim was based on a Howard Stern interview in which Trump responded to the question “Are you for invading Iraq?” by saying, “Yeah, I guessss . . . sooo.” The obvious conclusion to draw from the hesitant tone of Trump’s answer is that he hadn’t thought about it all that much and wasn’t particularly invested in the outcome, and during the campaign, Trump only brought up Iraq when it could be used as a cudgel to beat Hillary Clinton or some primary opponent. Is Trump an interventionist or an anti-interventionist? The evidence suggests that he doesn’t really give a shit. That’s not meant to be reassuring. The importance of presidential diplomacy to America’s international relationships makes Trump’s erratic personality frightening. In addition, our unprincipled new President is advised by a cabinet and a party stuffed with foreign-policy hawks. Defense Secretary Mattis has refused to rule out the deployment of conventional American ground forces to combat ISIS in Syria, and he has also been careful to not close the door on possible cooperation with the Russian military, which would, by extension, entail cooperation with Assad. On the other hand, ramping up tensions with Assad could go a long way toward antagonizing Iran, a cherished Republican goal. (The party’s 2016 platform specified that Republicans “consider the Administration’s deal with Iran, to lift international sanctions and make hundreds of billions of dollars available to the Mullahs, a personal agreement between [Obama] and his negotiating partners and non-binding on the next president.”) While the specific targets of the Republican Party’s foreign-policy aggression under Trump remain to be seen, it is probably safe to assume that American aggression will increase over the next four years, an increase enabled in part by the totally unnecessary $54 billion military-budget increase Trump proposed in February. Opposing this kind of pervasive, amoral militarism in the US cannot just be a matter of demonizing the executive, however, no matter how repulsive this particular executive may be. American militarism was thriving well before Trump hatched his campaign plans, and will outlast his sad and flailing administration. Even if Trump were to adopt a stance of rigid isolationism, forgoing all direct American military involvement in the conflicts and wars of foreign nations, America would still be one of the single biggest engines of militarism by virtue of its arms trade. US weapons companies were involved in more than half of the world’s arms deals in 2015, deals which netted them some $40 billion (France finished in second place with $15 billion). In December 2016 alone, the State Department approved the following sales: a $115 million “Electronic Warfare Range System” to Australia, fighter-jet upgrades to Finland, nearly $700 million worth of infantry carrier vehicles to Peru, $3.5 billion in Chinook helicopters to Saudi Arabia, missiles for Morocco, Apache helicopters for the United Arab Emirates, logistical support services and equipment in Qatar (plus engines and equipment for C-17 Globemaster planes), nearly $2 billion in equipment and support for Kuwait, some planes for Norway, and something called “Sea Giraffe 3D Air Search Radars” for the Philippines. In 2015, the CEO of Lockheed Martin told reporters that she looked at the Middle East and Asia as “growth areas” because of their instability. By approving the sale of arms in such massive quantities, the State Department is helping to ensure Lockheed’s profits for years to come. Drastically reducing the country’s arms exports would probably not be in the best interest of the American economy. Weapons manufacturers are conscientious about operating plants within the US, including in politically crucial states like Michigan and Ohio, thus cultivating a broad base of support for arms exports in Congress. Nevertheless, the American arms industry should be an appealing target for protest and antiwar political mobilization. The duration and the brutality of the Syrian war are largely due to nearly a dozen countries deciding again and again that a militarized approach to the conflict was more in keeping with their respective national interests than diplomacy. The political reasons behind those decisions have been as varied as the countries making them, but the availability of every imaginable weapon on the international arms market has been a constant, and no country does as much to maintain that availability as the United States. American activists may not be able to influence Erdoğan’s views on the pros and cons of Assad’s continued rule, but they could theoretically influence how many missiles and aircraft the US would be willing to send him. The anti-imperialist analysis of global conflict, in which America is almost always seen as the primary bad actor, is useful and productive, but the Syrian war has exposed its limits. The political interests involved in the war are so complicated and numerous that even if the US government were persuaded to abandon the pursuit of any of its ambitions in the Middle East, the war would likely continue unabated. Only an international effort to set aside those interests, to remoralize the discussion around war and acknowledge that wars are atrocities by definition, will produce a solution. What’s needed is not an anti-imperialist analysis but an antimilitarist one. Fortunately, antimilitarism is an authentically internationalist stance, for the simple reason that war is equally bad for everyone on the receiving end of it.
Three women from Israel have been trying for three years to immigrate to Canada and they have been told they don’t qualify. Kate and Claire Everward are highly educated and self-employed and while the process has been frustrating; they aren’t giving up. “We fell in love with Canada,” says Kate. Tel Aviv is known in Israel as a city of beaches but it’s also a city that’s experienced vehicle bombings and missile attacks It’s one reason why the sisters and their mother want to leave. “We need to get out of here, this is a country, this is a place that's either in war or between wars and in the last war, not far from our house a missile fell and took down a building and we’re scared .We don’t want it to happen again,” says Claire. They get missile warnings every week or so and say ISIS is on all of Israel’s borders. “They are planning the next war,” says Claire. “We don’t want to be here when that happens.” The sisters are also worried about Israel’s growing intolerance saying it’s becoming a dangerous place to voice your opinions and women need to be worried about their personal safety. Claire is a suspense author and Kate is her manager and publicist. They were born in Israel but say they don’t belong there and when they researched the world they decided Canada is where they want to be. “Do you people even realize the kind of opportunities you have in Canada?” Claire asks. “Canada invests in education, in healthcare, in seniors, and working conditions, in future leadership, in technology, in the environment, in its future.” They applied for permanent residence but were turned down. They tried again for an express visa but didn’t have a high enough score on Canada’s ranking calculator, which awards points for skills, education, language abilities and work experience. Immigration Canada says Kate’s “score was not yet high enough to get an invitation to apply” and "the points system was developed to help determine which candidates would have the best chance of economic success in Canada." “We are three English-speaking, educated women who have their own business and we're not asking Canada for anything,” says Kate. “On the contrary, we want to start and build our business over there.” Lawyers told the 38-year-old and 42-year-old sisters and their 72-year-old mother they’re too old, they should try for a student visa; even though they have multiple degrees or marry a Canadian. “That drove me mad!” says Kate. “Seriously, they all charged about $250.00 - $500.00 for consultation and it all started and ended with this immigration calculator on the immigration website.” They’re now appealing to those in power for an exception. They’ve started a blog called “Canada Guest” and have written letters to the immigration minister and to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “In all his speeches he said he wants productive immigrants, he wants the creativity that Canada deserves, “says Kate. The women plan to continue telling their stories though social media and if they are one day successful, hope to start their new live in either Calgary or Southern Ontario. “We fell in love with the area of Calgary, we have friends there and they've been really selling that place,” says Kate. Immigration Canada says its ranking system was developed to help determine which candidates have the best chance of economic success in Canada. It says the scores can be boosted by gaining work experience in Canada as a temporary worker or getting a permanent job offer.
A Tillman by any other name... Plaque at the veterans center at ASU, named after Pat Tillman. (Photo: Nick Oza) We've never honored Pat Tillman's wishes and we won't this week on the tenth anniversary of his death. Tillman gave no interviews when he left the National Football League to join the army. Neither did his brother, Kevin, who passed up a chance at Major League Baseball to sign up with Pat. In a journal from his early days in the service Pat wrote: "Nub (his nickname for Kevin) & I have ... willingly allowed ourselves to be pawns in this game and will do our job whether we agree with it or not. All we ask is that it is duly noted that we harbor no illusions of virtue." But they were virtuous, as were the thousands of other volunteers. Young people like Robert Zurheide Jr., a 20-year-old from Tucson who died in the war shortly before Tillman. He'd joined the Marines at about the time Pat and Kevin joined the army. A high school teacher of Zurheide's told a reporter from the Tucson Citizen, "He didn't necessarily want to stand out in a crowd, be on the front page of the newspapers. He wouldn't have necessarily embraced it." Zurheide's death didn't get anything close to the news coverage Tillman received. Tillman would not have liked that. We know that much about him. Perhaps as we remember Tillman this week, and honor him, we could also honor and remember some of the young people who, like him, served honorably and were lost. Soldiers like Sgt. Elijah Wong. He was a member of the 363rd Explosive Ordnance Company from Arizona, who was killed in 2004. His sister, Helga, told me, "My brother gave his life for his country. He willingly went to Iraq. He believed that he could save the world, and, in many ways, he did." Or Marine Sgt. Michael Marzano, who was killed in action in Haditha, Iraq, in May 2005. I have a photograph of him and his mom, Margy Bons, who has worked tirelessly for military families in the years since her son's death. During the course of our two long wars I've spoken to a number of those who have lost family members. NEWSLETTERS Get the Opinions Newsletter newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Our best and latest in commentary in daily digest form. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Opinions Newsletter Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters There was Sandy Watson, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Williams, was killed in action near the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah. And Marion Brooks, whose son, Spec. Nate Caldwell, died when the Humvee in which he was riding overturned. And Rhonda McCarthy, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph McCarthy, died outside of Fallujah. And Tina Armijo, whose 22-year-old son, Spc. Santos R. Armijo, known as "Bear," was killed near Baghdad. She told me, "He was going to go over there, and so on that Memorial Day, we had a big cake, decorated red, white and blue. All his cousins were here ... He liked it very much." Their families remember them. We don't. Maybe that's why Beth Pearson, whose 32-year-old son, Brice, was killed in Iraq in 2007, told me, "Why not have a moment of silence (to honor fallen soldiers) at every game? Every public event? At the beginning of every school day?" Exactly. Why not? Perhaps because it's too difficult or too painful to remember each of them. After all, we have trouble remembering even those we thought we'd never forget. In the early days of the conflict, a 23-year-old Arizona soldier named Lori Piestewa lost her life in Iraq, becoming the first Native American woman to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military. Then-Gov. Janet Napolitano decided to honor Piestewa's sacrifice by changing the name of Phoenix's Squaw Peak to Piestewa Peak. Old habits are difficult to break, however. I was there not long ago and people still refer to the popular hiking destination as Squaw Peak. There are plenty of others who have no idea how to pronounce the mountain's new name (pie-ESS-too-ah). And have no idea what, or whom, it stands for. At least we remember Tillman. Perhaps in keeping his memory alive we preserve the memories of all the others. Their names may be different but their sacrifice is the same. In that sense, a Zurheide is a Wong is a Marzano is a McCarthy is a Pearson is a Piestewa … is a Tillman. (Column for Apr. 20, 2014, Arizona Republic) Read or Share this story: http://azc.cc/1kNmUWa
Syracuse, N.Y. -- In just four seasons, the Syracuse and Duke basketball series has piled up memorable moments. There was overtime in their first ACC meeting, and there was Jim Boeheim tossing his sport coat and there was Wednesday night, when the never-say-die Orange moved closer to an NCAA Tournament bid with yet another comeback and yet another buzzer-beating game-winner from point guard John Gillon. >>Box score Students camp outside in Syracuse winters in order to get the best seats when the teams meet. The game that hasn't drawn fewer than 30,000 fans to the Carrier Dome. The series is now tied at 3 since Syracuse joined the conference. The sixth ACC game between the two featured the Syracuse crowd spitting venom at guard Grayson Allen and Jayson Tatum shushing the Carrier Dome crowd after a big jumper. When it was over, the Syracuse student body rushed the court, knocking down chairs as they hurried to celebrate a 78-75 win. In the face of all that, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski tossed some cold water on the idea that the two programs are on the verge of blooming into rivals. "I don't think it's a rivalry," Krzyzewski said. "I think every game in this league, everybody has a rivalry with us. Everybody wants to beat us. It's been that way for 25 years. That's the human nature I live in. I have to be ready for that, and I have to have my teams ready for that." Perhaps part of the reason Krzyzewski feels this way, he admitted, is his affinity for Boeheim. Late in his press conference Krzyzewski, largely unprompted, offered praise and appreciation for his Olympic assistant. "I love Syracuse and obviously I love Jim and his family," Krzyzewski said. "Congratulations to him. You don't know what a treasure you have with him. ... He's brilliant, competitive, loyal and he doesn't need his ego scratched. He's humble. I love the guy and I'll be forever grateful for him. It's hard for me to think of a rivalry with Jim or Syracuse." Afterward, Krzyzewski mixed praise of this year's Orange team with comments about the challenges he faced in getting his own team to match their desperation. He acknowledged Syracuse's offensive flurry is well within its regular capabilities, but also discussed the motivational challenges involved in leading a team who has won seven consecutive games, whose postseason spot is already secure, and who has a pair of starters nursing injuries. "We're in the tournament," Krzyzewski said. "They're trying to get in. Hopefully they are in. During this time you're going to face teams that inherently are hungrier than you. You have to try to be as hungry. That's a challenge. It's more of a challenge when we're playing guys that are hurt. There's a part of them that would only like to do so much to win. It's not a bad attitude. It's just human nature. We're not desperate right now. We're not going to be desperate, no matter what happens, because we're going to be in the tournament. That's called psychology. It's tough to beat that. It's human nature." Still, motivated or not, the Blue Devils followed their defensive game plan throughout. They switched every screen and pressured the 3-point dependant Orange off the arc, holding SU to a season-low 11 3-point attempts. Syracuse's top two scoring options, Andrew White and Tyler Lydon, combined for just 10 shots, as Duke forced the Orange to turn to John Gillon, Tyus Battle and Taurean Thompson for its offense. The Blue Devils dominated the on the boards and, if not for some poorly run fast-breaks would have built am even larger first-half edge. It was there, he insisted, that the Blue Devils lost the game. Duke needed to put the game away early. Instead, it provided time for the best version of the Orange to emerge, the one that's come out whenever Syracuse has been fueled by desperation and a home crowd. The Orange found the same offensive gear that's allowed them to topple Florida State and Virginia. Syracuse erased a nine-point second-half lead and banked in a pair of late 3-pointers, including the game-winner as the clock expired. It was remarkable, the type of stunning finish that forms the foundation of college basketball's great rivalries. In the euphoric aftermath it was easy to get carried away. Krzyzewski brought it all quickly back to earth. "The end of game was not unexpected to me because we didn't manage the entire game," Krzyzewski said. "The basketball Gods do that. I always believe in them. If we played better, there wouldn't have been a last shot. God bless them for hitting it. How could it be more exciting than that? It's terrific. But we could have done better." Best and worst from Syracuse basketball vs. Duke
Umstrittener Impfgegner-Film "Vaxxed" + © Autismus Rosenheim e.V © Autismus Rosenheim e.V Rosenheim - Impfgegner Andrew Wakefield geht in Deutschland auf Propaganda-Tour. Während viele Kinos und Festivals den Film "Vaxxed" aus ihren Programmen streichen, will der Citydome Rosenheim offenbar an einer Vorführung festhalten. Der Verein "Autismus Rosenheim e.V." appelliert nun an die Leitung des Kinos. Mit Verwunderung hat der Verein „Autismus Rosenheim e.V.“, der sich um die Belange und Interessen von Menschen mit Autismus und deren Angehörigen in der Region kümmert, feststellen müssen, dass im Citydome Rosenheim der Film „Vaxxed“ gezeigt werden soll. Aus Sicht der Vereinsführung um Nadine Noren und Salome Küppers schadet das Machwerk von Andrew Wakefield der gesellschaftlichen Diskussion zum Thema Autismus, rückt betroffene Menschen ins falsche Licht und führt nur zu Verunsicherung. Offenbar kennen die Verantwortlichen nicht die Hintergründe von Andrew Wakefield. Der britische Arzt wurde in seiner Heimat mit einem Berufsverbot belegt und verbreitet erwiesenermaßen Lügen und Verschwörungstheorien, die letzten Endes Menschenleben gefährden. Bereits eine kurze Internet-Recherche würde der Leitung des Rosenheimer Kinos sicherlich die Augen öffnen. Wakefield gehört zur Gruppe der beratungsresistenten Impfgegner, die über keinerlei handfeste Argumente verfügt. Seinen kruden Thesen eine Plattform zu bieten, halten wir für unverantwortlich. Seine faktisch falschen Aussagen würden nur verunsicherte Eltern und Angehörige zurücklassen. „Gerade beim Thema Autismus herrscht schon genug Unwissenheit – dieser Film macht es den Menschen mit Autismus in der Gesellschaft nur noch schwerer“, sagt Vorstand Nadine Noren. Da wir auf unsere direkte Kontaktaufnahme bisher leider keine Rückmeldung bekommen haben, wenden wir uns nun an die Öffentlichkeit: Wir fordern die Leitung des Citydome Rosenheim dringend dazu auf, auf eine Vorführung des Films „Vaxxed“ zu verzichten. Viele Kinos in Deutschland (u.a. der Mathäser Filmpalast und die Schauburg in Karlsruhe) haben das bereits getan. Wir können uns nicht vorstellen, dass das Kino sich wissentlich zum Teil dieser Propaganda-Show von Andrew Wakefield machen will. Im übrigen hat auch das angesehene, von Robert De Niro ins Leben gerufene „Tribeca Film Festival“ den Film aus dem Programm genommen. Wir hoffen inständig, dass die Leitung des Citydome Rosenheim diesem Beispiel folgt. Für weiterführende Stellungnahmen und Fragen stehen wir der Presse, sowie der Geschäftsführung des Citydome Rosenheim gerne zur Verfügung. Pressemitteilung Autismus Rosenheim e.V./Stefan Kumberger Zurück zur Übersicht: Vereine & Behörden
Former Barcelona presidential candidate Agusti Benedito has lodged a vote of no confidence against the club's current board. Benedito appeared in a news conference on Thursday to make the announcement, citing continued mismanagement at the top level by president Josep Maria Bartomeu and his predecessor Sandro Rosell. "The serious institutional crisis at our club requires that the club's members assess whether the current board still has our confidence," he said. "If you are a club member and believe that to restore the club we love the board should resign, join up with the will of many other fans by signing the vote of no confidence." To take the vote of no confidence to the next stage, Benedito needs the support of 15 percent of the club's members within 14 days, which he estimates is around 16,500 people. The Barca board have come under increasing criticism in recent weeks, with Bartomeu stating that he is not considering resigning on more than one occasion. Agusti Benedito has lodged a vote of no confidence against Barcelona's current board.. Benedito also slammed the decision to strike a deal with the courts over the Neymar signing as "shameful" and said it was only done to save Bartomeu and Rosell. Rosell had previously stepped down over the Neymar transfer and last month was arrested as part of a money laundering investigation, although there are not any links between his arrest and Barcelona. Other candidates from the 2015 presidential election Joan Laporta and Toni Freixa support Benedito's movement, with the former particularly vocal in his disdain for the current board. Earlier this week he suggested the club had not been transparent with the amount of money they made from the sponsorship deal with Qatar, implying something underhand had taken place. However, Barcelona responded on Wednesday by publishing the figures from the agreement and threatening legal action. The Catalan club said in a statement that they wanted to make clear that "the contract called for the club to receive a total of €171 million over six seasons" and that they have in their possession the corresponding receipts for the deposits made to that amount. They added that the contract did not entail any costs for intermediation and that said contract -- as well as the rest of the club's finances -- has been duly audited for the last six seasons by external company Deloitte. And in a bid to prove their transparency, the statement concluded: "Upon the express desire of the board, the club delivered at midday Wednesday a copy of the contract, along with the corresponding receipts for the deposits made, to the Judiciary Police of Barcelona, as a demonstration of maximum cooperation and transparency. "Having made these clarifications, Barcelona call for responsibility and reserve the right to take legal action in the face of defamatory statements and false accusations against the honourableness of the club's management." Supporters group Manifest Blaugrana, meanwhile, have called a protest against the current board ahead of Barca B's playoff game against Cartagena at the Mini Estadi on Saturday. Samuel Marsden covers Barcelona for ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @SamuelMarsden.
U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions told former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon that he'd "never leave" his AG seat, and would have to be fired to leave. The conversation came during a meeting between the two President Donald Trump administration officials on July 25, 2017, a day after the president tweeted that Sessions was 'beleaguered.' Trump calls AG Jeff Sessions 'beleaguered,' wants investigation into Hillary Clinton, Russians On the day his son-in-law is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, President Donald Trump called on "beleaguered" Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate his presidential opponent. Bannon recounted that conversation to Vanity Fair special correspondent Gabriel Sherman in a wide-ranging story focused on the Breitbart News executive chairman published Thursday. "Look, I have a question for you," Bannon reportedly said to Sessions. "Is there any doubt in your mind that it was Divine Providence, the Hand of God that got us this victory?" When Sessions said twice that he was sure, Bannon asked: "Then where's your commitment here?" "I will never leave," Sessions told Bannon, according to the Vanity Fair article. "I may get fired, but I'll never leave." Vanity Fair said the Department of Justice did not comment on Bannon's account of the conversation. Sherman's article also delved into Bannon's post-White House work campaigning for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore. After allegations arose that Moore had sexual contact with a 14-year-old and dated teenagers when he was in this 30s, the Breitbart chairman told Sherman he sent "my two best guys down there" to Alabama to dig up information on the allegations. "One of the things I realized during the campaign is that, like in the military, it all comes down to one or two decisions in the heat of battle," Bannon said. "You have to double down." Vanity Fair reports Bannon's first choice in the Alabama Senate race had been Rep. Mo Brooks, who did not make the run-off. "I'm gonna tell Judge Moore to do his thing," Bannon said. "They're not cut out for this, though." According to Sherman, Bannon saw the writing on the wall when he saw the exit polls from the Dec. 12 special election: Roy Moore would lose. "The percentage of write-ins was at 1.5 percent," Bannon said. "I looked at the pollster right there and I said he's going to lose this." Bannon said he blamed Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby for the loss. The weekend before the election, Shelby told CNN that he didn't vote for Moore. Bannon told Sherman, "That was the inflection point." Bannon also said that Trump's initial support for Luther Strange in the Senate primary was "another genius move by Jared," referring to Trump's son-in-law and White House advisor Jared Kushner, with whom Bannon did not get along. Read more in Vanity Fair.
Origins and distribution Edit Description Edit The fruit is about 5 to 15 centimetres (2 to 6 inches) in length and is an oval shape. It usually has five prominent longitudinal ridges, but in rare instances it can have as few as four or as many as eight. In cross section, it resembles a star.[1] The skin is thin, smooth, and waxy and turns a light to dark yellow when ripe. The flesh is translucent and light yellow to yellow in color. Each fruit can have 10 to 12 flat light brown seeds about 6 to 13 mm (0.25 to 0.5 in) in width and enclosed in gelatinous aril. Once removed from the fruit, they lose viability within a few days.[3][4][5] Like the closely related bilimbi, there are two main types of carambola: the small sour (or tart) type and the larger sweet type. The sour varieties have a higher oxalic acid content than the sweet type. A number of cultivars have been developed in recent years. The most common cultivars grown commercially include the sweet types "Arkin" (Florida), "Dah Pon" (Taiwan), "Ma fueng" (Thailand), "Maha" (Malaysia), and "Demak" (Indonesia) and the sour types "Golden Star", "Newcomb", "Star King", and "Thayer" (all from Florida). Some of the sour varieties like "Golden Star" can become sweet if allowed to ripen.[2][3][4] Culinary Edit Risks Edit Cultivation Edit Unripe Indian carambola The carambola is a tropical and subtropical fruit which can be grown at elevations up to 1,200 metres (4,000 feet). It prefers full sun exposure, but requires enough humidity and annual rainfall of at least 1,800 mm (70 in). It does not have a soil type preference, but requires good drainage.[citation needed] Carambola trees are planted at least 6 m (20 ft) from each other and typically are fertilized three times a year. The tree grows rapidly and typically produces fruit at four or five years of age. The large amount of rain during spring actually reduces the amount of fruit, but, in ideal conditions, carambola can produce from 90 to 180 kilograms (200 to 400 pounds) of fruit a year. The carambola tree flowers throughout the year, with main fruiting seasons from April to June and October to December in Malaysia,[16] for example, but fruiting also occurs at other times in some other locales, such as South Florida.[4] Growth and leaf responses of container-grown `Arkin' carambola (Averrhoa carambola L.) trees to long-term exposure of 25%, 50%, or 100% sunlight showed that shading increased rachis length and leaflet area, decreased leaflet thickness, and produced more horizontal branch orientation.[17] Major pests are fruit flies, fruit moths, ants, and birds.[3][16] Crops are also susceptible to frost.[3] Top producers of carambola in the world market include Australia, Guyana, India, Israel, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and the United States.[4] Malaysia is a global leader in star fruit production by volume and ships the product widely to Asia and Europe.[16] Due to concerns over pests and pathogens, however, whole star fruits cannot yet be imported to the US from Malaysia under current United States Department of Agriculture regulations. In the United States, carambolas are grown in tropical and semitropical areas, including Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, California, Virginia, Florida and Hawaii.[2][18] In the United States, commercial cultivation and broad consumer acceptance of the fruit only dates to the 1970s, attributable to Morris Arkin, a backyard horticulturalist, in Coral Gables, Florida. The 'Arkin' variety represented 98% of the acreage in South Florida in the early 21st century.[19] Other uses Edit The trees are also grown as ornamentals for their abundant brightly colored and unusually shaped fruits, as well as for their attractive dark green leaves and their lavender to pink flowers.[4] Like the bilimbi, the juice of the more acidic sour types can be used to clean rusty or tarnished metal (especially brass) as well as bleach rust stains from cloth. They may also be used as a mordant in dyeing.[2] Etymology and vernacular names Edit The Portuguese word carambola, first known use 1598, was taken from Marathi karambal derived from Sanskrit karmaphala.[20] In Spanish, it is known as carambola. The carambola is called "star fruit" in English. References Edit
Share. No word yet on pricing. No word yet on pricing. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is officially coming to Blu-ray next month. Warner Bros. announced on Facebook that the beloved 1993 animated Batman film will finally be getting a 1080p HD remaster for the first time in July. The Blu-ray release will include both the original theatrical 16x9 aspect ratio and the open matte 4x3 aspect ratio. No word yet on pricing and the only special feature listed is the film's original theatrical trailer. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Blu-ray cover. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm features the voice talents of Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamill as The Joker. The story follows the Dark Knight as he tries to stop a mysterious new villain, the Phantasm, who has a mysterious link to Batman's past. The next upcoming animated Batman film is Batman and Harley Quinn, which is set to premiere at San Diego Comic-Con 2017. For our thoughts on another recent animated Batman film, read IGN's Batman: The Killing Joke review. Alex Gilyadov is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Hello dear artists and Marvel Comics fans! Today we have prepared for you a new drawing tutorial. In this drawing lesson we will show you how to draw Wolverine. In our previous tutorials we already showed you how to draw Wolverine, how to draw original Wolverine and how to draw Wolverine’s head. These tutorials were quite complex, so we decided to create a tutorial about Wolverine for beginners and kids. So, let’s start the tutorial about how to draw Wolverine for kids! Step 1 First things first we need to sketch out the general proportions using a man made of lines and circles (a stickman). Using an oval sketch out the head. Then, using lines sketch out the torso, hands and legs. Note, that at the first steps you should not press down too hard on a pencil. Step 2 At this step we will add some volume to Wolverine. Using circles draw fists and knees. Using ovals sketch out torso hands and legs. But first we need to draw lines of facial symmetry. The vertical line divides the face into two parts and helps us to find the centre of the face. The horizontal line will help us to draw the eyes. Step 3 At this step we will start to add some details. Using the horizontal line from the previous step sketch out the eyes. Using curved lines sketch out the “ears” of the mask. Using a curved line sketch out the mouth. At this same step sketch out Wolverine’s claws. Step 4 At this step we will end to draw the head of Wolverine. It will be a fairly simple step. First erase all the guidelines. Then, darken the lines of the head. Add wrinkles in the area of the nasal bridge and move to the next step. Step 5 At this step we will finish to draw the torso of Wolverine. First draw the elements of the suit on the shoulders. Erase all unnecessary guidelines and draw the outlines pectoral muscles. Draw stripes on the suit in the form of elongated and curved triangles. Step 6 At this step we draw Wolverine’s hands. First draw fingers. Then, using guidelines from the third step draw the claws. Using curved lines draw biceps and gloves. Erase all unnecessary lines and move to the next step. Step 7 At this step we finish to draw Wolverine’s legs. First draw the belt with the X-Men sign. Then outline the superheroic shorts (Actually we do not understand why superheroes wear shorts over pants… but oh well). Using smooth and curved lines draw the legs as in our example. Do not forget to draw the characteristic shoes of Wolverine. Wolverine is almost ready. Step 8 And here is the last step of tutorial about how to draw Wolverine. Erase all remaining unnecessary lines and strokes. Darken and smoothen the lines of the drawing. Paint in black the ears of the mask, stripes on the torso and stripes on shoes. It was the drawing lesson about how to draw Wolverine for children. If this tutorial was interesting for you, share it with your friends and subscribe to us on social networks. If you want to try to draw something more complicated, visit our drawing lessons about how to draw Scorpion and How to draw Sub-Zero. Stay tuned and wait for new drawing lessons. Goodbye!
The most obvious difference is that aptitude provides a terminal menu interface (much like Synaptic in a terminal), whereas apt-get does not. Considering only the command-line interfaces of each, they are quite similar, and for the most part, it really doesn't matter which one you use. Recent versions of both will track which packages were manually installed, and which were installed as dependencies (and therefore eligible for automatic removal). In fact, I believe that even more recently, the two tools were updated to actually share the same database of manually vs automatically installed packages, so cases where you install something with apt-get and then aptitude wants to uninstall it are mostly a thing of the past. There are a few minor differences: aptitude will automatically remove eligible packages, whereas apt-get requires a separate command to do so The commands for upgrade vs. dist-upgrade have been renamed in aptitude to the probably more accurate names safe-upgrade and full-upgrade, respectively. aptitude actually performs the functions of not just apt-get, but also some of its companion tools, such as apt-cache and apt-mark. aptitude has a slightly different query syntax for searching (compared to apt-cache) aptitude has the why and why-not commands to tell you which manually installed packages are preventing an action that you might want to take. If the actions (installing, removing, updating packages) that you want to take cause conflicts, aptitude can suggest several potential resolutions. apt-get will just say "I'm sorry Dave, I can't allow you to do that." There are other small differences, but those are the most important ones that I can think of. In short, aptitude more properly belongs in the category with Synaptic and other higher-level package manager frontends. It just happens to also have a command-line interface that resembles apt-get. Bonus Round: What is wajig? Remember how I mentioned those "companion" tools like apt-cache and apt-mark? Well, there's a bunch of them, and if you use them a lot, you might not remember which ones provide which commands. wajig is one solution to that problem. It is essentially a dispatcher, a wrapper around all of those tools. It also applies sudo when necessary. When you say wajig install foo , wajig says "Ok, install is provided by apt-get and requires admin privileges," and it runs sudo apt-get install foo . When you say wajig search foo , wajig says "Ok, search is provided by apt-cache and does not require admin privileges," and it runs apt-cache search foo . If you use wajig instead of apt-get, apt-mark, apt-cache and others, then you'll never have this problem: $ apt-get search foo E: Invalid operation search If you want to know what wajig is doing behind the scenes, which tools it is using to implement a particular command, it has --simulate and --teaching modes.
While providing fact check comments on the latest presidential debate, the Associated Press claimed Donald Trump’s assertion that Syrian President Bashar Assad was fighting Islamic State was not true. Their comment was retracted just hours later, however. During the Sunday debate with Hillary Clinton, the Republican candidate said: “I don’t like Assad at all. But Assad is killing ISIS. Russia is killing ISIS.” AP’s comment on the issue was unambiguous. “Not true. Syria’s President Bashar Assad considers the Islamic State [IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL] group to be among numerous ‘terrorist’ groups that threaten his government, but his military is not fighting them. It is focused on combatting Syrian opposition groups, some of which are supported by the United States,” the agency said. The agency’s assessment runs contrary to some universally accepted facts. For instance, with Russia’s help, the Syrian army battled Islamic State to take back the historic city of Palmyra, thus “fighting them.” The AP’s own reporting at that that time said so, as some sarcastic commenters pointed out online. .@AP_Politics maybe you should fact check yourself AP. You admitted Assad fights ISIS. pic.twitter.com/tldivJquqq — Partisangirl (@Partisangirl) October 10, 2016 In another example, America’s bombing of Assad’s troops near Deir ez-Zor that killed dozens of Syrian soldiers, reportedly allowed IS to launch an offensive that nearly overwhelmed the government positions. Washington called the attack a “mistake.” Hours later, AP changed its initial ‘Not true’ assessment to ‘Only partially true,’ stating that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s military “is mainly focused on combating Syrian opposition groups, some of which are supported by the United States.” The agency also deleted its initial tweet debunking Trump’s statement. AP deleted a tweet saying Trump was wrong that Syria's Assad is fighting ISIS. His remark is only partially true. A new tweet is upcoming. — AP Politics (@AP_Politics) October 10, 2016 Trump has been repeatedly saying that, as a president, he would ally with Russia to fight IS. Some US officials allege that Russia is not interested in fighting terrorists and that its military deployment in Syria is only aimed at supporting the Assad government. Moscow, on the other hand, says Washington is obsessed with the idea of ousting Assad from power and willing to support terrorist groups in order to do so.
New technology offers unprecedented economic opportunities. But we must help those whose industries are at risk to reskill, writes Ruth Smeeth It’s easy to see why an area called The Potteries might find itself typecast in peoples’ perceptions of the British economy. It’s certainly true that my city of Stoke-on-Trent pioneered the contemporary ceramics industry. The clay and coal beneath our feet fuelled a resilient, dynamic economy. And today, we continue to be the UK’s leading tableware and tile manufacturer, with more than 7,000 people locally employed in the industry. Ceramics has a proud past, but it also has a bright future, one powered by innovation. Today, ceramics are being used in new and extraordinary ways, from bone transplants and hip replacements to mobile transmitters and energy conductors. And as we stand on the cusp of a new industrial revolution post-Brexit, these industries will become a central plank of our economic future. But these exciting developments are not without challenges. When the world is faced with breakthrough technology emerging at breakneck speed, the results can prove disruptive. These shifts have the potential to unleash extraordinary economic growth and to greatly improve our quality of life, but only if we can create a skilled workforce and seize the opportunity to create an economy that works for everyone. These new innovations aren’t limited to ceramics. An entire economy is being radically reshaped by the emerging fourth industrial revolution, a technological leap that will redefine work and productivity in the 21st century. These new industries, and the technologies that are driving them, offer unprecedented opportunities. But they also pose a risk to many, particularly those in skilled or semi-skilled manual work. Even those professionals in the traditional intermediaries – banks, accountants and brokers – could see their futures threatened with the emergence of an open global infrastructure which allows funds to be securely transferred without the use of middlemen. As technology advances and automation increases, many of these jobs could disappear, leading to a hollowing out of the middle tier, even as jobs are created in the upper and lower rungs of the economy. Already we have entire industries that couldn’t have existed a generation ago, and new roles emerging to create, manage and process the new digital spheres that play an ever larger role in our lives and society. Just look at the enormous wealth being generated by Silicon Valley, and the army of coders, digital content managers and search engine optimisation experts that such efforts have created. But the gig economy also has a dark side. Uber drivers working long hours without basic rights, Amazon workers toiling in warehouses on low pay, experienced workers struggling to adapt when a local industry shuts up shop. For those with the skills and qualifications to take up the new, better-paid jobs that are on offer these changes are a great opportunity. But for those without formal qualifications or who find it difficult to adapt to new models of working, the result can be lower wages and a more precarious working existence. Now more than ever it is vital that we are providing everyone with the chance to develop new skills for a new economy. If the UK wants to remain a global competitor, we need to be prepared to invest not just in education and training for our young people but in lifelong learning, in order to upskill those most at risk of being left behind. In large swaths of post-industrial Britain, the education deficit is stark. For 100 years these areas were sustained by heavy industry, jobs were plentiful, and basic skills like literacy and numeracy were not requirements for financial security. Those industries are gone, but too many people lack the skills to adapt or the support necessary to develop them. That is why we need to invest in skills and education, and particularly in adult education, so that those whose jobs are at risk can find new employment in new industries. The UK can benefit from advances in technology. But we will only succeed if we lift the whole country up with us. Ruth Smeeth is Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent North
Iran and six major world powers have managed to reach a preliminary agreement on ‘all the key aspects’ of a deal over Tehran’s controversial nuclear program, Russia’s FM has announced, adding that the sides have begun drafting the text. Experts from Iran and P5+1 have started drafting a preliminary deal and the document could be expected either within the next few hours or later on Wednesday, Sergey Lavrov hopes. However, clearing the “technical details” of a final deal may take until June, he added. “We can quite certainly say that on all the key aspects of the final settlement of this problem, the ministers have reached principal consent that will be, hopefully in the next hours, maybe a day, put on paper. The experts were tasked with this,” Lavrov told reporters Wednesday. The preliminary agreement will include the verification of mechanisms guaranteeing the peaceful nature of Tehran’s nuclear program and will stipulate the lifting of sanctions, Lavrov added. “The agreement includes an all-encompassing approach to the settlement [of Iran’s nuclear issue], including methods of verification of the nuclear program’s exclusively peaceful nature by the IAEA, as well as extensive provisions on lifting sanctions,” Lavrov said. Lavrov recalled that the “all-encompassing approach” of a preliminary agreement is based on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position put forward several years ago. “I want to note that the whole concept that formed the basis of this work is based on the position put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a few years ago, designed to approach Iran's nuclear program on the basis of the recognition of the country’s inalienable right to pursue peaceful atomic research, including uranium enrichment,” he said. Tehran also hopes that a draft agreement will soon be finalized, with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif saying the sides will “hopefully start drafting tomorrow.” The White House announced that US President Barack Obama received an update on the talks from his national security team via a video teleconference, but did not give any details. “Negotiations were completed for today. We will resume meeting at the expert level in the morning at 6.30, then Iran will join. Then, perhaps, the ministers,” said French Foreign Ministry political director for Iranian affairs, Nicolas de Riviere. However, he cast doubt on whether a political framework agreement would be reached during the current round of talks in Lausanne, Switzerland. “There is still much work to do,” de Riviere said. A diplomat close to negotiations meanwhile told Reuters it was “not true” that agreement was reached on all key issues, without specifying any stumbling blocks that remain. A draft document could soon be approved by the sides, a diplomatic source close to negotiations told journalists earlier, not specifying whether it would be a joint statement or a draft resolution. "Iran does not want a nuclear deal just for the sake of having a deal, and a final deal should guarantee the Iranian nation's nuclear rights," senior nuclear negotiator Hamid Baidinejad told reporters. "We will continue the talks until we reach an agreement over disputed issues." Even though negotiations lasted longer than expected, the overall mood in Lausanne is positive. Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there were“quite promising prospects”of reaching the deal, but he stressed,“there is never 100 percent certainty.” “We have an opportunity to realize our chances if no party to the negotiations tries to raise the stakes at the last moment to get something extra instead of keeping a balance of interests,” Lavrov stressed during a joint media conference with his Vanuatu counterpart Sato Kilman. Lavrov interrupted his participation in the talks in in Switzerland's Lausanne on Monday for a meeting with a delegation from Vanuatu, a small Pacific nation recently devastated by a cyclone. Later on Tuesday Lavrov returned to the negotiations. READ MORE: ‘I’m not paid to be optimistic’ – Lavrov at Iran talks The Russian minister added that once a compromise is reached, the UN Security Council should dismantle the sanctions it imposed against Iran over its nuclear program. As for the unilateral sanctions imposed by the US and its allies, “we do not recognize them in any situation, whether it is Iran or any other country,” Lavrov noted. Some diplomats say an agreement may be signed during a later meeting in Geneva. “We are working meticulously to produce a document. If all goes well, the signing ceremony may take place in Geneva rather than Lausanne,” a diplomatic source in the Iranian delegation told TASS, describing the round of negotiations as a “daunting marathon.” Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian-American Council told RT that he’s “pretty confident we’re going to see a deal” at the end of the current talks. “I don’t think the parties have got this far in order to see a collapse. I think that this is a moment for potential brinkmanship, attempts to get the best possible deal, the last mile of the race,” he said. Abdi believes that the signing of the deal may also lead to an improvement in relations between Iran and the US, which currently have no diplomatic ties. “If we can fix the nuclear issue we might begin to turn the page and shift the paradigm, and see increased, positive opportunities for diplomacy between the US and Iran, and other states in the region,” he stressed. READ MORE: ‘Nuclear deal would open new opportunities for Iran-US relations ’ Iran and the P5+1 group, which includes five permanent members of the UNSC plus Germany, have gathered in Lausanne to hammer out a framework deal, which would settle a decade-old controversy over Iran's nuclear development. Tehran was accused of pursuing a clandestine nuclear weapons program by some countries, but insists that it only wants to use nuclear energy for civilian use. The deal would put restrictions on Iranian nuclear activities, which would prevent it from rushing towards nuclear capability while allowing it to develop a civilian nuclear industry. The negotiations are opposed by some of Iran's regional rivals, most notably US allies - Israel and Saudi Arabia. Israel vigorously obstructed the negotiations, claiming that they would result in a “bad deal.”
I’ve seen too many friends and acquaintances leap into “lightning marriages”—I am borrowing from the Italian phrase matrimoni lampo—as well as all the horrifying high-profile Hollywood cases such as Kim Kardashian’s recent split-second marital debacle, so I started to research the main reasons for divorce. Asking any married couple on the planet why they fight will yield the same set of reasons. So why do people marry in the first place? People marry for a variety of reasons in the name of “love”: money, social status, because everyone else is doing it, the desire for children, fear of being alone, or merely an excuse to have a party. All of these reasons are packaged into a nice little box that people refer to as “love,” and herein lies a substantial initial miscommunication. “The ‘love’ many people cite when they talk about marriage is nothing more than a love of self. It means the other person should put you first and do what you want.” Divorce’s primary cause is the misunderstanding of what “love” means. The “love” many people cite when they talk about marriage is nothing more than a love of self. It means the other person should put you first and do what you want. They should give you their money, let you bask in their social success, reap the benefits of their fame, and keep you company—essentially the other person should do and give everything for you and your happiness. It takes roughly a four-year-old’s brain capacity and emotional maturity to generate this definition of love. My four-year-old said to me the other day, “If I love you and you love me, then you do what I say!” The problem is that this bastardization of love will not hold until death do you part, or even as long as a transatlantic flight, because it means you are simply looking for a person who loves you, not for someone you love back. But people still try, believing it is enough merely to be loved. Mutiny and divorce inevitably ensue. Divorce’s second cause is not merely a difference in priorities and expectations, but a whopping, awe-inspiring gap between reality and expectations. Why the abysmal dichotomy? Well, “love” is now created in a studio and bombarded into our houses as entertainment. It becomes a beautiful, shiny, and seemingly realistic alternate reality presented to you every moment of every waking day. It is responsible for this ever-growing gap between what is real and expected and what is fantasy and unknown. These TV husbands bring you breakfast in bed on Mother’s Day, they remember your birthday and anniversary and never forget to send flowers or throw surprise parties, they are never grumpy or tired—in essence, they are flawless. Pay to Play - Put your money where your mouth is and subscribe for an ad-free experience and to join the world famous Takimag comment board.
Why Do Drivers Hate Cyclists? Practically any mention of bikes versus cars on the internet incites a flamewar. It’s a curious phenomenon, particularly given the minor threat bikes pose to cars. Nonetheless, I’m convinced that drivers are more afraid of bicyclists than vice versa. I cannot tell you very much about how to get traffic to your website or manage comments. One thing I can guarantee, however: write an article about bikes, safety, and transportation, and you will get a flood of commenters. Most of them will be angry; most of the angerbears will be angry at cyclists, which is something that’s long fascinated me. And the answer, I think, is a bit of a paradox, but it might be good news. For instance, Jon Hilkevitch wrote a piece for the Tribune on how the Active Transportation Alliance wants IDOT to count doorings: i.e. when the driver of a parked car opens his or her door into the path of a cyclist (Steven Vance has been doing some excellent work on this, along with many other bike issues). The worst injury any of my friends has suffered on a bike came from a dooring. It’s a terrifying possibility, and one that’s hard for cyclists to avoid: I try to keep an eye out for the telltale signs of an opening door–brake lights turning off, the flash of an arm in the side-view mirror–but you never know when it’s going to be too late. Don’t tell that to the commenters, though: No need to waste more taxpayers monies. Very simple solution, stay off the streets. When I want to ride I go to a park with bike trails. Those that wish to ride in traffic need to obey the rules of the road. The most logical way to reduce this type of accident is for bike riders to stay in the center of the lane, away from the vehicles. They should also be licensed and carry valid registration and insurance. They run into the vehicles door and should pay the repair. I lump these biking folk into the same catagory as I put smokers crying that they can’t pollute our collective lungs. If they are stupid enough to ride a bike in traffic, are they really worth saving from themselves? You know the risks yet continue this destructive behavior? In the end you get what you deserve then. It would be like bringing a spoon to a gun fight. You would have to be an idiot to ride a bike in traffic, yet somehow these bike riders are incapable of understanding even that. I for one am not surprised. With bicycles causing so much damage to our cars, why aren’t they forced to carry insurance? We pay to pave the roads. If a separate infrastructure were to be built, bike riders should be required to have [plates, licenses and insurance so there would be revenue to pay for it, but no, Mr -Streets-are-for-bicycles wouldn’t want to pay for that. They want everything for free. Whatever the reporting requirements, it seems pretty clear that the bicyclists are generally the “at fault” party in this type of collision. I ride bicycles occasionally and my motorcycle quite often. It’s irresponsible and foolhardy to put yourself in a position where you cannot be seen until the last moment, if at all, by people getting out of their cars. There seems to be, among many bicyclists, a sense of entitlement to ride like an idiot, without real regard for their safety, then cry “foul” when the inevitable occurs. (When I bike, I’m not so much afraid of drivers as commenters.) It’s not just here. In New York, the big political war right now is over a bike lane on Prospect Park West: “We’ve never seen anything like this in the realm of neighborhood-level bike advocacy,” says Aaron Naparstek, creator of the pro-cycling site Streetsblog and co-founder of the advocacy group Park Slope Neighbors. “It’s crazy. Gibson Dunn is the law firm that represented George W. Bush in Bush v. Gore in 2000. Now they’re working to get rid of a bike lane. Think about that.” And it’s not just angry anonymites on the internet. John Cassidy, a New Yorker staffer and respected economics journalist, unleashed a crass broadside against cyclists as part of the great Prospect Park West debate. He got the flame war he was asking for, not just from cyclists but from colleague Hendrik Hertzberg and fellow econ journalists like Felix Salmon and Olaf Storbeck. Storbeck does an excellent job rebutting Cassidy’s complaints about “free” parking, and Ryan Avent of The Economist takes on the absurdity of the “free rider” charge made against bikers. If you really want to get deep in the weeds, Salmon’s Wired profile of Charles Komanoff and his Balanced Transportation Analyzer is a good introduction to the economics of traffic. I’ve never lived overseas, so my evidence that anti-bicyclist sentiment is almost uniquely American is entirely circumstantial. But a friend of mine, an avid biker, recently sent a dispatch from Tblisi in which he compares biking in the Georgian city to Chicago. Despite the chaotic traffic there, it’s safer. Among his reasons: The final reason is the lack of animosity. In most American cities, there is a certain group of drivers who actively resent the encroachment of cyclists onto “their” roads. These guys will deliberately make cyclists’ lives miserable, simply for being on the road. They will cut in front of you, honk their horns to try and scare you, or spray you with windshield cleaning fluid (I’m not the kind of cyclist to key someone’s car or bash their windows with a U-lock, but I was pretty close with the windshield wiper guy). I think that this attitude is only possible because American roads are so pleasant to drive on and American drivers so law-abiding–in Tbilisi, the average driver has to contend with so many things getting in their way that anyone who flew into a frothing rage at the slightest infringement on “their” patch of pavement would get arrested instantly. Once again, chaos makes for safer biking–rather than an “intruder” into the automobile’s rightful domain, drivers view cyclists as simply another obstacle to be avoided. The most convincing part of this, for me, is the argument that Georgian traffic is so fraught with obstacles that cyclists don’t raise an eyebrow. On the other hand, I’m not sure about my friend’s contention that the novelty of commuter biking in Tblisi makes it safer. As Tom Vanderbilt, author of the excellent 2008 book Traffic, writes in Outside: As various studies have found, the more cyclists and cycling infrastructure a town has, the safer it becomes statistically, not just for cyclists but for drivers and pedestrians alike. When New York City put a protected bike lane on Ninth Avenue, some protested it as unsafe for people on foot. But since the lane’s opening, pedestrian injuries on Ninth have dropped by 29 percent. Last year, as miles of bike lanes were added, New York had its best pedestrian-safety record ever. I’m more convinced by Vanderbilt’s argument that ignorance of the laws governing biking is responsible for a lot of the discord, which partly explains the misguided belief that roads belong to the cars. It’s explicitly illegal to door someone, and bikes are legally required to ride as far to the right as possible in Chicago and in Illinois. If you don’t know that, and many of the commenters clearly don’t, the doored bicyclist looks to be twice at fault. What would appear to be constant, blatant lawbreaking–beyond just the obvious, like cyclists blowing red lights, which irritates me too–has to figure into what Vanderbilt calls a “bikelash.” But the most compelling argument I’ve ever read about anger comes from a lengthy thread about bikes and road rage. In short, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the dark side: I think dismissing anti-biker-rage as “people are assholes” is too simple, and as an explanation it doesn’t explain. I drive on roads (in semi-rural NJ) where there are a lot of bicyclists. I used to be one of them, until it got to be more dangerous than I was comfortable with. As a driver, cyclists scare me, they make me tense and wary, because I know how easy it would be for me to hurt them. I think there are a huge number of Americans whose reaction to being afraid, especially in their cars, is rage. They can’t acknowledge that they’re afraid, so they channel it into anger. I read this two years ago, and I still haven’t forgotten it; it reminded me of Keith Bradsher’s excellent book on SUVs, High and Mighty, in which he documents how the intersection between fear and aggression on the road helped popularize the vehicles: ‘’Minivan people want to be in control in terms of safety, being able to park and maneuver in traffic, being able to get elderly people in and out,'’ Mr. Schaafsma said. ‘’S.U.V. owners want to be more like, ‘I’m in control of the people around me.’ ‘’ [snip] Sport utilities are designed to appeal to Americans’ deepest fears of violence and crime, Dr. Rapaille said. People’s earliest associations with sport utilities are wartime Jeeps with machine guns mounted on the back, he explained. Sport utilities are ‘’weapons'’ and ‘’armored cars for the battlefield,'’ he said. Or maybe I just want to believe it: the idea that these angry drivers are afraid of cyclists, and the idea that fear is what makes them so angry, makes me a lot more sympathetic to whoever it is that leaves the angry comments that inevitably follow any discussion of cars and bikes. Fear I understand, and it’s something that can be addressed with good public policy. If it’s just inchoate rage, that’s too far above (or below) my head. Photograph: waferboard (CC by 2.0) Share
11.10.2017 (Updated 2.25.2018) It is always difficult to say when someone is being dishonest. It implies knowledge of someone’s intentions or their inner heart. Never mistake for malice what can be explained by incompetence. Inaccurately recounting history is not enough to conclude negative intent. After all, church leaders are not professional historians, nor should we expect them to be. Furthermore, any human organization will require degrees of transparency and varying narratives. Yet, because of our Church’s high moral code, the level of transparency and honesty should rise above other institutions. However, in the church’s experiences with teaching, learning, and confronting our history, there have been occasions when a leader actively took steps to quash and cover up our historical record in order to maintain a status quo narrative. This essay outlines a few of these. Joseph Fielding Smith and the 1832 first vision account. Stan Larson published an article in Dialogue in 2014 outlining the history of the 1832 First Vision account.[1] This is the earliest written record of Joseph Smith’s encounter of the grove. It contradicts many of the details found in the canonized 1838 account: only one being (“The Lord”), only in search of personal redemption, and no discussion of seeking for the true Church. It is less dramatic than latter renditions. Larson convincingly argues that Joseph Fielding Smith, the Church Historian for fifty years, ripped the account from Joseph Smith’s journal, kept it hidden for some time, and then returned it taping it back in sometime later. This contributed to why 1) historians were unaware for decades of this account of the vision, and 2) members largely continue to be unaware of the details of the multiple versions. Bruce R. McConkie and Adam-God Elder McConkie publicly claimed that he did not “ever know” the Adam-God doctrine “to be taught in the Church”, and that it was a false belief promoted by polygamist fundamentalists. In private, however, he acknowledged, “Yes, President Young did teach that Adam was the father of our spirits, and all the related things that the cultists ascribe to him.” Continuing in the private correspondence, he said, “I think you can give me credit for having a knowledge of the quotations from Brigham Young relative to Adam, and of knowing what he taught under the subject that has become known as the Adam God Theory.” Partly why members are unaware of Brigham’s teachings can be explained by a choice by apostle Elder Widstoe. He deleted certain Adam-God phrases when compiling The Discourses of BY in 1925. It was from this book, rather than the Journal of Discourses, that the 1997 priesthood/relief society manual, Teachings of the Presidents of the Church, took the quote. See here for more details. In a letter to the editor of Dialogue, Boyd Kirkland wrote, “I wrote a letter to President Spencer W. Kimball in the summer of 1980, asking why he, as well as Mark E. Petersen, Bruce R. McConkie, and other general authorities, had been so vocally denouncing the Adam-God doctrine, while at the same time denying that Brigham Young had been the source of the idea, when there was an abundance of good evidence to the contrary. [For example, President Kimball said in the 1976 general conference, “We warn you against the dissemination of doctrine which are not according to the scriptures and which are alleged to have been taught by some of the General Authorities of past generations. Such, for instance, is the Adam-God theory.”] I pointed out that this approach created a double dilemma for church members aware of the facts: first, how a prophet (Brigham) could claim as revelation and promote to the church an idea deemed by later leaders to be a dangerous heresy: and, second, why later church leaders would dishonestly deny the true source of the “heresy,” claiming it originated with “enemies of the church.” “I indicated in [a letter to the First Presidency] letter, that I felt this dilemma was simply the result of a misunderstanding or lack of information on the part of the brethren. Latter, I met with an informal committee answering to Mark E. Petersen, which had been set up to help members confronted with issues raised by fundamentalist Mormons (the Adam-God doctrine being one of the chief of these). The net result of my meetings with these people began to make me realize that Brother Petersen wasn’t acting out of ignorance of the facts regarding the Adam-God problem, and neither was Bro. McConkie. “I still wondered about the extent of President Kimball’s knowledge of the subject, however. I suspected that my letter had never reached him. In February 1981, I met with Michael Watson, the secretary to the First Presidency. He was surprisingly candid with me, revealing that my letter had been forwarded to Mark E. Petersen. Brother Watson showed me a memo written by Brother Petersen to the First Presidency with his recommendations as to how to respond to me. He informed them that the issues I had raised were real, that Brigham Young had indeed taught these things, but that they could not acknowledge this lest I would “trap them” into saying this therefore meant Brigham was a false prophet. He therefore recommended that I be given a very circuitous response, evading the issue, which he volunteered to write. I asked Brother Watson, as well as members of the committee I had previously met with, how this approach would help people like myself who knew better? Wasn’t there concern that some might be dismayed and disillusioned by their church leaders’ lack of candor? Their response was very similar to President Hinckley’s statement mentioned earlier about losing a few through excommunication: they said, in essence, “If a few people lose their testimonies over this, so be it; it’s better than letting the true facts be known, and dealing with the probable wider negative consequences to the mission of the church.” (Dialogue, Vol. 31, No. 3, Fall, 1998) Lucy Mack Smith’s Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith Brigham Young “ordered the Saints to deliver up their copies to be destroyed.”[2] “We do not with such a book to be lying on our shelves to be taken up in after years, and read by our children as true history…. It is transmitting lies to posterity… and we know that the curse of God will rest upon every one… who keeps these books for his children to learn and believe in lies.”[3] Lucy Mack Smith The repudiation of Lucy Mack Smith’s book was published in the eleventh volume of the Journal of Discourses. He publicly reviled the text and excoriated Orson Pratt for his connection with the book, which he considered to be riddled with factual and doctrinal errors. Referring to a portion of the book that had been read to the congregation, Young had exclaimed, according to the shorthand notes: “This article been read to congregation so very tedious that I expect they will forget all about it. This is the result of false doctrine. Read over pages of these books and a person will forget all they ever did know, all they had desired to know with regard to the true religion that has been revealed from heaven. We have said all we can say in favor of Brother Orson Pratt. Had this transpired in the days of Joseph, he would have been cut off from the church.”[4] This demonstrates that Young was willing to trample the Prophet Joseph’s Mother’s version of events if it contradicted his own, and especially if it threatened the status quo of the institution. To help us understand why, it is important to note that during Brigham Young’s tenure, the primary threat to his claim of being the legitimate successor of Joseph was Lucy Mack’s family. Emma never recognized Brigham as the prophetic heir. William Smith had made claims, as patriarch of the church. Emma’s son, Joseph Smith III, reorganized the church. At the time of the publication of Lucy’s book, Joseph III and his brothers were in Utah proselytizing the reorganized cause. Lucy’s biography was more sympathetic to the Smith version, than Brigham would have liked.[5] Deleting References to Polygamy Charles W. Penrose, Apostle and Counselor to two Presidents of the Church, admitted that after Joseph Smith’s death, certain facts related to plural marriage were purposely withheld from church publications “for prudential reasons.” (Solemn Covenant, p. 367) Although dishonesty about contemporary polygamy is not the same as covering up history, Elder Penrose modified documents intended for preserving history; documents which are by commandment of the Lord. (See D&C 21:1; 47:3; 72:6; 85:1; 127:9) In particular, D&C 128:8 says whatsoever you record on earth shall be recorded in heaven, and whatsoever you do not record on earth shall not be recorded in heaven; for out of the books shall your dead be judged. Heber J. Grant and the History of the Church[6] Church president Heber J. Grant required B. H. Roberts to censor some documents in the seventh volume of the History of the Church. Elder Roberts was furious. “I desire, however, to take this occasion of disclaiming any responsibility for the mutilating of that very important part of President Young’s Manuscript,” Roberts replied to President Grant in August 1932, “and also to say, that while you had the physical power of eliminating that passage from the History, I do not believe you had any moral right to do so.” Fawn Brodie’s No Man Knows My History: A Biography of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet. Although he refused to read her book, J. Reuben Clark asked the Deseret News to publish his long review of No Man Knows My History. The church also asked a young Hugh Nibley to write a rebuttal. His pamphlet No Ma’am, That’s Not History was an acerbic ad hominem attack, not addressing Brodie’s historical claims directly. Nibley had later expressed his regret for writing it. Eventually, Brodie was excommunicated for her work. Her reputation as a perceptive historian was later vindicated when she was the first to seriously explore and popularized the notion of Thomas Jefferson’s fathering Sally Heming’s six children. Thomas Cheney’s Golden Legacy In 1972, the biography of J. Golden Kimball ran into an ecclesiastical snag. Church headquarters instructed Brigham Young University Press to shred the entire press run of Cheney’s book due to its inclusion of some of J. Golden Kimball’s vulgarism. Allen and Leonard’s Story of the Latter-day Saints Apostle Ezra Taft Benson took direct action against Mormon historians. He tried to get Deseret Book Company to destroy the unsold press run of the 1976 book. Financial considerations prohibited a repetition of the Golden Legacy shredding and the large first edition sold out within a few months. Elders Benson and Petersen addressed their complaints to the First Presidency. President Kimball acquiesced to Ezra Taft Benson’s and Mark E. Petersen’s strongly negative views about the publication, a book that President Kimball himself liked.[7] Elder Benson successfully had Deseret Book refuse to reprint the book for a decade (despite steady popular demand). His concerns focused on their use of words like “communitarian” and “experimental” to describe Church programs, and on their discussion of the American environment which preceded various revelations. Elder Benson’s activities in 1976 signaled the turning point in the process by which Church historian Leonard J. Arrington was gradually cut adrift from the office of Church Historian. The Story of the Latter-day Saints had been written by the officially sustained Assistant Church Historian and another member of Arrington’s staff. Elder Benson’s Fight Against Historical Scholarship Elder Benson publicly warned about Mormon historians who “inordinately humanize the prophets of God so that their human frailties become more evident than their spiritual qualities.” In separate addresses Elder Ezra Taft Benson defines “historical realism” as “slander and defamation.” He instructed CES personnel: “If you feel you must write for the scholarly journals, you always defend the faith. Avoid expressions and terminology which offend the Brethren and Church members.” He also warns them not to buy the books or subscribe to the periodicals of “known apostates, or other liberal sources” or have such works on office or personal bookshelves.[8] Some General Authorities, including Elders Benson and Petersen, assigned others to read publications about the Church and mark for them passages that they considered questionable.[9] Elders Benson, Petersen, and Packer were the primary spokesmen for the view that it was not right for church-paid historians to write in a way that they felt inordinately humanized the prophets and underplayed revelation and God’s intervention in human affairs. For example, Benson noted: “Members of our staff have carefully read . . . and in accordance with your request, these are our impressions.” They were very disappointed with lack of spirituality, reliance on sources like Dialogue, portrayal of Joseph Smith as affected by the political, economic, and religious environments in which he lived, not taking the conservative side on issues like evolution, and calling the “black issue” a matter of “policy” (paraphrase of several pages).[10] Elder Benson condemned Juanita Brooks’ 1950 Mountain Meadow Massacre, warning BYU students of writings “which would tarnish our own Church history and its leaders” denouncing “one writer” who accused Brigham Young “of being ‘an accessory after the fact’ to the infamous Mountain Meadows Massacre incident.” History and the Church have vindicated Brooks’ original claim. Hiding the Smith’s Treasure Digging and Defaming Anti-Mormons In 1974, Reed Durham, director of the LDS Institute of Religion at the University of Utah, presented a presidential address at the annual conference of the Mormon History Association (MHA) in Nauvoo, Illinois. Durham explored Joseph Smith’s links with Masonry and his possession of a magical Jupiter talisman. The negative repercussions following Durham’s appeal for an open discussion of the influence of folk magic and Masonry on Mormonism led to his public apology and reaffirmation of faith. This indicates that we could have begun to learn of the implication Mormonism’s folk magic origins decades before we are beginning to do so, now. [Source] In the September 1979 Ensign, Dean Jessee discussed Joseph’s treasure digging as a malicious anti-mormon lie. He quotes two early critics. The first, Abner Cole, explained the Book of Mormon as a deception growing out of the family’s use of “peep stones” to dig for hidden treasure guarded by evil spirits. And that the Smiths participated in money digging ventures. Jesse further calls what Cole described as treasure digging, “irreligious”. Second, Eber D. Howe’s book, Mormonism Unvailed contains affidavits from Joseph’s neighbors in New York and Pennsylvania, as well as Emma’s father, and witness to the translation process, Isaac Hale. They portrayed Joseph Smith as “lazy, intemperate,” “entirely destitute of moral character and addicted to vicious habits,” including the deceptive practice of digging for hidden treasure. Finally, the Ensign article argues “that the charges of laziness and occupational money-digging were contradicted by the labors and activities of the family.” In 1987, Elder Oaks offers a direct question, but does not give a direct answer. What of the allegations of Joseph Smith’s involvement in folk magic? Some sources close to Joseph Smith claim that in his youth, during his spiritual immaturity prior to his being entrusted with the Book of Mormon plates, he sometimes used a stone in seeking for treasure. Whether this is so or not, we need to remember that no prophet is free from human frailties, especially before he is called to devote his life to the Lord’s work. Line upon line, young Joseph Smith expanded his faith and understanding and his spiritual gifts matured until he stood with power and stature as the Prophet of the Restoration. Today, the Church has admitted to the use of peep stones and divining rods by Joseph and his family. See the Church’s 2014 essay on translation, and the October 2015 Ensign article on the peep stone. (These articles do, however, avoid using the word “treasure seeking.”) Although some of the affidavits were clearly exaggerated, they did contain enough truth that we should not have dismissed them all together or call their entire production anti-mormon lies. Censorship of Dialogue and Sunstone. In May 1983, newspapers reported that Apostle Mark E. Petersen had instructed stake presidents to question historians and others who had contributed to Dialogue and Sunstone. When President Hinckley learned about this inquisition, he ordered the apostles to stop it.[11] Historian D. Michael Quinn relates, “During the following months, many contributors to Sunstone and Dialogue told me of being asked to meet with a bishop or stake president who presented marked copies of their published articles and symposium talks. In each case, the local leader said it was his own idea to meet with the individuals, to express concern about his or her participation in these intellectual forums, and to recommend an end to activity which “offends the Brethren” or “disturbs the faithful.” One stake president even asked the person to consider voluntarily withdrawing from the church. The uncomfortable demeanor of the inquiring local leaders, the photocopies of articles with underlined passages, the awkward assurances of this investigation’s local origin—all were familiar to me. In October 1991, I tried to put this in historical perspective as part of a panel discussion, ‘Let the Consequences Follow: Telling the Truth About Our History.’”[12] It should also be noted that the 1992 Encyclopedia of Mormonism gave a positive description of Dialogue, Sunstone, the Sunstone symposia, the B. H. Roberts Society, and other independent forums. “Unofficial organizations and their publications may serve at least six important functions for Church members and/or for the Church.” One of the six is that they “provide an opportunity to learn and distribute new insights regarding theology, the scriptures, ancient cultures, historical events, and current practices. Dedicated members wanting to combine their religious beliefs with their professional training have made significant scholarly contributions, and unofficial journals provide outlets for publishing them.” Armand Mauss records a few instances in his autobiography. He relates that during 1983 MHA conference scholars reported being “called in” by their bishop’s or stake presidents to be told that their published work was a matter of concern to “the brethren.” Upon returning, Mauss was asked to meet with his stake president. “He proceeded to tell me that he had received a personal phone call from Elder Mark E. Peterson, of the quorum of the Twelve, who wanted him to tell me that ‘the brethren are concerned about your association with apostate publications.'” In 1991, a later stake president, Roy Mosman, called Mauss. When President Mosman discussed Mauss with his counselors he was “fuming smoke from every orifice.” The actual meeting was somewhat tense, but turned out well enough. A decade later, in 2002, Armand Mauss was again summoned by his stake president. The area president had directed him to discuss Mauss’s comments at a Sunstone Symposium in regards to the damage still being done from the residue of racist folklore in the church. The stake president merely agreed with Mauss’s quoted comment. Furthermore, the president was surprised to learn of the existence of the Strengthen Membership Committee. Finally, he was unfamiliar with Dialogue, Sunstone, MHA, etc. Even since the turn of the millennium, Mauss records that in 2005, “I received firsthand information from two outstanding scholars whose recruitment you the BYU faculty had been cleared by all levels of the administration, only to be overturned at the level of the trustees because these scholars had published articles in Dialogue.” (Pg. 175-76, 79, and 242 footnote 51 of Shifting Boarders and Tattered Passports.) There clearly were a variety of voices and opinions during the 1980’s and 90’s on the appropriateness of scholarly venues, such as, Dialogue and Sunstone. The excommunications on September Six indicate that the voices against them were clearly louder. D. Michael Quinn “In 1985, after Dialogue published my article “LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904,” three apostles gave orders for my stake president to confiscate my temple recommend. Six years earlier, I had formally notified the First Presidency and the Managing Director of the church historical department about my research on post-Manifesto polygamy and my intention to publish it. Now I was told that three apostles believed I was guilty of “speaking evil of the Lord’s anointed.” The stake president was also instructed “to take further action” against me if this did not “remedy the situation” of my writing controversial Mormon history. James M. Paramore, the area president who relayed these orders, instructed my stake presidency to tell me that this was a local decision and reflected their own judgment of the state of my church membership. My stake president replied that he was not going to tell me something which was untrue. Unlike the area president, my stake president and one of his counselors had read the Dialogue article. They saw nothing in it to justify what they were being required to do.” Elder Packer’s preference for the faith promoting over truth. After the publication of Dean C. Jessee’s Letters of Brigham Young to His Sons, Elder Packer wrote a letter to the first presidency objecting to the inclusion of Young’s tobacco use and the fact that his descendants were unhappy with the way Young’s will was carried out. Elder Packer believed that the History Division’s work ought to be sent through the Correlation Program. (Topping, Gary (2008). Leonard J. Arrington: A Historian’s Life. Norman, Oklahoma: The Arthur C. Clark Company; University of Oklahoma.) Elder Packer gave a landmark talk in 1981. In it, he excoriated objective history using bellicose language. He claimed that there is no neutral ground. “There is a temptation for the writer or the teacher of Church history to want to tell everything, whether it is worthy or faith promoting or not. Some things that are true are not very useful.” Packer questioned the faith, motives, and prospects for salvation of Mormon historians who produced overly objective, impartial, honest, and neutral history. He said, “Those of you who are employed by the Church have a special responsibility to build faith, not destroy it … Those who have carefully purged their work of any religious faith in the name of academic freedom or so-called honesty ought not expect to be accommodated in their researches or to be paid by the Church to do it.” Further evidence of strains in the Mormon community surfaced in 1983 when BYU officials banned circulation of an independent student newspaper, Seventh East Press. Its 11 January issue had carried an interview conducted in 1981 with Mormon educator Sterling M. McMurrin in which he criticized efforts of officials to control the writing of LDS history as “reprehensible and odious.” In McMurrin’s opinion, suppression of honest research had created a climate within his community more detrimental to intellectual inquiry than he had ever before experienced. Expressing personal reservations regarding the emphasis placed in his church on its origins, McMurrin regretted efforts to indoctrinate members in a manipulated version of Mormon history. He believed it would be wiser for LDS officials to detach their religion from such close association with its controversial past. (Later reprinted in Blake Ostler, “An Interview with Sterling McMurrin/’ Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought (Spring 1984): 18-43.) Linda King Newell’s and Valeen Tippetts Avery’s Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith In June of 1984, Church headquarters instructed bishops in Utah, Idaho, and Arizona not to allow discussion in Relief Society or other Church meetings of the book. The two authors were also blacklisted from giving firesides or talks. Elder Oaks specifically condemned the work. He told the authors, “My duty as a member of the Council of the Twelve is to protect what is most unique about the LDS church, namely the authority of priesthood, testimony regarding the restoration of the gospel, and the divine mission of the Savior. Everything may be sacrificed in order to maintain the integrity of those essential facts. Thus, if Mormon Enigma reveals information that is detrimental to the reputation of Joseph Smith, then it is necessary to try to limit its influence and that of its authors.”[13] As of 2002, the book was still banned from being cited in any official LDS publication.[14] Much like Brigham Young condemning the work of Lucy Mack Smith, Elder Oaks preferences institutional preservation over truth, discovery, and growth. Censoring and Closing Church Archives Leonard Arrington, later the Church historian stated in 1966, “It is unfortunate for the cause of Mormon history that the Church Historian’s Library, which is in the possession of virtually all of the diaries of leading Mormons, has not seen fit to publish these diaries or to permit qualified historians to use them without restriction.” (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1966, p. 26) In February 1982, Don Schmidt announces to the Archives Search Room staff that nobody will see any papers of former apostles until further notice. Although this policy is later modified, rules governing access continue to bob and weave over the next ten years. [15] In June 1986 the staff of the church historical department announced it was necessary to sign a form which Elder Packer declared gave the right of pre-publication censorship for any archival research completed before signing the form. Several scholars refused to sign the form and have not returned to do research at LDS church archives since 1986. For the successful effort (led by Elders Benson and Packer) to close the LDS church archives to open research, see Lyn Ostler, “Access to Church Archives: Penetrating the Silence,” Sunstone Review, Sept. 1983, 7; Davis Bitton, “Ten Years in Camelot”; Robert Gottlieb and Peter Wiley, America’s Saints: The Rise of Mormon Power (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1984), 240-41; Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985), 107; Richard D. Ouelette, “Reading Sealed Books at the Archives,” Sunstone 11 (Sept. 1987): 40-44; and Richard E. Turley, Jr., “Confidential Records,” and Searle, “Historians, Church,” in Ludlow, Encyclopedia of Mormonism 1:310, 2:591-92. Censoring of Study Groups Lavina Fielding Anderson documents and publishes in Dialogue in 1992, 64 pages of “ecclesiastical abuse” against the Mormon intellectual community. Some of the instances involve local leaders confiscating temple recommends for holding study groups. (pg. 34). Lavina is later excommunicated for publishing the paper. Armand Mauss also records “monitoring” of the study group he founded in the Pullman, WA area. Although never officially condemned, he reported negative rumors and some mild harassment. Lack of Censorship for Paul H. Dunn Elder Paul Dunn was given emeritus status on September 1989 due to “age and health” reasons. In 1991, The Arizona Republic publishes a long article based on Lynn Packer’s research documenting Dunn’s extensive and elaborate fabrications and personal aggrandizement of his war and baseball stories. Lynn Packer’s teaching contract is not renewed at BYU, and he is fired from KSL. Two weeks later, Elder Dunn publishes an apology letter in the Church News admitting to lying. In 1992, Lynn Packer further publishes, in Utah Holiday Magazine, Dunn’s activities in financial fraud. In Packer’s 2015 memoir, he documents how the Church discouraged any investigation into Dunn and also the Church’s knowledge of Dunn’s fables being the motivating cause for his emeritus status. Sisters in Spirit edited by Maureen Beecher and Lavina Fielding Anderson In the April 1992, general conference, Apostle Dallin H. Oaks also spoke at length against some historical interpretations of Joseph Smith’s words to the Relief Society in 1842. Those views were prominent in Sisters in Spirit, the 1992 University of Illinois publication by LDS women historians. Oaks defended the status quo understanding. He stated, “The Relief Society’s promised blessings were dependent upon its leaders and members functioning within the limits the Lord had set. … The Relief Society and the auxiliaries organized later have always functioned and have thrived under the direction of the presiding authorities of the priesthood. … It was not to be an independent organization. It was an integral part of the Church, not a separate church for women.” Here Elder Oaks is changing history; a history he witnessed. The relief society was largely an independent organization since its inception and on, until correlation started, under Harold B. Lee, in the 1960’s. They raised their own funds, had their own assets, and created their own curriculum. Emma used the Relief Society to investigate polygamy, contrary to her husband’s wishes. Because of Relief Society’s affiliation with Emma, Brigham abolished the organization after Joseph’s death. After a few years in Utah, the organization started again from the grass roots, at the ward levels. Some time passed. Not until 1866, 22 years after the disbandment, did Brigham call Eliza R. Snow to be the second Relief Society General President. Although the auxiliaries were part of the general church structure, they usually started at the member-level and grew from there. It was not until the mid-twentieth century when these organization and auxiliaries started to come under the management of the Quorum of the Twelve. Elder Oaks statement that the Relief Society “always functions…under the direction…of the priesthood” is revisionist history. Mark Hoffman Document Cover-Up On 11 January, 1983, “acting for the church”, President Gordon B. Hinckley bought a rare letter from Mark Hoffman, the forger, with a $15,000 check. It was an 1825 “money-digging” letter from Joseph Smith to Josiah Stowell. At the time of purchase, the Church made no announcement of its discovery. Two years later in 1985, Mark Hoffman, through some third parties, informed the Los Angeles Times about the content and current ownership of the letter. The Times contacted the Church to confirm the information and seek a comment. Public Communications director Jerry Cahill denied the letter was in the Church’s archives or in the First Presidency’s vault. The LA Times said it was going to print their article on the morrow. The Church scrambled to get knowledge if it published through the Church News beforehand. (April 28, 1985). It acknowledged that the letter existed, but that the Church had not purchased it, but that it was a private acquisition by President Hinckley. On April 29, 1985, the Salt Lake Tribune ran a story by staff reporter Dawn Tracy entitled “’Smith’ Letter Seems to Have Disappeared from View,” in which both the allegations and Cahill’s denial were reiterated. “The church doesn’t have the letter,” said Mr. Cahill. “It’s not in the church archives or the First Presidency’s vault.” Less than a week later, a letter from Cahill appeared in the Deseret News. He apologized for his erroneous denial, and said that on May 3 Gordon B. Hinckley informed him the Church did indeed have the letter, and it might one day be released for study. The letter was subsequently printed in the May 12 Church News. [Source] In 1987, Elder Oaks addressed the charge that the church routinely covers up documents. He does not address any of the contraversies before 1986. Once Hoffman’s trial began, the church had to refrain from commenting, in order to not unduly influence the trial. As for the Josiah Stowel letter, he simply mentions that it was published before the murders as evidence for their transparency, without discussing the events that lead to it’s initial publication. He did give a fascinating justification for withholding documents from the public. “Are documents ever acquired by the Church and then closed to the public? Of course. This is true of most large archives. The Church Historical Department restricts access to certain materials.” He then gives a number of reasons including this last one. “The contents are private. The laws and ethics of privacy forbid custodians from revealing information that may invade the privacy of living individuals. “In addition, our belief in life after death causes us to extend this principle to respect the privacy of persons who have left mortality but live beyond the veil. Descendants who expect future reunions with deceased ancestors have a continuing interest in their ancestors’ privacy and good name.” Hence, the church may hide historical records if they might contain anything negative that may change a previous leader’s “good name”. Elder Oaks postmortal extension lays a veil over transparent history. Dallin H. Oaks and the Nauvoo Expositor In the 1996 General Conference, Elder Oaks said, “The event that focused anti-Mormon hostilities and led directly to the Martyrdom was the action of Mayor Joseph Smith and the city council in closing a newly established opposition newspaper in Nauvoo. Mormon historians—including Elder B. H. Roberts—had conceded that this action was illegal, but as a young law professor pursuing original research, I was pleased to find a legal basis for this action in the Illinois law of 1844. The amendment to the United States Constitution that extended the guarantee of freedom of the press to protect against the actions of city and state governments was not adopted until 1868, and it was not enforced as a matter of federal law until 1931. (See Dallin H. Oaks, “The Suppression of the Nauvoo Expositor,” Utah Law Review 9 [1965]:862.)” Elder Oaks cites his original, peer reviewed research from 1965. After examining what his research claims, his recounting of it in general conference becomes misleading. Rather than finding a “legal basis”, he finds Joseph destruction of the press unlawful. From pg. 891, “These cases make clear that there was no legal justification in 1844 for the destruction of the Expositor press as a nuisance. It’s libelous, provocative, and perhaps obscene output may well have been a public nuisance, but the evil article was not the press itself but the way in which it was being used. Consequently, those who caused or accomplished its destruction were liable for money damages in an action of trespass.” On page 903:”That its consequences were disastrous to the Mormon leaders and that alternative means might better have been employed cannot be doubted. Nevertheless, the common assumption of historians that the action taken by the city council to suppress the paper as a nuisance was entirely illegal is not well founded. Aside from damages for unnecessary destruction of the press, for which the Nauvoo authorities were unquestionably liable, there remaining actions of the council, including its interpretation of the constitutional guarantee of a free press, can be supported by reference to the law of their day.” In summary, Oaks concludes in 1965 that the destruction of the press was illegal, but there was legality in “suppressing the paper”. In conference Elder Oaks chooses to word the legal act “closing a newly established opposition newspaper.” The conference talk makes no mention of any illegal activity occurring, nor does it mention the absence of due process, and it even implies that all was in their rights, at the time. Deleting Joseph’s Beer Joseph Smith’s journal records on the 1 of June 1844, “Met George J. Adams, and paid him $50. Then went to John P. Greene’s, and paid him and another brother $200. Drank a glass of beer at Moessers. Called at William Clayton’s, while Dr. Richards and O.P. Rockwell called at the Doctor’s new house.” When published in the 1902 History of the Church, it reads, “Met George J. Adams, and paid him $50. Then went to John P. Greene’s, and paid him and another brother $200. Called at William Clayton’s, while Dr. Richards and Orrin P. Rockwell called at the doctor’s new house.” Deleting Brigham’s Wives The manual Teachings of the President’s of the Church: Brigham Young makes zero mention of President Young’s plural wives. The biographical timeline mentions his first wife, Miriam Works, recording their marriage date. After Miriam’s death, the manual gives the date Brigham married his second monogamous wife, Mary Ann Angel. However, there is zero mention of any subsequent marriages. The words polygamy, plural marriage, celestial marriage, make no appearance in the entirety of the manual. Chapter 23, entitled Understanding the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage, completely erased any connection between the New Covenant and Plural Marriage. A distinction Brigham would never have made. The two concepts were one and the same. The chapter even brackets out the word “wives,” twice replacing it with “[wife]”. Deleting President Snow’s Qualifier President Lorenzo Snow emphasized the law of tithing throughout his tenure. In the 1899 General Conference he said, “I plead with you in the name of the Lord, and I pray that every man, woman and child who has means shall pay one tenth of their income as a tithing.” This teaching is contrary to our hard-lined commandment practiced today. So when the 2011 Teachings of the President’s manual came out, Chapter 12 quoted President Snow saying, “I plead with you in the name of the Lord, and I pray that every man, woman and child … shall pay one tenth of their income as a tithing.” Ignoring Our Racist History Elder Alexander Morrison of the seventy wrote in the September 2000 Ensign, “How grateful I am that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has from its beginnings stood strongly against racism in any of its malignant manifestations.” Unfortunately, this statement could not be further from the truth. See here, for some examples. Today Why does this still matter, today? The Church’s transparency and quality is at the highest professional level with the publications of the Joseph Smith Papers project. Furthermore, the recent essays placed on LDS.org are the first admission by the Church of a number of historical facts (Joseph’s extensive polygamy; translating the Book of Mormon with a stone in a hat, etc.) Is the period of historical covering up behind us and have we entered a new day of embracing our history, warts and all? No. Not yet. Outside of the essays, there are no Church publications that discuss these issues. Although the excommunication of scholars has slowed down (now, the excommunications are more for activists). There are no resources in the Sunday School, institute, or seminary manuals. If our classrooms are going to teach accurate history, they will require accurate history in the lesson materials. Additionally, a few teachers who have used other materials continue to receive censure. Kirk Caudle A BYU-I religion professor, Kirk Caudle, was fired in 2014 for teaching our history. In particular, his mentioning Fanny Alger and the historicity of Brigham Young’s transformation during the succession crisis lead to discipline from a Stake President. All of this also happened during the summer when many internet-active members were contacted for church discipline (Dehlin, Kelley, others). The action taken against Caudle’s admitted to everything being historically accurate. He was also told not to use any materials that are not in the standard institute manuals and lds.org. Specifically saying that students should not be seeing the primary documents, but should be seeing what the leadership has said about the primary documents. Brian Dawson In 2015, the Salt Lake Tribune reported on Brian Dawson, a youth Sunday School teacher. His students wanted to know why the priesthood and temple ban against blacks was instituted. He turned to the church’s groundbreaking 2013 essay “Race and the Priesthood” initiating a discussion. This didn’t please his local lay leaders, who removed him from his teaching assignment. Asking his bishop why, Dawson asked, “If the Spirit guides me in a way that involves these multitude of documents, who am I to resist the enticing of the Spirit?” His bishop responded, “The spirit is telling me to tell you not to use those documents.” Even though they were published by the Church. The Strengthening Church Members Committee A secret committee reviews scholarship, blogs, and newspaper clippings that discuss the church in a negative light. The excerpted material would then be called to the attention of the appropriate area president, who would contact the stake president, with instructions to summon the author for an interview. (See D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power pgs. 311-13) Former BYU professor David Knowlton, in a television interview that aired August 16, 1992, (KXVS, Channel 4) in Salt Lake, said, “I’m ashamed, frankly, of a church that doesn’t want to tell the truth. I’m ashamed of institutional lying.” His comments stemmed from the church’s denial, then admission that a committee existed within the church that keeps files on the activities on its members. (Anderson, Vol. 26 No. 1 Spring 1993, Dialogue, pp. 46‐47. See also the Wikipedia article for further discussion) There still is a tendency to lie about the committee. Michael Purdy, a Church spokesman, initially denied the existence of it, until further pressed. In the same documentary, Elder Holland was reticent to discuss the committee. As a current example, in 2015 one couple began blogging critiquing D&C 132. After only 60 or so hits, they were contacted by their stake president to discuss disciplinary measures. The stake president was informed by the area authority. Stan Larsen Denied Access to a Historical Journal In doing the research for his 2014 Dialogue article exploring the history of the 1832 record of the First Vision, Stan Larson needed access to the Joseph Fielding Smith diary for dating purposes. He writes in footnote eight, “The exact time that the 1832 account was put into the Joseph Fielding Smith office safe and the date that he showed the history to Levi Edgar Young would probably be found in the Joseph Fielding Smith Collection, catalogued as Ms 4250 at the Church History Library Archives. On December 11, 2012 the writer sent to Richard E. Turley a written request for permission to read the diaries (either photocopies or microfilm) of Joseph Fielding Smith from 1930 to 1954, but this request was denied.” Elder Ballard Denying Any Historical Hiding In the 2017 Face-to-Face, Elder Ballard responded to a question about “hiding the fact” about multiple first vision accounts. He cites Dr. James B. Allen’s 1970 New Improvement article which discusses this, as an example of transparency. Yet, it is important to note that this article is not in our gospel library app. It is not found anywhere on LDS.org. Nor does BYU’s website have a readable online copy. A non-searchable copy was placed on Archive.org, by the Church. The only text version is found on a critical website. Since then, there have been two Ensign articles that discuss it (1985, 1996). President Hinckley mentions it in passing saying “So What?” at the 1993 General Conference. The college-level institute manual on Church History makes no mention of multiple versions, only citing the canonized version, even though Joseph’s 1832 journal is cited in other parts of the First Vision chapter (pg. 33-34). There are no mentions in other manuals. The paucity is so great that Steven Harper’s 2011 FairMormon Conference address observed, that “they are little known by most Latter-day Saints.” Elder Ballard concluded his point saying, “It’s this idea that the Church is hiding something, which we would have to say as two apostles that have covered the world and know the history of the Church and know the integrity of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve from the beginning of time–there has been no attempt on the part, in any way, of the Church leaders trying to hide anything from anybody.“ This clashes with what we have discussed, so far: the negative pressure against historians and their works, the general suspicion of historical scholarship, and most blatantly, the closing of our historical archives. LDS Church Historian, Elder Steven E. Snow said, “I think in the past there was a tendency to keep a lot of the records closed or at least not give access to information. But the world has changed in the last generation-with the access to information on the Internet, we can’t continue that pattern; I think we need to continue to be more open.” In Closing Take this 2009 revolutionary statement from the church history department. “The new Church History Library is the substance behind the growing emphasis of transparency in the Church’s interaction with the public. This facility opens the door for researchers and historians of all kinds to flesh out the stories of Mormon heritage that pass through the imagination of Latter-day Saints from generation to generation. The Church cannot undertake this project on its own. It requires a groundswell of countless individuals—from within and without the Church—operating on their own personal inspiration. The story of the Church will inevitably be told as historians of good faith are given access to the library’s records and archives. . . . It is in the interests of the Church to play a constructive role in advancing the cathartic powers of honest and accurate history. In doing so, the Church strives to be relevant to contemporary audiences that operate under changing cultural assumptions and expectations. A careful, yet bold presentation of Church history, which delves into the contextual subtleties and nuances characteristic of serious historical writing, has become increasingly important. If a religion cannot explain its history, it cannot explain itself.” [16] [1] The publication is still behind Dialogue’s paywall, but there is an annotated version floating around online. Also see Corbin Volluz’s podcast discussing it. [2] Lavina Fielding Anderson (ed.), Lucy’s Book: A Critical Edition of Lucy Mack Smith’s Family Memoir on Signature Books website [3] James R. Clark, ed., Messages of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1833-1964, 6 volumes. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-75], 2:229-31.) [4] http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/1#historical-intro See also Brigham Young, speech, Salt Lake City, October 9, 1865, Papers of George D.Watt, CHL, transcribed from shorthand by LaJean Purcell Carruth. [5] Irene M. Bates and E. Gary Smith, Lost Legacy, the Mormon Office of Presiding Patriarch [Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1996], 131). [6] Much of the material for bullet points 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 12 come from D. Michael Quinn (1992) “150 Years of Truth and Consequences About Mormon History.” Sunstone. [7] Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian, 150 — as referenced in Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Working Draft) [8] Anderson, Lavina Fielding, “The LDS Intellectual Community and Church Leadership: A Contemporary Chronology,” Dialogue, Vol.26, No.1 [9] Leonard J. Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 101, 143, 145, 147; Ezra Taft Benson to First Presidency, memo, “New History, The Story of the Latter-day Saints,” August 26, 1976: “Members of our staff have carefully read . . .” — as referenced in Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Working Draft) [10] Stephen Benson, “Ezra Taft Benson: A Grandson’s Remembrance,” Sunstone 17, no. 3 (December 1994): 31–32; Ezra Taft Benson to First Presidency [11] “LDS Church Threatens Writers,” Salt Lake Tribune, 23 May 1983, A-10; Dawn Tracy, “LDS Leaders Challenge Y Professors’ Faith,” Provo Herald, 25 May 1983, 3; “Mormon Brethren Silencing Scholars?” Salt Lake Tribune, 26 May 1983, B-4; Utah Holiday 12 (Aug. 1983): 77; Gottlieb and Wiley, America’s Saints, 81-82. [12] This presentation at a meeting of the B. H. Roberts Society on 17 October 1991 was summarized in “Panel Confronts Role of LDS Intellectuals,” Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Oct. 1991, A-10. The first of these papers to have been printed is David C. Knowlton, “Of Things in the Heavens, On the Earth, and In the Church,” Sunstone 15 (Oct. 1991): 12-15. An earlier discussion is Davis Bitton, “Anti-Intellectualism in Mormon History,” and James B. Allen, “Thoughts on Anti-Intellectualism: A Response,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 1 (Autumn 1966): 111-33, 134-40; also see Poll, History and Faith; Bergera and Priddis, Brigham Young University; and Bitton and Arrington, Mormons and Their Historians. [13] This quote comes from Newell’s “The Biography of Emma Hale Smith,” 1992 Pacific Northwest Sunstone Symposium, audiotape #J976 Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith: Pschobiography and the Book of Mormon, Introduction, page xliii, footnote 28 [14] Anderson, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon History, “A History of Dialogue, Part Three, Summer 2002, vol 35, no 2, p. 47 [15] Anderson, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon History, “A History of Dialogue, Part Three, Summer 2002, vol 35, no 2, p. 47 [16] See “‘A Record Kept:’ Constructing Collective Memory,” Newsroom Commentary, LDS Newsroom, June 11, 2009, A year later, McKay Coppins, a Mormon Times columnist, responded to reading Bushman’s Rough Stone Rolling with a strong plea against censorship in Mormon history. “McKay Coppins: The Case against Mormon Censorship,” Mormon Times, September 24, 2010, [Source1] Mormon critics Jerald and Sandra Tanner discuss Durham’s speech in their 1980 The Changing World of Mormonism (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 88-91. For reaction to his address, see Patricia Lyn Scott, James E. Crooks, and Sharon G. Pugsley, ‘”A Kinship of Interest’: The Mormon History Association’s Membership,” Journal of Mormon History 18 (Spring 1992): 156n. [Source2] Sunstone. June 1985. News and Reviews. Sillitoe, Linda (1986) The Mormon Docuemts’ Day in Court. Sunstone.
Fantasy Football Value The NFL Draft is over, organized team activities (OTAs) and minicamps are underway, excitement is building and it’s officially time to really begin preparations for fantasy drafts this summer. In my opinion, one of the best ways to prepare for drafts is to determine which players you like more than the general public, or your league mates. I try to do this every year around the same time, when the fantasy gears really start churning. Obviously there are still injury risks and the possibility that players will underperform and/or be demoted during camps, but that’s the chance we take every year. For this piece I’ll focus solely on the wide receiver position. I’ll give you their overall average draft position (ADP), their positional ADP and what round they’re slated in. Then I’ll tell you why I would take them earlier and what round I would take them in. Of course, there are more than five receivers I’d take ahead of their current ADPs, but these are five that stuck out right away. And these are, in fact, in order of who I think is being cheated the most. Note: ADP numbers are aggregated from fantasyfootballcalculator.com Rueben Randle – 127.4 Overall, 51 Position (Late round 11) Where I have him ranked: WR34 (Early round 8) Rueben Randle’s current ADP is lower than where he finished last year (WR51 to WR45). This is puzzling considering Hakeem Nicks is out of town and Randle may be their best red zone threat, though tight end Adrien Robinson may have some input. Randle scored six times out of just 78 targets in 2013. That’s efficient, folks. Randle will likely spend most of his playing time as the team’s No. 1 outside receiver, with rookie Odell Beckham Jr. opposite him and veteran Victor Cruz in the slot. New York mostly used three wide receiver sets during OTAs, but if Beckham serves as their kick/punt returner, Randle and Cruz will probably be featured in the team’s two wide receiver set. The Giants have already stated they want to give Randle the opportunity to prove he’s an elite first-round talent. An interesting tidbit regarding Randle’s 2013 season is that he played in all 16 games, but did not even receive a target in three of those games. He suffered a knee injury before at least one of those games, the December 29 game against Washington, and was designated as questionable prior to its start. Still, the fact that he finished at WR45 after recording statistics in just 13 games is encouraging. Had he maintained his fantasy points per game average over those three games, he would have finished at WR33. The Giants also need another legitimate deep threat, besides Cruz, now that Nicks is gone. Randle may actually be the team’s best deep threat even with Cruz in the lineup. He was second on the team in 2013 in yards per catch (YPC) at 14.9; Nicks was first with 16 YPC, and, somewhat surprisingly, Cruz finished at 13.7 YPC. And let’s not forget about the Giants’ schedule. They’ll have their fair share of shootouts against divisional opponents in the Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins. That’s six agreeable contests just in their own division. New York currently has the second most favorable fantasy schedule for wide receivers, according to fftoolbox.com. Strength of schedule (SOS) shouldn’t be the deciding factor in drafting, however. It’s simply another tool you can use in drafts. By the way, if Victor Cruz has the salsa dance, shouldn’t Randle have his own rendition of a touchdown celebration? I want to see him doing the Macarena by Week 3. I know I’ll be dancing if I can get Randle at his current ADP. He may provide the most value of any wide receiver this year. Michael Floyd – 64.7 Overall, 26 Position (Mid round 6) Where I have him ranked: WR18 (Late round 4) Believe it or not, but Michael Floyd actually led the Cardinals in receiving yards last season. That Larry Fitzgerald guy is also on the Cardinals, by the way. Last year’s breakout candidate did just that, break out, totaling 1,041 yards and five touchdowns on 113 targets. He finished with WR23 numbers in standard leagues, ahead of names like Cruz, Marques Colston and Mike Wallace. Floyd was Arizona’s biggest deep threat in 2013 as well, though that title may be taken away by newly acquired Ted Ginn this season. Floyd averaged 9.3 yards per target (YPT) and a whopping 16 YPC. We know Floyd can catch the ball downfield, but one area in which he can improve is the red zone. Out of 14 red zone targets last year he only scored twice. Of course, that inefficiency isn’t completely his fault, but even if he had converted just three more of those catches into a touchdown, he would have been WR17. At 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, I expect Floyd to see at least the same number of red zone targets in 2014, and probably more. Carson Palmer has already given Floyd high praise this offseason, saying his play jumped out at OTAs. Palmer and Floyd’s rapport became evident last season, and Palmer’s praise is just another indication of that. Fitzgerald will probably maintain his status as the Cardinals’ most frequent target, but Floyd shouldn’t be too far behind. As far as Floyd’s ADP is concerned, it’s not the worst, but we can do better. Like Randle, his ADP is currently lower than where he finished last season (WR27 to WR23). Jeremy Maclin is being drafted three spots ahead of Floyd. This is what we call a travesty. If Floyd is available late in the fourth round, I’d take a chance on him. Kendall Wright – 88.2 Overall, 35 Position (Mid round 8) Where I have him ranked: WR23 (Late round 6) The idiom “beating a dead horse” definitely applies to my incessant proclamations for love of Kendall Wright. You’d think I’d be tired of gushing about him by now, but I’m not, especially when his ADP is where it is. I’ve always liked Wright, but I like him even more this year under new head coach Ken Whisenhunt. He’s more valuable in point-per-reception (PPR) scoring leagues, but there’s a bargain to be had in standard leagues as well. While the Titans have had shoddy quarterback play over the last few years, to me, that’s not a huge determinant of how Kendall Wright will perform. In fact, he would probably perform better on most other teams, meaning Tennessee’s quarterbacks (Locker) haven’t been stellar. Still, when you’re the best receiver on your team, you’re going to get the ball no matter who’s throwing it. I’ve said this before, but it’s mind-boggling that Wright only scored twice in 140 targets. He scored in Week 2 and took a more than two month hiatus before scoring again. That was it. Barring injury, his touchdown total will go up in 2014. In fact, don’t be surprised if it triples. While Delanie Walker was by far the team’s most used red zone weapon (17 targets), Wright led all Titans receivers in red zone targets with 10, despite his relatively petite stature (5-foot-10, 191 pounds). In fact, he saw more red zone targets than his counterparts, Justin Hunter (6’4″) and Nate Washington (6’1″) combined. It would behoove the Titans to maintain that output in 2014. Wright often uses tremendous footwork to his advantage – something that should be utilized more inside the 20 yard line. It should come as no surprise that Kendall Wright is not a vertical route-running machine. He only averaged 7.8 YPT last season. This is why, as I said earlier, he is more valuable in PPR leagues, because he’s a smaller-framed possession receiver who gets the little things done. While that does somewhat hinder his value in standard leagues, it shouldn’t be overemphasized. Had Wright tripled his touchdown total last season (again, it still would have been just six touchdowns out of 140 targets), he would have finished at WR18, right in the thick of WR2 territory and right behind Keenan Allen. Of course, we can’t bank on Wright’s touchdowns increasing, but the odds are in his favor. Keep his 2012 rookie season in mind, when he scored four times out of 64 catches. Don’t let Wright fall down your draft board just because he only scored twice or because he’s not a deep threat. I’ll be surprised if he’s not a WR2 at the end of the 2014 season. Mike Wallace – 75.8 Overall, 30 Position (Early round 7) Where I have him ranked: WR19 (Early round 5) I’ve never really been a Mike Wallace fan or paid any extra attention to him, but I like what’s coming out of Miami this offseason. What’s particularly intriguing to me is new offensive coordinator Bill Lazor’s impact. Lazor was the Philadelphia Eagles quarterbacks coach last year when the entire offense exploded. Yes, that had a lot to do with first-year head coach Chip Kelly, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that DeSean Jackson had a career year when Lazor was on staff. There has already been talk of the Dolphins further utilizing Wallace’s playmaking ability this season, whether it’s putting him in the backfield or giving him the ball in the open field more often. This was one of the team’s major criticisms last year – not using Wallace to his full potential, resulting in a lackluster season and a frustrated Wallace. There’s a new tone going into the 2014 campaign. Wallace has publicly declared his excitement for Lazor’s new offense, saying defenses won’t be able to key on him like they were able to last year. One of the most astonishing statistics resulting from Wallace’s disappointing 2013 campaign involved his lack of downfield play. He averaged just 6.6 YPT. That was less than 5-foot-8 slot receiver Cole Beasley of the Dallas Cowboys. This is just another testament as to how underutilized Wallace was in former offensive coordinator Mike Sherman’s stodgy offense. That YPT number should be more in the 8.6 to 9.6 range this season. With Lazor in town and the Dolphins’ new, more advantageous plan for Wallace, there’s plenty to be excited about. That’s why it’s bewildering as to why his ADP is still so low. As has been the case with every receiver so far, Wallace’s ADP is lower than where he finished in 2013. You know what to do. Andre Johnson – 45.9 Overall, 18 Position (Late round 4) Where I have him ranked: WR13 (Late round 3) Mr. Consistency has taken some heat of late for not wanting to stay in Houston. Andre Johnson’s name has swirled amongst many trade rumors involving several teams to this point, none of which have much gusto behind them. Nevertheless, his ADP has suffered accordingly. It’s lower than where he finished last season, surprise, surprise. Johnson has skipped OTAs and mandatory minicamp, both integral and necessary steps in expressing one’s frustration toward one’s team. Even if Johnson were to be traded, the “worst case scenario,” his quarterback play would likely improve, considering the top two gunslingers on Houston’s roster are Ryan Fitzpatrick and Case Keenum. Yes, he’ll have to adjust to a new team, a new offense, a new coaching staff, new fans, etc., but, as we hear so often, you can’t teach talent. Plus, he’s played with several quarterbacks over the years: David Carr, Tony Banks, Dave Ragone, Matt Schaub, Sage Rosenfels, T.J. Yates, Matt Leinart and Case Keenum. You’re not going to have much worse than Johnson has had in his career. The bottom line is that since 2008, when Johnson has played a full 16-game season, he has finished as a WR1, including last season. Since 2006, he has at least 100 catches, 1,100 yards and four touchdowns in every 16-game season he’s played. He’s the epitome of consistency when he’s on the field. And really, Johnson has been relatively healthy over the course of his career. He’s missed just 19 games in a span of 11 seasons, or 176 games. There is some reason to be concerned with Johnson’s status, but not reason enough that he should be the 18th wide receiver drafted. If he’s healthy, he’ll play, and when he plays, he’s elite. Again, he’s finished as a WR1 in every full season he’s played. So don’t be scared to take Johnson earlier in drafts. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “always do what you are afraid to do.” Do you agree? What receivers are you taking ahead of their ADPs? Leave a comment below.
A Micro-Power Powerhouse! Here is a nice little amp that started out as an exercise in the inexpensive. The basis for this amp was a stack of 6AS5 power pentodes that I got for $2 each. This is a little power tube initially developed for automobile radios. As such, it’s not very powerful and runs off of fairly low B+ (150v max). Typical operation, at least on the data sheet, is 2.2w into the output transformer with 10% THD. I was determined to improve on this distortion performance even though I knew it would cost me some power. When ever possible I selected surplus components (or at least those I already had on hand). The Electrical Design The amp uses a very straight forward design. The small base 6AS5 tubes are self biased at about 8.5v and run in UL mode with about 150v on the transformer. The driver is a 6CG7/6FG7 (a small base version of 6SN7) with a 50kΩ plate load biased at a little under 3v. Here is the schematic. There is no volume control in this amp. It was concieved as a small amp to be driven by something like an iPod so the volume control would have been redundant. I also wanted not just good, but GREAT channel seperation on this amp. This meant seperate power supply filters for the power stages and the driver stage as well. Here is the power supply schematic. The Build Now, looking at the two schematics and the picture of the amp, something quickly becomes apparent. This amp has a lot of stuff crammed in a very small chassis. Here is the way I handled the situation. In this photo. the power supply portion is on the right side of the chassis, and the audio portion is on the left. In the power supply section we have one 8H choke (in yellow), two large primary filter caps (these are the light blue ones running left-right), and three individual channel caps mounted on the partition (you really only see one with the other two underneath). The large items on the amp side are the two Edcor output transformers. The remainder of the components fit right in. Now because of all this iron, this amp is fairly heavy for it’s size. But the weight lends it a nice stability and solid feel when you pick it up. Overall I don’t mind at all. Also note that due to the use of solid state rectification, I included a stand-by switch. The main power switch is on the back next to the fuse and power cord. When on, this lights the green LED on the top of the amp. The stand by switch is on top of the amp in front of the power transformer. When high power is supplied via this switch, the red LED lights. This allows me to let the tubes heat up prior to slapping the plates with high voltage and also gives a clear indication of the amp’s power state. Here is a shot of the amp when under test. It’s feeding resistive loads instead of speakers but you can see from the scope that the output is fairly clean. Shortly after I took this shot (everything checked out fine) I fired up the amp with it’s first real music. Here is the amp playing “Gabriel’s Oboe” from Chris Botti’s album “Italia”(driven quite nicely by an iPod Touch). The amp sounds really good in spite of it’s low total power output. Here sensitive speakers are a must; at least 90dB. The Results The question here is about how to sum up this build. This amp has a very interesting look. The chassis is American dark walnut with an inlaid band of Australian Lacewood all toped with an oil finish. This makes for an eclectic look that I think comes together well. The amp sounds good. The highs are crisp and clear, mids are smooth, and the bass end is well balanced. Overall I would call this an excellent performer, especially in the light jazz and clasical arena.
(from Troilus and Cressida , spoken by Ulysses) Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, A great-sized monster of ingratitudes: Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devour'd As fast as they are made, forgot as soon As done: perseverance, dear my lord, Keeps honour bright: to have done is to hang Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail In monumental mockery. Take the instant way; For honour travels in a strait so narrow, Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path; For emulation hath a thousand sons That one by one pursue: if you give way, Or hedge aside from the direct forthright, Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by And leave you hindmost; Or like a gallant horse fall'n in first rank, Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, O'er-run and trampled on: then what they do in present, Though less than yours in past, must o'ertop yours; For time is like a fashionable host That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand, And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly, Grasps in the comer: welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing. O, let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was; For beauty, wit, High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service, Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all To envious and calumniating time. One touch of nature makes the whole world kin, That all with one consent praise new-born gawds, Though they are made and moulded of things past, And give to dust that is a little gilt More laud than gilt o'er-dusted. The present eye praises the present object. Then marvel not, thou great and complete man, That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax; Since things in motion sooner catch the eye Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee, And still it might, and yet it may again, If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive And case thy reputation in thy tent; Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late, Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves
Although the effect they have will--at best--be microscopic, protesters are out in full force at Montgomery and Sansome Pine streets right now, just outside the Israeli consulate. The rally is reportedly about the violence going on in the Gaza Strip. As well as the art of protesting itself. As of 6 p.m. scores of white people with liberal arts degrees are making themselves heard. Loudly. But tonight's protest is a bit different in that there are angry voices from people on both sides (Team Israel and Team Palestine!) making a fuss. Which side are you on? Or, rather, could you not care less? UPDATE I: As of 6:15 p.m., protesters are moving up Market Street. UPDATE II: On its way to Civic Center, the protest is stopping Muni buses on Market Street. If you must drive on Market Street this evening, don't. Take the underground instead. Image from tonight's protest: rockbandit
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — A spate of crimes, mostly thefts, occurred at BART stations Monday, according to police at the transit agency. The rash of five separate robberies was the latest in a wave of increasing crimes on the transit system as officials struggle with ways to address the problem. At 10:17 p.m., a male victim reported that he was robbed at the Montgomery station in San Francisco. He said two suspects held him down and stole his laptop computer before running out of the station, police said. CRIME ON BART: • BART Warns Riders About Spike In Cell-Phone Thefts • Richmond Mayor Critical Of BART Security After Teens Assault Man • Victim In BART Mob Attack Calls For Release Of Surveillance Video • Sex Assaults, Robberies In BART System On The Rise The suspects were described as juvenile males and one was wearing a white hoodie. They remain at large, police said. At the MacArthur station in Oakland, a female victim reported at 10:38 p.m. that a male juvenile grabbed her cellphone from her hand, then ran off a train with three other male subjects. Police detained two suspects but the victim could not confirm they were involved. They were released to their parents, police said. At the Pittsburg/Bay Point station, a victim reported at 9:14 p.m. that their 2008 Taizu motor scooter was taken from the motorcycle parking area sometime between 9:30 a.m. and 9:05 p.m. At the Coliseum station, a victim’s car was broken into between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. and the battery was removed from under the hood, police said. At 7:01 p.m., a victim at the San Leandro station reported that a juvenile suspect stole his laptop after he’d fallen asleep. The suspect, who was with a group of about five other juveniles, ran out of the station and was not located, police said. At the El Cerrito Plaza station, a black 1998 Honda Accord that was parked at the station was stolen between 8:45 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., police said. On Monday, BART authorities announced the arrest of a suspect in two recent assaults just hours after police had distributed photos from surveillance video. If it seems like random thefts and assaults on BART are happening more often, it’s because they are. On Monday, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that calls for help on BART are up 29 percent and felony arrests are down by 23 percent compared to last year. The biggest jumps were in three types of crime. There have been six reports of rape this year compared to one last year. 138 robberies have been reported so far in 2017 compared to 102 last year. And there have been 264 assault called in during the first seven months of 2017, compared to 197 this time in 2016. BART Board of Directors member Debra Allen is not surprised at the increase in crime. “We’re seeing increasing crime throughout our cities; all of the cities that our transit systems runs through as well,” said Allen. There are 40 vacancies in the BART police department, but under staffing isn’t the only problem. The department is run by the chief, the general manager, the Citizens Review Board and Office of the Independent Police Auditor. “The result of that over-regulation is that we now have BART police manual, policy manual that is 800 pages long,” explained Allen. Allen said she hears from police about the sheer number of rules and how it impacts their willingness to act. “They’re just reluctant to cross over a line that might violate a policy,” said Allen. “That might lead to some type of personnel reprimand that stays with them for their career.” TM and © Copyright 2017 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bay City News Service contributed to this report.
Shutterstock.com By any indicator you’d care to use, the job market still stinks. Sure, the obvious cause is less-than-impressive economic growth since the financial crisis compared to other recoveries. Digging a little deeper, another problem is the lack of investment by the corporate sector, which is stalling out labor productivity amid, according to the surveys, uncertainty about new government regulations, the future of healthcare, and taxes. But new research suggests some of the blame goes to the American worker, where a lack of skills has us badly trailing global peers. Decades of abundance and affluence has made us soft. And now, according to the data, the available workforce just isn’t smart enough to turn this thing around. Here’s why. To understand this issue, you’ve got to understand that despite millions of unemployed Americans, recent data on the labor market from the government’s JOLTS report shows businesses are having a harder time finding qualified workers, are hoarding the ones they have, and are beginning to be forced to pay top dollar for the best workers. This is happening despite the fact the so-called reserve army of labor now totals nearly 20 million Americans. Of that, 10.3 million are unemployed, and 7.7 million are working part-time for economic reasons. And since the financial crisis, another 12 million have left the labor force altogether. The problem seems to be in a lack of qualified “STEM” applicants with an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In other words, we have too many liberal arts majors floating around to lead America forward in more globally competitive future. With China developing hypersonic nuclear missiles and sending missions to the moon, we don’t need any more European History majors if you know what I mean. A recent survey by Bayer of recruiters at U.S. Fortune 1,000 companies corroborates this. It found that 89% of respondents report fierce competition to fill open STEM jobs with four-year degree holders. And 75% expect the problem to get worse, with a focus on computer/information technology and engineering. I was first turned onto the research by a blog post from the Business Roundtable, the huddle of U.S. business elites led by Boeing CEO Jim McNerney, which has been hammering on immigration reform — specifically the need to import more STEM-educated foreigners — for months. While there are efforts to boost U.S. education in these areas, those in the corner office apparently thing it’s just quickly and easier to bring people in from India and elsewhere. That’s because a new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has found that the American workforce just isn’t up to snuff against those from other nations: Skills of U.S. workers between the ages of 16 and 65 badly lag on literacy, numeracy, and problem solving. That’s a problem, since the study finds a correlation between high literacy and better political efficacy, participation in volunteer activities, more trustworthiness, and better health. On literacy, we’re below average and lag behind the likes of the Slovak Republic, Belgium and Estonia with one in six adults suffering from low literacy skills; lagging behind Japan, where the comparable figure is one in 20. Our numeracy score is even worse (How often to people say they hate math?), lagging everyone in the study but Italy and Spain. The problem, according to the OECD, includes failing in initial schooling and a lack of ongoing improvement over time, despite a relatively high level of education. Possible solutions include strengthening the community-college system and enhancing work-focused vocational/technology programs. At the end of the day, it’s like this: Before the job market will get better, Americans need to get smarter. Anthony Mirhaydari is founder of the Edge, an investment advisory newsletter, as well asMirhaydari Capital Management, a registered investment advisory firm. In addition to MarketWatch, Anthony writes for CBS MoneyWatch and InvestorPlace.
On this day in 1863, troops under Confederate General George Pickett begin a massive attack against the center of the Union lines on the climactic third day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the largest engagement of the war. For the first two days of the battle, General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had battered George Meade’s Army of the Potomac. The day before Pickett’s Charge, the Confederates had hammered each flank of the Union line but could not break through. Now, on July 3, Lee decided to attack the Union center, stationed on Cemetery Ridge, after making another unsuccessful attempt on the Union right flank at Culp’s Hill in the morning. The majority of the force consisted of Pickett’s division, but there were other units represented among the 15,000 attackers. After a long Confederate artillery bombardment, the Rebel force moved through the open field and up the slight rise of Cemetery Ridge. But by the time they reached the Union line, the attack had been broken into many small units, and they were unable to penetrate the Yankee center. ADVERTISEMENT Thanks for watching! Visit Website The failed attack effectively ended the battle of Gettysburg. On July 4, Lee began to withdraw his forces to Virginia. The casualties for both armies were staggering. Lee lost 28,000 of his 75,000 soldiers, and Union losses stood at over 22,000. It was the last time Lee threatened Northern territory.
The Xiaomi Mi 6C has resurfaced, this time with renders and more details. A mid-range version of the Mi 6 flagship, this one aims for a price of CNY 2,000, down from CNY 2,500 for the high-end model. Thats for the 4GB/64GB model, the 6GB/128GB is CNY 2,500. It features an aluminum body with slimmed down bezels side bezels are 2.5mm wide, top bezels could be as small as 10mm. However, the body is 0.2mm thicker than the Mi 6. The front is covered by 2.5D glass and theres no 3.5mm headphone jack. The camera only appears to be alone apparently, the black window next to the LED flash is actually the 5MP secondary cam. The main camera uses a Sony IMX386 sensor with optical image stabilization. Xiaomi Mi 6C (leaked renders) Also, instead of a Snapdragon 660, the chipset is allegedly Xiaomis own Surge S2: 4x Cortex-A73 (2.2GHz) + Cortex-A53 (1.8GHz), Mali-G71MP12 (830MHz). Alternatively, a Surge X1 chipset could be used with slightly lower clock speeds. The RAM will be LPDDR4, the storage is EMMC 2.1. The Xiaomi Mi 6C should go on sale in mid-2017 (and the year is already headed of its latter third). Source \| Via
Due changes in production needs, additional tickets will be released for both Anisong World Matsuri concerts in the Orchestra and Loge sections! Additionally, because of popular demand for Japan Kawaii Live, the Upper Mezzanine section will become available for $30. The additional tickets will be available for purchase on Wednesday, June 21 at 6 PM PT. Please note that previously-purchased tickets cannot be exchanged for any of the seats that become available. Please be sure to check our Ticketing FAQ if you have questions. Follow Anisong World Matsuri on Twitter and Facebook for news and updates! ANISONG WORLD MATSURI ~JAPAN KAWAII LIVE~ Performers: Aqours, JUNNA and Minori Suzuki from Walküre, THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS, and Wake Up, Girls！ Aqours, JUNNA and Minori Suzuki from Walküre, THE IDOLM@STER CINDERELLA GIRLS, and Wake Up, Girls！ When: Friday, June 30, 2017 @ 7 PM (Doors Open: VIP Seating 5 PM / GA Seating 5:30 PM) Friday, June 30, 2017 @ 7 PM (Doors Open: VIP Seating 5 PM / GA Seating 5:30 PM) Where: Microsoft Theater Microsoft Theater Pricing: New! Mezzanine: $30 Loge: $45 Orchestra: $65 Sold out, thank you! VIP: $130 (includes priority access, a special commemorative badge, a light stick and an invitation to an exclusive Special Goodbye event with the performers.) *There will not be any handshakes or hi-fives at the Special Goodbye event BUY TICKETS! NOTE: For the concert on June 30th, AX attendees will be able to present any type of badge along with a ticket. This include Pre-Show Night, 4-day, any 1-day, and more! ANISONG WORLD MATSURI ~JAPAN SUPER LIVE~ Performers: ALI PROJECT, angela, GARNiDELiA, Konomi Suzuki, Mashiro Ayano, and Minori Chihara ALI PROJECT, angela, GARNiDELiA, Konomi Suzuki, Mashiro Ayano, and Minori Chihara When: Saturday, July 1, 2017 @ 7 PM (Doors Open: VIP Seating 5 PM / GA Seating 5:30 PM) Saturday, July 1, 2017 @ 7 PM (Doors Open: VIP Seating 5 PM / GA Seating 5:30 PM) Where: Microsoft Theater Microsoft Theater Pricing: Loge: $45 Orchestra: $65 Sold out, thank you! VIP: $130 (includes priority access, a special commemorative badge, a light stick and an invitation to an exclusive Hi Touch event with the performers.) BUY TICKETS!
A spokesman for Russia's defense ministry said Tuesday that the U.S. is only "pretending to fight" the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and accused the Pentagon of deliberately allowing militants to complicate the Russian-backed Syrian army's operations. “Everyone sees that the U.S.-led coalition is pretending to fight Islamic State, above all in Iraq, but continuing to allegedly fight Islamic State in Syria actively for some reason,” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said, according to Reuters. Konashenkov said the U.S. significantly reduced its airstrikes in Iraq last month, a move that he said allowed ISIS militants to pour into Deir al-Zour in Syria while Russian-backed Syrian forces launched an operation to retake the province, Reuters reported. ADVERTISEMENT “The actions of the Pentagon and the coalition demand an explanation," he said. "Is their change of tack a desire to complicate, as much as they can, the Syrian army’s operation, backed by the Russian air force, to take back Syrian territory to the east of the Euphrates?" “Or is it an artful move to drive Islamic State terrorists out of Iraq by forcing them into Syria and into the path of the Russian air force’s pinpoint bombing?” he added. Konashenkov's comments came amid already-high tensions between the U.S. and Russia that arose over the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that the Kremlin meddled in the 2016 presidential election.
Barack Obama may have comfortably won re-election in the electoral college, and opened up a decisive lead (two million and counting) in the popular vote. But here is the absolute, undoubted winner of this election: Nate Silver and his running mate, big data. The Fivethirtyeight.com analyst, despite being pilloried by the pundits, outdid even his 2008 prediction. In that year, his mathematical model correctly called 49 out of 50 states, missing only Indiana (which went to Obama by 0.1%.) This year, according to all projections, Silver's model has correctly predicted 50 out of 50 states. A last-minute flip for Florida, which finally went blue in Silver's prediction on Monday night, helped him to a perfect game. A caveat: Florida has not yet been called officially, but Obama is in the lead with 98% of precincts reporting. If anything, Silver's placing of Florida on a knife edge makes him look even more prescient. No wonder one of the night's more popular tweets suggested that he was actually from the future, working from old newspapers. What does this victory mean? That mathematical models can no longer be derided by "gut-feeling" pundits. That Silver's contention — TV pundits are generally no more accurate than a coin toss — must now be given wider credence. The great thing about a model like Silver's (and that of similarly winning math nerds, such as Sam Wang of the Princeton Election Consortium) is that it takes all that myopic human bias out of the equation. The ever-present temptation to cherry-pick polls is subverted. You set your parameters at the start, deciding how much weight and accuracy you're going to give to each poll based purely on their historical accuracy. You feed in whatever other conditions you think will matter to the result. Then, you sit back and let the algorithm do the work. Silver may be a registered Democrat, but he learned back when he was doing baseball analysis that he'd never get anywhere if his models weren't absolutely neutral, straight down the line between feuding teams. By 2016, if the networks are paying attention, don't be surprised to see that the talking heads are all Nate Silver clones. Every media organization will now want its own state poll-based algorithm, especially given how much traffic Silver has driven to the New York Times' website. We'll see more about that kind of model, and less stories about individual polls, which are almost always misleading unless you aggregate them. Statistics, big data, neutral mathematical models — this, it turns out, is what people want. Who knew? Well, we geeks knew, but we're starting to get used to having the rest of the world follow our lead. We had the smartphones first, we read the fantasy books before they became blockbuster movies and TV shows, and now we can boast that we stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Nate Silver's data before it was popular. And if you want to see just how accurate Silver's model was, check this tweet out:
In light of recent campaigns to give Captain America and Frozen's Elsa same-sex lovers, is the Internet too obssessed with everything gay? After the Idina-Menzel-supported #GiveElsaAGirlfriend campaign, and the nascent #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend follow-up, Twitter was in a panic and started #StopGayingAllTheThings. It all began when professional troll Stephen Crowder called for the trend this morning. Let's trend #StopGayingAllTheThings. Time for anyone NOT in LGBTQAAIP gaystapo to fight back. #GiveCaptainAmericaABoyfriend — Steven Crowder (@scrowder) May 24, 2016 One can learn many things about the gay agenda from reading through the thread, for instance: 1. Being queer is so trendy! #StopGayingAllTheThings because it is still okay to be straight. I think. Is it? Do I need to switch to something more trendy? — Winston Waymire (@winstonwaymire) May 24, 2016 2. Neither parents nor children can be gay. Their largest demographic are the parents who pay for movie tickets and merchandising. #StopGayingAllTheThings https://t.co/vdz56X1ZnX — Brian Pringle (@twindaddy2212) May 24, 2016 3. They forgot we gave you "heteronormative" in the first place, which came from concepts of compulsory heterosexuality, to dismantle the idea that straightness was normal or natural. Also, gay penguins. It's called heteronormative for a reason. It's normal. Normal like a heterosexual Captain America.#HandsOffOurHeros #StopGayingAllTheThings — PC (@heeden89) May 24, 2016 4. This guy won't watch your movie, he's too busy denying climate change. I will never watch another Marvel movie if that happens. #StopGayingAllTheThings — bustin jolanos (@jolanos773) May 24, 2016 5. Y'all, it's really hard to have a sexuality forced on you. Come on let's #StopGayingAllTheThings it's a strange concept to force things to be gay — Reece Smith (@ADHDissexy) May 24, 2016 6. In the end, though, our agenda came back for the sraight agenda. Behold the backlash-backlash: #StopGayingAllTheThings !!!! enough !!! first we have gay people in movies what's next ??? gay people in REAL LIFE ??? in our HOMES??? — BASTARD, ORPHAN™ (@gayprotag) May 24, 2016 #StopGayingAllTheThings Dear straight people Nobody cares about your feelings — nero (@nuvematowns) May 24, 2016 rubs my filthy gay hands all over your favorite superheroes does this bother you? #HandsOffOurHeros #StopGayingAllTheThings — Winnie (@flowerfauns) May 24, 2016 Mic drop we have nothing to add.
The transferred detainees included a Tunisian, a Palestinian and four Syrians who were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan more than 10 years ago. (Brennan Linsley/AP) Six detainees held at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were transferred to Uruguay over the weekend, months after the South American country agreed to accept the men, the Pentagon announced Sunday. The detainees included a Tunisian, a Palestinian and four Syrians who were captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan more than a decade ago and turned over to U.S. forces. It was the largest single transfer of detainees since 2009. One of the men, Abu Wa’el Dhiab, who has been on a hunger strike, is at the center of litigation in federal court in the District of Columbia involving the possible release of videos showing him being force-fed. “We are very grateful to Uruguay for this important humanitarian action, and to President [José ‘Pepe’] Mujica for his strong leadership in providing a home for individuals who cannot return to their own countries,” said Clifford Sloan, the State Department’s special envoy tasked with closing the prison. “This transfer is a major milestone in our efforts to close the facility,” Sloan added. The human rights organization Reprieve, which has represented Dhiab, said in a statement: “Despite years of suffering, Mr. Dhiab is focused on building a positive future for himself in Uruguay. He looks forward to being reunited with his family and beginning his life again.” In January, Sloan led a U.S. team to Uruguay and met with Mujica. U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic negotiations, said an agreement was reached with the country at the time to transfer the detainees. Julissa Reynoso, the U.S. ambassador to Uruguay, played a key role in the talks. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel initially was reluctant to approve the transfer. But he notified Congress in early July that the resettlement would take place in no fewer than 30 days. The administration is legally required to provide a 30-day notice to Congress of its intent to transfer detainees out of Guantanamo Bay. By the time the United States was ready to move the men, a presidential election in Uruguay stalled the transfer. In November, former president Tabaré Vázquez won a runoff vote, and the deal to accept the detainees was back on track. Mujica, a former guerrilla who spent years behind bars, has called the Guantanamo Bay prison a disgrace. On Friday, his office released an open letter to President Obama reiterating his willingness to accept detainees. “We have offered our hospitality for human beings who suffered an atrocious kidnapping in Guantanamo,” he said. In an interview with The Washington Post in May, Mujica said that the prisoners would be considered refugees and that his government did not intend to monitor them. The resettlement brings the total number of detainees held at the facility to 136, with more possible transfers in the works this year, officials said. The Obama administration has transferred 16 detainees this year as it inches toward its goal of shutting down the prison. The Syrians released are Ahmed Adnan Ahjam, Ali Husein Shaaban, Abd al Hadi Omar Mahmoud Faraj and Dhiab. The other two men are Mohammed Abdullah Tahamuttan, a Palestinian, and Abdul Bin Mohammed Bin Abess Ourgy, a Tunisian. In 2009, the Guantanamo Review Task Force, set up by the Obama administration, recommended that all of them, including Dhiab, be transferred. All of the men except for the Tunisian were suspected of having ties to Abu Zubaida, an alleged key facilitator for al-Qaeda who was born Zayn al-Abidin Muhammed Hussein; two of the men were captured in Pakistan during raids that also netted Zubaida, according to U.S. military files disclosed by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks. Ourgy, the Tunisian, was an alleged member of al-Qaeda and a senior explosives trainer. His alias was found on the hard drive of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the files said. But a senior U.S. official cautioned that those files were later scrubbed and reevaluated under the Obama administration. Some of the information they contained was discredited, the official said. Julie Tate contributed to this report.
Game over, Luther wins. Well he certainly had a way with words. A major figure in the 16th century Protestant reformation, Martin Luther is famous among those who have read his works for being a bit – how shall we say? – colorful in his language. Here are 29 of his most over-the-top insults. [See also: 27 Delightfully Terrible Christian Puns to Annoy the Heck Out of Your Friends With] [See also: QUIZ: Modernist Church or Communist Building?] All insults and citations come courtesy of the Lutheran Insulter. 1) “You are the worst rascal of all the rascals on earth!” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 341 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 2) “In lying fashion you ignore what even children know.” From Against Latomus, pg. 145 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 32 3) “I would not smell the foul odor of your name.” From Concerning the Ministry, pg. 17 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 40 4) “You people are more stupid than a block of wood.” From Against Latomus, pg. 242 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 32 5) “Your writings and head are disordered and mixed up, so that it is exceedingly annoying to read and difficult to remember what you write.” From Against the Heavenly Prophets, pg. 146 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 40 6) “What pig sties could compare in goings-on with you?” From Infiltrating and Clandestine Preachers, pg. 388 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 40 7) “May God punish you, I say, you shameless, barefaced liar, devil’s mouthpiece, who dares to spit out, before God, before all the angels, before the dear sun, before all the world, your devil’s filth.” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 349 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 8) “We leave you to your own devices, for nothing properly suits you except hypocrisy, flattery, and lies.” From Against Latomus, pg. 143 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 32 9) “Take care, you evil and wrathful spirits. God may ordain that in swallowing you may choke to death.” From Against the Heavenly Prophets, pg. 111 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 40 10) “You seem to me to be a real masterpiece of the devil’s art.” From A Sermon on Keeping Children in School, pg. 217 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 46 11) “For you are an excellent person, as skillful, clever, and versed in Holy Scripture as a cow in a walnut tree or a sow on a harp.” From Against Hanswurst, pg. 219 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 12) “I am tired of the pestilent voice of your sirens.” From Explanations of the Ninety-Five Theses, pg. 204 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 31 13) “Dear God, what an utterly shameless, blasphemous lying-mouth you are!” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 300 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 14) “As for the signs of your peculiar priesthood, we are willing to let you boast of these mean things, for we know it would be quite easy to shave, anoint, and clothe in a long robe even a pig or a block of wood.” From Concerning the Ministry, pg. 34 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 40 15) “A natural donkey, which carries sacks to the mill and eats thistles, can judge you – indeed, all creatures can! For a donkey knows it is a donkey and not a cow. A stone knows it is a stone; water is water, and so on through all the creatures. But you mad asses do not know you are asses.” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 360 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 16) “You vulgar boor, blockhead, and lout, you ass to cap all asses, screaming your heehaws.” From Against Hanswurst, pg. 212 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 17) “You are a crude ass, and an ass you will remain!” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 281 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 18) “Blind moles!” From Against Latomus, pg. 176 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 32 19) “Even if the Antichrist appears, what greater evil can he do than what you have done and do daily?” From Why the Books of Pope Were Burned, pg. 393 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 31 20) “You sophistic worms, grasshoppers, locusts, frogs and lice!” From Against Latomus, pg. 150 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 32 21) “You are a brothel-keeper and the devil’s daughter in hell.” From On the Councils and the Church, pg. 160 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 22) “You are desperate, thorough arch-rascals, murderers, traitors, liars, the very scum of all the most evil people on earth. You are full of all the worst devils in hell – full, full, and so full that you can do nothing but vomit, throw, and blow out devils!” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 277 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 23) “You say, “What comes out of our mouth must be kept!” I hear it – which mouth do you mean? The one from which the farts come? (You can keep that yourself!)” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 281 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 24) “You are like a magician who conjures gulden into the mouths of silly people, but when they open their mouths they have horse dirt in them.” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 264 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 25) “The reward of such flattery is what your crass stupidity deserves. Therefore, we shall turn from you, a sevenfold stupid and blasphemous wise person.” From Against Latomus, pg. 145 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 32 26) “I had not supposed or expected your arrogant spirit to seek such a ridiculous and childish reason for lying; you should have better reasons.” From Against Hanswurst, pg. 186 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 27) “Everyone can see that such a sentence must have been blown into you by all the existing devils with one breath.” From Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, pg. 285 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 28) “The devil rides you.” From Against the Heavenly Prophets, pg. 157 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 40 29) “You have set out to rub your scabby, scurvy head against honor.” From Against Hanswurst, pg. 185 of Luther’s Works, Vol. 41 Not enough? See more of Luther’s insults over at the Lutheran Insulter. [See also: 3 Beautiful Celebrities Who Gave It All Up to Become Nuns] [See also: 19 Haunting Photos of Abandoned Churches Around the World]
The goal machine might take her deadly feet overseas sometime in the future. But, for now, Jade Kovacevic is perfectly happy scoring goals right here in London wherever she winds up playing. The 22-year-old forward has developed a reputation as a deadly scorer as she works her magic in League1 Ontario for FC London and Ontario college soccer with Fanshawe Falcons. But she is in the process of obtaining Italian citizenship and an Italian passport with the possibility of playing overseas. She’s also looking at the option of playing university soccer or taking a crack at the National Woman’s Soccer League (NWSL.) Nothing has been decided but she hopes all the options will be on the table. Kovacevic wasn’t planning on returning to Fanshawe to play soccer this year after a sensational first year there where she led Canadian colleges in scoring with 26 goals and was named Fanshawe’s female athlete of the year. She’s been busy. It got busier when she decided to return to Fanshawe for a semester, something she hadn’t planned on doing at the end of last year. “I decided keep myself busy. Why not upgrade a couple of courses so I could get into university and get my tuition paid for through a scholarship through soccer. “To be honest though, I’m not in much of a rush right now. I see it as I’m pretty young, overseas could be an option for me or NWSL. I love that I have the option for university because I do want to get my degree but I don’t want to close any doors to playing while I’m so young.” Kovacevic was involved with the national team program in her teens. With the news she’s been making because of her goal-scoring, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if there was contact made by the national program again but that hasn’t happened. The fact she’s looking at expanding her footprint in the game could open more doors. “I’m not sure when it’s going to happen or whether it will happen but I think it would be a unique experience to give it a try to see what the lifestyle is like over there. But I don’t have a plan set in stone,” she said. She has applied for an Italian passport and citizenship. Her father is Serbian but his mother is Italian. Meanwhile, she continues to put the ball in the net. She has one game left with the League1 Ontario champion FC London where she has 27 goals in 16 games, more than twice the number as the No. 2 scorer in the league. Earlier this season in just her second game of her second season with Fanshawe, she broke the school record for total goals of 26 established in 1998 by Melanie Moulton. She broke the record after scoring six goals in a game, also a Fanshawe record. She now has 32 career goals for Fanshawe. Two years ago, Kovacevic didn’t think she wanted to play the game anymore. Since she came to Fanshawe and became connected with FC London, things have turned around. “I couldn’t be more obsessed with soccer,” she said. “I absolutely couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for FC London in League1 but it didn’t come easily. It came from a lot of hard work and dedication from everybody. “This city couldn’t have come as a more perfect fit for me. No matter what I’ll do, I love the city; I love the people; I love how tight knit the soccer community is.” Kovacevic has ingrained herself in the community. She’s playing and studying for Fanshawe; playing for FC London; and coaching with FC London’s soccer academy. “With the time that’s left I do my best to stay on top of my courses and whenever that’s not happening, I’m sleeping,” she laughed. Kovacevic gives a lot of credit to Mike Marcoccia, her coach at Fanshawe and with FC London. “This past season with FC London completely changed the game for me. Mike Marcoccia gave me a different look on the game, a different way to approach it, one that I’ve never seen before,” she said. “I grew a whole different love and interest in the game. I think I am a completely different player with a different attitude and I thank Mike for that. “I think soccer is 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent is ability. In my position, it’s your job to score goals and it’s very, very frustrating if you continue to try and it doesn’t go in. My mindset that I try to stay set in is if I miss, I miss. It’s not a big deal. You have to forget about it. If you continue to stay negative, it’s not going to get any better for you. You just have to let go of your mistake and think about the next play.”
Everton will look to make headway on their proposed £25million move for Steven Nzonzi over the next 48 hours. Manager Sam Allardyce and director of football Steve Walsh are pushing to get business done early in January with Everton's squad stretched with injury and illness. Talks are also at an advanced stage with Besiktas over the £25m signing of striker Cenk Tosun, who started for his club against Osmanlispor on Thursday night, while Sevilla are ready to agree a similar fee for Nzonzi. Everton will look to step up their pursuit of out of favour Sevilla midfielder Steven N'Zonzi Nzonzi fell out with Sevilla coach Eduardo Berizzo but even though the 48-year-old has since been sacked and will be replaced by Vincenzo Montella, the damage between the player and the club is deemed irreparable. Though he has interest from West Ham, who were rebuffed in a loan bid, the 29-year-old is keen to link up with Sam Allardyce and would provide extra bite in Everton's midfield. His arrival would likely signal a departure with question marks over Mo Besic and Morgan Schneiderlin, a potential West Ham target, but Allardyce is keen to keep James McCarthy who continued his recovery playing in a behind closed doors match at Finch Farm on Wednesday. Everton, who also plan to add a left-sided defender, expect renewed interest in Oumar Niasse with Brighton among the clubs keen. Wayne Rooney, meanwhile, is pushing to make the trip to Bournemouth after being hit by flu. Rooney had tried to play through his illness last week but only exacerbated the virus. Talks are at an advance stage between Everton and Besiktas over the signing of Cenk Tosun Chelsea are hopeful of concluding talks over a new five-year contract with Thibaut Courtois. The Belgium international wanted to hold off from signing until the summer but Chelsea are keen to reach an agreement with Real Madrid looming large and ready to provide a counter offer. Chelsea have concerns as they have identified Stoke City's Jack Butland as an alternative, plus Jan Oblak at Atletico Madrid. Courtois has family in Madrid and has spoken about how he would like to move back there. Madrid want him to compete alongside Kepa Arrizabalaga who is joining from Athletic Bilbao next month. The 25-year-old Courtois' current deal, around £100,000-a-week, expires in 18 months' time Chelsea are looking to tie down goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois to a new five-year contract Real Madrid have watched Ryan Sessegnon at Fulham this season but he is still expected to join Tottenham eventually. Manchester United are also confirmed admirers of the talented 17-year-old but it is understood his preference would be to stay in London. Madrid are looking to improve the youth players that they acquire but the prospective career path at the Bernabeu for Sessegnon would not be an easy one. Tottenham would ideally look to move in the summer but may be prompted into action next month should United or their rivals bid. While Danny Rose has stated his desire to fight for his place, the England international could still leave if Tottenham receive a substantial offer from suitors. Though a Tottenham move for Manchester United's Luke Shaw has been mooted, he will stay at Old Trafford, at least until the summer. Real Madrid have watched Ryan Sessegnon this term but he is still expected to join Tottenham Brighton are wary of West Ham entering the race for £25million-rated Celtic striker Moussa Dembele. Talks have taken place between Brighton and Celtic, as first revealed in Sportsmail, with the clubs looking to agree on a fee though no official bid has gone in. However, Brighton are concerned of being used to settle on an asking price then seeing Dembele move to a more established Premier League club. West Ham have been approached to see if they want to revive their interest from last year. Everton have also been approached about Dembele but have reservations about his fitness while they have also offered £25m for Cenk Tosun. West Ham boss David Moyes is an admirer of Dembele but his prime concern is improving his defence and midfield. Should Diafra Sakho, who has been mentioned as a possible makeweight in a deal for Swansea's Alfie Mawson and Ki Sung Yueng, depart then Moyes will want a striker in. Moyes ideally wants British players or those with Premier League experience to adapt quickly to West Ham's push up the table. Meanwhile, Borussia Monchengladbach are keen to take 19-year-old Reece Oxford on a permanent deal but have yet to make a formal offer. Brighton will look to fend off interest from a host of clubs for Celtic striker Moussa Dembele Leicester City have held discussions over a deal for Benfica full-back Andre Almeida. Leicester scouts have watched the Portugal international on several occasions in recent months including against Tondela and Estoril in December and are keen to conclude a deal next week. However, much will depend on Benfica's asking price with Almeida's release clause understood to stand at £25million. Leicester expect offers from Watford and Newcastle for Islam Slimani which could offset the outlay. Meanwhile, Wolves are keen on Benfica's 20-year-old attacking midfielder Joao Carvalho with winger Ben Marshall likely to depart Molineux in January. Claude Puel's Leicester are interested in signing Benfica full-back Andre Almeida Huddersfield Town have spoken to Monaco regarding Almamy Toure. David Wagner is keen to strengthen in full-back areas and Toure is highly-regarded as an up and coming talent. Tottenham watched him when he first broke into Monaco's first team though the 21-year-old has still to impress consistently and has made 14 appearances this season. Huddersfield have also asked about his clubmate Terence Kongolo on a possible loan. Huddersfield have held talks with Ligue 1 outfit Monaco regarding Almamy Toure Wigan Athletic are keen on Jai Quitongo at Morton. The exciting Scotland U21 international can play on the wing or as a secondary striker. He has 18 months left on contract and League One leaders Wigan sense he can bolster their promotion push and has the potential to handle Championship football next season if they are successful. Crystal Palace and Swansea have monitored the 20-year-old over the past year. League One leaders Wigan Athletic are eyeing a move for Morton's Jai Quitongo Liverpool winger Ben Woodburn has interest from Preston North End who are keen to take him on loan after missing out on St Mirren winger Lewis Morgan who is bound for Celtic. Leeds United, Sunderland and Norwich City have also asked about 18-year-old Woodburn but Liverpool will want him to have guaranteed playing time. Preston North End have shown interest in Liverpool youngster Ben Woodburn Cardiff City have pulled out of a £1million deal for Celtic forward Jonny Hayes after the Republic of Ireland international broke his leg against Dundee. The 30-year-old Republic of Ireland international only joined in the summer from Aberdeen but had been used sparingly by Brendan Rodgers and Neil Warnick was keen to take him to the Championship. Warnock wants experienced strikers to help guide Cardiff out of the Championship and has discussed Cameron Jerome of Norwich City and Diafra Sakho at West Ham as possible alternatives.
Notre Dame got its 2017 football season off to a great start on Saturday with a 49-16 victory over the defending AAC champion Temple Owls. The Irish ran for 422 yards with three players topping 100 yards for the first time in program history and the Irish defense held Temple in check most of the day. Notre Dame was far from perfect in their season opening win, but Saturday’s performance might just have been a perfect combination of dominance and sloppiness to give the players a taste of success and the coaches enough to harp on all week in practice. The Notre Dame ground game dominated This has been discussed a lot over the last two days, but Notre Dame lined up and ran right at eight and nine fronts and didn’t care that Temple wanted to stop the run. Notre Dame wanted to run it more. How many times over the last eight years has Notre Dame gotten cute and did what the defense wanted them to do instead of what they wanted to do? Too many. Temple’s defense might take a step back this year after the talent they lost to the NFL, but this is still a good defense and their new head coach has a defensive background. Notre Dame didn’t care and they didn’t abandon the run when they were only getting 2-3 yards at times against the stacked line. Again, how often has that happened in the past? All three running backs reached the end zone and the coaches can even use Tony Jones near fumble as a teaching moment this week. But the passing game struggled and needs work While the running game was busy racking up 422 yards, the passing game sputtered and looked like its timing just wasn’t quite there – especially on those wide receiver screens. There were a couple of those screens that could have been disasters. They weren’t against Temple, but it could be a different story against Georgia if they don’t clean those up. Outside of Equanimeous St. Brown, no other wide receiver really stepped up either which is a concern. Notre Dame needs another receiver or two from its deep corps to step up. If that’s Chase Claypool and Notre Dame has to deal with some growing pains as he learns the position, so be it. As long as someone steps up as a viable #2 option so defenses don’t just key on St. Brown. Both Brandon Wimbush and Brian Kelly hinted that we did not see the full offense against Temple. It’s not that Notre Dame held back purposefully either, but with the run game working, they didn’t need to get too deep into their passing game. That passing game will be needed next weekend. Brandon Wimbush flashed both elite skills and inexperience From a coach’s perspective, Wimbush had a perfect starting debut. He made plays, he made mistakes, and he got the win. Wimbush flashed just how dangerous of a runner he could be by topping 100 yards but at the same time, he took way too many hits. The coaches will undoubtedly be working with him this week on protecting himself better when he takes off. Passing the ball, Wimbush made a really bad decision on his lone interception. That is something that he’ll get better at in time and gives the coaches something else to work with this week. We also saw Wimbush’s arm on his bomb attempt to Equanimeous St. Brown, but he put too much on it and it fell incomplete. Wimbush had Durham Smythe streaking down the field in the 4th quarter shortly after but he overthrew him as well. All of these things are to be expected with a first year starter. Important thing here is that Wimbush showed his potential, but also made enough mistakes that it should be easy to keep him focused this week. The defense kept Temple off the scoreboard most of the day Temple moved the ball at times and had over 200 yards of offense by halftime, but the Notre Dame defense kept the Owls off the scoreboard for most of the day. Temple didn’t reach the end zone until they were already down 28-3. The Notre Dame defense also kept Temple off the scoreboard at a crucial moment in the 3rd quarter when they could have gotten back in the game. After Wimbush’s interception, Temple was knocking on the door of the end zone and could have cut the lead to 28-17 but instead Tevon Coney registered a sack to force a field goal and then Temple missed the kick. Sacks AND tackles for loss without crazy blitzing?!? Remember when Brian Vangorder would dial up a crazy blitz that never got home and just resulted in lots of big chunk plays for the opposing offense? Well for at least one week, Notre Dame a lot of stops behind the line of scrimmage without needing to do that. The Irish racked up 11 tackles for loss and 3 sacks while rarely blitzing. They did send an extra man from time to time, but nothing too crazy. Temple’s offensive line is pretty solid too so Notre Dame did all that against a team with a good front. Georgia’s offensive line is not expected to be what it’s been in the past so this bodes well for this weekend. But the secondary had several breakdowns While the defense played reasonably well in Mike Elko’s debut, there were still enough breakdowns in the secondary for him to work on this week. In fact, the score could have been a lot different if Temple wide receivers were able to hold on to several catchable passes throughout the game. Instead, the Owls had a number of crucial drops that killed drives. The secondary breakdowns were highlighted with Temple’s 4th quarter touchdown. After one breakdown let Temple receiver Kenny Yeboah all alone in the end zone only to drop the perfectly placed pass, another breakdown on the ensuing play resulted in Temple’s second and last touchdown of the game. There’ll be more breakdowns throughout the season. It’s just bound to happen with a new defense. What made the breakdowns “ideal” on Saturday was that they weren’t at critical junctures like we’ve seen in the past and they didn’t have any impact on the outcome. Those are the kind of breakdowns you can live with and they are the best kind of mistakes for the players to learn from. And missed tackles were still plentiful Another area for Elko to work on this week was all of the missed tackles. It wasn’t quite Brian Vangorder era level missed tackles, but there were still more missed tackles than you can really live with. Nyles Morgan and Greer Martini actually were surprisingly sloppy in this department. That will hopefully get cleaned up more this week and improve each week. Both the breakdowns and some missed tackles are expected in the first game in a new system. If they keep happening in week seven or eight, then we have some issues. All of this came against a pretty good team too. Temple won 20 games the last two years and they should still be a pretty good team this year despite the lopsided loss to Notre Dame. So to recap, here is why the Irish had a “perfect” opener without playing perfect. Notre Dame asserted their will on Temple and ran when Temple tried to take it away The offensive line was dominant against a pretty good defensive front Both units had a lot of good to build on and enough mistakes to keep the players focused and keyed in this week A lot of players played and got experience Notre Dame dominated a pretty team from start to finish Add that all up and the Irish were pretty perfectly imperfect this weekend.
EU referendum: the fallacy of the "big tent" 15/05/2015 Follow @eureferendum Yesterday, when the main focus was on Farage's Ukip train-wreck, the The paper then goes on to tell us that its writers "have drawn on the best available expertise to assess what Brexit would mean for growth, jobs, trade, immigration and Britain's position in the world", setting out the case in those terms. In this, though, there is a central and devastatingly effective lie – the paper's claim that it has drawn on "the best available expertise", a lie that then underpins the whole of its narrative. What the paper has done, of course, is select those parts of the argument from the pro-EU side that best suits it case, and then contrast it with the weakest and least convincing elements of the eurosceptic case, drawing them together in the framework of what is presented as a neutral assessment. This works in the context of defining the framework – or "framing the argument" as it is known, setting the parameters of the debate and rigorously excluding those issues which do not support the paper's narrative. A singular feature of this particular piece, though, is the way it has exploited the disarray and lack of coherence in the putative "out" campaign, so obvious that even Matts Persson To that effect, Nigel Farage is freely quoted, as is the winning entry from the IEA's shambolic "Brexit" competition, together with Roger Bootle and Tim Congdon. Yet, the interesting thing is that, if one googles "EU referendum", the very first unsponsored entry is this blog – followed two entries later by the blogspot version – which we are No fair-minded person, looking for a balanced argument, could be unaware of the points such as we raise. The fact that they are omitted from the Guardian piece is because the newspaper doesn't want anything which will contradict it. It wants to frame the argument, and thereby distort it, in order to declare victory on its own terms. To counter this, the "out" campaign needs to rally round a single message and impose rigorous message discipline. That way, when the campaign proper starts, and the likes of the Guardian play their baleful games - or there are interventions by any of the boundless egos who want to have their say - we have the option of declaring that their views do not represent the official "out" position. In a campaign where we are challenging the status quo, the only chance of success rests with reassuring voters that withdrawal from the EU is a safe option. And that comes with a carefully thought-through and coherent exit plan. But therein lies a dispute which is developing at the heart of the plans to set up the campaign. There are those who argue that we should not rally round a single plan, but instead should seek a "big tent" grouping. The "big tent" advocates argue that we should form the group first, and then agree a common plan. In the event that there is no agreement on what the plan should be, each component group should be free to represent their own arguments as to why we should leave, and how we should go about leaving. Such an inclusive campaign does, of course, bring in the maximum number of players. But, in my view, that way lies chaos and certain defeat. The chances of agreement on a common plan are, as we are finding, next to nil. Thus, the "big tenters" are setting us up to go into battle with each division working to its own plan - or none at all. This is to abandon any chance of success. As we see with the Guardian, the opposition will simply cherry-pick the weakest arguments and the most divisive players, and highlight the inconsistencies and contradictions in the "out" positions. This will make it certain that we lose. But then it seems to me that most of the players aren't even focused on winning, and what is needed to make that happen. For them, playing the game is all that matters. And to perpetuate their "big tent" fallacy, we are required to lose the referendum. Yesterday, when the main focus was on Farage's Ukip train-wreck, the Guardian ran a long piece under the title: "Brexit – what would happen if Britain left the EU?"The paper then goes on to tell us that its writers "have drawn on the best available expertise to assess what Brexit would mean for growth, jobs, trade, immigration and Britain's position in the world", setting out the case in those terms.In this, though, there is a central and devastatingly effective lie – the paper's claim that it has drawn on "the best available expertise", a lie that then underpins the whole of its narrative.What the paper has done, of course, is select those parts of the argument from the pro-EU side that best suits it case, and then contrast it with the weakest and least convincing elements of the eurosceptic case, drawing them together in the framework of what is presented as a neutral assessment.This works in the context of defining the framework – or "framing the argument" as it is known, setting the parameters of the debate and rigorously excluding those issues which do not support the paper's narrative.A singular feature of this particular piece, though, is the way it has exploited the disarray and lack of coherence in the putative "out" campaign, so obvious that even Matts Persson has noticed that it is "all over the place at the moment".To that effect, Nigel Farage is freely quoted, as is the winning entry from the IEA's shambolic "Brexit" competition, together with Roger Bootle and Tim Congdon. Yet, the interesting thing is that, if one googles "EU referendum", the very first unsponsored entry is this blog – followed two entries later by the blogspot version – which we are reactivating No fair-minded person, looking for a balanced argument, could be unaware of the points such as we raise. The fact that they are omitted from thepiece is because the newspaper doesn't want anything which will contradict it. It wants to frame the argument, and thereby distort it, in order to declare victory on its own terms.To counter this, the "out" campaign needs to rally round a single message and impose rigorous message discipline. That way, when the campaign proper starts, and the likes of theplay their baleful games - or there are interventions by any of the boundless egos who want to have their say - we have the option of declaring that their views do not represent the official "out" position.In a campaign where we are challenging the, the only chance of success rests with reassuring voters that withdrawal from the EU is a safe option. And that comes with a carefully thought-through and coherent exit plan.But therein lies a dispute which is developing at the heart of the plans to set up the campaign. There are those who argue that we should not rally round a single plan, but instead should seek a "big tent" grouping.The "big tent" advocates argue that we should form the group first, and then agree a common plan. In the event that there is no agreement on what the plan should be, each component group should be free to represent their own arguments as to why we should leave, and how we should go about leaving.Such an inclusive campaign does, of course, bring in the maximum number of players. But, in my view, that way lies chaos and certain defeat. The chances of agreement on a common plan are, as we are finding, next to nil. Thus, the "big tenters" are setting us up to go into battle with each division working to its own plan - or none at all.This is to abandon any chance of success. As we see with the, the opposition will simply cherry-pick the weakest arguments and the most divisive players, and highlight the inconsistencies and contradictions in the "out" positions. This will make it certain that we lose.But then it seems to me that most of the players aren't even focused on winning, and what is needed to make that happen. For them, playing the game is all that matters. And to perpetuate their "big tent" fallacy, we are required to lose the referendum.
Exodus, an all-in-one app to secure, manage, and trade blockchain assets, has announced its support for Golem on its platform. “Our latest release brings the first new asset to Exodus in 2017 - we are looking at you Golem! This is the first of many assets Exodus will roll out this year. Surprise, surprise, Augur is up next! Do keep in mind, if you want to secure, manage or exchange Ethereum-powered assets ( Golem and soon Augur also called ERC20 ) Exodus recommends depositing and keeping a minimum of 0.1 Ethereum (ETH) in your Exodus wallet. This provides enough padding to send or exchange all Ethereum-powered assets hundreds of times”, Exodus said in an online post. Created by Daniel Castagnoli and JP Richardson, Exodus is a desktop multi-asset wallet with ShapeShift built in functionality. It offers blockchain asset investors a platform to secure, exchange, and manage wealth inside one application. Golem, an Ethereum-based decentralized distributed computation network, describes itself as the “Airbnb for computers”. It carried out its crowdfunding drive for its Golem Network Token (GNT) last November, in which it raised over $8.6 million in just 29 minutes, becoming the third largest platform ICO (Initial Coin Offering) at the time. GNT is currently at the thirteenth spot in the list of cryptocurrencies by market cap (over $77 million at the time of writing).
An approach to TDD in Android If you started your Android development around the time instrumentation tests were the only tests supported out of the box, you probably remember how tedious it was to test drive an app. In fact, writing tests, whether before or after the implementation was written, was so complicated and frustrating that some of us chose to avoid them entirely. Well times have changed and what we now have at our disposal is enough to not only write a reasonable amount of tests but also to develop our apps and libraries driven by tests. In this article I’ll share how I do TDD in Android. I won’t dive deep into the concept of TDD, I’ll simply explain the approach I use and how it has greatly improved my development. I’ll approach this with a concrete example. A trip down memory lane Not so long ago we - Android developers - had little or nothing more than Instrumentation Tests at our disposal to write unit tests. If you remember as well as I do, these tests were slow and practically a nightmare to maintain. The reason being that they were dependent on the Android framework and would require a device (virtual or physical) to run. Also, while the rest of the world was already using JUnit 4 we were stuck in the past with JUnit 3. There were a couple of ports that actually made it possible to use JUnit 4, but these never saw widespread use. Then along came Robolectric and friends to ease the pain a bit. Robolectric would mock the Android framework so that we could run our tests in the development machine rather than on a device thus eliminating the biggest reason for a slow test suite. However, it would often break with new releases and sometimes caused more issues than it fixed. All of this contributed to the lack of a test culture within the Android world. Today, however, we are facing a different scenario. It’s been a while since Google released support for JUnit 4 and the ability to mock the Android framework. I want to share with you how I develop my apps in a TDD fashion. It should not be taken as the de facto standard. It’s also a bit behind what TDD with other frameworks looks like, where you experience very fast feedback times, but I think it deserves to be shared. My setup Before you read on I think it’s important to explain my setup. My experience with TDD leads me to believe that it shapes your code. It’s more like you build the code so that you can easily test it, rather than building the code and then considering how it can be tested. Therefore, I think it’s important to know and understand the design patterns and Android tools we can use before we move on. Firstly, I always use dependency injection, and I always use constructor dependency injection except in those scenarios where it is not possible, i.e. activities. Hence why my classes usually look like this: public class ABC { //... public ABC ( A a , B b , C c ) { this . a = a ; this . b = b ; this . c = c ; } //... } See how the constructor receives all the dependencies as arguments? This is great because it lets me pass in mocks at testing time to the constructor. If you try this yourself perhaps you’ll see that then your class constructors will sometimes end up having several arguments. This is not unusual. This is why I use and recommend a dependency injection library that helps you out with this. I use Dagger, but there are plenty of others to choose from. You can do it even manually, there’s nothing preventing you, but using a library that does it for you will no doubt speed up the process. Also I don’t really use anything else besides JUnit 4 with assertj. assertj is not required at all. It’s just a library I find very useful as it gives you more fluent assertions. I then use Mockito to help me out mocking all these dependencies during testing. Last but not least, I use the keyboard shortcuts in the IDE. They help me develop a lot faster. I use the standard ones in Android Studio and then I just have a custom one that runs the Gradle task testDebug . As part of this post I’ll add the shortcuts as we go, so you can also try them by yourself. Hands on I’d like to offer a simple hands on example for the sake of understanding, but it is nevertheless very easy to apply this approach to more complex cases. Let’s imagine that we’re building an application which eventually will have a typical user login feature - A field for email and a field for password. I don’t want to concern myself right away with the view, so I’ll start by implementing the business logic. For this blog post I want to take care of the validation of input fields and specifically the email field. Of course, one can argue that the validation should be done in a backend of some sorts, but for the sake of this demo I want to do some pre-validation on the client side. I’ll first define the interface for the input field validator. My approach with TDD is to always start very simply. Here I foresee I’ll have input fields that will only contain text, so the following interface would suffice: import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public interface Validator { enum ValidationResult { /** * The input is valid */ NO_ERROR } ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ); } As you can see we have a simple method that takes a string and returns a validation result. As you might’ve noticed, the ValidationResult only contains one enum which doesn’t cover all use cases. This is on purpose. I prefer to add them as I develop the app driven by tests, because it will tell me which errors I actually want to handle. In TDD you start by writing the tests, but unfortunately in Java and specially with an IDE as Android Studio that’s not as easy as it sounds. The problem is that if there’s no class created yet that we can test, then the IDE will flag the tests with errors until we actually create the class itself. Therefore, I often start by creating the bare minimum implementation for each class I test drive. In this case I’d go with something like this: import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { return null ; } } Obviously this doesn’t do much so let’s start by defining our business logic in terms of tests. The first thing I want to do is to create an empty test case with a setup method that I’ll fill in with the creation of an EmailValidator . Try and keep your tests under the test folder in favour of the androidTest , because we’re not doing any instrumentation tests. The keyboard shortcut Cmd+Shift+T on macOS and Ctrl+Shift+T on other OSs helps you with the test case creation. You can use the same shortcut to jump from the implementation to the test and vice-versa making your navigation way easier. It would look something like this: import org.junit.Before ; public class EmailValidatorTest { private EmailValidator validator ; @Before public void setUp () throws Exception { validator = new EmailValidator (); } } First things first, I want to make sure that a valid email is considered valid by my implementation. This you can express as: import org.junit.Before ; import org.junit.Test ; import static org . assertj . core . api . Assertions . assertThat ; public class EmailValidatorTest { private EmailValidator validator ; @Before public void setUp () throws Exception { validator = new EmailValidator (); } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnNoErrorsForValidEmails () { String input = "someemail@somedomain.com" ; Validator . ValidationResult result = validator . validate ( input ); assertThat ( result ). isEqualTo ( Validator . ValidationResult . NO_ERROR ); } } Running the tests will result in a failure since we’re returning null . Since I just need to make this test pass I just change the implementation to: import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { return ValidationResult . NO_ERROR ; } } Now that the tests are passing I’ll carry on with the second bit of business logic - consider the input invalid if it’s empty and return an error code for this. Again I’ll express this in terms of a unit test: import org.junit.Before ; import org.junit.Test ; import static org . assertj . core . api . Assertions . assertThat ; public class EmailValidatorTest { private EmailValidator validator ; @Before public void setUp () throws Exception { validator = new EmailValidator (); } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnNoErrorsForValidEmails () { ... } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnInputFieldEmptyErrorIfInputIsEmpty () { String input = "" ; Validator . ValidationResult result = validator . validate ( input ); assertThat ( result ). isEqualTo ( Validator . ValidationResult . EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ); } } The name convention for the test I’ll leave it to you. Here I use one that I like, but I understand opinions differ. At the time you create the test most probably the Validator.ValidationResult.EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD enum constant doesn’t exist. That’s ok, go ahead and create it and run your tests. Like I said before I have a custom shortcut to run the tests, but you can always do Cmd+Shift+A or Ctrl+Shift+A which will pop up a little window where you can type anything and you’d get suggestions on what you want to do. If you’re on Android studio 2 you’d want to type in something like Gradle task hit enter and type testDebug to run the tests. On Android 1 you can type testDebug directly in the popup window and the IDE will automatically suggest the gradle task. I guess it comes without surprise that the tests are failing. TDD says we cannot have any failing test so we need to either fix the code, or fix the test. There’s nothing wrong with the test and it’s pretty obvious the mistake is in the code itself. We can make it work by changing it to: import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { if ( input . isEmpty ()) return ValidationResult . EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ; return ValidationResult . NO_ERROR ; } } Now running the tests will pass with green lights. Moving on we need a failing test. As you look at the interface definition, the validate method can take null values. Let’s try that one: Here I also find the Cmd+E or Ctrl+E shortcut useful. It pops up a small window with the last open files. Usually I find myself fiddling only with the implementation and the test itself, hence this shortcut becomes pretty handy. import org.junit.Before ; import org.junit.Test ; import static org . assertj . core . api . Assertions . assertThat ; public class EmailValidatorTest { private EmailValidator validator ; @Before public void setUp () throws Exception { ... } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnNoErrorsForValidEmails () { ... } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnInputFieldEmptyErrorIfInputIsEmpty () { ... } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnInputFieldEmptyErrorIfInputIsNull () { Validator . ValidationResult result = validator . validate ( null ); assertThat ( result ). isEqualTo ( Validator . ValidationResult . EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ); } } As expected this fails and it’s the code that needs fixing. A simple null check is sufficient to solve the problem: import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { if ( input == null \|\| input . isEmpty ()) return ValidationResult . EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ; return ValidationResult . NO_ERROR ; } } This kind of checking is usually done very often and developers usually use TextUtils.isEmpty() . The problem with this approach is that you’d be making the above class dependent on a method from the Android framework, which personally I prefer not to. The reasoning is simple - the Android framework is mocked at testing time. If you want to use some of its methods you’ll most probably need to activate the setting unitTests.returnDefaultValues in the Gradle setup. This in turn makes every method in the framework return null , which will obviously break the tests. So usually I end up replicating some of the code on my own classes that I can easily mock the behaviour of if needed. Moving on we can add a simple email check as well to pre-validate the email field without sending it to the backend. This step might look trivial, but it’s actually trickier than it looks. One could add android.util.Patterns.EMAIL_ADDRESS to the implementation of the validator itself: import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { if ( input == null \|\| input . isEmpty ()) return ValidationResult . EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ; if (! android . util . Patterns . EMAIL_ADDRESS . matcher ( input ). matches ()) return ValidationResult . MALFORMED_INPUT ; return ValidationResult . NO_ERROR ; } } However, this makes us again dependent on the Android framework. It also makes it harder to test, since now we need to be aware of the behavior of the pattern itself, while we’re just unit testing an email validator for input fields. It also makes it harder to change the behavior later on if we find out that the pattern needs to be more or less restrictive. Here we’re just concerned with knowing that if the email is malformed, then the validator should return Validator.ValidationResult.MALFORMED_INPUT . Here’s where dependency injection helps me. There’s a clear dependency on how the email is considered malformed or not, so I want to isolate this. So the next logical step would be to make this pattern injectable. import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; import java.util.regex.Pattern ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { private final Pattern emailPattern ; public EmailValidator ( Pattern emailPattern ) { this . emailPattern = emailPattern ; } @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { if ( input == null \|\| input . isEmpty ()) return ValidationResult . EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ; if (! emailPattern . matcher ( input ). matches ()) return ValidationResult . MALFORMED_INPUT ; return ValidationResult . NO_ERROR ; } } This lets me inject a mocked pattern in the tests, which would let me specify its behaviour. While this approach is usually enough, it’s not so convenient here. If you take a look at java.util.regex.Pattern you’ll find out that it’s final . This makes it quite hard to mock since you’re not allowed to extend it, which also prevents you from using Mockito. You could set up patterns for each test that would either match the input or not, but again this is not very flexible. My usual approach is to define a new interface that specifies the wanted behaviour. Here I want something that returns a boolean telling me if the email is valid or not depending on its implementation - whichever that might be. Something like this: public interface EmailRegexMatcher { boolean matches ( String input ); } And then one can change the dependency in the EmailValidator : import android.support.annotation.Nullable ; public class EmailValidator implements Validator { private final EmailRegexMatcher emailRegexMatcher ; public EmailValidator ( EmailRegexMatcher emailRegexMatcher ) { this . emailRegexMatcher = emailRegexMatcher ; } @Override public ValidationResult validate ( @Nullable String input ) { if ( input == null \|\| input . isEmpty ()) return ValidationResult . EMPTY_INPUT_FIELD ; if (! emailRegexMatcher . matches ( input )) return ValidationResult . MALFORMED_INPUT ; return ValidationResult . NO_ERROR ; } } Why is this helpful? Now in the test we can create mocks to easily specify the wanted behaviour. Here’s how: import org.junit.Before ; import org.junit.Test ; import org.mockito.Mock ; import org.mockito.MockitoAnnotations ; import static org . assertj . core . api . Assertions . assertThat ; import static org . mockito . Matchers . anyString ; import static org . mockito . Mockito . when ; public class EmailValidatorTest { @Mock EmailRegexMatcher emailRegexMatcher ; private EmailValidator validator ; @Before public void setUp () throws Exception { MockitoAnnotations . initMocks ( this ); when ( emailRegexMatcher . matches ( anyString ())). thenReturn ( true ); validator = new EmailValidator ( emailRegexMatcher ); } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnNoErrorsForValidEmails () { ... } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnInputFieldEmptyErrorIfInputIsEmpty () { ... } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnInputFieldEmptyErrorIfInputIsNull () { ... } @Test public void validate_shouldReturnInvalidEmailForInvalidEmails () { when ( emailRegexMatcher . matches ( anyString ())). thenReturn ( false ); Validator . ValidationResult result = validator . validate ( "invalid email" ); assertThat ( result ). isEqualTo ( Validator . ValidationResult . MALFORMED_INPUT ); } } As you can see now the setUp method sets up the emailRegexMatcher to always return true for any given input. However, the test that wants to assess if the returned result is Validator.ValidationResult.MALFORMED_INPUT makes sure that the email regex matcher always returns false for every input. For the production code one can have an implementation of the EmailRegexMatcher class that uses the android.util.Patterns.EMAIL_ADDRESS or something else. The biggest advantage here is that the implementation of EmailRegexMatcher can change without affecting EmailValidator . You can even abandon email validation in the client by implementing a version of the EmailRegexMatcher that always returns true . Wrap up This is how I usually do TDD in my Android apps. It’s one of the vast possibilities out there. An important thing to notice is that with a mix of tools and software patterns the code both becomes easier to test and more decoupled. I make use of dependency injection to easily mock the behaviour at testing time and I provide the proper implementations at run time. I only use constructor dependency injection, but one can set the dependencies in different ways. It also allows me to easily add tools like Dagger to the app and annotate the constructors with @Inject . I only use Robolectric when it’s absolutely necessary. Usually when I test view code that depends i.e. on the Android context. Last but not least I took my time to learn the keyboard shortcuts and even setup some custom ones that would automate the process of writing the test, running them and jumping from the test to the implementation and vice-versa.
ABOUT Church of Newellism 8 Years of Unfiltered Gabe Fanaticism! In the beginning, Gabe Newell created thou Valve and Goldsource Engine, and said 'tis good, so it was good. He then established Valve as His home, where He shall remain and rule forever. From Valve and the coercive Goldsource Engine, Gabe created the wondrous and spectacular Half-Life 1 and said 'tis good, so it was good.Ye, He then hath given unto us thou Source Engine, and He said 'tis good, so it was good. For He delivered upon us a great and bountiful assortment of Souce games, and promises His return. Some day, He shall return upon thy great Steam Cloud, and deliver to His loyal flock the yearned and coveted Episode 3. It will blind all with it's glory, and all will shudder before the bewildering exquisiteness of Gabe's creation. There will be celebrations throughout the earth, some people will cry, some people will sing praises to Gabe, and those most loyal to Gabe will immediately spill their seed involuntarily, and some even voluntarily. Gabe created Steam and Valve games to be perfect, and offered gamers free choice of will and morality. But the gamers abused this privilege, and fell away from Gabe and began using aimbots and wallhacks. Gabe then crafted a level 9001 Mallet of Banishment and killed all the cheaters in-game. Once banished from the servers, He sent VAC to guard and watchover the servers. But Gabe offers a second chance if you betray Him. You may make another Steam account, and re-purchase any game you desire and Gabe will show you forgiveness. He will allow you back into the Steam servers, and there you shall remain so long as you trust and follow Gabe. Our Gaben, who art at Valve, hallowed be thy name. Thy ideas come, thy games be done, on PS3 as it is on PC's. Give us this day our daily deal, and forgive us our infractions, as we forgive those who troll against us. And lead us not into flaming, but deliver us from Moderators. For thine is the Valve, and the keyboard, and the mouse, for ever and ever, Gabe N. (Prayer by Scribble[SFD]) 1.Thou shalt have no one before Gabe. 2.Thou shalt make no unflattering rule 34 images of Gabe. 3.Thou shalt not take Gabe's name in vain. 4.Remember the Saturday by eating pizza. 5.Honor thy Valve and Steam. 6.Thou shalt not have any platforms before Steam. 7.Thou shalt not hack. 8.Thou shalt not commit piracy of any games or products created by Gabe. 9.Thou shalt not bring glitches or grief upon others. 10.Thou shalt not covet thy Steam friend's libraries, unless they actually plan on buying the games at some point.
Protesters gather in front of the White House on Wednesday. (Paul J. Richards/AFP) Jon W. Davidson’s work day began at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time on Wednesday, moments after President Trump made the unexpected announcement on Twitter that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military. Davidson, legal director of the LGBT rights group Lambda Legal, was still processing the president’s out-of-the-blue tweets when the worried emails started pouring into his inbox. Some came from troops fearing discharge, others from people just trying to wrap their heads around Trump’s decision. Around 9 p.m., more than 14 hours later, Davidson said he had just finished reading all the messages. “We’re hearing from all sorts of transgender people today, asking things like, ‘Did I just get fired by tweet?'” Davidson told The Washington Post. “People are scared. They don’t know what this really means.” Across the country, attorneys and advocacy groups like Lambda are gearing up to challenge Trump’s decision in court, saying potential plaintiffs are already lining up to file suit. They argue it runs afoul of the Constitution’s Equal Protection and Due Process clauses, discriminates against a vulnerable group and lacks the “rational basis” necessary to be upheld by federal judges. The only thing keeping them from the courthouse for now is the ambiguity of the announcement. The president has issued no executive order, no policy memo, no guidance, no rulemaking — just a string of tweets, in classic Trump fashion. Despite the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" in 2011, there are still military personnel serving in silence. Landon Wilson was a dedicated sailor in the Navy serving in Afghanistan until his leadership learned that he was born biologically female. (Editor's note: This video was originally published in April 2014.) (Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post) At the first sign of a formal policy, Davidson and others are prepared to sue the government on behalf of current transgender service members and those seeking to enlist. The rush of litigation, if it comes, could wind up resembling the flurry of lawsuits filed by immigration advocates after Trump issued his travel ban earlier this year, many of them fighting detentions and deportations and challenging the legality of the executive order. “We believe that any such change in policy would be absolutely unconstitutional,” Davidson said of the transgender ban, “and it violates fundamental notions of fairness in the military.” The LGBT military group OutServe-SLDN said it would join the effort “in a heartbeat,” along with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which called the move a “bizarre assault on these dedicated service members.” The American Civil Liberties Union also threatened to file suit, calling on transgender services members to get in touch with the organization. “This is an outrageous and desperate action,” ACLU senior staff attorney Joshua Block said in a statement. “There is no basis for turning trans people away from our military and the ACLU is examining all of our options on how to fight this.” Trump’s Twitter fiat would reverse a year-old Obama administration decision to allow transgender military members to serve openly, and it could result in thousands of active-duty troops being discharged, as The Post reported Wednesday. In his tweets, the president offered two rationales for the move: medical costs and “disruption.” “Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” In July 2017, a federal judge blocked enforcement of President Trump's three-month-old directive barring transgender troops from serving in the military. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) Pressed by reporters on how such a policy would be carried out, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there was no implementation plan yet and did not discuss Wednesday whether current transgender troops would be allowed to continue serving. Thousands of service members are transgender, with as many as 11,000 in the reserves and active-duty military, according to a recent Pentagon-commissioned study. John Culhane, a constitutional law professor at Delaware Law School, predicted the Trump administration “may soon learn that singling out a class of people for exclusion violates the constitutional guarantee of equal protection under the law.” In a commentary for Politico on Wednesday, Culhane noted that untold numbers of transgender soldiers came out and others enlisted as a result of the Obama administration policy that allowed them to serve openly. Discharging them, he wrote, would create problems of “reliance,” the legal principle of acting on another’s promise. “If trans people are discharged, lawsuits will follow,” Culhane wrote. “Even if they aren’t, we can expect attorneys to seek a declaration from courts that no such discharges would be legal.” Courts give extra deference to the military on personnel matters, but that “doesn’t mean the military is above the law,” according to Sarah Warbelow, the Human Rights Campaign’s legal director, who told Reuters that Trump’s declaration amounted to “discrimination on the basis of sex and identity.” Davidson, of Lambda, echoed her remarks, saying that while Trump had considerable powers as commander in chief, military policies are far from unreviewable in court. Davidson also argued that Trump’s reasons for enacting a ban on transgender people in the military were “demonstrably false” and would be incorporated in his group’s challenge. “Transgender people have been serving openly for a year and there have been no disruptions,” he said. “That disproves this notion that there’s some threat to military readiness and unit cohesion.” In the event that Trump’s proposal does wind up in federal court, it’s not clear how the administration would defend it. Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, offered the faintest of hints Wednesday, telling reporters that the president’s decision focused solely on military readiness. “Look, I think sometimes you have to make decisions, and once he made a decision, he didn’t feel it was necessary to hold that decision, and they’re going to work together with the Department of Defense to lawfully implement it,” Sanders said. She added that Trump had informed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis of his move on Tuesday. Mattis, who was on vacation, didn’t comment on the issue Wednesday. The Pentagon referred questions about Trump’s tweets back to the White House. In the interest of fairness, it would be helpful to include more details here elucidating Trump’s decision, but such insights are hard to come by. For the time being, Davidson and other civil rights attorneys have stressed that nothing about existing military policy has changed yet and that the president’s tweets carry no force of law. “It’s so strange to be dealing with a situation and you’re not sure what to believe is true and whether he’ll do what he says he’s going to do,” Davidson said. “We’re in an intense period right now.”
When Shruti Agrawal retweeted Delhi student activist Gurmehar Kaur's posts on social media , she found herself the target of vicious, obscene messages and rape threats.Reporting the trolls did not work, because many of her abusers were attacking her in Hindi, which evaded Twitter 's filtering process. In another incident, a well-known journalist from Chennai was targeted when she tweeted that she did not find Tamil actor Vijay's latest movie interesting. She was soon at the receiving end of more than 45,000 derogatory tweets, many of them in Tamil. Many of the software professionals who were part of the troll wave were making use of the language loophole.The regional-language trolling problem is amplified by the fact that India has more than 122 languages and 1,599 dialects. An overwhelming 234 million Indians access the internet every day in regional languages, compared to 175 million English users in 2016, according to a Google-KPMG report.To combat this, firms like Facebook have started employing native languages speakers to monitor content. We have real people (not bots) looking at reported content, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We have hired a lot of native language speakers as they are better able to decipher the true meaning of words and the context,“ says Ankhi Das, public policy director, Facebook India, South & Central Asia.Twitter has not responded to calls and emails seeking comment.Another new issue cropping up is preying on minors via social media using nonEnglish content. Youngsters, who are depressed, at times send SOSs to potential “masters“ or “curators“ in Romanian or Russian using Google Translate. This way they cir cumvent filters set to monitor English language content. These curators are the ones that usually set tasks for participants in the suicidal Blue Whale Challenge.The European social network VKontakte (where the notorious Blue Whale challenge is said to have originated) and Facebook are combating this scourge with all linguistic and cultural know-how. A hashtag search for depression, body cuts or razor art will immediately have Instagram (owned by Facebook) pop up with: “Can we help?Posts with words or tags you're searching for often encourage behaviour that can cause harm and even lead to death. If you're going through something difficult, we'd like to help.“The Data Security Council of India (DSCI) is also working with the ministry of electronics & information technology for ways to battle this. “We have recommended that the ministry engage with social media service providers to identify any groups that violate their usage policy . There need to be broader appeals to internet users to refrain from forwardingdiscussing about any such viral messages that originate from a non credible source,“ says Ra hul Sharma, senior consult ant, DSCI.Knowledge of regional language is necessary to gauge the nature and intent of certain posts. A 21-yearold woman in Salem, Tamil Nadu killed herself last July after being at the receiving vicious posts with obscene written material and morphed nude photographs on Facebook.To combat tragic incidents like this, Facebook is focusing on improving monitoring in regional languages. “We are actively working to remove content that appears to purposefully target private individuals with the intention of degrading or shaming them,“ says Das.
NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi narrowly escaped a disaster while landing in Delhi when another aircraft was found to be still on the runway on which his private business jet had been cleared to land.Just moments before his Cessna Citation jet was about to touch down on Tuesday, air traffic controllers asked Rahul’s plane to abort landing and take off again to avoid a collision on the runway between the two planes. Luckily for the Gandhi scion and the crew on the aircraft, the pilots managed to pull the yoke and climb again.“Rahul Gandhi was flying into Delhi from Rae Bareilly. The air traffic control here had given clearance to his business jet to land. Before his Cessna, an Ilyushin aircraft of Indian Air Force had landed on the runway. It was estimated that this aircraft will vacate the runway in time for the Cessna to touch down. However, that did not happen,” said a source.“When Rahul’s plane was about to touch down, the Ilyushin was still moving slowly and was on the runway. At that point, the ATC asked Rahul’s pilots to abort landing to avoid a collision. It was a very close shave,” said the source.The Cessna Citation, an ultra luxury American business jet, was being piloted by two captains. The directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has ordered a probe into this serious lapse.Aircraft are always given clear runways to land on to have space for any problem post touchdown with brakes that may force the aircraft to use the entire available length of runway to stop. In fact, for this very reason airstrips have something called runway end safety areas with sand to ensure that an aircraft stops there if it fails to do so on the runway. Having a plane land on a runway that has another aircraft still on it could have disastrous consequences.Sources say the probe will examine how a small and fast aircraft like a Cessna was asked to land behind a Russian plane notorious for its slow — almost lethargic — movement without proper spacing between the two planes. There is a very exact sequencing procedure for balancing aircraft movement at airports that see different kinds of planes that move at different speeds.“This is being viewed very seriously. It is not about a VVIP being on a plane, such a scare should not happen with any plane. There has been a procedural lapse here,” said a source.
IN AUGUST 2002, a five-year-old boy vanished without a trace after his father dropped him off at preschool. Alabama tot Julian Hernandez was in the legal custody of his mother when he disappeared, and while police suspected his father, Bobby Hernandez, kidnapped him as part of a “non-custodial parental abduction”, they were never able to figure out what exactly happened to the little boy. They knew Bobby had withdrawn cash from his accounts and fled the area, taking a number of Julian’s possessions with him. But as the missing persons case dragged on, hope faded the little boy would ever be found. It wasn’t until 13 years later, when a young man 1100 kilometres away began applying for colleges, that a dark secret was uncovered. Living under a different name in Cleveland, Ohio, the 18-year-old student realised there was a problem with his social security number when it failed to verify. With the help of a school counsellor, research lead them to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, where they found five-year-old Julian’s profile. The missing little boy was him. The FBI was informed on October 30, and by Sunday afternoon, November 1, they made contact with the Vestavia Hills Police Department in Alabama. “I got a call from an FBI office, they had a tip,” Lt. Johnny Evans from Vestavia Hills Police Department in Alabama, told news.com.au. “They wanted to know if Julian was still missing. We did some checking, then Monday (November 2) we went and identified and located the person.” media_camera An age progression photo of Julian Hernandez showed what he might look like at age 16. Picture: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children media_camera Julian Hernandez as he looked in 2002: National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Bobby Hernandez, 53, was arrested on the spot and charged with tampering records and interference in custody. He is accused of providing false information to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles in March 2012 to obtain a fake identification card. He is being held on $250,000 bond in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and will face charges in Alabama over the abduction when he is extradited. Prosecutors are expected to seek 10 years in jail. “It’s quite an exciting event and it’s very rare, I’ve never seen this happen in my 25 years [in the force],” Lt. Johnny Evans, from Vestavia Hills Police Department in Alabama, told news.com.au. Authorities notified Julian’s mother, who is said to be “estatic” about the discovery. “That’s the reason you never give up and you keep looking,” Lt Evans said. He told news.com.au the family “are doing OK”. “They’re trying to get through the situation. “It’s difficult for both sides, the child is told that he’s somebody he didn’t know who he was and the mum has to interact with someone she doesn’t know.” “She was very happy that he had been found, quite ecstatic, but she was also somewhat hesitant because there had been so many false leads through the years,” he said. When she reported him missing, she told police that Bobby Hernandez had come over to watch Julian, Evans said. He left her a note saying he had taken him and that was the last time she saw her son, Evans said. The two were not married, and police tried to locate Bobby Hernandez but couldn’t find an address, Evans said. Officers received “hundreds of leads over the years of where he might be, from Florida to out of the country — Canada — and we followed up on every one of them, and they all turned out to be a dead end until I got the call Monday,” Evans said. “What happens next, in part, will be up to Julian Hernandez. “He is 18, he is an adult, so it’s kind of up to him now as to whether he wants to come back,” Evans said. In a statement, Julian’s family appealed for privacy. “Our family was overjoyed this week to locate Julian and learn that he is safe. We want to thank everyone for their prayers and support during Julian’s disappearance. “Although we appreciate the interest our story has generated, we will have to decline any requests for interviews or additional information at this time. We ask that the media respect our privacy as we focus on Julian’s well-being during this difficult time in his life.” media_camera Bobby Hernandez’s mugshot. Picture: Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office When she reported him missing in 2002, she told police that Bobby Hernandez left her a note saying he had taken him and that was the last time she saw her son, Evans said. The two were not married, and police tried to locate Bobby but couldn’t find an address. Lt Evans explained the police had spent “tireless hours” trying to find the missing child and “were still checking out every lead” in the “active” case. “We were getting leads periodically over the last 13 years. We were always getting some kind of updates from people about possible sightings. “With all the bad publicity that’s going on now (with cop brutality in America) this is one we can say, ‘Hey, this is the way things need to end’.” Authorities had no clue Julian was alive and well, living with his father on Cleveland’s west side with a woman and two other children. “He’s (Bobby) been here three to five years,” Matt MeInyk, the Hernandez family’s neighbour, told USA Today. “I had absolutely no idea this was happening. His son was very quiet, and from what I know, he was a good student.” It’s unclear what happened to the pair in the years before moving to their current address but FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson said the pair had been living around the area ever since they fled Alabama. “We applaud Julian Hernandez for his courage in taking the first steps to find answers about who he is,” Robert Lowery, vice president in the Missing Children’s Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NMEC), told news.com.au. “We know the work for Julian and his family has just begun and will continue over the next days, months and years as they adjust and get to know each other all over again. We respect his family’s desire for privacy at this time. “Julian’s case is a reminder to all those parents and loved ones who are still searching for a missing child to never give up hope, no matter how long that child has been gone. “At NCMEC, we will never stop searching for missing children. There are thousands of children who still need to come home and Julian serves as a beacon of hope for their families.” ***********PRESS RELEASE**********For immediate release from Dan Rary, Chief of Police On November 1, 2015 the... Posted by Vestavia Hills Police Department on Wednesday, 4 November 2015 — youngma@news.com.au Originally published as Man realises missing boy is him
NIN Live: 2008 August 20, 2008, St. Louis, MO, Scottrade Center Setlist 999,999 1,000,000 Letting You Discipline March of the Pigs Head Down The Frail The Wretched Closer Gave Up Me, I'm Not The Great Destroyer Ghosts 17 Ghosts 28 Ghosts 19 Piggy The Greater Good Pinion Wish Terrible Lie Survivalism The Big Come Down Ghosts 31 Only Head Like a Hole Echoplex Love is Not Enough Reptile God Given Hurt In This Twilight Show Memorabilia Known Recordings Source 1: Audio - AUD (AT853 + SP-BB + JB3) Taper: Eric A. Time: 136 minutes Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Hear a Sample: Love is Not Enough, 2 Minutes Download the Full Show: .Zip File FLAC, 811.5 MB Added to Archive: March 01st, 2010 Comments: None. Source 2: Audio from Video - AUD (Canon Vixia HF10) Taper: Chaonatic Time: 135 minutes Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Hear a Sample: Me, I'm Not, 2 Minutes Download the Full Show: .Zip File FLAC, 817.4 MB Added to Archive: March 01st, 2010 Comments: This audio was ripped from the video by Chaonatic. Its a good recording coming from the rear of the arena. Unfortunately he pressed pause during "The Frail" for a moment and then he missed the beginning of "Hurt" due to media changing.
GETTY Sir Eric Pickles has called for an overhaul of the electoral system The study, headed by Sir Eric Pickles, found that authorities are not doing enough to stamp out bullying and religious intimidation among Asian authorities during the lead up to elections. The report has even called for a dramatic overhaul of the electoral system, warning the "integrity of democracy" is at stake. The Electoral Commission also came under fire for making the situation worse by encouraging the use of foreign language, with Sir Eric saying it "leaves the door open to fraud". Sir Eric was chosen by David Cameron to head-up the electoral fraud commission following the voting scandal in Tower Hamlets, East London. Former mayor of Tower Hamlets Luftur Rahman was relieved of his position after he was found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices. GETTY Eric Pickles was chosen to head-up the electoral fraud commision Last year’s general election was littered with accusations of radical Islamists pressuring voters at polling stations, reportedly claiming that voting was "un-Islamic". Stickers were also placed at some polling stations urging Muslims not to vote. There have also been accusations of postal voting fraud in predominantly Asian areas, just years after a judge found evidence of fraud in Birmingham. GETTY Luftur Rahman was found guilty of corrupt and illegal practices
ALBUERA, Leyte—It doesn’t look like the usual wake of a municipal mayor. Only about 10 wreaths surround the white coffin displayed at the porch of a sprawling mansion facing the gate of the 5,000-square-meter property in Sitio Tinago, Barangay Benolho, here. ADVERTISEMENT And although it has been more than a week since his body was brought home, only a handful of mourners have gone to pay respects to Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. of Albuera town. Not a single policeman or tanod was seen at the wake of the fallen chief executive. Not a single mayor from other towns of Leyte sent a wreath to Espinosa who, the Criminal Investigation and Detection in Eastern Visayas claimed, was killed in a shootout inside his detention cell. The mayor had surrendered to authorities in August after his name was mentioned as part of a suspected drug personality list by President Duterte. He was later charged for illegal possession of firearms. His son, Kerwin, was recently arrested in Abu Dhabi. Mariel Espinosa said their gates have been open since her father was brought home on Nov. 6, a day after he was killed inside his detention cell in the subprovincial jail in Baybay City, Leyte. The police claim the mayor had pulled a gun on them when they came to inspect his cell before dawn on Nov. 5. But critics believe it was an extrajudicial killing and some prisoners reported they heard him begging for his life. President Duterte said he believed the version of the police. The 10 wreaths that surrounded the coffin came from the Albuera village officials and department heads. “That’s OK. We understand,” said Mariel about the absence of flowers from officials of other local government units. She said only a few came to pay their respects because either they were scared for their safety or didn’t want to be associated with a family linked to illegal drugs. ADVERTISEMENT But at the height of their power, nobody seemed to care about the family’s reputation. People flocked to the mansion of the mayor on weekends when Espinosa opened his house to his neighbors for banquets. When the party was over, the guests went home with P200 to P300 each. Local officials were among the guests of the Espinosas during parties or cockfight derbies held at kiosks or tents inside the compound. But after the mayor’s fall from grace, many of their friends distanced themselves from Espinosa as shown by the small number of people who showed up in his wake. A relative of the mayor, who asked not be named, said the police should have sent at least a security detail since Espinosa had served as the town’s chief executive. He said Chief Insp. Jovie Espenido, Albuera police chief, had promised to deploy policemen but so far, none have been sent. “The family should not be asking for this. It should be given to us considering that he served Albuera as mayor although only briefly,” he added. Those who came had only good words for the mayor. “He was a good man,” said Maria Luz Salmo, 30, and a neighbor of the mayor. Municipal administrator Jocelyn Bertulfo said a flag was flown half-staff outside the municipal hall to honor the mayor who served the town for more than a month. But for a 69-year-old resident, giving honor to a man who was alleged to have condoned the illegal drug trade was inappropriate. But the family was thankful for the few who came to pay their last respects. “We are grateful to them for coming,” said Mariel. She said Kerwin called her twice—on Nov. 6 and on Nov. 8. “He just kept on crying. He asked me to bring the cellphone to Daddy’s coffin. I guess he talked with him,” Mariel added. She had no idea what Kerwin said to their father, she said. The two calls made by Kerwin only lasted for two minutes each. Mariel said that they are seeking justice for the murder of their father. Read Next LATEST STORIES MOST READ
CLOSE During a Rose Garden press conference, President Trump claimed Puerto Rico was already in "very poor shape" before Hurricane Maria made landfall. USA TODAY A young girl looks back after getting her shoe stuck in the mud while carrying supplies delivered by soldiers working with a 101st Airborne Division "Dustoff" unit during recovery efforts following Hurricane Maria. (Photo: Reuters/PRI's The World) Three weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, we’ve seen images of the destruction and heard stories about the lack of electricity and basic supplies like food and water in some areas. But the main way we measure — and understand — the scope of any disaster is through the death toll. The official count is now 48 deaths. But the news site Vox thought that number seemed off. "We knew from reports on the ground, and investigative journalists who've also been looking into this, that this was very likely way too low of a number,” said Eliza Barclay, an editor at Vox. So they dug into the numbers, cross-checking with news reports, and found that the number of casualties resulting from the hurricane was probably much closer to 450. Two members of Congress have now announced they will request an audit of the official death toll. CLOSE Businesses are sending aid to Puerto Rico, but more help is needed getting goods to the island. Some say it will takes months before Puerto Rico can start being viable. (Oct. 9) AP Here are a few highlights from Vox’s report: -At the time of the report, the official death toll was 43. -National and local news outlets reported an additional 36 deaths attributed to the hurricane. -NPR reported an additional 49 bodies with unidentified cause of death sent to a hospital morgue since the storm. -The Los Angeles Times reported 50 more deaths than normal in one region in the three days after the hurricane. -Puerto Rico's Center for Investigative Reporting found 69 hospital morgues were are at “capacity.” -According to El Vocero newspaper, 350 bodies are being stored at the Institute of Forensic Sciences awaiting autopsies, but it’s not clear how many of them were there before the hurricane. Listen to The World’s full interview with Vox’s Eliza Barclay. MORE FROM GLOBAL POST AND PRI: This article originally appeared on GlobalPost and PRI.org. Its content was created separately to USA TODAY. Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2yuvxAT
In Mexico's Cerrito del Agua, freshly painted concrete houses line empty streets because most of their owners are working in the United States The other side of the immigration debate Cerrito del Agua, population 3,000, has no paved roads – either leading to it or within it. No restaurants, no movie theaters, no shopping malls. In fact, the small town located in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas has no middle schools, high schools or colleges; no cell phone service, no hospital. Its surrounding fields are dry and untended. The streets are empty. The explosion of emigration to the United States over the past 15 years has emptied much of central Mexico, even reaching into southernmost states like Chiapas and Yucatan. But it has simply devastated Zacatecas, a dry, rolling agricultural region located about 400 miles northwest of Mexico City. A little more than half of Zacatecas’ population – about 1.8 million people – now live in the United States, especially in areas surrounding Atlanta, Chicago and Los Angeles. Between 2000 and 2005, three out of its four municipalities registered a negative population growth. A 2004 state law created two new state legislative posts for migrants living in the United States. In 2006, depopulation cost the state one of its five congressional districts. “Well, you’ve seen what this place is like,” says Dr. Manuel Valadez Lopez, gesturing out the door of his small private clinic when I ask him how emigration has affected the town. “There has not been even minimal development here. There is not a single yard of pavement. The few people who have sidewalks in front of their houses built them themselves. Most people defecate outdoors.” Lopez, 40, a native of Cerrito del Agua, is one of the few to leave the town and return. All six of his brothers now live and work in the United States. All four of his sisters married men who left to work in the United States. In his teens, Lopez himself had moved to Guadalajara (about a five-hour drive southwest of Zacatecas) to attend high school and university, then stayed on to study medicine and receive a specialist’s training in gynecology. He later returned to Cerrito del Agua for a visit and realized “there was so much work to do here that I stayed,” he says. That was eight years ago. “The whole culture now is that people grow up and go to the U.S. – their parents, their uncles, their brothers and sisters, everyone goes,” Lopez says. “The kids who are strong and smart, they all go to the U.S. There are no basic services here; the government has not carried out a single project.” The situation has been so dire, he says, that the staff at the clinic had to install its own sewage system. “There is running water, but it’s not clean,” he continues. “People get all sorts of infections, a typical Third-World situation.” Worst of all, says Lopez, is that “people who could possibly stay here and do something, they all go.” The new U.S. colony A January report by Richard Nadler, president of the conservative Americas Majority Foundation, found that the strongest state economies in the United States are those with high numbers of migrant workers. Nadler writes: “An analysis of data from 50 states and the District of Columbia demonstrates that a high resident population and/or inflow of immigrants is associated with elevated levels and growth in gross state product, personal income, per capita personal income, disposable income, per capita disposable income, median household income and median per capita income.” Those who are leaving Mexico – those whose land goes unplanted, whose roads remain unpaved – are laboring in the United States, building shopping malls and factories, washing dishes in restaurants and cafés, picking grapes and pulling lettuce. They are creating within the U.S. economy precisely the goods and services that their hometowns lack. At the same time, their anemic home economies falter on the brink of collapse. “I think that the U.S.’s plan is to make Mexico into a kind of colony,” says Lopez, with a half smile. “People go to the U.S. to work and earn dollars. They come back to Mexico and spend their dollars on American products. It’s a nice, round business.” He continues: “Everyone here depends on the U.S. If this isn’t a colony, then how do you define colony?” Condemned to disappear In the heated debates over U.S. immigration policy, the pressing questions seem to be “How many immigrants should be allowed in, if any?” and “How should they be processed into the system?” But rarely considered is what this massive influx is doing to Mexico. With nearly half a million Mexicans crossing the U.S.-Mexico border every year to look for work, Mexico has become the world’s largest exporter of its people. More people flee destitution in Mexico than in China or India – each with populations 10 times larger than Mexico’s. Their remittances – the money Mexican immigrants in the United States save and send back to their families – equaled $24 billion last year, and made up the third-largest source of revenue for the Mexican economy (after illegal drugs and oil). “Theories of migration always show the interests of the North,” says Raul Delgado Wise, director of the Graduate School of Development Studies at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas and an expert on migration. He says migrants born in Mexico contribute 8 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) – about $900 billion – which is more than Mexico’s entire GDP. Wise is one of several researchers studying Mexican migration at the University of Zacatecas. Together they publish an international journal called Migration and Development and are laying the groundwork for an alternative think tank to the World Bank, which will be called the Consortium for Critical Development Studies. “With all of this, we need to see really how much it is costing Mexico, how much Mexico is losing,” Wise says. He says that the mass migration from Mexico to the United States cannot be fully understood without considering the U.S.-Mexico economic integration. Begun in the ’80s, this integration reached its maximum expression with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which took effect Jan. 1, 1994. What Mexico really exports, Wise argues, is labor. The supposed growth in Mexico’s manufacturing sector is a “smokescreen,” he wrote in a 2005 article in Latin American Perspectives, a scholarly journal. Almost half of all manufacturing exports come from the maquiladora assembly plants (foreign-owned factories in Mexico) that import production materials and export their final products – and their profits. Mexico adds only the labor. Neoliberal policies – first implemented in the ’80s, and later through NAFTA – cut government investment in public works and agriculture, privatized key state enterprises and created low interest rates that attracted foreign capital. These policies opened the way for a 25-fold increase in maquiladora sales between 1982 and 2003 (though that growth peaked in 2000 and has since fallen as maquiladora owners seek ever lower wages and looser environmental regulations to compete with China’s abundant labor supply). From 1994 to 2002, Mexico lost more than 1 million agricultural jobs. And from 1980 to 2002 – the same period maquiladora sales soared – migration from Mexico to the United States grew by 452 percent, with more than 400,000 people crossing each year, on average. “In Mexico, we have exported the factory of migrants,” says Rodolfo Garcia Zamora, an economics professor who also teaches at the Graduate School of Development Studies. Zamora, author of Migration, Remittances and Local Development, says Mexico “is mortgaging its future” with migration and remittances. In the 10 Mexican states with the longest migration histories, he says, 65 percent of municipalities have a negative population growth. “This means that in the future,” says Zamora, “these communities will not be able to reproduce, neither economically nor socially, because the demographics of migration have condemned them to disappear.” No escape? “The United States economy demands cheap labor. Mexico has an excess of laborers. We complement each other,” says Fernando Robledo, director of the Zacatecas State Migration Institute, a government office that administers development projects in conjunction with several U.S. migrant organizations. Page 1 of 2 Continued »
Article Name Why Isn't Lyme Disease Covered By Insurance? Description In a Statement for the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 2012, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) stated the following: “IDSA recognizes that Lyme Disease can be painful and that the disease is not always properly identified or treated” and later goes to say “We sympathize with these patients’ suffering, but remain concerned that a diagnosis of so-called , suggesting that active infection is ongoing, is not supported by scientific evidence and, more alarmingly, the treatment of long-term antibiotic therapy will do patients more harm than good.” The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) also goes on to state that a majority of Lyme Disease cases are “successfully treated with 10-28 days of antibiotics”, and that “long term antibiotics have not been found to effectively treat symptoms that persist after the initial infection is cleared.” Per the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) guidelines, a single dose of doxycline is recommended after potential exposure to the bacterium borrelia burgdorferi microbes via a tick bite. On the other hand, if you were to speak with actual Lyme Disease patients or those in the trenches fighting this vector borne epidemic, most familiar with the disease would say that depending on the duration and severity of the infection, antibiotics will help but most likely not knock the bacteria or debilitating symptoms into remission. Author Daniel Lynch
Just shake it! A simple way to remove nanomaterial pollutants from water (Nanowerk Spotlight) As the production and use of nanotechnology-based products in our daily life is rapidly growing, the risks of environmental pollution due to nanomaterials are increasing as well. The spreading of nanomaterials in manufacturing, product application, and waste management processes will eventually lead to some degree of contamination of water. While 'conventional' water contaminants can be cleaned up by state-of-the-art technologies with filtration and condensation processes, this is not the case for nanoscale pollutants. The size of nanomaterials commonly is below 100 nm – thousands of times smaller than regular water contaminants and much smaller than the micron-sized or larger pores used in conventional water filters. Simply reducing the filter pore size is not a solution either since that will cause clogging of the filtration line. "In our new work, we have demonstrated that water contaminated with nanomaterials can be cleaned up by a 'hand shaking' approach that can be performed even in a kitchen." Dr. Yoke Khin Yap, a professor in the Department of Physics at Michigan Technological University, tells Nanowerk. "Our approach is simple and universal, and can be used for many one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) nanomaterials including nanotubes, nanowires, graphene, and nanosheets. Therefore, our approach would support continued development of nanotechnology by reducing the risk of water contamination." Yap and his team recently have found that microscopic fluid interface dynamics could be utilized to extract and remove nanomaterials from the contaminated water. They describe the details of this novel extraction technique in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces ("A Simple and Universal Technique To Extract One- and Two-Dimensional Nanomaterials from Contaminated Water"). Force diagram of an (a) unfunctionalized and a (b) functionalized spherical nanoparticle. The schematic of the extraction mechanism are shown in panels c, d, e, and f. (Reprinted with permission by American Chemical Society) (click on image to enlarge) This novel technique is applicable to the extraction of 1D and 2D nanomaterials from water with an efficiency of almost 100%. The approach involves emulsification of the contaminated water with oil – or other organic solvents – by hand shaking. These nanomaterials will then be captured in the oil phase. They can be removed after oil and water are separated, i.e. the water is condensed. The extraction of nanomaterials demonstrated here is based on the capillary force generated at the interface of oil (or organic solvent) droplets in water during the emulsification process. According to the researchers, the extraction of functionalized nanomaterials is dependent on the concentration of surfactants used. If the concentration is sufficiently low, then the extraction is possible with high efficiency. "Our attempts to extract spherical particles confirmed that the shape of the particles has an effect on the extraction mechanism," Yap points out. He also notes that, in principle, the nanomaterials can be reused once the organic solvent/oil has been evaporated. While in general, this simple approach will be applicable to extract many other particulates or solids in water, the extraction of zero dimensional (0D) materials such as quantum dots is still low in efficiency. The team hopes to overcome this issue in its next study. The idea for this technique goes back several years to when the team devised a nanofilter to separate water and oil and published a well-cited paper on the results (Carbon, "The performance of superhydrophobic and superoleophilic carbon nanotube meshes in water?oil filtration").
Please enable Javascript to watch this video Megan Ramirez, a fifth grade teacher at Roosevelt Elementary shared with her students that she would like to one day get her daughter, Madison, a therapy dog. Madison has Type 3 Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a genetic disease that deteriorates the muscles. A therapy dog would help Madison with everyday activities. That’s when four of her students decided to take matters into their own hands – bringing the teacher to tears. “These amazing little girls over here surprised me. They made a flyer that advertised they were going to start a dog walking business and they wanted to raise money to get Maddie a therapy dog.” The girls found out through research that a therapy dog can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 - but the big number didn’t scare them away from the challenge. "We’re pretty sure that we can do it for a good cause so we decided to take a shot and go for it," one of the girls said. So far, they have raised more than $400. They plan to continue until their goal has been met. If you would like to help by donating or have a dog that needs walking, you can contact Megan Ramirez at mramirez@molineschools.org.
Please enable Javascript to watch this video The new signs say one thing, but the problem on the bike path is far worse than you might have thought in the town of Hampton, Illinois. Two new signs have been added along the bike path, saying, "Stop pooping on bike path." Most think it's a message for dogs, but actually it's a message for humans. "It's just pretty nasty to talk about," said Scott McKay, Hampton's Public Works supervisor. McKay says it's been a problem for two years and he knows it's human poop being left on the bike path. "Well animals don't carry toilet paper and then stuff it on the top," said McKay. McKay says the person leaves toilet paper on top of the poop every single time. It's a mystery to many as to why someone would do it, especially when there are public restrooms nearby. "It's gross and other people shouldn't have to use our path like that," said McKay. McKay hopes the new signs will get their message across.
We identified a family segregating ASD in three siblings with an unidentified cause. We performed WGS in the three probands and used a state-of-the-art comprehensive bioinformatic analysis pipeline and prioritized the identified variants located in genes likely to be related to ASD. We validated the finding by Sanger sequencing in the probands and their parents. Clinical genomics promise to be especially suitable for the study of etiologically heterogeneous conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Here we present three siblings with ASD where we evaluated the usefulness of Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) for the diagnostic approach to ASD. Funding: This work was supported by an unrestricted grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the government of Argentina. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ASD is etiologically heterogeneous, with hundreds of highly penetrant genetic aberrations involved as causative factors. Among them, SHANK3 haploinsufficiency has been identified in about 0.5% of subjects with ASD. However, few familial ASD cases caused by mutations in SHANK3 have been identified [ 2 ]. Here we present three siblings with ASD where Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), identified germline mosaicism for a new mutation in SHANK3. After prioritization, variants considered to possibly explain the phenotype were further investigated individually through the use of several databases and functional evaluation tools which included those provided by NCBI ( www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov ), ENSEMBL [ 17 ] ( www.ensembl.org/index.html ), Mutation Taster [ 18 ] ( www.mutationtaster.org ), the Combined Annotation Dependent Depletion framework [ 19 ] ( cadd.gs.washington.edu ) and the Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins [ 20 ] (STRING; string-db.org ), among others. Only high-quality variants (i.e. not filtered out by the GATK’s Variant Quality Score Recalibration method) were considered for the analysis. Those with recorded population frequencies estimates higher than 1% (data from the 1000 Genomes Project and the Exome Sequencing Project) were also discarded as unlikely to be of relevance. From this remaining set, variants with high probability of affecting gene function (frame-shift, nonsense, missense, affecting splice sites and small insertions and deletions) were grouped according to 3 different models of inheritance that may explain the probands’ phenotype: a recessive model grouped homozygous variants or compound heterozygous candidate variants present in the somatic chromosomes, a X-linked model grouped variants from the X chromosome, and a high impact and rare variants model grouped only high impact (nonsense, frame-shift, splice site changes) variants not recorded in the available databases. These groups were filtered through a list of 182 genes known to be of relevance in ASD according to SFARI database [ 16 ] ( S1 Table ). Paired-end reads obtained from sequencing the probands’ whole genomes were aligned to the GRCh37 reference human genome using the Burrows-Wheeler Alignment Tool (BWA) [ 3 ]. The resulting SAM files were realigned and recalibrated by implementation of the Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK) framework [ 4 , 5 ]. Variant calling was performed using the Unified Genotyper tools from GATK. Variant annotation and effect prediction was carried out with SnpEff 3.5a (build 2014-02-14) [ 6 , 7 ] with data from dbSNP Build 138 [ 8 ], the 1000 Genomes Project [ 9 ], the International HapMap Project [ 10 ], the NHGRI GWAS Catalog [ 11 ], dbNSFP v2.3 [ 12 , 13 ], the Exome Sequencing Project (ESP) [ 14 ], and ClinVar Build 20140211 [ 15 ]. See S1 Fig. Genomic DNA was isolated from peripheral blood and sequenced using 101 base-pair paired-end reversible terminator massively parallel sequencing on an Illumina Hiseq 1500 instrument at INDEAR (Rosario, Argentina), following sequencing library preparation in agreement to standard Illumina protocols. Median fragment length of the libraries was 294 bp. A total of 334.1 Gb with quality equal or more than Q30 was produced for the three genomes. Specifically, 575,427,640 paired-end reads were produced for proband 1 (35.5X coverage), 603,002,568 paired-end reads were produced for proband 2 (37.18X coverage) and 527,754,644 paired-end reads were produced for proband 3 (32.58X coverage). The Ethics Committee of Hospital Ramos Mejía in Buenos Aires, Argentina approved this study. Written informed consents were obtained from the parents of the probands. Clinical investigation was conducted according to the principles expressed in the Declaration of Helsinki. The parents of the individuals described in this manuscript gave written informed consent to publish these case details. DNA sequencing data remained stored in a secure internal database, and is available upon request to researchers wishing to use them for research purposes only. Clinical evaluations were performed at the Neurogenetics Unit from Hospital Ramos Mejía. We performed whole genome sequencing of DNA samples from the three siblings, obtaining a mappable yield of 334.1 Gb, which represent an average depth of coverage of 33.04x. We identified more than 4.1 millions of variants in each genome ( Table 1 ). We examined those rare variants (population frequency lower than 1%) in 182 genes associated to ASD ( S1 Table ) under three possible models of inheritance: recessive, X-linked, high impact de novo mutations ( S2 Table , S3 Table ). The most plausible candidate to explain the phenotype exhibited by the probands was a heterozygous deletion of a cysteine in the exon 21 of the SHANK3 gene ( Fig. 1, B ), resulting in a missense sequence of 5 codons followed by a premature stop codon (NM_033517:c.3259_3259delC, p.Ser1088Profs*6). We did not find any difference in SHANK3 mRNA levels in blood among the three affected siblings, their parents and two unrelated controls, suggesting an absence of effect at the transcription level. Therefore, when expressed this protein would lack a Proline-rich region and the Sterile alpha motif (SAM) domain ( Fig. 1, D ) resulting in a functional haploinsufficiency of SHANK3 protein. Sanger sequencing confirmed this deletion in the three siblings and their absence in DNA purified from blood samples of both parents suggesting germinal mosaicism as the origin of the mutation ( Fig. 1, C ). A) Family pedigree depicting the three probands (III-1, III-2, III-3), parents, their siblings and grandparents. B) Mutation as evidenced by whole genome sequencing compared to reference sequence (GRCh37) at bottom. Broad lines represent aligned reads. The heterozygous deletion is depicted as black, thin lines that interrupt the reads. Each panel depicts the data from one proband, C) Capillary sequencing chromatograms of the probands and their parents. A red arrow signals the position of the deletion. The change in ORF is evidenced by the presence of double peaks after the deletion site caused by heterozygocity. D) Linear representations of the intact SHANK3 protein featuring its major domains and the presumptive protein if translated from the mutated sequence. ANK: ankyrin repeats, SH3: SRC Homology 3 domain, PDZ: PDZ domain, Pro: Proline-rich region, SAM: Sterile alpha motif domain. Three male siblings were included in this study. All of them presented a syndrome characterized by severe intellectual disability, absence of language, autism spectrum symptoms and epilepsy. Family history was otherwise negative for mental retardation, language disorders, ASD or other psychiatric disorders. They were the sole offspring of healthy and unrelated parents after full-term and uneventful pregnancies ( Fig. 1A ). The mother performed appropriate health checks during gestations and she didn’t show any pathological findings. Deliveries and birth parameters were unremarkable. The eldest proband (III-1 in Fig. 1A ) was symptomatic since birth. Neonatal hypotonia was manifested by sucking difficulties and a mild delay in motor development. He had limited eye contact since 6 months of age. He never developed a functional language. He showed severe behavioral problems, motor stereotypes and circumscribed interests since the age of four. He developed epilepsy at the age of 6, suffering from frequent atonic seizure non-respondent to classical antiepileptic drugs. The younger siblings (III-2 and III-3) showed very similar clinical features. They shared dysmorphic features: broad nasal bridge, bulbous nasal root and macrostomia. They exhibited no neonatal hypotonia and showed normal development during their first two years of life with no observable alterations in language. A progressive deterioration started after this age. Language development was arrested, evolving to an almost complete absence of verbal communication. Social interaction became severely impaired. Agitation and repetitive motor behaviors were present since the age of three. Epilepsy with frequent atonic and generalized seizures refractory to medical treatment started at the age of 7 in both siblings. MRIs were normal and some of the several EEGs done showed right-temporal discharges. Standard karyotype and fragile X testing were normal in the three siblings. Discussion Gene mutations can be identified in about 20% of individuals with ASD [21]. SHANK3 aberrations have consistently been associated with idiopathic and syndromic ASD. However, point mutations in SHANK3 have been rarely reported. A few patients were previously described with only one showing familial recurrence. It has been suggested that nonsense and frameshift mutations in this gene lead to more severe phenotypes [22] affecting language and development as it was observed in our patients. Moreover, a recent and exhaustive report on the effect of different mutations in the SHANK family of genes in ASD concluded that SHANK3 mutations are probably the most prevalent etiology of ASD with mental retardation and among the different cases described there it is noteworthy to highlight one that have a frameshift deletion predicted to result in a truncated protein lacking the same functional domains that we predict for our mutation, thereby supporting a pathogenic role for the variant here described, precluding the need for more thorough functional assays [23]. The product of this gene is expressed at postsynaptic densities of excitatory glutamatergic synapses and it is involved in synaptic maturation [24]. Moreover, pharmacological restoring of its deficiency is current object of therapeutic research in ASD [25]. The use of WGS in the clinic is called to be transformative, especially in a complex etiologically heterogeneous disorder such as ASD and intellectual disability [26]. However, recent studies have questioned its readiness for diagnostic adoption mostly because of uncertainties associated with the analysis of such vast amount of information [27]. We have ruled out many variants with a predicted high-impact on protein function because we opted to focus our analysis on genes considered to be of relevance for the phenotype studied therefore decreasing interpretation uncertainties. This left the reported SHANK3 mutation as the sole variant putatively relevant to the phenotype showed in our patients. It is noteworthy to mention that by identifying the pathogenic variant causing the disorder segregating in this family, almost a decade of anxiety associated with diagnostic uncertainties could be alleviated. However, even though we could explain the recurrence of the disorder in the three siblings with the presence of germline mosaicism we could not estimate future recurrence risk because the proportion of germ cells mutated could not be quantified. In summary, we reported an infrequent form of familial ASD where WGS proved useful in the clinic.
One of the greatest joys of coaching for me is that I get to have fascinating conversations with individuals in all walks of life all over the world. I get to bear witness to intimate details about people’s lives and learn things I know literally nothing about. Breakdancing is (or used to be) one of those things. Continuing the blog series of client success stories, this is Alex’s: Meet Alex Milewski, an engineering entrepreneur turned professional break-dancer. He’s not the kind of person you encounter every day. This guy makes significantly less than the poverty line (about 1/5 of his previous startup salary), but he lives a simple life and is the happiest he has ever been. Instead of caring about what other people think is right for him or what looks good on paper, he finds fulfillment in life by inspiring passion in people—through catalyzing a deep stimulation in others by telling stories through dance and by breaking into new realms of possibility with the human body. “Money doesn’t bring happiness, and we can survive on much less than we think we can if we point our minds and resources in the right direction.” One of Alex’s favorite sayings is, “Inspiration is free,” because the concept of spreading inspiration is massively important for him. He points out that many people associate success with money and material things, but he—in his commitment to dancing—is able to focus his entire business endeavor around spreading and giving away something that is free. For example, a significant moment for Alex was having someone come up to him after a show and say, “Wow, I didn’t know the human body could do those things.” This was a huge win for him simply because he realized that he could literally show someone something that they didn’t even know was possible or attainable. This is what fuels Alex. He does things that nobody else can do and blows people’s minds. Dance was not always a part of Alex’s life, but from a young age, he was never one for fitting into the standard mold. He grew up in Denver, Colorado, was home schooled until 9th grade, and signed up to be a student in the founding class of Denver School of Science and Technology, where he became heavily involved in a wide variety of activities (think engineering clubs, Lego robotics, craft-shows, swimming, soccer, roller hockey…) and dreamed of going to MIT someday. Alex threw himself into his interests, thrived at the top of his class, and seemed to be heading down a crystal-clear track as a mechanical nerd. But during his sophomore year, he unexpectedly discovered his true passion when he found out about a breakdancing class in Lone Tree, Colorado and fell into a whole new world that would change the trajectory of his life. As a 10-year-old, a breakdancing performance Alex had seen at a Rec center made an impression on him, but—like most people would—he thought of it as similar to being in the circus, like something that only a certain breed of people are capable of doing. However, when he attended his first class and started going consistently, this perspective started to shift. The 2-hour trip that him took him to get there and back every Tuesday night after school didn’t faze him. He was hungry for it and went above and beyond, practicing every night and quickly surpassing everyone else in his class. At one point, a group of extremely skilled dancers came through from Denver and really impressed Alex, so he connected with them and started going to Motion Underground in Boulder and taking classes there. During this time, he was in the midst of his “high school rebellion” when he was shifting away from interest in the academic side of things and becoming more concerned with creativity. It was the stifling part of school—the limited freedom in choosing what you do—that he didn’t like, so he became the rouge poster child for fighting the system rather than adhering to it. It happened that Alex saw his dance teachers at the time perform on a team at the 2nd annual University of Colorado Boulder’s "Rockers Rumble" dance competition, which led to him connecting with a new crew of Bboys (breakdancers) from his hometown of Denver. Alex transferred to East High school in Denver, where one of the Bboys he had seen in Boulder was head of the hip hop program. The two of them started going downtown after school every day to various dance sessions where they would practice and train, and Alex began to get serious about breaking. He was eventually placed on his teacher’s dance crew called GWT but at the time was still doing robotics, playing sports, and participating in various high school activities. After graduating, he enrolled at CU Boulder to stay connected with the dance crowd around Rockers Rumble and to continue pursuing his other interests as a Mechanical Engineering major. He proceeded to spend every evening of his 5-year college career doing 2 things: hating academia and dancing. He started a dance crew at school, began teaching at a studio called Street Side, and made more connections that eventually led to the creation of one of the biggest dance crews in Colorado. They started a tradition of Friday night hangouts where they cooked dinner, chilled, and danced, and it became an infamous ritual in Boulder. A really awesome community emerged—from middle school kids to post-college adults—as people from all walks of life started to come take part in the sober and fun space focused on eating, dancing, music, and connection. This culture was especially powerful for people in a college town where there are not many sober things to do to keep the youth safe and out of trouble. Although Alex’s resistance to academia continued to grow, he decided to stick it through and get his degree. During his first of 2 years as a senior, he was introduced to Sherisse Hawkins, the vice president of software development at Time Warner Cable who was interested in branching out her career as an entrepreneur. They hit it off immediately, and within 3 months of meeting, Alex traveled with her (only the 6th time they had ever connected in person) to Adelaide, South Australia to participate in a startup accelerator. There they spent 3 months working 90-hour weeks elbow deep in startup life. Even during this busy time working on the creation of a startup, Alex’s interest in dance could not be subdued. In Adelaide, he ended up finding a dance scene, competing, and winning a competition that had him flown out to Melbourne to compete in the Australian finals. The startup company Beneath the Ink was born, and Alex returned to the states and spent his final year of college working full time by day as a student and software entrepreneur and by night as a dancer. There were no weekends. Over a 2-year span, Alex finished school and had helped Beneath the Ink transform into a stable startup with over $1.2 million raised, hired employees, office space, and steady salaries. From the outside looking in, he seemed to have a lot going for him, but he started to stagnate. The Friday night groups had fallen off, so he and 3 of his crewmates began searching for their own space to have the same “blowout chill sessions” for practicing and Friday night hangouts. They ended up absorbing an existing studio, and Block 1750 was born. They ran a kick-starter event, raised $14k, received generous donations from friends and family, and started building one of the nicest dance floors and community dance spaces in the state. As soon as they finished their day jobs, they would work at the studio, often until 3 or 4 in the morning for 3 months straight. The final product boasted a 2,000-square foot dance floor and a 1,000-square foot space for hangouts complete with a kitchen, tables, lounge, and even desks for doing homework. After about 18 months of filling two separate founder’s roles at The Block and Beneath the Ink, Alex made the decision to take the leap and pursue dance full time. He knew he needed a change and that the change had to be focused around making a career out of what he loved doing in his “free time,” which was obviously dance. This was a radical choice for him. As a dancer, your body is a ticking clock, and he didn’t want to wake up one day and realize that it was too late. So, he quit Beneath the Ink and set out on an expedition to Europe with 4 crew mates in January of 2016. He spent 4 months traveling, dancing, competing, meeting new people, and absorbing inspiration from 10 different countries in Europe finishing with a month in Morocco. He was aware of the huge risk he was taking and the need for someone to hold him accountable, share his journey, and give him access to his potential, so he started testing the waters of hiring a coach. He talked to 5 different coaches but then came upon one who really challenged him with the things she said, the questions she asked, and the way she was, and their first talk gave him a strong belief that she would be a very valuable ally as he embarked on his journey as a career dancer. So, he hired Catherine Wood as his coach to work closely with him during these 4 months of travel. Going into it, he was expecting someone who would challenge all the decisions that he made and tell him what he should or shouldn’t do, but he found his expectation was off the mark and turned out to be so much more helpful than he thought it would be. Alex said, “I found out coaching is all about YOU (me) and everything inside of you and the belief in your own value and how much you have to offer.” One of the most powerful things he learned during his coaching experience with Cat is that you can’t choose from fear; you must choose from commitment. He learned that you have to go much deeper than the words—you must learn how to internalize it and then actually state out loud what choosing from commitment means to you. What Alex has accomplished as a full-time dancer is an example of what so many people dream of or set out to do and turn back in fear or lack of confidence and commitment. If you’re reading this story thinking, “I wish I had that kind of motivation, drive, skill, “luck,” circumstances, etc…listen to Alex’s advice as he looks back on his life and experience and where it has taken him: “Don’t make decisions based on fear: make decisions based on what you enjoy. Any master of any craft can make a living in America. It is your job to work hard and become a master. If you compare yourself to professionals as a beginner, you’re cutting yourself off. We all have to start somewhere, and coaching really helps you to get ‘there.’ “It’s easy to stagnate when you stay in one place for a long time and start planting roots and feeling stuck. A great thing to do is literally move. Go. Go to a different state or a different country for a week, or 2 weeks, or a month, or a year. It always gives you a bird’s eye view of what you really care about and want in life. When you feel that and take that time away to do something totally different, you come back with that new perspective. “We are the least stuck people in the world in the US. If you think you’re stuck, you’re bullshitting yourself. Everyone struggles, whether it’s internal, external, financial, etc., but you have to be realistic and when you feel stuck think about what it is that is making you feel that way, and then think about what you can do to change that. If you want different feelings or connections, you’re going to have to do something that’s inconvenient, and it comes down to making that choice.” These days, you’ll find Alex working as a full-time dancer in Boulder, CO. He splits his time between running Block 1750, teaching classes, traveling, competing, and training in various dance styles. He travels out of the state at least once a month, has 2 international trips planned this year, and still has no weekends. Apparently, he is taking his own advice. Alex Milewski is a professional dancer from Denver Colorado. He started dancing in 2006 and has competed, taught and/or performed throughout the US and around the world in Canada, Australia, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Ecuador, Morocco and more. As a founding member of Block 1750, Alex continues developing his passion for learning all styles of dance and sharing his knowledge with students on a daily basis. To connect with Alex and learn more about Block 1750, visit their website or follow on Instagram.
The Death of the Archaeologist The Archaeologist has to die and we have to be the ones to kill him. Imagine the scene, the windows of the round room are draped in dark velvet curtains, and a porcelain white altar stands proudly in the middle of the room. Several hooded figures slowly raise an ageing body on top of the altar, adjusting hands to hold roman coins in the palms. Ceremonial curved daggers glint in faint candle light as the last conspirator sharpens their blade. There is just enough silence to put anyone on edge, the faint rustle of cloak and soft inhalations were the only sounds to betray their owners’ presence. The knife falls and the deed is done. The new dawn will shine through the window and with faces pressed against the glass, all will finally take control themselves. The body is of The Archaeologist. Just as Nietsche once pronounced “God is dead… And we have killed him”, we must prepare ourselves for the same maddening cry. It is no wonder in this postmodern (or should I say post-postmodern) world, that we as archaeologists must ask ourselves of our own direction and purpose. This piece is also part inspired by the conversation recently had on the CRM archaeology podcast and Chris Websters blog piece. Archaeology’s own past is as interesting as the material remains it studies, from cultural history through processual archaeology and its rebellious child, post-processualism. How do we move forward and where is our next paradigm shift? How can we appropriately move forward as archaeologists if we find ourselves languishing in codes and practices that are already decades old? And finally, when did money become such a huge talking point in archaeology? To begin this deconstruction we must look out from our institutes and companies. It seems that the spirit of archaeology is often marred by the worst of our interactions with the public; take for example the recent fight at Stonehenge for access during solstices, which has put druids against archaeologists. Despite the silliness of the leader’s alleged reincarnated status (King Arthur Pendragon, of course), the arrival of 36,000 people at the site during the 2014 summer solitice is nothing to scoff at. Indeed, it is obvious from the article that King Arthur believes that the damage described by conservationists is merely a ploy to keep people away. I don’t believe myself that archaeologists want to ruin anyone’s fun but this situation seems to lack any negotiation and discussion. Archaeology to archaeologists has a certain set of values and ideas, which in my experience they hold to very strongly. It seems to me that calling yourself an archaeologist can be an issue for some people, especially when they stipulate certain requirements. I have to wonder, however, why these requirements exist; why does someone have to have a degree, or several months fieldwork or half a dozen papers published? Is it the merit one receives for being an archaeologist? Is it because they haven’t toiled for the number of years necessary, to be considered one of us? Surely we cannot be afraid that one person could take away our whole identity? Then again, archaeologists on TV are few and far between, and therefore could each one represent their first contact with archaeology? In that case everyone ought to be an archaeologist. In all seriousness, there are people who have degrees and do cultural resource management, and their hard work shouldn’t go unnoticed; however archaeology’s distance to the general public stunts any real growth of value for the public. Archaeology is a vibrant and alive area of work, full of energy and passion; anyone I’ve met who has studied or worked as an archaeologist loves what they do. The ultimate combination of manual labour with the technicality of science and cerebral working of interpretation. In many ways archaeology is a meta-subject, a renaissance subject – picking the fruit of other areas of research in order to better understand the world it explores, but also to better understand itself. We should celebrate this “gay science” (thanks Nietszhe), this yearning endeavour of something wonderful and great that concerns itself not only with the past but with the present and future as well. The recent sobering images of broken history and smashed up statues in Mosul are, for many, the shocking realisation of the fragility of antiquity; it is often said that archaeology is a destructive process and that in using some techniques we “destroy” archaeological material to understand it better. And although I hasten to condemn the actions taken by these people in Mosul, I try to imagine what difference a world used to archaeology would be. Do objects suddenly gain value when under threat? As if through some vain hope we may extend their lives just enough that we can glimpse the tiniest bit of evidence? That these objects may lie centuries untouched in glass cases and storage boxes until hammers and chisels arrive? Ultimately archaeology needs to be readdressed and reformed once again. It can no longer be seen as a distant, luxury pastime, but must be a necessity and not only to archaeologists. That is why we all must be archaeologists together, understanding all the twists and turns of time and bringing all people closer to understanding the passing of time. Although a bitter piece about the prevalence of sports during our everyday lives, this account of archaeology as a main talking point leaves me with a satisfied smile on my face. Despite its sometimes superficial notes on what archaeologists are, it demonstrates the public knowledge of the Archaeologist. The archetypal site, Pompeii, Palaeontology is archaeology and a sneaky Indiana Jones reference. This is the Archaeologist we must kill. This idea no longer represents archaeology. This is not an archaeologist. And it is not enough for us to scoff and groan at this misshapen form of what we are, instead we must kill and destroy and tear limb from limb until we know exactly who we are. Once we have finally completed this cathartic deed, it will be a new rising dawn for us, a new breath of fresh air and, most importantly, space to breathe; because the closer we keep the word archaeologist, the quicker we will suffocate. Consider the Stonehenge issue once again; were all the 36,000 visitors archaeologically mindful, perhaps damage to the stones could be minimised, if people realised how their actions can irreversibly cause harm to archaeological material. Finally, we need to drive home the idea that archaeology is not just a past time or a burden! It is a passion-fuelled chronicling of everything that humanity is. We are the past, translated and transformed through time, spinning ever further into the realm of the future; as we uncontrollably precess around the orbit of time. In this spin, we occasionally glimpse what came before, but ultimately we are limited in this sight. Most of what came before has rotted into our present and created us as we are today. We must all, as human beings, recognise that the past is important outside of something to study or know. The study of the past is indeed far more than that, we also lose ourselves in the present and future as well.
Re: American War Criminals Living Freely Today Date: July 30, 2017 02:56PM Sources show Americans have been butchering Iraqis like fish in a barrel.Americans have killed over a million civilians, mostly children in Iraq. This is the only peer-reviewed scientific statistic of the war. Politicians have tried to deny it, but the figure still stands. As science, it cannot be dismissed.That makes them terrorists, whether you approve of that action or not. This makes the American soldiers in Iraq international war criminals and also criminals under American law. Had Hitler won WWII (World War II), prosecuting he Nazis would have been much delayed. Similarly, since America is so militarily powerful, it will be hard effect mass prosecution. Only a few lesser lights who stray outside the protection of the USA will be nailed to start. Germany has already started prosecuting. Consider that some Nazis were not prosecuted until they were in their 90s. The political balance of power could change substantially over the next 70 years. Americans involved in the terrorism cannot count on perpetual protection.I have received emails from many Americans utterly convinced that Americans have killed no civilians in Iraq. If anyone did it, in their view, it must have been someone else. Americans are Boy Scouts, the good guys. They could not possibly have done such a thing. Any evidence to the contrary must be lies. Any photos of the alleged evil deeds must be fakes. That does not pass the laugh test. Consider:America has spent a trillion dollars, (that’s forty-thousand dollars per Iraqi man, woman and child) to force them to surrender. That’s one heck of a lot of mayhem.America has the biggest and most advanced military on earth. It has been pounding Iraq since 2003, longer than WWII, and still the Iraqis will not surrender and hand over control of their natural resources (mostly oil) to the Americans.As part of a successful divide and conquer policy, Americans fomented friction between Kurds, Sunnis and Shia and fomented a civil war. They provided arms to feed it. They are thus responsible.Terrorists are people who kill civilians to browbeat them into changing their politics.Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act in 1998. Then Bush took over and the rest is history.29,200 bombs and missiles were used on Iraq in the first month. Killing tens of thousands of civilians in 2003 March.Epidemiologists estimated 650,000 Iraqi deaths by 2006 and by 2008 that figure would reach over a million dead.Air strikes on villages and buildings full of people. Fallujah was declared a "free fire zone" and then thousands of civilians were killed.US occupation deliberately targeted Sunni Muslims killing over ten percent of Sunnis and driving most out of their homes, clear genocide.If Bush was not bad enough, Barak Obama took over and added drones to the already grueling checklist of US war crimes. The US has never paid war reparations to Iraq for aggression, genocide or war crimes.US soldiers in addition to humiliating Iraqi soldiers, now carry out dead-checking, killing wounded fighters and civilians.360 degree rotational fire on streets with civilians by US soldiers is a daily occurrence.Stay Informed:Endless War = Endless Profits (How Congress Profits from War)Americas War Criminals (living freely today)How Much Does the US REALLY OWE?The Super Rich (economic terrorist)Class War (war on the middle-class)American Slavery Today8 Reasons NOT to support the US Military25 Methods of Dis-Information
Paris’s gargantuan new concert hall is two years late, cost three times what it should, and its architect even snubbed its opening ... Oliver Wainwright tackles a tyrannical new mothership Some have compared it to a pile of broken paving stones. Others, to a rusty spaceship crash-landed on the edge of the city. The architect of Paris’s new Philharmonie concert hall, Jean Nouvel, promised that it would be “one of the most remarkable symphonic buildings existing.” Remarkable indeed, for its escalating budgets, endless delays and bitter rows, which climaxed this week when Nouvel boycotted the inauguration of his own building, accusing his client of “contempt for architecture, for the profession and for the architect of the most important French cultural program of the new century.” Running two years late and three times over its original budget, the €390m concert hall was still surrounded by an army of workmen frantically fixing cladding panels to the facade when the conductor took to his dais on Wednesday evening. But Nouvel was conspicuously absent. “The architecture is martyred, the details sabotaged,” he wrote in a blistering editorial in Le Monde that day, describing the finished result as a kind of architecture “that oscillates between counterfeiting and tampering”. Looming above the Parc de la Villette in the east of the city like one of George Lucas’s menacing starships, the building certainly seems to embody the anguish it has caused both architect, client and taxpayer. It is a tyrannical hulk of a thing, its gargantuan grey shell wrenched to and fro as if battered by an intergalactic skirmish, sooty scorch marks burnt across its crumpled mass. It rises up in a series of tilted plates, clad with interlocking bird-shaped aluminium tiles, designed to draw visitors up from the park along zigzagging routes to the rooftop, where panoramic views can be had, with space for 700 people to picnic on its elevated plateau. Paris asked for a concert hall and it got a new mountain to boot, the result of an extraordinary tectonic rupture on the ring road. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Looming hulk … the building towers over Parc de la Villette in the east of Paris. Photograph: Oliver Wainwright/Guardian Entered via an imposing staircase or up a momentous ramp, the foreboding form is framed with the language of inclusion and accessibility. The building’s location, in the comparatively deprived 19th arrondissement, is part of an effort to engage new audiences, seeing the city’s main symphony venue move from the art deco Salle Pleyel in the posh west side of town. The great wing that crowns the Philharmonie’s summit with a jaunty quiff is described by its director Laurent Bayle as “extending a hand to the banlieues.” The concert programme will be projected on to its aluminium skin, an urban billboard intended to lure people from the rundown eastern suburbs to see what lies within the mysterious mothership. They might be surprised to find not cyborgs but men in bow ties. If it is a bewildering arrival in the city, it finds solace here among a zoo of other architectural misfits. The Parc de la Villette is the work of Bernard Tschumi, French godfather of the punkish deconstructivist style, whose bright red follies dot a landscape punctuated by a plethora of strange experiments from the 80s and 90s. There is a mirrored geodesic dome and a hangar-like science museum, a tensile rubbery performance arena and an undulating conservatoire – and, right next to the Philharmonie, the wild postmodern assemblage of Christian de Portzamparc’s Cité de la Musique, already home to a 1,000-seat concert hall. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Grand entrance … the building is accessed via an imposing staircase. Photograph: CHARLES PLATIAU/REUTERS It feels like Nouvel has arrived late to the party, his big metal mountain still drunk on the same 90s whimsy as its neighbours. There is more than a whiff of François Mitterrand’s grands projets still hanging in the air, and the light-headed architectural exuberance that his cultural programme sponsored, along with a strange feeling of deja vu. For, although you might not have seen anything quite this weird before, the Philharmonie effectively channels the last two decades of architecture’s more extravagant tendencies into one great lump. There is the jagged prow borrowed from Daniel Libeskind, the billowing waves from Zaha Hadid, the chiselled zigzagging rooftop walk from Snøhetta, all tied together with the mishmash bricolage lunacy of Coop Himmelblau – whose contorted Confluence Museum just opened in Lyon, bearing a strong family resemblance to the Philharmonie. It is the kind of arms-length statement architecture that has been incubated in the anything-goes climes of China and the Middle East for the past few years; but it is a shock to the system to see it land in a European capital, on quite such a scale. The result is a greatest-hits mash-up of dictators’ icons, a building that blends the excesses of “starchitectural” culture into one over-seasoned potage. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Massive mountain … the building’s roof will be accessible via a zig-zagging slalom course of switchback ramps. Photograph: Oliver Wainwright/Guardian La Philharmonie de Paris: is this a new musical and social future for Paris? Read more Still, concertgoers say it’s what’s on the inside that counts, and the 2,400-seat auditorium certainly sounds promising from the first night. Reached from the ramping plates that spiral up into the building, it takes the form of an enveloping creamy womb, as soft and seductive as the exterior is angular and aggressive. The acoustics have been praised for their clarity and transparency (thanks to the work of four groups of acoustical engineers), with a warm resonance provided by the vast volume of the space, while retaining a sense of intimacy – you can almost sit close enough to read the percussionist’s score. The seating blocks are arranged on cascading balconies around the stage, in the vineyard model established by Hans Scharoun’s seminal 1963 Berlin Philharmonic, but they are suspended within a much bigger shell, which prolongs the reverberation time and gives the visual impression, thanks to clever lighting tricks, that the audience is hovering in an endless void. The seats are sumptuous – this is first-class space travel – and the room can be reconfigured to accommodate 3,000 for world music and rock concerts. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Intergalactic womb … the main auditorium has been praised for it’s brilliant acoustic properties. Photograph: CHARLES PLATIAU / POOL/EPA Within the twisted bowels of the building there is also a decent-sized exhibition space, two restaurants, six rehearsal rooms and substantial education studios, though some of these spaces feel like a bit of an afterthought, tucked into the awkward folds of the grand gesture. The interiors aren’t completely finished, so it’s hard to judge, but the material finishes seem to be the usual Nouvel palette of brooding boudoir, with hints of S&M in places – including sheets of nails plunging from the ceiling. The architect himself remains adamant that the Philharmonie has “shot itself in both feet” by tampering with his plans and opening too soon, and the compromise is certainly wrought in its details. But, just like its oddball neighbours, it will no doubt win the city’s affections with time, as another bizarre addition to this whimsical cultural theme park, a late-born monument from a bygone era. • This article was amended on 21 January 2015 to clarify that the workmen were frantic, not fanatic.
Am 16.06.2014 20:19, schrieb Bob Tolbert: > On Monday, 16 June 2014 at 17:59:13 UTC, Sönke Ludwig wrote: >> Am 15.06.2014 19:35, schrieb Bob Tolbert: > >> >> One thing that would be nice is support for multiple help screens >> (e.g. one per command). For DUB [1] (or GIT) for example there is one >> main help screen that lists all commands along with common options and >> then one help screen per command that lists the individual arguments, >> options and a summary of what the command does. But maybe for such >> more complex CLIs it starts to be more efficient to use a programmatic >> approach. >> > > if you have a look at the gitD examples, they do just this. If you do > > gitD --help > > you get the general help for gitD, but if you do > > gitD push -h > or > gitD help push > > you get the help for the sub-command "push" > > so doing this with 'dub' would be pretty simple. > > And you don't have to use external sub-commands either. You can parse > the basic args with the general doc string and then based on the > sub-command chosen, re-parse with the options specific to that sub module. > > I haven't looked at the dub source code, but I'd be happy to help sketch > out how this might work there specifically. > > Bob > Ah OK, nice. I was somehow under the impression that all options would have to match exactly with what is in the help text. But nesting works fine like this of course. As for DUB, it probably doesn't make sense to rewrite the CLI now for no particular reason. Its command line interface maybe isn't as concise as a docopt based one, but still does pretty well and also has a few possible advantages, such as direct type validation and automatic assembly of help pages with nested options (the help text includes both, global and command specific options, as well as possible intermediate level options that are shared among several commands). Currently, everything is in a single module (the "framework" and all commands), but that is supposed to be broken up into multiple modules in the future: https:// github.com/ D-Programming- Language/ dub/blob/ master/source/ dub/comm andline.d
IBM is developing a type of memory that it says could one day be faster and more reliable than today's hard drives and flash memory. Called "racetrack," it is a solid-state memory that aims to combine the best attributes of flash, like having no moving parts, and the low cost of hard drives for an inexpensive form of nonvolatile memory that will be stable and durable, said Stuart Parkin, an IBM Fellow. Racetrack memory stores information in thousands of atoms in magnetic nanowires. Without the atoms moving, an electrical charge causes data to move swiftly along a U-shaped pipe that allows data to be read and written in less than a nanosecond, Parkin said. A nanosecond is a billionth of a second and commonly used to measure access time to RAM. The memory reads 16 bits of data through one transistor, so it reads and writes information 100,000 times faster than flash memory, Parkin said. "In flash memory and hard drives, one transistor can access 1 bit, or with flash, maybe 2 or possibly even 4 bits, that's it. We are going to use ... a transistor to access many bits of information." Racetrack is still in its early days. The concept was proposed four or five years ago, Parkin said, and IBM hopes to be able to provide terabytes worth of storage from such devices in a few years. "It will take two to four years to build a prototype in which we build these reading-and-writing elements on a nanoscopic scale. In four years we can perhaps demonstrate it works and then manufacture it," Parkin said. Racetrack memory has no moving parts, it is "virtually unbreakable" and will never wear out, unlike flash drives, which could wear out after 10,000 read-and-write cycles, Parkin said. He likened the U-shaped design of horizontal pipes to a racetrack. The memory keeps atoms constant, making it more durable than hard drives or flash. "Whenever you start to move atoms you have problems and devices wear out from fatigue after a time," Parkin said. Racetrack memory's storage capacity is similar to flash's and may soon exceed hard-drive capacities, Parkin said. Hard disks rotate to access information, while racetrack memory uses an electrical charge to read and write data, so it also uses less electricity, he said. It will be inexpensive to manufacture because fewer transistors will be required and each memory chip will hold thousands of nanowires in a small footprint, Parkin said. The premise behind racetrack memory is spintronics, a technology that manipulates the charge and spin properties of electrons. Using spintronics, hard-drive makers have developed drives that read data from a microscopically small area. Parkin is widely noted for his work on spintronics and helping double the density of hard drives every year. Scientists Albert Fert, of France, and Peter Grunberg, of Germany, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 2007 for their spintronics research.
Directed by Drew Reeves Human sacrifice. Murder. Rape. Mutilation. Cannibalism and suicide. Beneath Shakespeare’s first tragedy, the tale of an ancient Roman’s descent into madness, revenge and redemption, is the careful crafting of the master. With Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare questions the essence of sanity and explores humankind’s capacity for violence and spiritual purity. Two sons of the late Roman Emperor, Saturninus (the elder) and Bassianus, strive to succeed him, but Titus Andronincus, veteran general triumphant against the Goths, is chosen. He has just returned with his prisoners: Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her sons, and Aaron, her Moorish paramour. Heedless of entreaty, Titus orders her eldest son, Alarbus, to be sacrificed to appease the spirits of his own dead sons. He refuses the crown, urging the choice of Saturninus, to whom he gives his daughter Lavinia and yields his Gothic prisoners. Bassianus, secretly pledged to Lavinia, runs off with her; Saturninus, to curb the influence of Titus, announces that he will marry Tamora, who tells him to remain silent while she plans revenge upon the Andronici. In a rush of events orchestrated by Aaron, Tamora’s sons, Demetrius and Chiron, kill Bassianus during a hunt in the forest. They rape Lavinia, cut off her hands and cut out her tongue. Meanwhile, Aaron manages to implicate the sons of Titus in the murder of Bassianus. They are sentenced to death and another son, Lucius, is banished. Titus, already overcome by the plight of Lavinia, is tricked into losing his hand as fruitless ransom for his sons. While Lucius is raising a revenging army among the Goths, the mutilated Lavinia, by the manipulation of a staff in the sand, accuses Chiron and Demetrius. Titus behaves like a mad man, dispatching messages to the gods to redress his wrongs. Tamora has had a black child by Aaron, who removes it for safety; captured by the Gothic army on its way, under Lucius, to attack Rome, he tells the whole story. Tamora, seeking to persuade Titus – whom she regards as merely crazed – to recall Lucius, has come to him dressed as Revenge, with her two sons as Murder and Rape. Having promised to invite “the Empress and her sons” and Saturninus, with Lucius, to a feast, Titus – who has seen through the charade – later kills Chiron and Demetrius and at the banquet serves their flesh baked in a pie. The end is a frenzy in which Lavinia, Tamora, Titus and Saturninus all die. Lucius becomes Emperor and after sentences Aaron to be buried breast-deep and starved to death. -The Pocket Companion to Shakespeare’s Plays by J C Trewin
Editor’s note: Tablet is boycotting coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi to protest the Russian government’s civil rights abuses, particularly with regard to the LGBT community. We are, however, bringing our readers stories about winter sports and athletes who may feature in future, happier Games. Jacob Davis has only been curling for three years, but last week, the 29-year-old materials-science engineer from Boston was scouted by a national squad—Israel’s. Like a sporting Moses, Davis struck his rock, trying to impress delegates from the Israel Curling Federation, a fledgling group that dreams of one day fielding an Israeli Olympic team. While their counterparts from curling powerhouses—Canada, chiefly, but also Great Britain, the sport’s birthplace, the Scandinavian countries, and the United States—were in Sochi, Russia, preparing for the opening of the Olympic curling competition this week, the Israelis were touring North America, stopping at places like the Broomstones Curling Club in Wayland, Mass., looking for Jewish curlers like Davis, who could easily take up Israeli citizenship and represent the Jewish state in international competition. Davis doesn’t think he has the talent to win a U.S. title—“but maybe this could be my back door into more competitive curling,” he said. Israel, a warm-weather country, has a long history of recruiting Jewish winter athletes from abroad. Ever since the Ukrainian-born figure skater Michael Shmerkin competed for Israel at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, the country has steadily increased its participation in the quadrennial cold-weather sporting event by enlisting foreign-born Jews. This month, Israel is sending five athletes to Sochi: a Belgian-born alpine skier, a Ukrainian-born short-track speed skater, and three figure skaters, one American by birth and the other two Ukrainian. It’s the first time Israeli athletes have qualified for three different sports at the same Winter Games. The 15-year-old Israel Curling Federation hopes to add curling to the list for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Israel joined the World Curling Federation in 1999, as part of an initiative by Yosef Goldberg, mayor of the northern Galilee town of Metula—one of the few places in Israel where snow isn’t an exceptional event—to put the country on the winter sporting map. Yet, for the better part of a decade, the 64 curling stones donated by the WCF sat mostly unused. Ice-hockey players at the Canada Centre in Metula would occasionally toss a few rocks after their scrimmage, but few people in Israel took the sport seriously. In 2008, after the ICF fell behind on its membership dues, the WCF kicked Israel out of the global club. Today, after a five-year campaign to rebuild the ICF, the federation boasts around 200 members who curl at ice rinks in Metula, Holon, Ashdod, and Jerusalem. There’s even a wheelchair-curling program for disabled veterans. (One Israeli wheelchair curler, Tzipi Zipper, spent a few days last month training in Madison, Wis., with the U.S. Paralympic team.) In recognition of these efforts, the WCF voted last September to reinstate Israel into its midst. In principle, the country can now play in international bonspiels, as curling tournaments are known. They just need to find enough high-caliber curlers to field a team. * Until the late 1950s, Jews weren’t even allowed membership at many of the most prestigious curling clubs of North America. Just as in golf and country clubs at the time, an unwritten “gentleman’s agreement” brand of anti-Semitism ran deep in curling. In response, Jewish curling buffs founded their own clubs. “This was a real kibbutz for a lot of us,” said Mel Wyne, 79, a financial planner in Edmonton who curled at the city’s Menorah Curling Club, which was established in 1947 with 56 members. “It solidified the small Jewish community.” In Winnipeg—which had a larger Jewish population—the Maple Leaf Curling Club formed in 1933. From a humble start of just eight curlers who rented ice at another facility, the Maple Leaf’s membership grew to the point that by 1946, the predominantly Jewish club could afford to purchase its own building. My grandmother Eva Dolgin served as president of the ladies’ league at the Maple Leaf in the 1950s. For years, she curled in the legendary B’nai B’rith Bonspiel, the world’s largest Jewish curling tournament. The annual Winnipeg event attracted hundreds of participants from across Western Canada and the Midwestern United States. “It was very popular and got a lot of press coverage,” recalled Martin Buchwald, 77, a retired architect from Winnipeg and former president of the Maple Leaf. “I think the reporters liked to cover it because they got a lot to eat.” Although the Maple Leaf had a handful of non-Jewish members, the B’nai B’rith tournament was open exclusively to Jews. “We were the victims of discrimination by a group that had been discriminated against,” said Doug Strange, 68, a retired lawyer in Winnipeg who isn’t Jewish but joined the Maple Leaf as a teenager because that’s where his Jewish friends from high school played. “It was kind of ironic.” If there was ever a Jackie Robinson of Jewish curling, it was Terry Braunstein. Braunstein started curling at the Maple Leaf. But as a teenager, he also played at the Granite Curling Club, the oldest and most established club in Manitoba—which at the time had no Jewish members. In March 1958, Braunstein and his younger brother Ron—both still junior competitors—beat out adult teams to win the Manitoba provincial title, with Terry playing skip. The next fall, the Braunsteins were granted full adult membership at the Granite. Other Jews soon followed. “When we went to curl there we were made to feel a little uncomfortable,” recalled Ken Neuman, 75, a dentist in Vancouver who curled with the Braunsteins in the early 1960s. “But after a couple of years, there wasn’t any of that [anti-Semitism] visible.” The 1960s were a time of transition for Jewish curling. Some Jews continued to curl out of their own clubs, where they fielded competitive squads: Members of the Maple Leaf, led by Hersh Lerner and Bob Robinson, won three provincial championships throughout the decade. Others found success at non-Jewish clubs: Barry Naimark, on a team from the Vancouver Curling Club, won both the Canadian and world championships in 1964. A year later, the Braunstein brothers won the Brier, Canada’s national men’s curling title, and came second in the worlds while representing the Granite. By the end of the 1960s, however, membership at exclusively Jewish clubs started to wane. Fewer Jews were interested in curling, and those who were had moved out of the areas where Jewish immigrants historically lived—the North End of Winnipeg, for example, where the Maple Leaf was located—and toward more affluent neighborhoods where other curling clubs could be found. In 1971, the Maple Leaf sold its facility to an apostolic church. A similar fate befell the Menorah Curling Club in Edmonton in 1969. * The idea to enlist North American curlers for Israel was initially sparked by an inquiry from Jeff Lutz, a marketing director and avid curler who won a silver medal and three bronze medals in the U.S. College Curling Championships as a student at Syracuse University. In 2009, with the Vancouver Winter Olympics just a year away, the Michigan native decided he wanted to compete at the Games—and he thought that offering to represent Israel might be a way to get there. “I said, ‘Hey, I’m a Jewish curler, I’m from Detroit, I can build a team,’ ” Lutz recalled. But Lutz says he was told that, to compete internationally under the Magen David flag, he would eventually have to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. “It was a no-go for me,” said Lutz, who was 25 at the time. “I love the country, but that was obviously a scary proposition.” Continue reading: A real chance? Last fall, when Lutz noticed posts on his Twitter feed congratulating Israel on rejoining the WCF, he decided to revisit the idea—in part because, at 29, he believes he’d be exempted from any military obligations if he qualified for an Israeli squad. Sochi was obviously out of the question, but if Israel can successfully form a team by May, the country’s curlers could be squaring off against Iceland, Luxembourg, Serbia, and other Group C countries as soon as October, at the 2014 European Curling Championships—a necessary first step on the path to qualifying for the 2018 Winter Games. With the ICF’s development director, Simon Pack, Lutz helped organize the North American recruiting tour at curling clubs in Boston, Chicago, New York, and two cities in southwestern Ontario: Windsor and nearby Leamington. These places are not exactly hotbeds of curling, let alone Jewish curling. And turnout at several of the clubs, including at Broomstones, was sparse. Pack, who holds a PhD in sports management and works for the Municipal Sports Authority of Jerusalem, said the cities were chosen based on where people showed the most interest but added that he hopes to soon visit more clubs in Canada, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Pack himself is new to curling, as is his colleague Sharon Cohen, the ICF’s chief executive. At the recruiting event in Boston last week, Cohen videotaped Davis and the other curlers who turned up and plans to send the footage to more knowledgeable coaches, who can help pick promising candidates. Pack concedes it’s not exactly a rigorous tryout process but said the ICF has to start somewhere. The recruiting tour is in many ways just a grassroots awareness-raising effort for the ICF—but Pack said he’s serious about trying to compete. “The goal, for sure, is to get at least a men’s team together to compete in the Euro C tournament,” he said. There are some examples from which the ICF can draw inspiration—and caution—as it looks to compete internationally. In 2009, Brazil challenged the United States for a spot at the men’s world curling championships. The stronger American team summarily beat the South American squad in the three-game match-up: 13-2, 13-2, 11-5. That doesn’t bode well for Israel’s chances against the curling heavyweights of the world. But last year, a team from Hungary—a country not known for its curling prowess and one that’s relatively new to the sport—took home the gold at the annual world championship for mixed doubles curling, a form of the sport that some are now lobbying to make an Olympic event. Yet finding any four people who have the curling talent to win on a global level would be hard under any circumstances. Finding four people like that who are also Jewish and willing to make aliyah could be near impossible. Kyle Doering is probably the most accomplished up-and-coming Jewish curler in the world. The 18-year-old from the West Kildonan Curling Club in Winnipeg won the Optimist Under-18 International Curling Championships the last two years in a row, and his team came third at the 2012 Canadian Junior Curling Championships. Doering’s mother Bonnie is Jewish, he went to Jewish elementary school, and he dreams of visiting Israel one day. A freshman business student at the University of Winnipeg, he said curling could be his ticket to the Holy Land. “If I had an offer from the Israeli team I’d definitely consider it,” he said in an interview. But, as with Lutz and other prospects, the possibility of having to fulfill military service obligations remains a major stumbling block. “That would be the deal-breaker,” Doering said. Pack said that young athletes can usually defer service, but rarely get out of it entirely. “From an ideological stance, I don’t want someone to get Israeli citizenship just to curl,” he said. Despite the odds, Terry Braunstein, now 74 and serving as an unofficial adviser to the ICF, remains optimistic about Israel’s chances. “I think it would be quite possible that, if they found four really good curlers who have the basic abilities to begin with, they could qualify,” he said. “They’d have to work at it, there’s no question about it, but I think there are ways they could do it.” Lutz agrees. “There’s a real chance here—and I know I’ve heard the Jamaican bobsled reference before,” he said, alluding to the comically bad bobsledding team made famous by the 1993 film Cool Runnings. With an Israeli curling squad, he went on, “If you get the right people there, they could turn some heads.” *** Like this article? Sign up for our Daily Digest to get Tablet Magazine’s new content in your inbox each morning. Elie Dolgin is a member of the Broomstones Curling Club and a science writer living in Somerville, Massachusetts. His Twitter feed is @eliedolgin.
‘TIS the season to be jolly … or not. Christmas in New York is one of the most magical experiences. Fairy lights line the streets, kids marvel at the themed window displays along Fifth Avenue, Central Park is as picturesque as it looks in the movies, and ice skaters frolic along the rink at Bryant Park. Ah yes, there’s nothing like a New York Christmas. That is, until you say it. The one salutation that you’re not supposed to say. “Merry Christmas”. That’s right. It came as a shock to me, too. I was first warned about wishing someone a Merry Christmas when I rolled up to the Big Apple, from Australia, in December 2014. A new friend warned me it was politically correct to instead wish a someone a “happy holiday”. The revelation hit me after the fact when I was in a cab and wished the driver a Merry Christmas. He groaned at me and yelled a few expletives that can’t be described here. I was in shock. How could such a common phrase be so inflammatory? “It’s one of those things, you want to say Merry Christmas but you don’t want to offend anybody, and that’s why people say happy holidays,” an American friend explained later. “I just say have a good holiday to people, I don’t like to, but at the same time, you don’t want be an a**hole. It’s stupid.” media_camera Angry Santa is in the house. A recent Australian export experienced a similar situation. He was at a “holiday party” (that’s what they call it here), when he wished someone a Merry Christmas from across the table. He was swiftly escorted away by a friend and warned, “It’s not Merry Christmas here, it’s happy holidays”. Granted, New York City is a clash of cultures; its Jewish population outnumbers Australia by nearly two million (120,000 in Australia in comparison to New York’s 2,028,200), so political correctness is key. But even ABC News in America is calling it a “wintry culture war” and the “the season of mixed messages”. “Any effort to be all-inclusive by referring to the “holidays” has riled those anxious to keep Christ at the centre of the season and even sparked political battles,” reads the story. Yet the saying isn’t even about Christ for me; it’s a warm gesture, a greeting and just something nice to say to people. I don’t get the hooha? The salutation has disappeared to such a point, my friend tells me, that “it’s a rarity if someone says Merry Christmas to you, straight up. It’s kind of like a pleasant surprise almost. At this point people have just got used to saying happy holidays. “It depends on the person you’re talking to, where they’re from and their whole perspective on it.” Perhaps this will be a Blue Christmas after all. Elvis Presley - Blue Christmas - youngma@news.com.au Originally published as You can’t say this in New York
Being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high quality content. Please support us! Palm oil is a vegetable oil derived from the reddish pulp of palm fruit from a plant native to west and Southwest Africa, while also existing in Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Sumatra, and Central Africa. Most people associate “palms” with palm trees, even though within their botanical family also exists shrubs and vines. It’s estimated that humans have used these fascinating plants for our own devices for as long as 5,000 years or more, and in more recent times (within the last hundred years) the industry for palm oil has sprung up primarily from Malaysia and Indonesia. Advertisement Needless to say, there is a long and engaging history behind our use of palm oil for food purposes. It even has an interesting history as far as non-food purposes are concerned, such as its use in the creation of napalm during World War 2! As fascinating as a historian might find palm oil… an ethicist, wildlife conservationist, or environmentalist is like to find the current usage of palm oil simply appalling. As you may have heard, there are some dire concerns which bring into question the moral validity of our vast use of palm oil for food production. As palm oil is one of the world’s most popular vegetable oils, we have to admit that this isn’t just a small-scale problem to be dealt with. And though some companies might be proposing “sustainable palm oil” solutions as awareness for palm oil problems grows, it’s best not to be taken in by these hollow promises and instead learn the facts of why and how to avoid palm oil usage for yourself. 1. Know Why You’re Looking Out for It Why you don’t want to consume or purchase palm oil can be summed up by the three big ethical categories: environmental, animal, and humanitarian reasons. Advertisement Advertisement As WWF global reports on the environmental and social impacts of palm oil production: “Large areas of tropical forests and other ecosystems with high conservation values have been cleared to make room for vast monoculture oil palm plantations.” Establishing this monoculture has some serious negative impacts on our environment on both local and global scales, such as soil erosion, air pollution, water pollution, and aiding in our man-made negative impact on climate change. Advertisement As for the social angle, palm oil plantations can pose disastrous consequences for the rights and livelihoods of local communities, their personhood often being ignored for expansion of the palm oil industry. And lastly, animal wildlife suffers greatly as they are injured, killed, and displaced during deforestation. Orangutans have become some of the biggest victims of palm oil, and are killed with guns or machetes during implementation and harvesting. Advertisement It’s estimated that “over 50,000 orangutans have already died as a result of deforestation due to palm oil in the last two decades”, with countless other animals alongside them. With the sort of sacrifices we make and lives we take from both human and animal kind in order to obtain this substance, if you didn’t know any better you’d think that our very lives depended on palm oil. 2. Know Where To Look Where you’re likely to find palm oil is a matter much more difficult than asking why you shouldn’t. As stated before, palm oil is a vastly popular product for food production. Palm oil has also gained popularity in bath and beauty products like soaps and cleansers. Advertisement The most likely place you’ll find palm oil in your diet and lifestyle is in processed snacks like chocolate, cookies, ice cream, margarine, granola bars, candy, chips, crackers, pastries, and frozen pizza. When buying any of these products, it takes only a second to check the back of the product and scan the ingredient list to see if palm oil makes an appearance. As for personal care and cosmetics items, palm oil can be in just about anything, so it may be easier to search up companies that as a rule do not make use of palm oil in their products than reading the back of every bath and beauty product you intend to purchase. Of course, the same rule of thumb can be applied to food products as well, but usually only needs to be applied to certain groups of food products – again, snacks and other processed foods. An easy way to avoid accidental purchases of products containing palm oil is to make these sorts of snacks at home instead of buying pre-packaged versions. Homemade cookies, pizza, trail mixes, and more may not only make it easier to avoid palm oil, but can also allow you to make healthier choices. Not all homemade meals are necessarily healthier than store-bought ones, but it isn’t hard to turn an otherwise health hazardous food into something better for your health. Choosing to make more meals from scratch at home while quickly scanning ingredients lists for anything you can’t make provides an effective method of cutting palm oil out of your life. Advertisement 3. Know What To Replace it With Some of the biggest palm oil offenders are, unfortunately, also some of the tastiest and most useful. Everyone’s favorite cream filled favorite cookie known as oreos, while not containing any animal products, certainly can’t be considered ethical or “vegan” considering the sort of harm they cause with the use of palm oil. Luckily, it’s possible to make a healthier oreo at home or simply look for an oreo knock-off brand that doesn’t list palm oil as one of its ingredients. And while I scream, you scream, we all scream for Tofutti rice dreamsicles, a large number of Tofutti products make use of palm oil in their production, leaving us to turn to other sources of ethical ice cream or cheese like Vegusto or So Delicious and other palm oil free companies for our pleasures. If you can’t find a good palm-oil free company to help you replace some tasty or essential products in your life, consider making them at home using whole ingredients in bulk. Lastly: don’t sweat it if you buy a product only to later discover it has palm oil in it. Accidents happen, mistakes happen. We’re only human. The road to an ethical lifestyle has many potholes along the way, but they don’t have to stop you dead in your tracks. All we can do is try our hardest to avoid palm oil wherever it may lie and lead by example. Image source: WWF
Day 3 of Federal Trial: Medical Marijuana Provider Faces 35 Years To Life By Miguel AKA Miggy420 When it comes to marijuana, I judge the law, not the person — and in the case of Lance Gloor, Not Guilty. Lance Gloor’s case is still looming and on Monday, Day 3 was just another example of misguided justice threatening a man’s life, not with a gun, but with time. In today’s episode of The Wrong and Injustice the usual cast members have appeared. A begrudging federal prosecutor who doesn’t want to let an innocent man go, and a man who did everything he could to follow in accordance with state law — to be a law abiding citizen. I arrived while the trial was in process, a former co-worker/partner testifying Lance was not a part of certain operations the prosecution was searching for. In fact, the prosecutor Vince Lombardi showed a sign of angst in his voice as he was trying to pull the words he wanted to hear from the witness but the witness was emphatic that what he said was truth. After I got settled in and observed what was going on it became clear to me this is not a case about justice but power and money, instead this about prosecuting a marijuana process used by every individual since 1998 when medical marijuana became legal. The biggest fail on this type of prosecution is the evidence presented all looks like what is presently occurring in the recreational market in the state of Washington. Videos from the “dangerous” undercover operations and the pre-raid operations showed smoking guns like medicated cookie dough, medicated soups, medicated brownies, and the ever dangerous medicated lollipop. The Federal prosecution has proved a marijuana dispensary in Washington was running like a marijuana dispensary in Washington. The next testimony I witnessed was a Sheriff that was part of one of the multiple dispensary raids from 2011. His testimony asserted that the place where he was taking away marijuana flower product and items infused with marijuana were the only items found. There were 95 photographs of shelfs full of mason jars, lotions, food products, and other marijuana related items; nothing here that couldn’t be seen in a medical or recreational shop presently operating. Following this Sheriff’s testimony was another officer who assisted in the raid at KPN Cross and again his testimony was that everything we saw on video was true and accurate which was footage showing a shop that could be presently anywhere in Washington. The next was a past business partner, James Lucas. Here the prosecution still tries to villainize the Washington state marijuana process of referring to payments as donations, criticizing and questioning the patient status, and creating a money laundry scenario when it’s the banking system that has bailed and banned on people in the marijuana industry. The biggest smoking gun here are bank records that James claims to have never seen. In the records were large deposits and withdraws were made as in the nature of a day to day business but the prosecution put it all on Lance since James claimed to only have helped create the account with his signature on record but paid no mind to the account at all since he was “busy.” Besides being a shitty businessman who doesn’t check bank accounts he signed on to, James Lucas testified that after the raids and Lance was running another dispensary that James sought out Lance for “product” to treat his mother-in-law’s cancer. Yes, Virginia, marijuana is medicine and safer than alcohol. Next was a woman who claimed she was duped and told she was the new owner of Key Peninsula; overall she just sounded like a disgruntled worker. To sum up her testimony; after the raids she thought she was the new owner of Key Peninsula, after filling out some paperwork but she claims to have not receive pay for the last three months. Besides the mix message of being an owner that doesn’t get paid, the next smoking gun from her testimony was the magical ATM that appeared from nowhere and she didn’t know why; the answer here is the banking industry’s inability and fear to recognize the marijuana industry and their fear of the Federal ability to freeze funds. The Federal prosecution is trying to paint Lance with a bad brush as being a Scarface of marijuana but really he’s just part of handful of people who were part of multiple shops and has been chosen to be the Washington state example so the rest of the industry is scared. They’re attacking the terminology when making a purchase, the terminology of calling it a donation. They’re attacking the qualification process by leading the witnesses by saying “You know not all these people buying marijuana were sick,” as if each witness went to any form of medical school. They’re questioning why credit cards were used and not used and demonizing cash only when that’s what is presently happening in Washington because the credit card industry fears Federal government ramifications. Before the end of the day another undercover testified, this one being an actual DEA agent who went through the whole process of receiving a prescription before being allowed past through the doors and after him an officer who was there for the raids providing more footage of a shop that could be anywhere. Something that did stand out during the slideshow of photos and that was a food drive box. I find it sad when marijuana establishments give back to the community only to be easily demonized by 90 years of propaganda. This case is just another black eye on Lady Liberty and justice. I was told and chastised in prior articles for supporting Lance but the fact of the matter here is I’m here to judge the law not the man when it comes to a marijuana case. What Lance is guilty of is associating himself with shitty business people and perhaps believing in the Washington state judicial system. Lance got raided and try to start again, in the immortal words of the original Vince Lombardi, “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
THE man who was critical in looking after the NRL’s battlers and its superstars now believes it’s time the middle men get some serious cash. Senior NRL figure Paul Gallen was a critical contributor in the last collective bargaining agreement in 2014, but has opted not to weigh in on the latest negotiations. But that hasn’t stopped the Cronulla captain from speaking up for the game’s average Joe to earn a bigger slice of the game’s record $1.8 billion broadcast deal from 2018 onwards. “The biggest thing back then was the minimum wage, getting security on minimum wage and also contract security. We managed to get both of them,” Gallen told AAP. The increase in salary cap, player safety and welfare, as well as personal development opportunities and a retirement fund are believed to be the biggest topics in current talks. But Gallen insists there also needs to be more financial opportunities for players who are closer to earning bottom dollar than they are to matching it financially with the elite. The 35-year-old believes the current $80,000 minimum wage is more than substantial, and that the big-money earners are also being adequately looked after. “I think the biggest change has to be to the middle tier players. Guys who play week in, week out that are in the top 17 every week, that do their job every week. “Some of these blokes are barely over minimum wage. Some bloke might be on $120k — they should be on way more than that. “The minimum wage is good where it’s at — you give any bloke that comes out of school $80k, it’s a fair whack. You get paid that because your profile isn’t as big as some of the others. “The money going to the players at the top should stay as it is. They’ll always command the biggest money. They’ve just got to work out how to get the blokes in the middle more money.” Download the new FOX SPORTS App to get the latest news and scores from your NRL team.
The selfie that has gone viral in social media taken by Muhammad Hasrul Haris Mohd Radzself with UiTM Pro Chancellor Tan Sri Dr Arshad Ayub, during the university’s 82nd convocation. KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) has suspended a diploma graduate for two years for “humiliating” the university by taking a selfie with the pro chancellor on stage while receiving his certificate. Local daily Harian Metro reported today the public university’s Deputy Chancellor Tan Sri Prof Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar as saying that the student was rude and ignorant of Malay customs. “His actions humiliated UiTM,” Sahol told the Malay-language daily yesterday. “Students were briefed on the guidelines before entering the hall, including a warning against taking selfies on stage. He should have respected the ceremony and the lecturers. This is an important custom that is under the spotlight,” he added. Muhammad Hasrul Haris Mohd Radzi, the student who received a diploma in photography from UiTM Lendu, Malacca, apologised and said he “couldn’t control his excitement” after receiving the certificate, the newspaper reported. The 21-year-old’s self portrait with Pro Chancellor Tan Sri Dr Arshad Ayub, with students in the background at UiTM’s 82nd convocation, has since gone viral. Harian Metro did not report when the selfie was taken, but UiTM’s website lists May 13 and May 14 as the dates of the convocation in Malacca. “I don’t think it’s wrong of me to ‘capture’ this historical moment after working hard in the last two and a half years to get this diploma,” Muhammad Hasrul Haris was quoted as saying by the daily. He added that he was unaware of the selfie ban by the university. Sahol reportedly said this was the second incident and that the university had also taken the same action against another student. “I hope this case will be a lesson to all students so that the same incident that has tainted UiTM’s name will not happen again,” he said. When asked if the suspension was too harsh, he said: “Let them call me cruel, but I’d rather let a child die, than lose our customs (Biar mati anak, jangan mati adat).”
Economic Thought Question What if every worker received minimum wage? by Marshall Brain Here is the thought question for today: What if every worker in the United States got paid minimum wage for the work they do? It doesn't matter who you are or what you do. Whether you are working in McDonald's mopping the floor or you are the CEO of McDonald's. Whether you deliver the mail for the President or you are the President of the United States. No matter who you are, you make $5.15 an hour for the work you do, and everyone's total income is capped at $11,000 per year. What would happen if we did that? The reason why we might choose to do that is because the wages of most workers are headed in that direction anyway. Corporations all over the nation have been pushing worker wages down to the minimum wage level: We all know about the burger places. They have created a burger assembly line where millions of restaurant workers now make minimum wage. In the 1990s, HMOs started pushing the wages paid to physicians downward for the first time ever. Minimum wage can't be far away for doctors. Southwest Airlines built a new discount travel model by paying pilots and flight attendants less than industry norms for the work they do. Now the whole industry is following Southwest's lead because they have no choice if they want to compete. Wages across the airline industry are falling. Once that becomes the norm, someone else will come along to beat Southwest and cut wages again. Many commuter airline pilots make near minimum wage already. It's just a matter of time before everyone in the airline industry is making minimum wage. Wal-Mart took away business from the small town downtown and hired all those store owners for minimum wage. See Also About the Author Join the discussion on Reddit About the Author Robotic Nation Robots in 2015 Robotic Freedom Robotic Nation FAQ Robotic Nation Evidence Basic Income Discard your body Manna - the book Science on the Brain Careful Parents Star Wars Economic Thought Questions How God Works How to make a million dollars The Teenager's Guide Reviews Salon Wired LiveScience LATimes Editorial Geek of the week Thanks for visiting today, Wages everywhere are under pressure and headed toward minimum wage anyway. Why don't we simply short circuit the process and take everyone down to minimum wage now, in one fell swoop? It would be a lot less painful that way. And let's include CEOs, executives and politicians in the process. If a major corporation cannot afford to pay a clerk more than minimum wage because of pressure from competitors, then there is certainly no way the same corporation can afford to pay the CEO and other executives $10 million a year. The practicalities and realities of our business environment should apply to every part of the business, not just to one segment of the workers. Everyone, from the CEO on down, should make minimum wage to maximize the corporation's competitiveness. No one is spared: The president of the United States, all the politicians and bureaucrats, CEOs and executives, business owners, lawyers, doctors and dentists� everyone. If you get a paycheck, you get minimum wage. No exceptions. What would happen if we did that? Perhaps most importantly, it would save the economy a lot of money. According to the New York Times Almanac, businesses hire 105 million people per year and pay them just over $3 trillion per year (the figure does not include government employees), for an average wage of roughly $30,000 per year. At $5.15 an hour and 40 hours a week, all 105 million of these employees would start making a uniform $10,700 per year at minimum wage. By doing that, the $3 trillion figure would fall to $1 trillion. The economy would save $2 trillion every year. The drop in prices would be spectacular, because $2 trillion represents $20,000 per U.S. household. Something that costs $10 today might see its price drop to $4.00 or less. Even though we would all be making minimum wage, that wage would buy far more in the economy than it does today. Everyone in the country would be able to live a comfortable middle class lifestyle. What would happen to highly paid people like TV/movie stars, corporate executives, sports stars, radio personalities and so on? Their salaries would go from millions of dollars a year to $10,700 a year. Would it be a catastrophe? No. In all likelihood, absolutely nothing would happen. Is Rush Limbaugh going to give up his soapbox if he got paid less? Probably not. I imagine he likes the fame and influence his show gives him. He is going nowhere. Are Peter Jennings, Dan Rather and Tom Brockaw going to quit? Probably not. They like the fame too. The stars of popular TV shows? No� they cannot get into the best restaurants, have adoring fans or get Emmy awards unless they appear on their shows. But if they do quit, it is not a problem. Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show, and we got Jay Leno. It was not a catastrophe. If Dave Letterman leaves Late Night because he does not like the pay, we'd get another host. It would be OK. There are thousands and thousands of people who would love to have Dave's, Rush's or Jay's jobs. Would CEOs leave? Maybe. But if they are good CEOs, they love what they are doing building companies and leading people. If they don't want to do it unless they get paid $15 million a year, that probably tells us something about them. We probably don't want them leading a company anyway if they are only in it for the money. If we replace them with people who actually care about the job and the company, we would all be better off. We could have completely avoided Enron, Worldcom, etc. and the resulting stock market collapse if we had had good, honest people filling the CEO roles in those companies. As you start to think about this new minimum wage reality, you begin to realize something. Most people -- especially the ones who are highly paid today -- would stay in their current jobs. The perks of fame and power would keep them there. So here's the question: Why isn't supply and demand governing the pay of CEOs, TV celebrities, sports stars and supermodels, driving their wages down just like everyone else? Think about the President of the United States. We pay him $400,000 a year. Thousands would kill for that position, so why pay the president anything? Will the winner of the presidential election reject the job just because the pay is only $10,700 a year? Of course not. Most people would gladly take the role of "most powerful person in the world" regardless of the pay. The same goes for members of the Senate and House -- why don't we pay them minimum wage now? Thousands would love to take their places in Congress. There is infinite supply and little demand, so why do we keep boosting their pay? We use this "supply and demand" logic to force worker pay down to minimum wage -- why not apply supply and demand to the upper echelon too? No one wants to scrub toilets or take out the trash at McDonald's. On the other hand, lots of people would LOVE to have the upper echelon jobs, so why are their salaries any more than minimum wage? Here is the fascinating side effect that a purely minimum wage economy would have. It is subtle, but it is something to consider. If all the jobs paid the same, many people would go do things they've always wanted to do. For example, some people would love to teach, but they can't stomach the fact that teachers make such low amounts of money. Now the stigma would be gone -- teaching would pay just as much as everything else. A minimum wage economy would give people a lot more freedom in choosing their career paths, and might lead to a lot more job satisfaction. Which brings you to a funny point� Think about what would happen. If all jobs in the U.S. paid minimum wage, the President, politicians, bureaucrats, CEOs and executives would stay in their seats. They'd never give up the power. So would all the TV, movie and sports stars. They'd never give up the fame. So would all the scientists, engineers, writers, photographers and so on. They aren't doing it for the money anyway -- they love being creative. In fact, in all likelihood nothing would change except for one thing. No one working in the worst, most disgusting jobs would stay in those jobs. The garbage men. The people scrubbing the toilets at the fast food restaurants. Things like that. Those are the jobs that you would really have trouble filling. In fact, you might have to create a special exemption to the universal minimum wage law. Certain jobs that are minimum wage jobs now -- they would actually have to pay more than minimum wage to get anyone to take these jobs. The entire pay hierarchy that we see today would flip over, and the jobs that pay the worst today would start paying the most. It is fascinating actually. It shows you how strange the economy has become. If supply and demand were truly regulating wages, the people with the best jobs would get paid the least, and the people with the worst jobs would get paid the most. So why is it the other way around? The only reason the rich get paid any more than the rest of us is because they are in the position to write themselves checks. They are handing money to themselves in ever-increasing amounts. This process is concentrating wealth at an ever increasing rate. The only reason that the people with the most boring, most disgusting jobs get paid the least is because the economy as it works today uses the power of economic coercion to force them into those jobs. Our world might actually work much better if we all got paid minimum wage. * * * * * * * Let's continue this thought experiment one step further. Imagine that we have created a nation where everyone is getting paid the same wage. The nation has settled into this new reality and it is working surprisingly well. Now a person stands up and says, "I am more ____ than everyone else, so I deserve more. I deserve a 30,000 square foot house in the nicest location, and I want a private plane to fly me wherever I need to go, and I want my own private vacation areas so I don't have to mingle with the riff raff." The blank could be filled in with almost anything: "I am more intelligent than everyone else, so I deserve more." "I am more beautiful than everyone else, so I deserve more." "I am more talented than everyone else, so I deserve more." If a person were to say, "I am white and you are black, so I deserve more than you," we would automatically recognize that statement as ridiculous. It was not always that way, however -- there was a time when we accepted that statement as a fundamental truth, and we built our society around it. We once enslaved millions of people simply because of skin color. Today we recognize slavery as an abomination, and we understand that skin color is meaningless. Extrapolating from that example, consider this. Why do we accept a statement like, "I am beautiful and you are not, so I deserve more than you," or, "I am smart and you are not, so I deserve more than you," or "I can sing and you can't, so I deserve more than you," or "I am articulate and you are not, so I deserve more than you."? How are these other genetic variations different from skin color? Think about the American Declaration of Independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. We all understand that some people work harder than others, and therefore they tend to get paid more. That's not what is happening today, however. Today we have CEOs paying themselves thousands of times more than rank and file workers for no reason other than the fact that the CEOs control the check book. It is a pathological concentration of wealth. Concentrated wealth of this magnitude tends to destroy liberty for the population as a whole. The wealthy gain the ability to have a much larger voice in the media than anyone else because they can buy ad space and media access. The wealthy gain the ability to have a much larger voice in court than anyone else by hiring large groups of the best lawyers. The wealthy gain the ability to have a much larger voice with the government than anyone else through large campaign contributions and lobbyists. Extreme wealth corrupts the democratic system. Wealth gives a small group of people the power to disrupt the lives of many others. It is something to think about... You may also enjoy this in-depth interview, "Marshall Brain on Singularity 1on1: We're approaching humanity’s make or break period": On the coming Singularity and Artificial Intelligence: A Conversation with Marshall Brain from MIRI on Vimeo.
UFC welterweight title contender Stephen Thompson joined the Talking Brawls Podcast on SevereMMA.com ahead of his crucial UFC welterweight clash against Rory MacDonald on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 89 in Ottawa and said he is certainly not looking past this weekend’s opponent, and believes he is facing the most well-rounded opponent in the division in MacDonald, but feels he holds an advantage over UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler. “Keeping the fight standing, I know that I have an advantage when it comes to him. What he has a ton of is heart, speed and spirit.” “When you watch the last fight with Carlos Condit, even Rory MacDonald. There was a few times that he was rocked but in the 4th and 5th round he just gets this wind, this grind, this face on him that’s like “You know what? I don’t care what you throw at me, I’m going hit you as many time in the face and punch you in the face, and I’m not going to stop. ” “He breaks people’s will doing that. He’s got kicks. He’s got good timing with a very strong Muay Thai base. Which is dangerous, those guys are tough. He’s got a ton of heart and a ton of spirit, just not letting him break you with that and trying to get him frustrated out there, is the key, I believe to beat him.” The main event is being billed as a number one contender fight, but nothing is guaranteed in a stacked division. MacDonald is coming off a loss at UFC 189 to Robbie Lawler in one of the greatest battles in UFC history. The Simpsonville based fighter is taking nothing for granted and believes MacDonald is the most well-versed fighter he will face in the Ocatgon. “You don’t know what art Rory is going to come after you with. Is it his striking, is he going to wrestle you and try get you to the cage to tire your arms out. Maybe do some hand fighting, throwing some elbows and knees. Rory is a lot craftier then Hendricks. He goes out there and tries things, he adapts well.” __ You can listen to the full interview below on Talking Brawls with Niall McGrath & Petesy Carroll . Michael Bisping’s head coach Jason Parillo also joined the show You can also listen to the show by downloading the MP3, by subscribing to the podcast on iTunes or listen via TuneIn & via Stitcher. If you are having trouble while using your mobile phone try downloading the Podomatic, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio or iTunes app or using the alternative player below. Click here to check out and subscribe to the Talking Brawls podcast YouTube channel.
Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF Cool name? Check. Surprisingly competitive team? Check. The league's top cornerback this year? Might be. So why isn't Alterraun Verner a household name yet? According to Pro Football Focus, the 2010 fourth-round pick from UCLA is the NFL's best corner through five games. Quarterbacks have thrown at him 28 times; Verner's allowed nine catches for 159 yards and zero touchdowns. To compare, Revis has conceded 12 catches for 102 yards and a score on 22 targets, and Sherman's given up 14 receptions for 258 yards and a touchdown on 26 targets. His past two games have been nearly flawless. Against the Jets, Verner didn't allow a completion on four targets and picked off Geno Smith twice, earning AFC defensive player of the week. In the Titans' loss to the Chiefs on Sunday, Verner surrendered only one catch, although it was a 41-yard reception on a go route by Donnie Avery. On two other plays we'll see below, however, Verner came very close to picking off Alex Smith. Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF In the first quarter, Verner jumped an out route by Chad Hall but couldn't wrap his hands around the ball. It was still an excellent prediction on his part. Advertisement Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF This rushed, inaccurate bomb from Alex Smith would've been incomplete anyway, but Verner, sitting back in zone, again showed a knack for being in the right spot. Verner's coverage is great, but his tendency for getting the ball back to the (currently Jake Locker-less) offense is what puts him at the top. He's already contributed to six turnovers, although that frequency will almost certainly slow down, despite the two missed opportunities against KC. Verner already has four interceptions under his belt, tied with Aqib Talib and Kiko Alonso for most in the league. He cashed in on Matt Schaub's first pick-six back in Week 2, when Schaub's turnovers were considered an aberration and not a disease. (Verner also has two fumble recoveries, although those require more luck than do his picks.) Advertisement Should we have seen this coming? In 2012, Verner barely cracked the league's top 25 at his position, allowing 53 catches for 556 yards and two touchdowns on 84 targets. Decent numbers, but far from shutdown. He also only racked up a pair of interceptions, a number he matched in his first two games this year. But what hasn't changed is Verner's knack for avoiding penalties—he drew a single flag all last season, and just one so far this year. Verner's managed to get more aggressive—reading the QB, jumping routes—without becoming reckless. If the switch has gone on and Verner has finally made The Leap, it's good timing for him. He's in the final year of his rookie contract. If Verner can maintain this kind of play and be an elite first line of defense in a pass-happy league, he's going to cash in handsomely. By then, everyone will know his name.
“Yes, you can be Black and depressed but you were created to be Black and blessed. Get well and live well.” I believe author Richard L. Taylor, Jr. said it best in Love Between My Scars. Whenever someone of color, especially Black people talk about mental illness, especially depression and suicide, the first thing they say is, “That’s White peoples s#%t.” Being a black woman, I know that statement to be oh so true. Ever since I hit puberty, I have struggles off and on with depression. I’ve felt the effects of my minds chemical and hormonal imbalance so many times, it’s hard to tell when I ever was truly “okay.” I look a pictures from various time in my life and I can’t help but wonder if my smile was ever authentic. According to an online article published by Mental Health America, over 19 million Americans suffer from mental illness and it often gets misdiagnosed in the African America community. Possibly because as a people, we fail to commit to our health just as we commit to making money or our personal relationships. Many times I could feel the sudden shift in my emotions for days, weeks, and often months at a time, but I brushed it off as “the blues.” No matter how great things were around me, I could not shake the feeling of emptiness. Of course when I was battling being in an abusive relationship, depression was my normal. But, after it was done with, it seemed as if the better things were, the worse I felt. Thoughts of “nobody would miss you” and “nobody really cares” bombarded my every waking moment. Many days and nights I laid in my bed, soaking my pillow with tears, asking myself “Girl, what the hell is wrong with you?!?” I never got an answer. Yes, I prayed. I talked about what I felt a little bit. As I started to feel that I needed medical advice or evaluation, I researched how I could “naturally” heal myself. As living beings, we were endowed with the will to do some amazing thing but sometimes even in our best efforts, our best is not enough. Some things won’t heal with time. When dealing with depression, time can turn into your worst enemy. For months I stayed up until the sun rose and I spent more than half of my days in bed sleeping or binging on Netflix. Procrastination became the norm and I ate my way to satisfaction—gaining 60 extra pounds along the way. Instead of throwing myself into being productive, I hid behind a few empowering Facebook statuses and threw on a plastered smile whenever I had to go before the public eye. Even when feeling like a speck of dirt on the ground, I still tried to rationalize with myself that feeling this low is normal. “But I’m black,” I kept telling myself. As a Black woman, we are taught not to show signs of weakness. And there I was smiling on the outside and crying my soul out on the inside. God forbid anyone ask me “How are you feeling?” It would take everything in me not to have a complete meltdown right then and there. I had to come to grips with this fact: It’s okay not to be okay. Being a Black woman may come with a different set of circumstances but I bleed red just like every other human being. It is okay to let others know you’re hurting even if you don’t know the reason. All people hurt. Not just white or black people. It’s also okay to admit that you need help. This was tough for me. I didn’t want anyone to see me any less than successful and thriving after being in a rut for so long. If you don’t have a trusted confidant who will help you get better, I promise, Google will be your best friend. There are tons of resources online to point you in the right direction. The truth of the matter is: depression is not normal. And if you feel that you are battling with this, get help. You are not alone. Yes, you can be Black and depressed but you were created to be Black and blesse. Get well and live well. Here is a list of resources you can use to assist you. www.about.com www.mentalhealthamerica.net US Suicide/Depression Hotline 1-800-784-2433 NDMDA Depression Hotline – Support Group 800-826-3632 Suicide Prevention Services Crisis Hotline 800-784-2433 Suicide Prevention Services Depression Hotline 630-482-9696 Maleeka Taliha Hollaway, a native of Atlanta, GA, is the founder and CEO of The OfficialMaleeka Group, LLC, a boutique-styled social branding hub specializing in life coaching, business consulting, writing services and public relations. Maleeka is also an Internationally Certified Life Success Coach, a candid public speaker, business & branding strategist (Internationally Certified Business Success Coach) and bestselling author Connect with Maleeka on www.officialmaleeka.com or @OfficialMaleeka on Twitter. FB, IG, Periscope & Blab. Or vist her website: officialmaleeka.com
On March 2, 2017, roughly 100 of our 2500 students prevented a controversial visiting speaker, Dr. Charles Murray, from communicating with his audience on the campus of Middlebury College. Afterwards, a group of unidentified assailants mobbed the speaker, and one of our faculty members was seriously injured. In view of these unacceptable acts, we have produced and affixed our signatures to this document stating core principles that seem to us unassailable in the context of higher education within a free society. Our statement of principles first appeared in the Wall Street Journal on March 7, 2017. The principles are as follows: Genuine higher learning is possible only where free, reasoned, and civil speech and discussion are respected. Only through the contest of clashing viewpoints do we have any hope of replacing mere opinion with knowledge. The incivility and coarseness that characterize so much of American politics and culture cannot justify a response of incivility and coarseness on the college campus. The impossibility of attaining a perfectly egalitarian sphere of free discourse can never justify efforts to silence speech and debate. Exposure to controversial points of view does not constitute violence. Students have the right to challenge and to protest non-disruptively the views of their professors and guest speakers. A protest that prevents campus speakers from communicating with their audience is a coercive act. No group of professors or students has the right to act as final arbiter of the opinions that students may entertain. No group of professors or students has the right to determine for the entire community that a question is closed for discussion. The purpose of college is not to make faculty or students comfortable in their opinions and prejudices. The purpose of education is not the promotion of any particular political or social agenda. The primary purpose of higher education is the cultivation of the mind, thus allowing for intelligence to do the hard work of assimilating and sorting information and drawing rational conclusions. A good education produces modesty with respect to our own intellectual powers and opinions as well as openness to considering contrary views. All our students possess the strength, in head and in heart, to consider and evaluate challenging opinions from every quarter. We are steadfast in our purpose to provide all current and future students an education on this model, and we encourage our colleagues at colleges across the country to do the same. Signed, Jay Parini, English and American Literatures Keegan Callanan, Political Science Julia Alvarez, Writer-in-Residence Emeritus Molly Anderson, Food Studies Glenn Andres, History of Art and Architecture Christopher Andrews, Computer Science Ata Anzali, Religion Jason Arndt, Psychology and Neuroscience David H. Bain, English and American Literatures/Creative Writing Alexandra Baker, Russian Mireille Barbaud-McWilliams, French Stanley Bates, Philosophy John Berninghausen, Chinese Studies John Bertolini, English and American Literatures Mary Ellen Bertolini, Writing Lorraine Besser, Philosophy Tom Beyer, Russian Erik Bleich, Political Science Amy Briggs, Computer Science Jeff Buettner, Music Jim Butler, Studio Art Jeff Byers, Chemistry and Biochemistry Sandra Carletti, Italian Carole Cavanaugh, Japanese Studies Sunhee Choi, Chemistry and Biochemistry Nicholas Clifford, History Robert Cluss, Chemistry and Biochemistry David Colander, Economics/Interdepartmental Marcia Collaer, Psychology Catherine Combelles, Biology Eric Davis, Political Science Kyoko Davis, Japanese Studies Sergei Davydov, Russian Matthew Dickinson, Political Science Stephen Donadio, Literary Studies Murray Dry, Political Science Hang Du, Chinese/Linguistics John Elder, English and Environmental Studies Mark Evancho, Theater and Dance Diana Fanning, Music Emory Fanning, Music Ellie Gebarowski-Shafer, Religion Eilat Glikman, Physics Shalom Goldman, Religion Erick Gong, Economics Noah Graham, Physics Leger Grindon, Film and Media Studies Larry Hamberlin, Music Maria Hatjigeorgiou, Religion Jessica Holmes, Economics Kirsten Hoving, History of Art and Architecture Jonathan Isham, Jr., Economics and Environmental Studies Bertram Johnson, Political Science Damascus Kafumbe, Music Michael Katz, Russian Matthew Kimble, Psychology Edward Knox, French Michael Kraus, Political Science Bethany Ladimer, French Marjorie Lamberti, History Sara Laursen, History of Art and Architecture Tom Manley, Geology Patricia Manley, Geology Gary Margolis, College Mental Health Services, Emeritus Bettina Matthias, German Michelle McCauley, Psychology John McWilliams, Humanities Vanessa Mildenberg, Theatre and Dance Paul Monod, History Thomas Moran, Chinese Language and Literature Amy Morsman, History Stefano Mula, Italian Jeff Munroe, Geology Kamakshi Murti, German Caitlin Knowles Myers, Economics Peter Nelson, Geography Paul Nelson, Political Science Marybeth Nevins, Sociology and Anthropology Victor Nuovo, Philosophy Cynthia Packert, History of Art and Architecture Clarissa Parker, Psychology and Neuroscience Ted Perry, Film and Media Studies Will Pyle, Economics Richard Romagnoli, Theatre David Rosenberg, Political Science Pete Ryan, Geology Theodore Sasson, Jewish Studies Richard Saunders, History of Art and Architecture Daniel Scharstein, Computer Science Robert Schine, Religion and Jewish Studies John Schmitt, Mathematics Peter Schumer, Mathematics Pavlos Sfyroeras, Classics Christopher Shaw, English and American Literature/Creative Writing Sallie Sheldon, Biology Kathleen Skubikowski, English and American Literatures Tatiana Smorodinska, Russian Grace Spatafora, Biology Allison Stanger, Political Science David Stoll, Sociology and Anthropology Stephen Sontum, Chemistry Frank Swenton, Mathematics Ioana Uricaru, Film and Media Studies Hector Vila, Writing William Waldron, Religion Kristina Walowski, Geology Christopher Watters, Biology Frank Winkler, Physics Marc Witkin, Classics Richard Wolfson, Physics Don Wyatt, History Wei He Xu, Chinese Amy Yuen, Political Science Patricia Zupan, Italian _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ The opinions expressed herein represent only the personal views of the signatories.
It would be natural to recognize a very young club that has the National League's best offense and second-best group of fielders—one that has far exceeded almost every prognostication for where it will finish in the league—as a rising power in baseball. But despite all of those successes, the Diamondbacks do not seem to be widely viewed that way. Maybe it's because they are still considered, on baseball’s Methuselahean timeline, to be an expansion team (even though it’s been 18 seasons), or maybe it's because they have recently been best known for not being known for much. But things change faster in baseball than we often think; as many as seven of this October’s ten postseason participants will have had losing records just three years ago. The Diamondbacks, at 65–68, won’t be among those playoff teams, yet. But before we fully turn our attention to the push for the playoffs, it’s worth taking a look at what Arizona is building in the desert, which seems anything but a mirage. It’s not just that the team's performance in 2015, as far as the hitting and fielding anyway, has been surprisingly good; it’s also that the fundamentals are strong. The Diamondbacks are the only club with two regulars who rank among baseball’s top nine in Wins Above Replacement. Even better is that those players, Paul Goldschmidt and A.J. Pollock, are both only 27 and do their work under extremely team-friendly contractual terms: Goldschmidt will make an average of $10 million through '19, and Pollock hasn’t even reached arbitration yet. If Goldschmidt has finally begun to be nationally acknowledged as the outright superstar that he is, Pollock shouldn’t be far behind. Goldschmidt and Pollock will continue to be supported by a cast of players—most notably outfielder David Peralta (whose out-of-nowhere .881 OPS now ranks him sixth on the NL leader board), speedy leadoff man Ender Inciarte and Cuban import Yasmany Tomas—who each largely satisfy any general manager's dream trifecta: They are young, cheap and productive. Of the 10 regulars who have received more than 200 at-bats this year in the Diamondbacks' high-octane offense, just one, Aaron Hill, is older than 28, and half of them are 25 or younger. Coincidentally, only Hill can become a free agent before 2018. Oh, right, the pitching. Something has to be done about the pitching! Despite their athletic fielding, the Diamondbacks rank ninth in the NL in runs allowed, which is the reason they’re currently playing out this season’s string, however encouragingly. There is, however, reason to think the staff might significantly improve as soon as next year, and it runs deeper than the fact that it already includes some promising young arms like 23-year-old Robbie Ray (3.72 ERA), 26-year-old Patrick Corbin (3.67 ERA in 11 starts since returning from Tommy John surgery) and 23-year-old rookie Archie Bradley (who had a 1.80 ERA through his first four big-league starts before taking a line drive to the face in late April). The club’s front office leadership—especially chief baseball officer Tony La Russa and first-year GM Dave Stewart—has recently taken heat for a number of reasons, including not appearing to be as analytics-inclined as they should be. They were lambasted for trading their 2014 first rounder, 19-year-old pitcher Touki Toussaint, to the Braves in June in a transaction that seemed mostly designed to rid themselves of the $10 million or so they still owed injured starter Bronson Arroyo, whom Atlanta also took. They also were roasted for even considering the idea of acquiring relievers Aroldis Chapman and Craig Kimbrel at the July 31 deadline. Indeed, dumping a teenaged fireballer and thinking about (though only thinking about) adding a high-priced closer don’t seem to be sensible moves for most scuffling organizations who seek long-term health. Recently, though, La Russa explained to me the theory behind his pursuit of Chapman and Kimbrel. “We set the criteria out really carefully,” he said. “If there was a deal that was going to improve us in 2015 only, we weren’t going to make it. I think it’s fair to say we are improving. A lot of it is because we have [Goldschmidt] as our core. We have four outfielders for three spots, play defense as good as anybody out there, run the bases as good as anybody out there. Our pitching is improving. The point is, everything going into July 31 was, if there was something that helps us now but carries over into '16, '17, that was really our goal. We were talking about Chapman and Kimbrel because not only are they dynamite closers, but they’re not just rent-a-players for the year.” Chapman won’t become eligible for free agency until after next season, and Kimbrel is signed through at least 2017. That the Diamondbacks were only focused on pitchers who would be with them after this current season—if not for very long thereafter—provides insight into not only the fact that they fully realize they need some top-shelf arms, but also as far as their perceived window of contention. That they would also sacrifice a raw talent like Toussaint should also be taken as a sign of what they plan to do this upcoming winter: You should expect them to be active players in a free-agent market that happens to feature one of the strongest classes of starters in recent memory, one that will include certified aces like David Price, Johnny Cueto and Zack Greinke, as well as legitimate second-tier options like Jordan Zimmermann, Mike Leake, Scott Kazmir, Jeff Samardzija, Yovani Gallardo, Wei-Yin Chen and Mat Latos. The $10 million Arizona saved by dealing Toussaint, a pitcher who might have helped them years down the line, could certainly—for a mid-market club like the D-Backs are—prove the difference in landing someone who will boost them as soon as next Opening Day. And why wouldn’t the Diamondbacks think that next Opening Day might represent the start of a run as serious contenders? They already, quite obviously, have 2/3rds of a winning team, one that has already gelled and ought to continue doing so for several years to come. They have no reason to reboot their organization and start over, as the Astros and Cubs did years ago, or to throw a virtually entirely new team into a beaker and hope it produces some instantly explosive reaction, as the Padres did this past winter. All they appear to need is a few good pitchers. Even if the Diamondbacks' tactics have been unpopular, they now seem to have the wherewithal to attain them. It should be no surprise if, as soon as 2016, Arizona proves to be the next bottom-dweller to rise into the bright lights of October, and to force baseball to take notice.
iPhone-Optimized Google Search Results On the desktop version of Safari, when you use the built-in Google search field, you get pretty much the same results page as when you go to google.com and enter your query the old-fashioned way. The toolbar search field is just a more convenient way to get the same results. But that’s not the case on the iPhone. On the iPhone, when you use the toolbar search field (the one you get by tapping the magnifying glass button next to the location field), you get Google search results that look pretty much exactly like Google’s default web presentation, shrunk down to fit on the iPhone screen: In this initial state, the results are effectively illegible. But if you start your search by loading the google.com home page, you get a results presentation that is specifically optimized for MobileSafari: The text is perfectly sized, and the entire page layout is optimized for the iPhone display. Admittedly, the un-optimized presentation you get via the toolbar button isn’t a big deal, because you can double-tap on the results column to zoom in: But even then it’s still not as nice as the version you get through the web site interface. I don’t understand why, if Google has an iPhone-optimized search results mode, this mode isn’t used for queries initiated via the iPhone’s built-in Google search field. It’s not clear to me whether Apple should change MobileSafari to send a different query string to Google to trigger these iPhone-optimized results, or whether Google should just handle it on their end, the same way they already serve an iPhone-optimized version of their home page to iPhone users.1 Update 1: Looks like Google engineers Steve Kanefsky and Rob Stacey wrote about this last week for the Google Mobile Blog: Over time, we intend to make the newly formatted results pages available through other search entry points on the iPhone, on additional devices, and in more language and country combinations. Update 2: I neglected to mention that if you change your default MobileSafari search engine from Google to Yahoo, the search results from Yahoo are iPhone optimized: Right idea, but I don’t care for Yahoo’s presentation. Each result is too big — you can only see the first two without scrolling, whereas with Google’s iPhone display you can see four.
Flint residents threatened with water shutoffs By Carlos Delgado 21 November 2016 Residents of Flint, Michigan, who still do not have access to clean drinking water after a two-year lead-in-water crisis, will soon begin receiving water shutoff notices, according to city officials. Flint residents, who pay the highest water rates in the country for unsafe drinking water, will receive notices in the coming days stating that, unless they pay their current balances and at least 10 percent of their past due balances, their water will be shut off. Shutoff warnings have already gone out to commercial water customers in the city, including owners of large-sized apartment buildings. Entire apartment communities face the possibility of water shutoffs and forced relocations if the commercial bills, some with amounts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, are not paid. The renewed assault on workers’ right to water is being carried out in line with a state directive stating that the city must achieve a 70 percent collection rate on water bills or else risk losing the “water relief” funding the state has allocated. Under the current arrangement, commercial customers receive a 20 percent credit on water bills, while residential customers receive a 65 percent credit. The credits do little to relieve the financial burden on Flint residents, more than 40 percent of whom live below the poverty line while still paying the highest water rates in the country. Residents who are unable to pay their bill will lose even this paltry credit. Additionally, according to a recent report from the Michigan Department of Treasury, water bills in the city are set to double over the next five years. The Flint water crisis began in April 2014, when a bipartisan conspiracy of local, state, and federal officials worked to switch the city’s treated water supply from the Detroit system to the heavily polluted Flint River. This was done supposedly as an interim water source until the city was able to connect to the Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline when construction was completed. This was presented to residents as a “cost saving” measure that would ultimately reduce their water bills. In fact, it was an attempt by powerful financial interests to seize control of both Flint’s and Detroit’s water systems for monetization and eventual privatization. The corrosive river water destroyed the protective scale inside the pipes, causing lead to leach into the water. Lead is a potent, irreversible neurotoxin that can cause permanent neurological damage, particularly to children and infants. Health experts maintain that the city’s water remains unsafe for human consumption and may still contain dangerous amounts of lead and other harmful compounds. Residents must use water filters and drink bottled water in order to live. Efforts at replacing lead service lines in the city have proceeded at a snail’s pace, with only a scant fraction of the thousands of lines having been replaced. A bill to grant a small amount of federal funding for lead pipe replacement remains mired in Congress, which has entered its lame duck session. Meanwhile, the city is seeking a renewal of its state of emergency, which was first declared in December 2015. Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the state of Michigan to begin door-to-door bottled water delivery to Flint residents. Until now, Flint residents have had to obtain bottled water for drinking, cooking, and other uses from distribution sites in the city, placing a particularly heavy burden on residents who lack the transportation or physical ability to reach the sites. In his decision, judge David M. Lawson said, “In modern society, when we turn on a faucet, we expect safe drinking water to flow out. As the evidence shows, that is no longer the case in Flint. The Flint water crisis has in effect turned back the clock to a time when people traveled to central water sources to fill their buckets and carry the water home.” The state of Michigan has announced its intention to challenge the federal court order. In a motion for a stay, the state argued that the order places an “immediate insurmountable burden” on the state. A spokeswoman from the governor’s office stated that the “herculean effort required by the court order would be on the magnitude of a large-scale military operation,” and warned that complying with the order would require the activation of the National Guard. The bipartisan attack on Flint residents was likely a strong contributing factor to the dropoff in voter turnout in the 2016 election. More than 5,000 fewer residents of Genesee County, where Flint is the largest city, cast their votes in the 2016 election compared to 2012. The abstentions occurred despite a parade of politicians who visited the city for debates and publicity stunts, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. With the entire political establishment now prostrating before Trump, Democratic officials have sought to foster illusions that his fascistic incoming government will offer relief to the citizens of Flint. Many have signaled their willingness to collaborate with him in further attacks on Flint residents. Democratic US Representative Dan Kildee recently told reporters “I will work with Republicans and Democrats, including President-elect Trump, to make sure the people of Flint get the resources they need to recover,” as though such resources will not be even more hoarded by the reactionary financial elite whom Trump represents. The callous and vengeful attitude of government officials toward Flint residents is more than an expression of individual corruption or malevolence. It is the essential attitude of the capitalist state, which views workers as expendable tools in the profit drive of the corporate elite. The resources necessary for the rebuilding of Flint and the water infrastructure across the US require more than just the reversal of decades of spending cuts, but trillions of dollars to be invested in the social needs of the population. 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South Park star Trey Parker seems to be over creating jokes around the President of the United States, despite the 'crazy ratings'. Parker, who voices four of South Park's main characters, said he and longtime collaborator Matt Stone, are fed up with the Donald Trump jokes. 'We fell into the same trap that Saturday Night Live fell into, where it was like, "Dude, we're just becoming CNN now. We're becoming: Tune in to see what we're going to say about Trump,"' Parker told the Los Angeles Times. Scroll down for video South Park star Trey Parker (left) seems to be over creating jokes around the President of the United States, despite the 'crazy ratings'. Parker said he and longtime collaborator Matt Stone, are fed up with the Donald Trump jokes 'We fell into the same trap that Saturday Night Live fell into, where it was like we're becoming: "Tune in to see what we're going to say about Trump,"' Parker said. On South Park, Parker voices several characters including Cartman, Stan and Mr Mackey 'Matt and I hated it but we got stuck in it somehow,' he added. Parker, who most recently voiced comedic super-villain Balthazar Bratt in Despicable Me 3, told the Times that he's ready to get back to get back to 'the bread and butter' of South Park. 'This season I want to get back to Cartman dressing up like a robot and [screwing] with Butters, because to me that's the bread and butter of 'South Park': kids being kids and being ridiculous and outrageous but not "did you see what Trump did last night?" Because I don't give a ... anymore,' he said. Six out of Season 20's 10 episodes featured Mr Garrison, the animated version of Trump. One of the most notable episodes was 'Oh Jeez' in which Mr Garrison was shown around the show's version of the Pentagon. As he takes the tour, Mr Garrison is given the 'military secrets and classified information', the drone program keys, and the 'famous football' that controls the nuclear codes. And as the character enters the 'diplomatic strategy and negotiating room' he says: 'Oh jeez, this doesn't look very fun.' Trump said something very similar to the line in South Park's 'Oh Jeez' earlier this year when he admitted being the president is hard work. Parker, who most recently voiced comedic super-villain Balthazar Bratt (right) in Despicable Me 3 - the third installment of the hit animated franchise - said he's ready to get back to get back to 'the bread and butter' of South Park As he takes the tour, Mr Garrison is given the 'military secrets and classified information', the drone program keys, and the nuclear codes 'I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,' Trump admitted in April. 'This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.' But Parker, 47, said no matter how much they joke about Trump the ratings are more than likely to be pretty good. 'We probably could put up billboards - "Look what we're going to do to Trump next week!" — and get crazy ratings. But I just don't care,' he told the Times. Parker and Stone's Comedy Central show South Park will enter its 21st season in August. When asked if he thought the president is funny, Parked said: 'He's not intentionally funny but he is intentionally using comedic art to propel himself.' 'The things that we do - being outrageous and taking things to the extreme to get a reaction out of people - he's using those tools. At his rallies he gets people laughing and whooping. 'I don't think he's good at it,' Parker said but 'it made him president'. His role on Despicable Me 3 marks his first-ever animated voice-over role outside of South Park, on which he voices several characters including Cartman, Stan and Mr Mackey.
I looked at the king of clay: Rafael Nadal. Since then, Rafa lost in the Madrid final and Rome quarterfinals so the number of consecutive matches between losses continues to decrease. I neglected Roland Garros data on purpose because despite his previous losses in 3 set matches, Rafael Nadal has only lost ONCE in Paris. So even though a version of this visual on his decline became rather popular on social media, I really should point out the obvious… There must be some logical explanation for why Rafael Nadal dominates at Paris other than he has super powers. I mean his previous matches are pretty impressive. The major difference between these matches are the maximum number of sets played (Roland Garros is best of 5 sets and the rest are best of 3 sets) and the road to the final has more matches (7 in Paris). However, this cannot be the only driving force behind Nadal’s success in Paris. Thus, I will be looking at several matches*, especially after watching him lose against Andy Murray in the Madrid final, which was deconstructed beautifully by Craig O’Shannessy. Side note: The number of charted matches is limited, which is why I would advocate tennis fans getting involved because this data is not readily available. I want this to be an interactive note. I provide several detailed visualizations so please share your interpretations! Every moment in tennis is important, from the first point to the last. This has always been the mentality of Rafael Nadal. Therefore, I want to deconstruct point distributions in two ways. The first graphic is a rather obscure way to present the complete point distribution, scaled for each match. Obviously, the most points played will be at 0–0 between the two players, hence the dark green. Maximum to minimum goes from green to yellow to red for each match. To read this, let’s pick an example. Fore instance, 2nd row, 3rd column is 30–15 Nadal or 15–30 Djokovic. Note: Two tiebreaks, which were split, in 2009, were not mapped in this visual. The top two are best of 3 set losses to Djokovic. The bottom are two Roland Garros matches, last year’s win and his only loss. Each loss tells a different story. For instance, this year in Monte Carlo, you can see that there were many opportunities at deuce for which Djokovic got the majority of the advantage. I will let you interpret the rest of the distributions. Tell me what you think! Inspired by these game trees of Nadal’s matches in 2013 from Damien Saunder, the second set of graphics below illustrates the four matches when Rafael Nadal is on serve. Saunder analysed Rafael Nadal’s service against Novak Djokovic in the 2013 Roland Garros semifinal. Nadal was incredibly dominant on serve but as we know from the scoreline, Djokovic took advantage of the very few key moments he was given. (1)2015 Monte Carlo SF (2) 2014 Rome Final (3) 2014 Roland Garros Final (4) 2009 Roland Garros R16

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