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Satellite observation of cloud temperatures may be able to accurately predict severe thunderstorms up to 45 minutes earlier than relying on traditional radar alone, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center.
Scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) have developed a way to measure temperature changes in the tops of clouds to improve forecast times for rapidly growing storms.
"The value of detecting and analyzing these changes is that we can get up to a 45-minute jump on radar detection of the same storm system. A 'nowcast' becomes a 'forecast,'" says CIMSS scientist Wayne Feltz.
Clouds start cooling long before radar can identify them as storms. As a warm cumulus cloud grows and expands upward into higher altitudes, it will rapidly cool. Rapid cloud-top cooling indicates that a cloud top is rising into the frigid upper reaches of the atmosphere and can reveal the formation of a severe storm.
Cloud temperatures can be measured by the wavelengths of light they radiate in the near-infrared and infrared frequencies. Current geostationary satellites — satellites that stay over the same location on Earth — over the U.S. can discern five different bands in these frequencies, each band revealing a different state of cloud development. Looking down from space, the satellite can determine whether the cloud top consists of liquid water, supercooled water or even ice.
By running high-speed five-minute satellite scans through a carefully designed computer algorithm, the scientists can quickly analyze cloud top temperature changes to look for signs of storm formation. "We are looking for transitions," says Feltz. "Does the cloud top consist of liquid water that is cooling rapidly? That could signal a possible convective initiation."
Feltz and other CIMSS colleagues, including Kris Bedka and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist Tim Schmit, demonstrated their "Convective Initiation Nowcast" and "Cloud Top Cooling Rate" products at NOAA's annual Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT), held May 4-June 5 at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
The HWT is designed to accelerate the transition of promising new meteorological insights and technologies into advance forecasting and warnings for hazardous weather events throughout the United States.
"The Hazardous Weather Testbed brings in outside experts in all areas, a melting pot of people to encourage collaboration and interactions and proposal opportunities," Feltz says. "The point of this is working with forecasters in the field — the Weather Service, the Storm Prediction Center, the Hurricane Center — whoever is interested in looking at more advanced satellite products." |
ABSECON -- An Atlantic City man working for a medical transportation business robbed a bank and escaped in the company ambulance Tuesday, according to police and a published report.
Joseph P. Wilson, 26, was charged with one count of robbery after authorities found him at a residence in Pleasantville, city police said in a statement. He was arrested without incident.
Wilson passed a note demanding money at the Absecon TD Bank on White Horse Pike around 1:15 p.m., according to police.
The teller handed over an unspecified amount of cash before Wilson initially fled on foot, then drove off in the Tricare Medical Transportation ambulance, police said.
Tricare owner Anthony S. Maneri told The Press of Atlantic City that Wilson, who worked as an ambulance driver, was no longer employed at the company.
The owner did not provide additional details on Wilson's position, but noted all employees are subject to background checks, according to the newspaper.
Investigators later found the ambulance in Egg Harbor Township, according to police.
Authorities said Wilson was ordered held at the Atlantic County Justice Facility in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Police asked anyone with additional information to call detectives at 609-641-0667 ext. 216 or Crime Stoppers at 609-652-1234.
Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @noahyc. Find NJ.com on Facebook. |
On Wednesday, a Staten Island grand jury decided not to return an indictment for the police officer who put Eric Garner, an unarmed black man, in a chokehold shortly before his death. A different Staten Island grand jury was less sympathetic to Ramsey Orta, however, the man who filmed the entire incident.
In August, less than a month after filming the fatal July 17 encounter in which Daniel Pantaleo and other NYPD police officers confronted Garner for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes, a grand jury indicted Orta on weapons charges stemming from an arrest by undercover officers earlier that month.
Police alleged that Orta had slipped a .25 caliber handgun into a teenage accomplice's waistband outside a New York hotel. Orta testified that the charges were falsely mounted by police in retaliation for his role in documenting Garner's death, but the grand jury rejected his contention, charging him with single felony counts of third-degree criminal weapon possession and criminal firearm possession.
In Garner's case, on the other hand, jurors determined there was not probable cause that Pantaleo had committed any crime. A medical examiner ruled Garner's death homicide in part resulting from the chokehold, a restraining move banned by the NYPD in 1993.
The use of grand juries in high-profile police killings has attracted increasing scrutiny after such juries declined to indict both Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri this summer, and now Pantaleo. While the famous saying goes that a grand jury could "indict a ham sandwich," it's become clear that they also give much more leeway to police officers.
St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch's objectivity was regularly called into question throughout the Brown case. Critics argue that the close cooperation between law enforcement and prosecutors may make them more hesitant to bring charges against police officers. |
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore speaks during an interview at the annual Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. American democracy has been 'hacked' by the influence of money in politics and that he hopes activist investors will continue to exert influence on corporations globally to act in civically responsible ways. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Yesterday, for the first time in human history, concentrations of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming pollutant, hit 400 parts per million in our planet's atmosphere. This number is a reminder that for the last 150 years -- and especially over the last several decades -- we have been recklessly polluting the protective sheath of atmosphere that surrounds the Earth and protects the conditions that have fostered the flourishing of our civilization. We are altering the composition of our atmosphere at an unprecedented rate. Indeed, every single day we pour an additional 90 million tons of global warming pollution into the sky as if it were an open sewer. As the distinguished climate scientist Jim Hansen has calculated, the accumulated manmade global warming pollution in the atmosphere now traps enough extra heat energy each day to equal the energy that would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima-scale atomic bombs exploding every single day. It's a big planet -- but that is a LOT of energy. And it is having a destructive effect.
Now, more than ever before, we are reaping the consequences of our recklessness. From Superstorm Sandy, which crippled New York City and large areas of New Jersey, to a drought that parched more than half of our nation; from a flood that inundated large swaths of Australia to rising seas affecting millions around the world, the reality of the climate crisis is upon us.
Our food systems, our cities, our people and our very way of life developed within a stable range of climatic conditions on Earth. Without immediate and decisive action, these favorable conditions on Earth could become a memory if we continue to make the climate crisis worse day after day after day.
With any great challenge comes great opportunity. We have the rare privilege to rise to an occasion of global magnitude. To do so, our communities, our businesses, our universities, and our governments need to work in harmony to stop the climate crisis. We must summon the very best of the human spirit and draw on our courage, our ingenuity, our intellect, and our determination to confront this crisis. Make no mistake, this crisis will demand no less than our very best. I am optimistic because we have risen to meet the greatest challenges of our past. |
With millions queueing up outside banks and ATMs across the country to exchange their defunct high-value notes, the Reserve Bank of India asked banks on Tuesday to take stern action against officials indulging in fraudulent practices while exchanging or depositing the invalid currency.
Banks have also been asked to remain prepared to provide details about the notes exchanged or deposited on short notice.
The Narendra Modi government announced on November 8 that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 (Specified Bank Notes - SBNs) will cease to be legal tenders, describing the move as a crackdown on black money and corruption. But the decision sparked chaos, with people flocking to banks and ATMs to deposit of exchange the scrapped notes.
“It has been brought to our notice that at certain places, few bank branch officials, in connivance with some miscreants, are indulging in fraudulent practices while exchanging SBNs in cash/accepting SBN deposits into account,” said the Reserve Bank of India.
“Banks are, therefore, advised to ensure that such fraudulent practices are stopped forthwith through enhanced vigilance and take stern action against officials involved in such activities,” it added.
The RBI asked banks that they should ensure strict compliance with the instructions issued with regard to exchange of SBNs as also deposit of such notes into the accounts of their customers.
Earlier, the banks were asked to maintain denomination-wise details of such notes and aggregate value of non-SBN note deposited in the account of each deposit or loan customer from November 9 onwards.
They have to also maintain customer-wise and denomination wise record in respect of SBNs exchanged by walk-in and regular customers.
Banks should also be in readiness to provide these details at short notice, the RBI said.
Meanwhile, as many as 82,500 ATMs, which account for about 40% of cash vending machines in the country, have been recalibrated to dispense new high security currency notes of 500 and 2,000 rupees. Out of 2.2 lakh ATMs, 82,500 had been recalibrated till Monday evening.
Read| Demonetisation: Additional 60 days for repayment of loans up to Rs 1 crore
First Published: Nov 22, 2016 20:43 IST |
CLOSE After years of covering corruption and editorializing about it, the Gannett news sites in Florida are pushing for changes in state law to make it easier for prosecutors to go after the corrupt and greedy. Video by Rob Landers, FLORIDA TODAY
Florida prosecutors call it the “corruption tax.” You won’t find it listed on your county tax bill. But you pay it.
It’s the hundreds of millions of dollars Floridians pay every year just to absorb the cost of bid-rigging, bribery, fraud and waste. Corruption costs you more through sales taxes, school taxes, court fees, even highway tolls.
Now, after years of covering corruption, Gannett news sites across Florida want to give you a tax break. I’m leading our campaign to pass an anti-corruption bill that would deter and punish the greedy with two simple changes urged by a statewide grand jury on public corruption.
Without change, the news — and costs — will continue.
•In Brevard County, former clerk of courts Mitch Needelman faces conspiracy charges after steering an $8 million dollar contract for document scanning to a company that paid kickbacks to his campaign. He even saddled taxpayers with a loan to pay his co-conspirators up front, state investigators say.
• In Tallahassee, whistleblowers have alerted authorities to possible bid-tampering and waste in Leon County school construction dating to 2007. Federal investigators seized the school district’s email archive after a judge found probable cause that it would contain evidence of a crime.
•In Fort Myers, the FBI showed up in 2013 to grill all six city council members about land deals for a downtown hotel and road-widening project. Former Lee County Commissioner Tammy Hall just finished a reduced prison sentence after agreeing to deliver useful information as an undercover informant.
•And in Escambia County — where four commissioners were arrested in 2003 for bribery and racketeering — the mayor of Pensacola has been under investigation for handing no-bid landscaping contracts to a friend.
But many investigations go nowhere in Florida. That’s because of two flaws in state law.
First, the public-corruption statutes do not apply to government contractors who so often conspire to pay the bribes, rig the bids and defraud taxpayers. Our bill would add government contractors to the legal definition of “public servant.”
Second, the law forces prosecutors to prove defendants’ had corrupt thoughts or intent — a much higher burden than for all other types of crimes. Our bill would stop that and require prosecutors to prove only that defendants acted knowingly.
To help all of Florida, I reached out on behalf of Gannett news sites to two lawyers I could trust.
Phil Archer, the State Attorney for Brevard and Seminole counties, told us what prosecutors need to get tough. Archer persuaded the 20-member association of state attorneys to vote unanimously to include the two changes in their own legislative priorities.
Michael Kahn is a litigator and member of FLORIDA TODAY’s editorial advisory board who has experience writing legislation and lobbying. Kahn drafted the model bill, pro bono.
“It absolutely does not make anything new illegal,” Kahn said. “It makes it easier to prosecute the guilty.”
Case for change
It has been five years since Florida’s statewide grand jury on public corruption investigated the issue and called for the simple fixes in our bill.
For five years, the news has continued to make the case for change.
At booming Port Canaveral, a former elected port commissioner conspired with a developer and campaign contributor to deliver exclusive rights to build a waterfront hotel. Ralph Kennedy got caught selling his vote and support for financial kickbacks. But he was allowed to resign and walk away on probation because the Florida Department of Law Enforcement couldn’t find proof of Kennedy’s thoughts, the special agent in charge told me.
“You almost need actual confessions or admissions by an official to a third party,” Archer said.
In Polk County, the manager of the state-funded crime hotline was busted in 2012 steering $400,000 dollars in contracts to a brother-in-law and lavishing state funds on himself. But Attorney General Pam Bondi said he couldn’t be charged because he was a contractor, not a public servant, and immune from prosecution.
In Escambia County, auditors caught a former school food-services director rigging a bid for kitchen equipment, then hitting up vendors for cash to pay off illegal purchases on a district credit card. The kitchen contractor who helped her write the bid specifications hauled in $900,000 in sales in one month. The director was prosecuted — for lying on her application for the job. The contractor was removed from Escambia schools’ “preferred vendor” list but not charged.
That’s a typical outcome.
Every time a corrupt leader or co-conspirator gets off easy, Florida sets a new lower standard for government.
At the Orlando expressway authority, three officials were indicted for conspiring to steer millions of dollars in engineering contracts to a politically connected company in exchange for hiring their friends. One elected board member went to prison. One admitted to violating open-meeting rules. That’s about it.
Archer said privatization, which is meant to save money, has also enabled new forms of corruption by people who can’t be prosecuted.
“When a company gets a contract to perform government services, they then contract out to subs, and they may require bribes or kickbacks,” Archer said. “All of that is built into the price government ultimately pays, and citizens are responsible for it with their taxes.”
What’s the harm?
How much does the corruption tax cost? Here’s a sampling from the five years in which the statewide grand jury’s recommendations have sat on a shelf in Tallahassee:
In Broward County, the grand jury exposed double-dealing, corruption and malfeasance that drove up school-construction costs — one of the biggest expenses on property tax bills — by 20 percent. It blamed school board members who steered billions of dollars in inflated contracts to friends and campaign supporters. They built a school no one could explain and wasted $3.5 million a year on crooked project managers they were too lazy or afraid to fire, the grand jury found.
“Much of the activity we have learned of and reported on can be described as corrupt, at least as understood by regular citizens, and yet escapes criminal punishment because of the deficiencies and weaknesses in state law,” it wrote.
Remember that $8 million contract the Brevard County clerk of courts handed to a company called BlueWare to scan old documents? Prosecutors say about $6 million of that was pure waste because three-quarters of the records were eligible to be destroyed.
In the Southwest Florida Fish and Wildlife district that includes Lee and Collier counties, employees made more than $400,000 in official purchases over five years, nearly half of them fraudulent. Two officials were caught using $350,000 in state funds to buy tools and goods they sold on eBay. They used their eBay proceeds to buy and furnish a home in Las Vegas.
Your sales taxes at work.
Calling all sponsors
Florida has a corruption problem.
But we can change that.
Gannett news sites, with the help of Archer, Kahn and prosecutors, have produced a simple anti-corruption bill that embraces two powerful recommendations by the statewide grand jury on public corruption.
Florida’s 20 state attorneys have endorsed the ideas.
All we need now is a serious, ethical sponsor for the 2016 legislative session.
And we need your support.
Contact Reed at mreed@floridatoday.com. Follow the campaign at Facebook.com/MattReedNews.
Sign the petition
https://www.change.org/p/pass-a-bill-to-deter-and-punish-corruption-in-florida
Seeking sponsors
Legislators and staff should call:
Matt Reed: 321-242-3631 Michael Kahn: 321-242-2564
Learn more
Matt Reed will appear locally on these media outlets, talking about the anti-corruption bill
Thursday: “Bill Mick Live” on WMMB 1240/1350 AM from 7 to 8 a.m.
Friday: “Intersection” on WMFE 90.7 FM from 9 to 10 a.m.
Sunday: FLORIDA TODAY editorial calls for change.
Read or Share this story: http://on.tdo.com/1Kwnsvz |
El Shaarawy awaits Milan nod
By Football Italia staff
Stephan El Shaarawy’s agent said he’d like to stay at Milan, “but we’ll have to wait and see what the club decides.”
The Little Pharaoh struggled for playing time this season with a series of injuries, including surgery on a fracture in December.
“He always put in the performances when fit and his last two appearances showed he has found his form after a long lay-off,” said agent and brother Manuel El Shaarawy.
“Will his future be at Milan? We’ll have to wait and see what the club decides on the market. Stephan is certainly an important player, but there are many changes going on, starting from the issue of the Coach.
“He has always been a Milan fan, so the intention is to stay, but we need to evaluate all the situations. We have to see what Milan decides.”
El Shaarawy had been called up for pre-World Cup fitness tests, but didn’t make the 30-man provisional squad.
“He was upset,” confirmed Manuel. “He always had hope, but unfortunately couldn’t play consistently. If he had a few more games under his belt, then he could’ve been in the 30 and once in training show Cesare Prandelli what he can do.
“The only reason he wasn’t called up is that he hadn’t played for several months. It was purely a fitness issue. If he had made his comeback a month earlier, he certainly would’ve challenged for a place at the World Cup.” |
StoryCorps workers, the newest members of Communications Workers Local 1180.
Employees at the non-profit StoryCorps have voted by an 83 percent margin to join the Communication Workers of America Local 1180. The vote marks the end of a long, and fiercely resisted, union drive that, according to Stephanie Russell-Kraft at The Nation, is a “perfect example of the labor problems mission-driven non-profits often have.”
StoryCorps’ mission, according to their website, “is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.” To that end, the employees of StoryCorps help conduct interviews, do community outreach, produce stories, and work on the StoryCorps website.
The anti-union campaign included 1-on-1 meetings with employees and documents like the “FAQ” sent around in an email and later published by Splinter News. The document hits all the major employer talking points, such as “the union will cost you money” and “nothing is guaranteed!” Employees and supporters did not expect such a typical anti-union campaign from such a seemingly progressive company.
According to Russell-Kraft, the workers demanded clear hiring and firing protocols, performance evaluations, transparency, clear job descriptions, and professional development. All things that any employer that describes themselves as striving for a more “just and compassionate” world should be ashamed to not provide.
“In the past, we experienced sudden layoffs, worked for low wages, and weren’t able to negotiate over working conditions,” said production assistant Mia Warren, “My colleagues and I decided to come together and organize so we could have a seat at the table to discuss issues like healthcare benefits, severance packages, and greater transparency around pay. Now we’ll be able to have a say in making StoryCorps a better place to work.”
Roselyn Almonte, a national facilitator at StoryCorps said, “Even when facing an anti-union campaign by management, my co-workers and I stayed strong for months. Now that we’ve made our voices heard, we can’t wait to get to the bargaining table,” she said.
The 24-person bargaining unit covers employees in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. You can find more information about the StoryCorps workers’ union by following them on Twitter and Facebook. |
Drug laws are a primary driver of mass incarceration in the world—wasting money, human potential and overcrowding prisons and jails.
Around half of all federal prisoners in the United States are incarcerated for a drug offense. In Brazil, approximately 22 percent (125,000 people) of the prison population is serving time for drugs. In Thailand, about 45 percent of the roughly 100,000 people in its prisons are there for drug-related crimes.
As the public servants who are tasked with maintaining order in overcrowded correctional facilities, prison officers are often the first to recognize that many people in their custody simply do not belong there.
“The current war on drugs is successful in creating further victims of acquisitive crime; increasing cost to the taxpayer to accommodate a higher prison population and allowing criminals to control and profit from the sale and distribution of class A drugs,” said the head of the UK Prison Governors Association, Eoin McLennan-Murray.
“A fundamental review of the prohibition-based policy is desperately required.”
Governor McLennan-Murray made these comments as he announced the Prison Governors Association’s support for the Count the Costs initiative, a collaborative project supported by Open Society Foundations that seeks a tally of the human and economic costs of current drug policies.
“The blanket prohibition on class A drugs allows criminals to control both the supply and quality of these drugs to addicts who turn to crime to fund their addiction,” added Governor McLennan-Murray.
“The Prison Governors’ Association believe that a substantial segment of the prison population have been convicted of low-level acquisitive crimes simply to fund that addiction.”
Around 15 percent of the UK’s prison population are serving time for drug-related offenses with many more serving time for crimes associated with drug dependency.
For more on these costs of the war on drugs, see the Count the Costs briefing “The War on Drugs: Creating Crime, Enriching Criminals.”
And if you haven’t already, please join the UK Prison Governors Association in supporting the Count the Costs initiative. You can do so by adding your name to the sign-on statement, which urges the UN and governments around the world to meaningfully count the costs of the war on drugs and explore the alternatives. Approximately 70 organizations, as well as public figures from around the world—including two former presidents—have already signed up in support.
Join the growing number of individuals and organizations urging the UN and governments around the world to count the costs of the war on drugs and explore the alternatives. |
Dignitas to buy out Creation eSports team
Yesterday aAa announced that Dignitas are planning to buy out Creation eSports. The article did not mention a source and no official announcement has been released from either party, but after making further inquiries, multiple sources have confirmed reports that Dignitas are in talks to sign the Creation eSports team before ESL Atlantic Showdown.
Creation are one of the top four teams in Europe, most often found hovering around the second rank in the region. They qualified for ESL Atlantic Showdown after overcoming NiP and ANOX in the Final Qualifiers, but have not had quite the same success in the Overwatch Open. Their inability to beat the other top four teams in Europe in recent weeks has hurt them slightly, and they are currently vying for the fourth direct qualifying spot. Luminosity are still in their way, the same team which blocked them from qualifying last week in an upset; nevertheless Creation have secured their spot in the next phase of the Overwatch Open by gathering enough points, currently sat in 5th overall.
The upcoming ESL Atlantic Showdown is the focus for this team though. They are part of eight elite teams which will be gathering soon in Cologne at Gamescom for a LAN tournament to win part of $100,000. They have a stellar record at LAN events, though there have been few in the course of Overwatch so far, and will be hoping to take the lion's share of that six-figure prizepool.
There we go! Proud of my boyspic.twitter.com/jgi9F0ksKo — Jose A. Ramos (@CEBromaS) 4 July 2016
The timing of this signing to Dignitas suggests that the organisation is looking for representation and a slice of the pie at Gamescom as well. The organisation is expected to sign the team before the Atlantic Showdown, leading to speculation that the initial leak to aAa's writers was due to the team having to submit their new organisation to ESL.
It is also evident from the team's twitter that the Creation eSports roster are currently bootcamping in Germany before the LAN, presumably at the TakeTV studios given the references to Krefeld and their apparent location in recent streams.
The fact that Dignitas are allegedly prepared to buy out a top European team to get into Overwatch shows the interest that large organisation have in the new esport. They are the most recent org to get involved after Ninjas in Pyjamas, compLexity, Immortals, H2K, and others have all acquired teams.
The Dignitas roster will reportedly still be: |
PlayStation 4 users can currently claim a free 14-day PS Plus trial subscription for free via the PSN store, and one gamer has found a loophole on the marketplace that allows repeat spamming of the offer. He’s now a free PS Plus member until the year 2035 without paying a penny.
The tipster – who we will not name here – contacted VG247 this morning to say that he stumbled upon the error, which saw him entering the PlayStation Plus tab of the PS Store, and then clicking on an Outlast-branded 14-day free trial banner. The offer is good to anyone who is signing up to PS Plus for the first time, and does not apply to existing subscribers.
He then added his credit card information for renewal purposes, at which point the interface asked if he wanted to extend his membership. The options allowed him to do so in 14-day intervals. He successfully extended his free membership to the year 2033.
It’s clear that this is an error. The tipster told us over email, “I never had PS+ so I decided to give it a try on my shiny new PS4. A new ad in the PS Store advertises 14 days free of PS+ if you have never had the service before.
A day later, our tipster returned to see if the glitch was still active. He added two more years to his subscription and is now a PS Plus member until 2035:
“Once you accept the deal, you are allowed to keep extending the 14 free days for free once prompted after confirmation of the free purchase. All you have to do is keep pressing X and you keep getting 14 free days added to your free subscription. The hundreds of email confirmations from Sony all say $0.00”
We’ve contacted Sony to shed official light on the matter, and so far we’ve been told there’s no comment. We’ll update you once we know more. |
A couple of weeks ago, I was taking pictures in Union Square for my article on The Warriors filming locations, when I happened to pass by these six crumbling columns on the mezzanine level near the 4-5-6 train.
Now, I’ve walked by these things a zillion times in my travels across New York City, but it suddenly occurred to me that I’d never actually stopped to look at them.
I’ve always just assumed them to be remnants from the old Union Square station, one of New York City’s original 28 subway stations, and it turns out that this is correct.
Dating to the Union Square of 1904, the station’s walls were once adorned with these fantastic terracotta eagles, along with some beautiful mosaic work:
The walls were uncovered and saved during one of Union Square’s many renovations, and installed as an art installation by Mary Miss in 1998. I love how the innards of the walls have been included in the display…
…showing a sort of geological strata of a New York City subway station wall:
The wall portions are arranged so that they steadily deterioriate…
…perhaps signifying the death of the old Union Square?
Now, here’s the thing – I’ve always known about these wall portions.
What I didn’t know about are the red frames.
See, as it turns out, the wall portions are just a small part of Miss’s installation. In fact, there are dozens of relics from the old Union Square strewn all over the station, all of which can be found enclosed by a red frame. And once you start looking for them, you’ll suddenly see them everywhere.
For example, I never thought twice about this Broadway Line directional arrow – but looking at it again, I now realize how incongruous its design is to the rest of the station. In addition to the mosaic Broadway text, note how the surrounding white tiling is in the old square style, while an additional mosaic strip runs along the top – all stopping abruptly at the red border.
Ditto this great old “Exit To Street sign.” Again, I’ve noticed it countless times before, but never stopped to consider how out of place what’s within the red frame is to what’s outside. In a way, each is literally like a window into the past:
Wandering around Union Square, I started finding red frames in more places than just the walls. Here’s a column you’d never think twice above – but wait! There are those red frames, and between them, we find a white-tiled column topped by a tiled stripe, an all but extinct creature in modern Union Square:
Here’s another red frame, one of my favorites, again highlighting not only the mosaic stripe along the top, but the difference in the old white wall tiling vs. new (and is that authentic old-fashioned New York City grime?):
Along one of the connecting passages…
…a very long mosaic stretches the entire run:
It gets even crazier, as the red frames turn up in the most unexpected of places. Here’s one looking down from the mezzanine above the 4-5-6 train…
…and if you look in at the right angle, you’ll see it’s highlighting “steel-bulb angle columns.”
In the corridor running north toward the 17th Street entrance, there are a bunch of slits cut into the wall…
…which offer a slightly more abstract window into Union Square:
For example, a tangle of telephone wiring:
I’m sure this is old news to a lot of you. But for anyone else like myself who’s been to Union Square a million times and never stopped to look, learning about the red frames is an eye-opening experience, as you suddenly realize you’re basically surrounded by a museum exhibit for the Union Square of old.
Ha, and all this time, I just assumed there was a fire extinguisher on the other side of that red frame.
-SCOUT
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Home / Work & Childcare Articles / Getting off benefits and back to work Getting off benefits and back to work
Written by: Cally Worden
You can barely switch on the TV or read a newspaper of late without being confronted with some form of debate on the subject of Benefits system in the UK. Getting off benefits for many people is not as easy as it sounds, and the diversity of individual circumstances make this a hideously complicated and sensitive issue.
Part of the problem is funding the transition from being Benefits Reliant, to Work Solvent. If you are stuck in a rut and are looking at getting off benefits and back to work take a read through the following list:
Housing Costs
Those who have been receiving income related Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, or Income Support for at least twenty-six continuous weeks prior to starting work may be eligible to continue receiving Housing Benefit for the first four weeks of their employment. If your new wage is low, and your housing costs are below certain threshold, then you may even receive
Housing Benefit beyond this initial period.
Homeowners receiving assistance with mortgage repayments may also be eligible for continued help under certain circumstances. Ask your Benefits Office for details.
Claim your Tax Credits
It is not only those with children who are able to claim Tax Credits. The name itself is misleading, as they are not a credit against tax that you pay, Tax Credits are regular payments issued directly to an individual. Those on low incomes may qualify for Tax Credits, and families may be able to claim additional Tax Credits to help with childcare costs.
Gain a Job Grant
This tax-free lump sum is offered to people starting work of at least sixteen hours per week, and who have been receiving certain benefits continuously for the preceding six-month period. The new job must be expected to last for at least five weeks. Eligible benefits include:
• Income Support
• Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Incapacity Benefit
• Employment and Support Allowance
This grant is normally paid automatically if you are eligible and inform the Benefits Office that you are starting work.
Return to Work Credit
Aimed at those who have, or had, some kind of disability or health condition, the Return to Work Credit is a £40 tax-free payment per week, and may be payable for up to a year. Conditions are similar to those for the Job Grant, with some additional criteria that must also be met, such as not earning more than £15000 per year. If you think this Credit could be applicable to your circumstances, then check with your Benefits Office.
Have a go with the Employment on Trial scheme
This gives people chance to try out a job for a short period of time without losing Jobseeker’s Allowance, provided they give the job their best shot. The conditions for this include:
• Minimum of 16 hour per week for the job
• Minimum of 4 weeks tried at work, and you must have left before 12 weeks have passed
• You must not have worked in the 13 weeks prior to the day you start your new job, or been a student during this time
Travel to Interview scheme
When money is tight, getting to interview can be an expense too far. This scheme can, in some cases, help individuals cover their travel expenses when attending interviews. |
The Rolling Stones singer and ballerina girlfriend Melanie Hamrick, 29, delighted by birth of their son in New York
Mick Jagger, frontman of the Rolling Stones, has become a father for the eighth time, his publicist has confirmed.
The musician, 73, and his girlfriend, 29-year-old American ballerina Melanie Hamrick, welcomed their first son in New York on Thursday.
“They are both delighted,” a statement said. “Mick was at the hospital for the arrival. Mother and baby are doing well and we request that the media respect their privacy at this time.”
The Rolling Stones: 'We are theatre and reality at the same time' Read more
Jagger, who is now a great-grandfather, has children with five different women. His oldest is 45-year-old Karis Hunt, whose mother is the singer Marsha Hunt. Jade Jagger, 44, is his daughter with Bianca Jagger, to whom he was married for eight years, and he has four children with Jerry Hall – Elizabeth, 32, James, 30, Georgia, 24, and Gabriel, 19. He also has a son Lucas, 17, with Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez.
The Rolling Stones are currently promoting the release of their 25th studio album, Blue and Lonesome. Described as “five decades in the making and just three days to record”, the album is a collection of blues covers that takes the band back to their roots in the genre.
Earlier this year, Hamrick, who has performed with the American Ballet Theatre in New York, is said to have been a guest on the US leg of the Stones’ recent tour in February and March, which ended with their historic open-air concert in Cuba. |
Shashi Tharoor in a tweet expressed 'bitter disappointment' over defeat of the bill. (File photo)
Highlights Shashi Tharoor’s Private Member’s Bill fell through in the Lok Sabha. The Bill Sought to decriminalise homosexuality under Section 377 IPC. Tharoor tweeted it’s now for the Supreme Court to decide on the matter.
For the second time in three months, the Lok Sabha today voted against the introduction of a private member's bill to decriminalise homosexuality brought by Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor. The development led to the Thiruvananthapuram lawmaker to tweet suggesting he won't make another attempt to bring the bill."So bigotry &homophobia on the BJP side met indifference&prejudice on the Opposition's. Will have to leave it to the SupremeCourt to resolve (sic)," he said in his tweet a few hours later, blaming both the treasury and opposition benches for not supporting the bill. 58 out of 73 members present voted against the introduction of the Bill, while 14 favoured it. One member abstained from voting.The bill sought to amend Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code or IPC, which criminalises homosexuality, describing it as a colonial relic. It wanted to decriminalise sexual intercourse in private between consenting adults, irrespective of their sexuality or gender by restricting the applicability of the section.When Mr Tharoor sought permission to introduce the private member's bill today, BJP members negated the motion and sought division of the house (a vote), which was granted by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan. "Bitter disappointment as my attempt to introduce my bill to amend Sec377 defeated again. Several MPs who'd promised to vote in favour absent," Mr Tharoor tweeted.His previous attempt to introduce a similar bill in the Lok Sabha on December 18 last year too was voted out. The Thiruvananthapuram MP had then said he would make another attempt to introduce the bill. The Supreme Court, in December 2013, overturned a verdict of the Delhi High Court that had set aside Section 377 of the IPC asking the government to take a view on decriminalising homosexuality. The Delhi High Court in 2009 had ruled that Section 377 was unconstitutional. |
Abraham Lincoln may have been poisoned by the medication he took to combat depression, research suggests.
The former US president was famous for his patience.
But earlier in life he was also prone to outbursts of uncontrollable rage.
If Lincoln hadn't stopped the medication, his steady hand at the helm through the Civil War might have been considerably less steady
It is recorded that Lincoln reached over and picked a man up by the coat collar at the back of the neck and shook him "until his teeth chattered".
He became so angry "his voice thrilled and his whole frame shook."
Erratic behaviour
A new study suggests that Lincoln's erratic behaviour may have been linked to the pills he took to treat his persistent "melancholia".
The pills, known as blue mass, contained the metal mercury in potentially toxic doses that exceeded modern day safety limits by nearly 9,000 times.
The researchers believe that this toxic effect may have had a profound impact on Lincoln's mood.
Lead researcher Dr Norbert Hirschhorn said: "We wondered how a man could be described as having the patience of a saint in his fifties when only a few years earlier he was subject to outbursts of rage and bizarre behaviour."
His colleague Dr Robert Feldman, from Boston University, added: "Mercury poisoning certainly could explain Lincoln's known neurological symptoms: insomnia, tremor and the rage attacks.
"But what is even more important, because the behavioural effects of mercury poisoning may be reversible, it also explains the composure for which he was famous during his tenure as president."
Gave up medication
Lincoln stopped taking blue mass in 1861, a few months after his inauguration as president, having noted that the pills made him "cross".
The researchers set out to determine how toxic the mercury in the blue mass pills was likely to be.
They used a nineteenth century recipe to recreate blue mass.
The ingredients included, besides mercury, liquorice root, rose-water, honey and sugar and dead rose petals.
The researchers found that the solid element of mercury absorbed from two pills would have been 750micrograms.
The US Environmental Protection Agency indicates that only up to 21micrograms of any form of mercury per day may safely be ingested.
Someone who ate the common dose of two to three little pills per day would have seriously risked poisoning.
Dr Hirschhorn said: "The wartime Lincoln is remembered for his self-control in the face of provocation, his composure in the face of adversity.
"If Lincoln hadn't recognised that the little blue pill he took made him 'cross,' and stopped the medication, his steady hand at the helm through the Civil War might have been considerably less steady."
The research is published in the journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine. |
By turning to one of his most prominent attorneys over the last two decades for representation in the investigation into possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 election, President Donald Trump is seemingly inviting more criticism, seasoned Washington insiders say.
Marc Kasowitz, the aggressive New York “uberlitigator” known for his “attack dog” style, has represented Trump’s interests in numerous cases. He represented Trump during his Atlantic City casino bankruptcies, he sued a former New York Times reporter for $5 billion in libel damages for allegedly under-reporting Trump’s net worth – the judge dismissed the case because Trump “failed to establish malice” – and he defended Trump University from allegations of fraud, a case in which Trump ultimately agreed to settle.
“The fact that he has been Trump’s lawyer for years will not be a plus,” said one prominent Washington attorney who personally knows special counsel and former FBI director Robert Mueller. “This pick will strike Mueller as strange.”
SOURCE: COMEY 'READY' TO TALK TO SPECIAL COUNSEL IN RUSSIA PROBE
Kasowitz also represents former Fox News anchor Bill O’Reilly, and has represented celebrities like Robert DeNiro.
Trump has called Kasowitz and his former partner in the firm, David Friedman, “phenomenal lawyers.” They’ve already had an outsized impact on his administration. Friedman is now U.S. Ambassador to Israel. The White House removed former Sen. Joe Lieberman from consideration for FBI director because he works for Kasowitz. Lieberman had been Trump’s top pick to replace former FBI Director James Comey.
The media has heaped praise on Kasowitz for his work in the private sector. One report described him as “the toughest lawyer on Wall Street.” And while Trump is still said to be rounding out his legal team, the outsider approach is raising eyebrows with D.C. attorneys who have defended presidents during special investigations before.
“Maybe Trump is going to bring somebody else in,” said prominent Washington attorney Robert Bennett, “because you have to hire somebody who has worked in the Bermuda Triangle of Congress, the Justice Department and the media. What you do in one part of it can effect another part of it.”
Bennett, who represented former President Bill Clinton during the special counsel investigation of the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the late 90s that ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment, said the job is not for civil lawyers who don’t have vast political experience in Capitol Hill and the White House.
“Unless he brings in somebody with that kind of experience,” he said, “I think it’s a very dangerous situation for the president.”
The Washington attorneys who spoke to Fox News say Trump has a penchant for leaning on combative attorneys, such as Roy Cohn who represented Trump in the 70s. Cohn was quoted as saying: “I bring out the worst in my enemies, and that’s how I get them to defeat themselves.”
BRENNAN SAYS HE SAW INTEL LINKING RUSSIA TO TRUMP CAMPAIGN ASSOCIATES
A D.C. attorney who requested anonymity said there is a difference between a tough lawyer and a confrontational one.
“If you go back into Trump’s history, you can see Roy Cohn had a real influence,” the lawyer said. “He was a real pr**k. That’s not going to go over well with Mueller. The government has all the cards or most of the cards. While you don’t roll over and play dead, you can’t use the butcher’s ax, either.”
Kasowitz himself has faced media criticism for his ties to Russia. His firm represents OJSC Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, accused in U.S. federal court of conspiring with granite company executives and others to raid the assets of a competitor. Sberbank is majority-owned by the Russian government.
Sberbank reportedly had ties to other prominent American political figures such as Tony Podesta, the Democratic super-lobbyist and brother of Democratic strategist John Podesta.
Bennett said Kasowitz representing Sberbank isn’t necessarily controversial, but it could look bad, given the insatiable media narrative of questionably cozy ties to the Kremlin.
“I don’t see that as a big deal. Although, with all the focus on Russia I don’t know why you’d pick a guy with a relation to Russia,” Bennett said.
Meanwhile, the order to appoint a special counsel issued by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also opens up the possibility to scrutinize issues outside the 2016 election, such as President Trump’s conversation about intelligence on ISIS with Russian officials in the Oval Office on May 10th. For that, Washington insiders say, you need an attorney with national security expertise.
“If Mr. Kasowitz is unfamiliar with intelligence information or with the President's Constitutional authorities in national security,” said Robert Eatinger, former acting General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency and founder of SpyLaw Consulting. “I'm certain he can retain an expert to assist him in the special counsel investigation should it include the president's reported disclosure of highly classified intelligence information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.”
All in all, don’t be confrontational with Mueller, said Bennett.
“If it’s a close call” at the end of the investigation and Mueller is on the fence with what to do with the evidence, Bennett said, “at the end of the day you want somebody who will listen to you.” |
Fifteen-year-old Cromwell High School freshman Andraya Yearwood won the girls’ 100-meter and 200-meter races at the Connecticut Class M track meet. In middle school, Yearwood competed as a boy. The transgender athlete intends to pursue hormonal treatment and sex reassignment surgery, but was able to compete without suppression of testosterone, in accordance with Connecticut’s high school rules.
“As her father, I never think about it as competition,” Rahsaan Yearwood told the Hartford Courant. “This is not about winning and losing races. This is about the health of my teenage daughter. In terms of the fairness aspect, I don’t think about that as a father. I only think about, is my daughter happy, healthy and able to participate in what she wants to do?”
Last year, I argued that a 10 nmol/L limit on testosterone was the fairest method of determining who could compete in women’s track and field. Joanna Harper, a transgender medical physicist and marathon runner, agreed. Harper knows of what she speaks, from both a personal and scientific perspective. She has authored the only study on transgender athletic performance, and advises the IOC on gender topics.
Harper’s marathon performance dropped by 10 percent when she started taking testosterone-suppressing and estrogen-boosting drugs. Since the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s 2015 erasure of any testosterone limits for women, intersex athletes, like Caster Semenya, and transgender athletes can compete as women without pharmaceutical or surgical suppression of their testosterone. Harper wrote:
While human rights advocates are deliriously happy over the CAS ruling, those who love women’s sport are mortified. Those Intersex athletes who previously used medications to reduce their T are now off of those medications, and are running faster. Allowing these athletes to compete in women’s sport with their serious testosterone-based advantage threatens the very fabric of women’s sport. I would further suggest that, while it might not be a right, success in sports is one of the greatest advancements in women’s lives. If we value women’s equality, it is imperative that we protect the ability of all women to succeed in sports.
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Harper wrote of a scenario in which elite transgender athletes might be tempted by financial gain to use their natural testosterone advantage to win. Though no money and no malice was involved, Yearwood’s win at the state high school meet had the same consequences. The thing to understand is that testosterone is the single best performance enhancing drug there is. Both men and women benefit from higher levels of testosterone.
In 2011, the International Association of Athletics Federations abandoned crude attempts to determine gender, and instead set an upper limit on the testosterone levels of women who were allowed to compete. The 10 nmol/L limit was set three-fold above the testosterone levels observed in 99 percent of women, and is in the low-to-normal range for men. It was reasoned that the very few women who naturally produce T levels higher than that would have an unfair advantage, and would therefore be required to either surgically or chemically suppress their testosterone levels, or not compete.
This solution, while far from perfect, was as fair and inclusive as any method devised thus far. It was in place from 2011 through 2015, until Indian sprinter Dutee Chand brought her case before the CAS, saying she wanted to compete without suppressing her naturally high testosterone. The CAS decided in her favor, eliminating any limit on naturally produced testosterone. To use a wrestling analogy, there are still weight classes, but there’s nothing to stop a 170-pound wrestler from competing in the 126-pound class.
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Harper hopes that when the issue comes up for review by the CAS in August 2017, the testosterone limit will be reinstated. “I believe that billions of potential female athletes deserve the right to compete with some semblance of a level playing field, and that requiring all women to compete within a given testosterone range is the best way we currently have to create such a playing field,” she wrote.
With no clear definition of women’s sports at the highest level, college and high school sports lack clear definition too. Andraya Yearwood was simply playing by the rules as they exist in Connecticut. Unfortunately, refusing to define women’s sports does not solve the problem. |
Navy Develops New Diver Life Support System
By MarEx 2015-03-23 04:19:49
U.S. Navy scientists have developed a prototype for a new life support system for divers.
The goal of the new system, developed by Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City (NSWC PC), is to accelerate the deployment of Navy divers, increase safety, and also conserve helium, a valuable natural resource.
"This new, semi-closed system was conceived to drastically reduce helium requirements," said NSWC PC Principal Investigator Dr. John Camperman. "And where possible we also incorporated proven technology in the system in order to speed transition to operators."
The result has international and humanitarian significance. The project could support life-saving rescues for survivors trapped in a capsized hull or subsea infrastructure maintenance. The project could also enhance disabled submarine assessment and escape, or be used to rapidly recover sensitive debris from vessels, aircraft or spacecraft.
Currently, U.S. Navy mobile diving and salvage units meet their requirement for manned diving operations with the Fly-Away Mixed Gas System (FMGS). The FMGS provides breathing gas through an umbilical to a demand regulated, open circuit, diver-worn helmet. In each breathing cycle all inhalation is from surface supplied gas and all exhalant vents to the sea. In the process a large portion of oxygen and helium are wasted.
"The new system modifies the current helmet and rebreather. Prototype analysis and testing have shown that drastic reduction in helium consumption is possible," said Camperman. "Testing of the new prototype system indicates that the full range of FMGS diving is supportable within Navy life support requirements, and that several life support characteristics are improved, including extended emergency come-home gas duration."
Conserving helium can produce a snowball-like effect. FMGS operational cost is driven by transportation, support vessel size, and consumables (largely helium). Reducing helium requirements will reduce deck space requirements, and can thereby positively impact all three cost variables.
The new life support system is part of the Initial Response Diving (IRD) project. IRD is a Navy innovative science and engineering initiative to support faster recovery of objects in deep waters. The ultimate goal of IRD is to provide military diver intervention to depths of 600 feet anywhere in the world. The goal would put diver's hands on targets for recovery within 36 hours of deployment. |
The infamous 365 lb hitched pull from a broad that apparently lives within a stone's throw of me- this was her third attempt, pulled 75 seconds after her second attempt and within the rules set forth by CrossFit. Best part? If she actually learned to deadlift rather than pulling like it was a clean, half of the people reading this would be forced to commit ritual suicide because of what she'd be pulling.
"Training CrossFit:
-This is who the vast majority of my clientele are and I absolutely love it. These are people that use CrossFit for what it is truly designed for and in many ways it’s a means to an end. They don’t just want to be good in the gym but outside those walls as well. They want to be better cyclists, skiers, hikers, parents, grandparents, athletes… you name it. They use CrossFit to increase their base level of GPP (general physical preparedness) and this correlates to better performance in their specific sport or life.
It doesn’t mean they are any less of an “athlete” than any one of us out there, but they have different goals. In my opinion people can train CrossFit like this for a lifetime. We can come in the gym once a day, follow a 3 on 1 off cycle, or a 3 on 1 off 2 on 1 off cycle of training and see results for years to come. With good varied programming we will get strong, increase our endurance, see improved times, etc. Our work capacity across broad times and modal domains will increase which is the goal regardless. Over time we may need to target some of our weaknesses to help “level out” our work capacity but realistically it could take years and years to get there if at all. For some of us that day may never come depending on what our previous athletic/training background may be.
The sacrifice here is minimal. In most cases these people may just be switching training programs and their time commitments and priorities won’t change. Likely we would see these athletes making sacrifices for other goals they may have if any (qualifying for the Boston Marathon, winning a local mountain bike series, working to become a pro surfer). Either way CrossFit is there to develop their base and if any sacrifices are made they would be due to other avenues.
2. CrossFit as a Recreational Sport:
-This is the person that has been introduced to CrossFit and enjoys the competition aspect of it. Maybe they enter a local competition and find themselves more attracted to this side of CrossFit. Team competitions, local throw downs possibly offering “scaled” divisions as well as “rx’d”, and CrossFit is starting to become more of a sport to them. These athletes may pay closer attention to targeting some of their weaknesses in order to “fast track” their fitness. This is a legitimate goal and one that I think a lot of people fall into.
Having specific and realistic goals here are going to be important to helping us define where we are along the line of the competition realm. A good association here is the difference between any recreational and professional sport. You may like to play tennis, golf, compete in a local soccer or softball club, go to swim meets, etc. but it’s a different demand and commitment than those that play those sports professionally.
Sacrifices may start to be required of those that are treating CrossFit more as a sport. Generally it’s going to be more time spent in the gym with either consistency or additional work. It may include some more specific programming outside of the regular class. We may need to pay closer attention to our diets and learn how to treat competitions and train for them as well as how to manage them. Overall it should still be FUN for us though. We can take it seriously but we also haven’t invested “all” of ourselves into an event so we SHOULD be having fun with the journey as well as the competitions along the way.
3. CrossFit as a Sport (Elite Level):
-Some may think it’s a stretch to call it professional but I disagree. Those that are at the top of the field these days generally make it a living to train. The sacrifices here are heavy and things are not always fun. It’s work, hard work and these athletes are willing to put it in regardless of the outcome and they risk the time invested. I know a number of Games athletes and almost ALL of them either train at a gym, own a gym, or simply compete and do nothing else. Their lifestyle allows them to focus primarily on training and this is what it takes to be at an ELITE level. Most of them have lengthy previous experience in athletics or some kind of strength and conditioning program. Having a base level of fitness and having good exposure to strength training is a plus and although not mandatory it is rare to see people competing at a high level without this. It just takes a whole lot of hard work, and that takes time.
This athlete is someone that can basically do every workout on crossfit.com as rx’d, no scaling necessary and posts competitive times/scores with top Regional (top 5 or so) athletes and Games competitors past and present. They may go to some of the more well known competitions and place well. Qualify for Regionals without specific training for the Open and are legitimate contenders for the Games (Top 5-7 in a Region). Truthfully it’s a small percentage of the population of our community. One that makes sacrifices just as any other athlete trying to reach the peak of their sport would. We may find them working through aches and pains, potential injuries, and having to pay close attention on their training programs as well as maintenance outside of the gym as well. Specific programming is often required in the area of the athletes weaknesses and they have to be ever evolving as the demands of these competitors continually increase. Volume will typically increase depending on the age of the athlete and most of them will either have a coach or a group of likeminded individuals at a similar level to train with.
The sacrifices that are made in the present for these athletes may or may not effect their overall well being in the future. Some of those aches and pains may turn into something more and the risk is worth the potential reward for these athletes. The goals they set in the near future can come at a high price, some who are willing just pay up."
Behold a CrossFittor outlifting you without straps. Elgin will save you. Pussy.
STRONGMEN DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEADLIFT. DISGRACE TO THE SPORT. AN INSULT TO EVERYONE WHO ACTUALLY LIFTS!!!! STRONGMEN DON'T KNOW HOW TO DEADLIFT. DISGRACE TO THE SPORT.
Behold the awesome physique of the "People's Champion."
Say what you want about CrossFit, but those motherfuckers can draw a crowd.
CrossFitters- better looking and more muscular than most other strength athletes... which makes them more marketable and thus "better" from an economic standpoint, at the very least.
THESE METRICS ARE FREELY AVAILABLE TO INTERNET SHIT TALKERS ON THE CROSSFIT WEBSITE. Feel free to go fuck yourselves, by the way, Elgin fans- you're a lot of cunts incapable of working the fucking Google machine with big mouths and tiny cocks.
Yup- they look like total pussies to me. Good call, internet.
Kill yourselves. I don't care how you do it, so long as you're dead.
So, now that we have that out of the way, let's look at the reported deadlift on the CrossFit website for the top 125 Crossfitters- they've got two guys who deadlift over 650 and a couple more who deadlift over 600, with an average of around 510. The top 75 all deadlift over 500, and the top 50 all deadlift over 550.
Yeah, none of you would like to be as strong or as jacked as Khalipa. Suuuuuuuuuure.
Kill yourselves. Again.
who don't even train for maximal strength, are greater than those listed in this analysis. Again, bear in mind that these stats are old- for instance, Jason Khalipa's clean is listed at 335 on the CrossFit site, but he's on video clean and jerking 355 (which would tend to indicate his clean is even higher than 355). In the same video, Froning snatches 305 when his snatch is listed lower online. Matthew Fraser's snatch PR is 315 on video , but 300 on the CF website. Meanwhile, I took so long to write this article that the discrepancy was wider when Beardsley did his analysis. In any event, rest assured that the PRs of Crossfitters,, are greater than those listed in this analysis.
Meanwhile, this random CrossFitter looks 10x as good as Elgin and has actually been laid in the last year. Oh, and fuck Robert Frank, while I'm at it. Congrats on being a fucking nobody who's done nothing. Eat a dick.
And note the background which is appropirate- both of the aforementioned pussies lose in both. Lots of bullshit and nothing to back it but micropenises.
So, how strong are the top 50 powerlifters at 181 in 2013? They deadlifted between 590 and 715- obviously bigger than the Crossfitters, but not shockingly so. There are at least 12 CrossFitters with 600+ deadlifts, which would but them in the top 35 at 181, and the three CrossFitters with > 650lb deadlifts would crack the top 5. According to the USPA's lifter classifications (which I think are incredibly low, but I've discussed my opinion of lifter rankings before), the average of the top 125 CrossFitters' deadlifters are right around the Master cutoff of 515, and at least there are easily 100 CrossFitters who class Elite by the USPA's classifications at 181.
He's like, thhhhhhhho bufffffff.
Meanwhile, this is what was happening as I typed this ridiculousness.
A disclaimer to begin- I am capable of differentiating between CrossFit and competitive CrossFit- and asked competitive CrossFitter Brooke Haas to explain the difference:That said, allow me to begin this epic rant by addressing the video everyone who lifts and is on Facebook as seen- Elgintensity's "Deadlifts from the Washed Up Loser Olympics." I'm sure half of you agreed with him in his commentary, as half of you were likely outdeadlifted by the 123 lb girls and/or 190 lb in that video. As Elgin likes to say, "haters gonna hate," because he's a fucking halfwit who's marginally more original than his poor man's Ben Stein delivery would indicate, and he lives up to that credo with every second of his "I've never seen a strongman deadlift in competition" commentary.Before we continue, let's look at the God of the Waterheads' in gym performance. At a skinnyfat and wholly unimpressive bodyweight that appears to be 180 lbs of bird shit, Elginsaddity is apparently setting the weak-as-fuck and sloppier-than-Phillip-Seymour-Hoffman's-rotting-heroin-infused-corpse ass end of the strength training world on fire with a 425lb squat that impresses literally no one on Earth, an actually respectable 335 bench, and a CrossFit-tastic 545 deadlift. In other words, he is basically on par with the strength levels of the Crossfitters upon whom he incessantly bags, but is in no way, shape or form strong enough to consider himself the authority on lifting he apparently does. But wait, you might be thinking- isn't this entire article about how Crossfitters don't suck at lifting, and is it not hypocritical to then call Elgin a mediocre lifter? Not at all, because CrossFitters consider themselves CrossFitters and don't provide the powerlifts as the sole metrics of their overall strength, as the "Subhuman's Champion" does. This "champion" is in reality a mediocre lifter who does a bad Ben Stein impression while demonstrating a laughable paucity of strength training knowledge and above-average Windows Movie Maker skills.In an effort to garner undeserved internet fame by capitalizing on the wave of butthurt in the strength community that is CrossFit hate, Elginsaddity put himself front and center in the interminable "I hate CrossFit because I'm fat and weak and they're at the very least not fat" discussion by posting a couple of videos criticizing the "form" used by CrossFitters. This is, of course, the How this trend got started is up for discussion- I'd posit it's likely due to the incessant rambling by CrossFitters about the superiority of their sport in comparison to others. Like chihuahuas and their incessant ankle-biting and yapping, the CrossFitters' ankle-biting and yammering is certainly obnoxious, and some measure of hatred of them is therefore deserved. Unlike Chihuahuas, however, CrossFitters are not simply rackety, useless creatures capable of doing nothing but impotent aggression, carpet shitting, and general obnoxiousness (no, that's left to the fans of Elgin Mones). CrossFitters might be more annoying than a roomful of 16 year old entitled cunts at a Sweet Sixteen birthday party, but they are generally incredibly good-looking, reasonably (and in some cases exceptionally) strong people who compete in a sport that has in a few short years eclipsed strongman, powerlifting, and Olympic weightlifting in popularity.Yeah- as much as you guys wish it weren't so, CrossFit is actually an immensely popular spectator sport. Whereas no one in their right mind travels to a powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting or powerlifting meet to serve as a spectator, and few major strongman meets draw appreciable crowds, the CrossFit Games have drawn crowds of between 24 and 30 thousand people the last couple of years. Though the popularity of any given thing is often inversely proportional to the coolness of that thing, the willingness of the average person to watch a bunch of people engage in exercise that average person cannot possibly comprehend or associate with any physical activity is rather telling. Clearly, the sport has a hook that extends beyond a bunch of people with too much money, board and booty shorts, and a collection of cameras that would shame even the most extreme Instragram-obssessed narcissist- it's appealing to a spectrum of people that includes a wide array of strength and aesthetics sports, in addition to the average person.I realize, however, that many of you will claim that my statement regarding the strength of CrossFitters is specious, as literally none of the internet's CrossFit naysayers even possess the modicum of motivation necessary to do the scantiest of research, nevermind actually pick up something heavy (if you haven't yet caught on, I'm stating, unequivocally, that it is only pussies who claim to lift and dont, shmoes, and undeservedly self-important Asian ambulance chasers who hate CrossFit [with one notable exception]). So, without further adieu, let's examine metrics collected from the CrossFit website itself by author and scientist Chris Beardsey of Strengthandconditioningresearch.com . Let me reiterate- these metrics were not fabricated by myself, nor were they fabricated at all- instead, they are considerably dated (which I'll address shortly), low-end metrics provided by the CrossFitters to CrossFit over the last few years, compiled and analyzed by Chris Beardsley. I realize Elginsaddity's fans have already had problems wrapping their feeble, protein-starved, undertrained minds around this fact, so I will reiterate once more:First off, we need a baseline for the determination of relative strength. Thus, we must take a look at the bodyweight. The top 125 Crossfitters in the country are all roughly between 150 and 225 lbs, the bulk of them (and seemingly the most successful of them) are between 180lbs and 210lbs, and the median all of the top 500 CrossFitters is about 190 lbs, which would put them in the 181 class for powerlifting. Yes, the 181 class- they're actually, meaning they will compete at their optimal bodyweight using whatever means are at their disposal to ensure victory. As such, we will use performance metrics for 181 lb athletes to assess their performance.Though likely of little interest to the bulk of you, I found it interesting that the best of the CrossFit men, with one notable exception in that little 150lber, are between 5'10" and 6' and between 190 and 205. Here's a comparison of the height and weight of the top 500 CrossFitters:So then we have the metric I've mentioned I find laughable in CrossFit- their back squats. By powerlifter standards, CrossFitters just can't hang... or can they? Using the USPA standards, 501 is a master classification, 547 is elite, and 596 is international elite. Given that I have only been outsquatted once in the history of the 181lb division, I feel like I am entitled to cast aspersions on everyone in terms of squatting- I don't use any progression scheme, follow no program, and don't even back squat fully outside of meets much. I do a combination of jump squats and partials, and with that, I've got the second best unwrapped squat in the history of powerlifting. Elginsaddity's squat is suicide-inducing, and I'm not even sure his buttbuddy Robbie has legs... so their opinion is null and void. CrossFitters, however, can weigh in on the topic, because in spite of the fact that they don't even really train the lift, they're better at it than most parties. Plenty of CrossFitters have a 500+ squat, which would get them into the top 30, and 6 CFers have a squat would land them in the top 8.Guess who's nowhere near the top of anything at 181? Elginsaddity.So, there you have it. CrossFit might be at times somewhat homoerotic. It certainly sucks at times. But competitive CrossFitters are not, as are popularly bandied about "washed up losers." The only people who would characterize them as such are never-beens and never-will-bes, like your friends Elginsaddity and Robert whatever the fuck his name is not memorable and should die in a fire because he'd have to have sex to have AIDS.Congratulations, fans of those pussies! You suck in multiple dimensions. And to Elgin Mones and Robert Frank, you two fuckers are nothing, will amount to nothing, and mean nothing to the world at large. Your fans fucking suck, you suck, and the lot of you should fucking head to New Guinea and drink some fucking Kool Aid, the useless, worthless, and weak omegas that you are. You're weaker than the people over whom you profess superiority, which is fucking weaker than an AIDS baby in a Oly meet. You don't understand strength sports, fail to understand strength metrics at any point, and lack the testicular fortitude to prove yourselves on the fucking battlefield... unlike CrossFitters.By the way, you two pussies- I'm smarter, stronger, more well-accredited, leaner, and have a hotter fucking girlfriend than you. Find a fucking bridge and jump off it. Your fans' shit talking is fucking noise in the wind, and you two pussies are corpses in search of a fucking tomb. Pathetic.So to the rest of you, stop listening to know nothings who will be never be nothings- I have proven myself because I fucking hate people. They'll never prove themselves, because they're leeches. Treat them as such. Salt those pussies. Move on with your lives. SALT IS GOD.That is all. |
Victoria Cross recipient Johnson Beharry has described his "humiliation" after being held up by US border officials amid Donald Trump's immigration clampdown.
The Iraq war hero arrived at New York's JFK airport hours after the president ordered travel restrictions on nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries on January 27.
Beharry, who was seriously injured in the conflict in 2004, said he faced a wait of nearly three hours to reach the border where his passport was further scrutinised.
The 37-year-old, who was awarded the military's highest award for valour, for saving the lives of 30 comrades, told the Sun on Sunday: "I felt humiliated."
"I think they held me because my passport showed I had been to Iraq".
Beharry said that he suspected he had been viewed with suspicion because of his travel to Iraq and his appearance
"Maybe I am a bit Asian-looking but that doesn't mean I should be treated with the same suspicion as a terrorist." |
Nizzle Privileged
Join Date: 23 Jun 2011 Posts: 635 Threads: 42 Thanked 1,239 Times in 406 Posts
Is PVL Cindy Sheehan? Revisited
http://letsrollforums.com/showpost.p...postcount=1249
Quote:
Do any of you think this is the same woman? I wondered because she travels around with Cowboy Man (Carlos) a lot so it wouldn't be impossible that she was there. She's also from NH I think.
All of the info below I grabbed from Flieldry, so all credit to him or her. Also, the Cindy Sheehan connection has been mentioned on other forums.
http://letsrollforums.com/showpost.p...postcount=1254
Quote: Thank you! I've been reading for a week and it's amazing how much information everyone is able to put together. I just googled "Cindy Sheehan" and came up with the photo of her (the one on the right).
The connection between her and Carlos goes way back:
2004 or 2005
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/fensterm/2005/09/19/
Carlos Arredondo joins Cindy Sheehan on her walk 2007
http://momfromhlwdflorida.blogspot.c...heehan-on.html
Article removed
http://www.zimbio.com/Cindy+Sheehan/...rian+Arredondo
I haven't been able to find anything that says she was at the marathon though, so it could just be a person that looks a lot like her. But I also haven't seen anything that identifies the Pink Lady either, which is odd considering how many photos and video she's in. The same can be said of large brown sweatshirt woman and black lady with red jacket lying in between Jeff and Christian. It took me forever to figure out who the red-haired girl lying on her side with the "Team Stork" sticker on her shirt is, so I guess I'm not too surprised that it's taking this long to figure everyone else out.
Isn't there a list of ALL of the victims, or is it just the "superstars" that are always interviewed and written about? I wonder if that's because the others don't want to speak publicly or some other reason?
http://www2.pslweb.org/site/News2?pa...ter_friendly=1
http://warisacrime.org/node/19762
There's also some circumstantial evidence that Sheehan was fundraising for Carlos after he made himself famous in 2004 (by setting himself on fire).
Carlos greeting Cindy 2004 or 2005
They know each other. They were the top two anti-war advocates of the Bush era. Even outside of the Boston smoke puffs, Carlos is a confirmed paid government shill actor
Undoubtedly, based on the images we have, PVL and Cindy Sheehan look very similar. One discrepancy, Sheehan's nose looks mighty big in some images, but appears normal or small in others depending on the angle.
https://encrypted.google.com/search?...han&tbs=imgo:1
Obviously, steps would be taken to transform Cindy's face a little bit for the role of PVL... a different hairdo, makeup effects, even a quick weight-loss program. An exact match isn't necessary.
And then I see this...
On May 5, 2011, a poster at free Republic writes this: Cindy Sheehan covers her face at Code Pink Protest at Travis AFB "Cindy Sheehan covers her face at Code Pink Protest at Travis AFB on 05/05/2011 and there was a Counter Protest. Why would she cover her face?"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2716324/posts
Other than the poster's accusation, I have no idea if this is Cindy Sheehan behind the veil. She has attended Code Pink protests at Travis AFB before. In 2009, she got into a well-publicized scuffle with an old vet.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2009...veteran-video/
Anyway, maybe she got a little nip/tuck on her face, dyed her hair, I don't know. Doesn't matter. It's the code pink connection that makes me wonder.
Just like Carlos handing out his trademark American flags, was the pink vest a shout out to her buddies in Code Pink?
I'd like people's thoughts on this. To me, it fits. Remember PVL hopping out of the wheelchair, miraculously recovered from her injuries? Clearly, she was a participant in the Boston hoax and yet she passed up hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions, to get out of that chair and remain anonymous.
No, the vile scum that is PVL wasn't there for victim compensation dollars or gofundme cash... she was there because she is supremely trusted and because she wanted to be a part of the event. Same as fraudster Carlos. On May 11, 2013, LRF member Flieldry posts this in the main Boston bombing research thread...I want to revisit this theory, largely because of her association with fellow anti-war/anti-Bushie Cowboy Carlos, but for another reason I'll get to in a bit.All of the info below I grabbed from Flieldry, so all credit to him or her. Also, the Cindy Sheehan connection has been mentioned on other forums.More quality time with Carlos and CindyThere's also some circumstantial evidence that Sheehan was fundraising for Carlos after he made himself famous in 2004 (by setting himself on fire).Carlos greeting Cindy 2004 or 2005They know each other. They were the top two anti-war advocates of the Bush era. Even outside of the Boston smoke puffs, Carlos is a confirmed paid government shill actor http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-The-...on-Cowboy-Hero Undoubtedly, based on the images we have, PVL and Cindy Sheehan look very similar. One discrepancy, Sheehan's nose looks mighty big in some images, but appears normal or small in others depending on the angle.Obviously, steps would be taken to transform Cindy's face a little bit for the role of PVL... a different hairdo, makeup effects, even a quick weight-loss program. An exact match isn't necessary.And then I see this...On May 5, 2011, a poster at free Republic writes this:"Cindy Sheehan covers her face at Code Pink Protest at Travis AFB on 05/05/2011 and there was a Counter Protest. Why would she cover her face?"Other than the poster's accusation, I have no idea if this is Cindy Sheehan behind the veil. She has attended Code Pink protests at Travis AFB before. In 2009, she got into a well-publicized scuffle with an old vet.Anyway, maybe she got a little nip/tuck on her face, dyed her hair, I don't know. Doesn't matter. It's the code pink connection that makes me wonder.I'd like people's thoughts on this. To me, it fits. Remember PVL hopping out of the wheelchair, miraculously recovered from her injuries? Clearly, she was a participant in the Boston hoax and yet she passed up hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe millions, to get out of that chair and remain anonymous.No, the vile scum that is PVL wasn't there for victim compensation dollars or gofundme cash... she was there because she is supremely trusted and because she wanted to be a part of the event. Same as fraudster Carlos. |
Donald Trump mocked a reporter that questioned the Republican front-runner’s “language” on the campaign trail, prompting Trump to ridicule the reporter for being too “politically correct.”
After strong showings in both Mississippi and Michigan, Trump responded to the question during his victory press conference.
The reporter asked Trump, “How do you explain some of the language?”
Trump replied, “Oh, you’re so politically correct. You’re so beautiful. Oh, look at you. Ohhh, he’s so — I know, you’ve never heard a little bad, a little off language. I know, you’re a perfect. Aren’t you perfect? Aren’t you just a perfect young man? Give me break. You know what, it’s stuff like that that people in this country are tired of. OK? It’s stuff like that.”
Follow Steve on Twitter and Facebook |
Freescale unveiled the FSLBOT prototype last year (and I missed it!), and today, the company has announced further improvements to the Freescale Tower System mechatronics robot and board, a bipedal robot and development board that allows designers to write software for a variety of sensor applications while making a robot walk and respond to touch, motion, vibration, tilt and other external stimuli.
The new version of the robot uses a new programming language based on StickOS, has wireless capabilities and adds an Xtrinsic MAG3110 magnetometer.
This robot has been designed with the collaboration of StickOS and CPUStick.com with the goal “to create a tool that would enable casual users and consumers of technology to become creators and innovators”.
The Freescale FSLBOT Robot Kit comes with the following:
Freescale Tower System mechatronics board powered by a 32-bit ColdFire MCU with 64K of RAM and 512K of flash.
Leg mechanics and associated hardware.
Expressive “face” with 12 touch pads and 7 LED’s for user interaction.
4 PWM-controlled RC servos.
A three-axis accelerometer.
A 12-channel touch sensor .
Freescale MC13201 transceiver for RF communication.
Xtrinsic MAG3110 magnetometer for more accurate compass heading information. (Optional device adapter)
The Freescale Tower System mechatronics board can be used standalone with its 3-axis accelerometer and 12-channel touch sensor and with sensor adapter boards. The robot can be programmed using real-time BASIC language in StickOS or C/C++ using the CodeWarrior IDE. If you are interested you can have a look at StickOS BASIC samples for FSLBOT.
Freescale has not released a video of the new version of the robot in action yet, but only an unboxing video:
The Tower System mechatronics robot, Tower System mechatronics board and sensor adapter boards are available now and can be ordered directly online.
In their press release, Freescale announced the following items are available for purchase:
FSLBOT (199 USD) – includes the Tower System mechatronics board, four PWM-controlled RC servos, leg mechanics and associated hardware, assembly instructions, a Tower System mechatronics board user guide and a quick start guide
TWR-MECH (99 USD) – includes an MCF52259 32-bit ColdFire MCU and MPR121 touch sensor, Tower System mechatronics board user guide and quick start guide
LFDA8451 (25 USD) provides a device adapter for the Freescale Xtrinsic MMA8451Q 14-bit 3-axis accelerometer
LFDA3110 (25 USD) provides a device adapter for the Freescale Xtrinsic MAG3110 3-axis magnetometer
The TWR-MECH (The mechatronics board) appears to be already included in FSLBOT, so you should be able to get a working kit for just 199 USD, and you don’t need to purchase the TWR-MECH separatly. I also understand that the 3-axis accelerometer is part of the mechatronics board, and it’s only the magnetometer adapter that needs to be purchased separately.
You can get more information on Freescale FSLBOT page and the Mechatronics Board page.
In the (unlikely) case you are at Design West, you can also attended a workshop entitled “Experiment with Freescale Sensors and Mechatronics Robot” on Thursday March 29th, 12:30-14:00. For further details check out Freescale at DESIGN West. |
The European Championships just became a lot more interesting.
It isn't that Bob Question Mark wasn't already a rising star. They've had sporadic but important victories against Europe's top teams in recent events.
Their ultimate victory in the grand finals against Team ATN Fancy is perhaps not even all that surprising.
The development that complicates things — and that Europe's other teams should worry about — is the consistency that Bob has achieved against even Europe's strongest teams.
Bob's overall record against Team Liquid in this tournament's playoffs stage was 4-1. They were sent to the losers' bracket in the winners' finals by ATN Fancy, but still managed to take a game. Then, after their second series against Liquid — a 2-0 — they managed a 3-1 victory in the best-of-five grand finals against ATN Fancy.
In other words, this isn't a fluke. Bob is here to stay, and that reality will color the action that will take place in Prague.
Grand Finals
Game one, on Tomb of the Spider Queen, saw Bob walk out of the draft with a dream composition of Leoric, Arthas, Zeratul, Jaina and Kharazim. Bob played a dangerous but effective game, baiting fights and then turning them on their heads with snap shotcalling.
In game two, it was Bob's turn to get outdrafted. Fancy went into a three-warrior comp which saw Bob draft Sonya with their last pick. The Sonya didn't do much for Bob's chances as they fell on Sky Temple.
ATN Fancy stuck with what worked in game two, going for another three-warrior setup backed by Zagara and Rehgar. But Bob drafted Chen to deal with both the Zagara and the aggressive warrior lineup, while keeping Kharazim, Johanna, Kael'thas and Zeratul for themselves. That led to their second win of the series on Dragon Shire.
Both teams reverted to a more traditional European style for the final game, which took place on Battlefield of Eternity. Bob again opted for Kharazim after Fancy picked Uther first. Bob finished that game quickly — in under 15 minutes, it was done. Bob took the series 3-1.
Aftermath
James "Bakery" Baker has shown the competitive scene the power of Kharazim, and you can bet that teams who passed the monk over initially are probably re-evaluating that stance now. Fancy actually banned him in game two. Bob first-picked him in game three.
Fancy is the other big story of this tournament. They've looked strong before, but this performance, even with a second-place finish, solidifies the fact that they are up there with Europe's best.
Unfortunately for them, they didn't find their stride quickly enough to qualify for Prague. But their European competitors will certainly be watching in upcoming tournaments that aren't a part of the road to Blizzcon.
The landscaping is shifting only weeks before Prague. There's still time for teams to make adjustments, but they'll have to move fast. Not even Liquid can rest now.
They, like every other top-tier European team, needs to figure out the best way to defeat Bob. Fancy tried stranger tactics, like three-warrior compositions, as well as trying to go toe-to-toe with them using more conventional strategies. In the end, they fell when it mattered — in the grand finals.
Casting talent has sometimes joked that Bob Question Mark should change their name to Bob Exclamation Point, based on recent results. But perhaps, for a team that has proven consistency against the most dangerous European teams, it's time to simply omit the uncertainty.
It's Bob, period.
Josh Bury doesn't drop the egg when he plays Murky. He drops the enemy's base instead. You can follow him on Twitter. |
MOVIES THAT MATTERED
More Reviews From a Transformative Decade
By Dave Kehr
220 pp. University of Chicago. Cloth, $75. Paper, $22.50.
Image
“Movies That Mattered” is a sequel to “When Movies Mattered” (2011). Together, the books mostly collect Kehr’s reviews from The Chicago Reader and Chicago magazine, published between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s. In a glowing foreword, Jonathan Rosenbaum, himself a distinguished reviewer-cum-film scholar, calls Kehr’s reviews “the most remarkable extended stretch of auteurist criticism in American journalism,” and then proceeds to thank him for ensuring that Rosenbaum inherited his slot at The Reader when Kehr left. But this turns out to be a false alarm. Rosenbaum is right: Kehr’s writing on film is extraordinary.
Now a film curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Kehr displays a broad and varied taste, ranging from the high (Robert Bresson’s “L’Argent”) to the low (Russ Meyer’s “Supervixens”) and everything in between. He displays a keen grasp of the ways in which films work — the play of images, words, gestures and pacing — without losing sight of the historical context in which they live and breathe. In an essay on the death of the western, for example, he rightly identifies the paradox of the genre as the employment of the lawless to establish the law, a contradiction that was done in by the cynicism that followed in the wake of the Vietnam War, when both the law and the lawless lost their appeal.
Kehr covers some 40 films, interspersing them with think pieces, a book review and career assessments of his favorite auteurs. The 1980s were not the most salubrious decade in which to shine as a movie reviewer. Movies plummeted from the peaks they reached in the 1970s, but as with all the great reviewers — Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, Manny Farber — Kehr’s reviews fly free from their ostensible subjects to become species of cultural criticism. Agree with his opinions or not, they’re always smart, lucid, well argued and witty. This book is a pleasure to read. |
I grew up in Schenectady, a small city in upstate New York. Sex education was an embarrassing night with my younger brother in the school cafeteria with a black and white filmstrip from the 50s. There was no discussion afterwards, just an awkward silence because the room was filled with people you were going to see in the morning. In high school, we were barred from learning about condoms. The thinking was, if you teach them about condoms, they would run out and have sex. Yeah, right.
I was also struggling with the fact that I was starting to learn that I was gay. Trust me, they didn't show a filmstrip for that.
My first experience with Planned Parenthood was not one you would have expected. Coming from uptight Schenectady, equipped with only knowledge obtained from that filmstrip from the 50s, I was unfamiliar with what my body was going through after my first sexual experiences. The summer after my Sophomore year I paid a visit to the Planned Parenthood clinic. It was my first sexually active summer and I just knew, thanks to the guilt I was raised with, that this feeling in my penis was only one thing -- VD (as we called it then). The caring person at Planned Parenthood performed the necessary swab test, and a few days later had me come in for the results -- negative -- and more important -- education, so I would know how to prevent this panic moment from happening again.
Planned Parenthood had been my first and only choice precisely because of their reputation, because nowhere else came to mind that I trusted enough to go to, because the free clinic in Hempstead just didn't seem like the place I wanted to spend a day.
I had two other experiences with Planned Parenthood in college. The first one was a pregnancy test. Not mine, of course, but the woman I was having sex with. Her body did not have regular menstrual cycles and we could never figure out when she was ovulating. Given the fact that we were only 19, we, of course, figured that pregnancy would never happen to us.
Then her period was late -- much later than it ever was before.
It was Planned Parenthood on Long Island that told us she was not pregnant and told her she should be on the pill, not only because she was sexually active, but also because it would regulate her periods. Health care. Sensitive and informative health care. No abortion. And all was presented in a caring, supportive environment that did not chastise us for having sex.
During my Junior year, the next experience was a similar one. I was a Resident Assistant, the University's first line of defense for the students living on campus. Whenever one of my residents had a problem, they came to me for help. Part therapist, part social director, it was my favorite year of school. One student, who was sexually active with her boyfriend, came to me with a question. What should she do if she needed an abortion? She was using a diaphragm but it didn't work one time and her period was a few days late.
My Catholic upbringing and my new found beliefs were at war with each other. One side of my head said this was wrong. The other side knew it was the right thing to do, for if it were myself, I knew I was not ready yet to raise a child. Off I went again to Planned Parenthood and found out options for her and information for me. One day about a week later, she and the boyfriend went into New York City to terminate the pregnancy.
It was at that moment when I realized, as a man, I had no right to govern over women's bodies, that I would never, ever truly know what making a decision like this would be like. I felt it was not my place to make this decision for the women in my life, but instead be supportive no matter what direction they decided to take.
Years have gone by since that Q-tip in a very private place, but I still trust Planned Parenthood for my health care. Right now I drop by my local office for blood pressure screenings. Given the fact that it costs me a $45 co-payment at my doctor for the very same test, and only a donation at my local Planned Parenthood, it is an easy choice to make. And it is the smart choice to make. For like millions of Americans, without this affordable option for health care, it could cost me not only MUCH more money down the line, it could cost me my life.
If only the Tea Party would actually read the site, Planned Parenthood is much more than abortions. It is truly about PLANNING PARENTHOOD. It teaches us to become responsible, sexually active adults. It educates us to have healthy, fulfilling relationships that produce healthy children that grow up to be adults. Planned Parenthood is designed to help us grow and keep us safe. This branding it has gotten over the years has more to do with the people giving it than the organization.
I think the problem Planned Parenthood has it that it teaches us to feel happy about our bodies, and to enjoy them for pleasure, not just as baby making machines. I think as society offers more options for adults -- marriage, living together, civil unions, or just opting to remain single -- we need to expand our notions of what being sexually active means.
As a gay man, I know what it to be demonized for having sex strictly for pleasure and not producing children. But, unlike many people in Congress, I think my heterosexual brothers and sisters are entitled to the very same freedom I have. Having this freedom comes great responsibility, and great responsibility can only happen with education. |
AMD’s share value is surging on news that it has licensed its x86 chip technology to a consortium of public and private Chinese companies.
The consortium, known as Tianjin Haiguang Advanced Technology Investment Co. (THATIC), will use the licensed technology to develop custom server chips that’ll be sold exclusively in China. The agreement is expected to generate $293 million in licensing fees for the struggling chipmaker in addition to royalties on the sale of chips created by THATIC.
As you can imagine, the deal probably won’t be well-received by rival Intel.
According to Mercury Research, Intel chips powered 99.4 percent of all corporate data centers in 2015. AMD, which once claimed nearly a third of the market, held a miniscule 0.6 percent share last year.
The Wall Street Journal points out that AMD and Intel signed a cross-licensing agreement in 2009 that stated neither party could transfer rights to licensed technology to other companies. Intel will almost certainly bring this up although an AMD spokesperson said the new deal doesn’t violate the cross-licensing pact due to the way the joint venture’s ownership is structured.
In addition to the new revenue stream, the deal gets AMD’s foot into the proverbial door of the booming Chinese market and further expands its install base. What’s more, the deal isn’t costing AMD anything as it’s simply using existing IP to generate revenue.
Share value in AMD stock is up more than 39 percent as of writing.
Image courtesy Bizjournals |
Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war
While millions of people worldwide have marched against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and last week's New York Times/CBS News poll indicated that 81 percent believe the country is headed in the wrong direction - key concerns being the war and the economy - the war machine inexorably grinds on.
Amid this political atmosphere, dockworkers of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union have decided to stop work for eight hours in all U.S. West Coast ports on May 1, International Workers' Day, to call for an end to the war.
This decision came after an impassioned debate where the union's Vietnam veterans turned the tide of opinion in favor of the anti-war resolution. The motion called it an imperial action for oil in which the lives of working-class youth and Iraqi civilians were being wasted and declared May Day a "no peace, no work" holiday. Angered after supporting Democrats who received a mandate to end the war but who now continue to fund it, longshoremen decided to exercise their political power on the docks.
Last month, in response to the union's declaration, the Pacific Maritime Association, the West Coast employer association of shipowners, stevedore companies and terminal operators, declared its opposition to the union's protest. Thus, the stage is set for a conflict in the run up to the longshore contract negotiations.
The last set of contentious negotiations (in 2002) took place during the period between the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Iraq. Representatives of the Bush administration threatened that if there were any of the usual job actions during contract bargaining, then troops would occupy the docks because such actions would jeopardize "national security." Yet, when the PMA employers locked out the longshoremen and shut down West Coast ports for 11 days, the "security" issue vanished. President Bush then invoked the Taft-Hartley Act, forcing longshoremen back to work under conditions favorable to the employers.
The San Francisco longshore union has a proud history of opposition to the war in Iraq, being the first union to call for an end to the war and immediate withdrawal of troops. Representatives of the union spoke at anti-war rallies in February 2003, including one in London attended by nearly 2 million people, the largest ever held in Britain. Executive Board member Clarence Thomas went to Iraq with a delegation to observe workers' rights during the occupation.
At the start of the war in Iraq, hundreds of protesters demonstrated on the Oakland docks, and longshoremen honored their picket lines. Without warning, police in riot gear opened fire with so-called less-than-lethal weapons, shooting protesters and longshoremen alike with wooden dowels, rubber bullets, pellet bags, concussion grenades and tear gas. A U.N. Human Rights Commission investigator characterized the Oakland police attack as "the most violent" against anti-war protesters in the United States.
And finally, last year, two black longshoremen going to work in the port of Sacramento were beaten, Maced and arrested by police under the rubric of Homeland Security regulations ordained by the "war on terror."
There's precedent for this action. In the '50s, French dockworkers refused to load war materiel on ships headed for Indochina, and helped to bring that colonial war to an end. At the ILWU's convention in San Francisco in 2003, A. Q. McElrath, an octogenarian University of Hawaii regent and former ILWU organizer from the pineapple canneries, challenged the delegates to act for social justice, invoking the union's slogan, "An injury to one is an injury to all." She concluded, "The cudgel is on the ground. Will you pick it up?"
It appears that longshore workers may be doing just that on May Day and calling on immigrant workers and others to join them. |
We're all just looking for love, right? That and the occasional lost iPhone. This is what happens when those searches collide.
When Nadav Nirenberg lost his iPhone in the back of a cab on New Year's Eve, the 27-year-old Brooklyn musician called it multiple times, hoping to recover the device. Despite leaving messages promising a reward, it became clear his phone was in the hands of someone with no intention of giving it back.
Worse, Nirenberg soon realized the thief had logged into his dating profile on OKCupid, and was hitting on women. "Not only is he stealing my phone," Nirenberg recalled of the thief in a post on his blog, "he's creepy and disturbing."
So he decided to catch the thief using the power of seduction. Nirenberg created a fake OKCupid account pretending to be "Jennifer," a 24-year-old woman who had recently moved to the area and was looking for love.
"Jennifer" struck up an online conversation with the thief -- "I used lots of winks and smiley faces so I would seem like a girl," Nirenberg told the New York Post -- and after a couple hours of online flirting, suggested they meet for a glass of wine. Lest you doubt the sheer quantity of flirting, here's a screenshot of "Jennifer's" email inbox. The thief's screen name is "SamIAmnt."
Nirenberg directed the thief to his apartment for a 7:00 p.m. rendezvous, where the punctual criminal soon appeared, “clean-shaven, doused in cologne and holding a bottle of wine.
"He was ready for a date,” Nirenberg told the Post. But that changed quickly when Nirenberg, armed with a large hammer, tapped the thief on the shoulder, handed him $20 as a peace offering and asked for his phone back.
Nirenberg described the man as a "small Indian dude," and said he thinks he was the New Year's Eve cab driver. After handing over the phone, the thief hurried off in shame, but not before Nirenberg told him, "You smell great, though."
Nirenberg has since updated his online dating profile with an acknowledgment: "Sorry if you've received weird messages from this account." He told the Huffington Post he plans to delete the account in the near future. |
Jul 10, 2010 at 12:51PM
Perhaps you have seen or heard a little bit about Lebron James leaving his current team and signing with two other famous players in Miami. It was a fairly understated and subtle affair, so if you missed it that's quite understandable. To get you caught up, James was a free agent and kept everyone guessing up until the last moment as to whether he would stay with his hometown team, The Cleveland Cavaliers, or leave for any number of other teams; The New York Knicks, The Los Angeles Clippers, The Miami Heat or The New Jersey Nets. Teams had been planning for James' free agency for two even three years, saving money and dumping contracts so they'd have a shot at the star player. Free agency is a pretty standard aspect of modern professional sports. What was not standard was James sending out misinformation and then launching a one-hour special dedicated only to announce this decision. The special show that aired on ESPN on Thursday was even called The Decision, smacking of the over-hyped ridiculous self-importance that is all too prevalent in sports. It was anything but classy.
Most astute fans knew that Lebron was going to face scrutiny after the show no matter what he decided. By making a spectacle of the announcement he was causing undue problems for himself. Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk said it best, "He either ends up on national television to break Cleveland's heart, or he has an hour-long special on himself to say he is going nowhere. Both options have public relations problems to deal with."
AP Photo/Mark Duncan
What is not being talked about is the effect on Nike. More specifically: Lebron James has been Nike basketball for years now, somewhat taking Jordan's place as the brand's icon. Since Lebron is leaving Cleveland for Miami, there is also the appearance that Nike is leaving Cleveland. All those images of Cleveland fans burning James' shoes and jerseys and posters and t-shirts are also images of fans burning Nike's brand. How can the discontent of millions of midwestern basketball fans not spill over onto the most visible part of Lebron James' persona, that of Nike spokesperson? Lebron has abandoned Cleveland and Nike may have as well. At least that is the common perspective on things.
When I saw the image of the We Are All Witnesses Nike billbaord featuring #23 being torn down on ESPN this morning, it became pretty clear that Nike's presence in Cleveland is being torn down as well. The fact that there has been so much backlash for how The Decision (sic) was handled, means that the actions of the sponsored has dirtied that of sponsor simply by association. I'm surprised someone in Nike's camp didn't throw themselves in front of this dumb idea for a show and prevent such bad publicity. Now they are facing the same public ire that the player is - after all, Nike was the lens through which most fans experienced James. Yes, we all witnessed what happened this week and are feeling pretty ugly about it. As a matter of fact the We Are All Witnesses campaign has become a point of parody for fans to communicate their disgust. Chants of Witness Disloyalty or Witness A Traitor can probably be heard today ringing down not just the streets of Cleveland but throughout a lot of other B-level cities in America.
Source: AP Photo/The Plain Dealer,Marvin Fong
So what is Nike to do? Do they sponsor another player that comes to Cleveland and try to fill that gap? That would be next to impossible as James cast a pretty large shadow especially since the town felt like they had raised James since high school. Does Nike just lay low and let this story die down? I feel like that is giving an opportunity to other marketers to do some timely marketing of their own. Were I Adidas or Reebok (heck And 1 or Under Armor) I would take this chance and respond in some way using clever advertising and try to endear fans (not just in Cleveland) to their brand instead.
Although I do look forward to the future design around his new number six.
Maybe Nike works with Lebron and does something classy, publicly thanking Cleveland fans for all that they've done for him over the years? There is a big risk of that feeling insincere, especially while Bosh, Wade and James sign contacts and dance gleefully in front of the Miami fans and a worldwide audience - which has been going on for the last two days as of this article's writing. As Rob Shuster said in ESPN's Bill Simmons' latest mailbag article: "(What Lebron did is) Like dangling an engagement ring in front of your longtime girlfriend, then getting on your knee at the bar and proposing to a girl you met last week. (We're) Completely destroyed." All of this sponsored by Nike albeit indirectly.
We've seen the risks of focusing one's brand on a single player's persona. If that player runs into trouble with the law, your brand looks bad. If it turns out that the player has a little trouble staying faithful to his wife, your brand is aligned with that. And if your star decides to stick a knife in the back of an entire region of the country in the most visible manner possible, your brand is aligned with that too. I will argue that the last scenario is by far the stickiest because it is oddly somehow less forgivable. Some will say that Lebron James is a symbol for all that is wrong with sports. Sport is now about money and economy over fans and loyalty. It's about long-term lucrative contracts over only slightly less long and barely less lucrative contracts. It's more about business and less about the game. And guess who some people are going to blame for this? The big time advertisers and Nike in this particular instance. They will be seen as part of the problem in sports and ironically that's really bad business for the brand. Will Anyone in Cleveland buy a pair of Nikes again at least without wincing like an abused dog?
Yes Lebron James left Cleveland. And he took Nike with him. Now what? This is a question I'm betting is being tossed around the halls of agency Wieden + Kennedy and in Beaverton, Oregon where Nike is headquartered. |
But there is an almost complete divergence between the United States and Britain, whose laws and public attitudes toward guns lie at nearly opposite ends of the spectrum.
Members of the United States Olympic shooting team seem no more inclined than gymnasts or fencers to talk about politics, preferring to discuss the finer points of their sport.
At a media appearance here, the shooting team members answered the perhaps inevitable questions about Aurora, Colo., with practiced forbearance: target shooting and gun massacres have nothing to do with each other, they said; safety is a priority for sport shooters; they were as shocked and saddened as anyone by the killings, which took place about 90 minutes from their practice site.
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Whatever happens as a result of the rampage in Aurora, there is almost no chance that it will affect their sport. Beyond that assurance, officials with the team acknowledge that the benefits of the strong and loyal gun culture in the United States go far, particularly in an activity that is expensive but not particularly prominent.
“We have one of the larger direct-mail campaigns of any of our sports,” said Buddy Duvall, executive director of the USA Shooting Team Foundation.
Contributions to the team come in from gun enthusiasts, and firearms bearing little resemblance to those at the Olympics are sold in Web auctions, with the proceeds going to the American team.
Then there is Britain.
“Olympics to Boost Shooting,” read a news release from the British shooting team. One of the team’s top shooters, Peter Wilson, said in the release that he hoped the main legacy of the Olympics “is that people start to have a positive outlook on shooting.”
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Wilson uses a shotgun, which, like rifles, air guns and some significantly modified pistols, remains legal here. The guns used in three Olympic shooting events, the ones involving cartridge pistols, were banned altogether in 1997.
Since then, anyone wanting to practice had to do so on the Continent or at least in Northern Ireland , where the laws are looser. There were no exceptions: an up-and-comer like Geikie and a veteran like Mick Gault, who was awarded the Order of the British Empire as one of the most successful British competitors of any sport, both kept their guns in Switzerland and traveled there on weekends to practice.
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“It was the end of our sport for a while,” said Margaret Thomas, an orthodontist and former Olympian. She quit shooting pistols after the ban, considering it too much trouble. Now she is Geikie’s coach.
Those who kept at it faced some unusual arrangements. At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, pistol event competitors were handed their guns only after being locked in the firing range, and they had to return their pistols to officials before the door was unlocked.
With the 2012 Games approaching, Britain’s strict laws posed something of a problem, even after officials granted an exception to allow the pistol events to go on as scheduled. The problem was the British team itself.
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“It would have looked absolutely ridiculous if we were not allowing our shooters to practice here,” said Kate Hoey, a member of Parliament for the Labour Party and a former sports minister who has supported lifting the ban.
In 2008, government officials granted a temporary exemption loosening, but not lifting, the ban. Competitors were allowed to practice in Britain in the three events that used banned guns. The number of licenses to allow certain sport shooters to own pistols was capped in the low double digits, and only four ranges in the country were authorized for target practice.
The exemption was not looked on favorably by gun control advocates like Chris Williamson, another Labour member of Parliament.
Citing a regular and steady tally of gun fatalities in Britain that have not drawn as much attention as massacres like the one in Dunblane and a more recent rampage in Cumbria, Williamson says additional restrictions are needed, if not an outright prohibition on all guns. Among the rules he is pushing is a ban on keeping guns at home, more aggressive regulation of air guns and yearly mental fitness tests for gun owners.
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Williamson said he did not have anything against target shooting, adding that the competitors should still be able to practice their sport. But he acknowledged that additional regulation might make practicing more difficult.
“We’ve got to get control of this,” he said. “If that means we may be a little less competitive in this Olympic sport, then I think that’s a price worth paying.”
Sport shooters are hoping the exemption for those practicing for the Olympics will be extended, at least until Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
There is where Geikie may come in. She is not spoken of as a gold medal hope (though some newspapers have referred to her as the Lara Croft of Britain, after the buxom English pistol-brandisher of the “Tomb Raider” franchise), but gun advocates say a strong performance by Geikie would help their cause.
“What we really need is another successful shooter,” said Hoey, the Labour member of Parliament. “If only she could do really well and get some publicity, then it’s really much easier.” |
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Dog First Aid Kit
When the unexpected happens, a prepared First Aid kit can go a long way in saving your dog.
Always have the necessary resources readily assessable if something were to happen. Even with all of the safety precautions are taken, dogs still manage to get into trouble that could lead to an emergency. Without the ability to speak and nimble thumbs to use, your dog relies on you to assist them back to health. This is a great opportunity to refresh and check your dog’s First Aid Kit with our list below. Spread awareness about the needed First Aid supplies to your friends and family by sharing this post. Do you have all the supplies to help your dog in need?
Resources: http://www.1800petmeds.com/education/pet-first-aid-awareness.htm
http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/resources/tips/pet_first_aid_kit.html |
8 members of Congress are leading the charge to repeal Net Neutrality. Here’s exactly how much money they have received from Comcast, Verizon, and other ISPs.
Email Copy and paste the text below into a new email message You should really see this: https://act.represent.us/sign/Net_neutrality_contributions?source=taf . RepresentUs has a smart plan to fix our broken political system. Check it out.
June 9, 2017
By: Jack Noland
Research Analyst, Represent.Us
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has begun the process of repealing "net neutrality" rules that require Internet service providers (ISPs) like Comcast and Verizon to treat all data on the Internet equally. Without the rules, ISPs will be able to block or slow down websites and apps.
So far, only eight members of Congress have publicly backed the FCC’s plan, by signing a statement of support or by having their statements included in an industry-written GOP talking points document. The FCC doesn't need formal approval from Congress to repeal the rules, but congressional support gives them the political cover they need to eliminate net neutrality without looking like they are doing something that only the telecoms want. (Note: the Chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, is a former Verizon lobbyist).
Not surprisingly, the members of Congress praising the FCC have received a lot of campaign money from telecoms that oppose net neutrality.
Here’s a look at how much money these eight lawmakers have taken from companies and other organizations in the telecom (e.g. Comcast, NCTA) and telephone utilities (e.g. AT&T, Verizon) industries, which strongly support the repeal of net neutrality rules.
Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)
Contributions from Telecom: $1,092,286
Contributions from Comcast: $122,650
Contributions from Verizon: $63,500
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)
Contributions from Telecom: $498,499
Contributions from Comcast: $49,500
Contributions from Verizon: $72,650
Sen. John Thune (R-SD)
Contributions from Telecom: $489,383
Contributions from Comcast: $36,200
Contributions from Verizon: $36,900
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)
Contributions from Telecom: $406,650
Contributions from Comcast: $17,500
Contributions from Verizon: $10,500
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Contributions from Telecom: $383,251
Contributions from Comcast: $73,250
Contributions from Verizon: $48,035
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
Contributions from Telecom: $440,530
Contributions from Comcast: $43,400
Contributions from Verizon: $36,000
Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA)
Contributions from Telecom: $146,000
Contributions from Comcast: $20,500
Contributions from Verizon: $10,000
Rep. Bob Latta (R-OH)
Contributions from Telecom: $368,250
Contributions from Comcast: $27,000
Contributions from Verizon: $28,000
The contributions to these members are significantly higher than those to average members of Congress. For context, in the 2016 campaign cycle, Walden ranked first in telecom money among all 435 House members, with Ryan receiving the fifth most, Latta receiving the 13th most, McMorris Rodgers receiving the 15th most, Blackburn receiving the 22nd most, and Graves receiving the 69th most. In the Senate, Thune received the most telecom money in 2016, and Wicker received the 41st most (out of 100 members).
Note: The figures above are derived from OpenSecrets data and include campaign contributions from political action committees and employees. The telecom industry totals include OpenSecrets' "telecom services" and "telephone utilities" industries, and cover the full congressional careers of the lawmakers. The Verizon and Comcast totals include campaign cycles 2002-2016. |
CLOSE Protesters outside of the Dallas home of an OU student in the now viral, racist video say they want to bring attention to the stem of the problem. VPC
University of Oklahoma Officer Robert Bruemmer puts a newspaper through the gates at the school's now-closed Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house in Norman, Okla., on March 10, 2015. (Photo: Sue Ogrocki, AP)
The University of Oklahoma continued its quest for healing Wednesday while a national fraternity was trying to determine if racist chants such as the one that made national headlines in Norman ars pervasive at Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapters elsewhere in the nation.
A day earlier, university President David Boren expelled two students accused of playing a "leadership role" in the video showing SAE members singing the chant. One of the students issued an apology, as did the family of the second student.
The parents of student Levi Pettit, Brody and Susan Pettit, said of their son, "He made a horrible mistake and will live with the consequences forever.''
"We were as shocked and saddened by this news as anyone,'' the Pettit family statement said. "Of course, we are sad for our son, but more importantly, we apologize to the community he has hurt. We would also like to apologize to the entire African American community, University of Oklahoma student body and administration.''
Parker Rice, 19, a former Dallas prep-school student, offered "my deepest apologies'' in a statement and said "our family is not able to be in our home because of threatening calls as well as frightening talk on social media.''
"I am deeply sorry for what I did Saturday night. It was wrong and reckless. I made a horrible mistake by joining into the singing and encouraging others to do the same,'' he said.
Both students said they had been taught the song. The fraternity's national headquarters said the song was not a part of the SAE tradition.
"Several other incidents with chapters or members have been brought to the attention of the headquarters staff and leaders, and each of those instances will be investigated for further action," SAE said in a statement. "Some of the allegations refer to incidents, which Sigma Alpha Epsilon acknowledges, from more than 20 years ago. Although we cannot change the past, we can learn from the present and alter the future."
University President David Boren issued a statement saying the investigation into the video was continuing.
"I have acted today to expel two students who were leaders in the singing of a racist chant," Boren said in a tweet that linked to the statement. When the identities of others involved is confirmed, they will face "appropriate disciplinary action," he said.
Boren said the students had created a "hostile environment" for students and the university community.
University of Oklahoma students rally outside the now closed University of Oklahoma's Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house during a rally in Norman, Okla., Tuesday. (Photo: Sue Ogrocki, AP)
"I have emphasized that there is zero tolerance for this kind of threatening racist behavior at the University of Oklahoma," Boren said. "I hope the entire nation will join us in having zero tolerance of such racism when it raises its ugly head in other situations across our country."
The university did not immediately release the names of the expelled students.
In Dallas, the Jesuit College Preparatory School's president issued a statement saying one of their graduates had led the "unconscionable" chant. Rice is a graduate of the school.
The video was taken on a bus going to a Founder's Day event at a country club. The person who recorded it has cooperated with the investigation, Boren said Tuesday ahead of a Board of Regents meeting.
Boren has been working to repair damage to the university since the video went viral Sunday. He quickly severed ties with the fraternity and promised a thorough investigation, warning that expulsions were possible.
All SAE members had until Tuesday night to clear out of the fraternity house. Boren said he hoped students involved in the video learned from the experience and realize it is "wrong to use words to hurt, threaten and exclude other people."
SAE brothers are not the only members of the University of Oklahoma family hammered by fallout from the fraternity's racist hate video. SAE's black chef is out of a job, a sorority linked to the video is under fire, and OU recruiters have a lot of explaining to do to keep the university on the short list for young athletes and scholars.
CLOSE A video of a woman believed to be the house mom of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma has surfaced in which she repeatedly says a racist slur. VPC
The video posted online Sunday by Unheard, a black student group at OU, shows students on a rented bus singing racial slurs targeting blacks. The song, which also makes reference to lynching, states that blacks would never be admitted to the fraternity's chapter in Norman. The chapter has had black members in the past.
The school's Delta Delta Delta sorority chapter was also feeling heat amid claims that some members were seen chanting in the video. The national office of the sorority issued a statement saying the "behavior documented in the video is deplorable and is in no way consistent with Tri Delta's ideals and core values."
The statement also said the sorority was cooperating with the investigation, but the chapter tweeted that "We fully support our OU president. We are NOT under investigation. The statement on our website is national protocol."
That drew plenty of sarcastic Twitter replies, including this from Jade.O: "So the #Tridelta racists singing with the #SAE racists- that's okay? Good to know."
The video's victims include Howard Dixon, the fraternity's African-American chef, out of a job after 14 years. SAE alums immediately began raising money for Dixon online, collecting more than $24,000 within hours.
"We used to have so much fun," Dixon told WFAA-TV. "Now it's all gone."
An online fundraiser for SAE house mother Beauton Gildow was taken down after a video clip surfaced of her repeatedly saying the n-word, the school newspaper the Daily reported.
Former Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer, an honorary member of SAE, called the video "just a stupid act with a bunch of damn freshmen out drinking on a bus who will regret this the rest of their life."
The current football team appeared unwilling to dismiss the video so lightly. The team marched in protest Monday, joined by coach Bob Stoops and athletic director Joe Castiglione. The group, dressed in black, said a prayer at midfield but did not hold its scheduled spring practice.
Jennie Carlson, a reporter for The Oklahoman, wrote a column noting that "recruiting just got a whole lot tougher." She discusses high school football player Jean Delance announcing via Twitter that he was decommitting from OU — and quotes at least one current OU player saying he can understand why.
"We're not just talking about recruiting the next five-star running back or the next Big 12 Player of the Year," Carlson wrote. "We're talking about recruiting the next National Merit Scholar or the next University of Oklahoma Student Association president."
I have acted today to expel two students who were leaders in the singing of a racist chant. See press release - DBo pic.twitter.com/VypOiVqXi7 — David Boren (@DavidBorenOK) March 10, 2015
The fraternity's national organization issued a statement saying the SAE chapter at the school has been closed and its members suspended from the national organization. SAE apologized for the video and said it did not reflect the views of its 15,000 members nationwide.
The video has drawn national reaction. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the efforts by the university and the national fraternity to repudiate the racist comments were "an appropriate step."
OU is a state school with almost 30,000 students, about 5% of them black. Immediately after the video was posted, an outpouring of tweets echoed the sentence "Racism is alive at the University of Oklahoma."
Boren has working hard to change that narrative. His tweet announcing the expulsions drew mostly positive replies.
"Thank You. I hope the University is remembered for the amazing response of the students and administration, not the idiots," tweeted lawyer and OU grad Gene Burrus.
Contributing: William M. Welch in Los Angeles; Jason Whitely and David Schechter, WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1Gnb39J |
It can be tempting to copy someone else's ideas and pass them off as your own. Theresa May seems to have done just that for her speech to Conservative Party Conference today, with a line from American TV drama The West Wing. It looks like she, or one of her speechwriters, is an Aaron Sorkin fan. Compare the (fictional) President Jed Bartlet with the (still real, just about) Prime Minister Theresa May.
Here's Bartlet: "Every time we think we have measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we're reminded that that capacity may well be limitless".
And here's May, in a line given to the media in advance of her speech: "And it is when tested the most that we reach deep within ourselves and find that our capacity to rise to the challenge before us may well be limitless".
As Theresa May said during her first PMQs: remind you of anyone?
People have said a lot of things about our Prime Minister, but I don't think even her strongest admirers would say she has a limitless capacity to rise to a challenge. Not since the election campaign, anyway.
The problem is that this isn't the only example of plagiarism from the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister this week. Their whole policy agenda now consists of a series of low-quality bootleg versions of better Labour ideas.
Take the big announcements in her speech. A "rebirth" of council house building - we wait for the detail, but it sounds very like a policy from Labour's manifesto. Action on energy prices - I'm old enough to remember when Ed Miliband announced that and got accused by the Tories of living in a "Marxist universe". Stopping further rises in student fees - it's pretty weak compared to Labour's plan to scrap tuition fees, but at least the Tories have finally noticed the problem.
The Tories have realised Jeremy Corbyn is onto something, but they have no idea what to do about it. This time last year the Tories were laughing at him. Now they're copying him.
The problem with plagiarism is that once you spot it, it's hard to respect the person responsible. If the Tories can't come up with ideas of their own, why should anyone listen to them any more? It's Labour that's setting the agenda. Beware of cheap knock-offs. |
It may sound like a lot of hot air but a balloon gifted to a Glenrothes woman is still flying high after two decades.
Mary Wallace, 64, was given the helium-inflated foil bear as a get well present in October 1995.
The grandmother, from the Pitcoudie area of the town, had undergone a hip replacement operation at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy when she was gifted the inflatable by her eldest daughter Michelle.
Having helped to raise her spirits as she recuperated, the balloon returned home with Mrs Wallace, where it has remained in perfect condition ever since.
“We were cleaning the house the other day and my daughter mentioned it,” she told The Courier.
“When I brought it home from hospital at first I kept it in a plant pot but now it is on top of the tumble dryer.
“When I put the dryer on I always move it as I don’t want it to fly off.”
The balloon was purchased at the hospital’s WRVS shop and having outlasted the first plant it was placed alongside, now sits next to an orchid in Mrs Wallace’s kitchen.
Though helium balloons can lift spirits for a few weeks, that sinking feeling soon sets in as the gas slowly escapes from gaps in the foil.
However, should the balloon be perfectly sealed then there is no reason for the inflatable to lose its shape, regardless of age.
Sadly for most people who purchase a balloon, small gaps in the material are commonplace, with most crashing back to earth after just a few weeks.
However, Mrs Wallace, who lives with husband Douglas, 65, says the longevity of her bear, simply referred to as “the Balloon”, means it has earned a special place in her heart.
“The only thing that is different now from when I got it is that it is now on a cane,” added Mrs Wallace.
“I suppose it has become part of the family.”Madeto lastIt was just the other day I was boring my fiance with the story of the 14-year-old batteries that power my alarm clock, writes Jonathan Watson.
From my first day at university to this moment in time that faithful lump of plastic has never missed a beat thanks to those two brave little AAs.
Think what has happened in that time: the Iraq War, the advent of social media, three general elections, four World Cups, and yet they’re still going strong.
I always thought that this was quite impressive, but upon hearing of the 20-year-old balloon in Glenrothes, it turns out that I’m not the only person who has been pleasantly surprised by the longevity of seeminglydisposable items.
The chatter in the office soon turned to stories of 30-year-old shoes, electrical appliances that predate my birth, and slabs of cake from weddings long ago.
In an age of almost hysterical consumerism, where cars and televisions are replaced on a whim, it is nice to know that some things are still made to last.
Photo by George McLuskie |
In the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, a few media outlets reinforced the public perception that Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) were mostly white. Jimmy Kimmel asked on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, "Are there black Mormons? I find that hard to believe." Reporter Jessica Williams from Jon Stewart's The Daily Show interviewed five black Mormons, calling them "mythical creatures, the unicorns of politics." She asked whether or not the five Mormons she met comprised the entire population of black people in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Susan Saulny, a reporter for the New York Times, similarly speculated that there were only a "very small number" of black Mormons, a "couple of thousand max" or somewhere between "500 to 2,000." All three broadcasts revealed a public perception problem for Mormons in the twenty-first century -- that they are too white.
The irony lies in the historical evolution of that public perception. Black Saints were among the first to arrive in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and have been a part of the Mormon experience from its beginnings. The first documented black person to join this American-born faith was Black Pete, a former slave who was baptized in 1830, when the fledgling movement was less than a year old. Other blacks trickled in over the course of the nineteenth century and are woven into the Mormon story. At least two black men were ordained to the faith's highest priesthood in its first two decades.
Mormons were so inclusive in the nineteenth century that accusations from the outside tended to focus on the perception that they welcomed everyone. In an American culture that favored the segregation and exclusion of marginalized groups, the Mormons stood out. The allegations leveled against them included that they had "opened an asylum for rogues and vagabonds and free blacks," that they embraced "all nations and colors," that they maintained "communion with the Indians," and that their missionaries "walk[ed] out" with "colored women." The perception was that they welcomed "all classes and characters," received "aliens by birth," and integrated people from "different parts of the world" into their communities and congregations.
Within a few months of Black Pete's conversion in Ohio, news reports in Pennsylvania and New York announced that the Mormons had a black man worshiping with them. The reports were not intended as compliments. In Missouri, Mormons were accused of inviting free blacks to the state to incite a slave rebellion and to steal white wives and daughters. Even white Mormons were suspect. One report complained that they had "nearly reached the low condition of the black population," and another said that the Mormons were "little above the condition of our blacks either in regard to property or education." Especially after 1852, when Mormons openly practiced polygamy, outsiders projected their fears of race mixing onto the Mormons. Political cartoons liked to imagine multi-racial Mormon families run amok in the Great Basin. In the minds of outsiders, polygamy was not merely destroying the traditional family, it was destroying the white race.
Mormons were certainly aware of the ways in which their status as white people was challenged. One leader acknowledged, "we are not accounted as white people," while another complained that Mormons were treated "as if we had been some savage tribe, or some colored race of foreigners."
In the nineteenth century, one way to measure whiteness was in distance from blackness -- and so it was with the Mormons. Over the course of the nineteenth century, they moved away from their own black converts toward whiteness. In an uneven process, Mormon leaders barred black men from the lay priesthood and black men and women from the faith's crowning temple rituals, policies firmly held in place by the early twentieth century.
So successful were Mormons at claiming whiteness for themselves that by the time Mitt Romney sought the White House in 2012, he was described as the "whitest white man to run for president in recent memory." Even though the Church of the Latter-day Saints includes over one million members in Brazil and 400,000 in Africa and is more racially diverse in the United States than mainline Protestant churches, public perception lags behind.
Jimmy Kimmel's query from 2012 -- "Are there black Mormons? I find that hard to believe" -- is the polar opposite of the racial problem that Mormons faced in the 1830s. This shift marks a historic evolution for Mormons, from their nineteenth-century beginnings as a congregation "not white enough" to its current status as "too white."
This post originally appeared on the OUPBlog. |
'What part of this can’t you get through your thick head?' Hannity pressed. Hannity shouts at Palestinian guest
Tensions mounted on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Thursday night as host Sean Hannity clashed with a Palestinian-American guest on his show.
“Is Hamas a terrorist organization?” Hannity asked Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of The Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development and its educational program, the Palestine Center.
Story Continued Below
“Do I get to actually speak now?” Munayyer answered.
“You have to answer the question, it’s a simple yes or no question,” Hannity said.
“Sir, you invited me on here as a guest,” Munayyer said.
Hannity began to yell over Munayyer, saying “I’m asking a question. Is Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, is that a terrorist organization? That’s a yes or no question.”
“Thank you for your question, now I will provide an answer,” Munayyer began, as Hannity shouted the question repeatedly. “It’s very telling to me, and it should be telling to your viewers as well, that the moment you have a Palestinian voice on your program who begins to explain the legitimate grievances of the Palestinians, not just Hamas.”
Hannity cut off Munayyer, shouting at him to answer the question. At one point, Munayyer said that “the United States certainly considers Hamas a terrorist organization we all know that.”
“Is Hamas a terrorist organization? What part of this can’t you get through your thick head?” Hannity pressed.
At the end of the exchange, Munayyer asked if he would “get to say anything in this conversation.”
Hannity responded, “You had your chance, you didn’t say Hamas is a terrorist organization. Goodbye.” |
While the Trojans did not exactly impress last Saturday night against Alabama, this is not a team that should be underestimated. That said, Stanford does have the tools to beat this team.
Alijah Holder at cornerback was fortunate enough to avoid getting flagged for pass interference twice. The particularly egregious offense was against Kansas States’ bigger receiver, Byron Pringle, in the end zone. Stanford safety Zach Hoffpauir had some trouble as well, when coming down in man coverage over the slot receiver he would look lost, which resulted in a few plays down the field for Kansas State. USC is going to try and set up JuJu Smith in one on one situations with these two, it will be up to them to elevate their game when that happens. If they can play in the spot light then the USC passing attack is in for a long night as the other options of attack are Quentin Meeks and Justin Reid who were both solid all night against Kansas State.
One of the big advantages for Stanford is their pass rush, which generated eight sacks and eight tackles for loss in the opener. Solomon Thomas and Harrison Phillips anchored the line but the real key came from the depth at linebacker. Continually rotating guys in and having fresh legs coming after the opposing quarterback will make all of the difference against USC.
As with most games, the other huge plus in Stanford’s corner is having such a diverse weapon in Christian McCaffrey. His ability to make plays in so many areas and getting a large volume of touches is key to wearing down the USC defense. Michael Rector will most likely have Adoree Jackson on him for the night which means the spotlight will be on McCaffrey to make plays for this offense. Also look for McCaffrey to motion out into the slot to give a three receiver look to one side as well. Not only will this put a linebacker on him but it could also give tight ends like Greg Taboada opportunities underneath the outside routes.
My last factor going into the game is that, hopefully, Bryce Love will be able to play after sitting out the Kansas State game. This would give the Cardinal two dynamic, pass catching backs to attack the USC defense.
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The race for roster spots at wide receiver with the Buffalo Bills will be a long one.
Coming out of the gates, however, Andre Holmes has the lead.
The veteran, who was signed as a free agent after four years with the Oakland Raiders, took advantage when those ahead of him on the depth chart missed time because of injuries. With Sammy Watkins (foot) and Zay Jones (knee) missing time, Holmes lined up with the starters throughout the spring. He looked good in doing so, too, according to coach Sean McDermott.
“I’ll tell you the guy that’s really stood out has been Andre,” McDermott said. “He’s done a phenomenal job, not only on offense, but also special teams. Very solid performer day to day, consistent and just really – that’s been a nice pickup for us so far and I really appreciate his leadership.”
Holmes, 29, was stuck behind Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree the last two seasons, so his opportunities were limited. Over that time, he appeared in all 32 games, but made just three starts and had 28 catches for 327 yards. Seven of those receptions, however, went for touchdowns, an indication of the type of ability he has in the red zone.
The Bills signed him to a modest contract – three years and up to $5.15 million, with just a $1.4 million charge against the 2017 salary cap. It's the type of deal the Bills could get out of at any time if they felt Holmes wasn't performing well enough – or there was another motivating factor. One example: Holmes factors into the compensatory draft formula. If the Bills released him and two other such players (like defensive end Ryan White, guard Vlad Ducasse and/or kicker Stephen Hauschka) they could receive a third-round draft pick for Stephon Gilmore signing with New England.
With Ducasse sharing starting reps at right guard and Holmes spending plenty of time with the first team, however, that's looking like a remote possibility.
“When you look at the target in the free-agency time period there, we identified players that we felt fit what we were looking for and our DNA,” McDermott said. “The body of work that he’s exhibited since coming into the Bills’ organization has been exactly what we thought, if not more. The intangibles, the DNA again. He’s built like we want them to be built in terms of the insides and he’s a servant. He leads, he plays special teams, he puts the team first and those are the qualities we look for in our players.”
Holmes took the glass-half-full approach to having limited opportunities over the past two seasons.
“The way I looked at it was, for those two years I was able to learn so much from them,” he said of Cooper and Crabtree. “It allowed me to grow as the player I am today. I always look at anything that people might think of as a negative, as a positive.”
There is evidence to suggest Holmes, at 6-4, 210 pounds, can be more than just a bit player on offense. In 2014, he had 47 catches for 693 yards and four touchdowns. For comparision’s sake, Robert Woods averaged 51 catches for 612 yards and three touchdowns per season in his four years with the Bills.
“He can bring a lot to the table,” quarterback Tyrod Taylor said. “We haven’t had a big target, I haven’t had a big target, other than Justin Hunter last year, since the time I’ve been here." Andre "is very comfortable in the position he’s in now. He will continue to keep working and making a lot of plays down the field, stretch the defense, go up and get the jump ball – he’s a complete receiver.”
Taylor plans on gathering the Bills’ receivers in Georgia during the break before training camp to continue to build chemistry, which might be even more important this year when considering the Bills figure to have a brand new receiving corps behind Watkins.
“We’ve been able to develop a lot,” Holmes said of working with Taylor. “Whether it was before the OTA period, before phase two, in this mini-camp. There’s always different situations all the time in which we learn together as a whole group. We’ve been doing a great job at doing that. It’s just all positive feedback on both sides. If there is a miscommunication or we’re just a little off, we’ll talk about it; or if I see something I’ll tell him, if he sees something he’ll tell me. Also, positive reinforcement as far as if we make a play, we’re going to acknowledge each other – It’s good communication.
"I think I have a chance to make a lot of plays in this offense to help the team out a lot. I’m really excited for this year, and we’ve been putting the work in to make this offense explosive. The system looks really good." |
The British car producers are about to produce the most powerful electrical car.
The Lightning Company from Great Britain is almost close to the series production of a car that will probably be the number one favorite car for ecological aspect lovers, but this car will not drop the dynamic aspects regarding a sport super car.
The British are working at this project for a long time and they will probably succeed. The Lightning GT will have an extraordinary new design and the performances will be completely new for an electrical car.
It will have four electrical engines that will be able to offer 700 hp and it will be charged with performing batteries. The Lighting GT accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in 4 seconds and will reach a top speed of 210 km/h. There will also be available the base version with 650 hp that accelerates at 100 km/h in 5 seconds.
I can’t wait to see one of these on my roads!
Lighting GT
Lighting GT
Lighting GT
Tags: cars, electric cars, engines, Lighting GT, car news
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It’s one of the longest train journeys in the world—2,910 miles (4,683 kilometers) across China. And when photographer Matthieu Paley was looking for ways to get his wife and two sons from Hong Kong to northwest China, it looked like the perfect option.
“I thought it’d be amazing,” he says. “We will get to see China! It will unfurl in front of us!” Even better, the train’s 52-hour trek from Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, to the Xinjiang province was much simpler and far less expensive than flying.
Paley and his family saw China transform with every mile, from verdant jungle to arid steppe to dry desert. The train’s last stop is a city called Ürümqi, which translates to “new frontier.” The area is rich with oil, coal, and natural gas reserves, and like the gold rush to California in the 1850s, many people and companies in China are going west to seek their fortunes. Even the government has invested billions to develop the province.
Westward Journey Photographer Matthieu Paley documents life on China’s railroads Paley family’s route by rail Asia Pac. Oc. China Taiwan Indian Ocean Urumqi Kashgar Turpan Beijing Taklimakan Desert Pak. Hotan Xi'an Plateau of Tibet China Guangzhou Hong Kong 400 mi ROSEMARY WARDLEY, NG STAFF 400 km Westward Journey Photographer Matthieu Paley documents life on China’s railroads. Asia Pac. Oc. Paley family’s route by rail China Taiwan Indian Ocean Urumqi Turpan Kashgar Xinjiang Beijing Shache Taklimakan Desert Pak. Hotan Xining Lanzhou Qinghai Gangu Longxi Tianshui East China Sea Xi'an Plateau of Tibet Wuchang China Yueyang Hengyang Chenzhou Shaoguan Taiwan Guangzhou South China Sea Hong Kong Bay of Bengal 400 mi 400 km Rosemary Wardley, NG STAFF
The world inside the train was just as wondrous to Paley. As far as he could tell, his family were the only foreigners, and few passengers—if any—were making the entire journey. Paley says fellow riders kept to themselves, taking naps, doing crafts, or playing on their phones. Paley, who is French, admits his Mandarin is shaky, and few passengers spoke English, but those he was able to talk with said they were traveling to and from family visits and vacations.
The cars are well appointed, with purple and blue seats, floral tablecloths, and lace curtains depicting the promise of camels and mountains in the west. Each car has a hot-water dispenser, and the salty aroma of instant noodle soup fills the air.
The staff are impeccably dressed (blue for controllers, who check tickets and maintain the cleanliness of the cars, and purple for food vendors), and the whole operation is “army-like organized,” Paley says. Each stop is only 10 to 15 minutes, and while technically passengers can get off to stretch their legs, “you are looked on very seriously by the staff,” Paley says. “They don’t want you to stray.”
The comfort of the train, the ease of the journey, and the beauty of the landscapes had the Paley family enraptured. Paley remembers, “We were all looking at each other the last day wishing it would last another 24 hours!”
After a few days in Ürümqi, the Paleys next set out for Pakistan. They took a bus southwest to the city of Hotan, then boarded another train going northwest to the city of Kashgar. On this train, they saw a lesser known side of China. Most of the passengers were Uygur, a Chinese minority who live mostly in the west. Uygurs speak a language that is similar to Turkish and even written in Arabic script. Many of them are practicing Muslims.
This ride was “completely different,” Paley says. The train wasn’t as fancy—sand from the Taklimakan Desert filtered in through cracks in the windows, bathing the cars in yellow light “like it was California in the fifties.” He says the mood of the trip was completely different, too. “It was a short trip, just six hours, so there’s not much boredom that settles in,” he says. “It was full of students that were kind of rowdy and laughing. It was a much more exuberant atmosphere than the long trip from Hong Kong to Ürümqi.” And since Paley is fluent in Turkish, having lived in the country for years, he could converse with these passengers and get a sense of their lives.
Paley’s trek let him see the vastness and diversity of China. And trips like it could soon become easier. The Chinese government hopes that new high-speed rail lines will help connect the far west with the east. Premier Li Keqiang plans to spend $133 billion in the next four years to bolster existing train lines and build new ones. Should the plans succeed, perhaps even more Chinese citizens will get to see their country and meet their far-flung neighbors. |
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Hilary Benn been sacked from the shadow cabinet, following an article in the Observer reporting that the former shadow foreign secretary had told Labour MPs he would challenge Jeremy Corbyn should Corbyn lose the vote of confidence in his leadership that the PLP are due to discuss on Monday.
Anti-Corbyn plotters are convinced that they have the numbers to pass the no confidence motion in Corbyn’s leadership. Passing that motion, however, would not formally trigger either Corbyn’s resignation or a leadership challenge.
The word from Corbyn’s inner circle is that he would remain in post even if he were to lose the confidence vote, and dare his opponents to collect the 50 names they would need to trigger a leadership challenge.
Should that come about, Corbyn’s allies are certain that they would triumph over whoever ran against him. As one senior source said “they lost really badly in September and that’s not gonna change”.
Labour’s rebels are convinced that they have the numbers necessary to trigger a formal challenge to Corbyn’s leadership.
What happens next is fraught as the relevant clause in Labour’s rulebook is unhelpfully vague:
“ii. Where there is no vacancy, nominations may be sought by potential challengers each year prior to the annual session of party conference. In this case any nomination must be supported by 20 per cent of the PLP. Nominations not attaining this threshold shall be null and void.”
The question that no-one is certain of the answer to: whether the challenged leader would have to seek nominations as well or if they would be on the ballot as by right. My understanding is that the legal advice that Corbyn’s critics have is that Corbyn would not automatically have a place on the ballot. But Jolyon Maugham, a lawyer who writes regularly for the New Statesman, looked over the clause for us and believes that he would.
More important than the legal basis, though, is what the party’s ruling National Executive Committee, which would rule on whether Corbyn had to seek nominations to stand, believes.
Although Corbyn has received the backing of 12 of Labour’s affiliated general secretaries, a well-placed source tells me that they are confident the NEC would rule that Corbyn will need to seek nominations if he is to stand again.
But control over the NEC is finely balanced, and could shift decisively towards Corbyn following this year’s elections to the NEC; one reason why Corbyn’s opponents are keen to strike now.
In that situation, Corbyn’s allies believe they can secure the 50 nominations he would need – the threshold has been raised due to a rule change giving Labour members of the European Parliament the same nominating powers as their cousins in Westminster – thanks to a combination of ideological support for Corbyn and pressure from the party’s grassroots. Senior sources believe that once Corbyn reached shouting distance of 50 nominations, the bulk of the shadow cabinet would quickly fall in line. Another estimates that the “vast majority” of the PLP accept Corbyn requires more time and that the plotting is the result of “a rump” of MPs.
But Corbyn’s critics believe that the European result, which saw Labour voters reject the party line in large numbers, has left Labour MPs with large majorities in the party’s ex-industrial seats more spooked by their voters than by their activists, putting them in the same group as those MPs with small majorities. (The two groups who currently pose the biggest danger to Corbyn are MPs who are old enough to be eligible to collect their pension at or before the next election, and MPs with majorities of under 2,000.)
Who's right? Much depends on the disposition of Labour's 20 MEPs. Prior to Britain's Brexit vote, they were believed to be the most sensitive to the concerns of the party's activists, as Labour members vote on the order of the party's list, making anti-Corbynites vulnerable. Now all 20 MEPs are out of a job at, or before, the next European election regardless, the question is whether they decide to keep Corbyn off the ballot, or try to curry favour with Corbyn's supporters in the membership prior to making a bid for seats at Westminster. |
If I were in Paris this week, I”d be looking for a nice mosque to hide under. In a video released Monday, the Islamic State called for extra helpings of worldwide jihad from the Islamic diaspora, with special venom on tap for one Enlightenment republic in particular: “If you can kill a disbelieving American or European”especially the spiteful and filthy French … kill him in any manner or way however it may be.”
That is some old-fashioned, euphemism-free ethnic loathing. Now, hatred may be shamefully irrational, but rare is the saint who doesn”t feel it toward at least one person. The trick is to handle that emotion in a civilized fashion”which often means “Don”t go rubbing your own nose in people you dislike.” If, for example, there was an entire country populated by clones of Lena Dunham, no number of government handouts could ever entice me to move there. I don”t want to go insane.
So why is it that every time I”ve been in France over the past 20 years there are yet more Muslims who have chosen to move there despite the fact that they ooze hatred for the French from every pore?
I thought Catholics were supposed to be the masochists.
And France’s public intellectuals are increasingly quiet on the subject”even as car-burning riots become commonplace and no-go zones where indigenes daren”t set foot proliferate. Much like in the U.S., amongst the French intelligentsia, anything that anyone might possibly see as white racism is a marker of low social status; only white trash, the conventional wisdom goes, could object to the increasing ferocity of anti-white, anti-French, and anti-Jewish sentiment and violence to which the country is subject.
“Meanwhile, the Front National”the party of right-wing untouchables”has become the electoral choice of working France, to the shock and horror of the left.”
But not everyone has fallen in line. Last year, the respected intellectual Alain Finkielkraut shot himself right in the foot with his thirty-oddth book, the civil and eloquent L”Identité malheureuse. Therein he makes the case that French identity itself is in crisis: the Franco-French are no longer allowed to have a say in the cultural definition of their own nation.
The maelstrom has been predictable, and had Finkielkraut actually been Franco-French he would likely not be getting TV time to defend his ideas. But his own pedigree”as the son of Jewish World War II refugees from Poland”lends him just enough PC points that he may whisper such terrible things.
(This permission is far from absolute; whenever he’s put on the air he’s made to debate a mob of bien-pensants who specialize in snickering ad hominems, mostly “you”re old!” and “raciste!””although, as this summer’s round of mob violence testified, Jews who hate Muslims hardly appear to comprise France’s chief racial problem.)
L”Identité malheureuse, like most of Finkielkraut’s work, has yet to appear in English”which hasn”t stopped American leftists from having at him anyway, jumping on the opening section of the book, where Finkielkraut defends the infamous French ban of the Islamic veil in the schools and other public places.
Americans perennially fail to understand the French fetish for separation of church and state”understandably, since we have never experienced the exquisite joys of theocracy quite the way Spain’s neighbors have done. We call it freedom of religion; they call it freedom from religion, but as usual, we think we know how everyone else should go about being a free country.
Some of the French don”t get it either: the usual socialists are complaining that the 1905 legal affirmation of laïcité (secularism) in public life lay unenforced for decades and was only pulled off the shelf recently in order to persecute Muslims. (They fail to mention that, for all those decades, French Jewish and Catholic institutions more or less cooperated with the ban on public meddling. If the Second Amendment weren”t under threat in the U.S., no one would mention that, either.)
There are plenty of Muslims in France who are contentedly integrated. The French have a long history of absorbing small numbers of foreigners with relative ease”thanks in large part, according to Finkielkraut, to the strictly laïque public schools to which he owes his erudition.
Finkielkraut recalls his own educational experience as the son of refugee immigrants back in the day: he never had his foreignness thrown in his face and wasn”t maltreated for it, but he was expected to learn the French classics as they were presented to him. And he’s the better for it: to paraphrase his own words from an interview, he may be something of an outsider, but he is happy to pay his debts to the French civilization that shaped him as an intellectual.
But among the unprecedentedly large numbers of recent immigrants, some seem to be more interested in intimidating the French out of their own communities than in becoming part of their society; this breakdown in the process of assimilation coincides with the new code of politically correct, student-friendly rather than strict curricula in the schools. As he recounts in the book, Finkielkraut recently visited his old primary school. There he found a bulletin board posted with a map of Africa, to which students had affixed cards saying “I”m proud to be from [insert foreign country]!”
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There are basically three ways of dividing up a pregnancy into the three trimesters; they are by:
Development, Gestation, Conception. They give different dates for when the second trimester begins and for when the third trimester begins. Your health care provider might prefer to use the Development method, while another Midwife or Doctor may use the Gestation method.
I am sure they do that just to confuse pregnant women. by Development: This uses actual developmental stages to divide up a pregnancy. From LMP to 12 weeks the embryo develops all the major organs and becomes a fetus. From 12 weeks to 27 weeks the fetus continues developing and reaches viability. From 27 weeks on the fetus finishes development and prepares for delivery. Here the second trimester begins at 12w 0d and the third at 27w 0d. by Gestation: With this method you take the 40 weeks of gestation and divide into three equal stages. Here the second trimester begins at 13w 3d and the third at 26w 6d. by Conception: This method is where you take the 38 weeks of post conception development, divide by three, into the three equal trimesters. Here the second trimester begins at 14w 5d and the third at 27w 3d.
What is the length of the first, second and third trimesters? The length of the trimesters is often a source of confusion. The word trimester means 'three months'. Three periods of three months each, gives pregnancy a beginning, a middle and an end period. These periods match the developmental stages to divide up a pregnancy. Beginning: From LMP to 12 weeks the embryo develops all the major organs, becomes a fetus, and the placenta takes over control.
From LMP to 12 weeks the embryo develops all the major organs, becomes a fetus, and the placenta takes over control. Middle: From 12 weeks to 27 weeks the fetus continues developing and reaches viability.
From 12 weeks to 27 weeks the fetus continues developing and reaches viability. End: From 27 weeks on the fetus finishes development and prepares for delivery. When does the first trimester end or third trimester begin? Does it really matter exactly when you are out of the first trimester or start the third trimester? No. When the trimesters start and end depends on who you ask, which book you read or what website you visit. Most health care providers actually talk about your pregnancy in weeks, rather than months or trimesters.
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SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Velodyne Labs today announced that it has produced a LiDAR with the world’s best resolution, longest range, and widest field of view, the result of which will boost the autonomous vehicle and advanced safety market. The Velodyne VLS-128™, with 128 laser beams, produces the best resolution and will replace the HDL-64 LiDAR as the industry standard for high performance. High-resolution LiDAR is critical to navigate autonomous cars and provide vehicle safety. It is expected that the VLS-128™ will become the new standard for fully autonomous cars and cars equipped with advanced safety features because of the unchallenged quantity of data it produces in real time at top speed.
Velodyne’s President and Chief Business Development Officer said, “When it comes to safety, it is critical for a car to have really good eyes for driving. You need 3D vision that accurately measures and generates a billion data points in real time at the speed of light. This is the technology necessary to simultaneously judge the speed of other vehicles, determine pedestrian locations, and judge safety with assurance. Car makers entering the autonomous driving arena have been telling us that high resolution is key. Now we have it.”
“The VLS-128™ provides the highest resolution with the widest field of view in the world. Would you drive if your vision was like looking underwater? The world might look like this driving with other systems that are less precise. With the VLS-128™ LiDAR, there are billions of data points to analyze a dynamic, changing environment to determine safety,” states Velodyne President Marta Hall about the breakthrough in LiDAR resolution.
A Velodyne sensor provides real-time 3D images all around the vehicle, far into the distance, producing billions of data points eagerly understood and consumed by a computer. LiDAR is more reliable, based on measurements, and therefore more accurate than a camera based safety system.
Velodyne LiDAR, Inc. Founder and CEO David Hall invented the 360-degree solid-state hybrid LiDAR ten years ago to use and sell in the Darpa Grand Challenge. He designed and sold the HDL-64 LiDAR, which since then became the standard LiDAR for the autonomous car industry. It can be spotted on top of most autonomous cars today because Velodyne sells to 250 customers worldwide. The first autonomous cars that successfully drove cross-country and another million miles were equipped with the HDL-64.
In September 2017, Velodyne offered sneak previews of the VLS-128™ dense picture to select customers attending the IAA Auto Show in Frankfurt, Germany. An upgrade to the HDL-64, the VLS-128™ offers a richer image with four times the data points and density than the HDL-64. This will enhance the ability for object detection and collision avoidance while traveling highways speeds, by gathering of billions more data points traveling in real time.
High-resolution LiDAR is important for object detection and collision avoidance at all speeds, with the highest resolution needed especially when traveling at speeds higher than 30 miles per hour. The faster a vehicle goes, the more data is needed at a faster pace for safety evaluation.
Size matters. The VLS-128™ is a 70 percent size reduction from the HDL-64, with double the range and four times the resolution. It is the highest performing LiDAR sensor on the market in terms of field of view, range, resolution, and ability to deal with a complex environment. Due to its 905nm technology, it operates in dry climates and wet environments, and is based on mass-produced CMOS semiconductor technologies. It is produced today at Velodyne’s Megafactory in San Jose using a proprietary fully automatic laser alignment and manufacturing system. Future models will also be produced as part of Velodyne’s Tier-1 Automotive Program.
Cost matters. President Marta Hall adds, “We are getting the cost down. It is already dramatically reduced, and more so when ordered at higher volumes. Into the future, LiDAR will be affordable and put on cars worldwide for safety and autonomy.”
Velodyne has recently augmented its breakthrough lineup with the 200m Ultra Puck™ and the small slice-of-the-environment Velarray™. Now Velodyne announces its world changing high performance HDL-64 successor: The VLS-128™.
About Velodyne LiDAR
Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Velodyne is a technology company known worldwide for its real-time 3D LiDAR sensors. The company evolved after founder/inventor David Hall developed the HDL-64 Solid-State Hybrid LiDAR sensor in 2005. Since then, Velodyne LiDAR Inc. emerged as the unmatched market leader of real-time 3D vision systems used in a variety of commercial applications including autonomous vehicles, vehicle safety systems, mobile mapping, aerial mapping, and security. Its products range from the high-performance, surround view Ultra-Puck™ VLP-32, classic HDL-32/64 and cost-effective VLP-16, to the upcoming, hidden Velarray™. Velodyne’s rich suite of perception software and algorithms are the key enablers of its perception systems. Velodyne supports customers from offices in San Jose, Detroit, Frankfurt, and Beijing. For more information, visit http://www.velodynelidar.com. |
I’ve played piano for 35 years. One of my more FOH life dreams is to someday own a $200,000 Bosendorfer Imperial Grand.
Unlikely dream #2? Watching the New York Knicks helmed by a high-IQ two-way point guard. After 25 games, crowned by this week’s performances against the L.A. Lakers and Brooklyn Nets, Frank Ntilikina is stoking hopes in us dopes while giving “nope” tropes the old rope-a-dope.
Drafting Ntilikina was Phil Jackson’s last move as Knick president. Five of the first nine picks in that draft were point guards; with so many teams looking to fill the same need, comparisons - particularly of the premature or overstated variety - are a thing. In addition to choosing Ntilikina over Dennis Smith Jr., whose strengths are visible in simpler spectrums of light than Frank’s, the Knicks also passed on Malik Monk, the highest-rated two-guard available.
A third of the way through the season, what have we learned about Ntilikina? What’s cause for celebration? For concern? How will Knick fans look back on June 22, 2017? With the same sepia swoons reserved for May 8, 1970? The blood-boiling infamy of May 14, 1997? The bald banality of October 27, 1984?
First, let’s look at Lonzo Ball, Smith, De’Aaron Fox and Frank. We want to compare opportunities and outcomes while accounting for the uniqueness of each player and situation: what the Mavs ask of Smith, the Lakers would never from Ball; Fox was handed the reins in Sacramento and leads the Kings in minutes played, whereas for New York Ntilikina ranks 7th.
Let’s look at minutes played, usage %, assist %, and turnover %. I also used points scored and points generated via assist to calculate how many points created (pc) each guard is averaging per 36 minutes (as of Wednesday).
So far, the numbers paint Frank a distant fourth. He’s scoring less than the others, assisting less, turning it over more and creating the fewest points while playing less than his fellow rookies. Didn’t take long for some to crown Ntilikina’s peers his superiors. Now, if you wanna crown them, then crown their ass.
But first, a few more numbers. Let’s look at minutes again, only this time let’s add the American players’ college minutes to their totals so far as pros, and add Frank’s minutes from his years in Strasbourg in the French league.
BALL 2124
SMITH 1761
FOX 1774
FRANK 1387
Ntilikina is the second-youngest player in the NBA. His experience is significantly less than that of these other guards. At his current average of 20 minutes a night, Ntilikina is still a quarter-season short of the minutes Fox and Smith are at right now and a half-season behind Ball; even Monk, who’s played over 100 fewer minutes than Frank this year, is still hundreds of minutes ahead of him when you factor in his one year at Kentucky. Yet Ntilikina is already generating more points via assists on average than Fox or Smith. In that light, it’s perhaps more reasonable and assuredly more pleasurable to look optimistically at the things the kid’s already doing.
Frank Ntilikina vs Lonzo Ball ( : @KnickFilmSchool) pic.twitter.com/x6EkNwSfzR — NY Knicks Brasil (14-13) (@nyk_brasil) December 13, 2017
In defense of Ntilikina, Ron Baker’s five years older and has the highest turnover percentage on the team; both Jarrett Jack and Ramon Sessions have rates of 20%+, and combined they’re as old as Floyd Mayweather. Senior. The numbers don’t tell you what the clip above showed in passes to Michael Beasley and Doug McDermott. The best quarterback in New York plays for the Knicks.
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Numbers and video both suggest Ntilikina’s defense is already ahead of the curve and maybe headed for something special. Take defensive box plus/minus (DBPM), which estimates how many points a player contributes above an average player. Monk has the worst DBPM of any Hornet, and Fox of any King averaging 20+ minutes. Smith is a mediocre defender on a mediocre defensive team. Monk, Fox and Smith’s DBPM are all negative numbers. Ball, averaging a healthy 2.3 deflections per game, has a DBPM of 2.5, just a fraction behind Larry Nance Jr. for tops among Laker regulars.
Ntilikina’s 0.9 is already second on the team, trailing only Kyle O’Quinn. He’s 19 and already second on the team. The Knicks didn’t draft Smith because he can dunk fancy. They didn’t draft Monk because he can shoot from distance. They drafted Frank, and his long arms went a long way toward that. Before the draft, Phil Jackson made Smith eat octopus. Foreshadowing?
And great individual defense by Ntilikina on the other end against a bigger PF in Randle pic.twitter.com/67in6yUp2b — Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) December 13, 2017
Just your run-of-the-mill teenage point guard harassing a power forward 60 pounds heavier than him into a miss. Ask Julius Randle—you can’t teach length. Frank even out-Gumbys NBA Gumbys like Brandon Ingram.
Ntilikina vs. Ingram: lanky-off
Frank wins pic.twitter.com/LlgYsDuXAP — Alex Wolfe (@thealexwolfe) December 13, 2017
You may remember the highlights in the clip below from when the Knicks hosted Cleveland. You know what’s amazing here?
Really hoping we see Frank Ntilikina do this to Lonzo Ball tonight. I know everyone is upset that Dennis Smith Jr. is going to be a good player, but everyone chill. Frank Ntilikina brings a defensive minded attitude that has not existed in New York since the 90's. pic.twitter.com/7Q7nAJmyyA — Swiss Cheese D (@NBASwissCheeseD) December 12, 2017
THEY’RE HIGHLIGHTS OF A KNICK GUARD PLAYING DEFENSE! And they’re highlights you’ve probably seen before. Ntilikina is already compiling a portfolio of defensive highlights. Rarer than a hen’s teeth.
Length plus D plus IQ? ¡Ai, papi!
Lonzo Ball is a fascinating player, one I think will be a plus-impact for many years. But his shot may be broke, and that risk coupled with the traveling Ball family circus isn’t something the Knick franchise needed going forward. Dennis Smith Jr. is a wondrous scorer and a physical specimen, but he needs the ball in his hands and lots of shots to make an impact; a team looking to develop a lead option in Kristaps Porzingis (and that just jettisoned high-gravity shooters like Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose) doesn’t need someone who needs KP’s touches to affect the game.
De’Aaron Fox offers intrigue on both ends, but he’s shorter than Ntilikina, hasn’t been the defensive demon he was hyped as entering the league, and he’s made fewer threes while hitting a worse percentage from downtown as Frank; Fox’s shot is as much a question mark going forward as Ball’s. Frank’s is, too, but not because the evidence suggests he can’t shoot with a Spalding basketball or that he was a poor shooter before turning pro, too. Ntilikina showed improvement while at Strasbourg and flashes of lethality in New York.
Frank Ntilikina de loooooooooin ! pic.twitter.com/RGUx71NeF0 — Parlons NBA (@ParlonsNBA) December 13, 2017
Word?
Fun fact. Frank Ntilikina is shooting better from 3 than Lonzo Ball, De'Aaron Fox and Dennis Smith Jr. His free throw rate is second only to Fox - even outpacing Mitchell. — Rory Breasail (@bballgodsblog) December 14, 2017
When you’re looking for a new piano, there’s nothing wrong with a Steinway, or a Baldwin, or a Kawai. But building a Ntilikina is like building a Bosendorfer. Time and patience are required when the payoff is this promising: a two-way high-IQ point guard’s value is immeasurable. Success plants its roots in failing better. Ntilikina’s failures? He picks up his dribble too far from the basket sometimes. He can be too unselfish, to a fault.
Gahhhhhhhhhhhh Frank just go up for the layup there and take the contact you beautiful unselfish fuck! pic.twitter.com/TgDGiN4wqb — Alex Wolfe (@thealexwolfe) December 13, 2017
But that’s the error of a deliberate, apprentice-aged craftsman already attuned to making his teammates better, something some GOATs didn’t learn till their late 20s, something some of today’s GOATs have yet to showcase. Over the past 15 years, the Knicks featured hometown stars - Stephon Marbury; Carmelo Anthony - who [pseudo-simplification in 3...2...1...] mostly failed to elevate their comrades, ultimately failing their teams. Ntilikina’s unselfishness sometimes leads to turnovers, but it also leads to moments like this.
A fancy pass, but a simple play and easy bucket, the kind that demoralizes an opponent’s defense late in a close, winnable game, the kind that motivates your big man to go all-out on both ends even if he’s getting winded. The kind that other guys see and seek out, knowing if they keep moving, someone will find them. Their hard work will be rewarded. You can’t quantify that kind of impact. Justice leads men to move mountains, or at least to set better screens, cut strong to the hoop, and open their mouths on defense.
This is Frank visiting the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.
Who’s living the unlikelier dream? The Belgian teenager being the toast of the Big Apple? Or Knick fans witnessing a physically gifted two-way high-IQ point guard grow up right in front of them? Both would have sounded ridiculous a year ago, pure pipe dreams. That’s the thing with FOH. It only is till it isn’t. After that, it’s amazing. Simple gestures, repeated, beget phrases. Phrases beget movements. Movements beget masterpieces. I don’t wanna wake up. |
Writing a Simple Linux Kernel Module
Robert W. Oliver II Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 30, 2017
[Today’s random Sourcerer profile: https://sourcerer.io/frankie]
Grabbing the Golden Ring-0
Linux provides a powerful and expansive API for applications, but sometimes that’s not enough. Interacting with a piece of hardware or conducting operations that require accessed to privileged information in the system require a kernel module.
A Linux kernel module is a piece of compiled binary code that is inserted directly into the Linux kernel, running at ring 0, the lowest and least protected ring of execution in the x86–64 processor. Code here runs completely unchecked but operates at incredible speed and has access to everything in the system.
Not for Mere Mortals
Writing a Linux kernel module is not for the faint of heart. By altering the kernel, you risk data loss and system corruption. Kernel code doesn’t have the usual safety net that regular Linux applications enjoy. If you have a fault, it will lock up the entire system.
To make matters worse, your issue may not become immediately apparent. Your module locking up immediately upon loading is probably the best-case scenario for failure. As you add more code to your module, you run the risk of introducing runaway loops and memory leaks. If you’re not careful, these can continue to grow as your machine continues to run. Eventually important memory structures and even buffers can be overwritten.
Traditional application development paradigms can be largely discarded. Other than loading and unloading of your module, you’ll be writing code that responds to system events rather than operates in a sequential pattern. With kernel development, you’re writing APIs, not applications themselves.
You also have no access to the standard library. While the kernel provides some functions like printk (which serves as a replacement for printf) and kmalloc (which operates in a similar fashion to malloc), you are largely left to your own devices. Additionally, when your module unloads, you are responsible for completely cleaning up after yourself. There is no garbage collection.
Prerequisites
Before we get started, we need to make sure we have the correct tools for the job. Most importantly, you’ll need a Linux machine. I know that comes as a complete surprise! While any Linux distribution will do, I am using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS in this example, so if you’re using a different distribution you may need to slightly adjust your installation commands.
Secondly, you’ll need either a separate physical machine or a virtual machine. I prefer to do my work in a virtual machine, but this is entirely up to you. I don’t suggest using your primary machine because data loss can occur when you make a mistake. I say when, not if, because you undoubtedly will lock up your machine at least a few times during the process. Your latest code changes may still be in the write buffer when the kernel panics, so it’s possible that your source files can become corrupted. Testing in a virtual machine eliminates this risk.
And finally, you’ll need to know at least some C. The C++ runtime is far too large for the kernel, so writing bare metal C is essential. For interaction with hardware, knowing some assembly might be helpful.
Installing the Development Environment
On Ubuntu, we need to run:
apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
This will install the essential development tools and the kernel headers necessary for this example.
The examples below assume you are running as a regular user and not root, but that you have sudo privileges. Sudo is mandatory for loading kernel modules, but we want to work outside of root whenever possible.
Getting Started
Let’s start writing some code. Let’s prepare our environment:
mkdir ~/src/lkm_example
cd ~/src/lkm_example
Fire up your favorite editor (in my case, this is vim) and create the file lkm_example.c with the following contents:
#include <linux/init.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/kernel.h>
MODULE_LICENSE(“GPL”);
MODULE_AUTHOR(“Robert W. Oliver II”);
MODULE_DESCRIPTION(“A simple example Linux module.”);
MODULE_VERSION(“0.01”);
static int __init lkm_example_init(void) {
printk(KERN_INFO “Hello, World!
”);
return 0;
}
static void __exit lkm_example_exit(void) {
printk(KERN_INFO “Goodbye, World!
”);
}
module_init(lkm_example_init);
module_exit(lkm_example_exit);
Now that we’ve constructed the simplest possible module, let’s example the important parts in detail:
· The “includes” cover the required header files necessary for Linux kernel development.
· MODULE_LICENSE can be set to a variety of values depending on the license of the module. To see a full list, run:
grep “MODULE_LICENSE” -B 27 /usr/src/linux-headers-`uname -r`/include/linux/module.h
· We define both the init (loading) and exit (unloading) functions as static and returning an int.
· Note the use of printk instead of printf. Also, printk doesn’t share the same parameters as printf. For example, the KERN_INFO, which is a flag to declare what priority of logging should be set for this line, is defined without a comma. The kernel sorts this out inside the printk function to save stack memory.
· At the end of the file, we call module_init and module_exit to tell the kernel which functions are or loading and unloading functions. This gives us the freedom to name the functions whatever we like.
We can’t compile this file yet, though. We need a Makefile. This basic example will work for now. Note that make is very picky about spaces and tabs, so ensure you use tab instead of space where appropriate.
obj-m += lkm_example.o
all:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) modules
clean:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) clean
If we run “make”, it should compile your module successfully. The resulting file is “lkm_example.ko”. If you receive any errors, check that your quotation marks in the example source file are correct and not pasted accidentally as UTF-8 characters.
Now we can insert the module to test it. To do this, run:
sudo insmod lkm_example.ko
If all goes well, you won’t see a thing. The printk function doesn’t output to the console but rather the kernel log. To see that, we’ll need to run:
sudo dmesg
You should see the “Hello, World!” line prefixed by a timestamp. This means our kernel module loaded and successfully printed to the kernel log. We can also check to see if the module is still loaded:
lsmod | grep “lkm_example”
To remove the module, run:
sudo rmmod lkm_example
If you run dmesg again, you’ll see “Goodbye, World!” in the logs. You can also use lsmod again to confirm it was unloaded.
As you can see, this testing workflow is a bit tedious, so to automate this we can add:
test:
sudo dmesg -C
sudo insmod lkm_example.ko
sudo rmmod lkm_example.ko
dmesg
at the end of our Makefile and now run:
make test
to test our module and see the output of the kernel log without having to run separate commands.
Now we have a fully functional, yet completely trivial, kernel module!
A Bit More Interesting
Let’s dive a bit deeper. While kernel modules can accomplish all sorts of tasks, interacting with applications is one of their most common uses.
Since applications are restricted from viewing the contents of kernel space memory, applications must use an API to communicate with them. While there are technically multiple ways to accomplish this, the most common is to create a device file.
You’ve likely interacted with device files before. Commands that use /dev/zero, /dev/null, or similar are interacting with a device named “zero” and “null” that return the expected values.
In our example, we’ll return “Hello, World”. While this isn’t a particularly useful function to provide applications, it will nevertheless show the process of responding to an application via a device file.
Here’s our complete listing:
#include <linux/init.h>
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/kernel.h>
#include <linux/fs.h>
#include <asm/uaccess.h>
MODULE_LICENSE(“GPL”);
MODULE_AUTHOR(“Robert W. Oliver II”);
MODULE_DESCRIPTION(“A simple example Linux module.”);
MODULE_VERSION(“0.01”);
#define DEVICE_NAME “lkm_example”
#define EXAMPLE_MSG “Hello, World!
”
#define MSG_BUFFER_LEN 15
/* Prototypes for device functions */
static int device_open(struct inode *, struct file *);
static int device_release(struct inode *, struct file *);
static ssize_t device_read(struct file *, char *, size_t, loff_t *);
static ssize_t device_write(struct file *, const char *, size_t, loff_t *);
static int major_num;
static int device_open_count = 0;
static char msg_buffer[MSG_BUFFER_LEN];
static char *msg_ptr;
/* This structure points to all of the device functions */
static struct file_operations file_ops = {
.read = device_read,
.write = device_write,
.open = device_open,
.release = device_release
};
/* When a process reads from our device, this gets called. */
static ssize_t device_read(struct file *flip, char *buffer, size_t len, loff_t *offset) {
int bytes_read = 0;
/* If we’re at the end, loop back to the beginning */
if (*msg_ptr == 0) {
msg_ptr = msg_buffer;
}
/* Put data in the buffer */
while (len && *msg_ptr) {
/* Buffer is in user data, not kernel, so you can’t just reference
* with a pointer. The function put_user handles this for us */
put_user(*(msg_ptr++), buffer++);
len--;
bytes_read++;
}
return bytes_read;
}
/* Called when a process tries to write to our device */
static ssize_t device_write(struct file *flip, const char *buffer, size_t len, loff_t *offset) {
/* This is a read-only device */
printk(KERN_ALERT “This operation is not supported.
”);
return -EINVAL;
}
/* Called when a process opens our device */
static int device_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *file) {
/* If device is open, return busy */
if (device_open_count) {
return -EBUSY;
}
device_open_count++;
try_module_get(THIS_MODULE);
return 0;
}
/* Called when a process closes our device */
static int device_release(struct inode *inode, struct file *file) {
/* Decrement the open counter and usage count. Without this, the module would not unload. */
device_open_count--;
module_put(THIS_MODULE);
return 0;
}
static int __init lkm_example_init(void) {
/* Fill buffer with our message */
strncpy(msg_buffer, EXAMPLE_MSG, MSG_BUFFER_LEN);
/* Set the msg_ptr to the buffer */
msg_ptr = msg_buffer;
/* Try to register character device */
major_num = register_chrdev(0, “lkm_example”, &file_ops);
if (major_num < 0) {
printk(KERN_ALERT “Could not register device: %d
”, major_num);
return major_num;
} else {
printk(KERN_INFO “lkm_example module loaded with device major number %d
”, major_num);
return 0;
}
}
static void __exit lkm_example_exit(void) {
/* Remember — we have to clean up after ourselves. Unregister the character device. */
unregister_chrdev(major_num, DEVICE_NAME);
printk(KERN_INFO “Goodbye, World!
”);
}
/* Register module functions */
module_init(lkm_example_init);
module_exit(lkm_example_exit);
Testing Our Enhanced Example
Now that our example does something more than simply print a message upon loading and unloading, we need a less restrictive test routine. Let’s modify our Makefile to only load the module and not unload it.
obj-m += lkm_example.o
all:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) modules
clean:
make -C /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build M=$(PWD) clean
test:
# We put a — in front of the rmmod command to tell make to ignore
# an error in case the module isn’t loaded.
-sudo rmmod lkm_example
# Clear the kernel log without echo
sudo dmesg -C
# Insert the module
sudo insmod lkm_example.ko
# Display the kernel log
dmesg
Now when you run “make test”, you’ll see the output of the device’s major number. In our example, this is automatically assigned by the kernel. However, you’ll need this value to create the device.
Take the value you obtain from “make test” and use it to create a device file so that we can communicate with our kernel module from user space.
sudo mknod /dev/lkm_example c MAJOR 0
(in the above example, replace MAJOR with the value you obtain from “make test” or “dmesg”)
The “c” in the mknod command tells mknod that we need a character device file created.
Now we can grab content from the device:
cat /dev/lkm_example
or even via the “dd” command:
dd if=/dev/lkm_example of=test bs=14 count=100
You can also access this device via applications. They don’t have to be compiled applications — even Python, Ruby, and PHP scripts can access this data.
When we’re done with the device, delete it and unload the module:
sudo rm /dev/lkm_example
sudo rmmod lkm_example
Conclusion
I hope you’ve enjoyed our romp through kernel land. Though the examples I’ve provided are basic, you can use this structure to construct your own module that does very complex tasks.
Just remember that you are completely on your own in kernel land. There are no backstops or second chances for your code. If you’re quoting a project for a client, be sure to double, if not triple, the anticipated debugging time. Kernel code has to be as perfect as possible to ensure the integrity and reliability of the systems that will run it. |
Fabian Cancellara wishes his classics rival Boonen the best and is disappointed not to face him again in the spring monuments
LIDO DI CAMAIORE, Italy (VN) — Fabian Cancellara wanted his long-time rival Tom Boonen to race in the upcoming classics, not to sit at home recovering from a crash that happened in Monday’s Paris-Nice stage.
“I was getting a massage when I heard that Tom [Boonen] had crashed and abandoned in Paris-Nice,” the Swiss of team Trek Factory Racing said.
“I didn’t see it on TV, but I knew that he crashed hard. Two things: He’s my rival, but more than that, he’s a person. It’s a big pity that it happens to him. He should have some luck on his side after the crashes and seasons that he had in the past.”
Boonen crashed with 16 kilometers to race in the 192-kilometer stage to Contres. The race continued; Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won the stage and Boonen’s teammate Michal Kwiatkowski held the overall leader’s yellow jersey. Boonen, however, sat on the ground in his Etixx-Quick-Step kit and nursed his left arm.
The medics and his team rushed him to the hospital, where doctors ruled him out of the classics. This morning, the team announced that he fractured his elbow and would have to have surgery to fix the AC joint dislocation in his left shoulder.
Boonen said in those quick two seconds on the ground, before the examinations, he knew that he would have to miss the classics from Milano-Sanremo on March 22 to Paris-Roubaix, April 19. Boonen’s palmarès includes three victories in the Ronde van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders) and four in Paris-Roubaix.
“But all of a sudden there was a hold-up. I had to do a brake maneuver, but while braking you cannot steer your wheel as you normally do. I touched my teammate, Nikolas Maes’s wheel and crashed,” Boonen said in a press release Tuesday.
“In two seconds I realized that my classics season was over. I imagined it differently and I was ready for the classics. But I can’t change what happened, and it is something I need to accept.”
The 34-year-old Belgian from near Antwerp had proved that he was on track for the classics by placing third in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad behind Sky’s Ian Stannard, but his plans changed only two days into Paris-Nice.
Boonen and Cancellara dominated the classics over the last 10 years. Between them, they count 13 wins in Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix combined. Some years, they went head to head, but in others, one had to sit at home.
Cancellara crashed in Ronde in 2012 and abandoned with a fractured collarbone. A year later, in 2013, Boonen crashed in Gent-Wevelgem and early into Ronde, which forced him to abandon and to miss Roubaix on the following Sunday.
The tête-à-tête Boonen/Cancellara rivalry continued in 2014, but Boonen was a bit behind after his wife miscarried, and he had to skip races and training. Cancellara won the Ronde and placed third in Paris-Roubaix.
Cancellara wanted to see Boonen again this spring on the cobbled roads of Northern France.
“When I heard about it, I felt bad myself,” Cancellara continued. “I prefer that he’s on his bike and that he’s in the classics. I prefer that he’s there, to have him and his team, tactic-wise, it’s better.
“I hope he recovers quickly. I wish Tom well.”
Doctors will determine Boonen’s recovery time after his surgery tomorrow morning. |
After tutoring its primary school children that Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated on October 30, 1948, Japan mounted a nuclear attack on the US during World War II and that a country called Islamic Islamabad was formed after India's partition, the Gujarat government has now come up with textbooks which teach students that "stem cell technology found mention in Mahabharata and motor car existed during the vedic period".
Authored by Dinanath Batra, a member of National Executive of the RSS' education cell called Vidya Bharati, and translated into Gujarati by Gujarat State School Textbooks Board, a set of eight books seeks to propagate what it claims to be Hindu ideology. It also says the country's history books are coloured by the western version.
The supplementary books want the primary and secondary schoolchildren in Gujarat to believe that stem cell therapy technology originated from the birth of 100 Kauravas.
A 125-page book by Dinanath Batra called Tejomay Bharat says, "America wants to take the credit for invention of stem cell research, but the truth is that India's Dr Balkrishna Ganpat Matapurkar has already got a patent for regenerating body parts."
The book goes on to say that, "You would be surprised to know that this research is not new and that Dr Matapurkar was inspired by the Mahabharata. Kunti had a bright son like the sun itself. When Gandhari, who had not been able to conceive for two years, learnt of this, she underwent an abortion. From her womb a huge mass of flesh came out. (Rishi) Dwaipayan Vyas was called. He observed this hard mass of flesh and then he preserved it in a cold tank with specific medicines. He then divided the mass of flesh into 100 parts and kept them separately in 100 tanks full of ghee for two years. After two years, 100 Kauravas were born of it. On reading this, he (Matapurkar) realised that stem cell was not his invention. This was found in India thousands of years ago."
It also has a take on the automobile technology. Here is what it wants school children to believe: "What we know today is that the motorcar existed during the Vedic period. It was called anashva rath. Usually a rath (chariot) is pulled by horses but an anashva rath means the one that runs without horses or yantra-rath, what is today a motorcar. The Rig Veda refers to this."
When contacted, Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama told Mail Today, "These are only reference books for children about Indian culture. They are not mandatory and not part of the syllabus. We only want children to read material by eminent and knowledgeable authors." Countered that Batra's averments on the birth of the 100 Kauravas appeared more like a television serial lift, the education minister said, "It has been written by an eminent author and nothing has been thrust upon children." He said the books are only for supplementary reading.
The minister insisted that there was no question of withdrawing the books since they are not mandatory. Asked about the textbooks that said Japan mounted a nuclear attack on the US instead of the contrary and the wrong date of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, Chudasama said, "An erratum has already been published." |
Apple introduced a service that allows users to pay for items in stores with their phones instead of physically presenting credit cards. (Reuters)
On Tuesday, Apple announced its "wallet killer" product, Apple Pay. The idea is this: Instead of using a wallet and credit cards, Apple will make it very easy to buy stuff from, for now, a select group of partners using one of the new iPhone 6 models.
But there are already questions being raised about the security of the tap-and-pay service, even as Apple pitches the product as exactly the sort of thing to protect user and corporate data even better.
On The Washington Post's Apple liveblog, Brian Fung summed up the advantages of a mobile payment system, writing:
It’s hard to look at Apple Pay, the mobile payments system that Apple just unveiled, and not think about all the retail data breaches we’ve heard about this year. Not only is Apple designing a system that gets rid of the need to expose your credit card number, but Apple also nodded at the U.S. government when it said that it won’t ever store any transaction information.
Since Apple Pay doesn't launch until October, everyone's still trying to work through the details of how, exactly, Apple Pay will work (the company has a basic rundown on it at its Web site, here). But there's one idea the company really, really, really wanted to sell on Tuesday: The system is an advancement for data security, rather than a risk.
The pitch, essentially, is that Apple Pay will allow iPhone 6 owners to purchase items and services with a tap of their phone on a device installed at their partners' check-out lanes, without either the cashier or Apple knowing or storing their credit card information or purchase history. Each time a Pay purchase is made, the system will use a different, one-time-use account number and security code.
During the Tuesday presentation, Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of iTunes and cloud services, said that even the device-stored payment information should be safe in the event of theft. "If your iPhone is lost or stolen," he said, "you can use Find my iPhone" to find and erase payment data from the device.
Cue added that the full card number wouldn't be on the device, meaning that Apple is willing to claim at this early stage that stolen phones wouldn't require users to change their credit card numbers.
That's a lot of confidence. But there's a reason Apple Pay is making some people nervous: A recent string of data breaches, including at Apple's seperate iCloud service, have thrown into question just how secure electronically stored private data really is.
Among other recent data breach victims? Multiple Apple Pay partners.
Even though it's worrying to think about entrusting those previously breached companies with a brand-new payment system, Apple seems to be implicitly saying that Pay could have prevented exactly those sorts of breaches for its users by removing the problem of giving those businesses credit card data in the first place.
With that in mind, here are some of Apple's new Pay partners who have recently been hacked:
Target. In December of last year, Target announced that it was the victim of a massive data breach that compromised the data of as many as 70 million customers and the credit card information of as many as 40 million. The Secret Service now estimates that the type of malware used to access that data might be compromising more than 1,000 U.S. businesses.
Staples. The office supplies company was apparently the victim of a malware breach in 2013, although Staples officials have remained quiet on the extent of that breach or what information was taken. And in 2011, the Canadian wing of the company was investigated by the Canadian government for, among other things, allegedly reselling hard drives containing customer data.
McDonalds. In 2010, stolen information from a database of consumers who signed up for promotions disclosed the names, addresses and other personal information of an unknown number of consumers. The company emphasized that the breach had nothing to do with how its credit card information was stored.
Disney. In 2007, a Disney subcontractor was caught selling credit card numbers and other customer data from the Disney Movie Club to undercover federal law enforcement agents. |
Alec Baldwin: Salma Hayek "Most Fabulous Woman I've Ever Worked With"
is on a roll with some interesting comments about his female 30 Rock guest stars. He recently reported that kissing Jennifer Aniston is "painful" . He expanded on his first utterances with other media outlets in order to turn it into a more positive response. But that was last weeks news. This week it's a love fest with
Baldwin told People magazine, "She was literally the most fabulous woman that I've ever worked with." Wow, the guy sounds smitten.
When the same interviewer caught up with Hayek last night at the CNN Heroes tribute award show, the actress was equally kind in her remarks about Baldwin. "We had such a great time. I love Alec to death. He energizes me...because he is so talented. He really, truly inspires me."
Check out a recent video of Hayek with David Letterman. She tells the story of how she got her ample breasts - funny.
Photo Source |
Jon Lester, Addison Russell and Chris Coghlan need only look across the diamond this weekend to be reminded of Cubs President Theo Epstein's recent declaration that "every chance to win is sacred."
Those players treasure their chance to compete for a World Series with the Cubs after missing out on an opportunity with the Athletics or being traded from Oakland to the Cubs.
"There's that saying of, 'We'll get them next year,' " Lester said. "You never can predict the future. Look at last year. Nobody could have predicted where we ended up. You don't know how many shots you have."
Lester was part of a short-lived A's rotation — along with Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel — that was eliminated in the 2014 American League wild-card game by the eventual league champion Royals.
Lester pointed to the fragility of a team's mission, as the Cubs have coped with the loss of slugger Kyle Schwarber, which eventually led to the June 10 reacquisition of Coghlan, who was dealt to the A's on Feb. 25 to make room for Dexter Fowler.
"When you go to a team and you're not winning, it's really tough," said Coghlan, who went spent 2 1/2 months with the A's, who are in last place in the AL West. "It doesn't matter how good of a year you're having. It's really tough on older guys.
"You realize it's not about winning and it becomes a political game. Younger players need to play, and rightfully so because the season is a wash and why not give them exposure? ... And when you come to a team that's about winning like the Chicago Cubs and at all costs, you realize everything gets played to 'Is this for the win or not?' And that's what it essentially was about when we first started playing (as kids), anyway. So it becomes more pure."
It's not uncommon for A's fans to wince on social media when Russell's achievements are documented. It didn't help the A's that they failed to win a playoff game in 2014 after trading Russell, their first pick in the 2012 draft, in a five-player trade involving Samardzija and Hammel.
Russell appreciates that the A's accelerated his process in the minors and is glad to see former minor-league teammates Max Muncy, Ryon Healy and Billy Burns have reached the majors. But the chance to win at an early age isn't lost on him.
"I never planned on being in this type of organization, but I'm very fortunate that I am and that I'm with a close-knit, young and diverse ballclub," Russell said.
Coghlan knows how lucky he is to be back with the Cubs. He has had his share of ups and down, starting his career with a mercurial Marlins organization. He produced for a 2014 Cubs team that lost 89 games, then lost some playing time toward the end of the 2015 season when the Cubs advanced to the NL Championship Series.
"I'm so grateful I'm here," Coghlan said. "And it makes it more special with the guys I'm doing it with, the relationships I've formed here and the history we're chasing. We're chasing history, not just a World Series.
"And it makes the challenge that much sweeter. That's more difficult to deal with, but it makes it so precious. I wouldn't want to be on any other team."
mgonzales@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @MDGonzales |
Recent Examples on the Web
Patron Saint Gwyneth Paltrow—Goop empress, purveyor of jade yoni eggs, conscious uncoupler, gold-foil facial masker, juice innovator. Benjy Hansen-bundy, GQ, "How To Be Better Than Everyone Else In 2018," 7 Feb. 2018
In The Bold Type, Jane goes straight to her friends Kat and Sutton, and Kat removes the yoni egg in one of the funniest scenes of the season. Angela Ledgerwood, The Cut, "The Bold Type’s Vagina Mishap Really Happened to Me," 6 Sep. 2017
Made of heart-activating rose quartz — associated with positive energy and love — this yoni egg is associated with the heart chakra. Gabriella Paiella, The Cut, "The 23 Most Ridiculous Moments in Goop History, Ranked," 24 Aug. 2017
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'yoni.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback. |
A former McDonald's chief executive has warned that raising the minimum wage will spur unemployment as companies will instead employ robots that work for less.
"I guarantee you if a $15 minimum wage goes across the country you're going to see a job loss like you can't believe," said Edward Rensi in an appearance on Fox Business Network Tuesday. "It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who's inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries."
The minimum wage has been a hot topic this spring, with some states and employers deciding to up their minimum wage to $15 an hour in the coming years. California will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022. New York City will get to $15 an hour within three years. Pennsylvania's largest employer, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, will up its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2021.
Rensi referred to discussion of raising the minimum wage as "nonsense," and something that would destroy America's middle class. Rensi said he'd recently attended the National Restaurant Show and saw first hand a range of robotic devices that are making their way into the restaurant industry.
Rensi , who was McDonald's CEO from 1991 to 1997, isn't the only fast food executive to be concerned about the consequences of raising wages. Wendy's is currently testing self-service kiosks in a few of its restaurants and exploring broader uses of technology to mitigate rising labor costs.
Instead of a federal minimum wage, Rensi says states should set the figure based on cost of living in their region. He warned that a higher minimum wage would damage the economy and leave more citizens dependent on government support.
"We've got unemployment in the black community which is staggering. Young black men over 50 percent unemployment, and we're talking about a $15 minimum wage?" said Rensi, who most recently served as CEO of the restaurant company Famous Dave's. "It's nonsense, these are entry-level jobs."
McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook was ground zero for the "Fight for $15" campaign for a higher minimum wage on Thursday, as hundreds of workers rallied during the annual shareholders meeting. May 26, 2016. (CBS Chicago) McDonald's headquarters in Oak Brook was ground zero for the "Fight for $15" campaign for a higher minimum wage on Thursday, as hundreds of workers rallied during the annual shareholders meeting. May 26, 2016. (CBS Chicago) SEE MORE VIDEOS
Last year, Rensi told The Washington Post that when he started working at McDonald's in 1966 there were 70 or 80 people working in the store, a number that has been cut in half today.
As computers have grown exponentially more powerful, companies have been able to automate more tasks, diminishing the need for human employees. Robotics and artificial intelligence are hot areas in the technology sector, and the World Economic Forum estimated earlier this year that their rise would cause a net loss of 5.1 million jobs over the next five years.
Some experts are so concerned about looming unemployment that they are calling for a basic income, a regular stipend to be paid to citizens who are likely to lose their jobs and cannot be retrained. Several European countries are planning experiments to test the impact of a basic income. |
Disease expert warns of growing threats
Updated
A Gold Coast scientist who headed up the team that developed the world's first anti-flu drug says the threat of infectious diseases is growing.
The Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University has been studying the rate of emerging diseases and the impact of climate change on the spread of tropical disease.
Professor Mark von Itzstein says more drugs are needed to combat the threat.
"We're so far behind now that a lot of infectious disease, we just simply have run out of weaponry," he said.
"There are multi drug-resistant strains of TB, for example, and we don't have any drugs at all to treat dengue.
"That is not a good state to be in."
Topics: infectious-diseases-other, vaccines-and-immunity, medical-research, southport-4215
First posted |
NATIONAL CITY, Calif. - A new collaborative project is giving a part of the San Diego Bay a new lease on life.
It's called the D Street Fill, but it's really a salt marsh sanctuary for hundreds of animal and plant species. It's located along the bay between National City and Chula Vista.
Andy Yuen with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is a bit excited, and he told 10News, "It really is a major milestone. This is for the first time in 60 years, it is receiving tides again."
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is working with San Diego Gas & Electric to restore the area to the way it was in the 1920s. By the 1950s, the salt marsh was filled with sand and dirt dredged from San Diego Bay.
SDG&E is behind the $5 million mitigation project because it is building a new power substation just south of Chula Vista's ambitious Bayfront Master Plan. That plan started with the 2013 implosion of the infamous South Bay Power Plant. SDG&E needed to move an older substation when the power plant was demolished. They needed to mitigate for the new substation.
"It's part of the master plan," said SDG&E spokeswoman Allison Torres. "It's part of the restoration efforts that we are overseeing."
SDG&E worked with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the California Coastal Commission for years on plans to restore the salt marsh.
"It's so impressive," said Torres.
"This was a very complicated project," said Yuen. "[Workers] moved about 125,000 cubic yards of material and created this salt marsh basin."
Crews are still planting more than 15,000 plants. Water from the bay returned to the area for the first time in 60 years.
Yuen said the salt marsh is a perfect habitat for the endangered light-footed ridgeways rail.
The sand that was removed from the area was deposited on an elevated area nearby which benefits another endangered bird: the California least tern.
"It was a two-for-one deal," said Yuen. |
View Birmingham’s parking ticket hotspots in a larger map
Today the Birmingham Post publishes the first story to come out of the crowdsourcing platform I’ve been creating – Help Me Investigate. It’s about parking ticket hotspots in Birmingham*. UPDATE: The Birmingham Mail have also published a report, from which the map above comes.
The site has only been public for a couple of weeks, and we have refrained from any launch or publicity, preferring to let it grow organically in these early stages.
But the early results have been extremely encouraging.
Although the parking ticket story is the first to appear in traditional media, it is not the first investigation to be completed on the site. One investigation was completed during the testing stage; another shortly after. Both had resolutions that might not have made traditional media, but were important to the users and, for me, resulted in the sort of engagement you want from media (more on that below).
The most exciting investigation, however, was into the long-awaited website for Birmingham City Council. That dug up what appeared to be an overspend on the website which we’re still investigating. It’s not clear whether it was a coincidence that a story on the issue appeared in the local paper the same day, but it certainly seems that the Council’s web team launched their Twitter feed that day as a result, and further stories were generated later.
Particularly interesting was the fact that someone who had worked on the project set up another Twitter feed to give further information to the person who began it. You can read more about how the investigation developed on Josh Hart’s blog post (down at the time of writing).
And the story hasn’t yet finished – the site’s Support Journalist Heather Brooke wrote the most impressive Freedom of Information request I’ve ever seen, asking for information on the process of building the website. Just read it. We now await the results.
Engaging and social
What has also been extremely encouraging is the way the site seems to be engaging users in a different way to traditional publishing – one of the objectives of Help Me Investigate.
My own experience of the site has been this: the social dynamics involve you in issues that you might otherwise never explore. I now know things about bus deregulation, for example, that I would never have read about. It was my desire to help a friend that made me read them.
Likewise, when people help you with an investigation there’s an instinct to want to help back. This generates a feedback loop where you are each helping add little bits to the investigation as a way to thank the other people who helped you. You do more than you would alone – another of the site’s objectives.
These are still early days with small numbers of people and the site is developing continuously (we’re using an agile development approach which means it’s changing in response to how people use it rather than our assumptions). It will get better as it gets used more, and we learn more, but I’m surprised how well it’s working even at this early stage – in some ways I think the simple framing of the site to ‘Help Me Investigate’ results in work you wouldn’t get elsewhere.
This week marks the point at which we are that bit much more public, and that bit much more ‘proven’, so I expect things to ramp up a bit.
In particular, I have now started an investigation into councils and parking tickets nationally: which are the worst and best offenders? This should test how we expand the experience gained in a local investigation into a national one.
If you want an invite you can request one from the Help Me Investigate home page. I’ve also been writing about what we’ve been learning along the way on a Help Me Investigate blog. Comments, questions and suggestions very much welcome.
*You can read the back-story to the parking tickets investigation by the wonderful Neil Houston, who helped compile and analyse the data that was obtained by Heather Brooke; and by Nick Booth, who is a co-founder of Help Me Investigate along with developer Stef Lewandowski.
A PDF of the printed report can be seen here.
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In addition, the major league debut of Pumpsie Green, who became the first African American player in Red Sox history on July 21, 1959, has been selected as the "Memorable Red Sox Moment," a moment in Red Sox history that is regarded for its special significance.
Former Red Sox players Kevin Youkilis , Derek Lowe , Mike Lowell , and the late John Frank "Buck" Freeman have been selected as the 2018 Red Sox Hall of Fame inductees. Alphonso "Al" Green , who has spent the last 44 years working with the Red Sox, has been chosen as the non-uniformed inductee.
Former Red Sox players Kevin Youkilis, Derek Lowe, Mike Lowell, and the late John Frank "Buck" Freeman have been selected as the 2018 Red Sox Hall of Fame inductees. Alphonso "Al" Green, who has spent the last 44 years working with the Red Sox, has been chosen as the non-uniformed inductee.
In addition, the major league debut of Pumpsie Green, who became the first African American player in Red Sox history on July 21, 1959, has been selected as the "Memorable Red Sox Moment," a moment in Red Sox history that is regarded for its special significance.
This year's selections were made by a 21-person committee headed by Red Sox team historian Gordon Edes and comprised of club executives, local and national media members, historians, and fan representatives. The Class of 2018 will be honored at a Red Sox Foundation gala on May 24 at the Westin Copley Place in Boston. More details will be announced at a later date.
Youkilis was selected by the Red Sox in the eighth round of the 2001 June Draft and spent parts of nine major league seasons with Boston from 2004-12, appearing in 953 regular season games for the club. The three-time American League All-Star twice finished in the top 10 in AL Most Valuable Player voting, placing third in 2008 and sixth in 2009. He debuted as a third baseman but transitioned seamlessly to first base prior to the 2006 season, winning a Gold Glove Award at the position in 2007. He still holds AL records for most consecutive games at first base without an error, both for a single season (135) and for a career (238). Youkilis helped the Red Sox win the 2007 World Series, notably batting .500 (14-for-28) with three home runs against the Cleveland Indians in the Championship Series. In 982 games with the Red Sox between the regular season and postseason, he hit .287 (995-for-3,463) with 139 home runs, 581 RBI, a .387 on-base percentage, a .490 slugging percentage, and an .877 OPS.
Lowe appeared in 384 games (111 starts) for the Red Sox from 1997-2004, earning All-Star honors as both a reliever (2000) and as a starting pitcher (2002). The right-hander went 70-55 (.560) with 85 saves and a 3.72 ERA (429 ER/1,037.0 IP) for Boston after being acquired by the club from the Seattle Mariners in 1997. He led the AL with 42 saves in 2000, and in 2002 he finished third in Cy Young Award voting after going 21-8 with a 2.58 ERA (63 ER/219.2 IP) in 32 starts. Lowe threw the 16th no-hitter in Red Sox history on April 27, 2002 against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, walking only one batter in Boston's 10-0 victory at Fenway Park. He appeared in 17 postseason games (six starts) and remains the only pitcher in MLB history to earn a series-clinching win in the Division Series, Championship Series, and World Series in a single postseason, having defeated the Anaheim Angels, New York Yankees, and St. Louis Cardinals in 2004 to help the Red Sox capture their first championship in 86 years.
Lowell's final five major league seasons were played with the Red Sox (2006-10), as he hit .290 (650-for-2,244) with 80 home runs, 153 doubles, 374 RBI, and an .814 OPS in 612 games with the club. A standout defensive third baseman, Lowell finished fifth in MVP voting and was named an All-Star during an exceptional 2007 season, when he batted .324 (191-for-589) with 37 doubles, 21 home runs, and 120 RBI in 154 games. He played a pivotal role in Boston's World Series title run that year, starting all 14 postseason games and batting .353 (18-for-51) with 15 RBI, 10 runs scored, seven doubles, and two home runs. He was named World Series MVP after reaching base multiple times and scoring at least one run in each game of the Fall Classic, going 6-for-15 (.400) with three doubles and a home run in the series. In the Red Sox' clinching 4-3 victory over the Rockies in Game 4, Lowell went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, and two runs scored.
Freeman was elected by the committee as part of the pre-1960 ballot. Described by the Society for American Baseball Research as "the first legitimate home run hitter in baseball history," the former right fielder and first baseman spent his final seven major league seasons with the Boston Americans from 1901-07, appearing in 820 games and batting .286 with 158 doubles, 90 triples, and 48 home runs. He hit .339 in his 1901 Boston debut-the third-best average in the AL-and led the league in extra-base hits in both 1902 (68) and 1903 (72). His 13 home runs in 1903 paced the AL, and he ranked second in the league in 1901 (12), 1902 (11), and 1904 (7). Having hit 25 home runs for the Washington Senators in 1899, he became the first player ever to lead both the NL and AL in home runs (source: SABR). Freeman helped the franchise win its first World Series title in 1903 by going 9-for-32 (.281) with three triples and six runs scored against the Pirates, then played a pivotal role in the club's pennant-winning 1904 season.
Al Green, who turned 90 years old during the 2017 season, has spent the last 44 years working for the Red Sox, mostly in the team's Fan Services information booth. A native of Barbados and a former maintenance worker at Harvard University, Green was hired as a member of the game day staff in 1973, one of the few ballpark minority hires at the time. He has become a familiar face at Fenway Park to generations of fans who go out of their way to see him in his Gate D booth and he treats many young staff members as family.
In addition to the players and non-uniformed inductees, a "Memorable Red Sox Moment" is also chosen by the panel. This year's selection is the major league debut of Pumpsie Green, the first African American player in Red Sox history. On July 21, 1959, in a game against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park, Green pinch-ran for Vic Wertz at first base in the eighth inning with the Red Sox trailing, 2-1, then remained in the game at shortstop. His first hit would come a week later against the Cleveland Indians, as Green appeared in 50 games for the Red Sox that season. He played in 327 games over four seasons with Boston (1959-62) before spending his final major league season with the New York Mets in 1963.
The Red Sox Hall of Fame was instituted in 1995 to recognize the outstanding careers of former Red Sox players and managers. To be eligible for nomination, players/managers must have played at least three years with the Red Sox and must also have been out of uniform as an active player/manager at least three years. The non-uniformed personnel and the memorable moment selected are chosen by a unanimous vote of the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame Selection Committee. |
All Major US Inflation Measures Fall Below Fed Targets in May
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show sharply lower inflation. The headline number, the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) fell at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.31 percent in May, its fastest rate of decline since 2008, when the economy was still contracting. Even without seasonal adjustment, the CPI-U fell at an annual rate of 1.2 percent in the month.
As the chart shows, measures of underlying inflation also slowed sharply from April to May, although they remained positive. The core CPI from the BLS, which removes volatile food and energy prices from the CPI-U, was almost flat, rising at only a 0.24 percent annual rate. The main reason was that energy prices, which usually increase at this time of year, actually fell. For example, the price of gasoline normally rises by about 3.2 percent from April to May. This year, instead, the unadjusted price fell by 3.6 percent. Putting the two numbers together, there was a 6.8 percent seasonally adjusted decrease for the month. Other energy prices also moved downward.
Instead of core inflation, some economists prefer to look at the Cleveland Fed’s 16 percent trimmed mean inflation. Rather than removing food and energy from the index, trimmed mean inflation removes the 8 percent of prices that increase most each month, and the 8 percent that decrease most (or increase least). That inflation measure also slowed sharply, from an annual rate of 1.94 percent in April to 1.10 percent in May.
The unadjusted CPI provides the most accurate picture of what is happening right now to the actual cost of living experienced by consumers. Economists watch measures of underlying inflation not for what they say about the cost of living, but because they strip away statistical noise and reveal the part of inflation that is more likely to be responsive to monetary policy. The Fed maintains that an inflation rate of about 2 percent is consistent with its mandate to maintain price stability.
Sometimes the price stability mandate conflicts with the other component of the Fed’s dual mandate, which is maintenance of full employment. When that happens, policymakers must balance inflation risks against unemployment. Right now, however, there is no conflict. The latest jobs and GDP numbers are also very negative. With output growth slowing, unemployment rising, and inflation falling well below target by a variety of measures, the Fed is getting a real wakeup call.
Things are not looking all that healthy abroad, either. The economies of the BRICs are slowing. Europe is already in recession, with the only question being whether the recession will morph into a collapse. Fiscal policy is on a downslope to the cliff, as I noted earlier in the month. Of course, the Fed may be hoping that something will come along to pull the economy out of the ditch before it is forced to undertake further measures of its own. However, it is increasingly hard to see what that might be.
Follow this link to view or download a brief slideshow with detailed charts of the latest inflation data. |
DANVILLE, Calif. — It’s pitch black in this cool East Bay ’burb just after 5 a.m. Tuesday, and the Oakland Raiders’ 25-year-old MVP candidate rolls into a coffee shop parking lot in his pickup truck with the child seats in back. Derek Carr is polite, but in a bit of a rush. You’d think the rush is because of the short week, as the Raiders prepare to play a crucial game against Kansas City on Thursday night in middle America. But leaving the house at 5:10 for the 40-minute ride to work is customary for this player who burns to be great for a long time.
“This is every day,” Carr says, hands deep in his pockets on a 41-degree morning.
I’ll take you with us on Carr’s drive to work Thursday night on the NBC “Football Night in Kansas City” pregame show, which begins at 7:30 p.m. ET, before the game for AFC West supremacy between the 10-2 Raiders and 9-3 Chiefs. (That’s my other job, working for NBC on the football show.) I think you’ll be engaged. America doesn’t really know Carr yet, and I hope you have a better feel for him after seeing this TV piece. And not just for the football—he is on pace for 4,501 yards and 32 touchdowns, and is completing 66 percent of his passes—but for the kind of person he is. So I urge you to watch.
Derek Carr says excellence off the field is as important to him as Raiders success. Courtesy NBC
What I found interesting—and what I think will come out on TV—is his attention to detail in other parts of his life. For instance, I asked him where he got his drive for excellence.
“Probably my parents,” he said, steering his pickup on an already-crowded Interstate 580 with the early rush-hour traffic. “When they raised me, they laid a foundation for me obviously with my faith, and they showed me the kind of man they wanted me to be. My dad showed me every day the kind of man he wanted me to be … and now I get to show my boys what it’s like to actually be a man, to actually deal with things. How you treat your wife, that’s excellence to me. Football is a game, and my character will rub off on my work ethic and the weight room and the film study and all those things, but when it comes down to excellence, I think about it off the field. I want people to think of my life, I want people to watch this and see me and know that’s who I am.
• BUCKET LIST—GREEN BAY: The MMQB is embedded in the land of Lambeau this week, telling stories about the NFL’s most tightly knit community
“I’m not putting on a show. I’m gonna go out and be the same person, and if I do that, I don’t have to have a good memory. I don’t have to remember what I said to anybody. Excellence … Showing my boys what it means to be a man, showing them what it means to love your wife, what it means to serve people that you don’t even know, what it means to see someone on the side of the road and stop and help them because that’s just the right thing to do. That’s the kind of stuff that I think [makes up] excellence.”
Heady stuff for 5 in the morning. Carr would be just fine with living his life in a Cal Ripken way, being great on the field and off. Right now, he’s running the most explosive, quick-strike offense in football, and the most fun to watch. A few other thoughts from our 40 minutes in the car that you won’t see Thursday night:
• On handling the pressure of a very big game like this one: “For us, coach [Jack] Del Rio has done such a great job of teaching us how to make every game the same. You treat every game like a big game and then when the big games come, it’s just normal for you.”
• On playing with his dislocated throwing pinky: “There's nothing that holds me back. Obviously there’s still pain in it, which is normal because of the swelling and all those things, but you know, that doesn’t hinder me at all. I’m able to grab the football, I’m able to throw it, so that’s all that matters.”
• On whether he thinks his brother David’s lack of great success after being the top pick in 2002 affected his own draft stock in 2014 (Derek Carr was the 35th overall pick): “As much respect as I have for the league, I hope not. You know, because that’s pretty ignorant to me. We’re two completely different people, two completely different situations. … You’d have to ask the other teams. I know that Oakland didn’t feel that way, I know that [GM] Reggie McKenzie didn’t feel that way, and I think that is what fired me up the most is when they would talk about that situation, they thought it was the biggest positive ever. Because they’re like. ‘You’ve already been in the NFL for 12 years, you’ve already seen it, you’ve already experienced the highs the lows, all the experience that you’ve gained is nothing but good. And when they said that, I was like, I want to go here so bad.”
Derek Carr has played like an MVP candidate this season, ranking in the top seven in passing yards, touchdowns and passer rating. Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images
• On his explosive offense: “In this league, separation is a hard thing to come by from a receiver and a corner, it just is. And the more I can get the ball to them quicker while that separation is still good, that's what [offensive coordinator Bill] Musgrave always tells me: Get it to him while the getting’s good.”
• On playing against Kansas City safety Eric Berry, and watching him run back an interception for a touchdown and a missed two-point conversion for a 2-point play Sunday in his hometown, Atlanta: “It's amazing. It’s remarkable, to know that that’s where had his treatments, for his cancer … to know that that’s where he’s from … to see what he’s been able to do. This game, like I said, is way bigger than football. For him to just inspire people, to bring hope to people who may be going through the same thing. Maybe they’re not going to go catch pick-sixes or pick-twos after they’re done, but they can go do something amazing with their lives. I think it’s just a tremendous thing, and I hope that that story blesses people.”
• THE FINE FIFTEEN: Where do the Raiders rank on Jenny Vrentas’ list?
• On the key to beating Kansas City: “Protect the football. No one has to do anything superhuman. No one has to go out there and think they need to make a superhero play.”
It’s tough for stars to stay hidden for very long in the NFL. This league mints new stars annually, almost monthly. I walked away from my time with Carr thinking he’s going to be a face of the NFL for a long time.
And now for your email...
* * *
Matt Barkley has been a pleasant surprise in an otherwise lousy season for the Bears. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
HAVE WE SEEN THE LAST OF CUTLER?
Peter, does Matt Barkley's play in two games make it even more likely Jay Cutler will be elsewhere next year? Obviously the defensive competition hasn't been the best, but has he shown enough that Chicago can trust him to be the backup or even compete with Hoyer for the starting role next year? Assuming the Bears draft a QB next year, how do you think this plays out?
—Mark L., Muscatine, Iowa
Great question, Mark. Hard to answer it without seeing Chicago’s last four games, which are against four playoff contenders. Specifically, I want to see Barkley’s poise against the onslaught of Detroit’s resurgent pass rush this week, and Minnesota’s stifling rush in Week 17. Both of those are on the road. If Barkley is competitive in those two games plus the two home games (against Green Bay and Washington), obviously that changes everything. In any case, I can’t envision Cutler being back for big money. I’d draft a quarterback if I were GM Ryan Pace, and develop him in 2017 with a vet like Barkley or Hoyer holding the fort.
Actually, you know what I think would be interesting, and what I would do if I were Pace? I’d offer my first-round pick to New England for Jimmy Garoppolo and a third-round pick. It would be tough for Bill Belichick to turn down a top-five pick for Garoppolo. Very tough. But I’d do it if I were Pace—unless he liked any of the quarterbacks in the draft more than Garoppolo. The only barometer I’d use if I were Pace is not price tag, but rather whether I thought the Patriots’ backup was good enough to be his quarterback of the future. In that case, make the deal.
• THE PLAYOFFS ARE COMING: In Monday Morning QB, Peter King breaks down the postseason races by division and makes his predictions
JEFF FISHER’S NEW CONTRACT
I see a lot of people mad about Jeff Fisher getting a new contract. I see it this way: The Rams are in a lame-duck status until the new stadium is built. The stadium is going to be completed for the 2019 season. Fisher's contract is over at the end of the 2018 season. I believe that keeping an average coach on board, letting Jared Goff develop, and recovering from their trade to get Goff sets up for a really splashy inaugural season of a new stadium. I believe the Rams will bring in a big name like Sean Payton in 2019, have a developed quarterback, and will really make a splash in the new stadium and make the playoffs.
—Daniel R., Wasilla, Alaska
Hard to see into 2019, Daniel. I think the point that’s being missed about the Fisher deal is this: It’s basically a $7 million or $8 million golden parachute for an owner paying $2 billion to build the prettiest stadium in the United States in the glitziest city in the United States, instead of making Fisher coach the last year of his contract as a lame duck in a season in which the Rams were surely at a big disadvantage. If the Rams stink it up down the stretch and finish 5-11 or 4-12, Stan Kroenke has the right to dump Fisher for one guaranteed year of pay—which I believe is likely in that scenario. Now, if the Rams had extended Fisher for three guaranteed years, that would have been silly. But one guaranteed year, knowing he might not coach it if the team went in the toilet this year? Not such a bad option.
ABOUT THE LANDSLIDE
Imagine an NFL game in which one team kicks 10 field goals, scoring 30 points and the other team scores five touchdowns, scoring 35 points. After the game, the “losing” team declares that they really won the game because they scored 10 times while the other team only scored five times. Of course, that’s completely false because the rules of the game don’t count number of times scoring, they count the final score. And teams base their entire game plan and in-game strategy on the rules as they existed before the game was played. The absurdity of the losing team's claim is right up there with your “analysis” of the Electoral College. Trump and Clinton played according to rules that have existed since George Washington ran for his first term—and both candidates based their game plan and their strategy on the fact that they had to win 270 electoral votes, not win the popular vote. But now the losing team is trying to say it really won; all you have to do is change the rules after the game has been played! Now maybe you’re not saying this. Maybe your point is that the rules should be changed before we play the next game. That’s fine, but you should know that those in politics who are talking like this don’t care what the rules are, they just want to undermine Trump’s presidency by suggesting he won the election by a technicality. Trump did win in a landslide. There were 51 elections run on Nov. 8 and Trump won 30 of them.
—Steve M., Essex, Vt.
All I said was Trump trumpeting winning the election in a landslide when he lost the popular vote by 2.5 million votes is comical. Nothing else.
• THE MMQB HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: Dominic Bonvissuto runs down ideas for NFL fans, from playbook pint glasses to football leather watch bands
ON HENRY BURRIS
I read the large portion about Henry Burris and the Grey Cup in your column Monday. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that part. I am a huge NFL fan. I was born and raised in Ottawa but have always gravitated more toward the NFL game. But as with everyone in this city I have always been a fan of our football team (when we’ve had one) and with the Redblacks when they came back into the league. Your piece was so heartwarming to read. How great a city Ottawa is, how great a capital city it is. How great our country is and how free we are. We are as neighbors always directly linked and compared. We share a lot of values and similarities, but it’s our differences that make us great and original. Thank you for writing to that point, and thank you for giving this fan a big smile about his city, his team and who he chooses to read every Monday.
—Mike G.
In two phone conversations with Henry Burris totaling maybe 80 minutes, it was difficult to not come away with strong and positive feelings for him and his career and his attitude about life. I have a soft spot for Canada. My wife and I took a 35th anniversary train trip across the Canadian Rockies last year; I went to two CFL games to open the 2014 season (Jenny Vrentas to a third) and loved it … the spirit, the love of the game and franchises, the fun of the wide field and the different rules. And Henry Burris illustrates, to me, why athletes play the games they play. He loves football, and he’s forever thankful to the country that adopted him for the chance to build a career and a family.
BACKUP QBS AND BACKUP GOALIES
In hockey, the backup goalie plays about 15-20 games in an 82 game season. Why don’t NFL teams with a QB in his mid- to late 30s consider giving that QB a rest against inferior teams? If Jimmy Garoppolo were to play against Cleveland and Jacksonville, the Pats would likely win, and Brady’s body would be theoretically fresher later in the year and playoffs, wouldn’t it? It would also give the backup some valuable snaps in the event the starter gets hurt.
—Joe A.
Question for you: What happens the first time the Patriots, sitting Tom Brady, lose to a team everyone assumes they’d beat? And what happens when the Chargers sit Philip Rivers and lose to anyone? Howling would ensue.
LARRY FITZGERALD MOVIN’ ON UP
I was really bummed when Fitz didn’t get mentioned in your article. He’s now third all-time in receptions and 10th all-time in receiving yards. What makes this so impressive is that these numbers came while playing in Arizona with some of the, shall we say, less than average QBs that have ever played the position. Also of note is that Carson Palmer passed Dan Fouts for career passing yards, and that David Johnson is quietly putting up huge numbers with, to put it nicely, a not Dallas O-Line. Fitz and Palmer are talking him up as the MVP, but he’s not getting any respect in the national media, which is a shame.
—Dusty T.
File this one under the “I should have written about Fitzgerald this week” error section. He joins a long list of people I’ve ignored when they do great things. David Johnson too. I plan to give them their due before the end of the year.
• Question or comment? Email us at talkback@themmqb.com |
CHAD: So first of all, Dan, you’ve been involved for a long time in the Chicago drag scene in a lot of different ways -- can you sum all of that up?
DAN: I first was introduced to the Chicago drag scene through Trannika Rex. At that point in time, I was going through a big transition phase in my life, I was feeling very complacent in my personal life and my creative life… I was looking for a community that understood me as a queer person and allowed me to showcase my background in art and design. From that point, I slowly started working with local queens on branding and apparel, Trannika pushed me to get involved with Queen! at SmartBar, I started working with Shea Coulee regularly, working with Neverland and assisting Adam Ouahmane on photoshoots, too. It was cool because it allowed me to creatively push myself in ways I hadn’t before while working in fields I wasn’t entirely familiar with. Then Shea came up with the idea for Lipstick City, which I co-produced and edited… from that point on, I’ve been working steadily and was able to push my clientele to include contestants on Drag Race like Detox, Naomi Smalls, Aja and Sasha Velour.
CHAD: What has it been like to watch the show week by week when you’ve probably heard all kinds of tea and have such a close relationship with some of the contestants?
DAN: It’s been really interesting! I’m such a fan of so many of the girls this season and seeing their point-of-views for each runway has been my favorite part. It’s very surreal seeing people you know showcase their talents on TV and pursue their dream. The girls I know from the show have been very tight-lipped, other than the “oh, just wait” or “biiiiitch, you’ll never believe what happens…” in response to certain previews, a lot of the season has been a surprise to me.
CHAD: Did you have any idea/inkling/warning that this episode would be SO EXTRA?
DAN: Well, being the club kid runway mixed with reaching the half-way mark of the season, I was expecting it to be over-the-top and, frankly, we needed some non-Untucked drama.
CHAD: I have to say that, whatever complaints other viewers might have about this season, this was an amazing week to be a Drag Race fan. Pretty much everything was perfection, at least, unless you’re a Valentina stan. The early workroom dynamic was hilarious, despite the “drag conspiracy” drama with Nina. The challenge was fun, creative, and wild. The runway pushed the queens in new directions, and then the lip sync, was… well, we can get to that later.
DAN: The Nina drama is frustrating because she is so talented but definitely in her own head. At this point of the season, every decision is going to be important and impactful. We’re in the midst of a competition and still seeing dynamics of sisterhood and insecurity… some queens are really pushing themselves and some are crumbling under the pressure. |
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who is almost certainly preparing to run for president in 2016, got a special shout-out during President Barack Obama’s speech to the DNC’s winter meeting Friday morning. And rather than single out Paul for criticism, the president held him up as one Republican who is actually trying to reach out beyond his base.
The audience of Democrats groaned at the mention of Paul’s name, but Obama stopped them. “No, Rand’s an interesting guy,” he said to laughs from the crowd. “No, he is.”
“And Rand Paul said that the Republican Party is to show up on the south side of Chicago and shout at the top of its lungs that the GOP is the ticket to the middle class,” Obama continued, calling that instinct “encouraging,” adding, “I want parties to compete everywhere, I think that’s a good thing.”
Noting that he was just “back home” in Chicago the day before, Obama said, “I guarantee you that Senator Paul would be welcome there.” He added, “We are a friendly bunch. I mean, it’s a little strange if people show up and just start shouting at the top of their lungs, but we’re friendly and it would be OK.”
But ultimately, Obama told Republicans that can’t just “talk the talk,” they’ve got to “walk the walk” when it comes to supporting policies that help the middle class. “We have been walking the walk,” he said of Democrats. “And if Republicans are serious about taking on the specific challenges that face the middle class, if they are prepared to walk the walk, we should welcome them.”
It was during his 2014 speech at CPAC that Paul made his comments about Republicans visiting Obama’s home city. “We need a Republican Party that shows up on the South Side of Chicago, and shouts at the top of our lungs: ‘We are the party of jobs and opportunity. The GOP is the ticket to the middle class,'” Paul said at the time.
Watch video below, via C-SPAN:
[Photo via screengrab]
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Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com |
SAN FRANCISCO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Two years after U.S. legislators branded it a national security threat, China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd is planning a campaign to win over U.S. consumers, rolling out new mobile phones and wearable devices backed by a marketing effort.
China’s second-largest smartphone maker, already with more than $40 billion in annual revenue from a wide range of telecom gear and products, is preparing to introduce Americans to several of its smartphones and wearable devices this year, including its youth-oriented “Honor” phone, Huawei officials told Reuters.
The company’s 2015 U.S. plans, which have not been previously reported, will encompass traditional advertising, online promotion and sports team sponsorships, said Huawei’s U.S. spokesman Bill Plummer.
Huawei is changing its approach to marketing as it tries to shed its image as a purveyor of cheap technology products - a common perception issue for many Chinese companies. It’s an important shift for a company that for years had been single-mindedly focused on engineering and relatively dismissive of consumer branding.
In December, it touted its new Honor 6 Plus phone on a billboard in New York’s Times Square. Plummer said that was “a sign of things to come.”
He declined to say how much Huawei will spend on its new marketing campaign or what sports team, or teams, it had in mind. It already sponsors London soccer club Arsenal, cricket teams in India and rugby clubs in Australia.
NEW SMARTWATCH
At the Mobile World Congress over the weekend in Barcelona, Huawei took the wraps off a smartwatch that will be sold in over 20 countries including the U.S.
Huawei now intends to appeal directly to consumers with several new phone models, both low end and high end. It hopes to secure deals with carriers, selling online through marketplaces, such as the one operated by Amazon.com, and on its own fledgling gethuawei.com U.S. direct-sales website.
A hostess displays the Huawei Watch during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona March 3, 2015. REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino
It’s unclear how open the carriers, who dominate U.S. sales, would be to carrying phones from Huawei, a brand that remains unknown to the majority of American smartphone users. Reviews of its high-end phones, which can cost hundreds of dollars without a plan, have been generally positive.
Still, the U.S. market is dominated by Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Samsung Electronics (005930.KS). None of the four biggest U.S. carriers - Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile - currently sell Huawei phones on their websites and all declined to say whether they have had talks with the Chinese company.
Huawei said in 2013 it would focus on other markets after its products were labeled a national security risk in a U.S. Congressional report, which said Beijing could use Huawei equipment for spying. Huawei denied the report, but Chief Executive Ren Zhengfei, who founded the company after leaving the Chinese military, told reporters at the time he felt stuck in a U.S.-China trade war.
A White House-ordered review found no evidence of spying.
Lawmakers’ concerns revolve primarily around Huawei’s networking equipment. And analysts say that a lack of brand recognition is a bigger hurdle for Huawei’s smartphone ambitions than pressures from Washington.
Huawei currently has less than 1 percent of the U.S. market, according to research firm IDC. But it can perhaps draw inspiration from China’s ZTE Corp (000063.SZ) (0763.HK), which has gained 6.4 percent of the U.S. market by selling cheaper smartphones and working with second-tier carriers like Boost Mobile, according to Ramon Llamas, a research manager at IDC.
Online sales, particularly as no-contract plans that require consumers to purchase a full-price phone gain in popularity, represent perhaps the best option for Huawei, said Gartner analyst C.K. Lu, adding that he sees it having a tough time signing carriers.
“The U.S. market is tough for anybody except Apple and Samsung,” said Lu.
Huawei’s plan to broaden its U.S. offering is part of a campaign for “normalizing” perceptions of Huawei in America and elsewhere, said Plummer.
Slideshow (5 Images)
Though he declined to spell out what normalization entailed, most public discussion of the company has centered around the debate of whether its equipment allows China to spy on the United States, and until now Huawei has kept a low profile.
Other Chinese companies still prefer that route: another major Chinese handset maker, Xiaomi, has said it will take its first steps onto U.S. soil without smartphones, choosing instead to sell earphones and other accessories to test the market. |
There is no “for sale” sign outside Canadian Tire Centre.
But that doesn’t mean changes won’t be made in the new year.
The Ottawa Senators will close out 2017 with home games against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night and Boston Bruins on Saturday night. After that, general manager Pierre Dorion can draw up his list of new year’s resolutions to improve his National Hockey League hockey club.
While the word in NHL circles is that Dorion isn’t ready to sell off all of the club’s assets, he’s willing to discuss nearly every player on his roster except captain Erik Karlsson and winger Mark Stone with the Senators 14 points out of the final wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 47 games left to play.
League sources indicated Wednesday the most popular Senators players if Dorion wanted to trade remained the likes of winger Mike Hoffman, centres Derick Brassard and Jean-Gabriel Pageau and defenceman Cody Ceci.
Of course, nothing can happen until Dorion pulls the trigger.
League executives also believe several teams have spoken to Dorion about Hoffman, who has a salary-cap hit of $5.1 million through 2019-20. It’s believed the St. Louis Blues are among the frontrunners, with GM Doug Armstrong willing to part with the necessary assets in exchange for Hoffman.
The Senators don’t want to do a total rebuild, but, if they’re going to make changes, they want to get younger and Hoffman could net the pieces the organization wants. He is a proven goal scorer.
But, breaking up is hard to do and you can’t fault the Senators for having a difficult time stomaching how sideways this season has gone. The players know Dorion can’t afford to sit still much longer, and many have been around long enough to know moves aren’t far away.
“(Changes) are part of the business, and, when you don’t have success, changes happen, and, when you don’t play well, changes happen,” alternate captain Dion Phaneuf said following Thursday’s 37-minute skate. “We’re all big boys. We know this business. We’ve been around it and we’ve seen it.
“It’s on us. It’s not on anyone else. As players, we haven’t gotten the job done.”
The players don’t have a sense of the timetable, though.
“You almost don’t want to comment on it because I don’t know where they’re at with it and I’d be speaking out of turn if I really did and commented on it, but I think we all understand it’s coming because of where we’re at,” winger Bobby Ryan said.
Phaneuf said he believed Senators management had been tolerant with this group.
“I think they’ve shown great patience and they’ve given us lots of opportunity to come together and we’re going to try to continue to try to work out way out of it,” Phaneuf said. “We’re not going to sit here and feel sorry for ourselves because that doesn’t do anybody any good.”
The Senators head into the matchup with the Blue Jackets with only three wins in their past 19 games. They’ve allowed four goals or more 15 times this season, including Tuesday’s 5-1 loss in Boston, and they have only two victories in those 15 games.
“It’s been frustrating in all aspects,” Phaneuf said. “The whole slide, or the whole (six weeks), however you want to say it, we just haven’t been able to grab traction. If we knew and it was that easy of a fix we’d do it.
“Whenever you have this type of adversity and whenever you go through this, there’s only one way to get out of it, and that’s to come together, and you’ve got to work your way out. Maybe in a couple of weeks we’ll be standing here and saying we’re playing much better. But we’ve got to find a way to work to deserve it.
“Right now, we’re in the position we’re at because we deserve to be where we’re at and we haven’t played well enough.”
It’s hard to believe it has to come to this for a team that got within a goal of the 2017 Stanley Cup final. Head coach Guy Boucher will argue this isn’t the same team, but the Senators made minimal roster changes over the offseason, so the reality is that this group, including coaches, has underachieved.
Boucher opted to try to keep the message positive on Thursday and, really, what other choice did he have? Nobody is going to throw in the towel because there’s too much hockey left to be played this season.
“I’m looking forward to (Friday’s) game, I really am,” Boucher said. “Every moment of the day is a chance where we can do so something good, whether to change, keep or grow something.
“I want to have a hard game against a hard team and I’m expecting a hard fight.”
If some of these Senators don’t put up a fight they’ll be packing their bags.
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/sungarrioch |
Friday, December 24, 2010 at 04:30PM
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Such an oddball mishmash of Balearic, re-edits and brostep this year for the remixes list. (I have no explanation.)Dragonette - "Easy (Buffetlibre Remix)" [Dragonette]The Count & Sinden - "Elephant 1234 (Reset! Remix)" [Domino]Breakbot [ft. Irfane] - "Baby I'm Yours (Aeroplane Remix)" [EdBanger / Because]Jamiroquai - "Blue Skies (Flux Pavilion Remix)" [none]Jay-Z - "99 Problems (The Prodigy Remix)" [none]Cocteau Twins - "Heaven or Las Vegas (Star Slinger's 'Elizabeth Fraser' Rework)" [none]Steve Miller Band - "Fly Like an Eagle (Bottin Re-Edit)" [Perseo / Italians Do It Better]Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. [ft. MNDR] - "Bang Bang Bang (U-Tern's Disco Dub)" [none]La Roux - "In for the Kill (Danger's Ocean Remix)" [Cherrytree / Interscope / Polydor]Robyn - "Hang With Me (Reset! Remix)" [Konichiwa]Korallreven - "Honey Mine (Lissvik Remix)" [Acephale]Azari & III - "Reckless With Your Love (Tensnake Remix)" [Permanent Vacation]Gucci Mane - "Lemonade (Heroes & Villains Remix)" [Mad Decent / Overthrow]Cassius - "99 (Reset! Remix)" [Cassius]Rockwell [ft. Michael Jackson] - "Somebody's Watching Me (Discotech Remix)" [none]
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Lady Gaga - "Alejandro (Skrillex Remix)" [Cherrytree / Interscope]Timbaland [ft. Justin Timberlake] - "Carry Out (Chew Fu Remix)"[Blackground / Interscope]Sigma & DJ Fresh - "Lassitude (Dillon Francis Remix)" [none]Chaka Khan - "Ain't Nobody (XXXchange's Intro Edit)" [Money Studies]Burns & Fred Falke - "Y.S.L.M. (You Stopped Loving Me) (Treasure Fingers Remix)" [Sony]Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Round and Round (Little Loud Remix)" [none]Caribou - "Odessa (Nite Jewel Remix)" [Merge]La Roux - "In for the Kill (Skrillex Remix)" [Cherrytree / Interscope / Polydor]DJ Fresh [ft. Ce'Cile] - "Gold Dust (Flux Pavilion Remix)" [Breakbeat Kaos / Data]Taken by Trees [ft. Panda Bear] - "Anna (CFCF Remix)" [none]Here's a copyable list:01. Taken by Trees [ft. Panda Bear] - "Anna (CFCF Remix)" [none]02. DJ Fresh [ft. Ce'Cile] - "Gold Dust (Flux Pavilion Remix)" [Breakbeat Kaos / Data]03. La Roux - "In for the Kill (Skrillex Remix)" [Cherrytree / Interscope / Polydor]04. Caribou - "Odessa (Nite Jewel Remix)" [Merge]05. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - "Round and Round (Little Loud Remix)" [none]06. Burns & Fred Falke - "Y.S.L.M. (You Stopped Loving Me) (Treasure Fingers Remix)" [Sony]07. Chaka Khan - "Ain't Nobody (XXXchange's Intro Edit)" [Money Studies]08. Sigma & DJ Fresh - "Lassitude (Dillon Francis Remix)" [none]09. Timbaland [ft. Justin Timberlake] - "Carry Out (Chew Fu Remix)" [Blackground / Interscope]10. Lady Gaga - "Alejandro (Skrillex Remix)" [Cherrytree / Interscope]11. Rockwell [ft. Michael Jackson] - "Somebody's Watching Me (Discotech Remix)" [none]12. Cassius - "99 (Reset! Remix)" [Cassius]13. Gucci Mane - "Lemonade (Heroes & Villains Remix)" [Mad Decent / Overthrow]14. Azari & III - "Reckless With Your Love (Tensnake Remix)" [Permanent Vacation]15. Korallreven - "Honey Mine (Lissvik Remix)" [Acephale]16. Robyn - "Hang With Me (Reset! Remix)" [Konichiwa]17. La Roux - "In for the Kill (Danger's Ocean Remix)" [Cherrytree / Interscope / Polydor]18. Mark Ronson & The Business Intl. [ft. MNDR] - "Bang Bang Bang (U-Tern's Disco Dub)" [none]19. Steve Miller Band - "Fly Like an Eagle (Bottin Re-Edit)" [Perseo / Italians Do It Better]20. Cocteau Twins - "Heaven or Las Vegas (Star Slinger's 'Elizabeth Fraser' Rework)" [none]21. Jay-Z - "99 Problems (The Prodigy Remix)" [none]22. Jamiroquai - "Blue Skies (Flux Pavilion Remix)" [none]23. Breakbot [ft. Irfane] - "Baby I'm Yours (Aeroplane Remix)" [Ed Banger / Because]24. The Count & Sinden - "Elephant 1234 (Reset! Remix)" [Domino]25. Dragonette - "Easy (Buffetlibre Remix)" [Dragonette] |
Image via Destination Wedding
The Caribbean just got danker.
Last Friday, the U.S. States Virgin Islands Senate unanimously (and quietly) voted to decriminalize cannabis in the Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix.
In October, the fate of Bill No. 30-0018 appeared doomed, as Governor de Jongh vetoed this same bill. But the U.S. Virgin Islands Senate has veto power, and they utilized that power to overturn de Jongh’s ruling, enact the bill, and decriminalize marijuana possession on the islands.
The bill was authored and led by the aptly named Terrence “Positive” Nelson, who stated that “the [decriminalization]trend is evident.” 14 out of the 15 Senators voted “Yes” while one absent Senator did not cast a vote.
This bill significantly reduces the penalty for possession, however, the production and sale of cannabis on the island will remain illegal. Now, those in possession of under an ounce of cannabis won’t go to jail or see marijuana placed on their criminal records. Instead, minor possession results in a mere fine that will range from $100 to $200, and, in the worst case scenario, having their buds confiscated.
The reasoning behind the bill is a simple and now common one. In the words of “Positive” Nelson, “It will go a long way in easing cost on the judicial system and judicial process.”
The marijuana movement in the United States tends to focus solely on domestic issues and often overlooks international movements. But the world has awakened, and in our figurative beach back yard of the Virgin Islands, America’s recent progress (see: Colorado) has caused a clear domino effect.
With Jamaica poised to decriminalize (potentially legalize marijuana) and Bermuda recently legalizing CBD (cannabidiol), these new laws are giving tourist another reason to visit these sunny island oases.
[The Virgin Islands Consortium] |
Exclusive: Lawmakers rushing Bears Ears resolution because they expect Trump to undo monument
UtahPolicy.com has learned House Republicans are rushing to pass a resolution asking President Trump to rescind the Bears Ears National Monument by Friday because they think Trump could possibly do that as early as next week.
House Speaker Greg Hughes has made it known he wants HCR11 passed by the full Legislature and sent to Gov. Gary Herbert's desk by Friday of this week. Hughes' resolution calls on Trump to reverse the 1.35 million acre national monument established by President Barack Obama in the final days of his presidency. Passing the non-binding resolution so quickly would be a good way to demonstrate to the Trump administration support from Utah's Capitol Hill.
According to legislative rules, a resolution becomes effective immediately when it receives final approval from the House, Senate, and Governor.
Hughes acknowledged to UtahPolicy.com the plan is to send the resolution to the governor's desk by Friday. However, he played coy when asked why he was putting such a hurry on the process.
"We may have a great opportunity here," said Hughes with a grin. "We want to be prepared for whatever opportunity arises on this issue. We are going to do all we can."
The rush may be tied to an expected visit to Utah by new Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke after he's confirmed by the Senate. Zinke could come to Utah as early as next week if several legislators who spoke to UtahPolicy.com are to be believed. Zinke's nomination was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee but is still awaiting a vote by the full Senate.
Sen. Orrin Hatch met with Zinke in mid-January. At that time, Hatch said Zinke promised to make his first trip as Interior Secretary to Utah to discuss public lands issues.
The House railroaded HCR11 through earlier this week. Representatives violated their own rules by using the House Rules Committee as a standing committee to hear the resolution, but House Republicans voted to move forward anyway and passed the bill to the Senate on Tuesday.
The bill is set to be heard in the Senate Natural Resources on Thursday afternoon. If the bill passes out of committee, as expected, then Senators would have to suspend their rules on the floor on Friday morning for final passage of the bill in order to send it to the Governor.
While Congress has reduced the size of national monument designations in the past, a president has never completely reversed a monument established by another president. Rep. Rob Bishop has argued that President Trump would be able to undo Bears Ears and even could go as far as rolling back the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument established by President Bill Clinton. |
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LAHORE-Ailing former Pakistan wicketkeeper batsman and Test captain Imtiaz Ahmad has been hospitalised and was shifted to ICU on Monday afternoon.
Imtiaz’s son Zaigham informed The Nation about his illness late in the evening. Zaigham looked worried about his father’s condition but he hoped Inshallah, his father would be 89 on January 5, making him the oldest living Pakistan Test cricketer.
It may be added that Christopher Martin-Jenkins had called him the rock on which Pakistan cricket was built. His daring batting against the fastest bowlers won the hearts of millions. He had compiled many firsts including: 1st ton against the West Indies visiting side at Lawrence Gardens in November 1948; 1st triple ton by an Asian against a visiting side, 300 vs Commonwealth XI at Bombay in October 1951 and 1st wicketkeeper to hit a Test double century (vs New Zealand at Lahore, October 1955).
At age 17, he hit 138 against a powerful Australia XI (featuring Lindsay Hassett & Keith Miller) at Lahore in 1945. His 1951 Bombay triple century before Pakistan attained Test status in 1952 gave Pakistan cricket the self-belief that it could compete at the highest level.
Imtiaz is the modest unassuming man -- a genuine national hero. What Pakistan owes to him is beyond estimation. “I was honoured to write the foreword to his book which hopefully shall see the light of day. Few had captured the imagination of so many as Imtiaz had done,” said Martin-Jenkins about Imtiaz Ahmad. |
After a brutal battering in the midterms, organized labor will conclude 2014 with the wind at its back — thanks to two out-of-the-way corners of the Obama administration whose default posture in recent memory has been paralysis.
The agencies in question are the National Labor Relations Board and the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. Both spent the past decade largely crippled by congressional obstruction, first from Democratic majorities and then from Republican ones. Now freed from those obstacles — at least for the moment — and operating under Democratic leadership impatient to make up for lost time, these agencies are promoting workers’ and unions’ rights more aggressively than Washington has witnessed in a generation. The changes seem part of a more general shift for the Obama administration — extending diplomatic recognition to Cuba being another — toward more progressive policies as it heads into its final two years.
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The NLRB, the main source of the action, operates independent of any direct White House influence, but President Barack Obama nominates three of its five board members, as well as its general counsel. In a chain of end-of-the-year rulemakings, filings and decisions, the NLRB is exercising more muscle on labor’s behalf than Obama achieved during his previous six years in office.
On Friday, NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin, following through on a policy shift he announced in July, issued a consolidated complaint against McDonald’s. For the first time, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based corporation is being held jointly responsible for alleged labor-law violations committed by its franchisees — a clear victory for McDonald’s food workers and for the Service Employees International Union, which for more than two years has organized protests on their behalf.
The McDonald’s filing prompted swift cries of outrage from the business lobby. “Today’s action is just another in a line of decisions and initiatives by the board within the last two weeks that blatantly advance the union agenda,” said Randy Johnson, senior vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The other decisions irking Johnson include a final rule issued Dec. 12 speeding up union elections that, according to labor groups, will deprive management of certain delay tactics it’s commonly used to keep unions out. Business groups have tagged it an “ ambush election” regulation that will deny workers the opportunity to educate themselves properly before they vote on whether their workplace should affiliate with a union.
The day before, an NLRB decision ruled that employers could no longer prevent organizers from using company email in off-hours to campaign on behalf of unionization. Labor groups touted this as a victory for organizing, while business groups deplored it as compromising companies’ free speech and property rights. And on Dec. 15, the NLRB ruled that it would impose a more rigorous standard in approving arbitration awards — another clear win for labor, since employment contracts often require workers to arbitrate any disputes with management.
“They work really hard,” said Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America. “They take pretty seriously the preamble,” Cohen added, referring to the opening words of the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, which task the NLRB with “encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining.”
Meanwhile, over at the Labor Department, the Wage and Hour Division’s collection of back pay has risen by more than a third under Obama, and man-hours dedicated to enforcement are up by half. A misclassification initiative was launched in response to the 2010 finding by Vice President Joe Biden’s Task Force on the Middle Class that 10 percent to 30 percent of all workers are considered independent contractors to avoid providing benefits and protections required under federal law, even though the workers met the legal definition of employees.
Much of the impetus for these changes has come from David Weil, a Boston University economist who — first as a consultant to Wage and Hour (initially hired under President George W. Bush) and, since May, Wage and Hour administrator — pressed the division to target enforcement efforts on industry sectors where wage theft is most common: restaurants, hotels, construction, janitorial services, agriculture, retail and manufacturing. Now businesses are bracing themselves for a proposed rule due early next year that is expected to at least partly reverse a long-term decline in the percentage of U.S. workers to whom employers must pay time-and-a-half when they work more than 40 hours a week.
The new activism of the Wage and Hour Division and especially the NLRB may well turn out to be fleeting. Both agencies benefited from a Senate filibuster rule change enacted late last year — partly in response to union pressure — that ended filibusters against most executive branch nominees. Weil, whose nomination the International Franchise Association termed “ irresponsible and reckless,” was confirmed on a 51-42 party-line vote, and therefore couldn’t have taken office without the change. Weil became the first non-acting Wage and Hour administrator at the Labor Department in 10 years. Before that, confirming a permanent administrator was impossible, either because Senate Democrats deemed Bush’s choices too lenient on business or because Senate Republicans deemed Obama’s choices too strict.
The same dynamic hobbled the NLRB under Bush and Obama, with the added difficulty that during both administrations Senate partisans were able to deprive the NLRB of a three-person quorum. An attempted end run by Obama through recess appointments was frustrated when the courts challenged their constitutionality, culminating in June’s Supreme Court decision in Noel Canning v. NLRB. The filibuster rule change cleared the path for a five-person board with no Democratic appointments due to expire until summer 2016. The incoming GOP Senate majority, however, can be expected to attach appropriations riders to undo the NLRB’s more controversial actions, and quite possibly any overtime rule proposed by Wage and Hour. There will surely be court challenges as well.
Organized labor’s response to all these favorable developments has been somewhat muted. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka termed the NLRB’s election rule “modest but important,” and Mary Kay Henry, president of the SEIU, said much the same. This may be strategic, lest labor inflame its Republican opponents in Congress. Partly, though, it reflects the certainty that any pro-labor action taken by the Obama administration will be challenged immediately in court and — even if it ultimately takes effect — won’t likely do so for several years.
In addition, the NLRB is in practice a weak enforcer. By statute it may not impose fines, or punitive or compensatory damages, on businesses (or unions) it finds to be in violation. It may only order reinstatement of dismissed or demoted employees and require payment of back wages. |
by Vito Rispo
“M.J. was introduced as the greatest player ever and he’s still standing there trying to settle scores,” one Hall of Famer said privately
In the lead-up to and in the wake of Michael Jordan’s big Hall of Fame induction weekend and the (disturbingly petty) speech he gave during it, Nike has been pushing these “Leroy Smith” viral videos. Question is, Who is Leroy Smith?
Check it, Savvyites:
Harvest Leroy Smith is the reason Michael Jordan had to play JV throughout his sophomore year of high school. He’s the man who beat out MJ for the last spot on the Laney High School varsity basketball team, and now he’s an internet meme with Charlie Murphy’s face.
Jordan says getting cut from the varsity high school team was a major turning point in his life, so much so, he even invited the man who got his spot, Leroy Smith, to his Hall of Fame induction. Looks like MJ’s obsessed.
During his speech (which, like I said, is doused with petty whines and weird ramblings) he makes Smith out to be just some goon who played high school ball and only made the team over MJ because some cosmic architect was trying to shape his competitive nature. What he doesn’t mention is that Smith was at least good enough to play ball at UNC-Charlotte, and then overseas in various minor leagues before he decided to quit and settle in with a sales job, get married, and have kids like a regular human being.
However, when Jordan mentioned his version of the Smith story to Nike executives, they created an ad campaign based around a washed up “man who claims to have motivated Michael Jordan”. Granted, it really screws with the image of the real Leroy Smith, but it is effing hilarious. Strangely, I don’t see any plugs for Nike anywhere in these videos. Maybe this is part of Nike’s anti-advertising thang. Whatever it is, they’re really pushing it, there are 15+ videos on the Youtube.com account and there’s even an NBA.com interview with the fake Smith.
So check it, here’s the complete collection:
Leroy Smiths Hall of Fame Petition
News Stories: Leroy Smith Exposed (1/4)
News Stories: In the Recording Studio with Leroy Smith (2/4)
News Stories: Motivation in Action with Leroy Smith (3/4)
News Stories: Behind the Scenes with Leroy Smith (4/4)
Leroy Smith’s ‘My Gift to the Game’ music video
Leroy Smith message for Peter R Casey
Leroy Smith’s 2-on-2 Hall of Fame Challenge
GetYourBasketballOn: Shuffle & Sweat
GetYourBasketballOn: The Mind Maze
GetYourBasketballOn: The Blind Mantis
GetYourBasketballOn: Giant Target Drill
Dragon Attack Drill
ABC Focus Drill
Welcome to Leroy Smith’s Website
via GetYourBasketballOn.com |
They are very proud of their new Olympic Park home at West Ham. And you can understand why. Representatives of the media were shown round this week by the vice-chairman Karren Brady, who pointed out the new roof, the new seats, the swanky loveliness of it all. There’s more to come, too, further improvements to be made after the Rugby World Cup has been played there. This, we are told, is no ordinary stadium. This is to become one of world football’s leading event destinations.
Yet still an odour hangs around the place. Followers of Leyton Orient are not alone in wondering how it is that a member of the wealthiest league in world sport ended up with a public subsidy to facilitate a move to new premises. A dozen other football clubs have written to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport asking for clarification about the process by which a business with an income of more than £100 million a year from domestic television rights alone is being paid from the collective pocket to occupy this spectacular building.
In response to criticism Brady insists that no one else was going to take on the stadium, and that, without West Ham’s involvement it would have fossilised into a white elephant, not so much an Olympic legacy as a lingering financial curse. Which may well be true. Yet the process of delivery remains shrouded in murk. Exactly how much was paid by whom remains a matter of conjecture. This may well be a glorious addition to the homes of football, but a little bit of transparency would not have gone amiss, to enable us all to consider whether it has been an appropriate way to spend public money.
Indeed, if Brady and West Ham feel beleaguered about the criticism heading in their direction, they should pay heed to what is happening on the other side of London. There, AFC Wimbledon are in the early stages of moving home. And so far, they are doing what West Ham didn’t: they have kept every step open to scrutiny.
A place of residence is central to the history of AFC. After all, they came into being because Wimbledon’s previous home was sold from beneath their feet, and their spot in the league pinched by Milton Keynes. For the decade since their inauguration, the club has been seeking to move back to the London Borough of Merton. And finally it looks as though the move may happen. A proposal to rebuild the greyhound stadium just down Plough Lane from where the old operation used to reside is under way.
But like all moves, this one has its complications. Not being part of the football elite, AFC will have to fund their relocation almost entirely from their own resources. Provided they get planning permission for a new ground, before they can even begin to redevelop the dog-racing track, AFC need the cash from selling their current home at Kingsmeadow. Unwilling for the place to be turned into a supermarket, like the old Plough Lane, they are delighted to have found a buyer who wants to maintain it as a football ground. Step forward Chelsea FC, who want Kingsmeadow as a home for their blossoming Ladies’ side.
If it seems an ideal solution, it is not one without jeopardy. AFC need to sell to generate the funds required to start building. They have agreed with Chelsea that they will become tenants during construction (and good luck to the fixtures computer on that one, working out a schedule for the Ladies, AFC and Kingstonian, the other club that use the ground). The risk inherent in this is that if the new stadium fails to materialise, AFC will be without their own ground. And we know what happened last time Wimbledon sold their home without having first secured a new one.
But rather than keeping all this under wraps, AFC’s constitution demands that members express their opinion through a ballot. A vote on whether the sale should proceed will be held next month. The sale cannot do so unless the membership approves.
What Wimbledon have done throughout all this is maintain their core principle: this is a fans’ club and the fans need to be kept informed. That means transparency. If only West Ham had applied such rigour to their relocation, there could have been no suspicion, no doubt, no lingering whiff of stitch-up. Transparency, clarity and democracy, though. On second thoughts this is a Premier League football club we are talking about, frankly it was never going to happen. |
Latest Twist On DRM Of Physical Products: Machines Locked Down By Geolocation
from the and-you-thought-you-owned-it dept
Despite overwhelming evidence that the public hates DRM, companies persist in coming up with new ways to impose it in an effort to control how their products are used. Here's the latest twist, pointed out to us by @dozykraut: On Practical Machinist, there's a fascinating thread about the manufacturer's lockdown on a high-priced, high-end Mori Seiki NV5000 A/40 CNC [computer numerical control] mill. The person who started the thread owns the machine outright, but has discovered that if he moves it at all, a GPS and gyro sensor package in the machine automatically shuts it down and will not allow it to restart until they receive a manufacturer's unlock code. As the Boing Boing article quoted above explains, this seems to be a requirement of the US government, and is designed to prevent machines being sent to Iran in violation of the embargo placed on that country. But of course, the ramifications are much wider: now these machines can't be moved at all without the manufacturer's knowledge and consent, a situation that the manufacturers have turned into a business-opportunity by using the technology to assist in repossessing machines from delinquent lease-payers -- and requiring permission for privilege of deciding where to place their key capital assets. What's particularly troubling is that the cost of adding GPS capabilities is already low, and will inevitably become lower. That raises the possibility of a wider range of devices being locked down by geolocation -- and of their owners' rights being eroded down even more.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Filed Under: cnc machines, drm, geolcations, physical drm |
The driver who ploughed into a Bastille Day crowd in Nice killing 80 was a 31-year-old resident born in Tunisia, French media have claimed.
The man, who has not been named, was a resident of the French Riviera city, local newspaper Nice-Matin reports citing unidentified sources.
A police source told AFP his identity and place of residence were confirmed by papers found in the truck.
French counter-terrorism investigators have not officially confirmed the identity of the driver who was shot dead after emerging from the truck with a gun and opening fire on police.
A source close to the investigation said an "inactive" grenade and "several fake rifles" were found inside the truck, which came to a halt on the beachfront promenade with holes in its windshield and its radiator destroyed.
Witnesses say the driver deliberately steered into the crowd walking home from a fireworks display, zig-zagging the 25-tonne unmarked truck for maximum devastation.
Nice mayor Christian Estrosi described the attack as “the worst drama in the history of Nice”.
He said the truck was being driven by an individual who “appeared to have completely premeditated behaviour”.
"At the moment that he was shot dead by police, he had fired several times," he added.
A photograph showed the front of the truck riddled with bullet holes and badly damaged, with burst tyres.
US President Barack Obama has condemned "what appears to be a horrific terrorist attack", although no group had claimed responsibility for the incident.
In addition to those killed, more than 100 people have been injured, including three Australians, with reports at least 18 have been listed as critical. Photos from the scene show bodies strewn over the road and blood on the ground.
One woman told France Info she and others had fled in terror: "The lorry came zig-zagging along the street. We ran into a hotel and hid in the toilets with lots of people."
Another woman told the station she was sheltering in a restaurant on the promenade with some 200 other people, where things had calmed down about two hours after the incident.
It is eight months and a day since the co-ordinated Paris terror attacks, which were conducted by an ISIL-linked terror cell based in Belgium.
In Nice, counter-terrorism experts have taken over the investigation and US president Barack Obama labelled the massacre a “horrific terrorist attack”.
However it is not yet known who is behind the attack with ISIL so far not claiming responsibility.
The group has taken up to two days to confirm its involvement in past western terror attacks, the New York Times reports.
The possibility remains the driver was inspired by Islamic State while not being directly linked to the terror group.
ISIL has previously called for terror attacks to be conducted by sympathisers unable to join the fight in Syria using vehicles as deadly weapons at home.
In a 2010 article in ISIL’s English-language ‘Inspire’ magazine, jihadis were encouraged to use “pick-up trucks as a mowing machine”.
“Not to mow grass but mow down the enemies of Allah,” the magazine article said.
A September 2014 video directly appealed to French-speaking jihadis to “operate within France” using vehicles to kill dozens in a crowd.
“If you are unable to come to Syria or Iraq, then pledge allegiance in your place — pledge allegiance in France,” a French ISIL member says in the video.
“There are weapons and cars available and targets ready to be hit. … Kill them and spit in their faces and run over them with your cars.”
© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2019 |
He's just not interested in public charitable offerings, but maybe that's okay. Jobs has given back to society in other ways, some, including Sorkin, argue. "Before writing this column, I had reservations about even raising the issue... because of the enormous positive impact his products have had by improving the lives of millions of people through technology." Instead of spreading his energies too thin, Jobs concentrated on the business. "He clearly didn’t have the time." Mark Vermilion, whom Jobs hired away to run his short lived Steven P. Jobs foundation, told Sorkin.
But just because Apple under Jobs's direction made some really good-looking devices, doesn't necessarily mean the company's off the hook, notes The Chronicle of Philanthropy 's Vincent Stehle. "Apple's defenders--and they are legion--will argue that the company’s greatest contribution to society is to provide tools that spark creative expression and make it easier for people and organizations of all kinds to spread ideas.... But other technology companies have found ways to promote innovation and help nonprofits." And in-fact the Sydney Morning Herald's Julian Lee thinks Jobs hides behinds his creations. "Yet, once the hyperbole is stripped away, it may be that he was merely the man who made us fall in love with pretty gadgets, and made Apple shareholders immensely rich in the process."
Of course, Jobs might give anonymously, points out Sorkin. "There has long been speculation that an anonymous $150 million donation to the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of California, San Francisco may have come from Mr. Jobs." And his wife sits on boards of Teach for America and the New Schools Venture Fund, to which Jobs and his wife probably donate, "though neither she nor her husband are listed among its big donors."
But shouldn't he use his power to promote charitable acts? At the end of the day, he's not using his legacy for good, argues Computer World's Preston Gralla. "The fact remains that as of now, when it comes to helping others using his vast fortune, Jobs rates an F. And that's important, because there are more meaningful things in life than only building a thriving business, or even achieving a technological breakthrough."
But maybe all that will change as he ages. Warren Buffet didn't forgo his fortunes until he turned 75, reports Sorkin. And, as Daily Intel mentions, he might have some more time on his hands. "Now, of course, Jobs no longer has Apple to focus on, and it's possible he might turn to working on a legacy of a different sort."
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com. |
When institutional investors put money into companies backed by venture capital, they typically end up owning a type of stock called preferred shares. Now, institutional investors are also becoming owners of a different class of start-up stock: common shares.
The competition among investors to get into hot start-ups has been so fierce that many hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds and others have been unable to participate when the up-and-coming companies sold preferred shares, a kind of stock that generally comes with many protections.
So to make sure they got a stake in private companies like Palantir Technologies, Dropbox and One Kings Lane, the institutional investors instead began buying common stock — generally owned by employees of start-ups — often from workers directly or from platforms that sell employee shares.
In doing so, the investors chose to forgo the protections that come with preferred shares. Common stock usually comes with no guarantees and is paid out only after the preferred shareholders get their money.
The trend has gained steam in recent years. Firms that buy employee shares, like Equidate and EquityZen, have proliferated in the past few years, competing with established firms like VSL Partners and Millennium Technology Value Partners. These firms have collected employee equity from scores of start-ups including Airbnb, Spotify, Pinterest, Dropbox and Palantir, according to their websites. In some cases, they hold the shares in their own funds, and in others they act as brokers who get the stock to hedge funds, family offices and investment firms in Asia and the Middle East.
The spreading of common stock may have some unintended consequences, especially as the air begins to come out of the Silicon Valley boom and some companies get sold for modest amounts of money. For one, institutional investors who own common stock could take home much less than other investors in the same company who have preferred shares. That gap, in turn, could lead to more litigation between investors.
The gulf between what preferred and common shareholders are paid has already led to an increase in shareholder versus shareholder litigation over the past two years, said Patrick Gibbs, a partner at the law firm Latham & Watkins in Menlo Park, Calif., without providing examples.
In most cases, preferred shareholders walk away with rewards, or at least with much of their money back. For common stockholders, however, companies must sell for a relatively high price or have a successful public offering for common stock to be worth much of anything, said Nizar Tarhuni, an analyst at the data company PitchBook.
The interests of the common and preferred shareholders are often not aligned, especially when investors who hold preferred stock want to get their money out, said Dennis White, a partner at the law firm Verrill Dana.
“Preferred shareholders have rights that let them time a sale of a company, even if it’s not at a time when they can get a deal done that pays common shareholders, too,” he said.
Professional investors owning more common stock puts a new twist on this dynamic, said James Hutchinson, at law firm Goodwin Procter. “It’s a totally new world when sophisticated, well-heeled investors own a lot of common stock,” he said. “Individuals often don’t sue, but institutions budget for litigation. They are more motivated to sue.”
That happened in the case of Good Technology, a mobile-security company that was sold to mobile software and device maker BlackBerry for $425 million in September, far less than its last private valuation of $1.1 billion. Employees and other common shareholders, including family offices and institutional investors, received about 44 cents a share. The venture investors on the board got more than $3 a share.
Employees have not sued Good, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif. But Good’s former chief executive Brian Bogosian, a significant shareholder of common stock, teamed up with two venture firms, Harvest Growth Capital and Saturn Partners, which both acquired common stock, to sue most of the board in October. In their complaint, the plaintiffs said that they want the suit to be recognized as a class action.
Mr. Bogosian and the funds allege that Good’s board breached its fiduciary duty by only considering the needs of preferred shareholders when doing the deal with BlackBerry. Good, they alleged, was sold to BlackBerry because the venture investors chose to get the protections they knew they would reap in a sale instead of the uncertainty of raising more money or going public and seeing their stock potentially lose value.
Latham & Watkins’ Mr. Gibbs is representing Good’s board and Good’s then-chief executive, Christy Wyatt, in the case. In a legal filing, he called the suit a case of “Monday morning quarterbacking.”
BlackBerry did not respond to requests for comment. Randall Baron, an attorney who is representing the plaintiffs, said: “The decision to sell to BlackBerry for woefully inadequate consideration was clearly self-interested” on the part of the board and management.
Shareholder versus shareholder suits in tech start-ups have occurred in the past. In the aftermath of the late 1990s dot-com boom, common shareholders sued preferred stockholders, said Mr. White.
In 2005, a suit was also brought by common shareholders against directors of a translation software company called Trados, he said. In that case, the common shareholders got nothing and the preferred shareholders got most of the money from a sale. Common shareholders lost the Trados case largely because the judge ruled that the company wasn’t worth enough in the end for a larger payout. But Mr. White said the case was a wake-up call for that generation of dealmakers.
“It raises the question about where your duties lie if you’re a venture capitalist and a director,” Mr. White said. “Your duty is to represent all shareholders, and that can conflict with your duty to the folks who invested in your fund. This is an area where inside investors have to tread carefully.” |
The Cisco Enhanced EtherSwitch Service Modules seen above, expands the router’s capabilities by integrating Layer 2 and Layer 3 switching feature sets identical to those found in the Cisco Catalyst 3560-E and Catalyst 2960 Series Switches.
The new Cisco Enhanced EtherSwitch Service Modules are the first modules to take advantage of the increased capabilities on the Cisco 3900 and 2900 Series Integrated Services Routers. Additionally, these service modules enable Cisco’s industry-leading power initiatives, Cisco EnergyWise®, Cisco Enhanced Power over Ethernet (ePoE), and per-port PoE power monitoring-all of which enhance the ability of the branch office to scale to next-generation requirements and still meet important initiatives for IT teams to operate a power efficient network.
Furthermore, the Cisco Enhanced EtherSwitch Service Modules not only perform local line-rate switching and routing but also support direct service module-to-service module communication through the Integrated Services Router Generation 2 multigigabit fabric (MGF) which separates LAN traffic from WAN resources.
Below, you have a hands on demonstration how to add, remove or replace a module in the new Cisco 2900 chassis and what to is recommended to do or avoid during this operations. This is nothing new for the engineers that have to change modules everyday in chassis like 6500 or 7600 platform, but may be very useful for the beginners.
Enjoy!
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Overcrowded, dirty and awash with sewage… it’s hardly surprising that the bubonic plague flourished in the crowded streets of London. Over 15% of London’s population was wiped out between 1665 and 1666 alone, or some 100,000 people in the space of two years. But where did all these bodies go?
The answer: in tens, if not hundreds of plague pits scattered across the city and the surrounding countryside. The majority of these sites were originally in the grounds of churches, but as the body count grew and the graveyards became overcharged with dead, then dedicated pits were hastily constructed around the fields surrounding London.
Unfortunately there is very little evidence about the exact location of these plague pits. Instead, to construct the map below we have had to use a variety of sources including Peter Ackroyd’s London: The Biography, Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, Basil Holmes’ The London Burial Grounds: Notes on Their History From the Earliest Times to the Present Day, the internet, as well as help from our social media channels!
The map below is an ongoing project and we’re always in search of new sites, so if you know of any omissions then please let us know by using the contact form at the bottom of this page.
St Paul's Church, Shadwell Confirmed use as one of the five plague pits located in Stepney, used between 1664 - 1666. Christchurch Gardens, Westminster Established in 1640 to provide additional burial space for nearby St Margaret's, part of the site was designated as a plague pit in 1665 and is now a public garden. Also buried here is the Crown jewels thief, Colonel Thomas Blood, although he died somewhat later in 1680. Stepney Mount Although the specific location of the Stepney Mount pest fields are unsure, it is thought that they were in the area surrounding St Philip's church. If true, this would have been one of the largest plague pits in London and would have covered acres of grounds. Vincent Square, Westminster Owned by Westminster School, at least some of these playing fields are located above a former plague pit called Tothill Fields. The rest of the pits are situated underneath nearby government buildings. Pesthouse Close / Marshall Street Leisure Centre, Soho As its name suggests, this area was once home to a pest-house where infected or sick people would have been taken to be quarantined and studied. Although first built in 1593, the pest-house played a vital role in attempting to quarantine the outbreak in 1665. Bodies were then buried at an adjoining common cemetery between Poland Street and Marshall Street. Holywell Mount, 38 Scrutton Street, Shoreditch A burial ground for centuries, Holywell Mount was used heavily during the 1664 - 1666 outbreak of the Great Plague. There is still an open area which can be seen from 38 Scrutton Street, although the rest of the site has now been built over. The picture below is of Holywell Mount in 1665 and comes with the enscription 'View of the manner of burying the dead bodies at Holy-well mount during the dreadful Plague in 1665'. St Dunstan's, Stepney During the Great Plague, the church of St Dunstan's donated a large amount of its lands for interring those who succumbed to the outbreak. These plague pits are now beneath the dog walking area around the church. Seward Street / Mount Mills, between Shoreditch and Finsbury Once the site of St. Bartholomew's Hospital Ground, the area was used as a large plague pit between 1664 - 1666. Reputedly a rather shallow grave, residential buildings on top of the site have only recently been constructed. From Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year: 'A piece of ground beyond Goswell Street, near Mount Mill... abundance were buried promiscuously from the parishes of Aldersgate, Clerkenwell and even out of the city.' Thousands of bodies are thought to lie here.' St John's Church, Scandrett Street Although the majority of St John's church was destroyed by WW2 bombs, the site of the original 1665 plague pit can still be seen directly opposite from the church's remains. Knightsbridge Green, Knightsbridge A small plague pit dating from around 1664, thought to have been used as a burial ground for those who died at the nearby Knightsbridge lazarhouse (leper colony), (once part of the Westminster Abbey estate).
Above: A plague doctor wearing his 'beak mask'. This mask would have been filled with lavender or other strong smelling substances which were thought to protect him from disease.
Gower's Walk Pest Field, near Aldgate East The burial site for thousands of plague victims, now occupied by warehouse apartment conversions. Aldgate Underground Station As described by Daniel Defoe in his book, A Journal of the Plague Year. 'A terrible pit it was, and I could not resist my curiosity to go and see it. As near as I may judge, it was about forty feet in length, and about fifteen or sixteen feet broad, and at the time I first looked at it, about nine feet deep; but it was said they dug it near twenty feet deep afterwards in one part of it, till they could go no deeper for the water; for they had, it seems, dug several large pits before this. For though the plague was long a-coming to our parish, yet, when it did come, there was no parish in or about London where it raged with such violence as in the two parishes of Aldgate and Whitechappel.' Sainsbury's, Whitechapel The purported location of a 17th century plague pit containing human burials. St-Giles-in-the-Fields The church's own website states that over a thousand people were buried in pits in St Giles graveyard. Golden Square, Soho This delightful little square is situated in the centre of Soho and has a secret history as a 17th century plague pit. As Lord Macaulay wrote in 1685: '[it was] a field not to be passed without a shudder by any Londoner of that age. There, as in a place far from the haunts of men, had been dug, twenty years before, when the great plague was raging, a pit into which the dead carts had nightly shot corpses by scores. It was popularly believed that the earth was deeply tainted with infection, and could not be disturbed without imminent risk to human life.' Charterhouse Square, Farringdon The largest mass grave in London during the Black Death. It is thought that around 50,000 bodies are buried here. The pit was unearthed during Crossrail building work in March 2013 when the Museum of London were brought in to excavate and study the remains. All Saints Churchyard, Isleworth It is reported that 149 victims of the Great Plague were buried here in 1665. 37-39 Artillery Lane, Bishopsgate, City of London The site of a 14th and 15th century plague pit, although excavations in the 1970's also uncovered a large Roman cemetery which was backfilled in the mid 2nd century. Vinegar Alley, Walthamstow Named after the huge amounts of vinegar that were used around the plague pit in an attempt to contain the spread of the disease in 1665. Cross Bones Graveyard, Southwark (pictured below) Better known as an unconsecrated memorial to the thousands of prostitutes who lived, worked and died in Southwark, there is also evidence to suggest that Cross Bones was used as a plague pit. Specifically, the lease for Cross Bones passed to the churchwardens of St Saviour's parish in 1665 during the height of the Great Plague.
Upper Street, Angel A small triangular piece of land (now known as Islington Green) used as a plague pit in the 17th century. Blackheath Contrary to popular legend, the name 'Blackheath' is in no way related to the Black Death! However, it is thought that this area was used to the disposal of plague victims during both the Black Death in the 14th century and the Great Plague in the 17th century. Clay Ponds, Brentford Submitted by @JaneWriting1 on Twitter. A massive and ancient burial site which was partially excavated in the 1830's. It is likely that at least some of this site was used as a plague pit certainly in the 17th century and possibly in the 14th century. Green Park Submitted by @halomanuk on Twitter. Discovered in the 1960s during the construction of the Victoria Line. Excavated bones dated back to the 17th century, suggesting that this was a plague pit. Bakerloo Line, London Depot, near Elephant & Castle At the south end of the depot lie two tunnels; one leads to Elephant and Castle whilst the other is a dead end and acts as a runaway lane for trains that are unable to stop. Behind the walls of the this tunnel lies a plague pit. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich (unconfirmed) Frommer's 2012 guide to London reports that a giant pit lies below Greenwich's National Maritime Museum, although this is unconfirmed. Hand Alley (now New Street), Bishopsgate As confirmed by Defoe's History of Plague, where he wrote: 'The upper end of Hand Alley in Bishopsgate Street was then a green field, and was taken in particularly for Bishopgate parish, though many of the carts out of the City also brought their dead thither also...' Pitfield Street, Hoxton As its name suggests, Pitfield Street in Hoxton was once the home to a large plague pit dating from 1665 - 1666. This has been confirmed by Hackney Council, and today local residents are warned to 'keep off the grass'! Many thanks to Cory Doctorow for helping us identify the exact location of the pit, as well as an unidentified submitter who tipped us off to the site. Houndsditch (unconfirmed), City of London According to many sources, including Wikipedia, many of the office blocks towards the north western corner of Houndsditch do not occupy full plots due to a littering of plague pits in the area. What is certain is that Houndsditch was once used to dispose of dead dogs during Roman times, hence its name.
Above: A bereaved father answering the grim cry, "Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!" in 1348.
Pardon Plague Pits, The City Submitted by David Brown via email One of three plague pits arranged by Edward III, Pardon burial ground (also used for criminals and the poor) was to the North of Old Street between St John's Street and Goswell Road. This one was huge - and used for burials for many centuries. The Royal Mint, East Smithfield Submitted by David Brown via email Another one of the Black Death plague pits arranged by Edward III. This one at East Smithfield was probably the largest and has been excavated by Museum of London Archeology service. The report shows that burials were very systematic, and not at all like the plague pits associated with the Great Plague. Queen's Wood, Highgate (unconfirmed) Submitted anonymously via email It is reputed that a mass of bones from a plague pit were found here during the 19th century, although this has never been confirmed. On an unrelated note, Queen's Wood is one of the last remnants of the once massive 'Great Forest of Middlesex'. Armour House Pit, The City (unconfirmed) Submitted by Steve Aptel via email who wrote... "In the 1980s I worked in Armour House which was at the junction of St Martins LeGrand and Gresham St. We explored the sub basement and found a soil area that appeared to be bridged by the building. We were puzzled by this. Some time later we found a floor plan of the sub basement and this showed the soil area as a Plague Pit!" Shepherd's Bush Green (unconfirmed) Submitted anonymously via email It is said that planning applications for new build properties on Shepherd's Bush Common are repeatedly turned down for risk of disturbing the plague pit beneath. Gypsy Hill Plague Pit (unconfirmed) Submitted by Helen Codd via email Located just south of the roundabout connecting Dulwich Wood Park and South Croxted Road lies a reputed plague pit. We struggled to find any hard evidence to support this claim, although local history forums seemed relatively confident of its existence.
Have we missed something?
Although we've tried our hardest to list every plague pit site in London, we're almost positive that a few have slipped through our net... that's where you come in!
If you've noticed a site that we've missed, please use our contact form to let us know. |
In Sunday’s edition of The New York Times Review an article appeared titled “For the Love of Money.” It is an article written by a former Wall Street trader who had given come to see his desire from more money as an addition, a wealth addiction. After millions of dollars in salary and bonuses he wasn’t fulfilled, the money didn’t complete him. Ultimately he gave it all up, the bonuses and the high paying job to do something more with his life.
Dozens of different types of 12-step support groups — including Clutterers Anonymous and On-Line Gamers Anonymous — exist to help addicts of various types, yet there is no Wealth Addicts Anonymous. Why not? Because our culture supports and even lauds the addiction. Look at the magazine covers in any newsstand, plastered with the faces of celebrities and C.E.O.’s; the superrich are our cultural gods. I hope we all confront our part in enabling wealth addicts to exert so much influence over our country. I generally think that if one is rich and believes they have “enough,” they are not a wealth addict. On Wall Street, in my experience, that sense of “enough” is rare. The money guy doing a job he complains about for yet another year so he can add $2 million to his $20 million bank account seems like an addict.
The whole article is a call for each of us to examine our own consciences. The entire piece is a must read.
I wonder how many others are suffering with this same addiction, even if it goes unnamed. It is understandable for some one with responsibilities for a family to be concerned about money and making ends meet. Please God it would be a little easier for everyone. But when is enough, enough? When will we be comfortable? How much time and effort do we put into making sure we have enough money. Time and effort that would be better spent paying attention to our loved ones, to our God.
Even as a priest I find myself worried about money. One day as a pastor I’ll have the responsibility to balance the parish budget. I’ll have the responsibility to ask for financial assistance from the parishioners. Already now, I have been tasked with spearheading my parish’s annual diocesan Catholic Ministries Appeal. One of the top complaints of Catholics is that priests all too often ask for money. Too often it seems like thats all we do sometimes. How do we strike the balance between appropriate fundraising and not burdening our people with more demands. As numbers decline fewer people are giving more, and we as a church are tasked with doing more with less. Even with the responsibility for the financial health of a parish we must never come across as obsessed with money, as a wealth addict.
Even for me personally, I have ends to meet. As a secular (diocesan/parish) priest I did not make a vow or promise of poverty as religious order priests do. I have a bank account, I make a small salary that is complemented by stipends. My room and board is covered by my parish. It is not a lot, but certainly it is enough. And yet, I find myself worried about paying college loans, about having enough to be comfortable. But I am comfortable. I am happy. I don’t want for much. Society tells me I should want more. I should need more. In order to be happy I need to take nice vacations, and go to nice dinners and see good plays. Too often I fall for what society tells me. All too often, enough is just not enough.
I certainly didn’t become a priest to get rich. But am I happy to have just enough. Am I happy to be comfortable. Should I comfortable at all? How do I live gospel simplicity, if at all? Thats a matter for my daily examination of conscience. Lord help me to be simple. Lord, help me to be charitable. Lord help me to see that You alone are enough for me. Lord, help me to see that you alone are the source of fulfillment and joy. |
Written by Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D.
Toe walking is quite common in young children, age 3 and younger; but toe walking, especially in children 5 years and older, is often associated with neurological immaturity. Many parents and professionals are not aware of the various interventions used to treat toe walking. The following interventions are listed from least to most invasive.
Physical exercises are sometimes used to stretch out the tendon in order to reduce toe walking, but this treatment has had minimal success.
A dysfunctional vestibular system, a common problem in autism, may be responsible for toe walking. The vestibular system provides the brain with feedback regarding body motion and position. It may be possible to reduce or eliminate toe walking by providing the person with therapeutic vestibular stimulation (e.g., being swung on a glider swing).
Toe walking may be directly or indirectly related to a visual-vestibular problem. I have conducted several research studies with Melvin Kaplan, O.D. at the Center for Visual Management in Tarrytown, New York. While conducting these studies, I observed four individuals who were toe walkers. In each case, their toe walking was eliminated within seconds after the child began wearing prism lenses.
Description of program. Prism lenses displace the person’s field of vision up, down, left or right. Dr. Kaplan and other developmental optometrists have developed nonverbal assessment procedures to determine the correct direction and degree of displacement for the prism lenses. Unlike other interventions for autism, changes in attention and behavior are observable immediately after the person begins to wear the lenses. The use of prism lenses is part of a ‘vision training’ program. The program typically lasts for one year and involves wearing prism lenses and performing daily visual-motor exercises. After the program is completed, the person no longer needs to wear the prism lenses.
Casting is another intervention used to stop toe walking. This procedure involves wearing a cast to stretch out the tendon. In most cases, the cast is applied every two weeks for a total of 6 to 8 weeks. Another treatment involves surgery. Long-leg casts are then worn for six weeks and followed by night splinting for several months.
It is important for parents to learn as much as possible about treating toe walking before selecting an appropriate intervention for their child. When making a decision about any treatment, parents should take into account the treatment’s effectiveness, safety and cost. |
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Are there any mirrors in the headquarters of the Federal Reserve? If so, I think it's time for Ben Bernanke and his colleagues to look into one.
The Fed, according to a Wall Street Journal report Friday, is said to be considering a plan that would allow regulators to closely monitor and even change the pay practices at financial firms in order to make sure that these companies aren't encouraging excessive risk-taking.
Considering that the mess that we find ourselves in is partly due to big banks and insurance firms failing to recognize the many subprime warning signs in order to satisfy Wall Street's myopic focus on quarterly profits, reining in bonuses and other compensation tied to stock performance may not sound like a bad idea.
But riddle me this Bat-readers: Isn't it more than a tad hypocritical for the Fed to be trying to tell banks that too much risk is a bad thing?
After all, the Fed has kept its key overnight bank lending rate near 0% since December and has shown no indication that it will raise this rate anytime soon.
And the Fed has pumped trillions of dollars into the financial system through a variety of programs in order to try and get banks to loan more again. The business of lending is inherently risky. So what kind of message is the Fed trying to send here?
"It makes absolutely no sense at all. It is completely counterintuitive," said Haag Sherman, managing director with Salient Partners, an investment firm in Houston. "The government wants to impose more regulations and put shackles on compensation but in the next breath everybody is screaming about banks not lending."
It's hypocritical plain and simple. Isn't all this cheap money designed to push banks to take on more risks? The Fed wants to slap banks on the wrist for paying its employees too much because that might encourage them to get reckless. But at the same time, the Fed is tempting banks to lapse into bad habits with what may be an overly accommodative monetary policy.
This is the equivalent of your doctor telling you that he wants to approve every meal you eat for the next few months so you don't gain a lot of weight -- while handing you coupons for McDonald's and Krispy Kreme on your way out of the office.
Now of course, many big financial firms are guilty of helping to bring about the financial crisis as the promise of fantabulous bonuses undoubtedly caused them to put on blinders and ignore risk.
"There was no acknowledgment that the derivatives they were writing had a risk. The biggest issue with compensation at financial firms is that it was like paying people before the roulette wheel stopped spinning," said Barry Ritholtz, CEO and director of equity research at research firm Fusion IQ in New York.
But there is a lot of blame to go around.
Consumers got suckered into thinking that the American dream wasn't just owning a home but owning a home with as little money down as possible so they could quickly flip it and buy another one. Greedy mortgage brokers and appraisers helped indulge this.
But many believe the the root cause of the housing bubble is that interest rates were extremely low for an extended period of time. And that's mainly the Fed's fault. During the 2001 recession, the Fed slashed interest rates, bringing them down to 1% by June 2003. And it held them at 1% for a year.
With that in mind, why should the Fed have the power to dictate compensation packages -- especially since it may be in the process of making the same mistake all over again by signaling it's going to keep rates at zero for a while.
"The Fed was a major cause of this downturn. So why reward them with more authority? And now they're saying don't take risks but by the way, here's a whole lot of easy money," Ritholtz said.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that bank CEOs, other senior executives and traders should be rewarded for failure. And if the government has a major stake in a financial institution, I think regulators should be more active in protecting the interest of taxpayers.
I have no problem if the government wanted to, for example, tell new AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) CEO Robert Benmosche that he can't make as much as he did when he ran MetLife (MET, Fortune 500) or use AIG's corporate jet for personal purposes. (What was Benmosche thinking? Did all the stories about AIG bonus rage not reach his villa in Croatia? Thank heavens the board turned him down.)
Regulators should also be allowed to look more closely at and crack down on excessive compensation at the likes of Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) as long as they remain tethered to TARP. That's the price these institutions pay for needing what the government euphemistically describes as "exceptional assistance," and you and I would call a bailout.
But the Fed's plan is supposedly going to apply to the more than 5,000 banks that it regulates. That's not fair to the many banks that didn't screw up and were in a strong enough financial position to turn down the government's "rescue" plan.
Plus, this looks like more of a power grab by the Fed than anything else. The Fed appears to want to run an end-around on Congress and avoid legislative scrutiny.
Ritholtz argued that other agencies, such as the SEC and FDIC, should be the ones that have more authority over scrutinizing compensation packages at banks. He thinks the Fed should stick to its primary role as a monetary policy maker.
Sherman goes one step further. He doesn't think the government should have any role in dictating pay. He said that should be up to investors in the financial firms.
"To me, the most sensible thing is to give shareholders more say and give them more transparency about compensation in proxy statements," he said.
Of course, it's not that simple. And it's actually going to take action from Washington to give shareholders that power. The House passed a so-called "say on pay" bill earlier this summer but the Senate has yet to vote on its own version.
Hopefully, shareholders will have more of a say soon. They deserve it more than the Fed.
Talkback: Should the Fed or other government agencies have the power to limit executive compensation? Share your comments below. |
Donald Trump is so confident about his chances of winning New Hampshire, he told voters there Monday night: “I demand the election be today.”
And then, after spending several minutes citing multiple polls showing him leading the Republican presidential race, he took aim at Chris Christie, who remains several points behind him in New Hampshire but is on more of an upswing there than any other candidates after devoting almost all of his energy to campaigning in the state.
Story Continued Below
“We love New Hampshire, but he shouldn’t be up here all the time,” Trump said. “He’s supposed to be running the state.”
Trump, who also lambasted the publisher of the state’s largest newspaper who endorsed Christie last month, blasted the New Jersey governor’s record, pointed to the state’s credit downgrades and alleged that Christie’s denial of involvement in the "Bridgegate" controversy is difficult to believe.
He also reminded New Hampshire of Christie’s infamous embrace of President Barack Obama in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, which came in the closing weeks of the presidential campaign and was seen by some Republicans as a political betrayal of the GOP nominee, Mitt Romney. Christie, Trump suggested, was excited to ride on the president’s helicopter.
“It was unbelievable,” he said of Christie. “He was like a little boy.”
He spent even more time bashing Joe McQuaid, publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, offering supporters a bevy of details about McQuaid's alleged courtship of Trump, including his request that Trump tweet a statement of support for including Christie on the main stage at a debate when he was falling short of the entry criteria.
“He’s Christie’s lap dog,” Trump said.
Trump, marketing himself as a tough, savvy, successful businessman, mocked McQuaid for overseeing a “dying paper” that’s seeing its pages decrease as advertising revenue dries up.
“It’s going down the tubers,” Trump said. “If you cut it down any more, you won’t be able to find it.”
But his tirade over the lost endorsement, even after Trump agreed to participate in a candidate forum organized by the newspaper, betrayed the brash businessman’s hurt feelings. “You don’t go try and hurt somebody that’s been helping you,” he said.
Trump still leads the polls in New Hampshire, tracking around 26 percent with six weeks remaining until the Feb. 9 primary.
Minutes after taking the stage, he promised supporters that the state’s prized first-in-the-nation primary status is not in jeopardy — a rebuke to Jeb Bush and Christie, both of whom have hinted to New Hampshire crowds that a Trump win in the Feb. 9 primary could prompt changes to the primary calendar.
“New Hampshire will always maintain its place if I win,” Trump said. “There’s a big movement to put you at the back of the pack.”
But his unconventional campaign threatens to blow up the conventional wisdom of what it takes to win in the Granite State. In a place known for putting presidential candidates through the rigors of a months-long policy test, Trump is still offering a string of one-liners and policy positions that are at worst simplistic and at best opaque.
“That whole heroin thing, I tell you what, we gotta get that whole thing under control,” Trump said, breezily addressing the state’s heroin epidemic.
Interspersing his ideas with references to polls showing his continued dominance, Trump bounced from one policy-related promise to another.
“We’re going to build a wall,” he said, drawing cheers. “We’re going to have a real border.”
“Oh, ISIS … we’re going to knock the hell out of them,” he said moments later.
He dismissed all his rivals as “bloodsuckers” beholden to donors and again spent time mocking Jeb Bush, even though, as Trump pointed out, Bush is polling far behind him.
“I’ve spent essentially nothing, and Bush has spent $59 million, and he’s down near the bottom with 2 or 3 percent,” Trump said.
Trump also took a few shots at Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic front-runner, but steered clear after delving into personal attacks about her marriage, something he said just Sunday was fair game after her criticism of his “penchant for sexism” in response to his statement that she got “schlonged” in the 2008 Democratic primaries.
“That’s a common word in New York, and it means to be beaten badly,” he said, recognizing the uproar over his controversial verb choice. “I won’t give the press any more fun with it.”
Trump began and ended his 67-minutes on stage by imploring his supporters to actually turn out and vote.
“Unless I win, it doesn’t mean a damn thing to me,” he said.
But, again, his grasp of the specifics was loose at best.
“It’s very important on February 8th,” he said.
The crowd, in unison, responded unprompted: “The ninth!” |
Jim Burroway
TODAY’S AGENDA:
Pride Celebrations This Weekend: Amsterdam, Netherlands; Charleston, SC; Cork, Ireland; Edgewater, MD; Hamburg, Germany; Hanoi, Vietnam; Leeds, UK; Liverpool, UK; Salem, OR; Stockholm, Sweden; Vancouver, BC.
Other Events This Weekend: Mr. Gay World, Antwerp, Belgium; World Outgames, Antwerp, Belgium; Summer Diversity Weekend, Eureka Springs, AR; Zia Regional Rodeo, Santa Fe, NM; Divers/Cité, Montréal, QC; Toronto Leather Pride, Toronto, ON.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
A Murder in Miami Reveals Homosexual Presence: 1954. It’s funny what it took in 1954 for a major metropolitan area to discover that there were gay people in their midst. I say it’s funny, but it can only be funny today, nearly sixty years later. It was certainly no laughing matter then. In the early morning hours of August 3, a young couple looking for a secluded spot along North Miami’s “lover’s lane” found the body of William T. Simpson, a 27-year-old Eastern Airlines flight attendant, lying in the middle of the roadway in a pool of blood. He had been shot on his right side, his head had severe lacerations and his right index finger had apparently been pierced by something. About 500 yards away, police found his 1950 cream-colored convertible, with the front seat spattered with blood and a .22 caliber shell on the floor. It appeared that after the assailant fled, Simpson was able to get out of the car and stagger to the road before collapsing and bleeding to death.
Five days later, police formally charged two young men, Charles W. Lawrence, 19, and Lewis Richard Killen, 20, with first degree murder. The two men didn’t just confess to the murder, they bragged about it. It turns out that they had been rolling gay men in the area for several weeks. Lawrence would hitchhike and allow himself to be “picked up” by an unsuspecting mark, and Killen would follow in a green Chevy. They would then rob the victim after he pulled over to a secluded spot. Ordinarily, they’d let the victim go, confident that he wouldn’t go to the police. Lawrence carried a gun, and for some reason this time, it was he who pulled the trigger. One former high school buddy recalled that Lawrence “had an intense hatred of homosexuals.”
In the ensuing investigation, police appeared surprised and alarmed that there were so many gay men in the area. It shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. Local papers had been reporting that Miami’s sheriff deputies and Miami Beach’s police department had conducted several bar and beach raids since the previous November, arresting gay men and charging them with “vagrancy.” When a young girl was murdered in July, police responded, illogically, with five nights of gay bar raids to “make things hot for sex perverts in Miami.” On July 18, the Miami Herald published a letter to the editor proposing a final solution to the problem: “Just execute them all.” But on the same day that Lawrence and Killen were charged, the Miami News‘s front page headline looked as though detectives had stumbled upon an entirely new discovery: “Pervert Colony Uncovered In Simpson Slaying Probe”. They obviously had a hard time understanding what local gays were telling them.
A colony of some 500 male homosexuals, congregated mostly in the near-downtown northeast section and ruled by a “queen,” was uncovered in the investigation of the murder of an Eastern Air Lines steward…. Peace Justice Edwin Lee Mason said today, “I certainly learned a lot during this investigation I never knew before. “I not only was surprised at the number of homosexuals turned up in the murder investigation but I was amazed to find out that there were distinct classes, not only based on age groups, but also on the ages of the persons with whom they liked to consort and groups based on types of perversion.” …”We learned — among other things — that Simpson was bisexual. We also learned that there was a nominal head of the colony — a queen.” Investigators, following a line of thought that possibly the murder might have been for succession of the title, and that Simpson may have been the “ruler” of what the investigators then believed to be a quite small group of homosexuals in Miami asked one man, who made no secret of his leanings: “Was Simpson the ‘queen?’ “No,” came the response. “The queen is –” Here the man named a person quite prominent in the community. “How many of you are there,” an investigator said he asked. “Twenty –Forty?” “Oh, more than that.” “A hundred?” “Make it closer to five hundred,” came the staggering reply.
Dade County’s population was around 700,000 in 1954. Yet for such a large city, tossing around a figure like five hundred, which was assuredly a significantly low-balled estimate, was nevertheless enough to throw Miami’s newspapers in a tizzy. On August 13, the News began a three-part series on homosexuality, with the first installment calling it “A Disease ‘Worse Than Alcohol’.” The following day, the News reported on “How L.A. Handles Its 150,000 Perverts”. “This thing is like cancer,” Los Angeles police chief Thad F. Brown told the News. “It keeps getting bigger and bigger each year. We process about 150 homosexuals a month who are caught in the act.” The paper suggested a solution. “The police in Los Angeles have a policy of harassment,” the paper reported. As Brown explained, “We keep a constant check on bars and restaurants where they hang out. We try to get the licenses of the places catering to them.” In the third installment of the series, the News warned about “Great Civilizations Plagued by Deviates” — Greece, Rome, and, naturally, Miami:
Police of several communities have watched with growing concern the gathering spots frequented by perverts and two departments have started all-out war against homosexuals. Miami Beach Police Chief Romeo Shepard says he will continue to harass homosexuals in Miami Beach. “I simply want them to get out of town,” said Shepard. Sheriff Tom Kelly, who staged a big raid on homosexual gathering spots last Saturday, made a similar statement. “I will keep on harassing the homosexuals until they understand they’re not wanted in Dade County,” said Kelly. The Miami police department has shown a reluctance to bother perverts. “If I ran all of the homosexuals out of town, members of some of the best families would lead the parade,” Police Chief Walter Headley once said.
A local attorney, E.F.P. Brigham, proposed legislation to deal with the problem:
If a sexual deviate is accused of molesting a child or any person for that matter, and manages to beat the charge in court, the state will still have the right to order a mental examination for the offender. If the person is found to be a sexual psychopath (and that does not necessarily mean insane) the state will then have the right to institute civil action to put that person in an asylum for the rest of his or her life or until such time as a cure can be effected.
Miami was in a full-blown panic over the presence of gays in their midsts, a panic which would soon reach the statehouse in Tallahassee where it would rage well into the next decade. House speaker Ted David called for stronger criminal penalties for “confirmed sexual deviants… to meet the needs of Florida’s big cities.” Miami’s mayor, Abe Aronovitz, would make anti-gay campaigns a centerpiece of his administration.
And what about Killen and Lawrence, the two men who were charged with first degree murder? After claiming that they killed Simpson because he made sexual advances toward Lawrence, they were convicted of manslaughter in November and sentenced to twenty years in prison.
Michael Hardwick Arrested: 1982. It all started in July, when Michael Hardwick threw a beer bottle into a trash can outside of an Atlanta gay bar. A police officer cited him for public drinking. He went the courthouse, paid the $50 fine, and thought nothing more of it. For some reason, his payment wasn’t recorded correctly, and when his court date came and went, a warrant was issued for his arrest. On August 3, a police officer went to Hardwick’s apparent to serve the warrant. The police officer entered the apartment (accounts differ on how he got in), and discovered Hardwick and another man engaged in oral sex, which Georgia defined as “sodomy” under the law. The officer announced that they two were under arrest. Hardwick shot back, “What are you doing in my bedroom?”
The arrest was humiliating for the two men. Hardwick recalled that the police officer brought them to the police station, he loudly made sure everyone there knew that he had arrested them for “cocksucking,” and that they should be able to find plenty of what they were looking for in Atlanta’s city jails. Hardwick posted bail within the hour, but was detained for twelve hours near other criminals who had been told why he was there. Hardwick had never fought for gay rights before, but that moment changed him. “I realized that if there was anything I could do, even if it was just laying the foundation to change this horrendous law, that I would feel pretty bad about myself if I just walked away from it.”
After the local district attorney decided not to press charges, Hardwick decided to sue Georgia’s Attorney General Michael Bowers in federal court to overturn the state’s sodomy law. The ACLU agreed to take the case on Hardwick’s behalf. The case ultimately made it to the Supreme Court which, in a surprising move, upheld Georgia’s sodomy law. Surprising because the Court had built a solid case history upholding the rights to privacy for heterosexuals to engage in private, non-procreative, non-marital sexual behavior in the privacy of their bedrooms — under exactly the same terms as Hardwick’s case. But for gay people, that same right to privacy simply vanished. It wouldn’t be until 2003, when the Supreme Court would finally admit that Bowers v. Hardwick “was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today,” that sodomy laws were overturned nationwide in Lawrence v. Texas.
[Source: Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price. Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. the Supreme Court (New York: Basic Books, 2001). 277-309.]
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Tower Hamlets mayor Lutfur Rahman and his supporters “smeared” a Labour rival as a “racist” in during an election battle, it was claimed today.
John Biggs, the defeated Labour candidate for directly-elected mayor, made the accusation at the High Court in London on the second day of a rare trial over alleged electoral fraud.
Mr Rahman is accused of winning last year’s ballot through “intimidation and corruption”. He denies the claim, calling it cynical and politically motivated.
Today the court heard Mr Biggs was allegedly branded racist for “campaigning against the creation of Banglatown” — the renaming of a local council ward in the east London borough. In a written statement, Mr Biggs said he was also compared with British Union of Fascists founder Oswald Mosley.
Mr Rahman, Britain’s first elected Muslim mayor, ran as an independent and beat Mr Biggs. But he is accused of orchestrating a “den of iniquity” and “subverting democracy” in order to be re-elected.
Residents Andrew Erlam, Debbie Simone, Azmal Hussein and Angela Moffat are petitioning for the election to be re-run and have gathered testimonies from 100 witnesses to bring the claim. It is alleged, “ghost voters” were created, media outlets were “bribed” with grants, and voters were intimidated or harassed into supporting Mr Rahman, with Muslim voters told it was “un-Islamic” not to support him.
Today Mr Biggs said he did not believe Mr Rahman was an “extremist” and had no problems with him personally.
But he affirmed his statement which alleged: “unfounded allegations made during and in the run-up to the recent election campaign, by Lutfur Rahman and various of his supporters including his election agent Alibor Choudhury, that I was a racist.
“These statements were deliberately made, in the knowledge that they were false, in order to polarise opinion and to attempt to influence the election result. The closeness of the result indicates that there is a high probability that they had this effect. The intention of these unfounded attacks was to divert voters from supporting me.” He claims some attacks breached election protocol. A number were referred to Scotland Yard.
Mr Rahman topped the poll in the first round of the election, with 43 per cent, and Mr Biggs was second on 33 per cent. In the run-off round he won beat the Labour candidate by 52.7 per cent to 47.7 per cent. Mr Rahman, 49, won the 2010 mayoral election as an independent after being “kicked out” by the Labour Party.
He denies all the allegations. The hearing continues. |
Local schoolchildren were kept indoors Thursday while 15 full-grown African lions were killed after escaping from a ramshackle wild animal compound in rural southeastern Idaho.
Officials determined by Thursday afternoon that no more lions are at large. But the 146-student Lava Elementary School already had been closed and early morning phone calls had warned parents not to send their children to bus stops and to keep their pets inside after Wednesday night’s escape from the private Ligertown Game Farm Inc.
“I was glad to stay home from school, but I was a little bit scared,” Robbie Read, a Lava Elementary School first-grader, said Thursday evening.
He was with his mother, Suzette Read, as she drove to the compound from her Lava Hot Springs home to ask Bannock County sheriff’s deputies if it was safe to let her dog out. They said it was.
Read said she had signed petitions in the past urging local officials to do something about Ligertown, where officials said there have been problems for years.
“It’s been an accident waiting to happen,” she said. “This thing should be shut down.”
Lava Hot Springs Mayor Newt Lowe said later that the city would “leave no stone unturned” to punish owners Robert Fieber and Dotti Martin.
“We’ll do everything we can to prosecute these people to the full extent of the law,” Lowe said. “But they’re very litigious. They know their rights. They’re not good citizens and they don’t want to cooperate.”
Undersheriff Lorin Nielsen said 20 to 30 lions, tigers and crossbred “ligers” remained at the squalid Ligertown compound. A number of wolf-dog hybrids, whose cages were not breached, also remained at the compound.
National Humane Society officials arrived by helicopter Thursday afternoon and removed five bottle-fed lion cubs from the compound. They were taken to an animal shelter in Pocatello, 28 miles to the northwest.
Veterinarian Bill Torgerson of ZooMontana in Billings went into the compound with the regional director of the national Humane Society, two armed SWAT team members and two search and rescue team members. Other snipers watched from outside, ready to shoot if the rescuers were attacked.
“We put ourselves at risk going inside to rescue the kittens. Serious risk,” Torgerson said.
Three adult lions lounged on top of one of the compound buildings and could not be lured down, endangering those who entered.
Torgerson and David Pauli of the Humane Society said the compound is comprised of buildings and cages connected by makeshift tunnels, and they were unsure whether any lions or tigers were inside those. No one remained inside the compound overnight.
Torgerson and Pauli said the cages had no water and appeared not to have been cleaned for a long time.
“There’s a lot of filth … and feces, chicken parts, bones, all kinds of stuff,” Torgerson said.
They described the cages as makeshift, with chain-link fence attached randomly to form pens. Wooden pallets were used for gates.
“It’s horrendous, it’s just an accident waiting to happen,” Pauli said. “I haven’t seen anything like it ever. The facility is not up to any standards.”
The veterinarian and Humane Society workers planned to anesthetize the animals today so they can determine whether they are healthy and need to be moved. Some zoos have offered to take healthy animals.
Owners Fieber and Martin, who were attacked by one of the escaped lions Wednesday night, suffered minor injuries.
They returned to the compound Thursday afternoon but were turned away by deputies who refused to let them take milk and meat to five lion cubs.
“You can’t go in there. It’s blocked off as a crime scene now,” one deputy said.
“What the hell’s the crime?” Fieber asked. When he got no response, he said, “They’re violating our civil rights.”
Nielsen and others said there have been problems for years at Ligertown, where dead lions were strewn Thursday on both sides of the nearby highway. An unexplained sign at the compounded declared: “Ligertown Church of the Guardian Alien. An Equal Opportunity Cult.”
“I don’t want to paint an eccentric here, but we’ve got a guy who literally lives with lions and tigers,” Nielsen said. A few of the big cats have been allowed to roam freely even within the trailer Fieber and Martin share, he said.
Meanwhile, Wednesday night’s breach in the perimeter fencing of the smelly enclosure was patched and sharpshooters stood by in case any more animals got out of the compound about a mile outside Lava Hot Springs. The tiny tourist town is home to about 420 people.
Sheriff’s officials erected a new fence around the compound to provide another barrier.
The sheriff’s office was notified of the escapes by Bruce Hansen, who owns property neighboring Ligertown. Hansen saw a lion stalking some of his farm animals and shot it, Nielsen said.
A sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to the scene and shot another lion that was outside the compound, and yet another lion was shot after attacking Fieber and Martin. The last animal was shot Thursday afternoon.
Nielsen said the sheriff’s office had neither the tranquilizing equipment nor the trained personnel to tranquilize the animals and had to shoot them to protect townspeople.
Fieber and Martin refused to say how many animals in all were at the site.
Both owners had bandaged hands when they returned to the compound Thursday. Fieber also had several stitches in the corner of his mouth, but he dismissed the injuries.
“This happens to anybody who owns big cats,” he said. “I’ve been put together many times since the ‘70s.”
About 50 sheriff’s deputies from surrounding counties, SWAT teams, Idaho Department of Fish and Game officers and Idaho State Police troopers took part in subduing the escaped animals.
Greg Tourtlotte, the Department of Fish and Game’s regional supervisor in Pocatello, said his staff had been worried for some time about the potential for escape from Ligertown.
“A lot of our people felt that it was just a matter of time before something happened.”
Fieber previously operated game compounds in, Newport, Ore., and Clearwater Idaho, and ran into trouble with the law in both locations. |
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HENRICO, Va. – Police are looking for three suspects who are accused of holding a woman at gunpoint in her own home and robbing her.
The crime, happened overnight Sunday, as neighbors slept, according to police. The crime occurred in the 2700 block of Maplewood Road.
When they arrived on scene, the victim told police that three people, two men and a woman, entered her home and held her and another victim up.
She was held at gunpoint while the others went through her home. Two suspects demanded and took money from a second victim there, she told police.
Neighbors said they are concerned, and stunned.
“I will make sure my doors are very locked and the windows bolted,” said one. “Because that's spooky."
“It sounds no good, because people will do some weird things now that they didn't used to do before,” said another neighbor. “Things are changing, so you got to watch it.”
No one was injured in the robbery, and police didn't disclose how much money was taken from the second victim.
All three suspects fled the scene, and police are still looking for them.
If you can help locate the suspects, call Crime Stoppers at 780-1000. |
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A phone uses more power the further away it is from a cell tower as it tries to connect.
Android phones can be tracked without using their GPS or wi-fi data by studying their power use over time, a study has found.
A smartphone uses more power the further away it is from a cellular base and the more obstacles are in its way as it reaches for a signal.
Additional power use by other activities could be factored out with algorithms, the researchers found.
They created an app designed to collect data about power consumption.
"The malicious app has neither permission to access the GPS nor other location providers (eg cellular or wi-fi network)," the team - Yan Michalevsky, Dan Boneh and Aaron Schulman, from the computer science department at Stanford University, along with Gabi Nakibly, from Rafael Ltd - wrote in their paper.
"We only assume permission for network connectivity and access to the power data.
"These are very common permissions for an application, and are unlikely to raise suspicion on the part of the victim."
There are 179 apps currently available on Android app store Google Play that request this information, the team add.
Activity such as listening to music, activating maps, taking voice calls or using social media all drain the battery but this can be discounted due to "machine learning", the report says.
"Intuitively the reason why all this noise does not mislead our algorithms is that the noise is not correlated with the phone's location," it says.
"Therefore a sufficiently long power measurement (several minutes) enables the learning algorithm to 'see' through the noise."
The tests were carried out on phones using the 3G network but did not measure signal strength as that data is protected by the device.
'Stuffed with sensors'
"With mobile devices now becoming ubiquitous, it is troubling that we are seeing so many ways in which they can be used to track us," said cyber-security expert Prof Alan Woodward, from Surrey University.
"I think people sometimes forget that smartphones are stuffed full of sensors from gyroscopes and GPS to the more obvious microphones and cameras.
"This latest work shows that even that basic characteristics (power consumption) has the potential to invade privacy if monitored in the right way," he added.
"We are approaching the point where the only safe way to use your phone is to pull the battery out - and not all phones let you do that." |
MARSEILLE, France — French police on Tuesday rounded up more than 160 members of the Roma minority from a camp in Marseille, sparking the ire of rights groups some six months ahead of presidential elections.
President Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to make security a central theme of his re-election campaign next year, and last year provoked international outrage by targeting foreign-born Roma for expulsion.
Around 150 police took part in the latest round-up of a group that included children and babies, clearing an illegal encampment that local authorities regarded as unsightly and unhygenic.
The purpose of the round-up was not to expel the Roma, but some of 161 detained could be sent back to Romania or Bulgaria if they cannot show how they can support themselves, while others will be offered alternative housing.
There was no violence, but the local head of the Human Rights League, Bernard Eynaud, criticised the raid as “aggressive”.
“There are two Roma camps left in Marseille. This one, which is old, houses children at school. Once more, they will be split up and the children will not be able to go to school today,” Eynaud said.
He accused the town hall of reneging on an August offer for a negotiated solution, declaring: “Today the only answer they have is the police.”
The families were living in caravans and corrugated iron and wooden huts next to a railway line.
“An emergency housing solution has been offered to all those living in the camp,” a police official said, asking not to be named.
Sarkozy’s UMP party has been accused of trying to outdo the far right, anti-immigrant National Front ahead of next year’s presidential election.
France drew a chorus of criticism last year for rounding up hundreds of Roma from illegal camps and sending them back to Romania and Bulgaria.
The European Union’s justice chief, Viviane Reding, angered Sarkozy at the time by comparing the rounding up to World War II-era deportations.
Paris insisted there was nothing racist in the moves against the Roma, saying they were rounded up simply because they had overstayed the period they were allowed in France without any visible means of financial support.
On September 12, Sarkozy’s hardline Interior Minister Claude Gueant launched an offensive against what he called “Roma delinquency”, saying that 10 percent of people brought before Parisian justice were Roma.
“We have to accelerate the return (of alleged Roma delinquents) to their country of origin,” Gueant said. |
The most entertaining play of the 2013 MLB All-Star Game didn't air on your television.
With the Fox cameras turned away and radio broadcasters delving into baseball-related topics, a Citi Field security guard executed the perfect tackle on an attention-seeking fan.
As it turns out, Dylan Masone's stunt was premeditated and thoroughly chronicled on his Twitter account (h/t Barstool Sports).
UPDATE: Thursday, July 18, at 11:24 p.m. ET by Doug Mead
According to Sports Illustrated, Masone is facing a possible one-year jail sentence for his complete act of stupidity.
Via SI.com:
According to a report Thursday from DNAInfo.com, Dylan McCue-Masone was arraigned this week in a Queens Criminal Court on multiple charges including third-degree criminal trespassing. He will return to court on Sept. 11 and, if convicted, could face up to one year in jail and thousands of dollars in civil penalties.
It also sounds like Queens District Attorney Richard Brown isn't taking Masone's act lightly.
“What is particularly disturbing in this case is that the incident occurred while the game was in progress and the players were on the field.”
---End of update---
Shortly before first pitch, this New York Yankees fan wearing a Robinson Cano No. 24 T-shirt sent this proposition to his followers:
Some users must have accused him of bluffing, hence this confirmation that yes, 1,000 retweets equals one idiotic interruption of the Midsummer Classic:
if i get 1000 RTs id really do it — dyl (@MasoneDylan) July 16, 2013
The "support" started pouring in fast and furious. Based on his updates, it seems like Masone wasn't too eager to actually deliver on his guarantee:
@TravisQuattrini i hope i dont get to 1k lmao — dyl (@MasoneDylan) July 17, 2013
lmao this is gonna be terrible — dyl (@MasoneDylan) July 17, 2013
i hate all of you — dyl (@MasoneDylan) July 17, 2013
blame it on social media, love you all — dyl (@MasoneDylan) July 17, 2013
At least one level-headed user tried to talk him down from the ledge by listing the consequences, but to no avail:
His mom also disapproved of this decision:
Even during his final moments of legal behavior, Masone kept us updated. Here's his approximate point of entry down the left-field foul line:
Charles Curtis of NJ.com provides play-by-play coverage from there:
A fan in a Cano t-shirt dashed onto the field from the stands along the left field line and stopped after passing second base on the infield dirt. Facing a group of security personnel in maroon shirts, he put up his hands to give up. But a member of security grabbed him and slammed the Yankees die-hard to the ground anyway -- he was then escorted from the premises.
Instagram user Colin Barnicle recorded the collision (h/t Barstool Sports):
Impeccable form right there from the security guard, crouching low before striking this hefty kid. This unheralded hero hoisted him into the air and slammed him down with authority.
Then, Masone was gently escorted off the playing field.
Riquette Ramsey snapped a picture of him moments later. Hard to tell whether he's cracking up or breaking down about the whole episode.
Major League Baseball does its best to discourage this kind of silliness, but these individuals don't care about appearing on the actual broadcast. Social media can just as easily satisfy their craving for exposure.
Follow @MrElyminator |
Biden clarifies comments on Hillary Clinton and income inequality
Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton (Photo: AP)
Vice President Biden sought Tuesday to clarify his comment that income inequality is a "relatively new" issue for Hillary Clinton, a statement trumpeted by Clinton primary opponent Bernie Sanders.
"What I meant was, for the last five years, she's been engaged in foreign policy," Biden told NBC's Today show, referring to her term as President Obama's secretary of State.
Income inequality "has been Bernie's mantra from the time he's gotten involved," Biden added. "Even when income inequality wasn't as serious as it is today, it was his drumbeat. And so that's what I meant."
Clinton is "coming up with some very good ideas," Biden added, while "Bernie is pushing the envelope on this for everyone — for everyone involved."
In an interview aired Monday on CNN, Biden said that income inequality — a big issue in the Democratic primary battle between Clinton and Sanders — has been "relatively new for Hillary to talk about."
Her "focus has been other things up to now, and that's been Bernie's — no one questions Bernie's authenticity on those issues," Biden said on CNN.
The Sanders campaign — locked in a tight race with Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire — quickly promoted Biden's comments on Monday night with a tweet linking to a story about the CNN interview.
ICYMI — Joe Biden on our campaign: https://t.co/fAG0LeYmQ7 — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 12, 2016
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1RjRGaY |
The largest university press in the world has warned its authors not to mention pigs or pork in their books to avoid offending Muslims and Jews.
Oxford University Press (OUP) explained that their books must take into consideration other cultures of the world and must avoid mentioning pigs or “anything else which could be perceived as pork,” the International Business Times reported.
The move was revealed during a discussion on free speech during BBC Radio 4’s “Today,” following last week’s terror attacks in Paris.
“I’ve got a letter here that was sent out by OUP to an author doing something for young people.” Presenter Jim Naughtie said. “Among the things prohibited in the text that was commissioned by OUP was the following: Pigs plus sausages, or anything else which could be perceived as pork.
“Now, if a respectable publisher, tied to an academic institution, is saying you’ve got to write a book in which you cannot mention pigs because some people might be offended, it’s just ludicrous. It is just a joke,” he said.
The move was condemned by Muslim Labour MP Khalid Mahmood, the Times reported.
“That’s ludicrous,” he said. “That’s absolute, utter nonsense and when people go too far that actually brings the whole discussion into disrepute.”
OUP defended the move by saying it needs to make its books available to the “widest possible audience.”
“Many of the educational materials we publish in the U.K. are sold in more than 150 countries, and as such they need to consider a range of cultural differences and sensitivities,” a spokesman told the Daily Mail. “Our editorial guidelines are intended to help ensure that the resources that we produce can be disseminated to the widest possible audience.”
In a statement later, the company said its commitment to “academic and educational excellence” is “absolute,” the London Evening Standard reported.
“Our materials are sold in nearly 200 countries, and as such, and without compromising our commitment in any way, we encourage some authors of educational materials respectfully to consider cultural differences and sensitivities, the statement read. “Guidelines for our educational materials differ between geographies and do not cover our academic publishing.”
A spokesperson for the Jewish Leadership Council said, “Jewish law prohibits eating pork, not the mention of the word, or the animal from which it derives,” The Times reported.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. |
Monday, 8.45pm: Barry Fry claims to be on the verge of selling unwanted Peterborough United striker Tyrone Barnett, possibly for a million pounds.
The Posh Director of Football, the man in charge of transfer negotiations at London Road, has fielded three phone calls in the last three days from a Championship club regarding the purchase of the club’s record signing.
And Fry insists Posh are seeking to recoup as much as possible of the £1.1 million they paid to recruit him from Crawley Town last year. Since that move Barnett (27) has scored just five goals, the last in October, nine months ago.
Fry declined to name the Championship club showing a strong interest, but Millwall are known to have made an enquiry for Barnett last month.
Blackpool is another potential destination for Barnett. Pool tried to sign Barnett before the striker moved to Posh, albeit when under different management.
It’s known that The Seasiders are keen to strengthen their squad and they could have money to spend if, as expected, they sell prize asset Tom Ince, the son of manager Paul Ince.
Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony has confirmed that Blackpool are one of a number of clubs to have enquired about Barnett.
Fry said: “I am close to selling Tyrone. A Championship club are very, very interested judging by the number of times they have contacted me.
“We expect to get over a million for him which would be great business for the club.”
Barnett was placed on the transfer list at the end of last season along with fellow strikers Emile Sinclair and Nicky Ajose, plus midfielder Daniel Kearns.
Midfielder Tommy Rowe and central defender Gaby Zakuani are also on the transfer list having declined to sign new contracts.
Fry has dismissed rumours that Leeds are close to signing Rowe and he revealed that Huddersfield have shown no interest in Zakuani.
Fry added: “Leeds manager Brian McDermott was keen on Tommy when he was managing Reading. They enquired about Tommy a while back when I said they couldn’t afford him.
“I was told to expect another enquiry, but I have since been away at the Football League chairman’s meeting when Leeds were also represented and no-one from there tried to negotiate with me about Tommy.
“A move to Leeds would suit Tommy, but we don’t want him to go and now that we have sold Dwight Gayle, we really don’t need to sell anyone else.
“The only player Huddersfield have ever spoken to me about is Lee Tomlin and there’s no way we are letting him go.”
Posh sold striker Dwight Gayle to Premier League newcomers Crystal Palace for £6 million last week, Posh are obviously seeking a replacement, but free-scoring Falkirk striker Lyle Taylor was ruled out as a transfer target by MacAnthony.
Have your say on Posh’s transfer dealings, by email alan.swann@peterboroughtoday.co.uk or @PTAlanSwann on Twitter |
Michael O'Neill has been in charge of Northern Ireland since December 2011
Norwich City have held informal talks with Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill over the manager's job at Carrow Road, reports BBC Radio Norfolk.
The Championship club sacked Alex Neil in March, with Alan Irvine taking over on an interim basis for the rest of the season.
O'Neill, 47, led Northern Ireland to the last 16 at Euro 2016, having signed a new four-year deal in March 2016.
It is understood O'Neill is one of several candidates being spoken to.
O'Neill's current deal with the Irish Football Association includes a release clause fee of £750,000 for Premier League clubs, although it is understood to be lower for Championship sides.
City are expected to appoint a new head coach soon after the final game of the season, against Queens Park Rangers on Sunday.
Media playback is not supported on this device O'Neill named coach of the year at 2015 SPOTY awards
Sporting director Stuart Webber, appointed last month, has been heading up the recruitment of a permanent successor to Neil.
O'Neill was named coach of the year at BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2015 after helping Northern Ireland qualify for their first major tournament for 30 years.
Northern Ireland are second in their qualifying group for the 2018 World Cup, behind Germany, and face New Zealand in a friendly on 2 June before their next qualifier away to Azerbaijan eight days later.
O'Neill was linked with the Leicester City post after Claudio Ranieri's dismissal in February, saying he could be "tempted" by the job but insisted he was not "actively seeking" a new role.
O'Neill became an international manager after a successful spell with Shamrock Rovers and has also managed Brechin City.
In his playing career he made more than 400 appearances for various clubs, including spells at Newcastle United, Dundee United, Hibernian, Wigan and Glentoran. |
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - A Flagstaff police officer was shown on camera Wednesday punching a woman in the face during an arrest.
The officer and another man who appeared to be a police officer were attempting to arrest the woman when the camera started rolling.
She told them multiple times that they did not have a warrant for her arrest and she struggled with them as they tried to handcuff her.
Then the officer punched her.
People who were watching the arrest yelled at the officer before they were able to arrest the woman and put her in the back of a police car.
The Flagstaff Police Department sent a release to media later Wednesday night saying it was beginning an internal investigation into the incident immediately.
"Our agency is very concerned by what is depicted in this video," a release from Sgt. Cory Runge read.
Flagstaff police chief Kevin Treadway said Thursday he was "concerned" with what he sees in the video.
Copyright 2016 KPNX |
A 20-year-old Bronx man claims he was a secret witness who was pressured by police officers to lie against multiple suspects, including 17-year-old Pedro Hernandez who remained behind bars at Rikers Island. Sarah Wallace reports.
What to Know A 20-year-old man says he was bullied by some cops in the 42nd precinct and by a Bronx prosecutor into falsely implicating people in crimes
He has filed a $20 million notice of claim against the city alleging a pattern of harassment and intimidation
Among the cases in which he allegedly lied: the 17-year-old who was at Rikers for a year because he wouldn't plead guilty to the shooting
A 20-year-old Bronx man claims he was a secret witness who was pressured by police officers to lie against multiple suspects, including 17-year-old Pedro Hernandez, whose case has generated national attention.
Hernandez is the teenager who refused to plead guilty to a shooting he says he didn’t do, and remained behind bars on Rikers for a year before the RFK Human Rights Organization posted the young man's bail in late July.
The man claiming to be the secret witness is William Stevens. Stevens' attorneys have filed a $20 million notice of claim against New York City, alleging a pattern of harassment and intimidation by certain officers in the 42nd Precinct and also by a Bronx prosecutor. Other young men have made similar claims of abuse.
Stevens, who was sent to state prison earlier this year on an attempted robbery charge, told the I-Team in an exclusive prison interview at Greene Correctional Facility that he was pressured to lie about Hernandez on three different occasions and sign a photo array.
“At first I told them no, and that’s when a lot of harassment started happening,” he said. “They would come to my house for no reason, take me out for stuff I didn’t do, follow me on the streets, pull my pants down.”
He said that he was beaten and punched during one instance in the back of a police vehicle.
Hernandez was criminally charged in all three cases Stevens mentioned. Two of the cases, involving a shooting and an alleged robbery, were dismissed when surveillance video and other alibi evidence showed Hernandez was elsewhere at the time of the reported crimes.
In July 2016, Hernandez was arrested in connection with another shooting, this one in front of a C-Town supermarket. The victim of that shooting told the I-Team that he was also pressured to lie about Hernandez's involvement. Other witnesses have given statements that the teenager wasn’t involved at all.
Stevens said in his court filing that the lead prosecutor in the Hernandez case threatened him into cooperating with police.
A private investigator hired by Hernandez's family, Manuel Gomez, said as he he found Stevens’ name in a court document as he looked to clear Hernandez's name, but it took months to discover where his family lived.
Teen Who Claims Innocence Granted Bail After Year in Rikers
A 17-year-old from the Bronx is tasting freedom tonight for the very first time in a year. Michael George reports. (Published Friday, July 28, 2017)
“I knocked on 250 doors in 10 months,” he said.
Hernandez’ trial in the supermarket shooting is scheduled to start Sept. 6. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark has declined to reveal the evidence against the teen. Clark told the I-Team she is not concerned about taking the Hernandez case -- or others out of the 42nd Precinct -- forward amid allegations of witness intimidation.
"I am ready for trial in this case," she said. "I’d just like to reiterate, the DA’s office is interested in speaking to any witnesses that have information.”
Exclusive 11 Officers Punished for Alleged Hazing at Newark Airport
Stevens' attorney, John Scola, also represents 17-year-old Tyrese Revels, who filed a similar notice of claim against the city.
"The 42nd Precinct and the Bronx County DA’s office have colluded to physically and emotionally abuse our clients into lying about crimes they bore no witness to," he said.
The Bronx County DA's office said it can't comment on any of Stevens' specific allegations because of the pending litigation.
I-Team: NYC Teen Who Stayed in Jail to Clear Name Gets Bail |
The forgotten charm of the rustic Posted by arkitalker on 30 July 2013 · 1 Comment
Grande scoperta attraversando le valli svizzere: i rustici. A Fusio, in Vallemaggia, passeggiando per il piccolo paesino, tra costruzioni in pietra che si aggrappano le une alle altre si incontra quello che sembra essere un superstite di altri tempi, lo si percorre e si scorgono piccoli interventi, dettagli, integrazioni, accostamenti materici, lo stesso materiale mutato dal tempo fenditure tra le pareti. Tanti piccoli gesti che danno una nuova dignità ad un edificio di altri tempi.
Great discovery through the valleys of Switzerland: the rustic. In Fusio in the Maggia Valley, walking through the small village between stone buildings that cling to each other you will come across what seems to be a survivor of another era. You walk along this and you can see small interventions, details, additions, combinations of materials , the same material changed in time, slits between the walls. So many small gestures that give a new dignity to a building of other times.
http://www.gld-dazio.ch/it/opere-casa-rocco/casa-rocco-al-forn-e-vedola
Un altro gruppo di rustici è interessato dal medesimo trattamento. Opere scultoree che rimangono intatte nell’antica struttura e ne conservano la memoria; su un basamento in pietra si sovrappongono e incastrano grosse travi in legno grezzo e poi ancora pietra a completare le falde in forte pendenza.
Another group of rustics is affected by the same treatment. Sculptural works that remain untouched in their ancient structure and keep the memory of what they were; on a stone base large and rough wooden beams overlap and fit to each other then again stone to complete the roof .
Assolutamente da ammirare gli interni e i dettagli
Absolutely to see the interior and details http://www.gld-dazio.ch/it/opere-tecial/tecial
Per saperne di più: Read more: http://www.gld-dazio.ch/it/ |
By Catherine J. Frompovich
Finally it’s happened! A member of the mainstream press has the intestinal fortitude to publish the carefully ‘kept secret’, secret about vaccines and vaccinations: They cause dramatic life-altering damage and more frequently than “evidence-based medicine” or “consensus science” owns up to or MDs, the medical profession, public health agencies and pro-vaccine acolytes acknowledge.
The UK’s Independent Newspaper published some extremely damning vaccine adverse drug reaction (ADR) information on May 31, 2015 that said:
In the 10 years to April this year the agency received almost 22,000 “spontaneous suspected” adverse drug reaction (ADR) reports in 13 routine immunisation categories including flu, MMR, tetanus, diphtheria and polio, according to a Freedom of Information response released earlier this month. [1]
However, the vaccine ‘ante’ has just been upped on vaccines’ adverse events/damages according to the Freedom of Information (FOI) documentation dated May 14, 2015, according to the chart below.
Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency FOI Response 14 May 2015
The vaccine with the most ADR reports was the Human papillomarivus (HPV) for which there are three vaccines: Gardasil®, Cervarix®, and recently licensed Gardasil 9® [2] with 8,228 ADRs. Next in line is the annual Influenza virus vaccine with 2,994 ADRs. The MMR (Measles, mumps and rubella) with 1,594 ADRs is third highest. Fourth highest ADR reporting count is Pneumococcal disease (PCV) with 1,560 ADRs. Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and haemophilus influenza type B with 1,309 ADRs is fifth. Sixth highest ADR is for Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio with 1,190. Seventh is Tetanus, diphtheria and polio with 1,076 ADRs. Those ADRs represent health damage from what’s called “multi-valent” vaccines, meaning more than one disease active is contained in a vaccination or jab, as it’s called in the UK. Six other vaccines had ADRs reporting fewer than one thousand, which should not be regarded as insignificant.
The above information demonstrably demonstrates – and validates – what vaccine-safety-advocates (often referred to as anti-vaxxers) have been beating the drums about: Vaccines cause irreversible damage and, as the U.S. VAERS reporting system—similar to the UK’s ADR reporting system—even deaths and for which the U.S. Vaccine Court has settled claims.
So, it’s indisputable that vaccines cause adverse health problems, which undeniably increase healthcare costs for everyone involved, plus promote more Big Pharma patented ‘products’ to deal with those ADRs. Can that be one of the hidden ‘aspects’ for promoting vaccines as assiduously as government health agencies do?
The UK is not unique in ADRs from vaccines. Every country in the world that has any vaccine program reports serious ADRs. However, what is unique is that in the USA those ADRs are not permitted to be discussed in the mainstream press and media. The Independent’s report truly is refreshing insofar as the “cat is out of the bag” definitely, and let’s make certain it stays out; that journalists globally report vaccine damage, and especially in the supposed ‘free’ press of the United States of America.
Back in May of 2013, the U.K. revealed via FOI documents that there were 30 years of secret official documents showing that U.K. government vaccine/medical experts have: 1) known the vaccines don’t work; 2) known they cause the diseases they are supposed to prevent; 3) known they are a hazard to children; 4) colluded to lie to the public; and 5) worked to prevent safety studies! [5]
Can you imagine how many children worldwide would have been saved from lifelong health problems—or even premature deaths—caused by vaccines IF any one of the governments colluding on the above vaccine skullduggery would have had the integrity to tell the world the scientific facts about vaccines: that Big Pharma’s vaccines actually cause harm; do not prevent disease but cause the very diseases in vaccines? Vaccines preventing diseases probably is the BIGGEST lie ever told! Why? Because it’s been perpetuated for so long, that most gullible people believe it.
Please check out the Resources section below for additional information, which is only a fraction of what’s going on about vaccines that readers may not know about due to the controlled ‘free’ press in the USA. The press and media are beholden to Big Pharma, probably because of all the advertising dollars Pharma spends in their daily newspapers and especially on TV. All those erectile dysfunction ads add up to advertising profits! The U.S. FDA also is beholden to Big Pharma for all the funding [3, 4] and consensus science it gets from them.
One last word about vaccines: They are not safe; never have been tested for the ability to cause cancer, interfere with reproduction or fertility, or their ability to cause birth defects (teratogenic). It states that right there on every vaccine package insert.
Next time your MD, employer or school wants to vaccinate you or your child, ask to see the vaccine package insert section that documents in print that the vaccine has never been tested for what was just discussed in the above paragraph. Ask him/her if he/she knew that, plus why would he/she want to inject you with toxins that can harm, as it explicitly states in the rest of the vaccine package insert, especially when every MD is sworn to do no harm.
(references)
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WASHINGTON -- It has been 16 years since Kathryn Lehman was a Republican Hill staffer working on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the federal law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman.
Now Lehman's back on Capitol Hill, in a new capacity: as a lesbian GOP lobbyist trying to repeal the law she helped write.
Things were pretty different in Lehman's world in 1996. She was engaged to a man. Same-sex marriage wasn't legal anywhere. And the public perception of what it meant to be gay wasn't anything like it is now, she says.
"There was nobody married, it wasn’t allowed anywhere," Lehman recalls. "The view of gay people ... it wasn't Ellen [DeGeneres]. It wasn't Neil Patrick Harris. It was kinky sex and women riding around on motorcycles without shirts on. That was sort of the view that the community projected as well."
"It wasn't people that you know, people that you work with, people just like everybody else."
Lehman, now 52, was chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution. She says she and her colleagues working on DOMA didn't think it would do much harm. They had two goals in mind: to prevent the federal government from recognizing any marriage between gay couples, and to ensure that states didn't have to recognize gay couples married in other states.
As it turns out, DOMA has hurt gay and lesbian couples in a multitude of ways. It denies medical leave pay for about 43,000 employees who leave to care for a same-sex partner, according to the think tank The Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law. It denies health care benefits and work/injury compensation for more than 30,000 same-sex spouses of federal employees. It denies about 68,000 veterans with same-sex partners the ability to share their pension and educational benefits. It denies equal treatment in inheritance tax, in filing joint income tax returns, in spousal protections for long-term care under Medicaid and in the process of acquiring a green card for an estimated 26,000 bi-national couples.
None of these things seemed particularly controversial to Lehman since, she says, nobody was even talking about gay marriage as a real possibility 16 years ago. Still, something Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said during one of the committee hearings on DOMA stuck with her. At the time, Frank was the only openly gay member of Congress.
"I remember Barney Frank saying at the time, 'I don't understand how me being married to my partner hurts your ability to be married,'" she recalls. "And I remember thinking, 'Yeah, I don't either.'"
In the years to come, the arc of Lehman’s career and personal journey would come to mirror how, in many ways, the country itself is evolving in its understanding of gay and lesbian individuals and couples.
Lehman, who says she was “totally in love” with her fiancé despite struggling with the possibility that she might be a lesbian, got married after DOMA passed. She says she was "happily married" until 2001, at which point her husband abruptly wanted out. Lehman says she was devastated, but put herself in therapy and made a commitment to herself to pick up the pieces and start anew.
"I think I'd always been afraid to go to therapy because I thought they were going to say, 'You're gay,' and I didn't really want to hear it," she says. It took her a year just to tell her therapist that she'd once been with a woman. As time went on, she came to terms with her sexuality and eventually embraced it.
In the meantime, Lehman's career was taking off. In 1997, one year after DOMA's passage and eight years after starting her work on the House Judiciary Committee, she became special assistant to House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). From there she became policy director to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), and then director of coalitions and outreach for House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-Ill.). In 2003, she took over the top post under House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), helping to craft legislative and floor strategies for House Republicans.
At the Republican National Convention in 2004, Lehman ran into someone she had known for years, Julie Conway, a political fundraiser. They had been friends in the past, but Lehman says something shifted for her when she saw Conway this time, and they soon began dating -- and are still partners today. President George W. Bush was also at the convention, of course, and Lehman recalls that as sparks were flying for her, Bush was giving a speech about protecting traditional marriage. At the time, she says, she only "sort of" laughed at the irony.
Lehman, who was and still is staunchly conservative, decided after several months to start telling her peers about her relationship with Conway. Many worked for powerful Republican leaders in Congress. The first friend she told was in Hastert's office; the next was in House Majority Whip Roy Blunt's office. Both were supportive of her relationship. She went on to tell more friends, and none had a negative reaction. In fact, many were more concerned about something else besides her sexual orientation.
"They were like, 'Well, tell us about Julie. Is she a Republican?' I'm like, 'Yes.' And they were like, 'Oh, okay,'" she says. "Honestly, that was it."
Her family was not as supportive. She says the news wasn’t “particularly easy” on her father, a high school choir director in Pittsburgh, Pa., where Lehman grew up. But he was still “happy that I found someone that I was happy with,” she says, and he was proud of her career success. As for Lehman’s mother, Lehman says only that the two are not close. “She knows about Julie and I,” Lehman says. "She always says to say hello to Julie.”
Lehman, who graduated from Oral Roberts University in 1982 and earned her law degree from Catholic University, left Capitol Hill in 2005 to join the law firm Holland & Knight, where she works now. She has about half a dozen clients and lobbies House Republicans on policy issues ranging from energy to health care to appropriations.
Lehman’s turning point on DOMA came when she read a 2009 legal brief by Ted Olson, the Republican attorney who surprised many by helping to bring a lawsuit against Proposition 8, California's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. In his brief, Olson, who was formerly President George W. Bush's solicitor general, mapped out various groups of people who are allowed to get married -- people in prison, convicted rapists -- while gay and lesbian couples cannot.
A lot of things in the U.S. that had been done one way "were crap and we got rid of them," Lehman says, thinking back to Olson's brief. "Traditionally, women didn't work outside the home. Traditionally, in the South, black people sat in the back of the bus. It's all part of things traditionally that have changed for the better."
Lehman says she began to think about what had motivated GOP leaders to pass DOMA in the first place. She says she realized "the great threat" they were all worried about never materialized. Asked what they were so afraid would happen if gay people got married, she says she wasn't really sure.
"Maybe we thought it was going to be more married people in ass-less chaps?" she says.
As Lehman was going through her personal transformation, so too was the culture around her. Homosexuality was being talked about more openly. Gay and lesbian public figures were coming out, putting a familiar face on what had previously been a taboo subject. In the legal world, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling in 2003 striking down sodomy laws and making same-sex sexual activity legal everywhere in the country. And in 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage. As of this month, same-sex marriage is now legal in eight states.
Changes have also been taking place on Capitol Hill. House Republicans have gone virtually silent on the issue -- a stark contrast to even just a few years ago, when it was common for conservatives to give speeches on the House floor railing against gay people for trying to destroy traditional marriage.
Even GOP leaders don't appear to want to have much to do with the issue. When Attorney General Eric Holder announced in February 2011 that the Justice Department would no longer defend DOMA in court because the Obama administration had determined it to be unconstitutional, the responsibility fell to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to decide whether he would defend the federal ban on behalf of the government. Boehner quietly put out a statement indicating that the House would indeed defend DOMA in court, but that was all. There was no political posturing. There were no angry speeches.
Senate Republicans have also been backing off the issue. When Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) last summer held the first-ever hearing on repealing DOMA since it had become law, many Republican committee members didn't even show up. Among those who did, few questions were asked.
"They were too embarrassed to show up. Because they know," Lehman says.
So in May 2011, when Lehman was approached by the group Freedom to Marry to lobby House Republicans in support of repealing DOMA, she says she couldn't say no. Freedom To Marry, which launched in 2003, is among those leading the effort to overturn the federal ban on gay marriage.
"I sort of feel like I'm uniquely suited to do this," Lehman says of her newest lobbying gig. Indeed, her relationships with House Republicans run deep. She was embedded in the top echelon of congressional GOP leaders for more than a decade. She knows people in every House Republican office and her reputation precedes her.
"Top-notch staffer and (now) lobbyist," said one House GOP leadership aide who has known Lehman for years. "Solid rightie."
Lehman has already met with a couple dozen Republican lawmakers’ offices to make her DOMA repeal pitch: that she helped to write DOMA, that people at the time didn't really know the impact the law was going to have, that all it's done is hurt gay families and not threaten marriage for anyone else. She wouldn't reveal which lawmakers she's met with, but she said they all listen and some have told her privately that they support repealing DOMA but don't feel comfortable saying so publicly because they're worried about getting re-elected in November. In that same vein, others say that before they consider going out on a limb on the issue, they want to wait to see what their districts look like after congressional redistricting.
Most surprisingly, says Lehman, is that many of the GOP lawmakers she meets with tell her it’s the first time they’ve ever been approached on the issue of DOMA repeal.
Until now, lots of Republicans “really have not heard what we're telling them,” she says. “I don't think [the Human Rights Campaign] is going to meet with these people."
Fred Sainz, vice president of communications for the Human Rights Campaign, said the leading gay rights group has, in fact, been lobbying Republicans on DOMA for a while. But he gave credit to Lehman for incorporating her "compelling" personal story into her lobbying.
"It's one thing when you speak in numbers and statistics. People's eyes tend to glaze over," Sainz said. "When you establish common, human bonds with people and you show them that your story is one of change and evolution, people find that they, too, are capable of that. So to that end, her personal narrative ... is definitely value-added."
Still, convincing Republicans to sign on to the current House bill to repeal DOMA is an uphill battle. The bill was introduced by a liberal Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.), and has next to no GOP co-sponsors, which makes it politically dicey for Republicans to put their support behind it. Lehman speculated that more might be willing to attach their names to a DOMA repeal bill next year--something she plans to keep pressing for.
The bottom line, she said, is that many Republicans believe it's only a matter of time until DOMA is repealed and that it's most likely to happen in the courts, not in Congress. So the key for marriage equality advocates like her is to make sure Republicans will be there to support such a court ruling, if and when it happens.
"At that point, you've got to step up and basically realize it's the right thing and to be on the right side of this," Lehman says.
She hopes that even President Barack Obama will endorse the issue by next year. "He's pretty much there. That's the part I don't get," she says of Obama's still-evolving stance on the issue. "Most people think he's kind of there anyway, so that's what's so weird about it."
Lehman appeared to find it only mildly amusing that, at least for the moment, she is politically to the left of Obama on an issue. "It happens," she says.
Not everyone in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community is welcoming of Lehman. Congressman Frank, for one, accused Lehman of "doing more harm than good" if she is lobbying for a DOMA repeal while simultaneously supporting anti-LGBT Republican candidates to get elected over Democrats who support gay rights.
"If you work with them [on a DOMA repeal], that's a very good thing. But then if you help elect people who are still anti-LGBT, then it's a bad thing," Frank said. "Kathryn remains a partisan Republican ... From the standpoint of LGBT issues, helping Republicans getting re-elected outweighs any good she can do on the issue."
Lehman defended her party affiliation. "Am I supposed to embrace higher taxes because we're gay? Am I supposed to embrace big labor and additional regulatory authority because I'm gay? Then why the groupthink and the presumption if one is gay they should be in one political party?" she asked.
"I guess there are folks who can't understand that someone can be a lesbian and conservative and a Republican."
Lehman leads a relatively quiet life these days. She and Conway live with their dog in Alexandria, Va. If Lehman feels guilty for helping to write DOMA, she never actually says so.
"I would think you'd want the person who did help to write it to help you make the fix," she says.
Asked if she struggled personally as she flipped from being someone who helped to ban gay marriage to someone fighting to make same-sex marriage a reality, Lehman says, "Would you prefer that I not flip? I would feel guilty if I didn't do it, I suppose."
She says she's not sure if she wants to get married.
"Julie and I talk about it. I think Julie's a little skittish about it. I'm not sure why," she says. "I fully expect we're going to spend the rest of our lives together. If I had to guess, I would say we wouldn't get married. That's where I notice part of the cultural thing. People my age find it kind of odd to talk about being married to your 'wife.'"
Still, she says, she wants that choice.
Conway says she is proud of Lehman and that she has been consistent in one clear way over the years: in fighting for what she believes in.
"No element of this struggle is easy, and the decision to put yourself in the spotlight is always a difficult one, whether it be personal or professional," she said. "Obviously, for Kathryn it is both."
As a Republican with a long-standing reputation on Capitol Hill, Lehman has taken "some fire" for her efforts to repeal DOMA, Conway said. "But ironically, it is from the liberal activists," she said.
As she makes the rounds in Congress talking about the need to repeal DOMA, Lehman says she sometimes thinks back on the Hill staffers who have been openly gay in Republican offices over the years, especially when their other gay colleagues were not out, and how they "fought the good fight" when others didn't.
Sixteen years later, Lehman is hoping to count herself among them. |
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