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Article by SA_Upc on January 23, 2014
Kitty FlaBaddie
Lv 70: 1613/900/281
Evo:
Skills up
Kitty BubFlamie
Lv 70: 1620/880/290
Evo:
Skills up
Kitty WoodBubblie
Lv 70: 2385/860/71
Evo:
Skills up
Kitty ShyWoodie
Lv 70: 2368/840/90
Evo:
Skills up
Kitty BadShynee
Lv 70: 1395/830/386
Evo:
Skills up
Apple Springs Kittyn & Mimmyna
Lv 99: 2405/1073/313
Evo:
*Invade, does not require evo for skill-up
Skills up
Hello Kitty World Joker
Lv 99: 2305/830/338
Evo:
Lucky Ribbon (10max/20) - Deals 10~50x damage
[b}Kitty & Tyrra
Lv 99: 2700/1248/270
Evo:
Apple Power! (6max/10)
Keroppi & Plessie
Lv 99: 3382/1205/93
Evo:
Kerokero Attack (6max/10)
Melody & Brachy
Lv 99: 2759/1228/264
Evo:
Melody Wink (11max/15) - Yes, it shows 11max, it's a 1-turn delay with wood orb enhance (like Griffin & Canopus)
Pierdra Badtz-Maru
Lv 99: 2530/1510/166
Evo:
Spanking! (6max/10)
Lilith Kuromi
Lv 99: 2178/1498/275
Evo:
Devastating Wink! (17max/21)
Angel Cinnamon
Lv 99: 2098/1093/544
Evo:
Snack Time! (9max/13)
TAMADRApurin
Lv 99: 4303/1053/116
Evo:
Pom Princess (11max/15)
Princess Valkitty
Lv 99: 2480/1235/540
Evo:
Princess Smile (8max/11) - 1 turn delay
*Things are subject to change before official release as always
Datamined from the EU client, here are the card stats:Lv 70: 1613/900/281Evo: Skills up Lv 70: 1620/880/290Evo: Skills up Lv 70: 2385/860/71Evo: Skills up Lv 70: 2368/840/90Evo: Skills up Lv 70: 1395/830/386Evo: Skills up Lv 99: 2405/1073/313Evo: *Invade, does not require evo for skill-upSkills up Lv 99: 2305/830/338Evo: Lucky Ribbon (10max/20) - Deals 10~50x damage[b}Kitty & TyrraLv 99: 2700/1248/270Evo: Apple Power! (6max/10)Lv 99: 3382/1205/93Evo: Kerokero Attack (6max/10)Lv 99: 2759/1228/264Evo: Melody Wink (11max/15) - Yes, it shows 11max, it's a 1-turn delay with wood orb enhance (like Griffin & Canopus)Lv 99: 2530/1510/166Evo: Spanking! (6max/10)Lv 99: 2178/1498/275Evo: Devastating Wink! (17max/21)Lv 99: 2098/1093/544Evo: Snack Time! (9max/13)Lv 99: 4303/1053/116Evo: Pom Princess (11max/15)Lv 99: 2480/1235/540Evo: Princess Smile (8max/11) - 1 turn delay*Things are subject to change before official release as always |
White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner attends a swearing in ceremony for U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman at the Executive office in Washington, U.S., March 29, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
On Friday, The Washington Post broke a bombshell report that President Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner proposed setting up a back-channel of communication between Trump and Moscow using Russian facilities.
Over the next two days, the president's staff took to the airwaves to downplay concerns about the gravity of the situation.
On Saturday, national security adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters that he "would not be concerned about a back-channel" between Trump and the Kremlin.
"We have back-channel communications with a number of countries. So, generally speaking, about back-channel communications, what that allows you to do is to communicate in a discreet manner," McMaster said.
On Sunday, Department of Homeland Security secretary John Kelly told NBC's Chuck Todd that he was not bothered by the revelations either.
Kushner's "number one interest, really, is the nation. So you know there's a lot of different ways to communicate, back-channel, publicly with other countries," Kelly said. "I don't see any big issue here relative to Jared."
But experts say those rebuttals are skirting around one of the most serious concerns raised by the report: the specific request to use Russian gear to establish a line of communication.
"The idea of using Russian facilities to skirt Russian surveillance in the US would either be a serious attempt to hide something or the actions of a young amateur," Clint Watts, a former FBI agent and fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told The Atlantic.
"Contacts between a transition team and foreign diplomats is indeed entirely normal," said Eliot Cohen, a professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies and a former State Department official. "What is not normal, though, is asking a hostile government to provide secure comms to avoid FBI/NSA surveillance in order to do what, precisely."
Colin Kahl, a professor at Georgetown and former national security adviser to Joe Biden, echoed that assessment.
"A private citizen using secure comms of a hostile power to undermine US policy undetected is not good or normal," Kahl said on Twitter.
U.S. President Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up as he and White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner depart the White House in Washington, U.S., March 15, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The Trump administration's attempt to characterize the Kushner-Russia controversy as an acceptable form of back-channel communications is "infuriating," Glenn Carle, a CIA veteran and former spy, told Business Insider.
The establishment of a back-channel is "a sanctioned, appropriate kind of behavior done by the government in order to avoid notice. There is a place for a back-channel, but this wasn't that" Carle said. "This wasn't done by the government. It was done through the Russians."
According to the Post's report, Kushner asked Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in early December about setting up a line of communication between Trump and Moscow.
Trump had won the election by then, but he hadn't taken office yet. Kislyak was reportedly "taken aback" by Kushner's request, given the security risks that could arise when Americans use Russian communications gear at the country's embassy or consulate in the US.
Kislyak "can't really believe, why would they want to do this? Why are they asking for this? It seems strange to him," The Washington Post's Greg Miller told PBS in an interview after the story broke.
'It's infuriating and punishable, and it is a crime'
Back-channel communications can be "legitimate and useful," said Bob Deitz, a veteran of the NSA and CIA who worked under former presidents Bush and Clinton. But "the principle problem is where [Kushner] proposed to have these communications," Deitz told Business Insider. "One just does not have back-channel communications in the switch room of a rival."
"For employee-security rules, the US intelligence community treats visiting a foreign embassy like visiting a foreign country," Susan Hennessey, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and former general counsel at the National Security Agency, told The Atlantic. "Many of the most significant examples of US espionage all occurred through foreign embassies."
And given the context surrounding Kushner's reported request, it's "just not possible" that this was an attempt to create a back-channel, Carle said. "If this were a one-off action by someone who's clueless or even willful, that's one thing. But this is the primary counselor to the president who has clearly had multiple communications with Russians that have not been sanctioned, not been announced," Carle said.
The "most alarming" aspect of this relates to the "dozens of hidden contacts with known Russian intelligence officers" that a number of Trump associates were found to have concealed, he added.
"It just goes on and on. All of that adds up to, not a back-channel, but to acting on behalf of a foreign power. It's infuriating and punishable, and it is a crime."
FBI Director James Comey listens before a meeting of the Attorney General's Organized Crime Council and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Executive Committee to discuss implementation of the President's Executive Order 13773, at the Department of Justice, Tuesday, April 18, 2017, in Washington. Alex Brandon/AP
The White House has been besieged in recent days by a slew of negative news stories that have raised questions about the president's and his associates' ties to Russia. After Trump abruptly fired FBI director James Comey earlier this month, he told NBC's Lester Holt that "this Russia thing" had been a factor in his decision.
The week after, The Washington Post, citing officials familiar with the matter, reported that Trump disclosed highly classified information to Lavrov and Kislyak during their Oval Office meeting.
The following day, The New York Times broke news of a memo that officials said Comey wrote about a February meeting he had with Trump in the Oval Office. According to the memo, Trump asked Comey to drop the FBI investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The next day, The Times reported that Flynn had informed the Trump transition team that he was under FBI investigation on January 4. According to The Times, Flynn told transition team member Don McGahn, who now serves as White House counsel, about the investigation. Flynn did not resign until over a month later, after The Washington Post reported that former acting attorney general Sally Yates had warned the White House in January that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
Following those developments, deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as a special prosecutor in charge of the FBI's Russia probe.
Later, it emerged that Trump told Russian officials during an Oval Office meeting that Comey was "a real nut job" and that firing him had taken "great pressure" off him.
But the most recent report involving Kushner is by far the most concerning, Carle said.
"What happened with Comey was shocking and outrageous, no doubt. That may have been an obstruction of justice. But this would be espionage," he said. "And espionage is worse than obstruction of justice." |
In the whimsical world of strange movie mashups, Sony Pictures plans to throw Schmidt and Jenko from the "Jump Street" series into the world of Jay and Kay from "Men in Black," a report on the Wall Street Journal Speakeasy blog suggests.
According to the post, emails leaked online as part of the Sony hack reveal that an upcoming "Jump Street" movie is planned with stars Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill plunging into the sci-fi world of "Men in Black." The blog quotes an email from Columbia Pictures President of Production Hannah Minghella saying the idea would be greenlit without a script based solely on "the concept and the talent involved."
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who directed "21 Jump Street" and "22 Jump Street," were tapped to produce and possibly direct the crossover movie, the emails suggest. Former "Men in Black" stars Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones will likely not be involved with the film.
In an email to Pascal quoted in the post, Hill himself seems stoked to do the Men in Black crossover, calling the concept "clean and rad and powerful." According to Speakeasy, the movie has a lot of executive support and may come to theaters sometime in 2016 or 2017.
If a "Jump Street"-"Men in Black" crossover does indeed come to be, let's hope that the result is "clean and rad and powerful" and not just gimmicky like many other crossovers out there. If it stinks, perhaps those who end up seeing it will wish the Neuralyzer prominently featured in "Men in Black" were real and ready to erase our memories of ever having watched it. |
Christen Press has every right to feel bummed out about the USWNT's penalty shootout letdown against Sweden in the Olympics on Friday, but fans are hoping to boost her spirits.
Fans of the USWNT and Christen Press have banded together on Twitter to share pictures of dogs to show their support for the U.S. winger. It all started with this tweet:
While a certain population of the social media scene prefer to lambast and rake professional athletes across the coals when they fall short of perfection, there are some kind souls out there on the internet as well.
Article continues below ...
The #DogsForChristen (because Press loves dogs … and who doesn't?) started to catch on, and folks all across the globe are now sending her photos of their pups.
Of course, FOXSoccer's own mascot, Teemu, had to get in on the act and show support for Press.
Twitter (and sports) can sometimes bring out the worst in people, but it can also bring out the best. Press certainly wasn't the only reason the USWNT lost to Sweden, but her missed penalty is one of the lasting images. Press' teammate, Megan Klingenberg, reiterated that they lost as a team … while also joining the #DogsForChristen movement.
Fortunately, the hashtag only continues to gain steam! It's almost impossible to keep up with all the cute puppy pictures, and those are the kinds of images we can all support.
MORE FROM FOX SOCCER:
Bc @ChristenPress deserves smiles and joy and she loves dogs: this is my parents' dog Mudd #DogsForChristen pic.twitter.com/JGTNkcQiBQ — mmw (@mmwilsner) August 12, 2016
@ChristenPress you will come back stronger and i can't wait to see what you do next. 💕 #dogsforchristen pic.twitter.com/JlnASzhXZk — t (@laurenvelope) August 13, 2016
Tobin & Friends (yes, that's his name) can't wait see you back out on the pitch! @ChristenPress #DogsForChristen pic.twitter.com/CUleJBiG5l — Cheryse Ishii (@cherysei) August 13, 2016
#DogsForChristen giving me life. This hashtag restores my faith in humanity a lil pic.twitter.com/CA51myyOP5 — Kerin Maguire (@KerinMaguire) August 13, 2016 |
NYU’s corporate leadership bars socialist student group from campus
By Eric London
3 December 2016
On November 29, student supporters of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at New York University (NYU) received a letter from the university’s Student Activities Board (SAB) reaffirming their earlier decision denying the application for club status.
The SAB letter is in reply to the IYSSE’s November 19 open letter “Reverse the rejection of club status for the International Youth and Students for Social Equality,” which was published on the World Socialist Web Site and distributed at NYU. The IYSSE’s open letter called the decision “an attack on the democratic rights of students and the entire campus community” and demanded that it be reversed.
The IYSSE rejects the lies put forward by the SAB to justify its anti-democratic decision barring the IYSSE club status. We oppose the political discrimination against socialists and assert our right to participate in the cultural, political, and intellectual life of one of the most important universities in the largest urban center in the Western Hemisphere. The IYSSE will not be bullied by a school administration made up of corporate raiders and war mongers, and we call on all NYU students to support the IYSSE’s petition for club status.
The SAB reply reiterates several baseless reasons for denying students the right to form an IYSSE club. It states that the IYSSE is too much “aligned” with existing campus groups, and that there are “concerns for the sustainability of IYSSE” because some supporters of the club will graduate in 2018. It also claims that “non-NYU members” will attend meetings and drain the university budget. The SAB claimed its decision was based “not only out of consideration of physical space, but in consideration of financial resources available.”
All of these reasons were answered in detail in the IYSSE’s new club application, its appeal to the initial decision to reject club status and in the open letter of November 19. They are all baseless, subjective and beside the point.
The IYSSE has a different political program and perspective than all clubs on campus, and the support of NYU students was clearly demonstrated in the more than 200 signatures submitted as part of the club application—students who responded to the IYSSE’s campaign against war and its socialist opposition to the Democratic and Republican Parties.
In its reply, the SAB makes one striking admission: Of the 46 groups who applied for club status this semester, only six were approved—a mere 14 percent. The “Student Activities Board” serves less to promote student activities than to prevent them.
The SAB does not have the right to censor what opinions and perspectives students should have access to on campus. Students have the right to form whatever clubs they choose. They have the right to hear different political perspectives and to come to their own conclusions based on independent study.
Worst of all is the SAB’s claim that it has no money to finance student clubs with the paltry sum of $1,000 per group. According to university figures, NYU’s endowment is roughly $3.5 billion, a figure that has tripled since 2000. A November 2015 article in the Washington Square News noted that 27 percent of last year’s club fund budget was not allocated by the Budget Allocations Committee. The student government allocated over $1 million in 2015-16.
Claims that NYU has “no money” for student speech are betrayed by the facts. The New York Times reported in December 2015 that NYU will spend between $1.1 and $2.2 million to renovate President Andrew Hamilton’s 4,200 square foot Greenwich Village penthouse apartment. In 2013, the Times revealed that NYU provided loans at “extremely favorable terms” for high-ranking administrators’ “vacation homes in the Hamptons.” NYU gave Former President John Sexton a favorable $1 million loan for his Fire Island beach house, a $2.5 million payout in 2015, and an annual pension of $800,000.
Meanwhile, student tuition, room, and board is an astronomical $75,000 per year and most students are burdened with immense amounts of debt.
The perspective of the IYSSE is evidently not welcome to the administration of NYU, which has close ties to Wall Street, the US military and ultra-right wing police states abroad.
The roster of the school’s trustees reads like a “who’s who” in corporate plunder, war mongering and environmental disaster. Almost all trustees represent an investment bank, hedge fund, oil company, property speculator, corporate law firm, police department, or world government. Here is a non-exhaustive snapshot of five trustees:
* John Paulson, who made $4 billion by betting against the subprime mortgage market during the 2007-08 crash that led to millions of foreclosures.
* Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, a multi-billionaire banker and former speaker of the parliament of the United Arab Emirates.
* Khaldoon Al Mubarak, multi-billionaire oil magnate, member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and co-chair of the US Chamber of Commerce’s US-UAE Business Council.
* Ralph Alexander, former CEO of British Petroleum’s gas department who also oversaw gas drilling, refining and exploration.
* Laurence Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the company that contracted with the US government to implement the bank bailout of 2008, widely believed to have violated conflict of interest rules due to his close ties to senior government officials.
These wealthy figures dominate the life of the university. This is exemplified by the corrupt practice of building naming rights. To list two examples: NYU renamed its School of Education after billionaire hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt and his wife gave the school $20 million. In 2015, NYU named its School of Engineering after Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon when the couple gave the school $100 million.
The school also has very close ties to the US military and intelligence apparatus. Peter Henry, Dean of NYU’s Stern Business School, acknowledged a recent $15 million donation gift by noting that one of the school’s goals is to “ease the transition from military to business school and eventually the business world” and to “offer the best and brightest military talent in their future career pursuits.” The gift came from Lorenzo Fertitta, a casino mogul worth $2 billion who was the CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and gave $500,000 to the Republican Party’s Senate Leadership Fund in 2016.
NYU’s campus in Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) epitomizes the marriage between the NYU administration, Wall Street, the US military and gulf sheikdoms. The campus was constructed for $1 billion in 2007 with the backing of the Abu Dhabi government and the Al Nayhan royal family.
The campus was built on “Happiness Island,” which was converted out of uninhabitable desert by tens of thousands of migrant workers stranded in the UAE. According to a 2013 report in the Guardian, the workers toiled under slave-like conditions building luxury buildings in the hot desert sun. Ten workers slept together in small windowless rooms, drank polluted water, and were poisoned by open sewers and rotting piles of garbage. When workers went on strike in 2013 against unbearable conditions and low wages, police and strikebreakers arrested hundreds, beat dozens and incited violent riots between migrants from different home countries.
Hillary Clinton’s former chief of staff Cheryl Mills played a key role in negotiating NYUAD, and Ambassador Susan Rice makes regular visits to the campus. The university hired former President Bill Clinton to help cover-over the bad publicity that resulted from revelations surrounding working conditions at NYUAD. Former NYU President John Sexton defended the Abu Dhabi government’s efforts to jail journalists and accused its critics of cultural insensitivity.
The fight for freedom of speech on campus is more urgent than ever. President-Elect Donald Trump has threatened to incarcerate and take away the citizenship of individuals who practice First Amendment-protected speech. He has slandered protesters and appointed advisors like Steven Bannon who have ties to fascist movements. His cabinet is shaping up to be the most right wing in US history, promising mass deportations, military build-up, increased police powers, and corporate giveaways.
The defense of democratic rights must be taken up by workers, youth, and students through the building of a mass movement against capitalism.
The IYSSE demands:
* Revoke the SAB’s denial of the IYSSE’s application for student club status! Oppose the corporate administration’s censorship!
* Students must not let NYU suppress opposition to the status quo! Call a public forum of students, faculty, and staff to democratize the club approval process!
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Ad Finem Fidelis ~ Faithful to the End Share Tweet +1 Share Forward to Friend SONS OF BEN BEER by YARDS
It is with much excitement that we announce a local Philadelphia brewery, Yards, will be making the Sons of Ben Beer (A Rowdy Style Ale). We expect the beer to be ready on May 1st and we are planning several launch parties for May 3rd (Union v Seattle away). There will be a very limited amount (50 half kegs and 90 sixels). As of right now, there will not be bottles, but we are still working on that. More information in the very near future.
Additionally, Yards is giving the Sons of Ben $1,000 to give to charity. We will be putting up a poll on the website shortly and want YOU to decide what charity this money goes to.
Finally, a special thanks goes out to Mark Jenkinson for his help throughout this process.
AWAY TRIPS
At this point we need more sign ups for the bus to Harrison, NJ for Red Bull away. If we don't have 40 people signed up by April 4, we will be canceling the bus and refunding any purchases. Sign up today ! http://sonsofben.ticketleap.com/red-bull-away-2014/ If you sign-up for the NYRB away bus, you will receive $5 off the bus to DC
Other upcoming trips:
Seattle May 3 : http://sonsofben.ticketleap.com/seattle-away-2014/
Kansas City May 14 : http://sonsofben.ticketleap.com/kansas-city-away-2014/
LA Galaxy May 25 : http://sonsofben.ticketleap.com/la-galaxy-away-2014/
Chivas USA May 31 : http://sonsofben.ticketleap.com/chivas-away-2014/
If you have any questions about upcoming road trips or would like to volunteer please contact Kelly Christine at Kelly.delaney@sonsofben.com UNION VS RSL Saturday, April 12, 12-3pm
If you haven't tailgated with the Sons of Ben what are you waiting for? Join the best party at PPL Park!
It may be Dollar Dog Night on the Plaza but start your gameday with the Sons of Ben! We will be serving up burgers (beef, turkey, veggie) and hot dogs along with sides and snacks along with 4 kegs on tap. Beer Menu will include Bud Light, McKenzies Cider (gf), and 2 other local choices. Tickets to the tailgate can be purchased ahead of time online at www.sonsofben.ticketleap.com
SoB Members: $10/person
Non-Members: $14/person
Walk-ups (member & non-members): $17/person
2014 SONS OF BEN SHIRT Now Available from BarkTees The new 2014 Sons of Ben shirt is available for Pre-Order NOW! Screenprinted design complemented by an embroidered Philly flag patch. The shirts run a little large (About 1 size) so please take this into account when you place your order.
Click here to buy your 2014 SoB shirt. |
Grant Halverson/Getty Images
Night before the game. Hotel ballroom. All Cardinals players present.
Bruce Arians walks to the front of the room.
The noise stops.
He speaks.
"Tomorrow, are you going to be the guy who says, 'My bad?' Or are you going to be the guy who makes the plays?"
He walks out of the room.
Meeting over.
That's it. That's how he does it. That's how Arians reaches his team.
And that's a big part of how the Cardinals have achieved so much this season, winning 13 games, earning the bye and home-field advantage against the Packers on Saturday.
He hits the right message in the right way at the right time.
"He has a great sense of where the team is," Cardinals pass rusher Dwight Freeney said. "He connects. Sometimes you go in a team meeting the night before a game and the coach will talk for 30 minutes and not say anything. You are like, 'Come on. We've heard this.'
"You never get that with B.A. If he talks for a long time, it's because he needs to."
Bruce Arians coaching history Year(s) School/Team Position 1975-1977 Virginia Tech Graduate assistant 1978-1980 Mississippi State RB/WR coach 1981-1982 Alabama RB coach 1983-1988 Temple Head coach 1989-1992 Kansas City Chiefs RB coach 1993-1995 Mississippi State Offensive coordinator 1996 New Orleans Saints TE coach 1997 Alabama Offensive coordinator 1998-2000 Indianapolis Colts QB coach 2001-2003 Cleveland Browns Offensive coordinator 2004-2006 Pittsburgh Steelers WR coach 2007-2011 Pittsburgh Steelers Offensive coordinator 2012 Indianapolis Colts Offensive coordinator 2012 Indianapolis Colts Interim head coach 2013-2015 Arizona Cardinals Head coach sports-reference.com
It's an attitude, a style, developed over miles, wrinkles and scars.
He was thrown out of high school after he was caught drinking beer. He's been coaching since 1975, four years before Carson Palmer was born. When he was 30, he became the youngest head coach in Division I football, and when he was 60, he became one of the oldest first-time head coaches in NFL history. He was fired seven times and retired once. He is a cancer survivor. He has two artificial knees. He wears Kangol caps. He sips Crown Royal.
He's…distinctive. Especially as NFL coaches go.
And over the past three years, the Cardinals have become distinctive, too—a reflection of their coach, from personnel decisions to attitude to culture.
The Guy No One Saw Coming
When popular and successful Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles was named head coach of the Jets last January, many anticipated Arians would hire an esteemed graybeard from the outside. He entertained Dick LeBeau, Mike Smith and Mike Nolan.
But he knew who his next defensive coordinator was going to be long before Bowles had his first interview.
In 2012, James Bettcher was hired as an assistant to the head coach by the Colts. Arians immediately recognized that he would be a riser. That year, Colts head coach Chuck Pagano missed 12 games to be treated for leukemia, and Arians took over. The next season, Arians was hired by the Cardinals, and he brought Bettcher with him to be his outside linebackers coach.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Shortly after Bettcher's hiring was announced, Arians received a phone call from Colts defensive end Robert Mathis, which was highlighted by a number of the seven words George Carlin said you could not say on TV.
"Why are you taking my guy?" Mathis asked Arians. "I love this guy. He made me better."
Mathis was a 10-year veteran at the time.
Last year, it was the same story, with 14-year veteran defensive end John Abraham telling Arians that Bettcher was making him better.
"I thought I had it all," Abraham told Arians. "But he gave me some more stuff."
Still, helping some pass-rushers was one thing. Coordinating a defense is something else. Bettcher was 36 years old and had never run a defense at any level. He had been in the league for just three years.
On the outside, it seemed Arians' "no risk it, no biscuit" philosophy was extending to his coach hiring as well.
But Arians was not operating on blind faith.
During training camp the previous season, Arians assigned Bettcher the responsibility of calling plays against him during team drills. Bettcher had up to 30 chances per practice to match wits with him. And he held his own.
Even though Bettcher was a position coach, Arians also assigned him special game-day tasks. He was the assistant stationed in the press box who was advising Arians on challenging calls and on clock management, and he also was charged with knowing all the rules.
On Thursdays, Arians often had Bettcher make presentations to the entire team about unusual calls or situations that came up during games the previous week.
"You can always tell a young star when he's in front of a group of guys," Arians said.
Under Bettcher's guidance, the Cardinals have been blitzing slightly more and using different blitz tracks. They went from the 24th-ranked defense in 2014 to the fifth-ranked defense this season. They also went from 22 takeaways to 33.
"B.A.'s most important talent is being able to absorb talent, recognize talent and get talent to work for him," Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell said. "Coach Bettcher is a very talented coach, very smart, very passionate and well spoken. B.A. knew he had potential to be a great coach."
A New Lease on Life
The role Arians shaped for Larry Fitzgerald is at least partially responsible for the wide receiver's surprisingly productive season.
Fitzgerald had been an X receiver, or split end, his entire football playing life. He played the position when Ken Whisenhunt was coaching him, when Todd Haley was coaching him and when Dennis Green was coaching him. He played the position at Pitt, and at the Academy of Holy Angels.
The position defined him as a football player.
One of Arians' first changes when he took over the Cardinals was to also use Fitzgerald at slot, or F, receiver, in addition to X.
Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
During Fitzgerald's first two seasons being used as a slot, his production was off—in part because of injuries.
This season, Arians changed Fitzgerald's role further. On those snaps in which he had been playing X, Arians decided, Fitzgerald would be playing Z, or flanker. He subsequently has lined up in the slot about 60 percent of the time and at flanker about 40 percent, Arians said. Arians is deploying Fitzgerald similarly to how he deployed Hines Ward in Pittsburgh.
The benefits? Fitzgerald has faced less press coverage, less coverage rolled his way and fewer matchups against premier cover men like Seattle's Richard Sherman. Instead, he has been treated to occasional matchups against linebackers, safeties and nickel defensive backs.
The Cardinals consider Fitzgerald the best blocking receiver in the NFL, and he has also been able to make a more critical impact in that area from the slot and from flanker than he ever could have from split end.
At the age of 32, Fitzgerald had a career-high 109 catches this season. He also had 1,215 receiving yards, his most since 2011.
"B.A. has prolonged Larry's career," receivers coach Darryl Drake said. "It takes time to get used to playing the slot, and now he understands it so much better. It was like moving to China and having to learn Chinese. But as time has gone on, his confidence has built. Now he can direct traffic for us, and when you can do that, you can play without thinking."
Keeping an Open Mind
In training camp, rookie running back David Johnson was struggling with a hamstring pull. The Cardinals signed veteran Chris Johnson.
In the early stages of the season, Chris Johnson was mostly used as a downhill runner, and he had some success at it. But he quietly was lobbying for more zone-stretch plays. A good portion of his yards during his glory days with the Titans came on zone-stretch plays.
Arians never had been a proponent of those plays. When it came to the run game, he was an old-school, downhill guy. But in the fourth game of the season, Arians listened to Johnson—and over the next two games, Johnson averaged 6.9 yards per carry. The zone-stretch was here to stay.
"We just said, 'Let's do what he does best,'" Arians said. "We changed. To me, that's coaching. You don't say, 'Here's our system, go learn it.' You say, 'What can this cat help us with?'"
Arians has even maintained an open-mindedness and flexibility within games. Johnson said Arians often came to him, Palmer, Fitzgerald and others during games asking which plays they thought would work.
During a game against the Ravens, Arians sought out Johnson's opinion about running a play called 10 Dive. Johnson endorsed the play, given the fronts the Cardinals were facing. Arians called the play a couple of times on the next series. Even though the runs really didn't go anywhere, they were a success because gains were made in trust.
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
"He listens to his players," said Johnson, who has been out with a fractured tibia, but hopes to return to play in the Super Bowl.
Arians treats his coaches similarly. That might seem like a matter of course, but some head coaches only take advice from assistants when assistants are willing to tell them what they want to hear.
"He takes more input than any coach I've ever worked with," said Drake, a veteran of 30 coaching seasons. "He lets us all get involved and works our ideas into what we do. As a coach, that makes you work harder and be more confident."
No Expiration Date
Instead of shunning old players, Arians seeks them out—as long as the aging athlete is the right kind of person, he says.
Johnson had been cut two times in two years, and he had been out of the game for six months. A bullet was lodged in his shoulder, the result of an offseason drive-by shooting. Many suspected his skills had been depleted. Arians saw value in him, though.
Before signing Johnson, who is now 30, Arians asked around about him. Cardinals assistant head coach Tom Moore, who had worked with him in Tennessee, remembered him favorably. Fox Sports insider Jay Glazer also vouched for Johnson after training him in the offseason.
If Johnson had commitment and drive, Arians thought, he still could mine production from his abilities. Arians' instinct was on point, as Johnson led the team in rushing, even though he started only nine games.
Freeney had been one of the greatest pass-rushers of a generation, but in early October, he was just another out-of-work 35-year-old. Freeney had been cut by the Chargers in March after totaling nine sacks the previous three seasons.
Through training camp, Freeney was thinking about moving into the easy-chair phase of his life. He was playing a lot of golf and enjoying it. But Arians, who had worked with Freeney in Indianapolis, had been texting him. Other teams were interested, too.
At the time, he was not yet ready to commit to anything.
Then in September, Freeney began enjoying golf less as he began "shanking balls left and right." He texted Arians: "Please get me off this golf course. My swing is falling apart."
"Stay ready," came the reply.
Five games into the season, Freeney was tired of waiting and close to pulling the plug on his playing career. He had flown to Los Angeles to interview for a television job. He was sitting on a plane ready to fly back. The door was closed and the flight attendant asked passengers to put their phones in airplane mode. Freeney's phone rang.
"Bruce Arians," the caller ID said.
Freeney answered.
Flight attendant: "No sir, you can't take a call now."
Freeney: "Hold on one minute. Bruce?"
Arians: "You ready to get off that couch?
Freeney: "Absolutely."
Rick Scuteri/Associated Press
Eleven weeks later, Freeney finished the season with eight sacks to lead the Cardinals. Arians had been confident Freeney could help, but even he didn't expect eight sacks.
"From what I saw last year, I thought he could be disruptive because even though he wasn't getting sacks, he was getting pressures," Arians said. "I would have taken the pressures because we needed pressures, too."
Freeney knew the Cardinals were the right team for him.
"B.A. and [general manager] Steve [Keim] do a great job of finding older guys. Everyone else wants the young guys in, [thinks], Forget the older guys. He finds those guys."
Arians' quarterback is 36 and his leading receiver is 32. Much of his coaching staff also would be considered overripe by most standards. The assistant coach Freeney answers to, Tom Pratt, is an 80-year-old great-grandfather who has coached in the NFL in different six decades. Fifty years ago, he was on Hank Stram's staff with the Chiefs in Super Bowl I.
Right behind Pratt is Moore, 77, and offensive line coach Larry Zierlein, 70.
"Old guys," Arians said, "make me feel young."
Lovable…and Intimidating
The Lions had turnovers on their first two possessions of an October game in Detroit. The hurry-up offense the Cardinals had worked on all week responded with back-to-back three-and-out drives.
An agitated Arians gathered his offense on the sideline, his face matching the shade of his Cardinals ball cap. Arians berated his players with a speech that still may be ringing in some ears. The response: The hurry-up started humming and the Cardinals scored touchdowns on their next four possessions in a 42-17 victory.
Ten weeks later in Philadelphia, wide receiver John Brown got open deep on the first play of the game, only to drop what might have a been a 78-yard touchdown pass. As the game went on, Brown, who is called Smoke by teammates, kept struggling, with another drop and a number of misconnections.
Instead of railing at Brown, Arians took a different approach. He tried to call a play that would be a feel-good for Brown.
"He was thinking, 'I have to get Smoke's confidence back, so put him in a position where he can be successful,'" Drake said. "We were driving, about to go in. B.A. saw man-to-man coverage and called for a simple hitch where John would have one-on-one with inside leverage. John caught it and scored."
Arians, who learned from legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant at Alabama, is part grizzly, part teddy, and he knows when to channel which in order to maintain his team's equilibrium. He speaks of coaching his players hard and loving them later.
You would not have wanted to be guard Mike Iupati after he gave up a sack to Mike Neal in the Cardinals' victory over the Packers. As he jogged to the sideline, Arians was blocking his path, and he let him have it.
Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
"To me, he's very intimidating," said Iupati, a 6'5", 331-pound four-time Pro Bowler. "It's his demeanor, the way he carries himself. You don't want to mess up with him. You want to impress him and give everything you have, because he is the type of coach who will take care of you.
"And if you don't give him your best, he's going to MF you."
Probably better than any coach in the NFL, Arians negotiates the line between being loved and being feared.
No Fear
Years ago, Arians was sitting on some cash. He made a big, risky play, putting it in an oil well. He lost big. His pragmatic wife, Christine, made sure that from that point on, he would leave the investing to others.
Getting burned taking a risk never affected the way Arians calls plays—with little regard for caution. But the difference is as a coach, he has an intuition about what to do when.
In Week 12, the Cardinals were trying to protect a six-point lead against the 49ers when they took over with 1:12 remaining in the game. Instead of running the ball on first down and figuring the 49ers would burn one of their two timeouts as almost any coach would, Arians called for a pass—Palmer to Brown for 11 yards. The first down put the victory on ice.
It was a trademark Arians play call—a little dicey, a little counterintuitive and a lot on the money. There were similar examples in almost every game this season.
"I've been around some great play-callers, and he's the best I've been around," Drake said. "His ability to see what's happening before it happens is amazing. It's a gift. In three years with him, I don't think I've ever seen a bad play call from him. If a play hasn't worked, it was the players' fault. And he's always in attack mode."
In part because of play-calling, the Cardinals led the league with an average of 6.8 yards per play. They also led the NFC in plays of 20 yards or more with 78. Palmer, meanwhile, had a career year, hitting highs in passer rating (104.6), yards (4,671), touchdown passes (35) and yards per attempt (8.7).
Even the Cardinals defense has benefited from the mentality.
"I love how aggressive he is on offense and that he goes for the jugular all the time," Campbell said. "It shows the confidence he has in us to stop everything, and it makes all of us have an attitude of trying to finish people. That's what we look to do."
He is not trying to impress a potential next employer. He doesn't care what anyone thinks of him. There is no element of self-preservation in his work.
At some point in the not-too-distant future, the Cardinals' window of opportunity will close. Arians will turn to the dark side and work as a football analyst a couple days a week. He will spend most of his days trying to hit them straight and stay out of the bunkers. And he will learn to fish, because, he says with a chuckle, "That's another reason to drink."
For now, he is coaching in the moment like no one else. And that's how the Cardinals are playing.
At the beginning of the season, Arians asked his players to sell out in every game, on every play.
All they had to do was look to the head coach to know how.
Dan Pompei covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. |
January 1st of this year marked a very special day for me. It's hard for me to believe it, but my dear little Bukkit turned two years old. As cheesy as it sounds, I still remember writing that very first commit as if it were yesterday.
I figured now was a fantastic time to give you a history of the project, its impact on my life, and how everything came about to turn into the huge megaproject that it is today. Some of this may be new information to some people, and some of it may be a little out of order, but I'll try to do my best to make this a worthy read. Whilst the Bukkit project was the best thing that has ever happened to me, it didn't come without some big mistakes and sore spots. I may tell you about those, but they're not easy to write about and may involve a handful of politics.
Before we jump straight into Bukkit, let me take you back to late 2010 and introduce you to another server modding platform formally known as "hMod". Minecraft at this point was in Alpha 1.2 and modding wasn't as much of a thing as it is now. hMod was created by a guy known as hey0, and was an attempt to make a more customisable version of the server without having to learn how to code yourself. That may not sound like a modding platform... and that's because it wasn't created to be one; it just kinda ended up that way. It came with a few handy utilities for server owners such as some commands to control the server with (/ban, /give), a whitelist (this was huge!), and a message of the day. These kinds of things you take for granted these days, but they were unthinkable luxuries for the brave and willing modders back then. Somehow hMod picked up speed and people started to extend upon it with plugins, adding yet more functionality to such an already ambitious project.
I loved the concept of this strange and curious project. I wanted to check it out and maybe try my hand at making my own plugin. The chance of customising a game to how I want it? Yes please! I hadn't really played with Java much before, but I'm quick to pick up new programming languages and I was quite familiar with C# so it was easy enough to work with. I knew exactly what I wanted to try to make, and I had a bunch of friends who supported me and were willing to try it out with me. Minecraft multiplayer was an extremely new and broken thing at the time, and things like Minecarts would just be invincible crashing machines at this point (seriously; you couldn't destroy them and rails crashed your server and your clients), so there was a desperate need for getting around quickly on a server. There were already some plugins that let players /teleport between themselves but I didn't like this; commands are no way of interacting with a graphical world! I set out to make a plugin called "Stargate", which I'd like to imagine set the standards for modern portal plugins. There simply weren't any previously, and I went all out trying to get Stargate working how I thought it should; you'd orient and position properly between the portals, kept momentum, and they utilized signs as a means of interacting with them (something that nothing else did at the time - it's now the norm!)
During my time making Stargate, I somehow took burden of maintaining hMod with a few other people who equally just found themselves in such a position without any knowledge of how it happened. Hey0 had vanished, and Minecraft had started to be updated much more frequently than before. We needed to know what to do! Myself and Grum took control and spent our time updating hMod ourselves, which was a scary task and took us a long time, but we got through it. We had very little control over the project, and couldn't even make releases ourselves, so this was an extremely difficult position to work from - but we did it. We spent a few months updating hMod between Grum and myself, and eventually we just grew tired of having to support broken things without being able to even attempt to fix them. I spoke to a few people in private and proposed that we started up a new project from scratch, where we can actually work on the things that need to be worked on and hopefully make something just that much more awesome. Some of the guys I spoke to thought it wasn't worth the time, whilst others (Grum, Tahg, EvilSeph) thought it was a good idea. I figured that any positive reaction was enough to get it started, so I went forwards with my plans.
People often ask me, "why 'Bukkit'?". Well, it's kinda silly, but I have a bot in my home IRC channel called "Scrapbucket", which was a fork of xkcd's IRC bot "Bucket". I proposed "CraftBucket", and people agreed that it was a good name. After we realized that splitting the project into two parts (an API and an implementation), we decided to go for "Bucket" and "CraftBucket" - but then Grum jokingly suggested "Bukkit" for the whimsy name. Needless to say, it stuck :)
So there we had our group and our plans, and we were ready to take over the world. We drafted up an announcement that we'll no longer be supporting hMod ourselves and will be creating a new project, and this was published on a few sites. The minecraftforum thread is still available for reading, and is worth a few giggles if you're interested. Initial community reaction to the announcement was mostly fantastic, but it did spawn up the usual craze of "one project may die; we need to fill in the void with a new one!". Lots of other projects suddenly popped up to compete with us to replace our own work, but they didn't really take off. I was excited, there was so much to do and I can really get a lot done if I'm focused. Full steam ahead, and the project just grew like nothing else. Over the next couple of months, the initial team that said they'd help create the project kinda fell away, and we were left with just 4 people as the "core". Myself, Grum, EvilSeph, and Tahg. I'd come to learn from my time making this project that people may mean good, and some may even mean bad, you just can't rely on them to be available as much as you are a few months down the line - life gets in the way! It kinda ended up with me doing the API designing + implementing, and Grum helping out with the really difficult tasks as his time away from work allowed.
I think the one thing that I'm most proud of from Bukkit was our updating procedure. It was extremely taxing work, but we developed an awesome 3-step procedure for it. Grum had created some awesome tools to semi-automate the decompilation and deobfuscation process (step 1 and 2), and I would essentially rewrite a portion of CraftBukkit in a matter of hours for step 3. For the average update I would spent 20-30 hours nonstop (save for bathroom breaks. I was dedicated, but not that dedicated) just sat there recreating our now large codebase for the new version of Minecraft. During this time I would also be the one reassuring the community that yes, we know about the update, and yes, we are working on it. It was incredibly difficult work and very thankless too. I am so grateful that my loving fiancee supported me throughout this; Bukkit (and to a lesser extent, maybe even Minecraft) may not have gotten to where it is now without her :) You may have noticed that I speak about this process in first person, and that's because I did absolutely every update myself up until the day I joined Mojang. Sometimes I would get a little help, but it was rare; it was just quicker and easier to do it myself than wait around for other people to help out, because it wasn't really something that can be done concurrently.
I started Bukkit when I was employed, but I was made redundant soon after. This means that for most of the year (2011), I was unemployed. I was running purely on savings and personal donations to myself (of which probably totalled a few hundred pounds to this day. Almost enough for 1 month of rent!). Towards the end of the year, I had started to run into cash issues, and I wasn't entirely sure what to do. I had put a "please donate!" button on my blog, and tweeted it; I got a few personal direct donations this way, and it happened to be enough to get me through the month (combined with existing funds and borrowings). I asked the others about the donations that "Bukkit" receives; since day 1 we've had a donation form up on our website, and it went to one person to cover the $100~ one-time fee of a forum license. Apparently we received a nice amount of donations at the beginning (a few hundred USD for each of us four, after expenses!) but in the last half a year at that point, we ended up with about $20... Well. Ok. That clearly wasn't an option then! As upsetting as it was :(
At some point here, Curse had offered to support Bukkit and that couldn't have come at a better time. Our servers were buckling under load, and we couldn't afford to do anything about it on our own. I acquired a job at Curse (in which my role was literally, "keep doing what you do and don't mind us". They were good people!) and they also helped kick off an old dream that we had when we started Bukkit; an easy to search plugin repository! They also offered to fly us all to Blizzcon, of which I was planning to attend anyway, so that we can all meet up and say hi. And so for the first time ever, the Bukkit team was united together in person! A month or two after that, Curse also flew us out to the first Minecon and we did a panel there. That was both incredibly scary but also incredibly awesome.
Some months pass by, and we're now into 2012. Mojang had expressed a desire to acquire us, and so we flew to meet up with them yet again. Needless to say, after much talks to and fro, we accepted their offer and the rest is history! I passed on the keys to some other members, taught them how to do the updating, and went on to developing Minecraft.
It has been such a crazy ride. Looking back, we had made a lot of mistakes in Bukkit, but it was all worth it in the end. It was a fantastic experience for me, and I had never dreamed that it would have ended up anything as big as it is now. Bukkit is by no means a closed chapter though, it's still being developed to this day. I put my heart into the project, and it rewarded me with an awesome job and so much experience. Thank you.
Happy birthday, Bukkit. Here's to many more. |
“My husband had a vasectomy, and now I want a baby.” It sounds like the title of one of those scandalous drama-packed made for TV movies, but I confess it isn’t. This is actually the dominating thought playing on repeat through my mind after my husband has undergone the procedure, and when my mind actually takes a breather, it jumps in wonder to, “What is wrong with me?” and, “How do I stop this incessant desire?”
Our home is filled with four children. By our definition, we have a large family. I know I don’t want to be pregnant again, I know that for certain, but this whole process has mentally taken me to a place I’ve never been.
Did we make a decision we now regret?
No, this is truly what we wanted, and still want, I just went in blinded to the pain of the finality it brings. I’ve heard women talk of this process with an air of relief, as though it is a gift, displaying a thankful attitude of sorts. But for me, I’m not there, yet. For me, it’s been a reminder of the brevity of the life we live, and the moment we’re living now is one I hadn’t thought of experiencing, and honestly didn’t consider the grief that would accompany.
This stage of life and where our children are now is a wonderful place. We can do things that weren’t easily done with a newborn – and I like that – but I’m also grieving the truth that there won’t be any more pregnancy tests, no more flutter of little kicks in my belly, no more appointments to find out the gender, no more smell of a newborn, no more waking up to sit in awe and wonder over the peaceful sleep of a brand-new baby. No, there won’t be any more of this… and that’s ok. But I’m going to sit for a moment and grieve this transition, as we on our own chose to close this chapter in life’s book. And as I sit here I’ll remind myself – this IS normal. I know this because I have beautifully honest friends who I’ve shared this struggle with and they too confess to the same feelings, and wondered, “Am I normal in feeling this way?” and they’re far enough on the other side to be ok, and see the beauty of this stage of life.
I wonder, for those of you reading this, maybe you’re getting ready to walk down this same path, and you aren’t sure what to expect. Or maybe you sit at the same side of the table with me and your thoughts are jumping from place to place just like mine. If that’s you, I want you to realize it’s ok to not be ok in this moment. You see, the book of life in which we all live is filled with many chapters. Some are adventurous and filled with new beginnings. While others are grievous, presenting twists and turns we didn’t quite see coming. This is one such chapter. It’s ok to be happy with the decision you’ve made, and grieve it in the same breath because this chapter specifically was filled with many beautiful moments where you personally encountered the hand of God as he graciously presented you with life’s most precious gift. But don’t worry– that precious gift He has granted, that gift still needs you desperately. So sit there, rest a moment knowing this feeling is normal. Grieve, but don’t dwell for too long because that precious human being you’ve been entrusted needs you to continue on in being the mother you were designed to be by stepping into life’s next adventure-packed chapter. |
During his conversation with Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker and other staffers, Trump lied about the reaction to his Boy Scouts speech, referred to his 36-year-old son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, as a “good boy,” and answered a question about infrastructure by railing against Hillary Clinton.
Here are all the moments in the interview that made us reflect deeply about who we are and how we got here:
He fabricated claims about the reaction to his Boy Scouts speech.
Trump gave a strange, meandering speech to the Boy Scouts of America last month that was criticized for being too political. The group later apologized, saying that the speech’s “political rhetoric” was “never our intent.”
When the Journal editors said that the speech got “mixed” reactions from former scouts, Trump shot back that, “They loved it... it was no mix.” The president then claimed that the head of the Boy Scouts personally called him to tell him that, “it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful.” The group reportedly denied that such an exchange ever took place.
Trump responded to a question about infrastructure by bragging about winning Ohio.
Asked about how he planned to work with Democrats in Congress to achieve his infrastructure goals, Trump brought up his former Democratic presidential rival Clinton.
“She spent hundreds of millions of dollars on negative ads,” the president said. “She didn’t do a positive ad, virtually. And she lost easily.”
And then, as if unaware his presidential campaign ended after the election, Trump said that “we’re substantially up” in “swing states” like Ohio.
“You know, I won the state by 9 or 10 or something, by 9 or 10 points, without any governor support, OK?” he said. “So you have the governor of Ohio not supporting you and you win by almost 10 points, which is pretty good because Ohio’s not — if you remember, you guys were always saying you have to win Ohio, right?
He falsely claimed that he has passed more bills during his first six months in office than any other president.
“I honestly believe for six months I have done more than just about any president when you look at all of the bills that were passed, 42, 43,” he said.
This is a claim he’s made before. But according to The New York Times, Jimmy Carter signed 70 bills during the same time period as president, while Bill Clinton signed 50. Franklin Delano Roosevelt topped them all by signing 76 bills in his first 100 days.
Trump said there would be “no other staff changes” within the White House in the immediate future.
He said New Yorkers should just move across the country if they can’t find work.
“I’m going to start explaining to people when you have an area that just isn’t working – like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt – and then you’ll have another area 500 miles away where you can’t – you can’t get people, I’m going to explain you can leave, it’s OK, don’t worry about your house,” he said. “You know, a lot of them don’t leave because of their house. Because they say, gee, my house, I thought it was worth $70,000 and now it’s worth nothing. It’s OK. Go, cut your losses, right?”
Trump hinted that he might fire the man leading the investigation into his campaign’s connections to Russia.
After firing FBI director James Comey, the Justice Department appointed Robert Mueller as special counsel in charge of the probe. But as the investigation widens, speculation has grown that Trump could fire Mueller too.
Asked by the Journal editors if Mueller’s job was safe, Trump said, “No.”
“No, we’re going to see,” he said. “I mean, I have no comment yet, because it’s too early. But we’ll see. We’re going to see.”
Several members of Congress have warned Trump against firing Mueller.
“Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, unless Mueller did something wrong,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said.
Speaking of Russia, Trump also lied and said no one on his team ever spoke with Russian officials.
“I was never involved with Russia,” the president told the Journal. “There was nobody in the campaign. I’ve got 200 people that will say that they’ve never seen anybody on the campaign.... there’s nobody on the campaign that saw anybody from Russia. We had nothing to do with Russia.” |
An enterprising bagpiper can accumulate a large number of chanter reeds over time. But once you find those choice bits of cane, what do you do with them? Active players will normally have a few good reeds going and need others close at hand. Do you keep them in a cardboard box? Store them in the back of your fridge? Keep them loose in a small jar? Many a good, unplayed reed has suffered from bouncing around loose in some sort of container in the bottom of a pipe case, or worse, been sitting safely stored at home when needed at a performance. Here is a nifty, quickly-made reed case that will not only keep your reeds dry and protected when kept in your pipe box, they’ll be held secure so they are undamaged in your travels.
What You Need
Empty metal mint or gum (Altoids or similar knock off)
8.5 x 11-inch sheet of 1/8-inch thick children’s EVA foam
Foam cushioning from an old chair or sofa. (A new appliance or electronic gizmo will often have stiff spongy packing.)
Hot glue gun or regular white Elmer’s glue
Small paint brush (if using Elmer’s)
X-acto knife or hobby blade
Long box cutter or utility knife
Ruler
Sharpie marker
Spray hobby paint (optional)
How to Do It
1. Prepare your materials. Place the Altoid tin on the sheet of EVA foam and trace the shape of the base. Trim your traced shape to fit flatly and snugly in the bottom of the tin. Cut a strip of EVA foam to line the walls of your reed case. Measure a strip 11-3/8 inches long and cut to 21/32 inches wide (the depth of the tin minus the thickness of the EVA foam base).
2. Make your reed holder insert. Slice off a “block” of foam cushioning with the box cutter or utility knife, 2-3/8 x 3/8 x 3/4.
3. Place your reed holder slots. These slots will secure your reeds in place. Start at one end of the block and measure 1/2 inches. Mark a line with your sharpie marker. Then mark additional lines 5/8 inches apart. You should have five lines. Make a cut with your hobby knife along each mark straight down through the width of the block to about halfway through the depth of the block.
4. Line the bottom portion of your reed case with EVA foam piece you traced and trimmed. Brush on some glue over the surface of the tin or dot the area with your glue gun. Glue down your trimmed base to the bottom of the tin. If you’re using hot glue, be sure to get the edges glued down.
5. Line the walls of your reed case. Brush on the glue over a small bit of the EVA foam strip. Glue the EVA foam strip to one corner and work your way around the perimeter of the tin, pushing in the foam tight under the metal “lip.” Brush on or dot glue as you go while pressing in the strip underneath the tin “lip” little bits at a time for a tight fit. Let dry.
6. Secure your reed holder insert into your reed case. Measure and mark the center of the tin’s base. Brush on glue or hot glue the bottom of the block. Line up the center of the tin’s base with the center of your foam block and insert the foam block. Compress the block slightly to fit inside against the edges. Glue the ends to the inside walls.
7. Curiously strong reeds! Insert the staple/binding end of your chanter reeds into the slot in the foam holder alternating sides of the foam with each reed. You can now indulge your artistic tendencies and personalize the case. Sand down the exterior and coat with your favorite color spray or hobby paint.
SPECIAL SPORRAN SIZE: Repeat all the steps above but use an Altoid chewing gum tin. They are the perfect size for the sporran. Alter your measurements as needed for the foam insert. These tins are smaller, narrower, and will fit about 2 or 3 chanter reeds. |
The comments from Manfred Schmidt, head of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) are certain to provoke anger in some quarters of the political spectrum.
Schmidt told Der Spiegel he was "convinced" that Germany and its citizens were prepared for the task that is entailed by taking so many people into the country.
"There is an enormous engagement on the part of the German people. On the one hand you have Heidenau – but in reaction to that you can fill 100 or 200 volunteer positions," he said.
Heidenau, a town in Saxony, was the scene of violent far-right protests in front of a planned refugee centre earlier in August.
Schmidt made clear that the number of refugees Germany takes in will remain dependent on external conditions and not on quotas set in Berlin.
"There can be no upper limit set on the intake of people who are fleeing persecution and need protection," Schmidt said.
With Germany expecting 800,000 asylum applications during the course of 2015, Schmidt has had more work on his desk than in any previous year, and the backlog in applications is now estimated at a quarter of a million.
But the ex-jurist said that the opening of extra offices and the building up of his workforce would soon start to make a difference.
"There will be new processing centres set up in several cities and thousands of new employees will be hired this year – and in 2016 we will add up to 1,000 more people to our workforce. This is already making a difference. Up to July we processed more applications than in the whole of 2014,“ said Schmidt.
He also argued that changes to the process would have an impact in halting the influx of migrants from so-called 'safe countries' in the Balkans.
Defending a decision to stop providing asylum seekers with money, but to instead give them with coupons, Schmidt said that the money Balkan families were given here over the few months it takes to process an asylum application was often used to live "for up to a year" back in their home countries.
Schmidt explained the huge rise in the number of people seeking asylum in Germany as primarily due to Syrian refugees finally giving up hope that they will be able to return to their homes in the near future.
But he also said that advances in telecommunications meant that people in Africa were much better informed than a decade ago as to the economic strength of the Federal Republic. This made it an attractive place for people to migrate to who couldn't envisage a future for themselves in their own country, he argued.
"We need to communicate to these people that using the asylum system isn't the right way to come to Germany, we should also be working in their countries to show that there are legal ways to migrate here for work," said the BAMF head. |
On August 4, 2017 the court of the ACJ -CCJ – ARC (East), at the Karkardooma District Courts in Delhi restrained Juggernaut Books from publication and sale of Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev. We have received an intimation and copy of the order on August 10, 2017 and have complied with it immediately thereafter.
This order was passed ex-parte without hearing either the publisher, Juggernaut Books, or the author of the book, Priyanka Pathak-Narain, in order to avoid ‘the delay which would be caused during the process of serving the notice and hearing the defendants’.
Every person is entitled to approach a court of law with a grievance that must be decided in a fair manner. In this case, the allegation of defamation must certainly be heard in the courts and we welcome the chance to defend our book. Godman to Tycoon is a work of serious journalism. It is the product of over fifty interviews, many of them taped, with key players in Baba Ramdev’s life, including with Ramdev himself and close aides and family members. The book contains a detailed 25-page note on sources that lists the interviews, articles, police reports and RTI replies that are the basis of each chapter.
Prior to publication the manuscript was submitted for a legal read and vetted by an expert. The author’s taped interviews were also submitted to and authenticated by a forensic laboratory.
The order of ex-parte interim injunction restrains Juggernaut Books, the author, and also the printer, Amazon and Flipkart.
As the matter is sub judice, we cannot comment on the merits of the case. However, we stand by our book, will defend the case and will move the court to vacate the injunction.
See the sources for the book here.
Sources: Infographic |
Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential bid has been marred by controversy. While the media has put much of the spotlight on his arguably racist rhetoric, short temper, and leaked audio recordings, they seemingly gloss over one recurring theme of the Trump campaign: hostility towards the First Amendment, specifically towards free speech and freedom of the press. The Trump campaign has revoked press credentials and threatened multiple media outlets with lawsuits. Let’s take a closer look at how significantly Donald Trump threatens free speech.
Free Speech and the First Amendment
Simply put, the First Amendment states:
The First Amendment prohibits ratifying laws respecting an establishment of religion and protects free exercise of religion, free speech, the right to assemble peacefully, petitioning the government to address grievances, and freedom of the press.
How Donald Trump Threatens Free Speech
Donald Trump has consistently employed a couple of tactics to attempt to silence his critics in the media. Here are the two troubling tactics:
Revoking Press Credentials
The laundry list of media outlets that have had their press credentials revoked shows exactly how Donald Trump threatens free speech. These outlets include major publications such as The Washington Post, Politico, and The Huffington Post. Of course, there is no denying that these media outlets have been extremely critical of Trump. In Trump’s defense, some of the articles published by these media outlets are exceptionally petty criticisms, including the time The Huffington Post wrote an article criticizing Trump for the way he eats pizza and fried chicken.
However, that does not excuse Trump’s attempt to censor his critics. Trump’s tactic of revoking the press credentials of media outlets who criticize him goes against the spirit of the First Amendment and the freedom of the press to report the news. It’s also an entirely worthless effort on Trump’s part. Media outlets such as The Washington Post were not going to stop criticizing Trump simply because he revoked their credentials. If anything, it inspired The Washington Post and others to turn up the dial against Trump. At the very least, the credential revocation serves as content fodder for the media outlet, which increases traffic and revenue for the media outlet.
Threatening to Sue Media Outlets
Donald Trump’s second critic-silencing tactic is the threat of lawsuit. It’s logical to assume that this tactic would be somewhat effective considering Trump’s vast wealth and resources to be able to pursue a long legal battle. Trump has used this tactic in 2016 to try and silence his critics in the media. So far, there have been at least two notable examples this election cycle:
Trump has also threatened to sue over negative ads and threatened to sue a UK nightclub for depicting him as the Joker in an ad for a Halloween event.
Although none of these proposed lawsuits have manifested into an actual court case, the thought that a presidential candidate would propose baselessly suing some of the most respected media outlets in the country is a scary thought. How far would a President Trump take it? Would he propose state run media?
Make No Mistake: Donald Trump Threatens Free Speech
Trump’s consistent attempts to silence his critics, despite the validity of their claims, demonstrates both the thinness of his skin and his lack of respect for the First Amendment. The media has a duty to report on current events and provide the public with vital information. Trump’s eagerness to censor unfavorable reports of his past and present actions should raise concern among any content creator who passionately reports the news. |
Michael Young on why the shift in the political centre of gravity in Syria’s conflict to the east is significant for the future of the country
The political centre of gravity in Syria’s conflict is shifting to the east of the country, as the Assad regime expands its control in the west. This is significant for many reasons, not least that eastern Syria is where the vital interests of several regional actors and the Syrian regime are most acute.
Eastern Syria is many things to the different political players in Syria. It is where Syria’s oil is concentrated, a vital factor for a Syrian regime in desperate need of revenues. It is also where the regime can re-establish control over its borders with Iraq, a key aspect of its legitimacy.
To Iran, domination of the east ensures geographical continuity between the Islamic Republic and its allies in Syria and Lebanon, through Iranian-dominated Iraq. As for Russia, retaking the east would be the capstone on its persistent efforts to save Bashar Al Assad’s regime.
If Raqqa is lost by ISIL, the eastern border area is where the group’s militants are likely to redeploy. The cities of Deir Ezzor, Al Bukamal and Mayadin are all controlled by ISIL today, giving the group a geographical presence near Sunni areas of Iraq.
The buildup to the battle for Raqqa is only one factor shaping developments in eastern Syria. Recently, US aircraft bombed a column of pro-regime forces, including Hizbollah combatants, heading towards Tanf, in southern Syria near the Jordanian and Iraqi borders. The column was nearing the so-called de-confliction zone around Tanf, where US special forces are based. However, the area is also considered important for the regime to mount an attack against ISIL in eastern Syria’s cities.
In a further sign of the growing focus on eastern Syria, Russia’s ambassador to Iran said last week that there was a “high probability” that Russia and Iran would agree to base Russian warplanes at an Iranian base in Hamadan province in western Iran, from where to attack targets in Syria. While there does not yet appear to be a final deal between the two, it is difficult not to interpret this as a Russian effort to have a presence around Syria’s east in light of the rapidly developing situation there.
In March, Kurdish officials suggested that the United States was setting up two airstrips in Kurdish-controlled north-eastern Syria, one in Rumeilan and the other south of Kobani. While US officials denied the story, a report in the US military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper appeared to confirm parts of it. The article underlined that the airbase near Kobani was being expanded in preparation for the Raqqa campaign.
This succession of events highlighted that eastern Syria is emerging as an area of strategic rivalry between the many political actors with stakes there. As prospects for a post-ISIL phase in eastern Syria increase, the United States, Russia, Iran and the Syrian regime appear to be positioning themselves to ensure that they can exploit the aftermath.
Tehran’s interest in sending pro-Iranian forces in the direction of Tanf, like the possibility of Russia benefiting from airbases in Iran, suggests that both do not want the foes of Mr Al Assad to retain an uncontested toehold in eastern Syria from where they might pursue their agendas.
The situation in north-eastern Syria remains uncertain, given the presence of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), with its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG). That is why the Syrian regime, Russia, and Iran, may want to move into regions to the south and west of Kurdish-dominated areas. Their fear is that the international coalition fighting ISIL, once the group is defeated, may choose to use its presence in Syria as leverage to push for Mr Al Assad’s removal.
The Syrian regime has been very sensitive to developments in the east of the country since 2011. It first ceded its positions to the PYD in Hasakeh governorate in order to prevent anti-Assad Arab Syrian groups from taking over of the territory. In Deir Ezzor, the regime has fought hard to preserve its presence in parts of the city and in a nearby airbase, precisely because it could not afford to be eliminated completely from oil-rich areas along its strategically-vital boundaries with Iraq.
These imperatives are as alive as ever as the situation in the east appears to be moving towards a fundamental shift, assuming that ISIL is defeated farther north. With the regime consolidating its military gains in western Syria, it is in a better position to consider reimposing its writ elsewhere. That is Mr Al Assad’s main objective, to claw back the entirety of the country that his father left him.
Nothing indicates that Iran and Russia are thinking any differently than the Syrian president. He may be greatly dependent on them for his military gains, but that only makes them more eager to help him.
Mr Al Assad’s eyes are firmly on eastern Syria, but the complexities of the region mean that its recapture may not be so easy. Without the east, however, the Syrian regime will not be able to claim victory in its war.
Michael Young is a writer and editor in Beirut
On Twitter: @BeirutCalling |
Obviously I’m a huge supporter of free speech, but with the right comes a certain responsibility. Part of that responsibility means that just because you can say something, doesn’t mean you always should.
I don’t begrudge anyone speaking their mind, but the backlash shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Labeling an entire political movement as rapists?
Maybe not Frank Miller’s best plan.
Today’s page was done by Wes Huffor:
Wes Huffor started out working for small press publishers in the Los Angeles, Riverside and Inland Empire. In 2008, Huffor released Charnel House, a Horror and Crime Anthology under the flag of UK based publisher Broken Voice. As a nod to Classic Crime and Horror with some modern twists, the stories in Charnel House were written by several writers from the US and UK with Huffor’s pencil and ink throughout. Charnel House was distributed worldwide in 2009. Huffor, who has an international stable of fans, was honored in 2011 by having one of his original illustrations chosen to be added to the Edgar Allen Poe cottage in the Bronx, NY, by the Historic House Trust of New York, a protected historic monument, which has been recently restored with the addition of a contemporary museum. Wes Huffor’s illustration remains there as a permanent feature in the wall of Poe’s NY home. Wes is currently working with noted Director/Producers Darin Scott and Ed Polgarty on a Horror comic book series entitled The Wrath. The series is planned for US release in early 2012.
It’s going to be a good week, folks, call it a feeling.
-sohmer |
(CNN) Morning at the Conway household is like mornings in most homes with children. It's a scramble to get the kids fed, dressed and out the door on time for school -- organized chaos that would look familiar to any parent. But the mother of four young children in the New Jersey home we visited is not just any parent -- she is Donald Trump's campaign manager.
Kellyanne Conway's real house in Alpine, New Jersey, looks eerily like the one NBC's "Saturday Night Live" imagined in a parody earlier this month. The bit fantasized what a day off would be like for her -- rollerblading, painting, doing yoga -- only to be constantly interrupted by demands for television appearances so that she can try to explain fictitious off-the-wall comments from her boss.
In the few short months since becoming Trump's campaign manager, Conway has become a constant fixture on television -- laying out his agenda, talking points and often trying to smooth over Trump controversies. In dedicating a whole sketch to her, SNL picked up on a question many people are fascinated by: Does she believe what she says when she defends Trump?
"I think it's unfair to say I'm always dutifully defending him. I look at my job, Dana, as explaining positions on issues, why he's running for president and why people should vote for him," said Conway, 49, who will turn 50 on Inauguration Day.
Conway has only been on the job since August. She is Trump's third campaign manager, but the first woman ever to run the campaign of a Republican nominee. She told us that when Trump asked her to take the job, her being a woman was beside the point.
"I wasn't hired because of my gender. But it's a special responsibility," said Conway, "I want to do right, apart from my gender -- I want to do right as a campaign manager."
That's not always easy when Trump is the candidate. Just this past weekend Trump was supposed to give a focused speech in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, about what he calls "draining the swamp."
Instead, he started his remarks by going decidedly off script, attacking the women who say he groped them and vowing to sue them for lying when the election is over.
"It's his campaign, and it's his candidacy, and in the end, yes, I feel comfortable with his voice and his choice," said Conway.
Yet when pressed, she admitted that "Donald Trump is at his very best, at his very best, when he talks about the issues."
Translation: Going off message hurts Trump.
Still, Conway insists she's tough with Trump in private. As an example, she told us what happened when they got on the plane after his Gettysburg speech.
"I don't sugarcoat at all," said Conway.
She told him after his off script rant, "You and I are in a fight for the next 17 days."
When Trump asked why, Conway replied: "Because I know you're going to win. And that comment you just made sounds like you think you're going to lose. And we're going to argue about it until you win."
His response?
"He was like, 'OK, honey. Then we'll win,' " Conway said.
Conway did tame Trump -- temporarily
For a time after Conway took over the campaign, Trump was uncharacteristically disciplined. He allowed his staff to add teleprompters to his rallies, a tool he had mocked Clinton for using, in order to stick to prepared speeches. (His off-the-rails Gettysburg address was proof that's not true anymore.)
But it is his Twitter feed that has gotten him in the most trouble.
"People will seriously say, 'Can't you delete his Twitter account?'" said Conway.
"I'm not going to take away -- it's not for me to take away a grown man's Twitter account," she added.
The Friday that the now-infamous tape from 2005 came out of Trump describing lewd behavior, Conway publicly expressed her dismay in her own way -- canceling her Sunday TV appearances. But behind the scenes she was in the thick of it helping with damage control.
"I felt like Rapunzel in the tower all weekend," said Conway, in this scenario the tower being Trump Tower.
"I told Mr. Trump in private what I've also said in public or a variation thereof," said Conway. "I found the comments to be horrible and indefensible. And he didn't ask anybody to defend them, by the way."
She said she did not consider quitting.
"I'm glad he apologized. I was there when he made his apology. I will tell all the people who think he was not sincere and he wasn't truly contrite, or he wasn't contrite enough -- you're wrong. He was. I was there," she said. "And he's also resolved to see this fight through. And I think the same reason he wouldn't quit the race is the same reason I wouldn't quit for him, and it's very simple."
Since then multiple women have come forward saying Trump wasn't just engaging in locker room talk with Billy Bush on that "Access Hollywood" tape, but he actually groped them.
Does Conway believe them?
"I believe -- Donald Trump has told me and his family, and the rest of America now, that none of this is true. These are lies and fabrications. They're all made up. And I think that it's not for me to judge what those women believe. I've not talked to them, I've talked to him," she said.
Brought up in a house of women, now working in a man's world
Conway was raised in Southern New Jersey by a single mom, two aunts and her grandmother -- all women. As a political pollster she chose to work in what she calls a man's world -- especially as a Republican.
"Republican politics can sometimes feel like you're walking into, you know, an Elks Club or bachelor party," said Conway.
She recalled a potential client -- a man -- asking how she'd balance kids and work.
"It's like, 'I just hope you ask all the male consultants. Are you going to give up your weekly golf game and your mistresses?' Because they seem really, really busy too,'" recalled Conway.
The irony of Conway running the campaign of a GOP candidate struggling with female voters is that she made a name for herself as a pollster by teaching politicians and corporate clients how to reach female voters and consumers.
"We won't be able to in such a short amount of time be able to execute on the many ideas that we have tried, that we've worked so hard on over the years. Because there simply isn't enough time," Conway replied when asked about the disconnect between her expertise and the problems her candidate is facing with women.
Was she hired too late?
"Well it's that the -- well, it wasn't -- I wasn't hired too late. I think that if you're in Donald Trump's campaign, you work for Donald Trump -- every single day you wake up and you wonder, 'What avalanche of criticism and what road blocks are going to be thrown your way that day?' And sometimes, your best laid plans hit those road blocks and hit those avalanches."
"And that's OK," added Conway, without acknowledging what many Trump sources admit privately -- some of those road blocks and avalanches have been created by the candidate himself.
JUST WATCHED Conway slammed 'system is rigged' rhetoric in April Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Conway slammed 'system is rigged' rhetoric in April 02:32
Unconventional candidate, unconventional campaign manager role
Though Conway is the campaign manager, an untold story is how much Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Ivanka's husband, is also running things -- especially when it comes to budgeting.
He, and Brad Paracale, whose official title is digital director but has known and worked for Trump's children, are in closest contact with the Republican National Committee. That relationship is much more important in Trump's campaign than usual because he is relying on the RNC for grassroots get out the vote operations traditionally done by the candidate's campaign itself.
Conway gushes when asked about Kushner's unusually large role in the campaign, including doing jobs often done by the campaign manager.
"I'm very close to Jared. We talk many times a day. We meet many times a day," said Conway. "He's obviously a brilliant businessman. He helps to run his own family's very successful business."
Conway: Working mother
Like most working mothers, time with her kids is precious. When we visited in the early evening for our interview, Conway took time to listen to her 12-year-old-daughter, Claudia, play piano, asked her twin brother, George, about the birthday party they just returned from and laughed as her younger daughters, Charlotte and Vanessa, belted out raps from the musical Hamilton. (Conway's husband George, a lawyer who defended Bill Clinton accuser Paula Jones in the 1990s, was upstairs. She called him "too shy" for the television cameras).
These days, this scene is rare. Her mother has moved in to help the kids while Conway is what she jokingly tells her kids is her "semester abroad."
The question is whether she'll have more time on her hands in two weeks after Election Day.
When Trump hired her, she told him point blank that he was losing, but that he still had a pathway to win. Does she still think it is possible to win?
"It is still possible to win," she replied.
Is it probable?
"I think that we have got a very good chance of winning," she said in her upbeat, on message way that voters and viewers have become familiar with over the last three months. "I think that people have realized it's very unwise to bet against Donald Trump." |
Aligning with the AMD EPYC launch, we have a dual socket system in the lab for testing. We are not going to publish a bevy of performance and power consumption data today because we know there are some performance and power tweaks in a future BIOS revision for the platform. Still, we wanted to share some insights into power consumption we are seeing on the platform.
AMD EPYC 7601 Test Configuration
Our test system was relatively simple which lets us get directional power consumption data. Here is a quick overview:
Platform: Supermicro 2U Ultra Server with NVMe Support
CPU: 2x AMD EPYC 7601 (32 cores/ 64 threads each)
RAM: 512GB using 16x 32GB DDR4-2400 ECC RDIMM (eight per CPU)
Boot SSD: Intel DC S3520 480GB
NVMe SSD(s): Intel DC P3600 800GB
Network Adapter: Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro EN 40GbE (2x QSFP+ 1m DACs)
Overall, AMD is pushing the EPYC processors as part of larger systems. The 2U Ultra platform has a huge number of PCIe 3.0 slots and can accept 4x 2.5″ or 3.5″ NVMe drives. The possibility to use significantly more power is certainly present.
We test in our Silicon Valley data center where we use 208V 30A circuits to power machines.
Dual AMD EPYC 7601 Initial Power Consumption Observations
We have been running workloads in the AMD EPYC platform for several days. Although we do not have a full set of data, we did want to publish some preliminary numbers. Aside from the configuration changes, we do expect some power consumption impact from newer AMD BIOS improvements.
We took three quick data points just to get a sense of how much power the system was using.
Idle
Our 60% enterprise static load
GROMACS AVX2_256 across 128 threads
These are being measured on our APC/ Schneider Electric PSUs in the data center lab, similar to how a colocation provider may meter a customer. Here is a quick look at the outlet. If you were wondering why it is using 138W that is installing packages from Ubuntu 17.04 repos:
Overall these are good numbers for the platform. The idle power consumption is about the same as we would expect on a high-core count Broadwell-EP chips configured with 16x DDR4 DIMMs in 2 DPC configuration. The 60% workload number is great. Although we are not publishing benchmarks, the numbers were very good. In terms of the GROMACS AVX2 workload, we hit the 483W maximum thus far in our testing.
Final Words
In systems that leverage large numbers of power hungry devices, for example, GPU compute servers and NVMe storage servers, the CPU is a relatively low power consumption line item. We were surprised to see how low the actual power consumption is on the platform. Running an AVX2 workload we were expecting much higher power consumption but at under 500w for 128 threads, this is excellent.
With the level of power/ performance of the new systems, you can essentially replace four Intel Xeon E5-2600 (V1) servers with a single dual socket EPYC node and get more performance (in most cases) in a single node that uses half the power. That is absolutely stellar. The AMD EPYC platform is still seeing major updates to BIOS for power and performance which is why we are calling these preliminary results. At the same time, we are already seeing some impressive figures.
More AMD EPYC Launch Day Coverage From STH
We will have more information on AMD EPYC including benchmarks once we are allowed to release the information. |
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Jeb Bush on Drugs
Jeb Bush on Drugs Republican FL Governor; V.P. prospect
Opposed medical marijuana on Florida ballot question
Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN , Sep 16, 2015
Smoked pot & drank alcohol in late 1960s high school
Resolutely apolitical despite his lineage, a roommate said of Jeb that while other students "were constantly arguing about politics and particularly Vietnam, he just wasn't interested, he didn't participate, he didn't care."
Bush, in 2015, acknowledged breaking a series of rules. "I drank alcohol and I smoked marijuana when I was at Andover," Bush said, both of which could have led to expulsion. "It was pretty common." He said he had no recollection of bullying and said he was surprised to be perceived that way by some.
Source: Boston Globe profiles of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Feb 1, 2015
My high school drug use was "stupid" and "wrong"
One of those who did get to know Bush was Peter Tibbetts, who said he smoked hashish--a cannabis product typically stronger than pot--in Jeb's dorm room. "The first time I really got stoned was in Jeb's room," Tibbetts said. "He had a portable stereo with removable speakers. He put on Steppenwolf for me." Tibbetts said said he once bought hashish from Bush but stressed, "I was seeking the hash, it wasn't as if he was a dealer; though he did suggest I take up cigarettes so that I could hold my hits better."
Bush previously has acknowledged what he called his "stupid" and "wrong" use of marijuana. In the years since, he has opposed efforts to legalize marijuana for medicinal or recreational use.
Source: Boston Globe profiles of 2016 presidential hopefuls , Feb 1, 2015
No medical marijuana; it's just a guise toward legalization
Bush issued a statement saying the legalization of medical marijuana would hurt the state's family-friendly reputation: "Florida leaders and citizens have worked for years to make the Sunshine State a world-class location to start or run a business, a family-friendly destination for tourism and a desirable place to raise a family or retire," Bush said. "Allowing large-scale, marijuana operations to take root across Florida, under the guise of using it for medicinal purposes, runs counter to all of these efforts," he added. "I strongly urge Floridians to vote against Amendment 2 this November," he said.
20 states and the District of Columbia have some form of laws that permit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, though they vary widely.
Source: David Adams on Reuters: "Jeb Bush joins opposition" , Aug 14, 2014
Illegal drugs moving over US-Mexico border has intensified
Given Mexico's inability to control the drug cartels and the massive drug market in the US, spillover effects are inevitable. The most vivid example is the horribly failed Operation Fast and Furious, in which weapons obtained from US authorities were linked to at least a dozen violent crimes in the US, including the death of a Border Patrol agent. Given that the cartels control an estimated 90% of the illegal drugs entering the US, their effects extend to American gangs, crime syndicates, and drug addicts.
Deploy military on both sides of the US-Mexican border
Preferable to US military deployment would be efforts to increase the effectiveness of Mexican authorities in dealing with the cartels on their side of the border. US officials have worked closely with their Mexican counterparts, including the deployment of unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles and the opening of a compound to gather intelligence in northern Mexico. We should continue to work closely with Mexico to fight corruption in the police and military and to reduce the power of the drug cartel.
Funding to reduce teen substance abuse and tobacco use
Florida has also had success reducing tobacco use among our young people. Since 1998, smoking rates have declined by 57 percent among middle school students and 37 percent among high school students.
Budget constraints put this important program in jeopardy last year. This year we need to make the program, and the funding to support, it a permanent part of Florida's Department of Health. This money is important, but the real power comes from thousands of teens across our state who recognize the dangers of smoking and encourage their peers not to start.
Source: 2004 State of the State speech to the Florida Legislature , Mar 2, 2004
Create a prescription drug tracking system to prevent abuse
This year, once again, you will have the opportunity to create a prescription drug tracking system that will allow us to punish unethical providers, prevent addicts from obtaining the drugs they abuse, and protect the privacy of patients in Florida. I urge you to pass legislation to define this system, fund its creation, and help us fight prescription drug abuse in Florida.
Source: 2004 State of the State speech to the Florida Legislature , Mar 2, 2004
Opposed treatment instead of jail for nonviolent drug users
While Noelle has been given every break in the book--and then some--her father has made it harder for others in her position to get the help they need by cutting the budgets of drug treatment and drug court programs in his state. He has also actively opposed a proposed ballot initiative that would send an estimated 10,000 nonviolent drug offenders into treatment instead of jail.
Jeb's inconsistent attitude on the issue--treatment and privacy for his daughter, incarceration and public humiliation for everyone else--is part and parcel of the galling hypocrisy that infects America's insane drug war on every level.
Source: Arianna Huffington column on Salon.com, "War on Drugs" , Sep 16, 2002
Mandatory prison sentences for drug offenses
Create mandatory prison sentences for persons convicted of drug trafficking.
Mandatory minimum prison sentences of 3, 7, 15, 25 years, life or death will be imposed depending on the type and amount of the controlled substance.
A minimum of three years will be mandated for any person convicted of possession, sale, importation, etc., of at least 25 pounds of cannabis, 4 grams of flunitrazepam, morphine, opium or heroin, 14 grams of amphetamine, 28 grams of cocaine and phencyclidine, or 200 grams of methaqualone.
Penalties increase as the type and amount of the drugs increase or if use of the drug results in someone’s death.
Reduce drug use by 50% by prevention & enforcement
[My Drug Control Strategy] reflects our will and determination to reverse the years of lost human, social, and economic potential wrought by the illegal drug trade and to bring down appreciably the numbers of our citizens caught in the grip of drug abuse My administration is determined to reduce drug use in Florida by 50%. This ambitious goal can only be achieved with the commitment of our efforts and resources on many fronts-in awareness, prevention, treatment, and law enforcement.
Most of all, it will take leadership to coordinate and direct a balanced approach to lowering both the demand for and the supply of drugs. This has been and remains one of my foremost priorities.
Source: Drug Control Strategy 1999; Introductory Letter , Jul 2, 1999
More federal funding for all aspects of Drug War.
To reduce the presence of illegal drugs, drug-related organized crime, and the adverse effects of drug and alcohol abuse in society requires a comprehensive strategy involving federal, state, and local governments. The Governors believe that one of the most severe public health threats is the recent rise in substance abuse among children. The Federal Role
The profits from illicit drug trafficking can be effectively used to help state efforts to dry up the demand for these drugs. The nation’s Governors urge the President and Congress to fully fund drug and alcohol abuse education, drug courts, treatment, prevention, and law enforcement efforts, including the initiative to combat and clean up methamphetamine production laboratories, at the state and local levels of government.
The profits from illicit drug trafficking can be effectively used to help state efforts to dry up the demand for these drugs. The nation’s Governors urge the President and Congress to fully fund drug and alcohol abuse education, drug courts, treatment, prevention, and law enforcement efforts, including the initiative to combat and clean up methamphetamine production laboratories, at the state and local levels of government. Intensified Eradication and Interdiction
Federal funding for use of the National Guard in drug and border enforcement deserves continued support. The Governors urge the President and Congress to utilize the role of U.S. military forces in interdiction efforts.
Federal funding for use of the National Guard in drug and border enforcement deserves continued support. The Governors urge the President and Congress to utilize the role of U.S. military forces in interdiction efforts. High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program.
The HIDTA program provides additional federal funds to those areas to help federal, state, and local law enforcement organizations invest in infrastructure and joint initiatives to dismantle drug trafficking organizations. Governors support the HIDTA initiative and urge Congress to continue supporting the program.
The HIDTA program provides additional federal funds to those areas to help federal, state, and local law enforcement organizations invest in infrastructure and joint initiatives to dismantle drug trafficking organizations. Governors support the HIDTA initiative and urge Congress to continue supporting the program. The Federal Role in Reducing International Drug Trafficking.
The nation’s Governors urge the Administration and Congress to significantly tighten procedures for certifying foreign countries for eligibility to receive U.S. aid based on their cooperation with U.S. surveillance, interdiction, and eradication efforts.
The nation’s Governors urge the Administration and Congress to significantly tighten procedures for certifying foreign countries for eligibility to receive U.S. aid based on their cooperation with U.S. surveillance, interdiction, and eradication efforts. Drug Legalization
The nation’s Governors believe illicit drug legalization is not a viable alternative, either as a philosophy or as a practical reality.
Source: NGA policy HR-13: Combating and Controlling Substance Abuse 00-NGA2 on Aug 15, 2000
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Story highlights ISIS fighters reportedly seize villages just 30 miles from Aleppo, Syria's largest city
Rebels fighting to topple Assad surrounded by ISIS on one side, and regime forces on the other
Charles Lister says beleaguered Syrian opposition in Aleppo faces being wiped out
The fate of Syria's Western-backed opposition hangs on a knife edge in the northern part of the war-torn country -- and with radical Sunni militants and regime forces closing in on them from all sides, time may be running out.
At least six villages north of Syria's largest city of Aleppo fell Wednesday to militants from ISIS, according to AFP. T he jihadist group has seized large swathes of land in Iraq and consolidated control over considerable territory in northeastern Syria in the past year.
ISIS fighters are now just 30 miles from the rebel-controlled northern suburbs of Aleppo and within striking distance of key opposition positions leading to the Turkish border.
The situation for the opposition may be even worse inside Aleppo city, where forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad are gaining ground after a brutal months-long campaign against opposition forces.
Charles Lister
With the radical Sunni fighters bearing down on them from the north, and troops loyal to President Assad retaking Aleppo neighborhood by neighborhood from the south and west, Syria's beleaguered rebels are facing an existential threat.
Since November 2013, the Syrian government has executed a concerted offensive on opposition-controlled areas of Aleppo city. Intensive and horrifically destructive barrel bombs have flattened the urban environment in which opposition insurgents had thrived, and forced thousands of civilians to flee.
The military has followed air bombardment with methodical but effective ground incursions that, over time, have enabled it to re-capture territory and force a rebel retreat to the city's northern districts. As such, the opposition is now in its weakest position in Aleppo city since mid-2012.
ISIS burst onto the scene in Syria in April 2013 and by December it had successfully established an expansive territorial presence across northern Syria, including in Aleppo governorate. But a sustained rebel offensive in January of this year forced ISIS to withdraw from the northwestern governorates of Latakia and Idlib and much of Aleppo, with the exception of three main towns in Aleppo's northeast: Al-Bab, Manbij and Jarablus.
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The rebels in Aleppo fighting to topple Assad and beat back ISIS' advance have long been a melting pot of different groups, including various Free Syrian Army (FSA) units, the al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, and the Islamic Front (IF). While core moderate FSA-linked factions benefitted from an influx of Western support in late 2013 to facilitate their anti-ISIS offensive in January, this support has since dwindled. A principal Aleppo-based beneficiary of this support, Jaish al-Mujahideen, has since become a shadow of its former self.
The U.S. has leaned heavily on Gulf states to reduce their support of Islamist and Salafist groups in Syria, which has damaged the IF's capacity to operate as a unified and effective coalition. In Aleppo specifically, IF's main group, Liwa al-Tawhid, has also suffered from debilitating internal divisions and defections.
At the same time, the Assad regime's advances in Aleppo city and elsewhere have induced Jabhat al-Nusra -- a long-time ally of Syria's opposition, until recently -- to shift much of its resources west into Idlib governorate.
As such, the principal defenders of areas of Aleppo still under opposition control today are a wide array of moderate FSA factions, some of whom still receive limited military support from the West, and members of the fading IF, most of whom are from the Aleppo area. These groups have borne the brunt of fighting ISIS while also facing a sustained Syrian military assault. Both of these offensives have combined to leave Aleppo critically vulnerable.
But although regime advances in Aleppo city are extremely significant, the most immediate threat comes from ISIS and its rapid advance north of the city.
Controlling Dabiq, one of the villages that AFP reported was seized Wednesday, is already extremely symbolic for ISIS, whose official magazine is named after the town for its role in the hadith -- the teachings, deeds, and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed -- as the site of a major battle before the end of the world. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who founded ISIS' precursor group, once said the capture of Dabiq would represent the first step towards conquering "Constantinople" and "Rome."
With those villages in hand, ISIS now seems likely to move forward on two primary fronts -- northwest towards Sawran and eventually Azaz and southwest to Liwa al-Tawhid's stronghold in Marea.
If ISIS moves on Sawran and then captured Azaz, it will cut rebels off from a critical supply line into Turkey via Bab al-Salamah and could arguably spell the end for an effective opposition in Aleppo.
Losing Marea to ISIS would prove a crippling blow for Liwa al-Tawhid, whose founder and former leader Abdulqader Saleh was from the town. It would likely enable ISIS to continue towards Anadan and Hreitan, immediately north of opposition-controlled districts of Aleppo city, and cut off any remaining rebel forces there.
Eventually, this would also open a route towards the former ISIS towns of Darat Izza and Al-Dana to the west in Idlib governorate, where ISIS could threaten what would then be the last remaining border crossing with Turkey at Bab al-Hawa.
Late on Wednesday, while mosques in Marea issued calls for a general mobilization to defend against the expected ISIS assault, civilians and rebels stockpiled food and supplies in the case of a siege, according to people I spoke to in the town.
What will ISIS do if, as now seems inevitable, it captures these towns? The group has named their Aleppo offensive "Operation Revenge for the Women's Purity," a reference to allegations made by ISIS fighters that opposition groups had kidnapped and raped their wives during the anti-ISIS push in January. Such accusations would therefore seem likely to engender brutal acts of ISIS retribution in the coming days.
There's no escaping the fact that the opposition's prospects in Aleppo look grim. While a 9-month-old U.S.-led strategy of uniting and arming core elements of the moderate opposition has demonstrated success in Idlib, it is far from certain that Aleppo can be saved. Moreover, if ISIS was eventually to succeed in threatening, or worse cutting off, both the Bab al-Salamah and Bab al-Hawa crossings with Turkey, the sustainability of a powerful moderate opposition in northern Syria would face an existential threat.
The fate of Aleppo in the coming days, therefore, carries with it the future of Syria's military opposition in its fight against the Assad regime and an ever-expanding ISIS. |
Poll analysis by Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Anthony Salvanto and Fred Backus
Soon after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced an assault weapons ban would not be part of a gun control bill, a new CBS News poll shows support for stricter gun control laws overall has dropped since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Currently, support for stricter gun control laws stands at 47 percent today, down from a high of 57 percent just after the shootings. Thirty-nine percent want those laws kept as they are, and another 11 percent want them made less strict.
Partisans hold different views on gun control laws: 52 percent of Republicans want the laws kept as they are, while 66 percent of Democrats want stricter laws (down from 78 percent in February). Half of gun owners themselves want gun laws overall kept as they are, but a quarter call for stricter laws.
Women (55 percent) are more likely than men (39 percent) to want stricter laws, as are those living in the Northeast. Only 44 percent in the Midwest and South want stricter laws; 47 percent in the West.
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This poll was conducted by telephone from March 20-24, 2013 among 1,181 adults nationwide. Phone numbers were dialed from samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups may be higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls. |
THORNTON, Colo. (CBS4) – A man has been convicted of causing a deadly accident by driving while high an marijuana.
Joshua Wittig, 18, was found guilty of vehicular homicide Thursday for hitting a motorcyclist near the intersection of Thornton Parkway and Steele Street in October. The judge ordered a complaint filed against the doctor who wrote Wittig’s prescription for medical marijuana
The judge found that the Dr. Rita Starritt did not conduct any kind of physical examination or medical evaluation before approving the use of medical marijuana. Wittig went out and bought some before he killed 33-year-old John Hines.
“(He was) an exceptional friend to hundreds of people,” Hines’ sister Cara Hines said. “Literally every person he crossed paths with became better for it.”
An SUV driven by Wittig crossed over the center line. He admitted having used marijuana and other drugs a short time earlier.
“It was one of four or five drugs ingested into his system and I’m sure in combination with the Xanax it surely had an effect on him,” defense attorney Joseph Scheideler said.
Starritt was seen at New Leaf Wellness in Boulder. Elizabeth Plummer is the owner.
“I don’t think that you should be extremely high or medicated and go out and drive a car just as I don’t think you should be extremely drunk and go out a drive a car,” Plummer said.
The jury agreed. Wittig was convicted of vehicular homicide under intoxication. His family members and friends left court in tears.
The defense had claimed Wittig needed the medication for a previous back injury and that the motorcyclist was intoxicated as well.
Wittig faces up to 12 years in prison. |
The woman was staying in a five-star hotel in Connaught Place.
Delhi has once again woken up hearing the story of a brutal gang rape and this time the victim is a tourist from the United States who was allegedly gang raped by five men including her guide at a five-star hotel in Connaught Place.
According to police, the complaint was filed by the woman via an email that said she would directly come to the station once the FIR is registered. The police confirmed that the email had a very details explanation of the ordeal the US citizen had to endure at the hands of her rapists.
The email was sent to the official account of police commissioner cp-delhi.nic.in which was publicized after Delhi police mooted the initiative to make the city safe for the woman after a string of rape cases questioned the capability of the Delhi police.
In the email, the woman says she arrived in Delhi in March on a tourist visa and was staying in a five-star hotel in Connaught Place. She was provided a tourist guide by the agency approved by the hotel.
According to the statement, the guide showed her around the city and one day, suggesting that they should discuss the route plan for the coming days, the guide along with four others came to her room. They had a few beverages following which the guide sexually assaulted her and later his friends took turns and raped her brutally.
The email says the victim left immediately for the US, traumatized by the incident. The woman fell into depression after she failed to share what happened to her back in India even with her parents.
At last, she approached an NGO that managed India affairs and took up the matter. They advised the woman to register an email complaint using the ID provided by the Delhi police. Soon after the Commissioner of Police received the email complaint, it was transferred to the Connaught Place police station for further investigation.
Police have confirmed that the investigation has already started and they are on the right track in identifying the guide and his accomplices. Police have already questioned a few staffs of the five-star hotel to identify the guide.
The authorities have confirmed that they have registered a case of gang-raping with regard to the email complaint received from the woman.
Police have also questioned the employees of the travel agency that provided the guide to the five-star hotel.
The police have also requested the US Embassy to provide details of the woman and her purpose of visit. An officer has been put in charge to act as liaison with the woman and her lawyer. |
The Red Bull Ultra Natural 2013
Snowboarding’s elite tore the feature-riddled run Scary Cherry to pieces at Baldface, British Columbia during the 2013 Red Bull Ultra Natural. Dudes went massive. No one died. Powder was shredded. Full story and photos below.
If you were king of the castle, how would you hold court? Would you hold another jester match or try something new? Would you construct your own private training terrain or invite friends over for a show? Say you eventually created your own paradise. For Travis Rice that path to the throne is one of the most prominent snowboarding careers. For Jeff Pensiero the royal tenure is a physical place, a snowboarding Shangri La called Baldface Lodge outside of Nelson, British Columbia. Combined with the help of a few big sponsors they welcome a select crew to one of snowboarding's most elite and experimental gatherings, the Ultra Natural.
Formerly the Supernatural (a lawsuit over the naming with Tourism BC spurred the name change), the Ultra Natural is a 16-rider roster of snowboarding's best competing, or rather celebrating, in the British Columbia backcountry. Littered with handmade wooded lofts, bonks, mushrooms and diving boards stashed in the upper trees, the 55-degree pitch of the "Scary Cherry" run is no joke. The riding can go from mellow to massive in a split second. "You never really get a good perspective on your feature until you hit it. I didn't really know until I was on the pillow, like falling out of the sky from forty feet was a little excessive. And the park jump was the first one I've hit since last year here." Lucas Debari affirms after boosting one of the largest airs of the day. Riders loosely knew what to expect from last years' event, yet Travis Rice and crew were busy over the summer adjusting the wooden structures. One of the most challenging parts to the course overall is deciding what to hit and what to do on said hit.
After cleaning the tree section, the run funnels into various natural hips and handmade hits before a long straightaway into a massive five-lipped tabletop (courtesy of Snow Park Technologies) with an untouched pow landing. A few more hits and bonks are added to the mix before the run finishes at the bottom of the gully. All told the course is roughly three times the length of the X Games slopestyle and more dynamic than any snowboarding creation to date. Talk about leg burn. Watching riders tear up the stack of creative hits tucked into the hill was kind of like a cross between a real life Mario game and watching an artist perform. With hits everywhere and sixteen of snowboarding's best with the freedom to roam, each rider left their signature mark.
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The runs and resulting scores came from the scrutiny of a legendary panel with the likes of Peter Line, Tom Burt, Andy Hetzel, Temple Cummins and Jamie Lynn who judged this new breed of event. "This contest is probably the hardest contest to judge and separate because there are so many different styles. You have people like Lucas who are charging down the hill, you know, going big and fast, but then there are riders kind of trolling around and doing more tricks and technical things. So how do you judge that? No matter what you're basically comparing apples to bananas, so it still comes down to overall impression, flow, air and some technical aspects." says head judge Tom Burt. While it was technically a contest, it felt more like a one big session of friends with a massive production in tow. One big show. One that's best watched on the big screen for full effect.
Above is the Full Recap Video from the Red Bull Ultra Natural 2013.
Pat Moore was the first rider to take on the untouched. He took the top course smooth with hits before pointing it into the jump. Being the first rider to even test the speed, it was a guinea pig gamble. Unfortunately, he knuckled into a poof of snow. That may have shook him up for his second run as he tumbled through the top trees with some serious speed and consequence. Falls and all, Pat still put together some solid lines, earning him 8th place a spot in next years event.
Terje Haakonsen carried the controlled speed and composure that he's known for, lining up hit after hit in the top section. From frontside bones to crails and methods—Terje styled out his run keeping it clean and huge, and enough for 4th place. In a similar style, Jake Blauvelt carved smooth lines into the rider's right side of the course picking off hits and clean airs, notably a clean butter to front seven off one of the wedges. However the simple, stylistic approach wasn't quite enough to match the rest of the field and Jake finished 13th.
Nicolas Müller took to the course on the far rider's right and into quite possibly the largest hit of the day. Nico ramped up a diving board wedge before snapping cross-court nearly fifteen feet over an already elevated pillow putting him well over thirty feet up. While he didn't quite stomp it, he repeated the hit on his second run with a white-roomed landing of sorts. "Yeah, you didn't stomp it, but you went fucking huge and surfed out of it, which gives you points in my book," Peter Line told him later that evening. Combined with smooth spins and hits for the rest of the run, Nico barged into second place.
Lucas Debari also had one of loftiest airs of the day, over sets and sets of features, somewhere in the range of eighty feet or more down the course. He has a hungry, go for broke approach and when he's on, it's insane. While Lucas stomped some big tricks, he botched the park jump and a few other hits, barely edging himself out of a return trip with 9th place finish.
Mark McMorris returned via another X Games Sloestyle gold. And this time he was in prime powder form. Mark took like a kid in a tree fort to some of the elevated platforms and ladder rides, carrying speed and fluidity rather than hesitation throughout the run. While he wasn't completely free of tomahawks, Mclovin did stomp a badass double cork over the park jump on his second run and edged out quite a few big names for a 6th place finish.
Snowboarder Magazine's wildcard pick Bryan Fox proved himself worthy with a third place finish. By linking back-to-back threes, drops and grabs throughout his runs and a smooth seven on the park jump, Bryan put together some solid runs. He was the only rider to stay upright through the course, but didn't quite have the creativity or spunk of Muller or Ruf's runs. "I expected very little of myself, my main goal was to not look stupid on TV. So that was the most nerve-racking thing. Because when you film video parts you eat shit all day and no one ever sees it. It was kind of like filming a video part in public. And it was cool to stand next to those dudes on the podium, I was so happy, So but at the end of the day there are thirteen other dudes who are kind of bummed, so I kind of felt like shit. That's just the nature of contests and pitting people against each other."
Fellow Quiksilver teammate and last year's Super Natural winner Travis Rice couldn't quite muster a podium run. Although he stomped some clean drops and airs in the upper section, Rice cased the park jumps twice. Regardless of finish, Rice deserves a massive award for creating one of the best gigs around. Not only did he invent the event's formula, he's been heavily involved in the day-to-day production from sun up to sun down everyday we've been here.
First place finisher Gigi Ruf charged the hill with the spring, style and spontaneity he's know for. Rather than tying to fine-tune one run, Gigi took too different approaches on either side of the course. From the massive "Caterpillar" pad and long down log to a few huge wedge hits and utterly huge back one over the park jump. Gigi's smooth stylish riding and beasty airs couldn't be beat.
With limited space for only 16 riders, next year's invitations will be interesting. The top eight finishers earned a return trip. The 2014 X Games Slopestyle contest is yet to be decided, Snowboarder and TransWorld may still get some wildcard picks. One question though, with a 10th place finish, will Travis be back?
Something that's not captured in the two runs and a half day's broadcast coverage is the pulse of snowboarding's creative genius, power, and camaraderie pooling around in the snow nested lodge. Many of these riders know each other, but they've never all ridden together as a group. Other than the contest day, riders have been lapping pow and milling together in the lodge as good friends in celebration. It's a rare gathering of the tribe. While it is a massive TV production and technically a contest with huge corporate investment, it's done right. It's an event created by snowboarders to celebrate and push the boundaries of sliding sideways. And what better place to hold it than Baldface? A spiritual and cultural place engrained in snowboarding where the spirit of Craig Kelly is alive and well, and it rubs off on everyone. Outside of the two scored runs, riding and fun matter most. As Nicolas Muller recalls from his time here, "It's a festival in the name of shredding. Thanks to Travis, thanks to everyone for creating it."
Watch the Red Bull Ultra Natural Videos Here
Check out more photos from the Red Bull Ultra Natural Freeride Days
Check out last year's Super Natural
2013 Red Bull Ultra Natural Final Results
NAME RUN 1 RUN 2
1. Gigi Rüf 82.6 72.4
2. Nicolas Müller 76.4 71.4
3. Bryan Fox 44.6 75.4
4. Terje Håkonsen 66.2 60.2
5. David Carrier-Porcheron 62.2 39.2
6. Mark McMorris 61.6 45.4
7. Eero Niemela 61.0 34.0
8. Pat Moore 59.0 38.0
9. Lucas Debari 57.2 53.0
10. Travis Rice 56.2 49.2
11. Jussi Oksanen 27.8 55.4
12. Bode Merrill 48.8 45.2
13. Jake Blauvelt 46.8 48.0
14. Wolfgang Nyvelt 45.6 42.8
15. Torstein Horgmo 32.6 44.8
16. Mikey Rencz 39.6 40.0 |
UPDATED 4/21/17 – Back in June of 2016, neuronphaser.com released the zombie apocalypse action roleplaying game HEAD SHOT! for the Cortex Plus system, made famous by Margaret Weis’ Firefly RPG, Marvel Heroic RPG, Smallville, and Leverage. It received some good feedback, did respectable sales, and ultimately was a really fun project
…And it just got reanimated!
Craig Judd — creator of the PowerFrame RPG, layout & graphics guru on Fear the Living and Blade Bind, editor on titles like Golden Sky Stories, Tenra Bansho Zero, and others — just beautified the book and redesigned the character sheets! And it’s now available as a 32-page book in Print-on-Demand through DriveThruRPG.
Let’s take a look at what improved:
Thos pages give a great example of the layout magic Craig added to the book. Among the best parts is that image running along the bottom of zombie hordes, one of which gets a shotgun blast to the face, revealing the page number you’re currently on!
As you can see on the Talents page, we’ve tried to stick pretty close to how books like the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide use different capitalization and font stylings to show Traits in a Cortex Plus game.
*There are versions of this character sheet on our Free Stuff page, too.
The character sheet is a thing of simplified beauty in keeping with the design elements we wanted, but also making it interesting (while still being fairly easy on your printer’s ink cartridge).
Craig did an amazing job laying it out, and Elena’s eerily-beautiful cover really captures the post apocalyptic horror. Now you can get a Print On Demand version featuring these amazing contributions to HEAD SHOT! Here’s hoping you add it to your collection, especially as the Cortex Plus engine moves into the future with Cam Banks’ Magic Vacuum Design Studio with an upcoming Kickstarter for CORTEX PRIME, coming soon!
(Worth noting, based on the pre-release info Cam has released about Cortex Prime through his Patreon, HEAD SHOT! will be fully compatible with little or no changes! If anything about that changes, I’ll be releasing a one-page PDF upgrade that irons out any conversions.)
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Many readers here have no doubt spent at least some time thinking about the Singularity, whether in a spirit of hope or fear, or perhaps more reasonably some admixture of both. For my part, though, I am much less worried about a coming Singularity than I am about a Sofalarity in which our ability to create realistic illusions of achievement and adventure convinces the majority of humans that reality isn’t really worth all the trouble after all. Let me run through the evidence of an approaching Sofalarity. I hope you’re sitting down… well… actually I hope you’re not.
I would define a Sofalarity as a hypothetical point in human history would when the majority of human beings spend most of their time engaged in activities that have little or no connection to actual life in the physical world. It’s not hard to see the outline of this today: on average, Americans already spend an enormous amount of time with their attention focused on worlds either wholly or partly imagined. The numbers aren’t very precise, and differ among age groups and sectors of the population, but they come out to be somewhere around five hours watching television per day, three hours online, and another three hours playing video games. That means, collectively at least, we spend almost half of our day in dream worlds, not counting the old fashioned kind such as those found in books or the ones we encounter when we’re actually sleeping.
There’s perhaps no better example of how the virtual is able to hijack our very real biology than pornography . Worldwide the amount of total internet traffic that is categorized as erotica ranges from a low of four to as high as thirty percent. When one combines that with recent figures claiming that up to 36 percent of internet traffic aren’t even human beings but bots, then it’s hard not to experience future shock.
Amidst all the complaining that the future hasn’t arrived yet and “where’s my jetpack?” a 21st century showed up where upwards of 66 percent of internet traffic could be people looking for pornography, bots pretending to be human, or, weirdest of all, bots pretending to be human looking for humans to have sex with. Take that Alvin Toffler.
Still all of this remains simply our version of painting on the walls of a prehistoric cave. Any true Sofalarity would likely require more than just television shows and Youtube clips. It would need to have gained the keys to our emotional motivation and senses.
As a species we’ve been trying to open the doors of perception with drugs long before almost anything else. What makes our current situation more likely to be leading toward a Sofalarity is that now this quest is a global business and that we’ve become increasingly sophisticated when it comes to playing tricks on our neurochemistry.
The problem any society has with individuals screwing with their neurochemistry is two-fold. The first is to make sure that enough sober people are available for the necessary work of keeping their society operating at a functional level, and the second is to prevent any ill effects from the mind altered from spilling over into the society at large.
The contemporary world has seemingly found a brilliant solution to this problem- to contain the mind altered in space and time, and making sure only the sober are running the show. The reason bars or dance clubs work is that only the customers are drunk or stoned and such places exist in a state of controlled chaos with the management carefully orchestrating the whole affair and making sure things remain lively enough that customers will return while ensuring that things also don’t get so dangerous patrons will stay away for the opposite reason.
The whole affair is contained in time because drunken binges last only through the weekend with individuals returning to their straight-laced bourgeois jobs on Monday, propped up, perhaps by a bit of stimulants to promote productivity.
Sometimes this controlled chaos is meant to last for longer stretches than the weekends, yet here again, it is contained in space and time. If you want to see controlled chaos perfected with technology thrown into the mix you can’t get any better than Las Vegas where seemingly endless opportunities for pleasure and losing one’s wits abound all the while one is being constantly monitored both in the name of safety, and in order that one not develop any existential doubts about the meaning of life under all that neon.
If you ever find yourself in Vegas losing your dopamine fix after one too many blows from lady luck behind a one-armed bandit, and suddenly find some friendly casino staff next to you offering you free drinks or tickets to a local show, bless not the goddess of Fortune, but the surveillance cameras that have informed the house they are about to lose an unlucky, and therefore lucrative, customer. La Vegas is the surveillance capital of the United States, and it’s not just inside the casinos.
Ubiquitous monitoring seems to be the price of Las Vegas’ adoption of vice as a form of economy. Or as Megan McArdle put it in a recent article:
Is the friendly police state the price of the freedom to drink and gamble with abandon?Whatever your position on vice industries, they are heavily associated with crime, even where they are legal. Drinking makes people both violent and vulnerable; gambling presents an almost irresistible temptation to cheating and theft. Las Vegas has Disneyfied libertinism. But to do so, it employs armies of security guards and acres of surveillance cameras that are always and everywhere recording your every move.
Even the youngest of our young children now have a version of this: we call it Disney World. The home of Mickey Mouse has used current surveillance technology to its fullest, allowing it to give visitors to the “magic kingdom” both the experience of being free and one of reality seemingly bending itself in the shape of innocent fantasy and expectations. It’s a technology they work very hard to keep invisible. Disney’s magic band, which not only allows visitors to navigate seamlessly through its theme parks, but allows your dinner to be brought to you before you ordered it, or the guy or gal in the Mickey suit to greet your children by name before they have introduced themselves was described recently in a glowing article in Wired that quoted the company’s COO Tom Staggs this way:
Staggs couches Disney’s goals for the MagicBand system in an old saw from Arthur C. Clarke. “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” he says. “That’s how we think of it. If we can get out of the way, our guests can create more memories.”
Nothing against the “magic of Disney” for children, but I do shudder a little thinking that so many parents don’t think twice about creating memories in a “world” that is not so much artificial as completely staged. And it’s not just for kids. They have actually built an entire industry around our ridiculousness here, especially in places in like China, where people pay to have their photos taken in front of fake pyramids or the Eiffel tower, or to vacation in places pretending to be someplace else.
Yet neither Las Vegas nor a Disney theme park resemble what a Sofalarity would look like in full flower. After all, the show girls at Bally’s or the poor soul under the mouse suit in Orlando are real people. What a true Sofalarity would entail is nobody being there at all, for the very people behind the pretend to no longer be there.
We’re probably some way off from a point where the majority of human labor is superfluous, but if things keep going at the rate they are, we’re not talking centuries. The rejoinder to claims that human labor will be replaced to the extent that most of us no longer have anything to do is often that we’ll become the creators and behind the scenes, the same way Apple’s American workers do the high end work of designing its products while the work of actually putting them together is done by numb fingers over in China. In the utopian version of our automated future we’ll all be designers on the equivalent of Infinite Loop Street while the robots provide the fingers.
Yet, over the long run, I am not sure this humans as mental creators/machines as physical producers distinction will hold. Our (quite dumb) computers already create visually stunning and unanticipated works or art, compose music that is indistinguishable from that created in human minds, and write things none of us realize are the product of clever programs. Who’s to say that decades hence, or over a longer stretch, they won’t be able to create richer fantasy worlds of every type that blow our minds and grip our attention far more than any crafted by our flesh and blood brethren?
And still, even should every human endeavor be taken over by machines, including our politics, we would still be short of a true Sofalarity because we would be left with the things that make us most human- the relationship we have with our loved ones. No, to see the Sofalarity in full force we’d need to have become little more than a pile of undulating mush like the creatures in the original conception of the movie Wall-E from which I ripped the term.
The only way we’d get to that point is if our created fantasies could reach deep under our skin and skulls and give us worlds and emotional experiences that atrophied to the point of irrecoverability what we now consider most essential to being a person. The signs are clear that we’re headed there. In Japan, for instance, there perhaps 700,000 Hikikomori, modern day hermits that consist of adults who have withdrawn from 3 dimensional social relationships and live out their lives primarily online.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of very cool stuff either here or shortly coming down the pike, there’s Oculus Rift should it ever find developers and conquer the nausea problem, and there’s such a Magic Leap, a virtual reality platform that allows you to see 3D images by beaming them directly into your eyes. Add to these things like David Eagleman’s crazy haptic vest, or brain readers that sit it your ear, not to mention things a little further off in terms of public debut that seem to have jumped right off the pages of Nexus, like brain-to-brain communication, or magnetic nanoparticles that allow brain stimulation without wires and it’s plain to see we’re on the cusp of revolution in creating and experiencing purely imagined worlds, but all this makes it even more difficult to bust a poor hikikomori out of his 4’ x 4’ apartment.
It seems we might be on the verge of losing the distinction between the Enchantment of Fantasy and Magic that J.R.R Tolkien brought us in his brilliant lecture On Fairy Stories:
Enchantment produces a Secondary World into which both designer and spectator can enter, to the satisfaction of their senses while they are inside; but in its purity it is artistic in desire and purpose. Magic produces, or pretends to produce, an alteration in the Primary World. It does not matter by whom it is said to be practiced, fay or mortal, it remains distinct from the other two; it is not an art but a technique; its desire is power in this world, domination of things and wills. Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of, scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer is the reason, the better fantasy will it make. If men were ever in a state in which they did not want to know or could not perceive truth (facts or evidence), then Fantasy would languish until they were cured. If they ever get into that state (it would not seem at all impossible), Fantasy will perish, and become Morbid Delusion. For creative Fantasy is founded upon the hard recognition that things are so in the world as it appears under the sun; on a recognition of fact, but not a slavery to it. So upon logic was founded the nonsense that displays itself in the tales and rhymes of Lewis Carroll. If men really could not distinguish between frogs and men, fairy-stories about frog-kings would not have arisen.
For Tolkien, the primary point of fantasy was to enrich our engagement with the real world to allow us to see the ordinary anew. Though it might also be a place to hide and escape should the real world for whether for the individual or society as a whole , become hellish, as Tolkien, having fought in the World War I, lived through the Great Depression, and was on the eve of a second world war when he gave his lecture well knew.
To those who believe we might already be living in a simulation perhaps all this is merely like having traveled around the world only to end up exactly where you started as in the Borges’ story The Circular Ruins, or in the idea of many of the world’s great religions that we are already living in a state of maya or illusion. And we now make the case using much more scientific language. There’s a very serious argument out there, such as that of Nick Bostrom, that we are already living in a simulation. The way one comes to this conclusion is merely by looking at the virtual world we’ve already created and extrapolating the trend outward for hundreds or thousands of years. In such a world the majority of sentient creatures would be “living” in virtual environments, and these end up comprising the overwhelming number of sentient creatures that will ever exist. Statistical reasoning would seem to lead to the conclusion that you are more likely than not, right now, a merely virtual entity. There are even supposedly scientific experiments to test for evidence of this. Thankfully, in my view at least, the Higgs particle might prevent me from being a Boltzmann brain.
For my part, I have trouble believing I am living in a simulation. Running “ancestor simulations” seems like something a being with human intelligence might do, but it would probably bore the hell out of any superintelligence capable of actually creating the things, they would not provide any essential information for their survival, and given the historical and present suffering of our world would have to be run by a very amoral, indeed immoral being.
That was part of the fear Descartes was tapping into when he proposed that the world, and himself in it, might be nothing more than the dream of an “evil demon”. Yet what he was really getting at, as same as was the case with other great skeptics of history such as Hume, wasn’t so much the plausibility of the Matrix, but the limits surrounding what we can ever be said to truly know.
Some might welcome the prospect of a coming Sofalarity for the same reasons they embrace the Singularity, and indeed, when it comes to many features such as exponential technological advancement or automation, the two are hardly distinguishable. Yet the biggest hope that sofaltarians and singularitarians would probably share is that technological trends point towards the possibility of uploading minds into computers.
Sadly, or thankfully, uploading is some ways off. The EU seems to have finally brought the complaints of neuroscientists that Henry Markum’s Human Brain Project, that aimed to simulate an entire human being was scientifically premature enough to be laughable, were it not for the billion Euro’s invested in it that might have been spent on much more pressing areas like mental illness or Alzheimer’s research. The project has not been halted but a recent scathing official report is certainly a big blow.
Nick Bostrom has pondered that if we are not now living in a simulation then there is something that prevents civilizations such as our from reaching the technological maturity to create such simulations. As I see it, perhaps the movement towards a Sofalarity ultimately contains the seeds of its own destruction. Just as I am convinced that hell, which exists in the circumscribed borders of torture chambers, death camps, or the human heart, can never be the basis for an entire society let alone a world, it is quite possible that a heaven that we could only reach by escaping the world as it exists, is like that as well, and that any society that would be built around the fantasy of permanent escape would not last long in its confrontation with reality. Fermi paradox, anyone? |
DES MOINES — State officials have lifted a stop-work order on the Bakken oil pipeline in northwest Iowa where tribal officials had objected to disrupting sacred American Indian land that includes burial grounds.
Texas-based Dakota Access LLC, which is building the pipeline, has been granted an amendment to its sovereign lands construction permit by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, DNR spokesperson Kevin Baskins confirmed.
Instead of digging a trench for a route through the Big Sioux River Wildlife Management Area in Lyon County, the pipeline will be located about 85 feet underground by using special boring equipment, he said.
"The bottom line is that they will go around the area by going underneath it," Baskins said.
State Archaeologist John Doershuk said in an email last week to DNR Director Chuck Gipp that the proposed directional boring construction method is a satisfactory avoidance procedure from an archaeological standpoint that he supports in this case. However, Doershuk emphasized he could not speak for American Indian tribes that have expressed concerns about the pipeline project.
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The pipeline project has drawn attention to a little-known area of rich historical and cultural significance in Iowa’s history. An estimated 6,000 to 10,000 people lived 500 years ago in a vast complex of villages along Blood Run Creek and the Big Sioux River, the largest known in the Oneota cultural tradition and larger than any Lyon County town today.
The pipeline will carry crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken oil patch through South Dakota and Iowa to Patoka, Ill. A stop-work order was issued in May for construction work on a section of pipeline in far northwest Iowa where the Sioux Indians had ceded land to the federal government through a treaty signed in 1851. Doershuk subsequently visited the site with tribal leaders and state and federal officials, and he recommended avoiding a disruption of the area. He described the site as having significant cultural and historical importance to the Upper Sioux Community, Standing Rock Sioux tribe and other Sioux people.
Dallas Goldtooth, a member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Minnesota and an organizer for the Indigenous Environmental Network, said Monday his organization opposes the Iowa DNR's decision to allow the pipeline to be constructed through the Big Sioux River Wildlife Management Area. He believes there may be additional sites of cultural and historic significance to tribal people that have not been discovered along the pipeline route, particularly in South Dakota.
"It is disheartening that they have a green light to move ahead, but I feel very confident that there are a number of landowners, tribes and well-informed citizens who will be standing up to make sure that this pipeline does not get built," Goldtooth said.
Carolyn Raffensperger of Ames, an environmental lawyer and executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, which opposes the pipeline, said she believes Dakota Access has engaged in a needless rush to construct the pipeline before all government permits have been acquired. The Iowa Utilities Board recently voted to permit pipeline construction to begin in Iowa in areas where permission has already been approved.
"We don't even know if they can complete the project because they don't have permits from the Corps of Engineers," Raffensperger said.
Allen Marshall, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Rock Island, Ill., said Monday that no Corps permits have been issued for the Iowa section of the pipeline route. The permits are needed where the pipeline would cross wetlands, streams and other waters. He said negotiations are ongoing with tribal representatives, state historical preservation officials, and Dakota Access.
Dakota Access officials didn't immediately respond Monday to a request for comment.
Follow William Petroski on Twitter: @WilliamPetroski |
Jean and Larry Wood weren't thinking about politics when they opened Butt's Tobacco in a tidy strip mall south of Seattle in February 2011.
They weren't aware that a federal children's health law had inadvertently turbocharged their discount-cigarette business, and they didn't know that a federal highway law soon would destroy it.
Washington, D.C., was on the other side of the continent, and it felt even more distant.
Over the next 2-1/2 years, Butt's Tobacco would shower Jean and Larry with unexpected riches before eating up their life savings. Along the way, it would deliver a harsh lesson in the ways of American politics.
The story of Butt's Tobacco, and the hundreds of similar "roll-your-own" cigarette retail operations that briefly flourished across the United States, illustrates the unintended consequences that can ripple out from Washington as seemingly minor elements of complex legislation change lives and upend established industries.
It also illustrates the difficulty of closing a tax loophole once it has been opened.
The solution adopted by Congress effectively shuttered many mom-and-pop tobacco retailers, but the tax disparities that first made the business attractive remain in place.
As she struggles to stay afloat, Jean Wood has drawn a bitter lesson from the experience.
"The guy with the most money wins," she says.
THE ACCIDENTAL LOOPHOLE
As one of his first acts in office in February 2009, President Barack Obama signed a law that extended health insurance to children who lacked coverage. The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act raised cigarette taxes from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack.
To discourage smokers from switching to other forms of tobacco to avoid the tax, loose cigarette tobacco and small, cigarette-like cigars were taxed at the same rate.
Lawmakers thought cigarette smokers weren't likely to switch to pipe tobacco and large cigars, so they taxed those forms of tobacco at a lower rate.
They were wrong.
Shortly after the law took effect, tobacco manufacturers changed their product lines to avoid the higher tax rates, according to internal company documents obtained by the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee.
Cigar makers increased the size of their small cigars to meet the federal definition of a "large cigar" and thus qualify for the lower tax rate, according to the committee.
Companies that sold loose cigarette tobacco had it easier. In some cases, they simply relabeled their existing product as "pipe tobacco," documents show. That subjected them to taxes of $2.83 per pound, rather than $24.78 per pound they would have to collect for cigarette tobacco.
Meanwhile, an Ohio manufacturer had developed a machine that would make loose tobacco more appealing to many consumers. The RYO Filling Station could turn a bag of loose tobacco into a carton of 200 finished cigarettes in about 15 minutes, compared with the hours it would take someone to roll that many smokes by hand.
The machine wasn't built to exploit the loophole. It hit the market in 2008, well before the new taxes took effect.
Developer Phil Accordino required retailers to use the machine in a way that would minimize their exposure to a separate set of taxes. By requiring customers, not store employees, to operate the $32,000 machine, shop owners could argue that they were not liable for taxes on pre-made cigarettes because they were providing a service for customers who otherwise would roll their smokes by hand.
Together, the new machine and the low-tax "pipe" tobacco made a compelling value proposition, enabling consumers to walk out the door with a carton of cigarettes at one-third the cost of premium, factory-made cigarettes such as Marlboro and Camel.
"I thought, 'Wow, that's an equation that makes sense in a bad economy. People are saving money for a product they're addicted to,'" said entrepreneur Joe Baba, who sold 120 RYO machines in the Pacific Northwest as a distributor for the company.
Jean and Larry Wood, both 51, were among his customers. They cashed out Larry's $75,000 pension from his former job as a sprinkler-system installer, bought an RYO machine and opened up Butt's Tobacco in Edgewood, Washington, a blue-collar city near their hometown of Auburn.
Customers could get a carton of cigarettes made from pipe tobacco for $36, compared to $80 or so that other retailers charged for a carton of Marlboros. The Woods cleared $15 on each carton sold.
Butt's Tobacco was an immediate success. The Woods took in $312,000 in revenue during their first year, enough to open up a second store in Auburn. Customers would gossip or watch TV while they waited to use the rolling machine, which often was booked days in advance. Their kids got free coloring books and candy.
"It was really fun," Jean said. "Smokers are really relaxed people, more so than nonsmokers."
Baba had warned the couple that their business might suffer if lawmakers decided to raise taxes on pipe tobacco. But they figured that wouldn't happen for at least five years or so.
AN UNLIKELY ALLIANCE
By early 2012, the impact of the children's health law on the tobacco market was clear.
Congressional researchers said it had shifted price-sensitive consumers toward lower-taxed forms of tobacco, depriving the U.S. government of up to $1.1 billion in lost revenue in the 18 months after the law was enacted.
Meanwhile, 2,000 RYO Filling Stations were humming away in smoke shops across the nation. The U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau estimated that each machine cost the government $156,000 a year in lost cigarette-manufacturer taxes, on top of the money lost to the pipe tobacco loophole.
That agency had ruled in September 2010 that roll-your-own operators like the Woods should have to pay the taxes levied on conventional cigarette manufacturers. But a federal judge suspended the rule while the issue played out in court.
The new landscape created allies among powerful groups that more often squared off as adversaries.
Convenience-store operators said the new competitors were unfairly exploiting a tax loophole.
Public-health advocates worried that the roll-your-own shops were undermining their goal of curbing the top preventable cause of death in the country.
Big cigarette makers saw a threat to their core business.
"These low-priced alternatives are clearly affecting the reported decline of cigarette industry volume," RJ Reynolds president Andrew Gilchrist told investors in November 2011.
As cigarette sales had fallen steadily during the past decade, tobacco giants had fiercely fought the tax increases that they feared would prompt more smokers to quit.
The tobacco companies had been unable to block the 2009 federal tax increase, but they have had more success in recent years as dozens of conservative Tea Party Republicans won legislative office on small-government, anti-tax platforms. Altria, the owner of Marlboro cigarettes maker Philip Morris, says it helped defeat 25 proposed tax increases in 2011 and 2012.
In Congress, Democrats proposed eliminating the tax loophole by equalizing tax rates across all forms of tobacco. But Republicans blocked the measure on the grounds that it would amount to a tax increase, Democratic aides say.
So tobacco companies and public-health advocates, usually fierce adversaries, agreed on a solution: They would not try to raise taxes on pipe tobacco, but would press lawmakers to write a law that would require roll-your-own tobacco sellers to pay the manufactured-cigarette taxes that they had managed to fend off in court. Roll-your-own retailers would not be liable for back taxes on the sales they had already made.
"Every now and then there are things (tobacco companies) happen to support that we know will improve public health," said Danny McGoldrick, a vice president at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Convenience-store trade groups, representing 150,000 stores in all 435 congressional districts, led the effort.
The coalition launched a state-by-state lobbying effort and pressed Congress to take up the issue.
Roll-your-own cigarette sellers fought back at the state level. In Washington state, Jean Wood testified before the legislature, arguing that imposing a manufacturers' tax would eliminate 1,900 jobs across the state. She and her husband helped to collect 300,000 signatures to bolster their argument.
But in the halls of the U.S. Congress, the retailers were badly outgunned.
"I lobbied in Washington multiple times, and everyone I talked to said the same thing: 'You're going to get screwed here and there's nothing you can do about it because there's too much money against you,'" said Accordino, the RYO manufacturer.
Federal lobbying records show that Accordino's company spent $250,000 to make its case in 2011 and 2012.
The National Association of Convenience Stores, by contrast, spent $8.1 million on lobbying during that period.
Tobacco companies spent more than $80 million, on everything from trade agreements to health regulations.
They found a sympathetic ear in Republican Representative Diane Black of Tennessee, who introduced a bill that would require roll-your-own cigarette retailers to pay the manufacturers' tax. It drew the support of 75 other lawmakers in the U.S. House.
It also drew the attention of Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana.
The powerful chairman of the Senate Finance Committee had written the tobacco tax increases into the health law, and he was unhappy with the way they were playing out.
He also was looking to find a way to help local governments pay for roads and schools in rural areas where the federal government owns large swaths of land. Budget analysts said Black's measure would boost federal tax revenue by $94 million over 10 years.
As the Senate debated a sweeping transportation bill in early 2012, Baucus proposed using Black's approach to partially offset the cost of the rural-government funding. His amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 82-16 and was added to the transportation bill, which easily passed the Senate and House.
Roll-your-own operators felt blindsided. They had made their case at the state level but said they were not prepared to fight a provision that was tucked into an unrelated law with little public debate.
"We were outmuscled and outspent by Big Tobacco," said Baba, the RYO distributor.
Those on the other side of the fight say convenience stores, not tobacco companies, did most of the heavy lifting.
"Big Tobacco did not crush them. Main Street crushed them," said Corey Fitze, a lobbyist with the National Association of Convenience Stores.
JOBS GONE, LOOPHOLE REMAINS
The new law required Butt's Tobacco to collect an additional $30.66 in federal and state taxes on each carton of cigarettes it sold. Price-conscious smokers could find cheaper smokes at the nearby Muckleshoot Indian reservation.
Jean and Larry Wood sold 49 cartons in June, roughly what they used to sell in one day. They returned their manufacturing license last month, and their RYO machine now sits unused in the back of the store. The retirement fund that Larry built up over 25 years is gone. With one store shuttered, they hope electronic cigarettes and marijuana pipes can generate enough income to cover their $1,000 monthly lease at their remaining location.
"I never knew a lot about politics until this, and I can tell you it is so crooked," Jean said. "Anything can be bought."
A year after the rule took effect, the roll-your-own industry has been nearly wiped out. Baba, the machine distributor, estimates that the change has eliminated 10,000 retail jobs across the country.
It's not clear whether the new requirement has led to more tax revenue, as Baucus promised. The Treasury Department has collected $12.7 billion in taxes from smokable tobacco products so far this year, down 6 percent from the same period last year.
The government now collects less revenue from pipe tobacco and roll-your-own cigarette tobacco. Regulators have been unable to come up with a formal definition that would specifically define the difference between the two types of tobacco.
Although roll-your-own retailers now face the same manufacturers' tax imposed on factory-made cigarettes, the loophole that taxes pipe tobacco and small cigars at a lower rate remains in place.
That benefits the small manufacturers who produce loose pipe tobacco, as well as retailers that sell the product to cost-conscious cigarette smokers who now have to roll their own at home.
It also helps giants such as Altria, which makes the Black and Mild cigars that account for 30 percent of the low-tax "large cigar" market.
Efforts to equalize tobacco taxes have gone nowhere in Congress.
Altria and RJ Reynolds, the maker of Camel cigarettes, issued identical statements in response to questions from Reuters and declined further comment.
"We supported the retail coalition led by NACS to correct this issue and were pleased when Congress closed a loophole it had created," both companies said.
Phil Accordino, the RYO manufacturer, says the legal and lobbying battles around his business ate up all of his profits. With a bare-bones operation, he is now trying to crack the market in Europe, where hand-rolled tobacco is more prevalent and popular brands such as Marlboro are available in pouch form.
The tobacco makers who drove him out of business in the United States are eager to work with him over there, he says. |
Nzbdrone is growing in popularity due to fantastic development. The devs are creating new features and fixing bugs all the time, it’s the epitome of active development and community projects should be run. It was time to make a guide for installing Nzbdrone on OSX so Mac users can enjoy the benefits of this awesome program in conjunction with Sabnzbd and their fully automated Usenet system. It is a good idea to have a UsenetServer account for downloading new content. If you already have one, let’s get started.
Usenet Provider Backbone Retention Speed Connections VPN Monthly Annual UsenetServer UsenetServer 3199 Unlimited 30 Yes $10 $95.40 Newshosting Newshosting 3199 Unlimited 30 Yes $10 $99 Eweka Eweka 3094 Unlimited 20 No €7.50 €90 Astraweb Astraweb 2264 Unlimited 20 No $7.50 $96.00 Usenetlink Cloudgate 2000 100 Mbit 30 No $15 $140
Install Sonarr (NzbDrone OSX)
Note that Sonarr has since come out with an .app which makes it easier to install, you do still need mono and an autoboot method, however which this guide has.
Install Mono
Download the Mono OSX (MRE) package from mono-project
In Finder, navigate to your Downloads and open the mono package
That will begin this very fun wizard. Click Continue
You better read this or you’ll go to jail. Click Continue
Read this too or the feds will come after you. Click Continue
You’ll get this pop up, click Agree or read the whole license
Finally click Install
It will ask permission so enter your password and click Install Software
It will do its magic, should not take long
All done. Mono is installed
Install Nzbdrone OSX
Run Terminal.
You can find it in Applications -> Utilities
Now Scroll down to Terminal and open it
The Terminal is very white.
You are going to copy and paste the following commands. You paste by right clicking in terminal. Press enter after pasting each one
cd /Applications
Now grab the latest Nzbdrone
curl -O https://download.sonarr.tv/v2/master/osx/NzbDrone.master.osx.tar.gz
Unpack the Nzbdrone package
tar xvfz NzbDrone.master*.tar.gz
Delete the archive
rm NzbDrone.master.osx.tar.gz
Go into the newly created nzbdrone folder
cd nzbdrone
The path of Nzbdrone should now be /Applications/Nzbdrone/Nzbdrone.exe
We will now make it start on boot.
You have 2 options, the plist method or the Automator method. The plist method doesn’t always work for everyone but here is one I got working.
Type this command in Terminal to create the plist file
sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/nzbdrone.plist
Paste this code for the NzbDrone plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>KeepAlive</key> <dict> <key>SuccessfulExit</key> <false /> </dict> <key>Label</key> <string>nzbdrone.job</string> <key>ProgramArguments</key> <array> <string>mono</string> <string>--debug</string> <string>/Applications/Sonarr.app/Contents/MacOS/NzbDrone.exe</string> </array> <key>RunAtLoad</key> <true /> <key>AbandonProcessGroup</key> <true /> </dict> </plist>
Now reboot and do not create the Automator script.
Here is the Automator method to create a startup script. Only use this if the plist method did not work for you.
Automator is located in Finder -> Applications
In Automator, choose application
Make sure the library is shown. The top left corner should show Hide Library.
Click Utilites in the left pane and then double click Run shell script in the middle pane.
A Run Shell Script will pop up in the right pane.
Copy and paste this text into the script area
mono /Applications/Nzbdrone/Nzbdrone.exe
Then click Run
You will see this popup. click OK
You will see a message at the bottom that says Script Success. Click Close in the top left.
Now it will ask you to give a name to this script. Choose something like Nzbdrone Start
Make sure Where is set to Applications and file format is set to Application.
Click Save
Now go to Users and Groups in System Preferences
Click the + plus sign
Now browse to and select Nzbdrone Start and click Add
You will see the Nzbdrone start script saved and displaying
Now when you reboot it will automatically start.
Nzbdrone is accessible at http://ip.address:8989 and looks like the screenshot below.
If you are installing NzbDrone on the same machine you are trying to access it from use http://localhost:8989
You will now want to configure Nzbdrone. |
Akrypti from 8Asians wrote a piece in response to my International Examiner article called The Perfect Villain: Straight Asian Men. In her piece, she talks about her perspective as an Asian American woman. It’s a great piece. She argues that Asian women often don’t see Asian men as invisible, but instead often see us as evil or take us less seriously than other groups.
There were a few points that I really appreciated.
1. Akrypti mentions Frank Chin and Minority Militant, and how people didn’t take their points seriously. She also mentions that the same thing takes place with the IR issues.
2. Asian men aren’t seen as protectors of Asian women. She writes:
Why don’t we take straight APA men seriously? Is it a matter of invisibility? No. We see them. The truth is, we don’t really like them. They’re villains. They represent male dominance. Heterosexual dominance. And before anyone can do a doubletake on the logical fallacies there, we got the waves of APA women feminists who reinforce the villain archetype with narrative after narrative of straight APA men who fail to protect women, because whether or not we realize what it is we’re doing (*cough* traditional gender roles *cough*), at the heart of it that’s what women want: men to be protective. So it isn’t that Asian women believe the crazy villain stereotypes of Asian men; it’s that we don’t necessarily see them as protective over us, and so subliminally it’s easier for us to buy into the overt stereotypes, or worse yet, generate them, and then proceed to ignore and dismiss the rational straight Asian men who challenge those stereotypes.
I thought this was particularly interesting, as we Asian men tend to see the AFCC as not wanting anything from us ever, protection or anything else. And this might be true in many cases. I don’t know. But it’s not true of all Asian women.
3. New media (outside of those doin’ it for the money) tend to focus on Asian guys hooking up rather than protecting women. I agree with this 100%. This is yet another reason why PUA is the most ridiculous form of snake oil that the peddlers are selling. It’s that same “masculine” question–masculinity means being brave, truthful, and good. Lots of these people have their eye on the wrong ball.
4. She writes:
“Straight APA men are not a part of any white-backed movement and as a result, do not have any affiliations, sympathies, or mainstream support. They are the more marginalized and thus if there is any work left for activists to do, it would be to seek a dynamic equilibrium between the APA sexes. After all, isn’t that what feminism is all about?”
That’s it 100%. Kingstonism sold well during the 70’s because Asian American feminists were tied to White feminism (and most Asian American feminists only dated White guys). Gay Asian stuff sells well these days because of the White male connection. Heterosexual Asian American guys deal with the Invisible Chain and are pretty much just doing it ourselves. We’s gots no White male connection and no White female connection. 🙂
It was good to hear this perspective from an Asian American woman, and it’s great to find some common ground in this debate. Within Asian America, there are PUA goofballs on one extreme, and there are bat-shit-crazy-man-hating-self-described-“feminists” on the other, but in the middle are normal men and women who can find common ground if they seek it. I have very positive feelings about the future. We just need to keep the dialogue going. |
CCTV footage purportedly showing the deadly assault in Malaysia on the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by a woman, who is believed to have wiped a fast-acting poison on his face, has been released by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV.
Kim Jong-nam died last Monday a short time after the attack in the departure hall of Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where he had been preparing to take a flight to Macau.
Malaysian police have detained four suspects — a Vietnamese woman, an Indonesian woman, a Malaysian man, and North Korean man — and are on the hunt for four other North Koreans who fled the country on the day of the attack.
At least three of the wanted North Koreans caught an Emirates flight to Dubai from Jakarta late on the same day, an Indonesian immigration office official said.
It is reported they then flew to Pyongyang, although Malaysian police have not confirmed this.
The immigration spokesman revealed the three suspects Ri Jae Nam, Hong Song Hac and Ri Ji Hyon flew on Emirates flight 359 from Soekarno Hatta international airport to Dubai on February 13.
A fourth North Korean man also wanted by Malaysian police was recorded as departing Jakarta's international airport on January 19.
The grainy closed circuit television footage, which has been released on several websites, showed from two different angles a woman wearing a white top grab a man's face from behind with both hands and walk away.
A second woman was also seen walking swiftly away in another direction after the assault, though it was unclear if she had participated in the attack.
The portly, balding middle-aged man was seen stumbling and wiping his face after the assault, and later clips showed him seeking help from people while gesturing to his face and then being escorted to a clinic.
More footage showed him inside the clinic seeking medical assistance.
Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos, and police officials were not immediately available for comment.
In a press conference on Sunday, police said the victim complained to the airport customer service personnel that two women had "wiped his face with a liquid".
Malaysia recalls ambassador over autopsy spat
The diplomatic rift between Malaysia and North Korea is deepening, with North Korea saying it cannot trust the investigation by Malaysian police and demanding a joint probe.
The Malaysians went ahead with the autopsy despite North Korea's opposition, saying they were simply following protocol.
In a five-page statement read to the press, North Korean ambassador Kang Chol said the country also questioned the identity of the dead man, saying he was only known to them as Kim Chol from his passport.
"It has been seven days since the incident but there is no clear evidence on the cause of death and at the moment we cannot trust the investigation by the Malaysian police," the ambassador said in Kuala Lumpur.
"It only increases the doubt that there could be someone else's hand behind the investigation," he said.
"All the happenings clearly show that this incident is politicised by Malaysia in collusion with [South Korea]."
The ambassador then demanded a joint investigation into the death of its citizen and said Malaysia should be held responsible for the "many rumours" which have defamed North Korea's image.
North Korea has also demanded to speak to the two women who have been arrested.
On Monday, the Malaysian foreign ministry said in a statement it would recall its ambassador to Pyongyang over the comments.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the country had no reason "to paint North Korea in a bad light" and would be objective in its inquiry.
Malaysia's health minister, Subramaniam Sathasivam, said the autopsy results could be released as early as Wednesday.
Malaysian authorities have given Kim Jong-nam's next of kin two weeks to come forward to help in the investigation.
South Korean and US officials believe Kim Jong-nam was killed by agents from the reclusive North.
South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn told a meeting of South Korea's National Security Council on Monday that it was nearly certain that North Korea was behind the killing.
Kim Jong-nam, 46, who had been living in the Chinese territory of Macau under Beijing's protection, had spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of the isolated, nuclear-armed nation.
Timeline of suspected NK killings 1968: Commandos, dressed as SK military, attempt to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. Stopped 800 metres from the Blue House, 29 of 31 would-be assassins were killed.
Commandos, dressed as SK military, attempt to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. Stopped 800 metres from the Blue House, 29 of 31 would-be assassins were killed. 1974: Suspected NK agent shoots at Park during Independence Day speech, missing and instead killing his wife.
Suspected NK agent shoots at Park during Independence Day speech, missing and instead killing his wife. 1983: Bomb explodes at Myanmar memorial during SK President Chun Doo-hwan's visit. SK foreign minister and 20 others killed. One bomber confesses to being NK military.
Bomb explodes at Myanmar memorial during SK President Chun Doo-hwan's visit. SK foreign minister and 20 others killed. One bomber confesses to being NK military. 1987: Two suspected NK agents plant bomb on SK plane from Baghdad to Seoul. Bomb explodes after pair disembarks in Abu Dhabi — 115 people, mostly from SK, die.
Two suspected NK agents plant bomb on SK plane from Baghdad to Seoul. Bomb explodes after pair disembarks in Abu Dhabi — 115 people, mostly from SK, die. 1997: NK defector Lee Han-young, Kim Jong-nam's cousin, is shot and killed in SK by two people who were never caught. Suspected to be NK agents.
NK defector Lee Han-young, Kim Jong-nam's cousin, is shot and killed in SK by two people who were never caught. Suspected to be NK agents. 2010: SK authorities arrest two NK operatives the South say were on a mission to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, a defector and former NK Workers' Party secretary.
SK authorities arrest two NK operatives the South say were on a mission to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, a defector and former NK Workers' Party secretary. 2011: A NK agent was jailed in the South for attempting to assassinate Park Sang-hak, a NK defector, with a poison-tipped needle. Source: Reuters
Reuters |
A 32-year-old supermarket manager from a town near Sao Paolo, Brazil, confessed to stabbing her 17-year-old gay son Itaberli Lozano to death last week.
The body was found a week after the murder, burned and buried in a cane field.
The mother, Tatiana Lozano Pereira, 32, claims that Lozano used drugs and brought men home. The teen’s uncle Dario Rosa denies that, saying that Lozano was hard-working and educated, according to G1. Rosa believes that Lozano Pereira killed her son because he was gay and says that this is the first time she accused her son of drug use.
For several days the mother told her family that Lozano had run away to live with extended family, but 9 days later filed a missing persons report. The body had been found 2 days before she filed that report and was only identified because of a bracelet that appeared in several photos of Lozano on social media.
In her original confession, the mother said that she had gotten into a fight with her son on December 27th and he went to live with his uncle and grandmother. He came back to her house on the 29th and they again got into an argument where he threatened her, her husband, and their 3-year-old son, so she stabbed Lozano to death in self-defense. She claimed she then woke her husband and they wrapped the body in a duvet and buried it.
Her story changed when it was found that in December Lozano reported his mother to local authorities. He also posted a message on Facebook on December 26th accusing his mother of hiring several boys to beat him.
Last Friday, two teens were arrested in connection with the Lozano’s murder. They confessed that they were hired to attack Lozano, but they claim that it was the mother who stabbed her son to death in the end. She says she hired them to give her son “a lesson” and that when she saw that her son was dying, she stabbed him because she thought it was better to end his life, according to Blasting News.
Both the mother and her husband were arrested and are being held for 30 days. They are both charged with murder and concealment of a corpse, according to SigaMais.
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The following was printed in an article in the Daily Mail when discussing how one UK politician decided to take on Gina Ford, claiming her methods were “absolute nonsense”:
Given Ms. Ford hasn’t taken the Daily Mail to task and this fits with what I have read more generally on her methods (albeit in earlier books), so I can only imagine she finds this a good (or at least decent) representation of her methods (if not, then she should take issue with the Daily Mail, and should happily agree with what I’m going to write about these rules – note: the idea that the problem is with the Daily Mail when Ms. Ford is notorious for taking issue with any slight against her work seems off to me, but I accept that some people actively feel this is not a good representation of her work because they *selectively* used her methods and my own reading of her site and earlier version of book supports these “rules”). I’m going to have to agree with Mr. Clegg on his views of Ms. Ford’s work and provide you with a bit of background as to why these specific rules are not only “nonsense”, but when taken literally and without consideration for your baby, may quite possibly be dangerous to your baby’s well-being. I also want to add that these rules are not just Ms. Ford’s, but are representative of a lot of “baby training” rules that parents implement when told to by so-called experts. As such, they deserve a good review for parents who want to know more about the science behind these recommendations.
[One extra note here – Ms. Ford claims on her site that, “Babies come in all shapes, sizes and temperaments and I think I can safely say I’ve seen them all – and there isn’t one who, in my experience, hasn’t benefited from following my routine” which suggests that this schedule (it’s not a routine) is universal. That’s probably the biggest problem and one I hope is clear here – all babies are different with different needs and responses to their environment.]
Rule #1: Put your baby to sleep in its own room from day one.
Note: I have been informed that this rule has been updated in newer versions of her book; however, online she states, “Getting your baby settled into his own room sooner rather than later can help you avoid disrupting and unsettling him at some stage down the line when he is used to being in your room” and admits that she mentions in the book that most families simply have their baby sleep in the room with them, *not* that this is her recommendation.
This counters the current medical knowledge and mounds of research (e.g., [1][2][3]) that have found that putting babies in their own rooms at a young age increases the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Yes, rule number one increases the risk of death for your child. Why is this? We don’t fully know, but it seems that work by Dr. James McKenna and colleagues would suggest it has to do with the regulatory function of adults on infant physiology (e.g., [4][5]). That is, infants can struggle to regulate things like their blood pressure, heart rate, and even breathing, and close proximity to an adult has a huge effect on their regulation; we adults are truly helping their little bodies learn how to function.
Better Rule? Keep your baby close at night. Medical recommendations are to have your child in their own sleep space in your room within arms reach, but some babies require even more contact in which case you should look into bedsharing safely.
Rule #2: Feed your baby to a strict timetable, and only feed it at the allotted times
Note: Some have mentioned that you can feed your baby in between scheduled times in newer books, but then this makes no sense to me as to why you’d have a schedule at all. At that point, just feed your baby when s/he’s hungry. My fear with the remaining mention of a schedule is that many parents read a schedule and even with a caveat, they try to stick to that schedule at the detriment of their baby. Indeed, as Ms. Ford states on her website, “Any healthy baby weighing more than 6lbs at birth should manage to go three hours between feeds, three hours being from the beginning of a feed to the beginning of the next feed”, suggesting that this inability to follow such a schedule is possibly detrimental which is, in fact, not true. Many healthy, happy babies require feeding more than every 3 hours.
Feeding to a schedule used to be the norm a few decades ago… until they discovered it was associated with a host of unwelcome outcomes for babies. Babies who are fed on schedule instead have been found to show cognitive deficits later in life[6], failure to gain weight in the first week of life and greater weight loss in the first week[7][8], higher likelihood of developing jaundice[8][9], and most seriously can result in failure to thrive[10] thanks to inadequate intake of breastmilk leading to dehydration and malnutrition[11] relative to their peers who are fed on demand. Scheduled feeds also influence the duration of breastfeeding, with scheduled feeds resulting in a shorter breastfeeding duration[12][13].
Better Rule? Feed your baby on demand. When your baby is hungry, feed him or her, because your baby knows how much milk s/he needs more than you do. We don’t know when they start growth spurts, if they are actually getting enough at each feed to last hours (if they are, they will last a few hours), or if they just need some comfort. Feeding on-cue is a responsive style of parenting that benefits baby beyond just nutritionally.
Rule #3: Do not let your baby sleep past 7 a.m.
I can only assume this is to get your baby on a “schedule” sleep-wise as well; however, there is no evidence this is healthy at all. In fact, what we do know about sleep would suggest that this type of intervention is not helpful for the developing circadian rhythm. Why? Well, let’s start with the idea that research shows that disrupted waking (i.e., not waking naturally) decreases an infant’s ability to arouse[14] which is linked to greater SIDS risk. Second, sleep disruption in infancy is also linked to abnormal cardiac effects linked to SIDS[15]. Sleep scheduling more generally is also associated with a greater risk of crying in infancy and three times the risk of behavioural problems at six months of age[16]. Furthermore, infants don’t have the same circadian rhythm as we do and thus cannot be expected to wake at the same time as us and sleep at the same; in fact, their circadian rhythm can take up to 9 months to fully develop[17] and is intricately linked to other factors[18].
Better rule? Let your baby sleep on cue. If your baby is close to you at most times, chances are your baby will develop a circadian rhythm close to your own. But even if not, at least for the first 6-8 months your baby will be at a reduced risk for SIDS and isn’t that worth it?
Rule #4: Ensure your baby sleeps in a very dark and quiet room
Note: As mentioned above, this rule is echoed online on Ms. Ford’s page and thus seems to be a good representation. Indeed she supports this even when a reader questions it given the current SIDS recommendations.
This is one of those “common sense” ideas that have been passed down in our Western, modern society and yet doesn’t hold much water historically or scientifically. Historically babies nap while wrapped to mom (or another caregiver) and learns to make do without very dark or quiet rooms. Now, granted, historically society has not been as loud or as bright as ours is currently, but the fact remains that baby is close in proximity to their caregiver and learns to sleep “on the go” so as to allow caregiver to continue doing what s/he needs to do. As I have written elsewhere, this can lead to later problematic behaviours as caregivers become trapped to the house for frequent naptimes with a child unable to sleep elsewhere and can resent the child for this behaviour; notably, some babies do need this type of environment, but they are not the “norm” but should be given the utmost consideration. However, scientifically speaking, sleeping in a dark and quiet room during the day it has been associated with poorer sleep habits overall as it inhibits the consolidation of nighttime sleep and reduces the caregiver’s ability to develop a healthy biorhythm with the infant (see [16] for a review).
Better rule? See what sleep environment fits your child. Most children will be okay sleeping in a variety of environments, freeing caregivers up to move around and continue their lives. Some children will require this type of quiet and non-stimulating environment and that’s okay. The key is to follow your child.
Click here for rules #5-8…
***
If you are in need of individualized parenting help, I offer services via email, Skype, and phone on a variety of parenting topics. You can find out more here. |
The Federal Aviation Administration last week asked drone and model aircraft clubs operating within 30 miles of Washington, DC's airport to cease flying due to national security and airspace issues, according to a report by Motherboard. While the FAA extended its DC no-fly zone radius from 15 to 30 miles back in September, it only recently sent a letter to the Academy of Model Aircraft (AMA) asking the organization to shut down 14 flying sites used by its accredited drone clubs. As many as 36 total clubs have been affected by the FAA's rules, and some of the flying sites are wide open fields located outside DC in nearby Maryland and Virginia.
It's no surprise the FAA is imposing strict drone restrictions in and around the nation's capital, but club members say the extended no-fly zone is overly prohibitive given many of the flying sites have met general drone safety guidelines for years. DC Drone User Club president Christopher Vo told Motherboard his organization, one of the largest in the country, will be forced to move events and flying activities indoors until the AMA and FAA settle the dispute. Others have indefinitely halted operations.
The FAA extended its no-fly zone radius from 15 to 30 miles
"We have every reason to believe that this is a temporary situation," the AMA clarified in an email to members. An agreement with the FAA may reopen the flying sites as soon as January, the AMA added, but until then it expects local authorities to enforce the ban.
The situation is yet another regulatory battle between the growing number of drone enthusiasts and government regulators, which have struggled to keep pace with the drone boom that's filling the skies with low-cost aircraft. The FAA announced earlier this month that drone owners must register their device with a name and home address by February 19th, 2016 or face civil penalties up to $27,500 and criminal penalties up to $250,000 and three years in prison. |
March 22, 2017, 12:34 PM GMT / Updated March 22, 2017, 12:34 PM GMT By Saleah Blancaflor
It’s not easy being the son of a yakuza crime lord or the owner of a world-class racing team.
Actor Hiroyuki Sanada should know: He’s portrayed both roles in his 51-year career, which has spanned film, TV, and the stage.
But it could be Sanada’s latest role as an astronaut in the upcoming film “Life” opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, and Rebecca Ferguson that might be the closest to his journey as an actor. In the film, he plays Sho Murakami, one of a six-member crew aboard the International Space Station as they research a sign of extraterrestrial life on Mars.
“I’ve worked with a lot of other great, charming, older actors and directors and I see them and I think, ’Oh my gosh. I’m just a student!’"
In real life, Sanada has traveled around the globe on his path to be a Hollywood actor, going from his home in Tokyo, Japan, to England and now the United States.
When Sanada was 5 years old, he booked his first movie role portraying the son of a yakuza member. He also had several minor roles in Japanese television and films, but temporarily quit acting when he was 10 so he could have a regular childhood.
“My manager and my parents said to me that if I want to be an actor in the future that I should spend more time as a normal kid,” the 56-year-old told NBC News. “It gave me a good chance to watch movies as the audience. Before that, my experience watching movies was always in studio so I’d never actually been in a theater before.”
Sho Murakami (Hiroyuki Sanada) in Columbia Pictures' upcoming film, "Life." Alex Bailey
During that time, Sanada said he focused on teaching himself to do other things, including traditional Japanese dance, horseback riding, singing, and martial arts. He took after his role models, who he noticed were all multi-talented. “There were always great actors who did everything themselves whether it was singing, dancing, or stunts,” Sanada said. “I thought that was the best service for the audience so I thought if I cannot be an actor just yet, I want to be able to do everything myself.”
When he was 12, Sanada began training at legendary actor Shin’Ichi “Sonny” Chiba’s Japan Action Club, where he developed his martial arts skills and became Chiba’s protégé. At the age of 17, he restarted his acting career with a part in a film by famed Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku.
From there, he returned to Japanese television and film with notable roles in the original version of the horror film “Ring”and the Oscar-nominated “The Twilight Samurai,” which earned him a Japanese Academy Prize for Best Actor in 2003.
But Sanada said it was the 1998 Japanese stage production of “Hamlet” in London that was the turning point of his career. After the show, English actor and producer Nigel Hawthorne personally invited Sanada to portray The Fool in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of “King Lear.” “I had never done anything in English before so I was scared,” Sanada said. “I had to think about it for a while. But the producers said to me 'You are an actor first before you are Japanese or Asian.'”
(L-R) Director Daniel Espinosa, actors Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rebecca Ferguson and Ariyon Bakare, SXSW Film Festival Director Janet Pierson, and actors Olga Dihovichnaya and Jake Gyllenhaal attend the "Life" premiere during 2017 SXSW Conference and Festivals at the ZACH Theatre on March 18, 2017 in Austin, Texas. Michael Loccisano / Getty Images
"Those words really hit me, and I thought to myself that if they are going to open the door for my me and my career, I have to challenge myself even if I’m scared so I decided to jump in,” he added. ”It was my first time speaking English in front of an audience, and I spent a few months with them. It was a great experience and it was hard, but I knew it was important for the future.”
After his run with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Sanada started to look for roles in the U.S. and eventually landed one in 2003’s “The Last Samurai,” his first Hollywood film.
Afterward, Sanada made the decision to move to Los Angeles at the age of 45 so he could continue finding work in the country. He said he felt that by coming to the United States, he would help continue to pave the way for more Japanese and Asian actors to break out in Hollywood. “There is no wall between East and West or if there is a wall.I should break the wall and make a bridge to the future in our generation,” he said. “That was always one of my missions was to come to the U.S.”
Since then, Sanada has been in films including “Rush Hour 3,” “The Railway Man,” and “The Wolverine.”
“There were always great actors who did everything themselves whether it was singing, dancing, or stunts. I thought that was the best service for the audience so I thought if I cannot be an actor just yet, I want to be able to do everything myself.”
While Sanada said he has enjoyed working in both Japanese and Hollywood films, he said he feels as though there is still a lot of work that needs to go into protecting actors and filmmakers in his home country, noting that Japanese actors and writers are not represented by unions and have less legal protections.
“I want to learn the system from Hollywood or the European industry, and hopefully someday we can change the Japanese system little by little,” he said. “I think I will continue working here and learn more, and bring it back to Japan someday. That’s my hope.”
Sanada said that though he’s acted in the industry for a while, he still considers himself a student who is continually learning from his peers. “I’ve worked with a lot of other great, charming, older actors and directors and I see them and I think, ’Oh my gosh. I’m just a student!’ but working with them is the best thing to refresh my craft,” Sanada said. “I love that part.”
With “Life” premiering this week and having just wrapped up filming for his next film, “The Catcher Was a Spy,” Sanada plans on exploring different characters as long as there is an audience watching.
“The audience’s reaction is my energy,” Sanada said. “If they’re enjoying themselves and have a good reaction then I think ‘This is it. I’ve tried my best for this moment so I can feel that.’ Without an audience, our job as actors would be nothing. That’s why I try to create a different character every time and I think it’s refreshing for the audience — even those who have watched me for over 40 years to see that I have a different side.”
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James Bond doesn't work for free. He isn't just some gun for hire. He has standards, and values, and if you want him to use your smartphone in a movie you better come prepared with "a solid financial proposal." Because if Bond doesn't think your products are very good... Well, let's just say $5 million dollars will get him to hold your phone, but those are just table stakes.
$5 million just to hold a smartphone
No, this isn't advertising fan fic — this is how the product placement negotiations went down for the upcoming Bond-flick Spectre, at least, according to emails leaked from the Sony hack. Although we already knew that Daniel Craig was in the running for a $5 million fee just to be photographed holding Sony's flagship Xperia Z4, another email — recently flagged up by Wikileaks — has detailed exactly what the filmmakers' objections were.
As Andrew Gumpert, president of "worldwide business affairs" at Columbia, notes, when it comes to product placement, Bond isn't just about the money:
BEYOND the $$ factor, there is, as you may know, a CREATIVE factor whereby [director Sam Mendes] and Daniel [Craig] don’t like the Sony phone for the film (the thinking, subjectively/objectively is that James Bond only uses the "best," and in their minds, the Sony phone is not the "best").
The email is dated to October 2014, and also mentions the possibility of swapping in a Samsung device for Sony's. While Sony had reportedly budgeted an $18 million "advertising commitment" for the next Bond film, Samsung was apparently willing to up this figure to $50 million. A previous email also floated the idea of sidestepping Craig altogether and bringing in Q — aka British actor Ben Whishaw — for the publicity instead.
$5M for Bond, but just $1M for Q
"What if we take the Daniel Craig fee and convince Sony just to pay Barbara directly [$4 million] for a placement fee," writes Columbia Pictures executive George Leon. "NO Daniel this time. We walk from him. The remaining [$1 million] (or LESS!) of this budget can be used to hire "Q" instead?"
Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything else in the emails revealing which smartphone brand Bond does decide is "the best." He certainly has a history with Sony as he uses an Xperia T handset in Skyfall, but we all know the world's greatest spy can be a bit fickle. And if he doesn't think your smartphone is "subjectively / objectively" the best, well, can you really argue with someone with a license to kill?
★★★ |
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Now that the defeat of ISIS in Syria appears imminent, with the Syrian army clearing out some of the last ISIS strongholds in the east, Washington’s interventionists are searching for new excuses to maintain the illegal US military presence in the country. Their original rationale for intervention has long been exposed as another lie.Remember that President Obama initially involved the US military in Iraq and Syria to “prevent genocide” of the Yazidis and promised the operation would not drift into US “boots on the ground.” That was three years ago and the US military became steadily more involved while Congress continued to dodge its Constitutional obligations. The US even built military bases in Syria despite having no permission to do so! Imagine if Syria started building military bases here in the US against our wishes.After six years of war the Syrian government has nearly defeated ISIS and al-Qaeda and the US-backed “moderates” turned out to be either Islamist extremists or Kurdish soldiers for hire. According to a recent report, the US has shipped two billion dollars worth of weapons to fighters in Syria via eastern Europe. Much of these weapons ended up in the hands of ISIS directly, or indirectly through “moderates” taking their weapons with them while joining ISIS or al-Qaeda.“Assad must go,” proclaimed President Obama back in 2011, as he claimed that the Syrian leader was committing genocide against his own people and that regime change was the only way to save Syrians. Then earlier this year, when eastern Aleppo was about to be liberated by the Syrian government, the neocons warned that Assad would move in and kill all the inhabitants. They warned that the population of eastern Aleppo would flee from the Syrian army. But something very different happened. According to the UN’s International Organization for Migration, 600,000 refugees returned to Syria by August. Half of the returnees went back to Aleppo, where we were told Assad was waiting to kill them.What happened? The neocons and “humanitarian interventionists” lied. Just as they lied about Libya, Iraq, and so on.While it was mostly ignored by the mainstream media, just this week a Christian was elected speaker of the Syrian parliament. The new speaker is a 58-year-old Orthodox Christian law graduate and member of President Assad's Baath party.How many Christians does our “ally” Saudi Arabia have in its parliament? Oh I forgot, Saudi Arabia has no elected parliament.Why does it seem that US policy in the Middle East always hurts Christians the most? In Iraq, Christians suffered disproportionately from the 2003 US invasion. In fact there are hardly any Christians left. Why aren’t more US Christian groups demanding that the US get out of the Middle East?The US is not about to leave on its own. With ISIS all but defeated in Syria, many in Washington are calling for the US military to continue its illegal occupation of parts of the country to protect against Iranian influence! Of course before the US military actions in Iraq and Syria there was far less Iranian influence in the region! So US foreign interventionism is producing new problems that can only be solved by more US interventionism? The military industrial complex could not have dreamed of a better scheme to rob the American people while enriching themselves!What have we achieved in Syria? Nothing good. |
First of all, let me apologize for any typos. I’m writing this essay from my phone while driving to Trader Joe’s to buy some Soyaki sauce for my homemade artisanal fish sticks. They took a week to make. Only typing at red lights, however. Safety first!
Okay—comedy and technology. In 2013, being a comedian or writer without using the Internet or a mobile device is like being a fish and not using whatever fish-Internet they have under the ocean or freshwater lake. Technology—including Twitter, YouTube, cell phones, etc.—has completely revolutionized comedy. Everything is about phones and the web these days. I’ve even updated a classic comedy-joke to reflect the state of 2013 comedy: “A nun, a priest, and a rabbi walk into a bar. They’re all looking at their smartphones….”
Tweeting My Way to Comedy Dominance
I started in comedy a few years ago, and my entire career has been relied on technology. As a young nobody, I started writing jokes on my Twitter account. It was only going to be for my own purposes. I wanted a way to practice writing everyday, and I figured Twitter would force me to do so. Little did I know that it would become the most influential aspect of my career, and the third-most influential aspect of my carpal tunnel syndrome (behind making and eating homemade artisanal fish sticks.)
After a few months of tweeting, I randomly and crazily-luckily developed a small following, including comedy writers and comedians in Los Angeles. My first job—writing for the 2011 Academy Awards—came about when the head writer that year began reading my tweets and thought the jokes were good enough for the big leagues. Since then, all my professional comedy jobs have been informed by the ever-growing portfolio of jokes and pieces that I post on Twitter and my blog.
(BTW, just got home. Eating those fish sticks! Finally! They are truly delicious. Wish you could all be here and try them. #blessed).
Telling It on the Mountain
Connectivity means you can spread your voice from any city in America. Don’t get me wrong; I love Los Angeles. It’s amazing to know that you could be hit by Liv Tyler’s or Mark Ruffalo’s personal trainer’s limo driver at any time! But the fact that someone in Delaware or Washington or Alaska or Louisiana or a volcano or a regular mountain with Wi-Fi can also be seen by millions of people online is a wonderful, freeing aspect of the 21st century.
Even well-established comics and writers are joining in the Internet dialogue. One of the most appealing things about being on Twitter or Tumblr or Instagram is the ability to have conversations and joke around with celebrities and comedic heroes (conversely, the ability to interact with your celebrity laughing stocks). Give ol’ @RealDonaldTrump a try. Razz him good.
Laugh While You Can
Comedy has always been about recognizing a current mode of communication and turning it on its head. Vaudeville had to transition to talkies at some point, and now, in the 21st century, stand-ups and TV/movie stars have to jump to social media. And then someday someone will invent a process that beams the Internet directly into your retinas, at which point the YouTube stars will have to learn how to be funny on EyeBeam (my name, do not effing steal it). And then EyeBeam will be replaced by a comedy pill that you take once a day and laugh for exactly 69 minutes every day for no reason; I don’t know if anyone’s going to be a star of that. Comedy will be officially over. So enjoy it while you can.
I can’t wait to see what comes next for comedy. It’s wonderful to see how the comedy landscape is revolutionized by how we as humans interact with each other. And I doubly can’t wait to see what happens with my fish sticks. One has been on the grill this entire time and it’s full-on engulfed in flames. It’s starting to spread to the rest of my kitchen now. Yep, there goes the kitchen table. What an exciting time to be a comedian!
This article is commissioned by Qualcomm Incorporated. The views expressed are the author’s own. |
The anti-Internet asifa in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on June 2, 2013 Photo by Gedalya Gottdenger
On a Sunday evening in early June, thousands of Hasidic men in long coats and black hats braved the heat to attend two outdoor anti-Internet asifas (or gatherings in Yiddish) organized by leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, N.Y. Women were forbidden, but the real temptation for the men was already in their laps, where they covertly thumbed their smartphones.
The Hasidic war against the Internet has been an ongoing campaign—in May 2012, a massive asifa held by the anti-Internet rabbinical group Ichud Hakehillos sold out Citi Field in Queens, N.Y.—but this year’s asifa came with a new threat, almost biblical in tone: Those caught using the Internet for nonbusiness purposes, or without content filters, would have their children expelled from the Satmar yeshiva.
The cost of having large families has forced many ultra-Orthodox Jews to do business outside of the community. Often, this means adopting technology that plunges people with 19th-century values into the aggressively uncensored world of Chatroulette and Reddit. While some rabbis are convinced that this is a gateway to pornography addiction (or worse: secular life), many Hasids, from the media-savvy Lubavitch to the ultraconservative Satmar, use the Internet regularly without detracting from their customs. In many cases, it has fostered connectedness among the ultra-Orthodox and boosted their economy. And, most importantly, it may prove to be a remedy for the unchecked sexual abuse that has plagued the community.
The Chabad-Lubavitch sect, headquartered in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, has embraced media for years, with radio broadcasts, public access TV, and now a dynamic Web presence, including Facebook and Twitter. This is part of their interpretation of Ufaratzta, the imperative to spread Hasidism to secular Jews, which, they believe, will hasten the return of the Messiah.
“We’ve always been at the forefront of communication,” says Mordechai Lightstone, a Lubavitch rabbi and social media director for the Lubavitch News Service. Lightstone is also a regular at SXSW, where he draws Jews seeking a Sabbath meal with the hashtag #openshabbat. “There’s actually a midrash, a Jewish teaching, that says ‘Why was there gold in the temple in Jerusalem? Why is there gold in the world? Gold is a source of greed; idols are made out of gold. In this case, gold was there to glorify God’s name and to make a beautiful structure that can be used as a place to encourage people to come together to unite, to pray, and not as a source of greed, fighting, and then war.’ The same idea would exist within social media, that it can be used for very negative things and for very positive things.”
He adds, “I’m convinced that when the Messiah comes, there’s going to be a tweet.”
While the Internet can be a doorway to faith, it can also show others out, as Libby Copeland wrote last year in Slate. But the most likely to drop out may be the ones who are already looking for an exit. At 24, Ari Mandel left the Nikolsburg sect, a branch of Satmar, and spent the next five years in the U.S. Army. The Internet, he says, was instrumental to him leaving the fold, but it wasn’t the cause.
“I was kind of bored,” he says. “I had outgrown the books that were available in the community, and I just wanted more variety.” At 20, Mandel began sneaking into the public library. Reading was a gateway to the Internet, where he found other Hasidim who similarly questioned their faith.
To Mandel, now 30 and a full-time student at New York University, banning the Internet is not only ineffective, it’s illogical. “The Internet is a tool,” he says. “If you’re going to ban the Internet, you should ban the Bible, because there are bad books. You should ban all Orthodox magazines because there is Playboy—that’s just silly. It just makes no sense.”
This recent wave of anti-Internet activity coincides with the release of the Venishmartem Cloud Filter, a software developed in Romania (where the Satmar originated) by the company Livigent “at a cost of six million dollars and specifically designed to cater to the sensitivities and needs of the Jewish community,” according to their website.
In Late May, Venishmartem held a “Filterthon” in Midwood, Brooklyn. Orthodox men were invited to bring their electronic devices for free installation of filtering software with features such as “skin color blocking,” which scans Web pages for immodest quantities of human skin tones, and “accountability solutions,” which send a user’s browsing history to a third party.
For $7.99 a month, Venishmartem will control their customers’ access to certain content as well as their ability to activate and deactivate the filter itself. This effectively creates a virtual Orthodox enclave by shrinking the World Wide Web down to a tiny neighborhood of frum-friendly sites. “Guard Your Eyes,” Venishmartem’s Internet addiction treatment and prevention wing, offers images of naked Holocaust dead to turn off users who are tempted to seek sexually arousing pictures, among other “Practical Tips.”
But the focus on schmutz, the Yiddish colloquial for porn, is misguided. Last year, in advance of the Citi Field asifa, many were shocked to learn that tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews were rallying against online porn while ignoring what many believe to be the biggest reason why children leave their community: unchecked sexual abuse. Mandel organized a counter-rally at the asifa called “The Internet Is Not the Problem.”
The problem, some say, is mesirah, a rabbinic law dating back to Maimonides that prevents Jews from turning in other Jews to Gentile authorities. For this reason, many abuse cases are never brought to light, even within Orthodox news circuits. Additionally, communities with large populations of Holocaust survivors, such as the Satmar, are wary of secular authorities (who themselves are hesitant to get on the bad side of the politically powerful Hasidim). Some victims and their families are shunned by their neighbors. Victim advocates, seen as “informants,” have been expelled from their temples and physically attacked. Rabbi Nuchem Rosenberg, who runs a hotline that provides information on abuse cases, was badly injured in December when a neighborhood fishmonger threw a cup of bleach in his face.
Rabbi Yakov Horowitz, the dean and founder of Yeshiva Darchei Noam of Monsey and the author of a parenting book, says that the power of the Internet to lead Orthodox kids off the path is “not even close” to that of abuse.
Writing about the protests at the Citi Field asifa, Horowitz cited Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to explain how sexual abuse affects children’s social development. The abused are stalled at Level 2, the need for safety and security, he wrote, because they can no longer feel safe in their community. This is certainly the case when the leadership penalizes the abused and not the abusers—especially when the abuser has been appointed by the community to work with children.
This January, Rabbi Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed youth therapist from Williamsburg’s Satmar community was sentenced to 103 years in prison for repeated sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl. It was an unprecedented case, not only because of the severity of the punishment, but because it reached the secular courts at all.
In his essay on the asifa protests, Horowitz says that abuse survivors “credit the connectivity of the Internet for finally raising awareness of abuse in our community.” The Internet has given a voice to what was formerly a silent majority, as individuals on social media or as victim advocacy organizations such as Survivors for Justice.
A new generation of rabbis helps, too. “I, personally, have noticed that the younger rabbis, even in the most Hasidic communities, the younger rabbis are far more likely to be comfortable going to the authorities,” says Horowitz. He notes that these younger rabbis grew up in free countries and “don’t have the cultural reticence to go to the police.”
On June 12, in anticipation of summer camp season, Horowitz released a series of YouTube videos on child safety. “I’m a big believer in using the Internet for whatever one can,” he says. “Whatever good we can do with it, we should be—we have a responsibility to.” The videos have so far had between 300–600 views each. Horowitz marvels at the efficiency of online media at spreading a message that would have taken a tremendous amount of time and effort to personally deliver to families. Ari Mandel offered his kudos on the hits via Twitter: “That equals countless thousands of potentially saved lives. Bravo!”
Nuchem Rosenberg’s efforts have also expanded online, with a website and Twitter account. He still records his hotline, the most recent of which addresses the trial of Yosef Kolko, who admitted to abusing multiple victims while working as a camp counselor in Lakewood, N.J. He is the son of Yehuda Kolko, who abused multiple students during his tenure as a teacher at a Brooklyn yeshiva. (To hear the report in English, follow directions on his website. Be warned that it contains graphic description of the sexual assault of a minor.)
A Facebook account in Rosenberg’s name has not been active since 2008. But on May 9, a young man posted a simple “Thank you” on the page.
Angel or dybbuk, the Internet has become part of Hasidic life. “It’s here, its influence is going to continue to grow,” says Horowitz, “and if we’re going to be effective in transmitting our tradition, our religious beliefs, our culture, to our children, we’re going to have to figure out a way to do it with the Internet being part of their lives.”
And it already is: Every day, Hasidim log on to popular Orthodox blogs, such as The Yeshiva World and Vos Iz Neias. Sidebars blink with ads for “The Perfect Shaitel for the Perfect You” and breathable mesh tzizit for boys to bring to summer camp. Yentas have been automated, with matchmaking sites advertised as “100% FRUM/100% FREE.” Even B&H, the Satmar-owned and run photography and video supply store, does a brisk online business. Over the phone, director of corporate communications Henry Posner is hesitant to reveal what percentage of their sales are made online, but he is eager to describe their “slick as a whistle” iPad app released in late May. “It’s getting killer rave reviews on Twitter.”
Correction, June 19, 2013: This article originally misspelled the name of the Hasidic sect Lubavitch. |
[Image above] Credit: Mark, Vicki, Ellaura and Mason; Flickr CC BY 2.0
The new green mining technique for germanium is, quite literally, green.
The technique, called phytomining, uses plants to extract difficult-to-mine semiconductor germanium from the ground.
Germanium is used in most gadgets and devices that make our current world current—including computers, smartphones, sensors, and fiber optics.
But germanium is difficult to extract from the earth, even though it’s abundant in soils worldwide. Most of the current supply of germanium, like many rare earth elements, comes from China.
Scientists at Germany’s Freiberg University of Mining and Technology, however, have figured out that they don’t have to dig up the earth to extract the element—they can make plants do the work for them.
Phytomining is nothing new, but using it for germanium extraction is. Previous efforts have focused on mining other elements, such as gold or copper.
“What is being cultivated in this field are various energy crops—for example sunflowers, corn, reed canary grass—but instead of using them for energy purposes, we want to use them for phytomining,” says biology professor Hermann Heilmeier in a Reuters news article. “In German we call it ‘mining with plants’. We want to bring elements that are present in the soil into the roots and shoots of the plants, harvest them and then extract these elements from the plants after they have been used for energy, that is to say fermented.”
In addition to making the mining easier, the process is doubly green in that the plants can first be used to for biogas production. That means the process would make use of a waste product, ensuring that the biomass is utilized for several usable end products.
“And when you cultivate plants here and give them water, they can build up germanium reserves through normal physiological processes. We unlock these reserves through fermentation with the help of bacteria and thus we are able to mobilize the germanium,” Freiberg professor and head of industrial chemistry Martin Bertau explains in the article.
The scientists aren’t yet ready for industrial scale-up, but the initial stages of the project indicate it may be feasible. Hear more in the video below.
Credit: UKRAINE TODAY; YouTube
Currently, the technology is limited to small quantities of extracted germanium—milligrams per liter, the article says. For the technique to be industrially feasible, the scientists need to boost its efficiency considerably, up to at least one gram per liter.
But even though the scientists have considerable work to do, they’re still optimistic about the process.
“We use the normal biogas process, collect the products of fermentation and all there is left to do then is extract the germanium from them. The processing costs of this downstream step are manageable, so even with these low amounts it is still economically viable,” Bertau says in the article. |
The Student Fee Advisory Committee (SFAC) voted to approve a recommendation on the Student Success Initiative (SSI) Wednesday, cutting the proposed fee from $240.50 to $181 per semester. The fee would be phased in over the next three years, reaching its final cost of $181 per semester in fall 2016.
Before the fee is made official, it will require approval from President Mildred García.
If García passes the fee, it will then be sent to California State University Chancellor Timothy P. White for final approval.
Committee members deliberated concerning several spending priorities for Cal State Fullerton, including athletics and technology.
After an initial two-week student consultation process followed by a two-week extension, the SFAC received 3,809 valid paper and online surveys from students. Committee members received the survey data Monday.
The meeting began with time for members of the audience to speak to the committee regarding the fee, and seven students took advantage of that opportunity.
Adriana Gjonovich, a kinesiology major and member of the soccer team, commended the committee for reaching out to get feedback from students and added her support for the portions of the fee allocated to additional advising and courses.
“This fee is helping students graduate quicker with the extra course offerings and advising helping us students get on the right track and … get into those classes that we need,” Gjonovich said.
While some students spoke in favor of the fee, the majority of student speakers found fault with it, including Ryan Quinn and Carie Rael, members of Students for Quality Education (SQE). The group collected 400 signatures from students opposing the fee as part of its mission to promote affordable public education.
“This (fee) is going to directly impact students of low income, who aren’t going to be able to make up the extra $240 over time,” said Rael, a history graduate student.
The committee spent most of the meeting Wednesday deliberating on how to amend portions of the fee to more appropriately reflect student feedback.
“If there are cuts being made, they shouldn’t be made to the things that are directly impacting the academics of our students.” Harpreet Bath, ASI Chief Governmental Officer
A particularly contentious aspect of the fee was the funding appropriated for athletics. SFAC members noted that in the surveys, the amount of money going to athletic programs and facilities was the most contentious issue by far.
“It cannot stand at what it is right now, because the students have spoken that they believe that it is too much right now that’s going towards one area,” said Jonathan Kwok, the Associated Students Inc. Board of Directors chair.
Others on the committee expressed a desire to keep athletic spending a priority. Jonathan Leggett, the vice president of ASI, said the university needs to keep some SSI funding allocated to athletics, citing revenue from events and campus exposure as potential benefits to athletic funding.
“(Athletes) are the ones that promote the pride that is Cal State Fullerton, and so, when we invest in our athletic teams, we are investing in having more alumni coming around and … (we’re) talking about more exposure to the campus; you start getting that attention, which helps promote the great things that we do at this institution,” Leggett said.
The SFAC also focused on the portion of the fee allocating funds to expand academic advising and provide additional courses.
“Academic advising is something that was constantly brought up,” said Harpreet Bath, the ASI chief governmental officer. “If there are cuts being made, they shouldn’t be made to the things that are directly impacting the academics of our students.”
In the coming weeks, the SFAC will meet to finalize accountability measures, bylaws and other specifics regarding the implementation of the fee.
More information about the specific changes to the spending allocation in the SSI is available here.
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Confused? Check out the glossary here.
1. Roll the dice, part 1
It takes some breaks. Alabama benefiting from missed field goals in both 2011 (Oklahoma State vs. Iowa State) and 2012 (Oregon vs. Stanford) to get back into the national title hunt after a home loss. Auburn going 7-0 in one-possession games in 2010. Florida going 5-0 in such games in 2006. About 15 teams losing at key times to get LSU into the BCS title game with two losses. Et cetera. In the end, no matter how good your team becomes, it will need some luck to take the final step and not only play elite ball, but end up in college football's elite setting.
All you can do is put a really good product on the field every year, execute as well as you can, roll the dice each year, and hope that you get the breaks you need at some point. Hope that one year you don't lose to NC State.
Sometimes it happens almost immediately, like Bob Stoops winning a national title at Oklahoma in his second year. Sometimes, it takes forever, like Tom Osborne winning 10 or more games 11 times in 21 years at Nebraska before finally winning a national title in Year 22. Or, of course, Bobby Bowden doing it in Year 18 in Tallahassee.
With each passing year, the odds of Florida State getting the right numbers on the dice seem to improve. There are still questionable losses lingering (2012 vs. NC State, 2011 vs. Wake Forest and Virginia), but the Seminoles keep inching closer.
The odds are that his time will come.
Maybe the Seminoles are missing something -- perhaps the offense is too staid and conservative, for instance. We can theorize if we want to. What we know for sure, though, is this: In 2010, Jimbo Fisher inherited a program that had gone 7-6 and ranked 42nd in the F/+ rankings in Bobby Bowden's last season. The Seminoles improved to 18th (10-4) in 2010, then to 10th (9-4) in 2011. And in 2012, they ranked fifth, won the ACC for the first time since 2005, and won 12 games for the first time since 1999.
Yes, NC State. Yes, Wake Forest. Of course. But the 'Noles are inching closer and closer. With new assistant coaches and a super-young quarterback, perhaps 2013 isn't the year that the dice favor FSU. But if Fisher continues to produce what he's produced thus far, the odds are decent that his time will come.
2. Roll the dice, part 2
There is a price to success. If you begin to put the pieces together in a manner that other schools admire, you become ripe for the picking. Other schools come after your assistants, and your ability to succeed long-term is dictated almost as much by your ability to make new assistant coaching hires as it is your ability to maintain tactical or recruiting superiority.
It was a ridiculously eventful offseason for Jimbo Fisher in this regard.
Defensive coordinator Mark Stoops was hired as Kentucky's head coach.
Stoops brought defensive ends coach D.J. Eliot to Lexington as his new defensive coordinator.
Linebackers coach Greg Hudson became Darrell Hazell's new defensive coordinator at Purdue.
Offensive coordinator James Coley accepted the same job at Miami, tantalized by a return to south Florida and a chance to call plays. (Fisher calls the plays at FSU.)
Quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator Dameyune Craig was hired as Auburn's offensive co-coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Running backs coach Eddie Gran left to become Cincinnati's offensive coordinator.
In all, a coordinator became a head coach, and four position coaches became coordinators. It is both a sign of success and a red flag. A head coach is a CEO, and while we tend to think that a great coach with wonderful acumen -- say, Nick Saban -- would succeed no matter what, he doesn't control every detail of a program no matter how much he may want to. He has to continue making strong hires if he wants to stay a strong coach, and every replacement is a roll of the dice.
That said, it's easy to like the general experience and bona fides of the new assistants Fisher brought to the program. New defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt was Alabama's defensive backs coach. (Having a Saban disciple on staff probably isn't a bad thing.) New defensive ends coach Sal Sunseri is another recent Sabanite (Alabama's linebackers coach and assistant head coach from 2009-11) who served as Tennessee's defensive coordinator last year. New quarterbacks coach Randy Sanders was Kentucky's offensive coordinator under Joker Phillips. New tight ends coach Tim Brewster was Minnesota's head coach for four seasons. New linebackers coach Charles Kelly oversaw improvement as interim defensive coordinator at Georgia Tech last year. And new running backs coach Jay Graham, a younger guy, was most recently running backs coach at South Carolina and Tennessee.
Fisher's new staff has a more impressive collective résumé than the departed coaches did when they first came to Tallahassee. The question, of course, is how quickly they will gel (and, technically, whether they will gel). Things could click quickly, and we could be talking about an 11-0 Florida State team heading to Gainesville in late-November. Or, things might need a year to settle in. It's impossible to know in advance.
2012 Schedule & Results
Record: 12-2 | Adj. Record: 14-0 | Final F/+ Rk: 5 Date Opponent Score W-L Adj. Score Adj. W-L 1-Sep Murray State 69-3 W 38.1 - 12.4 W 8-Sep Savannah State 55-0 W 42.1 - 0.4 W 15-Sep Wake Forest 52-0 W 44.6 - 3.4 W 22-Sep Clemson 49-37 W 55.1 - 23.3 W 29-Sep at South Florida 30-17 W 33.2 - 20.5 W 6-Oct at NC State 16-17 L 28.0 - 18.8 W 13-Oct Boston College 51-7 W 54.7 - 14.4 W 20-Oct at Miami 33-20 W 31.6 - 10.8 W 27-Oct Duke 48-7 W 38.3 - 13.0 W 8-Nov at Virginia Tech 28-22 W 32.5 - 28.1 W 17-Nov at Maryland 41-14 W 40.8 - 17.9 W 24-Nov Florida 26-37 L 35.1 - 31.8 W 1-Dec vs. Georgia Tech 21-15 W 30.1 - 17.7 W 1-Jan vs. Northern Illinois 31-10 W 46.5 - 5.0 W
Category Offense Rk Defense Rk Points Per Game 39.3 11 14.7 6 Adj. Points Per Game 39.3 4 15.5 3
3. Pace-adjusted quality: high
Florida State was really, really good in 2012. For 46 of 48 regular season quarters, this may have been one of the two or three best teams in the country. A fourth-quarter lapse versus NC State led to a jarring, unlucky upset, and an outright fourth-quarter collapse against Florida handed the Seminoles a second loss. But again, the quality was ridiculously high at the beginning of the season -- yes, FSU's first three opponents were quite bad, but the Seminoles still played like an elite team against bad opponents -- and remained high throughout.
Adj. Points Per Game (first 7 games) : Florida State 42.3, Opponent 13.3 (plus-29.0)
Adj. Points Per Game (last 7 games) : Florida State 36.4, Opponent 17.8 (plus-18.6)
There was a defined offensive drop-off when running back Chris Thompson went down against Miami, but this was still a very, very good team throughout the season. Now it just needs to figure out how to get two quarters better.
Offense
Category Yards/
Game Rk S&P+ Rk Success
Rt. Rk PPP+ Rk OVERALL 19 10 10 10 RUSHING 24 5 11 3 PASSING 40 21 8 29 Standard Downs 5 4 7 Passing Downs 23 36 20 Redzone 3 3 8
Q1 Rk 21 1st Down Rk 4 Q2 Rk 3 2nd Down Rk 18 Q3 Rk 7 3rd Down Rk 11 Q4 Rk 16
Quarterback
Note: players in bold below are 2013 returnees. Players in italics are questionable with injury/suspension.
Player Ht, Wt 2013
Year Rivals Comp Att Yards Comp
Rate TD INT Sacks Sack Rate Yards/
Att. E.J. Manuel 263 387 3,392 68.0% 23 10 25 6.1% 7.8 Clint Trickett
22 34 272 64.7% 0 0 0 0.0% 8.0 Jacob Coker 6'5, 235 So. *** (5.7) 3 5 45 60.0% 1 0 0 0.0% 9.0 Jameis Winston 6'4, 227 RSFr. ***** (6.1)
Sean Maguire 6'3, 215 RSFr. *** (5.5)
4. Hello, Jameis
In E.J. Manuel, Florida State had an eventual first-round draft pick at quarterback. That makes it a bit odd that the play-calling seemed designed to protect him to some degree. FSU threw more frequently than the national average on standard downs, a gambit often used to take heat off of a young quarterback; meanwhile, thanks in part to Manuel's mobility, the Seminoles also ended up running slightly more than the national average on passing downs, another safe, protective approach.
In all, FSU ran and passed a rather normal amount, but considering how good the ground game was, especially before Thompson's injury, you could certainly make the case that FSU should have leaned on the run more than it did. A line that was incredibly young and banged up in 2011 quickly gelled and thrived in 2012 (13th in Adj. Line Yards), and while Thompson was easily the most explosive tailback on the roster, Devonta Freeman and James Wilder, Jr., still provided a nice, steady punch.
The play-calling almost suggests that FSU knew it had a good running game (just look at how much FSU ran in the red zone -- when it needed points, FSU ran the ball) but use the threat of the run to take heat off of Manuel, who still took too many sacks (and didn't get amazing protection).
If Fisher was reasonably conservative with a solid senior quarterback, chances are he will be that way again in 2013, with a redshirt freshman at the helm. Jameis Winston is, by all accounts, about as close to a sure thing as possible, to the point where he was being asked about "Manziel disease" (i.e. how one reacts to great success as a young player, basically) recently. It will be a shock if he doesn't succeed, but one still has to figure that Fisher's No. 1 tactic will be even more easy passes on standard downs and even more scrambling and running opportunities on passing downs.
This approach isn't very exciting, but it can work. It turned Nebraska into a Big Ten division champion last year, and, after all, it led FSU to a conference title. And the 'Noles should have the pieces to pull it off. Freeman and Wilder both return, so expect quite a bit of running between the tackles. And to the extent that getting to the edge is still a goal, youngsters like Mario Pender or Ryan Green could play a role. Meanwhile, three of Manuel's top four targets return in the receiving corps, and all three averaged at least 9.0 yards per target. (And, of course, there are about 17 new blue-chippers trying to crack the rotation.) And the line, so young in 2011, is ridiculously experienced, with four of five starters returning (96 career starts in all, including backups). That's a nice thing for a young quarterback to have.
Running Back
Player Pos. Ht, Wt 2013
Year Rivals Rushes Yards Yards/
Carry Hlt Yds/
Carry TD Adj.
POE Devonta Freeman RB 5'9, 203 Jr. **** (5.8) 111 660 5.9 4.4 8 +14.6 James Wilder, Jr. RB 6'2, 229 Jr. ***** (6.1) 110 635 5.8 4.2 11 +10.4 Chris Thompson RB 91 687 7.5 8.3 5 +21.7 EJ Manuel QB 78 489 6.3 5.2 4 +10.5 Lonnie Pryor FB 47 376 8.0 10.0 8 +13.4 Debrale Smiley FB 29 152 5.2 4.8 3 0.0 Chad Abram FB 4 152 5.2 4.8 3 0.0 Mario Pender RB 5'10, 192 RSFr. **** (6.0)
Ryan Green RB 5'10, 188 Fr. **** (6.0)
Receiving Corps
Player Pos. Ht, Wt 2013
Year Rivals Targets Catches Yards Catch Rate Yds/
Target Target
Rate %SD Real Yds/
Target RYPR Rashad Greene WR-X 6'0, 180 Jr. **** (5.8) 75 57 741 76.0% 9.9 18.2% 61.3% 9.9 108.9 Rodney Smith WR-Z 57 38 524 66.7% 9.2 13.8% 75.4% 8.7 77.0 Kelvin Benjamin WR-Z 6'5, 238 So. **** (5.9) 55 30 495 54.5% 9.0 13.3% 54.5% 9.3 72.7 Kenny Shaw WR-Y 6'0, 170 Sr. **** (5.9) 46 33 532 71.7% 11.6 11.1% 58.7% 11.5 78.2 Greg Dent WR-Y 40 27 355 67.5% 8.9 9.7% 77.5% 9.0 52.2 Nick O'Leary TE 6'3, 248 Jr. **** (6.0) 32 21 252 65.6% 7.9 7.7% 84.4% 7.4 37.0 James Wilder, Jr. RB 6'2, 229 Jr. ***** (6.1) 24 19 136 79.2% 5.7 5.8% 58.3% 5.6 20.0 Chris Thompson RB 23 21 248 91.3% 10.8 5.6% 65.2% 11.0 36.4 Lonnie Pryor FB 17 13 128 76.5% 7.5 4.1% 82.4% 6.4 18.8 Jarred Haggins WR-Y 6'0, 193 Sr. *** (5.7) 13 8 108 61.5% 8.3 3.1% 61.5% 8.4 15.9 Devonta Freeman RB 5'9, 203 Jr. **** (5.8) 12 10 86 83.3% 7.2 2.9% 50.0% 7.2 12.6 Christian Green WR-Y 6'2, 205 Jr. **** (5.9) 8 3 33 37.5% 4.1 1.9% 75.0% 5.4 4.8 Giorgio Newberry TE 6'6, 280 So. **** (5.8)
Isaiah Jones WR 6'4, 200 Fr. **** (5.8)
Levonte Whitfield WR 5'7, 178 Fr. **** (5.8)
Jesus Wilson WR 5'9, 177 Fr. *** (5.7)
5. Should we be worried about depth here?
Depth is not a concern on the line, but technically FSU is a couple of injuries away from leaning on freshmen, redshirt freshmen, and sophomores to a pretty heavy degree at the skill positions. Yes, most of those youngsters are former star recruits, but if this offense has a problem in 2013 (other than "they're starting a redshirt freshman at quarterback, and that could always go awry"), it could be depth. Injuries have already limited FSU to basically one reliable tight end.
Offensive Line
Category Adj.
Line Yds Std.
Downs
LY/carry Pass.
Downs
LY/carry Opp.
Rate Power
Success
Rate Stuff
Rate Adj.
Sack Rate Std.
Downs
Sack Rt. Pass.
Downs
Sack Rt. Team 114.9 3.21 3.90 49.7% 64.7% 17.9% 83.7 6.3% 7.8% Rank 13 19 8 1 83 45 87 91 83
Defense
Category Yards/
Game Rk S&P+ Rk Success
Rt. Rk PPP+ Rk OVERALL 2 6 12 6 RUSHING 3 20 27 17 PASSING 1 3 4 2 Standard Downs 7 12 5 Passing Downs 9 15 6 Redzone 32 29 41
Q1 Rk 21 1st Down Rk 11 Q2 Rk 8 2nd Down Rk 7 Q3 Rk 8 3rd Down Rk 6 Q4 Rk 7
Defensive Line
Category Adj.
Line Yds Std.
Downs
LY/carry Pass.
Downs
LY/carry Opp.
Rate Power
Success
Rate Stuff
Rate Adj.
Sack Rate Std.
Downs
Sack Rt. Pass.
Downs
Sack Rt. Team 105.5 2.93 2.05 30.2% 64.5% 22.2% 127.8 5.5% 10.1% Rank 38 64 6 5 43 27 24 35 15
6. Questions up front (relatively speaking)
For the second straight season, Florida State fielded a top-5 defense according to Def. F/+. This was a tremendous, deep unit with a stellar linebacking corps and outstanding secondary. But thanks in part to injuries, the defensive line lagged a bit behind. Brandon Jenkins was lost for the season in the first game, and only three of the 11 linemen who logged at least 6.0 tackles, actually played in all 14 games. Accordingly, the line stats lagged a bit. The Seminoles' defensive front was still top-40 versus the run and top-25 in pass rush (Cornellius Carradine and Bjoern Werner were still ridiculous on passing downs), but any potential FSU weakness on defense seemed to stem from a front four in shuffle mode.
In 2013, the line will likely once again be a question mark, at least compared to the other units on this great defense. FSU will be without four of its top six ends and two of its top four tackles, and while returning tackles Timmy Jernigan and Demonte McAllister are studs, depth is a serious issue. As with other units, there are former star recruits littered throughout the two-deep (it's hard being FSU), but experience isn't strong. DE-turned-TE-turned-DE Dan Hicks is projected to start right now, and if five-star sophomore Mario Edwards doesn't thrive, there aren't any other obvious options. (The odds are pretty good that he thrives, however.)
Lamarcus Joyner and Christian Jones. Robert Mayer, USA Today.
Linebackers
Name Pos Ht, Wt 2013
Year Rivals GP Tackles % of Team TFL Sacks Int PBU FF FR Christian Jones MLB 6'4, 235 Sr. ***** (6.1) 14 71.5 10.2% 7 0 0 3 0 2 Telvin Smith WLB 6'3, 218 Sr. **** (5.8) 14 50.5 7.2% 9.5 1 0 3 1 0 Vince Williams MLB 14 48.5 6.9% 6.5 1 0 2 0 1 Nick Moody SLB 14 13.5 1.9% 1.5 1 0 0 0 0 Terrance Smith SLB 6'4, 220 So. *** (5.7) 13 8.5 1.2% 1.5 0 0 0 0 0 Reggie Northrup WLB 6'1, 223 So. **** (5.8) 13 7.5 1.1% 1 0 0 0 0 0 Ukeme Eligwe SLB 6'2, 240 RSFr. **** (6.0)
Matthew Thomas LB 6'3, 210 Fr. ***** (6.1)
E.J. Levenberry LB 6'3, 234 Fr. **** (5.9)
Freddie Stevenson MLB 6'1, 237 Fr. **** (5.8)
Secondary
7. If the line is solid, look out
The new members of Fisher's defensive coaching staff have quite a bit of experience with Alabama's 3-4 in their background. Sunseri attempted to install the defense at Tennessee last year, for that matter. It doesn't appear that Pruitt is going with a straight 3-4 this year, but the idea will be for FSU to be multiple, capable of going from three down linemen to four, from a 4-3 to a nickel, and from a nickel to a dime with as much ease as possible.
Lord knows the Seminoles will have depth and versatility at linebacker and defensive back. If you can remain unpredictable in the way you align your defense, you don't have to blitz very much to keep an offense on its toes. Saban's defense really doesn't send the house very often -- you just never know where the fourth or fifth pass-rusher will be coming from. Without leaning on a strict 3-4, it's likely Pruitt will be taking on the same attitude.
Pruitt will be able to utilize a prototype middle linebacker in Christian Jones and a wealth of stellar cornerbacks while moving around versatile players like speedy linebackers Telvin Smith and Reggie Northrup and bulky safety Karlos Williams (bigger than either Smith or Northrup) in a variety of ways. A ridiculous number of four- and five-star freshmen and redshirt freshmen will give Pruitt options if someone gets hurt.
Again, there is no guarantee that the line will be great, but the linebackers and secondary will be. And that alone should keep FSU's defense in the top 10 or top 15, despite all the turnover.
Special Teams
Punter Ht, Wt 2013
Year Punts Avg TB FC I20 FC/I20
Ratio Cason Beatty 6'3, 229 So. 47 38.3 2 23 23 97.9
Kicker Ht, Wt 2013
Year Kickoffs Avg TB TB% Dustin Hopkins 105 62.7 43 41.0%
Place-Kicker Ht, Wt 2013
Year PAT FG
(0-39) Pct FG
(40+) Pct Dustin Hopkins 65-66 14-15 93.3% 11-15 73.3%
Returner Pos. Ht, Wt 2013
Year Returns Avg. TD Lamarcus Joyner KR 5'8, 190 Sr. 18 23.6 0 Karlos Williams KR 6'1, 230 Jr. 13 26.2 0 Rashad Greene PR 6'0, 180 Jr. 20 15.4 2 Tyler Hunter PR 5'11, 197 Jr. 8 15.8 1
Category Rk Special Teams F/+ 31 Net Punting 110 Net Kickoffs 15 Touchback Pct 39 Field Goal Pct 12 Kick Returns Avg 16 Punt Returns Avg 8
8. Replacing Hopkins
FSU will once again have a stellar return game in 2013, and while Caston Beatty wasn't a very deep punter in 2012, he at least gave opponents few return opportunities.
But in replacing Dustin Hopkins, the 'Noles do have at least one question mark here. You never, ever, ever know how a new kicker is going to fare, and for years FSU was able to rely on Hopkins to deliver guaranteed points once it crossed inside the opponent's 25. Fisher's general strategy has been to take the points instead of taking risks in the red zone. This can work when you have a good defense and kicker. But if you don't?
2013 Schedule & Projection Factors
2013 Schedule Date Opponent Proj. Rk 2-Sep at Pittsburgh 35 14-Sep Nevada 70 21-Sep Bethune Cookman NR 28-Sep at Boston College 69 5-Oct Maryland 83 19-Oct at Clemson 20 26-Oct N.C. State 61 2-Nov Miami 25 9-Nov at Wake Forest 81 16-Nov Syracuse 54 23-Nov Idaho 122 30-Nov at Florida 5
Five-Year F/+ Rk 14 Two-Year Recruiting Rk 5 TO Margin/Adj. TO Margin* -5 / +2.9 TO Luck/Game -2.8 Approx. Ret. Starters (Off. / Def.) 16 (9, 7) Yds/Pt Margin** -5.3
9. ACC balance of power
Purchase Study Hall today! Bill Connelly's first book is now for sale at Amazon and Createspace.
As always, as I finish previews for a given conference, I take a look at what I consider to be the conference's balance of power. This has nothing to do with schedules or predicted order of finish; it's just how I view team strength at this point in the (quickly dwindling!) offseason.
Tier 1
1. Florida State
2. Clemson
That Clemson hosts FSU might be enough to earn the Tigers a division crown, but I feel a lot more comfortable about FSU overall. The Seminoles' strengths may not be quite as strong this year, but their question marks aren't quite as questionable, either.
Tier 2
3. Miami
Miami's defense still won't be very good in 2013. That's why the Hurricanes, and everybody else, are still a step or two behind FSU and Clemson. But I like their offense enough to put them a nose ahead of the other teams that have a decent shot at the other Coastal Division contenders, even if their schedule puts them in an even race for the title.
Tier 3
4. North Carolina
5. Virginia Tech
6. Georgia Tech
7. Pittsburgh
I don't feel quite as good about UNC as some, but getting Miami at home will help division title hopes. Meanwhile, I struggle to find much separation between Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech ... and I'm going to bang the Pittsburgh drum one last time by putting the Panthers here.
Tier 4
8. NC State
9. Syracuse
10. Wake Forest
11. Maryland
12. Boston College
13. Virginia
14. Duke
Speaking of little to no separation ... if I asked 50 people to rank these seven teams, I would probably get 50 different combinations. At least a couple of these teams will make bowls because of scheduling, but if I think long enough, I could make a case for all seven to top the tier.
10. Two games
Yes, there are still potential land mines on the schedule. The season-opening trip to Pitt could be scary if the Panthers are a top-40 team (and I suspect they could be); that's not the optimal place for a redshirt freshman quarterback to begin his career. And a team like Miami or, perhaps, Nevada or Maryland could certainly bite FSU if the 'Noles fall asleep at home. But for the most part, Jimbo Fisher and FSU have a two-game season. Unfortunately, both of those games are on the road.
I think Florida State is the best team in the ACC and a top-10 or top-12 team overall. I'm confident in the Seminoles overall, but I can't necessarily see them surviving trips to both Clemson and Florida unscathed and still winning the other 10 games as well without a random stumble. Like Texas, a lot of people could feel pretty silly for doubting the 'Noles come November, but with a new quarterback and so much new blood on the coaching staff, I think they are probably at least a year away from successfully rolling the dice and becoming a major piece of the national title race.
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I shared some of my adventures as a Navy wife during the Cold War recently on the blog.
One thing about being the wife of a submarine officer is that you were out of contact with your husband for months. No phone calls, no letters, and certainly no emails as there was no internet.
The problem was a lot of things can happen in 3 months. Most marriages, if something happens, you deal with it and move on. This never had a chance to happen with the submarine marriages. Your husband came home and found out everything at once. There was always an adjustment period. My own husband I remember became upset when I simply took out the garbage. It had always been his job, a job I had to nag him about, but when he saw me simply do it on his own for some reason it made him feel not needed. I went back to nagging, and he was happy again.
Our eldest daughter was born when my husband was out to sea. The joke was, your husband could be there for the conception or the delivery, but not both. The timing of the submarine meant most mothers were delivering babies with a friend or family member, not a husband. My best friend Mary was my delivery partner.
Our daughter was 10 months old when her father left for sea, and for three months I would show her a VCR tape of her father reading books. There was a framed photograph of my husband in his uniform on the wall, and I would always say “That’s your daddy!”. My daughter then began calling every Navy officer “Daddy”. To her, a man in an officer’s cap was a “Daddy”. It was, confusing but then again, a lot of people got a laugh out of it.
When her father came home, I was so excited to show off how our daughter had learned to walk and knew so many more words. We drove to where the bus that had picked up the men from the airport would be. My husband’s boat was stationed in Scotland, so the crews flew back and forth. A bus would pick them up from the airport and drop them off at the Navy base.
My husband came off the bus, and our daughter was “Who the hell is this?” (well she sure thought it). As we drove home, she was totally silent. I did get to show off how she could walk and knew many new words, but the next day proved interesting. I kept saying “It’s daddy!” and our daughter toddled over to the photograph on the wall, pointed at it and said “DADDY!” I knew there was going to be some bonding that needed to be done. It should have been done slowly and care, but let’s face it I needed a break. I had that child for 3 months. As much as I wanted to spend time with my husband, I wanted to spend time without my child. I was going shopping and then to the library. I handed the child to husband, waved goodbye, and said “Get to know each other!” I drove off to the screams of my daughter, and a look of desperation on my husband’s face. I would have felt guilty, but I really needed a break. I came back to the two of them playing with blocks and Cheerios all over the place. They had discovered they liked each other.
The worst homecoming ever I was only a small part of. The crew was due in within a few days. The wives had made banners and were very excited. I was happy not to be taking out the garbage soon.
Then the call went out. Every officer’s wife was going to be required to stay with Jean, one of the other wives. We were not allowed to go run over to see our husbands until we made sure Jean’s husband did not kill her. Yes, “kill her” were the words used. It was our job to support her, until she had told her story of just what had happened the 3 months her husband had been gone.
So just what had happened?
Well, Jean had to explain how she had bought 2 new cars, and why the garage was now missing.
Remember, most couples, bad things happen one by one. Jean had to explain three bad things all at once. The funny part is that all of this happened in just one week. Jean had been in a car accident, her fault, and the car was totaled. That was going to be hard enough to explain, but things happen. She then bought a new car, and parked it in the garage.
She has also bought a really nice new wood stove. She knew her husband would be happy as they owned their own home, and the cost of heating fuel had gone up. The wood stove was going to save them a lot of money. Jean decided to test out the new wood stove, and after one use decided to clean it out. She used the vacuum cleaner, took out the bag with the ashes, and put it in the garage.
She looked out her window later at her not attached garage (thank goodness) to see it was a mass of flames. The garage, and the new car, were gone.
Jean went out and bought another car.
We all stood by Jean, while our husbands wondered what in the world we’d all been up to while they were gone as we all looked horribly guilty of something. Jean’s husband forgave her, after all they had been accidents. We were all then able to go home and readjust again to having a partner around. Jean sort of set the standard though. If something went wrong while my husband was gone I was always able to think “Well it’s not like I burned down the garage!”
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Since the 1970s, when declining state funding and the replacement of federal grants with private loans began to raise the cost of going to college, universities, especially public ones, have tried to attract higher-paying students. They often come from out of state and, increasingly, from out of the country. (There are 1.1 million foreign students in America, an 85 percent increase since 2005, with the largest contingent coming from China.) Attracting more students also means attracting more applicants, while still keeping the acceptance rate relatively low — a way of increasing the university’s selectivity and potentially improving its rank on the influential U.S. News and World Report list of universities. The University of Cincinnati first entered the list at No.156 in 2011 and reached the 129th spot in 2015. Its tuition has gradually risen, and its acceptance rate declined from 82 percent in 2002 to 73 percent in 2013. The number of out-of-state students increased 8.3 percent last year.
The hope is that buildings by starchitects will turn the University of Cincinnati into a desirable, glamorous place to spend four years living and studying. Mayne’s imposing Campus Recreation Center — which includes four stories of housing, six basketball courts, lecture halls and bleachers for the football stadium — represents the university’s commitment to improving the ‘‘campus experience.’’ Sparkling new buildings encourage sparkling new neighborhoods. Just south of the university in the Clifton Heights neighborhood, a two-block retail, housing and entertainment complex called U Square @ the Loop, replete with a craft-beer emporium and a yoga studio, recently opened. It is part of a wider development of the area, where campus police patrols have also increased. (In July, a 43-year-old black man was shot and killed by a white campus officer in the nearby Mount Auburn neighborhood.) The university and its students now visibly set themselves apart from surrounding communities. |
Eugenie Blanchard, considered the world's oldest person, died Thursday at 114, news agencies reported.
Blanchard was born in February 1896, the sixth of 13 children, on the French Caribbean island of Saint-Barthelemy, but moved to Curacao and became a nun in 1920, according to Le Figaro.
She was known by the nickname Douchy, a Dutch creole word translated "Sweets," because she often gave children candy to bribe them into religious studies, AFP reported.
Blanchard returned to Saint-Barthelemy at age 60 and had lived in a nursing home for the past 30 years. She was blind and unable to speak for several years but was not on any medications, according to Le Figaro.
A woman named Antisa Khvichava in the Republic of Georgia is said to be 130 years old, but her birth date cannot be independently verified, several news outlets reported. |
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Cleveland Cavaliers center Andrew Bogut lasted only a minute into his debut with his new team before a serious leg injury forced him from the game.
The initial X-rays revealed a fractured left tibia, according to Joe Gabriele of Cavs.com, who added Bogut is heading to the hospital for further evaluation.
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The center officially registered one minute of action against the Miami Heat and finished with zero points and two fouls.
Bogut has been all over the place in the past 12 months, beginning with the Golden State Warriors trading him to the Dallas Mavericks last July. The Mavericks then shipped him to the Philadelphia 76ers shortly before the trade deadline, but the Sixers quickly waived him so he could join a playoff contender.
While Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio reported the center had considered joining the Boston Celtics, former Cleveland guard (and fellow Australian) Matthew Dellavedova pushed him to the Cavs. He was expected to provide some much-needed depth and valuable post defense for the defending champions.
Unfortunately, this latest injury raises questions for a player who has dealt with a number of injuries in the past.
Bogut suffered a right knee bone bruise Dec. 5 and missed 11 games during the Mavs' uninspiring start to the season. He was also hampered by a right hamstring strain during portions of his time in Dallas.
On the year, Bogut is averaging a career-low 3.0 points to go with 8.3 rebounds per game.
If the diagnosis of a fractured left tibia holds true, this would be the fourth season of Bogut's career in which he plays fewer than 40 games. |
NECRO BUTCHER COMMENTS ON ARREST
Necro Butcher posted the following in regard to his arrest on his official Facebook Page:
"Well since some real classy folks have posted their 2 cents as well as my mug shots online, I guess I have to respond, so here goes - yeah, just got outta jail (48 hrs) no biggie, recognized by 3 guards, no cons, although 1 con knew my daughter, whatever, thats over with, now time for name calling and finger pointing, which apparently has started, I had 4 grand in the bank for a Disney World vacation, I found out this was gone , as well as divorce plans being made, I was privy to none of this til after the fact, so Im not saying Im right in doing what I did, but put anyone else in my shoes and see how they do, "hey, were not going to disney world, i cleaned out your bank account, im leaving you and taking our kids to Texas, and theres nothing you can do, hahaha" my reaction wasnt the best, but it was normal in a way, I already know the pain of not seeing your kids is worse than death, it is, so here I go, time for the next chapter in my life to start."
Thanks to everyone who sent this along.
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BuzzFeed Quizzes: What Data Set Do You Belong To?
A scroll through your Facebook News Feed will turn up BuzzFeed quizzes about what Harry Potter character you are. Ad Age reporter Kate Kaye tells NPR's Scott Simon what BuzzFeed's doing with all the quiz data.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Online personality quizzes are going viral. The website BuzzFeed says their quizzes, which ask questions like which Harry Potter character are you or which city should you actually live in, break Web traffic records. But are these seemingly silly and inconsequential quizzes only for fun? With tens of millions of people filling them out, it could be a marketer's dream.
What could all this online data mean for advertisers? We turn now to Kate Kay, a reporter for Advertising Age. She joins us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
KATE KAYE: Hi there, Scott.
SIMON: What are they doing with all this stuff?
KAYE: OK, so right now, and I actually confirmed this with Buzzfeed, a lot of this is speculation. What they're doing is just tracking what the final results of the quizzes are. So they're not even tracking, like, whether or not you gave a particular response to a particular question in the quiz.
SIMON: Well, I took a quiz before we began, which was trying to determine which piece of art I am. They don't show you the pieces of art and say which, you know, do you identify with most. But they ask you what to my mind would be a series of seemingly disconnected questions, like how dark are you. And then it goes from black to white and, you know, mostly shades of gray. I was Georgia O'Keefe.
KAYE: Oh my goodness.
SIMON: Actually I was quite flattered, and I'm not afraid for the world to know it.
KAYE: OK, so you want to share that on Facebook now because you like the answer, right? That's what BuzzFeed wants out of you. It's like this endless traffic loop.
SIMON: Yeah. Do you ever take these quizzes?
KAYE: Honestly, the first time I took one of the quizzes...
SIMON: No, no, no, make something up for us. It's much better.
KAYE: No, I actually never even took one until I was asked to speak about them, and I found them sort of intriguing, and I'll definitely be taking them more as someone who looks at how marketers use data because I do think that BuzzFeed is going to use that information at some point.
SIMON: They just haven't figured out how to use it yet?
KAYE: Oh no, they know what they're going to do. They wouldn't have those questions written the way they are if they weren't eventually going to compile that information and use it to inform where their ads should go and who should see their ads. That is ultimately what they're going to be doing with it. And they're - and right now, as far as I can tell, they're sort of conditioning people to respond to these certain types of questions, so like when they do start compiling the data that way, it'll just be like oh yeah, this is the way the quizzes are. And then down the road adding a what kind of vacation do you like to take?
SIMON: So if I might put it this way, when we take these quizzes now, we're being, along with a lot of other people, fattened up for the advertising kill?
(LAUGHTER)
KAYE: Yeah, I think there's something to that. I think the quizzes are written a certain way because they do want to end up collecting that data and using it.
SIMON: Kate Kaye with Advertising Age, thanks so much.
KAYE: Thank you very much.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: This is NPR News.
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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. |
NEW YORK – As Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s budget axe continues to hang over public workers and services – threatening schools and students, libraries, parks and virtually everything else on which New Yorkers rely – the city’s labor movement, residents, and now a large section of the City Council is pushing to the top of the agenda another way to resolve the budget crisis: tax the rich.
The councilmembers want to increase taxes on people who make more than $250,000 by 0.6 percent and raise taxes on those earning over $500,000 by 1.2 percent. That would bring more than $1 billion in revenue for the city.
“Wall Street had a profit of $61 billion last year – $61 billion – and they were bailed out by the average taxpayer’s dollars,” said Councilmember Daniel Dromm, who represents Jackson Heights, Elmhurst and other parts of northwest Queens.
Dromm is a member of the council’s Progressive Caucus, formed earlier this year to fight for progressive values and combat Bloomberg, a mayor who has often, in the words of caucus co-chair Brad Lander, “undermined grassroots democracy.” So far, 12 of the city’s 51 council members have joined the caucus.
The caucus commissioned a study to determine exactly how New Yorkers want the city’s nearly $5 billion budget deficit filled. According to the study, 89 percent of New Yorkers favor protecting public services by increasing taxes on those with higher incomes. Only 11 percent of respondents were in favor of balancing the budget through service cuts.
The survey asked people how they felt about several deficit-reduction proposals in the Bloomberg budget. The vast majority of these proposals were overwhelmingly rejected in the court of public opinion.
But Bloomberg has different plans. According to an op-ed written by Lander and Melissa Mark-Viverito, a council member who represents East Harlem and who is the caucus’s other co-chair, “Thousands of low and moderate-income families could find themselves hit by budget cuts on multiple levels and across generations – in just one low-income area in Brooklyn, two child-care centers, a senior center, a health clinic and a public pool are all on the chopping block.”
According to Dromm, the caucus’s tax plans would shift the burden of the crisis off the backs of lower- to moderate-income working people to those who can comfortably pay a little bit more. He suggested that, with the tax hikes of about a percentage point on those making more than $250,000, it would be possible to raise $1 billion extra while eliminating all city income taxes on those making less than $40,000 per year.
The Progressive Caucus has also proposed other methods of raising the rest of the funding. They include closing loopholes for hedge funds and private equity managers, which would raise up to $200 million; removing insurance companies’ tax exemptions, raising up to $250 million; and eliminating tax breaks for vacant residential lots, raising nearly $80 million.
The biggest revenue generator that they have proposed, and one supported by more than half of New Yorkers, is a $0.007 per share tax on stock trades, which would bring in about $2 billon.
Those who support these measures argue that they need to be in place for this year, but, even more importantly for the future. Next year’s budget deficit is forecast to be worse than the current one.
Many of these proposals would require state approval, which would be likely if Bloomberg were to lobby for them in Albany, the state capital. However, that is highly unlikely, said Dromm, so “we have to create enough of a campaign with people power to force the issue.”
“People power” was on display this past week at the Save Our City rally initiated by AFSCME District Council 37 and the United Federation of Teachers, and attended by participants from dozens of other unions, community groups and religious organizations.
Dromm was quick to point out that the unions did most of the organizing for the rally. But he noted that the Progressive Caucus “supportive of that effort,” and “were somewhat involved in organizing it as well, and we need more demonstrations like that until we win this battle.”
Photo: A group of participants in the June 16 Save Our City rally. http://www.uft.org/news/thousands-join-save-our-city-rally/ |
A Maryland man who was suspected in the presumed death of his traveling companion in Aruba is suing to collect on a travel insurance policy issued in the woman's name.
Gary Giordano says in a lawsuit that AMEX Assurance Company is required to pay him $3.5 million under the terms of a policy purchased before last summer's trip. He says in the suit that his companion, Robyn Gardner, is presumed dead following her Aug. 2 disappearance and that the insurance company has a "duty to pay the full death benefit" to him.
Giordano was held for months in an Aruban jail on suspicion of being involved in Gardner's disappearance, and the insurance policy's existence had caught the attention of investigators and prosecutors. But an Aruban judge ordered him released in November, saying prosecutors didn't have enough evidence to continue holding him. Giordano has denied wrongdoing and says Gardner was swept out to sea as the two snorkeled off the southern tip of Aruba, though her friends and family have expressed doubt about that statement.
He says in the lawsuit that Gardner was covered under a July 27 policy that afforded $3.5 million in benefits in the event of accidental death or dismemberment.
Giordano told The Associated Press the lawsuit speaks for itself and declined further comment. The suit was filed Thursday in Cook County, Ill., where AMEX Assurance is based.
"My reaction, from what I understand the original policy was for $1.5 million and I don't know where he gets the $3.5 million now, but also I mean the fact is there has been no declaration of death," said Richard Forester, who says he was Robyn Gardner's boyfriend at the time of her disappearance, told WBAL's Scott Wykoff. "American Express doesn't even review these sorts of things until a year after the disappearance, and still even with that if there is no declaration of death I imagine they are going to fight it tooth and nail. I would hope they would fight it tooth and nail because nobody knows anything. We don't know, other than perhaps Mr Giordano, but there are now clues. Law enforcement has no clues and there's no evidence to say that she is dead, therefore no validity for this sort of lawsuit."
American Express Co. spokeswoman Gail Wasserman declined to discuss the specifics of the case, but she said policyholders generally have to wait one year before filing a claim in instances which a person is believed dead but a body has not been recovered.
"When somebody is trying to collect a policy of this type and the insured person is missing, there is a 365-day period to file a claim," she said. "We would have not accepted a claim before the 365th day because that's the parameter of the policy." |
Last week, Robert Vadra bitch-slapped the entire nation.
Yes, our nation, with its pride on morals, culture and beliefs, was delivered a resounding bitch-slap on the face, the kind that a Bollywood hero delivers to the heroine when he catches her doing scandalous things like sipping some wine.
Not so surprisingly, none of the media houses seem to be talking about it. And apart from The Hindu, no newspaper is even doing a follow-up story on the issue. But then, that’s our media. Last year, the Journalists Federation of India awarded Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda the best CM of the country.
Before you wonder “Who,da?”, here’s interesting trivia. From 1982 to 2005, only 5,550 acres were allotted for real estate development. Since 2005, when the ‘Best CM’ of the country assumed power, 20,549 acres were allotted to property developers. If this is the best CM, I can only imagine how the Chief Ministers who are not the best, would be faring.
Now, Robert Vadra is a strange fellow. For many years, I thought the guy was an unassuming bloke who got lucky in marriage. All that changed in 2010, when he gave an interview to the Times of India, saying “I’ll join politics when I can make a difference”. He also went on to say that he could win an election from anywhere, but chooses not to.
I wondered what the guy thought of himself! I mean, for a guy whose only link with politics was to be married to a political family, that sort of confidence either meant he was a confident, shrewd man, or an absolute buffoon. The proceedings over the last week have proven that when compared to this guy, even Rahul Gandhi seems like Albert Einstein.
When Kejriwal accused Vadra of wrong doings, three things shocked me:
Cabinet ministers coming in support: Now, I can understand if he was a Congress minister, or even a minister in a coalition. The guy isn’t even a goddamn politician. What the fuck are you defending him for? And that too, someone like Chidambaram….? IAS Officer transferred: Ashok Khemka, the IAS Officer who initiated the investigations against the deal, was immediately transferred. Sometimes, the quick action our administration takes is quite inspiring. Mango People: Proving that he was, after all, a moron, Vadra put up a message on Facebook saying “Mango People in a Banana Republic”. We live in a nation where a guy who has married into a political family, when accused of wrongdoings, could call the nation a ‘Banana Republic’
That sealed it for me. This guy, surely, was nuts. An ape in the midst of a shrewd, powerful family.
Laughably, the same Haryana government that was doling out land like Santa Claus on Christmas, gave the guy a clean chit.
I knew Kejriwal didn’t stand a chance in the court of law. There is no law preventing a company from selling and buying at any price it deems fit, and so there would be no case there.
But the more important question that the court should have asked was, “What business did DLF have in giving unsecured loans to someone who wasn’t even in the field of Real Estate two years ago?” There are rules, there is law, and then there are ethics.
And that is how, as a nation, we were bitch-slapped. Asked to shut up, and left like little puppies to whimper at trucks that go by.
But here’s how to screw Robert Vadra.
***********************************
Every year, all the news channels organise their annual awards ceremonies. Sycophantic mutual masturbation clubs where everybody compliments everybody, and returns home after a good dinner.
Like the CNN Indian of the Year award, which as a matter of fact, Rahul Gandhi won in 2009 in the field of politics. So what you’re telling me is, this guy, with no administrative experience, no official position in the government, having brought in no reforms or policies whatsoever, was the Indian of the Year? God save our country then!
There is also the Economic Times Award for Corporate Excellence that awards the best performing businesses in the country. Then there are the CNBC-CRISIL awards with a category called the CRISIL Real Estate Awards.
Business Today’s Most Powerful Men in Business, the Indian Business Awards, the Emerging India Business Awards, and a bunch of other Business Awards.
Now, if Vadra’s business is all clean and legitimate, it is an astounding story of business growth.
For someone who was selling handicrafts and other handlooms, to get into a competitive field like Real Estate and go from a 50 lakhs to 300 crores is an unbelievable achievement.
In a time when the world is reeling from recession, and entire countries going bankrupt and people being fired from their jobs, the guy has been made the Director, Addl. Director, or MD in twelve companies in the last six years. To show an exponential growth rate of above 500% when the nation’s economy is tottering at 6%, is an achievement.
I mean, the guy is a miracle, a business force to reckon with, our own Steve Jobs.
Shouldn’t he get an award?
So this is what the media houses should do.
Invite him for these awards. Award him for his excellence. Ask him to stand in front of business leaders, lawyers, and accountants, and talk about the secrets of his success. That should wipe the smug smile off the douchebag’s face.
I mean, his businesses are all clean, right? He deserves accolades, then.
And maybe then, I will have some respect for Indian media.
So, I’m waiting, Mr. Arnab Goswami. Instead of barking into our ears every night, strap some balls on, and give the guy some much needed awards.
Are you listening, Mr. Goswami? Like you keep reminding us, India needs an answer.
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U.S. Rep. Donna F. Edwards talks to voter Tariq Tucker during early voting this month. Edwards is facing Rep. Chris Van Hollen in the Maryland Democratic primary. They are running to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (Astrid Riecken/For The Washington Post)
Rep. Donna F. Edwards was beaming as she greeted supporters outside a Prince George’s County firehouse on a recent Friday, ready to regale another debate audience with her history as a single mother and her quest to diversify the U.S. Senate.
“Let me give you a hug!” Edwards gushed, wrapping her arms around a friend.
A few feet away, Edwards saw another familiar face: Dave Chapman, a neighborhood activist from her district. But Chapman, 74, was holding up a sign for Rep. Chris Van Hollen, her opponent in the bruising race to succeed Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
“You’re never on my team, no matter what I do for you!” Edwards told Chapman, who reminded her that he had been among her first supporters when she won her House seat.
“But you never returned my calls,” Chapman said.
Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Md.), talks with diners at a Denny's restaurant in Easton, Md. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Edwards turned and kept walking, her smile locked in place.
As she seeks to become Maryland’s first African American senator, Edwards, 57, casts herself as an uncompromising progressive whose perspective as a black woman is needed in a Senate long dominated by white men. From women’s issues to income inequality, her impassioned oratory has endeared her to national progressive groups that have poured money into her campaign, narrowing Van Hollen’s early fundraising advantage.
More than 600,000 online viewers have watched her appearance last month on Bill Maher’s “Real Time,” in which her biting defense of President Obama’s right to choose a new Supreme Court justice prompted comedian Sarah Silverman to shout, “Put this middle-aged black woman in the Senate right now!”
Yet for all her telegenic swagger, Edwards has roiled her Democratic colleagues, who chafe at what they describe as her brusque manner, sharp-elbowed tactics and poor management of her congressional office. In particular, they cite what they say is her failure to cater to the needs of her constituents.
“She’s focused on Washington, D.C., and Congress — and not on the areas she represents,” said Doyle Niemann, a former Maryland state delegate and Edwards supporter who is backing Van Hollen. “I’ve tried to get hold of her on different issues, and rarely do I get a real response.”
Edwards, in an interview, dismisses such criticism as manufactured by a political establishment that is largely aligned with Van Hollen and reflective of the outsider status she has cultivated during her Senate campaign.
“The way I came into politics is very different than the way they came into politics,” Edwards said. “Politics can be a little clubby. And I wasn’t part of the club.”
‘Race does matter’
Although Maryland’s Democratic establishment has anointed Van Hollen as Mikulski’s successor, Edwards has her own supporters, a bandwagon that includes such national groups as Emily’s List and Democracy for America, which view her as an unyielding ally in their efforts to protect Social Security benefits and change campaign-finance laws.
Progressives first noticed Edwards in 2006 when, with little money, she nearly defeated then-Rep. Albert Wynn, a Prince George’s power broker whom she defined as a tool of corporate interests and criticized for voting to authorize the Iraq War.
Edwards defeated Wynn in a Democratic primary rematch two years later.
“It showed her determination and perseverance,” said Karren Pope-Onwukwe, a longtime ally. “She became entrenched in the community, and that’s what made the difference.”
Although she emphasized her experience as an activist during those campaigns, Edwards, who is divorced, now stresses her history as a single black mother, a strategy that her allies hope will draw African American voters in key areas including Baltimore and Prince George’s.
“Race does matter,” Edwards said during a recent debate. “It’s time that we had the ability to speak for ourselves.”
Her message seems to resonate with women such as Sherry James, a black nurse from Landover who nodded at the Prince George’s firehouse event when Edwards described her past struggles paying bills.
“Go ahead! Uh-huh,” James said as Edwards spoke. “She’s talking about my life! She’s real.”
Yet Edwards’s focus on race and gender also prompts criticism that she is pandering to black voters.
Artis Hampshire-Cowan, a black civic leader in Prince George’s who is a vice president at Howard University, said that Edwards’s candidacy “has pained me personally,” especially because her message sounds so different from when she ran against Wynn, who is also black.
“Now that she’s running for the Senate against a Caucasian, she’s wrapping herself in the sisterhood cloth,” said Hampshire-Cowan, a Van Hollen supporter. “It’s just race and gender, and I think we’re beyond it.”
State Del. Jill P. Carter (D-Baltimore), who is backing Edwards, said the focus on the congresswoman’s racial identity draws attention away from her more noteworthy attributes, including her career as an advocate for victims of domestic violence.
“What’s more interesting is her brilliance,” Carter said. “It’s her independent voice.”
A river view
On a recent Thursday, Edwards went table to table at a Kent County Democratic Party dinner on the Eastern Shore, posing for photos, commiserating about the tempestuous weather and dropping personal tidbits here and there.
“My mother says, ‘Donna — Everything you think, you wear on your face,’ ” Edwards told one woman. “I can’t help it.”
On another day, another audience learned that she loves shopping for vintage clothing (“Sometimes late at night on HGTV, I watch flea markets”) and of her interest in traveling to Mars (“If they just take me, that would be great”).
Mainly, though, Edwards sticks to her biographical narrative: the daughter of an Air Force officer who moved Edwards and her five siblings from base to base, including one in New Mexico, where her 11th-grade yearbook quoted her hope to go into law and “possibly” politics.
Her immediate ambition was to join the Air Force, she says, but “they wouldn’t let me fly.” Instead, she attended Wake Forest University and got her law degree at the University of New Hampshire.
Edwards was married in 1983 to Derek Lane Coleman, whom she met in college. They had their son, Jared, five years later.
The couple soon separated, and, for a time, Edwards’s financial struggles — she had accumulated massive student debt — forced her to move with her son to her mother’s house, live without health insurance or a car and get help from food pantries. Her failure to pay taxes over several years resulted in more than $9,000 in state and federal liens, all of which were later released.
Although she often alludes to her hardships in campaign appearances, Edwards said she has never liked discussing the period in detail. “It was a very emotionally debilitating thing,” she said. “I was totally embarrassed by it.”
At the time, she was building her career as a public-interest lawyer, co-founding the National Network to End Domestic Violence before becoming executive director of a foundation that handed out grants to progressive causes.
She first delved into Prince George’s politics — and bucked the county’s Democratic establishment — in the early 2000s, when she opposed the National Harbor project in southern Prince George’s.
Milton Peterson, the project’s developer, referred to Edwards and her fellow activists at the time as “hornets” after they filed a lawsuit against the project. They dropped the suit when Peterson agreed to add residential units and a biking and hiking trail along the Potomac River.
Six years later, as a new member of Congress, Edwards bought a $539,000 condominium at National Harbor, which delighted such detractors as former state senator Gloria Lawlah, a project proponent.
“It’s an acknowledgment that we were right and she was dead wrong,” Lawlah said, chuckling.
Edwards countered that the community’s opposition forced Peterson to turn National Harbor into a place she wanted to live.
“I love it,” she said of her home and its river view. “I feel really proud of what we did.”
Constituents and criticism
Edwards found that her power to force change was far more limited as a member of the minority party in Congress. As an example of her legislative accomplishments, she often cites a measure to add Maryland to the states that serve after-school supper to students.
At the Capitol, the congresswoman is mainly known as a partisan Democrat advocating “a broad populist and progressive framework,” said Norman Ornstein of the nonpartisan American Enterprise Institute. “But she’s not known as one of those who focuses on the details of policy.”
What she is notorious for is roiling Democratic colleagues.
In 2011, she opposed the redistricting plan by then-Gov. Martin O’Malley (D), which stripped her of the part of her district that included Montgomery County and gave her Anne Arundel County.
Although her detractors have accused her of acting out of self-interest, Edwards insisted that O’Malley’s plan harmed black voters because it concentrated their power in just a few districts.
“Give her credit for speaking out against a gerrymandering plan that hurt minorities,” said Doug Duncan, the former Montgomery county executive, who is backing Edwards. “She impressed me as someone who speaks her mind and doesn’t worry about the consequences.”
Even as she emphasizes her racial identity, the political action committee behind the Congressional Black Caucus declined to endorse Edwards. The PAC’s board tabled a vote on the endorsement after learning that two prominent black leaders — Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III and Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett — were supporting Van Hollen (Albert Wynn is among the board’s 21 voting members).
Joanne C. Benson, a Prince George’s state senator who backed Edwards over Wynn, said her relationship with Edwards died after the congresswoman summoned her to a meeting and “wanted to berate me” for not opposing O’Malley’s redistricting plan.
“I’ve been in politics since 1965 and never been so disrespected,” Benson said.
Edwards described Benson’s account as “absolutely a fiction.”
“I have not berated anybody,” she said.
Others have wanted Edwards to pay closer attention to their interests.
The Maryland affiliates of the Service Employees International Union dropped Edwards after supporting her in other races because “members were reaching out to her office and weren’t getting any responses,” said Pat Lippold, political director for the state’s health-care union. And the union representing 8,000 NASA workers has criticized Edwards for not responding sufficiently when it complained about racial disparities at the agency.
When Van Hollen mentions the criticism, Edwards cites her endorsements from unions such as those representing bricklayers, nurses and transit workers. She has denied the NASA union’s claim.
Chapman, the neighborhood activist from Prince George’s who is backing Van Hollen, said he abandoned Edwards after she ignored his repeated requests for assistance on behalf of people he knew, including an unemployed veteran trying to navigate the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“The only time I’d see her was around election time,” he said.
Edwards insists that her staff provides “really good” constituent service, assisting residents in foreclosure cases and organizing such events as an annual college fair.
Asked about her often-contentious relationships with Democratic colleagues, Edwards pointed out that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has put her on her leadership team and that she has headed groups including the House Democratic Women’s Caucus.
“Somebody’s got to like me,” Edwards said.
For better or worse, the congresswoman acknowledged, her style is not to “sugarcoat things.”
“I’m very direct. I’m very precise,” she said. “I get to the heart of the matter.” |
As healthcare titans UPMC and Highmark duel each other for supremacy in Pennsylvania, another type of patient battle made headlines this week in North Carolina. According to the Charlotte Observer, over a five year period (2005 to 2010), North Carolina hospitals - most of which are tax-exempt non-profits - filed more than 40,000 lawsuits against patients with overdue bills. In at least one stunning example of patient-engagement, the article highlighted a bill collector who told an elderly woman "You have the right to remain silent." Most of the lawsuits wind up against people that were uninsured - a category that typically pays the highest possible retail rate for healthcare services.
States often confer the tax-exempt status on hospitals with the expectation that certainly some services will be extended to the less fortunate with limited capacity to pay. Two of the more litigious hospitals in North Carolina are Carolinas HealthCare and Wilkes Regional Medical Center in North Wilkesboro. They each filed over 12,000 lawsuits against patients in the same five-year period. One of the controlling entities - Carolinas HealthCare System - reported annual profits of more than $300 million over the last three years. One facility, Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy (CMC-Mercy) promotes itself as a “Planetree Designated Patient-Centered Hospital.” Planetree, Inc (itself a non-profit) offers tiered designations (Bronze, Silver and Gold) for "achievement in patient-/person-centered care based on evidence and standards." The designation appears to be loosely based on an "application review fee" ($2,500 - $5,000) and includes a "self-assessment." CMC-Mercy's Gold Designation status is prominently featured on the hospital's website:
In another example of aggressive collections - this time reported by the New York Times - debt collectors are starting to appear earlier in the healthcare process - including bedside in the ER. One organization, publicly traded Accretive Health is "embedding collectors as employees in emergency rooms and demanding that patients pay before receiving treatment." The aggressive tactics were revealed earlier this week by the State Attorney General for Minnesota who said that Federal laws may have been broken by Accretive Health employees who accessed protected health information as a part of their collection process. In some cases, the aggressive tactics by Accretive employees were rewarded with gift cards - while those that were less successful were threatened with termination. Publicly traded Accretive Health has contracts with hospitals around the country including Henry Ford Health Systems in Michigan and Intermountain Healthcare in Utah. According to the NYT article - "Accretive announced it won a contract to provide “revenue cycle operations” for Catholic Health East, which has hospitals in 11 states."
Most hospitals have contracts with agencies for collecting payments after services are rendered, but by embedding collection agents directly into the administrative functions, companies like Accretive Health can incorporate the more aggressive approach of point-of-care payment - before healthcare services are even delivered. Patients are often unaware that the personnel are Accretive Health employees - under contract to the hospital. For services delivered through the ER this could be interpreted to violate the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, a federal law that requires hospitals to provide emergency health care regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay.
As evidenced by this chart, according to the American Hospital Association, the financial strain of uncompensated care is mounting:
Just last month The Office of the National Coordinator (under HHS) formed a Consumer/Patient Engagement Power Team which is designed to "assess and provide recommendations for strengthening consumer/patient engagement components." Most of that effort appears to be designed around the technical components of Meaningful Use - and specifically the next step in that evolution - Stage 2. This is certainly an ideal time to review all aspects of consumer/patient engagement in the healthcare system - including how to approach patients for healthcare payment under tough economic conditions. As the New York Times reported late last year - there are about 100 million Americans either in poverty - or the zone just above it. |
Democrats troubled by Clinton’s weakened poll numbers
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a memorial service to honor those killed In Chattanooga shooting at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's McKenzie Arena on August 15, 2015 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton dropped from 55 to 45 percent in less than a month, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, which shows Vice President Joe Biden outperforming the former secretary of state in head-to-head match-ups against top Republicans. less U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks at a memorial service to honor those killed In Chattanooga shooting at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's McKenzie Arena on August 15, 2015 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. ... more Photo: Jason Davis / Getty Images Photo: Jason Davis / Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Democrats troubled by Clinton’s weakened poll numbers 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Cause for anxiety among Democrats in the state, Hillary Clinton’s presidential poll numbers have sagged further under the weight of an ongoing probe into her use of private email as secretary of state.
So much that Sen. Bernie Sanders and Vice President Joe Biden, who is flirting with a 2016 White House run, reached their own high-water mark in an Aug. 27 Quinnipiac University poll.
Clinton dropped from 55 percent to 45 percent in less than a month, according to the poll, which shows Biden outperforming the former first lady in head-to-head match-ups against top Republicans and Sanders up to 22 percent.
The word most associated with Clinton in response to an open-ended question by the Hamden-based poll service: “liar.”
“It’s the death by a thousand cuts,” said Audrey Blondin, a Democratic State Central Committee member from Litchfield and Sanders organizer. “We don’t need those distractions that happen.”
Blondin, who supported Clinton’s 2008 presidential candidacy, said Clinton’s use of civilian email for sensitive communications, some of which were latter flagged as classified, defies all logic.
“You don’t mix up your daughter’s wedding with Libya,” Blondin said. “I feel her pain as far as maybe not being as computer literate or as computer sophisticated (being) in our 60s as perhaps someone younger would be. But that isn’t an excuse. If you have a sensitive government position, common sense says you don’t co-mingle your personal email with your work email.”
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., a Yale Law School classmate of Clinton and promoter of her candidacy, defended Clinton in light of the latest poll results.
“I take her at her word that none of the information in her emails was marked as classified when she was transmitting it,” Blumenthal said. “But unquestionably, it was an error in judgment, and she seems to have acknowledged it. With the legality aside, her acknowledging that she, in effect, made a mistake is important and, in the long run, it will matter a lot less than jobs, the economy, education, health care and an agenda for the future.”
Clinton would beat Republicans Donald Trump, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio head-to-head, according to the poll, which was conducted from Aug. 20 to Aug. 25 among 1,563 registered voters nationwide. Its margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percent.
But on Clinton’s trustworthiness, 61 percent of respondents had a negative response. Trump was not far behind at 54 percent.
“She still has a commanding lead, but she’s losing ground every time we do a survey,” said Tim Malloy, the poll service’s assistant director. “More concerning is that she doesn’t do well at all when it comes to honesty and trustworthiness.”
State GOP Chairman J.R. Romano said Democrats could be having a case of buyer’s remorse if they nominate Clinton.
“What you’re seeing is the result of scandal after scandal centered around Hillary Clinton, and it’s taking a toll,” Romano said.
ick Balletto, the state Democratic Party chairman, said, “It's very early in the process and polls will go up and down. The one thing that's abundantly clear — from frontrunner Donald Trump's plan to spend $200 billion taxpayer dollars to tear up immigrant families, to Jeb Bush's suggestion that we spend too much on women's health care — is that the extreme right-wing agenda that the Republican candidates are pushing would take this country backwards.”
Trump picked up 8 points in one month in the poll, with retired brain surgeon Dr. Ben Carson at 12 percent and Bush and Marco Rubio both at 7 percent. Trump was at 28 percent, with 26 percent of Republicans saying they would not support him under any circumstances.
“You either love him or you hate him,” Malloy said.
neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy |
Today marks the 90th anniversary of the day Hollywood impresario Sid Grauman opened his Chinese Theatre, which would become the most famous—and arguably the greatest—movie theater ever constructed.
As a recent LA Times profile explains, the extravagant theater was constructed at a hefty cost of $2.1 million on land that Grauman didn’t actually own. The showman, who also developed Downtown’s Million Dollar Theatre and the Egyptian Theatre just two blocks east of the Chinese, leased the land on which the iconic theater sits from silent film star Francis Xavier Bushman, who owned a mansion on the site.
The building was designed by architectural firm Meyer and Holler and represents an Art Deco-influenced (and shamelessly exoticized) reinterpretation of a Chinese temple. The theater’s facade is framed around a 90-foot tall pagoda topped with masks and flanked by imported artifacts from China, such as stone figures and temple bells, as LA Conservancy notes.
The theater’s most famous feature, the Forecourt of the Stars, is as old as the venue itself. Screen icons Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were the first stars to preserve their handprints and footprints for posterity, according to the Times. Though the two actors wrote the theater’s opening date in the concrete, however, the prints were actually made a few weeks earlier in advance of the venue’s first big premiere (Cecil B. DeMille’s biblical epic King of Kings).
Now named after Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL, the theater recently underwent major renovations that equipped it for IMAX screenings. And 90 years after opening day, it’s still the place to beat for star-studded red carpet premieres. Here’s a look at the historic venue over the years. |
Two years ago we brought you the story of Florida resident William T. Woodward, who after being accused of shooting three men, killing two of them, cited the state’s “stand your ground” laws and the “Bush Doctrine” of pre-emptive force as justifications for his actions. Well, this week, his court hearings began.
The 46-year-old Titusville, Fla., resident reportedly snuck up on three of his male neighbors during a Labor Day party and fired rounds at them. Since then, Woodward and his attorneys have deemed the assault a pre-emptive response to “imminent threats” from the neighbors, as they were allegedly harassing Woodward and his family.
WKMG Orlando has more details from Monday’s “Stand Your Ground” hearing:
Defense attorney Robert Berry described in great detail Monday morning all the alleged harassment and petty vengeances suffered by his client, William Woodward, 46, including lewd sexual comments aimed at his daughter. “But that is not why he shot them,” Berry said. Instead, he said Woodward waited until three shooting victims said they were going to “get him, and “end this,” before he took action. Woodward is accused of shooting and killing Gary Lee Hembree and Roger Picior and wounding Bruce Timothy Blake on Sept. 3, 2012. His attorneys showed hours of home surveillance video to the judge Monday afternoon. They claim it shows Hembree, Picior and their families yelling obscenities and taunting the Woodward family.
While the court decides whether Woodward can use the “stand your ground” defense under Florida law, he faces two charges of first-degree murder and one charge of attempted first-degree murder. The prosecuting attorney obviously takes issue with Woodward’s claim of “stand your ground” defense, according to Florida Today:
Prosecutor Gary Beatty stressed that none of the shooting victims were armed and even though he described the behavior of the victims as disgusting, he said it gave the defendant no right to leave his property and go and kill them. “Why didn’t he just call the police?” Beatty asked. “Does the ‘stand your ground’ defense extend to this? If so, where does it extend?” Beatty asked.
Woodward is an Operation Desert Storm veteran who, according to his family, suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Watch a report on the case below, via WKMG:
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Sachin Tendulkar has been named Wisden's Leading Cricketer in the World for the first time to mark a phenomenal year in which he became the first player to reach 50 Test hundreds. He is the third successive Indian player to win the coveted award, following Virender Sehwag who took the award in the previous two years.
The 148th edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, published on Thursday, has a nastier surprise in store for Australia. Influenced by their home defeat to England in the Ashes series, there is no Australian in Wisden's World Test XI. Wisden finds room for only two Englishmen, Graeme Swann and Jimmy Anderson, and includes five Indians.
Alastair Cook's Wisden snub continues. Cook, who made 766 runs in the Ashes series at an average of 127.66, was overlooked as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year because the award concentrates on achievements in the English season. He is also omitted from the World Test XI as Wisden opts for a blistering opening combination of Sehwag and the Bangladesh batsman Tamim Iqbal.
Tendulkar, who began the month as part of the Indian team that won the World Cup in his home city of Mumbai, which he described as the proudest moment of his career, is in some of the richest form of his career at the age of 37. In 2010 he made more than 1,500 Test runs and seven Test centuries. He also became the first player to hit a double century in a one-day international.
Scyld Berry, in his fourth and final year as the Almanack's editor, said of England's Ashes victory that it was "hard to think of a sizeable human organisation that has come closer to perfection for a couple of months than England's cricket team during the Ashes".
Wisden's cricket book of the year goes to a little-publicised history of the game: Eric Midwinter's The Cricketer's Progress: Meadowland to Mumbai (Third Age Press: £17).
Wisden Test XI
1 Virender Sehwag (India), 2 Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh), 3 Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka), 4 Sachin Tendulkar (India), 5 Jacques Kallis (South Africa), 6 VVS Laxman (India), 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (India, capt & wk), 8 Graeme Swann (England), 9 Dale Steyn (South Africa), 10 Zaheer Khan (India), 11 James Anderson (England) |
A bitter ideological divide in Congress appeared destined Wednesday to at least temporarily end the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records as government officials warned they would have to begin shuttering the program after Friday if lawmakers do not act.
In a memorandum, the Justice Department said the National Security Agency would need to act “to ensure that it does not engage in any unauthorized collection” or use of the data should the program not be extended before a June 1 deadline.
The memo, along with comments Wednesday by FBI Director James B. Comey, puts pressure on lawmakers to act at a time when congressional Republicans remain divided over the NSA’s controversial gathering of private telephone records for counterterrorism purposes.
The House last week overwhelmingly passed a bill that would sharply limit the record-gathering, with nearly 200 Republican votes. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) favors a long-term continuation of the existing phone-data collection program and has suggested that the House bill will not gain enough votes to move forward in the Senate.
[White House ‘strongly supports’ measure to end mass phone-data collection]
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) took to the floor Wednesday afternoon to speak against the renewal of the Patriot Act. Paul claims it gives government too much access to citizens’ private data. (C-SPAN)
He instead raised the possibility of a short-term extension of the current authority under the Patriot Act’s Section 215.
“What I think is the most important thing is to make sure we still have a program, a program that works, and helps protect the American people from attacks,” McConnell said Tuesday. “That’s the bottom line here. And we’re going to work toward addressing that this week, and we’ll see how it turns out.”
But House Republican leaders have said they have no plans to bring a short-term extension to a vote before leaving for a week-long recess Thursday, effectively foreclosing any temporary fix. And there is strident opposition from some senators to an extension of any length.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who is running for president, took to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to begin what he told his political supporters would be a filibuster of attempts to extend current law.
“I, for one, say there needs to be a thorough debate, a thorough and complete debate, over whether we need to allow our government to collect all of our phone records all of the time,” Paul said at the outset of his remarks, which continued into Wednesday evening.
Paul’s marathon speech raised the possibility that the Senate will not be able to vote on surveillance legislation until Saturday, well after House members leave town. If senators pass the House bill, the USA Freedom Act, there will be no lapse in collection. Otherwise there will almost certainly be a lapse, because the House is not set to meet again until June 1 — hours after the current authority would expire.
Some Senate Republican leaders suggested the House could take up a short-term extension when it returns. But the Justice Department made clear that the government needs to know Congress’s intentions this week.
The current court order authorizing the program requires the government to file for any renewal no later than Friday if it intends to continue the collection, according to the memo, which was obtained by The Washington Post. After that, the memo says, “it will become increasingly difficult for the government to avoid a lapse in the current NSA program of at least some duration.”
It added, “In the event of a lapse in authority and subsequent reauthorization, there will necessarily be some time needed to restart the program.”
[Rand Paul vows to do everything possible to block Patriot Act renewal]
Meanwhile, Comey warned the June 1 “sunset” affects not only the NSA’s bulk collection but also three legal tools that he said are “critical” to the bureau’s investigations of terrorists and spies. They are “noncontroversial,” he said, and are getting drowned out by the focus on the NSA program.
Section 215 not only authorizes the contested bulk phone records collection but also enables the FBI to obtain a court order for data on individual suspects, Comey said.
“If we lose that authority . . . that is a big problem,” he said Wednesday at Georgetown University Law Center. “We’ll find ourselves in circumstances where we can’t” obtain records with a grand jury subpoena or a national security letter in counterterrorism or counterespionage probes, he said.
Two other provisions that are set to lapse enable surveillance of “lone wolf” suspects who are not linked to any foreign terrorist group or foreign government and allow “roving wiretaps” on targets who frequently switch communications devices.
Democrats and at least one GOP senator urged McConnell and like-minded Republicans to drop their opposition to the House bill, calling it a carefully crafted compromise that has won endorsements across the political and ideological spectrum.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the third-ranking Democratic leader, said the USA Freedom Act represented a “lifeboat” for Republicans who fear a sunset of the current law.
On the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) noted that the bill had the support of most House Republicans, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and an ideologically diverse coalition of outside groups including the NAACP and the National Rifle Association.
“This is a supermajority,” Lee said, “a super-duper-majority.”
But key Republican senators continue to have concerns about the revisions set out in the House bill, which would end the NSA’s mass collection of phone-call metadata. That information, which includes dialed numbers, call times and durations of calls, would remain in the hands of phone companies. The government would then have to obtain a court order to compel the companies to send records on specific terrorism suspects to the NSA.
Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said earlier this week that he was seeking further assurances that the system set out in the House bill would be workable for intelligence agencies.
“I’m trying to make sure we’ve got a viable way forward that protects the capabilities that this program provides but allows Mike Lee and others the certainty that it’s going to transition out of a bulk storage program at some point in the future,” he said.
Such a compromise, said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.), might involve “a longer period of transition where we can actually verify it works and not just do it based on a hope and prayer.”
Lee, a lead Senate sponsor of the USA Freedom Act, said he was open to the idea of a compromise to extend the transition period. “I don’t think there’s anything particularly sacrosanct about the six months,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with someone suggesting a longer term if they can demonstrate that’s necessary.’’
Intelligence officials say the loss of the data-gathering power would be a blow. “You’re taking tools off the table while [the Islamic State] is taking over Ramadi,” a U.S. official said. “They’ve got to take ownership of that.”
A lapse of even a day or two would be highly disruptive to ongoing investigations, officials said. If a court order expired during a gap in authority, for instance, it could not be renewed, and preemptively renewing those orders can be time-consuming.
“It would screw things up,” said the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment openly to reporters.
The government’s bulk data collection was not publicly known until the disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013. To justify the surveillance dragnet, the federal authorities relied on the Patriot Act, which Congress passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Some privacy and transparency groups say that losing Section 215 would not cripple investigations, because the government would still have its predecessor — a pre-Patriot Act provision that would allow it to collect a narrower class of business records if they pertain to foreign powers or agents of foreign powers.
“It’s time for the national security establishment to argue why they need enhanced powers . . . after 14 years of the Patriot Act being in place,” said David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, a grass-roots civil liberties group.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), who has vowed to filibuster any extension of the current law, said he doubts that McConnell has the 60 votes needed to advance a short-term fix, citing widespread opposition among Democrats. “It takes our eye off the ball here in terms of getting a long-term solution,” he said. “Why would we extend even for a short period of time a law that has been ruled illegal by the courts?”
A federal appeals court ruled this month that Section 215 of the Patriot Act did not provide sufficient authority for the bulk surveillance program, but it stayed its ruling pending congressional action on the reauthorization of the law. |
Rick and Morty is great blend of strange and hilarious, and it's likely that the VR game Accounting has a similar vibe. Accounting, which released today for free, is a VR game from Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland, who founded the indie studio Squanchtendo earlier this year.
Accounting is created by Squanchtendo in collaboration with Crows Crows Crows, which is a studio that was formed by designer William Pugh who worked on The Stanley Parable.
Accounting can be downloaded for the HTC Vive on Steam. As you can see below, the trailer introduces a talking cloud with a neurotic voice on par with what you may typically find in the show.
Accounting tasks you with being an accountant, while a voice screams commands at you from a messaging machine. You can read more about Accounting in the latest issue of Game Informer magazine, where we sat down with creators Roiland and Tanya Watson to see just how wacky this VR experience is. For more on Rick and Morty, read about Adult Swim's upcoming VR game, Rick and Morty Simulator: Virtual Rick-ality, based on the popular cartoon. |
WikiLeaks has released nearly 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee ahead of the Democrat convention this coming week.
According to the Wikileaks website:
WikiLeaks releases 19,252 emails and 8,034 attachments from the top of the US Democratic National Committee — part one of our new Hillary Leaks series. The leaks come from the accounts of seven key figures in the DNC: Communications Director Luis Miranda (10770 emails), National Finance Director Jordon Kaplan (3797 emails), Finance Chief of Staff Scott Comer (3095 emails), Finanace Director of Data & Strategic Initiatives Daniel Parrish (1472 emails), Finance Director Allen Zachary (1611 emails), Senior Advisor Andrew Wright (938 emails) and Northern California Finance Director Robert (Erik) Stowe (751 emails). The emails cover the period from January last year until 25 May this year.
The emails are from the period between January to the end of May this year and are presented in a searchable database.
WikiLeaks did not indicate how it obtained the emails. Guccifer 2.0, however, said the emails came from a recent hack of the DNC’s servers. |
Reina Miura makes her return to MMA competition on 25th February when she faces UFC veteran and training partner of Ronda Rousey, Shayna Baszler. The match will be contested in the 155 pound lightweight division.
“King” Miura (1-0-0) may only have just one fight as a pro, but what a debut it was. Back in November at Deep Jewels 14, she submitted Eriko Iwamoto in just 1:57 of the very first round via Armbar. She’s been hailed as the future of women’s MMA in Asia and has a lot of hype surrounding her right now in her home country. She comfortably competes at 155 pounds and plans to be the woman to put the lightweight division on the map, just like Ronda Rousey did with bantamweights and Cris Cyborg with featherweights.
A dominant victory over Baszler would certainly do that for Miura. Shayna Baszler (15-10-0) is a UFC veteran who trains with Ronda Rousey. She holds victories over the likes of Julie Kedzie, Roxanne Modafferi, Alexis Davis, Adrienna Jenkins, Sarah D’Alelio and many more. She even fought the pound-for-pound best female fighter Cris Cyborg taking her past the first round.
Miura plans to make a devastating statement to the MMA world on 25th February, showing everyone why she is unstoppable at 155 pounds and why the lightweight division is the one to watch.
Reina Miura takes on UFC veteran Shayna Baszler on February 25th at DEEP JEWELS 15. The event takes place from the hinjuku FACE arena in Tokyo, Japan. |
Mervyn Wheatley, said to be uninjured, was taking part in transatlantic race when vessel was hit by storm
A 73-year-old British sailor was rescued by the Queen Mary 2 luxury liner after his yacht was severely damaged in a powerful North Atlantic storm.
The lone sailor, understood to be former Royal Marine Mervyn Wheatley, was taking part in a transatlantic race when the vessel was hit by the storm in the early hours of Friday.
Despite Wheatley’s yacht, called Tamarind, being battered in 15-metre waves by winds reaching 60 knots (69mph), Wheatley was described as being “uninjured and in good spirits”.
A profile on the Royal Western Yacht Club website said the experienced sailor left Plymouth for Newport, Rhode Island, on the “slow and comfortable American cruising boat” on 29 May.
It was his 19th Atlantic crossing and he had planned to sail back single-handed, with the 6,500-nautical-mile voyage ending in July or August.
HM Coastguard and counterparts in Halifax, Canada, launched a long-range rescue mission involving an RAF C-130 Hercules after detecting a distress beacon at about 4am on Friday.
Meanwhile, coordinators radioed the QM2 for assistance, which diverted its course and headed to the scene, arriving at about 1pm on Saturday.
The master of the QM2, Captain Chris Wells, who led the rescue mission, said it was standard seafaring practice to go to the aid of a vessel in distress. He said: “We were pleased to be able to help and delighted that the yachtsman is safe and well and now on board.”
Wheatley, from Newton Ferrers in Devon, served 33 years as an officer in the Royal Marines, according to the RWYC. Among his achievements is skippering one of the eight boats to take part in the inaugural Clipper Round the World Race in 1996, which he competed in again in 2005-06.
According to a fundraising page, it was the fifth time Wheatley had competed in the original single-handed transatlantic race – known as Ostar – with Tamarind.
The yacht was one of five craft competing in the Ostar and the two-handed transatlantic race to be affected by the storm, three of which are understood to have been piloted by British skippers. Despite all of the boats suffering damage, there were no reports of injuries.
On its website, the RWYC, which organises the races, said: “The RWYC would like to thank all personnel at the Halifax coastguard for their immediate and magnificent response to this emergency situation. All seafarers owe them a debt of gratitude.”
John Lewis, race director, told BBC News that in 25 years he had not seen such bad conditions. “It’s unusual, it’s extreme, but it does happen in the North Atlantic,” he said.
Daniel Bailey, the maritime operations officer for HM Coastguard, said: “We are extremely grateful for the support and professionalism that the RMS Queen Mary 2 provided during this rescue.” |
AT first glance, the prognosis for marriage looks grim. Between 1950 and 2011, according to calculations by the University of Maryland sociologist Philip Cohen, the marriage rate fell from 90 marriages a year per 1,000 unmarried women to just 31, a stunning 66 percent decline. If such a decline continued, there would be no women getting married by 2043!
But rumors of the death of marriage are greatly exaggerated. People are not giving up on marriage. They are simply waiting longer to tie the knot. Because the rate of marriage is calculated by the percentage of adult women (over 15) who get married each year, the marriage rate automatically falls as the average age of marriage goes up. In 1960, the majority of women were already married before they could legally have a glass of Champagne at their own wedding. A woman who was still unwed at 25 had some reason to fear that she would turn into what the Japanese call “Christmas cake,” left on the shelf.
Today the average age of first marriage is almost 27 for women and 29 for men, and the range of ages at first marriage is much more spread out. In 1960, Professor Cohen calculates, fewer than 8 percent of women and only 13 percent of men married for the first time at age 30 or older, compared with almost a third of all women and more than 40 percent of all men today. Most Americans still marry eventually, and they continue to hold marriage in high regard. Indeed, as a voluntary relationship between two individuals, marriage comes with higher expectations of fairness, fidelity and intimacy than ever.
But marriage is no longer the central institution that organizes people’s lives. Marriage is no longer the only place where people make major life transitions and decisions, enter into commitments or incur obligations. The rising age of marriage, combined with the increase in divorce and cohabitation since the 1960s, means that Americans spend a longer period of their adult lives outside marriage than ever before. |
There were nearly 40 million Americans with a disability in 2015, representing 12.6% of the civilian non-institutionalized population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet the share of Americans with disabilities varies widely across demographic groups and geography. (The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey defines disability status through six types of questions measuring serious difficulty with hearing, vision, cognition, walking or climbing stairs, as well as difficulty with self-care and independent living. Other surveys with different definitions have estimated that a considerably larger share of Americans have disabilities.)
Here are seven facts about Americans with disabilities.
1 Older Americans are significantly more likely than younger Americans to have a disability, according to the American Community Survey. About half of Americans ages 75 and older (49.8%) reported living with a disability in 2015, as did about a quarter (25.4%) of those 65 to 74. In contrast, just 6% of Americans ages 18 to 34 and 13% of those 35 to 64 said they had a disability. In absolute numbers, however, those ages 35 to 64 accounted for more disabled Americans – nearly 16 million in 2015 – than any other age group.
2 While there is little difference between men and women in the likelihood of having a disability, there are differences by race and ethnicity. Asians were least likely to say they had a disability (6.9%), followed by Hispanics (8.8%). American Indians or Alaskan Natives, on the other hand, were most likely to report a disability (17.7%). Similar shares of whites (13.9%) and blacks (14.1%) reported living with a disability.
3 The most common types of disability involve difficulties with walking or independent living. More than 20 million people ages 18 and older reported having serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs in 2015, representing 7.1% of the civilian non-institutionalized population. Another 14 million people ages 18 and older reported having a difficult time doing errands alone (for example, shopping or visiting a doctor) due to physical, mental or emotional conditions.
About 13 million people reported cognitive difficulties. Around 11 million people in the U.S. reported significant hearing difficulty, while roughly 7 million reported significant difficulty with vision, even when wearing glasses.
4 Some states, counties and cities are more likely than others to have residents with a disability. West Virginia had the highest share of any state, at 19.4%. In Arkansas, Kentucky and Alabama, about 17% said they had a disability. In contrast, Utah was among the lowest, with 9.9% of the population reporting a disability in 2015.
Among counties with populations of 65,000 or more, three had shares of a quarter or more reporting a disability: Pike County, Kentucky (28.7%), and Calhoun (25.2%) and Walker (25.1%) counties, both in Alabama. The share with a disability varied widely at the county level, with Kendall County in Illinois (4.9%) among the lowest rates in the country, nearly 24 percentage points lower than Kentucky’s Pike County.
Unlike states and counties, few if any of the cities with the largest shares of disabled residents in 2015 are in the South (among places with a minimum population of 65,000). In Flint, Michigan, Hemet, California, and Pueblo, Colorado, roughly 22% of residents reported having a disability. The town of Fishers, Indiana, had one of the lowest shares in the nation, with 3.5% of residents having a disability – almost 19 points lower than Flint.
5 Disabled Americans earn less than those without a disability. Those with a disability earned a median of $21,572 in 2015, less than 70% of the median earnings for those without a disability ($31,872), according to the Census Bureau. Both figures are for the civilian, non-institutionalized population ages 16 and older, measured in earnings over the past 12 months.
Challenges in surveying disabled Americans Due to the nature of the surveys associated with this data, certain Americans with disabilities are likely undercounted. The initial recruitment surveys for the American Trends Panel, as well as the phone survey used to determine tech adoption and internet use, were conducted on landlines and cellphones and likely under-covered adults who are deaf or have difficulty speaking. The figures reported on political engagement and voting behavior are from panel surveys conducted via the web and mail, which may underrepresent blind people. In addition, our surveys do not cover those living in institutionalized group quarters, which may include some severely disabled individuals.
6 Disabled Americans were politically engaged in the 2016 presidential election. In a survey conducted in the early summer of 2016, about seven-in-ten (71%) Americans who self-identified as disabled said it “really matters who wins the election,” compared with 59% of Americans who did not report having a disability. Disabled Americans were also more likely to follow the campaign closely than those without a disability. These findings are from the Center’s American Trends Panel, which found that 22% of American adults self-reported living with a disability in 2016, defined as a “health problem, disability, or handicap currently keeping you from participating fully in work, school, housework, or other activities.”
Disabled Americans were as likely as the non-disabled to say they were registered to vote — and to say they actually did vote— in the 2016 presidential election. In a post-election survey, Americans with disabilities reported vote preferences that were similar to those of voters overall: 46% said they voted for Hillary Clinton and 45% said they voted for Donald Trump.
7 Disabled Americans have lower rates of technology adoption. Nearly a quarter of Americans with a disability (23%) say they never go online, compared with just 8% of those without a disability, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in the fall of 2016. Disabled adults are also about 20 percentage points less likely than those without disabilities to say they subscribe to home broadband, or own a traditional computer, smartphone or tablet.
The amount of time people spend online also varies by disability status. Only half of disabled Americans report using the internet on a daily basis, compared to almost eight-in-ten of the non-disabled (79%).
Correction: In an earlier version of this post, the location of the photo was misidentified in the caption. It is Portland, Maine.
Topics: Population Geography, Asian Americans, Demographics, Race and Ethnicity, Generations and Age |
Opposition leader cannot win general election and should resign for sake of party, says renowned physicist and Labour voter
Stephen Hawking has said Jeremy Corbyn should resign as Labour leader, adding that although he believes in many of his policies, he cannot win a general election.
“I regard Corbyn as a disaster,” the renowned physicist told the Times. “His heart is in the right place and many of his policies are sound, but he has allowed himself to be portrayed as a leftwing extremist.”
Even Stephen Hawking says Corbyn has failed. This is no rightwing conspiracy | Sam Glover Read more
Hawking said he would still vote Labour but did not believe the party would win at the next general election. “I think he should step down for the sake of the party,” he said.
Hawking, a long-time Labour supporter, publicly endorsed his local Cambridge Labour candidate, Daniel Zeichner, at the 2015 election. Zeichner, who went on to defeat the Lib Dems’ Julian Huppert, has said: “I think he fully appreciates the huge investment that the last Labour government made in science and you can see that in a lot of the buildings and laboratories around Cambridge.”
Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease aged 21, is a staunch defender of the NHS, having previously said the health service “must be preserved from commercial interests who want to privatise it”.
Brexit would be a disaster for UK science, say scientists Read more
During the interview, the professor also expressed some fears that the human disposition towards aggression was becoming more of an existential threat with each technological advancement.
“Since civilisation began, aggression has been useful in as much as it has definite survival advantages,” he said. “It is hardwired into our genes by Darwinian evolution. Now, however, technology has advanced at such a pace that this aggression may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war. We need to control this inherited instinct by our logic and reason.
“We need to be quicker to identify such threats and act before they get out of control. This might mean some form of world government. But that might become a tyranny. All this may sound a bit doom-laden but I am an optimist. I think the human race will rise to meet these challenges.” |
AUSTIN, Texas, March 27 (Reuters) - A Texas state judge ordered the department of corrections on Thursday to disclose the name of the supplier of drugs used in executions, a decision that adds support to calls for removing secrecy when it comes to lethal injections.
The suit was brought on behalf of two inmates scheduled to be executed next month and was filed at about the same time a judge in neighboring Oklahoma ruled on Wednesday that the state’s secrecy on its lethal injections protocols was unconstitutional.
“The (Texas) ruling signals - as other courts have done recently - that it is unacceptable to keep prisoners or the public in the dark regarding how executions are carried out - including the source of the drugs,” said Maurie Levin, an attorney for the petitioners.
The Texas Attorney General’s office plans to appeal the decision.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement: “We are disappointed in the district court’s decision and will be appealing the ruling to a higher court.”
The department has said it wanted to keep the name of its new supplier secret to shield it from attacks.
The previous supplier cut ties to the system last year when its name was revealed and it came under threats.
The decision was for the two inmates scheduled to be executed with a new batch of the sedative pentobarbital, used for lethal injections.
It should have no impact for an execution scheduled on Thursday at the state’s death chamber in Huntsville, with the lethal injection drug having been obtained earlier.
Texas, which has executed more prisoners than any other state since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, said this month it had obtained a new batch of the execution drugs, without saying where the drugs had come from.
Several other states have struggled to obtain drugs for executions, while many pharmaceutical companies, mostly in Europe, have imposed sales bans because they object to having medications made for other purposes used in lethal injections.
The states said they have looked to alter the mix of drugs used for lethal injections and keep the suppliers’ identities secret. They have also turned to lightly regulated compounding pharmacies. Those pharmacies can mix drugs, often to meet needs not available in prescription medication, the pharmacy compounding accreditation board said.
But lawyers for death row inmates argue that drugs from compounding pharmacies can lack purity and potency and cause undue suffering, in violation of the U.S. Constitution. (editing by Gunna Dickson) |
Up till recently action camera maker GoPro provided pretty good support for Windows Phone, with their app updated regularly and supporting their latest cameras also.
The company even promised to update their app to support Windows 10 Mobile, saying on their support forums:
We already offer a GoPro App for Windows phones, and will want to do the same for the upcoming Lumia 950/950XL. It may not be compatible on release of the new phones, but if it is not it will be one of the top priorities for the App team.
The was however in December last year, and with the last update in September last year it seems with the times GoPro’s priorities have also changed.
More recently, at the end of January 2016, a GoPro support member wrote:
Re: App on Windows 10 phones |
In the wake of the NSA surveillance revelations, Internet users seem to have learned that as soon as their data reaches an American server, it could be read by the country's intelligence services. German companies are benefiting from this realization -- German email providers have seen a significant increase in new subscribers in recent weeks.
Freenet, a listed telecommunications provider known for its strong anonymity protection, has seen an 80 percent increase in new users over the last three weeks. German web hosting company 1&1, meanwhile -- parent company to email providers GMX and web.de -- has seen a six-figure increase in new joiners over the same period.
T-Online, a business unit of Deutsche Telekom and the biggest internet service provider in Germany, would not confirm their exact number of new joiners, but also pointed to a "stronger interest" in its email service. It remains unclear how many of the new users have set up email accounts in addition to existing ones, and how many have actually cancelled accounts with US providers such as Yahoo or Google.
Email Made in Germany
The increased interest in German email providers may be linked to a recent push to promote the country's data networks as some of the most secure in the world. In an attempt to attract new customers, Deutsche Telekom earlier this month launched an initiative which aims to make German email traffic even more secure.
Dubbed "Email Made in Germany", the program includes new security measures making sure that email travelling between three of its email services -- T-Online, GMX and web.de -- never leave local servers. The provider's emails are now encrypted, and users are notified when they are composing an email to a recipient whose address does not fall under the program's protections.
The initiative was launched just after it emerged that American email provider Lavabit, the service supposedly used by Edward Snowden to protect himself from NSA snooping, was closing down. A letter posted on the website explaining the move seemed to refer to a court order from the American government asking for cooperation in its spy programs.
The move left some 300,000 users with defunct email accounts. Ladar Levison, the company's owner and operator, issued a clear warning to users: "I would strongly recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States."
Expert Opinion
German experts have in recent weeks made similar assertions. Thilo Weichert, head of the Independent Center for Data Protection, explicitly advises the public to use German email providers: not only are the country's data protection laws clearer and more explicit than those in other countries -- the way in which they are enforced is also more reliable.
"The moment that the data is in the US, it will definitely be used by the NSA, and subsequently by other government agencies including the CIA, FBI and the DEA," he told news agency dpa in an interview. "If I use Google-Mail, it's pretty certain that my data will be saved on American servers, and can then be accessed by the NSA."
Despite the fact that German networks are more secure than their American counterparts, some Germans are taking additional security measures. Jimmy Schulz, a member of the business-friendly Free Democrats, last week invited his fellow parliamentarians to a so-called "crypto party" -- an event dedicated to teaching politicians how to encrypt their email.
"It's the same as locking your car," says Schulz. "Data has to be protected from trespassers, no matter whether they are members of the intelligence service or criminals." |
Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs will have earned an average worker’s salary by lunch on Monday, the first work day of the year, a survey of publicly-traded companies found. Canada’s best paid chief executive officers took home an average of $8.96 million in 2014, according to the annual report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Manulife president and CEO Donald Guloien was paid $14.5 million in 2014. ( NATHAN DENETTE / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
That’s 184 times the pay of the average working Canadian, who earned $48,636 in 2014. The 98 men and two women earned Canada’s average salary by 12:18 p.m. on the first work day of the new year for many people. They earned the average minimum-wage worker’s pay by just after 2 p.m. on New Year’s Day, a paid holiday. “What really struck me more than anything else — given the fact that the Canadian economy was already quite weak and commodity prices were already deteriorating in 2014 — was the resilience of CEO compensation,” said research associate Hugh Mackenzie, who studied proxy circulars of the 249 publicly-listed Canadian corporations on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
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Many CEOs on the list made much more than the $9 million average, thanks to boosts from bonuses, stock options, pensions and the like, which continue to comprise the lion’s share of executive pay. “My general suspicion is that all these things are ways of paying people more without people being able to figure out exactly how much,” Mackenzie said.
This year’s list was topped by Blackberry’s John Chen whose total compensation was a whopping $89.7 million, according to Mackenzie’s calculations. Chen’s base salary was among the lowest of the 100 CEOs at $341,452. However, his shares in the company were worth some $88 million, Mackenzie calculated — accounting for the vast majority of his total compensation. Chen’s generous share-based compensation has been controversial since it was awarded as part of an incentive package when he took over heading up the company in 2013.
The first runner-up, Donald Walker, CEO of Magna International Inc., also earned a relatively low base salary of $358,924, but made an additional $11.6 million in bonuses, which, along with other rewards, brought his total compensation to $23.4 million. That wasn’t the biggest bonus awarded, however: that honour goes to the third highest-paid CEO Gerald Schwartz of Onex Corp., who scored himself a $19.7-million bonus.
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The average CEO pay in 2014 was actually down two per cent from 2013, when CEO’s average pay was $9.2 million, the highest since CCPA began tracking in 2008, the report found. Volatile stock markets — caused by investor fears over Chinese growth, falling commodity prices and global instability — were responsible for some of the decline in valuation this year. But the years-long trend has been toward swelling payment packages. Compensation was up 22 per cent in 2014 since the survey first started in 2008, while salary for the average Canadian rose just 11 per cent in the same period. The study is based on proxy circular reports made public in 2015 and represents 2014 earnings data, the most recent year available. Mackenzie believes the slight year-over-year decrease is more likely due to a more conservative change in the valuation for stock options rather than the start of a trend, though, he said, it’s hard to tell because the breakdown of stock-based compensation is convoluted. The report also found that share grants are overtaking stock options as the preferred way to reward company heads. Stock options dropped from 21 per cent of pay in 2008 to 13 per cent in 2014 while share grants increased from 26 per cent in 2008 to 39 per cent in 2014. Mackenzie believes that could be a response to criticism of the use of stock options for compensation, especially given the way the options are taxed — at half the rate base salary — is as if it were a capital gain rather than income. “So from an after-tax perspective, a dollar received from the exercise of a stock option is worth two dollars of salary income,” he said. He believes reforming the tax system might be the most efficient system of trying to rein in excessive executive compensation because other ways such as shareholder votes, or say on pay or board of director oversight have not worked. However, he said, be it through grants, options or simply giving out shares, the real problem with including shares in CEO compensation packages is a false incentive that does not reflect the value they add to a company. “Most of the compensation of these executives is not based on how their companies performed in the real markets that they actually have some ability to influence,” he said. “It’s based on the performance of the shares of the company in a market in which the executive can’t control at all.” For example, he said, there will likely be a big drop in compensation of CEOs in the oil sector in 2015, as their packages will reflect their companies’ share prices which have declined due to the plunging price of crude. “It didn’t have anything to do with what any of these people did,” he said. “The criteria that drive the incentive-based compensation, you would think, ought to be based on how the company does based on those same comparables but it doesn’t.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged during his campaign to limit the amount employees can claim through stock-option deductions, but has since said that would only apply to new stock options that have yet to be granted. “It could drive down our reliance on stock options if the tax regime is changed,” Mackenzie said. “But I don’t think we’re going to turn the corner on this unless the governments start to do some really extraordinary things about excessive pay.” — With files from Dana Flavelle The top 10 earners of 2014: 1. John Chen
Blackberry chief executive John Chen. ( Frank Gunn )
Company: BlackBerry Ltd. Base Salary: $341,452 Total Compensation: $89.7 million 2. Donald Walker
Magna International Inc. CEO Donald Walker finished second in the rankings. ( ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE )
Company: Magna International Inc. Base Salary: $358,924 Total Compensation: $23.4 million 3. Gerald Schwartz
Onex chairman Gerald Schwartz earned a $19.7-million bonus. ( WAYNE GLOWACKI )
Company: Onex Corp. Base Salary: $1.4 million Total Compensation: $21.1 million 4. Hunter Harrison
Canadian Pacific Rail CEO Hunter Harrison. ( Jeff McIntosh )
Company: Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. Base Salary: $2.4 million Total Compensation: $17.6 million 5. Mark Thierer
Mark Thierer, chairman and chief executive officer of Catamaran Corp. ( Tim Boyle )
Company: Catamaran Corp. Base Salary: $1.3 million Total Compensation: $16.3 million 6. Donald Guloien
Manulife president and CEO Donald Guloien was paid $14.5 million in 2014. ( NATHAN DENETTE )
Company: Manulife Financial Corp. Base Salary: $1.4 million Total Compensation: $14.5 million 7. John Thornton
Barrick Gold chairman John Thornton. ( Cole Burston )
Company: Barrick Gold Corp. Base Salary: $2.8 million Total Compensation: $14.3 million 8. Paul Wright
Paul Wright, president and chief executive officer of Eldorado Gold Corporation. ( NORM BETTS )
Company: Eldorado Gold Corp. Base Salary: $1.5 million Total Compensation: $13.8 million 9. Name: Bradley Shaw
Brad Shaw, CEO of Shaw Communications. ( Jeff McIntosh )
Company: Shaw Communications Inc. Base Salary: $2.5 million Total Compensation: $13.3 million 10. Name: Steven Williams
Suncor President & CEO Steve Williams. ( Larry MacDougal )
Company: Suncor Energy Inc. Base Salary: $1.4 million Total Compensation: $12.4 million |
In case you had any doubt, the last nail was just placed in the coffin of intelligent design (ID). And, in case you had any doubt, that last nail joins many others that have been in place for quite some time.
The latest attack appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) and provides conclusive evidence that the design of the human genome is incredibly imperfect, or, in other words, very far from being intelligently structured. As John Avise, a University of California-Irvine biologist, noted in the paper, his focus "is on a relatively neglected category of argument against ID and in favor of evolution: the argument from imperfection, as applied to the human genome."
The basic concept of intelligent design comes in two parts and is as simple as it is satisfying for those unwilling to think deeply about the natural world, science, or the nature of religion. Part one, stretching way back to the ancient Greeks, notes that nature is so perfectly integrated that it must have been designed just as we see it. Part two, largely attributed to Lehigh University biologist Michael Behe, says that while some aspects of nature might certainly have changed (evolved?) over time, others are so complex that they must always have existed in the form we find them in today. Indeed, he coined the term "irreducibly complex" to explain such structures. Change anything at all in these irreducibly complex structures and they fail to work.
Both parts of ID are spectacularly wrong.
Indeed, demonstrating imperfect design in humans has become something of a fascinating cottage industry. Listen, for example to Abby Hafer, a physiologist at Curry College, discuss five serious flaws, from the blind spot in the human retina to the placement of human testicles, on NPR's Here & Now. In his PNAS article, Avise simply extends this analysis to the human genome discussing myriad serious problems arising from "gratuitous gene complexities" that no self-respecting designer would tolerate.
As Avise notes, Charles Darwin rebutted the intelligent design argument offered by William Paley in 1802. In chapter 14 of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Darwin said, "On the view of each organic being and each separate organ having been specially created, how utterly inexplicable it is that parts ... should so frequently bear the plain stamp of inutility."
Beyond the obvious, and growing, problem that natural design is far from perfect, the concept of intelligent design also runs afoul of the scientific method. Simply put, ID offers no hypotheses that can be tested -- the hallmark of scientific investigation.
The concept of irreducible complexity is even more problematic. Each example of a biological entity or process that has been advanced as being irreducibly complex has been found, after further investigation, to be understandable as a function of its constituent parts. Not surprisingly, as scientists focus their attention on complex structures, over time, they begin to make sense of what they see.
Proponents of ID, on the other hand, demonstrate the height of arrogance in their position. Rather than working toward greater understanding of their subjects, they proclaim something to be irreducibly complex and call for scientific investigation to be halted, claiming that any additional study would be a waste of effort.
Not surprisingly, Darwin had something to say about this anti-intellectual position as well. In The Descent of Man, Darwin wrote, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."
In calling for enhanced science literacy, most major scientific organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences (in the US) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have made it clear that ID has no scientific underpinnings and that promoting it so blurs the line between science and non-science as to make the former almost meaningless.
Religious organizations have also recognized the paucity of intellectual content embodied in ID -- and the damage that it can do to religion as well as science. The United Methodist Church, for example, at its 2008 General Conference, resoundingly adopted the following motion: "The United Methodist Church goes on record as opposing the introduction of any faith-based theories such as Creationism or Intelligent Design into the science curriculum of our public schools."
For religion to accept the concept of intelligent design would mean embracing the concept of the "God of the Gaps," a religiously vacuous idea in which adherents turn to God for an explanation for that which science cannot explain. As science advances, the "gaps" become smaller and smaller and God is relegated to a progressively less interesting role. |
Editor’s note: Ross Rubin is principal analyst at Reticle Research and blogs at Techspressive. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals. Follow him on Twitter @rossrubin.
Crowdfunding campaigns employ all kinds of logical and emotional appeals to get you to dig into your wallet. But in just the past few months, there’s been a rush of different products seeking to replace yours. Why Kickstarter — which screens all projects — saw fit to greenlight 10 variations on a theme in so short a time is something only its curators can say.
Not only have most of them sought to minimize the traditional pocket stuffer with something far thinner and lighter, but most won the backing of the crowd, as well. However, as many of them have been smaller-scale projects, and as wallets tend to be popular gifts, a few have already begun shipping, so that they can spend a little while sitting in a stocking before moving on to a pocket.
Backed: SlideR. Like many of the wallets that have been funded through Kickstarter in the past few months, the slider is a simple fabric-and-elastic affair that leaves parts of your plastic exposed. Its distinguishing namesake feature is the ability to slide the elastic band along the width of the sleeve in order to hold your cards tight or facilitate removal — a simple enough concept to attract nearly double the $8,500 goal and start shipping.
Backed: Obtainium Wallet. The Obtainium wallet may be made of aluminum and not unobtainium, but its space-age look conceals a bi-fold design that contains gripping compartments to protect its contents from mud, moving cars and other indignities. Slim compared to conventional wallets but bulky compared to its Kickstarter contemporaries, the tight-jeans-compatible sturdy cache has more than doubled its $25,000 goal with about 20 days left in the campaign.
Backed: Inevitable Wallets. Tyvek has long been a material used in thin wallets and the material of choice for wallet designers Johnny and Jill Burt and Caden, their four-year-old son and star of both their Kickstarter video and wall. Reliving the spirit of so many slugfests in their hometown of Las Vegas, the Burts take on both leather wallets and ultra minimalist affairs that they say sacrifice functionality for size. It’s on, and moving forward for the Amaranth clutch wallets and Liberty Series men’s bifolds thanks to the campaign eking past its lightweight, yet durable, $3,000 funding goal.
Whacked: The Flip n’ Grip Wallet. The Flip n’ Grip’s unusual trademarked name is a good fit for its unusual appearance and card presentation system. The six-card holder plus optional money clip can store up to six cards that pop up in a stepped presentation when the lever on the side of the device is pressed. There’s also a hook that you or pickpockets can use to easily remove your wallet from your pocket and which, we may infer from the video, makes for endless gunslinger-style twirling fun. Because if there’s one thing you don’t care about having fly off your hand to locations unknown, it’s your wallet. Fortunately, the aluminum and stainless steel construction should protect it if it’s run over. The Flip n’ Grip attracted more than $45,000 in funding, a multiple of many other backed wallets, but only about half of the $100,000 sought in the campaign. That’s life in the badlands, fundslingers.
Backed: Vi Card Holder/Wallet. An early Product Design entrant from the UK, the Vi (pronounced like the remade mini-series about deceptively friendly aliens and not like the legendary UNIX text editor) and represents “five intelligent design solutions” — light, compact, elegant, functional and simple. The video is otherwise short on marketing points, letting the product, sort of a mobile version of a desktop business card holder, speak for itself. That it did, as backers provided double the £5,000 funding goal.
Backed: TGT Wallet. It’s tempting to knock the TGT (pronounced “tight”) wallet for its video’s gratuitous shots of, ahem, back pockets. However, its scraggly inventor balances out the denim closeups with an engaging telling of the story of how the TGT came to be from its humble roots as a thick red rubber band holding together another kind of green: a broccoli stalk. Certainly one of the most fashion-forward of the lot, it ventures beyond the requisite credit cards and oft-afterthought cash to feature a pocket that can accommodate a USB flash drive or wrap around an iPhone. It looks as though getting cards and cash expeditiously out of the TGT might be somewhat HRD, but backers didn’t seem to agree, contributing almost $300,000 more than the original $20,000 funding goal.
Backed: Capsule Minimalist Wallet. In his Kickstarter video, Robert Sha has a frank discussion with you about what he sees as the chief shortcoming of many thin wallets, their giving short shrift to the good old case. To remedy this, the Capsule Minimlalist wallet includes a more generous CashStrap™ that can accommodate a single folded bill or a stack of them, whereas many other minimalist wallets require you to double-fold, which of course adds thickness. The result is a minimalist wallet that looks more traditional but offers good functionality. Over 2,400 backers offered $100,000 more than its original $16,500 goal.
Backed: HuMn Mini Wallet. HuMn is a returning Kickstarter alum as the original HuMn wallet, funded to almost $300,000 back in February and recently featured on Fab.com. The original and its smaller successor are of the spreading elastic band genus of minimalist wallets. What sets it apart is the ability to use either one or both aluminum plates when you want to lighten your load even further, although doing so requires taking off the elastic band and tucking all your cards and cash back in again. The Portland-based designers didn’t raise as much cash as last time, but still brought in more than $80,000 from backers, coasting past the $50,000 goal.
Backed: Dash Wallet. The one-piece Dash wallet, named after the designer’s dog who sent his previous wallet to that Great Pocket in the Sky, is another card-centric conveyance focused on easier retrieval of key credit cards. It’s card-sorting features might not be as sophisticated as the Flip n’ Grip’s, but is more advanced than that of the SideR. The killer feature is a small square hole in the side that enables you to partially pop out a credit card for a quick swipe. With about 40 days to go, the campaign has already surpassed its modest $10,000 goal.
Whacked: Transcend Wallet. The stainless-steel Transcend by the Boise-based spousal team of MTS not only transforms “from minimalist to maximalist” by switching its slick sliding compartments, but it protects your valuables in two ways — via its stainless steel shell and via a special hidden compartment. Alas, neither was enough to protect the project from insufficient funding and the project fell on its sword. It was clear it would not make its $30,000 goal to enable local production in Idaho. The team holds out hope of returning to Kickstarter at some point with a lower funding goal for the Transcend, giving those for whom too many crowdfunded wallet options can never be enough. |
The windowsills were lined with people standing, as every nook between every office desk filled to capacity with NPR employees and their assorted guests. Pixies, after getting misplaced for a time in our parking garage during a moment worthy of This Is Spinal Tap, showed up in time to encounter the largest crowd we've ever assembled for a Tiny Desk Concert. (Our new office space allows for more guests than the old one did, but it's still a mark of this band's significance for so many youthful grownups.)
Black Francis played an acoustic guitar for this set, while drummer David Lovering set up a simple snare and a cymbal, tapping a tambourine with his foot where a bass drum might be. With his electric guitar, Joey Santiago was the only plugged-in member of the group. The newest member of the Pixies is Paz Lenchantin, a musician of many talents who played violin at the Tiny Desk, though she handles bass duties at larger concerts. You may miss Kim Deal on bass for all the good reasons one might miss Kim Deal, but Lenchantin rhythmically fits in well, and was a treat to hear (albeit quietly) on violin.
Prior to the rolling of cameras, the band warmed up the crowd with "Where Is My Mind," but this three-song set features a 2014 tune called "Greens and Blues," a song yet to make it onto a Pixies release called "Silver Snail," and 1989's "Monkey Gone to Heaven," which melted hearts and seared minds with a new memory from a time long past.
Set List
"Greens And Blues"
"Silver Snail"
"Monkey Gone To Heaven"
Credits
Producers: Bob Boilen, Denise DeBelius; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait; Videographers: Denise DeBelius, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Olivia Merrion; photo by John Poole/NPR |
Five ISIL militants killed, 233 detained in ops across Turkey
KONYA
Five Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants were killed in a raid on a cell house in the Central Anatolian province of Konya early on July 12, police have announced, adding that a total of 233 people were detained in anti-ISIL operations carried out in 29 provinces.Authorities launched an operation against the jihadist group in Konya’s Meram district and raided 11 addresses in the area. Eight suspects were detained in the raids.Clashes erupted between police officers and militants in an ISIL cell house on Dörttokka Street and reinforcements were sent to the area.Five militants were killed in the clashes, while four police officers were slightly injured during the operation that lasted nearly 2.5 hours.Authorities said the militants were planning to stage attacks on events marking the first year anniversary of the July 15, 2016, failed coup attempt, widely believed to have been masterminded by the followers of the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen, Doğan News Agency reported.The wounded policemen were taken to Konya Training and Research Hospital and were discharged after their treatments. It was determined that a bullet had hit the helmet of one of the police officers.Konya Governor Yakup Canbolat, Chief Public Prosecutor Bestami Tezcan and Provincial Police Chief Şükrü Yaman carried out searches in the house where the clashes erupted.Yaman thanked the police officers for their efforts in the raid through a walkie-talkie.“I’m wishing well to all of my friends who took part in the operation, congratulating them and kissing them on their foreheads. May God protect our state and nation from all sorts of evil,” Yaman said.Bomb disposal teams also searched the area.Police seized four kilograms of TNT, five Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, several ammunitions and a suicide vest in the house. The house had two couches other than the weapons.A resident of the neighborhood, Şenay Çelikten, said they woke up at around 5 a.m. to the sound of gunshots.“The clashes continued for a long time. I didn’t know the people living in that house. It was rented out some 20 days ago. They weren’t a family. They were just coming and going with their backpacks,” Çelikten told state-run Anadolu Agency.Moreover, the location of the cell house was announced to be on the routes of a police special force unit and an air defense school.According to a written statement by Konya Governor’s Office, security measures were taken around the area.The statement also said the house used as a jihadist cell was rented by a sought ISIL militant, identified only by the initials A.Y., and the operation early in the day was launched to apprehend him.The efforts to identify the killed militants have been ongoing.Furthermore, a militant who was killed in the garden of the house was reported to be on duty against possible police raids. Clashes erupted when he notified other militants about the raid.Elsewhere, a total of 21 ISIL suspects were caught in simultaneous operations in the western province of İzmir and the southern province of Hatay.Police previously launched efforts to apprehend suspected militants over their plans to stage attacks on foiled coup anniversary events in İzmir.Detention warrants were issued for a total of 26 suspects and raids were carried out in İzmir’s Torbalı and Menemen districts as well as Hatay.Police seized ISIL documents, a rifle, an unlicensed pistol, two blank cartridges and digital data from the houses of those detained.The number of detainees in Hatay was announced as 22 and police said an ISIL militant, identified only as Ö.K., was caught while trying to cross the border from Syria in Hatay’s Yayladağı district.According to a statement released by the Hatay Governor’s Office, a total of 29 addresses were raided as part of an operation against several jihadist groups, including ISIL and al-Nusra.Another anti-ISIL operation was carried out in the Tarsus district of the southern province of Mersin where 10 people were detained.An operation was launched under the coordination of a chief public prosecutor’s office by anti-terror police early on July 12.Those detained were also planning to stage attacks on July 2016 coup attempt commemorations, according to Doğan News Agency.ISIL-linked books and documents were seized in the suspects’ houses.Later on July 12, a statement was released by police regarding ISIL operations across the country. According to the authorities, a total of 233 people were detained in operations carried out in 29 provinces.The statement also said 25 foreigners were taken to the Directorate General of Migration Management. |
There was a moment during "Felling and Swamping," last night's installment of Weeds, the second episode of its sixth season, when I thought maybe I was wrong. But then, no, I wasn't.
But let me back up a few ticks. I've been a longtime fan of Weeds, dating back to when I was lucky enough to attend its premiere (along with the shorter lived Barbershop). But after getting over the relative thrill of hobnobbing in the relative vicinity of Mary-Louise Parker and Kevin Nealon, I found the show to be fresh and quirky and funny. And it has been influential in its way on other half-hour paid cable shows that attempt to walk the line of drama with a dash of comedy, such as Nurse Jackie, or comedy with a splash of drama, such as Hung or Californication.
Over the course of five seasons Weeds explored a lot of territory, thematically and, more recently, geographically, as the show shifted location from its iconic southern California suburban roots in the fictional town of Agrestic to the border town of Ren Mar. As Nancy Botwin (Parker) and fam jumped from one dicey situation involving the drug trade and its fallout to another, I've found myself waiting for… something. That is, Nancy has seemed on the verge from time to time of coming to terms with the fact that she has inalterably shifted her family's trajectory through her decision to enter the drug trade.*
* Let's remember that Nancy is a pot dealer, which puts her many karmic and moralistic leagues apart from Breaking Bad's Walter White and his decision to become a meth lab kingpin. That said, Nancy's dealings have put her in the way of many dangerous characters and situations (and, occasionally, the law) as the show's writers have seen fit to create.
So over the last few seasons, I felt a growing sense of unease that while Nancy began to understand what a terrible mother she has been, she either didn't have the time to deal with it or didn't care enough to do much about it. Meanwhile, youngest son Shane (Alexander Gould) had been acting… well, oddly, over quite a stretch of episodes. It was a way of showcasing the effects of his mother's lifestyle and neglect, but at the same time Nancy seemed intent on not dealing with it. She knows how compartmentalize, sure, but her relationship with Esteban in particular felt unserious and a bit tawdry in light of what was going on on her homefront.
Enter the sixth season premiere, and we see Shane kill Nancy's enemy-of-the-moment with a croquet racquet. This, to me, is a big deal. A very big deal.
It was a big deal enough for Nancy, a skilled survivor as we've seen, to pack up the family (including Andy Botwin, played by Justin Kirk, who has been especially terrific this season it must be noted) and hit the road. "Thwack" (nice, right?) dealt primarily with this forced exodus. So, this week, I felt sure, we had to see some kind of serious sign from Nancy that… her child is a murderer. Like, he killed a lady. And doesn't seem to get that he really killed a human being and she ain't coming back, and so on and so forth.
Nancy (or whatever her name is now that the Botwins have changed their name to the Newmans) finally pulls the car over and yanks her disturbingly happy-go-lucky son outside for a talk. Good, I thought. Finally.
But this is where things went horribly wrong. After a half assed "you don't do these kinds of things, I do" kind of speech, Nancy goes so far as to give her son, an adolescent, a fake spank (singular) for the benefit of Andy and older son Silas (Hunter Parrish).
Let's put this in some kind of perspective, okay?
What do you think Tony Soprano would do if A.J. or Meadow murdered someone to protect him? Yes, when sister Janice offed her abusive wiseguy boyfriend he cleaned up the mess and put her on a bus to Seattle (just where the Weeds gang seems to be headed, ironically), but if his children had clipped someone, forever soaking themselves in the same criminal element that he swore to protect them from, don't you think that he would act… well, a little bit more like a parent who discovers their child is a murderer?
I guess what I'm saying is that while I've been a fan of Weeds for a long time, I don't get the sense that Nancy Botwin is acting like a mother who discovered her child is a murderer. And I find that troublesome and distracting instead of my traditional feeling of, Oh, let's see what the wacky Weeds gang is up to this week what with their weed dealings and oddball entanglements and such. |
While a great deal of time and effort is spent extracting the charismatic and narrative value from other local geographies, ultimately there is still only one principle and pre-eminent topographic feature in North Korea. Mt. Baekdu, a spiritual and political landscape whose importance is shared across borders by both Korea(s) and the Peoples’ Republic of China, has been constructed into the locus and fulcrum of Kimist authority and legitimacy. Baekdu’s slopes were host to both pre-Liberation narratives of anti-Japanese struggle and elements of the North’s contemporary familial mythos. However, below the mountain’s flanks and the crater lakes’ mythic waters a deeper, more ancient narrative flows: Baekdu as eruptive volcanic monolith, an altogether more pyroclastic, destructive beast. Along with narratives of charismatic, political and theatric landscape Sino-NK has considered the prospect of engagement derived from developmental or scientific diplomacy, how exciting that both themes should cross paths at Baekdu!
It is with great pleasure that Sino-NK introduces a scholar at these crossroads: Dr. Kayla Iacovino, newly minted PhD from the University of Cambridge and now about to take up a post doctoral position at the United States Geological Survey’s Volcanoes Programme at Menlo Park California, participated in a truly ground breaking moment of scientific and academic connection when North Korean volcanologists first engaged with those from external nations. Dr. Iacovino recounts their meeting on holy topographic ground. — Robert Winstanley-Chesters, Director of Research
Of Eruptions and Men: Science Diplomacy at North Korea’s Active Volcano
by Kayla Iacovino
Baekdu Mountain (Mt. Baekdu) is a truly iconic Korean landmark. Hailed by the Koreans as their place of ancestral origin, the 2,700 m-high mountain whose summit is bisected by the China-DPRK geopolitical border has been considered sacred throughout the region for generations. The high regard Koreans carry for Baekdu is not surprising when you consider its enormous beauty and its fertile lands where wild blueberries flourish in the summertime. But what lies beneath?
An Eruptive Narrative | What many people do not realize about the famous landmass is that Baekdu is a gigantic volcano—and it is still active. Only 1,000 years ago, Baekdu exploded, producing one of the largest volcanic eruptions in human history. The eruption sent volcanic ash 29 km high into the stratosphere; ash which then rained down on cities as far away as Japan. The forest that once covered the peak was wiped out in the initial blast (the forest still has not fully recovered) and pyroclastic flows, superheated clouds of gas and rock, surged down Baekdu’s slopes at several hundred miles per hour extending tens of kilometers from the mountain top. The volcano’s recognizable shape was also created that day. The 7 km-wide crater famous for hosting the magnificent Heaven Lake (천지; 天池) is all that was left after the earth shaking Millennium Eruption.
Is this divine mountain actually a slumbering giant? Could another Millennium Eruption be upon us? The problem is that we just do not know, which is why I was part of a team of volcanologists sent to North Korea to work alongside local scientists in an attempt to learn all we can about this enormous volcano.
Predicting volcanic behavior is almost impossible. Volcanologists use a multitude of tools and expertise to assess past and present volcanic activity, and sometimes it is possible to make forecasts regarding future activity. But, volcanic forecasting relies heavily upon three key factors: good knowledge of a volcano’s history; an understanding of the internal structure of the volcano; and an assessment of the current state of the volcano, typically gathered through high time resolution monitoring of volcanic gasses and ground movements.
In North Korea, and perhaps more so on the China-North Korea border, access to this necessary information is scarce. Historically, Baekdu has been a difficult volcano to study. Not only to Westerners, but also to the Chinese, who can only access half of the volcano, and to the North Koreans who require special permission to work in border zones. Attempts at collaboration between the Chinese and Korean scientists have always somehow fallen apart, further stifling efforts to study the mountain’s history or even install monitoring equipment. Incidentally, most of the volcanic material unearthed during the Millennium Eruption followed prevailing wind patterns and so was deposited on the North Korean side. This means that understanding the volcano’s history, the first criterion for forecasting future eruption scenarios, is largely locked away within North Korean borders.
For nearly a century after the Millennium Eruption, Baekdu seemed to be quietly slumbering. Research on the volcano was only pursued by passionate volcanologists on both sides of the border, but was largely ignored by politicians. Between 2002-2005, a series of small earthquakes directly beneath the volcano (an event called a seismic swarm) signaled that the volcano may be reawakening. Suddenly, regional officials began to take notice. But without much information on which to base a forecast, scientists could not say what might or might not happen at Baekdu or how the broader East Asian region might be affected.
Volcanological Connections |Six years later, in 2011, after overcoming numerous bureaucratic hurdles, British scientists Drs. Clive Oppenheimer and James Hammond made their first trip to the North Korean countryside to scope out locations for future instrument installations and to foster international collaboration with local scientists. I was lucky enough to be added to the team shortly thereafter, but it took two more years of negotiations and paperwork before we were allowed to bring scientific equipment into North Korea in August of 2013.
The scientific goal of our weeks-long expedition was to begin to gather those three pieces of information necessary for forecasting future eruptions or planning on how to deal with them. With the help of our North Korean colleagues, we collected rock and soil samples from sites all around the volcano. By studying the chemistry and geology of previously erupted products, we can begin to understand how Baekdu behaved in the past. Essentially, we can construct a measure of what the volcano is capable of doing. The 1,000 year-old rocks extracted from Baekdu’s interior carry with them chemical and physical signatures of what happened before and during the explosive event. Over the next several years, my colleagues and I from Britain, France, and North Korea will work together to try and decode these petrified telegrams from Baekdu’s past.
Congruent with the sample collection, a series of seismic stations were installed at Baekdu in a several km-long array down the side of the volcano. British seismologist James Hammond worked alongside the North Koreans to install state-of-the-art UK-owned equipment that will give detailed records of ground movements both on and within the volcano, possibly signaling the movement of magma beneath the surface. These data will give us an assessment of the volcano’s current state, including information on how magma may be moving within underground magma chambers and whether it is making its way toward the surface.
Furthermore, the seismic array will allow the team to map the internal structure of Baekdu by measuring how waves generated by earthquakes around the world travel through the Earth’s crust beneath the volcano. This will accomplish the crucial step of mapping the magmatic plumbing system that supplies the volcano with ammunition for eruptions.
Scientific Futures |Our visit would see not only the beginning of a scientific collaboration between North Korea and the West, but also a diplomatic one. At the culmination of our time in North Korea, a collaborative workshop was held, with talks translated into Korean or English depending on the speaker. But the truly momentous event was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between British, North Korean, and Chinese partners in the endeavor, which marked the beginning of what will surely be a fruitful alliance.
The collaboration with North Korean scientists has been invaluable to our expedition. Our modern equipment and internationally tempered expertise has been equally met by the North Koreans’ intimate local knowledge and extensive experience. The next major milestone in the project will see North Korean scientists coming to the UK to work alongside our British team members at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London. |
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Every time the Steelers lose I make my kids go to bed without dinner. THEY WILL LEARN TO LOVE THIS TEAM. Since it was a night game, though, I just beat them.
Some notes on the loss and other stuff from week 1:
– It was the first game of the season so it doesn’t really mean anything. The Giants lost 7 games last year and they still won the Super Bowl. Let’s talk about stupid shit instead…
– They interviewed Peyton Manning after the game and his forehead looked more massive than ever. Maybe he just needs some weights on the back of his head to counter-balance? NECK PROBLEMS SOLVED. I have no idea what they interviewed him about. Probably his hot sister-in-law.
– After the game, Channel 11 News had a post-game show with Alby Oxenreiter (and some little kid who I think was his nephew). Anyway right smack in the middle of this football show, they felt the need to go to the weatherman for a forecast. IT WAS AFTER MIDNIGHT. What is it about the Local News and the fucking weather reports? Do they think they need to cram one in any chance they get just in case some old ladies are watching? By the way it’s going to be hot as balls tomorrow, Grandma.
– The Broncos will be 14 – 2 this season. John Fox took them to the playoffs last year with TIM TEBOW as his quarterback. (He should have gotten Coach of the Year for that.) He took the Carolina Panthers to the Super Bowl with FUCKING JAKE DELHOMME. He’s a great coach. Now he finally has a great QB to go along with a great defense and of course they have the greatest home field advantage of all because of the thin air in Denver. (The only other place besides Oakland where players are afraid they might die.) They will be the number one seed in the AFC and we will all hate Peyton Manning more than ever.
– Of course Peyton Manning is going to be like his old self. He probably worked harder than anyone in his recovery and he has always studied football day and night. (NERD!!!) He’s a fucking annoying over-achiever. The guy that we’re all jealous of because he’s better than us and we’re too lazy to do anything about it. The guy who always raises his hand in class. Even Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr. would rather spend the off-season trying on dresses with Giselle than thinking about football. But not Peyton. He’s like the surfer that gets his cock eaten by a shark but still wants to recover just so he can get right back in the water and try to get sharks to blow him again. Peyton is an awful person because he makes the rest of us feel shitty about ourselves.
– I have no idea what is and isn’t a catch anymore. When Jacob Tamme scored for the Broncos in the 4th quarter, he caught the ball, took two steps and fell on his back in the endzone then clearly dropped it. He never had time to “make a football move” before he fell. It wasn’t even as close as the famous Calvin Johnson non-touchdown a couple years ago. The announcers were too busy fondling Peyton’s sack to say anything about it, but I am pretty sure that it should have been ruled incomplete given what the stupid rule says:
If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball throughout the process of contacting the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone.
– Can’t they just make the rule that if you catch the ball with two feet down it is a catch? Wasn’t that the rule for like 80 years? I have no idea why they changed it.
– Also they should have a rule that replacement officials can’t be older than 90. Did Goodell make his grandfather ref last night’s game?
– I give Arians a lot of shit because his offense was mistake-prone and couldn’t score in the redzone. Last night was no better. I hope Haley turns it around.
– Verizon is the most evil company in the world. I’ve never had shittier service. The latest issue was that NFL Redzone did not work for most of the 1pm games. I was on hold the whole time and nobody ever picked up. I can’t wait until Networks start broadcasting over the Internet and cable companies become obsolete.
– I’m a Steelers fan and even I hate Art Modell. All the good he did for that city was wiped out when the greedy bastard deserted them for more money. He was 70 years old at the time. Why not just kick back with your millions and enjoy life instead of screwing over a bunch of people? He deserves to be remembered as a villain for eternity. Cleveland should erect a statue of him fucking a goat.
– Deion Sanders got arrested for domestic abuse charges just a few months ago, but he’s still on the NFL Network as if nothing happened. Warren Sapp too. I think the message is clear—you cannot have sex with a woman in a public restroom, but smacking them up a little is okay.
– Bears/Packers Thursday night! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, NFL, for giving us games every Thursday so I can yell and scream and complain irrationally one more night of the week! My wife hates you.
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MEEKER — It’s 6:20 p.m. and Democratic Senate candidate Mark Udall is working a campaign event in this Western Slope town, where the joke is that there aren’t enough Democrats in town to fill a small Volkswagen.
It is not the warmest of rooms. One questioner challenges Udall to explain why he got an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association.
When Udall tells the crowd that this election isn’t about turning Colorado “blue,” but “red, white and blue,” a man from the back shouts, “you mean red, white, blue and black” — visibly startling Udall with an apparent reference to the party’s presidential candidate.
But there are also openings for the Democrat, among them Cheri Robinson.
As Udall shakes her hand, the lifelong Republican complains about the thousands of gas-field vehicles that pass her ranch daily, damaging roads, tossing garbage and “making it almost impossible for my sheep ranch to continue.”
“We should tap these resources — but we need to do it smartly,” Udall reassured her, repeating a version of the message that he has been hammering on the Western Slope for months now.
In a marathon bus tour last week, the five-term congressman from Boulder County was furiously crisscrossing a landscape where he ought to be at a distinct disadvantage.
In the 22 counties west of the Continental Divide, Republicans have about 135,000 registered voters to the Democratic Party’s 95,000.
But in a sign of how much Colorado’s political landscape is changing, several polls show Udall now leading on the Western Slope by a slim margin.
As he goes from mountain resort towns full of fleece-wearing progressives to counties dominated by gun enthusiasts and oil and gas workers, the tour shows the highs and lows of a changing political landscape.
In Montrose, Democrats listening to Udall give a speech on a lawn were met with yells of “terrorism supporters” from passengers in a pickup that circled the block three times to ensure the message got through.
But then there is Jill Potter, an 82-year-old Republican and former treasurer in overwhelmingly Republican Jackson County, who had just cast her ballot for Barack Obama in early voting.
“It’s the economy,” said Potter, crediting the recent endorsement of Obama by Colin Powell with helping her to make up her mind. “People are really hurting.”
Region transforming
While Ken Salazar did well here in his Senate race four years ago, shrinking the vast margins that Republican candidates traditionally have garnered in western Colorado, he didn’t win the region outright.
If a congressman from one of the state’s most liberal districts captures an area that should be among the Republicans’ easiest to win, analysts say it will mark a sea change.
Democrats are practically giddy at the idea.
In places like Craig, Grand Junction, and Ouray, Udall spun out the well-worn themes of a campaign that has purposely been pitched to the kind of moderate conservative voters that have moved into this region over the last decade.
He talked of reining in spending, investing in renewable energy, and — in a riff on a theme by Western writer Wallace Stegner — “building communities to match our scenery.”
John Salazar, the Democrat who represents western Colorado in Congress and traveled with Udall most of the week, cheerily told crowds how when he first ran, Democrats would come up to him on the street and express their support in embarrassed whispers.
Four years later, that political environment has been transformed, Salazar said. “I have never in my entire life seen such energy in western Colorado,” he told a crowd in Ridgway.
But just as often, the crowds have been packed with conservative Democrats skeptical of trademark policies.
In Silverton, Steve Kral told Udall that he had voted for him already, then quickly launched into a critique of Obama’s progressive tax plan.
But there is also little doubt that Udall has managed to make inroads — partly by spending a significant chunk of campaign time here; partly by following a carefully crafted strategy that aims to peel off pieces of a Republican coalition fractured by the area’s rapid energy development.
“The Democrats said, ‘We are going to align ourselves with sportsmen, with hunters and anglers — and the business community out here,’ ” Udall said as he sat in the back of the bus as it wound along mountain roads between events.
“People out here know that one of the biggest business bumps comes in the summer with recreation, and in the fall with all these hunters that come to the area.”
“We want to look after those interests as well,” he said.
Michael Riley: 303-954-1614 or mriley@denverpost.com |
Not to be confused with Fiftysix, Arkansas
City in Arkansas, United States
Fifty-Six is a city in Stone County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 173, an increase of 10 persons from 2000.
History [ edit ]
When founding the community in 1918, locals submitted the name "Newcomb" for the settlement. This request was rejected, and the federal government internally named the community for its school district number (56).[3] It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.[4][5]
Geography [ edit ]
Fifty-Six is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.1 square miles (5.4 km2), all land.
Demographics [ edit ]
Historical population Census Pop. %± 1980 157 — 1990 156 −0.6% 2000 163 4.5% 2010 173 6.1% Est. 2017 177 [2] 2.3% U.S. Decennial Census[6]
2014 Estimate[7]
As of the census[8] of 2000, there were 163 people, 71 households, and 51 families residing in the city. The population density was 79.1 people per square mile (30.6/km²). There were 87 housing units at an average density of 42.2 per square mile (16.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.55% White and 2.45% Native American. 1.84% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 71 households out of which 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.8% were married couples living together, 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.8% were non-families. 26.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.69.
In the city, the population was spread out with 19.0% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 25.2% from 25 to 44, 30.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $34,375, and the median income for a family was $35,750. Males had a median income of $30,750 versus $19,063 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,783. About 11.8% of families and 17.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.2% of those under the age of 18 and 25.0% of those 65 and older.
Education [ edit ]
Fifty-Six is in the Mountain View School District.[9]
The community was served by the Fifty-Six School District until July 1, 1985, when it merged into the Big Flat School District to form the Tri-County School District. On July 1, 1993 the Tri-County district was disestablished with territory given to multiple districts, including Mountain View,[10] which began serving Fifty-Six.[11]
Notable person [ edit ]
Lee Hedges, football coach in Shreveport, Louisiana, born in Fifty-Six in 1929
References [ edit ] |
A farmer nicknamed Breezy shows his illegal patch of budding marijuana plants during a tour of his land in Jamaica's central mountain town of Nine Mile. AP/David McFadden In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley.
In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use.
And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a brand new plan to let stores sell the drug.
From the Americas to Europe to North Africa and beyond, the marijuana legalization movement is gaining unprecedented traction — a nod to successful efforts in Colorado, Washington state and the small South American nation of Uruguay, which in December became the first country to approve nationwide pot legalization.
Leaders long weary of the drug war's violence and futility have been emboldened by changes in U.S. policy, even in the face of opposition from their own conservative populations. Some are eager to try an approach that focuses on public health instead of prohibition, and some see a potentially lucrative industry in cannabis regulation.
"A number of countries are saying, 'We've been curious about this, but we didn't think we could go this route,'" said Sam Kamin, a University of Denver law professor who helped write Colorado's marijuana regulations. "It's harder for the U.S. to look at other countries and say, 'You can't legalize, you can't decriminalize,' because it's going on here."
That's due largely to a White House that's more open to drug war alternatives.
U.S. President Barack Obama recently told The New Yorker magazine that he considers marijuana less dangerous to consumers than alcohol, and said it's important that the legalization experiments in Washington and Colorado go forward, especially because blacks are arrested for the drug at a greater rate than whites, despite similar levels of use.
His administration also has criticized drug war-driven incarceration rates in the U.S. and announced that it will let banks do business with licensed marijuana operations, which have largely been cash-only because federal law forbids financial institutions from processing pot-related transactions.
Such actions underscore how the official U.S. position has changed in recent years. In 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it wouldn't target medical marijuana patients. In August, the agency said it wouldn't interfere with the laws in Colorado and Washington, which regulate the growth and sale of taxed pot for recreational use.
Government officials and activists worldwide have taken note of the more open stance. Also not lost on them was the Obama administration's public silence before votes in both states and in Uruguay.
It all creates a "sense that the U.S. is no longer quite the drug war-obsessed government it was" and that other nations have some political space to explore reform, said Ethan Nadelmann, head of the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance, a pro-legalization group based in New York.
Anxiety over U.S. reprisals has previously doused reform efforts in Jamaica, including a 2001 attempt to approve private use of marijuana by adults. Given America's evolution, "the discussion has changed," said Delano Seiveright, director of Ganja Law Reform Coalition-Jamaica.
Last summer eight lawmakers, evenly split between the ruling People's National Party and the opposition Jamaica Labor Party, met with Nadelmann and local cannabis crusaders at a luxury hotel in Kingston's financial district and discussed next steps, including a near-term effort to decriminalize pot possession.
Officials are concerned about the roughly 300 young men each week who get criminal records for possessing small amounts of "ganja." Others in the debt-shackled nation worry about losing out on tourism dollars: For many, weed is synonymous with Marley's home country, where it has long been used as a medicinal herb by families, including as a cold remedy, and as a spiritual sacrament by Rastafarians.
Influential politicians are increasingly taking up the idea of loosening pot restrictions. Jamaica's health minister recently said he was "fully on board" with medical marijuana.
"The cooperation on this issue far outweighs what I've seen before," Seiveright said. "Both sides are in agreement with the need to move forward."
In Morocco, lawmakers have been inspired by the experiments in Washington, Colorado and Uruguay to push forward their longstanding desire to allow cannabis to be grown for medical and industrial uses. They say such a law would help small farmers who survive on the crop but live at the mercy of drug lords and police attempts to eradicate it.
"Security policies aren't solving the problem because it's an economic and social issue," said Mehdi Bensaid, a legislator with the Party of Authenticity and Modernity, a political party closely allied with the country's king. "We think this crop can become an important economic resource for Morocco and the citizens of this region."
In October, lawmakers from Uruguay, Mexico and Canada converged on Colorado for a firsthand look at how that state's law is being implemented. They toured a medical marijuana dispensary and sniffed bar-coded marijuana plants as the dispensary's owner gave them a tour.
"Mexico has outlets like that, but guarded by armed men," Mexican Congressman René Fujiwara Montelongo said afterward.
There's no general push to legalize marijuana in Mexico, where tens of thousands have died in cartel violence in recent years. But in liberal Mexico City, legislators on Thursday introduced a measure to let stores sell up to 5 grams of pot. It's supported by the mayor but could set up a fight with the conservative federal government.
"Rather than continue fighting a war that makes no sense, now we are joining a cutting-edge process," said Jorge Castaneda, a former Mexican foreign minister.
Opponents to legalization worry that pot could become heavily commercialized or that increased access will increase youth use. They say the other side's political victories have reawakened their cause.
"There's been a real hunger from people abroad to find out how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place and how to avoid it," said Kevin Sabet of Project Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
Washington and Colorado passed recreational laws in 2012 to regulate the growth and sale of taxed pot at state-licensed stores. Sales began Jan. 1 in Colorado, and are due to start later this year in Washington. Twenty states and the District of Columbia already have medical marijuana laws.
A number of U.S. states are considering whether to try for recreational laws. Voters in Alaska will have their say on a legalization measure this summer. Oregon voters could also weigh in this year, and in California, drug-reform groups are deciding whether to push a ballot measure in 2014 or wait until 2016's presidential election. Abroad, activists are pushing the issue before a United Nations summit in 2016.
While some European countries, including Spain, Belgium and the Czech Republic, have taken steps over the years to liberalize pot laws in the face of international treaties that limit drug production to medical and research purposes, the Netherlands, famous for its pot "coffee shops," has started to pull back, calling on cities to close shops near schools and ban sales to tourists.
There is, however, an effort afoot to legitimize the growing of cannabis sold in the coffee shops. While it's been legal to sell pot, it's not to grow it, so shops must turn to the black market for their supply, which may wind up seized in a raid.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, where some countries have decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs, from cocaine to marijuana, there is significant public opposition to further legalization. But top officials are realizing that it is nevertheless on the table, despite the longstanding efforts of the U.S., which has provided billions of dollars to support counter-narcotics work in the hemisphere.
Current or former presidents in Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil have called for a re-evaluation of or end to the drug war, a chorus echoed by Argentina's drug czar, Juan Carlos Molina, a Roman Catholic priest who has long served in the nation's drug-wasted slums.
Molina said he's following orders from President Cristina Fernandez to change the government's focus from enforcing drug laws against young people to getting them into treatment. He also said after Fernandez appointed him in December that Argentine society is ready to openly debate legalizing marijuana altogether.
"I believe that Argentina deserves a good debate about this. We have the capacity to do it. The issue is fundamental for this country," Molina said in an interview with Radio del Plata.
The pace of change has put American legalization activists in heavy demand at conferences in countries weighing their drug laws, including Chile, Poland and the Netherlands. The advocates, including those who worked on the efforts in Washington and Colorado, have advised foreign lawmakers and activists on how to build campaigns.
Clara Musto, a spokeswoman for the Uruguayan campaign, said meeting with the Americans helped her group see that it would need to promote arguments beyond ensuring the liberty of cannabis users if it wanted to increase public support. "They knew so much about how to lead," she said.
John Walsh of the Washington Office on Latin America, a non-governmental organization that works to promote social and economic justice, was among the Americans who visited Uruguay as the president, the ruling party and activists pushed their proposal to create a government-controlled marijuana industry.
"This isn't just talk," he said. "Whether Colorado is going to do it well, or Washington, they're doing it. If you're going to pursue something similar, you're not going to be alone."
___
AP writers David McFadden in Kingston, Jamaica; Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City; Leonardo Haberkorn in Montevideo, Uruguay; Michael Corder in The Hague, The Netherlands; Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Paul Schemm in Rabat, Morocco; Adriana Gomez Licon in Mexico City; and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed. |
A former top State Department aide who now assists Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails County GOP in Minnesota shares image comparing Sanders to Hitler Holder: 'Time to make the Electoral College a vestige of the past' MORE’s presidential campaign spent roughly nine hours in a classified deposition for the House committee on Benghazi on Friday.
Former director of policy planning Jake Sullivan said upon exiting the briefing that he was “very glad to have the opportunity to talk about the extraordinary service of my colleagues to their country — my colleagues at the State Department — especially the career foreign service officers and the incredible work they do on behalf of our nation every day.”
“I was happy to answer every question the committee had,” Sullivan added, without discussing details of the closed-door session.
The interview could be particularly revealing, committee Chairman Trey Gowdy Harold (Trey) Watson GowdyThe family secret Bruce Ohr told Rod Rosenstein about Russia case Trey Gowdy joins Fox News as a contributor Congress must take the next steps on federal criminal justice reforms MORE (R-S.C.) said on his way into the secure meeting room in the Capitol’s basement.
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“In a country like Libya, you need to understand what policy you’re pursuing and then you need to understand what physical presence is necessary to effectuate that policy, then you have to balance the two,” Gowdy said.
“He probably is going to be in maybe even a unique position to explain to us how the policy required physical presence.”
In addition to working for Clinton in the State Department, Sullivan is also the top adviser on her front-runner Democratic presidential campaign.
Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.), a member of the Benghazi panel, said late Friday afternoon that the session was “very professional” and “very fact-focused.”
“It was a very, very long day with many questions,” Brooks said.
Friday’s deposition comes a day after another former Clinton aide — ex-chief of staff Cheryl Mills — appeared in a marathon, nine-hour meeting of the committee.
Friday’s briefing focused on the same handful of issues as that Thursday session, Gowdy said in the morning: the security of the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, before the 2012 attacks that killed four Americans; the administration’s response and explanation to the violence; the “objectivity” of a review board investigating the attack; and “the administration’s efforts to comply with legitimate congressional oversight.”
Clinton’s use of a private email setup will also likely come up, Gowdy acknowledged before the meeting, though it would not be a main focus of his panel’s questions.
“I can just tell you it came up really late yesterday in the questioning,” Gowdy said on Friday. "Our committee is the committee on Benghazi. It’s not the committee on emails.”
Like Mills’s appearance, a transcript of Sullivan’s remarks before the committee Friday will remain classified for the time being.
That upset Democrats, who have pressed for the remarks to be made public and have been increasingly critical of the role of the Benghazi panel.
“I want the transcript released,” top committee Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.) told reporters. “I really do. Because I think when you see the transcript and I think when the American people see the transcript they will get a clear picture of what was happening, how it happened with regard to a number of issues.”
Keeping the transcripts secret, Democratic members of the panel insist, allows for Republicans to selectively leak snippets that may be damaging to Clinton’s presidential bid.
“I don’t think it should be shelved ... so it can collect dust, never to be seen by anybody except the committee members,” Cummings added.
“We can have leaks but we ought to be able to have a transcript, and I would hope that that would happen.”
Sullivan declined to speak with reporters while heading into the committee room around 8 a.m. on Friday morning.
On Friday, another committee Democrat — Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — wrote a New York Times op-ed calling for Congress to dissolve the special committee, which set of a round of bickering between panel Democrats and Republicans.
This story was updated at 6:05 p.m. |
Calvin Harris was badly injured in a car accident on Friday, May 20. The singer was transported to the hospital in an ambulance. However, Calvin left the hospital against medical advice after being refused a private room. As of this posting there is no word on Taylor Swift’s response to Calvin’s accident.
Law enforcement officials say Calvin was riding in a Cadillac SUV at around 11:00 pm Friday. Teenagers in another car, reports say a VW bug, crossed over the center line and collided with the vehicle in which Calvin was a passenger.
At the scene paramedics evaluated Calvin and apparently made the decision that a laceration to face was serious enough that it required further medical attention. Calvin was then taken via ambulance to a Los Angeles area hospital.
Sources divulged to TMZ that Calvin Harris asked for a private room at the medical facility but was advised that such a room was not available. Upon hearing this Calvin left the hospital against medical advice. It is not known at this time if the cut to Calvin’s head was tended to before he exited the hospital.
The driver of the other car was a 16-year-old girl who was driving other teenagers. The accident was reportedly quite violent with one girl who was sitting on her boyfriend’s lap being ejected from the vehicle. The driver of the VW bug was also ejected from the car. TMZ reports that one teenage girl’s injuries include a broken pelvis.
At this time there is no response from Taylor Swift regarding Calvin Harris’s accident. It is not known whether Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift are still a couple as recent reports say the couple parted company. Taylor attended the Met Gala and allegedly spent the evening flirting with British actor Tom Hiddleston.
CDL will keep you updated as more information about Calvin’s accident and whether or not Calvin sought further medical treatment at another hospital emerges.
Update: Police have visited Calvin Harris’s home after the accident. Additionally, Calvin has cancelled two scheduled performances since the crash.
The police were seen at Calvin Harris’s home after a violent car accident in Los Angeles, California on May 21, 2016. Calvin was involved in an accident Friday night that required him to take an ambulance to the hospital where he then left against doctors orders when he couldn’t get a private room. FameFlynet |
A 7-year-old boy is recovering after being shot inside his Wilmington home Monday night.
Police responded around 10:00 Monday night to a home on the 200 block of Delamore Place.
A seven-year-old boy had been shot inside the house. Fortunately it was a non-life-threatening injury to his hand.
The shooter was his 11-year-old brother.
An older man answered the door at the house Tuesday.
"I can't talk about it right now," he told Action News. Asked if he knew who had the gun, the man said, "You'll have to talk to somebody else about that."
Wilmington Police were told by the boys' grandfather that he found the gun in the backyard of the home and intended to turn it over to police. The grandfather explained that he put the gun in a high cabinet in the kitchen, but that the boys found it and were playing with it, when the weapon went off.
"The adults in the house have to be responsible for firearms that are in the house," said Crawford. "So if the investigation does reveal that an adult was responsible for having that firearm, then consequences are going to follow."
The police say the family is extremely lucky the boy's injuries weren't more serious or even deadly.
Just two weeks ago, a four-year-old boy in Toms River, New Jersey got hold of a rifle and shot and killed his six-year-old neighbor.
That case is still being investigated, and no one has been charged yet.
Wilmington Police have a simple message for gun owners everywhere.
"If a parent out there, if someone does have firearms in the house, it's very important that you keep them locked up in a safe and keep them away from children," said Crawford.
Police are tracking the history of the gun used in Monday night's shooting. They are not yet revealing the caliber or make of the gun or whether or not it was legally purchased. |
Submerged escalator at South Ferry station (MTA Photos)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this afternoon that limited subway service would return starting tomorrow—but not in lower Manhattan. "Buses are at full service today, limited commuter rail on Metro North and LIRR will begin at 2 p.m. today...limited NYC subway service, supplemented by a bus bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan, will begin tomorrow," he said at a Hurricane Sandy update today. But there will be no service below 34th Street in Manhattan, because the power is still out. "Limited subway service will be restored to 14 of MTA system’s 23 lines tomorrow," he also tweeted. UPDATE WITH LINE INFORMATION BELOW
Cuomo preached "patience and tolerance" on traffic and power conditions, noting that it getting power back up for over a million NY state residents would be on a day-to-day basis. We'll update as we learn more information about exactly which subway lines will be back, and how the "bus bridge" will work—Mayor Bloomberg has another press conference scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at City Hall, which will likely provide more information about the subways.
Cuomo noted he had just completed a helicopter tour of the region with Sen. Chuck Schumer. Cuomo said that because water had filled the subway tunnels in many places, the city has been frantically working to get water out of the tunnels: "Con Edison has issues, because much of their equipment is in the tunnels. Getting water out of tunnels is the main order of business right now." Cuomo also gave credit to President Obama, who "has been on top of this situation, very informed, I've spoken to him several times myself...FEMA has been fanstaitc and responsive too."
Schumer also spoke about the destruction he saw during the helicopter tour: "It looks like the pictures of London or Dresden in World War II." Schumer called the damage a "national disaster" that "needs to be treated that way by every member of Congress." He also said: "The kind of thing we feared after 9/11, that lower Manhattan would become a ghost town, is happening for a few days."
Cuomo had some very strong words about the impact global warming had on this disaster: "Part of learning from this is the recognition that climate change is a reality...Anyone who says there's not a dramatic change in weather patterns I think is denying reality."
Update: MTA Chairman Joe Lhota says that three of the seven tunnels flooded under the East River have now been cleared. The three clear ones are the 4/5, 2/3 and F; it's not clear whether these routes will be those back tomorrow. The ones that are still wet are the R, A/C, L and 7; the MTA says that some of those trains could be shifted to other tunnels.
Here's what the MTA has to say about what tomorrow morning may be like for commuters: "There will be limited subway service on several routes, supplemented by a bus shuttle between Downtown Brooklyn and Midtown. There will be no subway service between 34th St in Midtown and Downtown Brooklyn."
"We're going switch by switch, signal by signal, power substation by power station, and making sure everything is up and running," Lhota noted. "There will be more on Friday, more on Saturday. Our goal is every day to get our service back to normal." But he said there won't be any subways in lower Manhattan below 42nd Street until power is returned, which could take at least 3 days.
UPDATE: Here they are—the subways and commuter rails that are up and running, via Governor Cuomo's office: |
One of the very few negatives in the work of Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, two of the finest artists and writers in comics, is that the pair’s worlds are so complex and large that new readers may be intimidated to engage them. Hell, even frequent and well-seasoned readers may find themselves opening Google for some additional context or reminders.
The brothers’ oeuvre is simply labyrinthine; the creators have been telling consistently-entertaining stories, Scheherazade-like, for 34 years, embroidering and carving out detours, plus adding new characters as they need to. Yet, those not yet familiar with the Hernandez’s work shouldn’t let their overwhelming history stop them.
Both brothers have plenty of self-contained side work, but Love and Rockets, whose seventh volume of its “New Stories” line hits shelves this month, remains their masterpiece. A soap opera spun over decades, the drama seesaws back and forth between Jaime’s “Hoppers” stories and Gilbert’s “Palomar” narrative, with occasional bits that belong to neither. Think of the series as a mirror of reality, despite its frequent flights of fancy: do you let the fact that someone new you’ve just met had a whole life before you encountered each another stop you from engaging him or her in conversation? Of course not. If the person is genuinely interesting in the short term, you take it on faith that s/he has a history to match, and you work on filling in the pieces as your relationship progresses. Such is Love and Rockets.
Both Jaime and Gilbert were nice enough to take a break from their extremely busy schedules to answer some questions from Paste.
Paste: I feel like if I had to draw a graph of your careers, it would start out as two almost parallel lines that move farther and farther away from one another. Do you think that’s accurate? And, if so, what do you think accounts for it? Different life experiences?
Gilbert Hernandez: Jaime and I grew up enjoying some the same comics, movies and such, and there’s where the similarities in our early work comes from. Our personalities are different, of course, he being more of a Dr. Jekyll to my Mr. Hyde. As we get older, we’re more about what influences us in our present lives.
Jaime Hernandez: Even though our lives have gone separate ways in the last 30-some years (moving apart, raising families, etc.), we try to keep Love and Rockets the same.
Paste: You don’t really collaborate, but do you discuss the order of stories in Love and Rockets? Does it come together organically? Do you bounce ideas off one another, or do you work pretty much in isolation, apart from some kind of psychic brother link?
Gilbert Hernandez: Sometimes Jaime and I will have similar stories appearing together in Love and Rockets without us knowing it until it’s time to put the finished stories in order. In Love and Rockets #7, we both have a long adventure/fantasy story. Since mine was conceived first, mine goes first in the issue, but it’s usually a matter of what flows best and which stories complement the other. More than ever, these days we usually don’t know what the other is doing until we see the book put together.
Jaime Hernandez: Sometimes two of my stories that sit next to each other will need a large gap in between to help the flow of the drama, so I’ll need a longer Gilbert story to stick in there and vice versa. We work in isolation, but I like to know what Gilbert is up to both as a fan of his work and a person I share the book with.
Paste: When your work is colored (covers, illustrations for other sources like The New Yorker), do you do the coloring?
Gilbert Hernandez: I indicate a color guide for the covers and FB [Fantagraphics Books] does the finished coloring.
Jaime Hernandez: No, I have a couple of colorists I rely on for that kind of work. I’ve been planning to learn Photoshop for decades but I never get to it. Maybe it was meant to be this way.
Paste: If I had to sum up the direction of both of your work these days (and that’s not easy), I might say it’s about aging, and both the pros and cons of getting older. That doesn’t mean you don’t have adolescent characters, but they’re written from a different perspective than it seems like they were in the early days of Love and Rockets. What’s it like, getting older and turning into elder statesmen of comics?
Jaime Hernandez: I’m just glad I’m still here and still have a following to support this stuff.
Paste: Jaime, can you tell me a little about the illustration work you’ve been doing for The New Yorker? Do they let you read the story it’ll run with and you get to come up with the idea for the visuals? Or do they approach you with an idea?
Jaime Hernandez: Sometimes they would give me the article to read and then I would send them a couple of roughs, and they would pick the one they like or have me do something totally different. And then sometimes they would give me an idea when they sent the article. We traded off driving each other crazy, I think.
Paste: The Love Bunglers almost could have been an end for the Maggie/Hopey stories, but, as Love and Rockets: New Stories #7 proves, it obviously wasn’t. Do you think you’ll ever decide to conclude those stories? Do you have an ending in mind?
Jaime Hernandez: My only plan is that some will die off and others will live to be very old and still others will simply disappear. I just don’t know who yet. I suppose it would be easier to end the stories if I didn’t like the characters so much.
Paste: Music seems less important in your work now than it was once upon a time. True? Not true? What do you listen to these days?
Jaime Hernandez: I listen to a lot less than I used to, partly because the evolution of how I work now gives me less time to listen to anything.
Gilbert Hernandez: We came up with stories according to our age at the time. Music was a driving force for us when growing up, so it was normal to put it in our comics. Young people identify with their favorite music a lot more than average adults do. Strange that there isn’t so much of a generation gap with music today as there was in the earlier days of rock music. My 14-year-old daughter fancies high-energy rock and, except for modern production values, it isn’t any louder or nastier than music I listened to. These days I’m into the music of P!nk, as she has a lot more musical chops than supposed more ‘real’ indy artists. Put her up against indy darlings like Dum Dum Girls or Haim and she makes mincemeat out of them. This excludes me from the indy party line, of course. The Hives are cool too. The most fun I ever had at a gig was protecting my daughter from the wild audience when we went to see The Hives. They also opened up for P!nk last year, oddly enough.
Paste: And what do you do in your free time, which I assume you have even though you’re both incredibly productive? Do you still read new comics? Do you make your kids read them?
Jaime Hernandez: I try to pick up new comics but I find there are less that I’m able to absorb. Kinda like my brain has only so much room to maintain anything after years and years of absorbing so much. The same with music.
Gilbert Hernandez: In my free time, I hang out with my family. I don’t see a lot of new comics. I’m more into old comics collections like horror comics from the 1950s or Dick Tracy reprints. Indy comics are like reading someone’s diary these days.
Paste: Does your family read comics?
Gilbert Hernandez: My wife and daughter read comics infrequently these days, but they both enjoy them when they get around to it.
Paste: What did you think about the whole Milo Manara Spider-Woman flap, as dudes who spend a lot of time focusing on female beauty, whether realistic or with certain (ahem) exaggerated characteristics?
Gilbert Hernandez: The Milo Manara cover just reminded me of how out of touch some cartoonists are. Superheroes are for children, and covers like that might send a bad message. Most of my comics are for adults, so the supposed over-the-top sexiness is something the reader can take or leave. Again, superheroes are for children and adults that take them personal aren’t my target audience.
Paste: Gilbert, do you work at such a frenetic pace to pay the bills, or is it just how you like to pace yourself (some people like to have a million projects going at once)?
Gilbert Hernandez: Unfortunately, I work fast to pay them bills, but I never hack out the work whatever the job is. I do have several projects going at once just because I like it that way, but bills come fast and art comes real ssssssslowwwwwwww….
Paste: What’s the best horror movie you’ve seen lately?
Gilbert Hernandez: I watched the last 40 minutes of The Birds last night and it’s still great. |
Who can penetrate the subtleties of the Washington mind when it comes to grips with the maddening Qaddafi psyche? Does the U.S. really intend to blast the colonel unless he says ''uncle''?
Or is it merely trying to agitate its European allies, who enjoy profitable business relationships with Qaddafi, who think the U.S. is hopelessly neurotic about him and who wish Washington would get off his back?
If Washington's surgical-strike talk could persuade some of Qaddafi's good European trading partners to stop helping him build troublesome factories; or if they could be moved to speak to him like a Dutch, or preferably a German, uncle . . .
''Now, Muammar, you know how sensitive these silly Americans can be about trifles, and what is a pharmaceutical plant, after all? Just a few billion more aspirins to interrupt the television news. Why not be a good fellow and allow full-time inspections . . .?''
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Well, the only thing more inscrutable than the Occidental mind is the California variant of it that has developed in Washington. So who can explain why the Pentagon, after crying ''Take out!'' and ''Surgical strike!'' was shocked to find Libyan fighter planes acting bellicose when our planes showed up in the neighborhood?
I have been to Air Force shows where those fantastically expensive planes come right at you faster than speeding bullets, and though I knew they were on my side I felt myself go white inside and out. It is unlikely that the thought of such a moment could make Colonel Qaddafi feel anything but extremely nervous.
Is it reasonable to suppose that, after so much ''take-out'' talk in Washington, two of Qaddafi's military planes encountering two American warplanes might conclude that they were the vanguard of the promised surgical strike and do something foolish?
Whatever the explanation, something foolish was done in the Mediterranean sky and Libyan planes were destroyed. They did not, apparently, carry foolishness to the point of firing at our planes, but the Pentagon insists they were armed and could have.
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Can we really tell that for sure? One wants to believe our side, but if we believed the Pentagon's first account of the Navy's shooting down the Iranian airliner last year, we ended up dead wrong.
Other unanswerable questions abound. For instance, if small nations making chemical weapons are so intolerable, why aren't we considering a ''surgical strike'' in Iraq, the one nation that has already used chemical warfare on a mass scale?
For instance too, why is it that the genial Gipper, who seems capable of liking almost everybody everywhere in the world, including ex-evil empire Sovietskis, gnashes his teeth and sees red whenever he has to deal with two small-bore dictators? Namely, Qaddafi and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.
Besides small-bore, they also probably rank Number Two and Number Three among the world's most theatrical leaders. Is there a little mutual dislike among show biz performers involved here? |
16 JAN 3303
Professor Ishmael Palin, independent scientist and leading authority on xeno-biological research, has added his voice to the debate over sightings of mysterious spacecraft.
In a statement, Professor Palin said:
"I have no wish to be alarmist, and I can understand why the galactic superpowers have issued a somewhat noncommittal response. But suggesting that these craft may be of human origin, or the product of a hoax, rather stretches plausibility."
"To my mind, there is a clear visual connection between these mysterious vessels, the shipwrecks found in HIP 17862 and the Pleiades, the Unknown Artefacts and the Unknown Probes. And I believe we can draw only one conclusion: we are sharing the galaxy with an intelligent non-human species. We therefore have an obligation to discover as much about this species, and its intentions, as possible."
Independent engineer Ram Tah, who has been leading research into the Synuefe ruins, also commented:
"I share Professor Palin's view that these reports are of great significance. But attempts to communicate with these vessels have proved fruitless, as have efforts to discern their point of origin. We must learn more about these ships and whoever – or whatever – is piloting them." |
NEW DELHI: All of a sudden this month the nifty Indian invention, the unique electronic voting machines that were hailed to be the harbingers of free and fair elections in India, are being made out to be the villains of the piece.So have the machines suddenly become fallible and has anybody ever hacked into them? The machines are the same and nobody has ever hacked them, the problem could lie elsewhere in depleting political values.The independent Election Commission of India (ECI) says "it completely reaffirms its faith in the infallibility of the EVMs these are fully tramper-proof as ever". It adds "baseless, speculative and wild allegations are being made which deserve to be rejected".There is an old saying the "winner takes it all and the loser cries foul"! The stunning results in the last round of Assembly elections have made many of the losers of the polls cry foul that it is the technology that failed them and not that their poll promises were rejected by the people.According to the ECI, till date 107 elections to states and three parliamentary polls have been smoothly conducted using the EVMs. In the 2014 elections to the Parliament, a million units of these special electronic devices that are really foolproof machines were used and all hailed the verdict as being fair.Not many countries can boast of electronic voting, even the world's oldest democracy the United States of America still often resorts to paper ballots. Recall the fracas that was created in 2000 when vice-president Al Gore lost his presidential challenge to George W Bush all thanks to what was called the "hanging chads" as the USA had used paper ballots.The Indian electronic voting machine is a stand-alone battery powered robust white coloured device very similar in performance to a very basic calculator.The size of the standard keyboard but a little thicker, they come in three variants, the generation 1 machines are all but discarded and today mostly generation 2 and generation 3 machines are being used. The latter two generations employ sophisticated encryption technology to handle the data.Only a handful of countries is using electronic voting. According to data from the non-profit National Democratic Institute , Washington DC about a dozen countries have used remote Internet voting for binding political elections or referenda that include Canada, Estonia, France and Switzerland.Some countries that have dabbled with electronic voting include Brazil, Norway, Germany, Venezuela, India, Canada, Belgium, Romania, Australia, UK, Italy, Ireland, European Union and France.It is these networked machines which are failing and are prone to hacking.Uniquely, the Indian voting machine is not networked or linked to the Internet and is considered one of the finest innovations in modern India. Hacking is much easier if machines are networked and when data is being sent across distances using the Internet.Has anyone heard that one million individual calculators supplied to banks had been tampered by the manufacturer to siphon off funds?In 2014, a whopping 1.4 million individual electronic voting machines were used in 930,000 polling stations spread across the country. The entire lot of the EVMs are manufactured by two public sector companies the Bharat Electronic Limited, Bangalore and the Electronic Corporation of India Limited, Hyderabad.The voting data is recorded on a simply imported chip which has a small and simple software that is burnt directly onto the chip itself and each vote as it is cast is recorded directly on the chip.The machines are so robust that unless the chips themselves get destroyed the data can be recovered even if the batteries die out or even if the power is accidentally cut off. Another feature called a voter verifiable paper audit trail is slowly being added to machines to make the process even more transparent.According to Rajat Moona, former Director General Center for the Development of Advanced Computing, Pune and currently Director of Indian Institute of Technology, Bhilai who is part of the Technical Expert Committee of the ECI that critically evaluates the EVMs says the secure microcontrollers or chips are purchased from large commercial manufacturers like Motorola, Renaissance and NXP who also supply chips to missile manufacturers and all kinds of secure computing device manufacturers.The chip fabricator has no idea where the chip will be ultimately used from Gandhinagar to Guwahati. Moona says the Indian EVM has been designed for Indian conditions and it is at least one hundred times more secure than any commercially available machine that is being used in other countries.The machine itself consists of a control unit and a balloting unit connected using a long cable. The balloting unit is kept secluded so that the secrecy of the ballot is maintained.Several layers of seals ensure that the machines are not tampered with in any manner. There is a double randomisation process which makes it impossible for any person to know which machine will be used in what constituency, this is done to safeguard that machines are not pre-programed to cast ballots in favour of a particular candidate.The final placement of the list of candidates on the balloting unit is not known till the last day of withdrawal of nomination before elections, so tampering with machines is an impossible task. The candidate names are placed in an alphabetical order giving it, even more, variability.Election Commission of India explains "EVMs are randomised by computer software twice. Once for allocation of machines to assembly constituencies and second to polling stations in the presence of candidates", this means no one really knows which machine would go to what location and hence pre-programming can be ruled out as a way of tampering.An electronics engineer from the USA once suggested that he could tamper with the machines using a specially designed Bluetooth enabled display unit, but in several open public demonstrations at the office of the ECI, no one has been able to hack the EVMs.Even the Supreme Court of India heard a bunch of petitions challenging the robustness of machines but it finally ruled that the EVMs were reliable and secure.On counting day the machines are removed from the strong room where they are kept under twenty-four hours armed guard and the votes polled are displayed sequentially in the presence of the observers of candidates. A new unit called a 'totaliser' was proposed to keep the anonymity and secrecy of votes intact.The counting is rapid and within hours the fate of who wins the elections is known, whereas in times when a paper ballot was used it would take days and weeks for the election results to be finally declared.The first EVM's were used in the southern Indian state of Kerala in 1982 and since then the general elections of 2004, 2009 and 2014 have witnessed one hundred percent electronic voting.According to the ECI "the EVM's reduce the time in both casting a vote and declaring the results compared to the old paper ballot system. Bogus voting & booth capturing can greatly reduced to almost nil... illiterate people find EVM's easier to use'.Transporting and storing these machines is also much easier. Violence on polling days has become a distant reality thanks to electronic voting.Individual machines are not connected to networks this ensures that hackers don't take control of machines since if a nefarious mind were to tamper then each unit of the over one million machines will have to be individually fixed, a Herculean task indeed!The last time paper ballot was used in a parliamentary election it required some 7-8,000 tonnes of paper just to print the ballots which are the equivalent of cutting down some 120,000 full grown trees so in a way the EVMs are greener and can be used repeatedly."Indian machines are tamper proof and no one has been able to actually demonstrate that the EVMs could be manipulated" asserts Nadim Zaidi, Chief Election Commissioner of India, New Delhi. |
Michigan Democrat who has been accused of harassment by former female staffers announces he is leaving his seat but says that claims are ‘not accurate’
John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who is battling sexual harassment allegations from former female staffers, resigned from Congress on Tuesday, after telling a Detroit radio host: “I am retiring today.”
Dustin Hoffman confronted over abuse allegations by John Oliver at public Q&A Read more
Conyers spoke in a rambling interview with WJBK host Mildred Gaddis, via telephone from an undisclosed hospital. Shortly afterwards his resignation letter was read on the floor of Congress.
Speaking to Gaddis, the 88-year-old insisted that the allegations against him did not diminish his half-century of service in Congress.
“My legacy can’t be compromised or diminished in any way by what we are going through now,” he said. “This too shall pass.”
Conyers went on to say of the allegations: “Whatever they are they are not accurate, they are not true and I think they are something that I can’t explain where they came from.”
He initially only spoke broadly about his political future, saying: “I am in the process of putting my retirement plans together will have more on that very soon.”
After prodding from Gaddis and a brief period of quiet, Conyers said: “Thank you for helping me get this into focus. I am retiring today and I want everyone to know how much I appreciate the support.”
Jerry Nadler of New York, the Democrat who recently replaced Conyers as the ranking member of the House judiciary committee, released a statement in which he said Conyers had been “a friend and mentor to me for over 25 years, and I am saddened that his service to our nation has had to end under these circumstances”.
The announcement came hours after Michigan state senator Ian Conyers, a grandson of John Conyers’ brother, told the New York Times the 88-year-old’s doctor “advised him that the rigor of another campaign would be too much for him, just in terms of his health”.
Conyers told the newspaper his great-uncle – the longest-serving current member of the House – was “not resigning”, adding: “He is going to retire.” The report did not specify how Ian Conyers knew of the congressman’s plans. He said he planned to run for John Conyers’ seat in Washington.
In the radio interview, Conyers endorsed his son John Conyers III to succeed him, not his great-nephew.
Conyers was first elected in 1964 and easily won re-election last year in the heavily Democratic 13th district. But following mounting allegations of sexual harassment, he has faced growing calls to resign from colleagues including the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi.
He returned to Detroit from Washington last week and was hospitalized after complaining of feeling light-headed. His attorney, Arnold Reed, said Conyers’ health would be the paramount consideration in whether he decided to step down.
In his statement, Nadler said “there is no doubt that these allegations have taken a tremendous toll on [Conyers] personally, as well as on his family and on everyone that knows him.”
“With that said, there can be no tolerance for behavior that subjects women to the kind of conduct that has been alleged.”
A statement from Pelosi said: “Congressman Conyers … shaped some of the most consequential legislation of the last half-century. But no matter how great the legacy, it is no license to harass or discriminate.”
She added: “The brave women who came forward with were owed the justice of this announcement. Now, we must pass the ME TOO Congress Act to create greater transparency and accountability in the broken reporting and settlements system. We must lead the fight against sexual harassment and abuse, not only in Congress but in every workplace, everywhere in our country.”
The House ethics committee is reviewing allegations of harassment. On Monday, a woman who said she worked for Conyers for more than a decade said he slid his hand up her skirt and rubbed her thighs while she was sitting next to him in the front row of a church.
Elisa Grubbs made the allegation in an affidavit released by her attorney, Lisa Bloom. Grubbs is the cousin of another accuser, Marion Brown, who reached a confidential settlement with Conyers which she broke to speak publicly last week.
The sexual misconduct allegations against Donald Trump – the full list Read more
Bloom posted Grubbs’ affidavit on Twitter and confirmed it was genuine. It says she worked for Conyers from approximately 2001 to about 2013.
She also said she saw Conyers touching and stroking the legs and buttocks of Brown and other female staffers on “multiple occasions”. Grubbs said witnessing such harassment “was a regular part of life while working in the office of Rep Conyers”.
Once when Grubbs was at Conyers’ home, she said, he came out of the bathroom naked when he knew she was in the room.
Reed told the Detroit Free Press the allegations by Grubbs were “another instance of tomfoolery from the mouth of Harvey Weinstein’s attorney”.
Bloom previously represented Hollywood executive Weinstein, who is accused of sexual misconduct and assault by a number of women. She quit Weinstein’s team after the allegations became public and now represents sexual harassment victims. |
The June 19 editorial “The Mormon test” discussed a poll showing that 25 percent of voters would be less likely to support a candidate who is Mormon. The editorial was right to say that this is unacceptable, but if The Post wants to discuss religious prejudice among voters, there is a much bigger story. The same poll also shows that 61 percent of voters would be less likely to support a candidate who does not believe in God at all.
More voters were troubled by a candidate’s lack of religious faith than by any other factor in the poll, including race, sexual orientation, lack of political experience, past drug use or marital infidelity.
In a country that cherishes religious freedom and bans religious tests for office, this widespread bias against nonbelievers is deeply troubling. At least Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman may acknowledge their religious faith and still be considered viable candidates. A nonbeliever who was honest about his or her views on religion would be politically dead in the water.
Randall D. Eliason, McLean |
VERACRUZ, Mexico (Reuters) - A group of bereaved parents who overcame government apathy to uncover one of the largest mass graves in the dark history of Mexico’s drug war have also exposed the government’s slow progress in attending to rights abuses and victims.
Mothers of missing sons came out of a service of Pedro Alberto Huesca, whose remains were found at one of the unmarked graves where skulls were found on a plot of land, in Palmas de Abajo, Veracruz, Mexico March 16, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Jasso
After a six-months plus investigation led by the families, government investigators in the Gulf state of Veracruz said on Tuesday they had found more than 250 skulls in shallow graves in a field, a record in the atrocities in Mexico.
On Thursday, reporters gained access for the first time to the lush tropical area spotted with lagoons, which is near a current major expansion of Veracruz city’s busy seaport.
The site was uncovered last year after a tip to members of Colectivo Solecito, one of several groups of frustrated relatives searching for the tens of thousands of people who have gone missing during the gang drug wars and whose cases are unsolved.
“The authorities don’t care about searching. Here, those who search are the parents,” said Rosalia Castro, who has been looking for her son since 2011. “The attention of the prosecutor’s office has been zero.”
Critics say the groups’ success in uncovering evidence of atrocities leaves authorities looking slow-footed and highlights the dismal human rights record of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Veracruz was ruled until late last year by PRI state governor Javier Duarte.
The case is also a reminder that while U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial immigration policies and planned border wall has provided a distraction from Mexico’s woes, crime and corruption continue to dog the party that hopes to stay in power in presidential elections next year.
Under Duarte, victims disappeared at the hands of gangs with the complicity of authorities, said Jorge Winckler, Veracruz state’s attorney general and a member of the opposition-led state government that took office in December.
Winckler said three officials from Duarte’s government were under investigation for failing to properly search for bodies at the site.
Pena Nieto’s administration last year issued an arrest warrant against Duarte, who is charged with embezzlement. Duarte fled and has not been caught, so it was not possible to seek comment from him on the Veracruz mass grave.
The federal attorney general’s office has not taken over the investigation of the graves site, but is offering technical support, a spokesman said on Friday.
The federal government’s top human rights official, Roberto Campa, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.N. Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings last year criticized widespread extrajudicial executions perpetrated by security forces and members of cartels in Mexico and said such crimes were rarely punished. The Mexican government says its goal is to achieve human rights for all.
MORE REMAINS MAY BE FOUND
At the grave site on Thursday, Winckler said teams were likely to find more remains, possibly in the area of the port expansion. But he said authorities needed additional resources to conduct the massive forensic investigation.
Behind him, small groups of family members and police poked into the ground with poles, feeling for human remains beneath the soil as they slowly worked their way across two-meter by two-meter plots.
Veracruz state says up to 2,600 people have disappeared under suspicious circumstances since 2010, at the start of Duarte’s term. The Mexican government estimates some 27,000 people have gone missing nationwide since drug-related violence surged a decade ago.
Relatives of the missing in Veracruz say state authorities were apathetic when they sought help in finding out what happened to their loved ones.
Residents near the grave site, just outside a lower middle-class housing development called Colinas de Santa Fe, said that as far back as four years ago they noticed pickup trucks coming and going at strange hours and sometimes heard gunshots.
“I know there will be no justice, only divine justice. From that, you cannot escape,” said Griselda Barradas, whose son Pedro Huesca Barradas is one of only two sets of remains identified among the 250 found at the 20-hectare (49-acre) site.
Barradas, whose police investigator son went missing four years ago, said that during a protest march on Mother’s Day last May, two young men were handing out pamphlets to the crowd.
“I didn’t make much of it until the next day when I took a good look and realized it was a sketch, a very detailed map of how to get to the place and that there was a lagoon with many bodies,” she said.
The group convinced authorities to let them search the area last August, along with state forensic investigators.
Grieving relatives had been unsuccessful for years in getting local authorities to investigate drug war killings in Mexico.
Slideshow (7 Images)
The 2014 disappearance of 43 student teachers in Guerrero state marked a turning point after impromptu search parties uncovered unrelated burial sites across the country.
Guadalupe Contreras’ son disappeared in 2013 in Guerrero, which has seen a spike in violence and heroin production, and the father joined search parties there last year. Now he is helping in Veracruz.
“Before it was much more difficult. We were ignorant of what happened and how to search. But we taught ourselves and now we are also teaching others,” Contreras said. |
The Trump administration plans to spend 90% less on advertising to get people to sign up for Obamacare than former President Obama did last year.
The administration will spend $10 million on promotions during open enrollment season this fall, compared to $100 million a year ago, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which administers Obamacare, said Thursday. It will focus on radio and digital ads, as well as email to existing enrollees.
At the same time, it is cutting funding for so-called navigators -- who help people sign up for coverage -- by 41%. The 98 navigator groups will receive a total of $37 million for the coming enrollment season.
With Congress' effort to repeal and replace Obamacare on hold, all eyes are on whether the Trump administration will work to stabilize or undermine the health reform law. President Trump has repeatedly said Obamacare is dead. He has raised questions about whether he will try to dismantle the law by discontinuing funding for a key set of subsidies or weakening enforcement of the individual mandate.
Another wild card is how the administration will handle open enrollment, which this year will run from November 1 through December 15 -- half the length that it did under Obama, who actively promoted the sign-up period. Trump officials had been largely silent about their plans until now, though they have repeatedly said the law is failing Americans.
The administration justified the budget cuts by saying it was basing advertising on effectiveness and performance. Democrats and Obamacare supporters quickly decried the move as sabotage.
Related: Hickenlooper: Health care reform should be 'trans-partisan'
CMS officials pointed to the fact that the agency spent about $100 million last year and 9.2 million people signed up for coverage through the federal exchange, healthcare.gov, for 2017.
In 2015, the agency spent $51.2 million and 9.6 million Americans bought policies. Officials stressed that there was a 42% decline in first-time enrollees.
The administration is also revamping the navigator program after more than three-quarters of the grantees failed to achieve their enrollment goals, officials said. This fall, navigators will receive funding based on their meeting their targets. For instance, a grantee that enrolls only 30% of its goal will receive no more than 30% of its funding from the previous year.
Navigators signed up roughly 81,500 people in 2016.
"Judging effectiveness by the amount of money spent and not the results achieved is irresponsible and unhelpful to the American people," said Caitlin Oakley, press secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services. "A health care system that has caused premiums to double and left nearly half of our counties with only one coverage option is not working. The Trump administration is determined to serve the American people instead of trying to sell them a bad deal."
Related: Actually, Obamacare will be available everywhere in 2018
Advertising and outreach, however, are seen as critical to maintaining and boosting Obamacare enrollment. In fact, a bipartisan coalition of governors -- led by Republican Governor John Kasich of Ohio and Democratic Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado -- on Wednesday urged the administration to continue to fund outreach and enrollment efforts.
In particular, it helps attract young and healthy consumers who may not feel they need coverage. The sick, who are eager to secure insurance, are more likely to know where to sign up.
Cutting ACA outreach will result in fewer people insured, and those who fail to sign up will be the healthiest. That will push premiums up. — Larry Levitt (@larry_levitt) August 31, 2017
This is not the first time the Trump administration has pulled advertising for Obamacare. It halted up to $5 million worth of ads just days after taking office in January. The campaign was intended to alert consumers to the end of the 2017 sign-up period on January 31. Outreach is considered critical in the final days of the enrollment period to remind consumers -- particularly younger ones -- of the deadline. Sign ups typically surge during this time. |
Geoff Sherrington writes: National Geographic Magazine had a Global Warming issue in September 2004. New instruments have given new data. By planning now, NatGeo can make a revised issue 10 years later, in September 2014.
The 2014 edition should aim to correct what is now known to be wrong or questionable in the 2004 edition. We can help. Here are some quotes that need attention. The first three have some commentary, as is suggested for the remainder.
1. “The famed snows of Kilimanjaro have melted more than 80% since 1912.” P.14
This might have been correct at the time of writing pre-2004, but by 2008 Ms Shamsa Mwangunga, the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism in Tanzania wrote ”contrary to reports that the ice caps were decreasing owing to effects of global warming, indications were that the snow cover on Africa’s highest mountain were now increasing”. By 2011 we can read “Unfortunately, we made the prediction. I wish we hadn’t,” says Douglas R. Hardy, geoscientist who was among 11 co-authors of the paper in the journal Science that sparked the pessimistic Kilimanjaro forecast. “None of us had much history working on that mountain, and we didn’t understand a lot of the complicated processes on the peak like we do now.” In October 2007 Mr Justice Burton of the UK High Court ruled, for the purpose of teaching, against unqualified use of this passage summarised from the Gore book “An Inconvenient Truth”. Mr Gore’s assertion was that the disappearance of snow on Mount Kilimanjaro in East Africa was expressly attributable to global warming – the court heard the scientific consensus that it cannot be established that the snow recession is mainly attributable to human-induced climate change.
2. “… researchers believe that most central and eastern Himalayan glaciers could virtually disappear by 2035.” P.14
This arose from a brochure from India to the World Wide Fund for Nature, not peer reviewed, which eventuated in year 2350 being replaced by 2035 in the IPCC 2007 report – and missed by the peer-review process. The correction process by the IPCC was tortuous and lamentably acrimonious when a single direct statement should have sufficed.
3. “… raising average global sea level between four and eight inches in the past hundred years.” P.19 This estimate was conventional wisdom until the specialist satellite era, when measurement technology improved. As the NOAA figure shows, Jason 1 (data from 2002) and Jason 2 (2009) have complicated the story, with data showing ocean levels falling at times. The Jason instruments were specifically designed for ocean level measurement. More time is needed before the modern estimate of ocean change can be calculated. It is noted that Ocean Heat Content, OHC, a cause of ocean level change, has barely changed since measurements became acceptable through an increase in the number of Argo buoys in year 2002 or so.
Graph is from http://oceans.pmel.noaa.gov/
And so it goes, as listed below. The following abbreviated quotes from NatGeo 2004 need examination in the light of accumulated knowledge. Note that peer-review, having been repeatedly found wanting in the years before 2012, is not a requirement for commentary, though it can be desirable. In several important ways, such as immediacy, the modern blog world has adequate accurate commentary, to allow suggested revisions or retractions of the quotes below.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
1. “The famed snows of Kilimanjaro have melted more than 80% since 1912.” P.14
2. “… researchers believe that most central and eastern Himalayan glaciers could virtually disappear by 2035.” P.14
3. “… raising average global sea level between four and eight inches in the past hundred years.” P.19
4. “But the recent rate of global sea level rise has departed from the average rate of the past two to three thousand years and is rising much more rapidly – a continuation or acceleration of that trend has the potential to cause striking changes…” P.19
5. “Even relatively small storm surges in the past two decades have overwhelmed the system of dikes, levees and pump stations … upgraded in the 1990s to forestall the Gulf of Mexico’s relentless creep.” P.19
6. “Vulnerable to sea-level rise, Tuvalu, a small country in the South Pacific, has already begun formulating evacuation plans.” P.19
7. “The scenarios are disturbing even in wealthy countries like the Netherlands, with nearly half its landmass already at or below sea level.” P.19
8. “The 20th Century has seen the greatest warming in at least a thousand years, and natural forces can’t account for it all.” P.20
9. “Both greenhouse gases and temperature are expected to continue rising.” P.20
10. “Thick smoke towers over a forest near Fairbanks, one more sign that Alaska is getting hotter…. Computer models predict that CO2-induced warming could eventually raise the incidence of fires by more than a half.” P.25
11. “If the West Antarctic ice sheet were to break up, which scientists consider very unlikely this century, it alone contains enough ice to raise sea level by nearly 20 feet.” P.27
12. “Ocean temperatures are rising in all ocean basins and at much deeper depths than previously thought (NOAA)” P.27
13. “Oceans are important sinks …. and take up about a third of human-generated CO2.” P.28
14. “ … three greenhouse gases … orchestrating an intricate dance between the radiation of heat from Earth back to space (cooling the planet) and the absorption of radiation in the atmosphere (trapping it near the surface and this warming the planet).” P.29
15. (At Barrow) “There are no words, though, to describe how much and how fast the ice is changing.” P.33
16. “Researchers long ago predicted that the most visible impacts from a globally warmer world would occur first at high latitudes: rising air and sea temperatures, earlier snowmelt, later ice freeze-up, reductions in sea ice, thawing permafrost, more erosion, increases in storm intensity. Now, all these impacts have been documented in Alaska.” P.33
17. “The Fleishmann’s glass frog is barely hanging on …. As Earth’s temperatures rise, scientists are exploring climate’s role in a worldwide amphibian decline.” P.34
18. “Alpine plants are edging uphill and beginning to overrun rare species near mountain summits.” P.41
19. “This is the first instance in which humans appear to be accelerating the change, and warming could take place so quickly that species will not have the time to adapt and avoid extinction.” P.41
20. “At some point, as temperatures continue to rise, species will have no more room to run”. P.41
21. “Coral necropolis …. Increasingly the planet’s coral is in hot water, parboiled in periods of calm, sunny weather … In 1998 the world’s coral suffered its worst year on record, which left 16% bleached or dead.” P.41
22. Re: turtle breeding “Storms amplify the trend (to more females) shearing away trees that provide cooling shade to nests on beaches. ‘Severe weather events … really knock the socks off in favour of the females’.” P.47
…………………………………………………….
Fast forward to page 73 because there are enough quotes already, to find –
23. “A warming world will harm some – and benefit others. Home heating costs will likely fall in New England … The prospects are grim for drought-plagued Ethiopian children, who could see rainfall decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years. Widespread poverty and dependence on subsistence agriculture make Africans the most vulnerable to climate change.” P.73.
There are a couple of boxed headers along the way. Two are
24. “IT’S NOT A BELIEF SYSTEM; IT’S AN OBSERVABLE SCIENTIFIC FACT.” P.33.
25. Then “WE’LL HAVE A BETTER IDEA OF THE ACTUAL CHANGES IN 30 YEARS. BUT IT’S GOING TO BE A VERY DIFFERENT WORLD.”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
To the Editor of National Geographic, we are a third of that way to that very different world and many can’t pick the difference yet. Given the possibility that NatGeo 2004 was an enthusiastic issue, we think it would be a good idea to bring out a more measured NatGeo 2014.
Our blog readers are a skilled and diverse. They will prepare and distribute the actuality of the NatGeo 2004 claims as understood in 2012. Please feel free to use these in the re-write, a step which would gain you prestige because scientifically, it is the ethical move.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
NatGeo has apologised for some past errors. The July 2004 edition had some images of hunters with tusks captioned to be from a dead elephant found in the bush. Trouble was, the tusks had numbers on them showing capture several years before in another country. Earlier, there was the apology and subsequent stronger rules when an altered image of the Pyramids of Egypt was printed on the NatGeo cover of Feb 1982. That lead to a statement of NatGeo rules for altered images.
Finally, on photography, we note the dark photograph, double spread a few pages into the 2004 issue captioned “Heating Up …” It used back lighting and a low sun angle to help give water condensate the appearance of particulate smoke, two vastly different entities, going skyward from what seems to be one chimney of 4, plus some out-of-view cooling towers in Ohio. It fails criterion 2 below.
The National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) Code of Ethics offers nine ethical standards to member journalists. The basic premises of the NPPA’s nine standards are:
1. Accurately represent subjects
2. Do not be manipulated by staged photos
3. Avoid bias and stereotyping in work; provide complete information and context
4. Show consideration for subjects
5. Avoid influencing the actions of the photographic subject
6. Editing should not give the wrong impression of the subjects in the photograph
7. Do not compensate persons involved in photographs or in getting a photograph
8. Do not accept gifts or other favors from those involved in a photo
9. Do not purposely interfere with the work of other journalists.
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In a frenzied February speech in which he vowed to wipe out rebels like “cockroaches,” Moammar Gaddafi held up China’s 1989 military assault on Tiananmen Square as an example of how to deal with popular unrest.
“Students in Beijing protested for days near a Coca-Cola sign,” he said. “Then the tanks came and crushed them.”
China’s ruling Communist Party, usually quick to publicize tributes from foreign leaders, banned all reference to the Libyan leader’s tirade in the Chinese media and blacked out foreign television coverage of his praise for the “Tiananmen solution.”
Today, the fortified Tripoli compound where Gaddafi declared his intention of mimicking China’s methods is overrun by rebels. And Beijing is scrambling to distance itself from a leader who lauded its approach to dissent and awarded Chinese companies billions of dollars in contracts — but who has for years also embarrassed, unsettled and sometimes defied the Chinese leadership.
Though often in sync with Gaddafi’s diatribes against Western “imperialism” and eager for a piece of Libya’s massive oil and gas reserves, Beijing has long looked askance at his erratic government, which flirted with Taiwan, criticized China for “colonial” behavior in Africa and frustrated the expansion plans of a big state-owned Chinese petroleum company.
Responding to the collapse of Gaddafi’s rule this week, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said curtly that Beijing respected “the choice of the Libyan people.” It has not formally recognized rebel forces as Libya’s new masters but has clearly abandoned Gaddafi.
The six-month-long battle to unseat the Libyan autocrat confronted China with a now recurrent quandary: how to balance its oft-stated but increasingly threadbare doctrine of non-interference in the affairs of other nations with its own economic and political self-interest.
“Gaddafi criticized China and did not respect China, but there was still economic cooperation between China and Libya,” said Yin Gang, a researcher with the West Asian and African Studies Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Now that Gaddafi has lost control, Yin added, China will accept whatever new order emerges in his place.
China’s Commerce Ministry has already called on post-Gaddafi Libyan leaders to “protect the interests and rights of Chinese investors.” The plea followed a warning from an official with the rebels’ oil company that China and Russia could lose out in petroleum deals under a new Libyan government because they had shown little support for the anti-Gaddafi rebellion — a stance that in China’s case reflected the tension at the heart of its diplomacy.
Throughout the uprising, Beijing voiced wariness of the West’s intentions and worried about the fate of Libyan contracts that it has valued at $18.8 billion. But it also proved unwilling to go to the mat for Gaddafi. It acquiesced in a U.N. resolution in March that endorsed the use of force, abstaining in a crucial vote that opened the way for intervention by NATO.
China later criticized NATO airstrikes, and state-controlled Chinese media emphasized the threat of chaos rather than Gaddafi’s brutal rule. Still, Beijing took no action to derail the West’s military campaign in support of rebel forces.
China has made similar calculations in Sudan, where it for years nurtured close ties with the government in Khartoum and secured access to Sudanese oil fields for the China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC). Beijing shunned separatists in the south of Sudan, where much of the oil lies, and provided arms to Khartoum to fight them.
But with South Sudan now an independent nation, Beijing has dropped its hostility and is working to cement ties with the former rebels who have assumed control of major oil fields. Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi visited Juba, the capital of South Sudan, in July and hailed a “bright future” in relations.
China is a relatively modest player in Libya’s oil sector, which is dominated by European companies such as Italy’s Eni, but it had hoped to boost its role there as part of a push to feed a growing appetite for imported energy.
CNPC helped build a pipeline in Libya and won a raft of exploration contracts from Gaddafi’s regime. But it reported no major finds. CNPC also suffered a setback in 2009 when authorities in Tripoli torpedoed its effort to buy a Canadian company with sizable oil assets in Libya. Gaddafi’s government took control of the Canadian company’s concessions.
According to Yin, the Chinese researcher, Libya’s most promising oil fields “were all given to Western countries” and China got mostly the dregs.
“Gaddafi answered to the wishes of Western nations, but now the Western world does not like him and the Arab world does not like him, either,” Yin said. “They want to see him gone.”
When the anti-Gaddafi unrest began, CNPC reported attacks on several of its facilities in Libya. Along with other Chinese companies, CNPC pulled out its staff. More than 36,000 Chinese, mostly construction workers, fled Libya to escape the chaos.
China initially scorned the rebels’ Transitional National Council but, after Russia embraced the rebel cause, announced in late May that it would “keep contact with all sides in Libya.” The head of the council, Mahmoud Jibril, visited Beijing in June.
When rebels advanced into Tripoli this week, the People’s Daily, the party’s official organ, ran scant coverage of the tumultuous events in the city and focused mainly on the perils of Western meddling. One article suggested that Western oil interests lay behind Gaddafi’s ouster.
“Famous People in Africa Condemn the Gunboat Policy of the West,” read a Friday headline in the People’s Daily.
But less tightly controlled media outlets have provided detailed and mostly factual accounts of events. Liberal newspapers denounced Gaddafi and even celebrated his departure.
“He was too much addicted to his own power,” said the Southern Metropolitan Daily. “Many promises he made turned out to be lies.”
Researcher Wang Juan in Shanghai contributed to this report. |
The discussions now resemble an intellectual Berlin Wall which can't be crossed. One side ludicrously calls Shepherd an "alt-right" media manipulator. The other side, in its zeal to protect free speech in classrooms, has belittled the concerns of transgender students who felt threatened by the debate.
It's a mess. And what we really don't need right now is the petition that at least 60 professors and staff have signed, saying they don't feel safe on campus and need extra security.
"Faculty and staff are scared to come to work right now," said Greg Bird, a professor of sociology, cultural analysis and social theory who started the petition.
"Some professors are receiving threats, extensive rants on their work phones and work emails, and much more."
Threats are serious and ought to be reported to the police, not the university, which seems to be doing its best in an impossible situation.
But "extensive rants on their work phones?" Oh, please. That's an ordinary working day for me and plenty of other people who put their opinions out there daily. We survive, and so will you.
Toughen up, professors. Now is not the time to complain about your own lives.
You are badly needed as leaders at this moment. You need to help students figure out how to bridge this gap. Show them — if you can — how to turn down the volume on the insults, and learn to truly listen to one another. The weapons are words, after all: Your specialty. And frankly, a lot less frightening than a concrete block.
ldamato@therecord.com , Twitter: @DamatoRecord |
What Would You Do to This Dirtbag?
February 8th, 2010
This week I have an unbelievable video for you.
WARNING: If you are offended by a low-life criminal using the foulest of language, then you should watch this video with your speakers turned OFF.
As you watch this video, think to yourself, at what point you would be justified to use deadly force… if you were carrying your gun, at what point would you shoot?
After watching the video and answering these questions for yourself, see my comments below…
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So what would you do?
When would you be justified to use lethal force?
If you were carrying your gun, at what point would you shoot?
Well, you are not justified in using deadly force unless your assailant demonstrates the ability, opportunity, and intent to immediately inflict serious bodily injury to you or those around you.
In this case, he has a crowbar. Does that give him the ability to seriously injure you or those around you? Certainly.
Does he have the opportunity to immediately inflict serious bodily injury? The answer lies in HOW CLOSE is he and what, if anything, is between you and his crowbar?
Is he demonstrating the intent to seriously injure or kill you with that crowbar? Not while he is beating your car’s fenders, but as soon as he moves to your driver’s side window and raises the crow bar… YES!
So what should you do?
Plan A:
As we demonstrate in our very stimulating classroom lectures at Front Sight, the best gun fight is the one you AVOID, so use that 3,000 pound, four sided shield you are driving to get away if at all possible. No worries about the damage to the car. It is just a car and it is insured.
Plan B:
If you are boxed in, do not have a gun, and cannot get away, then use the 3,000 pound deadly weapon you are driving and when he comes around the front or back of the car, pin him against the car in front or behind you or simply run him over. Whatever you do, do it with authority.
Plan C:
If you have a gun (isn’t this video one of the best examples of why EVERY responsible citizen should carry a gun?) and cannot get away, pin him, or run him over, then as he raises the crowbar to smash your driver’s side window, lean back away from the window as you raise your pistol, see a flash of your sights and press the trigger for an accurate, controlled pair of shots into his chest.
Note: Be ready to deliver a head shot after a controlled pair to his chest because this guy is likely feeling no pain due to the effects of whatever street drugs he is on. His central nervous system may only react properly to a bullet in the brain.
Plan D:
There is no plan D.
Again, mindset and training is everything in a situation like this so you should be running “what-if” scenarios through your mind to be prepared when someone like the street scum in this video picks you or your family as his next intended victim.
If you and your family want the mindset and training to handle yourself with expertise on the street, but don’t yet have a gun, then get a Springfield Armory XD Pistol at no charge when you take advantage of the Greatest Course, Gun, and CCW Permit Offer in the firearms training industry see this link:
https://www.frontsight.com/free-gun.asp
I post a different article on this blog each Monday so I look forward to your visit every week.
If you have an interesting photo, story or tip about a relevant topic of interest to gun ownership, firearms training or Second Amendment issues, please feel free to send it to me at:
info@frontsight.com
If you don’t yet have a gun, then get a Springfield Armory XD Pistol at no charge when you take advantage of the Greatest Course, Gun, and CCW Permit Offer in the firearms training industry see this link: https://www.frontsight.com/free-gun.asp
See you next week.
Sincerely,
Dr. Ignatius Piazza
Founder and Director
Front Sight Firearms Training Institute
P.O. Box 2619
Aptos, CA 95001
http://www.frontsight.com
info@frontsight.com
1.800.987.7719
Entry Filed under: Dr. Ignatius Piazza,Front Sight,Gun Training,Monday Blog Posts,Newsletter,second amendment,Self Defense. |
Paris (CNN) A deadly attack on a police bus in the heart of Paris has dramatically changed the course of the French presidential election campaign.
The three main candidates canceled campaign events and instead made televised statements in which they competed to talk tough on security and vowed a crackdown on ISIS.
One police officer died after a gunman wielding a machine gun leapt out of a car and opened fire on the Champs-Elysees, Paris's most famous boulevard, as candidates were engaging in their final TV debate.
The far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, demanded the closure of all Islamist mosques. Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve accused her of trying to capitalize on the attack.
ISIS swiftly claimed the attack was carried out by one of its "fighters." The assailant -- Karim Cheurfi, a 39-year-old French national with a long and violent criminal record -- was shot dead as he tried to make his escape. Prosecutors said a note defending ISIS fell out of his pocket, although there was no previous evidence of radicalization. He was also carrying the addresses of police stations.
French authorities, including the domestic security service, began a counterterrorism investigation into Cheurfi last month after learning of his increasing determination to establish communication with an ISIS fighter in Syria and Iraq, a source close to the investigation told CNN Friday.
Election in turmoil
Center-right candidate François Fillon, Le Pen and independent centrist Emmanuel Macron canceled planned campaign events after the shooting. Under French election rules, Friday was due to be the final day of campaigning before Sunday's first round of voting.
JUST WATCHED ISIS claims responsibility for Paris attack Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH ISIS claims responsibility for Paris attack 02:17
It was unclear whether the attack would tip the balance of the vote in favor of Le Pen, who has vowed to take a tough line on "Islamic terrorism."
At a televised news conference Friday, Le Pen called for the closure of all "Islamist" mosques in France, the expulsion of hate preachers and the reinstatement of French borders.
People on the French security services' watch list for radicalization should also be expelled from France and have their French citizenship revoked, she said.
Cazeneuve said Le Pen seeks to exploit fear "for exclusively political ends."
"The candidate of the Front National, like every drama, seeks to profit from and to control the situation to divide," the Prime Minister said in a televised address.
Fillon said that if elected, his foreign policy priority would be the destruction of ISIS. He also called for the creation of 10,000 more police posts.
JUST WATCHED Paris attack witness: 'I hid in a corner' Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Paris attack witness: 'I hid in a corner' 01:26
"In times such as these we have to demonstrate that France is united," he said. "We also have to be clear that we are in a state of emergency. We are at war. This fight for freedom and for the security of the French people must be the priority of the next five-year term."
Cazeneuve, however, questioned Fillon's position on security, saying that when he previously served as Prime Minister he had cut thousands of security force jobs.
Macron appealed to voters not to succumb to fear. "Do not give in to fear, do not give in to division, do not give in to intimidation," he said. "The choice that you have to make on Sunday must be a choice for the future."
Macron said he would hire an additional 10,000 police officers in the next five years and that he would create a task force under the French Presidency to fight ISIS.
Leftist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon urged the French people to "remain cool-headed" and "to not subject ourselves to hate, vengeance and resentment."
Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting Police officers block access to the Champs-Elysées in Paris after a shooting on Thursday, April 20. One police officer and an attacker were killed, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV and the French Interior Ministry. Hide Caption 1 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting Bystanders raise their hands in the air as they approach police who were clearing the streets around the Champs-Elysées. Hide Caption 2 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting Emergency crews work near the site of the shooting. Hide Caption 3 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting Police survey the Champs-Elysées as they work to secure the area. Hide Caption 4 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting People evacuate passers-by from the scene with their hands raised. The Champs-Elysées, a top tourist attraction in Paris, is lined with restaurants, cafes, exclusive designer boutiques and tourist shops. Hide Caption 5 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting A forensic team investigates the scene where an attacker opened fire on police with an automatic weapon. Hide Caption 6 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting A French soldier stands guard after the shooting. Hide Caption 7 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting A police van is towed away from the scene. Hide Caption 8 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting Police, who are on high alert, monitor the scene of the shooting. Hide Caption 9 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting Authorities closed the world-famous shopping street and told people to avoid the area. Hide Caption 10 of 11 Photos: Champs-Elysées shooting The Eiffel Tower is seen in the background as police officers block the entrance to the Champs-Elysées. Hide Caption 11 of 11
Terror investigation
On its media channel, Amaq, ISIS claimed that the attack was carried out by "Abu Yousuf al-Baljiki (the Belgian) and he is one of the Islamic State's fighters."
Belgian Interior Ministry spokesman Olivier Van Raemdonck told CNN the attacker was not Belgian and that there did not appear to be a Belgian connection to the incident.
It is not clear to whom ISIS was referring in its claim.
A man who turned himself in to Antwerp police was Youssef El Osri. The man's lawyer, Nabil Riffi, told CNN his client was "very shocked" at being linked to the Paris shooting and that he had been working at a gas station in Antwerp at the time it occurred.
Security in Paris has been stepped up in recent days, but the presence of 50,000 police officers on the streets was not enough to prevent the latest assault, which was being investigated by anti-terror officials.
French President François Hollande convened a meeting of the country's defense council Friday.
Paris Police identified the dead officer as Xavier Jugele. He was 37, Paris Prosecutor François Molins said.
One of the wounded officers was critically injured but is improving, Molins said. Also wounded was a female tourist.
A damaged window is pictured on the Champs Elysees boulevard in Paris early Friday.
Molins said the attacker had a long criminal record. He spent 11 years in jail after shooting two police officers in 2001. While in custody, he shot and injured a prison officer after grabbing his gun. He was jailed again in 2013 for lesser offenses and released on probation two years later.
Molins said Cheurfi was investigated by counterterror officials in late Febrary because of alleged threats he made to kill police officers. He was briefly placed under house arrest and investigators discovered knives and masks in his home but no evidence linking him to terror groups, Molins said.
Despite his long criminal record, Cheurfi was never placed under what is known as a "Fiche S" surveillance file, Molins told reporters. Molins did not clarify if Cheurfi had been on other surveillance lists in France excluding the "Fiche S" file. Cheurfi never showed any sign of radicalization during his previous detention, Molins said.
Molins said investigators were trying to determine whether the attacker had accomplices.
Three members of his family were arrested in the Paris suburb of Chelles early Friday morning.
Earlier this week French authorities arrested two men in Marseille who were allegedly planning an attack in a run-up to the election.
World leaders react
A woman places a flower Friday at the spot where the shooting occurred.
Speaking in Indonesia Friday, US Vice President Mike Pence said the attack was just the latest reminder "that terrorism can strike anywhere at any time."
US President Donald Trump, at a news conference in Washington, said: "What can you say? It never ends."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said her sympathy "goes out to the victims and their families," according to her spokesman Steffen Seibert
In a statement , the UK government said it "strongly condemns the appalling terrorist attack in Paris."
France has been in a state of emergency since the 2015 Paris attacks, which left 130 people dead. Parliament voted in December to extend the extraordinary provisions to ensure the protection of upcoming presidential and general elections.
Correction: This story has been updated to clarify the extent to which French intelligence authorities were monitoring Karim Cheurfi before the attack. |
The MacLight is an awesome Arduino project created by Adam Howard, a computer science major at Bournemouth University. For those not in the know, an Arduino is an open-source single-board microcontroller. In other words, it’s a small, inexpensive computer that’s easy to hack and embed into objects. We’ve covered tons of stories using Arduinos, like this Occupy Wall Street Robot and the SADbot.
The MacLight amplifies everything that happens on your screen, making it the perfect companion for a violent, hard hitting action flick. The app works by instantly setting the color of mounted leds (behind your Mac) to the average color of your monitor. There’s also a calmer use case. You can use this app to manually set mood lighting via an RGB color picker. More from the developer:
Most projects I start are because it’s something that I want for myself. In this case I received a fair amount of interest and opened it up… I stopped development when it worked on my system and suited my personal needs[, and] released it on GitHub so that others can have a headstart if they want to do something similar.
After talking with Adam, it looks like the project might receive future development after all, and the code is also available for anyone that wants it (Xcode project, Arduino Sketch). Follow him on Twitter, and check out the video below to see the project in action:
PS: Adam works with 3 Sided Cube, the company that created this impressive app for the British Red Cross.
Read next: Did Apple redefine photography with the iPhone? |
peter trimble mixes urine and sand to create bio-furniture
peter trimble mixes urine and sand together to create bio-furniture
all images courtesy peter trimble
in a project investigating the possibilities of ‘microbial manufacturing’, peter trimble, a graduate of the university of edinburgh has explored innovative and sustainable material compositions by replacing energy intensive methods of production with low-footprint biological processes. ‘dupe’, trimble’s thesis project, is a microbial-induced casting procedure, which presents bacterium bacillus pasterurii ( a bacterium with the ability to precipitate calcite and solidify sand given a calcium source, and urea, the main nitrogen-containing substance in the urine ) as a method of cementing natural granular materials for the creation of useful objects such as furniture.
unlike concrete – which is responsible for 5 % of the world’s manmade CO2 emissions – the bio-material produces zero greenhouse gas during its production, and is comparable to concrete’s structural characteristics. the low-cost casting technique illustrates the potential to use the process in larger scale for industrial manufacturing and other architectural applications.
video courtesy peter trimble
‘in a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw material shortages, this project explores innovative and sustainable means of material production,‘ says trimble.
‘currently materials use “heat beat and treat” methods of production, carving things down from the top with 96 % waste and only 4 % product. the 96 % can be accounted for through the mining of raw materials, the burning of fossil fuels in manufacture and transportation at each stage of the products life.’
unlike concrete, the bio-material produces zero greenhouse gas during the casting production
early production prototypes of mineral composites
chemical experimentation in the lab
microscopic analysis of the material |
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