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A group of crowd-funded amateurs, students, and NASA retirees are on the cusp of resurrecting—and possibly taking control of—a disused NASA spacecraft that has been coasting around the solar system since the days of disco.
On 21 May, NASA said it would allow the group to contact the International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3), which studied space weather after its launch in 1978 and went on to study two comets. NASA stopped operating the spacecraft in 1997, but through the years the plucky probe has kept broadcasting a carrier signal.
The group, called the ISEE-3 Reboot Project, is installing a radio amplifier at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Sometime in the next few days, some of its members will use the powerful radio dish to try and exchange “tones” with the spacecraft. That handshake would be a first step toward regaining control of the spacecraft. In the subsequent weeks, the group would check the spacecraft’s vital signs and attempt to move it into a new orbit.
Mission control would be from an abandoned McDonald’s at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, says Keith Cowing, a co-director of the project and the editor of the website NASA Watch. Cowing says that the project shows how there can still be value left in projects that NASA deems worthy of discarding. “They left gas in the gas tank and the keys in the ignition,” he says. NASA is not paying for any part of the project, and the group has crowd-funded its effort. By 23 May, the project had raised more than $150,000. Cowing says that the money pays for radio transmission equipment, rental time on radio telescope networks to track the spacecraft, and travel for team members.
If it all works, it will be a vindication for Robert Farquhar, the 81-year-old who was the mission’s original flight director. He has been advocating to revive ISEE-3 for years and notes that it still has plenty of fuel left. He believes that most of the spacecraft’s 13 instruments should still be working. Farquhar wants to use the remaining fuel, along with a lunar swing-by in August, to redirect the spacecraft to an encounter with comet 46P/Wirtanen in 2018. “I think there’s definite value,” he says.
Cowing says that even if the spacecraft has a hard time providing useful data, the spacecraft itself could provide useful information on how various components degrade over time in space. Regardless, Cowing cites the educational value of the project and says that the model could be applied to other NASA missions that are too expensive for the agency to operate. For instance, this month NASA said it would not extend the Spitzer Space Telescope mission, which has been making infrared observations since 2003. Cowing wonders if the volunteer approach could wring value from the telescope for less than the $16.5 million that it costs to operate Spitzer this year. “Let’s save one spacecraft at a time,” he says. |
This site focuses on wood used for practice weapons for martial arts. My main focus is classical Japanese martial arts, but informed practitioners of other martial traditions or combative training systems can certainly apply the information here to their own needs.
I would be very interested in any experiences you, the reader, have had with various woods. Given solid information, I will add woods to the list, or move their position to another category. I will note it, if I’ve actually used a wood for a weapon, or have a good report of same. Other woods are included because they show good potential, or I believe users would benefit from knowing about their limitations. Please contact me if you have any solid information to add to this list.
My criteria for a suitable weapon’s wood is based on general requirements necessary for use in Japanese weapons practice: of course, many of these criteria are equally valid for martial arts training in other cultures. Wood must be suitable for:
Very hard impact
A wood with some, but not too much flexibility
A particular feel – the weapon has to feel alive in one’s hands
Sufficient weight
A general caution:Tropical hardwoods grow in warm climates that are usually consistently moist, or consistently dry. Many don’t belong in colder climates, and particularly in woods not used to seasonal changes, they may expand and contract with the weather. This gradually weakens the wood. You will still have a very hard wood, unlikely to dent, but they may suddenly shatter with hard impact.
The Janka Hardness Scale is only one index of wood strength. The test measures the force required to push a steel ball with a diameter of 11.28 millimeters (0.444 inches) into the wood to a depth of half the ball’s diameter. The diameter was chosen to produce a circle with an area of 100 square millimeters. As you will see, there are quite a few woods that are utterly unsuitable for weaponry that are among the hardest, based on the Janka Scale. I’ve also seen different numbers for the same wood, which shows the variability of this living substance.
Other important factors are:
Elasticity – reversible deformation – (how stiff the wood is)
Bending Strength – (modulus of rupture)
Resistance to sheering forces – (parallel to grain)
Compression – (parallel to grain)
Tendency to dry out: grain splitting, wood checking, and other flaws
Tendency to splinter with impact, particularly “feathering”
Dent resistance – (impact strength)
Toughness – “A quality of wood which permits the material to absorb a relatively large amount of energy, to withstand repeated shocks, and to undergo considerable deformation before breaking”
Work to Maximum Load – “In bending, it represents the ability of wood (or other materials) to absorb shock with some permanent deformation and more or less injury to the piece. It is a measure of the combined strength and toughness of wood under bending stresses.”
Water content and proper cut of the grain can determine the quality of a piece of wood, far beyond Janka Index. You can have a marvelously variety of wood that, improperly cured or cut, will break at first impact.
I’ve included various numerical values for some of the woods, which would seem to give a pretty reliable index of strength. In fact, the numbers are only generally useful. There are so many parameters that can only be “measured” by the impact of one weapon against another in dynamic rather than static tests. It is quite likely that some woods will seem quite strong when, for example, held in a frame and another weapon hit against it – however, with two moving bodies both exerting force, always at different angles, some of those woods will be useless. In this case, anecdote may be truer than “science.”
One can diminish the tendency of some woods to dent by “burnishing” (also known as “peening” or “boning”), in which one rubs the surface of the wood with a hard object (not too hard an object – bone, in fact, would be perfect). This slightly crushes the wood cells, packing them tighter together. This will work with some woods (purpleheart, for example) and not others (ipe). You will need to experiment to ascertain if it is helpful with the wood you are using.
Tim Bathurst of the Melbourne Koryu Kenkyukai writes:
When purchasing wood for weapons, carefully examine the wood. Depending on how the wood was farmed/grown, the differences in density can be significant. Species that have an average hardness rating of ‘very hard’ (over 10 on the Janka scale, appear 2000 in the English system) can often be noticeably softer if they were farmed in hotter climes. I’m not advocating logging old growth forests however; trees grown on farms with regular water, in warmer climates allow the trees to grow faster with less densely compacted growth rings. As you can see in this picture, there can be a great difference in density depending on how quickly the tree grew. Especially with trees that tend to have a ‘wild grain,’ such as Gum trees, be careful to flip the timber and ensure that the grain runs consistently down the length and parallel through the whole piece, otherwise it will be prone to snap.
Another vital consideration is grain pattern. You really want the grain to run right through the weapon. Looking at the picture below, the piece on the left has the grain running vertically through the weapon; this will give it maximum strength. If the grain runs across the weapon, especially in the case of naginata, it will mean that the tip will have a much greater chance of snapping off.
Important: Don’t believe the numbers only…
When I decided to make my own weapons I naturally went to the internet to research which species would be the most appropriate for my impact weapons such as naginata and bokken. According to many of the charts on wood density, many of the species commonly known as “gum trees” (Eucalyptus) are rated very high on the Janka rating system. This is a standard test which measures the penetration into the timber of a common load and projectile. The results relate to a hardness capacity of the material and are expressed in kN. This information is useful where the timber may be subject to potential damage from impacts e.g. a dance floor or martial arts weapons. Upon inspection, it became obvious that the charts are more of a general rule, because there were a lot of examples of woods that look good on paper but performed less impressively when struck, either denting or splintering.
Finishing the job…
Over the years I have tried many different oils and waxes to polish and preserve my wooden weapons. If you have the time and equipment you can burnish your weapons by coating them in burnishing oil or Tung oil then sand them with a fine “wet and dry sandpaper” of 600 grade or higher. After several coats you can rub the weapon with a very fine steel wool (grade “00”) Eventually this will create a glass like finish to your wooden weapons. If you have limited time here’s an alternative… I use a car “cut and polish compound.” Simply wipe it on with a sponge and then wipe it off with a clean cloth and the wood comes up shiny and smooth without the grippy, waxiness you can get from using oils. I originally saw a guy ‘polishing’ a coffee table this way, I was sceptical at first but the results were amazing. |
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By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Labor Department said on Tuesday it is stepping up efforts to root out potential fraud in its visa programs for foreign workers, a move that will include increases in both civil investigations as well as criminal referrals.
The announcement by Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta follows President Donald Trump in April ordering a review of the U.S. visa program as part of his "America First" campaign pledge.
The April executive order specifically entailed a review of the H-1B visa program, which is routinely used by technology firms like Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp and Infosys Ltd to bring skilled foreign workers, such as engineers, to jobs in the United States.
Critics of the program, including Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller, have argued the laws governing these visas are lax and make it too easy for companies to replace U.S. workers with less-expensive foreign labor.
The U.S. Labor Department and Department of Homeland Security each play a role in reviewing the applications for foreign guest workers.
In April, Homeland Security said it was planning to take steps as well to prevent fraud in the H-1B visa program.
Labor Department officials said Tuesday the increased enforcement efforts will involve all of the foreign visa worker programs, including H-2A and H-2B visas.
Those steps include directing the department's wage and hour division to "use all its tools" to conduct civil probes, ramping up criminal referrals to the department's inspector general and instructing the employment and training office to propose changes to the H-1B labor condition application that companies file when they seek to hire foreign skilled guest workers.
“Entities who engage in visa program fraud and abuse are breaking our laws and are harming American workers," Acosta said in a statement.
A senior Labor Department official acknowledged there are legal limitations in the department's authority over H-1B visas. Exemptions in the law, for instance, allow companies to skirt requirements to protect American workers, and the department's authority to investigate is restricted.
The official said the department was looking into whether to ask Congress to amend the law.
A bill introduced earlier this year by Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa and Democratic Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois would give the department more powers to go after H-1B violators.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Dan Grebler and Chris Reese) |
Injuries are the bane of an athletic existence. When our favorite athletes (in any sport) get hurt, everyone loses: The players and teams lose out on money, investments and glory. The fans lose out on entertainment and glory and are forced to wonder what could’ve been which leads to wild speculation and imagination. And injuries come in all shapes and sizes: Shoulder strains and contusions, patella injuries, concussions, colds, flus, torn ACLs, torn Achilles tendons, hamstring injuries, slipped disks, back injuries, stress fractures, broken bones, HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, diarrhea, migraines, scratched corneas, stabbings, shootings, sprains, depression, anxiety, substance abuse and on and on. All players are vulnerable to injuries and the recent revelation that Andrew Bogut underwent the dreaded microfracture surgery in April opened my eyes to something I already knew: The top draft picks in the NBA haven’t had a great run of health over the past decade.
The injuries plaguing these young players run the gamut from freak (Bogut’s fall that led to a horrific broken wrist) to chronic (Yao Ming and Greg Oden) and have hit players of varying race, age and position. Injuries don’t give a fuck what God you pray to or what block you grew up on or how much pain you’ve already experienced in your life. Injuries are lurking … just ask the top picks from the past decade:
The table above looks at the percentage of games a player could have appeared in (% Possible = 100% for each player) and the percentage of games he missed (% Missed).
Graph doesn’t include playoff games.
A rookie like Anthony Davis is unfairly represented due to the small sample size.
is unfairly represented due to the small sample size. Yao Ming appears twice. The first Yao Ming (without asterisk) represents his career pre-retirment. The starred Yao Ming* includes games he missed since he’s been retired with the assumption being that without injuries, Yao would still be with us today and the NBA would be a radically different place.
appears twice. The first Yao Ming (without asterisk) represents his career pre-retirment. The starred Yao Ming* includes games he missed since he’s been retired with the assumption being that without injuries, Yao would still be with us today and the NBA would be a radically different place. The total numbers for all players are: 6,147 possible games played, 4,455 games missed for a total of 27.5% missed.
If you remove the top ( Dwight Howard , 2.9% missed) and bottom ( Greg Oden , 80% missed), the percentage of missed games drops to 26.5%.
, 2.9% missed) and bottom ( , 80% missed), the percentage of missed games drops to 26.5%. I’m uncertain about league averages for games played/missed, but my gut reaction is that missing 27.5% of possible games is on the high end. Additionally, teams drafting a player number one overall likely have the expectation that these players will be suiting up more frequently than the numbers here show.
Lastly, if anyone out there has access to injury data or DNP reasons, that additional information could add quite a bit of insight into the causes for the numbers above. As it stands, let’s all have a moment of silence for the careers of Greg Oden and Yao Ming. |
HONOLULU – On Monday, the Hawaii State Legislature passed Senate Bill 2175 Senate Draft 2 House Draft 2, also known as the “Hemp Bill,” which authorizes the Dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawaii at Manoa to conduct a two-year industrial hemp phytoremediation and biofuels research program.
The Hemp Bill was bolstered this session by the passage of the Federal Agricultural Act of 2014 which states that industrial hemp may be grown for the purpose of state university or state Agriculture Department research without Drug Enforcement Administration permission. Twenty-two states have already passed pro-hemp legislation and, upon the Governor’s signature, Senate Bill 2175 SD2 HD2 will make Hawaii the twenty-third state.
State Representative Cynthia Thielen (50th District: Kailua, Kaneohe Bay) was instrumental in the passage of Senate Bill 2175 SD2 HD2 through the Legislature.
“This progressive, bipartisan bill will keep Hawaii on the cutting edge of agricultural research, help the state realize the economic capabilities of the crop, and potentially restore land previously damaged by earlier contamination,” said Representative Thielen.
Currently the City and County of Honolulu and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are beginning the second phase of a toxic chemicals removal project at the Waipahu Ash Landfill. This costly project whose initial phase totaled $16 million included excavation and relocation of pollutants, and is expected to cost even more money as the clean-up process progresses.
“With its ability to cleanse the soil of toxins and heavy metals, industrial hemp could be an environmentally friendly alternative to existing methods,” says Representative Thielen, remarking on hemp’s potential in Hawaii. “Using industrial hemp as a phytoremediator also removes the need to excavate or relocate topsoil in contaminated lands, drastically decreasing costs and curtailing the spread of toxic waste to other areas.”
The Hemp Bill is currently awaiting the Governor’s signature to become law. When signed, the industrial hemp research program could begin as early as July 1, 2014.
Submitted by the House Republicans
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Amtrak, California, and FRA team up for new HSR gear Written by William C. Vantuono , Editor-in-Chief
A triad of U.S. HSR interests makes its move, upsetting some preconceived conventional wisdom involving the nation’s passenger rail outlook.
Caught by relative surprise, many rail advocates and industry observers tried hard to appear blasé at the news, formally announced Jan. 17, that Amtrak and the state of California would combine forces to order next-generation high speed rail rolling stock.
It’s a potentially substantial order for one of nine international equipment suppliers of HSR gear, according to Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo, even as it strengthens the case for U.S. high speed rail on (eventually) a national scale, not just a series of remote, regional pockets.
Amtrak and the California High-Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) have issued a Request for Information (RFI) for 62 HSR trainsets, with 32 envisioned for Amtrak’s venerable Northeast Corridor, and 27 for the Golden State’s nascent intrastate HSR network, set to begin initial construction in the Central Valley this spring.
A Request for Proposal could be issued by this September, with an order placed during 2014, according to Amtrak.
The move prompted widespread speculation over its origins. Industry media, including Trains magazine (which broke the story) and Railway Age, offered after-the-fact analysis and commentary. FRA’s Szabo, in an interview with Railway Age, didn’t dismiss such analysis, but stated emphatically that one player in the arranged marriage had been overlooked: the FRA itself.
“There’s a missed story here; many in the industry didn’t realize where this industry is at already regarding lightweight equipment,” Szabo said. Contrary to widespread public perception, “The FRA wasn’t pressured or swayed to do this; we brought [the two HSR parties] together, because we already had made the change almost a year ago … to shoot for the highest level of standardization.
“It was an evolution FRA was making before I came here four years ago, but it’s certainly one I’ve made a priority. We were there over a year ago; perhaps we didn’t tell the story well,” Szabo observed.
The personalities involved surely didn’t hurt when it came to aligning joint interests. In making the formal announcement, Szabo was joined by CHSRA Executive Director Jeffrey Morales, a former transportation staff aide to Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) from 1983 to 1993 and deeply involved in defending Amtrak funding. Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman preceded Szabo as head of the FRA during the George W. Bush administration.
New approach to U.S. HSR speed and safety
Boardman’s announcement in December resetting Amtrak’s HSR plans was a prelude to the joint Amtrak/California HSR pact, and Szabo praised the move, saying the new approach is “about not only meeting immediate needs of the Corridor, but that nothing eliminates the ability to go the next step.” Lightweight HSR gear “will do both; meet the needs today, and continue step by step by step.” It also will dramatically improve potential energy efficiency, he adds.
The combined Amtrak/California order presumably would offer economies of scale for both entities and an equipment supplier, with Bombardier Transportation, Siemens Mobility, Patentes Talgo, Alstom, and Ansaldo among those already making their interest known. California seeks HSR equipment capable of top speeds of 220 mph, while Amtrak’s mid-term outlook envisions 160 mph top speeds on the existing NEC through Maryland and New Jersey. Advanced design, engineering, and other pre-construction activities already are under way for the $450 million project to boost speeds from 135 mph to 160 mph along the 24-mile “New Jersey Raceway” between Trenton and New Brunswick, N.J. The project includes upgrading track, electrical power, signal systems, and overhead catenary.
The differential in top speeds between systems isn’t an impediment, says Szabo. California initially will be operating “in a mixed-use environment on both of the bookends. So the approach on the Northeast Corridor isn’t substantially different. Obviously there are more challenges for Amtrak because you have an existing situation there, very complex, a lot of mixed use, so it’ll be easier for California to get to 220.”
And, to the delight (expressed or veiled) of perennial critics of FRA, Amtrak, and U.S. high speed rail efforts in general, more of the focus will be on crash avoidance. That’s been incorporated into the Engineering Task Force 2 (ETF2) standards developed by industry participants and the FRA, outlining safety approaches for trains operating between 125 mph and 220 mph. “We allow the highest level of flexibility to achieve the best safety outcome; the outcome is the goal,” Szabo stresses. “We’re not looking to build tanks the way we did 15 years ago.”
Szabo notes neither Amtrak or California can just “pick up a European high speed rail equipment model” for off-the-shelf use. “But the platform will be the same” with only minor modifications needed, he says. The Request for Information made last month reflects that: “We chose to go that approach, and issue the letter … and then start the laborious project of doing the regulatory” work. “Again, you [the media] missed it and we didn‘t do a good job telling you about it.”
Long-range, a national system
Szabo also disputed statements from industry pundits critical of the Obama Administration—and by extension, the FRA—for its “diffuse” approach in advancing high-performance passenger rail in numerous locations, as opposed to concentrating in just one or two ideal spots. (Szabo, however, accepts the differentiation of high speed rail [HSR] and higher-speed rail [HrSR] as “a useful distinction.”)
“We’re required to play the cards that we’re dealt,” he said. “The requirements Congress gave us through the Recovery Act required us to fund projects ready to go, and that were able to meet statutory deadlines.” Funds could go only to those states or entities (such as Amtrak) that chose to reply and those who qualified. “There was no possibility to strictly fund a single project or two,” he said.
“We did ensure that there was critical mass achieved by focusing the investments on five mega-regions—those with high population density for high-quality intercity rail to succeed,” he points out.
Moreover, the seemingly scattered and separate projects at present offer the potential for “interconnectivity,” Szabo said. “It has always envisioned that this is a system” involving three tiers of service: true HSR at up to 220 mph, as per California’s statewide plan; HrSR, exemplified by ongoing work on the Chicago-St. Louis and Chicago-Detroit routes; and feeder routes, bumping emerging lines “such as in Maine and Vermont” up to 79 mph.
Szabo sees the multi-tiered approach not as diffuse, but instead a flexible way to advance passenger rail in ways meaningful to actual riders. “An analogy is the road network,” he says. “The Interstate highways don’t work all by themselves; they interconnect with federal roads, state roads, county roads, local roads. In much the same way, we need a comprehensive passenger rail network” using more than one performance measure.
Asked if the multi-targeted approach is just a political posture, Szabo replies, “As [Transportation] Secretary Ray LaHood has said, ‘Good policy is good politics.’” If competition arises among the states, it aids in “funding the best of those applications … to give us the opportunities for success.” And far from being a top-down venue, “We meet with local leaders, mayors, governors, chambers of commerce. It’s an important issue to communities all around the country.”
Such input has prompted a ripple effect already in many cities not generally considered part of the NEC ridershed, Szabo says, offering the slowly emerging rail activity in Virginia and North Carolina as examples. “With the economic and population growth you have there, the distance between points you have there; it is not a stretch” to envision Boston-to-Atlanta service. “Few might take such a route, even at high speeds, from endpoint to endpoint, but consider all the overlapping markets,” he says. |
The SS United States Conservancy announced today that it has reached a preliminary agreement with an undisclosed party “in support of the redevelopment” of the historic superliner.
Further details are scarce, but Susan Gibbs, the SSUSC’s executive director, noted in a statement issued today by the organization that the “project remains at an early and delicate phase.” She added that “the ship’s potential redevelopment represents a multifaceted engineering, real estate, and curatorial undertaking that will take considerable time to advance. ”
In late September, the conservancy announced an 11th-hour bid to raise funds. Gibbs stated at the time that the ship’s fate would be decided by the start of October. That deadline came and went without any news—until today.
The complete SSUSC announcement is printed below.
Exciting Redevelopment Milestone Achieved Dear SS United States Conservancy Supporters: We are very pleased to confirm that we have now entered into a preliminary agreement in support of the redevelopment of the SS United States. Negotiations have been underway for some time, and planning will continue with a variety of stakeholders. While further due diligence is conducted, the Conservancy will receive financial support to cover the vessel’s core carrying costs for at least an additional three months. The project remains at an early and delicate phase, but we wanted to update our supporters about this encouraging development. As you can appreciate, the ship’s potential redevelopment represents a multifaceted engineering, real estate, and curatorial undertaking that will take considerable time to advance. Many challenges must still be overcome. However, we are fortunate that our new partners are very well equipped to handle this unique project’s scope and scale, and the Conservancy looks forward to working closely with them in the months to come. Because negotiations are advancing on a confidential basis, we are unable to offer further specifics at this time. We will share additional information as soon as we possibly can. Again, the Conservancy views this as a very positive development which, while still in its initial stages, gives us renewed hope that we can, at long last, Save the United States. We have reached this moment because so many of you have helped us. You are the real heroes of this effort. We are particularly grateful to Gerry Lenfest, whose transformative contributions enabled the Conservancy to take title to the SS United States in 2011, and who has been a steadfast supporter of our efforts. We also extend our heartfelt gratitude to Jim Pollin. Without his leadership gift and challenge grant to the Conservancy last summer – and without such a generous response from far and wide to Jim’s call – we would never have achieved this milestone. While the ship is safe for the moment, this achievement doesn’t mean our work is done. The Conservancy continues to plan our ship-board museum and educational center, build our archival and curatorial collections, document and disseminate the ship’s historic importance, plan for contingencies, and work together with our new redevelopment partners to prepare the SS United States for her voyage to her next port of call. Again, we can’t thank you enough for joining us on this journey and for helping us reach this point. We will honor your commitment by continuing to work tirelessly to ensure that America’s Flagship endures and inspires for generations to come. With our warmest wishes for the holidays, Susan Gibbs
Executive Director
SS United States Conservancy
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Most of us have grown sufficiently used to the idea of gang colors that we don’t bother to ask why they exist. But, if you think about it, they’re paradoxical: Why would people who belong to groups that sell drugs or commit crimes go out of their way to advertise their membership in those groups? A new paper, by Andrew Mell, an economist at Nuffield College, Oxford, attacks that conceptual problem.
He does so by drawing on evolutionary theory and the related issue of coordination between agents. If you’re a criminal, one of your principal challenges involves knowing whom it’s safe to do business with. You don’t want to sell to an undercover cop, obviously, but you also don’t want to sell to an eager-but-clueless criminal who may well get caught and drag you down with him.
Like certain ostentatious displays by males in the animal kingdom, gang colors serve as a handicap, Mell argues: Yes, they make it more likely that the person wearing them will be caught. Yet they semaphore the following message: If I’m still willing to commit crimes when I have this handicap, I must be pretty good at evading the police. Incompetent criminals couldn’t get away with wearing gang colors.
The bulk of the paper involves producing mathematical proof that this kind of signaling can, indeed, work. But if you accept the thesis, it demands revision of some basic ideas about the economics of crime fighting. … |
All gamers have a favorite game. Maybe that game was actually amazing on its own merit, and maybe the nostalgia that is laced within your memories is enough to elevate it to grandiosity.
Alain Wildgen wanted to pay homage to a retro game in his own way. About a year ago, he created the first level of Super Mario Brothers. He says that this first one, made from foam and paper, took roughly 20 to 30 hours.
He has refined his process since then. The workflow he now follows is fairly strait forward:
Decide which game to feature Search for good graphics to use, typically from Spriter’s Resource or VGmaps Load the image into Gimp and clean it up or stitch together multiple images Print on Din3 or Din4 paper Cut each layer with a scalpel Cut pieces of foam rubber to create the different elevations Paste it together
He has been doing this for a little over a year now and has created 18 dioramas. These are all for his personal collection and are not for sale. He does upload his files for others to be able to assemble on their own. Typically he posts links to the downloads on his facebook page, like the Zelda map he shared recently, which you can download here.
Alain says he has a whole list of projects just waiting to be done, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Day of the Tentacle, Megaman, and the Illusion of Time. If you want to follow along and see what he comes up with next, you an follow him on Tumblr as well as his Facebook page
. |
CLOSE Tips on what to do when someone you care about goes missing. Video by Jordan Fenster/lohud Wochit
Police say this little American boy who identifies himself as "Luis" was abandoned by his mother in a building in Juárez. (Photo: COURTESY)
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with the El Paso Police Department, is seeking the public's help in identifying a 2-year-old who was found in Juárez.
Police are looking for any information that would provide the boy's full name and identity. He was found in Juárez on Feb. 22 wearing blue sweatpants, black shoes and a shirt, according to a new release from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
He is described as Hispanic, 3 feet tall, weighing 40 pounds, with short brown hair, brown eyes and a birthmark above the left eyebrow.
Police think his first name might be Luis and that he is an American citizen because he understands and speaks English, the bulletin states.
The child's information will be posted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Facebook page, HelpIDMe.
Anybody with information about the child is asked to call the El Paso Police Department at 832-4400 or Crime Stoppers of El Paso at 566-8477.
Read or Share this story: http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2017/06/02/police-trying-identifying-2-year-old-boy-found-juarez/367292001/ |
Stop WhatsApp from Sharing Your Personal Information with Facebook
According to the latest announcement by WhatsApp, they are making changes to their privacy policy that will see it start sharing information of its users like mobile phone numbers, last seen status, etc with Facebook, WhatsApp owner company, along with other companies that Facebook owns.
There are many who are not happy with the WhatsApp decision of sharing personal information with the associated companies. If you are also not happy with companys decision, then you have two options:
You can stop using WhasApp completely and find out some other similar app if you don’t want that your WhatsApp data ends up on the Facebook database.
You can also choose partial to opt out WhatApp is offering to its users for a short time period.
There are many who have received a push notification from WhatsApp requesting to agree to the new terms & conditions. If you agree to accept their altered T&C, then you can read the below information to accept it.
The notification says, WhatsApp is updating our Terms and Privacy Policy to reflect new features like WhatsApp calling. Read our Terms and Privacy Policy and learn more about the choices you have. Please agree to the Terms and Privacy policy by 25 September 2016 to continue using WhatsApp. Before you click agree, I would request you to tap to read more and go through all new policies.
Image Resource:https://techcrunch.com/gallery/how-to-opt-out-of-sharing-your-whatsapp-info-with-facebook/slide/1/
Now you can read all updated terms and privacy policy. Spend your time in reading them if you are really serious about your personal information. You will see a toggle option which mentions- Share my WhatsApp account with Facebook to improve my Facebook ads and products experiences. Your chats and phone number will not be shared onto Facebook regardless of this setting. This toggle is by default opted on. You can toggle it off if you don’t want your information to be shared freely.
Image Resource: https://techcrunch.com/gallery/how-to-opt-out-of-sharing-your-whatsapp-info-with-facebook/slide/2/
Once you switched off the toggle, you can restrict Facebook from using all your WhatsApp information. If you wish to check whether your use information button is by default on, you can check it by clicking on the setting and choose Account option. There will be different tabs like Privacy, Security, Change number, etc. You will also notice Share my account info with a tick box. If it is already ticked, then it means you are agreeing for data sharing with other companies. But if you don’t want to share it, then untick this box.
Image Resource: https://techcrunch.com/gallery/how-to-opt-out-of-sharing-your-whatsapp-info-with-facebook/slide/4/ |
After a seven-hour standoff with St. Joseph County Police and a SWAT Team, former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Corwin Brown has left his Granger, Indiana home in an ambulance with unknown injuries from what police are calling a self-inflicted gun shot wound.
The injuries don’t appear to be life-threatening, a tranquil ending to a tense standoff with law enforcement that was triggered by a call to 911 around 1:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, which shutdown a quiet, affluent Granger neighborhood.
From there, a tense standoff continued until dusk, with power being cut to the home and police communicating with Brown via bullhorn. Reports from the scene portrayed the situation as both police negotiators and former colleagues pleading with Brown to come out of the home, with no one wanting to harm Brown, nor wanting him to harm himself.
Two different reports have former Michigan and Notre Dame assistant Bob Chimel assisting in the authorities’ pleas, while others have identified Michigan’s Director of Athletic Counseling Greg Harden as someone that helped bring Brown out from his house. Police have confirmed that Brown entered and exited the home multiple times throughout the standoff, and one report described the 41-year-old Brown as carrying a handgun.
Brown grew up in Chicago before attending Michigan on a football scholarship. A co-captain his senior year, he was named All-Big Ten before spending eight seasons in the NFL, playing for the Patriots, Jets and Lions. After his playing career was over, Brown joined the Virginia Cavaliers coaching staff for a season before joining the New York Jets coaching staff as a defensive backs coach. From there, he was plucked by Charlie Weis to be the defensive coordinator that installed a 3-4 defense for the Irish. Brown infused youth into the coaching staff and helped improve a defense that had stagnated under Rick Minter, and was known as a fiery leader known for both his passion and ability to connect with players.
Weis’ decision to hire Jon Tenuta pushed Brown from the role of defensive coordinator as the Irish transitioned back to a 4-3 scheme. Brown took on the title of associate head coach, but relinquished playcalling to Tenuta, and reports of friction on the coaching staff were widespread. When Weis was fired from the head coaching position, Brown was one of the last coaches new head coach Brian Kelly decided not to retain, and after flirting with a few college opportunities, Brown joined the New England Patriots coaching staff, reuniting with Bill Belichick, who he played under in both New York and New England. Brown lasted only one season in New England, leaving amidst reports that anonymous players complained about his coaching ability.
Brown is out of football this season, living in Granger with his wife Melissa and three children, all of whom are now in protective care. Reports say the events were triggered when gunshots were heard in the neighborhood and 911 was called. Police have also confirmed that Brown’s wife was struck in the head before exiting the home with the three children. Brown is currently in the hospital being treated for a serious gunshot wound while authorities have cordoned off the Brown family’s house. |
The Lansing City Council backed out of its decision to declare itself a sanctuary city Wednesday evening, holding a vote to rescind the barely week-old resolution.
After hours of public comment, the council voted 5-2 to rescind the resolution containing a reference to sanctuary city passed April 3. Council member Jessica Yorko was not present for the vote.
The council members then decided not to take up a resolution reaffirming Lansing as a "Welcoming City" for immigrants.
Lansing declared a sanctuary city in unanimous council vote The Lansing City Council designated Lansing as a sanctuary city for immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission Monday evening.
Council member Kathie Dunbar, who was a main proponent of declaring Lansing a sanctuary city, was one of the members who voted against rescinding the resolution, joining council member Tina Houghton. She said she believed the resolution was well within legal bounds and should not have been changed.
"It's a darn shame that after appearing to have a backbone and actually taken a stand on something that really matters, folks have decided to throw it away," Dunbar said. "And the message that sends to folks is really sad."
But other members of the council were concerned adding "sanctuary city" to a resolution on immigration could negatively impact the city budget and could give people the wrong impression that the city of Lansing is offering protections it doesn't currently have.
"What bothers me and what concerns me and what goes to my soul...is do we give this false perception to people that there is something out there that is not there," said council member Carol Wood. Referring to the resolution that included the reference to making Lansing a sanctuary city, she said, "this paper won't make any difference" for immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
Council member Jody Washington said the city council does not have the authority to declare Lansing a sanctuary city, adding that she didn't think the city "could afford any more confusion" by reaffirming a "Welcoming City" status that was already on the books.
Dozens of people on both sides of the issue stepped forward to criticize the council - those who opposed the concept of sanctuary cities condemned the council's initial decision and encouraged them to eschew the resolution altogether, and supporters of the designation criticized the council for backing down.
Several critics opposing the sanctuary city resolution - many of whom donned Donald Trump shirts - said the concept was dangerous for the capital city and flies in the face of federal law.
"Trump is going to know exactly what you're doing," said Rose Atkins, one of the people who commented in favor of the council rescinding its resolution. "If you come in here, come in the right way."
Jim Herbert, the CEO of Lansing-based company Neogen, asked why elected officials "seek to flout the laws intended to keep my family and my employees safe."
Lansing sanctuary city declaration still leaves questions, controversy As the dust settles on the Lansing City Council's decision to designate Michigan's capital as a sanctuary city, questions still remain as to what the final impact on the community could be.
Supporters of the sanctuary city policy expressed concern and frustration that after weeks of discussion and an eventual vote, the council was meeting again only to pull back.
"I see a lot of fear in this room," said Oscar Castaneda, a member of Action of Greater Lansing. "What I don't get is ignorance in the ones that have to make decisions."
Richard Boyd, a pastor at First Christian Church, said "the whole world is watching" the city of Lansing.
"Do not throw away your chance to be brave and principled," he said prior to the vote.
Three audience members were escorted from the room by police. After the vote rescinding the resolution, several people exited the room in protest.
The council's decision does not change Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero's recent executive order, which includes a provision preventing Lansing police officers and city employees from asking about immigration status "except as required by federal or state statute or court decision." |
Vegan UFC Fighter Nate Diaz stepped in to fight the formidable Conor McGregor on only 12 days notice and claimed a impressive victory after beating his opponent in the second round. McGregor was unable to keep up with Diaz and was completely overwhelmed by Diaz's energy and unrelenting pace. McGregor had been in training for months leading up to this fight as he was originally going to fight Rafael dos Anjos who withdrew at short notice with a foot injury.
Diaz stepped in to replace dos Anjos with only 12 days notice and without the months of proper training usual before a fight of this magnitude - McGregor is ranked third in world of the UFC's pound-for-pound rankings, behind light heavyweight Jon Jones and flyweight champ Demetrious Johnson, and was previously undefeated in UFC.
McGregor was caught by a powerful left hand in the second round which stunned the UFC featherweight champion - fighting for the first time at welterweight 25lbs heavier - and Diaz simply took his opportunity and poured on the pressure.
Diaz took McGregor to the ground and the fight was his. The Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt finished the fight quickly after McGregor was forced to submit.
McGregor went into the bout as the overwhelming favourite and was looking to claim his 20th win in MMA and his eighth-consecutive victory in UFC. But instead suffered his first UFC defeat and only the third of his career.
Ido Portal, one of Conor McGregor's coaches leading up to the fight once famously stated: "I can't view vegan diets as something healthy. I've never met a vegan who was able to perform with the same energy levels as I see with someone with a more carnivore diet. I actually refuse to work with vegans".
One can only assume Ido Portal is now eating some humble (vegan) pie.
Diaz, who maintained an incredible energy throughout the match, has been a strict vegan since he was 18 years, following the advice of his older brother Nick Diaz, who is also a UFC fighter. The Diaz brothers consume a predominantly raw plant-based diet and credit this with their superior performance capabilities inside the ring. Both brothers have incredible cardio, compete in triathlons and never seem to fade for a second in fights despite pushing a frantic pace.
“I’ve been vegan since I was 18 years old,” comments Nate Diaz, who was the winner of “The Ultimate Fighter 5 reality series. "I’ve been eating raw for the last year and a half, not full complete raw, but as much as I can."
Nate has been eating this way for almost a decade and his diet allows him to train exceptionally hard. Diaz's cardio is among the best in the UFC and he runs or bikes twice a day on top of wrestling, boxing and martial arts training.
Additionally, the retired fighter and TUF 9 winner, James Wilks, found that adhering to a whole food, plant-based vegan diet enhanced his performance capabilities.
The idea of meat, often filled with hormones, pesticides, and other harmful toxins, decomposing in their bodies, isn't something that appeals.
There are plenty of great sources of plant-based protein such as:
Legumes such as beans, peas and lentils
Nuts and seeds
Soy products including soy beverages, tempeh and tofu
Whole (cereal) grains.
Quinoa Rice
Spirulina
And according to the American Dietetic Association, a vegan lifestyle brings many benefits, including guarding against these illnesses: |
Special adviser to the president Kellyanne Conway told 'Fox & Friends' this morning that despite their "moment of introspection" after the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise, Democrats are not doing enough to tone down rhetoric which could spark violence.
"You had leader Pelosi yesterday pointing the finger," she reporter. "I think some people are unloading their shame and their guilt in the call for toning down the toxicity and the rhetoric."
Conway explains that she reviewed what was being discussed on MSNBC and CNN at 7:09 AM on Wednesday at the moment of the shooting: "As Steve Scalise was fighting for his life... You should go back and see what people were saying about the president and Republicans at that very moment."
"Look at Twitter. If I were shot and killed tomorrow, half of Twitter would explode in applause and excitement. This is the world we live in now," she said.
"We don't want to live in a police state because we can't get control of peoples' rhetoric," she said.
"You have images of the president being shot in rappers' videos, being assassinated in a production in New York City, the severed head. This is -- All of that is a toxic stew. There is nobody to blame but the shooter here, but with the calls for tamping down, there should be some introspection there," she concluded. |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/WesternAnimation/LittleElvisJonesAndTheTruckstoppers
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An Australian animated series starring Little Elvis Jones, a child prodigy guitarist and singer, and his two best friends living in a small Outback town. Lil' Elvis was dropped in a guitar case on the doorstop of a Happily Married couple of Elvis Presley fanatics running a truckstop, who looked out and saw a Cadillac vanishing into the night. Now he and his friends play in a band, and contend with the Corrupt Corporate Executive W.C. Moore, who practically controls the town and is in a ruthless search for more of the mysterious mineral known as Berkonium.
Despite the fairly typical cartoon presentation, the show had an ongoing plot concerning W.C. Moore's search for Berkonium and attempts to completely control the town and the Truckstoppers, while the kids deal with the trials of growing up in a small town in the Australian outback.
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Tropes evident in this series include: |
Photograph of a dog at a no-kill animal shelter in Washington, Iowa
A cat in an animal shelter waiting for owner
An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals, mostly dogs and cats, and sometimes sick or wounded wildlife are kept and rehabilitated. While no-kill shelters exist, it is sometimes policy to euthanize sick animals, and any animal that is not claimed quickly enough by a previous or new owner. In Europe, of 30 countries included in a survey, all but four (Czech republic,[1] Germany, Greece, and Italy) permitted the killing of healthy stray dogs.[2] Critics believe the new term "animal shelter" is generally a euphemism for the older term "pound". The word "pound" had its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would be penned or impounded until claimed by their owners. Some shelters even have sick tropical animals.
United States & Canada [ edit ]
In the United States there is no government-run organization that provides oversight or regulation of the various shelters on a national basis. However, many individual states do regulate shelters within their jurisdiction. One of the earliest comprehensive measures was the Georgia Animal Protection Act of 1986. The law was enacted in response to the inhumane treatment of companion animals by a pet store chain in Atlanta.[3] The Act provided for the licensing and regulation of pet shops, stables, kennels, and animal shelters, and established, for the first time, minimum standards of care. The Georgia Department of Agriculture was tasked with licensing animal shelters and enforcing the new law through the Department's newly created Animal Protection Division. An additional provision, added in 1990, was the Humane Euthanasia Act, which was the first state law to mandate intravenous injection of sodium pentothal in place of gas chambers and other less humane methods.[4][5] The law was further expanded and strengthened with the Animal Protection Act of 2000.[6]
Currently it is estimated that there are approximately 5,000 independently run animal shelters operating nationwide.[7] Shelters have redefined their role since the 1990s. No longer serving as an until-death repository for strays and drop-offs, modern shelters have taken the lead in controlling the pet population, promoting pet adoption, and studying shelter animals' health and behavior. In order to prevent animal euthanization, some shelters offer behavioral assessments of animals and training classes to make them more adoptable to the public. Most shelters also provide medical care that includes spaying and neutering, which will prevent overpopulation.
Shelters, and shelter-like volunteer organizations, responded to cat overpopulation with trap-neuter-return (TNR) programs that reduced feral cat populations and reduced the burden on shelters.
In the United States, many government-run animal shelters operate in conditions that are far from ideal. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 many government shelters have run out of adequate space and financial resources.[8] Shelters unable to raise additional funds to provide for the increased number of incoming animals have no choice but to euthanize them, sometimes within days.[9] In 2012, approximately four million cats and dogs died in U.S. shelters.[10]
Quebec [ edit ]
In Quebec, there are two types of animal shelters:
SPCA (in French, 'Société pour la prévention de la cruauté envers les animaux')
SPA (in French, 'Société protectrice des animaux')
United Kingdom [ edit ]
In the United Kingdom, animal shelters are more commonly known as rescue or rehoming centres, and are run by charitable organizations. The most common rescue and rehoming organizations are the RSPCA, Cats Protection, and the Dogs Trust.
Germany [ edit ]
Larger cities in Germany either have a city shelter for animals or contract with one of the very common non-profit animal organizations throughout the country, which run their own shelters. Most shelters are populated by dogs, cats, and a variety of small animals like mice, rats, and rabbits. Additionally there are so-called Gnadenhöfe ("mercy-farms") for larger animals. They take cattle or horses from private owners who want to put them down for financial reasons.
German animal protection law prohibits killing of vertebrates without proper reason. Generally, permissive reasons are slaughtering or hunting for food production (cats and dogs are excepted from this), control of infectious diseases, painless killing "if continued life would imply uncurable pain or suffering", or if an animal poses a danger to the general public.[11] The latter will only be reason for euthanasia, if an authority concerned with public safety orders it based on an investigation. Because of this ruling, all German animal shelters are practically no-kill shelters. Facilities are required to be led by a person certified in handling of animals. Most shelters have contract veterinarians to provide medical care.
India [ edit ]
Across India, various animal shelters are run by animal lovers. The Lal Mandir, a prominent Jain temple in Delhi, is known for the Jain Birds Hospital in a second building behind the main temple.[12][13]. Blue cross of India and PETA India are the major animal rescue organizations in India
New Zealand [ edit ]
In New Zealand, dog pounds are run by each territorial local authority, who provide Animal Control services under the Dog Control Act 1996.[14]
Costa Rica [ edit ]
Land of the Strays, 152-hectare sanctuary in the centre of the Central American country is funded by donations. Around 8,000 dogs have passed through the refuge.
See also [ edit ] |
Final Deep Freeze Thermal Vacuum Testing Wraps Up on James Webb Space Telescope
Cryogenic thermal vacuum testing on NASA’s multi-billion dollar James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has wrapped up at the agency’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, TX, after undergoing 93 straight days of around-the-clock thermal vacuum testing in “Chamber A”, the largest high-vacuum, cryogenic-optical test chamber in the world, once used to test Apollo hardware and suited up astronauts.
“After 15 years of planning, chamber refurbishment, hundreds of hours of risk-reduction testing, the dedication of more than 100 individuals through more than 90 days of testing, and surviving Hurricane Harvey, the OTIS cryogenic test has been an outstanding success,” said Bill Ochs, project manager for the James Webb Space Telescope at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The completion of the test is one of the most significant steps in the march to launching Webb.”
In order to detect the infrared light from faint and very distant objects, JWST needs to operate in an environment of 40 Kelvin (or about -387 F, -233 C), so NASA had to test it under those conditions on the ground to verify and prove its sensitive optics and instruments will perform as planned in space; there’s nobody to call for a repair one million miles away.
From NASA, “Tests included an important alignment check of Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments, to make sure all of the gold-plated, hexagonal segments acted like a single, monolithic mirror. This was the first time the telescope’s optics and its instruments were tested together, though the instruments had previously undergone cryogenic testing in a smaller chamber at Goddard. Engineers from Harris Space and Intelligence Systems worked alongside NASA personnel for the test at Johnson.”
“The Harris team integrated Webb’s 18 mirror segments at Goddard and designed, built, and helped operate the advanced ground support and optical test equipment at Johnson,” said Rob Mitrevski, vice president and general manager of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance at Harris. “They were a key, enabling part of the successful Webb telescope testing team.”
More from NASA:
“Before cooling the chamber, engineers removed the air from it, which took about a week. On July 20, engineers began to bring the chamber, the telescope, and the telescope’s science instruments down to cryogenic temperatures — a process that took about 30 days. During cool down, Webb and its instruments transferred their heat to surrounding liquid nitrogen and cold gaseous helium shrouds in Chamber A. Webb remained at “cryo-stable” temperatures for about another 30 days, and on Sept. 27, the engineers began to warm the chamber back to ambient conditions (near room temperature), before pumping the air back into it and unsealing the door.”
“With an integrated team from all corners of the country, we were able to create deep space in our chamber and confirm that Webb can perform flawlessly as it observes the coldest corners of the universe,” said Jonathan Homan, project manager for Webb’s cryogenic testing at Johnson. “I expect [Webb] to be successful.”
“While Webb was inside the chamber, insulated from both outside visible and infrared light, engineers monitored it using thermal sensors and specialized camera systems. The thermal sensors kept tabs on the temperature of the telescope, while the camera systems tracked the physical position of Webb to see how its components very minutely moved during the cooldown process.”
“This test team spanned nearly every engineering discipline we have on Webb,” said Lee Feinberg, optical telescope element manager for the Webb telescope at Goddard. “In every area there was incredible attention to detail and great teamwork, to make sure we understand everything that happened during the test and to make sure we can confidently say Webb will work as planned in space.”
Webb will now be removed from its test platform, rotated from vertical to horizontal, packed for shipment and carefully hoisted into a climate-controlled shipping container for transport to Northrop Grumman Aerospace in California in early 2019, where Webb’s combined science instruments and optics will be integrated with the spacecraft element, which is the combined sunshield and spacecraft bus.
The tennis-court sized sunshield is critical in preventing background heat from the Sun, Earth and Moon from interfering with the telescope’s sensitive infrared instruments; JWST simply cannot science without it. Five sunshield membrane layers, each as thin as a single human hair, will reduce the temperatures between the hot and cold sides of the JWST by an incredible 570 degrees Fahrenheit; equivalent to SPF 1 million sunblock.
Together, the pieces will form the complete James Webb Space Telescope observatory.
The fully assembled JWST will then undergo more tests during what is called “observatory-level testing”, followed by flight and deployment testing on the whole observatory before being packed and shipped to its launch site at the edge of the Amazon rainforest in French Guiana, South America, for flight atop a European Space Agency Ariane 5 rocket in Spring 2019.
The first targets for the powerful new observatory were recently chosen as well, including Jupiter, organic molecules in star-forming clouds and baby galaxies in the distant Universe; read about it HERE!
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Diet fads are destroying us: Paleo, gluten-free and the lies we tell ourselves The author of "The Gluten Lie" on our fruitless search for clean living, and why we're so quick to scoff at science
The numbers are hard to pin down, but roughly 1.1 million Americans keep kosher in their homes. Around 15 million are vegetarian. Meanwhile, according to a 2013 survey, more than 100 million Americans are trying to cut down on gluten, and (as of 2014) more than 10 million households are gluten-free. Simply put, gluten avoidance is the reigning dietary restriction of our time.
It’s harder to pin down why gluten-free diets should have conquered the culture so quickly. Few people have the kinds of serious medical conditions, such as celiac disease , that necessitate the elimination of gluten from the diet. Billions of people thrive on gluten-rich foods, all around the world.
Yet somewhere in our collective search for health, security, and purity, gluten transformed into a mainstream taboo. Scientific-sounding language (and savvy marketers) have driven this transformation, though one suspects that mass gluten avoidance has more in common with religious food restrictions than it does with anything premised on actual medical data.
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Fittingly, Alan Levinovitz is a religion professor at James Madison University and a chronicler of our peculiar dietary culture. In his new book, The Gluten Lie, Levinovitz digs into the fear and moralizing that surrounds dietary fads, including gluten avoidance and the MSG scare.
Reached by Skype, Levinovitz spoke with The Cubit about paleo dieters, grain-free monks, and why Fitbit represents a cultural descent into profound moral vacuity.
You’re a scholar of classical Chinese religions. How’d you end up writing about gluten?
Over two thousand years ago, there were these proto-Taoist monks in China who advocated strongly for a grain-free diet. [They claimed that] you could live forever. You could avoid disease. You could fly and teleport. Your skin would clear up.
I saw this countercultural rejection of grains, and then I saw almost the exact same thing, with the same kinds of hyperbolic claims, happening again with books like Grain Brain and Wheat Belly. And I thought to myself, you know, it’s funny, people are trying to debunk these fad diets with scientific evidence, but what they’re not realizing is that really these beliefs aren’t scientific at all. They’re wrapped in scientific rhetoric, but ultimately they’re quasi-religious beliefs that are based on superstition and myth.
Food rituals, food taboos, dietary demons, dietary myths, magic diets, guilt, sin: why do we apply so much religious language to food?
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Virtually ever religious tradition has had food taboos and sacred diets. I think part of the reason is that food is something that we have direct control over. It crosses the boundary in a very personal way: we take something outside of our body and put it into our body. Eating is very personal, and it’s easy to invest those kinds of things with religious and ritual significance.
With diets today, there seems to be a lot of fear involved, too.
It’s terrifying to live in a place where the causes of diseases like Alzheimer’s, autism, or ADHD, or the causes of weight gain, are mysterious. So what we do is come up with certain causes for the things that we fear.
If we’re trying to avoid things that we fear, why would we invent a world full of toxins that don’t really exist? Again, it’s about control. After all, if there are things that we’re scared of, then at least we know what to avoid. If there is a sacred diet, and if there are foods that are really taboo, yeah, it’s scary, but it’s also empowering, because we can readily identify culinary good and evil, and then we have a path that we can follow that’s salvific.
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I keep thinking of Mary Douglas’ classic Purity and Danger—this idea that cultures declare things unclean not because they’re actually dirty, but because people need to impose order on the world.
What Douglas would say, I think, when she looks at a lot of these diets, is that they’re really about being able to divide up the world into categories—which things are morally pure, and which things are morally impure. It’s so hard for us to understand how something that has an evil origin, such as factory-farmed meat, might not also actually be evil for us physically.
Douglas points out that it’s not all about science or health, but we like to think that it is. I think the same is absolutely true for fear of foods like sugar, for example, where what we might fear is the pleasure, but then we want to rationalize it by saying that what we really fear is its effect on our health.
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Should we respect that fear, even if the evidence doesn’t always back it up? I feel like its acceptable right now to critique New Age eating habits, but I would never do the same about, say, kashrut or halal diets.
I have no problem with religious diets. What I have a problem with is religious diets masquerading as scientifically sound dietary advice. It’s one thing to say, “Hey, I just think it is immoral to genetically alter plants, and therefore I don’t eat them because they represent modern evil.” That’s fine, as long as you stop there.
But when you try to bring in scientific evidence to show that actually your dietary choices are better for your health, that’s where I think we get into a huge problem. It’s the conflation of ideological diets with diets that are supposed to help cure cancer, for example, that’s really dangerous.
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As you point out, even the most mystical sounding diets or foods will often include a (pseudo)scientific justification. Why do consumers and marketers gravitate toward scientific language?
People want to make empirical claims about the effects of diet. I think that scientific rhetoric has a certain kind of plausibility and objectivity built into it that many people no longer associate with religion, and certainly no longer associate with religion in regards to nutrition.
Even if its scientific justifications are questionable, doesn’t something like the Paleo diet help people eat more healthily? I mean, raw vegetables are probably better for you than TV dinners.
Well, I want to be very careful, right. Raw vegetables are not better for you than TV dinners, without any further context. If one person only eats raw broccoli, while you eat a lot of Amy’s frozen enchiladas, you’re probably better off than the person who only eats raw broccoli. I understand that’s not what you’re saying, but there’s a lot of that oversimplification in diet rhetoric.
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No, that’s a good point. I guess I’m saying that we just need to have stories, sometimes.
I can tell you a familiar story: long ago, humans lived in an organic, all-natural, divinely-designed garden, free from pesticides and GMOs and processed grains and sugar. Then one day an evil advertiser came along and hissed at them, “Eat this fruit.” And then, boom, we’re cursed with mortality, marital strife, pains giving birth, and we have to do agriculture.
For paleo, the stars are no longer Adam and Eve. It’s Paleolithic man. But Paleolithic dieting has a ring of scientific authenticity to it. They evoke evolution instead of God. It sounds very scientific, but just seeing the way in which it parallels this commonplace myth of paradise past should make us initially suspicious. When you start to look at the evidence for it, it falls apart. You realize there’s lots of cherry-picked data.
But it’s a lot harder to get a good story out of something like, “Eat a lot of different things in moderation,” even if that’s probably better advice.
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Science is not great at constructing narratives. That’s its virtue and its downfall. Scientific inquiry has to divorce itself from what makes the best story, and science writers, myself included, are in the business of making science compelling by telling stories.
It’s true: we report scientific findings in a narrative form.
One important point: science is filled with conditionals and religious literature is not. Any religious literature, any revealed scripture, doesn’t have lots of mights and coulds and maybes and further revelations are needed. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of certainty in religious texts, though some people might argue that there is. But when you bring that kind of certainty to science, you end up lying about the certainty of the science, you end up exaggerating the scope of the claims. In science, exaggeration is just deception.
But exaggeration sells really well, doesn’t it? Gluten is great business.
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Absolutely. And the thing that’s so troubling about gluten is that, like most things, it’s complicated. There are many people with celiac disease for whom gluten is extremely dangerous, and the scientific story on non-celiac gluten sensitivity is far from settled.
Yet people don’t want to admit that uncertainty. They either want to crucify gluten as the cause of all modern health scourges or they want to say, well, gluten-free dieting is complete B.S. The truth is somewhere in between those two poles.
When it comes to food rhetoric today, the industrial world is often held up as the source of evil. Are there other evils you see coming up in the rhetoric that surrounds these diets?
I think there’s a worship of nature, which ties to modern industrialism, but is slightly different. People have created a dichotomy between natural and artificial. In a time of hipsterism and crises of authenticity, no one wants to be artificial. There’s a way in which I think an emphasis on natural foods grows out of an anxiety about disappearing standards of authenticity in modern culture.
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That blend of nostalgia and anxiety reminds me of the main character in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris who romanticizes 1920s Paris, until he actually travels there and discovers that Parisians of the ‘20s are fantasizing about the 1890s …and so on. We look to other times and other cultures for supposedly healthier, more authentic ways of eating.
There’s this idea, and it makes a lot of intuitive sense, that if we’re suffering, and we don’t have solutions to our own problems, we must look outside of our culture for those answers. If we’re powerless to solve them, maybe other cultures have the solution. So we look to Tibetans for bulletproof coffee, for example, or we look to the past where things are distant enough where we are able to romanticize them.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, there’s a huge push within China to reject Traditional Chinese Medicine. This romanticization of what is outside of one’s culture, especially in order to deal with health problems, is something that is really common, and something we ought to avoid.
At the same time, our culture’s eating habits seem to hurt people. Is looking outside of our own culture sometimes a good thing?
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Sure. But I think it’s dangerous to say “our culture’s eating habits.” Our culture’s eating habits are extraordinarily varied. Yeah, it’s great to look at another culture, break it down in all of its complexity, and see if there any specific things that these people do that can be of benefit not just to them, but to us.
What works for another culture might not work for our own culture. People ask me, what’s the harm? Why not just go gluten free? And the answer is that going gluten free has all sorts of effects. It affects your relationship with your friends and family. It affects your relationship with your own past and foods that you love. While there might be some culture in which celebratory foods don’t typically contain gluten, that’s not our culture.
Do you think there’s an incentive to setting yourself apart from the culture at-large? Uniqueness can carry its own social value.
I think a lot of people are distinguishing themselves by adopting ascetic diets. Religious people have done this since time immemorial. To show that they have some kind of strength to distance themselves from the material world, they adopt ascetic diets.
But then to assert that your ascetic diet in turn makes you physically superior to others, in addition to being morally superior, is a step that I wouldn’t want to take. Especially nowadays, people don’t want to assert moral superiority over other people, so instead they assert physical superiority. But I think also that’s a proxy for asserting their moral superiority. Saying that I’m living a healthier life is the only courteous way left of saying I’m living a better life.
We’re so afraid, and rightfully so, of judging ourselves better than other people, that now we have proxy words like “healthier” or “longer-lived” to stand in for the desirable moral judgment that we are superior to others.
How much do you think fad dieting is a response to the massive expansion of food choices available to us? It can be a confusing world to navigate—so many options, so many ethically-fraught factors.
I think [fad dieting] is a reaction to the proliferation of science. The voices of science used to be largely monolithic. You couldn’t go online and get 16 different authoritative declarations about what your diet can be. And now you have that.
People are picking and choosing from all of these dietary authorities to put together their own dietary faith. They don’t necessarily think it’s right for other people, but they also don’t want other people to challenge them, either. And then, there’s the fact that because of this proliferation of diet authorities, people want to seek refuge from that chaos in a single authority.
It also legitimizes fringe authorities, because they can use that diversity of scientific findings to make themselves seem no less authoritative than anybody else.
A deluge of information can actually complicate things, can’t it? Will health-tracking apps like Fitbit make us even nuttier?
What we’re doing with these trackers and these obsessive diets is giving ourselves an increasingly quantifiable way of saying that we are better than the other people. These things don’t work. They’re a marketing gimmick. They aren’t going to help you lose weight. It’s another ritual—a modern technological ritual that people are adopting in order to feel as though they’re living better.
This takes us back to religion. There are a great many things about religion that are extraordinary. It helps us ask and answer questions about mortality, about beauty, about goodness, about truth, that really can’t be addressed by scientific studies. I think that it is a pity when people start trying to answer those questions with the kinds of foods that they eat. It’s kind of sad, right, that now the way we confront death is by avoiding Fritos. What a pathetic ritual, right? Strap on your Fitbit and shop at Whole Foods instead of, you know, sitting down and thinking about Job.
And the sad thing is, it’s really easy to judge people on the basis of what they look like. We have this problem with race. In the same way, it’s really easy to look at someone who’s obese and say, “Oh look at that person, they’re not living as good a life as I am. They’re not as good on the inside because I can tell their outside isn’t good either.” Honestly, it’s disgusting to me that we’ve taken the great rituals of religious traditions and swapped them out for Fitbits and weird prohibition diets, and we think that that’s the best way to figure out how to be good and how to get back to a time when humans were better.
It’s funny, in my notes on your book, I have written next to the section on Fitbits, “perverted form of mindfulness?”
It’s interesting you bring that up. Some of the academic work I’m interested in right now is on mindfulness, and the way in which mindfulness traditions themselves get perverted when we turn them into ways to lower our blood pressure or reverse aging or burn fat. [For a contrasting view, see this recent RD piece].
What’s yoga good for? What’s mindfulness good for? Well, it’s good for—and then substitute whatever health condition you want to deal with. I just think it’s kind of sad that that’s where we would invest so much of our ethical energy. It’s an incredible amount of time and effort. And for what? And for nothing. To look better. |
Use This Site To Delete Old Accounts You Don't Use Anymore
Enlarge this image toggle caption Screengrab of JustDelete.Me Screengrab of JustDelete.Me
It's hard to know how many online accounts and services each of us has created by now, but it's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of "too many." This proliferation of online accounts has grown a whole crop of password-remembering services that, of course, also require accounts.
It would be great to cut the clutter by just deleting the ones you don't use. But companies don't make it easy, burying the account deactivation pages from view and requiring a litany of frustrating steps to get there.
But now, there's this: a lovely, simple site called JustDelete.Me. It's a directory of common accounts and direct links to the deactivation page for each service. And for each vendor, it ranks the difficulty of deleting your account — for example, deleting your Instagram is easy; deleting your Amazon account is hard.
Hat tip to entrepreneur Sean Bonner for pointing out JustDelete.Me. Readers, let us know how well it works for you. |
New Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck discusses the energy and focus he will bring to the program, with recruiting being a major part to bring success. (1:05)
P.J. Fleck is leaving Western Michigan to take over a Minnesota football program reeling from a threatened player boycott of a bowl game and the handling of a sexual-assault investigation.
Fleck, 36, will receive a five-year deal to be head coach at Minnesota, the school announced Friday. The contract is worth $18.5 million, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle said Friday that he was bringing in Fleck in hopes that his seemingly boundless enthusiasm will help unite a program and school that have been fractured over the past month.
"I'm not here to change the tradition,'' Fleck said at his introductory news conference. "I am here to change the culture."
Fleck and former LSU coach Les Miles both interviewed for Minnesota's vacant coaching job in the past few days, sources told ESPN's Brett McMurphy.
Western Michigan went from one win during P.J. Fleck's first season in Kalamazoo three years ago to 13-1 this season with the lone loss coming in the Cotton Bowl to Wisconsin. AP Photo/David Dermer
Fleck's hiring comes just three days after Minnesota fired coach Tracy Claeys and just more than two weeks after the football program became embroiled in a standoff with administration over the suspension of 10 players in connection with allegations of sexual assault.
Coyle said he made the decision to fire Claeys to "address challenges in recruiting, ticket sales and the culture of the program. We need strong leadership to take Gopher football to the next level and address these challenges."
Coyle needed to quickly find a replacement who could plunge into recruiting, and he found someone he hopes can help bridge the deep divisions that remain between the team and school leaders while breathing new life into a program with a dwindling season-ticket base. Coyle and university president Eric Kaler flew to Chicago on Wednesday for meetings. The two sides reached an agreement two days later.
"The thing that jumps out to me is his authentic energy and his passion," Coyle said. "I think that excites people. And obviously we want to attract fans back.''
Fleck said he had not had much time in the past 48 fast-moving hours to look into the complex issues at Minnesota, but he said he was not going to let the past influence what happens going forward.
"I eat difficult conversations for breakfast, and that's why I took the job," Fleck said.
Now Fleck has little time to waste in beginning to repair a fractured program.
Players threatened in December to boycott the National Funding Holiday Bowl after expressing reservations about the university's investigation that led to the suspension of their teammates.
Some were accused of pressuring a woman into sex during a party after the team's season-opening win over Oregon State. Many players continue to be upset with Coyle and Kaler for how the situation was handled, and Coyle acknowledged his frustration over federal privacy laws that prevented him from communicating more with a confused team.
That issue isn't going away soon, with appeals hearings for the 10 players expected to be held this month.
"I get they're upset. I get they're frustrated. I understand that," Coyle said Tuesday. "It's our job to find a leader who will take this program forward and unite all of them in one direction, one goal."
One underclassman Gophers player told McMurphy he wasn't sure whether the players would embrace Fleck.
"Guys don't want to take it out on the new staff, but we still really don't like the administration," the player said.
Kaler told the Star Tribune on Friday that criticism "comes with the territory" of being a university president, and he continued to stand by his handling of the situation.
"If you don't have thick skin and can't weather a storm, then you can't be an effective university president," Kaler said. "In this particular case, we made all the right decisions. We wound up with a new football coach who will be tremendous. And we've stood up for the victims of sexual violence. If I get fired for standing up for victims of sexual violence, then so be it."
Fleck guided the Broncos to a 13-1 record this season and a spot in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, where they lost 24-16 to Wisconsin.
Fleck was 30-22 in four years at Western Michigan, with three bowl appearances. His relentless, youthful energy and motivational team motto "Row the boat!" helped push the Broncos into the national spotlight this fall, with the campus and city of Kalamazoo abuzz over a program that had never before won more than nine games in a season.
Fleck promised to push a program that has been largely irrelevant for the past 50 years to compete for Big Ten titles and national championships.
"I'm going to promise you a lot, because that's the way I live my life," he said. "When you watch Gopher football, it will be different from this point forward. ... I am different.''
Fleck, a star receiver at Northern Illinois who played briefly in the NFL for the San Francisco 49ers, had been an assistant coach at his alma mater, Ohio State, Rutgers and in 2012 for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before taking over the Broncos.
The Gophers reached out to Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead but were turned down early in the process, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because Minnesota was not commenting publicly on its search.
Mid-American Conference coaches have been plucked by Big Ten teams several times before, with mixed success. Tim Beckman started at Illinois in 2012 after leaving Toledo, and he was fired after a 12-25 record over three seasons amid allegations of player mistreatment. Darrell Hazell left Kent State to join Purdue in 2013. The Boilermakers went 9-33 before he was fired halfway through his fourth season.
Ohio State's Urban Meyer launched his career at Bowling Green, but he had stops at Utah and Florida in between. Jerry Kill, the predecessor to Claeys, left Northern Illinois for the Gophers six years ago and went a respectable 29-29 before epilepsy forced his retirement.
When Coyle announced his decision to fire Claeys, who led the Gophers to a 9-4 record and a win over Washington State in the Holiday Bowl, the athletic director was applauded by victims' rights advocates and many academics at the university for responding emphatically to troubling allegations.
He also was criticized by some donors, alumni and players for reacting too harshly after Hennepin County twice cited a lack of evidence as the reason for declining to press charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. |
Lunar Eclipses of Historical Interest
Fred Espenak
Both the popular and technical literature contain many references to lunar eclipses of the past. Some of these references are from ancient texts. In other cases, they are attempts to tie an eclipse with a historical event. The purpose of this web page is to present eclipse calculations for many such eclipses mentioned in the literature.
The inclusion of an historical event in the tables below does not imply validation of the historical event nor its connection with an eclipse. Some events may be either apocryphal or fictional, or an eclipse may be incorrectly associated with a particular event. The eclipse maps and calculations are simply presented so that they may be compared with references in the literature. It is left to the reader to evaluate whether the eclipse association is valid or not.
The following two tables list lunar eclipses identified with some historical event of note. When selected, each Calendar Date links to a diagram showing the Moon's path though Earth's shadows along with the Universal Times of each phase of the eclipse. Below the path doagram is a world map showing the region of visibility for each phase of the eclipse. These figures are described in greater detail in the Key to Lunar Eclipse Maps. Each figure is stored as a PDF file.
Sources and/or literary references to many of these eclipses may be found at:
The references at the bottom of this page are also recommended for information on lunar eclipses of historical interest. Those who are unfamiliar with the basic astronomy of lunar eclipses may want to visit Lunar Eclipses for Beginners. A complementary web page Solar Eclipses of Historical Interest is also available.
This web site is a work in progress. If you know of an historic eclipse of interest, please email the date and a little information or reference about the event to fred.espenak@nasa.gov. I will generate a map for the eclipse and add it to this page.
Footnotes
[1] Umbral magnitude is the fraction of the Moon's diameter obscured by Earth's Umbra. For partial eclipses, the umbral magnitude is always greater than 0 and less than 1. For total eclipses, the umbral magnitude is always greater than or equal to 1.
[2] Eclipse Duration is the duration of the partial eclipse. Total eclipses have a partial phase both before and after the total phase. Thus, two eclipse durations are listed for total eclipses. The first duration is for the entire eclipse (partial and total phases combined) and the second duration (in '[ ]') is for the total phase only.
[3] BCE and CE are abbreviations for "Before Common Era" and "Common Era," respectively. They are the secular equivalents to the BC and AD dating conventions. (See:Year Dating Conventions)
Notes
-0746 Feb 02 - Babylonian Eclipse
"Babylonian observation of a lunar eclipse in the first year of Nabonassar. This is the earliest eclipse record from Babylon, and it may well be due to this that Ptolemy uses the beginning of Nabonassar's reign as the epoch for his calculations."
- Dr. John Steele
-0412 Aug 28 - Siege of Syracuse
"And when all were in readiness, and none of the enemy had observed them, not expecting such a thing, the moon was eclipsed in the night, to the great fright of Nicias and others, who, for want of experience, or out of superstition, felt alarm at such appearances. That the sun might be darkened about the close of the month, this even ordinary people now understood pretty well to be the effect of the moon; but the moon itself to be darkened, how that could come about, and how, on the sudden, a broad full moon should lose her light, and show such various colours, was not easy to be comprehended; they concluded it to be ominous, and a divine intimation of some heavy calamities. For he who the first, and the most plainly of any, and with the greatest assurance committed to writing how the moon is enlightened and overshadowed, was Anaxagoras; and he was as yet but recent, nor was his argument much known, but was rather kept secret, passing only amongst a few, under some kind of caution and confidence."
- Nicias by Plutarch
-0405 Apr 15 - Fire in the temple of Athena
"In the ensuing year--the year in which there was an eclipse of the moon one evening, and the old temple of Athena at Athens was burned, Pityas being now ephor at Sparta and Callias archon at Athens--the Lacedaemonians sent Callicratidas to take command of the fleet, since Lysander's term of office had ended (and with it the twenty-fourth year of the war)."
- Hellenica by Xenophon
-0128 Nov 05 - Death of Carneades
"At the time he died the moon is said to have been eclipsed, and one might well say that the brightest luminary in heaven next to the sun thereby gave token of her sympathy. According to Apollodorus in his chronology he departed his life in the fourth year of the 162-nd Olympiad at the age of eighty-five years."
- Carneades by Diogenes Laertius IV
0014 Sep 27 - Death of Augustus
"For the troops in Pannonia had mutinied as soon as they learned of the death of Augustus, and coming together into one camp and strengthening it, they committed many rebellious acts. ... But when the moon suffered eclipse, they took the omen to heart and their spirit abated, so that they did no further harm to this detachment and dispatched envoys again to Tiberius."
- Roman History by Cassius Dio
"The Moon in the midst of a clear sky became suddenly eclipsed; the soldiers who were ignorant of the cause took this for an omen referring to their present adventures: to their labors they compared the eclipse of the planet, and prophesied 'that if to the distressed goodness should be restored her wonted brightness and splendor, equally successful would be the issue of their struggle.' Hence they made a loud noise, by ringing upon brazen metal, and by blowing trumpets and cornets; as she appeared brighter or darker they exulted or lamented"
- Tacitus
1349 Jul 01 - A Witch's Eclipse
"The worthy Abp. Bradwardine, who flourished in the reign of the Norman Edwards, and died A.D. 1349, tells a story of a witch who was attempting to impose on the simple people of the time. It was a fine summer's night, and the Moon was suddenly eclipsed. 'Make me good amends,' said she, 'for old wrongs, or I will bid the Sun also to withdraw his light from you.' Bradwardine, who had studied with Arabian astronomers, was more than a match for this simple trick, without calling in the aid of the Saxon law. 'Tell me', he said, 'at what time you will do this, and we will believe you; or if you will not tell me I will tell you when the Sun or the Moon will next be darkened, in what part of their orb the darkness will begin, how far it will spread, and how long it will continue'."
- Archdeacon Churton
1433 Jul 02 - Two Eclipses in 15 Days
"On Wednesday the 28th of Shawwal, the Sun was eclipsed by about two-thirds in the sign of Cancer more than one hour after the afternoon prayer. The eclipse cleared at sunset. During the eclipse there was darkness and some stars appeared. . . . On Friday night the 14th of Dhu I-Qu'da, most of the Moon was eclipsed. It rose eclipsed from the eastern horizon. The eclipse cleared in the time of the nightfall prayer. This is a rarity - the occurrence of a lunar eclipse 15 days after a solar eclipse."
- al-Maqrizi
1457 Sep 03 - Time Error Eclipse
"Lunar eclipse observed by Georg Peurbach and Regiomontanus in Melk. The considerable error between the observed time and that predicted by the Alphonsine tables may be one reason why Regiomontanus worked on a new set of tables."
- Dr. John Steele
1504 Mar 01 - Columbus' Eclipse
"The Indians observed this [the eclipse] and were so astonished and frightened that with great cries and lamentations they came running from all directions to the ships, carrying provisions and begging (...) and promising they would diligently supply all their needs in the future."
- Ferdinand Columbus
1573 Dec 08 - Brahe's Eclipse
"Lunar eclipse predicted and then observed by a young Tycho Brahe in Knudstrup. He says that 'I cannot but be very surprised that even at this youthful age of 26 years, I was able to get such accurate results' from his prediction."
- Dr. John Steele
References for Lunar Eclipses of Historical Interest
Brewer, B., Eclipse, Earth View, Seattle, 1991
Humphreys, Colin J. and Waddington, W. G., "Dating the Crucifixion", Nature, Vol. 306, No. 5945, p.743-746, 22 December 1983
Littmann, M., Espenak, F., and Willcox, K. Totality - Eclipses of the Sun (3rd Ed.), Oxford University Press, New York, 2008.
Schaefer, Bradley E., "Solar Eclipses That Changed the World", Sky and Telescope, May, 1994, p.36-39
Schaefer, Bradley E., "Lunar Eclipses That Changed the World", Sky and Telescope, December, 1992, p.639-642
Schaefer, Bradley E., "Dating the Crucifixion", Sky and Telescope, April, 1989, p.374
Schaefer, Bradley E., "Lunar Visibility and the Crucifixion", Q.Jl. R. astr. Soc., 1990, 31, p.53-67
Steel, Duncan, Eclipse: The Celestial Phenomenon That Changed the Course of History (Washington, D.C.: The Joseph Henry Press, 2001) |
In 13 years as a professional hairstylist, Christine Walker has listened to clients vent about all sorts of personal drama: work stress, trouble with teenagers, extramarital affairs.
But starting Jan. 1, Walker, who works at Belle du Jour Salon in Lemont, will be required by law to have special training on how to handle conversations about domestic violence and sexual assault.
Under the new measure signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner last summer, the state's 88,000 licensed beauty professionals must take an hourlong course designed to teach them to recognize signs of domestic violence and ways to address it. Stylists will be required to complete the course while applying for a new license, and then as an additional hour added to the 14 hours of continuing education required for license renewal every two years. The law includes barbers, cosmetologists, aestheticians, hair braiders and nail technicians and will be enforced by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.
Illinois is the first state to adopt such a mandate, according to Illinois state Rep. Fran Hurley, who sponsored the bill that led to an amendment in the Barber, Cosmetology, Esthetics, Hair Braiding and Nail Technology Act of 1985. Hurley and other legislators worked closely with Chicago Says No More, a nonprofit organization that works to combat domestic violence and sexual assault, to develop the law.
"There's an openness, a freeness, a relationship that last years or decades between the client and the cosmetologist," Hurley said. "They're in a position to see something that may or may not be right."
Although the measure does not require stylists to report incidents to authorities, advocates hope the training will ultimately help lower incidents of domestic violence by making more people conscious of the problem, and offering victims one more place they can turn for help, especially when many do not seek help from authorities, said Kristie Paskvan, founder of Chicago Says No More.
According to the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, there were 103,546 domestic violence offenses reported to law enforcement in Illinois in 2015. That's up from 99,795 offenses reported the year before.
And from July 1, 2015, to this past June, there were 49 domestic violence-related deaths in Illinois, including three children, according to the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
By learning signs of domestic abuse, statistics about its prevalence and the resources available, hairstylists and other cosmetologists will be able to help victims trying to navigate difficult and sometimes dangerous situations, Paskvan said. The group also is considering future efforts to have other occupations, such as bartenders, included in domestic violence training.
"This is a person who is literally grooming you, so it's a relationship that's kind of special," Paskvan said. "Just getting people the information gives them a different perspective."
But not all hairstylists are eager to have the added responsibility.
Analie Papageorge, owner of the Steven Papageorge Salon and Beauty Academy in Evanston, said the training puts enormous pressure on stylists, who did not get into their line of business to be on the lookout for crime.
"You could make or break somebody's family," she said. "It's heavy on the heart."
Charles Ifergan, owner of three salons in the Chicago area, said he, too, was concerned about the added responsibility being required of his 120 employees. Ifergan, a veteran stylist, said relationships between stylists and clients have evolved over the decades. In the 1960s, '70s and '80s, clients came once a week to have their hair blown out. Today, clients and stylists may see each other only once every few months because people tend to care for their own hair at home, he said.
"You do not have the in-depth relationship that we used to have," Ifergan said. "It's hard for me to believe that a client would report (domestic violence) to a junior stylist."
But Walker, the hairstylist in Lemont, said she could see why a hairstylist could be an ideal person to turn to during domestic violence situations. While a victim may not feel comfortable turning to a close friend, he or she may feel safe sharing troubles with someone more removed from the situation.
Walker is looking forward to the extra training, she said.
"We always say we're not just hairdressers," she said. "We're your therapist, sometimes your doctor; we have a lot of different hats."
vortiz@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @vikkiortiz |
One thing you can trust a leftist politician to do is to blame guns for any and all ills within a community. No matter what, guns are responsible for the problems and evils of the world. Violence would magically disappear if only there were no guns.
And unicorn farts would power the entire city.
The latest example of this delusion comes from the mayor of St. Louis:
Guns are at fault for a rise in homicides in the nation’s second-most dangerous city, and are causing a “crisis,” its mayor said. “The level of violence in our city is at a crisis level,” St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson said at a press conference in its City Hall on Friday. “I think it is apparent to most of us that we are awash in guns,” Krewson said. “They’re being used to settle differences, defend territory, retaliate, take cars, do holdups.” The “crisis” she referred to was the city’s reaching its highest number of homicides this year –– 197, she said (but 196 on the police department’s website) –– since 1995, when that number was 204. The majority remain unsolved. As a next step, Krewson announced a gun buyback program –– citizens bring in their guns, the plan goes, and in exchange, receive grocery store gift certificates. It’s set to begin as early as next week. But critics say the city’s problems run deeper than guns, and that the city has tried this approach several times only to see crime continue to creep upwards. (Studies reflect that view.) “I think she’s trying something she feels is going to be effective, but in reality we just know that they’re not,” State Representative Bruce Franks told Newsweek. In 1991, the city did a major buyback program, in which thousands of guns were taken off the streets. That same year, Franks’ brother was killed by a gunshot. “A lot of those turned out to be antiques,” he said. “We’re seeing, go turn your guns in and then what?” Franks said the city should focus on adding resources to communities with high crime rates, which he said would make guns “irrelevant.”
The critics are right.
Guns are simply objects. They have no free will. They don’t act on their own volition. Someone has to operate them.
That is where you find the problem, with people.
Yes, guns don’t kill people, people kill people and all that. Yes, it’s almost cliche at this point, but it’s also right.
If you have a dangerous community like a Chicago or St. Louis, you’re not going to solve anything by blaming the guns. They’re already there and you’re not going to get them absent some very unconstitutional measures like kicking in every door and searching every home. Good luck with that.
Buyback programs sound good, but they don’t work. The only way a criminal turns in a gun is if it was used in a homicide or something like that and they need to ditch it. Getting a gift card beats throwing it in a pond, after all. But that’s about the extent of what happens. That’s the sum total of “good” being performed with these buyback programs.
Meanwhile, politicians can pat themselves on the back and feel good, feel like they’re making a difference, while actually accomplishing absolutely nothing.
If you want to combat violence in your community, you need to dig deep into the roots of where that violence comes from. Otherwise, you’re just slapping a band-aid on an amputation. |
Forged Letters, And Other Stories From The Trenches Of Financial Regulation
Paul Sakuma/AP
As part of the finance overhaul, the government's writing new rules to regulate derivatives. Anyone who wants to can send comments to the Commodities Futures Trade Commission, which is in charge of the new rules.
Silla Brush, a reporter with Bloomberg News, has been checking them out from time to time to see who is writing in. One morning last year, he saw a peculiar signature.
"The names are usually big banks on Wall Street, some financial institutions that are based around the world," he says. "I just hadn't seen Burger King."
Not even Burger King headquarters, but a Burger King franchise in northwest Arkansas. So Silla called them up.
Terra Brace, the franchise's treasurer, answered the phone.
"We had no idea what they were talking about," Brace says. "It was far beyond our usual areas of expertise. We were completely baffled."
The letter, it turned out, was a fake. Sill went on to find six more fakes, ostensibly from a sheriff, two lawyers, a mental health counselor and an Arkansas county judge, who does not sound like someone you want to cross.
"I don't like people signing my signature that doesn't have authorization to do so," says the judge, Marilyn Edwards. "Let's just put it this way: I was not happy."
I asked Edwards why someone would choose her for a forged letter.
"Now, honey," she said, "I can't tell you why someone would do that."
Luckily, at this point, I can.
Last summer, one still unnamed company hired a PR firm to launch a "grassroots letter writing campaign" on derivatives reform. The PR firm hired a contractor, who hired a subcontractor in Arkansas. And instead of finding real people who care about derivatives — financial contracts tied to some other asset — the subcontractor went ahead and forged letters from grassrootsy sounding people.
Among the many strategies lobbyists are employing to influence regulators right now, this one is surely unusual. But the whole fiasco in Arkansas does tell us two things about where financial reform is right now.
The conversation is not in the domain of regular people. There's a group of people who care desperately about this issue.
The derivatives market is huge, and lobbyists are out in force working to influence the CFTC.
Most of them, though, are using a more straightforward tactic than sending forged letters. They just show up at meetings.
I recently went to a public hearing at the CFTC on derivatives reform.
Two regulators were sitting at the head of a big table, with eight people from the banking industry. This is a public hearing, but there seems to be no public in the room. And once you hear what they're talking about, you understand why.
They're talking about incredibly technical details. Like this question from David Taylor, a CFTC regulator:
"What turnaround time frame is needed for assignment of a UCI to an entity that seeks one?"
The meeting is mostly about how the CFTC can set up an exchange so derivatives can be traded publicly. At one point Taylor asks who would be good candidates to play a role in running the exchange.
All of the industry people at the table would love a role, but the room is quiet for a full minute before anybody says anything. Then, one by one, everybody at the table volunteers his services.
The informational hearing for regulators somehow turns into a job interview for banking people. Banking people who are advising regulators about writing the new rules, and who happen to have millions riding on the outcome of those rules.
Here's the thing. You ask both lobbyists and regulators about this conflict of interest and they will tell you it's not ideal, but of course it works that way.
"You can't possibly expect people in the government at all levels to understand all this stuff," says Tim Ryan, a lobbyist who represents many big Wall Street firms. "They're not market participants."
Ryan continues:
"We have a huge machine working on this, trying to give the regulators the content, the facts which we know many of them do not have."
Bart Chilton, a CFTC commissioner, told me industry can be really helpful as he tries to write rules that are smart and make sense. But writing new rules takes time. And Chilton says a typical day "usually starts with lobby meetings and ends with lobby meetings. In the middle, well, we've got lobby meetings."
How is it fair that they have access to you all day long, that they have your attention all day?
"People have a right to representation," Chilton says. "I think the megabanks are more represented than others. But I certainly will meet with anyone who wants to meet with me."
The thing is, for the most part, regular people aren't calling up the CFTC for a meeting.
Tim Ryan, the bank lobbyist, says this is the most important part of the bank reform process — the part where regulators write the actual rules that will govern the system. It is this part of the process, he told me, that you really want to make sure your voice is heard. |
Google’s Pixel smartphone received a ton of praise following its announcement, including in our review, but in the time since, several hardware and software issues have been forcing many to take a second look at Google’s flagship. There have been camera issues, defects, and even some audio problems, but now another issue is starting to pop up, and it’s easily the worst yet ─ premature battery shutdowns.
The best gifts for Android users
Just like what last year’s Nexus 6P is currently going through, several Google Pixel users on Reddit and on Google’s own product forums are reporting that their devices are shutting down far before the battery has been drained. While the issue doesn’t seem quite as widespread as it is on the Nexus 6P, there are enough cases to have at least some cause for concern.
My Google Pixel (32 GB), less than a month old is facing worrisome battery issues. Twice in last 5 days, has the phone shutdown abruptly while I am in middle of something. In both instances, battery was between 25-35%, and the phone under normal conditions should have lasted for at least next 3-4 hours.
For Pixel owners who have experienced this issue, it seems to mainly occur when battery levels are around 30% remaining, give or take. Some users report 25%, others a little lower, and in one case, as high as nearly 60%.
It seems unlikely that this issue is caused by hardware given how new the phone is, but rather something in Android Nougat since both the Pixel and Nexus 6P have been recently affected. It’s unclear if other devices running Android Nougat are influenced, but since only a few non-Google devices are running Nougat, we’ll just have to wait and see as the rollout continues.
Google has yet to comment on this issue, although we have reached out for a response. In the meantime, if you’re carrying a Google Pixel or a Nexus 6P, now might not be a bad time to invest in a battery bank or spare USB-C cable… |
A new hologram table has its sights set on the ultimate prize: an interactive and immersive experience that can shared from multiple angles by different users, all without clunky headgear.
Developed by Euclideon Holographics and retailing for just shy of $50,000, the table lets up to four people interface simultaneously with augmented reality images. Motion-tracking glasses are the key to the holographic effect — “frequency separation crystal films in the lens and on the table surface filter jumbled light into a stereo image, similarly to how your standard 3D glasses work.”
Behind the scenes, though, the computerized table has to calculate where each set of glasses is located and, accordingly, where to emit light. Right now, the company has a single working prototype but is raising funds to mass-market the devices by early 2018. Architects and planners, for instance, are sure to be interested in new ways to show clients their designs in new three-dimensional ways. Larger models are also in the planning stages, as well as versions designed for gaming and other applications — the company aims to gain traction in arcades around the world.
Among other things, this breakthrough hints at a future much like the ones we’ve seen for decades in science fiction — the more work that can be packed in on the computing side, the less inconvenient the attire and equipment needed by those interacting with the holograms. |
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HENRICO COUNTY, Va. - Henrico Police charged a man with masturbating and exposing himself in the Short Pump Town Center parking lot to a mall employee. Police said they believed there may be more victims. Charles Paul Engle, Jr., 37, was charged Friday with three counts of indecent exposure and one count of masturbating in public.
Shopper Jean Shelton called the news "disgusting."
“I’d say to them, isn’t that cute, can we put a hat on it,” Shelton said when asked what she would do if she saw something like that in the parking lot.
Police said the victim’s report was one of many made to their department and Short Pump Security between April 1 and June 1, which described a white male with a goatee, operating a silver Toyota sedan.
"You don’t do that in public when there are children around, please," Shelton said.
WTVR CBS 6 reporter Melissa Hipolit visited Engle’s home on Ketelby Road and saw a car fitting that description in the driveway.
A woman who came to the door waved for Hipolit to go away.
Shelton said she had an idea on how to zip up such behavior.
"I’d probably take a picture and get his face and the whole deal, why not, evidence, right?" Shelton said.
The Henrico Jail confirmed Engle bonded out of jail.
Police said they believed additional individuals may have seen or had contact with Engle, and are requesting that citizens who have witnessed Engle’s activities to contact Detective Meg Fillius at (804) 501-5273.
37.656729 -77.620215 |
FBI Director James B. Comey leaves a closed-door meeting with senators about President Trump’s allegations of wiretapping at Trump Tower during the 2016 election at the Capitol in Washington.
March 15, 2017 FBI Director James B. Comey leaves a closed-door meeting with senators about President Trump’s allegations of wiretapping at Trump Tower during the 2016 election at the Capitol in Washington. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
James B. Comey, the head of the bureau since 2013, was dismissed by President Trump on May 9, 2017.
The surprise tweet from a little-used FBI account came about 1 p.m. Tuesday, announcing that the agency had published on its website 129 pages of internal documents related to a years-old investigation into former president Bill Clinton’s pardon of a fugitive Democratic donor.
The seemingly random reminder of one of the darkest chapters of the Clinton presidency a week before the election drew an immediate rebuke from Hillary Clinton’s campaign — with its spokesman tweeting that the FBI’s move was “odd” and asking whether the agency planned to publish unflattering records about Republican candidate Donald Trump.
“Will FBI be posting docs on Trump’s housing discrimination in ’70s?” asked Brian Fallon.
For the second time in five days, the FBI had moved exactly to the place the nation’s chief law enforcement agency usually strives to avoid: smack in the middle of partisan fighting over a national election, just days before the vote.
The publication of the files related to the Marc Rich pardon inquiry, which agency officials said was posted automatically in response to pending public records requests, came as the Clinton campaign and Democratic lawmakers continued to fume over FBI Director James B. Comey’s decision with less than two weeks before the election to announce that he was effectively resuming a review of Hillary Clinton’s email practices.
The Post’s Matt Zapotosky explains why FBI Director James B. Comey has found himself at the center of the presidential campaign in recent days. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
Comey’s move to direct agents to suddenly review thousands of emails discovered as part of a separate inquiry into former congressman Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) has led to a range of criticism of the FBI, with Democrats and some Republican lawmakers questioning whether Comey violated Justice Department policies by making a decision that risked shaking up a political campaign.
[Comey faces a firestorm of criticism over renewed Clinton email probe]
Some Democrats have also accused Comey of hypocrisy, citing reports this week that the director argued internally last month that it was too close to Election Day to publicly accuse Russia of meddling in the race. Top intelligence officials issued a rare statement implicating Russia in hacks of Democratic officials and party offices, but Clinton and aides have gone further, alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to tilt the race in Trump’s favor.
All told, the events of the past week have dragged the FBI, a highly regarded institution whose leaders have in recent years worked to build a reputation for impartiality, into the thicket of the polarized presidential race.
“Americans now look at the FBI and see a political entity, not a nonpartisan entity — and that has huge ramifications for the FBI and for all of us,” said Matt Miller, former chief spokesman for the Justice Department and a Clinton supporter. “It sows disbelief in our system of government and is hugely toxic.”
On Tuesday, FBI investigators were continuing to examine the newly discovered emails and trying to discern how they ended up on a computer owned by Weiner. As of Tuesday morning, an official said, investigators had found no sign that the computer contained “new and bigger” evidence about Clinton. But the official said the FBI was deploying “all computers, all hands on deck” to sort through the high volume of emails and that “no one knows” what the emails contain.
FBI officials did not respond to questions about the agency’s role in the campaign.
At a rally in at Kent State University, Oct. 31, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke about the FBI investigation into emails that might be connected to her private email server. She said "by all means, they should look at" emails on a computer owned by Anthony Weiner, the husband of her top aide, Huma Abedin. (The Washington Post)
As for the release of the Rich files days before the election, FBI officials said the timing was coincidental. The FBI released a statement saying that they were published after Freedom of Information Act requests and were posted “automatically and electronically to the FBI’s public reading room in accordance with the law and established procedures.” This happens, the statement said, on a “first-in, first-out” basis.
The events of the past week have created an unusual political storm around Comey, who until this election year had generally drawn praise from leaders of both parties. When he announced in July that he believed that “no reasonable prosecutor” would charge Clinton for mishandling classified information through her use of a private email server, Democrats called him fair-minded while some Republicans, including Trump, accused him of being part of a rigged system. This week, the roles have been reversed.
Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who led the House investigation of the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic posts in Benghazi, Libya, said Tuesday that Democrats are improperly blaming Comey for a sequence of events that began with Clinton’s decision as secretary of state to use a private server. “Secretary Clinton is the reason why you and I are having this conversation, not Jim Comey,” he told CNN.
The Twitter account used to publicize the Rich files, an official FBI account called@FBIRecordsVault, had been dormant for more than a year until Sunday, when it began to tweet links to archived documents. They included records related to Fred Trump, the father of the GOP nominee, which were posted to the website in early October. Those records included eight pages of largely biographical details about the elder Trump, much of which appeared to be compiled by the FBI in 1988. The agency advertised the Trump records by tweeting: “Fred C. Trump (1905-1999) was a real estate developer and philanthropist.”
Another tweet linked to previously released internal investigative notes from the FBI’s probe of Clinton’s private email server.
Agency officials said the tweets were automatically generated, a function of the website that they said had not been working since last year but that was recently fixed when the site was upgraded.
The Rich documents provided little new information about the matter, which plagued the first years of Bill Clinton’s post-presidency. But they served as a reminder of the vigor of the criminal probe into the matter.
Rich, who received his pardon on Bill Clinton’s last day in the White House, had fled to Switzerland after learning he would be indicted on a charge of tax evasion in the 1980s. The investigation, conducted between 2001 and 2005, was disclosed in news accounts at the time and looked at whether Clinton had issued the pardon in exchange for political donations, including to Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate race and to the Clinton Foundation. It was closed with no charges.
The newly disclosed documents show the FBI internally referred to the matter as a “sensitive investigation concerning possible public corruption surrounding the pardons granted by former president William Clinton.”
This week’s release of the Rich files demonstrates how many of the players in the current Hillary Clinton drama played roles in Clinton-related battles of the past.
Comey, for instance, as a young prosecutor in New York, helped lead the case against Rich. Later, as U.S. attorney, he led the office that handled the investigation into the Clinton pardon from early 2002 to the end of 2003.
Former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr., a Clinton backer who this week wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that Comey made a “serious error” in announcing the resumption of the email probe, was deputy attorney general at the time of the pardon and acknowledged that he had been contacted directly by Rich’s attorney. The pardon was criticized in part for bypassing an established process in which Justice Department lawyers review applications for merit. Holder’s name was one of only a few not blacked out in the redacted files released this week.
Comey eventually supported Holder’s nomination for attorney general but told senators in 2008 that he had been “stunned” by the Rich pardon and that Holder’s actions in the case reflected a “huge misjudgment.”
The release of the Rich files came as Democrats had been expressing their anger over Comey’s handling of their suspicions of Russian meddling. For months, Democrats have been talking about alleged ties that Trump and his team have to Russia, and they have been encouraging the FBI to investigate the claims — in addition to the ongoing inquiry into how Russian hackers broke in to the Democratic National Committee and the private email accounts of top party officials.
On Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said Comey possessed “explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government.” In a letter to Comey, Reid suggested that the FBI director may have violated a federal statute, the Hatch Act, that prohibits government officials from engaging in activities that can influence an election.
“Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law,” Reid wrote.
[Harry Reid says Comey ‘may have broken the law’ by disclosing new Clinton-related emails]
When asked about Reid’s letter, a White House spokesman bluntly declined to back up his claims and concerns.
Press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the Obama administration would “neither defend nor criticize” Comey, and that the White House had received no FBI briefings “on even the existence of any investigation into the activities or habits of the Republican nominee.”
Reid was briefed privately in August about the Russia threat by one of the country’s top intelligence officials and came away “deeply shaken,” according to an aide who was traveling with him at the time. During the private session, conducted in a specially secured briefing room at the FBI’s Las Vegas office, Reid told aides he received disturbing details of Russian efforts to influence the election — and about possible Trump campaign ties to the Kremlin.
Afterward, he wrote Comey urging the FBI director to publicly investigate “a series of disturbing reports” indicating that Russia was trying “to influence the Trump campaign and manipulate it as a vehicle for advancing the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
Trump, who has called Putin a “strong leader,” has denied any connections to Russia.
But the FBI’s approach to the questions has frustrated Democrats. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Comey’s decision to speak out on the Clinton emails while choosing to remain silent on Russia “raises serious questions about a very disturbing double standard.”
Clinton campaign manager, Robby Mook, said it was “nothing short of jaw-dropping” that Comey would “show more discretion in a matter concerning a foreign-state actor than one involving the Democratic nominee for president.”
Matt Zapotosky, Karoun Demirjian, Alice Crites, Ellen Nakashima and Bob Woodward contributed to this report.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. had said that FBI Director James B. Comey made a “serious error” by resuming the Hillary Clinton email probe. In fact, Holder wrote in a Washington Post op-ed that Comey made a “serious error” by commenting publicly on the resumption of the probe in a vague letter to Congress. |
In a sign the country's ambitions to go faster, higher and bigger have not been dimmed by the end of the Olympics, the Ministry of Railways says it is raising the speed it intends the new line connecting the cities to reach when it opens in 2012.
New technology will enable trains to travel at 380 km or 236 miles an hour, 30 km per hour (18mph) more than the current generation of bullet trains, according to the ministry's deputy chief engineer, Zhang Shuguang.
"It is possible that we can start to manufacture 380 km/h trains in two years' time, and put them into service on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway," he said, according to state media.
The high-speed line from Beijing to Shanghai has been an on-off project for several years, but work finally began in April.
Officials have been torn between improving the extensive and reliable but slow services linking cities across the country and building high-tech lines between major cities. But they have also been encouraged by the initial success of the bullet train that since July has reduced journey times from Beijing to the nearest port at Tianjin to just half an hour.
With China's two most important cities separated by 1,318 kilometres or 819 miles, the new line will be the longest high-speed railway to be built in one go in the world.
The Tianjin route uses 350 km/h trains relying on technology imported from the German engineering giant Siemens. A local company is building up production to 50 trains a year by next year to service both the Tianjin and Shanghai lines.
But Mr Zhang said China's own engineers had "mastered" the technology sufficiently to upgrade the trains' speed further.
The extra would be sufficient to cut the journey time from five hours as currently planned to four hours, compared with current 10-12 hours. The difference would make the rail route competitive with the current two-hour flight time once check-in times were taken into account.
While France’s famous high-speed train, the TGV, broke its 17-year-old world speed record in 2007 when it hit a top speed of 357.2 mph, it only maintained that speed for a short period. The Chinese trains would be designed to travel at top speeds for much of the journey in order to cut its duration. |
A Fiddler Just Short Of Forgotten
IPods, file sharing, even good-old fashioned CDs and radio, have made enjoying and sharing music so easy that it's hard to imagine a time when all music was live. Some old tunes survived by being passed down through the generations like precious heirlooms. Others went to the grave with the last people who knew them by heart. In this week's "What's in A Song" from the Western Folklife Center, we learn about an old-time fiddler named Henry Reed. He was in his 80's in 1966 when a young folklorist discovered him in the Appalachian hill country.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
IPods, file sharing, even good-old fashioned CDs and radio have made enjoying and sharing music so easy these days. So it may be hard to imagine a time before recorded sound when all music was live. Some old tunes survived by being passed down through the generations like precious heirlooms. Others, unfortunately, went to the graves with the last people who knew them by heart.
In this week's "What's in A Song" from the Western Folklife Center, we learn about an old-time fiddler named Henry Reed. He was in his 80s in 1966 when a young folklorist discovered him in the Appalachian hill country.
(Soundbite of music)
Mr. HENRY REED (Fiddler): Now, that's there's what General Jackson sung after his men shot him and had he sung that till he died.
Dr. ALAN JABBOUR (Folklorist, Fiddler): Is that a fact?
Mr. REED: That's a pretty old piece, ain't it?
Dr. JABBOUR: It is.
I'm Alan Jabbour. I'm a folklorist and a fiddler. And I was director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress for many years.
(Soundbite of music)
Dr. JABBOUR: When I first went there, Henry Reed got out his fiddle and I asked if I could record it. And so I went and got my tape recorder and set it up.
(Soundbite of music)
Dr. JABBOUR: And the first tune he had played, "West Virginia Gals," I had never heard anyone play before. And I absolutely knew that moment, oh my gosh, I had discovered my next mentor.
(Soundbite of music)
Dr. JABBOUR: From a fiddler's point of view, a fiddle is like a voice. "Rocking the Babies to Sleep" is a song that's in the voice of a man who is singing this lament as he rocks the babies to sleep because his wife has abandoned him. Very sad, and as I imagined it, sort of full of melancholy. Just a feeling of sadness, suffusing the tune.
(Soundbite of music)
Dr. JABBOUR: Henry Reed grew up before the turn of the century in a nest of musicians. So, his mentors were people like Quince Dillion. The Dillions and others had brought their music from Virginia east of the Blue Ridge up into the mountains in the 1840s and were still there in the 1890s when Henry Reed was a young tike and learning music.
And so, in a way, his repertory seemed to me like a prospectus for American music. The whole panoply of it in all of its infinite variety. The ancient tunes from the old world are the tunes from old Virginia in the early 19th century, the minstrel stage pieces, the Civil War pieces - it was all there.
(Soundbite of music)
Dr. JABBOUR: I now see a whole new generation of young people learning the fiddle. And they're learning Henry Reed tunes from me. They love the tunes. They think they're great. So, what's really the mystery to me is not why they're still relevant, it's why they were so close to being extinct. Wow. Why did it get down to just one person playing these glorious tunes?
(Soundbite of music)
Dr. JABBOUR: What in the world is that?
Mr. REED: That is what they called a kiss waltz.
Dr. JABBOUR: Kiss waltz?
Mr. REED: Yeah. Didn't you learn that?
Dr. JABBOUR: I didn't pick that one up.
Mr. REED: You ought to.
Dr. JABBOUR: Yeah.
HANSEN: "What's In a Song" is produced by Hal Cannon and Taki Telonidis of the Western Folklife Center.
(Soundbite of music)
HANSEN: Our feature, "What's in a Song," is produced with support from the R. Harold Burton Foundation.
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Washington College has canceled classes through the Thanksgiving break as the search continues for a missing former student leader who might be armed.
In a statement sent to students and posted online Wednesday, college President Sheila Bair said she made the decision to keep the school closed through Thanksgiving "based on continuing consultations with law enforcement."
The missing student, 19-year-old sophomore Jacob Marberger, has made no direct threats toward the college or its students, officials said, but the campus was closed as a precautionary measure. He hasn't been seen since early Monday, when police say he went to his parents' house and took a gun case that might have had a gun in it.
Richie Torres, a sophomore from Silver Spring, said he's worried about Marberger. Both lived in Cecil Hall and are in the same circle of friends.
"We're just hoping and praying for the safety of Jacob," said Torres.
Police offered no new information Wednesday in the search. Chestertown police officials referred inquiries to the college, and police in Marberger's hometown of Cheltenham Township, Pa., did not respond to requests for comment.
Baltimore Sun Jacob Marberger, the Washington College student sought by police for the past week, was found dead in Pennsylvania on Saturday, police said. Jacob Marberger, the Washington College student sought by police for the past week, was found dead in Pennsylvania on Saturday, police said. (Baltimore Sun) (Baltimore Sun)
With classes canceled since Monday, college spokesman Michael O'Connor said, it made sense to keep students off campus through the Thanksgiving break.
College officials continue to review the situation daily, O'Connor said, but it would have been difficult to open up classes and bring students back only to wind down again for the holiday. The Thanksgiving break was scheduled to start this Wednesday and run through the following Sunday.
The liberal arts college in Chestertown has about 1,450 undergraduates. The campus was quiet Wednesday, with just a couple of construction and landscaping crews working under gray skies. Police were no longer guarding campus entrances, as they did earlier in the week.
"Outside of a few essential personnel and public safety officers, there isn't anyone on campus," O'Connor said.
Torres, Marberger's friend, said he was surprised by the decision to keep the campus closed through Thanksgiving, but he said he trusts that college officials are making the right decision.
Police and campus officials said Marberger had problems with classmates in recent weeks and is facing misdemeanor charges after allegedly showing a gun to classmates last month. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
As a result of that incident, Marberger was dismissed from his fraternity, resigned from a leadership position in student government, and was facing suspension or expulsion from the college.
Marberger was sent home and was required to pass a psychiatric evaluation before he was allowed to return to campus about a week ago, college officials said. His parents told police in Cheltenham Township that he had been despondent over his problems at college.
Marberger hasn't been seen or heard from since Monday. A signal from his cellphone was picked up Monday morning near an outdoors store in Hamburg, Pa., according to Cheltenham Township police. The phone was then turned off.
Torres said Marberger "is a phenomenal individual who is nothing but supportive and nice to everyone he meets. ... He's a great kid."
Washington College students have been supporting one another, Torres said, offering each other rides home and keeping spirits up during a difficult time. The close-knit student body is becoming even closer, he said.
"I can't imagine attending another school," he said.
College officials said about 50 students who have not been able to get home — including international students — have been moved off campus, in some cases into the homes of college employees.
Emily Cross-Barnet, a junior from Baltimore, said she's seen students and faculty looking out for each other.
"You realize how much of a family the school is," she said. "We all feel supported."
Cross-Barnet, an environmental studies major, said she's disappointed that she'll be missing a trip around the Eastern Shore to learn about agricultural policy. But she said she understands the need to keep students safe.
"I completely trust the administration is making the right decision for our safety. ... I'm glad everyone is safe," she said, adding, "I hope Jacob is safe."
Marberger is described by police as a white male with brown hair, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 135 pounds. He could be driving a green 1997 Range Rover with Pennsylvania license plates JWY-5876. Anyone with information is asked to call police.
pwood@baltsun.com
twitter.com/pwoodreporter |
Christine Cavanaugh, whose distinctive voice helped carry her through a 13-year career as a voiceover actress, has died at the age of 51. IndieWire reports that Cavanaugh died on December 22 of unknown causes, although her obituary did not appear in the Los Angeles Times until today.
Cavanaugh was only active as an actress from 1988, when she got her first voice role in the English version of the Polish animated film David And The Magic Pearl, until 2001, when she retired from acting to spend more time with her family. But in that decade, Cavanaugh lent her talents to memorable characters on many long-running cartoon series, most famously as Chuckie Finster on Rugrats and Dexter on Dexter’s Laboratory. She also played Gosalyn Mallard on Darkwing Duck, Oblina on Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and Jay Sherman’s son Marty on The Critic, among other voice roles.
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On the big screen, Cavanaugh was also known for her voice, most notably as the title pig in 1995’s Babe. She did occasionally act in non-voiceover roles, however, like the 1997 episode of The X-Files pictured above, in 1996’s Jerry Maguire, and as Mona Tibbs on Nickelodeon’s Salute Your Shorts. Cavanaugh had no children of her own, but is survived by her brother, sister, and their children, as well as an entire generation that grew up with her work. |
It was a big poke in the eye for the Comcast board, and a surprise at a company where CEO Brian Roberts controls 33% of the voting shares. The owner of NBCUniversal disclosed today that shareholders yesterday cast more than 186.5M votes in favor of a management-opposed resolution calling on Comcast to seek shareholder approval before reinstating an anti-takeover plan called a poison pill which expires in November. Supporters say that shareholders could benefit if an outside company made a high offer to buy Comcast, even if management opposed a deal. A poison pill would block a hostile takeover by flooding the market with Comcast shares, making the acquisition uneconomical. ISS Proxy Advisory Services urged investors to support the resolution, saying that poison pills typically just entrench management and leave shareholders with “minimal say in the governance of the company.” Supporters also say that there’s little risk of a hostile takeover at Comcast considering how many votes Roberts controls. That carried the day as just 171.4M votes — presumably including those cast by Roberts — supported the company’s view that the poison pill would benefit shareholders. The board says that it allows management to “preempt the use of coercive takeover tactics” and seek the highest possible price from a potential acquirer. The shareholder vote is not binding on Comcast, although the board would raise a lot of people’s hackles if it ignored the results.
Related: Comcast Chief: NBCU Earnings Torpedoed By ‘Battleship’ And ‘Five-Year-Engagement’ |
The Barcelona striker Lionel Messi has launched an outspoken attack on the "anti-football" tactics employed by Rangers during the scoreless Champions League draw at Ibrox on Tuesday.
Messi, along with his fellow strikers Thierry Henry and Ronaldinho, endured a frustrating night in Glasgow against Walter Smith's team, although the former Arsenal player did not criticise Rangers for their approach to the game. "We had possession and weren't in any danger but we caused a lot of danger for Rangers," Henry said. "At the end of the day we got the point."
Barça's inadequacies in failing to make the most of their opportunities were strikingly apparent. But the Argentinian Messi claimed: "It's incredible. Rangers didn't want to play football. Right from the start they went for anti-football and I'm left with a bitter taste in the mouth at not having been able to win the match because we had a decent number of chances. All we lacked was the finish.
"It's a real pain playing against teams like that and it's very hard too. It'll be different at the Camp Nou."
Despite Henry's apparent satisfaction with a point, Messi dismissed any suggestion that he and his team-mates were as satisfied as their hosts to settle for a draw in the closing stages, which keeps Barça and Rangers level at the top of Group E with seven points ahead of their second meeting on November 7.
"We were tired and they weren't interested in trying to win so it was inevitable that the pace would drop," Messi added.
Charlie Adam, the Rangers midfielder, made no apologies for his team's style. "We were playing against world-class players," Adam said. "And, no disrespect to any other side but that was perhaps the best team any of us will play against in our entire careers. For us to get a point was an unbelievable achievement and made it a night to savour. We battled away, and showed the attitude needed to get us a really good point.
"Sometimes you just need to hold your hands up and say you're playing a great side and you just won't see a lot of the ball. It was a massive compliment for us that by the end, they seemed happy with a point as well."
Sasa Papac, who was entrusted with the job of marking Messi, added: "I thought I was doing well to keep him [Messi] quiet and then the next minute I have Carles Puyol flying down the wing as well. We are really satisfied to have taken a point and now I believe we have a good chance to go through." |
The far frontier of science is no longer a distant dream. It is there today and here tomorrow. Science fiction is rapidly becoming science fact. We’re not just transforming our world, we’re up-ending age-old beliefs, puncturing paradigms we have long taken for granted. “Follow your weird,” said author Bruce Sterling. Well, as these 10 technologies demonstrate, “mission accomplished.”
1. Bionics
Future technology has always been about pushing limits. And there are no greater limits than the ones imposed by our own biology. Aging is the undeniable signal that the clock called life is winding down. But bionics opens the door for a new era of rebirth, where platitudes about second childhoods can now be reinforced by serious mechanistic heft. This means that the true impact of bionics will be mental as much as physical. We think we’re building new bodies, but we’re going to end up with new minds as well.
2. Mind Uploading
Imagine being able to upload our consciousness onto a computer, to store our selves in silicon. This is the frontier known as mind uploading, and it is a truly wild frontier. Pretty soon, and for the first time in history, a living being will be able to experience the life of a dead one. Will we all eventually have our lives recorded for posterity? Will it get even stranger? Descartes told us: “I think therefore I am.” But what happens when someone else thinks you? Seriously, who are you now?
3. Augmented Sight
Consider this scenario: Day one: You meet a blind man. Day Three: He can see well enough to drive a car around a crowded parking lot. The world’s first artificial vision implant capable of this feat already exists. Devices capable of augmented sight—eagle eyes, eyes that see colors outside of our visual spectrum, or eyes that have microscopic abilities—are not far behind.
4. Flying Cars
Aerospace engineer Dezso Molnar has built a machine that can fly high enough to clear tall mountains and drive fast enough to give Formula One racers a run for their money. And it’s here today. A few years from now, you’ll be able to assemble one from a kit. It is both the stuff of very old dreams and the very first flying vehicle that’s actually available to the masses.
5. Space Diving
Space diving, similar to skydiving, is jumping out of an aircraft in outer space and falling to Earth before eventually parachuting to a safe landing.
If you scratch under the surface of sport, you’ll quickly encounter the burgeoning science of play. Over the past few decades, a topic once dismissed as unimportant is now considered a fundamental biological process that helps us learn fundamental social and survival skills, stimulate creativity and innovation, and test the limits of our own potential. But space diving is the next frontier—it’s proof that our need to play, interwoven with our urge to push limits, has finally left the planet.
6. The World’s First Genetically-Engineered Insect
The curing of disease and the creation of life are feats among our oldest dreams. They are ideas that comprise our myths and legends, ideas that have been with us for so long that they are woven into the fundamental fabric of our being. But aspirational no more. The very first man-made mosquitoes are about to venture into the wild to combat some of the most devastating diseases on earth, marking the very first time a creature birthed entirely in imagination will take up residence in reality.
7. Asteroid Mining
The very first trillionaire on Earth may be the person who figured out how to mine the sky, a process known as asteroid mining. Well, the economic engine that unlocks the solar system has finally arrived. The Larry Page backed company “Planetary Resources” has a satellite scheduled to launch from the International Space Station in July of this year.
8. The Troubled Science of Life Extension
Steroids have been the subject of one of the greatest misinformation campaigns in history. Just about everything the general public thinks about steroids was wrong. Steroids have been the focus of a stealth war of propaganda and politics, and one that has cost millions of lives. They’re not bad drugs, they appear to be a cure for some of our most intractable diseases and an actual first step toward legitimate anti-aging medicine. They are the wonder drug of tomorrow, and they are here today.
9. Stem Cells: The Final Frontier
The promise of stem cells is considerable. But stem cells also elucidate an important point—how incredibly difficult innovation really is. This fight is far from over. Meanwhile, a middle-of-the-road estimate of how many Americans will die from diseases that stem cell research might soon cure is 130 million.
The changes we’re talking about in this article aren’t unfolding in millions of years; they’re unfolding in a handful of decades. Moreover, these changes are far more radical than anything that came before. And none of these trends appear to be slowing down. In fact, just the opposite. Which means, as many are starting to suspect, the era of Homo sapiens is coming to a close. We have massively accelerated evolution and the results are soon to fracture our species. In short, we are no longer human beings, we are now human becomings.
This piece was adapted from Tomorrowland: Our Journey from Science Fiction to Science Fact by Steven Kotler. |
CNN New Day was up to their usual antics Wednesday morning as they brought on two leftists to discuss the GOP’s “monstrosity” of a health care bill. Ezra Klein, Editor-in-Chief of the far-left publication Vox, and Andy Slavitt, former Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama, were chosen to analyze the GOP’s potential bill.
Klein has lobbied for a socialist style system and recently said, “So long as Donald Trump is President, the actions of the U.S. government and the men and the women who work for it cannot be trusted.” He started things off by saying the bill will take money from the poor and give it to the rich: “It takes hundreds of billions of dollars currently being spent to give health insurance to poor people and moves to give tax cuts to rich people.”
When Klein labeled Republican concern for the lack of openness in the drafting process phony, co-host Chris Cuomo nodded in agreement.
Slavitt then predicted that the GOP bill will be a “Frankenstein monster.” Because the Democrat’s 2,500-page bill was, of course, a cute bunny of a bill. He also fearmongered that, “It’s going to end Medicaid as we know it.” Maybe he hasn’t heard, but Medicaid is not exactly in great shape at the moment.
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Cuomo teed up his next question for Klein by claiming that Republicans do not care about the poor:
So, Ezra, let’s go to the main proposition of those who are in favor of this. You have two big prongs, right? Or add to it, correct this premise. One is government should get out of it, it’s too expensive. Two is, they say that this is going to bring down my premiums in the individual market, so that's good for me. Let the poor people figure it out a different way.
Cuomo concluded the interview by jabbing Republicans and proclaiming the necessity of having liberals on the show to join him in trashing the GOP:
Which is, of course, a window into why it is all being done so secretly. But that's why we need gentlemen like you, put some light on the situation and then when the vote happens, then comes the heat. Thank you very much. Appreciate it...
New Skin, Reelz Channel, and Kerasal sponsored the get-together with ads running immediately before the segment.
See the more complete transcript of the coordinated smear below:
7:53 AM ET
EZRA KLEIN: Democrats had the belief, even when the Affordable Care Act was polling poorly, that if people just knew what was in it, it would be popular. If you remember, President Obama invited Republicans and Democrats to the Blair house late in the process when the bill was in danger. For hour after hour after hour, we covered this of televised debate with a theory being that if the American people just heard what was in the bill, they would like it, that the Democrats would win that debate. The Republicans believed, correctly, the exact opposite. The core of what their bill does in both the House form and from what we can tell in the Senate form, is it takes hundreds of billions of dollars currently being spent to give health insurance to poor people and moves to give tax cuts to rich people. That is not a fundamentally popular proposition and so a more open debate in which people know more about it and hear more about the coverage losses and hear more about the places in which they’re not going to get coverage if they have pre-existing conditions and so on and so forth, does not seem like a good move to Mitch McConnell. But the one final point I want to make on this, when you see Senator McCain make jokes like this, there are a lot of Republicans right now in the Senate saying, “oh, it’s a terrible process, I don’t support it, I share your frustration.” Three Republicans, three, can say we're not going to vote for this bill if we don’t have a open process, then the bill would fail without an open process. So until they actually put their money where their mouth is–
CHRIS CUOMO: [NODS IN AGREEMENT] Mmmm.
KLEIN: I don't take these jokes as worth very much.
BROOKE BALDWIN: I guess, Andy just listening in to Ezra, how can this iteration of the Senate bill survive if they're doing this all so secretly, if it's something thus far they haven't been able to be very public about talk and defend? How would you respond to what he just, you know, laid out and do we even know anything about this bill?
ANDY SLAVITT: Well, Alisyn, I spent a better part of the day with the Senate yesterday. And near as I could tell, the best way I could describe it is we're going to get something like a Frankenstein monster of health care. This is going to be something very few could love. It’s going to end Medicaid as we know it, the question is only how quickly. In order to get a better score out of the CBO, they're going to try to make the tax credits look more like ObamaCare tax credits, only without any money to do it. So it will be sort of a cheap version of ObamaCare. I think Senator Paul had it close to right yesterday when he said every Democrat in the nation is going to hate it and more than half the Republicans are going to hate it. Uh, because it’s really just a monstrosity that the leaders putting together to try to figure out how to get people to like it. Very hard.
CUOMO: So, Ezra, let’s go to the main proposition of those who are in favor of this. You have two big prongs, right? Or add to it, correct this premise. One is government should get out of it, it’s too expensive. Two is, they say that this is going to bring down my premiums in the individual market, so that's good for me. Let the poor people figure it out a different way.
KLEIN: So, yeah, I agree with you that those are probably the two main prongs. And the second one is the most interesting. There is a reason there are few people philosophically do no the want government involved in health care for poor people and polling it’s not high. You actually find very few elected Republicans will defend that proposition. Some believe it, I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, but it’s not a big part of support here. But the argument for a Republican repeal and replace plan if you listen to Republicans has been four pronged. It will bring down premiums, that deductibles in ObamaCare are too high and deductibles need to be brought down. The Co-pays in ObamaCare are too high and co-pays need to be brought down and that too few people are covered. And that is an excellent set of criticisms of the Affordable Care Act. I agree with every single one of them and the problem is nothing in these Republican bills will fulfill a single one. So yes, it is true that if you are one of the very few people left in the individual market after the sick people have been driven out and the older people have been driven out, and the poor people have been driven out, it is possible, possible, not even certain by the way, it is possible that you will be able to find a plan that covers less than your ObamaCare plan did, that also has a lower premium. But that isn't what people mean when they say they want lower premiums and we saw this in ObamaCare. People actually understand what they want in health insurance and what they want is insurance that covers them, that covers their loved ones and that has a reasonable cost and if they can't pay the cost the government gives them a bit of a hand so they are protected in the event of a medical emergency. You can't trick people about this. This isn't one of the things in politics that ultimately can get by with good press releases and messaging documents. Ultimately people buy health care, they can either afford it or they can’t and it covers them or it doesn't. And they know who to blame.
BALDWIN: So what do we think, Andy, and this is Brooke by the way, Alisyn is off. We’re letting her sleep in because it’s her birthday. Um, What do you think when you hear the president says he wants something with more heart?
SLAVITT: Yes. Well, the problem with, is if you want more heart you need to more piggy bank and they don't have more piggy bank. So I think what the president's trying to do is he's trying to get the American public not to compare the bill to the way people live today and to people's reality today. He is trying to move the ball and compare the Senate bill to the House bill. And his hope is that he can make some improvements to make it look a little bit better and that people will say, “oh, that's a victory.” Unfortunately, though, all they can really afford is window dressing. So maybe they can afford to make the look of pre-existing conditions look a little bit differently. Say that you have to cover people with pre-existing conditions, but at the same time not cover their actual conditions. So there will be some window dressing, I think in order to move the needle, but unless they are willing to cut back massive tax cuts that you spoke about and that Ezra referred to, there’s no possible way that this heart is going to have any substance to it.
CUOMO: Which is of course a window into why it is all being done so secretly. But that's why we need gentlemen like you, put some light on the situation and then when the vote happens, then comes the heat. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. |
A new study published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education reveals 87 percent of women ages 18 to 25 have been sexually harassed—a number that is excruciatingly higher than previously reported.
The report, titled “The Talk,” compares data from a national survey conducted of 3,000 teens and young adults throughout the United States. Among the 87 percent of women who faced sexual harassment, 55 percent reported being catcalled, 41 percent were touched without permission, and 47 percent faced objectifying comments from men.
The report also alleges that “certain forms of gender-based degradation may be increasing,” in part because many respondents did not believe that women face inequalities. 48 percent of the study’s participants either agreed or were neutral to the statement that “society has reached a point that there is no more double standard against women.” 39 percent agreed with or felt indifferent to the claim that it is “rare to see a woman treated in an inappropriately sexualized manner on television,” and 32 percent of men felt that men should be the dominant party in a romantic relationship.
Meanwhile, “The Talk” argues that men are more likely to dominate a relationship and create a “bros over ho’s” mentality when women outnumber and outperform men in collegiate settings.
“Casual sex is often narrowly focused on male pleasure,” the study argues, “and words like ‘bitches’ and ‘ho’s’ and terms for sex like ‘I hit that’ are now pervasive. That far greater number of teens and young adults over the last decade are watching porn regularly may fuel certain forms of misogyny and degradation.”
Educational resources seem to be failing students, too. Over 70 percent of the survey’s participants wanted information from their parents about romantic relationships; 65 percent also wanted school systems to expand on healthy relationship information. More than half of respondents never talked to their parents about “being a caring and respectful sexual partner,” and 61 percent never spoke with their family about “being sure your partner wants to have sex and is comfortable doing so before having sex.”
Bottom line: Parents and schools can do better when it comes to having frank conversations with their kids about sex and consent—it could drastically change these numbers.
H/T Newsweek |
If Obama's intention with the fast and furious series of geopolitical and domestic distractions over the past three months was to sideline Edward Snowden's revelations of the biggest spying scandal since Nixon, he appears to have largely succeeded: not only has America become largely numb to every successive iteration of shockers emerging from the most important whistleblowing episode in recent US history (and in fact can't wait to get even more in debt to purchase shiny, faux-gold fingerprint scanners), but the person behind these revelations, the 30 year old Snowden himself, has largely faded into the collective subconscious.
So what is the Russian asylum-seeker doing now that the fruits of his labor has been largely exposed and the US public is already eager for the next big watercooler scandal, popcorn in hand? As AFP reports, it is all but life as usual for the whistleblower: "US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden is living under guard at a secret address in Russia and sometimes emerges in disguise, although he remains in such danger that even a family visit could endanger his security, his lawyer said Monday."
Follows a detailed update from AFP on the daily life of the most infamous US expat living somewhere in Russia:
Snowden has avoided all contact with media since arriving in Russia on a flight from Hong Kong in June and his lawyer Anatoly Kucherena has become his unofficial spokesman. "I am his only link with the outside world at the moment. Even his contacts with his parents are carried out through me," Kucherena said in an interview published in Itogi weekly magazine. Kucherena gave few details of how Snowden occupies his time, but said he is able to go out in disguise. "He would walk past you and you wouldn't recognise him," he told Itogi. "It's a question of clothes and small alternations to his appearance. So I'm not deceiving anyone: he really does walk freely around on the streets." Snowden has also made quick progress in learning Russian, his lawyer said. "He is an extremely fast learner as far as the Russian language is concerned," Kucherena said in another interview that will air Monday on Kremlin-funded RT television. "He only needs a few hours or days to learn the ropes and start speaking," the lawyer said in comments dubbed into English. While describing an isolated existence, Kucherena said Snowden did not regret his decision to give up his life in the United States. "He's not disappointed. He believes he did everything right," he told RT.
Kucherena, a high-profile lawyer who is an advisor to President Vladimir Putin, said he is working for free, as Snowden's personal money is running low.
Snowden's father is expected to come, at which stage "the question of his future activities will be discussed at a family council," Kucherena told RT. "I can't give you certain dates but soon he will come to Russia and meet with his son. There will be him and his mother and probably one of his grandparents."
He warned however that a family visit could threaten Snowden's safety, since US intelligence could use it to find his hideout. "Snowden's former colleagues could try to use the arrival of the parents to track down his location. I have definite information, which I can't reveal now, which suggests the danger level is very high," he told Itogi.
Not all is bad news, however. In addition to ex-spy Anna Chapman tweeting her marriage proposal to the whistleblower, it has been said women from all across Russia, and the world, are willing to do anything to see their name (and person) in lights next to the most infamous US law fugitive. However, somehow we doubt this is high on his list of priorities. |
The Bartender Hates You and It's All Your Fault published by The 1st Amender
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Posted on 2017-01-14
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This writer has written 177 articles.
I would like to first go on the record that two real bartenders were interviewed for these list of habits patrons do and will remain anonymous. With that being said, they wanted to make it clear that most people are actually pretty cool when it comes to serving as a bartender. This article is reserved for the minority of people who suck. If you have done these things -- you should stop doing it.
16 Things The Bartender Hates What You Are Doing
16. People who get mad when you cut them off.
Listen. We really don't mind you as our customer. We find that if you come in already drunk and start ordering a round of drinks there is supposed to be a cutoff point. If we felt that you have had too much and we "don't" cut you off -- we are held responsible for your injuries or death. So try not to get mad at your bartender for caring too much.
15. Being belligerent.
Get someone to pick you up. Look we all are trying to have a good time. We don't need you yelling across the bar at other patrons making things difficult for everyone to live their lives. This doesn't happen very often but we do get the occasional belligerent person who just can't keep to themselves.
14. Bad tipping.
Dude really? If you came into our bar and opened up a $100 tab, generally bartenders expect around 20%. Don't open one of these tabs unless you are prepared to pay for that. If you get one or two beers it's obviously different. But if you are ordering a bunch of stuff and are more needy than other customers, expect to tip a bit more than others. You just need to tip accordingly and we will be happy.
13. I have to use the right glass.
Please don't get mad at me because I didn't put your beer in the bigger glass. It is policy that we can't put a beer in a 16 ounce pint glass. We do have glasses for 14 ounces which is fine. Otherwise we get in trouble for that. Please don't be mad at us and we're not trying to stiff you. This is specific to certain bars and some may give you bigger glasses, but we have to enforce policy.
12. You're not ready
People come in and do want to order, they flag you down and you come to their aid. Then they sit there not sure what they want. Why did you flag me down? I have about 10 other people who are asking for drinks and only 2 of them are at the bar. Listen we will take care of you when you are ready. Don't get mad at us for leaving due to your indecisiveness. There are people who come in, ask a lot of questions. Maybe they ask for a drink and they end up not liking it, you suggest another and they don't like that one either. You give samples of wines and beers. All work and no pay. Believe it or not. This is mostly for the women reading this. Guys generally come in and will drink whatever you give them. There is a majority of indecisiveness when it comes to women.
11. Ignoring the bartender.
This is the vise versa of number 13. We really want to make sure you have a satisfying quick service and so do other people. Please don't just start talking to your friend or get on the phone when you are in the middle of ordering. It is really annoying and I am the one who gets yelled at for taking too long to making a drink.
10. Trying to have a conversation with a super busy bartender.
Yeah you probably only see a few people at the bar and it seems like there are just not enough people to keep me busy. Well little did you know a party of 20 just sat down at a table and are all asking for drinks, and it certainly isn't the wait staff who makes your fancy mixed drinks. Please just try to mind me when I am working very hard to make drinks, I'm not stingy I just can't talk to you right now.
9. "It's past happy hour. Can I still get happy hour price?"
No is the short answer. People will come and complain that they sat down before happy hour, and when they go to order a drink it is past happy hour. Guess what: I can't control the computer that makes the prices. I have no say in any of that and simply don't have a choice. Please don't get mad at me when it is totally out of my control.
8. Hey can you "make it strong?"
What? Dude if you want it strong you can order a "rocks" which is slightly more than a single or a double which is two singles. Stop asking me to make it strong and don't ask for more alcohol if you are not willing to pony up for it. We have to serve at specific amounts and if you want more we have to charge you more.
7. People who expect a drink right away when you are in the middle of other things.
I will try to get to you as best as I can but you can't get mad at me for not serving you right away. You have about 5 other people at the bar and a table of 7 who have been here before you. Please just hold onto your knickers and we'll get to you momentarily.
6. Verbal Tips
A patron would sit there and tell you you're really good and leave a terrible tip. This is mostly reserved for people who don't know how to tip their bartender. 20% is the average amount to tip. Also, put away your calculator. You can easily round up 20% in your head.
5. Being flagged down with noises.
Yes I see you. Please don't snap at me. Stop slurping your drink making a noise to make sure I can hear it. I will get to you. You can treat me like a human and I will come over there and serve you in the quickest way possible.
4. Asking for a box for your food and end up leaving it.
Why do you do this to me? Believe it or not when someone asks us to bring a box for your food, an astonishing 80% end up leaving it at the bar! Why did you make me get a box? Don't make me get a box. Just being forgetful I get it but most people don't even come back for it. Stop making me get a box when I know you won't take it home with you.
3. Asking one at a time.
You're a party of 7 and you sat down at a table. Sometimes the wait staff needs some help so you go to handle people's drinks. You go there and one person asks for one thing out of the group of people. You go get it and come back, only to have another person ask for something else. Pretty soon you are making 7 trips back and forth serving each person individually! Stop that. Please only order when you are all ready.
2. Entitlement.
There is a small percentage of people who think they are entitled. They come in and demand and bark orders like your a slave or a servant. I get I am working for your tips but you don't need to treat me like a slave. Usually people are pretty cool but there is just the occasional self-entitled person that can just ruin any attempt at being cheerful about it.
And without further ado - the number one thing that pisses off your bartender is...
1. Being rude!
So you ordered something complicated. A crazy name of a drink thinking that we know it. When we tell you we don't know what that drink is you end up getting a bit snooty about it. We really don't need the rudeness. We're a human being just like you and want to help you have a good time as much as possible.
With all this being said - 90% of you are actually pretty cool. Even the bartender themselves can be a nasty person. We are not immune to being jerks! There is just the stunning minority of people out there that do cause issues and that if you have done any of these things above: Simply avoid doing it in the future to your bar staff! |
We have a medical opinion on the foot strain suffered by KC Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles. The Chiefs trainer spoke with the media and updated the status on Charles, who is considered day-to-day.
Chiefs trainer Rick burlholder said Charles os day to day. Ruled out long term issue like lisfranc — Adam Teicher (@adamteicher) August 13, 2013
#chiefs trainer says Charles day to day. Sore tendon in the ankle but not major damage 2 orthos checked him out and no structural damage — joshklingler (@joshklingler) August 13, 2013
Chiefs head trainer says Charles has a bruise on the top of his foot and is day to day he might get some work n tomorrow's practice. — Alan Shope (@AlanKCTV5) August 13, 2013
Charles had soreness up leg from strain yesterday but could be on field tomorrow. #Chiefs — Dave Skretta (@APdaveskretta) August 13, 2013
The key parts of that:
-No structural damage, which suggests this is not a long-term thing.
-He could practice a little bit by tomorrow.
-No Lisfranc injury, which was the really big concern.
I'm feeling a lot better about this. Let's see what he does on Wednesday, if anything, and then wait for game weekend. Just my hunch, but I don't see Charles playing on Friday night. We'll wait for the official word from Reid though.
More from Arrowhead Pride: |
Elizabeth Reis is a professor of women’s and gender studies at the University of Oregon and is the author of Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009). This year (2012-2103) she is a visiting scholar in the History of Science Department at Harvard University. This interview originally appeared in Feminists for Choice and is reprinted with permission.
1. What was the motivation behind writing Bodies in Doubt?
So much of the “history” of intersex begins in the mid-1950s with a critique of John Money and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins University. This was an important period, of course, because Money’s protocols became widely adopted, but it was hardly the beginning of the story of the medical management of intersex. As an early American historian, I wondered what happened to those born with unusual bodies in earlier eras. I wanted to find out how the gradual process of medicalization affected our understanding of how male and female bodies were supposed to look.
2. Disorders of sex development (DSD) are actually quite common (approximately one in every two thousand people is born with genital anomalies) and there are many different types of DSD. Can you tell our readers a little bit about this?
The numbers are tricky because not every intersex condition is obvious at birth. It’s somewhat easier to “count” something as intersex if an obvious genital anomaly appears right when the baby is born. But there are some conditions that don’t manifest themselves until later, at puberty, for example. If a girl doesn’t start her period, her parents might eventually take her for an ultrasound where they find that she has internal anatomy typically found in boys. This is what can happen with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. The body is insensitive to androgens, and so the child looks typically female at birth, is raised as a girl, but then never gets her period. She has no uterus but instead has internal testes and XY chromosomes. Most people never get their chromosomes tested, and so we just assume that all girls are XX and all boys are XY. This isn’t the case, in fact.
You’re right that there are far more babies born with DSDs than most people are aware of. This is because we have treated intersex as if it’s something to be ashamed of, which it is not. Parents have been advised not to tell anyone, even their own child, what is going on. Consequently, many children grow up with a sense of secrecy and shame about their bodies and unaffected people never hear that much about any of this. And when they do, it’s often mixed with a lot of inaccurate information and old-fashioned terminology. For example, intersex people used to be called “hermaphrodites.” This is now considered a derogatory term because it conjures an image of mythical creatures, not actual people!
3. You discuss how the ideas about stereotypical masculinity and femininity drove the treatment (both medical and social) of individuals with different types of DSD. Do you think the treatment of these individuals would have been different and less discriminating if we had more flexible opinions about gender and gender roles?
I do think that our conception of gender roles and gender presentation is very limited. I would say that in general, our understanding of “normal” of just about everything is quite narrow, and we desperately want to fit within those limited confines. What makes dealing with intersex even more complex is that parents are often asked to make decisions regarding their child’s body. Of course, parents want what is best for the children. They want them to be happy and they want them to grow up without being teased or ridiculed for having an unusual body. And so many parents might consent to “normalizing” surgeries for their child so that their genitals will look more typical, but sometimes these surgeries have negative consequences. For example, most girls do not have a very large clitoris. In the past, doctors generally removed or reduced large clitorises so that the girl’s genitals would look more like those of a typical girl. The problem with this approach is that now that girl will have reduced (or even no) sexual sensation. Today physicians are much more cautious about this kind of surgery, though it still happens because we are not used to seeing girls with such anatomy.
Boys had their genitals modified as well. Some born with what is known as a “micro-penis” had their genitals surgically altered to become girls, in the past. The thought was that a boy couldn’t possibly live as a successful boy with such a disfigurement. Since the late-twentieth century, attitudes towards these surgeries have changed, largely as a result of intersex activism that began in the 1990s. Some people who endured these procedures never felt right as girls, and would rather have been boys with different-looking genitals than girls. If, as a society, we felt more comfortable with difference, we might not be so eager to surgically repair bodies that don’t actually need repair.
4. You suggest changing the name “disorders of sex development” to “divergence of sex development.” Do you think that this will help show that DSD are more common than people know?
I would like to see the name changed from “disorders” of sex development to “divergence” of sex development, or even “variation” of sex development . . . anything that doesn’t encourage unnecessary pathology would be preferable. Perhaps, as you suggest, a different name might also suggest that it’s more common than people realize, but primarily my reason for disliking “disorders of sex development” is the use of the word “disorder.” Most people will assume that a disorder requires fixing, and that isn’t always the case with intersex. Of course, sometimes there might be an underlying metabolic concern that needs careful medical attention, but often the issue is merely cosmetic or social. I think that using the word “disorder” reinforces the notion that every body has to look a certain way, and that everything can be fixed. As many scholars and intersex people have demonstrated, often the medical “fix” can make things worse. Loss of sexual sensation, incontinence, scarring, in addition to the emotional trauma of constant surgeries. . . we need to ask ourselves if all of these things are worth the effort to normalize bodies.
5. In regards to the reproductive rights of individuals with DSD, what would you like to see happen in the future?
I would like to see ALL people be treated with dignity and respect, no matter the shape of their genitals or the composition of their internal organs or chromosomes. I would like to see all people told the truth by medical professionals, even if the truth is less promising than what they think people want to hear. I would like parents of intersex children to be in contact with other parents who have gone through similar circumstances so that they can compare notes and not feel like they’re the only ones with a child they weren’t expecting. I would also like prospective parents to know about the possibility of intersex births so they don’t feel pressured to make permanent decisions about their baby’s body right after they’ve given birth. Most intersex births do not require emergency surgeries, and parents should be told that. I would like intersex teens to have a chance to meet and support each other. There’s a wonderful group of young people in the U.S. called Inter/Act that works with Advocates for Informed Choice. They just published a brochure designed for parents and doctors that is just fabulous. Mostly, I’d like to see intersex discussed more openly and honestly, and I’d like to see our understanding of what is “normal” broadened. |
This article is about the book. For the form of government that bears the same name, see Authoritarianism
The Authoritarian Personality is a 1950 sociology book by Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson, and Nevitt Sanford, researchers working at the University of California, Berkeley, during and shortly after World War II.
The Authoritarian Personality "invented a set of criteria by which to define personality traits, ranked these traits and their intensity in any given person on what it called the 'F scale' (F for fascist)."[1] The personality type Adorno et al. identified can be defined by nine traits that were believed to cluster together as the result of childhood experiences. These traits include conventionalism, authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, anti-intellectualism, anti-intraception, superstition and stereotypy, power and "toughness", destructiveness and cynicism, projectivity, and exaggerated concerns over sex.[2][3]
Though strongly criticized for bias and methodology,[4][5] the book was highly influential in American social sciences, particularly in the first decade after its publication: "No volume published since the war in the field of social psychology has had a greater impact on the direction of the actual empirical work being carried on in the universities today."[6]
Institutional context [ edit ]
The impetus of The Authoritarian Personality was the Holocaust, the attempted genocidal extinction of European Jews by Adolf Hitler's National Socialist party. Adorno had been a member of the "Frankfurt School", a group of philosophers and Marxist theorists who fled Germany when Hitler shut down their Institute for Social Research. Adorno et al. were thus motivated by a desire[citation needed] to identify and measure factors that were believed to contribute to antisemitic and fascist traits. The book was part of a "Studies in Prejudice" series sponsored by the American Jewish Committee's Department of Scientific Research.[7][8]
Sources and influences [ edit ]
The Authoritarian Personality was based in part on earlier Frankfurt School analyses undertaken in Germany, but with a few key changes. First, their Marxist and radical roots were downplayed. For example, the earlier “authoritarian personality/revolutionary personality” axis was changed to an “authoritarian personality/democratic personality” axis in America. Thus, values and behaviors earlier associated with revolutionary Marxism were now associated with support for democracy.[9] Second, the book abandoned and/or modified traditional Marxist sociological and economic explanations for human behavior in favor of psychological explanations, earning scorn from more orthodox Marxists.[10]
Generally, Adorno et al. took an antipositivist position;[11][12] More generally, the Frankfurt School has been critical of reductionism and the third-person perspective in the social sciences. Instead, it recognizes that social science research is inevitably value-laden, which calls for a model of scientist who is a self-reflective interpreter, rather than a technical problem-solver. Furthermore, it assigns a practical purpose in social science. Following a marxist tradition, it requires that theories in social science should not only describe and explain the social world, but also should serve a human emancipation agenda in all circumstances of oppression and dominance. This is a different approach in philosophy of science than falsification, more popular in the natural sciences.[13]
Content [ edit ]
A central idea of The Authoritarian Personality is that authoritarianism is the result of a Freudian developmental model. Excessively harsh and punitive parenting was posited to cause children to feel immense anger towards their parents; yet fear of parental disapproval or punishment caused people to not directly confront their parents, but rather to identify with and idolize authority figures.[page needed] Moreover, the book suggested that authoritarianism was rooted in suppressed homosexuality, which was redirected into outward hostility towards the father, which was, in turn, suppressed for fear of being infantilized and castrated by the father.[14] This hypothesis was consistent with prevailing psychological theories of the time, and even though Frenkel-Brunswik reported some preliminary support, empirical data have generally not confirmed this prediction.[15][page needed][need quotation to verify] Authoritarianism was measured by the F-scale. The "F" was short for "pre-fascist personality." Another major hypothesis of the book is that the authoritarian syndrome is predisposed to right-wing ideology and therefore receptive to fascist governments.[page needed]
Methodology [ edit ]
The study employs both quantitative and qualitative components. The first part of the research resembles a survey type of research with structured questionnaires. Based on the scores on the questionnaires, a smaller number of participants was elected for clinical interviews and administration of the Thematic Apperception Test. Interviews were coded with the techniques of content analysis.[a]
Sample [ edit ]
"The majority of the subjects could be characterized as white, non-Jewish, native-born, middle-class Americans and the authors guessed that their findings would hold for this population" [16]:48
[Critique point]: The individuals were sampled from formal organizations. There are reasons to believe that there are systematic difference between such a sample and the aforementioned population (see section Overall Criticism).
Response format [ edit ]
Likert type items ranging from -3 to +3 without a middle point.
Psychometric scales [ edit ]
Anti-Semitism Scale
Ethnocentrism Scale
Political & Economical Conservatism Scale
Anti-Semitism scale [ edit ]
This is a listing of the content categories featured in the items. These traits are attributed to Jewish people.[16]:48
Offensive (conceited, sensual, dirty)
(conceited, sensual, dirty) Threatening (ruthless, competitive, radical)
(ruthless, competitive, radical) Attitudes (discriminative action to be taken)
(discriminative action to be taken) Seclusive (clannish, keeping apart from gentiles)
(clannish, keeping apart from gentiles) Intrusive (desire to intrude where not welcome)
All items were phrased in affirmation of the Anti-Semitic sentiment. Brown (2004, p. 48), together with many others, criticizes this choice as "unwise".[16]:48
The items were phrased in a superficially moderate language, which nonetheless conveyed the saliency of Jews to the respondent and a negative sentiment towards them [16]:49
Ethnocentrism [ edit ]
Split-half reliability for the scale was .91 (high). The correlation between Ethnocentrism and Anti-Semitism scales was .80 (relatively high). This result is "evidence that antagonism to the culturally unlike is a generalized sentiment" [16]:50
Political and economical conservativism [ edit ]
Split-half reliability for PEC scale was .73 (moderate). The scale's correlation with A-S and E was not strong, but in none of the groups was it negative. "[...] neither ethnocentrism nor Anti-Semitism ever showed a tendency to go with leftist liberal views." [16]:50
F Scale [ edit ]
The F scale targets an authoritarian, anti-democratic personality profile that makes a person susceptible to Fascist propaganda. The items were written in accordance to fascist propaganda materials as well as priory held TAT protocol data and interviews with ethnocentric participants.
Conventionalism : Adherence to conventional values.
: Adherence to conventional values. Authoritarian Submission : Towards ingroup authority figures.
: Towards ingroup authority figures. Authoritarian Aggression : Against people who violate conventional values.
: Against people who violate conventional values. Anti-Intraception : Opposition to subjectivity and imagination.
: Opposition to subjectivity and imagination. Superstition and Stereotypy : Belief in individual fate; thinking in rigid categories.
: Belief in individual fate; thinking in rigid categories. Power and Toughness : Concerned with submission and domination; assertion of strength.
: Concerned with submission and domination; assertion of strength. Destructiveness and Cynicism : hostility against human nature.
: hostility against human nature. Projectivity : Perception of the world as dangerous; tendency to project unconscious impulses.
: Perception of the world as dangerous; tendency to project unconscious impulses. Sex: Overly concerned with modern sexual practices.
Across various participant groups, the average item-total correlation was 0.33. Subsequent factor analysis confirmed a one-dimensional structure of these content subsets of items (Eysenck 1954, p 152, ref by Brown, p. 53). The first form of the F-Scale correlated 0.53 with A-S, 0.65 to E and 0.54 to PEC. The scale was revised by dropping items with low item-total correlations and/or low predictive value of A-S and E scores. The revised form correlated by 0.75 to a combined A-S/E scale, and 0.57 to PEC. Ethnocentrism, anti-Semitism and potentiality for fascism were inter-related to each other, as well as to conservatism, although not as prominently.
Correlations with IQ, SES, and education [ edit ]
Ethnocentrism is negatively correlated with both IQ and years of education. Subsequent analyses by Christie showed that education is the mediating factor in this set of relationships. Intelligence is not as strongly correlated to E per se if years of education are partialed out, the partial correlation being as small as -.20. Christie also estimated the expected correlation between "either IQ and F scores or years of education and F scores for a representative cross-sectional sample, range between -.50 and -.60".[16]:74
Clinical and projective data [ edit ]
Interviews [ edit ]
The interviewers were instructed to obtain information of the following areas. There were more specific instructions and points of emphasis within each of these areas.
Vocation
Income
Religion
Clinical Data Family Background: Sociological Aspects Family Figures: Personal Aspects Childhood Sex Social Relationships School
Politics
Minorities and Race
[Critique Point] Interviewers (but not coders) were aware of the participants responses and were instructed to study them before interview. This choice was also "severely criticized" [16]:55
"In considerable degree, [...], the projective data confirm the covariation of implicit antidemocratic trends with prejudice which was demonstrated by the questionnaire data".
Construction of personality [ edit ]
Self Glorification vs Objective Self Appraisal
Objective Self Appraisal Conventional Idealization of Parents vs Objective Appraisal
Objective Appraisal Family status-concerned vs Family status-relaxed
Additional: Coping with Ambivalence about Self and Others, Lack of acceptance of aggressive feelings towards the parents, Projection of sexual and aggressive impulses to minorities, and its psychological function. "Repression of impulses leads to projection which functions as rationalization for an expression.' [16]:62
[Critique Point]: Coding and Interpretation is informed by psychoanalytic theory.
Cognitive style [ edit ]
Rigidity vs Flexibility
Flexibility Intolerance of Ambiguity 'vs Tolerance of Ambiguity
(see Jaensch's Typology)
[Critique Point] Due to the coders having access to the protocols, the dependency between prejudice and rigidity may be biased.[16]:65
Overall criticism [ edit ]
Sampling [ edit ]
Participants were recruited through formal organizations. Christie reports though that people belonging to at least one organization differ significantly from people that do not belong to organizations at all. Thus the sample taken was not representative of white, non-Jewish, middle-class, Americans. The correlations between A-S, E and F vary in different samples, subsequent studies showed. However, a negative correlation was never found between those scales.
Acquiscence Response Set [ edit ]
Couch and Keniston (1960) addressed the problem of the items being all phrased in an affirmative direction towards anti-Semitism.[17] In a large number of psychometric instruments, they showed that the tendency to respond affirmatively (Yeasayers) or negatively (Naysayers) is a relevant psychological factor despite the content of specific questionnaires.[16]:68
It is now accepted that a greater proportion of variance can be attributed to individual response patterns rather than the targeted Anti-Semitic attitude. This poses a validity problem: The scale may not accurately record the variable it is intended to measure.
Bass found a .20 correlation between F-scale and an item-by-item reversed version. (expected correlation if the phrasing played no role would be -1.00) Christie used more elaborate reversal of items accounting for linguistic and psychological subtleties preserving the original rationale of the items preparation.[16]:67 See section on Overall Criticism.
Criticisms of content analyses [ edit ]
Interviewer Knowledge of Questionnaire Responses
Examination of Data in Advance of Coding
Coding Multiple Variables from the Same Content
Reporting Inter-rater Reliability for Too General Coding Categories [16]: 69–72
Explanation in terms of SES rather than repression [ edit ]
"We can easily imagine plausible reasons for the association of each authoritarian trait with the cluster that includes low IQ, little education, and low SES and so the explanation of covariation among the traits is simply their several particular ties to the same underlying factors. [...][However][...] Norms are not put together at random or incidentally. When they stabilize into a particular combination it must be because that is a combination that works for human personalities" (Brown, p. 75) [16]:75
Left wing authoritarianism [ edit ]
A number of studies have examined the external criterion validity of F scale, with various demographic and political groups. Such groups included: German cosmetic factory workers (Cohn and Carsch, 1954); English fascists and communists, compared to 'politically neutral' soldiers (Coulter, 1953). Both studies found high scores (>5) in F-Scale.
However, the Coulter study also found the Communists scored higher in F-Scale than the politically neutral group. Eysenck (1954, ref. by Brown, p. 80) commented that Coulter's results indicate that the F-Scale actually measures general authoritarianism, rather than fascist tendencies in particular. (see Left-Wing Authoritarianism)
Christie (1956) attributed Coulter's findings to sampling fluctuation, pointing out the politically neutral group was unusually low in F-Scale, compared to 50 known group means at the time. Rokeach (1960) obtained F-Scale scores from 13 Communist college students in England. Their mean was the lowest of all known groups.
Brown, (2004, p. 80) states: "... the Berkley researchers seem to have been correct in their belief that the F-Scale is a measure of fascism." [16]:80
Authors and conflicts [ edit ]
Sanford and Levinson were both psychology professors at Berkeley. They did much of the preliminary work on ethnocentrism and statistical measurement. Frenkel-Brunswik examined personality variables and family background with a series of interview studies. Adorno provided a political and sociological perspective to the book. Although Adorno's name heads the alphabetical list of authors, he arrived late to the project and made a relatively small contribution.[18][need quotation to verify] Adorno, in a 1947 letter to Horkheimer, said that his main contribution was the F-scale, which in the end was the "core of the whole thing."[19] An agreement among the authors held that each one was to sign the individual chapters to which he or she had contributed, and that all four were to sign the chapter on the F-scale;[19] Adorno was credited in 5 of the 23 chapters.
The initially planned title for the book was The Fascist Character and the Measurement of Fascist Trends, but as early as 1947 Adorno feared that the assistants at Berkeley would try to sanitize it to a more innocuous title like Character and Prejudice. The final title was the result of a compromise.[19]
Responses [ edit ]
The Authoritarian Personality inspired extensive research in psychology, sociology, and political science during the 1950s and early 1960s on the relation between personality traits, behavior, and political beliefs. The Authoritarian Personality has often provoked polarized responses: “The Berkeley study of authoritarian personality does not leave many people indifferent.”[20]
The study "has been subjected to considerable criticism"[21] since the 1950s, particularly for various methodological flaws, including sample bias and poor psychometric techniques.[22][page needed][need quotation to verify]
In 1973, Gaensslen et al.[23] found that, contrary to predictions by Adorno et al.,[need quotation to verify] rigidity/dogmatism is not intrinsically maladaptive; e.g., rigidity can be associated with discipline and productivity.[need quotation to verify]
In 1980, sociologist J.J. Ray[24] argued that the project of The Authoritarian Personality was seriously flawed[need quotation to verify] on several points: for not asking questions regarding libertarian politics (which according to Ray are typically more anti-authoritarian than right- or left-wing politics[need quotation to verify]); for failing to demonstrate that authoritarian/right-wing beliefs are correlated with psychopathology; and, most importantly, for failing to demonstrate that authoritarian beliefs are associated with authoritarian behavior. In 1993, over a decade later, the latter point was also criticized by Billings, et al.[25][better source needed]
The book concludes that right-wing, authoritarian governments produce hostility towards racial, religious or ethnic minorities. Psychologist Bob Altemeyer argued against that conclusion, saying that Fascist Italy was not characterized by antisemitism, and that Jews occupied high positions in Mussolini’s government until pressure from Hitler disenfranchised these Jews.[26]
Rubenstein’s research in Israel revealed that Orthodox Jews scored higher on right wing politics and authoritarianism as traits than Reform Jews, and that both groups scored higher than Secular Jews. However, it cannot be said that there is no relationship between traits of Right-Wing Authoritarians and antisemitism. In fact, Adorno's nine traits of the "F scale" are rather general and have been thought to identify fascist as well as anti-Semitic individual attributes. The fact that Rubenstein himself affirms that "the results confirm the validity of the RWA" represents a particularly interesting outcome: Orthodox and Reform Jews in Israel are classified closer to the fascist and anti-Semitic traits, as thought in 1950 by Adorno et al., compared to Secular Jews in Israel.[27]
Some observers have criticized what they saw as a strongly politicized agenda to The Authoritarian Personality. Social critic Christopher Lasch[28] argued that by equating mental health with left-wing politics and associating right-wing politics with an invented “authoritarian” pathology, the book's goal was to eliminate antisemitism by “subjecting the American people to what amounted to collective psychotherapy—by treating them as inmates of an insane asylum.” The Authoritarian Personality remains widely cited in the social sciences and continues to inspire research interest today.[29]
Hyman and Sheatsley 1954
"Our major criticisms lead us inevitably to conclude that the authors' theory has not been proved by the data they cite".[16]:76
Brown 2004
"The most serious defects in the questionnaire work are the inadequate sampling methods and the operation of response sets. [In spite of that] there is a substantial residual probability that the chief conclusion of the questionnaire work is correct: attitudes of Anti-Semitism, ethnocentrism, and authoritarianism do generally go together. [...] some of the findings of the questionnaire study were replicated in the projectives study, and while this latter work has its own deficiencies, some account must be taken for the convergence in the two sets of data." [16]:77
"Perhaps the least well supported of all the findings in the Berkley study are those concerning the genesis of authoritarianism in childhood. [...] However, Frenkel-Brunswik has directly studied prejudice in childhood and adolescence. She reports confirmation of most of the original findings." [16]:77
Christie and Cook 1958
Christie and Cook (1958)[30] cite 230 titles relating to The Authoritarian Personality and they conclude that:
"...the overall picture shows consistency of findings in many of the most intensively studied areas. The E and F scales are found to be significantly correlated in a wide array of samples and predictions of relationships with attitudinal measures are almost invariably confirmed" [16]:76
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ [16] Based on Brown (2004)
References [ edit ] |
Can you name the biggest impediment to innovation? One of our Fishbowl “Captains” – John Erickson– hit the nail on the head in a team discussion this week.
The culprit is fear.
A recent survey by the Robert Half Group agrees. What makes employees afraid?
Fear of making a mistake tops the list, and was cited by 30% of employees
Fear of getting fired is another. In fact fear of getting fired or appearing less dedicated or vital if they dare to take a vacation is rampant in the slow economy. The survey shows employees left an average of 11 vacation days—70%--of their vacations--untaken in 2011.
Fear of dealing with difficult customers or clients
Fear of conflict with a manager
Fear of speaking in front of a group
Fear of having disagreements with co-workers
Only 3% of employees consider themselves “fearless.” Is it any wonder their innovation is gone?
Fear is one of the greatest sources of stress. The inventive part of our mind is difficult to nurture, and we can only access it when we are relaxed. An employee that feels supported and appreciated is more willing to devote their full energy, creativity and passion to the company and its goals, and will naturally innovate in every area within their influence. Employees who are afraid of something or someone in the organization will naturally close up to protect themselves, and can no longer perform at their full capacity.
What can we do to turn this deadly equation around? I’m highly intrigued by the philosophy of management consultant and author Wally Hauck. In his book The Art of Leading: 3 Principles for Predictable Performance Improvement, he boils the solution down to three essential steps every leader can use. These are also the steps our company uses. Here they are:
Leaders must truly trust employees. They must expect that employees will behave like adults and therefore treat them like fully creative and capable people. They need to trust employees to care about each other and about their customers. Hauck points out that genuine trust is beyond empowerment – that when leadership “gives power,” inherent in the equation is the concept that they are giving employees something they also have the power to take back. A leader who truly trusts their people knows that employees already have the power they need within them, and trusts them to use it honorably and well. We must rely more on principles and less on policy. Let’s forget the overbearing dependence on polices to govern our steps, and learn to agree on guiding principles instead. Consider the statement “every action is consistent with specific values behaviors.” For us, the values principles are our 7 Non Negotiables of Winning (which are also the focus of my upcoming book). They are Respect, Belief, Trust, Loyalty, Courage, Gratitude and Commitment. By following our principles instead of our policies, employees can make quick decisions that improve their own performance without manager oversight or performance appraisals. They can adapt to change on the fly. They can create their own solutions rather than worrying about the policies and procedures involved. They are no longer fearful about the possibility they will make a mistake. Finally, and most importantly, employees must experiment before they create. A fearful employee can never experiment. In an environment of trust, however, individuals and teams learn to thrive on the opportunity to try. They value and even treasure the resulting chances to make a mistake. Through their mistakes they create the genesis for miraculous outcomes.
Open communication or an “open-door” policy is critical to putting these three steps into effect. One of the first things an organization loses in a fearful environment is vital and open feedback and communication at every level.
In a fearful environment, front-line employees are unwilling to share because they are afraid somebody will “kill the messenger,” and communication becomes shallow or disappears. Without a healthy feedback loop, the organization will no longer know where to focus their problem-solving efforts and will lose the innovative energy they gain.
We must move away from work environments that are based on command and control. We can eliminate fear when we face it head on and create an open dialogue to separate the issue at hand from the fear. "Attack the problem, not the individual," is our Fishbowl motto. Only then can innovation truly occur. Can you take this challenge? The change will astound you. I look forward to hearing about your results.
Additional reporting for this article was provided by Fishbowl President Mary Michelle Scott and VP Training and Support John Erickson.
Author: David K. Williams | Google+ |
The criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton is back front and center now that the FBI has released proof that her failure to safeguard state secrets caused the secrets to fall into the hands of foreign governments, some of which wish the United States ill.
Even though the case against her — which was closed and then reopened and then closed again — is old news and she obviously is no longer a candidate to become president of the United States and has been staying below the radar for the past two months, recent developments have regenerated the case.
Here is the back story.
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On July 5, FBI Director James Comey announced publicly that the FBI would recommend against seeking an indictment of Clinton for espionage — the failure to safeguard state secrets that had been entrusted to her. He argued that though the case against her was strong — as secretary of state, she had been extremely careless with secrets; exposed hundreds of materials that were confidential, secret and top-secret; and used non-secure mobile devices while in the territory of hostile governments — no reasonable prosecutor would take the case.
Why was the decision of whether to prosecute Clinton left to Comey? Suicide Pact: The Radi... Best Price: $3.08 Buy New $7.24 (as of 01:55 EST - Details)
The FBI’s job is to gather evidence of federal crimes and to present that evidence to career prosecutors in the Department of Justice for evaluation. The FBI has numerous investigative tools available to it. One of those tools is presenting evidence to a grand jury and requesting subpoenas from it. Another is presenting evidence to a federal judge and requesting search warrants from the judge. A third is obtaining the indictment of someone who is in the inner circle of the person who is the true target of the investigation and then persuading that indicted person to become a government witness.
None of those tools was used in the Clinton case.
As well, a major interference with the case occurred when Attorney General Loretta Lynch agreed to meet privately with former President Bill Clinton. He was — and still is — also the subject of an FBI criminal investigation. Though both Lynch and Mr. Clinton denied talking about the investigations, the attorney general took herself and senior DOJ management off the Hillary Clinton case, leaving the FBI director with the authority to decide whether to prosecute. So based on Comey’s decision that no reasonable prosecutor would take the case against Mrs. Clinton, it was closed.
The case was briefly reopened 11 days before Election Day. The FBI announced it had stumbled upon a potential treasure-trove of emails contained in a laptop jointly owned and used by Hillary Clinton’s closest aide, Huma Abedin, and her husband, former Rep. Anthony Weiner. The FBI believed at the time that the laptop contained nearly every email Abedin had received from Clinton. Weiner was under investigation for various sexual crimes, and the FBI had obtained the laptop in its search for evidence against him. The Freedom Answer Boo... Andrew P. Napolitano Best Price: $1.01 Buy New $3.47 (as of 09:10 EST - Details)
Then, a week later, the FBI announced that it had found nothing among the 650,000 emails in the laptop that would cause it to reopen the Clinton case, and it closed the case a second time.
Donald Trump argued during the last weeks of the presidential election campaign that Clinton had exposed state secrets to hostile foreign governments. FBI agents who disagreed with their boss’s decision not to seek the indictment of Clinton made the same arguments. Clinton denied vehemently that she had caused any state secrets to pass into the hands of hostile foreign governments.
Then Trump was elected president of the United States.
Then Clinton left the public scene.
Then, last Sunday evening, during the NFL playoff game between the New York Giants and the Green Bay Packers, the FBI posted on its website more than 300 emails that Clinton had sent to an unnamed colleague not in the government — no doubt her adviser Sid Blumenthal — that had fallen into the hands of foreign powers. It turns out — and the Sunday night release proves this — that Blumenthal was hacked by intelligence agents from at least three foreign governments and that they obtained the emails Clinton had sent to him that contained state secrets. Sources believe that the hostile hackers were the Russians and the Chinese and the friendly hackers were the Israelis.
It Is Dangerous to Be ... Andrew P. Napolitano Best Price: $2.89 Buy New $9.00 (as of 08:30 EST - Details) Last Sunday’s revelations make the case against Clinton far more serious than Comey presented it to be last summer. Indeed, Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been nominated by Trump to be attorney general and who has been a harsh critic of Clinton’s, told the Senate Judiciary Committee this week that he would step aside from any further investigation of Clinton, thereby acknowledging that the investigation will probably be opened again.
One of the metrics that the DOJ examines in deciding whether to prosecute is an analysis of harm caused by the potential defendant. I have examined the newly released emails, and the state secrets have been whited out. Yet it is clear from the FBI analysis of them that real secrets were exposed by the nation’s chief diplomat — meaning she violated an agreement she signed right after she took office, in which she essentially promised that she would not do what she eventually did.
The essence of the American justice system is the rule of law. The rule of law means that no one is beneath the law’s protections or above its obligations.
Should Clinton skate free so the Trump administration can turn the page? Should the new DOJ be compassionate toward Clinton because of her humiliating election loss and likely retirement from public life? Of course not. She should be prosecuted as would anyone else who let loose secrets to our enemies and then lied about it.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.
The Best of Andrew P. Napolitano |
Russia's new T-14 Armata is one of the most advanced tanks in the world. So advanced, in fact, that Western nations worry that older tanks like America's M-1 Abrams may be rendered obsolete .
But the T-14 is not only extraordinary, it’s interplanetary. The Armata tank can operate on Mars, according to Russian media.
“Magic Starter: Armata Engines Make It Fit for Martian Temperature” proclaimed the headline on Russia's English-language site Sputnik News . The news followed Russian media reports last month that the future MiG-41 jet fighter would be able to fly in outer space .
Lest anyone worry that Vladimir Putin is planning to invade the Angry Red Planet with his Little Green Men , it turns out the truth is more down-to-earth. Sputnik News , never shy about trumpeting the awesomeness of Russian military technology, was actually citing an article from the Russian newspaper Izvestia (the Google English-language translation is here ).
The Izvestia article described new technology, developed by Russian manufacturer Renova, that allows the Armata’s diesel engine to start in temperatures as low as -58 degrees Fahrenheit. The system uses supercapacitors to store a large quantity of electricity that can be used to power the tank even before the engine starts. It’s similar to that used by hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius, which use a battery-powered electric motor at low speeds and then switches to a gasoline motor as the vehicle accelerates.
“We conducted a full-scale testing of a supercapacitor for the cold start of a tank diesel engine,” Renova expert Mikhail Lifshits told Izvestia. “The car stood for several days in the cold. Its batteries have completely lost capacity. Nevertheless, using a mobile power station on a supercapacitor...we were able to run a cold motor several times in a row.”
The technology allows the tank to carry smaller batteries, which frees up space to carry more fuel and ammunition. Does the United States have similar technology? The U.S. Army’s Tank Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center didn’t respond to queries. Honeywell, the company that makes the AGT1500 gas-turbine engine on the M1 Abrams, refused to discuss its cold-weather start capabilities.
Yet a Russian breakthrough in cold-starting tanks would not be particularly surprising. If any nation knows about operating tanks in freezing weather, it’s Russia. The Nazis were amazed at the Russian knack for keeping their vehicles running in the most brutal blizzards.
Nonetheless, the Izvestia article did not mention anything about starting up tanks on Mars. Perhaps this is because Mars is a bit colder than Siberia. With an atmosphere too thin to retain heat, the average temperature on Mars is minus -80 degrees Fahrenheit, and winter temperatures in the polar regions can dip as low as -195 degrees. Oymyakon, the Siberian town that's rated as the coldest permanently inhabited town on Earth, typically has winter temperatures of -60 degrees.
An internal-combustion engine would also be choking for oxygen in the thin Martian atmosphere. And in any event, landing a fifty-ton tank on Mars would be challenging: NASA’s 1976 Viking lander weighed only 1,300 pounds, while the plucky little Mars rover Opportunity—a vehicle that has traveled around Mars for thirteen years—weighs about 400 pounds. The Angry Red Planet is also jealous of its privacy: more than half of all Mars missions either malfunction, crash or disappear.
And for its last line of defense, Mars can rely on Marvin the Martian and his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Earth tanks, beware.
Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest . He can be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Image: Main battle tank T-14 object 148 Armata (in the streets of Moscow on the way to or from the Red Square). |
Sabaton's Joakim Brodén Voted 5th Place In Czech Singing Competition
Joakim Brodén, front man of Sabaton, was voted fifth in the Czech national singing competition "Ceský slavík" on November 26th. Nuclear Blast comments on the event:
"This came as a huge surprise to the Czech domestic music scene, as well as it became a source of satisfaction for Czech metalheads as Sabaton is hugely popular in the Czech Republic. Brodén got 9826 points, trailing by roughly 2,000 to a fourth place.
"Brodén, whose mother is natural born Czech and later emigrated to Sweden during communist era, has two passports both Swedish and Czech. His popularity stems not only from being a frontman of a very successful metal act, but also, of course from his cool and friendly onstage behavior. Therefore, he was able to qualify into the top 6 final in the singer’s category, pushing aside big names of the Czech music scene."
Brodén’s fifth place is sort of a miracle of its own, pointing to metal becoming part of mainstream culture and loyalty and dedication of metalheads!
Joakim made a video to thank his Czech fans. You can watch it here (in English): |
Federal investigators in the US are widening a probe into fraud by the former IT security director of the Multi-State Lottery Association (MSLA).
In July, Eddie Tipton, 52, was found guilty of installing a rootkit in the MSLA's random-number generating computer that allowed him to predict the digits for future winning tickets. He also tampered with security cameras to cover up his time at the keyboard, the court heard.
Tipton was sentenced to ten years in prison after CCTV caught him buying a $16.5m winning ticket in the Iowa state lottery. He is free on bail while appealing his conviction.
Meanwhile, investigators claim that three other state lotteries in Colorado, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma also report paying out prizes worth $8m to people associated with Tipton.
"It would be pretty naive to believe they are the only four," former investigator Thomas Miller told AP. "If you find one cockroach, you have to assume there are 100 more you haven't found."
The MSLA provides the technology for 37 US states and territories and the investigation team has asked every local lottery board to check their records to see if Tipton can be linked to any more big wins. He has already been charged with criminal conduct and money laundering in three more states.
"There's just absolutely no evidence whatsoever that he did anything to alter the proper operations of the computers that were used to pick those numbers, absolutely no evidence. It's just all speculation," said Tipton's attorney Dean Stowers.
Tipton was convicted after investigators released camera footage of a behoodied man buying the winning Iowa ticket and some hot dogs from a convenience store near the MSLA office. At Tipton's trial, his brother, Tommy Tipton, said that the footage didn’t show his sibling, remarking: "Eddie's not a hot dog guy."
Now Tommy Tipton is also in investigators' sights after he was named as the beneficiary of a $537,000 cash payout from a winning lottery ticket in Colorado in 2005. T. Tipton, who was elected as a justice of the peace in Flatonia, Texas, denies any wrongdoing, and resigned his post after charges were brought against him.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, cops are investigating a $1.2m Hot Lotto jackpot that paid out in 2011. The winner was the owner of a Texas construction company that police claim was an associate of Eddie Tipton.
"This is kind of an eye-opener," said Oklahoma Lottery director Rollo Redburn. "It reaffirms the fact that we've got to be constantly vigilant against people trying to defraud the system."
The authorities in Wisconsin are also looking into the winner of a $2m Megabucks prize that was claimed in 2008 by a law firm acting on behalf of Robert Rhodes, a close friend of Tipton's. Rhodes was also linked to the attempt to cash in the $16.5m Iowa lottery ticket, and is fighting extradition to the state. ® |
Last week, Entertainment Weekly published a feature where Henry Winkler and William Shatner promoted a new project while apologizing for an old, bad one. Shatner offers his regrets for the infamous Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, while passive-aggressively blaming Paramount anyway. Fun!
Here’s what Shatner had to say about The Final Frontier’s ending, which was presented, I assume for irony’s sake, under the header “Sorry About That:”
I got the chance to direct a several-million-dollar movie,Star Trek V, and I did not get the help I needed in allocating my budget, so when it came to shooting the ending — needing a good villain and lots of computer graphics — I had run out of money. Sorry about that. [Laughs.] I had to use footage that I had already shot — and spit on it a lot. I wanted to give [the audience] earth-breaking granite monsters spewing rocks and fire. Instead, I had a few pebbles in my hand that I threw at the camera.
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“I ran out of money, but no one got me an accountant, so oops!” You know what? Honestly, I’m not sure better effects would have saved a movie where Spock’s crazy brother takes them all on a search for god. Or a movie where our heroes sing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”
[via Slashfilm] |
Demonstrators hold candles in a protest demanding no government participation for the far right in Vienna, Austria, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
VIENNA (Reuters) - At least 3,000 people formed a chain of light in Vienna on Wednesday to protest against the formation of a government that includes the far-right Freedom Party.
Demonstrators holding flickering candles, torches and bicycle lamps encircled the capital’s government district.
“Our republic’s most powerful political offices should be exclusively reserved for trustworthy people who are not in the slightest connected to right-wing extremists,” said Alexander Pollak, spokesman for SOS Mitmensch, one of several human rights groups which organized the demonstration.
It was the biggest protest in Austria since coalition talks between the conservative People’s Party (OVP) and the Freedom Party (FPO) started two weeks ago.
Organizers estimated the number of people taking part at 8,000 to 10,000, the police at around 3,000.
“We are here because they (the FPO) feed hatred and want to divide people,” said Brigitte Griesser, holding a candle.
But the protest was far smaller than unrest 17 years ago, when the FPO last formed a government with the OVP and more than 100,000 took to the streets.
“(The shift to the right) has become a European trend... it’s no longer just an Austrian issue and that’s why it is not that controversial any longer,” said protester Juergen Pucher. |
MCKINLEY PARK — The world as we know it has ended, the earth is barren and the undead are coming right at you.
Don’t panic.
If you’ve got a little bit of know-how in the art of survival, you’ll probably last much longer than your unprepared counterparts.
"I would definitely say that most people in the city are not prepared. They really don't have a plan," said Nick Conrad, an environmentalist and survivalist who will lead a free “Zombie Survival Training” class at 2 p.m. Saturday at the McKinley Park branch of the Chicago Public Library, 1915 W. 35th St.
Conrad, 32, of Lakeview, runs a business called The Green Suite, where city dwellers can take courses in do-it-yourself solar power and indoor urban farming or buy household items made from recycled materials.
But for the last year, he's also led popular "zombie survival" courses across the city, focusing not necessarily on the unlikely zombie apocalypse, but on the more likely natural disaster or terrorist attack.
"If a natural disaster happened we’d be pretty freaked out. I’d be freaked out. But I’ve been teaching these classes, and for anybody who takes these classes, they'll have at good idea on where to get started" to survive, he said.
To that end, his upcoming course will teach participants methods of preserving food and water, whether to stay put or flee in the aftermath of an emergency and how to make weapons, like, say, a crossbow or a baseball bat with a circular saw blade bolted to the barrel.
The lessons will include fashioning a camping stove from empty pop cans and creating a water filtration system from salvaged parts.
To coincide with Conrad’s course, the library is unveiling a new collection of “zombie and post-apocalyptic” fiction and nonfiction survival manuals.
Registration is required for Saturday’s class and space is limited. To reserve your spot, sign up at the library’s circulation desk or call 312-747-6082. Parents must accompany kids under age 13.
Conrad also is hosting a course at the Holiday Club, 4000 N. Sheridan Road in Uptown, on Thursday. The cost for that course is $25. Details are available at The Green Suite website. |
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PERRY COUNTY, MO (KTVI) – Around 8 pm Tuesday night a tornado hit the northern part of Perry County Missouri. Fox 2 Meteorologist Chris Higgins was at the scene when the tornado struck.
The tornado caused significant damage in an area near Highway 51 & 61, I-55 around mile marker 133 and State Road N & Highway T. Several vehicles were blown off roadways in the area. Some vehicle thrown onto the interstate were cars from a salvage yard and had already been crushed.
First responders from Perry and Jefferson County have responded to the scene. Authorities confirmed 1 person was killed during the storm. A number of injuries occurred when the tornado threw vehicles off the interstate.
When Chris Higgins arrived on the scene, he found injured people walking out of ditches and a wooded area. He immediately grabbed a medical kit from the St. Charles Nissan Storm Runner, and started helping the injured.
The area affected on I-55 is nearly a quarter-mile long and wide. Because of the debris, the interstate will remain closed once the road is cleared of vehicles.
Further north on I-55 semi-tractor trailers were picked up and thrown from the interstate by the twister. While homes and businesses in the area around Highway 51 and 61 suffered severe damage or were destroyed.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol has set-up a command post at I-55 and Highway M.
Because of the damage in county, school officials from the Perry County School District 32 have cancelled classes for Wednesday.
The Missouri Department of Public Safety sent 3 strike teams consisting of state and regional fire, search, rescue and EMS personnel to Perry County. The teams will aid in assisting the Missouri State Highway Patrol and local authorities to search damage vehicles, homes and help in traffic control.
Residents affected by the tornado are being assisted by the American Red Cross. A shelter has been set-up in Perryville at Perry Park Center at 800 City Park Lane.
Governor Greitens Statement on Perryville Tornado
Tough and tragic news tonight out of Perryville where there are confirmed reports of a tornado touching down. Our thoughts and prayers are with the community and those affected. State Emergency Management was monitoring severe weather in the region and was prepared to respond to any situation. We have already deployed strike teams and resources, and this community should know that the full weight and support of the state of Missouri is behind you. I would urge continued caution throughout the night. There is a tornado watch in effect until 4 AM for the following counties: Bollinger, Butler, Cape Girardeau, Carter, Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Perry, Ripley, Scott, Stoddard, and Wayne. If you or a loved one live in these counties, please be alert, vigilant, and safe tonight. We will continue to work with public safety officials throughout the night, and we will update everyone as additional information comes in. Please keep the people affected by this storm in your prayers tonight. |
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Aug. 11, 2016, 3:54 PM GMT / Updated Aug. 11, 2016, 3:54 PM GMT By Eric Baculinao
BEIJING, China - The Philippines’ presidential envoy held his first “private” talks with counterparts in China Thursday, signaling a potential pivot away from the United States as Washington and Manila grapple with a rare diplomatic row.
The Philippine special envoy to China, ex-President Fidel Ramos, was in Hong Kong for a meeting with former top diplomat Fu Ying and South China Sea expert Wu Shicun, according to knowledgeable sources who spoke earlier on condition of anonymity.
Fu Ying was China’s former deputy foreign minister and ambassador to Manila and London, while Wu is president of China’s top think-tank on South China Sea disputes. Both are believed to be influential advisers on the bitter maritime standoff that has soured ties with the Philippine and other neighbors.
Ramos earlier told reporters his mission was "to look for some old friends who have links to high officials in Beijing ... to help pave the way, break the ice and rekindle the friendship that we had.”
Duterte pictured giving his first State of the Nation address in July. ERIK DE CASTRO / Reuters
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, described by some media as his region’s version of Donald Trump, is a straight-talker whose ruthless crackdown on drugs has reportedly led to the death of to more than 500 suspected dealers.
Duterte has also warned he could declare martial law if opponents interfere with his program of suspected extra-judicial killing, for which the U.S. had expressed human rights concerns.
It comes after Washington announced Monday that it had summoned the Philippine envoy to clarify insulting and “inappropriate comments” made by Duterte about U.S. ambassador Philip Goldberg.
“We have asked the Philippines charge to come into the State Department to clarify those remarks,” the department’s spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said.
In televised remarks, Duterte called Goldberg “gay” and described him using a common local slur.
Trudeau also said the U.S. had also expressed concern at Duterte’s reign of terror against drugs that has seem more than 4,400 arrested while nearly 600,000 others have surrendered for fear of being killed, according to Philippine media reports.
"We are concerned by these detentions, as well as the extrajudicial killing of individuals suspected to be involved in drug activity in the Philippines," said Trudeau.
A Filipino student holds a placard during a protest Thursday condemning recent extrajudicial killings in the new president's war on drugs. MARK R. CRISTINO / EPA
"We strongly urge the Philippines to ensure its law enforcement efforts comply with its human rights obligations,” she added.
Analysts believe the Philippines will seek greater cooperation with China as big drug lords are believed to operate their international syndicates from that country.
Last month, the Chinese embassy in Manila offered “effective cooperation” with the Philippine president, calling the drug fight “a shared responsibility of all countries.”
Despite his “shock and awe” drug campaign, Duterte still enjoys “high trust rating from the public,” according to Ramon Casiple, director of the Philippine Institute for Political and Electoral Reform.
“But the grounds are there for possible weakening of the public support in the future, “ he told NBC News, citing various reforms and controversial issues “that may engender opposition from the landed elite, business, and possibly from other political blocs.” |
Sri Lankan government imposes political gag on NGOs
By K. Ratnayake
10 July 2014
President Mahinda Rajapakse’s Sri Lankan government this week banned Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) from issuing media releases, holding news conferences, conducting workshops and training journalists.
This is a dictatorial attack on fundamental democratic rights, seeking to suppress any opposition to the government and taking a further step toward a police state. While the immediate aim is to gag NGOs, the government’s action sets a precedent for wider use, including against political parties, in preparation for deeper attacks on the working class.
D. M. S. Dissanayake, director of the National Secretariat of NGOs, which functions under the defence ministry, issued a letter outlining the new restrictions on July 8. The letter stated: “It has been revealed that certain NGOs conduct news conferences, hold workshops, train journalists, and issue news releases, which is beyond their mandate.” It insisted that “all NGOs should desist from such unauthorised activities with immediate effect.”
This means that not only the specified activities have been banned, but NGOs cannot conduct any activity without the military’s authorisation.
Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya, speaking at a media briefing, tried to play down the directive, saying it was just a “reminder” to act according to a “mandate” previously issued. However, until now, NGOs in Sri Lanka have held media conferences and workshops and issued press releases, despite continuous harassment by successive governments.
When a journalist asked whether the move sought to silence NGOs in the context of the current UN investigation of Sri Lankan war crimes, the brigadier claimed there was “no such thing.” The UN Human Rights Commissioner recently appointed a panel to probe human rights violations committed during the final months of the military offensive against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.
The investigation was initiated by a US-sponsored resolution in a UN Human Rights Council meeting. Washington is using the issue to demand that Rajapakse’s government sever its close relations with China. The government certainly fears that some pro-Western NGOs might give evidence on the many war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan military.
However, the military’s move to directly control NGOs goes beyond such considerations. This is the first time that far-reaching restrictions have been imposed on these organisations. It is an indication the government is moving against all political opposition, particularly in the working class.
More than 1,000 national and international NGOs work in Sri Lanka. Previous regulations, issued from the 1980s onward, were mainly administrative in character. NGOs were registered under the health and social services ministry.
During the war against the LTTE, the military sought to suppress these organisations. One prominent case involved the killing of 17 aid workers from Action Against Hunger, or ACF, in August 2006 in the eastern town of Muttur. They were murdered, execution style, at the very beginning of the Rajapakse government’s renewal of the war.
Throughout the final two years of the war, the government prohibited or restricted NGOs including the International Red Cross, operating in the northern Vanni area. This was designed to starve Tamil people and deprive them of medical supplies, as well as prevent the leaking of any information about the military’s war crimes.
After the war, as part of the government’s intensified militarisation of the country, the NGO secretariat was placed under the defence ministry’s control in April 2010. Organisations were registered only after being vetted, using military intelligence information. NGO trustees, funding sources, agendas and programs of work had to be approved.
The sweeping surveillance and underhanded activities conducted by the military intelligence service has been exposed by many of its operations against critics of the government and the security forces. In May, the military intelligence authorities blocked a workshop organised for Tamil journalists by Transparency International (TI), an internationally-affiliated NGO, at a hotel in Polonnaruwa in the North Central Province. The hotel management abruptly cancelled the event on the military’s orders.
In June, when the TI organised another workshop in Negombo, north of Colombo, a mob broke up the event. It is believed that the military intelligence service was behind the mobilisation of the thugs.
The NGOs Collective of Civil Society has declared it will ignore the ban and carry on its activities as in the past. Its statement said: “This [ban] is a serious blow to democracy in the country. We as part of civil society have the right to freedom of speech and association.”
This police-state measure is driven by the government’s nervousness about the developing opposition among working people, youth and the rural poor against its attacks on living conditions and social rights. Recent protests by workers in the power sector, railways and health and continuous protests by university students are just indications of deepening discontent.
Alongside its attack on democratic rights, the government is seeking to stir communalism against Tamils and Muslims, in order to split and divert the working class. The recent attack instigated by the Buddhist extremist group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) against Muslims in Aluthgama and Beruwela underscored this renewed campaign. The BBS is patronised by the government and enjoys the backing of the security forces.
Interviewed by the Daily Mirror on July 1, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the president’s brother, whitewashed the role of the Buddhist extremists and recalled his previous remarks about threats against the government. He was referring to a speech at the defence academy in June 2013, where he declared: “Although the likelihood of events such as the Arab Spring transpiring in Sri Lanka is minimal… this is yet another threat that needs to be monitored.”
“Arab Spring” was the label given to the revolutionary upsurge of the working class in Egypt that reverberated across the Middle East. The Rajapakse government and the military are preparing to meet similar struggles with repressive and anti-democratic measures.
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The video this transcript is based on appeared on December 27.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- WPCS International will launch a Bitcoin trading application in 2014, and Jim Cramer says he likes what he sees at Caterpillar.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Good morning from the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square. I'm Jon Marino with our global market update on Friday, December 27.
At this hour, U.S. markets gearing up for another low-volume trading day and possible some losses after the Dow posted triple-digit gains yesterday. And international trading back in full swing today, when you take a look at our global markets panel.
Getting back to the Nasdaq wall, the top stock to watch again today will be Twitter (TWTR) . Shares are up more than 20 percent this week and investors will keep watching the company's shares as Dick Costolo's micro-messaging network dominates headlines. The stock was up nearly five percent yesterday, and already we're looking at possible gains of a point at the open today. Twitter stock up more than 60 percent this year, but lockup expirations looming for shares in February and May next year.
What's it going to take to legitimize Bitcoin? How about a Nasdaq-listed company launching a Windows-based application allowing traders to access the five most popular Bitcoin exchanges? That's what WPCS International (WPCS) is doing, according to an announcement from the company, and stock in the New Jersey-based company soared after hours for about 30 percent heading into the open today. The WPCS trading product is expected in early 2014 and it should be generating revenue for the company by mid-year, it says.
Closing out our stocks is an action alert from Jim Cramer. Don't look now, but Caterpillar (CAT) shares may close out 2013 in the black, and Jim's buying in again. For one, the company recently posted growth in its power systems unit sales, a big positive. However, he points out, expectations are so low right now, very little has to go right in order for Caterpillar stock to eek out gains. Shares are down seven percent in the last two years, but Jim sees a buying opportunity.
That's all for us this morning, but we'll be posting market updates and breaking news throughout the day at TheStreet.com. I'm Jon Marino, have a great day.
Written by Jon Marino in New York. |
The Conservatives and NDP are turning their sights on Justin Trudeau as the Liberals appear to be gaining momentum heading into the home stretch of this marathon federal election.
In separate campaign events Monday, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and NDP Leader Tom Mulcair both urged voters not to elect the Liberals, who most national polls show are either tied with the Conservatives or leading the pack.
“The choice is clear,” Harper said during a stop at a family-owned apple farm in southwestern Ontario. “The choice is keeping the benefits you have under us, and getting more, or having them taken away under the Liberals and getting deficits instead.”
Mulcair, meanwhile, accused the Liberals of being no different than the Conservatives because of their refusal to categorically oppose a massive new free trade agreement with 12 Pacific Rim countries. The NDP leader noted the Liberals have also supported the Keystone XL pipeline, and voted for Bill C-51.
“Justin Trudeau is refusing to stand up for Canadian families,” Mulcair told supporters during a rally in Maple Ridge, B.C. “Once again, Justin Trudeau is standing with Stephen Harper.”
But with only six days until Canadians go to the polls, Trudeau was looking to seal the deal by stealing support from the Conservatives. Appearing at an event in Barrhaven, the Liberal leader called on disenfranchised Progressive Conservatives to join his movement for change.
“Progressive Conservative prime ministers believed a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian,” he said. “They knew that a real leader’s job is to bring Canadians together, to unite us as one people, no matter where we were born or what we may believe. They helped the less fortunate and fought poverty. …”
“Here’s the thing,” he added. “Those are values that haven’t disappeared. They have just disappeared from the current Conservative party. And disappeared along with anything progressive about them.”
The Progressive Conservatives and Harper-led Canadian Alliance merged to form the Conservative Party in 2003. Harper was selected Conservative leader the following year.
With less than a week before Canadians vote, the question now is whether Trudeau can maintain the momentum and pull off the upset win after starting this two-month campaign in third place. National polls in recent weeks have shown them pulling at least even with the Conservatives amid an NDP collapse.
The New Democrats maintain they are still in the fight. They say regional polls show them rebounding in parts of British Columbia and Quebec. But it seems their main hope is that Canadians will flock to support them over their opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, or TPP, in the same way as with Bill C-51.
That’s why the NDP has started flooding the airwaves heading into the final stretch with advertisements warning of the TPP, and noting that they are the only main party to have come out entirely against it. Mulcair is also set to make a swing through southwestern Ontario on Tuesday, where auto makers are worried about the TPP.
Yet the NDP have also made several overtures toward the Liberals for working together to defeat Harper if he wins a minority government. Trudeau has so far been cool to the idea, and again repeated Monday that he was focused on winning the election and not brokering a deal with the New Democrats.
The Conservatives, meanwhile, have rolled out their own set of ads. Those in English largely repeat Harper’s warning about Liberal deficits and tax measures. But the French ads highlight Trudeau’s position on the niqab, and one features footage of former prime minister Jean Chrétien.
Many Quebecers are still angry at Chrétien and the Liberals for the sponsorship scandal, in which millions of dollars were funnelled to party-friendly advertising agencies in the 1990s for little work. The Conservative ad appears designed to remind Quebecers of why they voted against the Liberals in subsequent elections.
The Conservatives hope to make some big gains in Quebec. Yet in what may be a sign that victory is far from assured, Harper will spend Tuesday touring two Conservative-held ridings in the Toronto area that his party is in danger of losing.
The Liberals have launched their own advertising blitz, featuring video of Trudeau during a large rally in Brampton, Ont., earlier this month. The ad hearkens back to an era when large-scale political rallies were common and seeks to show Canadians that Trudeau and the Liberals have momentum in this final stage.
Trudeau was scheduled to visit several ridings held by the NDP in the Toronto area before also touring southwestern Ontario.
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lberthiaume@ottawacitizen.com
Twitter.com/leeberthiaume |
ANAHEIM (CBSLA.com) – Scores of protesters clashed with police in the streets of Anaheim Wednesday night as they called for the arrest of an off-duty Los Angeles police officer who was caught on video firing his gun during a confrontation with teens outside his Anaheim home Tuesday afternoon.
Hundreds of protesters gathered at 7 p.m. near Disneyland, bringing traffic to a standstill in the busy area for hours. Anaheim police advised the public to avoid the area as officers with riot gear were deployed. What initially began as peaceful protests eventually gave way to violence, as protesters threw rocks and bottles at officers. At one point, one man shoved two officers and was shot with a less-than-lethal beanbag.
The protesters also threw rocks at the home of the LAPD officer, spray-painted his garage and scratched a pickup truck in the driveway. Some protesters mistakenly tagged another home in the neighborhood, wrongly thinking it belonged to the LAPD officer.
The incident in question occurred at the intersection of Euclid Street and Palais Road at around 2:40 pm. Tuesday when an unidentified officer attempted to detain at least one teen, according to police.
The confrontation began over “ongoing issues with juveniles walking across the officer’s property”, according to a statement from the LAPD, which also stated that during the confrontation, a 13-year-old boy allegedly threatened to shoot the off-duty officer, at which time the officer attempted to detain him until Anaheim police arrived on scene.
Upon their arrival, officers contacted the off-duty officer, who admitted to discharging his firearm during an altercation with at least two individuals, police said. Nobody was struck by the gunfire.
“At the end of the day, he should know better,” said one woman Wednesday night. “He was taught and trained on how to uphold the law. So why does he get to break the law now?”
Video footage of the incident appeared to show the officer being increasingly threatened by a crowd of teenagers gathered at the scene, including one boy seen in the video throwing a punch at the officer and another who attempted to tackle the officer while his back was turned.
The 13-year-old suspect was booked at Orange County Juvenile Hall for criminal threats and battery, while a 15-year-old boy was arrested for assault and battery and later released to his parents.
The off-duty officer cooperated with the ongoing investigation by Anaheim police and was not be arrested. In a statement Wednesday night, the LAPD said it’s Force Investigation Division is conducting its own internal investigation into the actions of the officer, who has been placed on administrative leave.
“The complete investigation will be reviewed by the Chief of Police and the Board of Police Commissioners to determine whether the use of deadly force complied with LAPD’s policies and procedures,” the LAPD said.
Info regarding an off-duty #LAPD officer involved shooting on 2/21/17 in Anaheim-Your patience is appreciated as the investigation continues pic.twitter.com/fbkeum3wS5 — LAPD HQ (@LAPDHQ) February 23, 2017
You can watch cell phone video of the confrontation below. Viewer discretion is advised. |
Should she send Jacob, who has had disciplinary issues, back to the military academy in the fall? Would he hate her if she did? If he remained in Roanoke, she wanted him staying with her, and how could that happen in a one-bedroom apartment? Why was she always failing him? Why couldn’t she act like an adult? Why was she so weak?
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said, beginning to cry, and again, “I don’t know what to do.”
Fear and insecurity: These emotions dominated in her life. She had been afraid to be alone, so she married a man she knew she shouldn’t have. She had been afraid of not providing enough for her children, so she ran up so much credit card debt that she had to declare bankruptcy. When her therapist told her about disability, she had been afraid then, too, of what might happen if she didn’t apply. And once she started receiving the payments, and was living alone, she had been afraid that this would be the rest of her life, so she decided to get a job.
Her phone went off again.
“Hello?” she said to Betty, who had agreed to help pay for Jacob’s schooling. “No, you can talk to me now.” She put her hand to her forehead. She gestured with her left hand. She sat cross-legged, ankle jiggling. She tried to steady her voice, to hide that she had been crying, to be strong, but then it was coming back again.
“I just don’t know what to do about Jacob!” she said into the phone. “I don’t even know if I’m going to have a place to live!”
And that was another fear. Walmart, which had raised her hourly wage from $9 to $10, paid her about $1,000 every month. She had recently asked her landlord if that would affect her housing subsidy, but she still didn’t know the answer to that question, or many others. Under the Ticket to Work program, her disability benefits would terminate if she made more than $1,170 per month — “substantial gainful activity” — following the completion of both a nine-month trial work period and a consecutive 36-month period, and who knew if she’d ever make that much at Walmart. Even if she did, or found another job, would it be worth sacrificing the certainty of a government benefit for the uncertainty of the labor force? Where would she find the confidence for that, when she couldn’t even talk to her son’s teachers in person?
“I can’t do face-to-face. I can’t do it!” she told Betty. “After I talked to [one teacher], I felt like a fool. . . . I felt ridiculous. Like I was being mean and ugly. I was upset, and I try not to do that. I still feel bad about myself when I do that. And that’s just me. I guess I just got to work on that.”
“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t,” she said.
“It hurts me,” she said.
“Oh my gosh,” she said.
“I just don’t know,” she said.
She got off the phone, promising Betty she’d talk more the next day, then put her face in her hands and breathed as deeply as she could. She did it again. And again. |
CTV Atlantic
A Halifax woman says she is still in disbelief after her breast was mistakenly removed due to a mix-up in laboratory results.
It all started in January when Sharon Fisher went for a routine mammogram screening. She says doctors found something questionable in her mammogram results so they decided to do a biopsy.
In February, she says her family doctor called to tell her she had breast cancer. Fisher says she was stunned by the news.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all because I had always had routine mammograms,” she says. “It really shook me. I mean, I was just in shock and then fearful about what that really meant.”
Fisher discussed her options with a surgical oncologist, who encouraged her to undergo a mastectomy, as opposed to a lumpectomy, to lower the risk of the cancer returning.
Fisher says she agreed to the mastectomy, wanting to do what was best for her health.
“I said ‘no, I want to be done with it.’ I just wanted peace.”
On March 28, Fisher had her breast removed. She says it was difficult to cope with the loss of such a personal body part.
“I was very sad that this was happening…I was sad that I had to do that, that I had to live like that now.”
But things were about to get worse for the 67-year-old patient.
She went back to the hospital for a follow-up in April, about five weeks after her surgery, and received some more shocking news from her surgical oncologist.
“She sat down and she said ‘I don’t know how to tell you this. I’ve been trying to think all week how to tell you this,’” recalls Fisher. “The good news is you don’t have cancer.”
“That’s all I remember hearing. Then I was just stunned because I knew what that meant. If I didn’t have cancer, why did I have a breast removed?”
Her doctor told her there had been a mistake and that her chart had been switched with another patient’s. It turns out Fisher never had cancer, while the other patient did. She didn’t find out until months after the initial biopsies.
“You get angry…I’m still in disbelief that it really happened,” says Fisher. “You try to cope with it…but you can’t. I’m learning how to cope with it.”
Fisher says she grew even angrier after watching an interview with Chris Power, the CEO of the Capital District Health Authority, on Monday.
“In both of these instances, this was a combination of systems, busy processes, you know, busyness around, and human error,” Power told CTV News.
But Fisher says that’s not an acceptable excuse for such a serious mistake.
“There’s a person here that’s been affected and it shouldn’t have been just because of busyness.”
Fisher says the mistaken mastectomy has changed her life and has also had a major impact on her family, particularly her son and her sister, who was with Fisher when she was told about the mistake.
Lynne Foley says she worries about her older sister.
“It’s been difficult, you know,” she says. “We don’t like to leave Sharon alone, I don’t want her upset. We just want her to be OK.”
Power said Monday there was no legal action being taken against the hospital but Fisher’s lawyer, Ray Wagner, says he sought documents from the hospital in May.
“I did receive a call for the first time from the counsel for the hospital yesterday,” he says.
He hasn’t filed anything with the courts yet, saying he and his client would rather avoid a long court fight so she can continue with her life.
“There should be no reason, if we go to a process that’s participated in an open and fair way, that this matter should be concluded by the end of the year,” says Wagner.
But the ordeal will never be over for Fisher. She says she is reminded of the devastating mix-up every time she looks in the mirror.
“I look at the scar and it’s ‘oh my God.’ It shouldn’t be there and you can never get away from it.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Rick Grant |
Wait, What? ‘Galaxy Quest’ Was Initially R-Rated
Speaking with Lindsey Collins—producer of the massive Disney blockbuster that hit theaters this weekend, John Carter—recently, Collider’s Steve Weintraub was informed of some long-lost buried treasure of sorts.
Apparently Galaxy Quest, the fantastic 1999 sci-fi comedy starring Tim Allen, Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shalhoub, and Daryl Mitchell (as well as a slew of other familiar faces) as the stars of an old sci-fi TV series (a la Star Trek) who inadvertently find themselves beamed out to space to help very real aliens put an end to the ongoing threats of an evil being named Sarris and his crew, was initially an R-rated comedy before being cut down to the PG version fans know and love.
Collins explained how she came to find out this information while dining with Weaver:
“We had lunch with Sigourney, who was telling us that there actually used to be an R-rated version of that movie which was awesome. It was the director’s cut and it was R-rated and everybody was swearing and there were sex scenes, and the whole thing. They didn’t know what to do with it, so they had to re-edit the whole thing and made it what it is today. We were like, ‘How do we get our hands on the R-rated version of Galaxy Quest?’ She said ‘I don’t know!’ and we were like, ‘Come on, Sigourney!’”
I’m a total advocate for the R-rated motion picture. Far too often these days do studios force filmmakers to make a movie PG-13 to appeal to a larger audience, thus hoping to increase the amount of money that ends up in their pockets. It’s led to awful installments in great R-rated franchises such as Live Free or Die Hard and Terminator Salvation, with the possibility of The Expendables 2 soon joining that conversation.
All of that said, Galaxy Quest isn’t part of that conversation because it’s not a movie you’d ever expect to be rated R. It’s perfectly fine as it is, and will always be so…but that also makes this new knowledge of a more mature cut of the movie so very intriguing. An R-rated version of a PG movie? Unheard of!
It’s become a constant these days for PG-13 comedies and horror flicks to release “unrated” cuts when the movie hits Blu-ray and DVD. Usually these are just money-grabs and useless, but sometimes the adult-aimed version can be fun. Before it became the norm we saw movies like Daredevil or Michael Bay’s Armageddon and Pearl Harbor do it as well. But rarely does the presence of one so random as this surface.
Which brings us to the big question asked above: where in the sweetest of Hells is this R-rated version of Galaxy Quest, and how to we get our eyes on it?!
DreamWorks released the film, so it would be up to them to release some kind of special edition with it on there. A new Deluxe Edition and the Blu-ray version of the movie were released in 2009, so they do still know the movie exists. Let’s just hope they didn’t destroy all copies of it.
Would you want to see an R-rated version of Galaxy Quest? |
Aside from all the Emmys, Oscars, Tonys, X Games and Darwin Awards, it seems as if no one takes the time to notice and praise the accomplishments of Caucasians. Some people believe that this is what led to the rise of the fearful believers in white genocide who call themselves the alt-right. They feel that the white man gets no respect.
But not here at The Root. For years we have chronicled the savagery and shenanigans of wypipo worldwide. While some may indeed throw shade on the white man, we shed light on his actions. Therefore, we thought it would lift the spirits of wypipo worldwide if we set aside a few weeks dedicated specifically to the least of ye.
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All hail The Root’s inaugural Tournament of Wypipo—our scientific, peer-reviewed, double-blind quest to find the worst wypipo in the world. To be clear, this tournament is not about white people. In fact, most people of the Caucasian persuasion were declared ineligible for this tournament. We specifically limited this single-elimination, head-to-head contest to wypipo—the subset of citizens defined by privilege, the ability to wear flip-flops in all climates and an irrational empathy for animals while displaying antipathy for any group of people other than their own.
For further clarification, here is a visual definition of wypipo:
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Instead of using arbitrary selections, we assembled a noted panel of experts who have dedicated their lives to studying this phenomenon, or—as they are known in scholarly circles—wypipologists. We selected 64 participants in four categories: Rich/(In)Famous/Powerful Assholes; Groups/Companies/Organizations; Whites Gone Wild; and Beckys. We ranked them using a proprietary algorithm developed in our underground laboratory and placed them on a bracket.
Now it’s up to you. You get to decide who moves on to the next round. Download your bracket and help us decide the Wypipo of the Year by voting below. Remember, we are searching for the worst wypipo in each head-to-head matchup. Let’s take a look at our first-round matchups in the rich-and-powerful division.
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Rich/(In)Famous/Powerful Assholes Division
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First things first: Our rules committee made Donald Trump ineligible because they knew that Trump—as the mascot and standard-bearer for the worst wypipo in the world—would not make this a competitive tournament. Allowing Trump would be like the NCAA allowing the Golden State Warriors to compete in March Madness.
Since Trump is ineligible for the tournament, Steve Bannon received the No. 1 seed by default. Not only is he responsible for turning the shit-stained toilet rag that some people call Breitbart into the “voice of the alt-right,” but now he’s also chief racism adviser to the rooster-headed chimpanzee in the White House. He is reportedly responsible for the travel ban and the efforts to deport millions of undocumented immigrants.
Actor Shia LaBeouf is a long shot in this matchup because he doesn’t have a long list of racist incidents—but remember, this isn’t about race, it’s about the despicability of wypipo. Shia may have been out of his mind when he used racist language toward cops during a recent arrest, but he is just an insufferable, pretentious blowhard—and that counts, too. Plus, you know what they say: A drunk man speaks a sober person’s heart.
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Maine Gov. Paul LePage said that he was tired of black drug dealers who come up to Maine and impregnate white girls while selling drugs to pure white housewives. Then he threatened a reporter. Then he refused to apologize because he said he had notebooks filled with pictures of drug dealers, and 80 percent of them were black.
Roger Stone basically hacked the 2016 election, subverted the American democracy and made Trump the president, so there’s that.
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This matchup features two of the greatest white supremacists currently working today, so it’s an almost impossible choice. Spencer created the term “alt-right” as a means of giving white supremacy legitimacy. Spencer travels the country strong-arming colleges into letting him tell students about Holocaust denial, why black people have lower IQs and why white men should be in charge of civilization.
But Andrew Anglin has a résumé that includes building one of the most popular websites in the world, the Daily Stormer. Anglin also sicced his millions of followers on American University student Taylor Dumpson simply because she was the first black female student body president, causing her and her sorority sister to be harassed by angry white people until they finally had to get police protection.
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Close your eyes and imagine what a fuckboy looks like. That’s Milo. Yiannopoulos was kicked off Twitter for harassing Leslie Jones and getting others to do the same. He also endorses child molesting.
Bill Maher is a smug, liberal-elite asshole who believes that he can occasionally use the n-word because he likes black vagina.
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Bill O’Reilly is a serial sexual harasser, but U.S. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is a white supremacist who holds a seat in Congress. O’Reilly was on TV every night spewing bile, but King is a duly elected official, who makes laws for the country and went on live TV to say white people built civilization.
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Jared Kushner is the definition of white privilege. Jeffrey Lord is the devil’s anal wart come to life to suck the excess dingleberries that sometimes form around Trump’s hairy anus.
Curt Schilling does not believe that there is racism in baseball, or anywhere in the world. He also hates Muslims, immigrants, blacks, Hispanics, goodness and happiness. If you ever watch a movie and wonder how the supervillain got a state-of-the-art evil laboratory, it was probably the Koch Brothers, the No. 1 funders of evil in the world since 1675.
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Quick question: Who’s more hateful: A person who hates weed and loves Russia, or a person who sends out nudes of the mother of his child for the world to see?
Whites Gone Wild Division
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One dude shot a congressman, but the other was a high school student who asked someone to the prom wearing blackface. I’m not trying to say who should win here, but I remind you that it was sexist, homophobe Steve Scalise who was shot.
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One lady displayed her racism by going on a rant in Trader Joe’s, while an 18-year-old pulled a shotgun on a woman and went on a racist rant. You decide who’s worse.
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Vegas bookies have even odds on this one. Nicholas Dean was the principal of a minority charter school in Louisiana. He was also a white supremacist. The Sons of the Confederacy won’t remove this rebel flag from in front of a restaurant in a town that is 75 percent black.
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Would you rather have your child’s high school coach repeatedly use the n-word in an attempt to teach a group of black students about the term, or would you prefer that your college professor’s white-tears reservoir burst and shut down the entire campus?
If you’re a law school professor and you wear blackface to a party, you are a certified idiot. The question we ask, however, is, does that certificate of idiocy outweigh the lunacy of a Kentucky hillbilly telling people to “go back wherever the fuck you came from”? These kinds of existential questions must be answered in this matchup.
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Here’s a hint as to whom to choose on this matchup: Who do you think caught an ass-whipping the fastest—the guy who got the Confederate flag cut into his hair, or the teacher who called her students “slaves” and used the n-word? If you can figure that out, you know who’ll win this matchup. See, it’s easy!
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Dear Wypipo,
I am sitting in the bleachers of the Wypipo Tournament writing to inform you that you should never, ever wear blackface. It is not cool, even if you’re a politician and it’s Halloween. Even if you’re dressed like Tiger Woods.
Also, I’d like to inform you that “spic” is not a thing anymore, so come get your girl. It is an insult whose time has passed, like “porch monkey” or white people who have racist rants.
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Yours truly,
Us
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I recuse myself from this matchup because, while I would have punched the white man who spat and took a swing at me in Starbucks, there is nothing more disturbing and gloriously racist than this white lady doing yoga while singing about the ghetto.
Make sure you vote, and stay tuned tomorrow for the other half of the first-round matchups! |
best banana cake in the world ever . Simply, one of the easiest, tastiest cakes you will ever make or eat. I have updated the recipe slightly by baking it as a sheet cake and topping with a vanilla maple frosting (plus I finally entered dual measurements). This cake is one of the first recipes I posted way back in January 2013. It is, quite possibly, thein the world. Simply, one of the easiest, tastiest cakes you will ever make or eat. I have updated the recipe slightly by baking it as aand topping with aplus I finally entered dual measurements).
The entire time I was taking the pictures my husband lurked behind me with a knife and plate and asking ‘can we eat it yet?’ at regular intervals. I had to hand him a couple of slices to get him out of my hair (he did some hand modelling to earn those slices). Later on he refused to share the cake with the neighbours, it is THAT good.
You can leave the frosting out if you like and serve the cake with a simple glaze instead. If you do make the frosting try to use good quality maple syrup – grade B preferably ( the darker the syrup the better it is generally). The cake keeps remarkably well at room temperature but usually doesn’t even last the day in our house.
Note: I used I used Sharpham Park Baker’s Blend spelt flour (60% wholegrain and 40%white spelt flour). You can use all white spelt or all plain flour instead. This recipe can be baked in a bundt, loaf, or round tin or made into muffins.
For the banana cake
Makes 1x8in square cake
2 ripe medium bananas
2 large eggs
80ml | 1/3 cup vegetable (or coconut) oil
1/2 tsp almond extract
–––––
100g | 3.5oz Baker’s blend spelt flour
100g | 3.5oz ground almonds
50g | 1.7oz | 1/2 cup unsweetened desiccated (shredded) coconut
150g | 5.3 oz light brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
For the maple frosting
200g | 7oz icing (powdered) sugar, sifted
60ml | 1/4 maple syrup (up to 80ml | 1/3 cup)
Seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
50g | 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C | 350 F. Line an 8in square tin with baking paper. Pulse the bananas, eggs, oil and almond extract in a food processor, mini chopper or blender until smooth. Alternatively mash the bananas with a fork and mix with the other ‘wet’ ingredients. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl then add the banana mixture. Fold together with a spatula making sure there are no dry ‘pockets’ in the batter. Pour the batter in the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean and cake is springy to the touch. Let the cake cool completely before frosting.
To make the frosting
Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl using a hand whisk. Add a little more maple syrup if the frosting is too stiff – a teaspoon at a time. Spread frosting over the cake using a palette knife, cut into squares and serve.
I am linking this to #TastyTuesdays over at Honest Mum, Javelin Warrior’s Made with Love Mondays, #RecipeOfTheWeek at A Mummy Too and Bake of the Week at Casa Costello. |
The plaintiffs in a Wisconsin political gerrymandering case won over the court with the help of a new formula.
The US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin ruled 2-1 on Monday that state Republicans manipulated electoral maps to keep Republicans in power and prevent Democrats from winning seats – the first time a federal court ruled that political gerrymandering kept voters from one party from having a voice in state government, the Los Angeles Times reports. Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel plans to appeal the case to the US Supreme Court, he said in a statement.
The Supreme Court has historically been closely divided on cases of political gerrymandering. The mathematical formula behind this case – the “efficiency gap” – may create the opportunity for a precedent-setting judgment from the highest court that would affect the electoral maps across the country.
“With this decision, partisan gerrymandering should come to an end in Wisconsin and is now on its way to extinction across the nation,” said Gerald Hebert, executive director of the Campaign Legal Center, which backed the plaintiffs, the LA Times reported Tuesday.
In accordance with a 1962 Supreme Court ruling on the principle of “one person, one vote,” electoral districts are redrawn following the census every ten years. In theory, this helps to ensure that an equal number of people live in each district.
However, the process of redistricting is typically conducted by state legislatures, making it prone to partisanship: The party in power typically wants to remain in power and keep the opposing party from winning seats. In many areas, this has led to bizarrely shaped electoral districts. Some are "packed" with voters from that state's minority party, to prevent voters in an area from winning more than one seat. Elsewhere, deliberately "cracked" voting blocs are spread across multiple districts to diffuse their influence and make their party less competitive.
In Wisconsin, the plaintiffs alleged that Republicans – who held both chambers in the state legislature as well as the governorship in 2010 – redrew district boundaries with the help of software programs designed to ensure that Republicans would keep a majority of seats.
The judges noted in their ruling that after the districts were redrawn in 2011, Republicans in 2012 won 60 of 99 seats in the state legislature, despite Democrats winning 51 percent of the statewide vote.
The plaintiffs used a measure called the efficiency gap to show mathematically that the redrawn map minimized the strength of Democratic votes. The formula divides the number of “wasted votes” – either unnecessary votes cast for the winning party or all votes cast for the losing party – by the total number of votes in the election.
The ideal is for both parties to be "wasting" an equal number of votes: a score of 0. The higher a winning party’s score, the fewer votes they need to win a district, which plaintiffs argued violated the principle of “one person, one vote” and the First Amendment right to free speech expressed in casting a ballot.
In Wisconsin, the statisticians reported, Republicans had an efficiency gap of between 11 and 13 percent after the boundaries were redrawn in 2011, The New York Times reports.
The efficiency gap calculates “almost exactly what Justice Kennedy said he was looking for back in the ‘80s, a clear threshold for deciding what is acceptable,” Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the Times.
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The Supreme Court may now be willing to rule on political gerrymandering, with important effects for ongoing cases in Maryland and North Carolina. A ruling could also affect states with high-efficiency scores, such as Virginia and Michigan.
The district court asked both sides to come up with possible solutions to gerrymandering. One answer, as The Christian Science Monitor’s Patrik Jonsson reported in March, would be to have a nonpartisan commission draw boundaries rather than state legislatures. The approach is being pioneered in California and Arizona. |
Donald Trump walked out of the Oval Office as he was peppered with questions about Michael Flynn offering up testimony in exchange for immunity in ongoing Congressional probes. But in his haste to leave, he skipped out on signing the executive order for which he had summoned the press.
Donald Trump summoned the press to the Oval Office for a signing ceremony for an executive order. But just as reporters began to ask questions about Michael Flynn’s offer to testify to Congress about ongoing Russian investigations, Trump ambled out of the room, ignoring their calls.
Earlier in the day, Trump had tweeted that Flynn “should ask for immunity because the investigations are a “witch hunt.”
CBS reporter Major Garrett had already dogged Press Secretary Sean Spicer about the tweet at a briefing, and here he attempted to ask Trump about it, as well.
Trump ignored the question, and awkwardly made his way out of the room. But in the process, he failed to actually sign the executive order on his desk that had been the subject of the event in the first place. Mike Pence walked back and took the papers off the desk, bringing them to Trump — rather than having to deal with the questions about Flynn the reporters continued to ask.
after @MajorCBS asks about Flynn, Trump leaves signing ceremony without signing executive orders. Pence went and picked it up from desk — Justin Sink (@justinsink) March 31, 2017 |
Oz, after getting to the finals of IEM Shanghai just 3 weeks ago, made it into the top 8 of WCS North America this past weekend. Although he lost to the eventual champion Polt, 0-3, and then fell to Alive 0-2 in the 5th place decider matches, he did so with really cool and smart play. As I watched, it reminded me of the Oz of old, the innovator, playing his own brand of Protoss at the top of the world. It was awesome to see again after the kind of long rut he hit.
PvT isn’t a matchup that is being innovated quite as much as some others at the moment. There’s some really strong builds out there, and Protosses normally don’t stray too far from them. Oz was different in WCS NA. In this blog, I want to talk about what I saw, and why it’s cool.
OZ vs POLT @ NEWKIRK PRECINCT
Over a year ago, Oz kind of created the 3 Nexus off 1 Gateway into StarGate style vs Zerg that we still see used every now and then today. It was extremely well thought out, but seemed entirely too greedy and punishable. This forced lots of Zergs to overextend into him, while he knew how to kill them for doing so.
He’s doing it again now, but in PvT.
Against Polt on Newkirk, Oz went for Gateway — Expand — Robo — Expand. Here is what he does that makes it really cool:
– All tech placed at natural. Drops will be an issue, as will frontal attacks. The only safe location for crucial structures is the natural expansion
– 2 or 3 Stalkers in front of Terran base. Needed to deny scouting (especially of his expansion), and kite against any incoming Marine pushes meant to force a Nexus Cannon (more on that in the next point)
– Mothership Core full base scout. Oz needed to know exactly what was going on in Polt’s base to make sure he would be ok. Sadly, his Mothership Core gets stuck at this point, but he does utilize it as best he can while stuck to keep Polt busy
– Lots of bravery with his units. Oz is looking for any early scuffles during which he can gain tiny victories, even if its a single Marine. Anything he can kill off will add up quickly for his build to work
– Using Pylons to try to spot drops, skimping slightly on Observer count. Robo build time, as well as Gas, are at a premium. Pylons are an easy replacement
– Blink//Colossus as a tech choice. The weakest time for Oz’s build is the mid-game, where Blink//Colossus is strong and sturdy. On the other hand, mid-game is where Charge/Storm builds have a little bit of weakness
Now, during this game, all of Oz’s plans work out almost perfectly. He’s in an amazing position. It was really well played. In fact, he knew the only thing that could hurt him at this point was a big drop in his main. For this reason, he put up another scout pylon, which Polt flew past right out of vision before it finished. Oz knew that this was a possibility, so he sent out a Hallucinated Phoenix to check. It did, for a moment, see the edge of the incoming Medivacs. Sadly for Oz, he didn’t notice it on his mini-map. A single mistake in an otherwise brilliant game.
The game can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdEXN0chIqg
OZ vs POLT @ AKILON WASTES
This game was, perhaps, not quite as beautiful as game 1 in my opinion, but still had some awesome and different things to think about in regards to how we see PvT at the moment.
Oz opens up once again with a fast expansion, and then has 2-3 Stalkers outside of Polt’s base to prevent scouting. He then proceeds to get a Twilight before even his Warpgate research is done, in order to get Blink. Now here’s one really cool part, for me:
Polt scans Oz’s natural at about 7:35, seeing 2 Gasses already being mined from.
– Seeing gasses already being mined from at this time normally indicates Colossus play. (yeah it can be other stuff, but this is the norm)
– Colossus play is the safest vs the first Terran push outs with Medivacs
– As soon as the scan goes away, Oz adds 2 Forges to the natural (again, like before, a safe spot). The build he’s doing, despite using Blink, isn’t 100% safe vs drops. If his natural gets a bunch of units in it, he’s already lost with this style, so its a good place for them
Now, here comes an awesome move from Oz. His Mothership Core scouted out Polt very early, and then he left it near the 3rd base. Now, remember that he kept Stalkers to deny scouting, and kite vs Marines, in front of Polt’s base all game long. This is why he could leave the Mothership Core down south. Now, as Blink finished and he had a decent amount of units, he moved them down while his Mothership Core watched for a 3rd Command Center. As he sees an SCV walk towards the 3rd, the Mothership Core gets pulled back a bit. He then walks the Stalkers over in front of the path that leads to his main base (has to see if Polt is moving out at this time), and then goes back and blinks over the rocks. Now, Polt is pretty godly, so he cancelled the CC in time, but many times I am sure Oz gets a kill there. With a full energy Mothership Core, there’s no possibility of losing his Stalkers. A simple time warp on the ramp can allow him time to regain his Blink and get out. A small advantage gained, and a tone set for the game:
Oz is on the map looking to hurt you with Blink Stalkers. *nerd chills*
Behind this fast tech and aggressive stance, Oz is teching into Colossus, getting Charge, and upgrading out of 2 Forges. He even takes a pretty fast 3rd, and then techs to Storm. This is a lot of stuff to be doing. For that reason, the Stalkers stay out on the map. He needs them to be slowing things down, picking things off, utilizing their Blink cooldowns to the fullest. To cover up his weakness against drops, he once again has Pylons all over the map on the edges.
With active units (Mutalisks, Medivac drops, in this case Blink Stalkers), you can be on the map, dealing little amounts of damage, keeping tabs on your opponent, and being a general threat for a very long time. He really uses this fact, forcing extra stims, picking off units, damaging Medivacs, etc. A scouting Pylon gets attacked? No problem. Send the Stalkers over there to try and get some kills, and rebuild it.
At the end of the game, Oz was ahead in upgrades and tech, and even on bases. When Polt came out to attack, Oz had Lots of Colossus with Thermal Lance, had already picked off some Vikings, and had 5 High Templars with Psi Storm researched. The Problem was, they didn’t have 75 energy. Polt stimmed a small group of units in and killed them off. Very sharp play by Polt, once again defeating Oz’s really innovative style.
You can see the game here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV37uQ1-o3Q
Well, there you have it. Oz is a pretty damn cool Protoss. Once again he is out there innovating with his own style, and just barely not being at the very top. I, for one, really hope he keeps it up.
Comments
comments |
Academia’s biotech prostitutes exposed: GMO.news posts full text of once-secret emails between Monsanto and Dr. Kevin Folta of the University of Florida – “Biofortified boys”
The US Right to Know (USRTK) organization has just gone public with a collection of emails showing the incredible corruption of academic “scientists” by Monsanto and the biotech industry. These were acquired through Freedom of Information Act requests submitted over the last year.
They now expose the absolute corporate collusion of universities and their “scientists” who parrot biotech industry propaganda talking points while Monsanto and other corporations make huge donations to their universities. (Oh yeah, and these scientists get all-expenses-paid trips to Hawaii, paid for by Monsanto.)
The original announcement from USRTK is found here.
The New York Times (NYT) article is here.
The NYT article references three “document dumps” covering the collusion and academic prostitution of three university scientists:
Dr. Kevin Folta of the University of Florida
Dr. Bruce M. Chassy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. David Shaw of Mississippi State University
Prostituted scientists known as “Biofortified boys”
This document dump contains a goldmine of truly shocking revelations about blatant collusion between Monsanto and university professors, whom the biotech industry calls their “Biofortified boys.”
Here’s the full document dump in PDF form, hosted by NaturalNews.com:
Dr. Kevin Folta of the University of Florida
NaturalNews.com[PDF]
Dr. Bruce M. Chassy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
NaturalNews.com[PDF]
Dr. David Shaw of Mississippi State University
NaturalNews.com[PDF]
Here are the text files hosted by GMO.news:
Dr. Kevin Folta of the University of Florida
GMO.news
Dr. Bruce M. Chassy of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
GMO.news
Dr. David Shaw of Mississippi State University
GMO.news |
Jeffrey Mann wrote a response to my last post: “If I understand him correctly, he sees the reason for training in a koryu to be for the sake of the koryu itself, not the people in it or for the sake of historical archiving. However, our actions on behalf of an entity (like a nation) are usually for the sake of the people who live, or will live, in that entity. Doing something good for the entity itself, when it becomes the telos itself, seems misdirected. My contributions to a company, university, or nation are for the well being of its members and, hopefully by extension, the world. This seems to be the model of modern budo folks like Kano, Ueshiba, Doshin So, etc. This is more than pursuing the “Way” for myself alone. I don’t get what Amdur perceives to be the telos of the person who says, “I train for the ryu,” as he does.
What are the alternatives Mr. Mann offers to ‘training for the ryu?’ Let us first address ‘historical archiving.’ Without a doubt, this must be part of one’s involvement in any traditional martial art; otherwise, why train in culture specific, archaic combative methodology with weapons that will, perhaps, never be used again? However, to regard this to be the primary role of the ryu and its members, as exemplified in the phrase mukei bunkazai (‘intangible cultural treasure’), is problematic.
Many who subscribe to this view regard what they have been taught as inviolate, somehow handed down generation after generation in unaltered form. I have seen so much evidence to the contrary. Most prosaically, there are films of various ryu going back several generations where one can see significant changes from one era to another. There are other teachers, still paying lip-service to the ‘mukei-bunkazai identity,’ who arbitrarily change techniques or entire kata, saying it looks better in the ‘new’ version, or intending to conform to the methodology practiced in the larger modern budo organization (i.e., kendo, naginata-do or iaido federation) that they’ve joined. Others do so unconsciously, believing they are maintaining exactly what their instructor passed on to them, despite clear evidence to the contrary–they literally are not aware how differently they are moving. If any such ‘unconscious innovators’ are inept or grandiose, their errors are graven in stone for the next generation. There are many koryu that preserve inane techniques, or even kata with illogical sequences that do not contribute to survival, no matter how one tries to craft an explanation for them. Many have lost so much of the essence of their school that they truly exemplify form without substance.
[NOTE: I am not considering here koryu that deliberately strive to improve themselves by openly revising or even reviving abandoned kata, albeit within parameters circumscribed by the essential gokui (essential, core teachings) of the school. I have discussed this intriguing subject in Skoss’ The Classical Warrior Traditions of Japan series].
Training within a ‘living antique’ often leads to an arrogant attitude. With no impetus to train as if one’s life depends on one’s actions, many rest on the laurels of previous generations, considering membership in the ryu to be laurels enough for modern times. With such a mindset, the ryu invariably change for the worse. Many practitioners have never had to face anything unpredictable (‘live’) with the weapons, physical techniques or psychological mindset that they are allegedly training. I recall one eminent shihan saying to me, “I can do my grocery list while I’m doing the kata.” I assumed he intended to impress me, as if this were an embodiment of mushin (‘unattached mind’). Instead, I took it to indicate that he is a master at rote movement, because although a mind unfixed by agenda or plans is essential in live training or real combat, letting one’s mind wander elsewhere is impossible if one is facing an enemy (or training partner) of equal or greater skill. Archiving a combative methodology is a desiccated practice; kata devolve into fossilized movements, without flesh or blood.
Mr. Mann also suggests that one might train for the well-being of the members of the group. How is this different than a social club or mutual-aid society? However, to actually learn what the warrior class of Japan knew, one must serve something larger than oneself. Authentic ryu were embodied ideologies. Moving a certain way enables one to exist, for a time, as one’s ancestors did. This is augmented by kuden, oral teachings that teach mindset: not only psychophysical organization for dangerous, even life-threatening situations, but expectations on how one is expected to behave amongst armed and dangerous peers.
If one holds the light-weight intent of a hobby or social club, why preserve tradition? (In this wise, Mr. Mann’s two ‘telos’ are in conflict). Why practice techniques that might be dangerous, or disturbing (i.e., an eye gouge or a stab upwards into the groin), where, with a small change of angle or target, one could practice with more safety and look better while doing it, too? In fact, safer, more elegant practice can lead to far greater enjoyment among one’s training partners: vitiation of a ryu could easily be construed as support the individuals within the group.
There is no doubt that there is an ‘as-if’ quality to the ryu. If one honestly wishes to study true combatives and live the values inherent in such training, then one should join the military, an honorable and courageous thing to do. At one time, koryu may have been methodologies for survival. They were also an indoctrination into the ideology of an extant society (and class structure), offering comprehensive instructions on how a man or woman of a certain social class or status was expected to behave, most centrally concerning how to wield power in certain circumstances and how to defer to it in others. Given that part of that society was based on service, ‘training for the ryu’ helps us experience something that may be absent from most people’s lives today, a sometimes extravagant offering of oneself for something intangible: an amalgam of psycho-spiritual training, combative techniques for the purpose of killing other human beings, and a way of training to survive in another world, in many ways, long lost.
This cannot occur if one is merely intrigued by the archaic techniques, enjoys the company of peers and seniors, admires the teacher and loves the history. One must be willing to be ‘infected’ by the ryu, so that one sees the world inalterably tinted by its perspective. By circumscribing one’s world view in this manner, one has an opportunity to have a far deeper understanding of how one’s ancestors lived: one can literally walk in their footsteps, breathe in their rhythms and fight within their shadow. Because the ryu (and the society that birthed it) emphasized collective ties rather than individual actions, commitment to the ryu must be paramount if one is truly a trainee. (The phrase ippiki okami (‘lone wolf’) is a term of praise for many in the West – a man who strikes his own path – but in Japan, such an individual was simultaneously admired and abhorred, celebrated only after they were destroyed by the culture they were revolting against.)
In concrete terms, this means is that if a member of the ryu is casual in his or her practice, or worse, disruptive, a teacher (myself for example) can easily expel them from the ryu, and conceivably cut them off from their friends within the school. Their presence disrupts practice, and this disrupts the deep commitment of other, serious trainees. Another person may have the best intentions in the world, but may be untalented or somehow unable to grasp the character of the ryu. Through no fault of their own, they may simply not fit the requirements of the ryu. Every moment spent training with them may be a waste of time, and teaching them is a waste of energy for the teacher. If so, they, too, should be told that their time training is over, as far as the ryu is concerned. Why? Because their presence damages the ryu. The fact that such an action might profoundly hurt their feelings is of little concern to me. Were training in the ryu primarily for the support of the people who joined it (like the modern martial arts Mr. Mann cites), this might be regarded as unkind, ungenerous, or elitist (or whatever negative term you’d like to apply to it). But if I wished to make friends, it would not be through teaching koryu. Training may benefit the people in the ryu, but only if they, in turn, benefit the ryu. They are there for a reason: not friendship, although that might occur, nor community, although that will surely develop. Their presence must contribute to the survival of the ryu itself.
No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, without permission in writing from the author. It is acceptable to share a link to this article on such social media as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. |
State taxes collected in California dropped 13.94% in 2009 from a year earlier, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau. That compares with an 8.6% drop nationwide.
The report doesn’t include local or federal taxes or state unemployment compensation taxes.
The state collected just over $101 billion in 2009, down $16.4 billion, even though the legislature and governor approved the largest tax increase in state history including hikes in sales, motor vehicle and income taxes.
Among the declines:
Sales and gross receipts – 8.6%
Individual income -20.4%
Corporate -19.5%
Most categories of licenses collected more money, including:
Occupational and business +16.9%
Motor vehicle +10.1%
Alcohol beverage +3.4%
All 50 states collected $715.2 billion in 2009, almost $67 billion less than in 2008. The nationwide declines include:
Sales taxes, $228.1 billion, -5.4%
Individual income, $245.9 billion, -11.8%
Corporate, $40.3 billion, -20.7%
These three categories made up 72% of all state government tax collections nationwide.
“The 2009 state tax collection data is the first component of government finance data released each fiscal year and provides an important indicator of the fiscal condition of state governments,” said Lisa Blumerman, chief of the Census Bureau’s Governments Division.
These declines help explain why at least 41 states have shortfalls in their 2010 budgets, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
California’s 2010 budget has a $6.6 billion shortfall and faces a total $19.9 billion deficit through next year.
Some states had by even greater revenue declines than California, according to Census data. For example, Arizona was hit with a 42.5% decline in individual income taxes in 2009, largest in the nation, followed by Southe Carolina, -29.6%; Tennessee, -23.8%; and New mexico, -23.2%.
Michigan, hard hit by automaker bankruptcies, had the largest percentage drop in corporate taxes, down 63.5% followed by Oregon, -45.8%, New Mexico, -42.6% and Utah, -37.7%. |
In early November Google chap Benson Leung caused a stir when he wrote an analysis suggesting manufacturers of cables and power adapters weren't paying attention to the USB Type-C spec. Manufacturers' inattention, he worried, might result in devices being damaged as they suck down too much power.
Leung's concerns appear to have been justified, as a manufacturer called OnePlus has 'fessed up to designing a dodgy power supply.
“Recently it has come to our attention that two of our products, the OnePlus Type-C cable and the OnePlus USB Type-C adapter, are using a resistor that may not be fully compatible with some third-party devices,” writes staffer “Carl” in the company's forums. “Our cable and adapter use a 10kΩ resistor, but according to version 1.1 of the Type-C port standard, these products should be using a 56kΩ resistor. The issue is that the cable and adapter are designed for a maximum of 2 amps of power, but the resistor will allow fast-charging devices to try to draw more power than a power source may allow.”
OnePlus' own phones won't have a problem with the adapter, but if you use the device to power other products “this could result in damage to the power source (third-party charger, USB port, etc.) if the device and power source do not have an internal mechanism to self-regulate the amount of power flowing to or from them.”
OnePlus says that if customers bought the adapter in question without also buying its OnePlus2 phone, it will “offer an opportunity to apply for a refund on those products”.
Details of how to do so for North American and European customers can be found here. Chinese and Indian customers can receive a refund at point of sale. ® |
Posted July 19, 2017 at 5:39 pm
EDIT: There is an obvious continuity issue with this explanation that I somehow missed, and it will be revised next comic. That's gotta be a speed record for retconning. The new explanation solves the issues mentioned at the end of this commentary, however.
I want to do more furry TFs. Also, more... I'm tired of saying "heavy"? It's not quite right. I mean, lots of body types and figures are "heavy". Pear shaped? I dunno. More of whatever I should be calling that sort of morph.
The hairstyle I chose for furry Tedd was the result of me saying "darn it, I want more diverse hairstyles" and searching for popular hairstyles. I didn't find an exact match for what I drew, but I found bangs like that and spikey hair going up like that on separate hairstlyes. I didn't see pigtails anywhere, but I felt the hair should fill up more space, and pigtails were the easiest way to pull that off.
Zap and Repeat
The answer to "can Ellen transform, scan, paste, and repeat to stack effects beyond what is normally possible" (such as shrinking beyond 1/2 size) was always going to be "nope", but it took me a bit to settle on exactly why it doesn't work.
This answer might seem simple, and it is. "The enchantments that are already there cause wibbliness and wobbliness, and Ellen can at best get the default form".
Thing is, this is a pretty darn significant thing to allow to be canon, because Ellen now has a way to covertly find out someone's default form. That is not a small thing. Granted, the spells that allow her to do that are relatively short range, but it's still a signifcant thing to establish.
Someone did point out a loophole of my own making on this very question of stacking copied forms, however, and I'm not sure if I'm going to answer it before this is over (I intend for four more comics). This answer soundly prevents Ellen from transforming, scanning, pasting, and repeating that action in most cases, and it accomplishes this by enchantments getting in the way.
Grace is never actually enchanted by any of Ellen's spells.
Whoops. |
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the Marines shown in a famous World War II photograph raising the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima was posthumously awarded a certificate of U.S. citizenship on Tuesday.
The Marine Corps War Memorial in Virginia depicts Strank and five others raising a flag on Iwo Jima.
Sgt. Michael Strank, who was born in Czechoslovakia and came to the United States when he was 3, derived U.S. citizenship when his father was naturalized in 1935. However, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently discovered that Strank never was given citizenship papers.
At a ceremony Tuesday at the Marine Corps Memorial -- which depicts the flag-raising -- in Arlington, Virginia, a certificate of citizenship was presented to Strank's younger sister, Mary Pero.
Strank and five other men became national icons when an Associated Press photographer captured the image of them planting an American flag on top of Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945.
Strank was killed in action on the island on March 1, 1945, less than a month before the battle between Japanese and U.S. forces there ended.
Jonathan Scharfen, the acting director of CIS, presented the citizenship certificate Tuesday.
He hailed Strank as "a true American hero and a wonderful example of the remarkable contribution and sacrifices that immigrants have made to our great republic throughout its history."
All About Iwo Jima • World War II • U.S. Marine Corps |
I Got 64 Problems But A Flaoc Ain't One
#2: The Maddening
Well, well, well... What have we here, boys and girls? Last time, at A&C World, we ran an experimental tournament... an experiment gone extremely right. A revival of sorts, the first of a local series, an event to smash down the barriers of mismatched controllers, an event to gauge interest for an assumedly small community that was truly anything but. 3 events, 9 hours, fierce competition, the start of something amazing...
Smash 64, if our numbers stay as good as they did at our launch, will attempt to join the ranks of Melee, Brawl, and Project M with Saturday tournaments, longer hours, monthly events, and bigger payouts.
It's time to step up our game. It's time to up the ante. It's time to put on a Maddening show.
Information
You!
What: SMASH 64 !
Where: A&C World, 702A Spadina Ave (west side of Spadina, south of Bloor St)
http://acgamesonline.com/world/
When: Saturday June 28, 2014 12:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Why: 27 entrants at our first event. That was awesome. And we hope to do even better. Here's 2 months to plan ahead, set the date aside, bust out your controllers and practice up.
How: by giving us your money again
Venue fee: $5
Smash 64 Singles: $10 (60-30-10 payout)
Smash 64 Doubles: $5 per person ($10 per team) (60-30-10 payout)
Side Event: $2 per person (Winner Takes All) Who:What:Where:(west side of Spadina, south of Bloor St)When:Why: 27 entrants at our first event. That was awesome. And we hope to do even better. Here's 2 months to plan ahead, set the date aside, bust out your controllers and practice up.How: by giving us your money againVenue fee: $5Smash 64 Singles: $10 (60-30-10 payout)Smash 64 Doubles: $5 per person ($10 per team) (60-30-10 payout)Side Event: $2 per person (Winner Takes All)
Schedule (TENTATIVE)
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM Registration + Friendlies (DO NOT BE LATE!)
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM All Events Begin
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM Scheduled Lunch Break (DQ-free grace period)
3:45 PM - 10:00 PM All Events Continue
This schedule WILL CHANGE if we get more than 32 entrants, in which case we will be doing ROUND ROBIN POOLS for singles, as well as an AMATEUR BRACKET.
Setup Info
multiple N64 setups (NTSC console + cart)
two USB-to-N64 adapters for USB-powered controllers for USB-powered controllers two Raphnet Gamecube-to-USB adapters (works laglessly with the USB-to-N64 device) two Raphnet Classic-Controller-to-USB adapters (works laglessly with the USB-to-N64 device)
Netplay keyboard warriors and VC recruits are encouraged to come out! No matter how you like to play, we got you covered.
Please bring cartridges.
Current count:
Gameplay Rules
~~~~~~~~PLEASE VOTE ON YOUR PREFERRED STAGELIST!~~~~~~~~
(Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/244938389023701/ We will have:CRT TVs and N64s are provided by the venue (is that awesome or what, am i right?). |
In our hyper-polarized era, calls to “keep politics out of the classroom” are routine. But public school classrooms are precisely the place where students should be learning how to discuss and debate contentious topics, according to a new book, The Case for Contention: Teaching Controversial Issues in American Schools, by Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson.
Since Donald Trump was elected, UPenn professor Zimmerman has been doing his part to argue for making controversy a part of the school day. In the latest episode of the Have You Heard podcast, AlterNet education editor Jennifer Berkshire and co-host Jack Schneider talk to Zimmerman about why bringing politics into the classroom has never been more urgent. The following is an edited transcript.
Have You Heard: We spend a lot of time these days bemoaning the state of free speech on college campuses. You argue that students basically arrive at college having no idea how to discuss and debate controversial topics because they never experienced it as K-12 students.
Jonathan Zimmerman: The skills that we're talking about here are skills of dialogue of liberation for reason of tolerance. They're not natural. Nobody comes out of the womb saying ‘I'm going to listen to you.’ In fact they come out saying ‘me me me.’ What we need to do as as parents as educators as citizens is teach them a certain set of skills about the way that politics and democracy is supposed to work. These are not natural skills. And it is clear from our current moment that we have a deficit of them. We're living in an incredibly polarized moment, a moment of mutual vilification, a moment where shouting is replacing talking and name calling is replacing discussion. And we will never be able to budge from that moment, we will not be able to move the needle unless our educational institutions step up to this challenge.
Have You Heard: Your book is also a history of how public schools have dealt with controversial issues. And it turns out that keeping politics out of the classroom was baked right into the original recipe.
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JZ: Horace Mann himself wrote several articles and speeches insisting that schools should never address controversial issues. And the reason was that he was trying to build a system of free public schools, and more specifically, trying to get taxpayers to pay for the system. And his fear was that if they see what he called a controverted opinion—we would call it controversial opinion—especially one they did not share, they wouldn’t pay for his reform. And it's ironic. Schools themselves were born in controversy. The creation and the funding of schools was always controversial but they were not formed to discuss controversy inside their walls. Quite the contrary. The people who created them wanted to insulate them from controversy so that taxpayers would support them.
Have You Heard: You document how teachers have had periods of relative freedom to bring hot-button topics into the classroom vs. times where they’re essentially silenced—like during the build-up to a war. But all of the emphasis on standardized testing has taken a toll too.
JZ: There's no question that the whole accountability movement has played a constraining role, in part because the high stakes tests. It's not just that they increased teaching to the test, often they encourage teaching to a single right answer, which questions like ‘should we invade Iraq?’ often don't have. The other thing we've learned that's really important is that when you interview teachers about their professional preparation, learning how to address controversial issues is often not a part of their preparation at all. But controversial issues are part of democracy, and if our goal is for students to be able to agree to disagree, then teachers have to be prepared to lead those kinds of discussions.
Have You Heard: Since Trump was elected, you’ve undertaken a one-professor crusade to get students at UPenn to engage with other students across political lines. How’s it going?
JZ: I began organizing dialogues between college students from around the Delaware Valley after Trump was elected. I was really really upset by frankly the low quality discussion at UPenn, and by the frame of trauma that many people use to describe this which I think is kind of a rhetorical cul de sac, and something that inhibits discussion. And I decided that the only way we could really have discussion was by bringing in people from other places especially places with a different political profile than UPenn. So I got in touch with people at Cairn University, formerly Philadelphia Bible College and we organized a series of discussions between Penn students and students. Now we've expanded it to include students from Drexel, Villanova, Saint Joseph’s. One Penn student said in his evaluation that, "we're so afraid to talk to somebody of a different perspective and it turned out that it wasn't that hard."
Have You Heard: What do you think the students were so afraid of?
JZ: I think what they felt was a mixture of angry and scared. They understand that the political waters have in many ways been poisoned. But you can get people around a table from different positions and they can learn how to speak in simple and mutually respectful ways but they've got to do it and you've got to start somewhere. And I think that's the challenge right now. All of us are grappling with this I think in our own ways trying to make sense of that and trying to do little things that hopefully can not just promote dialogue but make a case for it. |
You may have to reconsider eating sushi made with eel after watching this video.
In the early 1970’s, Valerie Taylor and her husband (Australian ocean experts and cinematographers) began scuba diving and exploring the sea life underwater. Along the way, they documented their discoveries on film. In 1974, while diving near Banda Island, Indonesia, Taylor says she first met “Honey” the eel. She began feeding the curious fish other fish and over time the two developed a bond. Valerie says that After visiting on a regular basis for several years, as soon as Honey spotted her diver pal, she would swim out of her cave to greet her, and the two would cuddle.
This video was shot years ago and Valerie rarely dives anymore. Thanks to YouTube, this incredible footage was recently reposted on Youtube attracting tens of thousands of new viewers. |
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sorenga's Barcode Project was built when Norway's economy was doing well thanks to high oil prices
Looking out across the Oslo fjord, with its islands and sandy beaches, it is easy to forget that the Norwegian economy is in difficulty.
As oil prices have collapsed, it's become clear that Norway has caught what used to be called the Dutch disease - an overreliance on one industry, in this case the oil and gas sector.
With its upmarket waterfront restaurants and the Barcode office blocks, the Sorenga dockside development serves as a poignant reminder of how prosperous Norway had become while the going was still good.
"Where once there was a container port, there is now housing," says Vibecke Lyse Augdal, managing director of property rentals company Utleiemegleren, as she takes in the view from a luxury flat at this natural extension to the east of Oslo's Fjord City development.
"We're just a few yards from the central station and the opera quarter, and soon we'll have the Munch museum and the Oslo public library here too."
As the Norwegian economy bounced back following the 2008 financial crisis, the Norwegian people enjoyed enviable prosperity.
Hence, at a time when much of the rest of the world was undergoing a prolonged period of painful economic austerity, Norway had money to burn on prestigious waterfront developments such as Sorenga.
Unbalanced economy
Buoyed by its all-important oil and gas sector, Norway seemed invincible during the boom years, as Brent crude oil prices surged from less than $40 a barrel in late 2008 to a peak of more than $120 in early 2011.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption "We will not go back to the high investment level that we had three to four years ago." says Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg
In the years that followed, Brent continued to trade between $100 and $120 a barrel, and Norway was repeatedly crowned as the world's most prosperous nation by the Prosperity Index.
Then, as oil prices started to fall in 2013, it became apparent that beyond the glitz, the Norwegian economy had become incredibly unbalanced.
"The oil and gas industry became too strong in our economy, especially during the last four or five years, reflects Prime Minister Erna Solberg in an interview with the BBC News website.
"Most of the growth came from that sector, and our strong currency left some of our traditional industries behind."
Wake-up call
In the last couple of years, the price of oil has tumbled to around $30. During this period, the Norwegian energy giant Statoil, along with others in the industry, has axed thousands of jobs and scaled back contracts with suppliers.
In 2015 Statoil's earnings plunged, and it recorded a net loss of 37bn kroner ($4.3bn; £2.98bn).
The pain has spread. Economic growth has slowed dramatically, and this "has led to an increase in the rate of unemployment, which went above 4% of the labour force in early 2015", according to a recent OECD report.
Investment levels throughout the economy have fallen too, by about a third since oil prices collapsed.
"This will be a long-term situation", laments Mrs Solberg. "We will not go back to the high investment level that we had three to four years ago."
Well-oiled exuberance
Some regions, especially Stavanger where Statoil is based, have been hit harder than others, such as Oslo.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Norway's oil capital of Stavanger has seen jobless numbers soar as oil prices have plunged
But even here, there is a growing realisation that the prosperity enjoyed in recent years may have been temporary.
Three years ago, the Norwegian krone peaked at a 13-year high against key currencies, as the strong oil-fuelled economy provided a safe port for investors fleeing an international economic storm.
It made many Norwegians feel very wealthy indeed. Both holidays abroad and imported consumer goods seemed cheap, especially for the many dual-income households in this egalitarian nation, where salaries rose at a rate of 3-4% per year to reach an average of $33,492 in 2014, well above the OECD average of $25,492.
Both consumer spending and lending exploded during the boom years. House prices rose by about a third during the last six years.
Household debts have reached more than 200% of annual disposable income, making the Norwegians one of the most indebted people in Europe.
Much of this was fuelled by favourable tax rules for mortgages and historically low interest rates. But with most mortgages being floating rate, that could have a "significant macroeconomic" impact once interest rates start rising, the OECD has warned.
Diversification needed
The recent reversal in the Norwegian people's fortunes has already resulted in consumer sentiment weakening. House prices have all but stalled.
As yet there is little evidence of this in Oslo. House prices are holding up, as mortgage payments remain affordable thanks to historically low interest rates.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Investment levels throughout Norway have fallen by about a third since oil prices collapsed
And on the High Street, most people are still spending - even those who have lost their jobs remain solvent thanks to generous benefits, and spending by the wealthy remains strong.
"Demand remains strong, so we haven't seen an impact yet," says one of the partners in an upmarket clothing and accessories shop. "It's worse on the purchasing side, as everything's become much more expensive because of the weak krone."
Ordinary people are also responding to a fall in the mighty krone to levels not seen in four decades, by taking holidays at home rather than going abroad.
Nevertheless, it is clear that Norway can no longer rely on oil to fuel growth in its economy.
"None of us can be sure where the oil price will go," Mrs Solberg says.
"The Norwegian economy has to diversify."
Broad consensus
At last month's Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise conference in Oslo, participants were left in no doubt about the seriousness of the situation.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption With a weaker energy sector, Norway is now aiming to diversify its economy
The confederation's director general, Kristin Skogen Lund, broke with tradition and invited the leader of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions, Gerd Kristiansen, to join her on stage.
"We have the highest unemployment levels since 1995, and many of those out of work are young," observed Mrs Skogen Lund.
"We agree that we must face the challenges together," Mr Kristiansen said.
The government and the central bank are also doing their bit to prevent a hard landing for the Norwegian economy.
Norges Bank reduced its key interest rate three times last year to just 0.75%, with further cuts on the horizon, and the government raided the country's seven trillion kroner ($820bn; £560bn) oil fund to pump cash into the economy.
"With growing unemployment, we need to use stimulus from the oil fund," Norway's prime minister tells the BBC, justifying the decision to fund investment and tax cuts by taking more money from the oil fund than it will put in from oil revenues, for the first time since the sovereign wealth fund's birth in 1998.
Economic stimulus
With business and labour on side, and Norges Bank committed to low interest rates, the government is orchestrating a transformation of the economy.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The hope is that Norway's weaker currency should eventually drive growth in its export sector
"Through the oil and gas sector, we have built a large services sector that can be used to support other sectors in the future," Mrs Solberg says,
She predicts growth in the aluminium industry, the healthcare sector and, not least, in fish farming and fisheries, at a time when a 4.5kg salmon, once packaged and processed, is worth more than a barrel of oil.
"In the long-term, Norway will have an economy that is more diversified, and that is greener," she says. |
Key Highlights
ETH price remained in a narrow range for a few sessions above $205 against the US Dollar, and currently looking for a break.
The ETH/USD pair is about to break the range resistance at $2258 on the 4-hours chart (data feed via SimpleFX).
Once there is a close above $230, the pair could head higher towards $245-250.
Ethereum price is breaking higher against the US Dollar and Bitcoin, and ETH/USD looks set for more gains above $228 in the near term.
Ethereum Price Nasty Gains
In the last analysis, we saw a few swing moves in ETH price above $205 against the US Dollar. The price traded in a range with a crucial resistance at $228. Recently, the price dipped towards $203 where it found strong bids and started moving higher. During the upside move, the price broke an intermediate resistance at $212, which opened the doors for more gains.
There was even a break above a bearish trend line at $210 on the 4-hours chart of ETH/USD, which is a good sign for buyers. At the moment, the price is attempting to break $228. It also represents the 1.236 extension of the last drop from the $203 high to $98 low. So, a break above it could open the doors for a test of $245-250. On the downside, there is a bullish trend line formed on the same chart with support at $212.
If the price fails to close above $228 in this leg, then any dip towards $212 can be seen as buying opportunity. In the weekly bias, there is a chance of ETH/USD breaking higher towards $250 very easily. On the downside the $205-200 levels remain a strong support and buy zone.
4-hours MACD – The MACD is still in the bullish zone.
4-hours RSI – The RSI is well above the 50 level, and heading higher towards 65.
Major Support Level – $205.00
Major Resistance Level – $228.00
Charts courtesy – SimpleFX |
All of the attackers from Friday’s massacre in Paris so far have been identified as European Union nationals, according to a top EU official. The announcement further casts doubt on the validity of a Syrian passport found near the bodies of a slain attacker.
“Let me underline, the profile of the terrorists so far identified tells us this is an internal threat,” Federica Mogherini, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, said after a meeting with EU foreign ministers. “It is all EU citizens so far. This can change with the hours, but so far it is quite clear it is an issue of internal domestic security.”
The majority of attackers were identified as French or Belgian nationals. An Egyptian passport was also found, but the Egyptian Ambassador to France said it belonged to a critically wounded victim and not a perpetrator. The Syrian passport caused a ruckus, with some politicians in Europe and the U.S. calling for a halt to Syrian refugee resettlement. An increasing number of state governors are trying to defund the settlement program. American officials told CBS News that the passport might be fake, while British-daily the Independent reported that a man was arrested in Serbia while carrying a Syrian passport with matching details to the one found in Paris.
@2005-2015 CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND |
Why Obama’s Surge in
Afghanistan
?
By Shamus Cooke
December 02, 2009 " Information Clearing House " - Tuesday’s announcement that President Obama will send an additional 30,000 soldiers to Afghanistan — while begging his foreign allies to send an extra 10,000 — will have dramatic effects throughout the American and world society.
The hope that Obama’s election would drastically change U.S. foreign policy has been destroyed. The effects of his troop surge will change the minds of millions of Americans, who, until this point, were giving Obama the benefit of the doubt.
Such moments in history are capable of instantly removing piles of dust from the collective eyeball — just as the bank bailouts did.
The announcement will also send tremors throughout the military: many soldiers and their families remained silent about fighting with hopes that Obama would bring them home. They see little point in dying in a pointless war. Thus, morale is likely to continue deteriorating, while more brazen acts of defiance will surely increase.
The reasons behind the surge — Al Qaeda, “rooting out terrorism,” etc. — are unlikely to fool many people, with the exception of the media. This “war on terror” propaganda is based on the same illogical catch-phrases that Bush’s limited intelligence tripped over. Coming from Obama, such stupid reasoning sounds especially bizarre, akin to an evolutionary biologist forced to argue in favor of creationism.
Obama is compelled to tell the really big lie because the truth is too damning. If he remotely approached the real motives behind the war, the public would be pushed into total defiance — Obama’s new $660 billion military budget for 2010 would have caused mass demonstrations.
In reality, the war in Afghanistan was a convenient way for U.S. corporations — who dominate U.S. politics — to get a firmer hold in the resource-rich Middle East . For example, soon after Afghanistan was invaded, we were told that Iraq was a “ticking time bomb,” while now Obama assures us that Pakistan is the real threat — and don’t forget Iran ! When considering the above military budget, these countries are threats to the U.S in the same way that a flea is a threat to an elephant.
Who really benefits from war in the Middle East ? So far, U.S. weapons manufacturers have (Boeing, etc.), U.S. oil companies (Exxon, etc.), and the big banks that help move the spoils around (Citigroup, etc.) who also dominate the finances of the conquered country. Corporations that deal with “reconstruction” contracts love war (Halliburton, etc.), while also the multitude of “private contractors” that specialize in everything from cooking (Halliburton again) to mercenary fighting (Blackwater, etc.).
The many U.S. corporations that export abroad also benefit from the war, since a dominated country offers them a monopoly market to sell their goods in, or the ability to set up shop where none existed before. It is these collective interests that are driving Obama’s foreign policy; they would rather see the U.S. and Afghani people bled dry than allow a foreign competitor — China , Russia , etc. — to dominate Afghanistan ’s resources and markets.
The U.S. is certainly not fighting terrorists in Afghanistan — the Al Qaeda bogey men and the “evil genius” Osama Bin Laden are not directing military operations from a cave. The vast majority of people fighting U.S. troops are not “Islamic extremists” (another catchphrase), but average citizens enraged by foreign troops rummaging around in their homes, patting them down at check points, indiscriminately detaining them at torture centers (U.S. Bagram Air base), and killing their family members.
Yes, many Afghanis are deeply religious, but the presence of U.S. troops is the motor force behind their “radicalism,” i.e. resistance to military occupation. Islam is not inherently violent, but a military occupation unquestionably is.
Those wishing to end these wars must end their reliance on the corporate-bought two-party system, and begin organizing independently. The anti-war movement was strong while Bush was President, based not only on mass outrage, but the cynical maneuvering of those sitting atop of Democratic Party front groups like MoveOn and others — who helped organize and fund anti-war (Bush) demonstrations.
When Obama became President, the leaders of these groups played a thoroughly destructive role in the anti-war movement, shifting away from the effective measures used against Bush, or abandoning the struggle altogether, taking their funding with them. This disruption in organization, plus the mass-effect of the Obama illusion, had a temporary derailing effect on organizing.
But Obama’s troop surge may very well breathe new life into the deflated movement. Demonstrations are being organized for the spring, and there is plenty of time to join local groups/coalitions to help with the planning.
Mass demonstrations are a very effective tool, since they educate about the undemocratic nature of the state, while showing demonstration participants that there is power in collective action. More importantly, large marches prove to U.S. soldiers that they will have public support if they collectively choose to publicly oppose the war (by marching in a demonstration), or individually opt not to fight in these illegal wars. The Vietnam War was ended largely because so many soldiers opposed the war, demonstrated against it, or refused to fight; a courage they found by the massive public support felt at home.
Mass demonstrations do not organize themselves. It will take ordinary people working together to make it happen, while collectively demanding:
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
END THE U.S. WARS IN THE MIDDLE EAST!
Shamus Cooke is a social service worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action (www.workerscompass.org). He can be reached at shamuscook@yahoo.com |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A British man arrested at a weekend Donald Trump rally in Las Vegas tried to grab a police officer’s gun so he could kill the presidential candidate after planning an assassination for about a year, according to authorities.
U.S. Secret Service agents said Michael Steven Sandford approached a Las Vegas police officer at the campaign stop to say he wanted Trump’s autograph, but that he then tried to take the weapon.
A complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Nevada charges Sandford, 20, with an act of violence on restricted grounds. He was denied bail during a court appearance later in the day. His court-appointed attorney said he was living out of his car and in the country illegally after overstaying a visa.
Sanford has not entered a plea.
The arrest happened relatively quietly at a campaign stop seen as peaceful compared to the mayhem at the presumptive Republican nominee’s recent events in San Jose, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Gregg Donovan was among about 1,500 gathered Saturday to see Trump at the Treasure Island casino on the Las Vegas Strip. For the event, he donned the top hat and red jacket that made him recognizable in his former job as swanky Beverly Hills’ official greeter for more than a decade.
Donovan said he didn’t know about the charge against Sanford until he saw news reports. But he recognized him because the two had stood in line together for nine hours waiting to get into the Trump event. Sanford even held Donovan’s spot in line for a bathroom break.
“I was No. 5, and he was No. 4,” Donovan said.
They spoke, Donovan said, though Sanford didn’t say much and seemed “strange.” Donovan didn’t elaborate on what made Sanford seem odd.
After waiting, they passed through metal detectors manned by Secret Service, police and casino security officials.
Federal Magistrate Judge George Foley said in court Monday that Sandford was a potential danger to the community and a flight risk. Sandford wore leg irons and appeared to tremble during the hearing.
Heather Fraley, his assigned public defender, said Sandford appeared to be competent. She said he hadn’t been diagnosed with a mental illness but that he has autism and previously attempted suicide. He doesn’t have a job.
Sanford’s mother told court researchers that he was treated for obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia when he was younger, and that he once ran away from a hospital in England, according to the public defender.
Fraley argued that Sandford should go to a halfway house because he didn’t have a criminal history, but the judge said he should stay in detention ahead of a July 5 court date.
Agents said Sandford told them he had been in the U.S. for about a year and a half, lived in Hoboken, New Jersey, and drove to the San Bernardino, California, area before coming to Las Vegas on June 16.
Sandford told officers he was convinced he would die in the assassination attempt. He said he also reserved a ticket for a Trump rally in Phoenix, scheduled for later Saturday, as a backup plan.
The criminal complaint said Sandford was arrested after grabbing the handle of an officer’s gun while trying to remove it from a holster.
Sanford told authorities that he went to the Battlefield Vegas shooting range the day before the rally and fired 20 rounds from a 9mm Glock pistol to learn how to use it. Police detectives who visited the range spoke with an employee who confirmed that he provided Sandford shooting lessons, according to the complaint signed by Secret Service Special Agent Joseph Hall. |
David Dow/Getty Images
Houston Rockets rookie point guard Gary Payton II is reportedly set to have surgery for a sports hernia in the near future.
Continue for updates.
Payton's Status Uncertain With Surgery Looming
Tuesday, July 12
Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com reported Tuesday the undrafted free-agent addition is expected to undergo a procedure to repair the problem within the "next couple of days."
Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle noted the ailment will prevent Payton from taking part in any more NBA Summer League action.
It's unclear at this stage when Payton could return to the floor or if the injury could impact his availability for the start of Houston's training camp. No official timetable was announced.
The Oregon State product appeared in two summer-league games before the setback. He averaged 4.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists while logging 17 minutes per contest. He also made two of his four attempts from beyond the arc.
He told Watkins he was already starting to feel more comfortable after Sunday's game, a victory over the Sacramento Kings: "In the first game, I had to get it under my belt, get a feel for it and know I got to run a team. I was more focused on running the team, making sure guys were in spots and came out aggressive and take early shots penetrate and look for mine, and that’s what I did in the second game."
The Rockets will likely split his minutes among several players during the remaining portion of the summer league. Isaiah Taylor, Trey Freeman and Kenny Gaines could all see a minor uptick in playing time running the offense.
As for Payton, the timing of the injury is unfortunate since he was trying to prove he could handle a key reserve role behind Patrick Beverley. Now, his outlook heading into the season is a bit murky as he prepares for surgery and the recovery process that follows. |
A Northern Virginia sports bar owner will no longer show NFL games at his establishment following many NFL players’ decision to protest the national anthem.
R.L. Butler, who owns Fat Tuesday’s in Fairfax, said he is pulling the plug on NFL games at his restaurant in protest of the NFL players who “took a knee,” Fox 5 DC reports.
Butler said his decision to ban the showing of NFL games was motivated in part by his daughter, who served a one-year tour of duty in Afghanistan.
“After the football players were doing their protests, I realized this weekend that this is getting to a point where it’s pretty serious and also to a point where it’s very foolish,” Butler said, adding:
So after the Sunday game and the Monday night game, I woke up Tuesday morning thinking this is wrong and I started thinking about my daughter, and I said, “Well, what would have happened if my daughter comes home or would have came home in a box or a body bag or a wheelchair or something?”
The restaurant owner discussed it with his wife, and she agreed to make a flyer stating that Fat Tuesday’s would no longer air NFL games until the players, coaches, and owners stop their protests.
The flyer went viral after it was posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page, but the couple took the Facebook page down after receiving personal threats. Butler said that despite the personal attacks, the feedback was “95 percent positive.”
Butler said he would lift the ban if “the NFL gets their grips and [has] their players respect the flag and our national anthem.”
Other sports bars and eateries have opted not to show NFL games in light of the protests, including one sports bar in Louisiana and a California pizzeria.
Fans are also protesting their NFL teams for partaking in the protests by posting videos online of themselves burning their gear. Green Bay Packers fans ignited their Packers paraphernalia, and Pittsburgh Steelers fans torched their Steelers accessories. |
Advanced engineering of a mini-intronic plasmid (MIP) system designed to carry a therapeutic gene can significantly enhance the expression of the transgene delivered using an adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector. The ability to increase transgene expression by up to 40 to 100-fold, which would reduce the cost of manufacturing and perhaps also lessen the immune response of AAV/MIP-based gene therapy, is reported in Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Human Gene Therapy website until February 28, 2017 .
Authors Jiamiao Lu, Feijie Zhang, and Mark Kay, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, and James Williams and Jeremy Luke, Nature Technology Corp., Lincoln, NE, describe the modified MIP expression system in the article entitled "A 5' Non-coding Exon Containing Engineered Intron Enhances Transgene Expression from Recombinant AAV Vectors in vivo." The researchers discuss the potential implications of enhanced transgene expression on the doses needed to achieve a therapeutic response and the flexibility the small intronic sequences offer, allowing them to be used in both DNA plasmids and viral delivery vectors.
"Careful observation of the expression characteristics of different vector designs sometimes leads to unexpected findings," says Editor-in-Chief Terence R. Flotte, MD, Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education and Dean, Provost, and Executive Deputy Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA. "In this case, the authors found that a very substantial increase in the amount of transgene expression (up to 100-fold) could be achieved from rAAV vectors by including essential bacterial plasmid elements in an upstream intron. This could present substantial advantages for future in vivo gene therapy." |
New research by health care experts concludes that privately run insurance plans designed to supplement the Medicare system serve no truly useful purpose and instead of helping seniors receive better care, Medicare Advantage plans actually undermine traditional Medicare’s fiscal health.
By creating conditions where Medicare is overpaying premiums to these private (mostly for-profit) programs, the report—to be published in the forthcoming issue of International Journal of Health Services—found that as much as $282.6 billion dollars has been drained from Medicare since they were first introduced in 1985.
A majority of that waste, however, has been lost in the last eight years, the report says, following changes enacted under the Bush adminstration in 2003 which boosted Medicare payments to private insurers to nearly $85 billion through 2012. Those billions of dollars have taken a heavy toll on taxpayers, seniors, and ultimately—given the well-known impact of rising national health care costs—have helped drag down the entire US economy.
“In 2012 alone, private insurers are being overpaid $34.1 billion, or $2,526 per Medicare Advantage enrollee,” said Dr. Ida Hellander, lead author of the study.
Concluding that the creation of the private programs and subsequent attempts to reform or modify them have all been fiscal failures, co-author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler said: “It’s time we look to proven, cost-effective ways of providing high-quality care to Medicare’s beneficiaries and to the entire population. That means taking a fresh look at the single-payer model of reform.”
The research, which the authors suggest is the first of its kind, comes at a time when lawmakers in Washington, including vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, have proposed a dramatic expansion of private Medicare plans and criticized the Obama administration for the modest cuts in the overpayments contained in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, the administration has also touted the fact that private plans are on the upswing and supports the basic continuation of the public-private partnership.
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The report concludes that private insurers profit from Medicare in five basic ways, including: cherry-picking healthier seniors and making it harder for riskier patients to join programs; gaming Medicare's so-called "risk-adjustment' schemes; lobbying Congress for mandated payment structures; creating bonus payments schemes that generate no useful improvements in care; and by duplicating payments demands for care never even given by the plan.
“We’ve long known that Medicare has been paying private insurers more than if their enrollees had stayed in traditional free-for-service Medicare, but no one has assessed the full extent of these overpayments,” said Hellander. “Nor has anyone systematically examined the many ways that private insurers have gamed the system to maximize their bottom line at taxpayers’ expense.”
Woolhandler concluded: “It’s clear that having Medicare Advantage programs compete with Medicare doesn’t save us money. In fact the opposite is the case. The private plans only add waste, and the aggregate waste is staggering – enough to be a significant drag on the economy."
“Unfortunately, recent legislative and technical attempts to reduce Medicare’s overpayments to these insurance firms have had little or no impact,” she said.
Read the full report here (pdf).
# # # |
"Duffless" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' fourth season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 18, 1993.[3] After getting arrested for drunk driving, Homer tries to remain sober, at Marge's request. Meanwhile, Lisa attempts to prove that Bart is less intelligent than a hamster after he ruins her first science fair project. It was written by David M. Stern, and directed by Jim Reardon.[2] The episode received a positive reception.
Plot [ edit ]
While having breakfast with her family, Lisa shows them her project for an upcoming science fair, a steroid-enhanced tomato she hopes will cure world hunger. At school, three days before the fair, Lisa leaves her tomato under Bart's care for a moment and he hurls it at Skinner's buttocks. When Lisa returns, she is furious. She asks Marge for help, who suggests she run a hamster through a maze. Lisa likes the idea, but instead pits a hamster against Bart to find out who is smarter. After two easy tests, the hamster leads two to zero.
Bart later discovers her plans to humiliate him at the fair and pre-empts them with a project of his own, "Can hamsters fly planes?", showing her hamster in the cockpit on a miniature plane. Lisa insists his project has no scientific merit, but everyone ignores her and Principal Skinner hands Bart the winning ribbon.
At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant, Homer sneaks out early and accompanies Barney on a tour of the Duff brewery. Afterward, Homer refuses to let an extremely drunk Barney drive home and forces him to hand over his keys. On their way out of the parking lot, their car is pulled over by police Chief Wiggum, along with Eddie and Lou. They administer a breathalyser test to Homer, which he fails. He is arrested, loses his license, and must attend traffic school and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
In bed, Marge gives Homer a magazine quiz about his drinking. Hearing Homer's answers, Marge asks him to give up beer for a month, to which he agrees despite several incidents of temptations. Homer flees the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting when Reverend Lovejoy assures him he would never drink again after it ends, but exhibits more positive changes like losing weight, saving over $100 and not sweating while eating. After thirty days of sobriety, Homer goes back to Moe's for a beer, but leaves after seeing how alcohol has ruined the lives of Barney and the other barflies. He and Marge ride a bike into the sunset.
Production [ edit ]
Bart's go-go ray idea was "stolen" from the opening credits of Johnny Quest.[4] Mike Reiss said they did not want to show the hamster getting shocked but had to for plot purposes.[5] The first line Richard Nixon says, during the Duff commercial, was taken verbatim from the Kennedy-Nixon Debate during the 1960 Presidential Campaign.[6] Adolf Hitler's head, among other things, can be seen going by in bottles of Duff when the quality control man is not paying attention.[6]
The episode contains the first appearance of Sarah Wiggum.[7]
The episode contains a two-second snippet of footage from "Bart the Daredevil": a close-up of Homer making a disappointed face and saying "D'oh!" when he gets arrested.[8]
Cultural references [ edit ]
Homer reminisces about listening to Queen when he bought his first beer.
When Bart reaches for the cupcakes and collapses, it is a parody of a scene in A Clockwork Orange, where the main character Alex reaches for a woman's breasts.[5] The Duff clock is a parody of the "It's a Small World" clock.[9] In the Duff TV advertisement, a group of women were leading an anti-sexism protest in front of the McMahon and Tate building, a reference to the advertising agency from Bewitched.[5] The scene toward the end where Moe points toward individual customers declaring they will "be back" before pointing toward and addressing the viewer (later revealed to be Barney via a cutaway) is a parody of the end of the film Reefer Madness.[5] The final scene, where Homer and Marge cycle into the distance while "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" plays is a reference to the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.[1] Homer's song "It was a Very Good Beer" is sung to the tune of the 1961 song "It Was a Very Good Year";[10] one of its lyrics is Homer stating he stayed up and listened to the music of the British band Queen.[2] Bart sitting in the chair, stroking the hamster is a reference to James Bond character Ernst Stavro Blofeld, who strokes a cat in his chair.[5] Lisa imagines Bart as a hamster trapped in a maze saying "Help me! Help me!" which is a reference to The Fly (1958 film).
Reception [ edit ]
"Duffless" aired during February sweeps and finished 19th in the weekly ratings for the week of February 15–21, 1993 with a Nielsen rating of 15.2 and was viewed in 14.2 million homes.[11] It was the highest rated show from the Fox Network that week.[12]
The authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Simpsons Guide, Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood said, "A superb episode with a sincere message. Homer is excellent throughout, but it is the cameos by Principal Skinner and Edna Krabappel that steal the show, especially the latter's reaction to Milhouse's Slinky."[2] Entertainment Weekly ranked the episode as number eleven on their list of the top twenty-five The Simpsons episodes.[13] |
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A stray pooch scared off suspected drug dealers in Piccadilly Gardens after officers took it for a walk and they feared it was a sniffer dog.
The labrador was handed in the force’s city centre pod after being found by a member of the public who was concerned that it had been abandoned.
But when they decided to take it on a quick stroll through the gardens, well-known for dealers peddling cannabis, they spotted a couple of people making a quick getaway.
Inspector Phil Spurgeon, from the city centre policing team, said: “After being handed in to us, the staff at the pod took it for a walk.
“Quickly after setting off, they saw a couple of lads scurrying off thinking it was a sniffer dog.
“The dog has now been passed on to our contracted team of vets who will now send it on to a dogs home.”
(Image: Alex Hibbert)
The force’s Operation Mandera, which was launched in 2013 to tackle anti-social behaviour and drug dealing in the gardens, is still ongoing.
In May, the M.E.N revealed that since summer 2013 it had seen a total of 31 years’ jail time handed out to crooks who blighted the public plaza.
Inspector Spurgeon added: “We do take the drug issue in Piccadilly Gardens seriously and are still making arrests and getting results in court for people who push drugs in the area.
“But staff are doing it day in day out so they have to have those little moments of irony or farce that keep them smiling while working in a challenging area.” |
A runner taking part in Sunday’s Great North Run has died.
A spokesman said: “The Great Race Company deeply regrets the loss of life of a participant at the Great North Run today and offer our deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of the individual.
“In the case of a fatality, there are procedures laid down that we adhere to with the professional organisation. Our priority is to ensure the next of kin are informed and we are not in a position to comment further today. We will update the media as soon as we are in a position to do so.”
The annual half-marathon saw Mo Farah win for a second consecutive year, finishing in just under an hour.
Around 57,000 people entered Britain’s biggest race, starting in Newcastle before making their way over the Tyne Bridge, through Gateshead and on to the coast at South Shields.
Britain enjoyed further success with David Weir winning the men’s wheelchair race and Shelly Woods taking the women’s wheelchair crown. Kenya’s Mary Keitany won the women’s elite race with a time of one hour, seven minutes and 32 seconds. |
On this day in history, 17th June 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned at Loch Leven Castle following her surrender to the Protestant nobles at the Battle of Carberry Hill on 15th June. It was there at Lochleven that she is said to have miscarried twins fathered by James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, a man who had been linked to the murder of Mary's second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
On the 24th July 1567 she was forced to abdicate, and her son became James VI of Scotland with Mary’s illegitimate half brother, James Stewart, Earl of Moray, acting as Regent.
Mary attempted to escape from the castle in March 1568, disguised as a laundress, but was, unfortunately, recognised by the boatmen taking her across the loch and so was returned to her prison. Her next attempt, on 2nd May 1568, was successful. This time, she was helped by sixteen-year-old Willie Douglas, a page in the castle. He sabotaged all the boats at the jetty except one and signalled to Mary, who had swapped clothes with her lady, Mary Seton, when the coast was clear and everyone was busy with May Day festivities. Willie rowed Mary across the loch where they were met by George Douglas, younger brother of the Laird of Lochleven and a man who had been determined to help the queen after witnessing her forced abdication.
Mary and her supporters suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Langside on 13th May 1568 and Mary fled to England. She landed near Workington in Cumberland on the evening of 16th May and was placed in protective custody in Carlisle Castle under the orders of Elizabeth I. Little did she know that she was to spend the rest of her life as Elizabeth's prisoner in England and that her life would end on the block on 8th February 1587.
More on Mary, Queen of Scots:
The best book I've ever read on Mary, Queen of Scots, is John Guy's My Heart is My Own: The Life of Mary Queen of Scots. It is highly readable, very detailed and very well-referenced.
Also on this day in history, 17th June 1497, the Battle of Blackheath, the battle which brought the Cornish Rebellion to an end.
Picture: Lochleven Castle, West Wall, by Jonathan Oldenbuck. |
KALAMAZOO, MI — After weeks of speculation, State Rep. Sean McCann announced Thursday that he will request a recount of the result from the 20th District state Senate race.
An official tally of votes compiled by the Kalamazoo County Board of Canvassers showed McCann, D-Kalamazoo, lost the election to state Rep. Margaret O'Brien, R-Portage, by just 59 votes.
More than 80,000 votes were cast in the race for the state Senate seat that covers all of Kalamazoo County. A press release issued by McCann notes that O'Brien's margin of victory was .07 percent, which represents less than one vote per precinct.
"I've heard from countless supporters over the past two weeks who have encouraged me to seek a recount, and today I'm asking for just that," McCann said in the release. "We think that this extremely close margin warrants a recount."
McCann also said voters have expressed concerns to him about problems they encountered while voting and that he feels he owes it to his supporters to ensure every vote is counted.
"As we monitored certification of the election we saw several troubling issues that we believe also supports seeking a recount," McCann said without elaborating as to what those issue were.
O'Brien said that she has "a lot of faith" that official vote tally from the Kalamazoo County Board of Canvassers will stand.
The second-term representative also said she's grateful for the effort local and county clerks put into verifying the vote total and said she hopes they don't have to spend much more time on this election.
"(A recount) will take a lot of the clerks' time and I hope it doesn't take up too much of their resources," O'Brien said.
The State Board of Canvassers will meet on Monday to begin its certification of statewide election results. Once that process is complete, McCann may submit a petition to request a recount of any or all of the precincts within the 20th District.
Alex Mitchell covers county government and taxes for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Email him at amitche5@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter. |
MONTREAL - The Montreal Impact announced Wednesday that the club has acquired striker Justin Braun and midfielder Gerson Mayen from Chivas USA, in return for defender James Riley, who was selected during the Expansion Draft along with allocation money.
Braun, a 24-year-old forward from Utah, played a total of 96 matches, 72 as a starter in four seasons with Chivas USA. He scored 24 goals, which places him second on the list of all-time Chivas USA goal scorers. In 2011, he tallied eight goals and five assists in 29 games (2,055 minutes played). He was invited to the last two January training camps for the United States National Team.
Mayen, a 22-year old midfielder from Los Angles, played for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League (NASL) on loan from Chivas USA in 2011. In 16 career games in MLS, Mayen registered four assists, in 12 games during the 2009 season, which led the team. Mayen has played with the United States U20 National Team in 2008 and 2009, including the FIFA U20 World Cup in Egypt. |
OTTAWA — It’s the most ballistic Brier field ever.
TD Place is lousy with purple hearts.
The purple, heart-shaped crest has always been one of the most treasured possessions a Canadian curler could own. But this year at the Tim Hortons Brier here, they’re everywhere. They’re a dime a dozen. Just about everybody here has a bunch of ‘em.
The crest, created by the Macdonald Tobacco Company that sponsored the Brier from 1927 to 1979, came from the logo on the can of Purple Heart Tobacco and has been worn over the heart on the sweaters or jackets of every curler at the Brier back to the very beginning.
Canada’s defending Olympic champion Brad Jacobs of Northern Ontario admits he slept with his first purple heart under his pillow when he won it. There aren’t enough pillows in the host hotel to put one per pillow.
Glenn Howard is here with his 16 purple hearts, including 10 as a skip and six as a third for his brother Hurry Hard Howard, a.k.a TSN commentator Russ.
“I think it’s the strongest field ever,” said the 53-year-old who goes back to the corn broom era.
“I’ve been to 15 prior and there have been a few amazing fields before but there’s never been one this deep. It’s a ‘Who’s Who’ of curling. I really do think this is the deepest and the best field ever.”
Brad Gushue is here in his 13th Brier.
“There’s probably eight or nine teams that could probably win this year. Most other years you are probably looking at three or four who could win and maybe five or six that could make the playoffs. I really think that’s doubled this year,” said the 2006 Olympic gold medal winner from Newfoundland.
“You have five former Brier winners and none of them are the top two seeds, with my team and Mike McEwen’s team from Manitoba being No. 1 and No. 2.
“Then you have Jim Cotter of B.C., who has lost both a Brier final and an Olympic Trials final. Steven Laycock from Saskatchewan and Adam Casey of P.E.I. have been doing well. Depending what happens in the relegation round, if Jamie Koe gets out of there, he’s been in the playoffs before. It’s amazing.
“I’m here at the Brier with the best team that I’ve had and the best we’ve played leading into a Brier and it’s also the best field we’ve ever played in.
“And, believe it or not, I was kind of cheering for all the top teams. When you only get a couple of them in, those games become so big in the round robin because if you lose them you don’t get a chance to make those up. In this type of field everybody is going to have some losses.
“A team with an 8-3 record has a realistic chance to be in first place in a field like this and if you go 9-2 I think you’re almost guaranteed to finish in first place.”
The numbers really are staggering.
Gushue’s Newfoundland teammate Mark Nichols is in his 12th Brier as is NWT second Brad Chorostkowski. Behind Alberta second Brent Laing in his 11th is NWT skip Jamie Koe his 10th.
Newfoundland leads the field with 34 purple hearts.
The two Alberta teams, Koe’s Alberta champions and the Pat Simmons/John Morris defending champion Team Canada, have a combined total of 62, with Koe’s crew leading the tournament with 32 and the skip only having five of them.
The Northwest Territories team that begins play in the relegation round from which one of four teams will emerge, has a combined 31 trips to the Brier.
Like Team Canada, Jean-Michel Menard’s Quebec “home team” from across the bridge in Gatineau, has 30. Northern Ontario’s Olympic champion Brad Jacobs’ Sault Ste Marie team has 29.
Ontario, despite the front end only having two, still has 26, with Howard’s collection involved.
Add ’em all up and you have the astounding total of 304 purple hearts on the ice for the opening ceremonies, even if three teams are headed home from this failed relegation experiment the next morning.
Repeat. Three hundred and four!
To really get a sense of how extra special this year’s Brier will be, add up the total games played by each individual player going into the Ottawa rock concert.
Ontario’s Howard, himself, has played 196.
Gushue goes in at 146 and his third, Mark Nichols, isn’t far back at 137. NWT second Chorostkowski has played in 120 Brier games and Quebec second Eric Sylvain in 108.
Team Canada’s Morris is at 103 and Simmons will play his 100th game on the opening draw. Jamie Koe of the NWT goes in to relegation round play (which don’t count) at 100.
When it comes to teams, Koe’s stacked Alberta squad is tops with 353, followed by Gushue’s crew from The Rock, which has played a combined 370 games and Team Canada’s back-to-back Alberta-based Brier champions with 337. Northern Ontario’s Olympic champion Jacobs team and Menard’s Quebec regulars both have 313 games of Brier experience going in. Add them all up and this Brier features a field with a mind-boggling combined total of 2,972 games of Brier experience. Add 11 games per player on 12 teams and that total will grow to 3,104 by the end of the round robin not including the relegation round games.
Only 11 players in the entire field go in with zero games experience in the great granite festival — Ontario second Adam Spencer, New Brunswick lead Jamie Brannen and Nova Scotia second Scott Saccary are three.
Plus there are two entire teams.
Nunavut, of course, has none of it. And they’ll be out before it begins.
And there’s … wait for it … Manitoba.
Mike McEwen, B.J. Neufeld, Matt Wosniak and Denni Neufeld are all getting their Brier baptisms.
McEwen is going to be a favourite. And Howard and the back-to-back Brier champions on Team Canada are going to be picked out of the playoffs by some.
“The fans in Ottawa won’t have to look at the schedule to pick a good draw to go watch — there will be two or three good games on every draw,” said Nolan Thiessen of Team Canada.
“Ridiculously stacked. It looks crazy. It looks crazy good. It’s going to be a grind to make the playoffs. It’s going to be a barn-burner,” said Alberta lead Ben Hebert.
Or the tweet from teammate John Morris:
“Well there sure ain’t gonna be any FREE bingo squares at this year’s Brier! #HolyHanna #BestFieldEver?”
Normally making Brier predictions isn’t that difficult. But this year it’s a test.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca
Twitter.com/sunterryjones |
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Wikipedia has refused to remove photos of a monkey from its site
A photographer involved in a copyright row with Wikipedia over a monkey "selfie" says he has lost £10,000 in income over two years because of it.
David Slater, from Coleford in the Forest of Dean, said the web-based encyclopaedia had repeatedly refused to remove the image from its site.
He said there had been no interest from anyone in buying the image since it was declared to be in the "public domain".
The site said Mr Slater did not own the copyright as he did not take the photo.
Mr Slater told BBC News he relied on the income from his photographs to make his living.
"I made £2,000 [for that picture] in the first year after it was taken. After it went on Wikipedia all interest in buying it went.
"It's hard to put a figure on it but I reckon I've lost £10,000 or more in income. It's killing my business."
Mr Slater said he spent three days in Indonesia shadowing the monkeys in 2011.
'Give monkey the button'
"I became accepted as part of the troop, they touched me and groomed me... so I thought they could take their own photograph.
"I set the camera up on a tripod, framed [the shot] up and got the exposure right... and all you've got to do is give the monkey the button to press and lo and behold you got the picture."
A series of his images brought smiles to faces worldwide as the photos were published, and paid for, in magazines and news websites.
But they also ended up on the web encyclopaedia to illustrate the critically-endangered Macaca nigra - the crested black macaque.
Mr Slater said he had requested that Wikipedia either paid for the use of the image or remove it but neither happened.
The debate about the picture resurfaced on Wednesday as the Wikimedia Foundation published its first transparency report - following a similar practice by Google, Twitter and others.
Later the page containing the image had been "nominated for deletion" on the grounds it is "copyright David Slater", and "Wikimedia is displaying it unlawfully". |
Ever the publicity hound, Sen. Chuck Schumer, who obviously has no idea what additive manufacturing actually is, came out big and strong against “stomach-churning” 3D printed plastic guns last week.
“Everyone’s seen the movie ‘In The Line of Fire,’ where one of the great bad guys, [played by] John Malkovich, labored at making a gun out of plastic and wood so it could get through metal detectors and he could assassinate the president…” Senator Schumer went on to say, “But that was only a movie, and just this week, it has become reality. We’re facing a situation where anyone — a felon, a terrorist — can open a gun factory in their garage and the weapons they make will be undetectable. It’s stomach-churning.”
This naive, sensationalist rant so misunderstands the issue, I almost don’t know where to start. He goes on to inform the public that because these guns are made of plastic, they are undetectable, so he must introduce legislation that will make it illegal to possess an undetectable or an untraceable weapon. This is like putting a “Band-Aid on a heart attack.” Sen. Schumer simply doesn’t understand what he is dealing with. In fact, most of us don’t.
We (all of us) need to understand how different the actual world is from the world most of us think we’re living in. Most people believe that tomorrow is going to be substantially identical to today. The sun will rise, you’ll have breakfast, go to work, etc. But, those are the things we try to keep constant in our lives … technological advances don’t work that way.
Technology is evolving at an accelerating rate and we really have no chance of keeping up with it – not legally, not legislatively, not socially, not strategically … not at all. The best we can do is position ourselves to quickly adapt to change – it is the only guaranteed part of our reality.
Back to 3D printing, aka additive manufacturing — 3D printed plastic handguns are just one example of an unimaginably large number of weapons one could manufacture using a 3D printer. They are also an example (by manufacturing technique only) of the infinite number of constructive, uplifting, world-changing, life-affirming, life-saving items that one can manufacture using the exact same technology.
There are several variations of additive manufacturing technology. The 3D printer that has everyone’s attention prints one layer of plastic at a time. The thickness of the each layer determines the printer’s resolution. Thinner layers allow for more complicated and intricate output. Resolution of the printer is also a function of the materials being used to create the output. Some materials require thicker layers to print stable objects, other materials can be printed on nano-tech scales. The plastic guns in question are easy to print on inexpensive 3D printers because they are basically simple blocks of plastic with grooves and a few holes in them.
Now that you know what a 3D printer is, you must also understand that 3D printers are not limited to printing in plastic. There are 3D printers that print in wood (a mixture of wood particles and binding agent that dries as wood) ceramic, carbon fiber, bronze, iron, steel, cellulose, human tissue (certain body parts for human transplant are grown using 3D printed frameworks) … there are limitations to the range of additive manufacturing materials, but the technology is evolving rapidly.
As for guns … CAD/CAM files (the computer files that 3D printers transform into physical objects one layer at a time) for the .45 caliber M1911 or the 1911A-1 single-action, semi-automatic pistol have been online for years. In fact, you can find all kinds of CAD/CAMs for all kinds of gun parts, bomb parts, bazooka parts, rocket launcher parts and other deadly weapons online. These are computer files, like songs or movies or documents or images, they cannot be protected or digitally rights managed (DRM) any better than the entertainment industry has done with its intellectual property. A file is a file is a file, if someone wants to copy it – it will be copied. You can’t tell what the file contains unless you open it and, most importantly, there is no way to ban or prohibit the transfer of files. In this case, the genie is out of the bottle, you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube, the ship has sailed – the files are out there.
Plastic guns? Seriously. How about guns printed in steel, guns printed in carbon fiber, guns printed in, you name it – there’s a 3D printer that can print in the medium. In a world of 3D printers, there is no such thing as gun control – people who are so inclined will print all the guns and ammo they need – untraceable, no serial numbers, no markings about point of origin, no trade marks, nothing!
That’s the dark side of this technology. However, the benefits of 3D printing are overwhelmingly positive.
This is a picture of a 3D printed replacement part for a baby stroller. It was printed at a 3D printing bureau called Shapeways. You can think of Shapeways as a Kinkos for 3D printing. Shapeways prints in all kinds of materials, including stainless steel.
One of the employees of Shapeways needed a replacement part for his kid’s stroller, so he emailed the manufacturer and they emailed him a CAD/CAM file for the part. He printed two of them in stainless steel – one for the stroller and one to display at the Maker Faire, where I took this picture.
This stainless steel part was annealed, deburred in a tub of ceramic balls and looks exactly like the spare part the manufacturer would have sent him. The difference is profound. The replacement part was printed on demand. The spare part would have to have been manufactured in advance, stored on a shelf, picked, packed and shipped. Rent would have been paid on the real estate the physical spare part occupied and it would have to be kept in stock during the entire useful life of the particular stroller design.
Go have a look at an average manufacturing facility and see how much real estate and other resources are used storing parts that may break sometime in the future. Now multiply this by everything ever made in a factory and you start to see the kind of economic impact 3D printing may have. How about 3D printers in sterile environments (like Hospitals) creating specialized instruments for surgery (robotic or other)? Let your imagination run wild – once you understand additive manufacturing, you will think of thousands of ways to use this technology – you will also realize how it is going to change supply chains and shipping and real estate and materials handling and on and on. 3D printing is changing the world.
Now Sen. Schumer, let’s start over. This is not a technology to sensationalize. When high-speed laser printers became economical for people to have at home, they did not start printing counterfeit books – but the nature of printed material changed forever. That is exactly what is going to happen here. Some things will be 3D printed, others will not. Some things will be cheaper or better 3D printed at home, others will be better 3D printed by companies like Shapeways, and still others will be printed in factories because it is more cost-effective to do so.
From now on, physical goods can easily be produced from the files that were created to design them – which gives a whole to meaning to “Real 3D” and gives us a science fact version of Star Trek’s Transtater (sans Transporter and Warp Drive). |
A league source familiar with the Nets off-season strategy confirms that the team has "earmarked" the mini-MLE --worth $10.3 million over three years-- for Bojan Bogdanovic, the Nets 2011 second round pick. No word on where things stand.
The team and the 6'8" swingman engaged in similar talks last summer but they failed at the last minute in large measure because Bogdanovic had a $2 million buyout. Billy King then moved on to what was called "Plan B". It turned into "Play A+" -- as one team executive called it -- the signing of Andrei Kirilenko. Bogdanovic has since changed agents and now uses Arn Tellem, who represented four Nets last season and so is familiar with the Nets needs ... and front office. Also, Bogdanovic is now a free agent with no buyout.
The Nets main competition for Bogdanovic remains his Istanbul-based team, Fenerbahce. Bogdanovic was widely expected to sign an extension with Fener because of the Nets' salary limitations. But with Shaun Livingston moving on to Golden State, the mini-MLE became open.
If the Nets and Bogdanovic reach an agreement, he would likely play at the small forward slot. With his height, strength and European experience, scouts see him as more NBA-ready than most other international players. Despite the years of up-and-down negotiations and contract issues, the Nets have remained high on him.
Billy King described him recently as "a poor man's Peja Stojakovic." When drafted, the Nets international scout, Danko Cvjeticanin, called him a cross between Stojakovic and Carlos Delfino. Bogdanovic, who'll be 25 at the start of next season, is a swingman but Fener began using him this season as a point forward, initiating pick-and-rolls. He regularly hits 40 percent from deep and gets to the line frequently. He's better than average as a passer and improving on defense.
in a vote of fans and experts following last season's Eurobasket tournament, the Bogdanovic finished fourth in the FIBA Europe Player of the Year voting, ahead of Goran Dragic of Slovenia and the Suns and behind only Tony Parker of France and the Spurs, Vassillis Spanoulis of Greece and Marc Gasol of Spain and the Grizzlies. In two preseason games against NBA teams the last two years, Bogdanovic has scored 30 points, 11 vs. Boston two years ago and 19 vs. Oklahoma City last summer.
He will play for Croatia this summer in the FIBA World Championships. |
President Donald Trump Coloring, Activity and Song Book Historic and Commemorative! (8.5 x 11) Really Big Coloring Books, Inc. of Saint Louis, MO has designed the USA's next Presidential Coloring Book 2016. In an age it where seems every person can be excited about politics a unique educational coloring book can bring you back to a day of childhood dreams and total optimism; and that is what this book does. What a fantastic amazing country the children of America get to grow up within and set an example for the all the world to see; not only today but for tomorrow and in the future. For over two centuries American elected leaders have set the world stage and as usual, it's very exciting. Shortly after the election results are officially certified we will begin to prepare and ship The Presidential Donald Trump Coloring Activity and Song Book. We are very passionate about making coloring books for America and we have the greatest respect and congratulate President Trump and Vice-President Pence on their campaign. A Historic & Commemorative coloring book that is for classroom use and all activities-celebrations. An inspirational and educational, twenty-four (24) page, 8.5 x 11 book that highlights President Donald Trump and his historic campaign leading to the White House. This coloring book is designed for children and parents alike. It can be used as a child's school or small text book with the amount of information inside. This commemorative coloring and activity book reflects and celebrates change in America! Features include patriotic songs, historical locations & facts, pages describing how children may be involved in their local community, along with fun games, mazes and puzzles. Can be used in education, schools, churches, day cares, etc. |
Pentagon halts release of information on Afghanistan war
By Bill Van Auken
1 November 2017
The Pentagon has suddenly ordered the withholding of key information on the state of Afghanistan’s security forces that have been published in quarterly reports for nearly a decade. The censoring of the data comes as the Trump administration has given the military brass free rein to escalate US imperialism’s longest war, now in its 17th year, sending thousands more troops to the South Asian country, while substantially increasing military spending.
The latest report issued by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) reported that the US military command in Afghanistan had classified “important measures of ANDSF [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces] performance, such as casualties, personnel strength, attrition, and operational readiness of equipment.”
SIGAR was created by Congress in 2008 as an oversight body to monitor the vast US spending on Afghan “reconstruction,” now totaling over $120 billion, with the lion’s shares going to the country’s security forces. It also has law enforcement powers to investigate the rampant corruption and outright theft that has funneled billions of dollars of this spending into the pockets of military contractors.
The US military command has claimed that it is withholding the information on the state of the Afghan security forces at the request of officials within the American puppet regime of President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul.
In an interview with the New York Times, the inspector general, John Sopko, sharply questioned both the motives and the pretext for the US military’s censoring of the information.
“The Afghans know what’s going on; the Taliban knows what’s going on; the US military knows what’s going on,” he said. “The only people who don’t know what’s going on are the people paying for it.”
He added: “The government usually doesn’t classify good news. I don’t want any nameless, faceless Afghan bureaucrat telling the American taxpayer what they ought to know.”
The day after the issuing of the censored report saw another suicide bombing in the heart of the Afghan capital’s most heavily secured district, killing five people and wounding at least 20. The blast took place within about 500 yards of the US Embassy and near other diplomatic compounds and offices of international agencies. It is the latest in a series of such blasts that have killed at least 70 people in Kabul over the past month, underscoring the Ghani government’s tenuous hold even over the capital. Last May, a massive truck bomb in the diplomatic district killed 80 people and wounded hundreds.
The only other time the US military has classified such data was in 2015 when the Obama administration was orchestrating the formal handing over of security to the Afghan security forces, and then the data was kept secret for only a few days.
The key reason for censoring the information can be found in the last uncensored report, which pointed to unsustainable losses suffered by the Afghan forces in the first four months of the year, with 2,531 troops and police killed and another 4,238 wounded. This points to an increase in the already punishing toll recorded for all of last year: 6,700 dead and 12,000 wounded.
Casualties, desertions and other sources of attrition have led to a drop of 4,000 in the total number of Afghan troops and 5,000 in that of police. Of course, the overall losses are far greater, given the continuous recruitment of impoverished youth as cannon fodder in the US-led war.
The reliability of the figures provided by the Afghan military on the strength of its forces are, in any case, suspect. It has been estimated that up to 17 percent of the Afghan National Army’s official troop total could be made up of so-called “ghost soldiers,” names of soldiers who are no longer serving, but kept on the rolls so that senior officers can collect their paychecks.
Further underscoring the crisis within the US-backed forces were the latest report’s figures indicating a “sharp increase” in so-called “insider attacks” involving attacks on the Afghan security forces and their US “advisors” by Afghan soldiers and police: “From January 1 to August 15, 2017, there have been 54 reported insider attacks: 48 green-on-green and six ‘green-on-blue’ attacks, when ANDSF personnel turned against their Coalition counterparts. This is an increase of 22 green-on-green and four green-on-blue attacks from last quarter.”
Other figures that were included in the report also point to a steadily deteriorating situation for the US-backed regime and the American occupation. Afghan forces were said to be in control of just 56.8 percent of the country’s 407 districts—the lowest share since SIGAR began keeping figures—having lost control of an additional nine districts to the Taliban over the last six months. Moreover, government controlled areas included just 63.7 percent of the Afghan population, far below the 80 percent which the senior US commander on the ground, Gen. John Nicholson, promised to Congress in February.
The report issued Tuesday also found that the number of civilian casualties inflicted by the US military and the security forces of the Afghan regime had increased by 52 percent this year, attributable in large measure to the escalation of US air strikes, with 2,400 conducted between January and September and more bombs and missiles dropped on the country than at any time since 2012, during the Obama administration’s “surge.” At least two-thirds of those killed and maimed by the US and its puppet forces are women and children, according to the report.
The day before the issuance of the censored SIGAR report, US think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies posted an analysis by Anthony Cordesman, a longtime advisor of the Pentagon, that indicated increasing pessimism within the US military and intelligence apparatus over the Afghanistan intervention.
Cordesman painted a picture of an Afghan military consisting of poverty-stricken youth forced into the army because of lack of work in a country that “has become an economic nightmare for all too many of its citizens.”
“Much of the better paid service sector in the Afghan economy collapsed with the departure of US and other foreign troops in 2012-2014,” Cordesman writes, with “all too many of the better educated and more skilled Afghans” leaving the country.
His report cites World Bank figures estimating an overall poverty rate of 39.1 percent, climbing to 46 percent in the rural areas. The bank estimates Afghan per capita GDP at just $590, making it the poorest country on earth outside of sub-Saharan Africa.
An unemployment rate estimated at between 30 and 40 percent for military age males “pushes men—especially young and inexperienced men—into the military out of sheer economic survival and without regard for patriotism or the nature of the cause,” Cordesman writes.
He describes Afghanistan as “one of the worst and most corrupt political structures and governments in the world,” lacking any “coherent political leadership” and characterized by “warlords and power brokers, and a steadily increasing dependence on a narco-economy.”
The situation, he adds, has “ominous historical precedents” that ended in the defeat of “what appeared to be a superior army.” He cites similar levels of corruption and demoralization leading to the defeat of the South Vietnamese army in 1975, the collapse of Chiang Kai-shek’s Chinese Nationalist Army in 1949 and the disintegration of Fulgencio Batista’s security forces in the face of the 1959 Cuban revolution.
In other words, US imperialism is confronting another historic debacle in its 16-year-old war in Afghanistan. Its only answer is to give the military free rein to escalate the bloodshed, increasing the number of air strikes and sending in more troops, while organizing CIA “hunt and kill” militias and drone strikes. At the same time, it is seeking to draw India into a conflict that could rapidly escalate into a broader war involving a confrontation with South Asia’s other nuclear power, Pakistan.
The suppression and censorship of information is an integral part of this escalation of a war that enjoys no significant support by the American people.
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It's a not-so-dirty little secret that most of today's leading meditation teachers were interested in drugs. By "drugs," of course, I don't mean alcohol or Oxycontin, but rather that subset of chemicals which our society has deemed unfit for human consumption, including cannabis, psilocybin, MDMA, and others. Many of today's leading Buddhist teachers, for example, credit their first taste of altered mind states not to samadhi but to LSD or mushrooms, and almost every spiritual teacher I know (and I know a bunch) smoked pot. Some still do.
So what's the connection? Why do people who like drugs (I'll stop scarequoting the word, even though I shouldn't) like meditation? And what's the relationship between them?
1. Pleasure
The first and simplest answer is that both drugs and meditation are pleasurable — and a specific kind of pleasure, namely pleasures of the mind. Of course, on the surface of things, meditation and psychedelics seem to be quite different: one is boring and calm, the other wild and crazy. Yet, as entheogen users and yogis know, neither image is accurate. While some chemicals do indeed lead to ecstasy and blurring of boundaries, others lead to their sharpening, and to quiet states of reflection. And while meditation does generally cause calm to arise in the mind, it also leads to ecstasy, delight, religious/spiritual feelings, and rapture — particularly when the faculties of concentration are heightened.
I remember, when I had just started meditating, it was like I had received the answer key to a hundred spiritual questions. "Aha! This is what they were talking about when they said that God is everywhere!" The attention brought to mundane objects renders them everyday miracles, and an opened heart makes davvening a cathartic, healing experience. Suddenly simple phrases that seemed like clichés — "Be Here Now" — became full not only of truth, but of invitation. They cease to sound like pop psychology ("Remember, bourgeois busy people, if you just become 'present' you can do all sorts of things and be a more successful businessman/lover/person.") and instead sound like a call to home, to the One.
And, of course, meditation offers these benefits without the side effects of chemicals, and with longer duration. To be sure, the buzz of concentration is also temporary — but with practice, it can arise on and off for days, rather than for a few hours. It takes much more work, but the pleasure it brings is, after all, only a side-effect of an overall process which greatly increases mental acuity. That is, it's really good for you. Perhaps this is why many (though not all) of us relinquish plant medicines and chemical entheogens once we take up meditation in earnest.
The type of pleasure is similar as well. When you're stoned, or rolling, or tripping, certain sensual sensations get enhanced. You can see and feel music when you're on ecstasy. The taste of some kinds of food on marijuana is, as a stoner would say, "intense." Everybody knows this, and it's why many people use drugs. (Of course, many people smoke pot just to get wasted, not to have heightened visual, tactile, or other sensual experiences. But they are not my subject here.) These substances are not an escape from reality, but a magnifying glass held up to it. Intimate details of how the mind works, of how fabric feels, of music. Drugs can make every potato chip a delicate, crispy, greasy delight.
Meditation is about the same process of 'intensifying' daily experience, not by pursuing ever-more visceral thrills, but by quieting the mind enough to — in the words of Warren Zevon — "appreciate every sandwich." (Zevon coined that phrase when David Letterman asked him what effect his diagnosis of terminal illness had on his day-to-day life.) I used to see a contradiction between the ethos of "seizing the day," living as fully as possible, and the contemplative life, which I associated with a withdrawal from much of human experience. Eventually, though, I came to understand that a contemplative path is the logical extension of living deliberately. There are, really, only two choices available to someone who wants to suck the marrow out of life: either continually seeking more extreme experiences, or making every experience 'extreme.' Some people can apparently do the former, but I find that tiring. Meditation allows me to "suck the marrow" out of each tree, table, soda, or breath. By eliminating signal noise and stopping thought, the true colors of the phenomenal universe become revealed, in ever-increasing brilliance. It's not like being stoned all the time, because there is not the disorientation and tripping up of the rational mind that occurs on pot. But it's like being stoned in the sense of tastes, touches, smells, sounds, and sights all becoming enhanced, kinesthetically interchanged, and — simply in their non-conceptual presence — enough reason to live.
Incidentally, I was surprised, when I started meditating, that so much pleasure would result. Of course, people who meditate often talk about rapturous union with Being, or dissolution in the Divine, and these do sound very pleasant indeed. But I still didn't expect it, as if anything "spiritual" had to be austere, or subtle, or boring. Was I wrong! Apart from all the deeper benefits of meditation, the sheer volume of joy is astonishing. In my experience, it beats any other high.
2. Altered Mind States
A second point of similarity between drug use and meditation is that both lead to states of consciousness that are different from the ordinary. Enjoying these seems to be a matter of taste. A lot of people like to take vacations in foreign countries. Some like exotic foods. And many others like vacations from their ordinary modes of consciousness into a different 'mind-space' where new insights can occur and even ordinary stimuli (and even without the sensual enhancement above) can be experienced in a whole new way.
Many people deeply fear altered states of consciousness, I think because they are overly afraid of their own non-rational minds. Subscribing to a worldview in which 'rational' rules of decency, propriety, etc., govern every aspect of life means relying on our capacities of rational judgment for every important decision. And so, mind-states which relegate such faculties to a subordinate or even invisible role is scary. Now, of course, I'm all for rational judgment making most decisions in the world, and certainly all of those which seriously affect other people. But is it a rational judgment to dance? To let go of the self in orgasm? To fall in love? Some of our most transcendent moments come when the rational mind is quieted and something else takes its place. In some aspects of life, being in touch with the nonrational is essential to being human.
Purely for humanistic reasons, then, I think that altered mindstates are an essential condition of living a full life. Of course, one can do without them, just as one can do without art, dance, sex, and other Divine gifts. But I think it's a shame to do so. I think something is missing, something impoverished, when they are lacking.
3. Truth
But, of course, many entheogen users and nearly all meditators want to make a further claim: that these particular altered mindstates lead to truth. This isn't just about getting high and having fun, they say; this is about knowing deeply the truth of your own experience, or even of the fundamental nature of existence itself. Just sit and watch your breath, some Buddhists say, and eventually you'll intuitively understand the four noble truths, the basic facts of life.
And indeed, this has been my experience. Fortunately, I have been able to set aside large swaths of time to practice, and I have come to such intuitive understandings along the Theravadan Buddhist path, in particular on a five-month silent retreat I completed in February, 2009. Ive then re-examined and re-evaluated those insights off-retreat — and theyve tended to hold. The distractions (I should start a publishing house!) have not passed the test of time, but the deep stuff, e.g. about suffering being an inevitable consequence of clinging — that stuff has stuck, and it seems true to me.
That said, when it comes to claims of truth, things do get tricky, because there is some information that entheogens reveal which meditation rarely reveals, and some information which meditation reveals that drugs and chemicals don't. For example, it takes huge amounts of concentration over long periods of time to enter one of the meditative absorptions (jhanas) which resemble, in some ways, distinct "realms" apart from this one, and even the most intense which I have seen described (and, a fortiori, which I have experienced) do not compare to the experiences of journeys on ayahuasca or other plant medicines. Im not aware of a way to experience those phenomena without the medicine.
And, at the same time, while ayahuasca journeys yield a wealth of information about other realms and one's own heart, they tend not to offer the level of analytical distinction that accompanies meditative insight. That arises in meditation (and in many other ways, of course).
To me, the resolution of this tension is obvious: plant medicines are good for some kinds of knowledge, and meditation for others. But, spiritual people being the way we are, there's often a lot of heat (and only some light) on these points, with some people insisting this kind of knowledge is good but inferior, and others countering that, no, that kind of knowledge is the preliminary one and this is ultimate, and so on. This is particularly the case because we all carry baggage related to spiritual practice. Many meditators had early, naive, and unpleasant experiences with drugs, and so assume that even the most rarified of ibogaine journeys is nothing more than their lousy acid trip at a Dead concert in the 70s. Conversely, many users of plant medicines have never had the opportunity to meditate in a conducive setting — e.g., a silent retreat of five days or more — and so assume that either they can't meditate, or meditation is all a dry slog.
Personally, however, I've found that the two paths enrich each other. Most of my work with medicines is, I think, behind me at this point in my life. Yet when I was more involved with them, I found that the ability to stabilize, to tease apart the strands of a mind-made story, and to be a little dubious of what seems to be true to the mind, all served me very well in my own shamanic work. And I have found that the intensity of entheogenic work has been able to push my cognitive reset button when more gradual practices such as mindfulness have been ineffective, or too difficult. At present, my vipassana side is winning out over my shamanic side, and I tend to prefer clear insight over mind-states and multi-realm experiences which seem susceptible to misinterpretation. But, you know, go tell that to Ayaruna.
All that said, I am not a spiritual supercessionist. There are many in the spiritual world who, having taken up yoga or meditation, regard drugs as a useful preliminary, a glimpse of the orchard perhaps, but ultimately something to be gotten beyond. My own path does reflect this somewhat, but I have also met responsible plant aficionados who continue to deepen their practice with medicines. To each their own.
I'm not entirely pluralistic, though. As Ive written before in these pages, I would say to my fellow Sandwichers that, in my humble opinion, a meditation practice is a necessary prerequisite for any work in shamanic realms, with energy, or with the supernatural in any form. I think having out-of-body experiences with possibly-alien intelligences without having a meditation practice is like flying an airplane without basic aviation training or navigational instruments. Just seeing, over and over again, that the illusions of consciousness do not constitute a "self" is worth the price of admission. So is just seeing, over and over again, that you can have a certain experience and still be wrong about its nature. But more than that, I think the mind-sharpening practices of meditation provide balance and focus in any entheogenic or other-worldly work. At the very least, it's the warm-up exercise.
It's a neat little twist: visions brought on by drugs and plant medicines invite people to meditation, and then meditation becomes the necessary preliminary for deeper practice with drugs or other modalities. One path shows you other realms, the other teaches you how to navigate them and this one as well. Ultimately, all of us learn, usually the hard way, that the exciting bells and whistles of spiritual experience all pass away, and indeed, that the more light one invites into ones life, the more shadow one invites as well. For this reason, more cool experiences — including powerfully transformative ones — tend to lose their appeal as aids to spiritual progress. Theyre still a great way to spend ones time, but they arent more than that. They arent it. Nothing, of course, is it; just the slipperiness with which one navigates the its and yous of life in this realm, hopefully making things a little happier for the rest of us along the way.
Image by oddsock, courtesy of Creative Commons license. |
Image copyright Dhaka Image caption Translation: "#YaMeCanse was censored. They will not silence us! #YaMeCanse2"
One phrase - "I am tired" or #Yamecanse - has been dominating the online conversation in Mexico since 43 students disappeared, and it's now become about much more than that one scandal.
"Ya me canse," said the Mexican attorney general Jesús Murillo Karam, as he brought a press conference about the missing students, who vanished after their bus was stopped by the police, to a close.
And so a hashtag was born. Within minutes, thousands of Mexicans were tweeting that they too had had enough, using the hashtag #yamecanse for emphasis.
"The reaction on social media was amazing," said the BBC's world duty editor, Lourdes Heredia - herself a Mexican - who was monitoring the news from London. "Because [Murillo] said it in a way that every Mexican would say 'I am tired, I am fed up with this situation, and enough is enough.' But what was he tired of? Was he tired of corruption, violence, drug cartels?" she said.
Almost as quickly, a group of political activists realised this was the "perfect storm" they had been waiting for.
"Sixty minutes after the hashtag exploded on Twitter, we started to communicate through direct messages and called for a street protest at the Angel of Independence statue in Mexico City," activist blogger @LoQueSigue_ told BBC Trending (he doesn't want to be known by his real name, only his Twitter handle, because he says he fears for his safety). He and his group adopted the hashtag for all their messages and now have a website: yamecanse.mx.
Their sustained efforts have helped keep the hashtag as a top trend on Twitter. The phrase has been mentioned more than 4 million times in the space of a month.
Image copyright Ubaldo Image caption Translation: "One hashtag won't change the country, but it shows the desire to try it."
Last week the hashtag dropped out of the country's list of top ten trending topics - with some Mexicans suspecting a conspiracy - but a new slogan - #yamecanse2 - started and is, with more than 900,000 mentions, Mexico's top trend.
It's striking how organised the group is - @LoQueSigue_ described it as being like a media agency. There's an editorial team - made up of professionals from advertising, TV, film and radio - which plans their social media strategy, he says, and they have enlisted the help of actors, writers and journalists and other "influencers" to take part in videos and to tweet about it. A recent video they made - in English, to appeal to an international audience - was watched about a million times in just one week.
They are in constant touch with the families of the 43 students who disappeared, @LoQueSigue_ says, but this campaign group is about much more than the scandal of the missing students - they want the students to be returned, but they're calling for an end to all corruption and for President Peña Nieto's government to act.
"We want profound changes in our system. We want better education, universal health services … we want to reach everyone so they all know that a change is possible," actress Christel Klitbo, who took part in the video, told BBC Trending.
Most viral hashtags are short-lived, and this one is unusually sustained in its popularity, according to Carl Miller, from the UK think tank Demos, which has a centre for the analysis of social media.
"[The YameCanse.mx group] realise that viral search is actually important and influential, it can change decisions, it can pressure companies and governments to change the way they behave," he told BBC Trending. "So they kind of put themselves at the heart of this viral explosion and try to keep it running with techniques and tools from marketing or advertising."
"It's almost like a full-time job, analysing when the hashtag goes up or down," @LoQueSigue_ says. "And we're engaged in an online war with the government. Mexico's government has automated accounts - or bots - to create other trending topics or to spam our topics to push them down. It's a titanic effort to keep an eye on these online conversations to get to know who should we invite to join us, what content should we upload and how to maintain that."
Image copyright Twitter Image caption Tweet: "The country is tired of PRI's old practices. They won't silence us." Caption on photo of Mexican president: "And now they've made #YaMeCanse2"
But can the campaign achieve change in Mexico?
"The problem is loads of people can feel they're 'tired' but then when you talk about solutions - what should you do? And that's a difficult situation," says Lourdes Heredia, the BBC journalist. "Even the people who want to get involved in politics, once they get involved in the system, the grassroots movements don't respect them anymore, so it is a vicious circle."
Reporting by Gabriela Torres, Charlotte McDonald and Anne-Marie Tomchak.
You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending
All our stories are at bbc.com/trending |
: The Social Security Organisation (Socso) has made preparations to hand over benefits under the Jobs Disaster Scheme to 43 next-of-kin of Malaysians who died in the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) MH17 tragedy.Its minister, Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem said the ministry was only waiting for a suitable time to hold a ceremony to hand over the benefits."Thank you to all officers of Socso who have worked hard to identify and contact the next-of-kin of the victims as soon as they received information from MAS," he said at a 2013 Socso excellence service and Loyal Service award ceremony here, tonight.His speech text was read by Human Resources Ministry secretary-general Datuk Saripuddin Kasim.Riot said his ministry, through Socso, was also prepared to hand over the benefits of the Socso scheme to the next-of-kin of the MAS Flight MH370 victims."We have not forgotten the matter, it is only that we cannot do anything to date because the mystery of the missing MH370 is ongoing," Riot said.As of yesterday, 24 victims of the MH17 tragedy had been flown home to Malaysia with the identities of two remains not revealed at the request of the families.Twenty of the remains were flown home from Amsterdam on Aug 22, one arrived on Aug 23 and three more arrived yesterday.Flight MH17, with 298 passengers and crew, was believed to have been shot down when flying over Donetsk, east Ukraine on July 17 when enroute to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam.A total 43 individuals including 15 crew of flight MH17 were Malaysians.Meanwhile, flight MH370 which was flying to Beijing with 239 passengers and crew went off the radar after departing from the KL International Airport on March 8.A total 38 of the passengers and 12 crew of MH370 were Malaysians. The effort to find MH370, involving several nations, is still ongoing. |
Since my son was born I've tried to cut back on my cussing. Generally, I reserve using the F bomb in post titles for only momentous occasions (like Spore's DRM debacle). Today however, I will gladly drop it in praise of Frozen Synapse , a game you need to see to understand.Frozen Synapse fell into my email box as part of their " buy 1, get 1 free for a friend " campaign. I had originally became interested in the game in part because of this Rock, Paper, Shotgun post . Now that I've had some time with the game I have only one thing to say: this game is bloody brilliant.The basic premise is that players take turns moving soldiers around a battlefield. The catch is that its simultaneous turn-based: both players make their moves and then let the actions play out at the same time. This allows the game to be played over long periods of time or quickly in succession. Player A can make their move and submit it to the server whether Player B is online or not. Player B is free to return and make their move whenever they are free.Once both players set their action (known as the planning stage) the outcome is played out. Various game modes determine the win conditions. Some are to destroy the enemy; while other modes focus on rescuing hostages or defending/attacking zones on the map.As can be seen in the video above, the game is simplistic in it's graphical approach. This allows it to run on almost any set of hardware. My aging laptop that can barely play Torchlight in netbook mode can steam right through a match of Synapse.My only gripe currently is the poor performance of the central server. However, that is due to over-popularity of the beta. Sometime this week a new server should be in place to help the issue.This game is brilliant and I recommend it to anyone interested in the video. Oh, and just search Youtube for gameplay videos as beta testers can instantly upload games after they've been completed from the in-game menu. Pretty snazzy stuff. |
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