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Police crack down on two strikes in China
By John Chan
27 June 2011
Authorities sent in police to end two significant strikes by workers in China’s southern Guangdong province last week. Far from winning any concessions on wages and conditions, the outcome of the strikes indicates that the Beijing regime cannot tolerate any industrial action that could ignite wider struggles, like the Honda auto strikes did a year ago.
The crackdown came just two weeks after migrant garment workers in the Zengcheng district of Guangzhou, the province’s capital, had engaged in days of protests, smashing government buildings and clashing with riot police, against police violence, official discrimination and surging prices.
A four-day strike by 4,000 workers at a South Korean-owned handbag factory in Guangzhou’s Panyu district ended last week when police arrested six workers. Female migrant workers from inland provinces make up 80 percent of the workforce at Simone Limited, which supplies high-end international brands, such as Michael Kors, DKNY, Burberry and Kate Spade.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that workers at the company’s Hualong plant struck last Monday, demanding better pay and an end to management abuses. “A heavy police presence was seen outside the plant, with workers claiming that at least one woman and one man were beaten up by local security guards on Tuesday,” the newspaper noted. “A large traffic jam also developed outside the factory, and pictures were posted on microblog websites.”
Workers told the newspaper their average basic monthly wage was only 1,100 yuan ($US169)—the minimum wage for Guangzhou’s satellite industrial cities. They were demanding a rise to 1,300 yuan because of rapidly rising prices. A 26-year-old male worker from Hunan province explained: “From our salary, the company also deducts 200 yuan for social security and 100 yuan for food if we dine inside the plant. The food is like trash there and unfit for human consumption, but we have no choice.”
Workers said they had to stand for 12 hours a day, had only one toilet break every four hours, and were banned from drinking water except during breaks. A young male worker from Chongqing said the management treated workers as “less than human beings,” adding: “The male managers walk into female toilets any time they please; we can’t contain our anger anymore.”
Most workers returned to work by Thursday morning, without any concessions from the management, but about 900 remained on strike. More than six strikers were taken away by the police last Thursday afternoon during a scuffle. Simone management handed out threatening notices to workers, warning that those who did not return to work would lose their employment contracts.
The South China Morning Post reported: “A 20-year-old female worker was grabbed by the neck, roughed up and dragged away by a few men after telling one officer to stop taking photographs of her.” Her 18-year-old colleague told the newspaper: “They are thugs, photographing us, beating us anyway they please.” A young male worker was chased by several officers through the crowd and eventually tackled to the ground before he was taken away.
The underlying resentment among workers remains unresolved. A 19-year-old worker explained that they were simply demanding a pay rise in line with many nearby factories. A 29-year-old worker from Guizhou who had his thumb crushed by machinery two months ago complained that the company had refused to pay the medical costs on the ground that he might have deliberately injured himself to claim compensation.
Last Thursday also, just as police broke up the Simone strike, hundreds of police were sent to Japanese-owned Citizen Watch plant at Dongguan, another major manufacturing city in Guangdong, to end a 10-day strike by 2,000 workers. According to Hong Kong’s Asiaweek magazine, the strikers were forced to return to work under strict police surveillance.
The strike had erupted after the management forced employees to work on a weekend for no extra payment because a power blackout on the previous Wednesday, which had stopped production, had been deemed “a day off”. Given the frequent power outages in recent months, this caused anger among workers, who are regularly forced to do 5-6 hours overtime a day. Their wages are also withheld if they are 10 minutes late for a shift, and they lack basic safety gear such as gloves.
On June 13, a thousand workers had protested in heavy rain outside the local Chang’an township government headquarters against Citizen Watch’s violation of labour laws. A hundred police were sent in and the government labour department intervened.
After the company made a vague promise to “improve” the rescheduling of working days, about 600 employees returned to work. Last Tuesday, the management threatened to withhold three day’s wages for each day of strike, forcing most strikers back to work. Some 200 polishing department workers remained defiant, however, until Thursday’s police operation.
The lack of any concessions to workers in both strikes is a sharp contrast to last year’s Honda strikes. Honda initially responded to a strike at its transmission plant in Foshan, near Guangzhou, by initially rejecting wage rises and demanding that workers sign a “no-strike” pledge. In a bid to contain the situation, however, the company eventually offered limited pay increases. This settlement encouraged workers in other Honda factories and auto and electronics companies to take similar action, creating a wave of strikes that forced Beijing to lift minimum wages across the country.
The Chinese Stalinist regime was largely caught off guard by the strikes a year ago. Now, however, amid the revolutionary upheavals in the Middle East, a further downturn in the global economy, and a surge in inflation in China, Beijing is determined to nip any workers’ movement in the bud.
During this month’s riots in Zengcheng, 6,000 paramilitary police with armoured vehicles attacked up to 10,000 workers, formally arresting at least 19. Last week, the police offered “rewards” of up to 10,000 yuan in cash, as well as entitlements to local urban household registration, to migrant workers who provided information on suspected protesters. |
The first black detective in Colorado Springs infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in the late 1970s after answering a newspaper ad.
Ron Stallworth explains in his book, “Black Klansman,” that he went undercover for nine months in 1979 to complete an investigation of his state’s KKK chapter.
The former police sergeant said he spoke to KKK members by phone after joining the newly formed local chapter, and he sent a white detective in his place when face-to-face meetings were required.
He fit in with the group by complaining that he’d been victimized by minority groups and peppering his conversations with racial slurs.
“My sister was recently involved with a n-gger, and every time I think about him putting his filthy black hands on her pure white body I get disgusted and sick to my stomach,” Stallworth told the Fort Carson soldier who returned his call. “I want to join the Klan so I can stop future abuse of the white race.”
The KKK recruiter was impressed.
“You’re just the kind of person we’re looking for,” he told Stallworth. “When can we meet?”
Stallworth, then 25 years old, earned so much trust that other members unanimously elected him to lead their chapter, and the detective received a card signed by then-Grand Wizard David Duke.
The undercover officer spoke with Duke by phone and then met him during a recruitment trip to Colorado when Stallworth was assigned to serve as his police escort.
The retired cop said his investigation revealed that KKK members were active in the military, and two Klansmen had access to nuclear weapons at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
Stallworth also uncovered links to other right-wing groups, such as the Posse Comitatus and American Nazi Party.
He was proud to say no child ever woke up to a burning cross during his time with the group because he had intervened to stop at least three such plots.
“It was my job,” he said.
But the investigation ended abruptly in April 1979, when the police chief ordered it shut down and all records destroyed.
Stallworth said he quietly disappeared after he was offered the KKK leadership post and moved to Utah, where he worked in law enforcement for another 20 years.
He was mistaken for a white man another time, after he completed a report on gang activity while working in the late 1980s for the Utah Department of Public Safety.
Stallworth said the work was frequently cited by academics, and he laughed when he said one was so impressed that a white Mormon seemed to understand black gang culture so thoroughly.
Stallworth, now 60 and living in Salt Lake City, said he joined a police cadet program in 1972 designed to recruit minorities.
He said white officers commonly referred to black people using the N-word or as “toads.”
Stallworth said some colleagues referred to him as “boy,” but he was unable to respond because he was the only black on the police force and serving under the introductory probation period.
He recalled that his lieutenant issued him a cadet uniform with a hat that was much too small, and the commanding officer suggested Stallworth cut his hair to make it fit.
Instead, Stallworth said, he perched the tiny hat on his Afro and went out on patrol, where the police chief saw him and ordered the lieutenant to order a hat that fit.
Stallworth was assigned to go undercover in 1975 and go to a speech by Black Panther leader Stokely Carmichael, who was considered a dangerous revolutionary by the white establishment.
He wore a wireless microphone to the nightclub and shook hands afterward with Carmichael, who he asked if a race war was really inevitable.
“Brother, arm yourself and get ready because the revolution is coming and we’re gonna have to kill whitey,” Carmichael said, pulling him close. “Trust me, it is coming.”
Shortly after that assignment, Stallworth was appointed the department’s first black detective, in the narcotics division.
He worked as a police officer until retiring in 2005, when he finally revealed his undercover work with the KKK.
Watch this video report posted online by KTVX-TV: |
Premier Jim Prentice says Albertans should “look in the mirror” when it comes to the financial woes now squeezing the province — and defends his decision to reject corporate tax hikes while his government eyes higher levies and deep spending cuts.
Opposition critics, however, say the Tory premier is trying to make all Albertans scapegoats for years of financial mismanagement by the long-serving Progressive Conservative government.
Speaking on a CBC radio program Wednesday, Prentice continued to warn about the tough medicine that awaits Albertans in this month’s provincial budget. In recent weeks, the government has been raising the prospect of spending reductions and higher taxes to make up for a revenue shortfall caused by low commodity prices.
“We all want to blame somebody for the circumstances that we are in,” Prentice said. “But the bottom line is we’ve had the highest cost and the best public services in the country, and we haven’t built, basically, a revenue model that sustains them.”
The government has said it’s facing a potential $7-billion revenue hole this year triggered by the collapse of crude prices from $100 US a barrel last summer to $51 a barrel on Wednesday, constraining energy royalties.
The province is considering a range of options to deal with the shortfall, including altering the personal income tax system, re-introducing health premiums, hiking the gasoline pump levy — the lowest in the country at nine cents per litre — and increasing taxes on liquor and cigarettes.
Finance Minister Robin Campbell has also indicated spending will be chopped by $2 billion annually, an overall five per cent cut from last year’s levels.
Prentice said the government is busy preparing a 10-year financial plan and will take steps to address the broader issue of public services being funded by volatile oil prices.
“In terms of who is responsible, we all need only look in the mirror, right. Basically all of us have had the best of everything and have not had to pay for what it costs,” he added.
“Collectively we got into this as Albertans and collectively we’re going to get out of it and everybody is going to have to shoulder some share of the responsibility.”
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Wildrose critic Drew Barnes said he’s amazed the premier would blame all Albertans for the fiscal crisis since the Progressive Conservatives have been in power uninterrupted since 1971.
He noted that just a decade ago, the province had $17 billion in its rainy day contingency fund and that has since dwindled to around $6 billion.
“After 43 years of being in power and having control over the provincial chequebook, how could it be anybody else’s responsibility but the PC government,” said the Wildrose MLA for Cypress-Medicine Hat.
Barnes said there would be no need to raise any taxes if the government was committed to cutting spending and rooting out waste.
NDP critic Brian Mason said the PC government gave up billions of dollars in revenues by chopping corporate taxes by about a third a decade ago and by moving away from a progressive income tax system to a 10 per cent flat tax.
“I’m appalled that he would talk to Albertans like that, when it’s his government that’s made all of these key decisions all along,” said Mason.
“It’s a transparent effort to avoid accountability — and to blame the very people who are going to be hurt by his government’s incompetence is breathtaking.”
Mason said the province must look at hiking corporate taxes, something Liberal MLA Kent Hehr said should be on the table as the province scrambles to find additional revenue.
Hehr said the province’s 10-per-cent tax on businesses could be raised modestly and still keep the province competitive.
“If everyone is going to share the pain, our corporate sector should also be part of it,” said Hehr, who also disagreed with the premier that Albertans have the best public services in the country.
At 10 per cent, Alberta has the lowest corporate tax in Canada. British Columbia is next at 11 per cent, with Nova Scotia and P.E.I. on the other end at 16 per cent.
Hiking the corporate tax rate to 12 per cent would bring in an estimated $1 billion, but Prentice said it would lead to companies relocating jobs and shifting head offices to other provinces.
“We are hanging on to every single job that we can in Alberta right now — that’s a focal point of the government,” he said.
Political analyst David Taras said it appears Prentice’s political honeymoon is ending as public unease grows over issues such as cutting the auditor general’s funding and raising taxes.
Pointing fingers at the public is unlikely to work as the premier strives to build consensus for the tough decisions ahead, Taras said. The premier’s comments on Albertans having the best public services also fall short, given the troubles within the education and medical systems, said the Mount Royal University professor.
“We don’t have the best services in the country, that’s the whole point,” Taras said.
With files from The Canadian Press
cvarcoe@calgaryherald.com |
Much has been made of the film’s cinematographic aspects, being the first film shot almost entirely with the new digital Alexa IMAX 65mm camera at an aspect ratio of approximately 1.90:1. Released simultaneously in 2.40:1 matted widescreen in general release venues as well as select 35mm print releases, this is one of those movies which definitely shows what the technology can do while also mostly being a modestly sized Eastwood drama. Outside of the emergency landing reenactment, most ofis comprised of medium close-ups of the actors and is mostly spent in offices, homes and courtrooms, making it an unusual choice for the IMAX camera. Tom Stern’s cinematography sports Eastwood’s usual penchant for muted colors and soft, unspectacular lighting, again begging the question why the first film shot almost entirely with IMAX cameras should be this one. That said, Alexa IMAX 65MM when seen properly in an IMAX venue is as close to 70mm film exhibition as digital photography and projection has ever come, for now. Scenes of aerial photography do indeed sport a depth of field and sharpness unseen in previous digitally photographed movies as well as a more realistic looking frame rate and detail on the actors’ faces is stronger than you’d expect from digital. While it still has a long way to go before it can actually compete with the splendor of true 70mm, it’s a step in the right direction. |
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A lawsuit settled in San Francisco will impact online gun sales throughout California.
Five online gun equipment suppliers have agreed to stop selling or advertising large-capacity firearm magazines or magazine repair kits to California customers in a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the San Francisco City Attorney's Office.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued the companies in February, alleging that they were selling large-capacity magazines, some of which can hold more than 100 rounds of ammunition, in a disassembled state as "repair"
or "rebuild" kits, and falsely claimed that they were legal in California.
State law has prohibited the sale, manufacture or import of large-capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition since Jan. 1, 2000.
State voters in November approved Proposition 63, which includes a ban on the possession of large-capacity magazines in most cases. Prop 63 will take effect July 1.
"Californians have spoken clearly," Herrera said. "We don't want these weapons in our communities."
The 10-year, court-imposed injunction that the court is expected to finalize today prohibits the companies from selling the magazines and kits to California customers.
It also requires them to notify customers on their websites that those items cannot be purchased in California, permanently delete any suggestion that they can be legally shipped to California from their websites and remove California as a billing or shipping option for the items.
The companies will also pay $22,500 to cover the city attorney's investigative costs.
The companies named in the suit are Badger Mountain Supply, 7.62 Precision, Shooters Plus, LAK Supply and Buymilsurp.com.
— Bay City News contributed to this story; Image via Shutterstock
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Resiliency, thy name is the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Once again, the Leafs used their speed to wriggle out of a stranglehold by the Washington Capitals and win another overtime game, this time 4-3 on Monday night. Tyler Bozak scored the winning goal at 1:37 of overtime on a power play to send 19,841 fans at the Air Canada Centre into ecstasy, not to mention many thousands more watching on the big screen next door in Maple Leaf Square.
The Leafs now have a 2-1 lead in the first-round NHL playoff series that no one predicted. But the Capitals, who cruised to first place overall in the regular season, are falling into their history of playoff flops.
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It was also a coming-out party for Leafs rookie sensations Auston Matthews and William Nylander. Their line keyed the Leaf comeback, with Matthews scoring once and setting up Nylander's goal that tied the score in regulation time.
The Capitals had no business letting this game get away from them. Forget Evgeny Kuznetsov putting one off the post and crossbar late in the third period, the Caps had two-goal leads twice and squandered a five-on-three power play.
At the same time, the Leafs may have started the game in a fog but got better as it went on. By the third period, they were taking the play to the bigger, more-experienced visitors, albeit punctuated by the odd heart-stopping Caps chance.
Before the game, some of the Leafs talked about the importance of not letting the emotions of playing in front of their own fans for the first time in the playoffs get the best of them.
"Yeah, as a team I think we have to be careful," Leafs winger Matt Martin said before the game. "Obviously we want to hear our fans roaring but we're playing a very strong team in the Capitals, so we've got to be very disciplined in what we do on the ice. We can feed off the energy in the building, use our fans to our advantage, but if you're not dialled in and you're letting the emotions get the best of you, we'll make some mistakes."
While Matthews poo-pooed the idea – "No, I don't think that is really the case, we'll just play hockey" – Leafs head coach Mike Babcock, like Martin, saw the potential problem. "We don't want to be too wired up either," he said.
The fans did start the game roaring and the Leafs did appear to be the victims of their own emotions. They had the deer-in-the-headlights look for the first time in the series and were caught standing around too often.
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First, defenceman Nikita Zaitsev, playing in his first NHL playoff game after missing eight days with a suspected concussion, somehow got lost in the Leafs zone with the Capitals' Nicklas Backstrom-Alexander Ovechkin line on the ice. This allowed Backstrom to step into a huge opening and rip a shot past goaltender Frederik Andersen.
It was the first time in the series the Capitals scored the first goal. A few minutes later, Ovechkin fired one of his patented rockets from the top of the faceoff circle and it was 2-0 for the Capitals before the game was five minutes old.
This silenced the crowd and pretty much squelched the Leafs, too. The Caps were playing the way they had not for too much of the first two games, using their size to push the Leafs around and working their transition game much faster to get the puck out of their own zone.
For their part, the Leafs spent too much time complaining to the referees and not enough time hitting and skating. But that did not last long.
Successive body checks by Tyler Bozak, Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov, the latter on Ovechkin, got both the crowd and the Leafs back into the game. Within seconds, Matthews established himself as a star presence with a great shift that ended when the puck bounced off defenceman Nate Schmidt's face and landed in front of Matthews in front of the Caps' net and he had his first NHL playoff goal at 14:08.
Escaping to the second period with the Capitals only up 2-1 was a big break for the Leafs. But Kuznetsov scored early in the second and Washington seemingly had a stranglehold on the game again.
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Even worse, a little more than a minute later, Martin succumbed to that emotion and was suckered into a double-minor penalty for roughing by Capitals agitator Tom Wilson, who was also flagged. But Leafs defenceman Matt Hunwick also drew a minor and the Caps had a five-on-three advantage for two minutes.
This is where the Leafs gathered themselves, and the Caps squandered several scoring chances, to turn the game around. The Leafs killed the penalty and eight minutes later cut the lead when Kadri bounced a shot off Caps defenceman Brooks Orpik's rear end and into the net.
The killer for Washington came with 40 seconds left in the period. Both Kevin Shattenkirk and Orpik went after Leafs winger Zach Hyman behind the Caps net. Hyman managed to get the puck to Matthews, who relayed it to Nylander in front. He had all the time he needed to put in his own rebound for his first playoff goal to tie the score and ignite the crowd. |
For Some, Scientists Aren't The Authority On Science
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When it comes to assessing the possible risks and benefits of science and technology, who is the relevant authority?
University scientists? Industry scientists? Religious organizations?
Different people offer different answers. An article forthcoming in the journal Public Understanding of Science finds that many people place greater trust in university and industry scientists than in religious organizations to tell the truth about the risks and benefits of technologies and their applications. But among evangelicals, the pattern is reversed, with religious organizations trusted significantly more than scientific sources.
The study, with more than 2,800 respondents recruited from a nationally representative sample, also found that evangelical and non-evangelical participants differed in which factors were associated with trust in university scientists. For non-evangelicals, greater scientific knowledge was associated with higher levels of trust. Those who paid more attention to science and technology news online were also more likely to trust university scientists. But for evangelicals, neither of these was associated with greater trust. In fact, evangelicals with greater scientific knowledge reported lower levels of trust in university scientists.
These findings suggest that evangelicals and non-evangelicals differ not only in which scientific media they're likely to be exposed to but also in whether and how they assimilate what they read. Greater knowledge of science is no guarantee that media consumers will be more receptive to scientists or to science. In fact, other studies find that greater scientific literacy can offer media consumers more tools for rejecting claims that conflict with their identity and that they're therefore motivated to reject.
Not surprisingly, the study also revealed associations between political orientation and attitudes toward different sources of authority. Liberal respondents were more trusting of university scientists and of science museums than were conservatives, but were no more trusting of industry scientists. On the other hand, conservatives were more trusting of religious organizations than were liberals.
These findings contribute to a growing body of work supporting a sobering conclusion: that "facts" won't succeed in bringing people together. Different groups of people won't agree on the facts if they don't agree on the value of different mechanisms for arriving at beliefs about the world.
Science isn't a universal mechanism for guiding beliefs (for instance, science can't settle questions of value or public policy), but it's our best guide to the natural world. If we can agree on that, there's a chance the rest will follow.
Tania Lombrozo is a psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She writes about psychology, cognitive science and philosophy, with occasional forays into parenting and veganism. You can keep up with more of what she is thinking on Twitter: @TaniaLombrozo |
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Our Country Pride Flip Cap has a flip up option. Rally it up and be a true patriot. Murica F*ck Yeah!
The Country Pride rally cap transforms into a "Country Pride" display board. If you know America's past time, then you know rally time in baseball. When not in use, you simply snap it shut along the hat's main structure. Separate bills, then bend the bottom bill until the top bill pops up and locks into place. Adjustable snapback fits most head sizes.
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This products contains small parts, not suitable for children 3 years or younger - CHOKING HAZARD. Disclaimer: Don't leave your hat in a hot car, the glue between the bills might melt and cause the fabric to bubble. |
Angry Fish Tank Guy Add Comment Posted at: 2013-06-10 13:08:26 | 23474 comments Original ad:
55 gallon tank great condition.no scratches. comes with filter. $125. 484-***-****. CALL ME ONLY - NO EMAILS. 484-***-****
From Me to Felix *********:
Hey,
That fish tank is beautiful. I must have it! Is it still for sale?
Mike
From Felix ********* to Me:
CALL THE NUMBER
From Me to Felix *********:
What number?
From Felix ********* to Me:
484-***-****
From Me to Felix *********:
I just called that number and nobody answered.
From Felix ********* to Me:
i never heard it ring. call again and leave a message if no answer.
From Me to Felix *********:
I just called again. Nobody picked up so I went to leave you a message, but it said your voicemail was full.
From Felix ********* to Me:
my voicemail isnt full the phone never rang. are you calling the right number? 484-***-****
From Me to Felix *********:
I just called the number again and I got a fax machine noise. Is there a trick to dialing your number?
From Felix ********* to Me:
what trick??? its a phone number you just dial it!
From Me to Felix *********:
Are you sure you didn't give me the number to a fax machine? Would you rather communicate through fax? That would actually be easier for me.
From Felix ********* to Me:
NO!
From Me to Felix *********:
I wasn't sure what to do, so I sent you a fax. Did you get it?
From Felix ********* to Me:
DONT SEND ME A FAX
From Felix ********* to Me:
STOP SENDING ME FAXES
From Felix ********* to Me:
SERIOUSLY STOP TRYOING TO SEND FAX! IT WONT WORK BECAUSE ITS A CELL PHONE!!!
From Me to Felix *********:
Can't you just set your cell phone to fax machine mode?
From Felix ********* to Me:
what the hell is fax machine mode? cell phones dont have that!
From Felix ********* to Me:
OMG dude ENOUGH WITH THE FAXES!!!!!!
From Me to Felix *********:
Sorry, I set the fax machine to try sending the fax every fifteen minutes until it goes through. It was the office fax machine and I already left for the weekend. Can this wait until Monday?
From Felix ********* to Me:
NO IT CANT WAIT UNTIL MONDAY ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME
From Felix ********* to Me:
GO BACK TO YOUR OFFICE AND CANCEL IT RIGHT NOW
From Me to Felix *********:
My apologies, I can't go back. I'm at the airport and my flight to Vancouver leaves in an hour and a half. I'll cancel the fax on Monday when I get back.
From Felix ********* to Me:
HEY! NO! FUCK THAT YOU BETTER FIND A WAY AND CANCEL THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW!!!! CALL SOMEBODY AT THE OFFICE MAKE THEM DO IT I'M FUCKING SERIOUS
From Me to Felix *********:
Nobody is at the office, it is 6:30! Actually, you know what? The janitor might be there. We are pretty good friends. Do you want me to contact him?
From Felix ********* to Me:
YES
From Me to Felix *********:
Okay, I gave him your info. He's going to call you shortly. I'm on the plane now and they are making us turn our cell phones off for takeoff. Good luck!
From Felix ********* to Me:
DONT HAVE HIM CALL ME YOU IDIOT JUST HAVE HIM CANCEL THE FAX
From Me to Felix *********:
This is an automated out-of-office reply from Mike Partlow:
I will be out of the office on vacation in Canada until Monday, June 10th. I will not be checking my emails until I return. Have a great weekend, eh?
From Felix ********* to Me:
GOD DAMMIT
From Me to Felix *********:
This is an automated out-of-office reply from Mike Partlow:
I will be out of the office on vacation in Canada until Monday, June 10th. I will not be checking my emails until I return. Have a great weekend, eh?
===================================
I made another email account as Dave the Janitor...
===================================
From Dave the Janitor to Felix *********:
Hi there! Is this Felix? Mike told me to contact you about buying a fish tank. I'm Dave, the janitor at Mike's office. I tried calling the number he gave me but it sounded like a fax machine or something, so I am emailing you instead.
From Felix ********* to Dave the Janitor:
yeah hi dave here's the situation. mike has no idea how phones work and tried to send a fax to my phone using the fax machine at his office. now my phone is getting a call from the fax machine every 15 minutes. he said you can cancel the fax?
From Dave the Janitor to Felix *********:
Mike didn't mention anything about a fax machine to me. He told me to buy a fish tank from you and he'd get it from me on Monday.
From Felix ********* to Dave the Janitor:
oh jesus christ...no... he was supposed to tell you to cancel the fax that keeps calling my phone. are you at his office? can you stop the fax?
From Dave the Janitor to Felix *********:
So you aren't selling the fish tank?
From Felix ********* to Dave the Janitor:
look forget the fish tank just stop the fax machine, PLEASE!!
From Dave the Janitor to Felix *********:
Why are you so worried about this fax machine? Can't you just turn your cell phone to fax mode?
From Felix ********* to Dave the Janitor:
that isnt a thing! look im done screwing around here. just stop the fax machine, ok?
From Dave the Janitor to Felix *********:
Tell you what, I'll cancel the fax machine if you drop the price on the fish tank to $75.
From Felix ********* to Dave the Janitor:
look im in no mood to haggle with a janitor over a fucking fish tank.
From Dave the Janitor to Felix *********:
Excuse me? "with a janitor?" What is that supposed to mean? What if I had a fancy rich person job as an investment banker? Would you haggle with me then? I don't like your condescending tone, buddy. I know being a janitor isn't the most desirable job, but I gotta put food on the table for my kids somehow! Sorry I'm not an astronaut with a degree in brain surgery! You're in no mood to argue with a janitor? Well guess what? I am in no mood to turn off fax machines for a rude, snobby, patronizing fish tank owner!
From Felix ********* to Dave the Janitor:
i didnt mean to insult you. i like janitors. im sorry! can you please just turn off the fax machine!
From Dave the Janitor to Felix *********:
Fine. But I am telling Mike what you said to me and I don't think he will want to buy a fish tank from you after that. Are you this rude to your fish? Oh I'm Felix! Sorry, I'm in no mood to feed a goldfish! Maybe if you were a $500 Blueface Angel fish I would feed you.
From Felix ********* to Dave the Janitor:
......are you done?
From Dave the Janitor to Felix *********:
Yes, I stopped the fax. Sorry it took me so long to figure out how to cancel it. I'm just a janitor. What do I know about fax machines? I don't have a fancy degree in fax machine engineering.
From Felix ********* to Dave the Janitor:
yeah yeah.... thats enough. thanks bye
===================================
A few days later, from my original email account...
===================================
From Me to Felix *********:
Felix,
I just got back from Canada to find out you were belittling my janitor? Dave is one of the best janitors I have ever had the pleasure of working with, so you better watch your mouth. You think you are better than him or something? Big words coming from a guy who doesn't even own a fax machine. You can forget about me buying your fish tank!
Mike
From Felix ********* to Me:
good because im not selling anything to a stupid FUCK who cant even figure out how to dial a phone number!!!!!!!
From Me to Felix *********:
Please, stop harassing me and Dave. You've done enough. Leave us alone.
From Felix ********* to Me:
oh im harassing YOU? the dumbass who sets a fax to send me every 15 minutes and then LEAVES THE FUCKING COUNTRY? you know how many times that fax machine called me you stupid piece of shit you have the nerve to say IM harassing YOU? go fuck yourself you fucking fuckhead!!!!!!
From Me to Felix *********:
This is an automated out-of-office reply from Mike Partlow:
Hola! I will be on vacation in Mexico until Monday, June 17th and will not be checking my email until I return. Adios, amigos!
23474 comments | Add Comment Stubborn Shovel Seller Add Comment Posted at: 2012-08-29 06:27:13 | 3860 comments
Pole hedge trimmer for sale - Homelite electric hedge trimmer. Great condition. $50 OBO. Email me at russ*******@gmail.com.
Original ad:Pole hedge trimmer for sale - Homelite electric hedge trimmer. Great condition. $50 OBO. Email me at russ*******@gmail.com. From Me to Russ *******:
Hey Russ,
That's a really nice shovel you have in the picture. Is it for sale?
Mike
From Russ ******* to Me:
Sorry guy. Only selling the hedge trimmer.
From Me to Russ *******:
I'll give you $10 for the shovel.
From Russ ******* to Me:
Cant you read? The shovel isnt for sale.
From Me to Russ *******:
You drive a hard bargain on the shovel. I'll give you $15 for it, and that is my final offer.
From Russ ******* to Me:
Here is my final offer: shut the hell up and leave me alone!
========================================================
Later, from another email account...
========================================================
From Me to Russ *******:
Hey I'm emailing you about the shovel. Your asking price of $10 sounds fair to me. And with the free extention cord, that is a steal. I'll take it!
From Russ ******* to Me:
What are you on about? The shovel isn't for sale.
From Me to Russ *******:
Excuse me? That's not what your ad says.
From Russ ******* to Me:
My ad says nothing about the shovel. I'm selling the hedge trimmer, not the shovel. Look again. Nowhere is a shovel mentioned.
From Me to Russ *******:
Quit dicking me around. This ad says you are selling the shovel!
I can assure you I am not Jewish so you can stop pretending you aren't selling the shovel.
From Russ ******* to Me:
Oh my god...I swear I didnt put that up. Somebody is messing with me!
From Russ ******* to Me:
Can you send me the link to that ad so I can have them take it down?
From Me to Russ *******:
Sorry, I can't find the link anymore. My wife needed to use the computer so I had to delete my browsing history because I was looking at porn earlier. It was somewhere in the stuff for sale section, if I'm not mistaken...so does this mean I can't buy your shovel?
========================================================
From another email account...
========================================================
From Me to Russ *******:
Dear Anti-Semite douchebag,
I got a bone to pick with you. I came across your ad in my search for a new shovel and it seemed like a great deal. Until I read your disgusting comment about not selling the shovel to Jewish people. How the hell do you think that is acceptable in this day and age? What does it matter what religion someone is for you to sell them a shovel? This is absolutely despicable and an outrage to the Jewish community. You make me sick.
Sincerely NOT buying your shovel of hatred,
Mordecai Goldstein
From Russ ******* to Me:
I don't have a problem with jews at all! Someone else put that ad up to mess with me and I cant find where it is! Can you send me the link to the ad please??
From Me to Russ *******:
Why don't you shovel your Nazi bullshit to someone else? This "Jew" isn't buying it!
========================================================
He finally decided to email my original account:
========================================================
From Russ ******* to Me:
Look you little prick I know you put that fucking ad up and you need to take it the fuck down RIGHT NOW. I'm not selling the fucking shovel GET OVER IT and quit being immature you son of a bitch.
From Me to Russ *******:
I'm sorry, I thought I was doing you a favor. I wanted you to see how many great offers you could get if you decided to sell the shovel.
From Russ ******* to Me:
I'M NOT SELLING THE FUCKING SHOVEL LET IT GO! Tell me this asshole if you were doing a favor then why did you put that shit about the jews in there???
From Me to Russ *******:
I detected some strong anti-Semitic undertones in our initial conversation...I just assumed you were an anti-Semite. My apologies.
From Russ ******* to Me:
TAKE THE AD DOWN
========================================================
I emailed him one last time, from another account.
========================================================
From Me to Russ *******:
Good afternoon!
I saw your ad for the shovel for sale. I'm more interested in the axe you have in that picture. Are you selling the axe? I'll give you $20 cash for it.
- Dave
Hey Russ,That's a really nice shovel you have in the picture. Is it for sale?MikeSorry guy. Only selling the hedge trimmer.I'll give you $10 for the shovel.Cant you read? The shovel isnt for sale.You drive a hard bargain on the shovel. I'll give you $15 for it, and that is my final offer.Here is my final offer: shut the hell up and leave me alone!================================================================================================================Hey I'm emailing you about the shovel. Your asking price of $10 sounds fair to me. And with the free extention cord, that is a steal. I'll take it!What are you on about? The shovel isn't for sale.Excuse me? That's not what your ad says.My ad says nothing about the shovel. I'm selling the hedge trimmer, not the shovel. Look again. Nowhere is a shovel mentioned.Quit dicking me around. This ad says you are selling the shovel!I can assure you I am not Jewish so you can stop pretending you aren't selling the shovel.Oh my god...I swear I didnt put that up. Somebody is messing with me!Can you send me the link to that ad so I can have them take it down?Sorry, I can't find the link anymore. My wife needed to use the computer so I had to delete my browsing history because I was looking at porn earlier. It was somewhere in the stuff for sale section, if I'm not mistaken...so does this mean I can't buy your shovel?================================================================================================================Dear Anti-Semite douchebag,I got a bone to pick with you. I came across your ad in my search for a new shovel and it seemed like a great deal. Until I read your disgusting comment about not selling the shovel to Jewish people. How the hell do you think that is acceptable in this day and age? What does it matter what religion someone is for you to sell them a shovel? This is absolutely despicable and an outrage to the Jewish community. You make me sick.Sincerely NOT buying your shovel of hatred,Mordecai GoldsteinI don't have a problem with jews at all! Someone else put that ad up to mess with me and I cant find where it is! Can you send me the link to the ad please??Why don't you shovel your Nazi bullshit to someone else? This "Jew" isn't buying it!================================================================================================================Look you little prick I know you put that fucking ad up and you need to take it the fuck down RIGHT NOW. I'm not selling the fucking shovel GET OVER IT and quit being immature you son of a bitch.I'm sorry, I thought I was doing you a favor. I wanted you to see how many great offers you could get if you decided to sell the shovel.I'M NOT SELLING THE FUCKING SHOVEL LET IT GO! Tell me this asshole if you were doing a favor then why did you put that shit about the jews in there???I detected some strong anti-Semitic undertones in our initial conversation...I just assumed you were an anti-Semite. My apologies.TAKE THE AD DOWN================================================================================================================Good afternoon!I saw your ad for the shovel for sale. I'm more interested in the axe you have in that picture. Are you selling the axe? I'll give you $20 cash for it.- Dave 3860 comments | Add Comment Glorious Master Translator Add Comment Posted at: 2012-04-23 17:29:34 | 2562 comments Original ad:
I need someone who speaks japanese to help me translate something. wont take too long. please email me ASAP!
From Me to ************@***********.org:
Hi! You need Japanese translate? I Chan, I help you with translate.
- Chan
From Scott ******* to Me:
hey chan. so ok heres the deal. my cd player suddenly stopped working and i cant figure out why. for some reason the only manual i have is entirely in japanese. i took a pic of the page im pretty sure its the trouble shooting part. can you see if it says anything about no sound coming from the output?
From Me to Scott *******:
Ok, I find three thing may help you:
"Failure of Sound from Device"
"Skipping of disc for poor sound"
"Sound volume low very much"
- Chan
From Scott ******* to Me:
umm..what does it say for the failure of sound one?
From Me to Scott *******:
"Hello and thank you for chose glorious master CD player! Apologies many for trouble of product. To fix failure of the sound, follow step:
1. Unplug glorious master CD player
2. Plug glorious master CD player back in"
I hope this help!
- Chan
From Scott ******* to Me:
that doesnt help me at all. is that all it says?
From Me to Scott *******:
Oh no! Very sorry. There more steps to help you! Here:
"If still experience failure of the sound, your glorious master CD player possessed by audio demon. To banish audio demon, follow step:
1. Ignite seven candle
2. Pray to Benzaiten, Goddess of Music
3. Benzaiten will banish audio demon to eternal suffering
4. Try play CD again
If you fail banishing of audio demon, you failure. Much dishonor of family name. Suggest immediate death by Seppuku."
I hope you banish audio demon! Much luck.
- Chan
From Scott ******* to Me:
wtf? does it really say that?
From Me to Scott *******:
I just translate what you give.
From Scott ******* to Me:
no way it says that. what kind of useless manual is this? how is that supposed to help anyone?
From Me to Scott *******:
Very sorry, audio demon big problem with many CD player! I have sword, much sharp, good for seppuku. You want borrow?
From Scott ******* to Me:
wtf are you talking about. an audio demon? this is BS. are you screwing with me?
From Scott ******* to Me:
did i send the wrong page? i think this is the table of contents. can you look at this and tell me which page is the troubleshooting one? then ill send you that one
From Me to Scott *******:
That no table of content, that Sushi take-out menu! Try #16, Spicy Salmon Roll! Much delicious!
From Scott ******* to Me:
..........ok buddy. thanks for nothing you jackass
Later, from another email account
From Me to *********@*********.org:
Hey there,
I saw your ad and think I can help you. I majored in Japanese in college, speak it fluently, and lived in Miyazaki for two years.
Mike
From Scott ******* to Me:
thanks so much mike. i was talking to someone else for help, but idk what his problem was. dude kept sending me all this BS. anyway my cd player isnt working and the manual is only in japanese so i need help reading the troubleshooting part. i think the attached picture is the table of contents, could you see if it says what page the troubleshooting part is on and then ill send you that?
From Me to Scott *******:
You sent me a sushi take-out menu. Are you sure you have the right documents?
From Scott ******* to Me:
wtf!!! i dont know what is going on! it has a picture of the cd player on the front and then this is the next page. why would they put a sushi menu in there?
From Me to Scott *******:
Japanese instruction manuals are not like the American manuals you are used to. They often include advertisements, and I guess in this case, a sushi menu. Looking at it closer, it says "Thank you for purchasing this glorious master CD player. Why not order sushi while you enjoy music?"
Mike
From Scott ******* to Me:
well that is dumb...whatever. i think this page is the troubleshooting part because of the tables. am i right? do you see anything about there not being any sound?
From Me to Scott *******:
Yes, this is the right page. It says to unplug it and plug it back in.
Mike
From Scott ******* to Me:
yea i did that. nothing. is that it?
From Me to Scott *******:
Well, you're not gonna want to hear this, but it says your CD player is possessed by Amanojaku, or "audio demon." You should light three candles and pray to Benzaiten, the god of music.
Mike
From Me to Scott *******:
Scott? Were you able to banish the audio demon?
Hi! You need Japanese translate? I Chan, I help you with translate.- Chanhey chan. so ok heres the deal. my cd player suddenly stopped working and i cant figure out why. for some reason the only manual i have is entirely in japanese. i took a pic of the page im pretty sure its the trouble shooting part. can you see if it says anything about no sound coming from the output?Ok, I find three thing may help you:"Failure of Sound from Device""Skipping of disc for poor sound""Sound volume low very much"- Chanumm..what does it say for the failure of sound one?"Hello and thank you for chose glorious master CD player! Apologies many for trouble of product. To fix failure of the sound, follow step:1. Unplug glorious master CD player2. Plug glorious master CD player back in"I hope this help!- Chanthat doesnt help me at all. is that all it says?Oh no! Very sorry. There more steps to help you! Here:"If still experience failure of the sound, your glorious master CD player possessed by audio demon. To banish audio demon, follow step:1. Ignite seven candle2. Pray to Benzaiten, Goddess of Music3. Benzaiten will banish audio demon to eternal suffering4. Try play CD againIf you fail banishing of audio demon, you failure. Much dishonor of family name. Suggest immediate death by Seppuku."I hope you banish audio demon! Much luck.- Chanwtf? does it really say that?I just translate what you give.no way it says that. what kind of useless manual is this? how is that supposed to help anyone?Very sorry, audio demon big problem with many CD player! I have sword, much sharp, good for seppuku. You want borrow?wtf are you talking about. an audio demon? this is BS. are you screwing with me?did i send the wrong page? i think this is the table of contents. can you look at this and tell me which page is the troubleshooting one? then ill send you that oneThat no table of content, that Sushi take-out menu! Try #16, Spicy Salmon Roll! Much delicious!..........ok buddy. thanks for nothing you jackassLater, from another email accountHey there,I saw your ad and think I can help you. I majored in Japanese in college, speak it fluently, and lived in Miyazaki for two years.Mikethanks so much mike. i was talking to someone else for help, but idk what his problem was. dude kept sending me all this BS. anyway my cd player isnt working and the manual is only in japanese so i need help reading the troubleshooting part. i think the attached picture is the table of contents, could you see if it says what page the troubleshooting part is on and then ill send you that?You sent me a sushi take-out menu. Are you sure you have the right documents?wtf!!! i dont know what is going on! it has a picture of the cd player on the front and then this is the next page. why would they put a sushi menu in there?Japanese instruction manuals are not like the American manuals you are used to. They often include advertisements, and I guess in this case, a sushi menu. Looking at it closer, it says "Thank you for purchasing this glorious master CD player. Why not order sushi while you enjoy music?"Mikewell that is dumb...whatever. i think this page is the troubleshooting part because of the tables. am i right? do you see anything about there not being any sound?Yes, this is the right page. It says to unplug it and plug it back in.Mikeyea i did that. nothing. is that it?Well, you're not gonna want to hear this, but it says your CD player is possessed by Amanojaku, or "audio demon." You should light three candles and pray to Benzaiten, the god of music.MikeScott? Were you able to banish the audio demon? 2562 comments | Add Comment Lost Add Comment Posted at: 2012-01-24 00:00:00 | 1274 comments Original ad:
36" RCA tube TV for sale. good condition. pickup only. very heavy. first with $50 gets it. no phone- email only.
From Me to ************@*********.org:
Hey there,
I want your TV. I have $50 cash and can pick it up anytime. What is your number? I'll call you for directions.
Mike
From Steve ***** to Me:
hi mike. i live at 54 ********* dr. can you get it today? i dont have a phone so just show up and knock on my door. ill be home all day sound good?
From Me to Steve *****:
Sounds good. I'll be over in a few hours.
Thanks,
Mike
From Me to Steve *****:
Hey, I'm on Pughtown Rd right now but I am having trouble finding your house. Can you help me out? I pulled over on Wilson Rd and I'll wait for your instructions.
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
i dont live on pughtown. i live on ******** dr. if you turn rite onto pughtown, then rite on bethel rd from pughtown it will take you there.
From Me to Steve *****:
Okay, I turned onto Pughtown again but I don't see Bethel Rd. I crossed over a river and now it says I am coming up on Route 113. Am I going the right direction?
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
no. i said make a rite on pughtown. you made a left. turn around and go the other way. your not even close so you have a way to go.
From Me to Steve *****:
Uh...I turned around and I'm still not seeing Bethel. It looks like I'm at Pughtown and Rt. 100. Should I go down that?
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
NO! you drove passed bethel dude IT INTERSECTS WITH PUGHTOWN. turn around and it will be on your LEFT
From Me to Steve *****:
I already turned onto Rt. 100 because you took too long to respond. It is kind of hard to turn around on this road. Doesn't 100 intersect with 113? I'm just going to do that and then loop around back to Pughtown Rd.
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
no dont do that!! you will be on 100 for like 15 miles before that happens! just turn around and get back on pughtown this should be easy
From Me to Steve *****:
This would be much easier if I could just call you. What is your phone number?
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
i already told you i dont have a phone. how is this so confusing to you? where are you now?
From Me to Steve *****:
I think I'm on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It says the next exit is King of Prussia in 15 miles. Should I get off at that exit?
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
dude why the FUCK would you get on the turnpike? didnt you notice something was wrong WHEN YOU HAD TO GO THRU A FUCKING TOLL???? jesus man you are hopeless!
From Me to Steve *****:
Calm down. No need for profanities. I saw the toll and realized something was wrong, but there wasn't anywhere for me to turn around so I just went through it. I accidentally went through the EZ-PASS thing instead of the regular toll and I think it took a picture of my license plate. Should I get off at the King of Prussia exit? I just passed a billboard for Geico insurance, if that helps.
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
i cant help you. you are beyond lost. next time get a fucking GPS if you are this bad with directons
From Me to Steve *****:
Well, I hope you are happy. I just got pulled over for texting while driving, and going 103 in a 65. The cop is running my information right now.
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
how the fuck is that my fault!?
From Me to Steve *****:
Apparently my registration and insurance are expired, so they are towing my car. Also, they said there is a bench warrant out for my arrest for not paying some speeding ticket I got last year. They are taking me to a police station in Norristown. The cop said I should be processed in a few hours. Would you be able to bail me out? Bring the TV, too. They are taking my phone now so I won't be able to talk to you after this.
Sent via Blackberry
From Steve ***** to Me:
are you fucking with me? im sorry dude but you are a fucking idiot and im done dealing withyou
==============================
EPILOGUE - SEVERAL DAYS LATER
==============================
From Me to Steve *****:
Hey, it is Mike again. Where were you? You never came to bail me out. I had to get a bail bondsman and now I owe like $1500. On top of that, they found a bowl and some weed in my car, and a little bit of cocaine. I'm getting charged with possession, which is going to cost me a fortune. Plus my speeding ticket which is going to be over $200. Seeing as this is your fault, I think you should pay me at least $500 as compensation. I don't know when I will get my car back so you will have to bring the $500 to me. I live in West Chester, when can you come with the money? Also, bring the TV.
Mike
From Steve ***** to Me:
listen up you stupid fuckhead. i gave you the easiest directons and you still got fucking lost. did i ask you to go on the turnpike and get pulled over for speeding like a fucking idiot? did i ask you to have drugs in your car? NO. you must be smoking crack if you think im giving you $500 and the tv. im surprised the cops didnt find crack in your car you fucking crackhead. none of this is my fault you are just a fucking dipshit that cant follow directons so fuck the fuck off and never email me again!!!!
oh and i sold the tv to someone else and the guy had no problems finding my house cause HES NOT A FUCKING MORON
1274 comments | Add Comment Special Skaters Add Comment Posted at: 2011-11-08 05:25:19 | 1433 comments Original ad:
Attention all ice skaters and hockey players! Volunteers needed to train children participating in the Special Olympics hockey team. Anyone with adequate skating skill can be used to help teach our athletes to skate. Please call 410-***-**** or respond to the email address above.
Judy
From Me to ************@**********.org
Judy,
I am writing in response to your ad regarding helping children learn to skate.
I was a legend in minor league hockey until my career was cut short by a career ending injury. I still love the game of hockey though and would love to pass on my skills to your wonderful children. I look forward to hearing from you.
Mike
From Judy ******* to Me:
Mike,
I am sorry to hear about your injury. That is very unfortunate. Are you still able to skate? I only ask because we need someone to skate one-on-one with the children.
Judy
From Me to Judy *******:
Oh yes, I am still able to skate. I think you misunderstood me. My career was cut short because I was banned after causing another player to have a career ending injury. It was an unfortunate accident, but the league came down extremely hard on me. It really wasn't fair, if you ask me.
Mike
From Judy ******* to Me:
Yikes! What were the circumstances of the ban/injury, if you don't mind me asking?
From Me to Judy *******:
Not at all. It really wasn't a big deal. The guy was fine, but everyone turned it into this huge ordeal. During a fight, I broke his eye socket, fish-hooked his cheek apart and slashed his achilles tendon with my skate. He also suffered brain damage from blood loss, but that is more the paramedics fault than mine for letting him bleed out for so long. Looks like the only sport he'll be playing now is "shitting in a bag" (heh heh). Anyway, the pussies at the commissioner's office considered it "gross misconduct" and "assault" and gave me a lifetime ban. Can you believe that? I thought this was supposed to be hockey!
So like I said, I was a legend in minor league hockey. My nickname used to be "Murderin' Mike" (don't worry, I never actually murdered anyone. It was just a cute nickname). I won more fights than everyone else in the division combined. In fact, I've only ever lost one fight on the ice. But I won the rematch in the parking lot (thank you, tire iron!) I know everything there is to know about fighting and would love to pass on my skills to your kids. If you want them to be the best damn hockey fighters in the special olympics, I am your guy. With my training, the other teams won't stand a chance. The ice will be stained with their blood, teeth, and broken dreams.
I am currently in between jobs so I can dedicate a lot of time to helping out.
Best,
Murderin' Mike
From Judy ******* to Me:
What do you think this is? The Special Dlympics are for the mentally handicapped. You know that, right? What you described is brutally violent and has no place in the Special Olympics. Frankly I think you deserve to be in jail. Thank you and goodbye.
From Me to Judy *******:
Whoa there. Don't be so dismissive! Do you even know anything about hockey? It sounds to me like you think hockey is just soccer on ice. Well I've got news for you, Judy, you couldn't be more wrong. In hockey, we don't fake injuries and have to miss half the season due to a pulled vagina muscle. We fight it out like men. Fighting is what hockey is all about. It is a tradition that dates back to the first hockey game ever played. If you want your kids to learn how to play hockey, they are going to have to learn how to fight.
I'll teach your kids how get away with everything without the referee seeing it. I'll show them how to make butt-ending, head checking, slashing and tripping look like an accident. They'll learn how to fight like hockey players. I have a whole set of moves I like to use during fights. My personal favorite is the "bowling ball", where you gouge both of the opponent's eyes and then jam your thumb into the roof of their mouth. I used that during a fight once and the guy actually started convulsing! It struck fear into the heart of the other team and we ended up winning the game.
With my expert training, your team will be the most feared team in the entire special olympics. Please reconsider hiring me.
Mike
From Judy ******* to Me:
You aren't coming anywhere near these children. Your attitude towards this whole thing is disgusting. Its absolutely disturbing that you find this kind of behavior acceptable. Especially for mentally handicapped children. I don't know what kind of insane league you played in but that is not the level of intensity that's meant for these children.
From Me to Judy *******:
Oh, I get it. You're saying that because these kids are mentally handicapped, that they don't deserve to be treated like regular people? Instead, you want to point out their disabilities and tell them that they will never be able to play hockey like normal people. When I saw in your ad that the kids were mentally challenged, I wasn't fazed. I didn't see kids with disabilities, I saw kids that I could turn into great hockey players. Do you not want them to be able to play hockey like everybody else plays it?
Mike
From Judy ******* to Me:
Give me a freaking break. You know that isn't what I meant. Don't pull that card on me. You expect me to believe that a violent psychopath like you genuinely wants to help the mentally challenged play hockey? Yeah, right! You don't give a damn about these children.
From Me to Judy *******:
Judy,
I am starting to think that you are the problem with this team, not the kids. You do not have the right attitude to be working with these kids. If you want to tell these kids that they shouldn't learn hockey the right way because they are mentally challenged, then that is just sad. It is a shame that you are taking away the joy of competitive sports from these kids. Competitive sports are great for kids - it keeps them from turning to drugs and violence in the streets.
Can I please talk to your supervisor? I would like to take your position and suggest that you be fired. You clearly do not have the right attitude to be helping mentally challenged kids.
Sincerely looking forward to taking your job,
Mike
From Judy ******* to Me:
Sure - her number is 1-800-GOTO-HELL
Sincerely done talking to you,
Judy
1433 comments | Add Comment View More E-mails |
Tax expenditures are funny, They're not taxes, exactly, because they save us money. They're not spending, exactly, because the dollars are never actually spent. They're somewhere in between. So think of it as tax spending.
Or just think of it as the ultimate nudge. The carrot hiding behind the tax code's big stick, tax spending guides us by making certain behaviors and actions cheaper. We encourage employers to provide health care by taxing wages and not taxing health benefits. We encourage investing by making a dollar earned from dividends cheaper than a dollar earned from a salary.
And as the CBO reports in a new study today, Washington's tax spending budget -- comprised of everything from mortgage deductions to the child tax credit to lower tax rates on capital gains -- is so massive, it's technically larger than Medicare, Defense, or Social Security. The tax spending budget is equal to 1/17th of the US economy.
Like the federal budget, the tax spending budget isn't all bad or all good. It's a collage of interests lurking in the shadow of the tax code that represents all factions, including large corporations, small corporations, institutional investors, low-income families, and every slice of America you can name. Conservatives rail against big government, where "bigness" is synonymous with the size of the federal budget. But almost as much as the spending budget, the tax-spending budget, whose number is rarely quoted, influences the economy nearly as powerfully, allowing government to promote relatively expensive housing and generous employer health care. It's the big prod.
> |
Well, judging by the free preview , it’s essentially a copy and paste job of the most popular questions and answers that users posted over the last few years on Reddit’s /r/IAMA “subreddit”. There is literally nothing more other than a quick introduction, conclusion, minor grammar corrections, and some visual formatting so it (the hardcover copy) looks better on paper instead of a screen. 98% of the content of this book is simply copied and pasted. So little effort went into it that even Reddit’s own users noticed a bunch of errors , which clearly slipped their grueling (yeah right) editing process. I honestly doubt they had even one person proof-read the book front to back. Very professional.
Reddit just made an announcement that they are releasing a new Q&A “coffee table” book titled: Ask Me Anything: Volume One.
Why would Reddit want to release book based off some questions and answers?
Reddit wants to finally make some money and is trying really (and I mean really) hard to go mainstream. If you haven’t noticed lately, Reddit has been cleaning house and getting rid of any community they feel needs to be “quarantined”. They undoubtedly seek to be more and more attractive to the highest bidder for their ad space. To build that image, they want AMA’s to be a (if not the) centerpiece of the website. Why else would they also release a standalone AMA app last year? Believe it or not, a few years ago, before Reddit reached such massive popularity, their AMA section was full of interesting people with compelling professions and amusing stories to tell. Nowadays, it’s all about celebrities jumping on trying to promote their new movie, album or whatever (just like on talk shows). And it’s usually not even the celebrities themselves, but their “public assistants”, as the infamous Rampart train-wreck of an AMA reminds us. There’s more massive fails of AMAs, but for now let’s not get into that.
Who’s the target market?
Who knows. I can’t see any Redditor ever buying this because why would they want to if they can have it for free on the website they hang out on. And people that don’t use Reddit probably wouldn’t be interested in buying a book based on text coming from a complicated web link aggregator. Again, who knows.
The timing is really odd too. Why would anyone want to publish a book immediately after the holidays and miss out on all the gift giving opportunities?
Guess what! Reddit’s outlandish new privacy policy just kicked in 5 days ago. I kid you not. It caused a mini shit-storm when it was revealed a couple months ago, and had a bunch of their users leaving to a similar platform called Snapzu (requires an invite).
Reddit admins seriously couldn’t even wait an entire week before shamelessly abusing their new authority. They now essentially have a royalty-free and unrestricted license to sell books containing even the loyalest of their member’s comments, and immediately seized the opportunity to do so for a cheap buck. Sadly, that is what Reddit has become. And who knows what they’re up to next. But it’s obvious they’re desperate.
Anyways, I’m done. I’ll stop now because, not gonna lie, I didn’t even read it. The preview was enough. But I can’t wait to see the disaster volume two will be.
Pro tip: You can basically get the book for free here! (I swear! And no it’s not a torrent.) |
In conjunction with the 54th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival, the traffic pattern on Kalanikoa Street in Hilo will temporarily be shifted to one-way only.
Traffic will flow in the makai, or northerly direction on Kalanikoa Street between Piʻilani Street and Kuawa Street during the festival.
The one-way traffic pattern will remain in effect 24-hours beginning at noon on Wednesday, April 19, through 8 a.m. Sunday, April 23, 2017.
Motorists traveling in a westerly direction on Piʻilani Street will be allowed to turn right onto Kalanikoa Street.
Left turns will also be allowed onto Kalanikoa Street from Piʻilani Street.
Both right and left turns will be allowed to one-way traffic on Kalanikoa Street to access the Hoʻolulu Complex and businesses in the area.
Regular two-way traffic will remain in effect on Manono, Kuawa and Piʻilani Streets. |
Image caption Antibiotics "will not cure viruses"
A quarter of people wrongly believe antibiotics work on most coughs and colds, a Health Protection Agency survey has found.
However antibiotics cannot treat viruses, which cause most respiratory tract infections.
The HPA poll of 1,800 people in England also found one in 10 people keep leftover antibiotics - and many would self-medicate next time they got ill.
A leading GP said antibiotics were not a "cure all".
An expert in immunity and infection is also warning that the misuse of antibiotics, and drug companies' failures to develop new ones, could lead to a rise in untreatable infections.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said that antimicrobial resistance "is one of the most serious public health challenges that we face in the EU" and could cost at least 1.5bn euros.
Speaking on European Antibiotics Awareness Day, the HPA's Dr Cliodna McNulty said self-medicating was unsafe and could fuel drug resistance.
Dr McNulty, head of primary care for the HPA, said: "The majority of people can treat themselves at home using over-the-counter medicines to relieve symptoms."
Of those polled, 500 had been prescribed antibiotics in the previous year, with 11% reporting they had leftovers and 6% saying they might take them if they had future infections.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Prof Mark Enright says overuse of antibiotics could "sterilise healthy bacteria" in our bodies
Dr McNulty said that while the numbers might appear small, they could translate into large numbers given that 30% of people take antibiotics every year.
She said: "There is evidence that the more antibiotics you have, the more likely you are to develop resistance. And you're also more likely to develop antibiotic-related diarrhoea."
But 70% were aware of the problem of antibiotic resistance in hospitals, and a similar number were aware that they or their family could be affected.
'Not a cure-all'
The HPA says health professionals must learn to resist demands from patients for treatments they know have little or no effect on coughs and colds. It found 97% of those questioned said that the last time they had asked their GP or nurse for an antibiotic, they were prescribed one.
TOP TIPS FROM THE HPA Most coughs and colds get better on their own - antibiotics will not speed recovery
Talk to your GP about whether you need them
Coughing up phlegm on its own is not a reason to need an antibiotic - even if it is yellow
A sore throat plus runny nose with phlegm suggests the infection is less likely to respond to antibiotics
A high temperature, red throat and feeling really ill means you probably need an antibiotic
If you feel able to stop taking them early, you may well not have needed them
Always take all doses for as long as instructed
Never keep any leftovers - what's prescribed for one infection might not work for the next
GPs can give a delayed antibiotic prescription for you to take only if things get worse
In cases of severe illness, antibiotics can save lives Fergus Walsh on antibiotics
Dr McNulty added: "Despite many years of public health campaigns advising people that antibiotics don't work against coughs, colds and flu, our research results show that these myths prevail.
"We understand people feel very unwell with coughs, sore throats, flu and colds, but for the majority of people these symptoms are unpleasant but short-lived."
The Department of Health issued fresh guidance on antibiotic prescribing in hospitals on Friday, with doctors and nurses being urged to "think twice" before offering them to patients.
Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Antibiotics are a wonderful thing when used properly, but they are not a cure-all for every condition, and should not be seen, or used, as such.
"The opposite is often true and, when used excessively or inappropriately, they can actually do more harm than good - reducing a patient's immunity to illnesses, or building up an immunity to antibiotics, both of which can have negative consequences for good health."
Writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases medical journal, Prof Laura Piddock of the school of immunity and infection at the University of Birmingham warned there were global implications from the misuse of antibiotics, and drug companies' failures to develop new ones.
She warned: "The demise of antibacterial drug discovery brings the spectre of untreatable infections."
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control estimated, in 2009, that each year 25,000 Europeans die as a direct consequence of a multidrug-resistant infection. |
Epic Photo Ops (our photo op provider) has an exciting new system that allows YOU to manage your pre-purchased photo op times, so you can maximize your Expo experience.
Initially, you will simply select the day you want your photo op on. Epic will follow up with you closer to show-time and will send you your time and group-number. (Group-numbers are like zones for boarding a plane. Group 1 goes first, then group 2, etc.)
If your time/date/group-number doesn’t work with your schedule, you can change your own booking to fit your planning for the day. Simply create an account at https://epo.io and you can change your photo op tickets to any of the available sessions for that Media Guest. (Note that you will only be able to change between available sessions that are not sold out.) |
Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor Khan and husband Saif Ali Khan are celebrating the birth of their first child, Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi. The baby was born on Tuesday morning at Mumbai’s Breach Candy hospital
In a statement issued to the media, the couple said, “We are very pleased to share with you all the wonderful news about the birth of our son : Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi, on the 20th of December 2016.”
“We would like to thank the media for the understanding and support they have given us over the last 9 months, and of course especially our fans and well wishers for their continued affection. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you all...With love, Saif & Kareena,” it added.
Filmmaker Karan Johar congratulated the couple on Twitter.
My Bebo had a baby boy!!!!!!! Am so so happy!!!!!!! #TaimurAliKhan ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ — Karan Johar (@karanjohar) December 20, 2016
Saif, son of late Indian cricket captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and noted actor Sharmila Tagore, tied the knot with the Bajrangi Bhaijaan star in October 2012 after a five-year courtship. Saif was earlier married to actress Amrita Singh and has two children -- daughter Sara and son Ibrahim.
Follow @htshowbiz for more
First Published: Dec 20, 2016 11:16 IST |
NHL 18: EA Canada is “working closely” with partners to “make the...
Sitting down with NHL 18 Senior Producer Sean Ramjagsingh, we discussed the possibility of the franchise on EA’s powerhouse Frostbite engine.
Sadly, the NHL franchise is the only one not to make the move to Frostbite.
“Frostbite is a great opportunity for the NHL franchise,” Ramjagsingh began. “We’re working closely with our partner teams in sports to take the learnings for when we do make the jump to Frostbite.”
Ramjagsingh said his team had a different focus other than Frostbite implementation for this year’s iteration.
“With NHL 18, our sole focus was on delivering best feature set possible that best replicates the speed, skill and creativity of the new NHL.”
He went on to detail the fan requests that have been implemented in NHL 18.
“The Defensive Skill Stick is something both the dev team and fans have wanted for a long time,” he said. “We’re really pleased with the end result as it’s adding a major tool to the defensive toolkit.”
The feedback hasn’t ended, Ramjagsingh explained.
“In terms of looking for opportunities to add additional polish and tuning to the final product, we’re looking forward to the feedback from the NHL 18 Beta, [which] starts on July 26.”
The NHL 18 closed beta runs until 1 August on Xbox One and PS4. NHL 18 will be available in full on both consoles from 15 September. |
The Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus spec sheets leaked a few days ago, leading us to believe that their announcement on the market wasn’t far off. And indeed, the day has come: Motorola has announced new Moto Mods, new Android tablets, and its newest mid-range smartphone series at MWC 2017 in Barcelona that has helped the Lenovo-owned (former Google-owned) company (Motorola) find its strength in a fierce market. Here’s everything to know about the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus.
The Moto G5 features a 5-inch Full HD panel with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3, which isn’t as wide of a display as the 5.5-inch display on the Moto G4 from last year. The resolution of the Moto G5 remains the same as that of the Moto G4, but Motorola seems to have made the display smaller so as to make it more compact in-hand. The 1.4Ghz, octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor is a step down from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 chipset from the Moto G4, so Motorola has made the Moto G5 even more budget-friendly with a step down in the display size and chipset. The Moto G5’s 2GB of RAM matches that of the Moto G4, but Motorola has decided to opt for 32GB base storage with a microSD card slot for expansion instead of offering the usual 16GB/32GB storage choices.
The Moto G4’s 12MP back camera has made its return on the Moto G5, along with the 5MP front camera, so selfies and back photos will likely remain the same in quality. The 2,800mAh removable battery housed within the device (that is removable, which will please some interested buyers) has been decreased from 3,000mAh, though the difference in battery life should prove negligible. Both devices are equipped with Motorola’s Turbo Charging, one of the best we’ve tested, and charge via microUSB.
This year marks a new chapter for the Moto G5, as Motorola’s most inexpensive mid-range handset now gets a fingerprint reader from the Moto G4 Plus that allows users to utilize biometric ID in order to protect their data. The devices will charge via a USB Type-C port. The water-repellent nano coating we’ve seen in the Moto phone series returns here, but Android 7.0 Nougat will prove to be another refreshing element of the Moto G experience. This brings features such as doze on the go, bundled notifications, split-screen multi-tasking, enhanced security, and a bevy of new emojis. Unfortunately, U.S. customers won’t get to see the Moto G5 because Motorola isn’t releasing it to the US market.
The Moto G5 Plus, the more important of the two smartphones, will arrive in the States with a 5.2-inch Full HD display with a 1920 x 1080p screen resolution (the same display as that of the Moto G4 Plus) with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection. The Gorilla Glass used here matches that of some HTC 10 models, so don’t despair as to the durability of the device. The Moto G5 Plus also packs a 2Ghz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor instead of the Snapdragon 625 SoC in the Moto G4 Plus. It comes in 2GB/4GB RAM options which correspond to the 32GB/64GB storage options respectively. Each includes a microSD card slot that can add an additional 128GB of expandable storage.
As for cameras, the Moto G5 Plus sports a 5MP front camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 12MP back camera with an f/1.7 aperture with Dual Pixel phase detection auto-focusing. The handset also houses a rear fingerprint reader and comes with the company’s water-repellent coating. A 3,000mAh removable battery is at the back. The new camera, camera aperture, and auto-focus are newly upgraded, and thus should be capable of taking some nice high-quality shots.
In a move that only sweetens the pot for mid-range users, Motorola has included the new Google Assistant technology based on AI and machine learning on both its Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus. Google’s Assistant technology is a voice assistant that can doing anything and everything from tell jokes, to book flights, make reservations, set calendar dates, and so on. The LG G6 was announced with Google Assistant on-board earlier today, and prior to that, Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL were the only to include it. Moto G users are in good company.
In terms of design, the Moto G5 and Moto G5 Plus are quite reminiscent to each other and past Motorola phones, just with some touches and small refinements. They look quite nice, but don’t expect the most premium materials here. Both models come in choice of Lunar Grey and Fine Gold color options. Some other onboard sensors include, Bluetooth 4.2, 802.11a/b/g/n (no 802.11ac here), Wi-Fi, GPS, and more.
The Moto G5 is set to cost $200 with the Moto G5 Plus costing just $29 more at $229 for the 2GB RAM/32GB storage base model. The Moto G5 Plus with 3GB RAM and 32GB of storage will cost $279. All these prices are unlocked and not tied to any cellular contract. The phones will go on sale worldwide this Spring and will be compatible with all four major US carriers (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile). However, as stated above, the Moto G5 won’t make it to the States, so you’re stuck with the Moto G5 Plus if you prefer Motorola’s mid-range lineup. The small monetary difference between them shouldn’t be a deal-breaker for most of you.
These new Moto G devices take specs and features that were already pleasant and have modified them in interesting ways to listen to Motorola’s customer base. Whether or not they appeal to you, it’s hard to complain when you’re getting Android Nougat, a Full HD display, high-end camera technology, and the Google Assistant for less than $300 when most devices demand $700 or more. The smartphones will be purchasable through Motorola’s online store, supported carriers, as well as popular retailers later this Spring. We’ll bring you the product links when they go live.
To learn more of the specifics or sign up for updates, hit the source link near the bottom of this post. Alternatively, you can watch the embedded videos below.
We’ll keep you updated on everything important right as it happens! For up to the minute updates, follow us across social media. Keep it tuned to Droid Turf for extensive coverage of MWC 2017.
Related stories to the one you’re viewing can be seen below this post along with tags that act as shortcuts to related material. If you like what you see, help Droid Turf expand by letting others know using the incorporating social buttons.
Vote and learn more in our Weekly Poll -> Weekly Poll: What company’s products are you looking forward to meeting most at MWC 2017?
View our constantly updating MWC 2017 guide of what to expect and what we have thus far -> MWC 17: A Roundup of what we know thus far
SOURCE [Motorola]
UPDATE: Motorola just announced that the Moto G5 Plus will release on March 31 in the United States. Pricing starts at just $229 for the 32GB base model. Pre-orders are now being accepted at the below retailers including Amazon, who is selling the device with its own Amazon ads. We recommend Best Buy, who is throwing in a case at little additional charge. Units will begin shipping the day of release, which one week from today (Friday). Hit up the links included below.
[Motorola] [Best Buy] [Newegg] [B&H Photo Video] [Amazon] |
Surrounded on all sides by ocean, postwar Japan has long been able to rely upon the United States military for strategic protection. But tense territorial disputes with neighboring countries, the capture and beheading of two Japanese journalists by ISIS in February, and the horror of the terror attacks in Paris have all served to remind the Japanese of the limits of physical isolation and dependence upon others. This, in turn, has fed an ongoing debate over the mission of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Is their role truly one of self-defense, pure and simple? Or does the Japanese constitution allow for preëmptive strikes outside of domestic borders, in the manner of a traditional military? The question won’t be settled anytime soon. But it’s fascinating to watch how Japan’s armed forces have endeared themselves to the Japanese public. The militaries of many nations harness mass media and pop culture for promotional purposes: the United States coöperates with Hollywood; Russia ostentatiously unveils a three-tiered “war center” seemingly modelled on a Bond villain’s lair. Japan is no different. But what makes their military unusual is that the image being projected isn’t one of might or machismo but of cuteness.
On a warm November morning last month, I was in the grandstands for the Japanese Eastern Command’s Parade of the Eastern Army. As the seats around me slowly filled before the performance, I noticed a pair of young men in puffy down jackets on the tarmac below. Peering more closely, I could make out the action figure of a female heroine from an anime_ _series between them. One of the young men took a photograph of the toy and, apparently satisfied with his framing of the mini-skirted cartoon girl against the backdrop of military vehicles, returned the figure to his companion’s satchel and then mounted the stands.
Such a scene would have been unthinkable to an earlier generation. For Japanese of a certain age, the Eastern Command is inextricably linked to a dark day in their country’s history. Exactly forty-five years ago last week, on November 25, 1970, a group led by the novelist and three-time Nobel Prize nominee Yukio Mishima stormed the Tokyo headquarters of the Eastern Command, took the commandant hostage, and forced the assembled garrison to listen to a speech. Mishima’s exhortations to rise against the government and reclaim their nation’s lost military glory fell on deaf ears. The jeers of the unimpressed soldiers sent Mishima back inside, where he committed seppuku—ritual disembowelment by sword. The gruesome final act of the famed writer made headlines throughout the world, but only served to remind Japanese citizens of the insanity of prewar militarism.
I’d have been more surprised by the action-figure-obsessed gentlemen if I hadn’t seen a very similar scene a few weeks earlier, aboard the J.S. Izumo, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s mammoth new helicopter carrier. The Izumo_ was opened to the public as part of Fleet Week, in mid-October, and its gigantic aircraft elevators and sprawling decks were filled with civilian visitors, including myself. In a far corner, against the menacing backdrop of what a placard helpfully informed me was a Raytheon RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile SeaRAM launcher, I spotted a man taking a nearly identical shot of a nearly identical anime-_girl figurine. A quick search of Twitter turns up many photos of toys and cosplayers on the decks of Japan’s fighting ships.
This sense of playfulness around military equipment can be hard to square with the tensions that are running high in the region. China and Korea have been loudly condemning the expansion of the Japanese military, even as their own repeated incursions into disputed waters provoke the situation all the more. But here in Tokyo, at least, there’s remarkably little of the macho chest-thumping one normally associates with a resurgent military—least of all from the J.S.D.F. itself. The Ground Self-Defense Force uses an incongruous mix of doe-eyed anime waifs and camouflaged soldiers for its recruitment posters. And when I toured the guided-missile destroyer Atago_ _during Fleet Week, I encountered a stern-faced young sailor standing guard beside an open hatch decorated with a hand-drawn anime girl dancing on the waves, welcoming visitors to the Third Escort Flotilla.
Things were even cuter over on the Atago’s sister ship, the Kirishima. The crew had fashioned a charming description for a piece of gear with the daunting name of Super Rapid Bloom Offboard Countermeasures Chaff and Decoy Launching System. The gear was comprised of an array of six launcher tubes designed to hurl decoys into the sky to confuse incoming missiles, resembling a calliope in military cosplay. But in spite of—or perhaps precisely because of—the unsettling nature of its mission, the crew’s explanation took the form of a comic. It starred “Chaffy,” the same chaff launcher anthropomorphized into a bunny rabbit, complete with mortar tubes for ears. A prototypical engagement played out across four panels, with the final one delightedly proclaiming, “Now that we tricked those missiles, we can hunt down whoever launched them!” Everything from the incoming warheads to the cloud of chaff featured little smiling faces.
The use of cute iconography around weaponry can unsettle Western viewers, who mistake it for an appeal to children. But it’s important to remember that cuteness is a serious business in Japan, the origin of many of the world’s most adorable characters, from Pikachu to Hello Kitty. This “cult of cute” is such a distinctive characteristic of modern Japanese culture that, even in English, it is often referred to by its name of kawaii. While kawaii is simply one of many visual styles developed in Japanese cartoons and comic books, it has been codified into a sort of cute filter that can be applied to nearly everything, even the military. It is a visual shorthand that uses rounded shapes, exaggerated eyes, and squashed proportions to disarm and even stoke a sense of parental protectiveness in the viewer.
The Japanese entertainment industry has long embraced military themes, ranging from straitlaced historical dramatizations to wild fantasies: the tiny tanks stomped in Godzilla movies, the high-tech robot armies waging battles in outer space. And the J.S.D.F. has used mascots of various designs for decades. But it is only in the twenty-first century that citizens have so thoroughly re-cast the Japanese armed forces in the pop-cultural likeness of kawaii style. The most prominent example is the hugely popular video game and anime franchise “Combined Fleet Girls Collection.” The series reënvisions Second World War battleships as cute young girls clad in revealing uniforms. They live together on a naval base, where teen dramas play out amidst sorties against undersea invaders. In real life, thousands of men lost their lives aboard the ships the girls are patterned on. It’s hard to imagine the Americans giving the Arizona,_ or the Germans the Bismarck, _the same treatment.
But this kawaii imagery is neither conceived of nor perceived as disrespectful. Rather, it’s a testament to the deep ambivalence the Japanese retain about both the history and the changing role of their armed forces. This spring, the hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was forced to issue a public apology after referring to “our military” instead of the standard “our self-defense forces” during a budget-committee meeting. A few months later, he escalated the situation by ending the nation’s long-standing ban on sending Japanese troops overseas. This extraordinarily controversial bill, which was forced through amidst fistfights on the Parliament floor and massive demonstrations throughout the capital, inspired a great deal of concern among citizens and neighboring countries.
This stressful, ongoing debate fuels the seeming paradox of an “endearing” military force. In Japan, where indirect communication is highly valued, cute illustrations have long played the role of tension-breakers and mediators in situations of conflict. Thus kawaii mascots, whether miniskirted girls or bunny-rabbit decoy launchers, are both a reflection of pop-cultural trends and a way to defuse the very touchy issues surrounding the military’s undeniable presence. Put another way, the time to get worried is when the branches of the Japanese military abandon their kawaii trappings, because that would signal that citizens and soldiers had made their peace with the subject.
Aside from the obligatory call to stand for the national anthem, nary a waved flag or any other overt sign of patriotism was on evidence among the crowd at the Eastern Army Parade. Many of the seats were filled with families obviously there for an out-of-the-ordinary morning activity; others held clusters of young men in anime shirts. The soldiers, while obviously well disciplined, outfitted, and practiced, simply didn’t radiate the implied menace that a massed military force generally does. In the course of an hour, some fourteen hundred troops, a hundred and fifty vehicles, and twenty helicopters of various types massed and roared past the spectators. But having seen similar convoys of Japanese military vehicles in countless shows and movies, it was all too easy to imagine them rolling over the horizon to meet another monster invasion. “This is about the least threatening display of force I’ve ever seen,” my Japanese wife remarked as the ceremony drew to a close. And then, as if to punctuate the thought, the Eastern Army Band launched into song. It was the overture from “Star Wars.” |
It never fails—someone always says it. In an recent online discussion about a trainer known for using less-than-gentle methods, someone made a comment that sounded a lot like this: “Positive training is fine for smaller dogs and puppies, and maybe even some adults, but there are some dogs that need a heavier hand.” Really? Because that sounds an awful lot like justification for jerking, yanking, shocking, and other things done to dogs in the name of training.
I’ve heard the excuse for heavy-handedness put like this: “They’re red zone dogs” (somehow that term always makes me visualize dogs with red, flashing sirens over their heads) or something similar. The term is meant to indicate dogs who are severely aggressive, and often the trainer has been brought in as last-ditch effort before the dog is euthanized. In my years of working in canine training and behavior, I’ve worked with many of what would be termed “red zone” dogs. Lest you think I don’t fully comprehend the extreme aggresion the term is meant to denote, one example from my own clientele is the 140-pound Alsatian who had put a hole through his owner’s hand. His owner, a 6-foot-tall police officer, had adopted the dog as an adult. The first week, the man went to grab a toy on the carpet at the same time as the dog did, which resulted in the hole in the palm through which daylight was clearly visible. The dog was also very aggressive toward strangers, and had severe barrier frustration aggression. I’m happy to report that with a course of kind, gentle training and behavior modification, and some beautiful follow-through on the part of the clients, all lived carefully but happily ever after. I could go on about sucessful outcomes with dogs who multiply puncture-wounded multiple people, and how gentle methods were successful…but you get the idea. And plenty of other trainers could share similar stories.
Whenever I hear the argument for certain dogs needing a heavier hand, I think about the wolves I’ve worked with over the years. Wolves are incredibly intelligent, and they learn very quickly. They do not, however, respond to things in the same way dogs do. An attempt to physically overpower them would not go well for the human—so how could anyone possibly work with them? Gently, and with respect. It’s done at Wolf Park all the time.
It’s true that some dogs are naturally softer than others as far as temperament, and they’re more tractable when it comes to training and behavior modification. There are also some very pushy, obnoxious dogs out there (have you met my dog Bodhi?), and yes, even aggressive and severely aggressive dogs. But when we put those dogs in a box and slap a label on it (Red Zone! Beware!), we do them a disservice. That label implies, at least to some, that desperate situations call for desperate measures. Nothing could be further from the truth. Attempting to establish dominance over the dog is the first thing many trainers attempt when working with these high-risk types. I suppose the theory is that the dog will then be biddable; after all, how can you work with a dog who might go after you? But this theory misses the point. It’s not about force to begin with—it’s about gaining the dog’s trust. Think about it: Why is the dog behaving aggressively? In the vast majority of cases, it’s because he or she does not feel comfortable, and is taking the offence to keep the big, scary thing at bay. Sure, there are also dogs who are flat-out territorial or otherwise aggressive without it being fear-based, but even then, gaining trust in a non-confrontational way goes so much further than simply establishing dominance. And let’s say the trainer can “dominate” the dog. Where does that leave the family members who have to live with the dog every day? I’ve seen way too many clients who were advised to use harsh, punitive methods on aggressive dogs, and it backfired. One of my clients had been advised by a previous trainer to put her American Bulldog on his back and sit on him whenever he became aggressive. The woman had been bitten in the face, and as a result, was seeking a better way.
I don’t care if a dog is 150 pounds or 10 pounds, and whether the issue is leash manners or biting visitors. There are no dogs who need a heavier hand—there are only trainers who need more knowledge and a lighter touch.
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Joanna Gruesome are streaming much-anticipated long-player Peanut Butter in full, exclusively on Best Fit.
This record is the follow up to debut album Weird Sister, which won the 2014 Welsh Music Prize.
Produced by our Producer Of 2014 - Hookworms' MJ - the album promises to be a raucous fun-soaked hurricane, with Alanna McArdle's pop vocals contrasting a barrage of chaotic punk-tinged rock. According to the label and band, it'll be stuffed with "hooks, traces of nut and elements of jangle pop, British hardcore punk, atonal music, screaming and drone organs... [it's] a marriage of radical politics with peanut butter spread". As ever, the collection of songs are about disparate topics like the occult, avocados, water parks, and non-existant parties.
Succinctly explaining the LP for us, the band's guitarist/singer Owen Williams said: "This is our second record. It is about 20 minutes long and aims to expose the radical possibilities of peanut butter"
Peanut Butter is out 11 May on Fortuna POP!. Pre-order it digitally here, or physically here.
Stream the album in full below. |
Enough talk, the time for action is now.
There are plenty of Proud Boys across this great continent of ours and the need for a community has been met. Our good friend Kyle and associates have begun the Proud Boys North Chapter, up in Canada, and work on a few websites is already underway. There’s also a subreddit and two Facebook groups going. If you’re “proud of your boy” Reddit is probably your best bet to congregate. If you’re not already hip to the scene, here are the basics.
The official band is Generation X
They were punk rebels within punk. While everyone was being political, they were trying to fuck chicks and be pinups. Had lines like, “I’m walking in the street, with the latest on my feet” and “I heard you got your gear from Marks & Sparks” (Marks & Spencer which is like the Wal-Mart of UK). Other hit songs include
Flatfoot 56 “Courage”
Proud of Your Boy – Duran Duran “Wild Boys” but we hold our beers up and yell “Proud Boys” during the chorus
Booze sponsors are Budweiser and Maker’s Mark
NO GIRL DRINKS. BLACKBERRY MARGARITAS ARE DEALBREAKERS
The tattoo was confirmed on the show and the t-shirt will have Snoopy on it
REQUIREMENTS:
1st degree
Declare yourself a Proud Boy
2nd degree
5 or more dudes beat the shit out of you until you can name 5 breakfast cereals. This has to be filmed if Gavin McInnes or a Proud Boy rep is not present. Avoid blows to the head or nuts. Ribs aren’t great either. If he can’t name 5 or taps out, no 2nd degree.
3rd degree
Tattoo. You’re 3rd degree is not complete until you have tackled 1st and 2nd.
Girls can come to open meetings but not private ones.
DEALBREAKERS
THESE ARE NOT DEALBREAKERS. THERE IS ONLY ONE REQUIREMENT FOR 1ST DEGREE AND THAT IS TO DECLARE YOURSELF “A WESTERN CHAUVINIST WHO REFUSES TO APOLOGIZE FOR CREATING THE MODERN WORLD.
No men with flip-flops or any open toed shoe at any Proud Boy event. THIS IS NO LONGER TRUE No man can be considered a 3rd degree Proud Boy if he’s not #NoWanks THIS IS STILL TRUE
BLACK PROUD BOYS – THESE ARE TENDENCIES WE HAVE NOTICED BUT NOT REQUIREMENTS (THOUGH IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE A PROUD BOY CONSTANTLY WHINING ABOUT WHITE RACISM)
They are Western Chauvinists and recognize that white men are not the problem They don’t whine about racism or blame it for their problems
GAY PROUD BOYS
Same story but with straights. They don’t have to do #NoWANKS. Getting them to fuck is not a challenge. THIS IS STILL TRUE. IT’S A RULE THAT THE GAYS DON’T HAVE TO BE NO WANKS
PROUD BOYS’ GIRLS
They may attend open events but not private ones. They may not know what goes on at private meetings. We never discuss this. THIS IS STILL TRUE
-UHURU
UPDATE: We were forced to get more specific about all this (evident in crossed out words and excessive all caps) because of an article written by Christina Cauterucci wherein she claimed Gavin McInnes “would” accept non-white proud boys “if” they say they support immigration ban and eschew white guilt. She was using the above “requirements” to make it look like we have no black members and might allow some if they jumped through hoops. This is totally misleading and untrue and has since been corrected.
THE ONE RULE
To become a first degree Proud Boy ALL men have to do is publicly state they are a “Western chauvinist who refuses to apologize for creating the modern world.” That’s it.
You can have any political affiliation and be any religion, race, and/or sexual preference. |
Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) rankled many libertarians with his vote to confirm unreconstructed drug warrior and criminal justice reform opponent Jeff Sessions as Attorney General. Last night, the libertarian-leaning senator answered those critics and explained his vote on Fox Business Network's Kennedy program:
I think personal considerations; I've known him for a long time. I didn't like the way Democrats vilified and tried to create him into some sort of racist monster, which is not who he is. So the fact that they used character assassination, I didn't want to be associated with that. But I can tell people, libertarians across the country, that there is no stronger voice in the U.S. Senate for opposing militarization of the police, opposing the drug war, opposing the surveillance state. And so if people want to apply a purity test to me they're more than welcome, but I would suggest that maybe they spend some of their time on the other 99 less libertarian senators.
You can watch the whole interview, which covers angry constituent townhalls, Paul's Obamacare-replacement bill, and whether the left is developing its own version of the Tea Party, below:
Paul's vote, you'll recall, was also couched in his ongoing opposition to President Trump appointing Elliott Abrams to the number-two slot at the State Department, an effort that at minimum coincided with success.
Paul's confirmation strategery has received praise from W. James Antle III and a sympathetic ear from his former co-author Jack Hunter, while prompting a BuzzFeed News piece titled "How Rand Paul Is Navigating The Trump Presidency."
Reason on Jeff Sessions here, on Rand Paul here. |
A teenager holds an AK-47 Kalashnikov during a military-patriotic game Zarnitsa (Summer Lightning) at a field outside Stavropol on June 24, 2014. (AFP PHOTO / DANIL SEMYONOV)
The White House issued a number of new sanctions against Russian companies Wednesday, including Kalashnikov Concern, maker of AK-47s. And the Russian government is concerned about what this will mean for American gun owners.
The Russian Embassy here tweeted a story from Russian wire service IRAR-TASS with the note: “Sanctions against Kalashnikov corporation run counter to interests of US customers.”
The story it linked to is a brief interview with a spokesman from the gun manufacturer who says Americans are loyal customers of the well-known assault weapons. There are said to be 100 million of its rifles around the world.
“This means that the sanctions the US Administration has imposed on Kalashnikov contravene the interests of US consumers,” the Kalashnikov spokesman said.
The Loop called the NRA to see if it agrees, but received no response.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked about Russia’s assertion on Thursday, and said the U.S. government takes “into account, of course, any impact on U.S. businesses, U.S. consumers as we make these decisions.”
She said she did not know what the specific impact would be on American AK-47 buyers.
Helpfully, the Treasury Department put out a FAQ on that.
If you are a concerned Kalashnikov fan, Treasury promises if you like your AK-47 you can keep your AK-47. You can even sell it privately at gun shows and shops. But you can’t buy a new one, and if you haven’t fully paid for your Kalashnikov (in other words, you still owe the Russians money) then call The Office of Foreign Assets Control for guidance. |
CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Chesterfield Township police say a customer is dead after being hit by flooring tile that fell from a shelf at a Menards store.
The long weekend brings many families out to hardware stores for those do-you-it-yourself projects, but for a Clinton Township couple, a routine trip to Menards turned tragic.
The Chesterfield Police and Chesterfield Fire Department arrived around 10:30 a.m. Saturday to the store on Market Place Drive, which is near N. Gratiot Avenue and the William P. Rosso Highway.
Police said a 911 caller reported a man had been struck in the head by falling objects from an upper storage shelf inside the store.
Investigators determined the customer, identified as 38-year-old Richard V. Colletti, was shopping inside the store with his wife when up to 600 pounds of ceramic tiles fell onto him.
Police told Local 4 a forklift operator had just finished putting the pallet of ceramic tiles away right at the top of an upper storage rack about 15 feet high.
The 12-by-12 tiles were stacked on a wooden pallet, and put on top of another pallet of merchandise on the top shelf. Chesterfield police said this is a common practice.
The forklift operator was still in the area when he noticed the pallet tipping and yelled out to warn the couple. Colletti's wife heard the forklift operator yelling and got out of the way, but her husband didn't hear him.
At least two shoppers saw the incident and witnesses called 911.
Colletti was taken to McLaren's emergency room in Mt. Clemens with head injuries, where he died a few hours later, according to police.
Police said at this time there is no indication of negligence and are waiting on the results from the medical examiner.
Police are continuing to investigate the incident with Menards store management and employees. Police told Local 4 the store did have the area cordoned off for a few hours before it reopened. The forklift operator and management are talking to police.
Copyright 2014 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
A gay bank worker who wanted to hide his sexuality strangled his wife and burnt her body months after marrying her, a court has heard.
Jasvir Ram Ginday is alleged to have attacked Varkha Rani at their home with a metal pipe from a vacuum cleaner.
He burnt her body in a garden incinerator but told a neighbour he had set fire to "general rubbish", Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Mr Ginday, 29, of Walsall, admits manslaughter but denies murder.
'Ultimate intention'
The court heard Mrs Rani, 24, married Mr Ginday in India in March last year and moved to the UK to live with him in August after being granted a visa.
But he had told a friend he was attracted to men as early as 2008, said prosecutor Deborah Gould.
Miss Gould said about a month before Mrs Rani's death on 12 September last year, someone at the family home made an internet search for incinerators.
Mr Ginday initially told police his wife had walked out on him after using him to gain entry to the UK.
Miss Gould said: "His ultimate intention, the Crown suggests, was to play the role of victim, safe in the knowledge that he could rely upon his married status as a permanent excuse for never having to have another relationship with a woman."
As well as manslaughter, Mr Ginday has admitted perverting the course of justice by lying to police.
The trial continues. |
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A Memphis woman is behind bars after police said she told her cousin and his friends to rob and kill her ex-boyfriend.
Police arrested 21-year-old Sandra Gray on charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Family members said her cousin, 26-year-old Kenneth Gray, also known as "Lil Kenny," is also wanted.
Sandra Gray is now at 201 Poplar; family said police surrounded their house on Monday, and she was arrested. Her bail is set at $50,000.
However, her family said she did nothing wrong.
"You got her sittin' down here on some serious charges on something she didn't do," said Keisha Gray, Sandra Gray's sister. "She gonna get the most time because they makin' it seem like she actually did it! She plotted this thing up!"
Frustration in her voice, Keisha is adamant her sister shouldn't have her mugshot taken on Monday.
"It don't make no sense!"
According to police, last Wednesday Sandra's ex-boyfriend went to her home on Faxon Avenue in North Memphis. Police said the victim left with his 1-year-old son.
A few blocks away on Ayers, right next to a school, he claims black SUVs blocked in his car. Police said several men, including Sandra's cousin Kenneth Gray, armed with an AK 47, surrounded the car.
The victim said he was pistol-whipped in the face several times, and Kenneth told him Sandra sent them. The victim said Kenneth took his son, along with $2,000, then shot at him.
The victim also said Sandra Gray called him minutes later saying, "You ain't dead yet?"
Sandra Gray's family acknowledges the victim came to their house.
"Did nobody touch him, did nobody do nothing to him," said Keisha.
On Tuesday while WREG was at the house on Faxon, the drama continued.
The victim showed back up with a black eye and with police. He said it was to get his child, but the child was never removed from the home. The family said they're now doing all they can do get Sandra out of jail.
"We gotta get my mama, my sister, me, my girlfriend, everybody just gotta go down there and make a report," Antonio Gray, Sandra's brother, said. |
Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working for the Republican presidential candidate, according to The New York Times.
This puts all eyes on press secretary Hope Hicks, who along with Lewandowski has been a vital part of Donald Trump’s presidential run since the beginning. And considering Hicks and Lewandowski were often at odds with one another, this news may confirm that Hicks really is the most influential adviser working behind the scenes at Trump tower.
Here’s everything you need to know about Hope Hicks.
1. She Has Never Worked on a Campaign Before
Now that Trump's campaign manager is gone, Hope Hicks is more important than ever: https://t.co/KB2poIk1GS pic.twitter.com/V99DlBrcMN — Marie Claire (@marieclaire) June 20, 2016
The person helping to run the campaign of the Republican party’s presidential nominee had never worked in politics until two years ago.
According to GQ, Hicks graduated from Southern Methodist University in 2010 and soon began a career in public relations. She was hired in 2012 to work with Ivanka Trump, Donald’s daughter, on her fashion line, and the two soon became close.
Donald himself was impressed with Hicks’ work and decided to hire her. She joined the Trump Organization as director of communications in October of 2014 without having any idea that in a few months Trump would be launching a campaign for president.
2. She Once Pursued a Career as a Model
The mystifying triumph of Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s right-hand woman https://t.co/ganBkwmEmZ pic.twitter.com/ryPsTk17Ag — GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) June 20, 2016
Born in Greenwich, Connecticut, Hicks pursued a modeling career as a young girl, although she later decided to go into public relations. Still, the modeling experience came in handy when she worked for Ivanka Trump, as Hicks herself actually modeled a few pieces from Ivanka’s clothing line for the website.
Hicks was also enthusiastic about lacrosse as a kid, going on to play on Southern Methodist University’s team. Even though she would not become involved in the world of campaigning until recently, Hicks does say she was interested in politics from when she was young.
Hicks told Marie Claire, “I was home for Easter, reading an article from when I was 11 or 12, talking about how my career as a model had taken off. It said, ‘If modeling doesn’t work out for you, what would you do?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m not really sure, but I’m interested in politics.'”
3. She Almost Left the Trump Campaign
Not long after it became clear that Donald Trump would be launching a presidential campaign, GQ reports that Hicks was told she had to choose if she wanted to work on the political or corporate side of Trump’s company.
At the time, Hicks was already serving as Trump’s press secretary as he visited early primary states. But she never expected this to be a permanent position, and so she decided she would leave the campaign and return to the corporate side of things.
Trump’s inner circle was not happy; political adviser Sam Nunberg told GQ that Cory Lewandowski berated Hicks, made her cry, and told her she was dead to him. Eventually, Trump himself convinced Hicks to stay on the campaign.
This would not be the end of the conflict between Hicks and Lewandowski, though. In May, they were seen screaming at each other on the streets of Manhattan, with Hope yelling at Lewandowski, “I am done with you,” according to Page Six.
4. She is Tasked with Banning Journalists Trump Doesn’t Like
Donald Trump has become notorious for his hostile treatment of the press, as he is frequently insulting journalists on Twitter, emailing them angry responses to articles, or outright banning them from the campaign trail. As it turns out, this is a major part of Hicks’ job.
Hicks herself sorts through the Trump campaign’s onslaught of media requests, but every morning Trump reads 30 to 50 articles about himself and Hope deals with the ensuing rage.
“She sees the tantrums, and there are tantrums,” a source told GQ. Trump will evidently scream about reporters to Hicks, telling her “This guy’s banned! He’s banned for a while.”
Hicks has become notorious among the press for not responding to inquiries. In fact, a parody Twitter account called @HicksNoComment repeatedly replies to mentions of Hicks’ name with the phrase, “Trump campaign Spokeswoman Hope Hicks did not respond to repeated requests for comment.”
5. She Has Been Behind Many of Trump’s Controversial Exchanges
During several of the most contentious moments of the Trump campaign, such as Donald’s spat with Pope Francis or his comments that women should be punished for getting abortions, Hope Hicks was behind the scenes pulling the strings.
According to GQ, Hicks helped craft Trump’s response to the Pope and organized the approach to rebuking the head of the Catholic church. She was also tasked with going after Michelle Fields, a reporter for Brietbart who accused Cory Lewendoswki of assaulting her. Hicks accused the reporter of lying for attention. And when Trump had to issue a response to his confusing abortion position, this statement was crafted by Hicks.
Some D.C. insiders feel that Hicks, a talented young woman, will regret having her name associated with such a divisive campaign.
“She made a choice to work for the most fascist candidate in recent American history,” a political spokesperson said. “Everyone who knows her tells her to stop doing this and putting her name on stuff.… She is going to regret everything she’s said and done. And I don’t think she knows it yet.”
Others disagree, though, praising Hicks for her talent and work ethic.
“When looking at Hope [as a job candidate], I’d be less interested in how intimately she was involved in crafting Trump’s persona and more interested in how she functions under pressure, works with reporters and carries herself with integrity — all of which she does very well,” Hollywood executive David Shane told The Washington Post. |
If you’re in a performing (or soon-to-be-performing) band, then booking shows is a regular part of your life. Picking the venue, deciding on the cover charge, organizing the bands, choosing between bookers and a D.I.Y. approach—you’ve likely seen it all. But maybe you still have some questions.
This week we dive deep into the topic of booking shows with someone who’s got a lot of experience: Lucan Wai. Lucan is the owner of The Smiling Buddha and co-owner of The Central—two very popular music venues in Toronto for new and returning bands.
I recently sat down for a chat with Lucan at The Central to talk about his experience working with bands and promoters, organizing great shows, and his advice for new bands. Lucan works with over a 1000 local and visiting bands each year, so you’ll want to check this out. Here is the first part of our conversation (some edits for length, clarity).
Approaching a venue
Alex (Ten Kettles): First off, thanks for meeting with me. The Central’s been around for about 10 years. Have you always booked bands the same way or has it changed over time?
Lucan: We used to do mostly our own booking, my staff and I. In the past, when we just had The Central, it was easy to book it ourselves. Most of my staff are musicians, got some comedians… I’d say 80% are musicians between the two places. It makes us pretty well connected with the local music scene. There are a lot of people in the scene. I got a lot of promoters working with me now, like Gabe Koury from Little Monkey Press. In the past, we’d do most of our own booking—my staff and I—but now we have more promoters come on.
Alex: Out of the 30ish bands a week you book, how many of those were booked directly by the bands and how many were with promoters or bookers?
Lucan: I’d say here, at The Central, maybe 3 or 4 shows a week are with promoters… In the winter we tend to do more stuff in-house as bands tend to be less active. In the spring and fall when there’s more happening, more of it goes through promoters just because more promoters are trying to get stuff out there. At the Buddha, we’re doing CMW (Canadian Music Week) and NXNE (North by Northeast) so both those weeks are strictly for those festivals.
We deal with Collective Concerts a lot now. I’d say at the Buddha, maybe 5 out of 7 nights would be through promoters. It kind of depends. I’ve got some guys, I don’t know if you’d consider them promoters, in our bartending staff who have their own small promotion companies. Whether you’d consider that through a company or in-house, it’s kind of a grey area. Most of my promoters, other than Collective and some of the bigger companies, most of the people who do promotion work also bartend and serve for me.
Alex: As a venue owner, what would you recommend to bands looking to play their first show at one of your venues—do you prefer they get in touch by email, phone… drop by?
Lucan: I prefer emails, because it’s a good way to send links. You can send links to your material, your BandCamp. And then it gives us a good chance to vet the bands, look at what they’re doing, what they’ve played in the past.
Alex: OK, what are the main things a band should send in an email to you?
Lucan: Links to their material, to their Facebook profile. BandCamp, SoundCloud. I’d definitely recommend that.
Alex: What are you looking for in these emails? Are you looking for the music, the band’s popularity?
Lucan: It depends. I mean we’re here putting on shows every day. If it’s a weekend and we have a lot of staff working, we want to make sure it’s busy. Most of my staff are local musicians, and they rely on this job to support their music, support their touring. So, I want to make sure we’re busy on certain nights. So, on a Friday or Saturday, I look for someone with more draw or more mainstream music so if someone’s popping their head in, they can think: “I can get into that, I can come in and have a good time with my buddies.”
“Most of my staff are local musicians, and they rely on this job to support their music”
I don’t think it’s that hard [to get people out]. Toronto’s a pretty big place, so whatever music you’re into, even if it’s kind of niche-y, there’s going to be enough people also interested in it. Especially because my venues aren’t super large. I’ve got like two smaller-sized venues, you don’t have to be that popular to kind of fill them. (Dinner show at The Central with tables is 65 capacity, on weekends we move furniture and it’s 100.) If you have three or four bands, and each member of the band brings out five people, you’ve got a good audience.
Getting an audience
Alex: For a show that a promoter is organizing, who’s generally responsible for bringing an audience?
Lucan: I would say it kind of depends on what your arrangement is, it depends on the promoter. Some promoters have a better reputation or they’ve been doing it long enough that people just gravitate to their shows. People see that this guy is doing a show, they know what to expect, they know it’s a good bill. There are also some promoters just starting out and are a bit smaller… there it would probably be like 95% the bands’ responsibility. You kind of have to speak to the promoter and ask them, but they should make their expectations known. Speak to the promoter in advance to get a feel for what’s happening.
Alex: Would you say that when the bigger promotion companies expect the bands to just show up and play (and not really promote), that it’s geared towards more established bands?
Lucan: Not necessarily, because if you’re maybe not as an established a band, if you’re opening for a larger act you can count on the promotion company and the larger act to draw. I think you have to look at the bill and ask the promoter, what are your plans? Are you putting out fliers? Posting on Facebook? Selling tickets? How much promotion are you actually putting into it? There are a lot of smaller promoters who are just starting out, they might hustle and they might put a ton of effort into it, but you don’t have as much exposure so it’s more up to the bands.
Alex: There’s a lot of musicians who think “I’m gonna play, the venue booked me, they should sort out the audience” What’s your perspective on that? There seems to be quite a variety of opinions on this amongst bands.
Lucan: I think it depends on the venue. There are some venues where they just seem busy all the time. and there’s a lot of paid gigs where that’s the expectation. I know a lot of pubs around here… they have people in the seats right, they just need someone to entertain them to keep them around longer. There’s a wide range. There’s one kind and the other.
You look at the Buddha for instance, most people are there going to the shows. Like, they’re not really interested in the specific music, they haven’t heard about it. With The Central, we have people walking in, popping their head in, checking it out. But again, you have to convince them to come in and sit down. (We keep the second floor free, and only charge cover on the main floor.)
You just have to ask questions when you book a show, just ask them, do you have a regular crowd? Do you have an audience for us, are we expected to bring people? Our arrangement is usually we’ll give them the door and that’s incentive for you to bring people. If you bring people, you get the benefit of that.
Alex: Cool, I think that’s really good advice for people.
Lucan: Before booking a show or working with a promoter, just ask questions.
Want to keep up to date with this series on booking shows? Join musicians, studio managers, music professionals, and more by signing up for our newsletter:
Alex: So, a band comes in and they play one of these nights, what would make you say “that was a good draw”?
Lucan: It would depend on the night of the week. My expectation for a Sunday or Monday is a lot less than a weekend. And then we look at how much lead time you had: if you’re booking something last minute and it’s not super busy, I’ll take that into consideration. I just want to see that bands are putting an effort into it, that they’re taking it seriously, that they’re showing up early, at least on time. That they’re being professional.
But I try and not stress draw too much, because I know it can be different. There can be so many factors: weather, what else is happening around town… you can book a show and then somebody else books a similar show somewhere else just up the street. There’s so many venues. And I know things happen, like subways stopped working, or weather’s crappy. In Toronto there’s so much happening, so it’s hard to predict. I’ve had amazing bands who, unfortunately, for whatever reason, not a lot of people come out for. You don’t want to put too much pressure on that. Being a musician is tough enough, much less being good at your craft and being asked to pull out a big draw all the time.
Alex: So, main thing is that they’re really putting in an effort and most of the time they can pull a decent audience…
Lucan: I think if you’re putting in an honest effort, eventually it’ll work out. Not every show will be super-packed, but you’ll see that the person is putting in an effort. And it gives you confidence that next time there will be more. If they keep putting an effort into all their shows, eventually it can work out.
“I think if you’re putting in an honest effort, eventually it’ll work out”
The venue’s gotta do our share. Promote in Now Magazine, The Star, our Facebook page. If I see some bands and they haven’t bothered to put a Facebook page together, or I see that they only sent out like 40 invites to the concert…
I’ve got some older bands that say “I don’t do Facebook and I’m not into that”, and I’m cool with that. But if I see some younger bands who haven’t done that, I’ll ask “Are you guys on Facebook, do you have a reason for not having an event page?”
Alex: And if they’re gonna bring people regardless, I guess it doesn’t matter…
Lucan: Right, so at least I know they’re putting in the effort. You’ll see they’ll come, they’ll check out the venue in advance, they’ll speak to my staff, to my audio engineer, they’ll ask them questions about the night. So, even if they’re not bringing a huge audience, they’re taking it seriously. Putting in effort.
On paying the bands
Alex: What’s the normal arrangement, is it mostly that bands take all the cover charge income?
Lucan: We do guarantees with some bands, like if we’ve dealt with you in the past and we’re confident that you’ll still promote.
Alex: Do you ever do something like 10% of the bar?
Lucan: Yeah, we can do a percentage of bar. Yeah it depends. If you do a dinner show where you’re not really sure what kind of draw you’ll get, we might just do a percentage of bar. But for bands though, if you can just charge everyone $5 or $10 that’s a whole lot more than any percentage I could give you. Then you’ve got your money whether or not your fans are buying at the bar… money up front. But if you’re starting out and not really sure what to expect, we can do a percentage but we would have had to have dealt with you in the past to discuss guarantees and stuff. If you’ve had one or two good shows and I trust that you’ll still promote.
I’ve had a few bands, you’ll give them a guarantee and then you’ll see they booked a show a week later somewhere else. Then you know they’re not gonna bring many people to your show. We try not to give radius clauses and stuff. I just ask “Are you playing any other shows?.” If somebody asks for a guarantee, I look at where they’ve played in the past, what they’re charging at the door, I’d ask how many shows they’re planning when they’re in town.
Alex: And for any readers who don’t know what a radius clause is, it’s that the bands aren’t playing shows too close to one another?
Lucan: Yeah.
Alex: So, for bands who want to be playing as much as possible, how frequent would you recommend without setting off red flags to the venues?
Lucan: I would just say be honest. I’ve got a lot of guys who are like “You know what, we don’t necessarily know if we have much of a draw downtown” and we just talk about it. So, maybe instead we’ll do a percentage of bar instead of charging at the door, or maybe put them in on a dinner slot where we’ve got good food and people are coming out for that.
“I would just say be honest”
A lot of guys say they can only do weekends. If you can only do weekends because some members of the band are working weekdays, I can understand it, but if you can only do a Friday/Saturday because you’re offended by Thursday or something like that, I don’t understand. Yeah, just be honest and say “Hey, we just want to get more exposure” and then maybe we can pair you up with someone with more of a following.
For next time
Next time, Lucan and I chat about getting bands together for your first gig, picking a good cover charge, and how to make that first gig count. You can find out more about his venues on Facebook and Instagram, and look into booking your next Toronto gig by heading over to thecentralbar.ca or thesmilingbuddha.ca. Questions, comments, suggestions? Let us know below. |
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.
Easy Mini Fruit Pies!
I am a Pinterest addict and a foodie through and through! I had seen several recipes for mini fruit pies on Pinterest and decided to take the ideas that I had seen and try my own version of the Mini Fruit Pie. There are quite a few out there, all from scratch, fried, baked, and different shapes…as busy as I am, I decided to go the easy route and use ready and easy to mix store-bought products for my Mini Pie recipe.
So let’s get started!
What you’ll need:
1-package pre-made pie crust
1- can fruit pie filling (any flavor)
1- box instant pudding/pie filling mix +milk for mixing
small bowl water – for sealing pie
powdered sugar for glaze (mix with water or milk)
Pre-Heat oven to 350 or 375 (depending on oven)
I used pre-made, refrigerated pie crust, can of pie filling (I used strawberry but any flavor would be yummy!) and I also wanted to try a pudding filled pie, so I picked up an instant pudding/pie filling mix.
After mixing the pudding and unrolling the pie crust, I used the empty pie filling can to cut out my circles for the pies (you can use a cookie cutter) My circles were about 3 1/2″ across, but you can do any size you like 🙂
Next I began to fill the circles with filling being careful not to use too much or it will be hard to seal them (but the ones that oozed out were still so yummy!) Place filling in the center, then fold over and press with finger to close, you can use a little water on your finger tip to help with sealing if needed. Then to make them pretty and double seal them I pressed the edges with a fork.
Then I placed the pies on a parchment paper lined large cookie sheet (about an inch apart), placed the cookie sheet in the pre-heater oven and baked!
and…
Voila! Mini fruit pies!
I glazed mine with a powdered sugar and water glaze, served warm or cooled these pies are so ding dang good! Perfect for a quick snack or a party, everyone will love these mini pies! The fruit ones were great but I loved the pudding ones!
Print Recipe 0 from 0 votes Mini Hand Held Fruit Pies Recipe Mini pies are fun to eat. Make some tiny pies with fruit fillings and some with pudding - something for everyone. Prep Time 15 mins Cook Time 10 mins Total Time 25 mins Servings: 8 pies Calories: 97 kcal Author: Cindy Ingredients refrigerated pie crust
pie filling- fruit pudding or chocolate chips (can or box of mix)
powdered sugar for glaze Instructions Preheat oven to 350 or 375 depending on oven
Prepare filling
Unroll pie crust
Cut circles in pie crust
Place spoon of filling in each circle
Fold over to create a half moon shape
Seal with finger dipped in water
Seal with fork
Place on parchment lined cookie sheet
Place in preheated oven
Bake until golden
Glaze with powdered sugar and water mix Nutrition Calories: 97 kcal | Carbohydrates: 10 g | Protein: 1 g | Fat: 5 g | Saturated Fat: 1 g | Sodium: 86 mg | Potassium: 20 mg | Calcium: 0.4 % | Iron: 3.1 %
Try your own variation of these fun and easy mini pies, different sizes, filling flavors, even melted chocolate chips for filling or drizzled on top would be amazing!! Enjoy! |
James Earl Jones has been breaking down barriers since the 1950s. As he prepares to star in an all-black Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he tells Maddy Costa about his absent father, elderly sex – and why his stutter was his salvation
The septuagenarian walking slowly through the Novello theatre in London looks like an archetypal American tourist. Tall and wide, he wears a puffy gilet that makes him seem even bulkier, while a faded baseball cap shades his face. Yet this ordinary-looking man is one of America's pre-eminent actors: James Earl Jones. Over the last 50 years, he has won two Tony awards (playing a boxer in The Great White Hope, and for his role in August Wilson's Fences), an Oscar nomination (for the film of The Great White Hope), as well as multiple Emmy nominations and awards for his TV work.
You wouldn't know any of this to look at him, because what Jones is most famous for is his voice. Deep, rumbling, august: it's the sound Moses might have heard when addressed by God. No wonder George Lucas chose Jones for the fearful voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars.
Jones, who is about to star in Tennessee Williams's Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, likes to be anonymous. He thinks of himself as a "journeyman actor", quietly muddling along. "Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise: those guys have well-planned careers. I'm just on a journey. Wherever I run across a job, I say, 'OK, I'll do that.'" He's not too grand to do adverts, either. "I love doing commercials! Usually, they have enough money that they can take time and photograph it well. I'd like to film a British commercial; they're better than American ones."
His stay in London is long enough – Cat is booked until April 2010 – that he may just get the chance. The production transfers from Broadway, where its four-month run was hugely successful with audiences, despite reviews that found it sentimental (the New York Times) and lacking in soul (the New Yorker). There have been some key cast changes: Brick Pollitt, the alcoholic around whom the play revolves, is played here by Adrian Lester, who hasn't been seen on a London stage since his electrifying performance as Henry V at the National in 2003. Jones plays Brick's father, Big Daddy, and while he's aware that the casting switch is having a subtle effect on his performance, he says one thing remains constant: "Big Daddy loves this other human being. It's not like the way I love my own son . . . " He glances warmly at Flynn, his 26-year-old son and assistant. "But I can experience the stage relationship because I have a real son, and that relationship has gone through all kinds of changes and conflicts, but is always enriching."
For Jones, it's the family relationships in Williams's play that count: the fact that this production features a black family, rather than the usual white family, is immaterial. A change of date has been necessary, because when Cat was written, in the 1950s, black people living in the south didn't have the freedom to be as prosperous as the Pollitt family. But apart from that, says Jones, "We're not doing anything to this play that a white family, or a Chinese family, wouldn't do." To argue that Big Daddy is written as a "redneck", a rough and generally rural white southerner, is spurious, as far as Jones is concerned. "I am a redneck, too. I am a Mississippi farm person. I can be foul-mouthed, I can be inarticulate. It's just that my neck doesn't get red. I've always felt that I understood Big Daddy more than the average northern-American Caucasian actor." The New Yorker agreed, relishing the way Jones relaxed into Williams's poetic language.
Born in 1931, Jones spent his first five years in rural Mississippi, living with his maternal grandparents while his mother looked for work (his father, Robert Earl Jones, left before he was born). It was a big household, with 13 people, and for a while it was thought that Jones might live with his paternal grandmother in Memphis "to ease the burden". But when he was driven to her house, he clung to the car. "It was the only way I could express that I wanted to be with them. They accepted that." Soon after, Jones moved with the family to Michigan; the turmoil was so traumatic he developed a stutter that lasted into his teens.
It was his struggle to overcome the stutter that led Jones into acting in the early 1950s. It made him appreciate the value of the spoken word. There were other factors, too: he had just left the army and wasn't sure what to do, while his father, whom he had recently met for the first time, was already acting, having given up boxing. Jones moved to New York to study drama, and lived with his father for a time – not, he says, to reclaim him as a parent, but because he was trying to save on rent. "It was too late to get to know him as a father: if you don't learn that from the beginning, there's no way to catch up. It took us a time to accept that if we could be friends, that would be best. He told me, 'I can't make a living doing this, so if you want to enter this world, do it because you love it.' That was good advice."
After a few years, Jones considered giving up acting, but two things encouraged him. The first was his father's response to one of his performances, in Of Mice and Men. "He said, 'You can act.' He didn't say, 'You were great', or 'You've got potential.' Just, 'You can act.' Father to son, that's all I needed to hear." The second was winning the lead role in The Great White Hope in 1968. "I thought, 'I can raise a family on this kind of work.' That was the key thing: anyone can bum through as a bachelor, but to raise a family you've got to make sure you can draw a paycheck."
Jones's apprenticeship coincided with a period of experimental and political ferment in New York theatre. For Jones, it was the "age of everyman", when people such as Marlon Brando became stars. "You didn't have to be upper class to be a giant of the theatre." In the 1960s, casting black actors in Shakespeare was radical, yet some of Jones's earliest performances were in the New York Shakespeare festival. The play that got Jones noticed, in 1961, was Jean Genet's piece The Blacks, in which black actors perform in white-face to subvert colonial racism. That led to a number of roles exploring African-American life, from The Great White Hope, inspired by black boxer Jack Johnson, to a play about Paul Robeson in 1977; and, more recently, his portrayal in 2006 of Thurgood Marshall, the first black justice of the US Supreme Court.
Although he has been integral to the development of black theatre in America, Jones is resistant to such categorisation. "There haven't been enough profound things written about what being black means, and what a black character is. Nobody knows." He has great respect for August Wilson and his examinations of African-American 20th-century experience, but feels troubled that "to cook up his creativity, August piled blackness around himself. He's half-white, and I never understood why he had to dismiss that aspect of himself."
Jones, who has Irish, Native American and African in his makeup, turns questions of ethnicity on their head. "When you wake up in the morning, before you look in the mirror, do you see an ethnicity? I don't – and if I did, I'd be in trouble, because that has blinded me to who I might really be. Even waking up seeing myself as a male blinds me to who I might really be."
New knees and a farm upstate
He likes theatre to be confrontational: "I don't think we exist as actors just to make people feel good. Tennessee Williams believed in that: he wanted to get under the skin." Off stage, however, he shuns political engagement, and is wary of expressing political views. Mentioning his admiration for the way Barack Obama is "giving Afghanistan the consideration it needs", he immediately apologises for bringing the subject up. Partly, he feels hampered by his speech impairment: "I'm still a stutterer. It affects how articulate I can be in every form of communicating."
He occasionally searches for words, and questions whether he has chosen the right one, but otherwise you wouldn't notice. Yet there is another factor: Jones's father was blacklisted during the McCarthy era by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and felt "he had wasted a lot of energy in the left, because it was badly managed". Jones didn't want to make the same mistake, avoiding Malcolm X's civil rights campaign as he suspected it wasn't well planned.
Despite a long career spent moving between Broadway and Los Angeles, Jones remains humble. Home is a farm in upstate New York, where he lives with his second wife Cecilia Hart, and Flynn, their only child. He has built the place up, adding barns and cabins whenever he had the cash; money might have been less of an issue had his voice work on Darth Vader earned a percentage of the profits, rather than one-off payments.
It's no longer money but his enjoyment of "having a steady job" that keeps him working. At 78, there are certain health issues: "I have new knees. My hearing is going, but I can still see fairly well." For now, he is happy to play any old person role that comes along – even if that mostly means playing people who, like Big Daddy, are facing death. He does have one complaint, though: "Why are people embarrassed about elderly sex? I hate it when I'm given a script in which the guy's wife is dead. That's just an easy way to dispense with having sex. Audiences don't want to see Big Daddy and Big Mama in bed – but I like to talk about it." |
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam speaks during a ceremony at the state Capitol in Nashville, Tenn., on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014, to announce that firearms maker Beretta USA Corp. is building a new manufacturing a research facility in the state. The $45 million plant is expected to be completed this year and create 300 jobs. (AP Photo/Erik Schelzig)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Italian gun maker Beretta said Wednesday that Tennessee's support for gun rights was a major factor in its decision to build a manufacturing and research facility in the Nashville suburb of Gallatin.
The $45 million plant is projected to be complete this year and create 300 new jobs.
Gun rights were "the first criteria for deciding to even consider a state," said Jeff Reh, a member of Beretta USA Corp.'s board of directors.
Reh spoke to reporters after a press conference that included Gov. Bill Haslam and Franco Gussalli Beretta, the company's executive vice president and director, as well as lawmakers and city officials.
Reh, who led the site search, said there were some states considered that "respect Second Amendment rights," but they "didn't have the type of support that we saw in Tennessee."
Several states began wooing Beretta from Maryland after the company raised objections to a wide-ranging gun control measure enacted there last year. Company officials said Wednesday that they have reached capacity in Maryland, requiring the expansion elsewhere.
"We look forward to building operations here and being part of your community for many years to come," Beretta said.
The other site finalists were Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.
Last year, lawmakers in Tennessee passed and the governor signed a measure that allows people with handgun carry permits to store firearms in their vehicles no matter where they are parked, including company parking lots.
When asked by a reporter if Beretta will allow its employees to keep guns in their cars at work, Reh responded, "if that's allowed by state law, yes."
Earlier this week, a proposal that seeks to do away with local government's power to decide whether to allow firearms in public parks advanced to a full Senate vote despite opposition from Haslam.
The Legislature in 2009 gave city and county governments the ability to opt out of a new law that allowed firearms in public parks, playgrounds and sports fields.
Under the current proposal, permit holders would be allowed to carry, unless there's a school function.
Haslam has expressed major concerns with the legislation, and reiterated that to reporters on Wednesday.
"My concern ... is this isn't just a Second Amendment right," he said. "It's also a question about how we determine what the owner's voice is and what happens to that property. In this case, cities and counties have bought those properties with their own tax dollars. And I think that's the proper place for a decision to be made, is according to who actually owns the property."
Reh said he's heard about the legislation, but hasn't had a chance to study it.
Beretta has operated in Italy since 1526. The family-owned company makes a variety of firearms, ranging from hunting shotguns to the U.S. Armed Forces M-9 pistol. |
The iPhone 4 may be launching on all the major Canadian carriers tomorrow , but we're only just now starting to get the actual details on what they'll be offering. Rogers is the first out of the gate and, for a change, it looks like folks in the US may just be a tad jealous of their northern neighbors. It's not only offering the iPhone 4 for a further discounted price -- $159 for the 16GB and $269 for the 32GB on a three-year contract (for both new and existing customers eligible for a hardware upgrade) -- but it's bringing back its 6GB data plan for $30 a month as well. On top of that, Rogers is also offering a new iPad sharing plan that will let you share those 6GB between the two devices for an extra $20 a month. Still no official word from the other carriers, but MobileSyrup has turned up a leak that suggests Bell will be offering 6GB for $30 as well, and iPad sharing for just $10 a month -- although that's yet to be confirmed. We'll keep you posted as more plans are announced. Bell just flipped the switch , and their numbers are largely the same with one notable exception -- iPad data sharing is an additional $10 a month instead of $20, just as had been rumored. Thanks, everyone! |
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Soldiers have increasingly taken on policing duties in parts of Mexico
Mexico's Supreme Court has ruled that a military code giving army courts jurisdiction to try soldiers for crimes against civilians is unconstitutional.
The judges said the code wrongly extended the reach of military courts.
Rights groups says abuses by army personnel have risen sharply since troops were first deployed against the drug gangs in late 2006.
Campaigners hailed the court's decision but four similar judgements are needed to set a legal precedent.
The Supreme Court justices were considering the case of Bonfilio Rubio Villegas, who was shot dead by soldiers at a checkpoint in Guerrero state in 2009.
In an 8-2 ruling, the judges ruled that the suspects should be tried in a civilian court.
"When a person outside the military is either the defendant or the victim, an ordinary judge has authority over this case, not a military judge," Justice Luis Maria Aguilar said.
The military code of justice contravened the Mexican constitution which states that "military courts in no case and for no reason may extend their jurisdiction over people who do not belong to the army", the court found.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that soldiers should face trial in civilian courts but as it did not concern an individual case, it did not establish a precedent.
Now, however, the court is examining 28 cases that challenge the principle of military jurisdiction.
"It's a huge step by the court in striking down the military's central argument for fighting against civilian investigations," Nik Steinberg from Human Rights Watch told Reuters.
The Mexican armed forces have opened some 5,000 investigations into alleged abuses by soldiers between 2007 and April this year.
To date, only 38 soldiers have been convicted and sentenced, rights groups say.
Since late 2006, troops have been used to take on Mexico's gangs, with more than 50,000 people dying in drug-related violence. |
Image caption Competition to get in to school places in Hong Kong has become fierce
In early June, thousands of parents queued for hours outside a school in Sheung Shui district near the border between Hong Kong and mainland China.
The massed parents were waiting to find out whether their children had got into their primary school of choice.
Competition for school places has become fierce as more mainland Chinese children compete with local residents for places - and families on both sides of the border are finding it stressful.
One Hong Kong mother whose child did not get into her school of choice emerged with her hands covering her face to hide tears.
As local media surrounded her, she crouched down and sobbed uncontrollably.
These images have been playing out in the local press, amid rising grievances among Hong Kong residents over issues linked to the mainland.
The territory is governed under the principle of "one country, two systems", under which Hong Kong retains a high degree of autonomy for 50 years from the British handover. Its social services, amongst other things, are seen as more advanced than on the mainland.
Families along the border have fought in recent years over hospital beds and baby milk formula. Now the shortage of school places is making headlines.
'Getting worse'
As taxpayers we are paying for mainland Chinese kids to study here for the next nine years but my child can't go to school near home - it's not fair to us Zoe Pang, Hong Kong mother
The problem dates from a 2001 court ruling that gives babies born in Hong Kong to mainland mothers the same benefits as local residents.
From around 2006, it became a popular practice for mainland couples to come to the territory for the birth of their children. Since then more than 180,000 children have been born to mainland parents in Hong Kong.
Now many of those children are hitting school age, but the number of school places has not kept pace.
Last year, some 6,800 mainland students crossed the border from the Chinese city of Shenzhen each day to go to school in Hong Kong.
For the 2013-14 school year, the education ministry announced that there were 1,400 more applicants than school spaces available in the north district closest to the border.
"It's a 50% increase from the previous year and the competition is only going to get worse with the influx of mainland Chinese students," said the head of the North District Primary School Heads Association, Chan Siu-hung
To cope with the rising demand, the education bureau has increased class sizes and sent children to other school districts using a computerised system that does not discriminate between children living in Hong Kong or on the mainland.
This angers Hong Kong mother Zoe Pang, who has just found out that her son will now have to take a bus ride of almost an hour to school every day.
"As taxpayers we are paying for mainland Chinese kids to study here for the next nine years but my child can't go to school near home. It's not fair to us," said Ms Pang as she wiped away tears.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The issue of "birth tourism" has led to tensions between Hong Kong and the mainland
Another Hong Kong resident, Chang Liqun, came out feeling lucky that her son had got into her school of choice but she still feels the system needs to be improved.
"I'm not trying to be selfish but I believe that as families who live in Hong Kong we should be given priority. We're not trying to discriminate against mainland mothers but there aren't enough school spaces," she said.
'Equals'
But the mothers from the mainland say their children have rights too.
"Hong Kong's education and other social services are better than mainland China. I chose to give birth here so that my daughter can have a better life," said Shenzhen mother Cao Lulu, 35.
Hong Kong's schools are seen to be based on merit, while in the mainland bribery has crept into the system. Parents also seem to prefer Hong Kong's curriculum, where the English language education is seen as better.
Other families say that having a Hong Kong passport makes it easier for their child to study in Western countries.
Image caption Some Chinese parents see Hong Kong's curriculum as better
A mother from Shenzhen (she would only give her daughter's name and not hers before running off) was one big smile when she found out her daughter had got into her top school choice.
"I'm so happy, thank you," she said, bowing towards reporters. "All of our children are born in Hong Kong so they should be treated as equals."
Increasingly though, the Hong Kong government is under pressure to ensure that local residents have preferential access to the territory's limited resources.
It has already restricted mainland Chinese from buying too much baby milk formula and banned public hospitals from accepting pregnant mainland mothers.
Officials say both measures have been a success.
That gives little comfort to Hong Kong resident Ho Mei Yin. Her six-year-old daughter did not get a place in a school near her home.
The little girl's name is now on a waiting list in case anyone forfeits their place. Ms Ho will find out this month if she is successful.
But even if she jumps this hurdle, Ms Ho believes her child will have to continue competing for resources with other children along the border as she gets older. |
'The Cissy' claims that Randy Marsh, father of lead character Stan, is in fact the teenage pop star
Sia has confirmed that she sang the vocals for a song supposedly by Lorde in a 2014 episode of South Park.
Last year South Park aired an episode in which it emerged that Lorde was, in fact, 45-year-old geologist Randy Marsh, father of lead character Stan. The story began in one episode, ‘The Cissy’, and concluded in ‘Gluten Free Ebola’ and featured the fictional Lorde song ‘Push (Feel Good on a Wednesday)’.
At the time it was rumoured that Sia sang the vocals for ”Push (Feel Good on a Wednesday)’ but, speaking to NME, which is on newsstands now and available digitally, she confirmed that it was her who was involved in the song.
“Yeah, it was me,” she admits. “Trey [Parker, South Park co-creator] wrote it though. I was like, ‘Dude, you need to do this for a living’. That “push push” chorus is so catchy, it’s crazy. When I realised it might be mean to Lorde I felt bad but I went ahead and did it anyway. I figured she’d find it funny. I love her!”
Lorde has previously spoken about her amusement over the episode in which she was parodied.
South Park: 34 Hilarious Musician Parodies
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Elsewhere in the interview, Sia confirms the name of her next album as well as what led her to retiring from living life in the public eye.
She also said that she is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain her policy of not playing live, admitting that at some point she may embark on a tour.
Sia has written songs for Beyoncé, Eminem and Rihanna among many others in recent years and ‘Wolves’ her collaboration with Kanye West was revealed earlier this month during New York Fashion Week. |
CLOSE David Shulkin, undersecretary of health for the Department of Veterans Affairs, explains how the VA plans on addressing the wait-time problem.
The Oklahoma City Veterans' Affairs Medical Center treats 60,000 veterans annually. (Photo11: Donovan Slack, USA TODAY)
WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has not done enough to prevent schedulers from manipulating appointment wait times, and wait-time data remains misleading and underestimates how long veterans wait for care, according to a nonpartisan watchdog report released Monday.
“Ongoing scheduling problems continue to affect the reliability of wait-time data,” the Government Accountability Office found.
The GAO said the VA has taken a “piecemeal approach” to addressing the problems since the wait-time scandal broke in 2014 in Phoenix, where schedulers falsified wait times and at least 40 veterans died awaiting care. But the agency needs to take comprehensive action, the GAO concluded in its audit, which stretched from January 2015 through last month.
Auditors found schedulers at three of the six medical centers they reviewed had improperly changed dates so the VA system falsely showed shorter or zero wait times. In a review of scheduling records for 60 individual veterans at those three centers, they found improper scheduling in 15 — or 25% — of the appointments.
While the system showed average wait times of between four and 28 days in the cases reviewed, the actual averages were between 11 and 48 days. The audit characterized the schedulers' actions as mistakes rather than deliberate falsification.
“Until a comprehensive scheduling policy is finalized, disseminated, and consistently followed by schedulers, the likelihood for scheduling errors will persist,” the GAO said in its draft report.
The findings bolster recent claims by VA whistle-blowers that schedulers across the country are still falsifying wait times. And they cast doubt on the effectiveness of corrective actions VA officials touted as recently as 10 days ago.
USA TODAY reported April 7 that the VA inspector general found schedulers at 40 VA medical facilities in 19 states and Puerto Rico regularly “zeroed out” veteran wait times and supervisors at seven of those facilities instructed them to do so.
VA officials at the time said many of those probes had been finished more than a year ago and they had already imposed discipline in some cases and instituted refresher training for all schedulers.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged Monday the pace of reform has been slow, but that President Obama has made the issue a priority and the administration is making progress.
“There is no denying that the problems that the VA has encountered for more than a decade now have been deeply entrenched,” he said. “ We have made important progress in ensuring that veterans are getting the benefits that they have so richly earned. That said, work remains to be done.”
In response to the new GAO report, VA spokeswoman Walinda West issued a statement saying the agency "agreed with its conclusions" but adding that it has "built a strong system of checks and balances to detect scheduling errors and potential manipulation since the GAO findings."
The VA said it also is working on a new national scheduling directive and is in the process of testing and deploying a new scheduling program to make it easier to book appointments.
That's not good enough for Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, who has been pushing the VA to do more to hold employees accountable.
“This report proves what we’ve long known: wait-time manipulation continues at VA and the department’s wait-time rhetoric doesn’t match up with the reality of veterans’ experiences," Miller said. "But given the fact that VA has successfully fired just four people for wait-time manipulation while letting the bulk of those behind its nationwide delays-in-care scandal off with no discipline or weak slaps on the wrist, I am not at all surprised these problems persist."
The GAO audit focused on primary care for newly enrolled veterans and said its findings should not be generalized, but it did not limit its conclusions to those patients. Auditors selected six centers with varying sizes and geographic locations for their sample. They are in Leeds, Mass.; Nashville, Tenn.; Fayetteville, N.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Leavenworth, Kan.; and San Diego, Calif. The GAO did not identify which three locations showed false wait times.
Local VA officials overseeing five of the six centers told the GAO their own internal audits also found schedulers continuing to enter dates improperly. At one of the medical centers — the GAO didn’t say which one — an audit of 1,200 appointments between January and June 2015 found scheduling problems with 205 of them.
The local VA officials blamed national VA officials for confusing directions about changes to scheduling policies that had been “ineffective and may be contributing to continued scheduling errors,” the GAO report states.
The VA, in its response to the report, said it will review the situation and make improvements where necessary by the end of the year.
“While we know we can do more to improve our access to care, we are aggressively implementing changes in our systems, training and processes to improve access," the statement said. "We are doing everything we can to rebuild the trust of our veterans who depend on VA for care.”
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1NiHLBC |
As they choose the activities that make up free play, kids learn to direct themselves and pursue and elaborate on their interests in a way that can sustain them throughout life. Gray notes that: "...in school, children work for grades and praise and in adult-directed sports, they work for praise and trophies.... In free play, children do what they want to do, and the learning and psychological growth that results are byproducts, not conscious goals of the activity."
2. It is through play that children first learn how to make decisions, solve problems, exert self control, and follow rules.
As children direct their own free play and solve the problems that come up, they must exert control over themselves and must, at times, accept restrictions on their own behavior and follow the rules if they want to be accepted and successful in the game.
As children negotiate both their physical and social environments through play, they can gain a sense of mastery over their world, Gray contends. It is this aspect of play that offers enormous psychological benefits, helping to protect children from anxiety and depression.
"Children who do not have the opportunity to control their own actions, to make and follow through on their own decisions, to solve their own problems, and to learn how to follow rules in the course of play grow up feeling that they are not in control of their own lives and fate. They grow up feeling that they are dependent on luck and on the goodwill and whims of others...."
Anxiety and depression often occur when an individual feels a lack of control over his or her own life. "Those who believe that they master their own fate are much less likely to become anxious or depressed than those who believe that they are victims of circumstances beyond their control." Gray believes that the loss of playtime lessons about one's ability to exert control over some life circumstances set the scene for anxiety and depression.
3. Children learn to handle their emotions, including anger and fear, during play.
In free play, children put themselves into both physically and socially challenging situations and learn to control the emotions that arise from these stressors. They role play, swing, slide, and climb trees ... and "such activities are fun to the degree that they are moderately frightening ... nobody but the child himself or herself knows the right dose."
Gray suggests that the reduced ability to regulate emotions may be a key factor in the development of some anxiety disorders. "Individuals suffering from anxiety disorders describe losing emotional control as one of their greatest fears. They are afraid of their own fear, and therefore small degrees of fear generated by mildly threatening situations lead to high degrees of fear generated by the person's fear of losing control." Adults who did not have the opportunity to experience and cope with moderately challenging emotional situations during play are more at risk for feeling anxious and overwhelmed by emotion-provoking situations in adult life. |
The history wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-Akhil Bhartiya Itihaas Sankalan Samiti has demanded that Friday prayers at Taj Mahal should be banned.
RSS affiliate body's National Organisation Secretary Dr Balmukund Pandey in an exclusive conversation with India Today TV said, "Taj is a national heritage- why allow Muslims to use it as a religious site? Permission to perform namaz at Agra's Taj Mahal should be withdrawn."
Adding more fuel to the fire, Dr Pandey also demanded that if namaz is allowed then permission to perform Shiva prayers be also granted to the Hindus.
Taj Mahal is closed on Fridays to facilitate the prayers.
Just a couple of days ago, members of a right wing organisation- Hindu Yuva Vahini were forcibly taken away by security personnel for attempting to recite 'Shiv Chalisaa' (Hymn to Lord Shiva) inside Taj premises. The workers were demanding rights to perform prayers claiming Taj was a Shiva Temple before it was converted into a mausoleum.
"There is ample evidence that Taj Mahal was a Shiva Temple constructed by a Hindu King, Taj is not a symbol of love, Emperor Shahjahan married within four months of his queen Mumtaz Mahal'a demise," claims Dr Pandey. "We are collecting evidence and will soon detail every aspect of it," he added.
"Our organisation is compiling a list all such monuments which were demolished by the Muslim rulers to construct mausoleums or other buildings," he further added.
Akhil Bhartiya Itihaas Sankalan Samiti is the history wing of RSS with stated objective of writing, or rewriting Indian history from a national perspective.
DIALOGUE TO RESOLVE CONFLICT
Meanwhile the imam at the heritage sight said that Shiva prayers should not be performed there adding that peace can happen through dialogue.
"The mosque is built next to Taj Mahal and namaz is performed there. Shiv chalisa should not be recited near the grave. The entire controversy is uncalled for and can be solved through dialogue," said Ali.
VIDEO | Yogi Adityanath visits Taj Mahal, says committed to conserve rich historical identity of Agra |
Say what you will about the 2016 Grammys, but they are one of the biggest nights for the international music community. The results have just come out, and no doubt there will be some furious debate surrounding the winners and those who have been robbed. But rest easy, we’ve had a look at the nominees and done the math to bring you the definitive list of those who won, and those who should have won.
Record of the Year
Winner: Uptown Funk, Mark Ronson feat Bruno Mars
Should Have Won: Depreston, Courtney Barnett. Maaaaaaate. How can you look past this one? What a rippa.
Album of the Year
Winner: Taylor Swift, 1989
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Just Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. What an album, Barney was totally jipped, mate.
Best Pop Vocal Album
Winner: Taylor Swift, 1989
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Just Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. She was really, really jipped.
Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical
Winner: Dave Audé, Uptown Funk (Dave Audé Remix)
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett for her cover remix of Rowland S. Howard’s Shivers.
Best Music Video
Winner: Taylor Swift f. Kendrick Lamar, Bad Blood
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, Kim’s Caravan. Shit mate, a blind fella could tell you this.
Best Music Film
Winner: Amy
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, Dead Fox, for the upcoming Fantastic Mr. Fox sequel, directed by Lars Von Trier.
Best Country Solo Performer
Winner: Chris Stapleton, Traveller
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett for when she performed on Ellen. That was a pretty good solo gig in another country, now my mum likes CB too.
Best Dance Recording
Winner: Skrillex, Diplo, and Justin Bieber, Where Are Ü Now
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett for Depreston. Kids were dancing to this banger in da clubs all night long.
Best Dance/Electronic Album
Winner: Skrillex and Diplo, Skrillex & Diplo Present Jack Ü
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett. Same as above ^^^
Best R&B Performance
Winner: The Weeknd, Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett for her Tiny Desk gig. R&B stands for “Room and Books” yeah?
Best R&B Song
Winner: D’Angelo, Really Love
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, same reason again ^^^
Best Urban Contemporary Album
Winner: The Weeknd, Beauty Behind The Madness
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, Depreston. Nothing more urban than moving house.
Best R&B Album
Winner: D’Angelo And The Vanguard, Black Messiah
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett. Duh
Best Rock Album
Winner: Muse, Drones
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, for reasons we’ve already explained
Best Alternative Music Album
Winner: Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett. Are you sensing a pattern here?
Best Rap Performance
Winner: Kendrick Lamar, Alright
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett. People say she only talks, which is what lots of rapper do.
Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
Winner: Kendrick Lamar f. Bilal, Anna Wise, Thundercat, These Walls
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, because she sings a lot too.
Best Rap Song
Winner: Kendrick Lamar, Alright
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, Three Packs A Day. So much flow to this banger.
Best Pop Solo Performance
Winner: Ed Sheeran, Thinking Out Loud
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, Pedestrian at Best. It’s super popular with the kids.
Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
Winner: Mark Ronson f. Bruno Mars, Uptown Funk
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett for that Nobody Cares video, what a group performance.
Producer Of The Year, Non-Classical
Winner: Jeff Bhasker
Should Have Won: Whoever produced Courtney Barnett’s album. Its a shiner.
Best Rap Album
Winner: Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett
Best Country Album
Winner: Chris Stapleton, Traveller
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, because she is the drawling Aussie voice of our proud country.
Song Of The Year
Winner: Ed Sheeran, Thinking Out Loud
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, Three Packs A Day. No one has captured the beauty of 2 minute noodles like this.
Best Musical Theater Album
Winner: Hamilton
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, for the upcoming stage adaptation of the upcoming Fantastic Mr. Fox sequel, directed by Sir Ian McKellen.
Best Rock Performance
Winner: Alabama Shakes, Don’t Wanna Fight
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett, Nobody Cares, since no one cares about the other nominees.
Best New Artist
Winner: Meghan Trainor
Should Have Won: Courtney Barnett |
At least 32 people were killed and 80 wounded after an explosive device went off at a market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Yola, humanitarian agencies say.
“Thirty-two people were killed and 80 have been injured,” Reuters quoted a Red Cross official as saying., Another official from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Sa'ad Bello, later confirmed the same numbers of casualties.
READ MORE: Boko Haram kills more people than ISIS as total hits historic high
It is still unclear who is responsible for the blast, but the armed group Boko Haram has carried out attacks on Yola in the past, including suicide bomber attacks and other bombings.
ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram claims responsibility for Nigeria’s deadly suicide bombings http://t.co/xuW54C97U5pic.twitter.com/7EZ5HfSYxF — RT (@RT_com) October 5, 2015
The blast was reported at around 8 pm local time.
“The explosion happened in the midst of a large crowd because the area houses a livestock market, an open-air eatery and a mosque,” AFP quoted Red Cross official Aliyu Maikano as saying. “Our main preoccupation now is to save the injured.”
One witness described the horrific aftermath of the scene: “The ground near my shop was covered with dead bodies. I helped to load 32 dead bodies into five vehicles,” witness Alhaji Ahmed told Reuters.
Another local said there were up to eight ambulances on the scene attending to the victims.
The suspected perpetrators, Boko Haram, have pledged allegiance to Islamic State and killed thousands of people in the northeastern part of the country during the last six years. The militant group is fighting for a state that would strictly adhere to Sharia law.
The last time Boko Haram militants attacked northeastern Nigeria was in late October, when separate explosions in Yola and Maiduguri killed at least 37 people. Fighters from the group have been targeting public places, such as places of worship, local markets, and bus stations.
In the past, the extremist group has claimed responsibility for attacks in neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
3 'underage girl' suicide bombers kill 13 during Eid celebrations in Nigeria http://t.co/wzh5S3t6Ljpic.twitter.com/gaGb1VoNFv — RT (@RT_com) July 17, 2015
Boko Haram began its insurgency in 2009, and since then has killed at least 17,000 people and left another 2.5 million homeless |
“It’s not the crime, it’s the cover up.” That saying originated during the Watergate scandal but it has also applied in recent years to Congress.
The first sign that the new Republican health care bill was going to be cataclysmically awful was the way in which it was shuffled from room to room, hidden even from members of the U.S. Senate, as if it contained top-secret national security information.
On a futile search to find the bill last week, Senator Rand Paul detailed how it “was in a secret room…under lock and key with guards…there were policemen posted at the door, and we were not allowed to see” it.
Now we know exactly why Republican leadership was so secretive. Their bill is a slightly GOP-flavored version of Obamacare, only without Obama’s name on it.
It’s not as if Republicans haven’t had time to put together a repeal and replace bill. For six years, they’ve promised they’ll fully strike from the books the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and excoriated the law for sending insurance premiums skyrocketing, strangling small businesses, and causing people to lose their doctors and insurance plans. As recently as 15 months ago, Republicans in the House and Senate sent a bill to President Obama’s desk to totally repeal the ACA. When Obama predictably vetoed the legislation, the GOP promised to finish the job if they won the presidency.
So why aren’t they doing that now?
The GOP bill unveiled Monday night replaces the tax penalty of Obamacare with a permanent 30 percent penalty for anyone who has a lapse in health care coverage. The bill also keeps tax credits (though it restructures them somewhat), maintains favoritism towards employee-based health care, and keeps regulations and mandatory programs that have already begun causing insurance markets to collapse. It gets rid of the Cadillac tax, only to bring it back in eight years, and continues the massive expansion of Medicaid until 2020, which just happens to be an election year. If Republicans don’t have a backbone now, imagine them growing one then.
Instead of arguing for a free-market fix like inter-state competition or expansion of access to lower cost health care alternatives, the bill concedes the central premise of Obamacare that government should force people to buy health insurance. It simply shifts the timing of the penalty.
RELATED: Republicans now want to keep what they used to call the worst part of Obamacare
This isn’t a Republican alternative; it’s an unmitigated disaster for both sides of the political spectrum. While Democrats are predictably attacking it, conservative lawmakers and groups like Heritage Action, FreedomWorks, and Americans for Prosperity have also roundly criticized the bill.
Congressman Justin Amash dubbed the bill “Obamacare 2.0” and Senator Rand Paul decried it as “Obamacare Lite.” The Republican version “won’t work,” Paul told Fox News on Tuesday, because “premiums and prices will continue to spiral out of control.”
“People who have insurance can’t use it now because it’s too expensive on premiums [and]…way too expensive on deductibles,” said Paul. “In a real marketplace, the higher your deductible, the lower your premium. We [have] completely…broken the insurance marketplace.”
There’s another problem here that gets lost in the noise over the specifics of the GOP plan – this bill proves that all those Obamacare repeal votes were just for show. Republican leadership is not committed to free-market solutions, the rights of states to work out health care for themselves, or accountability in the lawmaking process. Just like the Democrats before them, Republicans are more than happy to host secret back-door negotiations that cater to the interests of corporations and solidify power in Washington without the sunlight of either accountability or oversight.
Consider how much time Republican leadership in Congress has allotted for reading these bills and adding amendments.
Last year, Congress was controlled and led by a Republican majority supposedly devoted to fiscal responsibility. Despite a promise by Speaker Paul Ryan to return to regular order, set priorities, put checks on executive overreach, and create line-item amounts for spending, all this was abandoned only months into his speakership. The House whiffed on the April 15 statutory deadline for a budget — a violation of the Budget Act. Then they waived House rules on other major bills whenever those rules introduced what has clearly become an uncomfortable level of scrutiny and accountability. Budget rules on major bills were waived 42 times since last year, or more than 25 percent of the time lawmakers confronted a rule restriction, according to a report prepared by the House Budget Committee.
RELATED: Here’s what’s good and bad in the current Republican health care plan, and why it’s still not good enough
Over the past six years, despite Republican control of both houses, only one joint budget resolution has passed. It’s been over 20 years since Congress passed all regular annual spending bills on time instead of resorting to end-of-year “shutdown the government or bust” showdowns.
Instead we get secret legislation crafted under lock-and-key, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and now the Obamacare replacement.
Bob Woodward famously said that democracy dies in darkness. If Republicans aren’t careful, darkness could end up killing their outrageous new health law, too. |
Summer’s not over yet; nights are still warm enough to get lost in a spectacular sky. But not all stargazing sites are created equal. The twelve places below, compiled by the Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, have minimal light pollution and are some of the best spots in America to see the brilliance the night sky has to offer. For even more sites, check out gocampingamerica.com for a searchable database.
Smuggler’s Den
Located in Southwest Harbor, Maine inside Acadia National Park, this campground is perfect for family camping in tents or RVs. Log cabins are also available to rent.
Tilleda Falls Campgrounds
At this campground in Tilleda, Wisconsin, you can spend nights staring at the skies and days fishing in the top-rated trout stream.
Riverhurst Park
This private park in Olean, New York sits along the bank of the Allegheny River
Trackrock Campground & Cabins
Secluded in Blairsville, Georgia, this site has both campgrounds for RVs and tents for those who’d like to rough it, as well as rentable cabins with air conditioning and TVs for those who don’t.
Willow Lake Campground
This family-friendly site in Geneva, Ohio sites close to Lake Erie.
Priest Gulch Campground
At this campground situated midway between Telluride, Colorado and Mesa Verde National Park, there’s free WiFi to go with the starry skies.
Mount Rushmore
You can take in the famous presidents’ faces at this Hill City, South Dakota landmark while admiring the night sky.
Casini Ranch Family Campground
Located on the scenic Russian River in Duncans Mills, California, this tucked-away site is perfect for a serene night of stargazing.
Kalyumet Camping & Cabins
This campground in Lucinda, Pennsylvania has a heated pool and mini golf course to add to its charms.
Loneoak Campsites
Perfect for RVs, this campground in East Canaan, Connecticut has 500 campsites with hookups.
Far Horizons 49er Village RV Resort
Situated in Plymouth, California, this campground is close to wineries and an array of historic California gold rush sites.
Ozark Outdoors Riverfront Resort
While you’re not gazing at the heavens, you can relax along (or in!) the Ozark Rivers at this waterfront resort in Leasburg, Missouri. |
In an effort to bring more people into the park, Disneyland will be offering a Disneyland After Dark experience for guests. According to the Disney Parks Blog:
“Disneyland After Dark kicks off January 18 with its first after-hours event – Throwback Nite! Step back in time to the ‘50s and ‘60s for a taste of the classic after-dark experience at Disneyland. Come dressed in your best to enjoy the Happiest Place on Earth under a million twinkling lights, swinging to the tune of the bands and enjoying your favorite rides in the cool moonlight ‘till the clock strikes 1 a.m.! Original attraction posters of Disneyland experiences from yesteryear welcome you as you commemorate the evening with special photo locations – and unlimited digital downloads are included with your event admission! Live music and dancing bring the bygone era to life throughout the park, and the sky lights up with an exclusive showing of “Fantasy in The Sky” fireworks. Guests will receive a commemorative lanyard and a vintage-inspired park map that will highlight the special experiences taking place throughout the evening.”
While I am thrilled that the first after dark experience will be a more official-sounding Dapper Day event, I have to wonder how much Disney is going to charge for this. The park stays open pretty late most of the time, but I do like the idea of throwback days (please introduce throwback prices).
About Veronica Webb Veronica Webb is a self professed comic book nerd, with a strong focus on Archie and Golden Age comics. She also enjoys Disney World more than the average person, and bad movies. Speed Racer is one of her favorite movies. Seriously.
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Delaware taxpayers are once again being asked to close their collective minds and open their collective wallets. Another grotesque giveaway to another wealthy corporation has been proposed.
Instigated, orchestrated and supported by the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, Delaware’s State Department, the administration and a vast number of corporate shills that occupy the General Assembly we are once again being cajoled to give millions of dollars to a profitable company under the guise of economic development.
In the past nine years, these corporate welfare policies have cost the Delaware taxpayers well over $250 million most of which was funneled into the coffers the richest corporations in the world. There has been little to no economic development or sustainable job growth resulting from this corporate extortion racket. This number does not include the more than $80 million forfeited to wealthy corporations with the recent passage of the Delaware Competes Acts and Delaware Innovates Acts.
The similarities in some of these arrangements often show an utter disregard for economic prudence and justice. The recent Sallie Mae request for more than $2 million in taxpayer funds connotes an attitude of entitlement and greed which is reinforced when we consider the recent report of over $70 million in second quarter earnings declared by Sallie Mae.
This causes me to reflect on the $10 million requested and granted to JP Morgan Inc. after they declared a record $24 billion in profits. These are not isolated incidents but rather common occurrences resulting from Delaware’s policies of unbounded enthusiasm to finance corporate welfare.
When you reflect on the actual economic circumstances challenging Delaware’s residents and taxpayers such as over $30 million in cuts to public education, elimination of the $2.5 million “Pharmaceutical Assistance Program” which served the neediest elderly and disabled citizens of Delaware (forcing them to choose between life-saving medications or life-giving food) no one should cast blind eye on such economic cruelty.
Historically there has been a certain consistency to the course plotted for Delaware’s economy. It seems to willfully avoid the needs of its citizens and small business community and instead focus almost entirely on ensuring a robust investment in the wealthier corporate world. Sadly such an investment of taxpayer money seldom results in any significant job growth or return on investment. The Bloom project is a prime example of government wasteful spending on private, special interests.
And what should be the public’s responsibility to stop this madness you might ask. The public must express a collective outrage and convey it to every elected official in the Delaware. If their voices are loud and persistent but are still ignored, then it is the humane obligation of the public to replace every one of those legislators and elected (regardless of party) with new people who are responsible to the needs of the people and not to some corporatist culture or ideology.
I’m outraged and have been every step of the way for my entire six terms in office. I’ve expressed it publicly, criticized it in the media and on my Facebook site and begged and cajoled my colleagues and the three governors I’ve served under to cease and desist.
It’s time for the public to step up and be outraged. When you became aware (unless you’re living in a rabbit hole) that $70 million in taxpayer money was spent on roads and egress to the Astra Zeneca site to enhance its sellable price-tag tenfold, where was the outrage?
It’s been reported on in the major media and I’ve written extensively about this state’s corporate welfare (including Astra-Zeneca, JPMorgan, Dupont, Chemours) policies apparently to a deaf, dumb and blind constituency. Bring the outrage please, bring it.
EDITOR’S NOTE: State Rep. John Kowalko is a Democrat representing the Newark area. |
Lately, I have been using the HTC One X, One S, and Samsung Galaxy Note. These devices have fantastic hardware specifications and they overwhelmed me a bit so I was having second thoughts about my HTC Radar 4G and the Windows Phone platform. I then listened to Joshua Topolsky on The Vergecast and read a few articles online questioning the long term success of Windows Phone and asking if Microsoft should just give up on the smartphone market. I thus felt the need to put together another pro-Windows Phone blog post after putting my SIM back into my HTC Radar 4G and realizing Windows Phone really is my preferred smartphone platform and I can't help but believe it truly is the third viable modern platform.
The Verge Lumia 900 review and Windows Phone software
I see there are over 2500 comments on Joshua's Nokia Lumia 900 review and it is clear that there are some passionate smartphone users out there. I found the review to be very well written and Joshua was clear that the design of the Lumia 900 is fantastic. Great design definitely has a place in the smartphone market.
I completely agree with Joshua that Nokia dropped the ball with the camera on the Lumia 900. They had the opportunity to blow us away with a high quality camera, but it looks like HTC beat Nokia with their Titan II camera in a game that Nokia should have won easily.
The controversy in The Verge review comes up when you reach the software section and read the subtitle that reads I think it's time to stop giving Windows Phone a pass followed by statements that Windows Phone is death by a thousand cuts. I will be the first to admit that Windows Phone is not perfect and there is room for improvement, but the same can be said for Android and iOS as well. As I mentioned back when Windows Phone was first put to public testing, the philosophy upon which Windows Phone is founded is different than the iOS and Android focus on applications. The OS is designed for you to perform actions that are intuitive and natural without you having to think about a specific application, open that application, and then carry out your business. I know I am much more efficient when using a Windows Phone device and with four out of five phones in my family now running Windows Phone I can tell you that my family agrees. I have also seen a friend's family go entirely to the Nokia Lumia 710 Windows Phone and absolutely love the experience.
I understand that after nearly two years an operating system can get a bit dull, but I don't see how iOS is more efficient at all. I can understand Android with ICS being efficient if you have widgets setup and I personally am loving Android at the moment too, but I still see Force Close warnings on new Android devices while my HTC Radar 4G is rock solid and stable. We all have different preferences and needs and I value Joshua's opinion in regards to Windows Phone.
Where's the cutting edge hardware?
Where's the carrier support?
Apps: What, 70,000 isn't enough for you?
IMHO, most of the first generation Windows Phone devices were basically Android devices that manufacturers assembled with a new operating system and they were nothing to get overly excited about. Reviewers around the Internet agree the Nokia Lumia 900 is probably one of the best pieces of hardware and I understand that Windows Phone doesn't need quad-core processors and super HD displays. However, I do want to see some manufacturers make some efforts to bring out fantastic hardware. It looks like the HTC Titan II may be a winner as well, but I want more for other carriers.AT&T easily rules the Windows Phone world here in the U.S. with T-Mobile in second with low to mid-level devices. Sprint and Verizon each only have a single first generation piece of hardware and Microsoft cannot hope to gain any appreciable market share with such lame carrier support. It's been a few months since WP 7.5 was launched and we don't even hear rumors of Sprint or Verizon getting any updated hardware. How can you have the largest carrier in the U.S. with a single product that is over a year old and promote your OS as something people should buy?I used to keep up with and write a weekly Windows Phone Wednesday article and if you go back to these you can see I documented the progress as Microsoft passed 5,000, then 15,000, then 50,000, and more apps. There are now so many apps I have a difficult time staying focused and writing these articles. I understand that many key apps are missing and have read some recent articles that do a good job of documenting some of these glaring omissions. You can check out Andrew's article on business apps compared between the three platforms. However, as I mentioned earlier, I don't think you always need apps you see on iOS or Android to get the job done on Windows Phone. Mary-Jo wrote about this in here recent article on the app conversation . I also believe that most people use 10-15 key apps every single day and if they really looked at their app usage I don't think Windows Phone is as problematic as it is often made out to be.
Looking through my iPhone 4S that has about 100 apps too many loaded and my Android devices the only apps I really miss on Windows Phone are Words with Friends (AlphaJax is a superior game though, but needs to open up to iOS and Android users), Kobo Books, and an HP 48G calculator emulator. All of my key apps are there, including Kindle, YouVersion Bible, Evernote, ESPN ScoreCenter, Facebook, Twitter (Rowi), Flixster, Google Voice, TripIt, Poynt, RunKeeper, Skype (beta), Spotify, and USAA Bank.
Wait for Apollo or get going now?
Related ZDNet content
I hear people saying that Apollo will be the Windows Phone version that makes things happen, but we have seen very little about what is even going to be in Apollo so that sounds more like someone's wishful thinking. Microsoft has a solid platform now and has worked hard to get developers on board. It is time for them to focus on hardware partners and carriers and get some real momentum behind the platform. They have the funds to stick it out for the long run and according to Mary-Jo Foley , "I can say with near certainty there won’t be any white flags raised in Redmond any time soon." As I continuously say, you need to try Windows Phone to appreciate it and people who do seem to really enjoy the platform. Now, when can I get a sexy new HTC Windows Phone device? |
Published online 27 October 2010 | Nature 467, 1028-1030 (2010) | doi:10.1038/4671028a
News Feature
NASA's next-generation space observatory promises to open new windows on the Universe — but its cost could close many more.
It has to work — for astronomers, there is no plan B. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), scheduled to launch in 2014, is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and the key to almost every big question that astronomers hope to answer in the coming decades. Its promised ability to peer back through space and time to the formation of the first galaxies made it the top priority in the 2001 astronomy and astrophysics decadal survey, one of a series of authoritative, ten-year plans drafted by the US astronomy community. And now, the stakes are even higher. Without the JWST, the bulk of the science goals listed in the 2010 decadal survey, released this August, will be unattainable.
"We took it as a given that the JWST would be launched and would be a big success," says Michael Turner, a cosmologist at the University of Chicago, Illinois, and a member of the committee for the past two decadal surveys. "Things are built around it."
Hence the astronomers' anxiety: the risks are also astronomical. The JWST's 6.5-metre primary mirror, nearly three times the diameter of Hubble's, will be the largest ever launched into space. The telescope will rely on a host of untried technologies, ranging from its sensitive light-detecting instrumentation to the cooling system that will keep the huge spacecraft below 50 kelvin. And it will have to operate perfectly on the first try, some 1.5 million kilometres from Earth — four times farther than the Moon and beyond the reach of any repair mission. If the JWST — named after the administrator who guided NASA through the development of the Apollo missions — fails, the progress of astronomy could be set back by a generation.
And yet, as critical as it is for them, astronomers' feelings about the JWST are mixed. To support a price tag that now stands at roughly US$5 billion, the JWST has devoured resources meant for other major projects, none of which can begin serious development until the binge is over. Missions such as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, designed to study the Universe's dark energy and designated the top-priority space-astronomy project in the most recent decadal survey, will have to wait until after the JWST has launched. "Until then, we're not projecting being able to afford large investments" in new missions, says Jon Morse, director of NASA's astrophysics division. And all the space telescopes currently operated by NASA and the European Space Agency will reach the end of their planned lifetimes in the next few years.
Worse, the JWST's costs keep growing. In 2009, NASA required an extra $95 million to cover cost overruns on the telescope. In 2010 it needed a further $20 million. And for 2011 it has requested another $60 million — even as rumours are swirling that still more cash infusions will be required (see 'Cost curve').
Click for larger image
Senator Barbara Mikulski (Democrat, Maryland), chairwoman of the government subcommittee that oversees NASA's budget, responded to these requests in June by calling for an independent panel to investigate the causes of the JWST's spiralling cost and delays, and to find a way to bring them to resolution. "Building the JWST is an awesome technical challenge," Mikulski says. "But we're not in the business of cost overruns."
John Casani, chairman of Mikulski's investigative panel and a former project manager for NASA's Voyager, Galileo and Cassini missions, emphasizes that the panel is making suggestions, not decisions. Those will be up to NASA, which is expected to announce a budgetary plan incorporating the panel's suggestions on 2 November. But in considering potential solutions for the JWST's woes, Casani says that "everything will be on the table" — including, conceivably, scrapping instruments or otherwise downgrading the programme.
The Goldin Opportunity
The first concept for a Hubble replacement emerged in 1989, when Hubble was still a year away from launch. Astronomers already knew that its vision would not quite reach back to the 'cosmic dawn', 500 million years after the Big Bang, when the first stars and galaxies formed. So a next-generation space telescope that could fill the gap seemed like the logical next step.
In 1993, NASA asked a committee of astronomers, chaired by Alan Dressler of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, to define what such a telescope would need. The new telescope's mirror would have to be big to gather the dim light of those first galaxies. So the committee recommended that the primary mirror be at least 4 metres across.
The telescope would also have to be cryogenically cold, because at any temperature higher than 50 kelvin, infrared heat radiation from the telescope itself would wash out the faint photons that the astronomers were looking for. "That was the science that propelled the whole thing," says Dressler.
Finally, it would have to operate far from Earth. At infrared wavelengths, this planet glows like a light bulb. So the committee recommended that the telescope be placed 1.5 million kilometres outside Earth's orbit, at the second Lagrangian point (L 2 ), where the combined gravitational pull of the Sun and Earth creates a region of stability. Any spacecraft at L 2 will also lie in the shadow cast by Earth, making it easier to keep cool (see 'The James Webb Space Telescope').
In December 1995, Dressler briefed NASA's then administrator, Daniel Goldin, on the recommendations. Goldin was intrigued. He was shaking up NASA's science programmes, pushing a 'faster, better, cheaper' strategy to deliver more capable and inspiring missions at lower costs. Taking his cues from Silicon Valley and aerospace 'skunkworks' projects — small, highly autonomous ventures pursuing innovation within larger organizations — Goldin was pushing for miniaturization of bulky electronics, more off-the-shelf components, lower organizational overheads, and a continuous expansion of the technological boundaries with each mission. Dressler's proposal seemed like a perfect opportunity to test that approach.
Instead of a 4-metre telescope, Goldin asked, why not try one with a primary mirror 6–8 metres in diameter? Some of the technology was in hand: NASA was developing the cryogenic infrared Spitzer Space Telescope with a 0.85-metre mirror made of beryllium, a metal that needs special handling — it corrodes skin at a touch — but is lightweight and keeps its shape through extreme temperature changes. That and other innovations could give the JWST a mega-mirror while reducing costs. As Goldin put it in a speech: "Let's throw away glass. Glass is for the ground."
Click for larger image
Some astronomers were dubious about initial cost estimates for the ambitious mission, which ranged from $500 million to $1 billion. But in the beginning, Goldin's methods seemed to deliver: the first missions using the approach were wildly successful. Among them were 1997's landmark Mars Pathfinder mission and its accompanying rover, Sojourner, and the 1998 Lunar Prospector mission that found evidence of water ice on the Moon. But they were followed in 1999 by the disastrous losses of the Wide-Field Infrared Explorer telescope and two planetary missions, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander. This string of failures tarnished the agency's reputation, and reminded everyone that 'faster, better, cheaper' was also riskier. By the end of Goldin's tenure in 2001, NASA had already begun shifting back to its traditional, risk-averse and far more expensive strategy of exhaustive testing and extensive oversight.
That shift would send the cost of the JWST soaring past the billion-dollar mark. The mirror diameter would be cut from 8 metres to 6.5 metres to help reduce costs. But in the meantime, as NASA carried out the many engineering trade-off studies and scientific working groups required to solidify the telescope's design, a more insidious factor came into play: scientists started to pile on complexity.
It happens with almost every major mission, says Peter Stockman, former head of the JWST mission office at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "Everyone fears it will be the last opportunity in their scientific lifetime." And there seemed little reason for restraint: in the 1990s, when the bulk of the design work was done, NASA's astrophysics budget was projected to keep growing by a few per cent a year.
Stretched capabilities
With each iteration, the JWST's science objectives swelled. The core instrument package came to include a large-field-of-view near-infrared camera (NIRCam) and a multi-object near-infrared spectrograph (NIRSpec), primarily for investigating the earliest stars and galaxies; a general-purpose mid-infrared camera and spectrograph for observing dust-shrouded objects in the Milky Way; and a fine guidance sensor and tunable-filter imager to support the other three.
These expanded capabilities would have to be supported by expensive and largely unproven technologies. The instruments needed extra-large, ultra-stable infrared detectors. A five-layered membranous sunshield would have to be folded around the spacecraft before launch, then deployed in space to allow the telescope to cool to cryogenic temperatures. Unfurled, each layer would be about the same area as a tennis court. The primary mirror, too large to fit into any existing rocket fairing, would have to be assembled in 18 hexagonal, adjustable segments that would also unfold in orbit. Each segment would be painstakingly chiselled from beryllium, then coated with gold and polished. Arrays of electromechanical devices called microshutters would allow NIRSpec to take spectra from up to 100 objects simultaneously, even if some of those objects were faint and lay next to brighter stars. Each individually controllable microshutter would be the width of a few human hairs, and NIRSpec would require more than 62,000 of them.
In addition, every piece of technology in the spacecraft would have to be engineered to endure the violent vibrations of launch, the hard vacuum of outer space and the slow cool-down to cryogenic temperatures. The telescope's optical surfaces, in particular, would have to survive all this while staying aligned to a precision of nanometres. And everything would have to perform nearly flawlessly for a minimum of five years, the baseline mission length.
Small wonder, then, that NASA ended up spending almost $2 billion just on the JWST's initial technology development. Nonetheless, the agency did not substantially cut any of the telescope's capabilities to bring the costs back under control. Instead, it looked for partnerships, securing major contributions from the European and Canadian space agencies. NASA also maximized support for the project on Capitol Hill by awarding contracts for spacecraft components to a small army of companies and universities scattered through many congressional districts. Aerospace giant Northrop Grumman of Los Angeles, California, became the JWST's prime contractor, under NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, which would manage the overall project.
By the time the JWST passed its preliminary design reviews in spring 2008 and NASA had officially committed to building it, the project had been transformed from its comparatively modest 'faster, better, cheaper' origins into an audacious multibillion-dollar, multi-instrument mission spanning institutions, countries and continents.
Passing the Test
For nearly a year now, engineering models of the JWST's various components have been trickling into the clean room in Goddard's Building 29 for testing. (The centre's white-suited technicians can be seen at work on Internet 'Webb-cams' .) Pieces of actual flight hardware are supposed to start arriving in the same room in spring and summer 2011. All of the JWST's riskiest technologies have met their critical milestones and are on schedule for the 2014 launch.
The most substantial challenge remaining before launch is to integrate and test the flight components to ensure that they function as a whole — and, of course, to do all that without exceeding the remaining budget. NASA's traditional method is to 'test as you fly' — to operate the integrated flight hardware in conditions as close as possible to those it will experience in space. The problem is that the fully assembled telescope will be far too large to fit into any available thermal vacuum chamber. Just as the JWST's scientific objectives required new technology, mission planners have had to devise entirely new protocols to test it.
"With the JWST we have to do incremental modelling, building and testing, validating our model at each stage and then moving up to the next level of assembly," says Phil Sabelhaus, the JWST project manager at Goddard. "We aren't only testing — we're also proving our ability to model correctly, which is how we will evaluate the JWST's absolute performance on-orbit." This hierarchical assembly, testing and modelling is laborious and time-consuming, more like building several telescopes than one, and is a major contributor to the JWST's remaining costs. So, unsurprisingly, it is one of the most probable targets for cost-cutting.
"There are tests that are really essential to do, and tests that would be nice to do," says Dressler. "With something of this magnitude, there is a natural tendency to double-check and triple-check, and maybe we can't afford that." On the other hand, he says, maybe they can't afford not to: it was a decision to save money on testing that allowed a defect in Hubble's primary mirror to go undetected until it was in orbit, nearly dooming the entire mission.
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The JWST's supporters contend that, even with further budget overruns, the telescope will still break the historical cost pattern for large space telescopes. "Not even including its four space-shuttle servicing missions, Hubble cost $4 billion or $5 billion in today's dollars just to build and launch," Dressler notes. "Here we are, building a telescope that is almost seven times bigger, it is cryogenic, it is operating 1.5 million kilometres away, and it is costing the same amount as Hubble did, if not less. That is remarkable, and this is probably the biggest scale on which we will consider building such things in this country."
Even so, ambivalence still surrounds the JWST. Failure is not an option, either for NASA or for the astronomers it supports. Yet, in the face of flat or declining budgets, a dwindling docket of near-term astrophysics missions and rising public outrage over perceptions of runaway government spending, tough questions are inevitable. At a mid-September meeting of the agency's astrophysics subcommittee, efforts to nail down just how many extra dollars lie between the JWST and its eventual arrival at L 2 were met with silence. Until the announcement of a new budget and schedule, informed by recent panel reviews, that is the best answer anyone is likely to get. |
Oakland residents fed up with illegal dumping Copyright by KRON - All rights reserved Video
OAKLAND (KRON)-- One section of Oakland is faced with major problems such as excessive illegal dumping.
KRON4's Philippe Djegal went on a "Reality Tour" through one East Oakland community that was hit the hardest.
Mounds of trash littered the streets and some bags were filled with dead animals.
One resident, Jambi Borens said, ""we've gotten to a place where it's really intolerable."
Some neighbors complained of deplorable road conditions and voiced their frustrations.
"The street activity of donuts -- that's become a big, big problem. It's a safety hazard," said resident McCelvey Bull.
One Councilmember, Rebecca Kaplan, tagged along for the "Reality Tour."
Kaplan said the way the city responds to illegal dumping and pothole complaints needs to be revised.
She also said some communities are underserved because they may not have access to computers or phones to properly file complaints. |
Citing unnamed “sources familiar with the report,” Ms. Mayer wrote that the Red Cross document “warned that the abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the U.S. government in jeopardy of being prosecuted.” Red Cross representatives were not permitted access to the secret prisons where the C.I.A. conducted interrogations, but were permitted to interview Abu Zubaydah and other high-level detainees in late 2006, after they were moved to the military detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The book says the C.I.A. shared the report, which Ms. Mayer first described last year in less detail in The New Yorker, with President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Bernard Barrett of the International Committee of the Red Cross declined to comment on the book except to say that the committee “regrets that any information has been attributed to us” because it believes its work is more effective when confidential.
He did confirm that committee personnel “are regularly visiting” the high-level Qaeda prisoners, now at Guantánamo Bay. “We have an ongoing confidential dialogue with members of the U.S. intelligence community, and we would share any observations or recommendations with them.”
The book says Abu Zubaydah told the Red Cross that he had been waterboarded at least 10 times in a single week and as many as three times in a day.
The book also reports that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the chief planner of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, told the Red Cross that he had been kept naked for more than a month and claimed that he had been “kept alternately in suffocating heat and in a painfully cold room.”
The report says the prisoners considered the “most excruciating” of the methods being shackled to the ceiling and being forced to stand for as long as eight hours. Eleven of the 14 prisoners reported prolonged sleep deprivation, the book says, including “bright lights and eardrum-shattering sounds 24 hours a day.”
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Ms. Mayer acknowledges that Red Cross investigators based their account largely on interviews with the prisoners. But she writes that several C.I.A. officers she spoke with confirmed parts of the Red Cross description.
A C.I.A. spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, confirmed that Red Cross workers had been “granted access to the detained terrorists at Guantánamo and heard their claims.” He said the agency’s interrogations were based on “detailed legal guidance from the Department of Justice” and had “produced solid information that has contributed directly to the disruption of terrorist activities.”
“The Dark Side” also describes a frightening false alarm at the White House on Oct. 18, 2001, when, it says, an alarm went off on a machine designed to detect biological, chemical or radiological attacks. According to the book, among those who believed they might have been exposed to a pathogen was Vice President Dick Cheney.
Ms. Mayer quotes an unnamed “former administration official” as saying, “They thought that Cheney was already lethally infected.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Cheney, Lea Anne McBride, said his office had not seen the book and could not comment. An administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to comment on the issue said aides had investigated the book’s account at Ms. Mayer’s request and that “no one recalls such an incident.” |
“POVERTY”, wrote Aristotle, “is the parent of crime.” But was he right? Certainly, poverty and crime are associated. And the idea that a lack of income might drive someone to misdeeds sounds plausible. But research by Amir Sariaslan of the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm, and his colleagues, just published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, casts doubt on the chain of causation—at least as far as violent crime and the misuse of drugs are concerned.
Using the rich troves of personal data which Scandinavian governments collect about their citizens, Mr Sariaslan and his team were able to study more than half a million children born in Sweden between 1989 and 1993. The records they consulted contained information about these people’s educational attainments, annual family incomes and criminal convictions. They also enabled the researchers to identify everybody’s siblings.
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In Sweden the age of criminal responsibility is 15, so Mr Sariaslan tracked his subjects from the dates of their 15th birthdays onwards, for an average of three-and-a-half years. He found, to no one’s surprise, that teenagers who had grown up in families whose earnings were among the bottom fifth were seven times more likely to be convicted of violent crimes, and twice as likely to be convicted of drug offences, as those whose family incomes were in the top fifth.
What did surprise him was that when he looked at families which had started poor and got richer, the younger children—those born into relative affluence—were just as likely to misbehave when they were teenagers as their elder siblings had been. Family income was not, per se, the determining factor.
That suggests two, not mutually exclusive, possibilities. One is that a family’s culture, once established, is “sticky”—that you can, to put it crudely, take the kid out of the neighbourhood, but not the neighbourhood out of the kid. Given, for example, children’s propensity to emulate elder siblings whom they admire, that sounds perfectly plausible. The other possibility is that genes which predispose to criminal behaviour (several studies suggest such genes exist) are more common at the bottom of society than at the top, perhaps because the lack of impulse-control they engender also tends to reduce someone’s earning capacity.
Neither of these conclusions is likely to be welcome to social reformers. The first suggests that merely topping up people’s incomes, though it may well be a good idea for other reasons, will not by itself address questions of bad behaviour. The second raises the possibility that the problem of intergenerational poverty may be self-reinforcing, particularly in rich countries like Sweden where the winnowing effects of education and the need for high levels of skill in many jobs will favour those who can control their behaviour, and not those who rely on too many chemical crutches to get them through the day.
This is only one study, of course. Such conclusions will need to be tested by others. But if they are confirmed, the fact that they are uncomfortable will be no excuse for ignoring them. |
Position yourself in front of a mirror and you'll notice it immediately. The text on your sweatshirt is reversed. The part in your hair has switched to the other side of your reflection's head. The mole on your left ear stares back at you from your mirror image's right earlobe. Before you stands a bauplan reversed; what was once left is now right, and vice versa. And yet, up remains up and down is still down — as though the mirror knows to switch left and right, but not top and bottom.
This, of course, is not the case. The mirror doesn't "know" anything about your position; it simply reflects the light that hits it, doing so as objectively as any inanimate object knows how. Why, then, when that reflected light reaches the photoreceptors in your eyes, has your mirror image been reversed from left-to-right?
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The short answer is that it hasn't. In fact, the question of what makes the horizontal axis so special in the context of mirrors is itself flawed. That's because a mirror does not reverse images left-to-right or top-to-bottom, but from front-to-back. In other words, your mirror image hasn't been swapped, but inverted along a third dimension, like a glove being turned inside out.
Here's a thought experiment to help illustrate the concept of front-to-back reversal. Assume, for a second, that you are capable of squeezing your body perfectly flat. Imagine, also, that your body is able to pass through itself, without damaging any of its various tissues. When you stand with the tip of your nose pressed gently against a mirror, it's easy to assume that the image you see looking back at you is the result of non-mirror you turning in-place 180 degrees and stepping backwards, through the mirror, into mirror-land. This is not the case.
In actuality, the back half of non-mirror you has been pressed flat in the direction of the mirror. As your form began to pancake, the front half of your body (that is, all parts of your body situated behind the tip of your nose, but still in front of the back half of your body), the back half of your body and the tip of your nose all came to reside within the same plane (i.e., the plane occupied by the mirror). But then your back half kept pushing, continuing on its journey through the plane of the mirror and passing right through your body's front half before re-acquiring its "normal" shape on the other side of the mirror (probably with a satisfying *POP* sound). This new, inverted you is symmetrical to you, but your two bodies cannot be superimposed. In chemistry, such entities are said to be "chiral."
Here's another way to think of it, widely popularized by physicist Richard Feynman (see the interview response featured here). Stand in front of a mirror, and note which direction you're facing. For the sake of this thought experiment, let's assume you're facing North. Point due East with your right hand, and your reflection points East as well. Point due west with your left hand, and your reflection gestures in the same direction. That's because these directions both lie along a plane parallel with the mirror. Similarly, point up or down and your reflection will follow suit, motioning in the same direction.
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But deviate from that parallel plane even a little and thinks go wonky. Remember: your image has been reversed along the axis perpendicular to the mirror. Try pointing directly at the mirror, such that your fingertip is now directed due North. Your reflection is now pointing directly at you — not North, like your finger, but South.
For more on the mirror paradox, thinking in three-space, chirality and handedness, see this great explainer, presented in the form of a conversation, by UC Riverside's Eric Schmidt. See also: The Left Hand of the Electron, by Isaac Asimov.
Top image via Shutterstock |
All over the world anti-Semites are becoming mainstreamed. It is no longer disqualifying to be outed as a Jew hater. This is especially so if the anti-Semite uses the cover of rabid hatred for the nation-state of the Jewish people. These bigots succeed in becoming accepted — even praised — not because of their anti-Semitism but despite it. Increasingly, they are given a pass on their Jew-hatred because those who support them admire or share other aspects of what they represent. This implicit tolerance of anti-Semitism — as long as it comes from someone whose other views are acceptable — represents a dangerous new trend from both the right and left.
In the United States, although there has been hard-right anti-Semitism for decades, the bigotry of the hard-left is far more prevalent and influential on many university campuses. Those on the left who support left-wing anti-Semites try to downplay, ignore or deny that those they support are really anti-Semites. "They are anti-Zionist" is the excuse du jour. Those on the right do essentially the same: "They are nationalists." Neither side would accept such transparent and hollow justifications if the shoe were on the other foot. I believe that when analyzing and exposing these dangerous trends, a single standard of criticism must be directed at each.
Generally speaking, extreme right-wing anti-Semitism continues to be a problem in many parts of Europe and among a relatively small group of "alt-right" Americans. But it also exists among those who self-identify as run-of-the-mill conservatives. Consider, for example, former presidential candidate and Reagan staffer Pat Buchanan.
The list of Buchanan's anti-Jewish bigotry is exhaustive. Over the years, he has consistently blamed Jews for wide-ranging societal and political problems. In his criticism of the Iraq War, for example, Buchanan infamously quipped: "There are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East — the Israeli Defense Ministry and its amen corner in the United States." He then singled out for rebuke only Jewish political figures and commentators such as Henry Kissinger, Charles Krauthammer and A.M. Rosenthal. Buchanan did not mention any of the vocal non-Jewish supporters of the war. Furthermore, Buchanan also said that "the Israeli lobby" would be responsible if former President Barack Obama decided to strike Iran, threatening that if it were to happen, "Netanyahu and his amen corner in Congress" would face "backlash worldwide." Buchanan's sordid flirtation with Nazi revisionism is also well documented.
On university campuses, the absurd concept of " intersectionality" — which has become a code word for anti-Semitism — is dominating discussions and actions by the hard-left. The warm embrace of Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour — who recently delivered the commencement address at a City University of New York graduation — is a case in point. A co-organizer of the Women's March on Washington in January, she has said that feminism and Zionism are incompatible, stating: "You either stand up for the rights of all women, including Palestinians, or none. There's just no way around it." And when speaking about two leading female anti-Islamists, Brigitte Gabriel and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (who is a victim of female genital mutilation) the feminist du jour, Linda Sarsour, said: "I wish I could take away their vaginas."
The irony is breathtaking. Under her own all-or-nothing criteria, Sarsour, who is also a staunch supporter of trying to destroy Israel economically, cannot be pro-Palestinian and a feminist because the Palestinian Authority and Hamas subjugate women and treat gays far worse than Israel does.
Sarsour supports Islamic religious law, Sharia. If taken literally, this would presumably mean that she also supports punishing homosexuality by death; amputation for theft; death by stoning for "adultery" (which can include being raped); and women's being valued at half the worth of a man, being flogged for drinking alcohol, and above all subjected to slavery (see here, here and here).
Yet Sarsour has emerged as a champion of the hard-left. Both New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio and Sen. Bernie Sanders have sought her endorsement. Moreover, Deputy Democratic National Committee Chairman Keith Ellison, who himself has a sordid history with anti-Semitism stemming from his association with Louis Farrakhan (who publicly boasted about his own Jew hatred), has come out in support of the bigoted Sarsour. When it comes to Ellison, an old idiom comes to mind: A man is known by the company he keeps.
The same trend is detectable among the hard-left in Europe, particularly in Britain, which is days away from an election. The British Labour Party has now been hijacked by radical extremists on the left and is known for being soft on anti-Semitism.
In a recent interview with a BBC reporter, Emma Barnett, who happens to be Jewish, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn fumbled when answering a question about how much his proposed childcare policy would cost. Rather than critique Corbyn, Labour supporters viciously trolled the Jewish BBC reporter. Tweets such as these abounded: "Allegations have surfaced that @Emmabarnett is a Zionist" and "Zionist Emma Barnett (family lived off brothels) attacks Jeremy Corbyn." Corbyn has also been accused of anti-Jewish bigotry himself. He has said in the past that the genocidal Hamas terrorist group should be removed from the U.K.'s designated terror list and has called Hezbollah and Hamas (which are both vowed to the destruction of the nation-state of the Jewish people) "my friends." (I recently wrote extensively on Corbyn's association with some of Britain's most notorious Holocaust-deniers and anti-Semites.)
Increasingly, anti-Semitic discourse is also seeping into the arts and academia. Consider the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bigotry of former Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters. A staunch supporter of the so-called BDS movement, Waters has said about the Palestinians that "parallels with what went on in the 30's in Germany are so crushingly obvious." He also had a pig-shaped balloon with a Star of David on it at one of his concerts. And when asked about his aggressive effort to recruit people to join the BDS, Waters blamed "the Jewish lobby," which he explained is "extraordinary powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry." In 2013, the ADL declared that "anti-Semitic conspiracy theories" had "seeped into the totality" of Waters' views.
Likewise, the marketplace of ideas on university campuses and within academic institutions has seen an embrace of anti-Semitism often disguised as anti-Zionism. Several years ago, I identified the dangerous trend of academics crossing a red line between acceptable criticism of Israel and legitimizing Jew-hatred. This was in light of the disgraceful endorsement by a number of prominent academics of an anti-Semitic book written by Gilad Atzmon — a notorious Jew-hater who denies the Holocaust and attributed widespread economic troubles to a "Zio-punch."
When asked recently about the hullabaloo surrounding her CUNY address, Linda Sarsour disingenuously played the victim card:
" ... since the Women's March on Washington, once the right-wing saw a very prominent Muslim-American woman in a hijab who was a Palestinian who was resonating with a community in a very large way, they made it their mission to do everything they can to take my platform away."
No, Ms. Sarsour, you are wrong. This is not a smear campaign by the "right-wing" but rather a show that people of goodwill reject your manifestations of bigotry.
Those who tolerate anti-Semitism from those they otherwise admire would never accept other forms of bigotry, such as racism, sexism or homophobia. It's difficult to imagine Bernie Sanders campaigning for a socialist who didn't like black people or who was against gay marriage. But he is comfortable campaigning for Jeremy Corbyn, who has made a career out of condemning Zionists — by which he means Jews.
The growing tolerance for anti-Semitism by both the extreme left and right is quickly becoming mainstream. That is why it is so dangerous and must be exposed for what it is: complicity in and encouragement of the oldest form of bigotry. Shame on those who tolerate anti-Semitism when it comes from their side of the political spectrum.
People on both sides of the aisle must have the same zero tolerance for anti-Semitism as they do for sexism, racism and homophobia. Decent people everywhere — Jews and non-Jews — must condemn with equal vigor all manifestations of bigotry whether they emanate from the hard alt-right or hard alt-left. I will continue to judge individuals on the basis of their own statements and actions, regardless of which side of the aisle they come from.
Alan Dershowitz (@AlanDersh) is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Harvard Law School and author of "Taking the Stand: My Life in the Law" and "Electile Dysfunction: A Guide for the Unaroused Voter." This article was previously published by the Gatestone Institute.
If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here. |
Courtesy dictates that all owners should be made to feel special for the level of their investment and the game should be grateful that they have put their hard earned money into supporting its development. They should also be assured that any ideas they have about organising or managing the sport and coming up with new ideas for the way it should be run will be listened to politely and given due consideration. But it should also be made clear that unless the idea is a humdinger then it will be binned with little ceremony. Credit to British businessman Mike Charlesworth for investing in the beleaguered Central Coast Mariners and propping them up, even if they continue to stagger along as a shadow of the once-formidable team they were. But what on earth was he thinking when he came up with the idea to create some kind of Asian Super League with a number of Asian teams competing against A-League clubs.
As doomed-to-failure scenarios go, that surely takes the biscuit. It's hard to think that FIFA or the Asian Football Confederation would give it anything but short shrift. After the Mariners' horrifying 6-1 loss to Brisbane Roar last Thursday, the best advice for Charlesworth would surely be to concentrate on matters in his own backyard and fix up the mess that the Mariners have become. Central Coast was once a byword for excellence and achievement, a regional club that punched well above its weight to compete against and defeat teams from far bigger A-League markets. It produced several wonderful young players, many of whom have gone on to represent their country. From Australia's Asian Cup-winning side in January, goalkeeper Mat Ryan and defenders Alex Wilkinson and Trent Sainsbury, not to mention captain Mile Jedinak, all started their A-League careers with the Gosford club. Oliver Bozanic, who was part of the Socceroos squad for the World Cup in Brazil, was another graduate of the Mariners school of football achievement. Whatever their owner may think, it's hard to feel that engagement on a regular basis in some kind of Asian league against little-known clubs from China, Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam will stabilise the club and lead to greater interest.
As my colleague Mike Cockerill has pointed out, midweek crowds for Asian Champions League games — when the Mariners are taking on the best Asia has to offer — are poor and the atmosphere at Bluetongue Stadium often resembles more a morgue than a top-level football match. Even Melbourne Victory, far and away the best-supported club in the competition, struggle to get fans interested when they are playing in the ACL. Victory regularly get home gates at AAMI Park of more than 20,0000 (they even got 18,000 plus for the visit of the hapless Mariners last weekend) but when they played the Asian champions Guangzhou Evergrande in the group stage of last season's ACL they pulled just over 13,000. That the A-League club owners are bleeding is a matter of concern. Victory breaks even or posts a small profit, but every other club is fiscally challenged. It is to the owners' credit that they keep ante-ing up and the FFA has to find ways to increase the return on their capital, probably through a better new television deal with an increased dividend to the clubs. More advantageous stadium contracts would also help.
But looking to some sort of Asian grouping to lift revenues is not the answer. The only conceivable way it might even be contemplated is if some broadcaster underwrote with significant funding a long-term program to underpin such a competition. But that is unlikely to happen. And in any case, would local fans be interested. All the evidence suggests they wouldn't. Charlesworth and any of his fellow owners tempted to prosecute this vision would be better employed shoring up their clubs, improving their marketing and performance and attracting more local fans. That's the first thing that needs to be done. The FFA must play its part by negotiating a stronger new television deal and finding lucrative sponsorship arrangements that cascade through to all the clubs. And if as a club you succeed at A-League level you get to play against Asia's best in the ACL anyway. Surely that is the way forward. |
Three Connecticut Republican State Senators have introduced SB 222, which eases the definition of a major political party. Current law says a major party is entitled to a primary, and is defined as a group that either polled 20% for Governor, or which has registration membership equal to 20% of the number of voters enrolled in all political parties.
The bill lowers both the vote test and the registration test from 20% to 15%. It is not known why this bill was introduced. The sponsors are Senators Leonard Fasano (the leader of Republicans in the State Senate), Kevin Witkos, and Michael McLachlin. The Republican Party polled 46.15% for Governor in 2014, so it is not in danger of going off the ballot. Its registration is about 20% of the state total, but about 36% of the total of voters registered into a party.
The bill had a hearing in the Government Administration & Elections Committee on February 13, but the legislature’s web page hasn’t posted the minutes for that meeting yet. |
Decision not to publish paper in Environmental Research Letters had nothing to do with 'activism' of peer reviewers
Climate change scientists have reacted angrily to charges that an academic paper was rejected by a peer-reviewed journal because of intolerance of dissenting views.
A paper by a group of researchers headed by Lennart Bengtsson, a University of Reading research fellow, was turned down for publication by Environmental Research Letters. Bengtsson was briefly a board member of the climate sceptic organisation the Global Warming Policy Foundation, founded by former UK chancellor of the exchequer Nigel Lawson, but he resigned on Wednesday citing pressure from other academics.
He turned to the Times newspaper to complain that the journal's rejection of his paper was on "activist" grounds. But the publishers of the journal, the Institute of Physics, said on Friday that the paper was rejected because it contained scientific flaws, and not for any political reasons.
A large number of the scientific papers submitted to peer-reviewed journals are rejected, usually because of criticisms of the scientific methods used or because the research does not represent a major new advance in thinking. Environmental Research Letters told the Guardian that it rejects about 65-70% of the papers submitted to it.
The paper in question dealt with the sensitivity of the climate to rises in greenhouse gases, claiming to have found inconsistencies in recent analyses of how much temperature is likely to rise if concentrations in the atmosphere should increase. But the reviewers found that the claim of inconsistencies was invalid, particularly as a variety of results are likely to be found by any such analysis, because all climate science deals in a range of possible future outcomes.
Nicola Gulley, editorial director at IOP Publishing, said: "The draft journal paper by Lennart Bengtsson that Environmental Research Letters declined to publish, which was the subject of this morning's front page story of The Times, contained errors, in our view did not provide a significant advancement in the field, and therefore could not be published in the journal."
She added: "The decision not to publish had absolutely nothing to do with any 'activism' on the part of the reviewers or the journal, as suggested in The Times' article; the rejection was solely based on the content of the paper not meeting the journal's high editorial standards. The referees selected to review this paper were of the highest calibre and are respected members of the international science community. The comments taken from the referee reports were taken out of context and therefore, in the interests of transparency, we have worked with the reviewers to make the full reports available."
In their reports, the reviewers stated that "the overall innovation of the manuscript is very low", and this meant it did not meet requirements for the papers in the journal to "significantly advance knowledge in the field".
They wrote: "The comparison between observation based estimates of [warming] … and model-based estimates is comparing apples and pears, as the models are calculating true global means, whereas the observations have limited coverage."
Other academics defended the peer-review process. Simon Lewis, reader in global change science at University College London, said: "What counts are the reasons the editor gave for rejection. They were because the paper contained important errors and didn't add enough that was new to warrant publication. Looking at all the comments by the reviewer they suggested how the paper might be rewritten in the future to make it a solid contribution to science. That's not suppressing a dissenting view, it's what scientists call peer review."
Joanna Haigh, co-director of the Grantham Institute on climate change, said: "This episode should not distract us from the fact that we are performing a very dangerous experiment with the Earth's climate. Even by the end of this century, on current trends we risk changes of a magnitude that are unprecedented in the last 10,000 years. How we respond to that is a matter of public policy, but scientists clearly play a key role in providing policymakers with the evidence they require."
Bengtsson said in a statement late on Friday: "I do not believe there is any systematic 'cover-up' of scientific evidence on climate change or that academics' work is being 'deliberately suppressed', as the Times front page suggests. I am worried by a wider trend that science is gradually being influenced by political views. Policy decisions need to be based on solid fact. I was concerned that the Environmental Research Letters reviewer's comments suggested his or her opinion was not objective or based on an unbiased assessment of the scientific evidence."
The paper by Bengtsson and others was submitted to Environmental Research Letters in mid-February and rejected in early March after reports by two international referees found "significant scientific errors". Following that, the authors asked for the paper to be considered as an opinion piece rather than a research paper. The journal rejected this suggestion after a further review by two other experts in the field. The final decision was made in early April.
Bengtsson was appointed to the Global Warming Policy Foundation academic advisory council on 30 April this year, and resigned barely two weeks later on 14 May. His resignation was covered by the Times the next day, with Bengtsson claiming to have been subjected to "McCarthy"-like persecution by his academic peers.
No specific examples of the persecution that took place during those two weeks were cited, and when contacted by the Guardian Bengtsson did not provide any. |
Hi everyone! Since Aqours Club has came out recently, many of the English speaking community will be preparing to register for Aqours Clubs for the Fan meetings that might be held overseas. This is a guide to help those not fluent in Japanese to go through the registration process ^^
More under the cut
First of all head over to the login page of Aqours Club (http://lovelive-aqoursclub.jp) and click on the registration button:
This will bring you to the next page:
Check the box to agree to the terms and conditions and click on the blue confirm button once it lights up.
Next, you will have to confirm your email address. Instead of inputting your email address and getting a confirmation email, Aqours club uses another method of confirming your email.
Copy the email address that they have provided in the box, open up your email and send an empty mail to the email address they have provided (empty contents and empty subject, just copy and paste their email address and click send)
You will then get a confirmation email like this:
Click on the first link provide to continue your registration:
This page requires you to input the password that you would like to use for your Aqours Club account. Fill in the fields according. For the password, follow the guidelines below (directly translated from the red lines)
-Password must be between 8 to 15 characters. You can use alphanumeric characters
-Please note that there is a difference in capitalised English characters and non-capitalised English characters
-Please input half-width characters
-Please do not use special characters (@, -, &, etc.)
Addtionally, you will have to input your Aqours Club code that came with your CD. It is located on a white card with the serial code on it. Remember that one code can only be used for one account.
Once you are done, click on the blue button to confirm your input.
Double check your credentials on this page. You can check the box to see your password. Make sure everything is correct and click on the register button shown above. If not, you can cancel to amend your credentials.
If everything goes smoothly, you will arrive at this page. It means that your account has been made and your code has been used. Click on the next button to proceed to set up your profile.
Using the picture shown, fill in your details accordingly. Do take note that:
-For your nickname, it should be within 8 characters (Japanese or English names can be used)
-For your birthday, use the format YYYYMMDD. For example, if your birthday is on the 23th Janurary, 1998, your input will be 19980123. Do take note this cannot be changed once you have confirmed it.
-You cannot change your gender once you have confirmed it
-For the last field, you are required to select your prefecture. If you are residing overseas, choose the overseas option shown above.
Once you are done, click on the blue button to proceed
Once again they will ask you to double check your details before registering your profile. Take note that your birthday and gender can’t be changed once you hit the confirm button here. If you want to amend, click on the cancel button.
Congratulations! You are now a member of Aqours Club! Click on the blue button to access the rest of the paid content including:
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Thanks to my parents for getting my mail for me while I was away, I was beginning to worry that it might not show up. However, then they brought a very nicely wrapped gift with a Snoo on the front and all the family was there, so everyone was asking about it. (Mom and Dad started with "What is Reddit?!")
I opened up the nicely wrapped box to reveal a very gorgeous Christmas Box that said Merry Christmas on the front! My wife immediately claimed it for herself and said it was beautiful! I opened up the box to reveal even more gifts all wrapped up in very nice Christmas wrapping paper. My excitement was at a fever pitch because I was so excited to see what a total stranger would think was a good gift for me! (I had trouble thinking of suggestions for myself to give to family!)
Well, Let me start by saying my Reddit Secret Santa NAILED IT! The first thing I saw was a $10 Starbucks gift card! Perfect because my pregnant wife has been sending me out to get her treats at all hours! Next I unwrapped a box of After Eight mints, which have LONG been a favourite Christmas treat in our family (how did my Secret Santa know!??!) But the best were the next two (TWO!!) gifts! Next I unwrapped Jeremy Clarkson's (of Top Gear Fame) book "What Could Possibly Go Wrong...." Well, let me start by saying I am a HUGE Top Gear fan and I'm INCREDIBLY excited to get started reading this, which I am just about to do!
But lastly, I opened up my last gift, which was the Original Edition of Exploding Kittens! I've been a fan of The Oatmeal for awhile, and had just recently heard about this card game, but hadn't looked into it much yet. Well, my family and I just spent the last 3 hours playing this game and it has been a blast. It was such a fun, new, exciting, and refreshing way to bring the family together on Christmas Eve! I know my brother will be looking to get a copy for himself in the near future!
Secret Santa, if you read this, Thank you so much! This was an incredible surprise at the end of a VERY long month! |
Masashi Wakui is popular for his captivating night photos of Japan. Wakui’s photos have this unique color effect that adds a touch of emotion to it. But what’s special is not the effect, but the technique used to create the effect. It involves just moving the existing nodes in the Tone Curve settings – you don’t even need to add any nodes. This technique can be used to create a variety of faded effects.
What is the Masashi Wakui Look?
You can see from Masashi Wakui’s Flickr that his photos have a unique color effect that works very well with the busy night cityscapes he captures. He may or may not have invented the effect, or he could have used an existing preset, but we’re just referencing this effect under his name because that is where we found it. What’s important is not the name of the effect, but the effect itself. That is because the color grading was created from a simple and smart technique that can be used in different situations. In the steps below, we’ll guide you through the process of recreating the effect.
Step 1
For this Lightroom tutorial, we’ll be using this photo of what looks like the Akihabara district in Tokyo. Go into the Develop settings and look in the Tone Curve area. We will only be using the Tone Curves for this tutorial.
If your Tone Curve shows the tonal sliders, click on the button on the bottom right of the Tone Curve section. This will switch it to point mode which allows for more control of the tone curve.
First, we’ll be lifting the blacks since that is the most obvious effect in Wakui’s photos. Simply drag the bottom-left node upwards like shown in the image below and you’ll get the lifted blacks.
Step 2
This is where the fun part happens. Click on the Channel dropdown and select the Green channel. Drag the top-right node downwards. This will compress the highlights in the green channel. The color grading doesn’t look very nice but it’ll all be fixed in the next step.
Step 3
Switch to the Blue channel then drag the top-right node downwards. How far down? About double the distance in the green channel.
Step 4
As you can see, we have an image with similar colors, but it’s not quite there. This is where you need to go back and forth between the RGB/Green/Blue channels and make adjustment until you get it looking right.
Tip: Moving the top-right node in the blue channel upwards increases the blue tint in the highlights. Moving it downwards increases the yellow tint.
You might even want to play around with the contrast or shadows/blacks to tweak the results a bit.
Final Results
That’s all! It’s a very simple technique that can be used in many different types of photos. This technique is quite special because it doesn’t require adding any nodes to the point curve. All you’re doing is crushing the shadows/highlights in the different channels.
Experiment with different settings. What happens when you lift the bottom-left node in the blue channel?
Here are more examples created with the same technique.
Update – March 3, 2016
This tutorial only covers a technique using the tone curve but does not go into further details on how to process it in Photoshop. For those who are wishing to achieve something closer, there’s a new set of Photoshop actions inspired by the post-processing style of Wakui. A free/lite version is also available on Photoshop Tutorials. |
Ben Reid will stay at Collingwood until the end of the 2018 season
COLLINGWOOD has secured the signatures of three key players – Ben Reid, Steele Sidebottom and Nathan Brown – on the eve of its vital clash against Geelong on Saturday night.
Reid, 24, has committed to the Magpies in a four-year deal that ties him to the club until the end of 2018.
His re-signing also takes him off the free agents list, as he was a restricted free agent.
He said he did explore his options before deciding to re-sign.
"With free agency you do have a little look at what's out there," Reid said.
"But I'm more than happy at Collingwood and can't see myself leaving, that's for sure."
Reid can play at either end of the ground, but has been earmarked to play forward in 2014. He is yet to play a game this season, as he continues to battle a niggling calf injury.
Sidebottom – who has played 110 games with the Magpies – signed a two-year deal that keeps him at Collingwood until the end of 2016.
The 23-year-old was a key part of the Magpies' 2010 premiership team, and the club hopes he can take another step in the next two years as he enters the prime of his career. He is a member of the club's leadership group.
Brown, who was also elevated to the club's leadership group this season, has also signed with the club until the end of 2016.
The 25-year-old defender injured his shoulder in round two against the Sydney Swans after making a successful return last season from a knee reconstruction.
"I wanted a longer term deal the age I am now, and I'm really happy Collingwood agreed with that," Brown said.
All three players were first-round draft picks for the Magpies, and played in the 2010 premiership team under Mick Malthouse.
They form a talented trio at a club that is attempting to regenerate its playing stocks without slipping down the ladder. The Magpies have made the finals for the past eight years.
Revealing the news on The Club on Fox Footy, Collingwood's director of football Rodney Eade said the club was rapt to secure the three players.
“The trio have proven themselves to be accomplished performers over a sustained period, with their conduct on and off the field earning them the right to be regarded as senior players, and in the case of Steele and Nathan, a place in our leadership group," Eade said.
"Nathan, Ben and Steele are highly valued by their peers and the club’s coaching staff, and we are confident they are each capable of playing their best football in the coming seasons."
The Magpies are understood to have also come to terms with young prospect Alex Fasolo, while Brodie Grundy recently extended his contract
Collingwood has Tyson Goldsack and Nick Maxwell as unrestricted free agents.
Maxwell is on a one-year contract as he approaches the end of his career. |
When I last spoke with Jim Pasco, head of the Fraternal Order of Police, he said he objected to allowing citizens to videotape police because police officers have a right to privacy while on the job and because he feared video could be edited and manipulated to make cops look bad. "Police officers don’t check their civil rights at the station house door," he said. He also implied that cops lying on the witness stand is as rare as DNA tests implicating the wrong person.
In USA Today, Pasco now appears to be employing a new strategy.
"The proliferation of cheap video equipment is presenting a whole new dynamic for law enforcement," says Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest police union. "It has had a chilling effect on some officers who are now afraid to act for fear of retribution by video. This has become a serious safety issue. I'm afraid something terrible will happen."
Over the last year I've received email and heard from a number of police officers on radio call-in shows who've said that citizen-shot video vindicated them in cases where they had been accused of misconduct. If video has been edited or manipulated, that's pretty easy to discern should it become a key piece of evidence against a police officer.
We want cops second-guessing decisions that are second-guessable. If an abundance of video cameras helps that to happen, all the better.
But there's no reason citizen video should make a good cop think twice before using appropriate force to apprehend someone who presents a threat to others. As noted above, he should welcome it, in case the suspect later claims the force was unwarranted. The problem is that when the head of the country's largest police union says he fears video will make cops hesitate before using legitimate force—just after saying video can be manipulated to make good cops look bad—he's really encouraging hesitation in these situations.
I don't know if Pasco's new line of attack will be more successful than his "cops have privacy rights" position. But it strikes me as irresponsible, and likely to encourage the very thing Pasco says he fears. |
Charanjit Bhullar
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, June 18
Escorting “VVIPs” in Punjab in pilot vehicles is leaving the state poorer by Rs 2.5 crore every year. Each escort and pilot vehicle is a fuel guzzler: consuming about 200 litres of diesel every month. Plus, the repair and maintenance of these 115 vehicles is a big burden on the state coffers.
The information procured under the RTI Act has revealed that 55 pilot vehicles move along DCs, SSPs, DIGs and IGs in Punjab to escort these officers. The average annual fuel consumption of these vehicles cost the state Rs 1.65 crore, besides the expenses on repair and maintenance of these vehicles.
In a big district, these pilot and escort vehicles consume fuel of over Rs 20 lakh a year, whereas in smaller ones the average annual expenses are around Rs 6 lakh to Rs 8 lakh.
The expenses being incurred on pilot vehicles attached with ministers and chief parliamentary secretaries are separate. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s native district Muktsar has three pilot Gypsies. Besides, two pilot vehicles run with the DC and the SSP.
In 2014, the fuel expenses of these five vehicles came out to be Rs 44.8 lakh — i.e. Rs 75,000 on every vehicle in a month. In 2007, this expense was Rs 7.73 lakh in Muktsar and after Akalis got power in 2012, this bill expanded to Rs 20.77 lakh. In 2013, the fuel expenses on escort vehicles further rose to 26.56 lakh.
During the Akalis regime in Punjab, in the past eight years, more than Rs 1.5 crore has been spent on fuel for pilot and escort vehicles in Muktsar. In Bathinda, another VIP area of the state, there are two reserve vehicles for visiting VIPs and one each for the DC and the SSP. In 2014, Rs 12.79 lakh was spent on the fuel of these vehicles. In the past eight years, Rs 86.26 lakh was spent to keep these escort vehicles running.
As per the entries marked by drivers in the official log books of these vehicles, the average mileage of these vehicles is 8 to 9 km per litre.
In Faridkot, Rs 35.36 lakh was spent on a pilot vehicle attached with the SSP and one reserve vehicle for a VIP in the past eight years. The expenses incurred on pilot vehicle attached with the DC are separate. In Moga, Rs 44.95 lakh was spent on pilot vehicles from 2007 to 2015, whereas the expenses on pilot vehicle with the DC were separate.
The border district of Amritsar, which faces the biggest rush of dignitaries, has seven escort vehicles and yearly Rs 12.6 lakh is spent on these. If pilot vehicles attached with the DC and the SSP are included, the expenses reach Rs 18 lakh.
The dignitaries going to Amritsar or Vaishno Devi pass through Jalandhar. Jalandhar has five pilot and escort vehicles which consumes diesel worth Rs 18 to Rs 20 lakh every year.
Apart from vehicles attached with the DC and the SSP, other escort vehicles consume Rs 7 lakh. Patiala district has only one pilot vehicle to escort dignitaries and in case of any emergency the SHOs arrange more vehicles as per need. Here Rs 12 lakh is spent per year on running the pilot vehicles. The state government has also provided pilot and escort vehicles to high-ranking officials. |
It looks like Anthem is interested in bringing back a former TNA World Champion. Dave Meltzer reported on Friday that TNA has made a contract offer to bring back Nick Aldis (aka Magnus). At press time, the deal has not been completed but the talks are said to be significant.
Aldis, 30, signed with TNA Wrestling in 2008 as Brutus Magnus. He was largely used as a mid-card/occasional upper-card wrestler during most of his tenure with the company. I always felt that he should have been pushed at the top of the card and he is someone that comes off as a credible champion with a good look and he is a very good in-ring worker. I am kind of surprised that WWE hasn’t made a play to sign him.
Aldis left TNA in 2015 and went on to work for Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling where he captured the GFW World Championship. Aldis is the husband of Mickie James. |
This morning Wikileaks released an updated leaked version of the draft Trans Pacific Partnership intellectual property chapter. The latest leak dates from May 2014 (the previous leak was current to August 2013. I assessed it in posts here, here, here, here and here). The 77-page document provides a detailed look at the proposed chapter, complete with country positions on each issue. While a comprehensive assessment of the chapter will take some time, the immediate takeaway is that the U.S. remains fairly isolated in its efforts to overhaul patent and copyright law around the world with Canada emerging as the leading opponent of its demands.
In fact, Wikileaks compiled the following graphic that shows Canada as the strongest opponent to TPP IP demands, signalling its opposition to a proposal 56 times, more than any other country. The strongest opposition comes in the patents, enforcement, trademarks, and copyright sections.
Why is Canada opposing so many U.S. demands?
Simply put, the U.S. wants Canada to eviscerate many of the recent reforms found in copyright and counterfeiting legislation along with court rulings on patent protection. These demands focus on enhanced criminal liability for copyright infringement, eliminating the Canadian approach to Internet service provider liability, extending the term of copyright protection, and expanding patent protection. Canadian negotiators have thus far resisted many of the proposed changes, offering alternatives that are compatible with current law. Yet as the treaty negotiations continue, the pressure to cave to U.S. pressure will no doubt increase, raising serious concerns about whether the TPP will force the Canadian government to overhaul recently enacted legislation that it has steadfastly defended as reflecting a balanced, “made in Canada” approach. |
Draw Happiness From as Many Different Sources as Possible
We’re not completely independent beings.
While we strive to cultivate as much internal happiness as possible, the truth is we still depend on external things for some level of comfort, pleasure, and life satisfaction.
These external things can be our relationships, our work, our hobbies, or personal interests such as books, movies, or music.
The key to balancing happiness among these external things is to be able to draw happiness from as many different sources as possible.
The more things that provide you with happiness, the more freedom and choice you have to find happiness when you really need it.
But if your happiness only depends on one thing, then you have to cling to that one thing to be happy.
And when that one thing doesn’t work out, there is nowhere else to turn to fulfill that need for happiness.
We can draw happiness from as many different sources as possible by embracing everything that’s good in life, rather than just one thing.
One of my favorite quotes on happiness is by Henry Ward Beecher, who said, “The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”
Happiness isn’t about winning the lottery, or becoming famous, or having a fancy car. Happiness is about making the most of what is already available to us.
Pay attention to the simple pleasures in life. We don’t have to look far to experience happiness, it’s often right under our noses. Also try to diversify your experiences. Don’t get caught in the “curse of familiarity.”
Often we forget how many new and positive experiences are available to us. Try to step outside of your routine every now and then and indulge yourself in activities you don’t usually do.
By doing this, you’ll have a richer reservoir of happiness to draw from on a daily basis.
Stay updated on new articles and resources in psychology and self improvement: |
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SAN DIEGO - The driver of the pickup truck that plunged more than 60 feet into a crowded festival at Chicano Park, killing four people and injuring nine, was in custody Sunday, authorities said.
Richard Anthony Sepolio -- a 24-year-old on-duty Navy serviceman stationed in Coronado -- was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, causing injury or death. He could face four counts of vehicular homicide, according to the California Highway Patrol.
On Saturday afternoon, Sepolio's truck plunged off the Coronado Bridge and landed in the park, where hundreds of people were attending the La Raza biker festival, authorities said.
Alcohol was involved, CHP spokesman Jake Sanchez said during a Saturday press conference.
"It's horrible," Sanchez said. "Innocent people were down here having a good time -- now, they're gone."
Authorities identified the four deceased as Cruz Elias Contreras, 52, and Annamarie Contreras, 50, both from Chandler, Arizona and Andre Christopher Banks, 49, and Francine Denise Jimenez, 46, both from Hacienda Heights.
Investigators used a curtain to surround an area where the truck landed.
The GMC truck landed on its side on top of four people, according to Chief Brian Fennessy of San Diego Fire-Rescue.
People attending the festival were able to get the badly damaged truck upright, Capt. Chuck Kaye of the San Diego Police Department said.
Police officers gave medical aid to those crushed by the truck, "but to no avail," Kaye said.
Sepolio suffered major trauma and is being treated for his injuries at UC San Diego Medical Center, Sanchez said.
The injured victims were taken to either UC San Diego or Scripps Mercy hospitals for treatment, said Lee Swanson, spokesperson for San Diego Fire- Rescue Department. All the injured victims are adults, authorities said. Their conditions also were unavailable.
The crash was reported shortly after 3:30 p.m.
Sepolio -- said to have been alone in the pickup that has Texas license plates -- was going southbound on Interstate 5, heading for the Coronado Bridge when he failed to make the transition and crashed, Swanson said.
The crash caused so much chaos that both the Coronado and Harbor police departments were called in to help.
A CHP officer told reporters that no police officers were pursuing Sepolio before he crashed.
San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer sent out a tweet Saturday, saying "praying for victims & families affected by tragedy in Chicano Park. Devastated this occurred in one of our community's most beloved places."
**WARNING: Video contains graphic language** |
Asked where he might end up playing in his first professional season, Dallas Stars goaltending prospect
Philippe Desrosiers
answered it like a pro.
“They told me I am turning pro,” Desrosiers said. “Whether I am playing in Texas (AHL) or Idaho (ECHL), I don’t know. I just want to do the best, and [Stars GM] Jim Nill will decide the best for me. I am just ready to be a pro.”
Desrosiers, who turns 20 this weekend, is turning pro after a stellar career in the junior ranks. A career he capped off by being named the Canadian Hockey League’s Goaltender of the Year, winning the Quebec Junior Hockey League’s Jacques Plante Trophy for best goals-against average and helping his team win the QMJHL championship and advancing to the Memorial Cup.
“They won the Quebec League and got to the Memorial Cup, that’s the best there is in juniors,” said Nill. “On top of that, he was the best goalie in the CHL. That’s the number one goalie in Canadian junior hockey; that’s not easy to do.”
It was a stellar season, but there were some bumps along the way and the young goaltender saw some benefits from the experience. Desrosiers posted a 29-9-3 record with a 2.50 goals-against average and .901 save percentage in helping lead the Rimouski Oceanic to the best record in the QMJHL. While Desrosiers played in 44 of 68 games during the regular season, it was a much different story in the playoffs. Rimouski coach Serge Beausoleil didn’t hesitate to change his goaltenders and ride the hot hand. Louis-Philip Guindon got hot and took a majority of the starts in the postseason.
“I thought that was a good thing for me,” Desrosiers said. “I learned a lot. I am a better goalie since then.”
Even though his playing time dropped in the postseason, Desrosiers came up big at crunch time. In Game 6 of the championship series against Quebec, he took over for Guindon early in the second period and stopped six of seven shots as Rimouski rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win 5-4 in overtime to force a seventh game. In Game 7 he stopped 47 of 48 shots as Rimouski won in double overtime to take the QMJHL championship and advance to the Memorial Cup.
“I had all the pressure on me in Game 7 and I did well,” Desrosiers said. “I am very proud of it.”
The Memorial Cup didn’t go as well for Rimouski, which lost three of four games at the tournament and finished fourth among the four teams. But that didn’t take away from what was an outstanding season.
“We had a great season,” Desrosiers said. “I didn’t play all the games, but at the end we did win, and that’s what we want. We had the Memorial Cup, too, but came up short. But overall I am very happy with my season.”
The Stars drafted Desrosiers in the second round (54th overall) in the 2013 NHL Draft. The Quebec native was coming off an excellent rookie campaign with Rimouski, earning All-Rookie Team honors and the Raymond Lagace Trophy as the league’s top defensive rookie. He also had a superb performance with Canada at the 2013 U-18 World Championship, leading his team to a gold medal with a 0.80 goals-against average and .970 save percentage. He rewrote the QMJHL record book in 2013-14, posting an all-time best shutout streak of 243:35. After Rimouski got bounced in the second round of the 2014 QMJHL playoffs, Desrosiers headed to the AHL where he served as the third goalie during part of Texas’ run to the Calder Cup championship. He didn’t play any games, but it was valuable experience.
“It was nice to live the pro life,” he said at the time. “And to practice with pro players meant harder shots, quicker plays. I think it is a good thing for me.”
The Stars have said training camp will help decide where Desrosiers plays this season. Jack Campbell is expected to be the No. 1 goaltender with the Texas Stars. Texas added another goalie recently, signing 27-year-old John Muse, who has 108 games of AHL experience. That would indicate that Desrosiers could begin his pro career with Idaho of the ECHL, where he should get ample playing time. And that would be OK with Desrosiers. He is just happy to go pro regardless of where he goes to start.
“I want to play at the best level I can,” Desrosiers said during development camp in July. “If they want me to play a lot in the ECHL, I will. I think they will make a good choice for me, and I am looking forward to it.”
Idaho hires new coach
The Idaho Steelheads, Dallas’ ECHL affiliate, will have a new bench boss for the 2015-16 season. The Steelheads have hired Neil Graham as the team’s new head coach and Director of Hockey Operations.
Graham replaces Brad Ralph, who resigned last week to become the head coach of the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League. Graham served as Ralph’s assistant the past two seasons. The 30-year-old Graham, who also served as a player/assistant coach in 2012-13, becomes the youngest head coach in team history.
Ralph coached Idaho for three seasons, posting a 132-64-20 record.
ESPN ranks top prospects
Denis Gurianov was named the Dallas Stars’ top prospect in a ranking just released by ESPN. Gurianov, Dallas’ first-round pick (12th overall) in the 2015 NHL Draft, ranked 49th on ESPN’s list of the 100 top NHL prospects. Gurianov, who picked up one assist in four games for Russia at the World Junior Summer Showcase in Calgary earlier this month, is expected to play in the KHL this season.
Also making ESPN’s top NHL prospects list were Dallas defense prospects Julius Honka (60) and Esa Lindell (73). Both Honka and Lindell are expected to play with the Texas Stars of the AHL this season.
Traverse City schedule
Dallas Stars prospects will open the NHL Prospect Tournament against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday, September 11. The Stars will also play Carolina and Detroit at the tournament, which will run September 11-15 in Traverse City, Michigan.
There will be a fourth game for Stars prospects at the tournament that will be determined by their standing after the first three games.
Other teams participating in this year’s tournament are Columbus, Minnesota, NY Rangers and St. Louis.
The Stars’ roster for the tournament is expected to be released within a couple weeks.
Here’s the Dallas schedule for the tournament:
Friday Sept. 11, vs. Chicago, 6 p.m. (CDT)
Saturday Sept. 12, vs. Carolina, 2:30 p.m. (CDT)
Monday Sept. 14, vs. Detroit, 6:00 p.m. (CDT)
Tuesday Sept. 15, vs. TBD
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club. Mark Stepneski is an independent writer whose posts on DallasStars.com reflect his own opinions and do not represent official statements from the Dallas Stars. You can follow Mark on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge. |
A family snapshot shows Nancy Watts holding Brad Watts, the newborn son she adopted, in 1975. Nanci Watts this year was able to meet the woman who birthed her son thanks to a change in Ohio law. (Photo: Provided)
In a Columbus hospital bed, the 14-year-old mother was awash in a mix of relief and regret as she awkwardly held her newborn son.
Relief because the delivery was over and, compared with the horror stories Lori Smith had heard about childbirth, it had gone easily.
Regret because she knew this would be the only time she'd ever hold the little boy she couldn't help but love.
"I just knew I couldn't give him a life," the woman – now known as Lori Gray – said in December, more than 40 years after she said goodbye to the son she birthed in 1975 and held for just 20 minutes. "I thought about him all the time. Every day, every second – about where he was, if he was having a good life."
She'd spot men around his age in shopping malls, and she'd wonder each time if that was the boy she'd given up when she was just a teenager. She'd always been willing to meet him, but Ohio law made that impossible: From 1964 to 1996, the state sealed its adoption records.
Her son grew up – first, just across town, and later, across the country – with his adoptive parents. Brad Watts wondered often about his birth parents, having been told only the basics: They were very young, not even 16. His father was athletic. His mother had olive skin and was allergic to penicillin. All other information, per Ohio law, was off limits.
Until last year.
In March 2015, legislators made adoption files available to Ohio children adopted during the 32-year blackout period – a move affecting more than 400,000 families. The files include the children's original birth certificates, bearing the names of their biological parents. The children could learn, too, whether their birth parents were willing to be contacted by the children they gave up.
The state fielded more than 7,200 file requests in the first seven months, and officials expect more to come as word spreads about the law change.
"We've heard all kinds of stories," said Betsie Norris, executive director of Adoption Network Cleveland, a statewide nonprofit organization. "Some of the stories are bittersweet. Some birth parents have been found who aren't ready for contact. But we've mostly heard of lots of happy reunions."
Supervisors Rena Boler and Dan Burleson inspect records in at the Ohio Department of Health's Office of Vital Statistics in Columbus. (Photo: Amber Hunt)
A happy story
Watts' story is one of the happy ones.
He grew up with Nanci and Byron Watts, a married couple who'd been trying without success to get pregnant. Though the couple began the process two years earlier, they still felt ill-prepared when the call came in early July 1975 that a days-old baby boy could be theirs to keep.
"They basically said, 'You can go in, you can spend time with him, and if you decide you don't want him, that's fine, too,' " recalled Byron Watts with a laugh. "Of course that wasn't going to happen. He was a four-day-old baby boy with really dark black hair, and he was very cute."
The Wattses took him home and struggled with all the challenges first-time parents face: sleepless nights, dirty diapers, waves of self-doubt. But there were other worries, too. They didn't know how they'd answer his eventual questions about his ethnic origin, nor did they know if their son would be prone to any hereditary medical conditions.
That's the concern that drove Bette English to try to learn more about her adoptive daughter's birth parents.
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Suzanne Warden, born in 1965, began having fainting spells and petit mal seizures when she was 5. Doctors couldn't find anything wrong with the girl, and Bette Warden hated being unable to provide a medical history for her daughter.
She reached out to the adoption agency with which she'd worked, but hit a wall.
"They said they didn't know anything more than they'd told me," English said.
Warden eventually grew out of the seizures – just as her biological mother had before her, a fact she wouldn't know until she was 50.
She had a good life, too, landing with English and her husband, a Cleveland-area couple, after spending months in foster care. She was raised with an adopted brother in a "rather idyllic Midwestern" setting in North Olmsted, where English stayed at home with the kids until they began Catholic school, and dad was a hard-working salesman.
"We had woods behind the house and a community pool where we swam with our friends," Warden said. "I don't remember them ever telling me about the adoption, so they must have told me very young."
Still, not knowing her family history gnawed at Warden, especially when she got married and pregnant herself. She hired a private investigator who came up empty, thwarted by Ohio's law.
"I remember when Duncan was 9 months old, the age I was when I was adopted," Warden said. "I remember sitting on the floor and just crying because I realized I'd not been connected to any family for nine months. I realized how developed a child is by that age, and what that disconnection could have done. That was a poignant time."
Warden gave up hope ever knowing, until she got a letter from the state telling her the law was changing.
Boler (left) and Burleson inspect records at the Ohio Department of Health's Office of Vital Statistics. (Photo: Amber Hunt)
Opening the closed door
Betsie Norris, of Adoption Network Cleveland, also was raised by adoptive parents.
As an adult, she decided to search for her birth parents, and had little trouble because she was adopted a few years before state legislators voted to start sealing the records.
It was a happy and welcome reunion on all sides, she said.
"It was such a grounding feeling to have my birth certificate, and to realize that (my birth mother) had even named me," Norris said. "It was a huge chunk of my identity, which I don't think I fully realized I was missing until I got it."
When she learned that it was by luck of her birthdate that she got answers denied to other adopted children, she set out to change the law.
That's when she learned her adopted father was among those who'd helped close the records in the first place. William B. Norris, a Cleveland-area lawyer and community activist, had been shocked that adoption records were open to the general public. He considered it an invasion of privacy and helped craft the 1964 law that sealed the records.
William Norris died 10 years ago. Before his death, his daughter recorded him talking about his reasoning behind the law.
"Frankly, I was unable to see the impact this would have on my own adopted children when they became adults," he said. "I now recognize that closing those birth records to adoptees was a grave mistake."
Overturning the law was no easy feat, Betsie Norris said in December. Legislators shot down one version after another of the law during the '80s and '90s. Norris got a win in 1996 with the unsealing of future records, but the 32-year period prior remained untouchable.
That partly was because no other state had opened previously sealed records before, and anti-abortion advocates worried that unsealing adoption records could prompt some birth mothers to choose abortion instead of adoption.
But as time passed, other states trailblazed on that front, and the data supported Norris' contention that abortion rates were unaffected by adoption records being unsealed.
So, in December 2013, legislators – with bipartisan support – passed a bill giving Ohio adoptees the ability to request their adoption files from the Ohio Department of Health.
Norris said the first wave of adoptees requesting their records largely understood the gravity of what they were asking. Most have been yearning for years to know their backgrounds, medical and otherwise.
She worries the second wave of requests might be less prepared.
"Not everyone really realizes how earth-shattering it's going to be until they're holding that piece of paper in their hands," Norris said. "It's a major life event."
Brad Watts (center) poses for a photo with members of his newly discovered family, including his birth mother, Lori Gray (yellow shirt). Watts reunited with his biological family earlier this year after Ohio unsealed adoption records from 1964 to 1996. (Photo: Provided)
Ready-made family
For Brad Watts, it was more than that.
He and his wife, Tiffany, who live in St. Louis, had daughter Addyson nearly 12 years ago. They were pregnant again in 2013, but their son was born prematurely at 27 weeks and didn't survive.
"When that happened, after we mourned, I just kept thinking, my birth family knows about me, knows that I was adopted, but it was kind of like I died for them. They don't know if I'm alive or if I was raised properly." If they were anything like him, he figured they'd want to know he was OK.
After he filled out the paperwork requesting his file, he began calling and texting his wife daily from work to see if his packet arrived in the mail.
Finally it did. His wife called him in tears.
"It's here! It's here!" she said. He excitedly ordered her to open it. She admitted she already had.
Watts, with his boss' blessing, started searching the Web and Facebook at work. He quickly found his mother still living in Ohio, and he learned through an obituary of a relative that he had at least two brothers. The obituary listed his grandfather's name, and he discovered that the now-elderly man lived in the same house, with the same phone number, he'd had in 1975.
"Google is an amazing thing. Google and Facebook," Watts said. He was too excited to make the phone calls, tasking his wife to do it instead. They approached Gray cautiously – "I didn't know if she'd told her family, and I wasn't there to mess up anybody's life," Watts said – and learned an amazing tale:
Lori Smith had become pregnant by her junior high sweetheart, Matt Gray. The two gave up their firstborn, but they eventually went on to marry and have five more children – four boys and a girl. All were full-blooded siblings to Brad, and they all had been told about the brother they never met. Some had even attempted to find him.
By the time Watts found Lori Gray, she was divorced from his father. She was also sick with cancer.
The two reunited in a hospital room.
"We have to quit meeting like this," Watts quipped.
Laughter cut through Gray's tears. "I only got to hold you for 20 minutes before they took you away," she cried.
"I'm a bit bigger now," Watts said.
He bonded immediately with his siblings, who embraced Watts' 11-year-old daughter Addyson as their niece. He, in turn, welcomed six nieces and nephews into his life.
Watts had grown up with a sister two years younger than he was – it turned out his adopted parents were able to conceive after all – but now his family was huge. All five brothers got matching tattoos – a cancer ribbon with wings on it – in honor of Gray's fight with the disease. They marveled at their similar personalities.
"On my adoptive side, I was pretty much the only boy," Watts said. "My whole life, I was told to be calm and quiet down. The Grays are the funnest people, and the loudest people, I've ever known. I'm like, 'Oh, good, there's more of me!' "
Lori Gray (center) poses for a photograph with Byron and Nanci Watts, who adopted Gray's son in 1975. The Watts and Gray met this year after Ohio unsealed adoption records from 1964 to 1996. (Photo: Provided)
His adoptive parents are thrilled with the reunion. They've met some of Watts' biological siblings, as well as his birth mother, and say they've embraced the clan as extended family.
"The law should have been changed a long time ago," Nanci Watts said. "In our case, everyone was open to finding out. He's ecstatic that he has these answers."
His biological mother said she's just as happy. Lori Gray seems to have beaten the cancer, with her last chemotherapy treatment set Dec. 29.
She credits the reunion with her son – and Ohio's law change – with helping her recover.
"I never thought I'd see him again," she said. "It's probably the best thing that ever happened to me."
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The National Rifle Association gave Terry McAuliffe an F when he ran for governor in 2013. McAuliffe said he didn't care, and if anything he seemed proud of the grade. But lately he has been taking steps that might make supporters of gun rights think better of him.
The governor already took one last year, when he hammered out a deal with Republicans in the General Assembly. They were furious at Attorney General Mark Herring, who had canceled reciprocity agreements with other states that recognized their concealed-carry permits. The deal with the governor reinstated such recognition. In return, it required the State Police to be on hand at gun shows to offer background checks, and it required individuals subject to protective orders to surrender their weapons.
Progressives thought they got the short end of the stick. So despite the governor's earlier decision to prohibit civilian bearing of arms in executive-branch offices, Everytown for Gun Safety, which has given millions to support Democrats in Virginia, took out a full-page ad to denounce McAuliffe and his deal.
Four months later, the governor grandly announced that he was restoring the voting rights of 206,000 felons. Republican heads exploded, and the ensuing debate eventually had to be settled by the Virginia Supreme Court, which struck down McAuliffe's order, requiring him to continue making restorations on a case-by-case basis.
In the meantime, though, a question arose: What about gun rights? Although McAuliffe's order stipulated that "nothing in this Order restores the right to ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms," the governor's order made it much easier for a felon to get his gun rights back. Formerly, an offender first had to petition for restoration of his civil rights, and once they were restored, go to court to retrieve his gun rights. McAuliffe's order eliminated the first step.
That was purely unintentional. "My actions were about giving you the right to vote, to serve on a jury and run for political office," McAuliffe admitted. "My action, I didn't think it had anything to do with gun rights. I stayed away from that."
Since the Supreme Court decision, the governor has continued to restore felons' rights on an individual basis; he's up to 140,000 now. And lawmakers are introducing bills to make the process automatic. Along similar lines, Republican Del. Greg Habeeb has introduced a measure to automatically restore gun rights to nonviolent felons.
Anybody who supports restoring voting rights will be hard-pressed to produce a persuasive argument against Habeeb's bill. Both voting and gun ownership are constitutionally protected, fundamental rights. The rationales that support restoring voting rights (e.g., the offender has paid his debt in full, African-Americans are disproportionately affected, the restriction has a sordid racial history, and so forth) apply with equal force to restoring gun rights.
As McAuliffe himself said, "These individuals have completed their sentences. . . . You can't be a second-class citizen. Once you've paid your time, there's no difference to me. We want you back. We want you to be a productive member of society."
Just so. But you can't be a first-class citizen if you are prohibited from owning firearms like everyone else.
This session, the governor has proposed a commendable criminal-justice reform package. It includes a badly needed adjustment to the state's standard for felony grand larceny. The figure was set at $200 in 1980, and has not been changed since. Had the threshold kept pace with inflation, it would be more than $500 today.
Critics call the proposal a cost-of-living adjustment for thieves, which is clever but misleading. Pegging the standard to inflation keeps it constant in real-value terms. Failing to adjust for inflation actually lowers the threshold in constant dollars. Today's $200 threshold is the equivalent of only $68 in 1980 dollars. Twenty years from now, assuming only 2.5 percent inflation, the threshold will fall to only $42 in 1980 dollars. (Assuming 5 percent inflation, it would fall to only $25 in 1980 dollars.)
Adjusting the felony standard does not allow criminals to steal more; refusing to adjust it makes a felony out of ever-smaller offenses. That gets expensive fast. Virginia spends about $25,000 year per prison inmate, so a 20-year stretch for felony theft costs the state half a million dollars. Does the public really benefit from lowering the felony ceiling year after year? Do Virginians want to spend a half-million dollars to punish someone for boosting a mid-range kitchen blender from Target?
Probably not. So adjusting the felony threshold make sense. And it carries an ancillary benefit: protecting the voting rights — and the gun rights — of nonviolent offenders who otherwise would be swept up by "felony creep."
Gov. McAuliffe probably did not intend that result of his proposal. But as he already has learned, sometimes the most powerful law is the one about unintended consequences.
This column originally appeared at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. |
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Denver Broncos executive vice president of football operations/general manager John Elway has said the team needs its draft classes to be "our foundation," and to that end the Broncos kept seven rookies when they made their initial roster cut to 53 players.
And some in that first-year class have already had an impact a week into the regular season. So, with that in mind, here's the first of what will be a weekly look at the Broncos' rookie class.
Cornerback Bradley Roby: With cornerback Chris Harris Jr. limited some as he continues to work back from ACL surgery and Kayvon Webster having been a game-day inactive, Roby was among the busiest Broncos in the win against the Indianapolis Colts. He played 63 snaps on defense to go with eight more on special teams. He knocked down three passes, including the game-clincher in the closing minutes, made seven tackles and spent much of the night locked up on Reggie Wayne. All in all a quality opening effort that will also likely earn him more playing time moving forward. In what Broncos coach John Fox routinely calls "a production-based business," Roby produced.
Wide receiver Cody Latimer: Latimer continues to get the coaches' attention with his physical skills and his work ethic in practice. His time for some playing time will come in the offense, but when that happens, he's still a work in progress. The Broncos have Latimer, like all of their receivers, learning all of the spots in the scheme and that means all of the audibles that go with them. It's an arduous process for a young receiver and why the list of players at the position the Broncos would have been willing to draft this past May was a fairly short one despite a deep class overall. Latimer played 10 plays on special teams against the Colts.
Tackle Michael Schofield: Schofield has worked as the backup at right tackle for the most part and the Broncos like his progress. He was a game-day inactive against the Colts.
Linebacker Lamin Barrow: He pushed hard for playing time at middle linebacker in training camp, but Nate Irving lifted his game and held off the rookie. Still, Barrow has the versatility to play in the Broncos' specialty packages as well and his speed is welcome on special teams. Only veterans Jacob Tamme, Quinton Carter and Steven Johnson, with 20, 24 and 24 snaps on special teams Sunday, played more than Barrow's 18 plays on special teams. Barrow finished with one special teams tackle.
Linebacker Corey Nelson: Nelson, too, made the roster by showing he was a quick study to go with his athleticism. He's worked plenty in a backup spot at weak-side linebacker so with Danny Trevathan's injury, Nelson was active Sunday. He played 15 snaps on special teams, but the starter at weak-side linebacker in place of Trevathan, Brandon Marshall, played every snap on defense.
Wide receiver Isaiah Burse: Burse rallied late in the preseason and showed a little more consistency handling the ball in the kicking game. He was their primary punt returner Sunday night and showed some inconsistency again. He fumbled one -- Roby recovered -- and averaged 1.3 yards on his three returns.
Running back Juwan Thompson: With Ronnie Hillman a game-day inactive, Thompson was in uniform for the game. He finished with one snap on offense, but the former Duke special teams standout finished with 11 plays on special teams against the Colts. |
snappygoat.com
I have lesbian parents. My biological mother and her partner were my primary Parental Units since I was in preschool. This means my kids have two grandmas.
Actually, because my biological father is remarried, and my sons’ father’s parents are divorced and remarried, technically my kids have 5 grandmothers, but that’s a topic for another day.
When my eldest son was a toddler, he was quite fond of a Richard Scary book called “Cars and Trucks and Things that Go.” I was less fond of it, because it was 72 pages long and bedtime could not come soon enough in my world.
So of course when my parents came to visit, I thrust the book and my toddler at them and went to wash the dishes. Washing dishes is not very appealing as a rule except as an alternative to putting a toddler to bed. Then it seems meditative and relaxing.
In the overly-long beloved book, there are cars shaped like hotdogs, cars shaped like animals, yes, there is a rainbow bus as well. I overheard my stepmother said something like, “And here’s the rainbow bus with all the gays and lesbians.” I wasn’t comfortable with that.
amazon.com
It’s not that I didn’t want my son to learn the word lesbian at some point, or that I was ashamed of my parents’ sexuality. I wanted my kids to think of gay marriages as just marriages. I didn’t want to emphasize how our family was different, I wanted my kids to grow up feeling like we were just like everyone else, because basically, we are.
When gay marriage and the Chick-Fil-A boycott hit the news, we discussed how some women married women (like Nana and Grandma Pat) and some women married men (like Grandpa Clint and Grandma Tricia) and some men married men (like my friends Bruce and Jerry). Neither child thought it was a big deal.
And it wasn’t, even though we chose not to eat at Chick-Fil-A any longer. My kids willingly gave up the best fast food play area in town because they loved all of their friends no matter who they married.
To my kids, same-sex marriage is nothing to get excited about. It’s not particularly noteworthy among their classmates, either. Grandparents are beloved simply because they are grandparents.
Right or wrong, grandparents are desexualized by society, and that makes the idea even safer to think about when you are a prepubescent kid. Having lesbian parents raised a lot of questions for me as a child, but grandmas are just grandmas, and no one wants to picture anyone’s grandma having sex. Grandmas are therefore the perfect sneaky and unexpected ninjas of normalization.
snappygoat.com
My children don’t have the pressure of keeping their family safe in the closet—they don’t have to tell lies about who their grandparents are. They don’t feel judged or different because of their grandparents’ lifestyle choices. What was the defining characteristic of my own childhood has zero effect on my kids today.
I’ve had some former classmates of my own tell me that my parents were the first same-sex couple they were exposed to. They didn’t necessarily connect the dots as children, but my family was their first example of gay people living normal lives—though I struggle to use the word normal in regard to my family for reasons that have nothing to do with sexual preference.
Again, that’s a topic for another blog, and normal is overrated.
But my parents likely were some of the first lesbians that my sons’ friends met or heard about as well. So far, no one has thought it was anything to get excited about. If my moms were actual ninjas, that definitely would have had a greater impact, because real ninja grandmas are way cooler than metaphoric ones.
I think time and exposure are the greatest weapons against prejudice. People meeting people of diverse backgrounds in real life and finding common ground—that’s the exposure part. But time, which feels like it moves at a crawl when it comes to social change—might be of even greater importance.
When I look at my generation, we were much less racist, homophobic, and sexist than our parents. When I look at my kids’ generation, they don’t even understand why the assorted -isms ever existed.
Oh, I know we still have a long way to go, but we will be led down the path by skipping children who care more about bugs and puddles than who is marrying whom.
No one wants to hear, “Oh, it’ll be better in 20 years, just hang out for a while and wait for these new kids to grow up.” But the truth is, time is going on regardless. We might as well have a little bit of hope that the ticking clock is also bringing acceptance. |
About 500 jobs are being cut at Loblaw Companies Ltd., beginning Monday, the company has confirmed. The cuts are being made in corporate offices and include executives, members of management and employees across divisions and functions that support Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart and other retail stores, including No Frills, Joe Fresh and Zehrs.
The cuts announced Monday are being made in corporate offices and include executives, members of management and employees across divisions and functions that support Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart and other retail stores, including No Frills, Joe Fresh and Zehrs. ( Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO )
“This will have no effect on hourly store roles,” said Loblaw spokesperson Kevin Groh, who added that the job losses are not related to any single fact, including the announced increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Ontario and Alberta. “Our industry is facing a range of pressures. This isn’t related to any single one. In fact, it’s really about our future. To invest meaningfully in promising areas means saving meaningfully in others,” Groh said. “While this is a difficult time and process, there is a future that includes considerable job creation,” said Groh.
Article Continued Below
In a memo to staff on Monday, obtained by the Star, Sarah Davis, president, Loblaw Companies Ltd., said the move was being made to control costs. “These decisions are difficult but necessary. Our business is at an inflection point, with growing pressures – from new costs and new competition – and with many opportunities to grow and evolve. As always, we continue to focus on our future,” Davis wrote. The internal memo goes on to say that the company is committed to cost reductions and running the business efficiently. Groh said the company is investing in areas including digital initiatives, online commerce, health care initiatives and financial services and is creating new positions, as it does so. Loblaw Companies Ltd. announced in July 2013 that it had acquired Shoppers Drug Mart in a $12.4 billion deal.
Loblaws is one of Canada’s largest private employers, employing 200,000, according to Groh. Loblaw chair and chief executive officer Galen Weston told analysts during a quarterly earnings call in July that the increase in minimum wage to $15 an hour in Ontario and Alberta was going to increase the company’s labour expenses by about $190 million next year. |
On Friday's The Last Word, a panel of MSNBC regulars fretted over President Donald Trump's speech to the Values Voters Summit, and made their latest accusations of racist "code," with contributor Jonathan Capehart ridiculously suggesting that the words "take their country back" used by Tea Partiers in 2010 was motivated by racism.
Substitute host Ali Velshi also fretted over a flyer from the event warning about the dangers of homosexuality, and, while previewing the segment, even briefly mentioned the MRC's "I Don't Believe the Liberal Media" bumper stickers that were also displayed on Saturday's AM Joy.
In the last segment of the show, without noting that the Southern Poverty Law Center is a far-left group, Velshi noted that the SPLC considers the Family Research Council to be a "hate group" as he set up discussion of FRC's Values Voters Summit. Velshi:
Presidents don't usually go to the Values Voters Summit even though it's a good place -- candidates actually often go to them -- run by the Family Research Council which is labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center largely because of their anti-homosexual tendencies.
After panel member Joan Walsh of the far-left The Nation magazine injected, "Right, very extreme," Velshi continued:
They actually put out a pamphlet -- a book about homosexuality called The Health Hazards of Homosexuality: What the Medical and Psychological Research Reveals. I really can't get my head around it, but I understand why candidates sometimes want to court this kind of an audience. But, as the President of the United States, this is not a -- this is not a broad-ranging group.
The MSNBC host's fretting over a conservative group's flyer on homosexuality belies the fact that warning against the health dangers of homosexual sex is hardly unreasonable since even the Obama administration Centers for Disease Control reported that about 70 percent of new HIV infections are found in homosexual or bisexual men.
After Walsh mused over why white evangelical Christians selected Trump over other Republican candidates, she suggested that their real motivation was to make women and minorities "know their place." Walsh:
<<< Please support MRC's NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>
But that they believed Trump really was going to bring us back to a place where men are men, women know their place, people of color know their place, gays --
Velshi then jumped in to inject: "And people say Merry Christmas to you when you walk into the store." After Walsh finished, the MSNBC host then turned to Capehart and suggested that there was a "code" in what the President was saying at the summit:
Jonathan, there are some who say it's nostalgia, and there are some who say that's all code. "Things are changing back." Something as innocuous and benign as "They're going to say Merry Christmas again" really means something different.
Without it occurring to him that political talk of "taking America back" or "taking the country back" is standard rhetoric that is used by both political parties, Capehart imagined racism as he responded:
Mm-hm. Yeah, it's code. Remember "Make America Great Again"? The people who gravitated to that phrase are the ones who were saying around the time of the rise of the Tea Party in 2010 that they wanted to "take their country back." And, of course, Joan and I -- we've always asked this question: Take the country back from whom? We know what's going on here. There are people in the President's base who are very uncomfortable with the demographic changes that are already under way in the country, and so they're very nostalgic about a time they were central to the political life and concerns of this country.
One need only do a few Google or Amazon searches to find events, speeches and books involving prominent Democrats that have utilized some form of this phrase during George W. Bush's time as President.
Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Nancy Pelosi all spoke at a Take Back America conference in 2006.
Clinton also used such phrasing in a speech to the DNC in 2007, in her concession speech in June 2008, and her August 2008 speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Former DNC chairman Howard Dean used the phrasing in not just one, but two books.
And Walsh's colleague from The Nation -- Katrina Vanden Heuvel -- released a book during the Bush administration that utilized similar wording.
The words have also been used by Arianna Huffington, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., James Carville and Paul Begala.
As Velshi turned back to Walsh, he again referred to "code" as he argued that immigration is necessary for the U.S. economy:
So it's not just DACA, it's the legal immigration that the President wants to stop, and Stephen Miller again painted that in terms of English-speaking better immigrants. Again, it's code. It's not actually economically sound.
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Friday, October 13, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC: |
Newark, New Jersey: The City of Newark and Uber have just reached a tentative agreement, according to a statement from Mayor Ras J. Baraka.
The statement says that the agreement "will keep UBER in Newark, protect the business interests of the taxi and limousine industry and provide a boost to the city’s economic development and leadership in technology".
Baraka's announcement comes after proposed legislation by the Newark City Council to regulate ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber. The city sent an email to residents on Friday morning titled "Uber Falsehoods", reading that "Uber is spending over $1,000,000 on advertising to deceive people. We need your help to get the truth out."
Uber created a website this week called BarakaBan.com, but the content on the site has since been removed.
“We are pleased that we reached a tentative agreement with Mayor Baraka. We look forward to continuing to provide transportation options and economic opportunity to Newark and its citizens", Uber spokesperson Craig Ewer told Essex County Place.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Send story ideas, letters to the editor, and photos to placenjwebsites@gmail.com.
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December 2014 a group of 10 Canadian trainers arrived in Ukraine. If still there they must be pulled back
This article originally appeared at Rabble.ca
Are Canadian troops still serving in Ukraine?
If so, they are now in direct violation of the Minsk II Agreement brokered by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande and signed by the Ukrainian and Russian presidents on Feb. 11.
Either way, Canadians deserve to know whether our soldiers remain in Ukraine.
If they do remain, Defence Minister Jason Kenney has only one proper course of action, and that is to immediately pull them out in the cause of peace and respect for "the most basic humanitarian, legal and, indeed, moral norms of international conduct," as former external affairs minister John Baird put it in an only slightly different context not so long ago.
Under Point 10 of the 13-point German-French-brokered ceasefire agreement, the signatories agreed to: "Pullout of all foreign armed formations, military equipment, and also mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under OSCE supervision."
This was presumably intended as a reference to the 10,500 Russian troops the Ukrainian government and its Western supporters say are operating in the country's Russian-speaking eastern regions. For its part, Russia insists this is not true and has called on the powers backing the Ukrainian government to produce satellite photos or other evidence to support the claim.
Nevertheless, there are known to be U.S. and other western troops -- presumably still including the tiny group of about 10 Canadian soldiers -- in the country, and the ceasefire agreement says what it says.
Back in December 2014, by which time the situation in Ukraine had deteriorated into a full-scale fight that had strong characteristics of a civil war, then-defence-minister Rob Nicholson announced that Canada was immediately sending the Canadian soldiers to Ukraine to train Ukrainian troops.
Rather typically of the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Nicholson made the announcement in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, not anywhere in Canada.
In the Globe and Mail's account of that announcement, Nicholson was quoted as saying the small unit of Canadian military police troops arrived in Ukraine on December 8 and immediately set to work training Ukrainian soldiers.
"Russia has flagrantly violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine and continues its efforts to intimidate and undermine the democratically elected government in Kiev," said a joint declaration issued that day by the Canadian and Ukrainian governments.
This may or may not be a fair description of the facts, given both the strong popular support for reunification with Russia in the disputed territory of Crimea, which by then was already under full Russian control, and the way the government of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko came to power in February 2014.
The latter has been described as a coup and was certainly in violation of the country's constitution. What's more, Ukrainian tactics in the U.S.-backed military actions that followed -- which lately have not been going Ukraine's way -- have created a rift in the country that is likely to be permanent, according to the conservative Financial Times, and reduced support for the war in all parts of Ukraine, according to the New Yorker magazine.
It is true, though, that Ukrainian parliamentary elections took place in October 2014, although how fair they were or whether they took place in all parts of the country remain the subject of competing claims.
Meanwhile, whether or not the Canadian troops now remain in Ukraine is unclear. The time and duration of their mission was not explained when the announcement was made by Nicholson, who was appointed minister of foreign affairs after Baird's sudden resignation on Feb. 3.
The December 8, Globe and Mail story left the impression, without quite stating it, that the number and role of the Canadian troops arriving that day would grow. However, not much more about that seems to have been said by the Canadian government. Nor has there been any announcement the Canadian troops have been pulled out.
Yesterday, Kenney made an ambiguous statement in which he promised Canadians would not be on the front lines, but left it unclear whether they are in the country now, or, if they are, how many. "Our men, should they be deployed to the [U.S.-led training] mission would be far out of harm's way," Kenney was quoted as saying in a Global News story. (The awkward parenthetical explanation is from Global.)
If Canada fails to follow through on the logistically easy task of removing its tiny unit of military police troops, as well as any other military personnel that may have followed them to Ukraine, it will certainly appear to be an effort by Canada to deliberately sabotage the ceasefire -- a policy that is unlikely win us many friends in Europe, including in Germany and France, which brokered the agreement because they are desperate to avoid a dangerous war so close to their borders.
Of course, if the Minsk II deal falls apart, as is considered likely by many observers, and assuming that the Canadian Government wishes to continue its belligerent policy in Ukraine, as also seems likely, it would be logistically easy for the unit to be sent back then.
Just the same, if we're going to behave like a proper member of the community of nations -- as we've been lecturing certain other countries to do -- we need to walk the walk, and not just talk the talk. At this particular moment in that particular location, the direction of that walk needs to be to the west! |
We get it, the most desirable version of a limited edition PlayStation is up for grabs, and you really want it. Even better, your generous bid will go to charity, improving the lives of children. In the industry, that's referred to as a "win win." Except when it's not. The auction for that #00001 anniversary edition PS4 (that sold for around $127,000) has -- perhaps not unsurprisingly -- fallen through. Sony doesn't detail why, but it's not hard to imagine that a chronic case of buyer's remorse, or an inability to pay could have something to do with it. Sony's still coming good on its side of the deal though, and is making the promised donation (a match of the winning bid) to charity as planned. For those serious bidders that missed out, this could mean a second bite of the cherry. Sony's not saying exactly what it's doing with the console, but for now it's putting it on display at its Ginza location. PS4-fans without the deep pockets can swing by to take a look at it starting this Saturday. |
This Roy Morgan survey on Australia’s unemployment and ‘under-employed’* is based on weekly face-to-face interviews of 380,299 Australians aged 14 and over between January 2007 – May 2014 and includes 4,181 to-face interviews in May 2014.
In May 2014 an estimated 1.186 million Australians (9.7% of the workforce) were unemployed. May unemployment is down 0.7% from last month, however compared to the same time last year unemployment is up 0.2%.
The Australian workforce* was 12,226,000 comprising 7,504,000 full-time workers; 3,536,000 part-time workers; and 1,186,000 looking for work according to the Roy Morgan monthly employment estimates. The Roy Morgan employment and unemployment figures do not include people who have dropped out of the workforce and given up looking for work.
Among those who were employed 993,000 Australians (8.1% of the workforce*) were under-employed, i.e. working part-time and looking for more work. This is down 0.5% from a month ago, but up 0.3% compared to the same time a year ago.
In May in total an estimated 2.179 million Australians (17.8% of the workforce) were unemployed or under-employed. This is down 1.2% from April but up 0.5% higher than in May 2013.
The latest Roy Morgan unemployment estimate of 9.7% is a substantial 3.9% higher than the figure currently quoted by the ABS for April 2014 (5.8%).
Roy Morgan Unemployed and ‘Under-employed’* Estimate Unemployed or ‘Under-employed’* Unemployed Unemployed looking for ‘Under-employed’* Full-time Part-time 2013 ‘000 % ‘000 % ‘000 ‘000 ‘000 % Jan–Mar 2013 2,391 19.2 1,352 10.9 703 649 1,039 8.3 Apr–Jun 2013 2,243 18.1 1,176 9.5 588 587 1,067 8.6 Jul–Sep 2013 2,314 18.5 1,272 10.2 618 654 1,042 8.3 Oct–Dec 2013 2,439 19.5 1,337 10.7 734 603 1,102 8.8 2014 Jan-Mar 2014 2,532 20.0 1,489 11.7 844 645 1,043 8.2 Months April 2013 2,254 18.1 1,154 9.3 508 646 1,100 8.8 May 2013 2,129 17.3 1,168 9.5 629 539 961 7.8 June 2013 2,346 18.9 1,205 9.7 628 577 1,141 9.2 July 2013 2,398 19.1 1,267 10.1 616 651 1,131 9.0 August 2013 2,257 18.2 1,251 10.1 631 620 1,006 8.1 September 2013 2,286 18.3 1,297 10.4 607 690 989 7.9 October 2013 2,410 19.3 1,333 10.7 726 607 1,077 8.6 November 2013 2,404 19.3 1,268 10.2 700 568 1,136 9.1 December 2013 2,503 19.8 1,411 11.2 777 634 1,092 8.6 January 2014 2,545 20.0 1,440 11.3 851 589 1,105 8.7 February 2014 2,641 20.8 1,561 12.3 866 695 1,080 8.5 March 2014 2,410 19.1 1,465 11.6 814 651 945 7.5 April 2014 2,387 18.9 1,308 10.4 628 680 1,079 8.5 April 2014** 2,374 19.0 1,299 10.4 629 670 1,074 8.6 May 2014 2,179 17.8 1,186 9.7 603 583 993 8.1
*Workforce includes those employed and those looking for work – the unemployed. **The Roy Morgan employment estimates for May 2014 are based to a lower estimate of the Australian population aged 14 or more (from 19,365,000 in the original April figures to 19,205,000 for the revised April figures and now at 19,232,000 in May). The lower Roy Morgan national population estimate is a result of ABS revisions after fully including the results of the most recent ABS Census.
Gary Morgan says:
“In May Australian unemployment fell for a third straight month to 1.186 million Australians (9.7%, down 0.7%). In further good news Australian under-employment fell to 993,000 Australians (8.1%, down 0.5%). Now a total of 2.18 million (17.8%) Australians are unemployed or under-employed – the lowest for a year since May 2013 (2.13 million Australians – 17.3%). “However, although the fall in unemployment and under-employment in May appears like good news, a key driver of the falls was a drop in the total Australian workforce as many people either stopped looking for work or lost their jobs. Both full-time employment (7,504,000) and part-time employment (3,536,000) fell and the total workforce decreased to 12,226,000 – the lowest total workforce since January 2013 (12,139,000). “The fall in the total workforce means Australia’s participation rate fell to 63.6% in May (down 1.6% since April). Australia’s participation rate is now at its lowest for nearly three years, since July 2011 (63.0%). The fall in the participation rate is a trend that has also been seen in the United States. Although official US unemployment has fallen to 6.3% in April 2014, the US participation rate has fallen to 62.8% - the lowest US participation rate since 1979. “The fall in the May unemployment estimate continues the general trend evident in the Roy Morgan March and April employment estimates and shows that despite many of the headlines in recent months, Australian unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in a year. Although the trend for unemployment is in the right direction – this is the first time Australian unemployment has fallen for three straight months since May 2011 – there are clearly additional reforms to the labour market required to increase the flexibility and productivity of the Australian labour force. “The measures outlined in the Federal Budget that aim to reduce welfare dependency for unemployed Australians under 30 by forcing young jobseekers to wait for up to six months before receiving unemployment benefits and also to ‘work for the dole’ for at least 25 hours a week to receive unemployment benefits are a step in the right direction – but the biggest driver of employment growth is a healthy and growing economy. “By stimulating the Australian economy through targeted tax reform and in turn reducing the still high level of unemployment and under-employment (2.18 million Australians) the Abbott Government will also achieve another policy aim by reducing and eventually eliminating Australia’s Federal Budget deficit. “If urgent reforms to increase workplace productivity are not undertaken – including eliminating excessive penalty rates for weekend work – there will be further job losses in the future. Failure to implement labour productivity reforms will in turn undermine confidence in the economy (ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence has already fallen from a mid-April high of 116.1 to a five year low of 99.3 on the weekend of May 24/25, 2014) and will ultimately be a major factor in the Abbott Government losing the next Federal Election.”
This Roy Morgan survey on Australia’s unemployment and ‘under-employed’* is based on weekly face-to-face interviews of 380,299 Australians aged 14 and over between January 2007 – May 2014 and includes 4,181 to-face interviews in May 2014.
*The ‘under-employed’ are those people who are in part-time work or consultants who are looking for more work. (Unfortunately the ABS does not release this figure in their monthly unemployment survey results.)
For further information:
Contact Office Mobile Gary Morgan: +61 3 9224 5213 +61 411 129 094 Michele Levine: +61 3 9224 5215 +61 411 129 093
Unemployment Data Tables
Roy Morgan Research Employment Estimates (2001-2014)
Roy Morgan Research Unemployment & Under-employment Estimates (2007-2014)
Roy Morgan Research vs ABS Employment Estimates (1992-2014)
ABS Employment Estimates (1992-2014)
ROY MORGAN MEASURES REAL UNEMPLOYMENT IN AUSTRALIA
NOT THE ‘PERCEPTION’ OF UNEMPLOYMENT – JUNE 8, 2012
http://www.roymorgan.com/~/media/Files/Papers/2012/20120603.pdf
The Roy Morgan Unemployment estimate is obtained by surveying an Australia-wide cross section by face-to-face interviews. A person is classified as unemployed if they are looking for work, no matter when.
The results are not seasonally adjusted and provide an accurate measure of monthly unemployment estimates in Australia.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics Unemployment estimates are obtained by mostly telephone interviews. Households selected for the ABS Survey are interviewed each month for eight months, with one-eighth of the sample being replaced each month. The first interview is conducted face-to-face. Subsequent interviews are then conducted by telephone.
The ABS classifies a person as unemployed if, when surveyed, they have been actively looking for work in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and if they were available for work in the reference week.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics Unemployment estimates are also seasonally adjusted.
For these reasons the Australian Bureau of Statistics Unemployment estimates are different from the Roy Morgan Unemployment estimate. Gary Morgan's concerns regarding the ABS Unemployment estimate is clearly outlined in his letter to the Australian Financial Review, which was not published. |
BY: Follow @DavidRutz
After a volatile 2015 for MSNBC that included multiple show cancellations, 2016 seemed like a time to get back on course.
With the hopes of steering another election into the Democratic column, MSNBC leaned far forward in 2016 on behalf of Hillary Clinton and the hopes of an ascendant Democratic Party to carry on the legacy of President Obama ("the most noble man who has ever lived in the White House").
Those hopes were dashed.
Whether it was Joy Reid systematically shutting down any conservative voices on her program, hysterical overreactions to Donald Trump's victory, openly celebrating the Democrats' gun control sleepover, hilariously bad coverage of Clinton's 9/11 fainting spell, or Brian Williams saying the U.S. used nuclear weapons in "anger", the hot takes came thick and fast as usual.
Here's the worst of Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O'Donnell and the gang in another year of left-wing lunacy on cable's most ridiculous news channel. |
Josh Miller/CNET
SAN FRANCISCO -- Taking a bite of the grilled cheese sandwich, the aged cheddar filling my mouth, and the artisan white bread crunching just as it should, it's clear technology helped make this lunch better than it could have ever been before.
I'm sitting in the corporate offices of The Melt, the would-be grilled cheese empire started by former Flip Camera founder Jonathan Kaplan. After biting into a Classic, I would have told you it was made just minutes earlier. Actually, it had come off the grill 35 minutes before, its still scrumptious state possible because of The Melt's brand-new patented Smart Box.
Said by Greg Hernandez, The Melt's vice president of operations, to be the first of its kind in the retail food industry, the Smart Box was a design, 10 months in the making, created specifically to allow The Melt's urban locations to deliver grilled cheese sandwiches that are still hot and chewy, and not soggy. You know, like a grilled cheese sandwich ought to be.
For some time, The Melt had been eager to expand into catering, because in the casual-restaurant industry, 10 percent to 35 percent of business can come from delivery. "That's a huge number we were not capturing," Hernandez said. "And as you drive catering, you expose yourself to new customers. There's a 90-day lag, and then a boost."
For The Melt, which currently has 15 locations scattered around California, finding ways to grow its business is key. As a private company, it would not reveal its financials, but in a statement to CNET, Vice President of Marketing Kelli Martin said, "The Melt has an accelerated growth plan focused on launching several more California-based locations and launching in a new market outside of California in" the first quarter of 2015. "Catering [fits] perfectly into this growth plan to deliver grilled cheese happiness to more people."
Smart Box technology
Befitting a company with roots in technology, The Melt's Smart Box brings algorithms to the table. As the company set out to find a way to deliver what it considered satisfactory sandwiches, it found the best boxes currently available worked for only about seven minutes. After that, the bread would get soggy and the cheese would get cold. Nothing else on the market could solve the problem, Hernandez explained.
That was both "terrible" news and good news, he said. Faced with an inability to simply buy what they needed, The Melt decided to invent a solution. The challenge, of course, was finding a way to create air flow in a box, yet not allow too much moisture to build up.
In a first proof of concept, The Melt's "Tiger Team" came up with a cardboard box with holes and a built-in hair-dryer, for air circulation. With sandwiches suspended inside on bamboo skewers, this approach worked for about 20 minutes -- but of course no one would buy a grilled cheese sandwich that came from inside such a box.
The Melt
But that prototype was important, Hernandez recalled, because it established that air circulation was the key to a quality grilled cheese sandwich. After several other iterations, the company arrived at version 4, the current model, and at least 30 minutes, and as much as an hour's-worth, of post-grill goodness for up to 18 sandwiches.
At the bottom of the box, there's an aluminum heat mass. Plugged into an electrical outlet, the mass heats to 210 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point the box can go mobile. A small light turns from red to green, letting the store manager know it's time to go.
Also inside the box is a fan, which blows air over the heat mass, over several holes so that there's constant circulation inside. Sensors placed on the interior of the box measure heat -- so that if the temperature drops too low, it's clear it's time to plug back into an outlet -- as well as humidity. A second fan automatically engages if the humidity gets too high, sucking out moisture. All of this is run by a microcontroller, and The Melt's algorithm, which aims to keep the sandwich tasting as if it had just come off the grill.
As for the sandwiches themselves, they're held in a compostable box that keeps them raised off a flat surface, and that has holes in it to allow air circulation. Though the system seemed to be able to maintain that quality for up to an hour, Hernandez said The Melt decided 30 minutes was the maximum time allowable for delivery.
Pizza, burgers, and fries
Although The Melt currently focuses on selling grilled cheese sandwiches, Hernandez said the Smart Box could work just as well for other hot foods like pizza, hamburgers, and even french fries. One thought is that the company may decide at some point to sell or license its box technology to other restaurants. Or, it's possible that it may branch out from grilled cheese, though Hernandez wouldn't confirm the latter idea.
For now, the company will be rolling out 10 of the boxes in San Francisco. But Hernandez said The Melt is working on producing between 10 and 20 more so that it can start delivering from its other locations.
Will it work? It's hard to say, of course. But in downtown San Francisco, there's already a trend of sandwich sellers rolling delivery carts around -- at room temperature. The Melt obviously thinks it can step up the game. Thanks to the industry's experience with the business boost that comes from catering, Hernandez said, the boxes "can pay for themselves in six months." |
Two years ago, the future of the Canadian oil and gas industry looked extremely bleak. OPEC’s attempt to drown its competitors in cheap oil – especially those in the United States – had forced energy prices below the threshold cost of production in Alberta. Sales of land rights in the province dried up, drilling slowed to a crawl, investment tanked: 16 oilsands projects were cancelled. Thousands of energy industry workers lost their jobs.
To make matters worse, the fracking revolution in the U.S. had unlocked an ocean of oil and natural gas in Alberta’s main export market.
Then in May 2015, Albertans elected a provincial government promising an array of new taxes and regulations on the energy sector. That fall, Canadians elected a prime minister of a similar bent. Within months Calgary real estate prices suffered a precipitous decline and the commercial vacancy rate breached 20 percent.
The province had survived many boom-busts in the past but this downturn felt different, deeper and more structural than any before. “Last one out turn off the lights” was muttered grimly over drinks by unemployed petroleum engineers.
At the dawn of 2017, however, oil prices are holding steady north of $50 a barrel, and the mood in Calgary is shifting from game over to game on.
As ever, the leading sign of recovery is investment, marked especially by this month’s news that a “star” global investment banker is coming back to Alberta’s oilpatch with a bag of money.
Adam Waterous and his brother Jeff started Waterous and Co. in Calgary in 1987 and built the company into a worldwide oil and gas acquisitions and divestitures firm before selling out to the Bank of Nova Scotia in 2005.
Now 55-year-old Adam Waterous, co-Head of Global Equity and Advisory at ScotiaBank, is leaving that plum post at the end of January to start a new Calgary-based M&A outfit, seeded with $400 million in international start-up capital. In an interview with the Financial Post, Waterous expressed great optimism about the future of the Canadian energy sector, saying the best opportunities lie in new technologies applied to unconventional plays that can deliver elevated – even unprecedented – rates of return through fracking, and horizontal drilling.
“I think in Alberta, despite this painful restructuring we are going through, the energy business is going to have a tremendous renaissance,” Waterous said. “This is not a fad. This is something that has enormous legs in front of it because of the enormous number of drilling locations.”
Such enthusiasm, while encouraging, needs to be tempered by the fact that the tax and regulatory climate in Canada remains inclement compared to competing jurisdictions. Massive oilsands expansion projects that have been postponed or cancelled are likely to stay benched for the foreseeable future. Despite recent federal government approvals for both the proposed Petronas LNG plant at Kitimat and the twinning of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline to Vancouver, doubts persist. Knowledgeable observers question whether the former remains economically viable, and whether Ottawa is sufficiently committed to the latter to stare down the protestors who will undoubtedly try to block its construction. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t sound very dependable when he recently suggested at a town hall in Ontario that the oilsands must be “phased out”. Nor did he sound very convincing at another town hall in Calgary this week where he claimed he “misspoke”.
Perversely, Trudeau’s contradictory comments might actually be welcomed by Adam Waterous and his investors. Their business plan is at least partly predicated on the availability of cheap energy assets. After more than two years of market turmoil and unfriendly government there are plenty of distressed small-cap companies – distressed but with solid assets – that are anxious to find buyers.
In past years the usual source of capital, public equity firms based in eastern Canada and the U.S., would have picked discerningly through these cherries. “Not today,” says Jason Fleury, Director of Investor Relations at Calgary small-cap Painted Pony Petroleum. “The big funds have lost interest in Alberta. The market specialists are mostly gone. They’re generalists now. And the U.S. investors don’t know much about what we have here… refineries, pipeline capacity, egress opportunities. That scares them off.”
That means less competition and more opportunities for smaller, nimbler private equity funds of the kind Waterous is assembling. And the first bet can certainly be the best bet if things keep improving as they have in recent months.
Energy prices bottomed out in the second quarter of 2016 when oil sank to $26, and natural gas to $1.62. Oil now routinely trades over $50 and gas above $3.00. That’s far from the lofty price peaks of a few years ago, but it’s certainly pointing the right direction.
There has also been a Darwinian effect. The oilpatch has a saying that the cure for low oil prices is low oil prices: That is, low prices drive weaker players off the board, production falls and ongoing demand forces prices up again. Now that OPEC is trimming production, companies that survived by cutting costs and increasing efficiency are well-situated to reap the reward of rising prices.
More evidence of a rebound is in a rising rig count in Alberta: as of 23rd January, 226 were at work out of 450 available. It’s a milestone, marking the first time in two years that more rigs were active than idle.
This in turn helps employment: Precision Drilling for example re-engaged 1,000 rig workers last fall. President and CEO Kevin Neveu says he’s encouraged by the “significant improvement in sentiment of our customers and the resulting increase in activity.”
It’s fitful recovery, though, of dubious sustainability, which means workers who were laid off from the patch and moved on are reluctant to return to jobs of uncertain duration. Hiring calls are thus going unanswered. On January 24, for example, Alberta service rig operator Canyon Technical Services had 24 rig-related jobs that were going begging.
“It’s a more sudden return to activity levels than we anticipated,” Rob Cox, vice-president of Canadian operations for Trican Well Services told the CBC this month. “We’re finding that there’s not as big an appetite for a lot of those people to come back to the oilpatch.”
Workers are understandably wary of an equally sudden return to high inactivity levels, but here’s another “green shoot”: oil exports are denominated in U.S. dollars, but domestic exploration and productions costs are expended in Canadian dollars. Thus, the five-year decline of the loonie against the greenback from parity to roughly 75¢, means a foreign exchange bonus for Canadian producers. Fifty dollar oil on Nymex is actually more like $70 to the shareholders in Calgary.
Finally, the political environment has changed, on balance seemingly for the better. The federal Liberal cabinet approvals for the Petronas, Kinder Morgan and Enbridge’s Line 9 projects represents progress, minus Ottawa’s rejection of the Northern Gateway Pipeline and moratorium on oil tankers off British Columbia’s north coast. Alberta’s NDP government is doggedly advocating for increased pipeline capacity and new market access, despite the growing distress of its green, progressive base.
And both Canadian governments cannot ignore the fact that the energy-environment policy assumptions they had been operating under have been turned upside down by the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. Nobody can say for sure what he’s going to do or what effect it’s going to have on the continental energy market, but it’s clear America will not be pricing carbon or meeting emission targets set at recent climate change summits, and Canada will be hard-pressed to compete if it persists in doing both.
Canada’s continental market share could be dramatically reduced if the Border Tax Proposal floated by Republican House Leader Paul Ryan is applied to his northern neighbour. According to the Financial Times, the tax would deny U.S. companies “their current ability to deduct import costs from their taxable income, meaning companies selling imported products would effectively be taxed on the full value of the sale rather than just the profit. Export revenues, meanwhile, would be excluded from company tax bases, giving net exporters the equivalent of a subsidy that would make them big beneficiaries of the change.”
However, Trump emissary Stephen Schwarzman had reassuring words for Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet at their January 23 meeting in Calgary. Canada had little to worry about, he explained, as U.S. policies were aimed at countries with which it had large trade imbalances: “I think Canada is very well-positioned for any discussions with the U.S.”
That was quickly followed by Trump’s qualified approval of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion project, which would pump 830,000 barrels a day of oilsands crude into the U.S. The president hinted that Canada might have to take a haircut on the price of that oil, but after so many years of low prices and pipeline constraints, the general reaction in the Canadian industry appears to be that half a loaf is better than none. Now Canadian energy exports to the U.S. depend more on the willingness of the federal and provincial governments to permit development of the resource, than on the U.S. to accept it.
Alberta’s energy rebound remains fragile. Insiders are calling it the ‘but recovery’ as in ‘Some people are working but there are still a lot who aren’t…’ or ‘So-and-so raised some money but I could tell you six who are still trying…’ And perhaps there will be a ‘but’ around Keystone redux: ‘It was approved, but the border tax…’
It is too early to tell: Speaking at a conference last week hosted by the Alberta Enterprise Group, a well-connected international energy consultant said there’s only a 50-50 chance KXL will proceed as planned. Paul Michael Wihbey, a one-time adviser to former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, predicted Donald Trump’s America will ramp up domestic oil and gas production, processing and exports. Canada’s convoluted process for pipeline approval not only makes it harder for this country to compete for U.S. energy market share, said Wihbey, it also makes us a “laughingstock” and is a recipe for “economic suicide”.
Maybe so, but there’s no denying the renewed activity and optimism in Canada’s energy sector. The consensus is that the market has bottomed out. And buying at the bottom, says Pat Ward, President and CEO of Painted Pony, “This is when you make a lot of money.” |
cryptogon.com news – analysis – conspiracies
March 29th, 2008
“Some changes could actually reduce the power of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is charged with maintaining orderly stock and bond markets and protecting investors.”
Check out some of the background stories that have been leading up to this:
Goldman Sachs Creates Private Stock Exchange for Unregistered Securities, Clients with $100 Million Minimum
NASDAQ to Open Unregulated Private Stock Exchange for Investors with a Minimum of $100 Million in Assets
Big Traders Dive Into Dark Pools
In other words, if you thought equities were a scam before, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Via: New York Times:
The Treasury Department will propose on Monday that Congress give the Federal Reserve broad authority to oversee financial market stability, in effect allowing it to send SWAT teams into any corner of the industry or any institution that might pose a risk to the overall system.
The proposal is part of a sweeping blueprint to overhaul the country’s hodge-podge of regulatory agencies, which many specialists say failed to recognize rampant excesses in mortgage lending until after they triggered what is now the worst financial calamity in decades.
According to a summary provided by the administration, the plan would consolidate what is now an alphabet soup of banking and securities regulators into a trio of overseers responsible for everything from banks and brokerage firms to hedge funds and private equity firms.
While the plan could expose Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds to greater scrutiny, it avoids a call for tighter regulation. The plan would not rein in practices that have been implicated in the housing and mortgage meltdown, like packaging risky subprime loans into securities carrying AAA ratings.
The Fed would also be given some authority over Wall Street firms but only when an investment bank’s practices posed a threat to the financial system over all.
The plan does not recommend tighter rules over the vast and largely unregulated markets for risk-sharing and hedging, like credit-default swaps, which are supposed to insure lenders against loss but became a speculative instrument and gave many institutions a false sense of security.
Some changes could actually reduce the power of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is charged with maintaining orderly stock and bond markets and protecting investors.
The blueprint suggests several areas where the S.E.C. should take a lighter approach to its oversight, such as allowing stock exchanges greater leeway to regulate themselves and streamlining the approval of new products, even allowing automatic approval of securities products that are being traded in foreign markets.
Under the proposal, the S.E.C. would merge with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates exchange-traded futures for oil, grains, currencies and the like.
…
Under the Treasury proposal, the Federal Reserve would become the government’s “market stability regulator” and would be allowed to gather information from virtually any financial institution. Fed officials would be allowed to examine the practices and even the bookkeeping of brokerage firms, hedge funds, commodity-trading exchanges and any other institution that might pose a risk to the financial system.
“The Fed would have the authority to go wherever in the system it thinks it needs to go for a deeper look to preserve stability,” Mr. Paulson said in the advance text of Monday’s speech. “To do this effectively, it will collect information from commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, commodity pool operators.”
That would be a significant expansion of the central bank’s regulatory mission, which has been limited primarily to supervising commercial banks. When Fed officials agreed earlier this month to rescue Bear Stearns, once the nation’s fifth-largest investment bank, they pointedly noted that the Fed never had the authority to monitor its financial condition or order it to beef up its protections.
In an unprecedented pair of moves, the Fed engineered a shotgun marriage between Bear Stearns and a rival, JPMorgan Chase, and then lent $29 billion to JP Morgan in order to prevent a bankruptcy filing by Bear and a chain of defaults that might have brought down much of the financial system.
For the first time since the 1930s, the Fed also agreed to let investment banks borrow hundreds of billions of dollars from its discount window, an emergency program reserved for commercial banks and other depository institutions.
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Valet parking. The name itself just oozes class, sophistication, and convenience. And the best part is that for a nominal fee, you get to forget about the hassles of searching for a parking spot yourself.
But it's also a service you should try to never utilize.
While movies tend to exaggerate most things, valet parking is one job that is nearly exactly the same as it is portrayed. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is actually stunningly accurate.
If you work in a restaurant, you won't eat the food because you know what happens in the kitchen. Well, I've seen the kitchen that is valet parking, and I will never eat that food or get close to it.
In my late teens, when I wasn't working at Walmart, I took a part time job over breaks from school valet parking cars outside some ridiculously expensive stores at a suburban mall near my home. The clientele drove everything from Civics to Maybachs, so we had quite the range of cars in our possession at all times.
The first thing to know, is that if you really must use a valet, your best bet is to keep an eye on them as they park the car. If you thought that giving a 19-year old the keys to a Mercedes S65 AMG is a good idea, you got another thing coming.
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People with limited experience behind the wheel and over 600 horsepower is not really a smart mix. There would be times where fellow valets would see just how fast a car could go in the tight parking garage where we left the rides. Mix in the fact that a valet that can't really drive stick might be trusted with a Porsche 993 Turbo, and this can be a recipe for disaster.
And guess what? Irresponsible behavior like this causes accidents. We had one memorable accident — I wasn't involved — where the front end was nearly ripped off a Dodge Magnum while a large SUV was being parked. Instead of telling the owner, it was hastily reassembled on the spot and given back.
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There were frequent fender benders, cars being backed into poles, and even cars bumping others right in front of the owners. Did valets own up to their mistakes? Nearly never. Even more shocking? The owners didn't really seem to care, even when they witnessed the accident.
I've also seen vans that were too tall for a parking garage be driven in and bang the roof on the height warning signs. In a lot of cases, your car is going to come back worse than when you dropped it off. Hell, some people smoked in the cars they were parking.
Here's a free tip: If you park a car with a valet, assume something dubious is going to happen and look it over thoroughly before and after it's parked.
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Now, I'm an honest guy, so the most shocking part of the job I encountered was the treatment of some customers. Our regular price was $8, but depending on what you drove, a "VIP Service" was available for a mere $20. That got you "exclusive" parking in one of the first spots in the garage.
The "service" was only sold to people that looked like they had a ton of money, appeared gullible, or requested their cars be up front. And sometimes, employees waited until the customer was paying to tell them the extra charge.
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Did you get your car quicker? No. Was it driven with more care? No. Was it a rip-off? Hell yeah.
The best part is that we were encouraged to work quickly to get more cars parked. Obviously, this is especially effective around Black Friday and the holidays. And when your job is driving and parking, working quickly means driving quickly.
The rush contributes to the mistake prone atmosphere, but it has more to do with putting trust in people that don't give a rat's ass about your car that's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
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It's one of those services that makes your life easier and can possibly ruin a large investment a matter of minutes. Just stay away.
Photo Credit: miss-britt via flickr, Shutterstock.com |
If you thought the leadership at Baylor could not look any worse than they have over the past week, think again. On the day he announced he was resigning from his position as chancellor a week after being demoted as university president, Ken Starr sat down for an interview with Joe Schad of ESPN and served up some even more tone-deaf statements regarding the situation at Baylor than you could imagine.
While admitting Baylor’s response to various sexual assault allegations did fall short of what was expected of them, Starr claimed none of the incidents happened on Baylor’s campus, as if that makes the situation any more tolerable.
“We’re an alcohol-free campus,” Starr said in his interview with ESPN. “It’s not happening on campus, to the best of my knowledge. They are off-campus parties. Those are venues where those bad things have happened.”
OK, fine. But those bad things happened involving representatives of your university and football program, and your coaches reportedly interfered with the investigation process, thus protecting them from more extreme punishment and failing to give your victims, who are students at your university, a fair chance at justice in any form possible. Just because an incident happens off your campus, does not mean you are excused from failing to uphold the investigation process and response accordingly. Your students may not live on your campus, but they are a part of your community and it is your job as a university to assure all students they can feel safe and secure while attending your university. Starr’s ridiculous comments about “those bad things” happening at off-campus parties does nobody any good in this conversation.
Ken Starr’s full @OTLonESPN answer when asked if the school kept women “safe enough" on campus. pic.twitter.com/yzHLwvZ2Nm — Dr. Saturday (@YahooDrSaturday) June 1, 2016
Making things worse, Starr went out of his way to sing the praises of now former head coach Art Briles, who was placed on an indefinite suspension by the university wiht the intent to terminate his contract. His replacement, Jim Grobe, has already been hired this week amid a flurry of changes at the university. Praising a man fired for overseeing a program riddled with such negative attention connected to “bad things” is a bad public relations move.
“Coach Briles is a player’s coach, but he was also a very powerful father figure,” Starr said. “[It’s] not one strike and you’re out. That’s not coach Briles and that’s not what Baylor is.”
Can we pause for a brief moment and come to an agreement that all strikes are not considered equal? Stealing ketchup from a Burger King o a can of soda from the university book store is one thing. Sexually abusing another student at your university is something else. Not every crime or incident may be deserving of a one strike and you’re done response, but what was happening at Baylor warranted that kind of action. Even if it happened off your campus.
It is somewhat amazing Starr was allowed to sit down for this kind of interview with ESPN. On the one hand, getting Starr in front of a camera could help shed some light on the situation from a different perspective, and perhaps that was the intended hope for Starr or Baylor. On the other, there should have been a PR representative on hand to interrupt and drag Starr out of the room the moment he started praising Briles and saying some of the things he said on camera.
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(Image: EPA/Camera Press/Bob Pearson)
No wonder they look pleased. Darren Austin and his son Tyler from Decatur, Georgia, are queuing to buy the first legally available recreational marijuana in the US, from the Denver Discreet Dispensary in Colorado.
From 1 January, residents of Colorado aged 21 or older became the beneficiaries of the first law anywhere in the world to legalise marijuana for recreational use. Like 17 other US states over the past decade, Colorado has allowed the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, but the extension to recreational use is unprecedented.
So far, 136 stores have obtained licences to grow and sell marijuana. Residents of Colorado are allowed to buy up to an ounce (28 grams) in one go – enough to make about 60 joints. People visiting from outside Colorado, like Darren and Tyler, are allowed up to a quarter of that amount.
To keep tabs on what is produced, every plant will be radio-tagged throughout its life cycle. The hope is that the legally available produce will ultimately undercut and displace illegal supplies, reducing the crime that goes with it. |
When President Donald Trump announced on Thursday, with great fanfare, that he is pulling the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, it was a stunning illustration not just of Trump's own ignorance and pettiness, but also of the widespread nastiness in the conservative movement about this issue. For American conservatives, climate change is not fundamentally understood as an environmental, economic or moral issue. Instead, it has become a symbolic front in the culture war that has metastasized in the past couple of decades, touching on every aspect of life, from how we eat to the kind of cars we drive.
"Tribalism has also entirely subsumed the US conservative movement," David Roberts at Vox wrote on Friday. "The intellectual core has all but rotted; what remains are older, rural and suburban white men and their wives, angry that their tribe is being demoted from its hegemonic position."
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For liberals and frankly most other people around the world, including conservatives and business leaders, the issue of climate change is largely understood in pragmatic terms: Rising global temperatures caused by man-made pollution are going to lead to rising sea levels, droughts and other environmental hazards that will have devastating consequences for the economy and for life itself, as resources are depleted and the human population keeps growing. People who see it this way — which, again, is almost everyone — support global cooperation in reducing the emission of greenhouse gases in order to minimize the damage.
But American conservatives, including not just Trump but most Republican voters and the vast majority of GOP politicians, see climate change as a phony problem invented by liberals and made up to emasculate white men by making them drive girly little cars. It's seen strictly in terms of the tribal struggle that Roberts describes. The fear of being contaminated by "liberal" habits runs so deep on the right that researchers at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found in 2013 that advertising lightbulbs as environment-friendly made conservatives less likely to buy them.
It's gotten so stupid that "rolling coal," a practice from truck-pull competitions of modifying diesel trucks so they waste fuel and pour huge amounts of black smoke into the air, has been adopted by ordinary right-wing vehicle owners, for no other purpose than to demonstrate contempt for those who believe air pollution is a bad thing. It costs at least $500 to modify a car or truck that way, so doing this just to troll liberals is a pretty significant financial commitment.
But, of course, wrecking the environment so your kids and grandkids face an uncertain future is an even bigger sacrifice that you make to fulfill this all-consuming desire to piss off lefty tree-huggers.
“The right-wing media views the world in us-vs.-them terms, win-lose terms," Lisa Hymas, the director of the climate and energy program at Media Matters for America, said over the phone. "Liberals like the Paris agreement, so conservatives reflexively hate it.”
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The conservative reaction to Trump's Paris decision really drove home how this is all — and I do mean all — about waging culture war against the left.
“For some reason or another, this issue of climate change has emerged as a paramount issue for the left in this country and around the world,” Vice President Mike Pence whined on Fox News on Friday.
Jim Geraghty for the National Review took a similar tone, suggesting that climate change is something liberals made up to force "punitive measures like higher energy costs" on conservatives while refusing "to make any discernible sacrifices themselves." That's the level of paranoia that the right has whipped up about this situation: They argue, with a straight face, that somehow conservatives will have to pay more for gasoline but liberals won't.
(For the record, this liberal gave up eating most meat about 17 years ago, in no small part because of the effect of meat production on global warming. But even if some or many liberals are hypocrites, that doesn't mean it's smart to shrug off the dangers of climate change.)
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The celebration of conservative pundits and activists on Twitter almost exclusively deemed Trump's Paris decision s a culture-war victory.
I must confess I responded to this tweet by linking to this Popular Science article of photos showing exactly how awful air pollution was in the years before the Environmental Protection Agency started regulating emissions.
Of course, the president himself used his speech to grind the culture-war ax. He whined about other countries supposedly demeaning the U.S. and proclaimed, "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh not Paris." He reduced this massive environmental problem to a culture war between "Paris," a symbolizing cosmopolitan liberalism, and "Pittsburgh," a supposed symbol of provincial conservatism.
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(The mayor of Pittsburgh did not appreciate his actually-quite-cultured-and-lovely city being demeaned in this fashion, and shot back on both social media and TV.)
The much-vaunted religiosity of American conservatives does little to compel them toward thinking about this issue, beyond the constraints of liberal-hating, culture-warrior nonsense. As historian Lisa Vox argued in The Washington Post, fundamentalist Christians tend to reject climate-change theory because they feel that it makes their god seem small and science seem more authoritative than faith.
Part of the reason that it's so easy for conservatives to view climate change in culture war terms, Hymas argued, is that the mainstream media has failed to educate the public about the seriousness of the problem. A Media Matters study of television news coverage of climate change found that in 2016 ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox combined devoted 50 minutes to climate-change coverage in their nightly and Sunday morning news programs. Not a single segment of that coverage was devoted to the potential climate consequences of the presidential election.
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Believing that climate change is arrogant nonsense that liberals made up to prompt conservatives to feel guilty is a lot easier to do when there's very little mainstream news coverage to drive home both the evidence for climate change and the seriousness of this situation.
“Right-wingers are completely out of touch with the scale of the problem," Hymas said. "The fate of civilization is at stake, and they are celebrating scoring a political point against liberals.” |
Ropa Vieja https://www.penzeys.com/shop/recipes/ropa-vieja/ This meaty stew is easy to prepare and bursting with hearty flavor. 3 lbs. beef chuck roast, flank steak or pot roast 1/3 Cup olive oil 1 Cup beef stock (or 1 Cup water mixed with 1/2 tsp. BEEF SOUP BASE) 1 large yellow onion, peeled and sliced 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed (1/2 tsp. PENZEYS MINCED GARLIC) 1 green bell pepper, seeded and chopped 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced 1 TB. ARIZONA DREAMING 1 14.5-oz. can tomato sauce 1 14.5-oz. can petite diced tomatoes 1 TB. apple cider vinegar 1 tsp. SMOKY 4/S or CHICAGO STEAK SEASONING 1/2 tsp. GROUND CUMIN 1/2 tsp. OREGANO (MEXICAN OREGANO would be more common here, but TURKISH OREGANO is good as well) 1 WHOLE BAY LEAF 1/2 Cup dry white wine
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 27 (UPI) -- Pakistani lawmakers who favor reopening a NATO supply route through the country will be targeted for death, the Taliban warned.
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan issued a statement Sunday warning lawmakers that they would be attacked if they favored a proposal to reopen the NATO supply route into Afghanistan, which was closed late last year.
"If the Parliament opens land routes for the NATO troops, we will target members of Parliament and their party leaders," Ehsan said. "We are aware that the pro-American parliamentarians have started efforts to legalize routes to NATO forces."
The Taliban would "publicly slaughter drivers who carry supplies for NATO forces," Ehsan said. "The Pakistan army and the rulers are bent on destroying the country and the Taliban are working for a new Pakistan."
The warning came after a weekend of protests staged by religious parties around the country as lawmakers prepared to open debate on Pakistan's relationship with the West -- including a Parliamentary Committee on National Security recommendation that the NATO supply lines be restored with the imposition of new a tax on container trucks and oil tankers.
Pakistan closed the supply routes in November after a NATO airstrike on two Pakistani-Afghanistan border posts using drone aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Maulana Faza-ur-Rahman, a leader of Jamiat ulema-e-Islam party, told a public rally Sunday in the northwestern city of Peshawar that the nation will stand against the NATO supplies, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
Jamaat-i-Islami Party leader Qazi Hussain Ahmad told the English language newspaper Dawn Friday that party workers would attack NATO supply convoys if they resume.
"Workers of JI would stop NATO supplies by force if the route was restored," he told a public meeting at Nowshera Kalan while heaping scorn on the Awami National Party and Pakistan People's Party, members of the ruling coalition.
The two parties were trying to promote secularism in the country while ignoring the problems of the Pashtun people, Hussain told supporters.
Opponents also announced a protest rally would be staged Tuesday in front of Pakistan's Parliament.
Awami National Party leader and Pakistani Minister for Railways Haji Ghulam Ahmad Bilour Friday called for reopening NATO supply routes as being "in the larger national interest."
"Look the ANP wants NATO supplies to be restored in the best interest of the country, as we (the Pakistani nation) are not in a position to invite the wrath of the United States," he told Dawn. "We will strongly support parliamentary committee's resolution for restoring NATO supplies which is to be debated in the Parliament."
The opposition to reopening NATO supply routes is linked to anger over the continuing use of drones by the United States to target suspected terrorists in Pakistan's tribal areas.
The same Parliamentary Committee on National Security last week demanded Washington and NATO cease the attacks in a report delivered to a joint session of both houses of Parliament, the Voice of America reported.
Committee Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani said the "drone strikes are counterproductive, cause loss of valuable lives and property, radicalize the local population, create support for terrorists and fuel anti-American sentiments." |
Fans of Tony Award winner Lea Salonga (or just fans of great talent) are in for a big treat as Bway-Live.com offers the full HD film performance of Back to Before, her live concert at the Allen Room.
Now, that clip really drives home what a treasure she is and how vastly underutilized she is in the current Broadway landscape. As shows she’s put her stamp on (Les Miserables, Aladdin and Miss Saigon) make their way back into the Broadway zeitgeist, one has to ask: where’s Lea Salonga, and why isn’t she on a marquee right now? And you can’t say there are no roles for her. Below, BroadwayBox highlights five Broadway musicals Lea could step into tomorrow.
Elizabeth/Beth in If/Then
Catherine in Pippin
Donna in Mamma Mia!
Guest star in After Midnight
Roxie in Chicago
All in all, please come back soon Lea! We need that voice in Times Square now. |
When I was 17-years-old I was getting into fender-benders and failing chemistry class. Christian Pulisic won't be 18 until September but he's already making international headlines and playing in front of crowds of 80,000 people at the Westfalenstadion.
Pulisic came on in the 68th minute of Dortmund's 2-0 victory over Ingolstadt to make his Bundesliga debut, earning himself a 7 in our Player Ratings. Both BVB goals came after Pulisic's introduction to the midfield. While he was not directly responsible for either of Aubameyang's goals, the young American was successfully getting behind and breaking down an Ingolstadt defense that had been impenetrable for the previous 70 minutes.
Pulisic was born in Hershey, Pennsylvania and has represented the United States at the U-15 and U-17 levels. In October he captained the U-17 national team at the 2015 U-17 World Cup in Chile, tallying a goal and an assist in three games. In 34 appearances for the U-17's Pulisic has scored 20 goals.
A return of 20 goals from 34 games would be considered an impressive return for a striker, but remember Pulisic is a midfielder. His ability to create and score from the midfield is an exciting prospect for both Dortmund fans and Americans. American Dortmund fans will be on cloud nine after witnessing his debut in what could prove to be a crucial win for BVB.
There's no doubt Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel will also have been impressed with what he saw from Pulisic during his 25 minutes on the pitch. Dortmund's relative reluctance to wade into the transfer market this January can be interpreted as a sign that Tuchel wants to give youngsters like Pulisic a chance in the first team. Smooth debuts like this one from the Pennsylvanian prodigy will only further convince Tuchel that bringing a promising young player into the squad can be just as good as making a new signing.
It's not a stretch to think that Pulisic could receive a call-up to the Senior US National Team if he continues to see action with the Dortmund first team. We know how highly USMNT boss Jurgen Klinsmann thinks of the Bundesliga. Klinsmann's reign has seen a focus on bringing the American talent of the Bundesliga into the senior team. Ingolstadt's own Alfredo Morales has made 12 appearances for the senior team despite not being a big name or being that young. Klinsmann's head will have been turned by a 17-year-old seamlessly transitioning into one of the best teams in one of the best leagues in the world. |
Live Nation voluntarily agreed to cancel its next electronic dance music concert and will drastically limit a follow-up festival in October, following pressure from Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors.
The event promoter will cap attendance at 40,000, bar people under 21 years old, and reduce the hours of Hard’s Day of the Dead Festival at the end of October, according to Supervisor Hilda Solis’ office.
The limitations come after two women, Tracy Nguyen, 18, and Katie Dix, 19, died from suspected drug overdoses at Hard Summer Festival at the county-owned Fairplex in early August. The Fair Association and Live Nation, facing the possibility of an EDM festival ban, agreed to make the changes once the board of supervisors began investigating a moratorium. The concession includes the cancellation of “A Night of a Fairplex,” a one-night electronic dance music concert scheduled for Sept. 10.
Law enforcement and local legislators have called the 65,000 person Hard Summer Festival “unmanageable,” particularly when it comes to curbing drug abuse.
Hard Day of the Dead, a two-day festival starting on Halloween, promises increased security, medical services and access to free water. Live Nation also agreed to produce and distribute drug education at the festival, according to Solis’ office.
An investigation by this newspaper found the county failed to distribute educational materials it produced following a similar backlash in 2010. Drug policy advocates previously praised that shelved campaign as ahead of its time and indicated that more education is crucial to stopping ecstasy overdoses at EDM events.
Solis said the county is considering creating another specialized rave taskforce, similar to the one in 2010, that includes representatives from various county agencies.
“While the Board supports music events in the County, what is of paramount importance is the health and safety of the youth attending these events,” the statement from Solis’ office said.
Tony Bell, spokesman for Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s office, said the changes are just the beginning and that the supervisor remains concerned about festivals having properly trained security staff, adequate medical personnel and enough access to water. The county plans to collect more data before making a final decision.
“This is certainly not the end of the story, there will be additional discussions, additional research and additional corrective actions moving forward,’ Bell said. “This is an evolving review, we’re not through with the assessment yet.”
The county has refused to release a “confidential” report on the possibility of banning EDM festivals, citing attorney-client privilege. A summary provided by the county states that the report covers whether a “permanent or temporary ban” should be considered and whether it could breach contracts with Live Nation. It also focuses on whether such a ban would violate the first amendment by restricting musical expression.
The summary, which does not provide answers to those questions, notes that Live Nation and the Fair Association presented a proposal to enhance “safety and security” before the report returned to the board.
“Festival organizers and promoters are pleased to have worked quickly with the County Supervisors in order to complete the County’s inquiry and bring about the agreed upon modifications to our operations for HARD Day of the Dead at Fairplex, which will further our fans to have a safe and fun time,” said Alexandra Greenberg, a spokeswoman for the promoter. |
A McDonald's first quarter earnings report released Wednesday showed traffic and sales were underwhelming for one of the largest employers in the country. Gene J. Puskar/AP
Wednesday’s sluggish McDonald’s earnings report could actually be a healthy sign for the domestic economy. The fast food chain – hailed as “recession proof” as it gained during the most recent economic downturn – is slipping as Americans find themselves increasingly better situated to pursue options they perceive as more healthy.
Global sales at McDonald’s dropped 2.3 percent year over year during the first quarter of 2015, which the company attributes to “negative guest traffic in all major segments.” Revenues dipped 11 percent from the first quarter of 2014, and net income plummeted 33 percent to $811.5 million – its lowest quarterly reading since 2007.
The fast food giant’s earnings slide comes at a time when the domestic job market is surging – having added more than 3 million positions in the last 12 months – and wages have slightly ticked up – as median weekly earnings in the first quarter rose a modest 1.5 percent year over year.
“With the economy now at 5.7 percent unemployment rate, which is nearly half of what it was six years ago, people have more money in their pockets and are perhaps allocating away from the Dollar Value Menu and are willing to pay up for alternative fast foods that have, let’s call it ‘healthier,’ content,” Matt Kaufler, portfolio manager at Federated Investors, says. “No one’s going to confuse the quality of the average transaction at McDonald’s with the quality of the average transaction at, say, Chipotle.”
Chipotle – a popular fast food chain that McDonald’s invested in during the 1990s before divesting entirely in 2006 – saw its revenue climb more than 20 percent between the first quarter of 2015 and the same period a year prior. The chain’s net income rose to $122.6 million, up nearly 48 percent year over year.
Those net earnings still represent only slightly more than 15 percent of McDonalds’ quarterly revenue. But Chipotle, despite its slightly higher price tag when compared to McDonald’s, is trending in the right direction.
“People are eating on-premises. They’re looking for an experience and spending time with a spouse, spending time with the family, carrying on a conversation,” says Bonnie Riggs, restaurant industry analyst at The NPD Group data tracking and research firm, describing outfits like Chipotle as “fast-casual” restaurants as opposed to traditional fast food and burger joints. “Fast-casual is benefiting from consumers trading up from fast food and those trading down from full-service restaurants.”
McDonald’s was an earnings stalwart in the midst of the Great Recession in part because of its convenience and affordability. The restaurant chain ended 2007 with about $2.36 billion in annual net income. McDonald's ended 2009 with net earnings in excess of $4.55 billion.
“Historically, convenience has been the growth engine for the restaurant industry. Carry out and take out, quick service, fast food,” Riggs says. “Fast food attracts all groups, whether it’s low income or high income or families with kids or singles or married couples. They all visit fast food.”
But as the domestic economy picks up and consumers find themselves with more disposable income and personal savings than they had a year ago, fast food options could start to become less appealing as healthier, often more expensive alternatives appear less fiscally daunting.
“We’ve been so cautious and controlled in our spending since the recession as consumers. We’re starting to let go a little,” Riggs says. “What’s at the bottom, what’s not doing well, are really your main, traditional concepts: hamburger, sub shops, pizza. All negative.”
That’s not to say fast food doesn’t account for a tremendous share of restaurant traffic. Riggs cites The NPD Group’s Crest foodservice research database – which she describes as the “gold standard of the restaurant industry in terms of tracking consumer behavior” with data going back to 1976 – and says fast food outfits attracted 79 percent of the 61 billion restaurant visits made in the U.S. during the 12-month period through February 2015.
She says 77 percent of that group, or about 61 percent of all visits, were made at traditional fast food burger, pizza and sandwich restaurants. So fast food still commands the biggest slice of the restaurant pie.
But the dynamics of the market segment looking for fast food has changed. A rebounding economy allows more people to afford healthier alternatives to fast food. Riggs says millennials, especially, seem to be gravitating toward more health-conscious alternatives.
“They look for healthier, and when they’re look for healthier, they’re looking for fresh,” she says. “They’re looking for quality. They’re looking for fresh ingredients and food that is prepared while they wait.”
Riggs also says there are a growing number of people, especially millennials, either cooking at home or accessing what she describes as “retail” food options. Food retailers like Whole Foods offer pre-made menus that are increasingly attracting consumers away from restaurants and fast-food chains.
“Millennials are using it. Boomers are using it. It’s quality. It’s fresh. There’s variety. It offers many healthy benefits that they’re looking for,” she says, noting that retail food is up 1 percent year over year and has consistently gained share in the last 5 years. “It’s reasonably priced and cheaper than going out to a restaurant.”
She says convenience stores like Sheetz and Wawa are also going after the traditional fast food market, “and they’re going after it in a big way.”
It’s important to keep in mind that non-traditional fast food venues still only account for 23 percent of all fast food visits. Even though the restaurant segment is trending down, traditional fast food outlets like McDonald’s still carry the market.
“McDonald’s management team is keenly focused on acting more quickly to better address today’s consumer needs, expectations and the competitive marketplace,” Steve Easterbrook, McDonald’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement accompanying the earnings report. “We are developing a turnaround plan to improve our performance and deliver enduring profitable growth.”
Easterbrook has set May 4 as the date McDonald’s will unveil … something. It’s unclear yet what the “turnaround plan” will be, but it is likely to be more meaningful than the recently announced company minimum wage hike that only improved pay for a fraction of the fast food titan’s lowest-paid workers.
“I will also say that this isn’t the first time that McDonald’s has had its back to the wall in its existence,” Kaufler says. “McDonald’s has the resources to reinvent itself, or at least modify itself. The question is, ‘Do they have the will?’ which I think they do. And then the question on top of will becomes, ‘Can they do it credibly?’ A lot of these attempts at quote-unquote healthier food and so forth, when you strip it back, they’re hollow attempts.” |
Make the Call: Tell the Senate to Fire Ajit Pai
It’s time for a break-up.
Any day now, the Senate will vote on whether to reconfirm FCC Chairman Ajit Pai — and we’re urging senators to dump him.
Since Pai joined the Commission, he's worked to undo policies designed to protect internet users, communities of color and poor people. While he's supposed to protect the public interest, he's continuously voted against it and sided with the deep-pocketed corporations — like Verizon — that once employed him.
Pai has made it clear that he doesn’t care about protecting the communication rights of everyday people. Time and time again he’s failed to stand up for those he’s sworn to serve. This is unacceptable. And now the Senate has the opportunity to intervene on the public’s behalf.
Call your senators and tell them a vote for Pai is a vote to:
End the internet as we know it by destroying Net Neutrality protections.
Let Trump's favorite media empire Sinclair — known for its racist coverage and anti-Muslim "must-run" broadcasts — gain even more reach and power.
Shut off phone and internet service for people who are struggling by attacking the Lifeline program.
Not a single senator should support that agenda.
Tell the Senate to stand up for what's right and fire FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. (He does a better job of representing Verizon’s interests anyway.)
1. "Sinclair Broadcast Group Is Finding Out How Harsh the National Spotlight Can Be,” The Baltimore Sun, July 7, 2017: http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/tv/z-on-tv-blog/bs-fe-zontv-sinclair-trump-20170705-story.html |
The Post Sports Live crew debates whether the Wizards' John Wall is among the best point guards in the NBA. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
The Post Sports Live crew debates whether the Wizards' John Wall is among the best point guards in the NBA. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
Two Fridays ago, Martell Webster walked onto the hardwood at Verizon Center for the most grueling portion of his workday. Within a half hour he was bent over, hands on his knees, drenched in sweat and gasping for air. He wasn’t playing in a game, or practicing. Webster was rehabbing.
Webster’s workout consisted of a perpetual stream of drills with four Wizards staff members. He curled off screens to hoist jumpers. He curled off screens to drive to the basket. He ran the floor on the wing. He ran the floor to play defense. He defended on the ball. He defended off the ball. Every couple of minutes he would shoot free throws.
He wore a black compression tank top with a GPS and heart monitor attached. The GPS logged speed, distance traveled and workload for particular areas of Webster’s body. The heart monitor traced the workout’s intensity. The Wizards are using the instruments for the first time this season.
These rigorous sessions are the centerpieces of Webster’s final phase of rehabilitation as he returns from June back surgery and attempts the rare feat of playing basketball at the highest level after three such procedures, performed over four years to repair the same herniated disk in his lower back. The experience makes the 6-foot-7 swingman somewhat of an expert in back rehabilitation but never has he worked like this.
“This is new for me, but it’s very smart because it allows guys that are in rehab to get a rhythm for how games are going to be when they do get back,” said Webster, 28. “Especially when they get back into practice. Usually, guys get cleared and they just go into practice to get the rhythm back. Me, I’m rehabbing in the game-type scenario so when I do get back I’ll be comfortable.”
The Post Sports Live crew analyzes the talent in the Eastern Conference and debates where the Wizards rank. (Post Sports Live/The Washington Post)
Webster was originally prescribed a recovery period of three to five months. He was cleared for contact and returned to practice as a limited participant on Nov. 20, in line with the original timeframe.
The Wizards are being patient. Webster and Coach Randy Wittman say his exact return date remains unclear because he hasn’t participated in a full Wizards practice due to the team’s schedule. Last Thursday Wittman said “it’s getting close” and Webster recently indicated he should be in uniform by the end of December.
Any back surgery — let alone a third — is treated with more caution than most setbacks and Wittman insisted Webster’s return was independent from the Wizards’ success.
“We could have nine guys and we wouldn’t hurry a guy in that situation,” Wittman said.
But Webster admitted Washington’s blistering start and unexpected depth has afforded him an opportunity to practice patience, which he said wasn’t an option when he rehabilitated the first two times with the middling Minnesota Timberwolves.
Before the season started the Wizards lacked many three-point threats without Webster. He averaged 10.6 points per game and shot 40.7 percent from the arc in his first two seasons with the Wizards, along the way signing a four-year, $22 million contract.
The dearth became more drastic when Bradley Beal fractured his left wrist during the preseason. But Rasual Butler’s staggering emergence — he’s third in the NBA in three-point shooting (53.4 percent) while averaging 11 points per game — and Otto Porter Jr.’s steady development have provided the Wizards ample options on the wing behind Beal and Paul Pierce.
“My first two back surgeries, I was in a situation where the teams weren’t very good so it was more of an emphasis of getting back as soon as possible,” explained Webster, who has said he plans to retire after his contract expires at the age of 30. “Now, there’s not a heavy burden of getting back as soon as possible. So I’m really taking my time and taking cautious steps to make sure I’m 100 percent comfortable before I step back on the court.”
Webster joined the Wizards on their last two road trips — to Boston and Orlando — which registers as subtle progress. He no longer feels the crippling pain the herniated disk caused via the sciatic nerve. He laments not going to Dr. Robert Watkins, who performed the third surgery, for the first, saying the next two might not have been necessary. But he doesn’t hold any other regrets as he eases his way back onto the floor with patience, persistence and a new formula.
“All I want to do is contribute to this team in the best way I can to win games,” Webster said. “So that’s the reason why I’m taking my time. I don’t want to come back and be sloppy. I know I’m going to be out of rhythm because there’s nothing like actually being in games, but I’m thankful for these game-like simulations we’re doing. The transition should be a lot smoother.” |
Writer and activist Alice Walker (b. Feb. 9, 1944) made history as the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her seminal novel The Color Purple (1982), for which she won the National Book Award. Filmmaker Pratibha Parmar’s new documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth tells Walker’s dramatic life story with poetry and lyricism, and features new interviews with Walker, Steven Spielberg, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones, Gloria Steinem, Sapphire and the late Howard Zinn in one of his final interviews.
American Masters — Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth charts Walker’s inspiring journey from her birth into a family of sharecroppers in Eatonton, Georgia, to the present. The film explores Walker’s relationship with her mother, poverty, and participation in the Civil Rights Movement, which were the formative influences on her consciousness and became the inherent themes in her writing. Living through the violent racism and seismic social changes of mid-20th century America, Walker overcame adversity to achieve international recognition as one of the most influential — and controversial — writers of the 20th century.
Delving into her personal life, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth reveals the inspiration for many of her works, including Once (1968), The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970), Meridian (1976), The Color Purple (1982), In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens (1983), Possessing the Secret Joy (1992) and Overcoming Speechlessness (2010).
Praised and pilloried, Walker has driven people to express joy as well as anger and ruthless vilification over her art, personal views and global human rights advocacy. As seen in the film, Yoko Ono awarded her the 2010 LennonOno Peace Award for her ongoing humanitarian work. American Masters analyzes these aspects of the self-confessed renegade’s life and career.
American Masters — Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth is one of 50 films that form part of Women and Girls Lead, a public media campaign spearheaded by the Independent Television Service, that harnesses the power of documentary film to showcase extraordinary women and girls who are changing the world. The initiative features groundbreaking women like Alice Walker, who refuse to submit to gender stereotypes or compromise her form of artistic expression.
Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth premiered nationally Friday, February 7 at 9 p.m. on PBS in honor of Walker’s 70th birthday and Black History Month. |
President Obama has canceled plans to deliver a keynote address at Planned Parenthood’s annual fundraising dinner Thursday night, citing a desire to spend more time with family of the victims of the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas.
White House spokesman Jay Carney announced the decision to cancel the keynote speech at the gala during his daily press briefing with reporters Wednesday. He said Mr. Obama will still address Planned Parenthood and its supporters Friday morning.
Pro-life advocates had been harshly critical of Mr. Obama’s decision to appear at the fundraiser, particularly with the ongoing high-profile trial in Philadelphia of an abortion provider, but Mr. Carney said the schedule change was made “in order to allow him to spend more time with those injured and the loved ones of those lost in the deadly explosion in West, Texas.”
Mr. Obama is scheduled to speak Thursday afternoon at a memorial service for victims and family of the victims of the fertilizer-plant explosion in West, part of a long roller-coaster of a 24-hour travel schedule set for Wednesday evening through Thursday night.
The president and first lady Michelle were set to leave Washington for Dallas Wednesday afternoon in order to attend an evening fundraiser benefiting the Democratic National Committee.
The following morning he will participate in the opening of the George W. Bush Library at Southern Methodist University and then visit Waco to speak at the memorial. That night, he was originally slated to come back to Washington to keynote the Planned Parenthood fundraiser.
Lila Rose, who heads the anti-abortion group Live Action, said the accounts from the trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell have “shell-shocked the nation.”
Pro-life groups said Mr. Obama’s decision to switch his Planned Parenthood remarks to Friday morning, instead of canceling the event entirely, demonstrates his close ties to the abortion-rights group.
“President Obama swapping a Planned Parenthood fundraising gala Thursday night for an address on Friday shows that while he is certainly willing to avoid a photo of him at an abortion party while the nation mourns, he still refuses to distance himself from the nation’s No. 1 abortion provider and an industry that preys on women and defenseless children as exposed through the Gosnell trial and other atrocities,” Ms. Rose said.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission. |
CLOSE Scores of gun violence survivors and family members of victims kick off the second annual "Moms Take the Hill" event and Mother's Day "Week of Action." Natalie DiBlasio
Assault weapons and hand guns are seen for sale at Capitol City Arms Supply in Springfield, Ill., in 2013. (Photo11: Seth Perlman, AP)
WASHINGTON -- Sonja Woods says she came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday because her daughter was fatally shot by a man who flunked multiple background checks to buy a gun due to mental problems. So he bought the weapon at a hardware store that did not require a background check.
Woods joined scores of gun violence survivors and family members of victims who gathered in a crowded congressional conference room to kick off the second annual "Moms Take the Hill" event and Mother's Day "Week of Action."
"I am speaking out to honor the life of my daughter who was murdered by a man who should not have been eligible to purchase a gun," Woods said, choking back tears.
Mothers and activists are spending the week meeting with their representatives and making their case for demand universal background checks on gun buyers. In an effort to rally more support, members of the group have been hosting house parties in their home states, trying to get their neighbors to join in.
"We are taking this fight to the states," says Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. "What we want Congress to know is that we are watching them, but we are not waiting for them. We are getting ready for the midterms and we are going to hold them accountable for their failure to act."
During last year's "Moms Take the Hill" event, the group had chapters in a handful of states. Now, the group claims to include rapidly growing chapters in all 50 states.
"What you see gathered here today are moms taking the hill. We know that with the right to protect oneself comes great responsibility," said Lucia McBath, whose son Jordan Davis was shot and killed. "We are in this for the long haul and we are not backing down."
Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns recently came together to form a new group named Everytown for Gun Safety. Last month, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg pledged to spend $50 million this year to support the organization.
Larry Pratt, executive director at Gun Owners of America, is no fan of the effort. "We invite him to waste his money," Pratt told USA TODAY. "That group isn't going to do anything he promises."
"Background checks are a complete and total waste of time and money, Pratt said. "They aren't going to stop bad guys getting guns."
Long-term goals of Everytown are comprehensive background checks for gun buyers, enhanced protections for domestic violence victims and to address child access to guns. The group says it hopes to undercut the National Rifle Association's political power in Washington.
NRA officials did not return a call for comment, but the group has consistently fought curbs on gun sales.
The "NRA's 5 million members and America's 100 million gun owners will not back down — not now, not ever … mark my words: The NRA will not go quietly into the night. We will fight," Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said in a prepared statement for the NRA's recent convention in Indianapolis. "History has proven again the truth that President Obama and the anti-freedom activists everywhere deny and try to suppress the truth that firearms in the hands of good people save lives."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1qee8p4 |
Consumed by flames while handling chemicals on the job, 33-year-old man Franck Dufourmantelle received life-saving grafts from his brother Eric's skull, back and thighs.
"I had a fresco-like tattoo on my arm," he recalled in a phone interview with AFP.
"But the only thing left is the word 'life'," in English, he said.
Doctors had not publically discussed the case until now.
He underwent about a dozen operations, followed by months of hospitalisation and physical rehabilitation.
Transplants from a genetically identical twin eliminates the risk that the recipient's body will reject the donated skin or organ.
"It doesn't hurt any more," he said, noting that he had recently stopped taking painkillers.
Dufourmantelle is today living at home with his partner, and is still receiving intensive therapy.
He is able to walk again, and is still recovering the use of his hands.
With the left hand, "I can pinch things, like with a claw," he said. His right hand -- less damaged -- has healed to the point where he can write with a pen.
Miraculously, his face was mostly spared.
Nearly half of his brother Eric's skin was removed, and then stretched in a machine so that it would cover a larger area, according to the chief surgeon.
'Get on the floor!'
The donor is today not "covered in scars," Maurice Mimoun, a doctor at the Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris, told AFP.
"All one can see is a slight difference in the pigmentation."
In most burn cases, the skin of a deceased and unrelated donor is grafted onto the victim, even if doctors know that it will be rejected within a couple of weeks.
That is usually enough time for new skin to start growing, or to be harvested from elsewhere on the patient's body.
Twin-on-twin skin transplants have been done before, but never over such a large area, said Mimoun.
"It is the first time that such a skin graft has been done between twins for 95 percent of the body," he told AFP.
The previous record was a case where about 68 percent of the victim's body was burned.
Dufourmantelle said his memory of the accident is patchy.
"I remember people shouting 'Get on the floor! Get on the floor!', but I just stared running," he said.
"When you're on fire, it's hard to think straight."
Lying on the ground helps smoother the flames, and allows others to cover the victim with whatever is available -- jackets, blankets -- to do the same.
During surgery, the two brothers were operated on at the same time by separate teams of surgeons and anaesthesiologists to reduce the time between removal of the donor's skin and its transfer, Mimoun said.
It was also essential to remove burned skin, which is toxic.
Our epidermis is tough and water-resistant, and protects the body from dehydration, injury and infection. |
WELKER OPEN STUDIO Prints On Sale Info & MARK CHILCOTT'S RIDE ON / POLLOCK YEAR OF THE ROOSTER Show Info!
Hey everybody, we’ve got a week filled with great releases, and an exciting double gallery show to cap it all off!
First, we’d like to thank all of the utterly dedicated David Welker fans who braved the heat and humidity and came out to the Welker Studios Open House show last Friday. It was a tremendous show, and as always, we’re absolutely grateful to all of David’s fans for being so fun and delightful. A special thank you to David for allowing us to host the event, and for going above and beyond by signing, doodling, and chatting the hours away with everybody!
We kept a small reserve of some of the new prints available from David’s Open House for those of you who couldn’t attend the show, and as a treat, we’re releasing the screen print version of David’s beautifully detailed Sunset Bus exclusively online. Sunset Bus is a critter-filled crawl through David’s wonderful imagination, and is absolutely packed with intricate and fun details.
In addition, we’re proud to officially announce that this Saturday (7/29) from 11AM to 3PM, we will be hosting a massive double gallery show for artists Jim Pollock and Mark Chilcott. Admission is free and we’ll be hosting both of the events at our Gallery, located at 60 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY.
Jim Pollock’s Year of the Rooster Meet and Greet will feature a smattering of both old and new prints! We’ve been planning this with Jim for a while, and we’re astoundingly happy to be able to have Jim at the event!
Mark Chilcott’s solo showcase, Ride On!, is a fun event featuring 50 of Mark’s recent originals that contain pop culture characters and their iconic vehicles. You can purchase an original, and then pick it up at the end of the day. We will also have an online print release featuring art from the show, so stay tuned for more details on that towards the end of the week.
Finally, if you're attending one of the Phish’s shows during this epic run of concerts, be sure to pick up Jim Pollock’s Baker’s Dozen pewter statue. It was an honor working with Phish, Jim, Jeni, and Paul Harding on this project, and we could not be more happy with the results. Check it out:
All of David Welker’s prints will be available for purchase Tuesday (7/25) @ 12PM ET on our homepage, Bottleneckgallery.com! We will also have a very limited number of sets of all four of David's prints available. Please note these are not matching numbered sets.
Emergency Landing by David Welker
Screen print
16 x 12 inches
Signed and Hand-numbered edition of 300
$50
Passenger Fish by David Welker
Screen print
9 x 12 inches
Signed and Hand-numbered edition of 250
$40
Passenger Fish Variant by David Welker
Screen print
12 x 9 inches
Signed and Hand-numbered edition of 150
$50
Sunset Bus by David Welker
Screen print
12.5 x 10 inches
Signed and Hand-numbered edition of 300
$50 |
Dr. Kent Brantly was drawn to Africa with Samaritan’s Purse, to help the people of Liberia live longer, healthier lives. During his time there, the unimaginable happened, there was an outbreak of Ebola, and he contracted the virus while treating patients with this incurable disease.
Fortunately, Dr. Brantly and Ms. Writebol (an American aid worker) were given the experimental drug ZMapp and quickly evacuated to the U.S. for further treatment.
The best news possible was announced this week; they have been released from the hospital. In a televised news conference, Dr. Kent Brantly was all smiles, and grateful for the treatment and kindness he has received. So, what is Ebola and what should you know about this deadly virus?
1. The Ebola Virus Or Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever
The rare, but deadly virus Ebola has been in the headlines for months, but few in the U.S. actually understand what it is, and how it is transmitted. This virus causes both internal and external bleeding while damaging the immune system and vital organs.
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The internal storm caused by this virus results in blood not clotting leaving victims to bleed to death. Currently, it is believed that the Ebola virus is fatal in up to 90% of infected individuals. That is why the recent news about the recovery of Dr. Brantly and Ms. Writebol is such welcomed news.
2. How Ebola Virus Spreads
While Ebola is a virus, like the common cold, the measles, or the flu, fortunately it doesn’t spread as easily or quickly as these everyday maladies. Researchers believe that Ebola spreads through the direct contact with bodily fluids and waste from both humans and infected animals.
In Africa, monkeys, chimps, bats, and other animals carry Ebola, and their spit, feces and other fluids are believed to spread to humans. While some viruses have a fairly short life outside their host, it is believed that Ebola can survive quite some time. This virus can be spread through casual contact with tables, beds, floors, lamps, door handles, and more.
The Ebola virus is not airborne, cannot be spread throughout the water supply, or in properly handled and cooked foods.
3. Signs & Symptoms
Part of the problem with Ebola, is that it presents like so many other diseases and infections. The first signs are much like the flu – high fever, headaches, achy joints and muscles, weakness, lethargy and lack of appetite.
However, as Ebola progresses, individuals start to bleed internally and externally. Common areas of bleeding are gums, nose, eyes, ears, and around fingernails or toenails, while internally, tissues are bleeding as well.
4. Travel Precautions
If you travel for business, and it takes you to Europe, Africa or beyond, it is important to understand that not all countries and cultures practice the same level of hygiene that we do in the western part of the world. It is important to be mindful of your surroundings, and of the people you come into contact with.
Drink water only from sealed bottles; avoid raw fruits and vegetables; clean your hands thoroughly with disinfectants, and avoid touching your face or mouth whenever possible. If you are planning a trip soon, please review the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s article “Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever – prevention” for more information on how to protect yourself, and your family.
Until individuals are symptomatic, they are not spreading the disease. The incubation period can be anywhere from 2 days to over a month.
Of course, the best news of all is that the two Americans that have been treated with ZMapp and tender care, are, by all accounts, cured of the Ebola virus.
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All the doable stuff to live better naturally, sent to your inbox daily.🍎 SIGN UP |
Image caption Police said shining lasers at planes was very dangerous
Two passenger planes - one over Exeter, Devon, and one at Newquay, Cornwall - had laser beams shone into their cockpits on Friday night.
A Thomson Airbus from Corfu with about 180 people on board was struck by a beam while it was coming in to land at Exeter at about 20:00 BST.
A Flybe plane from Gatwick with more than 60 on board was hit at Newquay during a descent at 21:17.
They landed safely but the pilots could have been blinded, police said.
Police said the aircraft at Exeter was on final approach, low to the ground and over the city.
'Crashed aircraft'
The aircraft was about three miles (4.8km) out from the runway when the pilot reported a "blinding light", Exeter Airport said.
Airport spokesman Stephen Ayres said: "The captain was disturbed by it, even though he landed the aircraft safely."
A report had been filed with the Civil Aviation Authority, he added.
The beam was reported as coming from a sports ground in the Whipton area, on the other side of the M5 motorway from the airport, police said.
The force helicopter was scrambled to find the source of the beam.
Commenting on both incidents, Ch Insp Brendan Brookshaw, of Devon and Cornwall Police, said: "Potentially we could have been talking about a crashed aircraft.
"We don't want this to develop into a pattern of behaviour."
Police treated such incidents as a possible prelude to a terrorist attack, he added.
He said: "Obviously a laser [striking an aircraft] could be a prelude to a missile attack.
"We look at it with that level of seriousness."
People shining lasers at aircraft faced up to five years in prison under the Civil Aviation Act, he said. |
Peter Dutton's Home Affairs super-ministry draws scepticism from British security experts
Posted
Some British governance and security experts say Australians should be sceptical about the claimed benefits of the new national security super-ministry.
Key points: Experts stress UK's Home Office is still not perfect after two centuries
UK's national security hub regularly accused of being "unwieldy"
Australia has been "comparing notes" with the British for "a while"
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the portfolio would be similar in style to the UK's Home Office, which oversees immigration, national security and law and order.
The Home Office, according to the UK experts the ABC spoke to, is a "functional" or "effective" model.
But they stress it evolved over more than two centuries and is not perfect.
"Certainly the UK's history on merging organisations makes you sceptical about the claimed benefits — I would look at that more than the Home Office model itself," said Julian McCrae, who served in the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
"Whenever you put things together in government, which we have done a lot … you generally see a performance dip in the next couple of years, while people get used to the new arrangements.
"The question is 'what's your rationale?' Is there enough long-term logic of bringing these things together to get over the short-term dip in performance, which is pretty much inevitable?"
Others, like retired Colonel Richard Kemp — a former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan and former terrorism advisor at Downing Street — said there was "operational sense" in having spy agencies and police working closely together on national security matters.
But he did caution the Home Office is regularly accused of being "unwieldy".
"Sometimes that's a fair criticism, sometimes not," he said.
"On the whole the Home Office functions pretty effectively. Perhaps Australian officials have seen some benefit in the way it works.
"But it is one of the most controversial government departments and one that's often attacked mainly because its work affects so many people."
'We've been comparing notes on this'
Discussions with British officials on the Home Office model have been taking place for "a while", according to Australia's High Commissioner in London, Alexander Downer.
"We chat about these things. The British are very positive about how the Home Office as an institution works," he said.
"Given the Prime Minister's interest in this we've been comparing notes."
The idea of a new super-ministry has been discussed for many years in Canberra.
But Mr Downer, who was Australia's longest-serving foreign minister, would not say whether he personally supported the idea.
"I'm a public servant, I don't have a personal view," he said.
Topics: defence-and-national-security, security-intelligence, government-and-politics, terrorism, immigration, refugees, defence-forces, federal-government, foreign-affairs, crime-prevention, united-kingdom, canberra-2600 |
The man who shot and wounded a judge outside a county courthouse before being gunned down by a probation officer was the father of a Steubenville High School football player who was convicted of rape in 2013, authorities said Monday.
Jefferson County Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr. was shot at around 8 a.m. near the courthouse in Steubenville, just across the Ohio River from West Virginia's northern panhandle, roughly 30 miles west of Pittsburgh.
Authorities identified the gunman as 51-year-old Nathaniel "Nate" Richmond, the father of Ma'Lik Richmond. Ma'Lik, then 17, served about 10 months in a juvenile lockup after being convicted with another Steubenville football player of raping a 16-year-old girl during an alcohol-fueled party in 2012.
The case brought international attention to the eastern Ohio city of 18,000 and led to allegations of a cover-up to protect the football team.
Investigators are still looking for a motive in the shooting and haven't found a connection to the rape case, said Jefferson County Prosecutor Jane Hanlin.
A visiting judge from Hamilton County, where Cincinnati is located, handled the vast majority of the rape case.
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Courthouse video on Monday shows both the judge and Nate Richmond firing about five times each, said Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla.
"Whoever thought this could happen here?" Abdalla said.
Bruzzese, 65, was talking after being wounded, Steubenville City Manager James Mavromatis told WTOV-TV. The judge was flown to a Pittsburgh-area hospital. Republican Gov. John Kasich said he was told Bruzzese would survive.
The attack had to be intentional because people know about the reserved spots where judges park, said one of Bruzzese's judicial colleagues.
Judge Joseph Corabi said he and the county's two other judges park in reserved spots next to the courthouse in eastern Ohio. Judges then walk a few feet down what's known as "Courthouse Alley" to a side entrance to the building, said Corabi, the Jefferson County juvenile and probate court judge.
"Everybody knows who parks there. That's why it's not an accident what happened. He was clearly an intended target," Corabi said.
Ma'Lik Richmond, now 21, is currently on the Youngstown State football team but isn't allowed to play in any games, the school said earlier this month.
News of his participation drew a wave of criticism in the university community recently, and a petition was started to keep him from playing for the Penguins.
Corabi said Bruzzese is known as an avid hunter. He called him fair, hard-working, well-liked and "a tough son of a gun."
"He is very intelligent and he can cut to the chase," Corabi said. "He spots issues and he resolves the issues."
Bruzzese hears general and domestic relations cases as one of two judges serving in Jefferson County Common Pleas Court.
Bruzzese has served on that court since 1997, according to Ohio Supreme Court records. He was most recently re-elected in 2014 for another six-year term.
Bruzzese had likely arrived early to review his usual Monday morning batch of legal motions, Corabi said.
Local media reported that the suspect's body could be seen lying next to a car at the drive-thru of a neighboring bank. Police said a man who was in the car with him was taken into custody.
The courthouse was closed for the day as local and state authorities helped secure the scene. Jefferson County Commissioner Thomas Graham told WTOV that some courthouse workers witnessed the "tragic situation" and that people would need time to process what had happened.
The state crime lab will help investigate the shooting, said Republican Attorney General Mike DeWine.
The chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court called the attack a "cowardly ambush" and urged court personnel — especially judges — to take extra precautions.
The attack "reminds us all of the very real potential for violence against judges," Maureen O'Connor said. "Violence against judges represents an attack on the Rule of Law, the foundation of our country." |
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