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Everything went to hell over the weekend for the immigrants and refugees who had been legally approved to live and travel in the United States but were then caught up in President Donald Trump's terrible executive order banning them from returning back into the country.
I watched through social media the outraged reactions across the political spectrum from friends and analysts alike. The reasons for the opposition varied. Some (especially on the left) thought the order remarkably cruel. Others acknowledged the president's authority to generally regulate immigration rules but recognized this executive order as being poorly drafted and illegal. There was a reason that when I blogged about the stay on Trump's order I pointed to the argument by the American Civil Liberties Union that the order violated due process.
For much of Saturday it felt very much like a coming together of anybody who valued human liberty and the rule of law across the political spectrum. I found it so much more an important and positive development than the women's march because it was about something very concrete and fundamental to American values. I've gotten so used to the reflexive, condescending "This is not who we are" derision that President Barack Obama's administration used to try to shut down criticism. It was different to see people across the political spectrum in significant agreement (though, yes, there were some exceptions), even if not for the same reasons.
Then "#DeleteUber" happened, and I threw up my hands and yelled, "Goddammit!"
In New York City, taxi drivers organized a work stoppage to stop ferrying travelers to John F. Kennedy Airport for an hour in solidarity with those who were being detained there. I will admit that I was at first utterly mystified as to how refusing to transport people in New York for a while would help resolve any of this at all, but after reading their Facebook statement, I realized that it wasn't really a "strike" so much as taking an hour so that they could participate in the protests as well.
Uber continued ferrying travelers and—interestingly—announced that it was ending its price surge. While Uber catches a lot of flak for having price surges at peak hours from people who don't understand basic supply-and-demand economics, they caught flak this time for continuing service. They were perceived as trying to "break" this strike.
In addition, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has agreed to join Trump's economic advisory team (along with the likes of Elon Musk and Disney CEO Bob Iger). Despite a Facebook post from Kalanick declaring that Uber was going to do what it could to assist drivers who would be negatively affected by Trump's executive order, this apparently wasn't enough for some. A social media movement sprang up to encourage people to delete the Uber app from their phones and go with a rival like Lyft instead.
Under normal circumstances and with other companies, this would merit a shrug from libertarians (it might still). Uber has a right to operate, but it doesn't have a right to customers. People have the right to choose with whom to do business and to use public pressure to influence company decisions. In this case, I don't think either side has behaved unethically or illegally.
So why the frustration? First of all, we can't look at this protest in a vacuum. Uber is a company that is frequently targeted by protectionist taxi cartels and unions (and leftist supporters), and they're willing to use their power and influence to use government force to stop Uber's operations as much as they can. There is a bit of an obvious political trap going on here, and Uber kind of fell into it.
Second, the response is symptomatic of a deeply entrenched desire to use a communal form of punishment against those who are perceived as straying from established ideological positions. It's practically a reflexive response at this point to find somebody to attack. Why do headlines like "Can Taylor Swift call herself a feminist after skipping Women's March?" even exist (and there are other versions of this kind of story)? These kind of responses do not reflect a desire or a willingness to "live and let live." Even in an environment where the left is struggling to maintain influence, they're calling out allies for not showing up for marches or for employing poor people, minorities, and immigrants in a way that doesn't match the progressive playbook.
This reflexive desire to punish leaves me with a deep concern that even in the face of Trump, there is no stomach on the left to engage in introspection over its own authoritarian tendencies. And I'm going to remember pushes like "#DeleteUber" every time I see a call for libertarians to partner with liberals or the left to fight back Trump's worst policies. It's not because I don't agree—it's because I don't see a commitment to advancing freedom in response to Trump. I see a commitment to regaining control and authority. Thus, I don't see any "partnership" forming so much as two deeply ideologically different groups pushing for similar outcomes for different reasons. I don't want more power, except over my own life. I want more freedom.
When I (and others at Reason) bring up Obama and the left's role in expanding the power of the executive branch, this isn't merely some sort of "whataboutism" excuse for whatever awful thing Trump is doing or will be doing in the future. It is absolutely, utterly necessary to understand where this power came from in order to change it, and it's therefore utterly necessary for liberals and leftists or progressives to rethink their relationship with government authority.
Unhappy with Kalanick's and Musk's relationship with Trump? They're just doing what they've been doing all along regardless of the political party of the person in charge. Musk, at least, would have his hands all over a Hillary Clinton administration as well. Her proposed tech policy was full of cronyist opportunities for the "right" folks in the right industries, an extension of what was offered by the Obama administration. The expansion of the power of the government and its regulatory system has put businesses in a situation where not only is it extremely profitable to get cozy with the government; it's sometimes necessary to survive.
If liberals are not willing to consider that government authority itself is the problem and are insistent that the problem is Trump's particular brand of ego and narcissism, what does this partnership with libertarians even look like? If the only goal is regime change, what exactly is the role libertarians are meant to play in this push other than supplying additional numbers?
Allow me to pivot to something that seems completely unrelated, but I assure is not: The occasionally dismissive response to the critique of "political correctness culture" at colleges. In the wake of Trump's election, I've seen frustrated responses targeting libertarian outlets (including Reason) for continuing to hit at this subject even while Trump promises a horror show of civil liberties violations.
Besides this argument presenting a false choice (Reason certainly hasn't abandoned reporting on a whole host of other topics in favor of complaining about college kids today), it ignores the very real long-term potential authoritarian consequences of this college campus speech- and sex-policing. Reason has hit back frequently on the actual impact on people's lives—potentially costing students' their educations and threatening their livelihoods—when college administrators fail to respect the First and Fifth Amendment rights of their students.
But that's just a look at the consequences of what's happening right now. Less discussed is how these selfsame students—who are being taught to ignore concepts of free speech and due process if it results in outcomes they don't like—will eventually inherit the systems of government in a decade or so. What happens when a college student who internalizes that due process shouldn't apply to people accused of rape becomes a juror—or a judge? What happens when a student who doesn't believe "hate speech" counts as free speech becomes a member of Congress?
This is precisely why I mentioned up above that Trump's executive order against refugees and immigrants violated due process. Trump isn't just a "consequence" of political correctness activism—he is the cracked mirror reflection of it. Trump has no respect for free speech or due process or really any civil liberties at all.
So what I would recommend to anybody calling for an alliance between libertarians and the left (regardless of whichever side is making the call) is not look at Trump as some particularly remarkably bad outlier and anomaly (though he is certainly giving every sign he's going to be remarkably bad), but as an expression of the constantly present dangers of authority that cares only about the "right" outcomes and nothing about legal foundations and limits to power based on defenses of human liberty and civil rights.
There will obviously be places of intersection between libertarians and the left—places where we've been on the same team even before Trump, like criminal justice reform, immigration, and the scaling back of the drug war. But unless the left is willing to reconsider its relationship with authority and its desire to want to use power to punish its opponents (which occasionally includes libertarians, lest we forget), what are libertarians supposed to see as the endgame of all this? Long ago, I asked conservatives what happened to the power they were giving President George W. Bush after he left office. Later I asked the same to liberals about Obama. Now here we are, and now we know. How much government authority are you willing to eliminate to stop Trump? Think about it and get back to me. |
Globe-trotting 21-year-old 'set up $10million Ponzi scheme to finance jet-set lifestyle of luxury cars, a life in Rome and an acting career'
A fraudster has been arrested for allegedly scamming investors out of $10million while running an international Ponzi scheme.
Donald R. French Jr first launched the scam when he was just a 21-year-old, and used investors' money to jet around the world and pay off gambling debts, according to FBI officials.
His four-year streak ended this summer when he was arrested in South Africa and extradited to Las Vegas, where he had been caught passing off fraudulent cheques worth $750,000.
Last week the 25-year-old was transported to Florida to stand trial on federal wire fraud charges over the alleged Ponzi scheme, according to the Sun-Sentinel - and now he could face 20 years in prison.
Arrested: Donald French, pictured left after his arrest for passing bad cheques and right in 2008, is accused of running a $10million international Ponzi scheme
French founded D3 Capital Management LLC in 2008, with an office address in an expensive neighbourhood of Boca Raton.
The hedge fund advertised itself as 'a premier provider of global investment management', and offered investors huge returns by ploughing their money into foreign currency, energy projects and emeralds.
WHERE THE MONEY WENT
$1.48million spent on his debit card
$1.28million withdrawn in cash
$450,000 gambling debt at Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas
$62,000 to hire luxury cars
However, earlier this year French apparently admitted to FBI agent Daniel Szczepanski that he relied on 'his ability to lie and manipulate people' to attract funding.
$10million flowed in to the fund over four years - even though its office was nothing more than a mailing adress and telephone number.
One investor was persuaded to commit nearly $2million to D3 after French promised her annual returns of 50 per cent on her money, according to Mr Szczepanski.
After she put in $1million, French persuaded her that she could only recover her money by paying in another $1million - and he personally accompanied her to a bank to watch her transfer the money.
Lookalike? French tried to launch an acting career and claimed he looked like megastar Brad Pitt Officials say that almost none of the money went into legitimate investments, and was instead used by French to fund his jet-set lifestyle. He has spent much of the past five years in Rome, where he lives with his fiancée and their three-year-old daughter.
He attempted to launch a film career in Italy - with one casting agency touting him as a Brad Pitt lookalike.
French is believed to have spent over $1million on his gambling debts at the Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas.
Haunts: French lived for several years in Rome, left, and has also spent time in South Africa, right
Debts: The alleged fraudster spent hundreds of thousands of dollars at the Cosmopolitan casino in Las Vegas
He also withdrew more than $1million in cash and spent nearly $1.5million on his debit card, according to court records.
And it was his gambling habit that finally brought an end to his alleged scam, as he was forced to plead guilty in August for passing a bad check and sentenced to 30 months in jail.
If convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, he will spend up to two decades in prison.
French's allegedly ill-gotten gains appear to have run out - court records show that he cannot afford to hire a lawyer, and he reports no significant assets or property. |
Fnatic's dynasty ended after the 2014 season. Following three straight EU LCS championships against three different challengers, the empire clad in orange and black fell to their rivals, Alliance, in the summer season finals. The former world champions still qualified for the World Championships as Europe's second seed, but they experienced even more strife during the group stages.
Fnatic's run at Worlds last year was a massive disappointment for the franchise, having already won the entire competition back in 2012 and making the semifinals the year prior. They had glimpses of good play, being the only team to upset one of the tournament leaders, Samsung Blue, in the first match they played together, but the group stage ended with them owning a sub-par two victories and a one-way ticket back to Europe. Their rematch loss to Blue served as the last time we would see xPeke wear his iconic jersey as he left to create an organization that would later be known as Origen.
Everyone's departure from the starting roster, besides YellOwStaR, left the former golden organization in ruins. The European region failed to deliver at Worlds on a whole, as all three of their squads failed to make it to the quarterfinals. Rekkles had left to join the team that beat them in the European finals. xPeke, the face of the franchise, took Soaz on his new journey. Left to rebuild the team, it was finally time for YellOwStaR to begin his own quest in bringing back the pride to Fnati--
Wait, wait, wait.
This story about the charismatic and flashy Korean top lane rookie started before this part.
The tale of Huni begins back when Fnatic's manager, Oliver Steer, traveled to Korea a month before the 2014 World Championships to learn more about South Korea's infrastructure and to see how eastern team houses operated. His trip to the mecca of eSports brought him to the Samsung house, which was known for housing one of the top franchises in the country. Before getting into League of Legends, Samsung found success in the StarCraft: Brood War scene, producing talents such as Jangbi and Stork, two of the best Protoss players in the game's history. Their lineage continued when League became the most watched and played game in the country, as Samsung scooped up both MVP White and Blue organizations before the 2013 Worlds.
At the Samsung house, which encompassed separate floors for their StarCraft II squad, League of Legends professional teams, and the League practice players, Oliver met with one of those trainee players: a brazen and confident mid laner that was considered to be one of the rising talents in the Korean amateur scene. His name was Heo "Huni" Seung-hoon, who at the time was playing as a practice partner alongside the likes of Dignitas' Gamsu and KT Rolster's Piccaboo. Samsung, having the consensus two strongest teams in the world, had a wealth of riches in their farm system and had players on their training squad that could have been all-stars already in other regions.
Huni, even as a practice player, showed confidence that would eventually lead him to stardom in Europe. He told Oliver that he didn't believe that the 2014 Fnatic squad had much of a chance competing at the World Championships. This led to a situation you'd only think happened in overdramatized television shows: Huni, along with four other members from the Samsung training squad, faced off against Fnatic in a series of scrimmages to see if the Korean amateur could back up his big words.
"And pretty much these random five solo queue guys, four times in a row, just took a dump on Fnatic within 20 minutes. They just annihilated us," Steer told Red Bull eSports. "And this Huni kid, in front of my eyes, I watched him play sOAZ, and he was winning!"
The cocky amateur and his band of training partners wiped the floor with one of Europe's top teams. Subsequently, that same Fnatic team would fall apart at the World Championships, and Huni would be on his way to Europe — but not on Fnatic. Samsung was allegedly putting together a team of their topflight practice players to send to the European LCS to rise through the ranks alongside xPeke's fledgling Origen. They were to be named Samsung Red, and they were going to consist of Gamsu in the top lane, Amel (now in China) at jungler, Huni as mid lane, and the pair of Skatch (Unlimited Potential) and Piccaboo in the bottom lane. Samsung's plan was to challenge the minor leagues of Europe, destroy the western from the ground up, and eventually make it to the 2015 World Championships after qualifying for the EU LCS in the summer split.
Unfortunately for Samsung, their master plan to take over Europe was thwarted even before Huni and the rest of Samsung Red could move overseas. Riot created a "region lock" of sorts that allowed teams to field only two non-residential players, making the proposed Samsung Red squad nothing more than an alternate timeline where Huni and his Korean comrades face off against the likes of Origen, YellOwStar's Fnatic, and the rest of Europe's top teams. With Riot messing up Huni's plan to rule over Europe and the Korean exodus happening only a few months later, the Korean amateur went to the only stable team in the region during the roster turnovers: SK Telecom T1.
SK Telecom T1 missed the World Championships after winning the 2013 title, and went into the offseason with a chip on their shoulder. They had already cut their bottom lane of Piglet and PoohMandu and the team wasn't done trying to sign the best possible talent before the 2015 season. T1 held tryouts to fill their starting spots and bench players, wanting a team that could adapt and be flexible regardless of the situation. If one starting player slumped, they wanted the option of having another elite player on the bench to bring in to make sure that they would make it back to the world stage.
It was a survival of the fittest tryout, leaving only a couple of players left at each position following rigorous training to see who was strong enough to play for the the most decorated organization in South Korea. Those players were allowed to come into SKT T1's gaming house to see if they could acclimate with the team, and eventually became one of their players for the 2015 season.
From all of the people who tried out, these were the players who were able to survive and make it into the house:
Top Lane: Huni, Smeb
Jungle: Reignover, Rush
Mid Lane: Scout
AD Carry: Fury
Support: Piccaboo
After playing in the SKT T1 house for a week, the only player they decided to select to be on their opening day roster was Piccaboo. Smeb would go on to join the KOO Tigers and eventually have his own crazy story that has resulted in a semifinals berth against the player he was competing with. Scout, one of the best amateur players in Korea, stayed with T1 as a practice player and eventually started showing up to games in the summer season as a bench player.
For Huni, it was once believed that he had failed the test like the other top talent that couldn't make it through the final round of playing in T1 house. But, at MSI, he opened up about his experience and tried to set the record straight:
"People believe I failed to qualify for SKT T1," Huni said in an interview with Inven back in May. "The truth is, I made it in but I decided not to join. Even during the tryouts I thought I did better [than MaRin]."
As he was when Fnatic's manager talked to him for the first time, Huni was steady in his confidence of his own abilities. After getting to know Reignover during the T1 trials and neither having a team, Huni would find himself back with the team that he dismantled with his Samsung comrades before the Fnatic empire came crashing down only a month later. YellOwStar, needing a new team with his former comrades gone, decided to sign the Korean pair that tried out for SK Telecom T1 weeks before, bringing them over to Germany for the spring split of the EU LCS.
The new Fnatic was a gigantic question mark heading into the regular season. YellOwStaR was a known quantity, but everyone else was a mystery. Fnatic had two Korean players, one of them an amateur and the other having the nickname 'GameOver' due to his poor performance in professional games up to that point. They also had two European rookies making their premiere league debuts, Febiven, the highly sought after mid laner who helped H2k Gaming get into the LCS before leaving them, and France's Steeelback at the AD Carry role.
Although they got off to a quick start and did well in the spring season, finishing 13-5 in the regular season, it was obvious to see that Fnatic was a work in progress. They played less like a team and more like a group of individuals that could work together sometimes but would rather win through their own devices. Huni and Reignover had a chemistry due to their history together and being able to communicate in the same language, and the rest of the team merely followed them each time they decided to play aggressive and jump into a fight.
Huni connected to the fans during the spring season with his offensive abilities, becoming renowned for his Rumble and Lissandra play. Similar to his personality, Huni played like he always believed he was stronger than his opponents. Regardless if it was three-on-one or all five members coming after Huni, he would jolt in, start off an engagement, and do as much damage as humanly possible with Reignover backing him up and his new European teammates coming from behind to continue the chaotic skirmish. His wild play, endearing interviews, and joking personality made Huni one of the most popular players in the European LCS, solidifying himself as a true member of the rebuilt Fnatic.
Over the past year, Huni has gone from a relative unknown practice partner to one of the elite top lane carries in the world. When Fnatic needs a reliable carry to help them achieve victory...they call on Febiven. But, when the team needs a lighting rod to take over the game with supreme confidence, that's when Huni becomes unstoppable. It's a double-edged sword with the Korean top laner. When Reignover or the rest of his team can get him a lead in the lane phase and jump start his carrying ways, Huni is legitimately one of the best players in the world. However, when Huni falls behind or makes a mistake that hurts his team, that's when he can still show his immaturity as a pro-gamer and rely too heavily on his mechanical skill. He'll give up a kill early and then burn his teleport offensively to try and even up the score with his lane opponent in a losing matchup instead of playing safe, growing slowly, and ultimately winning through attrition.
Ironically, the player that Huni reminds me most of is the one player that SK Telecom T1 actually chose from the survival tryouts and was also slated to play alongside Huni on Samsung Red: Piccaboo. Both players, when their aggression and fiery offensive plays works, are incredible. They take over a game with their playmaking potential and push the tempo to their team's favor. Before the other team can even get a grip on the game, Huni or Piccaboo's team is already up a massive amount of gold and the opponent's base is about to be taken. The issues come when either of the two Korean players are stymied in the early-game and their overconfidence gets the best of them.
We saw Piccaboo's downfall in the semifinals against the KOO Tigers, the team led by Smeb that Huni will have to face in the semifinals. Piccaboo, even after being caught out and getting punished for his overzealous plays, never stopped trying to make the big play when all his team needed was a solid performance to win a game. Against Smeb in the semifinals, Huni will be at the forefront when it comes to ways either Fnatic can win or lose. If Huni plays like Piccaboo did against KOO and gets frustrated if Smeb beats him in-lane and kills him — which honestly isn't out of the realm of possibility seeing how well Smeb handled Ssumday in the quarterfinals — then Fnatic could be looking at a situation where Huni continually feeds to Smeb by trying to even the scoreline and ends up making it worse.
Huni is undoubtedly a star. He's transcended barriers by becoming one of Europe's biggest stars as a rookie Korean player with not-fluent English. While we've seen other Korean players move to new countries in the past year and fail miserably by not connecting with the fans or their teammates, Huni has become one of Fnatic's key players and reasons why they've made it so far in this tournament. His next test will be to see if he can keep his calm in a match where he isn't instantly stronger than his opponent in terms of mechanics. Back before the year started, Smeb and Huni were both considered strong enough mechanically to make it into the T1 house.
Now we'll see if Huni can take down the man that T1 thought was equal to him, and then possibly take down the organization that didn't think he was good enough to be their starting player.
In true Huni fashion, I'm sure he's ready for the upcoming challenges — and ready to carry, dominate, and win.
Tyler "Fionn" Erzberger is a staff writer for theScore eSports. You can follow him on Twitter. |
So, what is this?
rComments is a Chrome extension that lets Redditors traverse through comments and their replies directly from the front pages of any subreddit. All you have to do is hover over the 'comments' link and a popup appears allowing you to read through the top comments and their replies, as well as upvote or downvote them if you'd like.
What does it look like?
Alright not bad... how much is it?
Completely free.
What about privacy?
The extension is stateless - it does not store any information at all. All it needs is permission to read and change data on reddit.com sites, which is necessary in order to fetch and render comments.
Where is your so called "code"?
Here. I used jQuery. Sue me. Update: HAHA! Removed jQuery! Down to 11.3 KB!
Install rComments |
Butler in 1916
Nicholas Murray Butler (April 2, 1862 – December 7, 1947) was an American philosopher, diplomat, and educator. Butler was president of Columbia University,[1] president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He became so well known and respected that The New York Times printed his Christmas greeting to the nation every year.
Early life and education [ edit ]
Butler was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Mary Butler and manufacturing worker Henry Butler. He enrolled in Columbia College (later Columbia University) and joined the Peithologian Society. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in 1882, his master's degree in 1883 and his doctorate in 1884. Butler's academic and other achievements led Theodore Roosevelt to call him "Nicholas Miraculous." In 1885, Butler studied in Paris and Berlin and became a lifelong friend of future Secretary of State Elihu Root. Through Root he also met Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. In the fall of 1885, Butler joined the staff of Columbia's philosophy department.
In 1887, he co-founded with Grace Hoadley Dodge,[2] and became president of, the New York School for the Training of Teachers, which later affiliated with Columbia University and was renamed Teachers College, Columbia University, and from which a co-educational experimental and developmental unit became Horace Mann School.[3] From 1890 to 1891, Butler was a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Throughout the 1890s Butler served on the New Jersey Board of Education and helped form the College Entrance Examination Board.
Presidency of Columbia University [ edit ]
In 1901, Butler became acting president of Columbia University, and in 1902 formally became president. Among the many dignitaries in attendance at his investiture was President Roosevelt. Butler was president of Columbia for 43 years, the longest tenure in the university's history, retiring in 1945. As president, Butler carried out a major expansion of the campus, adding many new buildings, schools, and departments. These additions included Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, the first academic medical center in the world.
In 1937 he was admitted as an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati.[4]
In 1941, the Pulitzer Prize fiction jury selected Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. The Pulitzer Board initially agreed with that judgment, but Butler, ex officio head of the Pulitzer board, found the novel offensive and persuaded the board to reverse its determination, so that no novel received the prize that year.[5]
During his lifetime, Columbia named its philosophy library for him; after he died, its main academic library, previously known as South Hall, was rechristened Butler Library. A faculty apartment building on 119th Street and Morningside Drive was also renamed in Butler's honour, as was a major prize in philosophy.
An in-depth look at Butler's time at Columbia University also can be found in The Goose-Step: a Study of American Education, by Upton Sinclair.
Political activity [ edit ]
Butler was a delegate to each Republican National Convention from 1888 to 1936. In 1912, when Vice President James S. Sherman died a few days before the presidential election, Butler was designated to receive the electoral votes that Sherman would have received. (The Republican ticket won only 8 electoral votes from Utah and Vermont, finishing third behind the Democrats and the Progressives.)
In 1916, Butler tried to secure the Republican presidential nomination for Elihu Root. Butler sought the nomination for himself in 1920 and 1928, without success.
Butler believed that Prohibition was a mistake, with negative effects on the country. He became active in the successful effort for Repeal in 1933.
He credited John W. Burgess along with Alexander Hamilton for providing the philosophical basis of his Republican principles.[6]
In June 1936 Butler traveled to the Carnegie Endowment Peace Conference in London where, at the meeting, the question of gold being used internationally was considered.
Internationalist [ edit ]
Butler was the chair of the Lake Mohonk Conference on International Arbitration that met periodically from 1907 to 1912. In this time he was appointed president of the American branch of International Conciliation. Butler was also instrumental in persuading Andrew Carnegie to provide the initial $10 million funding for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Butler became head of international education and communication, founded the European branch of the Endowment headquartered in Paris, and was President of the Endowment from 1925 to 1945. For his work in this field, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1931 (shared with Jane Addams) "[For his promotion] of the Briand-Kellogg pact" and for his work as the "leader of the more establishment-oriented part of the American peace movement".
In December 1916 Butler, Roosevelt and other philanthropists including Scottish-born industrialist John C. Moffat, William Astor Chanler, Joseph Choate, Clarence Mackay, George von Lengerke Meyer, and John Grier Hibben purchased the Château de Chavaniac, birthplace of the Marquis de Lafayette in Auvergne, to serve as a headquarters for the French Heroes Lafayette Memorial Fund,[7] which was managed by Chanler's ex-wife Beatrice Ashley Chanler.[8][9]
Butler was President of the Pilgrims Society, which promotes Anglo-American friendship.[10] He served as President of the Pilgrims from 1928 to 1946. Butler was president of The American Academy of Arts and Letters from 1928 to 1941.
Personal life [ edit ]
Butler married Susanna Edwards Schuyler (1863–1903) in 1887 and had one daughter from that marriage. Susanna was the daughter of Jacob Rutsen Schuyler (1816–1887) and Susannah Haigh Edwards (born 1830). His wife died in 1903 and he married again in 1907 to Kate La Montagne, granddaughter of New York property developer Thomas E. Davis.[11] In 1940, Butler completed his autobiography with the publication of the second volume of Across the Busy Years.[12] When Butler became almost blind in 1945 at the age of eighty-three, he resigned from the posts he held and died two years later. Butler is buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery, in Paterson, New Jersey.
Despite Butler's accomplishments, many people regarded him as arrogant. He autocratically dismissed faculty members who displeased him, such as the great classical scholar Harry Thurston Peck, and others who dared to question his dismissals, such as the civil rights pioneer Joel Elias Spingarn. He had little respect for Columbia's fine arts faculty, and stripped them of academic affairs voting rights in 1903, accelerating his deteriorating relationship with music professor Edward MacDowell; he went so far as to accuse MacDowell of unprofessional conduct and sloppy teaching, prompting MacDowell's abrupt resignation from Columbia in February 1904. In 1939, a former student of Butler's, Rolfe Humphries, published in the pages of Poetry an effort titled "Draft Ode for a Phi Beta Kappa Occasion" that followed a classical format of unrhymed blank verse in iambic pentameter with one classical reference per line. The first letters of each line of the resulting acrostic spelled out the message: "Nicholas Murray Butler is a horses [sic] ass." Upon discovering the "hidden" message, the irate editors ran a formal apology.[13] Randolph Silliman Bourne lampooned him as "Alexander Macintosh Butcher" in "One of our Conquerers", a 1915 essay he published in The New Republic.
Butler wrote and spoke voluminously on all manner of subjects ranging from education to world peace. Although marked by erudition and great learning, his work tended toward the portentous and overblown. In The American Mercury, the critic Dorothy Dunbar Bromley referred to Butler's pronouncements as "those interminable miasmas of guff."[14]
One notable critic of Butler was Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. While attending Columbia, Ginsberg scrawled the phrases "Butler Has No Balls" and "Fuck The Jews" in the grime on his dirty dorm window in Hartley Hall. (The dorm maid reported the graffiti to College dean Herbert Hawkes, who summoned Ginsberg and told him, "I hope you realize the enormity of what you've done". This incident was among the reasons that Ginsberg was suspended from Columbia.)[citation needed]
Honors [ edit ]
Works [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ] |
The LA Galaxy family is growing.
On Tuesday, defender A.J. DeLaGarza and his wife Megan announced via Instagram that they are expecting their second child.
A photo posted by AJ DeLaGarza (@ajd_20) on Mar 31, 2015 at 7:32pm PDT
Megan learned of the pregnancy in February just before the Galaxy’s trip to Europe and after some peaceful reflection made the announcement on Tuesday through their social media channels. The news comes months after the untimely passing of the couple’s first son Luca due to a congenital birth defect called Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome.
Last year, the American soccer community rallied around the DeLaGarza family and Luca by trumpeting their personal message, “#LucaKnowsHeart” and on Tuesday night at the announcement of a second child, the support flowed once again.
“Everyone has been on the journey with us over the last year,” DeLaGarza told LAGalaxy.com on Wednesday after the team’s practice. “Everyone is ecstatic and happy, and right now we just want to hope for the best.”
To honor the memory of their late son, the DeLaGarzas have been active in charity work with the Ronald McDonald House, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and the American Heart Association to support other families who have endured similar hardships. For his diligent charity work, DeLaGarza was honored with the 2014 Major League Soccer Humanitarian of the Year Award at the conclusion of last season.
This year, A.J. and Megan have remained active in their charitable exploits even organizing a donation drive for the Ronald McDonald House of Washington, D.C. prior to LA’s recent match with D.C. United.
The collection drive was a massive success as soccer fans from across the Washington, D.C. area donated a slew of items to the organization that housed the DeLaGarza family during their child’s brave fight.
And as the family prepares to have their second child, DeLaGarza knows that Luca will be smiling down watching over his parents and his new brother or sister as they embark upon another journey.
“I’ve told my wife that we have to be excited for this one because we know that Luca will always watch down on him or her.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at www.LAGalaxy.com/insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com. |
Just in time for the holidays, you can buy this wonderful Santa vs. Jesus game. Bring it to the family Christmas party. Because you know you were going to get kicked out of there at some point anyway.
It was funded via crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter which said it was the “most complained about game in history”. But fans have called it “good fun”. Danny Webster, spokesperson for the Evangelical Alliance, says he believes a board game helping people learn about Jesus at Christmas would be “a great innovation” but he has a problem with the Santa vs Jesus game because “it trivialises Christian belief and equates them both as fictional characters.“
And the problem with that is…?
The game launched on Kickstarter over the summer with a goal of £4,500 and ultimately earned £7,146.
I’m not sure how to play it, but with a premise like this, there’s no wrong way to enjoy the game.
(via Christian Nightmares) |
Finally, the day has arrived for which we have been laying ground all these months. DGA announced its line-up today, and that made it a little easier to predict Best Director — though it is not certain that all five will make the Oscar line-up too. Over the last few weeks or so, several other industry guilds (SAG, PGA, ACE to name a few) have also announced their nominations, and even though they do help in making the Oscar predictions, the truth is they can’t be trusted 100%. Ultimately, one has to rely on two things: past history of nominations and more importantly, one’s gut instinct.
Anyway, as you all know, we here at The Cinemaholic do our best to bring to you the most accurate Oscar predictions. (We can officially claim to be most accurate predictors on internet considering we have consistently and correctly predicted at least 85 nominees out of 106/107 in 21 main categories for the past three years — a feat no publication, other than us, can claim to make). But each year is different. And this year, I have realized, is particularly difficult to predict. Except for a few categories — which are more or less settled — every category has too many borderline players, any of which can make into the final five. Even the Best Picture category has seven films that are sure to make the nomination list, but the last one/two spots are very difficult to predict.
With that said, take your time to go through the predictions of all the 21 categories (we don’t predict the 3 shorts categories). It is a long list and will need some time to go through one by one. You can also come back, after the nominations are announced, to check how many correct predictions we made. Oscar nominations announcement will happen on Thursday, 14th January.
All the nominees are listed in alphabetical order.
Best Picture
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Brooklyn
Carol
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Room
Spotlight
Straight Outta Compton
Potential Spoilers:
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Trumbo
Best Director
Adam McKay, The Big Short
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, The Revenant
George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Ridley Scott, The Martian
Tom McCarthy, Spotlight
Potential Spoilers:
Todd Haynes, Carol
Steven Spielberg, Bridge of Spies
Best Actor
Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Matt Damon, The Martian
Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
Potential Spoilers:
Steve Carrell, The Big Short
Michael Keaton, Spotlight
Best Actress
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Brie Larson, Room
Cate Blanchett, Carol
Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Potential Spoilers:
Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Big Short
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Potential Spoilers:
Benecio del Toro, Sicario
Michael Keaton, Spotlight
Best Supporting Actress
Helen Mirren, Trumbo
Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Rachael McAdams, Spotlight
Rooney Mara, Carol
Potential Spoilers:
Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
Best Original Screenplay
Bridge of Spies
Ex Machina
The Hateful Eight
Inside Out
Spotlight
Potential Spoilers:
Straight Outta Compton
Sicario
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Big Short
Carol
Brooklyn
Room
Steve Jobs
Potential Spoilers:
The Martian
The Revenant
Best Cinematography
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
Potential Spoilers:
Bridge of Spies
The Martian
Best Editing
The Big Short
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Spotlight
Potential Spoilers:
Sicario
Bridge of Spies
Best Costume Design
Brooklyn
Carol
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
Potential Spoilers:
Crimson Peak
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Black Mass
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Revenant
Potential Spoilers:
Mr. Homes
Concussion
Best Production Design
Bridge of Spies
Cinderella
The Danish Girl
Mad Max: Fury Road
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Potential Spoilers:
The Martian
Carol
Best Original Score
Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Hateful Eight
Inside Out
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Potential Spoilers:
Spotlight
Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Original Song
“See You Again”, Furious 7
“Til It Happens To You”, The Hunting Ground
“Simple Song #3”, Youth
“Love Me Like You Do”, Fifty Shades of Grey
“Writings on the Wall”, Spectre
Potential Spoilers:
“Earned It”, Fifty Shades of Grey
“I’ll See You in my Dreams”, I’ll See You in my Dreams
Best Sound Editing
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Sicario
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Potential Spoilers:
The Hateful Eight
Jurassic World
Best Sound Mixing
Bridge of Spies
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
The Revenant
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Potential Spoilers:
The Hateful Eight
Straight Outta Compton
Best Visual Effects
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Martian
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
The Walk
Potential Spoilers:
The Revenant
Ant-Man
Best Animated Feature
Anomalisa
The Good Dinosaur
Inside Out
The Peanuts Movie
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Potential Spoilers:
The Prophet
Boy and the World
Best Foreign Film
The Brand New Testament (Belgium)
Mustang (France)
Labyrinth of Lies (Germany)
Son of Saul (Hungary)
Theeb (Jordan)
Potential Spoilers:
A War (Denmark)
Viva (Iraland)
Best Documentary Feature
Amy
Cartel Land
The Hunting Ground
Listen to Me Marlon
The Look of Silence
Potential Spoilers:
Winter on Fire
Going Clear
Final Tally:
Mad Max: Fury Road: 8-10 nominations
The Revenant: 7-9 nominations
Carol: 7-9 nominations
The Martian: 6-8 nominations
Bridge of Spies: 5-7 nominations
Spotlight: 5-7 nominations
The Big Short: 5-6 nominations
Star Wars: The Force Awakens: 4-5 nominations
Brooklyn: 4-5 nominations
The Hateful Eight: 4-5 nominations
The Danish Girl: 3-4 nominations
Room: 3-4 nominations
Steve Jobs: 2-3 nominations |
This week we report on the continuing debate about female ejaculation: is it real, and if so why does it happen?
See: Everything you always wanted to know about female ejaculation (but were afraid to ask)
Ejaculation is just one of the aspects of female sexuality that are being demystified by research. In particular, the female orgasm, the subject of so many myths and folk beliefs, is gradually being understood.
Following some intense field research, here are some of the key facts about the female orgasm, as revealed by modern science.
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The G spot is real
The G spot is a small region in the vagina that, if stimulated, can produce wildly intense orgasms – or so the popular claim goes. However, for decades, strong evidence for the region’s existence was harder to find than the spot itself.
However, in 2008, an Italian research team found anatomical differences between women who could have G-spot orgasms and women who couldn’t; apparently solving the mystery. The researchers have since begun teaching women with G spots how to put them to use.
See: Ultrasound nails location of the elusive G spot
The brain switches off
It’s folk wisdom that people can’t think straight when they have sex on their minds, but when women have an orgasm most of their brains switch off.
A brain scanning study showed that many areas of women’s brains were deactivated during orgasm, including those involved in emotion. The effect was less striking in men, but that may be because male orgasms are so short they are hard to detect in a brain scan.
See: Orgasms: A real turn-off for women
Many women can’t have orgasms
According to a 1999 survey, around 43 per cent of women in the US have some sort of problem with their sex lives (Journal of the American Medical Association, vol 281, page 537).
Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) is so common that the very idea that it is a medical disorder has come under attack. If nearly half the female population has a problem, say critics, does that mean it is our society that is dysfunctional?
Even so, efforts to develop drugs to treat it are underway. The impotence drug Viagra has had mixed results in women, but there are many other avenues being explored.
See: What women want
Genes affect orgasm frequency
According to the first genetic study of the female orgasm, up to 45 per cent of the variation in women’s ability to have them could be down to genes.
Many women never have orgasms during intercourse, and some also cannot have them through masturbation. Some of this may be down to external factors like upbringing, but the study showed the genetic factor is significant.
See: Genes blamed for fickle female orgasm
Technology can help
Perhaps the most extreme solution is the so-called “orgasmatron”; an implant inserted into the spinal cord, which stimulates the user when switched on via a remote control.
Despite an initial struggle to find subjects for clinical testing, the device is now in development.
See: Push my button
Some mystery remains
The female orgasm is a puzzle for evolutionary biologists. It is unclear why women should have orgasms at all, and it is particularly baffling that so many women should be unable to have orgasms during penetrative sex, but able to have them by masturbation.
According to researcher Elisabeth Lloyd, that implies that female orgasms are an evolutionary accident. Like male nipples, they persist simply because there is no good reason to get rid of them.
See: The case of the female orgasm |
James Harrison has a legitimate case to make the Hall of Fame. Becoming a fan favorite over the past decade, he has established himself as one of the best Steelers linebackers of all-time, which says a lot. With that said, it should be clear that there is no disrespect in saying that the fact that Harrison is the Steelers best pass-rushing linebacker three weeks into the 2016 season is quite alarming.
Pittsburgh Steelers Outside Linebacker Problem
Harrison is 38 years old now. This is not the James Harrison who recorded the longest touchdown return in Super Bowl history. Now, this is the James Harrison who is playing in just 42 percent of the team’s snaps, and that’s primarily for the purpose of adding to an edge rush that would be almost non-existent without him.
Arthur Moats has the only sack on the team through three weeks. On that play, Moats dropped into coverage, and it was the scrambling of Andy Dalton that led to the sack and a small loss. Aside from that, the only player to stand out as a pass-rusher from the outside linebacker group in terms of pressure has been Harrison. In fact, it should be noted that both Jarvis Jones and Arthur Moats have been assets in coverage more than in rushing the quarterback.
Who is going to step up?
Arthur Moats
Moats is what he is; the 29-year-old recorded only his 14th career takedown in his seventh NFL season. Moats is a free agent this offseason, but he is a guy who could be retained to perform in a similar role next season.
Jarvis Jones
As aforementioned, the most impressive things Jones has done this year have been in coverage. Though being lined up in a variety of spots by disguise to confuse offenses, he is not providing a legitimate pass rush this season. A free agent this coming offseason, Jones is unlikely to be retained unless he shows some evidence of pass disruption.
Bud Dupree has a huge chip on his shoulder now. He was the first-round pick. He is supposed to be the player to take a step forward in 2016, make a difference in the pass rush and give the Steelers assurance that he was the future beyond Harrison. Unfortunately, Dupree is on injured reserve, and it is unknown when he will be back. The fact that the Steelers placed Dupree on IR and did not do the same for Senquez Golson presumably reveals which player they anticipate returning quicker.
Chickillo has been given a chance to see the field due to the injury to Dupree. Through three games, he has played in 26 percent of the team’s snaps, and those have hardly been coverage snaps. Chickillo has the job of going after the quarterback, and while it is his first chance in a limited role, he has not provided much. The scary thing is that until at least week eight, he is the only player with upside to provide a chance to make an impact for the unit.
What can the Steelers do?
Last week the Steelers came out with a similar defensive scheme to the one in which they ran in the first two weeks. It features a lot of nickel formations and four-man rushes. The blitzes are not too mysterious. Some quarterbacks do not know what to do with time to throw the ball and nobody open. Carson Wentz proved on Sunday that if he is given time to think in the pocket, he is going to make smart decisions.
What the Steelers are going to need to do is disguise their blitzes. Lawrence Timmons this year has shown notable lapses in coverage. However, in the run game and potentially blitzing from a variety of positions, value for Timmons can be found. The team has experimented with Ryan Shazier on the edge and may be able to use him in a variety of blitzing roles. Mixing and matching who comes and who drops between the four linebackers on the field, along with the safeties and cornerbacks, has to show up in the next few weeks for the Steelers to provide a pass rush. As the games become more important, the pass rush must prove stronger or else the Steelers won’t reach their fullest potential.
Main Photo: |
I’m sitting on my bed, completely at peace. My 4-year-old soundly sleeps in the room next to ours and all is well with the world.
I’m totes high.
Not terribly so, just enough to get me though the evening of coming home after a long day at work, loving, feeding and cleaning up after two humans and three animals. And doing it all with a smile.
I didn’t start out mothering this way — getting high to perform daily tasks that every mother should do in complete sobriety, laughing and smiling and comforting everyone but herself. I have always been a bit of a selfish person by nature. I’ve never been someone who shares easily — I won’t let you have a shrimp from my shrimp parm. Just no.
It was also the same when I became a stepmother practically overnight. Hubby and I had a very short courtship and got married rather quickly. Partly because I was old (40ish) and I wasn’t wasting any time, partly because…well, life is too damn short. And I wanted a baby before it was too late.
Related Story: 14 Productive Things To You Can Do After Smoking Marijuana
Fast-forward to a few years later and my life as a mom in Brooklyn is as typical as it comes. I have a great husband (no, not perfect), a good career (not steady) and my littlest love: my gorgeous, perfect baby boy. Parenting is never easy, not for anyone, and I don’t care who the hell you think you are or what perfect baby you claim to have birthed. No one is perfect and we all have our bad days.
In the days of online mom-shaming, I’m not immune to judgement. But being an older mom has had many advantages, in the sense that as a woman in my 40s, I don’t give a rat’s ass what anyone thinks of me or the way I raise my kid. Yea, I gave my kid formula and frankly, it’s none of your damn business why I did. You think I’m too permissive in my parenting? Whatever. You think I shouldn’t feed him non-organic hot dogs? Seriously. Don’t care, never did.
I am a mom who drinks. It’s so very popular and dare I say, fashionable to be a mom that does. But it’s difficult to maintain a full parenting schedule, with or without a job, when you drink like a fish at Timmy’s soccer game. How many drunk moms videos can one watch in a day? Gotta love their spirit though, and their ability to not run to the nearest bar and order 50 wings on Wing Night after drinking all that chardonnay! I can’t day drink, so that only leaves night drinking and my nights are short these days.
Related Link: This Is What Lyft Is Doing To Keep People From Driving High In Colorado
I’m mostly a mom who smokes pot. In many ways, it’s easier than drinking. In many ways, smoking is a better way to cope than drinking. There are countless studies that say marijuana does significantly less damage than drinking. In my own home, I notice the difference. My mind immediately calms when I smoke. When I smoke, it’s one bong hit and I’m ready for the evening. I can cook with flair (ok, maybe there’s a touch too much salt) and my conversation with both adult and kid are lively and entertaining. I actually enjoy everyone much more!
I’m not avoiding my feelings or life issues (do bills ever go away?) but I’m looking at it from another vantage point. I’m on the ‘other side of the room,’ I like to think. I can get a lighter sense of the situation: why get angry over stupid shit? You came home wearing two different shoes? Oh well, you must have been popular today, kiddo! You didn’t take the garbage out, honey? Like I asked you to three times before I left for work? Awwww, I still love you anyway, ya big lug. Now, get that shit out of my house.
When I drink, it’s more of a mission. I’m drinking to get as much of a buzz as I can, one that must be maintained continually and one that I can accidentally over-imbibe if I’m not careful. I’m talking slight hangover in the morning, not barfing-in-corner-garbage-cans-walking-my-kid-to-school type stuff. Those chicks need help.
Related Link: 5 Ways Marijuana Can Help Your Relationship Stay Strong
So, Hi. I’m Marijuana Mom. I’m here for your questions, your comments, and your answers (Hey, I got questions too, like, how do you not eat everything in the fridge once the munchies kick off and the kiddos are in bed?)
As Contemporaries in Weed, I’d like you to know that every column I write will be done under the cloud of the green leaf. I won’t write about pot sober, because, duh, who wants to hear from me sober? |
Image copyright Reuters
At least four people were killed and five injured when a small plane crashed into an airport building in Wichita, Kansas, officials have said.
Firefighters responded at about 09:50 local time (14:50 GMT) to a "horrific fire" after a plane crash-landed, Fire Chief Ron Blackwell said.
Four people remain missing, but a search was put on hold after a portion of the building collapsed.
The Beechcraft aircraft lost power shortly after take-off.
"We understand that this is a very difficult time, especially for folks who have family members who are working out here and they don't know," said Wichita Fire Marshal Brad Crisp.
The aircraft hit the FlightSafety International building. Other flights have not been affected.
Three of the dead were reportedly inside the building during the crash, while a fourth body - believed to be the pilot - was later found on the roof, another fire official said.
One of the five people injured in the crash is currently listed in serious condition at hospital.
Image caption Smoke from the crash could be seen from a passing plane overhead
Image copyright Jaison Podkanowicz
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Tony Molinaro told local media the plane crashed while attempting to return to the runway.
Following the crash, an FBI spokeswoman said it was too early to rule out anything regarding the cause of the incident.
Eyewitness Jaison Podkanowicz told the BBC he was at work nearby when he heard a "low pop".
"I went outside and there was a plane on top of the building opposite, a flight training centre," he said.
Mr Podkanowicz said the plane no longer had a cockpit but that part of the fuselage and tail was intact.
Another witness, airport worker Jay Boyle, told US media "you could actually see the aircraft landing gear through a hole in the building". |
Tomorrow night President Obama will take to the podium to give his 2014 State of the Union address. His audience is a tough one with the American people overwhelmingly unhappy with the continuing jobless economy and with Obamacare destroying the middle class. Not to mention, a majority of the American people think President Obama is dishonest, untrustworthy and believe his White House is incompetent.
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer went on Fox News' Sunday over the weekend to give us a preview.
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
"Income inequality" is expected to be a major center piece of Obama's speech in an effort to distract away from the President's failing signature achievement of Obamacare. In addition, President Obama is expected to tell Congress, again, that he isn't afraid to take executive actions should they fail to do what he wants and has already declared 2014 as "the year of action."
Other major topics to look for: illegal immigration, marijuana legalization, NSA reforms, terrorism, unemployment benefits.
Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, will deliver the Republican response to the President's speech. Utah Senator Mike Lee will give a response on behalf of the Tea Party Express. |
There has been an increasing incidence of Lyme disease (LD) in Canada and the United States corresponding to the expanding range of the Ixodes tick vector and Lyme disease agent (Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto). There are many diagnostic tests for LD available in North America, all of which have some performance issues, and physicians are concerned about the appropriate use and interpretation of these tests. The objective of this systematic review is to summarize the North American evidence on the accuracy of diagnostic tests and test regimes at various stages of LD. Included in the review are 48 studies on diagnostic tests used in North America published since 1995. Thirteen studies examined a two-tier serological test protocol vs. clinical diagnosis, 24 studies examined single assays vs. clinical diagnosis, 9 studies examined single immunoblot vs. clinical diagnosis, 7 studies compared culture or PCR direct detection methods vs. clinical diagnosis, 22 studies compared two or more tests with each other and 8 studies compared a two-tiered serological test protocol to another test. Recent studies examining the sensitivity and specificity of various test protocols noted that the Immunetics® C6 B. burgdorferi ELISA™ and the two tier approach have superior specificity compared to proposed replacements, and the CDC recommended western blot algorithm has equivalent or superior specificity over other proposed test algorithms. There is a dramatic increase in test sensitivity with progression of B. burgdorferi infection from early to late LD. Direct detection methods, culture and PCR of tissue or blood samples were not as sensitive or timely compared to serological testing. It was also noted that there are a large number of both commercial (n = 42) and in-house developed tests used by private laboratories which have not been evaluated in the primary literature.
The objective of this systematic review is to summarize the North American evidence on the accuracy of diagnostic tests and test regimes used to diagnose LD in patients presenting with clinical symptoms in North America at various stages of disease and to address the question of whether there is evidence of superior, equivalent or poor performance by the commercial (approved by the FDA and/or HC) and in house laboratory tests captured in this review. To the best of our knowledge this systematic review is a significant update to Dumler (2001) [ 24 ] and is complementary to a recent systematic review on European Lyme disease diagnostic tests [ 25 ].
The diagnostic tests available for confirmation of human LD have variable sensitivity and specificity depending on the stage of infection, thus it is important to monitor the literature on available tests for LD to promote those tests that perform the most effectively and address concerns about the performance of non-validated tests and test protocols using evidence-informed strategies for decision making [ 17 , 18 ]. Currently in Canada and the United States, a two-tiered serology protocol is the only validated diagnostic approach for LD diagnosis recommended by United States CDC and the Public Health Agency of Canada [ 17 , 18 ]. This two-tiered test is typically an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect IgM or IgG antibodies to B. burgdoferi in serum and if the sample is positive or equivocal on the screening assay, then a western blot is used to detect serum IgM or IgG antibodies to B. burgdorferi. Use of IgM testing is recommended during the first 30 days of infection, after which only IgG tests should be used. Currently, only serology tests have been licensed for use by the FDA and the Health Canada Medical Devices Branch (HC) for LD testing [ 19 , 20 ]. Other direct detection tests such as PCR may be commercially available, but they have not been licensed for use by a governing body. There are a number of commercial EIA kits that are licensed by the FDA and/or HC and use either whole cell preparation of B. burgdorferi and/or purified recombinant or chimeric antigens (see S2 Text ). Other EIAs reported in the literature have been developed within the reporting laboratory and have not been commercialized or under-gone licensing and will be referred to as in-house developed tests [ 21 , 22 ]. The EIA’s have good sensitivity after 30 days of infection, but typically suffer from lower specificity [ 22 ]. In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adopted criteria for interpreting the results of the western blot for LD and most commercialized tests follow these guidelines [ 23 ].
Lyme disease incidence has increased since 1975 as the tick vectors have expanded their geographic range across the north eastern and upper mid-western states in the US and more recently into Canada [ 2 , 13 ]. Range and spread of ticks and B. burgdorferi is facilitated by migratory birds and terrestrial hosts [ 14 ]. There is increasing evidence that climate change will result in further northward expansion of the tick vector’s range in Canada, resulting in increased future risk of LD among Canadians [ 15 , 16 ].
Ticks of the genus Ixodes transmit the spirochete when they feed. Ixodes scapularis, the blacklegged tick, is the main vector in northeastern and upper midwestern United States and Canada while I. pacificus is the major vector in western United States and western Canada [ 9 , 10 ]. The primary vectors of LD in Europe and Asia are I. ricinus and I. persulcatus respectively [ 6 , 11 ]. The principal natural hosts of immature stages of the ticks and B. burgdorferi include rodents, other small and medium sized mammals, reptiles and birds, while adult female ticks feed mainly on deer [ 12 ].
Lyme disease (LD) is the most common tick-borne infection in North America [ 1 , 2 ]. It was first publically recognized in the United States in 1975 in the towns of Lyme and Old Lyme Connecticut as a result of an investigation into 51 cases (39 children) with a similar form of arthritis, although the first case was describe five years earlier by a dermatologist in Wisconsin [ 3 , 4 ]. In North America early signs of infection may include erythema migrans (EM, a characteristic skin rash that often has a bulls eye appearance) and fever and non-specific symptoms like headache and lethargy [ 5 , 6 ]. If untreated, the disease can progress to disseminated LD with neurological, cardiac and arthritic manifestations [ 7 ]. Lyme disease in North America is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto (hereafter called B. burgdorferi) and recently Borrelia mayonii was identified and may be responsible for a proportion of cases, however the performance of LD diagnostic tests to identify B. mayonii infection is not available [ 8 ]. In Europe B. afzelii, B. garinii, B. burgdorferi, B. spielmanii, B. bissettii and B. bavariensis cause disease with a wider variety of symptoms than reported in North America; a number of genospecies including B garinii occur in Asia.
Meta-analytic statistical summaries of sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios and diagnostic odds ratio have been summarized where possible in the tables. Model diagnostics including goodness of fit, normality, influential and outlying points, publication bias and heterogeneity were examined where possible. Publication bias was not evaluated when heterogeneity was >60% or there were less than 10 lines of data. Meta-regression using the bivariate model was used to examine whether predetermined covariates explain some of the between-study variation given there was sufficient data to fit the model (>10 data lines per covariate).
The dataset was managed in MS excel; each line of data represents a single test accuracy outcome and one study may have several comparisons, thus several lines of data. Each comparison was extracted, grouped and coded according to tests and type of outcome reported. When there were four or more lines of data for a category, meta-analysis was conducted using hierarchical logistic regression and bivariate models in Stata 13 using Metandi and Midas command packages. These models have been designed to account for the correlation between sensitivity and specificity [ 39 ] and they overcome the often violated assumptions of a linear regression model [ 40 , 41 ]. These hierarchical models use 2x2 cell counts to compute log transformations of proportions for the analysis [ 39 ]. Without covariates, the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (HSROC) and bivariate models are equivalent although their assumptions are different: HSROC assumes there is an underlying Receiver-Operating Characteristic (ROC) for each study and the bivariate model directly models the log-odds transformed sensitivity and specificity assuming a bivariate normal distribution between studies [ 42 ].
For this review the stages of LD are as follows: Early / acute LD (stage 1) is defined as those patients presenting with EM and/or associated manifestations that have experienced signs and symptoms of LD for less than 30 days [ 7 ]. Stage 2 illness is early disseminated LD, which includes manifestations of early neurological LD, cardiac LD and multiple EMs [ 36 ]. Stage 3 is late LD, typically with manifestations of Lyme arthritis and late neurological LD [ 36 ]. Those patients tested after antibiotic therapy are described as convalescent with the stage of LD assigned prior to treatment. Post treatment Lyme syndrome is defined as a condition where despite treatment the patient continues to experience illness [ 37 ]. “Chronic LD” is a condition that is not recognised as being caused by B. burgdorferi by most infectious disease experts, occurs in patients exhibiting non-specific illness who do not test positive on Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved serological tests, so these have been excluded from this review [ 38 ].
Included papers examined the accuracy of diagnostic tests for LD in North America after 1995, and included studies that compared results of one test using a validated test panel, results of clinical diagnosis, or a gold standard test result or investigated inter-test agreement. The recommendations for two-tier testing occurred in 1995, so we limited the review to studies conducted after 1994. Studies that screened an asymptomatic population for LD were excluded from this study. No inclusion or exclusion criteria were implemented on the type of control group; instead it was evaluated as a source of variation between study results (heterogeneity). The control group was usually a mix of one or more categories of healthy volunteers from non-LD endemic or LD endemic regions, or asymptomatic blood donors. In some studies, patients with diseases that have similar signs and symptoms to LD or have humoral responses that overlap with LD and are known to cross-react (e.g. rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, syphilis, autoimmune disorders, leptospirosis, periodontitis, relapsing fever, tularemia, Southern Tick-associated Rash Illness (STARI), multiple sclerosis, and Epstein-Barr virus infection) were included as controls to more precisely define test specificity. Studies often used well-defined samples from serum repositories or panels, like those developed by CDC [ 32 ], a research institute [ 33 , 34 ] or a commercial company [ 35 ]. These results were included in this systematic review and the impact of patient-based or panel samples on the outcome was investigated.
The data extraction form captured all pertinent study details and results. The systematic review was managed in DistillerSR (Evidence Partners, Ottawa, ON, Canada) a web-based systematic review management software. Each form was completed by two reviewers working independently and conflicts were resolved by consensus. Data were exported to Microsoft Excel 2010 (Microsoft Corp., USA), prepared for summarization and analysed in STATA v. 13 (StataCorp., USA). The study protocol and PRISMA evaluation can be found in the supplementary material ( S1 Text , S3 Text ).
Studies identified in the scoping review that evaluated diagnostic tests for humans were fully evaluated in this systematic review. The systematic review tools include a confirmation of relevance, location of study, availability of extractable data and a quality assessment form based on the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) tool [ 27 – 29 ]. This tool assesses the risk of bias and other methodological quality domains to evaluate the extent to which the results of each study or group of studies could be biased. The QUADAS-2 tool assessed the four quality domains ( Table 1 ) with respect to patient selection, the diagnostic tests used, the reference standard and flow and timing of the study [ 28 ]. An additional section was added to evaluate comparison tests and capture the presence of funding bias [ 30 , 31 ].
The scoping review search strategy was developed and pretested by three individuals with extensive experience in knowledge synthesis, zoonotic diseases and library science. The following search algorithm was implemented in eight bibliographic databases: BIOSIS (via web of knowledge), CAB abstracts, Scopus, PubMed, PsycINFO, APA PsycNet, Sociological Abstracts, and EconLit with no limitation on the search, this was followed by a comprehensive search for grey literature [ 26 ]: (lyme OR borrelia) AND ("host" OR sentinel OR landscaping OR "vector" OR "vectors" OR "monitor" OR "monitoring" OR surveillance OR reservoir OR reservoirs OR prevalence OR educate OR education OR barrier OR barriers OR intervene OR intervention OR incidence OR rate OR prevent OR prevention OR control OR risk OR risks OR attitude OR attitudes OR perception OR perceptions OR diagnostic). The search was conducted September 13 th -14 th , 2013 and no update of the search has been performed as analysis indicated the findings would not change with the addition of new papers, thus the resources required to conduct the update were not prioritized. The protocol for the scoping review is available upon request.
This systematic review was preceded by a scoping review conducted by Greig et al (2016) to identify, classify and characterise what is the current state of scientific knowledge on surveillance methods, prevention and control strategies, diagnostic tests, risk factors, and societal attitudes and perceptions towards LD in humans and B. burgdorferi in tick vectors and vertebrate reservoirs [ 26 ]. Briefly, the scoping review methodology was designed to characterise the primary literature on LD in humans or B. burgdorferi tick vectors or reservoirs, thus studies not on LD or B. burgdorferi were excluded from the scoping review. Additionally, the primary research had to address one of the following topics: surveillance/monitoring, prevalence, incidence, societal attitudes and perceptions in North America and global prevention and control strategies, diagnosis and risk factors. Research on clinical LD and treatment were considered outside the scope of this review. Each relevant paper was classified by purpose, study design, location of the study, B. burgdorferi, host species investigated, vector species investigated, sampling dates, diagnostic tests used, and whether the paper contained extractable data.
Testing for LD in patients exhibiting signs and symptoms of LD for less than 30 days is challenging as the performance of available test protocols is not optimal for making clinical decisions. This is largely due to the time required for the infected individual’s immune system to mount a reaction. This is why researchers have explored the use of a variety of targets including VlsE and C6 expressed after infection, Osp C and Fla B expressed by the feeding tick to detect infection sooner [ 71 , 72 ]. However, cross-reactivity and genetic variability within the targets has limited the diagnostic performance of any single target [ 73 , 74 ]. Thus the results of expected sensitivities and specificities in Table 8 emphasize the importance of physician evaluation and informed judgement when deciding to treat rather than rely entirely on imperfect serological test protocols. Notable findings in the table include the higher specificity associated with the two-tier testing method and the poor and highly variable sensitivity of serological tests in the initial stages of disease when an individual is mounting an immune response to B. burgdorferi.
Table 7 contains studies that looked at various samples and culture sensitivity in early LD as well as the use of various PCRs to identify B. burgdorferi infection. In one study there was agreement between culture of serum vs. plasma, however whole blood classified more samples positive compared to serum resulting in little agreement [ 58 , 68 ]. The confirmation of B. burgdorferi presence in culture using qPCR both increased the sensitivity and shortened the length of culture time before a positive result could be obtained [ 69 ]. A study examining the sensitivity of direct qPCR targeting flaB or recA genes compared to culture of 2mm EM biopsy samples showed little agreement and qPCR targeting the recA gene was more sensitive compared to the fla B target [ 70 ].
The results of inter-test comparisons are summarised in Tables 5 – 7 . Note that in these tables we have positive agreement and negative agreement that indicate how well the two tests agreed to classify samples as positive or negative respectively. Thus, positive agreement is the probability that test 2 is positive if test 1 is positive and negative agreement is the probability that test 2 is negative if test 1 is negative. Table 5 has comparisons between the two-tier serological tests compared to other tests and Table 6 includes studies that examined various assays and immunoblots for agreement.
Three studies (eight lines of data) were captured with information on the use of PCR to identify B. burgdorferi in early LD [ 59 , 61 , 62 ]. Samples included blood and tissue biopsies and each PCR targeted different primers. Eshoo et al (2012) used blood samples and multi-loci PCR targeting eight different loci to both detect and genotype B. burgdorferi, the sensitivity was 62% (40–79) and the specificity was 100% [ 61 ]. Liveris et al (2012) used a nested PCR on serum samples and biopsy samples with a sensitivity of 40.6 and 42.6% respectively [ 59 ]. They also implemented a qPCR on plasma samples demonstrating a sensitivity of 33.8%. Two nested PCR primer sets targeting the Osp A gene were investigated in neurological LD, both acute and late cases using cerebral spinal fluid samples; they reported a sensitivity of 37.5–50% in acute cases and 12.5–25% in late cases [ 62 ]. Across the direct detection studies sensitivity was low and in most cases lower than the two-tier test regime, assays or immunoblots reported for early LD.
There are six studies, (13 lines of data) that examined bacterial isolation by culture and PCR detection of B. burgdorferi in a variety of human samples from cases of early and disseminated LD [ 57 – 62 ]. Meta-analysis was not possible within this group of studies because there were not enough lines of data within each detection method. The most commonly used medium is Barbour-Stoener-Kelly (BSK) medium, which has been modified by some authors to improve its sensitivity [ 63 ]. Three studies attempted to isolate B. burgdorferi from blood (serum/plasma) of patients with early LD (stage 1) and the sensitivity of this approach was 27%, 71% and 94% [ 57 – 59 ]. With respect to the latter sensitivity, it has been suggested that laboratory contamination may account for the very high sensitivity reported [ 64 ]. Two studies reported sensitivities of 62–81% from biopsy samples of EM during early LD [ 59 , 60 ], although both sample sizes were very small. Phillips et al. evaluated an “MPM” medium for detection of B. burgdorferi in the blood of LD patients that had been previously treated, but then relapsed [ 65 ]. They reported a sensitivity of 91.5% in these patients, however two studies were unable to reproduce these results and both demonstrated that the BSK-H culture was superior [ 66 , 67 ].
The Immunodot Borrelia Dot Blot IgG/IgM test by General Biometric Inc. was examined in one study; the results are shown in Table 4 . An insignificant increasing trend in sensitivity with disease progression was noted (stage 1 50% (95%CI 19, 87), stage 2 70% (35, 93) and stage 3 100% (63, 100) [ 52 ]. Viramed Biotech Borrellia burgdorferi B31 IgG/IgM Virablot demonstrated a comparable sensitivity and specificity in one small study to the other immunoblots evaluated [ 35 ]. One in house recombinant immunoblot (data not shown) did not perform well in the published study with sensitivities ranging from 7 to 60 percent for different targets [ 56 ].
The BBI western blot was evaluated in two separate studies using the same CDC test panel, but slightly different classification criteria; one used the BBI criteria (IgG required 3+ bands of 20,23,31,34,35,39 and 83 kDa and IgM 2+ bands 23,39,41, and 83 kDa) which has a different formulation for positive samples compared to the CDC criteria (IgG required 5+ bands 18, 23, 28, 30, 39, 41, 45, 58, 66, and 83 to 93 kDa and IgM 2+ bands 23, 39, and 41kDa) [ 35 , 46 ]. The results of the two criteria differed in sensitivity, which was 77% and 93% using CDC criteria respectively for IgM and IgG blots, compared to 93% and 100% using the BBI criteria for IgM and IgG, however the difference was not significant and specificity ranged from 77–99% with a gain in sensitivity resulting in slight losses to specificity, Table 4 .
The MarDx ® Lyme Disease Marblot Strip test system was evaluated in four studies (7 lines of data) on select LD groups and across early to late LD groups [ 52 – 55 ]. A meta-regression controlling for group indicated that the test performed significantly better on late LD patients, but whether the investigator evaluated results for IgM, IgG or both in parallel did not significantly affect the sensitivity or specificity.
Recombinant proteins and/or chimeric proteins from Osp A-F (mainly A and C) targets were used to develop assays and tested on early LD patients. All studies were based on in house ELISAs with small sample sizes and the reported sensitivities varied from target to target ranging from 0–86%. Other assays included the use of Poly-ethylene Glycol (PEG)-peptide conjugates in an ELISA that reported 100% sensitivity and specificity on a small sample [ 49 ]. An indirect hemagglutination antibody (IHA) test using B. burgdorferi strains B31 and B126 had a low sensitivity 46–48% and a specificity of 98–99% which is comparable to other tests for early LD [ 50 ].
Whole cell sonicate (WCS) ELISAs for early LD included 10 lines from 6 studies Table 3 . Three commercial test kits were included; Lyme Stat Test Kit, VIDAS Lyme Screen II and Wampole Bb ELISA test system (see S2 Text ) across six lines and three studies. These performed differently than the four in house WCS ELISAs and the authors did not offer an explanation for the divergent results.
ELISA performance on early stage 1 LD was investigated in 53 lines of data (16 studies), Table 3 . These were further grouped by type of ELISA to understand where variation between studies was occurring. ELISAs targeting C6 included 4 lines (3 studies) on the Immunetics® C6 B. burgdorferi ELISA™ kit and seven lines (four studies) on unlicensed C6 ELISAs ( Table 3 ). Accounting for whether the C6 ELISA was licensed explained 27% of the heterogeneity between studies and indicated the commercial ELISAs had an insignificant higher sensitivity 91(81–100) vs. 64(47–80) and similar specificity 97(94–100) vs. 97(95–99) over all stages of LD.
First tier serological tests including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) and other serological assays were evaluated in 23 studies (119 lines of data) with well-defined and whole cell targets, Table 3 . There were a mix of FDA-licensed tests and in house tests. Similar to the two-tiered tests, test performance for patients with stage 1 LD was highly variable and had poor sensitivity. In later stages of LD, the sensitivity improved. The overall specificity varied by test and between studies more than was reported for the two-tier tests.
Thirteen studies evaluated the two-tier serological test protocol for diagnosis of LD at different stages of disease and after antibiotic therapy. Table 2 provides the meta-analytic summaries demonstrating low sensitivity, 46.3% (95%CI 39.1–53.7), for early (stage 1) LD patients and increasing sensitivity with stage 2, 89.7% (78.3–95.4), and stage 3, 99.4% H (95.7–99.9) LD. There was relatively high specificity (98.3%–99.9%) across control groups. Most false positives within the control groups were patients with diseases known to produce antibodies that cross-react in serological tests for B. burgdorferi. Nine studies (14 lines of data) presented results for two-tier serological testing where at least one of the tests was not FDA licensed (designed in house by the reporting laboratory), Table 2 . Heterogeneity analysis of sensitivity and specificity on the impact of using non-commercial tests was not significant. At the early stage of LD the two-tier testing method was good for ruling in LD if the patient tested positive, but had very poor predictive value for ruling out LD, which is why it is recommended to retest after 30 days [ 21 ]. However, for convalescent patients treated at stage 1 LD sensitivity remained low even after 30 days.
The QUADAS-2 tool results, Table 1 , indicated that there was an unclear risk of bias in 84% of studies, meaning the study received an unclear or high risk of bias score on one or more domains (see S1 Dataset ). No studies were excluded from the analysis based on their QUADAS assessment. In two studies it was apparent that the sample population was not appropriately enrolled in the study as the case population and control population were enrolled at different times and places, which could lead to biased (exaggerated) results for test accuracy [ 43 , 44 ]. Appropriate blinding was often not addressed in many papers and unexplained exclusion of observations from the analysis was another common reporting issue. Many of the studies (28.6%) had authors employed by or funded by commercial companies that supplied one or more of the tests evaluated. In four of these studies the risk of funding bias was identified to be very high [ 43 , 45 – 47 ].
In the scoping review, 485 articles focused on diagnosis of LD in humans globally and were further evaluated for inclusion in this systematic-review meta-analysis. The decision tree for selection of articles and reasons for exclusion of potentially relevant studies in this systematic review is shown in Fig 1 . Forty-eight relevant diagnostic test evaluations conducted in North America between 1995 and 2013 were included in this systematic review (see S2 Text and S1 Dataset ).
Discussion
The 48 studies included in this analysis were all conducted in the United States from 1995 onwards. The samples included patients or historical samples where the clinical presentation fit the diagnosis of LD. Within the results we summarized results for all stages of LD, separate stages 1–3 LD and convalescent stages 1–3 LD to facilitate an evaluation of trends, similarities and differences by test, stage of disease and treatment status. There were a few studies that differentiated acute samples <7 days and early Lyme samples 7–30 days, but not enough to analyse predictive values within early LD. Similarly there were studies that used culture positive patients exclusively, however the culture status of the patients did not significantly account for the heterogeneity. Stage 1, 2, and 3 convalescent LD groups were sampled in a number of studies and are summarized separately from samples drawn pre-treatment as it is known that there are differences in the immune response depending on the length of LD prior to treatment [5,6].
In the United States it was recently estimated that less than 12% of Lyme disease tests were for true infections [75]. The LD test results for patients who do not meet the clinical criteria can be used to rule out LD, but a positive test is likely to be a false positive. Thus, the over use of these assays to diagnose LD has been an on-going discussion and challenge for topic-specialists and physicians [76]. The literature summarised in this systematic review was based on research conducted from 1995 when the CDC adopted the recommendations for two-tier testing of LD acquired in North America. Their goal was to improve the specificity of LD testing by recommending the use of a sensitive EIA followed by a more specific western blot for positive and equivocal samples [23]. Most of the research on diagnostic tests in North America were based on serology, mainly antibody based assays detecting an immune response against B. burgdorferi. As of May 2015 there were 42 tests approved by the FDA for use in the United States and 22 approved by Health Canada Medical Devices Branch for use in Canada, however only a few of these tests were evaluated in the primary literature and all the literature published since 1995 was conducted in the United States (see S2 Text).
Recent studies examining inter-laboratory agreement and the sensitivity and specificity of various test protocols noted that the C6 ELISA alone and the two-tier approach has superior specificity compared to proposed replacements and the CDC-recommended western blot algorithm has equivalent or superior specificity over other proposed test algorithms [77]. The findings of this review are in agreement with other authors that sensitivity was highest for ELISAs targeting C6 and these showed less variability in test sensitivity compared to other tests and test protocols [77]. The C6 ELISAs, particularly the commercial assays, had promising sensitivity, specificity and agreement of results with two-tier protocols, which is likely why the Immunetics® C6 B. burgdorferi ELISA™ has become widely used in place of some WCS assays. Although we did not summarize results of inter-laboratory agreement studies in this systematic review, the requirement for technical expertise and subjectivity in result interpretation for many LD tests, particularly western blots, contributes to poor agreement between technicians, tests and/or laboratories [77].
Factors that affect the sensitivity and interpretation of the results include type of sample and stage of disease in addition to possible variations in the type, target and conduct of the diagnostic tests. In this systematic review all relevant studies examining the efficacy of serological tests used serum samples from patients. There were no studies that employed the use of synovial fluid or cerebrospinal fluid for diagnosis of LD with serological assays. However in the last few years a number of studies have emerged from Europe on assays designed for cerebrospinal fluid samples in the diagnosis of neuroborreliosis which is a more common clinical presentation in Europe [78–80].
Throughout our results there was a positive association between duration of infection/ stage of disease and sensitivity of serological LD tests [34,47,60]. Thus, recommendations include re-testing after 30 days if the initial serological test was done during the early (non-disseminated) stages of infection and employing IgM assays as well as IgG assays to detect early immune reactions [21,81]. Other sources of heterogeneity between studies may include whether the case sampling frame included only samples from culture positive LD patients. Similarly, the impact of type of sample, prospective vs. retrospective patients and sample libraries or serum panels for test performance was investigated wherever possible in the analysis. The control group samples in the captured studies ranged from groups of healthy individuals from endemic and non-endemic areas to controls with diseases known to cross-react with LD diagnostic assays. Despite this, most studies reported a consistently high specificity for LD regardless of the composition of the control group and where there were differences (Tables 2–4), these were not statistically significant in most cases.
There was a wide range of assays identified in this systematic review including those assays that employed whole-cell sonicates mainly from B. burgdorferi B31 or other North American isolates to recombinant proteins targeting antigens that are highly expressed in vivo e.g. VlsE. Some of the captured research indicates that the VlsE targets improve test performance [45,82]. Similarly the C6 peptide which is derived from the VlsE lipoprotein has shown equivalent or better sensitivity compared to the WCS ELISAs in this systematic review, improved specificity for patients with often cross-reactive diseases and may also be used to identify some species of Borrelia acquired in Europe [47,73,74,82–84]. Subjectivity and inconsistency of the criteria used to evaluate western blot results has been noted as a source of confusion for patients and physicians in the interpretation of diagnostic results [85,86]. In studies where the CDC western blot interpretation was paired with different criteria, some showed gains in sensitivity with alternate criteria, but this was usually accompanied by a reduced specificity below an acceptable level [46].
Direct detection of B. burgdorferi from LD patient samples continues to be a challenge. B. burgdorferi requires culture in a complex medium for 8 to 12 weeks before the culture is considered negative, which makes this approach unsuitable in a clinical setting. Recent studies have attempted to improve the utility of culture by changing the protocol, for example, use of a 60 ml of BSK in a closed tube, incubated at 32–33°C for 8–12 weeks [58,59]. Another study used 15 ml and 2 ml starter cultures, then at day six seeded a long term culture in a caliper jar with 15 ml of fresh BSK for up to 16 weeks at 34°C [57]. Variations that had positive effects on culture growth included adding serum, a reducing agent and rifampicin [57–59]. The use of PCR to confirm bacterial isolation improves the sensitivity compared to visual confirmation by staining with acridine-orange and using dark-field microscopy or fluorescent microscopy [69]. The specimen, stage of LD and the laboratory technician’s experience has an effect on the likelihood of obtaining a successful B. burgdorferi culture. In early LD a biopsy sample from an EM lesion taken within the first week of symptoms has the highest sensitivity, whereas early disseminated infections have a higher sensitivity if isolation is attempted on large volume plasma samples [59,69].
Bacterial isolation has had limited success with late manifestations of LD and with cerebrospinal fluid and synovial fluid samples [87,88]. Research continues to focus on improving the sensitivity and speed of culture. Recent papers claiming major breakthroughs for B. burgdorferi isolation have failed validation [57] or could not be replicated [65] by others [64,67]. PCR for detection of B. burgdorferi DNA in LD patient samples is affected by many of the same limitations as culture with the exception that results may be obtained faster and PCR may be more sensitive in samples with a low concentration of B. burgdorferi. The variability of methodologies, gene targets and primers from study to study continue to impact the interpretation of the PCR results [59,61,62]. Overall, the sensitivities of PCR studies conducted in North America were lower than those that employed a two-tiered serology diagnostic protocol [59,61,62]. Due to the above limitations, bacterial isolation and PCR are not routinely used as diagnostic tools in clinical practise, although bacterial isolation is considered the gold standard to confirm diagnosis.
From the peer-reviewed literature we identified validation data from only a small proportion of licensed assays and for a number of “in house” tests which are used by several laboratories across North America. The performance of “in house” tests cannot be validated or critiqued as the composition of the test is not always publically available or evaluated in the peer-reviewed literature, thus comparing their performance to licensed tests is less informative. In studies looking at the variable performance of diagnostic testing schemes across laboratories it has been demonstrated that deviations from recommended diagnostic schemes often lead to a decrease in specificity and discordant results with approved testing schemes [89]. Thus, the performance of these “in house” assays and some of the older commercial assays have not been evaluated against well characterised panels of serum from patients with the full spectrum of LD clinical symptoms, with appropriate numbers of healthy controls and patients with look-alike diseases [32].
Future work on diagnostic tests for LD includes continued improvement in the sensitivity of all tests, particularly for early LD samples and the ability to distinguish between active infection and previous infections. On-going work into new immunoassay techniques and combinations of antigen targets that may help inform disease stage will hopefully improve LD diagnostics in the future [60,79,90]. Development of point-of care tests that do not require highly specialized technical skills and subjective interpretation of the results would help address some of the criticisms of immunoblot techniques. This systematic review summarizes research in North America on the accuracy of diagnostic tests for LD conducted since 1995. The performance of the commercially available Immunetics® C6 B. burgdorferi ELISA™ shows the most promise as a possible standalone test or as part of a two-tiered test protocol; however it did not overcome the low sensitivity of LD diagnostic tests in patients with early LD. Addressing this shortcoming is a significant challenge to improving LD diagnostics. |
Every once in a while, someone in the eSports community cooks up an epic idea and makes it a reality.
GSL Open Season 1 birthed the scene as we know it – a mythical, grueling 64 player open tournament with a $170,000 prize pool based in the mecca of eSports – Seoul, South Korea.
The DOTA2 compendium changed the way we perceive how a tournament prize pool can grow – members of the community directly influenced the pool’s expansion while being rewarded awesome benefits that enhanced their viewing experience with The International 3.
WCS – well… let’s not talk about WCS right now.
Starcraft 2 Survivors is a passion project created by Mark Stermer & Graham Rogers in association with BaseTradeTV & Quantic Gaming – while the tournament isn’t close to the scale of the GSL or WCS, the dedication of every participant and the support of it’s fans reaches a whole new level of epic in and of itself.
10 players, 9 weeks, and a $250 prize pool – on that premise alone, we gathered members of the eSports community & professional gamers to interact together in a social setting and compete in a series of reward & immunity challenges to determine one sole Starcraft 2 “Survivor”.
We didn’t really know how the show was going to turn out at first, or if it itself would even survive past the first few weeks alone. All we knew was that we had 10 compelling characters, 2 production days a week to let them be themselves, and a front row seat to watch the magic unfold before our eyes.
Since week 1 we’ve seen 4 players voted off the island – upsets & blindsides have occurred, alliances have been forged & broken, and every remaining survivor has felt the depth of both deception and competition in this game.
Why should this compel you to watch the show? For one, you’ve got a unique opportunity to see our Survivors in a different light than you normally would on their individual streams or in a strict tournament atmosphere. The content is original & never been done before, their responses & interactions are unscripted, and the confessions they give grant you the chance to peer into their thoughts and emotions while navigating their way through the strategic elements of this game.
While competitions based out of the Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm client is the core focus of every challenge, there is a complex social underpinning being woven by each individual participant, every hour of the day, on and off the camera.
Airing these intricate strategies could be devastating for our survivors, so we’ve come up with a unique way to both give the fans this in-depth behind the scenes entertainment and grow the prize pool that is 100% distributed to the top 4 finishers.
Donating as little as five dollars gets you access to behind the scenes content for a select week of the show. Take that a step further to twenty dollars and you get access to every week’s bonus footage. Really love the show? Fifty dollars gets you all of that and your name in the credits as a contributor to the show.
Amazingly, this reward structure has doubled the prize pool in four weeks time. If you think the show is epic and you want to support the participants that make it all happen, hop on over to the donation page and see for yourself the list of passionate fans who have helped grow this show into what it is today.
Still not convinced? See what others have to say about the show on the Teamliquid.net thread.
And if you haven’t watched the show, what are you waiting for? We’re taking this week off to allow our participants to compete in other major tournaments, but you can catch up on every VOD playlist here on SC2Links: Starcraft 2 Survivors Season 1
As always, hit me up on twitter if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for the show. Below is a video of the participants and their twitter accounts:
Temp0 – https://twitter.com/teamtemp0
kaitlyn – https://twitter.com/kaitly_n
MaSsan – https://twitter.com/MaSsanSC
YuMe – https://twitter.com/FiNYuMe
Sasquatch – https://twitter.com/coL_Sasquatch
QueenE – https://twitter.com/mYiQueenE
Suppy – https://twitter.com/EGSuppy
Brent – https://twitter.com/brentstarcraft
puCK – https://twitter.com/ROOTpuCK
Tubbythefat – https://twitter.com/iSTubby_ |
America’s role as the world’s economic superpower was established in the period between 1870 and the start of the first world war. The country boomed, immigrants arrived in their millions and the rich coined it in. Even now the names are familiar: John D Rockefeller; Andrew Carnegie; the Vanderbilt family. They called it the Gilded Age.
Never before had America’s superrich had it so good and, until recently, it was assumed they would never have it so good again. Yet the 2017 billionaires report compiled by the Swiss bank UBS and the consultancy firm PwC finds that the clock would have to be turned back to 1905 – when the Russians were having a trial run for their revolution and Queen Victoria had been dead only four years – to find a time when wealth was so concentrated.
A separate study by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington produced similar findings. Bill Gates, who founded Microsoft, Jeff Bezos, the man behind Amazon, and the investor Warren Buffet own as much wealth between them as the poorer half of the American population – 160 million people, it found. The trio are the Carnegie, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt of the modern age.
This is not simply a US phenomenon. China looks very much like the US of the late 19th century, with fast growth, rising real incomes for industrial workers and the rise of a new cadre of superrich people.
Josef Stadler, the author of the UBS/PwC report, said: “We are now two years into the peak of the second Gilded Age,” and he added that the 1,542 dollar billionaires around the world were concerned about how concentrated wealth has become. But not, it seems, concerned enough to do anything about it. The rich show real tenacity when it comes to holding on to their wealth and the system that generates it. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) describes it as rentier capitalism, whereby the stifling of competition allows excess profits to be made.
Under a properly functioning free-market economy this is not supposed to happen. The economist Joseph Schumpeter said it was acceptable for an entrepreneur, say Gates or Bezos, to make excess profits temporarily if they had come up with a genuinely new product. But these rents would not last for long because rivals would quickly enter the market, bringing an end to the monopoly as there were no intellectual property rights (IPRs) to defend them. They were the reward for thinking ahead of the curve.
There are cases where the use of IPRs can be justified. Patents are widely used by the pharmaceutical industry to prevent cheaper alternatives. The justification is that the development of new drugs is hugely expensive and that without the chance to make excess profits there would be no incentive to come up with life-saving products.
The UNCTAD report, though, says that market-leading companies are abusing IPRs to ensure that they can see off potential rivals.
“Large firms use patent protection to raise barriers to entry in an industry and bolster their own market power. Thus, superstar firms benefitting from erecting initial technological barriers to entry can use this advantage to further expand their market power in other ways, for example through pricing strategies that make new entrants nonviable,” it said.
The upshot is a drift towards oligopoly – in which the market is dominated by a small number of firms – and in some cases monopoly. Rentier capitalism is rife on Wall Street, but it is not just the financial services sector that is affected.
As the UNCTAD report notes, in almost half of all US industries in 2012 the four largest companies accounted for at least 25% of all industry revenue. In 14% of all industries, the four largest firms captured over 50% of all revenues.
What’s more, the sectors in which there was the biggest increase in market concentration showed the biggest increases in profits. These were not the result of firms making themselves more efficient; instead, they exploited market power to keep prices higher than they otherwise would have been.
UNCTAD’s point is that fast-rising market power and concentration is explained by the reversal of measures such as anti-trust laws, financial regulations and fiscal policies that were designed to deliver full employment and to strengthen labour’s bargaining hand.
“Once institutional countervailing powers – such as those of nation states, civil society and labour organisations – have been weakened, corporate rentierism has flourished. More generally, this raises the possibility of a ‘Medici vicious circle’, where money is used to get political power and political power is used to make money.”
If revulsion at the concentration of wealth and the exploitation of market power becomes strong enough there is nothing to stop governments smashing monopolies and raising taxes. This, after all, is what happened last time, with the first Gilded Age followed in the US by two waves of reforms, the pre-first world war Progressive era and during the New Deal of the 1930s. In his book Capital in the 21st Century, Thomas Piketty notes that in the early 20th century, the US led the way on tackling wealth disparities, proving intellectually more prepared than other advanced countries to accept a steeply progressive income tax. In an article for American Prospect, Paul Starr notes that limiting the power of concentrated wealth in the US is a cause with deep roots.
That explains why anti-trust laws were used to break up Rockefeller’s Standard Oil in 1911, and why the 16th amendment to the constitution brought in a federal income tax in 1913.
The US political backlash, in both the Progressive era and the 1930s, went right to the top. Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House when the anti-trust suit which ultimately resulted in the dissolution of Standard Oil was launched; Woodrow Wilson vehemently denounced corporate lobbying and Franklin Roosevelt made clear what he thought of Wall Street when he said in his 1936 re-election campaign that government by organised money was as dangerous as government by organised mob. To rapturous applause, FDR went on to say that big money was “unanimous in its hatred for me, and I welcome that hatred”.
Like FDR, Donald Trump has appealed to those in America who think the system is rigged against them. Unlike FDR, he has so far shown not the slightest inclination to do anything to make the system less rigged. To do that, Trump would have to make the tax system more progressive, reduce the power of corporate lobbying, resist pressure for stronger intellectual property rights and stop the wealthy from salting their money away in tax havens. None of this is on his agenda, which explains why America is a country where competition is thwarted, excess profits are rife and the tech entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley are the new robber barons.
• This article was amended on 15 November 2017. An earlier version said that “Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House when Standard Oil was broken up”. Roosevelt was president when the anti-trust suit was launched in 1909 but had left office by the time the Supreme Court ordered the dissolution in 1911. |
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
CHEMIST Warehouse has pulled a controversial sex toy from its website, after being slammed for “eroticising young girls”.
The retailer came under fire yesterday for selling the Virgin Palm Pal, a male sex toy designed to simulate a “realistic hymen just waiting to be popped”.
It has now removed the product from sale and apologised unreservedly for the “inappropriate listings”.
“The offending products were immediately removed,” the company said in a statement. “Chemist Warehouse Online has implemented a new and rigorous process to assess the appropriateness of all product listings across the website but more specifically in this category.”
Campaign group Collective Shout slammed the retailer for stocking the product.
“Since when have chemists become defacto sex shops? Chemists are supposed to be selling products with medicinal and health benefits, not promoting pedofilic fantasies and eroticising young girls for profit,” Melinda Tankard Reist, co-founder of Collective Shout, told news.com.au.
The product description read: “Doc’s most popular line of Palm Pals has a new breakthrough toy you’ve been looking for.
“You’ll be her first and only. Designed to fit easily in your hand, made of phthalate-free latex-free UR3 material, and very proudly in the USA. This Virgin is waiting to be touched for the very first time.”
Retailing for $15.99, for a saving of $3.96 off the recommended retail price of $19.95, the Virgin Palm Pal was apparently a bestseller.
It was sold online but the website did not make clear whether it was also available in stores.
The website stated that stocks were “temporarily low” online and encouraged people to “please try your local store”.
Collective Shout posted a link to the product on Facebook and people were quick to react. “This puts me off supporting Chemist Warehouse,” Margaret Carey said. “Is this real or a bogus site in disguise? What is this world coming to?”
Danni Chaseling said it was “disturbing” while Christine Honor said it was “the most sickening thing I’ve seen in a long time”. “That is a revolting thing one might find in an adult store not a chemist!” she wrote.
Ms Tankard Reist said she had seen similar sex toys before, including a “Lolita Teenage Vibrating Vagina” and “realistic” sex dolls made to look like nine-year-olds, but never at a chemist.
“We see a lot of horrible things in our line of work as you can imagine, but this is incredible. For a company that might want to be seen as having corporate social responsibility, this seems like a radical departure,” she said.
“Don’t they care about the wellbeing of girls in the community? Why would they want to contribute to these fantasies of young girls existing to be ‘popped’ or ‘deflowered’?”
Collective Shout wrote to Chemist Warehouse to complain about the product.
frank.chung@news.com.au |
Planning a wedding is no small task. If you’ve just started planning your wedding, then you’re probably already feeling overwhelmed. There’s so much to arrange, buy, and coordinate. Getting married is an exciting, beautiful time, but planning the wedding itself can be a hassle. If you need a breath of fresh air as you plan, add the following ten things to your checklist. Knowing what to decide, and when to decide it, can make your wedding planning an easier experience.
The Budget
One of the first things to figure out before your wedding day is your budget. Some brides might have enough to create a magazine-worthy wedding, but you’re probably working with much less. Necessity is the mother of invention, and small-budget weddings are often sweeter, friendlier, and more unique. Before you make any of the following decisions, you need to know what you’re working with. Are you on your own? Are your parents contributing? Are your soon-to-be in-laws contributing? Collect your data and stick to your budget.
The Tone
Every wedding has a different tone, and before you start the rest of your plans, you should decide what the tone of your wedding will be. Are you going for country? Regal? You might want to set up bounce houses and serve food carnival-style, or you might opt to have guests seated indoors with white linen and silver. The rest of your plans will revolve around the tone you’re going for, so decide with your partner what you want your wedding to feel like. This marquee from Cap Marquees will definitely help you to underline the tone of your special day. Do you want to break every tradition in the book, or do you want to celebrate in a time-honored way?
The Size
Next up: you have to decide how big you want your wedding to be. Guest lists get complicated since if you invite this person you should technically invite that person. Remember that not every guest will make it, especially if your wedding is out of town. If you need a small wedding, see how much you can limit your guest size. If size isn’t an issue, make sure you can find a reception venue to fit everyone on your list.
The Reception Venue
The toughest part of wedding planning, for many, is finding the reception venue. If a place is not too expensive, it’s ugly or it’s already booked. You’ll probably have to think outside the box when you’re planning your wedding. If you’ve got plenty of time before the big day, pick the venue ASAP and book it. If you have a shorter engagement, look at park shelters, big backyards, or church basements, and find your supplies at a place like this event rental company in Randall, OH.
Where Guests Will Stay
You might be in the same city as most of your guests, but every wedding involves a few out-of-town attendees. If you’re planning a destination wedding, it will be even more important to plan accommodations. Offer a hotel discount for guests, send them a list of nearby motels, or encourage camping or RVing for the more adventurous folks. One extra-special touch you could consider is to provide your guests with an emailed list or hard-copy binder of local restaurants and things to do while they’re in town. Depending on where you end up tying the knot, your guests could remember your wedding not just because of the beautiful ceremony but also because they had the chance to surf Hawaii or had an enjoyable experience in North Bend, OR while they waited for the wedding to begin.
Who’s Walking You Down the Aisle
If you’re a bride, you’re probably considering having someone walk you down the aisle. If you and your father have a good relationship, you’ll probably ask him, but you may be estranged or he may be deceased. That makes your decision more complicated. Choosing your mom instead is always a worthy solution, and you might also pick a relative, mentor, or sibling to walk with you. You can even walk down the aisle alone. Or maybe you want to take this opportunity to find out more about your family–DNA testing in New York can help uncover who your parents and grandparents are if they haven’t been part of your life before now. A wedding offers a great opportunity to dig into your heritage and bring your family together!
The Music
The music at your wedding might seem like a small decision, but it’s more complicated than it sounds. If you’ve chosen a traditional tone for your wedding, your music should lean towards the classical side. On the other hand, if you’re going all-out on breaking traditions, you might have rock music at the wedding ceremony. You also have to choose between live music (a friend who’s a pianist or a full band) and playing recordings. Make sure you have someone experienced working sound if you choose recordings, and cut down the songs to where you want them so you don’t run into any bugs.
The Dress
If you’re a bride, deciding on your dress might be a huge part of your wedding day. You may have some idea of what you’re looking for, or you may have no idea at all. Remember to choose your dress based on what you ultimately want: if you want a style that’s less flattering than another, but you feel right, go for it. Don’t let friends or family talk you out of the dress you’re really hoping for. On the other hand, stick to your budget! It’s not worth getting in debt over an outfit you’ll (hopefully) only wear once.
Who’s Running the Show
Before your big day, pick someone (besides you) to keep things running smoothly. This might be an aunt, the maid of honor, a friend, or a professional. You should be able to enjoy every moment of your wedding day without worrying about what comes next. Make a good plan, and then let it go. Designate someone responsible whom you trust to deal with any disasters and keep the wedding running according to plan.
The Honeymoon
Last, but not least, the final decision you have to make is where to spend your honeymoon. Some couples choose to spend more money on their wedding and take a modest honeymoon; other couples want the exact opposite. Decide with your partner what’s more important to you, and make sure you include that in your step-one budget. Once you know your budget, you can start looking for the perfect destination. Do you want a cabin in the woods? A castle in Ireland? Combine both of your interests and passions to choose the perfect honeymoon spot.
Even though weddings certainly require a good amount of planning, in the end, you will remember yours as one of the most magical and special days of your life. Once you break down the event into these categorical to-do’s, the whole thing is way less overwhelming and way more enjoyable. Remember to think ahead, stick to your own tastes and preferences, and, of course, have fun! |
Referential integrity is a relational database concept that states implied relationships among data should be enforced. Referential integrity ensures that the relationship between rows in two tables will remain synchronized during all updates and deletes.
Rails allows us to easily set up these implied relationships, but does nothing to help us enforce referential integrity. It’s very simple to accidentally or intentionally break referential integrity in most Rails applications.
Consider the following minimal set of models describing a blogging engine:
class User < ActiveRecord :: Base has_many :posts validates :name , presence: true end class Post < ActiveRecord :: Base belongs_to :user validates :user , presence: true end
Our blogging platform has taken off, but we’ve received requests from some users to delete their accounts. We add an interface for administrators to delete users and everything works fine.
A few days later we receive a report that we’re getting 500s on our “Popular Posts” page. Looking into it, we find that we’re getting:
undefined method `name' for nil:NilClass
This is happening when we render the name of the user associated with each post. Somehow we’ve got a post that has no associated user even though Post has a validation that requires a user .
We quickly realize that we allowed administrators to delete users but never cleaned up the deleted users’ posts. We manually clean the data and make the following change to our model to prevent this in the future:
class User < ActiveRecord :: Base has_many :posts , dependent: :destroy end
The addition of dependent: :destroy means when a user is destroyed their posts will be as well. Administrators can now delete users without fear of orphaned posts causing problems.
Months pass and our now-venture-backed blogging engine has attracted millions of users. Unfortunately, lots of those users are spammers. We’re told we’ll be given a daily list of user_id s corresponding to spammers and need to write a job to delete them. We know this list could include thousands of ids on any given day, so we write the following code to avoid instantiating those objects and issuing thousands of queries to destroy them:
user_ids = CSV . read ( csv_path ). flatten User . where ( id: user_ids ). delete_all
We soon receive a call telling us we’re getting 500s on the “Recent Posts” page. You guessed it; we violated referential integrity once again and we’re seeing the same NoMethodError as before.
Why didn’t dependent: :destroy save us here? Well, delete_all doesn’t instantiate the objects it is deleting and thus does not fire any after_destroy callbacks. The dependent options work via that callback.
Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me thrice and I gotta find a new job. We can’t let this happen again. Rails can’t be trusted to maintain referential integrity, but you know what’s really good at doing that? Our relational database.
We can add foreign key constraints at the database level and ensure that the database will reject any operation that would violate referential integrity. Until Rails 4.2 ships with native support for foreign keys, we’ll need to add the Foreigner gem in order to do this. We add Foreigner and run the following migration:
def change add_foreign_key :posts , :users end
This will run the following SQL if you’re using Postgres and Foreigner:
ALTER TABLE `posts` ADD CONSTRAINT `posts_user_id_fk` FOREIGN KEY ( `user_id` ) REFERENCES `users` ( id );
With the foreign key in place, any operation that causes a post to point to a non-existent user will fail. It’s important to realize that a user_id of NULL is allowed, so we still need appropriate presence validations and NOT NULL constraints.
Now our nightly job is failing due to the foreign key constraint. The database is preventing us from deleting any users that still have associated posts. Does this mean we have to go back to the dreaded N+1 query scenario to destroy individual users?
With a slight tweak to our foreign key, we can have the database, rather than ActiveRecord callbacks, handle the cascading deletes. Let’s change our foreign key just a bit:
def change remove_foreign_key :posts , :users add_foreign_key :posts , :users , dependent: :delete # or in the upcoming native support in Rails 4.2 # add_foreign_key :posts, :users, on_delete: :cascade end
This will run the following SQL when creating the foreign key:
ALTER TABLE `posts` ADD CONSTRAINT `posts_user_id_fk` FOREIGN KEY ( `user_id` ) REFERENCES `users` ( id ) ON DELETE CASCADE ;
With the dependent option functionality now moved to our foreign key, the database can now handle cleaning up the associated records. We no longer need to rely on callbacks for this behavior, so let’s remove the option.
class User # Old association: # has_many :posts, dependent: :destroy has_many :posts end
Foreigner and the native support in Rails 4.2 both support options that cascade, nullify, and restrict changes. See the documentation for Foreigner and Rails 4.2.
With immigrant, you can automatically generate a migration that will add any foreign key constraints your application is missing. With immigrant added to your Gemfile , run rails generate immigration add_foreign_keys to create the migration.
If you’re working with an application of any substantial size that has been running for some time, you are very likely to encounter errors applying this migration to your production data. Foreign key constraints cannot be applied if they are not valid for all current data.
I suggest downloading a copy of your production data and trying to run the migration on that data to surface any issues you will have at deployment time. Once the data is fixed and your migration applied in production the actions that were causing the invalid data will result in errors, which you can then target for fixes.
Polymorphic associations are maintained by Rails; the database knows nothing about them. Foreign key constraints cannot help you here so you must keep logic in your Rails application to try to maintain referential integrity.
Foreign key constraints help us maintain valid data and are yet another way of helping us to avoid unexpected nil values in our applications. It’s unrealistic to expect application logic alone to provide the same level of protection.
Enforcing referential integrity is another job relational databases are better prepared to handle than Rails application code. Be a Juke Box Hero and check out Foreigner (or Rails 4.2) today. |
Mahiro Yasaka is an Ordinary High-School Student who happens to be a fan of the Cthulhu Mythos. One day he was attacked by a creature he identifies as a nightgaunt, only to be saved by a Mystical White Haired girl ... who introduces herself as none other than the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep.
This strange girl — "Nyarko" as she prefers to be called — is an agent of the Planetary Defense Organization, tasked to stop a smuggling ring revolving around a precious cosmic commodity... Earth's entertainment, specifically anime (and especially hentai). But she's not only out to perform her task, she also takes it to herself to protect Mahiro ...and to go shopping.
Haiyore! Nyarko-san is a 2009-2014 Romantic Comedy Light Novel series written by Manta Aisora and illustrated by Koin (of Kanokon fame) with elements from Toku and the Cthulhu Mythos. It's actually Lovecraft Lite, and it doesn't take itself all that seriously: It turns out that while the mythos beings are real, H.P. Lovecraft pretty much exaggerated the stories from his Nyarlathotepian friend and turned them into horror tales.
The series has been well-received in Japan, spawning numerous drama CDs and a nine-episode short-Flash anime called Haiyoru! Nyarani. An 11 episode TV Flash series called Haiyoru! Nyaruani Remember my Love(craft-sensei) aired in Winter 2010, followed by a traditional animation season come the Spring 2012 Anime Season. The opening for said anime would achieve memetic status on Nico Nico Douga with the Un! Nya! Let's GO! portion of the opening . This was followed by second season named Haiyore! Nyarko-san W, which aired during the Spring 2013 Anime lineup. Haiyore! Nyarko-san F, an OVA intended to adapt the rest of the novels, was announced in 2014, but stalled out after a single episode (potentially because of the tragic passing of Cuuko's seiyuu Miyu Matsuki). The franchise also received a Visual Novel for the PS Vita, and characters from the series will appear alongside many others in Sega's Crossover rhythm game Miracle Girls Festival.
Being a slapstick comedy based on the Cthulhu Mythos, it's a pretty violent story. It is also a hurricane of anime, manga and RPG Shout Outs and Mythos-ology Gags. And Kamen Rider. Lots of Kamen Rider.
Crunchyroll streamed both TV seasons under the title Nyarko-san: Another Crawling Chaos, releasing the two Nyaruani series before the first to drum up interest; all four shows can watched for free here. The two TV seasons were later licensed by NIS America under the title Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! (and Second Season for W), releasing both as sub-only Blu-rays.
Adam and Eve Plot: Invoked in episode 7 of season 2 along with Behind the Black, by Nyarko. Mahiro wakes up on what appears to be a deserted island with Nyarko, and she immediately mentions this trope to him. However, in actuality, they're still at the indoor swimming park, and several people walk by when he mentions it, and the camera also changes angles, revealing the shops on the other side of the two.
Aliens Are Bastards: The aliens are based on the Cthulhu Mythos, so it comes with the territory. Nyarko and Cuuko are psychotic stalkers, and the Great Old Ones are so obsessed with Earth pop culture that they have smuggling of it, and some of their media watchdogs try to destroy the Earth over considering it a threat to moral health. And people say Humanity Is Insane.
Agitated Item Stomping: In Novel 1/episode 2, when Nyarko offers Mahiro a box which she says contains an engagement ring, he responds this way. She immediately apologizes, saying that was just a joke and the box really contains a protective charm.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: A first it looks like it's this for the Banshin and then it looks like it gets subverted because they simply based its mind on Nyarko's and then it turns out that it really is crazy enough to kill Mahiro after all .
Alien Geometries: Nodens' auction house in R'lyeh is Bigger on the Inside that on the outside, of course.
Alien Lunch: An ongoing Running Gag. Nyarko keeps using alien ingredients on everything she cooks, be it Shantak bird eggs, Shub-Niggurath (the "Black Goat of the Woods") meat or her famous "BLT" (Byakhee-Lloigor-Tsathougga) sandwich. And then there's the hotdog from Episode 4 of the second anime — "dog" here meaning "Hound of Tindalos". She did use Earth ingredients once. And by Earth ingredients, we mean Pterodactyl. Mahiro: "I'm definitely gonna kick the crap out of you if you prepare something like that!" (Episode 1, referring to the "BLT")
All Love Is Unrequited: Almost all the relationships in the series. Hasta, Tamao and later Cuuko have feelings for Mahiro, Luhy develops feelings for Hasta, Cuune has feelings for Cuuko... And of course, the series centers around Nyarko's feelings for Mahiro, but he actually does like her even if he's not willing to say so out loud, a situation that slowly improves.
All There in the Manual: One can watch the anime without reading the novels, but it does provide a lot of useful information. For example, after busting up Nodens' black market auction, Nyarko took 300 years' worth of paid vacation in order to be with Mahiro, and Mahiro is revealed to be able to perceive and resist fluctuations in space-time (which is mentioned early on, but becomes a Chekhov's Skill later).
Amusement Park of Doom: In Episode 2, we learn that R'lyeh is essentially a twisted version of Disneyland which caters to Eldritch Abominations. Of course, other than the fact that it's full of alien beings, there's really nothing deadly about it.
Anachronic Order: An odd adaptational version, as the anime doesn't stick with a straight one-to-one transfer from the novels. For example, episodes 4 & 5 of the first season, which sees Cthulhu Corp. kidnapping Mahiro's mother, were drawn from the fourth novel; episodes 9 & 10, in which Mahiro and Nyarko swap bodies Nyarko-San W adapts novels 5-7; while the fifth and sixth occur in order, stories from the seventh are sprinkled throughout the season. On top of that, the final episode is based on a short story collected in the eleventh novel. And this of course isn't taking into account the anime-exclusive episodes, which include the finale of the first season.
Analogy Backfire: In episode 7 of the second TV series, Nyarko compares herself and Mahiro to two trees which have grown together; he responds that diseased limbs need to be removed immediately.
Anguished Declaration of Love: Nyarko does it to Mahiro in episode 6 of season 2, after being extremely unhappy watching his fake date with Kuuko. She lays on top of him in his bed, and tells him yet again that she cares for him deeply, and wants to know what his feelings towards her are, as she's unsure of them.
Animation Bump: Remember my Love(craft-sensei) is a Flash series, but the Ending credits are done traditionally. As a result, the Credits have better animation than the show itself.
Art Evolution: Comparing the character designs from Remember my Love(craft-sensei)'s ending to the two TV shows an interesting reversal. In the former, Mahiro's face was more lean and angular (and therefore looked slightly older and more masculine), while Nyarko's was rounder (and therefore younger-looking and more feminine); in the latter, these traits have swapped, so Nyarko's face is more angular while Mahiro's is rounder.
Artistic License Physics: Cuuko claims that her cousin Kunne's flames can reach a "thousand degrees", and that her chill attack could reach below one thousand degrees note this would be well below Absolute Zero . Mahiro responds that it sounds like something a kid would think up. Mahiro: "Don't ignore the laws of physics."
Ascended Extra: Shantak was a minor character in the 2012 series, but got a pretty important role in the sequel.
Aside Comment: Nyarko looks at the camera and repeats a second time that she has a convenient barrier to keep up The Masquerade because, in her own words, it is important information.
Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Nyarko loses track of objectives easily, especially when confronted with her hobbies or anything fun.
Babies Make Everything Better: In episode 7, Yoriko says she approves of Nyarko dating Mahiro, but asks her to slow things down, since "high schoolers should have a high school romance". Nyarko agrees, but thinks to herself that parents always change their minds when the grandchildren start being born ...and develops a Higurashi Slasher Smile that creeps Mahiro right the hell out.
Bad Boss: According to Nyarko, her boss is unreasonable and sleeps all the time, and if you disturb his naps he gets mad enough to destroy the universe. Yup, he's Azathoth.
Beach Episode: Episodes 6-7.
The Beard: In episode 5 of season 2 (W), Kuuko claims to be Mahiro's fiance in order to thwart her cousin Kuune's advances and avoid a marriage interview. The later doesn't seem too convinced at first, so Kuuko asks the other characters to play along, and bribes Nyarko into doing so by giving her the contract Mahiro wrote (while trapped in Nyarko's body) in the first episode.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Mahiro in episode 11 moans that he wish he could have peace and quiet. Then in episode 12, he gets it, and ends up being the last man on Earth, and he starts to realize how important his friends and family really are to him.
Beehive Barrier: In Episode 10, Nyarko (in her own body again) summons one to block an energy blast from the leader of the rogue Yithians.
Behind the Black: See Adam and Eve Plot. The starting shot that may have looked like an uninhabited island for a moment, is followed by camera changing angle.
BFS: Nyarko's crowbar turns into one in episode 12.
Big Brother Attraction: In episode 3, Nyarko tries to play both the big and little sister for Mahiro (while channeling some of Kana Asumi's other roles), suspecting he has one of these. He angrily denies it.
Big Book of War: The alien characters have Citizen Bright's Amazing! Our Space CQC. Basically, it's summed up as "CQC is what you want it to be, even if others disagree."
Big "NO!": Tamao lets one out in Ep. 9, Season 2, after she realizes that's shes playing Twister with Yoichi, who just happens to be under her skirt.
Black Comedy Rape: In episode 2 Kuuko defeats Nyarko in battle and then ties her down on a four-poster bed.
At the end of Episode 6 Nyarko tries to get Mahiro in his bed. In both cases the attacker believes it to be an act of love, and the victim succeeds in fighting them off.
Blue with Shock: Happens to several characters from time to time.
Bodyguard Crush: Nyarko practically begged to take the job of protecting Mahiro after seeing his picture.
Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: With Nyarko as the boke and Mahiro as the tsukkomi.
Book-Ends: Both the first and the last battle occur at the same place. The latter even starts the same way as the former.
Borrowed Catch Phrase: Cross-series, with pretty much the entire cast telling someone to "Count up their crimes" at least once. In case you missed it, the writers really liked Kamen Rider Double. Mahiro's "That doesn't make any sense," itself borrowed from Doraemon, gets used by a couple of other characters, most prominently Nyarko in episode 2.
Buffy Speak: When asked about the crowbar she was holding, Nyarko describes it as "some kind of unspeakable bar thing."
But Thou Must!: Spoofed in Nyaruani episode 5, "RPG", where Nyarko describes the big popular RPG in space. Sometimes the monsters you defeat will want to join your party; your choices are "Yes" or "Yeah". And then they demand payment or refuse to help you.
Cain and Abel: Nyarko's older brother Nyar-o ran away from home because he's Book Dumb while Nyarko is a Child Prodigy (she was a topnotcher at a prestigious university, while he had to drop out of a C-list college). He blames her for his downfall (because she hit his head while playing space gateball) and tries to antagonize her after he gains his own Full Force Form — or so he wanted to be.
Call-Back: In Episode 11, Nyarko uses the Mirror of Nitocris to suck back the Shaggai hornets she intended to eat as barbecue at Mahiro's request. Then Mahiro remembers that it was the same mirror with which Nyarko let him realize that they have switched bodies . Naturally, he's not too thrilled about the implications as to what it could have done to him. In the OVA Haiyore! Nyarko-san F, Mahiro repeated Nyarko's work from the very first episode "It's not a crime if no one find out"
Calling Your Attacks: Isurugi and Isuka do this in episode 10. After a while Mahiro questions if they're grade school kids.
Call on Me: Nyarko tells Mahiro to say her name if he needs her.
Calvinball: Space CQC is explicitly stated to be whatever one claims it to be. Even if their opponent disagrees.
The Cameo: Characters from other light novel series, such as Miyamasanchi no Berutein (written by Aisora) and Rl'yeh High School (illustrated by Koin) can often be seen in the background, with the two main girls from the latter actually appearing as Mahiro's classmates. In turn, Mahiro, Nyarko and Yoriko appeared as minor characters in the former.
Canon Foreigner: By medium: Yonkoma: Nakko, a nightgaunt that got stuck in little girl form and left behind on Earth after the Nodens incident.
Nyaruani: Nyarue, Nyarko's overly excitable cousin.
Anime: Guthatan and Roy Fogger from the first season, Tsuruko and the Dreamlands gods from W.
Can't Stand Them, Can't Live Without Them: Basically sums up Mahiro's relationship with Nyarko, Cuuko and Hasta. No matter how often their personalities (and preferences) clash, it's obvious that all four of them need each other. He learns this lesson at the end of the first season when he's sent to a completely empty world; the second season has a similar situation, where the trio are being recalled by their bosses, but Mahiro's main conflict is the fact that he's powerless to stop it.
Cassandra Truth: In Episode 7, Mahiro insists that Nyarko isn't pregnant with his child (after the latter's failed attempt to seduce him at the end of Episode 6) despite the latter's insistence. That doesn't stop Yoriko, Hasta, Tamao and even Yoichi from believing her. Mahiro: "Seriously, why is this happening to me?"
Catapult Nightmare: Episode 9 opens with Mahiro having one ...but, because it's Mahiro, the "nightmare" is the Dating Sim ending of the previous episode altered so that he says "I love you" to Nyarko and kisses her willingly instead of being Tsundere as usual.
Catch-Phrase Nyarko: "I'm the Chaos that always crawls up to you with an smile, Nyarlathotep!"
Cat Smile: Nyarko and Cuuko display one from time to time.
Chekhov's Armory: Mahiro lampshades this trope and at the same time claiming that Nyarko and company would have the resident Chekhov's Gun.
Chekhov's Boomerang The "protective charm" Nyarko gives Mahiro from Episode 2 note Which Lovecraft fans will recognize as the Shining Trapezohedron comes back in Episode 10 to play Pocket Protector and save Nyarko-in-Mahiro's-Body summons a sick Nyarko in a particularly nasty foreshadowing/subversion loop (ultimately subverted; Nyarko can't fight in her state, and the Yuggoths are vaccinated against her sickness ). It still has the potential to boomerang back, since its primary purpose is to let Mahiro summon Nyarko in times of great need.
comes back in Episode 10 to in a particularly nasty foreshadowing/subversion loop (ultimately ). It still has the potential to boomerang back, since its primary purpose is to let Mahiro summon Nyarko in times of great need. The Mirror of Nitocris also becomes this when, in Episode 12, Mahiro uses it to suck in a Nightgaunt, and was eventually used by Nyarko to move him out of the alternative dimension he is trapped in .
Clingy Jealous Girl: A few examples. Cuuko doesn't like that Nyarko is always swooning over Mahiro.
Nyarko doesn't like Hasta too much when the latter seems a bit too friendly with Mahiro. Cuuko's attempts to hook them up only makes things worse, particularly as Hasta doesn't seem to mind it.
In episode 5 of season 2, Kuuko pretends that Mahiro is her fiance to thwart her cousin Kuune's advances. Although she promises to give Nyarko the contract Mahiro wrote in the first season (while trapped in Nyarko's body), Nyarko is clearly uncomfortable with the plan, and shatters her tea cup after watching Kuuko clinging onto his arm. She also becomes unhappy at the fake date Kuuko goes on with him in the next episode.
Kuune, Kuuko's cousin, also exhibits this trope in episode 6 of season 2, and tries to thwart their plans from time to time during the fake date.
Color-Coded Characters: Human characters can be distinguished by their natural hair color; the Lovecraftian characters have bright color motifs based on their Mythos counterparts. Hasta is yellow (alluding to Hastur's title, the "King In Yellow"), Luuhi is green since she is Cthulhu, and Cuuko is red — alluding to Cthugha, a sentient fireball. The odd one out is Nyarko, whose hair and Henshin Hero form is silver. Nyarlathotep's traditional color is black, though it is used for her standard outfit. In Remember my Love(craft-sensei), Ato-ko's color motif is black, appropriate for a Yamato Nadeshiko.
Color Failure: Throughout the first anime... Mahiro has one near the end of Episode 1 after seeing Nyarko brutally beat a Nightgaunt to a bloody pulp — beside him his "Sanity Meter" is also shown going down the drain — and again at the end of Episode 3, when Yoriko calls him telling she's coming home.
Nyarko also has had these moments twice. The first is in Episode 4 when she misunderstood Yoriko's advice to her to start her relationship with Mahiro as Just Friends for being friendzoned before Giving Up the Ghost. The second is in Episode 7 (coupled with Heroic BSoD) after Mahiro bluntly tells her that he doesn't like her. She goes into it again later in the episode to guilt trip him into doing things with her, but he draws the line when she tries to drag him into a sex museum. Mahiro: Turning white 's not going to work this time.
Cuuko and Hasta simultaneously in Episode 10 after Nyarko (in Mahiro's body) gives Mahiro (in Nyarko's body) a really deep French kiss . They remain that way during the entire climax.
. They remain that way during the entire climax. Kuune, Kuuko's older cousin, does this when the former mentions she's getting engaged to Mahiro. It must have been shocking, as Kuune is still whited out a few scenes later.
Conflict Ball: The trio's reactions to Guthatan in episode 11 fringe on this, Nyarko especially. While Mahiro is trying to look after this child who was put in his care, the trio acts even more selfish and disruptive than normal, with Cuuko is needling Mahiro about breakfast while Nyarko and Hasta get insanely jealous of the attention he's giving Guthatan. Probably the worst of it is when Nyarko notices that Guthatan's hair is wet and she's in new clothing note Mahiro had to bathe her after she got her clothes dirty in the kitchen and jumps to the conclusion that Mahiro had sex with the underage alien girl. You can kind of understand his anger at that point.
Conservation of Detail: The main characters muse that Yoichi must be possessed by a Yithian because he hasn't come to school . When they go check on him, they turn out to be absolutely correct.
Content Warnings: Used in "Remember my Love(craft-sensei)", accompanied by dramatic music. Each episode begins with one, followed by some Non Sequitur: ATTENTION PLEASE!! When watching animated shows, please make sure the room is well-lit and do not sit too close to the screen. Also, there's not much movement.
Cool Car: Luhy's blatant Shout-Out Back to the Future time travelling DeLorean DMC-12.
Nyarko's submersible Nephren Car, complete with multiple torpedo launchers.
Cover Version: There's an entire mini-album consisting of songs from other works (many of which owe inspiration to the Cthulhu Mythos) performed by the Nyarko cast, including Tales of Phantasia's theme sung by Kana Asumi (Nyarko), the Demonbane PlayStation 2 game's theme done by Eri Kitamura (Mahiro), and Yuka Otsubo (Tamao) performing Mahou Sentai Magiranger's ending theme.
CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Mahiro drowns after being accidentally ejected off Nyarko's underwater Cool Car but is eventually rescued off-screen. Reviving him is best described as... Hasta's First Kiss.
Crazy-Prepared Mahiro keeps a fork in his pocket, for whenever Nyarko is going wild over him.
Isurugi, the renegade Yithian, prepared a Space CQC Jammer to combat Nyarko. Isuka, the Yithian on Nyarko's side, prepared a Space CQC Jammer Canceler. Countered by a Space CQC Jammer Canceler Breaker, then by Space CQC Jammer Canceler Breaker Eraser... and so on and so forth. Even though Isurugi eventually wins out, things still do not go according to plan. Mahiro: What is this, a kid's fight?
Creator Cameo: That little ghostly devilfish that sometimes appears in monstrous crowds or flying quickly across the screen is Aisora's avatar.
Credits Running Sequence: Mahiro does a brief one running in place with a giant Nyarko and Earth in the background in the opening for W (season 2). He also does one where he's running away from Nyarko, Kuuko, and Hasuta.
Cultural Cross-Reference: Call of Cthulhu blatant Shout Outs are quite surprising when you consider they are jokes about a classic, but not "mainstream", Western tabletop RPG.
Curbstomp Battle: Well, this is what happens when you pit mere monsters against the Crawling Chaos.
Damned by Faint Praise: In episode 7, Mahiro attempts to apologize to Nyarko for saying he didn't like her, but the best he can manage is to say that he likes her better than certain foods (which, as Tamao points out, nobody likes). But it's good enough for Nyarko.
Dancing Theme: A brief one in W's (season 2) opening by various characters.
Date Crêpe: Mahiro and Kuuko order some in episode 6 of season 2. When Kuuko tries to take a bite out of his crepe, her cousin Kuune shows up from behind the bushes and eats the entire thing in one bite. So she shares her crepe with him, and when he takes a bite out of it, Kuune becomes extremely upset.
Date Peepers: Kuune, Nyarko, Hasuta, Shantak, and Mahiro's mom all follow him and Kuuko on their date in episode 6 of season 2. Then it turns into more of a group outing while at the restaurant as they all join the two for lunch.
A Date with Rosie Palms: When Nyarko accidentally switched bodies with Mahiro in Episode 9, she spends an inordinarily long time in the restroom, then comes out radiantly singing "Oh, boys are so great... It's a feeling that girls just won't understand..." Naturally, Mahiro is livid about this. In episode 7, we see Cuuko apparently stayed up all night waiting for Nyarko (who lied in order to get her out of the way), and slept through breakfast while having some...entertaining dreams. Later, when Mahiro asks her why she missed breakfast, Cuuko said she was waiting for Nyarko but "somehow ended up satisfying [herself]". Wisely, Mahiro decides not to ask any further questions.
In Episode 2 of Season 2, Kuuko is shown groping herself while reading out loud from a book that, if not explicitly sexual, certainly sounds suggestive.
Dating Sim: Lovecraft Plus, mentioned in the fourth episode of the short Flash, is an inverted version of the standard dating sim that happens to have SAN among its stats. Instead of getting the girls to fall for you, the girls try to get you to fall for them Your SAN points are basically your resistance to the Yandere Stalker with a Crush's advances. Lose enough SAN and you end up with her forever, wallowing in your mutual insanity. Definitely a game worthy of the title.
This is also the premise of Episode 8. The characters are stuck in Doki Doki High School until Mahiro scores with either Nyarko, Cuuko, Hasta or Tamao.
Deep-Immersion Gaming: Episode 8, where all of the main characters get sucked into a Dating Sim game.
Deserted Island: In episode 7 of season 2, Nyarko tells Mahiro that they're both stranded on a deserted island after he awakens from having fallen in the water. However, as soon as he points out they're still inside the swimming park, several people walk by, and the camera changes angles to show the shops on the other side of where they are.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: A Nightgaunt, actually. A subversion, since Nyarko's an Outer God, in the form of a schoolgirl. Played straight with Mahiro who frequently threatens Nyarko with a fork.
Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: For Nyarlathotep, it was Love Before First Sight. Mahiro's case is different; he's obviously attracted to her, but acts Tsundere because she's too Manic Pixie Dream Girl for his tastes and because he's afraid that she's lying about her feelings to screw with his head — like the original Nyarlathotep would probably do. He does get better over the course of the novels, though.
Disappointed by the Motive: Used as a Running Gag. By the end of a story arc, almost every villain's goal all along will be revealed to be 1) related to japanese pop-culture somehow and 2) completely absurd. It starts with the first villains trying to kidnap Mahiro so they can have him play in the film adaptation of a Boy Love manga and only gets sillier from there.
Disney Dog Fight: Nyaruani episode "Loyalty" has Nyarko getting jealous over how much Shanta-kun seems to like Mahiro; he responds by suggesting they do this. Shanta ends up choosing Nyarko...after some percussive persuasion.
Disproportionate Retribution: In episode 10, the Yith, or at least an extremist, space Moral Guardian cult of them, wish to destroy Earth because they're corrupting morals of space aliens with Earth's entertainment. Ghutatan's butler in episode 12 wants to get rid of Mahiro because the latter made it hard for him to get his hands on Eroge.
In the light novels, Nyarko and Cuuko used to beat up their grade-school classmate Nyogta for bullying Hasta; as an adult, he gets his revenge by erasing the girls from existence.
Distracted by the Sexy: Nyarko uses this against Cuuko in episode 6 by throwing out some pictures and claiming pictures of her in a swimsuit flew out. This distracts Cuuko long enough for Nyarko to hit her with a finishing blow. Said pictures were actually of Mahiro taken from various angles.
"Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Kana Asumi [Nyarko] sings the themes of all three adaptations — solo on the first Flash opening ("Like, Like, Love") and the anime ending ("Always Be With You"), collaborative on the second Flash ending ("Catharsis of a Woman's Love", with Azusa Kataoka (now Azusa Enoki) [Atko] and Sayuri Hara [Nyarue]) and the anime opening ("The Sun Says 'Burn, Chaos'" with Miyu Matsuki [Cuuko] and Yuka Ootsubo [Tamao]). For the TV series, there's "Ushiro kara Haiyoru-tai" (Team Crawling Up Behind You), a musical unit formed by the voice actors which sings almost all of the theme and image songs. If the group's name has a letter after it, it indicates which character takes the lead (Nyarko, Mahiro, Cuko, Hasta, Tamao and Yoichi) as well as a few joint groups: B for Boys and G for Girls; ironically, when Eri Kitamura sings as part of the B group, she sings purely female parts (as seen in the Iron Striver themes).
Domestic Abuser: Mahiro on Nyaruko and even Cuuko. Treated as comedy.
Don't Explain the Joke: In episode 5 of the first TV series, Mahiro chastises Nyarko for having to spell out the pun behind the Xoth game console's name.
Dope Slap: Mahiro on Nyarko many, many times. In episode 2 of Nyarko-San W, he takes a page from Akiko Narumi's playbook and uses a green slipper.
Double Entendre: Believe it or not, Hasta uses the crap out of this. Most of the time he uses the term "gattai" note "Combine," frequently used for Combining Mecha can mean such an act. However, all bets are off when he refers to it as "Final Fusion."
Double Standard: In Episode 9, Cuuko cries foul when Nyarko fawns over Mahiro wearing glasses, but brushes off Cuuko's attempts to use some Meganekko charm on her. Sniffle. Double standard..."
A gender-based one, in Episode 7 Mahiro made it very clear to Nyarko that he wasn't interested in her and she finally took it seriously. So how did everyone respond? By pressuring Mahiro to take her out on a date. Admittedly Nyarko was shocked and saddened when Mahiro told her, but if the genders had been reversed the scene would have been considered very creepy.
Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Gender inverted. Mahiro often hits Nyarko and even Cuuko when they get on his nerves. Treated as comedy.
Double Standard: Rape, Female on Male: Not outright rape, but Nyarko's repeated attempts to seduce Mahiro (presumably in the hopes that he'll get into it) are treated as comedy, when the same acts committed by a man on a woman would most certainly not. It might have something to do with the fact that you know Nyarko will never succeed, thanks to Mahiro's skill with forks. Her implied actions when in his body probably was an outright example.
Dragged by the Collar: Nyarko likes to grab Mahiro and run with him in tow.
Dramatic Chase Opening: The anime series begins with Mahiro being chased by a nightgaunt.
Dynamic Entry: Episode 11 of Nyarko-san W sees Nyarko do this — with the Rider Rocket Drill Kick, no less — to stop a Love Potion-ed Cuuko from getting busy with Mahiro.
Ear Cleaning: Kuuko does it to Mahiro in the beginning of episode 6 of season 2. Kuune and Nyarko, who are both watching from nearby, are not pleased with it. Especially when Cuuko drops the pick and leans over to retrieve it, putting her breasts right on Mahiro's head.
External Retcon: For the Cthulhu Mythos.
Family-Friendly Firearms: The "guns" Isuka and Isurugi use in episodes nine and ten resemble old handheld cameras, or radar guns. The characters still react to them as real guns however, such as when Isurugi, while inhabiting Yoichi's body, points the gun at his own head. The camera appearance is based on the description of Yithian weapons from The Shadow Out of Time, which could be quite deadly.
Fanservice: The Light Novels are illustrated by the artist who did Kanokon's, so one should expect it. Invoked in the first TV episode with Nyarko telling Mahiro that since this is an anime adaptation, their fans surely want to see them get wet. Mahiro flatly rejects it, claiming that he doesn't care about that kind of fan.
Fast-Forward Gag: In the first episode of the second anime series, Nyarko's explanation for who/what she is and her purpose for being on Earth gets fast-forwarded due to being extremely long-winded and Mahiro has to summarize everything in a format that the audience can understand and respects broadcasting time constraints. Even funnier, if you slow down that sequence to half speed, you can understand Nyarko's dialog; it's an almost direct quote from the original light novel where she (indirectly) reveals that her boss is Azathoth.
"Freaky Friday" Flip: Nyarko and Mahiro in episode 10.
Feuding Families: As a race, the Nyarlothotepians and Cthuguans are mortal enemies, with Cuuko's crush on Nyarko being a case of If It's You, It's Okay. When Cuune shows up, Nyarko explains to Mahiro that the shame and dishonor that would result if the crush became public would probably destroy Cuuko's family.
Fictional Geneva Conventions: In the "Cooking" segment of Nyarani, Nyarko mentions difficultly of getting an "ingredient" due to the Space Washington Treaty.
Fighting a Shadow: Conversed in episode 1 of the second season, as Mahiro and Nyarko talk about their compatibility issues. Mahiro points out that Nyarko (as a beautiful human girl) is not her true form. However, Nyarko counters that her human form is just one of her Thousand masks, so it's as legitimate as any other. Mahiro: "I'm scared to see the remaining 999."
Flashback Echo: In a few episodes, Mahiro blushes and gets really flustered whenever he gets a good look at Nyarko's lips — because he's remembering the two times they've actually kissed so far.
Foreshadowing: Occurs in Episode 5. Mahiro tries to figure out why Yoriko was taken by Luhy. He thinks it has something to do with "sononium", which he thought was merely her excuse to hug him. Turn's out he was mistaken. The real foreshadowing was his mother discussing how she collects old video game consoles Mahiro: "That was the foreshadowing?!" This gets invoked again in episode 9 of season 2 regarding the vacuum cleaner Mahiro's mom is using throughout the episode, as well as events that happened in an earlier episode with Kuune. Both Mahiro and Nyarko comment on said vacuum, which did nothing in particular aside from screaming "Cyclone!"
It comes into play again during episode 10 of season 2. The latest alien threat seems ready for anything Mahiro, Kuuko, and Hasuta can throw at him, and then they all fail for one reason or another. Then Nyarko's phone begins to ring, and its the music from it that causes them to die. Mahiro immediately points out that it wasn't much of a foreshadowing clue.
Mahiro's actually gotten to the point where he's actively trying to find the foreshadowing in every plot arc. He always chooses whatever he thinks would result in the dumbest, most nonsensical ending, and while he's right in that regard, he still tends to be wrong because something always comes out of nowhere that's even dumber than what he suspected.
Fork Fencing: Mahiro and his mom use forks to keep Nyarko, Kuuko, and Hasuta in line when they act out. Despite having weaponry that's literally out of this world, the forks seem to be the most feared thing to them anytime he pops one out. In episode 3 of Nyarko-San W, Mahiro gets so annoyed with the combined Zhar/Lloigar to start flinging forks; he starts screaming in pain, and Nyarko says that "for some reason", Mahiro's forks hurt a lot.
A Form You Are Comfortable With: Mahiro tells Nyarko he pictured Nyarlathotep far more monstrous. She offers to show him some of her other forms... if he doesn't mind losing his sanity. Mahiro passes. Cue a shot of twenty SAN Points getting dashed off of a Call of Cthulhu character sheet.
Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: Spoofed in episode 5 of Nyaruani, where Mahiro and Nyarko answer fans' questions about the series. The first question is about a Series Continuity Error note "Why is lunch after third period in the first light novel, but after fourth period in the GA Magazine short?" which annoys Nyarko so much that she rips up the postcard and ends the segment there...but still says "To Be Continued" afterwards.
Freeze-Frame Bonus: In episode 8 of the second season (the Trapped in TV Land Dating Sim episode), Nyarko's Christmas present to Mahiro is a marriage registration. Reading it reveals a lot of amusing details; for example, Nyarko's birthday is April 15, 2009 (the day the first light novel was released), her parents are Father of the Million Favoured Ones and the Bloated Woman (two of Nyarlathotep's other forms), and one of the marriage witnesses is Harvey Walters, the sample character in the 5th edition of Call of Cthulhu. In the Nyaruani episode "RPG", Nyarko's description of the game is accompanied by mental images of the game; the monsters who ask to join are iTunes, Quicktime, and Bonjour (as in, the program icons with little eyes drawn on).
Funny Background Event: The Flash series feature this often.
Gag Series: The Flash series focused on surreal humor more than any plot. The TV series probably falls halfway between this and Excuse Plot.
Gainaxing: Kuune does this when she's walking slowly towards Mahiro and Nyarko in episode 9 of season 2.
Gender Flip: Nyarko, Cuuko, and Luuhi. In the Mythos, Nyarlathotep's human forms tend to be male, and Cthugha and Cthulhu are considered "male". On female-to-male side, Bast, the Egyptian goddess of cats, is portrayed being male.
On the meta side, Atlach-Nacha was originally described as male, though later writers turned "him" into a female.
Another, anime-related meta example: Mahiro is tsundere, helpless against monsters, but has no problem with hitting Nyarko; Nyarko is bold, hyperactive, and is easily beaten by Mahiro despite being powerful fighter. In other words, they're the gender-flipped version of the standard anime couple.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In-Universe. Nyarko and Cuuko explain that this trope applies on a galactic scale, a conversation triggered when Mahiro recognises Cuuko's manga as one that only lasted six issues, but which the girls explain was revived by an alien publisher.
Glamour Failure: Humanoid Nyarlathotepians can be distinguished from regular humans (and other anthropomorphized Lovecraftians) by their silver hair and huge cowlick, most prominent of which are Nyarko, Nyar-o and Nyarue.
Godiva Hair: Nyarko sports this pretty much any time she's nude; they even make it so her hair magically falls in the right place to cover her butt in episode 1.
Go Mad from the Revelation: When Mahiro first meets Nyarko, he wonders why she looks like an average human girl, and not an Eldritch Abomination. She mentions that she could go into that form if he really wants her to, but wisely decides against that due to this trope.
Goroawase Number: Tsuruko says that her favorite number is 801 — Ya-O-I.
Grand Theft Me: Focus in the third Light Novel volume. One such Yithian, Isuka explains to Nyarko that her more aggressive kin are trying to pull this off on humanity in order to learn more of their entertainment. In an attempt to take over Nyarko (ostensibly to be able to fend off her more aggressive kin), she ended up causing Nyarko and Mahiro to switch bodies
Gratuitous English: All over the place. Nyarko herself is a serial offender.
Groin Attack: Nyarko does this to one of the nightgaunt in episode 1. Even Mahiro kind of empathizes with it after she attacks there. Even worse, she used Kuuga's Mighty Kick to do it.
"Groundhog Day" Loop: Episode 11 ends with Mahiro trapped inside one, waking up once more on the Sunday he chewed out Nyarko, Cuuko and Hasta for being too violent while dealing with a bunch of Shoggoths, apparently accidentally wounding their guest, Ghutatan, in the process. Then it was revealed that Lloigor, Ghutatan's butler, planned it all along, and actually intentionally wounded Ghutatan himself, to remove him, the last obstacle to gaining every eroge in the world.
Gut Feeling: In episode 3, Nyarko says "I have a bad feeling about this..." (and Mahiro agrees) when Tamao says a new student is joining their class: a cool girl with fiery twintails and A-cup breasts. Of course, it turns out to be Cuuko. By episode 5, they've gotten even savvier, and have the same exchange when Hasta leaves; sure enough, he turns up at school the very next day, prompting both to mutter " I Knew It!..."
Ham-to-Ham Combat: Isurugi and Isuka have one when they constantly try to cancel each others field. Nyarko and the vacuum. "JOKER!" "CYCLONE!"
Harmless Villains: Both Nodens and Nyar-o went down with extreme anticlimax.
Haunted House: Several of the characters visit one in episode 11 of season 2.
HeelFace Turn Cuuko, obviously. It took Mahiro playing around her Psycho Lesbian crush on Nyarko to convince her to let go of him and even win her over as a mutual ally by (purportedly) helping her get Nyarko.
Luhy has bounced back from her Villainous Breakdown when she was laid off by Cthulhu Corp. and has since taken many jobs, ranging from a takoyaki vendor to a Magical Girl at a stage play (with Nodens, who also seemingly pulled this off as a Kaiju), and later a teacher at Boryo High .
. In Episode 10, Isurugi, the rogue Yithian possessing Yoichi , upon discovering that his boss is actually a Space Moral Guardian who infiltrated his faction for his own agenda.
Heroic BSoD: Played for Laughs in Episode 7 by Nyarko (coupled with Color Failure), when Mahiro bluntly tells her he doesn't like her. It took the sight of Cuuko about to exploit the chance to molest Nyarko to make Mahiro reconsider his stance, apologize to her and take her on a date.
Played straight in episode 6 of season 2, when Nyarko becomes extremely upset at the fake date between Kuuko and Mahiro. After she complains about it, he tells her she should just go home if she's not comfortable seeing their playacting in order to fool Kuuko's cousin Kuune. Nyarko becomes downcast for the rest of the day and evening, and ambushes him in his room later that night with an Anguished Declaration of Love.
Nyarko suffers another one during the first half of episode 12 in season 2, after learning that her, Kuuko, and Hasuta's job of guarding Earth was done since they got the guardian for Earth done way ahead of schedule (it was supposed to take about 500 years to complete, but they managed to do it overnight). She is also told that staying on Earth any longer would be considered a crime, and Mahiro tells her he can't do anything about it either. She snaps out of it the instant she hears that they want to field test the new guardian, with the intention of destroying it so as to be allowed to stay on Earth while her superiors have to build a new guardian.
In season 2, when Cuuko kisses Mahiro on the cheek (which is considered a major love ritual by her race), Cuune flips out, quotes the Big Bad of Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam ("Burning...the Earth is burning...") and flies off while laughing maniacally.
Hey, You!: Cuuko not only calls Mahiro only "Boy", but also adresses his mother as "Miss Boy's Mother".
High-Pressure Blood: Mahiro's fork-stabbings make Nyarko gush blood in the light novels and Nyaruani shorts; in the TV series the worst they do is little lumps on the head.
High-Pressure Emotion: Cuuko's full body blushing is actually harmful. Justified, considering she is a living fireball. Nyarko: "Stop hugging me! You wanna burn me to death or what?!"
Homage: In the first Flash animation series, Atoko and Nyarko re-enact the silent elevator ride from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Episode 12 of the second TV series contains several direct homages to the second Urusei Yatsura movie, which was also about people being transported into a world with no other humans, as well as an apparent "Groundhog Day" Loop including the Red Herring scene of Guthatan sitting nearby a bank of pay phones which ring as Mahiro attempts to call Nyarko
Humans Are Special: On top of Earth's entertainment, humans are also sought after by aliens.
Hypocritical Humor: In the second episode, Nyarko complains that Cuuko's lasers shouldn't be considered close-quarters-combat. At the beginning of the episode, Mahiro raised the same point about her using hand grenades.
Many of Nyarko's frequent insults towards Cuuko revolve around her hobbies, like gaming... In the first episode she was drooling over an anime/manga store's entire stock, including the games. Nyarko's entire relationship with Cuuko is almost exactly the same as the one Mahiro has with her: an entirely unwanted admirer with extreme Perverse Sexual Lust who wants to make babies. Often, she'll even hit Cuuko with the same insults that Mahiro threw her way just minutes before (which Mahiro will Lampshade).
I Ate WHAT?!: In Luhy's seaside restaurant, the gang is enjoying her takoyaki. Mahiro was also about to reluctantly eat some... then he saw the restaurant's banner with an image of Cthulhu. Needless to say, he lost his appetite.
Iconic Logo: The Yellow Sign can be seen in several places related to Hasta (particularly the first TV series' opening). The Elder Sign can also be seen occasionally.
Idiot Hair: All Nyarlathotepians have one, pretty much a replacement of tentacles.
If It's You, It's Okay: Even if it's actually Mahiro in Nyarko's body, Cuuko would still attempt to have her way with him, so long as it's Nyarko's body. The fact that Mahiro is relatively easy on her compared to Nyarko also helps. Cuuko: "Just her [i.e, Nyarko] body will do." Kuuko gives Mahiro a kiss to thwart her cousin off in episode 9 of season 2. He later asks if that was okay, since Kuune said that particular kiss was an important love ritual. She says that she didn't mind doing it because it was him.
If We Get Through This...: Referenced in the last (regular) episode of Remember my Love(craft-sensei): Nyarko: Mahiro-san, when I get back, let's have lots more fun together, okay?
Mahiro: Hey, don't go Mahiro-san, when I get back, let's have lots more fun together, okay?Hey, don't go setting flags like that!
I Have No Brother: Nyarko really doesn't want to admit that Nyar-O is her older brother, and when Mahiro questions this she quickly changes the subject.
Immodest Orgasm: Shanta-kun in S2E2, Cuuko three episodes later.
Incredibly Lame Pun: In episode 2 of Nyaruani, Nyarko's computer has 出る (meaning "to go") on the back — which is pronounced "deru".
Informed Attribute: We're told that Nyarko is very intelligent (always did well in school, graduated a top-level college) and a well-respected space cop. We never see her exercising anything beyond normal intelligence, and some of her interaction with her superiors suggests she's on thin ice. These both might be justified by her attitude; she acts like she's on vacation because she is, note In the novels, after busting up Nodens's smuggling ring she takes 300 years of paid leave to be with Mahiro and she addresses her boss in the same flippant, casual way she addresses everyone.
Inside a Computer System: In Nyaruani, Mahiro tries out a alien JRPG. Much to his chagrin, he ends up being transported within the game.
Instant Bandages: Nyarko gets these when Mahiro whacks her on the head. They vanish again moments later.
Intimate Healing: Kuuko sucks on Mahiro's finger in episode 5 of season 2 after he cuts it from a Wham Line she asks him.
Kill It with Fire: Mahiro's reaction to seeing Nyarue's true form is ask "Just tell me if this is combustible or noncombustible?". Nyarko says she definitely isn't. Note that the word for "combustible" they use is " moe ru".
Kissing Cousins: Since Nyarko, Cuuko, and Hasta all claim to be Mahiro's cousins, their romantic entanglements look like this to outsiders ...and so far, nobody seems to care.
Klingons Love Shakespeare: Earth is the gold mine of the universe entertainment industry. Our manga, especially that kind, are restricted goods.
Large Ham: The "Cyclone" vacuum in episode 5 of season 2, bonus points for being voiced by Norio Wakamoto.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: At the end of the Trapped in TV Land episode, it seems the only person who remembers anything is Mahiro. It's implied that Nyarko does as well, since she was looking at him and smiling a lot, but refused to say why when he asks.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Episode 3 of Nyarko-San W has Nyarko trying to make it sound like this is the end of a TV show (shouting "Our battle has only just begun!", or making it look like the story is being told by an old Nyarko to her grandchildren. It ends when they cut to show a Super-Deformed Mahiro and Nyarko recording their dialog in the studio and SD Mahiro throws his copy of the script at SD Nyarko's head.
Lighter and Softer: In the Light Novel and first Flash series, Nyarko actually bleeds when stabbed by Mahiro's fork. The TV series uses Instant Bandages instead.
Lightning Glare: Nyarko and Kuuko do this to each other when they both spot the last copy of a limited edition game in episode 8 of season 2.
Long Title: The title of Remember my Love(craft-sensei) episode 9 is *deep breath* "How Mahiro Came to Love the Girl Despite Being a Normal High Schooler Who Cannot Even Sense in the Slightest That the Universe Is at Risk of Destruction, and Suppresses a Vague Worry That Tomorrow the Sun May Not Rise from the Same Direction or at the Same Speed or Even Shine at the Same Luminance and Follow the Same Orbit".
Loophole Abuse: In episode 12 of season 2, Nyarko is told that her superiors finished building Earth's new guardian way ahead of schedule, finishing it overnight instead of taking the estimated 500 years to complete. As a result, she, along with Kuuko and Hasuta, are ordered to return to space, and Mahiro says he's just an Ordinary High-School Student, so he can't do anything to help them. As they tour the area where the guardian was built, Nyarko overhears her superiors mentioning a field test for the guardian to ensure its working correctly. She, along with Kuuko and Hasuta, instantly decide to volunteer for it, reasoning that if they could defeat the guardian, it wouldn't be able to actually guard Earth. In reality, the three just wanted an excuse to bash the thing so they could then stay with Mahiro longer.
Love Before First Sight: Nyarko fell hopelessly in love with Mahiro the moment she saw his picture.
Lovecraft Lite: It's a comedy featuring the Crawling Chaos as a silver-haired hyperactive teen girl. This shouldn't be hard to figure out.
Love Epiphany: Kuuko has one in episode 5 of season 2, largely because of what a Nice Guy Mahiro has been to her, particularly after he agreed to help her get rid of her cousin Kuune.
Love Hurts: Nyarko becomes extremely jealous during Mahiro's fake date with Kuuko in episode 6 of season 2. After she complains to him privately that she's not happy seeing it, he tells her to go home, causing her to suffer another Heroic BSoD, and causing her to deliver an Anguished Declaration of Love to him later that night.
Love Potion: In episode 11 of Nyarko-San W, Nyarko's friend Atoko sends a box of chocolates which she shares with everyone (except Mahiro, who refuses). A short while later, everybody seems to have hiccups, and the next thing you know Mahiro is being pursued by everyone except Nyarko, who's herself trying to escape from an obsessed Luhy. One phone call later, Nyarko learns that there was a love potion in the chocolates which makes you fall for whomever spoke to you after you hiccuped, but thankfully only lasts an hour. Nyarko insists that she didn't know about it, or else she wouldn't have shared the candy with everyone; besides, she wants to win Mahiro's love legitimately. When asked why she wasn't affected, she suggests that her love for him is stronger than anything the potion could have caused. It also affects Yoichi at the end, who was left behind and fishing the entire time Mahiro was being chased. Tsuruko also pops out, having caused a lot of the stuff that happened in the haunted house earlier. He sees her passing by, and then hiccups...
Nyarko didn't have those reservations in the first Remember my Love(craft-sensei) short, where she attempted to serve Mahiro a breakfast which was apparently laced with aphrodisiacs (judging by the fact that Shanta-kun snuck a sausage off the plate and ended up rolling around in ecstacy).
Luminescent Blush: This very obvious blush is proof that Mahiro isn't that annoyed by Nyarko's presence. Sometimes. Nyarko: "Oh, you're blushing! How cute, Mahiro!"
Lyrical Dissonance: The first TV series' theme song is a peppy, upbeat number whose lyrics are pretty much what you'd expect from something related to the Cthulhu Mythos. It's even more obvious when the song cameoed in Wake Up, Girls! note thanks to the two shows having the same composer and was sung by a cute Idol Singer with her male fans eagerly singing along.
Ma'am Shock: In episode 11, as Mahiro and Guthatan are being chased by Nyarko et al, they pass by Luhy's takoyaki stand. Mahiro asks her not to say anything, but since Guthatan called her "obaa-chan" (a Japanese term of address for older women, such as grandmothers), she immediately rats them out when Nyarko comes by. In the OVA, Nyarko refers to Luhy as a "30-year-old mage" note A meme on Japanese message boards that says if you're unmarried by age 30 you can become a magic-user ; this pisses Luhy off enough that she starts freezing over the living room.
Macross Missile Massacre: The Nephren Car holds unspeakable amounts of underwater warfare munition.
Magical Girlfriend: Parodied, with the girlfriend in question being a Lovecraftian horror.
Male Gaze: Used quite a bit in the show. Subverted with the pan up Nyarko's legs to her face in the opening, as it's not a male looking, but the very female Cuuko.
Man, I Feel Like a Woman: Subverted, and played straight when inverted. When Nyarko and Mahiro switched bodies, Nyarko wasted no time at all and comes back from a LONG trip to the restroom happily singing "Oh, boys are so great!! It's a feeling that girls just won't understand!!". On the flip side, Mahiro can't even find the courage to look at Nyarko's naked body while taking a bath.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl: Nyarko's entire personality basically both purposely plays up and spoofs this character type. She literally drags around Mahiro, and despite all his resistance he does find her cute.
Medium Awareness: Brought to you by Rule of Funny. Mahiro, for example, somehow reads an imaginary number bubble floating next to Shantak-kun. Spoofed in the first episode of Nyarko-San W, where he interrupts the Bewitched opening parody, only for it to be revealed as a video project Cuuko is putting together for Nyarko. Strangely, he doesn't seem to notice that the title card for himself also mentions some woman named Eri Kitamura...
Meganekko/Megane: Luhy and Yoichi wear them normally. Invoked in episode 9 of the second TV series when Nyarko tries it on Mahiro (doesn't work), makes him try on a pair (makes her and Hasta Squee!), and when Cuuko tries it on Nyarko (and gets the cold shoulder).
Mister Seahorse: Invoked by Cuuko when she eventually makes the switchover from Psycho Lesbian lusting after Nyarko to Depraved Bisexual who wants Nyarko and Mahiro as her wife and husband; she declares that her new end goal is to become pregnant with Nyarko's child... and to make Mahiro pregnant with her child. Mahiro flips out at the idea, likely because, given who's talking, she probably could get him pregnant if she wanted.
Moe Anthropomorphism: The Great Old Ones depicted as teen girls (as well as one hot adult woman and an effeminate boy).
Moe Stare: Ear to ear smile, abnormally huge eyes... no doubt, she is the Crawling Chaos.
Monster Roommate: To protect Mahiro "from good morning to good night" Nyarko moves to his house. Not to mention the other cosmic nightmares that board at Mahiro's.
Mundane Utility: In the first anime series, Cuuko summons Aphoom-Zhah, the Cold Flame: a bright grey living flame that freezes on contact. Cuuko uses it to cool down a dessert.
Mundangerous: Mahiro's fork. In one episode Nyarko even remarks that "For some reason, Mahiro's forks hurt a LOT..." Mahiro note said while threatening Nyarko, Hasta and Cthuko : Do not underestimate the fork. Mahiro: The fork... is the strongest weapon in the universe. Episode 4 of Nyarko-San W reveals that Mahiro specifically sharpens his forks for the purpose.
Mystery Meat: Mahiro never got to know what was the "chicken" in the boxed lunch, let alone Luhy's takoyaki.
Never Say "Die": Inverted? In episode 7 of season 2, Kuuko and Nyarko talk about how the former's cousin, Kuune is dead. Mahiro immediately corrects them, saying she's merely trapped in another dimension, and a short scene from episode 6 showing Nyarko destroying the room changing device to also show she's not dead. They then settle for her being lost somewhere. The very end of episode 8 shows that she managed to escape, in a style parodying The Ring
Never Trust a Trailer: In the tenth episode of the second season the preview makes it look like episode eleven will focus on Tamao confessing to Mahiro. While she does, it's under the influence of a love potion and is relevant for less than a minute .
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: When Kuune reappears in episode 9 of season 2, she at first seems uninterested in what's going on right next to her while playing a video game. Namely that Nyarko is acting all lovey-dovey towards Mahiro. Due to the commotion they make, suddenly Kuune does indeed start looking at what those two are doing, and wondering if Mahiro was just pretending to be Kuuko's fiance to throw her off. Kuuko then does a kiss on his cheek, which shocks everyone around them, and Kuune is shocked as this particular kiss amongst their kind signifies a ritual of love.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: While they're not bad guys per se, Nyarko's superiors rebuild Earth's guardian in episode 12 of season 2, which means Nyarko, Kuuko, and Hasuta are no longer needed to guard the planet. They also upgrade it, and in initial field testing against Nyarko, Kuuko, and Hasuta, their attacks do nothing against it. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, they programmed the guardian with Nyarko's mind, causing the guardian to then obsess over Mahiro, giving the three a real excuse to destroy the machine and thus claim its not ready to protect Earth. Which would then allow them to continue guarding Earth a little longer and watch over Mahiro.
No Guy Wants to Be Chased: Mahiro spends a lot of time keeping Nyarko's advances at bay. In episode 5 of season 2, he quietly mentions that if she wasn't so aggressive in her pursuit of him, he'd probably like her, although Nyarko doesn't hear it. And in episode 6, he tells her to tone it down a little bit during her Anguished Declaration of Love, which she totally ignores the next morning.
Nyarko does the same towards Cuuko.
Nominal Hero: While technically a space cop doing her job, Nyarko is protecting Mahiro out of a crush, takes on the bad guys with too much enthusiasm and does a little personal smuggling of the kind she's supposed to stop. Nyarko: "It's not a crime if no one finds out."
Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Gets used three times in the first season, each with the same subversion: the person in question can't whistle, resulting in Not-So-Innocent Blowing Noises.
Not What It Looks Like: When Yoriko arrives home at the beginning of Episode 4, the first thing she sees is her son pinning one girl to the ground (and positioned between her legs) while another clings to his back. Of course, he was really trying to kick Nyarko and Cuuko out before his mother came home.
In episode 3 of Nyarko-San W, Tamao calls up Nyarko, who says it's not a good time to talk...between heavy breathing, gasps of pleasure, and "Oh, Mahiro!"s. And then Mahiro yells at her to quit fooling around, at which point we see they're surrounded by angry monsters.
Episode 8 of Nyarko-San W has Yoichi and Tamao coming out of Agent Smith's Mind Control in the middle of a game of Twister. Of course, Tamao lets out a Big "NO!".
Oblivious to His Own Description: In episode 12 of Nyarko-San W, Nyarko's reaction to the rampaging Banshin 's unusual behavior (namely, obsessing over Mahiro and doing Kamen Rider poses ) is to ask if it's brain is short-circuiting or something. Mahiro quickly points out to her that it's acting that way because it's based on her. At which point she starts praising it.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In the opening for episode 3 of W (season 2), Nyarko charges a large group of aliens/monsters. Then the opening credits roll, and after its done, the scene cuts back to the characters standing around all of the defeated aliens/monsters Nyarko presumably beat up.
Oscar Bait: Parodied with one of the promos for the OVA, which has dramatic music and implies that Nyarko is going to die...along with title cards mentioning that it's a Nyarcademy Award nominee. Naturally, this all turns out to be Nyarko's usual runaway imagination.
Otaku Surrogate: Nyarko shares the same obsession her race has with Earth (specifically, Japanese) entertainment.
Overt Operative: Despite taking human forms, Nyarko, Cuuko, and Hasta use their real names when introducing themselves to Mahiro's class. Nyarko even goes so far as announce that she travels the stars and fights villainous deities.
Parental Abandonment: Mahiro lives alone largely because his parents travel a lot. His mom does return home occasionally however, and is seen more in season 2. His father's absence is explained in episode 4, where Yoriko says that he's going to be stuck at the office for a while making up the vacation days he took off for their latest honeymoon.
Phantom Zone: The "convenient barrier" Nyarko uses to fight in privacy.
Pixellation: Used several times in the first Flash anime. For our own good too.
Plot Tailored to the Party: Occurs unintentionally in episode 9 of Nyarko-San W, where the villain Agent Smith challenges Mahiro's group to a series of games in order to free the school from his hypnosis. Smith picks the games he thinks he can win easily note including Daifugo , Mahjong, and Darts This sequence also turns the "Cyclone!" "JOKER!!" Overly Long Gag into a Chekhov's Skill, since Nyarko's ability to create infinite Jokers is what lets her beat Smith.
Polyamory: Cuuko asks Mahiro to marry her so that she can, by extension, be married to Nyarko.
P.O.V. Boy, Poster Girl: Fits this trope to a T.
Power Levels: Jokingly referenced in the first novel, where Nyarko claims that she's one of the strongest fighters on Earth with a Fighting Power of 530,000 note For DBZ fans, that's equal to Frieza's first form ; she even mentions that an ordinary farmer with a hunting rifle has a Fighting Power of 5.
Prehensile Hair: Nyarko's Idiot Hair. Nodens's beard can grab people.
Pretty Freeloaders: All of the aliens in Mahiro's house. Of course, even if they do offer to help out, Mahiro will probably tell them "No", since they tend to make things worse.
Product Placement: The shop in Episode 1 of the anime has covers and posters of publications of GA Bunko, this series' Light Novel label. An instantly recognizable one is the cover for Volume 1 of Oreshura. Season 2's first episode aired fairly soon after said series' anime had just ended, so when they returned to the shop, there are posters for it all over the place.
Taking this to Mind Screw levels, you can actually spot posters for Nyarko-san itself in that scene.
posters for Nyarko-san itself in that scene. In season 2's second episode, Mahiro randomly finds a copy of the Heaven's Memo Pad light novel from a bookshelf at the Celaeno Library. It plays a key role in the next episode.
The miscellaneous "Nyarko Goods" Nyarko gives to Mahiro, including the Yes/No Cushion and body pillow, do exist in the real world; in fact, the body pillow scene happens in the light novel as well, but the illustration uses the more NSFW side.
Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Nyarko shouting and striking poses that form the letters of B! L! T!
Pun: Being from Japan, and a parody, the series is chock full of these. Here's a few shining examples: Cuuko (as in "Kuudere") for a Chtughan girl.
R'lyehland sells Cola of Cthulhu.
Nyarko's "Three Minute" Cooking segment. When she pulls out a censored alien ingredient, Mahiro freaks out, and Nyarko points out that it's "SAN-pun" Cooking.
The DK-do 10-year-anniversary premium cake made by D. Endo note In Japanese, "decade" is pronounced di-kei-do. .
10-year-anniversary premium cake made by D. Endo . Cuuko's "dun-wich". Lampshaded when Mahiro responds "You don't have to force yourself to make bad jokes, you know".
The title of Episode 7 is Blue Coral Reef, which in Japanese is "Aoi SANgoshō".
And a subtle one in the title alone: Haiyore! Nyarko-SAN.
Race Against the Clock: Used in Remember my Love(craft-sensei). After the initial short is over, it cuts to a scene of a massive Borg-ish ship heading towards Earth, with the days left "Until The End Of Mankind". Then again, the shorts have nothing to do with the ship, until the last episode or so.
Rapunzel Hair: Nyarko and Cuuko
Real Place Background: Nodens' auction house front just looks like the Sagrada Familia, a famous church and touristic spot of Barcelona, Spain.
Red Herring: Ghutatan is shown lounging around an observation deck even as Mahiro fruitlessly searches for Nyarko and company amidst the "Groundhog Day" Loop he has just woken up to. Turns out that scene is just part of an overall Shout-Out to Urusei Yatsura , and Ghutatan is just as much a victim of the time loop as Mahiro. In episode 9 of season 2, the school is taken over and the main characters at first blame Cuune since they're attacked by fire guardians. They end up running into another Cthuguhan who challenges them to a contest in order to release the students, or force them to take part if they lose. It turns out Cuune had nothing to do with any of this, since she was off getting the newest Dagomon game. That same episode ends with both Nyarko and Mahiro remarking that they thought the Cyclone Vacuum would end up being the Chekhov's Gun that saved the day, especially after all the build-up it was give.
Red Sky, Take Warning: Nyarko's "convenient barrier" to keep The Masquerade turns the scene dark and tinted red, sky and Moon included.
Reference Overdosed: Counting the Kamen Rider, Gundam and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Shout Outs alone is daunting. The Chinese translation of the novels actually includes an appendix at the end of each volume detailing every reference made. It adds up to about ten pages per volume.
Ret Gone: In one of the later novels, Nyarko and Cuuko get written out of existence by Nyogta, a grade-school classmate of theirs who they beat up for bullying Hasta. Mahiro and Yithka end up going back in time in order to Set Right What Once Went Wrong
Rubber Face: Nyarko does this to Kuuko in episode 9 of season 2.
Rule of Three: Whenever Mahiro asks somebody to make a long story short, he asks him/her to summarize it with three lines or less note The phrase he uses is essentially the Japanese version of "TL;DR" . The fourth will always be entirely unrelated. Eventually he got so sick and tired of everyone giving him four lines that he decides to ask the next enemy to summarize it with four lines. Of course he is met with a three-line response.
Rule 34: In the first episode of Nyarko-San W, Mahiro is horrified to discover that this rule applies to him, as an alien Doujin circle wrote a Boys' Love manga with him as the "star". Nyarko, Cuuko, and Hasuta fight over it until Mahiro buys it and destroys it.
Saying Too Much: In the Nyaruani episode "Cooking", Nyarko's recipe for Cooked Whole *BLEEP* revolves around an ingredient that's really hard to get thanks to the Space Washington Treaty; immediately after saying this, she thinks to herself "Crap, I shouldn't have said that."
Schoolgirl Lesbians: Cuuko has a one-sided crush on Nyarko. More of a post-schoolgirl case since both have already graduated from space elementary school but attend Mahiro's alma mater, Boryo Municipal High School to keep an eye on him.
Serious Business: The entities of the Cthulhu mythos view Earth's entertainment as this to the point where there's laws regarding how much can be taken from Earth, smuggling involving it, and some psychotic Moral Guardians feeling it being a bad influence is such a big that they should destroy the entire Earth.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Playing with Lovecraft's taste for colorful, archaic adjectives and words, Nyarko sometimes gives ominous, long descriptions of mundane things. For example, after Mahiro alerts her to a Nighgaunt attack with a bump on the head... Nyarko: "I'm suffering from abnormal and blasphemous amounts of ominously chaotic pain."
Sexy Discretion Shot/Rape Discretion Shot: Hilariously subverted; at the end of episode 6, Nyarko manages to get herself alone with Mahiro at night in his room, after making sure all her rivals won't interfere. The episode ends with her making her move on a terrorized Mahiro, with a flower dropping the floor in the next room. The very next episode, it's revealed Mahiro managed to fight back and restrain her using a bedsheet and a lot of forks. Not that it prevents her from lying about what really happened.
Share the Male Pain: It might have been sent to kidnap him, but even Mahiro feels sympathy for the Nightgaunt who takes a Mighty Kick to the groin.
Shout-Out: Has its own subpage to preserve this page's sanity.
Sick Episode: Nyarko catches a fever in episode 10 of season 2.
Single-Target Sexuality: Nyarko and Hasuta towards Mahiro, and Kuuko towards Nyarko. Subverted with Kuuko who falls for Mahiro.
Slapstick Knows No Gender: The comical abuse actually comes from Mahiro using a fork to stop Nyarko's crazed binges and unsolicited advances.
Small Reference Pools: Those not familiar with the expanded Mythos won't know Cthugha or Atlach-Nacha. As a result, some have mistaken Cuuko as Cthulhu because of the similarities of their names. Also, Elder Gods, Great Old Ones and Outer Gods are not synonymous.
Space Police: The Planetary Defense Organization has sent Nyarko to stop a smuggling and human-trafficking ring.
SpaceX: Nyarko and Cuuko refer to the alien equivalents of CQC, Kindergarten, etc. by simply adding the word "Space" before them. Mahiro: "You can't just add 'space' to everything."
Spell My Name with an "S": It's bad enough that the Great Old Ones have unpronounceable names. Now transliterate those names in katakana, and discover why Nyarko, Cuuko, and Hastua are spelled inconsistently. For Nyarko, her name is supposed to be "Nyarlathotep" combined with the Japanese suffix "-ko", which makes a name feminine. That means Nyaruko, Nyarko, and Nyarlko are all perfectly valid English spellings (until Aisora-sensei steps in and clarifies which one is correct). Even That Other Wiki is confused on the spelling: they use "Nyaruko ."
Aisora-sensei steps in and clarifies which one is correct).
Squee!: In the first episode of the 2012 series, all the girls in Mahiro's P.E. class do a simultaneous Squee when Tamao (falsely) says that Mahiro admitted to being attracted to Nyarko.
Starfish Aliens: Nyarlathotepians, Chtughans, etc. are actually abominations the human mind cannot grasp without going insane. The human forms they take are quite pleasant, though.
Status Quo Is God: In episode 12, after Mahiro gets his wish to get some peace and quiet, he begins to miss the other characters despite his complaints about them.
In episode 6 of season 2, Nyarko returns to her former Genki Girl mood after being reassured by Mahiro that he doesn't hate her. She also traps Kuuko's cousin Kuune in another dimension when she gets rid of the room changer device she bought so the alien characters could have their own rooms inside Mahiro's house while the latter was sleeping after having an overnight gaming session with Kuuko.
Near the end of episode 12, season 2, Mahiro sighs and says that Nyarko, Kuuko, and Hasuta would always figure some excuse to stay on Earth and in his house.
Ato-ko erases Mahiro and Nyarko's memories after they kiss at the end of the Nyarko-san F OVA, undoing the huge step forward their relationship took.
Stop, or I Shoot Myself!: Isurugi, while inside Yoichi's body, does this to stop the main characters from trying to interfere in his plans in episode 10.
Strip Poker: In episode 7, Nyarko suggests playing this after Mahiro (in a desperate attempt to ignore her) suggests that he and Yoichi go play cards. This is what leads to the infamous Brutal Honesty and Heroic BSoD moments.
Sufficiently Advanced Alien: True to the original source, the "deities" of the Mythos are really advanced and freaky aliens.
Super-Deformed: Happens on occasion in the anime.
Supporting Harem: You know that Nyarko is the one who's going to win in the end — she's the title character, after all. Unfortunately for Mahiro that doesn't spare him the affections of Hasuta and later Cuuko. The "budding romance" part is also given a twist in that Nyarko tends to do things "three steps forward, two steps back", annoying Mahiro by being too goofy and clingy, but pulling him back from the brink at the last moment with honestly heartfelt expressions of love.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Zig-zagged. In episode 12 of season 2, while touring a factory where the new Earth guardian is being built, Mahiro and the others run into the chief engineer, Nodens, who was the first villain they encountered in the first season. However, despite looking and sounding exactly like the first guy, this Nodens claims he's not the same guy. But then he goes up to Mahiro and claims the boy would be good in some alien pornos, which was also what the first Nodens wanted to do to him. Nyarko's bosses then threaten to report him, causing him to back off and continue with the guardian demonstration.
Survival Mantra: After losing his SAN, Mahiro begins to repeat "It's only ink..." while trying to forget about the pool of Nightgaunt blood shed by Nyarko.
After Cuuko gets attacked by Mahiro's mom during the pool episode. She starts repeating "I'm sorry" over and over as a reference to Higurashi.
Take a Third Option: In the last episode of Nyarko-san W, Nyarko asks Mahiro for a kiss (or a baby) as reward for fighting off the out-of-control Banshin. Yoriko comes up with another idea, suggesting that Mahiro pat her (as well as Cuuko and Hasta) on the head if they succeed. The trio deems this acceptable and heads off to kick robot butt.
Take That!: In the light novel, Nyarko explains that the Cthulhu Corporation always pressures the Space Government for copyright term extension, so they keep their mascot Mr. Innsmouth from entering the public domain. Eventually the space governors get tired of the nagging and simply pass the Innsmouth Protection Act . The various jammers and other gizmos used in Episode 10 are a clear dig at Gundam SEED's Neutron Jammer, Neutron Jammer Canceller, etc.
The main villain of episode 10 is a clear shot at Shintaro Ishihara, the governor of Tokyo and the man behind numerous obscenity laws aimed at cleaning up anime and manga.
Taking the Bullet: Nyarko (in Mahiro's body) does it for Mahiro (in her own body) . Luckily she survives.
Tender Tears: In Episode 7, poor Hasta (voiced by Rie Kugimiya, no less) storms off the cafeteria crying when he thought Nyarko is pregnant with Mahiro's child, despite the latter's insistent (and truthful) denial.
Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Hydran-chan looks just like Dagon-kun, but with an added pink bow and lipstick.
That Liar Lies: In episde 7, Mahiro desperately tries to convince everyone that Nyarko is lying when she claims to already be pregnant with their child. He fails, and even his own mother falls for it (though in her case, it might have been I Want Grandkids). When Hasta runs out of the room sobbing, Mahiro quietly remarks "Well, I guess it's okay for him to think it's true..."
Theme Tune Cameo: The first episode of Nyarko-san W has Nyarko drag Mahiro to a Cosplay Café with a karaoke machine, where we get to see her, Cuuko, and Tamao sing "Taiyo Iwaku Moeyo Chaos", the theme song for the first season. Mahiro lampshades the fact that Tamao apparently showed up just to sing and then immediately vanished.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mahiro gives a couple to Nyarko, largely because of her antics and tendency to go overboard in various situations. His Brutal Honesty in episode 7 of the 2012 series probably qualifies. In episode 6, Yoriko gives a less-insulting version to Luhy when she explains why the Xoth-731 console is doomed to failure. It's even funnier once you notice she's making very cogent points about the real-world game industry.
The Theme Park Version: In the Trapped in TV Land episode, Mahiro finds himself experiencing only the events one would encounter in a Dating Sim (like Christmas and Valentine's), causing him to "leap" randomly. It's never addressed if this holds true for the other people trapped in the game, but the fact that Nyarko apparently had the time to knit Mahiro a scarf for Christmas implies they didn't.
Toast of Tardiness: Nyarko does this in episode 8, complete with toast in her mouth when she does a Crash-Into Hello on Mahiro.
Trapped in TV Land: The premise of Episode 8 of the anime — the gang gets trapped inside a WonderSwan-lookalike (with a Dating Sim currently playing), and they couldn't get out unless Mahiro chooses either Nyarko, Cuuko, Hasta or Tamao.
The Triple Nyarko has come to Earth with three duties: protecting Mahiro, destroying a smuggling ring, and shopping. Mahiro: "Obviously the last one is of your own making."
"Hasta is an alien? Hasta is Hastur, the Outer God of Wind? Hasta is... a boy???"
Token Mini-Moe: Hasta and Guthatan in the TV series. 4koma manga adds Nakko and also extends the role of the humanized Shantak-kun.
Tomboy and Girly Girl: In the second Flash series, with Nyarko and Nyarue.
Trailers Always Lie: The OP of the first TV series makes it look like it's a normal anime with Romantic Comedy themes. It's still a short gag Flash animation.
A Twinkle in the Sky: As is proper for a bumbling ineffective villain, Nyarko's brother is thrown over the horizon screaming.
Undead Tax Exemption: While they don't explicitly state they are aliens, none of the students at school seem fazed that they just happen to have three transfer students all join their class in a very short period of time.
Useful Notes: Japanese Language: Most of the time, when Nyarko says "I love you" to Mahiro, she says "daisuki" (大好き), which literally means "like a lot" and is generally regarded as the acceptable way of saying you love someone or somethings; in some contexts it can even come off as joking, since it's just "big" plus "like". During her emotional breakdown in Nyarko-San W episode 6, however, she uses "aishiteru" (愛してる), which has much stronger connotations, and tends to only be used in romantic fiction; it's about as serious a declaration of love as a person can make, and shows that she's taking all her silly behavior off the table and trying to show Mahiro that she really means what she's saying.
Victoria's Secret Compartment: Nyaruko has one, as shown in episode 3 of the second season. Even though she's nearly flat-chested. Kuune, Cuuko's cousin, pulls a tape recorder and a huge binder out of her cleavage in the same scene.
Voices Are Mental: Handwritings aren't, apparently.
Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World: Nyarko, Cuuko, and Hasta don't have to do the "go to school" part, since they're adults and have already graduated from space college; they just like being around Mahiro. He, on the other hand, plays the school part straight but tends to get dragged into the "save the world" part by the trio.
Wham Line: Mahiro delivers one to Nyarko in episode 7. Mahiro: I don't like you. Nyarko (while in Mahiro's body) delivers one to Mahiro (who is in Nyarko's body) in episode 9. Mahiro: Nyarko, I love you!
Kuuko asks Mahiro one in episode 5 of season 2. It causes him to cut his finger as he was preparing some dinner. Kuuko: Boy, do you like Nyarko after all?
In episode 12 of season 2, the first thing Nyarko says after entering her Heroic BSoD, and the point where the gravity of the situation finally hits Mahiro. Nyarko: So does this really mean I have to leave Mahiro-san forever?
Weaksauce Weakness: The aliens in episode 10 of season 2 are defeated by the music coming from Nyarko's ringtone.
We Want Our Jerk Back: "How to Defeat a Kind Enemy" (a short story adapted into an OVA episode) has Mahiro try to get Nyarko to act like a Magical Girl instead of a Henshin Hero in the hopes that it'll make her act less crazy and violent. Unfortunately, she gets even worse, spouting cliché Magical Girl talk about "purifying souls" while lighting Nightgaunts on fire and making them vomit blood, so Cuuko and Mahiro neuralize her back to normal.
When All You Have Is a Hammer...: When Mahiro's mother is being kidnapped in episode 5, Cuuko forms a fire barrier around the house so Nyarko can't get in. Nyarko says that everything can be solved with a karate kick, and proceeds to kick it, only to hilariously burn her foot in the process.
Mahiro and his forks. Nyarko, Kuuko, and Hasuta seem deathly afraid of it, and he even buys some for his mom who uses them during her adventuring.
Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: In episode 4 of Nyarko-San W: Tamao: Why don't you try just kissing him?
Nyarko: I already did.
Tamao: ...Okay, never mind, I'll think of something el—WHAAAAAT?!
Widget Series: Naturally, considering the premise.
Would Hit a Girl: Mahiro has no problems with hitting Nyarko and Cuuko when they annoy him.
Year Inside, Hour Outside: In "How to Defeat a Kind Enemy", Nyarko's Magical Girl training with Luhy takes place in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, though unlike the DBZ cast, they only spend a month inside (two hours outside) note This completely averts Writers Cannot Do Math , since 2 hours × 365 = 730 hours, which is just shy of 30 days
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Yith creature in episode 10 tells this to Isurugi (who is inside Yoichi's body) in episode 10 after the latter creates a device which he thought was going to transplant Yith beings into humans so they could experience human and Earth culture first-hand. Instead it turns out to be a portal where the Moral Guardian can destroy Earth because its corrupting space morals.
You Watch Too Much X: Mahiro says this to Nyarko a lot; particularly at the end of episode 2, when she declares "There are still enemies to fight!" and he responds with "You sound like a character from a cancelled TV show."
Zettai Ryouiki: Both Nyarko and Cuuko wear this as part of their school uniform, as seen in the page picture above. |
Elaborating on Yang's visit, Anifah, who regarded the one-time China foreign minister as a close friend, said the visit reflected the close ties between China and Malaysia. — Reuters pic
PUTRAJAYA, May 10 — Malaysia and China have agreed to settle South China Sea-related issues through the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) and to speed up the completion of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (COC).
Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said the agreement was reached at his meeting with visiting China State Councillor Yang Jiechi after the latter called on him at Wisma Putra here today.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Anifah said the issues discussed at their meeting included the encroachment of Chinese fishermen into Malaysian waters.
"We raised our concern and he (Yang) said he will look into it. We believe that between friends we should be able to find solutions.
"We (Malaysia and China) are not exactly neighbours but we share the same South China Sea. So we are bound to have that kind of problems," he said.
Anifah said Malaysia faced the problem of fishermen encroaching into its waters even with Indonesia because of overlapping areas.
"Therefore, what we (Malaysia and China) have promised is to settle all issues through the DOC and speed up the completion of the COC," he added.
In March this year, it was reported that about 100 China-registered boats and vessels had been detected encroaching into Malaysian waters near Beting Patinggi Ali in the South China Sea.
It was also reported that the Malaysian Foreign Ministry summoned the Chinese Ambassador to Malaysia, Dr Huang Huikang, to provide some clarification and to register Malaysia's concern over the matter.
Besides China, Asean countries involved in the overlapping territorial claims in the South China Sea are Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
The overlapping territorial maritime claims had resulted in the signing of the DOC in 2002 between Asean and China to pave the way for and draw up the COC as a guideline to avoid any friction in the area.
Elaborating on Yang's visit, Anifah, who regarded the one-time China foreign minister as a close friend, said the visit reflected the close ties between China and Malaysia.
Anifah said they also discussed bilateral relations, the economy and ways to boost bilateral trade and investment.
"Because of Malaysia's close relationship with China, we (both countries) sincerely believe that we should be able to talk to each other about problems that we may have, provided we continue to keep the communication and engagement open," he said.
Yang arrived yesterday for a two-day working visit. Yang’s visit is the fourth to Malaysia in his capacity as the State Councillor. He had visited Malaysia five times as Foreign Affairs Minister, between 2007 and 2012.
According to a Wisma Putra statement, Yang’s visit reflected the close relations between Malaysia and China and the strong desire of both countries to strengthen the ties. — Bernama |
A comedy group like ‘ The Three Stooges ’ might seem like mindless entertainment to some (i.e. women), but their reach and influence can be seen in just about every form of comedy from the small stage to the big screen.
Their iconic pokes, jabs and slaps turned good ol’ fashioned vaudeville slapstick into an art form. They also poked at more than just eyes in their time. Some of the earlier plots satirized and poked fun of greed and high society, health care, economic depression and even Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party , long before America would join the Allies to fight the Axis powers in WWII. So whether or not the Farrelly Brothers’ big-screen tribute to the kings of slapstick can live up to their legacy and help a whole new generation find the funny in films the rest of us spent so much time laughing at on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings, we fondly look back at some of the more interesting aspects of this amalgamated association of morons (Local 6 7/8ths).
1. Moe got his haircut because his mother wanted a girl
The boys’ notoriously bad haircuts have become as important a part of their legacy as their moves and movies. Moe, aka Moses Horwitz, and his brothers, Curly (Jerome), Shemp (Samuel), Jack and Irving, were raised in a small Jewish community in Bensonhurst, New York to Solomon and Jennie Horwitz. Moe was always seen with his signature bowl cut hairstyle even in his old age, but he had a much different hair style as a young boy.
According to 'The Three Stooges Scrapbook,' Moe actually had long curly hair in his younger days because his mother loved the look since she always wanted to raise a girl. His hair attracted teasing in grammar school and one day, he got fed up and cut off his curly locks himself with a pair of scissors resulting in the spittoon look that made him famous.
2. Curly got his signature walk after accidentally shooting himself in the foot
None of the Stooges have more distinct features and mannerisms than the undisputed king of dumb comedy, Curly. His paunch frame and shaved head had just as much to do with the development of his character and comedy as the physical comedy that made him famous, all of which he developed on the stage and as he made his way into the group. His famous shuffled walk, however, started long before he longed to perform on a stage.
Moe's only daughter, Joan Maurer, said in the Larry Fine biography 'One Fine Stooge,' his Uncle "Babe" accidentally shot himself in the foot at a young age and refused to get surgery because the procedure scared him. He ended up walking with a limp, but he masked it in his films by exaggerating his walk in the recognizable gait we’ve seen in his films.
3. Larry Fine started playing the violin because of a bad accident that almost cost him his left arm
Larry, aka Louis Feinberg, grew up in South Philadelphia to Joseph and Fannie Feinberg and took up his trademark violin at a very young age. However, it wasn’t just a way to learn music. It was the result of a very serious accident that severely burned his left arm.
Larry’s father worked as a jeweler and had some very corrosive chemicals in his store. At the age of four, Larry accidentally grabbed a bottle of oxalic acid, a substance used to test the quality of gold, and spilled some of it on his left arm. The acid burned it from the skin to the muscles. He was able to get a skin graft but the muscles were still weak and the doctor recommend Larry take up boxing to regain control of it. His father didn’t approve, even though he won his first professional fight, and his mother suggested he take up the violin to strengthen his left arm. He turned out to be a gifted musician who would go on to play with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age 9 and took his famous fiddle with him into his show business career.
4. There were way more than just three Stooges
The first group, Shemp, Larry and Moe, got their start in film thanks in part to fellow vaudeville star Ted Healy who called the act his "Stooges." A talent scout for Fox Studios discovered Healy and his Stooges on stage and offered them their first movie ‘Soup to Nuts,’ written by famed comic artist Rube Goldberg. Fine and the Howard boys later teamed up with Healy again for two more films, but Shemp grew tired of being slapped around by Healy and left the act. Moe brought Curly into the act but tensions rose between Moe and Healy and Moe decided to go in films along with his brother Babe and Larry. Healy wouldn’t let them go without a fight. He wouldn't give him the name "Stooges" and Moe had to sue him in court for the rights to the name.
Healy moved on as well and recast his Stooges with comedians Paul “Mousie” Garner, Dick Hakins and Jack Wolf, and once more a few years later with comedians Jimmy Brewster, Sammy Wolfe and Rhett Person. Neither group lasted very long. Shemp, who was already finding plenty of work in Hollywood as a prolific character actor, even created his own group with four other actors for the 1934 RKO comedy ‘The Knife of the Party,’ billed as Shemp Howard and His Stooges. Universal also created their own group for the 1934 film ‘Gift of Gab’ after trying to secure the original group after negotiations failed and they cast news actors Sid Walker, Skins Miller and Jack Harling and billed them as “The Three Stooges.” So if you add up all of these previous Stooges as well as future replacements Joe Besser and Curly Joe DeRita (assuming you don’t have a terrific headache by now), that makes a total of 20 Stooges.
5. Curly actually had a very nice head of hair
In the midst of all this switching and recasting and asking the real Stooges to please stand up, none stood out more than the original chowderhead Curly. Moe’s kid brother, nicknamed “Babe,” was starting to take an interest in show business before Shemp’s exit, most notably by playing a madcap musical conductor for a New York theater orchestra whose tuxedo would break away throughout the song. Healy agreed to take the young comedian into the group under one condition.
Curly said in an interview that he actually had “beautiful wax hair and a waxed moustache” and when he asked Healy what he could do to join the Stooges, he said Healy told him, “You can shave off your hair to start with.” The new look stuck with him through the rest of his career.
6. No one quite knows exactly how Ted Healy died
Another big reason for the Stooges' split from Healy was his abusive nature, violent alcoholism and refusal to give a fair share of his movies’ earnings with the boys. He was still in high demand for films and a respectable star, despite his off-screen behavior and inability to manage his finances. Then in 1937, Healy had gone out for a drink to celebrate the birth of his son, John Jacob Nash . He reportedly stumbled from bar to bar before ending up at the Trocadero on Sunset Boulevard where he got into a fistfight with 29-year-old Albert Broccoli who would go on to produce the James Bond films. Eventually the two made up, but another eyewitness in the bar said they saw Healy become belligerent with two other men in the bar who were on dates that night. Two of the bar’s attendants carried him out and took turns beating him in the head and stomach before a cab whisked him away from the scene. A friend found him in front of the Hollywood Plaza Hotel and took him to a doctor who bandaged Healy up and sent him home. His condition only got worse. He eventually suffered a massive heart attack that put him into a coma from which he never recovered, just two days after becoming a father.
A hasty autopsy by the Los Angeles coroner ruled Healy’s death was not caused by any skull fractures or brain injuries and found no blood clots or cerebral hemorrhages, but his body was embalmed at a mortuary before the autopsy. Instead, the coroner ruled that acute and chronic alcoholism caused his death. Another report suggested he died of the heart attack but the attending physician, the same who had just brought his son into the world two days earlier, refused to sign the death certificate. His widow Betty and sister Marcia insisted Healy had been sober for eight months prior and only had a few drinks to celebrate his new son. The conflicting reports only fueled more wild gossip and speculation about Health’s untimely passing.
7. Shemp invented the eye poke
Devastated by Healy's death, the boys pressed on with the act. They signed an exclusive contract with Columba Pictures to shoot shorts from the mid 1930s to the early 1940s that were a very popular way to bring audiences to the theaters for the studio’s big budget features and would eventually make Curly, Larry and Moe immortal comedy icons. One of their signature gags, however, was actually invented during this formative time by Shemp who worked in films with Abbott and Costello and W.C. Fields before rejoining the Stooges after Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in 1947 during the filming of ‘Half Wits Holiday.’
Moe recalled in a radio interview that he, Shemp and Larry were playing bridge and Shemp accused Larry of cheating. The argument became so heated that Shemp reared back with two fingers and poked Larry hard in both eyes. Moe recalled, “Larry had tears coming from his eyes for a week. It struck me so funny I leaned backward in a chair and went right through a glass door.” The move became a staple of the boys’ arsenal.
8. The cast got hurt on the set more than you think
The pokes, punches and slaps may have been well choreographed from their years of work in clubs and enhanced with wacky Foley sound effects, but there were still many dangers to be had during filming. The Stooges didn't start using a Foley machine to enhance their physical gags until they started working with director Jules White at Columbia and Healy usually held nothing back while slapping and punching his Stooges.
Larry remembered for his biography that during the filming of 'Three Little Pigskins,’ the script called for all three of the boys to get tackled by a group of pro-football players. The Stooges may have done their own stunts in slap fights but they were hardly stuntmen and insisted they have three professionals stand in for them. The director eventually relented and hired some doubles to stand in for them. The doubles suffered several broken ribs and limbs from the hard tackle and the studio hired doubles ever since to handle the bigger stunts.
Even the infamous pie fights, most of which were thrown by Moe who developed a science for flinging pies , were serious hazards on the set. Since filming required multiple takes and the shorts department had smaller budgets, they had to reuse the thrown pies for retakes. The crew simply swept up the gooey mixtures off the hardwood floor and slapped them back in the pans. Sometimes, one of the recycled pies would have an occasional nail or wood shard from the dirty studio floor mixed in with them.
9. One of Curly’s possible replacements was comedian Buddy Hackett
Curly’s debilitating stroke was a major setback not just to the act, but also to Moe who had always tried to help his little brother settle down and leave his raucous party days and heavy drinking behind him.
When it became clear that Curly wasn’t well enough to return to work, Moe, White and the producers began searching for a replacement. Comedian Jeffrey Ross wrote in his book ‘I Only Roast the Ones I Love’ that White called Buddy Hackett to ask him to move to Hollywood so he could stand in for the ailing Curly. Hackett, a seasoned Catskills stand-up comedian, had a wife and child to support and a second one on the way. He didn’t see the sense in relocating the whole family and didn’t think his new gig would be very conducive to making great comedy. “I just didn’t want to wake up every morning and wonder how the other two guys were feeling,” Hackett told Ross.
10. One of their most famous films was nominated for an Oscar
The Stooges would go on to have a career with amazing longevity and rabid popularity for a slapstick vaudeville act that critics thought wouldn’t last well beyond the life of the men on the screen. And as if this wasn’t enough of an honor, one of their most memorable films earned a surprising honor of its own.
Their third Columbia short ‘Men in Black,’ a parody of the Clark Gable medical drama ‘Men in White’ that had the boys playing well-meaning doctors who do more harm than good, earned an Academy Award nomination in 1934 for Best Short Subject-Comedy. Fortunately for the Stooges, the film's critical and financial success got them a higher weekly salary and a better contract. Unfortunately, it lost to an RKO musical short called ‘La Cucharacha‘ and became the only film in their extensive library to earn them an Oscar nomination.
Then again, there is always hope for the Farrelly Brothers‘ latest entry . Hey, if ‘Norbit’ can earn one , anything’s possible. |
Susan B. Anthony once said, "I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. The moment she takes her seat she knows she can't get into harm unless she gets off her bicycle, and away she goes, the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."
These words—spoken by a 19th century American feminist—could not be truer in present-day rural Cambodia, where a bicycle can mean the difference between a young woman reaching her full potential and a life of oppression.
In Cambodia, school ends at the primary level for many girls simply because the nearest secondary school is too far to commute to by foot. Furthermore, this long commute is dangerous. Rape and other forms of violence against women have reached epidemic proportions in the Cambodian countryside, and parents are rightfully concerned for their daughters’ safety. The vast majority of the underage rape victims in our women’s shelter in Cambodia were assaulted while walking alone.
Given a sturdy bicycle, however, many of these seemingly insurmountable barriers to education disappear. Lotus Outreach International, a grassroots NGO entering its 20th year of operation, has been filling this critical gap in education access since 2005 by supplying heavy-terrain bicycles to the poorest girls living more than one mile from the nearest schoolhouse. To date, our Lotus Pedals project has given more than 1,000 girls a reliable method of getting to school each day—and in 2013 alone we hope to double this figure.
The value of investing in girls in developing countries—i.e., the “Girl Effect”—is now well established. We know, for example, that a single year of schooling in a country like Cambodia will increase a girl’s eventual wages by 25 percent. What’s more, the children of mothers with primary school education are half as likely to die before the age of five.
But the Lotus Pedals project has taught us something even more astounding: investing in the education of these girls can help a nation heal from genocide. Today, less than two percent of Cambodian women possess education beyond high school, a tragic legacy left by the Khmer Rouge’s systematic campaign to decimate the entire nation’s intellectual class.
Lotus Outreach is deeply committed to reversing this statistic, one girl at a time. Indeed, 58 girls that first received Lotus Pedals bikes in junior high school have now matriculated to university and are majoring in subjects such as law, economics, pedagogy, rural development, and nursing. These bright young women promise not only to break the cycle of poverty for their families, but also to rebuild the educated class that was purged during the genocide just one generation ago.
Just as the wheel altered the course of human history, a bicycle can completely alter the fate of a girl in the developing world. The fact is, if someone had not taken an interest in these girls—if someone had not decided that getting them to school safely was important—their fates would look much different. They would be working as farm laborers, pregnant with their fourth and fifth child, or even trapped in Malaysian brothels.
To me, it is an absolute tragedy to imagine this, but it is even more tragic to imagine what Cambodia—and the world—would lose if these bright, untapped minds were left to wither for want of something as simple as a ride to school.
You can support this project on GlobalGiving. For a limited time, our friends at Global Giving are offering $25 gift codes to new GOOD Magazine subscribers which you can use to fund these projects! Subscribe at subscribe.good.is and use code GGIVING25. |
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Here’s a twist that many may not have seen coming: M. Night Shyamalan is back in the good graces of moviegoers thanks to Split, the writer-director’s latest thriller. The film stars James McAvoy as a man afflicted with two-dozen personalities and who, with mysterious and threatening intentions, kidnaps three girls. The twist at the end seems to be what’s driving audiences to check out Split in the theater, helped out by positive word-of-mouth and critical acclaim.
Split is already Shyamalan’s best domestic opening of the decade; for his other directorial efforts, it’s behind only 2002’s Signs, 2004’s The Village, and 2010’s woefully inept but financially successful The Last Airbender. In terms of lifetime domestic gross, Split is still behind those three films and Shyamalan’s Unbreakable and The Sixth Sense, which tops the list with more than $293.5 million. But in only its second weekend, having dropped just 34%, Split has already crossed $100 million globally.
Universal Pictures enjoys the top two spots this weekend with the controversial film A Dog’s Purpose taking the silver medal. Hidden Figures, meanwhile, finished up a spot from Friday’s frame to take the bronze over the sixth installment in the Resident Evil franchise. That fourth-place finish should be enough to push the horror video game adaptation title over the $1 billion mark once all estimates are verified; worst-case scenario for Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich is that Resident Evil joins the billion-dollar franchise club later this week. Not a bad way to close out a feature film franchise!
Meanwhile, Stephen Gaghan‘s Gold is off to a miserable start, racing to the bottom of the weekend’s Top 10. The Matthew McConaughey-starrer bottomed out with a debut of less than $3.5 million; for reference, 2008’s Fool’s Gold ended its debut weekend with nearly $21.6 million.
Here’s a look at how the Top 10 from this weekend’s box office stacked up (via Box Office Mojo): |
An Ontario judge has ordered the seizure of more than $7 million worth of bank accounts and property belonging to Iran, in a historic ruling that will turn over the assets to victims of militant groups that it bankrolled.
The decision represents a groundbreaking victory for likely an array of litigants ranging from the families of two Americans who were held hostage in Beirut to a B.C. dentist who was badly burned in a 1997 Jerusalem suicide bombing.
Some of the plaintiffs had long ago won multimillion-dollar U.S. judgments against Tehran, but then spent years in American and Canadian courts trying to collect from a regime that uses front companies to hide vast real estate and financial holdings in the West.
"I'm surprised. I'm shocked that we've gotten this far after all these years," said Joseph Cicippio, who was abducted in 1986 and held for five years by militants from Hezbollah, the Lebanese paramilitary and political group sponsored by Iran.
"Everybody had almost given up on it totally," he said in an interview Wednesday. "For so many years, nothing happened. My kids will be very happy to hear this."
Cicippio's children are among the plaintiffs who persuaded Ontario Superior Court Judge David M. Brown this week to order the liquidation of two of Iran's Canadian bank accounts and a pair of properties, one in Ottawa and one in Toronto.
Brown said the evidence was "overwhelming" that the real estate, separately registered to two Canadian corporations, actually belonged to Iran and was being used for non-diplomatic purposes.
The only other named plaintiff was Vermont-born Edward Tracy, a poet and bookseller living in Beirut who was abducted the month after Cicippio.
But it's expected that three other sets of litigants suing Iran in separate cases — including B.C. dentist Sherri Wise, badly hurt in a 1997 Hamas suicide bombing in Israel — will share in the proceeds, part of a side deal worked out between lawyers.
Historic case
Judge Brown's ruling marks what is believed to be the first time in Canada that victims will collect damages from a foreign state over its support for extremist groups.
The case dates back to the Lebanon hostage crisis of the 1980s, when Hezbollah and its allies kidnapped dozens of Westerners in the Mideast country. Cicippio, an administrator at the American University of Beirut, was captured in September 1986. Tracy was abducted the next month. Both men were released in 1991, having been variously chained, beaten and threatened with death or maiming.
Marla Bennett of California was killed in a 2002 bombing in Jerusalem. Her case has also been brought to a Canadian court. (Getty)
Tracy sued Iran over his ordeal and won an $18.5-million US judgment in 2003, satisfying an American court that Tehran had helped to arm and finance his kidnappers. Cicippio's family did likewise, winning $91 million US for emotional distress in 2005.
The plaintiffs weren't able to collect on any Iranian government assets in the U.S., however, so they brought their judgments north for enforcement. That was made possible by Parliament's 2012 passing of the Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, which scrapped state immunity from civil lawsuits for countries deemed to be "supporting terrorism."
As a result of this week's court ruling, the Cicippio family and Tracy will get their hands on a share of a Scotiabank account containing $1.65 million and a Royal Bank account with 330,000 euros ($511,220). Both were held in the name of the Iranian Embassy in Ottawa, which was forced to close last year after the Canadian government suspended diplomatic relations and expelled Iran's envoys.
The judgment also seizes offices at 290 Sheppard Ave. W. in Toronto, valued at $1.1 million for tax purposes, and at 2 Robinson Ave. in Ottawa, assessed at $3.9 million. Both sites operated as ostensible Iranian cultural centres.
The Toronto address was owned by an Ontario corporation called Farhangeiran Inc., of which the sole director is Fazel Larijani, a member of a powerful Iranian family who counts among his brothers the Speaker of the Iranian parliament and the country's chief justice. The 5.7-acre Ottawa property was owned by an entity called the Mobin Foundation.
Sanctions evasion
Iran is subject to sanctions that would normally choke its ability to hold property or carry on business in Canada other than for diplomatic reasons. But the regime has deployed a web of front companies and organizations to thwart the restrictions, experts told the court.
"Typically something we've seen done over the years is use cultural organizations, charities, Persian language centres that the government has funded as fronts, really to build up a base of operations in other countries," Mark Dubowitz, who is executive director of the Washington-based Foundation for Defence of Democracies and who provided expert evidence for the plaintiffs, told CBC News.
"But they also use that as a base for procurement, to buy material they need for their nuclear program, their ballistic missile program, their military. But also energy. The key sectors of the economy where they haven't been able to find the technologies they need due to the economic sanctions."
Similar methods have been used to shield Iran's stakes in American real estate. U.S. prosecutors last fall successfully moved to seize an $800-million Manhattan skyscraper, whose owners included a front for Iran's state bank and a foundation that was found to have laundered money and breached sanctions.
In that case, the foundation said it would appeal, but from the outset Iran ignored the Ontario Superior Court proceedings that led to this week's ruling. In the past, the Iranian Foreign Ministry has said Canadian courts "target" Iranian-owned properties and work at the behest of the federal government.
More Canadian lawsuits are still possible against Iran. Judge Brown’s ruling orders Scotiabank and RBC to disclose any other non-diplomatic accounts belonging to the regime that aren't already known. That could lead to more claims for compensation or for already awarded damages. |
At the MSNBC moderated Democratic presidential town hall in Las Vegas, Nevada, Hillary Clinton was asked by a Sanders supporter why she will not release video or transcript of her private speeches to Wall Street banks.
"As a realtor here in Nevada I know how important the economy is to our great nation. As a Democratic candidate who has delivered speeches to the largest U.S. financial institutions in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees, why are you hesitant to release transcript or audio/video recordings of those meetings to be transparent with the American people regarding the promises and assurances that you have made to the big banks?" the man asked Clinton.
"Let me say this, I am happy to release anything I have when everybody else does the same because every other candidate in this race has given speeches to private groups, including Senator Sanders," Clinton responded.
After Clinton answered his question, the man then said he was a big supporter her and her husband until she said marriage is between one man and one woman. Since she changed her position on marriage, the man asked her to release transcripts from paid Wall Street speeches so she can be trusted.
"Secretary Clinton, I do respect you very much. In fact, only a decade ago I was a very big supporter of yourself and your husband. It actually broke my heart when you said marriage was between a man and a woman. How can we trust that this isn't just more political rhetoric? Please just release those transcripts so that we know exactly where you stand," the man pleaded with Clinton.
Transcript, via MSNBC:
JOE SACO, REAL ESTATE AGENT IN LAS VEGAS: Secretary Clinton, as a realtor here in Nevada I know personally how important the economy, and the housing market is to the stability of our great nation. As the Democratic presidential candidate who has delivered speeches to the largest U.S. financial institution in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees, why are you hesitant to release transcripts, or audio-video recordings of those meetings in order to be transparent with the American people regarding the promises, and assurances that you have made to the big banks?
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Well, let me say this. I'm happy to release anything I have when everybody else does the same, because every other candidate in this race has given speeches to private groups, including Senator Sanders.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: But let me get to the heart of your question. I was the candidate who went to Wall Street before the crash. I was the candidate who went to them and said you are wrecking our economy. What you are doing with mortgages is going to bring us down.
I called to end the carried interest loophole for hedge fund managers. I called to reign in CEO pay. I now have the most effective and comprehensive plan to deal with the threats that Wall Street poses, and I go further than Senator Sanders does because I want to go through after all the other bank bad actors.
The bad actors like hedge funds, the bad actors like AIG, the insurance company. Like Countrywide mortgage. I take a backseat to nobody in being very clear about what I will do to make sure Wall Street never crashes main street again. And, that you can count on.
(APPLAUSE)
QUESTION: Secretary Clinton, I do respect you very much. In fact, only a decade ago I was a very, very big supporter of yourself, and your husband. It actually broke my heart when you said marriage was between a man and a woman. How can we trust that this isn't just more political rhetoric.
Please, just release those transcripts so that we know exactly where you stand.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: You know where I stand, because I've been in the public (INAUDIBLE) the whole time. But, let me say something about this.
You know, I, like many Americans, have evolved. And, I'm glad I have. I am a 100% supporter...
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: And I am absolutely adamant about protecting marriage equality. And, I think it's significant that the Human Rights campaign, the leading organization in our country to ensure that the LGBT community has the rights they deserve, have endorsed me.
Now, your candidate said, well, that's because they're a member of the establishment. Well, with all due respect, they fight against the establishment every single day, and I've been with them for years, and I will pass the Equality act too. |
Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Taylor Raddysh of the Erie Otters has joined teammate Alex DeBrincat in the century club.
One of three Lightning prospects on the Otters roster, Raddysh scored his 38th goal of the season and pitched in with two assists to bring him to 100 points on the season as Erie lost a wild one in Niagara by a score of 9-7 on Sunday.
The Caledon Ont. native has been a front-line contributor with the Otters this season, spending much of his time on a line alongside DeBrincat and Arizona Coyotes first round pick Dylan Strome. He becomes the sixth player in Otters history to reach 100 points in a season.
Raddysh was the OHL’s Player of the Month for October and joined DeBrincat in sharing the honours for November. He played a key role in Team OHL’s success in the 2016 CIBC Canada/Russia Series, scoring twice and adding an assist in a 5-2 win over Team Russia in Hamilton.
After making a strong impression with Team OHL, Raddysh earned a spot on Canada’s National Junior Team, tying a Canadian World Junior record with four goals in one game. He finished the tournament with five goals, one assist and six points over seven contests as Canada came away with silver.
A second round (58th overall) pick by the Lightning last summer, Raddysh’s 100 points (38-62–100) place him second in OHL scoring. He leads the league in both assists (62) and plus/minus (plus-64).
Raddysh, who also recorded his 200th career OHL point on Sunday, was Erie’s first round (19th overall) pick in the 2014 OHL Priority Selection from the Toronto Marlboros Minor Midgets. |
So Chuck Schumer started saying over the weekend that he would oppose Donald Trump’s infrastructure bill, assuming it looks roughly the same as Trump’s campaign proposal. Good. It’s a sham. Or, as Ron Klain called it in an absolute must-read Washington Post column over the weekend, a “trap.” It’s a tax break plan for developers that wouldn’t create that many jobs or finance existing, crumbling infrastructure, and it would add to the deficit.
So it’s a good sign, what Schumer said, as was his interview with E.J. Dionne Monday, in which he said that when Trump “goes divisive,” the Democrats will “oppose him with everything we have.” Unfortunately, they don’t have much—no committee chairs, no subpoena power, no oversight power, no control of the legislative calendar. And there’s no prospect of getting any of those things in 2018, either.
To make matters worse, as I noted last week, there are four Democratic senators from deep-red states who are up for reelection in 2018. The pressure on those four—Claire McCaskill, Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp, Jon Tester—to support Trump initiatives will be enormous. Another five represent states that Trump won, albeit more narrowly; they too will face such pressures, so Schumer is going to have a tough time holding that caucus together.
So what do the Democrats have? Mainly right now, what they have are a lot of pissed off and freaked out people who want to do something. And Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and the other leaders of the official, Washington Democratic Party have to energize and engage these people in ways they’ve always been reluctant to do in the past. Which means they have to behave very differently from the way they’ve behaved as an opposition party in the past.
Some background. In recent history, the Democrats were most notably in the oppositional spotlight twice: in the early 1980s, when Ronald Reagan was president, and then in 2001-2002 when it was George W. Bush. Both times, the Democrats were overly accommodating. The 1980s are ancient history now in terms of polarization, but just for the record, I’ll note for you that 63 Democratic House members and 30 senators backed Ronald Reagan’s first budget. That represented nearly a third of all Democrats then in Congress.
When Dubya became president, things were more polarized, but even so, three Democratic senators and 13 House members backed Bush’s first tax cut. Those numbers are small, but they’re a lot more than the zero votes Republicans routinely gave Barack Obama (he did get three GOP senators on the stimulus package, but no House members). And many more Democrats backed the No Child Left Behind act, another early Bush signature bill.
The Democrats who cast these yea votes did so in part for their own local reasons, but there has also long been a fear on the Democratic side of opposing these Republican presidents’ big initiatives because the Democrats feared they’d work, and then they (the Democrats) would be seen as “anti-growth.” The same logic was at work on the Iraq War vote for many of them, especially the ones with an eye on the White House—if the war was a success and they voted against it, they’d look “weak.”
They were wrong every time. Voting for Republican economic schemes just ended up muddying their own message and lending bipartisan cover to a massive wealth transfer to those at the top. And voting for Bush’s war, well…
In casting these votes, Democrats went against the passion of their grassroots. This has been a key difference between the two parties for a good 20 years now: The Republicans relentlessly pander to their base, while the Democrats keep theirs at arm’s length (think of the way Pelosi immediately slammed the door shut on impeachment talk when she became Speaker in 2007).
That has to be different now. They shouldn’t pander to the base as abjectly as the Republicans do, because that’s what got us to Trump. But they do need to listen more and be less afraid of Republican attacks.
The Democratic Party, as an actually existing thing, has four main parts to it: one, the elected officials; two, the money people; three, the people (a few thousand) who work in the trenches for the various progressive causes; four, the energized base (as opposed to people who just vote once every four years). The four parts don’t really talk to each other. That must change.
Elected officials have to see that they need to take the idea of energizing the base seriously. Again, here, Schumer made a positive and, to me, surprising move when he came out so quickly for Keith Ellison as the new DNC chair. Ellison is well to Schumer’s left, but Senate sources tell me that Schumer recognized that the official party, the one’s and the two’s, have to do a better job of making the four’s feel they’re being heard.
That leaves the three’s, and this too is an absolutely crucial point. These organizations on the broad left are constantly underfunded—everybody scrounging to the same few foundations, which take months to decide things and then fund something for three years and withdraw instead of the 10 years that people need to make their organizations have impact.
Let me give you one telling example. As I wrote more than once during the campaign, Judicial Watch did a lot, in this campaign and over many years, to darken Hillary Clinton’s image in the minds of average Americans. They did this through FOIA request after FOIA request, getting their teams of lawyers to comb through every document, and turning up stuff that could be peddled as dirt and that informed the way the mainstream media wrote about Clinton—the assumptions made, the adjectives used, and so on. Judicial Watch has a $30 million annual budget.
Now: Don’t you think liberalism could use a Judicial Watch of its own to file FOIA after FOIA after FOIA on the Trump administration? It sure could. The group would have a field day with this guy. The revelations that would come out would make for a constant media barrage hitting Trump on ethics. He’d be on the defensive all the time.
Well—there is no such group. No one has funded it. Actually, there is one group in Washington that may be capable of doing this work, the Committee for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). It’s a good outfit. But CREW’s budget is just $2 million.
You hear a lot about George Soros and rich Hollywood liberals, and you probably just assume that liberals spend more money on this kind of activity than conservatives. Not so. There are far more rich conservatives than liberals for the obvious reason that having pots of money tends to make people conservative—and tends to make them want to invest in the politicians who’ll protect their money.
And so it’s the right that spends more. Rob Stein, the founder of the Democracy Alliance, the group of wealthy liberal donors that tries to coordinate investment in a progressive infrastructure, has studied this question for years. He told me: “The right has been building its infrastructure for more than 40 years. Whereas 10 years ago the right’s independent political apparatus was outspending progressives in electorally relevant state-based political mobilization by over two to one, in this cycle that margin appears to have been in excess of four to one.”
Lots of work to do. The Democrats have the votes in the Senate to block most things from passing, unless Mitch McConnell gets rid of the filibuster, which we’ll see about soon enough. But they’re not going to stop what’s coming with forty-odd votes. That will take millions—of dollars, and people. They’re out there. They need to be directed and led, without fear of Trump or Fox or whatever. If those days aren’t over, the legacy of the Democratic Party may soon be. |
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Singer Miley Cyrus has spoken out about rumours that she is a lesbian to say that it “isn’t a bad thing”, and that she takes it as “a compliment”.
The 20-year-old star has often faced rumours around her sexuality, particularly when she recently changed her image, cutting her hair short and bleaching it.
She spoke of being featured on Maxim magazine’s cover, and that she was proud her image had gotten her voted to number one in its annual hot list.
“Everyone said I was a lesbian but I’m like, ‘Being a lesbian isn’t a bad thing. So if you think I look like I’m a lesbian, I’m not offended. You can call me much worse,'” she said.
“Being a lesbian is a compliment more than what else they call me.
“People think short hair, they think tomboy… and I’ve obviously done the opposite ’cause when I cut my hair, I did my first Maxim cover where I got No 1 [in their annual hot list].
“And it wasn’t about me being the sexiest. It was about the fans voting. But it’s something I loved. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Maxim cover with a girl with short hair.”
Cyrus recently joined those in support of the Disney Channel’s decision to for the first time include same-sex parents in one of its flagship programmes. |
It was due to be published in January, following on from the conclusion of the Infinity event/crossover. Inhuman #1, by Matt Fraction and Joe Madureira is, as it was when we broke the story, intended to revitalise and revamp the Inhumans.
No longer a ghettoised group, they were to spread across the globe, grown in number by the release worldwide of Terrigen Mists and a richer, deeper history to the super-powered strain of humanity revealed. Describes as a Game Of Thrones style of storytelling. The overarching term for the affected comics was Inhumanity – the first such labelled book, Avengers Assemble, was published today.
There is talk that Inhuman #1 will set the scene for an Inhumans Marvel Studios movie, fulfilling the role with the Studio that the X-Men is unable to, due to deals with Fox.
But the main book, Inhuman #1, has been postponed by Marvel. Labelled “cancelled” on Diamond Comic Distributors schedule, it will instead be published again at a later date, and retailers will most likely be asked to order the book again.
Joe Madureira is notoriously an artist who takes his time on the book, but I have been told by Marvel representatives that there are a number of reasons for this decision. But for it to be postponed rather than simply delayed may indicate something rather serious.
So distract from all that, here’s some art from a book that actually is coming out in January, All New Marvel Now Point One.
About Rich Johnston Chief writer and founder of Bleeding Cool. Father of two. Comic book clairvoyant. Political cartoonist.
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YANGON: Myanmar’s incoming finance minister said on Wednesday he was shocked to discover his PhD was fake after netizens pointed out he had been a victim of an alleged scam run out of Pakistan that ensnared thousands of others.
Kyaw Win was one of 18 people named on Tuesday to the incoming cabinet of democracy veteran Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) will take office at the end of the month, ending decades of military-led rule.
The 68-year-old was one of six NLD members in Suu Kyi’s big-tent cabinet — which includes three army officers as well as opposition party figures.
Degree was awarded by ‘fake online organisation’ allegedly created by a Pakistani group
Suu Kyi, who is banned from becoming president, was confirmed as foreign minister while the other roles are expected to be formally announced later in the week.
However local media widely published a leaked list of earmarked roles, with Kyaw Win, a career bureaucrat and adviser to the NLD’s economics committee, taking the influential finance and planning portfolio.
An official CV issued by the NLD shortly after the cabinet announcement stated he held a PhD from a college in the United States called Brooklyn Park University.
But social media users quickly pointed out that Brooklyn Park was one of a number of “fake online organisations” allegedly created by a Pakistani group that ran a “fraudulent degree empire” out of Karachi until its exposure last year.
“I openly admit it that I studied at this fake online university in my older age,” Kyaw Win, who confirmed he would take on the finance portfolio, said.
He explained how, like many others in junta-run Myanmar, he had a thirst for education but little opportunity to study abroad.
“Education has been my dream since I was young. I never stopped studying my whole life. But I could not study abroad because I did not have enough money,” he said.
Kyaw Win said he did not discover the degree was fake until the news spread on Facebook after his cabinet nomination on Tuesday, an experience he described as “really painful”.
Myanmar has undergone a dramatic political transformation since 2011 after almost a half-century of isolation under a military junta.
Its growing political openness was crowned by a historic November election that saw the NLD storm to victory.
Suu Kyi, 70, is the only woman on the incoming cabinet. There is widespread speculation she will take on four ministerial portfolios: foreign affairs, education, energy and the president’s office.
Blocked from becoming president by a junta-era constitution because she married and had children with a foreigner, she has vowed to rule through a proxy president, the recently elected Htin Kyaw.
Published in Dawn, March 24th, 2016 |
NEW DELHI: The government is unlikely to change the financial year to January-December, though it is considering whether it could further advance the date of the presentation of the Budget by a fortnight or so.The government this year presented the Budget on February 1, departing from the British-era practice of announcing Budget proposals on February 28.India currently follows April-March financial year, again a 150-year-old tradition dating back to British rule.The government had been mulling a shift to January-December financial year and set up a committee to deliberate the issue.Finance minister Arun Jaitley had on July 21 in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said, "the matter of changing financial year is under consideration of the government"."For now (2018-19), changing the financial year appears unlikely," a senior government official told ET, adding that switching this year would mean the budget would have to be presented by end of October or early November, which is unrealistic.In addition, there is a is thinking that as a big change in taxation — the GST — has been rolled out, it will take some time to settle down. The GST rollout was preceded by the demonetisation exercise. Change in financial year at this juncture will add to the disruption.As elections are scheduled to be held in 2019, experts believe that the government will not change the financial year then as well.There have been divergent views on aligning the financial year with the calendar year.A committee under former chief economic advisor Shankar Acharya was set up in July, 2016 to look at the feasibility of the idea. The panel, however, did not find much merit in the idea. NITI Aayog discussion note, on the other hand, said a change in the financial year was required as the current system leads to sub-optimal utilisation of working season. The financial year is not aligned with international practices and it impacted data collection and dissemination from the perspective of national accounts.A parliamentary panel also recommended shifting the financial year to January-December.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, subsequently, at the NITI Aayog governing council meeting on April 23 this year asked the states to "take initiatives in regard of advancing the financial year from January to December", following which Madhya Pradesh announced its intent to change the financial year.While a change in the financial year period for now appears unlikely, advancing the date of the budget is a possibility. The government is happy with the outcome of an early budget this year. It enabled front loading of government spending and its capital spending went up by 58 % in the first two months of 2017-18 as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. |
The Magnificent Bastard by Icon 1000 Reading time: about 1 minute. American
Clothing
Design
Gear
Motorcycles
Off Road
Retro
Style
Icon Motorsports have a refreshingly unique approach to both motorcycles and motorcycle gear, their current product range has the singular distinction of being popular with both the ultra-modern/super-bike crowd as well as the hand-built/retro/air-cooled community.
Icon 1000 is a new parallel brand from Icon specialising in premium motorcycle gear and clothing with emphasis on retro styling and state-of-the-art technology. A space that’s been woefully absent up until now.
The Icon 1000 series is accompanied by a series of motorcycles, one of which you see pictured above and below. Clearly the design team at Icon decided to not break the mould , but to fire the mould out of a cannon into a brick wall. Then jump up and down on the remaining pieces.
Dubbed ‘The Magnificent Bastard’, this bike started life as a 1986 Honda VF1000R although it would have been hard to guess given the modifications to the body work. The lower fairings have been removed and the remaining fairings have been sanded back and given an eye catching distressed paint job.
An exterior subframe has been added across the front end with twin spotlights being added and twin fog lights a little lower down, the exhaust is all new and exits higher than the stock pipes to facilitate river crossings. A CB radio has been added so you can stay in touch with the other survivors of the apocalypse.
The VF1000R keeps its stock V4 1000cc engine producing 122hp with a DOHC and 5 speed transmission, which should be enough to get you through almost any terrain in the world. Even with the zombie hordes chasing you.
Check out the Icon 1000 collection here. |
Photo
to add more detail about the workers hired at the factory in Texas.
Just like Apple , Google has caught the “Made in America” bug. Motorola Mobility, the handset maker acquired by Google, says its next phone, called Moto X, will be manufactured in the United States.
Speaking at the All Things D conference in Southern California on Wednesday, Dennis Woodside, the head of Motorola, said that the company would build its first new flagship phone under Google ownership at a factory outside Fort Worth. He said that the Texas location would allow Motorola to “iterate and innovate much faster.”
Google has tried making hardware in the United States before. Last year, it planned to assemble the Nexus Q, a home media player, in California. But the company postponed the device after it received poor reviews and then quietly killed it.
Mr. Woodside said Motorola and Google were taking over an old Nokia manufacturing plant that had employed 16,000 workers when it was last in use 15 years ago. He said around 2,000 employees would be hired to work at the 500,000-square-foot building. The plant will be up and running by August, he said.
The new workers will be employed by Flextronics, a manufacturing company Motorola hires for its work worldwide. They will be hired by August in jobs ranging from entry level roles to engineering, said Danielle McNally, a Motorola spokeswoman. The new jobs are “different and separate” from the more than 4,000 positions that Motorola eliminated last year, she said.
Mr. Woodside acknowledged that while the Moto X will be built in the United States, not all of its parts would necessarily come from American manufacturers.
“The components will come all over the world,” he said. Display parts will be built in South Korea, for example, and processors will be made in Taiwan, he said.
Google executives have given clues about what a Motorola phone would do. It would have batteries that last longer than a day, they have said, would not break when dropped and would include features like a better camera, artificial intelligence and sensors that recognize people’s voices in a room, for example.
“Think about your device — battery life is a problem, if a kid spills a drink on your tablet screen it shouldn’t die, if you drop your phone it shouldn’t shatter,” Larry Page, the chief executive of Google, told analysts last month. “There’s real potential to invent new and better experiences, ones that are much faster and more intuitive. So having just seen Motorola’s upcoming products myself, I’m really excited about the potential there.”
Mr. Woodside said Wednesday, though, that phones with unbreakable screens would not be included in this year’s Motorola phones.
Mr. Woodside said the Moto X phone was in his pocket — but coyly shook his head when asked to show it off.
Claire Cain Miller contributed reporting. |
Hi community, Sinetek here.Some of you may recognize me, as I've been in the community for a while now. I have been working for a while now on the Mobile Wallets front, and today I'd like to push a public test.This is a full-node Android Wallet for BlackCoin.So far the wallet seems to work best on tablets running Android version 4. My goal today would be to get feedback and screenshots etc.ISSUES ---the theme doesn't always load up correctly. the app should look like this: http://i.imgur.com/WKqgC9p.png some crashes while playing with the 'pay to' field..sending coins isn't well tested.. use caution for nowneed a 'copy address' button.Staking will come with the second update, once we're on the Play Store, probably.Download link:Thanks to all!!! Cheers
Hi community, Sinetek here.Some of you may recognize me, as I've been in the community for a while now. I have been working for a while now on the Mobile Wallets front, and today I'd like to push a public test.This is a full-node Android Wallet for BlackCoin.So far the wallet seems to work best on tablets running Android version 4. My goal today would be to get feedback and screenshots etc.ISSUES ---the theme doesn't always load up correctly. the app should look like this: http://i.imgur.com/WKqgC9p.png some crashes while playing with the 'pay to' field..sending coins isn't well tested.. use caution for nowneed a 'copy address' button.Staking will come with the second update, once we're on the Play Store, probably.Download link:Thanks to all!!! Cheers
Okay so after my last post about my paper wallet idea i've got some pretty positive responses and decided to work my concept out a little more. I've changed the name from "Blackcoin Safepaper" to "Blackcheque" so that you can use it also for promotional purposes like giveaways / gifts etc.Here is the new design and also the inner paper. Obviously i've tried to make it look a little more luxurious with some signatures etc. but im still working on perfectionizing that.Im still working on a better design as always. But I thought i keep you all updated so that i can receive some feedback and help during the way.
Today I went to the Dutch Blackshape dealer to check out their fantastic airplane that you can buy with Blackcoin. Since I have gotten my pilot license as an 16 year old I've made a testflight and it's just simply an amazing airplane! I've flown mostly Cessna's and AT-3 but this aircraft is just a masterpiece. I guess I can call it the Lamborghini under the airplanes in general aviation.And guess what..Thanks to the Blackcoin community and the profits I could make on Mintpal I have finally managed to get all my funds together! The order has been made!Because I am so thankfull for you guys, as the Blackcoin community, I want to get it painted Blackcoin colorscheme/style, with the Blackcoin logo! This would be very cool since I will fly alot with it and also do demo flights for new, interested investors. This way they can hear about Blackcoin. Besides that, im also going to rent out this plane. So other pilots can rent my plane, which they can pay with Blackcoin aswell!However, getting it custom painted costs around 10.000$ I was hoping if people from this AWESOME Blackcoin community would consider donating for this project. The airplane costs me a fortune alreadyIf you want to see a real Blackcoin airplane that im going to use for BC promotions and rent it out which you can pay for with Blackcoin then help me out!! Im sure we can do thisI will keep you all updated and also I will show some BC colorscheme/style sketches in the near future.BC: BDYeU3GJoX3B4wB1x1XGerFbqzqcYeG1LjBTC: 12ARzb8Y1uLVPUZaji9TejAt7hScUwWEj4
can't wait to see how much people will be crying why did i not buy bc in less then a week bad times are behind the best is omost near, i can't even comprehend what will be next i suspect the team is hiding something that will make bc go viral world wide
If I flew over to NL some time this week would you be willing to do an interview for BlackCoinTV on camera with your new plane? It would be a great opportunity to find out more about your project.
Today I went to the Dutch Blackshape dealer to check out their fantastic airplane that you can buy with Blackcoin. Since I have gotten my pilot license as an 16 year old I've made a testflight and it's just simply an amazing airplane! I've flown mostly Cessna's and AT-3 but this aircraft is just a masterpiece. I guess I can call it the Lamborghini under the airplanes in general aviation.And guess what..Thanks to the Blackcoin community and the profits I could make on Mintpal I have finally managed to get all my funds together! The order has been made!Because I am so thankfull for you guys, as the Blackcoin community, I want to get it painted Blackcoin colorscheme/style, with the Blackcoin logo! This would be very cool since I will fly alot with it and also do demo flights for new, interested investors. This way they can hear about Blackcoin. Besides that, im also going to rent out this plane. So other pilots can rent my plane, which they can pay with Blackcoin aswell!However, getting it custom painted costs around 10.000$ I was hoping if people from this AWESOME Blackcoin community would consider donating for this project. The airplane costs me a fortune alreadyIf you want to see a real Blackcoin airplane that im going to use for BC promotions and rent it out which you can pay for with Blackcoin then help me out!! Im sure we can do thisI will keep you all updated and also I will show some BC colorscheme/style sketches in the near future.BC: BDYeU3GJoX3B4wB1x1XGerFbqzqcYeG1LjBTC: 12ARzb8Y1uLVPUZaji9TejAt7hScUwWEj4 |
WASHINGTON, June 13 (UPI) -- The world risks disastrous income drops, ecological damage and social unrest unless countries become sustainable, the International Monetary Fund chief said.
More than 100 world leaders promised at a historic U.N. Earth Summit a generation ago to "strive for economic growth, environmental protection and social progress at the same time," Christine Lagarde said in a speech in Washington.
The leaders, supported by about 2,400 non-governmental organization representatives, said they subscribed to "the idea that different economic, environmental and social objectives can be seen as distinct aspects of a single vision, essential parts of a connected whole," she said.
But far too little progress came from their Rio de Janeiro promises, she told an event sponsored by the Center for Global Development think tank.
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Now, 20 years later and a week before a follow-up U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, the escalating European economic crisis and stalling economic growth worldwide -- coupled with the growing threat from climate change and social tensions -- could wreck leaders' efforts to chart a sustainable world future, she said.
The summit in Brazil June 20-21 -- also known as Rio+20 or the Rio Earth Summit 2012 -- is to follow immediately a Group of 20 summit in Mexico Monday and Tuesday, where U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders are widely expected to press top European officials for concrete and decisive steps to solve the euro crisis.
"Over the past four years, we have been mired in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression -- and we are not out of it yet," Lagarde said.
"In fact, tensions are on the rise again, and financial-stability risks have once more moved front and center," she said. "Great uncertainty hangs over global prospects.
"Too many regions today are still stuck in a trap of low growth and high unemployment," she said.
"Right now, 200 million people worldwide cannot find work, including 75 million young people trying to take their first step on the ladder of success.
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"So we need a strategy that is good for stability and good for growth -- where stability is conducive to growth and growth facilitates stability," Lagarde said.
Taxes on hydrocarbon fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas could raise billions of dollars a year that could support green projects, said Lagarde, a right-wing former French finance minister.
Taxing polluters "is basically a variation of the old mantra, 'You break it, you buy it,'" she said.
RELATED Largarde calls for strategic balance
If the United States were to adopt a $25 carbon tax on every ton of carbon dioxide created from burning hydrocarbon fuels, the government would reap more than $1 trillion over 10 years, she said.
The tax would raise the price of a gallon of gasoline about 22 cents, she said.
Despite broad awareness of the need for responsible management of resource use, "many countries continue to subsidize polluting energy systems," rather than imposing higher costs on them, she said.
"These subsidies are costly for the budget and costly for the planet," she said.
"Countries should reduce them. But in doing so, they must protect vulnerable groups by tightly focusing subsidies on products used by poorer people, and by strengthening social safety nets," she said.
Furthermore, economic policies must ensure growth is spread equally among the social classes, Lagarde said.
"Decent and steady employment is the sure foundation of human dignity, the best avenue to rewarding and fulfilling lives," she said.
Neither Washington nor any other government had an immediate comment on her remarks. |
Have you ever considered whether functions in Lua are mutable or not. In Lua, objects are mutable because properties and metatables can be changed. Strings and numbers are examples of types that aren’t mutable: string library functions return new strings, numeric operators return a new numbers.
Functions and mutability
For something to be mutable it must have state that can be changed. Depending on the version of Lua, there are either two possibilities:
Lua 5.1: The function environment and the upvalues are mutable
Lua 5.2 and above: the upvalues are mutable
Lua 5.2 replaced the function environment with a specially named upvalue called _ENV . You can read more about this in my companion guide: Implementing setfenv in Lua.
When assigning a function to a new variable it is not copied. Just like tables, function values are actually pointers to a function.
local a = function () end local b = a -- these point to the same function assert ( a == b )
This is commonly confused with pass by reference. Pass by reference is slightly different. Lua uses pass by value, it’s just that some values are pointers to the same object.
Why clone a function?
A cloned function will allow you to change state without affecting other code that is holding references to the original function.
You might think that because Lua is a single threaded language you can modify the state of the function while it executes, then put it back. This would be true if Lua didn’t have coroutines.
A running function might yield at any point in execution, and in that time the function could have its state changed before the coroutine resumes.
string.dump and loadstring
The string.dump function returns a binary representation of a function as a string. By dumping a function to a string and then reloading it you've created a clone of the function:
local function say_hi () print ( " Hi!" ) end local say_hi_clone = loadstring ( string.dump ( say_hi )) say_hi_clone () --> Hi! assert ( say_hi ~= say_hi_clone )
This works in the previous example but it’s not entirely correct. What about upvalues? An upvalue’s reference can not be encoded into the string dump and preserved when it’s loaded again.
local message = " Hello" local function say_message () print ( " message: " .. tostring ( message )) end local say_message_clone = loadstring ( string.dump ( say_message )) say_message_clone () -- message: nil
A new set of upvalues is created for the loaded function, and they all point to nil .
Preserving upvalues
Lua 5.2 and above give two ways to set upvalues on a function: debug.setupvalue and debug.upvaluejoin. As we discovered in the setfenv implementation guide, upvalues are shared among multiple functions. Changes to the values pointed to by an upvalue should reflect in all the functions that have access. For that reason debug.upvaluejoin will be used to connect the original function’s upvalues to the new function.
debug.upvaluejoin takes two pairs of function and upvalue index. Since one function is a clone of the other, the upvalue positions will be the same. It’s just a matter of iterating through all the valid upvalue indexes and joining them.
local message = " Hello" local function say_message () print ( " message: " .. tostring ( message )) end local say_message_clone = loadstring ( string.dump ( say_message )) local i = 1 while true do -- see if i is a valid upvalue index local name = debug.getupvalue ( say_message , i ) if not name then break end -- join the clone and the original debug . upvaluejoin ( say_message_clone , i , say_message , i ) i = i + 1 end -- the clone now has a functional upvalue say_message_clone () -- message: Hello message = " MoonScript" say_message_clone () -- message: MoonScript
clone_function implementation
Now all that’s left is to write a generic function for cloning any function:
local function clone_function ( fn ) local dumped = string.dump ( fn ) local cloned = loadstring ( dumped ) local i = 1 while true do local name = debug.getupvalue ( fn , i ) if not name then break end debug . upvaluejoin ( cloned , i , fn , i ) i = i + 1 end return cloned end
Handling Lua 5.1
As far as I know Lua 5.1 does not provide a way to join upvalues. LuaJIT does provite an implementation of debug.upvaluejoin though, so that may handle any Lua runtimes you run code in. |
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Two senior Pakistani militants who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State were among at least 24 people killed in an American drone strike in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, Pakistani and Afghan security officials said Thursday.
Afghan officials described one of the men, Gul Zaman, as the deputy leader of the Islamic State in Afghanistan. The other commander, Shahidullah Shahid, had been the main spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban until he joined Islamic State last year.
Though officials do not yet consider the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, to be a major threat in either Pakistan or Afghanistan, the group has drawn increased support from disaffected Taliban militants on both sides of the border over the past year.
A senior Pakistani official in Peshawar said both men had been killed alongside several other militants in an American drone strike in Nangarhar Province, in eastern Afghanistan, on Monday. The official said the drone strike had targeted a leadership council meeting of the so-called Islamic State in Khorasan, an old term that includes Pakistan and Afghanistan. |
Cartoon physics, animation physics or toonforce are terms for a jocular system of laws of physics (and biology) that supersedes the normal laws, used in animation for humorous effect.
Many of the most famous American animated films, particularly those from Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, unconsciously developed a relatively consistent set of such "laws" which have become de rigueur in comic animation. They usually involve things behaving in accordance with how they appear to the cartoon characters, or what the characters expect, rather than how they objectively are. In one common example, when a cartoon character runs off a cliff, gravity has no effect until the character notices.[1]
In words attributed to Art Babbitt, an animator with the Walt Disney Studios: "Animation follows the laws of physics—unless it is funnier otherwise."
Examples [ edit ]
Specific reference to cartoon physics extends back at least to June 1980, when an article "O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion"[2] appeared in Esquire. A version printed in V.18 No. 7 p. 12, 1994 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in its journal helped spread the word among the technical crowd, which has expanded and refined the idea.[3] These laws are outlined on dozens of websites.
O'Donnell's examples include:
Any body suspended in space will remain suspended in space until made aware of its situation. A character steps off a cliff but remains in midair until looking down, then the familiar principle of 32 feet per second per second takes over.
A body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeter. Also called the silhouette of passage.
The time required for an object to fall 20 stories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it off the ledge to spiral down 20 flights to attempt to capture it unbroken. Such an object is inevitably priceless; the attempt to capture it, inevitably unsuccessful.
All principles of gravity are negated by fear.
Psychic forces are sufficient in most bodies for a shock to propel them directly away from the surface. A spooky noise or an adversary's signature sound will introduce motion upward, usually to the cradle of a chandelier, a treetop or the crest of a flagpole. The feet of a running character or the wheels of a speeding auto need never touch the ground, ergo fleeing turns to flight.
As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once.
Certain bodies can pass through a solid wall painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot. ... Whoever paints an entrance on a wall's surface to trick an opponent will be unable to pursue him into this theoretical space. The painter is flattened against the wall when he attempts to follow into the painting. This is ultimately a problem of art, not science.
Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent. Cartoon cats possess more deaths than even the traditional nine lives afford. They can be sliced, splayed, accordionpleated, spindled or disassembled, but they cannot be destroyed. After a few moments of blinking self-pity, they reinflate, elongate, snap back or solidify.
History of the idea [ edit ]
The idea that cartoons behave differently from the real world, but not randomly, is virtually as old as animation. Walt Disney, for example, spoke of the plausible impossible in 1956 on an episode of the Disneyland television program.[4]
Warner Brothers Looney Tunes had numerous examples of their own cartoon physics (such as in the Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner cartoons) or even acknowledged they ignore real world physics. In High Diving Hare (1948), when Yosemite Sam cuts through a high diving board Bugs Bunny is standing on, the ladder and platform that Sam is on falls, leaving the cut plank suspended in mid-air. Bugs turns to the camera and cracks: "I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never studied law!"
More recently, it has been explicitly described by some cartoon characters, including Roger Rabbit, Bonkers D. Bobcat, and Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, who say that toons are allowed to bend or break natural laws for the purposes of comedy. Doing this is extremely tricky, so toons have a natural sense of comedic timing, giving them inherently funny properties.
In Who Framed Roger Rabbit, for example, Roger is unable to escape handcuffs for most of a sequence, doing so only to use both hands to hold the table still while Eddie Valiant attempts to saw the cuff off. When Eddie asks, exasperated, "Do you mean to tell me you could've taken your hand out of that cuff at any time?!" Roger responds: "Not at any time! Only when it was funny!"[5] Several aspects of cartoon physics were discussed in the film's dialogue, and the concept was a minor plot theme.
In 1993, Stephen R. Gould, then a financial training consultant, writing in New Scientist, said that "... these seemingly nonsensical phenomena can be described by logical laws similar to those in our world. Nonsensical events are by no means limited to the Looniverse. Laws that govern our own Universe often seem contrary to common sense."[6] This theme is described by Alan Cholodenko in his article, "The Nutty Universe of Animation".[7]
In a Garfield animated short entitled "Secrets of the Animated Cartoon", the characters Orson and Wade give demonstrations of different laws of the cartoons and show humorous examples of them.
In 2012 O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion were used as the basis for a presentation[8] and exhibition by Andy Holden at Kingston University in Great Britain. Titled 'Laws of Motion in a Cartoon Landscape'[9] it explored ideas of cartoon physics in relation to art and the end of art history.
Cartoon physics is not limited to physics: For example, when a character recovers impossibly fast from a serious injury, the laws of biology rather than physics are being altered.
It is also not limited to cartoons. Live-action shows and movies can also be subject to the laws of cartoon physics explaining why, for example, The Three Stooges did not go blind from all the eye-poking, or the burglars in the Home Alone series survive life-threatening booby traps. In a review of one of the Home Alone films, film critic Roger Ebert noted that in the case of live-action productions, cartoon physics are not as effective at producing a comic effect, as the effects seem more realistic:
Most of the live-action attempts to duplicate animation have failed, because when flesh-and-blood figures hit the pavement, we can almost hear the bones crunch, and it isn't funny.[10]
Printed cartoons have their own family of cartoon physics "laws" and conventions.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Anime [ edit ] |
In 1997, when Britain returned Hong Kong to China, the United States stressed the need to ensure that the semiautonomous city would maintain a vigorous rule of law and a free market. “We will be watching it very closely,” Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said then. Some 17 years later, such vigilance is as important as ever given growing concerns about press freedoms as well as interference from China in Hong Kong’s internal affairs.
The responsibility to speak out against these trends falls mostly on Britain, which signed a joint agreement with China outlining a formula of “one country, two systems” that let Hong Kong keep its free-market economy, legal system and other rights alongside the mainland’s repressive Communist system. The United States has also promised to promote the city’s autonomy.
One major concern involves the election of the city’s next leader. Although China promised to allow direct elections for the first time in 2017, it has indicated that it will limit the names on the ballot by retaining some version of Hong Kong’s existing nominating committee. The panel is dominated by Beijing loyalists, and it is virtually certain that whatever replaces it would undermine popular will by ensuring only China-approved candidates. To its credit, the Obama administration has endorsed “progress toward genuine universal suffrage” as laid out in the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s de facto constitution. But Britain lamentably has been less inclined to speak out.
The other concern involves press freedoms. In February, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported that China sometimes puts direct pressure on Hong Kong news media, while in other cases, journalists engage in self-censorship by curtailing reporting they fear would anger the government or prompt businesses to pull advertising. Recent attacks on media executives have raised alarms about the safety of journalists. Last month, two executives planning to launch a newspaper later this year were attacked by men with iron bars; in February, the former chief editor of the newspaper Ming Pao was critically wounded by knife-wielding assailants. Although police said they arrested two suspects in the February attack, most assaults on journalists have gone unsolved. |
PlanGrid Icon
11 Sep 2012
Hicksdesign recently created a new application icon for PlanGrid, an iPad app for storing and viewing blueprints for the construction industry. Even though blueprints aren’t actually blue these days, its such a familiar piece of imagery that it couldn’t be ignored as a metaphor.
The final design followed the original quite closely (see right), retaining the simple image of a white pictogram on a blueprint background. Instead of the magnifying glass, a stylised version of the loupe was used instead, and construction lines and folded paper effects were added on.
A variety of options were explored, using various magnifying devices and architectural symbols. Here are the vector sketches:
As well as trying out a characterisation of their software, known as ‘GridBot’:
The idea that was most liked however, was the loupe:
The hatched version lost too much impact at smaller sizes, so in the end, the solid version won. xScope mirror was then used to help preview the artwork on devices as I worked. This was particularly useful for getting the stroke weights correct on retina displays, and for testing colour. The blue needed to be much more saturated on iOS than on my desktop screen. |
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‘Give me enough rebar and an oxyacetylene torch and I’ll line the border with giant nude Amazons.’ – Armando Muñoz Garcia
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Rising a triumphant five stories from a refuse-strewn ravine, Tijuana’s “La Mona,” Armando Muñoz Garcia’s 18-ton naked-as-the-day-you-were-born sculpture/home, is the architectural incarnate of the ingenuity and absurdity that defines this most surreal of cities.
The most extraordinary example of the populist architecture that typifies Colonia Aeropuerto, a hardscrabble Tijuana neighborhood, La Mona bears a striking resemblance to the Statue of Liberty, if not her pert, better looking younger sister. Superficial Yankee resemblances aside, the grassroots audacity that La Mona represents, accentuated by her defiant while alluring pose, is 100 percent Tijuanense.
A Concrete Pinky is the New Middle Finger
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Muñoz, a self-taught sculptor turned architect who dropped out of school when he was just 11 years old, originally envisioned his female form follows function architectural tour de force as a statue to mark Tijuana’s 1989 centennial. With aims to have it placed in the already statue saturated central part of the city, where everyone from U.S. President Abraham Lincoln to Aztec ruler Cuauhtémoc is monumentalized, and nearly every episode in Mexico history is commemorated, often times garishly so, Muñoz approached city officials with his idea. To no one’s surprise, they roundly rejected him. Undeterred, Muñoz not only ignored Tijuana’s establishment, he crafted the city a statue on a scale even grander than the one initially proposed, and he built it in his own backyard.
Early on in the process, Muñoz realized that his construction methods would leave the statue hollow, creating a space that would allow him to live within his masterpiece.
The statue was completed in 1991—two years too late for the city’s centennial [hey, it’s the thought that counts]. Though Muñoz gave her the graceless name “Tijuana III Millennium,” in time she became known simply as “La Mona,” or “The Doll.”
Muñoz’s belated birthday present to his hometown has become something greater than just another of the innumerable civic monuments dotting Tijuana’s cityscape. It’s a contemporary urban fairy tale about a man who, against all odds, built himself a home in the shape of woman, and then lived inside her. And with outreached arm pointing skyward and pinky finger raised to indicate Tijuana’s geographic location on the upper left hand corner of Mexico’s map, La Mona has become the unofficial symbol of this city.
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Civic Lessons
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Perhaps it is fitting then, that Tijuana’s most iconic structure is tucked away in a residential neighborhood in a corner of the city that few tourists ever see. Certainly, Muñoz’s brand of risque populist “anarchitecture,” never stood much of a chance of being placed downtown alongside the city’s officially sanctioned kitsch in concrete—a life-size reproduction of a colossal Olmec head in the tourist district, some 1,800 miles from where the originals were discovered.
So it isn’t surprising, that just a decade after Muñoz presented Tijuana his proposal, city bureaucrats unveiled plans to celebrate another milestone—the dawn of the new millennium—with a $700,000 stainless steel arch at the foot of Avenida Revolucion. City boosters trumpeted the architectural plagiarism cut and pasted from an uncited midwestern source as Tijuana’s answer to the Eiffel Tower. Tijuana’s signature addition to the city’s skyline, however, had much more provincial inspirations. It was nearly indistinguishable from Eero Saarinen and Hannskarl Bandel’s Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, albeit in a more petite form, and vulgarly adorned with an arena-style JumboTron at its center.
By the close of the year 2000, Tijuana’s 200-foot arch had yet to be finished, missing the year long start of the new millennium. And sometime later in the collection of years between its completion and the present, the Arch’s electronic video screen in the sky stopped working altogether.
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The Point at Which Postmodernism and Postadolescence Intersect
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Age has been unkind to La Mona. While barely out of her teens, she looks well beyond her years. Cracks in her facade have prompted Muñoz to begin a restoration of the city’s beloved symbol last year, employing the architectural version of cosmetic surgery to reverse the signs of aging. Even the woman who inspired La Mona’s form—one of Muñoz’s ex-girlfriends—recently complained about her appearance. “Lately, every two or three months, she will come and say, ‘Hey Armando, give me a shower, comb my hair or something,’” Muñoz said.
Even in La Mona’s unkempt postadolescence, neighborhood NIMBYism hasn’t been an issue, as Muñoz’s idiosyncratic gesture to Tijuana has been universally embraced. “The neighborhood is famous now,” Muñoz boasted. “No one has a different opinion other than good things.”
Like much of the aspirational architecture of the neighborhood—sprouting rebar on the uppermost levels, always awaiting the next addition or more permanent materials—La Mona, too, is a work in progress. While the pace is slow, Muñoz is painstakingly restoring the symbol of this city, starting at the toes and working his way up, building an even better version of his muse. .
A Tale of Two Cities
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Tijuana’s urban landscape is cast from negotiations between an authoritarian past and a democratic future. Taken together, the two monuments symbolizing the city—in their sanctioned and unofficial forms—offer fitting metaphors for the radically divergent currents shaping Tijuana.
The “officialists”—corrupt, incompetent and rooted in Mexico’s top-down political history—built the city its uninspiring, expensive arch, even as many city residents lacked basic services like water, trash collection and sewage hookups.
This is the current that fails to see Tijuana—the second largest city in the West Coast, save for Los Angeles—as anything other than an inferior appendage to San Diego. And rather than embrace the city’s globalized future, harvest the creativity of its citizenry, or capitalize on its distinct brand of chaotic urbanism, those in power remain mired in nostalgia, incapable of imagining a Tijuana without intoxicated American college students and twenty-dollar gringo day trippers, even though they stopped coming long ago. But Tijuana continues moving forward without them, despite their yesteryear orientated gaze.
Although Tijuana’s first 100 years belonged to the officialists, the succeeding century will be a story defined by the grass-roots dynamism, popular resourcefulness and creativity emerging in the spaces created by official neglect. This is the future of Tijuana—spirited resilience personified in concrete and rebar, in the form of a monumental nude shooting 55-feet skyward they call La Mona.
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RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Hundreds of Palestinians took part in a sit-in in solidarity with the Jordanian people after video emerged Tuesday of the Islamic State group executing a Jordanian hostage.
The rally in front of the Jordanian Representative Office in Ramallah came in response to the slaying of Maaz al-Kassasbeh, which has provoked outrage against ISIS in Jordan, Palestine, and across the Arab world.
Members of the central and executive committees of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian parliament, as well as representatives of Fatah, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and civil institutions and universities took part in the sit-in, where condolences were presented to the Hashemite Kingdom's representative in Palestine.
Jordan's ambassador to Palestine Khalid al-Shawabkeh addressed the crowd, saying: "Jordan, its King, its government, and its people will always stand against terrorism."
Al-Shawabkeh said that the killing of al-Kassasbeh would not stop Jordanian leadership from continuing to fight terrorism.
The ambassador also expressed gratitude to the Palestinian people and Palestinian leadership for showing solidarity with the Jordanian people.
The two main Palestinian political parties Fatah and Hamas have both condemned the killing of al-Kassasbeh. |
Photo
JERUSALEM — A Katyusha-type rocket fired by militants from Gaza struck the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Friday, damaging buildings and causing panic after more than a year of relative calm.
There were no injuries, but the police said that several residents of Ashkelon, about 10 miles north of Gaza, were treated for shock. The last time the city was hit by rocket fire was in February 2009, according to an Israeli military spokeswoman. She noted that there had been many failed attempts to hit the city since Israel ended its three-week offensive in Gaza in the winter of 2008-9.
Ashkelon, with a population of about 125,000, was hit frequently by rockets during the war. Gaza is governed by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which won elections in 2006.
Richard Miron, a spokesman for the United Nations Middle East envoy, said in a statement on Friday that “indiscriminate rocket fire against civilians is completely unacceptable and constitutes a terrorist attack.”
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Israel’s military campaign came after years of rocket and mortar fire from Gaza. In the past 18 months there has been a significant drop in attacks, with Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza broadly upholding a shaky cease-fire. The rockets that have landed in Israeli territory since the war have fallen mostly in open areas, not inside towns and cities. |
ANALYSIS
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News
Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement The Apollo 11 mission which set Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on to the surface of the Moon in July 1969 was arguably humanity's finest endeavour. But to many the Apollo 13 mission was no less heroic - and, if anything, an even greater achievement. Astronauts Jack Swigert, Fred Haise and their commander Jim Lovell were trapped in a spacecraft low on power, water and rising carbon dioxide levels. Were it not for the ingenuity of the engineers at mission control and the bravery of the astronauts themselves, the three men would have died in space. I have a dim recollection of the Apollo 11 mission. But as a seven-year-old I do have clear memories of Apollo 13. I remember how the world was gripped by the unfolding story of the astronauts trapped in space. If I'd waited for some miracle I'd still be up there
Jim Lovell
Apollo 13 Commander Normally, when my Dad turned on the news, it was my cue to leave the room. But during those dramatic days in April I, like millions of others, followed every twist and turn of the story of Apollo 13 on the radio and TV news bulletins. For that fateful week in 1970, a world that had already become complacent about Moon missions was once again at one. Forty years later, I had the opportunity to speak to the Apollo 13 Commander, Jim Lovell. My first thought was that he was nothing like Tom Hanks, who played him in the Hollywood film about the mission. But that was in a good way. He came across as kindly, whereas I'd expected "steely". But as I spoke to him, it was clear that beneath his gentle exterior he had lost none of the focused strength that had helped him bring back his crew back to Earth. He told me that his first thought was how to fix the problem and get home. "If I'd waited for some miracle I'd still be up there." From l-r: Lovell, Swigert, Haise pose for their crew portrait
Lovell and his crew worked with the engineers at mission control to get to grips with the problem. "One of the news broadcasters gave us a 10% chance when my wife happened to hear about it she was kinda worried about it," he told me. Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. "But as we worked our way through solving one crisis after another, our percentage of success increased". The word "epic" is often overused. But the story of Apollo 13 deserves to be part of humanity's mythology to guide future generations. "I think one of the things that showed the people of the world was that even if there is a great catastrophe, good leadership and teamwork, initiative and perseverance - these things make for getting an almost certain catastrophe into a successful recovery," he said. An explosion tore away a protective cover on Apollo 13's service module
Lovell himself is humble about his own role. But even as he speaks matter-of-factly about what the astronauts were thinking, it's clear that this was a time when heroics were more common. These were extraordinary men capable of extraordinary things. "The chances (of success) were low - but so long as we could still keep breathing - as long as we had the lunar module as a lifeboat we kept charging (ahead with the rescue plan). "Our philosophy was: had we not been successful, we would have continued to broadcast our indications of what went wrong, what's happening - either until the last battery had died or the last bit of oxygen was gone." And speaking of the scrapping of Nasa's current plan to return to the Moon, Lovell believes it is a temporary setback: "Mankind is meant to explore. There is a certain group of us that live on the edge to do that sort of thing. And I think over the years regardless of budgets up or budgets down I think people will find a way of eventually going to Mars, not in my lifetime probably, but we will set foot on Mars one of these days."
Jim Lovell will be best remembered for his leadership of the Apollo 13 mission. But that's not his own enduring memory: "Although everybody looked at Apollo 13 the high point of my space career was Apollo 8 - the first time we saw the far side of the Moon and the first time we saw the Earth as it really is, as a small body that you realise that everything you have ever known is down there." In December 1968, Apollo 8 became the first spacecraft to leave the Earth and orbit the Moon. Lovell and his fellow astronauts were the first humans to see the Earth and a fragile beautiful blue planet shining in the desolation of space. Humanity's conflicts seemed petty from this perspective. The need to protect its delicate ecosystem seemed pressing. It was a sight that moved the astronauts to read from the Bible's book of Genesis to the people of the Earth. This was Lovell's passage: "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. "And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." For that moment in time it seemed that humanity was united and saw what the astronauts saw. It was a moment that Lovell believes changed humanity for ever: "We were able to read something that was the basis of most of the World's religions, so we were hoping to get the people together."
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English kinship terms, although not completely transparent even to those of us growing up with them, lack the complexity found in many other language systems. We might struggle to determine whether someone is a cousin once removed or a second cousin, but we don't have to think twice about what the title is for a parent's sister. It doesn't matter if the parent is the father or the mother: the name is the same: 'aunt'. In Latin, we would have to know whether the aunt is on the father's side, an amita, or on the mother's, a matertera.
This is not restricted to kinship terms. In terms of the sounds a language makes, there is a compromise made between ease of articulation and ease of understanding. In the realm of vocabulary, the ease might be the ease of memorizing a small number of specialized terms vs the need of others to know to whom you're referring. Sibling is more general than sister or brother. In English, we have both, but only those. In other languages, there might be a term for an older sister or younger brother and maybe none for a sibling, which could be considered too general to be useful.
For those who grew up speaking, for instance, Farsi or Hindi, this list may seem as it should be, but for us English speakers, it may take some time.
soror, sororis, f. sister
sister frater, fratris, m. brother
brother mater, matris, f. mother
mother pater, patris, m. father
father avia, -ae, f. grandmother
grandmother avus, -i, m. grandfather
grandfather proavia, -ae, f. great-grandmother
great-grandmother proavus, -i, m. great-grandfather
great-grandfather [abavia (great-great-grandmother)]
(great-great-grandmother)] [abavus (great-great-grandfather)]
(great-great-grandfather)] [atavia (great-great-great-grandmother)]
(great-great-great-grandmother)] [atavus (great-great-great-grandfather)]
(great-great-great-grandfather)] (great-great-great-great-grandmother)]
(great-great-great-great-grandfather)]
noverca, -ae. f. stepmother
vitricus, -, m. stepfather
stepfather patruus, -i, m. paternal uncle
paternal uncle [patruus magnus (paternal great-uncle)]
(paternal great-uncle)] [propatruus (paternal great-great uncle)]
(paternal great-great uncle)] avunculus, -i, m. maternal uncle
maternal uncle [avunculus magnus (maternal great-uncle)]
(maternal great-uncle)] [proavunculus (maternal great-great uncle)]
(maternal great-great uncle)] amita, -ae, f. paternal aunt
paternal aunt [amita magna (paternal great aunt)]
(paternal great aunt)] [proamita (paternal great-great aunt)]
(paternal great-great aunt)] matertera, -ae, f. maternal aunt
maternal aunt [matertera magna (maternal great-aunt)]
(maternal great-aunt)] [promatertera (maternal great-great-aunt)]
(maternal great-great-aunt)] patruelis, -is, m. /f. paternal cousin
/f. paternal cousin sobrinus, -i, m. maternal boy cousin |
Abstract There is an intimate relationship between consciousness and the notion of self. By studying patients with disorders of consciousness, we are offered with a unique lesion approach to tackle the neural correlates of self in the absence of subjective reports. Studies employing neuroimaging techniques point to the critical involvement of midline anterior and posterior cortices in response to the passive presentation of self-referential stimuli, such as the patient’s own name and own face. Also, resting state studies show that these midline regions are severely impaired as a function of the level of consciousness. Theoretical frameworks combining all this progress surpass the functional localization of self-related cognition and suggest a dynamic system-level approach to the phenomenological complexity of subjectivity. Importantly for non-communicating patients suffering from disorders of consciousness, the clinical translation of these technologies will allow medical professionals and families to better comprehend these disorders and plan efficient medical management for these patients. Keywords: consciousness, self, neuroimaging, disorders of consciousness, default mode network, external awareness
(Self) Consciousness in Non-Communicating Conditions The scientific study of consciousness dictates that there is an intimate relationship between the mind and the brain (Feinberg, 2000; John, 2002; Freeman, 2007; Tononi and Laureys, 2009; Fingelkurts et al., 2013). Nevertheless, besides several attempts to define it, consciousness remains a difficult term to describe and different people may think differently about it (Demertzi et al., 2009). Here, we will define consciousness in an operational manner, namely consciousness is what is lost during dreamless sleep (Tononi, 2004). As such, consciousness is a matter of both waking states and experience, so that the less awake we get the less aware we become of our surroundings and ourselves. Based on this definition, patients in coma are not conscious because they cannot be awakened. The linear relationship between wakefulness and awareness is violated in cases of severely brain-damaged patients who are in a vegetative state (VS) and minimally conscious state (MCS). Indeed, patients is VS, also coined as unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (UWS; Laureys et al., 2010), maintain awaking periods as evidenced by eye-opening and they will never respond to any visual, somatosensory, or auditory stimulation indicative of preserved awareness (Jennett and Plum, 1972). On the other hand, patients in MCS show fluctuating signs of awareness and non-reflex behaviors, such as visual pursuit and command following (Giacino et al., 2002). Importantly, in both clinical conditions patients remain unable to communicate with their environment in a functional manner. In the absence of subjective reports, how can one know whether patients in VS/UWS and MCS experience something and what these experiences are? In other words, can one claim that these patients retain a type of “core consciousness,” which provides them with a sense of self about here and now? (Damasio and Meyer, 2009). We think that the study of patients with disorders of consciousness offers a unique lesion approach to tackle the necessary neural correlates of self-consciousness. Our rationale lies on the argument that since clinical diagnosis shows that patients hold no subjective experience, the absence of subjective identity will be eventually reflected in patients’ brain function. As these patients are not able to communicate or show high-level cognitive function, we will here refer to self-consciousness as to its basic expression. In other words, as self-detection, namely when an organism can respond to stimuli with which is directly implicated or modify its behavior in ways which imply awareness of its own actions (Zeman, 2001). Accordingly, the employed experimental paradigms refer to the administration of self-referential stimuli (patients’ own name and own face) and the subsequent measure of brain responses to these stimuli with neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques. The excellent spatial resolution which is offered by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), permits to better “localize” self-referential brain activity. Therefore, we will here focus on studies employing these neuroimaging methods to study residual self-consciousness in patients with disorders of consciousness. To date, such functional neuroimaging studies point to the critical recruitment of anterior and posterior midline cerebral areas in experimental paradigms employing self-referential stimuli. Activation of these midline regions is further observed during resting state conditions in healthy volunteers. This has led to the suggestion of a link between resting state activity and unconstraint self-related mentation. We will review these studies in patients and healthy controls, discuss the involvement of midline areas to the notion of self in patients and will propose that self-related cognition might be a matter of a system-level dynamic activity rather than activation of specific brain areas.
Assessing Self-Consciousness in Non-Communicating Patients Clinicians are offered with various clinical scales to detect sings of awareness at the bedside (Majerus et al., 2005). The Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (Giacino et al., 2004) is one of the most sensitive tool to diagnose and differentiate between patients in VS/UWS and MCS because it assesses all the defining criteria for MCS, such as visual pursuit (Seel et al., 2010). Nonetheless, it is not only a certain behavior that needs to be detected, but the way this is assessed seems to be equally important. For example, when visual pursuit was tested by means of a moving object, a moving person, and a moving mirror, more patients tracked their image in the mirror compared the other two stimuli and were hence considered as in a MCS (Vanhaudenhuyse et al., 2008). Similarly, to score sound localization with the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised, patients need to orient their head or eyes toward the source of the sound. When the patients’ own names were used, more oriented their head or eyes toward the examiner compared to the meaningless sound of a ringing bell (Cheng et al., 2013). These studies imply that self-referential stimuli are more effective to explore patients’ responsiveness and can influence the diagnostic process (also, see Laureys et al., 2007). To what degree, however, can one claim that these paradigms also reflect the, indirect, assessment of residual self-consciousness in this non-communicating clinical population? One way to approach the answer is to measure patients’ brain responses and activation during sensitive experimental manipulations and compare them with that of healthy controls. If the cerebral pattern is indistinguishable between the two groups, then one has good reasons to believe that the extracted statistical maps reflect the same construct (Owen, 2013). Naturally, there are emerging legitimate concerns about the degree of confidence one can have on functional neuroimaging results, especially in the absence of subjective reports (e.g., Fins and Schiff, 2010). In addition, our limited understanding of the dynamic neural complexity underlying consciousness and its resistance to quantification in the absence of communication (Seth et al., 2008) makes it difficult to establish strong claims about self-consciousness in non-communicating patients. Nevertheless, the use of these technologies have shed light on the gray zones between the different clinical entities of consciousness and have revealed that not all patients can be considered unresponsive (Laureys and Boly, 2008; Gantner et al., 2012). For example, fMRI has been used to assist the diagnosis of patients with disorders of consciousness (Coleman et al., 2009), to detect preserved awareness in behaviorally unresponsive patients (Owen et al., 2006), and even to communicate with them (Monti et al., 2010). Due to the difficulty to control voluntary eye-opening of patients, most neuroimaging studies employing self-referential stimuli restrict to the auditory modality (Table ). In a PET study with one patient in MCS, the patient’s own name was presented next to baby cries and meaningless noise (Laureys et al., 2004). Passive listening to the own name recruited the activation of midline areas, such as precuneus and anterior cingulate/mesiofrontal cortex next to lateral parietal areas including language-related regions, such as Broca’s and Wernicke’s. Another n = 1 study with a patient in VS/UWS utilizing fMRI also showed that passive listening to the own name compared to other names, encompassed the activation of the medial prefrontal cortex bilaterally in parallel to temporo-parietal and superior frontal cortices (Staffen et al., 2006). Including more patients (n = 11), it was shown that all four patients in MCS and six patients in VS/UWS showed cerebral responses to their own names either in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) or in the caudal part of the ACC or the supplementary motor area (predefined regions based on brain responses of healthy controls) (Qin et al., 2010). Interestingly, those two patients in VS/UWS who exhibited activity in the caudal ACC evolved to a MCS at a 3-month follow up. Similarly, two patients in VS/UWS when listening to their own name showed cerebral activation extending to associative auditory cortex and also recovered to MCS (Di et al., 2007). Such brain activations, however, are atypical of the VS/UWS. Indeed, it has been shown that auditory processing of simple stimuli in VS/UWS refers to the activation of only auditory primary cortices whereas hierarchically higher-order multi-modal association areas are not activated (Laureys et al., 2000; Boly et al., 2004). Although caution should be paid on the accurate behavioral evaluation of these patients with standardized tools, like the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (Table ), there are cases of unresponsive patients where functional neuroimaging can precede the clinic (e.g., Owen et al., 2006). Taken together, these studies suggest that when activity of the anterior midline areas is recruited using the own name paradigm, this can work as prognostic marker (for a review, see Di et al., 2008). Table 1 Technique Patients Coma recovery scale-revised assessment? Experimental contrast Implicated brain regions Reference fMRI 4 MCS, 7 UWS Yes Passive listening to own name by familiar voice In predefined regions of ACC, cACC, and SMA: Qin et al. (2010) • In all 4 MCS and six UWS: signal changes in at least one the three regions
• In 2 UWS: activity in cACC (clinical improvement to MCS at three-month follow up)* fMRI 4 MCS, 7 UWS Yes Passive listening to own name by familiar voice vs. baseline (machine noise) • In all 4 MCS: primary auditory cortex extending to associative auditory cortex
• In 2 UWS: no activation
In 3 UWS: primary auditory cortex
In 2 UWS: primary auditory cortex extending to associative auditory cortex (clinical improvement to MCS at three-month follow up)* Di et al. (2007) fMRI 1 UWS No Passive listening to own vs. other names Medial prefrontal cortex bilaterally (also activation in L temporo-parietal and superior frontal cortices) Staffen et al. (2006) PET 1 MCS Yes Passive listening to own name Precuneus and anterior cingulate/mesiofrontal cortex (also activation in bilateral angular gyri, R temporo-parietal junction, L dorsal prefrontal regions and Broca’s area, bilateral posterior superior temporal sulci and dorsal superior temporal gyri, encompassing Wernicke’s area) Laureys et al. (2004) Open in a separate window Apart from activation studies utilizing self-referential stimuli, increasing attention has been paid to spontaneous brain activity and its significance to self-related cognition. During resting state, a set of brain areas encompassing precuneus, medial prefrontal cortex and bilateral temporo-parietal junctions have been shown to work by default, when subjects do not perform any task (Gusnard and Raichle, 2001). This default mode network (DMN) of areas in healthy controls has been related to internally oriented cognitive content, such as self-referential or social cognition, mind-wandering, and autobiographical memory recall (e.g., D’Argembeau et al., 2005; Mason et al., 2007; Buckner et al., 2008; Schilbach et al., 2008; Vanhaudenhuyse et al., 2011). Such intrinsic cerebral activity also seems to be implicated in consciousness processes. For example, in brain death, where all brainstem reflexes are lost parallel to continuous cessation of respiration, functional connectivity in the DMN is absent (Boly et al., 2009), or attributed merely to motion artifacts (Soddu et al., 2011). Coma patients show no identifiable fMRI DMN connectivity and in those patients where such connectivity can be detected may indicate subsequent recovery of consciousness (Norton et al., 2012). In patients with disorders of consciousness, such fMRI DMN connectivity is partially preserved yet severely disrupted, showing consciousness level-dependent decreases when moving from healthy controls to patients in MCS, VS/UWS, and coma (Vanhaudenhuyse et al., 2010). Interestingly, EEG studies have corroborated these findings: it has been shown that the strength of DMN EEG synchrony was smallest or even absent in patients in VS/UWS, intermediate in patients in MCS, and highest in healthy fully self-conscious subjects (Fingelkurts et al., 2012). Similarly, brain metabolism in these midline structures is severely disrupted in patients in VS/UWS and MCS compared to patients who have emerged from the MCS or are in a locked-in syndrome (Figure ; Thibaut et al., 2012). It has been further proposed that deactivation of the DMN is supposed to reflect interruptions of introspective processes. Such investigation in patients showed that, compared to healthy controls, deactivation in medial regions of the DMN was absent in patients in VS/UWS and reduced in patients in MCS (Crone et al., 2011). Taken together, studies of spontaneous activity in patients suggest that changes in the DMN functional connectivity could suggest modified self-related conscious mentation. Indeed, it has been suggested that in normal waking conditions, resting state activity in the posterior cingulate, and frontal areas accounts for self-referential thoughts (Whitfield-Gabrieli et al., 2011; Fingelkurts et al., 2012). Therefore, it could be inferred that decreased connectivity in these midline regions of the DMN reflects, at least to certain degree, restricted abilities for self-referential processing in patients with disorders of consciousness. Open in a separate window
The Self as a Product of a Dynamic System Approach Since the early studies of resting state, it has been suggested that the brain’s baseline activity can be organized in two brain networks showing anticorrelated activity to each other: an “intrinsic” and an “extrinsic” network (Fox et al., 2005; Fransson, 2005; Golland et al., 2007; Tian et al., 2007). The “intrinsic” network coincides with the DMN and is involved in the same cognitive processes as the DMN. The “extrinsic” system encompasses lateral frontoparietal areas resembling the brain activations during goal-directed behavior and it has been linked to cognitive processes of external sensory input, such as somatosensory (e.g., Boly et al., 2007), visual (e.g., Dehaene and Changeux, 2005), and auditory (e.g., Brunetti et al., 2008). Previous studies showed that these two systems are of a competing character in the sense that they can disturb or even interrupt each other (e.g., Tian et al., 2007). Such anticorrelated pattern is also illustrated in activation studies on motor performance (Fox et al., 2007), perceptual discrimination (Sapir et al., 2005), attentional lapses (Weissman et al., 2006), and somatosensory perception of stimuli close to somatosensory threshold (Boly et al., 2007). We have recently proposed that these two systems may account for the phenomenological complexity of awareness. In particular, it is proposed that awareness, or the contents of consciousness, can be reduced to two components, namely the “external” awareness or everything we perceive through our senses (what we see, hear, feel, smell, and taste) and “internal” awareness or stimulus-independent thoughts (Demertzi et al., 2013). Interestingly, the switch between the external and internal milieu was found not only to characterize overt behavioral reports but also had a cerebral correlate (Vanhaudenhuyse et al., 2011). More particularly, it was shown that behavioral reports of internal awareness were linked to the activity of midline anterior cingulate/mesiofrontal areas as well as posterior cingulate/precuneal cortices. Conversely, subjective ratings for external awareness correlated with the activity of lateral fronto-parieto-temporal regions. These findings highlight that the anticorrelated pattern between the internal and external awareness system is of functional relevance to conscious cognition. Indeed, in an altered conscious state like hypnosis, where subjects report awareness alterations but remain fully responsive, hypnosis-related reductions in functional connectivity were shown in the external awareness system parallel to subjective ratings of increased sense of dissociation from the environment and reduced intensity of thoughts about external events (Demertzi et al., 2011). Similar reductions in external awareness systems have been also shown for non-responsive conditions, such as deep sleep and anesthesia (for a review, see Heine et al., 2012). Analysis of metabolic activity obtained in VS/UWS patients compared to healthy controls or comparisons with recovery of awareness (i.e., within-subject), have highlighted the critical role of a widespread fronto-temporo-parietal associative cortical network (Thibaut et al., 2012). Recent PET data indicate that recovery of MCS patients seems to be accompanied by a right-lateralized recovery of the external awareness network whereas the presence of command following, defining the MCS plus (Bruno et al., 2011), classically parallels the recovery of the dominant left-lateralized language network (Bruno et al., 2012). Similar results have been observed in slow wave sleep and general anesthesia (for review, see Boveroux et al., 2008). Interestingly, these findings are also confirmed in transient dissociative states of unresponsive wakefulness, such as absence seizures, complex partial seizures, or sleepwalking – all characterized by preserved automatic reflex motor behavior in the absence of response to commands and showing transient impaired activity in these fronto-temporo-parietal associative areas (Laureys, 2005; Blumenfeld, 2012). According to a suggested framework taking the external and internal awareness systems into account, two complementary states of system imbalance are possible, where one system can be in a hyperfunctional state, while the other is hypoactive. Extrinsic system hyperfunction is expected to lead to a state of total sensorimotor absorption or “lost self.” In contrast, intrinsic or default system hyperfunction is expected to lead to a state of complete detachment from the external world. A state where both extrinsic and intrinsic systems are hypofunctional is predicted to lead to markedly impaired consciousness as seen in disorders of consciousness (Soddu et al., 2009). A more recent proposal, adopting a similar system-level approach, points to the functional separation of the dorsal and ventral subcomponents of the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC): the ventral PCC appears to be highly integrated within the DMN, and is involved in internally directed cognition (e.g., memory retrieval and planning) whereas the dorsal PCC shows a highly complex pattern of connectivity, with prominent connections to the frontal lobes (Leech et al., 2012). According to the suggested model, differential regional activity can be explained by considering the arousal state, the milieu of attention (internal vs. external) and the breadth of attention (narrow vs. broad) (Leech and Sharp, 2013). The model proposes that through its interactions with the prefrontal cortex, the dorsal PCC is involved in controlling attentional focus. Hence, interactions of these PCC sub-regions with other intrinsic connectivity networks are then involved in shifting the balance of attention along an internal/external and broad/narrow dimension (Leech and Sharp, 2013). Taken together these studies indicate that DMN and anticorrelated external awareness system activity underlies (at least partially) conscious ongoing mentation. It should be mentioned that fMRI anticorrelations were previously subject to debate in the literature. It has been argued, for instance, that fMRI functional anticorrelations are nothing more than noise in the signal due to regression of the brain’s global activity during data preprocessing (Anderson et al., 2011). Other data, however, suggest that the anticorrelations persist both with and without global signal regression, suggesting some underlying biological origins for this anticorrelated pattern (Fox et al., 2009; Chai et al., 2012). We would agree with the latter evidence which is supported by studies in unconscious conditions, such as anesthesia, sleep, and in unresponsive patients (Boly et al., 2009) where these anticorrelations generally reduce or even disappear, accounting for their functional contribution to conscious cognition.
Conclusion Neuroimaging activation and resting state studies indicate an indirect measure of self-related cognition encompassing midline and lateral frontoparietal areas. Furthermore, such studies have recently shown a much more complex, dynamic, and multifaceted architecture of brain functional connectivity in the emergence of consciousness than previously thought. Importantly for non-communicating patients suffering from disorders of consciousness, such neuroimaging measurements are of medical and ethical importance (Jox et al., 2012). What remains to be determined is the clinical translation of these technologies which will allow medical professionals and families to better comprehend these disorders, plan efficient medical management, and in a far reaching perspective, to acquire new opportunities to restore their brain functions.
Conflict of Interest Statement The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. |
The University of New Mexico Physics and Astronomy Department will co-host a series of events and educational programming designed to coincide with an upcoming annular solar eclipse. On Sunday, May 20, the western U.S. will experience a solar eclipse. For most of the region, this will be a partial eclipse, but a small swath of the country including eclipse viewers in Albuquerque, will get to see an annular "Ring of Fire" eclipse, where the Moon will block out all but a small ring around the edge of the Sun.
The Solar Eclipse viewing event near the UNM Observatory parking lot, located off Yale Blvd. on the north side of Lomas Blvd., begins at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 20. Interested attendees are encouraged to show up before the eclipse starts. Safety glasses for viewing will be given out free at the event.
The eclipse begins in Albuquerque at 6:28 p.m. local time. The annular phase starts at 7:33 p.m. and lasts for approximately four minutes. At this time, the Sun will be approximately five degrees above the western horizon.
Albuquerque is in the direct path of eclipse maximum for this solar eclipse, which means that the Moon will pass in front of the Sun and those in Albuquerque will get to see an amazing show. What makes these events rare is the relatively small shadow that the Moon casts on Earth.
"Albuquerque is in a good place for viewing in the path of the eclipse," said Richard Rand, professor and event coordinator, Department of Physics and Astronomy. "We are right in the center, and the only big city, in the path of the eclipse. This means planning is required in order to see the eclipse maximum."
In the days before the eclipse, a series of free public lectures will be held at UNM and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History with interesting information about the annular eclipse and the Venus transit, the science of eclipses and transits, and a bit of history surrounding these events.
Lecture Schedule
The events begin on Friday, May 11 at 3 p.m. with a lecture titled, "The Very Rare and Amazing May 20 Annular Eclipse and June 5 Transit of Venus," given by Ylva Pihlstrom, associate professor, UNM Department of Physics and Astronomy. The lecture will be held in Regener Hall, rm. 103.
Other lectures will be held on Sunday, May 13 at 1:30 p.m., by John Dickel, adjunct professor, UNM Department of Physics and Astronomy, as part of the Solar Sundays program at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and on Friday, May 18 at 8 p.m., a talk titled, "Two Celestial Events," will be given by Jack Brandt, adjunct professor, UNM Department of Physics and Astronomy. Brandt's talk will be held in the ballrooms at the UNM Student Union Building. Free parking is available in UNM Lots A and E bordered by Central Ave, Redondo Rd, Stanford and Girard Blvd. On Sunday, May 20 at 1:30 p.m., prior to the viewing at the UNM Observatory, a talk titled, "The Very Rare and Amazing May 20 Annular Eclipse and June 5 Transit of Venus," will be given by Greg Taylor, associate professor, UNM Department of Physics and Astronomy, at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History.
This particular eclipse will be of the annular type, which means the sun won't be completely blocked out like the more commonly known total eclipse. For annular eclipses, the size of the Moon will appear to be just smaller than the Sun, which will leave a small ring (an annulus) of the Sun still visible around the Moon when the Moon is completely in front of the Sun. For this reason, it won't get dark during this eclipse.
For a complete list of events as well as links and a variety of informational links leading up to the Annular Eclipse including eclipses in general, and Safety and Lecture Information, visit: Eclipse 2012.
"Safety is very important," added Rand. "Never look directly into the sun with your eyes or through a pair of binoculars, cameras or telescopes.
Additionally, on Tuesday, June 5 at 4 p.m., the UNM Observatory will be open for the Transit of Venus. This rare alignment occurs when Venus passes directly between earth and the sun, and viewers see the distant planet as a small dot gliding slowly across the face of the sun. Historically, this is how astronomers measured the size of our solar system.
For more information, visit: Transit of Venus.
Other event sponsors include: The National Park Service, Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum, Bernalillo County, the Albuquerque Astronomical Society, Albuquerque Convention and Visitors Bureau, City of Albuquerque Open Space, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, and Sandia Peak Tramway.
Media Contact: Steve Carr (505) 277-1821; e-mail: scarr@unm.edu |
On Wednesday, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the Federal District Court in Manhattan , an S.E.C. critic, is scheduled to review the Citigroup settlement. Judge Rakoff has asked the agency what it does to ensure companies do not repeat the same offense, and whether it has ever brought contempt charges for chronic violators. The S.E.C. said in a court filing Monday that it had not brought any contempt charges against large financial firms in the last 10 years.
Since the financial crisis, the S.E.C. has been criticized for missing warning signs that could have softened the blow. The pattern of repeated accusations of securities law violations adds another layer of concerns about enforcing the law. Not only does the S.E.C. fail to catch many instances of wrongdoing, which may be unavoidable, given its resources, but when it is on the case, financial firms often pay a relatively small price.
Senator Carl Levin , a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate permanent subcommittee on investigations and has led several inquiries into Wall Street, said the S.E.C.’s method of settling fraud cases, is “a symbol of weak enforcement. It doesn’t do much in the way of deterrence, and it doesn’t do much in the way of punishment, I don’t think.”
Barbara Roper, director of investor protection for the Consumer Federation of America, said, “You can look at the record and see that it clearly suggests this is not deterring repeat offenses. You have to at least raise the question if other alternatives might be more effective.”
S.E.C. officials say they allow these kinds of settlements because it is far less costly than taking deep-pocketed Wall Street firms to court and risking losing the case. By law, the commission can bring only civil cases. It has to turn to the Justice Department for criminal prosecutions.
Robert Khuzami , the S.E.C.’s enforcement director, said never-do-it again promises were a deterrent especially when there were repeated problems. In their private discussions, commissioners weigh a firm’s history with the S.E.C. before they settle on the amount of fines and penalties. “It’s a thumb on the scale,” Mr. Khuzami said. “No one here is disregarding the fact that there were prior violations or prior misconduct,” he said.
But prior violations are plentiful. For example, Bank of America’s securities unit has agreed four times since 2005 not to violate a major antifraud statute, and another four times not to violate a separate law. Merrill Lynch , which Bank of America acquired in 2008, has separately agreed not to violate the same two statutes seven times since 1999.
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Of the 19 companies that the Times found to be repeat offenders over the last 15 years, 16 declined to comment. They read like a Wall Street who’s who: American International Group , Ameriprise, Bank of America, Bear Stearns , Columbia Management, Deutsche Asset Management, Credit Suisse , Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Putnam Investments , Raymond James, RBC Dain Rauscher, UBS and Wells Fargo/Wachovia.
Two others, Franklin Advisers and Massachusetts Financial, said that their two settlements were made simultaneously and therefore one incident did not violate a previous cease-and-desist order.
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A spokesman for Citigroup said “there is no basis for any assertion that Citi has violated the terms” of any settlement.
But some experts view many settlements as essentially meaningless, particularly since they usually do not require a company to admit to the accusations leveled by the S.E.C. Nearly every settlement allows a company to “neither admit nor deny” the accusations — even when the company has admitted to the same charges in a related case brought by the Justice Department — so that they are less vulnerable to investor lawsuits.
In 2005, Bank of America was one of several companies singled out for allowing professional traders to buy or sell a mutual fund at the previous day’s closing price, when it was clear the next day that the overall market or particular stocks were going to move either up or down sharply, guaranteeing a big short-term gain or avoiding a significant loss.
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In its settlement, Bank of America neither admitted nor denied the conduct, but agreed to pay a $125 million fine and to put $250 million into a fund to repay investors. The company also agreed never to violate the major antifraud statutes.
Two years later, in 2007, Bank of America was accused by the S.E.C. of fraud by using its supposedly independent research analysts to bolster its investment banking activities from 1999 to 2001. In the settlement, Bank of America without admitting or denying its guilt, paid a $16 million fine and promised, once again, not to violate the law.
But two years later, in 2009, the S.E.C. again accused Bank of America of defrauding investors, saying that in 2007-8, the bank sold $4.5 billion of highly risky auction-rate securities by promising buyers that they were as safe as money market funds. They weren’t, and this time Bank of America agreed to be “permanently enjoined” from violating the same section of the law it had previously agreed not to break.
In fact, the company had already violated that promise, according to the S.E.C when it was accused last year of rigging bids in the municipal securities market from 1998 through 2002. To settle the charges, Bank of America paid no penalty, but refunded investors $25 million in profits plus $11 million in interest. And, the bank promised again never to violate the same law.
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The S.E.C. allowed the bank to settle without admitting or denying the charges, even though Bank of America had simultaneously settled a case with the Justice Department’s antitrust division admitting the very same conduct.
Companies routinely argue that while they may be settling multiple violations of the same law, the facts of each case are different — and therefore not exactly a repeat offense.
But Jayne Barnard, a law professor at the William & Mary Law School who has studied repeat securities fraud violators, said “it stretches the truth” to claim that a company’s multiple violations of the same law “are just a freakish coincidence.”
The S.E.C. can target repeat violations. It could bring civil contempt charges against a company for violating one of its don’t-do-it-again orders, but it rarely does. The S.E.C. does not publicly refer to previous cases when filing new charges.
Mr. Khuzami, the agency enforcement chief, said it prefers to use its resources to bring charges of new violations against a company rather than to pursue contempt charges in court.
“If you’ve got a company that settles a case involving its research analysts one year, and several years later it is accused of fraud in selling a C.D.O. to customers, those are very different parts of a company,” Mr. Khuzami said, referring to collateralized debt obligations , a form of derivative that contributed to the housing bubble.
Donna M. Nagy, a professor at the Indiana University law school and an author of a widely used textbook on securities law enforcement, said that by ignoring previous accusations of violations, the S.E.C. was minimizing the value of its actions.
Edward Skyler, a spokesman for Citigroup, said that the fact that the company entered into a $285 million settlement last month does not mean that it had violated the terms of any previous settlement. “Like all other major financial institutions, Citi has entered into various settlements with the S.E.C. over the years and there is no basis for any assertion that Citi has violated the terms of any of those settlements,” he said.
Mr. Levin, the Michigan senator, said he believed that the S.E.C.’s settlements were the problem. “It’s like a cop giving out warnings instead of giving tickets,” he said. “It’s a green light to operate the same way without a lot of fear that the boom is going to be lowered on you.” |
We previously reported a growing trend that Yes was coming out on top in every debate on Scotland’s future in our article “Yes winning 63% to 33% after three post debate polls”
The evidence since continues to demonstrate that people move towards voting Yes after engaging with evidence from both sides of the debate.
There were three such examples this week.
1) Thrive Business Debate
Last night in Edinburgh, members of the Scottish business community met to analyse the prospectus for independence and the factual case for a Yes vote in 2014.
Business for Scotland was represented by David Cairns the Executive Chairman of PrismTech, an £8m turnover software company with offices in Stirling and England.
Undecided business professionals were swayed by the Yes case, particularly the economic opportunities of independence. Control of fiscal powers – such as tax, investment and export support – will provide greater opportunities for business in Scotland to increase their competitiveness.
One participant, Dr Gen Cannibal who is the Director for Environment with Progenus Environmental Ltd, was fully convinced by the case for independence.
He said: “The Yes campaign arguments were more factually accurate and convincing by a long way. This was especially the case in regards to the renewable energy sector which has the potential to be a major economic earner for the Scottish economy but only if it is supported.”
This sort of feedback is a regular occurrence at Business for Scotland events. Previously, Stuart MacDonald said “I must admit before I attended I was sitting on the fence but having sat through various speakers and listened to the evidence I am now strongly in favour of the Yes vote.”
Business for Scotland has found growing support for independence within the business community and our own membership has now grown to over 1,000. In stark contrast, the No Campaign is struggling for business support and is heavily reliant upon former or failed Westminster political candidates with spurious business credentials to make their case. This is because more serious business people don’t want to publicly back the No Campaign’s ridiculous scare stories for fear of damaging their own reputations.
2) Strathclyde University Union Debate
On Monday night, at Strathclyde University there was a discussion on independence and employment.
Given the dysfunctional nature of UK employment relations and the proposals in the “Scotland’s Future” independence White Paper to improve this, it’s no surprise the economic debate led to an increase in support for ‘Yes’.
Business for Scotland was represented by Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, who was joined on the Yes side by Peter McColl, Rector of the University of Edinburgh, James Dornan MSP and Jean Urquhart, independent MSP and owner of the Ceilidh Place Hotel in Ullapool.
This resulted in a commanding victory of 60.6% to Yes vs 24.2% for No. Support for Yes increased when 55% of the undecided voters before the debate switched to Yes. The No campaign failed to pick up a single extra vote.
This once again indicates a growing willingness from undecided voters to be persuaded by positive arguments for independence, particularly when they are simultaneously presented with the case for a No future.
3) High School Student Debate
On Monday there was also a school hall debate at St Ninian’s High School in Kirkintilloch. It was organised for Secondary 4, 5 and 6 – many of whom will be voting for the first time in 2014.Economics, jobs and prosperity were at the heart of the Yes case for independence.
Young people were inquisitive as to the benefits of controlling defence policy in Scotland, the opportunities for improving the economy and public services, and tackling the levels of social inequality.
All three questions led back to the crucial economic case – that Scotland will be financially better off as an independent country.
On defence – as covered by Business for Scotland – there will be a substantial ‘Defence Dividend’ of at least £500 million a year. Pupils were receptive to spending money wasted on nuclear weapons in better areas such as childcare. An independent Scotland’s economy will benefit from increased investment with control of policy in Scotland. This provides opportunities to create more jobs and life opportunities that help alleviate social exclusion and poverty.
The feedback was tremendous.
By one teacher’s account, there was a majority against independence 3 months ago in September. After the debate 50% had changed their position from either undecided or ‘No’ to voting ‘Yes’. This gave ‘Yes’ a majority as not a single person indicated that they changed their mind to voting No.
It was fantastic to see so many young people deciding to vote Yes. Young people have the most to gain from an independent Scotland. Whether it’s protecting university education from fee rises, investing in apprenticeships or improving opportunities for enterprise – it’s clear that decisions which affect Scotland are best taken in Scotland.
Many pupils were engaging in this discussion for the first time. Old notions that Scotland is ‘too poor’ were conclusively debunked. For the No side, Gregg McClymont MP had absolutely no response to the official GERS figures showing Scotland’s stronger balance sheet relative to the UK and independent reports which demonstrate Scotland’s economy is performing better than the UK as a whole.
Conclusion
These three events were the latest market signals that people and business in Scotland are receptive to the economic arguments for independence. Evidence and research is definitive: Scotland can and will be a successful independent country. It is therefore no surprise – when people are presented with the evidence – that voters decide to support independence. It is not unreasonable to suggest that 60% of people who engage with the debate and listen to both sides can be expected to vote Yes in September. The No Campaign will keep muddying the waters and scaremongering to make the debate less engaging and informative. But on these terms a Yes vote is within Scotland’s grasp. |
An internal workplace review of the Calgary Police Service has revealed claims of sexual assault, sexual harassment, bullying and intimidation, and a workplace culture that’s left some officers too fearful to formally complain.
The review, completed in 2013 and obtained by Postmedia, further details how the culture makes men and women often feel punished when they bring issues forward, or even when they request flexible work schedules.
Some women also reported feeling their chances for promotion were lost when they became pregnant.
“Both males and females shared instances of workplace bullying and harassment,” according to the human resources report, written by an independent auditor.
“Both men and women reported they did not bring these concerns forward in any formal way because the culture is one of intimidation and retaliation.”
Officers echoed those concerns in interviews with Postmedia, including one current female member who said seven officers texted her photos of their genitals after working shifts together.
In another incident, she claims a co-worker grabbed her head without warning and shoved it into his crotch, telling her to “do something useful.”
Senior police officials say they’ve taken strides to combat the issues outlined in the 2013 review, including the creation of the “Office of Inclusion,” a department existing specifically to receive and process complaints related to workplace culture.
The office is also working with the University of Calgary’s gender studies program to better understand workplace culture issues.
Police Chief Roger Chaffin said addressing the state of workplace culture and gender equity issues is a priority but will take time.
“It’s a new office, so it’s not a magic wand I can wave and say to trust it,” Chaffin said.
“We’re making headway, we see a lot of employees, we deal with a lot of issues.”
Though the report raises claims of sexual assault within the force, the service says no one has come forward to file a complaint.
“(Once) I have someone to step forward and say, ‘This happened to me and this is the situation,’ then we can go and find out what the facts are and investigate it,” Chaffin said.
Details of the review emerged the same month the RCMP announced a historic apology as part of a settlement with plaintiffs in two proposed class-action lawsuits alleging systemic gender-based harassment and discrimination within the national police force.
CPS’ workplace review was ordered by then-chief Rick Hanson as a “result of a number of concerns brought to his attention” regarding practices related to the human resources section of the service.
An independent auditor interviewed 65 CPS employees in 2012 and 2013 to get a handle on the effectiveness of HR and the general situation of the workplace culture and gender-equity issues in the force. The results weren’t made public until recently.
While the report found “many examples of the good work that the Human Resources Section has done and is currently doing,” it also flags examples of “when things did not go as hoped or planned.”
The report cited a culture of “intimidation and retaliation” that kept both men and women from formally reporting their concerns.
At the end of the day, it’s hard to act on people’s perceptions
The auditor found the submission of formal reports “was perceived to be unsafe in terms of their career to do so. In fact, it was often the perpetrator who reminded them that it would be unsafe to report incidents and that nothing would be done.”
Interviewees also reported they didn’t trust human resources to process a complaint without negative implication on them, “despite there being examples of serious bullying and/or harassment, acts of discrimination . . . and acts of criminal behaviour including sexual assaults.”
Indeed, during the review, some staff requested to meet the auditor outside city limits. One officer asked the auditor to wear a disguise so their peers wouldn’t know they were meeting.
Another reason some CPS staff said they didn’t raise complaints was the perception perpetrators aren’t sufficiently dealt with, because of what was perceived to be “powerful connections.” The report also noted many female officers felt like they had “1,000 stab wounds” from workplace interactions, and that they felt like they were punished for becoming pregnant.
Nineteen per cent of the CPS sworn members are female, while 67 per cent of its civilian staff are women.
“The female members who had children consistently reported their acceptance on the job ended at the point they became pregnant,” the auditor wrote.
“Upon announcing their pregnancy, a few of those I spoke to were able to be accommodated in a safe environment within their workplace, which was acceptable to them and allowed them to continue their work.
“However the majority were told the only placements for them were at front counters, which has traditionally had a negative stigma that is hard to get past, offers less than challenging work tasks and, in fact, as some suggested, were not particularly safe.”
The auditor said some of the women wanted to return to work on a job-share or part-time basis, but were reportedly challenged by such statements as, “My wife came back full time.”
One officer, who spoke to Postmedia under the condition of anonymity, burst into tears when talking about the rumours co-workers spread when she came back to work after taking time off to deal with family issues.
Nina Vaughan, the first head of the Office of Inclusion, said it has taken strides by handling many formal complaints, working on bias and leadership training, increasing the use of subject matter experts in HR and working with the University of Calgary’s gender studies program.
“At the end of the day, it’s hard to act on people’s perceptions,” said Vaughan.
“All we can do is put the processes in place, which I believe we have in place, for people to come forward, and hope that they do or that they can explain why they won’t.”
Speaking to the progress the Office of Inclusion has made, Vaughan said, “I feel really good, It’s been very positive and hopeful with the amount that has gone into most of the recommendations in that report.”
But while the CPS says it’s taken strides to combat the issues outlined in the 2013 review, five officers interviewed by Postmedia say they haven’t seen a noticeable change in the workplace culture since the report came out, and are still afraid to speak out.
The officer who said she received photos of her co-workers’ genitals still hasn’t formally come forward because the culture of fear remains prevalent.
She said when she had reported previous experiences to her superiors, they either didn’t know how to handle her situation or didn’t handle it at all.
I have spent most of my career terrified that if I complain, or even am vocal about these things, that I will be the one in trouble
“When I joined the job, the people I worked with made it clear that reporting behaviour that you were offended by was not acceptable and would only ruin your career,” said the officer.
“I have spent most of my career terrified that if I complain, or even am vocal about these things, that I will be the one in trouble.”
Other officers interviewed by Postmedia, including Marlene Hope, who worked on the Office of Inclusion until she quit in 2015, called the office “a Band-Aid solution” that wasn’t effectively solving deep-seated issues in the force’s culture.
“If they dealt with the issues appropriately, we would probably have very few reoffenders, but because we never dealt with it, people didn’t even know where the line was anymore, they kept crossing it,” said Hope.
“The reality is, this is absolutely not just a gender issue. The culture that exists impacts everyone.”
Chaffin said finding a way to get officers to trust the organization and come forward with their complaints is a long process.
“It’s a very important topic, and just because we didn’t see anyone come forward it does not make us naive (enough) to suggest that there’s nothing there,” said Chaffin.
“When people feel uncomfortable coming forward, that’s something we still have to work on every day.” |
ISIL militants reached the outskirts of Syria’s second city yesterday as the U.S. warned Russia its campaign to tackle the extremist group was backfiring. The jihadists launched a surprise attack on non-ISIL rebel positions north of Aleppo on Thursday night, seizing at least three villages and a former army base that rebels had captured from troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad two years ago.
The attack brought them close to regime positions in the north-east of the city. Further advances could mean rebels, including many characterized as “moderate” by the West, become sealed inside the besieged city by a circle of regime and ISIL fighters. The attack came 10 days after Russia began air strikes on targets across northern and western Syria, claiming to be fighting ISIL but, according to reports from the ground and the detailed list of their targets, mostly hitting the non-ISIL rebel groups that present the greatest threat to the regime.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, described the attack as ISIL’s most significant for months. It has raised fears that Russia, by hitting rebel groups that are fighting ISIL as well as the regime, will inadvertently strengthen the hardline jihadists they say they want to crush. Many rebels say the policy is deliberate, and that Russia is pursuing a strategy Assad devised, of deliberately assisting ISIL so that the West is given a choice of supporting the regime or ISIL.
On Thursday, Ashton Carter, the U.S. defence secretary, accused Moscow of inflaming extremism.
“By taking the side of Assad they inflame the civil war — and therefore extremism — and prolong the suffering of the Syrian people,” Carter said in London. “They are going to have the effect also of turning everyone against Russia itself. This will boomerang in a very direct way on Russia.”
A Syrian regime offensive against non-ISIL rebels backed by the Russians and Syrian helicopters has foundered in the face of determined resistance.
Videos released online by rebel groups purported to show them destroying a number of regime tanks this week with TOW missiles, which are American-made but supplied by Saudi Arabia. The Saudis were reported to have approved the delivery of another 500 TOW missile systems to the rebels in response to the Russian intervention in the war. Provision of surface-to-air missiles, a demand of the Syrian opposition, has been rejected at the behest of the United States, which fears they will end up in the hands of jihadists.
The Pentagon said it was “pausing” its own program to train rebel groups to fight ISIL, and would instead focus on equipping and providing direct air support to approved groups. |
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Ian Clarke ,
July 8, 2015 Email
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Canada heads into the 2015 Gold Cup with tangible signs of optimism. After being eliminated from the 2014 World Cup qualifying, it has taken up to this past year for the senior men's national team to turn a page and visibly begin heading in an upward direction. Younger players have gained experience both at the club and national team level, and results have gone in their favour. From the eleven matches played since 2014, Canada has only lost twice, and more importantly have begun winning and scoring goals. With this progress in mind, the question still looms of how far the team has come now that the Gold Cup is upon us? Friendlies, while important for competition, do not replicate CONCACAF tournaments or qualifying cycles and can be difficult to judge whether when the pressure is on and performances required, can Canada deliver? The 2015 Gold Cup has some similarities to the previous tournament, where Canada flamed out with no wins, no goals and little to no optimism for the program moving forward. Benito Floro had just been named the new head coach and Colin Miller did admirably in knowing he would not have the best players on hand and chose youth to represent the team. Canada begins the competition without key players, against a similar underdog from 2013, and one that if they take lightly could damage their hopes of advancing out of the group. Will Canada look ahead to the tougher opponents, or has Benito Floro instilled the mentality of taking care of what's in front of them first, which is a tricky opponent in El Salvador? Keep thinking
It has been an encouraging year for supporters of the Canadian Men's National Team. Especially over the last few months, there have been developments and steps seen that the team looks to be regaining confidence lost after the last World Cup qualifying cycle. From beating Jamaica at home to nearly getting out of a match with Colombia with a result, to cruising through their first round of 2018 World Cup Qualifying, Canada looks to be a competitive team. Heading into the 2013 Gold Cup, expectations were low given the players available and state of the program. Canada delivered on those expectations by losing 1-0 to what many would have thought as a sure win over Martinique. They would go on to lose 2-0 against Mexico and by that point a 0-0 draw with Panama sealed what was one of the worst finishes in the tournament in recent memory. It is the make-up of the roster and match against Martinique that has similarities between this year`s competition and the last. By all accounts, Canada should be the better side than El Salvador, but the Central American country has some good players who are playing regularly and have skill and technique. Last time, Canada undoubtedly were looking ahead to Mexico as their toughest match and should have focused in putting all their chips on starting the tournament on the right foot. This year, Jamaica and Costa Rica are two teams that will be very difficult to get points from, but without three in the bank to start, those matches could bring overwhelming pressure for a squad still building experience and confidence. Canada once again is without Atiba Hutchinson, far and away their best player and critical piece of the midfield, and this time around also do not have Will Johnson or Milan Borjan in net. The one positive between the two tournaments is that Canada appears to have remedied their scoring issues with two players who have loads of potential. The emergence of Cyle Larin and addition of Tesho Akindele has already paid dividends, but having two attackers that have technique, athleticism and physicality can become a huge asset moving forward. Getting shots on target, and hopefully scoring, should not be an issue this time around. El Salvador will be a tough opening opponent for Canada, despite them not having great stature in the region. They have also progressed over the last few years and have seen their youth programs be very competitive at the U20 and U17 levels. Off the back of their domestic league, the side is made up of many players competing at home. Especially from a defensive standpoint, their players are all, save for Alexander Larin, competing in the Primera Division. However, moving forward several players are competing in the United States and abroad. El Salvador will have players such as Richard Menjivar and Andres Flores to compete with in the midfield, while Rafael Burgos and Nelson Bonilla both could be problematic in the attack. Without a doubt, Canada will have a huge edge in physicality and in CONCACAF that is not usually a positive. Soft fouls should be expected and cool heads required when the likes of David Edgar, Andre Hainault and Nick Ledgerwood, who are used to defending in rugged leagues, have to tone down their approach to marking out and tackling El Salvador. On the flipside though, this can be a positive in the attack as Canada has players in the midfield with strong technique in Julian De Guzman, Samuel Piette and Jonathan Osorio. There should be little fear of them being bossed off the ball and finding space to pass to Larin, Akindele and Ricketts can be expected. Benito Floro hopefully has gathered good intel over the last year on competing in this region outside of the CSA, who are painfully naïve when it comes to understanding what to expect and how to gain advantages in CONCACAF. There is no question, if prepared correctly, Canada could start off the tournament with three points in an impressive fashion. However, this again requires dealing with the task at hand and focusing on El Salvador. It is an opponent that Canada has advantages over and if space is available and the pace of the game controlled, the side could be looking into the weekend with three points in the bag. In the end
This will be the first true test of what Benito Floro has to offer in CONCACAF with a meaningful tournament to gauge how far the side has come since the last edition of the Gold Cup. It is hard to not go anywhere but up, however, Canada needs to improve drastically if they are to become a solid competitor in the region both in this competition and World Cup Qualifying. While El Salvador might be considered a minnow both in Central America and CONCACAF, they have good things going for them and will be looking at Canada as potential points as well as Carson, California could create a home atmosphere for them. The last year has seen indicators that the team is moving in the right direction and the last round matches against Dominica offers hope that with more games and experience, this team could emerge as a dark horse in the region. El Salvador will be a good opponent, but one that if all hands perform as seen last month, Canada will start the Gold Cup with a win. Prediction
Canada 1 – 0 El Salvador |
As Tom and I left Proof the other night after a We Love DC writers meetup, we were approached by a young man who introduced himself thus:
“Young man, young lady, I’m Black Rain Man. Name a country. Name any country on God’s earth. Young lady, name a country.”
Amused, I responded, “Djibouti.”
“Djibouti!” said Black Rain Man. “Djibouti is the capital of Djibouti, and it borders the Red Sea. Young man, name any country.”
“Iraq,” said Tom, his mind clearly on current events.
“Iraq! The Euphrates river, the home of the Babylonian empire, and the birthplace of Abraham,” Black Rain Man responded with a flourish.
And so it went for a few more minutes, with us naming countries, and Black Rain Man rattling off a few facts about it, as if to mock us and our dependence on Wikipedia.
Finally, predictably, Black Rain Man asked us if we could spare a few dollars so he could get something to eat. Impressed, we pulled out a few bills and handed them over. It’s hard to maintain a memory like that when you’re hungry.
Tiffany Bridge Tiffany Baxendell Bridge is an Internet enthusiast and an incurable smartass. When not heckling the neighborhood political scene on Twitter, she can be found goofing off with her ukulele, Bollywood dancing, or obsessing about cult TV. She is That Woman With the Baby In the Bar. Tiffany lives in Brookland with her husband Tom, son Charlie, and two high-maintenance cats. Read why Tiffany loves DC. |
“I can do what I want,” you whisper to me many nights.
It’s the words that get me far more than anything else; I love words – they hold the true power.
Even when my vision grows dim and my thoughts hazy with a hand around my neck, even through impact or orgasm,
dulled, exposed, aroused, sensitive sensations do not captivate me like your words.
They connect to my ear and send shivers down my neck, make my stomach flip-flop, make me tighten and tense.
Your words caress me at how beautiful I am, how I make you proud.
Your words push into me about your plans for me, hurting me, fucking me, making me completely yours to use at your will.
Your words penetrate me even in the silent recesses of my mind, the pain or pleasure noises of my body, and while my brain does not acknowledge the syllables that drip from your tongue, my body instantly obeys the crystal clear commands.
When it comes to truly enjoying sex, how important is it for your mind to be stimulated as well as your body? What are the ways in which you enjoy you partner (or yourself) stimulating your mind? |
Where should Chelsea and Courtois go from here?
Should Chelsea have spent all that money on a teenage goalkeeper when they did? Are Chelsea a club who are really in desperate need of another talent in goal? Added backup for Petr Cech was always necessary, but the Czech international isn’t anywhere near the twilight of his playing career. And even with the competition that Thibaut Courtois would bring, both goalkeepers are far too good to warm the bench for an extended period of time.
It will bring about much lengthier debate later on this year; Courtois’ loan with Atletico Madrid will expire and his parent club will reach a point where the decision is made to keep their experienced no 1 or go with the best young goalkeeper in La Liga.
Naturally the idea would be to send the player back to Atletico for a third season; it’s certainly something which could sweeten a potential deal in their chase for Radamel Falcao. But then what? Cech is 30 and Courtois is 20. Is it really ideal for any party to keep the loan deals flowing for the next five years at least? Clubs like Atletico will benefit of course, but at which point do Chelsea really go all in on the teenager they spent such a large sum of money on?
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It would have seemed impossible that Atletico would end up with a goalkeeper to rival the talents of the departed David de Gea. But after 18 months with the club, there is plenty of evidence to suggest Courtois is the better talent than the current Manchester United keeper.
But if Chelsea decide that the player is good enough and has advanced well enough at a big club to be an asset now, why would Courtois want to play second fiddle after two potentially fantastic seasons? He’s won the Europa League and there’s the possibility he could be a starting goalkeeper in the Champions League next year—that’s if Chelsea agree to let him return to Spain again.
It’s a headache every club would love to have, I’m sure. Chelsea are as good as set in terms of goalkeeping talent for the next 15 years and with a youngster who already knows what it means to play in the big time. There is only one outcome that everyone would want: both players at the club and rotating for the starting spot. But that’s not realistic. That’s not what either goalkeeper wants and both are too good to enter into an agreement like that. Cech will remain aware that as a goalkeeper he is in his best years; Courtois, on the other hand, will be keen to go where his development is not disrupted.
So again I ask, why did Chelsea go after Courtois and for a fee just under £10 million?
Is it possible that the club did not foresee Courtois’ rapid rise? Is it possible that the intention was always to bring him back after a couple of loan spells and have him as backup and understudy to Cech? Of course. It would have been the natural idea of easing the younger player into the fold and preparing for life after the more experienced figure moves on. But that isn’t the case.
It would be an extremely bold move for the club and specifically for the manager at the time to bring in the Belgian as the undisputed no 1. It would be one of the bravest moves any manager could make at a club like Chelsea.
Real Madrid know the player’s worth, as do Barcelona and of course Atletico. Any of them would love to take the for player next season and beyond if Chelsea’s potential indecisiveness puts Courtois off.
For this one, the current European champions might need to look past the matter of age for both players and even what Cech has helped to bring them in the past. Courtois has played a mammoth role in helping Atletico to second in the league table. He’s the reason the club have one of the best defensive records in La Liga. He’s thus far been the most impressive goalkeeper in the whole of the top-flight in Spain, holding that place ahead of Malaga’s Willy Caballero. He will undoubtedly be one of the best goalkeepers in the world in a few years. Chelsea have done well to look to their past for success in recent seasons, but they’ll be kicking themselves if they allow this youngster to slip through the net at the expense of one of the older heads.
I’m sure both the player and Atletico would love for them to continue their relationship for a third and possibly final season next year, and that may suit Chelsea best as well. But after that, after another starring role at the Vicente Calderon, Chelsea simply must look to the Courtois as their no 1. |
Forza Motorsport is one of the precious few realistic racing games to hit the mainstream, but you've had to play it on an Xbox so far. You typically have to try games like Live for Speed or Project Cars to get your fix on a PC. Well, you won't have to make that hard choice for much longer -- Microsoft and Turn 10 are bringing the series to Windows 10 PCs. The upcoming Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is a free, distilled version of FM6 that shows what the previously Xbox One-only title can do with all the brawn of a gaming PC behind it. It makes full use of DirectX 12 to produce convincing visual effects, and it'll run in 4K if you have the monster graphics hardware needed to do the resolution justice. |
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
BIG has revealed plans for a new sports and entertainment district in Austin, Texas, that will bring soccer, rodeo, music, shopping, dining and hospitality under one roof. Called the East Austin District, the 1.3 million-square-foot complex will be located on the site of the existing Rodeo Austin, offering a new entertainment experience for the city’s booming population.
+ 16
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
The design of the East Austin District is inspired by the Jefferson Grid, the plan devised through the Land Ordinance of 1785 by President Thomas Jefferson to divide the newly purchased lands of the western United States into square-mile sections. In the East Austin District, this manifests as a roofscape that links the complex’s various structures into one checkerboard of open and enclosed spaces. More than just a concept, the large roof surface will be clad in red photovoltaic panels, allowing the district to be completely self-sufficient.
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
The centerpiece of the District will be the two multi-purpose state-of-the-art sports venues. The larger of the two, a 40,000-seat open-air stadium, will host soccer and rugby matches, as well as music festivals and other major events; the second, 15,000-seat arena will serve as the home of Rodeo Austin, and will support additional music events as well as basketball, hockey and other indoor sports.
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
The stadium and arena will share 190,000 square feet of support facilities, optimizing efficiency and cost. Both will feature all-wooden interiors inspired by the local “barn and porch” vernacular, where outdoor spaces are often as essential to a home as its indoor spaces. This concept continues throughout the District, where the eight courtyards separating the enclosed pavilions will provide outdoor ‘living rooms’ for the public.
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
In addition to recreational, shopping, dining and hospitality areas, the District will also contain 28,000 square feet of youth facilities where local businesses will be able to partner with schools and community programs.
“Like a collective campus rather than a monolithic stadium the East Austin District unifies all the elements of Rodeo and Soccer into a village of courtyards and canopies,” said Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG. “Embracing Austin’s local character and culture, the East Austin District is a single destination composed of many smaller structures under one roof. Part architecture, part urbanism, part landscape – the East Austin District is the architectural manifestation of collective intimacy – a complex capable of making tens of thousands of fans come together and enjoy the best Austin has to offer inside and between its buildings.”
News via BIG.
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group
Save this picture! Courtesy of BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group |
Why money for nothing will boost entrepreneurship
Maiko Schaffrath Blocked Unblock Follow Following Feb 21, 2016
Money for nothing. Miran Rijavec / Flickr.com | CC BY 2.0
A basic income (Giving money to everyone without expecting anything in return) will boost entrepreneurship dramatically. It will allow societies and communities to boost their creativity and unleash the human potential needed to help solve the biggest challenges humanity is facing today. But isn’t entrepreneurship all about creating value and getting some cash in return? So why would handing out free cash help? Let me explain.
The concept of an unconditional basic income is old. First concepts originate in the late 18th century, but recently the idea has gained significant momentum. Finland is planning to start a trial in handing out free cash to its citizens. The Dutch City of Utrecht plans to introduce it. The debates, especially in Europe and specifically in Germany are increasingly getting heard. Even Silicon Valley is talking about it with the likes of Sam Altman, Peter Diamandis and investor Marc Andreessen supporting the idea, or at least liking it. Just recently YCombinator published a request for research, offering funding to researchers who want to conduct studies on unconditional basic income.
As much as the concept might at first sound like the wet dream of every communist, there is much more to it and even the most liberal capitalist-minded people should support it (In fact many of them do & did).
Let’s ignore all the arguments for social justice, the moral aspects and the fact that a basic income will substantially eradicate social systems’ bureaucracy. Instead, let me bring forward four key points why a basic income is great for entrepreneurship.
People won’t need to take jobs to just survive, so they will use their time to create the things they truly care about
Trials of handing out free cash as a basic income have shown that people are born to create. While some may take the first few weeks to chill-out and do nothing, most people will eventually start to do the things that matter deeply to them: Start that business, take more care of your children, realize this dream that always seemed impossible. 80% of people hate their job. They go to work to put food on the table, not because it inspires them. Imagine a world where we could flip these numbers, where 80% of the people would enjoy what they do because they are no longer forced to stay in their jobs, because they gain the freedom to create. This means that accelerated creation will also lead to higher number of companies being founded. Companies that allow their creators to live their dreams.
Co-founders will be able to live off their basic income until their company can afford to pay salaries.
Co-founders usually can’t afford to pay themselves salaries for at least the first few months. So what should you do? If you don’t have big savings or that wealthy family that takes care of you, you are almost doomed. A basic income would remove this threat to entrepreneurs. Co-founders would be able to live off their basic income without depleting their venture of the scarce resource of cash. This will drive the cost of starting a company down which means that one of the most basic economics principles comes into effect: low cost, high demand: The lower the cost of starting a company, the more people will actually do it.
There are too many great people in average jobs. A basic income will leave no reason for them to stay.
This will suddenly set free a vast human potential to be recruited by the tech sector or that can afford to pursue their entrepreneurial ambitions themselves. While many people will still stay in their jobs because they pay very well (and most definitely much better than any feasible basic income), the true entrepreneurs will be able to live a decent life with their basic income without the social stigma and bureaucratic hassle & terror connected to many countries’ social systems (If they exist at all).
Failure will not be a financial disaster anymore. The worst case gets much less scary.
What if I fail? This is the question even the most risk-taking entrepreneurs will ask themselves one day. In many countries with no or very limited social systems it means financial disaster. And even if social systems cater for the basic needs receiving government handouts is often connected to stigma. So what is different about a basic income? Everybody receives it. Billionaire to homeless person. It will be the most normal case to make use of the money and the worst thing at can happen that one has to live of only the basic income for a while, after the business fails.
Now, there are many more arguments besides the boost for entrepreneurship. I won’t list them here, but you might want to check out these pieces for further reading:
Rutger Bregman at TEDx Maastricht on why we should give “free money to everyone”
Discussions, facts & news on the basic income on reddit
German billionaire and entrepreneur Götz Werner on the concept
The Huffington Post lists the arguments against it, and responds with the facts that show they are most likely not true
The original post was published on my blog realchangers. Follow me there to read the latest thoughts on entrepreneurship and how it changes our world. Any thoughts on this? Drop me an email: maiko@realchangers.com |
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said “neocons” are “actually much closer to President Obama than I am” on Wednesday’s “Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel.
“I like Charles…but you know what, sometimes he’s just wrong. And what I would say the reason he’s wrong is that if you look at who’s closest to President Obama on foreign policy it would be the people who have supported his policies, like the war in Libya. I think the neocons, both in our party, have been very close to President Obama on all of these issues. The only place that they have differed is in degrees. I’ve been the one who opposed the war in Libya, I was the one opposed to Obama bombing Assad — [in] the beginning of the Syrian conflict began. I was the one opposed to Obama’s arming of the Syrian rebels, of the Islamic rebels. See, the neocons have been in favor of all of these things, and they’re actually much closer to President Obama than I am” he stated, although he declined to name the specific neocons.
He continued “it’s not my choice to start out by having a war with Republicans. but I will tell you, for example in polling in Iowa about two months ago they asked the question, ‘are you — do you favor Rand Paul’s foreign policy of being less involved, or do you favor John McCain’s policy of being more involved and intervening more in war around the world,’ and it’s actually pretty evenly split. About half of Republicans think, ‘yep, John McCain’s always right and we should have troops in 15 countries and be at war continuously,’ but about half the party says, ‘you know what, Rand Paul has a point. sometimes we get involved and it actually backfires on us.’ I think Libya’s an example of that, and I think had we toppled Assad, ISIS would have been stronger, and I think our arming of the Islamic rebels in that civil war has allowed ISIS to get stronger.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett |
My Colors Santa sent me this unbelievably adorable hand-made, felt dinosaur coin purse! It's purple - my favorite color. And a dinosaur, my favorite everything (besides my family, obviously haha)!!
Thank you Santa, this purse is so adorable and will fit perfectly in our diaper bag! Coins are an issue, especially considering I have two little monsters who could potentially choke if I have coins just sitting around. Not to mention, my 2 year old LOVES those rides in the mall, so it's nice to have change around (and now I have somewhere to put it!)
This little dinosaur has been busy getting used to his new forever home! We fed him some lettuce and raisins (he's not yet house trained, as we found out....). He would have preferred the plants outside, but we just got a bunch of snow! After roaming with the other dinosaurs a while, he settled down by reading a book. This dinosaur sure is an adventurous little guy! I think I am going to call him Mac. :D
Thanks again!! |
Police said a teenage girl was stabbed multiple times at a south Fort Worth school Wednesday.
Fort Worth Independent School District spokesman Clint Bond said two female O.D. Wyatt High School sophomores, ages 15 and 17, were fighting inside the gym over text messages to a boy.
The younger girl pulled out a three-inch pocketknife and stabbed the older girl four times in the upper body, Bond said.
Developing Judge Issues Arrest Warrant for Dallas City Councilman
Other students stepped in and broke up the fight, officials said, and a school resource officer was called to the gym.
Police said the victim was transported to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Her injuries are not considered to be life threatening, but she will be kept in the hospital overnight.
Officers said the 15-year-old girl is being charged with aggravated assault.
RAW: Video Captures Fight Before Teen Stabbing
Video captures a fight between two girls at O.D. Wyatt High School in Fort Worth. A teenage girl was later stabbed at the school. (Published Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015)
After the stabbing, Bond said the school went into a brief 15 minute lock down. He said testing is going on right now so the school was somewhat already locked down, meaning once testing starts, students are not allowed to leave.
The school does have metal detectors, but they are only used at the discretion of the school. They were not used Wednesday.
A letter was sent home to parents explaining what happened.
NBC 5's Eric King contributed to this report. |
Eyal Hertzog & Bancor — announcing a partnership!
Jay Noe Blocked Unblock Follow Following Sep 16, 2017
Mr. Hertzog is responsible for founding MetaCafe, Israel’s definitive video sharing website, as well as a founder of Bancor.
Proxy is pleased to announce the start of an incredible partnership — not only between Mr. Hertzog and Proxy Card, but an ongoing relationship between Bancor and Proxy.
Eyal is the founder of MetaCafe, Israel’s largest video sharing site, and more recently a founder of Bancor (who just raised over $150 million USD in their ICO).
Over the coming months, Eyal and Bancor will be supporting us with product development guidance along with advice on how to successfully conduct our token sale. We are working hard to make sure that we can support Bancor protocol in our proprietary app, and that means a better product for you.
We’re very excited to begin this partnership, and are incredibly lucky to have such a powerhouse team!
Read more about Eyal here:
Bancor
LinkedIn
Twitter
With much excitement,
The Proxy Team |
Opponents of a bill that would bring same-sex marriage to Illinois filled the rotunda of the State Capitol in Springfield Oct. 23.
The gathering, which kicked off an anti-gay marriage lobby day, came a day after several thousand same-sex marriage supporters gathered for the March on Springfield.
Over a thousand people attended the Oct. 23 rally, which opened with renditions of "God Bless America" and "Amazing Grace." Many people brandished anti-gay marriage signs, while one man was dressed as Abraham Lincoln.
Bishop Larry Trotter of Sweet Holy Spirit Baptist Church characterized the struggle against gay marriage as one testing the moral fiber of his community. "We don't want the moral fiber to go down, wasted."
"A man cleaves to his wife, not his 'partner,'" added Trotter.
State Sen. Kirk Dillard, who opposes SB10, joked, "I think there's more people here than have signed up for Obamacare nationwide."
He said that although he generally opposes the expansion of government, the state hD a responsibility to protect sanctity of marriage.
"There are times when a government has a solid duty to protect all citizens," Dillard said.
Many of the speakers characterized their opposition to same-sex marriage as being about protection of children. Fr. Charles Fanelli of St. Thomas More Parish framed gay marriage as a "social experiment" like divorce that could potentially devastate families. Stephanie Trussell of WLS-AM spoke of her distress at learning that a Gay Straight Alliance had formed at a local high school.
"The enemy is hunting our children," Trussell said.
Linda Jerrigan said that she was in a lesbian relationship for 15 years, but 10 years ago was born again and now characterizes herself as an "ex-homosexual."
She characterized homosexuality as one of many vices that can be overcome through belief in Jesus Christ.
"All we need to do is send the homosexuals to Jesus," Jerrigan said.
Peter LaBarbera of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality held up and mocked the children's book Daddy's Roommate, as well as a book by Dan Savage.
He also spoke out against the religious left, many of whom have been outspoken in their support of SB10. Those institutions are using morality as grounds for their support.
"But Jesus Christ was a friend of sinners, not a friend of sin," LaBarbera said.
Among the other speakers were state Sen. James Oberweis and Peter Breen of Thomas More Society.
At some points after the inside rally, a few dozen marchers at a time walked around the Capitol in a prayer vigil. There were never more than 50-75 people making the cold march around at any one time. |
Rachel Maddow reacted incredulously to a report that a conservative think tank in Michigan has filed a Freedom of Information request to seek any emails that mention her from three state universities.
The request was uncovered by Talking Points Memo on Tuesday, and Maddow described it on her Tuesday show. She cast it as part of a growing pattern of broad FOIA requests from conservative politicians and organizations seeking to obtain access to the private emails of academics. Among other incidents, a University of Wisconsin professor has had his emails sought by Gov. Scott Walker.
"The latest incarnation of this breed of conservatism weirdly involves this show," Maddow said. As she described it, a conservative think tank in Michigan called the Mackinac Center submitted a FOIA request seeking any emails from labor professors at the University of Michigan, Wayne State University and Michigan State University. The center demanded any email that includes the words "Scott Walker," "Wisconsin," "Madison," and "Maddow."
Maddow said she thought that the Center's interest in her was due to her highlighting of a controversial bill in the state that seeks to allow the state government to declare a financial emergency in a town and send in an unelected official who can actually dissolve the town.
"This show was the first national news outlet to report in detail on that policy, and now, the Mackinack Center is demanding the emails of anybody who could be an expert on that subject who might have the temerity to type the word 'Maddow' in any context in an email," Maddow said. "How's that leave me alone personal liberty thing working out for you?"
She also noted that the Center is funded by many prominent conservative foundations, such as those of the Koch brothers, the Waltons, and the parents of Blackwater chief Erik Prince. In another segment, Maddow said her show had contacted all of the above foundations, as well as the Mackinac Center itself. None, she said, had been willing to talk to her.
WATCH: |
I imagine that the root instinct is protective, but why are people so hung up on policing the parameters of jazz?
The parameters are from the words, and the music is the music. I've always been puzzled by that: why do you care so much about this word having a specific definition? This music cannot be contained by one word, there's too much of it. Funk could very easily be called jazz, but you call it funk. Does that really matter? People dig that they associate themselves with certain genres, but the genres to me are made up things like an imaginary world. From the jump, I never really took it seriously. Like Radiohead: is that rock-n-roll or is that electronic? And I'm like, I don't care, call it whatever you want to call it. Why is what name I put on this important? Jazz is so wild, so vast. There's so much music in here and they call it "jazz." Over 100 years worth of it. Millions of songs. Thousands of albums. Thousands, and thousands of artists.
Why does it feel like there is so much important artistic work emerging from L.A. right now though?
L.A. has always been hated on so much. I remember the first time I went to New York, I was at jam sessions and people would hear me and come up to me and be like, ‘Oh wow, you’re from L.A.? Really!?’ L.A. has always had amazing music for the longest time, but a lot of it never left. So there are all these local heroes. What that did is create a nest from the pressures of popularity. L.A. has always been a place about "originality". You don't find a lot people playing the same way. The people who are dope, the people who can play all types of music play their music in a unique way. It’s nonconformist, do-your-own-thing. And it's kind of chill, so there's nothing to be upset about. All of a sudden there's attention around us, and people trying to figure out ‘how did you guys do that?’ There was no pressure to conform, so there's always original ideas floating around; and people have not only this sense of freedom, but also a lot of opportunity. It's a really big city, so you can do anything you want to do. |
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The first ever openly gay head of the US Army is shattering remnants of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ stigma – gaying it up in his first week in office.
Eric Fanning was nominated by President Obama to be the United States Secretary of the Army in November – the first time an openly gay person has taken on the role.
After a hold-up in Congress, he was finally confirmed by the United States Senate on May 17 – less than five years after openly gay people were banned from even serving in the military under ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’.
However, there’s been plenty of ‘Telling’ from Mr Fanning – who thanked his partner Ben Masri-Cohen in his first comments as Secretary, after being sworn in.
The official told reporters: “It has been a long process to get here,” Fanning, 47, said. “But it’s worth it. This is a tremendous honour for me.
“It’s a confusing process that makes you feel vulnerable and out there alone,” added Fanning. “So I thank all of you for all that you have done these many months to help me get confirmed.
“And Ben, your patience at home, because I know there were days that I probably was not the most pleasant person to be around.”
He also took to Twitter to reach out to Beyoncé, referencing her new album.
He wrote: “After a five month wait, I’ve had to make #LEMONADE. Now I’m ready to #slay. @Beyonce”.
Fanning’s confirmation had been blocked by Kansas Republican Pat Roberts for political reasons – which had nothing to do with Fanning or his role.
Roberts had demanded assurances that the Obama administration will not move detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas upon its closure.
However, Roberts dropped his opposition this month after pressure from other Republicans – claiming he had had assurances on the issue from the Obama administration.
Beyoncé was recently accused of ‘promoting homosexuality’ through her Super Bowl performance. |
Hi, I'm Martin Allien and this is my digital playground & mothership of my projects
Cryptocoins icons
Cryptocoins is the most complete free vector iconpack of your favourite cryptocurrencies.
Download & Demo on GitHub
Available in webfont & SVG format for taking advantage of small file sizes and unlimited scalability, Cryptocoins are perfect for usage on the web – right where they belong. Use them all or just the ones you need.
Installation
There are many ways/formats how to use Cryptocoins. The fastest and recommended way is via SVG directly. Or use the webfont version if you want to include all icons at once:
via SVG recommended – when you need just a few icons in your project
– when you need just a few icons in your project Webfont version – ideal when you want to include all icons at once Pro tip: Learn how to generate icon webfonts – it’s even better when you only include those you really need
NPM package – npm i cryptocoins-icons
CDN – both SVG icons and the webfont are available on jsDelivr
Requesting new icons
If you’re missing your coin, please let me know so I can include it in next release. Since there are many requests lately and I can hardly keep up, I have to ask you to follow these guidelines:
open a new issue in the official repo fill in the template (coin name, ticker symbol, link to official logo etc.) (optional) you can include HEX code of the main color used in coin’s branding and bitcointalk thread link (not mandatory, but saves me time) (optional) you can notify me on @AllienWorks Twitter (also, helps spreading the word)
Credits |
By
Natasha Young and her husband, Sam Delbrouque, had been thinking about opening a craft beer bar when she walked by the empty space at 329 Main St. in downtown Pineville.
“I told Sam, ‘You have to meet me here right now,’” said Natasha Young.
Exposed brick lined the interior walls of the 100-year-old building, and its 2,000 sq. ft. would give them plenty of room to house a bar and bottle shop. They soon signed a lease and now plan to open Pintville Craft Beer in the space in mid-July or August. While there are breweries and beer bars aplenty in Charlotte, Natasha feels Pineville is long overdue for its own local spot.
“There are so many craft beer places in the city,” she said. “But where we live, you have to drive 20 minutes to go get a craft beer.”
Sam Delbrouque is a homebrewer who was exposed to great beer while living in northern France, just 20 minutes outside of Belgium. Since moving to the states, he and Natasha have owned and operated two restaurants.
While they will allow food to be brought in from the bakery next door as well as several new restaurants springing up around them, the two will focus exclusively on beer. They plan to have 24-30 taps, with one dedicated to nitro pours.
In addition to the taps, Pintville will also have a selection of bottles for sale.
To keep up with Pintville as they work toward their opening, follow them on Facebook. |
CHICAGO (AP) — Brandon Jennings stretched out his arms and held his hands just over the ground as he glided toward center court, celebrating another big 3-pointer with one of Nate Robinson’s usual moves.
Yup, Jennings was listening to Robinson’s trash talk, and he had the perfect response.
The speedy point guard scored 20 of his 35 points in the third quarter, and the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Chicago Bulls 104-96 on Wednesday night for their second consecutive victory under interim coach Jim Boylan.
Robinson scored 13 of his 19 points in the first period, but was unable to stop Jennings once he got going in the third.
“A little trash talking before the second half,” Jennings said. “I guess he felt like he had it going, he was getting the best of me. I really don’t take trash talking too kindly because I don’t really do a lot of trash talking. I warned him, so, hey, it happens.”
Mike Dunleavy had 16 points and Monta Ellis finished with 14 for Milwaukee, which made 10 of 22 3-point attempts. Larry Sanders grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked seven shots.
“I think the whole team played well, but obviously Brandon, offensively, really got it going,” Boylan said. “I thought our defense got a little more active, coming up with loose balls. Larry’s presence around the basket is intimidating. Guys go in there and they’re looking for him.”
Carlos Boozer had 22 points and 11 rebounds for the Bulls, who have dropped their last two games against Milwaukee at United Center. The Bulls blew a 27-point lead in the third quarter as Milwaukee snapped a nine-game losing streak against Chicago with a 93-92 victory on Nov. 26.
“Just second half, I think they made a lot of tough shots,” Boozer said. “Brandon was amazing. We missed some shots we usually make, and that was the game.”
Boozer has recorded a double-double in six consecutive games while playing some of his best basketball in three seasons with the Bulls. It’s the best such streak for Chicago since Joakim Noah also had a double-double in six straight games in 2009.
The Bucks parted ways with Scott Skiles on Monday in what was called a mutual decision, and turned to his top assistant for at least the rest of the season. Boylan also served as an interim coach in Chicago when Skiles was let go during the 2007-08 season.
“I told the guys that I’m just gonna have fun with this,” Boylan said. “Coach as well as I can coach, motivate these guys, and that’s what I’m gonna do.”
It was a lot of fun against Chicago, especially when Jennings got on a roll in the third. He was 4 for 7 from long range in the period, including two 3s during a quick 8-0 burst that gave the Bucks a 72-64 lead with 4:48 left.
“Teams go in stretches where they score and score and score,” Robinson said. “It’s like you can’t do nothing about it. But tonight we beat ourselves. Brandon Jennings got hot. It happens.”
Robinson also downplayed his running conversation with Jennings.
“A couple of dirty plays exchanged, but, you know, nothing to complain about,” he said. “It’s basketball.”
Jennings added a key floater in the fourth as the Bucks won for only the seventh time in their last 27 games against the Bulls.
Luol Deng scored 18 points for Chicago, which was seeking a season-best fourth consecutive victory.
Robinson got the start in place of Kirk Hinrich, who was sidelined with a right elbow injury. It was the fifth start of the season for the streaky guard, who made three 3-pointers in the first quarter to help Chicago grab a 33-23 lead after one.
The Bulls still held a 10-point lead in the final seconds of the first half when Jennings connected from long range, slicing Chicago’s advantage to 57-50 at the break.
NOTES: Bulls C Nazr Mohammed was preparing for the second half when a giant inflatable Benny the Bull landed on him near the free-throw line. The operator quickly got the mascot away from Mohammed, who just smiled as he continued to warm up. … Hinrich has been hampered by a slew of injuries this season. He missed three games in December with a bruised left knee and a game in November because of an injured right hip. … Boylan said before the game he thinks Skiles will coach again. … The crowd roared when Bears CB Charles Tillman was shown on the overhead videoboard before the final period. … Jennings has made at least one 3-pointer in a career-best 22 straight games.
Article continues below ... |
The public funding for some of Sydney's most expensive private schools has increased at twice the rate of many of the state's poorest schools, new analysis of the latest MySchool data reveals.
Trevor Cobbold, a former economist for the Australian Productivity Commission and convener of the Save Our Schools public education advocacy group, analysed the data and found the average funding increase per student for 14 selected private schools was 23 per cent from 2009 to 2013.
For 15 of the most disadvantaged public schools in NSW the average increase per student was 11 per cent over the same period, the report says.
"In NSW, government funding for Meriden School increased by 29 per cent; Ravenswood by 28 per cent; St Andrew's Cathedral School by 26 per cent; and for Ascham, Kincoppal Rose Bay, The King's School and Trinity Grammar by 24 per cent," the report says. |
11. Brannigan
Noun – “A drinking bout; a spree or ‘binge’” – Brannigan was originally a North American slang word, but it is now rarely used. “Shall we go for a brannigan on Friday?” can be a more sophisticated way to discuss such activities.
12. Perissology
Noun – “Use of more words than are necessary; redundancy or superfluity of expression” – A useful word for editors: “Thanks for your 4,000-word submission. Unfortunately there is too much perissology in this piece for us to publish it.”
13. Quagswagging
Noun – “The action of shaking to and fro” – This can also be used in verb form, to quagswag, and is pronounced like “kwag swag.” It could definitely work as the name for a new type of dance, or possibly serve as an alternate way to describe a seizure.
14. Hoddypeak
Noun – “A fool, simpleton, noodle, blockhead” – This one doesn’t need any explanation as to how you could use it; you may already have someone in mind who fits the description.
15. Bibesy
Noun – “A too earnest desire after drink.” – “Bibesy” may have been completely made up in the 18th century and it’s unclear whether it ever made it into common use, but it could easily be used today: “Wedding guests waited anxiously for the bar to open; bibesy should be expected after such a long, dull service.”
16. Scriptitation
Noun – A 17th-century word meaning “continual writing” – Matadorians taking part in this year’s National Novel Writing Month are getting good practice at scriptitation!
17. Widdendream
Noun – “A state of mental disturbance or confusion” – I can start using this obsolete Scottish word right away: “While working on writing my thesis, I find I am constantly in widdendream.”
18. Yemeles
Adj. – An Old English and Middle English word meaning “careless, heedless, negligent” – Pronounced as “yeem-lis,” this is another word that could prove useful for teachers around the world: “Handing in messy and incomplete work just shows me you are being yemeles, and I won’t hesitate to give you a zero for the assignment.”
19. Twitter-light
Noun – “Twilight” – Used in the early 17th century, “twitter-light” sounds like a romantic way to refer to the hours as the sun goes down.
20. Illecebrous
Adj. – “Alluring, enticing, attractive” – Alright, so at first this word kind of sounds a way to describe something diseased, but if you put the stress on the second syllable for emphasis, it does sound like a compliment: “That girl was so illecebrous; I’ve got to figure out how to see her again.”
Community Connection
If you could choose only one of these words to add to your everyday English vocabulary, which one would you pick? Try using it in a sentence.
For more fun with words, check out 20 Awesomely Untranslatable Words from Around the World and 20 More Awesomely Untranslatable Words. |
The Trump administration is reviewing its options on the development and deployment of new low-yield tactical nuclear weapons. In an interview with Sputnik, renowned author and anti-nuclear activist Helen Mary Caldicott outlined what she feels is the real reason behind Washington's new mini-nuke ambitions.
President Trump has created a panel to review Obama-era policy on the development of new nuclear weapons systems, and the prospects for creating new low-yield nukes for battlefield use, according to Politico.
In a written interview for Sputnik, Dr. Helen Caldicott, a well-known leader of the anti-nuclear movement in Australia and the United States during the Cold War, described the thinking behind the idea of a 'limited nuclear war' as 'insane'.
"Of course everyone knows that once one nuclear weapon is used, it could well trigger a global nuclear war. This kind of thinking [by some military planners] is clinically insane," she stressed.
In its story, Politico said the new low-yield nuke review was aimed at "deter[ring] Russia, North Korea and [the US's] other potential nuclear adversaries." Asked what she thought was the real reason behind this move, Caldicott said that "there is no real reason…except that it gives more money and business to the US weapons makers and the military-industrial complex."
In any case, the activist warned that if the US goes ahead with the creation of new tactical nukes, other nuclear powers will be sure to go along.
"The US is the model for all other countries in the world, and what the US does with its nuclear weapons policy is sure to be emulated by other nations equipped with facilities to make nuclear weapons; hence it makes nuclear war more likely," Caldicott said.
Well-known as a passionate critic of nuclear weapons, even as a means of deterrence, Caldicott described the policy of nuclear deterrence as "a policy of nuclear madness."
"The fact that we have not yet experienced nuclear extinction is a matter of sheer luck. But considering the present political situation with volatile political leaders threatening each other with nuclear weapons, I think that we are closer to nuclear annihilation than we have ever been," Caldicott concluded. |
The California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) has suspended the license of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter Chael Sonnen, after Sonnen tested positive for steroids, a banned substance.
A sample from Sonnen's August 6 drug test came back with a high T/E (testosterone-to-estrogen) level, which is indicative of anaboloic steroid use. CSAC learned of the results September 2 and ordered a second test, which also came back positive for steroid use. CSAC received test results from the second sample on September 14 and suspended Sonnen two days later. He is suspended for one year. Sonnen has 30 days to appeal the decision.
"The use of anabolic steroids and other banned substances are not tolerated by the commission," said CSAC Executive Officer George Dodd. "Anabolic agents put the health and safety of both the user and his opponents at risk."
Sonnen's test was observed in the presence of a CSAC representative and the sample was sent to the World Anti-doping Agency test facility at the University of California, Los Angeles on August 6, 2010 for processing.
Four days after California state athletic commission executive officer George Dodd broke the news that UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen had failed his UFC 117 drug test, the commission has finally released an official statement on their findings.The statement is below.MMA Fighting contacted the CSAC with follow-up questions regarding the exact findings on Sonnen's testosterone-to-estrogen level, but a commission representative declined to immediately answer, saying the commission was still waiting to get confirmation from their lawyers about releasing that more specific information.According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), a T/E ratio of greater than 4-to-1 indicates steroid use. CSAC testing is done through the UCLA Olympic Analytical Lab, a WADA-accredited facility.Meanwhile, Sonnen's manager Mike Roberts confirmed to MMA Fighting yesterday that Sonnen will appeal the findings. Sonnen is expected to make his first public statements about the issue on Thursday's edition of ESPN's MMA Live. |
Mr Rathbun, who still believes in the practice of Scientology and the teachings of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, said many of the allegations detailed in letters written by former Australian church members directly reflect unwritten church policies, Dr Kaye said. Dr Kaye's speech follows the tabling in Federal Parliament of those letters by Senator Nick Xenophon. They accuse the church of bullying and intimidating its members, of denying access to medical treatment and of demanding that members cover up crimes. The church's Australian president, Vicki Dunstan, denies the claims and has accused Senator Xenophon of abusing parliamentary privilege. She says the allegations have been invented by disgruntled ''apostates''. But according to Dr Kaye, Mr Rathbun said: ''The common big three things that they [the Australian complainants] are hitting on are the craziness around what is imposed on the families, including the encouragement of abortion, the incredible commercial emphasis on getting money by any means necessary and the heavy-handed tactics used to silence dissent.'' Mr Rathbun said the church had sought to bully members of the Sea Organisation - Scientology's 8000-strong international leadership group, loosely comparable to a priesthood - into having abortions when Mr Miscavige banned anyone in the group from having children in about 1986, shortly after Hubbard's death. Members of the Sea Org, as it is known, symbolically sign billion-year employment contracts.
''But accidents occur and people got pregnant,'' Dr Kaye reported Mr Rathbun as saying. ''The answer to that became, you know, people began to encourage people to have abortions … ''I know at International Base [the church's head office in Florida] in the late 1980s and early '90s, it was a pretty regular practice that [pregnant] people were told, 'do you want to let mankind down?' '' Mr Miscavige thought Sea Org members would be easier to control and better able to devote long hours to fund-raising if they had no children, Mr Rathbun said, according to Dr Kaye. Mr Rathbun also traces the culture of physical violence and intimidation raised in some of the Xenophon allegations to Mr Miscavige, Dr Kaye told Parliament. ''In about 2000 he got more and more uncontrolled physically and was beating people regularly and assigning more and more tortuous punishments,'' Mr Rathbun says.
''It got to the point where it was acceptable up there, and I think it rolled down to the other churches … I received reports that it was happening at the continental bases like Australia and England and South Africa, and it became part of church culture.'' Mr Rathbun even admits to assaulting Mike Rinder, the organisation's Australian-born head of communications, who also defected. ''It became a culture. I am no angel, I participated. On two occasions I beat Mike up. You know, it was a fight. It wasn't like a smackdown, you know, where Miscavige comes in and you can't do anything. He fought back but I am a bigger guy and it is something that I regretted.'' Mike Rinder declined to be interviewed for this story. However, in previous public statements he has confirmed the story. According to Dr Kaye, Mr Rathbun said the church had become ever more obsessed with raising money.
He estimates that when he left the organisation in 2004 the church had a ''war chest'' of about $750 million set aside to fight off attacks from legislators or media organisations. ''A lot of people are under so much pressure to increase the sums of their donations that they took huge risks in business or in finance so a lot of people are having personal catastrophes now. Loans are being called in, values of things they invest in have crashed,'' Dr Kaye reported Mr Rathbun as saying. It had become common practice to demand employees work 70 or 80 hours a week for as little as $50 pay. According to Dr Kaye, Mr Rathbun said the church used various methods to silence dissent in its flock. ''One is disconnection from family,'' he explains. ''If I declare you a 'suppressive person', if I expel you, you are never going to be able to talk to your family again.
''Two is your business career, because you lose your network. ''And three is, you are never ever going to be able to get to the holy grail in Scientology and reach spiritual enlightenment because you are expelled. That is three big clubs, and they are being used, increasingly, to extract ever larger and larger sums from people. I don't know what happened in Australia, but I am telling you that it would have stemmed from the phenomenon I observed. It is consistent with that and it has rolled down from the top.'' Ms Dunstan denies Mr Rathbun's accusations, describing him as a bitter liar with an axe to grind ever since he was dismissed from the church for ''gross breach of duties''. Dr Kaye called on the two main parties to support Senator Xenophon's call for an inquiry into the church. ''These explosive revelations underline the urgency of investigating the operations of the Church of Scientology in Australia. It is possible that recognising the organisation as a religion was a grave mistake that has granted legitimacy to a cult that bullies, intimidate and exploits,'' he said.
Loading ''There is a growing case for comprehensive examination not only of the church leadership in Australia but also of the church itself as a religion.'' investigations@smh.com.au |
If the Mughals are approached with fresh eyes, their dynamic interweaving of politics and culture can be identified as the solid bedrock on which they built their empire.
Over the course of roughly one hundred years, from 1560 until nearly 1660, the Mughals cultivated a thoroughly multicultural and multilingual imperial image that involved repeated attention to Sanskrit texts, intellectuals, and knowledge systems. Monarchs and communities outside the ruling elite responded to this self-fashioning in many ways, and their reactions no doubt encouraged the Mughals to continue these dynamic encounters. Nonetheless, the Mughals did not pursue this set of exchanges for the benefit of their population but rather mainly for themselves. They sought to understand what it meant to become rulers of India.
In the absence of an obvious answer, the Mughals set out to formulate a cluster of possibilities, many of which prominently featured Sanskrit, India’s foremost premodern tongue of literature and learning. Reconstructing this complex set of encounters will undoubtedly change how Indologists understand Mughal history and also offers a fruitful case study for analysing the culture of power in a non-Western, premodern setting. The Mughals may have declared Persian the medium of government, but activities at the royal court reveal a significantly more complex picture of how imperial claims actually worked on the early modern subcontinent.
Jains and Brahmans at Akbar’s court
Jain and Brahman Sanskrit intellectuals visited the courts of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan in considerable numbers.
A select few entered the royal court at the direct invitation of the crown, whereas others gained entrée through regional or subimperial patrons. Many championed political causes on behalf of their religious communities or local rulers. Above all, Sanskrit literati sought access to famed Mughal patronage, which drew individuals working in various languages from across much of Asia. Sanskrit authors crafted many works under imperial sponsorship and participated in numerous aspects of court life. They acted as intellectual informants, astrologers, religious guides, translators, and political negotiators for the Mughals…
The Mughals also turned to Sanskrit intellectuals for information concerning other Indian practices and ideas that could inform an imperial agenda, including the notion that Akbar was an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Bada’uni unhappily attests that Brahmans introduced Sanskrit works that predicted Akbar’s rise to power as Vishnu’s avatar:
[Cheating imposter Brahmans] told [the king] repeatedly that he had descended to earth, like Ram, Krishan, and other infidel rulers, who, although lords of the world, had taken on human form to act on earth. For the sake of flattery, they presented Sanskrit poetry [shi‘r-ha-yi hindi] allegedly uttered by tongues of sages that predicted a world-conquering padshah would arise in India. He would honor Brahmans, protect cows, and justly rule the earth. They wrote such nonsense on old papers and presented it to [the emperor]. He believed every word.
Some Sanskrit works written under Akbar’s support mirror these claims rather precisely. For example, in his bilingual grammar from the late sixteenth century, Krishnadasa praises Akbar as Vishnu embodied:
Since Brahma was described by the Veda as changeless and beyond this world, therefore Akbar, great ruler of the earth, was born in order to protect cows and Brahmans. His virtuous name is celebrated throughout the ocean of shastras and among scriptures [smriti], histories [itihasa], and the like. It is established forever in the three worlds, and therefore with his name this work is composed. It is no surprise that cows were protected by Lord Krishna, son of Gopala, and the best of the twice born guarded by the Ramas, gods of the Brahmans. But it is truly amazing that the lord Vishnu descended [avatirna] in a family of foreigners that loves to harm cows and Brahmans. Akbar protects cows and Brahmans!
Jains also provided Akbar access to certain Sanskrit-based practices that would prove politically potent, such as sun veneration. Bhanucandra, a Tapa Gaccha ascetic whom Hiravijaya sent to the Mughal court in Lahore in 1587, taught Akbar how to recite a Sanskrit text titled Suryasahasranama (Thousand Names of the Sun). Siddhicandra, Bhanucandra’s Sanskrit biographer, tells the tale thus:
One time, the ruler of the earth repeatedly asked the Brahmans for the Thousand Names of the Sun, but they could not find it anywhere. By a stroke of luck they located some wise man. He gave [the text] to them, and they presented it to the glorious shah [shrisaha]. Having seen it, the glorious shah said to them excitedly, “Tell me who among good people can teach me this?” They replied, “Only one who has subdued all the senses, sleeps on the ground, and possesses sacred knowledge is qualified in this matter.” When he heard this, the shah said, “Only you [Bhanucandra] possess such qualities here. You alone, venerable one, will teach me this every morning.”
Later in his work, Siddhicandra portrays Akbar as devoted to honouring the sun to the exclusion of other religious activities:
The glorious shah diligently learned the Thousand Names of the Sun. He forgot any other taste and recited the names there. He devoted his mind, stood in the correct direction facing the sun, and learned from Bhanucandra with his folded hands pressed against his forehead.
Siddhicandra does not explain further this “other taste” (anyarasa) for which sun veneration eliminated any need on the part of the Mughal emperor. But it is likely a covert reference to Islam, especially given that Siddhicandra carefully mentions that Akbar faced the correct direction in venerating the sun and used his head and hands properly, which are both important concerns in Islamic prayer as well. Furthermore, Bada’uni, a notorious critic of Akbar in his unofficial history of the era, testifies that this ritual occurred up to four times daily, including at times for Islamic prayers such as sunrise. Jerome Xavier, a European traveler, even noted Akbar’s predilection for sun worship as one reason why he was best not considered a Muslim. Most likely, rather than indicating his personal religious inclinations, Akbar designed this royal custom to promote his absolute sovereignty.
The excerpts are adapted from Culture of Encounters: Sanskrit at the Mughal Court by Audrey Truschke, which is forthcoming in March 2016 from Columbia University Press. Copyright (c) 2016 Columbia University Press. Used by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved. |
GOP Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Paul Ryan, and Steve Scalise. Screenshot/CNN
It’s been a running joke for many years now that Republicans in Congress are always saying they’re just about done putting the finishing touches on an Obamacare replacement plan that everyone is going to love. Then–Majority Leader Eric Cantor promised in late 2010, for example, that his caucus was ready to “repeal ObamaCare and replace it with commonsense alternatives” as soon as the next Congress was sworn in, while in early 2012 the Hill reported that House Republicans would be “ready with a plan to replace President Obama’s healthcare law” that summer.
As you may have heard, Republicans—who now hold the presidency and both houses of Congress—finally actually did introduce an actual Obamacare replacement plan earlier this month, which then crashed, died, and was withdrawn in ignominious failure last week after a poll found that only 17 percent of Americans supported it and GOP leaders realized they wouldn’t be able to get enough votes to pass it despite holding a 44-seat majority (!) in the House of Representatives.
Well, House Republican leaders held a press conference Tuesday morning after a caucus meeting. And, amazingly, the purpose of the press conference was to announce that they intend, sometime soon, to introduce an Obamacare replacement plan (which everyone is going to love).
“After this morning, the resolve of our conference to repeal Obamacare and replace it has never been stronger,” whip Steve Scalise said.
“We promised that we would repeal and replace Obamacare, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said.
“We’re going to keep talking to each other until we get it right,” Paul Ryan said, adding that he would not commit to an actual schedule for passing repeal legislation because the issue was “too important” to “put an artificial timeline on.”
As it happens, ultimate master negotiator/dealmaking genius Donald Trump made a quite public ultimatum regarding the timeline of the issue last week:
Trump issued lawmakers an ultimatum Thursday night. He wants the House to vote Friday on the legislation to begin dismantling ObamaCare and if it fails, he is “done with health care,” and ready to move on to tax reform, a source told Fox News.
The subtext here, I’m guessing, is that House Republicans realize they are going to look like real asshats in their 2018 re-election races if they don’t get something done on health care, which they’ve made their top issue for the past eight years, whereas Trump believes—and not without good reason—that his own “base” doesn’t care whether he gets anything done on this (or any) specific issue. It’ll be fun to see how it all plays out! |
“An object should be judged by whether it has a form consistent with its use.” – Architect Bruno Munari
In her book The Not So Big House, architect Sarah Susanka postulates that we tend not to build living structures that reflect how we actually live. Homes are sometimes built to impress the people outside rather than be comfortable for those inside. Vaulted ceilings and master suites are regal, but go to a party and see where people hang out: in the kitchen or smaller rooms.
Susanka stresses creating spaces that suit what you really do. A formal dining room may seem elegant, but unless you’re throwing dinner parties on a regular basis, it’s a waste of space. Most of my friends who live in homes with formal dining rooms end up turning them into home offices or game rooms.
We moved to a new (to us) place about 12 years ago, which more than doubled our living space. Going from an 800 square-foot two-bedroom home to one with over 2000, we were stunned. My wife and I were forced to look at things differently. We gave serious thought and reflected on how our family lives, and came up with a plan that utilizes space in a way that most reflects our values.
This is also manifested in our former garage, which hasn’t had a car in it in 11 years. That’s because my garage is a blacksmith and woodworking shop on one side, and canoe, kayak, and bike storage on the other side.
Now I understand the allure of putting cars in a garage. If I were lucky enough to have a 4-car garage I would definitely put our cars to bed under a roof, but city life means compromises. Which to give up? Obviously we made the right decision…for our family.
If you’ve ever thought about turning your garage into a blacksmithing or woodworking shop (or both), below I offer some thoughts on how to do it, as well as why you should consider making your dream a reality.
What if I want to transform my garage (or part of it) to a shop?
If you’ve read this far and think I’m not half a bubble off plumb, let’s assume that you desire to perform such a transformation. Here’s what I did.
First, marry well.
I’m only half joking here. Some partners would not give up their parking space willingly, if at all. My conversation went something like this:
Me: “Honey, can I talk to you about the garage? I’m considering…”
Wife: “So what sort of shop do you want to build on my side of the garage?”
Me: “A blacksmith shop.”
Wife: “Thought so. Well, I expected that. Sure. My car is waterproof. Go ahead. Just don’t burn the garage down.”
Me: [weeps with gratitude]
Second, start sketching out a floor plan.
You don’t need to be a draftsman to lay things out. Graph paper is plenty sufficient. Think about the scale of things you might build. A friend of mine built a kayak and later found he had to saw it in half to get it out of his basement shop (don’t worry, he put it back together again). In my case, my work area is fairly compact, and the line between the woodworking area and the metalworking area is somewhat blurred.
For blacksmithing, laying out the workspace is critical, since your medium has a working time. It’s sorta like a dance between forge, anvil, and vise. You stand in the middle of the triangle. No wasted steps.
Also pay attention to power. If you have a welder of any size you’ll need to run more power to the workspace. I have 100 amps just going to the shop (the house gets the other 100). The welder takes 50 amps at 220 volts. Then again, I bought bigger than I needed, but you never know when you might need to weld 1″ steel plate.
I have several outlets for the welder, one near the garage door so I can wheel the whole welder to the driveway if necessary.
Third, acquire tools…slowly.
It’s tempting (if you have the cash or a big limit on your credit card) to rush out immediately and load up on all the coolest and latest. This is a mistake for a few reasons. First, you’d probably buy tools you wouldn’t need, at least for a while. It’s a common disease that occurs in people setting up a shop: the Shiny Tool Syndrome. This is especially bad when tools are packaged together. Which leads me to the second reason: you’d buy crappy tools.
A far better approach is to purchase tools as you find you need them, and buy good tools from reputable resources. Big box stores have good tools, but you have to look, and you have to be willing to pay more. Most of the big boxes have large sets of tools, usually packaged together. Check the label: American Eagle Tool Company might sound good but chances are they’re made in China.
Blacksmithing tools are not sold at the local box store. They are highly specialized and to buy cheap ones is to really handicap yourself from the start. There are a few really good supply houses like Centaur Forge and Kayne and Son.
For woodworking, tools are a little more straightforward. What do you need to start? That all depends. Like blacksmithing, you need tools to shape the wood. If you’re doing a lot of woodcarving, good chisels, gouges, and files are more important than planes or drills. Making cabinets? You’ll need planes, chisels, and a lot of clamps. N.B.: you cannot have too many clamps. See the fourth point below, it’ll help.
Once you know what brands are reputable, you’ll have a lot more purchasing power if you visit antique shops and attend swap meets and barn and garage sales. You might get lucky and score a nice plane for $25 that cost $200 new. I’ve found good hammers and tongs, as well as some clamps and vises this way. I once bought an entire coffee can (the smaller kind) of metal chisels and punches for $15.00 out in the middle of the desert somewhere.
The quality of the metal in older tools is superb, and steel wool, gun oil, and some elbow grease can really bring them back to full function. Naval jelly, a rust remover, can work well too, but rinse and treat soon after using it. Learn how to recondition tools and you’ll save a bunch of money.
I would, however, shy away from buying an anvil at a barn sale or swap meet. It is one of your primary tools (hammers being the other), and if it’s too far gone you’ll be frustrated.
You may not have to buy all the tools you need, either; a nice side effect of building your own shop is that people will bring you tools, sometimes for nothing. A good friend brought me a box of old tools that belonged to his Uncle Stanley. Some of the smaller tools with lots of moving parts were too far gone, but the late 1800s wood-body scrubbing plane needed only a little wood glue and a little sharpening…it scrubs wood off beautifully.
The box also included a dozen or more cold chisels and hot cutters for metal work — useless to most people, but a bonanza for me. After removing the rust and polishing them up a bit, the quality of the tools is amazing.
The cost for this box of treasures? Nothing. “I just wanted them to go to someone who would use them.” Well, that’s easy. Use them I will.
In short, spend more, buy less. Buy good stuff once instead of bad stuff twice. If you have to delay gratification, man up and wait.
Fourth, find a mentor.
Although they are getting scarce, there might be an old guy on your street who has a shop to die for. He knows how to recondition a plane, get rust off an old vise you bought at a garage sale. He also knows which brands are worth buying and which ones aren’t. My mentor taught me the value of a $45 Armstrong C-clamp over a $12.99 (or two for $19.99) Harbor Freight American Tool C-clamps.
A mentor can also critique your work and give you ideas on the subtleties of a particular technique. A book about dovetails is good; a mentor who has made dovetails is great.
Larry Cooper, my blacksmithing mentor, taught me a lot about metalwork, but he also taught me a lot about life. Being from Alabama, he was a might more laid back than I, and helped me learn to slow down and see things better. Not just when making a piece of art, but driving the backroads, eating a meal together, or just sitting and talking.
Why would you want to transform your garage into a shop?
A Shop Makes You Neighborly
Having a shop in my garage attracts attention, especially the blacksmith part. My anvil has a nice ring to it and people walk by and wave. If I stop hammering, people come to see what’s going on. Sufficeth to say when people need help, they come over. I refuse payment for little things.
I have sharpened countless lawnmower blades. I like doing that; it’s fast, easy, and generates more neighborly interaction. I’ve rolled the welder out into the driveway to tack down a broken metal bracket on a pick-up truck. A few years ago I fabricated a little aluminum arm to save a $400 stroller from the dump. Now that was neighborly.
You can also provide mentoring skills up to your level of competence. You don’t have to be a woodworking master to show a kid how to use a handsaw. Or for that matter, a friend your age who has never touched a handsaw. A lot of skills are being lost every day as time passes. You can provide a bulwark against this decline.
Men will want to gather around and hang out. I have a few folding chairs that hang on the wall of the shop. A small refrigerator ain’t a bad idea either. Just don’t drink and saw.
A Shop Makes You a Better Man
One of my favorite books of 2009 is Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford. Crawford has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He’s no dummy. His book discusses the cultural implications of “knowledge workers” being more valued than those who do tangible things. He argues that this equation is wrong-headed and that there is indeed enormous value to manual labor — work which connects the hands and the mind.
Cultivating this connection is important for those in white collar professions who spend their days doing abstract work. Get some balance by turning to a hands-on hobby during your nights and weekends. Working with your hands teaches your brain to work better. It makes you more self-sufficient and more useful to the community. It makes you whole.
You don’t have to be a master woodworker or blacksmith to gain the benefits of having a shop. Indeed, quite frankly, I’m what I would call a skilled hack. I try things, and if it works, it works. My work isn’t going to show up in Fine Woodworking or its metal equivalent (there really isn’t one), but it makes me happy.
And it’s funny how a space like this gathers men. No cracker barrel or checkers set. Sometimes we bang on metal and sometimes we don’t. It doesn’t matter.
It’s also where I play the banjo because it doesn’t bug anyone but me.
Is there a downside? |
For three decades, European investment has increased in China. Now, starting from a very low base, Chinese investment has taken off in Europe. As the euro is weakening, it will increase.
During his visit to Europe a year ago, President Xi Jinping proposed building a China-EU partnership. Last year, bilateral cooperation moved to a new level as Beijing and Brussels launched over 70 percent of the initiatives in the 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation.
Last year, Chinese investors doubled their money in Europe to a record $18 billion (Photo: dolmansaxlil)
Initially, Deng Xiaoping’s reforms and opening-up policies were fuelled by the normalisation of US-China relations. In the course of the 1980s, trade and investment took off with Europe, as well.
Today, it is the EU – not the US – that is Beijing’s most important technology partner.
For three decades, bilateral investments were dominated by European multinational companies in China. These have contributed significantly to the mainland’s economic development.
Last year, Chinese investment in the EU almost tripled and bilateral trade exceeded US$615 billion. At the same time, some 6 million people travelled between the EU economies and China. But this is only the beginning.
Chinese investment in Europe
Even before the crisis, these flows surged, tripling from less than US$1 billion per year in 2004-8 to roughly $3 billion in 2009-10.
As the Eurozone crisis kicked in, Chinese investment tripled again to $10 billion in 2011. And last year, Chinese investors doubled their money in Europe to a record $18 billion.
Chinese capital has flooded to the EU core economies, from the UK property market and German advanced technology to French industries and Italian energy.
The UK is the top destination for Chinese investment at $5.1 billion, followed by Italy at $3.5 billion. In terms of the sector mix, Chinese capital is moving from natural resources and trade facilitation toward a broad range of industries and assets across Europe.
In the fiscally conservative Northern Europe, Chinese investors are focusing on advanced technology and innovation. In the ailing Southern Europe, Chinese investor interest has increased in privatisation opportunities, particularly in Portugal, Greece, Italy and Spain. In Central and Eastern Europe, China has developed its Silk Road from the Greek ports through the Balkans to the core economies.
By global standards, Chinese investment is still relatively low, but it is the strong trend line and potential of Chinese investment in Europe that counts.
ECB and euro
It was the plunge of the euro in 2014 and the subsequent decision on quantitative easing by the European Central Bank in late January that have drastically altered the status quo.
In the first half of 2014, the euro was still above $1.30. But when the US dollar began its ascent in mid-summer 2014, the euro began a parallel descent. Until recently, the trend has also been fuelled by the ECB’s quantitative easing as well as concerns over Greek debt and Spain’s troubled banking sector.
Due to the symbiotic relationship between the Chinese yuan and the dollar, the euro has suffered similar erosion against the yuan.
In May 2014, the euro was still worth more than 8.50 yuan. But after the ECB embraced its new QE policy, the yuan strengthened against the euro (6.57 yuan) – a plunge of almost 25 percent in barely a year.
The weakening of the euro and Chinese investment in Europe are occurring amid the scramble for regional free trade agreements, including Washington’s push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
That has intensified efforts toward a China-EU investment pact, despite a series of trade disputes.
In early 2014, China and the EU had their first round of talks on a pact. For Brussels, this would ensure long-term positioning in the Chinese marketplace. For Beijing, it is about accelerating catch-up growth, improving human capital and supporting ongoing reforms.
Baseline scenario
As markets expect the Fed to raise its policy rate in the coming months, while the ECB will keep its rate close to zero and continue QE, the yuan is likely to continue to strengthen against the euro.
In this baseline scenario, Chinese investment is likely to deepen and broaden in Europe.
There are negative scenarios that could halt or slow Chinese FDI in Europe in the short-term, such as an uncontrolled Greek exit from the eurozone.
But in the long-term, Chinese investment in Europe is there to stay.
Dr. Dan Steinbock is Research Director of International Business at India China and America Institute (USA) and Visiting Fellow at Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For more, see www.differencegroup.net |
Twitter has downplayed the significance of a data dump that leaked the login details of 55,000 twits.
Most of the usernames and passwords copied into a string of five Pastebin posts on Monday are either duplicates or belong to blocked spammers, according to the micro-blogging site. A spokesman said it was in the process of resetting the passwords of compromised legitimate accounts.
"We've discovered that the list of alleged accounts and passwords found on Pastebin consists of more than 20,000 duplicates, many spam accounts that have already been suspended and many login credentials that do not appear to be linked (that is, the password and username are not actually associated with each other)," Twitter's Robert Weeks told CNN.
"We are currently looking into the situation. In the meantime, we have pushed out password resets to accounts that may have been affected," he added.
It's unclear how the credentials were obtained, although one strong possibility is that hackers slurped the data from a phishing website that tricked users into revealing their login details. The motives of the miscreants who shovelled the passwords onto Pastebin also remain unclear. Airdemon, the site that broke news of the dump, suggested the dump is designed to highlight Twitter's supposed security shortcomings.
Twitter has reason to be sensitive about data breaches. A pair of digital break-ins back in 2009 resulted in a privacy lawsuit from the FTC, which was settled last year with an undertaking from the micro-blogging service to improve its security practices.
Occupy protest twit faces account occupation
In other Twitter-related news, the messaging service is fighting a court order that would compel it to turn over the personal details and direct messages sent by a tweeter allegedly involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests.
The case surrounds Malcolm Harris, who was charged with disorderly conduct during demonstrations on the Brooklyn Bridge last year. Harris was denied permission to challenge the disclosure order against the @destructuremal profile, a ruling that prompted Twitter to get involved in the case.
The American Civil Liberties Union praised Twitter over its stance, thanking Twitter for standing up for free speech and individual privacy. ® |
Former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev (pictured) warned Monday that Russia "could lose six years" if Vladimir Putin returns to the presidency as Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin resigned over Putin's comeback bid.
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AFP - The USSR's last leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned on Monday that Russia risks six lost years if Vladimir Putin returns to the presidency, echoing rumblings of dissent over his Kremlin comeback.
The announcement at the weekend that Putin, currently prime minister, will stand for president in 2012 and swap posts with Kremlin incumbent Dmitry Medvedev, sparked no mass protest actions in Russia.
However, long-serving Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin appeared to take the authorities by surprise and spoiled their party by announcing he had no intention of serving in a post-election government.
Gorbachev echoed concerns of liberals that Russia was at an "impasse" and doubted whether Putin -- who served two terms as president to 2008 and has dominated Russia for a decade -- was the man to implement change.
"It will be his mistake if the future president leaves everything without changes, thinks only about how to stay in power and tries to keep the old team -- who are the ones to blame for how things are," Gorbachev said.
"We can assume that there will be no movement forward if there are not serious changes along the lines of a replacement of the entire system," he wrote in the opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper which he part owns.
"Without this we could lose six years. I think that the future president needs to think about this very seriously."
With the presidential mandate now expanded to six years from four, Putin could in theory serve two more terms to 2024, by which time he would be 72 and the longest serving Moscow leader since Joseph Stalin.
Boldly, the Novaya Gazeta printed on its front page caricature sketches of Putin, Medvedev and other members of the elite as they would look as old men in 2024, in the medal-festooned uniform of Soviet nomenklatura officials.
Kudrin has so far proved the main dissenter from Russia's new power scheme, dubbed a "castling" by official media after the move in chess when the king changes places with the rook.
He said he had major differences with Medvedev whom he accused of seeking to ramp up spending -- in particular on the military -- to the detriment of Russia's budgetary position.
But the Kommersant daily suggested that other issues may have also prompted the surprise announcement by Kudrin, who has been in his post since 2000 and is the longest serving finance minister among world powers.
"They (the ruling elite)... promised that he would become prime minister in 2012. But now we know who that will be," it quoted a source as saying.
Russia's liberal press reacted cynically to the news, with the respected daily Vedomosti writing that the only way for a change of leadership in Russia would be street protests like in the Arab Spring.
"The swap by Putin and Medvedev does not provide the slightest hint of a readiness to solve long term problems," it wrote. "The tandem leaves no other option for a change of ruler other than the Tunisian-Egyptian path."
Yet the announcement sparked no mass protests in Russia's tightly controlled society with the most significant gathering a rally by 300 supporters of opposition parties in Moscow on Sunday afternoon.
Emphasising an atmosphere of business as usual, Putin on Monday chaired a routine government meeting on state services in which there was not the slightest mention of the weekend's political drama.
Meanwhile, the mass-circulation dailies that form the bulk of Russia's newspaper diet showed nothing but satisfaction. "This is how we will be victorious!" screamed the tabloid Tvoi Den.
Russia's stock markets opened flat, showing no sign of panic at the thought of another term of strongman rule by Putin despite concerns among some analysts over the exit of the highly respected Kudrin.
"We believe Medvedev and Putin, as prime minister and president, could work very well together, providing much-needed stability and continuing the reform agenda championed by Medvedev for improving the Russian investment climate," said Ovanes Oganisian of Renaissance Capital in a note to clients. |
The sprawling encampment under the rail bridge on the northern bank of the Yarra was the most visible sign of a homelessness crisis the council is struggling to confront. A staggering increase in the number of people sleeping rough in the CBD has prompted the council to almost triple its annual homelessness budget in an attempt to stem the crisis. The unprecedented funding commitment, which includes cash for a 24-hour safe centre, coincided with the monumental clean-up of Melbourne's largest and longest-running rough-sleeping camp. Dozens of police and council workers descended on Enterprize Park on Wednesday following concerns over ballooning collections of furniture and camping equipment in the public area alongside the Yarra River. Earlier in the week, the council issued homeless people with notices to dismantle their camps following reports of drug use and storage of knives at the site.
Homeless couple Dave and Kellie were evicted from their makeshift camp at Enterprize Park in the city on June 27, 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. Credit:Pat Scala The lord mayor and homeless services are concerned some people have been turning down temporary or crisis accommodation – saying they will only move for permanent homes. "If you're out on the coldest night, surely crisis accommodation is better than that?" Cr Doyle said. When authorities moved in on Enterprize Park on Wednesday, 10 people remained. Although some left before they could be assisted, homeless service Launch Housing said four people have been given hotel or other temporary accommodation. Of those that still remain at the camp, one is an American tourist and another is Godwin Aquilina, who has been sleeping rough after his local council in Maddingley refused him a permit to keep his pet ram.
The Melbourne City Council and Police moves the homeless people and their belongings away from the Enterprize Park. 29 June 2016. The Age NEWS. Photo: Eddie Jim. (Godwin Aquilina and his ram) Credit:Eddie Jim Winter usually sees a slump in visible rough sleepers in Melbourne but earlier this month 247 homeless men and women were found sheltering on the streets around the CBD, a 74 per cent increase in two years. Salvation Army Major Brendan Nottle said he had never seen it so bad and pointed to decades of under investment in front-line services in the suburbs and regional areas. "A lot of the people we are dealing with have trauma that was caused back in their childhood. It hasn't been effectively addressed and the mental-health issues have just got more complex," he said. "We're dealing with a wicked problem, it's a complex and entrenched problem. It's a problem that the City of Melbourne can't resolve, and I think it's unfair to expect them to resolve it."
In a last-minute change to their annual budget, the council this week voted to give an extra $2.2 million to help tackle street homelessness, with the hope the cash reserve will be added to by the state government and philanthropists. Loading It allocated $100,000 for a feasibility study to find council-owned property that could be used for supported accommodation for the homeless. Meanwhile, a 24-hour "safe space" will be opened at the Salvation Army's Hamodava Cafe on Bourke Street, in a 10-week trial that could be extended if it's successful. The initiative is jointly funded by the council and Collingwood Football Club. |
The Moscow mayor’s office has refused to authorize a protest against Russia’s new “anti-terrorism” laws, which, spearheaded by Duma deputy Yarovaya, give the authorities sweeping new rights to combat extremism and terrorism.
According to Aleksey Mayronov, the head of Moscow's security services, the permit request was rejected, because the applicants couldn't obtain the requred signatures.
One of the applicants, Leonid Volkov, believes that the rejection has no legal basis. The protests’ organizers are expected to come to a decision regarding further action in the near future.
The protest was supposed to occur next week, on July 26, on Slavyansky Square in Moscow in defense of information freedom enshrined in Articles 23 and 24 of Russia’s Constitution. Initially, the mayor’s office argued that the protests would lead to significant transport disruptions and suggested moving it to a more remote location. According to Volkov, the organizers agreed to compromise. The application was rejected, nevertheless. |
The Qatari Job, Part VII: The Cup Runneth Over
by Martin Palazzotto
Have you read?
Part One: Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Part Two: Going To The Source
Part Three: A Dish Served Cold
Part Four: Tevez Under Wraps
Part Five: One Hump Or Two?
Part Six: The Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Man City
الوظيفة القطري
The entire plan seemed to be unraveling before his eyes. The door had just been slammed shut behind him, and Bridgey was facing a nightmare in a tiny office somewhere in the depths of Sheikh Mansour’s ‘summer’ palace in Qatar. Desperately, he tried to sort the jumbled ball of emotions bouncing around in his mind and regain control of himself.
First, he had been in the training facility with the rest of the Exiles. Sparky was running them through their paces one last time, ahead of the so-called friendly with Mancini and City. They were still ragged, and no wonder; half of them hadn’t seen action in months, and none of them had practiced together under Hughes’ guidance for two years. If the rust wasn’t enough, the entire group was listening to instruction from George and Brad, who were in charge of the real job they were here to do, codenamed The Qatari Job. Tiny, nearly invisible earbuds were receiving wireless communication from the American actors, who were posing as activists for Amnesty International, the benefactors of the charity match about to take place.
In that guise, they were guests of Mansour. In reality, it was their intent to relive one of their most famous movie capers in real life, lifting the UAE royal of a hefty portion of his fortune, and his official Chairman’s FA Cup replica in the bargain. The duo had been contracted by Bridgey to plan the heist. He and Carlos Tevez had recruited the rest of the rejects whom Khaldoon Al Mubarak and Roberto Mancini had cast aside with such callous indifference.
Outside the training facility, one of the portable stadiums tirelessly promoted and endlessly discussed during the successful Qatari bid for the 2022 World Cup, had gone up in less than three days. Much to Bridgey’s amazement, the other Exiles, and the rest of the world, in fact, it looked as solid as the new Wembley Stadium, and, in its own unique style, easily as beautiful. Whereas most modern stadia were massive bowls, despite containing rectangular pitches, the Qatari design followed the shape of the playing surface, albeit more rounded at the corners. It rose high and straight, rather than inclining outward, combining the columnar style of ancient Roman architecture with the sweeping curves of desert sand dunes. The entire façade was wrapped in ribbons, coloured to represent all the flags of the various Arab nations.
It was spectacular, in turn demanding a spectacular match for the 40,000 roaring fans who now occupied it. The Exiles planned to do their part and more. Then, with less than half an hour until kickoff, an emissary had come from the palace and summoned Bridgey. Sparky, Carlos and the rest had protested vehemently. When the messenger insisted, the entire side had to pry Bellamy from his screaming, huddled body. The diminutive Welshman had gone absolutely berserk in the blink of an eye, startling everyone, especially the poor servant. Thankfully, Sparky had taken temporarily custody of Bellamy’s golf clubs for the duration of training.
While the training staff made sure the fellow was none the worse for wear, Brad came over Bridgey’s earpiece, telling him to go with the messenger. He reassured Bridgey that he and George were prepared for this contingency. It would be safe, they said, so long as he removed the earpiece and microphone pinned inside his collar, in case he was searched. Other than that, everything was in hand, nothing to worry about. If Bridgey had known what, or more appropriately, who was waiting for him in the palace, he’d have done more than worry. He’d have soiled his pants.
Still, he had followed the visibly unnerved palace errand boy, who continually looked over his shoulder with wide eyes, less, it seemed to Bridgey, to check that he was following than to be certain he wasn’t about to leap on his back like a wild animal. Finally, the frightened man opened a tall set of double doors and Bridgey found himself stepping back into the immense room containing the Sheikh’s prized Cup.
The trophy still held a central place in the massive hall, posited under a domed skylight. At the far end of the room, the Sheikh was being served breakfast in the company of a woman, and Khaldoon Al Mubarak. As he walked past the trophy, his steps echoing on the polished marble floor, Bridgey marveled at the detail of its gleaming silver surface. For all he knew, it was the original, but that was supposedly in hallowed Wembley, in the FA’s possession, and only trotted out on special occasions.
Leaving the replica behind, he focused on the Sheikh’s companion. One shake of her rich brown tresses brought him to a complete halt. “Vanessa?” His breath left him as he uttered her name, and he thought it would never come back.
At the sound of his voice, the Frenchwoman looked up. Her eyes were as deep and brown as they had ever been. Under the table, her hand sought Mansour’s wrist. With that one motion any hope he had withered and burned. His heart hardened and he turned his gaze from her to the Sheikh, unaware of the momentary look of sadness in her eyes. A look that was quickly suppressed.
“Why am I here?” Bridgey asked, his voice all steel.
The Sheikh looked up at him momentarily, patted his lips with his napkin, then looked back down, resuming his meal. Bridgey’s mouth formed a syllable but before he could give sound to it, Mubarak spoke.
“You have been lent out to Sunderland FC for the remainder of the season,” he said. “Your agent has agreed terms with the club. You will pack immediately.”
“No!” Bridgey refused. “I am playing this match. You have kept me off the pitch for two years; you will not deny me today!”
Mubarak laughed. Waving his hand in dismissal, he said, “You will have all the matches you wish with the Irishman, O’Neill, in the Stadium of Light. For two years, you have rejected every opportunity we gave you to move on –”
“With struggling clubs in foreign leagues or the Championship?” It was Bridgey’s turn to laugh in disgust. “Please.”
Mubarak shrugged. “You cannot blame us if they were the only ones willing to pay ₤90,000 per week for a panty-waist coward.” The City president’s gaze darted to Vanessa and past her to the Sheikh, realising that he may have inadvertently offended them, but neither acknowledged his remark.
Bridgey, though, curled his fists and took a purposeful step forward.
“That,” Mubarak advised with a wicked smile, “would be ill-advised.”
He gestured behind Bridgey with his butter knife, where the sound of shuffling feet reached the footballer’s ears. Two very large men, muscular chests and arms making every effort to escape from their suits, stood at either of his shoulders. He hadn’t heard them come in.
Mubarak continued. “Since you don’t seem willing to cooperate, your things will be collected for you. These men will escort you to a safe place until they arrive, and then you will be driven to the airport. That is all. Leave us.”
The last two sentences were directed more towards Bridgey’s new minders, who wordlessly picked up the still protesting Englishman and, turning, carried him by the arms, feet pedaling uselessly a foot from the floor, across the long room, through the doors and down the outer hall.
As they did, the Sheikh put down his silverware, lightly dabbed at his face once more, then rose and held out a hand to his companion. “Shall we, my dear? The match awaits.”
Smiling she took his hand, standing to join him. Mansour looked sternly at Mubarak. “Your words did not go unnoticed, Khaldoon. I am displeased. We will discuss it later.”
Mubarak bowed respectfully and cursed himself.
In another part of the palace, Bridgey was cursing everyone in sight. None of those he passed even glanced in his direction, however, obviously aware of the identity of his escort. Finally, they deposited him in front of a nondescript door, opened it and shoved him inside. Then they turned, arms crossed, and stood guard.
Unprepared to suddenly be back in possession of his own motor control, Bridgey sprawled onto the floor. Picking himself up and dusting off, he suddenly realised that he wasn’t alone. There was another man in the room, leaning against a small bureau against the far wall. Bridgey looked into a pair of dark, nearly black eyes, housed under arching eyebrows and a shaved pate and over a sneering grin and menacingly trimmed van dyke. The man was holding an emery board, apparently having been disturbed while trimming his nails. Nigel de Jong was the last man Bridgey wished to disturb at any time.
Bridgey backed up towards the door, and reaching behind him, tested the knob. It was locked. De Jong laughed quietly. Tucking away the emery board, he pushed away from the desk and punched a fist into the other hand. “Might as well get on with it,” he said.
Bridgey was trapped. The door was locked, there didn’t appear to be another exit, and Nigel Freaking De Jong was about to beat him to a bloody pulp. He couldn’t see a way out; it had all come to naught. Well, if this was it, he wasn’t going to take it as meekly as he had taken everything over the last two years. He wasn’t going to swallow it like he had Vanessa and JT’s betrayal, his place on the England squad, or his treatment at City. This time, he was going to go down fighting.
Summoning every bit of courage in his body, he screamed like a banshee, and launched himself at De Jong.
الوظيفة القطري
The match went on without Bridgey. Surprisingly, it went very well in the early going for the Exiles. They were incensed that one of their own had been ripped away from them, viewing it as just another example of their former club’s cruelty, and their emotions put them in the ascendancy.
Bellamy was a man possessed, although that was not all that unusual. Yet he had an equal partner in Carlos Tevez. The Argentine, who had stewed in the Buenos Aires heat while his City mates toiled through the English winter, unleashed six months of pent-up anger and frustration. Combining with the Welshman, he had pegged the Exiles to a two-goal lead in the first half-hour.
Yet, City gave as good as they got. By half-time they had hit back to halve the deficit. A rather confused Mario Balotelli, who seemingly couldn’t suss out why everyone on the pitch was exhibiting nastier attitudes than him, managed to be standing at just the right place in the box for a David Silva set-piece to carom off his hind-quarters and bounce past a confused Shay Given.
If 2-1 score wasn’t sufficient entertainment for the excited crowd, all hell broke loose as the teams headed into the clubhouse. Vincent Kompany said something to Bellamy, who offered a snappy retort. A laugh from the Belgian had the pair nose to chest, Bellamy not having the stature to reach higher. Yet it was Wright-Phillips, coming out of nowhere, who set off the fuse. Pulling his mate out of the way, he shoved Kompany in the chest, with the far larger defender responding in kind. Suddenly the two were rolling around on the turf.
When the donnybrook was finally subdued, mutual red cards were issued to the combatants, and Bellamy was shown a yellow. The tattooed scrapper didn’t seem to mind, as he was laughing and hugging a still furious SWP, merrily dragging him into the tunnel.
Inside the dressing room, Wright-Phillips anger suddenly transformed into pure joy. High-fiving Bellamy, he shouted, “Howzat fer acting, mate?”
“I love it, I love it, but let’s keep our minds on the job, eh?” the Welshman smiled back. “It’s all coming together.” Stripping off his kit and throwing it into a nearby hamper, he stamped on the floor three times. There was a ripping sound, as carpet squares separated, then Jô’s head and shoulders appeared.
The Brazilian, formerly a City forward and now Mansour’s chief eunuch, climbed out of the hidden tunnel. He had a bundle of silks in his hand. “You lads ready?”
The pair nodded.
“Excellent,” Jô answered. “Get these on, then.” He tossed the multi-coloured fabrics towards the two diminutive players.
The pair held up the clothing. “They’re dresses! What’s this, then? You don’t expect us to wear these, do you?”
Jô laughed. “Of course I do. How else do you expect to get through the palace undetected?”
Bellamy and SWP looked over the dresses dubiously.
“Come on, we don’t have all day!”
“These are a bit more revealing than what the women in the street wear,” Wright-Phillips said doubtfully.
“It’s good to be the Sheikh,” Jô explained with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, the Haj will cover your faces.”
“A lot more will have to be covered up before anyone believes Bellamy’s a bird,” Wright-Philips jibed, getting a poke in the ribs from the Welshman for his effort.
Sparky walked over and barked out, “Quit dawdling, you two, and get to it. Time’s wasting.” The pair nodded and quickly did as ordered. The gaffer turned to Tevez. “You’ll have ten minutes or so, before you get yourself sent off. You’ve done great so far, but leave everything you’ve got on the pitch, yeah?”
Tevez nodded.
“Right,” Sparky rose his voice to include the rest of the squad, while Jô, Bellamy and SWP slipped into the tunnel. “Everyone else’s job is to go out there and play the match of your life. Make sure everyone’s eyes are on you, and don’t give them a moment to wonder where the others have gone!”
A loud enthusiastic shout went up from the remaining players, and Carlos slipped the armband back on, and led them out onto the pitch for the second half. As they headed out, Hughes let it be known to the press liaison that he’d decided not to risk using Bellamy in the second half, with the circumstances surrounding his caution meaning the match official wasn’t likely to tolerate any further unruliness. The man didn’t even blink as the Welsh-born coach shoveled on the manure.
Out on the pitch, Tevez immediately channeled the energy that had driven him through the first forty-five minutes. Yet, without Bellamy to feed him, and the City defence surrounding him with a three or four-man escort from the restart, the Argentine dynamo was getting nowhere. Worse, with his mates constantly trying to get him the ball, City was picking off pass after pass to devastating effect at the opposite end. Shay was besieged and, in Carlos’ allotted ten minutes, Mancini’s minions had turned the match on end, with goals from Aguero and Dzeko.
George’s calm, matter-of-fact voice sounded in his ear. “Sorry Carlos, but it’s time.”
Tevez stopped and looked up to the sky in frustration. After a short moment, he came to a decision — then played on. Sparky began gesturing at him from the coach’s box. Carlos simply ignored him. He gathered in two more touches, but both were smothered.
George’s voice re-entered his ear. “Carlos, what are you doing? We can get the money without you, but if you want that Cup you need to get your ass over here!”
Carlos ground his teeth, but played on.
George’s voice had lost its calm and taken on a hard edge. Sparky was screaming at him. His teammates weren’t sure whether to give him the ball or not. An additional ten minutes dragged by while Tevez balanced revenge and a stubborn refusal to accept defeat on a knife’s edge.
George’s voice was replaced by Kia’s. “Carlos, amigo. que pasa? You are ruining everything, mano. Come on now, leave the game. Bamos!”
Defying his trusted advisor, Carlos played on. Another five minutes ran down.
Finally, with City in possession for a moment, he jogged over to Ade and Roque Santa Cruz.
“Do you two want all that money?” The pair nodded as one.
“Of course we do, Charlie,” Ade assured him.
“Well, you need me to get it for you,” he lied, “and I’m not leaving this pitch until the score is level . Do you understand me?”
The pair exchanged serious glances, then nodded at Tevez once more.
“Bien,” he nodded back. “Let’s get to work,”
Turning, he looked around for the ball, noting that Adam Johnson and Silva were working it back and forth on one flank, as the Exiles desperately held their shape, barring City’s path to goal. Carlos darted over, coming on the young Englishman from behind just as he accepted another pass and nicked it cleanly off his boot.
With possession, Carlos quickly slotted the ball over to Stephen Ireland, who sent it up the pitch to Santa Cruz. The Paraguayan sold a dummy to his mark, and before cover could arrive, crossed to Ade. The Togolese shook off the attentions of Micah Richards and danced towards the box. All the while, Tevez was streaking straight down the middle of the pitch. He ran straight onto Ade’s return cross, catching Joe Hart sliding the wrong way, and poking the ball into the open corner before his shadows could converge on him.
Yelling in triumph, he sprinted to the corner, tearing his shirt from his body and waving it madly over his head. When he reached the flag, he threw his kit over a camera lens and, having revealed a tee-shirt underneath which read F— City, he ripped the stick from the ground. Turning again, he ran to the stands and hurtled it into the tenth row like a javelin.
Purged of emotion, he turned to find the official brandishing a red card.
“Are you all happy now?” he muttered into the concealed mike.
“Yeah, Carlos. We’re happy,” George was back online. “The game is all tied up. Now get your f—in’ ass over here.” As a happy Roque and Ade caught up to him, wrapping him in an embrace, he shouted in their ears. “If you lose this match, I’ll burn every stinking Euro!”
الوظيفة القطري
Bridgey wasn’t nearly as happy as Roque or Ade. His face was firmly planted in the wall of the tiny office. When he had sprung at De Jong, the Dutchman had been surprised but had sidestepped him adroitly, and Bridgey had hit the wall at full speed. De Jong moved in behind him, grabbed Bridgey’s right arm, and twisted it up into his back.
“What the hell are you trying to do, Bridgey?” he whispered. “George and Brad said to make it look good, but that was dangerous. Someone could get hurt.”
“W-what?” Bridgey sputtered into the wall. “You’re with us?”
“Of course, I am mate,” Nigel answered releasing his grip and stepping back. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, you’re still with the club,” Bridgey reasoned.
“Have you noticed how little they’re playing me?” Nigel sneered. “They used me to get to this level, and now that they’re here, I’m too dangerous. How ridiculous is that?”
Bridgey tried to find a delicate way to put it, but couldn’t. “Well, not much really. You are pretty dangerous.”
Nigel shrugged. “Yes, yes, but they should still show a little loyalty. No, I’m on the way out, like you. Only, I’m not going to wait two years to get mine.”
Bridgey took the insult in stride. A truth for a truth, after all. “Well, what do we do now?”
“I get to wreck this room,” Nigel replied, “and you get to go off and help yourself to all that loot.”
“Sounds like a fair trade,” Bridgey grinned. Nigel grudgingly smiled in return, then took a step forward. “Move aside.”
Bridgey moved, and Nigel happily picked up the credenza from against the wall, staggered backwards several steps, then with a yell, charged. The wall crumpled, with the piece of furniture and the Dutchman disappearing through a massive hole.
Bridgey stepped through to see whether Nigel might have actually hurt himself this time, and found himself in a dimly lit hallway. Nigel was fine, brushing drywall dust and fragments away casually. The credenza hadn’t survived.
“Where are we?” Bridgey asked.
“Secret passage,” Nigel answered.
Bridgey raised an eyebrow, wondering how the Dutchman knew of its existence.
“What? Jô doesn’t know all the secrets of this place. His balls may be cut off, but mine aren’t, and a few of his girls like a strong man. I’ve snuck in here on more than one occasion.”
“But –”
“Oh come on, Bridgey, I may be a maniac but I’m not an idiot. I’ll just tell them I threw you through the wall, had no idea what was behind it…”
Bridgey thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Yeah, that ought to work.”
“Sure it will. Just have to make it look good.”
“Hu– Ooof!” Bridgey didn’t catch on until after Nigel had hit him in the gut. Doubling over in pain, he tried to protest but couldn’t find his voice.
“It’s okay, mate,” Nigel encouraged. “Just breathe slowly, you’ll be fine. There’s a lot more pain than damage.”
Bridgey winced, and straightened. “Gee, thanks,” he croaked, “that’s a huge comfort.”
“No worries,” Nigel smiled. “Now, just head that way, and you’ll find George, Brad and Kia waiting. Help yourself to as much cash as you can, and get back here before the end of the match. Those two gorillas are waiting.”
Bridgey nodded his thanks and began to move gingerly down the passage.
الوظيفة القطري
The referee had his arm up, eying his watch, and the whistle to his mouth. Despite being a man down, the Exiles had fought tooth and nail, refusing to give ground under a relentless City attack. They had reached the ninety minute mark still level at three.
Yawning, not for the first time, Vanessa whispered into Sheikh Mansour’s ear as they watched from his special Box. Leaning over, but not taking his eyes off the pitch, he nodded his assent. Covering her mouth again, the Frenchwoman rose, and made her way out of the stadium, as the match slipped into added time.
Unsurprisingly, given the locale, a full six minutes had been tacked on. Yet, the Exiles did not waver. Ade and Roque were playing more defence in this friendly than they had played in their entire careers.
Six minutes dragged into seven, then eight. The Exiles still hung on.
Finally, Petrov found the ball and hoofed it over the centre circle. The whistle sounded.
The match had ended at last, and City had been denied the victory. Mancini shook hands with Sparky, his predecessor, and had the good sense to not look to the owner’s box as he made his way off the pitch. Mansour stood, and with a hard look at Mubarak, strode away, with his security falling into step.
الوظيفة القطري
In the bowels of the palace, George, Brad and Bridgey sympathised with a very concerned Kia.
“We’ve moved all we have time for,” Brad told him. “We know you’re worried, but it’s time to haul ass.”
“I do not leave without Carlos,” Kia said.
“We don’t know where he is, mate,” Bridgey cautioned. “And I have to get back to Nigel, or we’re all nicked.”
“I have a very good idea where he is,” Kia insisted. “But you needn’t be troubled. I will go after him alone. Good luck to all of you.”
“Are you certain?” George asked.
“Si, amigo,” Kia replied.
“Alright, then,” George nodded. “Good luck.”
الوظيفة القطري
Sheikh Mansour strode into the trophy hall, followed by his retinue and a very subdued Khaldoon Al Mubarak, and stopped in his tracks. The case which held his FA Cup stood open and empty. He slipped back the sleeve of his jacket, revealing the security watch still on his left wrist. He turned to his guards and gestured back the way they had come.
“They can’t get far,” he said. “Fools.”
Winding through the palace, he came to the door guarded by the two gorillas. “Open it, you idiots!”
The duo sprang into action, fighting each other to get key to lock. Finally they threw open the doors, only to see Bridgey in the clutches of Nigel De Jong. The Dutchman was gripping his victim by the collar, fist cocked. Bridgey’s hands were covering his face. Nigel looked towards the Sheikh, and, with a hint of disappointment in his voice, asked, “Already?”
The Sheikh walked into the room, flicking a wrist towards De Jong. The enforcer let go of Bridgey, who stumbled backwards a step before recovering, and straightening his shirt. Mansour walked over to the hole in the wall and turned to look questioningly at Nigel, who shrugged sheepishly. The royal sized up the situation.
“Khaldoon,” the Sheikh said in a clear, cutting tone, “I am very displeased. See that Mr Bridge makes his flight and then report to me. We have much to discuss.”
الوظيفة القطري
The limo pulled up to the departure terminal, and Bridgey got out when the red cap opened the door. He waited patiently for Mubarak, who escorted him through security and to the boarding gate.
“We have been holding the flight, sirs,” the gate attendant informed them.
Mubarak turned to Bridgey, his face a thunderous cloud. “If I never see you again, Englishman, it will be too soon. Good riddance.”
Bridgey tried to think of a snappy comeback, but he was a bit new to having the upper hand, and drew a blank. A bit embarrassed, he handed the attendant his boarding pass, and stepped through the gate. George and Brad were seated together near the front of the aircraft, flying first class as always, and sipping champagne. They smiled at the sight of him, then gestured with their glasses to indicate that the rest of the party was further back.
As he pulled the curtains which divided first class from economy, a cheer greeted him from the rest of the Exiles, all completely oblivious to Mansour’s final slight. Bridgey’s seat was all the way to the rear of the plane, across the aisle from Sparky. He stowed his bag in the overhead compartment, and took his seat. A woman had the window seat, but her head was buried in a fashion magazine.
As he clicked his safety belt into place, she lowered her reading material and smiled hopefully at him. Bridgey was stunned to see Vanessa, but before he could ask why she was there, she dropped a watch that looked exactly like Sheikh Mansour’s into his lap. It was faint now, as its battery must have run down, but the alarm was beeping and the dial flashing.
“Amour,” she murmured, and gave him a deep kiss. Coming up for air, he stared at the watch. If it was here, and raising a ruckus, where was the Cup? He looked around, quizzically, then turned to Sparky.
“Where are Carlos and Kia?”
The Welshman shrugged, “No one’s seen them.” A bejeweled hand snaked around Bridgey’s neck, and he forgot the conspirators, immersing himself entirely in the long-missed affections of Madame Perroncel.
الوظيفة القطري
The sun was very high in the desert sky as two small figures on camels led a third beast, bearing a large chest, over the dunes. They were inexperienced with the animals, and heading away from any settlement, but they were unconcerned. In fact, they were laughing and singing.
“Do you know, Kia?” one said to the other. “These ugly animals aren’t as bad as they’re made out.”
“Si,” agreed his companion. “They’re very easy to negotiate with, if you just show them a bit of kindness.”
في النهاية
The Qatari Job, Part VII: The Cup Runneth Over by Martin Palazzotto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. |
Former Cincinnati Bengals right tackle Andre Smith is expected to be visiting the team that drafted him with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft.
700wlw radio host Rocky Boiman shared the news after Dre Kirkpatrick also hinted at a return for Smith last week.
I hesitate to do this but a reliable source tells me to expect a visit by former #Bengals OT Andre Smith and Bengals staff in next 24hrs. — Rocky Boiman (@ROCKYBOIMAN50) March 13, 2017
The thought is that Smith would return after a one-year hiatus to serve as a backup for a highly questionable offensive line. Smith joined the Minnesota Vikings in 2016 on a one-year deal, but his season ended after four games due to an arm injury.
The Bengals are receiving a seventh round compensatory pick in this year’s NFL Draft due to Smith leaving for the Vikings.
Smith received his second lowest Pro Football Focus grade of his career in 2016, a terrible 39.3, poor grade. But, Bengals offensive tackle Cedric Ogbuehi was graded just one-tenth higher with a 39.4 grade for the 2016 season. Ogbuehi is expected to be the Bengals’ starting left tackle in 2017, now that Andrew Whitworth has left for the Los Angeles Rams. Jake Fisher is expected to man the right tackle job, which was Smith’s role for nearly the entirety of his Bengals career.
Bringing back Smith would make sense, if he’s going to serve as a backup. Though, it would need to be a contract that allows him to be cut at any time, should the Bengals find a younger, better backup tackle for the 2017 roster. Eric Winston was also brought back on a one-year deal to serve as the primary backup for the tackle positions.
Smith also visited the Bills over the weekend, but left Buffalo without a contract. |
In continuing their “Unlimited” campaign, which pays homage to both everyday athletes and the champion athletes who regularly push their limits and who are poised to prove their unlimited potential this summer and beyond, Nike presents a new Olympic ad, “Unlimited Youth.” The delivery acts as a followup to the brand’s previous “Unlimited Courage,” “Unlimited You” and “Unlimited Together” films.
This time around the Swoosh is celebrating an extraordinary athlete, Sister Madonna Buder, and her determination to defy conventional conceptions of age. At the age of 65, Sister Buder completed her first IRONMAN World Championship triathlon in Hawaii, before going on to become the oldest woman to ever complete an IRONMAN triathlon, at age 75. From there, the American nun set a world record as the oldest IRONMAN triathlon competitor when she was 82 years old. Now at the age of 86, she has completed over 40 IRONMAN races, each comprising of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile run. For that, she is appropriately referred to as the “Iron Nun.”
Things of course haven’t always been easy along the way, as during her journey Sister Buder has missed a race finish by a matter of seconds, suffered multiple broken bones, and been subject to numerous wetsuit issues. “The only failure is not to try, because your effort in itself is a success,” she exclaims, however.
For a closer look at the incredible journey of Sister Madonna Buder, watch Nike’s “Unlimited Youth” film above.
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Words by Jonathan Sawyer Staff Writer Not NYC, not LA. |
Deconstructing Arabic in 45 Minutes
Conversational Russian in 60 minutes?
This post is by request. How long does it take to learn Chinese or Japanese vs. Spanish or Irish Gaelic? I would argue less than an hour.
Here’s the reasoning…
Before you invest (or waste) hundreds and thousands of hours on a language, you should deconstruct it. During my thesis research at Princeton, which focused on neuroscience and unorthodox acquisition of Japanese by native English speakers, as well as when redesigning curricula for Berlitz, this neglected deconstruction step surfaced as one of the distinguishing habits of the fastest language learners…
So far, I’ve deconstructed Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Norwegian, Irish Gaelic, Korean, and perhaps a dozen others. I’m far from perfect in these languages, and I’m terrible at some, but I can converse in quite a few with no problems whatsoever—just ask the MIT students who came up to me last night and spoke in multiple languages.
How is it possible to become conversationally fluent in one of these languages in 2-12 months? It starts with deconstructing them, choosing wisely, and abandoning all but a few of them.
Consider a new language like a new sport.
There are certain physical prerequisites (height is an advantage in basketball), rules (a runner must touch the bases in baseball), and so on that determine if you can become proficient at all, and—if so—how long it will take.
Languages are no different. What are your tools, and how do they fit with the rules of your target?
If you’re a native Japanese speaker, respectively handicapped with a bit more than 20 phonemes in your language, some languages will seem near impossible. Picking a compatible language with similar sounds and word construction (like Spanish) instead of one with a buffet of new sounds you cannot distinguish (like Chinese) could make the difference between having meaningful conversations in 3 months instead of 3 years.
Let’s look at few of the methods I recently used to deconstructed Russian and Arabic to determine if I could reach fluency within a 3-month target time period. Both were done in an hour or less of conversation with native speakers sitting next to me on airplanes.
Six Lines of Gold
Here are a few questions that I apply from the outset. The simple versions come afterwards:
1. Are there new grammatical structures that will postpone fluency? (look at SOV vs. SVO, as well as noun cases)
2. Are there new sounds that will double or quadruple time to fluency? (especially vowels)
3. How similar is it to languages I already understand? What will help and what will interfere? (Will acquisition erase a previous language? Can I borrow structures without fatal interference like Portuguese after Spanish?)
4. All of which answer: How difficult will it be, and how long would it take to become functionally fluent?
It doesn’t take much to answer these questions. All you need are a few sentences translated from English into your target language.
Some of my favorites, with reasons, are below:
The apple is red.
It is John’s apple.
I give John the apple.
We give him the apple.
He gives it to John.
She gives it to him.
These six sentences alone expose much of the language, and quite a few potential deal killers.
First, they help me to see if and how verbs are conjugated based on speaker (both according to gender and number). I’m also able to immediately identify an uber-pain in some languages: placement of indirect objects (John), direct objects (the apple), and their respective pronouns (him, it). I would follow these sentences with a few negations (“I don’t give…”) and different tenses to see if these are expressed as separate words (“bu” in Chinese as negation, for example) or verb changes (“-nai” or “-masen” in Japanese), the latter making a language much harder to crack.
Second, I’m looking at the fundamental sentence structure: is it subject-verb-object (SVO) like English and Chinese (“I eat the apple”), is it subject-object-verb (SOV) like Japanese (“I the apple eat”), or something else? If you’re a native English speaker, SOV will be harder than the familiar SVO, but once you pick one up (Korean grammar is almost identical to Japanese, and German has a lot of verb-at-the-end construction), your brain will be formatted for new SOV languages.
Third, the first three sentences expose if the language has much-dreaded noun cases. What are noun cases? In German, for example, “the” isn’t so simple. It might be der, das, die, dem, den and more depending on whether “the apple” is an object, indirect object, possessed by someone else, etc. Headaches galore. Russian is even worse. This is one of the reasons I continue to put it off.
All the above from just 6-10 sentences! Here are two more:
I must give it to him.
I want to give it to her.
These two are to see if auxiliary verbs exist, or if the end of the each verb changes. A good short-cut to independent learner status, when you no longer need a teacher to improve, is to learn conjugations for “helping” verbs like “to want,” “to need,” “to have to,” “should,” etc. In Spanish and many others, this allows you to express yourself with “I need/want/must/should” + the infinite of any verb. Learning the variations of a half dozen verbs gives you access to all verbs. This doesn’t help when someone else is speaking, but it does help get the training wheels off self-expression as quickly as possible.
If these auxiliaries are expressed as changes in the verb (often the case with Japanese) instead of separate words (Chinese, for example), you are in for a rough time in the beginning.
Sounds and Scripts
I ask my impromptu teacher to write down the translations twice: once in the proper native writing system (also called “script” or “orthography”), and again in English phonetics, or I’ll write down approximations or use IPA.
If possible, I will have them take me through their alphabet, giving me one example word for each consonant and vowel. Look hard for difficult vowels, which will take, in my experience, at least 10 times longer to master than any unfamiliar consonant or combination thereof (“tsu” in Japanese poses few problems, for example). Think Portuguese is just slower Spanish with a few different words? Think again. Spend an hour practicing the “open” vowels of Brazilian Portuguese. I recommend you get some ice for your mouth and throat first.
The Russian Phonetic Menu, and…
Reading Real Cyrillic 20 Minutes Later
Going through the characters of a language’s writing system is really only practical for languages that have at least one phonetic writing system of 50 or fewer sounds—Spanish, Russian, and Japanese would all be fine. Chinese fails since tones multiply variations of otherwise simple sounds, and it also fails miserably on phonetic systems. If you go after Mandarin, choose the somewhat uncommon GR over pinyin romanization if at all possible. It’s harder to learn at first, but I’ve never met a pinyin learner with tones even half as accurate as a decent GR user. Long story short, this is because tones are indicated by spelling in GR, not by diacritical marks above the syllables.
In all cases, treat language as sport.
Learn the rules first, determine if it’s worth the investment of time (will you, at best, become mediocre?), then focus on the training. Picking your target is often more important than your method.
[To be continued?]
###
Is this helpful or just too dense? Would you like me to write more about this or other topics? Please let me know in the comments. Here’s something from Harvard Business School to play with in the meantime…
Other Popular Posts on this Blog:
How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise
From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks
Relax Like A Pro: 5 Steps to Hacking Your Sleep
How to Travel the World with 10 Pounds or Less (Plus: How to Negotiate Convertibles and Luxury Treehouses)
The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen (and Weapons of Mass Distraction)
How to Outsource the Inbox and Never Check Email Again
###
Odds and Ends:
Please help me break the Technorati 1000 today!
I’m around 1070 on Technorati’s rankings, and it’s killing me. Can those of you with blogs PULEEEEASE register your blogs with Technorati and find something interesting to link to on this 4HWW blog? It would really be a milestone for me and I’m so close! Just breaking 1000 would be enough. If you can find something to link to in the most popular posts or elsewhere, please do whatever you can in the next 24-36 hours! Thanks so much 🙂
Posted on: November 7, 2007.
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Please check out Tribe of Mentors, my newest book, which shares short, tactical life advice from 100+ world-class performers. Many of the world's most famous entrepreneurs, athletes, investors, poker players, and artists are part of the book. The tips and strategies in Tribe of Mentors have already changed my life, and I hope the same for you. Click here for a sample chapter and full details. Roughly 90% of the guests have never appeared on my podcast.
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IT’S 10 in the morning in Scotstoun and the two most popular men in Glasgow are posing for selfies with punters on the pavement.
The people of the Clydeside suburb may have gone up Dumbarton Road for the bus or the messages – a brush with telly’s most popular pairing wasn’t on the shopping list.
“No ways” are exclaimed, phones brandished, smiley faces pulled, hands shaken, backs slapped and days made.
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The big man with the dark ’tache dives into the chemist and the wee man with the ginger one waits outside.
The big one has a wee hangover. The wee one’s not big on sympathy.
A man wearing a suit and a peaked chauffeur’s cap opens the door of a people carrier to let them climb inside.
He calls each of them “sir”.
Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade would consider this a rare day out.
But Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill seem to be enjoying it too.
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The Still Game duo invited the Daily Record to join them on a frantic publicity road trip around the country’s radio stations, the final PR drive before they disappear to re-emerge as Jack and Victor in The Hydro on September 19.
And the transformation is taking place right before our eyes, with both men already sporting character moustaches.
“We used to stick them on when we were doing it for TV”, said Ford, with the ginger one. “So we grow them to make sure they don’t blow off during the performances or we end up hunting down around the audience to put them back on.
Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now
“I’ve never had a problem with ginger. Ginger hair’s terrific. Jack had ginger hair when we did the flashback episode.
“Greg doesn’t think he looks ridiculous with a tache but I know I do.”
Ford and Greg had a high-profile fallout when Still Game was at the height of its commercial success. The cloth caps were hung up in Osprey Heights for what seemed like the last time in 2007.
Greg’s since admitted that if their “friendship failure” did anything, it made them realise what everyone else already knew. That there was something special about their relationship.
(Image: Daily Record)
If anything were to expose any cracks papered over by a lucrative 21-show run at The Hydro, then it might be a late night on the wine the evening before a 7.30am appointment on a high-energy commercial radio station accompanied by a journalist and photographer on a six-hour publicity jaunt.
At worst, Ford and Greg wind each other up with the enjoyably familiar rough and tumble of middle-aged men who started this carry on in the playground, just as the opening credits suggest.
They test each other with deadpan humour and one enjoys hooking the other with a dummy line just as much as when they first met through comedian Bruce Morton at a party in a flat in the 90s.
The pace is relentless. Chipping in with a funny anecdote is like trying to compete with Lionel Messi at keepy-uppy.
One takes 20 notes off the other after a reminiscence about the location of the old Glasgow Empire and Metropole theatres develops into an on-the-spot bet settled by an iPhone fact check at Heart FM.
They joust over the referendum travelling between Capital and XFM, starting with political points and ending with tears of laughter on their faces.
(Image: Daily Record)
By the time they’re pretending to be Jack and Victor in a tiny Radio Clyde studio (they swear they’ll never be seen doing it out of costume) all is finally lost and the interview melts into a wheezing, snorting, puce-faced hysterical breakdown.
Even in those moments with defences seemingly down, they fiercely guard the content of their comeback, whispering behind hands when a rehearsal note occurs to them somewhere on the M8, though they do let us in on some titbits.
They tell how director Michael Hines is standing in as Boaby the barman in rehearsals while original Gav Mitchell recovering from broken ribs at home with his script.
They wonder why they’ve ended up paying so much to keep the original “dirty stinking rag” of a couch in storage all this time when they could have bought several new ones from DFS.
They say there’ll be a mention of Kilmacolm in the script because at least one person in the car grew up there, and because any word with two “k” sounds is scientifically proven to be funny. Apparently.
And an unseen documentary about cameos of Michelle McManus and Jim Watts in an earlier TV episode, dubbed Raging Bulls***, will be shown at half time during the shows.
With the morning rounds over, the pair are spun out of the car and into The Hydro for pictures of the vast empty arena a week before technical rehearsals begin.
They are then marched across to the SECC where they are force-fed lunch in between unexpected phone calls and final questions from their travelling companions.
“When we put those costumes on for the first time last week, it was like power surging through us,” said Greg, suddenly that boy in the playground again. “It was like putting on a suit of armour. It felt comfortable, not an ounce of it was unfamiliar to me.
“The nerves go away in the costume. It makes us realise people aren’t here to see us, they’re here to see Jack and Victor.
“We know better actors who haven’t had the opportunities we’ve had.
“When you play a character who people have fallen in love with, it’s the best thing that can happen.” |
Its my Friday lay day blog, which is sort of a dodge that allows me to be less focused. I have been holding my pen about Greece in abeyance lately until more details became clearer about what is going on in the so-called ‘negotiations’, which seems to be a euphemism so ugly given the reality that perhaps a new descriptor should be introduced. As the specific details emerge more clearly, the situation remains much the same as it was in January when the new Greek government was resoundingly elected to end austerity. Either the Greek government has to abandon its electoral mandate and capitulate and become just another ‘left-wing’ government overseeing the punishing austerity inflicted by the neo-liberal ideologues or it has to show leadership and take the nation out of the dysfunctional Eurozone and pursue its own path to more prosperous, if uncertain, times. Part of that leadership has to be to educate the public as to what the options are in a balanced rather than hysterical way. I have heard Syriza politicians claim that leaving the union would be catastrophic, which is not only false but just reinforces the public fear of exit. Further, all the nominations in February from Syriza politicians that the ‘negotiations’ to that date had been “successful” (Source), which any reasonable interpretation would have led to the conclusion that austerity was about to end in Greece, the reality now, is that the Greek government appears to be slowly capitulating to the venal demands of the Troika and the future for Greece is likely to be one of interminable economic stagnation, increasing poverty and rising social instability. But, hey, that is what success seems to mean now in this dark-age of Eurozone realities. If there weren’t real people involved in this tragedy, this could be a top selling farce.
We still do not have a very clear picture of the offers and counter-offers, although the leaked documents appear to show that the Troika (particularly the IMF) is holding basically to the line they have had all along – Greece will be punished.
It also appears that the Greek government is slowly but surely giving ground as they increase the intensity of the public claims that they are at loggerheads with the Troika. The reality apears to be that they will continue to impose austerity which will continue to devastate the nation.
So their so-called ‘red line’ beyond which they would not compromise appears to be a very fluid line and does not even exclude changes to the pension system.
The best indication one can get is probably from the Op Ed pieces that Syriza politicians who are not party to the Brussels shindig (or whereever these interminable meetings are taking place) are writing about what is going on.
The latest of these appeard in the UK Guardian yesterday (June 25, 2015) – Greece is being blackmailed. Exiting the eurozone is its way out – by Costas Lapavitsas.
He puts it pretty clearly I think.
The Greek government has proposed to:
1. “tough primary surpluses: 1% in 2015 and 2% in 2016”.
2. “to raise VAT on a range of widely consumed goods as well as imposing a host of taxes on enterprises and families of “high” income.”
3. To make “substantial savings on pensions”.
In total, the proposed cuts will further the austerity and damage economic growth.
Lapavitsas is clear:
The package is certainly deflationary at a moment when the Greek economy is again on the threshold of recession. There is little doubt that it would contribute to output contraction and higher unemployment in 2015-16, particularly as there is little prospect of being offset by an investment programme funded by the EU. It is a major retreat by the government of Syriza.
But even with this “major retreat”, the Troika bullies seem to be displeased. They want harsher cuts and more tax rises especially increasing the burden on the poorest members of Greek society.
Lapavistas says ” the prospect of a deal achieved on this basis would be simply appalling”.
The motivation of the Troika cannot be pure – I know that is an understatement – but after several years of policy failure no-one could seriously believe that inflicting more harsh austerity onto Greece could possible deliver the growth dividends that the IMF choose to publish (as in the graph below).
Lapavitsas says:
The “institutions” are once again attempting to impose the policies that have failed abysmally since 2010, causing huge contraction of GDP, vast unemployment and mass impoverishment. It would be a national disaster accompanied by the complete humiliation of the Syriza government.
All the documents and narratives that this is a growth-supporting strategy are lies. They are just produced to massage the public debate and avoid the true motivations being revealed.
That is where my thinking currently is on Greece. They are being punished for daring to elect a government that doesn’t bend over and implement the neo-liberal austerity as a preference.
The result will be the same – austerity. But Syriza has publicly stood up to it and in Lapavitsas’ words, the Troika is “keen to inflict a political defeat on a leftwing government that has dared to challenge the European status quo”.
So with the deadline now real (Tuesday next week I believe) for an agreement, the sham is reaching its end-point – for now.
In EU-style, these crises never really end. Something just gets imposed in an ad hoc fashion and deliberations continue.
But the IMF payment next week is real and the IMF rules clearly do not allow for rescheduling. All the flexibility that Greece had in bundling the sections of that loan into one, which they exercised a few weeks ago, is now gone.
Lapavitsas understands that:
Greece and the government of Syriza have now come face-to-face with the ruthless reality of the eurozone.
Greece should never have joined the monetary union and were only admitted as a result of a fraud perpetrated with the help of Goldman Sachs (them!).
They should never have entered the bailout agreements – and should, therefore, have exited then.
They should exit on Monday after spending the weekend organising the banks etc and getting Euros stamped until they can get a new currency issued.
Lapavitsas and other Syriza politicians understand that:
There is an alternative path for Greece, and it would include leaving the eurozone. Exit would free the country from the trap of the common currency, allowing it to implement policies that could revive both economy and society. It would open a feasible path that could offer fresh hope, even if it entailed significant difficulties of adjustment during the initial period.
And he and his associates should spend every waking hour educating the Greek people who elected them of this reality.
He says “it is incumbent upon Syriza to rethink its strategy and offer fresh leadership to the Greek people”.
The party hasn’t done that to date and have instead held out hope of a growth solution within the Eurozone. They badly underestimated the venality of the Troika, particularly the IMF.
But it is not too late to initiate this dialogue with the Greek population. Nothing could be as bad as staying in the Eurozone.
But more positively, exit will bring instant growth and reductions in unemployment. There would be a lot of noise associated with the first several months of activity but the reason that the Troika doesn’t want Greece to leave is because it would expose the austerity myth.
Beyond austerity is growth. Italy would see it. Spain would see it. Portugal would see it. And the word would spread that the Troika a second-rate tyrants who trade on lies and deception and Germany hides behind that wall of lies to reap its own prosperty at the expense of its monetary union partners.
I considered the IMF forecasting performance in this blog – 100 per cent forecast errors are acceptable to the IMF.
The IMF forecasting performance in relation to Greece has been nothing short of criminally negligent. In 2010, they predicted that by 2012, Greece would return to increasingly robust growth as a result of private sector confidence returning as a result of the declining fiscal deficits.
As the Troika were busily imposing austerity on beleaguered European nations such as Greece and Portugal, the IMF consistently claimed that their ‘modelling’ showed that if governments cut their fiscal deficits quickly, private sector spending would respond and growth would soon return.
In their – May 2010 Staff Report – the IMF predicted growth would follow a “V-shaped pattern” and that:
… the frontloaded fiscal contraction in 2010–11 will suppress domestic demand in the short run; but from 2012 onward, confidence effects, regained market access, and comprehensive structural reforms are expected to lead to a growth recovery. Unemployment is projected to peak at nearly 15 percent by 2012.
[Reference: International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2010) ‘Greece: Staff Report on Request for Stand-By Arrangement’, IMF Country Report No. 10/110, May].
The national unemployment rate in Greece remained at 25.6 per cent in March 2015 (latest data).
After being roundly criticised by the Independent Evaluation for engaging in Groupthink there were some changes in data presentation noticeable.
Please read my blog – The IMF – incompetent, biased and culpable – for more discussion on the Independent Evaluation in 2011.
One of the IMF responses has been to make their forecast evolution from the World Economic Indicators available as historical data.
The IMF say in the – WEO Historical data release that:
As part of efforts to enhance transparency, the World Economic Outlook (WEO) is making the historical forecasts’ data easily accessible to the authorities in member countries and other users.
I created the following graph from that data, although I had collected all the forecasts previously anyway. The new release makes it easier to quickly see the evolution of the IMF forecasts.
In this graph, the evolution begins in the April 2010 WEO forecasts for real GDP for Greece (per cent per annum) – 2010_1 and then 2010_2 is the October revisions, and so on. As we get closer to 2015, the forecast horizon extends, so the latest April 2015 forecasts (2015_1) go out to 2020.
The bright red columns (for easy identification) are the actual real GDP growth rates.
So you can see that in April 2010, the degree of contraction forecast (2010_1) by the IMF was 2 per cent whereas in reality it turned out to be 4.9 per cent.
As the crisis deepened, the IMF kept revising their forecasts up. The columns are only the forecasts for the relevant current year and then out to the relevant forecast horizon at that point in time.
It is obvious that the forecasts they used to justify their harsh austerity package for Greece were very inaccurate and remained so over the period of the so-called Memorandum (Bailout package).
Even in April 2015, the IMF was predicting relatively robust real GDP growth in the coming year and beyond. It is almost beyond belief, given the circumstances that they could form those predictions.
Moreover, the actual outcomes were more in keeping with what a reasoned assessment, which was uncontaminated by neo-liberal ideology, would have suggested. Cuts that deep and that quick were always going to devastate both public and private spending and lead to a depression with very high unemployment.
In 2012, the IMF provided some insight into their own criminal negligence. In its October 2012 World Economic Outlook, the IMF admitted that its past recommendations for fiscal austerity in Europe, which conditioned, for example, the harsh terms embedded in the Greek bailout packages, were based on ‘modelling errors’.
They admitted “that actual fiscal multipliers have been larger than forecasters assumed”
Fiscal multipliers tell us what will happen to total spending (both public and private together) for every extra $1 of public spending.
As a matter of ideology, the IMF had assumed that they were very low (below 1) so that cutting public spending would actually lead to higher total spending.
In October 2012, they admitted that the ‘multipliers’ were well in excess of 1, which means that if the government cuts spending by 1 euro, the total decline in spending and output will be well in excess of that.
The reality told us that would be the case. More credible economic analysis told us that would be the case.
But the neo-liberal biases in the IMF models simply refused to allow for that outcome because it would have undermined their ideologically motivated desire to cut deficits and reduce the size of government.
So the combination of the IMF incompetence and the usual European Groupthink justified policies that then led to millions of people unnecessarily losing their jobs.
The current ‘negotiations’ continue that ideological denial.
In June 2013, the IMF released a suite of new reports on Greece. At the press conference accompanying the release, the head of the IMF Greek Mission Poul Thomsen was asked “Is it true that the IMF admits mistakes on the Greek bailout?”
Thomsen replied:
Sure. There is in this bundle of papers, there is a discussion of the past and, in the context of the Article IV Consultation, a full report … And, sure, in reviewing what we have done the whole time, there are certainly things we could have done differently. We already had that debate six months ago on these multipliers and that if we should do it again, we would not use the same multipliers.
So which multipliers are they using now to justify the on-going austerity being imposed and the forecasts of relatively robust growth as a result?
In 2013, the IMF released a report – Greece: Ex Post Evaluation of Exceptional Access under the 2010 Stand-By Arrangement – to accompany that Press Conference.
[Reference: International Monetary Fund (IMF) (2013c) ‘Greece: Ex Post Evaluation of Exceptional Access under the 2010 Stand-By Arrangement’, IMF Country Report No. 13/156, June]
They admitted that they had altered its own rules in order to provide the bailout. It was clear to them from the outset that the austerity program would not reduce Greece’s public debt ratio, which was one of four criteria that the IMF dictate must be satisfied in order for them to provide funding.
They proceeded not as a result of any concern for what the austerity would do for Greece, but:
… because of the fear that spillovers from Greece would threaten the euro area and the global economy
Defending the interests of international capital has always been a priority of the IMF even if the welfare of ordinary citizens is compromised.
Extraordinarily, the IMF also admitted that in retrospect, Greece actually failed to meet three of the four criteria for funding, which indicates how poor the initial assessment was, in part, because the “negotiations took place in a very short period of time”.
The IMF has a history of parachuting officials into nations who within a day or so come up with radical structural adjustment programs, which ravage the local economy.
The neo-liberal free market paradigm is seen as being a ‘one size fits all’ solution, irrespective of the circumstances.
Finally, the IMF’s huge forecasting errors in relation to Greece were not one-off incidents.
While forecasting errors are a fact of life, the IMF and other major neo-liberal inspired organisations produce systematic errors, that is, they consistently make the same errors, which are easily traced to the underlying ideological biases which shape the way they create their economic models.
The IMF typically overstates the benefits of austerity and understates the costs. Further, it also overstates the inflationary impact of fiscal deficits.
Each systematic error reinforces its free market approach. Yet each systematic error also demonstrates the poverty of that approach.
In the case of Greece, the damage caused by the IMF malpractice has been massive. Some IMF officials, at the very least, should have gone to prison given the damage the institution caused, which dwarfs that of fraudsters such as Bernie Madoff who was sentenced to 150 years imprisonment for his criminality.
The IMF is a sham and no-one should take their economic ‘analysis’ seriously. They are an ideological bully organisation that is intent on imposing a free market, small government order on all the nations that it interacts with.
The Greek government should withdraw from any discussions with them.
Music – more from Ernest Ranglin and Monty Alexander
And to calm us all down again after all that, this is what I have been listening to today while working. Jamaican reggae jazz greats Monty Alexander (piano) and Ernest Ranglin (guitar) playing – Stalag 17.
It appeared on their 2004 album Rocksteady (Telarc Records), which was recorded live (one take) in the studio.
This is another of my favourite albums. There are many of those (favourites).
Saturday Quiz
The Saturday Quiz will be back again tomorrow. It will be of an appropriate order of difficulty (-:
That is enough for today!
(c) Copyright 2015 William Mitchell. All Rights Reserved. |
Self-styled "peace activist" Danny Lim - a cardboard-carrying identity on the streets of Sydney - has been fined for offensive behaviour after brandishing a sign targeting Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Police confirmed Mr Lim had been issued with an infringement notice and was also ordered to "move on" from outside Edgecliff Station on Monday morning.
"It's in the dictionary": Danny Lim was issued with an infringement notice for offensive behaviour. Credit:Jeremy Hillman
"He was also told he could return to the space he was occupying without his offensive sign," a NSW Police spokeswoman said. The $500 fine for offensive conduct was increased from $200 last year.
A former Strathfield councillor, the 71-year-old Mr Lim is known for toting large billboards strapped to his body, bearing messages of peace and love. In recent years his preaching has become more overtly political, including the pun: "People can change, Tony you c**t." |
There are a few limited differences, but I'm pretty pleased with these side-by-side
The legion-specific panels on the rhino are spectacular, but I wanted to keep them subtle
Again I'm pretty happy with how these look together
I think the models really work well.
The bolters have already been painted, I avoided any introduction of spot colours
where the recipe didn't specify, with the exception of the lightning claws.
Greetings all - it's Monday again and that means only one thing (well, only one thing to this blog that is) - it's hobby update time. Your weekly peek at my progress on my various projects, including how quickly I'm ploughing through the grey plastic pile and my hobby season goals! This last week I've been putting some effort into a commission I picked up just before Christmas when I first suggested I'd be taking some work on.Whilst I won't name the commissioner (let's keep some mystery about it shall we?) I'm sure some of you will recognise the models from their scheme (well, I hope at least - I wouldn't have done a very good job if you couldn't would I?)The commission consisted of a squad of marines and a Rhino for a heresy army, the VIth legion. It came with a caveat - there was a very specific recipe for painting the models that the commissioner has developed, so my own choices would be fairly limited on this occasion. Still, having seen the recipe it looked to include a few things I was interested in - painting via a very different method to my usual style, so learning some new tricks along the way, and adding a few different recipes to my collection for various typical features of marines (meaning I needed to pick up some paints and I can therefore justify using those recipes on my own models, which I have been since then).So, without further ado, here we are - the Rhino on the left is the template I was working from to try and achieve, whilst on the right is my own work.The squad just need the bases detailing a little and then it'll be ready to send back to the owner.These guys will be winging their way back to the owner this week, so if any of you out there want to discuss me working through some of your painting pile - please get in touch using the blog email above.Ok, so moving onto my own projects, I do have a 'secret' project that I'm not going to unveil on the blog just yet - mainly because Siph from Weemen and I are planning to reveal them both at the same time, but in addition to that and because in my last game I got ruined by centurion devastators, I've been putting in some time on my own graviton armed squad. They actually put out substantially more grav firepower than the centurions, although they aren't quite as resilient to incoming fire!The guy on the right is approaching completion, though the rest are a little further behind. I have to be honest at this point and say that a) yes I have deviated from my statement about not batch painting the dusk knights but b) its only the basecoats on the marines and the guns themselves that have been done that way, the marines will get bespoke attention on the detail and weathering. I've also got to say that I'm beginning to regret painting the grav effect in yellow, because it takes so frigging long to do! I kid you not, at this point these 4 guns have received about 6 hours of attention, and they still need the top highlight layer adding! I am very much looking forward to seeing them on the table though, guess I need to get their drop pod done...The final thing that I can show you this week in terms of progress therefore is the sergeant for tactical squad Tercero.I've only got the fist started, but I'm pretty pleased with it so here is Sergeant Alarico's left hand.It's a power fist from one of the old Masters of the Chapter models I think, put it's sculpted so well it seems to have all this pent up threat about it - I've not done the fingers yet but you'll see what I mean when the rest of the model gets some paint on and I take a pic from the front.So there you go - that's my hobby bench for the week, how does yours look?Till next time,TBE |
Updated 4/26/13 4:58 p.m.
The U.S. intelligence community has uncovered strong evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria. Several blood samples, taken from multiple people, have tested positive for the nerve agent sarin, an American intelligence source tells Danger Room. President Obama has long said that the use of such a weapon by the Assad regime would cross a “red line.” So now the question becomes: What will the White House do in response?
In March, the Assad regime was accused of using chemical weapons during an attack on the city of Aleppo. The blood samples were taken by Syrian opposition groups from alleged victims of that strike. But American analysts can’t be entirely sure where the blood came from or when the precisely exposure took place.
“This is more than one organization representing that they have more than one sample from more than one attack,” the source tells Danger Room. “But we can’t confirm anything because no is really sure what’s going on in country.”
What’s clear is that the samples are authentic, and that the weapons were almost certainly employed by the Assad regime, which began mixing up quantities of sarin’s chemical precursors months ago for an potential attack, as Danger Room first reported.
“It would be very, very difficult for the opposition to fake this. Not only would they need the wherewithal to steal it or brew it up themselves. Then they’d need volunteers who would notionally agree to a possibly lethal exposure,” the source adds.
The U.S. military initially tests for evidence of nerve gas exposure by looking for the presence of the enzyme cholinesterase in red blood cells and in plasma. (Sarin messes with the enzyme, which in turn allows a key neurotransmitte r to build up in the body, causing rather awful muscle spasms.) The less cholinesterase they find, they more likely there was a nerve gas hit.
The problem is, some pesticides will also depress cholinesterase. So the military employs a second — and sometimes a third — test.
When sarin binds to cholinesterase it loses a fluoride. The pesticides don’t do this. This second test exposes a blood sample to fluoride ions, which partially reconstitutes sarin if it’s there. If that doesn’t work, military technicians can run a third test — considered the gold standard — which isolates from the plasma one form of cholinesterase, and then uses the enzyme pepsin the chew up the cholinesterase into smaller pieces. Sarin binds to some of the these smaller chunks, and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry should be able to detect it if it’s there up. “You would be sure it’s a nerve agent and not a pesticide,” says a scientist who works with such tests, which are reliable for two to three week after exposure.
Preliminary blood samples are drawn from a pricked finger tip, and placed a field blood analyzer — a gizmo about the size of a scientific calculator that produces varying shades of yellow depending on the cholinesterase level. If the tests are positive, it’s best to tap a vein and draw more blood into a 10 milliliter tube so you can run the more sophisticated exams.
According to the Financial Times, one blood sample was analyzed by American analysts, while the other was examined by Britain’s Defence Science Technology Laboratory.
Exactly when the results came back isn’t clear. But only days ago, the Obama administration was throwing cold water on reports from Israeli and British officials of chemical weapon use in Syria. (“We have not come to the conclusion that there has been that use,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday.) But that changed Thursday morning, when the White House issued a letter (.pdf) to Senators Carl Levin and John McCain confirming the sarin discovery.
“Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in Syria, specially the chemical agent sarin. This assessment is based on physiological samples,” the letter reads. “Our standard of evidence must build on these intelligence assessments as we seek to establish credible and corroborated facts. For example, the chain of custody is not clear, so we cannot confirm how the exposure occurred and under what conditions.”
It’s not at all clear how the Obama administration will now respond. While everyone from the President on down has warned the Assad regime not to use its chemical arms, the White House has been extremely careful not to “pin the administration down on any particular course of action while at the same time not giving Assad any comfort,” Steven Simon, who served as the National Security Council’s director for the Mideast until December, tells Danger Room. “There’s no automaticity to any response.”
That was underscored by a White House official briefing reporters on background on Thursday afternoon. The official, who refused to be quoted by name, said that the next step for the administration would be “further investigation,” including by the United Nations, to confirm that chemical weapons were used deliberately by the Assad regime.
But the U.N. is already looking into the claims that chemical weapons were used during the March attack in Aleppo. One of the many reasons that the Obama administration has been very careful about going public with these sarin reports is that they’re worried about spoiling that U.N. inquiry. “It could bias the investigation and hurt the U.N.’s ability to get in country,” the intelligence source tells Danger Room.
The White House official said it would be premature to declare that Obama’s red line has been crossed. “It’s precisely because we take the red line seriously that we feel like there needs to be clear, factual, evidentiary bases for our decisions,” the official said. “Given our own history with intelligence assessments, including intelligence assessments related to weapons of mass destruction” — a reference to the infamous incorrect assertions that Saddam Hussein possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons before the Iraq invasion — “it’s very important that we are able to establish this with certainty.”
Members of Congress with access to intelligence immediately went further.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a statement saying, “It is clear that ‘red lines’ have been crossed and action must be taken to prevent larger scale use.” Feinstein appeared to mean military action to remove Assad from power: “I urge the United Nations Security Council — including Russia — to finally take strong and meaningful action to end this crisis in Syria.”
Her House counterpart, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), was a bit more cautious. “President Obama correctly said that Syria’s use of chemical weapons would be a red line for the United States,” Rogers said in his own statement this afternoon. “Now that we have confirmed their use, the question is what is our plan for transition to a post-Assad Syria? I have laid out several steps, short of boots on the ground. The world is waiting for American leadership.”
— with Greg Miller |
Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir and Lehava director Bentzi Gopshtain, both nationalist activists of the Otzma Yehudit party and residents of Kiryat Arba, contacted the Hevron police on Saturday night in a request for an investigation into events surrounding the fatal shooting of an injured terrorist.
The two called on police to investigate the activist of the radical leftist NGO B'Tselem who last Thursday filmed a soldier shooting a wounded Arab terrorist in the city, mere minutes after the terrorist and an accomplice stabbed and wounded a soldier.
Following the video footage the soldier was arrested and accused of murder. He has argued he shot the terrorist because he thought he was about to detonate a bomb belt, claiming there were concerns the terrorist had a bomb belt under his unseasonable coat, as corroborated by video evidence and testimony. The IDF on Saturday night claimed the terrorist had been checked and found not to have a bomb belt before the incident.
In the complaint sent on Saturday night, Ben-Gvir wrote, "I turn to you in my name and the name of my client Mr. Bentzi Gopshtain in a request to launch an investigation against the B'Tselem investigator Imad Abu Shamsiyeh who 'by coincidence' filmed the incident in Hevron immediately after the terrorist arrived to murder IDF soldiers."
"It is worth noting that this is not the first time in which members of the radical leftist organization B'Tselem are present 'at the right place' - from their point of view - 'at the right time' - from their point of view - and only this last year several incidents took place in the City of the Patriarchs during which (terrorists) tried to harm IDF soldiers or residents of the community, and members of the organization 'by coincidence' were at the scene."
According to the attorney, the staggering number of the "coincidences" raises serious questions, and it would be simply naive to think that the presence of B'Tselem activists is merely a matter of chance.
"It is worth checking and investigating whether there is any sort of coordination between certain sources such as those conducting criminal acts and those who are at the scene at exactly the same time," he wrote.
"In these circumstances, we ask you to order the opening of an investigation against Abu Shamsiyeh and to clarify the management of the B'Tselem organization."
Referencing an investigative report revealing members of the radical leftist group Breaking the Silence apparently spying on IDF troop formations on the border with Gaza, he added, "only a few days ago the state of Israel was introduced to the criminal acts committed by the organization Breaking the Silence."
Ben-Gvir noted Breaking the Silence "is the twin brother of the B'Tselem organization - and there is a real concern that B'Tselem investigators aren't sitting idly by either." Just this January activists connected to B'Tselem were found to be involved in getting Arabs executed for selling land to Jews, and the organization defended the executions.
He wrote in conclusion that B'Tselem operates in Hevron through activists who are "criminals, some of them released terrorists, and the Hevron police must not be complacent." |
New research from the University of Southampton shows that feeling nostalgic about the past will increase optimism about the future.
The research, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, examined the idea that nostalgia is not simply a past-orientated emotion but its scope extends into the future, with a positive outlook.
Dr Tim Wildschut, co-author of the study, comments: "Nostalgia is experienced frequently and virtually by everyone and we know that it can maintain psychological comfort. For example, nostalgic reverie can combat loneliness. We wanted to take that a step further and assess whether it can increase a feeling of optimism about the future."
In one of the reported studies within the paper, the researchers asked participants to bring to mind a nostalgic event and write about it. The number of optimistic words included in the narrative was compared to a control group who were asked to recall and write about an ordinary event. The nostalgic narratives contained a significantly higher proportion of optimistic expressions than the ordinary stories.
A further study capitalised on music's capacity to evoke nostalgia. Participants listened to either a nostalgic or control song (which had been previously validated). Those who listened to the nostalgic song reported higher levels of optimism than those who listened to the control song.
In a final study, participants were presented with song lyrics that half the group had previously identified to be nostalgic. They were then asked to complete questions about how they felt. Those who read the personally nostalgic lyrics reported higher levels of optimism than those who read the control lyrics.
The studies also highlighted the roles of self-esteem. Dr Wildschut explains: "Nostalgia raises self-esteem which in turn heightens optimism. Our findings have shown that nostalgia does have the capacity to facilitate perceptions of a more positive future. Memories of the past can help to maintain current feelings of self-worth and can contribute to a brighter outlook on the future. Our findings do imply that nostalgia, by promoting optimism, could help individuals cope with psychological adversity." |
Gaming host Geoff Keighley has clarified the controversy surrounding No Man's Sky $60 price point, stating that the decision to sell the title at such a margin was not the decision of Sony, but rather that of developer Hello Games.
Speaking about the game during the inaugural episode of his Live with YouTube Gaming show, found below at the 1:47:48 mark, Keighley mentioned having discussions with spokesperson Sean Murray with regards to the charge, going so far as to state that he had "disagreed" with them.
“I disagreed with them charging $60 and putting it in a box. I think what they should’ve done was put it out as an Early Access game and let people play it and build over time with the team and the community."
The man later added "We all wanted to believe in No Man’s Sky and Sean did, too, so much so that he was never able to build up the gumption to rip off that Band-Aid and reveal what was and wasn’t in the game."
Sony’s heavy involvement in the release of No Man’s Sky led many to falsely believe that the company was serving as its publisher, when in actuality Hello Games handled the responsibility and Sony dealt with its distribution. As a result, many concluded that Sony had decided that the game should be priced as a full retail release.
Keighley went on to divulge even more about his opinion on the game, stating that he thinks it's “unfinished” and “repetitive."
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i1ylWxKJjA |
Lenovo is having a very bad day. Last night, the company was called out for implanting adware that cut through user security. This morning, researchers uncovered a crucial password in the system, exposing Lenovo users to all manner of malicious attack. It's a major, embarrassing security failure — but unlike breaches like Heartbleed or Shellshock, Superfish isn't a flaw in a protocol or a programming mistake. It's a deliberate program, deliberately installed on Lenovo computers with corporate permission but without user consent.
A deliberate program, installed with corporate permission
At its heart, Superfish is just an unusually mean piece of crapware, the kind of program that has been cluttering up cheap PCs for decades now. Manufacturers pre-install the programs onto low-end machines in exchange for a small fee from the software company. Traditionally, all those programs would do is bug you about paying for an upgrade or throw a pop-up ad onto your desktop. But Superfish goes farther, circumventing web encryption to insert ads into HTTPS-protected sites for secure services like webmail and online banking. It's a major breach of protocol, but it's also a wakeup call for many researchers. The mild annoyance of crapware has turned into a serious security flaw — and this bug may only be the beginning.
The problem isn't just that users don't choose to install the software (although that's a problem too.) For the most part, we don't even know it's there. We see ads pop onto the desktop or into browsers, but we don't see the structure behind them. For web inserts, we don't know if the ads are being served by the original site or a browser site. Even if you know it's coming from adware on your computer, it's rare that you'll know the name of the program. The structure is designed to be invisible, outside of the user's control.
Invisibility leads to some strange incentives
Invisibility leads to some strange incentives. If crapware vendors want to try out a new way of targeting ads, for instance, most users will have no idea. Vendors have to justify the new features to the hardware manufacturer, but that can be as simple as paying a little more money. Without a public check, there's nothing to stop the software from growing more and more invasive, until it spills out into a public embarrassment like Superfish.
Hardware manufacturing tends to be invisible too, which makes it easy for adware to slip in. It's very hard to tell if a manufacturer has included something malicious on a given device — something the NSA has ruthlessly exploited over the years. Researchers can look, but the average consumer has to judge by signals. We can't run a security audit alone, so we flatten complex privacy issues into the simpler question of whether or not we trust a given brand. Do you trust Lenovo? Huawei? Apple? It's a crude measure, but it's all we have. Once that trust is gone, it's very hard to replace.
SSL is invisible too
Superfish crossed the line because it targeted SSL, the web's most basic security protection. In the politically charged world of encryption, SSL is the one thing everyone agrees on — the little green lock that protects passwords and credit card data as it moves across the web. Nearly everyone who makes money on the internet relies on consumers trusting SSL, so any move that threatens it is an existential threat. If Superfish became the industry norm, it's not just users that would be in danger. Everyone from Amazon to Google would have to scramble to keep their data secure.
Superfish's attack is particularly dangerous because SSL is invisible too. We see the little green lock and we have the option to sniff out the certificate behind it, but we almost never do. We trust that someone else has checked it out for us. When there is a certificate hack — like the one that got GoGo in trouble earlier this year — it often lays undiscovered for months. This isn't self-vetted encryption like PGP or its open-source sisters. You don't have to work for SSL; it does the work for you. We want web security to be as painless as possible, so painless that it becomes invisible.
The vulnerabilities of Superfish won't last long. Lenovo has already released instructions for uninstalling the software, and users are beginning to address the trickier certificate problem. The damage will last longer, as attackers make use of the stolen passwords and infected machines, but even that may pale in comparison to system-wide hacks like Heartbleed or Shellshock. The bigger danger may be the invisible systems themselves. To the average consumer, manufacturing will always be invisible and SSL will never be more than a 20-pixel padlock icon. And for anyone trying to break through, in the name of profit or national security, that invisibility will be a powerful tool. |
The Anglican Church has agreed to consider "reinstating" the Christ Church Cathedral at a press conference today.
The Anglican Church is resisting a full commitment to reinstating Christ Church Cathedral because of concerns over safety and cost.
Bishop Victoria Matthews partially endorsed a plan to reinstate the quake-damaged church, but did not rule out building a new, contemporary cathedral in its place.
A report by Government-appointed mediator Miriam Dean QC found the cathedral could be either reconstructed to be "indistinguishable" from its pre-quake self or replaced.
Matthews said the Church Property Trust (CPT), which owns the cathedral, would look at safety and cost issues of reinstatement. If they were manageable, a working group would lead an effort to revitalise the stricken building.
Further announcements were expected in April.
LIVE BLOG RECAP: Christ Church Cathedral announcement
1 of 22 PRESS ARCHIVES The Christ Church Cathedral rises out of the heart of the city in December 1954. 2 of 22 DON SCOTT/FAIRFAX NZ Acrobatics in front of the cathedral's rose window in 2006. 3 of 22 DAVID HALLETT/FAIRFAX NZ Workers clean the stone on the Christ Church Cathedral steeple in 2007. 4 of 22 DON SCOTT An aerial shot of the Christ Church Cathedral after the earthquake hit on February 22, 2011. 5 of 22 RICHARD COSGROVE/FAIRFAX NZ Sue Spigel was rescued from a window of the Christ Church Cathedral on February 22, 2011. 6 of 22 JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ The collapsed Christ Church Cathedral Spire, 30 minutes after the earthquake. 7 of 22 RICHARD COSGROVE/FAIRFAX NZ Dean Peter Beck beside his damaged cathedral shortly after the quake. 8 of 22 IAIN MCGREGOR/FAIRFAX NZ A no-go zone - Christ Church Cathedral. 9 of 22 KIRK HARGREAVES/FAIRFAX NZ A service for the deconsecration of the Christ Church Cathedral Peter Beck and Victoria Matthews in November 2011. 10 of 22 DEAN KOZNIAC/FAIRFAX NZ Engineer John Hare on the south side of the building, during the process in 2012 to assess the building's state. 11 of 22 DAVID HALLETT/FAIRFAX NZ Bishop Victoria Matthews, centre, announces the cathedral would be demolished in March 2012. 12 of 22 JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ Demolition of the Christ Church Cathedral tower began in April 2012. 13 of 22 JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ Mark Belton coming out of his meeting with the Bishop Victoria Andrews over the demolition of the Christ Church Cathedral, in April 2012. 14 of 22 DEAN KOZANIC/FAIRFAX NZ Hundreds gathered in Cranmer Square and then marched to Worcester Street to protest the demolition of the Christ Church Cathedral in May 2012, at which the wizard spoke. 15 of 22 DEAN KOZANIC/FAIRFAX NZ Protestors carried placards at the protest. 16 of 22 DAVID HALLETT/FAIRFAX NZ Professor Marcus Brandt from the United States speaking at Canterbury University about how to save the Christ Church Cathedral in July 2012. 17 of 22 DAVID HALLETT/FAIRFAX NZ A press conference by the Great Christchurch building trust with regard to the future of the Christ Church Cathedral. Jim Anderton (right) with Philip Burdon (Left) and Stefano Pampanin (centre) in July 2012. 18 of 22 SUPPLIED The three options: The contemporary Warren and Mahoney design was on the table in early 2013. 19 of 22 DEAN KOZNIAC/FAIRFAX NZ Christ Church Cathedral awaits it's fate but continues to be a tourist attraction, in 2014. 20 of 22 DAVID HALLETT/FAIRFAX NZ The whare outside the Christ Church Cathedral. 21 of 22 URBEX CENTRAL Urban explorers Urbex Central took this photo inside the abandoned Christ Church Cathedral in late 2014. 22 of 22 KIRK HARGREAVES/FAIRFAX NZ Bishop Victoria Matthews announces in December 2015 that the Anglican Church will consider "reinstating" Christ Church Cathedral.
"The Anglican Diocese of Christchurch and the CPT wish to move past the current deadlock to find a way forward to re-establish a cathedral in Cathedral Square," Matthews said.
"We want to support the city to move forward and we recognise the central importance of this building to many people in Christchurch."
Safety and cost issues prevented the church from committing to reinstatement now, she said.
JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/FAIRFAX NZ The Anglican Church has agreed to consider reinstating Christ Church Cathedral following the release of a report outlining how it would be done.
"We couldn't commit to $105 million [the estimated reinstatement pricetag] when we actually don't have anything remotely close to that.
"The report mentioned also a contemporary build. It would be a matter of looking at different possibilities if the money is not forthcoming.
Dean's report found:
- Engineers for CPT and the Great Christchurch Building Trust (which campaigned to save the cathedral) agreed the church could be reinstated through a mix of repair, restoration, reconstruction and seismic strengthening.
- Reinstatement would likely take until the end of 2022 and cost $105m.
- Replacement could be completed by the end of 2019, costing $63m to $66m.
- The cathedral could be reinstated "to the extent that, for most people, it would be indistinguishable from the pre-earthquake building".
CARYS MONTEATH/FAIRFAX NZ KEY PLAYER: Anglican Bishop of Christchurch, Victoria Matthews, has fronted the church's updates on the cathedral.
The decision signals a likely end to the protracted litigation that has plagued the cathedral since the February 2011 earthquake and the public, often bitter, fighting between church leaders, who wanted to partially demolish the church, and heritage campaigners who wanted to save it.
Restoration campaigner Philip Burdon, co-chair of the Great Christchurch Buildings Trust, said he was "delighted and relieved" to learn the cathedral could be repaired, and was certain the necessary funds could be raised.
"It had been the argument of the church that the building was unrepairable.
KIRK HARGREAVES/FAIRFAX NZ KEY PLAYER: Great Christchurch Buildings Trust co-chair Philip Burdon has fought for the cathedral to be restored.
"The question of whether restoration was possible or not has been answered – I think that be will a considerable relief to the community."
Burdon said the trust would support the church in raising funds, or whatever else was needed to restore the building.
READ MORE:
* Christ Church Cathedral: Why all the fuss?
* Offer to protect Christ Church Cathedral from weather snubbed
* Sir Miles Warren design may break four year Christ Church Cathedral deadlock
* Cathedral parties keeping quiet on Govt-appointed consultant
Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee welcomed the church's keenness to consider reinstatement.
"The positive outcome here is that there are now options to work through and that CPT is willing to do so," he said.
"The issue then comes back to cost and that is something the Church Property Trust will need absolutely certainty of before it can commit to any work going ahead."
JOHN SELKIRK/FAIRFAX NZ KEY PLAYER: Auckland lawyer Miriam Dean QC was appointed by the Government to broker a deal between church leaders and heritage campaigners.
Whether or not any public money would be used was "yet to be determined", he said.
"It really does, I think, challenge those who want to see the cathedral remain in a refurbished or restored state to come to the party with some of that fundraising."
Talks with the Government on working towards a reinstatement plan would start in the New Year, Brownlee said.
Former Dean of Christ Church Cathedral Peter Beck said it was "disappointing" more progress had not been made by Wednesday's announcement, but he welcomed what had been achieved.
"Good things take time, and while I guess like many others I was hopeful that we might get a clearer, more decisive . . . decision today, clearly it's a step forward.
"I don't think the city will really recover until the cathedral begins to re-emerge as an icon and the heart and soul of the city."
Current Dean, Lawrence Kimberley, said: "I'm really pleased that we've got some consensus around the cost and engineering issues."
"That will now mean we can have a constructive conversation about future options."
Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel said she was "over the moon" that there had been such a big step forward.
"Cathedral Square is the heart of the city, and Christ Church Cathedral is the heart of the square.
"I think I can speak for all the councillors and say we'll absolutely do anything we can to help with a reinstatement plan."
Dalziel praised both central government for commissioning the Dean report, and the CPT for recognising that their privately-owned property was so important to the city.
The church canvassed public opinion in 2013 on restoring the cathedral, building a traditional reinterpretation or a new, modern building.
At the time, it estimated restoration would cost between $104m and $221m, a huge range that only just accounts for today's figure at it low end.
The reinterpretation option – a Gothic building with modern materials – would cost between $85m and $181m and the modern building between $56m and $74m.
TIMELINE:
February 2011: Cathedral damaged in major earthquake.
December 2011: Cathedral further damaged in two aftershocks.
March 2012: Bishop Matthews confirms the Christ Church Cathedral is to be demolished.
April 2012: Demolition begins with west wall of spire.
November 2012: Demolition work put on hold by the High Court.
April 2013: Three options presented to the public for cathedral: modern replacement, restoration, and rebuild with modern materials.
September 2013: Modern option chosen by church.
May 2014: High Court lifts injunction stopping demolition. This was upheld in the Appeal Court in July.
September 2015: Anglican diocese announce plans to bring in an independent Government-appointed consultant.
December 2015: The Anglican Church announces it will consider reinstating the cathedral. |
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor expressed doubts about the 2000 Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision that led to the election of George W. Bush.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, O'Connor said she isn't sure the Supreme Court should have even taken the case.
"It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue. Maybe the court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, goodbye.'"
The Florida Supreme Court ordered a manual recount on Dec. 8, 2000, of all Florida votes in the presidential election between Vice President Al Gore and Bush. "Hanging chads" would be the butt of jokes for years to come, after many Florida citizens say they punched their ballots for the wrong candidate.
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But a 5-4 Supreme Court majority, including O'Connor, ordered an injunction the next day. The Supreme Court ruled on Dec. 12 in a decision "limited to the present circumstances" that the Florida recount was unconstitutional, giving Bush the presidency.
"Obviously the court did reach a decision and thought it had to reach a decision," she said. "It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn't done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day."
O'Connor, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was the first woman to serve on the high court, and was often a swing vote. Her vote in Bush v. Gore led to the unusual circumstance of the eventual winner having failed to win a plurality of the popular vote.
The case, she said, "stirred up the public" and "gave the court a less-than-perfect reputation." |
Turban Training Centre or Turban Tying Centre or Dastar Academy (Punjabi: ਦਸਤਾਰ ਸਿਖਲਾਈ ਕੇਂਦਰ) (Hindi: दस्तार सिखलाई केंद्र) (Urdu: پگڑی تربیتی مرکز) are training-cum-tying institutes opened by professionals, who train Sikhs, in tying Dastar on their heads.[1] They also tie Dastar for those people who do not know how to tie turban, charging fees. Their regular clients include industrialists, businessmen, doctors, engineers, transporters and students.[1][2]
Turban training centers have opened mostly in main cities of Punjab, such as Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Patiala, Amritsar, Chamkaur, Moga.[1] and nowadays in some Delhi and Haryana cities too. Baptized male Sikhs cover their hair with a turban, while baptized female Sikhs may do so. However, the trend of wearing turbans declined due to fashion,glamor and youngsters preferring to keep cut hair and a clean shaved face. Regional Punjabi film stars and Punjabi music icons such as Inderjit Nikku, Diljit Dosanjh, Lehmber Hussainpuri, Ravinder Grewal, Ammy Virk, Ranjit Bawa,Sidhu Moose Wala,Tarsem Jassar,Kulbir Jhinjher,Surjit Bindrakhia,Himmat Sandhu who always wear Pag in their films and music videos, have inspired Sikh youths to wear turbans with various new styles.[2]
Several styles of Sikh turban are popular, including Patiala Shahi, Morni Dastar, Pochvi Dastar, Barnala Shahi, Amritsar Shahi, Vatta Vaali and Dumalla/Dhamalla for baptised Sikhs. Dabbi Vaale Parne is a casual turban mostly worn by farmers in villages and has been popularized by Diljit Dosanjh,Nikku,Ravinder Grewal and now popularized in cities as well. Barring these, a simple turban with the shape and size of individual liking is tied. The length of cloth of any of the above styles varies according to personal suiting.
Some centres also provide training in Dumalla style, which is basic attire for all baptized Sikhs and can also teach Parna a casual turban to all category of Sikhs. Many Sabat Surat Turban Trainers/Tyers have inspired Sabat Surat Sikh Youth and other clean shaven males to wear Dastar to keep hair back and reject caps. Many turban trainers offer training camps in Non-Punjab States like Delhi, Maharashtra etc.
Technique [ edit ]
Turban Trainers mostly prefer common full "Voil" or "F-74 Malmal" cloth and prefer double over single size and the turban is slightly made wet before they start the tying procedure and before tying Dastar a Patka or Keski is tied on head to cover hair first and head base is set in a proper way by tying the hair backwards
Retailers [ edit ]
Some Turban Centres only sell turbans such as full Voil, Rubia or Malmal Cloth but do not give professional training and are called by name Pagri Centre.
During the wedding season and major festivals the number of clients increase.[1]
See also [ edit ] |
The Turkish government has recently allowed ISP’s in Turkey to sensor an websites they want. Recently the Turkish firewall has blocked access to the most popular social media sites in the world such as Twitter and Facebook. The good news is that it is still possible to access any public website in the world, even sites that are blocked in Turkey, by using a VPN to unblock twitter.
What is a VPN?
I VPN is a secure internet connection between your computer and a remote web server. All the data that passes between your computer and the web server is encrypted inside a VPN tunnel. This means that your internet provider or the Turkish government Cannot read your internet traffic. It is totally secure.
Also, if your VPN server is located in an outside country, such as the United states, Netherlands, Germany, etc, you will have free and complete access to all websites on the internet, since they have do not restrict, filter, or firewall the internet.
Steps to Unblock Twitter in Turkey
1 – Sign up for a VPN service
There are many VPN providers, but to access twitter in turkey, you will want one that is safe, secure, affordable, and has servers in many different countries around the world. You would also prefer one that has faster speeds.
Turkey may block some of the VPN websites required to sign up for the VPN, so I have included 2 links to each VPN. If one is blocked, try the second.
The best VPN’s to unblock twitter are:
IPvanish – They have servers in over 25 countries around the world, and are one of the fastest VPN providers. Unlimited VPN plans start under $6/month with 1 year of service. Sign up for IPVanish. If that link doesn’t work, click here. Private Internet Access – PIA is one of the most popular VPN’s in the world. They have very cheap prices, and keep no VPN logs, so users are completely anonymous online. They have servers on 3 continents, so you can unblock twitter, facebook, netflix, and hulu. Sign up for Private Internet Access.
2 – Connect to your VPN and unblock twitter and other websites.
Connecting to the VPN is easy. Once you sign up and pay for your account (you can pay with paypal, credit card, bitcoin or many other options) they will give you a link to download the VPN software.
Just install the VPN software, type in your username and password, choose a VPN server from the list (they will be arranged by country) and click connect…
Once you are connected to a server in a country with internet freedom, all your favorite social media websites will be unblocked. |
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